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!

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.

2015 Review

2015 is just about over.  And I am glad.  It's been a hard year, although I haven't (and won't) posted about most of the issues we have had to deal with.  Very possibly, 2016 (for reasons not being mentioned) could well be a continuation.

There have been some good things, it hasn't been all bad.  I really don't mean to gripe.  But I guess I am!

Anyway:

January

Very cold month with some winter weather.

It was very stressful for Otter because Roomie lost her job right before Christmas 2014 and January was the first of over 3 months that Roomie was without a job - and not looking very much, either.

Michael's had yarn on sale and I added to the stash!  (Always good.)

Froggy started planning her trip to see us.

The Teenager's health suddenly took a turn for the worse, he was weakened by a bug and while he did recover from the illness, he never got his strength back and although we didn't realize it at the time, it was the beginning of the downhill turn for him.

We celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary, this year we had pizza!

February

We switched internet and email providers.

The stupid groundhog saw his shadow!

I had what I first thought might be the flu, but then realized it was "just" a cold.

This month saw the first issues with Frasier; he fell in the kitchen and couldn't get up.  We had to help him up but he was sore and stiff for days.  The vet thought he might have age-related issues, probably arthritis in the mix as well.  But he was always a happy dog when J came over!

Otter was really getting concerned about Roomie and the lack of a job.

The Teenager and his lovely bride celebrated their 78th Wedding Anniversary and were one of the featured couples on the Today Show!

Snowy weather.

22 years since we moved from TEXAS.

On February 27, the world lost one of it's shining lights in the form of Leonard Nimoy.  We're still mourning this one.  LLAP!

March

The month started with having to replace tires on the car that Otter was driving, as well as a front-end alignment.  $1200.00 was Chevy's estimate and it was also the last time we actually used that particular dealership - and they are under NO illusions as to why.  It was a M.A.J.O.R. moment for *RHTW.  We had the work done at a local shop for about $500 less than Chevy's estimater.

The vet suggested we start Frasiser on pain pills, which did seem to help but he didn't need them all the time.

I came down with another cold!  I literally sneezed all the way to work one morning and by about 8:15, I was feeling miserable.

We had more winter weather.

Otter was overjoyed when we discovered Green Apple gatorade!

I started crocheting a poncho for Otter, which took me a while to finish.  I had a lot of interruptions!

The dogs had their "beffday" and we spoiled them with plenty of treats - in hindsight, I'm glad we gave them so many extra treats.

We got several boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

The dry air caused me to have a few nosebleeds.

We decided it was time to talk to the minister at the church we'd been attending, we had to reschedule the appointment we had so we didn't actually talk to them this month.

Otter turned 23!

There was a tornado that struck a very nearby, next-door to Tulsa town.  It was bad.

My glasses broke in 2!  Bill had to glue and tape them back together so I could at least go get them replaced the next day.

We had to replace our insurance, thanks to NObamacare.

April

Our new insurance company took 2 premiums and *RHTW had a few "fun" phone calls with them.

One of the bright spots of this year happened.  Otter had her annual lung recheck and we feel like we have received a miracle - it's gone!  It never really goes away, but hers is as close to not being there as it can possibly be.  It is a true Blessing and we are so beyond thankful for this.

Otter gave Roomie a "no job, move out" date.  Amazing how motivated she got when that happened and she suddenly found a job.

Otter officially became the owner of a 2002 Chevy Impala.

The electric company messed up our yard and also cut the phone lines.

The hummingbirds showed up this month.

My precious dog, Frasier, one of the most special pets I've ever had, left us on the 23rd.  He was one of those rare, once in a lifetime dogs.

May

Otter proved that yes, she is very much her Father's Daughter.  She the cut palm of her left hand and had to get stitches!  I think she got 4.  She was a typical Redhead and bled a lot.

Maggie Moo was sick, the vet thought she had another UTI and the medication helped her pretty quickly.

Stupid electric company kept at it!

Bill was rear-ended in his work van - it was not his fault in any way, he wasn't hurt.

Maggie Moo was scratching herself silly - and driving us nuts!  The vet said she has allergies and put her on zyrtec - which didn't work too well but then we tried it later and it worked fine.

Bill's sister got married!  We went to TEXAS over Memorial Day weekend for the wedding and it was really nice.

Rain, Rain, Rain!

I had my one and only migraine of the year.

It was one of the better months of the year.

June

Otter went to Dallas with J, his mom and some of their friends.  They went to a convention and debuted their "Joker and Harley" gender switched costumes.  Which were very well-received.

We decided to get rid of the landline phone, since it was out more than it was working.

We decided to try an automatic feeder for the Magginator, it works very well.

Maggie met two other beagles when we went to get her annual shots.  Then she met a wolf!  Luna the wolf lives in our neighborhood and she is absolutely gorgeous.

The electric company was still being stupid!  I made a pest of myself, or actually I let *RHTW deal with them - and they finally decided to send out a repair crew, which was a company they contracted with and the repair crew foreman was appalled at how bad the damage to our yard was and how tacky the electric company was being about fixing it.

After they fixed it, we realized that our house was not getting the electric current it was supposed to and I had to place an emergency call to them.  I started the call but *RHTW finished it.

Froggy and her daughter came to see us, which was a bright spot.

Bill's birthday!  For 6 months, he was older than me.  He got bacon for his birthday meal, which made him happy.

My vacation started and the first thing was Maggie the Wonder Beagle getting stuck under the shed.  That should have been our first clue that it was not going to be a good week.

The Teenager was pretty sick in June.  The last time I actually saw him was right before I went on vacation at the end of the month, he was weak but he was very mentally clear and it was actually a fun day with him.  But in hindsight, I think he knew something was coming and from what he said and how he said it - I think he was telling me goodbye.  When I was on vacation, he had to be hospitalized for pneumonia and he was recovering from that when he had what was probably a stroke.  That was actually in July.

July

The frame holding the driver's seat in my car (the 2008 impala) broke and we had to buy a replacement seat at a salvage yard, then put the seat from my car on the frame of the salvage seat.

The next day, the brakes on the El Camino basically failed and Bill had to replace them.

Otter and Roomie decided to move to a 2-bedroom unit.  Otter was cautiously optimistic about it, since Roomie was working again and she hoped that it would work out but she was also pretty sure that when that lease was up she would suggest that Roomie find her own place.  They moved on the 31st.

On July 8, the Teenager had the probable stroke.  It was overnight and he was most likely asleep; he never really woke up from that and that is actually a blessing.  On the 12th, he left this life behind.  He was 98 years, 9 months.  This was one of the worst things that happened this year, at least from our perspective.  But we know exactly where he is and that we will see him again.  Until then, we'll all miss him terribly.

August

This month literally started with Otter's car having issues.  The radiator ruptured and we had to replace it.  It was just the beginning of trouble with that car.  It spent more time at my house than it did at hers!

But she did get a pretty good raise at work so she was happy!

Bill saw the dermatologist for his annual visit, the spot we thought might be a skin cancer on his nose turned out not to be but there were a couple of very small ones on his hand that the doctor froze off.

We finally met with the pastor at the church we'd been visiting.  And we knew almost immediately that it is not the place for us.  That was very disappointing.

We put tires on my car, the 2008 impala.

I was sick, it was a bug that was going around but it took me a few weeks to really recover from it.

We closed our booth at the antique store.

The Bluebell plants reopened!

September

Labor Day.

Bill came down with the mega-bug I'd had.

Otter and I got our flu shots and I spent most of Labor Day weekend dealing with my reaction.  Which wasn't as bad as some years have been.  But the reaction hit me within 2 minutes of getting the shot, I got my shot at 5:30 and at 5:32 I was suddenly freezing cold.

Then I came down with a cold.

I crocheted purple baby caps for a local charity.

There was a lunar eclipse, we could see it from the back yard and it was very pretty.

It was pretty obvious that Otter was under some stress, she was having problems with Roomie and was very upset over the situation.  She wasn't sure what she could do, as Roomie was on the lease but she really regretted moving to the 2-bedroom unit, although at the time it was a good decision.  But she knew that she would not renew the lease (or any lease) with Roomie when it was up.

October

We went to the State Fair in Tulsa, we took J along with us and we had a fun time.  We were tired but it was an enjoyable day.  I discovered that I am a sheep magnet - they are evil!  They know I'm beyond extremely allergic to them.

We had a lot of the typical "persecution" because of the TEXAS/ou game the first weekend of the month.  Then TEXAS won!

Roomie lost her job.  Or at least she admitted to Otter that she'd lost it, the actual time that happened might have been in September.  But it was a major retailer and she was fired, she would not say why but this particular store does not fire employees unless they have very good reason.  She claimed to have gotten another job at a fast-food place and probably did, but we're not totally convinced that she kept it longer than a couple of weeks.  When she told Otter that she'd lost the job and got the new one, Otter told her then that Roomie was going to have to find her own place a) when the lease was up or b) immediately if she lost the fast-food job.

Because Otter was expecting to have to move when the lease was up, she did a little looking for other complexes that might be a little cheaper but nobody expected Roomie to do what she did:  move out and attempt to do it without giving Otter any warning at all - but Otter caught her packing.  It was a very ugly, nasty situation and I'm not going to detail it here because it was already detailed.  But it was bad, however it could have been much worse.  There was very heavy *RHTW involvement.

The Teenager would have been 99.  We had cupcakes at work to celebrate and remember him.

The 32nd anniversary of when we met was on the 14th.

Bill decided to get another booth for the pachinko machines.

We put Maggie Moo back on the zyrtec, she was scratching again and had caused a little bald spot above her tail from it.  She had a slight case of Bald Bobo!  But the zyrtec helped her a lot more this time.

It rained.  A lot.

One morning was really strange:  The sunrise was brilliant in the east, it was dark and cloudy in the middle area and then there was a huge rainbow in the west.  All at the same time!

November

Our "lovely" insurance carrier sent us a letter with a $400+ increase in our monthly premium.  We made a lot of changes that took weeks.

Otter went to a Dias De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival with J and his mom in his not quite next door to Tulsa neighboring town.  She left rememberances for the Teenager and my aunt we refer to as AJ (who Otter was named for).

That night on her way home, her car acted like it was overheating and we had to go get her.  About 9:30 at night, in almost the middle of nowhere, dark and very isolated - but J and his mom came to wait with her until we got there.  Bill drove her car home, although he had to stop a couple of times, I brought her home in my car and then she took my car on home with her.

For the next few weeks, we dealt with her car acting up and she had my car quite a bit.

In the midst of all the car issues, Otter moved to a one-bedroom unit in the same complex.

Bill got a bad cold.

Then I got a bad cold.

Thanksgiving was a little different, we wound up at Taco Bell because it was the only place we could find open when the power went out!  That was the first of several times we got a senior discount!

We finally got our Bluebell ice cream!

There was a hard rain storm and then we saw a double rainbow.

The new booth store opened up.

The El Camino developed a problem with what is probably the thermostat but the specific part is pretty much unavailable.  It is a 1976 vehicle, after all!  It's going to spend the next few months in the driveway anyway, like it usually does in the winter.

We started discussing Bill buying a 2nd hand car to drive in the winter, since Otter had the 02 impala he used to drive.

December

We realized that Otter's car was becoming a serious concern and it was not a car we were comfortable with her driving any longer.  We bought a new car for me, a 2015 impala.  Then we traded the 2008 to her and she gave Bill the 2002.  The 2002 is still acting up, it is probably a series of cascading problems that keep causing other things to act up and it may well be that the car is just worn out.  But in the meantime, Bill will drive it and she has a car that she can trust.  New tires and in very good shape, she should be able to drive it for several years.  I am very happy with the new car, but we really did not want a car payment yet.  However, it was a good decision.

Otter and I went to the mall to Christmas shop one evening and had a very interesting encounter - I didn't mentioned details when I blogged about it, but we almost literally ran into her first boyfriend - and his girlfriend - and their two very young children!  He was a real jerk when he and Otter broke up and at one point we had to tell his dad to reign his son in or we would call the police - which explains why the former boyfriend would not even look me in the eye when we saw him.  Otter said that she's extremely glad that she dodged that particular situation, and she hopes that the idiot boy treats his baby mama better than he treated her and also that he's finally learned to be faithful.

We decided to put up a Christmas tree so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought another artificial tree.

We still had to deal with the cold bug we got in late November.  Even up until right before Christmas.

Then Bill came down with another cold which I thought was the flu at first.

We finally got actual winter weather, much later than usual.

There was a lot that happened, it wasn't all bad and most of the really cruddy stuff is not being mentioned.  But this has been a fairly bad year.  We do realize that it could have been worse, and there have been some good things.  But the main thing that defines this year is the loss of a man who was like a father to me and that Otter considered to be another one of her grandfathers.

Here's to 2016 and hopes that it will be a good year for everyone!

Cold. Tired.

It's cold today and I'm tired!

Yeah, I know.  Not a very imaginative title.

Anyway.  It was very rainy all weekend, especially Saturday.  I had to go run a couple of errands, and literally every time I was inside anywhere the rain would quit.  When it was about time for me to leave and go outside again - yep, the skies opened up!  I would have preferred to just stay home and not have to deal with seriously bad rain, but that wasn't possible.  There waags a lot of street flooding, so I picked my routes carefully.  But I still wound up having to drive in a few absolute downpours.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my birthday.  For the next 6 months-ish, Bill and I are the same age.  He wanted to go to the Hog Trough (Golden Corral) for their breakfast buffet but I really didn't want to because we would have eaten too much.  So we had breakfast at home then we went to an antique store I haven't been to in a while (didn't buy anything) and then to a thrift store (found a real sun tea jar for Otter) then we came home for a while.  We decided to go to dinner so we went to a local place we've eaten at before and it was good.  I don't have chicken fried steak all that often, but we both had it last night.  The servings are huge, so we brought about half of each of our steaks home and Bill finished them for dinner today.

Bill is doing what he usually does when it's either vacation or holiday time:  he's sick!  I was thinking he might have the flu last night, but now I don't think he does.  He has had some fever but I don't think it's been very high - not that he will let me take it!  But he has his normal rash he gets after fever today, and he usually is on the mend when that starts, or at least is over most of the fever.

We've been home today, which we probably would have been even if he wasn't sick.  The rain converted to sleet overnight, which means that the forecasters got it right and wrong again. Right because we did get a little winter weather, but wrong because we were only supposed to get a small amount of sleet and the main storm line would be ending well west of us.  Of course, we had a pretty heavy sleet fall most of the morning followed by snow in the afternoon.  It was a good day for soup, and since Bill has been under the weather himself lunch was potato soup.

Tomorrow morning, IF the forecast is correct and I'm able to get out, I'm taking Otter's car to Chevy to get the ignition recall taken care of.  Then I'm going to pick her up from the not-exactly-next-door small town that J lives in, she went to OK City with J and his mom for Christmas and they came back on Saturday instead of Sunday or today like they originally planned because of the weather forecast.  We are also probably going to get the car titles officially switched.  The 02 is in her name and she will transfer it back to us, and we will transfer the 08 to her.  We have to get everything notarized and then we can get it all switched.  We would have done it a few weeks back, but the title never was sent to us for the 02 when we transferred it to Otter so we had to order a copy.  I also had to call Enterprise because they still have not sent me the information to register the 15 in our names.  The paper tags are only good for 30 days, and I'm on day 28.  I called them the other day and they said it takes 3 weeks normally.  We are well past the 3 week period and I told them that I was very concerned about the fact that we still haven't received the paperwork.  I know that the loan has officially gone through because we looked it up on the loan company's website and it looks like they've paid Enterprise.  I waited until after the mail came today, not that we ever really get mail other than mainly junk mail at home, just to be sure - although it was supposed to go to the post office box and as of Saturday's mail it still hadn't.  The person who handles that was already gone for the day but they promised to check first thing in the morning and will overnight the paperwork to me if necessary.  We'll see if they do what they say, they generally do so I expect them to actually call me tomorrow.  I hope so, *RHTW really does NOT want to have to educate Enterprise!

Maggie Moo has been really funny the last few days.  We have always given a specific type of "bone" as a treat to the dogs, Frasier would always take his outside and eat it immediately.  Maggie Moo would wait, she would put hers where he could see it and then she would wait for him.  If he even acted like he saw it, she would turn into the canine version of *RHTW on him!  The last one we gave them was on March 12, their "beffday" and then Frasier crossed the Rainbow Bridge just over a month later.  We have not given her any of them since then, but we thought it had been long enough that maybe it would be ok and she'd just eat it so that was her Christmas treat.  Well, she was certainly happy to get it.  But she didn't eat it.  She kept putting it in place where it was obvious and impossible to miss.  She acted like she was waiting on her Big Brother Fraiser to come attempt to get it and a couple of times we wondered if she was looking for him again - she hasn't done that since several days after he left us.  We decided that maybe it was a mistake to give her that type of treat after all, but then she started doing something else:  she kept hiding it.  She would "bury" it in whatever spot she could - her beds, her blankets, under the blanket I was using, behind things, etc., and she kept moving it.  After a while, Bill started unhiding it and moving it to where she could see it.  She would hide it again.  This went on for a while, and she was actually bringing it to Bill to hide from her after a while.  She had a great time playing with Bill, and he enjoyed it as much as the beaglebrat did.  Today, she finally decided it was time to actually eat it.  She seemed to enjoy it.  They come in packs of 2, so there is still another one.  She won't get it anytime soon, she doesn't need the extra calories!  But eventually we'll give it to her, and then if she still acts like she's waiting on Frasier then we will switch to a different treat for her.

I will probably post my year-end review in the next few days.  There have been quite a few things that I have not posted about but that have made this one of the worst years we've had in quite a while.  And indications are that next year might not be much better.  It's not all bad, there have been some good things and we are Thankful.  But it's been a rough year and 2015 has not been one of our better years.

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!

Day 9

Last day of my 9 day weekend.  Back to work tomorrow.

Bill and the mechanic neighbor looked at the car seat and determined that the part that broke is not the seat itself, but it is the frame that holds the seat in place.  Bill made a few calls on Friday but apparently a lot of places were also closed on Friday.  So he's going to check on it tomorrow.  Chevy was open but it was somewhere close to $700.00 just for the part (no labor!) from them and we are NOT doing that unless we absolutely have to.  Bill did consider getting a replacement from a salvage yard, but since it is a fairly important structural piece he's decided against that option.  I'll ride with him in the morning, he has to be in at 7:00 but leaves the house earlier to beat the traffic.  I'll get myself to work in the El Camino and then I'll pick him up after work.  Hopefully, we can go pick up the part right then and get home in time for him to install it.  The seat should just come out and go right back in.  We are probably getting rain mid week, starting Tuesday, so Bill's kind of in a hurry.  Me too!

Otter came over Friday morning.  She got her laundry done and then we went shopping.  We hit a few yard sales, drove past a few more and went to a few stores.  We got lunch at Long John Silver's to bring home and share with William.  Then we went to the booth store and another similar store.  We had a good time but didn't really buy much.  We did get to Big Lots, which is probably the only place I really bought anything at and that was mostly household stuff.  I bought her a little gasoline to replace what we used.  She and Roomie are still discussing their options but I think that they are leaning towards a 2-bedroom unit.

We had a fairly quiet 4th.  We went to Taco Bell for lunch and then to Hobby Lobby to get some sinew-type thread/string to repair Bill's houseshoes with.  While there, I did cruise the yarn aisles.  The summer colors are out and are everywhere, but the fall colors are beginning to be stocked.  I saw a few I really liked but I didn't buy any.  Yet!  Bill actually had the "unsmartness" to tell me that I have too much yarn - which is when I asked him to tell me again exactly how many pachinko machines he has!?  I also reminded just how much room his machines take up vs the corner of the craft/guest/YARN room that holds my stash.  He stammered out that he meant I had a lot of $$ invested in yarn and then I reminded him how much a skein of yarn is vs the $30 - $several hundred he's spent on machines.  At that point, he saw the light and shut up. :)  Which is good, because I was going to take no prisoners on that one!

Speaking of yarn, I finished the mink scarf yesterday.  I had it about where I wanted it when I realized that I'd made a mistake several rows back and had to frog out several inches.  It wasn't a mistake I could leave in and ignore, it changed the stitch per row count and the shape.  Mink yarn is harder to frog than regular yarn, I'm thinking it might felt very easily.  I used less than one ball of yarn so I still have plenty left.  I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, it is fairly expensive ($33. per skein 2 years ago) but I'm sure I'll find something.  (No, Bill.  It's still cheaper than your machine stash!)  I started a new scarf for Otter, we got the yarn for it a while back but I hadn't gotten a chance to work on it it yet.  I started it and did a few rows because I wanted to see if she likes the pattern I made the mink scarf it - which she does.  I will get back to it soon, I just wanted to get it started so I could show it to her.  She had two sets ordered from different yarns.  I had one scarf made already and made the matching hat this morning but I have to wait for her to come over again so I can check the size before I call tie it off and call it done.  But I'm going to get back on her poncho soon so her 2nd scarf/hat combination may wait a while - but they go fast.

I have some sort-of TEXAS flag printed wall border, the kind that a teacher would have used years ago over the blackboard.  I got it at a thrift store for about a buck many years ago and it's just been stuck in the closet.  I took two pieces of it, it's long, and taped them together.  Then I took one of my many yard sticks and marked it off in 1" increments with smaller marks at the half inch marks.  No, I would not have done that if it was actually the TEXAS flag!  It's now hanging on the wall, attached with pushpins at the top and bottom.  Now, when I'm making a scarf or one of many other projects that need to be measured I don't have to drag out the measuring tape or yard sticks, and then fight to get it flattened out on the floor.

We had homemade cheeseburgers for our July 4th meal.  We were going to grill steaks but it as supposed to rain so we decided against that.  Of course, it didn't rain.  There were quite a few neighbors that had fireworks, including some of the really big ones, so we stood outside and watched the show for a while last night.  There were several lightning bugs, I always wonder if they get confused on July 4th?  The mosquitos eventually showed up, so we came inside but it was fun.  Otter took her sparklers left from last year when she came over on Friday.

I have a prayer request:  The Teenager was hospitalized Friday for low potassium and general weakness.  He's a tough old bird, but the key word is old - he is 98, after all.

Remember What I Said?

The part about the Amish being on the right track as far as electricity goes?  Well, I agree with them about something else now:  no cars!  No cars equals no car trouble.  When I got in my car to leave the grocery store, the driver's seat had apparently turned into a rocking chair while I was in the store.  I just about wound up in the back seat.  I had a couple of things I'd picked up for Otter and her apartment was just down the street so I went on to give her the stuff I had for her.  Then I drove back roads to get home and drove very carefully - it would not be the time to have an accident!  Not that there ever is, but the issue with the seat is that it might not have kept me inside the car in the event of an accident.  Bill looked at it when he got home, and so did our mechanic neighbor.  They were hoping it could be welded but they both agree that it can't.  The neighbor said he's never seen one break in just that spot before.  Bill's going to check with salvage yards tomorrow and see if he can find a replacement seat.  Hopefully, pretty quick.  Obviously, Otter and I are not going shopping tomorrow.

But that's ok, we'd already decided to stay in town and just hit a few thrifts along with the steakhouse.  She's coming over in the morning to do her laundry and we might or might not go to a couple of close by thrifts.  If we don't get to, it's not a big deal and we'll reschedule our shopping trip.  If I need to go anywhere tomorrow, she'll either be my transportation or let me borrow her car.  I got most of my errands done already, I only had one stop that I still needed to make and it was just BigLots for toilet paper.  Depending on what Bill finds, I may have to go with him to a salvage yard to get a replacement seat.  Hopefully, he can find one and it won't be too much trouble to get it out and then in to my car.  I don't even care what color it is!  I just want it to be intact and safe.

Otter and Roomie have been discussing their options.  Renewing their lease in a few months, getting separate apartments or seeing about a 2-bedroom unit.  Hopefully in their current complex.  I think they are leaning towards getting a 2-bedroom.  I don't think either of them can really afford their own apartment at this point, but they really do want more room/space/privacy - especially Roomie, since her room is the living room and she doesn't even have a door to close.  I think they are going to see about a 2-bedroom unit, which would probably be their best option.  They will have to pay more in rent but it will be less for each of them than if they went with separate apartments.  Otter thinks that there might be one available in their current building, she's going to check with the manager.  It would be good if it was on their current floor (easier on the parental moving crew!) but I don't think anybody would miss having to go up to the 3rd floor either!  One of the people Otter works with also lives in the same complex, she said that she was able to move to a larger apartment within just a couple of months of moving in so Otter and Roomie probably won't have to wait until the end of September if they decide on a 2-bedroom, and if there is one available.

Maggie Moo is currently sprawled across, in and out, her bed.  Snoring.  Loudly!

Middle of Vacation at Home Week

I don't like the word "staycation" so I don't use it.  I'm just having a vacation at home this week.  Mostly by myself, Bill had had to work.  He is off today, but that's because he wasn't feeling too good this morning and he's been pretty much doing nothing today - kind of like me! :)  Except that I'm goofing off by choice and he's just not 100%.

Anyway, I'm glad that he was home today (although I wish he hadn't been feeling icky.)  Because the electric company showed up unannounced this afternoon.  They figured out that last Friday's problem was caused by a line in my yard (they're buried where we live) and that it might need to be replaced.  They brought their backhoe and got right to work digging a fairly deep hole.  Pretty close to one of the maple trees and they did have to break through roots to get to the line.  The line did have some issues, it was probably nibbled on by voles and they'd eaten into the insulation which exposed the actual line to the dirt.  They had to turn our power off for about 10 minutes while they replaced the line.  They did that, put all the dirt back in the hole and took the cable that they'd laid all over my yard last week.  I think that we are finally done with the problems.  Although I won't be surprised if there are other problems with the lines, considering how many underground rodents we have to deal with!

Yesterday, I went to a fabric shop to get something for Froggy.  I also went to 2 antique-ish stores I had been meaning to get to but just never quite did.  They are both booth-type stores and are in a neighboring town.  I wasn't impressed with either of them, but it was still fun.  I also went to the library and to our old booth store looking for something specific and then Bill came home early because he wasn't feeling too good.  I went to the post office, also.  Big exciting day!  Actually, except for the part about Bill not feeling too good, it was an enjoyable day.

Today I went to another fabric store for Froggy, but I will be going back there for something else she needed but I'm not sure when because I think Otter wants to go with me.  I had a couple of other stops, I went to Atwood's because they had coffee on sale and then I went to Wallyworld for misc. grocery items.  But I've spent more time at home today than I spent out, I did some crochet and had time to just sit and read.

I'm enjoying the stay at home vacation.  Yesterday, after Bill left for work, I went back to bed for about an hour.  Actually, I curled up on the futon and snoozed, and Maggie Moo went underneath it for her nap.  It was pretty comfortable, although the beagle snores!  Maggie Moo has enjoyed being able to stay in the house and not get put out into the garage, but she's slept just as much inside as she probably does in the garage!  She has access to the outside when she goes to the garage, but she doesn't seem to like being outside nearly as much as Frasier did.  Her water dish always goes out with her and she has two padded places in the garage which she snoozes on.  And she gets to visit her treat can...

I'm not sure about tomorrow, I'm thinking I'll probably just hang around the house and read, craft, crochet and possibly take a nap.  I might also make a loaf of bread, the one I made on Monday is just about gone.  On Friday, Bill will be off and he'll be at home working on pachinko machines but Otter and I have a shopping day scheduled.  Destinations depend on the weather, we could get rain.  Until then, it's just hot and humid!  But it might affect fireworks displays Friday and Saturday evening.  Bill wanted to grill steaks on Saturday, but they might be broiled in the oven instead of grilled.

Maggie Moo went out to the back yard with me this morning.  And she went straight to the shed.  She did not want to listen to me when I told her no, so she came back inside.  She was funny when we took our early-morning walk today - there was a lady who was walking 3 dogs (and carrying a 4th) one and at least one of those dogs is not friendly to other dogs - which Maggie apparently knew, because it started barking at her at pretty much the same time she was angry barking at it, with a beagle baroo thrown in for good measure!  We haven't walked the last few evenings, the humidity has been too bad for me to be able to breathe.  But I don't think she particularly has wanted to, I don't know if the heat is why or if she's just lazy!  Probably both.

There is a mockingbird that is building a nest inside the trellis on the back deck.  I saw it several times but I haven't seen it since we were outside with the electric company.  It's possible that mama bird decided that there was too much traffic and went elsewhere, but I'm not sure yet.  I did finally get my hummingbird feeders refilled this week, after they were empty for a while.  At least one hummer was on one of the feeders this afternoon.  We also have had two very large squirrels playing chase across the top of the fence.  Not sure if it was a boy chasing a girl, if they were just playing or if one was annoyed with the other one.  But I've seen more squirrels since we lost Frasier, I think they know he's gone and maybe they feel safer now.

Since I was home and had time, I made a pecan pie this morning.  I found a frozen pie shell in the deep freeze when I moved everything from it to the kitchen freezer.  I figured that was a sign that I needed to make pie!  We're having mini pizza for dinner tonight, I think pecan pie will go very well!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just a Few More Hours.....

Then it's Friday!

Today was what I refer to as Crazy Day, the day shortly before my vacation when the Boys realize that I'm about to be gone for a week.  It followed the usual pattern, and Younger Boss followed his usual script.  Tomorrow will be busy in the morning, but then Younger Boss will be leaving early and the Teenager won't be in at all.

Maggie Moo got to go have a shopping adventure with me this afternoon.  We bought her a pillow to sleep on, shortly after we lost Frasier.  Before that, she slept on their blankets or on the loveseat (when we're not in the living room to tell her to get down) because Frasier tore up anything that even remotely resembled a bed or pillow.  He had a mind of his own and we never could figure out why he did most of the things he did.  A lot of it was the coyote instincts, but I don't think that was why he hated dog beds!  We weren't sure if Mags would sleep in one or tear it up since she'd possibly follow in Big Brother's footsteps so we got a pillow.  She took a few days to decide that it was ok, then it became her bed.  When we were in the living room, anyway!  She's taken to sleeping in the hallway, close to the baby gate that keeps her out of our room.  Last night, we put her pillow in the laundry room which is right outside of our room.  She started to snuggle up on it, but then she bonked her behind on the door and that was it for sleeping in the laundry room!  She moved back to the hallway.  We left the pillow in there, I think she did move to it later on though.  Bill suggested I go get her an actual bed.  We went to a local semi-chain store, where we got her shots when they had a clinic.  They had a few, but I was not about to spend over $30 on a dog bed - even if it was heated!  But then we remembered that Otter's tool store has dog beds.  I texted her this morning while she was on shift, she told me the size but I wasn't sure if it was big enough of not.  But after we left the first store, and Maggie Moo visited their grassy area, we went to Otter's store.  She wasn't working this evening, but Maggie knew where she was when we went up to the door.  I found their dog beds and put one down on the floor - Maggie immediately got in it.  It came home with us, after the cashier melted into a puddle while petting the beagle, and I put it where the blankets have been.  Maggie immediately got in it and went to sleep.  She gets up and changes position every so often, she started out with her bottom in the bed and her head out but now she's reversed course and her head is in the bed but her behind is hanging over the edge.  It's plaid, sort of felt-fleecy feeling and 100% washable.  It has a removable pillow.  It is normally around $19.00 but it was on sale and then they also let me use my 20% off coupon so I got it for under $8.00.  Maggie's pleased.  I might move it to the laundry room tonight.

The electric company did send out a representative from the electrical contractor.  He got here just before I did and he was waiting on me.  I showed him the trench that is still in my yard, I gave him the crepe myrtle labels with the information about them, and he decided how much dirt and grass he'll need to bring.  He was amazed at how deep the trench is, considering that it should not have sunk at all - not that the previous contractor (different company) had ever really finished filling it in.  He will be here Monday morning and it should take him around 3 hours.  I think that there are only 3 crepe myrtles after all, two have managed to come up again but he said he's probably going to bring me 5.  After he left, when Maggie Moo and I were coming out the door to get in the car there was another truck pulling up in front - he had been told that all we needed was a little grass put down and he was here for that.  He said that the electric company does things like this all the time, not take correct information from customers and then send out multiple contractors with incorrect information.  It's really frustrating, we've been dealing with this for over 2 months now.  It had better be fixed on Monday.

At least tomorrow is Friday.  And I have a 9-day weekend!  That is a GOOD THING.

3 Down. 2 To Go.

Workdays, until this week is over.

The last week before vacation is always so loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.  This week is no exception.  Tomorrow (Thursday) will be Crazy Day.  Also known as the"Day Boys Realize that the Office Manager is About to Be Gone For a Week."  It won't be particularly crazy, at least as far as work that needs to be done because, let's face it here:  I'm obsessively organized pretty much 24/7/365 and don't have all that much to do of so-called normal stuff.  But Younger Boss is going to bring the Teenager into the office for a couple of hours and I'm sure that they will both try to find fires for me to put out!

I went to the grocery store this afternoon.  I read labels, along with getting groceries.  After Otter moved out last October, I switched us to whole-wheat pasta.  Not whole-wheat spaghetti, we tried it once and it was pretty disgusting.  The pasta was better but we never really liked it all that much.  So, I read pasta labels today.  The whole-wheat pasta is actually made with MORE fat than the regular stuff.  The only other difference is that the regular stuff has more carbs.  Not that many more, either.  I bought regular pasta tonight, once the remaining whole-wheat we have on hand is gone we will go back to the regular stuff.

Maggie learned a new trick today!  Well, actually it's not a trick.  But it is something new that she learned.  We've had her for something like 8 or 9 years (I don't want to go look it up) and for just about every weekday of that time she's been put out in the garage every morning - with access to the back yard, a visit to the treat can and the water dish always goes out, too.  Every morning, she's had to be told to go out.  Always.  After all these years, she finally realized that she has to go outside when I leave for work - she took herself out to the garage at the normal time, and sat beside her treat can to wait for me to bring the water out and open the can.  Guess she's a bit of a slow learner, huh?!  We'll see if she remembers tomorrow morning.  :)  She's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she's a good girl and a lot of fun.  And very cute!  Except for when she ralphed in the kitchen floor last night and I had to clean up after her.

The electric company is supposed to have someone out here tomorrow afternoon to look at the work that they never finished up.  They can't seem to understand why we are upset at the condition they left our back yard in.  I'm thinking that I'm going to skip the preliminaries and just let RHTW* be who greets them.  Should be fun!  Well, maybe not for them.  :)

**RHTW:  She's already riled and that's a really B.A.D. thing!

Sleepy Monday Evening

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

Monday is over.  Not a moment too soon.

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

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

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

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

Not Enough Chocolate!!!

It's been one of those days all over the place.  There is not enough chocolate in the world today.  Work stuff mostly, nothing serious or to worry about.  Just a lot of it!!!!!

Otter is back from her vacation today.  The one I didn't mention!  She brought her car over to our house last Tuesday and I ran her (and a trunkload of luggage) over to J's house a few towns away.  From Tuesday until Friday, she and J spent most of their time working on their Joker/Harley Quinn costumes.  On Friday morning along with J's mom, some of her friends and some of theirs, they all set out for Dallas.  They arrived at their hotel to discover that parts of it were flooded out so they weren't able to stay there.  The hotel management had arranged rooms for everyone who had reserved rooms, at a hotel down the street and paid for their first night as well as paying for food for them.  That was not necessary, the hotel couldn't help the floods but it was a nice thing for them to do.  They went to Dallas Fan Expo, which is a comic related convention (con is the short word) and the had a blast.  Otter hasn't sent me the pictures yet but she did show them to me - the female Joker/male Harley Quinn costumes were a huge success.  Although Otter did say that her short green wig was too tight.  They spent Sunday doing the tourist thing around Dallas and Denton, (she has now discovered IKEA!) then they got back to J's house last night.  I went out there after work to pick her up - and her trunkload of luggage!  Which was more than she had to start with, because she is her mother's daughter and she shops!  She was pretty tired, but she wanted to go to Wallyworld with me.  Among other things, I bought her some donut holes so she'll have breakfast tomorrow (she goes in to work at 5:00 a.m.), rolls and dinner for tonight.  She was tired, but she really enjoyed herself.  J had a good time as well, they were all tired but it was happy tired.  The cosplay costumes need a bit of tweeking before the wear them to the con in Tulsa in July.

I went to Wallyworld for one of these:

We realized that Maggie is not the food vacuum we thought she was.  Now that she doesn't have to eat all the food in her bowl so Frasier doesn't get it, she's eating until she gets full and then leaving food.  She eventually wanders back and finishes it, but sometimes she still leaves some behind.  Her bowl used to be emptied, and we think that her big brother might have had a lot to do with it.  We've been leaving a little food in her bowl at times and she's not acting like she wants to eat until she pops.  We're going to try one of these and see if it works.  I expect her to be a piggie at first, but I think she'll adjust.  The one I bought has a 10-pound reservoir, it comes in three sizes and Wally had the large or the small but not the medium.  I was looking for the medium, but I didn't want to wait for them to get it in stock again and the small was just too little.  I put it down next to her food bowl and put a small handful of food in it.  She ate it, but she didn't wolf it down.  We had just come back from our walk and she usually gets a treat or two after walking anyway.  We have always used a fairly large rubbermaid-type bin to hold their dry food, but it's become very obvious that it will take her forever to go through the 20-pound bags of dry food we used to use.  Also, I've changed the brand of food.  We tried a few different brands and Pedigree was the one that worked best for Frasier.  It was fine for her, but his nutritional needs were a little stricter than a garden-variety beagle but Pedigree was good for her, too.  Also, Pedigree was the one that made him the least stinky!  I switched Maggie Moo to one of the IAMS brand dry foods, I mixed it in with the remaining Pedigree and switched it slowly.  She wasn't sure of it at first, but she likes it now.  I don't have to buy the big bags anymore, and once the bin is empty (which might be very soon as I'm going to pour as much kibble out of it and into the 10-pound feeder in the morning), the bin is going bye-bye at least as far as dog food storage.  It may become another recycle bin, unless Bill can come up with a use for it.

I'm also thinking about getting rid of the deep freeze.  I don't use it nearly as much as I used to, now that Otter's moved out I don't go through nearly as much bread for one thing.  I do still have stuff in it, but it's probably less than a quarter full.  Some of the contents now include a couple of cans of coffee but since they aren't open they will stay fresh.  I keep opened cans in the freezer.  There are two packages of chicken breast and a few packages of ground turkey meat.  I think I have two dozen tamales, which we probably need to eat soon!  And 6 ice trays.  I can easily get all of that in the kitchen freezer, although maybe not the ice trays.  Bill wants the small amount of room the deep freeze takes up, if I do decide to get rid of it.  I'll probably put it on craigslist, since it still works fine.  We just don't really need it now.

My feet are tired and are telling me I need to stay on the couch, so that's what I'm going to do with my evening!

Winter is On It's Way! Again. Stupid Groundhog.

(For the record, I did clean first.  But it wasn't my first choice).

Looks like the groundhog is still mad at us.  And he's going to take it out on us starting sometime Sunday.  Afternoon or evening, or thereabouts.  Winter Mix is the correct term.  Monday is supposed to be brutally cold, with the high temps being in the 30's for the afternoon.  Tuesday morning is also supposed to be pretty cold.  It's still "up in the air" if we'll get any actual sleet, which is the most likely.  Or snow.  Or if it'll just be very cold and raining.  We'll probably get something, cold is pretty much guaranteed.  We just don't know what it will contain!

Otter is coming over Saturday with her laundry when she gets off work.  We're going to take one of the two remaining loads to the used bookstore to turn in and I think we'll probably hit the library as well.  I'll get her to work in the morning and pick her up when she gets off, then she'll come home with me and get the car.  Bill's off Monday for President's Day then he's taking Tuesday and Wednesday as vacation days, so she'll have the car through Wednesday at least.  She's had very little experience driving in winter conditions, she's had the lessons/lectures/passenger experience many times but she hasn't really driving in anything other than a small snowfall.  Mom's nervous at the thought, but she's gotta learn sometime!

This is my back fence.  Bill noticed something parked on it one day a couple of months back.  He noticed it for a couple of reasons:  it was suddenly very quiet, no bird noises at all.  And there were suddenly no birds in sight, anywhere, they were there and then they were gone.  He discovered the reason, a hawk sitting on the back fence.  We see them pretty often, but they don't usually park on the fence like that.  One time, we watched a squirrel running along the top of the fence.  Until it nearly ran right into a hawk that was sitting on the fence!  I had no idea that squirrels could put the brakes on and back up at warp speed!  I don't think that hawks are normally squirrel predators, but if it was hungry enough it might have gone after the fluffy tailed critter.

This is the tulip bed last Fall when we were planting.  We cleaned the ground off, stirred the dirt up with a shovel and treated it with oil/soap/water and then left it to sit for several days.  When it was time to plant, Otter mixed up the bulbs and tossed them all around the bed.  Last time, she had them in patterns.  This time, she decided to mix them up randomly.  They are just now beginning to poke up through the dirt and it looks like there will be a lot of them that will come up.  This will probably be the last time we'll have tulips for a couple of years.  We might expand the back fence to the side/corner of the garage, which will mean that this area will not get the sun it needs.  We'll probably have them again in the future, we're just not sure where they'll be.

This is also from last fall, it's the crepe myrtles.  They are not right up against the fence, it just looks like that in the picture.  They are planted between the trellis pieces which have honeysuckle planted against them.  It looks like at least some of the honeysuckle has survived both the mowers last year and the winter.  I can't tell for certain, but the crepe myrtles look like most of them have made it as well.

Hopefully, we'll have all of them come back and they will grow fast this year.  Same thing for the honeysuckle.  They'll all bring butterflies and hummingbirds, probably honeybees as well (but wasps and yellow jackets are not invited or welcome).  Most importantly, they will block the view of the neighbors behind us into our back yard and dining room windows!