Happy 4th of July! (And Other Stuff, Too)

Home of the free, because of the brave.

 Now, for the other stuff:

 

 Froggy, it might be a few days before I can get anymore work done on Uncle Crazy's blanket.  Blame one of these:

 

 

Left hand, forefinger just below the lowest knuckle on the inside of my finger.  The Alaskan ulu knives have to be carefully hand washed and the water has to be kept from the wooden handle.  We used ours on pizza tonight, and it worked wonderfully by the way.  But when I was getting ready to wash it, it had a little cheese still stuck on it so I rubbed it on a wadded up paper towel that I had in my left hand.  And that's when I learned just how razor-sharp they really are!  It's not a bad cut, but it is in a bad place.  And I'm a Redhead, so of course I bled.  A LOT.

 

The final week day of our vacation started out with going out for breakfast.  We discussed the Hog Trough, but they don't offer breakfast during the week so we went to a local well-known place and had a really good meal.  Otter and I went shopping, Bill begged off so we took him home first.  Among other places, we went to the mall.  I wanted to get some leather cleaner/conditioner at the Coach store.  They carry it, no problem at all with getting it.  But then I made a mistake (well, I don't think it was a mistake...) and talked to the sales clerk.  She promptly told me about the specials they have and the clearance corner had plenty of specials!  Needless to say, another Coach bag came home with me.  $298 marked down to $149, black leather and it's very nice.  Love it when I get a good deal!  They also tossed in another dust bag for the one I got at the outlet store in Austin, one came with the new purse and I also bought the cleaner/conditioner.  Otter was more than willing to enable me help the sales clerk with her pitch!  Yes, I know - 1 or 2 is fine but 3 makes a collection!

 

We went to a thrift store before we took Bill home, then Otter and I hit another one.  We also went to our favorite used book store and found a few books, and we hit Wallyworld.  Apparently, we are among the few people who DON'T wait until the last minute to get supplies for things like picnics on the 4th of July!  They were so crowded.  We found the smallest checkout line and got in it, then a lady from the jewelry department was roaming the lines and getting people with small enough amounts of items and checking them out in the jewelry department so we didn't have to wait as long as we could have.

 

We had "cardboard pizza" from wally's deli for our 4th of July dinner (the ulu knife worked so well on it.)  Otter found her sparklers from last year, she also had a few smoke bombs and some poppers but I'm not sure if she's going to set them off with the sparklers or not.  But I did tell her that I had a heavy-duty yardstick to duct tape to her back if she needs to be held upright!!!

 

The living room has been reclaimed from the pachinko mess junk trash pile work area.  Bill got it all finished up this afternoon.  Otter and I got all three of my yarn drawers moved into the living room, after I vacuumed and cleaned up the area where the pachinko stuff has been for the last few years.  While we were at Wally, I bought two under-bed Rubbermaid type boxes and we put a lot of the stuff that had been in tote bags and on the shelf in the office closet into them.  There is still some stuff that is in our closet, and a few other things that were on my desk.  But they will eventually find a better storage space.  They're out of the way now, mostly anyway.  I'm going to move one of the plants, probably a peace lily from the bedroom, to the sofa table.  We're also going to get mini-blinds for the living room window and I think at that point I'm going to get rid of the curtains in that window.  I was going to go by Lowe's today, but I decided to wait and do that one day this week on the way home from work.

 

Now, it's time to enjoy the fact that I have my living room back!