JUST MY LUCK

 It's Friday.  I forgot to check and see if it was a full moon, but alas, yes it just was and it leaked over to MY Friday.  It's also August 1 .. meaning another month has just slipped by like a snake in the bushes.

First off ... a nice cool run at 6:30 am.  I'm doing better ... I can tell a difference in my running now, or rather jogging.  I actually went a total of 2.2 miles and only walked for less than a quarter mile.  YAHOO!!  So swimming should help, yes?

Here's the lousy full moon that caused all the problems.  That yellow flower is ME before the moon took over and I became the wilted one.

Back at the house, breakfast was elusive.  I just could not come up wth anything healthy ... or quick.  Let me tell you however ... this Blue Bunny was YUMMY!

I grabbed my cup-o-Jo and headed for the patio, only to be tracked and annoyed by this creature.  She stuck her big nose in my coffee, which then got thrown out.  Apparently it wasn't her flavor.

With nothing important on the menu today, I went to lay out in the cool morning for a bit.  You will never guess WHO came and sat on my head!  Really?  "Go away",  to the sounds of purring didn't work real well, so I just got up and headed to town for the first item on my list.

Signing up for the BIG pool with the LONG lanes.  The kid was not a big speaker of English.  I truly could hardly understand him, but he said AHA ... yes we can sign you up.  YAY.  Let's DO IT!  He got half way through, then went to get his boss who closed the computer down and started it back up again.

Magically, my Code Number no longer worked.  Hey ... HE said I could sign up and now you are telling me NO?  Yup that's exactly what they did.  They said the only way I could join was to pay $32.00 a month, which included a senior discount.  So why does my girlfriend get to come for free?  Well she must have signed up a long time ago because we don't do that now.

Okay, it's worth it, so sign me up.  That's when we got to the MOON part.  We charge $50.00 a year MAINTENANCE FEE, payable now.  Give us your bank account number ... A BIG FAT NO ... or your debit card number ... ALSO A BIG FAT NO and you can join.  How about a credit card number?  Well for that one they charge you an addition 16% every time it is charged.  Are you kidding me?  That's highway robbery!

Sorry, but I'm an accountant and I'm definitely NOT paying that just to use my credit card.  That's ridiculous, not to mention the additional costs!  And so I walked out with NO membership in the fancy swimming pool.  The only swimming option is at the place where they have teeny tiny lanes you have to make a reservation for, not to mention the 40 minute drive.  Just my luck!!

My swimming hopes were dashed.  So what am I doing today?  I'm looking up swimming pool contractors!  I'm thinking something small like this in my back yard.  

Next up, I stopped in at Kohls.  Its the only store in the next town over that carries any household items.  Truly, they only have restaurants, a boot barn, a tractor supply and Hobby Lobby.  I was hoping for a little more quality than Walmart.  

Here's all I came home with ... just two new towel sets for the bathroom.  As for clothing, good grief ... everything has ruffles on it.  When did THAT happen ... not to mention they have mostly winter clothing now that we are in the 100 degree temperatures.

Back home I tossed my sandals in the closet and walked into the kitchen.  WHAT WAS THAT?  OMG there's a lizard on the floor and I stepped on it barefoot.  #%$^#$&#!!!!!!  I doubt the poor guy lived, but I took him out to the bushes in front.  That DARN CAT just will not leave the poor lizards alone.

That's when my luck changed.  I got a call from my friend to meet them for dinner.  Her grandson (believe it or not) works in Washington D.C. with all those awful politicians.  He's from Texas, and how he wanted to do THAT job, is beyond me.  What a GREAT kid he is.  He shared with us his pictures with every big name politician you can imagine, and told us stories you wouldn't believe.  Well actually, nowadays, you WOULD believe them.

I ate half my shrimp scampi and brought the rest home for dinner tonight ..... except tonight I will be back at the lodge working one of the biggest political events in our County.  I am SO NOT politically inclined, so this should be fun, right?

I'll let you know how it goes.  In the meantime, I'll be resting up and hoping the moon has passed me by.  I don't need to be dropping anything on anyone's head tonight!

YOU DID WHAT?

It was a VERY busy day, but first ... let's have a cup of fake coffee in my pretty new cup.  ALOHA!! 

That's when I walked by the bedroom door to find this.  Miss Kitters snoozing on MY bed.  She didn't move an inch.  It must have been a long night!

While waiting for the plumber, I went through an extra drawer of silverware I found.  I must have enough for at least 50 people.  Time to downsize ... mostly because I'm donating it to the apartment in Maui.  At one time I had three houses, which is why THIS house is full of stuff!!

The very nice plumber guy showed up right on schedule.  Too bad I'm not a little younger.  I showed him the problem and he went right to work.  He replaced one little seal on the cartridge, but that didn't give me any hot water.  He finally removed the supply line, to find it plugged completely.

He went about unplugging it until I said CAN WE JUST REPLACE IT?  He said of course.  No use putting that one back in if it's just going to get clogged up again.  LOOKIE HERE!  I have WATER.  And the faucet didn't leak a drip.  

It was 9:00 when I looked around and said NOW WHAT?  I mentioned yesterday that I had these doll heads.  Don't get weirded out.  They are made of porcelain, fired (which is weird to see all these heads and body parts in a kiln) then you clean, sand and paint.  You have full control here ... painting the eyebrows, the cheeks and the lips, before inserting the eyes, whatever color you want.

The bottom one looks possessed, but no ... she's just got blue eyes.  The problem is that the lady two towns over who had all the parts and pieces, along with the kiln and expertise to teach this hobby, retired and moved away.  I was completely disappointed.  I searched around, only to find one or two back in Tennessee.  That's a little too far to go for a hobby.

I had completed several before giving most of them away.  I kept this girl because she was the first one I finished.  Don't you just love that dress?  If you look closely, even her hands and feet are painted.  

I had a lot of fun making these and I wish I could continue today.  I'm afraid it's a lost art.

Lunch was a little better than yesterday ... carne asada street tacos without the cilantro because it got left off my Walmart order.

Then I went completely off my rocker.  I had made a trip to the garage, only to be stared down by ELEVEN boxes of old tax records.  And that's not even the current ones.  I really need to get rid of these.  I called my accountant to see if maybe they had someone do their shredding.  

Wasn't I shocked to hear them say BRING THEM BY next Tuesday.  No folders, no clips.  That meant I had to go through every single box and REBOX them.  

Well over three hours later, here's what got done.  I still have three big boxes in the garage, but I'm done for the day.  The good news is I never have to buy another clip or paper clip in my life.  Too bad I still have boxes to do, but there's always another day.

About the pool story.  My friend goes to a local gym pool to swim every morning.  I need to work on my swim fin muscles.  I'll sign up.  NO NO she said, the pool is closed for the next month.  So I went to the OTHER town to sign up with the same company.  I should have looked first.  AFTER I signed up, I discovered their pool is half as long as this one pictured here.  There is just no way!

Come to find out, THAT is the pool she thought was Olympic sized.  NO MA'AM ... that's tiny pool.  To make it worse, I timed my trip home to a long 35 minutes.  That's a lot of extra gas for a small pool.  I just went online and cancelled the membership.  

This sized pool is in their OTHER gym even FURTHER away from me ... but it's an awesome place that I used to belong to years ago.  SO ..... drive further for a nice pool workout and suck up the cost of the fuel, or go local and swim where you have to make reservations every single day in a teeny tiny pool.  I'm undecided, but I have a feeling the bigger facility is going to win out.  It's all free with my insurance, so that's the good part.

I would show you the fabulous chicken marsala I had planned for dinner, but that included those mushrooms I had to return.  I think dinner is going to be Fritos and a Pepsi.  Aren't you glad you don't live here?????  

Is this not the cutest picture EVER?  He did love his toys.  I hope everyone has a FABULOUS day!

I EAT WEIRD STUFF!

 I was up early.  It now seems that kitty kitty has decided to sleep on the end of my bed.  I guess that's okay because she stays far away and is VERY light-footed.  But in the morning, she wakes up and just stares at me until I get up ... then it's meow meow meow!!!

There were a few things on the menu.  First up, the gardener.  We had a little talk in the back yard about how bad the weeds were and not picking up what I had sawn off the tree.  He got out his CHAIN SAW and chopped it up to put in the trash can.  Good job.  Then I had to laugh.  For the third time, the sprinkler water was hitting the window by my desk.

There he was, parked outside right in front of the window to be sure he didn't get wet when the sprinkler went by.  I tapped on the window and laughed.  At least he got it fixed THIS time.

From there I posted on the internet that I could not CROP the pattern on my quilting machine since they updated it.  The appropriate buttons had disappeared.

Some very nice lady posted this picture, which shows the CLEAR button (which I could not find) where it now resides ... way over on the far right of the screen.  Before, it was top left.  Thank goodness for Facebook Friends.

Then it was rush rush to the other side of town to return two Amazon items.  The one they told me to buy in a larger size was too BIG and the one they told me to buy in a smaller size, was too SMALL.  And of course they ALL came from China, so I had no problem whatsoever, returning them both.  Is ANYTHING made in the U.S. any more?

Then I was off to Walmart.  Apparently they have changed "grocery shoppers", because where I used to get amazing veggies, now I get CRAP.  The mushrooms I ordered were three days past the pull date, and instead of WHITE mushrooms, they were nasty BROWN.  What a waste of fuel and money, to drive all the way back, wait for 20 minutes, just to get a $1.99 refund.  

I did get a smile on my face on the way home however.  The guy up front on the left was diving in and out of traffic, speeding of course, when this motorcycle cop pulled right in behind him.  I didn't even know there WERE motorcycle cops here.  His lights were flashing red until the light turned green and they both pulled over.  Well deserved I think ... well deserved!

There was three hours of accounting stuck in there somewhere, along with a long talk about paying bills online.  You know all us old folks are old school, and heels were dug in until I explained that I do it all the time.  Truly, it only came up because all the bills get pricey checks printed, expensive envelopes sealed and 80 cent stamps put on them.  That's a LOT of expense.  Money is the name of the game, so today I'll go over and give a demonstration.  The new bookkeeper is ecstatic!  It will save her HOURS!

When I got home, I totally expected to see this at the door.  Alas, it was very quiet and no one greeted me.

With a big sigh, I fixed a little lunch.  Y'all know I eat weird, right?  I just throw together whatever I can find in the fridge.  Sometimes it's meatloaf for breakfast in a tortilla, or maybe Fritos.  You just never know.  That's why I don't invite people over.  

So today it was the last piece of pork loin from the freezer, stuck in lettuce pieces and covered with thousand island dressing and parmesan cheese.  It wasn't the least bit tasty, but I ate it anyway while dreaming of Olive Garden pasta!

Next up ... I don't know what your under-sink cabinets look like, but mine were full to the brim.  That makes it difficult for the plumber to repair stuff.  Things like ant bait, floor polish, horse clippers and ceramic doll heads lived there.  Yes ... ceramic dolls heads.  Remember your grandmother's dolls that had ceramic heads?  I used to make those heads from clay.  One day I'll post a few pictures.  

Anyway, now all the other counters in the laundry room are completely covered with junk.  The plumber should be here at 9:00 they say, but I'm not holding my breath.

Since lunch was a bust, I figured to try something a little better for dinner.  I got out these chicken burgers, hoping to do SOMETHING with just one.  That's when I saw it ... the word SPICY.  I didn't order SPICY.  Is this another Walmart mistake?  Why yes it is.  Too bad I got these two months ago. Now I'm stuck with them.  

I played Chef Nancy and wrapped it up in a big flour tortilla.  I threw in lettuce, cheese and barbecue sauce.  Yes ... yes it was awful, but I ate it until my mouth was burning like a fire pit.  Enough of that!!

So when I heard the jingle of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, I literally RAN outside to meet the ice cream man.  I'm pretty sure he's over 100 years old by the looks of his beard ... still riding his bicycle around the neighborhood with a freezer on the back.  I don't know why this ice cream tastes so good, but it does.  I dropped a $20 bill for these four, though they only cost $4 each.  It's 95 degrees outside and he's still making children (and old ladies) happy!!!  He deserved every penny.

Thank you for stopping by.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about the swimming pool.

FULL MOON BINGO! OH NO!

 Can you believe it?  I missed TWO Bingo nights this month ... but really, I didn't miss it at all!!  And here we are at the next Tuesday night.  It didn't take long at all to discover it was a full moon without even looking outside.

But FIRST ... breakfast was two little Oreo's that we got on the plane.  How disappointing they were.  Just look at this.  Not only did they minimize the frosting, it's thinner than ever before.  I bet there's not HALF as much as there used to be.  Oreos ... you just got marked off my list, even if these were FREE.

This is Kitters every morning position now.  Truly, she follows me around like a puppy dog, meowing and talking constantly.  

When not sleeping, she plays racehorse around the living room before jumping up on the table and dragging down her feather toy.  There aren't many feathers left on it now.  It is interesting how she goes for the string more than the feathers.  

Enough of that.  In an effort to keep me from sitting TOO much, I stitched up a back for the next quilt.  That nice line of fabric is in the middle of the back.  Any time you see this, it means either there was not enough fabric or I made a big mistake in measuring, which just happened to be the case this time.  It made for a lot of extra work!!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch .................

Then it was on to feeding my sourdough starter. Once it finally gets going, you can keep it in the fridge for several weeks.  Bring it out, feed it flour and water and let it sit on the counter for 5-6 hours before stowing it back in the fridge.  I'm almost out of bread, so maybe I'll bake another loaf next week.

And then it was time to head on off to Bingo.  I got a big THANK GOODNESS YOU ARE BACK from the bookkeeper.  The other trustee guys do a bang-up up job signing checks, but never remember to initial everything.  That took me 30 minutes, followed by a HOLY COW when I checked up on our PG&E true-up.  We have solar panels ... as many as we can possible squish on the roof, and still our bill is outrageous.  Let's just say I could buy a new car with that money!

Downstairs once again, I was met with my latest sweet volunteer Connie.  She is a long time Bingo player who comes in early to help me set up the table.  I didn't even give a thought to the fact that there was a full moon in the sky.  Ten minutes after the first game started and I got a BIG reminder!!

A nice little old man in the far back corner got a bingo.  He called it, but I tell people all the time, you have to SCREAM it out!  If the caller doesn't hear you (the machine he sits at is VERY loud) and he calls the next number, you lose.  And that's what happened.  

Talk about pitchforks, shovels, knives, spears, daggers, flaming torches, everything the crowd could get their hands on!!!  It was SO LOUD I grabbed my phone and dialed 91 while waiting for the shoe to fall.  And they DID NOT STOP!  I thought Mark was going to be drawn and quartered!!  He stuck to his guns though ... rules are rules ... but the roar didn't subside for a full TEN minutes.  

Finally I heard SHUT THE F.... UP.  GET OVER IT!!!!!  IT'S DONE!!!  And that came from a lady Bingo player!  The crowd finally calmed down and they finished the game.  Good grief ... I thought I was going to have to finish the 911!!!

Is it a FULL MOON?  Why yes it was.  Had I known, I would have warned the caller!!  Let me just say from then on, you could hear BINGO from outside the building and half way down the street!!  The caller went and talked to the nice man, who agreed he should have said it louder.  Next time my friend!!

With that, my right hand gal picked up dinner for us ... chicken fingers.  I'm not really a fan of ranch dressing, but these were the best I've ever had here!!!

I kept my head down for the rest of the night so I didn't get yelled at too.  It went quite well and the infernal machine balanced to within $1.00.  That's good enough for me and I was out the door.

Lucky me, I get to deal with the gardener this morning, followed by accounting work.  I didn't miss either one of those things while I was gone!  Hopefully the full moon doesn't leak over this morning!!

HITTING THE TO-DO LIST!

I started the day off with a walk.  It was not the same without my little boy.  Having run the day before, it's better to walk and heal up a bit before adding fuel to the fire.  I have to keep reminding myself that muscle weighs more than fat ... and if I would just PUT DOWN THAT CHEESECAKE, I might lose a little more. 

As I came back into the house, I was reminded for the umpteenth time that I needed to tear down those cardboard boxes that have been coming every day.  Amazon is a curse when you're bored to tears.  

With that done, I was on to hooking up the charger to the van.  I suppose I could have just driven it 50 miles, but I wasn't in the mood.  At the same time, I did a little maintenance work.  I turned on the generator, then the air conditioner to give it a little run for the money ... which caused ME to run as fast as I could to turn the generator GAS on.  Just a minor detail.  

I didn't run it very long before getting completely distracted by my grumbling stomach and Kitters meowing for HER breakfast.  It was an easy choice ... croissant, scrambled egg and tomatoes.  I really did need to make a food order with Walmart, which will now be delivered at 7:00 am.  Those drivers must make a bundle to do THAT job!

Back outside I hit the weed spray once again before giving Kitters some attention.  She craves this brushing all day long and bugs me constantly.  I've noticed when she is inside, she positions herself where she can see me when she lays down.  If I move into the office, here she comes and sleeps right about where Cooper used to lay.  A sad reminder I must say.

When the doorbell rang, I knew it was Amazon once again.  I got yelled at in Maui because I didn't wear a hat in the sun.  Hmmm might not be a bad idea for here too since I do lay out from time to time.  This one is completely NOT my style ... after all, I'm a cowgirl.  It goes do one thing cowboy hats do not.  It rolls up into something akin to rolling up my shirts in my small travel bag.  I'm not saying it works, but we shall see.  

I then spent an hour talking to AT&T.  I've been with them forever and get a nice discount, so no, I won't change carriers.  On this occasion however, I was close!  One of my credit cards specifically for auto-pay got hacked.  They called me immediately.  That means a new card number had to be put in place for those auto-pay items, of which one was AT&T.  

Yes I changed it, but they did not pick it up and gave me a big RED X on my computer.  Really?  It's YOUR fault you didn't pick up on the new card number.  I got Thomas ... a happy guy who agreed with me how BAD their AI answering service was.  He fixed it, but it took an hour on the phone.

Trying to take care of "stuff", next up was a contractor to fix the rotted facia board and gutters.  I STILL have not found anyone who will help.  So I called the plumber to fix this faucet that leaks even when the supply lines are turned off and will NOT work when the hot water is turned on.

Believe it or not, I had to send them a picture.  "We don't see any cold water faucet".  Umm are you really a plumber?  That's because the ONE faucet turns both ways, for hot and cold.  I had to send them TWO pictures before they "got the picture".  I'm afraid this isn't going to end well.

Kitters and I watched a very interesting program about a Tour of Mars, right after seeing the program about the Challenger exploding.  Nope I'm pretty sure I will NEVER go into space!!  I like it just fine down here on earth.  Kitters slept the rest of the afternoon.    

And so I suppose I should gear up for tonights Bingo since I've declined to attend the last three mandatory meetings.  Everything has changed since losing my sweet Cooper.  I have no patience for foolishness.  Anyone else feel that way?  Maybe it's just my old age kicking in.  I'm hoping that changes soon, but I'm not holding my breath.  

Back to my TO-DO list!!!

WEEDS AND PIZZA!!

 Good Morning California!  I admit, I would much rather be saying ALOHA!  Even though it was warm there, it was much cooler than here!  They had a breeze blowing 24-7 and we had the quietest overhead fan I have ever known.  Turn my ceiling fans on here and they grind so loud it keeps me awake.  I guess there is something to be said about BOTH locations.

It was early when I headed out for a run so I would beat the heat.  My inner clock has moved forward an hour for some reason, so it's plenty light at 6 am.  In spite of no rain and lots of heat, the sunflowers are in full bloom.  It took a bit to get my lungs to open up, but I see progress.  There was more running than walking this time.

It was a mistake to go in the back yard when I returned. The weeds around the outside edge and into the flowers beds were epic.  I once again have a gardener that mows and goes.  I pulled 10" high handfuls and threw them on the lawn.  I want him to SEE what he should have been taking care of.  Either hit them with the weedeater or spray.  This is unacceptable.  The worse part ... ants take up residence underneath the weeds.  Just walk near and see how many bites you get!

Kitters tried to make it all better.  She marked her territory by rolling in the sandy corral before coming in the doggy door and depositing a PILE of sand ... and I mean a PILE!!  I thought I must have drug all that back from Maui in my clothes.  Were did that come from?  One quick pet of her back and I knew.  I had to sweep the entire hallway it was so bad.  She is quickly becoming a pain in the patoo!!!

I spent the next couple of hours sewing the binding on this 250th celebration quilt.  It will be auctioned off at the Elks Lodge to make money for our Veterans account.

Yeah, trying to look all innocent after bringing in all that dirt.  She spends most of her time on the arm of the couch .... keeping VERY close.  She literally follows me to every room like a puppy.

Time went by very slowly and I was bored to tears.  In Maui you are going and going.  Always something to see, something to investigate, going out for lunch ... keeping busy.  Here I'm sitting on the couch for hours wishing I was back on the island.

In desperation I finally decided to try out Shirley's cauliflower crust pizza.  You know what?  It turned out VERY good.  Who knew??  It doesn't TASTE like cauliflower and acts just like regular pizza crust.  There is actually a lot of pepperoni under there, but I put too much cheese on top.  Thank you for the tip Shirley!

Dessert was a little slice of that cheesecake I made before I left.  I put a little homemade plum jam on it for added flavor.  Boy was it GOOD!!!  Here's another good thing about being in Maui ... you don't eat dessert every day like I do here, saving me a few pounds while on that trip.

Finally, only out of complete boredom, I set up the quilting machine for the next quilt.  Of course ever since I had it "fixed", it doesn't work right at all.  The computer program hangs up here and there, I'm sure because they updated the program on an old iPad.  

I messed with it for two hours.  There are crosshairs that should move when you move the machine, and they do NOT.  There's no other way to line things up.  Though it stitched okay this time, it was way off by the end, meaning I had to delete the entire pattern and reenter everything from scratch, just to get the last row done.  

Add to that the instructions I have to do things like cropping, do not match what I see on the screen any more.  The buttons they tell me to touch, are not there.  It's become frustrating every time ... making me not want to quilt any more. 

I got this one finished, but I'm not happy with it.  I suppose no one will notice, but "I" will.  And of course it's not Cooper approved.

Kitters is doing her best to keep me occupied, but it's just not quite the same.