Close Call **(EDITED**

We had a close call last night.  It was unexpected.  I try not to put much in the way of identifying information on here.  We are not paranoid, although it may seem like we are.  Just trust that we have very good reason for privacy and we'll leave it at that.

So, without going into any details of location, let me just say that last night we had a reminder of what Tornado Alley means.  We're fine, but it was close.  Too close.  All we were supposed to get was thunderstorms.  Sometime after 8:30, Otter was in her room on her computer.  Bill and I were in the living room watching Rango on Blu-ray.  Since we weren't supposed to get any bad stuff, we didn't have the tv on a local channel.  The part of the movie had a lot of background noise and some of it was loud.  So, we didn't realize at first that we were hearing something else in the background.  Until Otter yelled "the sirens are going off!"  We turned the tv to a local station and they were talking about our area.  I turned the tv volume up and we joined Otter in the laundry room (our safe spot).  After a few minutes, they started giving out specific street names & locations so we knew we were out of danger but it could have easily hit us as it was going east but then turned a bit south, went a little further east and then started back northeast.  The weather forecaster on the news was pretty much hysterical - he was following it.  But he probably had reason to be upset - seeing full-sized trees flying through the air will do that to a person!

There was damage but it was structural and no injuries have been reported.  It was possibly an F3, I don't think they've figured it out yet.

Tonight may be bad also.  The bad weather could start as early as 3:00.  I'm Otter's transportation today, we had shopping & library plans so I took her to work this morning but that might have to be changed.  She gets off at 3:30 and was going to walk to Hobby Lobby, where I will meet her at 4ish.  But that might change, she may just stay at her store until I get there.  It depends on the weather.  I don't want to be driving in it, I don't want it at all.

Please pray.

**EDITED**

OK, the weather held off but it's still on the way.  Where it goes, duration and intensity are still unknown.  Otter got off work at 3:00 and it was very humid but not raining or anything.  She walked to the Hobby Lobby, it's close enough to her work that she could walk.  I met her there.  We tried to shop, but no luck.  We went on to the library and we did at least find books.  We had a couple of other stops, but they were not anything exciting.  It's about 5:30 now and we are under a thunderstorm/tornado watch but I don't think that anything has developed yet.

Please pray.

Springtime in Oklahoma!

No doubt about it.

 

It does get interesting, to say the least!

 

The time of year generally referred to as "Season" normally runs from the end of March until about the end of May/early June,  This year, since it was so cool so much longer than normal it's different.  It's the end of May and Season should be ending.  Instead, we may only be in the middle of it.  Instead of the end of May, we may be looking at end of June/early July!

 

Today was another day of possibilities and bad chances.  There were two different storm systems that were possible problems for us, one went on north of Tulsa and the other one looked to be heading the same way.  Then, it did what storms sometimes do - it turned right or east and that brought Tulsa into the firing line for a storm that had already produced at least two small funnels.  Wall clouds are where the funnels come from, funnels are also known by a couple of other names:  twisters or tornados.  Fortunately, by the time the storm was hitting downtown Tulsa it had weakened a bit so instead of tornados it "just" produced a lot of rain and hail.  We are near Tulsa and we got some rain but nothing bad.  Tulsa dodged a potentially big, bad bullet today.

 

Bi-polar weather for sure!

1500! Alternate Title: Snappy Turtles

(Froggy, the title is a hint of what is to come!)

 

This is my 1500th post.  Wheeee!

Otter and I were heading off somewhere yesterday.  We have a route that we like to take when we have time.  It takes us by a miniature horse farm.  PONIES!! 

  

 

It also goes past a cow pasture that has a stock pond close enough to be seen from the road.  There are usually what we refer to as "floaters" in the pond - cattle of assorted age & size, and lots of them are calves.  Calves are generally a little too small to walk, they are obviously floating and they look like they are having a good time.

Anyway.  Yesterday, we were heading down our favorite 2-lane road and noticed an oncoming car suddenly stop.  Then the driver got out and he waved to make sure we saw him.  We slowed down in case he needed help (I would have called Bill but would not have gotten out of the car myself nor would I have given him a ride anywhere, safety first after all.)  But then we realized that he was actually getting something out of the middle of the road, in front of his car.

It was one of these:

A snapping turtle!

 

It wasn't huge, by my standards anyway.  But my standards might be different than most - it was at least as wide as a dinner plate.  A large plate.  He looked like he knew how to handle one, he was carefully and slowly grabbing it and grabbing it back far enough to hopefully not get nailed.  Turtle neck length varies, so it's always a good idea to grab as far back as you can.  Just in case.  He carried it over to the side of the road and gently tossed it far enough away from the street again, hopefully it was smart enough to keep on going the same direction which would have kept it away from the street again.

 

All turtles can and will bite, snapping turtles are among the worst by the way - they are grouchy from the moment they hatch!  They can be very nasty to deal with.

 

This is a Snappy Turtle:

It's a little nicer than the other kind!

And Froggy would probably like it better.

Memorial Day 2013

May we never forget.

I Guess! it's Just Sunday?

Can't think of a good title.  That's probably pretty obvious! :)

 

I think that we just might have the goosiest dog on the planet.  In the form of a beagle, specifically.  Maggie likes bugs.  She likes to eat them.  She sometimes catches flies out of the air.  But when she doesn't catch them, it confuses her.  To the point of cowering in terror sometimes.  That's what she's been doing today.  She couldn't get the fly, so she spent hours trying to hide behind my legs while I was sitting on the couch, and at one point I think she tried to actually get under the couch.  She eventually fell asleep and I guess she forgot about the fly after that, because she was back to being her normal silly self.  But she is a goofy, goosey dog.

 

Frasier isn't being ignored.  He's actually in a bit of disgrace.  Otter caught him chewing something and it turned out to be a small piece of plastic - from a pachinko machine.  But I have to state for the record that his habits are well known, and I've been warning Bill that he was asking for trouble by leaving stuff within reach of the dog.  Especially if he left it on the floor, which is what he did this time.

 

I put my hummingbird feeders out yesterday.  I thought I saw something tiny flying by the other day but then I never saw it again so I decided that I'd seen something else.  But apparently it was a hummer.  Because I saw a female on one of the feeders about half an hour after I put them out.  I also saw an oriole, it couldn't quite figure out the new feeders so I put the old one out that the orioles always liked.  I haven't seen the oriole again, but it's probably still out there.  At this point, I've only seen a female hummer and it's probably the same one.  But there will be more, in all probability.

 

I'm going to harvest seeds from the bluebonnets tomorrow.  They could probably stand a few more days, but Bill wants to mow and since there are no more blooms to speak of he's wanting to just mow it all down.  So I'll get the seed pods in the morning, he promises to wait for me to get them all before he mows.  I also weeded the rock garden this afternoon, I'm already feeling allergy related issues due to that.  But it needed to be done, the morning glories were taking over.  There was also a lot of clover, no telling where that came from.  I pulled most of it up as well.

 

I'm off from work tomorrow, Bill has tomorrow as a holiday also and then he's taking some of his vacation/comp time and will be off all week.  Otter has to work tomorrow.  We aren't doing anything big for Memorial Day.  Sometimes we grill, but I'm making tacos for dinner tomorrow night.  No particular reason, other than that we just like them.

 

Guess that's it for now.  Not an exciting weekend, obviously!  But that's ok, it was a stressful week and I'm not complaining. 

Friday. Long Hard Week. Glad It's Over.

I could probably just post the title, and it would explain my week!

I'm exhausted.  Absolutely exhausted.  It's been very stressful and tiring, and I am really glad that it's Friday.  And that I have a 3-day weekend.

From Sunday and Monday's reminders of why the name Tornado Alley is appropriate, to the fact that my allergies have been on overload and the fact that I'm a redhead and we don't have enough iron on a good, non-stressful day all add up to one thing:  TEEEIRED.

 

I'm anticipating allergies being an issue for a long time, the ragweed is already showing up and it shouldn't be here for 2 or 3 months yet.  It rained most of yesterday, so Bill took advantage of the cleaner air and opened up the house.  As a result, we all slept better last night and woke up breathing easier.  But today was warm and dryer, so the windows are back to being shut and the fans are out of the windows.  But it was nice while it lasted.

We had buffalo burgers for dinner, that's always a good thing.  And we have a strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie in the freezer, courtesy of Braums and the stop I made there this afternoon.  I really did just go in for milk, then I remembered that we were low on orange juice (we live on oj!) and since I was there, I was legally obligated to check their pie stock.  Since they did have them in stock, I was legally obligated to check the variety.  Since they did have strawberry cheesecake in stock, I was legally obligated to buy one.  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  :)

 

I have not had a crochet hook in my hand since Sunday.  I think it was Sunday.  I frogged the hat again and am going to start it again tomorrow, but I'm going up 3 or 4 hook sizes and see if that makes enough of a difference.  I really, really hate it when the pattern instructions are wrong.  If it still doesn't make the hat big enough, I'm going back to searching for a good pattern.  I like a challenge, but this one is getting ridiculous.

 

OK, I'm about to go in search of a glass of wine and then I think I'm going to put my feet up.  And grab a book!

Wet, Rainy Day

It was in the 70's today, the low 70's.  It was supposed to be in the mid-80's.  Guess they missed this one!

 

I took my car into Chevy today.  It's been making a noise for a while that we thought was probably the air conditioner, and since the extended warranty is about to run out we decided to get it in there asap.  The a/c system has been problematic before, but a lot of that was when we were using that other shop that we quit going to.  That particular shop was making things up, there were a bunch of things that they said were wrong but Chevy never found any sign of.  We also wondered at the time if maybe we had work done that wasn't needed.  Today, the Chevy mechanic  said that the noise was the same problem the other shop had fixed - and it might well be one of the repairs that we paid for but they might not have actually fixed, he couldn't tell if it had ever been repaired or not.  (It's too late to worry about that, but it has been making the noise off & on ever since we left that place.)  The deductible on our plan is $200.00 and I can just about guarantee that it would have been over that, if we'd been back at that other place.  Chevy charged me $157.00.  And they had it fixed before they said that it would be ready.  They also took me to work and picked me up when they said they would, unlike the other place!  Wish we'd come to our senses before we did, but at least we finally did get there.

 

The major news story is still the tornado and the aftermath.  The death toll is probably final, and it's bad but at least it is not as high as originally feared.  Now, the rebuilding starts.  That can and will take months.

 

I got my two new hummingbird feeders up yesterday.  Of course, it immediately got cool & wet!  But they'll eventually show up.

 

The honeysuckle that we transplanted to the trellis last summer is blooming.  It's barely big enough to start trailing up the trellis, but it is covered with blooms.  The morning glories are all over the trellis as well, I'm not sure if the trellis will be a combination or if one of them will overpower the other.  We'll just have to watch it and see what happens.

 

I will have ST thoughts, but not yet.  I have the thoughts, I'm just not ready to post them.  But they are not positive, at least not where the movie is concerned.  The Borg Queen is not happy!

Oklahoma

By now, I'm sure that everyone knows what has happened Sunday and Monday in Oklahoma.

How to help:

Salvation Army

United Methodist Relief

Southern Baptist Relief

(The Red Cross is not on my list and will never be.  They have a well-earned bad reputation, the above places will help and they do what they say they will do.)

 

Oklahoma is where we live and is our adopted home, although TEXAS is and always will be Home.  But that doesn't mean that we don't care about the people here and what happens to them.  Sunday's tornados were bad, but it wasn't over as there was an even bigger outbreak on Monday.

 

The forecast on Monday was pretty specific and it turned out to be right.  We were already aware of the possibility although we weren't expected to be under the gun until later in the afternoon to early evening.  About 3:15, shortly before I was to leave work Bill called me because he had access to a tv and the stations were showing the beginning of the monster that hit Moore.  Bill was supposed to work a board meeting, so he'd taken the other Impala since he would have been getting off late and probably about the time it was supposed to get really bad here.  That meant that I was Otter's transportation which turned out to be a good thing.  She got off at 4:30.  I got to her store about 4:00, I went in to tell her that we were not going to have our shopping errand so she didn't need to change out of her uniform when she got off work and to let her know what was happening.  Their manager was not in, but she was calling them with frequent updates so they were aware of the weather situation and the fact that they might have to close suddenly.

 

In the space of about and hour and a half, the tornado had grown to over a mile wide.  It was also obvious that it was hitting the same general area as the F5 May 3, 1999.  Except that this time, it was worse.  By that time, it had already taken out at least one of the two schools and I think it had already obliterated the hospital.

 

There was another storm system, this one was northwest of Tulsa and it was heading northeast so it didn't affect us, but the city of Bartlesville was in the firing line.  There were two confirmed tornados out of that storm.  The highway patrol was stopping traffic on Highway 75, which is the main way into and out of the Bartlesville area.  They were "lucky", in that there is a lot of undeveloped land in the track that those two took.

 

While that was developing, I was talking to Froggy while I waited for Otter to get off work since Froggy was able to watch a television and could see what was actually happening, as well as updating me on what was happening with the Moore storm since the Bartlesville area was the bulk of what the radio was reporting on since that was closer and of a more immediate impact to the Tulsa area.

 

About 4:15, the weather service started asking employers in Tulsa and the surrounding areas to close early and let their employees get home, since it was beginning to look like the Moore storm was going to take a track that would put the Tulsa area right in front of it.  Just like the May 3, 1999 storm did - we were in TEXAS then, but that is what that storm did.  I talked to Bill just before Otter got off work and the board meeting had been cancelled, so he was heading home.  We got home right at 5:00, there was a lot more traffic than normal so most employers were heading the weather service request.

 

The storm was on the track to hit our area head-on, but it started weakening quickly after it got to about Stroud, which is a small town to the west of Tulsa.  Stroud was just about wiped off the map on May 3, 1999.  The storm probably weakened as fast as it did because our temperature was dropping, probably due to the rain we were already getting.  That fact probably saved a lot of people, as the storm was immense and since it already had a history of a tornado it's very possible that it would have sprouted another.  All we got was a little rain and thunder for a few hours.

 

The death toll was originally over 100, but a lot of those were probably duplicate reports.  At the moment, it's just over 20 with about 9 children.  But that will change, there are still missing people and after this long they are probably no longer alive.  There were over 100 survivors pulled out of the rubble overnight.  But it's been pretty long now, although miracles are still possible.  The original reports said that the monster was an F3 or F4, then this morning the weather service was calling it an F4.  This afternoon, they revised it:  It was an F5, the biggest on the scale.  The May 3, 1999 monster was also an F5.

 

This type of event doesn't happen very often.  Although tornados were possible and even expected yesterday, the monster sprouted fast and grew fast.  A lot faster than it was expected to do.  There is no such thing as lightning not striking in the same place twice, and that also applies to tornadic storms as well.  But it's very rare for something like this to happen twice, on this level especially.  Moore is a smaller town, but Okies are tough and they will recover.  It just won't be fast, but they will make it through this.

 

If you are not in a position to help with either a monetary donation or supplies, please pray.  Pray anyway, that will help more than anything.

Sunday. Humid. Tired. Hot. Busy.

That just about sums up my day.

 

I've actually been above average temperature for days now, and it shows no sign of stopping.  So, I've decided to just go with the flow.  The deep freeze has been in need of defrosting for a while now, but I've been putting it off.  However, since I seem to be in a near-constant hot flash it seemed like a good time to take care of that.  So, I unloaded the freezer this morning and crammed just about everything into the freezer compartment over the fridge.  We have a big refrigerator, so the freezer is fairly big.  But it's still on the verge of being over-full.  There are a few things that were in the deep freeze that are ok just being left on the counter, such as several chocolate bunnies that we've had since Easter but forgot about!  The freezer is now de-iced and I'm going to transfer everything back in a little while.  Hopefully, I will remember to defrost it a little sooner this time, it has been too long.

 

It's also humid.  Has been for a couple of days, in fact.  Humidity and my asthmatic lungs just don't go together.  I have more or less been confined inside for days, with just brief spells of being outside for things like running to the car while holding my breath and that sort of thing.

 

I'm tired, but that goes with the fact that I'm still warm and the fact that my allergies are on overdrive.  Also, that goes with the busy part!

 

Typical Sunday, in other words.  Too much to do and not enough hours to do it in. :)

 

I'm in the middle of a very frustrating crochet project.  Otter found some beautiful cotton yarn at the yarn store last weekend when we went shopping with Nana.  It's a smaller gauge than most cotton yarn, but she wanted a cap and I love a challenge.  I started out with my standard pattern but made several adjustments for yarn size as I worked each row.  Then I decided I didn't like the way it was turning out, so I frogged it and started over without the adjustments.  Frog # 2 was the result of that!  I found a pattern online at Lion Brand's website and it was for the specific cotton yarn size.  Of course, it's too small - even though it is supposed to be an adult-size hat and what I've made is the measurements/size/row/stitch count it is supposed to be, there is no way that this is an adult-sized pattern.  Frog # 3 is probably happening later today, I think I'm going to remake it with the Lion Brand pattern because I like the way it looks, but I'm going to go up 3 or 4 hook sizes which should make the difference.  I hope so anyway!  It's a gorgeous purple color with opalescent metallic flecks and is going to look wonderful on Otter's red hair.  When I finally get it made, that is!  It will be on the craft blog, when I finally get it finished to size.  It's a slightly different pattern than the one I usually use and I really have enjoyed the crochet process - just not the fact that it's a kid-size!  I've noticed that with patterns before with online patterns.

 

I have some more thoughts on the new ST movie, but I'm not quite ready to post them.  But I will say this:  Those sharks are well-fed!

Thoughts About a Lot of Stuff on Friday

First off, the North TEXAS tornadic storms are on my mind.  Obviously, because it's TEXAS.  But also because of the specific area of TEXAS.  Bill has some family connections to the area and it's an area I/We've always loved.  TEXANS are tough, our history has shown that.  We can handle a lot, there's no doubt about that.  But this is more than "a lot" for most people, TEXANS included.  All we can do at this point is pray for the people who have lost homes and the families of those who lost their lives.

 

There were a total of 16 twisters Wednesday that hit the area.  16.  The Cleburne tornado was probably an F3, which is mid-range on the scale.  The Granbury tornado was worse, it was most likely an F4.  Those are both bad numbers, there is only one number higher (F5) which is what his Oklahoma City in 1999 and Joplin in 2011.  Even an F1 can do damage.  But F3 is very bad and F4 is even worse.

 

Other stuff:  My post yesterday referencing the new ST movie and sharks was based on some early reviews I read.  Yes, I did read spoilers!  But only enough to answer a specific question.  I didn't like the answer.  They did what I (and many, many, many others) hoped they would not do:  Khan.  The movie itself might be good, but it does sound like they changed Khan's character too much.  Khan is an iconic character and one that they should have just left alone.  The Borg Queen is not pleased, even if turns out that I like the movie I still say that they should have stayed away from Khan.  From what I read, it also sounds like they were trying to remake the TOS episode that introduced him, Space Seed is the title, and not the TOS:TWOK movie that brought him back.  TWOK was inspired and was without a doubt the best movie in the TOS movie series.  That is largely due to the character of Khan.  From what I've read, he's been reduced to a) a terrorist, b) an environmental terrorist possibly (hope not!) and/or c) a generic terrorist.  Instead of the rich, strong character he was in TOS.  I will in all probability eventually see the movie.  I'm waiting a bit, I want to see how it does at first and then I'll decide.  The first weekend is not always a good way to judge, because so many of us (and we are legion) will rush to see it just because it is Trek.  But Trek movies are traditionally judged by the number of repeat viewers.  That's the best way to judge a Trek film.  So, I'm reserving judgment (only to a point, I am the Borg Queen after all!) and will decide a little later about it.  Otter's majorly bummed out about it, she had no choice:  she couldn't avoid being indoctrinated into ST fandom.  But we're going to (try to) keep an open mind in the (possibly slim-to-none) chance that it turns out to be good.

 

The other thing we're watching for is what is known as the Star Trek Curse.  A/K/A Even numbered Trek films don't suck!  This one is an even number.  The first one of this series was number 11 or you could say number 1 - both odd numbers.  The first movie may well have done as well as it did for one reason:  It's Trek and we'll see it.  It's the Rule:  we must see all Trek.  Even if it sucks.  We just don't have to repeat.  But we do have to see it.  And at some point, I will.  Even with the fact that most of the actors in the first of this movie series were woefully miscast!

 

Birds:  The robins have fledged.  The nest has been empty for a couple of days, the last time I actually saw the babies I could tell that they were pretty close to flying.  The wrens are definitely nesting in the front planter again.  Third year in a row for that.

 

I haven't gotten my hummingbird feeders out yet.  I intended to do that last weekend, but we were running around with Nana on Saturday and Sunday morning, then I just never quite got around to it after that.  I am not sure if the hummers have made it to this area or not, but they will be here soon if they aren't already.  So I'm going to get my feeders up and then watch for birdies.

 

I guess that is it.  For now, anyway.

 

RIF, y'all!

The Sharks May Be Circling

Specifically, the sharks that the new ST movie may have just jumped.

'Nuff said.  For the moment.

Good Gravy I'm Tired!

With a capitol "T".

 

For the last two days, I've been dealing with a very cranky toddler in a 96 year old body!  Seems that the Teenager hurt his back several days ago but didn't tell anybody.  He eventually said that his hip was hurting.  It wasn't his hip, it was his lower back and he's been ignoring it for days.  He thought he could walk it out or that it would eventually go away.  After listening to him gripe Monday, Younger Boss finally said he'd had enough and that he was taking his dad home.  However, he still gave us just as much grief from home because he was only a phone call away.  I finally convinced both of them that yes, he did need to see the doctor.  Teenager wouldn't admit that, he thought that he could just call the doctor's office and talk to him and that the doctor would order physical therapy.  WRONG.  He had to go see the doctor this morning, which lasted for several hours because the doctor ordered x-rays.  It's "just" a strained muscle, but he's ignored it for days and treated it incorrectly so it's worse, more painful and will take longer to recover than if he'd just gone last week when I told him to!  He spent just as many hours on the phone with me today as if he'd been in the office and I got very little done.  Then he called me after I'd left the office and when he didn't get me at the office he called my cell phone.  Except that he called Bill's and not mine, which was in interesting conversation to say the least.  Bill called me, I called the Teenager and he asked me to go back to the office so I could get his doctor's number.  He wanted to call the doctor (again) and tell him that physical therapy will help him.  Which it probably will.  But not yet!  I told him that I'd wait until I got in the office in the morning, but I'm going to tell him then that it's too soon and we'll see about therapy when it's time.

 

Geesh.  I'm exhausted just from typing that!  It's been a very tiring two days and the week's not over yet.

 

Love him to pieces, but I told Younger Boss today that I thought I maybe had opened a babysitting service and didn't realize it! :)

 

Otter saw the new Iron Man 3 movie today.  She and the boyfriend spent the afternoon at the mall, he survived a shopping frenzy!  They enjoyed the movie, she said it's very good and that Stan Lee's cameo is unexpected but it's there.  She's not going to tell me anything else about it, I don't want to hear it and she doesn't want to ruin it for me.  We'll eventually see it, maybe we might even make it to the theater while it's still there.

 

I'm going to surf the 'net for a while.  Then I think I might have a drink and put my feet up.  After I get my laundry out of the dryer, that is!

Happy Mother's Day (and other stuff too)

First things first:

I've had a really nice one.  Actually, I think its been Mother's Days because Nana visited and we had a great time.  For Mother's Day, we went to church and then to the Hog Trough (Golden Corral) for brunch.  Otter had to work today, she went in at noon and the restaurant is on the other side of the shopping center she works in so she changed into her uniform at church and then after we ate we dropped her off at work.  She gets off at 7:00 tonight.  We came back home for a while, then took Nana to the airport. :(

 

We had planned on taking Nana to a specific restaurant on Friday, but they close at 2:00 and get very crowded so we wanted to be there about 11:00.  However, Friday morning was spent waiting on Nana's luggage to be delivered so we wound up going to a place other than we had planned.  It was still a good lunch, just not the place we intended!  Otter wanted Nana to see where she works, so we went a little before Otter was to get off and she got to show Nana the store.  Then we had a couple of other shopping stops on the way home and got Domino's pizza for dinner

 

Saturday's activities included making Monkey bread for breakfast (yum!) and then Otter and I took Nana to the Tulsa Flea Market.  We had a great time.  I found a huge paper shopping bag full of yarn, it was marked $5.00 but as soon as I started looking at it the lady selling it told me I could have it for $3.00.  Sold!  I also found a Fenton piece, a small rose bowl style vase in clear green hobnail for $3.00 so it came home with me as well.  Otter found a few things and so did Nana, then we went to lunch at On the Border before going to a local shopping center in Tulsa.  We didn't buy much there, but we still had fun.  We came home, watched a couple of movies on Blu-ray and then decided we wanted fried chicken for dinner.  We were on the way to the only fried chicken place we could remember, when we drove by a KFC so I turned around and we went there instead.  We got there about 8:25, and after we went inside and placed our order the clerk started locking up because they close at 8:30 on Saturday night!  We still got a bucket of chicken and various sides, it just seemed early to close on a Saturday night.  But it was good, we were planning on bringing it home anyway so it didn't matter that they were about to close.  I'm just glad we were not there after 8:30 because we wouldn't have been able to get in.

 

I'm to chill for a while and goof off, then I might do a little crochet.  Or read.  Or just relax, I'll figure it out at the time!

Interesting Rambles

Nana got here, but the flight was later than we thought it was going to be.  But she arrived safely, so no complaints there.  However, we did discover that the 3-minute parking rule is NOT enforced at the Tulsa airport.  We were in the 3-minute area for over an hour, but so were a lot of other people and we were blocked in most of the time.  But since we were spending most of that time waiting for Nana's flight, it was ok that we were blocked.   We sent Otter inside to wait but Bill and I sat in the car.  Nana eventually arrived and was greeted by an overjoyed Otter.  Then the discovered that Nana's luggage hadn't quite gotten to Tulsa so she had to go fill out the official request for the airline to search.  She gave them her cell phone number, and they called her shortly before midnight to tell her it had been located.  She told them to deliver it in the morning.  Which turned into 12:30 because they apparently didn't get moving on time!  But her bag eventually got here so she could at least wear something else today!  She borrowed a t-shirt from Otter to sleep in last night.

 

We did get to the steakhouse last night, just a little later than we expected to.  It was so good and we ate too much, but we don't eat there often.

 

We had a thunderstorm late in the night.  I slept through it, but Nana heard it and Bill might have.  There was apparently a lot of wind, because a tree at a house outside of our subdivision was split in to many pieces and it looked like some of it might have actually been on the house it was formerly in front of.

 

The surveyors were unable to find their buried metal spikes yesterday, the only thing that Bill actually removed were the wooden spikes after they were finished.  The utility marking companies were out today and they had to get in my back yard.  The surveyors sent out another crew, they weren't too good.  They were going off of the fence as the metal spikes were supposed to be 4' off the fence.  But that was off of the old fence, the one that was removed when the builder put up the privacy fence.  Bill tried to tell them that they were marking from the wrong place, but they were kind of rude and he figured that they'd have to deal with their own mistake.  We saw the grader out there earlier, leveling the lot.

 

Nana liked her crocheted afghan.  She's requested a pair of house shoes and I found a pattern that she liked.  I'm not going to be able to get them done while she's here, but they will be fairly easy.

 

We took Nana to Otter's store this afternoon.  Otter was happy to show Nana where she works.  Then we went by Domino's Pizza to pick up dinner on the way home.  We also had burgers & fries for lunch today, so we're piggies!

 

Tomorrow is shopping and we intend to have fun.  But then Nana's visits are always fun!

 

We Knew It Was Only a Matter of Time...

Until a house was built behind us.  The bulldozers started scraping off for the foundation today.  I talked to the guys, they were trying to find the survey pins from when the area was surveyed at the time of the fence going up, they were digging around in my back yard but they were polite and covering up after they dug holes.  They didn't find the stakes, they were looking along the fence line but the stakes were originally put at the old fence line.  Bill also thinks that the pins/stakes were removed (by Bill) after the fence was put up.  Anyway, the bulldozer operator thinks that it's at least going to be a one-story home.  They generally get those houses up quick, so it's only going to be a few weeks if they are true to form.  I still prefer when we had cows for neighbors!

 

Otter has been busy today.  She made cupcakes for Mother's Day.  She bought decorating stuff at work the other day but she told me I couldn't see it.  Now that the cupcakes are made & decorated, she did let me see it.  But I don't think I can eat any yet - we're waiting on Nana's arrival tonight.

 

Nana's flight was delayed about 30 minutes, which always seems to happen to her.  We'll still go out to a particular steak house we all like, it will just be a little later on.  Of course, I'm starving!

 

I bought moonshine today.  Relax, it's legal!  I got it at a liquor store, there are a few legal distilleries in the country and a few of the liquor stores are starting to carry it.  We aren't going to be in a hurry to drink it, but I was amused at the sign at the liquor store.  The sign was to warn people not to drink any locally produced, illegal stuff because it may well be poison.  Which is true, if the person making it doesn't know what he's doing.  I took it back to work with me, I was on my lunch hour when I got it, and my bosses both were very interested in it.  (They weren't worried about me drinking on the job.)  The Teenager especially was interested, he tried to tell me that it was really just apple cider - of course, he was trying to sneak it away from me at the time!  (It's apple pie which is basically moonshine with a small amount of apple cider for flavor and cinnamon.)

 

It's rainy again this afternoon.  We had a loud thunderstorm at about 4:30 this morning.  I know it was at 4:30, because I was awakened by the sound of the fan going off as the power cut off.  It came back on in less than a minute but we were awake by that point so we just got up.  A house in the neighborhood had a big tree basically come apart, but the tree looks like it wasn't healthy to start with.  We don't have any tree damage, beyond one smallish limb that was broken off months ago but we couldn't reach, it's now in the yard but that is all.  No actual damage.  It might be rainy tonight and into tomorrow morning.

 

OK, I'm going to go find a snack now!

Just Chilling Out on the Couch

Have I mentioned how much I like this laptop?  Well, I do.  I think I like the portability of it a lot.

 

Busy day.  Busy week.  It's only Wednesday, but it should be Friday.  I only have one day of work left this week, I'm off on Friday and so is Billyboy.  Otter has to work, so she won't get to spend Friday with us (and Nana!) but she's off on Saturday so she'll get to spend time with her TEXAS Grandmother.  No idea what we'll be doing, but with Nana it usually involves shopping!

 

The evildeniziensofhellbadbugs also known as yellow jackets have made their arrival.  My younger boss was outside of the duplex where our office is and he came in with a request that I look at his back and tell him how it looked because he thought something stung him.  I could tell that he had two stings, I put some of my always within reach hydrocortisone cream on the spots and then he went outside to finish what he was doing.  Then he called me on his cell phone to tell me that he'd just found a squashed yellow jacket where he'd been standing when he felt something sting.  I was hoping that they would just skip this year, but I guess not.  I've been seeing bees for a while, but we try to ignore them and let them do their thing.  Yellow jackets are a different story, they get killed as soon as we see them.  I trimmed some limblets on the tree in the front yard when Bill was mowing this evening, I didn't see any but I did look carefully.

 

I did see something else:  wrens are starting a nest in the planter on the front porch!  There are two baby robins in the nest on the back porch, and sparrows have built a nest on top of the bat house.  Not in it, on top of it.  Lots of little bug eaters!  I'm thinking I'm going to put up one of my hummingbird feeders this weekend.  Bill and Otter each gave me a new hummingbird feeder for Mother's Day.

 

Froggy, KN#3's box should have arrived in your mail today.  Let me know please.  I hope she likes what's inside of it.  It's an exciting time for her, starting out on her own.  I'm sure she'll do well in nursing school.

 

Bill's hammering away at a pachinko machine.  He's putting the pins in the machine that is our family project:  Steampunk!  (Google it if you don't know what it is.)

 

Otter and I are thinking that we might want to see the new Superman movie.  Which sounds strange, if you know anything at all about us you know that we think Superman is a wimp!  Actually, we usually use the word "weenie" but it is kind of impolite.  But the movie looks good.  We'll wait until after it's opened and see what the reviews are, but it looks good so far.  We will eventually get to the theater for the new Iron Man movie, I'm just not sure when.

Froggy, you mentioned Frasier being lucky.  Yes, he was.  But so were we, he's a spectacular dog.  Just spoiled rotten!  And so is beaglebaby known as Maggie Moo.  They are supposed to be spoiled, so they are.  Very much so!

I Guess it's Just Monday?

Can't think of a good title, so whatever! :)

 

I'm really liking the new laptop.  I probably should have given in and got it earlier, but I'm glad that I finally listened to Bill and got one.  (Don't tell Bill I said I should have listened to him!  I'll never hear the end of it!)  It makes me realize that the old one was a lot worse than I realized.  Old age and a lot of use, mostly.  Just keep in mind that I'm still adjusting to Chiclet keys, frequently I'll be typing and the cursor will vanish because I've somehow managed to put it on a different line.  So, nonsense in the middle of a word or sentence are not on purpose!

 

My errand yesterday that allowed me to take Otter to work was to PetsMart.  They are in the same shopping center as her store.  Because it was a weekend, they had various pet rescue groups there. We always, always have to visit with all the doggies we can.  We pet most of them and quite frequently fall in love with many and want to bring them home - we don't, we just want to.  I mentioned to one of the ladies working with one of the groups that we'd adopted one of our dogs at that particular store and she asked me which one.  I was not prepared for her next remarks:  "you probably saved that dog's life."  Not the usual way of saving him from not having a home, either.  She elaborated and there are a lot of questions I had that were suddenly answered.  The group in question is essentially not in business any longer.  They never filed the required paperwork to be recognized as a rescue group, including the tax forms that the IRS requires.  They never were able to produce records that proved that their dogs had ever had any vet care OR inoculations.  When we adopted Frasier, we were told that he had been placed with a family that would never get proof of shots & care to the group but what I found out yesterday is that the group in question didn't usually use individuals to foster the animals and that the group itself was responsible for ensuring vet care and shots.  When she told me yesterday that I'd saved his life, she meant it.  Apparently, they also have a bad reputation for animal survival rates, probably due to not getting them the vet care they need.  We wondered at the time, Frasier came with a few health issues that should have been addressed and didn't seem to have been - his ears being one of them, he still gets ear infections occasionally but not as frequently as he did at first and his ears were really bad the.  He had been fixed and he was house trained - although we were told he wasn't housebroken as far as they knew.  Their ad, which is where we first became interested in him, stated that he did NOT dig or jump/climb fences - but he's a natural-born escape artist and he does dig.  A lot, in fact.  About the only thing we know to be true that we were told is that he does not like cats.  Well, he likes them - as toys, he kills them but a lot of that may be the coyote instinct and he can't help that.  But he's always had health issues, among other things he had a spot on either his leg or his tail (I can't remember) that didn't have hair and looked odd but wasn't mange.  We brought it to the attention of the person we got him from when we picked him up for our "try him out" visit and she acted like she'd never even seen it.  It wasn't huge but it was visible.  It healed up eventually, now I wonder if it might have been whatever it is that causes him to have those tumor-like spots.  I told the lady yesterday about some of his health issues, she basically told me that she isn't surprised and suspects that he never had vet care while he was with that group.  (His "try it out visit" was supposed to be several days but we knew within an hour or so that he was ours.)    They were also supposed to check references on us and follow up, but they never did.  Needless to say, when I got home I had to have a long play/petting session with him!  Which he liked, by the way.

 

I finally have house shoes!  Probably sounds like a strange thing to be happy about, but I have had a flare-up of Plantar Fasciatis and going barefoot is not an option for me at the moment.  I was going to get a new pair in December, but decided my old ones would last a while longer so I never did.  When the old ones did wear out, we discovered that most stores don't keep them in stock beyond Christmas time.  So, I've been using padded shoe inserts from the dollar store and they worked ok but they eventually get flat and need to be replaced.  At lunch today, I finished with my errand earlier than I though so I decided to waste some time in Tuesday Morning.  And they had a large selection of house shoes.  Otter was in the same boat I was, she needed new ones badly.  So, after I picked her up from work we went back and she found some immediately - she picked the red ones with black polka-dots that I thought she would as soon as I saw them.  I tried on almost every other pair there, and none of them worked.  Either my high arches, weather toes or they didn't have enough padding for my heel because of the PF issues.  I was about to give up when I realized that there was one pair I hadn't tried and they fit, don't aggravate my toes and are very softly padded.  They are a kind of maroon-ish red, but I wouldn't have cared what color they are.  So, it's not so strange that I'm about house shoes.  Sore feet can kind of be a problem!

 

When Otter and I got home, we got the vacuum out and took care of the car.  It needed to be vacuumed out badly, we hadn't done it in so long I can't remember.  It was pretty bad, but now it's nice and dog-hair-free.

 

Mama Robin has two babies, Bill thought that there was just one when he was hurridly cleaning the rain gutters the other day.  He was in a hurry so that she could get back to her nest and didn't look closely.  But I went out on the back deck yesterday and could see two little alien heads popping up.  Not sure when I'm going to put the hummingbird feeders up, but soon.  Maybe this weekend.

Figuring It Out (Edited and Added To)

I think I'm really going to like this new laptop.  Learning Windows 8 is not as hard as I thought it would be, it's just different.  But the computer itself is nice.  The old one was good for a very long time, but it was acting up (badly at times) and it was time for a new one.  The Chiclet keyboard is going to take some getting used to, since it's smaller than a "regular" keyboard.  (There may be typos, as I learn the keyboard I keep finding the cursor moved to somewhere other than where I think it is!)

Last week was kind of chaotic.  We got finished moving all of Otter's furniture around in her room, but with her work hours we haven't had time to get everything back in place on her bookcase, desk, etc. so it still looks kind of messy.  She's working until 7:00 tonight, we're going to see what we can do in there when she gets home.  I say "we" very lightly, since my part is mostly going to be handing things to her as she arranges them.  She has more room to move around now.  She has a blank wall that she wants to put something on, but she's not sure exactly what.  Artwork of some type.

The next step is to move my desk and rearrange my corner of the office room.  I want to turn my desk so that it's facing the window, it was like that originally but I got kind of tired of having to turn my head to the left the entire time I was on the computer since the cord wasn't long enough to have it where I wanted on my desk.  I'm going to enjoy the wireless Wi-Fi.

I had a couple of errands earlier, so I took Otter to work today.  Her hours this coming week are the same as mine, so I'll be her transportation this week.  I'm just glad that she doesn't have any late hours, one of us always takes her and picks her up then.  It's a safe enough spot, but it's very isolated especially after dark.  When she gets off at 10:00 p.m., which has happened a couple of times, there is nobody else there as the other stores are already closed.  Tulsa isn't particularly high-crime, but there have been enough carjacking and so forth that she's not comfortable with having to walk to the car across the dark parking lot and neither are we.  She's been working around 35 - 38 hours a week, so she's definitely keeping busy.

Bill's gotten as far as taking his new computer out of the box.  He probably won't actually have time to get is set up until sometime next week.  He has a board meeting to work tomorrow evening, then Nana (Bill's mom) will be here Thursday and the next several days will be spent visiting (and shopping!) so he's trying to get as many pachinko related projects done as he can with what little spare time he has.  He did say that we'll probably have to get a newer printer but that can wait a few days.

I did get some crochet done yesterday.  I finished up Bill's lap blanket.  It's made up of granny squares, they are royal blue with a light blue finish row and they are then stitched together with the light blue.  Because they are individual squares attached together and there are two colors, there are a lot of tails to be done.  Burying tails can take longer than the actual crochet work, and this is one of those projects that will.  I started doing tails yesterday, but it's going to take me quite a while.  I won't have all that much spare time this week, either.

OK, the Chiclet keyboard is getting annoying now, so I'm going to post this and go get back to laundry.

 

(Edit and additional info):

 

Ok, the printer will not need to be replaced after all.  Bill thought it wouldn't work, but it has a usb cord which will work with all the new computers after all.  Good, we don't want to replace it if it's not necessary. 

 

And Bill got my desk moved!  I can now use my lamp on my desk, which I didn't have room for before.  I had to do a little rearranging to get my plastic drawer unit by the desk, but I can also put the phone on top of it now.  The shredder was by my desk, it's now going to the other side of the office.  My desk looks nice now, it was a little cluttered because the old computer and speakers took up so much room.  But these Chiclet keys are still a pain!  :)

Records are Falling!

Specifically, the ones about the latest day of snow in Tulsa.  May 2, 2013 is now the new record.  EEK!

Actually, it was just a trace and probably melted about as soon as somebody actually saw it.  But, it still counts.  I saw sleet, when I had to run to BigLots about 6:00 tonight.  Again, it was melting as soon as I saw it.  But, it still counts.

Yesterday was warm, today wasn't.  We hit our high temp of mid-40's early, like before dawn.  It's been heading downward steadily ever since.  It will be in the 30's tonight, although it might not get quite to 32.  It's been rainy off & on today.  Tomorrow will be the same, although I'm not sure about the rainy part.  We'll have a cold weekend, at least for early May.  It should be nicer by Monday.  It's just kind of odd to have to wear sweatshirts and coats this late.

Froggy, we've usually had better experiences with Dell.  It's just this particular transaction.  Fed-Ex came yesterday, about 10:00 in the morning.  They weren't supposed to come until later in the day.  Of course, Bill didn't get home until about 12:30 and they left a note on the door.  He got online and arranged for the re-delivery to be after 7:00 p.m. tonight.  Otter was home today, and it's a good thing because Fed-Ex was on our doorstep about 10:30.  She signed for everything and Bill's now working on my laptop.  It's a slow process, much slower than I thought.  The errand to BigLots was because he needed to create the rescue disk and the only choice was to get a usb drive.  We have plenty, but none of them are big enough.  So, I ran to BigLots and got two because he'll need to make one when he gets his new computer set up.

I'm not sure when I'll actually get to email you, so Froggy this next paragraph is for you also:

I'll get back with you regarding a visit.  It's still what is referred to as "season" and in this area, that means Tornado Season.  We'll have company next weekend, Nana will be here over Mother's Day weekend.  After that, we'll have to get together with our calendars and see what we can come up with.  Did you have any particular time in mind?  Let me know, we'll get something figured out.  I know you did want to go to Oklahoma City at one point, to the Memorial.  And you already know that there are lots of thrift stores, antique shops and flea markets here.  (No, I'm not forgetting Braums!)