Cars and Shower Curtains and Brownies and Pachinko Machines and Otters...

I made brownies on Thursday evening, and I made sure to double the batch.  Because otherwise, they would not be safe from Willie!  I frosted them this time, which I don't always do.  But I made them for J and his mom, to thank them for watching over Otter until we were able to get to her the night she had car trouble.

Otter saw a sign for a craft show and it was the same one I was going to yesterday, so we decided to go together.  Bill had the car loaded up with pachinko machines to take to the new booth and he dropped me off at her apartment and she was my chauffer.  For a while, anyway.  We went to the craft show and had a good time although we didn't buy much.  Then we went to Target in search of a new shower curtain for Otter.  Well, that was the plan anyway!  When we were pulling into the parking lot, the car light "low coolant level" came on.  So we called Bill, then we headed back to our house (I was driving the car then at Otter's request) and we watched the engine heat the entire way home.  It never really got very warm, it stayed in the normal range so we weren't worried about overheating.  Bill checked the car, it really didn't seem to need much anti-freeze but he added a little anyway and that's when he realized that the overflow tank was slightly bubbly.  There was apparently still a little air in the radiator and it was basically exhaling into the overflow tank.  He watched it for a while and let it run, he checked a few things and it seemed to be fine.  Otter and I went back to Target, Bill said it would be a good idea to drive her car and let it work any remaining air out of the radiator so we took it.  She wanted me to drive it, so I did.  She really doesn't have to drive very far to work, and our trip was the most distance the car had been driven and for the longest time since it was seen at the repair shop.

She found a shower curtain she liked, it's got bright colored stripes and it's very pretty.  She also found a matching bath mat but Target didn't have anything else that she liked so we went down the street to Walmart and she found a trash can that was not even made by the same company but it almost matched so we got it.  We also got her a can opener since she didn't have one, other than a hand-operated metal one that she said is almost impossible to operate.  When Roomie moved out,she left the shower curtain and bath set there which her mother bought when they moved into the first apartment.  It was never Otter's favorite, it's a nice blue but let's face it:  it's not exactly what 20-year old girls would have picked out for themselves! :)

Otter was going out to the not-quite-next-door small town that J lives in, she was still a little apprehensive about more car trouble so she asked me to take her.  I did, and drove her car.  It is probably all burped now, but she wants Bill to drive it this week and make sure.  I'll go back out there and get her in a few days.  Sometime between now and then, I'm going to go put her new bathroom stuff in place in her apartment and she also wants me to water her plants.    Otter is still moving in a couple of weeks, but she really does not want that blue shower curtain anymore - it's about the last thing that was Roomie's that is left in the apartment.  She's going to donate it to Goodwill or Salvation Army, but I'm going to wash the curtain and bath mat first. The apartment office changed the locks for her and Roomie did give us her keys when she moved out, but we didn't know for sure if she had given a key to her parents so I checked things a couple of times when Otter was gone last week/end.  Even though the lock isn't the same, Otter still wants me to go over there and check it a couple of times.

We went to the booth yesterday afternoon and took a couple of machines.  Bill realized that one of the walls was not strong enough for the weight of the pachinko machines and cabinets, so he talked to the owner and her husband stabilized/strengthened the wall last night.  We went back there this morning and Bill was satisfied, so he re-hung the machines on the wall.  We also put a fabric covered bulletin board on one of the side walls and it has a series of photographs, before restoration to after restoration of a pachinko machine.  The one Bill used is the Kanji-print fabric board that Otter made, she gave it to him when she moved into her apartment.  He also has a shelf which will hold pachinko balls, business cars and flyers.  The shop is opening for business on Friday, so we'll be back over there Thursday evening with the pachinko balls and also some how-to restoration dvd's.  We looked around the store a little bit, it's got a really good layout with good sized aisles and we hope that it succeeds.  Not just for us, she's a really nice person and she has a lot riding on this store.

Mags is very happy lately, I think she likes the cooler weather.  She's been pretty bouncy lately and is very playful.  As I type this, she is on her back and is attempting to catch her tail.  I guess it's easier to catch it that way? :)

Road Warriors

The snow and ice were still with us when we got up, which is what we expected.  Bill's employer announced yesterday that they were closed so he knew in advance that he wouldn't be going in today.  I was thinking I might attempt it, until we turned on the tv this morning and saw just how bad the road conditions actually were.  Otter was scheduled for work today, 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and since she works so close she wanted to try.  Bill took her, when they left he was going to see how it actually was but said that they might be turning around and coming back home.  It took them close to 40 minutes, as opposed to about 10 normally.  When he got home, he said that the road conditions were really bad.  If she'd worked any further away, he wouldn't have tried and she'd have called in.  We are kind of at the far edge of our small town and the road crews almost never actually get to us so we weren't surprised at the fact that the roads were so bad.

 

I decided to go with Bill when he got her at 1:00.  Amazingly, the plows had been out by us and the road outside of the neighborhood had been cleared!  I think that is maybe only the 2nd time since we moved here 9 years ago?  My thought was that I needed to know where any potential issues would be since I am going to try to go in tomorrow, but now I don't anticipate any problems.  Once I get out of the neighborhood, that is!  There are still spots but in general the roads are decent.  There is still a lot of water on the roads, ice that has melted from cars driving over it, but it was sunny today even though it was in the low teens.  We could see steam rising from the street in some places.

 

We stopped at Subway (across the street from Otter's store) and got lunch to bring home.  We originally had planned to take some stuff to the booth today, but that has been put off.  Possibly tomorrow.  However, Bill's employer is closed tomorrow and he might go to the booth in the morning.  I'll take Otter to work, he'll pick her up.

 

It's probably not a bad thing that I didn't go in to work today.  I am still coughing some, not as bad but still quite a bit.  I've had asthma issues related to the bug, and the cold air would have been very B.A.D. for my lungs this morning - Bill wouldn't let me go outside even to get the paper.  It will still be cold in the morning, we'll be in the low teens tonight and possibly single digits.  But I'll be able to go straight from the front door to a warmed up car and should be able to get into the office without too much cold air exposure.  I have some stuff to take the booth, I'll probably do that after work.  Bill's going to take another pachinko machine, but I'm going to remove a couple of things and add several other things that I unearthed over the weekend while I was looking for something else.

 

The something else I was looking for is a cast-iron match holder that belonged to Mom.  I found it eventually (it was in a drawer in the kitchen), but I also found several other things that I didn't even realize I/we still had.  I found a beautiful small vase that had been Mom's, it's in the china cabinet.  I found the homemade nutcracker that belonged to Dad, it's on the corner plant stand that now holds some of my kitchen décor.  But we also found some misc. stuff to put in the booth.  Including two plastic bento-style lunch boxes that Otter used in high school, a vase I've had since I left my job in TEXAS and never actually needed/wanted/had a place for, Bill had two shot-glass games:  checkers and bingo.  There are a few other things, I just can't remember what they are at the moment.  But there are two bags full of stuff to take tomorrow.  I think the booth store was closed today anyway, due to the weather.

 

I did get a little bit done around the house today, I had a wooden trash can in our bathroom that was originally painted pinkish with flower stickers on it.  I changed that décor scheme a few years back and started to paint the trash can a green color with the idea of bluebonnet stickers, but I never could find any and forgot about the trash can.  Until the other day, when I found it again.  I got some darker green paint at Michael's when we went on Saturday night and painted a vine, then used 2 shades of pinkish red and made dot flowers.  Today, I hit it with varnish and called it good.  It's back in the bathroom, and the broken plastic trash can that was in there has been put IN the trash.

 

(Bill was trying to find the remote control to the tv just now, he grabbed my mouse by mistake and I thought my computer was going crazy.  There may be typos here but they are not my fault!)

 

Maggie Moo just emerged from her spot at my feet - under the blanket.  Now, she's stretched out again and probably about to take another nap but this time she's on top of the blanket.  Both doggies have spent a lot of time in front of the fireplace, when they aren't on/under assorted blankets that is!  OK, Maggie is now snoring at my feet.