Just a Few Quick Thoughts on a Saturday Night

To start with, my arms are sore and my shoulders are stiff.  Fingers are kind of ouchy as well.  That's what happens when I crochet all day (literally all day).  I finished the green cap I was working on yesterday, and decided to start on the next cap/scarf set this morning.  I started with the cap first, and it went so fast that I decided to at least get a start on the scarf.  It was going well, and I just never stopped until I was finished.  I'm going to pay for it tonight, I know.  And probably tomorrow as well!  But it was so worth it, I'll probably take a couple of motrin tonight and I'll have stiff shoulders tomorrow.  But I'll deal with it.  I just probably won't pick up a crochet hook for a couple of days, however!  (It was still fun!).

That makes 5 sets I've made for the military family donation.  I'll probably put that project aside for a while and work on a couple of other things, then get back to it again soon.

It's been pretty warm here the last few days.  Low to mid-90's, which isn't really hot yet.  It's just that we went from cold/wet/windy to Summer without the in-between phase.  We've spent a lot of time out on the back deck lately, enjoying the warm weather.  Today, when I wasn't crocheting madly, I sat out there with Bill and the dogsters (Otter was napping on the couch) for a while and it was really nice.  We have 4 hummingbirds which we watched for a while today.

Otter's jalepeno crop is coming along.  The plants are not tall, probably because the weather was just too cool and wet when they needed heat, but they are healthy and are beginning to produce fruit.  Her Rosemary plant is also growing well.  And so is the surprise bluebonnet I discovered growing two weeks ago, in the front of the whiskey barrel.  That's not the same one I found out there previously, this one is another one entirely.  It's been transplanted to a pot on the back deck and after a rough start, it seems to be flourishing.  It got moved instead of being left where it naturally came up because the LAST ONE WAS STOLEN OUT OF THE FRONT YARD EARLY ONE MORNING.  Some heathen dug it up, the entire plant.  (Yes, I realize that not everyone will realize just what they are without at least some Texan in the bloodline.)

What else did I want to talk about?  Oh, yeah.  jack kevorkian died.  (No capitals on purpose).  In case anybody doesn't already know our family opinion of him - life is precious.  It is not given to us to be destroyed.  Born and unborn, all are precious gifts from God and no one has the right to take it from us.  To assist someone in suicide is to commit murder.  He could well have been a serial killer.  He was at the very least a multiple murderer.

On that note, goodnight!  I'm going to take those motrin and head for bed in a few minutes.

Hurricanes

Even after 18 years in Tornado Alley, I'd still prefer a hurricane to a twister!  That comes from growing up in S. TEXAS.  Hot weather?  Don't particularly care for it, but it's pretty much normal for me.  Summer storms?  Rare rains?  Ditto.  Warm Christmas?  Been there, done that many times.

Hurricanes are bad storms and they can be devastating. They are the kind of storms I grew up with, although in San Antonio we were far enough from the coast that (for the most part) when they got that far inland they were "just" bad storms and seldom had tornadic winds.  Along the coast and near-inland, they could be tornadic and were terrible.

One of the highlights was always the storm names for each year.  Some years, there were some real humdingers**.  Bill's still thrilled that both Bill and William have been on the name list in the recent past.  Here's this year's list:

2011 Atlantic Hurricane Names


Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney

I see a few names of interest.

**Humdinger may well be a Texan language word, I'm not sure.  It means big, major, extreme and words to that effect.

It's MondayTuesday!

Blogger is acting kind of strange again, it's not always telling me when I have a comment waiting to be posted.  So, if you've left a comment and it's not showing up here it might be because I don't know about it!  Blogger does have it's moments...

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah.  Monday on Tuesday.  That means that it was busy at work and I spent the day confused as to which day it really is.  I do like the fact that tomorrow is already Wednesday, that means that it's one day closer to Saturday.  So I'm not complaining.

For a few years, I've been trying to get Bill a cell phone.  He kept insisting that he didn't need one.  But then he would turn around and borrow mine for the day.  Then he started his pachinko business and printed up business cards.  What number did he put on the cards?  Mine, of course.  Then he got his website up and running.  What contact number did he use?  Mine again.  Then he placed the occasional ad in the paper and what number do you think he used!?  Ditto.  I finally got him to realize that he really does need his own cell phone, and we were going to make some changes to our plan at this time anyway so he asked me to get one for him when I went to the phone place.  The kicker is that he wanted my number to be his because it would be too much trouble to change the cards & website (he prints his own cards FYI).  But it's ok for me to have to change my number with everybody and their brother!  So, the upshot is that we all have new cell phones - and I have a new number.  To learn and change with the aforementioned everybody and their brother.  Well, at least Bill's got a phone now so he won't have to keep borrowing mine!  (And I won't get strange calls about pachinko machines!).  Otter got a new phone as well, she was overdue for a newer one and she wanted a phone with a camera in it.  The phones I got for myself and Bill are matching, there were a couple of other choices but I didn't like them as much.  Guess I'll have to either make a label for them or see about a new skin (cover) for mine.  So, anybody that might have my cell phone number will get Bill when they call it.  He'll eventually get the voice mail message changed to his voice and not mine.  (If you are someone I need to give the new number to and haven't already, please email me - it's not "out there" for everybody, please understand that I have my reasons for privacy and they are very good ones).

I've started another scarf/hat set for the military dependant donation project.  This one is a deep green.  I am nearly finished with the scarf and the hat won't take too long.  I have a dusty blue that I'm probably going to use for the next one, which I think will make 5 sets that I've done.

This might just be who we vote for in the upcoming Presidential election:

Herman Cain 2012

So far, I like what I've seen.  He sounds like a very strong conservative.  He seems to be very no-nonsense, common sense and we're impressed so far.

Memorial Day

THANKS, DAD.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the preacher,

who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the reporter,

who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the poet,

who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the campus organizer,

who has given us freedom to assemble.

(Protest in some versions) 

It is the

VETERAN,

not the lawyer,

who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the politician,

Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the

VETERAN

who salutes the Flag,

It is the

VETERAN

who serves

under the Flag,

And whose coffin

 is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

(Attributed to Charles Michael Province, U.S. Army)

Sunday Babies!

Specifically, the chirpy & feathered kind.

Here's mama bird on the nest.  This is a wire/wrought iron planter that was my mother's.  She had it on her covered back porch and might have had a plant of some type in it.  I have a small clay pot with a plastic ivy.  Apparently, it was exactly what mama bird wanted when she was in the real-estate market.  It's safe, secure and protected from the weather.  It's on the front porch.  We've been watching her for days, and trying to go in and out as quickly as possible.

This morning, I was looking out the door to see if the paper had been delivered (something that doesn't always happen lately) and saw mama bird standing on the nest, facing the wall.  I could very clearly see little heads (with open mouths) looking back at her.

There were just two eggs the day I took a picture with my cell phone, and one that had smashed on the porch.  Apparently, when I took my picture mama bird wasn't through - there are 4 little beaks!  We think that they are wrens.  I took this picture very quickly and since it's higher than my head, I wasn't able to aim the camera very well but I still think it came out pretty good.

We've been dealing with a tummy bug this weekend.  Last weekend, I was joking with Otter and told her that if she had any illnesses planned it would be a good idea to postpone them a week so she could finish school.  She laughed about it.  Then yesterday morning she woke up not feeling the best.  She had breakfast but then later she was unable to keep anything down.  She's better today, but now Bill and I both have had a little nausea to deal with.  We're being careful, hopefully it won't be any worse and Otter will be over hers quickly.

She actually felt better this afternoon, and was desperate to get out of the house.  So I took her with me for a short errand.  We left her at home this morning for church, I think the extra couple of hours worth of sleep was good for her.

Movie Review:  We rented I Am Number Four to watch yesterday.  It was ok, better than we expected.  I think it's based on a book.  We're anxiously awaiting two movies:  Rango to come out on video which might be in June or July, and the final Harry Potter movie to hit the theaters in July.

I think I'll go play with a couple of doggies now.  They are not being allowed out in the backyard by themselves for a while, they aren't happy about it.  But they don't have a choice, we don't want a moonscape instead of a backyard!

Final Friday of Otter's School Adventures!

Well, at least part of her school adventures.  There's still college of one type or another in her future.

I still can't quite realize that I have a daughter who is already out of school.  I keep thinking that it's just been a few days since I was buying stuff to start packing her lunches when she was going into kindergarten!  I don't think it's really going to feel real for any of us (Otter included) until the late summer, when we would have been buying school supplies and so forth.  She'll still need supplies and clothing, but it will be a different ballgame.

I'm really glad that it's Friday.  It's been a loooooooooooooooong week.  Last week was absolutely crazy busy with the graduation, Nana visiting, shopping with Nana (lots of that!) and all the activities.  This week was just long.  I am so ready for Saturday.

On that note, I'm going to post this and go read my email.  Then very shortly, we're going to have the meal that Otter chose for her last day of school.  When she started kindergarten, her first day of school was celebrated with her choice for dinner and she chose Luby's.  While Luby's is still good (we don't eat there often, they aren't convenient to us anymore), her tastes have grown up along with the rest of her.  So tonight's menu?  Steak and baked potatos.  Guess she is her parent's daughter after all! :)

Quick Check In

We're ok.  It was a bumpy night, with bad storms all over the state.  We were in the direct line of fire of one particular wall cloud that was about 30 minutes south of us but it hooked off to the right (east) and missed us.  However, it did not miss a very small town called Haskell.  I'm not sure how bad the damage is in Haskell, I don't think it was nearly as bad as it could have been.  But it was still a bad situation for them, I'm sure that they could all use our prayers.

The storms in the western part of the state were pretty bad with more than one confirmed tornado, it looked to be following some of the same path as the 1999 storm that was so devastating.

Pray.

Please

Pray for the people of Joplin, MO.

We went to bed Sunday night, thankful that the expected bad weather had missed us.  We had wind, rain & thunderstorms.  But not anything bad.  Then we woke to horrible news on Monday morning.  The last count is that there are 116 confirmed deaths, but I heard on the news just now that there are still 1,500 + people missing.  This long afterwards, missing might mean something else.  But I don't think that anyone is ready to admit that yet, and they shouldn't.

And more storms are on the way.  We have a very strong chance of bad storms tonight.  Duration, intensity and location depends on many factors.  But we've been warned that it could be a major outbreak of tornadic storms tonight.

We are as prepared as we can be, not that you can ever really be ready for something like that.  But we've been down this road before because we live in Tornado Alley.  Although they can happen anywhere, and at any time of the year.

So, please pray and keep praying.  For Joplin, and all the other areas impacted or that are going to be impacted by tonight's storms.

Yes, Dad.  I hear you.

Sunday Fill-In-The-Blank!

Because nobody can come up with a good title today.  We're a little on the tired side.  It's been a very busy last few days.  Last week was a short work week, I was off Thursday and Friday with Otter.  Bill was off Friday.

Thursday was very busy, it started with getting Otter to the school for graduation practice & final instructions for Project Graduation.  I ran a couple of quick errands while she was at school, then went back to get her and took her to visit her grandparents for a few minutes.  She took her graduation robe & cap so we could get a couple of pictures with them.  Then, we ran to the mall and she got a manicure.  We ran back home, just in time to start getting dressed to go and then Bill got home with Nana who he had just picked up at the airport.  Otter and I went to pick up BF, then we met Bill and Nana at Chili's for Otter's celebration dinner.  We had a nice meal and a great visit.

It was on to the local college campus where the graduation ceremony was held after that.  We had a lot of traffic to deal with which was not a surprise, then we managed to get good parking spaces.  We figured out where to sit, Otter ran off to join all the other graduates and then we had about an hour before the ceremony.

It was well done.  The students were seated in sections by the first letter of their last name, but they did not have to sit in an particular order which actually made it better.  Each graduate had a name tag which they handed to the announcers on stage and the names were read off that way.  There were two lines of graduates at a time, one one each side of the stage.  It went fairly quickly, considering the size of the graduating class.  The speeches were good, the music was good and we really enjoyed it.  The choir was made up of graduating seniors only, and they walked in with their class.  They were first, they were seated together and then they went to the stage for the songs.  Very good way to do it.

After the ceremony ended, we eventually found Otter and then we all had to find each other because we were separated in the crowd.  Bill took Nana back to our house, Otter and I took BF to his house and then I took her to Project Graduation.  It was about 10:30 p.m. by that point.  It was after 11:00 by the time I got home and I was absolutely exhausted.  Too tired to sleep, actually.

The next morning started even earlier, I had to go pick Ottter up at 5:00!  (Before I had any coffee!).  She had about a 4-hour nap after we got home.  We eventually woke her up and went out for lunch.  We did a little shopping and had a lot of fun.  We also did a lot of visiting, we haven't seen Nana since last Thanksgiving.  She left this morning, Bill took her to the airport about 7:30 and then got home in time for us to go to the early church service.  Which was good, but I had difficulties staying awake.  Can't imagine why!

It was supposed to rain last Thursday and there was a good chance of thunderstorms that evening.  The rain held off until Friday morning and we're really glad of that.  It rained most of Friday, but it quit that evening.  We have a chance of rain most days this coming week.

Which is the last week of high school for Otter!  She's not sure if she's going to have any more existential crises over it or not. :)

I've also realized that Memorial Day is a week from tomorrow.  So I have one full week, then a 3-day weekend.  Hopefully, I'll be caught up on my sleep by then!

The movie Rango has finally made it to the dollar theater.  Otter and I want to see it again, so we're going to head off shortly.  Bill's waiting until it hits video, he's going to stay home and work on his latest project for the pachinko machines:  he's learning how to cast parts.

At least it doesn't require the use of any power tools!

Somewhere...

in this crowd is my Otter!

She was on the right-hand side towards the front.

There were 1,043 members of the graduating class.  It's apparently one of the largest in the country.

It was a wonderful ceremony.  We're very proud of her.

Today is the Day!

And all I can see is the little girl I left at kindergarten a few years ago.  It seems like it was just yesterday.

We're so proud of you, Otter!

Sunday Subway

Guess what we had for lunch?  :)

Anyway.  Moving on.

Otter graduates in just a few days.  Today at church the graduates were recognized.  We go to the early service, so there aren't as many people there (yet) as she would have had to face at the second service.  She was the first one recognized, there were two others and one of them was a college graduate.  She was a little embarassed to be called up to the front of the church, but it was still a nice thing for the church to do.  The graduates received a couple of books as gifts and there was a special prayer.  She graduates on Thursday, but she won't actually be out of school for another week.  Strange, but that's the way the local school district does things.  She's picked Chili's as the location for her pre-graduation ceremony dinner.

My craft project I mentioned Friday is going fine.  It's a little time consuming because there is glue drying time.  The actual process for making the project isn't long, it's just that I have to wait for the epoxy type glue to dry before I can put it together and take a picture of it.  It will be on the craft blog sometime in the next couple of days.  I think it might be ready now, but the camera I used is Otter's and it's with her.  She's off with BF today, they were going to Arby's for their standing Sunday date.  So I have to wait.

The weather has been odd lately.  Much cooler than normal and also wetter.  We had a couple of really nice days last week, Otter and I (and the dogs!) spent some time in the backyard one afternoon last week.  Watching ladybugs!  There were a lot of them, we think someone might have put some in their garden and they did what they normally do - they flew off!

Otter's jalepeno and rosemary plants are doing well, they haven't had the warm weather that they really need so they haven't grown a lot.  There is some growth, just not as much as we should have seen by this point.

The cool/wet/warm/dry/cool/wet weather cycle we are having also is having an affect on allergy sufferers.  It's making the allergy season much longer and stronger than normal.  Which we can attest to!

The dogs are not getting much backyard time right now.  We put them out there for a few minutes yesterday and didn't go with them like we usually do.  Of course, they immediately started digging!  Frasier was well on his way to China when I discovered it, but I'm sure that Maggie had something to do with it.  For one thing, she was in the general area prior to the excavation and she was pointing.  Which should have been my first clue that there was probably a mole they were hearing.  Bill mowed this morning after we got home from church, it's an adventure avoiding all the craters.

We have a bird nest on the front porch.  It's a wren, she's built her nest in what resembles a half-cage but is actually a planter that was Mom's.  I have a small clay pot with artificial ivy in it, and the little bird found it to be just what she wanted for her nest.  There are two eggs in it, there were three but we noticed that one of them was smashed on the porch.  Mama bird might have reduced her brood like they will sometimes do if there aren't a lot of bugs to eat, or she might have just been clumsy.  We're enjoying having her out there.  She is used to us to a point, she will now sometimes stay on the nest when we walk by.  We are trying not to spend a lot of time out there, but it's the front porch and we have to use the door sometimes!

Blogger seems to be acting better, but I'm not the only one who had issues with it last week.  I think that there must have been a problem at the main site, there was a scheduled maintenance report prior to the problems but it was only supposed to be down for an hour or so.  The problems lasted a couple of days and I was unable to sign in for a long time.  It's still having some moments, I'm able to get comments but some of the post labels are wonky as I try to post them.  Hopefully, it's fixed now and will stay that way.

Suicidal Squirrels on Friday the 13th!

When your day starts out with a kamikaze squirrel, it really can't get any worse.

I ran over one this morning.  I saw it dash off the curb & into the street just as I got to where it was.  It was not a pleasant experience! I'm glad that I was the driver and not Otter, but it was still not fun.

I'm not superstitious, but it was not a good way to start the day.

At least it is Friday.  Even if it is in the high 50's/low 60's.  Instead of the mid-80's that was forecast.

Blogger was acting up last night and this morning, Froggy made a comment on my last entry and Blogger would not accept it for any reason.  I think the entire site was down, because of what it was saying when I was attempting to sign in.  It seems to be working tonight, but Froggy's comment would not post so I posted it for her.  It had to do with Paypal phishing attempts.  Since then, Froggy's also discovered that her email was hacked into.  That sort of thing seems to be happening more and more often.  It's really frustrating to have to deal with things like that and it can also be costly.

I have a craft idea I'm going to try.  I have to give a shout-out to my blog friend Heidi, because I got the idea from her blog.  It involves a canning jar and I'll post pictures of it on my craft blog if it works.  I don't think that Bill's going to mind helping me with this one, since he's already volunteered the use of his drill.  But in the interest of safety, I think I'll be the one to operate the drill!

Well, maybe anyway.  I'll make sure that I have plenty of band-aids on hand!

Wednesday Ketchup

Nothing spectacular happening around here, but in order to keep Froggy off my back about blogging I thought that I should at least post something.  (Ducking and running now!). (Grin).

We are probably about to get hammered, thunder & lightning on the way with assorted other things such as rain and maybe windy stuff.  It's very cloudy and getting darker.  It's 4:30 in the afternoon, but it looks much later.

We did have one unpleasant thing to deal with this week.  Our Paypal account got hacked.  We got an email from Paypal, confirming a $443 purchase of a laptop computer.  Except that we didn't buy one.  Bill was unable to get into our account because the password had been changed.  Not by one of us!  So, we called Paypal and they said that they thought it was a fraudulent transaction - but they let it go through anyway.  They cancelled it, but they had already sent the withdawel order to the bank so I had to go to the bank and have a stop payment issued.  Paypal also showed that they sent the money back to us, but told us that it could take days and we should probably go to the bank.  Which I did, last Friday actually.  Last night, the withdraw order came through AND THE BANK HONORED IT!  Even though I had it it writing that they wouldn't.  So, back to the bank today for me.  They got a "small" taste of RedHeadTexasWoman and are reimbursing us, since they screwed up.  That could take up to 24 hours, I haven't checked in the last couple of hours but will soon.  It had better be fixed - and stay fixed, this time.

It's been frustrating dealing with this, to say the least.

But all the Paypal passwords have been changed again (by us) and hopefully, this won't happen again.  It seems to be happening more and more often, I've heard of several people who have gone through this.  If we didn't keep such a close watch on things, there is no telling how much we would have had stolen.

Bill's finished two of the wooden chairs we bought for the deck.  He's working on the third one now.  They are really nice and very comfortable.

I'm going to get this posted now, before I have to suddenly turn off the computer.  Then, I think I'll go crochet.  I started a new project for Otter and it's calling my name.

Happy Mother's Day

Just Friday

But what a week it's been!

Obviously, it has been an important week as an American.  Beyond my first post about justice, I have deliberately stayed away from the subject.  I still stand by what I said, it was justice and very much deserved. But I am trying very hard not to celebrate the aspect of the death of the person.  (I'm not posting the name because this blog is not searchable for a reason and there are certain words that will always show up on a search.  That person's name being one of them.  Also, I refuse to justify him with a name or anything remotely dignified).  But I am glad that there has finally been some justice.  Notice that I did not say closure!  Closure in that sense does not exist.  However, I do still think we should pray for the people involved, all of them.

It's been a fast week.  Which is a good thing.  I'm so ready for it to be Friday again.  Actually, I'm ready for it to be Saturday.  Because I'm going to crochet/read/sleep/goof off all day!

Sunday is Mother's Day.  I told Otter that I want two things for Mother's Day:  1.  To go to the zoo, which we are doing on Sunday.  and 2.  I want to teach her how to crochet.  She's talked about it before, she wanted me to show her a few weeks back but then she got sick and that's never a good time to learn anything new.  Whether or not she sticks with it is up to her, but I'm going to show her the basics and then she will at least stick with it long enough to really know what she's doing - it's like any other skill, there will be a period of "I'm going to throw this stuff out the window!" and then she'll figure it out.  Then, it's up to her.  But it's like embroidery - I taught her and she knows how (although neither of us can stand it!), and it might not be something she'll want to do much of but it's come in handy for her a few times already.

Of course, if she does love crochet and gets obsessed about it (which will happen if she likes it at all), then I might have to fight for my stash!

Sighting of the Elusive & Rare

Carpet Shark!

Looks like we are not the only family with one.  This one might even be another beagle.

Run for your lives!

And hide your toes.

A Few Athma Thoughts on Tuesday

Read this:

Asthma on the Increase?

It's an interesting article.  Since I'm the mother of/daughter of/aunt of/victim of it myself, I have more than a passing interest in asthma research.  It's not a fun disease.  It's a hard one to have and it can be potentially life-threatening, as some I know can tell you - she lost her teenage daughter to it.  It's also a very expensive disease, we were fortunate to have really good insurance when Otter's asthma was at it's worst but even with insurance it was still a financial concern.

My mother had it, although I don't know how bad hers was.  I think she had it fairly strongly when she was younger, but it had lessened quite a bit by the time she was an adult.  Froggy's had to deal with it as a parent.  My sister/friend Virginia's oldest child has it and I think one of her late daughter's children has it.  I have it.  Otter has it.

Otter was diagnosed with it when she was about 2 1/2.  It was rough for a few years, she had so many different allergies to deal with.  I strongly recommend allergy shots, they helped her immensely.

Otter is mostly dealing with allergies right now.  They are better, but she's still got them.  She's been taking the allergy medication we got her last week and it seems to be working.  I think it's probably working better than the benadryl.  She's still sneezing frequently, but I can see improvement.

But even as bad as her allergies have been lately, it's still nowhere near as bad or as scary as it was years ago.  So I don't complain, I'm just Thankful that it's not like it used to be.

JUSTICE

For this

Nearly 10 years.  But finally:

JUSTICE

I'm not going to get into the argument about rejoicing over a death, because that is not part of it as far as I'm concerned.  It would have still been JUSTICE, if he'd been captured as opposed to killed.  I'm sure that it will be a lightning rod for people, but we do need to remember that he was still created by God and was special to Him.  The crimes of that person are many, but the ultimate Judge is our Father and we are all subject to His wisdom.

Sunday Rain!

When will it ever stop?  Pastor David said today that he doesn't think we've actually had spring yet.  He's waiting for it.  Frankly, I'll be happy if we skip spring entirely (or at least any more spring storms) and go straight to summer.  Which might be hot, but we can handle that.  Although Bill did say that he's not complaining now, because he'd rather have cool weather than the hot stuff we grew up with.  I do see his point, but I'm beginning to get tired of near constant rainy weather.  (Actually, we did have spring.  It was just very short.  Then we went back to winter or possibly to fall wannabe).

Otter tried the allergy medicine we bought her on Friday.  She said that it seems to work, the daytime version allows her to breathe and that's a big improvement over how she was last week.  Benadryl works for her, but it's a sleepy one so she could only use it at night.  I'm not sure if Benadryl has a daytime version or not, but the alka seltzer cold/allergy stuff works so she'll use it.

I finished my crochet swiffer cover.  Then I put it on the swiffer and decided that I didn't like it.  So I frogged out a little bit of it and re-did it.  The one I bought last summer works, I wound up copying it instead of using the pattern I had.  Since it has been used many times, the stiches are a little smushed together and it's harder to count the number needed as well as tell what the specific stitch is.  But I figured it out and the one I made will work fine.

I'm not sure, but I think we might have two hummingbirds.  I know that we at least have one, but there might have been another one zipping by when the first one was at the feeder today.  Hope so!

We've made two trips to Michael's today.  Both were for Bill.  He's working on casting some small pieces for the pachinko machines.  He bought a mold making kit, but it wasn't very good.  The stuff mixed up strange, not like it was supposed to and he tried it multiple times.  Then we went back and he found another type to use.  I'm not sure when he's going to try the second mold stuff he bought, I don't think he's going to mess with it tonight.  We also went to the dollar store when we were out the first time.  It was "strange people day" at the dollar store.  Kind of like the "People of WalMart" jokes that I've seen, except it was the dollar store this time.

I don't think the dogs like this weather any better than I do.  They were pretty bored earlier, I was in the floor and they started a war.  Apparently, I was base and they kept running to me, away from me and then around me.  At top speed.  At one point, they both ran over me!  I think Maggie was trying to jump over my legs, but Frasier just bulldozed me.  But they seemed to enjoy it, silly babies.

OK, I'm going back to my laundry now.

TGIF TGIF TGIF TGIF TGIF TGIF

Can you tell I'm glad that it's Friday?  :)

It's been a long week.  I'm glad that it's over and done with.

Otter is better, it is NOT strep and that's a good thing.  But she's still not well.  However, I think the problems she's having today are allergy and not the virus she had.  We bought her some stronger allergy medicine on the way home today.  The benadryl does work, but she can't take it during the day and function.  So she got an alka-seltzer cold/allergy pill that has both a non-drowsy and a nighttime med in the same box.  She'll probably start on it tonight.  She was fairly miserable when I picked her up.  Among other things, we also bought a 3-pack of large boxes of lotion kleenex.  She'll probably go through most of them this weekend.

And I may help her on that.  I have what could be allergy, or could be the early symptoms of the virus she had.  It's an easy Friday night snack dinner, we're having nachos.  I'm going to load mine up with picante sauce and see if that helps.

We didn't get up at darkthirty to watch the royal wedding on tv, but we did see some of the highlights on the regular news we usually watch at 6:00 in the morning.  I do like the dress, I thought it was very pretty.  Classic, elegant and understated, which is what I like.  I'm just glad that it does not look a thing like her late mother-in-law's ridiculously ugly dress that was all the rage when I was shopping for a wedding gown!

I've got crochet plans tomorrow.  I finally found the pattern for the swiffer cover that I've been looking for.  It wasn't misplaced, it was actually in my pattern notebook.  I just couldn't find it when I looked for it, I guess the plastic sleeves stuck together and I thought maybe I didn't have that pattern after all.  I have one swiffer cover, that I bought last summer at a craft mall in San Antonio when I was visiting Froggy.  It works great, but it's starting to show signs of wear (we use the swiffer a lot) so I decided that it was time to make a new one.  I never did copy the one I bought before it got used, and cotton yarn tends to clump up after it gets wet and scrubbed on the floor.  I'm about 3/4 of the way done on the one I'm making (which is blue, as opposed to pink camo like the one I bought) and should be able to get it finished quickly.  It's a fast pattern, I worked on it a couple of nights ago but haven't had a chance to get back to it.  I haven't used thin gauge cotton yarn too much, but I really like it.  I have a few other plans for it.

We are absolutely heartbroken over the devastation wrought by the multiple tornados in the south Wednesday night.  It's just unbelievable.  I've already posted links to the Salvation Army and other charities, on previous posts about natural disasters.  They should be easy to find, if anyone is interested in helping.  Tornadic damage kind of hits "close to home", seeing how we live in Tornado Alley.  But they can and do happen anywhere.  I'm sure that they can use all the help they can get, and that includes our prayers.

The bluebonnet in the front yard has a 2nd bud!  It's doing great.  Bill mowed the yard today, he was very careful around it.  We planted morning glory seeds yesterday, we'll see what happens.  There are already a few coming up on Otter's trellis by the rock garden.  Obviously, we can't tell what kind they are, but I expect them to be the original variety and not anything from last year's bad seeds.  Hopefully, the seeds we planted yesterday are good and not bad like last year's!

We also have had our first hummingbird visit!  It was a few days ago, maybe last weekend, when we saw one on the feeder.  We've seen it a couple of times, and I had one buzz me yesterday when I was in the front yard.  The feeder had been up for a while and was probably fermented, so I cleaned it and refilled it last night.

Hummingbirds, morning glories and bluebonnets.  Happy, happy!

Waterlogged

Today, it did not rain.  Yesterday, it did.  Sunday, it rained.  Saturday, it rained, Friday... get the picture?

We're no longer in the beginning stages of a drought.  We've more than made up for any lack of rain last year.  The problem is that we seem to be getting it all at once!  It has nowhere to go, the water just keeps coming down and is causing some major flooding in parts of the state.  Also in Arkansas and I think Missouri and Kansas, as well.  We did need rain.  Just not all at once.  A nice, slow rain would have been good.  So that the ground would have time to absorb it and not get over-saturated.

More rain is forecast tonight and probably tomorrow.  I'm not sure about Thursday.

We're back in jackets, it's been cool and of course wet.

Otter isn't feeling too good at the moment.  She was having what we hoped were "just" allergy issues last night.  She took a benadryl and went to bed early, with a slight sore throat and lots of congestion.  She got up this morning with a very sore throat and more congestion.  And fever.  So, back to bed she went.  I took her temperature a couple of times during the morning, when it got to over 100 it was time to call the doctor.  I took her in this afternoon, the doctor does not suspect strep this time (I quizzed her about that, to be sure), but took a throat swab for a culture just to be on the safe side.  The rapid test came back negative, but then so did the one in December.  When it was strep after all.  After we got home from the doctor, Otter took a looooooooooooooooong shower and then I made chicken noodle soup for dinner.  Both seem to have helped her, but she still doesn't feel good.  Just better.  The doctor gave her an excuse for today and also for tomorrow, which is probably for the best.

Since I was home with her today, I got a lot done. Among other things, I made stew & rice (for the freezer for Billyboy's lunches), I made Beanie Weenie Surprise (also for the freezer for lunches), did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, watered plants, swept and started a crochet project which I'm nearly through with.  I'm tired!  I also had to deal with two over-affectionate dogsters.  They like to help, Maggie especially was fascinated with the broom while I was sweeping the kitchen.  Don't know what the attraction was, she's seen it before.  Frasier isn't interested in helping with housework, but he does like to sit and watch me crochet.  No idea why!  Although it might have something to do with his addiction to taking things outside that he doesn't think belong inside.  He has taken a yarn ball out before.

Th-th-th-that's all, fffolks!

Halelujah!

For He is risen just as He said.

Wild Blues

Or, how to make a Texan happy!

Look what we just found!  It's by the whiskey barrel.  It's actually right on the edge of the street and we hope that it doesn't get run over by the mail truck.  But it's there and it's naturalized, and we're thinking that maybe we should have left the other ones that sprouted in the whiskey barrel.  Maybe, this one obviously came up well after they did.

Whatever!  We're just glad we've got it.

Sunday Squirrels

We went to a local park this afternoon.  It has creeks, trees, birds, frogs and azaleas.  And a boatload of squirrels!  We sometimes take peanuts and feed them.  They are not tame, but they are very used to people and we can feed them from our hands.  Feed one or two, and you'll suddenly be surrounded by billions of little bushy tails!  We didn't feed them today, but they still follow people around if they think that there is the slightest chance of food.

We took Otter there to take pictures.  We decided to take her senior pictures ourselves, we weren't impressed with any of the packages we saw offered at any of the millions of photographers in the area.  The park is a local landmark and there are always lots of people.  In the spring, most of them are taking pictures.  Today was no exception.  Lots of little kiddos being herded (and chased down) by parents with cameras in hand.

My allergies didn't particularly like today's outing, but I enjoyed it otherwise.  So did Otter.  But we'll take peanuts next time.  Not that I expect the squirrels to starve, by any stretch of the imagination!

Movie Review:  Tangled.  It was pretty good, better than I expected.  It was funny.  I probably would not have been happy at theater prices, but we enjoyed it.  Especially the horse!

We have been watching, and there are almost no morning glories coming up.  We've always had a whole lot, but not anymore.  I'm thinking that the seeds we got last year must have been infected with something which is what we thought then, because very few came up from the seeds last year and even less of the already established ones.  This year, there are none at all in any of the areas I planted the seeds.  Including Otter's trellis.  There are a couple of vines that have come up at the end of the trellis, but they are the ones that were already established.  We bought several packages of seeds at the hardware store and I'll get them planted probably tomorrow.  Then we'll cross our fingers and hope.  (I'd plant them today, but my skin would probably run away if I spent that much time outside;  allergy overdrive!)

Several iris plants have blooms.  Several more have buds.  There are now two different shades of purple, and the yellowish ones have spread out.  Just no morning glories!

Otter has a movie review:  Insidious.  (I think that's the name).  She said it was good and that it was very scary.  She and BF saw it yesterday.  They also went to dinner.  They called it their Anti-Prom date.  The prom was last night, but neither of them wanted to go.  They wanted to do something that they would both enjoy, and the Prom was not it.  So they decided on dinner and a movie instead.  They actually went to the next small town over and had a Mexican dinner.  Otter said that she really is glad she got the shoes she did last weekend when we went shopping, but that she's now got blisters from them.  But they look good, and since she's her mother's daughter when it comes to cute shoes...

I did (finally) find time to crochet this week.  Yesterday.  I put 2 or 3 rows on the afghan and really enjoyed it.  I am going to work on it and a couple of other projects I've had planned for a while, then I'm going to get back to de-stashing.

Today is Palm Sunday.  We went to the early church service, which is what we usually do.  There normally aren't a lot of people, we are hoping that will change.  Because I don't see Pastor Dave keeping the early service much longer if he's only got 6 people in the audience!  Pastor Dave was complaining about how windy it has been lately.  He said that the wind was the reason he left West Texas.  He didn't pick a very good place, if he wanted to avoid wind!  Although we usually do get it earlier in the year.  But at least the area behind our house has grass now, it was scraped down to dirt when the building started back there and it was horribly dusty when the wind blew.

Like it always does here!

Friday

Soft & Fluffy Friday.  Or at least that's what I've decided today is.  Soft weather, also known as mist alternating with rain accompanied by a cold wind.  It's almost like an early Fall day, instead of early Spring.  It's been in the mid-40's most of today.

Yesterday, it was Spring (and in the 80's.)  With the standard Spring Storm as well.  We had wall clouds, two in particular that were very close but didn't sprout anything.  However, we had sirens going off and were ready to run to the safe room if necessary.  We didn't have to, thankfully.  But we did get a hailstorm.  Gravel size, and no damage to the cars or anything.  Just to the Asian Lillies I just planted!  Also, some of my hostas have damaged leaves and the tulips look like they took a few hits as well.  But it could have been a whole lot worse.

It was worse, after the storms (there were more than one) moved through our area and on east/northeast.  There was also a tornado well south of us.

So, while we are thankful that we are ok, let's not forget that other people are not ok and their have been some deaths.  Prayers will help.

Yesterday, I was going to wear my new shoes.  And I realized that there was no way my left knee was going to let me.  So, my lunch hour was spent returning the shoes to Payless.  It was not a fun trip because I really did NOT want to do that.  But I think it was the right decision, since I wasn't going to be able to wear them.  Then last night I twisted my left knee and it was agonizing!  I was reaching across the bathroom to throw something away and I think I just moved wrong, because my knee twisted pretty hard.  I should have just taken one or two steps so I could reach the trash can.  I had to take an extra-strength motrin when I went to bed.  It's better today, but it has reminded me a couple of times today that it's not happy.  So I spent today's lunch hour running errands and one of those errands was to go buy a big bag of chocolate!  Chocolate cures everything. :)

I'm just glad that tomorrow is Saturday.  I might actually get to crochet, I have not had any time since last Saturday.  I get cranky when I don't get to play with my yarn!

W(h)ine Wednesday

I haven't whined in a while, and it is Wednesday so I felt like it was a good title.  Actually, I'm not whining.  But I am tired.  I guess I could complain about that, that could be considered whining.

I think I'm going to go have a glass of wine and put my feet up.  They are ouchy for some reason.

Otter has a homework assignment for cooking class.  She has to create a casserole recipe and cook it for us.  I have to take a picture of her cooking it, as well as a picture of it after she's served it.  Then we have to write a paragraph about it which she will turn in along with the pictures and printed copy of the recipe.  She's got a few ideas, she's been cooking since she was small so it shouldn't be a problem for her.  She has to create her own recipe, she can't use one from a book or even from a family member.  It has to be original.  It won't be a problem for her.  I will post the recipe on the cooking blog after she's turned the assignment in at school.  Bill suggested that it have an ingredient also known as beagle, but that suggestion went over like a ton of bricks.

I still haven't gotten the hummingbird food mixed up!  I forgot about it yesterday, I was going to get it done after I showered all the allergens off but I got sidetracked.  Hopefully, I will remember it tonight.  Don't want the birds coming after me!

There's a yellow jacket, or possibly a hornet, starting a nest on the front porch.  We discovered it yesterday while we were outside playing in the yard with the weeds and Bill's going to take care of it this evening.  So far, there is just one insect on it and the nest is small.  But it needs to be gone.  We generally leave insects alone, except for spiders which have to be taken outside or the beagle will eat them, but not when they a) have stingers and b) are very close to the door.

Speaking of insects and beagles, there was a mayfly in the living room yesterday morning.  You know, big and look like mosquitos.  They are harmless, they don't even have mouths and I forget what they are the end life cycle of.  The one in question was flying low, right at beagle eye-level.  Dog went crazy trying to find it, she saw it once and then it got out of her sight.  She kept looking around for it, she wanted to catch it.  She gave up on it after a few minutes.  Then it appeared again, Maggie almost flew through the air herself, from one side of the living room to the other, and snatched it out of the air.  She didn't kill it, but she did wing it.  She opened her mouth and it more or less flew out, but it didn't get very far.  As soon as it landed, stupiddog smushed it - with the top of her head!  Then she tried to roll on it, but she kept missing it.  There is a reason why she gets called stupiddog!  She had a good time with it, although it got picked up and thrown away pretty quick.  It was really funny.

Frasier's latest thing is to wait until somebody is petting Maggie, then he will nonchalantly mosey over and lie down.  On top of Maggie.  She gets squashed against the floor or the couch on a regular basis.  Frasier always looks so pleased when he manages to trap her.

OK, still nothing to whine about!  Guess I'll have to try harder.  Maybe next time.

Gutters

(No, not mind in the gutter kind of gutters!)  Bill cleaned the rain gutters out this afternoon.  They were pretty full, lots of helicopter maple seeds, dirt, leaves and just general gunk.  They are nice & clean now.  If we ever get any rain again, they might actually do their job!  It might rain Thursday or thereabouts.  Hope so, we need it.

After he cleaned the gutters, Bill replaced the filter in the drain pipe to the rain barrel.  It's basically a pantyhose leg, periodically it needs to be replaced.  It works wonderfully, actually.  It's a creative way to recycle torn hose.

I did some yard work this afternoon.  I planted two Asian lily plants in the whiskey barrel.  One has red blooms, although they are called purple, and the other one has light pink.  They are supposed to be perennial and full sun.  We'll see!  I pulled a few weeds around my hosta plants and cleaned out leaves, etc. from the same area.  The hostas have come back well this year, they are starting to spread and self-propogate and look very good.  My skin has been on high alert ever since, I'm heading for the shower very soon in hopes that the itching will go away.  I scrubbed my arms up as far as my elbows after I came inside and it did help.  But I still got itchies!  Also, my sinuses are not happy with me.  They weren't happy before I played in the dirt, and they are really angry with me know.  But at least I got to spend some time outside.  That's always a good thing.

While we were outside, I noticed that quite a few of the iris plants in the back yard have buds.  They should be blooming very soon.

No shuttles for Tulsa.  I'm surprised and at the same time, I'm not surprised.  There were 20 other cities attempting to get one, there were only 4 available.  The surprise comes in from the fact that NASA had rules for this, and the majority of the cities that will receive one did not meet the qualifications.  Sounds like some politics involved!  Well, it's not the first time and won't be the last.  But it would have been really neat to have one here.  Even if it wasn't the Enterprise.

I think I'm going to head to the kitchen now, and mix up some hummingbird food.  I have been meaning to for a few days but keep forgetting.  They'll be here soon and will be hungry.  I don't want to disappoint the little needle beaks!  They have been known to dive bomb us before, being redheads were are already targets for them.  I don't want to give them any more reason to attempt to stab us!

Fingers Crossed & Breath Held!

Tulsa's trying to get something.  From NASA.  Something very special.

Here's the article.

Tulsa's hopes

(Tulsa's hopes is a play on a line "All my hopes.." which any self-respecting ST Geek will recognize).

Tulsa has been trying to get it for months and months.  It sounds like Tulsa actually has a very good chance.  We certainly hope so.  The decision will be announced tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. local time.

And the best part?

This is the one that Tulsa wants:

In case you can't tell the NAME, see the next picture for a hint.

And if you still can't tell:

It's The ENTERPRISE!

Sunday Snakes

No, not the reptilian kind with the forked tongues & scales. 

I'm talking about the plumbing kind.  This week's adventure was having to play plumber (well, Bill did anyway).  The a/c drain pipe in the garage was clogged up.  The clog was actually in the pipe between the a/c drain and the kitchen sink which caused both ends to overflow.  Bill discovered it when he went out into the garage to get another pachinko machine to bring in to work on.  There was water running down one side of the garage - the side the pachinkos were on, of course.  We had a rapid rearrange session, then he figured out where the water was coming from.  This was Wednesday evening, so we didn't do anything about it then.  Aside from turning off the a/c (it was cool that evening) and not using the dishwasher or kitchen sink, the dishwasher had just finished running and that is probably what caused the overflow leak.  Thursday morning's breakfast dishes were washed in the bathroom sink.  Bill talked to the plumbers at work and they told him that it was probably a clog and not anything more severe such as a broken pipe based on the symptoms, so he stopped on the way home from work and bought a pipe snake.  It did the trick, and we can now use the sink, dishwasher and a/c again.

I'm really glad that it was the other day and not today, because I don't think I could stand not having the a/c on in the house.  It's in the 80's, not extremely hot outside although the humidity is a problem for me.  The problem I'm having today is simply because I'm a 49 year old woman!  I haven't had a hot flash in several months and the one I had today made up for any that I've missed.  I've seldom been this miserable, it was very windy and cool this morning so I stood out on the back deck in the wind for quite a while.  Then I came inside and stood with my head in the freezer.  After that, I moved to the bedroom and turned the fan on high - and stood in front of it.  I am not looking forward to the next few years, if today's was any indication of what's on the horizon.

After I cooled down, we managed to make it to church.  Where the a/c was on and I actually got a little cold.  And enjoyed it!

I think I might get a hummingbird feeder up soon.  I haven't seen any yet, but we've seen quite a few birds suddenly appear and I expect them soon.

Otter and I went shopping this afternoon.  We both needed Easter dresses and also something to wear to her graduation.  We went to Penney's with the intention of hitting Dillards next, but we both found what we wanted at Penney's.  Love their sales!  My dress is a totally different size than I was looking for, I knew I'd lost a little more weight but I really didn't think I'd gone down any more in terms of clothing size.  Until I tried on the size I thought I would wear and it swallowed me.  The next size down actually is almost loose, but the size down from that would probably not work (yet) and I don't think that they had the next one down anyway.  No luck in the shoe department today, although we did try.  We both bought sundresses but mine has a shrug-type jacket.

Well, I guess that gives us an excuse to go shoe shopping this week.  Like we need one!

While we were out, we went to Lowe's and found a couple of plants.  Not much in the way of herbs, which is what Otter wants to grow this year.  She found a rosemary plant at the grocery store last week and would like to find another mint plant, probably peppermint specifically.  We bought 4 small jalepeno plants and a couple of lillies (forgot what kind) for the whiskey barrel.  We'll look at another store this week after school that usually has more edible plants than Lowe's does and see what we can find.

Then, we'll probably go shop for shoes. :)

It Was Otter's Turn Today

Allergies!  We can't seem to dodge them, this time of year.  Otter's been fighting hers for a few days and the wind is not helping.  She has been taking benadryl at night for the last couple of nights.  This morning, she woke up feeling cruddy.  So she took a benadryl and went back to bed.  Where she stayed most of the day.  I went to work, she was fine by herself.  And she had two doggies to look after her.  She's feeling a lot better this evening, but she's still got the allergy issue to deal with.  However, she will probably be back at school tomorrow.

She did manage to get out of the house for a few minutes.  We had a local election, so I picked her up after work and we went to vote.  We also stopped at Wallyworld and got milk as well as a rotiserie (sp?) chicken from their deli.  The chicken was dinner tonight.  I had a filling lunch from the so-called Chinese place by work and Bill went to lunch with some people he works with and had (not the best) Mexican food.  Otter had chicken noodle soup for lunch but she doesn't have much of an appetite when her allergies are acting up.  So I got a deli chicken and dismembered it.  Bill and I made wrap sandwiches with it, Otter's portion is on a foil-covered plate in the fridge for whenever she decides she's hungry.  The next time I decide to make chicken salad, I'll probably just buy a deli chicken instead of cooking one myself.  There isn't much of a price difference, actually, and it would already be cooked so it would save time.

We've been looking for chairs for the back deck.  We have plastic adirondack chairs that we've had for several years and we've enjoyed using them.  We spend a lot of time out there in the spring & summer.  But, after many years of being used and then left outside to freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw/etc., they are starting to break.  We decided to go with wooden ones this time.  The hardware store we like had some nice ones on their website, sturdy and not too expensive.  We went up to the store while ago, but they don't have them in stock yet.  So we ordered them off of the website.  I'm not sure how long the delivery will take, we're having them delivered to the store and I'm not sure if they are assembled or not.  I think they are, but I'm not sure.  But it will be nice to have chairs that I'm not afraid of landing on the ground in!

(Otter reported that her chicken was very good.  She had it with potato chips and ketchup, so I think her appetite is returning).

It did get to freezing last night.  Our area was 29 degrees this morning.  But it didn't feel like it was that cold.  It was nice this afternoon, sunny and around 70.  We are going to have a couple of nice days with more rain chances this weekend.

Hope we get rain, we could sure use it.  We could see smoke from grass fires from the house this afternoon.  Not a comforting sight!

A Few Observations on Monday

First of all, it's cold again.  It could freeze tonight.  We had the a/c on last week and the heater today.  I know that Texas weather is very quick to change.  But it doesn't even begin to hold a candle to Oklahoma weather!

Along with being much cooler today (50's), it's also been extremely windy.  We have Fire Alerts, which means that there is no outdoor burning allowed.  At all.  There have been some serious grass fires and there was one house fire late last night that became 2 houses completely gone and many surrounding houses with roof damage, due to the extremely high winds.  It's very dry here, which doesn't help matters.  We had a chance of rain last night, but we didn't really get anything out of it.

Froggy asked me about the March book list, seeing as it's April now.  Froggy, you apparently haven't been paying attention because I haven't posted one since the January list.  There wasn't one for February.  I'm not doing them anymore.  I've decided to comment on a few books as opposed to trying to list all the books I read.  The February list was probably the biggest one, or it would have been if I'd kept it.  I didn't even start one for March.  I'll occasionally post stuff about books.  I have been reading less and less fiction and more history and biography type things lately.  I think I've just about read everything the library has in the way of crochet books.  I have not found much fiction lately that I want to read.

Maggie Moo went to the vet today.  She and Frasier enjoyed their car ride.  Frasier parks in the back seat, which he takes up completely.  Maggie rides in the area between the two sides of the front seat.  She just fits.  She always pays attention to the direction we are going, and she knows exactly where we have to turn to go to the vet's.  The vet moved, however.  He's in the same strip center he was in before, but he's moved to the opposite end and has a much bigger space.  Maggie was being watchful today, when we didn't turn in to the parking lot where we usually did I noticed that she looked happy.  Then when we did turn, she wasn't aware that we were in fact at the vet.  She got out of the car easily, and happily went in the door with Otter and Frasier.  Then she saw the vet standing at the front desk, and that's when she realized just exactly where she was.  She was not amused!  She was even less amused a few minutes later, when the tech came to get her.  The tech had to play a round of Drag the Beagle.  When the procedure (behind squash) was over, the dog more of less flew out of the procedure room and straight back to Otter.  And she couldn't wait to get out of there and back into the car.  Not that I blame her.  Frasier weighed in at 69 pounds, or so.  He wouldn't be still on the scale, so he could actually be closer to 70 or 71 pounds.  Maggie has lost about 4 pounds, she's just under 25 pounds.  Which is a good thing.

We finally finished Otter's birthday cake.  It was good and it took us a while, but it's finally gone.  When we went to the bank earlier, the teller couldn't believe that she was even 18 let alone 19!

She graduates in just over a month.  That is simply not possible, she just entered kindergarted a few months ago!

Sunday Shortcakes

Got strawberries, angel food cake & cool whip in the fridge!  Which will be eaten later today, since we're all kind of stuffed from the chicken wraps we made for lunch.

Yard Sale Season has begun.  We went to one in the neighborhood last week, where we found a smaller desk for me and Otter found some craft stuff.  We went to three today, Otter found a necklace at one but that was all we bought.  We followed signs to another one, but they were apparently yesterday's signs because it wasn't there.  We also hit a thrift store, but that is a regular activity for us (no luck there).  Sunday yard sales are not really common here, for some reason.

While we were out, we also went to the library.  Which is also a regular activity for us!  Otter found a bunch of books, she also turned in the majority of the last haul.

It's been really warm lately.  Yesterday was so pleasant, we had the house open most of the day with a fan in the window.  It was breezy, but we were able to sit out on the deck in the morning and it was really nice.  Today is warmer and still pretty, but it's also WINDY.  Enough that I was nearly blown off my feet by one gust.  It's another one of those days where we keep expecting to see the beagle fly by.  We could get rain tonight, with the chance of more tomorrow.  Hopefully, any rain we do get will be ended by the afternoon.  The beagle has to go get her rear end squished at the vet's and I do not look forward to the idea of loading wet dogs in the car!

Bill cleaned out some junk from the shed while Otter and I were out hitting yard sales.  We have wasps in there.  They get in at one end, by the door, and then they can't find their way out.  They go to the window at the opposite end from the door, since they see the light shining through.  Then they spend their time batting against the window, trying to get out.  We have to go open the door and let them out on a regular basis.  They are not smart, it takes them a while to figure out that all they have to do is go back the way they came in and they'll be fine.  They are not nesting in the shed, we check frequently.  They just aren't too bright!

Otter saw the first honey bee of spring today.  She was cleaning out the dog yard, which is her least favorite chore and I don't blame her.  She said that the honey bee was busily collecting pollen from all the dandelions that have suddenly sprung up.  We also heard the first frog of the year yesterday, so Otter replaced the bricks in the dog's water dish because we don't want drowned frogs!

Bill didn't quite get to the bikes when he was working in the shed.  But I'm thinking that we're going to have to get them out pretty soon.  Someone gave us a bike that they weren't going to use a while back, so I'm thinking that I might start riding it in place of the one I bought a couple of years ago.  My bike isn't quite tall enough for me and it also needs new brakes.  If the other bike is in decent shape, which it looks like it is, I'll probably start riding it instead of buying new brakes for mine.  Depending on how tall it is.  I'm fairly tall, 5' 9".

My allergies are both better and worse today.  The respiratory allergies are better, which is surprising considering the wind and the fact that everything is blooming.  But my skin allergies are starting to kick in today.  I'm itchy!  I don't particularly like having allergies to so much stuff, but Otter's are even worse than mine.  I'm allergic to lots of things, she's allergic to nearly everything!

TGIF! Cough, Cough, Achoo

I've given in to my allergies today.  They have been getting worse over the last few days, and after hardly sleeping because I couldn't breathe last night, I decided to just give in and let them have their way.  So, I'm home.  With my coughing and sneezing!  And slightly sore throat.  And two dogs, who are curled up in the living room floor. Where they've been since breakfast! Which was the only reason they interrupted their sleep - food, followed by more sleep. Smart doggies.

I hate allergies. I have a lot of sinus pressure, but not actual sinus pain so I'm not worried about an infection. But I am not enjoying it! This spring is predicted to be a bad one as far as allergies go. The freezing weather we had in early February delayed the blooming cycle of some plants/trees. So they are all blooming at once, instead of being spread out somewhat.

Otter enjoyed her birthday.  We took her & BF to the restaurant known as the Hog Trough in the family but it has another name, Golden Corral, which is what the rest of the world calls it.  We met her grandparents there and had a fun meal.  Then we came back to the house for birthday cake.  Which was really good, and of course we had to have ice cream with the cake.  Froggy, any guesses on where the ice cream came from?  After the cake & ice cream, Otter and BF took the dogsters out in the back yard and ran around with them.  When the dogs decided that they'd had enough play (which took a while), both poochies came inside and crashed on their blanket.  And stayed there, unmoving, for hours.

OK, my crochet is calling me.  Although I'm not sure I have the patience for it today.  Along with having sneeze/coughing outbreaks, I'm also grumpy.  Maybe I'll just go make some herbal tea and watch tv for a while.  I'm sure the doggies will be more than willing to keep me company.