SPLASHDOWN!

 So much for my plans today and tomorrow.  Not that I had much in mind, really.  It's going to be a rainy 50 degrees today, meaning there will be snow on the mountain tops.  If it's 50 here, it's snowing at the Ski Lodge.

Mr. Cooper could care less.  MOM ... I was SLEEPING!!  Never wake up the sleeping kid unless you have treats in your hand,

It started off nice enough ... just a few clouds ... but soon the lightning began.  That's so unusual for this area.  No thunder, just lightning and ominous looking clouds.

I do try to be quiet when I have company, but when Cooper thinks there are treats in the air, he barks.  In other words, everyone was up by 7:30 for their 9:00 appointment.

This is Kitters wake up routine.  She immediately goes outside to roll and roll on the patio, pretending to be a vacuum and picking up every single piece of flotsam and jetsam to bring back in the house.  It sticks to her like glue until she gets inside, leaving a trail to her favorite chair.  

Luckily on this day there were no dead gophers or lizards seen.  They are probably hiding out under the furniture.

Upon her return, Cyndae and I went to lunch at Applebees.  Remember that menu that showed the price of $10.99 but we were charged $18.99?  I went online to complain.  Amazingly, even though I wrote that I did not pay the bill, so there was no receipt number, and before I even closed my computer, they sent me a $25.00 gift certificate.  LET'S EAT!!

We were smarter this time ... sort of.  The big banner hanging outside on the wall says LUNCH $10.99.  We get inside and peruse the menu to find absolutely EVERYTHING is $18.99 and up.  No kidding.  Even Habit Burger is cheaper than THIS!

Cyndae had a mushroom Swiss burger and I had this magnificent Bourbon Bacon Burger.  The patty was huge and an inch thick.  As you can see, bacon was hanging out every side, followed by crispy fried onions.  I had to smash it down just to take a bite.  

I admit, it was really good, and thanks to the certificate, lunch came to $16.00.  MUCH more reasonable.  Truly however, they should try to lower their prices.  We were there on a Friday at noon and there were maybe eight people inside.   With these prices, they won't be in business long.

So you know what a big meal does to us old folks ..... back home, Cyndae went for a 2 hour nap.  I dozed on the couch a bit until the downpour.  YIKES!!  It began to rain hard in the blink of an eye.  Hey, this wasn't predicted to happen until tomorrow!

Though I only ate half my burger, slothfulness took over.  I did very little the rest of the afternoon, still trying to catch up from Bingo and Board Meetings.  My excuse is the rain.  What can you do when it's raining!!

It quit just in time to watch the splashdown.  This was an amazing video that I thought I was filming, but only got a still shot.  How fascinating to see the earth move under you as you come in for a landing in the ocean.  NO ... I would NOT want to be there.  

I don't know how they could make such a pinpoint landing.  The view from the ship waiting for them to come down, turned from a negative image to a positive one.  WOW when those chutes open.  Watch to the end and you'll see when it hits the water.  I thought one chute would not open, but apparently they are made to open very slowly so as not to come to a screeching halt and snap the lines.  

Who thinks up this stuff?  There are some brilliant minds out there inventing things I could not even dream about.  I mean think about it ... who says okay, I can put little weights all around the edge with explosive devices, so when the parachute starts to open, it won't open all the way until I hit the EXPLODE button.  Fascinating stuff.

So after ten days in space, they are all back on the ground safe and sound.  Now to be poked and prodded to see how they fared.  I was intrigued by the fact that while in space with no gravity pulling down on your body, you actually grow an inch or more when your spine expands.  Arriving back on earth must feel like I do when I try to get up off the couch after sitting for a few hours!  

As for the black tank dump problem, we ALL could have told them how to fix THAT one!!  So maybe there's a little bit of astronaut in every one of us.

THE TROUBLEMAKER!

 What a beautiful morning ... what a beautiful day!  It began as a nice 53 degree morning with no rain in sight ... or in the forecast.  Of course they got it WRONG!!

Our usual morning routine included going outside IMMEDIATELY.  Back in the BACK door, we head for the kitchen where we go out the FRONT door to GRASS once again.  Don't ask.  I'm not sure why that works, but it does!  That's when the TROUBLEMAKER comes running in.

It's so funny that Kitters always has to be so CLOSE to the action, which of course is MOI.  Here she is about two feet behind me as I type.  

In about an hour, we all go outside once again, for good measure.  What can I say, Cooper is old and can't remember if he went or not.  

Just look at this sweet face!  Can you see it in her eyes?  It's Trouble with a capital T.

I turn around to go inside for the third time and I find Mr. Cooper sitting on the couch with THIS IN HIS MOUTH.  NOOOOOOOOO ... where did you get that?  I almost threw up when I saw him chewing on it.  

Good grief ... it was a tug of war getting it away from him.  Straight to the garbage can it went.   Geez ... just how many of these things are OUT there ... and HOW does she catch them??  WHEN does she catch them??

There will be NO kisses from Cooper for the next two days!!!

That's it ... that's all I've got today.  Company arrived and we watched the news for a couple of hours before I had to get my act together.  It was Trustee Meeting night and I needed to be locked and loaded.

First up ... we have a new Trustee ... one who needed to be brought up to speed.  She held this position several years ago, meaning she has no idea what's going on now.

She was late, which meant there was plenty of time for the remaining three men to vote me in as Chairman.  We discussed a lot of stuff, making recommendations for LESS spending.  Then the REAL fun began.  

I'm sure you will be proud of me.  The new "president for this year" asked if I was going to be chairman of the Mothers Day brunch.  I can't believe the word NO came out of my mouth.  No ... I've been doing it for over 5 years now.  It's time for you to find someone else.  The room went quiet.  I held my ground.  After a very long pause, we went on to other business.  

There was quite the discussion over offering on-line payments for absolutely everything we do.  Sounds good, but if you figure out what the credit card fees are for that, you would be shocked.  Sorry no, we vote NO for that one.  The rest of the night went about the same ... no, no and no.  It's going to be an interesting year!!!

Weirdly enough, on the way home, I ran into crazy lightning overhead.  That rarely EVER happens here.  I got home to find everything soaking wet.  Apparently it poured down rain for about 30 minutes.  The forecast of sunny all day went down the drain.

Now it looks like rain for the next three days.  PERFECT!  I now have an excuse not to work in the yard all day.

Company will be here one more night I think ... so the quilt store will have to wait.  Surely there is SOME kind of trouble we can get into, and I don't mean Kitters!!  I'll let you know tomorrow!

Looking At The Stars

 Some days you just have to pull the plug and rest up.  This was not that day.  As my dad would say, the faster I go, the behinder I get!!

How it got to be nine days into April already, just amazes me.  I'm guessing that's because I spent most of yesterday napping.  

Luckily I was awakened by this guy singing his heart out.  Apparently we have lots of mockingbirds around here.  In the early morning they are really LOUD and trying their best to attract that gorgeous females next door.  Even if you turn up the volume, it's not as loud as in person.  It makes me smile.

THIS on the other hand ...... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  That is the "I didn't do it" look of the local Killer Kat with the blood evidence on the ground.  I instantly ran from one end of the house to the other, looking for the dead body.  Today I'll lay on my belly with a flashlight to be sure nothing has crawled under my bed.  SO PROUD she is!!!

And getting more clingy by the week.  Maybe this is just being a Watch Cat, or maybe she just wants to be higher so she can see her prey!!  At any rate, she thinks she MUST be on the chaise when I lay out in the sun.  

That didn't last long however, since there was accounting to be done.  I spent the next four hours doing bookwork and training my replacement.  She's almost got it down which hopefully means I can back out of that one little by little.  I don't mind really, but trying to concentrate on that stuff after a late night at Bingo just makes Nancy a tired lump on the couch for the rest of the day.

Exercise is key, but there was none to be had.  The next thing I knew, it was dark outside.  I was a little surprised there were so many stars to be seen on this night.  I remember as a kid, we used to sleep outside in the summer, on old Army cots.  I think that was just to get us out of the house and out from under foot.  

We would always look for the Big Dipper and Orions Belt.  Back then, there was no space shuttles and no one ever thought of going to another planet.  I mean really, I've been on a few high rock walls and even jumped off a 60' platform, but never EVER have I had even the tiniest thought about going into space.  It just scares the heck out of me.

For those that DO go into space, do they think about what if we don't get back?  I mean I've been stuck on the side of a road for hours when my truck died.  Can you imagine just floating around in space forever?  Looking down and seeing the Earth?  It's just amazing to see those photos from space and knowing there are humans running around down there, but I would never EVER want to be UP there.  Those folks are BRAVE with a capital B.

I got out my Skyview Lite phone app and checked out the names of the stars.  The big one is Jupiter and the two above it ... spots on these guys foreheads Pollux and Castor, the Gemini Twins.  Who drew all these lines and made up these horoscope names?  Apparently it was Babylonian astronomers.  

Here's Saturn, Mars and Mercury.  So when these guys go out into space, how does their spaceship not run into stars or planets along the way??  Inquiring minds want to know!

At any rate, there is no way I would EVER want to be in a spaceship somewhere out there in Horoscopeland wondering if I was ever going to set foot on earth again.  

I would much rather keep my feet on the ground and use up those potatoes I over-bought.  Here's another round of hash with lots of calories to consume.  Dieting would be so much easier if you only ate this dish once during the week.  Unfortunately, it was ingrained in me not to be wasteful, so I will end up eating it all over the next few days.  It should be good for at least three added pounds.

For now however, company is coming once again.  I have lots of house to straighten up and floors to clean, so there will be no rest for me.  Add to that an epic Trustee Meeting tonight at the lodge, and I will be ready for the loony bin in no time.  Maybe it's time for a day trip ......... to the quilt store!!

A Full Moon Kind Of Day

Any day that Blogger opens up and works like it should, is a good day in my book.  On the other hand, it turned into a full moon kind of day when it wasn't a full moon.  It happens!

A holdover from yesterday ... I had this great idea to use up the leftover tough ham in scalloped potatoes.  I placed a Walmart order and made a big mistake.  Four potatoes cost more than a 5# bag, so I bought the bag.  WHAT was I thinking??  I'll never eat all those!  Two small casseroles turned into FIVE so I would not be throwing potatoes out.

That turned into a lot of work and had to be baked in two one hour sessions.  I scrambled to get the casseroles put together ... potatoes, onions, cheese, filling the container.  All done and in the oven before I remembered the HAM, which was the reason I was MAKING this!!  There it sat, all chopped up on the counter in front of me, so I just sprinkled it on top.

Bake that for one hour and you have nice little burned pieces of ham on top of delicious scalloped potatoes!!  I ate it anyway!! 

Shortly after that, Miss Kitters came in and parked on my quilts.  She was acting VERY weird, like she wanted to play or something.  We played race horse around the house.

OMG NOOOOO!  That's when I discovered THIS!  Big sigh ... BIG!  I mean really, how can I scold her for bringing in a gopher ... a little one at that ... that is killing my back yard grass.  Thank the Good Lord she did NOT eat it before I snatched it up and headed to the outside trash can.  The doggie door got closed for the rest of the day and night!!

In a flash, it was BINGO time at the Magic Castle.  I always try to smile big and gear up for shovels and pitchforks, but sometimes it's hard.  Especially when I heard from my first cashier telling me she was in Southern California.  Oh good ... thank you for the one hour notice.

It's okay, I'm SURE the second one will show up.  That would be a no, she did NOT.  But wait ... where's my Lady in Waiting that COUNTS the cards?  I spotted a post on Facebook ... there she was, pulling a big trout out of a lake an hour from here.  I guess she forgot to call.  Well this is not good ... not good at ALL!

I hid out in the back room racking my brain over who I could get to count the cards while I played cashier.  I thought I would snag someone from Pull Tabs, but they too were VERY short handed.  In fact, we were short 5 volunteers on this night. 

It didn't take long for me to go hide out in the safe.  It's cool, quiet and still full of Sees Candy.  

It's also full of Rice Krispie Treats!!  

I finally grabbed one of the Knights to count for me.  Not that he wanted to AT ALL, but he did.  Not really ...  didn't really count the cards, he just moved them around a bit and gave me a number, which the players said was wrong 75% of the time.

I finally went in the Pull Tab Room and begged for one of the gals to come help me.  She counts VERY slowly, but at least she counts.  I tried to get her into at LEAST third gear, but we stayed in 4-wheel drive LOW the entire night.   

At least this time the peasants were VERY happy since they had ELEVEN pull tab games to play, with jackpots anywhere from $250 to $1199.  In fact, TWO $1199 payouts were made, along with NINE $250's.   You can win a lot of money playing BINGO!

One good thing did happen ... I have been wracking my brain for something different to serve in the kitchen.  Not only are the peasants getting tired of the food, SO AM I.  I asked the Kitchen Scullery Maid to whip up an Ortega Chili Pepperjack burger.  I would give it a test drive.

An hour later I was wondering where my burger went.  I called her ... she said they made it and gave it to me.  Ummmm that would be a NO.  NO burger appeared in front of me.  Come to find out, even though it had my NAME on the tag, they gave it to someone ELSE!!  FOR FREE!!!  Seriously??

Good grief ... MAKE ANOTHER ONE PLEASE!  I'm subtracting that from your volunteer wages.  This time I got my hot little hands on it and it was DELICIOUS!  It's going on the menu for next week.  Except ... well ... I forgot to take a picture of the CAN so she can buy the same chilies.  Big sigh ... I guess I'll be back down there today.  

Maybe I can take a nice drive around town and rethink my volunteerism!!!!!

Blogger Headache!!

 Well that was fun.  I just spent 50 minutes trying to log into my Blogger account.  It kept saying I did not HAVE a blog and I should START one.  Twelve verifications later, it somehow pulled up an ancient email account that said I didn't have an account at all.  If nothing else, I am persistent.  At long last, we are back in business.  I mean really, what would I do if I didn't have a blog to write every morning??

This was my SECOND shock of the day.  GIBBS!!  What are you doing on my back patio?  I took a triple take as I finally realized ..... wait for it ...... it's the towel I use to lay out.  Sure looks like a critter to me.

Kitters laying close by got a real kick out of that one!!  This is her new SPOT.  She used to hang out quite often with the goat next door, but has given him up for better pastures.  Mostly because this is where the food comes from.

First things first ... it's been WAY too long since I drove the beast.  I was out the door by 8:00 ... a miracle in my daily routine.  Yup this is farming country.  Our biggest crops are almonds and pistachios, the cause of all the dust and dirt that settles daily over our coffee tables.  

Then there's the dairies ... we have some huge ones ... the beef cattle production, not as big as it used to be, and of course chickens.  If you're going to feed all those critters, especially the dairy cattle who eat continuously, you need lots of land to grow hay and grain.  That equals even MORE dust made by the trucks that lay down fertilizer.

This is the scenery around my little place in the world.  Unfortunately, high tech big companies have taken over the little farmers that flourished when I was a kid.  The tractors nowadays cost as much as our whole ranch did when we bought it.

The days of local farmers are gone, as are the roads.  This is one of the GOOD ones!  I mean really,  it's about 16 feet wide and may have a few potholes, but it still has asphalt in between the holes!!

There are no BIG fire trucks out here either.  This is tiny town country with little trucks.  Even what we call the BIG CITIES around here only have small trucks.  The people have the same small town mentality though ... drive by and they will wave at you like crazy.  Mostly because they don't see too many people every day.

That was it ... I was back home in under an hour.  Time to give the generator a workout with the air conditioner.   Amazingly, it started up in three seconds.  And QUIT 15 seconds later.  Ummm I forgot to turn the gas on.  I'm used to the big rig generator that ran off the fuel tank.  

Gas ON, Generator ON and AC ON!  It all works perfectly when you remember how the heck to do it.  I even turned the inverter on to make sure all THAT was still working.  As you can see, my batteries are 100%. I love that solar on the roof.  Even when under cover, it keeps the batteries in tip top shape.

One last thing to check.  Someone noted their gas lines were deteriorating.  Not the same model, but I thought to check them anyway.  At least as far as I could crawl underneath.  There's not a lot of room to spare.  They looked good to me, so my checklist is complete.

I was done by 9:30 am.  Well that's not good.  It will only end up in a raid on the fridge, consuming everything sweet I can get my hands on.  Getting frustrated by my longarm is probably a better idea.

I loaded up the quilt Kitters had stretched out by sleeping on it.  It actually went back to its original shape.  I've procrastinated, not wanting to have those problems I've been experiencing in the past.  To my great surprise once again ..... IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

This sounds weird, but I think I figured it out.  I'm guessing I was winding the bobbins so tight that the thread would not pull off easily.  I've rewound several a tad bit looser, and it seems to have solved the problem.  I'm still scared though ... when you've heard those crunching sounds once, you hear them every time you LOOK at the machine!

DONE!  Not even a small glitch in this one.  Maybe I should just stick to the smaller quilts for awhile!

Dinner was ... well ... an experience.  I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow, because I'm already WAY past the kids feeding time trying to get Blogger to work.  I'm getting dirty looks as I type.

Here's my TIP OF THE DAY!

LIFE IS SHORT ..... SMILE WHILE YOU STILL HAVE TEETH!!

RUN LIZARDS RUN!

Easter could not have been a more perfect day.  I woke up to the snoring of the puppy laying next to me. 

 Why was I not at the Elks Lodge doing SOMETHING?  It's a little know fact that we are actually a Christian organization, and not only do we close on Easter Sunday completely, but we do not have any events on Sundays at all.   Oh the upstairs bar may be open on any regular Sunday, but that's so you can go enjoy all the football, baseball, soccer and any other sport you want, on any of seven televisions.

Easter morning in Central California began like this.  Temperatures are ramping up a bit, just in time for the Easter Egg Hunt.  

You saw that I put the eggs out early Sunday morning, whereupon the kids found them.  How eggciting!  So of course the very first chore of the day was making egg salad.  In my entire life, I have never liked egg whites.  I have no idea WHERE that came from.  If they are invisible and smothered in mayo and celery salt, I will eat them ... and so all but two of these got smashed into smithereens.  Cooper will get the last two.

Since it was so gorgeous out, I went for another tanning session.  Remember in the old days when it was baby oil and iodine?  I think I only used that once.  I preferred the lovely smell of coconut sun tanning lotion.  I can still smell it to this day!!

But alas ... I was bothered incessantly by this creature of the night.  She galavants most of the night, going in and out the doggy door ... then wants to be petted ALL DAY LONG.

RUN LIZARDS RUN!  Why they just lay there thinking they can't be seen, is beyond me.  She scrounged under the rose bushes and brought me another baby.  That was AFTER I found YET ANOTHER ONE under the chair in the living room.  I'm hoping she gets over it soon, like she got over gulping down her food in one minute when she finally realized it would always be available.  

There I was, laying on my stomach reading on my phone when THIS happened.  Come ON!!  I can't get a minutes peace.  She laid down between my legs, causing excessive heat to make me give up.  So very needy this Kitters!  It's okay ... I realize why, but GEEZ!!!!!

I finally gave up and went to cooking dinner.  I had this lovely chunk of ham from Costco.  It has to be good, right?  WRONG!  Apparently I did not cook it long enough.  I LOVE spiral hams, but then I have to eat it for the next three months.  

Note to self ... bake this MUCH longer next time.  An hour just did not do it!  There's that fattening potato salad that I love so much, along with green salad.  Okay, I admit, the salad is FAKE.  It was just there for the picture.  I put it back in the bag, because who wants salad when you have POTATO SALAD!!

As you know, sitting all day is not my thing, so I went outside and moved all the furniture out of the patio area.  I have a plan to buy some NICE furniture and not use our butcher-the-cow table as a centerpiece.  That table is well over 70 years old and still standing on four legs.  One day I'll tell you its story.

I spent the next three hours looking for furniture on my phone.  I found a couple of suitable sets, but REALLY?  YOU HAVE TO PUT IT TOGETHER YOURSELF?  Oh yeah, I can just see me putting together six huge pieces of furniture.  I may have to rethink this project.  I did get my rope lights back on a timer though ... for ambience don't ya know!

Thus ended a lovely Easter with a cloudy sky.  I was waiting for the pretty sunset.

I was not disappointed.  

It got even better right over the top of my house.  I smiled.  Thank you Lord for one more VERY nice day!  Except for the ham!  Could you make the ham better next time please??  Maybe I can get a bag of potatoes and make scalloped potatoes and ham.  YEAH ... that will be PERFECT!  

And so it's Monday morning now, time for egg salad sandwiches while I go on Lizard Watch.  

HAPPY EASTER 2026

HEY ... ARE YOU OKAY???  I couldn't help it, I love this picture!!  Happy Happy Easter!!! 

Aren't these guys just the cutest?  Not so much if you had to raise them.  I don't know how that happened exactly, but in the 80's I ended up with a huge six cage monstrosity on my back porch raising Dutch minis.  Cute little buggers, soft ... but nothing in this world makes as much of a mess as those guys.  STINK!!!  Oowweeee they smelled bad!  I was glad when they all sold to the 4-H and FFA kids.

I started this morning off with puppy snuggles.  Nothing better in my book, and apparently Cooper agrees.

Here's a throwback to the ancient days.  That's me on our original ranch, on our way to church at Easter.  The fence did keep the cattle out sometimes, but that isn't DIRT on the sidewalk.  Mostly the fence just kept me in.  I had a tendency to wander off.  I think I only have three pictures of me when I was little.  Pictures were not important back in our day.

Back to TODAY ... surprisingly, I'm not sore from bed moving ... but there will be NO moving furniture today.  My plan was to make a small potato salad to go with a chunk of ham that will go in the oven shortly.  The eggs?  Well we're going to dye them with that ancient Paas Easter Egg kit.

Salad first, then I took to dying the eggs.  This turned out delicious once smothered in mayo.  It's SO not on my list of approved foods, but it's EASTER ... so I'm splurging.

Here's the thing about coloring eggs.  I remember we had to use boiling water.  Now that's apparently a no-no.  Mix the tablet with vinegar until it is dissolved and add 1/2 cup room temperature water.  I think I destroyed four coffee cups from the dye instantly soaking in to the sides.  

Okay, 1/2 cup of water is NOT enough to COVER the egg, so I had to swirl the cup around the entire time.  Even then, none of them came out evenly colored.  I wrote with the wax pen, but couldn't see where I was writing since they are both white.  

I might have done four more with the sleeves that you slide on, then drop in boiling water to shrink wrap the egg.  Except they would not FIT on these eggs.  

So here's what I wonder about.  How did we not get egg poisoning when we were young?  Our eggs were cooked, then dyed in boiling water, cooled on the counter for an hour before decorating and stuck in a basket on the table while we went to church.  

Two hours later, they were hidden out in the yard, so well that it took us another two hours to find them all.  They were then placed BACK in the basket while we ate dinner.  Anyone think they might have spoiled during all that time OUT of the fridge?  That was my thought when I forgot to put them in the fridge until later in the day!

Here we are ... ready to be hidden for Cooper and Kitters.  The kit came with a sheet of stickers, all WAY too small to peel off and stick.  There were three 1/8" bunny feet stuck to the counter when I got done.  

Once "hidden", like they were toddlers or something, Cooper came running out and went right to them!!  He smelled a bit, turned around and walked away.  WAIT ... these are your favorite!!

Kitters came running up, took one sniff and said NOPE ... doesn't smell like cat food to me!!

Back in the fridge they went, a little worse for wear with puppy slobber on them.  Now I have potato salad AND egg salad for the next few days.  A dieter's delight!!!

Dinner however, was the last of those small pizzas I bought.  I loaded it up with pepperoni (the last of that finally) and cheddar cheese.  Not bad if I do say so myself.

Truly, Easter is not all about the colored eggs.  THIS is the reason for Easter!!  And THIS I will celebrate all day today!