DID I YELL?!

 It was 101 outside on this day.  I should have stayed in bed.  I would have been MUCH ahead of the game.  

First off ... drive the van.  This has become a big pain in the patoo.  Had I known about all this stuff, even after surfing the internet, I would have bought something else.  I had the charger on it for two days, but I don't trust it one bit.  I would leave it longer, but that thing gets hot when it's plugged in.  

Once again it reminded me it is due for SERVICE A, which is an entire oil and fluid change.  I have 7,000 miles on it.  The book says 20,000 for the first oil change.  I'm pretty sure the last time they reprogrammed the computer, they put in GAS rig instead of DIESEL rig.  Even the Smog Guy said this things reads as a gas rig.  I ignored it completely, but expect it one day to say YOU DIDN'T DO WHAT YOU WERE TOLD SO WE ARE TURNING EVERYTHING OFF.  So sorry Charley.  Nope I didn't yell at this point in the day.

Breakfast was easy peasy ... the last of that asada meat with those fresh tomatoes.  YUM YUM!!

Oh ... you thought when I had to buy gas at $5.27 a gallon made me yell?  Nope it wasn't that.  Never have I ever spent this much for gas in my entire life.  This governor we have is the worst ever in history!  He has shut down the fuel companies with ridiculous regulations and they have moved their headquarters to Texas and closed most of the refiners we had.  Diesel is $7.69 a gallon.

Maybe it was when I had to load up all those boxes of to-be-shredded paperwork.  Nope, it wasn't that either.

It was when I realized I had put five bills on auto pay, expecting to receive the credit card any day.  The card never appeared.  I had to cancel it, order another card and try to reprogram those account payments.  It didn't help that the internet just was not working well on this day.  It would send me a VERIFY numbers but I never received them.  I didn't even yell at that.

What I DID yell at was Dish Network, who somehow changed my service address to 4001 Hospital Road.  I don't live at 4001 Hospital Road.  Of course I got the gal who knows nothing about this process.  She wanted my PIN number.  I don't have one.  Oh yes you do.  I gave her three different ones.  Nope ... not it.  By then I was yelling at her to just change the address.  After ten minutes of back and forth, she finally said "the pin ends in ss".  What?  Maybe I've been hacked because none of my password names or numbers have ss in them.  My patience disappeared when I turned 70.

  I asked her for the last time ... what are you talking about?  Oh ... the last four of your social.  She finally changed the address but refused to change the auto pay account.  I have absolutely NO patience for those people, and the fact that their website wasn't working didn't help.  I'm sure that payment is NOT going to go through.  Big sigh!!

I soothed my mad brain with the last two Oreos from the plane.  These are full sized.  See what I mean about being stingy on the filling?  The cookie does NOT look like the picture.

It's barely 1/16th inch thick.  At least they were free!!

I didn't yell about dinner.  It was a smoked paprika, chicken and rice affair.  Not bad.

This is the new rice I tried.  It was something we got at an Indian restaurant in Sacramento.  If you like Basmati Rice, this is a good one.  I actually found it at Walmart no less.

The rest of the evening was spent finishing up yet another quilt binding.  I think I still have three more to go, not counting the FOUR with names embroidered on them.  I really hope I can get them finished in time.

If this sweetheart was still around, I'm sure I would not be yelling at the AI incompetence I've been running into.   Nothing irritates me more than listening to a robot that has no idea what I'm talking about and then tries to upsell me for three minutes before connecting me with a representative.  And it seems to be getting worse, not better!!

Anyway, I miss my sweet boy ........ hopefully today will be a better day.

THE MUCKY MUCKS ARE HERE

 Well HELLO Mother Nature!!  She's putting out beautiful tomatoes like crazy.  These are small, but mighty ... and they are free from one of my old ranch neighbors.  They are the sweetest most perfect tomatoes I've had in my life.  

On the other hand, Mother Nature is having hot flashes because it's has been and is going to be, over 100 degrees for the next 10 days!  YIKES!  We must be listing towards the sun nowadays.  I guess I can survive as long as I have tomatoes like this for breakfast every day!!  Long live the BLT and grilled cheese with tomatoes!

It was going to be a boring one.  I was scheduled to help out at the Elks Lodge for the big political rally going on.  Not that I was there for the political part ... that is just NOT my thing.  Shaking hands and rubbing elbows with mucky mucks has never been on my list.  On the other hand, the grandson of one of our fabulous volunteers, works in Washington D.C. for the big time politicians, and he came to hang out.  

I think he's going to make a name for himself.  If anyone remembers Gary Condit ... this kid met him in the hallway one day and had a picture taken.  He has pictures with every one of those folks you see on the news nowadays.  He then had a T-shirt made that said  I MET GARY CONDIT AND LIVED TO TELL ABOUT IT.  The Washington crowd apparently got a big kick out of that one.  I think this kid is going places.

So in the meantime, I finished the binding on yet another quilt.  I have a feeling this is the last year I will be making so many.  I'm running out of momentum.

At 3:00 I was off to the lodge.  Though I expected lots of people to be there because I was told the "special" meeting was at 4:00 and the FOOD part at 5:00, they were off by two hours.  

I won't name names here, but the special part was an in-person meeting for which I think the participants paid over $1,000 each.  After all, this is a campaign to raise money event.  

I spent the first hour helping hang a 10' x 15' American flag on the stage and scrounged through our storeroom for three extension cords so the spotlights would be "just right".  They already had these cool uprights that were red, white and blue.  I just might have to get a couple of those for my front porch!

The menu was on the board in the kitchen.  This is an appetizer event only, so they had to be magnificent ones.  We began by setting up shrimp plates because luckily all the fruit had been cut and plated already.  The meatballs went in the oven while we made the ham and turkey rollups.  I don't know how many pieces were in those enormous packages, but we rolled up SIX packages in total.  

While our Lodge Chef began to carry out those HUGE way-too-heavy glass trays with the fruit, we fried up the best chicken wings we have ever had.  I'm going to buy a box of those.  They were made all the better by the change to beef tallow oil for frying.  No kidding ... if you haven't noticed the difference at any of the fast food places ... that stuff makes anything fried SO MUCH BETTER.  AND it's better for you! 

There was a bit of discussion over the meatball sauce since the lady asked for chili sauce and grape jelly.  I know, sounds terrible, but it's REALLY good.  Like a sweet chili sauce!  My mom made that years ago.

Here's the final table.  As you can see, those chicken wings didn't last 5 minutes!!  I kept watch while the other two gals hobnobbed with the mucky mucks.  I guess I've just never been impressed by "suits" or celebrities.  

When the main meeting began, we picked up most of the food, to be brought out again at the end.  That was enough for me ... I was out of there in a flash.  Four hours of climbing ladders and standing up running around made my back talk mean to me.  Besides, I've heard all the rhetoric before.  

I have absolutely nothing on the schedule for today.  Maybe lying in the sun for a while around 8:00.  Any later and it's way too hot.  

Tug of war with purple puppy toy .............  Cooper always won!

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!!