Melting Down, Icing Up

Catching up

2012-01-28T17:18:00.001-06:00

The last couple of days have been busy. Thursday, I worked very hard on AJ's socks. I wanted to have them finished by the end of the day. At one, I met my friend Sandy for lunch at our favorite coffee shop. We spent the usual two hours there. We were joined at two by my son's friend, John, who had seen my car in the parking lot.

He and Sandy had a nice long talk about autistic kids - his middle child and her oldest grandchild. It was interesting to compare the two kids. Although they're three years apart, there are still a lot of similarities in their behavior.

Thursday was also Jazz night at one of the local bars. My neighbor is a member of the orchestra so I joined his wife and a couple of her friends. We all left after the first set, primarily because everyone else had come directly from work, and I didn't want to walk out to the parking lot alone later.

Friday was a school day. Since the last time I was at AJ's school, things had been rearranged. The drive-thru was no longer in operation. It's now a coffee shop. Just after Thanksgiving a parent had donated a wooden puppet theater set-up. The boys immediately decided it was a drive- up window in a fast food place. So everyday, the kids would play "Drive up" and dispense play food for play money. Now the theater is in a different corner with puppets and the former block area is now a coffee shop with a coffee maker, cups and empty coffee bags and a couple of empty tea boxes.

I helped at the art center, but really all the kids needed was for me to hold stuff while they used entire rolls of tape to attach various bits and pieces to paper towel tubes to make airplanes. I made paper airplanes for some of the other boys. We went outside for recess and I watched the kids until the buses came. AJ and I went for lunch at the mall.

When we came back to my house, she wanted to watch a movie first and then go to the Dream Park. The Dream Park is a really cool castle-like play area will all manner of swinging and climbing places. It's very popular during the warmer weather. AJ and I are usually the only ones there early Friday afternoons.

The Dream Park

The day had cooled down considerably from when we were first out at 11. The sky had clouded over and the sun was no longer warming us. But we were there from about 2:30 until a little after 3. Some kids had built an igloo-type structure in the puppet theater at the park.The pile was a huge mound, tunneled all the way through with steps on the side in the puppet theater and a slide on the outside. AJ had fun crawling in and out and sliding down.

When we came home, I made her some hot chocolate and popcorn and let her watch "Sleeping Beauty." She wanted to see Oma so I called and asked if she could go over. I dropped her off and went back. When AJ's mom called, I told her that I had dropped her off at Oma's and I didn't know if AJ was sleeping there or here. Last I heard, AJ was back at home.

Cloudy Day

2012-01-25T22:07:00.000-06:00

Today wasn't as nice as yesterday. Too many grey clouds overhead and colder temps. So I finished a couple of books- Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs and Trio of Sorcery by Mercedes Lackey.

In case you're wondering, I have very eclectic tastes when it comes to books. The number of fiction books is slowly being overtaken by the number of non-fiction. The top three categories of nob-fiction are craft books, cook books, and books about words- not just dictionaries- but books about words.

I never posted a picture of the eggs my brother sent. The note in the Christmas card said "Some eggs to go with your Spam." Someone had hacked his email and I was getting Viagra mail.

And as promised, a picture of Nellie wearing her green collar.

Eggs my brother gave me for Christmas

Nellie's green collar

My new knitting pouch next to its inspiration

Today I made a pouch based on the pouch I had some knitting needles in. The fabric doesn't match up because I just sewed some leftover strips together and doubled them twice until they made a square. I added batting, a lining, and the zipper. I think next time, I'll use heavy duty interfacing instead of batting to make a stiffer pouch.

So how was your day?

Tuesday

2012-01-24T21:08:00.001-06:00

I woke up feeling pretty good. As usual, I didn't get out of bed until around 9:30. Normally after the cats annoy me enough to feed them, I climb back into bed and watch the news and then read for a bit. I actually ate breakfast - two eggs, toast, yogurt, and V8 juice.

The sun came out. I made a feeble attempt at clearing the bottom of the driveway where the snowplow did its thing. I picked up my refilled prescription at Walgreens. I used the Walgreens app yesterday to scan the barcode on the prescription bottle and in a flash, the prescription was sent. I got an email later in the day that the prescription was ready.

In crafty news, I made a new collar for Penelope. She won't get out of this one as easily as the last one. The green looks good with her new red rabies tag. I'm almost done with AJ's socks, knit two at a time from the toe up. I'll post pictures later.

You know, I'm really getting tired of Netflix streaming. Ever since the new upgrade, I get messages that say "Unable to connect to the Internet..." with various codes. After a frustrating time resetting the connection, I'll get the same messages. Except that I get the weather and the news. But not always.

And just when I think it might be a problem with the Wii, I'll connect to Netflix only to have a message appear, "We're having trouble playing this title right now. Please try again later or select a different title." Except that every title I chose gives me the same message! Even Shaun the Sheep or Dora the Explorer.

I guess my good mood has faded.

The weekend was not fun!

2012-01-23T16:03:00.001-06:00

I managed to flood the basement because I couldn't remember whether I had turned off the outside water. (I hadn't. Neither had Chris.) Since it seemed fairly warm out, I opened the spigot to check and nothing came out. Apparently, it was colder than I thought and the water was frozen in the pipe. So I left the spigot open so that when it got warmer, the remaining water would flow out. Well, it got warmer; the water started flowing alright - right down along the foundation and into the basement. D'oh! After I shut the water off, I spent over an hour sucking water up with the shop vac because I couldn't find the hose for the pump. I think it was only 40 gallons. I kind of lost count of how many 5-gallon tank loads I emptied down the drain. The basement is mostly dry. I have to toss a rag rug into the washer. I'll do that when I do the load of rags and cat mats.

Today, I took Nellie and Claire in for their rabies vaccinations. Claire was better behaved than usual. No one was bitten. Now I have to renew their licenses. So another hundred bucks gets sucked out of my pocket.

The price of everything is creeping up. My latest phone and internet bill is $82, up from $78. The price of stamps went up a penny. Gas went down four cents, but that's probably because I don't need any yet. Once I do, the price will go up just before I get to the pump.

The anti- and pro-Obama ads have already started. The Republicans haven't gotten a clear candidate yet. I say no one should vote for anyone running. They're all corrupt. We should change the system. We should all think of someone to write in. If we wind up with twenty million choices, they all have to take a written test on the Constitution and its amendments. The top two become President and Vice-president. The top two from each state get to be Senators. Representatives get picked from the ones remaining by congressional district and all incumbents are thrown out. It'd never work.

Jeez, people. I can't read minds.

2012-01-20T09:54:00.001-06:00

I just got a call from AJ's stepdad. "We just drove by the school and realized that Nana wasn't there." Well, ya know- I gave the teacher my schedule. I talked to AJ's mom who said she was making the schedule. But she never got back to me. So how was I supposed to know I'm scheduled for Fridays this semester? The last time I checked, which was last week, I wasn't on the schedule for that week and that's when AJ's mom told me she was going to be making the schedule.

I'm picking up AJ after school and she'll be staying over. Depending on how much snow we get, she may be here all day Saturday as well. The weather report is for 3 - 7 inches of accumulation. The snow has already started falling. It's supposed to be the light fluffy kind. We'll see.

Cats!

2012-01-18T20:34:00.000-06:00

Nellie is curled up on the couch, grumping at me because I moved. Zydeco just jumped up onto the stereo cabinet when she heard Claire's bell. Claire just came into the living room and without a gift. If I go check, I'll probably find the yarn bag pulled out from under my bed. There has to be a good 10 pounds of yarn in there, but she has dragged it out three times in the last two days.

The first time, she brought me a small ball of yarn she pulled out of the bag. When I went to bed, there was the bag, partly under the bed. I pushed it back, thinking that one of the cats had pushed it out in an attempt to get closer to the heating vent.

This morning when I came out of the bathroom, the bag was out again. I checked under the bed and pushed it back. This afternoon, the bag was out again.

Here are pictures of Nellie and Claire taken with ToonCamera for the iPhone.

Nellie

Claire

Speaking of the iPhone, I got my first bill. Talk about sticker shock - $268. Some of the charges are for a partial month; and the rest is for the next billing period. I'm splitting the cost with the male offspring and not equally. Since he has the larger data plan and insurance and a few other items, I think it's only fair he picks up the larger share. I'm actually splitting the base charges equally and then adding on the extras.

After all, it's mostly his fault we have the phones. I could have survived without a new phone. Unfortunately, I can be a bit of a technology junkie. Fortunately, I know I can no longer afford the top of the line tech. So I settle for slightly older things. But I still acquire technology.

Dentist and stuff

2012-01-17T22:02:00.000-06:00

I broke a tooth Sunday. I didn't have to make a special appointment because today was my regular appointment. According to my tongue, I can hide a bus in the hole. According to the dentist, it's just a bit off the corner. In any case, it means $1500 I need to find for a crown. It could be worse-- I could need two crowns at the same time.

Did I mention that the bathroom walls were painted? They're blue. The trim is white. The cabinet doors still need to be painted. I'm thinking of using a lighter shade of the blue for them. Right now they're still white and really stand out, but not in a good way.

We've had a bit of snow. I couldn't remember how to start the snow blower at first. Once I got it started, I did my driveway, but not the neighbor's. I shoveled today's snow but it's left me with a back ache and a sore shoulder. I probably should have used the snow blower.

Have fun. More later.

Phone blogging

2012-01-16T12:28:00.001-06:00

This is something new. Maybe I'll post more since I won't have to wait to get to a computer to blog.

I have a so-called "smart" phone now. If it's so damned smart, why it didn't tell me I left it in the car? Some of the apps are nice. I downloaded three knitting apps, Blogger, Home Library, and Star Walk.

The map app seems confused as it shows my address with the wrong town. I would understand if it showed me living in Monona since this part of Madison and the city of Monona share a zip-code. But it shows me as living in McFarland which is down the road.

So ends another post about my exciting life. Have fun, boys and girls. Remember to eat your veggies so your brain won't turn to mush.

Happy New Year. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

2012-01-05T12:05:00.001-06:00

I'm home now, still sick, but getting better. I drove home Jan 4th. The trip wasn't bad. My biggest fear was sneezing at 75 miles an hour. I don't know if you know this, but when you sneeze behind the wheel, your eyes are shut for at least 9 feet. A lot can happen in 9 feet. I was having trouble turning my head to the left which made backing out of parking spaces tricky. And for some reason, I found myself having to stop every hour.

Traffic through Chicago was lighter than I expected for a week day evening. Just for fun, I used the GPS to see what route it would give me through Chicago. It picked I-90 through the Gary-Hammond corridor. I preferred I-80/94. The new toll rates were a killer.

I hope everyone had a good holiday.

2011-12-26T20:58:00.001-06:00

I did. I'm at my daughter's in Pennsylvania. The drive only took me 15 hours - the normal time. Gas prices were relatively low. I haven't added it up, but I think I only spent $80 in gas money on the way out. Tolls were up and are on the rise. At the first of the year, the tolls are going up. I spent $34 coming out here and will spend at least $42 on the way back.

I managed to see my friends, Pete and Marcy, before they headed to England to visit their son. I usually only see them at reunion in the summer when they come to Wisconsin for the alumni board meeting. They don't live too far from my daughter, but our schedules don't normally coincide. The last time I was out here, they had left for Italy the day before.

Tomorrow, my youngest grandson turns 9. I always make sure he has a separate birthday present. I'm buying him a bike helmet as he's getting a new bike.

Have fun and enjoy your gifts. Most of all, enjoy your family and friends.

Happy Monday.

2011-12-19T09:04:00.003-06:00

Since last time - I was at AJ's school twice - once as a sub for her mother and then on Friday as my regular day. Wednesday was fairly quiet, but those kids were really wound up on Friday. The noise level was way up. The boys were really rambunctious, the girls, not so much. Even AJ got called to task.
After school, we went shopping at the dollar store for presents and then we picked up a couple of my former co-workers for lunch.

Saturday, I was supposed to help with gift wrapping at on of the malls, but there was a miscommunication, and Kathleen and I were 2 hours late according to the schedule. We had signed up for 4-6 PM and those were the times we both wrote down. But when we got there, we found out we were on the schedule for 2-4. We made sure to check the schedule for Sunday-- 2-4 as planned.

Sunday, we didn't get busy at the wrap stand until after the game. Too bad the Packers lost. Still, 13 -1 isn't a bad record. After we finished our stint, AJ's mom met us. We found the perfect Santa gift for AJ. She asked for a brown bear from Santa and Kathleen had spotted a bear at the toy store in the mall. It wasn't the right color, but when we got there, there was a brown one in the window. So Katie bought that one. Then we went to dinner.

This morning I dropped my car off to have it checked out for my trip. They called a few minutes ago - everything is solid, no problems. No charge. Merry Christmas, guys. I left a couple of bars of the peppermint soap for the guy at the counter and for the one who checked out my car.

So I'm good to go.

See you next time.

I have no excuse this time.

2011-12-13T18:50:00.002-06:00

My Christmas present to myself arrived. It's a new camera. Now I have to learn to use it. It's a Panasonic digital SLR with lens and filters and stuff. I bought it for higher quality photos for painting.

I made something for someone. It's a surprise so I can't show pictures yet. I can take pictures of the soap I just made based on this Bramble Berry's Cool Yule Peppermint Loaf Soap. I didn't have enough base to make a full loaf so I used a small mold to make individual soaps.

The bars aren't as cool looking as the Bramble Berry ones, but my friends won't care. I'm better at cold process soap, but the time just got away.

I managed to get plastic on the basement windows. Not an easy task when the window frames are rotted. I'm getting new windows in the spring when I get my tax refund.

Speaking of taxes, the bill arrived today. My property tax is up by $26.90. The property value is down again.

My brother sent me a Christmas present. It's usual enough to warrant mention. In my family, if you're not around, you normally don't get presents. Heck, most of the time, you don't get cards.

I have a few more gifts to make and a package to mail.

Greetings.

2011-12-05T12:51:00.001-06:00

It's another Monday in Wisconsin - cloudy, a few snow flurries, cold. The last leaf pickup of the season was done last week.

Things I've been working on - I completed two hats and a cotton bib for the charity knitting group. I'm working on a pair of socks for AJ. I'll be making a gift for my son-in-law.

Since my last post, a former co-worker has died. She was only 38. The cause of death in the paper was listed as illness. Rumor says brain damage. Whatever the cause, she was young. She left behind parents, a husband, and step-children.

Another person I know suffered a stroke and is in intensive care. He's a couple of years older than me. And a friend had a heart attack this past summer while at reunion.

So I need to get off my fat butt and exercise more, and eat better, or the next thing you know, I'll be a vital statistic.

By the way, you'd be proud of me - I haven't played Angry Birds since Wednesday.

2011-11-30T19:02:00.001-06:00

I could tell you that I've been really busy - not that busy. I could tell you I've been sick - not that sick, a couple of days. But in reality, I've been playing Angry Birds. I'm on level 13-4. Hour after hour, flinging birds at pigs. I hate those pigs.

I am knitting a pair of socks for a demo to the knitting group. I did do a painting. I got the well properly abandoned. The city and the state are now happy.

There are mice living in my garage. I found grass seed under my car from a previously unopened bag. There's probably a whole family in my basement by now, but I haven't seen or heard anything from them. It could be that the reason Zydeco hasn't been hungry lately is that the family is getting smaller. So long as nothing gets barfed on my bed, I'm good with it.

And so ends another episode of "As the Blog Bores."

Good grief, where has the time gone?

2011-11-19T17:51:00.001-06:00

Here it is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It seems like time is just rushing by.

So what been happening with me? Well, there's the mice, the leaves, knitting, and of course, the well.

I'll start with the well. It only took a week for the DNR grant to be approved. So I now have funding. The abandonment date is Nov. 30th. The grant is for up to $600 or the invoice cost, which ever is less. The grant will pay 75%. The City will pay up to 50%. So I'm totally covered for the well work. I will still need to pay to have the pit filled in.

I have raked leaves 3 times this month. Okay, only twice just using the rake, and I used the mower for the first run until it ran out of gas and then raked. And there are still more leaves. But the trees are finally bare. I might do a final raking or I might let the leaves lay until spring. The leaves I cleared before are used for compost and mulch. When I went out to the compost bin with kitchen scraps, I noticed that a bunny had already prepared a burrow in the leaf pile next to the leaf compost bin. This pile is the excess that over the course of the year is mixed in with the kitchen and yard waste to make compost in my black bin. The veggie garden and the herb garden are covered in a thick mulch of leaves. They'll be tilled under in the spring except for in the herb garden. That mulch will remain.

I volunteered to teach knitting to children and teens at the public library. Unfortunately only two kids were signed up. For the first session, I tried to teach them how to cast on and do the knit stitch. I thought they were getting the hang of it. At the second session, only the teenager showed up. And her knitting was a mess. We actually had more teachers than students. A couple of women dropped by - one wanted help with dropped stitches and the other wanted to learn to knit. I tried, I really tried, but this woman could not be taught. Everything I showed her or explained to her was met with "You're confusing me." At the third session, the teenager wasn't there, but a woman with two kids who could already knit came by. So we sat and chatted. I have no idea if anyone will show for the last session. I'm still teaching adults to knit at the regular knitting session.

Monday, the 14th, I was going down to the basement to get some peas from the freezer. As I walked down the stairs, I heard squeaking. I looked to my left and saw two mice literally dropping in. I don't know where they came in. It's a different hole than the one I blocked last year. That one is still blocked. When I came back upstairs, I said to the cats, "go get the mice." About an hour later, Nellie is chasing something around the living room. She's catching it and letting it go, catching it and letting it go. And then it gets away from heer and I'm moving furniture and chasing the mouse. It got away.

Wednesday, Nellie was sniffing around a cabinet in the enclosed porch. I looked behind and on the sides of the cabinet - no mouse. I opened one of the doors and there was the mouse looking surprised. I closed the door and went to get something to put the mouse in. (I don't kill them. I usually take them for rides to a wooded area and turn them loose.) I could see the mouse's nose poking through a crack, so I knew she was still there. Her? Later.

I had grabbed a couple of empty cans, one to hold her and a tuna can for a lid. I opened the door and she had disappeared. I moved the cabinet to look under the back area. She ran with Nellie in pursuit. She made the mistake of climbing the legs and braces of AJ's easel. So I grabbed her by the tail. See! That's how I found out she was female - same plumbing hook-up as my cats. I put her in the can and put the tuna can on top as a lid. Dilemma - how to keep her for escaping in my car. I know. I'll drop her into the live trap. It latches. Ha! That was a bright idea that failed. As far as I know she's in the basement, preparing to bring a hoard of little mice into my basement with the help of her partner. Maybe the cats will find the little jellybeans with tails before they get to big. I just hope none of the cats thinks to bring their trophies to me in my bedroom. Been there, done that. To quote Jinks the Cat: "I hates you meeses to pieces."

Should I or shouldn't I?

2011-11-09T20:00:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about signing up for TV again. I don't get good reception, although I suppose that if I got the antenna up on the roof or on an outside wall, reception would be better. I called about cable. I'd like expanded basic but I think $59 plus tax is a bit steep for my current budget.

On another topic, it was really hard to find a notary public on my end of town. I needed to have my application for the well abandonment grant notarized. There were only four notaries listed in the phone book - two on the east side and two on the west. Google listed a few more but none closer to me. I found a notary in an insurance office a couple of miles down the road. She's been a notary for 28 years. She was a sweet old lady who probably doesn't see many people during the day - she was a chatty old bird. I told her about the well, she told me that the banks down the street send her customers but tell them the service is free. She charged $2.00. I thought it would be $5.00.

I looked into becoming a notary myself. I passed the online exam with a score of 98%. It's not expensive to be a Notary Public; it's not something that pays much, although I think the fees listed on the State website haven't been updated since the 60's. But there are responsibilities, record-keeping, liabilities. You have to be bonded, of course. No undisclosed criminal record. Even traffic tickets have to be explained on the application. I'm a person of reasonably good character who tends to go too fast when in a car.

I'll keep thinking about it. Meanwhile, the painting is unfinished and will remain that way, I'm not satisfied with the perspective. I am getting the hang of creating three-dimensional-looking items. More practice.

Rainy day - sunny inside

2011-11-08T16:43:00.001-06:00

I don't have to buy a sticker for the washer. It's gone. I hope that when whomever took it plugs it in, they don't return it. The squeal alone will make them deaf. It's fixable. I just didn't see any point in fixing it when I already had a replacement. I'm glad someone thought they could fix it and use it.

So I'm $35 to the good.

It's not actually sunny in here - it's a dark day and I'm by the window so I don't have to turn on the lights. Not a good day for working on my painting. The best light in my house is not from the north; there's a big tree outside. The south and west windows get the best light.

I am happy, after several years, to have windows on all four sides of the house. In Portage, I had windows on the north, east, and west. On Totenham road, I had windows on the south and west and in Pennsylvania, I'm not sure which way all the windows faced as they were mostly at ground level - three directions anyway.

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow. So I might not get any painting done then either. Or I might have ti break down and turn on a light. We'll see.

Another day in the life

2011-11-07T21:05:00.000-06:00

Saturday, I got my written estimate for the well. I'm thinking about just going ahead with it- half from the city and the rest out of pocket. It will make things a little tough for the end of the year and Christmas. On the other hand, if I wait for the DNR grant, I might get 75% paid. That would take care of any surprises. If I can get an extension form the city, I might not have any out-of-pocket expenses.

Did I mention my washer died? Quite noisily too. A bearing blew and rather than fix it, my son and I dragged it out to the curb and we moved in the one from the garage that I always meant to sell. I have to purchase a $35 sticker so the city will pick up the washer, but at least I don't have to haul it to the recycle place myself.

More stuff.

2011-11-05T20:30:00.002-05:00

Another interesting and disturbing thing happened at the Halloween party. My costume was my usual generic pre-19th century villager costume with a scarf and apron. As the party was breaking up, and I was clearing dishes, one of the party guests mentioned that I had an "Aunt Jemima thing going there." I really didn't know how to respond to that one. I guess I need a new costume or else back to the evil queen.

Wednesday was my last watercolor class. I completed my painting of rocks. I'll have to scan it so I can post it. It's not as bad as it could have been. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Thursday evening was Knit Night at the library. We had 12 people around the table including a blind girl who comes with her mother. Normally at this time of year. we have about 6 people. If everyone has showed up, there would have been 15. I spent my time as usual, teaching newbies to knit. Lately there have been more people showing up to learn to knit. We've always had people wanting to learn or join our group but most of them never come back.

Friday was Nana Day. We started off at the Dream Park for about an hour and a half, then we came back to my house and built a giant leaf pile for AJ to play in. She pulled marigolds to make the yard beautiful. We went for a walk. After the walk, we made muffins and had homemade chicken soup and veggies and dip for supper. After supper, we were picked up by my friend Carol and went to a pottery sale at the same antique store where I bought my table last year. I didn't buy anything, but I had to laugh when I spotted the same type bedroom set my parents had when I was a kid.

Today was spent putting the garden to bed. AJ's leaf pile was raked over the bed as mulch. In the spring, The ground will be tilled and the leaves will return to the soil. The leaves in the bin and the ones still falling will eventually be compost for the garden. And Life goes on.

Quilt pics

2011-11-03T22:17:00.001-05:00

Here is AJ's quilt front - made of strips cut from fat quarters and left over jelly roll. (Fat quarters are 1 yard of fabric cut into 4 rectangles. Each rectangle is a fat quarter yard - rather than a 9-inch strip cut the width of the fabric. A jelly roll is composed of coordinated pre-cut strips rolled up together. )

This is the back made of 9 fat quarters trimmed to fit.

This is my quilt -the back is not pretty. There's a green border and orange binding. It's warm.

These are our snuggle quilts, about twin size.

I think that next year no matter how many people I invite to my Halloween party, I'm only going to prepare food for 10. I was 16 people short this year out of those who said they were coming and only 5 had good excuses. The others just didn't show up. I'll be eating party food for the next week. I managed to give away the layered taco dip, chips, and cheese. I still have a good portion of bean salad and wild rice salad and a lot of shrimp brain. Fortunately the shrimp and its gelled cocktail sauce go well with the leftover stir fry. Next year, I'll make a bloody shrimp heart - much smaller than the brain.

Should you like to gross out your friends, you need a brain shaped mold, two pounds of cooked, tail-less shrimp - defrosted and drained if frozen, a bottle of cocktail sauce, a small can of V-8, and a packet of Knox gelatine.

Dump the shrimp into the mold and pat down into the crevasses. Stir the gelatine into half the cocktail sauce and let sit until dissolved. Heat the V-8 juice to boiling. Pour into the cocktail sauce and stir well. Add the rest of the cocktail sauce, stir and pour over shrimp in mold. Tap to release trapped air bubbles. Refrigerate until serving time. Place mold in hot water for 1 minute to loosen brain. Place a plate on top of the mold and invert. Garnish with red pepper strips to simulate veins.

Good news!

2011-11-02T21:03:00.002-05:00

The well will only cost $430 to abandon. More good news - the city will pay for half. The DNR may pick up the other half. I am waiting for a written estimate. I'm going with a different company because the other guy never got back to me. Plus I'm not sure he knew what he was talking about. The guy today climbed down in the pit and determined that the hole we found was actually a drain and that the well is in the corner directly under the opening. He also measured the depth, which the other guy didn't. and gave me a verbal estimate with the promise of the written estimate in the mail. Tomorrow, I can find a a Notary Public and submit my paperwork. Even if the DNR doesn't have money for the grant this year, I can pick up the tab.

The pit can be filled or built over or whatever I want to do. The other guy was talking about needing to pull a wall down, break up the floor and fill the pit with gravel and or concrete rubble. If we fill it with dirt, I can plant flowers in it until the dirt settles enough to pour concrete.

I know I promised a quilt update. I'll be posting pictures tomorrow along with a bit about my Halloween party (disaster).

Catch up.

2011-10-17T19:03:00.002-05:00

What a week. It was mostly spent wondering if my son would be caught violating the terms of his release because he just can't get it in his head that ultimately it will happen. I'm starting to think of him in the same terms as his dad - Captain Weinerhead. Junior Weinerhead seems to be using the same part to do his thinking.

On to other things:

I finished another small quilt. I should have taken pictures when it was on the line. This quilt is made from a leftover jelly roll and strips cut from fat quarters and yard goods. I used 9 fat quarters to make the back. It's very bright and the back looks almost as good as the front. It's not quite twin bed size but is a good snuggle quilt for AJ. It's the last one I'm making her. Next up - a couple for the adults.

Watercolor class is proceeding. My attempt at painting enlarged marbles was a dismal failure. I probably could have done better painting them life size. I'm trying to paint peppers and not doing too great at that either. Maybe I can do better tomorrow when there's not as much disruption -more on that later.

Thursday, I met my friend for lunch.She's invited me and the boy wonder to Thanksgiving. Should be fun. As we were leaving the coffee shop, I ran into the father of one of junior's friends. He moved from Alaska to Vancouver, BC. I never knew he was Canadian. Can you believe he only pays $60 a month for medical care? What is wrong with the US that we can have reasonable health care for every one?

Okay, on to Friday - I had an appointment at the Sleep Center. I seem to have quite a bit of leakage of air. I'm not sure if it's measuring at the mask, or if the five holes that Claire has punched in the tubing is causing the readings. I had them adjust the pressure downward a bit and we'll see if that helps.

Then, after my appointment, it was off to school. I spent the morning with AJ's class helping the kids make leaf people. Once school was over, AJ and I went to the Dream Park. We had the park all to our selves. We were there for about an hour. We went to her dad's work for lunch, where she saw her aunt and her grandpa, the aforementioned Captain Weinerhead. We then came back to my house and spent the rest of the afternoon working on projects and having bubble fun outside. Mommy came over for pizza and took AJ home.

Saturday, I worked on the quilt - cutting strips and sewing them together. By the time AJ and her dad arrived for the weekend- this is the disruption - I had the top completed. (By the terms of his release, he can't go back to his apartment. He decided that living with an alcoholic was not going to be the brightest thing since it was alcohol that got his into his mess. Hence - my house.) AJ was all set to sleep under the top but I managed to convince her to wait until Sunday.

Sunday, I finished the quilt, got it all tied and AJ slept under it Sunday night. I hadn't prewashed most of the fabrics, so I washed the quilt to get the sizing and a faint dye smell out of it.

Today, even though it was still a "Daddy day," I spent a lot of it with AJ. We raked pine needles, and did more bubbles and she helped me put laundry away. But now it's quiet. There's no one here but me and the cats.

Offspring has been sprung.

2011-10-11T18:49:00.000-05:00

Finally, the Boy Wonder is out of jail. I hope he learned something.

I've been taking a class in watercolor painting. As a treat, I'm going to let you see the first painting I've done on my own. Feel free to laugh.


Apple, tomato and lemon

It's was supposed to be two apples and an orange. Practice. Practice. Practice.

What a weekend.

2011-10-09T17:09:00.001-05:00

It began with the phone ringing at 5:57 AM Saturday. I looked at the caller ID - Texas call. Ignored it. At around 7:30, the phone rang again - Texas call. Okay, maybe it's one of my cousins who lives in Texas calling to tell something happened to one of her parents. I answered the phone - "collect call from Chris" who's in "The Dane County Jail." WTF? "Press 5 to accept." So the kid is in jail for disorderly conduct, but he insisted he didn't do anything. I could tell he'd been drinking and was possibly still drunk. And he's stuck in there until he can see a judge on Monday. He wanted me to call and let AJ's mom know he won't be picking AJ up and to let his Dad know he won't be at work.

This started a whole series of calls, first from his stepmother, and then from his dad. The stepmother thought he was in the local equivalent of Attica and someone would make Chris his bitch. She called back to find out if he will get fed. She's afraid for Chris because there are criminals in the jail. I refrained from pointing out he's now one. She wanted to know if I was going to visit him because she'd like to come along. I refrained from telling her he already knows I'm going to let him stew in his own juice. That's always been the deal - any calls from jail, he's on his own.

Then his dad called - not at a reasonable hour, but after alcohol has seeped into every brain cell (10:30 PM, 11:00 PM). I ignored the first two calls. At the third call, I decided to kill the ringer on the phone. Unknown, or at least unremembered, at 11:30 at night, I actually had two phones with me. So the I figured he's not going to give up until I talked to him. But all I could tell him was what I knew - there was a fight between him and his girlfriend, someone called the cops, he called me so I could notify those who needed to know. I got him off the phone by telling him AJ was asleep next to me and she knew nothing about this.

Chris called me today (Sunday) and gave me a little more detail. He might be in worse trouble than at first.

Most of Saturday was spent as a usual Nana-day. AJ and I went to the Dream Park, where she met a little girl near her age to play with. We were there from about 10:30 until 2:00. We came back to my house and played with Legos and watched Spongebob. We went out side to the sandbox and I got out the chalk for drawing on the concrete.

After a bit, AJ announced she wanted to work on a project. We went upstairs and she decorated a tongue depressor for her cousin and dressed more clothespin dolls. Oma came by with the cousins, and we went back to the Dream Park where the kids played for another hour or two. Then we went to McDonalds for dinner.

Oma took the 3 back to her house for baths. I went over to take AJ's pajamas and we sat and watched part of Stuart Little 2. About 15minutes into the movie, Mad Max was asleep on the floor. 10 minutes later, AJ was out. And Alex was being led to bed.

I spent a rather leisurely Sunday morning waiting for either Oma or AJ's mom to pick up the overnight bag. Finally, I put the bag on the porch and left. I went to the Vietnamese grocery and got my oils and stopped at the pizza place next door to see my friend. Then I took my plastic bags to the recycle bins. When I got home, the bag was still there, so I called. they forgot. But they were going apple picking and would stop to get the bag.

I was persuaded to join them and so I picked apples and ate apples. I think that among the 6 of us - 3 adults and 3 kids, we probably consumed 2 pounds of apples. I know I had at least 3 of different varieties and the kids ate at least two apiece. We spent $38 on about 50 pounds of apples. I only took about 3 pounds because I already had 5 pounds in the refrigerator. I think I'll make an apple pie.

Well, there's a well.

2011-10-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

The city water quality inspector came out yesterday (Wednesday), but I didn't hear him knock. I thought I heard something outside and it was probably him, but I didn't go check. So I called today and yes, I definitely have a well. Tuesday, a guy from a local plumbing place is coming out to give an estimate so I can complete my DNR grant application. The company was on the list of qualified well drillers and he's in town. I can't imagine his estimate would be any different from anyone else on the list.

The city will pay 50% of the cost up to $1000, the DNR grant will pay another percentage. I hope I don't have too much out-of-pocket cost to pay and that the money will cover the cost of filling in the pit and restoring the concrete. We'll see.

Well. Well. Well. Well. Well.

2011-10-04T19:01:00.000-05:00

So as I mentioned here and here, there may or may not be a well that needs abandonment. Today, the concrete guy came and cut a larger hole in the slab covering the pump pit or whatever. Yuck-o. He (the owner, Erin) climbed down in the hole, and with the help of the 3 guys he brought along, cleaned out the pit.

I now know where paint cans go to die. There were at least 20 pulled out of there, including one with blue paint and an extremely thin bottom that exploded everywhere when lifted out. Most of the cans were so rusted that they were mere shells. We loaded them into plastic bags and eventually I'll need to make a trip to the land fill.

My trashcan is full of all kinds of crap - rusty curtain rods, two dish drainers and their drainboards, and whatever was shoveled into 5-gallon pails and then dumped into the can. I also have an old green trash can that is full of paint cans and other bits and pieces. The contractor also left two 5-galon pails of semi-liquid waste - mostly paint sludge and water, I think.

As the it was emptied out, a hole appeared in the floor. Damn - there's well. I have to put in a call to the water works and get an inspector out. I also will need to contact a well digger and get an estimate once the inspector verifies that the hole is indeed a well. (I'm hoping it's just an old floor drain to the sewer.) The pit's been hosed down and I used my pump to get most of the water out.

Even though the estimate was $250 to cut the slab, I paid Erin $300 because it was worth it for the work done. After all, if the guys hadn't cleaned out the pit, I'd have to work around various people's schedules to get it done.

Cat barf and a rainbow.

2011-10-02T20:51:00.000-05:00

The good thing about having no carpet is that the cat barf is still liquidy and easy to pick up. The bad thing about no carpet is the cat barf is still liquidy and cold when stepped on.

Just sayin'.


Rainbow over Lake Ripley Sept. 4, 2011

Quilt update. Watercolor. Trees.

2011-10-01T20:55:00.000-05:00

Finally started tying my quilt. There's still a chunk to be done, but if a cat barfs on it, the batting won't shift when I wash it. Don't laugh it happens waaay too often in this house. No sooner had I put the clean anti-cat barf cover (slipcover) back on the couch when one of them barfed on it again. Back to the quilt. I wasn't thinking of quilting when I bought this place. There is literally no place large enough except my bed to layout a quilt. This causes problems like the one I discovered while doing the binding - there's a place where the binding managed to get trimmed too small so the edge is pulled in a bit. I guess that will be part of its charm.

I was doing a leaf study to practice my watercolor painting. I forgot to put the leaves away when I went to bed and got up Friday morning to leaf barf on the floor. Fun. At least I didn't step in it. I found my old watercolor tubes when cleaning up the craft room. Some were hard and some are squeezable. If I cut open the tubes of the hard stuff, I might be able to salvage the colors. I also found a pad of watercolor paper.

Thursday was really windy. I went out yesterday to pick up twigs and branches. I swear that those trees wait until I'm done to shake down more. I hauled a wheelbarrow full of twigs and small branches to the winter brush pile and dragged several 2-4 inch diameter branches to the street. They just picked up my trimmings last week. Now I have another pile.

Also on Thursday, I spent a couple of hours as a volunteer with AJ's 4-year kindergarten class. I was in charge of hand prints and shaving cream. There was a flat pan of green paint that the kids were to put their hands in and then they were to make hand-shaped leaves on their Autumn tree. The shaving cream was in a large tub for the children to explore the tactile sensation of the shaving cream. I also added some green paint to that for them to mix in. I think each child spent about 5 minutes doing each exercise. The room is set up in centers so 3-4 kids will be at a different station trying something new. This may become my regular Thursday gig.

Air conditioners. Cats. Knitting. Class

2011-09-29T20:44:00.002-05:00

Monday, the male offspring came over to use my printer, and to get the air conditioners out of the windows for me. It feels so much warmer now with all the windows shut. Plus the Box Elder bugs are swarming, looking for a way into the house for the winter.

It's been rainy and cool the last couple of days and I haven't done too much besides knit on the hat I'm making for knitting group and clean up after the cats - no more pee, thank goodness. Tuesday night, Claire attacked my hose to the CPAP. Now I have a tiny hole that whistles. Annoying. I have to locate the hole and put some tape over it. I locked the cats out of the bedroom Wednesday night and have had no issues with Claire -yet.

Wednesday evening, I had my first watercolor class. Supplies are provided for class but you can't bring them home for practice. So today, I spent $45 on watercolor supplies, mostly paper and some tubes of paint. I already have a few dozen brushes, some mixing trays, and some cake watercolors, Crayola watercolor sets, tape and an acrylic slab to use to tape down the paper. I grabbed a few leaves from outside and am working on the techniques we learned yesterday - painting positive space and negative space. That's painting the shape of the leaf (positive) and painting the paper to suggest the shape of the leaf (negative).

When painting the leaf, I have to mix colors to match the leaf. That's pretty tricky, especially with inexpensive paints. It's hard to get enough color mixed to complete the image. That's why I want to practice. Watercolors aren't like the oils and acrylics I'm used to working with. You can't just squeeze out more paint and get it to work.

It should be fun learning and it's the one thing that's been on my list of stuff to learn.

From the back seat

2011-09-25T21:35:00.003-05:00

"Nana, I'm writing a word. What's that letter that's a straight line?"
"I?"

"No, not with a dot. It goes up and down."
"L."
A bit later.

"I finished my word."
"What is it?"
"I don't know. I can't read. Can you read it to me so I know what my picture is?"

Thursday and Friday

2011-09-24T21:05:00.001-05:00

Thursday afternoon bright idea: rip out the living room carpet. So I wrestled the desk and table and assorted electrical things to the middle of the room, and started slicing carpet. After about an hour I had a third of the carpet and padding up and had started pulling the tack strips and staples. I repeated the pushing furniture around, including emptying 3 bookcases and stacking books, until I had removed all the carpet and padding in 3 strips. I removed staples and tack strips.

The hardest part was removing the padding by the door. It had originally been taped down at the edges but whatever plastic the padding was backed with, fused to the floor. It took longer to remove a 3-foot by 3-foot square of padding than removing the original carpet and padding. I had to use a putty knife to peel up the padding, Goo Gone and the putty knife to scrape the sticky stuff, and WD 40 to remove the residue left by the Goo Gone reaction.

The floor isn't too bad. There are a couple of patched areas that need to be stained and I have to paint and apply molding at the baseboards.

So, what go you think?

Picture from last year

After carpet removal

Cat story

2011-09-22T10:12:00.001-05:00

A while back, I said I would tell you a cat story. Zydeco, the original scaredy-cat, the cat who spent the first six months I was in this house, under a cabinet and who then moved under the sink, went outside on her own and walked around. She did not scream in panic; she didn't run immediately for the door. No, she walked across the outside basement door, jumped onto the grass, came back and walked around to the back of the house and then, when I opened the door, she went in. I was amazed.

Normally, if I tried to take her out, even in a carrier, she would scream as though I were removing parts from her. She's been a lot more social since the early days as well. She still runs if someone comes to the door, but she comes right back.

Well.

2011-09-22T10:02:00.001-05:00

Step one accomplished - $250 to punch a hole in the slab so we can clean out the pit. Bargain. The contractor is so intrigued, he volunteered a couple of his guys to go down there. He doesn't think there's an old well there. He thinks it was a storage space. We won't know until the space is cleaned out. So sometime in the next two weeks, I'll have my entry hole and the cleanup can begin. Once the inspector takes a look, I can proceed to the next step. If I'm lucky, step two can be fill the hole and slab it over. However, I'm rarely that lucky.

I've had a busy week. As you know, Monday was my birthday - not great, but I was off my meds. I didn't have any money for a refill. That's taken care of.

Tuesday - Dr. appointment. I'm not going bald in the back. It just feels thinner. In the evening, I attended the Open House at AJ's school. I met her teacher, Miss Penny and even volunteered to help out as needed on Thursday mornings. Oma volunteered for Fridays and AJ's mom volunteered for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's a nice school, walking distance for AJ and her mom.

Wednesday - I transplanted the second hosta and a groundcover plant that I can't remember the name of. The next time I'm at the garden center, I'll have to ask. Any way, about the groundcover - I have a stump in the front yard and every summer since I moved in, I've put clay pots of flowers on it along with a bottomless wooden box filled with dirt and plants. The moisture from the planters has hastened to disintegration of the stump. Yesterday, I dug out the loosened wood in the center, filled it with dirt and that's where I put the creeper. It looks like it's doing fine.

Caught.

2011-09-20T20:50:00.003-05:00

The city sent me a letter about the well abandonment. In case you don't remember, here's the short version:

The city was looking for abandoned wells in my neighborhood. I called and reported a covered hole that could be something. The guy came and checked. Yeah it's probably a well, but he left a note saying he wasn't certain because there was debris in the way.

When I got home, I pulled the cover off and yep, debris - a dish drainer, paint cans, a ski pole, and a lot of trash bags and what looks like compost. Nasty. What I thought was a concrete patio laid on dirt is actually the roof of a room. The covered hole isn't large enough for any human to climb down and the former basement access is filled with concrete blocks.

So I have 90 days from the date of the letter to take care of this. I left messages with a couple of concrete companies to give estimates for removing the slab. I guess everyone is out finishing up jobs before winter. I hope I get some calls back. I filled out application forms for the Dept. Natural Resources for a grant for the work.

Once the slab is gone and we get the debris out, I hope the inspector finds a properly abandoned well. Then I'll lay some joists across the opening and build a porch.

Wish me luck.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm sixty-four?

2011-09-19T22:07:00.002-05:00

And the answer is - no. Lucky thing I can take care of my self. By the way, it's my birthday and I'm 64. And I'm cleaning house because it smells like a crazy cat lady lives here. I haven't been keeping up with the housework. So much for birthdays.

New chairs.

2011-09-16T18:29:00.003-05:00

This is the dining corner of my living room. The table is a Duncan Pfyfe mahogany drop-leaf table which I purchased at an antique store in Stoughton back in the spring. My old chairs were a paint-splattered maple chair left over from a maple dining set, and a couple of birch folding chairs. The round dining set took up too much room so I gave it to my son and AJ's mom. I was then using a small tile-topped table which was too small for family dinners. I found this table with a $99 price sticker and another, smaller sticker which read "25% off." So I only paid $77 something with tax.

For this table, I'm going to get a board cut to size to use as a leaf. The difference in wood won't be noticed with a tablecloth. The other two chairs that will be used with this table are the old maple chair, and a mahogany side chair found at the Dig-and-Save, both of which have been painted the same dark brown as the two in the picture.

The Dig-and-Save chair was very carefully examined for signs of bug life and critters. I removed the old cushion fabric and foam padding. The padding got a wash in a pail of hot soapy water and hung over the clotheslines in the sun for a couple of days. The chair looks good with the new cushion. Its home is at my desk until used for dining service. The maple chair is upstairs at the sewing table until needed. When I have more than 4 people, I will bring up the folding chairs.

Interesting - the way the light is reflected makes the paint job look uneven, as though I used a different shade of paint and didn't finish the one side.

I interrupt my irregularly scheduled posting to ask...

2011-09-14T18:59:00.001-05:00

...where the hell did these bruises come from? I have a huge one on my upper left arm and a smaller one on the side of my left knee. The one on my shoulder is the size of my hand and very weird looking in shape. I can't begin to guess what caused that one. The one on my knee is the size of a quarter.

I know why my back and shoulders hurt - edging the driveway, planting phlox. But the bruises are a mystery. My head is starting to hurt too. Well, more tomorrow. I think I'll head to bed. And I hope the spider doesn't make an appearance.

Night all.

Busy.

2011-09-13T20:00:00.003-05:00

I finally got rid of the awkward corner of the flowerbed out front. The stone border now makes a gentle curve around to the side. The bed is larger, but not as large as it would have been if I had just straightened the blocks. I've already dumped in 3 bags of top soil and 1 of compost. I need another 3 bags of soil and another compost. I moved one of the hostas by the mailbox. The other will be moved as soon as I get more dirt. I moved a hydrangea to a better spot and have to move the other after I move the last hosta. Then I'll dig up the lavenders and move them around, plant some phlox I was given today, and find the daffodils and cluster them, That should take care of the perennials.

Next spring, I will get some more lavender started so I can plant it on the slope near the end of the driveway. If I can get a border of lavender there, I won't have to mow the slope. If lavender doesn't work, I can always grow oregano or catnip, both of which are taking over other parts of the yard.

I spent part of the day looking for the edge of my driveway. I haven't edged it before now and apparently neither did the previous owner. I found it about 6 inches away from what I thought was the edge. So far, I've only gotten about 20 feet done on the one side, about 45 more to do, Then the other side needs to be done. I filled the wheelbarrow.

I took a load of yard waste to the drop-off site. They have garbage masher trucks there that you just throw the weeds and clippings in. Periodically they mash it down and when the truck is full, they take it to the compost site and dump it. I have a sticker now so I don't have to check in every time. I have three more bags to take tomorrow. There's a limit of one trip a day, regardless of size. So I could have taken a trailer load, a pickup truck full, or as I did - three bags in my trunk. One car came in with two big trash cans in the trunk and a tub in the back seat.

Next time, pictures of my new chairs, a cat story, and a progress report on my quilt. And I'll let you know if I find the big black hairy spider.

Followup to insurance snafu

2011-09-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

As you may remember, in my post of September 3rd, I mentioned a letter from my health insurer. I called last Tuesday, and as I suspected, the letter was a result of being moved from active to retired. My new medical card arrived Saturday with my new group number. I also got the letter about my premium. It's about $150 more than expected. I'm going to run out of money sooner than I planned. I hope those bozos in Washington will eventually work out an insurance plan for the country before I turn 70.

Oh yeah, if the Zombie Apocalypse occurs before 2012, head for your state's capitol to hide out, but don't be obvious about it. The zombies know there's no brains to be found there so you should be safe.

September 11th

2011-09-11T09:03:00.002-05:00

I was at work when the towers went down. The 11th was a day of shock and disbelief. When I first hear of the plane hitting the building, I thought it was some small plane that had gotten lost and then buffeted by the winds that twirl around the skyscrapers. Then I saw the video. A woman with whom I rode the bus, had had a son-in-law in the south tower. When I saw her, she hadn't heard if he was alive or dead. I still don't know what happened to him because the next day, I started carpooling.

I personally don't believe in memorializing death by violence. I believe it keeps the hate and mistrust alive. Of course I don't believe in visiting the dead in cemeteries, either. So I'm just weird that way. But I'll say a prayer for the repose of the souls of all who died, either in the planes and buildings or in the wars that followed.

Peace be with you.

Why do I always get the bad news when I can't take care of it?

2011-09-03T21:51:00.001-05:00

Today, I received a letter from my health insurance informing me that as of 8/31/2011, I am no longer covered. Not true, but I can't contact anyone until Tuesday. Hopefully by then, the payment will have reached them and it will be settled. The premium now comes out of my converted sick leave and I'm not sure what department is supposed to be paying it.

I guess I better be very careful just in case.

On a lighter note, AJ was over. We were painting and the orange paint was very thick. I thinned it out. While I was dealing with that, AJ's dad called to let me know what time he was picking her up. She asked that I call him back so she could talk to him. Part of the conversation: "Daddy, we need to go shopping and get some new orange paint. Nana is almost out. .... Uh huh. Uh huh. Nana, Daddy says just mix yellow and red."

Cat Magnet

2011-09-02T22:11:00.000-05:00

My new computer is a cat magnet. Or maybe just a Zydeco magnet. Every time I start something on here, Zydeco jumps up and plunks herself down on the keyboard. This computer has a button so I can turn off the touchpad to prevent random events. But if I forget to lock the touchpad, Zydeco cuts, pastes, skews, and just generally interferes with what I'm doing. She sent a half-written email yesterday, turned the game I was playing sideways (it took me awhile to figure that one out) and deleted most of a post.

Now I've started closing the laptop if I move away from it and switching to solitaire when she jumps up, although she will deal extra cards if the touchpad is active.

CPAP Machine. Bicycling. Lunch

2011-08-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, I had an appointment to take the CPAP machine in for a reading and a resetting. My stats looked good, my average pressure was 9.5%, or however it's measured. So the machine was reset to pump air at 9.6% or whatever pressure. It wasn't too different feeling,so I managed. I was up at 7:30, fed the cats and made my bed. Good start to the day.

A woman I used to work with, and who retired shortly after me, called and asked where we were meeting for lunch. I suggested a cafe down the road from me. I decided riding my bike wouldn't be too hard, at least going there. The way back might be a little difficult. I haven't ridden my bike for almost three years. Why I thought it was a good idea today- don't know!

Getting to the cafe was a breeze - it was almost all downhill. Sandy was there when I arrived. She had had to drop her husband off for an appointment and decided there wasn't enough time to go back home. So she had gotten to the cafe early. I locked up at the bike rack and went in. We ordered lunch and sat and talked. I had my favorite sandwich - turkey on a caraway rye bread with cranberry cheese spread, topped with greens with vinaigrette dressing. we sat and talked until the cafe closed at 3:30 and then talked a bit longer outside.

Biking home was not too bad. I took a different route home - one where the hill was lower. I had to get off near the top and walk up to the cross street, but that was only about a 60 foot distance - the width of a front yard. So not bad. I biked the rest of the way home which was relatively level. I think I need to do a little more every day. Typical me - wait until late in the season to start biking.

Have fun.

Dried tomatoes. Tomato puree and pizza. Cat medication, New Computer

2011-08-29T17:43:00.000-05:00

Jacked up the electric bill yesterday by drying 3 trays of tomatoes. That was enough to fill a quart canning jar. They should last through the winter. I need more ripe tomatoes to make puree for pizza sauce for the winter. AJ loves to help make pizza. I make puree instead of just pizza sauce because sometimes I like to use the puree for other dishes. Besides, I put the puree in pint jars which are too large for sauce for one pizza and the puree is thinner than the sauce. For pizza sauce, I usually reduce the puree by half or more to get a thick pizza sauce.

Pizza Sauce

Pint jar of tomato puree (2 Cups)
1 tbs. olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely minced, or put through a garlic press
Salt, Italian seasoning to taste

Simmer tomato puree, olive oil, seasoning, and garlic in small saucepan until thick and reduced to about half its original volume. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. Turn off heat and let cool to about 100 degrees. (If you can stick your finger in the sauce without burning yourself, it's cool enough.)

Pizza Dough

Hopefully, you know something about making bread because this recipe may need adjustment depending on whether you like Chicago pan style or thin crust. You can get a 12 inch pan style or maybe a large, extra large, thin crust. Here we go:

1 package dry yeast or 1 tbs from a jar.
1 cup of warm water, not straight for the tap, cold water, heated to about 100 degrees - maybe 25 - 35 seconds in the microwave.

2 Tbs olive oil.
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour, bread flour's okay, part whole wheat and white, all white, you choose.
Optional: 1/2 tsp. sugar
Add water to mixing bowl. Add yeast and stir, let sit for 5 minutes for yeast to develop - you can add a 1/2 tsp. of sugar to the water to hasten the process, if you want. Add olive oil, salt and 1 cup of the flour. Stir until all the flour is incorporated. Add more flour and mix until you have a soft dough. Don't use a hand mixer for this - it's not powerful enough. Toward the end, you'll have to knead by hand unless you have a dough machine of some sort. Once the dough is kneaded, pat it into shape in, or on, your pan or baking sheet.

I make my pizza on a 10-inch cast iron griddle because I don't have a pizza stone or pan. The griddle gives a nice crust. How you assemble yours and what you put it on will differ. I grease the grease with a light coating of olive oil, sort of a smear. I use a pizza roller to roll the dough from the center to the edges. My crust is thinner than pan style but no a thin crust.

Then I put the sauce on the dough and spread it from edge to edge. On the sauce, I layer pepperoni, and then thin-sliced, pre-cooked Italian sausage (from links). Then my veggies - thin-sliced onions, mushrooms, green peppers, and for AJ, black olives. I top the whole thing with at least 6 oz. of finely shredded mozzarella and bake in a 400 degree oven until the cheese melts and the high spots get a little brown.

Friday - I had to take Claire to the vet. I had gone out to knitting and then to a club to here my neighbor's jazz band play. When I got home and got into bed, I noticed a cool spot down by the foot. I got out of bed, felt the comforter and took a sniff - cat pee. I stripped the bed but since it was after midnight, didn't feel like making it. I closed the bedroom door and slept on the couch. Friday morning, I called the vet and was lucky enough to get an appointment for the afternoon. The upshot is I have to give the cat a pill, twice a day.

The first time, it took almost 15 minutes to get the pill into her. Then I got smart. The second time, I gave her some treats. It's gotten easier. I let her smell the treats first, she gets her pill, and I hand-feed her the treats. The first time I put my fingers near her mouth, she bit me. She does better now.

I bought a new computer. I didn't need a new computer, but my son did need one for school. I had thought about buying him one, but then I figured, I'd get a new laptop for me and give him the old one. The bad thing about giving away my computer, is that I forgot to copy my bookmarks. Maybe he'll stop by after class tonight with the laptop so I can get them. Silly me.

Not much sleep. The Milwaukee Zoo. Cookies and College.

2011-08-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

What a week. Seriously - not much sleep in spite of the machine or maybe because of it. Or more likely, the room is too stuffy because the one window that could be opened at night has an air conditioner in it. The other window faces the highway and there's too much noise to keep the window open at night. I never realized how noisy it is. It seems like every hour, there's a firetruck, police car, or ambulance racing down the highway. Anyway, I've been tired.

Friday, I had some former co-workers over for dinner. AJ came by because Jen brought her 20 month-old girl. AJ was very well-behaved considering she had sand thrown at her. Her fork was tossed in the sandbox, her blueberries stolen and she got whacked in the head. But she was a pretty good sport about it. Both girls got a bit tired around their normal bedtime. AJ just went in the house and found something to do.

She missed the excitement when one of Nana's tiki torches caught fire. I guess I didn't screw the top on the plastic bottle tight enough and after I lit the torch, the top slipped and the wick touched the cage part at the top and the whole thing caught fire. I'm sure Carol will post the pictures on Facebook. It was a good laugh. I dragged the hose over and put out the fire and then blew out the other torch that had the same kind of bottle.

Saturday, Carol treated me and AJ to a day at the Milwaukee Zoo. They were having behind-the-scenes tours for animal sponsors and their guests. We toured the elephant quarters, found out about their feeding and training and even saw a couple of paintings done by one of the elephants. Then we toured the giraffe compound. AJ even asked a question about how giraffes eat.

The most interesting tour was the bird's kitchen. There was a display of various types of ingredients for the various species - mealworms, dead baby mice, smelts, different kinds of fruits, ground meats, rats, crickets. After that tour, we went out for lunch and AJ had chicken strips and steak fries - a large meal for a 4 year-old but she managed to eat quite a bit. We split a root beer and headed back to the zoo for a walk though the big cat exhibit and then a train ride around the park.

We stopped for frozen custard on the way home. AJ wanted strawberry but the concoction they had was a sort of shortcake/custard melange with caramel suace. Not quite whar she wanted. Since I had already ordered, I wound up eating 2 cones of custard, while AJ had plain vanilla.

Today, I baked cookies for some of my school-bound family. I'll be mailing a box of Nana's Best to the Freshman in PA, I handed a bagful to the 31 year-old who starts class at Madison College tomorrow, and I have some for AJ, who starts 4-year kindergarden. I need to get more sugar and butter to make some for the High School Junior and his little brother. And of course, I need some to fortify me for Watercolor class.

The CPAP machine seems to be having an effect..

2011-08-20T10:01:00.003-05:00

I slept most of the night and didn't wake up at 2:55 for my nightly pee break.There were no kitties in my room and AJ slept on the couch. This is the first time AJ didn't sleep in Nana's bed. What a big girl.

We had had a pleasant afternoon. She had me get the little pool out of the garage and she played in the water for a while. I set up her marble race game outside on a board and we raced marbles down the different ramps. After that, we played in the sandbox. At 4:30, AJ fed the cats and then helped me make meatballs. She chopped the peppers using the chopper, put the veggies in a bowl, added the Italian seasoning, and even broke an egg into the bowl. She used her hands to mix the meat, egg,and veggies together. When she decided she was done, she washed her hands without be told. I finished mixing up the meat mixture and formed the meatballs.

After supper, I invited a couple of neighbors over and we sat around the firepit, getting eaten by mosquitos, and burning marshmallows.

Good Morning.

2011-08-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

I slept somewhat better last night. I'm up before 9. Bed's made. Actually the bed is made every day.

Just found out what the staff meeting was about yesterday - the library is cutting way back on staff and sending the print materials to storage and then merging with another campus library. My friends there will most likely be scattered all over campus as their jobs are being shifted elsewhere. I've become more positive that I got out at a good time, even though the break-up is not going to take until spring of 2013. My original plan was to retire in 2012. This way I miss the heavy lifting involved in moving materials. I figured my job would be eliminated, and so it is. That's why it was never posted for hire.

Did I ever mention that my bus pass was confiscated the last time I tried to use it? I had been told I could keep it until it expired at the end of August. More incorrect information. Plus, I doubt if the medical school will be giving me emeritus status. It's something I was entitled to ask for, having worked on campus more than 20 years. Ah well. I didn't really expect it. It would have been nice to keep my bus pass privileges which was all I wanted.

I'm wireless again. I bought a new router. As soon as I find the receipt for the other one, I'm going to send it back for replacement. It shouldn't have failed in only 6 months unless it died the heat death of the universe. It did get up to almost 100 degrees upstairs one day. I wasn't home to turn on the air conditioner. The new router is currently on the floor in the living room.

AJ is 4 today.

2011-08-17T11:40:00.000-05:00

Birthday Girl on Steam Train ride Aug. 8th.

And I'm in trouble. For the last year and a half, I've been telling her she has to be 4 to learn to use Nana's spinning wheel. Now she's 4.

I promised to tell about my sleep experience last night. I don't think any sleep happened. It will probably be easier tonight, but last night was worse than when I did the sleep monitor. In reality, I probably got about 3 hours of real sleep and spent the rest of the time breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out in time to the pump. The monitor will probably show sleep where none occurred because of this. Thatt happened with the sleep monitor - it showed almost 8 hours of sleep when I was staring at the ceiling most of the night.

I'm waiting for an email from my firend Carol. There is an all-staff meeting this morning. Wednesday mornings are not a usual time for staff meetings. Something is up.

More tomorrow.

Wireless still down...

2011-08-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

...but at least I can get to the internet now. For a few days, my internet access through the DSL modem was being blocked by the networking program. I unplugged everything and rebooted, so here I am, wired in again.

I still haven't done much, although I did get hoarder heaven cleaned up - well mostly. There's still work to be done but I can walk around up there now without stepping on stuff. The floor is clear and most stuff is put where it belongs. I filled my 65 gallon trash can and my 65 gallon recycle bin. There are some electronics to be taken for recycling. Fortunately, the Restore has some bins for those. There are two boxes of books to be put in the garage for sorting and a box of stuff for the Dig and Save.

In sleep related news, I picked up the CPAP machine. I tried a couple of masks and decided on the nose pillows. The mask that covered my nose was giving me an anxiety attack. Before I go to bed, I'll walk around with the assembly on my face to ease into actually sleeping with it.

I'll let you tomorrow how that worked.

Wireless is down.

2011-08-11T12:35:00.000-05:00

No Netflix. No sitting on he couch with the laptop. Quelle Bummer.

Happy Campers was last weekend. Every year, there are fewer and fewer people in attendance and every year it looks closer and closer to the set of Deliverance. My friend's sister has some of redneckiest-looking children and grandchildren imaginable. I keep expecting banjos in the background. Saturday night was Gene's retirement party Funny thing, only one person from his workplace showed up. Almost everyone else was a relative of either Gene or Joanie Three neighbors came by and the guy from the Kwikee Mart. All in all, there might have only been only 400 teeth in the crowd and 26 of them were mine. No wisdom teeth, 1 was removed for crowding and the other was pulled a long time ago and I don't remember why. More then likely because I couldn't afford a crown.

And as always, we got a downpour Sunday morning. No campers' stew this year; there weren't enough people around to justifiy making it. AJ missed camping this year because he family wwent to Milwaukee and couldn't give me a time they were coming back. When AJ's mom did call me, I had already left and didn't get the message until 4:30 AM.

It got a bit drunk out - I actually drank 8 Mike's Hard Lemonades - that's more than I usually drink all summer. I finished the last one at around 4. I was the last to bed, crawling into my tent at 6:30. At 8:30, I got up because the rednecks-in-training were already running loose. I packed up and left around 2 because I had a picnic at 4, but when I got home, I decided not to attend. I really didn't feel like hanging around politicians before the recall elections.

The Sleep Center

2011-08-05T13:09:00.000-05:00

July 19th, I had an appointment at the Sleep Center. I arrived on time, joined my fellow non-sleepers for an explanation of how to use the home monitor. There were several forms to complete about my health history, my sleep habits, how much caffeine I had during the day, medications I was on, which medications I took before bedtime. I filled those forms out, hooked up the equipment and went to bed. I had to note any times I got up during the night and why. At some point, the oxygen electrode pulled out of the machine. I plugged it back in and went back to bed.

I had to return the monitor before noon, in order not to be charged for it. I did that and mentioned that the electrode had come loose. I went to my former work place and had lunch with my friends. After I returned home, I got a call from the center. There were no readings. I had to be rescheduled and if there were no results this time, I would have to pay for both tests. What fun.

I was rescheduled for Tuesday of this week. This time, I met with the tech who reviewed the equipment and plugged in the oxygen electrode for me. I only had two forms this timee - the one for where I listed how much caffeine and medications and the one to complete the next morning about how I slept. Nothing pulled out and I returned the equipment.

Thursday I got a call from the center - I had 15 "events" per hour and my oxygen level dropped below 90%. The events were hesitations in my breathing. That's right gang - I have sleep apnea. The next step is to be set up with a CPAP machine to keep me fully oxygenated while I sleep. The machine is a pump that pushes air to the back of my throat while I sleep. I will need to wear a mask over my nose and mouth every night to sleep. I have no idea for how long. Other than bladder issues, I shouldn't be waking up at night any more. We'll see.

2011-08-04T12:21:00.000-05:00

Monday, I received my first retirement payment. Now it's official. I'm retired. I made a quilt top inspired by the Jelly Roll 1600 , except that instead of one jelly roll, I used strips from 3 separate small rolls, bought in different stores. I'm going to use a bright green as a border and bind it in orange. The backing will be pieced from various scraps.
I backed up as far as I could to take this picture and the bottom two rows are cut off, but you get the idea. (It's a very small house.) I have other fabric to make AJ a new quilt.

Tuesday, I bought those cabinets for the kitchen at the Restore for $75 plus tax.The one for over the refrigerator is different from the one I originally chose. It was $5 cheaper, the same size, and has a sliding tray inside.

The Restore had one of their volunteers load the cabinets into my friend's van. He had a slight problem lifting the cabinets in - he had to be at least 75. Not saying older guys can't lift. But it took me way less time to lift them out of the van and put them in the garage than it took him to put them in.I also found a round patio block to go under the bird bath. No more knocking the bird bath over when I mow.

After my trip to the restore, I did some cleaning, I watered the garden, and did the little pool. Then it was time to leave for the Sleep Center. I don't think I told you about my first experience with them. That will be a different post. I decided to take the bus since I have a bus pass. It was actually a series of buses. The 16 to the East Transfer Point, the 3 to the West Transfer Point and a walk up and over the hill to the sleep center - about a mile. I got my monitor and walked back over the hill to the transfer point, caught another 3 to campus. I got off, walked 2 blocks, and caught the 38 - my normal bus home when I worked and rode home - well, 2 blocks from home. I really didn't have to walk 2 blocks to catch the 38, there was another stop closer to where I got off the 3, but when the 38 stops where I caught it, there's only about 6 people on it. It fills up quickly after that.

Final name change...

2011-07-31T13:27:00.000-05:00

...the former Babycakes, Tilly the Toddler, Almost-4 is henceforth and forever referred to as AJ. It's her name after all - more or less.

Yesterday after that conversation we had leaving the car, she called me out because my bed wasn't made. "Nana, you didn't make your bed." Of course, the sheets were hanging on the same line as the underwear.

We spent a good part of the day at Nana's Resort and Compost Facilty located inside the Garden Fence. I'm killing the grass between the end of the current garden plot and the fence, so I put the pool there. The compost bins are farther away than they look.

Before AJ came over, she packed a lunch - turkey sandwich, no crusts, Pringles and pretzel bits, and a couple of Starbursts. I met her, her mom and stepdad at our favorite bakery since it's about halfway between us. Of course, AJ and I had to go in for donuts, vanilla frosted with sprinkles for her, lemon filled for me since there were no custard-filled available yet, and a bottle of apple juice. She wanted to eat a donut right away, but I told her she had to wait.

On the way to my place ("Our house" according to AJ), she decided we should stop and see Oma at her work place - Habitat for Humanity's Restore - and share our donuts. We spent about 15 minutes visiting with Oma. On the way out, I found three cabinets for my kitchen, two base cbinets and a deep one for over the refridgerator. I didn't buy them right then and I'm hoping they're still there when the Restore opens Tuesday.

They don't match, but since I'm going to be painting all the cabinets anyway, it doesn't matter to me. Once I'm dead and the kids sell the house, the new owners can remodel, but for the next twenty - thirty years or so, I'll have enough storage in the kitchen.

Later that evening, AJ told me she coulld whistle and she did a good job. But I told her I couldn't whistle and I gave it a couple of tries. So AJ said she'd be right back and went into the kitchen. The graphic below is what she drew to show me how to whistle:

"Nana, this is a face. See the mouth - that's how you hold it to whistle."

Priceless.

Boy, is my face pink.

2011-07-30T11:28:00.000-05:00

"Nana, what's that pretty outfit on the line?"

"What pretty outfit?"

"The pink one."

"That's not an outfit. That's Nana's underpants."

Retirement

2011-07-29T22:29:00.000-05:00

What a life. Yesterday, I got up at the butt crack of noon. Went to Hobby Lobby and bought some craft stuff for Miss Almost-4. I called the deli and asked for a sandwich and car seat to go. (my son and I share the car seat.) My son's girlfriend laughed and asked if I realy wanted a sandwich. I ordered a muffaletta. There was enough meat and cheese on there for two sandwiches. The sandwich was big enough for three meals. I spent about an hour there talking to the ex, my son, and his girlfriend. When I was leaving, I offered to pay for the sandwich. When my ex said no, one of the regular customers asked him if he was giving away the store. As I left, he was explaining our relationship.

I hd an unpleasant surprise when I got the mail. There wa a letter from human resources regarding my unused sick leave. Unfortunately it was the wrong number of hours. I was missing 300 hours or about $10,000 towards my health insurance. That ruined my evening.

At knitting, everyone asked how retirement was going. I said it was a little boring since I couldn't do most of what I wanted to do because of the heat.

Today, I went to Borders and bought a couple of books for Almost-4. I also bought Creepy Cute for myself. That's a crochet pattern book for mini monsters such as zombies and vampires. I went to Joann Fabrics and bought some fabric for a couple of small quilts. At Shopko, I bought a et of funnels and replacement rubber ducks. The old ones developed a mold problem.

About the missing hours - that turned ou to be an entry problem. I'll be getting an updated certification in a couple of days. My health insurance will be paid up until I'm 70. Then I'll have to figure something else or maybe by then we'll have reasonable national health insurance.

Hot enough for ya?

2011-07-26T10:11:00.000-05:00

Why do people ask that? Stick a fork in me, I think I'm done. all I've been doing lately is staying inside under a big ceiling fan. It's a bit large for the room - the blade width is about 4 feet - but what a nice tornado of air. I'm doing very little. I go out in the early morning and water the garden, pick produce, or weed.

The weeds are realy bad this year. Normally, I'm pulling creeping charlie, yellow clover and couple of other weeds I don't know the names of, but this year, I'm overrun with crab grass. I have no idea where that came from other than maybe a neighbor bought some really cheap grass seed that got blown into my yard. Or else it's just been laying dormant until we got the right conditions.

Speaking of pesky things - how about those poiticians? I think it was one of Terry Pratchett's characters in one of his Discworld books, who really defined the nature of politics. He said that politics comes from two words: poly meaning many or lots, and ticks meaning blood-sucking parasites. So politics is rule by many blood-sucking parasites. Let's hear it for your local state government and good old Washington, DC.

Now back to my regular lazy-assed routine.

Up north for reunion

2011-07-15T19:41:00.000-05:00

This year is the 41st since I graduated from college and the 46th since I left home. Reunion, this year, is smaller than usual. There's maybe a dozen people here that I know from when I started and from when I graduated. (I didn't graduate with my class. I had a semester off for bad behavior.) Not enough people from other classes showed up to make up individual class tables. Maybe more alumni will show up for the banquet tomorrow night.

There have been complaints of late mailings, mailings not received, not enough mailings. We lack a full-time alumni coordinator so things are a little chaotic. We used to have full-time people who handled alumni relations, but the position was cut several years ago. Since then, it's been fill-in work for whoever's had the time. I heard, unofficially and off the record, that the position may be reinstated. Mere rumor. You didn't hear it from me.

The drive up was not bad. I got good gas mileage - about 36 mpg. Not bad for a 13-year old car with 174,000 miles on it. The last 10 miles were slow due to construction and reduction of the roadway to one lane with flaggers. This was the first time the spacing was so great that the were 3 flaggers instead of the usual two. I went past the first flagger and was held up at the one in the middle. Traffic waited for what seemed like a half-hour, but was probably only 10 minutes.

Even though I did not prepay for pizza and beer at a local bar, I think I'll wander downtown and join the gang. Since I don't really like the pizza and don't drink beer, I'll just order a Mike's or whatever.

Later.

It's Wednesday already.

2011-07-13T09:37:00.000-05:00

I really need to get some caffeine. I guess I'll entertain you with the half-pint.

Saturday, as we we were driving to my house, Half-pint piped up, "this is the way to the donut place." She is observant. So I asked her if this meant she wanted a donut. "With sprinkles." We stopped and went in. I wish you could have seen her face when she saw that the only donut with sprinkles at her eye level was chocolate. (I don't know how she could be related to me and not like chocolate.) I ordered two vanilla with sprinkles from the rack in back and got two rasberry-filled for myself. After we got in the car, "Nana, I wanted you to buy me some water. I'm really thirsty." Did I heard a little voice ask for water? Nooo.

She kept up the "I'm thirsty" mantra until I finally stopped at a gas station to get her a bottle of water. I told her to keep the cap on, but about two blocks from the gas station, I heard a glug-glug in the back. She spilled half the bottle of water on the seat. "Nana, the road was bumpy. Can't you drive without bumps? You need a new car."

Yesterday, I picked Half-pint up after my dental appointment and we went to the food court at the mall where we ate McDonald's. (That's a treat with Nana, because we rarely go to fast food places.) We went to the zoo and rode the carousel and the train. Great fun for the kids - not so great for adults. The train goes about 100 yards, turns around, and comes back. I guess it's worth a dollar. We were there for 2 hours. Afterwards, I asked her if she had fun. "No and yes." Okay, why. "No because you wouldn't let me go down the big slide." (It had a dangerous crack at the end and she would have been seriously scraped up.) "Yes because we rode the carousel [yes, she said carousel] and the train and you let me go down a different slide."

Boy, life after working is rather slow and boring. Oh yeah, I got my statement yesterday showing how much my retirement check is going to be after taxes and life insurance. I'll still have more money than if I was at work - unless of course, my Social Security check doesn't come. Then I'm screwed.

Well, boys and girls, today's projects were simple.

2011-07-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

I moved another 10 cubic feet of compost. This time, I moved the black bin to a sunnier corner. That compost wasn't as close to ready as the stuff in the leaf bin. There's probably not enough brown and green matter. I usually dump the veggie scraps in that bin because it has a cover to keep the racoons out.

I moved the blueberry bush into the fenced garden area. I also moved the pot with the strawberry plants next to the blueberry. Next project is to thin and move the herbs. I still haven't started on the front. I did plant the stuff I bought yesterday.

The last two days have been hard on the ant colonies I found. When I moved the leaf bin, there were two good sized colonies - probably the ant equivalents of Scranton and Wilkes Barre - and I was the equivalent of Godzilla. There were dozens of ants milling around, trying to crawl up my legs, crawling throughout the compost as I wheeled to the bin. There weren't any ants in the black bin, but when I moved the strawberries, I think I destroyed State College. Enough Pennsylvania references.

Finally, I filled the pool. Don't get excited - it's 6 ft by 4 ft and about 2 feet deep. Short-stuff will enjoy it tomorrow. I put a tarp over it to keep out leaves and stuff. I need to toss a little bleach in there to keep the water clear. I have to rig an awning or something to provide a bit of shade. I have a dining canopy in the camping gear. Wait - I have that tent we used at the wedding. It's easier to put up.

Tomorrow is Art Fair on the Square as well as Art Fair off the Square but I may not make it this year. There's a slight shortage of folding money. Besides, once Tilly sees the pool, we're not going anywhere.

<rant>Retiring may not have been a great decision with all the hostility toward American citizens in Washington. I still can't believe the mentality that can force democracy on foreign countries, and send jobs to foreign countries while pulling the rug from under the people (who (in theory) voted them into office) by depriving them of decent jobs, and then cutting the services they need to survive. There's something nasty about all of this. I guess nothing will change until people start dying in droves from preventable diseases, exposure, and starvation because they have no medical insurance, no homes and no food.</rant>*

*<rant> and </rant> are not valid html codes, just my way of voicing an opinion.

TTFN

Today's task - compost

2011-07-07T19:11:00.000-05:00

Today, I moved 36 cubic feet of compost from one part of the yard to another. Now all the compost is inside the garden fence. I had a bit of brain fart. Before I emptied the old bin, I wanted to set up new posts. I went in the garage and looked for posts. I could have sworn I saw 4 posts in there, but after getting the hammer and my gloves (still in the garage), I only found two. Was I seeing double or can't I count? It took most of the day to move that much compost. As the afternoon wore on, I got slower moving the wheelbarrow. I'm done with that bin.

I also finished mowing. As you recall, I only did the front on Tuesday. Now the side yard and the back yard are done.

Tomorrow, I'll move the black compost bin. It's only half-full and shouldn't take more than an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I have a few new plants to put in pots and will probably start cleaing out the front perennial bed. There's a lot of weeding needed.

Don't know if I mentioned I harvested my first cucumber Tuesday. Today, I ate my first cherry tomato. Nothing like fresh from the garden.

I got a half-price deal on up to 4 tickets for a train ride on the Mid-Continent Railway through the Baraboo River Valley. The price also includes admission to the museum. I'm hoping to go on August 6th because we'd also get a chance to be pulled by a steam engine instead of by a diesel one. I'll keep you posted.

Not much today.

2011-07-06T20:44:00.000-05:00

I spent a good four hours last night removing Vista Security 2012 from my laptop. I wasn't paying attention and fell for a fake Java update. The main reason it took so long to remove were the two full scans of the computer. I used one program, sat through the scan and when I went to have the spyware removed, the company wanted $30. So I did a little more seaching and was able to get the thing removed free,but only after another 2-hour scan.

One thing the spyware did was disable Windows Defender. The other thing was to block my internet access to keep me from lerning how to remove it. But my trusty Kindle has a web browser, so I was able to Google a fix. That's when I restarted in safe mode to download what I needed. So I'm clean for now. And everything is up-to-date except Windpws Defender which is dead. I tried reinstalling it, but no go.

I didn't get to bed until midnight. At 5 AM, the furfaces wanted food. After they were fed, I went back to bed and got up around 9.

The last two days, I've done 4 loads of laundry - a total of 9 lines of drying. I washed the curtains in the living room, my clothes from the last two weeks, sheets, and towels. tommorow, I'll do mats and rags unless it rains.

Yesterday was a good day for sitting out - not very humid. There was a nice breeze under the trees and I barely felt the heat. I read and drank iced tea. It was totaly relaxing.

Today, on my way to an appointment, I stopped at my former work to pick up Floyd - a somewhat pathetic excuse for a plant I had left behind. Floyd is now in a container to grow new roots.

Tomorrow marks the end of the first week of my retirement.

I now leave you with a gratuitous preschooler picture

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T09:57:00.000-05:00

Why must the neighbors celebrate night after night with things that go boom? At least the ones last night stopped before 11 PM. I can't wait until tonight. My plans for the day include more weeding -I'm only working in the garden about an hour a day.

Saturday, I used some of my stamping supplies to create thank you notes for the gifts I received at my retirement party.

A former supervisor gave my a garden stake:

A former co-worker gave me a new ice cream scoop. That's not as weird as it may seem. She noticed I was having trouble scooping gelato with my old scoop.

The other retiree gave me a certificate for a day at the Children's Museum. My neighbor, Maxine, gave my a check and I received cash in a card from my co-workers.

I also received certificates of appreciation from the UW chancellor and the governor. I haven't quite figured out what I'm doing with them.

Last night,I spent some time sitting with a couple two doors down. It was a great night for sitting out and drinking a couple of Mike's Hard lemonades. There were very few mosquitos - a rare thing in Wisconsin.

Today I'm doing more weeding an some laundry.

More later.

Dang, it's been a while.

2011-07-02T09:00:00.022-05:00

Well, let's see - I'm retired as of June 30th. I'm bored as of July 1st. Really, I've just been taking it easy, except for the weeding. My garden has gotten out of hand.

Since last time we met, I've been to Pennsylvania for my oldest granddaughter's high school graduation. That turned out well except for the road trip. Note to self: always check with the person who's driving to see if they cannot stand to be out of contact with their Facebook friends or their texting buddies, and then drive yourself.

Katey with Mom and Dad

Katey with Mom and Step-dad

Graduation was not rained out and the party went off without a hitch. The return trip was a repeat of the trip out, except that I slept most of the way.

When I got home, the kitties were well, the house was in order and my garden was so full of weeds, I could baarely find my lettuce.

I had three days left to work that week and four days this week. Thursday was my last day and work threw me and a co-worker who is retiring on the 5th, a very nice party. We had 2 kinds of cake and 4 kinds of ice cream.

The little bit was there and got all sugared up. I persuaded her to stay over at my house since I hadn't seen her for two weeks - more on that next time. She agreed and spent the night. I didn't get a lot of sleep. Like cats, preschoolers can take up a lot more room in a bed that is apparent by their size. Unlike cats, society frowns upon booting preschoolers to the floor. Cats rarely frown upon booting anyone out of bed, or peeing on the floor, or barfing somewhere you might have to walk barefoot at night without a light.

Trailer for Kittie Howard's upcoming book due in September.

2011-06-03T20:48:00.002-05:00

Kittie Howard, of the blog The Block, has a book coming out this fall. She blogs primarily about growing up in Louisiana. I've found her stories to be very entertaining and they make me wish I had been able to spend more time with my Louisiana relatives.

Hello, world, I'm back.

2011-05-17T13:02:00.005-05:00

Depression sucks, but I guess I'm getting better. 32 more week days until retirement. 5 of those days will be vacation and 1 holiday. I'm heading to Pennsylvania for a graduation and then coming home to spend a few days catching my breath. Or maybe taking deep breaths until my time is done.

45 working days until retirement

2011-04-28T08:10:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'll be able to post some interesting stuff - quilting or spinning or knitting. This will be an entirely new chapter in my life - unemployment by choice. We'll see how long that lasts.

On the home front - the preschooler has been sick so I haven't seen her in a week. Staurday, I took her mom's place at the Restore for their Earth Day events. I stampled screening on bug houses that kids assembled with their parent's help. We even had news camera there andone of the morning anchors from Channel 15. He was there in his fatherly capacity with his daughter.

Easter was a bit different this year - I didn't go anywhere. My son had invited my over for dinner, but after the events of the past week, still wasn't up to doing anything much. I hope that some of the grief is starting to ease so that he can function at work. I'm not sure hios dad is functioning well, so one of them has to be able to handle the customers, especially since there will be plenty of questions.

Sadness

2011-04-18T18:43:00.000-05:00

My son is grieving right now - his younger brother died suddenly at age 19. My heart goes out to my son, his dad (my ex), his brother's mother, and sister, and the grandmother who found her grandson without a pulse in his room. The initial tox screen ruled out alcohol and drugs but who knows what the autopsy will uncover.

I just saw the young man with his older brother a week ago. He was smiling and waved at me from the car when Chris dropped off the car seat. Now I join the rest of the family in mourning the loss.

Nearly retired.

2011-04-03T15:03:00.001-05:00

I sent my retirement application in for my pension. My social security is set up. So, depending on what happens in the next 90 days, I may be reiring.

In othe news, I bought a Kindle. I know - bad me. But I got it at my price point - $99 - only because I applied for an Amazon credit card. Once the Kindle is here and I pay for it, I will write and cancel the card. I don't need more than one. Trust me on this. I generally just use my debit card - keeps me from going overboard.

Where has the time gone?

2011-03-30T19:40:00.002-05:00

Oh yeah, I've been sleeping. Depression can take huge chunks out of your life. I'm gradually getting better.

67 working days until retirement. Under the new rules for public workers of Fitzwalkerstan, public employees now have to pay a greater portion of their income towards health care and retirement. This may sound like a good deal for those of you who have never been a public employee, but let me tell you how it effects the bottom line of a classified employee who is covered by a union.

First off, neither I nor any of my co-workers, have ever recieved a cost of living increase. The largest raise I have gotten has been 2% and the union had to fight the legislature over that. Some years, I haven't gotten any raise because my base pay was over the limit. (It's called being above the grid, but I don't want to explain the entire grid system. Simpler to say "over the limit.") If I hadn't been reclassified to a higher level because of comparable work down by my peers at that higher level, and promoted once, I would have a salary only slightly above what I was making working retail.

One of the writers for The Isthmus is collecting stories from public workers about how the bill affects them. My answers are below. Explanations not included in the original are in bold.

I work as classified staff at UW-Madison. Those of us at the UW still have one more furlough day in addition to the new payments. $44 will still be taken out of each of my paychecks until June 30th. Other staff will have the day's worth of pay taken out when they actually take their furlough day.(I work in a library on campus.)

a) how much you make per year or per hour?

$17.87/hour. After taxes, insurances, union dues ($18/paycheck) and furlough deduction, my take-home pay is close to $1025 per biweekly paycheck. After the new health and retirement deductions kick in on April 1st, my take-home pay with the furlough deductions, will be around $892 and $945. After the furlough deductions end, my take-home pay will be near $936 for one pay check and $976 for the other.

One entire paycheck will go toward my mortgage and escrow. I live in a tiny house in an older neighborhood. Housing in Madison costs more than in surrounding areas and property taxes are also higher. I know some people would suggest selling the house, but there's no shortage of houses for sale, most of which are larger and have a more convenient footprint. Besides, living in an apartment is my version of being in hell.
b) how much you will be paying for health care and your pension?

$84/month up from $31 for health care. A bit over $80 per paycheck (26 pay periods/year) for retirement. Right now I pay .002% toward retirement. However pensions and lower health care premiums were often negotiated in place of higher raises. This is called deferred compensation since there is no immediate benefit.

I've been on a tight budget for a long time. What helps is having a garden to provide most of my vegetables, having a job where I can wear jeans and t-shirts, and having a bus pass so I don't need to drive to work and pay parking and I can use the bus whenever I don't need to haul anything large. My car is 13 years old, has 173,000 miles on it and will eventually die.
c) how you will cope with the pay cut?

I have already cancelled the satellite tv -- $74/month; am cancelling life insurance - $51/month; and may cancel the landline and dsl - $74/month.

These items are luxuries. I have other life insurance policies, and really don't need to be watching a lot of tv. Losing the internet will be hard, but I will look for other options. My blog posts will probably written in word and uploaded when I'm at the library. I have a fairly cheap cell phone plan so I won't be out of touch. I won't be able to buy a new (to me) car. With the exception of the trip to Pennsylvania for my granddaughter's graduation, I won't be taking any trips this year.
d) has it made you consider quitting?

Yes - I will be retiring two years earlier than originally planned. Retiring now will give me $1000/year more in my pocket than if I keep working. Unfortunately, retiring now will also shorten my health care benefits and reduce my social security payment, but I will probably still have enough to support myself. Assuming my calculations are correct, my pension benefit will be around $15000/year - less than half of my annual salary. It's hardly the $40,000 that's been tossed around.

The powers that be are fond of pointing out to their constituents that state workers are retiring on $40000 a year in pension payments.This may be true for tenured faculty at the university, but for the average worker, including teachers, this simply isn't true. Even after 30 or more years of service, we don't get anything near our full-time salary.

e) do you believe there are jobs available to you in the private sector where you could earn the same or more as you do in the public sector?

No. Non-library employers tend to look at the fact that I've worked in a library for the past 25 years and assume that I don't have the types of experience they need. Public libraries and private college libraries generally pay a lot less than I make at a large university.

Sorry for the length. But this issue has so polarized people in this state it's impossible to have a decent conversation about why this is bad. Less money means fewer sales for businesses. Fewer sales means more people laid off. More people laid off ... Well, hopefully you get the picture. This is not some lefty rant. I am not some "union thug." This is how a real person has to deal with real issues.

77 days until retirement.

2011-03-17T09:06:00.000-05:00

I've been asked what I plan to do once I retire. Well, I have this long list of projects, some unfinished, some never started. Here just a couple:

First up - pull the toilet. I suspect that the reason my water bill went up, is a slow leak somewhere. I don't see any damage in the basement, but the water level in the toilet bowl is always low. I expect that I will also need to patch the wood under said toilet. It's okay, been there, done that. I was planning on changing out the flooring anyway.

Next - finish painting the kitchen. I have two walls and the cabinets. I will also need to paint the fake brick surrounding the chimney. Taking that stuff off would be a much larger project since the person who installed it used cement instead of tile adhesive and they didn't grout it. So first scrub the crud off, then grout it smooth, then prime, and finally, paint.

I will also be gardening, reading, spinning fiber, reading, knitting, reading, quilting, reading, sewing, reading, taking a class in watercolors, reading, playing with and teaching the short person, reading, decluttering, reading, getting rid of books, sitting in the sun reading , sitting by a fire, painting and repairing. Did I mention reading?

I haven't felt like blogging.

2011-03-10T19:06:00.000-06:00

The events of the last three weeks have been intense. I was going to retire in 2013. I'm retiring in a couple of months. I can't take it any more. I can't take the uncertainty of who will be laid off, of whether my job will be eliminated because it's all project work. Since collective bargaining is gone and therefore the unions will fail, there's uncertainty about how layoffs will be conducted. I have some seniority, butt since the governor doesn't play by the rules, I might be laid off anyway or I might have to take something even less desirable, although I can't imagine what could be worse since, as I mentioned a couple of years ago, my job is the suckiest, in the director's opinion.

My income will go down about by about $10,000. So long as I can pay the mortgage and the utilities, I'll be fine. I started my application for Social Security and I completed my request for a retirement packet. They're a little backed up at HR because anyone who's even close to retirement age is getting out. I'm signed up for a retirement workshop in May but I plan to be well on my way out by then. June 30th is the end of the fiscal year and the date that at least one benefit may end. It's not certain, but since the trend is to reduce benefits, I expect it will. My last official day as a state employee will be June 30th.

What's happening in my neck of the woods?

2011-02-17T17:59:00.000-06:00

The Wisconsin Governor has declared war on the state employee unions. These links are all from The Isthmus

I am not the enemy: A Wisconsin teacher considers Walker's budget
Protests won't stop Walker's assault on Wisconsin's public employee unions
Scott Walker v. Unions
Emily's Post: Walker's impending assault on state workers won't create jobs

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32220

The links below are from Fightingbob.com

Backward By Dave Zweifel
Laboring under a misapprehension By The Capital Times
Much ado about nothing true By Gary Sherman
Walker the Bully!
First let's kill the unions!
Farce or force?
Hell of a show! - I was there.
Day 7! Here we go!

And so on. The protests continue. Schools were closed today in many areas. Teachers, police, firefighters, UW faculty and students, union members from the private sector, and private citizens are still at the Capital. The Democrats left so that there would be no quorum. If Walker was willing to negotiate with the unions, we could all get back to normal. As it is, my health insurance will almost triple. Add that to the couple of hundred toward retirement and I will be lowering my standard of living. I'll be lucky if I can pay mortgage and utilities. Especially since the governor's proposal that the unions will only be able to negotiate salaries and those will be capped at the cost of living. We have never gotten a cost of living raise. And anything over whatever the cost of living is would have to go to a referendum. Right!!!!

Wireless.

2011-02-10T19:54:00.015-06:00

After a few fits and starts, I finally got connected. I only rebooted the laptop 5 times and reset the router 4 times. Eventually, I'll set up the other computer. It won't be wireless but I won't have to carry the laptop up and down the stairs to print since that computer will be connected to the printer. I put the battery back in the laptop and carried it downstairs. Woohoo! Connected! Everywhere. Well, almost. I also connected the Wii so I can get Netflix.

In other news, the governor is going to proceed with his ~~vendetta against state workers~~ restructuring of how the state employees' unions operate on Friday and into the next weeks. I've heard he's planning on changing the law so the state employees' unions will no longer have bargaining rights. I suppose I can expect more than 8 furlough days a year, no raises ever, increased health insurance premiums, and increased retirement contributions. Of course, rumor has it there will be no more furloughs, because they didn't work. But we will see.

My admittedly rough, worse-case scenario estimate based on his campaign promises (threats), rumors, and innuendo, indicates up to a 15 percent pay cut based on single health insurance and 1 furlough day per pay period. The percentage will probably be higher for those on the family plan. It may not sound like a bad deal, but I'm barely making it now. I have enough for the day-to-day stuff. I can pay my bills. My savings account is slim and the existing furloughs have made it slimmer.

This year, I have a big ticket item - the well - which I need to deal with. If the well needs to be sealed, I'll need to pay for that. What will probably happen is that we (me and my helpers) will break up the concrete slab, clean out the area and haul away the debris. The inspector will come and determine if the well has been properly abandoned. If so, well and good. I'll order whatever cubic footage of fill dirt, toss it in the hole and have concrete poured over that. If the well needs to be sealed, I'll still have dirt delivered. And I'll cover it with plastic and sand and use my bricks for a temporary patio. Why temporary? Because over time, water from melting snow will seep through the dirt and pool on the concrete under the dirt. Then I will have water leaking into the basement.

If I had the money, I'd extend the enclosed porch/sunroom out over what is the area occupied by the pump room or what ever it was. It's a space about 7x7 or 8x8 feet and has cinder block walls. There's currently a cracked concrete slab on top which is aparently held up by wooden posts.An addition would allow me to have the dining table there instead of in the living room. Well, I can dream.

So I hope there's no more furlough days and that even with the increased premiums and contributions, my pay will remain close to what it is now. I'll keep you posted.

Feb 2 - Snow day

2011-02-06T11:29:00.000-06:00

Well, the person who cleared my driveway on Tuesday was neither Brian from the other side of Maxine, nor Marty around the corner. It was Heather across the street. Good.

I got a phone call later from one of my co-workers. "You don't have to call me in the morning. It's on the news - the university is closed." No it's not. I was looking at the UW's homepage. Classes and events were canceled. Non-essential employees could use their discretion about coming in. That means, and it was spelled out, that if a person chose not to come in, vacation, furlough, or other time off would have to be used. Plain to me. But my co-worker said she heard from someone else who had an email, etc. It didn't make any difference to me because I had already told my supervisor I wouldn't be in. My co-worker had asked me to call her because she's too cheap to pay for home internet service so she would not have any way to check online if the university issued a closure announcement. An email had gone out from our director stating that the library would be closed. It did not imply wages paid for not showing up.

When I went to bed,it was snowing and there was wind. This is what my driveway looked like at 9 AM:

If you click to make the picture larger, the notch in the center by the dark lumps is actually at the end of my driveway. The ridge is the edge of the drift across. That hump at the left foreground is the edge of the path previously cut for the mail carrier to walk across the yards.

To get out to take that picture, I had to use my front door. Since it opens on to carpet, I don't use it except to let in company and at Halloween for the kids. I couldn't get out the side door. I had to push through about 3 feet of drifted snow to reach the driveway and then trudge up to the side door. This is what it looked like:

There are steps under there somewhere. You can see the shovel handle against the window behind the trash can. I cleared a narrow path up the steps to the door and went in to change pants, socks, and boots. I then went to get the snow blower from the garage. This picture was taken from the same vantage point as the first. Gives you an idea of how long my driveway is. To give you another example, my 100 foot hose, stretched round the corner of the house from the faucet (about 6 feet from faucet to corner) down the driveway is about 10 feet too short to reach the street.

I had to shovel snow away from the garage door to open it. I filled the tank 3 times, clearing the snow. It's a tight fit even for my car. There's maybe 6 inches clearance on each side.

I took this picture to give you an idea of how deep the drift was across the end of the driveway.

I spent around 5 hours clearing out as much as I did and of course while I was inside changing into dry clothes for the 3rd time, the snowplow came through and buried the end of the driveway 6 inches deep and about 4 feet in.

By my estimate, I removed about 400 cubic feet of snow from the drift the end of the driveway to where the tree is in my front yard - about 20 feet from the street.
I filled the gas tank in the snowblower 3 times. I changed sweat pants 3 times, mittens 3 times, hats, boots, socks, and coats, twice. I took one 45-minute break to warm up and eat lunch. I started snowblowing at 9:30 AM and completed the job at 3:30 PM. I had to get help lowering the height of the snow pile at the end of the driveway so I could see traffic when backing out. By 3, I didn't have much energy left which is why I asked for help.

Thursday, I called in because I could barely move. What fun.

By the way it just stopped snowing, so I have to shovel. See ya.

Insurance woes are over.

2011-02-01T19:39:00.000-06:00

I've gotten my new declarations pages, my insurance ID card for my car, the policies. My old insurance expires on Feb 12th. My new auto rate went down $4.00 from the time I mailed my check and the homeowners went up $5.00. If the mortgage company pays the $5, I'll be getting a $4.00 refund. If they don't, I might get a bill for a dollar but I think my agent will just put one in.

I took the 3-year old to a women's hockey game. About 5 minutes into the first period, she announced it was too noisy so let's go home. She lasted until the end of the second period, but halfway through, had put on her coat and mittens by herself and was just ready to go. On way home, I was startled to hear her new song: "penis, penis, penis, penis." What!!!! "Penis, penis, jelly, mustard, ketchup pickles." I had to ask - "Are you singing about peanuts?" "Yeah."

We're under a blizzard watch until noon Wed. Right now, I can't tell if it's actually snowing or just blowing. We're supposed to get as much as 13 inches of new snow on top of the 6 or so we've gotten yesterday and today. A good Samaritan cleared my driveway for me before I got home. I don't know whether it was Brian, 2 houses over, or Marty from around the corner. I hope Brian since Maxine's driveway was also done. I usually do Maxine's when I have the snow blower out. Marty usually only does my driveway even though I've pointed out that I have a snow blower and it's bigger and more powerful than his.

I don't have to go to work tomorrow. The buses probably won't be running anyway. I was planning on using up my floating holiday anyway. Ive been told that one of the news channels announced that the university was closed, but the UW's web page only says classes are canceled and non-essential personnel should use their discretion regarding showing up for work and that leave must be used. The medical library is closed anyway because most of us use the commuter buses and even if service starts later in the morning, most of us won't make it in anyway. The commuter buses stop running at 9 AM.

I guess I'll clean up the hoarder staging area and work on my socks when I'm bored with decluttering.

I hope your weather is less interesting.

It's nice...

2011-01-23T09:40:00.000-06:00

...not to have a draft flowing down the stairs. In November, I got new windows for the upstairs. I only needed two and thought I'd take advantage of the rebates. I can't afford a new furnace yet, so that rebate was out. Until the draft stopped, I hadn't realized how bad it was up here.

The old windows weren't rotting or anything, but the single panes, coupled with the cheap storm windows made for a drafty and ladybug infested house. Last year I put plastic on the windows. The plastic cut the draft somewhat and captured several hundred ladybugs that came in through the ill-fitting sashes. Be fore I took the plastic off, I pulled up a corner and vacuumed around the windows to get rid of the ladybugs. Then I removed the plastic.

This winter, I've seen a few ladybugs and some box elder bugs in the house. I'm still working on the box elder bugs, but I don't have as many of those either.One thing that helped was using residual bug spray around the windows,doors and the foundation this fall. Most of the bugs that do get are half-dead. I don't have clusters of ladybugs on the windows on sunny days.

It's even better to not have the smell of burning whatever upstairs. The upper level is heated by electric baseboard heaters - the permanent kind. Shortly after I turned on the one heater, there was this horrible smell like burning rubber. Then the smoke detector went off. Panic!!!! I turned off the heater, ran down to the basement and flipped the breaker, ran back upstairs and felt around the walls and the heater. No excess warmth on the walls or the heater. I sat upstairs for two hours, just in case, and then went to bed. I slept poorly waiting for the smoke alarm to go off again. Nothing.

I normally keep one heater on constantly. It's on low so the temperature is comfortable with sweats and socks. I don't spend a lot of time up here but it is my craft and computer area. The small room doubles as a guest bedroom even though technically it isn't a bedroom - no closet. The closet is located in the larger portion. The small room is about 10 by 10 and the larger is 15 by 10. The ceiling is very low. When my son stayed with me, he kept hitting his head until I turned the bed to fit across the window.

The check was in the mail.

2011-01-18T19:39:00.000-06:00

Actually 2 checks. They're both in the bank. Plus I received a letter:

"Dear Policyholder:

"Please disregard the termination notice recently sent to you. Information recently received enables us to continue this policy without interruption in coverage."

Yeah - it took enough phone calls. And today, after I faxed my cancellation notices to the agent, he called me to plead his case - they were lowering my rates for both homeowners and auto. Too bad. I already have other insurance.

Check's in the mail and other tales of woe.

2011-01-14T16:16:00.000-06:00

Thursday the 13th - or as Pogo used to say: "Friday the 13th is on a Thursday this month." Fun day! Let's see...

First, I tried to upgrade software. Got the light blue screen of WTF. This is different from the "blue screen of death" so many of us are familiar with. There was the message box but the installer was also running there. So I clicked the button to begin the install. And clicked the return button in the message box. The program seemed to install. Nope - not working. Try again. "Cannot create backup file. Aborting installation." (Not the real message, but a paraphrase.) didn't work. Try again. installation icon vanishes from screen; nothing happens. During all of this I've been emailing IT with screen shots of the various messages.
Next step - I know where they hide the programs and I can access it. Normally they set up an installation window that contains the shortcuts for the programs I'm allowed to install or that they've been told I need. But there are other programs out there that I want to learn or use like Adobe Illustrator. So I went and found the applications folder and clicked the installer icon. Worked, or did it? Nope.

By this time I had gotten an email that the IT person would be coming down to help. She did and after 30 minutes of editing the install program, she got it to install properly. Did I mention I have Windows 7? The program we use isn't quite compatible with Win 7. A few of us were lucky or unlucky enough to get new compueters and have had to finagle the programs we use to work with with Windows 7. Once the rest of campus catches up, I'm sure they will work with the vendor on upgrading the software.

Once we had it installed, I opened the program, edited a record, used my macros, saved the record, closed the software and re-opened it. No problems. Later that day, went to open the program - nothing! Diddle, fiddle, change - it works. I hit the macro hot keys - nothing. Diddle, fiddle, change - program opens. Where are my macros? Gone. Re-write. Works.

What's this got to do with "check's in the mail?" Getting there. During all the troubleshooting, I made calls to the various insurance people. The refund check is supposedly in the mail and I should have it no later than Tuesday. When the agent's secretary had called about the refund, she was told that it had been sent. Apaarently, what she misunderstood, was that the request for the check was sent to the accounting department for issuance. So they hadn't actually mailed it out at that point. The smaller check travelled a different route and so I got that faster.
On the auto insurance front, I could not reach my agent so I called the claims office. The original agent was out of the office so I held for the next available person. I explained that there seemed to be some confusion about my claim and that I was having trouble getting reasonable rate quotes because I was somehow listed as the driver at fault. She promised to write a letter stating that I was not at-fault and get in the mail immediately. We'll see.

In other work, after converting 90 images and creating over 140 separate image files, I discovered I had skipped page 112. Didn't discover that until I was on image 77. Uh, what does that mean?

Each image is a picture of a page or of a 2-page spread of a book. Because of the fragility of the books I'm doing, I use a camera rather than a scanner to capture the images so the items are face up. After converting the images using Photoshop, I then create a separate image of each page. So while I may capture 90 images, I can wind up with maybe 175 separate pages as some images will be of a single page. I then convert these separate pages into a PDF document.

So now I have to go back to the camera room and do page 112.

The trip home and the rest of the night was uneventful. I had called my son earlier in the day and asked him to see if he could fix my garage door. It would lock and close but not catch. So any passerby could just push the door open. He says the hinges need new screws. But he tightened them as best he could and the door is now secure.

Are we having fun yet?

2011-01-12T19:26:00.000-06:00

No refund check yesterday.

Had a dental appointment yesterday - not so bad. Since it was snowing the bus schedule was a little off. I got to the transfer point with plenty of time for walking up and over the hill - about a half mile, but tough going in snow. I didn't know the 73 went up and over, else I would have taken the bus. After the appointment, I went back to work.

It snowed all day. Ultimately I think we got about 1 inch, maybe a tad more. I figured it wasn't really enough to justify running the snow blower. But I wasn't looking forward to shoveling. On the way home, the bus broke down. The interior lights started flashing, the driver shut the bus off and it wouldn't start again. The 8 of us still on the bus decided that since we were within a mile of our respective dwellings, we would walk home. Fortunately, I was wearing my snow boots and wool socks instead of fashion boots.

Angie, Tom, and I trudged up and over the hill. When I got to the corner of my street, I noticed a path had been cleared down the block. Easy walking, right up to my driveway, where the mysterious path maker had cleared my driveway.

No refund check today either. I'll have to call and find out what's what. I also need to follow up on the accident claim so I can get a better rate than what's been quoted. I didn't wreck my car.

The mystery driveway clearer did it again. We got maybe another half-inch of snow. I shoveled a little this morning but was going to finish when I got home. I'm fairly certain it's the guy around the corner. So long as he doesn't expect anything for his work. I mean other than maybe I'll buy him a 6-pack. but he'll have to take it home. I'd call him "the old guy" based on his looks, but he's probably the same age as me, just more worn. And crazier. And drunker. And with fewer teeth. And less hair.

Well, need to go clean up. Cindy's coming over tomorrow so I can teach her how to read crochet patterns.

More insurance fun.

2011-01-10T20:07:00.019-06:00

Saturday, I got a check in the mail for $65 - the amount the insurance company pulled from my account on the 5th. Sadly it was too late to deposit it in the bank, so I missed an opportunity to get gas at $2.99/gallon. I'm still waiting for a letter changing the June accident from me as driver to my son.I wasn't even in town that day. This screw-up is causing the quotes I'm getting for new insurance to be higher than I've been expecting.

And I'm still waiting for my refund for the gender change. In case you missed it, I didn't change gender. Whoever input my data into the insurance computer did. I was paying male rates instead of female (cheaper to be female!)

I'm calling tomorrow.

When I booted up the computer, I go the blue screen of death. I'm running a scan. So far nothing. The computer seems to be working okay. My mouse refuses to work. I guess I dropped it one too many times.

Well, have a good evening. I'm going to go and see if I can get some more crap out of here so it looks less like an episode of Hoarders and more like Clean House.

Later.

Latest on Life (Insurance) and other.

2011-01-08T13:56:00.005-06:00

Those who follow me on Facebook know this, but my car insurance is not being renewed. While searching for various declarations pages for my new agent, I happened upon the life insurance report. I usally just open the envelope, glance at the amounts and file, or at least shelve for filing later. This time I looked at the whole document. What the hey!! I'm listed as male. So I call and am told they'll get it fixed. A few days later, I get a letter with a form I have to fill out and have witnessed to change from male to female. Done. So I get another letter telling me my premium is going down. Good!

When I was with my agent, he told me I would be getting a refund check and then proceeded to try and get that money back by selling me more insurance (Thursday's post.) I got the letter Thursday telling me my new premium rate and another telling me that they were pulling the new premium. Nice. Except that they did a pull on the 5th and then another on the 6th. Supposedly - since I called - the pull on the 5th is included in the refund check. However I don't believe them and will be calling back on Monday. Because the check was supposedly sent out on the 5th or before and they knew the rate was changing, why didn't they stop the pull on the 5th? I need to pull all the paperwork for this one and double check. I think they still owe me $64.45. So far no check. Maybe later today.

Sooo, the reason my car insurance is not being renewed is due to the accident last July where the male offspring had a senior moment and tried to back out of the garage with the car door open. He reported the accident and there were calls back and forth - him, me, the claims adjuster. The car went in for an estimate, was repaired and all was well. Until the letter informing me that I'm not being renewed. In the course of searching for new insurance, guess what? I'm listed as the person behind the wheel - I'm at fault so all of the rate quotes are much higher. Another phone call to my soon-to-be-ex agent. They'll get it straightened out. I'll get a letter. Can't wait.

Finished items from 2010

2011-01-07T18:00:00.004-06:00

This first picture is Tilly's new hat and my purple neck warmer. The yarn for the hat is handspun Corriedale chosen by Tilly who also chose the pattern. There are matching mittens below. I also made her a coordinating scarf out of an acrylic blend, but forgot to get a picture. The purple neck warmer is for me and is handspun merino top. I got the buttons at the Art Fair Off-the-Square this past summer.

These are the matiching mittens for Tilly. Same wool.

This cowl and mittens are handspun brown merino. I bought almost a pound of this woolin 2009

There was also some charity knitting that I didn't remember to take pictures of, either. D'oh.

Life insurance

2011-01-06T19:19:00.000-06:00

How many of you out there have life insurance? If you're considering it and you're still young, get it now and keep it. It will be far cheaper than when you're not-so-young.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with my agent who sold me life insurance a few years ago. What he had sold me was "term life." Term life is like renting - you can live for years in the same building, make it home-like, and at the end of your lease, the rent can go way up and you might have to move and you get nothing out it.

What my agent wanted to talk about was converting some or all of my term insurance to permanent. That's like buying a house - your payments are higher but you get equity. It earns dividends, as in, if you sell your house, you usually get something out of it.

However, from my point of view, either is a lose-lose proposition. First - I already have the term life policy which is a 10-year policy. so at the end of the term, my premium is going to sky-rocket - he said "go way up." I suspect that the premium would go up almost as high as the "permanent" premium. The quote I got for converting part of my policy was almost $100/month for $25,000 of the $100,000 existing policy, plus I would continue to pay $45.00/month for the $75,000 that is unconverted, plus the unconverted would still be subject to the balloning rate increase at the end of the term. I asked about the premium for converting the full amount - $400/month. Riiight.

So if I cancel the term life out right, I will have "rented" the policy and will get nothing back. The only way I will "gain" is to keep the policy and die before the term is up. If I convert part of the policy, I have two payments, my premiums are higher, and I still only "gain" if I die before the term is up. If I convert all, I will have "bought" the policy, but I will lose, because I'll starve to death because I won't be able to eat and pay for insurance. And then they won't pay out, because I will have committed suicde by not eating. See - lose-lose.

I have a small policy, bought when I was extrememly young and not expected to live to be 2. I converted it to permanent when I was 21. It's been earning dividends in the $100 range for the last umpteen years. It's enough to pay for cremation and some drinks for the person who shows up for the funeral. I also have life insurance through work which will pay out about half of my pre-retirement salary if I die after I retire. If I die before I retire, the cats get $100,000. Okay, not the cats.

So, I'm thinking - treat it like the lottery. You buy lottery tickets, don't win, the money's gone. If you do win, you recoup some or even maybe all of the money you spent on the losing tickets. I can cancel at the end of the term if I'm still alive because if I die before the end of the term, I come out about $94,000 ahead.

I wouldn't even have this discussion if I had stood up to my now ex-husband and had not cancelled the policies on myself and my daughter. I bought them in my 20's and the premiums were like $25 for both. Idiot me.

Fun with the preschooler

2011-01-03T09:12:00.000-06:00

"Nana, when you were a little nana, did you have a nukkie?"

Our weekly schedule was off due to the holiday. Usually I have her on Saturday. Thursday before Christmas, I was on her side of town shopping at Toys R Us for her and decided I would get Miss Tilly. I called her house and talked to her mom's boyfriend who told Tilly was up and getting dressed. When asked when I would be there, I replied, "30 seconds." I was on the corner. I waited outside their house for about 10 minutes to give peopple time to get dressed. Then I went to the door to get her.

I was going to takeTilly to see sheep, but when we got there, a note was on the door saying the shop was closed until the owner came back from an errand. So no sheep, no yarn swift for Nana. And Tilly had been all set to pick out "some of that nice yarn you like, Nana." Nice meaning expensive -the little girl has good taste in yarn. We went home, made pizza for lunch, played Candyland and Mancala, danced around, played music, and had a good time.

I saw her on Christmas Eve at Oma's and at PapaSadie's. I have to explain PapaSadie. Papa is Tilly's great-grandfather, Ken. Sadie is Ken's dog. Tilly rarely sees one without the other. She also has a cousin named Ken Tilly also has Papa Rick, and Grandpa Randy, Grandpa Ross, and Grandpa John. PapaSadie is her way of letting you know which grandpa and which Ken she means. There's no confusion with the Grandmothers - Nana, Oma, and Grandma Angie.

I spent Christmas Day doing nothing much - some cleaning and cooking for dinner on Sunday. Unwrapped a waaaaay too large tablecloth. I had asked for a white cotton tablecloth, 52x 70 inches. What I got was about twice that size. Turns out it had belonged to the giver's mom and even though it wasn't what I asked for, she (the giver) wanted me to have it. The cloth is in pristine condition and I know how many dinners we've eaten on it. So it gets tucked away for now.

Where was I? Tilly. Thursday, the 30th, was a furlough day. A group of us got together at Red Robin for lunch and I took Tilly with me. She was her usual self. I decided to keep her overnight, so I asked her if she wanted pizza for dinner. "Yes- meat pizza. Sausage and pepperoni, no vegetables, and black olives." so she didn't want Nana's usual deluxe with the green peppers, onions and mushrooms. She helped put the toppings on. We played Chutes and Ladders. I put the marble race game together (sort of) and we dropped marbles down various chutes and watched them go down the different ramps and slides. I hadn't realized that the current incarnation of the marble game required an engineering degree.After Tilly went to bed, I reassembled the game so it worked better.

Friday morning, I was wandering around wearing her bunny ears. Suddenly, I got an order, "Nana, hop forward." "Hop Backward." We did this for about 15 minutes until Nana-Bunny got tired. We watched some Yo Gabba Gabba, played with the marble game, lost a marble. Mommy came about noon and so my visit with Tilly was done.

What does it say about where I work...

2011-01-02T15:49:00.000-06:00

...when a person I work with won't transfer from a bad situation into a better one because she fears she'll make an enemy of both her old and new supervisors? Would it happen? Maybe. I suspect these same two people of not allowing me to promote into a different job. I'm no longer amazed at the double standard or the favoritism. One of the most favored is retiring tomorrow - curious choice of day, since I would just have left at the end of the year, paid holiday, or not. Will I miss her? Only as long as it takes them to fill her position. I don't want to be the student supervisor. Of course I expect this person to be designated my lead worker just as the other woman was even though I have seniority, and not just in the unit. I expect the next month or so to be fun.

Happy New Year, Blogger Buddies.

2011-01-01T17:39:00.000-06:00

I promise to post more often in 2011. Thank you for bearing with me. I've had some serious depression issues which are now fading. Of course the new year promises to be scarier than the old with "King Walker" being inaugurated on Monday and then beginning his vendetta against state employees.

Over the last ten years or so, state employees have become the whipping boy for the legislature. Each legislative session begins with an attempt to balance the budget by cutting state employee pay and reducing benefits. King Walker is an enemy of the state employees' unions and will attempt to break us.

I'll keep you posted. Mostly it means I'll probably wind up with a 12% pay cut with the additional furlough days he wants to legislate and increases in health care premiums and retirement contributions. Since I'm living from paycheck to paycheck already, I'll need to look for savings like not driving my car, canceling the satellite service and either the land line (goodbye DSL) or the cell phone, no trips except for 18s graduation, no trip up north for reunion, no Halloween party. We'll see what happens but if Walker's pre-inauguration hi-jinks are any indication, the next 4 years are going to be rough..

I have new windows.

2010-11-29T10:20:00.003-06:00

The window guy is finishing up the exterior work. I had him give me the old windows for cold frames. I'll set up the bases later today on the side of the garage. In the spring, Ill be able to put plants out earlier to harden off which means my garden should be planted earlier than usual.

The windows are already making a difference. The window guy is really polite. He said "excuse me," to one of the furfaces as he walked past her. Not too many people are polite to a cat.

I took the day off to do some work. This may be the last nice day. Plus I have vacation time to use up. I never seem to use it all but I put the excess in Sabbatical for retirement. This year I have more hours to bank that previous years. Apparently, I never took enough time off. That explains my feeling of being totally stressed out. I still have a week to take of. I'll use it up between Christmas and the New Year. No trip though - I used the money for windows.

I'm still debating putting up the tree. Not a lot of room here with the new table. I found it at an antique store in Stoughton. I need to get a couple of boards to use as leaves and all of us will be able to fit around the table. There's two drop leaves which when extended bring the table to 52 inches wide and can seat 6. The additional two leaves will make it 6 ft. wide. I guess I don't have to get rid of the big table cloths now.

Anyway, back to the tree. Last year, I let Tilly decorate. She did a good job as you can see. she did have a thing about picking the sequins of the stockings, but other than that-- a good job.

Language

2010-11-16T16:15:00.001-06:00

I don't usually complain about language here. I'm not a linguist or even a former English major. But...certain things make me cringe. The worst is probably "it's" when you mean the possessive of it, which is "its". It apostrophe s means it is or it has. It's raining out. It's hurt its paw.

My constant use of the ellipsis (...) probably bothers some people. Or my use of the em dash. (Indicated here by 2 dashes --.)

"Baited breath" is currently making me nuts. I've seen that more times than I care to mention, most recently in a news item on the homepage at work. It's "bated breath." As in you're holding your breath or your breathing is "abated." You're not fishing with your breath so you can't bait it.

We won't even talk about comma splices.

Guilty as charged.

Been working on my resume.

2010-11-14T18:52:00.000-06:00

Trying for a new job.

Proud Family

2010-11-10T07:53:00.000-06:00

My daughter and her family. Yesterday was the day her husband (on the right) became the official dad of the kid in the middle. Congratulations, Tom and Jake.

Soap, Soup

2010-11-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

It's that kind of day. I should be out in the yard or something or maybe paying bills. But I'm making chicken noodle soup from what's left of my rotisserie chicken and various soaps for Christmas. I've got a sage-scented one with hemp oil. And I'm making some shaving soap which will be unscented. After that, oatmeal lavender body bars, and lavender shampoo bars.

Sh*t my Mom said or did.

2010-10-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

No, it's not a tv show or a website. My siblings think I'm incredibly rude and obnoxious for referring to my mother as "The Crazy Lady." But they never (or maybe rarely) went through the crap I did. I think I mentioned in a different post how my baby pictures show my mother holding me at arm's length as though I stank.

My mother told me when I was old enough to wear a watch, to wear it on my left arm so no one would know I was left-handed. She used to slather me in Nadinola Bleach Cream at night because I was too dark. She gave me perms because my hair was too straight. I was scrubbed with the scrub brush because I looked dirty. You know which brush I mean - the wooden-handled, yellow bristled brush used to scrub floors.

I had unnecessary plastic surgery (my own choice) to correct a "defect" because not only my own family, but perfect strangers, felt obligated to comment about it. the surgeon asked me why I was wanted the surgery and I explained that I wasn't bothered by it, but I was tired of people walking up to me and touching me, or making comments. He was satisfied and performed the surgery. Since it was minor, after a brief rest, i went to work. When I was asked about the bandage, I just said, "brain transplant." Big laughs all around. When the bandages were removed, no one could figure why I had surgery. Success.

So what started this rant? I strapped my watch this morning and for some reason it triggered a memory. So it's not Proust. What can I say?

Finished Items.

2010-10-20T11:30:00.000-05:00

This is Tilly's new quilt for her bed at Daddy's house. Below is the pillow case for her bed.

The duck feet are from this pattern on Ravelry. They were made for a co-worker's soon-to-be-born grandchild.

The two small quilts below are for my nephew's twins, Dominc and Maria, who were born last Friday.

There are other finished projects to be shown and a couple of non-finished ones as well. But these things are the reason I haven't been blogging much.

I am getting so tired of political ads.

2010-10-08T08:37:00.000-05:00

I am tired of the negative ads. I am tired of the misleading ads. I'm tired of hearing from people who believe the misleading and negative ads. I wish there was an option "None of the Above" on the ballot where if enough people indicated that they didn't want any of the candidates, there would be new a new election with different candidates. And anyone who was voted out on a "None of the above" was prohibited from ever running for office again. I want my country to be "WE THE PEOPLE" and not "We the corporations."

End of political rant.

Well, well, well.

2010-10-05T19:04:00.000-05:00

Yeah, well. I got a letter from the water utility on Thursday. The city is looking for abandoned wells in my neighborhood. I called Monday and reported a covered hole that could be something. The guy came out this morning and checked. Yeah it's probably a well, but he left a note saying he can't tell for sure because....

... there's too much debris.

When I got home, I pulled the cover off and there's definitely debris - a dish drainer, paint cans, a ski pole, and a lot of what looks like compost. Nasty. It's a large room about 6 by 6 or so; I guess you'd call it a well house. What I thought was a concrete patio laid on dirt is actually the roof of this structure. The hole isn't large enough for any human to climb down. I went into the basement and gee, how did I miss the cinder block-filled doorway? So yeah, it's probably a well. I'm supposed to get it cleaned out so it can be inspected. Yeah, right.

I cried.

I called my daughter and railed at her. I called Tilly's mom and just left a message "Help!!" I called my son. "Help." Tomorrow, I'm calling the water utility and asking how they expect a 63 year-old woman to clean out that pit.

My freezer is well stocked.

2010-10-01T13:21:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, Tilly and I went to the Farmer's Market. She had made a special request for pumpkin bread instead of her usual spicy cheese bread. We took the stroller and she rode in comfort around the Square. I bought 3 pounds of green beans, a couple of bunches of chinese mustard greens, a bottle of honey (a Tilly request), some corn, mushrooms, spicy cheese bread for me, a small yellow watermelon, a bunch of leeks, a squash, and a maple sugar pop for Tilly. We went over to the Food for Thought event looking for Oma who wasn't there. We listened to a bag piper named Sean who did not have a tip box.

While we were waiting for the bus, Oma drove past. She went around the block and parked. When she walk over to us, she offered us a ride s soon as she packed up the table at the Food for Thought event. So we got to hang out with Oma. Or rather I did. Tilly dragged Grandpa Randy off to find a balloon.

To make a long story short (or this post will never get published) I spent Sunday blanching and freezing all of the above produce and the rest of the veggies from this year's pitful garden. So now I have beans, broccoli, kale, okra, mustard greens, corn, pureed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, zucchini, and mushrooms btucked away for the winter. There's also a couple of chickens, some chicken parts, ground beef, bacon, Cornish hens, Boca Bits, and shrimp in there. I'll only need to shop for fresh fruit, a bit of fresh produce, and cat food. As the freezer empties, I'll keep it full with ice packs until spring when I'll defrost and clean the freezer and get it ready for fall. The ice packs will be removed as I buy/ harvest produce and so it will begin again.

All is well...

2010-09-24T07:28:00.000-05:00

... at least on the shared drive at work. Files have been recovered. Access databases seem to be working correctly. Saved for now.

I pre-ordered a book for my son for Christmas. It's the next book in the Wheel of Time series. After I checked out, I noticed this:

Next time use Express Checkout with PayPhrase Buy on Amazon and across the web with a simple phrase.

Choose your PayPhrase:
		(Use this suggestion, see others, or enter your own)

Cracked me up!!!

Boy, when I screw up...

2010-09-21T15:00:00.001-05:00

I screw up big. I accidently erased folders from our unit's shared drive yesterday. Somehow I managed to drop the folder into the folder for another unit. That folder dropped into a weird place, but as it looked like a duplicate of the folder in the correct place, I started to delete it. Whooops - "deleting 1894 files. " Whoa, stop! STOP!!!! CANCEL!!!! Too late - gone.

If IT can't recover the files, I am in sooo much trouble.

See what happens when you age - the brain goes.

I had a couple of expensive brain farts.

2010-09-03T08:54:00.016-05:00

A couple of times this summer, I forgot to turn off the sprinkler in the garden. The first time, it was only overnight. The second - for an entire weekend. I left early Friday morning and returned late Sunday. The water/sewer bill was almost $200 - up from a normal bill of $130 for 6 months.

Riding on the City of New Orleans, Illinois Central Monday morning rail...

2010-09-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

Yup! Heading to Nawlins Saturday by train. Downside - 4-hour layover at Union Station in Chicago both ways. Why train? Because it's less hassle than flying. And I can knit without worrying that some officious nit will take exception to my sharp pointy sticks joined by a strangler's cord.

My dad's sister is having a 64th anniversary party. I haven't seen her since my dad's funeral back in '86. I haven't seen any of her kids since the 70's when I went to the Boston area to see her son, Patrick.

I also intend to get a list of relatives so we can add to the family tree. I don't know my dad's side of the family as well as I should. My mother didn't like her in-laws - they weren't the well-off branch of the family as she thought when she met my dad through his (well-off) cousin. Poor country folk weren't her in-laws of choice.

When I get back, I'll let you know how it went as well as post some finished crafty objects - spinning, soap, knitting, quilting, sewing. There won't be pictures of the garden as that was a bust - tomato blight, racoons/squirrels in the corn, too much rain, too much heat and humidity. I planted a small patch of corn, about 18 plants, 3 beans, carrots, lettuce, 4 kale, 4 broccoli, 6 okra, 2 zucchini, 2 cucumbers, 4 roma tomatoes, 2 big boy tomatoes, 4 green peppers. I got quite a bit of broccoli, the usual abundance of okra, several large zucchini, about a peck of unblighted tomatoes, a small amount of kale, about a dozen cucumbers, and a bumper crop of weeds.