Yes I DID!!

 There are only good days when you get this old, but sometimes a few of them are better than others.  That was NOT the case today.  Oh it was still a GREAT day because I'm still kicking, and these sunflowers were the perfect way to kick it off.

Mr. Cooper and I went out for a morning walk.  I've been a little lax in that department.  So has he.  We didn't even get halfway around the block when he sat down and gave me THAT LOOK.  He was NOT going any further.  It was a very slow walk until we rounded the last corner and he saw home.  It was a race to the finish line.

I had plans on this day.  Head to the grocery store for some kind of appetizer for the Steak At The Lake event.  Truly, I'm not sure why so many go to this.  You have to pay $20 for a steak, that you have to barbecue YOURSELF.  They supply some kind of salad and a roll.  

Our happy little group of six is setting up an easy up with table and chairs.  Balancing a steak in your lap is a dangerous game.   SO ... that meant I had to bring an appetizer.  I'm not good at that sort of thing and never have a clue what to take.  

Anyone remember those DIPS at Quartzsite?  Yup I still have three in the drawer.  DIP it is, but I had nothing TO dip.  I'll kill three birds with one stone.  First off, get fuel.

I knew better ... their pay-at-the-pump things never work.  You have to walk inside and wait in line.  I did not.  Instead, I drove to a Shell station where their stuff works, even if it is more expensive.  Leaving there, it was a hundred feet to the car wash entrance.  

If it were not for the two cars that pulled out in front of me, I MIGHT have made the entrance.  Instead I had to drive three blocks to find a place to turn around.  I was getting that grumbly feeling.  Just as I pulled into the car wash, the girl who takes your debit card and pushes all the buttons, looked straight at me and walked away.  

I've never used their push button thingy, which of course didn't want to work for me.  All the while, the girl at the entrance to the wash is waving at me.  I said a few bad words as three other cars went ahead while I tried to get the pay machine to function.

Patience Nancy ..... patience!!  With the car now washed, I headed off to the grocery store.  The recipe said 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup mayo.  No problem, but I got sidetracked by this dragon roll stuff.  I like a little bit on occasion, but I should have known better than to buy it at a grocery store.  

I skipped the one that said DRAGON on it and went for the CRUNCHY.  Once home, I discovered the shrimp was less than 1/4" square, surrounded by a tasteless something that resembled dough.  Really?  There wasn't even one whole shrimp in the entire thing, and the crunchy bits were soft as wet cereal.  It just wasn't my day.

Oh but wait .... I bought 16 ounces of sour cream for TWO dips.  Come to find out, the second one required 16 ounces.  Well RATS!!  I can't win.  So now I have one Hickory Bacon dip and HALF a recipe of Onion dip.  Oh well ... it is what it is!!

I think all that frustration brought about this.  Here is the BEFORE picture.  What bothered me the most was its length.  It's too tall.  So yes, YES I DID.  I took it all apart.

It took me four hours to remove the sides, add that strip of white and stitch it back up again.  It's still not my favorite, but it will be more useful being wider.  Truth be told, I'm not thrilled with this pattern at all, but again, it is what it is.

And so this morning I'll get out every bowl and ice chest I have, load up and head out to the Lake for some steak.  It should be broiling hot at the expected 101 degrees.  The good news is I'm fairly psychic ... I see myself coming home early to beat the heat.

Stitching and Puppies

 Oh boy oh boy ... it's going to be a scorcher today.  How do I know?  We didn't even get below 72 degrees last night!  It's a hot potato outside, even for Kitters.  This is now her daytime sleeping spot, though she does spend some time sleeping among the roses on the damp soil.  She's a tough old bird ... the heat doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

She and Cooper went nose to nose yesterday .... a mistake on my part.  I yelled STAY and they both stood still.  That's a miracle!!  There was a little nose pushing, but as long as Kitters didn't run, they were fine, if only for six seconds.  Maybe they will actually get along at some point ... but not today.

I spent a few minutes in the garden.  Notice no tomatoes?  I'm thinking it's because I forgot to fertilize them, so I did ... hoping a few more will appear.  The Early Girls?  Still lots of tomatoes, but nothing turning color.  It's okay though, because my friends are keeping me loaded up.  

And THEN ... I went straight to work.  I quilted the bottom of this one where I removed all that stitching.  It did great until the end when its mind went completely blank.  Luckily I was able to reset everything and finish up the last eight inches.  YAY ... it's done.  You can still see some pinholes at the bottom ... all those internet ideas didn't work ... but I think it will be okay.

On the other hand, I HATE this one.  It offends my sense of design.  Unfortunately, I already cut the backing for it, but I'm considering tearing the sides off and adding one more border.  It would look SO much better.  

On to the third one.  Yessiree ... I was on a mission to get these done.  This one came out okay, except the lettering doesn't show up.  The gal apparently didn't write down the color correctly.  It will do since it looks better in person.  On the other hand, I had a difficult time with the outside border.  This was one that was dropped on me, with very little fabric.  What was there, was cut so badly that the stars went downhill and disappeared into the seams.  

Basically, I cut and pasted many pieces to end up with this.  Not perfect but a whole lot better than it was.

I decided I'm not going through the stress of quilting the last two.  I'm taking them to the quilt shop.  It's worth the $40 each to have them quilted for me.  

Since I'm really terrible at sitting still, I finished this wreath after my dinner of leftover Panda Express.  Gosh I love that stuff!!  This actually looks better in person and the big bow stands out a little more than in the picture.  Pretty soon I'll have this stuff hanging from the ceiling for lack of room.  Maybe I'll donate it to the Elks Raffle.

Just for giggles, here's the latest and greatest new PUPPY to keep you company.  Cute, yes?  It's robotic, moves around and barks.  Buyer beware however.  It doesn't look one bit like this picture, nor does it move like advertised.  It barely turns in a circle, and barks with a SQUEAK (not a bark), so annoyingly that people are returning them in droves.

It also barks incessantly ... it doesn't shut up.  Apparently it doesn't even look like this.  This is a real puppy ... NOT the robotic one you will receive. So much for truth in advertising.  And so my hopes of a travel pal that doesn't mind the heat nor lack of food, are dashed once again.

Today I'm looking for an appetizer to take to Steak At The Lake ... our annual Elks picnic at our little lake park.  It's the only time of year you can go there safely due to the number of men in our group who carry.

When I was in High School, we went there often.  You know, tanning with baby oil and iodine?  I actually used real suntan lotion, but most used the turn-you-orange concoction.  I admit, one time I got a terrible sunburn when I fell asleep.  That ended my suntanning days.  

This time we're taking a huge easy up tent.  Us old folks, we got smarter over the years!!!

TWO TOO LONG DAYS

GOOD MORNING AMERICA!!  We have been enjoying our almost decent summer here for a couple of months now.  As of today however, that is ending.  We are looking at very high 90's for the rest of the week.  That means two things ... either we stay inside and eat ice cream, or we go shopping.  I vote for BOTH!

This should have been me yesterday, or at least I had HOPED it would me be.  Alas ... I was the Energizer Bunny, but with the off brand batteries.   

I started out at the lodge by 8:30, counting the three cash boxes of money from Bingo.  Lucky for me, instead of doing it by hand, the Lodge Accountant (I love this gal) was there to do it for me.  She has one of those fancy dancy money counting machines.  

It can even tell if in that huge stack of bills, you have a bad one.  It looks good, right?  You can even tell someone tried a marker on it to the left.  Makes you think it's okay, yes?  Ummm that would be a NO.  If you actually read the big letters on the right, which absolutely NO ONE did, it says Motion Picture Money.  

Here's what they did ... took a REAL $20, but off the left hand side with the strip, then taped it to the fake money.  Makes it look VERY good.  They took that section off the FAKE money and taped it to the REAL money.  Voila!!  Not one, but TWO twenty dollar bills.  Double your money in a flash.  

I have no doubt they will try to run this on us again next week, so I'll tell everyone to keep an eye out and grab the person before calling the Po-Po.

That whole money counting in the office took up WAY too much time.  I quickly grabbed some Shrimp Feed tickets for the Chairman of that gig and rushed out the door.  

I was heading up north to pick up the last two Veteran quilt pieces.  Once these are complete, I'll be done for the year.  I'm not sure this vocation will continue.  Turns out it's a lot more work than I thought, having to find an embroidery person and make 12 quilts.

Then came the good part!  I stopped in at Hobby Lobby.  Okay, I'm never going to this store again.  I got a little carried away with the sale on ribbon.  It actually takes three of these to make one big bow, so there's that.  

Home again, home again, I completely forgot I was supposed to hit up the accounting job.  By this time I was WAY too tired and hungry to do anything that required mental capacity.  I struggled with yet another huge problem with a computer program.  I finally screamed UNCLE and came home frustrated and exhausted.

I was met at the door by guess who!  This is about 15" from the back door.  She really is a sweet Kitters, and is now very quiet and still when I let the D O G out.  She wasn't too thrilled with the lawn mowers and loud blower noises, but she never went too far.  She knows on which side her bread is buttered!

I finally gave up the ghost and hit up Panda Express.  I needed lots of carbs and a huge bottle of water.  Note to self ... don't do that accounting work when you are starving.  The good part ... this is three meals for me.

I was able to get a little bit accomplished, but still have no idea how to solve that big accounting problem.  I am not going to enter hundreds of pages of data.  The tax accountants will just have to figure that out for themselves.

I soothed my worn out brain with a little ice cream.  Nothing makes me feel better, though I admit the taste of these has gone a little south.  What can I say ... they were on sale!!

I keep telling myself I'm just going to rest up today, but I know that's not true.  I'll be in there finishing up those quilt tops, making ribbons for the wreaths and tending the garden in no time.  

At least the garden part is getting easier ... the tomatoes are coming to an end.  The pickle cucumbers died a horrible death from whatever that black stuff is that is sucking them dry.  The zucchini has hit a peak and is producing like crazy.  OH BOY ... more zucchini!!!  I think I'll just stick with the ice cream!

A Record Setting Night!

 Yawn, YAWN and YAWWNNNN again.  Oh my gosh I'm exhausted.  It was the first night of Bingo without a King in the Castle.  I tried my best to get some rest at the beginning of the day, but that didn't work out according to plan.

I really wasn't worried, I just couldn't slip in a nap, no matter how hard I tried.  I was off to the lodge at 1:00 after feeding Kitters.  She's a sneaky one that girl.  She has made her way INTO the patio now to sleep on my Arizona chair.  If not there, she's on the OTHER side, sleeping on the table.  If I don't see her, I just haven't looked close enough, because she hides in plain sight.  

She is a quick learner too ... if Cooper comes out with me, she remains still as a statue, and just like a puppy ... STAYS if I tell her too.  Movement brings on the cavalry and she knows it.  

At any rate, I was off.  I checked the previous weeks Bingo tallies, signed checks and otherwise did Lodge stuff.  Soon it was time to head downstairs to find my Fairy Godmother hard at work.  More learning occurred when the microphone system was not turned on.  There is always something that taxes the brain.

In a flash, it was time to pull the boxes of game cards.  First box pays $500, along with a strip game of the same amount.  They were a little slow to sell, but as soon as they get down to a few cards, I bring out another box.  It's all in the timing.  This one pays $1199.00.

When the third box came out, I thought we were in the clear .... but NO ..... the peasants were on a roll ... a bankroll.  It must have been payday, because in two short hours we sold not just the usual eight boxes of games, not even NINE boxes.  WE SOLD TEN BOXES OF PULL TAB GAMES.  I think that's a record!  I almost went for ELEVEN, but decided against it.  That would mean we had to PLAY all those games, and stay WAY too late.

That meant the callers had to call an addition ten games of bingo.  The peasants were so happy there wasn't even ONE flaming torch, all night long.  How could that be?  Apparently money makes them happy campers!!

I instituted a few controls in the back room to keep them more on target with the cash box, which made THAT side happy too!  Everyone balanced, except for the one $20.00 bill of funny money they accepted.  Yup ... a counterfeit bill.  Pretty easily detectable, but she accepted it anyway.  Now she knows.

At the end of the night, I checked my watch.  I walked 4.79 miles.  YIKES!!  No wonder I'm tired!!  We closed everything up and headed out the door.  I didn't even get to try my alarm setting skills.  The head bartender was still upstairs cleaning, so out we went.  

I sent a text message to the King ..... FYI, I sold TEN games.  Good job he said ... I'll take another week's vacation.  I told him to enjoy his stay in Germany and have another beer for me.  I can't he said, I have had too many for myself.  

And so ended another night of Bingo.  Hopefully next week will be a little less stressful since we are never as busy on the second week of the month.  

Here's the BAD news for the day.  This is my LAST can of Orange Cafe coffee.  I've been drinking this stuff since 1985.  Forty years of good coffee, gone just like that.  Life will never be the same.  Oh I have a recipe to make my own, thanks to Frances, but that's when I found out just how much sugar is in this little can.  No wonder I'm hooked!!

So I will savor every drop for the next few days.  Hopefully that sugar will help me recover quickly, because today I pick up the last of the Veteran quilt embroidery and run to Hobby Lobby for more wreath materials to make another one for the auction before hopefully crashing on the couch.

Just another day at the Castle!!

YIKES ... ALIENS!!!

 It was a normal day, the sun shining brightly in the sky, the dogs barking, the cat meowing, nothing that would raise your hackles ..... until I saw THIS!!

ALIENS ... for real, these things are ALIENS!!  I hate them ... always have and always will.  They are squishy, sticky, and their feet cling to you so tight they won't let go when you try to!  Masters of disguise, the only way you know they are there is because half of your tomato plant disappeared.  

No kidding ... one entire half inch STEM is now gone.  And so is HE.  I ran inside, got my gloves and grabbed him very unceremoniously.  The rock that fell on him was a BIG ONE.  I didn't see evidence of any more, but I'm sure I will.  EWWWWW!!!!!

After that horrible interaction, Mr. Cooper and I took off for the V  E  T  S  office.  You have to spell it since it is a bad word around here.  I can't believe it's been two months and his allergy shot has worn off.  

I was lucky to get in, only because I've been going to this Vet since 1985 when they first opened.  Yessiree ... 40 years at the same place.  Twenty five of those years with the same Vet.  He didn't have time to see me on this day, but he squeezed us in anyway.  

His decision to forgo the shot and try a new pill was a good one.  It's a miracle that after only one pill, Cooper isn't chewing on his legs, his feet and anything he can reach.  That a relief for both of us.  The best part, he only needs one when I see him scratching or chewing since it has lasting effects.  

The appointment took so long that I missed the meeting at the Lodge regarding the Shrimp Feed.  Oh DARN!!  That gave me more time to grab my glue gun and finish up this wreath.  No bow.  I'm torn between putting this on MY door and donating it to the Shrimp Feed auction.  They could use something original instead of bottles of booze.

Dinner was once again that amazing garlic bread made into a delicious grilled cheese, this time adding in tomato ... fresh from the garden.  Oh my Great Aunt Suzie ... it was Delicious with a capital D!!  I could eat this every day.  Not especially good for my diet though .....

That brought on another round of creativity.  I'm not sure where all this energy or these ideas came from.  I mean really, I haven't done ANY of this stuff in at least 25 years!!  Back in the day we were constantly making things like this to decorate the house.  

The problem with all this is that NOW I have to clean out the big bedroom closet, since I have absolutely NO room to store ANYTHING.  Beyond that, it's the garage ... and boy oh boy, I really do NOT want to go THERE!!

This one definitely needs a bow, but the one I made blends in too much.  I'm on the hunt for a good color, which of course means another trip to ... you guessed it ... Hobby Lobby.  Oh DARN again ... because tomorrow I pick up the last two embroidery quilt pieces ... which live just down the street from the big store.  

Anyhoo .. just to celebrate finishing that wreath and Cooper's not licking and chewing, I ate the first ice cream I've had in at least a month, if not more.  Even Cooper got a little bite.  Funny though ... it didn't taste NEAR as good as I expected it too.  That's probably a good thing!

And so it's another day ... and another TUESDAY ... and the KING is out of town.  What's that saying ... WHILE THE CAT'S AWAY, THE MICE WILL PLAY?  

Probably not THIS one however, since after staying so late at Bingo, I will have to go back early in the morning to count the cash and go to the bank.  I think that's going to require a LOT of coffee!!!  Wish me luck please, that the peasants don't tear me limb from limb!

Crafting Sunday

 What a lovely morning ... cool, calm, sprinklers turning on and off around the house hitting the wall in the living room .... well that's not good!!  Barefoot and not appropriately dressed, I went outside to adjust it, hoping and praying no cars drove by.  Luckily I came back unseen.

But then I saw what I completely, accidentally, not really, forgot to show you yesterday.  Oh look ... a wreath from Hobby Lobby!!  This one came home because it was on sale for $30.00 because the one I wanted was $100, on sale for $60.  I see it needs to be hung up a little higher.

By the way, this is where the Bingo Castle idea came from.  My friends call my house the Castle because of the front door.  I have to admit it's beautiful, but a true hassle because it always needs to be varnished.  You can't tell, but it desperately needs to be done now, and I don't know what to use or how to do it.  Are there any woodworkers out there that might have a clue?

Breakfast at the Almond Tree wasn't all that spectacular, but that ham and cheese omelet with hash browns went down pretty well.  After that, I went over to my friend's house because she was trying to replicate this shirt.  She bought the transfers, but was afraid to try it out.  

After about an hour, we succeeded, but I'm not sure just how long those sparkles are going to stick.  AND it's hard to know just how hot to make the iron without melting the shirt.  It was a success, but took forever.  If you're going to make these shirts to sell, you need a better way to make them.

On the way home, I scored BIG!  Bacon for $5.00 a package, regularly $8.99.  Yes of course I went through looking at the back of every single one.  I go for the ones with the most meat and the least fat.  Then I found butter on sale ... $3.00 a pound (regularly $5.99).  It was dated so far out that this is a major score.  I'm so happy to see prices going down!

Back home, I instantly feel asleep on the couch watching rodeo.  It was the omelet, I'm sure.  When I woke up, my television was black.  Uh oh ... now what!  

No satellite signal due to inclement weather conditions.  I looked outside.  There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brightly.  Ugh ... now I have to call THAT company and listen to their sales speech for three minutes before I actually get a chance to push a button.

Technician ... TechNICIAN .... TECHNICIAN!!!  I was screaming into the phone talking to a recording.  At last a real human answered who ALMOST spoke English.  Are you REALLY a technician I asked, because I don't want to talk to you if you are NOT.  Yes he said, laughing.

Aha ... you know my frustration!  Yes he said and I guarantee I can help you!  Okay ... so we went through the rigamarole and just like THAT ... it worked.  Awesome I said ... you didn't lie when you said you knew what you were doing.  We both laughed!!  Best conversation I've ever had with an on-line repair guy.

By then it was time for dinner.  Oh yeah .. BTAT's.  Bacon, tomato, avocado tacos!!

Dessert was less than spectacular.  It looked like someone threw up.  It's actually the rest of that bag-o-peaches sliced up, smothered in butter and cinnamon, French Vanilla cake mix (whoever recommended that is a genius!), and MORE butter.  

What was missing, was peach JUICE, like what comes in a can-o-peaches.  It needed much more liquid.

Obviously, I ate it anyway.  I don't care what it looks like if it tastes good ... and boy did it taste GOOD!!  Especially when smothered with whipped cream!!  Sadly, I am now back in diet mode.

While Cooper slept, I worked on this wreath a little more.  The plan was for a nice big bow somewhere, but I'm liking it as is and think I should leave well enough alone.  Time to bring out the glue gun.

I would SO like to sit home and vegetate today on the couch, but Mr. Cooper has an appointment for an allergy shot, which is supposed to be followed up by a Shrimp Feed meeting at the lodge.  I'm hoping to bypass that one.  The faster I go, the behinder I get, as my Grandmother used to say, and I've got a garden to tend to!!

Girlfriends and Hobby Lobby

 I'm greeted every morning with a meow.  Apparently Kitters has adopted me, instead of the other way around.  The good news is she has put on a little bit of weight.  Her hip bones aren't showing near as much.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for critters ... all kinds of them.

It's a good thing I didn't plant more than one each of squash.  I've come to the conclusion it is not my FAV.  I'm thinking next year this will be something else.

Maybe my swimming pool filled with tomatoes.  If nothing else, I'll have good eyesight ... oh wait, that's carrots.  I've no idea what the specific results of eating too many tomatoes might be, but I hope it's not bad, like turning red or something.

Though I thought I would be resting all day after Cyndae left, it was not to be.  Who can resist LET'S GO TO HOBBY LOBBY!  They recently built the biggest one ever just North of me, so off we went.  Never EVER go shopping with your girlfriend in a store like this.  They are COMPLICIT!!

You come home with stuff like this.  A pumpkin drying mat, two battery candles that smell WONDERFUL and lots of mesh for ribbon wreaths.  The amount of stock they have is crazy, probably due to the tariffs.  But then the tariffs worked and now almost everything in the store is 50% off, with lots of 75% off sales.  The coffee mugs were $5.00 each.  If you are going to have Thanksgiving company, you can decorate your house in the cutest pumpkin decor EVER!

And then you end up with this.  Stuff scattered all over your kitchen counter, making it impossible to fix dinner.

And THEN, instead of working on the quilt, you start putting a wreath together.  Does this look familiar Patty Chance?  If I can only remember where I put my glue gun, I'll finish it up in a day or two ... when I have time .... hopefully before Christmas!

That's when I got THE TEXT.  Oh yeah ... a Fraud Alert.  Sure enough, that small purchase I made at Etsy last year?  They sent through a charge for $.00.  That's a test.  If it goes through, and you do not report it since it's for NO dollars, they will soon run through charges for hundreds of dollars.  

Not on my watch, buddy.  The bad news is I reported it and had to cancel the card.  This is the one I use for four automatic payments.  Hopefully the new card comes in before the payments do and I'm able to get them all changed.  What a pain in the butt!!  NO MORE ETSY PURCHASES, from any of them.  

Next up ... getting late into the night ... I remembered my flag.  It keeps getting turned around and around and won't fly right.  I drug out the big ladder, crawled up and straightened it, tightening everything down.  I was happy to see the solar light still coming on!!

This is a picture twenty minutes later when I went BACK outside.  Yup ... it's getting all wrapped up again.  I've no idea how to fix it.  I suppose I should find someone to put a regular flag pole in my yard.

I spent the last few hours trying to steam and iron the holes from the quilt.  Yessiree ... I took out all those stitches ... about a million of them ... just to see how it would end up.  If this works and looks okay, I will give it to the recipient.  If not, it can still be a doggy blanket.  If nothing else, it provides some experience in case it happens to me again.  Truly, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I doubt it will get done today.  I'm having breakfast with friends before I crash on the couch.  A little more shuteye will be required before I have to do all those quilt computer calculations.

I'm signing off ... dreaming of those gorgeous wreaths at Hobby Lobby ... the ones that were 50% off, and the fall leaf swags ... and the cute fall blankets ... and ........ OH JUST STOP IT!!!

SHRIMP ... It's What's For Dinner!!

Happy Saturday!!  It's a breezy 63 degrees this morning, heading on up to 93 this afternoon.  Yup it's hot, but not unbearable.  Mr. Cooper, as usual, is sleeping away while I try to catch up on phone messages with blurry eyes. 

I tried to be quiet at 5 am since I had company, but that's hard to do when you have an early morning appointment at the lodge.  I like it at that time of the day ... it's dark and quiet.  It's when the ghost comes out to roam in the attic room of the lodge.  One of these days I'll look into that story.  All I know now is that the gentleman killed himself up there.  Ooohhhhh creepy .... and sad.

Meeting over and I was back home to find this.  No satellite connection it said ... due to severe weather.  Excuse me?  It's sunny and gorgeous outside with not a cloud in the sky.  What's up with this?  I don't work well when it's TOO quiet, so I frantically reset it three times before it finally came back on.  Thank goodness no phone call to India was required!!

I admit, I was remiss in the picture taking department all day long.  I took this one this morning.  Company had a haircut appointment, so I sat alone on the couch taking out I'm sure what amounted to one million stitches from the bottom of this quilt.  10-1/2 inches worth, across the entire bottom.  

I'm pretty sure it won't get re-quilted any time soon, since I'm just too tired from this week's STUFF.  How was I ever able to survive actually working every day of the week before I retired!!

In a flash, it was time to head BACK to the lodge for Friday Night Dinner.  I rarely do these, mostly because I'm too cheap.  The food is always delicious, and the company really great, so this time I invited three friends to be my guests.  

In a flash that turned into FIVE guests.  Yikes ... I wasn't exactly prepared for THAT!   Nor was I prepared to meet so many people I knew.  I'm rather shy when it comes to meeting folks.  It was so surprising for me to know so many who came to our table to say hello.  I have to say there are a lot of REALLY nice Elks in the world, and a lot of them live right here in River City.

Dinner was amazing.  This is not it.  Well sort of ... we had shrimp scampi, but ours had the shells on for more flavor.  The guy that cooks all the fish and seafood in the kitchen is a master at it.  You would never guess in a million years that he did that ... and did it so well.  I went back to the kitchen and gave him six pats on the pack.  He truly doesn't even know how good a cook he is.

I snagged the bill this time.  Here's the breakdown.  A HUGE salad bar with both regular and Caesar salad, homemade vegetable beef soup, homemade clam chowder (some of the best I've ever eaten), garlic bread, shrimp scampi, baked potato and corn, followed up with warm peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.  All that for $25.00 each.  Not bad at all!!!

Then came the moment ... one of the unexpected guests got a ride to the lodge, but not a ride home.  You should probably think about that ahead of time.  So you know who finally had to offer the ride ... moi!  Where do you live?  Oh it's not far ... I live over by the fairgrounds.

Well after we were AT the fairgrounds, she mentioned she was going to her DAD's house.  Well that was WAY far away from the fairgrounds ... WAY FAR!!  Many minutes out of our way later, we arrived at Dad's house and dropped her off while I tried to figure out how to get back to the highway!  Maybe next time I'll be more reticent to offer.

I swear to you, today is going to be REST day!  Maybe ... okay, probably not, but at the very least I'll get in a snooze with Mr. Cooper on the couch.

Another Month Disappears

 Well bless my soul, yet another month just vanished into thin air.  I just don't understand how that is happening in the snap of a finger.  Our weather has ratcheted up another notch for the next week, which means all of the campsites on the coast have been taken by people trying to escape the heat.  A few returned due to the tsunami warnings.

For those who were wondering, California is still here.  Sadly, I do NOT have oceanfront property.  The 8.8 earthquake has now officially been recorded as 8.3, causing a tsunami that hit Crescent City California.  Not as big as previous ones, but the high coastline there funnels water right into the harbor and the city.  

The harbor is known for its crab fishermen and their big boats.  Every time there was a tsunami warning or a big storm, my ex-father-in-law would take his big crab boat out a mile or two and ride out the storm.  Boy that would NOT be my idea of fun, but it worked every time.  The fishermen rarely lost a boat.  On the other hand, those smaller boats left at the dock are always thrashed about, causing lots of damage, not to mention sunken boats.  This time was no exception.  Otherwise, we are all still here, me with NO ocean waves in my back yard.

Kitters has moved in instead.  She usually greets me from the table top with a quiet mew every time I open the door. 

The morning went by very fast as I was back in the accounting business for the first two hours.  I'm hoping to consolidate ten accounts into four, making my life much easier.  The next hour went by nicely as I received a few RV camper items from Amazon.  This is supposed to be for things like socks ... but these two pair of shoes fit just perfectly.  The hangars were very inexpensive and may not last long, but there are two, so I have a spare.  If these die, I'll just sew up a couple myself, using these as a pattern.

With that done, I headed out to KILL KILL KILL the bugs I've been seeing scrambling around the outside.  I am not a fan of creepy crawlers.  Truly, I rarely have them, but this year is different.  Too bad that new huge bottle of Home Defense would not spray, no matter what I did.  

I took everything apart and put it back together.  The batteries are working just fine, but no matter what I did, I could not get anything to come out.  Anyone have any suggestions?  At this point, my only resolution would be to buy another jug, use it up and refill with this one.  An expensive proposition.

Company arrived late afternoon, and as usual, I had nothing in the fridge for dinner.  We sauntered on over to Applebees a few miles away.  Honestly, their food has gone downhill a lot here, maybe it's the Chef, I don't know.  

We walked into an ice box.  Their PG&E bill must be a whopping one!  Do peopler order and eat more when they are cold?  No kidding, I was shivering in no time.  We both ordered our usual salmon and broccoli.  I have to say, it was cooked MUCH better this time.  I threw caution and my diet out the window and had mashed potatoes.  YUM!! 

That was it ... a very quick day leading up to an employee meeting at the lodge early this morning, thus the short blog.  If there is a meeting between a male employee and a female employee, another female has to be present.  Of course I'm the only one presently in town.  RIGHT!!!!  

After that, we'll do some Dollar Tree shopping before heading back for Friday Night Dinner.  That garlic shrimp is screaming my name.  It's diet food, right????