Vacation Recap

I actually had intended to blog more last week when I was off work.  Didn't happen, obviously. :)

Anyway.  It was a good vacation.  Last summer's vacation was dominated by some really bad stuff that was happening at Bill's job and it was really bad.  Last December's vacation wasn't as bad, but Bill was sick for several days and that wasn't fun.  I really, really, REALLY needed a good vacation.

Otter had a car trouble incident that turned out to be somewhat minor.  When I was still driving that car, last summer in fact, there were two times when it wouldn't start.  Bill thought maybe that it wasn't totally in park - or at least the sensor didn't think so.  Bill suggested that I try to move the gear to R and then back to P if it did it again.  It did and I did, the car started fine after that and then we didn't have any more problems with it.  Then it started doing it again after it became Otter's car.  The trick worked for her, then it stopped working and Bill went to where she was a few times - and it worked perfectly as soon as he tried to start it.  He did some researching and thought maybe it was the starter sensor or possibly the starter itself.  Then it was fine again and we all kind of forgot about it.  Last Wednesday, Otter came over and we went to the not exactly next door town to pick up J.  We shopped there, then went into Tulsa and shopped some more, then we eventually wound up back at home.  Otter and J left in her car, and they eventually wound up back at his house.  She was going to leave about 8:30 p.m. to head home and the car would not start.  At all.  She tried Bill's trick and after about half an hour, she called me.  She said she really didn't want to call because she knew the car would be fine as soon as Bill got there.  But this time, it wouldn't start for him either.  He spent about 30 minutes attempting to start it and he took the starter sensor from my car to see if that was the problem.  But the sensor for my car wasn't the same size as her car's sensor.  Since her car was in a safe spot - J's mom's driveway, we wound up leaving it there.  We took her home and looked up Chevy dealers that were within her AAA towing limit.  There was one in the small town the car was in, I picked her up very early (like 6:00 a.m. early) and we went back to the not exactly next door small town.  The car started on the first try, so she drove it to our small town and I followed her.  We went to a local Chevy dealership and they thought it was either the starter or the sensor.  They never could duplicate the problem, but they agreed with Bill that the sensor was the most likely problem because the starter itself looks good.  Which is a good thing, as the starter would be about $900.00 to replace.  The replaced the sensor and Otter's been watching it since then.  So far so good, but she's not going too far from home.

Bill cleaned the carpet in the living room last week, when we moved the loveseat to the opposite side of the living room a few weeks ago it was very obvious that the carpet needed to be cleaned.  The last time we cleaned it was 3 years ago I think.  The area under the loveseat was much lighter than the rest of the carpet.  Now it all matches.  He's going to get the hallway in the next few days.  I would like to do the yarn room again but he just cleaned it in January so it's probably ok for a while.

I did a little shopping in the area but didn't really buy much.  I spent some time crocheting, which was good, and we mostly just goofed off.  It was a pretty good week, actually.

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!

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!

Yes

I am still here.  Just busy lately.  Normal busy.  Not anything spectacular or blog-worthy.

I have one more week of work left, then I'm on vacation for a week.  We aren't planning on going anywhere this year, but it will still be a week where I don't have to get up and go to work for 5 days.  Possibly I may suggest we go to the zoo for my Mother's Day trip, but I'm thinking that will probably be put off until Fall since Summer is here with a vengance.

I saw Otter for a few minutes today.  I had to take some stuff to her, since she was at work I put it in her car and then I stopped in the grocery store in the same shopping center she works in.  She came down to the grocery store to see me when she got off work.  It was a short visit, but it was nice.

Yesterday, I went to the flea market at the fairgrounds in Tulsa.  Bill went with me this time.  It was crowded, unlike the last time we went.  I bought two fabric bags to bake potatos in the microwave, the crochet lady sells those and I meant to get some last time but I forgot.  We tried them yesterday, they worked very well. Washable, reusable and microwavable.

Bill got the grill out this afternoon and drilled enough for several days.  4 hamburgers (we each had one tonight), hot dogs, brats (sausage links) and chicken breast.  I won't have to do much in the way of cooking for several days!

Maggie Moo is snoozing at my feet at the moment.  She seems to be lazier than normal when the weather is hot, but she's so good natured and fun.  She's been extra goofy lately.

OK, Froggy - I don't want to hear one word about me not blogging lately!   :)

Just Friday

It's been so much calmer lately that I kind of forget about blogging!  I know, I know - I said I would try to get back into the swing of it.  But we went from crushing stress & worry for over 2 years to none and it's taken a little time to get used to that now!

I have spent a lot of the week with assorted allergy symptoms.  Today's main thing has been sneezing.  A LOT!

When I took Magginator to the vet last week I thought they did the heartworm test but it turned out that they didn't.  So I took her back yesterday and she got the all-clear, so she's now back on the heartworm preventive pills.  We usually only give them during "mosquito season" but with the mild to the point of not actually happening winter we had, the skeeters have already shown up.  In March!  I'm thinking that we'll just make it a year-round thing from here on out.  She's doing very good, she has one pill left of the antibiotics and she's a playful, 12-year old puppy.  She seems to enjoy Bill being home so much, she is really crazy about him and it's funny.  We made tacos for dinner tonight.  Maggie spent the entire time we were cooking sprawled out on her belly, watching every move we made.  Piglet!

Hancock Fabrics announced last week that they are closing.  The entire chain.  There are two in Tulsa.  Otter heard about it and told me, then we went into Tulsa on Monday and went to one of them.  I found a little fabric and two crochet pattern books.  Otter bought fabric as well, and then as many patterns as she could carry!  Ok, she didn't buy quite that many patterns.  :)  But she bought several.  We are going to the other store sometime in the next few days.  They have always had a nice yarn department.  They don't have a lot and the brands that they have are fairly common at other stores.  But they usually have colors that are harder to find.  I had intended to look for yarn (Bill - hush!) but the yarn was consolidated down to one small aisle and it was basically all tossed together.  I took one step and could hardly breathe plus I was one big itchy, watery-eyed mess because of the wool and my allergy to it.  I looked at a couple of skeins but it was all piled together and just touching a non-wool skein made my skin start to react badly because it had been squashed into a bin with the wool yarn.  I'm hoping that the other store is a little better as far as their yarn department goes.

However, I am not allergic to this:

And that is a Very Good Thing.

Those are this year's crop in my front yard.  The whiskey barrel had somewhere around 30 babies come up in it.  Probably not all of them survived, but most of them seem to.  And they are ALL blooming.  Plus there are about 8 plants outside of the whiskey barrel in the yard itself and they are blooming!  The scent is heavenly!  They smell like Home.  It's very strong and the honeybees are very happy.  They are such a deep blue and we are really enjoying them.

It's a TEXAS tradition to take pictures of your children and/or pets with bluebonnets and we missed out on that when Otter was little.  But we have pictures taken from a couple of years ago of Otter with our 'bonnets and then I took some more of her last week.  I'm not posting them because her face is visible, but the pictures turned out very well.  After all, she is a TEXAN and they are bluebonnets.  The fact that they are in NE Oklahoma doesn't matter a bit.

It's just our own, special little corner of TEXAS.

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!

Saturday

Today I have managed to get the laundry done and put away, one load was from today and the other two or three were done yesterday.  The laundry is pretty much all I got done yesterday, since Otter shared the bug with me that had her down mid-week.  It seems to be a short-lived illness and it's apparently made it's way through her workplace now.

Yesterday morning, I felt cruddy so I called in and stayed home.  I wasn't feeling too good Thursday afternoon but there were a lot of grass fires around Tulsa and the air was pretty toxic.  So I thought at first that the headache and asthma-ish symptoms were related to that. But then I woke up feeling bad yesterday morning and realized that I had the same symptoms Otter had so I think I have been fighting the same thing.  The smoky, icky air didn't help at all!

I also managed to get to Hobby Lobby this morning since I was feeling better and needed to get something.  Otter wanted to go with me so I picked her up at her apartment and then she wanted to go to a thrift store but we didn't find anything.  I made one stop after I took her home - I saw a Girl Scout troop set up in front of the grocery store when I drove past so of course I turned around and bought cookies!

But all of my running only took a couple of hours.  Mostly, I've just been hanging around the house today.

We had a very windy week, it's been warm and Thursday was really bad because of extremely strong winds.  There were grass fires all over the place, and at least one was probably deliberately started.  I hope that the arsonist it caught, that particular fire was really big and a lot of homes and property were destroyed.  I think that was the fire to the south.

It doesn't really show up well, but there is a limb on the other side of the pole holding the bird feeder.  The limb was in the tree Thursday morning.

Toward the middle of the tree on the right side, there is a broken limb.

This is a better shot.  The piece that came off is probably from this part of the tree.  All it's going to take is another hard wind storm, and we get a lot of them in the Spring.

This is not the same tree, but I noticed these two doves when I was taking pictures of the broken limbs.

Let's hope that this is not an indicator of what we are in for this year!

This is the futon in the YARN room.  There are a few things on top of it, I was in the process of rearranging things in there.  But the object of this picture is something else.  Look closely at the far corner.  See it? :)

Shopping Sunday

So named because a) it's Sunday and b) I went shopping with Otter.

We're going to a family wedding in a few weeks, when we went shopping right after Christmas Otter found her dress although we weren't even looking at that point and that left me needing something to wear.  I tried on a couple of dresses at Penney's last week but didn't like them enough to buy one.  We decided to go shopping today and see if we could find anything.  We looked at Sears, Dillards and Penney's and were actually about to walk out of Penney's to  head to another store when we walked past a couple of racks and I found a dress I liked.  I tried it on and it came home with me.  It's a not quite royal blue color, not quite aqua either.  It has a "ripple" pattern in the fabric and I think its very pretty.  Otter's dress came from Sears and it's a sort of midnight blue smooth satin-ish fabric with a black "smocked velvet" pattern all across it, the yoke area is a sheer black and it's sleeveless.  She has a black, beaded shawl that she'll wear with it and it will look very nice with the dress.  I have a turquoise crocheted shawl I made a couple of years ago which I will wear with my dress - the colors are different enough that they actually look good together.  We found her a small cocktail-style clutch purse (it has a removable strap) which is midnight blue satin sides and should look very well with her dress.  I will probably carry my black Coach purse.  We both need shoes still.  I have a pair of black shoes but I don't like them with the dress and Otter is probably going to look for a pair of high-heeled sandles to go with her dress.  I found a new purse today too, but it's just because I'd been looking for another good purse and not to match the dress for the wedding.  It was on sale at Dillards and mine is the Hunter Green color.

We also went to Michael's.  I have two crochet projects and of course it turned out that I didn't have the right yarn for either one.  I looked at Hobby Lobby and Walmart the other day but didn't find what I wanted for either one.  When we went to Michael's I had not even read their ad yet.  Turns out, all their yarn was on sale!  I found the right yarn for both projects and it's always a bonus when it's on sale.  We talked about a thrift store but never quite got there.

We finally got netflix.  I think we were just about the last people to actually get it.  We got a package that we could include Otter on as well.  Bill said he didn't really think he'd ever use it.  And since we got it yesterday, I think he's only been away from the tv just long enough to run to the bathroom a couple of times!  He's attempting to catch up on all the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series that he missed most of when it was on originally.

We're dealing with mountain cedar at the moment.  It's really hitting Bill bad.  It's a big trigger for me, but it's one of the few things he is allergic to.  Of course, that means that he is extremely allergic to it!  It's been very cold today so he's stayed indoors and is trying to treat the symptoms.  Otter and I stopped at Top That Pizza and got lunch to bring home to share with Bill, we got plenty of jalepenos on his.

I am going to keep blogging here, but maybe not that often.  So settle down, Froggy!

Still At It

Posting here, that is.  For a while anyway.

I finally got my car registered.  It only took several calls to Enterprise to ask them where the registration paperwork was - and the last few were more than a hint of *RHTW getting on them.  The last time I talked to them, last week, they promised me that the paperwork had been overnighted to me but then it turned out that the paperwork had just been mailed the regular way and even then it arrived several days after they said it would.  It finally arrived on Saturday, too late to go to the tag agency to get it registered while it was still within the 30 days from purchase.  After 30 days, then you get charged a fee for each day until it's registered.  But the lady at the tag agency remembered me from when we switched titles for Otter and Bill last week, I asked her then what would happen if the paperwork was late then she didn't charge me for the extra day when I got it registered today.

I was able to get the recall taken care of on the 2008 Impala last week.  It's now officially Otter's car, and Bill is the official owner of the 2002.  He's still having issues with it and we may be taking it to a Chevy dealership to ask them about the thermostat.  I'd like to take care of that this week, but it might actually be next week because this is a very busy week for us.

We're both back to work today, last week was vacation for me but Bill had several holiday days off.  He was off for 2 full weeks, I had a week plus one day off.  I really, really did not want to get up this morning, I kind of enjoyed being able to sleep in almost every day last week!

We may get more winter weather this week.  There is the possibility of a little bit of a winter mix late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning.  Also, this weekend is supposed to be pretty cold.  Bill cleaned the fireplace this afternoon and brought in a lot of firewood.

Otter came over yesterday with a lot of laundry.  While her 2nd load was in the washing machine, she and I ran away for a shopping trip.  We went to a thrift store and also to Target so she could look for a waffle maker.  There is one at Target she might get.  We also finally got our annual family tradition Christmas Eve trip to the dollar store - we just did it on January 3!  It was still fun, it was just several days late.  :)  She also walked Maggie Moo with me, Maggie Moo does not like the fact that she doesn't get walks when it's cold.  But she's quite happy with the cold weather meaning a fire in the fireplace!  Little goof.

Yep, she's a goof.

Froggy?

You there?  I haven't blogged since the 7th and you have not been bugging me.  What's up?

Otter and Bill have switched cars although the titles have not been changed yet.  We were going to do that one day last week but we realized that the state never actually sent us the title to the 02 when we put it in Otter's name.  They don't show that it was delivered and returned, just that it was changed in the computer and they did send us a receipt.  But we never got the actual title, so we had to request another one be sent.  $13.00 and it should still be a few days, then we'll get the car titles switched around.  The insurance has already been taken care of, the 02 and 08 were basically the same as far as the premium was concerned, and the insurance company has transferred them so we are paying for the appropriate vehicle, but we are also all authorized drivers on each other's cars.

The 08 still has a recall issue with Chevy, which I'm going to take care of during the time I'm off after Christmas.  Chevy will make a minor change on the key itself and it has to be the official Chevy key, so the 02 is still and will continue to be out of lock as far as that particular recall is concerned.  I still think Chevy is trying to welch out of paying out any more money than they have to!

I'm happy with the new car.  When we bought it, the 2nd set of keys did not get transferred to the Tulsa office so we only got one set.  The 2nd set was sent to them and I picked it up last Saturday.  Bill now has a set, but he still hasn't driven it!

But now we all have safe cars with good tires.  Which will be important, if we ever actually get that wet & heavy winter that was forecasted to have hit us already.  Monday, actually had to use the a/c in the car.

I decided that we need a Christmas tree this year.  The plan was to get one of the artificial trees out of the attic, but that would mean moving about a billion pachinko machines out of the way of the attic access in the garage.  Ain't nobody want to do that!  (Yes, I know.  My TEXAN is showing.  Deal with it.)  So, I picked Otter up one day and we went to Hobby Lobby.  I bought a 4 1/2' artificial tree, ornament hooks, a couple of ornaments I liked and a 4-pack of plain stockings.  I forgot lights so I got some at Walmart but then I had to go back and exchange them for a smaller string!  I put the tree together last week and it's now in the living room with a crocheted lap blanket I made for Otter a few years back as a tree skirt.  I had a bunch of ornaments to turn into an ornament wreath, the majority of the ornaments on the tree are from that particular craft stash.

It's on a small plastic table that we usually use as a plant stand.

The lap blanket/tree skirt that is folded around the tree and not allowed to hang down the sides because of this:

She's also the reason that there are no presents under the tree yet!  We don't do a lot of gift giving anyway, so I don't shop until a lot closer to Christmas.  But I did get a little bit of candy to go in the stockings.

I think I've posted this before:

Baby Bevo and the Texas crew!  They are in the small wooden rocking chair that was Otter's when she was a toddler.  The crocheted piece is the only piece of crochet that Otter has ever done, I taught her how and she did enjoy it but it isn't really her thing.  Which is fine, actually.  Anyway, I tied the end off so it won't come undone, put it in Baby Bevo's hand with a plastic crochet hook and the Texas Crew is accompanied by Crickey the crocodile, which is Otter's and mine and is from many years ago.  Crickey stays underneath the rocking chair, although at the moment he is also out of beagle reach and is sitting on top of the futon.

Today I discovered the yellow yarn ball was not where I left it.  It was in the bed Maggie has in the yarn room!  And it did NOT get there by itself.  The beagle is claiming to "no nuzzing" but I kind of have a hard time believing her!  I put it back in place, found the crochet hook (it had landed under the futon) and then I turned the entire chair around so that it's facing away from the beagle's bed and is a little harder for her to reach.

Otter texted me today.  Her next door neighbors are moving out and they offered her a futon.  She immediately said yes, and they even helped her get it into her apartment.  So she now has a couch and also a place for visitor's to sleep.  And probably still a pile of boxes that have been unpacked but not taken to the recycling center yet, which is probably still next to a pile of boxes that have not been unpacked yet!  Mostly her craft stuff is still waiting to be unpacked.  She's pretty much unpacked everything else and she has plenty of room in the 1-bedroom apartment, now that it 's just her.  She has not heard from Roomie, which is about what we expected.  Nobody is disappointed at that.  We were surprised that Roomie went backwards like she did, but in hindsight is is probably not surprising.  We're just glad that it wasn't worse, although I think everybody does feel sorry for the girl because she had a chance at being an adult and having a good, emotionally healthy life but she chose not to take that opportunity.

Bill is taking a few vacation days in addition to his nearly 2 weeks of holiday time and I'm taking the rest of my vacation at Christmas like I usually do.  He's probably going to spend most of his time working on pachinko machines, my main project (other than sleeping late and shopping!) is to work on my crocheted doily curtain.  Along with turning 53 2 days after Christmas.  Maggie's plan for our time off probably includes as many walks as possible, if the weather cooperates.

That is, when she's not napping!

Hackers

We've been hacking and coughing for days and days.  The cold bug Bill shared with me is still hanging around.  It's actually a lot better, but I have asthma and it has been triggered big-time.  He still has the cough but he doesn't have asthma so even though he's still coughing, he's actually better than I am.  I'm getting there, it just takes a while.

It's been a busy week, even with the cold.  Bill has been thinking that he needed to get a second-hand car to drive, with the intention of parking the El Camino until at least the Spring.  It doesn't like winter and it hates icy weather.  But then Otter's car has been acting up and he's had to deal with it for her a few times.  It's still having the problem with the radiator/air/antifreeze, etc., that it was having earlier.  He thinks he knows what it is, but the weather was cold and rainy and then he was sick.  In additional, he took the El Camino to get something checked and since it's a 1976 it's kind of hard to get the part!  So, we decided it was time to just buy me a new car, Otter will get the 2008 I've been driving for a few years and he will get the 2002 that we sold to her earlier this year.  Sold being a not totally descriptive term!  Anyway, we went back to Enterprise this week and bought me a new toy.

We got a really good deal on a really nice car, it's a 2015 Chevy Impala (silver again) and it has less than 14,000 miles.  It still has the majority of the original warranty so we did not buy an extended warranty on this car.  It does not have the remote start feature, which I'm sure I'll miss in the winter, but it is bluetooth enabled and my phone is compatible.  I've enjoyed that feature, actually.  We got a very good financing offer and the payments will start in January.  When we first discussed buying a new car for me last year, I commented that I was tired of silver cars but apparently silver Impalas are just what we're supposed to have.  Not that I'm complaining!  It also has a sunroof, which I will use some but probably not that much.

The 2008 will officially be transferred to Otter and the 2002 will be transferred back to us, probably sometime next week.  We'll go to the insurance company and take care of all their needs in person, because it's going to be a little confusing.  Same thing with the tag and titles, since we are playing musical cars at the moment.

Otter and I went to the flea market at the fair grounds today.  Our favorite movie guy was there and he did his usual "discount and deal offers" which is part of why he's so much fun.  We usually buy a lot of movies from him.  Today, he had something that I've been wanting for a while but have never, ever managed to find:

This one is very rare.  Extremely rare, in fact.  He had it priced at $30.00, (which was already a very good price) but he let me have it for $20.00 with the stipulation that I buy another movie from him - which was already going to happen because I had another one in my hand and so did Otter, but he knew that - he's a lot of fun and he always makes good deals.  Then he gave us a free movie.

Bill's activities for today included replacing the faucet in the kitchen sink.  It started leaking on him this morning and when he took it apart the gasket basically disintegrated in his hands.  He went to Lowe's and found a similar one that would work and he had it installed by the time I got back from literally spending all day shopping with Otter.

I'm still coughing and actually have now lost most of my voice.  Which Bill probably thinks is a good thing, but I'm going to convince him that it is actually a bad thing!  Until then, we're watching animated Star Trek!

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?!!!!

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? :)

Poor Little Neglected Blog

I didn't intend to neglect my blog, Froggy.  It's just been kind of crazy lately!

Otter's had a lot going on that she needed me to help with, Bill's been crazy busy (and he's just crazy!) with pachinko stuff which I have become conscripted labor for and work has been pretty busy.

Last Saturday, Bill and I spent most of the day looking at antique stores (I found cheap, vintage Fenton!) and then Sunday was when Otter, J and I went to the Tulsa State Fair.

The Fair was a lot of fun.  Yes, Froggy.  Quilt winner pictures are coming!

This is in the petting zoo at the fair.  Alpacas are about the softest things on earth.  It was like petting a cloud and the cloud liked it!  I commented to "him" that I could crochet him - and he responded by laying that soft head on my shoulder and batting those big eyes at me!  He (not sure of the gender) seemed to really enjoy the ear scratch as well.

The other thing that happened in the petting zoo is that I discovered that I am a sheep magnet!  I am really only allergic to one animal on the planet, as far as I know.  It's sheep.  I stepped inside the enclosure, and suddenly just about all the sheep were standing around me.  And grinning!  Sheep are evil, no doubt about that.  I wasn't able to stay inside the petting zoo very long, even without touching them (Otter petting them for me) I started having upper-respiratory issues pretty fast.

There were donkeys, ducks, assorted chicken, wallabies (one had a joey on board!), several alpacas, a few variety of deer, about a billion goats (of all ages) and probably a few other animals including a really sweet brahma calf!  Most of the other pictures have faces in them, so they are not going to be posted.

(Sorry this is sideways).  Froggy, look at the next picture.  It's a close-up of one of the deer at the bottom.

It's yo-yo's!

I think Mom and AJ would really have liked this one.

The butter cream sculpture!  This year, it was an angel and a lion.  Sorry it's sideways.  Also, there is a glare that I could not avoid.

This little critter is crocheted.  I'm not sure if it was a dinosaur or a dragon, but it is cute.

Look at the next picture.

The decorative edging is doilies!

The fair was fun and the weather was perfect.  We parked the car at one of the satellite locations and caught the shuttle bus to the fairgrounds.  We wound up with an extra ticket since Otter's friend had to cancel because of a family member's health issue but I was able to give it to someone at the entrance gate who hadn't bought a ticket yet.  We had ride tickets, which Otter and J used but we still had a few left so I gave those to a father with a young boy who were in line at a ride.  We didn't eat anything too outrageous, although there were some "interesting" food choices including bug pizza.  As in insects.  Not on my menu!

I did do one thing that is worth mentioning.  The prize-winning quilts, crochet, photography, etc., were in the same building as some of the kid exhibits - a giant sand box, blocks (which were being played with by adult emt officers), a few so-called odd animals and there was a small enclosure with an aldabra tortoise - on of the big babies.  I had noticed the tortoise when I was walking by, but then I saw a couple (boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife) who were looking at the tortoise.  The man was standing up, behind the woman.  She was squatting down and sticking her fingers through the fence, right in the tortoise's face.  Anybody who knows anything at all should know that was a very dangerous thing to do.  Tortoise was watching her fingers very intently and I could see that it's neck muscles were tensing up, which means that it was about to strike.  At that point, I went over to her and told her exactly why that was a very B.A.D. idea.  She had no idea that they bite!  All the tortoise was thinking was that it was time for a snack.  The woman pulled her hand back - to the very obvious disappointment of the man with her!  I honestly think he wanted her to get bit.  But it probably would not have been a gentle nip - it could have taken her finger off.  At the very least, she would have had a broken finger and it would have been very bloody.  I can't believe that an adult would have been so stupid!

Checking Back In

No particular reason that I haven't blogged in so long, it's just been busy I guess.  Work wasn't, Younger Boss was on vacation last week so it was a loooooooooooooooong boring week and the office was entirely too quiet.  Younger Boss said the same thing when I was sick a few weeks back, it's just too quiet now.  We really miss the Teenager.  We both still talk to him, I tell him good morning when I get there and also report in to him after I've gone to see his lovely bride on Wednesdays.  His presence is still felt, but it's just too quiet now.

We went to Ace Hardware this morning, Bill needed wood putty and I got a refill on humidifier filters.  After we got home, I turned around and headed to Atwood's because they had two things on sale that we use a lot of:  coffee and peanuts.  I bought two large cans of coffee and one 5-lb. bag of peanuts.  After that, I followed yard sale signs.  I looked at a few, drove past a few but didn't stop and went to one estate sale.  I spent .75 cents.  I got a strawberry pot for Otter to use next spring when she plants things, that was .50 cents.  The other .25 cents was at the estate sale, it was half-off on the last day and I found a pink doily that was marked .50 cents but it was also half-off.

Bill had some "tummy troubles" mid-week, so he missed a couple of days of work.  One morning, I think it was Thursday, I didn't have enough time to walk Maggie Moo and she was not happy!  She was unhappy with me and she let me know - she barked at me!  She almost never barked, but apparently she thought that the situation deserved a bark.  Bill said she was quiet and calm during the day, but as soon as I got home from work that afternoon she was rarin* to go walking.  This morning, she was ready for her walk way before we were, and she was absolutely wired.  Bouncy and wiggly for about 30 minutes, then she could hardly be still long enough for me to get her harness on.  When I did manage to get her dressed for her walk, she just about yanked my arm out of it's socket in her haste to get to the front door!  She was happy because Bill got to walk with us this morning, she is really turning into a Daddy's Girl and she tried to walk as close to him as she possibly could.  Dorky little thing, cute but still dorky!  I surprised Bill about bought bacon, we had it for breakfast and the dog haunted the kitchen the entire time it was being cooked - she knows what that smell means!  I gave her a tiny amount of bacon grease on her dry food, which she pretty much inhaled as soon as I got out of her way!

I crocheted 8 baby caps for an organization in Tulsa that has a baby cap drive each year.  They want knitted or crocheted caps in shades of purple, sized for small babies and newborns.  It's part of a program that tries to reduce the number of shaken-baby cases each year, they give newborns and hospitalized babies purple caps to wear home with the idea being that purple caps will remind the parents, etc., not to shake a baby.  I don't know if it works or not, but it may.  This is the 2nd year I've made caps for it.  I mailed mine off on Friday, they want them by the end of the month.  Although I didn't intend it to be a de-stash project, it did get rid of two small purple yarn balls and one lavender one.  I also got quite a bit done on Otter's slant-stitch poncho.

OK, Froggy.  I think I've hit the highlights of the week.  You can quit nagging me now!  (Froggy now texts me a particular phrase:  nagnagnag.)

Alright Already!!!

(Froggy, that title is for you.  :)  NagNagNagNag...)  (Just kidding you know.)

First things first.  Fun stuff:

(Notice that the girl minion is a REDHEAD!)

This is the little, wooden rocking chair that my parents gave Otter when she was about 1 or so.  They brought it to her and it was love at first sight, she loved that chair and wanted it to stay in the living room.  She sat in it when she watched tv, she rocked her baby dolls in it, and she was very attached to it.  When she outgrew it, it held stuffed animals.  When we moved to our current house, it went into storage in the attic.  When she moved out and her room became the Room The Yarn Stash Lives In, it needed something and that something was Otter's little rocking chair.  My stuffed, TEXAS-related animals are now sitting in it and the rubber crocodile underneath is also Otters.  Well, hers and mine actually - and his name is Crickey.  The chair and assorted animals occupy a space in the Yarn room.  The yellow yarn ball is in Baby Bevo's hands and so is a crochet hook - the long piece of yellow yarn is actually the first (and probably only) piece of crochet Otter ever made.

It's supposed to look like Baby Bevo is crocheting.

(Billyboy, this one is for you.)

This one isn't really appropriate for my work, but it does apply to someone I know who has to put up with really bad stuff at work.

This one?  Well, it obviously applies to me!

OK, now that the jokes are out of the way.  My Fenton collection increased last week.  Otter and I went to one of our favorite junk-tique places and I found something:

(That is a stock photo and not mine.)  I've been looking for a piece of Fenton in the color known as Amberina.  I found a huge compote, thumbprint pattern and in the Amberina color while we were there.  IT WAS $5.00.  And it is perfect.  The larger pieces in general are becoming more rare, it is glass after all and glass breaks.  This color is pretty hard to find and the thumbprint pattern is somewhat uncommon - not really rare, but getting there.

Fuzzbutt Beagle, also known as Maggie Moo, went to the vet yesterday.  It's been two months since her last rear gland cleaning and nail trim, she was starting to drag her rear around so we knew she was ready.  The vet said that she wasn't completely impacted this time, but that she was close.  So, we'll keep her on the two months schedule unless we need to change it to more often.  She hates to have her claws trimmed and we got tired of fighting her so every time she goes to the vet for any reason, we have them trimmed.  While we were there, she met another dog that was just leaving and she seemed to be pretty happy.  Until the vet's assistant came to get her.  Then, it was time to play Drag the Dog!  Literally.  I had to lift her up off of the floor so the assistant could get her,and she immediately plopped herself right back down.  She literally had to drag/walk her to the back so they could gets her needs taken care of.  When she was done, she just about yanked the girl's arm out of it's socket in her haste to get back to me!  She is 28 pounds, which is about a pound and a half over what she was in July but she's still within allowable range for a small to medium beagle.

However, she is still known as BowlingBallButt for a good reason!