Happy Accidents Part 2, or Spicy Spaghetti

Well, it was an accident but it turned out to be a very good one.  (See previous post, where Otter accidentally put the left over spaghetti sauce in the picante sauce jar).  Sometimes cooking can be fun!  Of course, there are also times when the accidents are not happy.  But this one was.

Tomorrow is a sheep day.  According to the folklore, March goes in or out like a lamb, with the opposite being a lion.  This year, the forecasters are saying that it will be Lambs.  We'll see.  We like sheep, even if I am allergic to wool!

Do sheep shrink when it rains on them?

Sunday Flying Beagles!

It's windy.  Windy enough to cause small dogs to suddenly become airborne.  Probably cats, too.  But we don't have any cats so I don't know for sure.  We do have a beagle, and she's got long ears that would probably make excellent wings.  Or maybe a propeller.  Either way, she seems to be spending most of her time indoors today.  Maybe she's afraid of sailing away?  Frasier has no fear, he's been outside in the wind most of the day.  He actually seems to like wind, maybe he likes the different things he can smell on the wind.

Wind is not unusual, in this part of OK.  Remember the song, Oklahoma?  The part about the wind flying down the plains (not sure of the exact words) is pretty correct.  Not just twisty winds, either.  It just gets plain windy here at certain times of the year.  Seems like the month of March is almost always windy, it's 31 days of rocks-in-your-pockets wind.  It's started a little early this year, it is still February after all!

The tulip bed seems to be coming along.  We have a boatload of daffodils, they have really spread this year.  Which is what they do.  We're happy about that, by the way.  The tulips are coming up, there are several that have poked through the dirt already and more on the way.  They are just beginning to show themselves, so we've still got a while before they get to the blooming stage.  Some of the trees are beginning to bud out, one of the maple trees in the back yard is really covered in buds.

I'm still working on the de-stashing.  I thought I was finished with the blue scarf that will be donated, but I decided it needed another row on it so I did that yesterday.  I also made the hat that goes with it.  I have a hat still to make, that will go with the other scarf to be donated.  But I'm going to finish the scarf that is for someone Bill works with (it needs fringe) and then make the matching hat.  After that, I'm not sure.  I have about 3 different projects that will also de-stash a little, I'm just not sure which one I'm going to start with.  I also got a couple of rows done on the afghan yesterday, that one really isn't part of the de-stashing and is a long-term project.  I crocheted for several hours yesterday, which was fun but my arms were so tired by the time I got finished.

Movie Review:  Megamind.  We rented it for yesterday.  It was a cute movie, but not what I would consider to be spectacular.  It was ok, it could have been better.  It did have some funny moments.  But it wasn't as good or as funny as the previews made it seem.  It's probably not on the list of movies we want to buy.

The Blockbuster nearest to us is closing.  We haven't rented movies from them in years, I forget why we were not happy with them but it's been since right around the time we moved (6 1/2 years ago).  Otter and I went to their clearance sale on Friday.  We found several dvd's/blu-rays we wanted.  The majority of them are older movies.  The more popular newer ones were either already sold, or they'd been shipped to their remaining stores.  They had some newer movies but they were the ones that didn't do so well in the theater and apparently weren't that popular among people who were buying.  We did find a few things, so it wasn't a wasted trip.  Otter's collection has increased, most of what we got was for her.  They'll close in early April, we might make another trip before that but I'm not sure.  There is one in Tulsa that is also closing, at least one anyway, and we might check it out if we are in the area.

I'm not sure if I'll want to go to Borders' clearance sale again or not.  I might, just because they are around the corner from where I work.  I went back one day last week, I bought another crochet book and two crochet magazines.  The book was one I'd gotten out of the library a while back, and I said I was going to buy it but I forgot about it at the time.

OK, back to my laundry now!  Then I might get into the Girl Scout cookies we got last week.

Middle of the Week Thoughts

I had something I was going to post, but I had a major derail of my train of thought.

At least it left the station, unlike Toadles' trains!

(Sorry, Bro!)

Bill acquired 3 new pachinko machines today.  There is another one on the way, which he bought over the internet from a guy in Florida.  It should arrive tomorrow.  Today's are all modern machines, which means that they need electricity to play.  They are probably going to be fixed up and resold, he doesn't really like the modern ones as much.

Unlike Bill, I am de-stashing!  I finished the 2nd scarf that will be donated to the military group, I have the two hats to do still but they might wait a day or so.  Somebody Bill works with liked the hat I made him (but Otter gave it to him for Christmas) and has ordered a hat and scarf combo, which I might get started on tonight.  I don't sell a lot of my crochet, but I might start selling more of it.  Maybe, I'm still thinking about that.

We might get what is euphamistically known as "Spring Like Storms" tomorrow.  Actually, the rain might start tonight.  It's early, but there is still a chance of those storms we don't want to talk about yet.  We do expect to get high wind and thunder, but the jury is still out on severity.

Froggy, you commented on the last post about Mom and books.  I answered you, but I'm going to expand on my answer.  Mom loved sales, clearance sales, day old bread sales, you name it!  But she always got confused when she was going to the bread store - she kept saying she was going to the Used Bread Store instead of the day old bread place!  Do you remember that?

I have a prayer request.  Precious Miss Dorothy has been sick for a couple of days.  She finally gave in and called the doctor.  She's got pancreatitis!  Yes, that is what I had nearly 4 years ago.  But she has a mild case and not nearly what I had, for that we are thankful.  She might have to have her gall bladder removed, the doctor wasn't sure yet.  She is in the hospital, but mostly just to give her time to rest and the medication to work.  She might be released in the next day or so.  I'm not sure if/when the surgery would be, but any prayers are appreciated.  She is a very special lady.

Happy Accidents

I don't necessarily have a lot to say tonight, but I just thought I'd better say SOMETHING so that a certain person won't bug me about neglecting my blog!

Actually, I don't neglect it.  I blog quite a bit, and a lot more than several people I know that also blog.

Just not enough for Froggy. :)

One of the two Borders book stores in our area is closing.  Otter is her mother's daughter, so of course she's addicted to books.  I got that from my mom, by the way.  So did Froggy.  I picked Otter up from school today and we went straight to the Borders that is closing.  They started their clearance sale yesterday.  At this point, everything in the store is 20% off and some things are more.  We decided that even though things may be marked down more later, we didn't want to wait and risk missing things we wanted.  We probably should have gone yesterday, because the stock was already obviously reduced.  But we found a few things.  Otter got three books and I found a book of crochet patterns.  We might go back there again, several days from now, but we'll worry about that then.

We had spaghetti tonight.  As Otter and Bill can attest, we have it a lot.  Because I like it a lot.  A LOT.  We still had some sauce left after the spaghetti was gone.  I asked Otter to put the left over sauce back in the jar, which wasn't quite empty anyway.  She does that, puts the jar back in the fridge, then stops and looks funny.  And then she realized that she'd poured the spaghetti sauce into the picante sauce jar!  At that point, it was too late to worry about it so I told her to pour all of it back into the spaghetti sauce jar and shake it well.  It's going to be interesting, the next time we have spaghetti.  Which will probably be soon.  Because it always is soon when we have it again.  I'll keep you posted on whether that was a happy accident or a sad one.

Sunday Puzzles

I'm not a puzzle fan.  At all.  I find jigsaws to be the most boring thing in the universe, I dislike them extremely.  In fact, I'd probably eat broken glass before I'd willingly work on a jigsaw puzzle!

Today at church, Pastor Dave was talking about puzzles and how much he hates them.  He said that he just hopes that jigsaw puzzles are not in God's plan for him, and he spent most of the snowed in days trying to convince his wife (who loves puzzles) that they really didn't have time to do any.

He also talked about puzzles in another way.  Finding the pieces to the puzzles of what God wants for our lives.  In a way, life is like a puzzle.  Made perfect sense, the way he explained it.

Just not a jigsaw puzzle!  Pastor Dave agreed with me, by the way, about the broken glass/jigsaw puzzle situation.  He said that he can put a puzzle together quickly - it involves a hammer and a saw to make the pieces fit, but that it would probably not be recognizable when he got finished with it.

I think that Mom liked them, I remember her putting them together at different times.  Froggy, didn't you used to work on them with her and possibly Aunt Jessie?  I've just never had any interest in them.

We've been working on stuff around the house the last few days.  Among other things, I've been making inroads in the de-stashing.  I used up most of a small ball of blue yarn on a scarf and have another larger ball  of that same yarn that's enough to make a hat to go with the scarf.  They are part of my donation crochet projects.  I'm also about 1/3 of the way through another scarf which will also probably get a matching hat, and it's also going to be donated.  I had a few smaller things I crocheted as well.  Getting there, slowly.  I don't want to use up all my yarn, I just want to reduce the amount of yarn I have because it doesn't do anybody any good if it's just sitting there.

I've also got another hat project planned for Otter.  I had to buy some yarn for this one, the main color is grey and I had just about everything else besides grey.  I'm not sure when I'll get started on it, Otter likes hats and has several.  She wears them all year long.  This one will probably be one that gets frequent wear.  It's a sock monkey hat!  If the pattern works, I'll probably make a couple of them.  She's requested a few other things, which will also help me to de-stash.  The grey yarn is something that I'll use in other projects, I have a few things in mind for it besides the monkey hats.

We got another UFO finished!  This one is the quilt I started when Otter was in kindergarten.  Now that she's about to graduate, it's done.  This one was actually a family effort, Bill's contribution was to sew the backing & side seams on, which he finished up about 15 minutes ago.  When Otter gets home later today, she'll find her new quilt on her bed waiting for her.  I'll get pictures up on the craft blog, but not in the next couple of hours.  Otter's got the camera!

I've been doing some cleaning out lately.  I've gone through my books and have several that Otter will trade in at the used book place she likes and we also have some to donate.

It's really windy today.  I was out in the back yard for about 5 minutes, picking up trash that had blown in, and that was enough to trigger my allergies.  Otter was also sneezy and even Bill's affected.  I talked to someone on the phone this morning, they were sneezing.  The lady who waited on us at Subway (lunch!) today was also having sneezing spells - took a long time to get our lunch, by the way because she kept having to go sneeze and then go wash her hands again.  I guess that whatever is in the wind is bothering a lot of people.  No serious issues from it yet, but I have felt the beginnings of an asthma flare.  However, I've stayed inside as much as I can today and it's not getting any worse.  I don't think it will actually flare up, I think that the wind is just aggravating it slightly.  All in all, I'd prefer not to have to deal with asthma at all.  Either as someone who has it OR as the parent of someone who has it!

Everytime the beagle goes out in the yard, I expect to see her flying by the window.  Those long ears of hers would probably make good wings.  I hope that Frasier would at least try to keep her in the yard and not let her sail off over the fence!  But you know how big brother are about their little sisters...

Cute Stuff!

I found this the other day, I thought it was cute.  It's possibly an Ottermom with a baby, judging by the size difference.

This one just reminds me of Maggie.  Wonder why?

This one could remind me of someone, but I'm just going to say that it's cute and leave it at that.

This one's just me:

Me again:

Still me!

The next one, well because.  Just because.

Bill, or it would be if it weren't a cat!

This reminds me of Maggie Moo because of the picture, but it could apply to either pooch.

I didn't find anything that resembled Frasier, but the second picture (cookie jar) also applies.  Because he broke my first strawberry pot (and I thought about skinning him alive.)

Happy Valentine's Day

(As I type this, I am firmly convinced that I am married to a crazy man.  No other details needed, he's just crazy with a capital INSANE.)  (And since apples don't fall far from trees, that means that Otter isn't far behind.)

Anyway.  Happy Valentine's Day!  We had our Default Meal, the one we always have for just about any type of celebration:  Steak, baked potato and green beans.  If you were to ask Bill what his favorite meal is, that's the answer.  It's also what he always would choose for a celebration of any type.  Fortunately, Otter and I like it so we usually don't vary the menu.  Once in a while, but not too often.  I guess we're just a family of carnivores. :)

We don't do a whole lot for Valentine's.  We gave Otter candy (Sweetarts.  She got to pick her candy out this year, since we were never able to get out and go buy anything due to the wonderful weather.) and a stuffed WalMart version of a sock monkey.  We usually just give each other something small like a small amount of candy, Bill got gummy worms for Otter and he got me a package of green apple licorice.  Which happens to be one of my favorites.  I got him chocolate kisses, or maybe I got him the bag of peanut butter cups - I bought one of each because we always trade back & forth.  The dogsters even got something this year, Billyboy bought them rawhide chews.  They were overjoyed, Frasier did what he always does - took his out and ate it outside.  Maggie Moo carried hers around for a while, then she parked her furry behind in the floor and ate it.  The dogs also got a tiny amount of steak scraps, which they were very excited about.

Otter made cupcakes for BF, she took them to him yesterday.  He gave her a necklace and a pair of fingerless gloves.

So much for not making a big deal out of Valentine's Day!

Toadles, the box arrived today.  Bill picked it up at UPS on the way home.  It was packed really well.  The living room looked like a packing peanut factory exploded, Fraiser wasn't interested in it but Maggie Moo thought that it was fun.  The pachinko machine was intact, and Bill's thrilled with it.  Thanks, Bro, for picking it up for him.  I think he's got everyone he knows on the lookout for pachinko machines.

The real fun part of the evening was picking up all that styrofoam!  We always have to deal with static electricity, and the styofoam was alive tonight.  Bill was putting it in a trashbag to store it, but it became a three person, one beagle job because the stuff was literally flying up out of the trash bag and swirling around us, then it would generally land on the back of somebody's head or in one case, it landed between Otter's face and her glasses.  Stuff's evil!  :)

Then Otter got to vacuum.  Of course, she'd just finished vacuuming the living room when Billyboy brought the box home!  Poor Frasier, he thought he was safe from the vacuum after the first time.  When Otter got it back out of the closet, dog just about flew to get outside and away from the mean vacuum.

The snow/ice is just about gone from the streets.  There is still a lot in yards, but anywhere that gets sunshine is rapidly melting.  We didn't even need jackets for long today.  I'll be glad when it's all gone.  Then we'll be busy with mud.

Oh joy.  Mud

Sunday Meltdown

We're finally beginning to thaw out!  There are still several inches of snow to deal with, but most streets are melted, cleared or scraped enough to be able to get around.  The neighborhoods still have some issues, but the streets have patches as opposed to being solidly coated with ice & snow.  There are a few spots where the ground is visible, mostly dog trails and that sort of thing.  We've had 4 days of above freezing temperature and it's now warm enough to just need a light jacket.  It will be in the 70's by the end of the week.  Muddy season is about to start.

We can deal with muddy season, we'll attempt to stay ahead of the dogs and the floor.  Attempt being a relative term!

We went to church today, first time in two weeks because the weather caused cancellations before today.  Today's message was actually the one that Pastor David had planned for last Sunday.  The Sunday when he had to cancel.  The message?  About how important it is to actually go to church services if you can.  We thought it was ironic.  But we enjoyed it.

Otter and I had a couple of errands to run this afternoon.  We went to a thrift store while we were out, she found a pair of badly-needed jeans.  No Fenton, no yarn, no pachinko.  But it was still fun.  We also made a fast grocery stop for a couple of things.  There is a lot of traffic, for a Sunday afternoon.  People seem to be enjoying just being able to get out of their houses.

Movie review:  We saw the movie Red yesterday.  Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Hellen Miren and I can't remember the rest!  It was funny.  It was a lot better than we expected it to be and we enjoyed it.  The language wasn't too bad, there was a little but it wasn't excessive.  There is a little violence, but it's done well and not violence just for the sake of violence.

I did get some crochet time in as well.  I have a nearly finished UFO, the other throw pillow for the bed.  I made one camo pillow a while back but decided to make a second one.  I had a couple of different stitch ideas but didn't really like them for this project, once I actually got started.  So I frogged the little bit I'd done and decided to just go with another square.  I did one side yesterday, I might get the other side done today.  If I get a chance!  I'm not sure, but I might be done with my crochet UFO's.  The afghan is a long-term project deliberately and I have another project I'm working on but it is a recent one.  I also have a few planned projects, but I wanted to get the UFO's done first.

The dogs have been snoozing most of the day.  Except for brief moments of stretching, they haven't moved from their blanket much at all.  Although Frasier did have to come see what I was doing while ago, I sat down in the floor to get something out of my purse and he helped.  Then Maggie Moo had to come see what he was doing, which meant that she got between me and Frasier.  Now, I think that they are probably back to sleep.  It's what they do best, after all.  :)

Out!

I managed to get out of the house today.  I went to work.  Willieboy took me, and Otter, this morning.  The roads in the neighborhood were icky this morning, but they are much better this afternoon and I should not have any problems tomorrow morning - as long as I'm smart about it and Bill says I can't go over 10 miles an hour in the neighborhood.

Otter's out of school tomorrow, but the plan at this point is that the schools will re-open on Monday.  At that point, the district will decide how to make up the days that have been missed.  They are way over their built-in snow days.

Otter's cell phone is back up and running.  The phone wasn't repairable, but there was a spare available and it was able to be reprogrammed with her number.  She can text again!  She's so happy.  Of course, the old phone was completely dead so her memorized numbers have to be redone instead of just being electronically transferred.  But she's got a working cell phone again and she's overjoyed.

Uncle Crazy, your hat is on the way!  I mailed it today.  You should get it Saturday.  (Froggy, I forgot to take a picture of any of the hats I've sent out lately so if you think about it, would you please take a couple of pictures?).

It got to 6 below zero this morning.  One small town north of us actually got to 31 degrees below zero.  That is COLD!  It was literally colder in parts of Oklahoma than in Alaska.  We haven't been above freezing today, but it's been sunny and that has helped.  Tomorrow will be above freezing and then the weekend will be much warmer.  We'll be in the 60's next week, so it will all go away.  Not a moment too soon.  Of course, it's going to be pretty muddy!  Since I was able to get out today, I'm back to thinking that the snow is pretty.  But we really did get a lot of it.  Much too much.

I'm ready for warmer weather.  Spring, but without the spring storms.  Soon?

I Think I Want to Move...

Somewhere considerably warmer!  (Not really, we like it here).  But Otter has now decided that yes, she will move to Texas in a few years.  I told her that she had to have a house big enough to have a room for me.  I'll visit in October and leave in May.  Not sure about Billyboy, though.  He might have to be on his own for a few months out of the year. :)

We knew that there was more snow on the way, and that it was supposed to start yesterday late afternoon or evening.  When we went to bed, it wasn't coming down and I was hopeful that the forecaster might have missed it.  Bill woke up about 4:00 or thereabouts this morning, and looked out - to descover that the street has disappeared again and that the cars were covered.  So, we're home again today.  I'm really tired of this!  The newspaper website said that the paper will be delivered today, but I don't think it has been.  Which is fine, I'd enjoy reading it but I don't want anyone to get hurt.  Also, today is the one day of the year when we will willingly eat McDonald's, the Day of Love fundrasier for the Ronald McDonald House.  I don't think we're going to be able to take part this year.

We did manage to get out when Bill got home yesterday.  Otter and I prevailed on him to take us out - anywhere - for a few minutes.  We went to Quick Trip, which is a convenience store.  I got a milky way candy bar, so it was a big trip.

Today, the farthest I've gone is to the bird feeders.  I took two filled ones out about 8:00 this morning.  Otter took two more filled ones out about 1:00, and brought in two empty ones.  The birds are hungry!  And so is Frasier, he went out and cleaned up the snow of spilled seed while ago.  Then he found a snowbank, up to his chest, stood in it and ate some snow.  Who knows what goes on in that dog's mind!  Maggie's trips outside have been fast, she sometimes will stand in snow piles and eat all the birdseed she can find until she's shivering so hard she can barely stand but she hasn't done that today.

Since we're home, Bill's been working on the latest pachinko machine he's rebuilding.  Otter's been reading and watching assorted movies.  I've been de-stashing.  I made a cap for Crazy Uncle, which I hope to mail tomorrow - but we'll see if I can get to the post office, and a couple of other small things.

We had a late lunch, we ate around 1:30.  Pasta Dogs!  They were pretty good, we don't have them too often since the hot dog part of the equation is not really healthy.  But they are still a good meal, quick and easy to make.

I'm so ready for summer.

Snowy Roads 3, My Car 0

I'm keeping score.  Three is the number of times I got stuck in slushy, deep snow & ice and had to be dug out.

The first two were on my own street!  Bill was able to get out, he had to go to work today and he normally leaves around 6:15.  He left a little earlier today.  Otter and I headed out at 7:00, which is about 30 minutes earlier than normal.  Bill called right before we left and let me know that he'd made it to work, but that he'd had a couple of close calls on the way out of the neighborhood.

We have two ways out of the neighborhood.  The usual one we take in the mornings is the shorter way, which is the way that Bill went this morning.  That was the way I started to go.  I got about 2 houses away from ours and realized that the snow was just too deep.  We didn't get stuck there, but we came close.  So we turn around and head the other way.  We got a little further, almost all the way down the block and to the street to turn on that would get us out of the neighborhood.  That's where we got stuck.  Fortunately, our neighbor was still home and he answered his phone.  He came to where we were at and had to dig the tires out.  We get moving, and get to where we need to turn left, on the street to leave the neighborhood.  We didn't quite manage the turn, there were huge ruts in the road and my car is low to the ground.  The neighbor was still behind us, he said he wasn't sure I would be able to get onto the next street anyway so he stayed where he could watch us.  Which is a good thing, because he had to come get us unstuck again.  After that, we were able to actually get out of the neighborhood.

The next time was on the street I work on.  The office is in a duplex, so it's a residential street.  I got about half way down it, nearly got stuck and then turned down another street to see if there was another option but there really wasn't.  I basically made a big circle through a parking lot and went back down the street again.  And then I got stuck again.  And on the wrong side of the road, since there was a lot of sliding involved this time.  I did try to get it unstuck myself, Otter got behind the wheel and she did what I told her but the car simply would not move.  I had to call my (younger) boss and fortunately he was close enough that he could come get us out.  Took a little bit more digging and a lot of work, but he got it out.  He drove my car (with Otter) the rest of the way to the office and I drove his nice, big, 4-wheel drive Chevy Tahoe.  I told him that I'd give him my car and I'd even still make the payments, if he'd give me his.  Not surprisingly, he said he'd stick with his car.  Darn!  (It also snowed a little when we were on the way to work.)

At lunchtime, Otter and I decided that we would order from the sort-of Chinese place up the street and walk.  My older boss and his wife had made it to the office at that point, so he bought lunch for all of us.  Otter and I walked up there and got it, then we had a very nice lunch with two wonderful people.  At that point, the sun had not come out and it was pretty cold.  And windy!  I was thinking about taking tomorrow off and probably Wednesday, but the sun did come out a little bit and we got up to around 40 degrees.  So I'm going to play it by ear as far as tomorrow goes, but Wednesday will probably find me at home again.  More on the way!

Since we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out tomorrow, Otter and I found a reason to go to the Dollar Store on the way home.  Like we ever need one!  We also went to the post office and took her cell phone to be fixed - it wasn't repairable and we aren't surprised.  We stopped at WalMart since the Dollar Store is in the same shopping center and I wanted to get a couple of things that the other WalMart was out of yesterday.  We decided to grab another gallon of milk while we were at it, just in case.  There were quite a few people buying BMT storm supplies today.  When we came home, we came in the shorter way and it was pretty slippy in a couple of places but the snow was soft enough that we could get through it.  However, tomorrow morning might be another "interesting" trip, since it's going to re-freeze tonight.

My face is much better.  The brusing is still there, but it's better.  However, it still itches and it's driving me bonkers!

I'm so tired of winter weather.  I've lived here nearly 17 years, so I'm used to it.  I just don't like having to get out in it and drive.  Bill's Impala is slightly higher than mine, I never got stuck when it was my car.  But mine is just low enough that it's a real problem at times.  But we did get a huge amount of snow and it is trapping bigger and taller cars, so that might not have anything to do with it.  They are both front-wheel drive, which is easier but 4-wheel drive is really the best way to go when it's like this.  We don't have that option.  And I don't really want an SUV anyway.

But I still don't like it!

Super Sunday and a Prayer Request

Today's title has absolutely nothing to do with the Super Bowl.  We are not really into sports, I'll occasionally watch the Super Bowl but usually only the tail end of it to see who's winning.  But I usually don't even watch that much.  I will probably find the online link to the commercials tomorrow, we usually watch them online the next day.

Today is Super Sunday because we got to get out of the house.  We went shopping!

Well, we went to the grocery store.  Then I took Otter to a thrift store, I found nothing.  But she found all sorts of things, so it was a fun trip even if none of what we bought was actually for me.  We ran into a friend of ours there, she said that she was invited to Super Bowl party and that she was going to go even though she's not a sports fan at all, just because it gave her a reason to get out of her house.  Of course, she had to get a friend to come get her since her car is still snowed in, but she was just happy to be out and see other people besides her family.

The grocery store was pretty crowded, for a Sunday morning at 10:30.  I don't usually buy groceries on Sunday, but a)  people are re-stocking supplies so there are a lot of things that the stores are going to run out of soon and b) we got more winter on the way!  The next storm system isn't expected to be as big as last week, but it is expected about Tuesday night into Wednesday and I thought that I'd better get there now while I could.  I didn't need milk, oj, eggs or birdseed and that's a good thing.  Because they had no eggs, very little milk and might have been out of oj.  I didn't check the birdseed, but they were running low on dog food.  I bought it, the same brand we feed the poochsters but a different "flavor" than what they usuall eat.  They won't mind, I've seen some of the things they eat!  But I did get picante sauce (Pace of course!), and I bought two large jars of it so we're set for a while.  We eat a lot of it.  The store was also out of flour, which I thought was strange.  They didn't have any more canned biscuits, but they had plenty of canned chili still.

Church was cancelled, which we expected.  While we were out, we went to the post office and had to drive by our Church.  The parking lot was untouched and looked like it would have been very bad to drive on .  The city streets are a mixture of good and bad.  Most of the main streets have been plowed, although they might not have all lanes open.  The neighborhood streets are pretty much untouched.  A lot of people were out shoveling their driveways so they can get out.  There is a large plywood piece stuck at the entrance to our neighborhood, with the words "Donner Pass" spray painted on it.  (Donner Party, remember history?)  It was funny.

My face is better, the cut is healing well but now it's itching.  Driving me nuts!  The bruise is nice & multi-colored.  It's still somewhat sore, but a lot of that is because I keep bumping it.  The collar of my coat kept rubbing it and my scarf was also a problem.  Froggy asked me why the car slid, it was because it was parked on ice.  And that brings me to the prayer request.

One of Froggy's friends, her name is Sonya, lost her 36 year old daughter to a fall on ice Friday.  She lived in North Texas and they got quite a bit of ice.  So any prayers for the family would be appreciated.  That's got to be so hard to go through.

Our paper was delivered yesterday and today.  It's nice to have one again.  The newspaper has already announced that they will deduct three days from subscriptions, which is nice.  I'm glad that we got it, but I'm also glad that they didn't even attempt to deliver them last week.  It's not worth the chances that they would have been taking, driving in the conditions we have had to deal with.

At this point, nothing has been announced about school closings for tomorrow.  But I won't be surprised if school is cancelled, at least for tomorrow.  Otter's school district said that they would decide this afternoon sometime.  Same thing for the school district that Bill works for.

There have been a couple of reports of roof damage due to ice, a store in the area had a roof collapse last night.  It was about 15 minutes before closing time, there were no customers in the store at the time but there were two employees.  They were able to get out of the way, but they had to run to escape as it fell.

We decided to splurge for lunch today.  Otter and I brought Arby's home.  It was pretty good, we don't eat there very often but we do like it.  Wednesday is the local Ronald McDonald House fundraiser, so we'll get McD's on the way home - if the weather lets us, that is.  That is about the only time we eat McDonald's all year long.

Guess that's it for today!

More (And Probably More On the Way) (For a Few Days)

More snow.  More cold weather.  More ice.

More housebound Texans.

I did get out today, I went to work and took Otter with me.  We left about 6:45 a.m. and got to work at 8:00.  We had a stop, we stopped at a Wallyworld grocery store to get the stuff we needed.  We had planned on stopping after work today, but I really needed a break from driving on absolutely horrible roads so we detoured for about 15 minutes.  The parking lot was iffy, it had been plowed at one point but it was still pretty bad.  We had a little trouble getting out of the lot, but we managed.

The ride was bad, but there wasn't much traffic that early.  There was a little, a couple of stupid pickup drivers but not much.  I figure that it's not worth having an accident, so I'm going to be careful.  If someone else is in a hurry, they can go around me!

We got to work and I got several things done, I have about a year's worth of stuff to file but I got all the major stuff done.  We had planned on not leaving at lunch (we had sandwiches) and leaving an hour early, at 1:30.  But at about 10:30, Bill called to tell me it was starting to snow again and was heavy.  Shortly after that, it started snowing at work.  So we were thinking that we might leave a little earlier, maybe around 1:00.  Then it started to snow really heavy, so we left about 11:30.  I had a fast stop to make, which took about 5 minutes, but it still took us over an hour to get home.  Normally, even with traffic, I'm home in about 20 minutes.  The snow (which is still coming down) is heavy, wet stuff and the roads were really bad.  They weren't good this morning, but they were much worse when we left.  There were a lot more cars on the road at this point, I think a lot of people had the same idea we did - leave early.  Also, the radio station we were listening to was advising people to get home while they could, because it's only going to get worse.  Not too many people actually were out Tuesday through yesterday.

The snow wasn't supposed to start until tonight and then it was supposed to be light.  Yeah, right.

Anyway.  We get home and are starting to get the car unloaded, Otter had to get out of the front seat on the driver's side since the passenger side had snow up past the bottom of the door.  She gets out and I'm standing by the open, rear driver's side door reaching in for grocery bags and the car starts moving.  It was sliding backwards and I really thought it might make it into the street.  The driveway has a very slight slope, but it was a fast enough slide and the driveway isn't very long.  Otter was close enough that she was able to jump in and hit the brake, which did manage to stop the car.  She sat there with her foot on the brake, I grabbed a couple of bags and went in for Bill since I wasn't sure if I would need to move the car back further or not.  He came out and checked, it wasn't moving anymore so he and Otter started to help me unload.  We had several bags, because Wallyworld uses plastic bags (which I hate) and they don't hold much per bag.  We didn't have a lot of groceries, just lots of bags!

About this point in time, I realize that my face is stinging and I vaguely remember the car door bumping me as it started sliding.  Then I realized that my glove has oddly red colored snow on it, from where I touched my face.  Bill is coming in the door at this point, he of course freaks out.  He's not afraid of blood at all, but he thought I was really hurt because I bleed a lot.  Well, I'm a redhead.  It happens!  He inspected me, then sent me off to the bathroom to clean up the blood on my face.  He and Otter got the rest of the stuff in.

(It's not a deep cut at all, it's a little deeper than "just a scratch" but it's not deep and it's not going to need stitches.  It's on my left side of my face, just above the jaw line towards my chin.  It does sting a little, but it's not serious.  It just bled for a while, but that happens.)

Among the stuff we bought was a 40 lb. bag of birdseed.  I wanted a 20 lb. bag, but it was either a bag that weighed 40 lbs. or several 2/3 pound bags.  So we went with the 40 lb.  Besides, it's not going to go to waste.  I have a feeling that we're going to be feeding birds for days and days and days.

The snow was expected, but not until tonight.  And then it was supposed to be light.  But it's not light.  And it's not stopping.  I'd say that we are going to be at home for a while, probably a couple more days.  At least.  I'll be surprised if there is Church on Sunday, Pastor David will probably cancel.  I don't know when we're going to be able to get Otter's cell phone checked, that was on today's list but we didn't even try.  Same thing for the post office, our box is probably going to be very full.

But we have milk, oj, bird seed and I bought a couple of bags of chips.  So I think we're well stocked for a while.

Toadly asked me to send him snow, he said he was jealous.  I told him I'd see what I could do about that.  Austin got snow today, so I've done as requested Bro!

We got more, if you want some of it.  I'll share.

Daylight!

We can finally see daylight at the end of the long, snowy tunnel.

We should be able to get out tomorrow.  And not a moment too soon.

Bill's finished with the driveway, at least to the point that I can get my car out.  His is still buried, but his car is parked close to the end of the driveway and won't have that much snow behind it.  It's the deeper part of the driveway, so it won't be easy if he should decide to shovel it out.  But since he's probably off tomorrow as well, it's most likely not going to be an issue.  We won't go anywhere on Saturday anyway, and if we do get out for Church on Sunday we'd be in my car.  Sunday could be rainy, which will help the snow.  But will also increase the mud factor, which is going to be a problem eventually even without rain.

Then Monday is cold again with a 20% chance of snow and the mid-week is also cold.  With another chance of snow towards the end of the week.  Monday's chances are not really supposed to be bad, but the forecaster was talking like he was apprehensive about the end of the week chances.  Well, I'm not going to worry about that now.  One day at a time.

After Bill got the driveway finished, I got out and defrosted my car.  The sun has been shining, which helped.  The remaining snow on the cleared off part of the driveway was melted because of the sun, and now there is a small patch of mud that is freezing back up.  But it's not a huge spot.  Just messy!

Otter wants to go to work with me tomorrow.  She wants to be reminded that she's still a part of civilization.  I totally understand that.  I don't think that either of us would make a good hermit, although Bill might.

I took the empty bird feeders down before sunrise this morning, and it was cold - literally 6 degrees below zero at the time.  I put two filled ones up and replaced one with a suet feeder.  The back yard has been popular with birds, we've had lots of feathered visitors for days.  I've seen several doves today, as well as several cardinals of both "flavors."

The dogs seem happy that we're home, they do go outside for fast runs but don't stay out long.  They've both gone to the bird feeders a couple of times, hoovered up bird seed and then run back inside as fast as they could.  When I went out to get firewood earlier, both dogs came out with me.  Maggie needed to answer nature's call, but Frasier didn't want her to.  He kept trying to play with her, she kept trying to squat and he kept grabbing her by the collar and dragging her a few feet in an attempt to get her to play.  I could tell that he was making her pretty mad, I finally told him to quit and Maggie was able to do what she went outside for.  Then she ran back inside faster than I've ever seen those 4 legs of hers move!  But she is low to the ground, and the snow is taller than she is.  Frasier has a routine, he usually goes out their gate and around the yard at the edges, next to the fence.  He still does that, but now he has to leap over snow that is about as deep as his legs are long.  He looks funny when he does it, Maggie just looks like she's swimming.

I keep finding tiny feathers stuck to me.  My coat is down lined, and it's very warm.  I have been getting quite a bit of use out of the scarf & hat I made for myself; Bill and Jessie have also been wearing theirs.  My gloves are problematic.  The really warm ones I have are 15% wool.  I do wear them, because they are very warm.  But after a little while, they get a little uncomfortable.  It's a trade-off, but I think it's worth it today.  I have other gloves, but the weather calls for really warm ones right now.  I think the fact that they are not 100% wool is probably why I can wear them at all.  I just don't wear them any longer than I have to.

Otter and I took a short walk this morning.  We went to the end of our street, where we could see the end of the neighborhood street.  The bigger road outside the neighborhood has traffic on it, we couldn't tell for sure what the road surface condition is but I do think it was plowed.  There have been a few cars go down the street, earlier this morning there were several that got stuck a few times but this afternoon I've seen a couple of cars that were about the size of mine and they were able to navigate.  They weren't in a hurry, and there are still high spots in the snow covering the road so getting stuck is still a possibility.  But I'm not even attempting to go anywhere today (although I really REALLY want to).  We'll attempt to get out in the morning, and I think we'll be able to.  Once we get out of the neighborhod, the main streets should be better although they might not have all been plowed.  We'll leave early and not be in a hurry.

We are going to the grocery store tomorrow, possibly in the morning on the way to work.  I don't need much, but I do want to get a couple of things.  If they have them!  We still have milk, oj, bread and plenty of staples.  But there is another chance of winter next week, so I don't want to take a chance of running out now and then either not being able to get out in a few days or the stores being out of stuff.  Also, we're going to take Otter's cell phone and see about getting it fixed.

She's been unable to use her phone since Monday evening.  No texting!  She's so deprived. :)

Had Enough!

We're feeling more than a little housebound and are starting to get stir-crazy.  I don't see that changing anytime soon, unfortunately.  The snow is still here, it probably will be here for days because we won't get above freezing until Saturday.  Then the temperatures will get back to really cold for a few days after that and I think we have another snow chance Monday.  But probably not another blizzard like this one.

Bill managed to get most of the driveway behind my car cleared off.  But the street is still pretty bad.  I'm not sure if I'll attempt to go to work tomorrow or not.  The snow in the street is high enough that most cars are not going to be able to navigate it.  I watched a truck get stuck earlier and that vehicle was much higher off the ground than my Impala.  I think what I'll do is see how the street looks in the morning, then decide.  The Tulsa streets are getting cleared slowly, but the smaller town we live in doesn't usually clear all the streets.  And when they do, they don't often get out to where we are.  So we'll see in the morning.  But it's starting to get dark now and the streets won't be getting any more help from the sun today and probably not any more vehicles.  I've only seen a couple of vehicles go by today, and they were trucks that are higher up than cars.

Otter's school is out for the rest of the week.  Bill's off tomorrow and probably Friday as well.

We're still ok on supplies, although I'd like to be able to get out by Friday (if not tomorrow) and see if I can get to the grocery store for a couple of things.  We have plenty of milk still, but we could probably use another container of orange juice because we do drink a lot of it.  But if we don't make it to the store, we're still going to be fine.

The bird feeders have been visted all day, we've seen doves and several cardinals as well as the red-winged blackbirds and sparrows.  And starlings, which are vermin, but I don't begrudge them food either so I ignore them this time of year.  We did see the woodpecker yesterday, he was in a tree but he's probably been to the suet feeder when we weren't looking because he spends a lot of time there.

The dogs are still happy, they've had a rerun of yesterday - sleeping most of the day with very fast trips outside.  Maggie has spent a lot of her snooze time in front of the fireplace.

Otter slept in the living room last night, it was nice & warm in there since the fireplace had been going all day.  Maggie Moo was happy about that.

We watched the movie 2012 today.  Really dreadful, just awful but in a funny way.  It was obviously intended to be a serious movie, but it failed big-time.  We don't usually spend all day in front of the tv, but we have the last two days.  The satellite service has different free movie channels each month, and we've been taking advantage of that.

The paper wasn't dellivered today, it wasn't printed today and won't be printed tomorrow either.  Both days are available online, which is normally a fee service but is free right now.  I never thought about reading the paper online, I still prefer to actually have it in my hands to read.  But it's nice that the publisher has suspended charging for the online service right now.

Maybe tomorrow we'll get to get out.  Hopefully, anyway.

Baby It's Cold Outside! January Books

The forecasters got it right!  For once.  Actually, they do get it right sometimes.  And I'm not surprised that this time they did.

These pictures were taken about 11:00 this morning.  It's now just after 3:00.  Over 13" now.  And it's still coming down!

This is the whiskey barrel in front of my house.  It's at the edge of my yard, next to the street.  The street that you can't see, because the snow is so deep that it looks like it's almost level with the top of the whiskey barrel.  The bushes in the picture are across the street in front of the house there.  I did see a truck go down the street just now, he wasn't moving very fast and the snow was up nearly to the top of his tires.

No paper delivered today, which I think is a good thing.  I enjoy reading the paper, but it's not worth someone having an accident just to deliver the paper.  A couple of years ago, there was an older couple who were delivering papers and they were killed when their truck went off the road in icy conditions.  I don't think anybody wants a repeat of that.  There won't be any delivered tomorrow, either.

This picture was taken by Otter, she was leaning out the front door and griping about the cold.  If you look at the corner below the swing, you can tell that it's the porch.  It looks like the yard is level with the porch because of the snow, but there's about a one foot drop off under the swing.  The swing is above the porch, it just doesn't look like it because of the perspective of the photograph.

This is the feeder we can see from the dining room window, the picture was taken through the screen.  I filled up the two big feeders this morning and Bill took them out for me.  They've been refilled once already and a third feeder was also put out.  These two are now empty again, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow morning to refill.  I don't want to run out of birdseed, and they've had plenty already.

I have a full bag still but I don't want to use it all up at once.  I'd like to still be able to feed the birds a little longer because they'll need food for a few days more.  When the weather clears and we can get out - which may be a couple of days - I'm going to go buy a couple more bags.  Assuming that there is any left at the store.

This is the back deck.  The snow is now higher than the deck.  A lot of that is due to the fact that the snow has been blown up there, it's been pretty windy.  It usually is windy, in a blizzard!  :)  Anyway.  There is about a 3' drift just outside the back door.

The dogs are not fans of cold.  They have spent a lot of time snoozing inside, but they do have to make the occasional run outside.  They make it in record time.  Frasier did go outside for a while earlier, he went to help the birds get any seed that had spilled.  He didn't stay out long.

Otter made snow ice cream.  It's pretty good.  Just very cold!  I made chicken noodle soup for a late lunch, tomorrow will probably be Bachelor Stew or Chili.

I have also had plenty of crochet time.  Bill's been working on a pachinko machine and Otter's been parked on the loveseat, she made herself a nest and she's quite comfortable.

Otter's cell phone isn't working.  So she's unable to text.  Sad thing, for a teenager!  We will get it checked, but it may be a couple of days.  I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon.

I talked to my older boss earlier.  He's housebound and bored.  He and his lovely wife are moving, they were supposed to move today.  Obviously, it's been put off for a few days.  He was complaining that his heavy winter coat was packed and so were the kitchen utensils so they were having to unpack a couple of boxes just to be able to make lunch.  Can't say I blame him for griping!

OK, January books:

1.  The Teahouse on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens.  This was possibly the second book in a series, but I couldn't even get 20 pages in before I gave up.  Obviously, I'm not recommending it.

2.  Altered Art Circy by Lisa Kittel.

3.  Altered Art Techniques for Creating Altered Books, Boxes, Cards & More by Terry Taylor.

4.  Ready Set Crochet by Susie Johns

5.  Crocheted Sweaters by Susan Huxley.  I think this was a rerun.

6.  Fabulous & Flirty Crochet by Katherine Lee.  Not impressed.

7.  Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult.  I still don't think she's a very good author and her stories are extremely predictable, but she's better than a lot of authors.

8.  CSI In Extremis by Ken Goddard.  Eh.

9.  Catnapped, An Animal Instinct Mystery by Gabriella Herkert.  Didn't even get to 20 pages, badly written and not very well thought out.

10.  Bag Botique, Making Fabulous Purses & Totes by Amy Barickman

11.  Fully Wooly by Warwick & Lum.  Supposed to be knit & crochet, but it was mostly knit with very little crochet.

12.  Hookarama, 25 Fabulous Things to Crochet by Rachel Matthews.  OK, but not spectacular.  But I liked the name.

13.  Knit or Crochet, Have it Your Way by Margaret Hubert.  Good ideas, just not anything I really wanted to make.

14.  Hooked on Murder, a Crochet Mystery by Betty Hechtman.  I was not impressed, but it dealt with crochet so I decided to give it a try.

15.  Confessions of a Prarie B_tch by Allison Arngrim.  This was an autobiography and good.  She's had a couple of really rough situation to deal with, but she managed to avoid the drug/alchohol problems of so many other entertainers.

16.  The Pact by Jodi Piccoult.  See # 7.  This one was better than I expected.

17 - 19.  Batman

20.  Dead Men Don't Crochet by Betty Hechtman.  This convinced me that she's really not a very good author and I don't think I'll read anything else by her.  Ever, it was that bad.

21 - 23.  Assorted crochet books.

24 & 25. Batman

26.  Making Arbors and Trellises by Miller & Rollin.  Interesting ideas but nothing that I think would work for us.

27.  Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Babb.  I highly recommend this one.

28 - 29.  Batman

30.  Star Trek

31.  Tornado Alley, Monster Storms of the Great Plains by Howard B. Bluestein.  This might be a rerun, or I may have read something similar.

32.  God's Guest List by Debbie Macomber.  This one was pretty good.

Whew, that was a lot of books to type!