Not Enough Chocolate!!!

It's been one of those days all over the place.  There is not enough chocolate in the world today.  Work stuff mostly, nothing serious or to worry about.  Just a lot of it!!!!!

Otter is back from her vacation today.  The one I didn't mention!  She brought her car over to our house last Tuesday and I ran her (and a trunkload of luggage) over to J's house a few towns away.  From Tuesday until Friday, she and J spent most of their time working on their Joker/Harley Quinn costumes.  On Friday morning along with J's mom, some of her friends and some of theirs, they all set out for Dallas.  They arrived at their hotel to discover that parts of it were flooded out so they weren't able to stay there.  The hotel management had arranged rooms for everyone who had reserved rooms, at a hotel down the street and paid for their first night as well as paying for food for them.  That was not necessary, the hotel couldn't help the floods but it was a nice thing for them to do.  They went to Dallas Fan Expo, which is a comic related convention (con is the short word) and the had a blast.  Otter hasn't sent me the pictures yet but she did show them to me - the female Joker/male Harley Quinn costumes were a huge success.  Although Otter did say that her short green wig was too tight.  They spent Sunday doing the tourist thing around Dallas and Denton, (she has now discovered IKEA!) then they got back to J's house last night.  I went out there after work to pick her up - and her trunkload of luggage!  Which was more than she had to start with, because she is her mother's daughter and she shops!  She was pretty tired, but she wanted to go to Wallyworld with me.  Among other things, I bought her some donut holes so she'll have breakfast tomorrow (she goes in to work at 5:00 a.m.), rolls and dinner for tonight.  She was tired, but she really enjoyed herself.  J had a good time as well, they were all tired but it was happy tired.  The cosplay costumes need a bit of tweeking before the wear them to the con in Tulsa in July.

I went to Wallyworld for one of these:

We realized that Maggie is not the food vacuum we thought she was.  Now that she doesn't have to eat all the food in her bowl so Frasier doesn't get it, she's eating until she gets full and then leaving food.  She eventually wanders back and finishes it, but sometimes she still leaves some behind.  Her bowl used to be emptied, and we think that her big brother might have had a lot to do with it.  We've been leaving a little food in her bowl at times and she's not acting like she wants to eat until she pops.  We're going to try one of these and see if it works.  I expect her to be a piggie at first, but I think she'll adjust.  The one I bought has a 10-pound reservoir, it comes in three sizes and Wally had the large or the small but not the medium.  I was looking for the medium, but I didn't want to wait for them to get it in stock again and the small was just too little.  I put it down next to her food bowl and put a small handful of food in it.  She ate it, but she didn't wolf it down.  We had just come back from our walk and she usually gets a treat or two after walking anyway.  We have always used a fairly large rubbermaid-type bin to hold their dry food, but it's become very obvious that it will take her forever to go through the 20-pound bags of dry food we used to use.  Also, I've changed the brand of food.  We tried a few different brands and Pedigree was the one that worked best for Frasier.  It was fine for her, but his nutritional needs were a little stricter than a garden-variety beagle but Pedigree was good for her, too.  Also, Pedigree was the one that made him the least stinky!  I switched Maggie Moo to one of the IAMS brand dry foods, I mixed it in with the remaining Pedigree and switched it slowly.  She wasn't sure of it at first, but she likes it now.  I don't have to buy the big bags anymore, and once the bin is empty (which might be very soon as I'm going to pour as much kibble out of it and into the 10-pound feeder in the morning), the bin is going bye-bye at least as far as dog food storage.  It may become another recycle bin, unless Bill can come up with a use for it.

I'm also thinking about getting rid of the deep freeze.  I don't use it nearly as much as I used to, now that Otter's moved out I don't go through nearly as much bread for one thing.  I do still have stuff in it, but it's probably less than a quarter full.  Some of the contents now include a couple of cans of coffee but since they aren't open they will stay fresh.  I keep opened cans in the freezer.  There are two packages of chicken breast and a few packages of ground turkey meat.  I think I have two dozen tamales, which we probably need to eat soon!  And 6 ice trays.  I can easily get all of that in the kitchen freezer, although maybe not the ice trays.  Bill wants the small amount of room the deep freeze takes up, if I do decide to get rid of it.  I'll probably put it on craigslist, since it still works fine.  We just don't really need it now.

My feet are tired and are telling me I need to stay on the couch, so that's what I'm going to do with my evening!

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!

Funny Monday Stuff

Well, funny stuff is funny.  But Monday is not!

Love this one!

Not a major fan of the 11th Dr.  (His tagline is that ______ are Cool and he fills in the blank with just about everything he sees.)   Not sure about the 12th, considering the "secret doctor" storyline which I guess would make the current one 13?   I've lost count.  But the point is, # 4 is THE BEST ONE.  # 1 was good, obviously because he was the first.  But 4 is the best!

Enlarge this one if you need to, it's worth the read!

 

As far the Monday stuff, it's just that:  Monday.  I picked Otter up at her apartment at 7:00 this morning and got her at work at 6:00 p.m to take her home.  I will also get her to work tomorrow, then she'll have the car for Wednesday.  Bill needs it Thursday and Friday, but I think she's off those two days.  She'll get the car Friday evening and bring it back after work Sunday.

 

On Monday, she is probably going to have the day off.  Which is because she requested it, due to the dentist appointment she has for a possible cavity that needs to be checked out.  Our dentist retired a few months ago so we need to find a new one, we're going to try a new one on Monday and see how he is.

 

Still no email.  Saturday night, the computer had a notation about "restarting in 2 days to finish installing updates."  Which is never true, it always does it the next time it's turned on.  I had to turn it back on to look something up after checking my email Saturday evening, and  the updates installed.  And I haven't been able to access my email since then.  Turns out, some of those "needed" updates included updating my not-broken-and-should-not-have-been-fixed email program!  There is a way to reset back to before the update, we tried that yesterday but it wouldn't take.  Probably because of the anti-virus program we have.  Bill talked to the computer geeks at work and they all told him the same thing:  Reload Office.  Which we will probably do this week.  Hopefully, that will a) work and b) I haven't lost all my emails.  I'm thinking we need to do a back up before we attempt to reload anything.  I did discover that there is a way to not have the updates install automatically, but we aren't making any changes until we're sure we've gotten everything working again.  Stupid Windows!

 

Maggie is snoozing at my feet, on the pillow I was going to use as a foot rest.  Frasier is probably curled up on their blankets, since that is what he usually does about this time of evening.

 

I think they both have the right idea:  frequent naps!

Friday Finally Got Here

I was beginning to wonder if it ever would!

Before I get into all the normal stuff, I wanted to mention a special kitty that went to the Rainbow Bridge this week.

 

His name was Chester and I always thought he might be part Maine Coon Cat, but nobody really knows for sure.  He actually belonged to Froggy's daughter, referred to here as KN#3.  Chester was a good kitty.

 

---------

 

This week has been so long.  The jury duty is the main reason.  It wasn't hard, but it was long and tedious.  I spent a lot of time doing nothing, which I absolutely hate.  I don't do well with forced inactivity!  Even if I'd been picked for a jury, I probably would have spent a lot of time doing nothing and being bored.  Just my opinion.

 

After I got home yesterday, Bill needed to go to Otter's store for a tool (at least it wasn't a power tool!!) and then he wanted to go to Hobby Lobby for something else he needed for a cabinet he's building for a pachinko machine.  I made him go down the yarn aisle with me, since I'd been carting him around and I just thought he should be subjected to it!  I was looking at the reclaimed sari yarn, which I love but will probably never buy.  It's not cheap, but then 100% silk generally isn't.  The skeins are small and it will be impossible to find another one that matches if you don't get all you need at once.  I'm also not really sure how it would crochet.  But I do enjoy looking at it, it is very pretty.  Anyway, there is a point to this rambling story about yarn.  The sari yarn is on the same aisle as the wool yarn.  Which I'm allergic to.  I noticed something:  after I was near the yarn for a few minutes, I started coughing and my eyes started watering.  Big time.  And I had a scratchy throat.  Which all went away after I got away from the wool - and I also realized that I'd had that happen before when I was exposed to wool.  I'm not sure if my wool allergy is changing, worsening, or if it's always been that way and I just never noticed it before?

 

I posted about Mother's Day already, but I didn't go into details.  I wanted to mention what Otter gave me and the reason why it is probably one of the most special gifts I've ever been given:

I used to have quite a collection of Batman books.  I sold them.  When Otter was needing a new bedspread and wanted to redo her room many years ago, she was still in early elementary school or thereabouts, it was a tight time for us financially and so I sold my collection to be able to get what she needed/wanted for her room.  Many years later, she's discovered Batman (Ok, she didn't have a choice on that!) and I made sure she read this particular book - it's just that good.  Somewhere in there, I told her that I'd had this one before and she wanted to know why I didn't have it anymore so I told her.  It's been out of print for years and is very hard to find and she remembered why I didn't have mine anymore.  It's very scarce now.  But she found a copy.  For me.  For Mother's Day this year.  It really means a great deal to me, she remembered and she made sure I got another one.

 

The clematis that Bill got me for Mother's Day had a problem, I think I mentioned that it was eaten down to the ground.  It's coming back, which I thought it would.  I'm still thinking that it was the roaming bunny we've seen at times.  I'm thinking that we will need to make some type of "cage" to cover the plant and keep it safe from rogue bunnies!  Bill said he'll see what he can do.  But he first suggested that I just grab a dog or two, leash them up and attach the leash to the fan trellis the clematis is growing at.  But I'm not too sure that would work, after all this is the same two dogs that watched a bunny run right in front of them and not figure it out until it was under the fence and gone!

Sunday Accidents

No, not the bad kind!

This kind:

A web board I'm on had a discussion thread about accidental collections.  You know, where you don't realize you have a collection of something until you are suddenly buried in the item.  I realized Friday that I have one, and it's armadillos.

Bill and I went to a yard sale, as I've already mentioned, and he bought a pachinko machine.  I got another stuffed armadillo.  I realized yesterday that I have an Accidental Collection of 'dillos.  They aren't all stuffed, I have a few brass ones and at least one ceramic one.  And I think a couple more, although I can't really remember at the moment.  With more to come, I'm sure!

Texans like armadillos.  We seem to have odd animals, including scorpions, coyotes, armadillos, rattlesnakes and a few other oddities.

Including chupacabras!  Here's my chupa:

This picture is from a couple of years ago.  But he's still big & furry.  And spoiled rotten!  (So's Maggie.)

Otter didn't see the Batman car on Friday.  She had a good time, although she said that she was very tired from all the walking they did.

Movie review:  Chronicle.  Don't bother.

I'm warm today.  I was very warm yesterday and at one point I gave in and took a nice, cool shower.  Which did help, actually.  I might have to take another cool shower very soon, although this particular warm spell is just starting and I think I'm in for a hot couple of hours.  When your husband puts an ice cube on you and you don't even have time to realize it because it's melted already...

We went to church this morning and it was cold in the sanctuary, as usual.  This time, I didn't mind at all!

Otter and I ran a couple of errands and one of our stops was the dollar store.  We found all sorts of things there that we just had to have.  Including what I think is a new version of one of the only shampoos I can use due to my allergies.  White Rain has always had a fairly low-scent, clear shampoo that we've used for years.  At some point in the last couple of years, they came out with a scented line and Otter's able to use it but I can't.  Recently, it's been harder and harder to find the one I use.  I emailed the company and they did respond, but it wasn't really what I asked them.  What I did find out is that they have discontinued the one I use.  So, I bought as much of it as I could find and also the conditioner that goes with it because it was also discontinued.  I tried a couple things, and have been using baby shampoo lately.  Which works, but not that well because it's not really made for long hair.  Which I have.  And I still needed to use conditioner, although baby shampoo is supposed to not need to be followed with it - well, I guess if you have short hair or are a baby you might not need it!  Last week, I discovered that White Rain has a new product that is almost the same one I've used for years.  It does have a little bit more scent than the previous one, but I tried it and it seems to be working.  It doesn't seem to trigger Bill's few allergies, which a lot of scented things including shampoo can do.  And the dollar store carries it, so I grabbed a couple of bottles while we were there.  I'm going to stock up a bit on it, in case they discontinue this one!

Otter's changed her summer college plans a bit.  She's still going.  But she's put off the math and is taking two classes instead of one.  She's got two weeks left of freedom, then she has two months of two days a week classes.  The school is closed on Fridays during the summer.  Her classes are on Monday and Wednesday.  She'll take the first math class in the fall semester and the second one in the spring semester.  Along with her foreign language class, which is probably going to be Japanese.

I took a quick picture of the bird nest in the planter on the front porch.  I used my cell phone, so I can't post it here.  But we discovered that there are 4 eggs.  Four more little bug eaters!  Mama bird is not leaving the nest the second we come out the door, she is waiting until we are almost to the planter before she flies off and she's not going as far.  She seems to realize that we aren't a threat.

OK, back to my ice water now!

OK, Now It's Really Friday

This time last year, we were getting ready for this:

A day early, but it's an anniversary!

But I might not actually get anything posted tomorrow, so I wanted to mention it today.  It's amazing how much can happen/change in a year.  Otter's gone from being a teenage high school student to about to start her sophmore year of college and she's not a teen any more.  'Scuse me while I go catch my breath!

Froggy, you probably know exactly what I mean.

Otter's off with HP and his family this afternoon, there's a local annual event that is kind of a cross between the fair (strange food and fun displays but without the rides) and an art show.  She was excited about the presence of a car from the latest series of Batman movies.  Hopefully, she'll get to see it.  I saw it the other day, I was on my way back to work and it was being put back in the 18-wheeler that it travels in.  My Batman obsession is only topped by my Star Trek obsession, and Otter is very much her mother's daughter on both counts so she was hoping to get to see the car.  If you can call it that, it's a strange looking beastie.  It's not the car from the 60's tv series or the movies from the 80's/90's.  It's also not very big.  If she gets to see it, and remembers to take pictures, I'll probably get them posted here.  Eventually.  This time, she did remember to put sunblock on and she also took it with her to reapply as needed.  Red heads and sun exposure don't make a good combination.  The last time we went to the State Fair, we forgot the sunblock and she was pink-on-the-way-to-red before we realized it.  We wound up buying her a parasol to use to keep the sunshine off of her (very pale) skin.

This is a good example of my day:

I didn't actualy get IN the fridge, but I did stand in front of the open back door while the cool morning breeze was blowing through and then I stood in front of the fan in our bedroom.  I saw a cute joke:  Global warming is really just mother nature having a hot flash!  No, we don't believe in either global warming/climate change or mother nature.  But it was funny.  (I have been known to stand in front of the open freezer on occasion.)

It's been a warm day today!

Otter and I ran a couple of errands this morning, including taking a trunk load to Goodwill to donate.  Of course, we had to shop while we were there.  :)  Otter found a couple of movies on dvd that she wanted.  I didn't find anything, but that was ok with me.  I was too warm to really be in a shopping mood.

Bill saw a listing on Craigslist for a pachinko machine at a garage sale.  It was literally on the other side of Tulsa from us, we live outside of Tulsa.  But it was a nice drive, the traffic on a Friday at 1:15 is not bad.  He got the pachinko, and I got another stuffed armadillo for my accidental collection.  And the seller was a fellow TEXAN, so it was nice to get to talk to another one of us.

Then we came home and had chili.  Always good!