Storms!

This has been a weird summer. There have been tons of thunderstorms. Almost everyday, there have been storms lately. One day may be fine, then thunderstorms the next day. Or thunder in the morning, then fine in the evening. Sometimes the storms are brief and scattered. In fact, most of the time that's the case. It's weird though. I don't ever remember so much thunder and lightning so often.

Good News

There's finally been some good news. My dad had to stay overnight in the hospital, but the procedure went very well and he's back home. Good news part 2-Harley is sound again. Last week he was pretty much walking on three legs-but he's back to normal now. Knock on wood! We had a good lesson Monday-he wanted to work, so we know he's feeling good. He was primed to run! Let's hope the good news keeps on coming!

Which Drake Sister Are You?

WHICH DRAKE SISTER ARE YOU?

Find out at ChristineFeehan.com!

Here's what they told me my results were:

You are most like Sarah.

sister	match		her book (click for more)
Sarah	85%
You are like Sarah Drake, a born leader and the eldest of your family. If there is a crisis people come to you. You have a quick mind and are able to solve extremely difficult problems. You are known for your hacking talents and no computer is safe from you. You are very reliable and considered “the rock” of your family. You are athletic and love to be outdoors. You have a penchant for breaking and entering; locked doors pique your curiosity. Your favorite pastime is curling up with a book by the fire and having a cup of tea. Brainiacs are for you, especially ones who can keep a secret. Your colors: the colors of air — yellows and greens
Kate	71%
Elle	71%		Hidden Current (to be published: 2009)
Hannah	71%
Joley	62%
Abby	57%
Libby	54%

Tired

I am just tired. Tired of work, tired of health issues, and just plain old physically tired. I'm going to bed.

Flurry

I am still in shock. I just buried Flurry. I went to clean cages last night and found Flurry's body. It was sudden and completely unexpected. He was always the biggest and strongest of the Ohio brothers. He would have been 2 years old next week. Flurry was definitely the alpha rat of the cage, but he was also the friendliest with people. Often during cage cleaning time he'd jump on my lap and climb into my arms. Sometimes it was just so he could use me as a ladder to climb onto the table...but sometimes it was for a cuddle. I still can't believe he's gone.

Rest in Peace

Flurry

August 1, 2006-July 26, 2008

Chores

I hate housework. I really do. I like the look of a clean and tidy house-but I hate making it that way. There is only one chore I enjoy, and that I don't truly complete. I like doing the laundry. I'm doing it now, in fact. I sort, pretreat and put in. If the weather cooperates I enjoy hanging the laundry outside on the line. I'm not so good at putting it away, and I don't iron, but I like the rest of it. I hate doing the dishes. I haven't had a dishwasher in 7 years and I really would like one. Unfortunately, I need a whole kitchen remodel to get one...so I wait. I think the thing that annoys me most about doing the dishes is that I know, soon after completing them there will be more dishes to wash. It's a never ending, vicious cycle. I don't dust. In the winter I call it decorative snow for my Christmas village. I'm not fond of vacuuming or washing floors. There are so many other things I'd rather be doing. I have to go now...I need to clean the rat cages.

Photo Phriday - Phrankenstein Barrett

Poor Barrett. I took this photo this morning. You can see his Frankenstein looking stitches on his hip and leg. And of course, the e-collar. He hates it, but he's adapting well. After much crying and whining last night he figured out how to manage the stairs.

Today is also a special day. Seven years ago today I arrived in town from Texas and six years ago today I got the keys to this house. I think I need to pick up some champagne!

Back Home

I just brought Barrett back home from the hospital. He came through the surgery just fine. We won't know the results for about 10 days, so please keep sending those healing thoughts! The main issue now is that he has to wear an e collar. He's not too happy about that. He's managed to remove it twice so far. He's one smart cookie. He puts the collar against something, then with a paw on each side, tugs at it. Fortunately, I'll be home for the next few days to keep an eye on him. Poor guy. He's so frustrated.

Giant Cricket

I still remember the story of the giant cricket in my aunt's house. She heard this super loud chirping for days. We finally discovered the "cricket". It was actually the smoke detector. The battery was running low, so it chirped periodically. We all had a great laugh about it. The other day I heard the giant cricket in my house. It was odd, however. It didn't sound like it was coming from the kitchen, but it kind of did. I took that smoke detector down, but the cricket remained. I then found another smoke detector in the basement, my dad must have installed that one. At any rate, I found the giant cricket! I put in a new battery...but the chirping continued. I looked-although new, it wasn't a fresh battery. Tomorrow I have to pick up some 9 volt batteries. I have a ton of AA, but no 9s. Until then, I guess it's OK that a giant cricket lives at Cricket Hollow!

Positive Thinking Results

As I wrote yesterday I was going to try to have a more positive attitude. How did it work on Monday? Well, I woke up and got got nauseous while brushing my teeth. I threw up a few times-there was nothing in my stomach, so mainly stomach acid was coming up-making me retch more. I retched so hard I broke some blood vessels around my eyes. The farrier didn't come to the barn (he'll be there later today) so Harley was still off. However, he really wanted to run and we had a good lesson. Work was annoying, but ultimately, not too horrible. Barrett didn't want me to go and now he's sitting underneath the computer desk wanting to be close to me. I'll keep hoping and praying for the best.

Be Positive

I'm off to bed now, but I'm trying to have a more positive outlook starting when I wake in a few hours this Monday. I'll have a good lesson. Harley will have gotten his feet trimmed and new shoes and the farrier will find no other problems because there won't be other problems. I'll go to work and have a good evening there. I can dream, can't I? Honestly, though, as my riding instructor says, think of the things that are going right, not what's going wrong. I can try.

Stressed

I am stressed out. There's so much going on. Things I normally enjoy doing, I can only briefly enjoy...or not enjoy much at all. My sleep was off again-waking up, weird dreams. I need to chill.

Hard

Life is hard...but it's better than the alternative. I thought that things might finally be on an upward swing when the paper store was able to remain in business. Wrong. Barrett goes in for surgery Thursday and he may have cancer. When I called to tell my folks, they said they got delayed results from my dad's stress test. There's a problem with blood flow behind his heart. He has more tests this week, then next Monday will have an angiogram, which may result in surgery. Dad's upset as he thought he was out of the woods. These next two weeks will not be pleasant. Please send all of us good, healing thoughts.

Photo Phriday-Barrett

I had to take Barrett to the vet this morning. I found a lump, well 2 lumps actually. I was hoping they were cysts...they weren't. We won't know if they're benign or malignant until they're tested. So, Barrett's scheduled for surgery Thursday. Since he's a senior citizen, they have to do a complete blood workup before, then remove the lumps, then send them for analysis. The price isn't pretty...and that's if everything's OK. I signed up for CareCredit. You can pay with their credit card and they have no interest payments for a year. So that'll help. Here's hoping everything works out for Barrett. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Free Kibble

I want to help the environment and animals (aside from humans) as much as possible. However, I can only afford so much in donations, especially now, as the cost of everything is skyrocketing. So, when I get a chance to help for free-I try to make sure I do it. My mom shared a new website with me, www.freekibble.com You can go there and answer a trivia question. By answering the question 20 pieces of kibble are donated to an animal shelter-they even donate it if you get the question wrong! You can play once a day. From that site you can also go to www.freekibblekat.com where you can answer a trivia question about cats and get cat food donated. I'm going to add an icon to my webpage, so you can click from there everyday. Answer some trivia and help hungry animals!

Fight!

Six fights, innumerable punches, a long evening of work last night; no time for dinner-several people asked if I was losing weight (the one plus side of not being able to eat lunch/dinner at work) and the start of a migraine. I came home (couldn't make it to the grocery store) cooked a late lunch (I think midnight qualifies as late for lunch). I cooked up some bacon, then made scrambled eggs with fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, & sage) and pepper jack cheese. I served it with a nice glass of wine (Silver Pencil by Rooster Hill) and am watching Ace of Cakes to relax. It's almost 2AM-I need to take a shower and get to bed...after I play in the Altador Cup and Ace of Cake ends.

More Time

I need more time. More hours in the day, more time to accomplish everything I need to do, yet alone want to do. If I could stop the whole world, aside from my house, for a few hours each day. I could clean the house, garden, play with the kids, work on the computer, craft, get plenty of sleep, and then, when the world's moving again, do everything else. Is that too much to ask?

Free Rice

Test your vocabulary and help the United Nations give rice through their World Hunger Program. Go to http://www.freerice.com/index.php and play. You're given a word and 4 possible definitions. Click on the answer that best defines the word. If you get it right, you get a harder word. If wrong, you get an easier word. For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

Dr. Who

Another night of weird dreams. I'm fairly certain I can lay the blame on Dr. Who as I was dreaming of being on a space ship dealing with aliens. I've just started to watch Dr. Who. I remember him as a short guy with curly hair and a long knit scarf. Today however, there is quite a different Dr. Who, in appearance anyway, I never saw an episode featuring the other actor. Actually, there may be a few Dr. Whos-but I'm watching David Tennant. (OK, I just discovered that David Tennant is the 10th Dr. Who while the guy I immediately think of as Dr. Who was actually the 4th.) Dr. Who comes on after my BBC comedies on PBS Saturday nights. Usually I go to bed after Fresh Fields, but a few weeks ago I was getting ready to shut off the TV when I saw Beth from Moonlight. I stayed to see if it really was her (it was, she was a guest star). The story was really good-and I've been watching it ever since. I don't know the story behind Dr. Who, I guess he has different companions. Right now he has Rose. I'm not that fond of her. I liked one episode I saw with a different woman, Donna, anyway, I really liked her-but she died at the end of the episode. All the rest I've seen have been with Rose. At any rate, I'm enjoying the series, even if I am having weird dreams because of it!

Busy

Today was a busy day. I got up early and walked to the Farmer's Market. I didn't get much, I needed an onion and I also picked up garlic and some cookies from the Amish ladies. Unfortunately, these are not MY Amish ladies. The women that are here this year could learn a lot from Mary and her family. The younger girl just has a sour attitude. I haven't tried their baked goods yet-so we'll see how they compare. After that I went to the papercraft store for demo day and a crazy hat contest. Only one other person (aside from the owner) wore a hat and one person couldn't make it and sent hers in. Well, with only 3 competitors and only 2 people actually there my odds were pretty good. Not good enough. I didn't win. The woman who didn't even show up won. Her hat was great-but she wasn't even there. I voted for the other woman who came with one. A bit disappointing. I came home and worked on a new birthday contest card. I have a new concept and I think it's really coming along. I'm going to work on it some more when I finish online. Anyway, it was soon time to go to the graduation/going away party for my friend's son. You know you're getting old when you go to a party for your friend's kid's graduation from college! Yikes. It was nice, but so hot. It was over 90 today. The food was wonderful. Another friend was working the grill-he is a grilling master. They had BBQ chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, fruit salad, green salad, baked beans, potato salad, macaroni salad, rice, and I finally got to try my friend's curry. (I love a good curry.) They also had cake-vanilla, chocolate, and carrot! Needless to say, I'm stuffed. Oh they also had chips and dips that I never even got around to munching. The heat was starting to get to me so I headed home. The nice thing-it was less than a 15 minute drive. I came home and harvested some blackberries-or black raspberries-whatever they are and put the sprinkler on for the Deadly Nightshade, which is wilting big time. It may not take, or it just may not like it's new location-it's pretty sunny there. I'm going to relax and soon it'll be time for my BBC programs. All in all a very pleasant day!

Photo Phriday-Deadly Nightshade

I love Deadly Nightshade. I always have. I first discovered it in the "jungle" behind my grandparents neighbors yard. Needless to say I was thrilled when I found it on my property. The only problem was that it was around and in between the shrubs and evergreens in front of my house...along with other vines and weeds and things. My parents and I were cleaning the area and I told them I wanted to keep the Deadly Nightshade. So I found the root of one of them and dug it up to plant in a different area. I was going to put it next to the garage-but it really needs something to climb on. My mom suggested the Japanese Maple. The gorgeous specimen had died, but I didn't want to remove it. So, Mom and I dug a hole, put some potting soil and then draped the Deadly Nightshade around the dead Japanese Maple. It looks really pretty. Hopefully it'll take. Mom also pointed out some baby Nightshade-so I'll dig that up and plant that by the maple too.

Too Busy to Write-Enjoy the Funny!

more cat pictures

To All Cashiers/Baggers:

If you've filled the grocery bag so much that you can barely lift it from the checkout counter to my cart, you may have filled it to much! Come on. If you can barely make that move, how am I supposed to get it in my car and then lug it into the house...oh my, just give me another bag!

Summer

I am not fond of the summer for many reasons. Probably the number one reason is the heat. Don't like it, never have, never will. I don't know how I managed living in Texas for all of those years. It's not as hot here, but it's still hot. I had to shorten my lesson yesterday as I just couldn't handle the heat. Another reason is that people tend to take walks in warm weather. Walks around my house, alone, with dogs, with strollers, on bikes. There are joggers too. And Barrett hates them all. So he'll bark his head off as they pass by and consequently wake me up! No, I'm not fond of the summer, thank God for central air!

7/7/08

If he was alive, today would have been my grandpa's 93rd birthday! How he loved to celebrate. The party would start the weekend before the 4th of July and continue through the weekend after his birthday, July 7th. There'd be games-water balloon toss, egg toss, jarts and more. And the food! Piles and piles of unending food and drink. We'd be in my grandparent's backyard-climbing the bankon to the railroad tracks to watch the fireworks and setting off sparklers of our own. It was a simpler time, a happier, more innocent time. I miss it. And them.

Gardening

I've always had a fascination with gardening. Shrubs, flowers, herbs, houseplants, I love them all. Even before I owned a home, I collected all kinds of gardening books. Now that I have a home I plan on being in, well, forever, I've been working on the garden. However, I haven't been consulting my books and I really don't have a plan. I also don't work in it near enough. I think that's the story of my life-grand ideas and research-but not taking the time to make it all work. Still, the yard's looking good (aside from all the tall weeds in the lawn-remember the riding mower is in the shop)! I like my plants and flowers and herbs and vegetables. Heck, I like watching things grow! How about you?

Turn Around?

Is there an end to the bad, annoying things happening to me? Could I possibly be on an upswing? One sad fact was the local papercrafting store closing. They're staying open! An investor came through and a deal was made with the landlord-so the store will remain open, at least until the lease comes up again. Hopefully this is a positive sign of better things to come for me!

A Photo Phriday Phourth

Happy Independence Day!

I actually have this holiday off from work, but I'm not doing anything special. I was going to try and go out and take a great holiday picture-but after riding Harley and running a few errands, I'm home for the night! Have a safe and happy holiday!

When it Rains...

When it rains it pours...literally. As you know, I've been dealing with a lot of stress lately. One of the minor issues is my lawn tractor. The blades seem out of whack and my parents keep pestering me to bother the mechanic around the corner, but I keep running into the mechanic's mom-who says they don't do that type of work. So yesterday I called the John Deere dealership about 2 miles away-maybe closer. Even though it's a Murray, they said they'd look at it. However, they wanted $60 just to pick it up. I said I'd drive it in. This morning I got up early to drive the lawn tractor over. I filled up the tank-as I didn't want to run out of gas and I started off. I got in front of my neighbors when it stalled. I couldn't get it started again. I kept trying and people started coming out of their homes to see what was going on. I began to push it back home, but it was going smoothly-so I figured I'd just push it to the dealership. I should have spent the $60. I forgot about the hill. Then there's this metal hitch thing on the back of the tractor-I kept banging my shin into that. Then, yes, it began to rain. I finally got it there. Unfortunately, they said they probably wouldn't know anything until MONDAY! They're closed for the holiday weekend Friday-Sunday. Also instead of a simple blade alignment, there may be something major going on. Just what I need. Then I walked all the way back home...in the rain. I think I'm going to lay down again before I have to go to work. Sigh.

Angry

Sometimes I think people just want to piss me off. Yesterday started off quite annoying and got progressively worse. I'm dealing with a bunch of nonsense at home and more at work. It wound up with a patient assaulting me (nothing much-she just punched me on the shoulder from behind) and, even though we had extra nurses, I wound up doing the paperwork, the nursing paperwork. This, of course, was after they had the patient who assaulted me and threatened more physical harm when she got to the dorm, come to the dorm where I was the only staff. I think I'll assault some people.

Baltimore

Many years ago, when I was in High School, I went to Baltimore, Maryland to compete in the Tri-Franciscan Meet-an academic competition between 3 Franciscan High Schools. I don't remember if we won or lost, but I remember hating the trip, the girl I was forced to stay with (why I couldn't sleep in the school library with the guys I still don't know) and the city itself. I hear that Baltimore has changed-improved-and has become a great place to visit. Honestly, I've actually become interested in Baltimore. It's the home of Charm City Cakes, after all. I love the show Ace of Cakes and all the people, especially Geof. I also saw an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives and they went to a Baltimore restaurant called Chaps that looked fantastic-wonderful rare beef sandwiches and more. I saw another show that featured a Baltimore restaurant that does amazing breakfasts. Hmmm. Baltimore may warrant another visit from me. I think I'm ready to give it another chance!