Very Tired Friday Rambling Thoughts

In general, I don't mind being 51 years old.  But I've been above-average temperature for days now and it's beginning to get on my nerves!

 

OK, whining aside, it's been somewhat chaotic the last few days.  But at least the water is safe!

 

Tomorrow is the 9th anniversary of when we lost Dad.  I bought Blues & Greens today, in his memory.  (Peanut M & M's.)

 

Frasier might just be over his irrational fear of the vacuum.  The last couple of times I've run it, he's actually stayed inside and even in the living room with me.  This morning, I was vacuuming between/under the couch cushions and he actually came up and stood beside the vacuum!  And it was on!  He was happy, he had that smiley face he gets when he's extremely happy and he stayed in the room and beside me/the vacuum the entire time I had it on.  Maggie Moo, on the other hand, never stirred from their blankets - where she was napping.

 

It's been hot the last few days.  Mid-90's, which is not really "hot" (at least not to a South TEXAN), but the humidity levels have been astronomical.  Which means that breathing is on the difficult side, to say the least.  I'm sure that the asthma issues I've been dealing with this week have contributed to the fact that I'm very tired, as I said in the title.

 

I think I'll go get into my chocolate stash in the freezer and then I am going to have a glass of wine and read for the next couple of hours.

Sunday. Humid. Tired. Hot. Busy.

That just about sums up my day.

 

I've actually been above average temperature for days now, and it shows no sign of stopping.  So, I've decided to just go with the flow.  The deep freeze has been in need of defrosting for a while now, but I've been putting it off.  However, since I seem to be in a near-constant hot flash it seemed like a good time to take care of that.  So, I unloaded the freezer this morning and crammed just about everything into the freezer compartment over the fridge.  We have a big refrigerator, so the freezer is fairly big.  But it's still on the verge of being over-full.  There are a few things that were in the deep freeze that are ok just being left on the counter, such as several chocolate bunnies that we've had since Easter but forgot about!  The freezer is now de-iced and I'm going to transfer everything back in a little while.  Hopefully, I will remember to defrost it a little sooner this time, it has been too long.

 

It's also humid.  Has been for a couple of days, in fact.  Humidity and my asthmatic lungs just don't go together.  I have more or less been confined inside for days, with just brief spells of being outside for things like running to the car while holding my breath and that sort of thing.

 

I'm tired, but that goes with the fact that I'm still warm and the fact that my allergies are on overdrive.  Also, that goes with the busy part!

 

Typical Sunday, in other words.  Too much to do and not enough hours to do it in. :)

 

I'm in the middle of a very frustrating crochet project.  Otter found some beautiful cotton yarn at the yarn store last weekend when we went shopping with Nana.  It's a smaller gauge than most cotton yarn, but she wanted a cap and I love a challenge.  I started out with my standard pattern but made several adjustments for yarn size as I worked each row.  Then I decided I didn't like the way it was turning out, so I frogged it and started over without the adjustments.  Frog # 2 was the result of that!  I found a pattern online at Lion Brand's website and it was for the specific cotton yarn size.  Of course, it's too small - even though it is supposed to be an adult-size hat and what I've made is the measurements/size/row/stitch count it is supposed to be, there is no way that this is an adult-sized pattern.  Frog # 3 is probably happening later today, I think I'm going to remake it with the Lion Brand pattern because I like the way it looks, but I'm going to go up 3 or 4 hook sizes which should make the difference.  I hope so anyway!  It's a gorgeous purple color with opalescent metallic flecks and is going to look wonderful on Otter's red hair.  When I finally get it made, that is!  It will be on the craft blog, when I finally get it finished to size.  It's a slightly different pattern than the one I usually use and I really have enjoyed the crochet process - just not the fact that it's a kid-size!  I've noticed that with patterns before with online patterns.

 

I have some more thoughts on the new ST movie, but I'm not quite ready to post them.  But I will say this:  Those sharks are well-fed!

That's a Wrap Sunday

We had chicken fajita wraps for lunch today.  But the title could also mean the end of the week wrap-up, or the end of vacation wrap-up.  I think mostly, it means lunch.  I had planned on chicken fajita tacos, but it morphed into wraps instead.  Basically the same, slightly different vegetable combo but basically the same.  It was good.  We usually make wraps with plain chicken breast, but I think that we're probably going to keep making them with fajita seasoned chicken breast.  I prefer sun-dried tomato basil tortilla wraps, Bill likes jalepeno cheddar and Otter likes plain flour tortillas for hers.

We finally got around to buying a new fan for the bedroom.  When Froggy came to visit me a couple of years ago, she liked using a fan in the bedroom at night.  Since I was just starting to get into the "hot years", I started using one as well.  We had two, one was a telescoping base so it could be set at whatever height I wanted.  The other one was a standard tabletop size fan and Otter's been using it.  Both of them were old, the one Otter had came from an auction several years back and Bill thinks that the telescoping one we had in our room was possibly from his friend Larry.  Larry's been gone over 5 years now, and he'd had it for a few years himself.  Both of them were starting to make noise and not working very well.  So, when Bill needed to go to the hardware store today I went along.  And stood in front of the fan display for a while, waiting for Billyboy.  It apparently worked (he'd been saying that there was nothing wrong with the fans) because we came home with a new fan for our room.  We had a box fan that we occasionally used in the window, but it's now in Otter's room.  It just fits on the small table she had her fan on and it works better for what she wants.  I want the fan blowing on me, she prefers to have the fan blowing away from her and circulating the air.

I'm hoping that it will help her, she hasn't been sleeping well lately.  She has not felt too good lately, it's probably allergy.  But it could also be part of the RedHead Curse.  It's not just bleeding massively from minor cuts, we also tend to be low on iron and are somewhat prone to anemia.  Otter's increasing the amount of iron/protein she eats, and we'll watch for a while to see if that helps her general symptoms.  But I'm really thinking that it's mostly allergy related.  The other possibility is that she might have thyroid issues, which the doctor did think was a possiblity earlier in the year for some other reasons.

Frasier is also giving me fits.  He's back at the spot on his leg.  He was leaving it alone for a while, I'd used the spray which shrunk it slightly but it wasn't growing any bigger either.  But I've noticed that it's getting bigger again (a lot) and that he's licking/chewing on it again.  I've used the spray again the last few days, but the spray actually makes him lick at it more.  Yesterday, we tried using vet wrap (similar to a disposable, self-sticking elastic bandage) and wrapping all the way around his leg after spraying.  It was a battle.  Then, it was a battle keep him inside.  We lost that battle, by the way.  He ran outside and came back in after a few minutes.  The vet wrap was around his "ankle" and he'd obviously been licking at the spot again.  I'm probably going to have to talk to the vet again.  I still think it could be a tumor, and not a lick granuloma as the vet thought.  But we'll see.  Fraiser will be due for his rabies shots this month, and I'll see what the vet thinks then.

Movie review:  Journey 2.  This is the sequel to the Journey to the Center of the Earth movie from a few years ago.  The one with Brendan Frasier.  This one was not the best.  It was based on the same Jules Verne stories, but it just wasn't that good.  I think that they tried to hard with it, it had way too much crammed into a short time and it just wasn't very good.  The acting was sub-par and the writing was bad.  It still wasn't as bad as some of the movies we've rented lately, but it's not one I care to watch again.

It rained yesterday.  Not much, but it was nice while it lasted.  Of course, it's super humid today.

I started Otter's Autumn Red scarf yesterday.  I got the first row done and started the second, but then it was suddenly naptime.  It was the couch's fault! :)

Back to the real world tomorrow!

Sunday Accidents

No, not the bad kind!

This kind:

A web board I'm on had a discussion thread about accidental collections.  You know, where you don't realize you have a collection of something until you are suddenly buried in the item.  I realized Friday that I have one, and it's armadillos.

Bill and I went to a yard sale, as I've already mentioned, and he bought a pachinko machine.  I got another stuffed armadillo.  I realized yesterday that I have an Accidental Collection of 'dillos.  They aren't all stuffed, I have a few brass ones and at least one ceramic one.  And I think a couple more, although I can't really remember at the moment.  With more to come, I'm sure!

Texans like armadillos.  We seem to have odd animals, including scorpions, coyotes, armadillos, rattlesnakes and a few other oddities.

Including chupacabras!  Here's my chupa:

This picture is from a couple of years ago.  But he's still big & furry.  And spoiled rotten!  (So's Maggie.)

Otter didn't see the Batman car on Friday.  She had a good time, although she said that she was very tired from all the walking they did.

Movie review:  Chronicle.  Don't bother.

I'm warm today.  I was very warm yesterday and at one point I gave in and took a nice, cool shower.  Which did help, actually.  I might have to take another cool shower very soon, although this particular warm spell is just starting and I think I'm in for a hot couple of hours.  When your husband puts an ice cube on you and you don't even have time to realize it because it's melted already...

We went to church this morning and it was cold in the sanctuary, as usual.  This time, I didn't mind at all!

Otter and I ran a couple of errands and one of our stops was the dollar store.  We found all sorts of things there that we just had to have.  Including what I think is a new version of one of the only shampoos I can use due to my allergies.  White Rain has always had a fairly low-scent, clear shampoo that we've used for years.  At some point in the last couple of years, they came out with a scented line and Otter's able to use it but I can't.  Recently, it's been harder and harder to find the one I use.  I emailed the company and they did respond, but it wasn't really what I asked them.  What I did find out is that they have discontinued the one I use.  So, I bought as much of it as I could find and also the conditioner that goes with it because it was also discontinued.  I tried a couple things, and have been using baby shampoo lately.  Which works, but not that well because it's not really made for long hair.  Which I have.  And I still needed to use conditioner, although baby shampoo is supposed to not need to be followed with it - well, I guess if you have short hair or are a baby you might not need it!  Last week, I discovered that White Rain has a new product that is almost the same one I've used for years.  It does have a little bit more scent than the previous one, but I tried it and it seems to be working.  It doesn't seem to trigger Bill's few allergies, which a lot of scented things including shampoo can do.  And the dollar store carries it, so I grabbed a couple of bottles while we were there.  I'm going to stock up a bit on it, in case they discontinue this one!

Otter's changed her summer college plans a bit.  She's still going.  But she's put off the math and is taking two classes instead of one.  She's got two weeks left of freedom, then she has two months of two days a week classes.  The school is closed on Fridays during the summer.  Her classes are on Monday and Wednesday.  She'll take the first math class in the fall semester and the second one in the spring semester.  Along with her foreign language class, which is probably going to be Japanese.

I took a quick picture of the bird nest in the planter on the front porch.  I used my cell phone, so I can't post it here.  But we discovered that there are 4 eggs.  Four more little bug eaters!  Mama bird is not leaving the nest the second we come out the door, she is waiting until we are almost to the planter before she flies off and she's not going as far.  She seems to realize that we aren't a threat.

OK, back to my ice water now!

OK, Now It's Really Friday

This time last year, we were getting ready for this:

A day early, but it's an anniversary!

But I might not actually get anything posted tomorrow, so I wanted to mention it today.  It's amazing how much can happen/change in a year.  Otter's gone from being a teenage high school student to about to start her sophmore year of college and she's not a teen any more.  'Scuse me while I go catch my breath!

Froggy, you probably know exactly what I mean.

Otter's off with HP and his family this afternoon, there's a local annual event that is kind of a cross between the fair (strange food and fun displays but without the rides) and an art show.  She was excited about the presence of a car from the latest series of Batman movies.  Hopefully, she'll get to see it.  I saw it the other day, I was on my way back to work and it was being put back in the 18-wheeler that it travels in.  My Batman obsession is only topped by my Star Trek obsession, and Otter is very much her mother's daughter on both counts so she was hoping to get to see the car.  If you can call it that, it's a strange looking beastie.  It's not the car from the 60's tv series or the movies from the 80's/90's.  It's also not very big.  If she gets to see it, and remembers to take pictures, I'll probably get them posted here.  Eventually.  This time, she did remember to put sunblock on and she also took it with her to reapply as needed.  Red heads and sun exposure don't make a good combination.  The last time we went to the State Fair, we forgot the sunblock and she was pink-on-the-way-to-red before we realized it.  We wound up buying her a parasol to use to keep the sunshine off of her (very pale) skin.

This is a good example of my day:

I didn't actualy get IN the fridge, but I did stand in front of the open back door while the cool morning breeze was blowing through and then I stood in front of the fan in our bedroom.  I saw a cute joke:  Global warming is really just mother nature having a hot flash!  No, we don't believe in either global warming/climate change or mother nature.  But it was funny.  (I have been known to stand in front of the open freezer on occasion.)

It's been a warm day today!

Otter and I ran a couple of errands this morning, including taking a trunk load to Goodwill to donate.  Of course, we had to shop while we were there.  :)  Otter found a couple of movies on dvd that she wanted.  I didn't find anything, but that was ok with me.  I was too warm to really be in a shopping mood.

Bill saw a listing on Craigslist for a pachinko machine at a garage sale.  It was literally on the other side of Tulsa from us, we live outside of Tulsa.  But it was a nice drive, the traffic on a Friday at 1:15 is not bad.  He got the pachinko, and I got another stuffed armadillo for my accidental collection.  And the seller was a fellow TEXAN, so it was nice to get to talk to another one of us.

Then we came home and had chili.  Always good!

Trees and Other Stuff

We got some of the tree limbs taken care of this afternoon.  Bill was able to get the one remaining branch that was still in the tree, the ground was (barely) firm enough for the ladder.  It was a pretty big limb.  Now, it's firewood!  He ran out of steam before he got all of the limbs cut up, he wasn't using the chainsaw for some reason.  It'll probably be Sunday before he has time to work on the rest of the limbs.  The back yard looks better.

Maggie Beagle got herself into major trouble with Otter today.  She would have been in trouble with me as well, but Otter is the one that heard bird screeches and looked out to see what was going on in the yard.  What she saw was her beagle, holding down a mockingbird and about to go in for the kill.  I heard Otter yelling loudly at the dog so I knew something was going on, but by the time I got out to the yard Otter had already gotten Maggie off of the bird and put the dogs inside.  We looked around, and finally found the bird.  It had hopped into the closest cover, which was the iris plants around the base of the non-broken tree.  It was fine, and it was also a young bird.  The screeching birds, that had also been attacking the beagle when Otter was getting the bird away from her, were probably the parents and the bird on the ground was a fledgling.  The fledgling screeched at me in that mad way that mockingbirds have, then it started hopping away and since it was ok we went inside.  We stayed where we could watch, and after a minute or two the parent birds went down to the grass and apparently the baby was ok because they went back up into the tree and kept going back & forth.  The youngster tried to fly a couple of times, but hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  However, the parents were leading it and it was jumping higher & flapping more so we think it was unhurt.  Later on, they were all out of sight so we think it probably managed to fly and they all left.  There were two or three other birds that were probably it's nest mates and they were all in various stages of flying.  Mockingbirds are special, they are TEXAS state bird and they certainly have the attitude!

We also have a robin's nest, it's on the end post that holds the front porch awning/cover up over the porch from the front door.  There have been nests there before, usually doves but this time it's a robin.  We've been watching mama robin and now the babies are pretty big.  I haven't checked them this afternoon, but I could see them clearly this morning and they were very close to flight.  They might have been about to fledge when I saw them this morning, so they may be gone already.

I did manage to get some sleep last night!  I still feel like I need to catch up, but I am more rested today.  Not sure why I had a few nights without good sleep.  Of course, I am a 50 year old female and it goes with the territory!  I've also been feeling warm lately, not as in fever but as in hot flashes.  This part of getting older is not fun.  I don't have a problem with getting older, it's just the transition stage that I'm not enjoying!

Sunday Snakes

No, not the reptilian kind with the forked tongues & scales. 

I'm talking about the plumbing kind.  This week's adventure was having to play plumber (well, Bill did anyway).  The a/c drain pipe in the garage was clogged up.  The clog was actually in the pipe between the a/c drain and the kitchen sink which caused both ends to overflow.  Bill discovered it when he went out into the garage to get another pachinko machine to bring in to work on.  There was water running down one side of the garage - the side the pachinkos were on, of course.  We had a rapid rearrange session, then he figured out where the water was coming from.  This was Wednesday evening, so we didn't do anything about it then.  Aside from turning off the a/c (it was cool that evening) and not using the dishwasher or kitchen sink, the dishwasher had just finished running and that is probably what caused the overflow leak.  Thursday morning's breakfast dishes were washed in the bathroom sink.  Bill talked to the plumbers at work and they told him that it was probably a clog and not anything more severe such as a broken pipe based on the symptoms, so he stopped on the way home from work and bought a pipe snake.  It did the trick, and we can now use the sink, dishwasher and a/c again.

I'm really glad that it was the other day and not today, because I don't think I could stand not having the a/c on in the house.  It's in the 80's, not extremely hot outside although the humidity is a problem for me.  The problem I'm having today is simply because I'm a 49 year old woman!  I haven't had a hot flash in several months and the one I had today made up for any that I've missed.  I've seldom been this miserable, it was very windy and cool this morning so I stood out on the back deck in the wind for quite a while.  Then I came inside and stood with my head in the freezer.  After that, I moved to the bedroom and turned the fan on high - and stood in front of it.  I am not looking forward to the next few years, if today's was any indication of what's on the horizon.

After I cooled down, we managed to make it to church.  Where the a/c was on and I actually got a little cold.  And enjoyed it!

I think I might get a hummingbird feeder up soon.  I haven't seen any yet, but we've seen quite a few birds suddenly appear and I expect them soon.

Otter and I went shopping this afternoon.  We both needed Easter dresses and also something to wear to her graduation.  We went to Penney's with the intention of hitting Dillards next, but we both found what we wanted at Penney's.  Love their sales!  My dress is a totally different size than I was looking for, I knew I'd lost a little more weight but I really didn't think I'd gone down any more in terms of clothing size.  Until I tried on the size I thought I would wear and it swallowed me.  The next size down actually is almost loose, but the size down from that would probably not work (yet) and I don't think that they had the next one down anyway.  No luck in the shoe department today, although we did try.  We both bought sundresses but mine has a shrug-type jacket.

Well, I guess that gives us an excuse to go shoe shopping this week.  Like we need one!

While we were out, we went to Lowe's and found a couple of plants.  Not much in the way of herbs, which is what Otter wants to grow this year.  She found a rosemary plant at the grocery store last week and would like to find another mint plant, probably peppermint specifically.  We bought 4 small jalepeno plants and a couple of lillies (forgot what kind) for the whiskey barrel.  We'll look at another store this week after school that usually has more edible plants than Lowe's does and see what we can find.

Then, we'll probably go shop for shoes. :)

Nag Nag Nag Nag Nag

By Froggy's own admission, she was nagging me (about not posting in a while).   So, here it is!

It's just been a busy week.  Otter's last week of school before CHRISTMAS break, she is getting over the strep throat she had and she has finals (today and tomorrow) so she's been busy.  She also baked cookies the last couple of nights, to give to her friends at school.  Two of which said that they were surprised, they didn't take her for a baker.  Considering that she's been cooking along with me since she was tiny, I'm not sure what she will actually learn in Cooking class which she'll switch to next semester!

Bill's last week of work before his 2-week break, and he's been busy with stuff around the house.  He's made a couple of trips up into the attic this week, he brought down the Christmas decorations and one of the trees.  He put the tree together for us this morning, then Otter decorated the tree this evening.

That means that there are no pachinko machines in the living room at the moment!  Which is only temporary, once the tree is down and the sofa table is clear I'm sure that he'll have it covered in machines and parts in less than 2 seconds.

(And since I generally can't stand to leave the tree & stuff up any longer than I absolutely have to, that might mean that Christmas night he'll have all his toys back on the table.)

We put up my Nativity set, it's on the top of the entertainment center where we usually put it.  I found a piece to it at a thrift store a few weeks back.  It's another stable piece.  The original one is still intact, but it's hard to put together.  This one is a little smaller and works better.  I'm not sure when Avon came out with it, I didn't even know it existed until I saw it and immediately grabbed it.  I'm still in search of a cow, the only piece I don't have.  I've seen them on eBay and Craigslist, but - just like with my Fenton - I'm cheap when it comes to pieces to the Nativity!  We also hung the stockings and got the wreath on the door.  I couldn't find my wreath hanger, so I used a wire coat hanger and bent it into shape with a pair of pliers (my tools, which Bill is specifically forbidden to even look at!).  We got the wreath in place and then found the wreath hanger.  After all that work, making one out of a clothes hanger, I suggested to Otter that she use the real hanger on her small wreath that she made years ago so she has one on her bedroom door now.

Work has been somewhat crazy this week, it normally is busy this week anyway but I also have a lot of extra work that I would normally do the last week of the month.  Except that I'll be off that week, since I'm taking the last of my vacation days.  I don't think we're going to do anything specific that week, beyond a trip to Incredible Pizza on my birthday.  Just whatever around the house, and I'll probably attempt to crochet as much as possible.  And maybe hit a thrift store or two.

Frasier would like me to state that for the record, he's absolutely amazed at the gall of the inhuman michael vick (he doesn't deserve capital letters) saying that he'd like to have another dog at some point.  Frasier would also like me to tell you that he thinks that particular male person (real men do NOT do what he did) should be treated like he treated some of the dogs he previously had.  Maggie Moo agrees with him, and so do we.  And also, Frasier suggested that vick should be neutered.

Our tamales are here!  I ordered 4 dozen from my tamale connection, with the intent of giving each of my (2) bosses a dozen for Christmas.  They were delivered today, our 2 dozen are in the freezer and will hopefully stay there until New Year's.  Although they smelled so good, it was very hard to put them in the freezer without first sampling them. :)

Horrible story coming out of Florida, about the shooting at a school board meeting.  Thank God no one was seriously hurt, aside from the gunman who killed himself.  I can't imagine the pain that his family must be feeling, first to lose their husband/father by his own hand and secondly, having to live with the knowledge of what he did/tried to do.  After watching the video, I think that the school board members were probably just too stunned to accept what they were seeing because the did not react nearly as fast as they should have, or even when they should have.  I guess that in that situation, fear can easily take over and they were probably so shocked to see the gun in his hand.

Bill's working the sound/video for a school board meeting tonight, he said that there wasn't anything specific on the agenda which means that it probably wouldn't be on the news tonight.  But, after the Florida incident, I won't be surprised if it does make the news.  If I manage to stay up until 10:00, I'll watch and see.

Considering that I've been up since 4:45 this morning, I don't know if I'll even make it to 9:30!  I just woke up early, no reason.  Except maybe the fact that I'm 48 and it happens!  Along with hot flashes...  One of the dj's on one of the radio stations I listen to was talking about an encounter he had at a gas station at 4:30 a.m. the other day.  He was filling his car on the way to work when he noticed a lady pull up to the next pump and start to fill her own car.  It was in the low 20's at the time, or possibly even the high teens.  She had on shorts, a tank top and flip-flops.  No jacket at all.  He asked her if she was ok and wasn't she cold?  Her response:  HOT FLASH!  I have to say that I sympathise and understand completely.