I'm Still Playing Catchup

 The days are passing by fast.  Seems like I just get up and I'm going to bed again.  It's a fabulous 66 degrees this morning and just like Mcdonald's, I'm LOVIN' IT!

It was perfect weather for dragging all the branches I cut off the oleander tree to the garage for pickup.  Mr. Chance brought his handy dandy backhoe over to move all those big sticks with BIG spikes to the curbside to be hauled off.  We made quick work of it, meaning all my major pruning is done for the year.  Yahoo!!  Yes I wore my gloves and only got two bloody spike sticks in my stomach.  It's my payment to Mother Nature for chopping the tree up.

The second chore of the day is finding food for Jonathan.  I'm not sure why I have a menagerie of picky eaters, but that does seem to be the case.  Parrots are supposed to eat a lot of fruit, but somehow that didn't get on Jon's edible list.  I occasionally give him pieces of banana, but it over ripens before two slices are gone.  

He WILL eat banana bread, so first up yesterday was to make those bananas into something tasty.  A quick trip to the store found NO more little tin pans.  I much prefer them for storing in the freezer, but on this day I had to settle for both.  

This is Hawaiian banana bread, meaning I also sneak in some pineapple when Jon isn't looking.  I admit, I probably eat a lot more of this than Jonathan!

He will on occasion also eat grapes, but not for many days in a row.  Here's my latest and greatest find.  I have again discovered my love of frozen grapes, but only because I don't want to throw away 3/4 of the package when Jon decides he doesn't like them any more.

See the words Cotton Candy?  I didn't give it a second thought until I popped one in my mouth.  OMG!!!  These grapes taste like cotton candy.  How could that be?  I savored about a quarter of the bag before putting the rest in the freezer.  Yes I did save a few for Jon, and he's already demolished two!

I have a long list of honey-do's, so I got right to work.  I flipped off the breaker to that plug that dims the lights and tested it before taking the cover off.  I'm assuming of course that this little gizzy works.  I'm still here, so I didn't get electrocuted.  

I took the screws out and looked at the plug for loose wires.  It's a weird kind of plug I haven't seen before.  One wire seemed to be permanently attached while the second was held on with a screw.  I tightened it up and put it all back.  Nope ... no difference, so who knows what the problem is.  Maybe I should double the house insurance just in case it burns down.

Next up ... check the game camera.  I'm happy to announce the arrival of ONE bunny.  It's rather weird how there are none around ... maybe that's why the coyotes are so fat ... and they seem to be smaller this year.  

I loaded another quilt on the machine, but was quickly told that wasn't going to happen.  It was play time in the living room.  Here's my dog's eye view of the ball game.  You can tell he's obsessed by the look in his eyes.

In between crawling under the table and the quilting machine to retrieve the ball, I was able to finish up this Christmas quilt I embroidered three years ago.  It's hard to tell, but I have a new snowflake pattern that turned out really nice.  This has been added to the stack of five that now need binding.  Naturally I left all the binding material in California.  

At last it was time to veg out and watch the Pendleton Oregon rodeo.  I mentioned before how this rodeo is set up so differently from others.  The field is too big to allow bulls to wander the far reaches, so they set up a smaller turn back fence.  Take a good look ... it's made of PVC pipe.  I seriously doubt I would be sitting THAT close.  

Those guys are the fence crew, along with mostly rodeo contestants and cameramen.  Boy can they run fast!!  I know that because I watched a bull plow right through the plastic fence yesterday.  The thing is, they chase if you move.  Kind of like bears.  You run, they chase you.  You remain perfectly still, they "usually" pass you by.

It happened again on this day ... like a huge bowling ball headed for the pins.  People were flying in all directions!!  The bull was finally roped and returned to the holding pens.  It's definitely entertaining.

Yessirree .... that will hold em!!!    NOT!!!

I went to bed to the howling of coyotes and the flapping of bat wings as they drained my hummingbird feeder.  This morning I'll have to whip up another batch and put a big sign on the door .... BATS .... so I remember to bring it in tonight.

So what time is it now?  Time to check the RAT TRAPS!!!!