RUN LIZARDS RUN!

Easter could not have been a more perfect day.  I woke up to the snoring of the puppy laying next to me. 

 Why was I not at the Elks Lodge doing SOMETHING?  It's a little know fact that we are actually a Christian organization, and not only do we close on Easter Sunday completely, but we do not have any events on Sundays at all.   Oh the upstairs bar may be open on any regular Sunday, but that's so you can go enjoy all the football, baseball, soccer and any other sport you want, on any of seven televisions.

Easter morning in Central California began like this.  Temperatures are ramping up a bit, just in time for the Easter Egg Hunt.  

You saw that I put the eggs out early Sunday morning, whereupon the kids found them.  How eggciting!  So of course the very first chore of the day was making egg salad.  In my entire life, I have never liked egg whites.  I have no idea WHERE that came from.  If they are invisible and smothered in mayo and celery salt, I will eat them ... and so all but two of these got smashed into smithereens.  Cooper will get the last two.

Since it was so gorgeous out, I went for another tanning session.  Remember in the old days when it was baby oil and iodine?  I think I only used that once.  I preferred the lovely smell of coconut sun tanning lotion.  I can still smell it to this day!!

But alas ... I was bothered incessantly by this creature of the night.  She galavants most of the night, going in and out the doggy door ... then wants to be petted ALL DAY LONG.

RUN LIZARDS RUN!  Why they just lay there thinking they can't be seen, is beyond me.  She scrounged under the rose bushes and brought me another baby.  That was AFTER I found YET ANOTHER ONE under the chair in the living room.  I'm hoping she gets over it soon, like she got over gulping down her food in one minute when she finally realized it would always be available.  

There I was, laying on my stomach reading on my phone when THIS happened.  Come ON!!  I can't get a minutes peace.  She laid down between my legs, causing excessive heat to make me give up.  So very needy this Kitters!  It's okay ... I realize why, but GEEZ!!!!!

I finally gave up and went to cooking dinner.  I had this lovely chunk of ham from Costco.  It has to be good, right?  WRONG!  Apparently I did not cook it long enough.  I LOVE spiral hams, but then I have to eat it for the next three months.  

Note to self ... bake this MUCH longer next time.  An hour just did not do it!  There's that fattening potato salad that I love so much, along with green salad.  Okay, I admit, the salad is FAKE.  It was just there for the picture.  I put it back in the bag, because who wants salad when you have POTATO SALAD!!

As you know, sitting all day is not my thing, so I went outside and moved all the furniture out of the patio area.  I have a plan to buy some NICE furniture and not use our butcher-the-cow table as a centerpiece.  That table is well over 70 years old and still standing on four legs.  One day I'll tell you its story.

I spent the next three hours looking for furniture on my phone.  I found a couple of suitable sets, but REALLY?  YOU HAVE TO PUT IT TOGETHER YOURSELF?  Oh yeah, I can just see me putting together six huge pieces of furniture.  I may have to rethink this project.  I did get my rope lights back on a timer though ... for ambience don't ya know!

Thus ended a lovely Easter with a cloudy sky.  I was waiting for the pretty sunset.

I was not disappointed.  

It got even better right over the top of my house.  I smiled.  Thank you Lord for one more VERY nice day!  Except for the ham!  Could you make the ham better next time please??  Maybe I can get a bag of potatoes and make scalloped potatoes and ham.  YEAH ... that will be PERFECT!  

And so it's Monday morning now, time for egg salad sandwiches while I go on Lizard Watch.  

HAPPY EASTER 2026

HEY ... ARE YOU OKAY???  I couldn't help it, I love this picture!!  Happy Happy Easter!!! 

Aren't these guys just the cutest?  Not so much if you had to raise them.  I don't know how that happened exactly, but in the 80's I ended up with a huge six cage monstrosity on my back porch raising Dutch minis.  Cute little buggers, soft ... but nothing in this world makes as much of a mess as those guys.  STINK!!!  Oowweeee they smelled bad!  I was glad when they all sold to the 4-H and FFA kids.

I started this morning off with puppy snuggles.  Nothing better in my book, and apparently Cooper agrees.

Here's a throwback to the ancient days.  That's me on our original ranch, on our way to church at Easter.  The fence did keep the cattle out sometimes, but that isn't DIRT on the sidewalk.  Mostly the fence just kept me in.  I had a tendency to wander off.  I think I only have three pictures of me when I was little.  Pictures were not important back in our day.

Back to TODAY ... surprisingly, I'm not sore from bed moving ... but there will be NO moving furniture today.  My plan was to make a small potato salad to go with a chunk of ham that will go in the oven shortly.  The eggs?  Well we're going to dye them with that ancient Paas Easter Egg kit.

Salad first, then I took to dying the eggs.  This turned out delicious once smothered in mayo.  It's SO not on my list of approved foods, but it's EASTER ... so I'm splurging.

Here's the thing about coloring eggs.  I remember we had to use boiling water.  Now that's apparently a no-no.  Mix the tablet with vinegar until it is dissolved and add 1/2 cup room temperature water.  I think I destroyed four coffee cups from the dye instantly soaking in to the sides.  

Okay, 1/2 cup of water is NOT enough to COVER the egg, so I had to swirl the cup around the entire time.  Even then, none of them came out evenly colored.  I wrote with the wax pen, but couldn't see where I was writing since they are both white.  

I might have done four more with the sleeves that you slide on, then drop in boiling water to shrink wrap the egg.  Except they would not FIT on these eggs.  

So here's what I wonder about.  How did we not get egg poisoning when we were young?  Our eggs were cooked, then dyed in boiling water, cooled on the counter for an hour before decorating and stuck in a basket on the table while we went to church.  

Two hours later, they were hidden out in the yard, so well that it took us another two hours to find them all.  They were then placed BACK in the basket while we ate dinner.  Anyone think they might have spoiled during all that time OUT of the fridge?  That was my thought when I forgot to put them in the fridge until later in the day!

Here we are ... ready to be hidden for Cooper and Kitters.  The kit came with a sheet of stickers, all WAY too small to peel off and stick.  There were three 1/8" bunny feet stuck to the counter when I got done.  

Once "hidden", like they were toddlers or something, Cooper came running out and went right to them!!  He smelled a bit, turned around and walked away.  WAIT ... these are your favorite!!

Kitters came running up, took one sniff and said NOPE ... doesn't smell like cat food to me!!

Back in the fridge they went, a little worse for wear with puppy slobber on them.  Now I have potato salad AND egg salad for the next few days.  A dieter's delight!!!

Dinner however, was the last of those small pizzas I bought.  I loaded it up with pepperoni (the last of that finally) and cheddar cheese.  Not bad if I do say so myself.

Truly, Easter is not all about the colored eggs.  THIS is the reason for Easter!!  And THIS I will celebrate all day today!

TIME FOR A CHANGE

 Brrrr it's another 48 degree morning.  I actually had to turn the HEAT on yesterday.  Not for long however, since I got completely OVERheated with the exercise of the day.  

Here's the problem.  Mr. Cooper isn't his usual acrobatic self, unlike his Mom who still thinks she can run miles, lift tons of weight and STILL have energy to go shopping at the Mall 30 miles away.  My how things have changed.

Anyway, Mr. Cooper sleeps on the bed.  He always waits for me to lift him down, but on this day, he had a little misstep and fell off, luckily on the ottoman covered in clothes that lives at the foot of my bed.  

It's TIME FOR A CHANGE.  This bed that has lived in the garage since it moved here from Arizona, has a taller footboard.  Let's change it out for the NO footboard bed to be sure that doesn't happen again.  It will be easy, yes?   It took me 45 minutes to get it in the house, and it's the LIGHTEST one.

Next ... clean up all the clothes and take THIS bed apart.  Getting the heavy mattresses off was the EASY part.  After three trips to the tool box in the garage, I finally got the right wrench (after trying six) to take the nuts off.  It took another two trips to find the right Allen wrench to remove the bolts holding the cross pieces.  And OH BOY ... this one weights a TON!

I got out my handy dandy furniture slide pads, but could barely lift the thing to get them under the posts.  I literally manhandled the headboard out the door using my knees to hold it upright while pulling with everything I had.  Good grief ... I thought this was a CHEAP bed!  Turns out it's solid wood.

Over an hour later I finally got the new headboard in place.  I really thought I could skip the vacuuming, but it truly was really bad.  Okay, out came the thing I hate most and I cleaned it up.

Getting this bed together was a lesson in mechanics.  Once again, out to the garage to find an Allen wrench the correct size.  I thought those hooks would just slide in, but NOOOOO!  I finally figured out those knobs could be unscrewed to give me more wiggle room. 

At long last the sideboards were on, but the footboard was the devil in disguise.  Finally, completely exhausted, hot and cranky, I got the thing together without losing even ONE finger.  One more trip to the garage to drag in the SECOND ottoman so if Cooper does fall off, he will have a cushy landing.  What I will do for my kids!!!

The bad part in all this is now I have nowhere to pile all those clothes!!  Guess I'll have to just hang them up.  In the end, it was all Cooper approved.

Now for the REALLY hard part.  This is my old bed that lives in the spare room, which I switched out so Miss Jessie could jump up when she was still alive.  Just the footboard of this one weighs the same as the other entire bed. 

My plan was to put this one in the garage ... maybe sell it ... and make this my BIGGER sewing room.  After all the work it took to move the first two .. I'm having second thoughts!!!

I celebrated with a Pepsi!!!  At least I feel better about Mr. Cooper not hitting the floor.  

Kitters was totally upset the entire time all that was going on.  She wanted nothing to do with being inside.  When it was all said and done, she STILL didn't want to come in, having happily parked herself on the patio chair. 

That didn't last long however ... as soon as the lights went out last night, she snuck in through the doggy door and jumped right up on the footboard of the bed.  She has NEVER done that before.  She never wanted to be anywhere NEAR the bed.  She then proceeded to lay at the foot of the bed for the next hour, keeping me wide awake with her purrs.  Ummmm this was not in the plan Kitters.  I don't need another body on my bed.  You can tell by the look in her eyes that she cares NOT what I think about anything!

The last hours of the evening, I tried another internet recipe so you don't have to.  This is a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls.  You put two rolls of dough in a pan with a little butter and garlic, then bake them as one loaf of bread.  

I had my doubts!  Not having a pan big enough, I used one roll and cut it in half.  I melted butter in the bottom and sprinkled in garlic powder.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

So yes, this is the easy way to have crescent rolls, BUT I would just butter the top next time.  I'm thinking you could even unroll it, pour on cinnamon sugar and roll it back up before baking.  These were quite tasty and much easier to prepare!!

That's it ... my entire day spent moving beds around.  And I still have one heavy one sitting in my hallway.  I haven't decided if I want to tackle moving the HUGE one, or just leave my sewing room where it is.  In any case, I have one to move to the garage.  

Decisions ... decisions!!!

PRIME RIB BABY!!!

 BRRRRRRR!!  So just WHAT is the opposite of Mother Natures hot flashes?   It's a very chilly 43 degrees.  None of us ... not Cooper, not Kitters nor myself wanted to go outside this morning.  

The moon is still shining brightly as it quickly falls behind the trees and disappears.  Lucky for me, it didn't have much effect on the Lodge dinner last night.

But first .... let's lay out in the sun and soak up a little WARM.  That didn't last long at all.

You guessed it ... Kitters followed me right out, plunked down here and harassed me the entire time.  Meow ... meow ... little pats on the chaise until she jumped right up in the middle of me.  She literally pestered me for 30 minutes before I gave up and went back inside.  It's okay though.  A little chilly breeze came up, which shortly turned into a blizzard.  It was downright COLD!!!

Just to pass the time, I did a little laundry before checking out the astronauts once again.  This looks like pretty tight quarters to me!  Hope those men don't snore too loud!!  

I must have had the hungry shakes when I took this blurry picture of lunch.  Yes, I'm trying to be GOOD, though the leftover chocolate cake is just SCREAMING at me constantly!!!

I finally donned my "garb" for the Elks Lodge Sheriff sponsored dinner.  Literally half the Sheriff's Department showed up to hang out, have a few beers and cook a fabulous dinner for us.  I mean what could be better than a bunch of good looking MEN cooking dinner for you?  The Sheriff, a very good member and friend of the lodge, is one of the best cooks in the country.

The Elks Lodge has a dinner and a raffle twice a month to raise money to pay our bills and donate to charities.  This table of goodies raised over $1500 in their raffle ... and this is just ONE night.  What can I say, Elks are VERY generous!

So here I am with my lone little glass of White Zin, served by the best bartender we have.  She is a sweetheart from Hawaii who has the best attitude of anyone I've met in my entire life.  This girl ... she always has a smile, so I always buy one drink so I can tip her BIGLY.  Yes, that's ice in my glass.  You know I'm a lightweight!!

Dinner was PRIME RIB, scalloped potatoes that were the best I've ever had (and they come from a BOX in our pantry), green beans smothered in brisket, bacon and tomatoes (that's a new one) and a roll, followed up by CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!  

This is not the entire meal ... this is my LEFTOVERS!  In case you were wondering, Thursday night meals are $20.00.  Become an Elk and you will get lots of CHEAP amazing meals.

The meeting afterwards was less than spectacular.  The mostly new officers had no idea what they were supposed to do.  The good part is the meeting lasted 20 minutes and we were OUT THE DOOR!!  YAY!

This is a short one today ... I'm off for a haircut at 8:00 in the morning.  Ugh ... I actually have to get myself ready WAY too early.  As you know, I don't leave the house before 10:00 on ANY day if I can help it!!!

But first ...... a little prime rib breakfast!!

HISTORY IN THE MAKING!

 Morning in California comes WAY too early.  I just don't understand how you can go to bed at 11:30 and get up at 4:00 and NOT get 8 hours of sleep!  It didn't help that overcast skies followed us all day long.  Mother Nature spit at us in the morning ... like HAHAHA ... it's not Spring YET!!

Unfortunately I had another accounting meeting at 9:30.  UGH ... that is WAY too early for me to be out and about.  A short 2 hour meeting turned into a 5 hour office reorganization.  I'm pretty sure that's not included in the BOOKKEEPING job description.  We ran out of printer ink, which resulted in a trip to the attic to rip the guts out of another printer that no longer worked.  

We ran out of printer PAPER, which required a trip to the store, file labels, staples, paper clips ... I mean if we needed it, we did NOT have it.  Some headway was made however, before I yelled UNCLE and went home.  My sweet Cooper awaiteth!!!

My timing was perfect.  The FEDEX guy knocked loudly on the door.  He needed my I.D.  Really?  To receive a small package I have to show my drivers license?  Not only that, but he had to SCAN it!  Yikes ... who is this from??  Ahhh my accountant.  Ok ... but then he needed a signature!  Good grief ... don't ask for my first born because I don't have one!  We had a good laugh over that one!!

That's when I heard the television.  This is history in the making.  Did anyone watch the lunar landing in 1969?  THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.  I remember that like it was yesterday, watching the entire time as our astronauts landed on the moon.  

Well here we go again ... almost ... and I watched every single minute of it.  Artemis 2 won't be landing this time around, but it will be making a trip around the moon to practice so to speak, the next lunar landing.  Can you just IMAGINE?

This stuff scares the heck out of me ... feeling the liftoff in your chest like nothing EVER ... the adrenaline going crazy ... I just cannot imagine anyone wanting to do this on purpose.

Three brave men and one woman ... Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christine Koch and Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen are on the trip of their lives.  Honestly, 12 feet high on top of my ladder is as far as I want to go.  I did jump off a 60' tower ... ONCE ... and I'm guessing I won't do it again.  BRAVE is all I can say ... these guys are BRAVE!!

I prayed the entire time that nothing would happen as it lifted off into the sky.  I was also glued to my television when the spaceship Challenger was launched in 1983.  

They will be cruising up to the moon, not such an easy task since it includes several major negotiations to get going the right direction, before going AROUND the moon and heading back to land south of me in the ocean outside of San Diego California.  They will be up there 10 days.  It kind of makes you wonder where the bathroom is, YES??

I breathed a big sigh of relief when what they call the launch vehicle broke away and the earth is revealed out the windows.  I cannot imagine their excitement ... or MY panic!!  Just looking at this give me the willies!!!

And so I wish them good luck.  I'll be keeping track of them every day.  Maybe, just maybe, I will get to see another lunar landing on the moon in my lifetime.  Maybe even a colonization ... if they can find enough oxygen!!

I'd rather be right here on earth with NO fire breathing dragon under my butt and lots of air to breathe, cuddling with my "kids".  

This one ... she's always in SO much trouble, in spite of her innocent looks!!!  I got chewed out in spades yesterday because I accidentally closed the bedroom door ... her entry into the house from the doggy door.  I won't translate all those meows and yowls!!

Tonight is yet another Elks dinner.  Though I used to look forward to these, this twice a month dinner/meeting thing is becoming a pain.  The only thing that keeps me going now is that I found a pair of gray Levis to wear instead of the gray fancy pants.  Hey ... they are the required GRAY color, so they can't complain.  They never said what FABRIC they had to be!!!

Another day, another steak dinner!!

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

 Good Morning RV friends from all over the planet!!  It's another BINGO FULL MOON.  What could be better than a gorgeous pink moon on Bingo night with April Fool's Day thrown in for good luck!!

Well April Fools, because OUR moon did not look one little bit like this!  It is however named after the pink flowers that bloom this time of year.

April Fools!!  None of MY flowers are pink.  They lean more to the RED side.  The roses were going great guns until .... APRIL FOOLS yet again ..... it rained most of the night.

Even the bottle brush are blooming, which made the bees happy until the big drops of water started bombing them from above.

This "whatever it is" ... help me out here Nurse Patty ... the name of which always escapes me, is so bright you really can't even see the petals of the flowers.

And so the day began, with me procrastinating about making an accounting stop.  This one is not my problem, so I chose to stand back.  APRIL FOOLS ... it's NOT MY JOB.

Besides, I really wanted to sneak in a nap before Bingo.  That didn't happen, so Cooper took one for me.

Kitters on the other hand, kept me awake all morning.  She just craves attention.  What can I do ... her pink nose and split tan/black chin cannot be denied.

And so in a flash ... it was time for APRIL FOOLS FULL MOON BINGO!  What could be better??

Lucky for me, everyone showed up to work.  Unlucky for me, my cashier is setting her own rules now.  That doesn't go over with the Bingo crowd.  You never EVER change the rules.  Out comes the pitchforks and flaming torches that will follow you around the room like Cooper going after treats!!

Our fire project came out quite nicely once painted and the new ceiling installed.  Only in the stairwells can I still smell just a tad bit of smoke.  Hey, it's better than the smell of skunk weed or even better, the No Shower Eau De OMG.  Not kidding ... that is no April Fools joke.

We weren't too crowded on this night ... about 130 players came to hang out.  It can get crazy running money to the back room to count and make into packets for the first four games.  I put out fires all along the way between the kitchen staff, the kitchen BOSS and the players.  It's the full moon I tell you!!

When I got frustrated, I just went and hid in the safe.  Yessiree ... a beautiful cool quiet cement wall hideaway.  It smells of Sees Candy and paper!  No money is kept in here.  When Sees donates boxes of soon-to-expire candy, it gets stored here for volunteers ... at least for volunteers who are let in on the secret!  If it gets too crazy, you will find me in here stuffing my mouth full!!

It was actually April Fools on us, because mostly the Peasants were pleasant, and only came out to fight twice when a newbie called BINGO too soon.  The numbers come up on four TV screens BEFORE they are actually CALLED.  You have to wait until the number comes out of the Callers mouth.  If you call early, the crowd will definitely tell you how WRONG you were!!!!

At long last it was time to close up.  I sat back and watched the cashier play with the infernal machine.  I truly am not sure exactly what she did, but she kept doing it wrong.  The machine kept locking up.  I just let it go because she knows best.  Did we balance?  I have no idea.  I've no doubt the KING will let me know today.  

Above are the remnants of last nights storm.  It's beautiful outside, the neighborhood smells wonderful, like fresh rain, and Bingo is over for another week.  It's a WIN WIN!!!

Here's hoping your April Fools Day is a GREAT one!  Maybe some Easter egg coloring will take place today, or better yet, a nice LONG nap!!