7 Days

Since the last time I managed to post anything here.

Froggy, you must be slipping.  You haven't reminded me once.  :)

Last Thursday, there was a really bad storm.  It was pretty much totally unexpected and it was actually starting to become tornadic at one point.

There was almost no warning.  It was lunchtime and I had thought about going out for lunch but decided to stay in and I'm glad I did.  We had rain chances but nothing bad was expected.  The first hint was when my cell phone started making the Alert sound - it is very loud and very shrill.  The entire screen said "TORNADO WARNING. TORNADO IN THE AREA."  It wasn't raining or anything, I turned the radio on and they were doing the normal mid-afternoon show.  I thought that the cell service provider must have had a problem and sent out a bad message by mistake.  And that's when the Tornado Sirens started sounding.  When they go off, it's best to pay attention and take cover.  The boss was in his office but had heard my phone alert so he was coming up the hallway to see what the noise was, when the sirens started.  He ran back towards his office for his phone and I was already in the area we decided is the safest spot - the bathroom which is on a north outside wall but the center of the building is a glassed-in atrium and the glass makes it a very unsafe spot.  Bill called me at that point, he was at home and was watching the noon news.  They were on the storm warning by that point and they were calling out the exact area of Tulsa I work in as being in the firing line of a rotating cloud.  He was telling me what the news said and I was telling the Boss.  Then the cloud started to move more south and not southeast, and the rotation stopped.  At that point, they cancelled the tornado warning but were still putting out a lot of warnings in the direction the cloud was moving because of the fact the cloud had shown rotation already.

The Boss opened the garage door to check the sky and by that time,the cloud was right there.  It was well east of us and we were safe, but it was still pretty scary to look at.  These pictures were taken with my cell phone and make it look a lot lighter than it actually was.

No, these are not "Hey Y'all Redneck Last Word pictures!

After the cloud had moved a little further south, that's when the real storm hit.  The one that was behind the rotation.  The rain was very sudden and very, very heavy.  The wind was even worse.  There were trees ripped out of the ground all over Tulsa and the surrounding areas, trees that were broken into pieces, limbs thrown everywhere.  It was a very, very severe storm.  I've seen rain forced sideways by wind before, but not like this.  Of course, Otter was at J's house and that particular town was right in the direction the cloud and storm were headed next.  They were aware of the weather and stayed inside, ready to take cover.  J's house was ok, but there were two incidents that were confirmed to be the work of a small tornado in the general area.

When I got home, which took a while because of several street lights that were out and also because of debris in the road in some spots, we still had power but we also had limbs down in the back yard.  But  there was one place in particular, a church in south Tulsa that literally had a wall ripped off just because of the wind.  Bill's dad had a tree limb down in their back yard - but they don't have any trees.  It was split off of a neighbor's tree, then the wind carried it over the fence and into their yard.  It was not a small limb, either.  Parts of the Tulsa area and surrounding area just had power restored today, Monday.  Bill cut up the limbs from our tree Saturday and also helped his dad with the one in his yard.  Most of it is now in our woodpile, Bill thinks we got about 1/3 of a rick out of it.

Yesterday, Sunday, Bill mowed the yard.  I was standing beside the rock garden when a grasshopper bounced by me.  And landed right in the center of a zigzag spider's web on the trellis!  I had not even seen the web, it was so well camoflauged in the honeysuckle.  Pretty much as soon as the grasshopper landed, the spider was on it.  She moved like lightning and had the grasshopper wrapped completely in silk in just a couple of seconds.  It was amazing to watch her.  Then she moved it to another spot in the web and then a few hours later when I was walking around the yard with the beagle I checked on the spider and she was happily consuming the grasshopper's innards which were probably liquified by that point.  I hope she stays around.  She's probably not quite quarter sized yet, and they can get much bigger.  She can stay in our trellis and eat all the bugs she wants!

Tuesday. Day 2 of Stay at Home Vacation

Not a staycation!  I dislike that word intently.

Anyway.  Yesterday was a lot of fun, we went to Bill's dad & stepmom's for the 4th.  Bill's niece, her husband and kids were here to visit and it was nice to get to see them.  Otter had to work, but she came over to join everyone when she got off work.  Bill and I both try to stay out of the sun, redhead complexion and sunlight don't mix very well.  He was not really in the sun very long but his face is pretty red.  I was not in it at all, but I was sitting close enough to the pool that the reflected light got me a little pink as well.  Just on my right side.  Bill said I have one raccoon eye (because of my glasses) and I have a patchy sunburn on my right shoulder because of my shirt strap plus my upper right arm.  Not a bad sunburn for either of us and we've been using a lot of aloe vera gel but Bill has to be very careful because he tends to get skin cancers.

We slept in a little bit this morning, we both woke up around 7:00.  After breakfast, Bill got the back yard mowed and I did a little work on the honeysuckle bed/trellis.  Yes, he wore his hat with the flap covering his neck.  And he also hollered at me because I forgot my hat - I'm always getting on him about his, so he wasted no time in returning the favor!  :)

I had to run to wallyworld for carpet cleaner, since we're going to clean the carpet on Thursday.  Possibly Friday.  Anyway, since I was there I went ahead and got the few grocery items I needed.  Walmart is already clearing out the summer stuff - pool toys, sun block, etc., and stocking school supplies.  It's only July 5!  But I did discover half-price chocolate candy, since the holiday was yesterday and the packages were decorated with the American flag.  I grabbed several bags, I don't have a deep freeze any longer but it WILL last us a while.  Yes, Bill.  IT WILL.

Tomorrow is my play day.  The only day I actually planned an activity during my vacation week.  I'm going shopping with Otter!  Bill is going to stay home, he's not into the shopping thing.  I don't think it's going to be an all day event, but we are going to one of the not exactly next door but close (sort of) small towns because they have a couple of antique stores I've been wanting to check out.  We may go to a book store in Tulsa and we may go to a thrift store or two.  We'll figure that out tomorrow.

And now I'm going to go back to my crochet.  Then I might just follow Maggie Moo's example and take a nap!

Stuff Happens

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

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

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

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

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

Happy now, Froggy?  :)

Unplanned Day Off

The biggest thing I've done on my unplanned day off is to take Magginator to the vet for her "rear alignment" also known as getting her rear glands cleaned out, and we also got her claws trimmed while we were there.  She weighs 26.6 pounds which is the same as 2 months ago.  She was somewhat impacted but not as bad as when we took her in every 3 months.  At this point, we'll stick with every 2 months.  The vet tech said she's gone one dog that comes in every 3 to 4 weeks and needs it badly, so I won't complain that we have to take her in every 2 months.  She was funny - she was happy to get in the car, but she wilted as soon as we turned into the parking lot.  She got out of the car easily, but she was not too thrilled with me.  She went in the door and immediately turned back around to go back out.  That didn't happen and she was not pleased!  The vet tech took her back as soon as we got there - we didn't need to see the vet for this - and it was a case of "drag the beagle" today.  It didn't take too long and she was overjoyed when she was brought back to me.  She immediately ran to the door and stood in front of it, wagging her tail.  She was very happy when we actually left.  I took her over to visit the grass and when we walked back to the car, there was another doggy arriving.  She almost went back inside with the other dog!  Little goof.

When we got home, I put her tick and flea drops on her and put her out in the garage for a few minutes.  Someone came over to see Bill and they were standing in the front door chatting.  I didn't want to have to worry about the dog getting out so she got to visit her treat can and spend about 10 minutes in the garage.  She came back inside pretty quickly, and promptly resumed the nap I'd had to interrupt to take her to the vet.  Although that nap as underneath the futon, and the 2nd half of the nap is in/on/all over/next to her bed in the living room.

I also went to the post office and to check Bill's UPS box, then I remembered Maggie Moo's feeder is getting low so I stopped at Wallyworld to get another bag.  I grabbed a few other things while I was there, I didn't get too much but they were crowded.  Guess that's normal, it is Friday after all and most people seemed to be buying lots of groceries.  I thought about going to Hobby Lobby, but I might do that tomorrow and I also might go to our favorite used book store then.  Maybe.  Or maye not!  I'll figure that out tomorrow.  Bill mowed the lawn this morning and I think his main plan for tomorrow and probably Sunday is the pachinko machine he's in the middle of restoring.

Otter is at TNT this weekend, along with J, Roomie and BestFriend.  Otter said that they weren't dressing in cosplay today, but that they were still fairly dressed up.  I think Otter probably wore one of her many Lolita dresses (the very fancy, full-skirted dressy outfits like the one she showed you in June, Froggy) and she'll probably wear another one on Sunday.  The cosplay will be worn tomorrow.  They are wearing their Joker and Harley gender switched costumes.  She had to stretch out the wig a bit, she said it was a little tight when she wore it when they went to the con in Dallas.  She's promised me lots of pictures, and yes she will find the Borg!  The Collective will be wandering around the con, but it might be tomorrow before she locates them.  They managed to get a reasonable parking spot and didn't have to walk too far to get to the con.

I'm tired today but not as exhausted as I was yesterday.  I talked to Younger Boss this morning, he said that a few people were over at their house yesterday after the Teenager's services and that they didn't leave until nearly midnight so he was still exhausted.  He hadn't seen Miss Dorothy yet, but he said that his sister spent last night with her so she wasn't alone.  She's very precious to us.

I managed to get a lot of crochet time in today.  I finished the crochet part of Otter's latest scarf,  She wants fringe on this one so I just have to attach it.  The scarf I made several days back is done but she decided she does not want fringe on it, so it just needs tails buried and it's done.  I made a hat to match the first scarf, but she needs to try it on again before I tie it off and bury tails.  I'm going to make a cap to match the 2nd scarf also, I'll make it to the same size as the first one but I won't complete it until she's tried them both on.  Then, it's back to her poncho.  I'm not sure, but I think that's the last UFO I have.  Well, I still have a blanket I'm working on but it's made with little pieces and ends so it's going to be a while anyway.

Think I'll go surf the internet for a while now.

I Don't Have to go to Work Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you can't tell, I am really glad that my vacation has arrived.  Took long enough!  I wish that Bill was able to take the week off like we originally planned, but he can't take any time off at the moment unfortunately.  He is off Friday for the holiday, but that's also the day that Otter has off this week and we had already planned a shopping ramble.  I don't think he really cares, he wants to spend the day working on pachinko machines.  However, there is a chance of icky weather on Friday so we might stay in the Tulsa-ish area and not go as far as we have planned.  We'll still shop, thrift and possibly yard sale shop.  Froggy, we're also going to the steakhouse for lunch.

It's been a fairly busy, productive weekend.  Yesterday, Bill mowed the front yard and I got the limblets that had started up again on the trees in front.  Today he got the back yard.  We went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and Cici's Pizza for dinner.  We went to Ace Hardware today, I also went to Joann's Fabrics and Walmart this morning.  I got a lot of crafting and crochet done, Bill has been working on pachinko machines for a few hours.  He moved the freezer out to the driveway so it could be defrosted, then he moved it back in place.  It's plugged in again although there's nothing in it - we gave it to our (nice) next door neighbor and he'll get it sometime this week.  If he and Bill are able to move it to his house without laying it down then it can be plugged in again right away and he can start using it.  There was a big, blue dragonfly that kept zipping into the freezer and then zipping back out.  I think it was after the water from the thawing frost.  Maggie Moo got several walks, and she got to see her best canine friend this morning - Luna the wolf.

Maggie and Luna seem to be smitten with each other.  As soon as Maggie saw her down the street this morning she just about pulled my arm out of it's socket in her haste to go see her friend!  Maggie is not normally like that, she's fairly easy-going and walks well.  But as soon as she sees Luna, she's going to do everything in her power to get to her.  Luna is the same way about Maggie, although Luna is still very skittish about just about every other dog.  I got a picture of Luna with my cell phone this morning, I keep forgetting to take my camera with me when we walk in case we see her.  She's absolutely gorgeous.  Her owner said that she's not sure how Luna will do with fireworks, but her two others (one is part wolf) don't like them so she's already going to be staying home Friday and Saturday evenings.  Maggie Moo is totally unconcerned about them, Frasier never cared about them either.  Maggie is a very low-maintenance dog, Frasier was about as high-maintenance as it got.  I do miss him and I always will, he was one of those extra-special dogs.  But I have to admit that Maggie Moo is a much easier dog.  She is also smitten with her new bed.  When she's in the living room, she often is curled up in it or laying across it.  She sometimes sleeps next to it, but she usually has at least one and usually two paws/legs stretched out over it.  At the moment, she's napping and has her head on it like a pillow.

The electrical contractor is supposed to come out tomorrow to repair the damage to my yard from 2 months ago.  I would love for them to be able to bury the line that was put in place on Friday but the marking crew would need to come out first.  I'm very tempted to stand out on my deck with my leather whip at the ready, just in case they might need a little encouragement to do their job and do it correctly!  (Not seriously!  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Maybe.)

Froggy, I finally got around to getting a hair dryer.  My blow dryer went to Otter's apartment.  KN#3 was amazed that I didn't have one when y'all were here a couple of weeks back.  I also bought a full-size ironing board.  I've been using a table top size for years and it worked fine, I didn't have a lot of room at the old house so I used the small one and it was fine.  Then we moved here and even though the house is bigger and I have an actual laundry room, I didn't really have a place for a full-sized one.  So, I used the tabletop one on top of the dryer.  Also, I was hanging Bill's work shirts and jeans in the laundry room behind the door and then Otter's work clothing when she worked at the party store - Party City, in case anybody is interested in it (I didn't mention the actual name at the time for safety reasons.)  When she changed jobs, the uniform is one of their t-shirts and jeans so her clothing didn't really need to be ironed.  I just never changed my system, for some reason.  I took the iron holder/clothes hanger off the back of the laundry room door when we put Maggie Moo's pillow/bed in there and I decided to just go ahead and get a bigger ironing board.  It's now in my closet, it's collapsed and leaning up against the back of the closet.  Bill's work clothes are now going to be put in the front of his part of the closet.  I might eventually move it to the front/craft/guest/YARN room.

I might be done with my mink yarn scarf soon.  It's about 2 rows to an inch, and it is measuring about 56 or 57 inches.  My standard scarf size is about 60" in length.  I'll know "when I get there" if it's done or not, but it might be.  I'm going to get back on Otter's slant stitch poncho as soon as the mink scarf is done.  Then my UFO's will be done, with the exception of my scrap yarn lap blanket because I'm out of scrap end pieces for the moment and that's what I'm making it with, and Bill's quilt because I still need a little more fabric but I'm looking for things that fit his personality and interests.  I do have projects lined up, however!  Two scarf/hat sets for Otter and one for Froggy.  I also have a couple of non-crochet related craft projects. I'm finished with the tray I was working on and am nearly finished with the shadow box I'm making with Mom and AJ's stuff.  Next up is a mouse pad that I'm going to cover with the crochet pattern fabric that is on the bottom of the tray, and I may start on the Christmas ornament wreath soon.  I have a few small craft projects I'll probably work on soon, but they aren't anything major and can wait until "whenever" if they need to.

Sleepy Monday Evening

Somebody has way too much time on their hands!  (That's a beagle under all that crochet.)

Monday is over.  Not a moment too soon.

I have 4 more workdays left, then I get a 9-day weekend!  It's a stay at home vacation this time, which sounds really good right about now.  Bill isn't able to take any time off at the moment, so it's just me and the beagle.  I've got plans to sleep in at least one day, although I'll probably get up and make sure Billyboy gets breakfast, his lunch packed and out the door on time.

I also have crochet plans.  Otter is going to let me know what her scheduled days off are, we probably have shopping plans and also lunch at our favorite steakhouse - Froggy, the place we took you to.

I'm fighting allergies and possibly the beginning of a sinus infection but it's too soon to tell yet.  Bill mowed the overgrown back yard yesterday and I tackled the limblets at the base of two of the 4 maple trees.  Bill got the other two trees but they were less overgrown that the two I did.  Maggie was quite happy to stay out in the backyard with us the entire time.  She spent a lot of time wandering around and twice as much time sitting on her behind watching us work!

Not much else going on at the moment, but I haven't blogged in nearly a week and Froggy would be getting on me about that soon.  :)

Buzzing

It must be Spring.  Because my redbud is blooming out all over the place.  It was covered in honeybees today.  There were about 10 or so when I looked out the first time, then a couple of hours later there were what looked like millions!  They were also checking out some of the blooming weed in the back yard.  Honeybees are wonderful little creatures.  Otter isn't too concerned with them being close to her, they aren't aggressive.  If we got in the way, they just went around us.  (That's a stock photo, not my tree.)  We don't get too close, but we get close enough to watch them.  I'm thinking that someone in the area may have a bee hive, because there were a whole lot of the little buzzers.

Otter came over with her laundry after work and we got the new insurance situated while she was here.  I guess it's a law now, probably to keep people from claiming benefits they don't actually deserve, but in order to put her on our health insurance she had to be here when we made the call.  The insurance specialist talked to her and also to Bill to verify his participation and now we are all signed up for the new insurance.  The old one ends at midnight on March 31st, the new one takes over at that point.  It's $211.00 more per month, but (thanks to noboma!) we don't have a choice.  Our current carrier is leaving the state and we had to replace the policy.  I've been looking at different carriers and coverage for a while, insurance companies (large ones) that used to offer nationwide coverage are now having to reduce their coverage areas by huge amounts.  Premiums are also skyrocketing, which is another (not so) lovely effect of nobamacare.  Also, the enrollment period is very short.  Just a few months.  After the enrollment period ends, unless you have a qualifying event such as our situation, you are out of luck on getting new insurance.  How is that fair?  How is that constitutional?  It's not.  At all.

Otter and I went to a thrift store while her laundry was in the dryer.  We didn't find anything, but it was fun anyway.  It was really cloudy when we were there, at one point we heard thunder - and then we heard a very nervous lady ask if that was really thunder she was hearing?  That's actually pretty common after a tornadic storm like we had last week, it can take a few thunderstorms before people relax again.  There were at least 2 confirmed tornados.  The one that hit the trailer park in Sand Springs, and then there was also a very weak one that was just south of the Tulsa Airport but it was short-lived at least.

The dogs have lost their backyard privileges again.  Friday evening, Maggie Moo came running into the house like she usually does (full speed ahead!) and her feet were covered in mud.  And so was the carpet!!  There are now at least 10 holes that weren't there before.  They all seem to be over mole trails, but the yard is well on it's way to looking like a moonscape again.  So, I closed the gate.  And Frasier pouted for a while, he eventually came back for attention but he was not happy with me for a while!

The inernet company is coming out this Friday to bury the cable.  Finally.  They said it would be 30 days, but it's been closer to 60 or so.  Bill really needs to mow, but he hasn't been able to because of the cable just laying across the yard.  The weeds have gotten really tall, and now he'll also have to worry about what looks like sinkholes!

Sunday Dinner

Will last all week!

 

Bill got the grill out and we had steaks for dinner.  He also grilled 4 turkey burgers, 5 hot dogs, 4 pork chops and 3 fajita-seasoned chicken breasts.  Dinner for the week!  I made corn on the cob to go with the steaks tonight, although mine was "corn off the cob" since I have to cut it off to eat it due to my dentures.  Still good, just eaten with a fork instead of with holders on each end and the cob.

 

I had a couple of things I wanted to get accomplished this weekend.  I wanted to get Uncle Crazy's lap blanket finished, I did that today.  I put three rows on it yesterday and the final one today.  Otter and I needed to go through the blankets and separate hers out, we got that done today as well.  I gave her a specific quilt that Mom and our special Aunt made - Froggy, I think you may have helped with it but I'm not sure.  Otter was thrilled with it.  That's the one I texted you the picture of, Froggy.

 

I wanted to go to the Yarn Store in Tulsa that was re-opening and I did that yesterday - there were two locations, they were consolidated into one store and it's really nice.  The two stores were great, but one was really small.  The new store is open, airy and filled with light.  And lots of yarn!  It's a very inviting place, it was originally started as a knit shop but the owner makes a serious effort to include crochet artists in her store even though she herself knits.  I didn't buy any yarn yesterday, but there are a couple of varieties I'm thinking about.  It's where the mink yarn came from and I've found a few other good yarns there.

 

Bill wanted to get some more firewood split, we did that this morning.  It's actually kind of fun, it's a little strenuous but it's not difficult.  We might not actually get any more firewood.  We have a great deal, more than I thought we had.  If Bill does get more, that's fine.  But if not, I think we probably have enough.  He mowed the back yard this morning, it wasn't really tall but it did kind of need it.  He got the front yard one day last week.  Not too much longer for that this year.

 

Yesterday was really cool, it was in the low- to mid-50's.  It was supposed to be a little warmer than that.  It was overcast and misty.  Friday night was cold, it was in the 40's!  It was pretty cool last night but I'm not sure how low the temperature actually was.  It was pretty chilly this morning, I went out on the back deck and enjoyed it for a while.  The dogsters enjoyed it to, Maggie was following her nose all over the deck and along the back of the house between the house and the honeysuckle trellises.  Possibly there has been a 4-footed visitor, most likely a possum or something similar.

 

I took the last antibiotic tonight, I'm so glad to be through with them.  I still have a couple of yogurt left, I'm getting tired of it as well.  I still need to eat it for a few more days.  I like yogurt but I'll be glad when I don't have to eat it as often!

 

Otter woke up with a pretty bad allergy attack yesterday morning, she had a tremendous headache and was in bed pretty much all day long.  Fall has always been her worst season, but it's been better the last couple of years.  Hopefully, it's not going to be bad again.  She was pretty miserable yesterday.  Today, she woke up fine and hasn't had any allergy issues beyond some mild stuff.  At least it was "only" allergy and not the flu, which was my first concern!

It's a Jungle Out There!

Or at least it looks like it in my front yard.  I called someone we know and he is going to either come out here in the next day or so, or possibly send one of his crew over here.  Probably tomorrow.  Maggie Moo will be pleased, she's afraid of getting lost!

 

Bill's doing pretty good, just a little stir crazy.  Not that I blame him.  It's hard not to use your hand, but he's trying very hard.

 

Froggy, I know what you mean about women and their purses.  Many times, I've seen a woman shopping and the basket with her purse in it is either behind or, our several feet away.  I've seen more than one nearly be stolen, just my presence and obviously seeing the person has been enough to have the would-be thief walk away.  Otter has noticed it pretty often as well.  In fact, if she and I are shopping together and notice it we will make a point of walking by the basket/shopper in question and loudly (so that she hears us) commenting to each other how someone could have grabbed that purse and the owner would never have even noticed it.  Otter thinks she should print up cards to leave on top of the purse with words to the effect of "I could have stolen your purse and you'd never have seen me" as a warning.  I remember one time walking into a grocery store and hearing a woman yelling that her purse had been taken out of her basket.  I also went to Sunday School with a woman who had her bag stolen out of her basket at a clothing store.  There are enough bad people in the world, why make it easier for them?  But it happens.  Very frequently.

 

Migraine today.  This is the 4th one this year.  I usually average about 3 per year.  This is only August, I still have several months left in 2014.  I hope that it is not a trend!  I did have ranch dressing on my salad yesterday, I usually don't eat ranch dressing unless I can read the label on the bottle because it usually has msg by the ton in it, but this was a prepackaged salad and I just didn't think about it.  Hidden Valley brand is one of the worst, and it's also the most commonly used ranch dressing.  Well, it does taste good.  I think it's the most likely culprit.  The headache hit about 11:00 or so, I had planned on getting lunch and bringing it back to the office so I could crochet but crochet and migraines do not mix!  I was a little nauseated, which is also common with migraines.  I went ahead and ate lunch, I had a tuna sandwich at Subway and it helped.  I managed to stay at work but I left about 30 minutes early.

 

Otter needed to get something at Hobby Lobby and I had already asked her to wait for me so I could go with her, so I forced myself to go (not that it was all that hard.)  I actually need to buy yarn this time, I bought 5 skeins for Uncle Crazy's lap blanket but it's going to take 6.  At least.  I cruised the yarn aisles while Otter was getting her stuff, the fall colors are starting to come out and they are nice!  I was able to resist, but I'm not making promises for any future trips!

 

Froggy, you do realize that you are now an Official Conscript of the Pachinko business!

 

We just saw an advertisement for a can't miss movie:  Into the Storm.  All I got to say is, Yeah Right!  As Otter says, anybody who lives in Tornado Alley should know just how B.A.D. that one is going to be.  I'm pretty sure we'll pass on that one.

Just a Rambling Sunday **(EDITED)**

Seems like I've been running at full speed all day today.  Well, maybe that's because I have been!

 

I went to the booth to take more pachinko balls and rearrange a bit, we're going to rearrange the entire booth in the next week or so but I like to go by and neaten up every few days.  I didn't get there until Friday of last week but I went by today and I'll go by a couple of times during the week.

 

I had a bunch of errands, none of them were very big but it seemed like each one took me forever to get through.  I went to the Dollar Store which should have been a short trip, but they were very crowded for a Sunday.  WalMart was it's usual self, but that was not unexpected.  It was that sort of day, and I am pretty tired!

 

Bill mowed the lawn, which it needed badly.  I worked on weeding the rock garden a done a few other things outside.  There is a local garden show on one of the Tulsa radio stations on Saturday mornings.  I usually try to listen to it whenever I can.  Sometimes I learn things, sometimes it's just fun.  Like the time the expert was taking calls on the best way to rid your garden of gnomes.  My favorite answer was the caller who suggested a golf club!  Usually, it's real stuff.  Like yesterday.  One of the callers was talking about a wild morning glory vine that he simply could not get rid of and had been fighting for a couple of years.  Except that what he was dealing with is actually a non-native, invasive species called Field Bindweed.  Which looks almost exactly like morning glory, and may be a related plant.  Guess what we have in the yard that we've always thought was morning glory?  Yep, Field Bindweed.  They are pretty so we aren't worried about them, if we had a garden or something like that then it might be a problem.  The blooms are pretty, blue is predominately what we have.  One of the characteristics of this plant is that is chokes out just about everything it grows near - which is probably why we've never had much success with the morning glories we've planted over the years; we thought we had infected or weak seeds but they were probably healthy after all.  However, the honeysuckle is a lot stronger than the Field Bindweed and has just about taken over the entire trellis Bill built by the deck a few years back.  The Field Bindweed is not something we're going to worry about, it's pretty and we'll leave it alone but the honeysuckle we planted on the back trellises will probably take care of any of it that grows back there.  The honeysuckle vines are growing very well and the deck plants are covered in blooms.  Smells heavenly!

 

Otter got to sleep in today.  Her specific intentions when she got home from work last night at 8:00 were to stay up as late as she could (I think she made it until about 2:00 a.m.) and then to sleep as late as she could today.  I was running my errands when she got up, she texted me just as I was about to pull into the driveway.  She got up a little after noon.  The reason is that she went into work tonight at 6:00 p.m. and will be there for several hours.  They are doing inventory and it may well be an all-nighter.  More of less, they should be done by 2:00 a.m. or hopefully before.  The manager is going to feed them pizza and they do get paid for the hours they are there.  She usually drives Bill's impala, but she said the blinkers might have been acting up yesterday so we told her to take my car tonight.  She is to text or call me if she feels that she can't drive home safely, no matter what time it is.  But we think she'll be fine.  She is not scheduled for work tomorrow, none of the employees working tonight are on the schedule.  She gave me strict instructions not to wake her up in the morning when I leave for work!

 

I made pinto beans this afternoon.  A huge pot.  We each had a bowl tonight, I have 8 2-cup containers in the freezer for lunches, a several cup container in the deep freeze and a huge bowl in the refrigerator which will last for several days.  I like to "cook big" when I can!  I had a lot of ham bits which came off of the ham we had at Easter, I froze a large Ziploc bag of them with the intention of making beans.  I just intended to make them earlier, but I never had time until today.

 

Movie Review:  Saving Mr. Banks.  It's the story of Walt Disney's attempt to convince the author of the Mary Poppins book to allow him to turn her story into a movie.  It was pretty good, Tom Hanks was wonderful as Walt Disney.

 

Also, Otter has other news.  She got a promotion at work and there is a raise with it.  She's now the Pricing Coordinator, and she will have duties with inventory control as well as cashier.  I bought her a small, single-serve cake piece at the grocery store the other day.  She had it for breakfast the next day - she is her Mother's Daughter, after all! :)

**EDIT**:  Otter did not work all night after all.  The assistant manager had some of the employees start the inventory around 3:00, so when Otter went in at 6:00 p.m. quite a bit of it was done already.  She texted me that they thought they'd be done by midnight.  But she was done with her part by 10:00 p.m., so she actually got home at a "early" hour.  Of course, she was still pretty caffeinated since she'd been prepared for an all-nighter!  I don't know what time she went to sleep last night (It's Monday morning now), but she was probably up for at least a couple of hours after we went to bed about 11:15.

Partied Out

Otter's no longer employed at the party store, as of 4:00 yesterday afternoon.  She's happy about it, by the way.  She has been employed at the hardware/tool store for over a week now and has worked two days at the Tulsa location.  She got a lot of good experience at the party store, but I don't think she's at all upset about not having to fill helium balloons!  She's already put all her khaki pants in the donation pile, she said that they reminded her way too much of school uniforms and she had enough of those when she was in (private) elementary school.  She's going to be very busy in the immediate future, she has the training class tomorrow and I think that she'll be at the new store after that.  The employees at the new store will help with stocking and getting it all organized, which will be a lot of work but she is definitely not afraid of hard work.  It also might make it easier when the store opens, they will be more familiar with what the store sells since they'll have stocked it.  It's going to be a very hands-on training, I think.  I won't miss the late nights at the party store, 10:00 shift ending but not actually getting out until after 11:30 was getting old.  With the party store's busy season being Halloween, that would have just gotten worse and would have stayed that way for a few months.  She bought a lot of stuff on her lunch break yesterday, since she no longer has the 30% employee discount!  She'll probably still shop there, the party store does have a lot of stuff that can't be found in a lot of places.  She'll have a 20% discount at the new job and she will buy stuff there, she's her father's daughter after all and she was already a customer before!!!

 

She's off with J at the moment.  They started out at a mall, they were going to eat lunch and possibly go to a movie.  I think they are also going to the book store across from the mall and there are a few other places they may go.  She's enjoying the first day off she's had in over a week, since she worked at the new job on the days off from the old job.  Her allergies were bad yesterday, last night especially but she is feeling much better today.

 

Bill's also doing better.  He's out of his restricted duty and he got to mow the backyard this morning.  So, he's a happy camper.  He's finally admitted that he is out of room as far as the pachinko machines are concerned.  We looked around in the garage and he's trying to come up with a better system for storage.  Which can be done, but the problem is going to be keeping it organized once he figures it out!  That's going to be the hard part.  :)

 

I've done 3 baby caps for the purple hat donation.  They are easy and quick.  I probably can get two or maybe three more out of the lavender yarn I have.  I'm not sure if I'm going to do anymore after that, I have plenty of purple yarn but none of the soft stuff it needs to be.  But until I run out of the lavender yarn, I'll keep cranking out baby caps.  Then it's back to working on the shawl I am making for Nana and as soon as the weather is consistently cooler, I'm dragging the afghan back out of the stash closet!

 

It has been very nice the last few days.  It was in the low 60's Friday night and last night, the days have been in the high 80's and Fall is very much on the way.  Which will hopefully help with the cricket invasion that the Tulsa area has had to deal with!  Especially since the main cricket predator is brown recluse spiders - we got one in the living room Friday evening.  I like spiders, but I could do without the fiddlebacks!

 

I didn't see it, but Bill said that Maggie was chased out the dog door.  By a fly!  Dog's a goof, that's for sure.  So is Frasier, he's just isn't quite as goosey as the Magginator is.  Except for when he is!

Monday's Mowing Adventures

Among other things, Bill's forbidden from mowing.  However, the grass still grows.  It obviously doesn't care a bit about Bill's surgery!  I mowed the front when I got home this afternoon.  Bill micromanaged!  He also brought me water and made me take breaks on a regular basis, so I really can't get on him.  Too much, that is.

 

The back yard needs it, but it's not visible from the street so I'm not in a hurry.  Besides, the beaglebrat likes hiding in the grass and stalking things like moles.  And bugs, she loves to catch bugs for some reason.

 

Bill went back to work today.  He still looks a little scary, but he is doing really well.  He said that he was very tired by the end of the day.  He's only got two more days, he's off Friday and then also next Monday.  I'm taking off Friday.  He goes back to the doctor Friday morning and we hope that it's a simple matter of removing stitches and being told he's done.

 

One of the local tv stations shows "classic" television shows.  We've been watching it when we have a chance.  Yesterday, we watched two or three westerns, Adam-12, Dragnet, Emergency, Perry Mason, Get Smart, M.A.S.H. and the first two episodes of Gilligan's Island.  We're enjoying it.  Some of those shows were probably not anything I was interested in when they were on at first, but they are enjoyable now.

 

I tried to have a migraine last night.  Shortly before 10:00, I suddenly had "flashers" which are the lights that preceed the headache.  I took 3 extra-strength motrin and went to bed.  I think I managed to head most of it off.  I have had a very slight headache today, but it could have been allergy.  I'm thinking that it's mostly stress-related.  And my stress is 6' tall and redheaded!

Busy Sunday

I had the idea that today would be a calm day, although I did have a few things planned to do around the house.  With the exception of some of my neverending laundry, that plan went out the window!  I got a little of the laundry done, but the bathroom isn't cleaned yet, the Fenton hasn't been dusted and neither has our bedroom.  I did get the kitchen floor swept, at least!

 

Bill wanted to go to Ace Hardware for something, but they didn't have what he wanted.  We went to Tuesday Morning the other day and they had a rain barrel we liked but we wanted to look at another type first.  We decided to get the one at Tuesday Morning but the store we went to today didn't have any.  I wanted to go to BigLots so we did that while we were out.  Didn't find anything Bill wanted but we found a lot!  We went to another Tulsa area store, Atwoods, which is a farm & ranch store but that covers a whole lot.  I usually buy bulk peanuts there.  Which we did.  They also had a rain barrel that we liked better than the one we originally set out to get today, it was cheaper and had a better spout system.  It came home with us, it took up nearly the entire back seat of my car so it's a good thing Otter was off with her boyfriend today because there would have been no room for her.  (Side note:  I'm just going to call her boyfriend "J" on the blog.)  We also went to Lowe's, they didn't have what Bill was looking for either.  Bill suggested we go get something to eat at that point, we started out for Schlotzky's but got sidetracked by Taco Bell instead.  It was a more enjoyable day than if I'd cleaned the bathroom or gotten anything else done that I wanted to.  Not that I'm complaining!

 

He'll probably get the new rain barrel hooked up pretty soon.  We've had so much rain this year, but we aren't griping about that either.  This one is a stand-up barrel, the one Bill turned into a rain barrel before is a standard barrel and it's on it's side.  The new one will be on the opposite side of the house.  It has a metal spout, similar to an outside faucet and it's near the bottom.  Bill's going to get some bricks to set it on, since it will need to be raised off the ground very slightly.

 

We were also in the market for a riding mower.  We still are, it's just that we've decided to wait until the Spring to actually buy one.  We found a couple we liked, but  Bill realized that it would only be used a few times before being stored away for the winter.  And the warranty would start the second it as purchased, which also makes it smarter to wait until next Spring.  We discussed a used one, but he decided that is something he wants to buy new.  I think he's right about that.

 

Movie Review:  Looper.  We rented it to watch yesterday.  It was actually better than I thought it would be.  It's a little confusing, so you really have to pay attention to the details.  There is quite a bit of violence but it's part of the storyline and there really isn't much in the way of gore.  It's got a pretty good twist at the end.

 

And now, it's back to my laundry!

Still Out On a Limb

But not today!

 

We had planned on getting the rest of the limbs shifted to the front today, but it's very windy and Bill doesn't want me to be out in it.  Wind like this can (and has) cause me to have significant allergy and/or asthma issues.  So I'm listening to him (for once!) and staying inside this evening.  We also could get rain tonight, and it's very cloudy.

 

I called the City today, and after many tries I managed to get through.  I felt sorry for the poor girl who answered, she sounded so overwhelmed.  Basically, they don't know when they will start the pick-up process, they are giving people a few days to call in.  But they hope to get it all done within about 3 weeks.  Yes, they will pick up any limbs they see so if people haven't called in they will still have their limbs picked up - IF they are on a street where other neighbors have called in.  Since it's still going to be a few days at least, we're probably ok to let the rest of our limbs wait.  We might get them tomorrow, it depends on the weather.  But if by some miracle they do get them tomorrow, we don't have that many left and we'll be able to put them out with our normal trash pick-up.  They'll have to be in smaller bundles and tied together, but that won't be an issue.

 

Bill did mow the back yard as soon as he got home.  Just from a couple of days ago, it's already grown quite a bit.  If we do get more rain in the next few days, it's going to be even longer.

 

Otter's busy working on her costumes for the even she's going to this weekend.  She's sewing a red skirt and a white one, then she's got a few other pieces she's working on.  Two of her costumes have horns, one of her friends made them for her for very little $$ and Otter attached them to headbands.  She has wigs for each costume, there are 3 in all.  Two of them have full-face makeup, I'll eventually get some pictures of Otter in cosplay.  She just won't be recognizable!

Tired. Friday.

Ate too much!

 

We went to El Chico for dinner tonight.  We seldom actually eat there, we usually just get fajitas to go.  Which isn't often, but the point is that we don't actually eat there very often.  It was good.  We ate too much.  We went to Hobby Lobby after dinner, but we didn't walk too much of the meal off.  :)

 

Anyway.

 

We did get rain early this morning, but not the hard rain that was forecast.  There was a little bit of localized street flooding in parts of Tulsa, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  The rain gauge had 1 1/2" in it.  We've probably gotten close to 5" this week.

 

Bill's going to put in another rain barrel for me, actually he's probably going to put two in.  But I'm not sure when he's actually going to have time to.  We could have filled at least a dozen of them, this week.

 

Froggy's, birthday is Monday!  Froggy, I already told you that your card would be late - I'm still working on crocheted "stuff" but I have had no time at all since last Saturday to even think about crochet.  I'm going to remedy that tomorrow, possibly for several hours.

 

Bill mowed the front yard last night.  The back is already beginning to look like it is ready to mow again.  All the rain, I guess.

 

Today's excitement included a hornet.  INSIDE THE OFFICE.  I think it came in when I opened the front door.  I heard something but didn't know what it was, then I realized a few minutes later that what I heard was actually something evil.  Flying right by my head.  It went to one of the windows, it was probably going towards the light like they do.  It was a smaller hornet, but a small hornet is not exactly tiny!  After a little thought because I did NOT want to get stung, I figured that if I could get it to the floor I would be able to throw a paper towel over it and then smash it.  Problem was, it didn't want to go to the floor.  It was happy in the window.  It knew exactly where I was, it would occasionally raise it's wings up if I got closer than it thought I should.  I eventually got a broom and very very very slowly moved the broom until it was close enough that the evilness realized it needed to move.  It very slowly crawled to the corner of the windowsill and then it crawled up on the broom's bristles.  Which is when I carefully took it, broom and all, out to the garage (I'd already opened the door).  I was going to get it to the floor and then step on it, but it decided to fly off and it went right outside the open door.  I didn't see any sign of a nest anywhere, but it had to come from somewhere.  We've killed about 5 yellow jacket nests in the last several days, I sure hope that we don't have to deal with hornets now!

 

I know, this is a rambling post.  But it's been a long week and I am tired.  And overfed!

Tree Tales

We got our electricity back sometime yesterday, we were down less than 24 hours but there are still parts of the Tulsa area that are without it.  We don't usually have to wait as long as some areas do, which I think is because our lines are buried and when the lines leading to ours get fixed, that fixes ours.

 

We did not lose anything in the fridge or freezer.  I had been trying to get to the grocery store for days but hadn't made it yet.  Which is probably a good thing!  I did manage to get there today, Wallyworld was busy and running out of things.  Probably because a lot of people did lose things and are re-stocking.

 

We had a whole bunch of tree limbs to deal with.  It was not really light enough to tell when Bill left for work yesterday morning.  When Otter and I left, it was earlier than normal and I didn't spend a lot of time out in the back yard beyond standing out on the deck and checking the roof.  The roof seems to be fine, none of the limbs hit it as far as we can tell and the shingles all look good.  Bill said that there is a house not too far from where he works and it looks like just about all the shingles were peeled off of the roof - wind will do that!

 

We did discover that the gate was open.  We didn't discover that until we were hauling limbs around yesterday afternoon, which means that it was open the entire time the dogs were running in and out the back door yesterday morning.  It was obviously wind that forced it open, two pieces of the wooden slats were broken off but Bill was able to fix it.  He also got the back yard mowed yesterday, the grass was growing fast due to all the rain we've had and it already looks like it's on the verge of needing to be mowed again.  He mowed the front yard this afternoon.

 

The limbs are all piled up.  Tulsa is picking up limbs starting next week.  We don't live in Tulsa, we live near-ish to Tulsa.  Our area will be doing limited limb pick up but the residents have to request it and there are a lot of regulations.  We'll probably just start cutting the limbs to 4' lengths, binding them together and then putting them out with our regular trash.  They will pick them up that way as part of the regular trash pick-up.  But some of it will be cut up and put aside for firewood.

 

We could get more rain tonight.  We are already under a flash flood watch, but we are not supposed to get the high winds like we got Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  That one was forecast, but it wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as bad as it actually was.

 

Like Bill always says, the forecasters couldn't predict a hole if they dug it themselves!

Rainy Day Ramblings

Today's plans included Bill mowing the lawn.  However, the thunderstorm we woke up to changed that.  It was a nice sprinkle and it had just about quit by the time we got to church.  But about 1/2 way through the sermon, the skies opened up.  Church is in a metal building and it was noisy!  We got pretty soaked going to the car.

Of course, I forgot to move my pink cactus out of the way before we left.  So, I moved it up out of the rain after we got home and I got soaked again.  Bill did get to play in the rain as well, the rain gutter on the back of the house was overflowing.  So, he got the ladder out and cleaned out the gutter.

We had a couple of errands to run, so we took Otter to work today.  We need to replace the vent-a-hood over the stove so we went to Sutherland's to look.  They don't carry them, it turns out.  We have seen them at Lowe's, but were not impressed with the quality.  We might wind up back there, if we can't find one anywhere else.  We (Bill and I) also grabbed lunch at Taco Bueno.  We haven't eaten there in years, but it's improved quite a bit.

 

This is the current view from my back deck.  It's very close to their back fence.

We're going to plant crepe myrtles, 13 of them to be exact.  They will be about a foot out from the fence and we're going to try to get them this fall.  Fall is the time to plant them, same things as trees, but most places don't actually carry them then.  They are generally available in the spring, although spring is not the prime time to plant.  Planting in the fall gives them time for the roots to extend downward and that makes them stronger when the spring storms and wind roll around.  We might be able to find them locally, if not we'll probably be able to order them.  We're thinking we'll go with the medium range of crepe myrtles, then get 10 - 15 feet tall.  They spread out well.

 

Eventually, we will have privacy in our own back yard again.

I Guess! it's Just Sunday?

Can't think of a good title.  That's probably pretty obvious! :)

 

I think that we just might have the goosiest dog on the planet.  In the form of a beagle, specifically.  Maggie likes bugs.  She likes to eat them.  She sometimes catches flies out of the air.  But when she doesn't catch them, it confuses her.  To the point of cowering in terror sometimes.  That's what she's been doing today.  She couldn't get the fly, so she spent hours trying to hide behind my legs while I was sitting on the couch, and at one point I think she tried to actually get under the couch.  She eventually fell asleep and I guess she forgot about the fly after that, because she was back to being her normal silly self.  But she is a goofy, goosey dog.

 

Frasier isn't being ignored.  He's actually in a bit of disgrace.  Otter caught him chewing something and it turned out to be a small piece of plastic - from a pachinko machine.  But I have to state for the record that his habits are well known, and I've been warning Bill that he was asking for trouble by leaving stuff within reach of the dog.  Especially if he left it on the floor, which is what he did this time.

 

I put my hummingbird feeders out yesterday.  I thought I saw something tiny flying by the other day but then I never saw it again so I decided that I'd seen something else.  But apparently it was a hummer.  Because I saw a female on one of the feeders about half an hour after I put them out.  I also saw an oriole, it couldn't quite figure out the new feeders so I put the old one out that the orioles always liked.  I haven't seen the oriole again, but it's probably still out there.  At this point, I've only seen a female hummer and it's probably the same one.  But there will be more, in all probability.

 

I'm going to harvest seeds from the bluebonnets tomorrow.  They could probably stand a few more days, but Bill wants to mow and since there are no more blooms to speak of he's wanting to just mow it all down.  So I'll get the seed pods in the morning, he promises to wait for me to get them all before he mows.  I also weeded the rock garden this afternoon, I'm already feeling allergy related issues due to that.  But it needed to be done, the morning glories were taking over.  There was also a lot of clover, no telling where that came from.  I pulled most of it up as well.

 

I'm off from work tomorrow, Bill has tomorrow as a holiday also and then he's taking some of his vacation/comp time and will be off all week.  Otter has to work tomorrow.  We aren't doing anything big for Memorial Day.  Sometimes we grill, but I'm making tacos for dinner tomorrow night.  No particular reason, other than that we just like them.

 

Guess that's it for now.  Not an exciting weekend, obviously!  But that's ok, it was a stressful week and I'm not complaining. 

Just Chilling Out on the Couch

Have I mentioned how much I like this laptop?  Well, I do.  I think I like the portability of it a lot.

 

Busy day.  Busy week.  It's only Wednesday, but it should be Friday.  I only have one day of work left this week, I'm off on Friday and so is Billyboy.  Otter has to work, so she won't get to spend Friday with us (and Nana!) but she's off on Saturday so she'll get to spend time with her TEXAS Grandmother.  No idea what we'll be doing, but with Nana it usually involves shopping!

 

The evildeniziensofhellbadbugs also known as yellow jackets have made their arrival.  My younger boss was outside of the duplex where our office is and he came in with a request that I look at his back and tell him how it looked because he thought something stung him.  I could tell that he had two stings, I put some of my always within reach hydrocortisone cream on the spots and then he went outside to finish what he was doing.  Then he called me on his cell phone to tell me that he'd just found a squashed yellow jacket where he'd been standing when he felt something sting.  I was hoping that they would just skip this year, but I guess not.  I've been seeing bees for a while, but we try to ignore them and let them do their thing.  Yellow jackets are a different story, they get killed as soon as we see them.  I trimmed some limblets on the tree in the front yard when Bill was mowing this evening, I didn't see any but I did look carefully.

 

I did see something else:  wrens are starting a nest in the planter on the front porch!  There are two baby robins in the nest on the back porch, and sparrows have built a nest on top of the bat house.  Not in it, on top of it.  Lots of little bug eaters!  I'm thinking I'm going to put up one of my hummingbird feeders this weekend.  Bill and Otter each gave me a new hummingbird feeder for Mother's Day.

 

Froggy, KN#3's box should have arrived in your mail today.  Let me know please.  I hope she likes what's inside of it.  It's an exciting time for her, starting out on her own.  I'm sure she'll do well in nursing school.

 

Bill's hammering away at a pachinko machine.  He's putting the pins in the machine that is our family project:  Steampunk!  (Google it if you don't know what it is.)

 

Otter and I are thinking that we might want to see the new Superman movie.  Which sounds strange, if you know anything at all about us you know that we think Superman is a wimp!  Actually, we usually use the word "weenie" but it is kind of impolite.  But the movie looks good.  We'll wait until after it's opened and see what the reviews are, but it looks good so far.  We will eventually get to the theater for the new Iron Man movie, I'm just not sure when.

Froggy, you mentioned Frasier being lucky.  Yes, he was.  But so were we, he's a spectacular dog.  Just spoiled rotten!  And so is beaglebaby known as Maggie Moo.  They are supposed to be spoiled, so they are.  Very much so!

Knotheads

Dad had a phrase he used.  It was actually a name that he called people, but not derogatory.  He did it in a loving way, it was never mean or meant to be mean and it was usually accompanied by that cackle of his that I wish I could hear again.  Only certain people were called this, and they were generally family members or good friends.  The word?  Knothead!

Today, I am a Knothead.

Of course, I mean it in the literal sense and not like Dad would have.

Because I am now sporting a knot on my head.  Also known as a goose egg, but I prefer to use Dad's phrase.

What do you get when you cross reaching into the dryer for one last sock that is out of reach and over the open door of the dryer, long red hair that is in your face and the corner of the washing machine right next to the dryer?

You get a knot on your head, that's what.  In this case, it's on my left side just slightly center of the temple.  I did it before church this morning, so I had to sit through church with a nice, large red spot on my forehead.  I iced it when I first did it, and it did get smaller.  But now it's obvious that it's going to be a bruise.  And probably a big one!  Not surprising that I'm bruising, being a redhead.  We do bleed and we do bruise.  And because we are generally rather pale-skinned, bruises always look worse on us.  They don't take any longer to heal, but it appears that way because they are so much more visible.  I was already dealing with a sinus headache and it didn't help, plus the spot is very tender and I keep bumping it.

It's actually been that kind of day, I have lost track of how many times I've hurt myself today.  Aside from the knot on my head, I scraped my left elbow on the towel bar as I was walking into the bathroom (that was actually the first thing I did today.)  I stepped wrong walking out of church and it felt like I tried to separate bones in my left foot - something I did as a kid so I know what that feels like, although I didn't actually do it this time.  I banged my knuckles into the edge of the open trunk when I was getting something out of Bill's car.  I dropped a hand mirror which barely missed my foot.  (Not superstitious at all, but I didn't break the mirror.  Just the frame!)  And those are just the highlights!  Guess I've taken over for Willyboy in the unusual injuries department today, and I sincerely hope that it is only for today!  Not that I want him to hurt himself, by the way.

But I don't want to hurt myself, either!  (Otter, you are not allowed to get injured, either.)

On to other things.  Bluebonnets!  We have 10, yes TEN wild blues in the front yard!  There were actually 11, but one of them had an "accident."  It was in the whiskey barrel, as Otter and I were going somewhere one day last week we noticed a couple walking their dogs and it seemed like they stopped in front of our house.  We were down the street by then, but I stopped and watched them and then they moved on so we thought that the dogs had just stopped to water something.  But when we got home, I noticed that the front blue in the barrel was kind of wilty and then I looked closer.  Looks like they tried to take it out but then decided to just cut a couple of the bud stems off instead.  Which resulted in that plant's death and in all probability, they did not get blooms.  I'm strongly suspecting that they may be the same people who dug one up out of the front yard one time, and I'm watching very closely now.  If we see them again, I'm going to make a point of being out in the front yard and greeting them as they walk by.  Chances are, they are fellow TEXANS which infuriates me - TEXANS are better than that!  And I'd have willingly dug one of the plants up and given it to them.  There are at least two others TEXANS in the neighborhood behind us.

The point of all that is that we have blues and lots of them.  And they are blooming!  Otter's been taking pictures every so often and they will eventually get posted.  There's a TEXAN tradition.  We have a tendency to put our children in the middle of a field of bluebonnets and then take more pictures of said children and flowers than the law allows.  That has never been an option for us, seeing as how we live in Oklahoma.  Until now!  I don't care that she's an adult and not a child now, she is my child and we are TEXAN.  And we got blues!

(You can probably guess where this is going by now.)

We have finally, after 21 years, been able to take part in the Tradition!  Those pictures will not be posted here, since her face is in them.  But they will be sent to a couple of relatives.  I just glad we have the flowers, considering that the blues in the whiskey barrel came up last fall and shouldn't have survived.  But they have and judging from the number of blues in the yard itself, they are probably very naturalized now and we will most likely have them again.  Bill mowed the yard earlier, we marked where they are with plastic edging and he went around them.  Which is good, because Otter and I would probably have skinned him alive if he'd mowed them down!  So would Nana, by the way (his mom.)  But he's also a TEXAN and they are important to him as well.

We have a robin nesting on the back porch!  Same place as last year, up by the door.  Only this time, the nest did not get knocked down and torn apart by another bird.  Judging from the amount of time she spends on the next, there are probably eggs.  I don't know if the nest has yarn in it or not, I won't know that until well after the eggs have hatched and they have fledged.  But I did put quite a bit of yarn out this year and it has been used in the past.  So there have been multi-colored nests at our house and probably at a few others in the neighborhood as well.