Baking

We've decided to try baking our own bread for awhile, its cheaper and tastes better so why not. The only problem is because is tastes better, we eat more, hence it feels like I'm always in the kitchen making bread. Now, on top of that, we keep having company for dinner and I'm in the middle of holiday baking, so I think I really am spending all of my days in the kitchen. It is fun, but for some reason I'm getting tired. Today was laundry, Sweet Orange Christmas bread, and Anise/Springerle Cookies (or as I call them, German Curse Cookies). I've already over cooked one pan full. I can't feel too bad though, I'm only making them this year because my mother-in-law (who has not messed up since I got married) ended up with tougher than usually cookies this year. So, we'll see how mine are, a little too brown might not be too bad. I had them just about right last year, but this year I took the easy method and I'm using a different oven. The cook times really are that delicate that a different oven can make a difference, every minute counts. I think I'll sleep through this weekend again. And now to finish laundry . . .

Chubby

It may be we have several pet squirrels, but they all seem to be large. So we are just going to assume that this is the main squirrel, and I'm naming him Chubby. He might be slim come spring, but he doesn't seem to be starving any now. He is doing a great job of cleaning the Chokecherries off of the trees. I'm sure he is glad that I didn't turn them into jam this year. Last night we even had a visit from two antelope. Only Hubby saw them, but I'm assuming he knows what antelope look like by now. Though he could be having traumatic hallucinations of antelope by now.

Oh Look . .

Oh, look, I am still alive, I forget sometimes. Thanksgiving was good, my folks were here and we played and shopped and ate, and then ate some more.

Lately we have been freezing, most days have been between 0 and -20 after the wind chill. Fuzzy is the only one that wants to go outside. Hubby and I have been huddling by the fire and seeing how fast we can shove insulation into the attic space. We have a about 75% of the accessible attic space done, it feels so much better. At least the upstairs is getting warm, other rooms are still cold, our walls are just too well chilled. I did see wet spots today. We were only supposed to hit 20, but maybe we had areas that broke freezing. It is nice to see the snow melting again.

Fuzziness and Mayhem

There is nothing like a clean dog with nice trimmed legs, paws, belly, and tail. Maybe she will stay looking nice for a little longer this time.

FYI - and don't try this at home - Should you ever need to remove the glue-like substance associated from an Iron-On Transfer, forget the cleaners. Grab an old towel, one that you don't care much about, leave the iron at its highest heat, add in full steam and rub the towel back and forth over the iron until all of that hideous glue comes off. Really, its not much fun, but it really does work. Unlike window cleaner, hairspray, water, scouring pads, and baking soda.

Yes, its been a lovely day, and Hubby's sick too.

TA-DA

We have achieved a wallpaper free main floor today. I finally finished scrubbing the glue and paper residue (and years of neglect) off of the walls. We had one wash cloth fatality due to the extensive scrubbing. But the remaining three wash clothes have been impaired (one severely) and they will never be the same. I think the one will be a loss during the final wash prior to painting. The other two, are stiff with glue, but they might survive the painting project.

For now my services are being moved off of the main floor and into the master closet. Hubby is getting very sick of wanting to wear a coat every time he goes into the closet. It has been a while since that closet was above 50 degrees. So now we will buy insulation and I get to tear out the particle board, clown/circus covered walls. This will be the easiest wallpaper removal yet. I think it should be fun this way. It wont be as much fun putting up the sheetrock, but it will be nice to have real walls, and a warm closet (though cooler in the summer).

Fuzzy finally got groomed on Monday. They actually trimmed her fur and feathers very nicely. This is the best she has ever looked. I'm going to have to get a picture of her while she is looking so pretty. I think she is enjoying being a little less fuzzy than normal.

Hubbydom

Its been a busy week, trying to readjust to normal life and get a good schedule going. We're still working on routine, but we'll get there.

We had around 17" of snow, but that just depends on where you measured. In our little yard the front yard was 12" and the backyard could of had piles over 24". Its all about the wind. Most of it has melted now. It is hard to believe that a week ago we had 17" of snow and today we hit upper sixties. I'm not complaining, I'll enjoy the warmth while we have it.

Hubby has a page-a-day paper airplane calendar. While he was gone I folded and collected all the airplanes. So the question now is what do you do with approximately 100 paper airplanes. I think this is where children would come in handy. The accumulation does not look as large as I had anticipated, nor does it seem to adequately represent the time he was gone.

He still likes his job, though he is a little stressed from the mounds of things they have left for him to take care of. It looks like they will try to do things to keep him there. I think that would be very nice.

4 Inches and Counting

They said we would wake up with 6 inches of snow today. I wasn't up early, but there was maybe four inches. We might have six now. I'm not complaining. I really don't want to shovel that much snow. I am prepare for the 18" they were threatening though. Fuzzy and I are going into hibernation, she is already snoring away. Its one of her specialties. Looks like a good dream though.

I'm still washing walls. At the rate all this prep work is going, the painting is going to finish up in what will feel like record time. I wont know what to do when I can finish a room in one or two days.

So far next week is supposed to be sunny, in so many ways.

Moving Up

I caught this on the news today. Moving here has been a difficult time, but settling in and enjoying the surroundings has been easy. The link doesn't list the number one, but number 100 is considered the worst. So when you look at where we have been, and some of you still are, to where we are now, its no wonder that we are really liking it here.

http://www.childrenshealthmag.com/parents/The-best-and-worst-places-to-raise-a-family3.php

On the news they listed things like obesity, housing, and economy. The rest of the world is catching up here, but we're still holding on.

Wallpaper Away!

The snow has melted, the sun has warmed the ground, and now we prepare for rain. It must be fall. Last week I finished Phase I Wallpaper Removal. YAE! It would have been more exciting, if the house hadn't needed cleaning just as soon as I finished. Today I started patching, then there will be sanding, and more patching, and more sanding, some cleaning in there (probably a couple of different times), and then I've got walls that need mudding, and more sanding, and more sanding, and more sanding (at least that is what is always feels like), then we might actually get to paint. I am hoping that by the time I am ready to paint that it will be a "we" thing. Though, I like the weekends off, so there might not be much "we" to it. It will just be nice to be a "we" again (and not be including the dog). It will be really nice to have things painted and not have an ice blue office and just have everything look nice and maintained.

One of these days I'm going to get back to having some fun. I did crochet myself a hat and scarf last week. Thought I should have something to keep me warm when Fuzzy drags me out on those cold winter walks.

Snow!

I kept getting distracted this week by all the little projects that are waiting to be done around here. I need to get myself on a more structured schedule, but it is just nice to see things happening.

We had our first real snow of the year this weekend. The main part of the storm hit Friday, just in time for

Hubby's flight in. It was a wild drive. This morning was better, but it ended in fog. I decided staying home sounded good, though now the sky is blue and things are quickly melting. Fuzzy on the other hand thought it sounded wonderful to just go lay in the snow. She found a little snow perch and laid there as content as could be. If I had not made her come in, she still be happily sitting there, either that or should we be roaming the neighborhood. She is an escape artist. Last I saw, we are supposed to reach a high of 50 this week. I'm looking forward to it.

Back to Normal

My parents have been here for the past week. Its been so nice to have something going on, people to play with, and oh ya, someone to talk to face to face. It has left most things neglected. So I've spent most of today cleaning and putting things back in their places. Its just no fun to go from a week of play right into a day of work. At least I will get the rest of the weekend off.

Just for the SLC folks, we've had some cold, but we missed the snow and the rain. Its just a pleasant fall week, ranging from 80s to 40s for highs. Oh, but we did get the winds. I don't currently need to rake the leaves, sweep some yes, but I do need to rake the trigs. I guess fall in this house has a slightly broader definition. That will wait for another day. Enough is enough.

The Halloween decorations did make it inside the house today. :-) They will keep me entertained for the next week, and then hubby will scream. Its always fun.

Silly Wallpaper People

I'm too lazy today to flip the photo, so just tilt your head to the right, the cabinets go on top. Yesterday's excitement was that my parents are coming to visit a few days earlier than expected, they'll be here tomorrow. It should actually be a fun weekend. Today's excitement is this. I know, you say, that doesn't look exciting at all. It's hideously ugly and the cap isn't that thrilling. But, its that the lazy people who put up the wallpaper didn't put it all the way behind the fridge. This really shouldn't have surprised me, but since nothing else has gone easy with the wallpaper in the kitchen, I didn't think I would get so lucky as to have such a large patch of wall without wallpaper. I haven't moved the stove yet, but the preliminary peaks suggest that they didn't put the wallpaper back there either. Yippee! That means that I have only another one to two hours left and the kitchen will be free of wallpaper. :-) Then I'll have to move the food storage. :-( But its progress, and hubby might come back to no wallpaper. That would be exciting.

Snow?

I know, even here it is still technically summer, but I swear I saw snow flakes today. The silly weatherman warned that we might get snow. I didn't believe him, they always seem to inaccurate. Really, it was in the 70s yesterday and today it is supposed to be in the 40s, but feel like the 30s. Yes, it does feel like the 30s. I might have to turn the heat on tonight. I don't want to because we are supposed to get back into the 70s by the end of the week. I hate heating things up just to cool them back off.

Fuzzy went back to the vet today. This is the third vet (at the same clinic) that we have seen. I liked her the best, but I'm still not that impressed. The important thing is that Fuzzy's paw is healing well. She'll be so excited come the end of the week when she can go play again.

Slowly the wallpaper gets removed from the kitchen. Oh, but those walls are even more of a mess than the breakfast nook. I will be spending a while patching, mudding, and texturing walls before I can paint. It is nice to see progress being made.

Thursday

We think Fuzzy's paw is healing, but we don't go back to the vet until Monday. It doesn't seem to be bothering her much, so that is a good sign. The wrappings only lasted until Sunday, so much for continued paw protection. I did make her a little shoe so that she could still go for walks and we wouldn't have to worry about sticks and stones and the extra wear and tear. Its funny though listening to the pad, pad, pad, scrape of a dog wearing one shoe. But, Miss Fuzzy will wear the shoe, unlike our last dog who would not tolerate such horrendous travesties.

Its been a quiet week as I've spent too much time in my head. I'm realizing the importance of being around people who have an idea of where you been and where you might be going. We went through q

uite a lot in the last three years at our last house, but here its like most of that never happened. It definitely makes a difference when you leave good neighbors behind compared to leaving okay neighbors.

I'm getting excited though. I prepared my little used saw blade today. Its been four years since I painted my first

one and I think two years since my second attempt (but we wont talk about Bubba). This one should work up fairly quickly, but will be a challenge because it is so small. I cheat and work off of pattern, but I'm going to have to shrink this one and adapt it more than the first one. It should still be easier than Bubba, who was supposed to be a train and was just horrible. I hope to get it primed and the pattern fitted today, then maybe tomorrow I will paint, and painting makes me happy (except Bubba).

9/11

I came across this yesterday and it was about yesterday, to me it still applies.

"There was a silence of shock across the nation as thousands of souls cried from their smoldering graves asking that today not be allowed to repeat itself."

What a Week!

Here I thought this week was going to be boring and depressing. Na, its just frustrating and stressful. I had to take Fuzzy back to the vet and take their second option of surgery. I'm still not impressed, but she should be getting better now. So this is a pic of her poor little back paw. She's not a very happy camper and just doesn't understand that she is supposed to be taking it easy.

I've been having my head spin with YW stuff. They keep threatening to send me to EFY this weekend. Between Fuzzy and a few brainstorming sessions I think they finally found a better option. They have succeeded in getting me out of the house twice this week though.

I finally got our address light fixed. Now people can actually find our house in the dark. So far it hasn't caught on fire either, and I didn't electrocute myself. I can do things. I just haven't figured out the plumbing issues yet. I must get along better with electrical work. It is so nice to see things getting accomplished.

No fun!

Hubby went back yesterday, we were all very sad. Today we are doing laundry and it is very nice to have my machines. I can actually customize my loads. Its been nice to know how everything has been dried too. I like knowing that my perm press isn't being dried on high heat.

Fuzzy went to the vet today. She has something stuck in her paw. Neither one of us really enjoyed the experience. Which is too bad, because we both used to like going to the vet. I haven 't decided if this vet will stay or not, probably not. I've been spoiled by the best, so it is hard to believe that there isn't a more suitable vet in town. For now we will treat the problem and consider further options. Unfortunately, driving seven hours to see the vet isn't a very good option.

Hubby

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

I seem to have something stuck on my mind today. I got my washer and dryer fully functioning. It was such a nice accomplishment. I changed my dehumidifier drain so that the water isn't draining uphill. Which is wasn't doing very well before, odd. I tried to fix a leaky tap, but it was uncooperative. But that's okay, I think I've suckered some people into helping fix some of the stuff around here. :-)

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

Its looks like I will probably get to be the Young Women's Secretary at church. EEEK, teenagers! I think they see maybe five a week, so it wont be much of a crowd, and it will give me some regular human contact. Which has got to be a good thing.

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

Ooo, speaking of hubby, old CRAPTACULAR finally got his leave information forwarded to his new job, and in one week, and this is government, his job updated the information and gave him his missing back pay. HALLELUJAH! It still feels like a miracle. His boss didn't even think they would get the paperwork processed this fast.

Well, there are things to do today and only four hours left until the adventure begins, because . . .

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

Hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby, hubby.

Bye, Bye, Old Things

Our house came with a washer and dryer, ever so nice, but they are older then the ones we moved and ever so basic. I've really missed having temperature control that is separate from cycles and run times. So today, I unplugged the old giants and cleaned up the floor. In lieu of redoing the whole washroom, which is the ultimate goal, I now just need to do some rewiring with the dryer and I will have my nice little machines back. I've done my heavy lifting for today, so for tonight the basement family room will have two washers and two dryers. But once mine are connected and working, then I can find someone to haul the old machines away. And then for the first time since we moved in, I can have a basement family room without a washer and dryer. I think it will be a wonderful functional and aesthetic improvement for the room.

I've progressed on the wallpaper removal too. The breakfast nook has not been nearly as easy and pleasant at the bathroom. The walls are just a mess in there. But I have removed all the wallpaper that I can, until it is time to move the large, heavy storage unit. Now I can start with the kitchen, which may just be delightful for oh so many reasons. It is nice to see the floral hearts slowly disappearing. Next will be the circus print in the master closet. I have no idea what they were thinking.

Progress

I let yesterday flop, but today I've been making up for it. I finished making my new swim suit, and so far it seems to fit, though I haven't tried the finished product yet. It wont be too tight, and considering my recent projects, that is pleasant all by itself.

I also got the wallpaper off of one wall in the breakfast nook. At some point in time there must have been paint on that wall, but in some places it looks like the original plaster. It took as long, or longer, to do the one wall as it did to do the whole bathroom. I really had to work some areas. I would like to smack the installer. Some stuff came off with the wallpaper, but not much. So that means that the installer glued the wallpaper onto the plaster, mud, and wall patch (and some paint too). It comes right off the painted surfaces, but some of the others are just nightmares. The walls look awful. Its going to take some time and working to re-mud the walls and get them prepared for painting. Gee, good thing I've got lots of time, because I sooo looove to mud walls.

One of these days I should go pick the plums off of my weed. I've never had a plum weed before, it even looks more like a shrub than a tree. The neighbor says its a volunteer weed. It might make a little pastry or fresh bottle of jam. Fuzzy likes the shade, so we keep it.

Back to Normal

Its always good to get away once in a while, and its even better when it is nice to get back. I've been worried that if I went to visit family, I might not be able to get myself to come back. But it feels good to be home with all my stuff. And its nice to know, that now this is home. Now, if there were just a hubby here to play with. Fuzzy has spent a lot of time getting reacquainted with her yard and neighborhood. I think she missed the freedom. Now I can spend time getting back to my projects, there are so many of them. And I'll be preparing for hubby, it is the most exciting thing right now and will always be too far away.

I should probably finish the laundry too.

Figures . . .

Well, the new kids look great in the yard and it is so nice to have them there. Actually, it is a little too nice, which is the problem. It would figure, that once I started putting plants into the yard, I would only want to keep putting in more. I sure do now. The old wildflowers didn't bother me much before, but now that there is this mangy, dying clump between the new plants, I just want to rip them out and put in more new plants. Hubby is being wise and not telling me to go ahead. Its only three plants, but whose to say it would stop there. The yard will get there, it will just take time, and a lot more money. I think it is harder this time for a couple of reasons. First, our last yard was actually starting to look good when we left it. There was still more to do, but you could see the potential taking shape. Second, I have a clear vision of how I want this yard to go. The other yards, I had ideas, but they were always changing and morphing. This yard, I don't think will change much, other than small details. I know what I want to do, and I'm excited to see it take place. It drives me a little nuts that I just can't get it going. But the first couple of steps to the yard will be the most expensive and it will take time to build up that much money. They will probably be the most drastic changes too. So I wait.

New Kids

I've just been missing my plants so much. I don't have anybody to go check on out in the yard. It makes it a little harder to enjoy my yard that way. So today I found some new friends, and they just had to come home with me. But I'm a good wife, so I got one for me and one for Hubby.

So the new kids are a White Coneflower (Echinacea 'White Swan') and a Twisted Rush. Hubby gets the Rush because he is just twisted that way. The cashier was fawning over the Rush, something about unique, curly plants. They'll do a good job of bringing a little more life and interested into our common little yard. I just have to go do yard work now. Oh well, the kids are worth it.

Mild Weather

I've really enjoyed this summer, the weather is so mild. It will be good to visit family soon, but I'm actually starting to dread the heat that will be associated with the visit. I have not missed having temps above 90 and I have definitely rejoiced and not seeing 100s. We just wont think about winter for now.

I used my serger a little bit on Saturday, didn't know what I was doing and jammed the thing with stitches and thread. After a lot of "ripped" stitches, I finally managed to get the thread out. Now I'm ready to start actual projects. I just need more supplies first. Its always about the supplies.

Fuzzy got to play at the dog park on Saturday. She was way excited, there were so many dogs. She wore herself out in no time. She is looking forward to visiting Grandma and others. Its been so long since she got regular visits. I'm sure she will love the trip.

Spawn of Satan

I was going through an old journal last night, oh, and this was just too funny. This little guy's name was supposed to mean "Pounce", he was my attack cat. Most people "affectionately" referred to him as the spawn of satan, sometimes satan himself. This is what I wrote about him the day that I got him.

". . . we left with a little black and brown tabby. He is really sweet and mild. He loves attention though!"

Ya, I know, "sweet and mild" just did not end up fitting him well at all. Another entry I commented on how sweet he was, until he decided to bite. He was a good attack cat, he kept most men away.

In other realms of the evil empire and satanic items, I'm mad at Windows today. Apparently there is a glitch between some Adobe products and Windows User Accounts that just randomly happens. So today, PhotoElements stopped recognizing that my scanner really works. The solution seems to be creating a new user account and reloading everything on to it. Why do people put up with this, its so stupid. I loaded all the scanner software onto the Mac instead. I may only be able to scan one picture at a time right now, but at least I wont have any random software glitches keeping me from using the scanner. I'll have to go on another Mac software buying binge, its so worth the money.

Read First

I have lots of projects piled up, so this week I've been working on a dress that I have had the stuff for a few years. I thought I'd been paying attention as I measured and cut things out, checking the fit along the way. I had to alter part of the dress because I realized that it wasn't going to fit. Everything else seemed fine. I finished the dress last night, the sewing didn't look too bad, though the material is not really the right type for the style of dress. It still looked pretty good. Only problem, the part I didn't alter is a size too small and barely fits. I'm very frustrated. Looking at the front of the pattern today as I was putting it away, down on the bottom, it says "Fit for Petite". Gee, that would have been good to know, I might have made the dress a size larger from the beginning if I knew it was made to be small. Why can't sizes be universal? And why do I keep buying patterns that are "funky" instead of normal.

Tomorrow I will learn how to use my serger. I'm sure it will be an adventure.

Running . . .

I haven't had too many days where I seemed to spend the day just running around town. Today was one of them though. We finally have the car registered, YAE! No more temporary tags. I really don't recommend buying a car and then moving states before the car is licensed. Its just a huge pain.

I took my serger in for maintenance last Friday. I got it back today. I'm impressed. It cost less than I expected and came back in half a week. Its been collecting dust for years, now I will actually have to learn how to use it. But the more I sew, the less boxes I have hanging out. It sounds like a good excuse to me.

We've finally achieved "normal" temperatures this week. Its such a change from last week that it feels like a regular heat wave, but it is nice to have August feel like summer.

Things-A-Happenin'

We finally got the estimates from the plumber, we're still waiting on the electrician. Our car title finally made it here too, so maybe on Monday I can have a fully registered car again. We even heard about our last rent check this week. Its been sitting on the table waiting for someone to come pick it up. They finally said not to worry about it. Doesn't make sense after the fuss they made to get it, but we sure aren't going to complain about keeping the money. We're finally warming up from our cold snap. It felt more like summer than fall today. We did have record low temps, it was really strange.

BRRRRR

I'm not turning the heat on. I might wear a coat for my walk with Fuzzy later, but this is still July. It feels like fall has suddenly taken over summer. At least I wont need to water my lawn for a while. YAE!

For now I will think of warmer days. Since I did the virtual tour of House 1, I decided I might as well do House 2 as well. Its a little something to look at.

A Noisy Tuesday

It sounds like our neighbor is having concrete jackhammered in her back yard. They've been doing it all day, so it must be a big project, but it is definitely loud.

I've been dealing with contractors and dealerships this week. I've got my grumpy attitude on and nothing much left to do with it. The temporary tags on our "new" car expired yesterday, and after several phone calls the dealership said, hey, your plates are here. Well, that's fabulous I live over 400 miles away from that dealership, I can't just drive there to pick them up. So wonderful. The lien holder on our car doesn't even have the title yet, so I can't even get the car registered here. So now we have a second temporary tag that should last us until all the documents finally make it here. It is just ridiculous that the paperwork would take more than 45 days. I don't know why they insist on sitting on things.

As for the contractors, we've been trying to get bids on the house. I've been working with these contractors for nearly three weeks now and I still don't have the bids. Apparently their lives took a turn of the worse last week, though I don't know why they didn't do anything the week before. So now we shall see if they can get me bids this week. Oh, I miss my plumber (Professional Plumbing Services - Salt Lake City). I still ponder calling and seeing what it would take to get him to work out here for a week. But alas, I do need someone local for emergencies, so the process must proceed no matter how painful.

Fuzzy and I are going to do something fun this week, but I just haven't decided quite what it shall be. I'm feeling very noncommittal about things right now, and I'm not sure why. It makes me wonder what this week might bring. The weather is cooler this week, cool like spring, it makes the house more pleasant, but I may have to start wearing a jacket for our walks. It also means Thunderstorms, which are cool, but may deter travels as some of these storms do bring tornados.

My boxes are calling, maybe I will distract myself again.

Endings

We're down to the last two days of CFD. There have been a couple of concerts that we could hear and a couple of concerts with crowds large enough that they filled up the neighborhood. Fuzzy and I missed the last parade this morning, we did catch some of the horses, but Fuzzy was on overload this morning and was wanting to be everywhere.

Its been pretty quiet lately. I'll have to do more next week on getting things done around the house. There are still a lot of projects and problems to get to. It will be nice to have things a littler quieter again. I wont miss the late night traffic.

Fuzzy Air Show

Fuzzy and I went to the dog park to watch the air show today.

It wasn't prime viewing territory, but she got to run around and play with other dogs, and I got to see some of the planes whizzing by. I missed most of the really good shots, my camera was never ready at the right moment. But we both left satisfied. It was nice just to get and do something for a change.

I've been catching up on little projects this week. I finally finished the covers for my china. They didn't turn out too bad for not really knowing what I was doing. And it only cost me the price of the zippers, so I'm not going to complain.

I finished getting the wallpaper off in the bathroom. Now I just need to work on the kitchen area. Then I'll have to figure out paint samples. I don't plan to really paint until the fall though, so I've got some time.

Its an unending list of projects, so I just have to keep myself focused and hope that I feel like doing the work that needs it the most. I keep wanting to sidetrack myself on the fun stuff and ignore all the work stuff. sigh. Back to work . . .

Holding Steady

I finally got the yard measured today. I've already measured and drawn up the house, but for some reason the yard has been lagging behind. I've put a rush on the yard so that I can start getting an idea about the amount of materials we will need for a small retaining wall and a new fence. It occurs to me that if I don't want to be manually opening and closing a gate and a garage door in the frigid cold of winter, that now is the time to get moving. It should be interesting as I don't see the finances allowing to hire much out and hubby will be unable to help until the ground is frozen. The wall wont be a problem, but the fence will be interesting.

I got a good glimpse at the Thunderbirds today. They were more active yesterday, but I could hardly see them. They are sure loud though. Tomorrow is the show. I'll have to see if I can get some photos. The were taking off and turning over the house today. If I'd been standing outside with my camera pointed at that part of the sky, I would have had a great shot. I know when they are flying tomorrow, so if nothing else, I'll stand outside with the camera pointed at the sky then.

We saw lots of squirrels and bunnies on our walk this morning. It was such a cool morning that everybody must have wanted to go out. This has been great weather, I just wish it would rain more so that I wouldn't have to water the lawn.

Hmmm

The traffic seems to have hit town. Well, its noticeably busier, but its nothing like a big city. It should be interesting to see what it will be like tomorrow. I wont be driving by the park again for the next week and a half, if I can help it. I accidently did that this afternoon and I got off that street just as quickly as I could. CFD is making the traffic up there madness, and mostly its the pedestrians, not the cars. We'll get to see how the concerts sound this evening. Every once in a while we can here the goings on from the park, so I might be getting some good "free concerts".

I've been trying to make covers for my china, they finally made it out of the boxes. It looks like they will be a success. I just need to get zippers to put the lids on with and I'm there. So far they work just fine and don't even look too bad.

Just A Corner

Fuzzy and I went for a long walk this morning. We went half way around the lake which is closest to us. We also wandered past the rodeo grounds. I always thought I'd been to regular sized rodeos, but here we are three days to the start of CFD, and the parking area was packed. Apparently, they started the barrel racing yesterday. I didn't realize until today that the large dirt/grass parking area was just for horse trailers. My memory may be off a little, but I'd swear there were five to ten times more horse trailers there then I have seen at any other rodeo. They aren't kidding when they say this is a big rodeo. Its really making me tempted to see about getting tickets next week. Fuzzy was ever so happy and exhausted when we got home.

We have a lot of peeling wallpaper around this house. I've been debating since last night which is worse having wallpaper that is half peeling off the wall or having wallpaper that is half peeled off the wall. I can take my time to decide now. I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and just decided to peel a little corner off that was loose. 45 minutes later I ran out of loose corners that I could reach. I think the wallpaper was more than ready to come of the walls. It was almost fun and definitely therapeutic.

I guess I should start thinking about what color I want to paint the bathroom. I wander how long before the kitchen will meet a similar fate.

And It Starts

Hubby made it safely to training. They will keep him busy and exhausted.

Fuzzy and I opted for some beginning of the day exercise this morning. I really need to remember to take my camera with me. Its a wonderful neighborhood for walking in, we started off with a bunny running across the road. The C-130s were out flying patterns this morning. Its not that they're that impressive by themselves, but because of the size of the airport, the planes sometimes fly low over the park and the neighborhood. They were flying low over us today, not too loud, but I could have had some great shots. I'm just not used to seeing large planes that low. When the larger jets get routed here due to bad weather it looks like they will clip the tops of the trees in the park because they are coming in so low. Its an impressive sight. Its three days to our first CFD, I think last night they said it was number 113. Down wind from the park is already starting to smell like horses. One of these days we will have to go for a walk in the park and check things out. I'm sure Fuzzy would love to play in one of the lakes. We say someone sailboating in the larger lake the other day. It made Hubby want to go buy a sailboat. Boys and their toys.

Finally Finished

Finally the sale/purchase of our homes is complete. It is a wonderful feeling to not have that hanging over our heads any more. Out of our three home buying experiences, this has been the worst. It has been plagued with people from both sides telling us a bunch of empty promises and lies. The final being our sellers (J and L Medina) who first said they would cover some of the repair costs, then saying they would comp. the repair costs for a couple of days rent, then saying that if we funded by a certain day they would not charge us the additional rent, but in the end they put nothing towards the repairs that should have been fixed prior to our occupancy and they charged us rent for every day up to funding and including the day that we funded. It would have been better had they just kept their mouths shut from the beginning, though it would have been nice if in the beginning they had properly disclosed all of the issues with the house. But it is done and we will not do business with them again. We have learned a lot this time.

I still miss my plants. I don't have very many here, a few trees and a few shrubs, maybe some perennials, but its hard to tell if they are weeds or not. So here is a picture of my lovely Creeping Thyme that I left behind. Eventually I will have a virtual tour of house #2, but for now there are many other projects that require attention first.

Trial and Error

I am frustrated with my other blog, so now I will try this, and maybe it will work for me, and maybe it wont.

So the video made it there, and that was easy enough. It even looks like it might just work.

This is the first house, in all its glory and wonder. Now, my next task is to see if I can't get some of my last blog into this one. Or I might just start over. It really doesn't matter much at all.