Rambling

Just normal stuff going on around here. Mostly.

Today is National Puppy Day.  That means Maggie Moo pictures!

And, since he will always be my puppy:

Can't believe it's been nearly a year already.  Miss this boy!

It's been extremely windy the last few days, but that is normal for this time of year.  So far, the broken limbs are still in the tree but at least one of them has moved a little.  It's not a huge limb, but there is one piece in particular that is very big although it's not broken off completely.

I put my yarn pieces out for the birds last weekend.  I also discovered a nest being built inside Otter's trellis.  Not sure what kind of birds though.  We are trying to avoid getting anywhere near the trellis.

And, since it's spring and the bugs are out:

I saw the first one at work yesterday!  INSIDE THE OFFICE.  I was standing in the kitchen area when it came from somewhere behind me (which means from inside.  Again) and crashed into the kitchen window.  It was probably trying to get out.  I eventually got it on the end of the broom, then I slowly and carefully took it outside.  And then I crushed it into a million billion pieces.

Hate those things!

Honeybees, now they are welcome.  They have plenty of bluebonnet blossoms to visit!  The redbud has lot of blooms left although some are beginning to blow off and I've seen a few leaves on the tree.  But I did see at least one honeybee on it as well.

Otter goes back to the dentist tomorrow for the 2nd of 4 visits.  I'll bring her back home afterwards, she'll probably get as far as my couch and then she'll sleep for a couple of hours.  She asked me if I would make potato soup tomorrow, of course I said yes.

More later!

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.

Middle of Vacation at Home Week

I don't like the word "staycation" so I don't use it.  I'm just having a vacation at home this week.  Mostly by myself, Bill had had to work.  He is off today, but that's because he wasn't feeling too good this morning and he's been pretty much doing nothing today - kind of like me! :)  Except that I'm goofing off by choice and he's just not 100%.

Anyway, I'm glad that he was home today (although I wish he hadn't been feeling icky.)  Because the electric company showed up unannounced this afternoon.  They figured out that last Friday's problem was caused by a line in my yard (they're buried where we live) and that it might need to be replaced.  They brought their backhoe and got right to work digging a fairly deep hole.  Pretty close to one of the maple trees and they did have to break through roots to get to the line.  The line did have some issues, it was probably nibbled on by voles and they'd eaten into the insulation which exposed the actual line to the dirt.  They had to turn our power off for about 10 minutes while they replaced the line.  They did that, put all the dirt back in the hole and took the cable that they'd laid all over my yard last week.  I think that we are finally done with the problems.  Although I won't be surprised if there are other problems with the lines, considering how many underground rodents we have to deal with!

Yesterday, I went to a fabric shop to get something for Froggy.  I also went to 2 antique-ish stores I had been meaning to get to but just never quite did.  They are both booth-type stores and are in a neighboring town.  I wasn't impressed with either of them, but it was still fun.  I also went to the library and to our old booth store looking for something specific and then Bill came home early because he wasn't feeling too good.  I went to the post office, also.  Big exciting day!  Actually, except for the part about Bill not feeling too good, it was an enjoyable day.

Today I went to another fabric store for Froggy, but I will be going back there for something else she needed but I'm not sure when because I think Otter wants to go with me.  I had a couple of other stops, I went to Atwood's because they had coffee on sale and then I went to Wallyworld for misc. grocery items.  But I've spent more time at home today than I spent out, I did some crochet and had time to just sit and read.

I'm enjoying the stay at home vacation.  Yesterday, after Bill left for work, I went back to bed for about an hour.  Actually, I curled up on the futon and snoozed, and Maggie Moo went underneath it for her nap.  It was pretty comfortable, although the beagle snores!  Maggie Moo has enjoyed being able to stay in the house and not get put out into the garage, but she's slept just as much inside as she probably does in the garage!  She has access to the outside when she goes to the garage, but she doesn't seem to like being outside nearly as much as Frasier did.  Her water dish always goes out with her and she has two padded places in the garage which she snoozes on.  And she gets to visit her treat can...

I'm not sure about tomorrow, I'm thinking I'll probably just hang around the house and read, craft, crochet and possibly take a nap.  I might also make a loaf of bread, the one I made on Monday is just about gone.  On Friday, Bill will be off and he'll be at home working on pachinko machines but Otter and I have a shopping day scheduled.  Destinations depend on the weather, we could get rain.  Until then, it's just hot and humid!  But it might affect fireworks displays Friday and Saturday evening.  Bill wanted to grill steaks on Saturday, but they might be broiled in the oven instead of grilled.

Maggie Moo went out to the back yard with me this morning.  And she went straight to the shed.  She did not want to listen to me when I told her no, so she came back inside.  She was funny when we took our early-morning walk today - there was a lady who was walking 3 dogs (and carrying a 4th) one and at least one of those dogs is not friendly to other dogs - which Maggie apparently knew, because it started barking at her at pretty much the same time she was angry barking at it, with a beagle baroo thrown in for good measure!  We haven't walked the last few evenings, the humidity has been too bad for me to be able to breathe.  But I don't think she particularly has wanted to, I don't know if the heat is why or if she's just lazy!  Probably both.

There is a mockingbird that is building a nest inside the trellis on the back deck.  I saw it several times but I haven't seen it since we were outside with the electric company.  It's possible that mama bird decided that there was too much traffic and went elsewhere, but I'm not sure yet.  I did finally get my hummingbird feeders refilled this week, after they were empty for a while.  At least one hummer was on one of the feeders this afternoon.  We also have had two very large squirrels playing chase across the top of the fence.  Not sure if it was a boy chasing a girl, if they were just playing or if one was annoyed with the other one.  But I've seen more squirrels since we lost Frasier, I think they know he's gone and maybe they feel safer now.

Since I was home and had time, I made a pecan pie this morning.  I found a frozen pie shell in the deep freeze when I moved everything from it to the kitchen freezer.  I figured that was a sign that I needed to make pie!  We're having mini pizza for dinner tonight, I think pecan pie will go very well!

A Three Hour Tour...

Name that tune!

OK, the point of this has nothing to do with the theme song to Gilligan's Island.  :)

Thursday when I got home, there was a hanger on the front door from the electric company.  We were dealing with Frasier and frankly, the electric company was the last thing I was concerned with at that point in time.  They said that they needed to get into my yard for something and I did call the number to arrange them to come out today when Otter could be here, but other than that I didn't have any interest in anything they needed.  They were supposed to be out here at 8:00 a.m. today.  They were needing to get to just a small part of my yard, to dig up an area and re-run some cable - or maybe run in new cable to either the next door neighbor or one of the neighbors behind us.  Or at least that is what it sounded like on the very bad connection I had when I called the number on the door hanger.  Because of a past issue with them leaving the gate open and Maggie getting out, we do not let anyone have access to our yard unless we are here at the time.  And they know it!

Otter got here about 7:00 this morning, she dozed on the couch until I woke her up at 7:30 to let her know I was leaving.  She called me about 8:10 or so to let me know that they were here and that she'd blocked Maggie Moo in.  Otter also mentioned that it took a while to convince him that yes, she is an adult and could let him in the yard!  I told her she should just get her driver's license and glue it to her forehead!  She called me back shortly after that to let me know that the (one and only) guy on the digger had come to the door to tell her that he'd cut the phone line accidentally.  He told her that he would call the phone company himself.  About 11:30, he was still digging and that's when I decided I'd better head on home.  I ran by Sonic to get lunch for Otter, and I was home just as the digger operator was walking back to his truck.  He said that he had called the phone company and told them that the homeowner was livid, so they'd better get out here on the double.  Which is funny, because most of the time I have to deal with the phone company I am livid! :)  I told him that, and why, and also that the joke about Redhead tempers (especially on Redhead Women) is not exactly a lie.

I asked him how many of my crepe myrtles they were going to have to replace and he said that he'd made sure to dig the trench well out of range of them.  He said he knew how mad his mama would be at her plants being destroyed, so he always tries to avoid them if it's at all possible.  He also said that they will lay strips of sod over any exposed dirt areas when they are through.

Otter hung around for a while so we could visit, and she could also spend a little more time with a certain beaglebrat.  She gave the dog a short walk to visit the grass in the front yard, then she headed home after that.  The telephone company crew showed up somewhere in that time frame, and so did about 3 other electric company employees.  I let Maggie out later on, she wasn't really sure about going out in the yard with all those people out there - which is unusual for her, but she's still obviously adjusting to being an Only Dog.  The 2nd time I got her out there, she was much more relaxed and did what she was supposed to do.  I talked to the crew at that point and they were working pretty steadily.  In fact, the only time that they weren't working was when they went on their lunch break.  When Bill got home, he went out to talk to them and they were pretty much done by that point - at least three of them were using shovels to cover the trench back up by hand.  It turns out that the man on the digger was actually the supervisor, and he was working along side the crew which is unusual.  They didn't quite get finished, there is one spot in the corner where they have to do something else involving cables and they will come out tomorrow.  I set up a specific time so that I can be here.

The three hour estimate lasted from 8:10 this morning until shortly before 5:00 this afternoon!

Does this look like a small spot in the corner of the yard to you?  It sure doesn't to me!

The pictures were all taken from inside the dining room and living room windows.

I did upload my pictures of Frasier from last Thursday, I took them when I got home about 3:15 before the vet visit.  I don't think I'm going to post them.  They are not bad, he looks happy in a couple of them but they are very hard for me to look at still.  In most of them, I can tell that he was not feeling 100%.  I may eventually change my mind, but not right now.  We're still adjusting ourselves and it's slowly getting better, but he was very much part of the family and it's been tough.

The hummingbirds are here!  Bill saw two of them this afternoon, one flew out of the trellis where the honeysuckle is and the other one was flying up into the tree at the same time.  It's rainy and cool, so I was kind of surprised that they were here already but I'm happy that they are.

This also makes us happy!  I took this a few days ago, there are even more buds and blooms now.  The scent is so strong, it's almost intoxicating.

Furnished

Froggy, you don't have to sleep on the floor when you come see me!

I think my guest/craft/YARN room is just about done.  Yesterday, I went to the store where we first had our booth and noticed that they had two futons for sale.  One of them was exactly what I was looking for, so I told Bill about it and we went up there this afternoon to look at it.  We took the El Camino in case we bought it, and since we did actually buy it I'm glad we took the truck.  It just barely fit in the back of the truck, actually.  It's a tanish color, but I put the crocheted blanket I made for Bill a few years ago on it since it's in my YARN room.  The yarn stash is going to be moved slightly, the steampunk pachinko is going to move to the opposite side of the room and the yarn drawers will be slid down a bit so that I can get into the drawers easily.

It's a futon, so the back of it can be reclined for sleeping.  I might get an egg-crate foam pad for it, I'm not sure about that yet, but I do need to get a couple of pillows.  And sheets!

Now all we need in that room is better lighting, which will probably be a ceiling fan with a light and I want to put a miniblind in the window.  The miniblind will wait until I get all my doilies assembled into the drape style curtain, which will be a while because I'm still in the process of acquiring enough.  I got a few yesterday at a church rummage sale, but I still don't have anywhere near enough.

This was one day last week when the snow was first starting to come down, it might have been last Saturday.  Anyway, the resident woodpecker finally discovered the suet feeder.  He was sideways because the suet was almost gone, I put a refill in it after that but I haven't seen him on it since then.  But it's had regular visitors as it is rapidly emptying again.

A slightly closer shot.  These pictures were taken out of the window, it was too cold to go outside and I didn't want to scare the bird off.

This was also taken one day last week, Frasier isn't normally a big fan of blankets but he seemed quite happy when I covered him with my afghan when I was sitting on the couch one day.  This was a day or two after the vet visit and he was already showing signs of improvement from the anti-inflammatory, but it was still pretty cold and he seemed to relax and enjoy the extra warmth from the blanket.  There is a bumpy spot right by his visible foot - that's Maggie Moo!

Frasier is almost completely different than he was right before the vet visit, he's happy and playful again and acting like a puppy.  I haven't given him a pain pill in a few days and I'm only giving him half of an antibiotic once a day.  He's very happy and affectionate, he doesn't act like he's in any pain or discomfort at all but I'm still watching him closely.

I think I've mentioned before that we were dissatisfied with our church and were considering looking for a new one.  We haven't actually attended church in several weeks, because our church discontinued the early service which is the one we went to.  The early church service never quite took off, which we thought it would have.  We used to belong to a United Methodist church in Tulsa and were quite happy with it.  Then we moved to our smaller town and changed to a closer UM church.  We attended there for a couple of years, but then something happened that we were not happy with.  The youth leader (adult, salaried employee and not a youth member) started telling the kids that the Bible is wrong about a lot of things.  We didn't realize it at first, until Otter told me that she was confused because she knew what the Bible said and she thought she was hearing something wrong from the youth leader.  That's when we decided it was time to change.  We looked around and decided to go back to the Southern Baptist church - back to in my case because that's where I was originally, but it was new for Bill and Otter.  We went to a specific SB church because a lot of Otter's friends from school went there and she wanted to be with her friends.  She liked it, but it was a huge church and was way too big for us to feel comfortable.  But we stayed there for a long time for Otter.  Eventually, it was even too big for her and we started looking for a smaller SB church.  We found the one we belong to currently and joined it pretty quickly.  It was fine for a long time.  But then things changed.  The minister had a major health issue, he was diagnosed with a fairly rare form of cancer but he beat it eventually.  Sometime after that, we realized that the pastor didn't seem to be "in charge" anymore and that he didn't care about that either.  The music leader was taking over more and more of the operations and seemed to be making a lot of the decisions that the pastor should have been making.  It was pretty obvious, at least to us, that the music minister just wanted to be in charge and that it was becoming a power trip for him.  But then the music minister's wife had a job transfer and they moved out of state.  We thought that things might change then so we hung around a while longer.

Things changed alright.  And it was even worse.  Somewhere in there, pretty much ALL mission work, community involvement, evangelism, just about every form of outreach had been discontinued and it never returned.  We realized that the minister didn't seem to care, his sermons were becoming reruns frequently and there were times such as Easter and Christmas when the sermons were almost like "just another day" instead of even acknowledging that they were special days!  I take notes on sermons in my Bible, and I discovered that I was making the same notes in the same places over and over again and in the same spots.  The last Sunday that we attended with Otter, the weekend before she moved out, the announcement was made about the early service being discontinued because there were so few people attending.  That's something else that should not have happened the way it did, but the minister never did anything to attempt to increase attendance and neither did anyone else.  We have wondered at times if maybe the minister might have personal problems based on various things he's said about his son and his marriage.  We think it's also possible that he is suffering from clinical depression.  But the upshot is that we were getting nothing out of attending that church and we finally realized it was time to attend elsewhere.

We took a long break to figure out what we wanted to do and we've decided that we want to re-consider the United Methodist church.  We went back today, to a local UM church and we really enjoyed it.  It was nice not to hear a doom & gloom message that we haven't already heard multiple times.  It was nice to actually get to take communion, which I think we only had twice or maybe three times in several years at the SB church.  It was nice to see more than (literally!) 10 people (and usually less than 10) in the congregation.  It was nice to see a good age range, from young children to older people.  The sermon was good, the people were very friendly.  (And the music minister didn't act like it was his stage and his forum to be worshiped at!)  We'll probably go back there again next Sunday and then we'll decide it we want to stay there as visitors for a while or if we want to go to another UM church that is in the next town over but is still very close to home.  We did consider going back to the UM church we belonged to in our small town, the minsterial staff is different now because of a couple of retirements (we liked the ministerial staff, it's just different now) and the youth minister is not there anymore, but at least for now we aren't going back to that church.

I have not addressed TEXAS anniversary yet, it was the day before yesterday but I was not feeling well at the time and didn't want to just toss something up that wasn't good.  I'm just going to post this: 

 Our Story.

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!

It's Beagle Wednesday!

It hasn't been Beagle Wednesday in a while, and Maggie is overjoyed with the Westminster Dog Show's Grand Champion is a fellow beagle!  But I'm confused about something. Miss P (which is also one of Maggie Moo's many nicknames) is described as "calm."  Calm is not a word I would associate with a beagle!  They are the orignal adhd dog and are closely related to the Energizer Bunny.  They have two speeds:  Warp Speed x Infinity, or OFF.

This picture isn't sideways.  She was snoozing with her rear right up against the couch!  I don't know when this was taken, but it was before we cleaned the carpets on Black Friday 2014 because that's when we moved her blankets.

This is sideways, however,  It's Frasier's tracks in the snow a few weeks back.  It might have been the snow on my birthday.  Anyway.  Look at the prints.  They are single file, just like his coyote relatives would walk.

This is a closer shot.  You can tell that it's two feet in each print, his front feet are very close together.  His back feet are also single file, but not always in exactly the same steps.

Maggie Moo walks like a dog, not a coyote.  She's making her way outside, beside his footprints so it's really noticeable how different their walking patterns are.

This is the nest in the maple tree in the back yard.

This is the nest in the redbud tree.

Closer shot of the redbud tree nest.

Close up of the maple tree nest.

This is the shelf in the front/craft/guest/YARN room.  It was Otter's originally, her room as a baby was done in a carousel horse theme.  One of Bill's sister's painted the horses and then attached small dowel pieces to the tops so they became carousel horses.  Over the years, the dowels fell off and they were just horses.  Otter never wants to get rid of this shelf, but it's on the wall in her old room and she's leaving it in my custody on a strictly temporary basis!  So, I'm using it for my toys!  I have 5 different yarn spools and my decorative spinning wheel.  I was thinking of getting a real spinning wheel and setting it up in there with some yarn attached, but they are big and it would take up more room than I wanted to lose.  Also, I don't like to take a functional item and turn it into non-functional decor - which is what would happen, since I am EXTREMELY allergic to wool.  One of the antique/junk stores we shop at occasionally had this adorable little dustcatcher for several months and it would always tell me it wanted to come home with mer.  I ignored it for a while, then I finally decided I'd better buy it while I could because I'd never seen another one like it and I was afraid someone else would grab it.  So I finally bought it and it promptly fell apart when I got it home.  Cue glue gun!  It sits on a small rug and it has a small stool sitting beside it.

OK, it's time to go cover the beagle!  She's messing around with her blankies, she was asleep at my feet underneath the afghan but I guess she decided she'd be warmer if she moved to her blankets, seeing how they are by the fireplace and there is a fire in it.  Frasier is stil snoozing in the same spot he's been in for something like an hour - at my feet on top of the afghan.  Maggie had to fight her way out from underneath it, thanks to big brudder Frasier!

Shovels

We're pretty much all thawed out now.  I got out yesterday about 4:00 or so to check on the roads.  Once I got out of the neighborhood, the streets were mostly ok but there were patches.  We thought the plows had gotten to us by that time, which they had.  Sometimes they don't get this far out, sometimes they do.  I don't know if they have any rhyme or reason to their schedule, once they get the specific areas such as hospitals, police department, etc. done.

Anyway, I went to Wallyworld and their parking lot had been plowed.  The plow was still there, it was running and the driver was standing inside the store doors.  It looked like he was trying to get warm.  There was a huge amount of water on their parking lot after the plowing.  I was able to get a 25# bag of birdseed.

This morning, I waited until the traffic had time to get over with before I left for work.  I did have a few spots where it was icy.  At one point, I was behind a plow/sand truck.  He was getting spots that had been missed the day before and I could tell when he put his plow down because he was sparky!  Once I got to the street I work on, it's a residential street since we're in a duplex, it was obvious that it hadn't been touched at all.  Because most of the houses/duplexes on that street are actually businesses, it doesn't generally get the traffic that most other non-residential streets get on bad weather days.  It was a slip and slide all the way to the driveway.  The driveway was snow covered, but I made at attempt to get up it so I could get into the uphill driveway.  Actually, I made two or three attempts.  Then I gave up and parked in the street!  I was only about 2 feet short of being able to get to the garage, but it just wasn't happening.  With the street being essentially a solid sheet of ice, it was an adventure walking across it!  Once the sun came out, the driveway started thawing out.  All except for the last few feet which were shaded.  I spread a little ice melt out on it and went inside.  After a while, I checked it and the ice melt had worked somewhat.  I got out the snow shovel and got a little ice/snow off in the tire track areas and put more ice melt out.  I did that a couple of times and it's really hard to operate a snow shovel when you have tendinitis in your left elbow!!!  The rest of the driveway was melted off and starting to dry out pretty good when I left at 3:30.  The street was mostly thawed and a lot of it was dried as well.

We were supposed to get a fast moving rain storm with high winds this evening.  We could see the clouds.  Some of the early reports were actually that it was huge, wet snowflakes instead of rain.  We got nothing out of it, so I'm not complaining.  It will be very cold tonight, we should be getting a very hard freeze tonight.  But it should be ok as far as driving in the morning.

I fed the birds this morning, and they were waiting on me!  Feathered pigs.  I put out two feeders and tossed out quite a bit of seed on the ground.  There were kitty paw prints on the front porch when I left.  I saw several squirrels today.  I hope that all the animals mean that winter's done!

But I'm not in a hurry for SpringStorms.  Not at all.

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.

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!

1/1/15

We had a fairly quiet New Year's Eve.  We had BLT's and pina coladas (1 each, we aren't really big partiers) and watched tv.  It was cold so we had a roaring fire in the fireplace.  And we didn't even make it to midight!  I think it was around 10:00 when we gave up and went to bed.  There are almost never any fireworks here at midnight, it's usually too cold and this year was no exception.

 

I woke up at 5:00 this morning when Frasier informed me that he needed to go outside and then I went back to bed.  When I got up at 5:00, I had a lot of sinus pressure.  When I woke up again about 7:00 a.m., I had a full-blown sinus headache and it really hurt.  I was thinking it might be a sinus infection, I had a little bit of a headache yesterday.  I parked myself on the couch and sat upright for a while, Bill had a fire going and I had a footwarmer (in the shape of a beagle) and a blanket.  Bill brought me coffee, motrin and a glass of water, then some bread so I didn't have to take the motrin on an empty stomach.  After I'd been up for a while, the sinus pressure eased and the headache lightened up considerably.  It didn't go away, but it is much less.  I was still thinking sinus infection, but then I remembered that Bill did this same thing a couple of days ago.  I'm watching it, if it is what Bill was dealing with then I'll be better tomorrow.  If not, then I will go get it checked out.

 

It's been cold and will stay that way for a few days.  I put 3 birdfeeders out yesterday and then I had to refill them this morning.  At the moment, I have two larger ones out and also a suet feeder.  We've had the normal billion and one sparrows, plus cardinals.  I've seen several female cardinals at one time and there is usually at least one male in the vicinity.  This morning, there were two males and about 4 females.  It's unusual to see more than one male at a time.  I have also seen two blue jays.  When the birds aren't on the feeders or getting seed that spilled on the ground, they hang out inside the trellis by the porch.

 

(I went to Atwood's yesterday and loaded up on birdseed.  I bought 15 pounds.  I had about 10 pounds on hand already.  When it's cold like this, the birdseed goes fast.  And sometimes it's helped along by two furry, four-footed "birds" that think anything on the ground/floor is fair game!)

 

I got out briefly late this morning.  I went to Wallyworld.  I forgot a few things yesterday when I got a few groceries.  They weren't too crowded but there were more people going in when I left, I'm sure the cold weather and chance of sleet/freezing rain might have something to do with the number of shoppers.

 

I did get the year started out right, though:  With crochet!  I frogged out two rows on the poncho I'm making for Otter and re-did them.  This time, I counted stitches and did it right!  I had plans to work on a couple of craft items, but not with a headache.  Maybe tomorrow.

 

And now, back to my blanket & my beagle and the Twilight Zone marathon on Scy-Fy.

Wiggles & Jiggles

There was another earthquake felt in Tulsa yesterday.  It actually originated in Kansas but it was felt in this area.  I didn't feel it, I was driving at the time.  Bill was home, he was working on a pachinko machine.  He has a bobblehead-style Hula Girl figurine that was a gift, the person who gave it to him thought it would look cute in the El Camino but it never got there.  It's been sitting on a shelf in the office/pachinko room, along with the Stripper Doll that Sweetie gave him last Christmas!!  Anyway, he was sitting in front of his work bench/desk when the Hula Girl started shaking her grass skirt!  (Or maybe she was just cold?!) :)

 

My migraine didn't last too long, I went to bed feeling cold last night but that is also a symptom I sometimes have.  I have a suspicion that those disgusting, bad, EVIL cinnamon scented pinecones had more than a little bit to do with the headache.  Otter went to Michael's yesterday after she got off work, she was standing by some of them herself and she started to get a migraine as well.  Those things should be illegal!

 

It's still pretty cold and will be for a few days.  The "S" word has been used, by the forecasters on all the local stations.  I don't think we're supposed to get more than a dusting, if anything at all, and it is forecast for either Saturday or Sunday.  We're prepared, but then we usually are.  IF we get anything, it probably won't be a snowed or iced in situation, just very cold.  I am going to spend the weekend inside anyway, in front of the fireplace mostly and a hook in one hand and yarn in the other.  Although I might go to a used book store with Otter on Sunday to trade in her boatload of books that she cleaned out before she moved.

 

I loaded the trunk of my car up with stuff she is donating.  I'll take it tomorrow and give it all to Goodwill.  She was over here for a while this afternoon, she helped me move the last of the pile of her stuff out of the center of the craft room, and then we moved the rest of my yarn stash in there.  I vacuumed the closet again and a part of the middle of the room.  Then we moved the sofa table to where it's more centered in front of the living room window.  Otter is going to get me a couple of boxes from work, the remaining pile of stuff will be boxed up for her to go through as she has time.  The picnic baskets are now in the closet, there is still a stack of boxes that has her notebooks and sketchbooks and will eventually be put up in the attic.  She left a plastic 5-drawer unit, it has "office" supplies, some craft stuff, some drawing pencils and lots of misc. stuff; she thinks she wants it but she hasn't had time to go through it yet.  I might move it into the closet for now.  I'll probably get that done next week or in the next few days, then I'll get the sewing machines moved to the desk.

 

I also filled up two of my seed feeders for the birds, I'll put them out in the morning.  I need to get a few more suet feeder refills.  Maybe tomorrow, but if not the birds will still be fine with the plain seed feeders.  The dogs were very interested in what I was doing, they like birdseed and seemed to be a little unhappy that they didn't get it!

 

Otter came by so Bill could check the car.  The "check engine" light came on again today, which is what it did a few weeks back.  They took the car to the auto parts store and got it tested.  It's probably a clogged valve, which will be around $80 for the part and Bill can fix it himself - when the current cold snap is over!

Sunday Birds Toads and Water

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

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

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

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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOADLES!

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

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

It's a Beautiful Day

Really nice and also like Spring, not like the first week of July!  The sky is gorgeous, the perfect shade of blue and no clouds at all.  It's warm but not hot and there are birdies chirping all over the place.

 

It was in the 50's last night.  The 50's!  In July.  Bill opened the house up this morning, it was nice & cool.  The birdies were chirping their little feathered heads off then, too.  Including a huge dove that landed in one of the trees in the back yard.

 

Well Done, Tulsa Police Department! Well Done.

 

Today has been a "whatever" day.  Otter had to work, she talked me into taking her this morning and we took the recycling stuff on the way.  Bill's been working on his pachinko restoration as well as moving more of his stuff back to the office/pachinko workroom.  I've been doing stuff around the house, and for the first time in a long time and probably the last time in a long time, the laundry basket is empty!  That won't last long, it never does.  I swept the front porch off, judging by the "evidence" I'd say the resident bat has been back.  Fine with me, he is welcome to come eat all the buggies he can catch!

 

Otter and I have shopping plans tomorrow.  At least in the morning, she still has quite a bit of sewing and misc. stuff to do on her cosplay clothing.  But we are going to the mall so I can go to the Coach store about getting some of their leather cleaner/conditioner and we're going to hit a few thrift stores while we are out and about.  Bill's going to be enjoying the day at home, he is still working on the pachinko restoration and the work room but he enjoys it.  Seems like it would be work-like to me, but not to him.

 

Well, Bill just reminded me that I was going to mail something but I forgot to take it when I got Otter from work so I guess I'd better head in the general direction of the post office!  I guess I'd better check the UPS box while I'm at it, and I think that he also wants me to take his car so I will run it by a gas pump while I'm at it.

 

Also, Blogger is acting up again.  Froggy, your comment posted but when I told it to post KN#3's comment, it sent hers to the delete file.  I was able to find it but I couldn't get it to post or move the comment back to the "waiting to post" file so I retyped what she said and posted it that way.  I do remember Uncle Buck's RV and he would generally have a crowd of grandkids with him where and whenever he travelled, now that I've had time to think about it I do remember Mom saying something about the rain when y'all went to the zoo but I don't remember all the actual details.

 

OK, the post office is waiting on me!

Slightly Accented

OK, so I'm a little more than slightly!  Happens after spending several days in TEXAS.  I make a serious effort not to lose my TEXAS accent, but it does soften over time.  But then I go Home again and get my TEXAN batteries recharged.  The TEXAN batteries power up my accent, among other things, and I always talk "right" upon my return to Okieland.  I'm even noticing it today, so it must be more pronounced than usual.  Not that I'm complaining!  Never about TEXAS or things TEXAN.

 

Froggy commented that the little town I couldn't remember the name of is Round Rock.  We hit several places in our shopping frenzy and they weren't all in the same town(s) so I got a little confused.

 

Otter had one night last week when she had to work until midnight.  She was scheduled for it, they were getting ready for the parking lot sale which involved a large tent and stocking it.  However, this is Oklahoma and it is Spring.  Which means that it rained.  A lot, from what she and Bill told me.  Enough that some of the merchandise got wet and the tent was basically useless, so after a few days and many hours of setting it up and stocking it, everything had to be moved back inside.  She texted me when she got home that night (I was asleep in Froggy's guest bedroom) and it was somewhere around 12:20 a.m.  She said that an owl flew in front of the car as she was leaving the parking lot, it was probably chasing something it wanted to eat.

 

Bill was sick over the weekend.  He didn't tell Otter because a) she would have worried and b) she would have told me.  He didn't tell me because a) I was several hundred miles away and would have worried and b) I was several hundred miles away and couldn't get on him about taking care of himself!  I think he had a cold-ish bug, he is still somewhat congested.

 

I managed to get to the grocery store today.  It was kind of busy, I intended to go yesterday but I was just too tired to deal with it.  I got in and out in 45 minutes or so, but they were out of the specific ground turkey meat we like so I still have another trip ahead of me but it's going to be a quick one.

 

I finally got my hummingbird feeders up.  This morning.  I put two of them up, I'm a little behind where I normally am.  By this time they have usually been up for a month or 6 weeks, but it's been rainy and cool too often to have them.  Hopefully, we'll still have some.

 

That's it for now!  More in a few days.  When I'm caught up on my resting.  And I'll still be accented then, too!  :)

Maggie? Maaaagiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!!!!! MAGGIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we call the dogs, we have a specific way we say each of their names.  Maggie Moo has a frequent case of "convenient hearing" when we call her - which means she ignores whomever is yelling for her.

 

A few days ago, she was out in the back yard doing whatever beagles do when they are on their own.  Usually crawling under the shed in her case!  I called her several times and then I realized something.  The resident mockingbird has learned to call her, too!  Not that she listened to the bird anymore than she did to me, but it was really funny to hear the bird.  The mockingbird doesn't quite have the word down yet, but "he" had the exact cadence and pitch exactly.  I think it's probably a matter of time until the bird learns to mimic the actual word "Maggie."  Then it's going to be really fun!

 

Froggy, you asked me about Bill's shoe size:  11 1/2 Wide.  He tried on a pair at the store in question today and I know which style so I know what to get him at the discounted place.  I don't know how much the store wanted for them today, the ones I like are $108 at the store in Tulsa that sells them.  I'm sure the discounted place is much cheaper, it was the last time I was there.  I'm not sure if Otter wants any of that particular brand, I'll ask her and if she does want any then we'll go by the shoe store on Saturday after the flea market so she can pick a pair out and I'll get the size and style.  But I think she's got several pairs of sandles already so I'm not sure if she'll want any more or not.  But they do have some really cute purses...

 

I called the vet today and ordered more of the tranquilizers for Fraiser.  He doesn't need them very often, but I like to keep them on hand and I think the bottle we have now only has one or two left.  I'm thinking I'll probably give him one tonight, he's been pretty good at night but he's waking up earlier and earlier here lately.  When he wakes up, he's ready to go outside to visit the grass.  We usually get up around 5:00 on weekdays, but he's been barking his "gotta go outside" bark earlier and it was probably around 4:45 this morning.  I'm not going to let him get into the habit of thinking I'm going to get up and let him out just because he barks because I don't think he really wants out.  This morning, he didn't seem to actually want out at all - I think he just wanted me.  I'm going to break this habit before it gets going again, nobody wants to go through that again!

 

I got the oil changed in my car this morning.  If I get there right at 7:00, when the Chevy place opens, they can generally get my car done and I get on the road to work by 7:40 and sometimes earlier.  I got about 1 1/2 rows done on my current crochet project while I waited.

 

Happy news:  I bought a pair of blue jeans today.  And they are a size smaller than the ones I bought in December!  The ones I bought in December had gotten pretty loose, but I really wasn't sure if the next size down would fit me yet or not.  I was very pleasantly surprised that it did, so of course I had to buy them!  Actually, I really did need them since the other pair are pretty loose and Otter likes to tease me about wearing my jeans low - because I raised my arms the other day and the front of my jeans dropped quite a bit exposing my belly.  She thought it was really funny, for some reason!

 

We've been watching The World Wars mini-series on the History Channel.  It's really good, very well done.  It's a lot to pack into 6 hours, but they have done a very good job.

 

OK, I think that was everything I wanted to talk about tonight.