Some Thursday Thoughts

I'm cold. I want to turn on the heater. But I'm not getting anywhere with that. I'll make another request in a little while. I'm not going to be patient on this one, it's cold!

Bill's dad brought something to my attention. Bill used a power tool (his table saw) when he made his shelf and he DIDN'T HAVE TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL! That in itself is a scary thought. Because if he didn't hurt himself, what ripple effect will that have? A rip in the fabric of space? Armageddon? :)

Neighbor/Dog update: I looked out the kitchen window this morning, shortly before I was to leave for work. I noticed that the milk can had fallen over so I went out there to stand it back up again. And discovered two more holes in the fence courtesy of the dogs next door. I found something big and heavy to block it with, then I propped the cinderblock against it, along with two bricks and the milk can. Then I called Bill to let him know. When he got home, we went out to check on it and one of the holes is bigger than it was this morning. Fortunately, it was covered up by the block I put out there. Bill put the block back, then he stood up on the cinderblock so he could see into the yard next door. The neighbor's daughter (?) was out there, he got her attention (he had to call her more than once, and I'm pretty sure she heard him every time) and he told her that their dogs were tearing the fence up. She said she'd tell "her" which I am assuming means her mother, or whomever the adult female is.

Yeah, I know - that's a whine and it's not Wednesday. But it's my blog and I can whine/rant when I want to!

I wish that they would move. Soon.

It's pretty windy, which isn't helping the temperature. I decided it was time to start feeding the birds, so Otter and I put up all 5 of my seed feeders. I actually have 6, but one of them is the one Otter made me and I think I need to hit it again with sealer before I put it out in the elements. I might get a couple more feeders, I got rid of my big & bulky ones and replaced them with smaller ones and I still have a couple of places where I can hang a few more. I also need to get some more suet feed cakes, I have one left from last year. But it has a nice, big hole in it courtesy of a rodent that found it in the garage! When I first noticed the hole, it was about the size of a quarter. I forgot all about it, until I rediscovered it this afternoon. The hole is now the size of 2 or 3 quarters and much deeper, so I think the mousy is still out there! Or maybe it's more than one. I really need to get some mouse traps out there, but sometimes I wonder what the point is - kill one and two take it's place! :) But I want to get the suet feeders up soon, they always have 2 visitors that I absolutely love to watch. One is a bluejay. The other one is a red-headed woodpecker! We're kind of partial to redheads, for some unknown reason. Can't imagine why!

OH JOY! The heater is on! Stinks while the dust burns off, but I like that smell - it means that I'm going to get warm soon.

Whine Wednesday

We have our first suggestion for a whine!

Froggy wants to whine about Toadly. Here's her comment: The only thing that I can think of to whine about is no emails from Toadles and no visit from him either.

Yeah, I know. It's more of a little sister ragging on big brother. But it's a whine and I'll take it! Rants will be accepted as whining. Besides, he hardly ever emails me, either!

Ok, on to other stuff.

Here's the shelf Bill made for the Useless Collection. But he really needs to make a couple more. Turned out pretty good! Sorry the picture isn't closer.

It's been raining all day. The nice slow rain that we need for a few days in a row. It could get to the 40's tonight. Nice! Although I have cold feet...

New Feature!

I'm going to try something. It's called Whine Wednesdays. If anybody has anything they want to whine about, email me! And I'll post it - as long as it is family friendly and not against Christianity. However, as it is my blog I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone! Specifically, politics will be refused most likely. If I edit anyone's comments, I'll indicate it. If you don't have my email address, you can leave it as a comment on here but please indicate that it's for Whine Wednesday if you want me to post it as a blog entry. One more thing: watch your language! Profanity will not be accepted. I quit using it myself several years ago and I don't like it. But you don't have to be politically correct.

One of my blog buddies has Wordless Wednesday where she posts pictures but no words. I like the idea of it, but I decided to go with Whine Wednesdays instead. It was easy to come up with a name and a subject - there is a liquor store that has Wine Wednesday where they have wine on sale on Wednesdays. I think that it's a great name, I just changed it to Whine instead of Wine.

Neighbor update: No more dog incursions, but they are very strange people. Bill waved at her yesterday and she turned her back and I'm convinced that she pretended not to see him. She did the same thing to me this morning. Odd, to say the least. And the rest of the story regarding the dog she rescued - her words were actually that she stole the animal. It had been left at a house and the people moved out, but someone was feeding it.

I put the second coat of Kilz on the frame for the rain barrel tonight. Bill's going to look at it tomorrow and tell me if he thinks I need to put another coat of Kilz on it, or if I can start the actual paint. I'll still have to hit it with Kilz in the morning, the side that is currently down on the garage floor will need to get it's second coat of Kilz. Since it could rain and my rain barrel is not set up yet, I put my watering can out on the deck and if it does rain I'll use it to water my plants tomorrow.

Bill's finally figured out to do with some of what we call his Useless Collection. He collects shot glasses. We are not big drinkers, but that's what he chose to collect. We call it the Useless Collection because very few of them ever actually get used. He has billions and billions! Otter and I find them for him when we go on vacations, we've found some at thrift stores, just about every place. Some of his collection were in boxes we got at auctions. He has some very unusual ones, some are naughty, some of them are really neat. Since so many of them came from thrift stores & auctions, he has shot glasses from places he's never been and probably will never go to. They take up an entire drawer of my china cabinet, and it's a pretty big drawer. They are stored in one of the kitchen cabinets and are now taking up two shelves. He had some scrap wood that was being thrown out where he works and he used it to make a display case. Creative recycling is what we call that. He's nearly finished with the case. It will have two shelves and he's going to put it over the window in the office room. However, he has so many shot glasses that they won't all fit but it will at least give me some of my kitchen cabinet back! Until he gets more, that is. There will be more, I'm convinced that those things multiply like rabbits! :)

I went to Walgreen's for a few things, but the first thing on the list was baby oil so we could treat the tulip bed ahead of tonight/tomorrow's expected rain. I also bought milk and a couple of things with the coupons from their ad in Sunday's paper. So what did I come home without? Baby oil! Well, I guess it gives me an excuse to go back there tomorrow. The tulip bed will be fine, I just wanted to get it treated before the rain. But it won't affect it. We bought tulips at Lowe's last night. I think Otter wound up with 48 bulbs, 4 dozen. She picked out black, red, yellow and pink. I think that's all the colors but I don't remember for sure. The bulbs are in the dining room on the butler's cart I use as a plant stand and I'm in the office room which is at the opposite end of the house. Since my heel is bothering me tonight, I'm not going to walk in there and then come all the way back here. If I'm wrong, I might correct it with the next blog entry. Maybe, if I think about it.

Tulip Thoughts

Froggy asked me what I meant by baby oil in connection with the tulips. We have moles & voles & gophers. (Actually, that makes a good song when sung to the tune of Mairsey Doats). Moles and voles like to eat plant roots & bulbs, gophers like to eat the grubs that are attracted by plant roots & bulbs. But none of them like mineral oil or dish soap. Mineral oil is sold plain, but it's pricy. However, baby oil is basically mineral oil with scent added and it's much cheaper. So I use baby oil, I fill up my watering can with water then add about 1/2 a bottle of baby oil and liquid dish soap. I'm not sure how much soap, several squirts from my soap pump. You'll want to put the soap in AFTER the water & baby oil, otherwise it will bubble up. Stir it up and pour it over the dirt. Really soak the dirt. Then about a week or two later it gets another treatment. The scent of the baby oil makes it smell nice! Then the moles & voles & gophers leave because of the mineral oil and the grubs leave because of the soap.

The first year we planted tulips, we discovered that most of the bulbs had been eaten or disturbed by grub eaters when they didn't come up the next spring. That's when I discovered this liquid remedy. It can also be used after the bulbs are planted, but it works best if it's done before the bulbs are in.

The second year was not a good year for tulips, but that was because the dogs ran across the tulip bed and destroyed most of the plants just before they bloomed. But they had come up and were healthy otherwise. That's when the tulip bed moved to the front! The dirt will hold quite a bit of the oil residue, so when I plant the bulbs the dirt will pretty much hold the shape of the shovel or bulb planter but that actually makes it easier to plant. I turned the dirt over with a shovel yesterday after weeding, I will probably get the first treatment on it in the next few days. I thought I had baby oil left from last year but I don't. So I'll get it tomorrow or the next day, but we still have plenty of time before we need to plant because the ground is still way too warm.

Nice Fall Sunday (And Later Update!)

Well, we changed our plans slightly. We aren't going to Lowe's and Bill didn't talk to the neighbor.

He saw her out in the front, but he was in the middle of sawing a board and couldn't stop. By the time he finished, she was gone. So he decided to go ahead and fix the fence for now. The piece that the dog tore off was actually broken into two pieces, Bill glued and clamped them back together and then he took a board that was about the same length as a fence post but slightly wider and thicker, then he screwed it to the fence at the bottom. I think we are going to eventually do that to the entire fence. It will be a lot harder for any dog to get through, and also several of the existing holes in the fence will be covered up. Then we let the dogs have access to the rest of the yard. Frasier promptly went over to that spot, but once he saw that he couldn't get his face through the hole (because it's not there anymore), he lost interest.

Bill also put together the frame for my rain barrel. The barrel will be laid on it's side when it's all finished, the frame will hold it in place and also will keep it off of the ground. I'm going to put several coats of Kilz on the frame and then a couple of coats of regular paint. But until the valve/spigot that we ordered arrives, we won't be doing anything else to the barrel. Hopefully, it will come this week. I'd like to get it set up as soon as we can. Then we will have to wait for rain, but this is NE Oklahoma and it does tend to rain a lot here. A LOT.

Yes, he did have to use his power tools. Today he used his table saw and his drill. And he didn't even come close to injury. Which is a good thing!

And Otter did get her driving practice in today. She drove us to the recylcing center so we could drop off our stuff. She did well, she is working on changing lanes and when to stop for stoplights. There are other things she wants to work on, but those were today's items. She's doing great.

I got the tulip bed weeded. And I found one of these:

It's a Yellow Bear, also called a Wooly Bear and it will turn into one of these:

It's a Tiger Moth. It was in the tulip bed, Otter relocated it to the other side of the back fence where it's well out of Maggie's reach. She named it Squashy Toes. It's so nice to have a daughter who isn't afraid of bugs! Well, she is her mother's daughter after all. Right, Froggy?

The Lowe's trip was rescheduled. I don't think we have enough Kilz to finish the barrel stand and we also need to get tulip bulbs. But nobody wants to go anywhere today, so I'll probably go sometime this week after work. Unless Bill decides he wants to go with me, which might mean that we will go today after all. We are going to have to treat the tulip bed at least twice before we plant anyway, so I have to get some baby oil for that.

I have a prayer request. My friend Jan lost her sister a couple of weeks ago. It was expected, but it is still a hard thing to go through and I think that she and her family could use a few prayers. She had a blog for a while, it was linked as one that I read (Azbax), but she isn't blogging right now so the link isn't there anymore, for anyone who reads the blogs I have linked.

I'm also doing laundry today (seems like I always do laundry on Sunday!)and Otter helped me with housework earlier. Now that she's through with her chores, she's goofing around on the computer. I still have a couple of things to do, and I might get around to them in a little while. Or maybe not! I did get some crafting done also, and I might get some crochet time in this evening. Or I might just read. Or maybe I'll just spend the evening playing with the doggies!

UPDATE: As Otter & I were getting back from excercising the dogs, the mama dog from next door comes running over to greet us. The neighbor was outside, I think her name is Brandy, she was trying to catch the dog. I sent Otter and our two inside, then I helped her catch mama dog. I asked her about the puppies, it turns out that she rescued this dog earlier this week. It was left at a home when the people moved out, she is a friend of a neighbor to that house and they told her about the dog. They had been feeding it but were not able to take it. So Brandy went over there Monday, the puppies were very newly born then, and she brought mama and all 4 babies home. Bill decided not to mention the fence, she really is kind of an air-head and there is no telling what the fence repair would be.

A little later, I was turning the dirt in the tulip bed, when Brandy sent her daughter (?) over to see if we'd seen mama dog because she had gotten out again. I hadn't, they went looking for her and even brought out two of the babies in the hope that she'd come back to her puppies. I guess she did, because I saw her in their back yard later. And then I noticed two more spots where the fence is being pulled apart. This time, it's inside our dogs small yard and higher than ground level. I blocked it with a few bricks, the cinderblock that was already there and one of my milk cans. Bill will get it fixed up later on. The puppies are cute, not quite a week old and tiny. Maybe some lab or even golden retriever mixed in, it's kind of hard to tell this early. But I really hope that these people are renters and that they don't stay there!! (No, we are not getting a puppy! Although Otter did ask).

I unearthed several daffodil bulbs in the tulip bed, I just reburied them and they will probably be fine. I'll probably find them again when we plant the tulip bed! I also planted a few bluebonnet seeds in the whiskey barrel, I'll plant a few more when I pull the blooming plants that are out there now. That will be in the next few weeks, I'll leave the flowering ones out there until it gets too cold and they die. I can't remember what they are called, I want to say impatiens but that isn't what they are. But they are similar.

It was a busy day!

Dog Difficulties

Well, it finally happened. The neighbor's dog broke through the fence. She literally stuck her paw through a small hole and pulled the board apart. Then she came through to our yard. I happened to be outside and see it, Bill was just inside the door and he saw her flying into our yard so he started yelling at me to get Frasier and Maggie inside - he was trying to get out there himself. Fortunately, the dog was friendly. Because if she had been aggressive, Bill would probably have shot her. Frasier has a trick he does when I try to drag him somewhere by his collar, he falls over and won't move. Today was no exception. It took me a few tries, and not a little yelling, but I got him to get up and we got him inside. Maggie was much easier. Bill blocked the dogs inside and I shut the gate to their small yard. Then I dealt with the visitor! She is a mama dog, which might explain all the additional dog noises I've heard from their garage when we take our walks. She was quite happy to come to me, she even went back through the hole in the fence willingly. But before I could find something to block the hole with, she was back. She came back to me, but it took a little work to get her back through the hole. Then I blocked it with one of my milk cans - you know, the heavy metal kind that weight a ton. I stood it against the fence but then I changed my mind and it's now on it's side with the lid against the hole - I thought that it might fall over too easily when it was standing up, if a dog tries to ram through the hole. Bill's going to go talk to them tomorrow, they didn't seem to be home today. He's also going to rework the electric fence so that it will run along the ground on that side, after he fixes the hole in the fence if they don't.

They never did finish fixing their front fence, from when they rented the backhoe and were going to put in a water feature in the back yard. That fence still has lots of loose boards, and also a couple of missing boards. One of their dogs can get his head through and we won't be surprised if one day the entire dog comes through the fence. The back fence was also taken apart, they had all the rocks stacked outside the back yard that they were going to use on their water feature. I'm not sure if the back fence is actually fixed or not, it was open for several weeks and it might just be leaning instead of re-installed.

At this point, we do hope that they are renters because if they own the house then they will likely be there for a very long time. If they are renters, they might not be there forever and they don't seem to be worried about upkeep. We originally thought that they had bought it, but I overheard their conversation the other day when they were out in their back yard and it sounded like they might be renting. It was a rent house before, but the owner at the time at least was a real-estate agent. For the record, I wasn't eavesdropping - I was sitting out on my deck enjoying the afternoon and they were talking to someone who I think was visiting, and they were just loud enough that I could not ignore them. These are the same people who have/had the dog that bit Maggie (and tried to bite me) when it got it's head through a different hole in the same fence - I think that particular dog is the one that has almost gotten out through the front hole. After I put the cinderblock against the hole Maggie was bitten through, that dog quit trying to come through. I think it might have developed a sudden, severe, cinderblock-induced headache!

That was the excitement for Saturday. Tomorrow's excitement will include a trip to Lowe's, driving practice for Otter, church and we'll start getting the tulip bed ready for planting in the near future. Bill's plans also include a visit to the neighbor's!

Thursday's Better Than Wednesday

No more migraine! I did not sleep well, I get cold very easily and when I have migraines that seems to be worse. So I was cold all night, but then I generally am freezing from about September 1 until about May! Comes from growing up in S. Texas, where we almost never had actual winter. But since my migraine fairies were visiting me last night, I was colder. I still had a bit of a headache when I got up this morning, Bill would have let me sleep in but I got up anyway. But it went away sometime mid-morning. Of course, I had three cups of coffee after I got to work and that might have had something to do with it! But it's gone, so I'm not going to complain. Much anyway. I heard on the news tonight that we could get our first freeze in about 2 weeks. Joy! (Heavy sarcasm).

I keep forgetting to mention this. But guess what kind of car Otter likes? The one she'd like to be her first car:

Although I don't think she wants it to be orange, although Burnt Orange (Texas Longhorns color) might be acceptable. Probably purple! Toadles, wasn't the one you had blue? Froggy, don't even suggest marroon. It's too close to OU colors, and we don't even want to go there!

FutureJediMom, where you around then? I can't remember.

Blogger is behaving strangely tonight, so who knows what this will actually look like when I post it.

Froggy, you need a blog! I'm going to keep after you until you get one. But this program seems to be a whole lot easier than the one that the FutureJediMom uses.

Politics: We watched part of the debate last night. I really think that the debates are useless, most people have made up their minds by now and I'm not sure if the debates ever sway anyone to either side even if they are still undecided. But we noticed something. Obama is suddenly grey. Like maybe he's either a) coloring it to look more distinguished or b) not coloring it and letting any natural grey he has show through to look more distinguished. However, the amount of grey that suddenly showed up on his head makes me think that a) is the most likely scenario.

Tomorrow is Friday! Happy Happy.

Grumbling!

I'm grumbly today. I have a migraine. I could do without it, and it's not really bad. But it's still there and I don't want it! I think I've had it about 1 1/2 hours now, the flashers (lights) were brief which generally means that the pain won't be short. I took aspirin & tylenol, which is basically what most OTC migraine pills are except that they also generally have caffiene. Caffiene helps with migraines. But not at 5:00 p.m.! I'd be up all night and I haven't slept well lately anyway, so I don't want to take any chances. The aspirin & tylenol did help, the headache is better. But it's just still there. I'm drinking a decaf coke, but that mostly because I had hiccups that would not go away. Not fun with a headache! The hiccups eventually quit, and I am at least grateful for that small miracle.

Here's the karate update: Otter is quitting karate, at least for a few months. Then we will see how she's doing. But in all honesty, I don't see her ever going back. I don't think she'll be able to. It's not like when she broke her arm a few years ago and just had to wait until she healed. Asthma isn't like that, unfortunately.

And as if that's not enough, I have the world's gassiest dog! And he's laying down on the floor right beside me. I swear, that dog could peel paint!

The hiccups that I thought were gone just came back. Headache, hiccups and a stinky dog! What an exciting, fun-filled life I lead! :)

Tuesday Again!

Baby Wednesday? Sorry, couldn't resist that one. I think the whole Baby Friday thing is kind of stupid. Just say the name of the day, for Pete's sake!

Another thing. Why do we always say for Pete's sake? Who is Pete anyway! Nobody I know, that's for sure.

We did not have to sleep in the living room last night. Otter went to bed on time and was better but she still sounded kind of ragged this morning. The decision has not been made yet, Bill and I did talk about it a little bit last night though.

But we did come to another decision. We are going to have to replace our dishwasher! Hubby replaced the door seal, and it stopped leaking. For about 2 days, then it started leaking again. He checked it last night and said that it's hopeless. It's not going to be replaced right away, I'll just keep putting a towel down on the floor when I run it. I might see about pulling it out a little bit so we can see if it's leaking underneath, but the water does seem to be coming from the base of the door. I'm not sure how old it is, we've been in this house for 4 years now and I think that Darlene bought it at least a few years before that. It's been used a lot. I just would prefer not having to deal with buying a new one at the moment.

There is not a whole lot going on around my house right now. Bill has been selling the shirts we got at last June's auction, he's been taking them to work and several other employees have purchased them. Our next door neighbor, Chris, came over to talk hydrogen generators with Bill last night and he bought a few shirts as well. He also bought some of the kid size hooded jackets that we got at that same auction. At this rate, there might not be anything left to put on eBay! Which I really wouldn't mind, by the way.

This is the 25th anniversary of when Bill and I met. Which was one week after Froggy's wedding, so Happy Anniversary Froggy and Uncle Froggy! Sorry I'm late. Anyway, Bill wanted to know if I had anything special planned for dinner tonight so I decided to make enchiladas. Also refried beans and my nuclear rice. Nuclear Rice is what Otter calls my Spanish rice. Mom taught me her recipe, but I add quite a bit more chili powder to it than she ever did. Combined with rotel tomatos, it can be a tad bit on the spicey side! Which is probably why we like it so much.

Frasier says that it's time for me to stop typing and pay attention to him. He's attempting to act like he's unloved, but we both know that he's spoiled rotten! And so is Maggie, just so there's no doubt!

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blog Entry!

It's Monday. Again. Have I mentioned before that I don't really care for Mondays? Well, I don't like Mondays. But this one was ok, it was a busy day at work but it was also a fast day. However, no bank and no post office so two of my errands for today have been rescheduled for tomorrow.

Otter has finally decided what she's going to be for the not Halloween but still a costume party: she's going to be a pirate. I know, big surprise, right?! (Not). She is going to wear the black lace-up sleeved jacket that we got her yesterday, she bought a pirate-y hat at Wallyworld today and we bought some brown velour-type fabric that we're going to make pants out of. We're going to use her loosest pair of pj bottoms as a template for the pattern, she doesn't want the pants to be long so I'm guessing mid-calf length. She's still working out the details of the shirt she'll wear, but it might involve temporarily sewing lace or ruffle onto one of her white cotton blouses. She is not going to be one of those pirates who have a parrot on the shoulder! (Sorry, Toadly). She is also not going to wear an eye patch. Otter says that she's not the exact pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean but that she is inspired by that character. That character, Captain Jack, is somewhat drinky and that part she is definitely skipping! Captain Jack ties things to his clothing, things like jewels and stuff he doesn't want to loose. Otter is thinking about attaching ribbons, either to the jacket or to her hair, and tieing small things to them. She's having fun with this one, I think! So far, she's spent about $12.00. The hat was $6.50 and the fabric was Walmart clearance, $2.00/yard and I think we got about 2 1/2 yards - I just bought what was left on the bolt. The pants will probably become pj pants later on, the jacket is one that she'll be wearing as a blazer and the hat is probably the only thing that is just for fun.

We attempted karate tonight. It was not good. She didn't even make it through half of the class time before she had to come get her inhaler. They weren't even doing anything strenuous. She was in real distress, I've never seen her with blue lips before and her entire face was grey. I was really concerned about her, she used her inhaler several times and then we left. But I seriously considered stopping at the ER, she was having so much trouble. She's been parked on the couch ever since we got home about 2 hours ago. She is much better, her color is back to normal, but she's still wheezy. It might be a "living room slumber party" for us tonight. We haven't had to do that in years, but tonight might well be one.

When Otter was smaller and having pretty regular asthma problems, her asthma was really severe. When she was having really bad spells, she and I would sleep in the living room so I could hear her if she needed me or needed a treatment in the night. Which did happen on occasion. In order to keep her from being scared, we started calling those times "living room slumber parties" and it worked to keep her calm. She is watching tv with her dad right now, and I'll see how she is in about 45 minutes. Then I'll decide where we are sleeping tonight.

Oh and blue lips means that she was not getting anywhere near enough oxygen. That is a very BAD sign. Fingernail beds are another good place to check, if they are pink then things are good. But since hers have purple polish on, I couldn't really tell very well! The nail polish has chipped off slightly, Otter said she could tell on one fingernail that her nail beds weren't the right color, either.

I think we are at the point where we have no choice, we have to make a decision regarding her continuing with karate. Bill and I have not had a chance to talk, other than me updating him on tonight's class. But I don't think we can put if off much longer, it is pretty obvious that it is counter-productive for her to continue. Honestly, I think we probably should have already pulled her out of it.

When we got in, Otter went straight to the couch and both dogs were immediately right there beside her. Maggie almost got up on the couch, she was trying to get as close to Otter as she could. It was not like she was just jumping up onto the couch, it was pretty obvious that she was trying to snuggle her Otter. Frasier was nearly as clingy. These two dogs are very sensitive, much more than just about any dog we've ever had (aside from the second Tagalong.)

There was more, but this is long enough for one night.

Today is Not a Holiday

Or it should be retitled. How about Anniversary of the Destruction of a Culture Day. That about sums it up.

A Few Sunday Comments

First of all, I have to get something off my chest. I have seldom seen something this tacky, and it is absolutely infuriating. The Blue Star Mothers had a donation drive today, they were at WalMart just outside the door. As we were walking in the door of the store, I asked one of them if they were taking cash donations. She said yes, so I gave her what I had and then she said that SOMEONE HAD JUST STOLEN THEIR DONATION JAR. Right off the table. The police had just left, but the theif was long gone. I'd like to strangle the creep! That is just inexcusable. Utterly inexcusable. I don't believe in the non-Christian concept of karma, but what goes around does come around and they will get "theirs" sooner or later.

Otter and I ran a couple of errands this afternoon. She is going to a costume party on November 1. Since it's the day after Halloween, it's not being called a Halloween party but that's really what it is. She has a couple of costume ideas, so we went to a thrift store to see what she could come up with. Even when she was young enough to trick or treat, we seldom bought her a costume because we are all very crafty and we came up with some good costumes for her. When we did buy the basic costume, when we got through with our alterations and improvements it was totally different from when we bought it. This time is no exception, Otter wants to create her own costume for the party. We did buy a lot of stuff, but I'm not sure if any of it will actually be part of her costume! She now has two blazer-type jackets, one of which is really neat and might work well as part of the costume. It's black, it has long sleeves that are slightly full and the sleeves are laced-up. Not lace, but laced-up. She can (and will) wear it as regular clothing, also. She tried on a skirt and a blouse but they didn't fit. I now have two new skirts for winter, one is a heavier weight denim and the other one is black and is lined so it will be warm and it's also a wrap around. Both are pretty long, almost to my ankles. I love long skirts, they look so graceful. I also found a sleepshirt type gown, it's Winnie the Pooh and Froggy would love it. But it's mine, Froggy you can't have it!!! :) And several of the things we got were the 50% off # code that Goodwill has.

But the real find of the day is Otter's new winter jacket. She didn't want a long coat, she wanted a longer jacket style. And we found her one. It's very lightly worn, it was $25.00 and it's LEATHER. She has been wanting a leather jacket ever since I got mine a few years back. Actually, she's been lusting after mine in the hope that I would give it to her. Not going to happen! But now she has her own and it is a very good quality, very soft black leather and she will be very warm in it. It's got a zip-out liner and it's slightly too big on her. Since she's just about finished with her growth, she will get at least a few years of wear out of it. It was a real deal, but now I have to find something else to give her when she graduates from High School in 2011! :)

Froggy, no luck on the hummingbird beanie baby. We're still looking and we might eventually find one for you. I'll keep you posted on it.

Frasier has spent some of his afternoon out in the back yard, barking up at the trees. He might still be looking for yesterday's squirrel, or he might have seen another one today. At the moment, he's curled up at my feet. He is such a softie. No idea where the Magginator is at, but it's a safe bet that she's in the middle of Otter's bed.

Ok, back to my laundry now!

It was a Great Saturday!

I got to sleep late, we had a nice relaxing breakfast, Otter and I took the dogs for a walk, I made two loaves of bread, we enjoyed the movie we watched, and OH YEAH - TEXAS BEAT OKLAHOMA 45 - 35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only saw bits and pieces of the game, we don't really watch tv on Saturdays so I turned it on right before we walked the dogs and it was in the second half at that point. And Texas was behind. Then after we took our walk I checked again and we were still behind but both teams had higher scores. Then I took a shower and checked after that, I saw the last few minutes of the game and we were behind but we got a touchdown that put us ahead. Then I turned the tv off, then turned it on again a few minutes later and watched the last 20 seconds. Which lasted about a minute with the time outs, but it was a foregone conclusion at that point that Texas was about to win and OU was not. So it was a very good day! We did put our Texas flag out this morning and it was beautiful, blowing in the breeze we had. Bill took the flag down late in the afternoon. I think that most of our neighbors probably already know what side of the river we are on regarding this particular competition, since we fly the Texas flag quite a bit. Our neighbor to the east is from Kansas, he jokingly asked Bill if we were going to watch the game and who we would be rooting for. He's a nice guy, it was all in fun. I've been wearing my Texas Longhorn t-shirts non-stop for days, I will make a point of wearing one tomorrow when we run a few errands we have planned.

We watched Iron Man today. It was better than I expected, it was actually pretty good. And I think it set up for a sequel. There is a bonus scene at the end of the credits. It's my turn to pick a movie next Saturday, I'm currently leaning towards Chipmunks. But it might change several times between now and then.

I tried a new recipe in the bread machine today. Carrot bread. The recipe calls for shredded carrots, obviously. But it also has orange juice as well as nutmeg and allspice. I was expecting a sweet bread but it's actually more of a spice than sweet. It's very good. I also made a lof of plain white breat for Otter, she's allergic to carrots so she can't eat the carrot bread. I don't think that I let the bread machine cool down enough before starting the second loaf, because when it finished the rise cycle the dough was pushing the lid up on the machine! The loaf turned out good, it's just very big and the top caved in slightly which happens when the dough rises all the way up and then can't go any farther.

Did I mention that Texas beat Oklahoma today? :)

Finally Friday! About Time.

It was actually a fast week. It was just a very busy one. I was anxious for Friday to get here so we could get our flu shots and get it over with. We got them about 3:15, we got home around 4:00 and now (5:30) I am starting to feel not-so-good. I don't have a big reaction normally, just a few hours of feeling bad and then I'll be fine. But the important thing is that we are protected (hopefully!) from the flu for another season. The flu is not something that asthmatics deal well with. I don't think anybody ever deals well with it, but it is much worse when you have asthma.

Otter and I have an agreement that after she gets a shot, she gets ice cream. We started that when she was tiny and getting all those allergy shots she had to get regularly for about 5 years. It wasn't always ice cream, sometimes she just wanted to get a snack out of the machines at the snack bar in the building the doctor's office was in. Sometimes she would get a donut instead. Just fun things. But now that she's older, we decided a couple of years ago that I'm included now in the post-shot treats and that it would be ice cream. So we stopped at the grocery store, actually that's where the visiting nurse association was giving the shots, and we got birthday cake flavor for her and strawberry cheesecake flavor for me. And they are not the low-fat kind, I decided to really splurge tonight and have the real stuff. We'll probably even share it with Bill!

Although he might not have any room for ice cream. His favorite cookies are made by Mother's Cookies, he likes the frosted animal cookies. We heard on the news this morning that Mother's Cookies is going out of business. So he asked me to stock up. I bought all 8 bags that WalMart had this morning, then when we were at the other grocery store this afternoon I noticed that they have quite a few bags. But theirs are Halloween colors, which will taste the same - except to Bill! So I bought 3 bags of those, Otter gets one and that still leaves Bill 10 bags. He'll eat the Halloween cookies, but he'll gripe and complain and say that they don't taste the same. And then he'll eat everyone of them! I told him that they have to last a while, what was his reponse? Maybe until Sunday! :) I might get him a few more if I'm in the store in the near future - but I won't tell him about them. I'll hide them and he'll eventually find them but maybe not right away. I'd better hide them in different places!

We stopped at Subway to pick up dinner tonight. On flu shot days, I usually make it as easy on myself as I can. So that meant subs for all tonight. In a little while, I'm going to go get into some of that ice cream. It's calling my name. And it is getting louder! I don't want it to get lonely, so I'd better go answer it. Then I think I'm going to get into my pj's and park myself on the couch. I don't feel horrible, but I don't feel too good either.

Quick Thursday!

This is just supposed to be a fast post, I have to take Otter to something at school tonight and we have to leave in 20 minutes. She's an usher at the school play, it's a requirement for her drama class. I pick her up at 9:30. So I will at least have time to get home and watch CSI tonight.

Froggy, around here TU means Tulsa University. UT means University of Tulsa. Same place, just different names. A & M sometimes means Oklahoma State University, as it was originally Oklahoma A & M. When people refer to the University of Texas it's generally just called Texas. I do support Texas A & M. I just am more of a Longhorn fan. And since the big game is this Saturday, I took one of my Longhorn t-shirts with me to work to change into after work. Then I went to the grocery store. I got a few odd looks, but not anything bad. The greeter at Wallyworld was funny, he asked me if it was ok if he rooted for the other team this weekend!

Froggy, daffodils do generally come back up each year. They also tend to spread, plant a couple this fall and they should be blooming early next spring. Then you can usually just leave them alone and they will be back, frequently in larger numbers. I have a few of them in the tulip bed, I usually (accidentally) unearth them when we are planting the tulip bulbs and it has never hurt them. Daffys are just about my favorite bulb flower.

I'm out of time!

Some Mid-Week Thoughts

I like Wednesdays. It's very easy to figure out why - because Friday is the day after tomorrow. Yeah, I know - but it works for me. It makes the week seem not so long as it does on Mondays.

I watched part of the debate last night. I heard something very interesting. Obama said that he WOULD drill offshore. I wonder what kind of shoes he was wearing? Flip flops maybe? Other than that, I wasn't really impressed with either of them.

It was very nice this morning. It was 45 degrees when I got up at 5:00. Glad I brought the cactus in when I did. I watered the outside plants very well this morning, they will be coming inside in a few days. After they've been well checked for stowaways! There are only two still out there, everything else is either inside already or tossed in a couple of cases. I'm out of places to put them, I'll have to do some creative rearranging.

We probably need to get our tulip bulbs soon, they will need to be planted in a few weeks. I guess we'd better also get busy with the tulip bed. It will need to be weeded (again) and treated. I'm also going to move a few more iris bulbs and plant bluebonnet seeds in the whiskey barrel.

Jan/Azbax, I hope that you keep visiting my blog! Miss hearing from you, girl. Email me now and then, please.

Froggy, you can't be for OU. You can be for another Texas team, but you CAN NOT BE FOR OU AND STILL CONSIDER YOURSELF A TEXAN. Especially after OU kicked A & M's rear end last weekend.

I'm Pretty Sure it's Finally Fall

Because it certainly feels like it! It's been cool, cloudy and slightly rainy today. I think it was in the 70's. Bill had the house opened up when I got home, and it feels really nice inside.

I took Otter to a program at the library after school, part of their Teen Week stuff. She enjoyed it. They had pizza and a couple of games. She said it was crowded, apparently a teacher at one of the middle schools gave her students extra credit if they went so there were a lot of them. I think it was a brilliant idea on the teacher's part. It amazes me, the number of people (not just kids) that don't read (by choice). I don't think I'll ever understand that one. And since Otter is her mother's daughter, she is pretty much addicted to books like me!

Maggie and Frasier have new jewelry. I bought them each a new name tag today. The ones that they've had for a while have not held up well. We got them at Petsmart at one of the engraving stands most of the stores have. I've also seen them in WalMart. They are not very sturdy, the engraving isn't very deep and just the tags rubbing against each other was enough to basically make the engraving disappear. The part that is not visible anymore on the tags is the important part: our phone number and address. It doesn't do a whole lot of good if the dog gets out, if all that can be read on the tag is the animal's name! I went to a farm/pet supply store today to get more ear rinse for Frasier, and they sell engraved name tags that are engraved a little deeper and the tags are also slightly thicker. So, Maggie has a purple dogbone tag and Frasier has a red one. They're very stylish poochies! But they are still silly babies.

We're getting our flu shots Friday. The Visiting Nurse Association has clinics set up all over the place, they start the first week of October. They have clinics in grocery stores, and Otter and I will go on Friday. We'll get our shots, then we will go straight to the ice cream section of the store. Then we'll stop at Subway to pick up dinner, go home and eat and then I'll probably be feeling the effects of the shot by then so I will be ready for bed soon after that. I usually have a mild reaction, I'll feel cruddy for the evening and then be fine the next morning. But I want to make it easy, thus Subway for dinner and early bed. Otter usually doesn't have a reaction beyond a little soreness at the injection site.

Texas/OU game is this Saturday. We probably already know which side I'm on! I will be proudly flying my Texas flag in front of my house. We wear our various Texas Longhorn t-shirts all year long, but especially this week in October. This is the weekend that Dad and I would always have fun with, since he was from Oklahoma and I live there now. He would give me a lot of grief, but it was all in fun. I miss it.

A Few Things From Sunday

First, a couple of furry things. Maggie was on her way to Otter. She was hurrying as fast as those short legs would let her. She is really devoted to her person.

Fraiser was standing at the corner of the deck, he was watching something but I never could see what was holding his interest. Although he's had quite a few barking at squirel sessions lately, so he might have been hoping to see another one on top of the neighbor's garage like yesterday. He was looking in that general direction.

Froggy, here's your finished tree! This is the one I bought for you before you came to see me. It was originally a kind of cream color and was sealed with an opalescent color, then it had gold colored beads draped around it and was kind of ugly! It's now the appropriate color and sealed with a clear glaze.

FutureJediMom wanted to see what the Farm Scene looked like. This is it! It's back on the side of the shed, we painted this side this morning and it turned out great. But it looked empty without the farm scene. The farm scene is pretty heavy, it's ceramic and is probably about 3 feet long or maybe slightly longer. I am not sure exactly when we painted it for Dad, I think it was after we moved (1978) but I don't really remember for sure? Froggy or Toadly, any ideas? Toadly, you weren't even there - you were off somewhere with the Navy but you might remember. I did quite a bit of touch-up painting to it when we brought it home with us and periodically it gets checked for chips, etc.

Otter had a really good driving session today, she drove us over to her grandparents. She did great.

After visiting her grandparents, we went to the pumpkin patch. We try to visit it each fall, it's not really a pumpkin patch. It's more like a petting zoo where they also sell pumpkins. They have Indian corn, assorted gourds, piles of pumpkins, a hay maze that is totally enclosed and in the dark, various animals, pony rides, they had camel rides today, and a snack bar. We didn't eat anything at the snack bar, but I did buy a half pound of fudge for Bill. We fed the animals, the goats were their usual silly selves. The fun part was watching the chickens and turkeys, they reminded me of a feeding frenzy of sharks. There was also a squabble between one big tom turkey and one small chicken. I'm not sure who actually won, neither of them seemed to be hurt but the chicken left the dust-up with a turkey feather in it's beak! They also had cavies, which are basically big rodents. Like bigger than the beagle. The almost look like large, small-eared rabbits.

The rest of the day has been filled with laundry and cleaning house. Otter and Bill are currently watching the movie that Otter rented and we watched yesterday. She wanted to see it again and Bill decided to watch it with her. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the one from a year or so ago that stars Johnny Depp. I still don't like him, but he is very good in the role. It was actually a better movie than I was expecting, I had heard that it wasn't very good but it was. The story is slightly different than the version from several years ago with Gene Wilder.

It's very windy today, we could get rain the next couple of days. Maybe, they never really know. Sometimes they do manage to guess right, so we wanted to get the shed finished up today. Bill finished up at the rent house on Friday, so we didn't have to go back there today and could concentrate on the shed.

While he was at the rent house on Friday, the tenant asked him why we were painting the garage now. Apparently, they thought that we might be going to kick them out! Bill explained to them that we were going to paint it before they moved in last year but that his injury kept us from getting it done then. Then it was too hot, then winter, then rainy spring, then hot summer again and since the weather is nice now we figured we'd better get it done while we could. They are good tenants, they pay their rent on time and they take good care of the place. He told them that as long as they pay rent, they can stay as long as they want and if they are ever interested in buying the place to just let us know. We hope that they stay for a long time, it looks like they will. They have a young child and two dogs and they seem like nice people.

I'm getting hungry now, so I guess it's time to head for the kitchen and make an early dinner. We never had lunch today. It's not quite 4:00 and I'm starved! Broiled pork chops, rice, brown gravy and whichever canned vegetable I grab is today's menu. With any luck, I'll have leftovers for tomorrow. But I kind of doubt it. Otter and Bill both love pork chops!

Tree Frogs and Paint Brushes

I have a list of things I'd like to get done. It has things on it like cleaning off my craft shelves, "organizing" Bill to get the garage cleaned out a little more - at least so Otter can get to her work bench without risking life & limb climbing through the debris, stuff like that. It did not have "repainting the backyard shed" on it. But Bill decided to repaint the shed now, while we still have decent weather. He also had a power washer that he borrowed from our property manager, which he got to use at the rent house when he repaints the garage. So he decided to take advantage of the fact that he had a toy to play with. So he power washed the shed last night, and we got started painting it tonight. We just got the front done, the back and one side are fine but the one remaining side needs to be repainted. Just the front which faces north and the side which faces east. The two sides that got the most wind this year! It was like they had been sand-blasted. So Bill painted the bulk of the front and I did the detail work. Bill said he might get home early enough tomorrow from the rent house to paint the remaining side of the shed, but most likely that is what we'll be doing Sunday.

The side that still needs to be painted is where I hung my ceramic farm scene. The same one that we all painted when I was in high school and gave to Dad for Christmas one year. Or it might have been his birthday or Father's Day. We all worked on it, it took a couple of weeks I guess. When it was finished and we gave it to him, he really liked it. He had it out on the back porch. When he died, I asked for it and then I brought it back to OK with me. It was in need of repair, so Bill fixed it for me and made it a little stronger. Then I touched up the paint and put a coat of sealer on it. Then we hung it on the east side of the shed. When I went to take it down yesterday before the power wash, there were two tree frogs behind it. I sat it down gently, then I picked up the tree frogs to relocate them. They didn't like it, but they seemed to tolerate me holding them. I put them on a tree and they were fine. But when I went to pick up the farm scene, I discovered a third tree frog on the back. That's the one that apparently was angry at being disturbed! My next stop, after I relocated him to where his buddies were on the tree, was to go scrub tree frog pee off of my hands. Ungrateful little hopper! Frogs don't usually pee on me, but I guess that the toads and bullfrogs in the yard forgot to tell the tree frogs that I won't hurt them.

Bill got the garage power washed at the rent house, and he'll go back tomorrow morning to actually paint it. While he had the power washer, he also hit the oil slick that just magically appeared on the driveway, right where he parks his van.

We had to shut the dogs back in their small yard this evening, they usually have the run of the yard when we get home and all night. But we were really afraid that we'd find two dogs stuck to the side of the shed! At least one of them would have had to go investigate the wet paint. And that would have been a disaster!

Wonderful Wednesday & September's Book List

Wonderful Wednesday stuff first:

Answered Prayers. Virginia and David have been granted FULL CUSTODY of their three grandchildren! Their father has to pay child support. Texas does not give the non-custodial fathers a chance to default - it will automatically be garnished out of his pay. It takes about 30 days for it to take effect, so he is supposed to bring them two half payments in October when he gets paid. He says he will. No money equals jail time. He has two hour visitation once a week. Virginia and David set that, it will be at their apartment and they will be present. He has to be on time, if he's late then he will miss that much of his time. They made sure that he's aware of that. Virginia said that she had a chance afterwards to talk to him, she told him that they weren't just trying to take his kids away from him but that their only motive was the welfare of the children. He said he understood that. Then he told her that he was glad they'd gone this route, because now he will have to hold down a job. So everyone is hopeful, but nobody is holding their breath on this. He will probably come to the first couple of visitations, but then after that he could well revert to past behaviour and start missing his time. Also, random drug tests are part of the decree and he agreed.

Ok, on to the books I read last month:

1) Recreative by Steve Dodds. My friend Sharra (Monkeybox) would love this one! It would be right up her alley, she is what she calls a Junkreator and this book could have been written for her. Lots of wonderful ideas.

2) Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy.

3) Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy.

4) The Michael's Book of Papercrafts. It was more to do with scrabbooking than crafting.

5) Evening Class by Maeve Binchy. (I read her books a lot!)

6) Daughter of the Saints, Growing Up in Polygamy by Dorothy Allread Soloman. This was very interesting. Sad way of life. She left the life and the cult because she did not want to be a plural wife and it cost her most of her family ties.

7) Practically Perfect in Every Way by Jennifer Niesslein. I tried to read this, but it was boring and not very well written so I gave up several pages in.

8) When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular. About Warren Jeffs and the cult known as the FLDS. They are a cult, no doubt about it. And so is the Mormon church which is an off-shoot of the FLDS although they don't like to admit that fact. This book is about some of the women who fought back against Jeffs. They fought back against sexual abuse of their children and Jeffs is jailed. But he's still in control of the group, which is the same group in El Dorado, Texas where the authorities raided a few months ago and took the children. Then had to give them back, back into the same horrible situation!

9) Oklahoma Curiosities by P. J. Lassek. Did you know that there is a Blue Whale in Oklahoma? It's not too far from Tulsa, it's a known landmark and really cool. This book had a lot of interesting information about the state we live in. Notice I don't say home, because Home will always be Texas. We just don't live there anymore. (Yeah, Froggy - I can hear Dad now!)

10) Halloween Crafts.

11) Halloween Crafts. 10 and 11 are two different books, I forget the actual names. But they had lots of fun craft ideas.

12) Assorted Foxtrot by Bill Amend. Foxtrot is a cartoon strip, I'm not sure if it's still being drawn or not but the book was funny.

13) Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts. She's a local Oklahoma author and I usually enjoy her books. I've read this one before.

14) It's Not Easy Being Green. Officially by Jim Henson, but it was actually put together by his daughter after his death. It has lots of quotes, both by him and people who worked with him.

15) Kiss Me Like a Stranger by Gene Wilder. This one was pretty good. Not the best written book I've ever read, but I enjoyed it. I read the book that Gilda Radner wrote, it was published shortly after her death and it covered a lot of the same stuff in this book. She was married to Gene Wilder.

16) Motherhood & Hollywood by Patricia Heaton. Hard to read, it was ok but she's not a professional writer!

17) My First 5 Husbands by Rue McClanahan. She was a Golden Girl. She is a fun actress. She is not what I would consider a good role model!

18) Hello Darlin' by Larry Hagman. Hagman makes JR Ewing look like a saint!

19) London Transports by Maeve Binchy.

20) The Politcally Incorrect Wife by Nancy Cobb and Connie Grigsby. This one was pretty good, it deals with what the role of a wife is from a Biblical perspective. It pretty well describes me already but I still enjoyed it. I learned a few things from it.

Once I started typing this list, I realized that I had completely forgotten a couple of the books on the list!

Tonight is karate. We're going to try it and see how it goes. Otter had asthma problems yesterday after doing her own version of a work out and she wasn't working nearly as hard as they do at karate class. I don't have high hopes. But we'll try it and see what happens.