First Day of Spring 2016

Today is the first day of Spring.  Of course, I'm still waiting on it to actually be winter!!  We didn't have much of one, so I guess the fact that we didn't have as much firewood as we usually do (and need) didn't really matter all that much.  I think we maybe only used the fireplace twice.

While I don't mind at all not having to deal with icy road conditions, and I'm not at all upset that Bill and the Otter didn't have to deal with them either, the lack of cold weather means that it's going to be a bad bug year.  I've been seeing flying things for a few weeks now, which is way early.  We may have to deal with worse ticks and fleas this year, thanks to the warm winter.

And the allergy situation will be bad this year as well, it's already started for most of us.  Part of the reason for the allergy forecast being so bad is because things are blooming way early as well as being staggered.

I'm not trying to gripe, I know it sounds like it.  I'm actually enjoying seeing the trees bloom and the birds are already starting nesting.  I'm just also already having allergy issues is all.

There really isn't a lot going on around here to blog about.

I'm not complaining about that, either! :)

Trying...

to get back in the swing of things as far as blogging goes!

Maggie Moo, however, has never changed her routine of sleeping as much as she can.  We've been leaving her in the house all the time for a few months, we used to put her and Frasier out in the garage on the days we were not home all day.  They had a dog door to the back yard, water in the garage and outside and also a mat to lay on so they weren't exactly being left in the garage for hours on end!  But a few months back, we decided to try leaving Maggie Moo inside while we were gone since we realized that a lot of the leaky issues were quite possibly Frasier's age creeping up on him.  Maggie did still have a few accidents and may still, she is a dog after all and is about 12 years old herself.  But she seemed to be mostly having her accidents in the spots where Frasier had his and we think she was probably drawn to the smell.  So, we got out the carpet cleaner and hit a lot of places and then we started leaving her in for short spells of a couple of hours.  Then when she seemed to be doing ok, and it was becoming winter (well, the calendar said so anyway), we started just leaving her indoors and she seems to do fine.  She probably sleeps a lot!  She has plenty of places to sleep, she has her food and water plus the dog doors so she can go outside when she needs to.  Although at the moment, she is sprawled across one of her beds, a pillow and two of her blankets - snoozing!

My redbud tree in the back yard is pink all over!  It's really pretty and I'm enjoying it.  Not that the outside is being kind to me at the moment - it's going to be a B.A.D. year as far as allergies are concerned.  Thanks mostly to the non-winter!  Even though we did not plant tulips last fall, we have a few coming up in the tulip bed.  The last time we planted was Fall 2014 and some of the bulbs were 2-year bulbs.  The daffodils have already started coming up and some have bloomed.

But we have something else starting to bloom.  Something very special:

The whiskey barrel is overflowing with them and there are several plants sprouting around the whiskey barrel.  The buds are beginning to open.

Yes, I do think Otter was right:  The Teenager has been talking to them!

Safe!

The groundhog is safe from the stewpot for another year.  Guess the groundhog stew fixins* can get put up for another year.  But I can get them out at a moment's notice, rodent - you better get ready to run if we get socked in by a late winter snow.  :)

We decided to send the 02 Impala to a local auto auction.  We cleaned everything out of it last night and then I got the vacuum and cleaned it up after work today.  I gave Otter the floor mats from the back, she didn't have any back floor mats in her car.  The jumper cables will get put in the trunk of my car.  Most of what was still in the car after we got it back from Otter was things like a few ice scrapers and some misc. stuff that was thrown out.  We get whatever we get from it, if it sells.  It's not a big deal if we don't get much or if it doesn't sell because we'll donate it if it doesn't sell.

Cold. Tired.

It's cold today and I'm tired!

Yeah, I know.  Not a very imaginative title.

Anyway.  It was very rainy all weekend, especially Saturday.  I had to go run a couple of errands, and literally every time I was inside anywhere the rain would quit.  When it was about time for me to leave and go outside again - yep, the skies opened up!  I would have preferred to just stay home and not have to deal with seriously bad rain, but that wasn't possible.  There waags a lot of street flooding, so I picked my routes carefully.  But I still wound up having to drive in a few absolute downpours.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my birthday.  For the next 6 months-ish, Bill and I are the same age.  He wanted to go to the Hog Trough (Golden Corral) for their breakfast buffet but I really didn't want to because we would have eaten too much.  So we had breakfast at home then we went to an antique store I haven't been to in a while (didn't buy anything) and then to a thrift store (found a real sun tea jar for Otter) then we came home for a while.  We decided to go to dinner so we went to a local place we've eaten at before and it was good.  I don't have chicken fried steak all that often, but we both had it last night.  The servings are huge, so we brought about half of each of our steaks home and Bill finished them for dinner today.

Bill is doing what he usually does when it's either vacation or holiday time:  he's sick!  I was thinking he might have the flu last night, but now I don't think he does.  He has had some fever but I don't think it's been very high - not that he will let me take it!  But he has his normal rash he gets after fever today, and he usually is on the mend when that starts, or at least is over most of the fever.

We've been home today, which we probably would have been even if he wasn't sick.  The rain converted to sleet overnight, which means that the forecasters got it right and wrong again. Right because we did get a little winter weather, but wrong because we were only supposed to get a small amount of sleet and the main storm line would be ending well west of us.  Of course, we had a pretty heavy sleet fall most of the morning followed by snow in the afternoon.  It was a good day for soup, and since Bill has been under the weather himself lunch was potato soup.

Tomorrow morning, IF the forecast is correct and I'm able to get out, I'm taking Otter's car to Chevy to get the ignition recall taken care of.  Then I'm going to pick her up from the not-exactly-next-door small town that J lives in, she went to OK City with J and his mom for Christmas and they came back on Saturday instead of Sunday or today like they originally planned because of the weather forecast.  We are also probably going to get the car titles officially switched.  The 02 is in her name and she will transfer it back to us, and we will transfer the 08 to her.  We have to get everything notarized and then we can get it all switched.  We would have done it a few weeks back, but the title never was sent to us for the 02 when we transferred it to Otter so we had to order a copy.  I also had to call Enterprise because they still have not sent me the information to register the 15 in our names.  The paper tags are only good for 30 days, and I'm on day 28.  I called them the other day and they said it takes 3 weeks normally.  We are well past the 3 week period and I told them that I was very concerned about the fact that we still haven't received the paperwork.  I know that the loan has officially gone through because we looked it up on the loan company's website and it looks like they've paid Enterprise.  I waited until after the mail came today, not that we ever really get mail other than mainly junk mail at home, just to be sure - although it was supposed to go to the post office box and as of Saturday's mail it still hadn't.  The person who handles that was already gone for the day but they promised to check first thing in the morning and will overnight the paperwork to me if necessary.  We'll see if they do what they say, they generally do so I expect them to actually call me tomorrow.  I hope so, *RHTW really does NOT want to have to educate Enterprise!

Maggie Moo has been really funny the last few days.  We have always given a specific type of "bone" as a treat to the dogs, Frasier would always take his outside and eat it immediately.  Maggie Moo would wait, she would put hers where he could see it and then she would wait for him.  If he even acted like he saw it, she would turn into the canine version of *RHTW on him!  The last one we gave them was on March 12, their "beffday" and then Frasier crossed the Rainbow Bridge just over a month later.  We have not given her any of them since then, but we thought it had been long enough that maybe it would be ok and she'd just eat it so that was her Christmas treat.  Well, she was certainly happy to get it.  But she didn't eat it.  She kept putting it in place where it was obvious and impossible to miss.  She acted like she was waiting on her Big Brother Fraiser to come attempt to get it and a couple of times we wondered if she was looking for him again - she hasn't done that since several days after he left us.  We decided that maybe it was a mistake to give her that type of treat after all, but then she started doing something else:  she kept hiding it.  She would "bury" it in whatever spot she could - her beds, her blankets, under the blanket I was using, behind things, etc., and she kept moving it.  After a while, Bill started unhiding it and moving it to where she could see it.  She would hide it again.  This went on for a while, and she was actually bringing it to Bill to hide from her after a while.  She had a great time playing with Bill, and he enjoyed it as much as the beaglebrat did.  Today, she finally decided it was time to actually eat it.  She seemed to enjoy it.  They come in packs of 2, so there is still another one.  She won't get it anytime soon, she doesn't need the extra calories!  But eventually we'll give it to her, and then if she still acts like she's waiting on Frasier then we will switch to a different treat for her.

I will probably post my year-end review in the next few days.  There have been quite a few things that I have not posted about but that have made this one of the worst years we've had in quite a while.  And indications are that next year might not be much better.  It's not all bad, there have been some good things and we are Thankful.  But it's been a rough year and 2015 has not been one of our better years.

One Down, Two to Go

To be ready for Winter.  Well, what the Borg Queen considers ready although the non-assimilated would probably consider it being over-prepared!

Actually, I just went to wallyworld and bought 40 pounds of birdseed plus an 8-pack box of suet cakes.  Big, exciting trip, huh?!

(The other 2 things are more filters for the humidifiers and firewood, in case you are wondering.)  :)

Remember these?:

This picture is from this past Spring.  It's the whiskey barrel planter that my mailbox post is in.  After all the blooms died and went to seed, I harvested the seeds and they are waiting in a bag in the kitchen until I find an appropriate place to plant them.  But apparently, the seed pods had already started dropping seeds - I was pretty sure they had.  I was right.  At last count, there are over 30 baby blues springing up!  I'm going to attempt to transplant some of them when they get just a little bigger.  The Teenager was very much a TEXAN and he loved them as much as the rest of Us did/do.  He was overjoyed when I told him I'd share my bluebonnet seeds with the hope that they would grow next Spring.  I kind of knew then that he would no longer be with us, just one of what we call "my feelings" and I was right.  But I still intend to have bluebonnets at the office, even if it's in his memory.  I told Younger Boss about my baby blues and he really wants them as well - so I'm going to transplant some of the current crop and see if they survive.  I have grown them in pots before, they get tall and not wide like they should but they still smell heavenly.  I'm probably going to plant seeds as well.  I'm still just astounded at the number of them that have come up.  I've had them come up at odd times of the year, but never this many!

In case I don't blog tomorrow:

Sunday Grilling

It's Sunday.  Bill grilled.  So, it's an appropriate title.

Occasionally, Bill will grill several days worth of meats and that was the plan for today.  Hamburger patties, hot dogs, chicken breast and steaks.  He grilled the hot dogs first, then the patties.  The chicken breast was next, and Maggie was very pleased when we finally got to that.  She stayed out on the deck with us most of the time, she was very interested in the all the lovely smells.  But when Bill put the chicken on, she was just about glued to his side.  He broke off a small piece of one end when it was cooked through and tossed it down to her - she was overjoyed!  It took her a few attempts to actually eat it because it was hot, she was funny and kept grabbing it and tossing it around until it was cool enough - almost like a predator and prey that needs to be killed before it can be eaten.  After it cooled down enough and she finished it, she spent the next several minutes licking the deck everywhere she had tossed her bite.  Bill gave her another one and she was a little smarter this time - she waited until it had cooled enough but she stared at it the entire time.  Then, she pounced on it.

Of course, the propane ran out when he was getting ready to put the last meats on the grill - the steaks for dinner tonight!  They wound up being broiled in the oven, they were still good but it took a little longer because we had to wait for the broiler to heat up enough.  We will probably both have steak leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  Then I won't have to cook much this week, since there are enough chicken breast for 2 or 3 meals in addition to the burgers and dogs.

Looks like I get to exchange the empty tank for a new on this week!  As Bill said, we still have several good grilling weekends before winter.  We don't grill every weekend, but we do grill enough that it's worth it to get a refill even this close to winter.

I am feeling better.  Still feeling a little tired, but not as bad as I was this time last weekend.  I took a short nap this afternoon and that helped.  At this point, I am still planning on getting my flu shot next Friday after work.  So is Otter, I'll go get her after work or meet her at Walgreen's and we'll get that taken care of then.  Yes, I will buy her some ice cream!  And probably dinner as well, since I'm thinking it's going to be Subway to take home.

I went to the office for a few minutes about mid-morning today.  I wanted to get the trash and recycling stuff out for pickup tomorrow and I also cleared two or three days worth of mail out of the mailbox and took it in.

I did not get any crochet done today, but I did get some done yesterday.  We also got the pachinko machines that we had at the antique mall, we are now finished with the booth.  We may get another one later, the owner of the booth mall is opening another one in a couple of months in a better spot and we told her we would let her know.  It took us three trips.  I drove, Bill did all the lifting and loading into my car, then the unloading and lifting them into the house when we got home.  We didn't use Otter's car after all.  After we got the last machine, we went to a local barbeque-ish place for lunch.  It was pretty good.  Bill had three or four glasses of iced tea - he was thirsty! - and then when we got home, he still had to take a nap (after all the heavy lifting) and he slept for about an hour or so.  He was joking that maybe the tea was decaf, but really it was because he was up late Friday night working on his website and then up early on Saturday followed by all the heavy stuff.

Bill is probably going to get a load of firewood this week.  He was going to get one last week, but then he had a slight case of the bug I've been dealing with so he put that off.  I need to check on my bird seed supply, I might need to get more and a lot of places have it on sale this time of year.  I know I need to get suet cakes for the birds, I used my last one during the last snow storm we had this past winter.

Maggie Moo has been snoozing in her bed for the last couple of hours.  She was very happy, she got a treat from the grill then I brushed her (which she loves) and I guess that tired her out, because she is O.U.T.

Thursday Already?

Wow, tomorrow is Friday!  I just realized that.

PBS is having their annual August pledge drive, which is when they have the music features.  I've been in musicobsessive heaven all week!  I did manage to see the BeeGees special from the beginning this time (I usually miss the first part of it), the John Denver special was very good and there have been a couple of others that I've enjoyed.  Tonight is Celtic Woman - watching them makes me realize that the most influential Teacher I ever had was probably Irish!  Obviously, it was the Choir Teacher I'm referring to.  He was probably university professor level, and his lessons are still with me.  One thing he drilled into us was breathing.  Breath control is probably the most important aspect of singing, and to this day I still find myself remembering what I was taught to do and it drives me absolutely CRAZY when so-called professionals can't even figure out when to breathe while singing!  We were taught to the level of ability and performance professionalism that the members of Celtic Woman have, and he made sure we learned it!  I wish Mom had not gotten rid of my Choir Sweater, but she apparently did because it was nowhere to be found when we cleaned out the house after Dad died.

Otter came over to do her laundry today.  She was originally going to come over yesterday, she was scheduled to work Tuesday night (as in all of it, until early Wednesday morning) but the supply truck was delayed so she was rescheduled to work on Wednesday instead, when the truck actually arrived.  She was exhausted after unloading the truck and restocking all the shelves, which is probably her least favorite part of being the Pricing Coordinator for the store.  She is part of the Inventory Control Department.  She decided to come do her laundry today, on her day off.  She mostly came over to play with the beagle I think!  :)  Bill saw a Sonic commercial, they had half-price cheeseburgers today so that's what he wanted for dinner.  I told Otter that I'd get her something from Sonic as well so she had dinner with us.  She's very happy with the new apartment and having more room.  She was really happy today, she found what they refer to as "dumpster furniture."  Somebody put a short dresser out by the dumpster, she and Roomie borrowed a dolly from the apartment office and it's now in their apartment.  On the 3rd floor!  She said it probably weighs at least 100 pounds, and it took them a while to get it up the stairs but they did it.  All that is wrong with it is one drawer needs a little glueing to hold it together on one spot.  They got it into the living room and then left it there, they will figure out exactly where to put it but she said they were tired after having to get it up the stairs and into their apartment.

It's been cooler this week, the last couple of mornings have been almost sweater temperatures.  Maggie Moo has really enjoyed it on our morning walks, especially this morning.  She was so bouncy!  She really had fun this morning, she sniffed everything, and I do mean everything, and she was so playful.  At the moment, she is asleep at my feet.  She wiggled herself around until she is underneath her bed.  I guess she's comfortable because she is snoring!

Nevermind, the beagle is up!  She woke up and curled her tail around my ankle.  Then she got up and shook herself, now she's sitting in front of me and may be watching tv.  She has been known to do that.

It's back-to-school time.  Otter has been out of school for 4 years now.  For some reason, I keep thinking that I need to get school supplies!  She hasn't even lived here in nearly a year, and she's been working for the last 2 1/2 years, for pete's sake.

We do need to start getting firewood soon, though.  That's another thing that the cooler morning temps have got me to thinking about.

Walgreen's has the flu shot vaccine in stock.  I'm getting mine on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, like I usually do.  Last year's was much earlier, in August.  As a result, it was a normal weekend instead of a 3-day weekend.  I really could have used that extra day off to recover from my usual reaction, so I've gone back to the Labor Day weekend schedule.  Otter is going to get hers then as well.

The crepe myrtles in the back yard are doing wonderfully.  Some of them are blooming.  The mimosa tree in the front yard is finally blooming as well.  The mimosa tree was planted from a sprout that showed up in the back yard and was probably grown from a seed from the neighbor's tree.  Each year, it would come up and have a few leaves then it would die down in the fall but it never got taller than a couple of feet.  Last winter, it died completely and disappeared - or so we thought.  It did disappear, but there was still life left in it and it came back up this year.  And it's now over 7 or 8 feet tall!  It's fully leafed out and it beautiful, but I was afraid it might not be a blooming tree.  Then last weekend, it suddenly put of blooms.  Just a few, but that's fine with me because that means it will bloom each year and should increase the number of blooms.  I guess it just took it a few years to get really established.

We have a meeting with the associate pastor at the church we've been attending, next Tuesday.  I think we'll make the decision after we talk to her.  In all probability, we will be joining that church but we won't decide until after our meeting.  Otter will be transferring her membership with us.  We realized today that we haven't been to our current/about to be old church in over 10 months and not once has anyone ever contacted us!  Except for one time when I mailed my tithe check in and made a mistake on it - they contacted me immediately when it concerned money, I noticed!

I think that's very telling.

Hard Week

Glad it's over.

I've spent too much time nesting on the couch because of my stupid cold.  I'm finally on the mend, although I'm still dealing with the residual effects of any cold or URI in my world:  asthma!  It's not bad, it's just "there" and I know it.

I went in to work this morning, but I really just wanted to go back to bed!  I didn't stay all day, I made it until about 11:30 before I gave in and came home.  I actually ran out of steam about 10:30, but I had a few things I needed to finish up.  Even with being off most of the week, I'm just about caught up at work.  It's not a particularly busy office.

This is still on my mind as well.  It's on a lot of people's minds still, ST fans tend to take anything connected with the show very personally.  Especially when we lose someone so important.

I am kind of tired of winter.  I'm kind of tired of snow and ice.  I'm really looking forward to spring finally showing up.  (Not SpringLikeStorms!)  Starting last Friday, we had snow and/or ice coming down 4 out of the last 7 days and it was still on the ground/streets most of the last 7 days.  We were iced in on Wednesday, I probably wouldn't have gone in to work anyway because I was sick.  Yesterday, I might have tried to go in for a while but we were still iced in and nobody wanted to brave the roads.  But then the sun came out yesterday afternoon and a mass melting occurred.  Otter came over yesterday afternoon with her laundry.  While her clothes were in the dryer, we got out so I could see how the streets were and they were pretty good by that point.  We went to the grocery store, but that was only because I absolutely had to and could not put that off any longer.

When Bill took his/Otter's car to get the tires replaced, they told him that it needs a front end alignment and some serious front-end work.  I have no doubt that it does, that was really the only complaint/issue/problem we had with that car - it was known for needing expensive front-end work but that seems to be a fairly common issue in that year/style Impala.  I'm going to take it to Chevy one day next week to get a 2nd opinion and a price quote, but I expect them to say basically the same thing the first place did.  If Chevy's quote is in the general price range of the first place, we might have them go ahead and fix the car while it's there for the estimate.

Frasier is doing very well.  He does seem to have a little less discomfort since he's been on the anti-inflammatory.  It does make him a little stoned, however! :)  The vet said that I might be able to discontinue it on a daily basis after a while.  I'm going to see how it goes, he's definitely showing signs of improvement so I'll see how he does after several days and then decide about stopping it daily.  When they called me to check on him today, the vet tech said that I can go to watching him and giving it to him when he needs it.  When I got home today, Maggie Moo came in happily.  Frasier still hasn't come in - he's happy out in their yard.  Last time I looked out there, he was snoozing in a sunny spot.  He was so still that I had to watch to be sure he was actually breathing!! He loves to stay outside, much more than any other dog I've ever seen.  I think it's probably the coyote heritage.  Maggie didn't miss out on the nap today, she's curled up on her blankets and I hear her snoring.

There's probably more but I don't remember!

LLAP

Lion or Lamb?

I think March has come in like a lamb.  Yes, there are still piles of snow and some icy spots on the streets.  But that is from yesterday, today was cold but nothing falling from the sky beyond a light amount of sleet in some areas north of Tulsa.  So, I think it came in like a lamb.  So, maybe March is going to go out like a lion - I hope not!  Because this is Tornado Alley, after all.  We don't want Lion-ish storms.

Anyway, here are a few Trek-related lols.  In the light of Friday's sad news, these are just a few I felt like posting.

(This one is from Saturday, it's what we are all thinking actually.)

LLAP!

(I'd like to live on this street)

Apparently, not everyone can do the Vulcan salute.  But I never had a problem with it.  Also, not a lot of people realize that it is actually an ancient Hebrew/Jewish blessing.  Which Leonard Nimoy knew, as he's the reason it was "invented" for Mr. Spock.

IDIC

I haven't made a sock monkey in years, but this one would be fun to make.

---------

OK, enough with the sad stuff!

Officially, we only got 2" of snow in my small town.  But I think we got a lot more.  It was about beagle belly deep, which I discovered when I let the dogsters out this morning for a romp in the back yard.  The snow was powdery and dry and there was an ice cover on top of it.  Frasier is big and heavy so he had no problems with it, although it did slow him down a bit.  But Maggie Moo wasn't quite able to navigate so well in it.  She would take a step and her foot would crash through the ice, then she'd take another step, crunch through, etc., and she finally just started swimming/hopping through it.  She came back in almost immediately, but Frasier wasn't in so much of a hurry.  He figured out how to run across it pretty fast and got his speed up quickly.  He was going so fast that he didn't crunch through the ice and I was afraid he might lose his balance but he seemed to enjoy himself.

Otter was supposed to work yesterday but her boss called her a couple of hours before she shift and told her not to come in because the roads were too dangerous.  So she had an unexpected day off, which she really enjoyed.  But she was feeling housebound by this morning and so was I.  So, after I got the pushbroom and de-snowed my car, we went to her apartment.  We stopped by the booth place first, then we took Bill to get the carsince she had for yesterday.  She had gotten out and cleared the snow off of it for Bill.

Our neighborhood street was pretty bad, but the main roads had been plowed, scraped and sanded although there were a few patches.  The parking lot at her apartment complex was iffy, but there had been enough traffic through it that it was driveable.  The apartment complex is next door to the police department so the street was probably one that was plowed first.  She and I went to Big Lots, which was fun because they were having a 20% off of everything sale today.  Big Lots is next to a WalMart, and their were girl scouts setting up a cookie booth in front so we had to buy some.

Bill got the car because it's possibly going to be a little icy in the morning from re-freezing and he doesn't want to drive the El Camino.  Otter does work, but her hours are good for me to get her to/from work.  She was originally going to bring her laundry today but she's still got work clothing for a couple of days.

Since I wasn't able to get out yesterday and go to the antique stores like I had planned, I might do that next Saturday.  I need a shopping fix!

Up in Arms

I think I've sprained my left elbow.  I thought the pain, tenderness and muscular tightness was the tendinitis which has bothered me on occasion.  But then I realized that I remembered a door shutting quickly and smacking my left elbow a couple of days ago.  Which was about when it started hurting.  It's bothered me the last couple of days and it has also made it difficult to sleep at night because I sleep on my side.  I generally start out on my left side but sometimes I will wake up on my right side.  I've been trying to prop it up at night and start out on my right side, but I keep waking up because I'm on my left side and my arm hurts!  Usually because I'm actually sleeping on it.  I'll probably drag out the splint from Otter's broken arm many years ago and use it the next couple of days.

Having had my arm broken twice (the left one coincidentally) and having had sprains before, I can say firmly that sprains can hurt worse than breaks!  Probably because a break is generally immobilized in a cast or splint, which also makes it harder to forget and use the limb in a way it should be used.

And as if that weren't enough, the extreme cold and dry air of the last several days is also doing what it generally does:  I'm having an asthma flare.  Not bad, but any asthma is "not good."  I'm trying to stay indoors, which is what I've been doing for the last several days, but there are times when I have to go outside.  Like from the front door to the car, car to the office, etc.  I had to go to the post office today to renew the P.O. Box and I also had a trunkload of stuff to donate to Goodwill so I had to be out in the air a bit.  But Bill had already noticed the signs of an impending flare so he had a nice, warm fire going when I walked in the door.  The thing about asthma is that if it's a mild flare coming on, it's not always noticeable because I'm used to dealing with it so it is somewhat routine.  If it's a bad spell, that's different.  But sometimes it's slow and sneaky.  It won't be bad, I just don't like to deal with it.  But I've never had it as bad as Otter or Froggy's eldest son had to deal with.

Nice surprise!  I just changed the tv station after the M.A.S.H. reruns we usually watch in the evening.  When M.A.S.H. ended, I turned the tv to PBS.  It's the start of their spring pledge drive.  They are running a BeeGees concert!  I absolutely, love love love the BeeGees, pretty much from the earliest time I became aware of the existence of Music.  I can NOT stand disco, but I'll listen to anything and everything done by the BeeGees.  Otter frequently points something out to me:  the BeeGees are disco.  My answer?  NO, THEY ARE NOT.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  :)  Also, I think that I came in at the same point in this concert that I did when I saw it the first time.  Just after it started, so I'll get to see most of it.  Hope the dogsters don't mind me singing!  (Not even asthma can stop me if I want to sing and especially not singing along to BeeGees songs.)  

I don't think that there are actually words to express how important Music is to me.  I can also say that I don't know of too many other people who actually Lettered it in in high school!  I'll always be proud of that fact, although I was't too pleased with Mom when she gave my letter sweater away on accident!  (S. TEXAS, sweaters were more common than jackets seeing how we almost never actually had weather that required jackets).  Bill will probably be glad that Dr. Who was not on the schedule for tonight, because I am not changing the station.

Anybody needs me for the next couple hours, don't expect to reach me.  MUSIC TIME!

Joining the Spinning Ranks!!!

For some reason, these spinning racks are suddenly very popular among crafters.  I've been seeing them on a few blogs lately and I have been lusting after one for a while.  I have absolutely no place to put it OR much use for one.  I bought one for Billyboy a few weeks back which only made me want one more.

You can buy them here:  Spinning Rack either online or at one of the actual store.  Here's the link to the store:  One of Bill's favorite places!  He has a list of places he'd like to live, hardware & tool stores are at the top of the list.

I gave in today.  I got the last one in stock, but they will restock pretty quickly.  It's still boxed and is sitting on my craft desk.  Where it will probably be for a while!  I might paint it, because it's a tad bit plain in the grey color.

The snow is mostly all gone, except for just a few spots that are constantly shady.  It's very muddy now.  It was a nice day, sunny and very pretty.  Tonight, it's all going to change and it is going to be very cold.  The cold front should hit around midnight tonight and the windchill in the morning could well be 0.  OR MAYBE EVEN BELOW 0.  Poor Otter has to be at work at 4:00 in the morning to stock the store for the next ad coming out.  She has the car because nobody wants to get up and get her at 3:30 in the morning to get her to work on time!

I know, we're such mean parents.  :)

Light. Not Supposed to be Heavy. Heavy Stuff is Probably Going to Miss Us.

They were not even close!  It wasn't light.  It was heavy.  The heavy stuff hit us head on.

I took these this afternoon:

The footprints are Bill's, his/Otter's car is parked behind the White Lightning.  Look at the street and the end of the driveway to get an idea how deep this stuff actually is.

Standing on my front porch for this picture.

Also taken from my front porch.

This was taken on the back deck up near the door, where the snow was blown by the wind and doesn't look like the rest of the yard.  The focus of this picture is actually the bird tracks.  They were all over the deck.

And the back yard!  There were a whole lot more before I took the picture, they left right before I got this and then they all came back after I took the picture.

The back yard, taken from the back door.

More little birdies!  At one point, a dove came in for a landing and it stayed for a long time.  There was also a female cardinal, but she left as soon as the male showed up because he was interested in her but she was just looking for a meal.  Several chickadees, two kinds of sparrows and quite a few starlings.

This morning, I refilled my two feeders and took them out to the back yard.  I dropped one of them as I was hanging it, about 3/4 of the seed spilled on the ground but the birds don't really care where it is as long as they can eat it.  After I came back inside, I looked out and the yard was suddenly covered in lots and lots of little birdies! They were going after the spilled seed.

It was pretty cold this morning, but not snowing at that point.  The snow was expected but it just hadn't hit us yet.  I headed on to work but then I remembered that I forgot to go to the gas station on Saturday when Otter and I were running around before I took her to J's house.  Then yesterday I just had a couple of close errands and I forgot about it again.  This morning, I was nearly to work when I remembered and I thought I'd just get it after work.  Then I thought about it again (and heard a weather report) so I stopped to fill up the car right away.  And nearly froze!  It was very cold and it had gotten pretty windy.  But I'm really glad I remembered when I did.  Because it started snowing about an hour after I got to work.

I parked in the garage at work today.  About 12:30, I realized that the roads were getting bad so I decided to leave at that point.  And that's when I discovered that the very steep driveway was snow covered.  And icy!  I literally slid down the entire thing and had pretty much no control over the car, speed OR direction.  I'm just glad that nobody was coming down the street, but I did finally manage to get the car stopped.  The street was very bad, but once I got out of the neighborhood my office is in, the main street looked ok.  It was ok and then it was not ok, then ok again, then not ok, etc.  I had to go to the post office and the street it's on was terrible.  So was their parking lot.  I also stopped at the UPS place to check the box.  Their parking lot was not too good.  Both places were on the way home, otherwise I would have skipped both of them.  By the time I got home, our neighborhood street was pretty bad.  And slick.  I put my car in the driveway and it's not going anywhere until tomorrow morning, and that might not be early.

The dogs were happy I got home early, they came in and immediately started a game of dog war.  Then they both more or less collapsed in a furry heap and went to sleep.  I think they have the right idea.

One more thing:

Because, after all, # 4 is the REAL Doctor!

Just a Dusting Today

Both snow and real dust!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is what they are going for, actually.

*Fixins is one of our favorite words!

Wow. They Actually Got it Right.

The forecasters, that is.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe

Winter's not over yet!

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

(I know, I'm rambling.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anybody Want to Help Catch a Groundhog?

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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