Middle of the Week Catching Up! (**EDITED)

I know, I've been a bad blogger lately.  But we've just been pretty busy this week.

Monday was something right after work, I just can't remember now what it was.  Yesterday might have just been Tuesday (I know there was something after work yesterday but I can't remember), but today was grocery & errand day and my feet hurt.  I also took the recycling stuff this morning and went to the post office to clear the box all on the way in to work.  After unloading a trunk load of groceries this afternoon and eating dinner, I ran Billyboy up to Lowe's for a few things.

He's currently occupied with a hammer, he's putting new register (vent) covers in a couple of spots and the one for our bathroom is just a tiny bit too big on one corner.  The other register that needed to be replaced is the one in the kitchen.  It fit fine, just the one in the bathroom is being uncooperative.

Otter and I also went to a thrift store this afternoon.  She found a book and a t-shirt to repurpose (also known as cutting it up and resewing it into something completely different).  I found yarn, a green shade but "vintage" and I know I didn't have it in my stash.

My ever-growing stash.  I'm trying to use up some of my stash, it doesn't do anybody any good just sitting there.  I have an idea for the green I bought today, and I have also found a hat pattern that I think might work better than the last one.  I might have time Saturday to see about it.

And I know I said I'd never do it again, but I think I might try thread crochet again.  Thread crochet is what doilies are made of.  It's called thread for a reason, it's not quite as small as sewing thread but it's pretty small.  I tried it years ago and hated it, but I'm really needing a challenge and that might just be it.  I have the hooks for it already, I acquired most of them in an auction box lot years ago and kept them.  Well, I might have tried to sell them on eBay, I can't remember for sure.  But they didn't sell or at any rate I still have them.  I will probably try it with embroidery thread, which actually might be too thick so I would have to take a few strands out.

Unless I come to my senses, that is.  Thread crochet can be very tedious.  But I've seen some wonderful pieces lately and it's been on my mind for a while.  I'll keep you posted, but it will be a while before I attempt it.

Sometimes, I really hate enjoying challenges!

Tomorrow has a long list of things I want/need to do, either on my lunch hour or after work.  Friday has a few things, but the library is the biggest one for Friday.  Otter's finally read most of the books we got last time, which is no easy task considering how many books she had.

Saturday can't get here fast enough!  I need several hours of uninterrupted crochet/book/nap time.

**EDIT:

When we were cleaning the hamster cages after I posted this, we discovered that the black hamster (Helena, shown above) had died.  She hadn't been acting sick, but she had been a little calmer lately and we think she may have been older than the other one when Otter got them.  They were both small, the other one (Nadine) grew quite a bit but Helena never got any bigger.  A few months back, she hurt one of her legs climbing on the sides of the cage and we thought we might lose her then but she recovered.  But the last couple of days she might not have been eating as much as she normally did.  No other symptoms, she just died sometime yesterday evening.  It's very possible that she was an adult already when Otter got her, quite frequently the breeders will send their breeding females along with babies to the pet stores when the females get to a certain age and that could well be what happened here.  They have not been in the same cage for several months, since they stopped getting along when Nadine grew to a certain size.  Nadine seems healthy, but we are watching her anyway although I don't think that Helena had anything that would be contagious as she had no symptoms.  She did not have what is known as wet-tail disease, that is the big one to cause small rodent death.  She is now in the pet graveyard in the back yard, along with a mouse & 2 parakeets.  Otter's a little upset but she'll be fine.  Her pets traditionally live long, spoiled lives and hamsters can live 2 years plus.  She has had them for a little over a year, she bought them after her birthday in 2009.

Sunday Mummies

Yes, mummies.  The dead people kind.  And also a couple of dog mummies.

Otter and I just got back from spending an hour or so at a local museum, which is hosting a travelling exhibit entitled "To Live Forever" which belongs to the Brooklyn Museum.  It is a fairly large exhibit, it's all Egyptian burial practices to simplify the explanation.  There are a few mummies, and two of them are dogs or some type of canine animal.  We really enjoyed it, it's amazing to be looking at artwork and other pieces - and realize that it's over 5000 years old.

There was also another exhibit that we really enjoyed.  It was books and things made from them.  One item on display looked like a menu from a Chinese restaurant.  Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be poetry and it was very well-done.  The bookworm known as Otter really enjoyed that exhibit.

We also hit a thrift store but didn't find too much.  I'm looking for vintage yarn and also vintage crocheted things to reclaim older, hard-to-find yarn.  I saw a few things last week that were made with yarn I liked, but most of them were just too small to get much yarn out of.  Except for one piece, it was a blanket and it was absolutely beautiful yarn.  But it was such a well-done piece that someone obviously put a lot of time and effort into, that I just couldn't justify taking it apart.  Since it wasn't anything I could use, I left it there so someone else could buy it and get some use out of it.

I've been doing a lot of crochet lately, which isn't on the craft blog yet but will be in a week or so.  When I get finished with it.  But I'm not posting pictures since I don't want to give away the surprise.  Any ideas, Froggy?  :)  I'm going to do a little more this afternoon.

It's going to be a busy week at work.  I actually have quite a bit planned over the next couple of weeks, so I might not post that often for the immediate future.

Turtle Update:  There was another one in the yard yesterday.  A small, female box turtle.  Frasier had been interested in something in the corner of the yard, so we walked over there to see what it was.  This one wasn't particularly aggressive, unlike the last one.  She was pretty calm, she didn't seem to mind being picked up and wasn't moving very fast when I put her down.  I dug out a spot under the fence and stuck her through, then she put ont he afterburners and just about flew!  Poor Frasier, I keep taking his turtle toys away!

I just realized that the end of the month is in just a few days.  I guess I'd better start getting my book list together.  I have read several books, but a lot of them have been quick reads.  I'll probably take Otter to the library towards the end of the week, and get more books than we can carry.  Again.

Toys!

This is what the Otter and I did this afternoon.

We've been waiting years for this one.  I posted about the Toy Story movies several months back.  Here's what I wrote then:

http://ottermomramblings.blogspot.com/2009/10/movie-review-sunday-stuff.html

Toy Story is just about our favorite movie series, ever.  It's tremendous.  When the 2nd movie came out, it was even better than the first but we might have just been biased because of a specific character (family knows what I mean).  I don't like to put out a lot of personal information, but look at the picture on the top of this entry.  That particular character is our hands-down favorite and Otter was absolutely thrilled when the 2nd movie came out and that character was in it.

We've been very excited about the new movie and hopeful that it would be done right.

Well, I have to say this:  not only was it done right, it was an absolutely fantastic way to end the series.  It has some scenes that might be a little hard for very young viewers, but it has such a special, sweet ending.  It was almost a tear-jerker in places, especially if you are the mother of a child who has grown up on the series and is now officially grown up!  Or maybe that's just me. :)

Toy Story 3 is definetely worth the extra cost for the 3D tickets and it was very deserving of the full treatment:  popcorn, candy, cokes.

Now, we're anxious for the blu-ray release!

Sunday Kitties

Today's title is inspired by the costumes that Otter made for the anime convention she and BF went to yesterday and today.  Just ears & tails, but it was still cute.  BF was good-natured about it, he wore the ears all day long.  He still had them on when he brought her home last night and I think she did a good job on them.  Otter also wore her kitty shoes yesterday, they are black shoes with kitty faces at the front.  Really cute, she got a lot of compliments and someone even took pictures of them.  Which made her day.  Today's costume was easier, she went Steampunk and didn't have to make anything for it.  She already had the pieces and clothing that worked well, so she just had to put it all on.  She came home with a boatload of stuff she bought.

This has been a busy week, and it seems like it's gone fast.  At the same time, it seems like last weekend was months ago.  I'm not sure why, it's just been a normal week - as if anything ever is really normal around my house!

Among other things, I got into my stash yesterday.  I have a lot of yarn, but after seeing pictures other other fiber artist's stashes on a forum I belong to, I realized that my stash is actually fairly small.  But I'm not going to add to it at the moment, I'm making a determined effort to use some of the yarn that I have had for a while.  And I actually cleaned out a little bit of it.  I had some boucle yarn that I bought a while back at a thrift store, because I had been wanting to try it but refused to pay the price for it.  It is not cheap!  But I found two skeins for 99 cents each, so it was worth it.  They had two skeins and I bought them both, because $1.98 for both is still a steal and I knew that if I didn't get them both I would regret it.  I tried a few things yesterday and then decided that it's just not yarn I want to use.  It would probably work better for knitting.  So I put both of them in my donate pile, they'll go back to the thrift store they came from and will probably be grabbed up quickly because they are normally high-priced yarn.

Bill just came home with another pachinko machine.  This one popped up on Craigslist just now.  It was about 5 miles away and now it's sitting in the living room.  I can hear the bell sound it makes, so I know it works.  He's a happy boy!

I think Frasier has forgiven me for the bath.  When he was all dry, he look like he'd been fluffed up.  I took him out on the deck yesterday afternoon and brushed him out.  Which he loved, by the way.  But now it looks like a tribble invasion out there.  Maggie kept getting in the way so that I would brush her.  She isn't nearly as furry as BigDog, but she does shed a little bit in warmer weather.

Tomorrow is the first day of Summer.  The first official day anyway.  It's been summer here for a while.  A Heat Advisory was issued for this weekend.  It's fairly warm, I'm not disputing that.  But it's been warmer before without Advisories being issued.  But it is humid, and that has been a problem for me.  I don't necessarily like extreme heat, but being from S. TEXAS I can put up with it.  I just don't like the humidity because it is an asthma trigger for me.  So I haven't gotten much outside time the last few days, which is never a good thing.  I like my outside time!

For Father's Day, I made Bill weiner wraps.  They are easy, they consist of a package of hot dogs and canned biscuits.  They were pretty good, I was bad and had a couple.  I've been extra good the last several days so that I could eat some.  But they would have been better with mustard.  The mustard jar had an accident on the way to the table.  It met the ceramic tile floor in the kitchen.  It was a mess!  But even without mustard, the meal was still good.  I had to clean mustard off of my leather sandles and it took a while to get all the mustard & glass off of the floor.  The dogs stayed out of the way, for once.  But after we ate and were sitting on the couch, Maggie kept coming up to me and sniffing my shoes.  Otter gave him a t-shirt.  It says "# 1 Dad" on the front of it and the lettering looks like it's made from duct tape.  It's cute.  And it's appropriate, considering that duct tape is the Engineer's Secret Weapon.

Now, it's time to go get into the cupcakes we got for Father's Day!

We Have Dishpan Hands!

Well, to be precise I should probably say that we have bathtub hands.

And two clean & slightly damp doggies!

Frasier is still refusing to look at me, I think he's waiting for his dignity to come back.  He just doesn't seem to appreciate being dunked in a tub of water.  Or maybe it was the mohawk that Otter gave him when his head was wet?  Or it could be the fact that I had to drag/carry him to the tub and then it took me two or three tries to get all of him inside the tub at the same time.  That is where Otter realized that she should have been filimg it!

Maggie Moo, on the other hand, never had any dignity and she doesn't care.  She didn't particularly like the bath experience, but she was nutso afterwards.  She was playful and crazy, she really enjoyed the drying off process.  Then she proceeded to tear around the living room at full speed, and she was really happy that I took another towel to her.  She loves the toweling process, just not the part that leads up to it.

Well, now at least they smell better.  And their blankets got washed today, too.  Poor Frasier, he just can't win for losing.  First, his blankets get de-stinked and then he gets it!

And Otter gets to go shopping next week.  For a new drinking glass for her bathroom, because she was using it to rinse the tub out after she got through scrubbing it out with comet after the dog wash.  Now I have several bright green pieces of glass for my eventualoneofthesedaysmaybeI'llgetaroundtomakingit mosaic project.

I guess that makes it a win/win day for everyone! :)

Bill has been enjoying his birthday all day long.  He has had several hours of uninterruped play time with his pachinko machines.  I already gave him money to buy more pachinko or whatever stuff, Otter gave him two dvd's this morning and then I stopped at our favorite bbq place to get dinner to bring home.  The bbq place is called Wild Bill's, which is appropriate and it's also very good food.  Later, we'll get into his birthday pie which is now in the freezer in the kitchen as opposed to the deep-freeze in the garage.  He actually managed to NOT find any of his presents OR his pie this year.  That almost never happens.  Maybe I should just let Otter be in charge of hiding his stuff every year.

And now, I think it's time for pie.

Weapons Grade Plutonium?

No, just onions.

I just put a bunch of onions in the freezer.  I bought a large bag at the store last night, and quite a few of them are now chopped up and in a ziploc.  The process of getting them there was dicey.  My eyes might recover in a few hours, not sure if my sense of taste or smell will return anytime soon however!

I also chopped up several bell peppers to freeze, but they are easy and non-lethal.  Unlike the onions!  Good thing we like them.

Frasier is having a smart moment, he's steering clear of the kitchen.  It's still pretty heavy in the air in there.

Anyway.

Toadles, I emailed you a question.  You never answered me.  Froggy took it upon herself to call you, since she knew that decades would pass before you get around to a)  checking your email, b) asking your lovely wife the question since it was for her and c) getting around to answering me!  So now I know what I wanted to know, but you are still not relieved of the duty of emailing me.

This is the last day for 6 months that I'll be married to someone the same age.  Tomorrow starts the 6-month period when we are married to older/younger spouses.  Bill has a lot of fun with that joke, he likes to tell people that he's married to a younger woman.  Of course, it's only 6 months younger...

Oh well.  Let him have his fun I guess!

Froggy, you already know what I got for Bill's birthday dessert.  It's not cake this year, but it is sweet & good.  And frozen!  And from Braum's.  It is currently hidden in the freezer, but it's only a matter of time until he finds it.  He always finds things.  He's just gifted.  He doesn't even have to be looking for the specific item, but 99% of the time he'll find it because he'll be looking for something else which just happens to be where the item is hidden.  One year, I hid his present in the trunk of my car - a place he really never had any reason to go.  And then he needed a tool that we kept there, which he hardly ever needed but really did have to have.  I put his present in the chest of drawers in the guest room one time - guess where he stored something that he needed right before his birthday?  If you guessed in the chest of drawers and in the specific drawer, you'd be right.  The thing is, he's really not looking for his presents.  So now Otter is in charge of hiding his gifts.  It seems to be working better, but it's just a matter of time until he needs something and it's in that spot.

Otter's been working on a craft project.  She and BF are going to an Anime gathering this weekend.  They are going in costume.  She's in charge of the costume.  It won't be really detailed, but it will involve the wearing of tails and ears.  Pictures will most likely be posted on the craft blog.  Hope BF is good natured about it!  Well, Otter's imaginative and she's a crafter so it stands to reason that she'll use both of those attributes frequently. :)

She is her Mother's/Father's Daughter, after all.  Like Mom used to say, The Apple Don't Fall Far From The Tree!  (Froggy, remember hearing that?)

Whew! Wednesday

I know, I haven't posted much this week.  It's just been kind of crazy.  Lots of stuff going on, but nothing spectacular.  Just lots and lots of it.

We had rain Monday.  A lot of it.  We had a short rain today, but there was a lot of it.  It was windy!  Both days, Otter and I were out in it.  Not by choice, just by timing.

When I was a kid in S. TEXAS, we got "good rains" so rarely that when it rained we were usually out in it.  Playing in it.  Until Mom figured out where we were and made us come inside!  Monday, Otter went to work with me - I was more or less ordered to bring her in by my older boss because he hasn't seen her lately - and the skies opened up just as we were leaving for lunch.  We both had umbrellas and we both were soaked.  We probably could have just skipped the umbrellas entirely, they didn't do much good.  There were some areas with street flooding and the Oklahoma City area was really hit bad.

Today's rain started just before we got to the grocery store.  I dropped Otter off at the door and went to park.  When I got out of the car, I basically just had to hold the umbrella at a slight angle because the wind was making the rain sideways.  It quit by the time we got through, but the store we were at offers drive-up service in a covered area so we would still have been able to get the trunk loaded without getting wet.  But getting it unloaded would have been another matter!  But it was through before we were, however it's now getting very humid.  To the point that I can't breathe outside!  Humidity is not a big trigger for Otter, but it's even bothering her now because it's so bad.

So we're inside with the a/c cranked pretty low.  I had the a/c in the car on high, we were getting cold but at least we could breathe!

Billyboy's birthday is Friday!

Sunday Turtles

To be strictly accurate, this should have been Saturday Turtles.  But it's Sunday and I'm posting now.  The turtle part, however, is from Saturday.  Frasier had another turtle toy that he found in the back yard.  He was very interested in something at the fence line and Bill could see that it was something dark.  He thought it was a turtle, but couldn't tell for sure that it wasn't actually a snake at first.  Frasier didn't have any better luck with this one than he usually does, he tried to pick it up but the shell was just too difficult for him to manage.  Also, this was a bigger one than he's had to deal with before.  It was a female and she was not happy!  I don't think I blame her, she was just trying to do turtle things and this large coyote dog was trying to play with her.  She has been liberated to the area behind the house, but she didn't particularly want to be.  The dogs had been doing some excavating and there was a spot that nearly went under the fence.  I scraped out a little more dirt, just big enough for her, and put her mostly through it.  She almost backed up, so I had to encourage her gently to go forward.  I thought she was about to turn around and come back under the fence, but fortunately she realized that she didn't really want to be in our yard.  Which is a good thing, because she was a fairly large turtle and I'd had a hard time picking her up - everytime I thought I had her, she would literally jump away from me.  Turtles have a defensive posture which includes opening their mouths wide and she was doing that every time I tried to pick her up.  She never did stick her head out of the shell, but it would have been the next thing she did.  Because turtle neck length varies between species and even between individual turtles, I really wasn't sure how far back on the shell to place my hands.  So I had to try to grab pretty far back and she would use her back legs to dislodge my hands.  They have long claws and very strong legs, so she was really hard to grab and then even harder to hold onto.  (Yes I know - tortoise not turtle!).

Otter and I did some thrifting this afternoon.  She found what she was looking for, she needed a blouse for a specific outfit and we found one that would work.  As well as a couple of other blouses and a skirt for her, plus we each found a couple of books.  No Fenton, which has been typical lately.  Also no yarn.

Speaking of yarn, I've given up on the crocheted dachsund project.  The pattern just wasn't workable.  I had attempted to make a couple of other things from that pattern book and had difficulties, and I finally just realized that it was pointless.  Crochet patterns are like any other patterns - if they aren't correct, then it doesn't matter what you do.  And this one wasn't correct.  I went over what I'd done so far and compared it to the pattern a couple of times and I didn't make any mistakes on it.  The book is now on Craigslist, and if it doesn't sell then I'll either donate it or let Otter turn it in for credit at the used book store we like.  I do have another book that I got out of the library, which is one that I'll probably buy.  It's fun, it is a pattern book for zombies, vampires, "aliens" and other creepy critters.  I started making something from it this morning and it was so nice to use a pattern that worked!  Otter has requested a few things out of it.

It's a cleaning & craft day today.  Sunday generally means laundry and misc. cleaning, and Otter's also got a craft project.  Which has taken over the kitchen table at the moment.  Bill's been working on pachinko machines and the dogs have probably been snoozing, which is 99% of their normal activity.

The hostas in front of the house are starting to bloom.  They have really spread out this year, which is what they are supposed to do and is what I wanted them to do.  The morning glories are doing great, there have been a couple of blooms but it's kind of early for that.  The vines are growing very well.

I heard a woodpecker this morning, I think it was in one of the trees in the back yard but I never saw it so I'm not sure.  I've seen a couple of hummers and two orioles.  And purple martins!  Someone down the street has a house, so we see them every year and they are enjoyable to watch.  Bill saw a bat the other evening, but I haven't seen any yet this summer.  Hope that the one he saw stays around and that it invites friends!  They eat a lot of mosquitos, so we always like to see them.

Besides, bats are just cool.

Today is Thursday

But Otter thought it was Wednesday.  So she had a pleasant surprise when I told her that tomorrow is Friday.  Of course, she's off all week already!  But Friday is just a good day, I guess.  I know it is for me.

Froggy, I would love to take Toadles to the park to visit the gorilla.  And also to the concrete place by the junktique store where he could visit the other one.  And the train, can't forget about that.  He just needs to get his rear in gear and come see me!

It's been an animal day today.  When Otter and I were trimming up some tree "limblets", there were two birds that were screaming their heads off at us.  We figured out why pretty quickly.  We were in the way of Flying Lessons!  There were two fledglings, and Mom & Dad didn't like our presence.  I had to herd one of the baby birds out of our way so that it wouldn't get stepped on, it had been flying earlier but it didn't quite seem to have the hang of it yet.  Niether did it's sibling, but they apparently managed it after a while because the parents moved away from us and were still calling to them.  We think that they were grackles.  We also had to relocate the rather large frog that lives in the front yard.  Actually, we think it's a toad instead of a frog.  They are not the same animals, it's kind of like the difference between turtles & tortoises.  We've seen this one quite a bit, he usually hangs out in the front of the house under the hosta plants or by the chrysanthemum.  Then later when Bill and I were mowing, Otter discovered a tiny tree frog hopping across the deck.

Our other animal adventure today involves Maggie.  She's back to her trick of forgetting to be housebroken.  It is not just a dribbling dog that is physically unable to hold it, we've caught her at it a couple of times lately and this has resulted in the dogs being put outside at night.  This morning, she did it again and the result is that they spent most of the day outside.  I'm not sure what we're going to do, but they will be spending a lot more time outside.  Frasier is fine with being outside, he seems to like it better.  But Maggie isn't quite so happy about it.  We'll figure out something, I guess!  But I have to go buy more spot cleaner for the carpet tomorrow.

I have a book waiting for me at the library.  It's one I requested.  It's on crochet, no surprise there I know!  This is one that I requested especially for Otter.  It's zombie, vampire and related critters to crochet.  It looks fun, and she's already requested a zombie.  And a non-sparkly vampire!  She's not a Twilight fan by any stretch of the imagination.  Don't think I blame her for that!

I sat down and made a list of crochet projects.  I still don't have too many waiting on me, but I at least have a few things I want to do.  Including another scarf for me and another one for Otter.  I was going to wait until closer to Fall to work on the scarves, but I'm thinking that I might go ahead and at least make mine soon.  Otter hasn't quite made up her mind about the colors in hers, but it will most likely mean a trip to Hobby Lobby or Michael's for more yarn.  I won't protest! :)

Gorillillilla

Otter and I went exploring today.  Well, actually we just went to a nearby town to check out their library.  We discovered this critter living in a park down the street from the library.

This is just a side view.  The next picture is the really important one.

And it's just for Toadles!

(He'll know what it means.  And that it's not an insult!)  :)

Busy. Monday. Update.

It's been a busy Monday and here's the update!

Otter's physical was this morning, doctor says she's healthy.  Then we both had dental appointments, for cleanings.  My mouth is a little sore!  But everybody's teeth are healthy.  Well, I don't have many actual teeth left but the ones I do have are good.  However, I might have to get eventual work done on one of my dentures.  Which seems kind of ironic, to me.  Nothing major, just a hook or two on the lower partial will probably need to be replaced eventually.

After & between appointments, we went shopping.  We went to two Michael's stores, a thrift store, Office Depot, two book stores, one store in a mall, Chick Fil A, Wallyworld and a couple of other places.  We didn't buy much at any of them, in fact the only places we actually bought anything was at Office Depot and Michaels and both of those were things for Bill!  Well, we bought lunch at Chick Fil A.  Which was very good, but not "fun" shopping.  We did get a few things at Wally but they were grocery related.

It also rained today.  It started raining just before we got to the first appointment, and then it poured while we were sitting in the car waiting on the door to open.  It rained for a couple of hours, and there was some lightning that we really enjoyed watching.  It's humid this afternoon, which is not a good thing.  But it's not particularly warm.

That is the exciting day we've had!  Running all over the place, going to medical appointments and fruitless shopping!  But Otter and I haven't had a day to spend together "just us girls" in a long time and we both really enjoyed it.  So it wasn't a wasted day, just not a sucessful shopping day.  :)

Sunday Marshmallows

I'm back to food titles today!

Marshmallows are fun.  Especially on winter evenings, when we turn them into 'smores.  Which starts with roasting them in the fireplace.  Sometimes, they are just roasted marshmallows and not 'smores.  They are good either way!

It's been a busy day.  Bill's car, the 2002 Impala, developed a problem Friday.  The fan went out.  He was able to fix it himself.  When we got home from church today, he went up to the auto parts store and bought the part.  That was the easy part.  The hard part was taking the old one out.  He had to take apart quite a bit to get to it, and then he had to put it all back together again.  It was quite a learning experience for me, I had no idea where the fan would be at or that it would be such a large part.  But it is fixed now, so it should be good to go for a long time.  The car does still need some other work done to it, but it's things that can wait a little while.  The fan is something that has to be done when it goes out, or you run the risk of overheating and burning up the engine.  Which would not be a good thing at all.

Froggy, I finished up one project for you yesterday and am nearly finished with another one.  I have to wait for glue to dry, how's that for a mysterious clue?  I have another one that I'm about to start, sometime this week.  It doesn't involve glue, but it does involve yarn and a crochet hook.  Three different yarn colors, in fact.  But that's all I'm going to tell you now.

One of the things that Mom made with crochet was covered clothes hangers.  She would crochet the cover, it was basically a long strip about 1 - 2 inches wide and then she would sew it up one side, around a metal clothes hanger.  I have the last one she worked on, I think she got tired of making them and just quit before she ever finished the one I have and I also have the fabric piece she used as her size guide, which I intend to keep forever just as it is.  I also have her hand written directions & measurements.  I've made several of them, the crochet part is the fun & easy part.  Sewing them on the hangers is boring.  So I tend to have several at a time that need to be sewn on.  I got into my unfinished projects yesterday and discovered a bunch of them.  The last time I made any, I started making them with a different stitch and completely different from the way Mom and I always made them.  The new way worked much better.  Most of the ones I found yesterday were the original stitch, and I decided I'd rather just keep making them the new way.  So I frogged all the old ones, and the yarn is slowly being added to Bill's blanket.  Some of them are yarn that I can't find anymore, and it's not necessarily all that old.  They are not extremely long pieces, so Bill's blanket will have a few rows with multiple yarn changes per row.  And now, when I have the urge (ok, unavoidable & irresistible compulsion) to crochet and don't have a project going, I'll work on hanger covers the new way and I will enjoy it.  I really do need to make some more of them, we have a bunch of them but not enough for all the hangers we have.  They go fast, but I still don't particularly enjoy sewing the covers on the hangers!  But I have an idea I want to try, which is basically crocheting a single stitch to hold it together as I attach it to the hanger.  The stitch I like to use now is a single stitch and it should work.  Many things that are two pieces attached together are stitched with single stitch.  So it might work, I'll try it and see.  If it doesn't work, then it's back to my yarn needle!

At one point, I did consider making them to sell but changed my mind.  I don't want crochet to become a business, I want it to be something I enjoy.  And I enjoy making things to give away.  Froggy, do you still have the covered hangers?  Do you need any more?  Well, you just might get some soon.  (That is not the project I am working on for you).

Otter's report card for 11th grade came in the mail yesterday.  She passed all her classes and now just has one more year ahead of her.  It will be mostly elective classes, but she will have one math class to take.  She would have originally taken it this year, but she was having problems with a math class in 9th grade (I think it was 9th) and she switched herself back to a more basic math class voluntarily.  It was a smart move on her part, and we were just glad that she was able to say she needed help with it and then do what she had to do to get that help.  The basic class does count towards the final number of credits, but there are 3 specific math classes required by the state so instead of taking them in 9th through 11th grades, she took the first two in 10th & 11th and will take the final one as a senior.  Math isn't my strong suit, either.

I'm reading a book about hurricanes at the moment.  It's very interesting.  I'm familiar with hurricanes, it comes from growing up in South TEXAS.  Although they didn't get as far as San Antonio all that often.  But when they did, they were still major storms and sometimes had those twisty things that Dad would never admit actually happened there!  I'm not sure what year it was or what hurricane, but I do remember when I was in elementary school one came in on the Gulf and we had to go to Port Aransas to help Dad's war veteran's group clean up and repair their clubhouse.  Hurricanes can do a lot of damage, and this one was no exception.  One thing that I do remember about it was that the clubhouse garage had a bathroom in it.  The garage was destroyed.  Except for the bathroom!  Froggy, you were probably with us.  Do you remember what storm and what year?  I'm guessing that I was in elementary age, but I really don't know for sure.

OK, enough for now.  I'm going to play on the internet for a little while.  Then I think I'll go crochet.  Imagine that!  :)

Today Is

International Donut Day!

I hardly ever eat donuts, they are simply not allowed for me.  They are loaded with all sorts of bad things, including a boatload of trans-fat.  So I have to skip them.

However, today is Donut Day and many places are giving away free donuts.  Krispy Kreme (I abhor deliberate mis-spelled words!) is participating.  We're not too crazy about their donuts, they are not really any different from most other donuts.  But it was worth it to stop today, for a freebie.  I ran Otter by this afternoon and we each got a free one.  Hers was pretty much gone before we got out of the parking lot!  Mine made it home, in the box with the other three I bought and I'm donating it to William.  He and Otter can each have two.

Donut Day originally was a day to recognize the Salvation Army, because they are "always there" as their slogan says and they take care of our troops.  The Salvation Army is a wonderful organization.

It's also Friday and we're very glad about that.

I picked up Otter at home this afternoon, then we went to the library.  Where we paid about $7.00 in fines, turned in an overflowing paper grocery bag of books and got more than we could easily carry.  But that's about normal for us.  We also went to the aforementioned donut place, and the dollar store.

And now, my feet hurt and I'm glad to be home.  I'm heading for the kitchen in a few minutes, steak for dinner tonight.  I'm suddenly starving!  Maybe I should have eaten that donut?  :)

Oops! Yesterday was Tuesday! Not Monday. Also Dog & Frog Tales

I just realized that I titled yesterday's post Monday when it was actually Tuesday.  I guess I thought it was Monday, because Monday was a day off from work.  And yesterday certainly felt like a Monday & a Tuesday rolled into one.  Today, I know it's Wednesday.

Although I might not remember tomorrow.  I went to the grocery store today, which I usually try to do about Thursday because Friday at the grocery store is just crazy.  This week, I went on Wednesday and it was nice & uncrowded.

Dog & Frog Tales:  Actually, dog nose is more appropriate.  (Play on the word tails).  I was going to work on Otter's crochet dachsund last night.  I decided to pull out one row, the nose is a reddish color and the rest of the body is black.  I didn't like the way the first row of black (which is the snout) looked, so I pulled it out.  But I yanked too hard and pulled out a couple of rows of reddish yarn as well.  At that point, I just gave up entirely and frogged the entire thing!  Then I re-did it this morning, using the slightly larger hook that I prefer and it was much easier than the first time around with the smaller hook.  The yarn is worsted weight, which is a pretty common size, but the recommended hook was supposed to be a hook that is usually used with smaller gauge yarn and it was difficult.  The nose I made this morning is not much bigger than it originally was, hardly bigger at all.  The slightly larger hook isn't going to make that much of a difference so I'm going to make the entire dog with my usual hook and it will be much easier.  I did a few rows on the snout as well as the nose, I'm at the point where I have to stuff it before I go any further.  This is one of those patterns that needs to be stuffed as it's being made, because it's got long & skinny areas.  So, even though it was an accident it turned out well and I'm actually glad of the accidental frogging!

I just posted Otter's cupcake recipe on the cooking blog.  Check it out, they are very good.

Just Some Monday Randomness

No, Otter did not come up with the title!  But she did inspire it.

She's pretty happy today.  The new Alice in Wonderland movie hit the stores today.  She's now the proud owner of a blu-ray disc, which I picked up for her on my lunch hour today.  I came in the door about 3:05, and it was in the player and turned on about 3:05:30.  I saw most of it, it's actually pretty good.  Of course, she wouldn't care if it was horrible!

Otter also made cupcakes today, she's found a recipe that she really likes and has made them a couple of times.  Today, she added green food coloring to the batter.  They look strange, but they taste great.  They have lavender icing.  She hasn't had any luck finding a summer job yet, and I'm thinking that she's probably not going to at this point.  I know she wanted one, but this is probably her last summer to just do whatever and I want her to enjoy it.

Today was crazy at work, which I expected.  But at least it's a shorter work week this week!  Also, next week will be shorter.  Otter and I have doctor & dental appointments set up for Monday.  I figured it was easiest to get it all over with at once.  I just hope that I have everything spaced out enough timewise so that we can be everywhere we need to be when we need to be.  Also, there is a fairly large bookstore by the dentist's office that we don't go to often because it's kind of far from home.  It will be our first stop post dental appointments.

I am not going to get extremely political at the moment - but that may not last, so consider yourself warned - but I would like to say something regarding the current crisis involving Israel.  See that banner that has now been moved to the top of the page?  We as a family mean it.  We support Israel 100%.  As in many cases, Israel is simply defending itself.  Israel has to stay strong.  Israel can not afford to weaken, especially not now.  They need our prayers.