And So It Begins

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33748707/ns/politics-health_care_reform

If The Shoe Fits...

Buy it!

At least, that's what it says on a pair of socks I bought for Otter a while back. Which she absolutely loved.

When it comes to shoes, she is very much her mother's daughter. Here's the proof:

This is the latest addition to her shoe addiciton, I mean collection. These are the type of boots I would have worn at her age, and in fact still would if I hadn't tried to kick the couch into orbit a few years back and messed up my ability of ever wearing cool shoes again. :(

She wore them to school one day this week. She said her feet were killing her by the end of the day, but that the pain was so worth it. I have to say, I know exactly where she is coming from on that one!

However, we are still Cherokee and prefer to go barefoot. It works, having a shoe fetish and also Cherokee feet but it takes some adjusting!

And for the record: Otter did clean out the shoe pile. This is the shoe pile before the clean out, although I don't think that they were all there:

She donated 5 or 6 pair to Goodwill and there were about 3 pair that were thrown away because they were beyond donating. But she's still got over 20 pair, probably closer to 30 if I have to guess. Bill's making her a new shoe rack. It will be about 2' long. It will have 4 levels. Something tells me it will be filled up in a matter of moments!

Rocking Out!

The rock garden is done! Here's the proof:

This is not all the rocks. This is probably 3/4 of them, maybe closer to 2/3. They are on a tarp on the back deck in this shot. Where we'd been placing them over several days because we had to keep stopping because of rain. This is a fairly large tarp. And this does not include what I call decorative rocks - fossils, rocks from Mom, limstone, etc. We bought these when we originally built the rock garden, which was 5 years ago and I don't remember the weight but there were quite a few pounds! Think in multiples of 10 or 20 pounds.



This is the base after we'd finished removing everything. This is before we started enlarging it.


This is also before the enlargement, just a better shot. And my shadow! The fountain bowl is off to the side.

After the enlarging, the sandstone edge was back in place but the dirt wasn't finished being leveled in this shot.

First layer of plastic and some of the metal fence/chicken wire layer. The fence is actually a smaller mesh than a standard chain link fence, I can't remember what it's specifically called.

Fence parts down and the fountain is back in place. Which was a chore, sucker is heavy. The sandstone edge is in place here, as it is in the previous picture. We had to dig down (we being Bill) and place all the sandstone, then pack dirt around them on both sides and pack it down as firmly as we could so they wouldn't shift.

Gotta have a shot of Bill's Nekkid Lady!




It took several wheelbarrow loads to get all the rocks back in place - just as many as it took to get them moved! Although this was much easier than removing them. For one thing, all I had to do was level them out with the rake when Bill piled them up. Removing them entailed shaking them in a shaker box over a bucket to remove all the dirt and was hard work.

Finished with all the rocks and decorative rocks, and if you look closely you can see a certain state shape in front of the fountain. St. Francis and the cat are in place by this point.

The final, finished product! Otter placed her animals around. Some of them, anyway. She has a lot and they will be alternated out.

It's bigger than it looks. It was hard work, but I enjoy hard work and I really enjoyed this particular project. We should not have to do anything to it again, it's got several layers of plastic and the wire fencing should discourage any puppy paws that have an urge to dig here.

I'm so glad to be done!

Prayer Request **UPDATED**

I have another prayer request. This time, it's for my 93 year young boss. He has been hospitalized with hemoraging, probably from his lungs and maybe related to one of many things. It's not extremely severe, but it's bad enough that the doctor admitted him Saturday morning and he's been running tests all weekend. I spoke to him just now, he sounds great but he said that they still aren't sure what it is. He's going to undergo a test tomorrow that he has to be sedated for, and he isn't looking forward to that. I don't blame him!

Anyway, any prayers will be appreciated. His name is EL and he's a very unique individual. His wife, Dorothy, is the lady who had the broken hip earlier in the year. She's doing great, now we want to get EL well.

**UPDATE**

It looks like EL has a slight case of pneumonia, which caused both the heavy cough he developed Friday evening and the bleeding. The bleeding was originally thought to be a result of the cough, which it could be, but it could also be a side effect of the lung infection pneumonia. He is doing well, now that they've identified the problem it can be treated. He might be in the hospital a day or two longer, the doctor wasn't sure about the test tomorrow being necessary. He is bored stiff, he called me several times today and he obviously wants to go home. I know how he feels! But he's doing pretty well, all things considered.

November? Also October Books

It's 75 degrees today, no way is it November! Well, I guess it is but it sure doesn't feel like it.

The rock garden is done! We still need to arrange Otter's concrete animals, but everything else is done. We decided to skip church today so we could get out there and get it done while it was still pretty cool. It was 49 degrees, but it is heavy work so we really didn't feel that cold. We finished sifting all the rocks out of the dirt, then Bill moved the fountain which is very heavy. He marked off the new edges and then shoveled out the grass. Then we raked & leveled the dirt, walked across it a few times to pack it down and then leveled again. The next step was to cut the plastic liner, which is over the dirt to keep weeds & grass from growing up in the rocks. Then Bill placed pieces of chicken wire and some other metal fencing he had on top of the plastic. Because we were using the pad from the pool, we still had quite a bit of plastic left so Bill put down another layer. There was still some left, so you guessed it - another layer! There are actually about 4 layers of thick plastic now so I'll be surprised if there are ever any weeds. Then we placed the sandstones that are the edge.

The next step was to put the fountain back, and then we started moving rocks. Bill got the business end of the shovel and started shoveling rocks from the pile on the deck into the wheel barrow. Then I got busy with the rake and leveled the rocks as he put them back in the garden.

At that point, we decided it was time for a break so we went inside and had left over pizza. Otter and I had a couple of errands, so we got our running out of the way and when we got back, I got busy with the rock garden again. I had to place my TEXAS shape, which involved moving rocks out of the way for it. Then I put a few things back, my St. Francis and concrete cat, as well as the decorative rocks, fossils, limestone, etc. Since there was still some dirt, and it's not supposed to rain for days, I filled the watering can from the rain barrel several times and "rained" it over the rocks. The rest of it, Otter's concrete animals, will wait. We are too tired to even think about that part of it today.

I'll get pictures posted soon, I took some "in progress" shots but I want to wait until we're finished with Otter's animals and then I'll post all the pictures.

OK, here's the books:

1. The View From the Bridge, Memories of Star Trek & a Life in Hollywood by Nicholas Meyer. He's a good director, but he's a bad author. I didn't finish this one. Waste of time!

2. Rocket Men, The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson. I honestly don't even remember this one, I know I read it...

3. Power of the Dog, Things Your Dog Can Do That You Can't by Les Krantz. Again, not very memorable or well written.

4. Apollo Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, by Robert Jacobs, et all. History and very interesting.

5. A Memoir, Shattered Dreams - My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer. Interesting, it shines a light on a very sad situation.

6. Made in the USA by Billie Letts. Not as good as her earlier books, but entertaining.

7. The Missing by Beverly Lewis. Sequel to a book on last month's list. There will be at least one more book in this series, I don't know when it will be out.

8. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakour. I've read this one before, but it was still interesting and very well-written.

9. The Coalwood Way by Homer Hickam. There was a movie a few years ago, October Sky. It is a true story and based on a book by Homer Hickam. This is the sequel and I have also read it before. It's still a good read.

10. Batman Death & the City by Paul Dint. Otter checked this one out actually.

11. Batman Going Sane by J. M. DeMatteis, et al.

12. A Little Bit Wicken by Kristin Chenowith. She's a local celebrity. It was an interesting book, but I don't think I would like her as a person. This is her autobiography. Can we say "Hypocrite"?

13. Facing Down Evil, Life on the Edge as an FBI Hostage Negotiator by Clint Van Zandt. Very good book.

14. Batman Gotham Underground. It's Batman, what's not to like?

OK, now that my back - shoulders - arms - legs - knees, etc. are sore and screaming at me I think it's time to go take a motrin and chill out for a while. We did remember to set the clocks back last night, but it always takes me a few days to adjust to the time change.

Boo! To You

It's Halloween. But it doesn't feel like it. Maybe because it's somewhat warm for the last day of October. Or maybe it's because of the fact that we aren't passing out candy this year. Since we had so few kids last year, and there are not very many really young ones in the neighborhood at the moment, we decided to just skip it. Of course, I still went to Walgreen's yesterday and bought us a little candy! I mean, after all, it's Halloween! Gotta have some candy!!!

We did make pizza today, which was about as festive as we got. I brought in my decorative ceramic jack-o-lanterns last night, they are on the fireplace hearth. Tomorrow, they'll get put away for another year. Along with the jack-0-lantern placemats I have. I had a pumpkin shaped ceramic container I used as a sugar bowl, but I couldn't find it. I have a sneaking suspcion that it became part of a goodwill donation a while back, but it was accidental if it did. But I can't find it, so that's probably what happened to it.

We've spent quite a bit of today running outside to the back deck frequently, to look at the sky. Specifically, at the B-17 that's in town and has been flying around all day. It's the Aluminum Overcast, the same one that was here last year. It's wonderful to see her, she is one of only 12 left in the entire world. 12!

I'll get my book list posted in the next day or so. It's not nearly as big as usual. I've had a lot to do this month, and some of the books are the big, thick kind that I love to read but haven't had much time for.

I managed to get some crocheting done today! My Walgreen's trip yesterday was actually for something in the way of a glove or bandaids for my split skin. The candy was just because I was there and it was on sale. Anyway, I wound up buying liquid bandaid. Not sure if that's the exact name. But it did the trick. It stung when I put it on first, but then it sealed up the places on my fingers and they are much better today. They still hurt if I bump them, but they don't just ache by the sheer fact of air touching them. I think it's been close to two or three weeks since I've been able to crochet. It wasn't fun.

But I'm much happier now. Just ask Billyboy!

Prayer Request

Froggy brought this to my attention, but there is a prayer request I'l like to post. It's for a lady named Louise.

In San Antonio, she's known as Elf Louise. Here's her website, it should be self-explanatory but her organization is absolutely wonderful. I was involved with it several years myself.

http://www.elflouise.com/main.php

Froggy mentioned that Louise has been diagnosed with cancer, I think it's breast cancer but I'm not positive on that.

Any prayers would be helpful.

Random Thoughts & Musings

This is the tree outside my office, it is suddenly "on fire" and is beautiful. Until today, when it rained and we had lots of wind - which deposited quite a few of those leaves all over my car!

This is a recipe for disaster if there ever was one. Both dogs have had a condition lately that we've called "Burning Rubber Butt" and now with both dog rear ends together, it's only a matter of time until everything in this house melts from the stench!

This picture is blurry, sorry about that! This is the Fenton (what else is there, really?) piece that Froggy got me at the flea market last summer. It's a cranberry opalescent hobnail vase, I can't remember the years it was produced but it's not recent by any stretch of the imagination. It is fairly rare, especially to find it in such a good condition. She got a very good price for it, which I might have paid except that I was trying to make my Fenton $$ last and get as much bang for the buck as I could. And I did get a lot of bang for my bucks! But I'm very thankful, Froggy! It's on the new wooden shelf that Bill built for me.

Here's the shelf! Both hummingbirds are Fenton as well. I'm thinking that I need another piece (or two!) in cranberry or rose pink to go on the shelf. But since I don't currently have any other pieces...

Well, I'll see what I can do about remedying that situation! :)

Anyway, the shelf was going to be a very pale pink but the color I bought turned out to be a lot closer to pepto bismol pink than the label & sample showed. Also, the varnish coat caused the paint to bubble so I got the sander that Bill bought me a couple of years ago and sanded all the paint off. Then I hit it with Kilz, and then painted it a green color that is very similar to the green fabric on the bulletin board I made a while back. The green paint is paint that I originally bought well before we moved, the label said it was 5/30/04, so I've had it a while. Bill was going to replace the curtains on the sliding door we had in our bedroom in the old house and he was going to put up a wooden curtain rod. I bought the paint to use on the curtain rod. Then a month later, Dad left us and we bought our then-new home in a matter of weeks so the curtain rod never actually got painted beyond the kilz coat and is in fact hanging up in the garage. Where it's been for 5 years and will probably stay until I can think of a use for it! But I did at least find a use for the paint!

We got the 2nd opinion on the chimney today. It does need to be repaired, but it is at least clean now. The problem it has is something that is probably related to the way it was constructed when this house was built. It wasn't constructed badly, but over time things change as a matter of normality and some of the bricks are a little loose. The first inspector told me that some of the bricks had fallen in and that we were in danger of losing the entire chimney, basically. Well, Bill didn't think that was right and after I cleaned the fireplace last week (dirty, messy work), I stuck my head in there and I could see what Bill was saying was right. So that's when we decided to get the second opinion. He came out today, and some of the bricks have loosened up a little which is what happens over time. The concern in that case is that if we have a really big, hot fire (and we usually do have that kind), a stray spark could concievably get behind one of the bricks. If that happened, we could lose the entire house and possibly us along with it. He gave us a bid to repair and it's similar to the first bid, but the work he wants to do looks like it will be better and will last longer. The two prices are virtually the same. So we are going to go with the guy from today. I'm not sure when, soon, but Bill's got to arrange the time off because it is probably a 2-day job. And we need to get it done before the roof work. He suggested that we not use the fireplace, unless it was a situation of an ice storm and no power but we have a little time before winter hits. Not a lot, but enough.

We may have missed our window on the roof, however. Winter is coming and it's not far. So, although we would prefer not to have to wait, it looks like it might be next spring before we can get the roof replaced. We know we have missed our weather window to do the painting outside that we need to do.

Sunday is rock garden day! It's been raining all day and it's just way too muddy & wet to even think about it today. Yesterday would have been good, but it was very windy and as soon as I went outside my allergies fired up and they are still around. There really isn't that much left to do, it's just been a matter of finding the time when it's not raining. And in NE Oklahoma, it rains pretty much all Fall!

Product Un-endorsement

I'm not big about product endorsements. I like what I like and that's about the end of it. However, if I DON"T like something I am very likely to talk about it.

This is one of those times.

I've done the research on this one, and although it sounds to horrible to be true - it's 100% true.

Neocutis is a brand of make up. I don't wear make up because my skin can't handle it, that is the only reason I don't. However, even if I did and even if I was paid to wear this brand it would never happen.

One of the ingredients is "Processed Skin Proteins" which sounds harmless, right?

But "Processed Skin Proteins" means something else entirely. This company has come out and admitted that they are using SKIN CELLS FROM ABORTED FETUSES. That's right, UNBORN BABIES WHICH WERE MURDERED.

For profit, no less.

There are times when I fear for the human race. This is one of those times.

There is no excuse for this one, no matter what someone says. There is no justifying this one. And yes, I did the research. Unfortunately, this is 100% true.

Itchy Fingers!

If I don't get to use this:

and do some of this:

in the VERY near future, I think I'll just lose my mind!

I hate HATE having my skin at times. Usually, I like my skin but not when the air is dry and it cracks. And bleeds. At the moment, it's the pointer finger on my right hand and the thumb on my left hand.

I'm going to have to figure something out soon, I need to seriously feed my crochet addiction.

Sunday Mustard

Well, I've already used the title Sunday Ketchup! Besides, I like mustard better than ketchup anyway. :)

This is a general idea of what we've been up to lately:

This little grey sweetheart was at the auction we went to Thursday. She was not for sale, she's a pet of the auctioneer and is very spoiled. And very friendly! She loves people. She came running up to the fence as soon as she saw Otter. Well, as fast as an obviously very pregnant donkey can run, anyway. Froggy, the picture I texted you was of this same donkey. No, we didn't buy her! But Otter would have, if it had been possible.

Lazy Frazy. He's actually licking the carpet, I don't know why but that's what he does.

I stuck my head into Otter's room and discovered Maggie, up in bed and as close to her Mom as she can get.

This is the office cat. She showed up a couple of years ago, and of course my older boss immediately was in her power. Otter calls her Miss Whiskers. This cat is extremely spoiled, and she's got us all well trained.

Here's a better shot. She was very skittish about the camera, she ran off as soon as I took this shot. Of course, she came back later on and begged for more food. She is the only cat I've ever known of who likes to have her belly rubbed like a dog.

We've been busy today. Bill had several things he did, including mowing the back yard and cutting a bunch of wood. And he also steam cleaned the carpet in Otter's room, her bathroom and the rest of the hallway. At which point the dogsters got put out! They weren't happy, but Oh Well!

Otter did a bunch of chores inside the house for me, we both did laundry (and still have some left) and then we spent a lot of time outside playing in the dirt. Also known as working in the rock garden. I was hoping that we could get finished with it today, but we had so many other things we wanted/needed to do that we didn't have the time to spend on it. But we're nearly there. Oh yeah, we also hit a couple of thrift stores & ran a few errands.

Also, Otter's very much her mother's daughter. It's very easy to tell why. She has shoes. 22 or 23 pair as of Friday's count and she found another pair today. Bill asked her how many shoes she had on Friday, and he just about fell off the couch when she told him! He just couldn't understand why she needs so many shoes. His reasoning is that she's only got two feet and there are only 7 days in each week. At that point, I got involved in the conversation. I told him to not even try to figure it out, that it's a Girl Thing and guys just don't get it - they never will. She really does wear all of them, incidentally. I used to have lots and lots and lots of shoes. Then I broke my toes on my right foot when I tried to kick the couch into orbit. Now, I can't wear most types of shoes and certainly nothing with a heel because of the angle it puts my toes at. So I've switched my shoe addiction to purses. But it was more fun when it was shoes!

Winter is Coming!

It got into the 30's last night. The high 30's, but still the 30's. So in other words, it was cold. But then, I'm usually cold from September 1 to May 31 just because of the fact that I'm a South Texan through and through.

Lots of stuff going on lately, quite a bit of it is house-related. We got the estimate on the chimney repair from the guy that came out last week. But there are a few things he said that don't quite make sense, so Bill's getting a second opinion this week. Then we'll decide what to do about it. The chimney is dirty, but we have a serious question about whether the chimney is really bad or not in terms of the work that the cleaner says it needs.

Also, Bill is going to steam clean Otter's carpet tomorrow after church. Along with the carpeted area in the first bathroom and the part of the hallway he didn't get the other day. It will be a few days before the living room, he was waiting until after the chimney cleaning and since that still hasn't happened it's going to be a few more days until he gets to the living room.

We're also still working on the rock garden. We haven't been out there in several days, I think it was Tuesday afternoon when we worked out there last. We've had a few rainy days, which is normal for this area. Tomorrow (Sunday) has a chance of rain, but that doesn't always mean anything given the talent (or lack thereof) of the local forecasters! But if it's possible, we'll be out there and it is quite possible that we'll be able to get it all done. Possible, not probable - there is a difference! So, while Billyboy is cleaning the carpets, Otter and I will be outside playing in the dirt and rocks. We'll be having a Clara moment, in other words.

And since it's Fall, I have housecleaning to do. Which means that we (Otter, that does include you) are going to be busy the next several days. I clean pretty frequently anyway, but spring and fall mean that I have to CLEAN. Yes, I know my Borg Queen side is showing.

But one thing I haven't done in way more days than I care to count is crochet. My skin is doing it's thing. There are times when I really, really hate having sensitive skin (extreme sensitive in the words of the dermatologist - like I didn't already know that) and this is one of them. Happens every Fall and winter when the air gets dry. Not fun! I go through a huge amount of lotion. Maybe I should buy stock in one of the companies that makes it! :(

Yeah, that would be a good idea!

This, That and The Otter

I like puns, ok!

Otter has decided not to enter Maggie in the costume contest this year. She's had a problem coming up with a way to attach a fin where it won't fall off or tip the dog over. So it's shelved for this year. But it's probably going to happen next year. In the meantime, here's a few Maggie pictures in her clothing.

This is the bigger t-shirt, it fits closer to her tail part.

This was waiting by the front door, in hope that the big yellow bus would be bringing her mom home soon.

This is the first shirt, the smaller one. She was checking out the sleeves on her legs. She was a little mystified. But then she frequently is!

This is also the first shirt. The sleeves are tighter and longer.

This concludes the Maggie style show portion of this entry.

The dryer vent was cleaned out today. The chimney wasn't, it has some issues that we need to get fixed and we're looking into that. But now, I can use the dryer and it doesn't take (literally) 3 or 4 times to get a load dry.

We had a power outage last night. About 9:30, the power went out and flickered a couple of times. Then it quit completely. It was obviously the entire neighborhood. As I was reporting it, there were several other calls coming in. We found the flashlights and Bill fixed up his (work only) cell phone alarm. But I still slept badly, I was afraid that we would oversleep. I woke up at 2:00 and called the electric company then for an update, they said that there had been a serious car accident which is what we thought. At that time, they thought that it would be around 4:00 before our power came back on. We woke up with Bill's temporary alarm at 5:00, then about 15 minutes later the power came back on. It wasn't cold last night, but it was cool. But we have blankets, and Otter had a warm beagle, so we were fine. But I was very glad that the power came back on when it did - otherwise I would have had to do without coffee!

And that would not have been pretty.

Doggie Jail

Poor Maggie.

She can't quite figure this contraption out.

She'll learn soon enough.

HOOK 'EM!!!!!

3 YEARS IN A ROW! TAKE THAT, SOONERS!

Overflowing with Romance!

Today is the anniversary of when Wild Bill and I met. 1983. 26 years.

What are we doing to mark this momentus occasion?

Having pizza.

Then we are going to get started steam cleaning the carpet.

Real romantic, huh!?!

Maggie Moo!

It's not Maggie Monday, relax. It's just a post about Maggie on Monday. :)

Otter got a size 18 month grey shirt at Wallyworld today. It's the basis of the shark costume for the dog. When Maggie saw me holding it open at the neck in her general direction, she pretty much ran into the shirt. She is very obviously used to being dressed up and she really does like it. Of course, Big Brother Frasier immediately came over to her and pulled the shirt off of her. Then he chewed on it.

I took it away from him and put it back on her. All good up to this point, but she really did not like having to put her legs through the sleeves. Of course, part of that was probably because Frasier was trying to play with her at the time. He does that, you know.

Anyway, once we got it on her we discovered that it was just a little snug, so Otter might get the next size up (24 months) and cut the sleeves down. The shirt is a mock turtle neck, Otter might just cut the cowl neck off and see if that makes it fit better. But a larger size would also be longer, which I think it will need to be so that we can attach the fin to it.

My life has gone to the dogs! But they are cute dogs, so no complaints.

Froggy, there is no way I could even get near Frasier if I tried to put anything on him. It simply will not happen, so that's why he isn't going to have a costume for the dog parade. He's not left out, he's just not into dressing up. We tried to put one of Maggie's bandanas on him one time, he avoided us for hours after that!

I'll post pictures as we get Maggie Moo's costume situated. We got a couple of pictures tonight, but Maggie was more interested in going up to Otter than in posing for the camera that Otter was holding.

Halloween is Coming!

And the beagle is going to be a shark. A carpet shark, to be excact.

There is a farm and ranch store we like, it sells all sorts of things besides just farm & ranch supplies. They have a pet costume contest the Sunday before Halloween. Otter talked about taking the beagle last year, but we had some other things we had to do that day so we just went to look at the dogs. This year, Otter wants to take Maggie. There is a pet parade as well as the contest. (Froggy, remember Atwood's?).

One of Maggie's tricks is to roll over on her back when she wants a belly rub, and if nobody pays attention to her she will start to squirm and twist until she can reach anyone who happens to be close by. With her teeth! She doesn't bite, she just nips. But it does get your attention! Otter's been trying to come up with a costume idea, I suggested she dress the dog up like a baby - so we can put a diaper on her. But Bill suggested that she dress the dog up like a shark, since we call her the Carpet Shark when she's trying to get belly rubs. Otter loved the idea.

We have some left-over carpet pieces from the rent house, from the carpet that was destroyed, and no use for it anymore. Bill got a couple of small pieces out of the attic, and I brought them inside. Otter is probably going to get a small sized grey t-shirt to put on the dogster, then the fin will be made out of the carpet pieces. (Carpet shark, get it?). The fin will be attached to the t-shirt, but it will probably have to be strapped around the beagle belly so it doesn't fall off. We measured Maggie this morning, Otter had a great time measuring the dog and the dog seemed to like it too. We measured her belly, chest width, neck and just for fun we measured her tail and ears. And the tail wagged the whole time.

I'll post pictures later on, Otter is just getting started on the costume. She's having fun with it. And I think Maggie will enjoy it. But Frasier isn't going to be in costume. He'll go with us, but just for fun. Besides, Frasier's costume would be easy: Incognito Coyote!

Shot. Warm. Friday.

We got our flu shots this afternoon. I checked, and since I had not had fever nor actually thrown up they said I was safe to get the shot. So I picked Otter up at school and we went "around the corner" to the grocery store where the visiting nurse association was holding a shot clinic. They go to most area grocery stores and we usually go to the one closer to home, but the news made an announcement this morning about shortages of flu shots because it was running out already. Which it isn't! I asked about that when we were getting our shots, they said that once the news report hit they were immediately inundated. If the aim of the media was to encourage people to get the shot, they succeeded. We usually get ours as early as we can anyway. I kind of expected a run on them this year, with the hysteria over the swine flu. It's one we don't want, but we have decided against the shots for it. Just the regular flu shots for us this year.

I let Bill make the decision on this one, but I agree with his reasoning. The swine flu immunization has simply not been out long enough nor been tested enough for us to feel safe about it. It's not available here yet, anyway.

It's been very cool today, it was in the 50's all day. Grey, overcast sky and rain throughout the morning. It's going to be in the 30's tonight. Probably the high 30's, but still the 30's. So we turned on the heater just now. I don't like the smell of the dust burning off, but a friend of mine told me once that he thought it was the best scent in the world - because he knew that once he smelled that, he would be warm soon. Good point. We don't usually need the heater quite this early, but this year is colder earlier than normal.

I'm going to get the humidifiers loaded up and turned on shortly. I've been shocking myself for a few days now. The dogs have probably already gotten their spot staked out, they get right in front of the heater vent in the living room and snooze. Sometimes we have to move them out of the way!

We had Subway for dinner tonight. I like to make it easy on flu shot day, since I usually feel cruddy all evening. I don't feel the best at the moment, but it's tolerable. It's the normal reaction I have. My arm is a little sore, which is also normal. Otter usually has some arm soreness but not much else in the way of reaction. And there is ice cream pie in the freezer, which we'll get into a little later. Nobody has room for dessert! Froggy, if you were here I would share it with you. But since you aren't here, I'll have to eat yours for you.

Thursday, Fall Thoughts, Bugs, Weather, Dogs!

It's Thursday. I will be glad when it's Friday, but we aren't there yet.

It's Fall. And we have the Weather to prove it. Cool & misty, with periods of rain. We have a good chance of hard rain this afternoon, the tv stations are already putting flash flood watches up but that doesn't always mean anything. As Bill says, they couldn't predict a hole in the ground if they dug it themselves... By the way, a lot of what I put here is stuff that comes from Bill.

Bugs refers to the fact that we are passing some type of tummy bug around. It's already been around the office, but I think I got it from Bill. Who knows where he got it from, but he came down with it before I did and although both of my bosses have had it, they have not been in the office too much so I really haven't been around them. Yesterday, Bill woke up with it at 3:00 a.m. and then as an indication of how bad he really felt, he asked me to stay home with him. I started having symptoms last night, but not severe. Just enough nausea that I'm being very careful because I don't want it to get worse! So I decided to stay home today and take it easy, I'd like to avoid the worst symptoms if I can. Otter may have already had it, she had some symptoms a few days ago. But we are still planning on getting the flu shots tomorrow, having an ongoing bug might mean more of a reaction but it's a risk we have to take at this point. The flu is already starting to show up in this area, and there is also a possibility of not being able to get the shot if we wait since there are a lot of people getting it this year. Froggy - Otter and I have already been to Braum's and there is a strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie in the freezer. Billyboy hasn't found it yet, there was just barely enough room to hide it behind all the soups, beans, etc., that I have frozen in containers for him to take for lunch. Of course, we also bought a carton of neopolitan which served as a good distraction for him!

What's left? Oh yeah, Dogs! Well, in this case it means that both of them are causes for concern but for different reasons. Frasier's foot is a little swollen, the area on his foot looks a little bigger and redder but some of the hair might have grown back. I'm going to have to talk to the vet about it.

Maggie, well she's another story. She went through a spell very recently where she apparently forgot that she was housebroken. We're pretty sure that it started because she does not like to go outside when it's raining, because her "accidents" only seemed to happen when it was rainy. We were not really sure which dog it was, then Otter caught Maggie in the act. Since then, she hasn't had any more on purpose accidents that we know of, but there is a smell in the house that we've been trying to track down and it can only be one thing. Bill decided to get the blacklight that we used when we were selling on eBay, it illuminated glass items wonderfully. Blacklight also illuminates other things, including dog urine. Well, we found it alright. EVERYWHERE. It looks like that furry little brat has been having on purpose accidents for a long time, and probably not just because of rain. Some of the spots are obviously pretty old, but the majority of them seem to be new. Maggie had taken to sleeping in our closet and under our bed - and both places have huge areas. There are spots by the back door in the living room, in Otter's room, all over the place. We are going to have to steam-clean the entire house. We will probably buy a steam cleaner instead of renting one. I am not sure if I need to talk to the vet or not, since we don't think Maggie's done it since Otter caught her. But it is one of the symptoms of diabetes in dogs. It's not the only symptom, there are others, but she doesn't seem to have any of the other symptoms. However, it is something we need to watch her about.

Because it is Fall, it won't be long until it's Winter. Everyone I've talked to seems to think that we'll have an early winter and a bad one. I'm kind of thinking that as well. I have already started my storm supply stock up. I have a few days worth of canned food and misc. stuff on hand, it has come in handy when we've been unable to get to the grocery store due to ice and so forth. I'm not obsessive about it, it's not like we could survive for months on it, but it's nice to have. Canned stew, chili, soup, crackers, peanut butter, candles, matches, stuff along those lines. And also a little bit of dog food, can't forget about the poochies no matter how much they drive us crazy!