What I Did On My Summer Vacation

It was actually a very tall, fluffy pile.

I think I should have gone just a slight bit shorter, but it works.  I like it and that's what matters.  But my hair is doing what it is known for - springing up and I still have my TEXAS Big Hair!

Still At It

Posting here, that is.  For a while anyway.

I finally got my car registered.  It only took several calls to Enterprise to ask them where the registration paperwork was - and the last few were more than a hint of *RHTW getting on them.  The last time I talked to them, last week, they promised me that the paperwork had been overnighted to me but then it turned out that the paperwork had just been mailed the regular way and even then it arrived several days after they said it would.  It finally arrived on Saturday, too late to go to the tag agency to get it registered while it was still within the 30 days from purchase.  After 30 days, then you get charged a fee for each day until it's registered.  But the lady at the tag agency remembered me from when we switched titles for Otter and Bill last week, I asked her then what would happen if the paperwork was late then she didn't charge me for the extra day when I got it registered today.

I was able to get the recall taken care of on the 2008 Impala last week.  It's now officially Otter's car, and Bill is the official owner of the 2002.  He's still having issues with it and we may be taking it to a Chevy dealership to ask them about the thermostat.  I'd like to take care of that this week, but it might actually be next week because this is a very busy week for us.

We're both back to work today, last week was vacation for me but Bill had several holiday days off.  He was off for 2 full weeks, I had a week plus one day off.  I really, really did not want to get up this morning, I kind of enjoyed being able to sleep in almost every day last week!

We may get more winter weather this week.  There is the possibility of a little bit of a winter mix late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning.  Also, this weekend is supposed to be pretty cold.  Bill cleaned the fireplace this afternoon and brought in a lot of firewood.

Otter came over yesterday with a lot of laundry.  While her 2nd load was in the washing machine, she and I ran away for a shopping trip.  We went to a thrift store and also to Target so she could look for a waffle maker.  There is one at Target she might get.  We also finally got our annual family tradition Christmas Eve trip to the dollar store - we just did it on January 3!  It was still fun, it was just several days late.  :)  She also walked Maggie Moo with me, Maggie Moo does not like the fact that she doesn't get walks when it's cold.  But she's quite happy with the cold weather meaning a fire in the fireplace!  Little goof.

Yep, she's a goof.

Cold. Tired.

It's cold today and I'm tired!

Yeah, I know.  Not a very imaginative title.

Anyway.  It was very rainy all weekend, especially Saturday.  I had to go run a couple of errands, and literally every time I was inside anywhere the rain would quit.  When it was about time for me to leave and go outside again - yep, the skies opened up!  I would have preferred to just stay home and not have to deal with seriously bad rain, but that wasn't possible.  There waags a lot of street flooding, so I picked my routes carefully.  But I still wound up having to drive in a few absolute downpours.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my birthday.  For the next 6 months-ish, Bill and I are the same age.  He wanted to go to the Hog Trough (Golden Corral) for their breakfast buffet but I really didn't want to because we would have eaten too much.  So we had breakfast at home then we went to an antique store I haven't been to in a while (didn't buy anything) and then to a thrift store (found a real sun tea jar for Otter) then we came home for a while.  We decided to go to dinner so we went to a local place we've eaten at before and it was good.  I don't have chicken fried steak all that often, but we both had it last night.  The servings are huge, so we brought about half of each of our steaks home and Bill finished them for dinner today.

Bill is doing what he usually does when it's either vacation or holiday time:  he's sick!  I was thinking he might have the flu last night, but now I don't think he does.  He has had some fever but I don't think it's been very high - not that he will let me take it!  But he has his normal rash he gets after fever today, and he usually is on the mend when that starts, or at least is over most of the fever.

We've been home today, which we probably would have been even if he wasn't sick.  The rain converted to sleet overnight, which means that the forecasters got it right and wrong again. Right because we did get a little winter weather, but wrong because we were only supposed to get a small amount of sleet and the main storm line would be ending well west of us.  Of course, we had a pretty heavy sleet fall most of the morning followed by snow in the afternoon.  It was a good day for soup, and since Bill has been under the weather himself lunch was potato soup.

Tomorrow morning, IF the forecast is correct and I'm able to get out, I'm taking Otter's car to Chevy to get the ignition recall taken care of.  Then I'm going to pick her up from the not-exactly-next-door small town that J lives in, she went to OK City with J and his mom for Christmas and they came back on Saturday instead of Sunday or today like they originally planned because of the weather forecast.  We are also probably going to get the car titles officially switched.  The 02 is in her name and she will transfer it back to us, and we will transfer the 08 to her.  We have to get everything notarized and then we can get it all switched.  We would have done it a few weeks back, but the title never was sent to us for the 02 when we transferred it to Otter so we had to order a copy.  I also had to call Enterprise because they still have not sent me the information to register the 15 in our names.  The paper tags are only good for 30 days, and I'm on day 28.  I called them the other day and they said it takes 3 weeks normally.  We are well past the 3 week period and I told them that I was very concerned about the fact that we still haven't received the paperwork.  I know that the loan has officially gone through because we looked it up on the loan company's website and it looks like they've paid Enterprise.  I waited until after the mail came today, not that we ever really get mail other than mainly junk mail at home, just to be sure - although it was supposed to go to the post office box and as of Saturday's mail it still hadn't.  The person who handles that was already gone for the day but they promised to check first thing in the morning and will overnight the paperwork to me if necessary.  We'll see if they do what they say, they generally do so I expect them to actually call me tomorrow.  I hope so, *RHTW really does NOT want to have to educate Enterprise!

Maggie Moo has been really funny the last few days.  We have always given a specific type of "bone" as a treat to the dogs, Frasier would always take his outside and eat it immediately.  Maggie Moo would wait, she would put hers where he could see it and then she would wait for him.  If he even acted like he saw it, she would turn into the canine version of *RHTW on him!  The last one we gave them was on March 12, their "beffday" and then Frasier crossed the Rainbow Bridge just over a month later.  We have not given her any of them since then, but we thought it had been long enough that maybe it would be ok and she'd just eat it so that was her Christmas treat.  Well, she was certainly happy to get it.  But she didn't eat it.  She kept putting it in place where it was obvious and impossible to miss.  She acted like she was waiting on her Big Brother Fraiser to come attempt to get it and a couple of times we wondered if she was looking for him again - she hasn't done that since several days after he left us.  We decided that maybe it was a mistake to give her that type of treat after all, but then she started doing something else:  she kept hiding it.  She would "bury" it in whatever spot she could - her beds, her blankets, under the blanket I was using, behind things, etc., and she kept moving it.  After a while, Bill started unhiding it and moving it to where she could see it.  She would hide it again.  This went on for a while, and she was actually bringing it to Bill to hide from her after a while.  She had a great time playing with Bill, and he enjoyed it as much as the beaglebrat did.  Today, she finally decided it was time to actually eat it.  She seemed to enjoy it.  They come in packs of 2, so there is still another one.  She won't get it anytime soon, she doesn't need the extra calories!  But eventually we'll give it to her, and then if she still acts like she's waiting on Frasier then we will switch to a different treat for her.

I will probably post my year-end review in the next few days.  There have been quite a few things that I have not posted about but that have made this one of the worst years we've had in quite a while.  And indications are that next year might not be much better.  It's not all bad, there have been some good things and we are Thankful.  But it's been a rough year and 2015 has not been one of our better years.

Quick Stuff

Otter's problem with the apartment is situated.  I'm not going into a lot of the details here, but there were issues with Roomie as a roommate from shortly before Christmas and it never got any better.  It involved Roomie's inability to keep a job but there were other issues that came up later.  Although it turned out to be the wrong move in a lot of ways, things did get better when they moved to the larger apartment.  But then other things happened and Otter told Roomie that when the lease was up next summer it would be time for separate apartments.  Unless Roomie had another job issue.  Which she did.  She may have gotten another job but Otter wasn't really sure if that was true or not.  Saturday night, shortly after midnight, I got a frantic call from Otter because she had discovered Roomie packing to move out on Sunday.

She's pretty sure that Roomie did not want her to know and was going to move out when Otter came over to our house to do her laundry.  But since she did find out, we were able to be over there and not let anything other than Roomie's possessions actually be moved.  There was a lot that happened and that's what I'm not going into, but the upshot is that Roomie's father is the biggest bully I have ever met and I am pretty sure that I'm the only person in his life who has ever stood up to him.  It was pretty nasty and involved literally watching every single move anybody made (including Roomie and her brothers) and a threat on my part to call 911 - and I do NOT bluff.  (And it also involved a very strong visit from *RHTW, full blast and full strength.)  And it was pretty obvious to everyone that the bully in question is now afraid of me and frankly, I'm glad.  Otter wanted her dad to come over at that point and he did, he got there after I'd already given the bully an extremely strong verbal lesson but I'm still glad he was there because I really did not know if the bully was going to back down or not - he did, but I really wasn't sure at one point.  The bully would not even look at Bill and I think he was scared of Bill as well.  The bully was absolutely horrible to Roomie and I think that she grew up being treated like something less than human, which explains a few things about her but does not excuse them.  His wife acts like a whipped dog, one son is obviously not the favorite although I think he got treated better than Roomie, but Roomie's twin brother is treated like he's God.  Hopefully, Roomie will be a ok but I don't think that any of us will ever hear from her or see her, unless it's accidental.  I did tell her that she did not have to put up with being treated like that, but I don't know if it will make a difference for her or not.  She had over a year away from being treated like dirt, we hope that she'll at least take away from the experience that she can be an adult and that she does not have to put up with that.

(I can be very fierce when my daughter's safety, health and happiness is threatened.  And Bill would probably be even more fierce.)

One of the concerns Otter had, and we shared, is that if Roomie did move out when she wasn't there that Otter's belongings might not be there when Roomie was through and I think it was a valid concern.  The bully told Roomie to get "everything" out of the kitchen, and I told him very firmly that the majority of the kitchen stuff belonged to Otter because we bought most of it.  Then he told her to just go get the microwave that they bought her, which makes me think that Otter's concern was right and that at least the kitchen stuff would have been gone and quite probably more of Otter's belongings.

After all the not-fun stuff was done and they all left, Bill helped her move her tv from her bedroom to the living room (they'd been using Roomie's) and he stayed for a little while to make sure that the bully in question OR his daughter did not come back and then he left.  Otter and I followed shortly after that and came home, I brought her (and her laundry) with me and we left her car there to look like she was still there.  She did her laundry, got some serious beagle therapy and we went to a store we needed to go to then I took her home.  When we got to her apartment, she wanted me to stay a while so I did.  Roomie had returned her keys to Otter,although Otter had to ask for them - which was also a problem with the bully, he did not want Roomie to give them back and then he was pretty mad at Roomie when she did give them back.  Roomie told me that she had never given the keys to anyone else including her parents - I don't think she did and neither does Otter, but we aren't 100% certain.  But there are 2 locks on the door and they don't match, Roomie only had the key to one of them.  Since the apartment office now knows that she does not live there any longer, they most likely would not let her in if she came back and asked them to let her in.

Even though Otter was exhausted last night, she said it was already less stressful knowing that Roomie was gone and she didn't have to deal with the problems anymore.  Roomie had already paid for her half of November rent, I reminded her that she was legally responsible for the entire half of the rent until the end of the lease before her father got there and she said that she would pay her half and since she had already given Otter that half, Otter did not say anything to remind her of that fact just in case she wanted it back or in case the bully did.  It would not have been returned.  Otter knows that Roomie has no intention of paying any more even though she legally should.  I think Roomie thought I meant just November instead of the entire remaining lease amount but at this point, it's ok.

One of the things I told Roomie, and I told her a lot - which Otter wanted me to do but I probably would have anyway, is that I wanted her out of my daughter's life.  I told her that I am not going to pick Otter's friends, but that she (Roomie) does not act like a friend does and that she's caused too much trouble.  Otter said that she agreed with me.

Otter talked to the apartment manager this morning as soon as they opened the doors and explained what had happened.  The lease did have a clause that she could have used to get out but it would have cost her a pretty good amount and she would have forfeited the deposit.  But the manager said that they really don't want to lose her as a tenant and they are going to let her transfer back to a one-bedroom unit.  The one that she had before has already been rented, but it was above a serious smoker and there were a lot of times when Otter would have asthma, allergy and headache issues because the smoke would come up through his ceiling/her floor.  So it's just as well that she can't move back to that unit.  I also think she'd prefer one that is "hers" entirely at this point, that never had Roomie in it.  The manager said that there are a couple of single units, one is in the same building although it's at the opposite end.  Actually, it's a separate building because of a firewall but it is two buildings built against each other.  The unit will be ready in about 3 weeks, probably not Thanksgiving week but the week before that.  Possibly even a little earlier.  The deposit will transfer, I don't remember if the manager said that they would charge her a pro-rated amount or not and I don't think she cares at this point.  She went ahead and took their offer and she paid the final rent for the 2-bedroom for November while she was there today.

I went over to Otter's after work today and she is 100% away from the stressed out, tired and worried girl she has been lately.  She has really not been able to relax and enjoy being in her own apartment for the last several months,   She said her stomach has been in knots for days, but it's not any longer.  She said that she could actually feel the stress leaving her body.  She is looking forward to moving into an apartment she can afford on her own, although it will be tight, and being able to decorate how she wants to.  The move itself is not going to be fun:  out her door, down three flights of stairs, out the door and down to the other end of the building, in the building's door, then up three flights of stairs and into the new apartment.  Quite a bit of her books and craft stuff is still boxed from the last move, but she's going to get boxes tomorrow and I'm going to go over there one day next week and help her pack.  She cleaned out some stuff before the last move but she said she may have more stuff to donate.

I just want my daughter to be happy and I think that she will be.  She knows that she'll have to be very careful financially but she is willing to do what she has to do.  If she had not been able to transfer to another apartment and had wound up having to pay to get out of the lease, she would most likely have put her furniture into storage and then stayed with us until she could get enough $ together to get another apartment, which would probably have been a month or so but she wouldn't have wanted to move back in long-term and I understand that.  We will never let her go without a roof over her head and a place to sleep, or a meal.  But she wants to be a responsible adult and we respect that.

The next several days are still going to be very busy, we are going to be dealing with getting the new booth built and then loading it with pachinko machines so I may still be away from the blog for a few days.  But the biggest worry we've had has been situated and we are Thankful.

*RHTW.  There is nothing She will not do to ensure Otter's safety.

Alright Already!!!

(Froggy, that title is for you.  :)  NagNagNagNag...)  (Just kidding you know.)

First things first.  Fun stuff:

(Notice that the girl minion is a REDHEAD!)

This is the little, wooden rocking chair that my parents gave Otter when she was about 1 or so.  They brought it to her and it was love at first sight, she loved that chair and wanted it to stay in the living room.  She sat in it when she watched tv, she rocked her baby dolls in it, and she was very attached to it.  When she outgrew it, it held stuffed animals.  When we moved to our current house, it went into storage in the attic.  When she moved out and her room became the Room The Yarn Stash Lives In, it needed something and that something was Otter's little rocking chair.  My stuffed, TEXAS-related animals are now sitting in it and the rubber crocodile underneath is also Otters.  Well, hers and mine actually - and his name is Crickey.  The chair and assorted animals occupy a space in the Yarn room.  The yellow yarn ball is in Baby Bevo's hands and so is a crochet hook - the long piece of yellow yarn is actually the first (and probably only) piece of crochet Otter ever made.

It's supposed to look like Baby Bevo is crocheting.

(Billyboy, this one is for you.)

This one isn't really appropriate for my work, but it does apply to someone I know who has to put up with really bad stuff at work.

This one?  Well, it obviously applies to me!

OK, now that the jokes are out of the way.  My Fenton collection increased last week.  Otter and I went to one of our favorite junk-tique places and I found something:

(That is a stock photo and not mine.)  I've been looking for a piece of Fenton in the color known as Amberina.  I found a huge compote, thumbprint pattern and in the Amberina color while we were there.  IT WAS $5.00.  And it is perfect.  The larger pieces in general are becoming more rare, it is glass after all and glass breaks.  This color is pretty hard to find and the thumbprint pattern is somewhat uncommon - not really rare, but getting there.

Fuzzbutt Beagle, also known as Maggie Moo, went to the vet yesterday.  It's been two months since her last rear gland cleaning and nail trim, she was starting to drag her rear around so we knew she was ready.  The vet said that she wasn't completely impacted this time, but that she was close.  So, we'll keep her on the two months schedule unless we need to change it to more often.  She hates to have her claws trimmed and we got tired of fighting her so every time she goes to the vet for any reason, we have them trimmed.  While we were there, she met another dog that was just leaving and she seemed to be pretty happy.  Until the vet's assistant came to get her.  Then, it was time to play Drag the Dog!  Literally.  I had to lift her up off of the floor so the assistant could get her,and she immediately plopped herself right back down.  She literally had to drag/walk her to the back so they could gets her needs taken care of.  When she was done, she just about yanked the girl's arm out of it's socket in her haste to get back to me!  She is 28 pounds, which is about a pound and a half over what she was in July but she's still within allowable range for a small to medium beagle.

However, she is still known as BowlingBallButt for a good reason!

Got It Done

Otter and I both got our shots today.  I picked her up after work, we stopped at the UPS box to clear it and then we both needed to go to the bank so we did that.  We stopped at Wallyworld, yeah I know - on a Friday afternoon and a holiday weekend Friday at that!  But we got in and out of there fairly quick.  It was a required stop, I got our post-shot ice cream at the grocery store yesterday but I told Otter I'd get hers as well.  We took her ice cream (and cranberry juice) to her apartment and then we went to Walgreen's.  When we took out our new insurance, they said that flu shots were covered but that it had to be done at a doctor's office.  But the clerk ran the insurance through to check and it turned out that it did cover the shots at pharmacies as well, so we saved $64.00.  We had to wait about 20 minutes until the technician could give us the shots.

It was about 5:30 when we got them, and I felt the first hint of the Wave hit me at 5:32.  The first thing I noticed was a sudden feeling of coldness, more like a wind hitting me than a chill and I thought it might be breeze from an a/c vent at first.  We went to Subway to pick up dinner, where we were waited on by the slooooooooooooooooooooowest sandwich maker ever and were stuck behind the ditzyest mother and daughter customers ever.  We were probably waiting in there over 30 minutes.  We discussed going to another store, but it was peak traffic time so we decided to just stay there and wait.  By the time we left there, I was really feeling tired and my (left) arm was beginning to feel a little sore.  We went into the liquor store in the same shopping center - where Otter was promptly carded - and that was at least quick.

I dropped Otter off at her apartment and then I headed home.  I didn't get home until around 7:00.  The sandwiches were good, they just took a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time for the girl to make them.  But I think she was fairly new and she was just trying to be thorough, she was nice and it was obvious she was trying to do a good job so we didn't say anything about the lack of speed.

Bill spent lat night on the couch again.  He was feeling bad last night but the congestion was beginning to loosen up.  The air was a little dry and that was causing him problems, so I set up one of the humidifiers for him.  He still needed the fan, he figured out where to put the fan so that it didn't blow away the steam from the humidifier.  I heard him sneezing and coughing a few times - in the opposite end of the house, other his fan, my fan and the humidifier.  He felt feverish last night but he didn't feel feverish this morning.  He wants to sleep on the couch again tonight with the humidifier, so I'll make him another nest.  He doesn't get a flu shot, but he does get ice cream since he has to put up with me after I have it!  He just had a bowl and he said it was good.  He feels better but he's still sick.  He's still insisting that it's allergies, but I think he has what I had last week.  It takes a few days to work it's way out.  Otter said that J might be coming down with it, too.

I'm probably going to bed early tonight, I feel really tired.  My arm is a little sore, I had to take the bandaid off already because of my allergy to the adhesive.  I did bleed a little bit, but not much at all - even for a non-red!  I think a big part of the way we react is probably due to the RedHead Curse.  I'm hoping not to have a bad reaction, but then that's what I say every year.  But I'd still rather put up with the reaction and not have to deal with the flu itself.

'Splain Me...

Why people act so surprised that it's hot?

IT'S AUGUST, PEOPLE!!!!!

It's supposed to be hot in this part of the world in August.  Summer?  Last time I checked, Summer does not mean snow and ice!

Geesh.

OK, rant over.  That one, anyway.

Billyboy saw the dermatologist today.  The spot on his nose is not a skin cancer, although it did look like one and is in the same spot as he's had them before.  It's actually a wart, but it was growing so the doctor froze it.  Bill did have a place coming up on his right hand (that he had NOT told me about) that he had the doctor look at and it was a skin cancer, but very small still. There was also a "wanna be" on the same hand and on his right arm, so all three of those were frozen as well.  The doctor gave him a pretty good once-over and didn't see anything else to be concerned about, so unless Bill has something pop up between now and next August he is good to go.  We really like this doctor, he's very thorough and he's also very familiar with the care of Redheads.  He told Bill that he has to go to work next week, but that he doesn't have to do dishes or vacuum for the next two weeks.  :)  However, he may still sleep on the couch tonight so that he can keep from rolling over on his left side.  If he sleeps on his left side in our bed, that means that he's snoring in my ear!

Today is the first day of the Sales-Tax-Free Weekend.  I went to Wallyworld this afternoon.  I found 2 golf shirts for Bill (for work), a package of socks for Bill, a pair of jeans for Bill and 3 t-shirts for myself.  He really needs at least one more pair of jeans, I may go to a different Walmart tomorrow or Sunday, when Otter and I go shopping.  So far, I've saved a whole $3.57!  It's not like when Otter was little and we bought school clothes, but it's still fun to go.

Since Bill does not have any restrictions other than being careful not to bump the spots he had frozen today, I don't need to stay home and be nursemaid.  I'm still going to make soup and possibly a pot of beans tomorrow, since we want them too.

Maggie Moo might also get a shopping trip tomorrow.  Her bed got a little tear in the washing machine and it finally tore enough that we just decided to toss it and get her another one.  It cost less than $8.00 at a certain tool store we frequent.  Dogs are allowed and since her Otter works there, she loves to go in there anytime I take her.  The pillow from her bed is ok, it got washed this morning along with her blankets and regular pillow, she likes the pillow from her bed but I think she'd prefer her bed to the pillow.  At the moment, she's snoozing underneath the futon!

Such a hard life that dog leads...

Way Too Early

Guess what time it is?

Its ragweed season!

It's early, but it's already started.  It usually hits in August, but it's already started to bloom here.  Thanks to the rainy, cool spring and then the rainy early summer.  I've been dealing with my summer allergies for a few days now, and I am NOT looking forward to the rest of the summer allergy season.  I think Otter is beginning to have her summer allergies, too.  I asked her if she needed anything from the store and she said one word:  CLARITAN.  At least she has an allergy medicine that works for her, unlike me.  My issues with allergy meds not working is very probably part of the Redhead Curse - the metabolism of medication part of it.

Sigh.

I know it's early, but I'm beginning to see reminders about flu shots.  I don't think anyone has the serum yet, but I generally get mine on Labor Day weekend.  Because I have a 3-day weekend and sometimes the reaction I have takes me all weekend to get over.  The reaction could also be part of the Redhead Curse, but it may not be.  A few years ago, some places started offering the shots in August and I got one the first year they offered it so early.  But then I went back to my Labor Day weekend schedule because that particular year was a bad reaction and it took me the weekend plus a couple of days.  I'll have to check with Otter and see if she wants to get hers when I do.  It may depend on her work schedule.  She does have a reaction, but it's usually pretty mild.  Although sometimes it isn't mild, but she has only had one time when it was a really bad reaction - the year that the Tulsa Health Department froze the serum and then it thawed out and they didn't know it; the upshot was that the serum was essentially worthless that year and just about everybody got the flu.  Including Otter and then me shortly after!

(Yes, I'm still getting ice cream as my after-flu-shot treat!)

Oklahoma rattled yesterday.  More than once.  Tulsa felt two of the earthquakes.  I was at work (in Tulsa) and did not feel the first one, but I did feel the second one.  I was sitting at my desk and I heard what sounded like the ceiling lights rattle, and then I realized that I felt something move slightly under my feet.  Otter was at our house (not in Tulsa) doing her laundry.  She was sitting on the couch when she realized that the couch was moving.  She called me, she sounded very surprised.  The first one was 4.0, it was as 12:49 p.m.  The 2nd one was 4.5, it hit about 1:15.  They were both centered in the Crescent, which is near Oklahoma City.  We didn't feel the first one, but it was felt in parts of Tulsa.  The 2nd one was felt in most parts of Tulsa, and quite a bit further.  Missouri and Kansas felt it and it was recorded on a sensor in Georgia.  Although we just felt it for a few seconds, it lasted several seconds.  Like Otter says, this is tornado alley - we aren't supposed to have earthquakes!  By the way, the beagle slept through both of them.  :)

So, Froggy.  Got any plans for tomorrow?  Like maybe a birthday cake?  Although I don't know what kind you could come up with, since you don't eat sugar and are mostly vegetarian.  Happy Birthday a day early!

Gridlines

After today, I'm really beginning to think that the Amish might have it right when it comes to electricity!

Otter came over to do her laundry today.  She called me to let me know that not all the lights in the house were coming on, and the ones that were coming on were not very bright.  I told her to call Bill, he thought maybe it was a fuse or breaker.  He told her that she should be able to do her laundry.  She got the washer started, then when she went back to check on it she discovered that the washer controls showed it was finished.  But the washer was full of water and it didn't look like it had done anything at all beyond filling up.  That's when she called me again, and I came home (I took an early lunch.)  We checked a few things and then I restarted the washer.  No water came in, but it did start to agitate a bit - not much.  I talked to Bill and he told me to check the breaker box.  Everything looked good, he had me flip one a see if anything happened - nothing.  Otter and I lined her laundry basket with a trash bag and then we took all her damp and soapy clothing out of the washer.  We got as much water out as we could, then we put it in the bag-lined basket and I followed her up to the closest laundromat.  I gave her enough quarters to get her laundry done, we didn't need any more detergent for it.  I left to go back to work, she said it washed ok and she also used the dryers.

Bill took off a couple of hours early.  He thought it might be a specific fuse, so he went to get a replacement.  He came home and put it in, and discovered that it wasn't any better.  Being an Engineer who works around electricity at times, he got out his tools including the multi-meter and he started checking things.  He discovered that only have the electric current that should have been coming into the house was actually coming in.  I called the electric company and *RHTW started the conversation with them.  I think I scared the girl who answered - which actually doesn't bother me - and she agreed it was an emergency and told me that she'd get a crew sent out. I told her I wanted her name and her word on it.  I also told her that if we had any choice other than their services we would have already switched.  It was just about time for me to leave work by then, so I headed out and got my 2 errands done - mailbox to drop mail in on the way home and Subway to get dinner to bring home in case we were unable to cook anything.  But the electric company did what they said (for once!) and they got a crew out here.  They were just finishing up.

It seems that one half of the new lines they buried 2 months ago (the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with my house other than being attached to the box in my yard) failed.  There is now a very large, long cable now stretching from the back yard of the neighbor to the west (the one we don't like), running up the fence line in my yard, beside the fence line of the dog yard, through the gate of the dog yard, across the dog yard and up to the box outside my wall.  And they say they'll be out to bury it in 2 weeks.  The foreman did call me after they left, he thought maybe he'd been rude to me but I didn't think so.  However, I did tell him that I appreciated him calling me back.  He was appalled at how bad the back yard looks and that it's been over 2 months now, incidentally.

Bill ran the washer through a full cycle and it seems to be working.  The house was getting a little warm since the a/c wasn't able to get enough power to work but it's working now and is cooling.  Maggie is still asleep, where she's been for the last few hours.  But then the words "energy crisis" are almost perfect to describe her.

I really, really, REALLY need the next week off.  I'm pretty sure that if I see a certain phone number (Younger Boss) on my caller id - I'm going to let it go to voice mail!

*RHTW.  She gets responses.

3 Down. 2 To Go.

Workdays, until this week is over.

The last week before vacation is always so loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.  This week is no exception.  Tomorrow (Thursday) will be Crazy Day.  Also known as the"Day Boys Realize that the Office Manager is About to Be Gone For a Week."  It won't be particularly crazy, at least as far as work that needs to be done because, let's face it here:  I'm obsessively organized pretty much 24/7/365 and don't have all that much to do of so-called normal stuff.  But Younger Boss is going to bring the Teenager into the office for a couple of hours and I'm sure that they will both try to find fires for me to put out!

I went to the grocery store this afternoon.  I read labels, along with getting groceries.  After Otter moved out last October, I switched us to whole-wheat pasta.  Not whole-wheat spaghetti, we tried it once and it was pretty disgusting.  The pasta was better but we never really liked it all that much.  So, I read pasta labels today.  The whole-wheat pasta is actually made with MORE fat than the regular stuff.  The only other difference is that the regular stuff has more carbs.  Not that many more, either.  I bought regular pasta tonight, once the remaining whole-wheat we have on hand is gone we will go back to the regular stuff.

Maggie learned a new trick today!  Well, actually it's not a trick.  But it is something new that she learned.  We've had her for something like 8 or 9 years (I don't want to go look it up) and for just about every weekday of that time she's been put out in the garage every morning - with access to the back yard, a visit to the treat can and the water dish always goes out, too.  Every morning, she's had to be told to go out.  Always.  After all these years, she finally realized that she has to go outside when I leave for work - she took herself out to the garage at the normal time, and sat beside her treat can to wait for me to bring the water out and open the can.  Guess she's a bit of a slow learner, huh?!  We'll see if she remembers tomorrow morning.  :)  She's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she's a good girl and a lot of fun.  And very cute!  Except for when she ralphed in the kitchen floor last night and I had to clean up after her.

The electric company is supposed to have someone out here tomorrow afternoon to look at the work that they never finished up.  They can't seem to understand why we are upset at the condition they left our back yard in.  I'm thinking that I'm going to skip the preliminaries and just let RHTW* be who greets them.  Should be fun!  Well, maybe not for them.  :)

**RHTW:  She's already riled and that's a really B.A.D. thing!

Updates? I Don't Know What to Call This Post.

So far, May looks to be following in April's trail in more than just the calendar!

Otter's hand is doing well, all things considered.  I took her some ice cream after work today - it's the accepted treat after a shot and she technically got more than one in her hand yesterday.  So, I think it counts!  I took her (and Roomie!) a carton of cookies & cream ice cream and I also grabbed a package of frozen french fries for them while I was in the store.  They were both overjoyed to get the treats, and Otter was also happy to discover the package of pepperoni slices that were in the bag, too.  She said her hand hurts quite a bit, which is to be expected at this point.  She's also got a fairly high pain threshhold, which is also part of the RedHead Curse so "quite a bit" for her is agony for a non-Red.  She's been trying to keep it propped up and not use it, but that is harder than it sounds.  She has been taking tylenol and following the care instructions they gave her yesterday at the walk-in clinic.  She had to day off from work as a regularly scheduled day off and also tomorrow.  She works Wednesday morning and will go get the stitches checked when she gets off work.  Then they will tell her how long she should have to keep the stitches in.  I'm really glad that they want to remove them in the office instead of telling her she can do it herself!  Like I said before, she's her Father's Daughter...

One more to beam up, Scotty!

We lost another one today.  Grace Lee Whitney, 1930 - 2015.  She will always be remembered fondly as Yeoman Janice Rand, first season & first 8 episodes of the brilliance that is Star Trek.

There are only 4 bridge crew members left now.  And a lot of the "background" actors are gone as well.  Plus quite a few of the writers, directors, etc. and of course the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry.

I had been thinking about getting an actual dog bed for Maggie Moo.  We had one briefly, but Frasier apparently thought he had to rid the universe of it's presence pretty quickly.  So we started using flannel blankets for them.  Maggie has always been fine with the blankets, but I thought she might like something softer.  I priced dog beds and decided to just get a pillow for her.  I bought one for $3.00 at BigLots today.  She's slept on pillows before, she was briefly using a laundry basket with a spare pillow that Otter had in her room and she also slept in Otter's bed for a while (until she did what she does and licked everything!)  So, I put the pillow down on top of the blankets this afternoon.  And she's done everything she can to not actually get on it!  I got her to sit on it once, but she didn't stay.  Bill thought maybe it smells different, which I also thought might be the case.  So we put it on the love seat - she's not allowed up there but she usually gets up on it pretty quickly after we go to bed.  We have an old blanket on the love seat just to protect it from BeagleBaby.  The pillow is now in the spot where she usually sleeps, we'll see if she sleeps on it tonight since it's on the love seat and we know she'll be up there at some point after the lights go out!  She got a walk this morning and then I took her on another one after I got home from work today.  Otter did ask me if I'm spoiling the beagle sufficiently, I have to say that I think I am. :)

My right knee is kind of sore.  It also has a small cut above the knee cap.  I walked into the baby gate at the end of the hall this morning.  I was taking a load of laundry out of the dryer and I forgot we moved the thing to the other side of the laundry room door.  And I ran right into the stupid gate!  Maggie is much quieter than Frasier was, she will sit at the baby gate and wait for us to get up but she isn't really much of a barker (except for now and that's because she's asleep and dreaming)  We've heard her jingling collar coming down the hall a couple of times, but she will sit or lie down and wait patiently until we get up or one of us goes to the kitchen to feed her.  We always seperated their food bowls in the kitchen, one on each side of the kitchen and the water dish was on Frasier's side but they both used it.  We moved the water dish down a little bit, and I tried to relocate her food bowl to that side as well.  She absolutely refused to go anywhere near her food bowl on that side of the kitchen - we spent a lot of time telling her to get out of his food bowl, now when we want her to eat on that side she finally decides to remember what we told her! :)  Goofy baby, but we love her anyway.

Before Otter's Adventures in BillLand yesterday, I did manage to get the peppers transplanted.  Otter has two jalepenos and a peppermint, we have two jalepenos and two bell peppers.  They are in large size pots on the deck, most are in clay pots but two of them are in plastic ones.  I watered them tonight, they look good.  It could be rainy Wednesday so I might move them up closer to the house so they have a little bit of cover - sometimes rain this time of year is very hard and I'd just as soon not lose them to hail force rain.  Otter will eventually get her plants, but they are fine where they are until she does.  She'll be over one day this week to do laundry (and play with the beagle!) and she might take them then, but I think she'll probably wait a little longer until her hand heals up some.

Then, she'd better quit trying to live up to Bill's reputation!

Footsteps

Otter is following in her father's footsteps.  Whether we want her to or not!

This is the palm of her left hand, fortunately.  She's right-handed.

About 1:00, just as Bill and I were starting to eat lunch I got a text from Otter:  "In case you were ever worried that I don't take after dad enough - I successfully sliced my hand open trying to cut a potato."  I told her to call me after getting that text.  She was attempting to cut into a raw potato so she could bake it and it was slightly damp.  Her left hand slipped - right into the ceramic knife she was using to slice!  This was a little over an hour after it had happened, and it was still bleeding enough that she wasn't sure but thought maybe it needed stitches.  She wanted Mom to look at it, she was at work at this point, so I went to her store to check on it.  Being a redhead, she bleeds like the rest of us do so the fact that there was still blood wasn't enough to say it did need them.  She didn't really want to take the gauze wrapping off it it but I had to see the cut so she took it off.  I thought it was deep and long enough, so she told the supervisor and he said that his wife works at a close walk-in clinic.  He called her and they weren't busy, so we went up there.  They took her back quickly (the nurse was a redhead and we compared notes on bleeding) - Otter wanted me to come back with her - and the doctor thought it needed stitching up.  The shots to numb it was pretty painful, but they generally are.  However, stitches would have hurt worse without the shots.  She knew what to expect, having been to the ER with her dad more than once when he got stitches!  The doctor kept telling her to look away, but she's not squeamish at all and she always has to look.  I rubbed her back while he was numbing it, she said that helped.  He took 4 stitches in it, but because it was with a clean, ceramic knife he doesn't think she needs a tetnus shot.  She has to go back on Wednesday to get it looked at, at that point they will decide if the stitches need to come out in 7 or 10 days.  They will take the stitches out, they are not the disolving kind.  I took her back to work, the doctor said she'd be able to work today.  I went to Walgreen's and got her some neosporin, gauze, vetwrap and tylenol.  She texted me about 5:30 and said the numbness was really starting to wear off.  I told her to take tylenol before it was completely gone.  She already had Monday and Tuesday off from work and she will be off early enough Wednesday to not have to miss any time when she gets the stitches looked at.

I'm pretty sure I have more grey hairs than I did when I woke up this morning!

Bill texted her later on: "Who'se yo daddy!"  She answered "YOU, OBVIOUSLY."

What can I say, she is very much her father's daughter. :)

Middles

I've discovered something.  Today, I went to several yard sales.  A couple of them were neighborhood wide.  Lots of houses having sales.  And almost all of them were one of two items:  baby clothes, young kid toys and supplies or medical equipment and things that an old person in bad health would need.

We are firmly in the middle!  We no longer have a kid at home, and we aren't in need of the medical supplies, either.

Guess we really are middle aged?  :)

The electric company is in my bad list now.  I took Tuesday afternoon from work and got home in time to meet them.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  And called the crew chief.  He eventually called me back and had the gall to act dumb with me.  Which usually is the final turn of the key to unlock *RHTW's cage.  He made a bunch of excuses, tried to pretend he'd never set the time up with me, claimed he couldn't call me back and then when I told him that I knew he had my number he then started making excuses about the number of calls he always had and that he couldn't be expected to call everybody back now, could he?  I let him have it.  Somehow, I don't think he still likes Redheads!  He told me that he could meet me at my house Wednesday morning.  I told him that I was not taking anymore work off for them.  Then he told me I could just leave my gate unlocked - at which time I reminded him that THEY were the specific reason we always keep the gates locked.  I told him that it would have to be on our schedule and that I would call him back "sometime."

Otter came over on Wednesday afternoon to do her laundry.  She called me just as I was about to leaver work and said that they'd shown up.  I told them to wait until I got there to let them in.  They didn't have the small backhoe from Monday, it was just a little too big to fit through the gate so they had to get busy with shovels but they got the trench covered up.  I'm not sure when they actually left, they didn't tell me.  I noticed that they were gone and waited about an hour before I locked the gate up again.  They left two pieces of plywood and a shovel.  I'll eventually call them and ask them if they are going to come get it, and also ask them when THEY are going to replace the two or three crepe myrtles that they killed.

We've been walking Maggie Moo more often lately.  We didn't walk the dogs much over the winter because of the weather, then Frasier was having obvious issues with the arthritis so we didn't get too many walks in once it became Spring.  Now that Frasier's crossed the rainbow bridge, Maggie Moo is obviously in need of more physical activity so we've been walking her again and more often than we would have been doing if he were still here.  I took her to a local walking part the other day, she really liked that.  Especially when a lazy squirrel walked across our path - she didn't want to chase it, but she was very interested in it.  One morning she was very bouncy and led me to the closet where the leash is kept.  It was still pretty early, so we had a short jaunt down the street and back.  Today, Bill and I took her for a walk around the neighborhood.  She's been very playful the last couple of days, she seems to be getting back to normal - normal nutso for her.  She has wanted to play tug again and is interested in chasing her tennis balls again.  She's no longer looking for Frasier, but she has looked towards the outer dog door flap a few times when she's been in the garage like maybe she's wondering if he's about to come in from the dog yard.  But she's doing ok.  I've taken her with me a few times lately when I've gone somewhere she can go.

At the moment, she curled up on her blankets.  She seems to take longer naps after walks for some reason!

*RHTW:  Just start running now.

A Three Hour Tour...

Name that tune!

OK, the point of this has nothing to do with the theme song to Gilligan's Island.  :)

Thursday when I got home, there was a hanger on the front door from the electric company.  We were dealing with Frasier and frankly, the electric company was the last thing I was concerned with at that point in time.  They said that they needed to get into my yard for something and I did call the number to arrange them to come out today when Otter could be here, but other than that I didn't have any interest in anything they needed.  They were supposed to be out here at 8:00 a.m. today.  They were needing to get to just a small part of my yard, to dig up an area and re-run some cable - or maybe run in new cable to either the next door neighbor or one of the neighbors behind us.  Or at least that is what it sounded like on the very bad connection I had when I called the number on the door hanger.  Because of a past issue with them leaving the gate open and Maggie getting out, we do not let anyone have access to our yard unless we are here at the time.  And they know it!

Otter got here about 7:00 this morning, she dozed on the couch until I woke her up at 7:30 to let her know I was leaving.  She called me about 8:10 or so to let me know that they were here and that she'd blocked Maggie Moo in.  Otter also mentioned that it took a while to convince him that yes, she is an adult and could let him in the yard!  I told her she should just get her driver's license and glue it to her forehead!  She called me back shortly after that to let me know that the (one and only) guy on the digger had come to the door to tell her that he'd cut the phone line accidentally.  He told her that he would call the phone company himself.  About 11:30, he was still digging and that's when I decided I'd better head on home.  I ran by Sonic to get lunch for Otter, and I was home just as the digger operator was walking back to his truck.  He said that he had called the phone company and told them that the homeowner was livid, so they'd better get out here on the double.  Which is funny, because most of the time I have to deal with the phone company I am livid! :)  I told him that, and why, and also that the joke about Redhead tempers (especially on Redhead Women) is not exactly a lie.

I asked him how many of my crepe myrtles they were going to have to replace and he said that he'd made sure to dig the trench well out of range of them.  He said he knew how mad his mama would be at her plants being destroyed, so he always tries to avoid them if it's at all possible.  He also said that they will lay strips of sod over any exposed dirt areas when they are through.

Otter hung around for a while so we could visit, and she could also spend a little more time with a certain beaglebrat.  She gave the dog a short walk to visit the grass in the front yard, then she headed home after that.  The telephone company crew showed up somewhere in that time frame, and so did about 3 other electric company employees.  I let Maggie out later on, she wasn't really sure about going out in the yard with all those people out there - which is unusual for her, but she's still obviously adjusting to being an Only Dog.  The 2nd time I got her out there, she was much more relaxed and did what she was supposed to do.  I talked to the crew at that point and they were working pretty steadily.  In fact, the only time that they weren't working was when they went on their lunch break.  When Bill got home, he went out to talk to them and they were pretty much done by that point - at least three of them were using shovels to cover the trench back up by hand.  It turns out that the man on the digger was actually the supervisor, and he was working along side the crew which is unusual.  They didn't quite get finished, there is one spot in the corner where they have to do something else involving cables and they will come out tomorrow.  I set up a specific time so that I can be here.

The three hour estimate lasted from 8:10 this morning until shortly before 5:00 this afternoon!

Does this look like a small spot in the corner of the yard to you?  It sure doesn't to me!

The pictures were all taken from inside the dining room and living room windows.

I did upload my pictures of Frasier from last Thursday, I took them when I got home about 3:15 before the vet visit.  I don't think I'm going to post them.  They are not bad, he looks happy in a couple of them but they are very hard for me to look at still.  In most of them, I can tell that he was not feeling 100%.  I may eventually change my mind, but not right now.  We're still adjusting ourselves and it's slowly getting better, but he was very much part of the family and it's been tough.

The hummingbirds are here!  Bill saw two of them this afternoon, one flew out of the trellis where the honeysuckle is and the other one was flying up into the tree at the same time.  It's rainy and cool, so I was kind of surprised that they were here already but I'm happy that they are.

This also makes us happy!  I took this a few days ago, there are even more buds and blooms now.  The scent is so strong, it's almost intoxicating.

At Least Monday is Over

But it's not Friday yet.  Unfortunately.

Bill sanded the switc hplate down to the wood, the one I threw out and then rescued from the trash.  I painted it again, with the white basecoat and when the paint is dry I'll cover it with modge-podge glue and put the scrapbook paper on it that I found.  It's supposed to be small doily-ish patterns and I like it.  After the modge-podge is dry, then I'll apply a sheet of clear mylar.  Then the fun begins!  The part where I kept messing up.  Cutting the holes out and cutting it around the edges!  After all that's done, I'm going to hit the painted (but unpapered) sides with clear sealer and then they just have to dry.  Then I can actually put them on the wall.

I'm not as tired today, but I do still have Redhead Anemia issues.  Not as bad, it's just "there."

I'm also having more allergy issues this afternoon, but that generally happens after I pull weeds in the rock garden.  Literally, IN the rock garden for part of it.  And around the edges.  I found a frog in the rock garden.  Actually, I almost picked "him" up with a bunch of weeds!  Did you know that frogs can give dirty looks?  This one did, anyway!  :)  He was not a huge frog, but I think he was still fairly young.  He hopped away from me, to the other side of the rock garden and probably is happily hiding in the honeysuckle now.  He might be the one I've been hearing the last few nights.

I've also heard tree frogs lately.  Especially when it rains.  I haven't seen them yet this spring, but they are obviously here already.

No sign of hummingbirds yet, but I put out two feeders Sunday.  I thought I might have seen one zipping by but it was hard to tell.  It's still a little early though.  But sometimes they arrive early, and just because I haven't seen them does not mean that they aren't here yet.

Fraiser is a little creaky today.  He and Maggie Moo were happy to go out in the back yard with me.  While I was pulling weeds, Maggie Moo was sitting on her behind and staring at the ground.  After a minutes, she reached down and pulled a large beetle grub out of the dirt.  Then she ate it!  Frasier was walking around like he does, looking for spots to water.  But then I noticed he was laying down in a grassy spot and when I called him to come in, he didn't want to get up at first.  He seemed to be more than a little stiff, but he did get up and came inside.  Then he went out the dog doors and to their yard.  He laid down in his usual spot, and I took an anti-inflammatory to him.  He hasn't needed them lately, but it's been cool and damp which seems to affect him  I called the vet and ordered a refill.  I still had one pill left for him, but I also had some from Maggie Moo's bladder infection she had last fall and the vet said that I can use them.  They are still within a safe date, they are the same dose but were cut in half for her.  I was going to take the brush to Frasier while we were outside, but that will wait a day or two.  Mostly because of my allergies, I didn't want to stay outside any longer than I had to.  He love the brushing, and so does Maggie Moo but she's not long haired so it's just a fun experience for her.  At the moment, they are both in the living room and both of them are snoozing.  Frasier is probably snoozing because of the medication, but Maggie Moo is just napping because it's what beagles do best, after all!

Lately...

It's been insane around here lately.  I spent most of last week dealing with an allergy attack that left me with hardly any voice and I was home most of the last half of last week.

I painted and decorated a light switch cover and 4 outlet covers for my craft room.  Then I tossed them in the donate pile, bought more and started over.  And over again!  Last night, I gave up and tossed all of them but then I got them out of the trash and looked at them again.  3 of the outlet covers hadn't been finished up and were easy to complete, but one outlet and the switchplate will have to be re-done.  It's getting frustrating!  But I know better than to work on something that takes attention when I'm not feeling well, and I wasn't last week.

I am also dealing with a pretty good case of Redhead Anemia.  I love being a redhead, but there are times...

One good thing from last week:  Otter is now the owner of a silver 2002 Chevy Impala!  She got her insurance taken care of and we took the car off of our policy, she also went to the Tag Agency and we got the title switched to her name.  Because it was a family member transfer, she just had to pay a very small transfer fee and not the normal taxes, etc. that go along with titling a car.  We "gifted" her the part of our insurance policy that covered that car and she was able to take over payments on the policy without having to pay a month ahead or anything else.  We told her that we would wash the car, vacuum it out and also fill the tank when she officially got it but it's been raining pretty often so the washing and vacuuming will be done later on.  She'd put gas in it right before the transfer, so we told her we would fill it up the next time but Younger Boss wants to buy her a tank of gas to celebrate so he'll get the next fill-up and we'll get the one after that.  Either way, she's not complaining! :)

In other news, the dogs are still lazy.

Easter Sunday 2015

Happy Easter!  It's been a wet one for us.  Church was enjoyable, it was a really nice change to have a sermon that actually dealt with the specific holiday and didn't feel like just another not very important day.  We really enjoyed it.

We went to Church at 8:00 a.m. and got a little wet, it was raining pretty good when we got up and it rained until early afternoon.  Just in time for Bill to get the grill out and get started on the steaks we had tonight.  He also grilled lemon spiced chicken, fajita chicken and barbequed chicken.  Along with 6 beef hamburger patties.  I won't have to do a lot of cooking this week, that's for sure.  :)

Last Friday's blog entry was done on my lunch hour and I hadn't heard back from the insurance company yet.  I finally called them about 2:15 and eventually managed to get connected to an actual person.  And she spent the next 40 minutes telling me that my account had been "credited" and pretending that she couldn't understand when I asked her exactly what "credited" meant (although I knew, but I wanted her to tell me) and then she acted like she just couldn't understand what I meant when I told her that I wanted the money returned to me ASAP.  I absolutely hate people who pretend ignorance and she knows that now.  Let's just say it was a M.A.J.O.R. *RHTW moment!  In fact, *RHTW was out of the fence and did all the talking.  The upshot is that they wanted to keep the 2nd payment and apply it to May, which is what "credited" meant and I basically told them that this was there one and only strike, that the next screw up on their part might well mean that we'd no longer be there customers.  I told her flat-out that I had cancelled the automatic withdraw for payments because I didn't trust them to a) do their job and b) do it right.  After putting me on hold for a very long time, and obviously sounding like she did it on purpose in hopes that I would hang up based on how she came back to the phone, she finally admitted that the money would be returned to me - but it took me telling her (not threatening them or bluffing them, because I would have done it) that if it was not back in my hands by the 15th I would tell the IRS to call them and ask them where the income tax money went since that is what was in the savings account.  They claim that they can not refund the money back to my account except by check - and she told me that it was going out right then, to expect it by 7 business days.  It was well after 3:00 when I got off the phone.  I had a couple of errands after work and I was just about to walk out of the post office when the person I spoke to Thursday evening called me back - she was not who I spoke to Friday afternoon, and I told her that I appreciated her calling me back and also what I'd been told by the other c/s rep that afternoon.  And I told her also that I'd tell the IRS to call them if I don't have the premium returned to me by the promised date.  I know the IRS wouldn't really care, they would still expect me to pay them but I wanted to let the insurance company know how serious we are about this.

The cable company got a touch of *RHTW as well.  The line burying crew still hadn't shown up and I called them in the afternoon - they were running behind, which is what I was told.  But they called me when I was in the grocery store after the post office and wanted to know if it was ok if they didn't come out until Saturday - NO.  I told their rep that Bill had taken the day off from work and had been home waiting all day, that there was no excuse accepable.  I gave her Bill's cell phone number and she said she would make sure the crew got there right away.  I got home about 5:00 and the crew consisting of exactly ONE person was just getting there.  He got a lot done but he ran out of time and asked if he could come back Saturday morning to finish, which was ok with us.  He did exactly what he said, came back on Saturday and finished up.

Otter came over after work today and brought her laundry.  She came for Easter dinner, but the laundry basket generally comes to visit my washing machine once a week anyway.  :)  Her laundry wasn't quite dry but she was tired, she had one of those exhausting days today, so I took her home when she was ready (Bill's going to keep her car and see about a few things on it tomorrow) and I'll take her laundry to her tomorrow when I get her to take her to the allergist for her annual lung/asthma recheck.  She wants me to go with her and we're also going to see about getting her eyes examined and then she'll probably need new glasses.  She wants new ones anyway, not Oakley brand this time because their earpieces are basically straight and slide right off.  She will probably decide not to have her eyes dilated since they can take the retina photographs now.  We are going to have lunch at a specific steak house that we don't get to very often and we might go to our favorite garden store to see about a few pepper plants.

*RHTW:  Whatever you do, do not make Her mad!  She will make you regret it.

Still Here!

No, I have not fallen off the side of the Earth.  It's just been a chaotic week.  I'm not really sure that it's not actually still Monday, it's been that kind of a week.

At the moment, I am arguing with our new insurance company.  They took out the April premium like they were supposed to, after we signed up last Sunday.  I spent Monday through yesterday trying to get my online access set up and they finally got that figured out for me last night.  I was finally able to print temporary id cards in case we need to use the insurance before the actual id cards come.

 - 

Then I discovered that they took out ANOTHER premium for April yesterday.  Which has caused all sorts of issues with my bank.  I had a "nice" talk with the insurance rep on the phone at 9:30 last night.  Not quite at *RHTW level, but very close to it.  She (the rep) was going to hand-carry the file to the correct department to get them to refund us immediately, as opposed to them sending a check to us in a few days.  She is supposed to call me this afternoon with the status on that.  At which time I'm going to tell her that they also owe me for the fees my bank charged me because the checking account didn't have enough funds to cover their premium - we had enough in the savings account so that the bank was able to transfer and nothing bounced, but the bank still charges us for that.

I also had a very long conversation with the benefits department because I keep getting a different story on what prescription benefit we have.  I think that's finally figured out.  Then I had to talk to them about some other issues, all involving benefits and what exactly we have.

Then I was transferred to the department that handles the premiums and cancelled the auto pay.  I'll call them each month and make the payment, they've already had there one and only chance with us on that.  I don't do "three strikes and you're out" on most things.

I'm not naming names, but they have a color and a Christian symbol in their name.

Also happening today is the cable company coming out to bury the internet cable, which has been strewn across the back yard for several weeks.  They were scheduled to be out there today, and they said that it would probably be in the morning.  Bill took the day off from work for this.  At about 11:00 or so, he called me because they still weren't there.  I called the cable company and had about a half-hour conversation with the tech department.  That isn't even the correct department, but it's who I finally was transferred to.  The tech guy went "over and above" as far as I'm concerned, he did everything he could to find someone to talk to for me and then he was told it would be "maybe tomorrow."  By this point, *RHTW was attempting to break down the fence.  (She's not out of the gate yet, but She's possibly going to be breaking through when the insurance company calls me back.)  Anyway, I told him that Bill had taken the day off for this and that we'd already been waiting weeks.  He made another call and finally got the crew that is actually burying lines today.  They promised that it would be today, I'm not sure what he told them but I don't think he was too polite to them.

I'm just glad it's finally Friday.

*RHTW.  Run for the hills if She gets loose!

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.