7 Days

Since the last time I managed to post anything here.

Froggy, you must be slipping.  You haven't reminded me once.  :)

Last Thursday, there was a really bad storm.  It was pretty much totally unexpected and it was actually starting to become tornadic at one point.

There was almost no warning.  It was lunchtime and I had thought about going out for lunch but decided to stay in and I'm glad I did.  We had rain chances but nothing bad was expected.  The first hint was when my cell phone started making the Alert sound - it is very loud and very shrill.  The entire screen said "TORNADO WARNING. TORNADO IN THE AREA."  It wasn't raining or anything, I turned the radio on and they were doing the normal mid-afternoon show.  I thought that the cell service provider must have had a problem and sent out a bad message by mistake.  And that's when the Tornado Sirens started sounding.  When they go off, it's best to pay attention and take cover.  The boss was in his office but had heard my phone alert so he was coming up the hallway to see what the noise was, when the sirens started.  He ran back towards his office for his phone and I was already in the area we decided is the safest spot - the bathroom which is on a north outside wall but the center of the building is a glassed-in atrium and the glass makes it a very unsafe spot.  Bill called me at that point, he was at home and was watching the noon news.  They were on the storm warning by that point and they were calling out the exact area of Tulsa I work in as being in the firing line of a rotating cloud.  He was telling me what the news said and I was telling the Boss.  Then the cloud started to move more south and not southeast, and the rotation stopped.  At that point, they cancelled the tornado warning but were still putting out a lot of warnings in the direction the cloud was moving because of the fact the cloud had shown rotation already.

The Boss opened the garage door to check the sky and by that time,the cloud was right there.  It was well east of us and we were safe, but it was still pretty scary to look at.  These pictures were taken with my cell phone and make it look a lot lighter than it actually was.

No, these are not "Hey Y'all Redneck Last Word pictures!

After the cloud had moved a little further south, that's when the real storm hit.  The one that was behind the rotation.  The rain was very sudden and very, very heavy.  The wind was even worse.  There were trees ripped out of the ground all over Tulsa and the surrounding areas, trees that were broken into pieces, limbs thrown everywhere.  It was a very, very severe storm.  I've seen rain forced sideways by wind before, but not like this.  Of course, Otter was at J's house and that particular town was right in the direction the cloud and storm were headed next.  They were aware of the weather and stayed inside, ready to take cover.  J's house was ok, but there were two incidents that were confirmed to be the work of a small tornado in the general area.

When I got home, which took a while because of several street lights that were out and also because of debris in the road in some spots, we still had power but we also had limbs down in the back yard.  But  there was one place in particular, a church in south Tulsa that literally had a wall ripped off just because of the wind.  Bill's dad had a tree limb down in their back yard - but they don't have any trees.  It was split off of a neighbor's tree, then the wind carried it over the fence and into their yard.  It was not a small limb, either.  Parts of the Tulsa area and surrounding area just had power restored today, Monday.  Bill cut up the limbs from our tree Saturday and also helped his dad with the one in his yard.  Most of it is now in our woodpile, Bill thinks we got about 1/3 of a rick out of it.

Yesterday, Sunday, Bill mowed the yard.  I was standing beside the rock garden when a grasshopper bounced by me.  And landed right in the center of a zigzag spider's web on the trellis!  I had not even seen the web, it was so well camoflauged in the honeysuckle.  Pretty much as soon as the grasshopper landed, the spider was on it.  She moved like lightning and had the grasshopper wrapped completely in silk in just a couple of seconds.  It was amazing to watch her.  Then she moved it to another spot in the web and then a few hours later when I was walking around the yard with the beagle I checked on the spider and she was happily consuming the grasshopper's innards which were probably liquified by that point.  I hope she stays around.  She's probably not quite quarter sized yet, and they can get much bigger.  She can stay in our trellis and eat all the bugs she wants!

Tuesday. Day 2 of Stay at Home Vacation

Not a staycation!  I dislike that word intently.

Anyway.  Yesterday was a lot of fun, we went to Bill's dad & stepmom's for the 4th.  Bill's niece, her husband and kids were here to visit and it was nice to get to see them.  Otter had to work, but she came over to join everyone when she got off work.  Bill and I both try to stay out of the sun, redhead complexion and sunlight don't mix very well.  He was not really in the sun very long but his face is pretty red.  I was not in it at all, but I was sitting close enough to the pool that the reflected light got me a little pink as well.  Just on my right side.  Bill said I have one raccoon eye (because of my glasses) and I have a patchy sunburn on my right shoulder because of my shirt strap plus my upper right arm.  Not a bad sunburn for either of us and we've been using a lot of aloe vera gel but Bill has to be very careful because he tends to get skin cancers.

We slept in a little bit this morning, we both woke up around 7:00.  After breakfast, Bill got the back yard mowed and I did a little work on the honeysuckle bed/trellis.  Yes, he wore his hat with the flap covering his neck.  And he also hollered at me because I forgot my hat - I'm always getting on him about his, so he wasted no time in returning the favor!  :)

I had to run to wallyworld for carpet cleaner, since we're going to clean the carpet on Thursday.  Possibly Friday.  Anyway, since I was there I went ahead and got the few grocery items I needed.  Walmart is already clearing out the summer stuff - pool toys, sun block, etc., and stocking school supplies.  It's only July 5!  But I did discover half-price chocolate candy, since the holiday was yesterday and the packages were decorated with the American flag.  I grabbed several bags, I don't have a deep freeze any longer but it WILL last us a while.  Yes, Bill.  IT WILL.

Tomorrow is my play day.  The only day I actually planned an activity during my vacation week.  I'm going shopping with Otter!  Bill is going to stay home, he's not into the shopping thing.  I don't think it's going to be an all day event, but we are going to one of the not exactly next door but close (sort of) small towns because they have a couple of antique stores I've been wanting to check out.  We may go to a book store in Tulsa and we may go to a thrift store or two.  We'll figure that out tomorrow.

And now I'm going to go back to my crochet.  Then I might just follow Maggie Moo's example and take a nap!

It's Just Sunday and I Don't Know What To Call This

I'm tired, so forgive me if I ramble.  I probably will.

We picked up the remaining 6 pachinko machines today.  The one Bill got yesterday actually was a more rare machine, so he gave the seller a little more than he asked for.  He got a good price on them, fair for the seller and for Bill.  But he's out of room for more of them.  Which won't stop him if he/we/I/Otter come across another machine - kind of have to get them when you can.

I did manage to get a little crochet done this weekend.  Maggie got a couple of walks in.  Bill got more machines.  All in all, it's been a pretty good weekend.  I just wish that it was longer.  Yes, I know I was off on Friday!  I'm just not in a hurry to go back to work tomorrow is all.

Otter's plans for her move are firmed up.  They are going to sign the new lease tomorrow and hopefully they will get to see the inside of the apartment so Roomie can figure out how she wants to arrange her bedroom.  They've seen the floor plan and I think Roomie has a general idea but she really needs to actually see the space to figure it out.  Otter is probably going to arrange hers like it is now in their smaller apartment.  Bill and I are going to see about taking Friday afternoon off.  Roomie is off work on Friday but Otter has to work until noon.  The plan is to get started moving Roomie's stuff and helping her get her bed set up while she's there because she has to work on Saturday.  After we get her situated and her bed put together, then we'll start moving the rest of their belongings.  We are going to get as much as possible done on Friday afternoon, but I won't be surprised if there is still stuff to be moved on Saturday.  Roomie has to work Saturday and Otter has to work the morning, but she'll be there around 10:00 or shortly afterwards.  I am probably going to start on the kitchen stuff or anything small that I can do myself and let Bill work on things like taking their beds apart; the kitchen is basically "take it out of one, walk across the hall and put it back in the same place in the new one" and hopefully that won't take too long.  Otter said that they've been packing already and I really think it is possible that we can get all or at least most of it moved on Friday.  Either way, Saturday is to finish up moving anything left and then the old apartment will need to be cleaned.  It's a lot of work, but not as much as when they moved in - for one thing, we don't have to spend time loading the trucks, driving there, unloading and carrying up 3 flights of stairs.  Even though it's going to be sweaty work, it will all be indoors and we won't have to be outside in the heat.  They will still need a couch of some type, I'm going to suggest they consider a futon or something like that.  But they'll figure that out later on.

I've been thinking about moving the rock garden.  Even though we put down several layers of thick plastic, it has had a lot of dirt blown in over the last couple of years - thanks to the builders behind us that left scraped dirt lots for weeks on end and it gets windy here.  Because of that, I am having to deal with pulling grass and weeds out of it on a fairly regular basis.  Sometimes I wonder why we even bothered to put the grass block down, since there has been enough dirt blown in to give the grass an easy way to still grow!  We've been looking around the house and we're probably going to move it to the front yard.  In front of the house, along the front and up against the house.  It will be long and narrow and I will probably have to get a lot more rocks.  It also might be something we do in stages.  I think I'm going to get bricks to give it a defined edge, I have sandstone on the edges now but I don't have that many and I don't want to buy more.  The sandstones I have now will be incorporated in it somewhere, along with most of my concrete animals and I'll probably put a few potted cactus plants in it but probably not the fountain/planter.  It will be underneath the overhang of the roof and slightly back from the edge.  It doesn't get enough light to actually plant most things, I did have hostas planted there and they looked really good.  They don't need as much light.  But then we had a really hot summer and it was very dry, and no matter how much I watered they just couldn't take the heat and I decide not to replant them.  It's basically just a dirt area where nothing will really grow well.  It's going to be a fairly big job and we'll wait until the Fall because it's just too hot right now.  I told Otter to ask J if he might want to help, and that I will pay him and also provide pizza.  (I think the picture above is from the original size, before we enlarged it.  It's from 2009.)

 OK, I'm tired and hungry. It's time for nachos!

Unplanned Day Off

The biggest thing I've done on my unplanned day off is to take Magginator to the vet for her "rear alignment" also known as getting her rear glands cleaned out, and we also got her claws trimmed while we were there.  She weighs 26.6 pounds which is the same as 2 months ago.  She was somewhat impacted but not as bad as when we took her in every 3 months.  At this point, we'll stick with every 2 months.  The vet tech said she's gone one dog that comes in every 3 to 4 weeks and needs it badly, so I won't complain that we have to take her in every 2 months.  She was funny - she was happy to get in the car, but she wilted as soon as we turned into the parking lot.  She got out of the car easily, but she was not too thrilled with me.  She went in the door and immediately turned back around to go back out.  That didn't happen and she was not pleased!  The vet tech took her back as soon as we got there - we didn't need to see the vet for this - and it was a case of "drag the beagle" today.  It didn't take too long and she was overjoyed when she was brought back to me.  She immediately ran to the door and stood in front of it, wagging her tail.  She was very happy when we actually left.  I took her over to visit the grass and when we walked back to the car, there was another doggy arriving.  She almost went back inside with the other dog!  Little goof.

When we got home, I put her tick and flea drops on her and put her out in the garage for a few minutes.  Someone came over to see Bill and they were standing in the front door chatting.  I didn't want to have to worry about the dog getting out so she got to visit her treat can and spend about 10 minutes in the garage.  She came back inside pretty quickly, and promptly resumed the nap I'd had to interrupt to take her to the vet.  Although that nap as underneath the futon, and the 2nd half of the nap is in/on/all over/next to her bed in the living room.

I also went to the post office and to check Bill's UPS box, then I remembered Maggie Moo's feeder is getting low so I stopped at Wallyworld to get another bag.  I grabbed a few other things while I was there, I didn't get too much but they were crowded.  Guess that's normal, it is Friday after all and most people seemed to be buying lots of groceries.  I thought about going to Hobby Lobby, but I might do that tomorrow and I also might go to our favorite used book store then.  Maybe.  Or maye not!  I'll figure that out tomorrow.  Bill mowed the lawn this morning and I think his main plan for tomorrow and probably Sunday is the pachinko machine he's in the middle of restoring.

Otter is at TNT this weekend, along with J, Roomie and BestFriend.  Otter said that they weren't dressing in cosplay today, but that they were still fairly dressed up.  I think Otter probably wore one of her many Lolita dresses (the very fancy, full-skirted dressy outfits like the one she showed you in June, Froggy) and she'll probably wear another one on Sunday.  The cosplay will be worn tomorrow.  They are wearing their Joker and Harley gender switched costumes.  She had to stretch out the wig a bit, she said it was a little tight when she wore it when they went to the con in Dallas.  She's promised me lots of pictures, and yes she will find the Borg!  The Collective will be wandering around the con, but it might be tomorrow before she locates them.  They managed to get a reasonable parking spot and didn't have to walk too far to get to the con.

I'm tired today but not as exhausted as I was yesterday.  I talked to Younger Boss this morning, he said that a few people were over at their house yesterday after the Teenager's services and that they didn't leave until nearly midnight so he was still exhausted.  He hadn't seen Miss Dorothy yet, but he said that his sister spent last night with her so she wasn't alone.  She's very precious to us.

I managed to get a lot of crochet time in today.  I finished the crochet part of Otter's latest scarf,  She wants fringe on this one so I just have to attach it.  The scarf I made several days back is done but she decided she does not want fringe on it, so it just needs tails buried and it's done.  I made a hat to match the first scarf, but she needs to try it on again before I tie it off and bury tails.  I'm going to make a cap to match the 2nd scarf also, I'll make it to the same size as the first one but I won't complete it until she's tried them both on.  Then, it's back to her poncho.  I'm not sure, but I think that's the last UFO I have.  Well, I still have a blanket I'm working on but it's made with little pieces and ends so it's going to be a while anyway.

Think I'll go surf the internet for a while now.

Only Took 2+ Months

But my back yard is back to normal.  Well, almost - there is still the cable that was installed last Friday which needs to be buried.  But the damage left by the original crew was repaired today.

They were here on time.  They did what they said they would do.  They did a good job and got finished earlier than they thought the would.  They don't actually work for the electric provider, they are a contracted company.  Which may be why they did such a good job!  :)

The dirt was shoveled in by hand, then they smoothed it with rakes.  The filled in all the holes.

 They laid grass strips down.

They planted three new crepe myrtles.

When the left, they took the plywood and shovel that was left by the first crew and they made sure I was able to get the gate shut and locked.

I watered the crepe myrtles, but I had to stop in the middle because Maggie Moo disappeared.  I could not find her anywhere, but I knew she had been in the yard with me and that I didn't let her out of the house until after the gates were locked.  She just vanished.  There is one spot where I thought she could have gotten out of the yard.  I looked everywhere, called her repeatedly and looked everywhere - in the house, the garage, her yard, and I attempted to look under the shed.  After a while, I finally decided that she must have found her way out of the yard.  I started walking and I went pretty much all around the neighborhood - in the sun, without my hat.  I talked to two neighbors and they hadn't seen her.

By this time I was really worried.  I figured that she must be under the shed and the fact that I never heard her when I was yelling for her had me seriously worried.  I went back to the back yard and called her repeatedly, and I looked under the shed again.  Then I started to hear her and  realized that some of the noises I heard earlier was probably her and not just all the screeching birds that were suddenly in the trees by the shed.  I called her again, and I could see movement underneath the shed.  She was trying to get out, but she was pretty well trapped.  I was trying to figure out how to get her out without having the shed shift and crush her, when she finally was able to basically dig her way out.  She was under there for about an hour.  She was very dirty and she was also very scared.  Otter was on her way over to go through boxes when the dog vanished, she got there just after I'd gotten Maggie back in.  Maggie spent most of her afternoon sleeping, a much deeper sleep than her normal napping sleep.

I eventually got back to water the crepes and the new grass.  I took Maggie out with me, and she made a beeline to the shed.  She did not want to listen to me when I told her no, so I put her back in the house.  We thought that we might have had a possum visiting us lately, we've seen some signs of something and Maggie has been tracking something when she goes out there.  I think it may have been under the shed at some point, it may well still be there but I don't know for sure.  They are not aggressive animals, but they will defend themselves if they have to and they can do serious damage to a dog.  Maggie's not going to be allowed out there for a while, I have some plastic edging that we used on the tulip bed and I'm going to put it around the shed similar to the way skirting is done for a mobile home.  Maggie is a full-blood beagle and she's got the instincts of one.

Otter and I had a really nice afternoon, we went to lunch at a local place and then she went through 3 boxes.  She condensed them down to 2 boxes, there's quite a bit that is in the donate pile and some things are now in my craft room.  She's still got three more boxes labeled Craft Stuff and there are two boxes in the closet of the craft room that she needs to look through but they aren't really craft stuff.

One of the things we found in the craft boxes was her Sunglasses.  The ones we never found after she moved, the same ones she thought were gone for good when she was packing.  Apparently, she packed them after all - in a box with craft stuff!

Bill's way of counting pachinko balls:

He made this tray, it's marked in measured places and he can tell without having to count each individual ball.

He ordered 5,000 and they came today.  I'm not sure how much they weighed, but it was a lot.  A LOT.

Except for when Otter came and got me and we went to lunch, I've been home all day.  Except for Maggie's little adventure in the middle of the day, I enjoyed it.  I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine and a pot of pinto beans.  I did manage to get a little crochet done, but not until around 6:00 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleepy Monday Evening

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

Monday is over.  Not a moment too soon.

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

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

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

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

Wheeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been one long, never-ending merry-go-round ride since Friday afternoon.

It started with a phone call from Bill as I was on the way home from work.  He wanted to tell me that he'd been in a car accident.  Talk about scaring me!  He wasn't hurt.  It was his work vehicle.  He stopped for a traffic in front of him which was stopped for a red light.  But apparently, the driver behind him didn't get the memo and he ran into Bill's work vehicle.  There was hardly any damage, but because it was his employer's vehicle it had to be called in to the police and a representative from his work had to come out.  Even though he felt fine, I told him to go get checked out and that was also the policy of his employer so they sent him to the clinic they use.  He had to wait a while.  A very long time, actually.  They said he was fine and he felt fine, so they released him to go on home.

Otter was at our house at the time, she was doing laundry and was still here when I got home.  She walked Maggie Moo with me, which delighted the somewhat silly & smelly beagle.  She stayed longer than she intended to, in case Bill turned out to be hurt and I had to go get him - she would have given me a ride to get his car and then I would have gotten him.  That turned out to be unnecessary.

Saturday was busy, we went to a local art show/sale/street fair in Tulsa.  Actually, two that were both happening at the same time.  It was a lot of fun, but it was very warm and crowded.  We didn't buy anything, unless you want to count the 2 Dr. Peppers we drank!  But it was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the day.  We were both pretty tired when we got home, however the aforementioned smelly beagle  needed a walk so I got her out the door for a short jaunt.  I took a nice, long nap after the walk and then got in the shower - and spent the rest of the afternoon parked on the couch with Billyboy watching the rest of the movies on the 100 Sci-Fi "classics" Otter gave him for Christmas - some of them were real "winners," too.  (Otter - he loved the gift and has had more fun watching them.)

Last night was the really wild part of the weekend.  We had a tornado watch in the late afternoon/evening and there were thunderstorms headed our way - but we didn't expect anything too bad.  At 11:30 p.m., I woke up because I heard something.  I didn't really know what it was, but it was not THE siren.  However, it was probably the LAST FEW SECONDS OF THE SIREN.  I turned the tv on and they were talking about my small town, but not right where we live.  The possible tornado had sprouted well east/northeast of us and was continuing on away from us.  We were in the middle of a really bad thunderstorm and still had quite a bit of it on the way, but nothing else bad was expected for us.  I considered texting Otter, but I didn't because a)  it was already on the other side of us/her, b) nothing else besides the thunderstorm was in our forecast and c) she has been known to sleep through the tornado sirens before and I didn't want to wake her up and disturb her in case she was still asleep.  I didn't check my cell phone for texts for her, but I should have.  When I got up this morning and turned it on, I had a text from her at 11:22 last night telling me that they were already in the basement, in case I was wondering.  I texted her back telling her why I didn't text her last night, and that they did the right thing.  She called me later, apparently not that many people actually went to the shelter - which is really dumb!  But it was the middle of the night and it is possible that not everyone heard it - the storm was L.O.U.D.

The storm did sprout something, but it might have "just" been high wind and not actually tornadic.  There is damage but it's all east/northeast of us. We got a lot of rain and very little sleep,  It was so hard to get up this morning.

But we had to get the garage finished up.  We started it a few weeks ago, then it was rainy then it was Mother's Day (and still rainy!) but today we had a dry day forecast.  Bill got the rest of the machines organized and took several out to the shed.  He took some misc. boxes out there as well and brought some boxes from the shed that have pachinko parts and they are on the shelves in the garage now.  I got my tree trimming tool and took care of a bunch of limblets on the three front trees and the tree on the side of the garage.  I got a little crochet done, sitting on the front porch while Bill was running machines back to the shed - that was a one-person job.

Then, the final fun event of the weekend was accomplished.  I bathed the beagle!  The beagle was not amused.  But she doesn't stink anymore.  She did smell like a wet dog for a while, but that is still better than she smelled before.  :)

At Least Monday is Over

But it's not Friday yet.  Unfortunately.

Bill sanded the switc hplate down to the wood, the one I threw out and then rescued from the trash.  I painted it again, with the white basecoat and when the paint is dry I'll cover it with modge-podge glue and put the scrapbook paper on it that I found.  It's supposed to be small doily-ish patterns and I like it.  After the modge-podge is dry, then I'll apply a sheet of clear mylar.  Then the fun begins!  The part where I kept messing up.  Cutting the holes out and cutting it around the edges!  After all that's done, I'm going to hit the painted (but unpapered) sides with clear sealer and then they just have to dry.  Then I can actually put them on the wall.

I'm not as tired today, but I do still have Redhead Anemia issues.  Not as bad, it's just "there."

I'm also having more allergy issues this afternoon, but that generally happens after I pull weeds in the rock garden.  Literally, IN the rock garden for part of it.  And around the edges.  I found a frog in the rock garden.  Actually, I almost picked "him" up with a bunch of weeds!  Did you know that frogs can give dirty looks?  This one did, anyway!  :)  He was not a huge frog, but I think he was still fairly young.  He hopped away from me, to the other side of the rock garden and probably is happily hiding in the honeysuckle now.  He might be the one I've been hearing the last few nights.

I've also heard tree frogs lately.  Especially when it rains.  I haven't seen them yet this spring, but they are obviously here already.

No sign of hummingbirds yet, but I put out two feeders Sunday.  I thought I might have seen one zipping by but it was hard to tell.  It's still a little early though.  But sometimes they arrive early, and just because I haven't seen them does not mean that they aren't here yet.

Fraiser is a little creaky today.  He and Maggie Moo were happy to go out in the back yard with me.  While I was pulling weeds, Maggie Moo was sitting on her behind and staring at the ground.  After a minutes, she reached down and pulled a large beetle grub out of the dirt.  Then she ate it!  Frasier was walking around like he does, looking for spots to water.  But then I noticed he was laying down in a grassy spot and when I called him to come in, he didn't want to get up at first.  He seemed to be more than a little stiff, but he did get up and came inside.  Then he went out the dog doors and to their yard.  He laid down in his usual spot, and I took an anti-inflammatory to him.  He hasn't needed them lately, but it's been cool and damp which seems to affect him  I called the vet and ordered a refill.  I still had one pill left for him, but I also had some from Maggie Moo's bladder infection she had last fall and the vet said that I can use them.  They are still within a safe date, they are the same dose but were cut in half for her.  I was going to take the brush to Frasier while we were outside, but that will wait a day or two.  Mostly because of my allergies, I didn't want to stay outside any longer than I had to.  He love the brushing, and so does Maggie Moo but she's not long haired so it's just a fun experience for her.  At the moment, they are both in the living room and both of them are snoozing.  Frasier is probably snoozing because of the medication, but Maggie Moo is just napping because it's what beagles do best, after all!

Dark Early!

I don't particularly like the time change, I believe I "may" have mentioned that a time or two.  Or a few dozen times!  I just couldn't think of a good title today, and it works...

I spent a few hours running around Tulsa today, looking in various stores for bathroom stuff.  And finding almost nothing, mostly.  I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond - they have some Bed stuff, very little Bath stuff and not much variety in what they do have - and a whole lot of Beyond which seems to mostly consist of make-up!  Looks like the same stuff that wallyworld carries, too.  I looked at Burlington which used to have a lot of household and some clothes - and now has almost entirely clothes with 2 small aisles of household stuff.  And it was messy, it looks like the employees don't bother to keep things neat or follow up after customers.  I don't think I'll be going back there anytime soon.  I looked at Target, which did have a few possibilities but not exactly what I wanted.  I did buy a soft pretzel at Target's snack bar, but that was the only thing I did buy there.  I hit a few other stores, too.  I finally decided to just to go Tuesday Morning in my small town but didn't think I'd find anything there since I had been striking out everywhere else.

I should have gone to Tuesday Morning first.  Because I found just about everything I wanted/needed for the guest bath.  I didn't find a bathmat, they did have some but not in a good color to go with the towels because I'm not even going to attempt to match the shower curtain.  I found a sort-of dark goldish color trash can, matching soap/lotion pump, matching small container that I'll figure out a use for and a burgundy plastic drinking glass.  I noticed that I'd been calling the shower curtain ruby, but burgundy is a better word for the color.  The gold I was finding today was mostly bright and I wanted a darker, almost antique gold color.  I found a decorative towel and washcloth, I would like a hand towel in the same pattern but they didn't have one.  I'm going to look at the Tuesday Morning close to where I work and see if they have one, if not I'm going to get another bath towel and get busy with needle and thread to make it a little smaller.  The towels are a cream color with a gold ribbon decoration, it's a little brighter gold but it works.  I am probably going to get a cream color bathmat, they did have some but not a lot.  I had a small plastic and metal basket that I use to keep things like small soap, toothpaste, stuff that a guest might want.  It doesn't really go anymore, Otter had a small woven basket that works better, she doesn't have any use for it so she gave it to me.  It had a green ribbon wrapped around it, I took the green off and am going to use some burgundy ribbon I got at Hobby Lobby today.

Otter has had a rough few days.  Monday was the root canal and her tooth is fairly sensitive still, then she woke up Friday with a very severe migraine.  She was off Thursday and supposed to work Friday morning, but there was no way she could go in.  She was taking the strong motrin the dentist gave her so she took some on Friday to see if it would help the headache - it didn't even touch it, I'd forgotten that she used motrin before and it never worked for her.  I was going to pick her up and take her to work Friday morning, then pick her up when she got off and either take her home to her apartment or drop her off at the library and then she was going to come home with me to get the car for the weekend.  Since none of those things happened, Bill drove to her apartment after work and I met him there.  I took her some rice I made Thursday evening and Bill met me at the door of her apartment.  She was in bed, she got up and let him in and went back to bed.  She was feeling really bad, she wanted to take a night-time allergy pill to at least get a little sleep but it has Tylenol in it so I called the pharmacist to ask about it.  He said that after Motrin, as long as you wait 2 or 3 hours then you can take Tylenol and that she should be fine - I read him the ingredients in the allergy pill and he ok'd it since it has other stuff in it as well.  She was going to take the allergy med and hopefully get some sleep, so we left.  I guess it's just as well that she did not go to Wizard World this weekend after all.

This morning, she texted me that she was going in to work and that she did feel better but her head still hurt some.  I stopped and left her a surprise snack in her car, then when she texted me later she said that she really felt bad.  She was scheduled to work until 4:00 and they were short-handed, so she knew she wouldn't be able to leave early.  I told her I'd bring her some Gatorade, so I stopped at the convenience store near her store and got three bottles.  I left them in the car for her, then I went inside to see her.  She was checking out a customer so I waited until she was through.  She did not feel feverish but he said she felt fairly awful and she was pale - which is saying a lot, she's got the typical Irish Redhead coloration.  She thinks that she might have actually had a bug that was aggravated by a migraine, but I really think it was "just" a migraine.  I headed on home at that point, she texted me about 2:30 that the next cashier had arrived and her boss told her to go on home.  She texted me later on that she'd had some soup broth (with chopped onions added to it) and that she was feeling better because she'd had some rest.  She is going to take an allergy pill tonight and should be able to get some sleep tonight.  She works tomorrow but not as early, she gets off at 3:00 but then they have a mandatory employee meeting at 6:30.  I told her to put her laundry in the car then she can come over here and get it done before she goes to the meeting.  I don't know if I'm taking her to the meeting or not, but she will bring the car back tomorrow at some point.  She's off Monday and Tuesday, so Bill will have the car and she will also have some downtime in case it is a bug.  The dentist appointment is Monday, it was scheduled for 4:00 but the dentist changed it to 10:00 in the morning and I'm glad of that since her tooth is tender.  She thinks it's just because the spot the dentist worked on is on the back of the tooth and it's kind of hard to keep from bumping it with the bottom teeth.

 

I'm hopefully going to get started on the tulip bed tomorrow.  The dirt work, anyway.  The ground is probably going to be cool enough to plant the bulbs very soon.  Possibly extremely soon, we have a cold week ahead of us and may get a "wintery mix" next Saturday morning!  So, I'm going to get the soap/oil/water mix on the bed tomorrow but I still have to get the weeds out of the way first and start loosening the dirt.  I might treat it again in about a week or so, but I might just go ahead and plant the bulbs then.  Either way, this is probably the last time I'll plant tulip bulbs there.  We may extend the back fence and the tulip bed area will not get enough sunlight if we do.  I may plant them somewhere else at a later time, though.

Myrtle!

My friend Shara has a post on her blog where she references "old lady" names, but not in a bad way.  She mentions that she likes them.  So do I.  One of the names is Opal, which is my favorite stone.  I didn't see the name Myrtle, but it seemed like a good name to use for today's title. We just bought ten Crepe Myrtle plants and planted them along the back fence.  Hence the name Myrtle!

 

5 are a deep reddish color, 5 are pink.  They are planted in alternating colors - red, pink, red, pink, etc. and are about 3' off the fence.  They are between the trellis pieces attached to the fence that the honeysuckle might eventually reach to grow on, now that all but one have come back from being mowed down by Doofus and Doofus!  The Crepe Myrtle varieties we bought are going to be 10 - 12' tall.  We hope they grow fast!  Besides the fact that they will attract hummingbirds and butterflies, as well as honeybees (we hope), they will also make it a little more private in our back yard.  Neighbors behind us seems to think that it's ok for them to stand on their back porch and obviously attempt to look in my dining room and living room windows.  We haven't seen either of them do it lately, but we're taking matters into our own hands.  We had looked into ordering crepe myrtles from the Audobon society last year or thereabout, I don't remember why we decided against it at the time.  But Atwood's had the plants on sale so we went up there and filled up the trunk of my car.  We got a pretty good rain this morning so the ground was very soft, we got them planted pretty quickly.  Fall is the best time to plant things like that, tall bushes and trees, because they spend the winter growing their root systems which will help them to withstand spring storms and wind.  They are cold-tolerant to 0 degrees.

 

Otter is at J's house today.  J's mom gave her and Roomie a small kitchen table and 4 small bench-style seats that go with it.  I took her out there early this afternoon and the 4 chairs fit in my car so they came home with me.  I think the table is square, maybe about 3' x 3" so it will be big enough for the two girls and small enough to fit in the dining room at their apartment.  If it fits in my car, I'll bring it home with me when I get Otter in a couple of hours.  She was going to take my car and take herself, but I needed the car this afternoon so I took her out there.  J lives in a small town that is not exactly next door, but it's not too far.

 

Yesterday, Bill and I got the tape measure and measured her room.  I got a pad of paper and a pen, and we drew out how I think it's going to be arranged when it become "my" room.  "My" room as opposed to "Bill's" room which is the pachinko workroom.  So if I refer to it as my room, I don't mean that I'm moving out of our bedroom.  Anyway, there was a point to this ramble.  I was going to the library yesterday and to check our booth.  I did manage to get to the booth store, but I never made it to the library.  I got sidetracked by a yard sale sign.  There were a bunch of signs, but this one particular one just caught my attention.  It was just a posterboard sign and not any different than any other signs, but I just had the feeling that I should go check it out.  I'm glad I did.  When Bill and I were planning out My room, we included the fact that I desperately need more yarn storage space and I was going to head to Big Lots or another store in Tulsa which is nationwide but I'm not sure how far - Old Time Pottery, for another plastic drawer set.  The first ones we got were around $20 on sale, the last one I got was $25 regular price.  The yard sale was an older couple and it was a fun sale, they were just trying to get rid of stuff and not "just make a lot of money" so their prices were pretty much almost free.  I spent $13.00 total, plus $1.00 I paid the young gentleman-in-training who was shopping with his mom for watching my stuff so I could get my car - I think he was maybe 6 or 7 years old and absolutely adorable.  For $3.00, I got a 3-drawer plastic set just like the 5-drawer style AND IT WAS FULL OF YARN.  For $5.00, I got a wider and deeper drawer size 3-drawer set and IT HAD QUITE A BIT OF ALREADY CROCHETED ITEMS INCLUDING SEVERAL DOILIES.  (Capitals is not yelling, it's just for emphasis).  For $5.00, I got a wicker sewing basket WHICH WAS ALSO FULL OF YARN.  The sewing basket is in the donate pile, but the yarn was worth easily 5 or 6 times what I paid for it.  Similar deals with the other two drawer sets.  The already crocheted items are granny squares and similar items.  I might find a use for them, some of them may be donated and there are a few that are partially made but not completed and they might be frogged out.  One of the drawer on the smaller size unit was full of wool yarn, which I didn't realize until after I got it home but I should have figured out because my hands were itching pretty fiercely after I had opened the drawers to look at it.  The wool yarn will be donated, but even with that I still got a huge amount of yarn for very little so I'm not complaining.  I'm going to empty my tote bags of yarn into the larger-sized drawers and probably put some of the yarn I got yesterday into it as well.  I think (maybe anyway) that the smaller drawer unit will solve my overcrowded stash drawers.

 

At Church this morning, it was announced that the 9:00 a.m. service is being discontinued.  Next Sunday will be the last one for the early service, after that it will be back to the 10:30 only service on Sunday mornings.  We liked the 9:00 a.m. service, but there were never very many people.  The 10:30 service is always full, but the most people we've ever seen at 9:00 is about 15.  Usually, it's 10 or less so we're not surprised.  We actually expected this a while back, I think it's been about 4 years or so and the attendance at the early service has never increased.  We're thinking about looking for a different church anyway, we were waiting until after Otter's move to worry about that and now we're really thinking it might be time to move on.

 

The first day of Fall is this Tuesday.  It seems like it's still late Spring, there has been so much going on that I'm running behind!  We've seen a few people having firewood delivered or hauling it home themselves.  So I guess we're actually ahead of the curve this time.  At least as far as firewood goes, I still need to re-stock the Winter Storm/Housebound supplies but I think I can cut down the amount a little since it's just for two people and not three.  Not that we have a huge stock, just a few canned items and water for a couple of days in case we get iced in.  Which does happen here sometimes!

Sunday Dinner

Will last all week!

 

Bill got the grill out and we had steaks for dinner.  He also grilled 4 turkey burgers, 5 hot dogs, 4 pork chops and 3 fajita-seasoned chicken breasts.  Dinner for the week!  I made corn on the cob to go with the steaks tonight, although mine was "corn off the cob" since I have to cut it off to eat it due to my dentures.  Still good, just eaten with a fork instead of with holders on each end and the cob.

 

I had a couple of things I wanted to get accomplished this weekend.  I wanted to get Uncle Crazy's lap blanket finished, I did that today.  I put three rows on it yesterday and the final one today.  Otter and I needed to go through the blankets and separate hers out, we got that done today as well.  I gave her a specific quilt that Mom and our special Aunt made - Froggy, I think you may have helped with it but I'm not sure.  Otter was thrilled with it.  That's the one I texted you the picture of, Froggy.

 

I wanted to go to the Yarn Store in Tulsa that was re-opening and I did that yesterday - there were two locations, they were consolidated into one store and it's really nice.  The two stores were great, but one was really small.  The new store is open, airy and filled with light.  And lots of yarn!  It's a very inviting place, it was originally started as a knit shop but the owner makes a serious effort to include crochet artists in her store even though she herself knits.  I didn't buy any yarn yesterday, but there are a couple of varieties I'm thinking about.  It's where the mink yarn came from and I've found a few other good yarns there.

 

Bill wanted to get some more firewood split, we did that this morning.  It's actually kind of fun, it's a little strenuous but it's not difficult.  We might not actually get any more firewood.  We have a great deal, more than I thought we had.  If Bill does get more, that's fine.  But if not, I think we probably have enough.  He mowed the back yard this morning, it wasn't really tall but it did kind of need it.  He got the front yard one day last week.  Not too much longer for that this year.

 

Yesterday was really cool, it was in the low- to mid-50's.  It was supposed to be a little warmer than that.  It was overcast and misty.  Friday night was cold, it was in the 40's!  It was pretty cool last night but I'm not sure how low the temperature actually was.  It was pretty chilly this morning, I went out on the back deck and enjoyed it for a while.  The dogsters enjoyed it to, Maggie was following her nose all over the deck and along the back of the house between the house and the honeysuckle trellises.  Possibly there has been a 4-footed visitor, most likely a possum or something similar.

 

I took the last antibiotic tonight, I'm so glad to be through with them.  I still have a couple of yogurt left, I'm getting tired of it as well.  I still need to eat it for a few more days.  I like yogurt but I'll be glad when I don't have to eat it as often!

 

Otter woke up with a pretty bad allergy attack yesterday morning, she had a tremendous headache and was in bed pretty much all day long.  Fall has always been her worst season, but it's been better the last couple of years.  Hopefully, it's not going to be bad again.  She was pretty miserable yesterday.  Today, she woke up fine and hasn't had any allergy issues beyond some mild stuff.  At least it was "only" allergy and not the flu, which was my first concern!

Sunday Birds Toads and Water

It's Sunday so I guess I'd better blog.  Otherwise, Froggy might get mad at me and since I have already tormented her today by sending her pictures of a drink cup from the place we got lunch at (Braums!)...

Bill mowed the yard this morning.  It was overgrown again, but not as bad as it was when we had it mowed by Slow & Clueless a week and a half ago.  We got just enough rain a few days ago to start the grass growing.  It was still very damp when he mowed, but it was so humid that it wouldn't really dry and he finally just got tired of waiting and mowed it damp.  With frequent stops for a baby robin!  Flying lessons were taking place in the back yard and he didn't want to run over it.  At one point, he had me go move it off of the fence at the dog yard because Frasier might have had a snack, if he'd seen the little featherbrain.  The baby robin was pretty stubborn, but I think that the parents finally got it to fly off with them.

When Bill was mowing the front yard, I found a tiny toad in the grass.  It was smaller than the top of my thumb.  It was a toad and not a tree frog, it was just very small.  I relocated "him" to the back yard to be free of being mowed as well as the fact that it would have more access to water, hiding spots and mosquitos.  How did the little squishy thing repay me?  He leaked!  I wasn't really surprised, they tend to do that.

The first rain barrel has been full for a while but we haven't been using it.  The spigot was plastic and the twisty part broke off a while back so we left it closed until we could get a metal spigot to replace the plastic one.  Which we forgot about!  We've been using the 2nd rain barrel, every time we get it down to a point where Bill can consider moving it back into place (it got out of place when it froze over the winter and the bottom shape changed), it would rain again.  Bill remembered the first rain barrel spigot issue today, so we went to Ace Hardware and got a metal one.  Which was the wrong size, so I had to go back and exchange it.  He drained the first rain barrel and cleaned it out, then he put a mosquito dunk in it and put the metal spigot on it.  It's ready for rain now.  Of course, that probably means that it won't rain for a while...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOADLES!

Blogger is being odd today, it won't let me justify the margins and eaven everything up.  Which is a real problem for the Borg Queen!  Everything in it's place...

(Nevermind, I found a backdoor way to fix it.)

Mowed Down

The beagle no longer has to be worried about getting lost in tall grass, the mowers got here this afternoon.  Of course, the beagle is still a tad bit silly but at least she doesn't have to worry about being eaten by weeds.

 

Cost $60 and they didn't do the best job, but it's done and I'm glad.  Our friend was tied up and sent someone to take care of our yard.  Bill said it was like Bubba & Bubba!  They spent more time starting their mower which kept quitting, than he would have taken to mow both the front and back!  They also had a weed-eater running, which is also good because that is usually my job and it's not one I enjoy. :)

 

We've made a discovery.  It's a new-to-us tv channel.  Retro TV.  We found it totally by accident yesterday, Bill was changing channels and he found something special.  Extremely special.

This:

Last night, we caught the first episode that was broadcast on Retro TV.  It was not the original episode, although we have seen that one.  It was probably very early in the first season's run, maybe 3rd or episode in.  Two episodes per night and we intend to watch every single one that we can.  According to the website, the first several seasons will be aired.  I think that what they are actually doing is running the entire original series, it was off the air for several years until # 9 (Christopher Eccleston.)  That means that "Teeth and Hair's" entire run will be broadcast.  # 4 IS the best Dr. Who, hands down.  Although # 9 was very good, he was just one season, and # 10 was excellent (David Tennant) but # 4 IS Dr. Who.

I still think that the theme would make an excellent ring tone.  But I think I'd want the first theme, it changed later on in the series.

But then I'd either constantly call myself just to hear it ring, or I wouldn't answer my calls because I'd want to hear it!

It's a Jungle Out There!

Or at least it looks like it in my front yard.  I called someone we know and he is going to either come out here in the next day or so, or possibly send one of his crew over here.  Probably tomorrow.  Maggie Moo will be pleased, she's afraid of getting lost!

 

Bill's doing pretty good, just a little stir crazy.  Not that I blame him.  It's hard not to use your hand, but he's trying very hard.

 

Froggy, I know what you mean about women and their purses.  Many times, I've seen a woman shopping and the basket with her purse in it is either behind or, our several feet away.  I've seen more than one nearly be stolen, just my presence and obviously seeing the person has been enough to have the would-be thief walk away.  Otter has noticed it pretty often as well.  In fact, if she and I are shopping together and notice it we will make a point of walking by the basket/shopper in question and loudly (so that she hears us) commenting to each other how someone could have grabbed that purse and the owner would never have even noticed it.  Otter thinks she should print up cards to leave on top of the purse with words to the effect of "I could have stolen your purse and you'd never have seen me" as a warning.  I remember one time walking into a grocery store and hearing a woman yelling that her purse had been taken out of her basket.  I also went to Sunday School with a woman who had her bag stolen out of her basket at a clothing store.  There are enough bad people in the world, why make it easier for them?  But it happens.  Very frequently.

 

Migraine today.  This is the 4th one this year.  I usually average about 3 per year.  This is only August, I still have several months left in 2014.  I hope that it is not a trend!  I did have ranch dressing on my salad yesterday, I usually don't eat ranch dressing unless I can read the label on the bottle because it usually has msg by the ton in it, but this was a prepackaged salad and I just didn't think about it.  Hidden Valley brand is one of the worst, and it's also the most commonly used ranch dressing.  Well, it does taste good.  I think it's the most likely culprit.  The headache hit about 11:00 or so, I had planned on getting lunch and bringing it back to the office so I could crochet but crochet and migraines do not mix!  I was a little nauseated, which is also common with migraines.  I went ahead and ate lunch, I had a tuna sandwich at Subway and it helped.  I managed to stay at work but I left about 30 minutes early.

 

Otter needed to get something at Hobby Lobby and I had already asked her to wait for me so I could go with her, so I forced myself to go (not that it was all that hard.)  I actually need to buy yarn this time, I bought 5 skeins for Uncle Crazy's lap blanket but it's going to take 6.  At least.  I cruised the yarn aisles while Otter was getting her stuff, the fall colors are starting to come out and they are nice!  I was able to resist, but I'm not making promises for any future trips!

 

Froggy, you do realize that you are now an Official Conscript of the Pachinko business!

 

We just saw an advertisement for a can't miss movie:  Into the Storm.  All I got to say is, Yeah Right!  As Otter says, anybody who lives in Tornado Alley should know just how B.A.D. that one is going to be.  I'm pretty sure we'll pass on that one.

Weekend and Shopping Stuff

It's Sales-Tax-Free Weekend.  Otter and I went shopping!  Big surprise...  Anyway, we went to the mall yesterday and spent a few hours there.  And bought nothing!  We went to 2 different Targets stores, a few smaller stores and were ready to just give up and go home empty-handed.  We bought lunch at Whataburger (It's a Texan Thing) and decided to give thrifting a try.  We went to two Goodwills, and those are the only places we actually bought something at.  Well, we did go to Michael's but that was for something specific that Otter wanted and not connected with sales-tax-free shopping (I found yarn but you aren't surprised at that, are you?!)  Anyway, I found one blouse at the first Goodwill.  Otter found one blouse and one skirt at the 2nd Goodwill.  We knew we would get stuff at Wallyworld, but we were tired and my feet hurt so we put that off until today.

 

Otter found a pair of pink converse-type sneakers at Wally.  I got a package of socks.  So exciting!  Bill needed jeans and pj bottoms, he needs new jeans on a regular basis so they were already on my list to get this weekend.  A few weeks back, I bought him a pair of pj bottoms with the Captain America logo on them.  The tag said that they were the right size, and so did the size label printed on them.  So, I washed them and put them in his drawer.  I came home one day and he had just put them on - let's just say that it was a sight not to be missed!  I think that they were actually a larger children's or small adult size, but they were mislabeled.  I would imagine that there was a run of mislabeled pj's one day but Hane's quality control left a little to be desired.  They fit Otter, although they are a little long for her (happens often).  They are now in her pj drawer and she wears them often.  Today, I triple checked the size on the pj's Bill usually wears and then found a pair at Wally.  I checked the inside label and the sewn-in laundry instructions on the ones he had and I even copied down the numbers on the tag.  Of course, the ones at Wally had a different number on the tag!  I decided to grab them while there and made sure they were the same size as the previous pair and they are, so Bill now has enough pj's to lounge around in.

 

I think we saved about $7 or $8 this weekend.  Not nearly as much as in years past, but then again we don't have to buy school clothes and that always added up fast.

 

Bill's incision site looks pretty good.  He uncovered it yesterday so he could clean it up and start using the medicated ointment.  He's trying hard not to over use his hand but it's difficult.  The lawn desperately needs to be moved but he's not able to.  I was going to mow it and went to get gas for the mower this morning, but it's really humid and I can't really breathe outside so Bill won't let me - I'm not arguing with him about it, either!  I'm calling someone tomorrow to get both the front and back mowed, I was just going to mow the front but they both need it and it will be worth whatever we have to pay to get it done.

 

One other thing happened at Goodwill.  Well, almost happened.  We think someone tried to grab Otter's purse.  I had noticed a younger girl, maybe mid-teens or thereabouts, a few times because she seemed to be in the same area we were quite often.  I always notice that and then I always watch when that happens.  I'm really glad I did this time.  Otter was standing in front of, but not right close to, the shelves where the stuffed animals are kept at.  I was standing by her, she was facing to my left and her purse was hanging on her shoulder more of less between us but slightly towards her back.  I noticed the same girl coming towards us with a larger stuffed animal in her right hand and she was almost running - and she was looking straight at Otter's purse and starting to reach out with her left hand.  Otter became aware of her movement just as I did, she was starting to turn around just as I reached my right hand up VERY FAST and got it between the girl and Otter's purse.  As soon as she saw my hand and arm go up, she (the girl) looked up at me and the only way I can describe her expression is either a) Deer in the Headlights or b) Caught and she knew it.  More B than A, actually.  She grabbed the stuffed animal out of her right hand with her left hand and threw it in the general direction of the shelves, then she turned around and RAN as fast as she could to the other side of the store.  We watched her and she was doing everything she could NOT to be seen.  I think she left immediately after, it looked like she was with a couple of other people and I think what happened is that she "reported in" that she'd been spotted and that we were on to her because they cleared out in record time.  There is no way we misinterpreted what nearly happened and we have zero doubt as to what the girls intention was.

 

Two things would have happened:  A)  I would have put the little b--ch down on the floor and held her there while yelling for Otter to call 911 AND B)  Otter's a black belt, and she's got the reflexes so do I need to explain?

 

Otter may be petite, but she is a RHTW in her own right.  With a black belt.  She's also her mother's daughter.

Derpy Sunday

Been that kind of day today!  All day long.

 

Not helped in the least by the fact that I had a nosebleed to deal with, with no warning.  I thought my nose was trying to run when it was in fact bleeding.  Not a good time to discover that I'm down to one box of Kleenex!  (TEXAS speak:  All forms of tissues are Kleenex.  Even the Puffs with lotion that we use.  They just are.)  It's allergy related, nothing to worry about.  IF I didn't blow my nose too soon and have it start bleeding again, that is!

 

Otter does have an ear infection.  She was supposed to get off at 6:00 Friday evening, but by 5:00 her ear was really starting to hurt so her boss let her go a little early.  I took her to the urgent care clinic we use and she saw a doctor there.  It's not bad, it was caught early.  But she still has an antibiotic to take which is in the form of horse pills.  She has to split them, they are huge.  Yes, Froggy.  We did get a lot of yogurt!

 

Otter and I went to a fabric store in one of the small, neighboring towns yesterday and we also went to a few yard sales.  We didn't really find anything at any of them.  We did see one estate sale sign on one of the main streets so we followed signs until we found it and I bought a few things there, but I still spent about $1.00 there as it was the last day of the sale and everything was 75% off.  We went to the Hitching Post, Froggy that's where I sent you the pictures from.  One of the booths has something I really like, one of these:

This isn't the actual lamp, but it is very similar.  The shade on the one I saw is much bigger and a different style.  I like it a lot, but it's kind of big and I am not really sure where I would put it.  I could put it on the sofa table for the moment, but I don't know if I want to pay $30.00 for it.  I'm still thinking about it.

 

I found a different hat pattern that I decided might work well as a Chemo Cap.  I have been looking for a good pattern to make them with, a lot of organizationpings that work with people who are being treated for cancer take donations of them and then they are given to people who have hair loss due to chemotherapy.  The pattern I found was more of a stocking cap and it looked like it might work.  I made it with very soft yarn, so that if it did work I could donate it - they need to be made as soft as possible.  It worked, but it used up a huge amount of yarn and also took way too long.  Also, I don't like the way it looks - at least not for what it was intended for.  I'll keep looking, I'll find a good pattern eventually.  I can use my standard hat pattern, it would need to be made slightly looser and larger than I normally make them but that's not a problem.  But I want to see what else I can find first.

 

I have a slight headache, courtesy of the nosebleed.  I kind of have to just deal with it, since anything I could take for it is a potential blood thinner and that's the last thing I need right now.  One of my least favorite parts of the Redhead Curse is the bleeding issues we have.

 

The weather has been really nice lately.  Last week was really unusual for July in NE Oklahoma - 70's and 60's at night.  Today is nice, I think it's in the 80's but it was very cool this morning.  I was out trimming tree limblets about 8:00 a.m., and it was actually almost cold.  I had a lot of help, in the form of a beagle!  Maggie Moo apparently decided that she needed to help me.  Help me keep the limbs from flying!  She was very bouncy and playful, and as soon as she saw me by the tree she literally bounced over to me from the other side of the yard.  She got in my way quite a bit, but she managed to get her delicate little furry behind on top of a bunch of branches, then she settled down and stayed there.  Even as limblets were falling (and nearly falling on her!)  She had leaves on her head at one point, but she didn't move until I was through.  Then, she got up and bounced (literally) around the tree, behind the shed and on top of the shell-top to the El Camino that is stored behind the shed.  Who knows what goes on in that little furry head!  Frasier was out in the yard with us, but he's smart enough to stay away from falling limbs.  Maggie is such a goof sometimes.  OK, most of the time.  When I got ready to go inside, I yelled for Frasier and he went straight to the back door to wait for me.  I hollered for Maggie a couple of times, but didn't see her anywhere so I figured she was probably under the shed again.  Then I got to the deck and she was sitting in front of the back door, wagging at me and apparently just waiting until I was ready to go inside!

 

We have been dumping the dog's outside water dish just about every day lately, because it's had wrigglers (mosquito larvae.)  Nearly every day.  It's now sitting empty, we always put their inside water dish out in the garage when we leave for the day and we'll continue to do that, but the outside dish might stay empty for a day or two.  The frog hasn't been seen in days anyway, and that might have something to do with why the wrigglers have been so bad.

 

Otter's harvested a few jalepenos from her plants on the deck.  They are not huge, but they are good.  Bill's been helping keep them under control!

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!