It Could Have Been Worse .....

The Fourth of July celebrations are over, at least for the time being.  It could have been worse.  I could have been wearing these lovely Incredibles costumes in the local parade.  Did I mention this is really small town America?

In spite of the car theft rings and gang bangers killing each other off over drugs (apparently we are a major stop between Los Angeles and Stockton) the parades show you our true colors.  We're weird.

Have you got an old Army vehicle, whatever this is?  You're in the parade.

Have you got a classic pickup?  You're in the parade.

Do you drive a car?  You're in the parade.

Even if it's a really OLD car, you're in the parade.

Other modes of transportation are also in the parade.  This is a major center for the Portuguese population, who have Festas and bullfights (the non-lethal kind) for their celebrations.  You have a horse you ride in the bullfights?  You're brave as all get out and you're in the parade.

It's also a farming community, so of course if you've got a tractor (there were ten of them), you're in the parade.

The firetrucks brought up the rear along with the Highway Patrol.  It's also that time when Mamacita brings out her frying pan and sells all sorts of concoctions on the sidelines.  Follow that up with the biggest Beer Garden I've ever seen and you have our local Independence Day celebration.

Miss Jessie wasn't impressed with any of it.  She decided the fold-up jail was her home for the day.  Knowing what was coming, I just left her to chill.

I just can't believe how much money these guys must spend on commercial fireworks.  It goes on for HOURS!!  That stuff can't be cheap!!  

Lucky for Jessie, it wasn't as bad as last year.  I tried to get her to go outside before bedtime, but she was having none of it!  Shivering and scared to death, she wanted to be in my lap.  Cooper could have cared less.  The couch is small, but somehow we managed to sleep pretty good with Jessie glued to my chest.

It seems most of the celebrations were further away from me this year and only lasted about three hours.  YAY ... and no one lit my back yard on fire.  It could have been MUCH worse.

Today it's Fight With The Post Office Day for the third time.  I'll relate my Magic Kingdom story tomorrow to keep this from being WAY too long.  I hope you had a great July 4th celebration!!

Happy FOURTH!!! or How To Count

Okay kids, I know you were more interested in girls in school than the math class, so I'm going to play teacher and give you a quick lesson in arithmetic.  It's called COUNTING.

Hold up your left hand.  No, that's your RIGHT hand.  Amazingly, you have FIVE appendages on your left hand.  Thumb is number ONE.  The second finger is TWO.  The third finger is THREE.  The fourth finger is FOUR, and so on.

Here's how you count them out.  July 1 is your thumb ... it stands for ONE.  July 2 is your second finger and it stands for TWO.  July 3 IS NOT July 4 and therefore I should not hear booms and bangs all night long ... mostly because IT'S NOT JULY 4TH YET!!!!

Your FOURTH finger is when you get to light off all that illegal fireworks, keeping everyone up and starting fires across your neighbor's back yards, not to mention scaring all the neighborhood dogs to death.

If you really want to show your kids (and grandkids) a great fireworks display and hear all that loud noise, go to your local fireworks show sponsored by the City (or whoever).  They have fire trucks just to keep fires down and the neighborhood safe.

Not that it IS safe, but at least I won't worry about fire in my back yard.  On the other hand, just four miles away, there was a gang shooting with one dead and one injured.  I have no problem with that .... one day they will all kill each other off and we won't have to worry any more.  It's okay, at least it wasn't next door like a couple years ago!!

Yesterday I had my morning coffee with a friend parked on my lap.  Cooper called the lap-dog rule where I can't move until he wakes up.  I'm surprised that the fold-up jail is working so well.  We all slept like logs last night, except for the first two hours of bangs and booms.  I'm happy to say he seems to be almost back to normal ... but I'm not taking any chances.

Miss Jessie is scared to death of loud noises.  Tonight will be even worse.  This morning I actually tied her up with an old scarf, sort of like a thunder shirt.  This evening, I'll find an old running shirt and truss her up.  I'll try anything to keep her from shaking all night long.

Having seen blogger Patsy's beautiful wildflowers, picked around their property in Canada and made into bouquets, I decided how nice it would look if I did the same.  There wasn't much to choose from.  Two little dandelions and some star jasmine.  Everything else has withered from the heat.  Not big enough to cheer up the house, it added a little color to the stove.

Here's block 2 of the Quilt Challenge.  This is where the blok 'n lok plastic square came in handy.  I used it to square up these HST's.  Yeah, I had to look that one up ... half square triangles.  I had no idea what HST stood for.  The measurements on this one came out perfect.  YAY!!  

I hope you thoroughly enjoy the Fourth of July with SAFE AND SANE fireworks.  If you have puppies, PLEASE PLEASE keep them inside.  There is nothing sadder than reading about all the lost dogs on July 5 because someone left them in the back yard while the neighbors played war.

I'll give you a play by play of the Magic Kingdom tomorrow.  It wasn't pretty but I survived.

That Bed Thing Didn't Work Out

I spent the most frustrating day yet, parked mostly on the couch.  This kid of mine is driving me crazy!!  Now feeling better, all he wants to do is bark and play the B-A-L-L game.  Never EVER say that word out loud, and only if you spell it!

I'm a bad mom and I feel guilty about it.  I relegated Cooper to fold-up jail for almost the entire day.  Even though I left the back door open, he would sneak around to the dining room and do what dogs do when they're on steroids.

My entire dining room floor is now carpeted with newspaper.  Just before I became a screaming looneytoons, I plunked him in jail.  Cooper lost that battle.

He usually calms down in the evenings and sleeps next to me on the couch.  That lasted ten minutes before he was looking to get down, so back in jail he went.  We are NOT going through this hurt back thing again because he jumped down from the couch.

In an effort to cool us ALL off (my impatience was getting the best of me) I gave Mr. Coop a trim.  Carefully sitting on a blanket on the floor, I trimmed away from top to bottom.  I think we both feel better!!  That bowl?  That's the water bowl for the kids.  The weird pink thing is a small bowl with an Indian grinding stone inside to keep it from floating.  

Cooper has decided he's afraid of his reflection in the bowl.  Strange, right?  When it moves as the water moves when he's drinking, he becomes scared and runs away.  Did I get the most neurotic dog in the west or what?  The small bowl keeps the water from moving so much so he will drink.  Now you know why this baby makes me bonkers!!

I must say it was pretty nice to have him locked up (bad Mom) because I had the run of the house ... and I did NOT have to sit on the floor.  Instead, I worked on the current quilt block challenge.  

This was the first one that came out half an inch too small all around.  Rather then spend hours with Jack the Ripper, taking out all those seams and resewing, I cheated and just made the borders wider.  Hopefully it won't show up that much on the quilt.

When bed time rolled around, Cooper got to roam around outside for awhile before going back to doggie jail.  I headed for the bed while he howled, whined, whimpered, scratched and cried.  I guess that bed thing isn't going to work out after all.  In desperation, I finally collapsed on the couch where I settled in for the night.  He went straight to sleep.  

I tried to sneak off to bed, but he has the best hearing EVER.  Even the creak of my knee woke him up.  It's okay though, it was much better than the floor!!  In fact, I have to say it's not really so bad.  It's MUCH cooler in the living room than my bedroom.

I dozed off to the bangs of fireworks going off all around me.  No, it's not the 4th of July yet, but people around here are shooting off commercial stuff every night.  

Hopefully I can sneak in a nap before heading off to the Magic Kingdom.  This will be my last day for a while as the packing continues.

NQC .... The Q Stands For Quilters

Several weeks ago as I was perusing Facebook when this page popped up.  I imagine it's because every tap of your finger is logged and catalogued by Facebook, putting ads in your face that match your words. Yeah, they do that.  At any rate, this looked rather interesting, so I opened it up to find the National Quilters Circle and a place to register for this Block Challenge.

Here's how it works:  Give them your email address and once a week they send you a pattern and all the instructions for this quilt, one block per week .... FREE.  Free is always good.  There is a master sheet that lists the fabric requirements and the color suggestions so you can hit the fabric store and purchase whatever is needed.

There are thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of people online making this quilt.  People from all over the world.  The cool part is that many, if not most, are some of the best quilters around.  If you have a question, they can answer it.

I've never done a quilt like this because they were WAY out of my realm of proficiency, but what a challenge!  I signed up.  I'll post more pictures later, because right off the bat I picked terrible colors.  I saw SO many beautiful examples (everyone posts their blocks when complete) that I asked how they did it.  I got a quick how-to lesson in color that I can't wait to try out.

My first problem was understanding quilteze.  It's a foreign language to me, resulting in my first block being 4" square instead of 4-1/2".  Do over!!!  I went back on-line and asked why.  The wonderful ladies explained I needed a Blok and Lok to square things up, and my seams were too wide.

$100 later (for the entire set) I was blocking and loking like crazy and came out with these amazing points.  My tips are usually cut off completely.  I was getting more and more excited!!

To keep this on the short side (I'll post more later), I'm happy to say I'm going to have a gorgeous quilt that I can't believe I made!!  Actually, I'm going to have TWO quilts because I was so unhappy with the first fabric choices, I went back to the store and picked up the maroon colors you see here.

In the meantime, I finished sewing this one together.  It's a queen size.  Someone was supposed to tell me NOT to make a queen sized quilt again.  Good grief, all that fabric is terrible to deal with, and it's not over yet.  It's off to the quilter, at which time I'll have to sew the binding.  Funny how this bed looks like a twin, but it's a queen.

I spent most of the cool morning replacing the tops of these pop-up sprinklers in an attempt to get the brown spots to disappear.  We shall see how it goes.  Just when I thought I was all done, I discovered I have twelve more in the side yard, so that's what's on my schedule for today.  

My last night on the floor!!  YAY!  I'm pretty sure this pattern will be imprinted in my legs forever.  Although he whimpered for several minutes, the foldable kennel worked pretty well.  There were no accidents, mostly because I removed the water at 8:00 and we made a midnight pitstop in the back yard.  My lovely soft bed ... here I come!!!

After sprinkler duty today, I'll begin the packing process.  Not much to pack except food and shorts.  I also need to figure out where to put my bike ... in the car or the belly of the rig.  Neither have much room for something that big.

So why am I going to Arizona in July?  Because it's there!  June seems to be their hottest month and monsoons start in August.  According to the weather people, the temps have been about the same there (in the foothills) as they are here.  Arizona has cheaper gas, cheaper electricity and critters.  Hopefully I don't spontaneously combust in the 112 degree weather I have to pass through to get there.

The Light Bulb Went On ... YAY!!

Sometimes it takes a little longer for the light of day to strike my little brain.  I was literally pulling my hair out yesterday afternoon.  I usually just leave the door open for Cooper and Jessie so they can wander outside whenever they want.

With over 100 degree weather, I closed it.  That brought about a disaster of mammoth proportions.  I realized Cooper was drinking a lot of water (the result of his meds), walking around to the dining room (for you know what), drinking more water, walking around to the dining room.  By the time I figured out what was happening, I had a BIG mess on my hands.

The water went bye-bye and I made a mad dash out to the rig for this fold-up kennel I purchased five years ago and never used.  It took Jessie all of three minutes to figure out she could burrow underneath and get out so I had put it away.

I thought it to be the perfect solution.  Another side effect of the pills is that Cooper is hungry.  A few snacks thrown inside had him pushing Jessie aside to be first.  Why didn't I think of this sooner?

I'm still on the floor next to him for one or two nights, just to make sure he doesn't escape, but I think this will work at home, in the rig and in Arizona.  Since he'll be sleeping in this on the floor, I can actually sleep in a REAL bed.  

With cabin fever at an all time high, I decided to head to the new quilt store in the town of Hilmar (big time dairy country).  Traffic was ridiculous.  I followed a cattle truck doing 70 (speed limit for him 55) and watched as a motorcycle raced by going at least 90, so fast I almost didn't see him.  

Then there was the truck pulling his fancy boat going 75 ... I followed him just to see how fast he was really going.  Where are the cops when you need them?  Don't get me wrong, I can drive like Mario Andretti sometimes, but this day it was just crazy dangerous.

I should have called the quilt shop first.  They were having a giant 30th Anniversary sale. I literally had to push through the crowd to get in the door.  The cutting line was over 100 feet long, clear through all three sections of the store.

With only one person cutting (I can't imagine they weren't more prepared) I quickly decided I didn't need that binding after all.  NO sale is worth waiting in THAT line, not to mention the "Pay Here" line.  

Just as I entered the freeway, I saw the sign ... ACCIDENT AHEAD 14 MILES.  FIND ALTERNATE ROUTE.  No wonder, with everyone speeding!!

I never seem to get off the freeway soon enough, so THIS time, I took the next exit.  Boy was I lucky!  Within half a mile, the freeway became a parking lot.  EIGHT MILES of parking lot.  

Seems two cars collided (you know, the ones going 80+ mph) causing a slowdown.  Two big rigs ran smack dab into the back of the slow traffic, catching fire and blocking the freeway entirely.  I wandered around the back streets before hitting the same alternate route everyone else was using.  

It was all in the plan ... it took me right by the Sprinkler Irrigation Company where I might get some info on my brown spotted lawn.  I came home with an entire package of new heads which will hopefully solve my problem.  $75 worth to be exact, although one big sprinkler will replace a broken one in Arizona.  If I can figure out how to change it out, it will save a lot of fussing about THAT lawn.

Nighttime temps here have risen to 70 degrees and are expected to rise even more this week, which was to be my take-off day.  116 degrees in Indio just doesn't suit me at all.  Unless things change, I will delay departure a couple more days.  

I know you think I'm crazy to head to Arizona in the summer, but honestly, the temps there have been almost exactly the same as where I am now.  Since electricity is SO much cheaper down South, it behoves me to stay there for awhile.  Of course there just happens to be more quilt stores there and MUCH more to do.  

Oh Blah Dee, Oh Blah Dah .......

Life goes on, as the song says.  I have to admit though, I'm getting pretty tired of this staying home puppy sitting thing.  I feel like I've been sitting forever.  If I get up and move, Cooper gets up and follows me .... not so good for someone who is supposed to be resting.

I drug two of my kennels out of the garage to test for travel.  He refused entry.  I could stuff him in, but am afraid I'll hurt his back.  Food is not an incentive with this kid.  If I get in, he'll get in and I don't quite fit.  Nonetheless, he will have to travel in it when we head out.  Otherwise he will jump up and down off the couch.

In the meantime, I think I've logged 3,000 hours on my phone trying to keep busy as I sit on the couch cushion on the floor.  I've tried sneaking up ON the couch, but as soon as my ankle cracks, he's awake and wants up.  I've created a monster.

I was finally able to finished the binding on this crazy quilt.  Does it look like the 80's to you?  It reminds me of my brown shag carpet and orange couch.  Honestly, I really need to make these a little faster.  I love the material when I buy it, but a year later I wonder what the heck I was thinking!!

Such a little angel when he's asleep.  I decided to go for the air mattress yesterday.  Boy did THAT bring back memories of camping with the critters.  We all had small blow-up mattresses that became part of the sandwich.  

The layers included a huge pile of pine needles we gathered, a large canvas tarp, the air mattress and our sleeping bag, topped by the folded over tarp with our levis for a pillow.  Unfortunately for us kids, it didn't keep out the bugs, the snakes or the bears.  

By morning the air mattress was always flat, which didn't really matter to me since I could never stay on it anyway.  I always rolled off.  Every night we had a blow-up-your-air-mattress ritual.  I have discovered I'm WAY too old for floor sleeping now.

At any rate, the gardener showed up Friday, not his usual day, and waylaid my trip.  We discussed the fact he turned up the timers so my sprinklers ran almost five hours every day and why there were still dead spots in the lawn.  Finally he replaced four sprinklers and I threatened him with his life if he turned up the timer again.  

Too late to travel due to traffic, I consoled myself with a grilled cheese tomato sandwich.  I didn't grow these, the Castle Lawyer did ... and WOW ... they are delicious!!  I had forgotten what a REAL tomato tastes like.  There's nothing like an ooey gooey grilled cheese sandwich to make me a happy camper.

So this was my bed for the night.  You would think the couch would be more comfortable, but it's not.  I laid out cushions, covered it with a blanket and propped myself up to watch the Giants ball game.  Surprisingly, we won against the Diamondbacks and surprisingly, it was pretty comfortable.

I probably should be rooting for Arizona, but to be honest, I just don't like their announcers.  They always have something good to say about their team, and something not-so-good about everyone else.  

Finally .... lights out.  I stretched out on my "bed", feeling pretty good about the night to come.  That's when Miss Jessie decided SHE should sleep on the bed too.  I tried to shoo her away, but she was having none of it.  It was a tight fit.  

I'm determined to get out of the house today.  The puppies usually sleep pretty good in the mornings, so I'm locking them in bathroom jail and heading out.  I probably won't get too far since my hips aren't happy with me.  Hopefully I'll be able to heal up from all this one day.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I hit Arizona.  That bed is also too high for Cooper and I imagine he will have to sleep on the floor, which brings up another problem.  He's the only dog of dozens in my life that I've not been able to house train.  

Oh he's great if I leave the door open, but that invites burglars, snakes and coyotes.  I do have a large round fold-up kennel that I'm hoping works.  DING!  The light bulb just went on.  Hey ... maybe I should try that now!!  It would be perfect for him to sleep AND travel in while on the road!!  I'll let you know how it goes.

The Queen Of Hairspray

Here we are again, not so comfortably sitting on the floor to keep the Master of the House quiet.  He was up searching for the ball at 3:20 this morning.  The good news is he's healing up very nicely.  In his every day running around, you would never know his back was hurt.

Always a little timid unless you were near his food dish, he has become even more so down the hallway near my sewing room.  I wonder if he hurt his back slipping on the floor?  I think I will lay out some rugs and see if that makes any difference.  At any rate, he's on the mend and I've lowered his meds by half.

One amazing thing has happened, my Vet has called me every day since Cooper left the hospital to see how he was doing and make suggestions on the levels of medication.  NICE!!  I really appreciate that above and beyond service.

While sitting and watching boring television, lots of things go through your mind.  I am and always have been the Queen of Hairspray ... and I found myself running low on stock.  Actually, I should have stock in this company!  This is what I ordered from Walmart.

When you have the world's worst hair, you need product .... LOTS of product.  It doesn't help that I was raised in the 50's and 60's.  The first thing I was introduced to on the school bus was a toothbrush.  Trust me, there is nothing better in the world to rat your hair to the ceiling, than a toothbrush.  

Although apparently not allowed at home, the hour's ride to school offered plenty of time to rat your "do" into mammoth proportions.  At the time I had long hair in a pony tail that I could sit on.  For whatever reason, my mother decided to cut it all off one day.  That's when the toothbrush became a permanent fixture in my life until the age of 22 when I found the perfect ratting comb, which I still use.

These are not pictures of me, but the hairdos are exactly the style I wore.  Rat rat rat ... scrunch scrunch scrunch and spray the heck out of it.  Once you had it piled up high and smoothed to perfection, you required something with the sticking power of Gorilla Glue to keep it looking like the perfect Roman helmet.

If you were lucky and had a friend who could make curls, this would be your "do" for the day.  I was able to pull this style off a couple of times by myself, but mostly I was the curler, not the curlee.  There was nothing we couldn't stick together with Aqua Net hairspray.  

Dirty hair was always preferable to freshly washed because it held together better.  When we finally did wash our hair, Tame creme rinse kept the tangles out while you rolled every strand on hard plastic rollers.  Sleeping on those was literally a pain, but we did it anyway.  If you were rich, you had a bonnet hairdryer and didn't require the overnight torture.

The next morning, rat rat rat, smooth and spray the dickens out of it.  The more spray the better!   Even when you thought the can was empty, I could get three more hair days by changing the angle of spray.  That's how I became the Queen of Hairspray.  This hair wouldn't move even in a 50 mph wind.

Old habits die hard.  I've never been able to give up the pouffy hair nor the hairspray.  "Natural" just doesn't work for me.  It's been hard to go through the long straight natural hair era.  No worries though, because everything that went around, comes around again, and soon these hairstyles will be in vogue.  I'll be right up front with my can of spray at the ready now that I have received my latest stockpile.

Where's The Aspirin??

Where's the beef used to be the saying around here.  Now that I'm older, it's where's the aspirin!!  I feel just about as good as Miss Jessie looks.  I've got leg muscles I didn't know I had, not to mention a stiff neck.

There are very few times I can get Cooper to sleep like this.  It's that darn ball game.  He feels better, so his fanaticism returned.  Luckily he will lay at my feet when I'm on the computer, so I spent a lot of time sitting here.  He will also stay quiet if I'm sewing, so I put in quite a few hours yesterday.

In between, I try to get him to sleep on the floor next to me.  I finally pulled one of my couch cushions off to sit on so my butt would have some feeling at the end of the day.  That however has brought about a new problem ... getting up and down.  I've got muscles I didn't know I had!!  You need a good workout?  I have a plan for you!

Tomorrow I'm heading out to find a blow-up mattress.  I'm going to need one in Arizona anyway.  All three of us can share and it won't hurt Cooper's back when he exits the bed.  Last night I snuck up on the couch, but it didn't last long.

These meds require lots of water and many trips outside.  I'm lucky if I get two hours sleep at a time.  It's okay ... I'll snooze in the afternoon!!

Trying to think ahead with a still fuzzy brain, I whipped up some bird biscuits for Jonathan.  I even grated apple and carrot into these.  Hopefully he appreciates it!!  I know I've said this before, but if you bake, you should check out Wilton pans, as in cake decorating.  Both Walmart and Michaels carry many of them.  Everything comes out slick as can be ... I just turned these muffins with my fingers so they would cool.  Cleanup was a breeze.

Otherwise, same ole, same ole.  The Post Office never called and did not deliver my package yesterday.  The bank never got my payment made, but they did figure out why it wasn't working and are in the process of fixing it.  Two of the now seven items returned are being re-sent.  

For an even MORE fun afternoon, my gardener upped the timer on all twelve irrigations stations.  After four hours, I looked outside to see the sprinklers STILL running.  As I walked across the lawn to turn them off, I sunk in the mud.  Squishy is the word I would use.  When I leave, I'm putting a padlock on the box.

Here's the info on Walmart should anyone be interested.  I'm not sure they ALL offer this service, but it would be easy to check.

And here's your 10% off coupon.  Just put in the code WOWFRESH.  I'm thinking it just groceries you can purchase.  I didn't go through their entire list of products, but it looks like you can purchase just about anything.  Be sure and load up YOUR store or you might be driving to Kentucky for pickup.

I'm a little ahead of schedule ... only a four hour wait ... but I'm heading off for a haircut.  It's funny, it never seems to get really dark here at night, so the puppies have me up at 3:30, thinking it's time to start the day.  The next time I need the company of a pet, I think I'll find a nice kitty cat.  At least you don't have to open the door for them every three hours.

My Little Vampire and Clerk 1

It's a good thing I got a VERY good night's sleep in my soft bed, because yesterday was pretty crazy.  I tried to force myself to sleep in, but of course that never works.  I was on the move by 8:30 heading to Walmart for my package pickup.

They sent an email saying it was ready, but when I got there, it was still on the truck.  At this time of the morning, there is NO ONE in line.  I'm pretty sure most Walmarters DO sleep in, because when they finally show up at 10:00, they still have their jammies on.

I picked up my package and headed back to the house via the Post Office (they were closed) and the gas station for a Jeep fill-up at $4.40 a gallon for regular.  Drive 20 miles and it will be a mere $3.89. I don't understand it, but this town is higher than any in the Central Valley.  I think that's called collusion in gouging the customers.

At long last, it was time to pick up my little kid.  I tried to gird myself against what I knew was going to be a heart stopping bill.  That will teach me to brag about how healthy my puppies have been all their lives.  This is a blurry picture of him barking at me ... glad to be home.

I received a bag full of meds with more directions than I've EVER seen on MY prescriptions, before pulling out my credit card.  I almost fainted when I heard the cost.  I'm embarrassed to tell you it was over $650.  It took my breath away!  I just closed my eyes and gave her my card.  As she processed it, I said good grief that's expensive!  Don't you at least have a senior citizens discount?  

Why yes we do, she says.  I just shook my head.  I guess you have to ask.  She was nice enough to reverse the entire thing and re-enter a list of charges 10 inches long.  I received $68.00 back.  She also marked my account as permanent senior citizen.  Gosh ... can I get a refund on Jessie's surgery bill too??????

So my little vampire made it home.  I mean really, he might as well suck my blood, because the vet is certainly sucking out my hard earned money!!  What can I say ... I love the little guy and am thrilled he's definitely on the mend.  In the meantime however, there's no playing the ball game or walking up or down stairs for at least 15 days.  He's very sad about that.

By then it was time to lock up both kids and head out to the Magic Kingdom with the infernal machine.  I got there just in time to start working.  Although there are a couple of things not quite the same, she worked just fine the entire evening.

Reader Dave Burdick suggested I test the use of the SD card to be sure it works.  The King had the same idea, but honestly, I didn't want to try.  I was afraid!!  I taped it to the inside of the instruction booklet where it gives them all the directions they need.  In the meantime, I'm changing my phone number.

Just when I thought all was well with the world, the Kitchen Staff came over in a panic.  THEIR infernal machine was asking for a Clerk Number.  They don't have clerk numbers and it locked her out of every function like a two-year old tantrum.

It happens with our machine too when we accidentally hit keys in the wrong order.  I've no idea what those keys ARE, but have figured out just call yourself Clerk "0" and it works.  Not so much with the kitchen machine.  After many screeching beeps and "Hit Clear" messages, I figured out their magic number is "1".  Clerk 1 signed on and it was a happy camper.  

Finally home, I tried to psych myself out for another night on the floor.  I have 14 more to look forward to.  I don't dare put Cooper on the bed ... he has never jumped off, but these meds make him very thirsty.  He was up and down all night long slurping away.  I was a VERY long night.

I do have some other news to pass along.  Walmart has a new thing going called Grocery Pickup.  It's all free they say.  You go online and pick out all the groceries you want, including fruits and vegetables, then pay with your credit or debit card.  You tell them what time you will be there to pick them up, whereupon they bring everything to the front door and load it in your vehicle.  Boy is THAT service.

The gal even said if you are unhappy with the tomatoes they picked out, you can return them and pick your own.  100% guarantee.  She gave me a 10% off coupon.  I might just try it and see how it works.    I'm not sure how this makes money for them, but maybe they will get more shoppers if you don't have to look at other shoppers in their jammies.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Potpourri ... A Mixture Of Stuff

This is what happens when you don't have kids.  You substitute with THESE "kids".  It's truly better to have the real thing, because they can tell you where it hurts.  My two just give me the "look".  Instantly I know something's wrong.

Even though Cooper was getting better, I took him to the Vet early yesterday morning.  From 1 to 10, he said this little guy was still at about 7.  He's a pet lover for sure, as he held Cooper in his arms the entire time we were talking.  That might have been more for me than Cooper, I'm not sure.

Poor baby boy had to stay in the hospital in order to get good doses of meds to reduce the swelling in his spine before it impacted his spinal column.  Lovely conversation, yes?  I was almost in tears.  The good news is the x-rays showed no damage at all, everything is in it's place where it should be.  YAY!!

He should be able to come home right after lunch.  I can't wait!!

In the meantime, Miss Jessie and I enjoyed some one on one time, although most of it she spent snoring.  We got the best sleep EVER on a nice comfy bed last night.  Your bed not comfortable?  Just sleep on the floor a couple of nights.  

In the meantime, I went BACK to the Post Office to complain about not getting packages for the umpteenth time.  THIS time they called the driver, who told them she didn't deliver to this address because it was vacant, in which case she does not get paid for delivery.  

After explaining the entire I-live-here, the UPS store closed and took my mail with them, I have a post office box because I'm gone long periods of time ..... thing, they said they would call me later in the day.  Of course they did NOT call.

I'm still trying to track down two packages I haven't received.  No doubt they were returned.

Next up .... call the Credit Union and find out why my health insurance payment is not going through.  You can imagine how that went.   I left message after message and no one called me back.  Why is it always up to ME to figure out the problem and call THEM?  Still working on that one.

For those that care, you really CAN freeze hummus.  I bought a really big container at Costco and split it into smaller containers.  I took one out and left it in the fridge to defrost yesterday.  It was exactly like the fresh.  I've no idea why I took a liking to hummus.  It's never been on my love-this list until recently.  Kind of like how I hated pizza as a kid, then one day woke up craving it.

Angelina Jolie has commented on my blog.  Can you believe it?  She actually reads my blog.  How exciting is THAT????  Not really at all.  It was written in some strange language like maybe ancient Arabic.  I deleted all three of them.  I think it's rather funny they picked her name.  Obviously no one would believe Angelina really commented.  

It's Magic Kingdom day again.  Boy that came around fast!  The infernal machine is programmed and ready to go.  I did another test run yesterday and all seems well.  That's when I discovered a slot in the front.  Being a camera person, I instantly recognized it as an SD card slot.  

I grabbed the book and began to look for anything SD.  Sure enough, you can insert a card and transfer all the programming.  I scrounged around the house for an hour, looking for a card.  Surely I have one SOMEwhere!  AHA!!!  Found it.

I plugged it in, formatted it and followed the directions.  It said it transferred every last piece of data, not that I believe it.  It has caused me hours of grief before.  I took the card out and taped it inside the book.  If this ever happens again, we may have a shot at reprogramming it rather then spending hours figuring out those 25 departments and how often to hit the Text key.

That's it for today.  I'm gearing up to pick up Cooper, then rushing home to pick up the infernal machine and return it to Bingo.   In the meantime, where oh where has my refrigerator filter gone?

So ............ I'm Back On The Floor

I love my puppies.  Whatever it takes to keep them happy and comfortable, that's what I do.  Imagine my grief when I discovered Cooper had hurt his back.  My guess is jumping off the couch, which he does 20 times a day.  THIS however, was the day he got hurt.  Actually it was Saturday afternoon.

If you could see the look of pain on his face ... he could hardly stand up.  He barely moved, sleeping uncomfortably all Saturday evening.  Sunday morning, he was even worse.  There are no emergency Vets around here ... everyone is closed up tight on Sundays.  I gave him one of Jessie's pain pills from her surgery, hoping he would sleep while I was gone.

I would have canceled on the waffles, but discovered not only was I to MIX them, I was to BAKE them to order.  Really, how hard can it be to mix up Krusteaz pancake mix, just adding in extra stuff.  The hard part was figuring out how much of that stuff we needed to use up the five pound bag.  

I scrounged up some oil and eggs (16 of them) along with a large whisk.  Batter done.  Now for the test run in the two fancy dancy commercial waffle irons.  You know, those kind you turn over to bake.  Turn them BACK over and lift the lid to discover a beautiful undercooked, NOT brown OR crispy waffle.  

Waaaaay back in the old days, my Mom told me to let it cook until there was no more steam coming out the side.  I ignored the flashing light and piercing beep, letting them cook another 45 seconds.  They came out perfect.  That's when I came up with the idea to show someone ELSE how to do it so I could go home to my poor puppy.

It was an amazing brunch ... cooked to order omelets (and boy did they look tasty), sausage, hash browns (remember the left overs from the LAST breakfast?) biscuits and gravy with all the condiments you could imagine from homemade salsa to strawberries and whipped cream.  I didn't eat a thing.  I was too worried about Cooper.

I got home to find a puppy that could barely walk.  I instantly became frantic.  I made a bed of quilts on the floor by the couch.  I carried him outside to the grass, then carried him back in.  He curled up on the quilts and went to sleep, but every time I moved, he raised his head.  

I finally put the couch cushions on the floor, sitting right next to him.  He slept for four hours.  I slept for about 30 minutes, propped up against the couch.  Having already talked to Nurse Patty, I found a heating pad and laid it gently against his back.  He refused all food and water and I became a blubbering mess!!

Finally time for bed, he wouldn't settle down unless I was on the floor next to him, so I propped myself up against the couch again with one leg hanging over the coffee table and tried to doze off.  Thank goodness he slept like a rock.  

We were up at 1:00 am, with him still not feeling any better.  Bleary eyed, I took him outside again, then back on the floor just waiting for time to pass until I could call the Vet.  

He woke me up at 3:30 as he plopped his ball in my lap.  What??  NO ball games!  You're hurt really bad.  He was having none of it, so I gathered up all his balls and dumped them in the sink.  There are two times he lays quietly at my feet.  One is when I'm on the computer, and one is when I'm sewing.  

I've been surfing the web since 3:45 and plan on continuing until 7:30 when the Vet's office opens up.  It looks like he's on the upswing.  I almost hate to take a chance of re-injuring him by going to the Vet, so I'll call first.

It's always something with these kids and I seem to be having a rather hard time of it.  Hopefully he is on the mend and I'll be able to keep on schedule.  In the meantime, there can be no stairs in his life, so I'm hunting up pieces of plywood to make ramps up on the couch both in the house and in the rig.  It is NOT my plan to sleep on the floor again!!  Time will tell.

The Dirty Deed Is Done

Out VERY early in the morning with my eyes still half shut yesterday, I finally finished washing the rig.  She's all sparkly clean, as long as you don't get too close.  REALLY washing it would mean climbing up and down a ladder.

Reader and Tucson neighbor Jan Mains (okay, they live about 60 miles away, but that's ALMOST a neighbor in RV land) knows about the dangers of ladders first hand.  She convinced me with her pictures of a broken foot.

I do use a ladder to climb up top when I absolutely have to.  I cringe when the RV ladder attached to the back creaks and groans under my weight, another reason to keep on a diet.  At any rate, she's clean for another six months.

Next time I just might make Lodi a vacation spot so I can visit the truck wash.  My first experience was a bad one though ... in Oregon where the brushes had more sand on them than the ground, they scratched it really bad from one end to the other.  Hopefully Blue Beacon will be better.

With no more bumps or bruises to speak of, I was done by 6:30 am.  Not being much of a clean freak, I gave the inside the once over.  Since there were no big chunks and no black widow spiders, I shook out the rugs and called it a day.

Except for the Damp Rid.  It was so damp, it was moldy.  How that's possible in this heat, I don't know.  Time for it to say bye bye.  It could also use a little foo-foo just to make it smell nice, so I opened another jar before opening the window and turning the exhaust fan back on.  It keeps the heat down inside.

So .... that was exciting!  Next I cleaned up some of the backyard trash, discovering the biggest black widow spider I've ever seen.  We grown them big here in the sandy desert part of California, about an inch long she was, until I beat her to death with a 2 x 4.  

I've never seen so many spiders in my life.  I suppose they do keep the mosquitos down, but their webs!!!  They are so strong, you could hang off the top of a building on one.  There are so many under the rig that I wind them up with a big stick.  Some day I'll have a great new attraction ... the biggest ball of spider webs ever.  

I spent the rest of the day trying to stay cool without the AC.  It's just too expensive to run very much.  I don't know if you have figured out your toleration level, but mine seems to be 82 degrees.  Much above that and I stand with the freezer door open.  Hey, it's cheaper then the AC.

Since I finished off the smoked chicken for lunch, smothered in mayo, apples and pecans, I cooked the last of a bag of scallops I found in the freezer.  Another reason to use it as a cooling device.  I get to see what I have that needs to be eaten.  They were delicious!

You would be proud of me .... I actually declined to work at the Elks Lodge Friday and Saturday.  Said I just couldn't make it.  Today however, is the big brunch put on by the prior mucky mucks.  My Bingo buddy needs help making waffles, so I said yes to 7:30.

I have no experience with waffles, only Krusteaz pancakes.  My part in that was to buy the bag, so I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be.  Maybe I can do the measuring.  At any rate, I'm off early to get him started before coming back home.  It's going to be another scorcher today, so there's absolutely NOTHING on my schedule other than sit in front of the fan and maybe sew a little.