GOT YOU MOMMA!!

COOPER ... Where ARE you???  No one is better at hiding when it's time for a trim than my little kid Cooper.  I try to fake him out ... wash my hands and lay the town down on the table.  I throw some stuff in the washing machine while getting out the clippers.  None of these fakes do any good whatsoever.  The nose knows ... and he melts into a pile of jelly.

The poor kid has been traumatized twice when younger and needing a haircut.  That's why you see piles laying on my counter because now I do it myself.  I have no training whatsoever, other than pruning my horses for shows.  I admit, they came out a little better than Cooper.  It's all that twisty weird fur-hair he has.  This is actually a really big pile!!

Once done, he pouts.  I do take him outside for a quick run-around, then he gets a treat, but the next hour is spent sitting on the couch with his back turned.  I've had lots of different kinds of dogs over the years, but never one like this.  

He's probably telling Jonathan what a horrible dog Mom I am.  At least he will be a little cooler in our 90 degree days.  You can see Jonathan on the far right, along with the photography stand and his heater.  Exotic birds have to be kept warm in the winter, around 80 degrees.  Since I don't keep my house that warm, he gets his own ceramic heater.  I know ... spoiled!!

Surprisingly, I wasn't too sore from running, so I got to work cleaning Jon's cage.  THIS is why you don't let parrots run around outside their cage.  This is about three days worth of wood chunks he gets to chew on in order to keep his beak at a length where he can eat.  Any longer and they will starve to death because they can't pick up and hold anything.  

If you let them out and don't keep an eagle eye on them, your furniture will look like this.  Yes, I'm constantly running to Home Depot to buy more wood.  No one ever said parrots were cheap and easy keepers.

Here's a first .... every morning while waiting for the sun to rise, I play crosswords on my phone.  It takes some thinking, and usually proves my memory is not what it used to be.  "I know that word ... what is it?" And of course with thousands of players, I never expect to win, other than to keep the squeaking of rusty bolts in my brain from keeping me awake at night.

Surprise!!  The next week I was 45th!  LOL

I'm still working on the sprinklers, and was surprised to find this in my back yard.  I actually have flowers blooming!!!  It's weird though, those honeysuckle (least that's what I think they are) do not smell much this year.  

The gardeners showed up while I was out and I asked them to prune the roses.  There is always a lot of hand waving .. kind of like charades.  They speak VERY little English and I speak NO Spanish.  I walk over and pretend to prune them .... he just shakes his head.  Finally he gets it, until I say they can do just a few today and the rest next week.

OK ... NEXT WEEK he says, GOT YOU MOMMA!  I just go inside shaking my head.  

After much scrounging through all the boxes, I've settled on this new quilt.  It was two hours of cutting up fabric before I discovered my mistake.  It said to cut FIVE squares ... I cut FIVE STRIPS.  Big sigh!!!  I think I need a few more crossword puzzles.  Then as I began the sewing, I read "Draw a diagonal line on each square".  

Oh my aching back ..... there are 396 squares!!!  Whoever said quilting was FUN?  So I sat on the couch marking every one while watching the latest rodeo, with Cooper's back still turned to me.  Even a snack would not deter him today.

My plan now is to head out for another run.  My back isn't all that happy, but I'm hoping it will get stronger quickly ... after all, I'm going to need it to sit up on that stool for five hours tonight. 

IT'S BINGO TIME!!!