Droopy Dawg week

Well, another Friday has come and I have not done a whole heck of a lot. I did get good news today, in the form of an email from my book club informing me that they are sorry about the defective book I have and telling me they are sending a replacement today. So I got a few magazines and a romance from the library to fill the time until it comes. I can't read any other series until I get this one done.

And speaking of that, the library had a new fantasy book that looks good- "Last Argument of Kings" by Joe Abercrombie. BUT, this is book three of a trilogy and the first two books are checked out. The nice librarian lad offered to reserve them for me- he said the person who has them is a fast reader and they should be returned soon. So, do I wait on the new book, and hope it's available when I get and read the others? Or do I take it and hope that I get the others before this one is due back. Because you're not supposed to be able to renew 'new' books. If you guessed I took it and said screw the poor person who is reading the first two, you win! Maybe he already read this one-yeah, like people read them out of order-who could do that?

The weather has been pretty wet and gray all week, hindering my intent to walk the dogs every day. Although I am not complaining about the (heavy) rain- just a few miles to the north and west it was a foot or more of snow.  The sun actually came out today and it is 45. Then J came home and told me we're supposed to get up to 5 inches of snow this weekend! Bummer. He didn't have to tell me that.

EDIT- I just got a call from library lad and ran down to get the first 2 books. I don't even have to feel bad about keeping the 3rd, because the other person didn't want it. (I did ask)

Coming to a Screeching Halt

You know how annoying it can be to be interrupted when you're in the middle of a really good book? Now imagine that you started reading the Wheel of Time series in 1990 when the first book appeared and have faithfully followed along through the next 11 books. Then the author dies (I know, I know,  he didn't plan on this before finishing the books, but still) and you think you'll never see how it turns out.

Next, an announcement that another author has been asked to finish the series, based on outlines and copious notes. Yay! Even the news that #12 won't be the last book, but will be the first of three that will wrap it up is okay. I can deal with waiting a bit more, and I bought the new book when it came out in October.

Because I was working then, I decided to wait until after Christmas and savor the reading. Then, I decided to reread the previous books first, since it had been so long between volumes, and I would have all the names and places straight in my head.  Did that, only to find that I had never bought #10 or 11, so had to run to the library last week to get them.

Finally, I started The Gathering Storm, and it is very good. The new guy is doing very well matching writing styles and character voices. I'm halfway through when I go from the left hand page to the right, and... it makes no sense. My book goes from page 528 to 631!  AAAGGGHH!

I bought this online from a book club and I fired off an email last night, demanding a replacement. Haven't heard back yet and I am not a happy camper. So not happy.

Ha

Boomer just trotted past me and settled down in the living room. When I heard a faint crackling, I turned around and could see everything but the tip of his nose. I didn't say anything, but he looked at me and lifted his head to show me a stick-on bow. I went back to my computer and he went back to chewing.

You just never know

We had a bit of excitement on our road this week. At least, the dogs thought it was bark-worthy.  Very, very bark-worthy. All week long. Tractors and trucks and digging and cement and men flaunting their obedient, quiet labs, who never strayed onto our side of the road.  This is what we saw:

 

That was after the cement was poured and the wind was whipping the tarps around.

 

Now, our thoughtful neighbor had come over earlier in the week to let us know what was going on, and I don't think I could have guessed from seeing the prep and what is lying on that trailer.  

I missed the installation this morning since I was sleeping, but J witnessed the crane lifting this into place.

 

Is that what you guessed was coming?  The world's biggest ice fishing trap (or tip-up, depending on region) lives across from us. I assume it's the biggest anyway-a quick Google search didn't show me anything else. 

Oh, by the way, he's not a nut- his business is making ice traps. The only problem I have with this is if he lights it up in the future. I like my out-in-the-country-no light-pollution-nights.

Friday Fun

J has to work on Sunday, so he has Friday and Saturday off this week. We went looking for a new chair today, and found one! Hurrah! One at a low enough price that we felt good about buying it, that is.

J has had a similar recliner for some time now, and it's quite comfortable, so I got one, although it wasn't what I went looking for. After we got it put together, we moved the old chair out to the "old kitchen". This is a room that used to be our kitchen (big surprise?) and that we haven't found the right use/name for yet. We had planned to swap the kitchen and dining rooms, but our dining table was too big for both the room and our 2 person family now. It's been a catch-all for some time, which isn't good, since it's the first room you see coming in the house.

It took some rearranging, but we think this will work for now.

 

(And I thought I had straightened out that slipcover!) Now we have a place to sit comfortably and chat on the phone if one person is watching TV at the other end of the house. Plus we have our stereo in here, as well as the buffet we just brought home.

We are going to store our records in there, as well as our cassettes. We really like the all-in-one phonograph/cassette/CD/radio player that the kids gave us a few years ago, I just wish the color went a little better with the walls. Oh well, it's not like the rest of the house is from a magazine spread either.  And this is what it really looks like, after the photo was taken:

We should just call it Rosie's bedroom. 

Another busy weekend

J and I, as well as the dogs, made a trip south on Friday. We left the animals at my parent's, in a nice fenced in yard on Saturday while we picked up J's sister and a china cabinet and brought them both to Ms M's in MA.  We left the hutch there but brought Trish back.

J replaced a broken switch, explaining to Mr. C what he was doing, until C just said to forget it, no way was he ever going to attempt electrical hijinks. I gather that his family voted Mr. C "least likely to grow up to be a handyman". We showed Ms M how to use our housewarming gift, a cordless drill driver, and walked her through installing a TP hanger in the downstairs bath. Included at no extra charge was how to adapt a plan when needed, as when clearance to slip a roll on was impeded by the toilet. The hanger works just as well upside down- and who's to say it doesn't even look better?

They had men come that morning measure their yard and get an estimate for a fence, so their beagle can go out and they don't have to.  They were flabbergasted when they were told it would be around $9000 for their little yard. Not what they expected at all!  We looked at the paperwork later and pointed out the estimators seeming math error. (Apparently he was new to this, he told them) The yard was @ 270 linear foot, and the 4x8 foot sections were $25.00 each.  He forgot the step of dividing 270 by 8 to get 34 sections needed- he put down 270 sections!  I think they need to let the store know this guy needs more training.

Anyway, we had a nice visit and it was fun seeing the house now that they have (mostly) unpacked and are settling in. When we dropped Trish off, we picked up the buffet that went with the hutch and brought that home, since Ms M didn't have room for that. Not that we do really, but we will shift stuff around, since J decided he wanted this- both pieces had been in his house growing up. I don't have a picture yet, because it is still in the van.

On our way home Sunday, we stopped at Sectaurs' home, a little further up Rt 495, to check out a plumbing problem. Last week, his ceiling downstairs, under his bathroom,  had shown signs of water damage. J removed the panel to access his tub pipes and didn't see anything leaking then. Best guess is that the pipes, which are slow to drain, may have had water back up after a long shower, and had some seepage around the drain. Prescription was drain cleaner and shorter showers.

We were home by 2:30 and relaxed the rest of the day. J watched his Netflix movie and I played Guild Wars. It was the Canthan New Year and I wanted to get a Celestial Tiger minipet, but it was not to be :(  Ameranth played with me and she did get one, so that was nice. We use Skype so we can talk as we play- it's lot more fun that way.

Pretty good weekend all in all.

Venting

Here at the Crazy house, we wash dishes by hand, always have, always will (sigh). Four kids did some of the work for years, with varying degrees of sulkiness. We did plan to include a dishwasher when we moved our kitchen from one room to the next, but there was no room. 

 

Because we were doing this ourselves, and we are were poor thrifty, we reused cabinets and got creative by using an old bureau for our sink base.  We like the way it turned out, but we only had room for the trash can, instead of a dishwasher.

This all leads up to me pointing out that J is not inexperienced with hand washing dishes, or with the drainer that sits in the...drain. We use a dish pan and when we are done, you tip the water out, and rinse the sink. The strainer (that's what it's called!) catches the solid stuff  (because needless to say we do  not have a garbage disposal either) and you dump it out in the trash. Simple, eh? Not if you're Mr. Crazy.

Mr. Crazy takes the strainer out before he dumps the water. Why, you ask? Because the water goes too slowly for him and the strainer gets dirty. He likes it to rush down the pipes carrying with it the little pad that kept popping off the counter protector board thingy we keep on the counter and that we had to keep reglueing. Well, we don't have to worry about glueing it anymore. Of course, it's hard to make a sandwich on the board, or butter toast, but what the heck, the strainer is clean.

Oh, and while I'm venting- I went to Wally World today and got 2 bottles of soda, a printer cartridge and 2 other small items. I asked the cashier to put them all in one bag, feeling bad that I had forgotten our cloth bags. "Even the ink?" she said doubtfully. I felt like asking her if she had ever tried opening one of those packages, believe me it wasn't going to leak, but I just told her yes.  So, she double-bagged them, "just in case".  Thank you.

And to end on a happier note, I must say Mr. Crazy can make me laugh. Watching Wheel of Fortune tonight, he was out of the room for most of the puzzle, which was a 'same last name' category.  He walked back just in time to guess it before the player did, much to his pride.

"ALLIGATOR
AND FAN
BELT"

"I got it! And I don't even know where that is!"
"Where what is?"
"The alligator belt.....oh, it's a belt belt?" waving his hands around his waist.
"Yes- what were you thinking?"
"You know, like the Bible Belt or something. Somewhere down south"

Gotta love him.

D- for effort

I pretty much wasted this whole weekend, doing not much more than reading. I mean, reading is good, but not when taken to excess....I guess. I have a sort-of cold, headachey and stuffy, but not enough to impress anyone. Tired enough to want to go back to bed, but not tired enough to justify that. Not even achey enough to kick Rosie off the couch and lay there watching TV. So, I sat in a chair and read and watched TV. I did watch 2 hours of Emma on Masterpiece Classics on PBS, if that makes it sound any better.

Now, today is getting off to a slow start too, but J took the day off so he could stay up and watch the Super Bowl, so we should do something. I think we'll go to Marden's and look for wonderful bargains.

Meanwhile, I found this pretty funny on Ameranth's Live journal- more amusing than anything I feel like writing anyway. 

Strange Bedfellows

 

Each looks a little PO'd about sharing, and having to be at the edge instead of the middle.  (I love my new camera- this was taken in the dark, because I didn't want to startle the subjects)

Obviously, that is Rosie's bed, but Sophie has taken to sleeping there during the day when the dogs are out, and I guess she decided not to move last night. They have a strange relationship.  If the dogs find Sophie in the kitchen or living room, they chase her. She runs to 'her' room (above) and sits down. Game over.  

Rosie has killed kittens in the past- not intentionally, but if it runs, she chases and when she catches them she tosses them in the air. These were kittens that slept with her inside. Her prey drive is very strong and we haven't been able to overcome that.  However, Sophie is about 10 years old, so was in place when Rosie came. She allows the chasing, but not any catching. Boomer has yet to grasp the finer points of the game, and tries to grab her, which Sophie strongly discourages. 

Sophie is getting on in years and her standards are dropping. J fed her last week and when he went by a little later, Sophie was sleeping and a mouse was finishing off her dry food. When we had barn cats, we rarely saw a whole mouse, just various body parts.  Sophie is our only (and last) cat now and doesn't make it upstairs anymore- not like that would make a difference apparently!- and when I went up to get a sleeping bag, I found signs (ugh) of mice all over. 

J hastened up with his poison bait and I went off on my trip. Sunday, I started to smell a musty odor at my computer- nowhere else. Directly in back of me are four deep built-in drawers, filled with sheets and tablecloths. The odor was unfortunately familiar, since several years ago we found a dead and decomposing mouse in there. I gingerly started checking all of the sheets for bodies, startling myself when I found a metal handle that for a second looked like a flattened rodent. Nothing found in the drawers, so I removed the bottom one and voila! A fat little body was removed to the garbage can and air freshener liberally applied. I hope all of the others have the decency to crawl outside to die. 

We went out for fresh air today and I was able to catch Rosie after she was off leash, so it was a good walk.