Nothing To Write Home About

There was definitely nothing going on around here on a blah Monday.  Happy to still be around, but this day was nothing to write home about.  EXCEPT ... I AI'd my little buddy again.  He's so darn cute!!! 

It was another 3:30 am day.  I will be ever so happy when I can actually sleep past 4:30.  It makes for a very LONG morning with nothing for company but a Kitty Cat.  

The sunrise was spectacular ... much better than this picture.  I thought about going for a walk-run, but Hobby Lobby won out.

Miss Kitters has taken up roost on my bed.  In fact, on Mr. Cooper's blanket.  For the longest time, she would not even WALK on the bed.  I think maybe Cooper's spirit was still there.  At least I like to think his spirit is always there.

With nothing else going on other than the most exciting project of putting away the laundry, I experimented with AI once again.  I don't like AI actually ... I think they gather too much information about you without your permission.  I asked it to decorate my fireplace mantle.  Here's what it came up with.  They cheated because the kerosene lamps and the stuffed bears were already there, as were the outside candles.  I just remembered they had automatic lights inside ... and a nice smell to boot.

And THAT my friends is how I ended up at Hobby Lobby at 9:30 in the morning.  Gosh, does no one work any more?  The parking lot and the store was PACKED!!  I actually skipped all the Thanksgiving stuff, which was half of the store.  I just headed right on over three aisles to CHRISTMAS.  

Wow ... Christmas overload!!!  I've never seen so much stuff EVER.  Of course everything is 50% off, a lie since they already inflated the price 200%.  It's okay though ... it's cheap ... and there's nowhere else to shop Christmas around here.  

I was actually looking for a few small things that would turn my Thanksgiving tree into a Christmas tree.  

If I had a 50' x 50' barn to store stuff in, I would have bought out the store.  SO much cute stuff.  Alas, you are looking at the total haul.

I started with these four white items that I had and will add to it later ... after Thanksgiving.  In the meantime, that meant I had to do something with eight of those oil lamps.  Some were my Grandmothers, some my Mom's and some mine. 

Back in the day, we had lamps on every table.  Electricity was actually fairly cheap, but it kept going out all the time.  Kerosene lamps smell terrible, but the light they provide is awesome!

I spent the next three hours moving things around on the two big shelving units on either side.  That's when I spotted the problem.  I know I know ..... and you know too ..... I don't dust often enough.  Good grief, I could have grown tomatoes and squash up there.  

I got another slightly damp rag and began to wipe it all down while replacing the soil with oil lamps. Once again, it was so bad I had to throw the rag away.  I am just a TERRIBLE housekeeper.  The great news is it's now done for the next FIVE YEARS!!!  Just kidding .... sort of.

It's Election Day, so let's all get out and vote ... NOT for communism or socialism please.  I prefer a normal life doing what I want with the money I have saved all my life.  By the way, if anyone but Hilton wins in California, I will be spending Christmas in Arizona looking for a new house.  I am NOT paying tax on the miles I drive my vehicles.  Before I get carried away on that matter, I better just sign off for today.

It's ARMOR time!!!  Yessiree ..... Bingo once again.  I'm counting the Tuesdays!!!

FIRST SIGN OF WINTER

Here it is, the second day of November, 2026.  Anyone else having trouble writing those dates??  The 2026 gets me every time.  We skipped over fall completely and are on to winter.  Not that it's cold or anything, but rain has finally come to the Central Valley.  This is what it looked like when I got up. 

There is no better time to run than when it's cold-ER.  I got all geared up and stepped outside to find all the clouds had disappeared and the concrete was wet.

Well that's weird. there was a rainbow staring at me.  Two in fact, though the second one is barely visible.  

Maybe I should rethink this running thing.  Back inside, one of these KitKat bars accidentally jumped into my hand.  What was I going to do???  Why eat it of course, which is why an hour or so later, I went BACK outside to run.

This is looking really good for candy eating ..... NOT running.  

You know when those thoughts come to you out of the blue?  I wonder where all my running watches are, and if they still work.  I found them all in a drawer and spent the next hour figuring out which plug went with which watch.  The big one on the right is my marathon watch.  It tells you everything, including when to run faster and when to slow down.  

I plugged it in and was amazed to see it spring to life.  I would dearly love to have this watch up and running.  It looks great, yes?  But when charged to 100%, I removed the charger and it died.  Nothing would bring it back to life.  It is possible ..... maybe ..... to have a jeweler replace the battery, if they even MAKE that battery any more.  I might just give it a try.  

The watch on the left works, but doesn't give you half the info the right one does.  Not that I need it any more, but it would be fun to see how much slower I am now!!!

Kitters kept telling me I just needed to sit down, but I hate doing absolutely nothing.  I covered up the Halloween quilt with this old one which is easier to clean.

I finally went out for that run, but look!  The clouds reappeared.  Apparently by then I just wasn't feeling it, because I walked a mile and returned home.  THIS was the result of the time change.  All that took place between 3:00 and 7:00 AM.  Now what am I going to do?

I finally drug the ladder out and switched up the house decorations.  All TWO of them.  I probably should have gone right for Christmas, but Fall won out.

I even changed up the front door wreath.  At least this one didn't require a ladder.

So all in all it was a pretty boring day.  I tried out another new recipe in the mini crockpot.  Basil, garlic, chicken breasts and roasted red peppers.  When that was done, I added some noodles.  Basically, I'm trying to use up stuff from the freezer, though most of this will go BACK in the freezer.  It turned out quite good, though pasta is not on my diet list.  

The rest of the afternoon I watched football.  Denver seems to be catching some breaks and beat Kansas City.  I started to watch the last game of the day until I realized it was the Washington Commanders.  I'm protesting their name change.  I mean really, Commanders doesn't even sound like a football team.  They really should go back to being the REDSKINS.  Funny I never heard of the Indians complaining about that name.  

I'm hoping today will be more productive.  I got a call from the guy who was supposed to fix my gutters ... now that it's raining .... except I didn't answer fast enough and he has not called me back.  How long has that been?  Three months now????  Hopefully I will reach him today.  Too late for the wood work that needs to be done, but maybe he can still fix the leaky gutters.

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

It's that time of year once again.  Time for goblins and ghouls, witches and creepy pumpkins.

Thanks to AI, this is the cutest little pumpkin you will ever see.  Mr. Cooper never was a fan of costumes, either for him OR me!!  I laughed when they left his green ball in the picture!!  I'm guessing you're going to see a lot of these.

So here we are ... Halloween morning with overcast skies.  As usual, the predicted rain never did show up, like the hoards of costumed kids we used to have.  They didn't show up either.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Breakfast was first off, leftover quiche and bacon.  I won't even post what I'm having for the next four days, because you're looking at it.  The trials of single cooking.

 

I did however, have a burst of energy.  Out to the garage I went to vacuum the Jeep.  It was so bad, the little "car vacuum" did a terrible job.  I had to dump the basket six times.  Following that, I got a damp rag and began to wipe down everything.  My oh my ... it was a tad bit dirty.  So bad in fact that I just threw the rag away when I was done.

Back inside, I caught the predictable black cat on the new pumpkin quilt.  The regular one is right there.  WHY oh why doesn't she sit on THAT one??

Back to the yard, I trimmed a couple of bushes, because no matter how many times I ask the gardener to please keep things up, he seems to be totally distracted by his earphones.  I guess I'm lucky to even get the lawn mowed.  How many years have I been complaining about the gardeners??

I went to pull weeds in the flowerbeds ... three feet tall they are ... when I stepped in this.  Ants swarmed my feet.  Okay, I have to do something about these horrible critters.  I've got lots of ant bait, but I worry about the outside kitties eating it.  I got out my Home Defense gallon and began spraying.  They were not the least bit happy, but I sure was!  I sprayed five big sections.  Two hours later I went out to see not one single ant.  YAHOO!!!  Hopefully it sticks!

Back inside, trying not to just sit for the rest of the afternoon, I grabbed my battery charger and charged it up.  Amazingly, it has been sitting for at least 6 months, and still had two bars of charge.  It's full to the top now and in the van if needed.  

What about the trick or treaters???  Well this guy got everything he asked for!!  Yes, another AI picture of my baby boy the vampire.  Isn't he just the cutest EVER???

As for the REAL trick or treat monsters, I was surprised right after dark with two screamer ghouls.  When asked if they liked Skittles (because I have 3 packages that need to go away since they are not on my list of GOOD candy) ...  the answer was NO.  So each got two candy bars instead.  Surprisingly, they asked for one more for the "kid in the car".  Okay ... 5 bars went out the door.

Fifteen minutes later, two more showed up.  Jessie the cowgirl from Buzz Lightyear and something dressed in black that I could not name.  The best part EVER?  Dad delivered them in the back of a horse trailer.  They got two candy bars each.  

That was it folks ... four at the door and one in the car.  As I looked outside, apparently I was the only house that had any lights on.  The entire neighborhood was completely dark.  I guess no one wants to have Halloween any more.  

Did you remember to turn your clocks back?  Basically. I went to bed at 10:00 and got up at 3:30.  Why oh why can't they just leave the time alone?????  No matter how hard I try, going back to sleep never works.

Another month gone with the pumpkins!  IT'S NOVEMBER!!  Only 55 days until CHRISTMAS!!!

BOO!!!!! IT'S HALLOWEEN!!!!

LIZARD COUNTER:  28

I think our neighborhood is skipping this ever so fun holiday.  Same goes for me, for the first time EVER.  I've always been a fan of putting up decorations around the entire house ... but this year all I did was buy candy.  Not that anyone will show up since not a single house in the neighborhood has even one pumpkin outside.  I guess we are all too old!!

The morning sky was interesting.  There were holes here and there with blue sky showing through.  We are expecting rain all day today, putting the kibosh on the kiddos candy hunting.  Yes I have two boxes of goodies just in case, but I imagine I will keep most of it!!

I can't believe I got up enough energy to actually become presentable and head out to Costco.  I think I only go maybe three times a year.  This time I'm low on garbage bags.  I was shocked to see the line begin to appear at 8:30.  Within ten minutes, the line was almost around the block.  What the heck?  Apparently they were all waiting for Pokemon.  I guess it's a box of collectible cards?  

All I wanted was garbage bags and some veggies.  Nothing near as interesting.  I got in the door at 9:00, only to be plied with caramel pecan pie.  I proudly walked right on by.

In less than 30 minutes, I was actually home.  This is it ... water, Brussels sprouts, one package of chicken, croissants because they were $5.99, SHRIMP!!!  Just your normal stuff.  But here's the kicker.  The sign for the shrimp said $10.99 per unit.  Apparently that box-o-shrimp is 1-1/2 units because it cost me $15.99 in spite of the $10.99 sign.  Since when does Costco try to scam you???

Here lies $230.00 work of not darn much.  I think it's cheaper to shop Walmart.

Oh there was SO much more I wanted to get ... especially in the bakery department, but I was a good girl, only because I truly can't fit anything more in my freezer.  I had a hard time stuffing that chicken in.

Literally two minutes later ..... though pretty hard to see ...... the lizard counter dings once again.  This is number 28.  I grabbed this one with a Kleenex.  He was quite happy when he hit the ground under the bushes.  What am I going to do with that CAT!!!!!

Sorry ... blurry picture .... I was running on empty and after putting away the food and tossing the lizard out the door,  I headed back out for gas.  $5.57 is the price today, cheapest it's been in two weeks.  The blurry is when I realized I left the meatloaf I had just prepared in the oven.  YIKES!!

Luckily I had 45 minutes to get fuel and a car wash.  I quickly went through the cheapest one and raced back home.  

Isn't she pretty?  Good thing you can't see inside.  She really REALLY needs a vacuum.  This Jeep ... she's been towed to Alaska and across the U.S. to Maine and back.  She's fourteen years old and has had nothing but oil and tires.  They don't make them like this any more.  Of course I only have 40,000 miles on it too.  Shhh don't tell anyone!!

I made it back in time to save the meatloaf.  It's made from mostly turkey with a little hamburger thrown in for flavor.  It's the barbecue sauce on top that makes it tasty and perfect for sandwiches.  Good thing, because it took up the very last of the space in the freezer.

Maybe I'll throw out a couple of Halloween things on the front porch.  Truly, I don't want to eat TWO boxes of candy all by myself!!

Here's my boy waiting for the toy to move so he can attack!!!   Hug your fur friends constantly because one day they will no longer be with you.

IT'S NATIONAL KITTY DAY!!!

 The moon ... she's still hanging out over Central Cal, lighting the way for the clouds and my morning run.  Sometimes that doesn't work out quite as planned.

It was cold, so an entire change of wardrobe had to be acquired.  I was freezing from the get go.  In less than a quarter mile I was struggling.  What's up with that?  I was doing so good!  My breathing was off and my legs were saying all kinds of bad words.  I had to walk time and time again.  I thought twice about checking my heart rate, but hey .. it wasn't in the RED, so I kept going.  

I finally gave up and just walked the last of the 1.86 miles.  The good news is I recover quickly and my heart rate and breathing dropped to normal in one minute.  Maybe tomorrow it will be better because I'm sure NOT going out again today.

Can you believe it?  It's the END OF OCTOBER.  I checked the internet to find it was NATIONAL CAT DAY.  Not a thing I ever celebrated before, but I suppose since I've been adopted, I should probably Mom up.  Here she is ... not the least bit interested in the tiny piece of pork loin OR the stinky can of expensive kitty food I bought for her.  It's also time for the dreaded TIME CHANGE ... da da daaaaaa!!!  

It's hard to believe she looks this good after her most likely year long ordeal.  Her mouth just cracks me up.  Perfect for Halloween, yes?

Thank the Good Lord I had absolutely NOTHING on my menu today.  No meetings, no accounting ... which turned out to be a good thing since I was so tired from the past two days, topped off with running.  

With too many eggs in the fridge for most likely too long, I drug out a package of bacon to fry up for a Cowboy Quiche.  I truly debated between the air fryer and the fry pan.  The pan won, and I'm sure you know why ... easier to clean.

Two hours later ... VOILA ... eggs, cheese, onions, bacon and tomatoes became quiche.  Too bad I just ate some of those chili cheese breads, because when I swallowed the last bite of the first piece of quiche, I was WAY overloaded with food.  Gluttony is a sin, yes?  And a glutton I was, paying for it with a stomach ache.  Silly girl ... don't do that again!

Since it's now close enough to DECEMBER .... I'm putting up my Christmas Tree.  What else am I going to do with three entire days off?  Vacuum?  Oh heck NO!!  Once a month is plenty for that pastime.  

Out to the garage I trudged, looking for THE box.  I actually have three boxes of trees out there, two of which are huge 9 footers. I'm past that stage of my life and now opt for the tiny little pencil tree that requires little in the way of decorations and WORK.  

Here's how easy it is.  Stick twenty styrofoam pumpkins in the branches and cut up one big Hobby Lobby bouquet of fall flowers.  Instant Halloween tree that will last all the way through Thanksgiving.  When Christmas rolls around, I'll switch them out for Christmas colors.  That's when I'll wrap eight of those Amazon boxes I've been saving to put around the bottom.  Add an automatic timer so you don't even have to turn it on and off and VOILA!!!  

It took Missy La La all of three seconds to jump down and investigate. I've no doubt I will find pumpkins rolling around on the floor.

I am desperately in need of a Costco run, so I guess I will put on my big girl pants and actually go outside today.  Here's hoping I don't break the bank with unnecessary purchases!!!  

I SCREAM AND BASEBALL

Sometimes things hit you right between the eyes.  No I don't have a bulldog, but the sentiment could not be better.  I'll take a brownie with ice cream any day of the week. 

The moon was still up when I left the house.  Kicking and screaming I drove off to an Elks Meeting.  When I retired 15 years ago, I swore I would never leave the house before 9:00, let alone have an 8:30 meeting!!!  Unfortunately, I can't tell you what it was about because it was confidential.

You can tell how excited I am about this one.  Here I am, sitting on the pool table with phone in hand because four of us had to be seen in a space 4 feet side.  I was taking pictures of my knee and thumb in silence so the State Labor Commissioners Office could not hear the click.  

What a bunch of losers.  Did I say that?  I mean what a bunch of terrible attitude people who talk down to you like you are the scum of the earth.  It was SO obvious from the first three seconds that they had no interest in hearing what we had to say.  Enough said!!  Well not enough really, but if I say more, I'll get in trouble.  Do they actually PAY people to be rude and obnoxious like that???

Three hours later, I got home just in time for lunch.  Pork loin tacos!!  That disappeared in a flash before I was headed back out for accounting duty.  I'm running on barely four hours of sleep.  That can have two outcomes.  I either get VERY cranky, or I laugh at everything!!!

That was another four hours of pain with no gain, trying to convince two companies we already PAID that bill.  It was another hour of tracking down checks that were not cashed ... mostly because they were written TWICE ... and every other weird problem you can think of.  There were several fits of laughing along with making fun of AI.  They have a long way to go before they get that figured out.

ICE CREAM .... I NEED ICE CREAM!!!  But first I whipped up a few of these delicious Ortega chili cheese bites.  I ate five when they came out of the broiler.  Okay ... they really were for a party that I decided not to attend, so that was dinner.  They just might be breakfast too!!

It's ICE CREAM time.  I put a healthy scoop over that terrible pumpkin dessert I made.  Truly, Ice cream makes everything better, including my attitude.

Kitters didn't care much either way.  I was as exhausted as she seems to be here.  I was so tired I was grinding my teeth.  Oh that's not good at ALL.  I KNEW I should have ordered a big bottle of wine with my groceries!!!

Yup there was another dessert in my horoscope.  Just because I can, I ate a SECOND bowl (they really are quite small) of dessert while I watched game four of the World Series.  

Man those guys are playing crazy good baseball.  I could barely hold my eyes open, but I held in there until the very end.  CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BREWERS!  They made it to the World Series only once ..... in 1982, and lost.  This is their first EVER win in the history of their league!!!  If you didn't watch the game, you missed the most amazing looks on those guys faces!!  I'm sure Uecker was looking down on them all.  That was SOME GOOD BASEBALL!!!

Even Cooper would have wanted to watch THAT game!!  After all, he was a BALL expert!!!!