Sunday Walkies

This picture is from a couple of years ago, I didn't even try to get a picture of him today - he does not like the camera!

Frasier went on his first walk since before his surgery this afternoon.  He was happy!  Maggie was bouncy, but she generally is - especially when she sees the leashes come out of the closet.  It was also our first walk since before bigdog's surgery, so we are all tired now.

We noticed that Frasier is begining to put on his winter weight.  He's a skinny dog naturally, but he will get a little bit fluffier in the fall and he's doing that now.  His coat is starting to get thicker as well.  Maybe we'll have a colder winter this year?  I hope so.

I've extended my observation of I Love Yarn Day, I crocheted for a few hours yesterday and it's on my schedule for today as well.  I put 4 rows on my shawl and also started putting together the latest pot holder I've made for Froggy.  Froggy, I think I'm going to make one more for you still so it may be a few days before I mail the shawl, hat and 3 now probably 4 pot holders to you.  I'll let you know when I get them on their way to you.  But for now, I'm making pretty good headway in de-stashing.

We had a nice rain storm last night.  It was a thunderstorm and there was a lot of rain, but we didn't have anything bad.  I'm not sure just how much rain we actually got, but it was plenty.  Bill had the house open yesterday because we had a drizzle early, but it wasn't enough to clean the air out so we all had to deal with allergy issues yesterday.  Today, the air is nice & clean and the house is open again.  It's breezy and very pleasant and the sky is georgeous.

There really wasn't much exciting last week to blog about.  I'm not complaining, I like calm weeks.  We didn't get too much TEXAS persecution, just a little bit of tailgating.  But since we got slaughtered in the game yesterday, it probably doesn't really matter.

Otter and I checked out a new grocery store Friday afternoon.  She was at work with me for the afternoon, she wanted to go see her adopted grandfather to wish him happy birthday (96!) so I got her at my lunch hour and took her back with me.  After we left the office, we went to the new Fresh Market store which recently opened in Tulsa.  They are a chain, but I'm not sure how far across the country they are.  I think we'll be going back there again, not necessarily for everything but I was extremely impressed with their produce section.  It's one of those "you get what you pay for" situations, but I'd say that it will be worth it.  Otter was also impressed with their selection of teas.

Bill's been working on a pachinko machine today, I think it's a repair job for someone.  He's beginning to get a lot more repair work, generated by visits to his website.  He still repairs/refurbishes machines and sells them, but he's got about 3 waiting on repairs and possibly a couple more on the way.  He's a happy camper!

I have a pot of soup in the crockpot.  This is the 2nd time I've used frozen vegetables in it.  It turned out well the last time, but I'm still tweaking it.  For one thing, I warmed the (large) bag of frozen mixed vegetables in the microwave for about 2 minutes before putting them in the crockpot, and I also put the meat in first (along with the crushed tomato).  Then, I added some of the water and the water was warm/hot this time.  Last time, I put it together as I usually do but then it took it a long time to warm up and the crock itself was cold on the inside and hot on the outside - it got a lot of extra stirring and I turned the temperature down much sooner than I normally do since I really did not want the crock to crack because of the hot/cold issue!  Warming the vegetables a little seems to have done the trick.  It still didn't get warm/hot as fast as it usually does, but I left it on the high/hot setting longer than I have before.  And when I added the rest of the water, it was also pretty warm.  Of course, I'm also using some fresh vegetables - celery, onions, green bell peppers and potatos.  The rest of the veggies are frozen, the mixed vegetables don't have lima beans so I put in about half a bag of frozen ones - also warmed just slightly in the microwave.

I guess that's about it for today.  Back to my laundry, the pile of dirty clothes never seems to get any smaller for some reason.