IT'S BINGO TIME!!

 Somehow I had it in my mind that this would go much better than it did.  I guess attitude has a whole lot to do with it ... and when I found out my fabulous Counting Countess would be gone, my mind went in the tank.  

But FIRST .... Missy La La here ... I can see her thinking just WHAT can I get into TODAY!!  She has taken to hiding inside at night and jumping out attacking my leg first thing in the morning as I walk through the kitchen.  It's not just me ... she pats Mr. Cooper on the butt a few times trying to get him to play.   Yeah ... this is her best INNOCENT impression.

In real life, it looks like THIS!  It's blurry because she's so fast!  But at least she's using the new scratch post.  She comes and goes several times a day now, usually in tune to the crunching sound of food in the automatic feeder.

It's funny that Kitters will not eat ANY people food.  Cooper on the other hand, wants it ALL now, when in the past he wouldn't eat it either.  I took your advice, toasted up a big slab of that blueberry lemon loaf and smothered it in butter.  YUM YUM!!!

In no time whatsoever, it was time to head on off to Bingo.  I knew it would be a madhouse with our crew trying to get the final touches put on the room.  It turned out to be a good idea I went in early, because seriously ... some folks have no idea.

Here's a reminder of the fire .....

And the wall ........

This is what it looks like now.  Pretty amazing, yes??  There was lots of discussion about setting up the tables in this room for bingo, but I said absolutely NOT.  The floor needs to be cleaned and polished and the paint is actually still wet.  We don't need people banging up against the walls.  The crew was working like crazy just to get the food station back in place, along with our Order Machine.  

With that done, they went to cleaning up the food service window while I set up the Bingo Machine.

Here's the outside BEFORE .....

And the after.  This needs one more coat and painting, but you have to give it up for this Contractor.  He did a fabulous job!!

That's when it all went SOUTH!  There I was, pulling 50 bingo balls for the Bonanza game ... and suddenly there were NO MORE!  What?  Someone stole half the balls???  I could not find them anywhere.  This is crazy!  I went to look for the box in the safe that held brand new ones.  

When I came back, the joke was on me!!  The last caller two weeks ago did not hit the button that lets ALL of them fall out of the machine.  They were stuck in the middle out of sight.  Boy did I get razzed for THAT ONE!  Next up, set up six televisions that people have messed with over the last two weeks, making them not work at all.  How frustrating, since a TV pro, I am NOT.

There were a lot more debates about opening up the lunch room, but the King and I agreed to keep it closed.  That meant all 130 peasants had to squish into this ONE room.  I had the kids add more chairs before anyone got there, so most didn't even realize they would be touching elbows!  Until they DID!

There was only one fight, which the King had to referee, leaving me free to count cards for my slowest cashier.  We have a line clear to the far wall, and chit-chatting takes up too much time.  Don't ask if they have a dollar so you can just give them a FIVE in change.  They will search for three minutes.  Even the King came by THREE times and said THE LINE IS CLEAR TO THE WALL!!

It didn't help that she refused to say DEBIT card only (in spite of being reminded), meaning many people ran their credit cards, which require a signature.  Even more time lost!  

Oh my gosh ... it was hard for me to keep my mouth shut.  Don't ask them if they need a dobber ... that takes up even MORE time.  Load em up ... MOVE EM OUT!!  She just did not seem to grasp the importance of getting 130 people through the line BEFORE the games begin!!

To make it worse, the last time the infernal machine was used, it was not cleared out.  When I ran the first tape, it said we had 248 people and $11,000.  Ummmm that's not possible.  I even cleared it out BEFORE we began, and it was STILL off.  IS IT A FULL MOON??  I'm SURE it's a full moon!!

By the end of the night her hands were cramping, and I knew I could no longer hold my tongue ... so I offered to finish up so she could go home.  I closed out as fast as I could and left the building for the nice QUIET of my truck!  And so ended another rousing night of BINGO!!

Today I am back to accounting for tax purposes.  April 15th looms on the horizon!  Have a GREAT day!!!

Stitching and Eating!!!

 Up down, up down.  That's been the weather around here for the last two weeks.  We headed on up to 87 yesterday, down to 77 today, then back up again.  Someone just cannot make up HER mind!  In fact by next week it is supposed to RAIN on our parade.

I suppose it's time to find some cherry tomatoes to plant.  I don't know, as much as I love them, they are a LOT of work!!  That's what I was thinking as I headed out for an early morning walk/run.  You really have to do this activity every single day to keep the aches and pains at bay.  

I have not done that, so by the end of the day, I'm walking rather funny.  The alternative is not walking at all, so I just smile a lot at all the other walkers out there trying to stay upright.

Back home, it took a bit to get up the nerve for the next quilt.  I'm always so happy that the basting function works, which obviously is the easiest thing ever to do.  I take a big deep breath and say a little prayer before I hit the RUN button.  And away we go!!!

More prayer ensued ... and thank the good Lord, they worked.  This will be one given away to a Veteran at our dinner later in the year.  The backing says Marines all over it.  It doesn't exactly match, but some Marine will be happy to receive it!!  Gee only 12 more to make!

Mostly I'm just thrilled my machine is working!!!  I've got two more to go ... one a rather large queen size.  Here's hoping and praying it goes just as well as these small ones did.

Lunch was weird.  I really needed to eat that leftover hash, but had whipped up a broccoli salad.  I love this stuff ... especially when it has lots of bacon.  Unfortunately, it had lots of very strong red onions!  Woohoo!!!  It's a good thing I can only offend Cooper with my breath!  Well there is Kitters, but she stays outside more, now that the weather is nice.  

The little brat went after the lizard again.  I shooed her away twice before finally putting a cage-like thing in that corner so the poor lizard had a safe place to hide.  That's when I noticed my roses are once again blooming like crazy.  

I told the gardener not to prune them any more.  I'm hoping they grow tall enough to block out that new neighbor's house.  

I did make a quick run to the local Mexican grocery store turned Korean/Asian, for garlic.  The plan was to have shrimp scampi for dinner.  Sadly, they did not have the capers.  I did need some honey for another recipe, so I grabbed the most normal looking bottle on the shelf.  OMG!!  Wasn't I surprised when I got home to find that one SMALL bottle was $10.99.  The garlic ... two small clove things ... $4.00.  No more Korean/Asian store for me!!

So shrimp scampi has a little white wine in it.  The only wine I have is an old bottle half full of Barefoot White Zin.  It was okay though, you couldn't taste it with all the butter and parmesan I put on top.  

My theory is if you only have protein for dinner, you get to have sugar for dessert.  OH NO!  I was out of Cool Whip.  So I cut up some of those fabulous (the best I've ever had) strawberries from Costco.  Chocolate and strawberries ... what could be better???

That was it for the day.  I didn't want to overdo it since THIS day involves Bingo.  I've tried to get the word out to everyone, so we shall see if anyone shows up.  Actually I'm hoping for a light crowd since the room with the fire is not really ready for occupancy yet.  That means we will be short about eight tables, forcing players to actually sit closer TOGETHER.  That's a SIN in Bingoland!  I've no doubt there will be flaming torches, spears and knives being wielded right and left.

Wish us luck!!

I'M BACK IN BUSINESS BABY!!

 Ooooohhhhh it's a LOVELY 59 degrees this morning.  Boy am I loving this weather!  It almost makes me want to go outside and work in the yard.  NOT ... I'm way too old for that nonsense!!  It's funny that our family never got into that.  Oh we planted a few veggies here and there, but no one EVER cared about  having a lawn or flowers.  Apparently I inherited that stance.

Mr. Cooper doesn't care either, as long as there's a small patch of green to water.  Sadly, he's not interested in the ball Robot James found under the couch last week.  

This one is looking out into the darkness for that other CAT that keeps meowing!  April Fools .......

It's actually the noise coming from my phone.  This is a hilarious little game I play sometimes, just for her.  When you find the kitties and touch them, they MEOW.  Sometimes a purr, sometimes a MEW and sometimes a big MEOW.  Kitters comes running to see just WHO is in her territory.  

And THEN I find things like THIS!!  I LOVE THESE LIZARDS!  They eat lots of bugs and spiders!  Apparently Kitters harkens back to her starving days and STILL tries to catch them.  I'm sure she brought him in through the doggie door.  

Poor little guy ... I picked him up, sure he was a goner, and set him outside.  A little while later, I found him still laying on the patio.  I gingerly placed him under a wooden step near water and greenery so he could hide.  Away he ran, so MAYBE he will survive.  DARN CAT!!  

Yeah, all innocent looking!!  I can just imagine my house when I'm gone for a week or more.  It's funny that she always wants something to lay her head on.

Anyway, my quest of the day was to get groceries at Costco.  I had a $300 credit to use up, or I could even get cash back.  I was after their chicken breasts and thighs, enough to fill my freezer for Mr. Cooper and I.  I actually did stick to my list.

No I didn't.  I got chicken and a big bowl of shrimp before accidentally walking into the veggie department.  A huge bowl of fruit and a box of strawberries jumped into my cart.  I'm actually trying to lessen the sugar content around here.  I went for broccoli, but only found celery and packages of things too big for moi.  

Pork loin, a chunk-o-ham, ziploc bags (the wrong size, dag nabbit), batteries (always a must) and a gorgeous lemon blueberry loaf that I won't be able to eat in two weeks.  

I got a whole $18.00 cash back!!  BUT the meat products cost less than at Walmart.

I spent the next two hours tearing apart the packages and RE-packaging them in the too large ziploc bags.  Most of it went in the freezer, so full now I can't fit even one cookie in there.  

Yup this was an impulse buy.  And a GOOD ONE!!  Oh man this tastes exactly like their wonderful muffins ... only better!!  Three quarters of it went in the freezer too.

I'm absolute positive it was that lemon loaf that FINALLY motivated me to get back to quilting.  I had so much trouble the last few quilts I worked on, I just didn't want to be stressed out yet again, trying to figure out WHY it was having problems.  I decided it wasn't doing any good just sitting there, and I had all day to be frustrated.  

I started out by trying to level the 10' long machine with a 12" level.  Luckily I have a 4' long yardstick that worked pretty well.  With that done, I turned it all on.  I SWEAR this "repaired" tablet is smaller than the other one.  I started out by basting the top in place.  

Hmmm ... that was working, so I pulled up a pattern and set it up, not forgetting a single step.  WOOHOO!!  I finally hit the RUN button.  AND IT RAN!!!  

I held my breath through the first three rows.  There was one moment when I hit the pause button ... counted to ten and let it go again.  Here we are .... at the END of the last row!  IT DID IT!  I'M BACK IN BUSINESS BABY!!  Maybe, just maybe the expanded battery was causing the RUN problems I was having before.  Who knows ... I'm just happy that it finished the entire quilt!

One down, two more to try today ... here's hoping I have the same good luck.  This may even motivate me to get back to cutting and sewing so I have more things to quilt!!

Here's to yet another gorgeous BLESSED day for all of us!!  Now for a nice BIG chunk of lemon blueberry loaf!!!!

NOT Getting Er Done!!

 The warm is beginning to hang around a little too much.  It's a not-so-cool 65 degrees this morning in sunny Central California.  We must be floating pretty close to the sun.  Seems like we could pretty much predict the weather in the last 40 years, but now Mother Nature is having a hissy fit!

Kitters seems to like it.  She spends more time outside now, even hanging out on my lounge chair.  That means lots of brushing as the kitty hair falls all over everything.

I had thoughts of hitting Costco and cashing in my credits, but somehow getting dressed up and going out escapes me nowadays.  

Instead, I once again looked up at these two light fixtures trying to decide what to do about them.  Yes, I'm standing on that ladder on the sitting area in the sewing room.  I tried to order one of these online, but the delivery date was 3 months away.  This is what it SHOULD look like.

This is the one that fell out of the canister.  I took the bulb out, just a regular light bulb on this one.  That's when I discovered the problem.  See the black on the wire close to the socket?  It's burned right through the insulation.  It was actually stuck to the bulb, having been pinched inside.  That caused the bracket to melt and break, which is why it fell out of the canister.  Good grief!  That might have caused a fire!

At this point I guess I have to tape up the wire ..... my electrician friends out there, will that work? ..... and see if I can find a replacement.  Two I suppose, since I doubt they will look alike.  EXCEPT I can't get the bulb out of the other one.  Big sigh ... an electrician, I am NOT.

Apparently I'm not so good at plugging things in either.  I tried to switch out my old faithful television for the new fancy dancy Sanyo one.  The problem became evident quite quickly.  The connections for the old one are right in the middle.  The connections for the NEW one are clear over on the left hand side.  These lovely wires coming out of the wall will not stretch any further and will not REACH the far left hand side.  

To add to that, I cannot for the life of me find the remote for the new TV.  Not new really, it came from the Arizona house.  Add to THAT, I have a Harmony controller that works EVERYTHING, but it is too old to work with today's TVs.  I think the only thing I can do is buy a NEW TV and a new controller, and have Sound Encounters come and install everything.

SO ... anyone have any recommendations on the brand of TV to get?  

Dead in the water on TWO fronts!!  At least this is something I CAN do!  I steam cleaned all the floors in the house.  Though I was trying to rest up, I just could NOT stand the dirty floors one more minute.  

I probably should have waited on the floors until AFTER I cooked another batch of corned beef hash.  If you've ever fried it up, you know how it can pop from too high heat, landing on that nice clean floor.  The taste was worth the second cleanup!

Lastly, I have to thank my friend Kathy who encouraged me to get Walmart delivery.  It's SO much cheaper than our Save Mart who thinks they live in the ritzy North section of Tucson.  Since making sure they HAND OFF the groceries directly to me, I have had not one single problem.  

I get text messages saying how many minutes they are from delivery so I can flag them down on the street.  It's interesting that so far 99% of the drivers are of East Indian descent.  Most are Sikhs, a wonderful, hard working group of people who have settled here.  He even carried the groceries to my door.  

That was my day ... trying to fix things I know nothing about and being thankful for small miracles, like Walmart Delivery!!!

FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!

 Welcome back to sunny California!  The mornings are as beautiful as they can get.  In spite of it being an entire month early, spring has sprung with temps between 50 and 85.  We're hoping this LASTS an extra month, or we will end up with a 7 month summer!  

Unfortunately, that means these guys are in full bloom.  I've never had dandelions in my yard before and would prefer they go next door.  Speaking of next door ... the one with the dogs who she rudely let do their business on MY lawn every single day .... they seem to have disappeared.  YAY!!  I only see one vehicle there on occasion and haven't seen the dogs in weeks.  The best part ..... IT'S QUIET!!!

Unfortunately, a walk around discovered weeds like never before.  What the heck!  I just sprayed all of this three weeks ago ... and I don't see a single dead weed.  So I got out my sprayer and went to work, only to discover the gardener hasn't been doing his job very well at all.  The flower beds are a disaster.  I worked for a bit, but it was just too hot.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Besides, I would rather be playing with this guy inside.  Sadly, he is slowing down quite a bit, exactly like his Mom.  I miss the crazy guy that would chase the ball for hours on end and the Mom that had the energy to throw it!!

With Kitters going in and out the doggy door, I figured I would set up her automatic feeder inside.  There are some other fat cats OUTSIDE that like to partake.  If I'm gone on a trip, this will make her food available all the time, instead of running out.  I have to say, this thing works really well and holds a ton of food.  

I hesitated to show you this picture.  This CAT ..... she loves to scratch on absolutely everything in the house.  The good news is if I yell at her, she stops ... for at least 30 seconds.  So I bought yet another scratch pole ... a HUGE one.  There was lots of griping and complaining putting the thing together, but we finally got it.  So far she hasn't even TOUCHED it!!!  Go figure!!!

That was about it for the day.  I tried to rest up a little, but I have a really hard time just sitting.  That's probably because I have things to do, I just don't feel like doing them.  Four packages back to the UPS store for return to Amazon ... find a light fixture replacement for the sewing room ... SEW ... fix the laundry room faucet that doesn't get any water ... trim the bushes ... VACUUM ... use up that Costco reward ... the list goes on and on!

Instead, I whipped up one of my all time favorites.  Corned Beef Hash.  I love this stuff!  I could eat it every single day.  In fact, I'm trying to buy up all that left over Elks Corned Beef for the freezer.

Lunch AND dinner was served, along with a piece of this amazing rye bread.  I do not like rye bread one little bit ... but THIS ... wherever it comes from ... is DELICIOUS!

One quick trip to town and I ran into this.  There were police cars screaming East until suddenly they changed directions and went North directly in front of me.  I pulled in to park and three more came in from behind.  Then I heard GET ON THE GROUND and a Police Dog barking like crazy!  OOPS ... someone is in trouble!!  I looked around to be sure it wasn't me they were yelling at!!  Now I'm curious what the guy did, because this NEVER happens in our little town!

I ended this lovely day with a little dessert while watching Rodeo.  By the way, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is coming to town.  Our Sheriff got them hooked up with the fairgrounds to put on a rodeo in a few short days.  Their big welcome event will happen at our Lodge ... which is another reason we needed to get it fixed up.

They are also talking about bringing back the Elks Roping event that was HUGE back in the day.  In fact, that's how our RV park came about.  The land was donated for a new roping arena for one of the biggest events in the Central Valley.  Unfortunately, it lost its momentum.  Since the plans included an RV park, they went ahead with that part and never did put in an arena.  Maybe some day someone will donate the money for the chutes and arena, and we will be back in business!!!

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE!

 It's a lovely 57 degrees this morning.  My fan is on, the door is open and I have ANOTHER fan in the doorway, bringing cool air inside.  Luckily I have good insulation in this house, and even though it's 88 degrees outside during the day, it's nice and cool INSIDE.  That is part of what saves me from screaming over the PGE bill!  

Mr. Cooper and I actually went for a walk on this morning.  What a surprise!  I figured we would only make it to the garbage can I left on the street, but we went clear to the end of the block.  Of course we watered the street 17 times.  

Back home, I took one look at this counter and got right to work.  Somehow I got terribly distracted and ended up back outside.

I looked out the window and saw a sprinkler laying on top of the concrete.  How could that be?  Must be broken.  I looked down in the hole to see that it merely looked unscrewed.  I tapped the sprinkler, only to see rocks come out.  Apparently the entire head was FULL of little rocks.  Thirty minutes of washing and banging later, and I think I got it ... maybe.  We shall see if it becomes a rocket when it turns back on.

Finally ... it was ME time, though I was pestered continuously.  I laid out on the lounge on the patio, only to be constantly patted and rubbed on by these four feet.  GO AWAY PLEASE!

That wasn't happening, so after 30 minutes, I finally just got up.  This kid sure is needy!!  And in TROUBLE because she is right now roaming around the house making all kinds of banging noises.  Silly cat!!!

It didn't matter because there was no peace whatsoever outside.  Two magpies were screaming constantly the entire time.  It must be spring ... and he would NOT give up!  This is the sun shining through his white feathers!!!

Maybe some lunch will make up for no sun.  I'm being good ... kinda sorta!  This is a 2" square of cake.  I could easily eat a HUGE slice, but I'm trying to be good.  It's lodge night and we are having corned beef and cabbage.  

It is usually a HUGE night, but of course everyone thought we were still closed.  Could be because I asked the Secretary to please put out several notices per day and I got only ONE.  Here I am selling tickets.  It was a slow go, but we ended up with 100 folks.  People thought it would be too smoky, but honestly, that company did such a good job that I could not smell any smoke at all in the entire building.  

This is my LEFTOVERS!!  I already ate half of it.  You never go away hungry here.  This was probably the best CBC dinner I've ever had.  Even better ... they had so much leftover, you got another full box for $10.00. I came home with THREE so I won't have to cook for the next two weeks!!!

I snuck into the lunchroom just to see how it was going.  The repair is done, texturing will happen today, with painting tomorrow.  The ceiling is being completely replaced ... not because it had to be, but because it's 50 years old and disgusting looking.  They are also going to clean all the AC ductwork and put in much better insulation.  We will be back in business hopefully by Monday, mostly because we have amazing professional members who stepped up to get it done.  All licensed contractors, by the way.

The down side of that is BINGO is on again.  It was nice to have a week off, but no one lets sleeping dogs lie around here.  

I'm rather tired today, so I will probably be on the couch ... or maybe on the lounge outside checking out the concrete from my favorite sunny location.