Sunday Ketchup

I haven't done a Catch Up post in a while.  I think it's overdue.  So, here goes:

The situation with Bill's employer actually was over 2 years, now that I've had time to think about things.  It was pretty bad, but once we realized that her was eligible for the contract buy-out we realized just how crushingly bad it was.  Once we found out that he was eligible, there was no question in our minds that he was taking it.  We just weren't sure what day he was going to pick to be his last day.  His last official day was Friday, and on Thursday he received official notification that his job was one that was going to be eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts effective July 1 so he would have been out of a job anyway even if he had stayed.  Just further proof to us that it was God's care and provision.  About 2 dozen people had taken the buy-our as of last Friday, anyone who is eligible can still opt to take it if their jobs are also on the chopping block.

At some point, Bill will need to find another job.  But we will be able to stretch the timeline for that out for a while if we have to.  He spent last week trying to catch up on pachinko machine restoration and cleanings for some of his customers.  The calls and emails wanting restorations and cleaning just keep coming.  More proof that God is still watching over us!

Last Wednesday, there was really bad weather.  It was rainy early in the day, although the forecast was for last afternoon/early evening but the rain had stopped by the time it was supposed to start.  I went to the grocery store, I was just getting back in the car at 5:00 and the news report was on as I started the car.  The reporter stated that we were "in the clear" as far as any potential bad stuff.  About 7:00, the first of what turned out to be 4 separate tornados sprouted.  The first one was west of Tulsa and it went through the northern part of the city/county limits.  There were no deaths, but there were a lot of injuries and a great deal of damage.  The storm continued on east and it took the twister with it.  The next target was a small town north/northeast of Tulsa called Owasso.  Again, damage and injuries but no deaths.  The tornado dissolved but then the storm kept going east and 2 more sprouted.  The next targets were the smaller towns of Claremore and Catoosa.  Widespread damage but again, no deaths were reported.  (None of those are the area we live in.)  We joke about the forecasters, but this time it was no joke.  They just missed it and they missed it BIG.

Otter turned 24 on Thursday!  We got her a small birthday cake, I took it (and ice cream!) to her apartment Wednesday afternoon so that she would have it on her actual birthday.  J was there, so he put it in the fridge for her and I told him to remind her that on your birthday it is perfectly acceptable to have cake for breakfast!  She apparently listened, because she texted me that she had cake AND ICE CREAM for her breakfast on Thursday.  :)  We met J & Otter at a Mexican place for dinner on Thursday, it was really nice.

Maggie was dragging her rear again last week, so I made an appointment with the vet for her on Friday.  That was actually the only time they could see her other than Thursday, and I had already arranged the day off as a vacation day - originally Bill had planned to make Thursday the 31st his last day but then he found out that his insurance premium would be covered for April if he made the 1st his last day.  Anyway, on Thursday morning Maggie had a slight accident.  It looked like she was just not able to make it outside but she tried.  I cleaned up after her and then I realized that she'd had "potty problems" outside and that evening she was acting like she wasn't feeling too good.  I called the vet and let them know and they scheduled an exam for her.  Friday, I took her for a short walk about an hour before the vet appointment.  She was having really bad "potty problems" then and she had a blade of grass sticking out her her behind parts!  She was happy to get in the car but not happy to get to the vet's office, but she was even more unhappy when she realized that she was being taken back to the room to get her "rear alignment!"  The vet came back in with her after that, he said that her glands were actually not very full and that it looked like they had emptied on their own.  He said that sometimes happens and that she probably had a slight intestinal infection.  He gave her an antibiotic liquid dose (which she didn't particularly like) and then sent home a few days worth of antibiotic pills for me to give her twice per day.  She also got her nails trimmed while she was there.  She responded pretty quickly to the medication, although she did figure out that there was a pill hidden in the bread bite she got this morning - she spit it out at me!

OK, I think I'm caught up for now!

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.

Shopping Sunday

So named because a) it's Sunday and b) I went shopping with Otter.

We're going to a family wedding in a few weeks, when we went shopping right after Christmas Otter found her dress although we weren't even looking at that point and that left me needing something to wear.  I tried on a couple of dresses at Penney's last week but didn't like them enough to buy one.  We decided to go shopping today and see if we could find anything.  We looked at Sears, Dillards and Penney's and were actually about to walk out of Penney's to  head to another store when we walked past a couple of racks and I found a dress I liked.  I tried it on and it came home with me.  It's a not quite royal blue color, not quite aqua either.  It has a "ripple" pattern in the fabric and I think its very pretty.  Otter's dress came from Sears and it's a sort of midnight blue smooth satin-ish fabric with a black "smocked velvet" pattern all across it, the yoke area is a sheer black and it's sleeveless.  She has a black, beaded shawl that she'll wear with it and it will look very nice with the dress.  I have a turquoise crocheted shawl I made a couple of years ago which I will wear with my dress - the colors are different enough that they actually look good together.  We found her a small cocktail-style clutch purse (it has a removable strap) which is midnight blue satin sides and should look very well with her dress.  I will probably carry my black Coach purse.  We both need shoes still.  I have a pair of black shoes but I don't like them with the dress and Otter is probably going to look for a pair of high-heeled sandles to go with her dress.  I found a new purse today too, but it's just because I'd been looking for another good purse and not to match the dress for the wedding.  It was on sale at Dillards and mine is the Hunter Green color.

We also went to Michael's.  I have two crochet projects and of course it turned out that I didn't have the right yarn for either one.  I looked at Hobby Lobby and Walmart the other day but didn't find what I wanted for either one.  When we went to Michael's I had not even read their ad yet.  Turns out, all their yarn was on sale!  I found the right yarn for both projects and it's always a bonus when it's on sale.  We talked about a thrift store but never quite got there.

We finally got netflix.  I think we were just about the last people to actually get it.  We got a package that we could include Otter on as well.  Bill said he didn't really think he'd ever use it.  And since we got it yesterday, I think he's only been away from the tv just long enough to run to the bathroom a couple of times!  He's attempting to catch up on all the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series that he missed most of when it was on originally.

We're dealing with mountain cedar at the moment.  It's really hitting Bill bad.  It's a big trigger for me, but it's one of the few things he is allergic to.  Of course, that means that he is extremely allergic to it!  It's been very cold today so he's stayed indoors and is trying to treat the symptoms.  Otter and I stopped at Top That Pizza and got lunch to bring home to share with Bill, we got plenty of jalepenos on his.

I am going to keep blogging here, but maybe not that often.  So settle down, Froggy!

Cars and Shower Curtains and Brownies and Pachinko Machines and Otters...

I made brownies on Thursday evening, and I made sure to double the batch.  Because otherwise, they would not be safe from Willie!  I frosted them this time, which I don't always do.  But I made them for J and his mom, to thank them for watching over Otter until we were able to get to her the night she had car trouble.

Otter saw a sign for a craft show and it was the same one I was going to yesterday, so we decided to go together.  Bill had the car loaded up with pachinko machines to take to the new booth and he dropped me off at her apartment and she was my chauffer.  For a while, anyway.  We went to the craft show and had a good time although we didn't buy much.  Then we went to Target in search of a new shower curtain for Otter.  Well, that was the plan anyway!  When we were pulling into the parking lot, the car light "low coolant level" came on.  So we called Bill, then we headed back to our house (I was driving the car then at Otter's request) and we watched the engine heat the entire way home.  It never really got very warm, it stayed in the normal range so we weren't worried about overheating.  Bill checked the car, it really didn't seem to need much anti-freeze but he added a little anyway and that's when he realized that the overflow tank was slightly bubbly.  There was apparently still a little air in the radiator and it was basically exhaling into the overflow tank.  He watched it for a while and let it run, he checked a few things and it seemed to be fine.  Otter and I went back to Target, Bill said it would be a good idea to drive her car and let it work any remaining air out of the radiator so we took it.  She wanted me to drive it, so I did.  She really doesn't have to drive very far to work, and our trip was the most distance the car had been driven and for the longest time since it was seen at the repair shop.

She found a shower curtain she liked, it's got bright colored stripes and it's very pretty.  She also found a matching bath mat but Target didn't have anything else that she liked so we went down the street to Walmart and she found a trash can that was not even made by the same company but it almost matched so we got it.  We also got her a can opener since she didn't have one, other than a hand-operated metal one that she said is almost impossible to operate.  When Roomie moved out,she left the shower curtain and bath set there which her mother bought when they moved into the first apartment.  It was never Otter's favorite, it's a nice blue but let's face it:  it's not exactly what 20-year old girls would have picked out for themselves! :)

Otter was going out to the not-quite-next-door small town that J lives in, she was still a little apprehensive about more car trouble so she asked me to take her.  I did, and drove her car.  It is probably all burped now, but she wants Bill to drive it this week and make sure.  I'll go back out there and get her in a few days.  Sometime between now and then, I'm going to go put her new bathroom stuff in place in her apartment and she also wants me to water her plants.    Otter is still moving in a couple of weeks, but she really does not want that blue shower curtain anymore - it's about the last thing that was Roomie's that is left in the apartment.  She's going to donate it to Goodwill or Salvation Army, but I'm going to wash the curtain and bath mat first. The apartment office changed the locks for her and Roomie did give us her keys when she moved out, but we didn't know for sure if she had given a key to her parents so I checked things a couple of times when Otter was gone last week/end.  Even though the lock isn't the same, Otter still wants me to go over there and check it a couple of times.

We went to the booth yesterday afternoon and took a couple of machines.  Bill realized that one of the walls was not strong enough for the weight of the pachinko machines and cabinets, so he talked to the owner and her husband stabilized/strengthened the wall last night.  We went back there this morning and Bill was satisfied, so he re-hung the machines on the wall.  We also put a fabric covered bulletin board on one of the side walls and it has a series of photographs, before restoration to after restoration of a pachinko machine.  The one Bill used is the Kanji-print fabric board that Otter made, she gave it to him when she moved into her apartment.  He also has a shelf which will hold pachinko balls, business cars and flyers.  The shop is opening for business on Friday, so we'll be back over there Thursday evening with the pachinko balls and also some how-to restoration dvd's.  We looked around the store a little bit, it's got a really good layout with good sized aisles and we hope that it succeeds.  Not just for us, she's a really nice person and she has a lot riding on this store.

Mags is very happy lately, I think she likes the cooler weather.  She's been pretty bouncy lately and is very playful.  As I type this, she is on her back and is attempting to catch her tail.  I guess it's easier to catch it that way? :)

Weekend Shopping

The sales-tax-free weekend in Oklahoma is this weekend.  It started on Friday and ends at midnight tonight.  We don't have to buy a lot anymore, since we don't need school clothes.  But Bill needed jeans, shirts for work and socks.  Otter need jeans and she also got a pair of shoes.  I found a few t-shirts at Walmart.  We saved a whole $12.36!  (I'm being a little sarcastic here.)  Not a fortune, but it all helps.  Otter wanted to get her glasses adjusted so we went to the mall for that but didn't actually buy anything there.  We got most of the clothing items at WalMart and one of Bill's shirts at Sears.  But the mall was still fun.  We also went to a Goodwill, where I made another Fenton find:

These are stock photos, but I found one of them.  $1.50!  I'm not really into the bells that much, but Fenton at $1.50?  Yes, it will come home with me!  This one did.  I had just remarked to Otter that I didn't think I was going to find anything at the store today, and it was on the next shelf.  It doesn't have the sticker that the last picture shows, but it's the Daisy and Button pattern and it is in perfect condition.  It's a little more iridescent than the pictures show.  The clapper is intact, which is usually the first thing to be broken off and lost.

I did get my closet rearranging done yesterday, like I planned.  It wasn't difficult.  I mostly had to move a few boxes around and then shift the longer clothes to the center of the closet rod.  And then I had to hold my left foot over the sink while Bill poured peroxide over it, after I dropped a small wooden box on it!  It wasn't a long drop, more of a slide out of my hands than an actual drop.  But it landed on the top of my foot and caused a small cut.  No damage, it wasn't hard enough of an impact to worry about broken bones or anything, but I'm probably going to have a bruise!

We got Maggie Moo another bed yesterday.  She was so funny.  She was a little on the confused side, but then she generally is, when she couldn't find her bed.  We kept the pillow out of the old bed, but the bed itself was thrown out last week.  It developed a hole in the bottom of the bed when I washed it one time and it slowly grew larger each time the bed was washed or the dog rearranged herself or the pillow.  Since they are somewhere around $7.00, we figured we would just go get her another one.  Yesterday, we ran a couple of errands and then went to Otter's store since that's where the first bed came from.  I brought it inside, cut the tags off and put it in the place by the couch where the first bed had been.  The Magginator was outside at the time, when she came in and saw the bed - she squealed like an excited toddler!  Then she literally bounced into the new bed, curled up and went to sleep.  Silly baby!  She made a few new puppy friends on our walk this morning, so she has had a good day.  She's snoozing on her blankets at the moment.  She was napping under the futon when I left to get Otter and she's been rearranging the pillow in her bed today too.

I also got the soup made yesterday, but I put off making the pinto beans.  Possibly one evening this week.

Bill's assorted frozen spots are fine, they are still a little sensitive but not actually painful.  He slept on the couch Friday night, we figured out that he would be more likely to stay on his right side and not his left (the wart was on the left side of his nose) so we made him a bed on the couch.  I went to bed before he did, but sometime after he got into his nest, he realized that he was laying on his right side and that was the arm that had the frozen spots!  So, he switched to his back.  Which means that he didn't sleep too well.  Last night, he decided he'd better stay on the couch and we fixed his pillows up a little so he'd be propped up more which would help him sleep a little.  I'm not sure where he's sleeping tonight, but he may decide to stay on the couch again.  I'm just glad it wasn't actually a skin cancer on his nose after all.

Sun Tea is happily being made on the back deck!  I forgot to put it out yesterday, but I remembered this morning.  When I picked Otter up for our shopping trip, I noticed that her jar was out on her patio today, too.

I think it's time to go check on the load of jeans I have in the dryer now.  Then I think maybe I'll answer the call of the chocolate that I can hear calling me all the way from the freezer!

Not Ready!!!

RUN!

Monday's coming.  And there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.

 

Sigh.

 

It's been a good weekend.  I'm just not ready for it to be over, is all.  I went to the library yesterday, when the book bag gets too heavy to carry is how I determine that I have enough books.  Otter's method for measuring the number of books she has is when the stack of books is equal to (or over) her height, or when the stack weighs more than she does.  Either way works!

 

Otter was over today, she started out the day with a migraine and texted me that she wasn't sure if she'd make the entire day or not but then her headache got a lot better and she was able to work her entire shift.  When she got off work, she came over and brought her laundry.  While her clothes were in the washer, we ran up to the dollar store.  We also stopped at Sonic for lunch to bring home.  She spent several hours over here, part of the time was spent playing with the dogs.  The Beaglebrat was very happy to see Otter, so was the Chupacabra, but Beaglebrat still claims Otter has her person.  We had a really nice visit with her, and I think she enjoyed it too.  We might not see her again for a few days, but she is off next Saturday and she's requested a shopping day.  Which I am happy to oblige her on!  We were going to the Tulsa Flea Market but they are not open next Saturday.  They are open most Saturdays, but of course they aren't open on the day that Otter can go!  Well, maybe the next Saturday she's off.  At any rate, we have several shops we want to go to on Saturday.

 

I washed the afghan this morning.  I'd been putting it off.  It needed it, the aforementioned beaglebrat gave it a good licking not too long back.  I knew it would be fine in the washer, but the yarn is not recommended to be put in the dryer.  I was afraid it might be too heavy to put it on the only place big enough to dry it - the shower curtain rod.  But it worked fine, and it's now clean and dry.

 

I managed to get quite a bit done on Otter's poncho this morning.  I'm probably about 1/2 way done with the first half.  She's decided that she does want to use the light blue yarn for the other half, the one I'm currently working on is lavender.  That was the original plan, but she was thinking about it just being one color - lavender.  I bought the blue yarn when I got the lavender, so I'm probably not going to need to get any more of either color.

 

Darn!  :)

Just a Matter of Time.....

Getting There!

I'm not surprised.  At all!

 

It's been a somewhat busy day, for a Sunday.  I saw a pachinko machine in a craigslist ad last night, it was for an antique-ish store in Tulsa and the ad was actually for the store so nothing was said about the machine.  But the machine was pictured, so we decided to go look at it today.  We went by the booth first, then we picked Otter up to take her somewhere (she has a way home, she just needed a ride to meet J since she brought the car back yesterday).  After we dropped her off, Bill and I headed to a Chinese buffet and had a nice lunch.  We eventually found the store, although it was hidden and hard to see - exactly opposite of what their craigslist ad said!  The machine was overpriced, $85.00 for a machine missing some major parts and with some dirt and also the seller said it was from the mid-1940's.  It's actually from 1977, there is a code to date them.  The owner of the store called the booth owner to see if she'd go lower, she said $50 but Bill didn't even want to go $40. He would have gone to maybe $35, but we weren't surprised that she didn't want to come down so far from her $85 price.  So we left without it, but Bill left one of his cards with the owner.  It was still a fun shop, Froggy we might go back there when you visit me next time.

 

After we got home, I got busy in Otter's old room.  We had been thinking that the craft stuff was going to get put in the attic, but I decided to put it on the shelves in the garage next to my work bench since there's probably a lot of stuff that I would want to use.  I have been consolidating some of the boxes, Otter didn't pack them as much as she just tossed things into boxes and I made 3 or 4 boxes out of 6 or 7.  Today, I emptied the remaining craft stuff out of her desk, moved the much smaller stack of boxed craft supplies to one spot, moved the boxes that will go to the attic to another spot and then got the vacuum.  I vacuumed the spot where the craft boxes were originally stacked, then I moved the desk to that spot.  I vacuumed where the desk was, after I spent quite a bit of time on my hands and knees picking up beads that had fallen behind/under the desk!  There are still 3 picnic baskets, they mostly have her sewing stuff and some fabric and will probably be stored in the closet.  There is also a plastic drawer unit that has some craft stuff, some misc. stuff and some stuff that I don't have a clue what she wants to do with it.  In the middle of her room is a fairly good-sized stack/pile of boxes & misc. stuff that she's going to go through next.  That will leave the closet.  I opened the closet yesterday to see how big it actually is, and it kind of exploded on me!  I told her that she has until Thanksgiving to have it all done/cleaned out/sorted/taken home with her/donated and she agreed to that.  After the pile in the middle of the floor is done, I'm going to take everything out of the closet and it will become the pile in the middle of the floor to go through.

 

Maggie Moo helped me in Otter's room today.  She stayed in there almost the entire time I was in there.  She did her pedicure, groomed herself, scratched for a while and took a nap.  She was a big help!  The most movement I saw out of her was when I brought the vacuum in and she had to scoot out of the way.  She didn't scoot very far, just enough to get out of the way and then she went back to sleep.  Frasier stuck his head around the door a few times but he never actually came inside.  The dog block/baby gate has been moved back to where we can get into the hall bathroom without having to climb over the thing and now the dogs have realized that the first bathroom is open to them.  However, as that is where they usually get bathed they have almost no interest in going in there!  Frasier has peeked in there a couple of times (my dog the peeping Tom!) but he won't actually go into the bathroom.  Maggie Moo followed me in there once, then she suddenly realized where she was - talk about Deer in the Headlights!  She hightailed it out of there as fast as she could get those paws moving.

 

Before we left the house this morning, I got Otter's remaining shoes boxed up to take to her (she was going into shoe withdrawel without her shoe stash!  She was very glad to get the boxes with her shoes) and I found evidence that last winter's mice were nesting in her closet.  Specifically, in one particular short boot - it was filled with feathers that had previously been in the craft supplies and it looked like a mouse had actually made a nest IN the shoe - I left the feather nest intact so Otter could see it - trust me, she's her Mother's Daughter and she thought it was neat.  I'm sure that I'll come across more evidence when I pull the rest of the stuff out of her closet.  There are still some clothes in the closet, but mostly spring stuff and I think that there are probably more cosplay pieces.  And more craft/sewing stuff!  She's got a bunch of belts and a couple of purses, and I also noticed that her Black Belt is in there.  I was wondering where it was, but apparently she knew it was in the closet.

 

Otter and J saw the movie, The Book of Life this afternoon.  She texted me that it was really good.  I hope so, we were afraid it was going to ruin the idea of the Day of the Dead but she said they really enjoyed it.  Eventually, Bill and I will see it.

 

It did get pretty cold overnight Friday into Saturday, but not quite as cold as it was supposed to be.  It was below freezing, but not more than a couple of degrees.  It was a freeze, just not a hard freeze.  It was cold enough to have a fire yesterday morning, which was really nice.  I don't think any of my plants were affected, but the pepper plants are probably through producing fruit anyway.  Unfortunately, the freeze was not enough to kill much, if any, of the stuff we're allergic to.  It's been very windy today, which does not help a bit.  If I'm not sneezing, Bill is.  I set the humidifiers up Friday night and we'll be using them for the next several months.  Otter said she thinks she'll probably get one.  We'll see how she feels tomorrow after the dentist and maybe run by Wally or Target to look at them if she's up to it.

 

I did get a couple of rows added on to Otter's blanket yesterday, I never quite got around to going to the antique/junk store I planned on, but at least I did get some serious crochet time in!

Not Yet.

My email issues are still not fixed.  Not for lack of trying, but it's still not working.  Bill tried a couple of things the IT guys at work told him about, one of them gave him a cd with the program to reload - only the cd didn't have the right program on it.  So, he tried downloading it from Windows - two or three times, and it still won't work.  I think it's time to get someone to fix it for us, but Bill's a typical Engineer.  That means that he doesn't trust anyone else to do it right!

 

Mans smart, but sometimes...

My migraine spell finally ended.  But it took a while.  I woke up Friday with a slight headache still but it got worse as I got more active.  I left work about 11:00, the original plan was that I was going to get Otter at her apartment after work and she was going to bring me home so she could have the car for the weekend since she was scheduled to work both days.  I went ahead and picked her up when I left work, she had a slight headache and wasn't feeling the best.  We stopped at the post office so she could run in for me, but as soon as she started to open the car door she was suddenly hit with a strong wave of nausea and her headache got worse quickly.  Which could have been a migraine, that's sometimes how hers start.  I took her back home to her apartment, then I came home (with her dirty laundry) and parked myself on the couch.  I did go ahead and do her laundry, the original plan included her getting it done after I brought her back home with me.

 

Saturday morning, I woke up feeling pretty good.  After breakfast, I was going to check the booth and then go get Otter to take her to work.  She wanted to go to the booth with me and felt better, but she had a slight stiff neck from the way she slept.  We went to the booth then I took her to work, I picked her up when she got off work.  She stayed at the house for a while, she hadn't gotten to see her dad in a few days.  Then she headed back to her apartment.  She was going to take her/Bill's impala, but we never got the tire checked so I let her take my car.

 

She was going to bring it back this afternoon, she was scheduled to get off work at 5:00 (it's 2:00 p.m. now) but she texted me about 9:30 (she went in at 9:00) to tell me that she was feeling really bad and wasn't sure she would make the day. Bill needed something from her store, so we headed up there about 10:30.  She was working the cash register and I could tell just by looking at her that she was feeling awful.  Bill got what he needed and headed home, I stayed so I could take Otter home - she was waiting for the next cashier to come in at 11:00.  She felt like she might have a little fever and she was very pale.  I dropped her at her apartment, but first we stopped at Walgreen's so I could get her a thermometer.  She also wanted Gatorade and I got her a couple of sprites.  About this time, Roomie texted Otter to let her know that she was also sick.  Otter has a spot that might be a cavity, her dentist appointment is tomorrow at 4:00 but that might have to be rescheduled.  She's going to let me know how she feels in the morning.  She was already scheduled for Monday and Tuesday as her days off for the week.

 

Otter had a little more laundry in the car, she was going to wash it when she brought the car back this afternoon so I went ahead and tossed it in with mine.

 

I stopped at Subway and got lunch for us, today is the final Sunday of the month and we usually do something fun.  But there was so much else going on, including Bill still working on my computer, that I decided I'd just bring lunch home and we'd consider that our Last Sunday fun stuff.

 

Bill's going to talk to the IT guy at work again tomorrow, hopefully then he'll be able to fix whatever the issue is that the last Windows update broke!

Sunday Ketchup

Haven't done a Ketchup post in a while.  I thought maybe it was a good time to do one, since we were not able to get online last week.  I did take my laptop to work a couple of days and did quick posts, but they were just that:  quick.  This one won't be, don't say you weren't warned.  :)

 

The last time the internet connection actually worked last week was Monday morning.  I checked my email before I left for work, just as I was getting ready to turn the computer off the connection died but that happens fairly frequently so I wasn't worried.  Otter was home that morning, she got up around the time I was leaving and she tried to get online about 8:30 with no luck.  I had to come home at lunch to get her (Bill got his wires crossed about the fact that she needed the car and he was to take the El Camino that day so he took the Impala) so she could get to work at noon.  I checked the connection then, and that was the first call I made to the unsmart carrier we use.  The answer was "Thursday" even though it was only Monday when I called.  Tuesday evening, I called them again to see if there was any way they could move us up on the schedule due to the internet-bases business Bill has.  No luck, and the person I talked to was even more clueless than the Monday person!

 

Bill arranged Thursday off, since all they could say was that it would be between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.  I was on the way to Otter's store to look at a toy/tool/log splitter for Bill about 3:45 when I got an automated call that told me the repair had been done.  Which it hadn't, they hadn't even been out to our house.  That caused the first of the really serious RHTW* calls to them, which She enjoyed (and so did Otter because I was walking into her store when I finally got connected to a person) but the company representative did NOT enjoy.  She was helpful, but it took her a while to figure out why I was upset.  Let's see, maybe the fact that they hadn't even been out but had already closed out the work order and said it was repaired?  I came home to get Bill since I really wasn't sure which of the two log splitters he wanted, and we saw a couple of cable-line repair crews a few houses up from ours so we were thinking that maybe they were working on the "area-wide problem" that our carrier claimed to be the issue and that maybe it would actually be fixed this time.

 

Well, they were part of the issue but not the repair crew!  Bill took Friday off as well, since they hadn't gotten it fixed by Friday morning, it was still out and that was the 2nd RHTW* call and the most "extreme" shall we say.  This time, I really let them have it.  The repair call had been cancelled again Thursday evening AFTER RHTW* talked to them, and that is what really made me let Her out of the fence.  And she came out of the fence with both barrels blazing, just in case there was any doubt!  The upshot was that they gave the repair crew my cell phone number and Bill's, and the lead repair called us both.  When I got home, he was standing in my living room and he looked a little on the terrified side when I walked in the door.  Guess RHTW* made an impression!

 

The crew we saw up the street Thursday evening was working at a neighbor's house, on some work in his yard.  This was a company, not just an individual digging around in his yard.  Whatever they were doing, they had never gotten the line markers out and they cut the line when they were digging - which was apparent to the company we have Monday but they didn't decide until Thursday that it was a neighborhood issue and not just us?  Something RHTW* asked them about and got a stammering "I Know Nuzzing" type answer to.  The line was repaired, we have phone service again and the internet is back - it still has a lot of issues and cuts out at strange times, but that was what it was doing before.

 

Bill had several orders that came in during the time we were unable to get to the internet, he was in the middle of a couple of repair jobs and was unable to continue until he got input from the customers, there was a repair job machine delivered last week that was damaged in transit and he was unable to contact the customer/shipper about how to handle it, etc.

 

I will be calling them tomorrow morning.  As I told the rep on Thursday, they WILL be adjusting my bill.  Originally, I was going to tell them that I wanted at least the entire month free but since the problem was not their fault, we're going to ask for at least the week we missed and maybe a little more, considering that we lost 5 days of business because of it.  That's mostly because of their bad attitude towards fixing the problem, especially the fact that they kept reporting it as fixed when they had not even been out here.  RHTW* is ready to be deployed if need be.

 

Other stuff did happen last week.  Bill got a log splitter, which is actually a cool and amazingly simple tool to use.  Yes, Froggy - he could hurt himself on it, but he would have to try really hard to do that.  I took the last of his stitches out of his hand on Monday evening.  The doctor said that this week would be good, that it would have had enough time to heal and that we could take them out.  We were thinking Thursday, because that would be exactly 4 weeks but by Monday it was obvious that some of the incision area was healing over the stitches, so I took them out then.  Bill was happy, he was going to go to work the next day and tell his co-workers that we got to Play Doctor!  He's easily amused...  Anyway, his hand looks really good.

 

Thursday, as we were attempting to leave the parking lot where Otter's store is with the log splitter in the back seat of my car (it's long and heavy), it was just before 6:00 and the traffic was kind of heavy.  There was a terrible accident, which we witnessed, involving an older driver who made a left turn into a residential street and he apparently didn't even look because he turned directly in to 2 oncoming lanes of cars moving fast.  It was an almost complete head-on wreck, both cars were severely damaged, one of them was spun around a few times and while it was apparently not a fatality, both drivers had to be hurt pretty badly.  I actually saw it out of the corner of my eye just as I was turning my head to look back in that direction and I saw more of it than Bill did.  I had just decided to turn right and go to the next intersection when it happened (I was hoping to turn left out of the parking lot), so I turned out to the right and immediately back in to the parking lot at the next entrance so we could call 911.  We were not where we could get back to the accident easily, but there were several other people who saw it and were running to both cars to help until the police got there.  The police go there less than a minute after my call, and the ambulances and fire truck were right after that.  It took us a while to get home, we had to go to the next intersection and then turned back to go through the parking lot across the street to get back south of the accident so we could head home.  We got in the door about 5:50, just as Otter texted me that she was on her way home and I told her about it.  She went what we call the back way home, and got home safely.  But I was kind of a basket case for a while!

 

It has been pretty warm the last few days.  We've had Heat Alerts so we've spent a lot of time indoors.  The high temperature is just over 100, which is more or less the environment I grew up in, south TEXAS after all, but it's been very humid.  Which is odd because we haven't had rain in a couple of weeks.  But the humidity is there and it is bad.  It will be hot this week, but it is late summer and August after all.  However, September is just in a few days and that means that Fall is not too far away.  We're starting to stock up on firewood and I'm going to start redoing our winter storm supplies.  It's basically the same as the Spring storm supplies, I just take a few things out to use up and replace them to store for winter weather housebound times.

 

We went to the post office before Church this morning to clear the box.  And found a notice that my car is part of the Chevy recall about the ignition issues with the keys falling out.  I'm actually not surprised.  I am taking it in for an oil change this week, I'll ask the department manager when I talk to him in the morning to get my appointment.  I had asked him about it when the car was in for one of the big repairs we had done recently, at the time it was not showing up as being in the recalled group but he said it could be added at any time and I expected it to be.  I took the key off of the key chain I have it on, and even took the remote fob off.  Which is what Chevy said to do, but I would have done it anyway.  Hopefully, it can be fixed soon but Chevy's letter said that they might not have the right parts in stock due to the number of cars in this recall and it might be a while.

 

The dogs are still goofy, Frasier likes to play with their blankets and he will frequently stick his head underneath them.  Sometimes, he'll pull them over his head with his front feet.  No idea why he does this.  This morning, he was sticking his head under the blankets when I called his name.  He popped his head up and looked at me, ears up and with his head completely covered by the blanket!  Goofy boy.  Maggie is still being herself, little fluffy bellied baby.

 

*RHTW:  She does not play well with others!

 

OK, I guess that's it for now.  I did warn you that this would be long!

Sunday Rearranged

That seems to happen on a fairly regular basis, around here!

 

Today's original plan was that we were going to a specific Mexican Restaurant in Tulsa today, as it's the last Sunday of the month and we do something special then.  Then, according to the plan, we were going to come home and Bill was going to head back to his pachinko workroom.  At that point, Otter and I were going to the mall - she wanted to shop for shoes and I just wanted to shop.  And try to avoid the Coach store!  But since Otter woke up with a migraine in progress, that plan was blown to smithereens.  Bill and I went to church and left her in bed, attempting to go back to sleep.  When we got home, she was awake but still had the headache so she went back to sleep.  Bill and I went by the booth and shopped a little at the store it's in, then we went to the Mexican place for lunch.  We also went to Big Lots, which Otter nailed me about for going without her, and we looked at a junky/antique store.  We got a couple of things at Big Lots, but nothing at the junky/antique store.  I did get Otter a package of animal crackers, the cookies in the circus train box!  I also promised her that I'd make sure she goes to Big Lots with me the next time I go.

 

Since the sales-tax-free weekend starts this coming Friday and Otter's off on Saturday, we've rescheduled our shopping trip for then.  The mall will be crowded, but there are also a lot of sales then and besides, it's just fun.

 

It's 6:30 p.m. as I type this, she's feeling much better.  She got up about 4:00 or so, after sleeping most of the day.  But it actually worked out good that she was able to sleep so much today, because she needs to stay up as late as she can tonight.  She goes to work at 9:00 p.m. tomorrow and will probably work most of the night.  They are rolling out a new pricing structure and everything has to be rearranged/repriced/etc., which is impossible with customers there so it's going to be done tomorrow night.  She's going to sleep in as late as she can tomorrow morning and then hopefully, take a nap sometime in the afternoon.  She's going to be mega-caffeinated before she goes to work.  I wish she hadn't had the migraine, but at least it will be easier for her to stay up so late tonight.

 

I think I figured out why Frasier is such a goofy boy.  He's part coyote, and they are very intelligent animals.  He's also part dog, and frankly sometimes they are pretty dumb.  So, he's a mixture of dumb dog/smart coyote!  Which explains why he's sometimes the dumbest smart dog I know.  But, he's a sweet natured boy and we love him.  Even if he sometimes is as dumb as a box of rocks.  Oh, wait.  That describes Maggie Moo!  So does sweet natured, she's just not smart.  But she knows how to work it, and she does it well.

It Is Officially Spring Today

Because we switched bedspreads!

 

Much as I love the camo quilt, it is very warm.  It's wonderful to sleep under it during the winter, but it's getting warmer and that means that it's time for my quilt!

 

Bill got up around 6:15, the dogs were still quiet and calm.  That never happens, they want breakfast at a regular time and that time is generally no later than 5:30 a.m.  He brought coffee back to me (I was still in bed) and we enjoyed having coffee without actually having to get up.  It was nice, we didn't turn the light on and just enjoyed watching the sky get lighter outside the window.

 

We've been running errands and doing stuff around the house.  We went to several stores for stuff Bill needed (usually it's for me or Otter.)  Bill and Otter just about ran my feet off, but it was fun.  One of our stops was Otter's store, Bill wanted to get stuff for his soda blaster (like a sand blaster) and I got knee pads.  My knees have been really bad lately, Bill suggested I try knee pads and Otter said that they carry some good ones so I figured it's worth a try.

 

Especially with the fact that Spring has sprung and I'm going to be outside a lot in the near future, planting things.  Lowe's and Home Depot seem to be getting their stock of plants in but I don't think that they have a lot yet.  Honeysuckle and trumpet vines are on our list, as well as a few smaller things that can be potted and put on the deck.  I put out more yarn bits yesterday.  I have seen several robins lately, and one woodpecker that was happy running around the tree beside the garage yesterday.  It's a little early for hummingbirds yet, I probably will not put a feeder out for a few weeks but we'll be watching for them anyway.

 

I also ran to Wallyworld this afternoon.  My tennis shoes were starting to get a little uncomfortable, they are Dr. Scholl's brand and weren't cheap and I was afraid that I was going to have to replace them.  But then I realized that they have removable insoles and that the gel pads were just worn out.  I bought some more Dr. Scholl's brand gel insoles and they feel much better now, soft and nearly as comfortable as they did when I bought them last summer.  Other than the insoles, the rest of the shoes are in decent shape and should last a lot longer - I've finally learned to buy better brands!  They are worth the extra $$.  I also bought foam pad insoles at the dollar store, but they are for my leather house shoes.  They have an attached foam insole which has gotten flattened out a bit but the suede is still in very good shape.

 

Otter's runnoft with J today.  He went to a local arcade and she met him up there.  She's been getting her cosplay stuff together and she needed a slightly large magnifying glass for the main character she'll be at TNT this summer.  It occurred to me that a bubble wand could be refurbished into what she needed, but when I was at the dollar store I found a plastic bug collection kit that is basically a large, plastic magnifying glass - the bug collection is in the clear handle.  I texted her a picture and she said it was what she needed so I grabbed one while I was there.

 

We've been cleaning out stuff.  Bill found 4 old boxes of household records, 1996 - 1999.  They mostly had things that could be gotten rid of, he's been keeping busy with the shredder this afternoon.  Anything like taxes are being kept, but I don't think we need receipts from when Otter was in daycare!  I think that there are probably still a few years of boxes stored around here somewhere, I'm sure he'll come across them soon.

 

Froggy, I got a little work done on your non-crochet "other thing" yesterday.  It's almost through, then I will get started on the crochet "stuff" again.

 

Speaking of crochet, which I frequently do, I started a lap blanket out of scrap yarn.  I think I already mentioned that.  It's going to take me a long time to complete, since I don't have a whole lot of scrap yarn at the moment.  I'm thinking I'm also going to make a couple of non-scrap yarn lap blankets while I'm at it.  I have quite a bit of the cream yarn left over from the afghan (I've decided it's finally big enough) and I might use some of it.

 

Movie review:  Frozen.  We were disappointed.  The animation was mostly good, but the story was basically the same story that Disney has told for years.  Except that it was worse this time.  And even though the animation was good, there were several glaring animation mistakes that Disney should have caught.

 

Next Sunday is Taco Night!  That means that next Monday (week from tomorrow) is Otter's 22nd birthday.  She's requested bacon, no surprise there.  Because her birthday is on a Monday, her birthday breakfast will actually be on Saturday.  She's off next Saturday, so that's why she's having it then.  Bacon and eggs for Bill and me, but Otter said that she'd be happy with bacon and bacon!  We usually only have it 3 times per year, her birthday is the first one.  Bill's birthday in June is the 2nd and then Christmas is the 3rd.

Sunday Shishkabobs

I think that shishkabobs would be great, made out of fresh groundhog.

 

Today, we hit our high (50's) about sunrise.  It went steadily down, and by the time we left for church it was in the high 30's.  When we came out of church about 10:00, it was sleeting and there were a few snowflakes mixed in.  It started raining shortly after that and it's been in the mid-30's all day.

 

Anybody got any dipping sauce for the shishkabobs?  I'm thinking A-1 and maybe Sweet 'n Sour.  Picante, of course!

 

Bill was going to fix the dryer today.  He started to work on it, he started to take it apart and then realized that there is a 3rd part that he should have ordered.  So, he put it back together and ordered the other part.  He said that I can use the dryer, but I did a load before church in case it wasn't usable today (that was before he took it apart) so I haven't needed to run it.  He said it might take a little longer than it has been.  I'll probably need to run a load in a few days.

 

Otter and I ran a few errands this afternoon.  Michael's had a good ad with a 15% off everything coupon and she needed something for a specific project, so off we went!  We also went to Bill's favorite hardware store (where Otter works) because I wanted to get one of the palm-sized spotlight flashlights they sell since the "regular" style ones always seem to have dead batteries when I need them.  I keep one in my purse and that style always gets turned on accidentally, then they are useless when I need one.

 

The latest house that is coming up behind us is now bricked.  It sits between our house and Lovely Neighbor's.  Bill noticed yesterday that the bricklayers could see inside our dining room windows without a problem, so he closed up the blinds.  But that means that anybody that moves into that house will also be able to see inside our house.  We were afraid that was going to happen.  I think we're going to put a mini-blind in the big window in the living room, the one that looks out into our back yard.  It currently has sheer curtains and regular curtains, but I think we'll be putting miniblinds in soon.  The house behind us isn't able to see straight into that window, but they can see in the bedroom window so it will probably be getting miniblinds at some point but for now the bedroom window is fine because of the curtains I have in there.

 

It was so much nicer when the only neighbors we had behind us had 4-feet and said Moo!

 

We took the middle leaf out of the table today.  It's now round and much smaller.  Otter wasn't sure it would be big enough, but it works fine.  It's not completely centered underneath the light in the dining room anymore, but we still have plenty of light.  And Frasier doesn't have as much of a target to run into, when he zooms into the kitchen from the dog door and midjudges the  curve he needs to take into the livingroom!

 

Otter and I ran off yesterday.  We went to several antique-ish stores, Froggy I think you've been to all of them.  I didn't find a thing, but Otter found a lot.  It was still fun.  We went to the booth store and put a few more things in the booth, then we shopped there as well.  There are still several more shot glasses to go up there and I have a set of bookends to take.  I'll probably do that tomorrow.

 

OK, Froggy.  Now you are updated!

Sunday Nesting

I'm back in my corner of the couch, where I spent most of the last 2 weeks.  But this time it's because Winter has shown up again.  It was supposed to start snowing and/or sleeting late yesterday afternoon but it was slow.

 

Otter worked yesterday, she got home around 12:45 or so and promptly took a nap.  I tried to, but I never quite got there.  We watched the movie we rented, Thor 2, then decided that we'd better go ahead and return it to the video store last night even though we rented it through today.  Just in case we weren't able to get out today.  I needed something from Michael's, so Otter and I headed up there about 6:00 p.m. and we dropped the movie off at the same time.  Still no bad weather, but the temperature was dropping rapidly.  By the time we got home, it was much colder.

The movie was pretty good, by the way.  It was a little overdramatic, but it's supposed to be so it worked.

 

Frasier woke me up at 4:45 this morning, I let them out but did not feed them.  He's gotten into the habit of barking around 5:00 when we normally get out, but he's slowly starting to wake up earlier and barking for breakfast.  I'm going to break him of that habit.  When he chirped this morning, I got up and let them out but didn't feed them.  I went back to bed.  Bill got up sometime after that and he fed them, but it was closer to 5:30 which is their normal time to be fed.  I went back to sleep until around 7:15, it was not snowing then and it didn't look like anything.

 

I went out to get the paper about 7:30 or so, it was just starting to snow then.  It's been snowing all day and there has been sleet mixed in.  It's really cold.  We've had a fire going all day and we've decided that Bill is going to get more firewood from the lumberyard as soon as he sees it next summer.  Otter's plans were changed, she was going to one of her friend's houses today but they've rescheduled that for later in the week when it's not winterish.  It's been thundering off and on today, thunder snows are fun but today we've also had thunder sleet!

 

I've spent most of my day on the couch and frequently with the heating pad on my neck.  I gave myself a crick in the neck last night, my hair was in my face and I shook my head to get it out of the way - and my neck felt tight immediately.  It didn't really bother me last night, but it felt tight when I woke up the first time.  When I actually got up, it was pretty painful and the muscles were pretty tight.  I've been using the heating pad and motrin, it's not horrible but that doesn't mean I like it!

 

I have done a couple of loads of laundry and also a little misc. crafting.  Froggy, not telling!

 

Other than barking this morning, Frasier has been pretty lazy today.  I think it's the weather!  Maggie Moo has been just as unenergetic as her big brother.  Except that Maggie Moo actually managed to get lost underneath the blanket she was snoozing under.  Couldn't find her way out!  She's done that a couple of times.  She's not the sharpest tool in the shed by any stretch of the imagination!  Frasier gets up every so often, stretches and then rearranges himself for another nap.

Wish he'd go get that groundhog!

Sunday Cats

If the cat is away, the mice will play.  Or, in this case:  If the Otter is away, the parents will go out to lunch!  Otter is at J's house this afternoon, so Bill & I went to El Chico for lunch.  We were going to Cici's Pizza, but it was close to 1:00 and they had a line out the door.  So, we went to the El Chico in the same shopping center and had what we call a "sit-down" meal - the one where you sit down and people wait on you.  It was good, we spent a little more than Cici's would have been but we ate less than we would have at the pizza buffet.  But I wish that I'd remembered to ask for the cilantro to be left off!  I'm somewhere between strongly sensitive to it and mildly allergic.  And I just plain don't like it anyway.  I think I got most of it off, but I'm sure I probably ate a little bit of it.

 

I feel like I may be in what Otter calls "pre sinus infection" mode.  Several times lately, I've felt like I was on the verge of one.  Then it would go away.  I've had three nosebleeds in two days, due to the dry air and they were not bad but they sometimes presage infections.  I woke up with a lot of sinus pressure but not actual pain this morning.  It's better this afternoon, but I still feel it.  I could go to the doctor now, but I know from experience that they'll just tell me that it's an allergy when I know what is actually is based on my history.  I have learned over the years to wait until the symptoms get to a certain point, otherwise I get treated like I don't know what I'm talking about and sent out the door.  Without any relief.  So, I'll watch it for a couple of days and see what happens.  Been there, done that enough times to know what to do and when to do it as far as medical treatment is concerned.  But it might be improving this afternoon, so I'll just have to wait and see what happened.

 

Froggy, my I finished the prototype rice bag/warmer.  I think it's a little bit big and I also think that the pattern called for too much rice.  I took out about half of the rice it called for and it works better, but I think that I'll make them smaller than the first one.  They would work great for hand warmers in pockets, Otter has already requested a matching pair.

 

Otter has to work on Black Friday.  She's not surprised, but she was really hoping not to have to be in the first shift.  She has to be in at 5:00 a.m., the store opens at 6:00.  She will probably leave the house about 4:30, so she'll be getting up at 4:00.  I'm very glad that I'm not in her shoes.  She does have more hours scheduled this week, which she expected and she is glad about that.

 

Bill is off this week, he's taking vacation days Monday through Wednesday.  We've been having problems with our home phone and the soonest someone could get out here is Wednesday morning anyway, so it works out well for him to be here.  It used to be that the phone would go out completely, every time it rained.  They came out a few times and replaced a few things and it got better.  But sometime over the last couple of weeks, something apparently went wrong with the phone lines and now we can hardly hear anyone because of the horribly loud buzzing sound.  We all have cell phones so we aren't out of reach, but it's still kind of frustrating.  It's a smaller phone company and the only one that is available out here, unless we wanted to go with Cox Cable company and that is the last thing we want to do.  So, if anybody needs us it's still best to use the cell phones until Wednesday at least.

 

Bill built a fire in the fireplace while ago, he's back in the office.  He is working on his computer but I'm in the livingroom so he made me a fire.  We have gotten a lot of use out of the fireplace already, Friday night and then just about all day yesterday.  We haven't gotten the possible snow yet but it has been very cold.  We might have gotten above freezing yesterday, but I'm not sure.  I refilled my birdfeeders Friday and switched to bigger ones.  I also put out a suet feeder.  The seed feeders needed to be refilled this morning, the suet feeder is still there and intact but it's considerable smaller now.  We've had mostly sparrows, two varieties in fact but we also saw a female cardinal.  I think that there might have been a couple of starlings.  No sign of woodpeckers yet, but they will probably show up sooner or later.  I have three large popcorn tins full of birdseed, I've used about 2/3 of one.  The dog's water dish was frozen over this morning, Otter went out to pour warm water over it and she said that there were a lot of birds.  Birds need water in the winter but not everybody realizes that.  So even when the (stinky!) dogs are inside, we keep their water dish as full and as non-frozen as we can.

 

The dogs don't seem to mind sharing their water with birds.  Besides, they spend most of their time snoozing, either on their blankets or in front of the fireplace!  Which actually sounds pretty smart to me.

Middle of a Long Weekend

Too tired to think of a good title!

 

I am actually not having a bad reaction to the flu shot.  But I am definitely having a reaction.  I'm mostly just tired.  Very tired, in fact.  But not all the time.  About 11:00 yesterday morning, I suddenly could hardly stand because I was so tired.  So I took a nice nap and it helped immensely.  Today was similar, although it was about 2:00 when the nap fairy visited me.  I'm sure that part of it is stress.  I've had slightly stronger allergy symptoms but not bad.  Otter has had more of a reaction than she normally has, but hers is similar to mine - tiredness and some allergy issues, but hers is not as strong as mine is.  She worked yesterday and today, she managed to get through both days but was more tired than normal.  Everybody is off tomorrow, and I think we're all hoping the dogs will let us sleep in!

 

Bill's doing pretty well.  I can tell that the skin is beginning to knit at the incision sites, the stitches still look pretty grody but I think that's normal.  Each time he takes a shower, they look better.  His eye lid discoloration developed into a black eye but that's a lot better as well.  He has been sleeping sitting up on the couch since Thursday night.  He took a nap on the couch yesterday, laying down but propped up somewhat.  He said that he felt a little pressure in the surgery area, so he was back to sitting up for the rest of his nap and also last night.  He tried laying down for a little while on the couch today, so see if it worked ok.  He thinks he will try to sleep in bed tonight, but we're going to make his nest on the couch in case he isn't able to.  That way, he'll just have to bring his pillows to the couch.  He's had some swelling of his feet, due to the fact that he's been sleeping sitting and isn't able to prop them up much.  But in general, he is doing very well.

 

We aren't doing anything big for Labor Day.  We usually grill something, but we're having a low-key day this year.  Bill really doesn't need to be out in the sun standing over a hot grill!  We had chili dogs tonight, and we'll still have burgers tomorrow.  It's just that everything is being cooked on the stove.

 

I keep thinking that Labor Day weekend last year was the beginning of a very bad time with Frasier.  We had his surgery on Friday of Labor Day weekend, and we spent the next several weeks dealing with a dog whose mental state was bad and getting worse.  We honestly thought that we were going to lose him.  Fortunately, we figured out what the problem was (the medication mostly) and were able to address it.  But it was scary, he's part of the family.  Just like Maggie Moo, the little carpet shark isn't forgotten!

 

All for now, I'm tired!

 

Busy Sunday

I had the idea that today would be a calm day, although I did have a few things planned to do around the house.  With the exception of some of my neverending laundry, that plan went out the window!  I got a little of the laundry done, but the bathroom isn't cleaned yet, the Fenton hasn't been dusted and neither has our bedroom.  I did get the kitchen floor swept, at least!

 

Bill wanted to go to Ace Hardware for something, but they didn't have what he wanted.  We went to Tuesday Morning the other day and they had a rain barrel we liked but we wanted to look at another type first.  We decided to get the one at Tuesday Morning but the store we went to today didn't have any.  I wanted to go to BigLots so we did that while we were out.  Didn't find anything Bill wanted but we found a lot!  We went to another Tulsa area store, Atwoods, which is a farm & ranch store but that covers a whole lot.  I usually buy bulk peanuts there.  Which we did.  They also had a rain barrel that we liked better than the one we originally set out to get today, it was cheaper and had a better spout system.  It came home with us, it took up nearly the entire back seat of my car so it's a good thing Otter was off with her boyfriend today because there would have been no room for her.  (Side note:  I'm just going to call her boyfriend "J" on the blog.)  We also went to Lowe's, they didn't have what Bill was looking for either.  Bill suggested we go get something to eat at that point, we started out for Schlotzky's but got sidetracked by Taco Bell instead.  It was a more enjoyable day than if I'd cleaned the bathroom or gotten anything else done that I wanted to.  Not that I'm complaining!

 

He'll probably get the new rain barrel hooked up pretty soon.  We've had so much rain this year, but we aren't griping about that either.  This one is a stand-up barrel, the one Bill turned into a rain barrel before is a standard barrel and it's on it's side.  The new one will be on the opposite side of the house.  It has a metal spout, similar to an outside faucet and it's near the bottom.  Bill's going to get some bricks to set it on, since it will need to be raised off the ground very slightly.

 

We were also in the market for a riding mower.  We still are, it's just that we've decided to wait until the Spring to actually buy one.  We found a couple we liked, but  Bill realized that it would only be used a few times before being stored away for the winter.  And the warranty would start the second it as purchased, which also makes it smarter to wait until next Spring.  We discussed a used one, but he decided that is something he wants to buy new.  I think he's right about that.

 

Movie Review:  Looper.  We rented it to watch yesterday.  It was actually better than I thought it would be.  It's a little confusing, so you really have to pay attention to the details.  There is quite a bit of violence but it's part of the storyline and there really isn't much in the way of gore.  It's got a pretty good twist at the end.

 

And now, it's back to my laundry!

UFO Sunday.

I've been working on UFO's lately. 

 

Specifically, I finished two UFO's.  I started a lap blanket for Bill several months ago and I got it finished this morning.  The crochet part of it was finished weeks ago, then I put it in the closet to finish lately.  And forgot about it!  I dragged it out yesterday and got started on the finishing touches, all it really needed was the tails to be done.  The tails process took longer than the actual crochet!  I'll get pictures posted on the crochet blog, as soon as I get around to uploading them to the computer.  The 2nd UFO was a similar lap blanket, one I made for Otter's use but it really just needed a couple of repairs to it.

 

Now that I've finished those two projects up, I'll have to come up with a new project.  Somehow, I don't think that will be a problem!

 

Bill's been finishing up two pachinko repair jobs, he's in the process of boxing the 2nd one up as I speak.  They will get shipped back to their owners sometime this week.

 

This morning, Bill got out with the ladder and a saw.  He put the ladder up against the tree and took the saw to the tree.  There were several limbs that had broken but hadn't come down, they were probably from a couple of storms ago but we didn't realize that they were so big or we'd have already gotten them down.  Bill looked in the tree yesterday and realized just how big they were.  Now they are piled on the side of the house until we get a chance to cut them up, some of them are firewood size.  No injuries!  (With Bill, he gets hurt just breathing!)

 

Frasier was going to get a bath today, but I don't have the energy to wrestle with him.  I'm sure Frasier is not terribly disappointed! :)

 

Otter's gone to one of her friend's houses, for a Dungeons & Dragons game.  They haven't gotten together to play in weeks.  She was armed with two bags of chips and a bottle of Mountain Dew.  We probably won't see her until sometime this evening.

 

OK, back to my laundry now!

Sunday Cooking

I haven't used a "Sunday" title in a while so I thought it was time.  It is Sunday, after all.  And I have been cooking so I guess it's appropriate. :)

 

I made Beenie Weenie Surprise for Bill.  It's actually for his lunches, there are three containers in the freezer for him.  Along with several containers of my famous Beef-Vegetable Soup.  The soup recipe is on the cooking blog, but I made a slight change to it.  I added a can of Rotel tomatos to it and it turned out wonderful.

 

I also finally got around to looking up my $15.00 Coach bag I got about 3 years ago at a thrift store.  I was pretty sure it was authentic, and I was right.  I'd have kept it anyway, $15.00 for a good quality, suede leather bag is too good a deal not to keep.  But now I know for sure and it is real.

 

Don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but my Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker might be going out.  Well, we've had it longer than we've had Otter!  We have used it a lot over the years.  Mom gave it to us, she showed up on our doorstep one day shortly after we'd found out that Otter was on the way.  She brought us a cooked chicken, fruit, ice cream fixins* and the tea maker.  It's still working, but it is taking longer and doesn't quite sound right anymore.  I looked at the new ones at Wallyworld earlier, they are $20.00 and it looks like they've been improved a bit.  It's something we'll replace, but not until we need to.  It's also going to be Sun Tea season shortly, and we'll make that as often as we can.  Kind of like the coffee pot, which will be replaced asap if it ever goes out!

 

Bill finished up the pachinko shelving system this afternoon.  It works well, I'm not even going to begin to explain it except to say that it's two shelves with slots for machines and is holding 18.  There is space for 6 more, which Bill will get situated but it was getting too hot in the garage to work any longer today.  He could probably make another shelf for that many and still have machines in the floor of the garage!

*Fixins:  See the many posts with TEXAS as a label, it's part of our language.

Just Sunday

It's cold, although it looks warm.  It was supposed to be in the 50's yesterday and then get cold last night with the possiblity of winter weather.  It started out warm yesterday morning, but it didn't stay that way very long.  It got cold, fast.  By mid-afternoon, it was below freezing.  We had firewood inside already, so we started a fire and kept it going until about bedtime last night.  It was rainy most of the afternoon and very windy.  It was well below freezing last night.  As a result, it was icy this morning and we had a little snow overnight.  Not even enough to coat the ground, but it did cover the deck a bit.  It melted off pretty quick, it's sunny but it is still very cold.

I didn't really want to get out, but we had to return the movie we rented on Friday so we got the car defrosted and de-iced and got ready to go.  Only to discover that the tire I've been watching for the last few days was pretty low.  Bill's compressor bit the dust a while back and the parts to repair it haven't arrived yet, so I had to drive it to the nearest convenience store that has air.  Which was about 3 1/2 miles awy.  I put air in the tire (it was very cold!) and then we got our errands done.  I've been watching it for about a week because I suspected it might have a slow leak and it apparently does.  I'll see how it is in the morning, it's going to need to be checked and fixed but I'm not sure if I'm going to work tomorrow or not so I don't know if I'm actually going to be going anywhere.  The movie had to be returned today, and we also went to the post office to mail a couple of things.  We stopped at Michael's, because I'm working on etsy stuff and they had the cotton yarn I needed on sale.  Also, Otter had a bunch of books to turn in at the used book store so I figured that we'd better get it all done while we could, in case the tire needed to be fixed today.  But it held up and got us home, it's still ok but I'll check it in the morning.

While we were at the book store, Otter also picked up a job application.  Because she's made her decision and she will not be going back to school at this time.  She intends to work for a while and then maybe at a later date she might go back.  But not now.

I'm feeling better.  But not 100% yet.  I was seriously concerned on Friday night that I might have the flu, but the muscle aches I had went away and I never developed fever.  I spent most of yesterday on the couch with a couple of blankets and I got a UFO finished.  I started working on my turquoise shawl a while back and then it got put aside for other projects.  I started back on it and after I'd done several rows I realized that I was using the wrong hook, smaller than the one I started with.  The stitches were a little bit smaller but not enough to really notice so I decided to just keep going with the 2nd hook.  It's a small-gauge yarn and very silky, but it took a lot more rows and a long time because of the yarn size.  At one point, I was about ready to just call it finished and toss it in the etsy or donate pile, because it was taking me forever and I really was tired of putting a row on it and then not being able to tell that it had grown any.  I got it out last week and decided to go ahead and finish it, and I did that yesterday.  It looks good, it's a very soft yarn and I am anxious to wear it but I'm not in a hurry to make anything else with that yarn for a while!  I will get pictures on the craft blog soon, I need to get my official photographer to take pictures for me but she's occupied with something in her room at the moment.

Anyway, I started the last paragraph out about the fact that I don't have the flu or at least I don't think I do.  I have been resting as much as I can, today's errands were not that long.  We were probably gone about an hour, they were quick and the video store was not something we could put off since I didn't want to pay an extra day on the movie.  I just figured that we should get all our stuff done while we were out, but I really didn't feel like doing much.  I am able to talk, but my voice comes & goes.  I had a sinus-type headache most of yesterday morning but it finally went away.  I am having some mild asthma symptoms, but they are not too bad.  I'm not sure yet about tomorrow as far as work goes, I'll see how I feel.  I'm just glad that it doesn't seem to be the flu.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

(Before I forget - Otter's fine now ,she recovered from her dental experience and the nightmare of being allergic to the pain med.  The stitches are out and the dentist was pleased with how everything looked.  She can eat real food again and she's happy!)

And it's 65 degrees!

This is the actual forecast, obviously they got today wrong, but it would still have been warmer than usual.

But, there is hope.  Look at Tuesday.  The 50% chance of something.  It's not rain, either.  This being the area that it is, the forecasters don't quite know what they are doing.  I heard a dj commenting on the radio the other morning, he said that since the forecasters were calling for a slight chance of white stuff and a small chance of it actually accumulating, we'd probably be inundated because they don't know what they are doing!  :)

We'll see.

Otter and I went to Wallyworld today.  I needed 5 or 6 things and they were all grocery related.  We decided to go shortly after we got home from church, which would have been about 10:30.  But it was actually closer to 12:30 when we got there.  The "After Church" crowd wasn't there yet, we were able to get in and get out fairly easily.  But they were getting busy as we were leaving, and judging by the way that most people were dressed I'd say that most of them came straight from church and we're glad we were there when we were.  Any later and it would have been a madhouse.

Of course, we still have to get out tomorrow.  Bill needs to take a box to UPS and he also ran out of peanuts (the edible kind, not the packing kind!) to we're probably going to run to the farm/ranch/general store where we buy them in bulk.  Probably early, and then we will also most likely go to the dollar store.  That's kind of become Otter's and my tradition on Christmas Eve, although we didn't intend for it to.  I might also need to go to Michael's - yes, I know how chaotic it will be!  But I'm working on a crochet project which is a Christmas gift - nothing like waiting until the last moment! - and I'm seriously afraid that I'm not going to have enough yarn in the specific color.  It's white, so it's one that I don't use a lot of but I do use enough of it to justify buying more.  I just didn't exactly want to go tomorrow.  I may have to, though.  Otter (my chief enabler) read the Michael's ad and informed me that they have ALL their yarn on sale. :)