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!

TIME FOR A CHANGE

 Brrrr it's another 48 degree morning.  I actually had to turn the HEAT on yesterday.  Not for long however, since I got completely OVERheated with the exercise of the day.  

Here's the problem.  Mr. Cooper isn't his usual acrobatic self, unlike his Mom who still thinks she can run miles, lift tons of weight and STILL have energy to go shopping at the Mall 30 miles away.  My how things have changed.

Anyway, Mr. Cooper sleeps on the bed.  He always waits for me to lift him down, but on this day, he had a little misstep and fell off, luckily on the ottoman covered in clothes that lives at the foot of my bed.  

It's TIME FOR A CHANGE.  This bed that has lived in the garage since it moved here from Arizona, has a taller footboard.  Let's change it out for the NO footboard bed to be sure that doesn't happen again.  It will be easy, yes?   It took me 45 minutes to get it in the house, and it's the LIGHTEST one.

Next ... clean up all the clothes and take THIS bed apart.  Getting the heavy mattresses off was the EASY part.  After three trips to the tool box in the garage, I finally got the right wrench (after trying six) to take the nuts off.  It took another two trips to find the right Allen wrench to remove the bolts holding the cross pieces.  And OH BOY ... this one weights a TON!

I got out my handy dandy furniture slide pads, but could barely lift the thing to get them under the posts.  I literally manhandled the headboard out the door using my knees to hold it upright while pulling with everything I had.  Good grief ... I thought this was a CHEAP bed!  Turns out it's solid wood.

Over an hour later I finally got the new headboard in place.  I really thought I could skip the vacuuming, but it truly was really bad.  Okay, out came the thing I hate most and I cleaned it up.

Getting this bed together was a lesson in mechanics.  Once again, out to the garage to find an Allen wrench the correct size.  I thought those hooks would just slide in, but NOOOOO!  I finally figured out those knobs could be unscrewed to give me more wiggle room. 

At long last the sideboards were on, but the footboard was the devil in disguise.  Finally, completely exhausted, hot and cranky, I got the thing together without losing even ONE finger.  One more trip to the garage to drag in the SECOND ottoman so if Cooper does fall off, he will have a cushy landing.  What I will do for my kids!!!

The bad part in all this is now I have nowhere to pile all those clothes!!  Guess I'll have to just hang them up.  In the end, it was all Cooper approved.

Now for the REALLY hard part.  This is my old bed that lives in the spare room, which I switched out so Miss Jessie could jump up when she was still alive.  Just the footboard of this one weighs the same as the other entire bed. 

My plan was to put this one in the garage ... maybe sell it ... and make this my BIGGER sewing room.  After all the work it took to move the first two .. I'm having second thoughts!!!

I celebrated with a Pepsi!!!  At least I feel better about Mr. Cooper not hitting the floor.  

Kitters was totally upset the entire time all that was going on.  She wanted nothing to do with being inside.  When it was all said and done, she STILL didn't want to come in, having happily parked herself on the patio chair. 

That didn't last long however ... as soon as the lights went out last night, she snuck in through the doggy door and jumped right up on the footboard of the bed.  She has NEVER done that before.  She never wanted to be anywhere NEAR the bed.  She then proceeded to lay at the foot of the bed for the next hour, keeping me wide awake with her purrs.  Ummmm this was not in the plan Kitters.  I don't need another body on my bed.  You can tell by the look in her eyes that she cares NOT what I think about anything!

The last hours of the evening, I tried another internet recipe so you don't have to.  This is a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls.  You put two rolls of dough in a pan with a little butter and garlic, then bake them as one loaf of bread.  

I had my doubts!  Not having a pan big enough, I used one roll and cut it in half.  I melted butter in the bottom and sprinkled in garlic powder.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

So yes, this is the easy way to have crescent rolls, BUT I would just butter the top next time.  I'm thinking you could even unroll it, pour on cinnamon sugar and roll it back up before baking.  These were quite tasty and much easier to prepare!!

That's it ... my entire day spent moving beds around.  And I still have one heavy one sitting in my hallway.  I haven't decided if I want to tackle moving the HUGE one, or just leave my sewing room where it is.  In any case, I have one to move to the garage.  

Decisions ... decisions!!!

PRIME RIB BABY!!!

 BRRRRRRR!!  So just WHAT is the opposite of Mother Natures hot flashes?   It's a very chilly 43 degrees.  None of us ... not Cooper, not Kitters nor myself wanted to go outside this morning.  

The moon is still shining brightly as it quickly falls behind the trees and disappears.  Lucky for me, it didn't have much effect on the Lodge dinner last night.

But first .... let's lay out in the sun and soak up a little WARM.  That didn't last long at all.

You guessed it ... Kitters followed me right out, plunked down here and harassed me the entire time.  Meow ... meow ... little pats on the chaise until she jumped right up in the middle of me.  She literally pestered me for 30 minutes before I gave up and went back inside.  It's okay though.  A little chilly breeze came up, which shortly turned into a blizzard.  It was downright COLD!!!

Just to pass the time, I did a little laundry before checking out the astronauts once again.  This looks like pretty tight quarters to me!  Hope those men don't snore too loud!!  

I must have had the hungry shakes when I took this blurry picture of lunch.  Yes, I'm trying to be GOOD, though the leftover chocolate cake is just SCREAMING at me constantly!!!

I finally donned my "garb" for the Elks Lodge Sheriff sponsored dinner.  Literally half the Sheriff's Department showed up to hang out, have a few beers and cook a fabulous dinner for us.  I mean what could be better than a bunch of good looking MEN cooking dinner for you?  The Sheriff, a very good member and friend of the lodge, is one of the best cooks in the country.

The Elks Lodge has a dinner and a raffle twice a month to raise money to pay our bills and donate to charities.  This table of goodies raised over $1500 in their raffle ... and this is just ONE night.  What can I say, Elks are VERY generous!

So here I am with my lone little glass of White Zin, served by the best bartender we have.  She is a sweetheart from Hawaii who has the best attitude of anyone I've met in my entire life.  This girl ... she always has a smile, so I always buy one drink so I can tip her BIGLY.  Yes, that's ice in my glass.  You know I'm a lightweight!!

Dinner was PRIME RIB, scalloped potatoes that were the best I've ever had (and they come from a BOX in our pantry), green beans smothered in brisket, bacon and tomatoes (that's a new one) and a roll, followed up by CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!  

This is not the entire meal ... this is my LEFTOVERS!  In case you were wondering, Thursday night meals are $20.00.  Become an Elk and you will get lots of CHEAP amazing meals.

The meeting afterwards was less than spectacular.  The mostly new officers had no idea what they were supposed to do.  The good part is the meeting lasted 20 minutes and we were OUT THE DOOR!!  YAY!

This is a short one today ... I'm off for a haircut at 8:00 in the morning.  Ugh ... I actually have to get myself ready WAY too early.  As you know, I don't leave the house before 10:00 on ANY day if I can help it!!!

But first ...... a little prime rib breakfast!!

HISTORY IN THE MAKING!

 Morning in California comes WAY too early.  I just don't understand how you can go to bed at 11:30 and get up at 4:00 and NOT get 8 hours of sleep!  It didn't help that overcast skies followed us all day long.  Mother Nature spit at us in the morning ... like HAHAHA ... it's not Spring YET!!

Unfortunately I had another accounting meeting at 9:30.  UGH ... that is WAY too early for me to be out and about.  A short 2 hour meeting turned into a 5 hour office reorganization.  I'm pretty sure that's not included in the BOOKKEEPING job description.  We ran out of printer ink, which resulted in a trip to the attic to rip the guts out of another printer that no longer worked.  

We ran out of printer PAPER, which required a trip to the store, file labels, staples, paper clips ... I mean if we needed it, we did NOT have it.  Some headway was made however, before I yelled UNCLE and went home.  My sweet Cooper awaiteth!!!

My timing was perfect.  The FEDEX guy knocked loudly on the door.  He needed my I.D.  Really?  To receive a small package I have to show my drivers license?  Not only that, but he had to SCAN it!  Yikes ... who is this from??  Ahhh my accountant.  Ok ... but then he needed a signature!  Good grief ... don't ask for my first born because I don't have one!  We had a good laugh over that one!!

That's when I heard the television.  This is history in the making.  Did anyone watch the lunar landing in 1969?  THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.  I remember that like it was yesterday, watching the entire time as our astronauts landed on the moon.  

Well here we go again ... almost ... and I watched every single minute of it.  Artemis 2 won't be landing this time around, but it will be making a trip around the moon to practice so to speak, the next lunar landing.  Can you just IMAGINE?

This stuff scares the heck out of me ... feeling the liftoff in your chest like nothing EVER ... the adrenaline going crazy ... I just cannot imagine anyone wanting to do this on purpose.

Three brave men and one woman ... Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christine Koch and Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen are on the trip of their lives.  Honestly, 12 feet high on top of my ladder is as far as I want to go.  I did jump off a 60' tower ... ONCE ... and I'm guessing I won't do it again.  BRAVE is all I can say ... these guys are BRAVE!!

I prayed the entire time that nothing would happen as it lifted off into the sky.  I was also glued to my television when the spaceship Challenger was launched in 1983.  

They will be cruising up to the moon, not such an easy task since it includes several major negotiations to get going the right direction, before going AROUND the moon and heading back to land south of me in the ocean outside of San Diego California.  They will be up there 10 days.  It kind of makes you wonder where the bathroom is, YES??

I breathed a big sigh of relief when what they call the launch vehicle broke away and the earth is revealed out the windows.  I cannot imagine their excitement ... or MY panic!!  Just looking at this give me the willies!!!

And so I wish them good luck.  I'll be keeping track of them every day.  Maybe, just maybe, I will get to see another lunar landing on the moon in my lifetime.  Maybe even a colonization ... if they can find enough oxygen!!

I'd rather be right here on earth with NO fire breathing dragon under my butt and lots of air to breathe, cuddling with my "kids".  

This one ... she's always in SO much trouble, in spite of her innocent looks!!!  I got chewed out in spades yesterday because I accidentally closed the bedroom door ... her entry into the house from the doggy door.  I won't translate all those meows and yowls!!

Tonight is yet another Elks dinner.  Though I used to look forward to these, this twice a month dinner/meeting thing is becoming a pain.  The only thing that keeps me going now is that I found a pair of gray Levis to wear instead of the gray fancy pants.  Hey ... they are the required GRAY color, so they can't complain.  They never said what FABRIC they had to be!!!

Another day, another steak dinner!!

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

 Good Morning RV friends from all over the planet!!  It's another BINGO FULL MOON.  What could be better than a gorgeous pink moon on Bingo night with April Fool's Day thrown in for good luck!!

Well April Fools, because OUR moon did not look one little bit like this!  It is however named after the pink flowers that bloom this time of year.

April Fools!!  None of MY flowers are pink.  They lean more to the RED side.  The roses were going great guns until .... APRIL FOOLS yet again ..... it rained most of the night.

Even the bottle brush are blooming, which made the bees happy until the big drops of water started bombing them from above.

This "whatever it is" ... help me out here Nurse Patty ... the name of which always escapes me, is so bright you really can't even see the petals of the flowers.

And so the day began, with me procrastinating about making an accounting stop.  This one is not my problem, so I chose to stand back.  APRIL FOOLS ... it's NOT MY JOB.

Besides, I really wanted to sneak in a nap before Bingo.  That didn't happen, so Cooper took one for me.

Kitters on the other hand, kept me awake all morning.  She just craves attention.  What can I do ... her pink nose and split tan/black chin cannot be denied.

And so in a flash ... it was time for APRIL FOOLS FULL MOON BINGO!  What could be better??

Lucky for me, everyone showed up to work.  Unlucky for me, my cashier is setting her own rules now.  That doesn't go over with the Bingo crowd.  You never EVER change the rules.  Out comes the pitchforks and flaming torches that will follow you around the room like Cooper going after treats!!

Our fire project came out quite nicely once painted and the new ceiling installed.  Only in the stairwells can I still smell just a tad bit of smoke.  Hey, it's better than the smell of skunk weed or even better, the No Shower Eau De OMG.  Not kidding ... that is no April Fools joke.

We weren't too crowded on this night ... about 130 players came to hang out.  It can get crazy running money to the back room to count and make into packets for the first four games.  I put out fires all along the way between the kitchen staff, the kitchen BOSS and the players.  It's the full moon I tell you!!

When I got frustrated, I just went and hid in the safe.  Yessiree ... a beautiful cool quiet cement wall hideaway.  It smells of Sees Candy and paper!  No money is kept in here.  When Sees donates boxes of soon-to-expire candy, it gets stored here for volunteers ... at least for volunteers who are let in on the secret!  If it gets too crazy, you will find me in here stuffing my mouth full!!

It was actually April Fools on us, because mostly the Peasants were pleasant, and only came out to fight twice when a newbie called BINGO too soon.  The numbers come up on four TV screens BEFORE they are actually CALLED.  You have to wait until the number comes out of the Callers mouth.  If you call early, the crowd will definitely tell you how WRONG you were!!!!

At long last it was time to close up.  I sat back and watched the cashier play with the infernal machine.  I truly am not sure exactly what she did, but she kept doing it wrong.  The machine kept locking up.  I just let it go because she knows best.  Did we balance?  I have no idea.  I've no doubt the KING will let me know today.  

Above are the remnants of last nights storm.  It's beautiful outside, the neighborhood smells wonderful, like fresh rain, and Bingo is over for another week.  It's a WIN WIN!!!

Here's hoping your April Fools Day is a GREAT one!  Maybe some Easter egg coloring will take place today, or better yet, a nice LONG nap!!

THE FULL MOON EFFECT

 I knew it would happen sooner or later.  I've been exceptionally lucky with my internet.  All the time I see folks chatting on Facebook about how their internet NEVER works.  I was all ... well MINE works just FINE!  I completely forgot about the full moon effect.

Here it is in all its glory.  Not QUITE full, but close enough.  

Bright and early this morning, I got a message ... my BLINK cameras are not working.  I reset and reset, to no avail.  Well that's not good!  That's when I spotted the ORANGE light on my router.  Not red, like you would expect.  After all, they don't want to really TELL you it's not working, they hope that they can get it back ON before the RED light comes on.  And so I'm on my phone wi-fi.  

Here's an old picture of Kitters ... not THAT old since she had actually gained quite a bit of weight here.

And here's the latest version.  She has lost a lot of the orange coloring.  Maybe this is her "summer" coat?  At any rate, she weighs five times as much as she did when I first found her, and now does not gobble her food down.  She's become quite the  connoisseur of kitty food.

She has also become the Watch Cat.  She will sit here for hours during the day, keeping a sharp eye out for something ..... probably lizards!!

My day began with a nice long run.  Not compared to the old days of 5-6 miles, but over 2 miles total this time.  To be honest, I'm really surprised I can still run AT ALL.  Nothing even HURTS, which is also surprising, though I do run out of air quite often.  

I have one hint for you though ... the LOUDER the music in your ear, the longer you can run.  I tell myself ... you can run all the way up to that mailbox.  That way I force myself to do it.  It really does help with stamina when it comes to getting up and down off the couch the rest of the day!!

It was ugly and overcast the entire day, making for a muggy afternoon that shouted CLEAN THE GARAGE at me over and over.  

Seriously, I don't know why or how this happens.  Maybe because I can barely get out of the Jeeps door.  I have actually disposed of much of the junk, but those boxes of Japanese dishes from the war era just keep hanging out.  What do you do with this stuff?  

A Coleman gas two burner stove ... perfect for horse trailer camping ... a box of Mexican tiles for that tabletop that never materialized ... the hitch from the Jeep ... not one, but TWO Christmas trees probably home to 252 black widow spiders.  I tried to get rid of some stuff, but most of it is too good to just throw in the garbage bin.

This big ladder has been hanging out here for 15 years and has never been used.  Not that I don't use ladders, because you KNOW I do.  This one however is awkward to use and crushes the edge of the gutters as I climb up.  I donated it to my neighbor who puts up 3,000 Christmas lights every year.  He was a happy camper.  Now I can actually move between the Jeep and the truck without tripping over the darn thing.  

THIS mess still needs to be addressed.  It's mostly boxes of old tax records.  Yes there is a company who would be glad to shred them for me, for a measly $400.  Ummm no thank you.  I have a shredding machine in the office, but it would die a horrible death after only half a box.  So they just sit there.

Next to the ladder waiting for retrieval, is the rowing machine.  It's a GREAT one, but alas, not for a bad disc in your back.  I offered it to the neighbors also, but they declined.  I'll put a FREE sign on it at the end of the driveway.  I could probably sell it, but I'm not keen on having strangers come to my house.

This was the best part of the day.  I made another Walmart delivery order (speaking of strangers coming to the house) and picked up THIS.  Anyone remember using these when you were a kid?  These have been around at LEAST 70 years.  My earliest memories of Easter as a kid included PAAS egg dying kits.  There were no stickers or eggarounds, just dye and a little metal thing to pick the egg out of the cup.  

There WAS a crayon to write your name with however.  I was really surprised to find them still available.  Yup ... we are going to dye some Easter eggs for next weekend!!  Let's hope I don't make as big a mess as I did when I was little!!  To make it even better, Wally World gave me a FREE dozen eggs.  I didn't order any, but there they were in the bottom of the bag!!  Maybe that was a full moon effect too!

I ended the night with a half glass of Barefoot Moscato.  Not that I really want alcohol, but it keeps my phone out of my hand for at least an hour!  It's a win-win!!

And so it's DON THE ARMOR time as I try to convince myself I WILL BE PATIENT tonight at Bingo.  As I get older and older, my patience gets thinner and thinner.  It should be the opposite, yes?  

I will get a good jump on that patience idea when my Xfinity Internet is back up and running!!!