GOOD BYE 2016!!

Dear 2016,

You have been a rough year.

Obviously, there have been some bright spots.  Such as Bill's job being phased out and the buy-out he qualified for.

But there have been a lot of dark spots as well.

I'm glad you are just about over, 2016.

2017 - It's your turn.  Please be better!

I will see about a year in review post, probably tomorrow.

In the meantime:  Happy New Year, everyone.

Two Years, Six Months

Since my last sinus infection.

The count starts over today.

The allergy issues I've been dealing with this week are probably allergy issues, but they also masked what turned out to be (big surprise) a sinus infection.

I could really do without these things.  They are not fun, they make me feel like crud and the antibiotic does unpleasant things.  But, at least the antibiotic also cures the sinus infection so I don't gripe too much.

I guess I should not be surprised.  After all, there were yogurt coupons in the paper the other day and that usually only happens right before I need to go buy a bunch of it.

Sigh.

OK, So It's August

It's Summer.

It's hot.

It's supposed to be.

I keep hearing people gripe about the weather and how hot it is.  I keep responding:  This isn't hot.  You do not know hot, unless you grew up in S. TEXAS.  Then, you know hot.

OK, enough griping.  :)

I Don't Know

Seems like this has been one looooooooooooooooooooooooooong week.  Glad it's over.

The funeral service for the Boss's sister was Thursday.  Other than that, it was a normal week.

Just boring!

And warm.  Not hot by TEXAS standards, but humid enough to just about shut my asthmatic lungs down as soon as I go outside.

Today is Billyboy's birthday!  He's 55.  He got his birthday bacon this morning and then he decided he wanted a pizza for dinner tonight.  He chose strawberry shortcake for his birthday cake.

OK, Froggy - before you get on me - I did blog!

Sneezy Friday

This picture perfectly represents my week.

Pass the kleenex please!  (Texasspeak:  any brand of tissue is kleenex.  It just is.  Deal with it.)

The Day After

Yep!

Froggy - Maggie Moo did enjoy her beffday bone, she was quite happy to eat it.  After she hid it 5 or 6 times!  She didn't act like she was leaving it out like she did with her Christmas treat bone, but she did hide it and move it several times before she decided it was time to eat it.

However, I still hate Daylight Savings Time!

This is My Life Recently

EsCuuuuuuuuuuse Me!

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

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

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

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

However, one Good Thing did happen today:

BLUEBELL IS BACK!!  

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

Happy Happy Texans around my house!

Running on Absolute Empty

Or at least that is what it feels like!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dog House!

I think that Bill should just move right on out to the dog house in the back yard.  I mean, it's not like Maggie ever uses it and neither did Frasier.  I saw a squirrel hanging out in it one time, getting out of the rain.  But that's it.

But Bill needs to go out there.

He gave me the cold he caught at work!  I had the bug that was going around, then I got over it and got my flu shot.  I spent Saturday feeling cruddy from the shot reaction.  Bill was coming down with the cold sometime last week, I've kind of lost track of time/dates on that.  Sunday evening, I felt the first tickles in my throat and the beginning of a soreness.  Monday, I was pretty sure it was on the way.  I went to work on Tuesday and gave Younger Boss a very strong warning about staying away from me - which worked, because he was gone all day long!  Bill went in to work yesterday but he left around lunch time because he was feeling so bad.  Bill called in today.  I went in, but I knew it was very much a moment of RIF* but I had a couple of things I had to do.  I got them done, then I came home.  I stopped to get chicken soup fixins** on the way home.

Otter texted me that she was on the way over to do laundry just as I was getting the soup on the stove, she got here just before it was ready so she had lunch with us.  She made a point of staying as far away from us as possible, because she is smart and doesn't want to risk a cold or a cold-induced asthma spell.  We had a nice visit with her and Maggie was overjoyed, especially when she got to take a walk with Otter.

I'm going to work tomorrow and will try to stay, but I don't know if Bill will even attempt to go in or not.  He is better tonight, but he's still coughing a lot.

Dog house is waiting on him!  :)

*Resistance is Futile!

**It's a Texan Thing.  If you have to ask, you might not understand!

Warm Spell

The title refers to the fact that I woke up feeling cruddy and also had a slight fever.  I didn't feel too good over the weekend and I was thinking allergy but now I think it is probably a garden-variety bug.  I'm tired this evening but feeling better and I don't have fever anymore.  It wasn't much, just a degree more or less.  It has aggravated my asthma slightly.

I've been parked on the couch for the most part today, I did take the bratdog for a short walk this morning but that was partially self-defense so she would be calmed down and let me rest!  Bill took my car today.  Maggie Moo wanted to go back outside while ago, we went out in the back yard so she could visit the grass there and the mosquitos were out in full force.  I squashed two, one on each arm, and evaded a few more.  But I think that there may have been a few that I was unaware or - but they were aware of me!

I did get a loaf of banana bread made, the bread machine has a recipe for it but it's not really my favorite.  No secret that bananas are my favorite fruit and probably one of my top favorite foods in general.  I do like banana bread, but the recipe the bread machine makes just doesn't have enough banana taste or sweet flavor for me.

I started the 2nd half of Otter's poncho.  The first half is lavender and the 2nd half is light blue.  We bought all the yarn at the same time at Hobby Lobby, two skeins of each color.  We made sure that the labels matched and the yarn looked like they matched.  I made the first half and had almost enough yarn in one skein to finish but not quite.  So, I attached the 2nd lavender skein on and did 4 or 5 row sets until it was long enough.  I finished it up at work on my lunch hour one day.  And that's when I discovered under the stronger office lights that the two lavender skeins don't match!  They looked the same in the store and the labels matched.  But the yarns are not the same color.  When Otter was over here yesterday to do her laundry, she looked at the poncho half and I held it up to her like it will fit on her when it's assembled.  The part that is different will be in the back and it will probably look ok, but I'm still very annoyed about it.

I'm taking my car in to get new tires on it tomorrow.  It's due for an oil change, so that will be done at the same time.  I'm taking it to the place in the same shopping center that Otter works in, we've used this place for a few months now and they re the place that put the tires on Otter's car a few months back.  They said that it will only take a couple of hours, so I'm going to drop my car off with them and then walk across the parking lot and borrow Otter's car so I can get to work.  I'll bring her car back at lunch and pick my car with it's new shoes up.  I told Otter that I'd buy her lunch, so I'm going to leave her some lunch money for letting me borrow her car - she agreed to that!

Maggie Moo is now curled up at my feet.  Snoring loudly!

Gridlines

After today, I'm really beginning to think that the Amish might have it right when it comes to electricity!

Otter came over to do her laundry today.  She called me to let me know that not all the lights in the house were coming on, and the ones that were coming on were not very bright.  I told her to call Bill, he thought maybe it was a fuse or breaker.  He told her that she should be able to do her laundry.  She got the washer started, then when she went back to check on it she discovered that the washer controls showed it was finished.  But the washer was full of water and it didn't look like it had done anything at all beyond filling up.  That's when she called me again, and I came home (I took an early lunch.)  We checked a few things and then I restarted the washer.  No water came in, but it did start to agitate a bit - not much.  I talked to Bill and he told me to check the breaker box.  Everything looked good, he had me flip one a see if anything happened - nothing.  Otter and I lined her laundry basket with a trash bag and then we took all her damp and soapy clothing out of the washer.  We got as much water out as we could, then we put it in the bag-lined basket and I followed her up to the closest laundromat.  I gave her enough quarters to get her laundry done, we didn't need any more detergent for it.  I left to go back to work, she said it washed ok and she also used the dryers.

Bill took off a couple of hours early.  He thought it might be a specific fuse, so he went to get a replacement.  He came home and put it in, and discovered that it wasn't any better.  Being an Engineer who works around electricity at times, he got out his tools including the multi-meter and he started checking things.  He discovered that only have the electric current that should have been coming into the house was actually coming in.  I called the electric company and *RHTW started the conversation with them.  I think I scared the girl who answered - which actually doesn't bother me - and she agreed it was an emergency and told me that she'd get a crew sent out. I told her I wanted her name and her word on it.  I also told her that if we had any choice other than their services we would have already switched.  It was just about time for me to leave work by then, so I headed out and got my 2 errands done - mailbox to drop mail in on the way home and Subway to get dinner to bring home in case we were unable to cook anything.  But the electric company did what they said (for once!) and they got a crew out here.  They were just finishing up.

It seems that one half of the new lines they buried 2 months ago (the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with my house other than being attached to the box in my yard) failed.  There is now a very large, long cable now stretching from the back yard of the neighbor to the west (the one we don't like), running up the fence line in my yard, beside the fence line of the dog yard, through the gate of the dog yard, across the dog yard and up to the box outside my wall.  And they say they'll be out to bury it in 2 weeks.  The foreman did call me after they left, he thought maybe he'd been rude to me but I didn't think so.  However, I did tell him that I appreciated him calling me back.  He was appalled at how bad the back yard looks and that it's been over 2 months now, incidentally.

Bill ran the washer through a full cycle and it seems to be working.  The house was getting a little warm since the a/c wasn't able to get enough power to work but it's working now and is cooling.  Maggie is still asleep, where she's been for the last few hours.  But then the words "energy crisis" are almost perfect to describe her.

I really, really, REALLY need the next week off.  I'm pretty sure that if I see a certain phone number (Younger Boss) on my caller id - I'm going to let it go to voice mail!

*RHTW.  She gets responses.

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!

I Need to Take a Deep Breath

The last several days have been a whirlwind.  A fun one, but still a whirlwind.

As I previously mentioned, Froggy and her daughter (KN#3) arrived last Thursday from TEXAS.  We shopped.  We shopped a lot.  A LOT.  But, I don't think we shopped as much this time as we have on previous visits.  But, it was still a lot of shopping.  We had a lot of fun, we visited a bunch and we also went to Woolaroc which was really fun.  This time, the buffalo was actually working - the buffalo is a mechanical contraption that eats trash.  It's a metal buffalo that is covered with an authentic buffalo skin and it has a hole where the mouth would be.  If you hold your trash (small amounts) underneath the mouth, it is pulled up into the mouth.  (The buffalo's rear is against a wall, behind the wall is where the trash winds up so it's at least somewhat anatomically correct!)

Yesterday, we went to another local landmark:

Also known as the Praying Hands.  Unofficially, it's also called the founder of the university's monument to himself.  This is on the ORU campus and really is something to see.  It is supposed to look like a pair of praying hands, but up close it looks like a pair of grabbing hands.

This morning, Froggy and KN#3 left.  They flew in to Oklahoma City and rented a car.  They saw a couple of things in the OKC area and then drove to us.  They had reservations for a 3:30 flight back to Houston, but as of tonight they are still in the OKC area.  The Houston airport closed to all incoming flights due to Tropical Storm Bill.  They got a hotel for the night and will hopefully be able to fly out tomorrow - but TS Bill will be here tonight/tomorrow and there is a good chance that all flights out of OKC may be cancelled, so they may be staying another night too!  Froggy, you probably should have flown into OKC and then out from Tulsa.  That way, you could have come back to our house for the night.  Maggie Moo misses you.  By the way, Bill is very happy that there is a storm named after him although I think he'd prefer that it be an actual hurricane.  :)

At least I have a short week, 4 days.  Last week was a 4-day week as well, I took of Friday of last week and then yesterday (Monday) for their visit.  I work 5 days next week, then I'm off the next week and will be having a home vacation.

Which may well be spent dealing with the idiotic electric company.  My yard is still a big mess.  I filed an official complaint with them a few weeks ago and they still have not finished my yard.  They said that someone would contact me about coming out to look at the damage and THEN, after that, they would schedule the repairs to my yard.  One day last week, after I'd left for work, I got a call from the foreman of the crew who was wanting to come to my house and replace the grass - they hadn't even sent anyone out to look yet.  And it's more than just the grass.  I told him that I was expecting someone to come out and look at my yard first, and he said for me to call him after the representative made it out.  Then Friday afternoon there was a note on my door from another grass replacement crew informing me that they had attempted to get in my yard and were unable since the gate was locked - and that they would try again on Monday.  I called the number on the note and told them the story.  Today, I called the complaint department phone number (a local number) and was transferred to OHIO.  Needless to say, he was unable to help me.  He was nice, but there was nothing he could do - although I did tell him on record that if I had any choice at all in the matter, I would no longer use their services.  He gave me a different phone number to call and I eventually got to talk to a local person - and she told me that according to their records the complaint was finished and they'd done all the work already.  Not hardly!  She made a couple of calls and I now have an appointment with an inspector,he'll be out at my house on a specific day next week to look at the damage because they keep thinking it's just a small spot and I also have to call her tomorrow with the information on the crepe myrtles that were destroyed (both the number and variety.)  Frustrating in the extreme!

But I did mean the part about not using their service any longer if we had a choice.  One night last week, the power went out about 11:00 p.m.  It was the entire neighborhood.  I called the service number, the recording is supposed to be for the local area but I heard all about the power outages in the New Orleans area and then I held for 20 minutes.  I disconnected and re-dialed - only to get a message about a storm causing an outage in Appalachia!  And I held for nearly 40 minutes - then I remembered the battery operated radio.  At midnight, the news break talked about a power outage in my area due to a car hitting a pole.  I disconnected the phone at that point and went to bed - just in time for the power to come back on.

What ever happened to customer service?  Because it sure doesn't exist at the local electric company!

Not In A Hurry

For Monday.

I guess I can't stop Monday from coming, no matter how much I whine about it.

Oh well.  I'm off next Friday and the Monday after that, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much since I have two 4-day weeks with a 4-day weekend in the middle!

At least I don't have Otter's work schedule.  She goes in to work tomorrow at 2:00 a.m.!  Her store had a parking lot sale this weekend and they have to change all the price tags back from sale to regular prices.

Maggie Moo has had a good weekend.  Yesterday, I tossed her in the car (OK, I opened the door and she jumped in) and we went to Otter's apartment.  She hadn't been there before so it was a new experience for her.  She has had experience with stairs, she knew what to do to get up them although it took her a little while to understand the landings between the floors - there were all these doors and I wouldn't let her go up to any of them!  Eventually, we got to the 3rd floor and she got to go into a door.  Which made her very happy, especially when that door opened at Otter and Roomie were there.  She got lots of attention, petting and ear scratches.  We visited for a while, then we left and she managed to get down the stairs although it took her a little longer. I took her to Petsmart after that, we needed to get her a new name tag with the updated phone numbers on it.  She was happy to get there, there were lots of people and other animals to see.  She had that little beagle smile on her face the whole way home!

She had to get a tag with updated phone numbers because we got rid of our landling (home) phone last week.  When we bought our home, we took over the existing phone number that Bill's dad had when it was his house.  But the phone lines were not the best, every time it rained the connection would get worse and we had the company come out more than once to check it.  One time, it got to the point that the phone was basically useless.  They ran new lines, replaced a bunch of stuff and it got better but never good again.  We checked, the problem was external and not in the house so it was their lines.  We discussed getting rid of it a couple of years back and going to strictly cell phones but after one particular ice storm when the cell towers all went down due to battery issues,we decided to keep the landline for a while - this was before the time it got so bad.  But we realized that we hardly ever used it and most people that needed to contact us called us on one of our cell phones anyway.  So, last week we cancelled the landline.  Maggie's tag had the home phone and my cell phone on it, but the home phone was the first number.  She now is sporting a dog-bone shaped, pink tag with her name and both our cell phones on it.

I bought a miniblind for the front/craft/guest/YARN room last week.  Bill installed it today.  There is a lot more light in that room now, and I can open or close it easier than the curtains.  Plus, it gives us a little more privacy than the one remaining curtain did.  Otter had 2 curtains in there, one inside the window seal and one set on a curtain rod.  Both were navy blue, she wanted privacy since it was her bedroom after all, and less light at night.  But I need a little more light in there when I'm crafting, which I've been doing a lot of lately, or crocheting, which I do a lot of anyway.

Not that I ever manage to decrease the amount of yarn I have.  It seems to grow on it's own!  I don't help it at all.   :)

It's Summer Alright

(Froggy, this is just for you.)

And the skeeters are out!

The recent wet weather just keeps giving ad giving.

Apparently, mosquito dunks are becoming the hot, gotta have item in parts of TEXAS and Oklahoma.

Can't say I'm surprised!

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!

It Had Better Be...

This short, 4-day workweek has been never ending.

And it's still raining.

We have had so much rain that there is nowhere for anymore water to go.  Which means street flooding, at least during rain storms such as the one late this morning that lasted until mid-afternoon.  But it's still not as bad as what TEXAS had to deal wit last week.  It's just that there is still more rain in the forecast for tomorrow.  I don't remember what Sunday's forecast is, but it might be rain early and then stopping.  The early forecast for next week is dry.  No rain forecast!  Woo Hoo!!!!!

The beagle will probably agree, she feels very short-changed on her walks.  She usually gets a short one in the morning and then a longer one in the afternoon.  Otter wasn't able to walk her at all last weekend when she house-sat for us and I've only been able to take her on a few this week.  None today, at all.  I did get Maggie Moo to go out into the back yard but I think she only went out because she absolutely had to - dog hates rain in the strongest way!  She was bouncy when she came back in so I played with her for a while, first time she's wanted to play since April 23.  Now, she's camped out on her pillow beside the couch and I hear snoring.  Hopefully, we can get a walk or two in tomorrow.  She's much better when she gets some exercise and the walking is good for me as well.

I discovered something when we were in San Antonio last weekend.  Texas is not backwards.  (We already knew that!)  I'm referring to the fact that I was able to buy local wine at the grocery store - which is 2 complaints (1 is that very few local wineries actually sell at liquor stores here because of Oklabackwardshoma laws and the fact that it was at a grocery store - something else not allowed here) and I was also able to buy it on a Sunday!  I think I'm going to crack open the bottle tonight and see what I can do about not letting it get lonely.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to do some stuff around the house.  There will probably be a lot of crafting going on!  With possibly a trip to the library in there somewhere.

Middles

I've discovered something.  Today, I went to several yard sales.  A couple of them were neighborhood wide.  Lots of houses having sales.  And almost all of them were one of two items:  baby clothes, young kid toys and supplies or medical equipment and things that an old person in bad health would need.

We are firmly in the middle!  We no longer have a kid at home, and we aren't in need of the medical supplies, either.

Guess we really are middle aged?  :)

The electric company is in my bad list now.  I took Tuesday afternoon from work and got home in time to meet them.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  And called the crew chief.  He eventually called me back and had the gall to act dumb with me.  Which usually is the final turn of the key to unlock *RHTW's cage.  He made a bunch of excuses, tried to pretend he'd never set the time up with me, claimed he couldn't call me back and then when I told him that I knew he had my number he then started making excuses about the number of calls he always had and that he couldn't be expected to call everybody back now, could he?  I let him have it.  Somehow, I don't think he still likes Redheads!  He told me that he could meet me at my house Wednesday morning.  I told him that I was not taking anymore work off for them.  Then he told me I could just leave my gate unlocked - at which time I reminded him that THEY were the specific reason we always keep the gates locked.  I told him that it would have to be on our schedule and that I would call him back "sometime."

Otter came over on Wednesday afternoon to do her laundry.  She called me just as I was about to leaver work and said that they'd shown up.  I told them to wait until I got there to let them in.  They didn't have the small backhoe from Monday, it was just a little too big to fit through the gate so they had to get busy with shovels but they got the trench covered up.  I'm not sure when they actually left, they didn't tell me.  I noticed that they were gone and waited about an hour before I locked the gate up again.  They left two pieces of plywood and a shovel.  I'll eventually call them and ask them if they are going to come get it, and also ask them when THEY are going to replace the two or three crepe myrtles that they killed.

We've been walking Maggie Moo more often lately.  We didn't walk the dogs much over the winter because of the weather, then Frasier was having obvious issues with the arthritis so we didn't get too many walks in once it became Spring.  Now that Frasier's crossed the rainbow bridge, Maggie Moo is obviously in need of more physical activity so we've been walking her again and more often than we would have been doing if he were still here.  I took her to a local walking part the other day, she really liked that.  Especially when a lazy squirrel walked across our path - she didn't want to chase it, but she was very interested in it.  One morning she was very bouncy and led me to the closet where the leash is kept.  It was still pretty early, so we had a short jaunt down the street and back.  Today, Bill and I took her for a walk around the neighborhood.  She's been very playful the last couple of days, she seems to be getting back to normal - normal nutso for her.  She has wanted to play tug again and is interested in chasing her tennis balls again.  She's no longer looking for Frasier, but she has looked towards the outer dog door flap a few times when she's been in the garage like maybe she's wondering if he's about to come in from the dog yard.  But she's doing ok.  I've taken her with me a few times lately when I've gone somewhere she can go.

At the moment, she curled up on her blankets.  She seems to take longer naps after walks for some reason!

*RHTW:  Just start running now.