Puppy Tales and Other Stuff

The dogs have been wrangled and we're now covered in dog fur.  Thanks, Frasier!

 

Anyway, they are very healthy and the vet was pretty impressed with Frasier.  He doesn't think that the cataracts will get worse, or at least not much worse.  Given the dog's age, he is in pretty good shape.  The vet found no evidence of any hip dysplasia or joint issues like shepards get sometimes, no sign of arthritis or any severe issues with his ears this time.  Maggie Moo did really good, she usually does fine until she realizes where she is and the turns into a brick.  Bricks just lie there and don't walk on their own, they have to be dragged or sometimes picked up and carried.  That's her usual trick at the vet's, but not today.  She was happy to get there, happy to go inside, happy to get weighed (29 pounds) and happy to go into the exam room.  She was happy to go with the vet tech to get her butt squished and nails clipped, she was happy to come back to us.  She was glad to see the vet when he came in and happy while he examined her.  She was a little droopy when she got her shot, but she was really not all that upset.  Frasier (71 pounds) was happy but he wasn't too thrilled with the exam.  But he tolerated it, the vet was pretty thorough checking all Frasier's joints and his spine.  The vet was fine with getting the tranquilizers refilled, I gave Frasier one last night and he slept all night - no early waking and barking.  I will probably give him one tonight and then maybe tomorrow night.

 

Both doggies were happy to get home, and they both immediately took a nap.  Maggie likes to sit underneath the coffee table, she just hangs out there and seems to enjoy it.  She is a weird little doggie, that's for sure.

 

We watched the rest of the History Channel mini-series on the World Wars.  It was pretty good, although the final episode was rushed.  There were so many things that they had to leave out, otherwise it would be months long.  But some of the things that they left out should have been included.  There were also things that I think should have been expanded.  I'm not sure if anything should have been left out.  It was very good "in general" but even as good as it was, I think it could have been better.

 

We've decided to change the booth.  We had been discussing giving our 30 days notice on Sunday (June 1st) but after we talked about it, Bill wants to keep the original booth but I don't really think I want to continue with my part.  Otter said she doesn't care either way, most of her sales were in the first month and she hasn't had anything sell for a while.  I've had a few things sell this month, but I don't think that a lot of things have sold and I'm pretty well out of things to clean out.  Also, the next logical step would be to start buying things to resell but we've "been there, done that" before and really don't want to get into that again.  It worked for eBay, when eBay was first starting and we rode that train as long as it lasted.  But that train has left the station and I think it derailed!  So, we're going to go back to the original size and Bill's going to leave the pachinko machines in it.  If I (or Otter) have something later that we want to sell, we'll put it in the booth but I think I'm pretty well "sold out" now.  I called the owner and asked him if we would have to do the 30 days notice on the half we are relinquishing, but he said we don't.  He also said we can wait until Sunday, which is actually the first, instead of getting all the stuff out of the 2nd half on Saturday.  Which was nice of him, maybe we'll have some major sales on Saturday - well, it would be nice anyway.  Bill has only sold a couple of pachinko machines, but one of them was one of the higher cost machines so the sales still outweigh the booth cost.  But Bill also thinks that it's fairly cheap as far as advertising and getting the machines into people's vision, so he'll probably keep the booth for a while even if he doesn't sell a machine any time soon.

 

However, I'm still going to shop there!

Maggie? Maaaagiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!!!!! MAGGIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we call the dogs, we have a specific way we say each of their names.  Maggie Moo has a frequent case of "convenient hearing" when we call her - which means she ignores whomever is yelling for her.

 

A few days ago, she was out in the back yard doing whatever beagles do when they are on their own.  Usually crawling under the shed in her case!  I called her several times and then I realized something.  The resident mockingbird has learned to call her, too!  Not that she listened to the bird anymore than she did to me, but it was really funny to hear the bird.  The mockingbird doesn't quite have the word down yet, but "he" had the exact cadence and pitch exactly.  I think it's probably a matter of time until the bird learns to mimic the actual word "Maggie."  Then it's going to be really fun!

 

Froggy, you asked me about Bill's shoe size:  11 1/2 Wide.  He tried on a pair at the store in question today and I know which style so I know what to get him at the discounted place.  I don't know how much the store wanted for them today, the ones I like are $108 at the store in Tulsa that sells them.  I'm sure the discounted place is much cheaper, it was the last time I was there.  I'm not sure if Otter wants any of that particular brand, I'll ask her and if she does want any then we'll go by the shoe store on Saturday after the flea market so she can pick a pair out and I'll get the size and style.  But I think she's got several pairs of sandles already so I'm not sure if she'll want any more or not.  But they do have some really cute purses...

 

I called the vet today and ordered more of the tranquilizers for Fraiser.  He doesn't need them very often, but I like to keep them on hand and I think the bottle we have now only has one or two left.  I'm thinking I'll probably give him one tonight, he's been pretty good at night but he's waking up earlier and earlier here lately.  When he wakes up, he's ready to go outside to visit the grass.  We usually get up around 5:00 on weekdays, but he's been barking his "gotta go outside" bark earlier and it was probably around 4:45 this morning.  I'm not going to let him get into the habit of thinking I'm going to get up and let him out just because he barks because I don't think he really wants out.  This morning, he didn't seem to actually want out at all - I think he just wanted me.  I'm going to break this habit before it gets going again, nobody wants to go through that again!

 

I got the oil changed in my car this morning.  If I get there right at 7:00, when the Chevy place opens, they can generally get my car done and I get on the road to work by 7:40 and sometimes earlier.  I got about 1 1/2 rows done on my current crochet project while I waited.

 

Happy news:  I bought a pair of blue jeans today.  And they are a size smaller than the ones I bought in December!  The ones I bought in December had gotten pretty loose, but I really wasn't sure if the next size down would fit me yet or not.  I was very pleasantly surprised that it did, so of course I had to buy them!  Actually, I really did need them since the other pair are pretty loose and Otter likes to tease me about wearing my jeans low - because I raised my arms the other day and the front of my jeans dropped quite a bit exposing my belly.  She thought it was really funny, for some reason!

 

We've been watching The World Wars mini-series on the History Channel.  It's really good, very well done.  It's a lot to pack into 6 hours, but they have done a very good job.

 

OK, I think that was everything I wanted to talk about tonight.

Just a Few Thoughs on a MondayTuesday

I don't like MondayTuesday's.  I like Monday days off, I just don't like Monday being squished into Tuesday at work!  But at least tomorrow is Wednesday and that means that the work week is halfway over.

 

We have had a lot of rain the last couple of days.  A LOT.  1 1/2" just yesterday afternoon, and it has rained more since then.  Our rain gutters overflowed not too long after the deluge opened.  Bill thinks that it's a combination of them being clogged by the maple tree helicopters (seeds) and the fact that both rain barrels are now full to the point of overflow.  Well, we try to get the water level down in the rain barrels, but each time we start to get them down enough to not overflow it rains again.

 

We do need the rain, so I'm not really complaining.

 

We thought the deep freeze might be going out yesterday.  Bill went out into the garage to get something or other he was soaking to remove rust and there was a little water running out from under the freezer.  He checked inside and there was a little ice melt.  It felt hot on the outside, as if the compressor had been running too long.  We brought everything in from the deep freeze and put it in the freezer (refrigerator top) - which barely fit, talk about crammed full!  Bill thought that maybe he hadn't shut the deep freeze completely when he got the buffalo patties out for me yesterday morning.  We shut the deep freeze and left it alone until this morning.  It had quit melting and there was no more water running anywhere, what little was still in there (ice trays, mostly) was frozen and the outside felt normal.  So we ferried everything back out and I rearranged the fridge/freezer again.

 

I went by the booth this afternoon.  Nothing else has sold as far as I can tell, but the person sharing part of it has moved more of his stuff out and it looks less cramped.  He'll be out on/by Saturday and we'll head back up there on Sunday to rearrange.  We had discussed switching to a slightly larger and deeper booth, but I think we're going to hold off on that.  At least for now.

 

After the booth, I fought traffic caused by rain to Wallyworld.  It was apparently "take your screaming children to Walmart" day.  Walmart was out of eggs.  As in nonenonenone.  Except for a few, "organic" eggs that were about $4.00+/dozen.  Needless to say, I did not buy eggs at Wallyworld today!  I didn't really need them yet, it's just that eggs are like milk:  buy them whenever I'm at the store because we tend to run out of them on a fairly fast basis.  Which seems odd to me, because Saturday morning is about the only time we actually eat them.  Milk runs out fast because we drink a lot of it, so that I can understand.

 

While I was buying groceries, Otter called to let me know of an accident between there and home that was causing quite a big traffic tie up.  This one was probably due to the weather and possibly driver inattention and maybe speeding.  Something about Tulsa rain causes drivers to lose their minds.  We don't live in Tulsa, but we used to.  And it was always the same thing.  The accident today is in a kind of an iffy spot.  Looked like both cars involved had hit trees and one of them was halfway in the ditch/creek.

 

The doggies go to the vet on Thursday.  Mags gets a buttsquash, and they both get shots.  Frasier needs the distemper and maybe parvo shots, Maggie gets those and also her rabies shot.  We're also getting her claws trimmed, it's worth paying the vet to do it.  Although I'm not sure that Maggie Moo agrees!

 

Otter and one of her friends looked at a duplex for rent yesterday.  It was 2-bedroom, and their may be three counting Otter.  It's still workable, but I think they are going to keep looking and will probably wind up in an apartment.  I don't think it will be right away, but they are working towards it.

 

My eventual guest room/craft/yarn room is still going to be a Pachinko Free Zone!  No matter what Bill thinks, he is NOT going to talk me into changing my mind on that.  My two machines might be put in there on the wall as playable décor, but none of his restoration work will be allowed!!  The Borg Queen has spoken.

Memorial Day

We must remember the sacrifices made by others so that we can be Free.

Thank you all.

Day Three & Counting

For the 3rd Day in a row, the forecast has been for rain.  But it hasn't show up yet!  It's cloudy and humid.  Extremely humid, and hard to breathe.  I hate humidity.

 

We've been busy all day, but it seems like we've hardly gotten anything actually done.  I did get my tree trimming tool and tackled the forest growing up from the bottoms of two of the maple trees in the back yard - not fun with the humidity, but it needed to be done.  We went to church this morning, although Otter actually went to work as her shift started at the time church does.  We took her to work, since Billyboy wanted to get a few things at her store and the plan was to go shop there when we picked her up but we actually went in there shortly after church.

 

We've been to the booth twice today.  Once to take a machine & cabinet and also get a machine to bring home so Bill could get a video of it to put on his website.  The second time was to take the machine back.  I rearranged a bit while we were there but not much.  Bill's friend that has been sharing the booth with us for stuff to big to put in his own booth is ending his booth on the 31st, and we'll expand the contents of our booth then.  The 31st is Saturday, he and his wife were there when we were the 2nd time (that's when we got Otter after her shift at work) and they were taking some of their stuff out now.  Otter and I are going to a local flea market on Saturday, we'll probably go by the booth store as well and see if they've gotten their stuff out of our booth.  Then we'll spread our stuff out just a bit, but we'll do a full-scale rearrange of our booth on Sunday.

 

When we have a holiday and everybody is off, we usually have a bigger than normal breakfast.  Otter doesn't have to work tomorrow, so since we'll all be home she's requested Monkey Bread for breakfast.  We went to Wallyworld after picking Otter up from work today, and I bought what we call "cheap biscuits" and chopped pecans.  Bill is not a fan of Wallyworld, but he was a good boy and behaved himself today!  :)  But I bought him potato salad, so he's happy.  I was going to make homemade potato salad to have with our buffalo burgers tomorrow, but I never quite got around to it.

 

Otter was supposed to work for 4 hours yesterday, but she woke up with a migraine headache herself.  Her migraines follow a different pattern than mine, for one thing she usually throws up and yesterday was no exception.  She wound up calling in and going back to bed -where she stayed nearly all day long.  I checked on her a couple of times, she was asleep most of the time but she did emerge about 7:00 last night.  She got up for a couple of hours, she had some bread and a sprite and she felt much better.  She went to bed early and felt much better this morning.  Except for the ever-present allergies, that is.

 

Frasier, my fluffy puppy, has been shedding like crazy the last few days.  He does this every year when it gets warm.  I took him outside and brushed the bejeebers out of him.  It looks like a tribble farm in the back yard and he looks much bettr, very sleek.  But there is still a cloud of fur coming off of him so he may have another session with the brush in his future - which he loves, by the way.  Maggie Moo likes to get brushed out as well, but she's smooth-coated so she doesn't shed much.  Unlike Fluffbutt Frasier!

Guess I'd Better...

Post something here.  It's been a few days.  Froggy will get on me if I don't - of course, she may get on me anyway!

 

Today is a migraine day.  I think this is the third one of the year, I average 3 or 4 per year normally.  It started about 12:45, the flashing lights were short but that sometimes means that the headache will make up for it in either intensity or duration.  It's tolerable at the moment, but it's still there.  So, I'm thinking duration instead of intensity - given the choice, I think I'd rather have intensity and get it over with fast.  Maybe!

 

I have been mega-caffeinated, I took a migraine pill which contains aspirin, Tylenol and lots of caffeine.  I also had a diet coke for the caffeine in it.  But caffeine is a big help when it comes to migraines.  It helps all headaches, but it's recommended for migraines.  The upshot is that I've been unable to sit still for hours!  I came home at about 1:15, when the flashers were gone and the pain was starting.  I managed to stay on the couch with the lights off, but only because I discovered that yes - I can crochet with a migraine!  It was either that or yank all my hair out because I could NOT be still.  Thanks to the caffeine!

 

J (Otter's boyfriend) went a sci-fi convention in Dallas last weekend.  He's not a huge ST fan (she's working on that and getting results), but he still stood in a long line (and the cost for this one was probably not cheap) and got her an autograph he knew she'd love:

DATA!

She's going to frame it.

 

J earned a MASSIVE amount of brownie points with this one, by the way.  :)

Windy Monday

I'm so glad that my jury duty is over and that it is back to "normal" around here.  Well, as normal as it ever gets for us!

 

There have been a few news reports about a specific trial that was starting the jury picking process today, it's not one I would ever have wanted to be considered for.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that I would be the absolute last person on earth the defendant would want on a jury.  It was a pretty horrific crime and I'm just really glad that I'm done.

 

I edited my last post, but Otter's late night shift wasn't actually that late.  She texted me about 8:00 or so, to let us know that she might be getting off around or before midnight.  Then about 10:00, she called to let me know that she was heading home - she was supposed to call and let me know when she headed home, no matter what time it was.  We were still up anyway.  The store was not too busy yesterday, so the supervisor had the employees that were there in the afternoon get started on some of the inventory.  As a result, when the 6:00 p.m. crew got there, quite a bit of the work had already been done.  Otter was well caffeinated, she had a couple of Cokes (in non-Texan language, she had Mountain Dew), because she was anticipating several hours which would end late at night or possibly early this morning.  The result is that she got home just after 10:00, and she was still pretty wound up.  We went to bed about 11:15, I have no idea what time she finally wound down and went to bed but she thinks she was up for at least a couple of hours after we went to bed.  She did ask me again to let her sleep in this morning and not wake her up - she usually tells me if she wants me to make her up before I leave for work.  She called me about 10:30 this morning when she woke up.

 

Today is one year since the tornadic outbreak that devastated the middle part of Oklahoma.  The first horrific storms went through the Shawnee area, today marks the one year date.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Moore monster.  It was a bad time for so many people.  This spring has been calmer so far, although there have been a few twisters.  I hope & pray that there are no more.

Just a Rambling Sunday **(EDITED)**

Seems like I've been running at full speed all day today.  Well, maybe that's because I have been!

 

I went to the booth to take more pachinko balls and rearrange a bit, we're going to rearrange the entire booth in the next week or so but I like to go by and neaten up every few days.  I didn't get there until Friday of last week but I went by today and I'll go by a couple of times during the week.

 

I had a bunch of errands, none of them were very big but it seemed like each one took me forever to get through.  I went to the Dollar Store which should have been a short trip, but they were very crowded for a Sunday.  WalMart was it's usual self, but that was not unexpected.  It was that sort of day, and I am pretty tired!

 

Bill mowed the lawn, which it needed badly.  I worked on weeding the rock garden a done a few other things outside.  There is a local garden show on one of the Tulsa radio stations on Saturday mornings.  I usually try to listen to it whenever I can.  Sometimes I learn things, sometimes it's just fun.  Like the time the expert was taking calls on the best way to rid your garden of gnomes.  My favorite answer was the caller who suggested a golf club!  Usually, it's real stuff.  Like yesterday.  One of the callers was talking about a wild morning glory vine that he simply could not get rid of and had been fighting for a couple of years.  Except that what he was dealing with is actually a non-native, invasive species called Field Bindweed.  Which looks almost exactly like morning glory, and may be a related plant.  Guess what we have in the yard that we've always thought was morning glory?  Yep, Field Bindweed.  They are pretty so we aren't worried about them, if we had a garden or something like that then it might be a problem.  The blooms are pretty, blue is predominately what we have.  One of the characteristics of this plant is that is chokes out just about everything it grows near - which is probably why we've never had much success with the morning glories we've planted over the years; we thought we had infected or weak seeds but they were probably healthy after all.  However, the honeysuckle is a lot stronger than the Field Bindweed and has just about taken over the entire trellis Bill built by the deck a few years back.  The Field Bindweed is not something we're going to worry about, it's pretty and we'll leave it alone but the honeysuckle we planted on the back trellises will probably take care of any of it that grows back there.  The honeysuckle vines are growing very well and the deck plants are covered in blooms.  Smells heavenly!

 

Otter got to sleep in today.  Her specific intentions when she got home from work last night at 8:00 were to stay up as late as she could (I think she made it until about 2:00 a.m.) and then to sleep as late as she could today.  I was running my errands when she got up, she texted me just as I was about to pull into the driveway.  She got up a little after noon.  The reason is that she went into work tonight at 6:00 p.m. and will be there for several hours.  They are doing inventory and it may well be an all-nighter.  More of less, they should be done by 2:00 a.m. or hopefully before.  The manager is going to feed them pizza and they do get paid for the hours they are there.  She usually drives Bill's impala, but she said the blinkers might have been acting up yesterday so we told her to take my car tonight.  She is to text or call me if she feels that she can't drive home safely, no matter what time it is.  But we think she'll be fine.  She is not scheduled for work tomorrow, none of the employees working tonight are on the schedule.  She gave me strict instructions not to wake her up in the morning when I leave for work!

 

I made pinto beans this afternoon.  A huge pot.  We each had a bowl tonight, I have 8 2-cup containers in the freezer for lunches, a several cup container in the deep freeze and a huge bowl in the refrigerator which will last for several days.  I like to "cook big" when I can!  I had a lot of ham bits which came off of the ham we had at Easter, I froze a large Ziploc bag of them with the intention of making beans.  I just intended to make them earlier, but I never had time until today.

 

Movie Review:  Saving Mr. Banks.  It's the story of Walt Disney's attempt to convince the author of the Mary Poppins book to allow him to turn her story into a movie.  It was pretty good, Tom Hanks was wonderful as Walt Disney.

 

Also, Otter has other news.  She got a promotion at work and there is a raise with it.  She's now the Pricing Coordinator, and she will have duties with inventory control as well as cashier.  I bought her a small, single-serve cake piece at the grocery store the other day.  She had it for breakfast the next day - she is her Mother's Daughter, after all! :)

**EDIT**:  Otter did not work all night after all.  The assistant manager had some of the employees start the inventory around 3:00, so when Otter went in at 6:00 p.m. quite a bit of it was done already.  She texted me that they thought they'd be done by midnight.  But she was done with her part by 10:00 p.m., so she actually got home at a "early" hour.  Of course, she was still pretty caffeinated since she'd been prepared for an all-nighter!  I don't know what time she went to sleep last night (It's Monday morning now), but she was probably up for at least a couple of hours after we went to bed about 11:15.

Friday Finally Got Here

I was beginning to wonder if it ever would!

Before I get into all the normal stuff, I wanted to mention a special kitty that went to the Rainbow Bridge this week.

 

His name was Chester and I always thought he might be part Maine Coon Cat, but nobody really knows for sure.  He actually belonged to Froggy's daughter, referred to here as KN#3.  Chester was a good kitty.

 

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This week has been so long.  The jury duty is the main reason.  It wasn't hard, but it was long and tedious.  I spent a lot of time doing nothing, which I absolutely hate.  I don't do well with forced inactivity!  Even if I'd been picked for a jury, I probably would have spent a lot of time doing nothing and being bored.  Just my opinion.

 

After I got home yesterday, Bill needed to go to Otter's store for a tool (at least it wasn't a power tool!!) and then he wanted to go to Hobby Lobby for something else he needed for a cabinet he's building for a pachinko machine.  I made him go down the yarn aisle with me, since I'd been carting him around and I just thought he should be subjected to it!  I was looking at the reclaimed sari yarn, which I love but will probably never buy.  It's not cheap, but then 100% silk generally isn't.  The skeins are small and it will be impossible to find another one that matches if you don't get all you need at once.  I'm also not really sure how it would crochet.  But I do enjoy looking at it, it is very pretty.  Anyway, there is a point to this rambling story about yarn.  The sari yarn is on the same aisle as the wool yarn.  Which I'm allergic to.  I noticed something:  after I was near the yarn for a few minutes, I started coughing and my eyes started watering.  Big time.  And I had a scratchy throat.  Which all went away after I got away from the wool - and I also realized that I'd had that happen before when I was exposed to wool.  I'm not sure if my wool allergy is changing, worsening, or if it's always been that way and I just never noticed it before?

 

I posted about Mother's Day already, but I didn't go into details.  I wanted to mention what Otter gave me and the reason why it is probably one of the most special gifts I've ever been given:

I used to have quite a collection of Batman books.  I sold them.  When Otter was needing a new bedspread and wanted to redo her room many years ago, she was still in early elementary school or thereabouts, it was a tight time for us financially and so I sold my collection to be able to get what she needed/wanted for her room.  Many years later, she's discovered Batman (Ok, she didn't have a choice on that!) and I made sure she read this particular book - it's just that good.  Somewhere in there, I told her that I'd had this one before and she wanted to know why I didn't have it anymore so I told her.  It's been out of print for years and is very hard to find and she remembered why I didn't have mine anymore.  It's very scarce now.  But she found a copy.  For me.  For Mother's Day this year.  It really means a great deal to me, she remembered and she made sure I got another one.

 

The clematis that Bill got me for Mother's Day had a problem, I think I mentioned that it was eaten down to the ground.  It's coming back, which I thought it would.  I'm still thinking that it was the roaming bunny we've seen at times.  I'm thinking that we will need to make some type of "cage" to cover the plant and keep it safe from rogue bunnies!  Bill said he'll see what he can do.  But he first suggested that I just grab a dog or two, leash them up and attach the leash to the fan trellis the clematis is growing at.  But I'm not too sure that would work, after all this is the same two dogs that watched a bunny run right in front of them and not figure it out until it was under the fence and gone!

Finished!!

As of about 10:30 this morning, I'm donedonedone with jury duty.  I really thought that I'd be getting released today.

 

I had to be there at 9:30, but with the fact that the free parking is never as many spaces as it should be I decided to go on in closer to 8:00.  I had to go to the bank anyway, so I left a little early and still got to the courthouse shortly after 8:00.  It was harder to get a parking space than it was Monday or Tuesday, so I'm glad I didn't wait any later.  I had no problem taking my crochet hook in, although the decorative metal on my shoes did set the detector off.  I got a little crochet time in, and then it was about 9:30 so I put my yarn away and waited for the baliff to come collect us.  Sometimes, the jurors for a particular judge/trial will have a colored sticker affixed to the Juror id pin that is required to be worn.  Ours was blue.  The baliff didn't actually come get us, she called the jury room and we were told she'd meet us at the elevators on the floor where the courtroom is.  That was odd, but I wasn't sure if it meant anything or not.  Then we all got to the 4th floor, which took a few trips for everybody to get there.  As soon as we were all there and in line, she came along and took all the blue stickers off which really made me think that we were all about to be released.  Then we were sent into the courtroom and all of us, even the prospective jurors who had been in the juror box, were told to sit in the "audience" area and I also noticed that the defendant was absent.  At that point, we were all pretty sure that the trial wasn't going to happen.  The judge announced that for reasons he wasn't going into at that time, he was declaring a mistrial and that we were all released from his court but not necessarily from jury duty itself and we were to go to the jury room again.  So, we all trooped back down there and waited.  The judge had also said that he expected us to be relieved entirely, as it was Wednesday and by this point in the week most juries are already set and no more trials are scheduled.  The jury clerk said that she hadn't heard anything yet, but that it was a possibility.  So I got out my yarn and got started again.  I think it was close to 10:00 by then.

 

I didn't really get anymore crochet done at that point, I had an enjoyable discussion about our art with the other lady who crocheted and then a younger girl was very interested in it so we spent a lot of time converting her - and I think we succeeded in getting her interested in finding her crafting gene.

 

About 10:30, the clerk made the announcement that we were all released from jury duty service unless we were already on a jury or a panel but most of those people seemed to already be in their appropriate court rooms and the jury room was immediately filled with everyone standing in a line to leave.  I let Otter know by text and also Froggy, then I called Bill to let him know I was done.  I was thinking I'd just go on home because I was very tired and Bill suggested it as well since he said I sounded tired.  It took me a few minutes to check out and get to my car, it was almost 11:00 by then.  I called Bill back and suggested we have lunch.  He told me where he was at, I picked him up and we went to Goldie's for burgers.  After I dropped him back off, I went by Otter's store to surprise her with lunch money.  I went to the post office and UPS place to clear our boxes - both were on the way home.  I got home, let my very over excited dogs in and changed into my comfy jeans.  I got my grocery list together and relaxed for a while.  Then I ran to Wallyworld and I got in and out in just over 30 minutes.  The only drawback is that I had to get the groceries unloaded from the car by myself!  The dogs didn't even offer to help, although they did watch me to make sure I didn't make any mistakes! :)

 

I spent the next few hours relaxing and playing with the dogs, then when Bill got home he wanted to go to Hobby Lobby.  We waited for Otter, she got home about 30 minutes later.  I didn't find anything (I wasn't really looking) and Bill was looking for something it turned out they didn't have, but Otter found several things.

 

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not yesterday, but I recognized the name of the defendant and remembered enough of what he was accused of to know that I would not have been an unbiased juror.  If I had actually gotten picked in the first name draw and was in the jury box, I would have let the judge and attorneys know that, but I would probably have asked to speak to them at the judge's bench to not "contaminate" anyone else (which would have been fine and they actually encourage that, to protect everyone's privacy) and I probably would have been sent back downstairs to the jury room at that point.

 

I also think I know why I've gotten called so many more times than a lot of people.  The jury clerk was explaining how the jurors are picked, and it is based on id or driver's licenses like many other states.  They use the last name, the number needed is divided by 26 (the letters of the alphabet) and an even amount is taken from each letter group.  I used to be hyphenated, something I did for Dad and quit using the hyphenated last name after he passed away.  But some records still show my last name as starting with my maiden name and some have my correct name.  Basically, I'm shown as having two last names so I'm in the names pool twice.  I'm going to see about getting it all changed back to my married name and see if I can get the second name out of the files.

 

I will go back to work tomorrow, and I don't even want to know what my desk looks like!

Do's and Don'ts and Other Stuff

Don't:  Come to jury duty wearing a bright pink, and very low cut, tank top (without a bra) and then think that covering it with a completely sheer top will count as "Business Casual" clothing.  Someone did just that yesterday.  I didn't see what happened after she was called into a panel, but I'd be willing to bet she got "the talk" from either the baliff or the judge him/herself because I saw her when she was leaving at the end of the day and she was almost doubled over with the effort to hid her ample chest from ANYONE at all seeing her.  Bill wondered if maybe she thought that dressing like that would get her excused, but she was back today (and dressed just about covered chin to toes) so I guess it didn't work, if that was her intention.

 

Don't:  Tell someone that crochet hooks are not allowed in the jury room when they call and ask - and then not even stop the other lady who took hers in without a problem.  I was walking out of the restroom in the jury room today and there was another prospective juror sitting in one of the chairs - crocheting (and yes, the hook was metal).  She said that they never said anything to her.  The signs specifically say no knitting needles and a few other things (some of which make no sense at all), but nothing at all about crochet hooks.  I told her what I'd been told and that my yarn bag was in the car.  She said that she'd left her scissors out of her bag because she expected that they would not be allowed.  My plan was to get my yarn/project/hook out of the car when I went to get my lunch and work on it this afternoon.  But then I got called for a panel, so the yarn, etc., stayed in the car.  I have to go back tomorrow but I don't have to be there until 9:30.  I think I'll probably take my yarn in with me, then if I don't get picked out of the panel I'm on and have to go back to the jury room I'll probably crochet until a) I get called again or b) I get released.  (I'm hoping for b).  I'll probably go in just a bit early so that I can run back to the car with it if the hook isn't allowed, but I don't really think I'll have a problem since they obviously let hooks in.

 

I'm on a panel but for various reasons, I don't think I'll be on the actual jury.  That is obviously just my guess, so who knows really.  Usually, if you haven't been put on a jury by Wednesday you will get released.  Not always, but they generally try to get all the trials set and in motion by Wednesday so that they end by the weekend.  I sat in the jury room all day yesterday without being called, but I did enjoy talking to the people I was sitting by.  I sat with some of the same people this morning, we had a nice visit.

 

I took my lunch yesterday, I don't deal well with forced inactivity and I knew I'd be ready to walk around by lunch so I left it in the car (in the ice chest) and went back to the car for the 1 1/2 hour lunch break we had.  I took my lunch today, but I got called to a panel and we just had a one hour lunch break.  I still went back to the car to eat, it was a very short walk but at least I got to get a little exercise.  I think I'll probably just buy my lunch at the snack bar in the courthouse tomorrow, which I probably should have done today since it was cold!

 

I also think that I'm officially "the older person" because I noticed that I'm now getting asked about the way things work and the people who ask are almost always in their early 20's!  I actually find it amusing.  I try to help people whenever I can anyway, but it is kind of funny.

 

Mostly, it's been a very boring last two days.  It rained most of yesterday, I got an automated call late in the afternoon from the electric company.  Apparently, there was a big lightning strike in the area we live in and the power was out for the afternoon.  Nobody was home, and it was back on by the time anyone got home.  We had a very loud thunderstorm yesterday in the evening, nothing bad but it was noisy!  The dogs slept through it, of course.

Happy Mother's Day! There's Other Stuff Here, Too.

My Mother's Day started out with waking up to Bill, standing beside the bed with a cup of coffee in his hand for me.  I made him go get some for himself and bring it back to the bedroom.  It was a nice, quiet time.

 

We went to Church, we actually were late and got there just after services had started but at least we made it!  And the sermon was pretty much the same one last Mother's Day, which I discovered because I mark sermons in my Bible just about every Sunday.  We are noticing that more and more lately, that Pastor Dave is re-running things.

 

After we got home from Church, we finally decided where to eat today.  We went to Cici's pizza, how's that for gourmet?!  It was still good, and I didn't have to cook OR clean up!  We went to the movies, we finally got to see Captain America 2.  It was pretty good, Otter saw it a few weeks back with J and it was driving her nuts not to be able to tell me about it.  More than once, I had to tell her to sit still during the movie and not tell me about what was fixin to happen!  But it was fun.  Stan Lee's cameo was really funny.  Nobody had room for popcorn, we were kind of stuffed from the pizza.

 

We went by the booth and neatened up between lunch and the movie.  The glass lamp that I thought was sold was apparently just moved to another booth, because it was back today.  My bookends have been gone the last couple of times I've been there, so they are probably sold and I think most of my jewelry has also been sold.  There was a framed poster in our booth that was actually from the booth next to ours.  I moved it back to where it belonged, it might just have been put there by someone who was looking at it and sat it back down.  One of Bill's friends has been sharing part of the booth with us for things that are too large for his own booth (he pays us back a proportionate amount) but he's ending his booth rental the end of this month.  At that point, the part of the booth that is Otter's and mine will expand a little and we'll move to the side where Bill's friend's stuff is.  We'll still keep the booth for a while.  I brought back my crochet hooks that haven't sold, I was attempting to "thin the herd" a bit but I still have several hooks!

 

Jury Duty tomorrow, I really hope that I don't get picked for a jury.  But I'll do what I'm supposed to, if I do get chosen.  I cleaned out my purse today, I'm pretty sure that my handy-always on hand pocket knife would not be allowed!  I also took out several misc. things I usually carry but don't want to deal with tomorrow.  I have a couple of books and scratch paper (I always have scratch paper), so I might take a small tote bag as well as my (big, green) purse.  It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow and it might be "cold" in the morning, so I'm also taking my crocheted sweater.  Seems like it was pretty cold in the jury room the last time I was stuck in there.

 

I got my coleus plants transplanted today.  They are in the fountain-turned-planter in the rock garden and there are a lot of them.  I think I put twelve small ones in there, but it still looks kind of spread out.  I think that will change as they grow.  Also, my clematis looks like it's been eaten.  Nearly all the way to the ground.  I'm thinking bunnies?  Sweetie has had hers become bunny dinner before, but they have come back so I'm hopeful that mine might yet survive.

 

I was going to work on the quilt yesterday, but I decided to crochet instead.  Froggy, I'm nearly finished with the two items for you and I think I might have come up with a third one to make for you.  Also, I finally picked a cowl pattern for my mink yarn and started it yesterday.  It's probably not something I'm going to wear a whole lot, considering that it is $99 worth of yarn!

 

The beagle just sat on my right foot.  She was probably aiming for both, but she missed!  She's got such a delicate little bottom...   There is a reason Otter says Maggie has a bowling ball butt!  It feels like a 15-pounder just landed on my foot.  Actually, I think she was really aiming for my house shoes which were sitting beside my feet - they are very soft and she seems to have a fascination with them.  She seems to consider anything on the floor as fair game to sit on.  Frasier is parked in front of the coffee table, he's been snoozing for at least an hour and he shows no sign of waking up any time soon.  Yes, he is breathing!  I did check, after he hadn't moved at all for a while.  He's a sleepy boy, I guess.  Snoozing in the sun in their yard must be so exhausting, since that's what he was doing when he was out earlier.  Silly puppies.

What a Day. Glad It's Over!

It's just been a hard day.  Really tough day at work, the Teenager was every second of his 97 years today.  I was so glad to see 3:30 roll around, in fact I announced to Younger Boss that I was running off about 10 minutes early and he just waved at me - he had the same kind of day I had!  Today, the idea of being bored stiff at Jury Duty for a few days actually sounded good!!!  (Not really.)

 

We got the other two honeysuckle planted yesterday.  Everything got watered from the rain barrel.  The 2nd barrel has a spout a hose can be attached to, it doesn't have a whole lot of water pressure obviously.  But it does gravity.  (Just using "gravity" as a verb or adverb is an accepted term in the oilfield - since I work for an oil company, I am allowed to use it!)  I was not sure about the clematis yesterday, it didn't look good at all.  But I think maybe it just didn't get enough water, it was much better today and looks really good now.  I just came in from watering the plants the hose will reach.  My arms & shoulders are still sore from carting a very large, metal, heavy-when-full watering can all over the yard yesterday to get the ones out of hose reach.  They were ok today, but they'll probably get watered tomorrow along with all the ones I got tonight.

 

We still haven't planted herbs & peppers.  Otter has had some pretty strong allergy issues, mostly because of the wind and the fact that we were outside so much at the nursery on Sunday.  They are still in good shape, I gave them a little drink this morning.  Probably tomorrow is when they'll get transplanted.

 

Otter's allergies are much better.  She was off yesterday, so she spent the day inside and taking her allergy meds.  She still has some allergies, it is Spring after all.  But she's much better.  She was scheduled to work this morning, she got off at one o'clock and stopped at Wallyworld for me for the swiss cheese I forgot to get.  When I got home, she wanted to go to Hobby Lobby with me so she was outside again but she's still much better than she was.

 

I bought a quilt top in December at an antique-ish store.  The idea was to cut it in half and turn it into curtains for the bedroom.  But I changed my mind and decided it needed to be a quilt and not curtains.  For one thing, it's all hand-stitched and someone took a lot of time and care with it.  It's not huge, but it will be big enough to cuddle up with on the couch.  If Bill's nice to me, I might even let him share it!  Anyway, it has a lot of pinkish and grey shades so I was thinking either a pink or a grey backing color or possibly something with a lot of those shades in it.  So what did I fall in love with?   White with black spots!  The pattern name is Dog Spots, it looks like a dalmation.  But I think it will be fine.  I am going to re-wash the quilt top and I'll wash the backing fabric at the same time.  I think I probably have enough batting for it but I haven't checked for sure.

 

We keep seeing advertisements for the new Godzilla movie.  It looks good.  I hope it is.  Bill and I are part of the "Godzilla generation" and we remember the original movies.  The movie made a few years back was ok, but it was not really what I (or most people, apparently) considered to be "real" Godzilla.  This one looks a whole lot better.

 

While I was outside while ago, I heard the first tree frogs of the spring.  They might have been in the back tree, the one behind the shed.  I didn't look for them, I just enjoyed listening to them chirp.  Or croak?  Whatever it is they say!  I also watched a robin for a while, and it was singing a lot as well.

 

I know it's not Wednesday yet, but it is close.  I might not blog tomorrow and I didn't want to forget this picture.  So, in the spirit of Wednesday (and TEXAS!), I thought I'd post this:

 

Bill's sloooooooooowly getting over the cold-ish that he had.  The one Otter gave me and it took me a while to get over, then I gave it to Bill.  He was pretty stuff last night.  I'm not sure what time it was, but he moved to the couch sometime last night.  I remember when he got up, but I thought he was just going to the bathroom.  But apparently he moved to the couch, because I woke up again when the alarm went off and he was sitting in the corner of the couch with his pillow and a couple of blankets.  But he sounds much better tonight.

 

OK, I guess that's it!

Sunday Ketchup! (Volume 23409123891439872509)

It's been a busy week, the last couple of days especially.  Well, not yesterday so much although I did do a few things around the house.

 

We (we, being Bill) got the honeysuckle plants in the ground as I mentioned but we still needed a couple more.  So, Otter and I went to the nursery and got two more today.  Along with several coleus plants (Mom loved them) which I'll put in the fountain-turned-planter that's in the rock garden and Otter got a few herbs and 2 jalapeno plants.  The nursery has several resident animals, including a really cute little Papillion dog.  He's adorable and he pretty much thinks he's in charge.  He's always happy to see people and more than willing to get petted.  But he's a little calm, he won't usually go to people but instead waits for them to come go him - which always happens and he knows that he'll be the center of attention so he waits patiently.  Until Otter got there today - this dog has never seen her before.   But she walks in the door, his head pops up and his ears are suddenly up at attention and he runs to her so fast that I'm not entirely sure his feet were even on the floor.  He acted like she was his long-lost best friend and he was absolutely overjoyed to see her, no other word for it.  Froggy, remember Dad's gift with animals (especially dogs)?  Otter has always had a way with animals, especially dogs.  But I've never seen it quite so spectacularly as I did today.  I have a feeling that Dad would be so happy.  Otter was thrilled.

 

The resident chickens were also walking around the outdoor plants area, doing their pest-control thing and they looked quite happy (and well-fed!)  The cats were nowhere in the vicinity, they might not have been there today but the huge birdcage with parakeets and a cockatiel was loudly chirping!

 

I split another baby aloe vera off of the mail plant yesterday and transplanted it, I now have a plant hanging in all three windows in the dining room and it looks good.  There is still another aloe vera baby and I'll get it transplanted into another pot soon, probably tomorrow.  The two honeysuckle we bought today will get planted tomorrow.  It was in the low 90's today and nobody wanted to go outside again.

 

Otter's been having allergy issues all afternoon, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that we were at the nursery today for a long time and it's also windy.  We went to Wallyworld this afternoon (for more potting soil) and I got her more claritan.  She was just about out of the box she had, and she's going to be needing them a lot in the next few weeks as everything is blooming.  She's been taking them for a few days anyway, she's been having some minor (for her, anyway) allergies lately.

 

We also went to a couple of thrift stores today.  We both found books, Otter found some ponies to refurbish and I found a stuffed otter toy.  They always come home with us!  We went by the booth as well, just to neaten it up and I think a couple of things have been sold.

 

Bill's just about over the cold but he still insists it was allergies.  NOT!  But he is much better.  We didn't go to church this morning, he was still to congested and coughing a bit.  I woke up with my back hurting, I don't remember what I did but I remember doing something last week and it hurt a bit afterwards.  I had a slight back spasm on Friday but it was fine after that.  But I apparently slept in an odd position last night because I woke up with very tight muscles.  I woke up because a certain large, furry dog was barky but it was 5:45 and they are normally let out to visit the grass about 5:00 and fed about 5:30 so I'm not mad at him.  I got up, let them out and filled their food bowls and then I went back to lie down for a while because my back was twingy.  I thought I'd just rest for a while, but the next thing I knew was when I woke up shortly after 7:00.  Bill was up by that point.  Since we didn't make it to church, I had time to make waffles for breakfast.  There are several extra, I make enough to have leftovers when I make them.  They get popped into the toaster and eaten the next day or so.

 

I have a prayer request.  My sisterfriend Virginia has custody of her three grandchildren.  Her late daughter's kids.  Their father basically disappeared from their lives within just a couple of months after Sarah died.  Then Virginia lost her husband unexpectedly and she's the only "parent" these children have really ever known.  There is a very strong chanced that the 2nd child, a little boy, is bi-polar.  As in the mental illness.  He's in elementary school and the symptoms are there and they are strong.  He has been in counseling because the thought was that he was just being a bratty little boy and acting out, but it's obvious now that it could well be much, much more serious.  She's going to talk to his doctor and the insurance company tomorrow, and see if she can get him in to a doctor that can either confirm or rule out a diagnoses and hopefully, help him.  I'll refer to him as "Little J" here.  He is so young but it is very possible.  She's at her wit's end, she just wants to get help for him.

Not My Pal!

I'm referring to PayPal.  Bill called them last night.  They gave him a runaround, so he called out RHTW* and She was more than willing to play!  But I don't think the PayPal unsmart person wants to play with Her again.  (Their loss, RHTW is lots of fun.)

 

Among other things, PayPal said that 1) they never, ever, ever, ever charged anything to our credit card and that it always came out of our checking account.  I told her that I knew that wasn't true and that I had years worth of credit card statements to back it up.  2)  PayPal said that they always ask (EACH AND EVERY TIME) on a transaction which account we want them to use:  the bank or the credit card.  I "educated" her on that one, too.  She'd already tried to tell Bill that story and I think that's the one that finally convinced him that it was time for the Big Guns (RHTW.)  4)  She denied that they would ever do what they always have:  take money from the PayPal account to pay for a transaction and then the remaining balance, if any, would be charged to the credit card.  There were a few other untruths that she said, but RHTW got her on every one of them.  At one point, she interrupted RHTW (not a smart thing to do!) and I told her that it was my turn to talk and that she'd better keep quiet and listen.  Which she did, but I don't think she liked it.  I honestly gave her a chance to explain before I let RHTW out of the fence.  I also told her that I dealt with business matters on a daily basis and that I knew what I was talking about.

 

Bill finally just told her that we were ending the conversation.  Today, he got another email from PayPal.  It said that there was a charge that was refused by our bank as NSF (it was refused but not as NSF) and that they were going to send it back to the bank on the same account again within 3 to 5 business days.  That's when I went to the bank and all our accounts are now set up where PayPal can not charge anything at all.  Until the year 2050.  The lady at the bank was amused when I told her that the PayPal unsmart person learned that Redhead Tempers are not just a myth!  She said that PayPal has 3 different company id's they use, all three are blocked but if PayPal ever uses a different one we may have to deal with this again but that they (the bank) would take care of it for us.

 

Bill called PayPal back after I got home from the bank and asked them why they were going to attempt to collect on a closed account and he also told them that we told the bank to always deny everything they request.  I think he talked to a different person, she was surprised that we told them that but she said that she can't stop the transaction at this point (something else I don't believe based on how quickly they stopped a transaction when our account was hacked a couple of years ago) and that when it's refused again PayPal will then go to the credit card for the difference owed.

 

Both people we dealt with were probably not out-sourced from another country.  They sounded like they are American.  So we can't blame PayPal's ineptness on cross-cultural misunderstandings.  Just idiocy.

 

*RHTW:  Get Her riled and She'll eat you alive.  And maybe come back for seconds.

 

Bill planted all the new honeysuckle plants today, along with the clematis.  I watered them in well, the 2nd rain barrel is the one we are using mainly so that we can get it emptied enough to re-set it.  But every time we think we might get to work on it, it rains again and it gets too full to move.

Thursday Already? Thursday Already!!

It's been a long week.  On one hand.  On the other hand, it's been a fast week.

 

Whatever, tomorrow is Friday and that is all that matters at the moment.  :)

 

Along with about a billion other errands after work today, I went back to the nursery and got 4 more honeysuckle plants.  I also got my Mother's Day present from Bill - I told him I thought I wanted something for the yard but that I'd have to let him know when I figured it out.  I figured it out today, I found a clematis that should have a deep reddish pink bloom.  It's going to be planted at the fan shaped trellis that is between two of the honeysuckle trellis we put in last summer.  The honeysuckle I bought a couple of weeks ago is on those three trellises, the new 4 are for the lattice on the back fence.  The nursery I went to is a neat place, they have a huge variety of plants and a huge stock of everything.  They are a local store, not a chain and they are generally very busy.  There is a resident cat and dog, they spend their time inside the indoor store area.  Along with a bunch of parakeets.  They have a pretty unique pest control system in the outside areas:  chickens!  Big, black, furry ones - the kind that look like they have fur on their feet/legs.  They wander all over, I think they probably have a protected area to reside in overnight.

 

Everything will get planted tomorrow when Bill gets home from work.  I was originally thinking about a rosebush on the fan trellis, but I really like clematis and so do hummingbirds and butterflies.  Roses are a possibility in the future, but Otter is very allergic to roses so I decided to plant something else there.

 

I also went by the booth and collected for the sales in April.  When I took that to the bank, they asked me about an account that I closed and were wondering if I knew a check had come through it.  The only account I closed was the one the checks that were stolen were written on.  I was in the drive through, the teller told me to come in and talk to someone inside because she thought it was fraudulent and if she hadn't told me, I probably wouldn't have known that there was an issue until the bank mailed me the notice.  She told me to come inside and start the fraud charge paperwork so we'd be protected, which I appreciate but it turned out not to be necessary.  But if I hadn't had a deposit to make, it would have probably been days still.  It turns out that it wasn't actually a check written on the account, I was afraid that we were about to have Round 3 in ID theft to deal with.  A few days back, Bill bought something online and used PayPal to pay for it.  PayPal has goofed up more than once, usually involving taking the wrong amount or taking it from the wrong account - it's supposed to be charged to our credit card but way back when we first started using PayPal, it was set up to come out of the checking account.  Which is the account we closed when the checks were stolen.  In 2007, I think.  Guess what PayPal decided to do?   For no good reason that we can figure out, PayPal apparently decided to go back to the old checking account instead of the credit card!  We've updated and changed things with PayPal many times, yet they keep screwing up and each time it's worse.  The bank refused the charge, since the account was closed and wanted to charge us $22 but they took the $22 charge off and Bill's going to give PayPal "What For" tomorrow.  At least it's not ID theft, like the bank originally thought.

 

The April sales at the booth were better than I thought, Bill sold one pachinko machine and a couple of things but most of it was my stuff.  We're going to keep the booth for a while longer, it would be nice if we could sell another pachinko machine.

 

Is it Friday yet?  Almost.