FINDING YOUR SPOT

 Yup I'm coughing up a storm, not to mention my waterfall nose.  Nice way to start a blog, yes?  I tried all day to find my spot ... where I could watch football and still breathe.  Sadly, the games were not that interesting and both of my teams lost.  C'est la vie!

Cooper always finds his spot ... at the other end of the couch from me.  Morning is sleep catch-up time, and I will be partaking once the heavy morning cough relinquishes.  

Kitters on the other hand, just could not get comfortable.  She came racing in through the door, I'm sure because it was so cold outside.  If she gets within three feet of you, she begins the purr .. meow .. purr routine.  That's so you will pet her constantly.  Certainly she is a needy little girl.

She started out here after I removed the blanket.  She's weird.  She does not like to step on or sleep on anything soft.  

In no time, she moved to here, closer to me.

Still looking for her spot, she moved up here.

Fifteen minutes later, she moved here.  I guess this was it ... the most comfortable spot in the living room.  Yes all those papers landed on the floor.  Every once in awhile she would take off and disappear.  I would search and search, but not be able to find her.  

I would finally shake a tad bit of kitty food in a cup, and she would come running.  This happened several times and I never did find out where she was hiding.  The good news is she left Jonathan alone.  On the other hand, she went out a few times so I didn't have to keep an eye out, being sick and all.

Dinnertime came and she ran outside to her nighttime box.  She had her eye on something that I could not see.  Suddenly she turned around with a big lizard in her mouth.  NOOOOOO ... I like lizards ... they eat flies.  Not to mention they are not good for kitties.

Twenty minutes later I came back out to find she had thrown up everything on her outside day bed.  Good grief.  Oh the fun of critters!  I'm sure that was a test.

The only other thing the entire day was these.  Aren't they cute?  Poseable skeletons that I plan to hang on my front door, like they are climbing inside.  

I got pretty tired of sitting on the couch, so I drug out my crock pot and threw in a pork loin with WAY too many chilis.  Ooooweee it came out HOT!  Back to there couch I went, exhausted.

Other than that, I have nothing in the fridge for food, so I quickly whipped up a quiche.  Here's breakfast, lunch and dinner for today.  

And so there will be no trip to the Vet for Kitters shots and no bingo for this girl.  You can find me on the couch (MY SPOT), coughing up a storm.  

ROAD BIKES AND PURRS

 

GOOD DAY this morning to everyone who's hanging out with me for a few minutes.  It's much appreciated and keeps me going when I'm housebound.  Why is that you ask?  Because yes ... I'm sick once again.  I'm sure it's a present from Bingo.  Those folks cough and sneeze in your face all the time without covering their mouths.  If I hear something, I run, but apparently this time I did't fun fast enough.

No sore throat, no fever ... just another stuffed up nose, soon to be coughing, cold.  It won't keep me down long ... in fact, for me, exercising makes it better faster.

I was looking back at early pictures of Kitters.  In this one she looks pretty good, but she weighed barely 3 pounds and was skinny as a rail.  Now she's up to 11 pounds and counting.  Big difference, yes?

Here's another purr fest.  This kitty ... the second you get near to her, she purrs.  If you pick her up, she purrs the entire time.  What a shame she was left to her own devices, though she has caught a gopher and a couple of lizards.  She comes in every morning, checks out the house, tries to get in cupboards and jumps up on everything.  She sure acts like she was a house kitty.

Not much exciting happened yesterday.  It started out on the couch until it was time to get my bike.  This was part of my running, swimming, biking obsession.  Triathlons as it were.  I was great at biking, mostly because this bike was just about the best you could buy back then.  It's light as a feather and fast as the wind.  

At 55 years of age, I was horrible at swimming.  When you're always the last one out of the pool, you have to be good at biking and running.  Therefore, my triathlon career lasted about six months.  I never did it to win ... I just did it to see if I could.  The bike has been living in my house ever since, though back in the day she got lots of use just for the exercise.  I finally took her out to get the tires replaced and everything cleaned and greased.  Amazingly, the tires were still good.  They used to make things to last.  

Yes ... yes I did ... at 70+ years of age ... go out back on my driveway and get on for a ride around the block.  My balance isn't what it used to be, but I rode her ... all of 100 feet.  In case you didn't know, riders wear padded shorts, which are not only for the men, but for women too.  I didn't on this quick little foray ... and boy was I sorry.  If I'm going to get back to riding, I need the proper "wearage" which of course are all too small now.   I admit, I love this bike.

Back in the house walking a little funny, I crashed on the couch for two hours.  SO unlike me.  The cold has ahold, but only by its fingertips.  

So, in order to "get better" I whipped up a little peach cobbler, the same way the lodge makes it.  One big can of sliced peaches with about half the juice, poured in a cake pan.  Sprinkle with a little brown sugar and cinnamon.  Then cover in French Vanilla Cake mix.  I used only half the bag since I don't want to be eating this for three weeks.  MORE cinnamon ... lots in fact ... and cover with slices of butter.  Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes.

It really needed nuts, but I was too lazy.

With whipped cream of course.  It's much better with ice cream, but I didn't have any.  It's crazy how good this turns out, though my Mom's recipe is actually better.

I don't know what happened after that.  Well actually, I do.  I have a bike rack that goes in the bed of my pickup.  I thought to put it back in (it stays all the time and is not in the way) but needed to find the parts and pieces.  This piece clamps under the top side rail of the bed, one on each side.  The rod goes across the bed and is bolted to this.  

The problem?  I can only find ONE SIDE.  What the heck?  I know they were both on the shelf, but I couldn't find it.  I went out three times, looking in, around and under everything.  

If I got rid of some of this junk, I'd be ahead of the game and maybe find it.  I drug all this stuff out ... it's going away for lack of use, and went through every box and cupboard out there.  Nothing ... I found nothing.  How frustrating.

Literally three hours later, I was still moving stuff around.  All those boxes on the bottom right need to be shredded.  They want $300 to do it ... so I've been stacking them up.  I moved a lot of things, with only one disaster ... the breaking of two antique mixing bowls that hit the floor.  At least I can walk around a bit better.  

I never did find the part ... and of course they don't make them like that any more.  A new bike rack will be $350.00, so that's not happening.  If anyone knows what that piece is called or where I might find something ... anything that will clamp to the side wall of the truck bed, and is flat on top with holes for bolts, please let me know.  I was on the internet for another hour before finally giving up.  

I'll be back on the couch trying to heal up once again.  At least today the head pain and congestion is almost gone.  See ... it's that garage work that made me feel better.  But then again, the cough has begun.  

Never Let Your Guard Down

Okay, who said it was all right to let the Kitty Kitty INSIDE?  WAS IT YOU?  Yup ... here we are, staring at Jonathan.  I let that continue for 3 seconds before I walked in and rather loudly stamped my foot right behind her.  She ran like a scared rabbit.   

Thirty seconds later, here we are, trying to make up for that transgression.  Curiosity ... a cat's best (and maybe worst) trait.  She disappears somewhere in the house for thirty minutes, then appears two rooms over.  I think she's a ghost that can move from room to room without being seen.

Except for when she's in your face.  She absolutely LOVES attention.  I've known lots of cats in my many years, but none like this one.  There's a mauw and then the purrs begin.

Turn up your sound, although not too high ... this kid will purr the entire time you are petting her, and she LOVES to be petted and scratched.  I've never seen a wild kitty quite this friendly.

Though I had plans to drive 90 minutes away to a quilt store ... I can't believe I'm saying this ... I didn't go.  I think I'm in a rerun of that last cold I had.  Runny nose, stuffy head ... all the good stuff.  

It was a nice surprise when FedEx pulled up with this!  The latest and greatest Roomba that guarantees it won't run over anything on the floor.  I'm not so sure about that.

It took quite some time to get it connected to my phone, and I still don't know if it's going to work on my WiFi.  Thankfully there is no construction involved.  Take it out of the box and plug it in.

Once it finally decided to MAP the house, off it went.  At least it didn't get stuck anywhere.  It's amazing that it even mapped the rooms where the doors were closed, though it thinks my laundry room is a bathroom.  This way you can tell it to vacuum just one room.  I haven't done that yet, so today will be the big test.

Being out of groceries for the kids, I headed off to the store, after spending an hour going through their app on my phone.  They show deals "just for you", which you can only get if you click on it.  That gives them all the info they need about your eating and spending habits.  I hate that part.

On the other hand, I saved a whopping $57 on this trip, that came to a total of $180.00.  They get you by having sales on THEIR products, which you buy instead of the OTHER guys can of corn that is twice the price.  And of course we KNOW who sets the price of the OTHER guys can of corn.

By the way, I was looking for a pot roast.  It was $12.00 a pound, FOR POT ROAST.  No kidding ... it's crazy.  I went for the $4.99 pork loin.

BUT .... instead of cooking that, I went for the flat iron steak I bought from the lodge.  I would join the lodge just to have this steak.  I don't even know who makes them.  Individually wrapped and vacuum packed, with little to no fat and NO gristle.  This is pure MEAT.

It's the best steak I've had in thirty years.  I surprised myself by even cooking it perfectly.  That doesn't happen very often.  It's so big it's two meals for me.  Even the reheated leftovers are delicious.  

Dessert was this.  I don't know how they seem to fall into my shopping basket.  

And so the day ended and this morning began with purring the second I opened the door to let Cooper out.  She has a funny squeak and will sit for 30 minutes if you will pet her.  No, she did not stay inside for the night.  This was NOT in my life's plan.   I don't know why the Universe decided I needed a cat ... or maybe that she needed a family.  

Neve let your guard down ... you will become attached.

Making A Long Day Short

 The latest news ... it's cold outside.  As much as I would like autumn to last longer .. like a couple of months ... I think it flew the coop already.  I slept terribly because I was cold.  Time to get out the electric blanket.  

On the other hand, I suppose I could let Kitters stay in all night.  Vern says she will sleep on the bed and keep me warm.  Yes, I admit I've let her in a time or two.  She says hello, gives me a purr or five hundred, and instantly hides.  I can call til I'm blue in the face, but she won't come out unless I shake the food container.

Unfortunately, every time she's in, she makes a beeline for Jonathan.  This time she reached up to the top of the table with both front paws and out she went.  I may let her in again and see how long she lasts.  I have a tendency to get distracted, so I'm not sure that's a good idea, but we shall see.  Cooper appears to care less.

The day started out very early for me.  I may be up really early, but I'm not usually presentable until after 9:00.  That's when the window covering guy showed up for measurements.  When I bought this bankruptcy house, the previous owners had taken all the plantation shutters with them.  Why I don't know because I doubt they moved to a house with the exact same size windows.  

They also took the built-in fridge, the stove, the hood over the stove, the dishwasher ... and every appliance in the house, along with all 20 of the in-ceiling speakers for the crazy sound system.  That does NOT include the eight ceiling speakers in the garage and any number of appliances there, as evidenced by all the wiring hanging out of the walls.

Lucky for me, I had a neighbor three blocks over who sold window coverings.  I replaced everything except this side of the house.  I wanted to be able to see my horses in the back corrals.  Now however, all I see is the huge house next door.  It's time to cover it up, and block the sun that is ruining the floor.

Of course that meant cleaning up this space that was full to the brim of RV stuff, stacked quilts, wreaths for three seasons, leveling blocks, witch costumes, witch HATS, I mean really, you could not even SEE the table.  Elk antlers, four bridles, three pair of reins and any number of halters rounded out the mess.  I literally threw it all on the floor in the laundry room and shut the door.  One of these days when I need to wash clothes, I'll have to actually find a place for that stuff to live.

Woohoo ... clean as a whistle!  He measured and I watched as several spiders skittered away.  I really do need to wash those filthy windows!

Next up was this door window shade.  It's trashed from too much sunlight and too many dogs.  It's all fancy dancy, but is one thing the previous owners didn't take with them.  You can see why.  Hmmm I should have cleaned this up a bit like I did the other window.  It was a hot mess.

He climbed up on a ladder to take it down, getting covered in dust at the top that I'm sure has been there 15 years.  He took all the measurements, got it put back up and asked to wash his hands.  Ummm yeah, it was pretty dirty.

When he left, it showed off very nicely how dirty the actual WINDOW was on the outside.  There was a flurry of energy (I don't know from whence it came) while I mixed up my favorite window washing fluid that I use once every four years.  OUTDOOR window washing is not my forte, but this stuff works like a charm and you don't have to dry them afterwards.

A gallon of hot water, one tablespoon Dawn dish soap and one tablespoon Finish Jet Dry dishwasher fluid.  Mix in a bucket, wash the window (I use a gas station windshield washer gadget) and spray with a hose.  No drying required.  My window is now sparkling clean.  Yes I should do the rest of the outside windows, but that's not going to happen.  I never look out those windows anyway.

Still trying to recover from Bingo, that was all did.  I was pretty much a lazy lump on a log the rest of the day in anticipation of the Trustee meeting at the lodge.  It was a long one, with lots of arguing and yelling going on.  Some of it directed at me because I'm the one who tells them we don't have any money, or that's really a bad idea.  Two people take its personally and get really offended.  Everyone else just says ok.  And so ended a lovely day at 10:30 at night.  

Here's the latest set of eyes.  I have four left which I'll put up today.  There's going to be a four eyed monster staring out the living room window.  

I've decided Rick is right though ... putting this stuff up and taking it down is way too much work.  That's because the sprinklers come on every other day, knocking the gravestones to the ground, no matter how many tent stakes I put in.  

That's it for today ... though I planned a long trip to a great quilt shop, I'm way too tired.  Instead I'm hoping for a short trip to the grocery store.  Now however, I have to go find Kitters, who got yelled at for trying to feast on Jonathan.  Here kitty kitty kitty ...........

More Full Moon Effects

 Fall has finally fallen here.  She's dropped a few leaves from the trees and is a lovely 55 degrees this morning.  My electric blanket is just around the corner and I'm loving it!!  Very soon it will be time for my favorite cowboy boots!!

Yesterday was pretty anti-climactic.  Except for the part where I had to make a mad dash for the bedroom when the gardener showed up 90 minutes early!  Everyone else was sound asleep.

Next I raced to the front door to make sure he didn't mow over the ghosty extension cord.  Sadly, the gravestones (made of styrofoam) had fallen over.  I ordered tent stakes to try and keep them upright.  Might as well remove them all until he's done.  I did however warn him that next time he would have to mow AROUND them.

Kitters disappears when the mowing began.  She is not a fan. 

Jonathan didn't even open an eye.  

It was another frantic accounting day, five hours long.  The good news is I got a lot accomplished and only have SEVEN more bank accounts to enter into the computer (from January 1) and reconcile.  Oh the fun!

Back home and really tired, I crashed on the couch for all of 20 minutes.  The lovely DING of the driveway alarm woke me up.  It means AMAZON is here.  We're on a first name basis now!

Here's the latest addition.  I'm ordering two more of these!!!  THIS is the full moon effect.  

Just Kitters in her usual stance ... right under foot.  If I open the door, she's there.

This is ALSO the FULL MOON EFFECT.  I told you weird things always happen to me.  I picked up my mail to find this.  Fastrak is the toll booth lane in the San Francisco area.  I did a double take.  I was in Monterey, but they don't HAVE any Fastrak there.  What the heck?  

It's a notice I bypassed the toll of $1.80 and they are fining me $10.00 for a total of $11.80.

I even took it outside to brighter light (you know how us old folks are) to see the picture better.  Sure enough, there's my RV license plate number on this car.  How could that be?  Did the wonderful State of California who NEVER makes mistakes ..... make a mistake?  

I called ... and after wading through the phone menu for ten minutes ... no exaggeration here ... I finally got an actual human.  She said to hold on while she pulled up the actual picture.  OH LOOK HERE ... it is NOT my plate number, though every single letter/number is correct except ONE.  I have an "O" ... this plate has a "Q".  

I wonder how many times THIS happens?  I wonder how many people just pay it without complaining?  As you can imagine, I am not one of them!!!  License plate reader MY FOOT!!

In a flash, it was dark once again.  Here I am outside trying to get the ghosties to work.  

The last few remnants of light put on a mini show for us as Mr. Cooper, Kitters and I enjoyed the cool on the patio.  

Today will be exciting ... I have a guy coming at 9:00 (meaning I need to get my act together MUCH earlier than normal) to measure for some plantation shutters.  I was lucky when I bought this bankruptcy house, except for the previous occupants who took down every shutter in the place.  I replaced all but the entire North side.  I really wanted to be able to see my horses out back.

With the horses gone now and the landscape ruined by houses with noisy neighbors, I'm blocking off the window they can see through.  It's a sad day that will probably cost me a fortune trying to match the existing ones.  The good news ... for the gardener anyway ... is that I'm letting all those rose bushes grow as tall and wide as they want because they will block the OTHER view directly into my living room.  

Then it's off to a Lodge Trustee meeting.  Yeah I'm not necessarily looking forward to that one.  

Here's to another BEAUTIFUL day!!

NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOO!!

 The only thing worse than Bingo on a full moon, is Bingo on a full moon on the 13th of the month.  Thank the Good Lord above that was not the case THIS time, because I would not have survived.  You know I'm not the luckiest person in the world ... and if it's going to happen to SOMEONE, it's going to be ME.

THIS is the culprit.  Causing all kinds of mayhem before I even LEAVE for Bingo!!  So there I was, just relaxing on the couch with the "KID", when I thought ... gee, I haven't heard Sir Charles roaming around the house vacuuming lately.  I should get him moving!

Big mistake Nancy .... BIG!!  What's the worst thing you can imagine if you have a Roomba ........... and a dog.  Yup ... you probably hit the nail on the head.  I let Mr. Cooper out, but didn't watch carefully enough.  He immediately wanted back in because that means he gets a treat.

There I was, changing the sheets in the bedroom when I heard Sir Charles make a funny noise.  I figured he was caught on the rug.  No such luck.

OMG OMG OMG!!!!  NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOO!!  Yessiree ... I could smell it before I even got through the door.  Lucky for me, it only went straight up and straight back 20 feet before I grabbed it.  The entire bottom and every wheel and roller was completely covered in ... well you know!!  

Big ... BIG ...  apologies to Cindy and Ray who gave it to me.  Except for having to empty it manually every time, and getting stuck under all the furniture, it worked well.  YUP ... I threw it in the trash can.  There is NO WAY I was going to be able to dismantle and clean up THAT mess, most of which was INSIDE the machine.  That's the Full Moon effect at MY house.  

This picture is NOT my machine, but just to show you every nook and cranny that was covered and/or stuffed full.  In my defense of that, it also kept telling me I needed all new rollers and brushes.  What better excuse to buy a new one??

It took an hour of cleaning, scrubbing and steam scrubbing, along with every exhaust fan turned on high, before it was finally livable in the house.  Yup ... that's the FULL MOON EFFECT!

The good news is Amazon is having their huge sale on lots of stuff ... including the Roomba GUARANTEED not to EVER do that.  If it does, they will send you a new one.  It was still expensive at 50% off, but half price was worth every penny!

I was afraid to go to Bingo after that fiasco.  Lucky for me, the head of the kitchen crew was convinced to stay home sick, so her husband took on the job of getting the groceries.  I just had to make sure it was all set up.  That meant chopping onions, slicing tomatoes and heating up chili.  The good news ... I didn't cut off any appendages.  

Then it was on to setup, which thankfully went along just fine.  I thanked the moon for giving me a break.  On to setting up the back room ... deciding on which pull tabs to play ... and corralling the Knights upstairs who completely forgot what time it was.  That made everything run late for the rest of the night.

There is something to be said about PLAYING bingo on a full moon however.  If you're the lucky sort, you seem to win BIG.  One of my friends who plays, won not one, not even two, but THREE jackpots on this night, to the tune of $750.00.  The moon was certainly shining down on HER!

Me, not so much.  Here's the latest and greatest printout of our games ... SEVEN pages instead of two.  This is how I keep track of where we are and what's coming up, though now I have to flip through every page to see what's next.  

I complained to the King, but he said tough luck.  They are free and we get what we get.  

Thanks to the full moon, my latest Infernal Machine cashier didn't let me know she wasn't coming this week, so I scrambled to get everything else set up so I could get the line moving.  It tried to GET me in the end, by making me $250.00 off, but I prevailed.  TAKE THAT FULL MOON!!

Other than the usual characters who take ten minutes to pick out their cards, bringing about slings and arrows from the back of the line, it went pretty well.  The King made up his list of stuff to order, asking me to add mine to the bottom.  I couldn't read a single thing he wrote, so lots of questions followed.  

At long last I was done ... balanced and almost out the door.  It's now my job to do a walk-through of the kitchen to be sure they turned everything OFF.  Why?  Because two weeks ago they left the grill on all night long!!  I needn't have bothered ... those two volunteer cook guys are the best!!

Cooper met me at the door barking up a storm.  He's always so happy to see me ... and vice versa!  He makes it all okay, even if the Roomba gets ruined.  Kitters met me at the back door the second I let Cooper outside.  She is probably the biggest trick that's been played on me in quite some time.  

And so ends another day while I patiently wait for the Amazon truck to arrive.

And So It Begins!!

 Oh no ... OH NO!!!  It's the FULL HARVEST MOON on a Tuesday!!  You know what THAT means.  And it's already begun.  The Kitchen Manager called last night to say she's SICK and won't be there.  I thought ... no big deal, I'll just have to slice up a few tomatoes and chop some onions.  

She sent the TWO PAGE list of what needs to be done.  I'm going into delegation mode ... those bingo players are going to be put to work!!

This is the brightest moon of the year ... for hunters and harvesting.  Also good for making my front yard a TON of work from all the leaves falling off that huge sycamore tree.  The gardener will be happy, yes?

It was mostly a recovery day.  I spent all morning doing accounting work.  It seems every time they wrote a check, it recorded it twice, with different check numbers.  You've got to love computers!!

Then it was off to the dentist.  OH BOY!  Actually, that's usually a treat because I like the gal a lot.  She's a cat adopter ... says the Universe blessed me with Kitters.  I'm not so sure about that, but maybe it blessed Kitters with me.  

She snuck in the door again, happy to wander around until she caught the smell of Jonathan.  Out the door she went.

It's easy to get her moving ... just tap the kitty food container and drop in a few pieces.  She's definitely well fed.  So far the feeder has lasted 18 days and is still half full.  Remind me to put the backup batteries in.

Company came in late and left early after depositing these zinnias from her friend's garden.  They are just gorgeous!!  No enhancement of the colors here ... that's exactly how they look.

Lunch was easy once again.  I think there are nine tomatoes on the counter now.  This should be just about the last harvest.  Even with the harvest moon, I'm not into harvesting any more.  

What I AM into is Halloween.  I have absolutely no idea what motivated me this year.  It's been so bad the last two years that I gave away most all the decorations.  At this point, Amazon loves me and knows exactly where I live.  

The witch that ran into my pillar came first.  Her broom landed on the porch, so I set it up.  The wreath got a big black bow with a skull whose eyes light up.

That was followed by headstones, just before the ghosts appeared.  They fly across the front of the house.  The only thing missing is the scary music.  I can't wait to hear it blasting across the neighborhood.  And yeah, well, I ordered another ghost dispenser and an entire yard of tombstones.

Yup I even found my old witches outfit in the back closet, green face paint and all.  I'm not sure how all this will shake out since I still have candy left over from last year.  A new box of snickers now resides in the fridge, so I hope at least a FEW stop by so I don't have to eat it all.

Here's to a night of dagger eyes, flame throwing, pitchfork prodding and mayhem at Bingo during a FULL MOON!!!  Please let me return home unscathed and sane.

P. S.  I ordered that kitty warmer for the patio.  I told you Amazon loves me!!