Another Camera

I ordered myself another camera last night. 

Amazon had another sale on Kodak EasyShare cameras and I like the one I have for work so much I wanted one here.  The downloads are easy.  

I like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7 I bought last year, but the battery is one you have to charge. The Kodak Easy Share uses double A batteries  like my old Canon and I like that a lot for trips and such,  so this new one will be a back up camera.

Of course, both of my cameras are beautiful shades of green.

 

Life is Good

Life is good.  Yes, there are things I would love to change, but everyone has something in their life they would like to be different.  If I had my way, Raymond would still be here with me, but that evidently wasn't meant to be this time.

I think Raymond would mostly be proud of me.  I know there are some things in my life right now he would not be happy about, but I know he understands my reasoning behind why I don't change those areas at this time.

I have some of the best people in the world  in my life.  I really miss my one friend, but I can't change to be what she needs. I am still deeply hurt by that loss and I really hope all is well with her.  

My boys are both doing well  and are fairly happy on a regular basis.

My home is a wonderful sanctuary and brings me great peace.

I am figuring out how to enjoy life and not freak out as much.  One of the great women in my life stopped by unexpectedly today.  I did not try to hide what a mess I have in the house.  In fact, I showed her the entire house without shame.  She knows I am remodeling.  I will have her back when everything is in place and she will know I don't live like this all the time.  

I still want to lose weight, but I have had two losses in a row at TOPS and I know I can do it if I really make the effort.  

Like  most people I wish I did not have to work, but I do, and I am fortunate enough to love what I do most days.  I really like my job when I can just sit down and do it without interruption. 

Yes, life is good, and it is about to get better as I am about to join some of my favorite people  for dinner and laughs.  

Alaskan Cruise

I have always wanted to go to Alaska, but I wanted to drive.  Now it looks like I will be going, but it will be on a cruise, an extended family cruise.  The girls, hopefully both husbands, the boys, BFF and I are planning on going two years from now. 

I have never, ever wanted to go on a cruise, but it will probably be the only way I will ever get to Alaska.  

I have set the ground rules with L.  I don't want to do anything to get ready for it but be told what to take, and when to be where.  

I am already getting a little anxious about not having a car so I can escape.  Which just brings up another anxiety.  If all of us are going, who is going to drive us to the airport?  My car only holds seven.  There will be eight of us.  See this is what will happen I will start obsessing, and we haven't even chosen the cruise yet.

I think I will go do laundry now.

A New Bird in my Fountain, and More

BFF and I saw a different bird yesterday.  It came up on the patio to get a drink from the fountain.  We did not know what it was so the bird book had to come off the shelf.  We finally figured out it was a Starling. 

I am so excited to have a new bird in my wild area, even if it is an agressive bird.

Hummers are out in full force this morning.  

I also woke up to find 18 dove in my feeders, and more on the ground.  They always seem to know when dove season is upon us and start hiding out here.  Some days you can't even see the power lines there are so many dove up there.  They go through a lot of feed during that time.  Some of the juveniles were playing the fountain yesterday and having the best time, until the starling arrived.

Just  now a little house finch decided to sit on the pole where the hummingbird feeders are located.  The hummers let him know he needed to go back to his own area and leave theirs alone.

It is really hard to get anything done with all  this fun activity. I never want to leave the living room, especially now that it is starting to look normal again. However, I have a lot to do today to get ready for the new phase of remodeling.  Oldest is coming to help, thank goodness.  I have no idea where I am going to put everything for the next couple of weeks.  Yes, I said couple of weeks.  My "Eldin" mentioned something about weeks Friday.  I didn't know we had that much left to do, but evidently I was wrong. Good thing he is so fun to have around. He reminds me of my dad because he is really quite the gentlemen when it comes to how he behaves. The best part is he goes home to his wife at night.

Lots of Laughs

I have not seen much of my BFF lately, but this weekend we made up for lost time.

Last night we went to dinner at the "Purple Cow."  She had a coupon for buy a meal get a meal.  It was okay, but we are way too old to be eating there.  It was loud due to all the screaming children, and  if the kids weren't screaming there was one waiter that would shout really loud.  I don't think we will be going back. 

After dinner we went to pick up some Christmas gifts for her adopted soldiers (she is a "Soldier's  Angel") and then it was home to talk and look up items on Amazon.

Today she came over before noon and we went to lunch at "Desperados" followed by more Christmas shopping and a stop at Target for more sale items.  Once the shopping was complete, we came home and sandwiched the king size Civil War quilt she is making her son. We ran out of pins and needed quilt clips so we stopped and ran down to the fabric store.  The quilt is now sandwiched and ready for machine  quilting. 

While she was ironing the top and backing of the quilt today, I went through my project boxes to organize and remind myself what I had ready to sew.  I discovered that I did not have all the fabric to one of the quilt kits I was going to start this weekend which is extremely disappointing.  

Throughout the day there were lots of laughs. Of course BFF forgot and left the lid down on the toilet, which I hate, but she got distracted by all the recyclables I had laying around the bathroom, and the fact that the bathroom trash needed to be emptied.  I should have told her about the laundry. She loves laundry.

To make the day even better I had a nice chat with my brother, and a short chat with my youngest.  Not sure where my oldest is today, but I bet it is some where with his girlfriend.

BFF and I also decided we would go see Leon Russell when he is in town.  I am sure we will invite the girls when we see them for dinner tomorrow night, but I bet they don't know who he is, or care.

Now I am Hooked

Loni and BFF kept talking about this new show on TNT called "Rizzoli and Isles."  Since I don't have cable, I decided to check out the show  on my computer.  Now I am hooked. I am enjoying the show so much I decided to check out the "Rizzoli and Isles" books by Tess Gerritsen.  To date I have finished books 1-4 and have downloaded book 5 to my Kindle.

At first I was a little disappointed because I started reading the first book with the idea that it would be just like the series, but there were enough differences that it bothered my sense of how it should have been.  Once I was able to separate the book from the series, I couldn't wait to read what would happen next.  

The books I have read to date are:

1. The Surgeon
2. The Apprentice
3. The Sinner
4. Body Double
   
   
   
   

Good Day

I had a good day today. 

Started off at the dentist to have a filling placed in an abrasion below the gum to make sure I did not develop decay in that area.  Then it was home to finish a great book, and prepare a package for a soldier.

Once  the package was ready I headed  out  to get groceries and mail  the package.  I was quite pleased with my shopping.  I bought lots of fresh veggies and fruit, cheese, some fiber rich crackers, and sliced chicken from  the deli.  A small container of low fat natural lemon ice cream was included in the cart along with some M&Ms for those really rough days.

Once  home I ran the vacuum and picked  up around the house a little.  Well as much as I can with most of the house still in the chaos of remodeling.  

Tonight it was dinner and laughter with my BFF, a couple of shows on the computer  and then  I steam cleaned the carpet in the new "Man Cave."

All it all, not a bad day.  Tomorrow I hope to prepare several project boxes with quilting projects so that I can just start sewing and not stop.

Solar Lights at Night

Hummingbirds in My Backyard

Turtle Quilt Completed

I completed the turtle quilt on August 22, 2010 at 4:35 p.m. I started this quilt on June 9, 2008.  I designed the pattern on EQ6 based on a turtle fat quarter my aunt gave me. The quilt was machine pieced but completely hand quilted.
                                                                               

 

I Should Have Paid More Attention

The boys were doing laundry over the weekend and the youngest did a lot of laundry on Monday to get ready for school.  Silly me, I thought they were doing all laundry, but evidently they just did their clothes.  When I went to go to work this morning I did not have any clean tops except a pajama top that looks like one of my regular scoop necks.

No one noticed, I was comfortable all day, no big deal, but I am currently doing laundry just the same.  

I hope to get it all done in the  next couple of days and start anew. 

I Swear I Just Heard a Horse Snort

I know it is the first night without any boys in the house.

I know it is 1:30 a.m. 

But I swear I just heard a horse snort.

I know it sounds crazy, and normally I would  think so too, but in this neighborhood you just never know.  

One night when the kids were little, Raymond and  I set up the telescope in the back side yard.  Raymond had walked off to do something and the boys went with him.  I was standing at the telescope when suddenly horses went running so close behind me that they stirred  my clothes with the wind they created.  I screamed bloody murder.  Raymond got  mad because I screamed, not knowing about the  horses.  I was freaked because it was dark and I knew there were horses out that I could not see  and I was afraid of being stomped on or kicked.  It was  just a minute or two  before my back field was full of flashlights from neighbors  looking for the horses that  had escaped from their yard through a broken fence.  

That was just one incident of horses in our yard  late at night.  There have been many others.  

I know I should go look to see if there is a horse out there, but I am just too tired. It will either find its way home, or be there in the morning. 

Long Day, Predict a Longer One Tomorrow

Today was a long day, and even though the company was quite enjoyable, I wish I could have just stayed in the office and worked.

I went with the preschool director to buy the last of the supplies before school starts on Monday.  I have to go because I am the authorized purchaser for work.  Very inefficient system,  but it is all we currently have in operation. 

We started off at the restaurant supply store about 40 minutes away from the office.  That took a while because they had to create a case of one item for us.  Then it was off to Target, Home Depot, and Lowe's.  It was 109 degrees out with no breeze.  I was so hot that I was tempted to take my car scissors to my hair and just start chopping it off.  

Once we got back to the office we had to unload my van, and it was full.  Besides all the cleaning supplies, there was a box of shelving, 2 large bags of potting soil, and the plants.  I was ready to crawl into my ratty robe and quit for the day, but it was only 2:00.

After three more hours in the office, it was home to pick up the youngest to meet the oldest at the bank, and then a different Target for last minute college items, and a different Lowes to pick up a faucet for the new sink in the playroom bathroom.  

By the time we finally were home for good around 7:00 p.m. I felt like I was melting.  I made the youngest dinner and would have gone for the ratty robe but the remodeler was still in the house.  I settled for a decent robe and fans blowing on my face.  

Tomorrow I move the youngest back to campus.  The oldest is already back at school so we are on our own.  Dorm won't open until 10 and it will already be hot by then.  Once I have him in and have driven back home it will be work, followed by two meetings.  At least I will get to have dinner with the girls.  

It would have been nice to climb into the pool tonight if it wasn't 96 degrees. I looked at the pool thermometer and decided that I probably would not be refreshed by a swim.

Solar Lights Have Improved

Solar lights have improved a lot since Raymond and I bought some years ago.

I love the changing color lights.  I currently have stars, globes, dragonflies, and flowers scattered around the area of the new patio, and today Loni added string solar lights that we put around a tree trunk. 

I also have a solar wind chime.  

The dragonflies and flowers are around the fountain on the patio.

The stars and globe are at the beginning of the pool path.

When the wind blows the wind chime shines like a disco ball on the patio.  It is really mesmerizing to swing and watch the colors change.  Very relaxing after a really long day at work.

Last night was the first night I have been able to sit out in a while due to the heat.  It was fabulous.  I made myself come in around 2:30 a.m.  I could have spent the night out there, but the rod in the middle of the swing starts to hurt my back if I lay down on it for too long, like a bad sleeper sofa.

OneThing Leads to Another

Started out only wanting a sliding glass door put in where the living room window was located...

• If you put in a sliding glass door it might as well lead out to a nice patio
• If you have a nice patio you want nice landscaping
• If you have the window left over from the sliding glass door you should take out part of the brick wall that adjoins the fireplace and install the window to allow more visual space so you can see the nice patio and new landscaping
• If you take out part of the brick wall for the window then the fireplace doesn't look balanced, so you build a custom bookcase on the opposite side of the fireplace
• When you took out part of the brick wall you had to remove some carpet, but it would be nice to have tile where you walk in the sliding glass door from the pool
• Now that you have completely taken off all the paneling on one wall and replaced it you might as well paint the entire living room, oh yeah, crown molding would look nice
• The living room is beautiful but the playroom next to it looks like a dungeon, so you remove the huge unused playroom fireplace completely
• Now all the paneling has to be removed because it cannot be matched
• That means paint has to be picked and might as well put crown molding in there too
• Tile has to be placed where the fireplace was because you cannot afford to carpet the entire house
• Tile also has to be placed where the built in bookcases were removed
• Might as well put tile inside both the outside doors
• The bathroom tile looks horrible next to the new tile, so we should tile the bathroom
• When the toilet is removed to place the tile a leak is found along with bad baseboard
• If you have to replace the baseboard then you might as well take out the vanity, sink, and medicine cabinet and put in new ones
• Now the paint looks horrible and so lets paint it to match the playroom
• Oh yeah, now the foyer needs work, so we will build some custom bookcases in there and repaint, add crown, etc.
• While all this is going on, a bad post is found on the front of the house ...

Bird Watering Station

I hate how yucky bird baths get here in Texas in just a day. I fill them up in the morning and before I get home from work they have dried up, are crusty, and full of yuck.

Today I ordered a Bird Watering Station that gets great reviews and I hope will solve my problem.

With the heat we have been having my backyard feathered friends need fresh water daily.

Skunks

John, my remodeler, is helping me trap my skunks.  To date 3 have been trapped.  1 was set free, 2 died in the trap before we could release them. 

We have narrowed the bait down to chicken cat food.  They don't seem to like the other cat foods flavors, although a chicken and tuna mix worked once.

They are not all gone, but I hope they will be by the time he finishes working on the house, which will still probably be a couple of weeks yet.  

I Recorded it for a Reason

I record the "Young and the Restless" and "The View" every day and then watch them when I am quilting and there is nothing else on television.  Now I don't watch them every day and quite frankly I am a couple of months behind on the soap, but still I enjoy them when I do watch them.

What irritates me is when I sit down to watch them and the person in the room with me starts telling me how much they hate the show, or what a waste of time it is, etc.  It happened again today and I missed the whole segment I was trying to watch.  

Listen up people! I record those shows because I enjoy having mindless entertainment while I am cleaning or quilting.  I don't care what your opinion is so please...SHUT UP!

Financial Discussions with the Oldest

I have the hardest time getting my oldest to check up on his financial situation.  I don't understand it at all, especially given how easy it is with online banking.

Last night I sat him down and told him it was time to really get serious about keeping up with his money.  I asked him how much he had in his checking account and he gave me a guess.  His computer was right next to him and I told him again he really needed to be keeping up and he said "yeah."  Obviously he was not getting that I was pretty much saying "get off your IPad and look at your account" so I finally said, "Pull up your account."  To which he  replied "I don't remember the password."  When I asked "Why not?" He said "Well,  you don't know it either."  Of course then there had to be a discussion about how I know my passwords to all my accounts except the one I have emergency money in and I don't want to have easy access to that one.  I also explained I did not need to know the password to his account as it is his account and my name has been removed from that account because he is pretty much considered an adult.  I also reminded him of where he could find his password.

Funny thing was that during this conversation he managed to open his account records without a problem.  We then took a look at how much money he has made over the summer (quite a lot for a student), and how much he has spent.  We went over every expenditure to see where his money was going (mostly rent for an apartment he does not live in), and talked about how much he needs to put away from what is in there to make sure he can pay his taxes come April.  

He became quite depressed over the fact that he doesn't have a lot left after taxes and rent.  We then had to have a discussion about how very few 20 years olds are in the situation he is in.  That the experience he has gained from having this wonderful job is worth a lot more than he was paid, even though he was paid quite well.  We talked about the fact that he has a guaranteed job after graduation if he so chooses to continue on with this company, and that he has met some terrific people.  

I think he felt better after the discussion because a while after the talk he said that he really was not as bad off financially as he thought.  That just confused me because he has about half of what he has made still, and would have had almost all of it if he wasn't paying so  much in rent every month.  I think he just wants to have a huge account now and not wait.  

I told him I was proud of how little he has spent on just "stuff" and that I was very pleased he paid for his last car inspection, oil change, and maintenance himself without asking me for any money.  I also told him that he would start using a side account that I had set up for him years ago to put his savings  in it would build up faster and he would not have easy access so it would stop impulse buying in case that ever became an issue.  

All in all I think it was a good talk.  Do I think he will keep up with his account? No.  I do know where he is and that he is not being foolish with his funds and once I help him set up some automatic savings plans, he will be just fine. 

Wish I Could Undersrtand "Hummingbird"

I have had the best morning watching the birds and rabbits in my back yard.  The hummingbirds have been particularly entertaining this morning.

One hummingbird in particular has  been cracking me up.  He is very aggressive and does not want any other hummer or bird around while he is feeding.

He was sucking up nectar in his feeder ,which  is about ten feet away from the bird feeders ,when a couple of purple finches came down to feed.  The hummer immediately flew over to the finches, hovered about a foot away from them and obviously had a "conversation."  Within seconds the finches left and the hummer went back to feeding.  The finches did not come back until he left.  What do you think he said to them?

Still Remodeling

John, my Eldin Bernecky, started back on the playroom today.  All the paneling had to come down since we cannot find anything like it and we have a huge bald area where the fireplace used to be. We came to an agreement on the paint colors, along with the location of the new lights and the 2 ceiling fans before I went to work.

John and I also agreed on the paint colors for the foyer today and the trim that will go in that room. 

I can't wait to have my house back in place.  Even though John is extremely particular, always cleans up every night, and can be very funny to have around, it will be nice to know that I can safely wear my wonderful ratty robe again without worries that someone is going to walk into the house.