Just a Dusting Today

Both snow and real dust!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is what they are going for, actually.

*Fixins is one of our favorite words!

It's Beagle Wednesday!

It hasn't been Beagle Wednesday in a while, and Maggie is overjoyed with the Westminster Dog Show's Grand Champion is a fellow beagle!  But I'm confused about something. Miss P (which is also one of Maggie Moo's many nicknames) is described as "calm."  Calm is not a word I would associate with a beagle!  They are the orignal adhd dog and are closely related to the Energizer Bunny.  They have two speeds:  Warp Speed x Infinity, or OFF.

This picture isn't sideways.  She was snoozing with her rear right up against the couch!  I don't know when this was taken, but it was before we cleaned the carpets on Black Friday 2014 because that's when we moved her blankets.

This is sideways, however,  It's Frasier's tracks in the snow a few weeks back.  It might have been the snow on my birthday.  Anyway.  Look at the prints.  They are single file, just like his coyote relatives would walk.

This is a closer shot.  You can tell that it's two feet in each print, his front feet are very close together.  His back feet are also single file, but not always in exactly the same steps.

Maggie Moo walks like a dog, not a coyote.  She's making her way outside, beside his footprints so it's really noticeable how different their walking patterns are.

This is the nest in the maple tree in the back yard.

This is the nest in the redbud tree.

Closer shot of the redbud tree nest.

Close up of the maple tree nest.

This is the shelf in the front/craft/guest/YARN room.  It was Otter's originally, her room as a baby was done in a carousel horse theme.  One of Bill's sister's painted the horses and then attached small dowel pieces to the tops so they became carousel horses.  Over the years, the dowels fell off and they were just horses.  Otter never wants to get rid of this shelf, but it's on the wall in her old room and she's leaving it in my custody on a strictly temporary basis!  So, I'm using it for my toys!  I have 5 different yarn spools and my decorative spinning wheel.  I was thinking of getting a real spinning wheel and setting it up in there with some yarn attached, but they are big and it would take up more room than I wanted to lose.  Also, I don't like to take a functional item and turn it into non-functional decor - which is what would happen, since I am EXTREMELY allergic to wool.  One of the antique/junk stores we shop at occasionally had this adorable little dustcatcher for several months and it would always tell me it wanted to come home with mer.  I ignored it for a while, then I finally decided I'd better buy it while I could because I'd never seen another one like it and I was afraid someone else would grab it.  So I finally bought it and it promptly fell apart when I got it home.  Cue glue gun!  It sits on a small rug and it has a small stool sitting beside it.

OK, it's time to go cover the beagle!  She's messing around with her blankies, she was asleep at my feet underneath the afghan but I guess she decided she'd be warmer if she moved to her blankets, seeing how they are by the fireplace and there is a fire in it.  Frasier is stil snoozing in the same spot he's been in for something like an hour - at my feet on top of the afghan.  Maggie had to fight her way out from underneath it, thanks to big brudder Frasier!

Shovels

We're pretty much all thawed out now.  I got out yesterday about 4:00 or so to check on the roads.  Once I got out of the neighborhood, the streets were mostly ok but there were patches.  We thought the plows had gotten to us by that time, which they had.  Sometimes they don't get this far out, sometimes they do.  I don't know if they have any rhyme or reason to their schedule, once they get the specific areas such as hospitals, police department, etc. done.

Anyway, I went to Wallyworld and their parking lot had been plowed.  The plow was still there, it was running and the driver was standing inside the store doors.  It looked like he was trying to get warm.  There was a huge amount of water on their parking lot after the plowing.  I was able to get a 25# bag of birdseed.

This morning, I waited until the traffic had time to get over with before I left for work.  I did have a few spots where it was icy.  At one point, I was behind a plow/sand truck.  He was getting spots that had been missed the day before and I could tell when he put his plow down because he was sparky!  Once I got to the street I work on, it's a residential street since we're in a duplex, it was obvious that it hadn't been touched at all.  Because most of the houses/duplexes on that street are actually businesses, it doesn't generally get the traffic that most other non-residential streets get on bad weather days.  It was a slip and slide all the way to the driveway.  The driveway was snow covered, but I made at attempt to get up it so I could get into the uphill driveway.  Actually, I made two or three attempts.  Then I gave up and parked in the street!  I was only about 2 feet short of being able to get to the garage, but it just wasn't happening.  With the street being essentially a solid sheet of ice, it was an adventure walking across it!  Once the sun came out, the driveway started thawing out.  All except for the last few feet which were shaded.  I spread a little ice melt out on it and went inside.  After a while, I checked it and the ice melt had worked somewhat.  I got out the snow shovel and got a little ice/snow off in the tire track areas and put more ice melt out.  I did that a couple of times and it's really hard to operate a snow shovel when you have tendinitis in your left elbow!!!  The rest of the driveway was melted off and starting to dry out pretty good when I left at 3:30.  The street was mostly thawed and a lot of it was dried as well.

We were supposed to get a fast moving rain storm with high winds this evening.  We could see the clouds.  Some of the early reports were actually that it was huge, wet snowflakes instead of rain.  We got nothing out of it, so I'm not complaining.  It will be very cold tonight, we should be getting a very hard freeze tonight.  But it should be ok as far as driving in the morning.

I fed the birds this morning, and they were waiting on me!  Feathered pigs.  I put out two feeders and tossed out quite a bit of seed on the ground.  There were kitty paw prints on the front porch when I left.  I saw several squirrels today.  I hope that all the animals mean that winter's done!

But I'm not in a hurry for SpringStorms.  Not at all.

Wow. They Actually Got it Right.

The forecasters, that is.

It started barely sleeting last night about 9:30 and I went to bed shortly after that.  When we got up this morning, everything was white & fluffy.  And cold!

Last night's sleet (which I was hoping was just rain) was followed by more sleet and then snow on top of that.  And a little more sleet/freezing rain/ice after that.  We watched the news coverage and they were reporting bad road conditions.  When they started showing the small town we live in and interviewing a police officer who said to stay off the roads if you can, I decided to take that suggestion and called in.  I'm blaming Younger Boss because this only seems to happen when he goes on vacation!  If he goes away during the Spring, we get Spring Storms.  If he goes away in the summer, we generally get what we called gully washers in S. TEXAS.  (Lots and lots and lots of rain.)  Anyway, Otter was supposed to be in at 8:00 and she said her boss called her and he was going to call the rest of the scheduled employees to ask them to come in if they could.  She had never actually driven in/on this stuff before, so she called me and we gave her some suggestions about what to do and what not to do do.  She lives very close to the police department and that is one of the areas that gets plowed first, and she also lives close to one of the major intersections in our area which is also one of the earlier spots that get plowed.  But the news reporter was actually standing at that particular intersection and that's the area the cop was pointing out as bad!

Otter decided to try and go in, she texted me after she got there - took about 40 minutes instead of the normal 5 or so.  She said it "Was.Not.Fun" but she got there safely.  She called me after she got to work.  Since some of the areas had been scraped already, some of the road was ok but some of it was still icy because they mostly just got the snow cover off - it takes several passes sometimes before they get the ice layer removed.  But she lives here and she needs to know how to deal with it.

We are out "on the edge of nowhere" and the plows very seldom actually get to us.  The neighborhood still looks pretty bad, and I'm not going to even attempt to get out.  There was not much going on at work, Younger Boss is gone this week and the Teenager had already announced that he was not going to come in at least today and probably not tomorrow due to the weather.  Besides, when the police tell me to stay off the road I figure that they are saying that for a reason and I'd better listen!

The fireplace has been going ever since we got up and it will probably be burning all day.  The dogs have been out once, but it took a little convincing to get them to actually go out the door!  They came back in pretty fast, too.  Then they went back to sleep, Maggie was in front of the fireplace on her blankets and didn't move for at least an hour but I could tell she was still breathing at least!  She's now on top of the afghan I was using.  Frasier was where she is now for a long time, but now he's moved to a spot in front of the coffee table and much closer to the fireplace.  Goofs!  But smart goofs.

I brought my birdfeeders in last night so they wouldn't be iced over this morning.  I went to fill them up this morning and discovered that I only had enough seed for one feeder and it's not quite full.  The bag I thought I saw in front of my workbench turned out to be potting soil.  I put out a suet feeder along with the one feeder.  IF we are able to get out later (which I don't think is even going to be attempted), I'll get more.  Most likely, I'll get it tomorrow.  If anybody has any left, it goes fast once the flakes start falling.

Today won't be above freezing and tonight will be very cold.  The streets may thaw out a bit with traffic today, but tomorrow morning may be even slicker.  But the temperature tomorrow should be in the low 40's so it might be better during the day.  Otter has to go in at 8:00 in the morning, she works until 1:00 today and also tomorrow.  She'll play it by ear in the morning like she did today, but she will probably go in.

Tonight's dinner plan is chili.  However...

It's about 9:30 a.m. now and they are still telling people to stay off the roads.  The current temperature is 21 degrees but our windchill is somewhere around 8!  It will feel like mid- to upper-teens this afternoon.

Maybe

Winter's not over yet!

We could get anywhere from 2" to 6" of snow tonight into tomorrow.  Or we might "just" get sleet and freezing rain overnight.  Or we could get both snow and ice, which is the worst of the possibilities.  Snow is it's own issue, ice is bad but snow over ice can be worse because people might not realize that it's not just snow!  It's hard to drive on ice, but snow covered ice is harder because people get complacent and think that it's only snow and not ice.

(I know, I'm rambling.)

I had to run a couple of errands today (translation:  I went shopping.) and my last one was a stop at Wallyworld.  I needed three things:  cheese, tortillas and fruit.  I'm trying to make sure we eat more fruit so I buy a few days worth every few days.  We just finished up the oranges I bought the other day, the fruit bowl now contains apples.  Anyway, Wallyworld was very crowded for a Sunday.  There were a few people obviously just buying regular groceries.  A few people were just getting a couple of things like I was.  But the majority of the crowd (and it was a crowd) seemed to be filling their baskets up with BMT supplies!  It's not going to be another 2011 level ice event, people!

I did bring in a little firewood, we had some inside already but Bill's going to be home tomorrow and he'll probably want a fire in the morning.  He's off for President's Day and then he's taking a couple of vacation days as well.  I brought my birdfeeders in, I'll fill them and take them back out in the morning.  I'll see how it is in the morning, if I do stay home it's at least a quiet week because Younger Boss is in Florida this week and the Teenager had already announced that he wasn't going to come in if the weather was as cold as it was supposed to be.

Otter and I did not get to the used bookstore yesterday.  She woke up with a pretty bad migraine headache so she was down for the count all day.  I went with my original plan, which was to go to the library.  Roomie has what is probably the flu-ish bug that we had recently, so they were both home sick yesterday.  I went over to Otter's apartment and got her dirty laundry, I washed it for her last night and took it back this morning.  Along with orange juice for Roomie, cranberry juice for Otter and milk.  And a package of donut holes, just because they are always fun.  Otter was fine this morning, which is her normal pattern with a migraine.  Roomie was staying in bed, I told her to stay warm and gave her/Otter all the "mom instructions."

After I took the stuff to them, I came back home and read the paper.  Which was my undoing, because I found the Michael's ad.  YARN SALE!!!  They really, really hate me at Michaels.  Of course, I found a few that I needed.  Actually, I did need some of what I bought.  The rest of it was just yarn that I wanted and not for a specific project.  I'm now back at maximum density and rapidly approaching critical mass.  Of course, I have tendinitis issues at the moment so I'm not really able to do much crochet!

Last Sunday, we were watching Frasier and were very worried about him.  This week?  Well, he's spent quite a bit of his day running around the back yard at full speed, again and again and again to infinity and beyond.  Just like a (very large) puppy!  A very happy, very large puppy.

fridayfridayfridayfridayfriday... Oh Yeah, it's Friday the 13th!!

I'm not superstitious at all, but today has certainly been one of "those days" and I'm glad it's about over!

I think Otter agrees, based on the texts she sent me today.

On that note, I think I'll have a drink and put my feet up tonight.  And that's about as productive as I'm going to be!

Winter is On It's Way! Again. Stupid Groundhog.

(For the record, I did clean first.  But it wasn't my first choice).

Looks like the groundhog is still mad at us.  And he's going to take it out on us starting sometime Sunday.  Afternoon or evening, or thereabouts.  Winter Mix is the correct term.  Monday is supposed to be brutally cold, with the high temps being in the 30's for the afternoon.  Tuesday morning is also supposed to be pretty cold.  It's still "up in the air" if we'll get any actual sleet, which is the most likely.  Or snow.  Or if it'll just be very cold and raining.  We'll probably get something, cold is pretty much guaranteed.  We just don't know what it will contain!

Otter is coming over Saturday with her laundry when she gets off work.  We're going to take one of the two remaining loads to the used bookstore to turn in and I think we'll probably hit the library as well.  I'll get her to work in the morning and pick her up when she gets off, then she'll come home with me and get the car.  Bill's off Monday for President's Day then he's taking Tuesday and Wednesday as vacation days, so she'll have the car through Wednesday at least.  She's had very little experience driving in winter conditions, she's had the lessons/lectures/passenger experience many times but she hasn't really driving in anything other than a small snowfall.  Mom's nervous at the thought, but she's gotta learn sometime!

This is my back fence.  Bill noticed something parked on it one day a couple of months back.  He noticed it for a couple of reasons:  it was suddenly very quiet, no bird noises at all.  And there were suddenly no birds in sight, anywhere, they were there and then they were gone.  He discovered the reason, a hawk sitting on the back fence.  We see them pretty often, but they don't usually park on the fence like that.  One time, we watched a squirrel running along the top of the fence.  Until it nearly ran right into a hawk that was sitting on the fence!  I had no idea that squirrels could put the brakes on and back up at warp speed!  I don't think that hawks are normally squirrel predators, but if it was hungry enough it might have gone after the fluffy tailed critter.

This is the tulip bed last Fall when we were planting.  We cleaned the ground off, stirred the dirt up with a shovel and treated it with oil/soap/water and then left it to sit for several days.  When it was time to plant, Otter mixed up the bulbs and tossed them all around the bed.  Last time, she had them in patterns.  This time, she decided to mix them up randomly.  They are just now beginning to poke up through the dirt and it looks like there will be a lot of them that will come up.  This will probably be the last time we'll have tulips for a couple of years.  We might expand the back fence to the side/corner of the garage, which will mean that this area will not get the sun it needs.  We'll probably have them again in the future, we're just not sure where they'll be.

This is also from last fall, it's the crepe myrtles.  They are not right up against the fence, it just looks like that in the picture.  They are planted between the trellis pieces which have honeysuckle planted against them.  It looks like at least some of the honeysuckle has survived both the mowers last year and the winter.  I can't tell for certain, but the crepe myrtles look like most of them have made it as well.

Hopefully, we'll have all of them come back and they will grow fast this year.  Same thing for the honeysuckle.  They'll all bring butterflies and hummingbirds, probably honeybees as well (but wasps and yellow jackets are not invited or welcome).  Most importantly, they will block the view of the neighbors behind us into our back yard and dining room windows!

Just a Few Things

I have heard # 4 described as "your friendly neighborhood/galaxy psycopath" and I think that might be right.  (Of course, Bill also operates at a level of insanity that few people ever manage to accomplish!)

Serious problem, running out of redshirts.

(Can't think of anyone this could be...)

The yarn wins.  The yarn always wins.

Nope, I don' think even a scarf would have helped # 11!  (Or 12, according to the War Doctor storyline.  Which would mean that the current # 12 is actually # 13?

Today is the first day I really feel like I'm recovered from the bug.  Bill was quiet last night, he didn't cough all night and he hardly snored.

End of the Season

Apparently, we are in the beginning of the end of mountain cedar pollen season.  Or at least that is what the weatherman on the news just said.  Of course, the mountain cedar might not know that - from what I can tell, it blooms 24/7/365!

Last Fall, we had one of the many 8-legged visitors we get.  This particular one was hanging out between the corner of the house and the honeysuckle trellis.

The web was hard to see, unless I happened to be at just the right angle.  It helped that the spider was actually on the web, he'd been hanging out up on the rain gutter and not actually on the web.

Here's a close-up.  I know some people don't like spiders, but they are actually pretty neat.  They are very important insects and play a major part in the ecosystem.  This particular type pulls it's legs up close to the body and gets very still.  They essentially play dead, until an unsuspecting bug flies into the web.  Then, they use all 8 of those legs and they are FAST.

When he wasn't on the web, this is where he was hanging out at.  The web was attached at the corner of the rain gutter.  Technically, it was probably a she and not a he - I think the majority of spiders that make webs are actually the females.

This is the toy we bought Bill last fall at his favorite tool store.

The firewood we got was from a lumber yard, it's pieces of wood that was originally used to hold things like pipe stacks together when they are delivered.  It's untreated so it is safe to burn, but some of the pieces are pretty big.  They are generally rectangular and some of them are pretty thick.  Which is when the wood splitter comes in handy.

They are pretty easy to use, it's all hydrolic and it does require a little upper body strength but it's not hard in the sense of swinging an ax would be.  The wood is placed in between the moving part and the stationary end, then there are two long arms that are swung which causes the spring to move.

The spring moves the flat piece which forces the wood against the stationary end which has a pointed wedge.  As the wood is forced against the wedge, it splits.

(Bill was being a good boy and wearing his sun hat!)  He's holding on to the two arms, they are swung one at a time and it's a pretty good workout for the arms and upper body.

This is actually the start of the process.

This is the woodpile before he'd done a lot of splitting.  Some of the wood was small enough that we didn't need to split it, but a lot of it was too big.

This was something else from last Fall.  It was originally part of the maple tree right outside of my dining room window.  That tree was pretty badly damaged several years back when we had the big ice storm.  It's still hanging in there, but is lost a big limb in a storm last Fall.  This piece of the limb was on the ground, the hole is a woodpecker nest.  It probably didn't help the tree's integrity, woodpeckers can be very damaging in their hunt for insects and also they nest by burrowing into the tree itself.

Frasier seems to be back to normal today.  I was really afraid that we'd have a bad surprise this morning, but he was fine.  A little groggy because I gave him a tranquilizer after all last night because he was a little restless, but happy to see me.  When Bill got home today,someone was coming over to see him so he put the dogs out in the back yard.  I picked up Otter and J so that she could get the car tonight, and when we got here I could see Frasier wandering around the back yard.  I let the dogs in and Frasier was just overjoyed to see J, which is unusual.  He likes people, but he is a very protective dog and especially if Bill is not in the same room I am.  He's met J before and likes him, but today he was just super affectionate.  Later on I was out in the back yard watering the crepe myrtles and honeysuckle, and the dogs came back out with me.  Frasier spent most of his time running around the back yard repeatedly.  He was having a great time and was like a puppy.  At the moment, he's grooming Maggie.  He woke her up to groom her!

Picture This

I've finally gotten blogger to load pictures!

I had to switch to a different browser, I'm using the Chrome one from Google.  It seems to work better and faster, and it lets me post pictures now.  There were other issues besides just the picture problem.

This is what we did last Black Friday, when everybody else was shopping.  We cleaned the living room carpet.

I was standing in the front entrance when I took this picture.  To the right side of the picture is the loveseat, standing up on it's side against the wall.

This was taken from the opposite side, and the edge of the loveseat is visible on the left side of the picture.  I was in the dining room for this picture.

This picture is back at the entrance way, you can see the fan that we used to dry the carpet and the couch is behind it.  The carpet cleaner is in the middle of the room, the window and door face the back yard.

Another one from the entrance way.

This is my craft/play/guest/YARN room.  The sofa table was moved in there while Bill was cleaning the carpet, but it eventually made it's way to the pachinko work/junk room:

This is the area where my desk used to be, now it has what was Bill's desk that has been turned into his main work station.

This is the closet in there, and this is actually a lot neater than that room usually is.  Seriously.

Mr. Dignity!  Or not, actually.  Otter was cleaning out things prior to her move, she found the Batman cape which frequently decorated her traffic cone and we put it on the dog.  He usually won't put up with being dressed, but he did this time.  He gave us quite a scare this morning.  He was walking through the kitchen and he slipped.  His legs went out from under him, and then he couldn't get up.  I was about to follow him out to the garage, I didn't see it happen but I was behind him and was there as soon as it did.  He moved his front legs, but he couldn't seem to get his back legs to move.  I yelled for Bill and he came running, I held Frasier's head and petted him while Bill checked for anything broken or out of place.  When he didn't feel anything like that, he very gently tried to lift the dog's back end up but he still acted like he couldn't get his legs to where he wanted them to be.  We gave him a minute, then Bill carefully scooted his legs up against his body and we tried it again.  He was able to get up, but he was very shaky.  I took both dogs out to the garage and to the treat can, which was where we were heading originally.  Frasier was happy to get his treat, but he wouldn't come to me for a long time.  I opened the back door and he wanted to go out, but he wouldn't as long as I was standing there.  Same thing for the gate.  I finally stood where he couldn't see me and held the door open, he went out and stayed out for a while along with Maggie Moo.  I walked up to him once, and he went to the other side of the yard.  Eventually he went to the door to be let back in and he let me pet him then.  But once they were inside, he wouldn't let me close.  I waited him out, he finally came back to me for petting.  He went back outside to their yard and laid down in the sun, he seemed to be happy there but he was still not acting like he was back to normal.  After a couple of hours, he seemed to be fine and was bouncy and playful with Maggie while ago.  But we are still watching him.

This is just a cute shot of a very contented beagle.  She is smiling in this picture.  This was taken the same day as Frasier BatDog.

Otter's apartment:

Her kitchen.  I tease her about this being the first and only time it was neat and uncluttered, but she is her mother's daughter so she cooks.  She texted me a picture of last night's dinner, she made tacos.

 

This is the living room, although it's now Roomie's area.

The dining room.  Otter's going to put the workbench against the far wall.  That is the kitchen to the right of the picture.  That's my purse and camera case on the right hand side counter.

I was standing in the hallway just outside of Otter's room when I took this, it's the living room turned bedroom and that's Roomie sitting on her bed.  The front door is the one pictured.  This was right after they moved and they were still partially boxed.

Otter came over to do laundry today, she brought J with her and then he helped Otter and Bill move boxes to the attic.  After that, Otter sorted through all the books she has to resell.  The book store has a limit of 36 at a time, so Otter sorted her books out into piles of 36.  I kept back a couple and she gave J a huge paper sack full of books.  We took one bag to the bookstore, she now has over $100 credit and there are still two more loads of books to take.  We also went to BigLots, then we stopped at Little Ceasar's pizza for lunch for everyone.

Now that I can post pictures again, I have a few things to put on the craft blog.  Possibly today, but it depends on how long it takes to go over Bill's email change list again.  I'm pretty much done with mine, but he has several we want to to check and there are probably a few he hasn't done at all.

Now, I'll go back to watching my dog.

Still Hanging In

But now I'm thinking that Bill is partially right:  it's probably not the flu.  But I'm also thinking that Bill is partially not right:  It's still more than a cold!

 

Anyway.  We are both home today.  Bill was very restless last night, he had a lot of congestion and coughed a lot.  I got up at 5:00 (the alarm went off, not because of a barking dog!) and let the dogs out.  I fed them and then went back to bed, Bill got up at that point and he let me sleep until about 6:15.  I had a headache when I got up the first time, which is the main reason I went back to bed.  After breakfast, I took some motrin and it did help with the headache.  We both called in, I think we mostly just need to rest at this point.  I don't feel great, I feel better than I did but not well yet.  But what I am mostly noticing is that I feel extremely tired.  Just enough potential symptoms that it could be a light case of the flu, or might not be.

 

I did have to get out, I had to go to the post office for something we expected to be delivered to the post office box.  I stopped at Wallyworld for milk that I forgot when I got groceries the other day and I grabbed us a salad each from their deli.  My headache was back by that point, I took some more motrin and then we had a cup of tea.  The caffieine and motrin helped some.  The crockpot soup is in the fridge, we'll have that tonight with some of the bread I made yesterday in the bread machine.  I don't know if I'm going to cook anything tomorrow or not, there is still plenty of soup and also sandwich and salad stuff on hand.  As well as a couple of things in the freezer.

 

Otter came by for a little while, some of the mail was something she'd been waiting on so she came over to get it - and check on us, which was probably the real reason!  Maggie Moo was overjoyed to see Otter, but I noticed that the second Otter was out the door the beagle was back on her blankets, crashed out again!  Such a hard life the beagle leads...  Frasier was happy to see Otter as well, Maggie was just funny.  One of Otter's friends lives in the same apartment complex and has a dog.  Friend's dog just had puppies, 8 of them!  That's a lot of puppies, but Otter reports that mama dog is able to feed them al.  Anyway, Otter finally got to see the puppies today.  She reports that they are just learning to walk, their eyes are open and they are total fluff balls.  Because Otter is who she is, mama dog was charmed and had no problem at all with Otter playing with the babies.  So, when Otter came in the door, Maggie had to do the sniff test on Otter.  Even while Otter was playing with Maggie, the beagle would stop in the middle of being petted and sniff more.  Her tail was wagging the entire time, so she wasn't mad but it was funny.

 

Bill has a pachinko project, he has 5 machines being refurbished/restored/repaired at once.  The idea was to get them to the booth as soon as he possibly could.  Every time he thinks he's going to get them done, something comes up.  He hasn't really been able to work on them at all this week.  He really wants to get them finished up and it is really bugging him that he hasn't been able to.

 

I haven't done much crochet the last couple of days, ok none really.  I did a little early in the week, but then my arms started hurting.  Which I wasn't sure if it was tendonitis or flu aches.  There have been a few body aches, which is why I'm not positive that it isn't a light case of flu.  But I also think that the tendonitis is part of the problem.  I have a couple of craft projects that shouldn't aggravate the tendonitis.  IF I feel up to it tomorrow, big IF, I might work on one of them.  Or maybe not, I may just park myself on the couch with a blanket, book and beagle.  With frequent visits from BigDog, he isn't quite as blanket-crazed as the beagle but he does like to check on me on a regular basis.

 

The plan is still for Otter and Bill to get the boxes up to the attic on Sunday.  It really can't wait much longer, I can't get to the deep freeze for pachinko machines!  I think it might be time for a pachinko machine intervention.  Or maybe not, Bill probably thinks the same thing about my yarn stash! :)

It's a Flu(ke)

Title inspired by the fact that I think we are dealing with a mild case of the flu.  Bill still insists that he "only has a cold."  But I don't think so, for one thing colds don't have body aches!

 

I did some research, it is possible to have the flu without having a high fever.  Bill did have fever the other day, but he wouldn't let me take his temperature.  I think I might have had a little fever today myself, but I didn't actually take my temperature because I have been drinking as much water as I can.

 

It took him a couple of days to come down with whatever this is, then he was home for a couple of days but he went back to work today.  And he was exhausted when he got home.  I started coming down with it a couple of days after he did.  I left work early yesterday, I went to the grocery store because I had no choice on that but other than that I was at home yesterday.  I didn't sleep well last night, and I felt pretty bad this morning so I called in.  I had a horrible non-migraine headache, too.  Then I realized something else:  what I thought was tendonitis is probably actually the body aches associated with flu.  I did have some tendonitis issues because I've crocheted a lot lately, but that only explains my left elbow hurting.  It does not explain the rest of me aching!  I am pretty sure that it is the flu, but it's a so-called mild case.  Bill may not go in to work tomorrow, I am pretty sure I'm not going too either.

 

Today's activities included starting a loaf of whole-wheat bread in the bread machine and also starting a pot of beef/vegetable soup in the crockpot.  Mostly, I've been parked on the couch.  I did get a load of laundry done, but that was because Bill woke up sweaty in the night and the sheets needed to be washed.  About 2:00, I was feeling really tired so I decided to lay down for a little bit.  And I woke up 2 hours later, so I guess I was more tired than I realized.  It took me a while to wake up, I felt groggy for an hour or so.  The dogs have spent most of the day snoozing, Maggie has discovered the afghan I made and she keeps stealing it from me.  She prefers to sleep on top of it instead of underneath it - it is pretty soft yarn and her little beagle rear is delicate!  Frasier isn't really into blankets, but he has spent most of his day napping as close to me as he can get.

 

Bill needed to get something from Hobby Lobby this evening, so I decided to ride along with him.  We were only in the store about 5 minutes and it nearly exhausted me.  But Hobby Lobby is not a place I can let him go without adult supervision - kind of like a hardware or tool store!  Froggy, I'm sure you know what I mean. :)

Anybody Want to Help Catch a Groundhog?

We are sitting in front of the fireplace, which has a roaring fire going.  Outside, it's cold.  Like brutal cold.  It was pretty cool this morning.  It started getting colder late morning, which was predicted.  By the time Otter got over here, she got off at 4:00, it was really cold and windy.  She was here about 30 or 40 minutes.  When she left, it was extremely windy and the wind was C.O.L.D.  And it was misting.  Some of the mist was hard, frozen droplets.

 

I made chili for dinner tonight.  Wonder what it would taste like if made with groundhog?

 

Anyway.  Bill was pretty congested last weekend and on Monday he went to work but didn't feel too good  He came back home after a couple of hours and he's been home since.  He is much better, it was a "cold type" and not a "flu type" bug.  He's going in tomorrow and hopes to stay all day but we'll see what happens tomorrow.  However, I've also been fighting it and was pretty sure yesterday that I was losing the battle.  I didn't feel to good this morning but I went in anyway, and left about 10:00.  Only because I absolutely had to, I went to the grocery store on the way home.  It wasn't too cold then, but the temperature was beginning to drop.  I've been home and inside since then, except for when Otter left - I helped her carry something out to the car.

 

Otter went through the rest of her boxes today.  She took one of them with her, and a few things out of one or two of the other boxes.  She took her gumball machine and she also took her traffic cone.  Yes, she has a traffic cone - and it's a real one.  Grandpa gave it to her a few years ago (which thrilled her) and she left it here until she had time to get organized and  figured out where she wanted to put it in her apartment.  It has been decorated in various ways over the years, it had a batman cape on it at one point and it may well be her Christmas tree next December.  She'll be back on Sunday to do laundry, and we're going to get the boxes moved to the attic then.  Otter wants to look in a couple of boxes of hers that have been in the attic for a couple of years, so she's going to go up there with Billyboy instead of having him bring the boxes back down, then take them back up again.  She wants to borrow my vacuum, if Roomie forgets to borrow her mother's.

 

Otter's birthday is at the end of March.  She already knows what she's getting from us.  This is going to sound strange, but keep in mind that she is very much her parent's daughter.  We're giving her a workbench!  She's going to keep it in her dining room - they weren't using the table as an actual table, so it's taken apart and stored in the closet.  The workbench will fit against the wall in their dining room.  The one she wants has a pegboard back and 2 or 3 drawers in the front.  It also has plug-in outlets on each side.  It comes from the tool store she works at.  She knows about it, we had to tell her early because she was talking about buying one soon.  She will probably get it early, I'm just not sure exactly when.  For one thing, Billyboy and the truck will have to go get it and then it will need to be carried up 3 flights of stairs!  She might need him to help her put it together, but she's pretty handy herself so he might just be in an advisory capacity.  She wants to get the vacuum before the work bench is delivered and put together.  She really needs to get her own vacuum, it was on her list when she moved but cooking utensils and kitchen stuff were a little more important at that point.

 

OK, that's it for tonight.  I'm really tired.  Bill's sitting on the other end of the couch and he's dozing off.  Which means that he's snoring!

Varmint! You Were Warned!

But not according to the rodent, he saw his shadow today.

6 More weeks of winter.

 

Froggy, we'd better get the cooking supplies out.  We got stew to make!

 

(On a related note, on this day in 2011 we were right in the middle of Snowmageddon's second day.)

 

Snakes in Drains and Beagles in Blankets

Monday evening, we moved pachinko machines out of the way of the attic access ladder so Bill could get situated for the internet provider switch.  The switch happened on Wednesday.  The machines were not moved back yet, Otter has a few boxes that are going to be put up in the attic.  She went through 4 of them Friday and still has about that many left.  She'll get to them this week, probably early in the week.

 

Thursday morning, as I was about to get in the car and leave for work I noticed something.  Water where it shouldn't have been.  Underneath the garage door, like it had flowed from somewhere INSIDE the garage.  There is only one place in the garage it could have come from and the last time that happened was just over a year ago when the water heater failed.  I ran back inside, dropped my purse and everything in the living room floor, frightened both dogs by running out into the garage from the kitchen door and sure enough, there was water and it had come from the closet the water heater is in.  But it wasn't from the water heater.  The drain that the ac condensation drains into - which is also the main drain from the kitchen - wasn't draining.  It looked like it was clogged up again, it happened a couple of years back.  I called Bill (he was at work already) and since the water was not running out any longer (because the dishwasher was through by this point), he said it could wait until he got home to unclog it.  And then he asked me to move the remaining machines out of the way, and to put a few towels down.

 

I got the machines moved, which took me a while, but I had to leave three in place.  They were on "feet" so they weren't sitting directly in the wet areas, but I spent a lot of time wiping down the bottoms of the other machines and putting them on towels.  I got to work about 9:00!

 

Bill was able to take off at noon, so he came home and got the plumber's snake he bought when the drain stopped up the last time.  He eventually got it unstuck, but he was actually afraid that we were dealing with a collapsed pipe at one point - which would have been a big, major deal since we're on a solid foundation and it would have been very expensive.  The drain did unclog, he thinks it might have been a combination of things but the disposal has been acting up anyway so we aren't using it.  We can use the sink and the drain, just not the disposal itself.

 

While ago, Maggie and Frasier came in from playing out in the back yard.  Maggie Moo went to her blankets and I covered her up.  She took a nap.  Well, she takes a lot of naps!  Anyway, when she decided it was time to get up and give Frasier a hard time - she couldn't find her way out of the blanket!  She turned around two or three times and got really twisted up in it.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe!  She managed to stagger/crawl/slither across the living room floor in my direction and somehow, she found an opening in her blankie.  She still dragged the blanket most of the way across the living room.  She more or less got in Frasier's way for a minute, then she came right over to me.  And got underneath the blanket I'm using!  Goofy dog.

 

I have been busy in the craft/guest/yarn room today.  Otter's stack of boxes is about to be out of there, as I mentioned she went through 4 when she was here Friday to do her laundry.  I moved them into the opposite corner so we/she knows which boxes she's checked already.  She has three more of those boxes and two paper container boxes but they are probably just open/look in/shut boxes and will join the stack of three that are waiting on them.  Bill's going to put them all in the attic, but they will be wrapped in plastic trash bags first because there are a lot of paper type things in them and we don't want rodents.  I moved my yarn drawers to a different wall and now there is plenty of room for a pull-out couch, which is what we will probably go with for a guest bed.  We talked about a trundle bed, but they are basically twin beds and we don't want anything quite that big.  We want the option of sitting space, and a pull-out couch will take care of both needs.

 

I found a metal filing cabinet at a thrift store yesterday.  It was the store I saw one at a couple of weeks ago, but it's not the same cabinet.  It's actually a better one, it's legal sized so it's longer and it is more sturdy.  The one I saw before looked like it might have been banged up a bit so I passed on it.  Otter was off yesterday and she wanted to go to the Tulsa Flea Market, then after we looked there we decided to go to a thrift store.  I found another doily and then we looked through their furniture, and they had another cabinet so I bought it.  When we were waiting for they stock guy with his dolly to get the cabinet for me, the sales clerk told me it was on sale.  So, instead of the $9.99 which I was willing to pay I actually got it for $6.49.  Not complaining a big!  It just barely fit in the back seat of my car, I knew it would fit but the stock guy wasn't too sure.  I gave him a couple of bucks for hefting the thing into my car.  Bill brought it in this morning and it fits perfectly beside my desk in the craft/guest/yarn room.

 

Which means that I can now use the plastic drawer unit that was there for what I really wanted:  Yarn Storage!  Big surprise, I know.  :)  I took the yarn out of the short, wider drawer and it is now in the 5 drawer unit along with some of the other yarn that has been spread out a bit.  The other 3-drawer unit is now stacked on top of one of the 5-drawer units, I took the wheels off and it fits very well.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the empty 3-drawer unit, but it will probably fit underneath the window where the gone-through boxes are stacked, once they go to the attic sometime this week.  I am thinking that they will probably hold some of the fabric/sewing stuff, or possibly some misc. craft stuff.

 

I'm going to try very hard not to go get more yarn.  Not making any promises, however!

 

Otter and I also went to the yarn store yesterday.  We didn't stay in there very long, my wool allergy make sure of that.  I think that the wool allergy is actually worsening.  I can usually stay in there a little bit longer before the first symptom - itching - starts.  But this time, it hit me almost immedately.  Followed up very quickly by the second symptom - upper respiratory issues.  And after we left, the itching lasted a lot longer than it normally does.  And I didn't even touch any wool!  Of all the things I had to be allergic to, why does it have to be wool?  It was always a strong allergy, but now it's even stronger.  And it is NOT fun!  Especially since my chosen art/gift/tallent is something that is done with yarn.

 

This is getting kind of long, so I think I'm going to post it and see what else I can come up with to do.  Such as laundry, dishes, vacuuming.

 

Or maybe I'll just follow Maggie Moo's lead and sit on the couch with my blanket.