Rambling

Just normal stuff going on around here. Mostly.

Today is National Puppy Day.  That means Maggie Moo pictures!

And, since he will always be my puppy:

Can't believe it's been nearly a year already.  Miss this boy!

It's been extremely windy the last few days, but that is normal for this time of year.  So far, the broken limbs are still in the tree but at least one of them has moved a little.  It's not a huge limb, but there is one piece in particular that is very big although it's not broken off completely.

I put my yarn pieces out for the birds last weekend.  I also discovered a nest being built inside Otter's trellis.  Not sure what kind of birds though.  We are trying to avoid getting anywhere near the trellis.

And, since it's spring and the bugs are out:

I saw the first one at work yesterday!  INSIDE THE OFFICE.  I was standing in the kitchen area when it came from somewhere behind me (which means from inside.  Again) and crashed into the kitchen window.  It was probably trying to get out.  I eventually got it on the end of the broom, then I slowly and carefully took it outside.  And then I crushed it into a million billion pieces.

Hate those things!

Honeybees, now they are welcome.  They have plenty of bluebonnet blossoms to visit!  The redbud has lot of blooms left although some are beginning to blow off and I've seen a few leaves on the tree.  But I did see at least one honeybee on it as well.

Otter goes back to the dentist tomorrow for the 2nd of 4 visits.  I'll bring her back home afterwards, she'll probably get as far as my couch and then she'll sleep for a couple of hours.  She asked me if I would make potato soup tomorrow, of course I said yes.

More later!

After 22 Years...

You would think I would have learned by now.

As soon as I declare a season change, especially if it's changing from Winter to Spring, it gets cold again!  And wet, it's been raining since sometime last night and we turned the heater back on.

I'm not switching quilts again, however!

The benefit to the cooler weather is that all the wicked little stingy-ended bugs are staying on their nests and it's easier to spray them.  Bill killed three nests tonight, all on the house and all near doors.  Two were yellow jackets and one was a wasp.  Indications are that it's going to be a bad year for the evil things.

(This one is borderline on what I usually post as far as language goes, but the one non-family friendly word is actually slang and is not quite impolite enough to worry about it.  Besides, it pretty much all true!)

Two of my favorites, pitties and blues!  And Bruno has good taste, bluebonnets smell heavenly.  He's a pretty smart puppy, obviously.

This little goofball, on the other hand...  When I got home, she was out in the garage.  Behind the tall boxes that block them off from parts of the garage we don't want them in.  And she was stuck!  Stuck as in lost, because she couldn't figure out how to get out - by going back the way she came!  As in back around the end of the shelf and back up to the front of the garage where she'd pushed a box out of the way.  Goofy little thing, that's for sure.  Sweet but still a goofball!

Sunday. Still Waving.

Yes, I am still riding the Wave.  But yesterday was worse than today.  Yesterday, I spent most of the day being lazy because I felt cruddy.  Just bad enough to know I felt bad but not as horrible as I've sometimes had with the flu shot reaction.  I never actually had fever, but it felt like it a couple of times.  I had a mild headache most of the day and occasional achiness.  I felt much better today, but this afternoon I'm back to feeling tired.  We went out to lunch at a Mexican place we had a gift card for, but that's about it.  I did mange to get one load of laundry done but it's not put up yet.  I don't know if I'm going to get anymore done today or not, but everybody's got enough clean clothes for the next couple of days!

 

Thunderstorms yesterday mid-morning.  They were loud and there was a lot of rain.  Then it cleared up and got humid!  We had a small thunderstorm this morning.  Now, it's back to sunny and humid.  We're probably still under the rain amount average, though.

 

There was another wasp starting a nest right outside the back door.  Bill went out the back door yesterday and I saw it dive at him but it didn't quite connect.  He knocked the small nest down but the evilness came back later.  He hit it with the spray just now.  Hate those things!  But, we think we now know why Maggie Moo is so skittish of flying bugs that make buzzing noises.  She's probably been tagged by bees or wasps in the past and associates flying buzzing things with pain.  She's ok if she can see the fly or moth, but if they are not visible to her she will hide.  Don't think I blame her!

 

I did manage to get some crochet done yesterday.  I made a couple of face scrubbies, they are supposed to be made out of cotton yarn but I think the cotton yarn is a little to hard on the skin.  Otter uses hers frequently, but mine is a different brand of cotton yarn and that may be why they feel different.  Anyway, hers was starting to show wear.  When we were in Hobby Lobby the other day, I found a new yarn.  It's bamboo with silk, and it is very soft.  It's also fairly strong, silk is stronger than people realize.  The skeins are small.  They are also $5.99.  Otter absolutely fell in love with it, and started talking about needing a new scrubbie.  But then she said that $5.99 was too much to pay for a small skein - guess she's forgotten about the mink yarn!  I let her think that I wouldn't buy it, but then I went back when she wasn't with me and got one that has a lot of purples in it.  I made her new scrubbie yesterday morning, she pretty much immediately ran to take a shower so she could try it out.  She said it works great and felt much softer than the cotton one did.  I'll probably make one for myself eventually.  I have a new de-stash project, I'm making scarves to donate.  I've done that before.  I still want to make chemo caps, but I'm not happy with any of my cap patterns for that at the moment.

 

Bill cleaned out the outside air conditioner unit.  For some reason, it gets full of tan dog fur on a regular basis.  Can't imagine why!

I Guess it's Just Tuesday

Can't think of a title today! :)

 

Day 2 of being back at work.  I was caught up about 30 minutes after I got there, yesterday.  I didn't particularly want to get up at 5:00 yesterday morning, which is maybe why I woke up at 4:30!!

 

Otter's been working feverishly to get her cosplay ready for TNT.  She's just about through, she still has to actually sew the blouse together but that won't take too long.  She's been working on the felt items that will be attached to the skirt, she's been painting and gluing them and that means drying time so the sewing isn't quite as critical.  But she's going to get that done tomorrow when she gets home from work.

 

The most exciting part of my week so far is buying a new kitchen trash can, the old one dates to 1994 (when we moved into our old house).  Bill needed a bigger trash can for the pachinko workroom, so I gave him the old one from the kitchen about bought a new one that is slightly larger.  Really exciting, huh!?!

 

There was another wasp nest starting in the front.  Actually, I think it was smaller hornets but I didn't get close enough to find out for sure.  Bill wanted me to hose out the old trash can, but the nest was in the window right over the faucet so I told him he had to kill it if he wanted his trash can cleaned.  There were two on it yesterday when we first noticed it, today it was actually quite a bit bigger and there were 3 of the little demons.  He sprayed them, one died immediately (I squashed the body into about a billion flat pieces with my shoe) and the other two flew off but not were not flying very well, since they were sprayed pretty good.  Otter found two freshly dead demon bugs when she was outside while ago, so I think he got all 3.  Hopefully, there won't be any more!

 

We bought miniblinds to put in the living room window, pachinko room window and our bed room window.  The living room and bed room are in back of the house, but we've seen our neighbors behind us peeking over the fence but pretending not to.  So, miniblinds it is.  The pachinko room is in the front of the house so it's just a good idea to put one there as well.  I think Bill's going to put them in the windows in the next couple of days.

 

Yes, Froggy.  S.A.B.L.E. is the only way to go!

Pachinko Room Progress Report, Day One

Actually, we had already started some of the project before today but today was the first day we really had time to get a lot done.  I moved my desk out from where it was at to a temporary spot in the office room, vacuumed several places and got a lot of Bill's stuff on the shelves in the closet.  When Bill got home after work today, we moved his desk to where mine was originally, then I moved my desk from the temporary spot to where his had been.  Bill moved the 2-drawer wooden filing cabinet we have in there.  We moved the plastic milk crate cabinet, I vacuumed and dusted, we rearranged quite a bit of stuff, cleaned out some stuff to donate and Bill also moved the wireless modem box which is now attached to the wall.  There is still some work to be done in there, but mainly it's things like the several weeks worth of filing I have to do and some work on the shelves.  But mostly we are done with the big stuff, Bill's about 3/4 of the way through with a restoration project and he's going to finish it before he moves the actual machines, tools, parts and 2 plastic drawer units back there.  He's at a point where the restoration project can't really be moved - too many parts that can be lost, and it's a commissioned job (not his machine in other words) so it's not worth taking a chance.  But the light is at the end of the tunnel and it's very bright!

 

Otter had to be in at 5:30 this morning, Monday is Truck Day and she's part of inventory control now.  She also out-worked most of the male truck crew; 2 of them basically did everything they could NOT to do their actual jobs - which she'll probably mention to someone.  She was supposed to get off at 1:30, but about 12:45 her boss told her to go home and get some rest because she was obviously tired and he knew how hard she'd been working.

 

I got up with Otter at 4:30, Bill got up at 5:00 and she left about 5:15.  He left at 6:00.  And about 10 minute after that, I went back to bed!  Actually, I went to the couch and not actually to bed, but I got about another hour and a half of sleep - after I had a visit from a very large, furry dog who was overjoyed that "mama" was there.  Frasier eventually decided it was ok to lie down and then Maggie Moo discovered my presence on the couch.  So it was probably closer to 6:30 when I fell asleep, after I'd decided that I might not be going back to sleep because of the poochsters.  When I woke up, they were both snoozing right beside the couch.

 

Along with the work in the office/pachinko room today, I also did some housecleaning.  The kitchen floor gets regular sweeping, but Fraiser is fluffy and he sheds so much in the spring and summer.  He's had a couple of brushings, I tackled him either yesterday or Saturday afternoon and brushed the bejeebers out of him.  Filled up a plastic grocery store bag with fluff from him and there is still more!  He looks very sleek now, he loves the brushing out but he still had a lot that he was shedding and it seems to all collect on the kitchen floor for some reason.  I did a few loads of laundry and vacuumed the house in general.  I also watered Otter's crop of jalepenos, mint and rosemary out on the back deck and then I refilled my watering can from the rain barrel because I'm eventually going to transplant the wandering jew.  I bought a larger plastic pot for it, but I'm not really sure if it's going to be big enough.

 

After Otter got home, she took a shower and relaxed for a little while.  Then we went to Wallyworld.  I bought Bill a new pair of pj bottoms, he seems to go through them at a fast rate for some reason.  We picked out Captain America pj's for him this time!  It's just the emblem on one leg and the words Captain America, but he thought it was funny which is what we were going for.

 

Before we went to Wallyworld, in fact when Otter got home, we had to take care of a wasp nest at the front door.  Literally right beside the doorbell.  Normally, we wait until dusk when they are all heading for home but we couldn't wait this time.  Otter was almost not able to get in the door, they seemed to view her as a threat just by her presence.  She got in, quickly, and then she brought me the spray.  I got one of them, the other one just barely managed to get away from the spray stream.  He got splashed with it, and he was flying wonky but he did fly away.  I made sure the first one was actually dead, then I got my rain-filled watering can and washed the dead one and the spray overshoot from the porch.  And that's when the first little beastie came back!  And tried to get me as I was going back in the door.  Otter brought me the spray again, and this time I got him.  With a lot of spray, I was taking no chances with this one - he was obviously aggressive and mad.  So, I rinsed the porch off again, along with the doorbell and a small plaque we have above the doorbell since I sprayed a lot and all over the place to be sure I got the 2nd one.  When we were leaving to go to Wallyworld, there was another one out there but we think he was a scout from elsewhere because he was gone when we got home and he didn't show up again as far as we can tell.  I'm calling them wasps, but they might well have actually been small hornets - small being a relative term!  Wasps are somewhat aggressive, but not like these two were.  We will watch for any returning but we think that the two were probably the only ones starting this particular nest. 

 

Otter did some sewing this afternoon, she's been working on her cosplay clothing for TNT.  It's fairly detailed this time.  She needs several different colors of felt for some of the decoration, we will probably hit a craft store in the next few days and it may well be Hobby Lobby.

 

We're so thrilled with the SCOTUS and decision they made today.  The issue is not about birth control, it is about the government not having the right to tell a PRIVATE, FAMILY OWNED business how it can or cannot operate.  The government simply does not have that right.

 

OK, cake time!  Otter made a lemon cake yesterday (or maybe Saturday) and I think I need to go keep it from getting lonely.

The Countdown Has Ended!!!

As of 3:30 p.m. last Friday, I'm officially on vacation.  And I'm going to enjoy it.

 

Even if my main focus is working on getting the Pachinko room/office conversion done.  I've cleared out all my stuff from the office, including everything that was in the closet.  I vacuumed behind/underneath my desk and also in the closet.  Bill moved a specific, very tall pachinko machine into the closet and my desk will maybe be moved to where it was at.  He'll be rearranging all the furniture in there, I'll vacuum as he does so.  He may have to do a little re-wiring in there, I'm not sure.  The 5 machines that are currently all over the living room will be moved, but one of them is actually being restored now and he's going to finish that one before he moves the rest of them.  It's in various pieces and it would be difficult to move it as it is, for fear of losing pieces and it's a restoration job for someone else.  Of the remaining 4, I think one is his that he bought last week and the other three are restoration/cleaning jobs but they won't be started until he's finished with the current one and NOT in the living room.

 

Otter and I went by her store earlier today and got the tarp he wanted, he's going to move his desk to where mine currently sits.  His desk will be beside the wooden filing cabinet, the tarp will cover both and that will be his new work bench.  We have a really interesting shelf-ish contraption made out of old plastic milk crates with a plywood top, it's used to store envelopes and misc. office supplies.  It might be moved to where the tall pachinko was, instead of my desk and it will hold the printer and scanner.  My desk will, if not moved to where the tall machine was, be moved to where his desk currently sits and that is the one he'll use for his computer and actual office/website work no matter where it lands.  He will have quite a bit of room to actually work, and the desk/filing cabinet will give him a larger workspace than he currently has in the living room on top of the sofa table.  His desk is pretty big.  There is also a shelf on the wall behind where my desk is now, his small plastic 3-drawer units that he uses for small pieces like screws, pins, etc., are on the shelf now.  He had 4 and he needed 6 more.  Otter and I went shopping this morning and found those for him.  He's got them all filled and labeled.

 

He has two tall plastic drawer units like I have my yarn in, I think I've shows pictures of the yarn stash before.  They are currently beside the sofa table in the living room, they will be moved to the office as soon as he gets through with the current restoration job.  They have things like larger tools, paintbrushes, glue, etc. as well as pachinko machine parts.

 

I'm not sure exactly what my next step in there is, I may have to wait until the rest of the furniture is actually moved before I can do anything else.  Mostly, I am running the vacuum in there and dusting as needed.  After all the junk, crud, pachinko stuff is moved out of the living room, I'm moving all three of my yarn drawers into the spot where his currently sit.  The sofa table will be moved a couple of feet, but all three of my drawers will fit where he has two sitting at the moment.  I am going to see what I can do about reorganizing my stash, it was organized but it was almost impossible to get to it when I needed yarn while it was in the closet.  So, I've been stuffing yarn in whatever drawer I could actually get to and open without having to move Bill's shipping supplies out of the way.  I need to get it back in order, it's really bugging the Borg Queen not to be organized!  I'm also thinking I might clean out a little, I have some yarn in particular that I don't think I'll ever use and I'll probably donate it.  I have a lot of really nice yarn that I bought in TEXAS recently, as well as yarn I bought in the last few months.  I am still going to use "regular" yarn for many projects, but I'm starting to use "better" yarns more often.  I have my "regular" yarn sorted into several drawers, my "slightly better" yarn and then my "really good and expensive" yarns together.  I also have several tote bags and some of them have yarn in them.  Some of them are just spare tote bags because I always need one for something, or Otter does.  I have some sewing supplies in with my stuff, some of it is Otter's (OK, a lot of it is Otter's) and I also have a collection of hooks.  I use most of them, they aren't very big and are in a metal "lunchbox" style container that I got in TEXAS a few years back.  But none of that is nearly as big as the pile of stuff Bill has in the living room, and of course the Borg Queen is always organized-to-the-point-of-obsession!

 

Bill mowed the yard first thing this morning, I got busy with my tree trimming tool and tackled the two trees in the front yard that were beginning to resemble bushes due to the limblets growing up from the bases.  We discovered that there are two evildenizensofhell attempting to start a nest on the front porch overhang, just outside the front door.  They will be dealt with tonight.

 

This is the last Sunday of the month, we usually do something fun as a family.  Sometimes we just go eat somewhere, which is what we decided to do this time.  We went to Goldie's.  Last month, we had intended to go to Goldie's and we completely forgot!  So, we made sure we remembered today.  We never actually had breakfast, Bill and I split a bagel and Otter had a roll.  So, we were pretty hungry by the time Goldie's opened at 11:00.  They had a huge group just ahead of us, 35 people - however, their grill only holds 30 items at a time so it took a while to get them served and then to get out food cooked.  It was pretty good, though.  We don't eat a lot of greasy food like that often, and it's going to be a while until we have it again.

 

As far as plans for the week, the main focus is going to be getting all the Pachinko stuff moved and not much else.  Bill's going to finish up the machine he's working on now and after he gets everything moved, because I won't let him start another one until then and won't let him stall despite his best attempts, he'll see about starting on the next machine in line.  Otter and I are thinking that we might actually get to go to the zoo, which we've been trying to do for ages, and J is going with us.  Possibly, we might run off and do a little shopping/antiquing/thrifting at various times.  But we aren't planning anything much other than that.  We might make pizza one day this week, possibly Friday.

 

Also, Otter has given me extremely strict instructions:  On Friday evening, even if she is deathly ill, I am to find something to lean her against in the back yard and duct tape her hand around a sparkler or two.  Then after I've lit the sparkler and it's run out, I can toss her back in her bed.  (This is a joke, she has a history of being sick on holidays for some reason and she had a major-league migraine hit her last July 4th so her fireworks never got used and we kept them for this year).  Although Bill did say that he's willing to pick her up and toss her over his shoulder, if she wants him to carry her anywhere!

It's Cold Around My House

Or, at least I think I just have a "plain, old summer cold."

 

I went to work this morning, although I felt cruddy with a capital C!  I intended to stay, but by 9:30 I knew it was impossible.  I texted Younger Boss, who told me to go home and rest.  I called the Teenager, who insisted that I needed to go to the doctor and get an antibiotic.  I tried to tell him that antibiotics are not given for colds or allergies, but he's "old school" and still thinks that an antibiotic will cure anything and everything.  I did consider going to the doctor, but I decided to go home and rest for a while to see how I felt.  At that point, I was going to take Otter to work.  She had to be there by noon.

 

I relaxed for a while and realized that I was probably just dealing with a cold.  I gave Otter my car keys and told her to take my car, since I wasn't planning on going anywhere.  After she left for work, I made myself lunch and then I parked back on the couch with my book - and two overly attentive dogs.  I decided to lie down about 3:00, I woke up at 4:00 because the cuckoo clock was chiming.  I was on the couch and I had to turn my face towards the back of the couch because Frasier kept checking on my!  I didn't get up until closer to 4:30 when Billyboy got home.  I hadn't spoken since Otter left for work about 11:30 and I almost couldn't talk!  I was very rusty sounding, but that got better after a little practice.  When Otter texted me when she got off work, I asked her to stop for milk and also more Kleenex since I'd gone through almost every box we had.

 

After dinner, turkey burgers and yes MaggieMoo was parked by the stove the entire time, I took a shower and I feel much better.  I still feel cruddy, just less cruddy.  I'm going to spend the evening like I spent the day - taking it easy.  I'm going to try very hard to make the day tomorrow, the Teenager was unable to get to the office today since I wasn't able to get him but one of his grandsons is going to get him for lunch tomorrow and will probably bring him in then.  So all I'll have to do is get him home.

 

I hate summer colds.  I don't like colds at all, but summer colds are the worst.

 

Oh yeah - the hornet (or maybe a wasp) is back on the front porch.  Actually, it's another one since Bill squished the one yesterday.  But this one is building in the same spot.  I did kill the one building a nest at work this morning.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate those bugs?

Oakie Dokie

I'm still at it.  Allergies, that is.

 

I went in to work Monday morning, but I left about 10:15 or so.  I hardly slept Sunday night, I was tired already from the general allergy symptoms and Oak makes me sleepy anyway.  Not being able to sleep Sunday night did not help a bit!  I stopped by the post office to drop some mail off for work, then I stopped by Otter's store to let her know I was heading home and would not need her to stop at the store for me after all.  I got home fairly quickly, got my pj's on and my robe then parked myself in the corner of the couch where I spent late February/early March.  I stayed there until sometime yesterday evening, when I dragged myself off to bed.

 

I woke up still tired this morning but better since I did actually manage to get some sleep last night.  I had no choice as far as going in today, Younger Boss is on vacation starting today until several days from now (I forget when he comes back) and is out of state.  That means that I am the Teenager's transportation, babysitter (sometimes!) and main source of conversation for the next several days.  He wasn't ready to come in until lunchtime, and he spent most of the afternoon finding reasons to come out to my desk and talk to me.  While telling me that I was talking too much and needed to give my voice a rest since he could tell my throat was sore from how I sounded - then he'd ask me something else!  If Younger Boss had been there, I would probably have headed home about 1:00 or so.  It might be like that every day for the near future, until Younger Boss gets back.

 

It's probably not a bad thing that the oak tree we planted a few years back didn't make it.

 

I am exhausted!

 

Froggy, I texted you a picture of a certain beaglebrat today.  Every time anybody even seems to head in the general direction of the stove are of the kitchen, MaggieMoo runs in there and sits in front of the stove or cabinet next to it.  Then she waits.  Until something gets dropped on the floor!  I was standing in the kitchen talking to Bill while dinner (mac & cheese with ham) was cooking and that's when MaggieMoo was suddenly in there.  She was attempting to sit on her somewhat round behind (Otter calls her Bowling Ball Butt) and at the same time, he back legs were sliding out from underneath her so she was sprawled out in the floor.  She kept looking up at me, then looking at the floor.  Back at me, back at the floor, repeat, repeat, repeat.  She didn't get anything, by the way.

 

It looks like it's going to be another bad year as far as stingy bugs are concerned.  I think it was Friday, Otter was going out the back door and opened it to find a hornet in the doorway - same place we've seen two recently.  Each time, Bill's managed to get it out of the doorway since they weren't in a good spot to try to kill them.  She closed the door and decided to go outside via the kitchen to the garage door and then out the side door from the garage.  When she opened the kitchen door, there was another one.  At that point, she gave up on going outside and called me.  She also blocked the dogs inside, since bugs have come in the flaps before.  When Billyboy got home, he couldn't find the one in the garage nor could he find a nest.  The back door bug was also gone, so he thought maybe it was just looking for a place to get inside like they do.  Yesterday, he found the beginning of a nest inside the back door frame near the top.  He knocked it down immediately.  Today, Otter and I noticed a yellow jacket building a nest on the front of the house underneath the roof overhang.  When Bill got home, Otter showed him where it was and they found a second one starting.  Both are gone now.  Then I opened the back door to let the dogs out for a bit.  And found another hornet nest starting, in the same spot.  I walked around the house and looked, I didn't find anymore yet but we're going to have to be very vigilant.  There is a small yellow jacket nest starting at work, I found it today but didn't attempt to get rid of it because the Teenager was there by that point and he usually tries to go after them with a broom.  Which is a recipe for major disaster!  I'll get it in the morning, before the Teenager gets there.

 

We had a nice rain yesterday, which we needed badly.  The rain barrels are full again.  We were trying to empty the new one out or at least get it down to a level where we could move it.  Guess we'll have to wait a while on leveling it.  The honeysuckle all seem to be doing good.  We've decided to stick with honeysuckle and not get trumpet vines after all.  I think we need 4 more honeysuckle plants, I'll get them in the next few days.  Trumpet vines attract hummingbirds, but I put out feeders for them so I think I'll still have a few of them visiting.  Honeysuckle is a big draw for honeybees, and we want to help them as much as we can.  We don't worry about honeybees, they aren't aggressive unless they are threatened.  We may have bumblebees, too.  They are not exactly aggressive, but they are not quite as passive as honeybees.  But they at least let you know that they think you are in their space and give you warning before they decide to get aggressive.  Bumblebees usually fly right at your face or bump you, which means that it's time to move out of their way.  Also, hummingbirds will go to honeysuckle blooms.

Tired. Friday.

Ate too much!

 

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

 

Anyway.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Just Chilling Out on the Couch

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

Wednesday. Just Wednesday.

Not even a Whine Wednesday, just Wednesday!  Well, there might be a little whining!  But not much.

It's warm today, it was supposed to be right about 100 or 101.  But it is actually somewhere around 105 this afternoon.  However, tomorrow is supposed to be our last over 100 day.  At least for a week!  We're supposed to be in the low- to mid-90's for at least a week, with some good rain chances as well.  We really do need the rain, so I'm hoping that it is going to actually rain and not just a tease!

I went to the grocery store this afternoon.  I got in and out of wallyworld in 40 minutes, so I'm not complaining!  Much. :)  I have noticed that certain things are increasing in price, which kind of goes with what I've heard recently.  Orange juice, for one thing.  Other things have increased as well, but I really noticed it with the oj today.  Bread is probably a little higher.  But it's going to be even higher in the near future due to the poor wheat crop which is the result of no rain and higher tan normal temperatures.  I don't know about pricing on things like cokes, we don't buy much soda.  Eggs have also increased - but we pretty much only eat them on Saturday mornings, so a dozen usually lasts us a long time.

I have a sore shoulder.  My left one.  Last night, I was putting something in the refrigerator and when I straightened up, I collided with the handle of the freezer door.  I have a nice bruise on the back of my left shoulder and it's tender.  It was sore last night, I usually sleep on my left side but not last night!  I took a couple of motrin then and will probably take another one or two tonight.  It's better, it's just that it's still a little sore.

However, it does not keep me from crocheting!  I got a little yarn work in this morning and it didn't seem to bother my shoulder at all.

I refilled one of my two hummingbird feeders this morning, the one that is owned by the male bird.  The other feeder probably could use a refill, it's still got feed in it but it's been hanging up for several days and we've had pretty hot weather.  It might be fermented by now - maybe that's why the little female keeps coming back to it? :)

I also discovered another evilmonsterdeniziensofhell nest in the process of being built.  (Yellow jackets, in case you are wondering).  It's in the tree that I was trimming when I was stung a couple of months back, but it's only been there a couple of days.  I found it last night, when I was refilling the bucket I was using to water a couple of baby trees.  Bill's going to take care of them, but probaby not tonight.

Otter comes home the day after tomorrow!

It's Going to be a Scorcher

I think we have another South TEXAS summer on our hands.  Today's official temperature was 104.  Same thing tomorrow.  Wednesday 105.  Although once you get to 100, it's kind of all the same!  Today was exactly what was forecast:  heavy air with little breeze.  Which makes it feel hotter.

I know, I shouldn't gripe - I did grow up with this after all.  But that doesn't mean that I have to like it!

Ok, on to other things.

Evilbugfiredeveldeniziensofhell.  Yes, we still have wasps!  The one that was starting a nest outside of Otter's window wasn't on the nest last night or this morning, so we thought that maybe it had abandoned it.  However, it's back this afternoon.  So, Billyboy's going to spray it later.  He did knock down the other two nests that were in front - the ones he killed first right after I got stung.  He didn't want anymore bugs to get any ideas and think tht they might be welcome here!

Of course, they might think that anyway.  At least, one of them did.  The one that Bill killed inside the living room this afternoon.  Otter was on the couch and she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.  It was climbing the curtains.  Bill got his electric fly swatter - the kind that electrocutes things.  Fried wasp does not smell good!  But, it is better than being stung by another one.  We're not sure how it got in, Bill said that it looked like it had a deformed wing and couldn't fly.  It could have come in with one of the dogs through the dog door, or it could have come in with one of us.  It was a big one and I thought at first that it was actually a hornet, but Bill said it was "just" a wasp.

Our vacation plans for next week have changed somewhat.  We have decided to put the zoo off until the fall.  Besides the fact that we don't want to be out in the heat if it's like it is this week (and it could well be), the animals won't be active if it's very warm.  So we will wait until it's a little cooler.  We will possibly go to a movie next week, thrifting, rambling shopping trip - we'll find something to do!  Even if it turns out that all we want to do is keep the couch from flying to the ceiling.

Actually, that sounds like a good thing to do tonight.  I think I'm going to have to do just that.  And I might just finish the crochet hat I started last night.

Thirsty Thursday

I'm kind of thirsty.  We had chili for dinner.  With the Hot rotel and Hot variety of chili beans.  I used at least 1/2 cup of chili powder, but it honestly might have been closer to 3/4 cup.  It was hot!  And delicious.  But now, I'm thirsty.  My mouth was on fire for a while, but that's now stopped.  I'm not complaining!  It was very good.  Also, it was made with beef this time since Bill gave blood at work today.  I thought he could probably use a little protein and iron.  And jalepenos!

I found a few of Bill's things on my shelves in the garage.  Such as the pressure canner he uses when he's casting small parts for the pachinko machines.  They have been removed from trespassing in my space, and are now on the work bench/desk formerly known as Otter's workbench.  I'm going to do a little more cleaning out/organizing/de-cluttering on my shelves in the next several days.  And anything of Bill's will be removed!  Otter's happy, because we found all the glitter.  It was hidden on my shelves.  Now, it's in her room on her shelves and she's happy to have one of her main craft supply items within reach.  I'm sure that there are more things of hers out there, but she might not have any room for them.  I'm also sure that Bill's got stuff of his hidden on my shelves, but that will be remedied soon.  And then, maybe, I might, possibly, get to my ifIevergetaroundtoitoneofthesedays mosaic project!  (Don't hold your breath.)

I haven't seen any more evilfirebugdeneziensofhell in a couple of days.  At least, not at home.  There were a few of them starting a nest right outside the front door at work, but they got sprayed today.  It's now become one of my crusades to rid the world of as many of those things as I can!

It rained this morning.  It wasn't a long rain, but it was nice.  I spent a few minutes out on the deck before I left for work.  It was cool and cloudy.  Then shortly after I left for work, it started raining.  It was a nice rain, and we could use more of it.  It quit shortly before I got to work.

I managed to get a little crochet done on my lunch hour.  I'm working on a couple of UFO's, I'm starting back on the scarf-turned-lap-blanket.  I'm going to get back on my scrap yarn pillow cover, but that one has to wait until I've finished up a few other things since it's being made with yarn pieces that are too small to do anything else with.

One more work day and then one work week until we are on vacation!  It's a stay at home vacation, not a staycation - I dislike that word.  Our plans include the doll house refurbishment we planned for a year ago, a trip to the zoo, making pizza and whatever else we feel like at the time.  Probably lots of crochet for me.

Guess that's it for today.  Chili and crochet.  It was a good day!

Wednesday, But it Feels Like Monday

Or maybe it's really Friday the 13th and nobody told me?  That is what the 95-year-old-teenager told me today.  Of course, from the day he (and I) had, I can see why he thinks that!

It was just one of those days, and I was very glad to see 3:30 roll around so I could escape.

Otter found the above picture and told me about it.  It's cute.  It's pretty close, too.  I found a similar one that talked about how wasps only desire is to mess things up for humans and it was right on.  It just had language I don't use, so it's not on here.  No sign of any of them today.  The fly/wasp trap has a couple of flies in it, which is not bad - but no yellow jackets.

The upshot of today is that it's one less day until Friday!

Today is the last day of spring/first day of summer.  That's because summer officially starts(ed) right after 6:00 p.m.  Although I don't think we really know what day it is.  Or what time it is.  The clock & calendar have been messed with too many times, so it's really all just a guess anyway.

Bill keeps asking me to spell words for him.  I can't type my thoughts and spell other words at the same time, so I'm going to post this.

Happy Summer!

Just a Normal Tuesday

So far, it's also a firedevilevilbug free day.  That's a good thing.  Bill killed the two we found yesterday, and I didn't see anymore anywhere but that may only be a temporary thing.

We have a fly trap, it's a 2-piece plastic contraption that resembles an upside down bowl (lid) with a bottom piece that resembles a bundt-style cake pan.  The bottom piece is filled with water and something to attract flies, wine works wonders.  They fly in through the opening in the bottom, land in the liquid to get whatever sweet stuff they think it is and then they can't figure out how to get back out (flies aren't smart) so they drown.  It works the same way with wasps.  Somebody Bill works with told him to use mountain dew soda to attract the wasps.  He filled it yesterday, so far it's empty.  I'm hoping that it won't attract bees, just wasps, but they will probably be attracted to it as well.

Otter and I went to the library this afternoon.  We got our usual load.  Then I paid a $4.00+ fine for her books that were late because I wanted to read them and forgot about them.

We moved the rest of her craft stuff/creative stash from the garage to her room.  It's kind of dusty, but she's going through it and putting it on her shelves.  Some of it might get to my shelves in the garage.

Froggy is now moved!  She had an iteresting time with the packing company yesterday, but the moving company (today) was apparently much more professional.  So I now longer have any "blood relation" family in SA.  Which is kind of sad, but I'm very happy for Froggy & her family.  I think that they'll be very happy.  Once the moving company brings their belongings tomorrow and they've had time to find themselves!

Monday's Buzz

I have developed a pathological hatred of wasps.  Yellow jackets are a type of wasp.  They are not bees.  I like bees, even the big bumble bees.  Any bee can sting, but they usually don't unless they feel very threatened.  Even bumble bees give you a warning!  They usually fly at your face, sometimes they run into you, but they very seldom sting without warning.

Not wasps.

I'm firmly convinced that they have no other reason to exist, beyond finding a human and making his/her life miserable for as long as they can!

We (ok, Bill) killed the nest on the back fence that I found yesterday - the one that probably had the evilfiredevilmonster that stung Otter.  He killed the two nests underneath the lean-to.  We did not dunk the windchimes, because upon closer inspection it was obvious that they were not builing inside of it.  However, they were flying into it. 

 But they weren't coming out!  So, that is obviously where the portal to Hell is, because they are going somewhere!

When Otter and I got home this afternoon, we discovered another nest starting on the front porch!

I think I'm going to have to go buy another can of spray.  We had the can we've been using for years, we've never needed it.  Now, in the space of a about a week I think we've emptied it!

Sunday Accomplishments **EDITED

1.  Father's Day Breakfast (Check)
2.  Church (Check)
3.  Laundry (Check)
4.  Dishes (Check)
5.  Otter clean out dog yard
6.  Find out if Otter is allergic to yellow jacket stings (CHECK!!)
7.  Find three other active yellow jacket nests (Check)
8.  Move rest of Otter's craft stuff from garage to shelves in her room.

Well, I guess 6 out of 8 isn't too bad.

Except for # 6.  It wasn't a good thing to accomplish.  I don't think Otter much appreciated it, either.  I feel her pain!  Otter was starting on # 4, I knocked down the two dead nests from the lean-to and she was carrying them in the shovel to toss over the fence.  However, wasps are very protective of nests - even if it's not their own, and we think that one from the two active nests that we discovered in the lean to after # 5 was accomplished probably thought it needed to defend the one of the two nests that had lots of (dead) eggs in it**.  I was out in the front yard, I was going to go knock down the two dead nests Bill got last week and trim the remaining tree limblets off the tree I was working on when I was stung, and I heard her yelling repeatedly OWOWOWOWOW all the way from the back - I figured at that point that she'd been stung because she's pretty stoic about pain.  By the time I got inside, she and Bill were in the bathroom and he was checking the sting.  It's on her belly.  No asthma issues!  Just the usual intense, burning pain that makes you want to scream.  She iced it, washed it, took tylenol and used alchohol on it.  She also put a bandaid over it, she was afraid her clothing would rub the spot.  Bill and I checked the area where she was when she got stung, by the back fence, and found two old nests but nothing active.  But then I looked in the lean-to when I was putting the shovel and tree tool up, and that's when I found the two active nests.  They are going to get sprayed this evening.

The third nest?  It's on the front porch.  They are building inside the metal tubes of my windchime!  It's going to get taken care of this evening as well.  But it's going to get a watery grave, it should just fit inside a bucket full of water.  After it's dead, I'll move the dead nests from the front of the house - I don't want to get stung again!

Bees and yellow jackets/wasps are not the same thing, so there is still the possibility that Otter could be allergic to bees.  But, and this is just a guess, I'm thinking that the fact that she didn't react to the wasp sting might be a good sign about that.

# 5 & # 8 on our list will be taken care of later, probably tomorrow.  Otter's had enough of being outside today.

After all the drama, Otter and I went to the dollar store and Wallyworld.  Among other things, we bought cookies at the dollar store.  And a tube of hydrocortisone cream since it's used on bug bites/stings and the ones I have in the first aid kit were out of date many years ago.

Movie review:  John Carter.  It was not as bad as we expected.  It felt very rushed and badly edited, I think that a great deal was left out of the books that might have been needed to explain a few things.  But it was better than we expected.  It was set-up for a sequel at the end, but Disney's already announced that they actually lost money on it and that there won't be any more.

Bill was checking on our eBay stuff while ago.  He might have gotten a "listing confirmation" email from eBay, but somehow he discovered that our eBay account had been hacked.  Someone posted a vehicle, a one day listing that started at 10:50 this morning and would end at midnight tonight.  It was a cash-only or send a money order transaction.  Only thing is, we don't have the vehicle in question and aren't selling anything at the moment!  He canceled it, then he changed the passwork and notified eBay.  Since they stated cash/money order only, he didn't think that PayPal had been hacked (it was before) but he checked it anyway and it looks ok.

I did a little crochet yesterday.  Not much, but I got a couple of rows on my scarf.  I went through my patterns, I'm looking for new projects to destash and also because it's just fun.  I have a few ideas, but nothing is certain yet as far as my next project.

I think Bill's enjoyed his Father's Day.  He got to play with power tools!  Later, we're going to have Digorno's pizzas and Otter is going to bake him a cake.  We will probably also have some of the strawberry cheesecake ice cream pie from his early birthday (yesterday) which is surprisingly not all gone yet.  It won't last long, that's for sure.  And Otter made sure that Pastor Dave knows that Bill's birthday is tomorrow - she announced it to Dave when he was asking what everyone was doing for their dad's for Father's Day.  I think she probably figured that it was a fair thing to do, since he embarassed her one time when she was very young with a birthday announcement in church and she's never forgiven him.  I think that they are even now.  At least for that one. :)

**While it's highly possible that the firedevil thought it was defending a nest, it's also highly possible that the active nest she was standing close to was where it came from.  I was walking the back fence, to see if I could find any nests and I found one that is hidden behind the trellis we have on the back fence for the morning glories.  It's just a few feet from where Otter was standing.  It's going to be gone tonight as well.

Thursday Stuff of Varying Degrees of Importance

My head itches where the firedevil stung me.  I'm trying not to scratch!  But I keep finding myself scratching.  It finally quit hurting with the searing pain last night - it didn't quit hurting, it just got better, but it wasn't a pleasant experience to wash my hair a few hours later and combing it out afterward was torture.  I took a couple of motrin when I went to bed.  Also, I'm pretty sure that it was a yellow jacket and not one of the small, brown wasps that we also have.  Not that it makes a difference, I'm sure!

I came home and found two more of the beasties attempting to start a nest on the front porch.  Bill thought he squashed them, but they either came back to life or two more showed up and took their place because they were back at it when I went out again a little later.  Bill got the spray this time, and they are deaddeaddead.

The office telephones needed a tecnhician to come out today, he found a huge nest full of inhabitants while he was working on the outside phone box - they were on the gate this time.  I've lost count of how many we've had at work, but I think we're up over 15 now.  Don't know why they are so bad this year!

Otter's off with HP today.  They went to lunch somewhere and went to the movies this afternoon.  So she doesn't know that there is a strawberry-cheesecake ice cream pie in the freezer.  I'm not going to tell her, either!  (It's for Saturday when we are going to have Bill's birthday since he has to work a b(oring)oard meeting Monday evening and won't be home until who knows when.)

I took my car in for an oil change today.  I got to the Chevy place just after 7:00 this morning.  They had one car ahead of me, so they told me to just wait and promised to be done in time for me to make it to work on time.  They were done in less than 30 minutes and that even included running it through the car wash!  Nice change from the previous place.  Also, it was about $12.00 cheaper.  And the other place wouldn't have washed it, either.

Now, I'm going to go surf the 'net for a while.  Anything to keep from scratching my head!  I will probably crochet later, I'm making caps at the moment with scarf plans for the near future possibly.

I'm On a Mission

To destroy yellow jackets.  All of them.  And I'm going to start with the one that just stung me!

Otter and I were trimming some limblets off of one of the trees in the front.  I had been looking for nests, but didn't see any.  However, when we were almost through - I heard a buzz and felt something sharp & hot on my head - just above my left temple but back a little bit.  And at almost the same second, I saw it fly past me.  I am not allergic.  But that doesn't make it feel any less painful.  I think it was a glancing blow, they seldom shed the stinger and can keep stinging.  I don't think that there was a nest in the tree, but they don't need a reason.  They are very aggressive.

We came in and Bill looked, but can't see any sign of a stinger.  Just a red, slightly inflamed place that was hard to see because of my hair.  I sent Otter to put the tree trimming tool up, it's stored under the lean-to in the back yard.  She came right back in, still holding the tool, to report that there was an active nest under the lean to and that they looked angry - also known as flying around.  Which means that I was actually really close to a nest, but they didn't bother me.  At least not then!  Bill was going to mow, but he's going to put that off until tomorrow.  Tonight, he's killing yellow jackets.  If we still have enough spray left, that is.

The side of my head is a little wet now, from the ice I'm using.  The pain is better, but it is still there.  It's not as widespread, or as hot.

Oh, by the way - there were actually two nests on the front of the house that Bill got the other night.  The one I found by the window, and there was another one under the overhang of the porch cover but it was on the opposite side of a support pole so I didn't see it at first.

Hate those things.

We don't know for sure if Otter is allergic to bees.  Mom was, but I'm not.  However, Otter has a lot of allergies and some of them are ones that Mom had but I don't.  She's been instructed to call 911 if we're not with her and she gets stung.  She is to tell them that it's a bee sting, but that she might possibly be allergic and has asthma.  I'd rather have an unnecessary call to 911 than her not make the call and then get into trouble.  I think that they would understand, but even if they didn't it's a risk worth taking.