Ugh

This morning when I came downstairs I thought it smelled like dog pee but I didn't think much about it.  Merlin had peed two days ago in both the dining room and living room.  He can't go out the back door on his own any more because of a pulled/slightly torn? ligament on his left back leg.  We have taken him the vet months ago about it and it there isn't a lot that can be done about it. Even an expensive operation may not necessarily fix it (because he can just pull and undo the repair).  He can get around once he's up but I pick him up to take him the few steps out the back door. Otherwise he thinks he has to jump and falls on his butt.  It is sad but anyway, I think I didn't take him out soon enough Thursday morning.  We thought we had found and cleaned up where he went but again back to this morning.  I was doing some quick cleaning before I even had coffee, cleaning the kitchen floor and such.  Then I smelled it even more.  There was a large area in the dining room that we had not seen .And it really stunk and had also seeped into the cement (between the tiles). Ugh!  I cleaned it up but I also decided to make sure Merlin goes out a few more times per day than what he usually does.

We lucked out with the storms last night as they weren't really bad and the thunder was not the house rattling kind. :-)   Tonight we aren't expecting any storms so that is nice!  And it has cooled off nicely already. It is down to 71 so that makes for a nice breeze coming in tonight.

More warnings

Tonight we have more warnings for severe storms until 3:00AM. Wonderful!  Tis the season I know. Hopefully it won't be bad and won't be long if we do get some.  It is really hard on the dogs (and quite frankly me) when they are bad. I cannot sleep through lightning and loud thunder.

I am making some progress with my dad's probate and moms trust. Just waiting for a court date for the probate and the trust may be read as early as next week for mom to sign. Then the chore of getting everything titled in the trust will be next.  I'm not sure how much I have to do versus the attorneys.  But at least things are getting done.

I enjoyed the pizza and beer this evening and we played our nightly card games with my mom.  Not much else new. Hopefully will be a quiet night.

Long appointment

Yesterday hubby came home from taking mom to 2 doctor appointments. One was with the foot doctor, who helped her with ingrown toe nail, the other was her regular eye doctor appointment. She came away from the eye doctor appointment with a referral to see a retina specialist due to some bleeding behind one of her eyes.  I thought that she needed to have the blood removed with a needle as that was mentioned as well.  I wasn't with her and hubby was in the waiting area the whole time so it was totally unclear. 

But she didn't want to get any needle in her eye and also wasn't fond of going down to a place at least 20 minutes south of us.  Anyway I tried to find out a little more information this morning from her eye doctor as to the reason for this,etc., and ended up convincing her to go ahead and keep the appointment at 2:00PM.  When I got there, there were already 8 or so people waiting.  Turns out they did NOT have the appointment in their records. I asked the gal (softly) to please fit mom in because wasn't sure I could get her to go again.  So 2 1/2 hours later she was finally seeing the doctor (after tests, dilation, more eye tests).

I found out that she has now wet macular degeneration and possible glaucoma.  She has had dry macular degenerated for a while but now she also as the wet form in her right eye which translates to some blood seeping behind her eye. So the wet is blood seepage, which I didn't know until today. The wet kind is much worse and can speed up the degeneration process. And a needle is not used to draw the blood out (which I wondered how the heck that would work), but rather a needle with medication is injected in to the eye to help slow down the macular degeneration and possibly improve the eye sight.  She really didn't like the thought of a needle in her eye. Who would??  But she needed to make a decision and finally agreed to the shot. It was a small needle which was nice.  I kept imagining a long needle!! LOL.

She got through it and doesn't have to go back for 6 weeks. At that time they will check and she may or may not need another shot at that time.  She will need shots periodically to keep this at bay, otherwise the sight in that eye will go dark starting from an inner circle which gets bigger and bigger.  He said she is legally blind in that right eye currently so even though she doesn't see a black hole in the center her vision is not there in that eye. 

So luckily I am allowed to take the time away as sick time off (since it is for family) so I took 3 hrs sick time and worked a little longer this evening to get my work done. It worked out fine, but it was a really long day for my mom for sure.  She was exhausted by the time we got back to her home.

I think she is done with doctor appointments for a month now so that is good news! :)

Silly dog

Even Merlin loves his cast iron.  He is actually using it as a pillow here!!

Monday eve

Hubby actually just asked me if I was blogging which reminded me that I needed to post again. There is not a lot new.  I was able to walk this morning luckily as it did not rain. There was a 40-50% chance so I wasn't sure.  The work day was fine and uneventful.  There is another chance of rain tonight/tomorrow. 

I forgot to blog Sunday but I was going to mention how I tried to stay awake Saturday to watch SNL. Turns out they were doing a tribute to Prince.  I am sorry that he passed away, but I never really liked his music much.  I lasted through 3 songs and then went to sleep.  I can't force myself to like someone's music just because they are gone. But I do hope he rests in peace. I am curious as to the cause of his death as he was quite young, a year younger than I.  Apparently he was still touring which I didn't know. I thought he was out of the music scene for years. Anyway I did get some singing in today too, but no didn't sing any Prince songs. 

Oops..

Forgot to blog yesterday, sorry.  I did get a teensy bit of reading in and am now at page 308 (out of something like 423) so in the home stretch!  LOL.  Will write more later.

Hair cut

I had my first follow up appointment with my new hair dresser today.  She does such a wonderful job. Here is a picture I just now took with my new cut and wearing some of my favorite paparazzi wooden bead jewelry. I also wore a top specifically for the Red Poppy Festival that is in town this weekend.  Unfortunately my youngest is not feeling well so she didn't come. So I didn't feel like going to the festival by myself. 

 That's okay with me. My hair appointment was very nice and relaxing. They even gave me a mimosa!  I love that place! I stopped by the antique store to show my hubby my hair and to visit a few minutes. Then I came home and had lunch and drank from my new favorite old drinking glass (antique mason jar).

 I've been doing laundry and watching an old Shirley Temple movie titled Stowaway.  I used to watch her movies all the time as a kid. It was sort of a Sunday afternoon tradition. I'm going to go do a little singing on sing snap and either today or tomorrow get some reading in.  Ditzy looked so cute yesterday sleeping on her new favorite chair.

Smart Squirrel

Smart squirrel!!!  This was taken through a screen door so it is a bit grainy.  But this is a squirrel using its tail as a RAINCOAT as it was pouring outside.  Too funny but smart! :)


Also just checking to see if we are getting any more rain today.  What's wrong with this picture?? LOL

Right at home

Hubby's latest 'pick' yesterday included an old rocking chair (which he put the blanket on that he used for transporting it here).   Look who makes herself right at home! :)

Walk

Finally got a walk in today during my lunch break.  I hadn't taken one since last Friday. It felt good getting a walk in. This morning I didn't walk because once again it was raining and thundering.  It is suppose to rain tomorrow morning around the same time as today. But that's okay since I exercise indoors on Thursdays. 

At least it is suppose to be nice on Saturday for the Red Poppy festival.  Looking forward to checking it out with the youngest. There are usually groups performing on a stage or two and lots of crafts and vendors.  I usually get some kettle corn too.  Yum!

Today I realized...

...one of the reasons why I love it here so much!  We took a back road to the garage where we get our vehicles worked on, in a small town just north of here.  It was so pretty.  Just a few miles from where we live, I get to see farm land, cows and horses.  The air smells so fresh and there is little traffic.  Although I remember there being some rural areas back in PA, they were not as close and not as laid back.  This one town we go through has a population of 450 according to the sign.  It has a post office, one gas station and one bar.  How quaint! 

I sometimes think that I would love to live in a small town such as that. But one of the things that holds me back is, out there it would put us at higher risk for tornadoes (flat land and not a lot around). Also there would surely be more unwelcome critters out there, namely things like snakes.  I know there are lots of snakes that are not venomous but still, I would not really care to see them more often, dangerous or not.
 
So as much as I love seeing the rural farm land I think I will stick to enjoying driving through it rather than ever actually living it.  Although I did tell my hubby we need to go visit the old mercantile building built in 1882 turned Restaurant & Biergarten sometime this summer!

More Rain

We had more rain today but at least not a lot like in Houston. Several areas over there are flooded. I saw a video on Facebook of a local TV reporter rescuing a man who barely got out of his submerged car in just the nick of time.  I think he was confused/dazed as he was an older man and he seemed to not want to leave his car.  His car totally sunk and he swam to the news man who helped him the rest of the way out of the water.  The newsman had to yell at him to get out of his car and swim to him. He was really lucky that reporter was right there!

I didn't get my walk in today partly due to the rain and partly due to taking hubby's truck in to the shop this morning. Then I went to the attorney's office at lunch to drop off paperwork, so I couldn't walk then and then at the end of my work day it looked a little too threatening outside to take the risk.  So I had to pass on the walk today.  Hopefully it will be dry by Wednesday.

Bad storms

We had some pretty severe thunderstorms this afternoon. The only good thing about it was that it was during the day and not at 2:00AM. At one point the weather folks said there was upwards of 300 lightening strikes.  Hubby said he saw lightning strike the next door neighbor's front lawn.  I spent a solid 30 minutes on the floor holding Molly trying to console her as she was panting and shaking.  Tika was shaking too and I petted her some but Molly was taking it the worst. At one point the thunder was so loud and crackling I think it was right over our house. It is pretty quiet outside now, but we have a  flood watch until Tuesday morning.

I just took Merlin out to have him go potty since there was a break in the rain.  This little snail was on the back porch so I took a picture.

How thoughtful!

I am just impressed how thoughtful our dogs can be.  See how they leave room in the chair for me? : - )

I don't actually like Ditzy up there on the back of the chair but she seems to be fine there. I have the fear that she will fall off backwards.  She is very good with balance though.  

We are expecting rain for the next few days.  I just hope there won't be any severe storms in the middle of the night. Fingers crossed.

Mid Month

Well the month is half over.  I won't be upset when the month is over.  April showers bring May flowers but it also brings thunderstorms. We haven't had too many yet but there are more in the forecast and sometimes thunderstorms around her can bring other stuff like high winds, hail and tornado warnings. So hopefully the rest of the month will just be rain showers and nothing requiring any warnings. 

Keeping it short this evening. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Lobster Bisque

Today during a break, I decided to check out the Vermont Country Store's website as my mom has purchased some things from there and I got an email because I just bought some chocolate covered vanilla drops that they sell that are quite yummy.  My mom and I are going to split the order.

So I was looking at all the things that they had and saw other food categories.  I immediately went over to see if they carried lobster bisque. This is a soup I can never find in the grocery store anymore. Okay I haven't checked recently but don't recall them carrying it or if they did it was forgettable.

Anyway back to Vermont Country Store. They did carry Lobster Bisque but not all the reviews were favorable.  I don't think there is enough actual lobster in the brands they carry either.

So then I went out to the Internet to search for some good lobster bisque.  There are a few companies that ship it out from Maine (where they have arguably the best lobster)!  I checked out one that had pretty good reviews but the only way they ship is Fed Ex, and to keep it cold they use a 2 day delivery so bottom line...if I wanted their lobster bisque the shipping alone was just shy of $40!  Pass!

So I ended up searching instead for a decent sounding 'Easy' Lobster Bisque and found a recipe that I printed out and want to try soon, since my salivary glands have been working overtime all afternoon! :)  I will have to get things besides the lobster tails too, like dry sherry and...crap...a mesh strainer.  I'll have to research that.  Maybe I can just place a clean linen dish towel inside my spaghetti strainer?....
We'll see about that.

Tomorrow is Friday which is always something to look forward to.  

Taxes out

We got the tax returns out today so in plenty of time before the 18th, so that we wouldn't be cutting it too close.  I always feel good when the taxes done every year. That 'weight' is off the shoulders. So they are done for another year.  Yippee!  

Colorful breakfast

Hubby surprised me today and bought some kiwi for me. So I had a nice variety of fruit with my Special K with Almonds cereal this morning.  Yum!  And with the healthy breakfast it was a nice start to the day. 

The only thing I can complain about today was that when I went to take a shower there was NO WATER at all!  Turns out there was a truck down the street (utility vehicle?) and apparently there was a broken water valve down the street.  But seems to me they should have knocked on all the doors to the houses affected and told folks there would be no water for a while.  We didn't have water for about 4 hours and that sucked!  I just wore my bathrobe until around 3:00PM when I could finally grab a quick shower. 

No screaming squirrels today so all was calm with the animals. :)

Squirrel Screech

This afternoon while I was working, a squirrel started screeching at the top of its lungs in a tree in the back yard.  I got up and went to find hubby to see if he was upstairs by the balcony.  I knew the squirrels were living in one of our overturned water cans up there.  He was out on the balcony but he had just gone out there to see what the commotion was.  We didn't see anything going on up on the balcony so I came downstairs and went to the powder room to brush my teeth so I could put my Invisalign back in.  The squirrel was still having a conniption so I looked out the back door window. 

Then I opened the door with my mouth full of toothpaste and bolted out back.  Ditzy and Merlin were torturing a poor baby squirrel. I was pretty sure it was in Ditzy's mouth. I shrieked for her to drop it as best I could while trying not to dribble toothpaste and went running toward them.  The squirrel got away and I grabbed Ditzy and yelled at hubby to get the dogs inside. 

He wasn't sure what was going on because I slammed the door behind me and spit out the remainder of my toothpaste and mumbled to give me a minute.  When I finally got done with my teeth I told him about Ditzy getting the squirrel but it did get away. We both went out and saw the little squirrel's tail sticking out from an empty bag behind the air conditioner units.  We left it there and kept the dogs inside for an hour or so.  Then he checked and opened the gate and it ran out of the yard.  So hopefully it is (or will be fine).  I didn't hear the distressed squirrel any more for the rest of the day, but it took me a little while to be able to concentrate on work again.   Never a dull moment with these dogs!

I did spot another critter hanging outside early this evening. Cute!

Snack

Meant to post this last night!

Ping Pong

Today the weather was ping ponging.  It was cloudy, then when I went over to help my mom this morning it started to sprinkle and just as I was about to walk through her front door it thundered.  By the time I was leaving about 20 minutes later, it had stopped raining and the sun was peeking through the clouds. 

Then later when I was working it started pouring again. Then it was partly sunny. It rained off and on at least 4 times. I'm fine with that as there were no bad thunderstorms or high winds. 

Hubby came home from his volunteer work at the store a little early today because it was really slow. It is not great when it is slow on a Saturday!!  I think he said only two people came the entire day.  He is thinking about not taking any time slot on Wednesdays as that is the slowest day historically for sales (based on the totals).  No reason to have the store open on a day when nobody comes in.  Weekends are the busiest time for shoppers. 

Well off to try to stay awake for SNL.

A nice break

Today I was working as usual and it was allowed to quit a little earlier (about an hour) which was nice. Management recognizes how hard we always work.  That was a pleasant surprise. Although I am working this weekend it was still really great getting to stop early on pizza and beer night.  I actually spent the time just straightening out my office.  It was time well spent.

It was very nice out today and got into the low 80's again. Ah...I love this time of year.  Things are starting to bloom and the grass is turning a nice green. I suppose I should start using the sprinkler system but we really haven't needed it yet. But I see folks using theirs all the time. Such a waste of water.  I was actually going to put them on this evening but I forgot and now it is dark. Oh well I'll do it Sunday as long as I don't forget (the next allowed day).

Until tomorrow...

Another long day

I went to see the Estate attorney today. Very nice man and very informative. I had to wait a while to see him which normally would be just fine, but I was going to go back to work afterward.  Ugh. My appointment was for 5:00PM and I think it was closer to 5:30PM when I finally got to sit down with him. I imagined myself just leaving and then him calling me afterward to ask me why I left.  My time is just as important as the next guy.  If he couldn't see me until 5:30PM why not make it for that time. But I just sat there as the air conditioner cranked out more unwelcome cold air. LOL

Anyway, not to give the wrong impression he was very kind and willing to go slowly through things, but I wanted to get back to work and he already filled me in quite a bit on the phone last week when we talked close to 45 minutes.  So bottom line he will be handling the things we need and I will be happy when it is all done.  I still spent about an hour and a half there. 

When I got home I fixed myself a quick dinner- a slice of ham in my cast iron skillet and Brussels sprouts from the farmers market that I had frozen last month.

It was tough going back to work around 7:00PM but I got a bit more done.  I am glad tomorrow is Friday. Pizza and beer night. YEAH!!!!!!   

Howdy

I know I didn't blog yesterday but I was working on getting some paperwork together for the estate attorney I see tomorrow for my parents affairs.  And I just got done work.  I got a late start today because I had an orthodontist appointment at 8:30AM.  It went well and she is very happy with my progress.  The great news is that next time I go which is June 1st, I will be half way done with my Invisalign already. I'm happy about that! 

Since I got my hair cut I've been wearing make up again and making sure I am all blinged out with my Paparazzi. There was a tech who liked one of my rings and then a lady said she was admiring my jewelry too. I ended up telling them a little about it and handed out 3 or 4 of my business cards.  I told them how everything is $5.00 and most necklaces come with matching earrings. Anyway I was surprised and impressed how looking more 'put together' got me that extra attention.  Normally would just get stares (not in a good way) from other mothers previously because most of the other patients in their chairs are teens.  But I felt good today and that was a nice thing!  I probably look a bit younger too with the short blond hair which helps too.

I'm ending this here. Nashville is on and I'd like to catch it.

Monday blog

Another Monday is nearly done.  Yah!  It was nice this morning for my walk, in the 50's. Cool enough to wear my coat barely zipped at the bottom.  I like when I get all done the walks and I am neither frozen nor sweaty.  This was one of those days. I have a feeling there will be more sweaty days to come now that April is here.

Today it got up to 80 degrees or a little higher. Don't be jealous my east coast family and friends :)  Anyway at my lunch time I went out to the back porch and wiped down one of the bistro tables and a chair as I was going to enjoy my lunch out on the porch for the first time this year.  I came inside to get my lunch ready and the lawn guy came to mow the front and the back.  So much for that great plan.


I'm making progress on my book. I'm at page 298. Only 132 more pages to go.  How can you tell if a book is really not interesting to you?  When you are counting down the pages to when the suffering ends.  ;-)

Okay a day after April Fool's

I have to share something really funny that happened last night. Hubby was reaching into the dogs treat bag and screamed a profanity . I didn't know what was up until he said "What is in this bag? It is all slimy and gross".  "Did you put something in their treat bag?" 

I started laughing!!  Yesterday morning I was scooping out some cantaloupe seeds into an empty dog treat bag that I retrieved from the trash can, and sealed it back up and must have set it on the counter instead of back in the trash. (I was using that so that it would not stink so quickly as the seeds just thrown in the trash would have after a day or two). From there it made its way back up to where the treats are kept in the cupboard.  I'm not sure if it was me or hubby that put the bag up there as the treats are often left out on the kitchen island. 

But it was pretty funny and he did start laughing after a few minutes.  It wasn't intentional but it would have made a great April Fool's joke!

Beautiful day!

I thought it was going to feel cold today because the high was going to be maybe 70 degrees. I don't think it got up to that but it was one of those sunny days without a cloud in the sky so it felt much warmer than it actually was.  I wanted to get out at some point today since I didn't get my walk in yesterday.  I needed to get something for my mom at Walgreens so I took a walk up there this afternoon and that was nice. 

I also did two loads of laundry, oops one load is still in the dryer but it is whites so doesn't matter if socks and underwear get wrinkled :)  I also did my nails today too as I want to take a video with some of my beautiful Paparazzi rings. So that is something I will be doing tomorrow.  I want to get some reading done tomorrow too. There is a new SNL tonight, so I hope to catch it before drifting off to sleep. :)

It is April right?

I'm not fooling. I'm honestly asking.  It is 51 degrees out and the low tonight is in the low 40's. This is Texas, last I checked.  Brrrr...!

I got through today without getting April Fooled.  I'm happy about that.  LOL.  I didn't think of anything quick witted to use on hubby either. But I'm fine with that. 

I didn't get to walk this morning because once again the weather man was inaccurate.  It was pouring and thundering around the time I would be getting up so, I skipped it.Last night it was just a 'chance of rain'. It was cold this morning too anyway so a second good reason not to walk.  I just did a little stretching instead since I always need to stretch.

It is a going to be a free weekend to do as I want. I haven't figured out what I am going to do yet but I will make sure to take some time to do my nails as I want to take a few Paparazzi videos with showing off the beautiful rings and want to show off nice nails as the videos will look better with nail polish on. :)