OK So it's Tuesday

And I don't really have a lot to talk about, but I am going to try to get back into the blogging thing!

I don't want to upset Froggy, after all!  :)

I was looking back over some of the stuff I posted in the past.  This year has not been very busy at all, especially compared to last year.  The last 3 or 4 years, we were dealing with Bill's job/hell-on-Earth situation and then last year had a lot of car/Otter/Otter's roommate/Otter's multiple moves happening.  But this year has been fairly calm.  Which is a Very Good Thing.

The Presidential election is in a very short few weeks.  I will be so glad when it's over!  It's one of the dirtiest I can recall.  I'm not impressed with either of them.  I'm not normally quiet about who I vote for, but this year I may be.  It's just not a good choice, either way!

I like this one:

And this one:

But I think I have a better choice:

Maggie Moo & Babbicat!  (Babbiecat is J's cat).

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun?

Or when you just get busy and forget about blogging.

It's been over a month since I last even thought about blogging and that was on Star Trek Day.  Guess I'd better get caught up.

Well, for starters Maggie Moo has spent a lot of time visiting the vet.  Her ears were still bothering her so she had to spend more time on the abtibiotic and steroid plus the vet injected the ointment into both ears again.  She finally got over that and then she had a spot come up on the top of one of her toes on her right foot.  We thought it was a tick at first, it was not noticeable on a Thursday but on a Friday it was there.  But it was too late to call the vet so we had to wait until Monday morning.  By Monday morning, it was obviously a cyst and was much larger.  The vet saw her that evening and told me to bring her back the next morning because he was afraid to leave it on any longer since it was growing so fast.  Because of her age, 12 years, he didn't want to put her completely under so she got a little stronger than a local but not quite anesthestized.  He said it came off easily and while she was groggy he also got a few of the skin tags she's developed over the years.  The cyst that was removed from the top of her head a few years ago acted like it was trying to come back, it was a little larger, so he hit it again too.  She was in a cone for a few days and was not happy!  I don't blame her, but that was the only way we could keep her from chewing on her foot.  She got pretty good with that cone, she was very proficient at running into my legs.  She figured out how to eat and get water with it.  But she was glad when it came off and stayed off.

I took Otter and her best friend to see the 30th Anniversary special showing of the movie Labrynth.  It was a lot of fun, we had pizza for lunch and went to a book store since we had plenty of time before the movie.  The movie was very good, it has always been one of my favorites.  But it was also very emotional, for all three of us.  I had plenty of kleenex on hand and we needed them!  I'm glad that Otter was finally able to see it on the big screen, she had only seen it on dvd.  The movie was re-released on blu-ray for the 30th anniversary and I bought it as soon as I saw it.  We had a copy, but it moved out with Otter 2 years ago!  It was released in two versions, one is just the movie but I bought the special one which is neat.  The case looks like a book.  It has a special "Remembering the Goblin King" but I have not watched it yet - too emotional!

We tried a new recipe.  We made pizzas on frozen garlic bread.  We used the sliced Texas Toast version.  It was actually pretty good, but they were not very filling.  We will probably make it again, but we will use more sauce than we did the first time.

Texas played ou and it was not our year.  Since I never got around to getting a Longhorn sticker on my newish car, we didn't have to deal with any of the idiots this year.

Speaking of the newish car, it did have a problem.  After I got my oil changed, the "check engine" light came on and the oil change place checked it for me (it was a couple of days later.)  It was the vent valve to the gas tank and was covered by Chevy's warranty so it didn't cost us anything.  Which is good, but I must admit that when I saw the "check engine" light my first thought was the 2002 impala and all the trouble we had with it!

Otter and I went thrfting one day and we both found several things.  I found a couple of skirts, a nice cardigan sweater and I found this:

It's probably not handmade, but it is also not new.  It's at the very least vintage.  It has a Made in Japan tag, and it was made back when that actually meant something special.  I handwashed it, but I didn't have any place to lay it flat to dry so I had to hang it over the shower curtain rod.  It stretched out a lot more than I wanted it to, so I hung it back over the rod but sideways this time.  Then I sprayed it with water until it was between damp and soaking, and it stretched out sideways.  As it did, it pulled the length back up a bit which is what I was hoping it would do.  It's still longer than it was when I bought it, but it's not too long to wear.  And I will find an occasion to wear it!  It's hanging over the shower curtain in this picture.  It's very delicate and was $2.00 or possibly less.

October 1st was two years since this:

That's Bill's car (the el camino) with nearly everything Otter owned at that point.  She has more furniture, etc. now than she did then so it would take more than one truck load to move her.  Not that she's in any hurry.  The two moves in the same complex last year were enough for her for a long time.  She did consider moving last summer, but that would also have involved a job transfer to another location her employer opened in a near by town but she decided against it.  She's been in her current apartment for nearly a year now and she's going to see about renewing her lease when it expire at the end of November.  She would like a 6 month lease but is probably going to have to sign for another year.  She likes her apartment, it's not too far from work or us and it's close to a lot of things.  But she would like a slightly cheaper rent and that would probably mean a little farther from work. She is thinking that IF she did decide to move to a cheaper apartment, it would be easier to do that in the summer as opposed to the Fall/Winter since her lease runs to the end of November.  Either way, she likes being on her own with no romemate to worry about!

Vacation Recap

I actually had intended to blog more last week when I was off work.  Didn't happen, obviously. :)

Anyway.  It was a good vacation.  Last summer's vacation was dominated by some really bad stuff that was happening at Bill's job and it was really bad.  Last December's vacation wasn't as bad, but Bill was sick for several days and that wasn't fun.  I really, really, REALLY needed a good vacation.

Otter had a car trouble incident that turned out to be somewhat minor.  When I was still driving that car, last summer in fact, there were two times when it wouldn't start.  Bill thought maybe that it wasn't totally in park - or at least the sensor didn't think so.  Bill suggested that I try to move the gear to R and then back to P if it did it again.  It did and I did, the car started fine after that and then we didn't have any more problems with it.  Then it started doing it again after it became Otter's car.  The trick worked for her, then it stopped working and Bill went to where she was a few times - and it worked perfectly as soon as he tried to start it.  He did some researching and thought maybe it was the starter sensor or possibly the starter itself.  Then it was fine again and we all kind of forgot about it.  Last Wednesday, Otter came over and we went to the not exactly next door town to pick up J.  We shopped there, then went into Tulsa and shopped some more, then we eventually wound up back at home.  Otter and J left in her car, and they eventually wound up back at his house.  She was going to leave about 8:30 p.m. to head home and the car would not start.  At all.  She tried Bill's trick and after about half an hour, she called me.  She said she really didn't want to call because she knew the car would be fine as soon as Bill got there.  But this time, it wouldn't start for him either.  He spent about 30 minutes attempting to start it and he took the starter sensor from my car to see if that was the problem.  But the sensor for my car wasn't the same size as her car's sensor.  Since her car was in a safe spot - J's mom's driveway, we wound up leaving it there.  We took her home and looked up Chevy dealers that were within her AAA towing limit.  There was one in the small town the car was in, I picked her up very early (like 6:00 a.m. early) and we went back to the not exactly next door small town.  The car started on the first try, so she drove it to our small town and I followed her.  We went to a local Chevy dealership and they thought it was either the starter or the sensor.  They never could duplicate the problem, but they agreed with Bill that the sensor was the most likely problem because the starter itself looks good.  Which is a good thing, as the starter would be about $900.00 to replace.  The replaced the sensor and Otter's been watching it since then.  So far so good, but she's not going too far from home.

Bill cleaned the carpet in the living room last week, when we moved the loveseat to the opposite side of the living room a few weeks ago it was very obvious that the carpet needed to be cleaned.  The last time we cleaned it was 3 years ago I think.  The area under the loveseat was much lighter than the rest of the carpet.  Now it all matches.  He's going to get the hallway in the next few days.  I would like to do the yarn room again but he just cleaned it in January so it's probably ok for a while.

I did a little shopping in the area but didn't really buy much.  I spent some time crocheting, which was good, and we mostly just goofed off.  It was a pretty good week, actually.

Yes, I am Still Here!

Just beating Froggy to it, now you don't have to nag me!!  :)

Miss Maggie Moo went to the vet today.  It was time for her rabies and distemper shots, plus it's been two months since her last "read alignment" and that is about how often she needs them.  As usual, she also get her claws trimmed.  Because this was a shot day, she also got an exam and the vet thinks she's actually very healthy and doing very good.  She doesn't quite look her age, she is still a "young" older dog and that's a good thing.  She does have slightly yeasty ears again, so she has an ointment which I will start using on her ears tonight.  We'll see how that goes!  She weighs 34 pounds.

When Otter got the 2008 impala from us, she also got the remote that goes with the car.  The remote had come apart on me a couple of times but then I forgot about it.  It came apart a couple of times on Otter and I looked on eBay to see if I could find another one.  The idea was to take the guts out of her remote and put them in a newer one.  I found a couple but they were either more shipping cost than I thought it should be or the feedback on the seller was bad.  Then we all kind of forgot about it.  Until yesterday morning, which Otter texted me that the remote had come apart again and this time the chip that makes it all work fell out.  She realized it when she was at home as she was unlocking her door, and she thought that it fell out when she was checking her mail because she had used it to lock her car when she got home from work.  She looked for the chip around the mailbox and she retraced her steps but couldn't find it.  Well, it was green and it probably fell in the grass so that's not surprising.  She had the key so she could still lock/unlock/drive the car.  The most that someone would have been able to do would be to start the car but without the key it wouldn't be driveable and it would only run for 8 minutes anyway.  I called Chevy about a replacement.  $150 - $250 for a replacement, or $60 to rewire one if she got a used remote and they wouldn't guarantee it if it didn't come from them.  She was thinking she'd get a used one but then she went back to the mailbox area one more time to look.  And she found the chip!  It was still green and still in grass, and we've had rain, so it was surprising a) that she found it and b) that it still works.  She put the remote back together and was trying to figure out how to keep it together but still be able to open it up when she needed to change the battery.  Then I remembered that I had a car years ago which had a burglar alarm and the remote had a pouch that held it.  I looked online and found a few, and today I ordered her one.  It should be here by the middle of next week.  She will put the remote in the pouch and then it attaches to a key chain but it should keep the remote from coming apart; if it does manage to open up it won't be able to move apart enough for the chip to fall out and the chip won't fit through the opening anyway.  I ordered one for myself as well, maybe it will make it harder for me to accidentally hit the trunk release button!  I did that a lot at first, not so much anymore but I still do occasionally.  I actually have two remotes but I only carry one at a time.  Bill has the 2nd key to my car but he didn't want to carry the remote because his keychain is already pretty heavy.

OK Froggy - I managed to blog this week!

Timelines!

I'm putting the 2002 Impala timeline on here so that I don't forget it

Otter started driving that car as her main transportation after she moved out of our house, that was October 2014.  She and Bill basically shared it, I picked her up and took her to work a few times depending on her schedule mostly.  Winter hit early and Bill really did not want to drive the El Camino because it is basically a giant sled on icy roads so Otter and I managed to get her to work on the days when he needed the car.  After we got through the bulk of the winter, we basically just left the car at her place and she drove it on a mostly daily basis.  (She didn't actually become the owner of record until April of 2015.)

February 2015 is when we put the two front tires on it and had the front end alignment done.  Both were necessary, the tires were bad but the front end needed to be aligned very badly and especially when we put the new tires on it so they didn't wear in spots.  Sometime after that, the "check engine" light came on.  I'm not sure exactly when but I think it was before the title was transferred to her name.  We had it checked at the auto parts store that does that for free, they thought maybe it was the sensor so Bill replaced it.  It went off but then it came back on again after a little while.  They checked it again and thought that maybe the new sensor was not good so they exchanged it.  It was off for a while then it came back on.  We had it checked at the local repair shop when they did an oil change, they couldn't find anything but they did reset the light.  After a while, it came back on.  At that point, the car was  still not titled in Otter's name.  I was driving it one day, I think maybe my car was getting something done and Otter let me borrow it.  The "check engine" light was still on and then it had another warning about checking the engine but it was a different warning and potentially very serious.  We took it to Chevy then.  And that was the last time we went to that particular dealership because they lied to me about a lot of things but they did at least say that they checked and the engine was ok so they thought the sensor was just bad and that unless it did specific things, the car was safe to drive.  So Otter had the title transferred into her name in early April.

The car seemed to be fine, the engine light stayed on but it never did anything else.  When the oil was changed, the repair shop would reset the light but it would come back on after a while.  She drove it through the spring, summer and early fall with no problems.  There were a couple of times when she went out of town and left it with us since she didn't want to leave it at her apartment complex and Bill drove it then.  It acted fine.

The first part of August, I don't remember but it was within the first couple of days of the month, she and J were at our house and it was parked in our driveway.  Bill noticed that the radiator seemed to have sprung a leak.  Bill told her when she got the car that we would take care of any repairs for her for the first year - at least "normal usage" repairs but Otter always takes care of things so we weren't worried!  He replaced the radiator and it seemed to be fine.

Then on November 1st (or maybe 2nd?), she was on her way home from the not-quite-next-door little town that J lives in and it was about 9:00 at night.  That's when the temperature gauge suddenly shot up to the dangerously high reading and she pulled over so she could call us.  We got there and Bill checked it, it did not look like it was overheating but it was still warm.  He drove it home and she rode with me.  He had to pull over a time or two, on the turnpike where there are no lights!  She took my car home and we kept the 2002.  I took it to the local repair shop the next morning.  They decided that it still had air from the radiator being replaced, which was a logical thing to think.

It drove fine for a couple of weeks, then the temp gauge started to run hot again and the "low coolant" light came on.  At the time, Bill (and the neighbor who is a mechanic plus the mechanics at the local shop) all thought that it was probably just more air working it's way out of the system because Bill was able to get more air out of.  It kept doing it and he kept "burping" it.  But when it didn't stop and the temp gauge sometimes went all the way up, Bill thought it might be the thermostat.  Again, so did all the mechanics!

We had been discussing buying Bill a used car to drive so that the El Camino could be parked over the winter like we usually did with it.  But then he was afraid that we would be buying somebody else's problem so we decided to buy me a new car and then he would drive the 2008.  Except that Otter's car was still acting up and we decided to offer her the 2008 in trade for the 2002.  She decided to take us up on the offer so we went back to the title agency.  She had the 2008 transferred to her and we had the 2002 transferred back to us.  We bought my new car and Bill drove the 2002.  It worked fine for a while, but then it started acting up again and each time it was worse.  Everyone agreed that it sounded like the thermostat so he decided to have another chevy dealership look at it when he got the next oil change and they were also able to do the ignition recall issue that the first chevy dealership said couldn't be done.  That was a couple of weeks ago, the last Friday in January.  That is when they determined that it was a cracked head gasket - something that the first chevy dealership probably should have seen and that just convinced us even more that we were right to not use them anymore.  Especially since they claimed to have checked the car over and the problem would have been evident!  In hindsight, we probably should have just gone to the 2nd chevy dealership at that time.  Since the repair was going to cost just under $3,000.00, we decided the car was not worth that much.  Which it really wasn't.

When the "check engine" light came on might not be when the head gasket cracked, but it was probably at least beginning to leak at that point.  When it actually cracked is probably when the radiator leak happened, because of the air/coolant being forced through it under pressure and at high heat.  It basically cascaded from one problem to another and none of it was "textbook" for a cracked head gasket which is why everyone thought it was the thermostat.  We were pretty surprised when it turned out to be the actual problem with the head gasket.  The car itself would only be worth $1,500.00 on a good day and in better shape.

It went to an auction last Thursday.  It did sell, for more than we thought but not for very much.  Which is fine, it's out of our way now and we don't have to worry that Bill (or Otter) will be stranded on the side of the road again.  I think the buyer probably bought it for parts.  It's an older car with over 150,000 miles on it after all.  I still see several of that body style on the road, it was one of chevy's best selling vehicles.  They did get it right with that car.  It just wore out, basically.  But when we bought it, we intended to drive it until it wasn't driveable anymore and that's pretty much what we did and for many years.  With regular maintenance, cars can last a long time and we certainly feel like we got our money's worth out of it.  Otter is very happy with the 2008, she said she actually likes it better than the 2002.  I'm very pleased with the 2015 and Bill does like to drive the El Camino but he is also thinking about selling it and then getting another car to drive.  That probably won't be anytime soon, if he actually decides to do that.   But then again there are still times when we need a truck, so he really doesn't know what he wants to do.  I just wish we had realized much earlier that there was a serious problem and what it was.

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.

Car Trouble

We've finally gotten an official answer on what the problem is with the 2002 Impala that was mine, then Bill's, then Otter's, then ours.  Bill's been driving in since it stranded her on the side of the road in October.  Everything that he's wondered about and our neighbor (who is a part-time mechanic) has wondered about have been related to the thermostat.  Bill talked to the repair shop we've used and they were also stumped.  They wondered about the cooling fans, but Bill replaced those a while back.  It was a logical guess, given the way it was acting.  They never actually saw it for the issues it was having, beyond "burping" the radiator - which it probably did need.  It acted fine for a while after that, then it started acting like it was overheating and having some other related troubles.  That's when we traded cars with Otter, she got the 2008 and we took the 2002 back.  We didn't take it back to the repair shop at that point because Bill kept thinking it was minor and then he finally just decided to take it to Chevy - but the repair shop would probably have had no trouble diagnosing the problem, we just never took it back there.  So I'm not complaining about them!  We have used them when we needed to and will continue to.  It may be a while, the El Camino hasn't been driven much since it's last oil change and the '15 can go much further between oil changes than cars used to.  Otter's car has brand new tires, the repair shop put them on when it was my car last summer.  I don't remember how old the El Camino tires are but I don't think they are too old.

Bill took the 2002 to Chevy last Friday.  He asked them to do the oil change it needed and they also were able to do the recall issue - unlike the first Chevy dealership!  In hindsight, we probably could have skipped the oil change although it wasn't terribly expensive and it isn't really a big deal.  But I do wish Bill had not stopped at the gas station on the way home from Chevy on Friday!

The problem turned out to be fairly serious.  And fairly expensive.  It has a cracked head gasket.  Which is probably due entirely to normal age and wear.  It's a 2002 and it's well over 100,000 miles - I think it may be closer to (or over) 150,000 miles.  The repair estimate is just under $3,000.00.  The car itself is probably worth about half that, or maybe less.  So, since Otter has a safe car (the 2008), I have the new car and Bill has the El Camino to drive, we've decided it's time to tell the '02 goodbye.  I think we're probably going to take care of that this week, we know someone who has an auction for used cars and that's probably our best bet.

It's been a good car and we very much feel like we got our money's worth out of it.  Otter learned to drive in it and I enjoyed it when it was my car, then Bill drove it for a few years so we've gotten a lot of use out of it.  It's just not worth spending that much on it.

The El Camino did have an issue, the part was hard to find because it's a 1976 vehicle but Bill was able to fix it himself.  We usually park the El Camino through the winter because it is basically like a giant sled when the weather is icy.  We may still get another used car for Bill, but not at the moment.  We'll worry about that later on.

In the meantime, at least now we know and we don't have to worry about it.

Shaky Situation

There have been a lot of earthquakes over the last 24 ish hours.  I haven't felt any of them, but they have been felt in my area and I think into Kansas.  At about 10:30 last night, Bill was still awake and he felt the bed shaking for a couple of minutes.  Twice!  I slept through it all, but from the reports on the news this morning they were pretty big quakes.

We've been busy this week.  We have company coming this weekend, so we cleaned the carpet in the guest/front/craft/YARN room.  Which means that Maggie Moo is not allowed in there are the moment.  She is not amused!  Bill moved the futon out into the living room and got the carpet cleaner going on Tuesday evening.  The cleaner has a fairly pleasant scent, but it was just enough to send my already iffy allergies over the edge.  He also cleaned the carpet in our bathroom, which for some reason didn't actually work - there are now spots in there that we couldn't see before he cleaned it.  Anyway, because my allergies were on overdrive he suggested I sleep on the futon in the living room that night and since I couldn't breathe through my nose at all when I got even close to our room I decided to take him up on the suggestion.  Maggie seemed to like having me in there.  She showed her happiness by snoring all night long.  Loudly!  Wednesday morning, I vacuumed in there again since the carpet was dry and then Bill put the futon back in there that evening.  Maggie has been blocked from there since then.  She's not pleased.

We have a fairly good chance of winter weather on Saturday but it could also just be cold and rainy.  Sunday is supposed to be very cold.  Bill brought in a load of firewood.  So far, we've only used the fireplace once this winter.  By this time, we've usually used it several times.  Today was overcast and grey, the forecast was literally "gloomy" and they were right about that.  But gloomy makes me think of one thing only:

Love me some Eeyore!

But I don't like gloomy weather.

Bill's car was acting up yesterday and he finally decided to just call Chevy and talk to them.  He told them all the things it's doing and what he's done so far, they said that they would like to look at it and to plan on leaving it there a couple of days.  It's kind of got everyone stumped.  That will probably happen next week.  Of course, today it was fine with no problems whatsoever!  I drove it when I went to the grocery store tonight and it acted perfect.

Otter's cell phone had a problem, the "end" key wasn't working.  So we took it to Verizon yesterday and had them check it.  She was going to go early in the day since she was off but since the account is in my name she asked me if I'd go with her in case there was any issue with her name not being the primary on the account.  I went over to her apartment yesterday after work and we went to the closest store.  They did need me to be there, so I'm glad I went.  The phone is no longer under warranty, but because we pay for the insurance on the phones (learned that lesson the hard way!) they said that she could exchange it for a new one.  They arranged to have it shipped to us and said it should be here by Friday or possibly Saturday.  But it was apparently shipped overnight because it arrived at the new mail box place today.  She can either activate it herself (they emailed instructions) or she can take it to the store and ask them to do it for her.  I'll get it to her tomorrow, I didn't have time today.

Most of the reason I didn't have time is because Bill had ordered 30 boxes he uses to ship pachinko machines in - they are big boxes.  They arrived today.  On a pallet and weighing a whole lot!  They were shipped to the new mailbox place - but the pallet wouldn't fit in the door.  They wound up leaving the pallet of boxes outside their door but it was plastic wrapped which was a good thing because it was rainy.  When I got home, Bill and I took the El Camino back there and got the boxes on their pallet.  It literally filled the entire bed of the truck and he really couldn't see over the top of them when he looked out the back window.  The boxes are now stacked in the garage.  I went to the grocery store after we got home from getting the boxes.  It rained while I was in the store and I'm really glad that the boxes were already home and inside.  He has to buy them and they are not cheap.  But he has to get strong, sturdy boxes for the pachinko machines.

And just because he's so much fun, one more Eeyore!

I thought this one was appropriate.

Still At It

Posting here, that is.  For a while anyway.

I finally got my car registered.  It only took several calls to Enterprise to ask them where the registration paperwork was - and the last few were more than a hint of *RHTW getting on them.  The last time I talked to them, last week, they promised me that the paperwork had been overnighted to me but then it turned out that the paperwork had just been mailed the regular way and even then it arrived several days after they said it would.  It finally arrived on Saturday, too late to go to the tag agency to get it registered while it was still within the 30 days from purchase.  After 30 days, then you get charged a fee for each day until it's registered.  But the lady at the tag agency remembered me from when we switched titles for Otter and Bill last week, I asked her then what would happen if the paperwork was late then she didn't charge me for the extra day when I got it registered today.

I was able to get the recall taken care of on the 2008 Impala last week.  It's now officially Otter's car, and Bill is the official owner of the 2002.  He's still having issues with it and we may be taking it to a Chevy dealership to ask them about the thermostat.  I'd like to take care of that this week, but it might actually be next week because this is a very busy week for us.

We're both back to work today, last week was vacation for me but Bill had several holiday days off.  He was off for 2 full weeks, I had a week plus one day off.  I really, really did not want to get up this morning, I kind of enjoyed being able to sleep in almost every day last week!

We may get more winter weather this week.  There is the possibility of a little bit of a winter mix late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning.  Also, this weekend is supposed to be pretty cold.  Bill cleaned the fireplace this afternoon and brought in a lot of firewood.

Otter came over yesterday with a lot of laundry.  While her 2nd load was in the washing machine, she and I ran away for a shopping trip.  We went to a thrift store and also to Target so she could look for a waffle maker.  There is one at Target she might get.  We also finally got our annual family tradition Christmas Eve trip to the dollar store - we just did it on January 3!  It was still fun, it was just several days late.  :)  She also walked Maggie Moo with me, Maggie Moo does not like the fact that she doesn't get walks when it's cold.  But she's quite happy with the cold weather meaning a fire in the fireplace!  Little goof.

Yep, she's a goof.

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.