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.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving! And More. (EDITED)

Hopefully everyone is having a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Just because Maggie Moo wants to say hi:

This picture is from a few days ago.  I came across this bandana in my craft stuff and Maggie looked kind of happy when she saw it.  So I tied it around her neck and she was very happy.  I left it on her for a long time and she seemed quite content.  She was eager to go out in the back yard when I took this picture, that's what the look on her furry face is about.  "Hurry UP!  I gots stuff to do!"

She attempted to get a squirrel this morning.  I let her out in the back yard and she was about half-way across the deck when she spotted a squirrel all the way across the yard, in the shady corner behind the shelf.  She went from slooooow mid-step to full warp speed the second she spotted it, and evidently she thought she could actually catch it.  But it was already too late, the squirrel saw her before she saw it and it was up on the fence and running down the top to safety before she was even off the deck!  Silly doggie. :)  By the time I was able to call her name, she was already half-way across the yard.  She is fast when she wants to be.  She was not happy that I wouldn't let her go after the squirrel, but he was long gone by that point.  Not that I would have let her get it, but she is a beagle and that is the instinct.

Otter's internet was not transferred after all yesterday.  The company had both her cell phone and J's, they also (obviously!) knew which apartment they were transferring from and which apartment they were transferring to.  The guy called her (she was at work) about 20 minutes after 5:00 and she told him that someone was at the apartment they were transferring from.  Then that was the last she heard of him.  At about 8:20, she called me so I could look up the office number for her and I gave it to her but I also told her to call him back at the number he called her from.  He said that he'd gone to the apartment but nobody was there so he left.  IF he even went at all, he went to the one that they are transferring TO and never to the one that they are transferring service FROM.  He never called either one of the phone numbers to say he was there or to ask where anybody was who might be waiting on him - both things he was supposed to do if he got there before J was at the old apartment.  I told her she should call him back again and remind him of all that, and demand that he get back and do what he was supposed to but she didn't have enough time on her break and is going to call the office Friday.  She's going to give them an earful, and it's going to be her version of *RHTW.  She is going to tell them that they need to get out there tomorrow afternoon, but who knows if they'll do that or not.  They will get it switched, it's just a question of when and if they will do what they are supposed to.

Because we originally thought we would still be moving furniture today, at least that was the probable plan if it had rained like it was supposed to do, we didn't really have anything in the way of Thanksgiving planned.  So J and Otter have gone with J's dad to visit his family outside of Tulsa.  Otter texted me earlier, they were giving her a tour of haunted sites in the county that they are visiting.  I think she was really enjoying it.  I have a frozen lasagne in the freezer and some garlic toast, Bill and I are going to have that tonight as our Thanksgiving feast.  I did get to Braums and managed to snag one of the two strawberry cheesecake ice cream pies they had left, so we even have dessert.  We have already gotten into the pie, we had a very light lunch and decided we needed dessert. :)

When she moved out of our house, she left her stackable shoe shelves and I used them with my craft stuff.  Bill bought a tall plastic shelf unit, like the ones we have already.  He put it in the office/pachinko/junk room.  He claims he's going to get a little more organized in there, but I'll believe it when I see it!  Anyway, I decided to get one for my craft stuff.  I put it together and put it in the room, but I haven't had time to really get it organized yet.  My stuff WILL be organized!  I'm also going to be able to get the sewing machines out of the closet and sit them on it and possibly some (or maybe all) of the fabric/sewing stuff - although quite a bit of the sewing and fabric related stuff is Otters and it may be going to her apartment at some point.  She said she wanted the shoe shelves since I'm not using them anymore, so I took them over to her new apartment this morning.  Nobody was up yet, so I left them in her living room.  Along with a hammer that Bill is loaning her and some wood.

When we were moving her furniture yesterday, Bill was moving her bookshelf and it kind of had an accident.  It's wooden and very heavy, about 6' tall and we bought it out of surplus and a local school district when we first moved into our old house when Otter was 2.  It has always been in her room to hold things and she's been using it lately as an actual book shelf.  It's huge and she also has more books than it can hold, which actually is a Good Thing.  Anyway, Bill got it (with the dolly) out of her old apartment, down the stairs and across the sidewalk to the door to the other side of the building without a problem.  But then he stopped to rest a minute and check his cellphone to see what time it was.  It was windy and cool, and as soon as he stopped and took his hand off of the bookshelf there was a very strong gust of wind and the bookshelf went right over.  It landed flat on the front and it landed hard.  It wasn't broken, probably due to the sturdy construction and solid wood, but there are a couple of places where it looks like part of it tried to separate at the top corner and bottom where the feet are.  It can be hammered back into place, but she only has a small hammer so Bill loaned her one of his (many, too many) hammers and also a few pieces of wood to use as hammering blocks.  She may also wind up using them as shims to secure it because when she and Bill put it in place, it looked like it was leaning to the front.  They moved it to another corner and it wasn't leaning.  She asked the apartment office about that, and they said what we thought - it's an old building and it's quite possible that there may be some settling.  Not enough to even be worried and the building is structurally sound.  But the bookcase may need a little support under the front if she decides to put it where she originally wanted it.

The plan at this point is that I'm going to the grocery store in the morning and Bill is going to take the El Camino to get the oil changed and also to get something checked on it.  If his car is going to be there for a while, I'll bring him back home.  If it's a quick thing, he'll either wait at the mechanic or walk around the grocery store with me - they are in the same shopping center and so is Otter's store.  She has to work the Black Friday opening and when she gets off work, I'm going to meet her at the old apartment so we can see about getting what is left moved.  I could tell that she and J did manage to get quite a bit moved after we left yesterday, but there is still more there.  When I talked to her about 8:30, I woke her up when I called her and she said she wasn't awake enough to think, much less converse with any sense!  I told her to go back to sleep, she worked her behind off yesterday with moving and then she had to work until midnight last night, getting the store ready for Black Friday so I think she deserved to sleep in a little bit today.  She couldn't remember how much was still at the old place but she thinks we may be able to get the rest of it moved in one afternoon, it's boxes and probably trash bags with stuff but all the furniture is moved already.  We hopefully will be able to get the cleaning done tomorrow afternoon as well, but she doesn't have to work on Sunday so that is our second plan of attack if tomorrow doesn't work out.  A lot of it depends on the weather, the rain that was supposed to start yesterday finally arrived this morning.  It may be strong rain but it might not be steady.  It could be off and on, and it could be heavy at times.  Sunday is supposed to be dry I think, but we want to get it done as quick as we can.  The apartment office said that they won't change the lock until Monday so she can have all weekend, but we don't want to wait until the last minute if we don't have to.  Also, we want to go to a local museum that has a really fun Christmas tree exhibit.  We haven't missed too many years of the museum exhibit and it's only there for a very short time, so Sunday is probably our only chance this year.  J has to work, otherwise he would go with us.

Hopefully, the El Camino is a minor issue.  The engine temperature light came on yesterday when Bill was on the way to Otter's.  He checked and there was plenty of antifreeze, the radiator was not leaking and the system seemed to be working.  The car had plenty of time to cool down but he said it came on again when he was on the way home (we took separate cars since I went earlier than he did) so he's going to ask them to check it when he gets the oil changed tomorrow.  It is very probably the sensor itself going bad, the car is a 1976 model after all and it is probably the original part.  But it is still odd/funny that out of three cars "we" have, two of them have similar issues!  My car had better not decide to join the party the other two are having!

**EDIT:  I turned the oven on about 4:30 for the lasagna, and I turned it off about 5 minutes later when the electricity went out!  We looked out the front door and it looked like it was at least our neighborhood, so I called the electric company.  I was the first person calling, so they couldn't tell me what/why/how long.  I opened the freezer long enough to toss the lasagna back in.  We waited a little while, then we decided to go in search of a restaurant that was actually open and had power.  The police department already had an officer out to direct traffic at the intersection closest to us, but there were lights on a little farther than that so we knew it wasn't very widespread.  We wound up at a Taco Bell, because they were open and had power.  Most of the actual restaurants and fast food places that were in the area with power were closed.  But it was still good and kind of fun, even if it wasn't what we expected to be doing on a rainy Thanksgiving night.  We were gone about an hour and when we got back the power was back on.  I looked on the news station website and I think it was a squirrel that caused the outage.  Maybe Maggie Moo had the right idea this morning?!!!!

Can't Think of Anything To Call This!

I've been fighting allergy symptoms for several days and today I don't feel the best.  So, cut me a little slack Froggy!  (You know you want to get on me because it's been a few days. :)  Do I know you or what!)

Last week had some interesting weather.  Wednesday was odd.  I don't think we even made it to 80!  It was so nice, it was a very pleasant change from the warm and icky weather we've been having.  It hasn't been "hot", but then I go by TEXAN standards so my version of warm might be someone else's version of meltingly hot.  But the point is, it was nice and I enjoyed it.  We've had a few days of rain, Yesterday was rainy for most of the morning and into early afternoon.  I had plans to go to two neighboring towns on an errand for Froggy, but I decided not to after seeing the radar and the storm prediction.  It wasn't bad in terms of tornado alley bad, but there was a lot of water and some localized street flooding.  So my plans changed.  When Otter got off work at 2:00, I picked her up and work and we went across the street to Hobby Lobby.  After we shopped, I took her back across the street and dropped her off at her car.  This morning, we were planning on visiting one of the other 2 churches we are interested in but then we woke up to a pretty loud thunderstorm and a lot of water!  The power went out for about 30 seconds, which was B.A.D. because the coffee pot was only about half way through!  It came back on quickly, so I pushed the "on" button on the coffee pot and it finished.  That was a good thing, because I desperately needed caffeine this morning.

Otter came over to do her laundry this morning, Maggie Moo didn't get a walk yesterday because of the rain or Friday because it was just rainy enough that she wouldn't go outside (she might melt, you know!), so she was raring to go this morning.  When Otter got here, Maggie Moo was overjoyed and then she was even happier when she got to go on a walk with her Otter.  (Maggie made a new friend on her walk today, a young female pittie mix puppy who is just the sweetest, goofy baby!)  I wanted to get something at Wallyworld, so Otter and I ran up there after she got her laundry going.  When we got back, we went through the fabric boxes that Otter left here.  She cleaned out a small amount and got a few things to take home with her, but most of the boxes will go back to the closet.  Which is fine with me, they are not in the way and she doesn't really have that much room at the moment.  She may get some or all of the fabric later on, but it's fine if they stay here.  She gave me one of the picnic baskets - the original one that I had and gave to her, and some of the stuff in the boxes was mine so it's now in the picnic basket.  She left the large plastic tub full of her silk flowers and another box of misc. stuff that she'll get in the next few days or we'll take to her if we happen to be heading in the direction of her apartment.  We also stopped at Subway to get lunch to bring home after we went to Wallyworld, we all got foot long sandwiches with the idea of getting two meals out of them.  Bill's having his 2nd half for dinner at the moment, I'll get to mine eventually.

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but we're closing our booth at the antique mall.  We're paid through the end of this month, next weekend we'll bring the machines home.  I told Otter that we might want to borrow her car, since these are restored machines and could be damaged if they are tossed in the back of the El Camino.  I also might need to borrow her car one day to get myself to work, since we're probably going to put new tires on my car this week.  She's agreeable, we buy her gasoline when we borrow her car!

In the news this week, former President Jimmy Carter has cancer and it's spread to his brain.  He probably doesn't have a lot of time left.  I have never made a secret of the fact that I think he is the worst President in recent history.  I'm not too impressed with some of his actions/statements after he left office,specifically his comments about Israel.  But as a human being, I do feel for him and I wish him the best with his treatment.  I also think that he is a genuine Christian and not a "show Christian."  He needs our prayers as he faces what is probably the final battle of his life.

I rearranged some of the kitchen decor.  Actually, the dining room.  I have a triangular plant stand, it's tall (5 or 6 shelves) and is designed to fit in a corner.  I moved it from where it was to the other side of the dining room, it's now beside the china cabinet and the trash can is moved to where the plant stand was.  I'm going to hang the 5 ceramic and 1 metal pie plates on the wall that was formerly covered up by the plants stand.  It makes the dining room look better, less cluttered and all I did was move two things to the opposite side of where they'd been!

Weekend Shopping

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still?

It seems like this year should be over by now.  But it's still only early August.

It's been a busy year, I guess.  And a very stressful one.

Anyway, I checked in with Miss Dorothy today.  I am going to visit her each Wednesday morning.  She is doing very well.  She obviously has emotional moments, but she has gotten to the point where she can remember the Teenager and the fun they had over the years.  She is such a precious person, and very special.

Otter came over today.  She had laundry to do and also Bill wanted to check on her car.  The car seems to be running fine.  She said that it seems to be running "not as hot" as it was before, it wasn't overheating but in hindsight the radiator might have been losing efficiency or maybe actually leaking slowly for a while.

The Sales-Tax-Free weekend in Oklahoma is this coming weekend.  I think TEXAS has it the same weekend.  We don't need to buy school clothes anymore, but it's a good time to get things we need.  Otter said she could use a couple of pairs of jeans and I know Bill needs a couple, so we'll do a little shopping.  Otter has to work Saturday but she's off Sunday.  Bill isn't into clothes shopping, but I can get him jeans without his presence.  However, Otter's presence is required for buying clothes for her.  I told her I'd spring for lunch, and she also wants to get her glasses adjusted while we are out and about.

Bill doesn't know what his Saturday plans will be, it depends on what the dermatologist does on Friday so he may be home on the couch for the weekend.  I have a few things I want to do around the house, which I'll do on Saturday since I want to be close in case Bill needs anything.  Obviously, we don't know if there will be anything but the last time Bill had a skin cancer removed from his face he was unable to bend or do much of anything for something like 72 hours (or maybe more) but that was a big one and it required a very intensive removal process.  So, we're planning on similar to the last time in the hopes that it won't be that bad.  I've been trying to find the time to make my specialty crock-pot beef-vegetable soup but I haven't had a chance to stay home all day, so I have soup plans for Saturday.  I'm going to rearrange my closet, for one thing.  I have a few boxes and misc. stuf stored in the closet but it needs to be arranged better (I'm gong to channel the Borg Queen!)  My dresses and longer skirts are crammed into one end of the closet and keep getting wrinkled just hanging in it, so I'm going to move the boxes to the end and my dresses/skirts will be hanging in the middle where they can actually hang and not fold at the bottom.  Also, Bill's suits and dress pants are in the same position at the other end of the closet.  I may also clean out some of the clothes that we haven't worn in a long while.

Is it Friday yet?

Stuff Happens

Such as life!  Froggy, I've kind of had my hands full but here:

The girls are moved.  The apartment office had the keys changed for them at 10:00 and the internet guy showed up at the same time to move their modem from the old apartment to the new one.  Once they had access to the new apartment, J started moving some of their stuff.  Bill got off at 11:00 and headed straight over there.  He and J started taking beds apart and moving them.  I left work at 11:30, and ran by Little Ceasar's pizza to bring lunch over there.  Bill was working on getting the beds assembled again starting with Otter's because she was there by then.  Then Roomie got home, so she decided how she wanted her furniture arranged, so he got her bed put together and then we basically got out of the way so he could get her other furniture moved.  All that was left at that point was the closet, which was quick to empty, and a few misc. boxes of things that had been packed from the bathroom and linen closet.  They have a hall/coat closet now, which they didn't have before but really needed.  Bill and Otter figured out where to put her workbench in the dining room.  I unpacked and shelved their foodstuffs on their shelf they use as a pantry.  Bill left after he finished the furniture, I was only there a short time after that because the only thing was left was unpacking boxes and figuring out where Otter and Roomie wanted to put things

Yesterday, (Saturday), the plan was that we would clean the old apartment up after Roomie got home from work since Otter's shift at work was early morning.  I had a couple of errands to run, including going to Wallyworld to get a couple of floor lamps for Otter.  She headed over to our house to get the coffee table, and that is when the plans de-railed.  Bill was mowing when they got there, he sent them on inside and then he realized that there was a very large puddle under Otter's car.  And it was growing.  He looked at it and realized that her radiator had sprung a leak.  After I got home, Bill and I went to the auto parts store and got her a new radiator.  Then I took Otter and J back to the apartment and we cleaned the old one up.  It didn't take that long, it was a one bedroom apartment and they aren't really slobs.  I cleaned the kitchen sink and Otter cleaned the rest of the kitchen.  The stove and refrigerator were moved to the new apartment with them, so that was less to clean.  She cleaned the bathroom, I helped a little but she did most of that job.  J ran the vacuum and then he also mopped the kitchen floor.  We all headed back to our house at that point.  Since her car had to be cold for Bill to work on it, I sent Otter and J (and the coffee table!) home in my car.

Bill worked on Otter's car today and replaced the radiator.  The neighbor (the nice one) is a part-time mechanic and he came over to help before he had to go somewhere.  Then Grandpa showed up and he really helped Bill a lot.  Bill bought full-strength anti-freeze when we got the radiator and it needed to be mixed with distilled water.  Grandpa ran me up to wallyworld so get it, when we got back Bill and the neighbor were working on getting the engine support arms reattached, then it was just a matter of refilling the radiator.  Bill checked the transmission fluid while he was letting the car warm up enough to start the water circulating in the radiator, then he added a little fluid to it.  He test drove the car, then I took it to Otter at work and got mine back from her.  She won't need to drive it much the next couple of days, then she'll bring it back for Bill to check again and see if it needs any more anti-freeze/water added.

In other Otter news, she had her annual review at work today.  It was very good.  The boss said that she's doing everything right - and then he gave her a pretty good raise!  She was happy about that.  Especially since she now has higher rent!

Happy now, Froggy?  :)

Not Enough Chocolate!!!

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

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

I went to Wallyworld for one of these:

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

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

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

Just a Dusting Today

Both snow and real dust!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is what they are going for, actually.

*Fixins is one of our favorite words!

Picture This

I've finally gotten blogger to load pictures!

I had to switch to a different browser, I'm using the Chrome one from Google.  It seems to work better and faster, and it lets me post pictures now.  There were other issues besides just the picture problem.

This is what we did last Black Friday, when everybody else was shopping.  We cleaned the living room carpet.

I was standing in the front entrance when I took this picture.  To the right side of the picture is the loveseat, standing up on it's side against the wall.

This was taken from the opposite side, and the edge of the loveseat is visible on the left side of the picture.  I was in the dining room for this picture.

This picture is back at the entrance way, you can see the fan that we used to dry the carpet and the couch is behind it.  The carpet cleaner is in the middle of the room, the window and door face the back yard.

Another one from the entrance way.

This is my craft/play/guest/YARN room.  The sofa table was moved in there while Bill was cleaning the carpet, but it eventually made it's way to the pachinko work/junk room:

This is the area where my desk used to be, now it has what was Bill's desk that has been turned into his main work station.

This is the closet in there, and this is actually a lot neater than that room usually is.  Seriously.

Mr. Dignity!  Or not, actually.  Otter was cleaning out things prior to her move, she found the Batman cape which frequently decorated her traffic cone and we put it on the dog.  He usually won't put up with being dressed, but he did this time.  He gave us quite a scare this morning.  He was walking through the kitchen and he slipped.  His legs went out from under him, and then he couldn't get up.  I was about to follow him out to the garage, I didn't see it happen but I was behind him and was there as soon as it did.  He moved his front legs, but he couldn't seem to get his back legs to move.  I yelled for Bill and he came running, I held Frasier's head and petted him while Bill checked for anything broken or out of place.  When he didn't feel anything like that, he very gently tried to lift the dog's back end up but he still acted like he couldn't get his legs to where he wanted them to be.  We gave him a minute, then Bill carefully scooted his legs up against his body and we tried it again.  He was able to get up, but he was very shaky.  I took both dogs out to the garage and to the treat can, which was where we were heading originally.  Frasier was happy to get his treat, but he wouldn't come to me for a long time.  I opened the back door and he wanted to go out, but he wouldn't as long as I was standing there.  Same thing for the gate.  I finally stood where he couldn't see me and held the door open, he went out and stayed out for a while along with Maggie Moo.  I walked up to him once, and he went to the other side of the yard.  Eventually he went to the door to be let back in and he let me pet him then.  But once they were inside, he wouldn't let me close.  I waited him out, he finally came back to me for petting.  He went back outside to their yard and laid down in the sun, he seemed to be happy there but he was still not acting like he was back to normal.  After a couple of hours, he seemed to be fine and was bouncy and playful with Maggie while ago.  But we are still watching him.

This is just a cute shot of a very contented beagle.  She is smiling in this picture.  This was taken the same day as Frasier BatDog.

Otter's apartment:

Her kitchen.  I tease her about this being the first and only time it was neat and uncluttered, but she is her mother's daughter so she cooks.  She texted me a picture of last night's dinner, she made tacos.

 

This is the living room, although it's now Roomie's area.

The dining room.  Otter's going to put the workbench against the far wall.  That is the kitchen to the right of the picture.  That's my purse and camera case on the right hand side counter.

I was standing in the hallway just outside of Otter's room when I took this, it's the living room turned bedroom and that's Roomie sitting on her bed.  The front door is the one pictured.  This was right after they moved and they were still partially boxed.

Otter came over to do laundry today, she brought J with her and then he helped Otter and Bill move boxes to the attic.  After that, Otter sorted through all the books she has to resell.  The book store has a limit of 36 at a time, so Otter sorted her books out into piles of 36.  I kept back a couple and she gave J a huge paper sack full of books.  We took one bag to the bookstore, she now has over $100 credit and there are still two more loads of books to take.  We also went to BigLots, then we stopped at Little Ceasar's pizza for lunch for everyone.

Now that I can post pictures again, I have a few things to put on the craft blog.  Possibly today, but it depends on how long it takes to go over Bill's email change list again.  I'm pretty much done with mine, but he has several we want to to check and there are probably a few he hasn't done at all.

Now, I'll go back to watching my dog.

Snakes in Drains and Beagles in Blankets

Monday evening, we moved pachinko machines out of the way of the attic access ladder so Bill could get situated for the internet provider switch.  The switch happened on Wednesday.  The machines were not moved back yet, Otter has a few boxes that are going to be put up in the attic.  She went through 4 of them Friday and still has about that many left.  She'll get to them this week, probably early in the week.

 

Thursday morning, as I was about to get in the car and leave for work I noticed something.  Water where it shouldn't have been.  Underneath the garage door, like it had flowed from somewhere INSIDE the garage.  There is only one place in the garage it could have come from and the last time that happened was just over a year ago when the water heater failed.  I ran back inside, dropped my purse and everything in the living room floor, frightened both dogs by running out into the garage from the kitchen door and sure enough, there was water and it had come from the closet the water heater is in.  But it wasn't from the water heater.  The drain that the ac condensation drains into - which is also the main drain from the kitchen - wasn't draining.  It looked like it was clogged up again, it happened a couple of years back.  I called Bill (he was at work already) and since the water was not running out any longer (because the dishwasher was through by this point), he said it could wait until he got home to unclog it.  And then he asked me to move the remaining machines out of the way, and to put a few towels down.

 

I got the machines moved, which took me a while, but I had to leave three in place.  They were on "feet" so they weren't sitting directly in the wet areas, but I spent a lot of time wiping down the bottoms of the other machines and putting them on towels.  I got to work about 9:00!

 

Bill was able to take off at noon, so he came home and got the plumber's snake he bought when the drain stopped up the last time.  He eventually got it unstuck, but he was actually afraid that we were dealing with a collapsed pipe at one point - which would have been a big, major deal since we're on a solid foundation and it would have been very expensive.  The drain did unclog, he thinks it might have been a combination of things but the disposal has been acting up anyway so we aren't using it.  We can use the sink and the drain, just not the disposal itself.

 

While ago, Maggie and Frasier came in from playing out in the back yard.  Maggie Moo went to her blankets and I covered her up.  She took a nap.  Well, she takes a lot of naps!  Anyway, when she decided it was time to get up and give Frasier a hard time - she couldn't find her way out of the blanket!  She turned around two or three times and got really twisted up in it.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe!  She managed to stagger/crawl/slither across the living room floor in my direction and somehow, she found an opening in her blankie.  She still dragged the blanket most of the way across the living room.  She more or less got in Frasier's way for a minute, then she came right over to me.  And got underneath the blanket I'm using!  Goofy dog.

 

I have been busy in the craft/guest/yarn room today.  Otter's stack of boxes is about to be out of there, as I mentioned she went through 4 when she was here Friday to do her laundry.  I moved them into the opposite corner so we/she knows which boxes she's checked already.  She has three more of those boxes and two paper container boxes but they are probably just open/look in/shut boxes and will join the stack of three that are waiting on them.  Bill's going to put them all in the attic, but they will be wrapped in plastic trash bags first because there are a lot of paper type things in them and we don't want rodents.  I moved my yarn drawers to a different wall and now there is plenty of room for a pull-out couch, which is what we will probably go with for a guest bed.  We talked about a trundle bed, but they are basically twin beds and we don't want anything quite that big.  We want the option of sitting space, and a pull-out couch will take care of both needs.

 

I found a metal filing cabinet at a thrift store yesterday.  It was the store I saw one at a couple of weeks ago, but it's not the same cabinet.  It's actually a better one, it's legal sized so it's longer and it is more sturdy.  The one I saw before looked like it might have been banged up a bit so I passed on it.  Otter was off yesterday and she wanted to go to the Tulsa Flea Market, then after we looked there we decided to go to a thrift store.  I found another doily and then we looked through their furniture, and they had another cabinet so I bought it.  When we were waiting for they stock guy with his dolly to get the cabinet for me, the sales clerk told me it was on sale.  So, instead of the $9.99 which I was willing to pay I actually got it for $6.49.  Not complaining a big!  It just barely fit in the back seat of my car, I knew it would fit but the stock guy wasn't too sure.  I gave him a couple of bucks for hefting the thing into my car.  Bill brought it in this morning and it fits perfectly beside my desk in the craft/guest/yarn room.

 

Which means that I can now use the plastic drawer unit that was there for what I really wanted:  Yarn Storage!  Big surprise, I know.  :)  I took the yarn out of the short, wider drawer and it is now in the 5 drawer unit along with some of the other yarn that has been spread out a bit.  The other 3-drawer unit is now stacked on top of one of the 5-drawer units, I took the wheels off and it fits very well.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the empty 3-drawer unit, but it will probably fit underneath the window where the gone-through boxes are stacked, once they go to the attic sometime this week.  I am thinking that they will probably hold some of the fabric/sewing stuff, or possibly some misc. craft stuff.

 

I'm going to try very hard not to go get more yarn.  Not making any promises, however!

 

Otter and I also went to the yarn store yesterday.  We didn't stay in there very long, my wool allergy make sure of that.  I think that the wool allergy is actually worsening.  I can usually stay in there a little bit longer before the first symptom - itching - starts.  But this time, it hit me almost immedately.  Followed up very quickly by the second symptom - upper respiratory issues.  And after we left, the itching lasted a lot longer than it normally does.  And I didn't even touch any wool!  Of all the things I had to be allergic to, why does it have to be wool?  It was always a strong allergy, but now it's even stronger.  And it is NOT fun!  Especially since my chosen art/gift/tallent is something that is done with yarn.

 

This is getting kind of long, so I think I'm going to post it and see what else I can come up with to do.  Such as laundry, dishes, vacuuming.

 

Or maybe I'll just follow Maggie Moo's lead and sit on the couch with my blanket.

Changes Coming Tomorrow

We're changing internet providers officially tomorrow.  We will still keep the old carrier for a couple of days, to give us time to get everything switched over.  Email mostly, but Bill has some Pachinko Restorations stuff that he'll have to attend to.  Cox is coming out tomorrow, they say between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., and that it should only take 1 - 1 1/2 hours.  We'll see on both of those!

 

After it's all installed, up and running without any issues I'll call the current carrier and arrange to have the internet turned off with them.  We have decided to go ahead and turn off the satellite tv service like we were talking about.  We just never watch it anymore.  We watch PBS a couple of times a week for specific shows, there are the "big 3" networks but we really don't watch them that often.  We watch one of them (NBC usually) and switch between it and Fox for news coverage.  There are a lot of small local stations, we watch more of them than anything else.  The surround system we've had for several years is on it's way out anyway, we were going to take it out once it quit for good but it's not hooked up to the local only to the dish so Bill's going to take it out in the next few days.  That will leave two small shelves on the entertainment center that should hold the rest of the dvd/blu-rays we have.

 

I cleaned up the dog yard this afternoon, it needs to be cleaned out at least once a week but I don't always remember.  It was Otter's job when she lived here and I keep forgetting about it.  It was not too bad this time because it's only been a week since the last time I cleaned it - as opposed to 3 weeks between cleanings the last time!  The installers might have to trench the yard a bit to run the lines, the customer service rep said that she's pretty sure they can just attach to the old lines that were there (and buried) but we're pretty sure that our current carrier's installers cut those lines and dug part of them up when they did their installation.  So, the dog yard has been cleaned up a bit for them, although I'm sure the dogsters will still have time to leave a few "presents" for them!

 

I've also been doing some research on switching health insurance carriers, since the deadline of March 31 is bearing down on us.  I've talked to a few companies and gotten a lot of information, we think we know which company we are going with but we aren't actually switching yet.  Mostly likely, it will be the old one ending on March 31 and the new one taking over April 1.  I did confirm that the story about "no pre-existing conditions" is true, so Otter will be covered as far as her asthma care.  We'll still have a huge deductible that we will probably never meet, but at least her annual visit will go towards the deductible instead of going nowhere.  Also, Bill's skin cancer will be covered although it will also apply to the deductible.  But that is still better than it not being covered at all.  The premium is going to go up, that can't be avoided.  But I really didn't expect to find major medical coverage for 3 of us for under $500.00/month like we have now.

 

We got the pachinko machines moved out of the attic access in the garage last night.  Bill got up into the attic and checked the wiring he installed when the current carrier installed the service, at the time he ran cable himself to be able to have service in the rooms we wanted it in.  He wanted to make sure he got the right one marked to be sure the new installers hook up to the correct lines.  It would kind of be a problem if they hooked up the new service to the wrong lines!  The machines are staying out of the way for a while, Otter is going to go through the boxes that are stacked in the corner of her old room and see what she wants to store.  Some of them are her journals, some have some of her artwork in them and some of them just have "stuff."  She was in a packing frenzy as the moving day got closer and she thinks that some of the boxes were just filled with whatever she could grab to put in them so it would be out of the way.  She might take some of it back to her apartment, some of it may be donated.  But I think the majority of it going to be put up in the attic.  We pulled 4 boxes out of the stack yesterday after moving machines, they are in the center of her old room.  There are still about 4 boxes stacked.  She'll be here Thursday to do laundry and will go through at least the 4 in the floor.  She and I are going to take the huge pile of books to the used book store on Saturday, they are piled/stacked along the wall in the entrance way.  After we get back from that, we're going to go through whatever boxes are still stacked - I don't think she knows that yet! :)  The craft stuff in the garage on my shelf can wait, it's more important to get the garage-bound boxes taken care of first and out of the way.

 

Froggy, you'll have a place to sleep when you visit!  There may still be some boxed stuff, but not very much.  What you will actually be sleeping on, however, is still under discussion.

Guess I Should Post Something On Here

It is Sunday, after all.  And I haven't posted in a couple of days.  So, before Froggy reminds me, here goes!!

 

At the moment, I think we are fixin to have one of these:

All the signs are there of an imminent carpet shark attack!

(Nevermind, she curled up on top of the blanket at my feet and went to sleep - the same blanket that she was sleeping under a few minutes ago.)

 

It's been a busy weekend.  Otter was off work yesterday, since she had the first Saturday off that she's had in several weeks she wanted to go shopping.  We hit the Main Street shopping in our small town and had a lot of fun.  I found one of these:

 

It's the larger size (this is a stock photo and not the one I bought).  It was $7.00.  $7.00!!!  I had to look at the price tag 3 or 4 times because I simply could not believe I was reading it right.  It could have easily had another digit either before or after the 7, and it still would have sold.  I went from having a few silver crest (clear edge) and none of the colored edges and now I have 3 (or maybe 4?) gold crest and one pink crest.  It was at the place where we used to have our booth.  There is another particular piece I'm thinking about, but I haven't decided yet.

 

It's one of these:

 

There are actually two, one is Amber (like this) and one is blue.  I like the blue one better, but the Amber one still has it's original Fenton sticker label.  They are both $10.00 and if I buy one, it will be one and not both.  $10.00 is a very good price, but I'd prefer to pay less per item if I were to buy both.

 

Today's adventures included cleaning the dog yard, it's been a couple of weeks since I tackled it and they left me a lot of "presents!"  I also went to the place where we have our booth and looked at a thrift shop.  And ran to Ace Hardware for Billyboy - twice, once by myself and once to take him.  After the 2nd trip, the one where I took him, we stopped at Braums for ice cream sundaes.

 

We had chili for dinner tonight.  I am not exaggerating when I saw I used at least 1 cup of chili powder.  And it was barely even warm!  Warm as in pepper and not cooking heat.  It's a fairly new bottle of chili powder.  Maybe we are finally getting immune?  I hope not!