Whatever Sunday and Dog Stuff Mostly

It was a pretty nice weekend, and today was a very nice day.  Mid-80's and very pleasant.  Unfortunately, it's still ragweed season (and a few other things) so I'm still having some allergy issues.  But nothing too bad.

I have a slightly fat beagle at my feet.  She's sprawled across her bed that is in the living room, every so often she'll get up and rearrange herself.  She is getting a little bit heavier, she had lost some of the weight and was at a pretty good size for a middle sized beagle.  But she's starting to look just a little bit round, so I may change her food slightly.  We changed the brand of food after we lost Frasier, because we'd been mainly feeding a type that was aimed at dogs with joint issues.  She doesn't seem to have the arthritis that he had, but it was ok to feed her the same thing.  After he crossed the rainbow bridge, we went to a different brand.  We just used a "regular" food, but they also make a food for dogs that need a little weight loss so I'll probably switch her to it, at least for a while.  She is still getting walks regularly but she probably doesn't get as much exercise in general as she did before.  Even though Frasier was older and arthritic, he was playful and active up until the very end.  We do get Maggie playing and running, but probably not as often as she did with the Chupacabra.  

Also, the amount that comes out of the dog seems to be a lot more volume than what goes in the mouth of the dog!  We also realized that the Coyote Dog was the one with the gas issues, not the carpet shark known as Maggie Moo.  (Otter said that she bought a costume for Maggie:  a shark.  Which is very appropriate!)

Froggy, this is for you:

You are the only person I know who would go on a frog hunt, considering how terrified you are of them!  (They are more scared of you, anyway.)

At Least Monday is Over

But it's not Friday yet.  Unfortunately.

Bill sanded the switc hplate down to the wood, the one I threw out and then rescued from the trash.  I painted it again, with the white basecoat and when the paint is dry I'll cover it with modge-podge glue and put the scrapbook paper on it that I found.  It's supposed to be small doily-ish patterns and I like it.  After the modge-podge is dry, then I'll apply a sheet of clear mylar.  Then the fun begins!  The part where I kept messing up.  Cutting the holes out and cutting it around the edges!  After all that's done, I'm going to hit the painted (but unpapered) sides with clear sealer and then they just have to dry.  Then I can actually put them on the wall.

I'm not as tired today, but I do still have Redhead Anemia issues.  Not as bad, it's just "there."

I'm also having more allergy issues this afternoon, but that generally happens after I pull weeds in the rock garden.  Literally, IN the rock garden for part of it.  And around the edges.  I found a frog in the rock garden.  Actually, I almost picked "him" up with a bunch of weeds!  Did you know that frogs can give dirty looks?  This one did, anyway!  :)  He was not a huge frog, but I think he was still fairly young.  He hopped away from me, to the other side of the rock garden and probably is happily hiding in the honeysuckle now.  He might be the one I've been hearing the last few nights.

I've also heard tree frogs lately.  Especially when it rains.  I haven't seen them yet this spring, but they are obviously here already.

No sign of hummingbirds yet, but I put out two feeders Sunday.  I thought I might have seen one zipping by but it was hard to tell.  It's still a little early though.  But sometimes they arrive early, and just because I haven't seen them does not mean that they aren't here yet.

Fraiser is a little creaky today.  He and Maggie Moo were happy to go out in the back yard with me.  While I was pulling weeds, Maggie Moo was sitting on her behind and staring at the ground.  After a minutes, she reached down and pulled a large beetle grub out of the dirt.  Then she ate it!  Frasier was walking around like he does, looking for spots to water.  But then I noticed he was laying down in a grassy spot and when I called him to come in, he didn't want to get up at first.  He seemed to be more than a little stiff, but he did get up and came inside.  Then he went out the dog doors and to their yard.  He laid down in his usual spot, and I took an anti-inflammatory to him.  He hasn't needed them lately, but it's been cool and damp which seems to affect him  I called the vet and ordered a refill.  I still had one pill left for him, but I also had some from Maggie Moo's bladder infection she had last fall and the vet said that I can use them.  They are still within a safe date, they are the same dose but were cut in half for her.  I was going to take the brush to Frasier while we were outside, but that will wait a day or two.  Mostly because of my allergies, I didn't want to stay outside any longer than I had to.  He love the brushing, and so does Maggie Moo but she's not long haired so it's just a fun experience for her.  At the moment, they are both in the living room and both of them are snoozing.  Frasier is probably snoozing because of the medication, but Maggie Moo is just napping because it's what beagles do best, after all!

Sunday Birds Toads and Water

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

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

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

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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOADLES!

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

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

Trekkin' Monday

Monday ain't exactly my favorite day, but when I turn the tv on and pick a station at random and its showing (Original Series movies) TREK, it's always a good day.  Especially when it's one of two specific # movies - both are even-numbered, in case you are wondering.  (Even Numbered Trek Films Don't Suck).  The best one is the 2nd one, The Wrath of Khan which we refer to as TOS TWOK, or sometimes just TWOK.  Tonight's movie happens to be # 4, The Voyage Home or TOS TVH or just The One with the Whales.  I think the station may be running a marathon, because # 3 was just ending when I turned the tv on.  Which means that I'm turning of OFF OR CHANGING THE STATION as soon as this one is over, because nobody (I mean NOBODY) watches the next one!

In fact, we don't even refer to it by number if we can avoid it.  And we do avoid it, at all costs.  It's the one we prefer to forget about and frankly, wish it had never happened.  It's just that bad.  Well, it is an odd number - the oddest of them all!  (It was originally meant to be the last in the series of TOS movies, but we are all thankful that the powers that be realized that to end TOS with that drivel would probably be the final Sign of the Apocolypse.)

 

Otter just came in and saw what was on tv.  Then she yelled "It's the One About the Whales!"  There are times when I feel sorry for Billyboy, he's a little outnumbered on multiple levels.  :)

Anyway.

I've been doing some research on coyotes because I'm wondering about some of Frasier's habits.  Such as more or less walking with all four of his feet in "single file" (putting each foot in the step of the one in front of it.)  Coyotes do that, it turns out.

Like this:

 

That's coyote tracks in sand, but it's a pretty good example of how they walk.  With Frasier, it's more the front feet than all four but he will walk with all four feet in a line at times.

 

Bill is probably going to start getting firewood soon.  The lumberyard had a sign out that they have firewood available now.  $10.00 for a pallet full, we'll get at least two of those and maybe a third one as well.  So, he went out into the dog yard and checked on how much we have left from last year's.  He thinks it's about half a rick, or about a quarter of a cord.  He got out the chainsaw and cut some of it to smaller lengths - yes, the chainsaw and no injuries!  I cleaned up after the dogsters, they leave little "gifts" in the grass and Otter normally get that job (Lucky! Not really) but she was down with a migraine all day yesterday so it didn't get done.  So, I got the job today.  I dug down into three different mole trails in the back yard, found the tunnels which are very shallow and then I left them a "gift in the tunnel before burying it all.

 

It is going to be pretty cool this week, for last July.  It could well be in the 80's this week, and we may get rain Wednesday and/or Thursday.  Guess I'd better get busy and get as much water out of the rain barrel as I can.  I discovered today that the dog's outside water was growing another crop of skeeters.  The frog has not been seen in a while, we were afraid he might have become snake or hawk food but I almost stepped on him yesterday morning when I went out on the deck.  He was hopping around and seemed quite happy.  Otter was watering the crop (jalepenos!) so she watered the froggy as well - he seemed to like it, then he hopped off into the honeysuckle area at the edge of the deck.  He probably hopped back underneath the deck after that, he sometimes stays under there.

 

Speaking of frogs, tomorrow is Froggy Day!

Ghosts of Car Repairs Past

I talked to Chevy today.  The car is not ready, but I'm not really surprised.  It should be ready tomorrow.  The service manager told me something interesting that the mechanic discovered:  a leak in the rack, which is part of the power steering system.  He specifically asked me if I'd ever had that part repaired or replaced, which tells me that he suspected something.  I know what he suspected.  That the work was "done" before on that part.  "Done" but not actually done, possibly.

Remember the previous shop we used?  The one that we felt like they were a) manufacturing issues as well as b) possibly not actually repairing work that they were paid for.  Well, I'm strongly thinking that b) might apply here.  I dug out the receipts and in 2011, the entire rack & pinion system was replaced.  Prior to that, there are estimates that state it was leaking and needed replacing.  It looks like the work was "done" and the warranty covered at least part of it.  But we still spent $1,200.00+ on that visit.  Some of it was tires, which were around $600-ish.  But the rest of it was mainly the rack & pinion replacement.  I told the chevy service manager that I'd look through my paperwork and see what was done in the past, that I was pretty sure the previous repair shop crooks had done a replacement and I'm going to see if I can fax him the paperwork tomorrow.

It's a slow leak and doesn't have to be addressed right away, we can watch the power steering fluid level and add as needed.  He thinks it can be done for around $600.  I don't think we are going to get it done right away, we're about to spend just under $900.00 on the car (the cost of the current repair, which includes the oil pan leak and another leak in the sending unit and I'm pretty sure that they are not charging me as much as they should/could) tomorrow.

We've been discussing buying another car, Otter needs Bill's impala more and more so he's been driving the White Lightning.  Which is not ideal, it is a project car but not a quick project.  Also, some of the parts are simply not available for a 1976 Chevy El Camino.  And then there is also the fact that it's a gasoline hog!  We were hoping to wait until December, when Enterprise rentals switches out their models.  That's how we've purchased the last two cars.  I'd still like to wait, but we might not.  I like the new Impalas, but I don't see too many of them on the road which is not a good sign.  The new malibus are really nice, but they are smaller.  However, I really like them and I see a lot of them so they are popular which generally means that people are happy with them.  Otter is in all probability going to get Bill's impala as her own car, it's a good starter car.  It does have issues, but we know what they are which would probably not happen if she were to buy a car elsewhere - she won't be able to afford a new car for a while anyway.  She and Bill worked out a deal, heavy negotiation around my house!  But it isn't planned to happen for a while, she's still saving her pennies.  She's getting a good deal, she just isn't quite there yet.  But Bill is going to need something other than the El Camino to drive on a daily basis, the usual thing we do is I get a new car and he gets my old one.  I drove his/her impala today, but I'm going to catch a ride in with Bill to work tomorrow.  He leaves at 6:00 a.m.!  But since my car should be ready tomorrow, it'll be ok with me to get to work about 6:30.  Otter does work tomorrow, but not until the late afternoon.  Since my car should be ready tomorrow, I don't want to take his/her impala and I think her shift starts shortly before anybody else gets home anyway.

No toad in the dog's outside water this morning.  I'm sure he'll be back, he's a regular visitor.  But there is a skeeter inside the house this evening.  I've been seeing it and have tried to slap/smash/kill it several times but it keeps getting away from me.

 

But Maggie Moo is obviously not bothered by the skeeter.  She's snoozing at my feet.  As usual!  Frasier is snoozing in front of the coffee table.  Lazy hounds!  But maybe they have the right idea.

 

2 days down, 3 to go!

1 Down. 4 To Go!

Work days until vacation, that is.  It's a stay at home vacation - I do NOT like the word "staycation" so I don't use it.  But the upshot is, I have 4 days of work left and then I have a 9 day weekend!

 

The resident toad was back this morning, "he" was hanging out in the dog's outside water dish when I refilled it.  He stayed in the water dish this time, he got out of the way of the water I was pouring but he didn't seem to be afraid.  He looks well-fed, too.  We usually move the dog's inside water dish out to the garage in the morning when they have to be outside.   They have outside water, but it gets warm and icky by the afternoon so we move their clean dish out for them.  Not that they would mind, I've seen some of the things they eat and they like to get dirty water from puddles, the plants, etc., but we like them to at least have clean water available.

 

I took the car in to Chevy this morning and left it in their hands, until Tuesday or possibly (probably) Wednesday.  They got me to work and Bill picked me up.  Otter works the afternoon shift tomorrow, so I'll take Bill's impala to work in the morning and then at lunch I'll get Otter to work.  That way, I'll have the car and a way to get to the grocery store if I decide to do that tomorrow.  I'll have to pick her up, but she gets off at 5:00 so that's not so bad.  Wednesday morning, if the car isn't back tomorrow, I'll most likely head in to work with Billyboy which means I'll be at work about 6:30!  I'll take crochet or my laptop with me, since I'll have about an hour and a half until the workday officially starts.

 

The El Camino has a problem, the driver's side window controls are not working.  Bill's been unable to find a replacement part anywhere - even on the internet!  He's got it blocked with a piece of wood so that the window doesn't fall out of the frame and shatter into a million billion pieces.  I called Chevy and talked to the service manager, he said that the labor would probably be $130 - $150.  BUT that he doesn't think the part is available anywhere.  He suggested junk yards, the internet and a few other places.  Which Bill's already checked.  We used to have the parts car, the blue El Camino.  Bill stripped it of most of the parts and then sold the body.  However, the one part he didn't get?  The window controls!

 

Froggy, I have gotten quite a bit done on Uncle Crazy's blanket.  I've gone through one skein of yarn already, and it's 21" across.  I have 4 other skeins and I'll probably use all of them.  I'll let you know when it's ready and when I ship it.

 

It rained this morning.  Then the sun came out and it got humid.  Again!

Something we strongly believe in

Now, tell me that you don't have the Reading Rainbow stuck in your head!

 

Reading Rainbow was such a quality show, it was an oasis in the desert and is very much missed.  Literacy is one of my big issues, and we are all for the return of RR.  Because, after all:

 

 

What a Day. Glad It's Over!

It's just been a hard day.  Really tough day at work, the Teenager was every second of his 97 years today.  I was so glad to see 3:30 roll around, in fact I announced to Younger Boss that I was running off about 10 minutes early and he just waved at me - he had the same kind of day I had!  Today, the idea of being bored stiff at Jury Duty for a few days actually sounded good!!!  (Not really.)

 

We got the other two honeysuckle planted yesterday.  Everything got watered from the rain barrel.  The 2nd barrel has a spout a hose can be attached to, it doesn't have a whole lot of water pressure obviously.  But it does gravity.  (Just using "gravity" as a verb or adverb is an accepted term in the oilfield - since I work for an oil company, I am allowed to use it!)  I was not sure about the clematis yesterday, it didn't look good at all.  But I think maybe it just didn't get enough water, it was much better today and looks really good now.  I just came in from watering the plants the hose will reach.  My arms & shoulders are still sore from carting a very large, metal, heavy-when-full watering can all over the yard yesterday to get the ones out of hose reach.  They were ok today, but they'll probably get watered tomorrow along with all the ones I got tonight.

 

We still haven't planted herbs & peppers.  Otter has had some pretty strong allergy issues, mostly because of the wind and the fact that we were outside so much at the nursery on Sunday.  They are still in good shape, I gave them a little drink this morning.  Probably tomorrow is when they'll get transplanted.

 

Otter's allergies are much better.  She was off yesterday, so she spent the day inside and taking her allergy meds.  She still has some allergies, it is Spring after all.  But she's much better.  She was scheduled to work this morning, she got off at one o'clock and stopped at Wallyworld for me for the swiss cheese I forgot to get.  When I got home, she wanted to go to Hobby Lobby with me so she was outside again but she's still much better than she was.

 

I bought a quilt top in December at an antique-ish store.  The idea was to cut it in half and turn it into curtains for the bedroom.  But I changed my mind and decided it needed to be a quilt and not curtains.  For one thing, it's all hand-stitched and someone took a lot of time and care with it.  It's not huge, but it will be big enough to cuddle up with on the couch.  If Bill's nice to me, I might even let him share it!  Anyway, it has a lot of pinkish and grey shades so I was thinking either a pink or a grey backing color or possibly something with a lot of those shades in it.  So what did I fall in love with?   White with black spots!  The pattern name is Dog Spots, it looks like a dalmation.  But I think it will be fine.  I am going to re-wash the quilt top and I'll wash the backing fabric at the same time.  I think I probably have enough batting for it but I haven't checked for sure.

 

We keep seeing advertisements for the new Godzilla movie.  It looks good.  I hope it is.  Bill and I are part of the "Godzilla generation" and we remember the original movies.  The movie made a few years back was ok, but it was not really what I (or most people, apparently) considered to be "real" Godzilla.  This one looks a whole lot better.

 

While I was outside while ago, I heard the first tree frogs of the spring.  They might have been in the back tree, the one behind the shed.  I didn't look for them, I just enjoyed listening to them chirp.  Or croak?  Whatever it is they say!  I also watched a robin for a while, and it was singing a lot as well.

 

I know it's not Wednesday yet, but it is close.  I might not blog tomorrow and I didn't want to forget this picture.  So, in the spirit of Wednesday (and TEXAS!), I thought I'd post this:

 

Bill's sloooooooooowly getting over the cold-ish that he had.  The one Otter gave me and it took me a while to get over, then I gave it to Bill.  He was pretty stuff last night.  I'm not sure what time it was, but he moved to the couch sometime last night.  I remember when he got up, but I thought he was just going to the bathroom.  But apparently he moved to the couch, because I woke up again when the alarm went off and he was sitting in the corner of the couch with his pillow and a couple of blankets.  But he sounds much better tonight.

 

OK, I guess that's it!

Still Only Tuesday!

But it feels like it should at least be Thursday.  Just one of those weeks, I guess.

 

Bill has decided that he is going to the dermatologist on Thursday.  He had been thinking that it might be best to wait until the plastic surgeon could see him, but that would be at least the end of October and probably later than that.  He was concerned that the spot would continue to grow, which is probably would, and that it would be as big as it was or even bigger.  So, he decided to keep the Thursday morning appointment with the dermatologist.  It's going to take at least an hour and it's not going to be fun.  But it is necessary.  I'm taking Thursday off and going with him.

 

Otter and I are getting our flu shots Friday.  We think that Bill will have definitely earned some of our traditional post-flu-shot ice cream!  Which I might get at Braums, in case you are interested Froggy!

 

In the meantime, we've been working on the trellises.  Yesterday, Bill set the middle posts in.  Today, he installed the top bar pieces.  Tomorrow, we'll go get the lattice pieces and attach them.  Then it will be ready for me to plant my honeysuckle starts and let them do their thing.  He might also get the wooden frame assembled to hold the new rain barrel but I'm not sure when he's going to get the rain gutter hooked up to actually put it in place.

 

Bill got some cuttings of trumpet vine today.  It's now happily (I hope) rooting in a plastic coffee can filled with rain water.  I'm going to order the crepe myrtle soon, but I'm not sure when.  They won't actually be delivered until after November 1st.

 

Froggy, I already mentioned this to you.  There was a toad in the dog's outside water dish yesterday morning.  I was dumping the water out so I could rinse out their dish as it was getting green.  After I took the bricks out, which are there for frogs so that they don't drown, there was a little hopper looking up at me.  It hopped out and went underneath the rain barrel.  I refilled the water dish and replaced the bricks.  Last night, the toad was on the front porch (Froggy, I think I told you it was the back porch) and was sitting underneath the light.  The light was on and it was bringing bugs by the billions.  As a result, we had a happy frog!  This morning, it was back in the dog's water dish.  I'm pretty sure it's the same one each time.  And it's really a toad, not a frog - they are not the same animal although they are related.  They're very welcome, by the way.  They eat lots and bugs and that's fine with me!

 

I had an interesting bird sighting yesterday.  It was coming in for a landing on an electric wire and the wire actually sagged - but then that is probably expected when an eagle lands on it!  It didn't stay long, it turned around and took off across a field.  It went pretty low and just skimmed the ground.  I think it got something, it looked like it had something in it's claws.  Today was hummingbirds, there were two and they were not willing to share any of the three feeders I refilled this afternoon.  Hummingbirds are fairly common, but eagles are not.  We've seen them before, but not often.

 

We also saw one of Lovely Neighbor's hairless cats yesterday.  It was out in her front yard, Otter went to the door to let her know but she said she already knew.  I guess she's quit blaming her daughter for letting her expensive cats out.  At least it didn't come over to my yard, Frasier would probably have done what he's known for and I don't think that we would have been responsible.  That was one UGLY cat.  Ugly with a capital UG!  The words "Butt Ugly" just about describe it.

Shark Tales and Ouchie Feet

We're on vacation this week.  We are staying home-ish.  Bill's been working on the pachinko storage project and I'm conscripted labor.  When we get through, the bulk of the machines will be stored neatly (!) in the garage, on a shelf system Bill came up with.  Which will be nice, but the process to get them there is hard work!

 

Otter and I did manage to escape for a few hours today.  Bill went to meet someone who wanted a machine fixed and we ran away while he was gone.  Actually, I told him the other day that we were going somewhere this morning.  We went to a neighboring town that has an aquarium.  They have a wonderful shark display, it has a walk-through area that makes it look like you are walking through an ocean of sharks.  They also have an otter exhibit, which was very popular with my Otter.  We've been before, but the otters are new since our last visit.  Next door to the otters are beavers, and there is also a raccoon.  Not quite sure how a raccoon fits in, but it apparently is happy because it's a fat one.  The aquarium is working on a sea turtle exhibit, which will be wonderful when it finally gets finished.  They do have turtles, lots and lots of turtles, as Froggy can attest because I texted her lots of pictures.  We petted the horseshoe crabs and stingrays.  There's a huge exhibit of assorted jellyfish and a couple of big happy frogs.  We spent a couple of hours there.  Otter took a bunch of pictures, which I will eventually get uploaded so I can post some here.

 

On the way home, we stopped at Domino's and got a pizza to bring home for lunch.  Otter's been having allergy issues so she ate inside, but Bill & I sat on the front porch and had a nice picnic style lunch.  We did that yesterday as well, but it was Braum's.

 

After lunch, I got out in the garage and helped Bill with his project.  It involved a lot of heavy lifting today.  I have ouchie feet, but I did get a decent pair of tennis shoes so they are not as bad as they could be.  I also have assorted ouchie muscles, which I'm going to blame on Bill!

 

Otter has to work tomorrow, but Bill & I are going to be back on the shelf project.  It's a lot of work, but it's going to be really good when it's finished up.  He's also working on shelving in the shed.

 

It's only Monday and I'm already exhausted.  I like hard work, fortunately.

Tooth Fairy Report and Whatever Else I Think Of

Otter saw the dentist today.  Her teeth are now shiny clean, and they look like they don't have any cavities.  The two top wisdom teeth are ready to come out, the dentist said that they can come out at any time but we don't have to be in a huge hurry.  So, the oral surgery/extraction is the Wednesday before Christmas.  That's over Otter's break between semesters.  It's an afternoon appointment, at 3:30.  Our thought is that she can have the procedure done, with the laughing gas, and then will probably be ready for bed (and a pain pill or allergy pill) early in the evening.  The thought is that she's still going to be uncomfortable and in pain, but maybe it will be easier on her if she can just come home and go to bed early.  I'll lay in a supply of yogurt and ice cream, as she's already requested.  One tooth is beginning to come through, which is an extraction.  But the 2nd tooth is not coming through as much, so it's an actual surgical extraction like both of the two lower ones were last year.

The rest of the story from the dentist is one that we were hoping never to hear.  Otter's teeth show some signs of possibly heading towards decalcification.  Like mine.  Like Froggy's.  Like Toadles'.  Like our Mom's.  It's not a given that it will happen, but it's a strong possibility.  The dentist wants her to try to head it off, she already takes good care of her teeth but she needs to increase her calcium intake.  She already gets a lot of calcium, but she's now going to start taking the same otc calcium supplement I take.  And probably even more calcium-rich dairy is in her future.  But she has the advantage of realizing it earlier that I did.  She has strong teeth (thanks Bill!), which is also in her favor.

We ran a couple of errands after the dentist, including going out to the fairgrounds to get Otter's ride pass.  The rides can be expensive, the passes are good for the entire run of the fair although we'll probably only go once.  She'll still get my money's worth out of it!  I'm going to try to remember to take pictures of the quilts and crochet, etc. at the fair this year.  I didn't get any pictures of the ribbon winning quilts last time (2 years ago) and Froggy was a little bit miffed.

So Froggy, this is for you:

Pucker up!

A word of explanation:  Froggy had a frog lick her foot one time, in the flower bed in front of her house.  She's not blognamed Froggy because she has any particular affection for them, either.  Which is Toadles' fault.  I'm responsible for the issues she has with turtles, fyi.  Froggy is a certified Master Naturalist and sometimes takes groups on tours for things.  Like an owl hunt one time, properly called an Owl Prowl.  Just to see and hear them, that type of hunting.  She signed up to take a group last Saturday evening, but didn't bother to read what she'd be hunting for.  You guessed it!  FROGS!!!!  Next time, you'll read the details first, I bet.

Otter, this next one is for you:

Smooch!

Frasier Tales

And other horror stories.

OK, it's not a horror story.  But I am exhausted!  I decided to sleep on the couch last night, since Frasier was antsy and the incision had a slight amount of blood on it earlier in the day (I think I mentioned that already.)  He wasn't too bad at first, there was a little snuggling with mom but the dog eventually curled up on the floor by the couch and went to sleep.  I didn't sleep to soundly, but part of that was because the beagle was snoring!  Like a freight train.  Frasier made a little noise himself, though.  I got up to go to the bathroom around 3:00 and that was the end of the night, as far as Frasier was concerned.  He was ready to a) play, b) have breakfast, c) play.  I managed to get back to the couch and after I pushed his head (and cone) off of me 3 or 4 times, he decided to curl up and I thought maybe I could get back to sleep.

Which might have actually happened, if we hadn't had a thunderstorm.  The lightning was just enough to keep waking me up, and I am pretty sure that Fraiser was watching and waiting for me to wake up again.  By the time I finally got him settled and convinced that he did not need to play with me, it was nearly 5:00 and that's about when I normally get up.

I came home at lunch to check on him, Otter is taking the afternoon shift with the dog so she was home all afternoon and could watch him.  While I was home, we noticed that the incision had been bleeding again.  Not gushing, more like a stitch might be tearing slightly or possibly he could have bumped it.  It's on the front of his leg, so it may get bumped a lot.  We cleaned it up, then I decided to call the vet to see if there was something we were supposed to do at this point.  He said to just keep cleaning it off and watch for redness, gushing or anything that makes us think it's infected.  (We don't think it is).  At this point, Frasier will not go back to the vet until Monday to get the stitches removed.  I'm hoping that we can take the cone off of him at that point, but I'm not holding my breath about it.  Dog is determined and he is smart.  That can be a very interesting combination!

I'm sleeping in my own bed tonight.  If Frasier barks, I'll tell him to shut up.  If he knocks the dog block down, I might just get up and close off some of the doors so that they don't get the run of the house.

I have another tale.  This one involves one of these (but much, much larger):

I was calling it a bullfrog, but I think it was technically a toad.  Either way, we have one of them living on the deck.  It probably lives under the deck and in the morning glories, because we've heard it before and seen it a few times.  Or maybe we saw a different one, this was was huge.  Probably one of the biggest toads I've seen in years.  Last night, nearly 10:00, I went out to get the sun tea that I'd nearly forgotten.  As I was stepping out the door, my foot came into contact with something - as soon as I felt it, I raised my foot so it wasn't squashed.  When I first felt it, my first thought was "Good Lord, what did I just step on because that is not fur!"  I was thinking snake, and a big one at that.  I'm not afraid of snakes, but I have a very healthy respect for them - especially certain ones that rattle!  I got back quickly, in case it was a snake, and saw this huge toad and I swear it was giving me a dirty look!  Then, I had to catch it because it kept trying to hop in the door.  Guess he thought he was invited in for the night.  I relocated him to the grassy area just off the deck and he probably had quite a night, as many grasshoppers as we've seen lately.  We hope he stays around, just not where I'm trying to walk.

Froggy, I thought of you!

It's Just Friday

And not a moment too soon!

Although it really hasn't been a bad week.  I just needed it to be Friday from about the second I got out of bed on Monday morning.

I heard tree frogs this afternoon, they were in the front yard somewhere and they were actually pretty loud.  It was just barely sprinkling, but apparently that was enough to start them singing.

We're having chili tonight.  No reason, other than we're TEXAN and eat it a lot.  We haven't had it in a couple of weeks actually, so we're overdue for it.

Otter's off with her girlfriends, running around somewhere.  She'll be home this evening.  I met her at college on my lunch hour and got her laptop, she also loaded me up with all her books and a lot of other misc. stuff which were in a grocery bag and I think included the clothes she started out in this morning because she was wearing something else entirely when I got there.  Part of their activities this afternoon including going to IHOP to eat.  So, I've been wanting pancakes all afternoon!

Maybe I'll make them this weekend, because I need chili more.

We could get bad weather this weekend.  Yes, the stuff referred to as "Springlike Storms" that we don't like.  Maybe rain tonight and thunder storms, but tomorrow night is the really bad chance.  It's not comforting, when they start the warnings this far in advance.  So, please think good non-twisty/windy/bad weather thoughts for us!

Wednesday Ribbets

I saw a quote that I have to share:  Star Trek fans are not a sleeping dragon that you want to poke!  I should say not.  In fact, the unwise person doing the poking usually gets beheaded!  (Or Assimilated.)  We can be a rabid bunch, at times.  OK, most of the time.

Anyway.  The title is for this:

Froggy, this is for you.  It's a happy frog.  I think it's really cute.

Is it Friday yet?

Happy Leap (Year) Day!

Photo posted especially for Froggy!

Leap Year is confusing.  February is a busy month for me, I have so much stuff at work that has to be done at certain times and on certain days and then February comes along and rearranges everything!  Leap Days make February even stranger.  It's still fun, just confusing!

Bill and I were discussing Leap Year this morning.  Otter's birth year was not a Leap Year, but the next year was.  If it had been Leap Year when she was expected, I firmly believe that Billyboy would have had me out running laps or doing strenuous excercise in an attempt to bring on labor so she'd be born on Feb. 29th!  However, he had to be content with hoping for April Fools Day.  She was born the day before April Fool's Day, which was not a bad thing.  He'd have gotten a lot of mileage out of an April Fool's Day baby, but I did an end-run around him and had her the day before. :)

Speaking of Otter, yesterday's comment about how she'd never had a "real" hamburger at home was meant to be jokey.  But I don't think it came across that way.  The cooking part was not a joke, I started teaching her when she was tiny (teeeeiiiny in Texasspeak) and she's pretty much able to cook everything.  But she really had never cooked a "real" hamburger!

Been a Few Days!

Since my last post, anyway.

We lost our internet for a few days, not sure what the problem was but it was area-wide.  It's fixed now.  And not a moment too soon, we've realized over the last few days just how little there actually is on tv!  We don't watch a lot anyway, specific shows but not much.

Let's see, what's happened this week that's worth discussing.

I know!  IT RAINED!  Pretty much constantly for the last couple of days, and it's been wonderful.  It's nice and cool, mid 90's is the highest we've had but it's mostly been high 80's to low 90's.  I'm not sure how much rain water is in my rain barrel, but it's quite a bit.  The plants are all happy now, and the yard is beginning to turn back to green (as opposed to brown!).  Of course, that means that Billyboy will have to mow it soon.  He also had to clean out the rain gutter, you can't tell if it's clogged unless it's actually raining.  It was raining and the gutter was clogged.  It only had a few spots, mostly dead leaves that have fallen off of the previously very dry trees.  We've had thunderstorms off and on the last couple of days, so I guess the internet being out was good timing since we wouldn't have been on the computers then anyway.

My car's acting up.  Tuesday, I was nearly to work when it started making a noise.  We were thinking that the main belt was acting up and I thought that the noise was the belt failing.  I was about a mile from the repair shop we use, so I took it in and they took me on to work.  The belt was fine, in fact the belt is in great shape so we don't have to worry about that right now.  But he couldn't find the noise, as the car did what they always do - quit making the noise as soon as I got it to the shop.  He thought that maybe a small twig might have been flung up and got caught in the belt, which was a possibility as there were a lot of trees damaged in the storms we've had and debris is everywhere.  Today, it started making the noise again and I realized what it is.  The air conditioner "doors" that separate the interior air intake from the exterior air intake are sticking.  This is the 3rd time that it's done this and I'm thinking it's time to call Chevy.  I think that I heard something recently about a recall involving similar situations, but it was not for my model year Impala.  When the car started it's thing today, I was just leaving the office for lunch so I just went straight to the repair shop and this time the car cooperated.  Which means that it was still making the noise and the owner of the shop came out to hear it.  They were full, so I'm taking it back tomorrow on the way in to work.  I'm going to talk to him about calling Chevy, because this should not happen 3 times in less than 2 years.  Actually, it might even be less than 2 years.

I had an interesting experience at Wallyworld today.  I bought dog food.  I had a coupon, but I was going to buy it anyway because the hounds like to eat.  For some reason!  Anyway, the coupon would not scan.  I think it was wrinkled up a little.  The cashier absolutely COULD NOT FIGURE OUT how to redeem a coupon without scanning it!  She made a big thing about how I couldn't use it because it wouldn't scan and that's when RedHeadTexanWoman came out to play.  I finally asked her if she "could just do it the old fashioned way and actually input the numbers from the bar code into the register by hand."  She didn't have a clue what I meant.  After several minutes of this nonsense because she kept repeating herself, I told her that she obviously didn't know what she was doing and that she also didn't know what she was talking about.  She kept insisting that coupons can ONLY be scanned and I told her that she was wrong and I knew it, and I took the coupon back out of her hand.  I paid for my stuff and she started telling the lady next in line behind me how the coupon wouldn't scan (about mine) and that they couldn't take it.  I turned around, looked her straight in the eye and repeated my earlier statement.  Then, I just left.  (Even though RedHeadTexanWoman was out of the fence, I was not rude).  The lady behind me was not impressed with the incompentent clerk, either, by the way.

Since it was obviously Texas Attitude Day, we had chili tonight.  We have it on a regular basis (see many previous posts!), so we would probably have had it anyway.  But I thought it was a good night for it.

Among other things this week, Otter and I went out to the college bookstore and investigated the textbooks she'll need.  We are going to look online for them, but most of them are specific to the college itself and it's not a huge school.  So we might still wind up back at their bookstore.  They weren't unreasonable, I'd just like to not have to pay any more than we have to.  Especially considering the fact that we have to pay for her oral surgery next week and now have an unanticipated car repair cost.  The car won't be much, it's just that we've already had it fixed twice.  The college expenses are not extremely high anyway.

Froggy, you asked about a comment not posting.  I haven't gotten any about last Monday's post, which is the one I think you were asking about.  You might need to re-comment.

Speaking of frogs, we've been hearing the tree frogs again.  They like rain, and when it's raining they get very loud.  I think we had one on the deck last night, we just sat in the living room and listened to it for a long time.  Really neat sounds.  The dogs response to the rain has been to sleep even more.

Frogs are cool.  Right, Froggy? :)

Hoppy Birthday!

(No, that's not a mistake in the spelling!).

Have a good one, Froggy!  Although I don't think you're going to get the draught-busting rain you wanted.

Still, you should at least have some cake.  Get Crazy Uncle and whichever kid is in range to bake it for you.  Then, if they are really nice you can think about sharing it with them.

Sunday Summer

It's not officially Summer for a few more weeks.  But it's warm here and it feels like Summer.  Bill's atomic clock shows that it's over 100 degrees, when I called the local Time & Temperature phone recording it said that it was right at 100 degrees.

Which to a Texan means that it's time to make chili!  So, I did.  One of these days, I really should measure the amount of chili powder I put in.  I was guessing that it was at least half a cup, but I think it's closer to 3/4 of a cup in actuality.  Bill put a chopped jalepeno in his, along with a large helping of picante sauce (real Texans only use Pace!).  It was pretty good.

Otter's jalpenos are probably going to be harvested soon, there are at least a few that are ready.  They look really good.

The morning glories are doing ok, but not the best.  They have come up and seem to be growing, but they are not growing nearly as fast as they usually do and they are not nearly as thick as they should be.  We are wondering if maybe the problem that came along with last year's seeds might still be affecting them?  We are probably going to plant honeysuckle along the back fence, since the morning glories out there seem to be the weakest.  But that might also be for another reason, Bill thinks that the builder(s) in the area behind us might have sprayed something to keep weeds down not too long ago.  The morning glories were starting to come up really well, until then.

I took a certain big, furry dog out in the back yard a couple of hours ago.  Along with his brush.  He really likes to be brushed out, he more or less melted at my feet when I started it.  It resembles a Tribble factory in my back yard!  Frasier looks much sleeker but he's still leaving a cloud of fur in his wake.  I keep thinking that I'm going to see bald spots, but not yet.  Maggie Moo likes a good brushing as well, but she doesn't shed much so her brushing out was just for fun.  She purrs when she's happy, she could probably be heard 500 miles from here when she was getting brushed.

Baby bird report:  We still have several little beaks in the nest on the front porch.  They have opened their eyes and are beginning to look more like actual birds now, instead of little mutants.  We haven't attempted to take any more pictures lately, so I don't know how far they are in terms of feathers.  But they look like they've grown quite a bit.  Mama bird seems to be constantly bringing food, but she's got 4 mouths to feed and there is only one of her so she's a tad bit busy.

The bullfrog that lives in the dog yard is still out there.  He usually haunts their water dish, but I've also seen him around the rain barrel.  He sometimes hops out of their yard and he was hopping around the side of the deck yesterday.  He's a big, fat one and we hope he stays.  We've seen a few 'skeeters lately, so frogs are always welcome!  There's a slightly smaller one that lives in the front yard, I see him up on the porch sometimes.  He lives under the hosta plants, as far as we can tell.

Otter is off with BF today, for their standing Sunday date.  I was going to an antique store, but changed my mind.  Instead, I've been home and doing stuff around the house.  I cooked a few things to put in the freezer for Billyboy's lunches this week, got my laundry done (yuck!), read the paper, de-furred the dogs and so forth.  I might go take my book and head out to the back deck.  I happen to like this weather, it's not hot enough that I don't want to be outside yet.  But even when it does get too hot to stay outside, I did grow up with it after all.  Before too long, I'm going to start hearing how it's so hot here.  But it's really not! :)

Ribbet Ribbet Ribbet

Happy Birthday, Froggy!

Today is Thursday

But Otter thought it was Wednesday.  So she had a pleasant surprise when I told her that tomorrow is Friday.  Of course, she's off all week already!  But Friday is just a good day, I guess.  I know it is for me.

Froggy, I would love to take Toadles to the park to visit the gorilla.  And also to the concrete place by the junktique store where he could visit the other one.  And the train, can't forget about that.  He just needs to get his rear in gear and come see me!

It's been an animal day today.  When Otter and I were trimming up some tree "limblets", there were two birds that were screaming their heads off at us.  We figured out why pretty quickly.  We were in the way of Flying Lessons!  There were two fledglings, and Mom & Dad didn't like our presence.  I had to herd one of the baby birds out of our way so that it wouldn't get stepped on, it had been flying earlier but it didn't quite seem to have the hang of it yet.  Niether did it's sibling, but they apparently managed it after a while because the parents moved away from us and were still calling to them.  We think that they were grackles.  We also had to relocate the rather large frog that lives in the front yard.  Actually, we think it's a toad instead of a frog.  They are not the same animals, it's kind of like the difference between turtles & tortoises.  We've seen this one quite a bit, he usually hangs out in the front of the house under the hosta plants or by the chrysanthemum.  Then later when Bill and I were mowing, Otter discovered a tiny tree frog hopping across the deck.

Our other animal adventure today involves Maggie.  She's back to her trick of forgetting to be housebroken.  It is not just a dribbling dog that is physically unable to hold it, we've caught her at it a couple of times lately and this has resulted in the dogs being put outside at night.  This morning, she did it again and the result is that they spent most of the day outside.  I'm not sure what we're going to do, but they will be spending a lot more time outside.  Frasier is fine with being outside, he seems to like it better.  But Maggie isn't quite so happy about it.  We'll figure out something, I guess!  But I have to go buy more spot cleaner for the carpet tomorrow.

I have a book waiting for me at the library.  It's one I requested.  It's on crochet, no surprise there I know!  This is one that I requested especially for Otter.  It's zombie, vampire and related critters to crochet.  It looks fun, and she's already requested a zombie.  And a non-sparkly vampire!  She's not a Twilight fan by any stretch of the imagination.  Don't think I blame her for that!

I sat down and made a list of crochet projects.  I still don't have too many waiting on me, but I at least have a few things I want to do.  Including another scarf for me and another one for Otter.  I was going to wait until closer to Fall to work on the scarves, but I'm thinking that I might go ahead and at least make mine soon.  Otter hasn't quite made up her mind about the colors in hers, but it will most likely mean a trip to Hobby Lobby or Michael's for more yarn.  I won't protest! :)

Picture Wednesday

In no particular order!

This is a volunteer sunflower. It's one of 4. This one plant alone has over 15 buds. The first one is just starting to open up. Yes, I know it's sideways! Blogger isn't letting me turn the picture so there may be a couple of sideways shots. Turn your head! This is the second year for volunteers, last year's came up as a result of bird seed but they have apparently naturalized now because there are 4 of them and I did not put seeds out in the areas where they are coming up. Happy, happy!

Just starting to open up.

The rock garden! It will be extended about a foot and a half, all the way around. Eventually. I'm not sure if it's this year's project or not, it was going to be the big thing I worked on this spring but after the bamboo block I'm kind of tired of playing in the dirt. The trellis that Bill built for Otter is to the side, you can see a sunflower and one of the chairs on the deck is visible through the trellis. Also by the chair but not visible in the picture is another sunflower. If you look carefully, in the middle of the rocks is a particular paver block that Grandpa gave me for Christmas many years back. Anybody care to guess the State? :)

We haven't gotten in yet, it's been too cool for the water to be even comfortable. We had a spell of warm days, then as soon as we got the pool up it got cool again. Late May and we are back in jacket weather.

Playtime!

Maggie tackled Frasier. But he got right up again and they started running around the living room. Maggie was zooming up and down the hallway for a while.

Like I said, no particular order! This is a closer shot of the fountain that is in the back of my rock garden. It's now a planter. I went back to Ace Hardware and got a couple more moss rose plants. A couple of years ago, Bill painted it with a white colored concrete paint and it's slowly flaking off. The bowl is cracked and he patched it but the patch showed, so he painted it. We had problems with the latest pump we had in it, which is probably because it got left in it all winter, so I decided to make it into a planter. It turned out pretty good and it will probably stay this way now instead of a fountain. Bill took the pump out of it Sunday afternoon, and there was a tree frog inside of the reservoir where the pump was. There was another tree frog down in the rocks behind the fountain. We've been hearing them a lot lately in the evenings.

Still sideways! Bill's Nekkid Lady fountain topper. She is holding an urn on her shoulders and was originally designed to sit in the middle of a fountain or pond. The water would come out of the top of the urn and flow over all sides of it. But since my fountain is not that style, Bill cut off the top edge of the urn and rerouted the water to where it would flow out of one side. It worked great, when the fountain was a fountain and not a planter. At one point, I had a plant sitting on top of the fountain but we wanted to add to the flowing water so we bought a topper. Of course, since Bill was in charge of picking the topper... The fountain probably originally had a topper or decorative piece on the top. We bought it when Builder's Square was going out of business, so we've probably had it at least 12 or 13 years. Since it was missing the top piece, it was on clearance for next to nothing. I don't remember the price, but I think it was around $40.00 which is almost free for the size & style fountain - we had been pricing them and decided that they were more than we wanted to spend. But when we found this one, it came right home with us!

Beagle Bliss! This was after their play session, they had a grooming session and she stayed in this position for several minutes. I think she was actually comatose.

One of my hosta plants in the front of the house. I have always loved hostas but never had a place for them until we bought this house nearly 5 years ago. (Time flies!) They are a lower light plant and the front of the house doesn't get full sun so I bought several the first spring we were here. Then for the next couple of years, I bought a few more and filled in. Now they are firmly established and are getting big, which is exactly what I wanted them to do. They die back completely during the winter, then they come back bigger each year and I think that they have propogated, because there are a couple more than I remember planting. There are a few different varieties of them.

The grooming session that produced Maggie's bliss. She is smiling.

Looks kind of scary, but it's just clouds. Nothing to worry about here.

Bluebonnets. At the end of May. And they still have buds!

They still have buds AND they are forming seed pods.