Aw, Nuts!

One of the field guys at work sells pecans this time of year.  He picks them himself, I don't know if the orchard is his or a family member's but they are papershell pecans.  They're very good.  But then, pecans are special to TEXANS.  I ordered 5 lbs and he brought them this morning.  My two bosses also ordered 5 pounds each, so he delivered a 15 lb. bag and I split it up.  Then I shelled part of the teenager's portion for him.  They came pre-cracked, so it was relatively easy to shell them.  I brought ours home and Otter promptly claimed them all!  She has to share them, although she probably would prefer not to!  Half of the pecans are in the deep freeze, the other half is in the house freezer but I'm sure that they will not be in any danger of going bad before they get eaten.  I just kind of have that feeling for some reason.  :)

Anyway, I have a pecan pie in the oven now.  Karo Syrup changed their recipe slightly, it used to call for heating the butter/syrup/sugar on the stove then adding the vanilla and stirring until the sugar was dissolved.  After that, the pecans are added and it's all poured into a 9", deep-dish frozen pie crust.  (I don't have the pie crust gene so I use pre-made frozen ones).  Now, it's all just stirred together although the butter is melted (and I think it now calls for less butter than before) and when the sugar is dissolved (takes a while, stirring it by hand like that) then the rest of it is the same.  I decided to follow the revised recipe, at least this time.  We'll see how it turns out.  The pie is not going to be eaten until at least tomorrow night, it takes several hours to cool - unless Bill wants to consume what is essentially molten lava with pecans in it.  I also bought cool whip.  Vanilla ice cream works good on it, too.

Here's a little T & T Thursday:  The UN needs to keep it's nose out of Israel's business!  I do sympathise with the Palestinian people, but the Book states clearly what is Israel and what isn't.  It also clearly states what will happen to Israel's enemies.  The land is Israel and the Jewish people are the chosen people of God.  Don't believe me?  Read the Book!

I have a prayer request.  A friend's daughter lost her baby yesterday.  It was her second child, she has an adorable little boy.  But they are still mourning the loss of a child and prayers would help them.

Otter has 2 weeks and one day left of the current semester of college.  She's looking at her options, since this was her "think about it" semester but I think she's probably going to continue with college at this point.  It's her decision to make, we'll support whatever she decides to do and she'll make the right choice for herself.  We can only give her guidance in this, it's one of those decisions she has to make for herself.

She's also got two weeks until the oral surgery.  Bill and I have 3 weeks of work, then I have a week & a half off in a combination of vacation and holiday.  Bill will have two weeks off in holidays and then he's taking another week off after that for vacation.  Otter will have two or three weeks, I'm not exactly sure when the next term starts because I think she's going to go back.  (See previous paragraph.)

I'm just glad that tomorrow if Friday.  It's been a busy week.

Blinded by the Light

Well, actually we aren't blinded and the light no longer shines through the dining room windows.  Bill got the mini-blinds up and it looks great.  Now that the curtains are down, it actually looks less cluttered.  We rearranged the plants, same ones are still there but the cactus and ivy have now switched sides.  Also, I trimmed the ivy as it was long enough to ensare the beagle (and I think it might have tried to a few times!)  I washed the curtains, but then I decided against moving them to the living room window.  They had some discolored places that I think were actually sun fades.  I'm still going to replace the curtains in the living room window, just not sure what color, etc. I'll be using yet.  But we don't have to worry about the neighbors (current and/or future) being able to see inside from the outside any longer.  Just hope we can remember to open the blinds for the plants in the morning!

One of Otter's cactus plants is blooming.  It's a small one and we really weren't sure about it.  It hadn't grown at all since we bought it last spring but apparently it's still alive and happy since it's suddenly covered in deep pink almost purple blossoms.

It was cold today.  The forecast was for low- to mid-50's.  At noon, the weatherman on the news made the comment that we'd be lucky to get up to 50 and he was right.  (Rare occurance for them to be right).  It was grey, cloudy & windy all day.  It's going to be in the high 20's tonight.  We've used the fireplace once already, Saturday morning.  It was nice to sit in the living room with our coffee (and dogs!) and enjoy the fireplace.  I also changed out the filter in the humidifer tonight.

Bill's better, he went back to work and mananged to stay all day.  He's still coughing and congested but I think he's a little better.  Otter and I cleaned/decluttered/dusted the dining room this morning before we left so that he wouldn't have to deal with a lot of dust tonight when he put the blinds up.

Otter's oral surgery is 3 weeks from today.  She keeps reminding me that she'll need lots and lots of yogurt and jello.  Guess she doesn't want me to forget!

Sunday Blind Ambition

Kind of a blah day today.  We've been busy, but I'm tired and Bill's probably closer to being exhausted than tired.  He's been fighting the bug for over a week now and is refusing to even consider the fact that he probably should have gone to the doctor several days ago.  He's mostly over the fever, but he's still got a lot of congestion, sneezing & coughing.  He's choked his way through the last couple of nights due to the cough.  Which means that neither one of us has really gotten much sleep for the last few nights.  We can't blame it on the dog this time!  Can you tell I'm not particularly happy with him at the moment?  :)

We bought mini-blinds for the dining room windows today.  There is one large window with two smaller windows, one on each side of the large window, they are bay windows so they are extended out a bit and are angled.  I measured them today, and then had to measure them again because the two small windows are not the same size width.  And all three of them are different lenght-wise as well.  ??  Anyway, we went to Lowe's and looked at their mini-blinds and I decided to just go ahead and get them while we were there.  They cut them to the correct size, or at least we hope they did.  We'll get them hung in the next couple of days, depending on Bill and how he feels and hopefully I won't have to return them for size correction.  I had sheer curtains there at first, then I switched to actual curtains but we never closed them so it could probably have just been left "open."  However, there is now construction happening in the area behind us, which was a cow field when we first moved to our current home.  Who cares if the cows can see inside?  Not us.  But now we're faced with houses getting closer and closer to us, and the roofers on the closest two could probably see inside one of the smaller windows so the curtain was closed until they were through.  Instead of constantly closing & opening the curtains, which is what I would have been doing eventually, I decided to just go get mini-blinds and not have to worry about it moving everything out of the way (including lots of plants) just to be able to close the curtains.  I've been thinking about replacing the curtains in the one window in the living room - which also looks out on the back yard and will eventually have a house back there.  I'm probably just going to move the curtains from the dining room windows to that window, and then most likely donate the current curtains in the living room window.

(I prefered the cows, actually.)

Froggy, Otter and I got into the boxes of fabric today.  She will probably use most of it, at some point.  There's a lot, so she's got a good-sized stash and she's happy.  It's all in a large, under-bed plastic box.  Which is now under my bed, since hers has no more room underneath it for anything!

We watched the last 20 minutes or so of American Hoggers this afternoon.  I have to admit that it makes me Homesick to watch that show sometimes.  Something about the great outdoors of TEXAS, and also the fact that they sound like us just gets to us.

I think I'm going to make chili tonight.  With lots and lots and lots of chili seasoning.  Maybe it will help Willieboy?  Can't hurt him, at any rate.

Besides, we are TEXAN and chili is part of our lifeblood.  It was the menu before we watched the hog hunters show, but now we really want it.

Non-Black Friday

Otter and I had our annual Black Friday experience.  We went to the local museum and enjoyed their annual exhibit.  We had a few other errands and one of them was Michael's, but it was just to get paint for me and a couple of things for Otter and they were normal stuff so I'm not sure if that actually counts as Black Friday shopping.  Probably not, and that is fine with us by the way.  We also went to a couple of other stores, one was the farm & ranch-ish store we like that has peanuts in bulk and the other was to the grocery store for pizza fixins* since that's what we're having for dinner tonight.  (And also a couple of meals tomorrow as well!).  And the video store.  I prefer not to be part of the Black Friday madness, thank you very much.

Bill's a little better today.  He's been feverish off & on the last couple of days, he's been coughing and sneezing his head off and has felt cruddy.  He hasn't slept too well the last few nights due to the congestion.  I don't think he's got the flu, he's probably just got the bug that seems to be going around.  It might be what I had a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think he got it from me because of the time between my being sick and his getting it.  I don't want it back, though.

Froggy, the 2nd box you sent arrived Wednesday.  We opened it and Otter got into it a bit, but we haven't had time to really dig into either box yet.  She did find the buttons in both boxes and she found the yarn, which is now in my stash and is happy there.  We'll probably dump both boxes out into the middle of the living room floor tomorrow and see what all is there.

Now, it's time to go get the pizza dough started in the bread machine.

*Do you really need to ask what this word means?  And why it's correct spelling & grammer? :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Short Week Tuesday

Bill didn't make any progress on the garage today.  He might be trying to come down with a cold (of course, he's on vacation!) so he stayed inside the house and did some other stuff that he needed to do.  He still made progress on his list of stuff he wanted to do this week, just not the garage.  But I'm not complaining, a sick Bill is not a fun Bill!  If he stays inside and takes it easy, then maybe he won't get any worse.  Or at least that's the plan.

Read This

I decided to get a refill on the doggie tranquilizers.  We don't have to give them to Frasier most nights, but I wanted to have some on hand and the vet agreed.  So I picked up a refill tonight.

Otter and I had our Girls Lunch today.  We went to a local burger chain and then she went to the library for the afternoon.  I had to go to the library when I got off work, because the future librarian forgot her card and I had to check her books out for her!

Today was fairly busy at work.  I had a bunch of stuff that I wanted to get done, things that normally are done towards the end of the week and I theoretically would have had time for tomorrow.  But there is never, ever "normal" at my office and there are always last-minute bonfires that I have to deal with.  So, I got as much done today as I could and I'm really hoping that tomorrow will be calm.  But I'm not holding my breath.

I am really looking forward to a 4-day weekend.  I intend to get as much crochet done as I possibly can, and most of it is going to be destined for etsy.  Maybe we'll actually be able to get our shop stocked & running?

Nobody Stop Him!

Bill's still at it.  Cleaning the garage, that is.  I'm not stopping him and I'm not about to let anyone else stop him, either.  :)

Today, he counted pachinko machines.  He has 53.  Sometimes, there are more.  But he's sold a few so the number is down a bit.  Also, when you walk out my kitchen door into the garage and look to your right there is now actual space to move around and space to get into a cupboard that has probably only been opened once since we moved into this house.  I think the old ice cream freezer is stored in there, but since I haven't been able to even get to this particular cupboard I can't really say for sure.  No telling what else we'll find in there, but it wil probably be things we thought were gone for good.  :)

I talked to the dentist today, about Otter's upcoming oral surgery.  I requested that Otter get the nitrous oxide gas so that's taken care of.  I asked about stitches and when they might need to be removed, seeing as how Christmas is the next week and there will be a few days that the dentist's office is closed.  Normally, it's about a week - which would put it at Christmas Eve and they are not open that day.  Possibly, she can be worked in on Friday if the dentists feels like it is ok but upper extractions don't always need stitches.  Either way, we can postpone our normal Christmas Eve picnic meal if we need to.  We'll have to see how things go.

I'm not going to talk about Frasier and how good he's behaving for a while.  Every time I talk about it, he proves me wrong.  Last night was no exception, but he only barked once right after we went to bed and I yelled "NO" as loud as I could.  Then he was quiet after that.  I thought about getting up and giving him a pill, but I didn't want him to think that barking was allowed since he was probably checking to see if I'd come in there.

Froggy, Otter was overjoyed with the box of fabric you sent her.  She was also happy to get the bag of buttons that was in the box.  We went through it a little bit and will probably dig into it this week when we have a little more time.  It was bigger than I expected.

We noticed that the Salvation Army bell ringers are out already.  They usually start the day after Thanksgiving, but they're out early this year.  We stopped at the grocery store for a couple of things this afternoon and Otter had a bunch of change fortunately.  All mine was at home, since I wasn't expecting them to be out so soon.  When we left the store, there was a woman talking to the bell ringer and it was almost like an interrogation.  She was asking him how much he got paid and couldn't seem to accept the fact that he was a volunteer.  Not sure what her issue was, but she was strange.  Guess that some people just can't understand being selfless and doing things to help others without getting recognition for yourself.

Sunday Rambling

It's Sunday and I'm rambling.

(Also known as the inability to come up with a good title.)

Today was a work day.  We worked in the garage.  Bill's been avoiding the fact that it's dangerous to even walk out there, the danger of being crushed and nobody being able to find him/us/me/Otter/the dogs being the main thing he's been in Denial about.  He finally realized that he has spece to work on the machines, and it's the garage.  But that he didn't have room to work.  Space and room being two different concepts!  He's been cleaning out a little bit at a time, but not really getting anywhere since he hasn't had a lot of time to work on it.  So, we got up this morning and got busy out there.  There's still a lot to be gone through/trashed/donated/rearranged, but it's a lot better than it was when we started.  The trunk of my car is filled to the brim with stuff to recycle - both the stuff we normally have, and a whole lot of stuff that Bill came across.  The back seat of my car was filled to the point of exploding with stuff to donate, so Otter and I went to Goodwill this afternoon.  We'll take the recycling stuff in the morning, we didn't have time today.  There is still a lot to be done out there, but at least I don't have to fear for my life and limbs just by going out to get dog food!

I mentioned that Otter and I went to Goodwill.  We did donate the huge amount of stuff we had.  But we also went into the store part, we were already there after all...  She found a skirt, a pair of jeans and a book.  I didn't find anything but I did have fun:  I tried on 3 skirts.  They were all a size smaller than the jeans that I've been wearing but the jeans are now too big for me.  So, I thought that the skirts might fit.  They didn't fit.  Because they were too big!  I guess I probably should wait before buying any new clothing, although I'm probably going to have to get another pair of jeans soon because I am not willing to risk having them fall off of me!  They are not quite that big, but they are very loose and I have to keep pulling them up.

I mentioned having had to deal with a union in an earlier post.  What I didn't mention is that the one I had to deal with at my previous job (several times) is the same one that the Hostess company had.  The 18,500 employees is "only" the Hostess company.  There will be more affected, such as the delivery drivers that work for other companies entirely.  Such as the Mom & Pop stores that sold bread & other things made by Hostess.  Such as many restaurants that bought their bread from Hostess.  Such as the convenience stores that also got their breads from Hostess and even the consumers who buy brands they like at the grocery stores.  I hope that the union is happy.  Because they are 100% at fault for this.  The company name is not actually Hostess, I just can't remember the exact name but Hostess is probably one of their main trademarks.

I'm fairly sure that Twinkies and many of their other products will be back.  The recipe & rights will be bought out by someone else.  But that won't help all the people who now have no income, who might be facing the loss of their homes, who might wind up hungry & homeless because of selfishness and arrogance by the union.

OK, the soapbox has been returned to it's resting place.  But I can and will get it back out as needed.  I'm sure it will be, it always is.

Movie Review:  Brave.  We rented it to watch yesterday.  And I have seldom ever been as disappointed in a movie as I was with Brave.  I had high hopes and we expected a good movie.  However, it was a complete and utter waste of time and even if we'd seen it at the dollar theater I think it would have been a waste of money.  The animation was very good, and of course we have a fondness for redheaded girls who kick behind.  But that's about the only thing that we liked.  Otter liked it, she saw it in the theater with HP when she was still dating him and she still enjoyed it.  But Bill and I were both very surprised by how little we liked it.  It's Otter's turn to pick the Saturday movie now, I think we're going to be watching the new Spider Man movie.

Bill's off this week.  He is taking Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as vacation days.  Otter only has classes Monday and Tuesday.  I have to work through Wednesday, and I'm really looking forward to having a 4-day weekend coming up.  I think Otter and I might make our annual trip to a local museum for their Christmas tree exhibit.  But we aren't planning on doing any Black Friday shopping, unless we have to stop at the grocery store or something like that.  I don't think that counts as Black Friday shopping anyway!

I'd like to mention Frasier and how well he's doing, but I don't want to jinx anything.  But it's been nice to sleep all night the last few weeks.  But I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not actually saying anything.  (No, I don't believe in jinxes, curses, karma, accidents or luck.  But I can't think of a good word to use!).

Thursday?

Last Wednesday, I thought it was Thursday.  And I was happy that way.  But then Bill had to go and rain on my parade and tell me that it was still only Wednesday!

So today, he thought it would be fun to tell me that it was only Wednesday.  But since I'd already seen the correct date on the newspaper (what part of it they actually delivered that is), I knew he was fibbing.  I'll let him slide.  This time.  :)

Only half of the paper was delivered this morning.  Actually, there were two halves.  But they were the same half twice!  I called them and they brought me out a full one.  Not that I've actually had time to read it, that is.  I'm hoping that I manage to find the time sometime before tomorrow.  We'll see.

I had to go buy new drinking glasses tonight.  We had a bunch of them.  Suddenly, we only had about 3 and about 4 that were originally jelly glasses.  So, off to Wallyworld we went!  They don't have nearly the variety or selection that they used to have, and it's that way in nearly all the departments.  What they do have is a large amount of their own brand but not a big variety even in that.  But we found a set of 12 and they are now washed and waiting to be used.  We use a lot of eating utensils, for some reason.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the White Lightning might be up for sale.  But Bill's decided against it, and I'm glad.  He bought the truck because there are times when he needs one.  Not all the time, but when he needs it, he really needs it.  For that reason, we've decided not to sell it.  He drove it yesterday, he had to go get lumber for one of his pachinko related projects.  You probably heard it and thought it was a low-flying jet!

We're following the news about Israel very closely right now.  For the record, we are firmly on Israel's side.  In this and in just about every conflict, probably all of them actually.

We've also seen the news reports about the Hostess company and their union difficulties.  It probably will come as NO surprise to anyone, but we have zero use for unions.  At all.  Never have had any and never will.  I find it to be extremely selfish that a minority of the employees are willing to let 18,000 people lose their jobs over arrogance.  I have had some experience with a union, at my job in Texas where I was the assistant personnel manager and have had to deal with union idiocy on a regular basis, so I do know where I'm coming from on this one.

(I gues that this might be a T & T Thursday to an extent, but I didn't realize it until just now).

I wanted to elaborate about Froggy's comment about placing her order related to Otter's upcoming oral surgery.  She's got the same decalcifying teeth/bone loss issues that I have, and so does Toadly (our big brudder).  Our mom had the same thing, we probably inherited it from her.  Which means that we actually have something that is not redhead curse related! (How did that happen?)  Anyway.  Froggy's managed to go a whole lot longer that Toadles or I did, our mom was in her 30's when she went the denture route and I was in my mid-40's.  I'm not sure about Toadles, but he might have been in the same general age range I was.  Froggy will be joining the group very shortly.  Although she might actually have implants, at least on the bottom jaw due to the same bone loss issues I have.  Froggy - you are going to wonder why you didn't do it sooner.  Believe me, it will be worth all the inconvenience and discomfort of the assorted procedures.  I guarantee that.

Then, you and me and Toadles can have our own little contest to see who can gross our offspring out first!  Although I think he's probably the master at popping his teeth out!

One of These Days, Eventually, Maybe

We'll have time to actually get our Etsy shop up and running!

We've already reserved the shop name and were getting started on it.  Then the mess with Fraiser happened.  One thing that is not conducive to crafting is stress, and we certainly had a lot of it.  But that was also when we had time (or would have if we weren't exhausted) and now that we have less dog-related stress, we don't have time.  I've done a little bit of crochet and Otter's gotten a little bit of crafting done.  But nowhere near enough to even begin to think about stocking our store.  I haven't shared the name yet and won't, until we're actually listing things, but it will eventually be on the sidebar with Blogs I Follow.  Just not yet.

Fun & Games

(While the link is a fun look at TEXAS secession, in all honesty we don't expect it to happen.  Although, also in all honesty, if it did - we don't really know what we would do.  But it might just mean that we pulled up stakes and headed south.)

Otter and I went to the grocery store today.  That's how exciting it's been around here lately.  And Billyboy might be coming down with the "cold" bug I had.  He was sneezy last night and couldn't get warm, then he went to bed about 8:30 and I piled about 4 blankets on him on top of the camo quilt.  He woke up at 2:30 because he was so stuffy he couldn't breathe, and then he just stayed up.  He's crashed out on the couch at the moment, attempting to stay awake so he can work on pachinko pins but I think he'll probably be calling it an early night.  He's also having a hard time staying warm tonight.  He's got all the symptoms I had when I was first coming down with it.  Let's all just cross our fingers and think good thoughts, please!  Bill's not a good patient.  But since he's about to be off work Thanksgiving week, it's about time for him to get sick.  He generally gets sick either right before or during vacation time.

Otter's upper left wisdom tooth has been bothering her, I may have already posted about this.  She wanted me to talk to the dentist, so I called yesterday.  Otter was concerned about it needing to come out now and not being able to wait until her December appointment.  The dentist thinks she's ok to wait, but we have to keep an eye on it.  If she has any bad pain or bleeding, if it hurts when she eats or anything like that then it's time and we won't wait.  But since it's just a month and she has not had much pain, mostly discomfort, the dentist thinks it should be ok.

But she's already placed her order for jello, pudding, ice cream, yogurt and Bill's Famous Mashed Potatoes with gravy.

I Want to Do This!

Now I wish we had planned on a Thanksgiving SA Trip!

Also, the tree in the picture looks to be covered in crochet.

And I've already emailed the "unenlightened person" who wrote the blog and corrected his many mistakes.

For the record, it is too late to plan a trip so they'll have to do this without me.

I keep hoping that there will be something like that in the Tulsa area.  I'd so be there.

Cold

This time, it's the weather!  27 this morning.  It got warmer, I think it was in the 60's today.  It was nice, although just a bit cool.

I'm about over the cold I had.  I'm not sure it was really a "cold" but it was cold-like.  I have had a slight headache today, off & on.  But it was not like the one I had for hours on Saturday or on Sunday morning.  I'm still coughing some but at least I haven't had any more sneezing fits.

When I got home, I let Fraiser and Maggie Moo in.  They ran straight to the back door, so I let them back out again.  They ran around for a while, watered the grass in a few places and then they were ready to come back in.  Maggie was playful, Fraiser was more than willing to play and I was run over several times as I was sitting in the floor, watching them.  Fraiser ran Maggie out.  As in, out of battery!  That never, ever happens - beagles have an amazing amount of energy and they will/can play/run forever.  But tonight, he actually ran her battery out!  And he kept playing.  He was barking (quietly), jumping all around, running her around the living room and into the couches, rolling her over, dragging her around the living room and he acted like he never wanted to stop.  I felt sorry for the poor beagle, actually.  He was so fun and funny, and it was so wonderful to watch him.  Especially when we realized that about a month ago, we thought we were about to lose him.

But don't feel too sorry for Maggie Moo.  She's been known to run "until the cows come home", as Mom used to say.

Veteran's Day

"When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?" -George Canning

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -G.K. Chesterton

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." -Elmer Davis

"But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for, Is their monument to-day, and for aye." -Thomas Dunn English

Thank you, Dad.  Thank you, Toadles.  Thank you, Grandpa,  Thank you, Uncle Crazy.  Thank you, Grandpa Lew.  Thank you, Les.

In Which I Mostly Whine

Not to be confused with Wine.  Which will probably happen later!

I feel cruddy.  I called in this morning, I did sleep last night but I didn't feel like I got a lot of rest.  I've mostly been home, although I did have to get out briefly.  I had to go to the bank and since I was out and about I went to the post office.  Otter's classes are in the morning, so she was with me this afternoon when I ran my errand and I dragged her along with me.  She didn't complain.  She actually went inside the post office, I mostly sat in the car and waited.

I did manage to get dishes washed and we've been doing laundry since we're home.  The last load is in the washer now, about to go to the dryer - dog blankets.  Which means that there will shortly be enough lint in the trap to make a whole 'nother doggie!

(OK, I'm back from putting the dog blankets in the dryer).

Tomorrow is Saturday so we wouldn't have been going anywhere anyway.  I will probably attempt to crochet a little, I managed to get several rows on the scarf I've been working on.  I'd also like to get one other thing accomplished:  transferring all my tools & stuff from the tool box to some small 3-drawer shelf "boxes" I got at Big Lots.  That's been on the agenda for a couple of days, but I didn't feel up to much at all so it hasn't happened yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  The tool box I've been using is broken and it wasn't really big enough anyway.  This is just the household tools, and Bill is NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH IT without my express permission (which I don't give easily.)  When Bill gets into it, things tend to disappear off somewhere and since the dogs can't reach it...

We're going to try a tranquilizer-free night tonight for Frasier.  Hopefully, he'll have learned during the last week that he doesn't have to have me in there all night and in his sight all the time.  That was the idea behind the tranquilizers, give them to him for about a week and go to bed while he was still awake to watch me/us leave the room.  And not come back until the next morning.  He's acting like he never had any health issues, he's bouncier than he's been in months and more playful than I've seen him in so long I can't really remember.  He's not exactly happy at the moment - Otter vacuumed the liviing room and then I washed their blankets!

Kinda Cold

I'm not talking about the weather.  I'm talking about me.  And I don't mean my temperature.  I mean that I have a cold.  It's been coming on all day and now, I think it's arrived.  I had pretty bad sinus congestion yesterday and was beginning to suspect a sinus infection but that cleared up and I woke up with minor symptoms that could have been allergy.  Until I had a sneezing fit about 7:00 this morning, I stopped counting at about 15.  I'm not exaggerating!  I've been trying to fight it off all day, but it's won the fight and I'm officially "cold."

Uck.

I went to Sam's at lunch.  And bought 4 large cans of chicken broth, because I'm making chicken noodle soup tomorrow.  I would have made it tonight but Bill wanted us to help him get the White Lightning cleaned up (it might be on the market) so I knew we wouldn't have time.  But then when Otter and I got home, he was just about through washing it so we didn't have to.  However, he then answered an ad on Craigslist for a Pachinko Machine so we ran off to look at it.  (He didn't buy it - you know, old & rare & worth a lot of $$ - except that it wasn't.)  When we got home, it was kind of late to make soup so I just warmed up some of the tuna casserole we had last night.

I'll see how I feel in the morning, but I'm not sure I'll be going in.  If I do go in, I might not make the day but I'll figure it out in the morning.  Hopefully, I'll sleep tonight.  I set the humidifier up in our room last night.  It's on my side of the bed and it did help me last night but I might move it a little closer to the bed tonight.

Also, we're dealing with smoke.  There has been a fairly large grass fire all day, to the southwest of us.  It's on the other side of the river from us and a few miles, but it's been very windy and the smoke is all over the area.  Miles away into Tulsa and surrounding towns, including ours.  It's really bad and not helping my cold symptoms!  Even in the house, we can still smell it.  I noticed that Frasier kept sneezing when he and Maggie were playing in the back yard.  I don't think we're in any danger from the fire, there is the river a few miles away which is between it and us.  But the smoke is a problem.

Achoo.

The First Tuesday in November

We did this today.  Like most people, I imagine.

I have not been overtly political lately, because I figure that everybody already knows where we stand on the issues/candidates.  I'm not going to get political tonight, either.  But we did vote.  We voted our individual consciences.  And we left some choices on the ballot unmarked.  There were several local issues we had to vote on today, the ballot was two-sided but at least it wasn't as bad as the one the state of Florida had:  11 pages!

We had buffalo burgers tonight.  Always good.  Otter is still trying to increase the amount of protein/iron in her diet.  And buffalo is a fun way to do it!  Besides, it just tastes good.

Moo.

Tired Monday

It's been what I refer to as a "teenager day" because I've had to deal with the Teenager all day long!  I don't mind, but it's tiring at times to keep up with a 97-year old teenager!  Especially when said 97-year old can run circles around people one-third his age.  :)

Anyway.  It's time for another Frasier update.  He's great.  He's crazy like he used to be and he's acting like a puppy again.  Even more today than yesterday.  He's back to being his normal, super-affectionate self.  We're still using the tranquilizers, but I'm thinking that something this week we'll try a night without them and see if it works.  They make him drowsy and sometimes he goes to sleep pretty quickly, but he's not staying asleep all night because of them.  He's been quiet, however and I'm hoping it stays that way.  Bill stayed up later than I did last night, he was watching an intelligent movie about a two-headed shark on the Sci-Fi channel (!!) and he said that Frasier was still awake when he came to bed.  So, we're encouraged.  We're not there yet, though.

Bill's working a b(oring)oard meeting tonight.  Otter and I had a couple of errands which included a used book store that we've been trying to get to for a few weeks now.  We finally got there today.  I found one of the two Maeve Binchy books I've been looking for, the older of the two and the one that I thought would be harder to find.  I'm still looking for one more to have the complete collection of her work.  Anyway, we didn't get home until right at sunset thanks to the stupid time change.  We had several household chores to attend to and now we're just going to spend the rest of the evening (it's about 7:15) in front of the tv.  I don't expect Bill to be late tonight, but who knows - the School Board likes to hear itself talk.

Remember this?  A Shaking Experience  It's been a year today and the news has been all about it.  It was an unusual occurance, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  But at least it's a break from the constant election coverage!

We'll be really glad when the election is over.  Although it will still be a few days before the constant coverage is through - we'll have to listen to the "I Won Isn't it Wonderful/I Lost Isn't it Unfair" for a while yet.  But we're nearly through.  I have not been very political lately.  I figure that there's no reason, everybody already knows where we stand on the issues!

I guess that's it for tonight.  Back to my crochet and playing with my doggy!

Sunday Second Childhood

What the world sees:

Lots of grey on the muzzle and in a few other places.


What Frasier thinks he is:

(This is a coyote puppy and is probably very much what he looked like.)

 I have my puppy back!  He's been so playful the last couple of days.  I just came in from watching the dogs run around the back yard, Frasier made the rounds several times.  Then, he played the beagle out - and it takes a LOT to tire a beagle out.  He wasn't tired and he kept going for a while.  He's well into his second childhood and I'd say he's having a great one.

We've used the tranquilizers the last 3 nights and he's slept through.  He woke up before we did this morning, but he wasn't noisy.  He was a little hungry, it was about an hour past what would have been breakfast time before the time change so he did talk just a bit.  But not like he's been doing, just like what he used to do when he was ready for breakfast and nobody was up yet.  We're going to use the tranquilizers for a few more nights and then see what happens.  I'm not expecting a miracle, but it would be good if he at least was getting the idea (again) that he doesn't have to have mom in the living room with him. 

 He's still licking the spot, but I'm not spraying it with anything.  I'm suspicious of it and the effect it had on him - he wasn't very bad until I started using the bitter spray and then he got really bad.  We discontinued it and he got better.  It wasn't supposed to have an effect on him, but we think it did.  It did not deter him from licking, in fact we think it made him lick more in an effort to get the stuff off of the spot.

 I saw this on the internet.  Yes, it is Klingon.  But it's still Star Trek and it's just a matter of time until the Borg have assimilated everything, Klingon included.  Resistance is Futile!

I'm thinking the elm tree seedling is going to make it.  It's been a couple of weeks and it's looking good.  Possibly even growing, although it's hard to tell.  It's still healthy at any rate.  I think that the mild Fall weather has been good for it.

Movie Review:  Moonrise Kingdom.  Confusing, badly edited and not to well-written.  I got the gist of the story, but I didn't really like the movie.  Glad we only rented it, instead of seeing it at the theater.

OK, back to my crochet now.  I got out the squares that were originally going to be a robe and had almost enough to make a small lap robe type blanket.  I was two short, so I made those two up and started attaching them all together.  It's turning out well, I'm just about through with the crochet part of it.  I'll still have a bunch of yarn tails to bury, but that might wait just a bit.  I have another project that is a Christmas gift for someone and I have to get started on it pretty soon.

Friday Rethinks

I'm rethinking a few crochet projects, as I've already mentioned.  My shawl is one of them.  I had also planned on a robe, I have a pattern in one of my older crochet books, for a robe made out of granny squares that are sewn together.  I bought royal blue yarn for it and made several squares, with a lighter blue outside row and both colors are very pretty.  But then I got to thinking.  The pattern was originally for wool yarn, which won't have any bearing on the yarn gauge (size).  But I can't use wool, the yarn I have is acrylic.  Which is great yarn, it's sturdy, washes well and holds the color.  But it's also rough on the skin in large amounts.  So, the robe squares are still going to be put together but I think that they may be a blanket instead.  Probably a slightly large lap blanket.  I may eventually make myself a robe (or sweater), but I'll use different yarn if I do.  There are a lot of soft yarns available that are not wool.  But that's a "later on" project, I have enough UFO's to deal with now.

Frasier seemed to do ok with the tranquilizer last night.  We normally go to bed around 10:00 or so, but we were exhausted last night and knew we wouldn't make it that far.  The vet said to give the dog his pill about 45 minutes to an hour before we planned on going to bed.  At 8:15, we were having problems staying awake just sitting on the couch so he got his dose.  About 8:35, he was pretty groggy.  He got up and went out, then I had to go get him when he didn't come back after about 5 minutes - Bill said he had visions of the dog asleep, leaning against the fence and propped up by an upraised back leg!  Instead, Frasier was standing on the outside of the dog door and he didn't look like he was fully concious.  I got him to come in and he headed straight for his sleeping spot - although Maggie was sprawled out on it until I moved her over!  He slept all night long.  And so did we!  I talked to the vet again today, they don't think that he'll build a resistance to it as fast as he did the benadryl and it's also a stronger medication.  We are going to use it for the next several nights, then at some point before we run out of it the plan is to not use it and see what happens.  We'll probably gradually allow him access to our room if he doesn't do well without it.  It's a matter of retraining him at this point.

We splurged tonight.  We had a pizza!  It was a thin-crust, double pepperoni and not a huge one.  And it was very good!  Probably going to be a while now before we have anything else like that.  But we've been on our diet for a few weeks now and are both losing weight.  Otter was overjoyed to get pizza again.  But it's back to being sensible now.

Froggy, I'm glad you emailed me about your last comment.  Blogger still didn't tell me.  I just rechecked all my settings and it is supposed to let me know when there is a comment.  It didn't, since you told me I was able to get your comment posted.  Hopefully, Blogger will get itself working right soon.

TGIF!

Thursday Ketchup

I thought that Ketchup would be an appropriate title because, among other things, I bought an industrial-sized container of ketchup at Sam's yesterday.  Also mustard.  And a case of Rotel!  And I haven't blogged much in the last few days.

Blogger is acting up again.  It's not telling me that there are comments until I log in, it's supposed to email me but it hasn't been.  I've checked my settings and it's still set up to email me.  I guess it's protesting or something.  So, if you leave me a comment and it doesn't appear for a while it might be a good thing to email me and let me know.

Froggy, I thought you'd like the Eeyore picture.  I thought it was adorable.

Frasier is both better and worse.  He's no longer barking at invisible intruders.  But he's still wanting company at night.  The benadryl did help for a little while but not long.  One of the things the vet suggested was that we leave a light on where he could see that there was nothing to be scared of.  We tried that last night.  Not only could he see that he wasn't in any danger, he could also see that Mom wasn't in the room!  So, I slept on the couch again last night.  First thing this morning, I called the vet and ordered the tranquilzers.  I picked them up today, 20 pills for $26.00.  The dosage is one to two pills, start with one and then work my way up if I need to.  About 45 minutes to an hour before bedtime.  They will make him groggy and hopefully, he'll sleep all night.  I can give him another pill or half pill after 4 to 6 hours, which might mean that they wear off in the middle of the night.  We're going to start them tonight, they don't have to be given around the clock and can be given just at night.

Then, if/when that doesn't work, we have one more thing to try:  allowing him back in our room at night.  He used to sleep at the foot of the bed and was never a problem, but Maggie was.  She would get under our bed, which was not a problem, but she has a habit of licking everything she comes in contact with until it is sodden wet (which makes it smell also).  At first, we thought she was having housebreaking issues, it was that bad.  She's the reason that they are blocked from the bedrooms.  But that's been the case for several years now, and is not a new thing.  Frasier can jump the block, he's tall enough and has done it on a few occasions.  What we're thinking is that we'll take the block down and take him to the bedroom with us (the block will be replaced) and he'll probably (hopefully!) go to sleep.  I might remind him about his ability to jump the block, stand on the other side and call him as an example.  I honestly think that we are going to get to that point, because his problem now is obviously that he wants to be where I am.  And it is me, he likes Otter and Bill, but there is a reason my local mother-in-law calls him a Mamma's Boy.

He does have some vision issues, but that are not as severe as we thought at first.  Of course, that was when nobody (dog included) had been getting any sleep for a period of several days.  We're pretty sure he has some hearing loss but I don't think it's bad.  He's an old man, it's to be expected!  His physical health is good, he does have the spots on his ribcage on one side that I think are cysts but they are fairly small and I think he's had them for a while so they are not an issue.  He's getting playful again, although probably not as bouncy as the beagle is - but then, Beagles are certifiably crazy!  If it takes letting him back into our room to get some sleep, then I'm willing.  He's one of the most special dogs we've ever had.  Even if he can be a pest at times!

We had no trick or treaters last night.  Not even the young ones we usually have before it gets dark.  And after it did get dark, we didn't see any sign at all of any kids on the street.  At all.  We're kind of in the lull - the time between the current crop of kids being too old and the next crop still being really little.  In a couple of years, I think that we'll have more and the houses behind us are probably going to be occupied with families.  We bought one small bad of peanut butter logs and each had one piece out of it.  Then Bill took about half of it to work with him this morning and Otter took the rest to college with her.  I'm not sure about Bill's candy jar, but Otter reported that what she took vanished almost immediately!

I'm going to put my crochet shawl project on hold for a while.  It's gotten to be very frustrating.  I work on it and do several rows, then it never seems to actually get any bigger.  I'm going to start back on my afghan this weekend, it does seem to grow as I add rows at least.  The shawl will eventually be finished - or I'll put the finishing ruffle row on it and call it done, and then I might donate it if I do that because it's not really big enough to fit an adult.

I can't believe that it's already November 1st!