End of Summer, Sort-Of

I know I said I would try to blog more often.  But it just hasn't happened!

It's been a busy summer.  July was really busy.  We had been looking at options since Bill has not been able to find a job.  There are a few jobs out there, but not really what his degree is for.  He has been looking, but what we discovered is that his degree in Electronics Engineering is not going to amount for much, if there are no jobs in that field.  When he got his degree, electronics was projected to be the up and coming field and the job outlook was very good.  It didn't turn out that way.  Computers were supposed to also be a very good field, and they were for a while.  But then as things evolved, the computers and electronics devices became cheaper to replace than to repair.  Which really limited any employment futures.  We didn't realize that until Bill started putting out feelers to look for another job, which he started doing when we realized that things were going bad as his then-job.

After his job was eliminated, which was a blessing from God considering the really bad situation it had become, he qualified for the buy-out they were offering and we also were able to access the teacher's retirement which he had been part of because he worked for a school district.  We have our own retirement program set up, we had gotten out of the teacher's program several years ago because it was not well administered and it looked for a while like it might actually disappear.  It did not disappear, but our plan was/is much better so we stayed with ours.  What we had put in to the teacher's plan sat there for years and it drew some interest.

We have spent the last several months building up the pachinko repair/restoration business and using the retirement funds as a supplement.  We were thinking he would be able to find a job before this, but as I mentioned - the jobs just are not there.  Unless he wants to work for minimum wage in an electronics assembly job, for literally not enough $ to pay for the gasoline to get there and back.  So, we decided to look at our options.  We talked about selling the house, but we decided we don't want to do that.

What we have done is to refinance our house instead.  We refinanced about 9 years ago, with a 15 year mortgage. The idea was that it would be paid off about the time we hit retirement age. But the payments were pretty high.  We talked to the bank and they said that we would have no problem refinancing, even though Bill has been out of work for 16 months.  He's been able to bring in some $ with the pachinko business, and I am in a job I have held for 23 years.  We have not been late on anything and we have a good credit rating.  So, we decided to go for it.  We had a couple of other things we paid down/off and the upshot is that yes, we have a 30 year mortgage but we have a much lower payment.  Which means that with what Bill is bringing in with the business, he can stay self-employed and continue to concentrate of building our business.  We don't intend to let the mortgage go 30 years, we can (and will) pay extra towards the principal.

This is another instance of what we see very strongly as God's hand.

That's the leap of faith we took.  It's been a series of leaps and we've taken them.

Wow

I have not posted since January!  5 months, nearly.

I forgot my password and had to get blogger to send me a new one.  That's not why I haven't blogged in so long, that just happened today when I tried to sign in.

I am still here, Otter is still here (25 now!), Bill is still here and Maggie Moo the Wonder Beagle is still here.  Otter is still dating J, I think she said they are going on 4 years now?  I'm not sure if it is 3 or 4.  She still works for the same hardware store and has consistently moved up.

Maggie Moo has had a few health issues, but she is 13 now.  She had what was basically a skin tag on her left front "elbow" and the vet was watching it.  He did not want to operate because of her age.  He tried a couple of things including a steroid shot which did shrink it quite a bit.  But then she started licking it again and it started to grow, so he decided to go ahead and remove it.  He tried a different anesthesia that was safer for older dogs and she did great.  She had to wear a Cone of Shame for a few days,which she did not like!  But she's recovered very well and she's also lost some weight.  We had been feeding her Iams brand and we noticed that a) her weight ballooned up, b) she was pooping larger amounts than she was eating and also the vet was concerned that c) her liver enzymes were up.  We took her off the Iams brand, put her back on Pedigree and she's lost several pounds, does not poop mountains anymore and her liven enzymes are dropping a lot although they are not quite back to normal.  But they are getting there.  She's more playful also.

I have toyed with the idea of quitting blogging altogether and I've also thought about just creating a new one.  At this point, I am just going to continue this one although maybe not posting that often.  I'll try not to wait 5 months, though. :)

What have I been doing?  Lots of crochet and quite a bit of crafting.  We've been enlarging the pachinko business and it's going strong.  I've found more time to go to the library, something I try to do on a regular basis.

Normal stuff, in other words.

But I have made a change in a lot of my opinions.  I am still (and will remain) Christian.  But I am trying very hard not to be a judgemental one.  We were sort (ok, not just sort of) of heading in the direction of fundamentalism.  One of the things we were doing was observing Saturday Sabbath.  That's not the only thing but it was one of the bigger changes we made.  Was, not is.  It was something we tried for several years, the fundamental route and not just the Saturdays.  For various reasons, I realized that was one route I did NOT want to go down and so did Otter.  Bill took a little longer, but we all realized that it was a mistake and was potentially a HUGE mistake.  Most of those mistakes have been rectified, and one of them included changing churches.  We are still Southern Baptist, but not fundamental.  The church we belonged to was not officially fundy, but it had a lot of things in common with fundies.  But there were a lot of things that happened, which I have documented, and it started with the minister seeming to "check out" of doing anything beyond practically phoning in the sermons.  That was what got me thinking and since Otter was really unhappy with the church, I started observing things there a lot deeper.

After Otter moved out, I basically just said that I was quitting a lot of things we were doing and the Saturday observance was the first "casualty."  All the Saturday observance was doing was to make me (and Otter) miserable.  It caused more problems than it fixed, and it really did not do much of anything constructive.  A few Saturdays after I quit it, Bill said he realized that I was making sense and he quit observing it as well.

We were already looking for a new church and I really did NOT want to stay Baptist.  We visited a few Methodist churches but we really did not find "the one" so we quit going at all for a while.  We did not quit our faith, just attending the church.  We decided to visit a small-ish Baptist church that is a couple of miles from home and were very pleasantly surprised.  The first thing we noticed is that they observe Advent - something almost no Baptist churches actually do.  There was a Christmas Eve candlelight service.  There are a lot of other rituals and observances that have always been very meaningful to me/us.  We met with the pastor, he came over to our house, and we had a very nice talk with him.  We decided to join and we did, on January 1st of this year.  So yes, we are still Baptist.  But not fundamental and not stuck in what felt like a dead or dying church.

Among other things, while I am still and will always be pro-life, I'm not going to be militant about it.  I believe strongly that life begins at conception.  But it's between each person and God how they feel, and what they do.  I do not have an issue with birth control, at all.  I don't consider abortion to be birth control.  And I do as much as I can to donate to and assist groups such as the local ones that help teen girls who are pregnant.  But I'm not the type to picket the clinics, etc., I never really have been.  But I will continue to pray for all concerned in that situation.

I'm also basically going back to beliefs that I have held for years.  We can all love who we want and it's nobody else's business what anybody does in the privacy of their own lives.  That is something that I never really had an issue with.  I think a lot of the reason I ever changed my mind on that issue to start with is when I lost a very good friend to AIDS.  He was in his early 20's when he died.  It was a few years before I decided that his lifestyle was wrong.  But recently I have realized a few things, and one of those things is that it was his life and he had the right to live it as he wanted.  And that goes for everyone.  I have a very good gay friend and I told him (on inauguration day) that I supported him 100% and I meant that.  He's not the only one I support in that sense.  So, the basic thing I saying (or trying to) is that we all have to live our lives in the way that works for us.  And that I am not here to judge anyone.  What really matters is how we treat each other, that is the basic truth that a lot of people miss.  I missed it for years.  I'm not missing it any longer.

And I am sincerely sorry to anyone who I may have hurt.

Christmas Eve 2016

Yes, I know it's been just over two months.  I'm still here!  There just hasn't been anything spectacular to blog about.

Billyboy is still working on the pachinko machines, our side business is doing very well.  At some point, he will most likely need to get a "regular" job - but that might be problematic in this area and in his area of expertise.  But we are still chugging along, trusting God to get us to where we need to be.

Over the last few months, we've been attending a different church.  We have been unhappy with our church for a very long time, and we have not attended it in over 2 years now.  And in those two years, we have heard from them exactly once - and then only because I made a mistake on a tithe check we mailed them!  We have discussed going back to the Methodist church and attended one for a few weeks before we realized we did not like that particular church that much.  We've visited a few others and one Sunday we decided to visit a Baptist church that we visited years ago.  We were there on a day when another smaller church was visiting with the idea of combining the two churches, and they would be meeting at the sanctuary close to us.  We really enjoyed it and decided to continue to visit.  And then we realized that we were attending a Baptist church but it's actually a lot closer to some of the things that we enjoyed in the Methodist services.  For one thing, they observe Advent.  I don't know of any other Baptist church that does that.  Some of the prayers are occasionally given by women - which never happens in the Baptist church!  We met with the pastor and really liked him.  Tonight, there was a Christmas Eve service - candle light, and with the final observance of Advent - and Communion/Lord's Supper.  We are either joining it tomorrow or next Sunday (New Year's Day.)

Otter is doing very well.  She's gotten a couple of raises at work and her reviews have been very good.  She's basically been told that she's being groomed for management at some point.  She is a very hard worker and has been full-time for a few months.

Maggie is at my feet at the moment - hogging the blanket I have on my legs.  She's been very playful lately, we switched her back to the Pedigree food because the Iams did not seem to be satisfying her, and I think she likes the Pedigree better.

Froggy's middle kid got married in November.  Otter and I were able to go, it was in McKinney Texas which is a really neat little town.  We finally got to meet Froggy's grandbaby, who is absolutely precious, and he was really cute during his parent's wedding.

OK, that's about it.  Sort of caught up but there really has just been "normal life" going on and that is fine with us.  Especially considering that this time last year, we were expecting Bill to be out of a job at any time.  But we didn't anticipate it being like it was, and that is just one more example of God taking care of us.

Late August 2016

I can't come up with an interesting title.

I don't mean to neglect this blog.  But there just isn't anything exciting going on.

I'm pretty much over the sinus infection, which is a good thing.  I'm hoping that I have at least 2 1/2 years before the next one - or longer!!!

It's still warm, it is Summer after all.  But it is cooler than it was and the signs are there that Fall is on the way.  I think we are going to start getting our firewood pretty soon.  We didn't get the full amount last Fall that we normally get, but then it was such a mild winter that we hardly used any of what we had on hand.  We're not going to take the chance of a mild winter and not have enough firewood.  Bill is probably going to get the first truck load in the next week or so and then I think probably a couple more loads.

At the moment, there are 7 pachinko machines in the living room.  All of them are restoration jobs for customers.  He has two that he's almost done with, one of them is his machine that is destined for the booth and the other one is a customer's machine.  He's keeping pretty busy with them.

Maggie Moo has been her usual silly beagle self.  I took her out in the back yard this afternoon, she has not had much interest in tracking lately.  Until today.

She was extremely interested in something and she followed her beagle nose all over the side of the back yard close to the shed.  We have not seen raccoons lately or any sign of them, but I'm thinking that they may be back.  I don't think she was tracking a cat's scent.  She had that nose to the ground and she was sniffing deeply.  She went from the back of the yard to the front of the back yard and then to the corner of the house where the fence attaches.

She went to the corner of the house/fence and then along the house back the direction she'd started from but in a different spot.

She was concentrating very intensely.  I can see why beagles are used to hunt with, just from the way she was tracking whatever it was.

Then she went back to the rain barrel.  She had started for it when she was walking towards the front but I called her away and that's when she went on to the front of the back yard.  But on her way back, she zeroed in on something and it was apparently very strong and possibly very fresh.  She stuck her entire head under the stand the rain barrel is on and she did not want to come out.  Whatever has been underneath it was probably pretty recently.  I will not be surprised if it does turn out to be raccoons.

I just hope it's not skunks!

Figured I'd Better

post something here before Froggy gets on me about it!

Beat you to it, Frogs!!

Anyway.

Bill's been busy with pachinko machines and got another one ready today for the booth.  It's in a cabinet, he sold one with a cabinet out of the booth last month.

I've been working on a crochet project which should have been finished a long time ago.  But after I was about a third of the way through, I decided that while it was nice it was not what I wanted for the person it's intended for.  So, I frogged the entire thing out and then started over with a totally different pattern.  I've had a lot of interruptions as well as some tendonitis, so it's taken me weeks when it should have been days.  But it's now through, except for the millions of tails that I have to weave in.  That may take longer than it did to crochet the entire piece!

Maggie Moo may need to go back to the vet about those flappy ears of hers.  She's acting like they may be bothering her again.  I'll talk to the vet tomorrow and see what they suggest.

She was sprawled out like this the other day, seems like she would not have been comfortable but she apparently was because she was snoring.  Loudly!

And that is all I can think of today!

Two in a Row!!!

I know, I'm bad at blogging lately.  I will try to be a little better. Can't have Froggy mad, now can I?

What's new.  Well, I'll have to think about that.

I don't think I mentioned it, but Otter was promoted to full time at her job a few months back.  She's not quite a supervisor, but she is the senior associate in her department and has basically been told that she's in line for moving up at some point in the future.  Moving up basically means that she is being groomed, prepared, watched, etc., because she is managerial material in training.  Hopefully, that sentence makes sense!  She had an excellent review last week and got another raise.  She's a hard worker, and although she hates to admit it - she is very much a Borg Queen in training!

Maggie Moo has been to the vet twice for her ears this summer, she's on the end of a steroid round this week and I'm hopeful that her ears are cleared up this time.  Frasier always groomed her ears and the vet always commented on how sparkling clean they were.  But since he went to the Rainbow Bridge, her ears aren't happy.  She's a happy beagle, just with unhappy ears.  She has not had many walks lately, but that's because a) it's summer and hot and b) it's summer and hot and that means humid.  The heat isn't so much of a problem for me, but the humidity is.  My asthmatic lungs don't deal well with humidity.

Otter went to TNT last month, the cosplay convention in Tulsa.  I'm not posting pictures because her face was visible in all her costumes but she and J had a great time and enjoyed the weekend.

Bill's been busy with pachinko machines.  He sold one out of the booth last month, and has had quite a few restoration jobs.  It's doing very well.  It's not going to be a living wage out of it, but it's a very good supplement.  He has done some job hunting, but there is not much out there at the moment.  He's either extremely overqualified or underqualified.  I think it's time to start thinking of jobs other than in his field of electronics engineering.  When he got his degree, electronics was expected to be a growing field with a bright future.  However, that prediction is not exactly what happened and we have been seeing evidence of that for a few years.  But we aren't worried, God has brought us this far and He's not going to abandon us.

It has just been a somewhat boring summer, and that is actually good.  So, Froggy - two this week!  No complaints will be accepted from you.  :)

Once a Week

I have been posting here about once a week, on average.  There just isn't anything spectacular or unusual going on.  Just normal life!

But I'm on vacation as of 3:30 this afternoon.  We aren't going anywhere, I'm having a stay-at-home vacation and I really need it.

One day next week is set aside for shopping with Otter.  Beyond that, I don't have much of anything planned.  I'm just going to enjoy not having to get up and go to work.

Otter was over here this afternoon to do her laundry.  She was still here when I got home, Bill was working on a pachinko project and Otter was following Maggie Moo's lead:  napping!  She went to Wallyworld with me and then we stopped at Subway to get dinner to bring home.

That's about as exciting as it got this week.  :)

I really don't know if I want to continue this blog or not.  There just isn't all that much exciting going on, however we are enjoying the un-stressful times.

This is from a couple of weeks ago:

Bill spilled a bag of nacho chips on the floor.  The beagle was in the kitchen but I'm pretty sure she got to the chips before they even hit the floor.  I picked up most of them, but Maggie Moo was in full vacuum mode and there was nothing left to clean up in just a few seconds!  She was a very happy beagle that evening.

Maggie Moo had an ear infection which the vet discovered when she got her annual shots in early June.  I fought with her for several days in an attempt to get the ear drops in her ears.  Mostly, I missed because she did NOT want it to happen.  The vet said that since I didn't think very much of the medication actually got in her ears that I could bring her back and she wasn't too happy about that.

This is what happened when I took her back for the follow up:  She became a brick!  Can you tell she didn't want to be there?  And she especially did not want to have to have her ears checked.  I was right, very little of the medication actually went where it was supposed to go.  So the vet used a plastic syringe similar to a medication dropper used for a toddler, and filled up both of her ear canals with the medicated ointment.  She was not amused!  She was also a little dizzy, I guess her ears being clogged threw off her equilibrium.  I had to help her get in the car when we left, and she was a brick then too!  It's been about 3 weeks, which is what the vet said is the average length of time for the infection to clear.  I think he was right, she was sluggish and grumpy for a few days and then she got over the grumpies but she was still not very playful but I've seen a big improvement the last couple of days.  She had a small case of the zoomies this afternoon and I'm hoping that the infection is cleared up.

But she's still a brick.  Or at least a bowling ball butt!

I Know...

Been a while since I've blogged!  As Froggy reminded me.  (I already knew, Froggy.)

Anyway.

It's just been normal life lately, which is not what it looked like for the last 2 plus years.  We've basically rearranged a lot of things in the wake of Bill's job, the contract buy-out, his position being officially eliminated after he'd taken the buy-out and all the associated stuff.

One thing we are doing differently:  Bill's not looking for a job very hard at the moment.  Beyond me reading the Sunday paper with the employment ads, that is.  His original plan was to take April as the catch-up time since he had several restoration jobs waiting (pachinko machines all over the living room again!), but since then he's been getting very regular calls for restoration bids and quite a few of those calls have resulted in jobs.  More machines all over the living room!  Business on the parts for sale and dvds for the do-it-yourself restoration has picked up considerably.  The booth was not doing too much but then since about April 1st, we've had several dvds and pachinko ball sets sold.  In fact, pretty much everything has picked up since April 1st.

Which was his official last day of unemployment.  Can we say God's blessings?  I think we can.  And we do.  Often.

At some point, he will need to find a job.  But not yet.  In fact, we can go for several months and quite probably for the rest of the year before we need that to happen.  And possibly even later, depending on how well the pachinko business does.  We are NOT taking anything for granted.  But we do have several plans in place.

We went to a local art fair in downtown Tulsa last Saturday.  Actually, we went to two.  They run concurrently and are in the same area so that people can walk from one to the other easily.  It was a lot of fun.  We didn't buy anything, we usually don't, but we always enjoy it.

Otter went to the Renaissance Fair in Muskogee last weekend.  Muskogee is not really next door but it's not too far.  Well, the locals might think it's far.  But we measure distance by TEXAS standards, so it's not that far to us.  Anyway, J was dressed up as a pirate and Otter had a long red skirt with a black net overlay, and she had a black corset with a white short-sleeved blouse underneath it.  Their faces are in the pictures so I'm not posting them, but they had a good time.

Otter is finished up with her dental work.  The original estimate at the not-good dentist was about $7,200.00.  Our "old/new" dentist gave her an estimate of $3,200.00.  The final cost was actually just over $2,500.00.  And that included a few things that the not-good dentist simply missed.  Otter has also been officially put on full-time at her job.  Which means she now qualifies for their insurance plan.  She's on ours still for this month but that is fixin to change, she has been self-sufficient since October 1, 2013 but we still carried her on our health insurance because it is expensive and she was part-time.  She still managed to support herself on a part-time salary, but she did not really have a lot of extras.  We didn't mind covering her insurance, but now we won't have to.  She had considered moving to a different apartment complex way back when she knew that she was going to tell Roomie they needed not to be roommates any longer which would have been this coming July or August - based on the lease when they moved into the 2-bedroom unit.  Then Roomie pulled her stunt and moved out in October, Otter stayed in the 2-bedroom unit until the end of November and then transferred to her own 1-bedroom unit with a lease ending November 30 of this year.  She likes her apartment and the complex, it's pretty close to work for her and not too far from us.  But she was thinking that she might need a cheaper rent, since she was still part-time.  But now that she's full-time, she is most likely not going to move.  Which is fine with us, it was hard enough to recover from helping her move the last time!  :)

Memorial Day is this coming weekend.  IF it's not raining, we may grill some steaks or burgers.

OK, Froggy.  I blogged!  By the way, I also went to Braums for lunch today.  In case you are interested.

Stepping

Nice. Quiet. Peaceful.

And we have pachinko machines practically raining down on us!

Also, as of today Bill is 100% through with the previous job.  He turned in the paperwork to have his retirement account transferred.

All done, all done, all done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On another note, Maggie was starting to get slightly itchy so she's back on her zyrtec allergy pills.  I gave her the first dose last night and she slept like a rock!

Fluffy, but still a rock!  Just a cute one, though.

See Froggy - I actually remembered to blog without you getting on me!  :)

One Tired Ottermom!

It's been a tiring day, although I haven't done a whole lot to be tired from.

I did manage to go to a church yard sale, I found a few books but nothing else.  I looked at a sale that is put on in a local storage place, they have one every few months and I don't usually go but I had time today.  It is located in the same shopping center as Otter's store, she was just getting to work when I was about to park so I stopped and gave her coke money.  She was pleasantly surprised.

I also met Bill up at the booth.  The owner of the booth thought that if he would come by and actually play one of the pachinko machines it might lead to a sale.  We've actually sold several lately, but from our website and not from the booth.  Although the machines were at the booth so we had to go get them!  Anyway, he spent about half an hour playing pachinko and did get some attention but I don't really think it will help sales.  Neither does Bill, but he didn't want to tell the owner of the store that because she really is trying hard to make a go of the store.

Maggie Moo is a happy beagle.  She wore one of her beds out and she got a new one yesterday.  It came from Otter's store.  Maggie has spent quite a bit of her time snoozing in her new bed, I think she likes it.  She's sprawled out across it at the moment, she moves every so often but only to change position.  She doesn't actually want to get up!

One good thing did happen today:  KN3 got married!  That's Froggy's daughter, she's the third of Froggy's three kids so that's why she's called K(id)N(umber)3 on here.  For a couple of reasons, it turned out that I wasn't able to go after all but we're very happy for them.

Froggy - you better send me lots of pictures!

Shaky Situation

There have been a lot of earthquakes over the last 24 ish hours.  I haven't felt any of them, but they have been felt in my area and I think into Kansas.  At about 10:30 last night, Bill was still awake and he felt the bed shaking for a couple of minutes.  Twice!  I slept through it all, but from the reports on the news this morning they were pretty big quakes.

We've been busy this week.  We have company coming this weekend, so we cleaned the carpet in the guest/front/craft/YARN room.  Which means that Maggie Moo is not allowed in there are the moment.  She is not amused!  Bill moved the futon out into the living room and got the carpet cleaner going on Tuesday evening.  The cleaner has a fairly pleasant scent, but it was just enough to send my already iffy allergies over the edge.  He also cleaned the carpet in our bathroom, which for some reason didn't actually work - there are now spots in there that we couldn't see before he cleaned it.  Anyway, because my allergies were on overdrive he suggested I sleep on the futon in the living room that night and since I couldn't breathe through my nose at all when I got even close to our room I decided to take him up on the suggestion.  Maggie seemed to like having me in there.  She showed her happiness by snoring all night long.  Loudly!  Wednesday morning, I vacuumed in there again since the carpet was dry and then Bill put the futon back in there that evening.  Maggie has been blocked from there since then.  She's not pleased.

We have a fairly good chance of winter weather on Saturday but it could also just be cold and rainy.  Sunday is supposed to be very cold.  Bill brought in a load of firewood.  So far, we've only used the fireplace once this winter.  By this time, we've usually used it several times.  Today was overcast and grey, the forecast was literally "gloomy" and they were right about that.  But gloomy makes me think of one thing only:

Love me some Eeyore!

But I don't like gloomy weather.

Bill's car was acting up yesterday and he finally decided to just call Chevy and talk to them.  He told them all the things it's doing and what he's done so far, they said that they would like to look at it and to plan on leaving it there a couple of days.  It's kind of got everyone stumped.  That will probably happen next week.  Of course, today it was fine with no problems whatsoever!  I drove it when I went to the grocery store tonight and it acted perfect.

Otter's cell phone had a problem, the "end" key wasn't working.  So we took it to Verizon yesterday and had them check it.  She was going to go early in the day since she was off but since the account is in my name she asked me if I'd go with her in case there was any issue with her name not being the primary on the account.  I went over to her apartment yesterday after work and we went to the closest store.  They did need me to be there, so I'm glad I went.  The phone is no longer under warranty, but because we pay for the insurance on the phones (learned that lesson the hard way!) they said that she could exchange it for a new one.  They arranged to have it shipped to us and said it should be here by Friday or possibly Saturday.  But it was apparently shipped overnight because it arrived at the new mail box place today.  She can either activate it herself (they emailed instructions) or she can take it to the store and ask them to do it for her.  I'll get it to her tomorrow, I didn't have time today.

Most of the reason I didn't have time is because Bill had ordered 30 boxes he uses to ship pachinko machines in - they are big boxes.  They arrived today.  On a pallet and weighing a whole lot!  They were shipped to the new mailbox place - but the pallet wouldn't fit in the door.  They wound up leaving the pallet of boxes outside their door but it was plastic wrapped which was a good thing because it was rainy.  When I got home, Bill and I took the El Camino back there and got the boxes on their pallet.  It literally filled the entire bed of the truck and he really couldn't see over the top of them when he looked out the back window.  The boxes are now stacked in the garage.  I went to the grocery store after we got home from getting the boxes.  It rained while I was in the store and I'm really glad that the boxes were already home and inside.  He has to buy them and they are not cheap.  But he has to get strong, sturdy boxes for the pachinko machines.

And just because he's so much fun, one more Eeyore!

I thought this one was appropriate.

Happy Thanksgiving! And More. (EDITED)

Hopefully everyone is having a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Just because Maggie Moo wants to say hi:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still Here!

Just up to my neck in stress!  

We figured out what we're doing as far as insurance goes, although it has been un-fun getting to this point.  I did the research and picked a plan which would work for Otter and me, Bill will be able to get insurance where he works.  It's not the best plan, but it's ok because it will bring the cost down enough so that we can actually afford the plan for me and Otter with our current carrier.  But yesterday, they nearly convinced me that it would be a mistake to stay with them.  We called them and went through the entire application process and were just about done, when the girl who was helping us realized she had put the wrong zip code and she wasn't able to correct it so she had to transfer me back to an actual agent.  He then basically tried to bully me into getting the government assistance to pay for it - which will NEVER EVER EVER happen, and then he lied to me and told me that the plan (which I had already picked out and was happy with) was not available and in fact, never had been.  He then informed me that they didn't have anything at all in that price range and he was very rude.  *RHTW then told him to cancel the application and that we would probably be going elsewhere entirely.

We considered enrolling along with Bill at his employer's insurance but I got online and checked up on what he told me.  And discovered that he was lieing through his teeth.  I called them back again - and talked to someone else.  She couldn't quite figure out why he told me what he did, then she figured out that even though I had told him repeatedly that it was for 2 of us, not my husband but just me and my daughter, he thought I needed to insure all three of us.  Although at the time, he told me it was just for the two of us.  I told her that I was interested, but she also helped me to find an even better and cheaper plan which meets our needs.  However, Otter was not with me anymore (she was at work) and they had to be able to ask her if she was enrolling since she's not a minor anymore.  So, they got the process started and then they suspended it so we could finish it today.  I went over to her apartment after work, this time I took my computer in case they needed to email me and it took about half an hour.  They called me when they said they would and it was easy.  I'm going to call them tomorrow and request the proof letter we need showing Bill's lack of insurance effective 1/1/16 and then he can finish the enrollment at work.  I'm also going to complain about the idiot agent from yesterday, I did get his name.

That's one stress fairy vanquished.

There are more.  Otter's move in next Wednesday.  The day before Thanksgiving.  She has to work the night before and then the late afternoon shift on moving day.  We have a 60% chance of rain.  It's out the door, down three flights of stairs, across the parking lot/grass area, in the door, back up three flights of stairs and into the new apartment.  We are going to try to get it all done in one day, but it might not be possible to get the old apartment cleaned so I may well be going back over there on Thanksgiving Day itself to finish up the cleaning.  She has to work Black Friday.  I'm probably going to spend Black Friday collapsed on the couch!

That's another one at least tamped down to manageable.

We got the booth finished up last week.  We basically built it from scratch and this time we've done more with the booth itself.  We took the machines up there one day last week and the store opened last Friday.

Bill built the booth sides with peg board.  The boars across the back and one side are to give it enough strength to hold pachinko machines in cabinets.  There are also boards on the back side which are not visible,they are between the 2x4's that make up the frame.

He used light hog wire across the top of the booth.  It's bolted down.

He strung Christmas lights across the top.  Each booth has electricity access and he has a timer so that the lights are only on when the store is open.

We bought two packs of kites at the dollar store a few years back and I found them in the closet the other day.  He attached them to the top and also used paper Japanese lanterns.  Since this picture was taken, he added two red lanterns between the blue ones.  He was going to insert small lights inside the lanterns but he didn't like the way it looked so he went with the Christmas lights instead.

The sign is a plywood board with a plastic car wrap type label.

Since this picture was taken, two of the machines have been sold.  They were sold off of our website, but that didn't happen until after we'd carted them up to the booth.  They were in my living room for weeks and weeks and not a bite, but as soon as they were out of the living room (and my way!), two of them sold.

The view from the front of the full booth.

Bill has a poster on one side which explains what pachinko machines are, also there are pachinko balls, board feet (for support for table top machines) and how-to restore dvds.  Also our business cards and a free information flyer.  The bulletin board at the top has pictures with the progression from before restoration to after.

Now, we just need someone to come buy machines!

Now, I'm just waiting for the rest of my stress fairies so I can beat their heads in!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EsCuuuuuuuuuuse Me!

(Anybody remember Steve Martin's tagline?  ExCuuuuuuuuuse ME!)

Bill talked to our neighbor the mechanic Monday evening and we also called the repair place we've been using.  All agreed that it sounded like the thermostat might be the problem with Otter's car.  Like maybe it was going out but hadn't gone out completely, because Bill drove it Monday and it was fine.  I took it to the repair shop on Tuesday morning and was expecting to have to get the thermostat replaced.  It turns out that it was a much simpler repair - in fact, it didn't actually need anything repaired.  When Bill replaced the radiator, 3 months ago, he did not get all the air out and the car basically just needed to be burped!  Once they got the last of the air out, they topped it off with more antifreeze and sent me on my way - at no charge.  I went on to work Tuesday and wound up keeping her car through today, because of the hours she worked and the fact that we had to go finish building the booth at the antique mall after work yesterday and I didn't have time to meet her to switch cars.  I watched the temperature gauge and it's been consistently fine.  Bill checked the belt and it's in good shape and he also checked the oil, since we had the car through this evening and he just wanted to make sure everything is ok.

Younger Boss filled the tank yesterday for her, which was nice of him to do.  I took the car back to her this evening, along with a few boxes for her.  She's gotten quite a bit of packing done already but she still has more to do.  I also got her laundry, I told her I'll do it this time for her so she can get as much packing done as she can.  She wants to go with me to a craft fair on Saturday, so I'll take her laundry back to her then.

We are back in the market for insurance again.  We got the renewal notice in the mail and they are raising the premium over $400 per month!  I am not about to pay more than $1,100.00 for insurance.  No blooming way.  Especially with as little as we actually use it.  We have a few options and most of them are a lot better than the "blue" company wants to charge us, I'm finding more than I did last year at this time when we were having to replace the insurance we had at that point.  There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for insurance to cost that much - that's even higher than my mortgage payment.  Way higher!

However, one Good Thing did happen today:

BLUEBELL IS BACK!!  

I have one of these in my freezer now.  It hit store shelves on Monday, I was going to get some then but with the car issue and the fact that there was a possibility I would have had to go get Bill if Otter's car had acted up, it wasn't possible.  I didn't get it yesterday because I had to take the car to the shop in the morning and then I had to run home as soon as I could after work so we could get to the booth place to finish assembling the booth.  As soon as I left Otter's, I went straight to the grocery store and my first stop was the ice cream freezer.  It looked like it was selling pretty fast, but I grabbed one before it was all gone.  The second I got it home and to the kitchen, we had the lid off the carton and the spoons out!  We just had a spoonful (ok, I had two!) and then put it in the freezer.  We each had a bowl after dinner, it was so good!  I had forgotten just how spectacularly good Bluebell ice cream is.  It tasted a lot sweeter than I remember, in fact.

Happy Happy Texans around my house!

Running on Absolute Empty

Or at least that is what it feels like!

We're working on getting the new booth ready and the new antique mall.  That has taken up a lot of time.  It looks like it will be mid-week before we can actually stock the booth.  Bill put the pegboard sides up last week and installed the support boards to hold the wall-mounted machines.  We went up there Sunday and installed the metal mesh top on the booth.  Bill's going to decorate it more than we have done with our previous booths.  The mall owner thought that people would be able to build booths last week and stock them last weekend, but she's never really dealt with contractors and construction.  So, while we were not at all surprised at the delays, she was!  That has taken up a lot of time.

Otter's move is actually going to be Thanksgiving week.  It was supposed to be the week before that, but the apartment office said that it will be Thanksgiving week.  Probably the day before Thanksgiving, actually.  I took her a bunch of boxes and she got several at work, she's been packing and I'm going to go help her pack sometime in the next several days.  She knows which apartment, it is in the same building but it's at the other end and on the back side of the building.  It's going to be a case of "out her door, down three flights of stairs, across to the other side of the building, in the door and up three flights of stairs then into the new apartment."  In other words, exhausting!  She will sign the new lease sometime that week, and is going to ask about getting the keys the day before she will be moving because she is probably going to have to work at least part of moving day.  We may see about hiring a couple of people through someone I know through work, because it's going to be hard to find people to help move the day before Thanksgiving!  If we are not able to get everything moved and the 2-bedroom cleaned in one day, we'll finish up on Thanksgiving itself.  Probably the cleaning is what will be done on Thanksgiving.  I'm thinking that we might have either frozen pizza or maybe a frozen lasagna for our actual Thanksgiving meal.  We were going to have an actual Thanksgiving this year, last year was the stove thermostat having to be replaced and then Otter's dental adventure keeping us from a traditional meal and we thought this year might work out.  But then Roomie moved out and all that...  Maybe next year?

Bluebell is back in the area today!  I had plans to go get some this morning, but I should know better than to actually plan anything because hardly anything has gone according to plan this year.  Last night, sometime after 9:00, I got a call from Otter.  She had gone to a not-exactly-neighboring town to visit J and to go to the Halloween party he and his mom had.  She was on her way back last night when her car started acting like it was overheating.  We're talking very small town, the kind that rolls up the streets and turns the lights off when the sun goes down and that is not too far off from reality!  She hadn't gotten very far, but she was afraid to drive any longer so instead of going back to J's, she pulled into a parking lot and called me.  The restaurant was closed for the night and it was pretty isolated.  We got on our way immediately and then she called J.  He and his mom came to where she was at and stayed with her until we got there, which we really appreciated.  It took us 30 - 40 minutes to get there and that was on the turnpike which is the fastest way.  Bill looked at the car and he could tell it had plenty of antifreeze, but it didn't look like the coolant was getting to where it was supposed to.  The car had cooled off at this point, it never got extremely hot so there probably isn't any engine damage but he was concerned about getting it home and we didn't want Otter to drive it anyway.  So, Bill drove her car, she rode with me and we brought her car to our house.  Bill stopped one time on the turnpike, of course there were no lights out there!  He said the heat gauge was going up again but he didn't wait for it to get too high.  He could still see that there was plenty of coolant, but he was thinking that the water pump might be the issue at that point  After letting the car sit and cool for a while, we started back on the road and he was able to drive it to our house without it getting too hot.  It was well after 10:00 last night when we got back, and she took my car home.  J bought her a microwave, which is now at my house since she didn't want to leave it in the car overnight and was really too tired to carry it up the stairs.  She'll pick it up from us in the next day or so.

Bill took her car to work today, it seemed to run fine.  He talked to our neighbor who is a part-time mechanic, he talked to the mechanic at work and we both talked to the mechanic at the shop we've been using.  The consensus is that the thermostat is probably bad, or at least it had a bad moment.  It might be that it was a one-time thing, but it might not be.  If it is the thermostat, it has to be replaced.  We drove it around tonight and it was fine.  I'm taking it to the shop in the morning and they'll check it out.  Then, depending on what they say in terms of how long it will take, I will either get it fixed right then or I'll have to bring it back the next day when someone can come get me so I can get to work - or Bill may take the day off so he can take care of it.  The thermostat has been replaced once - by the shop we used before we went to Chevy, the shop that we realized were a bunch of crooks which caused us to go to Chevy in the first place.  At that time, they were owned by a national company and had a good reputation.  But Bill had to take the car back to them a couple of times to get it checked because he didn't think the new thermostat was working right.  After that, they were purchased by their manager and that's when they were dishonest in the extreme which is why we went to Chevy.  The manager eventually sold the shop back to the national company that owned it before, but we will never go back there anyway.  There really isn't any reason to think that they would fix it again, unless we wanted to pay them, and they are not going to have another chance with us.

And we still have to get the pachinko machines to the booth sometime this week!

Maybe I'll actually get my Bluebell ice cream tomorrow!

Quick Stuff

Otter's problem with the apartment is situated.  I'm not going into a lot of the details here, but there were issues with Roomie as a roommate from shortly before Christmas and it never got any better.  It involved Roomie's inability to keep a job but there were other issues that came up later.  Although it turned out to be the wrong move in a lot of ways, things did get better when they moved to the larger apartment.  But then other things happened and Otter told Roomie that when the lease was up next summer it would be time for separate apartments.  Unless Roomie had another job issue.  Which she did.  She may have gotten another job but Otter wasn't really sure if that was true or not.  Saturday night, shortly after midnight, I got a frantic call from Otter because she had discovered Roomie packing to move out on Sunday.

She's pretty sure that Roomie did not want her to know and was going to move out when Otter came over to our house to do her laundry.  But since she did find out, we were able to be over there and not let anything other than Roomie's possessions actually be moved.  There was a lot that happened and that's what I'm not going into, but the upshot is that Roomie's father is the biggest bully I have ever met and I am pretty sure that I'm the only person in his life who has ever stood up to him.  It was pretty nasty and involved literally watching every single move anybody made (including Roomie and her brothers) and a threat on my part to call 911 - and I do NOT bluff.  (And it also involved a very strong visit from *RHTW, full blast and full strength.)  And it was pretty obvious to everyone that the bully in question is now afraid of me and frankly, I'm glad.  Otter wanted her dad to come over at that point and he did, he got there after I'd already given the bully an extremely strong verbal lesson but I'm still glad he was there because I really did not know if the bully was going to back down or not - he did, but I really wasn't sure at one point.  The bully would not even look at Bill and I think he was scared of Bill as well.  The bully was absolutely horrible to Roomie and I think that she grew up being treated like something less than human, which explains a few things about her but does not excuse them.  His wife acts like a whipped dog, one son is obviously not the favorite although I think he got treated better than Roomie, but Roomie's twin brother is treated like he's God.  Hopefully, Roomie will be a ok but I don't think that any of us will ever hear from her or see her, unless it's accidental.  I did tell her that she did not have to put up with being treated like that, but I don't know if it will make a difference for her or not.  She had over a year away from being treated like dirt, we hope that she'll at least take away from the experience that she can be an adult and that she does not have to put up with that.

(I can be very fierce when my daughter's safety, health and happiness is threatened.  And Bill would probably be even more fierce.)

One of the concerns Otter had, and we shared, is that if Roomie did move out when she wasn't there that Otter's belongings might not be there when Roomie was through and I think it was a valid concern.  The bully told Roomie to get "everything" out of the kitchen, and I told him very firmly that the majority of the kitchen stuff belonged to Otter because we bought most of it.  Then he told her to just go get the microwave that they bought her, which makes me think that Otter's concern was right and that at least the kitchen stuff would have been gone and quite probably more of Otter's belongings.

After all the not-fun stuff was done and they all left, Bill helped her move her tv from her bedroom to the living room (they'd been using Roomie's) and he stayed for a little while to make sure that the bully in question OR his daughter did not come back and then he left.  Otter and I followed shortly after that and came home, I brought her (and her laundry) with me and we left her car there to look like she was still there.  She did her laundry, got some serious beagle therapy and we went to a store we needed to go to then I took her home.  When we got to her apartment, she wanted me to stay a while so I did.  Roomie had returned her keys to Otter,although Otter had to ask for them - which was also a problem with the bully, he did not want Roomie to give them back and then he was pretty mad at Roomie when she did give them back.  Roomie told me that she had never given the keys to anyone else including her parents - I don't think she did and neither does Otter, but we aren't 100% certain.  But there are 2 locks on the door and they don't match, Roomie only had the key to one of them.  Since the apartment office now knows that she does not live there any longer, they most likely would not let her in if she came back and asked them to let her in.

Even though Otter was exhausted last night, she said it was already less stressful knowing that Roomie was gone and she didn't have to deal with the problems anymore.  Roomie had already paid for her half of November rent, I reminded her that she was legally responsible for the entire half of the rent until the end of the lease before her father got there and she said that she would pay her half and since she had already given Otter that half, Otter did not say anything to remind her of that fact just in case she wanted it back or in case the bully did.  It would not have been returned.  Otter knows that Roomie has no intention of paying any more even though she legally should.  I think Roomie thought I meant just November instead of the entire remaining lease amount but at this point, it's ok.

One of the things I told Roomie, and I told her a lot - which Otter wanted me to do but I probably would have anyway, is that I wanted her out of my daughter's life.  I told her that I am not going to pick Otter's friends, but that she (Roomie) does not act like a friend does and that she's caused too much trouble.  Otter said that she agreed with me.

Otter talked to the apartment manager this morning as soon as they opened the doors and explained what had happened.  The lease did have a clause that she could have used to get out but it would have cost her a pretty good amount and she would have forfeited the deposit.  But the manager said that they really don't want to lose her as a tenant and they are going to let her transfer back to a one-bedroom unit.  The one that she had before has already been rented, but it was above a serious smoker and there were a lot of times when Otter would have asthma, allergy and headache issues because the smoke would come up through his ceiling/her floor.  So it's just as well that she can't move back to that unit.  I also think she'd prefer one that is "hers" entirely at this point, that never had Roomie in it.  The manager said that there are a couple of single units, one is in the same building although it's at the opposite end.  Actually, it's a separate building because of a firewall but it is two buildings built against each other.  The unit will be ready in about 3 weeks, probably not Thanksgiving week but the week before that.  Possibly even a little earlier.  The deposit will transfer, I don't remember if the manager said that they would charge her a pro-rated amount or not and I don't think she cares at this point.  She went ahead and took their offer and she paid the final rent for the 2-bedroom for November while she was there today.

I went over to Otter's after work today and she is 100% away from the stressed out, tired and worried girl she has been lately.  She has really not been able to relax and enjoy being in her own apartment for the last several months,   She said her stomach has been in knots for days, but it's not any longer.  She said that she could actually feel the stress leaving her body.  She is looking forward to moving into an apartment she can afford on her own, although it will be tight, and being able to decorate how she wants to.  The move itself is not going to be fun:  out her door, down three flights of stairs, out the door and down to the other end of the building, in the building's door, then up three flights of stairs and into the new apartment.  Quite a bit of her books and craft stuff is still boxed from the last move, but she's going to get boxes tomorrow and I'm going to go over there one day next week and help her pack.  She cleaned out some stuff before the last move but she said she may have more stuff to donate.

I just want my daughter to be happy and I think that she will be.  She knows that she'll have to be very careful financially but she is willing to do what she has to do.  If she had not been able to transfer to another apartment and had wound up having to pay to get out of the lease, she would most likely have put her furniture into storage and then stayed with us until she could get enough $ together to get another apartment, which would probably have been a month or so but she wouldn't have wanted to move back in long-term and I understand that.  We will never let her go without a roof over her head and a place to sleep, or a meal.  But she wants to be a responsible adult and we respect that.

The next several days are still going to be very busy, we are going to be dealing with getting the new booth built and then loading it with pachinko machines so I may still be away from the blog for a few days.  But the biggest worry we've had has been situated and we are Thankful.

*RHTW.  There is nothing She will not do to ensure Otter's safety.