I Know...

Been a while since I've blogged!  As Froggy reminded me.  (I already knew, Froggy.)

Anyway.

It's just been normal life lately, which is not what it looked like for the last 2 plus years.  We've basically rearranged a lot of things in the wake of Bill's job, the contract buy-out, his position being officially eliminated after he'd taken the buy-out and all the associated stuff.

One thing we are doing differently:  Bill's not looking for a job very hard at the moment.  Beyond me reading the Sunday paper with the employment ads, that is.  His original plan was to take April as the catch-up time since he had several restoration jobs waiting (pachinko machines all over the living room again!), but since then he's been getting very regular calls for restoration bids and quite a few of those calls have resulted in jobs.  More machines all over the living room!  Business on the parts for sale and dvds for the do-it-yourself restoration has picked up considerably.  The booth was not doing too much but then since about April 1st, we've had several dvds and pachinko ball sets sold.  In fact, pretty much everything has picked up since April 1st.

Which was his official last day of unemployment.  Can we say God's blessings?  I think we can.  And we do.  Often.

At some point, he will need to find a job.  But not yet.  In fact, we can go for several months and quite probably for the rest of the year before we need that to happen.  And possibly even later, depending on how well the pachinko business does.  We are NOT taking anything for granted.  But we do have several plans in place.

We went to a local art fair in downtown Tulsa last Saturday.  Actually, we went to two.  They run concurrently and are in the same area so that people can walk from one to the other easily.  It was a lot of fun.  We didn't buy anything, we usually don't, but we always enjoy it.

Otter went to the Renaissance Fair in Muskogee last weekend.  Muskogee is not really next door but it's not too far.  Well, the locals might think it's far.  But we measure distance by TEXAS standards, so it's not that far to us.  Anyway, J was dressed up as a pirate and Otter had a long red skirt with a black net overlay, and she had a black corset with a white short-sleeved blouse underneath it.  Their faces are in the pictures so I'm not posting them, but they had a good time.

Otter is finished up with her dental work.  The original estimate at the not-good dentist was about $7,200.00.  Our "old/new" dentist gave her an estimate of $3,200.00.  The final cost was actually just over $2,500.00.  And that included a few things that the not-good dentist simply missed.  Otter has also been officially put on full-time at her job.  Which means she now qualifies for their insurance plan.  She's on ours still for this month but that is fixin to change, she has been self-sufficient since October 1, 2013 but we still carried her on our health insurance because it is expensive and she was part-time.  She still managed to support herself on a part-time salary, but she did not really have a lot of extras.  We didn't mind covering her insurance, but now we won't have to.  She had considered moving to a different apartment complex way back when she knew that she was going to tell Roomie they needed not to be roommates any longer which would have been this coming July or August - based on the lease when they moved into the 2-bedroom unit.  Then Roomie pulled her stunt and moved out in October, Otter stayed in the 2-bedroom unit until the end of November and then transferred to her own 1-bedroom unit with a lease ending November 30 of this year.  She likes her apartment and the complex, it's pretty close to work for her and not too far from us.  But she was thinking that she might need a cheaper rent, since she was still part-time.  But now that she's full-time, she is most likely not going to move.  Which is fine with us, it was hard enough to recover from helping her move the last time!  :)

Memorial Day is this coming weekend.  IF it's not raining, we may grill some steaks or burgers.

OK, Froggy.  I blogged!  By the way, I also went to Braums for lunch today.  In case you are interested.

Just A Nice Sunday

Today I have really noticed the lack of the crushing stress we've been dealing with for the last 2+ years.  Sunday evenings are usually when I would start thinking about what I was sending in Bill's lunches for the coming week and also I made sure that his shirts were ironed along with making sure he had clean jeans for the week.  I did iron his shirts, because there may be times when he wants a nice golf shirt to wear and they are hanging in the closet where they usually do.  But they will probably be hanging there for a while as opposed to needing to be washed, ironed and hung up again for the work week.

I still need to do meal planning, but that's the normal "what are we eating for dinner this week" thing that always happens!

We had a nice Easter dinner.  Otter had to work until 5:00 today, so she came over when she got off work.  We had ham, rice, brown gravy, rolls and green bean casserole.  And Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream pie that I picked up at Braums on Friday - Froggy, you didn't get on me about it when we were talking on the phone!  You must be slipping.  :)

Maggie Moo has had a nice day herself - she's spent most of the last few hours snoozing.  I did try to get her out in the back yard earlier, but she wouldn't even move off the deck.  She was very happy when Otter got here.  That is about the only time the little fluffbutt actually got out of her bed!

Now that things are so much calmer around here, I am thinking I'll probably be blogging more.  There was just so much stress to deal with.  It was constant and never seemed to get any better.  Until suddenly, without warning, it went away.

And it's really nice.

Day After Motorcycle Day

I got snow for my birthday!  It was very pretty, but it didn't include much in the way of ice so I was still able to go to the flea market yesterday.  The flea market opened at 8:00, I got there about 10:30 and left about 11:30.  Empty handed, but it was still fun.  Lots of overpriced Fenton this time, very little of it was actually rare or hard to find.  Just high priced.

 

The snow got heavier in the afternoon.  We still were able to get out for dinner, Bill took me to a local diner that we have never eaten at but always wanted to.  It was a nice birthday meal, I had chicken fried steak.  First time I've had it in something like 12 years, and it will probably be that long before I have it again.  But it was so good!  After we ate, we went to Hobby Lobby and looked around.  Of course I bought yarn!  It was a fall color and the fall colors are about to be replaced with the spring colors, so I got 2 skeins and it's now in the stash drawers.  I did get a little yarn de-stashing done yesterday, Roomie got a cap made in red yarn which I have had on hand for a long time.  And still have on hand, it was a larger size skein.  I think I used about a third of the skein on her cap.

 

I made my own birthday "cake" this year.  I made a pan of brownies, but I didn't get them baked until today.  I used an entire bag of chocolate chips in them this time, so they are going to be extremely chocolate!!  I went to Braums on Friday and got a carton of strawberry cheesecake ice cream, because you have to have ice cream with birthday cake!  Or brownies.

 

We closed our booth out a few days early.  And moved it to another antique mall that opened a few months back.  The new one is in a slightly better area, the old one isn't bad in the sense of crime or anything like that but the new one will get more traffic and is a little easier to see from the street.  It's a couple of miles closer to the house.  We went to the new place this morning to see if they had anything coming up in the near future, and Bill worked out a deal with the owner today.  We thought that we were going to have to bring the machines home for a while until we found a new place, but the owner of the new mall was willing to make us a good deal so we went to the old place as planned and retrieved machines and then took them to the new place.  It's almost the same rent, just $10 more and she does not charge the 10% commission on sales that the old place did.  And she advertises, unlike the old place.

 

Otter got back from her Christmas trip to Oklahoma City with J and his mom.  We met her this afternoon to give her the car, she goes in at 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and nobody was willing to get up and get her to work at that awful hour!  She left her laundry here when she brought the car back to us last Tuesday, I told her that I would do it for her so she got a laundry basket full of clean laundry today along with the car.  She's going to let me know what her schedule is for the week and then we'll see which day we'll have Christmas with her.  Also, I hope to be able to have a shopping day with her sometime this week.

 

I have a picture I took yesterday that I might eventually get posted here - if Blogger will cooperate!  Actually, the problem probably is not Blogger but most likely the last windows update that changed so much on my laptop.  Anyway, the picture is one I took yesterday after the dogs went out in the back yard to play.  Frasier went out first, and it looks almost exactly like he was hopping on one foot and only one foot - he's got a lot of coyote tendencies and that is one we really notice, the single file walk that they do.  Maggie Moo, on the other hand, uses all 4 feet and it almost looked like she just jumped straight up and down, leaping from place to place instead of actually walking.  Silly dogs, but we like them!

 

I'm not making dinner tonight, we went out for breakfast and ate late.  Bill got into the cookies while ago and even though it's nearly 4:00 neither one of us is really hungry.  I'm thinking I might make nachos or something like that.  Maybe!  It's an F & F day for sure today.

Sunday Birds Toads and Water

It's Sunday so I guess I'd better blog.  Otherwise, Froggy might get mad at me and since I have already tormented her today by sending her pictures of a drink cup from the place we got lunch at (Braums!)...

Bill mowed the yard this morning.  It was overgrown again, but not as bad as it was when we had it mowed by Slow & Clueless a week and a half ago.  We got just enough rain a few days ago to start the grass growing.  It was still very damp when he mowed, but it was so humid that it wouldn't really dry and he finally just got tired of waiting and mowed it damp.  With frequent stops for a baby robin!  Flying lessons were taking place in the back yard and he didn't want to run over it.  At one point, he had me go move it off of the fence at the dog yard because Frasier might have had a snack, if he'd seen the little featherbrain.  The baby robin was pretty stubborn, but I think that the parents finally got it to fly off with them.

When Bill was mowing the front yard, I found a tiny toad in the grass.  It was smaller than the top of my thumb.  It was a toad and not a tree frog, it was just very small.  I relocated "him" to the back yard to be free of being mowed as well as the fact that it would have more access to water, hiding spots and mosquitos.  How did the little squishy thing repay me?  He leaked!  I wasn't really surprised, they tend to do that.

The first rain barrel has been full for a while but we haven't been using it.  The spigot was plastic and the twisty part broke off a while back so we left it closed until we could get a metal spigot to replace the plastic one.  Which we forgot about!  We've been using the 2nd rain barrel, every time we get it down to a point where Bill can consider moving it back into place (it got out of place when it froze over the winter and the bottom shape changed), it would rain again.  Bill remembered the first rain barrel spigot issue today, so we went to Ace Hardware and got a metal one.  Which was the wrong size, so I had to go back and exchange it.  He drained the first rain barrel and cleaned it out, then he put a mosquito dunk in it and put the metal spigot on it.  It's ready for rain now.  Of course, that probably means that it won't rain for a while...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOADLES!

Blogger is being odd today, it won't let me justify the margins and eaven everything up.  Which is a real problem for the Borg Queen!  Everything in it's place...

(Nevermind, I found a backdoor way to fix it.)

Talk to the Hand!

But I don't know if it will listen.

 

Bill's hand is doing ok, it's still bandaged and wrapped so we don't actually know how the incision looks but he thinks it's ok.  It does hurt a bit, but he's probably used it too much today.  He is trying to let it rest, but it's pretty hard not to use your hands.  He had Otter helping him today, she washed pachinko parts and was at home in case he needed help with anything.

 

He's on his own tomorrow, at least for several hours.  Tax-Free Weekend!  Otter and I are going shopping.  We are going to one of the malls, then we'll see where else we need to go.  I'm thinking Wallyworld but that might be Sunday, depending on how crowded the mall is and how long it takes us.  Not that we really have anything specific there to look for, although I'm sure we'll find things.

 

I picked up Bill's prescription at Walgreen's this afternoon.  I was about to ask when they would get the flu shots in, and the counter display popped up with "Flu Shots Available Now" so that question was answered.  I did confirm that they have it in stock, and they do.  Otter is off next Friday, Saturday and Sunday so we're going to get our flu shots next Friday.  I guess I'd better get to Braums on Thursday then!  We'll probably get Subway for dinner next Friday, flu shot days are made as easy on me as possible because of the reaction I usually have.  It's early to get the shot, but the thought used to be to wait until about September or October because the protection wouldn't last very long.  But it turns out that either it does last longer or the vaccine has been reworked, because it will last until next Summer.  I prefer not to wait on this one, I want to get it as soon as I can.  I usually aim for Labor Day weekend, that way I have Monday off because sometimes I have bad reactions.  But I'm not waiting that long this year, Otter generally has a much milder reaction that I do but she has had harder ones some years.  So, since she's got the entire weekend off next week we are going to get the shots done then and out of the way.  We'll share our ice cream with Billyboy, since he has to put up with me (and sometimes both of us) feeling icky and being grumpy all weekend.  Payback for us taking care of him this weekend!

 

We had our Anniversary Pizza today.  I stopped by Little Ceaser's on the way home.  I bought three pizzas with the idea of leftovers.  Looks like it's pizza for breakfast tomorrow.  Good shopping fuel!

Too Long For Friday to Get Here!

But it finally did.

 

And I, for one, am glad.  It's been a looooooooooooong week.

 

Froggy, blogger didn't tell me about the comment you left on the last entry until I signed in to post this.

 

Otter has had a pretty good week.  She's been at her current job just under a year.  A few months back, she got a promotion and a raise.  Yesterday, she had her annual performance review.  And she got another raise!

 

We had fajitas tonight, to celebrate.  And there is a Braum's ice cream pie in the freezer, strawberry cheesecake!  Not that anybody actually has any room for it, after the fajitas.  They were so, so good.

 

Yesterday, Otter had to be in at 5:00 a.m.  As in early in the morning before light 5:00 a.m.!  She got up at 4:00 a.m., so she could be at work on time.  About 3:30, I woke up.  I think I was probably subconsciously listening for her to get up.  I got up to see her for a few minutes before she went to work, then I went back to bed.  At about 4:30, Frasier barked in his "gotta go out now" bark so I got up to check on him - I had asked Otter to open the dog doors when she got up.  I thought maybe she'd forgotten the doors, but they were both open.  She said that Frasier watched her open them, so he knew that they were open.  But he couldn't go outside until mama (me!) showed him that they were open!  He's the dumbest smart dog I've ever seen.  He is such a goof.  Sweet, but still a goof. :)

 

This morning, I heard him bark so I got up to check the time.  It was 3:30!  I waited until he yapped the second time, then I went as far as the doorway of our room and hollered "Frasier!  Hush!  Go lay down!" and surprisingly, he actually listened to me and did what I told him to do.  I think we might need to reset his clock, he's a little confused as to what time to a) wake up and b) go outside.  I think it's because Otter's had quite a few early (5:30 a.m.) days lately and it's kind of mixing him up.

 

Maggie Moo has no problem with time, it's all naptime to her!  Except when it's time to eat.  She's always aware of that time on the clock.  :)

(Not) Blind(ed) By The Light

We are now nearly curtainless.  Bill put the miniblind in the living room window on Friday, then he got the office/pachinko room and bedroom taken care of today.  Otter's room will wait, possibly until she's moved out and it's my "craft/guest/yarn" room!  She's got quite a bit of stuff in her room, nobody wants to have to unload everything from there anytime soon.  Not having curtains makes the rooms look bigger, and there is certainly more light coming in the windows.  Also, the miniblinds make it harder to see inside from the outside when they are closed.  The office/pachinko room will be open when Bill's working in there because there is not enough light in that room, but closed all other times.

 

Otter had a good time at TNT this weekend.  They thought they would be staying all day today, but as she said they'd seen it all and done it all by this morning so they went for a couple of hours and then all three girls decided that they were tired and it was time to come home.  J was able to go for a couple of hours this morning as well, so he hung around with them and he was with them all day yesterday.  Otter texted me a picture of her and J in costume, but I haven't transferred it to the computer yet - not for lack of trying, the computer wouldn't read the files from my phone.  But they were very popular, there were a couple of other girls dressed as the same character she was but only one other guy as the male character that goes with hers and she thinks the fact that they were there as a pair is why they got photographed so much - including by some of the press that attended.  She had a great time and she spent nearly every cent she had saved for it, so she says it was a success.  She's more or less collapsed on her bed at the moment, although she might drag herself to the shower at some point.  She has to be in at 5:30 tomorrow morning, she would probably go to bed early anyway since she's exhausted but she definitely will tonight.

 

Yes, she did see the Borg.  She was already out of her cosplay costume, they changed back into t-shirts and jeans about halfway through the day yesterday and they found the Borg after that so I won't be posting a picture of the BorgPrincess (yes, Otter I do mean you.  Yes, you are!) with my drones on here.

 

Maggie Moo was so overjoyed when Otter got home.  Otter texted me when they were nearly here, I opened the front door and Maggie Moo zoomed right to it.  Where she immediately started wiggling and making noises.  LOUDLY.  When Otter's friend pulled the car into the driveway, the dog just about wiggled out of her skin!  I opened the door and Maggie Moo immediately slinkywalked to Otter, greeted her with lots and lots of puppy kisses and then turned around and walked right back to the door for me to put her in - took her a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time but she finally learned that she has to go back to the door and go back inside after she gets to go out on the front porch.  Frasier is not allowed out there unless he's leashed or I'm holding on to his collar.  He knows the rules, he just chooses not to follow them - dog is too smart for his own good!

 

Bill and I went to the Hog Trough (Golden Corral) for breakfast this morning.  It wasn't very good, we were disappointed in it.  It used to be so good, but it wasn't all that spectacular today.  But we made up for it - he met someone at Dairy Queen to deliver a pachinko machine he restored and I rode along with him.  Since we were there already, we had to get Blizzards!  And they were very good, too.  Sorry, Froggy - no Braums today!

 

But I might eat lunch there one day this week.  Just in case you wanted to know, Froggy.

Imagine a Fun Title Here Because I Can't Think of One!!!

It's Sunday, it's Father's Day and it's 3 days before Billyboy's birthday.  Still can't think of a good title!

 

We didn't exactly hit the ground running, but we have been busy today.  I had intended to wake Bill up with a cup of coffee this morning, we frequently bring coffee back to bed and leave the lights out on Sunday mornings.  It's a nice way to start the day.  But Bill got up a few hours before I did this morning, like maybe around 4:00 a.m., and he woke me up with coffee.  Which was good, even though the cup was full to the brim and I wound up wearing part of it!  (The sheets got yanked off the bed as soon as we finished the coffee and got up and they are now in the dryer.)

 

We went to Church, then Otter had to get ready for work almost as soon as we got home.  I ran a couple of errands, to the post office and to Wally for a couple of things I didn't realize we were out of when I went to the grocery store last week.  Later on, Bill wanted to go to the booth to check on something - he got a call from someone who had seen the machines at the booth and now her son had decided he wanted one.  She had some questions about the operation of the machines and Bill told her what she wanted to know.  She said she was going to buy one, he told to tell the cashier/owner at the store that we had authorized a 10% discount.  She did buy the machine, it was gone when we got there so Bill moved the other machines down a bit so that it doesn't look like a vacant spot.  He also needed to go to Radio Shack so we did that at the same time.

 

I got soup started in the crockpot before my first errand this morning, I used some fresh Rosemary from Otter's crop.  It's always really good with fresh Rosemary.  Very nice flavor and it smells so much better when it's cooking - it smells pretty good without it, but Rosemary just makes it better.  I made it a little differently this time, but it was not on purpose!  I thought I grabbed a can of peas, along with the corn, green beans and lima beans.  Turns out, I grabbed two cans of green beans and no peas.  Otter wasn't upset about that, she absolutely hates peas.  It was still good, even if it does have a slightly different vegetable mix!

 

Bill's beginning to rearrange the office into the pachinko workroom.  I took my 3 yarn drawer units out, they are temporarily in our bedroom.  They are also stuffed to the point of overflowing.  I also have several tote bags with yarn in them, and a couple with sewing and misc. craft stuff.  But most of them have yarn!  I really need to destash, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.  After we get all the pachinko stuff out of the living room and into the office, the yarn will be temporarily moved into the living room.  At that point, I'm going to take inventory and see what I can do about the "overabundance" of yarn that I suddenly and unexplainably have!

 

Froggy, I'm going to start on Uncle Crazy's blanket soon.  I was planning on starting on it today but I haven't had time yet.  It will go fast, it's a granny square like yours is.  It will be a little bigger, but it's a fairly simple pattern to make.  I did finish the green scarf I started when we were on the way to SA, the yarn is very pretty and will be warm but it wasn't particularly enjoyable to work with.  I will most likely make a cap to go with it, but not anytime soon!

 

Bill did get his birthday bacon.  He decided that he wanted it yesterday, since Saturday is about the only day we have time for a bigger breakfast.  Otter had to work, she left before we actually got organized enough to cook the bacon so I kept her 4 pieces back and she had a bacon sandwich when we got home.  I made bread yesterday, she had bread and bacon without anything else and she said it was good.  Bill cooked half the bacon yesterday, and we ate about half of what he cooked so we had some left for this morning.  Otter had another bacon-bread sandwich, but Bill and I had it on tortillas with cheese and scrambled eggs.  His birthday is actually Wednesday, he was thinking about blt's for dinner but Otter and I got him one of these:

It's a gadget, and gadgets are absolutely irresistible to engineers.  Bill wanted one of these the first time he aw the commercial, he also wanted a Bacon Bowl maker but changed his mind on that.  But he still wanted a Stufz, so Otter and I got one for him.  He's changed his mind on his birthday dinner.  But I expect him to have bacon stuffed in his burger!

 

I don't expect Otter to complain about that, either.  :)

It's pie time now!  Froggy, we got Bill a pie.  An ice cream pie.  Strawberry Cheesecake.  FROM BRAUMS.

100 Gallons

That how much rain water we have stored between 2 barrels.  The older one is 55 gallons, but the way it's set up it doesn't hold water totally to the top.  The new one is 50 gallons and it's full to the brim.  It was actually overflowing, until I got a little water out of it with my watering can.   We got nearly 3" of rain yesterday, and it was needed badly.  We may get more, towards the end of the week.

 

Otter's new store opened today.  We went shopping there this afternoon.  So did Otter's Grandpa.  She had a lot of customers aside from family, and she said that she is tired but not nearly as tired as she would have been at the party store.  It's a nice store, we were frequent customers at the existing store in the Tulsa area so we're already familiar with the chain.  The new store is about the same size but the aisles are a little wider.  I think Otter's going to enjoy working there.  She has had a couple of 10 p.m. nights, but she got out within just a few minutes after 10 and not 11:30!  Also, the management is a whole lot better.

 

I've been crocheting like a madwoman the last couple of days.  I'm working on a shawl for Nana and it's going fast.  It's the exact same as the turquoise one I made myself, but it's much easier.  For one thing, I'm using the correct size hook this time.  Makes a difference.  If I think about it, I'll post pictures on the craft blog but in case I don't it is exactly like the turquoise one, except that it's white yarn.

 

Froggy, in case you are interested - we had Braums for lunch today!

Yard Work

Well, I guess it's still yard work if it involves digging holes and placing posts!  Bill started building the new trellises for the honeysuckle we're going to plant along the back of the house.  Three trellises, two of them will be separated by our bedroom window.   On the opposite end, the end and middle trellis will be separated by a fan-shaped trellis which will eventually have something else on it.  Possibly a climbing rose, I'm not sure about that yet.

This is a old picture of the rock garden, I'm not sure if it was before it was redone and enlarged or not but the trellis is the one that Bill built for Jessie.  It has morning glories on it but the honeysuckle we planted 1 1/2 years ago is now really taking off and may take over the entire trellis.  The ones Bill is building now are similar to this one.  The iris plants are where the trellises are going to be, the iris will be relocated.  Probably to around the redbud tree and probably around one of the trees in the front yard as well.

 

We're going to plant trumpet vine at the trellises on the back fence.  The ones that had morning glories that were doing wonderfully well.  Until the builder moved the fence, that is.  Although they actually bloomed the last two days.  Even though they have been pulled up!  They don't seem to realize yet that they are dead.

 

Otter's gone over to her friend's house, they have their regularly scheduled Dungeons and Dragons game today.  It's once or twice a month, depending on everyone's work schedules.  Otter worked out an alternating Sunday off schedule with her boss, which means that she'll be working next Sunday which is Labor Day weekend.  Already.  It still seems like it should just now be Memorial Day.

 

Labor Day weekend is when I try to get my flu shot.  That way, I have three days to recover!  Sometimes I need all three days.  Otter has to work Saturday, but we're still planning on getting the shots Friday afternoon.  She doesn't usually have the reaction that I do, she did have a bad reaction one time.  But that was when the Tulsa City/County Health Department stored the flu shot serum improperly and it went bad.  Otter was very sick all that weekend, but we didn't realize what it was since she'd never had a reaction before.  A few months later, she got the flu and was very sick again - along with probably 90% of the Tulsa area!  The reaction was probably because of the improper storage situation.  The only other time she possibly had a reaction was a couple of years ago, she was fine but suddenly threw up on the Saturday night but she'd also had a lot of allergy issues and that could have been the problem as well.  She may have some arm soreness at the injection site.  Me?  Well, I have the arm soreness.  And I have mild flu symptoms for a couple of days.  Not enough to really say that it's the flu, but it is the way I react to the shot and I will feel cruddy.  But it's worth it, if it helps me avoid the flu.  I did get the flu in January, but that was probably because they don't always guess correctly which strains will be dominant and it was a fairly mild case.  So mild that I didn't realize at first that it was the flu.  Otter got the flu a couple of years ago, but it was the same situation - the dominant strain was not one that the shot covered and that is probably the one she got.  But usually, it's for the right strain.

 

I have been calling Walgreen's on a regular basis, their ad has been saying for about a month now that the flu shots are available but the local stores haven't had it yet.  Today, they do have it.  So we're going this coming Friday.  Yes, Froggy.  We will get ice cream!  And it may well be from Braum's.  We'll also pick something up for dinner on the way home.  My reaction can start anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour after the shot, usually it's within about 30 minutes.  So, I like to make it as easy an evening as I can.  We'll get the ice cream before Friday.  Then, we'll pick up whatever we decide on for dinner on the way home.

 

While we were working on the trellis, I found the cutest little thing in the yard.  She had a very long neck and a shell, and I already texted pictures to Froggy.  Otter took a couple of pictures on her camera, but we haven't uploaded the pictures yet.  I'll get one posted in the next day or so.  We relocated the tortoise to the field behind the houses behind us.  Frasier would possibly have killed her, and we don't allow anything to happen to our tortoises if we can possibly avoid it.  Froggy, I know you are not a fan.  But they are very important animals, they play a MAJOR part in protecting our ecosystem.

 

Bill did something else this morning.  He started burning what was left of the limb pile.  He got about half of it burned, but then it started to get windy so he quit adding limbs to the fire and let it go out.  He stayed out with it until it quit smoldering.  He's not sure when he's going to get the rest of it burned, it depends on the weather.  I don't think we're supposed to get rain for a few days, but wind is not a good thing when you are burning anything outdoors.

 

Now, if my arms aren't too sore from the work we did this morning, I might attempt to crochet.  I'm back to thinking that maybe I do want to sell stuff on etsy.  I set up a shop months ago, but then I decided against actually selling.  But now I'm thinking that maybe I should.  I'll figure it out eventually!

 

Time to go make dinner.  Sloppy Joes, I think.

Friday. Long Hard Week. Glad It's Over.

I could probably just post the title, and it would explain my week!

I'm exhausted.  Absolutely exhausted.  It's been very stressful and tiring, and I am really glad that it's Friday.  And that I have a 3-day weekend.

From Sunday and Monday's reminders of why the name Tornado Alley is appropriate, to the fact that my allergies have been on overload and the fact that I'm a redhead and we don't have enough iron on a good, non-stressful day all add up to one thing:  TEEEIRED.

 

I'm anticipating allergies being an issue for a long time, the ragweed is already showing up and it shouldn't be here for 2 or 3 months yet.  It rained most of yesterday, so Bill took advantage of the cleaner air and opened up the house.  As a result, we all slept better last night and woke up breathing easier.  But today was warm and dryer, so the windows are back to being shut and the fans are out of the windows.  But it was nice while it lasted.

We had buffalo burgers for dinner, that's always a good thing.  And we have a strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie in the freezer, courtesy of Braums and the stop I made there this afternoon.  I really did just go in for milk, then I remembered that we were low on orange juice (we live on oj!) and since I was there, I was legally obligated to check their pie stock.  Since they did have them in stock, I was legally obligated to check the variety.  Since they did have strawberry cheesecake in stock, I was legally obligated to buy one.  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  :)

 

I have not had a crochet hook in my hand since Sunday.  I think it was Sunday.  I frogged the hat again and am going to start it again tomorrow, but I'm going up 3 or 4 hook sizes and see if that makes enough of a difference.  I really, really hate it when the pattern instructions are wrong.  If it still doesn't make the hat big enough, I'm going back to searching for a good pattern.  I like a challenge, but this one is getting ridiculous.

 

OK, I'm about to go in search of a glass of wine and then I think I'm going to put my feet up.  And grab a book!

Busy Few Days

I just realized that I haven't posted anything since Sunday and it's Wendesday already.  Before Froggy gets on me, I thought I'd better get busy.

Froggy, I guess we're even now.  I text you about Braums and you make sure I knew you went to SA and ate lunch at the Hole in the Wall!  I guess we're even.  But only for the moment.  Insert evil grin here.

Otter's got a job, she started work on Monday.  I decided against naming the place here.  It is not Radio Shack, where she was pretty much promised a job that didn't actually exist at that particular store - I named them because there are so many and they are all over the place.  She did get a call from one of the other two Radio Shack locations where the manager of the first store sent her application to, but she found a job before the interview that was scheduled.  She's working in a store, it's a nationwide chain but there are not a lot of them in our area so no names.  But she's enjoying it.  When we thought she was going to get hired at Radio Shack, we bought her a pair of nice black slacks.  So of course the uniform she has to wear now is not black pants!  It's kahki pants with a black shirt.  Figures.  But the black slacks will be worn, they just won't be worn to work.  She also has to wear either black shoes or white tennis shoes.  She has black shoes, but they are not comfortable to be on her feet all day so we're probably going to get her another pair tomorrow.  She won't complain about having to get another pair of shoes!  She's in training this week.  Her job is actually not too far from where I work.  I have taken her some, mostly yesterday because she had to work until 9:30 p.m. and winter made it's appearance (briefly.)  Since she hasn't had any experience at all driving in snow or ice and we knew the forecast included a winter storm, she wanted me to take her to work yesterday.  Well, she actually drove us there.  Then I went on to work myself - takes me forever to get the mirrors back where I like them after Otter drives!  The rain turned into snow about 8:30, so the manager told her that she could leave at 9:00 instead of 9:30, and it was plenty cold.  The temperature was hovering right at freezing and the roads were ok in places but iffy in others, so I'm glad that she didn't even attempt to drive.  The snow didn't stick and today was nice, warm and dry.

The point of all that was to say that Otter is now gainfully employed, and she's happy about it.  She opened a checking account last week, but she said that she won't really feel like an adult until a year from now - when she has to file income taxes!

We don't do a whole lot for Valentine's Day.  We never have, with the exception of the fact that Bill and I got engaged on our first Valentine's Day together.  We usually have a special meal of some type - frequently steak!  I generally get us a little candy, usually chocolate for me and Bill and Otter gets non-chocolate candy which she sometimes picks out or requests a specific kind.  Tomorrow, Otter's schedule is 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. so we'll be able to all eat dinner together.  I let Otter pick this time, she chose Digorno's pizzas since we haven't had them in a while.  Bill always wants steak, so we don't ask him to pick unless we also want steak!  I made brownies tonight which we will eat tomorrow and I'll probably make ice cream then as well.

I finished my 3rd scarf, started the 4th one yesterday and finished it this morning.  I'm going to stop at 4, I had planned on at least 5 but Bill's just about ready for me to start cleaning the pachinko machine that he bought for our family project.  It entails a lot of detail work, and it's going to play havoc with my tendonitis so I'm probably not going to get a whole lot of crochet done over the next few days.  I'll probably take the 4 scarves to the yarn shop tomorrow.  I changed my basic pattern slightly and I think it works better.  I did manage to use up quite a bit of yarn, which was actuall a good thing.

Although I probably still have more yarn than the law allows!

Sunday Accomplishments **EDITED

1.  Father's Day Breakfast (Check)
2.  Church (Check)
3.  Laundry (Check)
4.  Dishes (Check)
5.  Otter clean out dog yard
6.  Find out if Otter is allergic to yellow jacket stings (CHECK!!)
7.  Find three other active yellow jacket nests (Check)
8.  Move rest of Otter's craft stuff from garage to shelves in her room.

Well, I guess 6 out of 8 isn't too bad.

Except for # 6.  It wasn't a good thing to accomplish.  I don't think Otter much appreciated it, either.  I feel her pain!  Otter was starting on # 4, I knocked down the two dead nests from the lean-to and she was carrying them in the shovel to toss over the fence.  However, wasps are very protective of nests - even if it's not their own, and we think that one from the two active nests that we discovered in the lean to after # 5 was accomplished probably thought it needed to defend the one of the two nests that had lots of (dead) eggs in it**.  I was out in the front yard, I was going to go knock down the two dead nests Bill got last week and trim the remaining tree limblets off the tree I was working on when I was stung, and I heard her yelling repeatedly OWOWOWOWOW all the way from the back - I figured at that point that she'd been stung because she's pretty stoic about pain.  By the time I got inside, she and Bill were in the bathroom and he was checking the sting.  It's on her belly.  No asthma issues!  Just the usual intense, burning pain that makes you want to scream.  She iced it, washed it, took tylenol and used alchohol on it.  She also put a bandaid over it, she was afraid her clothing would rub the spot.  Bill and I checked the area where she was when she got stung, by the back fence, and found two old nests but nothing active.  But then I looked in the lean-to when I was putting the shovel and tree tool up, and that's when I found the two active nests.  They are going to get sprayed this evening.

The third nest?  It's on the front porch.  They are building inside the metal tubes of my windchime!  It's going to get taken care of this evening as well.  But it's going to get a watery grave, it should just fit inside a bucket full of water.  After it's dead, I'll move the dead nests from the front of the house - I don't want to get stung again!

Bees and yellow jackets/wasps are not the same thing, so there is still the possibility that Otter could be allergic to bees.  But, and this is just a guess, I'm thinking that the fact that she didn't react to the wasp sting might be a good sign about that.

# 5 & # 8 on our list will be taken care of later, probably tomorrow.  Otter's had enough of being outside today.

After all the drama, Otter and I went to the dollar store and Wallyworld.  Among other things, we bought cookies at the dollar store.  And a tube of hydrocortisone cream since it's used on bug bites/stings and the ones I have in the first aid kit were out of date many years ago.

Movie review:  John Carter.  It was not as bad as we expected.  It felt very rushed and badly edited, I think that a great deal was left out of the books that might have been needed to explain a few things.  But it was better than we expected.  It was set-up for a sequel at the end, but Disney's already announced that they actually lost money on it and that there won't be any more.

Bill was checking on our eBay stuff while ago.  He might have gotten a "listing confirmation" email from eBay, but somehow he discovered that our eBay account had been hacked.  Someone posted a vehicle, a one day listing that started at 10:50 this morning and would end at midnight tonight.  It was a cash-only or send a money order transaction.  Only thing is, we don't have the vehicle in question and aren't selling anything at the moment!  He canceled it, then he changed the passwork and notified eBay.  Since they stated cash/money order only, he didn't think that PayPal had been hacked (it was before) but he checked it anyway and it looks ok.

I did a little crochet yesterday.  Not much, but I got a couple of rows on my scarf.  I went through my patterns, I'm looking for new projects to destash and also because it's just fun.  I have a few ideas, but nothing is certain yet as far as my next project.

I think Bill's enjoyed his Father's Day.  He got to play with power tools!  Later, we're going to have Digorno's pizzas and Otter is going to bake him a cake.  We will probably also have some of the strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie from his early birthday (yesterday) which is surprisingly not all gone yet.  It won't last long, that's for sure.  And Otter made sure that Pastor Dave knows that Bill's birthday is tomorrow - she announced it to Dave when he was asking what everyone was doing for their dad's for Father's Day.  I think she probably figured that it was a fair thing to do, since he embarassed her one time when she was very young with a birthday announcement in church and she's never forgiven him.  I think that they are even now.  At least for that one. :)

**While it's highly possible that the firedevil thought it was defending a nest, it's also highly possible that the active nest she was standing close to was where it came from.  I was walking the back fence, to see if I could find any nests and I found one that is hidden behind the trellis we have on the back fence for the morning glories.  It's just a few feet from where Otter was standing.  It's going to be gone tonight as well.

Thursday Stuff of Varying Degrees of Importance

My head itches where the firedevil stung me.  I'm trying not to scratch!  But I keep finding myself scratching.  It finally quit hurting with the searing pain last night - it didn't quit hurting, it just got better, but it wasn't a pleasant experience to wash my hair a few hours later and combing it out afterward was torture.  I took a couple of motrin when I went to bed.  Also, I'm pretty sure that it was a yellow jacket and not one of the small, brown wasps that we also have.  Not that it makes a difference, I'm sure!

I came home and found two more of the beasties attempting to start a nest on the front porch.  Bill thought he squashed them, but they either came back to life or two more showed up and took their place because they were back at it when I went out again a little later.  Bill got the spray this time, and they are deaddeaddead.

The office telephones needed a tecnhician to come out today, he found a huge nest full of inhabitants while he was working on the outside phone box - they were on the gate this time.  I've lost count of how many we've had at work, but I think we're up over 15 now.  Don't know why they are so bad this year!

Otter's off with HP today.  They went to lunch somewhere and went to the movies this afternoon.  So she doesn't know that there is a strawberry-cheesecake ice cream pie in the freezer.  I'm not going to tell her, either!  (It's for Saturday when we are going to have Bill's birthday since he has to work a b(oring)oard meeting Monday evening and won't be home until who knows when.)

I took my car in for an oil change today.  I got to the Chevy place just after 7:00 this morning.  They had one car ahead of me, so they told me to just wait and promised to be done in time for me to make it to work on time.  They were done in less than 30 minutes and that even included running it through the car wash!  Nice change from the previous place.  Also, it was about $12.00 cheaper.  And the other place wouldn't have washed it, either.

Now, I'm going to go surf the 'net for a while.  Anything to keep from scratching my head!  I will probably crochet later, I'm making caps at the moment with scarf plans for the near future possibly.

It's Finally FRIDAY!

OK, we made it to Friday.

And not a moment too soon.

It's just been a crazy busy week, but not for any particular reason.  Just the usual stuff at work, nothing out of the ordinary.  But it's just been a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong week for some reason.

But, it's Friday and I'm happy.

I'm also happy that we still have ice cream pie left, and (if we have any room after the steaks & baked potatos) we'll probably get into it tonight.

I realized something yesterday.  I haven't had to have any work done on my car in over a month now.  The oil change in December doesn't count, that's routine stuff.  But, and I would be willing to put money of this one - and I'm not a gambler by any stretch of the imagination, if I'd gone back to the first place I probably would have been told that there were at least 3 or 4 things wrong that they needed to fix.  Glad we finally came to our senses about that place!

We don't like to be lied to, in case you haven't figured that out.

Other subjects now.  Red hair!  For once, I'm not having to mention RHTW* in connection with the car, that's a nice change.  She's still ready to be deployed at a moment's notice, however.  But there was a news report a few weeks back that caught our attention.  There was an older lady in the Tulsa area who heard loud noises at her front door, and when she went to check it out a man forced his way inside.  He was "under the influence" but still dangerous.  She yelled at him to get out and he promptly sat down and exposed himself to her.  At that point, she ran outside and yelled for her neighbors.  A couple of men that live in her apartment complex came to her rescue and dragged the guy outside, where they proceeded to teach him a lesson until the cops got there to haul his sorry rear off to jail.  Although she'd already given him a black eye - and, this is the kicker:  she said that she WASN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING BECAUSE AFTER ALL SHE IS A REDHEAD!

Redheads rule, no two ways about it.  Especially Redheaded Women and that goes double for Texan ones.

*RedHeadTexanWoman.  Let's just say that you do NOT want to get her riled because she'll make you regret it.  :)

27 Years and Ice Cream Therapy

Today is our 27th wedding anniversary.  We had originally planned to have steaks but have them  tomorrow because we like to have something fun on Fridays, as a way to wind down and start Sabbath.  We're still having the steaks then, but we decided that we wanted to have something tonight as well.  So we made french Bread Pizza (france never, ever gets a capital letter in this house unless it happened to be a person's name).  We stuffed ourselves, but it was very good.  It's always fun to make.  Otter's pizza had pepperoni (lots!) and bell pepper.  Bill's and mine had those toppings, along with a few others.  Onions, black olives, mushrooms and his had jalepenos.

We're also having Ice Cream Therapy.  Last week, I picked Otter up at school one day and took her to lunch.  Braum's is where we decided to go.  We decided that we needed two things:  she wanted french fries and I wanted something with gravy, such as their chicken strip meal.  I forget why, but we started calling it Therapy.  Froggy asked me if we'd had ice cream therapy as well, but we didn't have it that day.  Today, since it's our anniversary, we were hoping we could find a rare and elusive strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie.  We were in luck, it was the last one Braum's had.  It's still in the freezer, we're a little stuffed from the pizza.  Today, along with it being a treat for our anniversary, we've decided that we're having Ice Cream Therapy.  The other reason for needing Ice Cream Therapy is because it's not Friday yet.  Hey, it works!  Like we actually need a reason...

Today is also International Spouse Day.  Not sure exactly what that means, but that's what Froggy told me this morning.  A couple of days ago, it was International Peanut Butter Day.  Peanut butter has always been one of my favorite foods, and it was also one that Mom really loved.  Sometimes she'd make sandwiches, but mostly I remember her grabbing a long handled tea spoon and eating her peanut butter straight from the jar.  She didn't gorge on it, just the occasional spoonful when she wanted a snack.  Froggy, do you remember if Mom liked chunky or creamy?  I think she liked creamy, but I'm not really sure.  Tomorrow is International Chocolate Day, so it's going to be a good day!  Of course, chocolate and peanut butter go very well together.  If we're looking for a sweet snack, it frequently involves a bite of chocolate with peanut butter on it.

My arm is much better.  My elbow is still a little painful but not nearly as much as it was.  It still gets stiff, though.  Mostly, what I'm dealing with at the moment is a very tight muscle.  When I took my shower last night, I turned the water temperature up much higher than I normally like and held my arm underneath it.  It helped quite a bit.  But then Otter and I had a shoe shine party, which undid a lot of the benefit of the warmth.  I probably should have thought about that before I started polishing my boots!  I also did Bill's leather tennis shoes and Otter took care of the combat boots that Granpda gave her a while back.  She wears them as often as she can, by the way.

OK, I think maybe I have room for that pie now.

Tuesday. Gonna Rain.

At some point tonight, it's supposed to rain.  Anywhere from 1/2 to 2', and possibly a lot in a short amount of time.

Or none at all.

You never know, with our forecasters!

Otter had a "make her day" experience.  We went to the library and someone asked her if she was a librarian and did she work there?!  It absolutely thrilled her.

My arm is much better.  I had it immobilized most of Saturday, we found the sling that Otter used many years ago when she broke her arm.  I'm still having some issues with my elbow, but it's a lot better.  Haven't tried to crochet yet.  I don't want to push it.

I was thinking that this time last year, we were just a few days away from getting pounded with snow and ice.  At this point, there is nothing even remotely similar in the forecast.  We're hoping it stays that way.

Our 27th anniversary is Thursday.  We'll have steaks.  And baked potatos.  And, if I can find it, an ice cream pie from Froggy's favorite ice cream place.  If they don't have the strawberry cheesecake pie, I'll probably just get that flavor ice cream if they have it.  If not, then any one of their other flavors will do.  We'll probably actually have the steaks on Friday night, but the ice cream will definitely be on Thursday.

Getting hungry just thinking about it!

Sunday Shakes!

(Alternate title:  Shaken Not Stirred!)

There are shakes:

And there are SHAKES:

And we've had both kinds in the last 24 hours.

Actually, we've had two of the last one in the last 48 hours.  As I mentioned last night, Friday night/early Saturday morning there was one that I slept through but Bill was awake for.

But it wasn't the last one.  Last night, sometime before midnight, we were sound asleep and were awakened by an odd noise (it was the house shaking) and the feeling of the bed trying to jump out from under us.  It probably lasted less than a minute, but at the time it did not feel like it!

# 3

My first thought was that someone had hit the house with a car, because of the noise & impact feel at the same time and I think I yelled for Bill to wake up, but I might have actually reached over and woke him up.  Or both, I'm not sure.  Then we realized what it was.  It didn't stop suddenly, it tapered off and then it was quiet.  But it took me hours to go back to sleep, which is what usually happens when I'm deeply asleep and then awakened.  I've never been able to go back to sleep easily like that, and last night was no exception.

Otter said that it woke her up as well.  I don't remember hearing any noise from the dogs, Bill said that they were moving around and seemed restless quite a bit during and after Friday evening's quake, but last night's earthquake was nosier.  As well as larger on the Richter scale and longer-lasting.  He thought he heard a couple of things falling, but none of the pictures came off the wall or anything.  Two Fenton pieces did slide pretty far from where they were originally but not far enough to fall off, some of the kitchen drawers were opened and a couple of sun catchers came off the kitchen window.  The cans we keep dog treats & birdseed in were moved slightly in the garage.  Bill walked around the house this morning and everything looks ok.  He talked to our next door neighbor (the nice one) and he said that he was upstairs in his house at the time, so he actually felt more movement than we did.  The higher structurally, the more wiggling.  At church, Pastor Dave said that they had a lot of things come off of walls.  We did see a few news reports that showed minor structural damage in the general area we live in, things like bricks coming off and so forth.  That was a national news report, by the way.

Froggy, I wonder what Dad would say?  He never mentioned earthquakes, it was always about spring storms and tornados.  I'm sure he would have an imaginative comment, which would end with telling me to come home!  :)

Anyway, Otter suggested that we get milk shakes today since it's "shake day" and we agreed.  So we went to Braums!  They were very good, she had a great idea.

OK, on to other stuff now.

Movie Review:  Cars 2.  It was ok but not very spectacular and it was extremely "political" and biased.  But we had already heard that, so we weren't surprised.  It was just not a very good movie, it had the feel of being thrown together as a money grab and that's probably exactly what it was.  Not one we'll be buying, that's for sure.  The final Harry Potter movie comes out Friday, that one is definitely on the "to buy" list.

We made pizza yesterday, and had leftovers for breakfast.  We're going to broil some steaks for dinner tonight and bake potatos.  I also have several containers of my beef/vegetable soup in the freezer and will probably make a couple of other things to freeze such as Bachelor Stew.  I like to keep a variety of things in the freezer, Bill takes his lunch most days and that way I can ensure that he has a healthy lunch.

I got some crochet done yesterday.  I didn't work on the afghan, I found a pattern for a really cute scarf that looks like a snake and Otter wants one.  The pattern was a solid green snake, but Otter's snake is going to be multi-colored.  Because it's different from the other scarf styles I've made, it will get put on the craft blog when I get it finished.  Which might be a couple of days.

OK, back to my laundry now!  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate doing laundry?

Thrifty Tuesday

Otter and I decided that today was a good day to go thrifting.  We had an unexpected thunderstorm with lots and lots of rain, so we didn't get quite as early a start as we planned.  It was still raining when we left, but the bulk of it was over so it wasn't a bad drive.  Just a wet one!

Among other things, we went to four thrift stores today.  Otter found something at each of them, I don't think that anything we bought was actually for me but that's ok.  I'm still happy over my Coach find yesterday.  We also went to the mall - to Teavana for Otter, and to Subway for lunch.  We had a stop at the library in there as well.  And we had one other stop, Braum's, and they had the one thing we always want but hardly ever find:  a Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Pie.  They only had one left, they go fast.  Needless to say, it came home with us.

One of the things we bought today was a pressure cooker.  For Bill.  He has one that he uses in his casting process, but it's a little smaller than he needs for some of the parts.  The one I found today is bigger.  I'm still looking for an actual canner for him to use but no luck yet.

Otter and I also went to the yarn store, where she found some yarn for a new scarf & hat.  It's the same company as the yarn I got last summer in SA, Froggy.  It's hard to find.  I have a couple of projects (including your sock monkey hat), then I'm going to get her scarf and hat combo in the new yarn done.  I thought I'd be through with Otter's sock monkey hat by now, but I had a couple of things come up so I haven't had a chance to finish it up.  All it needs now is to have the mouth, ears and button eyes attached.  Which won't take me too long, when I can actually sit down and do it!

One benefit of this morning's rain is that it's not so hot today.  It's extremely humid, so it's not exactly pleasant outside.  It's just not as warm as yesterday.  But tomorrow is supposed to be a hot, dry day and so is Thursday.  I'm not sure about Friday or the weekend.  But today's rain was good, as long as it lasted.  I just wish it wasn't so icky outside, I could use some deck time.  Maybe later, probably in the morning.  I did get some deck time this morning before the rain started.  Just not enough!

TGIF! Cough, Cough, Achoo

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

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

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

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