Thrsuday night storms?

See I was so upset about the storms I spelled Thursday wrong!

We may get some thunderstorms tonight. Oh joy!
Hopefully no WORSE than that.  There is apparently one 'model' showing possibly severe weather.   I sure hope not. Cannot see tornadoes coming in the dark.

I'm going to check the weather channel right before I go to bed to see what the latest is.

Glad tomorrow is Friday. Nice short week!  Although we are still suppose to get rain for the next several days still. Okay I'm ready for the sunny weather to get here and stay for oh..at least a month!

Day after the Tornado

Yes Georgetown had its first Tornado (ever) I think. It only touched down for a few seconds and did no damage, but the storm trackers in the Austin area got it on video. I suppose since there was no damage and only lasted a few seconds it wasn't even recognized as a tornado on some TV stations. Oh well I know I saw the video (it is on youtube) and it was real.  I actually did see a few clouds looking like they were fingering down from the rest of the clouds right before it happened.  I went to the bathroom while I could because I didn't know if we'd have to take cover or what.  Well those finger like clouds passed over but they likely are what came together and formed the funnel up the road a mile from where we live.  It was pretty scary, especially because the storm seemed so erratic. Austin had many areas flooded and a town called Wimberly had many houses wiped out and 12 (I think) people are missing. Nightly news actually aired from there tonight with Lester Holt and he showed footage of many of that area's homes wiped out.  I'm so glad that the tornade did not hit our house and that we got away with not even a downed tree branch.

Then after it passed there were the most unusual clouds I have ever seen. This was about 6:30PM. The tornado was about 2:45PM.  They are called Mammatus clouds.  Here are some pictures that I took.  I should have taken some later also as the sky turned a yellowish orange, and just overall weird skies until sun down.  These clouds looked like a bunch of cotton balls (huge) stuck up in the sky.  I have never seen anything like them before. 

All is calm today but there is a chance of rain yet for the next 7 days too.  Oye!

 

Yippee!!

Why am I so happy?   Because the sun actually came out a couple time today.  Yes it is that rare these days!  We had tons of rain again last night and was cloudy most of the day.

So this morning when I was sipping my coffee and looking out the kitchen window I saw a snail attached to the window (on the outside). I figured I'd rarely get an opportunity to snap a picture of one at this angle any time soon so I took a picture and tried to contrast it enough so you can see the snail suctioned onto the window.  :)  This is the best I can do.  But that it was pretty cool.  The windows sure need cleaning too huh?

Well hubby took Kaci and Ditzy to the vet yesterday while I was at my dentist appointment. Ditzy had her mouth checked from having her dental last week.  Kaci has been limping really badly the last couple days.  Ditzy's mouth is doing fine.  Kaci unfortunately did not get a good prognosis. The vet was using words like Spinosis and Arthritis and she had a lot of disk degeneration and bone spurs?.. best guess as to what Steve was telling me..anyway she gave us meds for the pain and he asked her if there was anything that could be done.  We are going to see if the meds help any but she did mention some stem cell operation they could try but it costs thousands.  It is not that I don't think my dogs are worth it, but she is nearly 10 1/2 and there is also a chance it would not work. So at this point we are just doing the meds approach and seeing how she is.  She never cries or whimpers but there have been a few nights over the last 2-3 weeks that she's seemed restless at night...like she just couldn't get comfortable.  No wonder!  The doc said what would equate to her elbows are 'shot' and she's got problems in her neck and a lot of issues down in hips/back.

We tend to think our fur kids will always be around but they won't.  I certainly know better than that intellectually but I guess we just pretend they are never aging.  After all, they hardly really LOOK like they are.  Kaci will be 10 1/2 next month, Molly is already 10 1/2 (Tuesday will be), Tika is 8 yrs 4 mos, Merlin turned 8 on 5/12 and Ditzy our 'baby' as best we can tell on age (got her and she was a stray), will be 5 next month. 

Oh I wanted to mention when I was pulling back in from my hair appointment yesterday I happened to look at my mileage.  Just turned 19000 miles!  I bought my car brand new in October of 2007. It is a 2008 Toyota Corolla.  So I've had it 7 1/2 years and have it barely broken in with 19,000 miles. :))
Yah me for working at home and having a car that may actually last me another 20 years, as long as I'm still coordinated enough to use the clutch, I say bring it on!

Shorty

Keeping this short.  Feel like a broken record but we have had rain, rain and more rain. I sure hope it fills up our thirsty lakes in the Austin area that have been drying up for years.  It would be nice to have a few days of sunshine though!

We have a tornado watch until 3:00AM as of now....fun...fun.  I was hoping for a restful night's sleep. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will fizzle out before getting here.

Going to go spend some time with hubby who is probably falling asleep in the laz-y-boy chair.

Summer cuts

We took 3 of our furkids yesterday to get groomed.  I asked for a short 'puppy' cut so that they would not be so thick and long for the hot summer to come. Well I could not stop laughing when I saw Merlin.  He looked like a dog with a big head and a small body!  :))

Here's pictures of he, Tika and Kaci, before and after:

Merlin:                                                       BEFORE

                                                            

AFTER

                                          See why I was laughing? :))  Too funny!


Tika and Kaci don't look as ....uh.. different but definitely shorter!

Tika                                                          BEFORE

AFTER

Tika actually has a lot of gray coloring in her coat that I can see. Her father is a Blue Merle like Merlin, so she got some of that from him but you would never notice with her longer coat as it is mostly blackish.

Kaci: 

BEFORE

AFTER

And now we heard in the news last night that we may be having a wetter and COOLER summer than normal for Central Texas.  Gee, I hope that means we don't have to run out and buy doggie sweaters for them! :)

Days slip by..

I didn't realize it had been since Saturday that I wrote. Oh well. Life happens..


I got some great news yesterday!!  Although my mole was irregular as some others have been that were taken off, she got all the margins too. Bottom line, I don't need to have any more of it taken out (and no stitches). I am thrilled that for once I don't need anything else done!!   Hubby tends to think it is all a scam so I told him today that I don't need any more taken so if it was really a scam, they have me come back and take more.  I really trust my doctor so I don't think she'd be pulling my leg.  She has a good eye for spotting abnormalities and I'm grateful for her check ups every 6 months.


I talked to the VA urologist office the other day about my dad's CT Scan. Dad has some Bladder stones. She could not tell me how many just more than a few. The largest one is 2.59 centimeters big.  He is having a scope put up his p***s the end of May at the VA urologist's office that has a little camera attached. They also irrigate while they do that procedure and so the nurse is hoping that some of the stones will loosen and come out that way.  If not I'm not sure what the options are but the stones do have to come out.  My poor dad and his bladder issues!

Yesterday was one of my sister's birthday.  I like to tease (for another 4 months that she is actually TWO years older than me).  Makes me feel younger!  LOL

It has been rainy off and on all day along with lots of humidity. Still not what I would call HOT yet, although the humidity sure made it seem very hot yesterday on my walk.

Off to go spend time with hubby!

Saturday night

I just thought I'd write since it has been two days.  There wasn't much to write about yesterday so I didn't bother posting.  I did stop work at around 5:00PM, we got pizza and beer, and I watched GRIMM.  I love that show but sorry that Juliet was killed by Trouble (spoiler if you have not see the last episode yet).

I slept in today, well if you call until 7:20AM sleeping in.  Did some laundry today, got some work done and got some singing done on sing snap too.  Overall good day!  Relaxing with hubby right now.  Oops forgot to put something in the dryer. Going to end this anyway..not much else to say tonight.

Thursday's Share..

I actually have 10 minutes before I need to get to work so I thought I'd share a little about when I visit the skin doctor (don't feel like spelling out the correct name).  When I go she checks every mole with a magnifying glass and scans actually fairly swiftly as I have lots of them. But when she spots any that are unusual in shape with any dark (dark brown to blackish) dot in them, she takes them off to be biopsied.  These are moles that I wouldn't think twice about being an issue.  I'm always thinking that anything that may be any form of skin cancer should be bigger (like pencil eraser size) and blotchy or obviously different to the untrained eye.  Nope not the case. 

I thought I'd give an example here for those who have never seen a skin doctor or wonder if they should visit one for a check of their skin and I mean all the skin including scalp (pulling the hair apart at various areas to make sure nothing suspicious there either).

She told me to keep an eye on this one that is on my forearm. Probably the only reason she didn't decide to take it was because there was not a dark brown/blackish spot on it. But see how it is almost a triangle shape?  That is an issue as well.  To me, looking at it, it just looks like two moles right next to each other. No big deal.  But since it is different and not just round like ones near by it, it may be pre-cancerous.  The red growth is ...I forget...she had a name for it, but it is typical and I've got lots of them too. 

And this one I'm to keep an eye on is not big. I'd say if you broke a toothpick in two. It is as big as the thickest broken off piece in width (looking down at the edge of it). 

Don't get me wrong, none of the things she removed was melanoma but they were abnormal enough (from biopsy results) that they could at some point turn into that.  And why gamble?  I was resistant the first time she wanted to remove the two she found last year, but then thought hey why play a wait and see game, because once it would be come full blown cancer, it is much worse to deal with!  So anyway, little sharing (or lesson) about moles.  Of course if they are growing rapidly, or are bleeding, those are other signs there is a problem. I've not had that though so mine were only spotted by the doctor during my check ups. That was why I didn't go back for a year since my basal cell removal as I thought I didn't have any other issues. I am glad she didn't find any on my back this time around. That is a little more uncomfortable sleeping when there are stitches on my back.  :-)

So fingers crossed that she won't have to do anything further with the one on my leg (which I happened to forget about...until this morning). I still had the band-aid on from Tuesday. Oops. .:)

Long day...

Keeping this short but.. got up early so I could exercise before I had to start running around.  Got showered and took Ditzy to get her teeth cleaned.  Ran back home to get my checkbook and then to the dermatologist. 

Well she found one 'suspicious' mole on my leg.  She showed me how it differed and I did see it. She took a sampling and we'll see.  I'm hoping she got it all and that there are no margins that are still abnormal. That is when she has to take more and give me a few stitches.  :-(   Will know within a week or so.   I didn't start work until about 9:15AM.

Ditzy faired far worse.  They had to pull 7 teeth, poor little things. She looked so sad when I picked her up at 5:30. She wimpered a little in the car too. "-(   I didn't think her teeth were all that bad, but when they do the xrays and start digging under the gums.. she found a lot of periodontal disease. I felt guilty that I didn't get her teeth cleaned a few years ago.  She was the last of our 5 to get them cleaned and like I said, because she is our youngest I didn't really  think they were that bad.

Anyway, I never should have scheduled two things like that in one day.Too much running around on top of too much work. Oh AND it rained nearly all day.  So  I'm beat!

Goodnight!

Saturday Pictures

We went to an event for the animal shelter on Saturday called "Art for Animals".  They have silent auctions and offer finger food (mostly sweets) and wine (wine is not free though).  And they also have raffles for winning different baskets.

We always have a good time there.  As I was strolling around I spotted for auction a pair of overalls (off white) that were shorts length and was hand painted with paw prints and small dog face pictures, etc. I thought it was cute and it would probably fit me so I bid $30.  No one else bid for a while but then this other lady and I were having..well a bidding war.  I went up to $200.  She went $220 and I let it go at that.  It was fun bidding against her.  I had Steve watching for me when she upped her bid and I would go over and bid.  I still had a few minutes after seeing her bid for $220 but I thought that was way overboard! :))  But again it was fun.

They had a photo booth there too and you could put some costume type things on. I tried something over my eyes (with feathers) but it wouldn't stay in place.  Steve wore a hat. Here are the pictures. The only reason there is 2 of us kissing is we didn't think it 'took'  so we did it twice. The last one with the hat in front was hubby's idea.

When I can't cut my toenails...

Every once in a while we all ponder about our mortality, those of us over 50..maybe a bit more than others. ;-)

I do think about it now and then. How old will I live to be?  People are living longer than they ever have these days.  I think about my own aging and wonder how it will progress from here.  I refuse to think of myself as old let alone middle aged although technically I guess I am.  I heard recently though that 'THEY say 60 is the new 40'.  Works for me.  But seriously when I think about when I will consider myself old, I wonder at what point will I say "Okay I admit it, I'm old".

Today I thought about it while I was going about my morning doing some personal hygiene. Then it came to me.  When I can no longer bend over and trim my toenails, then I will admit that I am old.  I won't say it is when I can no longer shave under my arms because I already have to either do it standing in front of a mirror or do my best in the shower while trying to see my arm pit with my bare eyes...getting tougher these days...and yes I still only use my reading glasses when needed, not my prescription ones.  Well I can't wear glasses in the shower anyway so why am I even bringing that up?

So there. When I can no longer trim my toenails I'll be officially old.

Friday Finally

This week wasn't too bad but I was really looking forward to quitting time and getting pizza and beer tonight.  It hit the spot!  We got some rain late this afternoon so I decided to pass on the walk as it really was still soggy by the time I would have gone which also would have been right after dinner. Who wants to walk after stuffing half a pizza and a beer down ?  Not me.  I'll see about going tomorrow morning before it gets humid out, unless it is rainy again. We may get rain for the next 7 days according to the forecast so bound to be a soggy May.

Sunday is Mothers Day, so I need to make sure and visit my mom with something, most likely flowers or a plant. Hopefully the entire weekend won't be rainy.  Guess we'll find out.  I already got a nice Mother's day gift from the oldest, a dozen chocolate covered strawberries with really fancy glazing/decoration.  I don't have the picture on my laptop otherwise I'd share it right now.  They are yummy!

Tired Thursday

Last night when it was Merlin's turn to take my walk with me, I took a double take!  I could hardly believe that same Greenling box was out at the neighbor's porch (which now has been a week there).  I was really surprised because the new people have already moved in!  Guess they didn't know what to make of it so left it there? Who knows!

It was very humid last evening and Kaci let us know it!  She was very restless and was on the bed, off the bed, pacing the laminate floor with her nails hitting the floor with every step, and then back on the bed again. Hubby tried taking her to see if she had to go outside (to potty) but she didn't want to go, so back upstairs with us.  She came up near my face at one point so I laid her right next to me and petted her stomach for a while.  She finally calmed down and the rest of the night which at that point was 3:45AM on...we got some peaceful sleep.  Needless to say it was a bit rough getting up at 7 for me today and exercising.  The good new is that tomorrow is Friday at least!  I already told hub if it is humid tonight let's put the A/C on.  It isn't that it was really hot last night just warm and muggy!

Well our tax returns got to the IRS okay, we just got our (meager) refund check a few days ago.  I don't like doing the auto deposit thing. Something about the IRS having my account information, just doesn't sit well with me. 

I'm pretty sure I have a dermatology appointment this month for my 6 month check up.  It sure would be nice if she found NOTHING suspicious that needs any type of biopsy/sliver, etc.  I haven't had a clear check up since a year ago when I had my check up (which I had let go for 12 months, as in December that prior yr (the 6 month appointment) I was too busy to go..thinking I was fine anyway as they had already taken care of the basal cell that previous May). But when I went last May it had been a year since I was 'checked' and she found two suspicious moles and ended up taking them off (it isn't just scraping it off either when they decide to remove it. The scraping is just the first sampling, then if results come back with any mild/moderate abnormalities that causes for removal and the need for 2-4 stitches). Then my last appointment this past December there was another one on my back, another 4 stitches.  So yah....would be nice to not find anything troublesome. 

In a way I guess I'm lucky I even had that basal cell issue because if I hadn't I still probably never would have gone to a dermatologist to this day, not thinking I had anything to worry about.  I'm just very grateful there has been nothing major (as in "M"elanoma) discovered.  I really did do a ton of sun bathing as a kid and young adult! Now I'm putting on sunscreen even to take a 30 minute walk (unless it is after 7:00PM),...there is mostly shade where I walk and I weigh in on whether I really need to do it. For the most part I am rarely out in the sun for any given amount of time - I'm working at my DESK!  ;0)

Hump Day "Eve"

Here is a funny picture of Tika who was actually comfortable laying in this 'falling out of the bed' position :)  

Now that is is pouring out and I'm done work this picture is fitting for me.. hitting the sack. 

Hope everyone had a great Cinco De Mayo!!

 

 

Stormy Month

So we're into the Lusty month of May (think Camelot), but it is also the month of storms and tornados for this area so there is a chance of having a soggy and hopefully not destructive month ahead.  When I was walking Molly this evening after dinner I saw that there were quite a few dark clouds above but luckily I did not get rained on.  It still isn't raining now either so guess it was just dark clouds passing by.

Change of topic...I hate seeing wasteful things.  Last Wednesday I saw that the Greenling people left a delivery at a house where I knew the people moved out already.  I did see a trash can out though for Thursday's trash so I thought maybe they were still planning on coming back that evening or the next morning. I have no clue how much food was in that container but that is what Greenling is, delivery of fresh and local produce/veggies and such. I was actually walking by when the guy was setting the container at their door step and I called out to him that he may want to call them before leaving it because I think they moved.  He didn't though.  I really had an urge to go and take whatever they left because I was afraid it would just go to waste. Sure enough Saturday I went by and that container was still out there (with the slip attached), so it had all been sitting since Wednesday.  What a shame and what a waste.  I was afraid if I did go and take whatever was there, I'd get in some sort of trouble for stealing.  So I left it and it went to waste.   It is a shame those people didn't cancel their order or have it delivered to wherever they live now.  I really hope they don't deliver again on Wednesday.

I stopped work at a respectable time today which was nice!   Well going to go watch Night Shift now.

Okay the day slipped away from me.  Went to visit my folks today for a little bit. Seems I hadn't seen them in too long (at least according to my mom).  They are doing okay and dad although still very thin looking, is doing okay as well. 

I did some work today but also got some singing done and laundry and oh, took Ditzy when I went to my folks (walked there). It was another gorgeous day out!!  This week though there is a chance of rain nearly daily so we'll see how great this week turns out to be. 

Not much else to write about...night.