Time Flies When You Are Having Fun?

Or when you just get busy and forget about blogging.

It's been over a month since I last even thought about blogging and that was on Star Trek Day.  Guess I'd better get caught up.

Well, for starters Maggie Moo has spent a lot of time visiting the vet.  Her ears were still bothering her so she had to spend more time on the abtibiotic and steroid plus the vet injected the ointment into both ears again.  She finally got over that and then she had a spot come up on the top of one of her toes on her right foot.  We thought it was a tick at first, it was not noticeable on a Thursday but on a Friday it was there.  But it was too late to call the vet so we had to wait until Monday morning.  By Monday morning, it was obviously a cyst and was much larger.  The vet saw her that evening and told me to bring her back the next morning because he was afraid to leave it on any longer since it was growing so fast.  Because of her age, 12 years, he didn't want to put her completely under so she got a little stronger than a local but not quite anesthestized.  He said it came off easily and while she was groggy he also got a few of the skin tags she's developed over the years.  The cyst that was removed from the top of her head a few years ago acted like it was trying to come back, it was a little larger, so he hit it again too.  She was in a cone for a few days and was not happy!  I don't blame her, but that was the only way we could keep her from chewing on her foot.  She got pretty good with that cone, she was very proficient at running into my legs.  She figured out how to eat and get water with it.  But she was glad when it came off and stayed off.

I took Otter and her best friend to see the 30th Anniversary special showing of the movie Labrynth.  It was a lot of fun, we had pizza for lunch and went to a book store since we had plenty of time before the movie.  The movie was very good, it has always been one of my favorites.  But it was also very emotional, for all three of us.  I had plenty of kleenex on hand and we needed them!  I'm glad that Otter was finally able to see it on the big screen, she had only seen it on dvd.  The movie was re-released on blu-ray for the 30th anniversary and I bought it as soon as I saw it.  We had a copy, but it moved out with Otter 2 years ago!  It was released in two versions, one is just the movie but I bought the special one which is neat.  The case looks like a book.  It has a special "Remembering the Goblin King" but I have not watched it yet - too emotional!

We tried a new recipe.  We made pizzas on frozen garlic bread.  We used the sliced Texas Toast version.  It was actually pretty good, but they were not very filling.  We will probably make it again, but we will use more sauce than we did the first time.

Texas played ou and it was not our year.  Since I never got around to getting a Longhorn sticker on my newish car, we didn't have to deal with any of the idiots this year.

Speaking of the newish car, it did have a problem.  After I got my oil changed, the "check engine" light came on and the oil change place checked it for me (it was a couple of days later.)  It was the vent valve to the gas tank and was covered by Chevy's warranty so it didn't cost us anything.  Which is good, but I must admit that when I saw the "check engine" light my first thought was the 2002 impala and all the trouble we had with it!

Otter and I went thrfting one day and we both found several things.  I found a couple of skirts, a nice cardigan sweater and I found this:

It's probably not handmade, but it is also not new.  It's at the very least vintage.  It has a Made in Japan tag, and it was made back when that actually meant something special.  I handwashed it, but I didn't have any place to lay it flat to dry so I had to hang it over the shower curtain rod.  It stretched out a lot more than I wanted it to, so I hung it back over the rod but sideways this time.  Then I sprayed it with water until it was between damp and soaking, and it stretched out sideways.  As it did, it pulled the length back up a bit which is what I was hoping it would do.  It's still longer than it was when I bought it, but it's not too long to wear.  And I will find an occasion to wear it!  It's hanging over the shower curtain in this picture.  It's very delicate and was $2.00 or possibly less.

October 1st was two years since this:

That's Bill's car (the el camino) with nearly everything Otter owned at that point.  She has more furniture, etc. now than she did then so it would take more than one truck load to move her.  Not that she's in any hurry.  The two moves in the same complex last year were enough for her for a long time.  She did consider moving last summer, but that would also have involved a job transfer to another location her employer opened in a near by town but she decided against it.  She's been in her current apartment for nearly a year now and she's going to see about renewing her lease when it expire at the end of November.  She would like a 6 month lease but is probably going to have to sign for another year.  She likes her apartment, it's not too far from work or us and it's close to a lot of things.  But she would like a slightly cheaper rent and that would probably mean a little farther from work. She is thinking that IF she did decide to move to a cheaper apartment, it would be easier to do that in the summer as opposed to the Fall/Winter since her lease runs to the end of November.  Either way, she likes being on her own with no romemate to worry about!

And The Stars Look Very Different Today

I have always loved music in (nearly) all it's forms.  I was an original Kiss Army member, the Bee Gees are way up there for me, I like a lot of country music and I really like all genres.  Prince has always been a favorite, mostly because he is very unique and somewhat ahead of the trends.  But through it all, there has always been one artist that I would call my absolute favorite.

From the first moment I heard is music in the early 1970's, there was no doubt.  He was so far beyond brilliant, there are simply not words to express the depth of his gift.

He wasn't simply a trendsetter.  He WAS the trend. 

Ziggy played guitar...

And he said goodbye to us with his last work.  That in itself is a special gift to all of us.

He succeeded wildly at it.

It certainly was never boring while he was here!

A look at the life of David Bowie

I've seen several different people that this quote it attributed to.  But it sums it up perfectly:

"If you're ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie."

Hackers

We've been hacking and coughing for days and days.  The cold bug Bill shared with me is still hanging around.  It's actually a lot better, but I have asthma and it has been triggered big-time.  He still has the cough but he doesn't have asthma so even though he's still coughing, he's actually better than I am.  I'm getting there, it just takes a while.

It's been a busy week, even with the cold.  Bill has been thinking that he needed to get a second-hand car to drive, with the intention of parking the El Camino until at least the Spring.  It doesn't like winter and it hates icy weather.  But then Otter's car has been acting up and he's had to deal with it for her a few times.  It's still having the problem with the radiator/air/antifreeze, etc., that it was having earlier.  He thinks he knows what it is, but the weather was cold and rainy and then he was sick.  In additional, he took the El Camino to get something checked and since it's a 1976 it's kind of hard to get the part!  So, we decided it was time to just buy me a new car, Otter will get the 2008 I've been driving for a few years and he will get the 2002 that we sold to her earlier this year.  Sold being a not totally descriptive term!  Anyway, we went back to Enterprise this week and bought me a new toy.

We got a really good deal on a really nice car, it's a 2015 Chevy Impala (silver again) and it has less than 14,000 miles.  It still has the majority of the original warranty so we did not buy an extended warranty on this car.  It does not have the remote start feature, which I'm sure I'll miss in the winter, but it is bluetooth enabled and my phone is compatible.  I've enjoyed that feature, actually.  We got a very good financing offer and the payments will start in January.  When we first discussed buying a new car for me last year, I commented that I was tired of silver cars but apparently silver Impalas are just what we're supposed to have.  Not that I'm complaining!  It also has a sunroof, which I will use some but probably not that much.

The 2008 will officially be transferred to Otter and the 2002 will be transferred back to us, probably sometime next week.  We'll go to the insurance company and take care of all their needs in person, because it's going to be a little confusing.  Same thing with the tag and titles, since we are playing musical cars at the moment.

Otter and I went to the flea market at the fair grounds today.  Our favorite movie guy was there and he did his usual "discount and deal offers" which is part of why he's so much fun.  We usually buy a lot of movies from him.  Today, he had something that I've been wanting for a while but have never, ever managed to find:

This one is very rare.  Extremely rare, in fact.  He had it priced at $30.00, (which was already a very good price) but he let me have it for $20.00 with the stipulation that I buy another movie from him - which was already going to happen because I had another one in my hand and so did Otter, but he knew that - he's a lot of fun and he always makes good deals.  Then he gave us a free movie.

Bill's activities for today included replacing the faucet in the kitchen sink.  It started leaking on him this morning and when he took it apart the gasket basically disintegrated in his hands.  He went to Lowe's and found a similar one that would work and he had it installed by the time I got back from literally spending all day shopping with Otter.

I'm still coughing and actually have now lost most of my voice.  Which Bill probably thinks is a good thing, but I'm going to convince him that it is actually a bad thing!  Until then, we're watching animated Star Trek!

Serendipitous Fleas

We ventured into Tulsa today.  Twice, actually.  The first time, we went to the Tulsa Flea Market and had a good time while we were there.  We found the movie guy and bought a few movies.  I saw a few Fenton pieces but I didn't buy any.  Bill saw one pachinko machine, but it was a modern and his machines are vintage.  But the seller said he does come across vintage machines sometimes, so Bill gave him one of our cards.  We went to a few other places after the flea market, then came home and just did stuff around the house.  Bill's cell phone was kind of going crazy today, he's had a lot of calls lately about pachinko repair jobs but then he got a call that was from the guy we gave the card to this morning.  Or that's what we thought, anyway.  He said he had several machines and that he wanted to sell them.  So, back into Tulsa for us!  Turns out, he was not the guy we gave the card to after all.  But he got the card from him.  He had mentioned to the man who had the modern machine that he had several vintage machines and wanted to sell them, and the seller gave him our card.  Bill almost didn't go with me to the flea market today, I think he's really glad he did!  The man had 7 machines and they are all vintage.  He and Bill came to an agreement on price, $40 each.  To prove that we will get the rest of the machines tomorrow (we were in my car), Bill bought one of them today and it turned out to have a couple of special features, so he thinks he should to give the seller another $10 for it tomorrow and then the rest will still be $40 each.  We can't get that many machines in my car, so after church we'll take the El Camino and get the rest of them.

I think I need to go buy more yarn now!  After all, Bill's stash has increased.  So, shouldn't mine?!

Otter's moving plans are firmed up.  They will go in to the apartment early in the week and sign the new lease.  They are going to move into the new apartment on Friday, but Otter has to work Friday morning.  I'm going to take off early, probably around noon, and head over to their apartment but I'm probably stopping to pick up a couple of pizzas first.  We will move as much as we possibly can on Friday afternoon, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to get it all moved then or not.  They will pay rent on the old apartment for one day, Saturday (the 1st) and then we'll get it finished up then.  They may pay for Sunday as well, because along with moving out of the old one and into the new one, the old one will need to be cleaned.  But I'm thinking that we can probably get it all done Friday and Saturday and finish cleaning on Saturday afternoon.  It won't be a lot of cleaning.  Vacuuming, the bathroom is small so it won't take too long to clean, the kitchen is probably the biggest but it won't be too much to clean either.  Once everything is actually moved, they can unpack, assemble, etc. as they have time.  The main thing is going to be getting everything across the hall and out of the way so we can clean the old apartment up.

Something tells me that today was a lot more fun than next Saturday is going to be!  :)

Not Ready For Monday Yet

But Monday is on it's way, even if I don't like it.  :(

I spent Friday hiding from the world.  In other words, I was home.  With spring allergy induced asthma!  Except for when I went to Wallyworld to get Otter's allergy medicine and talk to the pharmacist to see if there was anything that I could take.  That would actually work on me!  The pharmacist was not exactly a redhead, but his beard had quite a bit of red in it and he was familiar with the Care of Redheads.  He knew all about the way we metabolize things and he said he has some of the issues with the Redhead Curse.  After talking to him, I think I'm still stuck and unable to take anything for my allergies since they will either not work or work in unexpected and unpleasant ways.  I'm just glad that Otter has a couple of things she can take.

Bill worked on Otter's car again today.  He bought the specific part that he replaced once already, which is supposed to be what the "check engine" light was coming on about.  When we took it in to chevy a couple of weeks ago, the manager cleared out the system and the light went off.  Bill was afraid it was going to come back on again so he went to the auto parts store and bought the part again.  He got it from a cut-rate internet based auto parts company that we've used before.  Cut rate only implies the general price, we've always had good luck with their parts before.  Except this time.  So Bill was expecting to have to replace the part again.  Yesterday Otter texted me that the "check engine" light was back on.  She came over after work to do laundry and she talked to Bill about the car.  He told her to bring it back today since it was cloudy and threatening to rain all day yesterday.  But she had to work all day today, so we went to her store and Bill got the car then.  He brought it home and let it cool down for a few hours.  He replaced the part today and also cleaned out a specific hose that could be contributing to the problem.  The hose might need to be replaced as well, it looks like is might have been crushed a bit by either Chevy or (more likely) the crooks we used before.  The light is out and Otter's going to watch to see what happens.  If the hose does clog up again, Chevy will probably be where we take it to get it replaced - but not the Chevy dealer we've been using.

I did manage to get some crochet in yesterday.  And my arm hurts today.  It was already hurting, the crochet made it worse but I have got to get one specific project completed by June because it's for Froggy's daughter!  I hate tendinitis.

Movie Review:  The Book of Life.  Don't bother!  I was disappointed with this one.  It looked so good from the previews but it was not very good at all.  They did get a few of the cultural references right, but not all that many.

Bill got out the grill this afternoon.  We had steaks for dinner and he has leftover steak for lunch tomorrow.  He also grilled chicken breast and that will be dinner tomorrow night with some rice I made.  While he was at it, he grilled hamburger patties so that will probably be Tuesday's dinner and since there were 6 patties it will probably be a couple of day's meals.  I won't have to cook much this week, which was the general idea!

We went back to the Methodist church today.  We enjoyed the service.  At this point, we are seriously leaning towards joining this church.  It's time to talk to the minister about a few things and then we'll decide.

I went to Michael's today to get paint.  I am going to put up new outlet covers and a new switchplate in the craft/front/guest/YARN room.  Bill said he would get me something printed up on the sheets he uses for backgrounds on the pachinko rooms - the same stuff car wraps are made from - but I couldn't find a picture that would work.  I was looking for a specific yarn or crochet pattern, but the only things I could find were either knitted patterns or the definition was not very good.  But Otter and I went to the dollar store yesterday while her laundry was in the dryer and I found some really neat stickers.  I think they are made for scrapbooking, but they are going to work perfectly - they are crocheted doilies!  They are almost white color on a clear background, I bought some pinkish paint and I'm going to put that on the outlet covers and switchplate.  Then I'm going to decorate them with the stickers.  But I have to finish the other painting project I have started, the shadow box.  I did a little more on it today, but I have to wait for the paint to dry completely before I can get back on it.  After it's finished, I'll get the outlet covers and switchplate done

That is about it for today.

Spring?

I know it's not officially Spring until this coming Friday.  But it sure feels like it today.  It was rainy all day Friday, into early yesterday morning.  Then it was cool and overcast most of yesterday.  But today started out nice and has stayed that way.  Warm-ish but not hot, the sky is blue and beautiful.  It's slightly breezy.

Unfortunately, things are beginning to bloom and I'm a little sneezy when I'm outside.  But it's worth it, at least so far, just to get to be outdoors.  The ground is a bit soft from all the rain and it is muddy in places - my dogs have spent quite a bit of time decorating the kitchen floor with a paw print pattern!

We had intended to go back to the Methodist church today but we overslept.  We'll go back there next Sunday.  Bill brought me a cup of coffee in bed this morning, it was nice to sit in the dark and wake up slowly.  I still am not a fan of Daylight Saving Time!

Otter came over yesterday to do laundry. We went to Wallyworld and I got sheets for the futon, as well as a couple of pillows.  I also bought a desk lamp which is very similar to the Pixar logo.  I didn't realize that until the cashier mentioned it - he was a friend of Otter's from high school, which explains why he always looks so familiar to me!  Anyway, the lamp works very well beside the desk.  Bill checked the light fixture in the ceiling and found out why it was so bad - two of the three bulbs were burned out!  Amazing how much brighter it is in there now...

As we were walking out of Wallyworld, there was a girl scout troop setting up a cookie booth.  Needless to say, we bought some.  I have about 7 or 8 boxes in the freezer, I'd like to get a few more boxes, hopefully I'll see at least one more booth but they only sell them through the end of March I think.

My tendinitis is really bad in my left arm.  It's actually better than I've had it in the past, it's just that I keep forgetting about it and using my left arm for something I shouldn't and then it hurts.  So, I'm forcing myself to take a crochet break.  Believe me, it ain't easy!  I had a few craft projects I had on the shelf but hadn't gotten around to yet so I'm working on them now.  I got the base coat of paint on the shadow box and part of the first coat of blue.  I was hoping it would only need one coat, but I think it's going to need two for an even color.  Otter always says that it is not a good day unless she gets paint (or markers, glue, etc.,) on her hands.  So I guess it must be a really good day for me!

Movie review: Big Hero 6.  I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  It's funny and the storyline is good.  A little predictable, but still good.  The animation is pretty good.  The best part?  The Stan Lee cameo!  It's actually an end-of-credits scene but it's really great.  Bill told me to put this one on the "to buy" list.  It was cute and I highly recommend it.

Just a Dusting Today

Both snow and real dust!

The forecast was for a light dusting of snow, dry and no ice really expected.  They seem to have gotten it right, which is somewhat scary in fact! :)  Anyway, it's very cold and that actually started last night.  The flurries were supposed to start overnight but they were a little later than expected.  It might have finally quit now (mid-afternoon) but the snowfall was heavy at times this morning.  It's only sticking a little bit on the ground, it's a fine powder and grainy.

I've also been dusting in the living room.  We cancelled the satellite tv service a couple of weeks back, since we pretty much never watched it.  Even before Otter moved out in October, we didn't watch it very much and we watched it even less after she moved.  We probably should have cancelled it a while back but it didn't really occur to either of us until we decided to switch internet providers.  The equipment was rented, I couldn't remember if we bought it originally or if we were using their.  Since it was theirs, they sent us a box to return it to them in and a list of what they needed back.  Bill had to get on the roof and get something off of the dish itself, which he did Thursday - before I got home, even though he insisted that I had to be here in case he did what he's known for!  When I got home with a carload of groceries as originally scheduled, he'd already been up there and got the piece.  The receiver box, both remotes and some other equipment needed to be unwired from the tv and that's what we did this morning.  We had to get the attic access cleared again because some of the wiring, etc., was in the attic.  Bill didn't realize that until AFTER he'd put all the pachinko machines back in place after the recent clogged drain/leak we had.  So, all the machines had to be moved back out of the way and Bill got to get up in the (very cold!) attic this morning.

While he was up there, he also got another plastic shelf set out for Otter - he couldn't find the last piece so she's getting a 4-shelf unit instead of a 5-shelf set but I don't think she'll care.  She has a complete one now, she's using it as her pantry shelves since her apartment doesn't really have one.  She wants to use one as her craft stash shelf since her dining room is now becoming her craft room.  I think she'll probably use the 5-shelf set as her craft shelf and switch the pantry stuff to the 4-shelf unit.

Also, Bill got a small wooden rocking chair that was stored up in the attic.  It was Otter's when she was a toddler, she used to sit in her little rocking chair in the living room at our old house and play with her toys or watch Sesame Street on tv.  She used it a lot and she still has fond memories of it.  It's hers and will always be, but I'm going to use it as a decor item in the craft room (that's what I'm calling her old room today.)  I'll post pictures later, when I get it situated.  It was pretty dusty, I didn't realize that it was not wrapped or boxed but was just up there.  I wiped all the dust off when I was dusting the rest of the living room and I think I'm going to hit it with pledge or whatever wood cleaner spray I have - I forgot what kind it is.

The main dusting was the entertainment center, which I hadn't done in a while, and the Fenton glass that was on it.  After the satellite receiver was undone and off the tv, Bill also removed the surround sound unit.  It was going out, two of the four speakers quit a while back (the ones by the couch) and Bill took the rest of it down today.  All that's left besides the tv is the vcr/blu-ray and the vhs recorder (we occasionally use it) and that left two shelves empty.  Which means that we now have enough room for all the dvds/blu-ray movies we have and the Bibles which were stored on one shelf are now being moved to my library shelf so I have plenty of room for the Fenton now.  I dusted it as I put it back on the entertainment center and it's only somewhat arranged.

I did quite a bit of rearranging in the craft room yesterday.  This is the current state of the Stash:

The two smaller drawer sets are stacked on top of the 5-drawer units.  The purple one in the corner doesn't have the wheels on because one of them kept falling off so it looks shorter than the rest but they are all the same size.  I took the wheels off the two smaller units.  On the flatter set, the top drawer is holding the doilies for my eventual curtain and the white 3-drawer set has netting in the middle drawer instead of actual yarn.  The netting will be used for dish scrubbies, eventually maybe if I ever get around to it and my skin cooperates!  Netting is pretty hard on the skin when crocheting with it.  I did get a little more yarn at Michael's last week, but the Stash hasn't really grown much.  I just spread it out a bit.  I have labels in front of each drawer showing what kind is in the drawers.  The two with TEXAS stickers has the Really Good Yarn.

I would love to actually get to use it, however the tendinitis is really bad at the moment.  It was getting better, treatment is mostly just resting my arm and I've been doing that.  But I did aggravate it a bit when I was rearranging my craft room yesterday but I was still able to put two rows on KN#3's blanket yesterday.  But then we had to move stuff around today and all the stuff I've mentioned already, and the end result is that my left elbow really hurts right now.  I'll rest it again a few day and let it recover.

This is the doily project I have in mind.  This is the window at a specific vintage/antique store that Otter and I go to whenever we get a chance.  When we were in there a couple of weeks ago, I asked it I could take some pictures since I got my idea here originally.  The lady that owns the store was quite happy to let me and very interested in what I'm going to do.  She wants to see a picture when I get it finished, but that may be a while.  It will take a huge number of doilies.

She used a pink fabric on the curtain rod to give her curtain a little color but I'm using different colored doilies in mine and it's going to be on a window that will have a minblind so I probably won't use the fabric underneath it.  Also, she has a shaped pattern and mine probably won't.  She said that her doilies are pinned together but I'll probably sew mine to attach them to each other.  It's really pretty in person and she did a great job.  I've bought a lot of my doilies there, she realizes that they are not worth a whole lot of money and sells most of her for anywhere from 50 cents each to a buck or two for the bigger or fancier ones.  Which is a fair price, but I still see them in antique stores/booths for several dollars each - for the little, plain ones!  They aren't that hard to make, I just don't like thread crochet and I don't mind paying a little more for the old ones or intricate ones.  But plain doilies in one color with basic stitches?  No.

Otter come over yesterday after she got off work.  She brought the car back for Bill for this coming week, brought her laundry (of course!) and brought fixins* for the salsa she planned to take to J's Oscar watch party today.  She used my Ninja blender to make it.  I suggested she make more than she intended to, salsa has a tendency to disappear fast and hers is pretty good.  She used Bill has her taste-tester and then she make sure to leave him a bowl full.  He ate his already!  Anyway, she had asked me to take her to J's mom's house for the party and since we were concerned about the weather for today I actually took her over there yesterday.  J's mom was glad to see her and she'll be there for a couple of days.  On the way, they live in a small town that's not exactly neighboring to our small town but is still pretty close, we went to a thrift store.  We went to Goodwill and they were more crowded than I have ever seen them.

Turned out, all their clothing was 50% off and they were selling a lot of it.  Otter and J are going to TNT this summer, they have already decided on their cosplay and Otter's basically consists of a purple suit (pants and jacket) and a bright green shirt, with a bright orange necktie.  She found a pair of pants that are slightly too big but we can take them in easily.  She found a blazer style jacket that is not even the same brand and the pants but it's almost the exact same color, it might be a little big but that will actually work for what she's going for.  She found a long sleeve not quite acid green shirt and the entire outfit costs her less than $10.00.  She is probably going to buy some bright orange fabric, possibly felt, and make the necktie.  She's going to use on of Bill's ties as a pattern template.  The pants and blouse were fine to be washed in the machine so I tossed them in with my laundry today.  The jacket has to be dry cleaned, I was going to take it this morning when I got out before the snow got too heavy (it never did actually get heavy) but they were closed  I'll drop it off tomorrow and pick it up Thursday.  She's still working on the shoes she'll need, but she does know she'll need a short green wig - bright green.

This is the costume idea, the Joker and Harley Quinn from Batman, specifically from The Animated Series:

(Ignore the small kid in the middle of the picture, this just was the best picture I could find that would show the costume characters).  The Joker has a darker tie in this picture but her idea is orange and a regular necktie, as he's shown in a couple of different ways and the orange tie will still be Joker appropriate - it does matter in the cosplay world!  Same thing for the shoes.  The makeup will be easy, basically just white with bright red lipstick for the Joker's mouth and probably Harley's as well but I'm not sure about that.

However, there is a twist to their idea.  Figure it out yet?  Go back and reread the paragraph before the picture if you haven't quite got it yet.  I think they have a wonderful idea and it will probably set them apart from just about anyone else who decides to go as the Joker and Harley.

Which is what they are going for, actually.

*Fixins is one of our favorite words!

Christmas 2014

(I've been trying to post a Christmas related graphic, but blogger isn't cooperating.  Bill had to do some work on my computer to fix other things that the last update messed up, and he thinks that wonderful(not) microsoft may have installed Windows 8 on my laptop.  Which they weren't supposed to do!)

 

It's been a good day, but a different one for us.  As Bill said, this is the first Christmas since we met that we haven't either had to run somewhere or had people over here - we've never actually had a "just us" Christmas before!  It just happened that way this year.

 

Christmas morning was nice, we had coffee and quiet time on the couch.  Bill had been up for a couple of hours by the time I got up at about 6:00 a.m.  The dogsters had already been let our for a while and fed, but they got a 2nd breakfast after Bill cooked the bacon - a little dry kibble with a little bacon grease on it.  Which they loved, not that there was ever any doubt about that!

 

We had a couple of gifts to open, but we saved the ones from Otter until we can have Christmas with her which will be sometime in the next several days.  Possibly not until the 1st, it depends on her work schedule after she gets back from her trip.  She's texted me a few times today, they are having a good time and she's really enjoying it.  She said that they might go see the movie Big Eyes this afternoon.  That one sounds good, it's one that is on my list to see but it might be when it comes out on video.

 

We are having steaks for dinner tonight, but it's 35+ mph winds so we're going to broil them in the oven instead of Bill grilling them.  It's sunny mostly, and warm.  The weather forecaster yesterday was talking about it being an above-average, unusually warm Christmas this year.  To which Bill replied "not for us!"  It's actually a little cooler than "normal" for us, even after 20 years here (nearly 21 years in fact), we still think of Christmas as being warm.

 

I finished one of my crochet projects, the scarf I was making for Sweetie.  I still need to fringe it, but the scarf itself is done.

 

At the moment, there is a fuzzy blanket at my feet.  Underneath that fuzzy blanket is a pile of fur in the shape/size/colors of a beagle.  Said pile of fur is snoring!  Loudly.  Both dogs had a bacon grease-induced coma for a while this morning, they've gotten to play outside in the back yard a couple of times but they always, always come back in and go back to sleep.

 

An afternoon nap sounds good, actually.  But it's a little late to take one, unless I want to be up all night.  Which I don't.

 

I am probably going shopping tomorrow, but I'm not going to join the mayhem of shopping After Christmas.  I want to look for a card table for the front room, to use when sewing.  I might make it to Lowe's for a miniblind for that room, and there are a couple of other things I just need to get.  But if I happen to be in wallyworld or anywhere that sells Christmas ornaments, I'll probably at least look in that department.  I'm collecting ornaments for the wreath I'm going to make.  It takes a lot of ornaments and I have several, but it take a bunch of them.

 

Well, the fur pile underneath the blanket just shifted position, I think she is awake now.  But not for long!! :)

Early

We have a tradition of going to the Dollar store on Christmas Eve, and if we can, we also go to a thrift store.  It didn't start out to be a tradition, it just kind of became that.  Otter will be out of town over Christmas, she's going with J and his mom to spend Christmas with his mom's family - and she's nervous about "meeting the family" also!  :)  They are leaving on the 24th, so we decided to still get our traditional shopping in.  We just did it early!  When Otter brought her laundry over, we went up to the dollar store and it was very crowded.  We also went next door to WalMart for something I wanted and they were busy but not as busy as I've seen them on a normal day.  Otter did not let me forget about a thrift store, we hit Goodwill as our last stop.  She found a couple of things there, I did not but it was still fun.  They were pretty busy, too.

 

While she was here, Otter got her chocolate chip cookies made to take with her over Christmas.  She made a few dozen and Bill got the "leftovers" so he's not feeling left out.  Actually, her got the ones that were a little too brown but he's not complaining.  :)

 

What I bought at WalMart is 4 Rubbermaid boxes with lids to hold Otter's fabric stash.  They hold about 18 gallons and stack well.  They fit very neatly into the closet.  I combined two smaller, flat boxes and one large flat box into three stacking boxes and there was still room for a little more.  I have one more box to fill and two flat boxes to empty still.

 

We finally rented the movie Guardians of the Galaxy.  I might be in the minority, but I really thought it was stupid. Not good stupid, just stupid.  Otter saw it when it came out and she liked it already.  Bill enjoyed it, but I was really bored and not amused.

 

Froggy, I did finally discover that Blogger has added the word verification to all the blogs.  It's an anti-spam measure, I'm not so sure it works though.  I still get spam comments, but they don't go through because I have comments emailed to me to approve.

 

As of today, Billyboy has one week left in being married to a younger woman!  I catch up with him next Saturday.  Toadles, you still don't get a motorcycle!

They Actually Got It Right!

It snowed.  They got it right! Start time, duration, coverage and amount.  Which might be a sign of the apocalypse!  The point is, we got snow and no ice.  The ground was warm enough that it melted on streets but cold enough that it stuck on lawns and grassy areas.  Otter had the car, she got to work fine but it didn't start until after her shift started.  When she headed back to our house, it was still coming down but not too bad.  She did have to clean snow off the car, however.  She hasn't really driven in it, and today wasn't really bad conditions but it was still a new experience for her.  She'll eventually have to drive in bad conditions, she does live where we get winter after all.  But I'm not in any hurry for her to have to!

She brought her laundry and we cleaned out a few of her books while it was in the machine.  I took her home, with a detour to Tuesday Morning.  I found the other towel I wanted and a bathmat, finally.  I think the guest bathroom is finally done!  There's still a little work in the guest/craft/YARN room but I've been doing a little in there as I have time.

 

I got two rows put on Otter's blanket today.  I didn't work on it at all yesterday, I had another crochet project so I did get to play with my yarn and even de-stashed a little (tiny, very small) bit!  But my elbow muscles are a little sore today, which is a tendonitis issue, so I'm probably going to take a break from it for a few days.  I don't like it when I have to take crochet breaks!  But it's either a break for a few days or I don't get to crochet for days and possibly weeks if I push through and keep doing it.  So, a break it is.

 

Meatloaf is in the oven at the moment.  I made pinto beans yesterday, we'll have some of those with the meatloaf and I'm going to make brown gravy - yes, Froggy, it is Pioneer brand!  We had discussed Bill's Famous Mashed Potatoes but decided against them tonight.

 

I have been reading the Stephen King book, Dr. Sleep, this week.  It's the sequel to The Shining which was tremendous (the book, not the movie - the movie was typical of King's books that are turned into movies:  completely different and frankly not that good.)  It's really good and I enjoyed it.  But it's a little different than most of his books.  It's slower paced and the action scenes are a little less, as well as not as intense.  But it was still good and I am glad I finally got a chance to read it.  But there is one other difference:  it has an actual happy ending!  That almost never happens in his books, while specific characters might have better endings than most, very often the main character dies or doesn't have a happy life afterwards but this one has the stereotypical "happy ending" and it was a nice surprise.  This book is on my "to buy" list, I borrowed it from someone.  When Otter cleaned out her books, all her Stephen King books became mine (but she has visitation rights) and she had quite a few.  I'm thinking that I'm going to attempt to collect all his works.  For the most part, Stephen King is an author that you either really like or really dislike.  Obviously, we like him.  But his best work, in fact probably my all-time favorite book, has to be The Stand.  It's also the only one that really worked on film, and that's because he controlled everything to be sure it was done right.  It showed.  I just might have to watch the mini-series again, we have it on dvd.  When I have a couple of days to do nothing else!

Just a Matter of Time.....

Getting There!

I'm not surprised.  At all!

 

It's been a somewhat busy day, for a Sunday.  I saw a pachinko machine in a craigslist ad last night, it was for an antique-ish store in Tulsa and the ad was actually for the store so nothing was said about the machine.  But the machine was pictured, so we decided to go look at it today.  We went by the booth first, then we picked Otter up to take her somewhere (she has a way home, she just needed a ride to meet J since she brought the car back yesterday).  After we dropped her off, Bill and I headed to a Chinese buffet and had a nice lunch.  We eventually found the store, although it was hidden and hard to see - exactly opposite of what their craigslist ad said!  The machine was overpriced, $85.00 for a machine missing some major parts and with some dirt and also the seller said it was from the mid-1940's.  It's actually from 1977, there is a code to date them.  The owner of the store called the booth owner to see if she'd go lower, she said $50 but Bill didn't even want to go $40. He would have gone to maybe $35, but we weren't surprised that she didn't want to come down so far from her $85 price.  So we left without it, but Bill left one of his cards with the owner.  It was still a fun shop, Froggy we might go back there when you visit me next time.

 

After we got home, I got busy in Otter's old room.  We had been thinking that the craft stuff was going to get put in the attic, but I decided to put it on the shelves in the garage next to my work bench since there's probably a lot of stuff that I would want to use.  I have been consolidating some of the boxes, Otter didn't pack them as much as she just tossed things into boxes and I made 3 or 4 boxes out of 6 or 7.  Today, I emptied the remaining craft stuff out of her desk, moved the much smaller stack of boxed craft supplies to one spot, moved the boxes that will go to the attic to another spot and then got the vacuum.  I vacuumed the spot where the craft boxes were originally stacked, then I moved the desk to that spot.  I vacuumed where the desk was, after I spent quite a bit of time on my hands and knees picking up beads that had fallen behind/under the desk!  There are still 3 picnic baskets, they mostly have her sewing stuff and some fabric and will probably be stored in the closet.  There is also a plastic drawer unit that has some craft stuff, some misc. stuff and some stuff that I don't have a clue what she wants to do with it.  In the middle of her room is a fairly good-sized stack/pile of boxes & misc. stuff that she's going to go through next.  That will leave the closet.  I opened the closet yesterday to see how big it actually is, and it kind of exploded on me!  I told her that she has until Thanksgiving to have it all done/cleaned out/sorted/taken home with her/donated and she agreed to that.  After the pile in the middle of the floor is done, I'm going to take everything out of the closet and it will become the pile in the middle of the floor to go through.

 

Maggie Moo helped me in Otter's room today.  She stayed in there almost the entire time I was in there.  She did her pedicure, groomed herself, scratched for a while and took a nap.  She was a big help!  The most movement I saw out of her was when I brought the vacuum in and she had to scoot out of the way.  She didn't scoot very far, just enough to get out of the way and then she went back to sleep.  Frasier stuck his head around the door a few times but he never actually came inside.  The dog block/baby gate has been moved back to where we can get into the hall bathroom without having to climb over the thing and now the dogs have realized that the first bathroom is open to them.  However, as that is where they usually get bathed they have almost no interest in going in there!  Frasier has peeked in there a couple of times (my dog the peeping Tom!) but he won't actually go into the bathroom.  Maggie Moo followed me in there once, then she suddenly realized where she was - talk about Deer in the Headlights!  She hightailed it out of there as fast as she could get those paws moving.

 

Before we left the house this morning, I got Otter's remaining shoes boxed up to take to her (she was going into shoe withdrawel without her shoe stash!  She was very glad to get the boxes with her shoes) and I found evidence that last winter's mice were nesting in her closet.  Specifically, in one particular short boot - it was filled with feathers that had previously been in the craft supplies and it looked like a mouse had actually made a nest IN the shoe - I left the feather nest intact so Otter could see it - trust me, she's her Mother's Daughter and she thought it was neat.  I'm sure that I'll come across more evidence when I pull the rest of the stuff out of her closet.  There are still some clothes in the closet, but mostly spring stuff and I think that there are probably more cosplay pieces.  And more craft/sewing stuff!  She's got a bunch of belts and a couple of purses, and I also noticed that her Black Belt is in there.  I was wondering where it was, but apparently she knew it was in the closet.

 

Otter and J saw the movie, The Book of Life this afternoon.  She texted me that it was really good.  I hope so, we were afraid it was going to ruin the idea of the Day of the Dead but she said they really enjoyed it.  Eventually, Bill and I will see it.

 

It did get pretty cold overnight Friday into Saturday, but not quite as cold as it was supposed to be.  It was below freezing, but not more than a couple of degrees.  It was a freeze, just not a hard freeze.  It was cold enough to have a fire yesterday morning, which was really nice.  I don't think any of my plants were affected, but the pepper plants are probably through producing fruit anyway.  Unfortunately, the freeze was not enough to kill much, if any, of the stuff we're allergic to.  It's been very windy today, which does not help a bit.  If I'm not sneezing, Bill is.  I set the humidifiers up Friday night and we'll be using them for the next several months.  Otter said she thinks she'll probably get one.  We'll see how she feels tomorrow after the dentist and maybe run by Wally or Target to look at them if she's up to it.

 

I did get a couple of rows added on to Otter's blanket yesterday, I never quite got around to going to the antique/junk store I planned on, but at least I did get some serious crochet time in!

Sad News

The ones that burn the brightest, burn out the soonest.  Too soon, way too soon.

Robin Williams was a super nova.

Otter said it's like losing a favorite Uncle.  But to me and Bill, he will always be Mork from Ork.  He was something special, there will never be another one like Robin Williams.  We are all poorer for his loss.

It's a Jungle Out There!

Or at least it looks like it in my front yard.  I called someone we know and he is going to either come out here in the next day or so, or possibly send one of his crew over here.  Probably tomorrow.  Maggie Moo will be pleased, she's afraid of getting lost!

 

Bill's doing pretty good, just a little stir crazy.  Not that I blame him.  It's hard not to use your hand, but he's trying very hard.

 

Froggy, I know what you mean about women and their purses.  Many times, I've seen a woman shopping and the basket with her purse in it is either behind or, our several feet away.  I've seen more than one nearly be stolen, just my presence and obviously seeing the person has been enough to have the would-be thief walk away.  Otter has noticed it pretty often as well.  In fact, if she and I are shopping together and notice it we will make a point of walking by the basket/shopper in question and loudly (so that she hears us) commenting to each other how someone could have grabbed that purse and the owner would never have even noticed it.  Otter thinks she should print up cards to leave on top of the purse with words to the effect of "I could have stolen your purse and you'd never have seen me" as a warning.  I remember one time walking into a grocery store and hearing a woman yelling that her purse had been taken out of her basket.  I also went to Sunday School with a woman who had her bag stolen out of her basket at a clothing store.  There are enough bad people in the world, why make it easier for them?  But it happens.  Very frequently.

 

Migraine today.  This is the 4th one this year.  I usually average about 3 per year.  This is only August, I still have several months left in 2014.  I hope that it is not a trend!  I did have ranch dressing on my salad yesterday, I usually don't eat ranch dressing unless I can read the label on the bottle because it usually has msg by the ton in it, but this was a prepackaged salad and I just didn't think about it.  Hidden Valley brand is one of the worst, and it's also the most commonly used ranch dressing.  Well, it does taste good.  I think it's the most likely culprit.  The headache hit about 11:00 or so, I had planned on getting lunch and bringing it back to the office so I could crochet but crochet and migraines do not mix!  I was a little nauseated, which is also common with migraines.  I went ahead and ate lunch, I had a tuna sandwich at Subway and it helped.  I managed to stay at work but I left about 30 minutes early.

 

Otter needed to get something at Hobby Lobby and I had already asked her to wait for me so I could go with her, so I forced myself to go (not that it was all that hard.)  I actually need to buy yarn this time, I bought 5 skeins for Uncle Crazy's lap blanket but it's going to take 6.  At least.  I cruised the yarn aisles while Otter was getting her stuff, the fall colors are starting to come out and they are nice!  I was able to resist, but I'm not making promises for any future trips!

 

Froggy, you do realize that you are now an Official Conscript of the Pachinko business!

 

We just saw an advertisement for a can't miss movie:  Into the Storm.  All I got to say is, Yeah Right!  As Otter says, anybody who lives in Tornado Alley should know just how B.A.D. that one is going to be.  I'm pretty sure we'll pass on that one.

Trekkin' Monday

Monday ain't exactly my favorite day, but when I turn the tv on and pick a station at random and its showing (Original Series movies) TREK, it's always a good day.  Especially when it's one of two specific # movies - both are even-numbered, in case you are wondering.  (Even Numbered Trek Films Don't Suck).  The best one is the 2nd one, The Wrath of Khan which we refer to as TOS TWOK, or sometimes just TWOK.  Tonight's movie happens to be # 4, The Voyage Home or TOS TVH or just The One with the Whales.  I think the station may be running a marathon, because # 3 was just ending when I turned the tv on.  Which means that I'm turning of OFF OR CHANGING THE STATION as soon as this one is over, because nobody (I mean NOBODY) watches the next one!

In fact, we don't even refer to it by number if we can avoid it.  And we do avoid it, at all costs.  It's the one we prefer to forget about and frankly, wish it had never happened.  It's just that bad.  Well, it is an odd number - the oddest of them all!  (It was originally meant to be the last in the series of TOS movies, but we are all thankful that the powers that be realized that to end TOS with that drivel would probably be the final Sign of the Apocolypse.)

 

Otter just came in and saw what was on tv.  Then she yelled "It's the One About the Whales!"  There are times when I feel sorry for Billyboy, he's a little outnumbered on multiple levels.  :)

Anyway.

I've been doing some research on coyotes because I'm wondering about some of Frasier's habits.  Such as more or less walking with all four of his feet in "single file" (putting each foot in the step of the one in front of it.)  Coyotes do that, it turns out.

Like this:

 

That's coyote tracks in sand, but it's a pretty good example of how they walk.  With Frasier, it's more the front feet than all four but he will walk with all four feet in a line at times.

 

Bill is probably going to start getting firewood soon.  The lumberyard had a sign out that they have firewood available now.  $10.00 for a pallet full, we'll get at least two of those and maybe a third one as well.  So, he went out into the dog yard and checked on how much we have left from last year's.  He thinks it's about half a rick, or about a quarter of a cord.  He got out the chainsaw and cut some of it to smaller lengths - yes, the chainsaw and no injuries!  I cleaned up after the dogsters, they leave little "gifts" in the grass and Otter normally get that job (Lucky! Not really) but she was down with a migraine all day yesterday so it didn't get done.  So, I got the job today.  I dug down into three different mole trails in the back yard, found the tunnels which are very shallow and then I left them a "gift in the tunnel before burying it all.

 

It is going to be pretty cool this week, for last July.  It could well be in the 80's this week, and we may get rain Wednesday and/or Thursday.  Guess I'd better get busy and get as much water out of the rain barrel as I can.  I discovered today that the dog's outside water was growing another crop of skeeters.  The frog has not been seen in a while, we were afraid he might have become snake or hawk food but I almost stepped on him yesterday morning when I went out on the deck.  He was hopping around and seemed quite happy.  Otter was watering the crop (jalepenos!) so she watered the froggy as well - he seemed to like it, then he hopped off into the honeysuckle area at the edge of the deck.  He probably hopped back underneath the deck after that, he sometimes stays under there.

 

Speaking of frogs, tomorrow is Froggy Day!

Warm Wednesday

OK, it's not bad weather at all for this time of year.  It's warm, but it is not hot at all.  It is supposed to be like this the rest of the week.  A little on the cool side for this time of year, but it is really nice.

 

Yes, Froggy.  I do remember Mom taking us to the zoo many times.  But I don't remember the story about Uncle Buck's kiddo and the water.  Was that maybe before I showed up, or maybe I was too young to remember?  I know we went to the zoo with "the cousins" as we referred to them, many times.  I do remember the elephant rides, and also monkey island with all the monkeys and goats.  We also always went to Breckenridge Park after the zoo and rode the train.  The Tulsa Zoo has a train, but it is inside the zoo.  We usually ride it, but we were all hot & tired yesterday and didn't take a train ride.

 

Today's vacation fun was shopping.  Unsuccessfully, I might add.  I went to the booth store and the store you reminded me about, I saw a few things but nothing that really "talked" to me.  I think that Otter and I are going thrifting for a little while on Friday, and to at least one fabric store.  Yes, Froggy.  I will get the pattern and license plate for you!  There are actually several on the list you sent me that are in the general area of where I live or close enough.  Otter won't let me go to a fabric store without her.

 

I got two rows on Uncle Crazy's blanket this morning.  I was hoping to have more time to work on it this week, but not so far.  However, I don't think that anybody has anything planned tomorrow so maybe I can get in a crochet marathon.

I stopped at the liquor store this afternoon.  And taped to the front door are 4 pictures:  three of the same man and one of a woman.  And all of them are shoplifters, the pictures came straight from the security camera and there is a sign with the pictures:  "WE ARE WATCHING YOU" written on it in bold letters.  I talked the clerk, she said that they have been in several times and that the clerks all know them on sight now.  There is usually only one person working at a time there, she said that the pictures were taken when she was working and that she knew what they were doing - they were pretty bold about it, but that she was by herself and really was afraid to confront the man.  I told her she should grab her phone and dial 911 as soon as they come in the door the next time.  She hadn't thought about that, but I think she will do that if they come back again.  I don't blame her for not wanting to confront the man, but they really should have more than one person working at any one time.

Bill is watching a particular movie at the moment.  From 1975.  One with a very specific and well-known musical score that will still cause a chill to the blood:  JAWS.  The original one.  Being part of that generation, I remember seeing it in the theater right after it came out and being absolutely terrified - not of the ocean or swimming in it, it was just a very scary movie.  But it never kept me our of the ocean, and we used to go a couple of times per summer.  But I do remember the first summer the movie was out - when apparently a lot of other people did let it keep them off the beach!

Humid Sunday

So I'm spending most of the day inside.

With my yarn, mostly.

Not ever!

 

Anyway.  It did rain a little bit this afternoon.  Just enough to make the already humid day unbearable.  Bill needed to readjust the block of wood holding the window glass in place in the driver's side window on the White Lightning.  It was sunny, but when we went outside it was raining.  But it was SUNNY at the time.

 

Otter's off with J today.  Bill's been working on a pachinko machine for someone who wanted a full restoration.  I've been doing laundry, in between crochet!  Froggy, I've gotten quite a bit done on Uncle Crazy's blanket.

 

Otter spent yesterday afternoon working on her cosplay for TNT.  She was going to make a circle skirt, she saw a tutorial online that we were going to use but it had some problems.  She put in her measurements and it came up with a pattern, but it was not written very clear so we gave up and she went to Wallyworld to see about an actual pattern.  Which is what we/she should have done in the first place!  She got the first layer cut out (it's a double skirt) and we figured out what length it will need to be.  But we got a late start on it, so we didn't get as much done as we wanted.  I say "we" but mostly my participation has been cutting out pattern pieces and helping her hold it on to see how it's going to fit.  She will be getting it done this week.  She's also going to make a blouse to go with it, she bought enough white fabric to make a full length ballgown style dress which was the original plan - same character, just a different style dress.  However, even though the skirt is smaller, it took up most of the fabric so we went to Joann's today and she got some more white fabric.

 

Frasier was a talky boy last night.  I should say this morning, to be accurate.  As in 2:15!  I hollered at him to be quiet and he did - for about 5 minutes.  Then he barked.  I went up the hallway and told him to go lay down.  Loudly!  He did, and didn't make noise again until about 4:45.  At that point, I let him out and he just about flew out the dog door.  I went back to bed at that point, I didn't wake up until around 6:15 and they were waiting patiently to be fed.  I fed them, got the coffee ready and then took it back to bed (the coffee, not the dogs!) to have with Bill.

 

Movie review:  The LEGO movie.  Otter loved it, she saw it in the theater and since she was off yesterday she got to pick the movie we watched.  It came out Friday, and that's the one she rented.  I'd been hearing a lot about how good it was.  So we were looking forward to it.  Frankly, it was probably the worst movie we've seen in years!  And that is saying something, because we have seen some absolutely awful movies.  Otter still enjoyed it, I'm glad for that.  But we didn't.  Bill's turn next Saturday, I'm not sure if there's anything out he wants to rent or not.

 

I went to the Salvation Army store in the "expensive" part of Tulsa on Friday.  This store is strange, the people who are in charge of pricing and display very seldom seem to know what they are doing.  The will usually have something that is actually worthless or worth very little displayed in the locked case with very high prices on it.  While the real "good" stuff is out on the shelves and priced at almost nothing.  I've found more than one expensive piece of Fenton for next to nothing that way.  Friday was no exception.

 

This is not the one I found, but it is one of what I found.  Mine doesn't have the sticker.  But it's in perfect condition, and it was $3.99.  While a coach purse that was so obviously fake a blind mouse could spot it from a mile off was in the locked cabinet with a price close to $200.00!  This is the same store where I found the cactus Vaseline footed compote a few years back for $2.00.  This one:

I already had one of the nappy (candy dish) pieces but I was wanting another.  However, I'd have bought it at that price even if I had a dozen.

 

I am taking the car to Chevy in the morning.  I hope that it's a 2-day job and not a 3-day repair.

 

So does Otter, otherwise I might have to drive the car she shares with Bill!

I Finally Found It!

I've been looking for this one for years, no exaggeration, years.  Many of them!

Otter and I went to the flea market yesterday, and the man with the movie booth was there.  He usually is, and he usually has a lot of hard-to-find movies, especially the vintage ones and lots of the "B" 50's sci-fi movies we love.  I had just about given up on ever finding "Them" but he had it!  It was part of a set of two 50's sci-fi movies and it was marked $10.00 but he had a special and it was actually $5.00.  I bought several other movies and he told me to pick out another one for free, but I would have paid the original $10.00 price for this one.  Actually, I would have paid a lot more.  "Them" was one of the early cautionary tales about the danger of nuclear testing, and it was a serious movie at the time.  I now have my Top 4 (War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing and Them) and several others, but I'm still on the hunt for a few.  But at least I now have this one!  Otter bought a bunch of movies as well and she also got a freebie.  We don't go to the flea market very often, but we usually find several movies for our collection at this particular booth.

 

We went to the booth today and closed up the 2nd booth addition.  Now, we're back to the original size and at the moment it is just pachinko machines.  I might occasionally put something in it, but for now I think I'm glad to be done with my part of it.  As an experiment, it has been a success.  I had more sales than I thought I di in May.  But the stuff that was still there has been there for a while, and several items are from when we first started the booth.  I've dropped prices on things occasionally, and sometimes sold them.  But the stuff that was still there hadn't sold and I don't think it would have, some of it has already been taken to Goodwill but some of it has been put back where it was.  Such as the 3 or 4 Fenton pieces that didn't sell, and a few other misc. things.  Bill cleared out quite a bit of the Useless Collection (shot glasses), he's still got quite a few though.  Otter sold some of her creations, so everybody got something out of it.

 

It's been really humid the last couple of days.  Yesterday while Otter and I were at the flea market (it's indoors) it rained just enough to make it humid.  We were fine in a nice, air conditioned car.  But when we got out of the car, my lungs more or less shut down just on the trip from the car door to the front door.  Today was just as bad, and I've tried to stay inside as much as I can.  Which is hard!

 

I've been having issues with my jaw again.  I have TMJ Disorder but it hasn't really bothered me for years.  It's probably been about 25 years since I had to have it treated, at the time there were two main treatments:  a retainer that graduated in size to hold the jaw in place, which is what I did.  Or surgery, which turned out to have a very bad rate of failure and quite often causing severe and lasting consequences.  I've been having an occasional pain in the general area of the left side of my jaw and finally today it started to really hurt.  Since I have dentures, my jaw has a little more movement than is best at night but I left the top denture in Friday night and it was much better.  But I didn't leave it in last night and I should have.  It's really bothered me a few times today.  I'm going to sleep with the top denture in for the next couple of days.  You really aren't supposed to leave dentures in all night, the main concern is bacteria getting trapped but that really is more on a long-term basis.  I can use heat if I need to, I've been taking motrin and trying to remember all the tricks to keep my jaw in place that I used to have to use.  It is actually better this evening, I just have to be very careful the next few days.  Mom had issues with it although I don't think hers was very severe.  Otter has had her jaw pop a couple of times, but the dentist doesn't think she'll have bad problems with it like I did/do.  It ain't fun!

 

Frasier was a little barky this morning, but it was nearly 5:30 and nobody had let him out yet.  Maggie Moo has a new trick:  she howled in her sleep yesterday afternoon.  She sounded so funny.  They are very spoiled babies!

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.

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.