Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sunday Popcorn Chicken

I bet you can't guess what we had for lunch today!

Otter and I stopped at Wallyworld for a couple of things on our way to the library, and we realized that we were hungry.  So we had lunch in the car, from Wally's deli, on the way to the library.  It was ok, it was good but not spectacular.  But, we weren't hungry anymore after that so I'm not complaining.  We found a few books, too.  Well, I found a few.  Otter (as usual) found a lot.

We dumped the jalepeno and bell pepper plants today, with the exception of the one that still has two peppers.  The bell pepper plant was doing great, once the excessive heat ended.  It had blooms and tiny peppers starting.  Then, the nights got too cool and the blooms fell off.  It didn't make any more blossoms and the jalepenos didn't either.  So, they are all dumped in a low spot in the back yard.  Along with a couple of other annual plants.  There are still two or three others, but they are lantana and still have a few blooms so they got a reprieve.  It was really nice outside, sunny and breezy.  Warm, but not hot.  The dogsters got some outside time when we were out there.  Frasier walked around the yard, checking out spots but didn't find any squirrels.  Maggie spent most of her time snoozing in a sunny spot on the deck.

But I'm thinking that it's time to take the hummingbird feeders down.  We haven't seen any in several days, Otter saw one last weekend during the wind storm we had but that was the last one that's been sighted.  The feeder level hasn't changed, except for the one that the ants can get to.  I'm probably going to take them down this afternoon.  Then, they'll get a good scrubbing and will be stored in the garage until next spring.  It's still a little early to put the seed feeders out, there are still a lot of bugs around for the birds to eat.

I finally managed to get some crochet done!  Yesterday.  I'm always looking for projects to use up my spare yarn ends, and since I finished Bill's blanket a few months back, I was getting a good size collection of small bits.  I decided on another throw pillow cover, this one will go with Bill's blanket since it's a variety of colors.  I finished the first side yesterday, I am probably going to start the 2nd side soon but I've used up most of my small pieces so I'm not sure when I'm actually going to be able to finish it.  I'm not sure if it counts as a de-stashing project or not.

We made a discovery this morning.  As we were heading out the door toward the car for church, Bill noticed toilet paper hanging from a tree.  We thought it was our tree at first, but then we realized that it's the next-door neighbor.  The nice one, not the "other neighbor"!  It's was a little breezy and that's why we thought it was our tree at first.  But we did notice something else:  the culprit used the good stuff!  Also, they probably did it early this morning because the paper wasn't even really damp and it would have been, if it had been done last night because of the dew.  Bill pulled down as much as he could reach, but there is still enough in the tree that is visible.  We haven't seen the neighbor yet, they usually leave for church about the time we are getting home from early services but we aren't sure if they are even home this weekend.

My car is going to the shop on Tuesday.  We haven't really had to get much work on done it, but this time it needs some serious work.  It needs a front-end alignment which is probably not unusual, but it also needs the rack & pinion replaced.  I also need new tires, and it's time for the oil change.  So, we're getting it all done at once.  The current tires are the ones it came with.  The car has just under 75,000 miles, about 50,000 we put on it.  Which isn't bad, when you consider that we have been known to put that many miles on a car in less than 2 years!  (I mean the 75,000 miles total).  We've had this one 3 years and it was a rental for a few months before that.  The tires are getting bad, they have to be replaced before winter gets here and the alignment stuff needs to be done anyway but it's best to get the tires replaced at the same time or immediately after.  It's just the "all at once" part that is going to be expensive.  But, like I said earlier, we have had very few problems with this car and the issues we've had are mostly the a/c problems.  Only one time was it even enough for the warranty.  Also, the battery had to be replaced last winter, but that's a normal maintenance issue.

We rented the movie Thor for our Saturday movie.  It's part of the Avengers series, along with Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and there might be a couple of others that haven't come out yet.  We haven't seen Captain America yet, it's not out on blu-ray yet but we'll see it as soon as it's out.  There is a future movie with all the characters in it, which is probably just called The Avengers.  Thor was ok, it was cute but not exactly heavy drama.  But, it had a Stan Lee cameo in it (which is almost a rule with movies based on his characters).  We enjoyed it but probably would have been unhappy with theater prices, though.

Bill has nearly 40 hours of comp time built up, so he's taking this coming week off.  He's probably going to spend all of it with his pachinko machines.  He just got another one today, he brought it home a few minutes ago.  He's also sold two of them recently and is in the middle of refurbishing several.

He's still got more pachinko machines than I have yarn!  He won't admit that, but it's true. :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may want to leave at least 1 hummingbird feeder up, for late migrators, sometimes there are a few stragglers and they need food also. Leaving the feeders up doesn't make them stay around.
Doesn't lantana come back every year?
Froggy

Otter Mom said...

I bought annual lantana, it will come back sometimes but it doesn't handle the winter weather we get very well. I've had it come back once and that's all, usually it won't so I just buy annuals.
I still have one feeder up, but it won't be for long. We've never seen them this late but I usually leave one up until about the first of October. Which is nearly here.