Just some pictures to share

Well, howdy. Nothing much going on around here. I'm trying to re-succumb to the vile virus I had a few weeks ago, but I REFUSE to give in! I have no idea where it keeps coming from, but it raised its ugly head this weekend. I felt OK Friday night, but when I got up Saturday morning I could barely swallow. The weather outside was gorgeous and sunny, and I refused to stay home in bed. I treated myself to lunch at our favorite Mom & Pop restaurant in Centralia: Poppa Ray's. Only now I think it might be calling itself Main Street Grill. They were closed for a month - the sign on the door said they were cleaning and doing some remodeling - and we were beginning to fear that they were closed for good! But apparently the old owner is back; booths and barstools have been recovered, and you can tell the place has been given an old fashioned assholes-and-elbows kind of cleaning. The food is still the same, which is a good thing 'coz that's why we go there!

After hitting the grocery store for a few things, I returned home and I took a few pictures around the homestead. Then I went into the house and collapsed for the rest of the day. Sunday was spent hiding in my room (I don't want Les to catch this) and playing Candy Crush on my Kindle. I feel better today. Weird.

As you can see to the right, I've decided to join a blogging challenge. It's new to me, but I think I'll be able to handle it. It's the A to Z challenge; click here to find out all about it. I don't have a central theme, but I thought I would chose a random thought for each day, and have an underlying theme of choosing a favorite film (or films) that start with that letter. Wish me luck!

OK - so here are the pictures. First off, I mentioned a while back that I joined a Facebook photography group to help me get back out there and doing what I love: taking pictures. There is a theme every week, and we must take the picture we submit within that week; no fair posting pictures that we have taken in the past.

The first week was a selfie, which I posted in my last post: me with the Kleenex box on my head. The second week was "buildings", and here is my submission:

The third week was "children". I don't have any, we don't live near any nor do I work with or around any. So, I had to get creative:

These are the eggs that our geese have been laying. So they are future children, yes? Well, it's all I could come up with.

Here are our geese:



Roaming geese gang with runner duck

We won't know which eggs belong to which goose pair until they hatch, I guess. They are HUGE! Each one of those eggs is bigger than my fist.

And speaking of geese, or gooses, whatever...we had a little goose that Jim got last summer that had a gammy leg, so he carried him around in his shirt and named him Swenson. Eventually, Swenson's leg healed up and he followed Jim around like a little puppy dog. Whenever Jim would sit down, Swenson cried to be held. Here is a picture of Jim and Swenson last summer:

It's love...

Eventually, Swenson got bigger and Jim was away from the house more and more, so one day I let him out of the little pen that Jim was keeping him in and put him in with the other geese. Jim never mentioned it, so there he stayed and is very happy. Here is Swenson today:





He is a big boy - his head comes up past my hip. I can't wait for all the little goslings to hatch! One of the grey geese lost her mate (because Jim sold him...grrrrr...) and was very depressed. One day Jim brought home a whole flock of little runner ducklings, and she took them under her wing (literally) and was a very good auntie. Hopefully some of those eggs are hers, and she can be a mommy this year!

Here are a few random pics. Please to enjoy.

One of our roosers: Lloyd



Sammy with an olde timey filter



This last picture was taken the same day as the picture of the Mission. This was directly across the street. I would take a snap of the Mission, turn around and take a snap of the sun coming through the clouds. I did this from several different angles, and I think this one turned out the best.

Well, I guess that does it for today. Hope to have some stitchy updates for you next time.

Take care!

TTFN.

Bonus post - project progress pictures and a small rant

OK - here are the progress pictures for Poppy Puss that I promised. I think I just used up my entire allotment of "p"s in that one sentence!

Here was my last progress shot on 1-26-14:

And here is where I am now:

Also, I posted some pictures a bit back showing some of the other projects I had completed, namely: jewelry. There were a few pictures that refused to cooperate (quelle surprise) and so I couldn't share them with you. Here they are:

I made a bracelet for my mother. I was out for a visit from Montana, and she was lamenting the fact that I had never made anything for her. I felt really bad about that; but to be honest, I didn't really know what to make for her. She never wore bracelets and does not have pierced ears. However, she does have this awesome banded agate ring that she got from her mother when she graduated from high school back around 1954. I have never seen another one like it; when I was little, I thought it was one of those rolly-poly bugs - you know, the kind you see on the sidewalk and when you touch them they roll up into a little ball? Anyhoo. She very, very rarely takes it off. Since I had driven out to Portland from Montana, I decided to leave a few hours ahead of my scheduled departure time for heading home and stopped at this phenomenal bead store just outside of Olympia called Shipwreck Beads (you can find them online). When I walked through the front door, I literally ran into a table covered in displays of...wait for it...banded agates in every shape and size you can imagine! So I found several that were almost exactly the same size and shape as the one in her ring, got some other beads and a few fresh water pearls to go with them, and when I got home I made her this:

Sorry - I know the picture quality is a bit wonky. I put a magnetic clasp on it so that she would be able to put it on by herself without any trouble. I don't usually work with gold, but that is pretty much all Mom wears. I got a small black and gold gift box, and wrote a little something on the lid in gold pen for her. Best. Gift. Ever. When she called to tell me she had received it, she was in tears. I sent it to her work place because I don't always trust her home mail delivery, and she said she couldn't stop bragging to people that I had hand made it just for her. It made my heart so happy!

I also made these pendants. I'm not super happy with them (I had planned to sell them on Etsy or similar) so I just kept them for myself. I gave the sunflower one to Sissy and the bird one on the far right to a friend.

I have a twin-set that is the exact same color blue as the background in the other bird pendant (second to the right) and wore it to a job interview. I have copper chains that go with the pendants, and if it wasn't for the big air bubble in the center of almost every one of them, I'd be really happy with them. I'm going to try to make more, and maybe I'll use one for my first blog give away someday.

And now for the rant:

I am addicted to the game "Candy Crush". I put it to you that it should actually be called "Candy Crush Your Soul". A game implies fun. Sure, strategy and skill can be in there too, but mostly "fun" is associated with the word "game". My sister wants to know how something could be considered "fun" when one is shaking one's fist at said game, and screaming "YOU BLOODY BASTARD!" at least once every 15-90 seconds. I have been stuck on level 70 (there are approximately 450 levels to date - and that is not an exaggeration on my part) for what seems like my entire life. My Facebook chums send me extra lives and extra moves, but to no avail. The CEO of the company that owns this game is set to make a butt load of cash in the coming weeks; I hope he squirrels some of that money away for dental insurance 'coz if some of us ever catch him in a dark alleyway, he's going to need help getting his teeth put back in.

And now, something sweet to counteract the bitterness of the above rant:

Miss Muffin has decided that I need a night time companion and has taken to sleeping in my room. If I am in my room with the door closed, she will sit in the hallway right outside my door and cry until I let her in. I don't mind; it's nice to have another little warm body in the bed. Ahhhhh...cuteness.

TTFN.

Being sick and daylight savings sucks!

I haven't been around lately because I discovered something: Strep + pharyngitis + ear infection = I want my mommy x butt kicked (squared). Who says you won't ever use algebra in your everyday life? At first it was one of those things where you are afraid you are going to die, then you are afraid that you won't die. Where the heck did I pick this up from? I'm giving you the stink eye, three out of the five food workers in the mill cafe that were sick at work, breathing your vile germs all over the food. Trust me, I totally get the "I don't get paid time off for sick days and I need the money" mentality. I truely do. However, I make sure I am not contagious, and if I am, I stay home so I don't give it to EVERYBODY ELSE. I also do not get sick days and I totally need money, but you cost me three unpaid days off, and my paycheck on Friday was only $189. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot. However, I was so extremely grateful for my awesome Kindle because Netflix!

So, along with the physical uncomfortableness came the mental hardship of dealing with the anxiety of only having $189 to deal with $400 worth of bills and gas for the vehicle in order to get to work, etc. I was (and still am) not very good company; prone to fits of weeping and nashing of teeth, extreme feelings of ill will and envy towards anyone that makes more than $10 an hour and/or does not have a current negative checking acount balance, or has more than $.75 in their savings account. My life usually feels like jail; right now it feels like 25 to life in maximum security prison with no parole until 2050. Although, if that was true, I'd have free cable, access to a free college education, and better food. Pfffffft.

OK, done with that.

The picture above is me taken with my fabulous Kindle for a Facebook photography group I was invited to join. We take one picture every week, adhering to a dedicated theme for the week; the picture must be taken during that current week, it can't be a picture that has been taken at some earlier time. The first week was self-portraits, and that was my submission - kleenex box on my head, cough drops and prescription medications on my chest. This week's theme is "building". I took a snap of one of the buildings here at the mill, but I don't think it's what I really want. I really want to take a good picture of the St. Francis Mission in Toledo, WA. It is sort of on my way home from work, but the weather has been rain, more rain, and torrential rain. Yesterday was gorgeous, however, and so is today. I'm hoping that it will hold out through tomorrow and/or Saturday so that I can get over there and get some good shots. I had to borrow $40 for gas from Sissy this week so that I had enough money for gas to get to and from work this week, and I felt guilty about using up extra gas to make the side trip to the Mission for pictures. But I get paid again tomorrow, and while I still won't have a complete paycheck and my checking account is in the hole, I'll be able to swing by without worrying too much about the extra gas. Hopefully I can do it tomorrow evening when the sun hits that "golden hour". If I can't get a good one of the Mission, I'll go ahead and use the picture from the mill. I think I will post my pictures on here too, just in case anyone is interested. I think I will enjoy belonging to the group; I used to be a very avid photographer, but the depression always robs you of the things you love most, and I rarely take pictures anymore. That, coupled with the fact that I cannot lock my vehicle (well, I can, I just can't get it unlocked again) makes it difficult to take my camera with me where ever I go so that it's handy for spur-of-the-moment snaps.

I have made some progress on Poppy Puss, but I'm blogging from work (shhhh...) and the progress picture is on my computer at home. I'll try to get that uploaded tonight or this weekend.

So, I guess that's it for now. Just wanted to let you know that I'm still around!

Oh, yeah, and daylight savings time SUCKS! I swear, only Americans are arrogant enough to decide that when actual time itself becomes too inconvenient for them, they start screwing around with it. And not in the fun Dr. Who type of way. Just LEAVE IT for Pete's sake! When the clocks go back in the Fall, it's not too bad. But robbing me of an hour of sleep for ANY reason is a good way to get bitch-slapped, and losing that hour in the Spring is killing me dead. And I'm already not in the mood, so this is not helping.

TTFN.

They Don’t Call Him Snoopy Because of Charlie Brown

I didn’t go to work on Thursday. Snoopy tried to scare us to death, and as a result I wound up being awake for nearly 24 hours in a row. There is a TMI warning for this post, as there will much discussing of disgusting canine bodily functions. Well, these bodily functions would be equally as disgusting if they were human. So those of you with weak stomachs, proceed with caution.

Wednesday was interesting in and of itself, without Snoopy’s help (see my weight-loss blog post, which interestingly enough comes with its own TMI warning). I got home around 7pm, fed all the animals, and everything seemed fine.

Then, at about 8:30pm, Snoopy barfed in front of the front door. He went outside and had some runny poop, walked around in a squat for a few minutes, then came up on the front porch and barfed two more times. I felt so bad for him; he was trying to get around the puddles and I was trying to help him, then he slipped and fell in one of the puddles. He completely wigged out and obviously grossed himself out! I managed to get him back in the house and cleaned up. I turned my back for 20 seconds, turned back around and discovered he had suffered massive, projectile, explosive diarrhea. And peed. By the time I cleaned that up, he did it again. I was very concerned about him, and so was everyone else. He kept going to the water dish, hovering his muzzle right over the surface of the water, but not taking a drink. We would sit in the hallway with his head hanging, then wander around, come back to the water dish, not be able to bring himself to drink, then go sit in the hallway and hang his head. He repeated this pattern over and over until he barfed again. I was really concerned about dehydration, especially considering the amount of liquid he was losing with each…erm…discharge, and because of his age – which we figure to be between 12 and 15.

He finally was able to take a few sips of water. By this time, it was way past my bedtime, but Sis had wrapped him in a towel and held him in her lap in the recliner. I went to my room to play a few games on my fabulous Kindle before going to sleep. Sometime around midnight, I got up to use the bathroom one last time before lights out and when I came out, decided to check on Snoopy. I found Les sobbing in the kitchen, begging Snoopy not to die as Snoopy wobbled in circles around the dining room. He could not keep his footing and was very obviously disoriented. He had just pooped all over Sis as well. We decided that this called for medical intervention. We thought there was a 24-hour emergency vet clinic in Centralia, about 25 miles away, but it turns out it is not open 24 hours. We found one in Olympia, about 45 miles away. Sis and I threw on clothes, wrapped Snoopy in a couple of towels, told Les to get his shit together and hit the road. On the way, we noticed that his eyes were constantly flitting from left to right and he was very agitated. He calmed down after about 10 minutes into the car ride.

We got to the clinic and they took him right back (we had called ahead to explain the situation so they were ready for us). They gave him a mild sedative to calm him down, and after about 20 minutes they came to talk to us and get the whole story. By this time, not only were his eyes going from side to side, now his head was wagging from side to side as well. The doctor could not figure out what was going on; I discussed my concern about dehydration, and wondered if he had a blockage or something. I did find something that looked like chewed up, tiny, splintered green things that sure looked and felt like plastic to me. The doctor was concerned that he had gotten into something toxic, but we just don’t have any idea of what it could be. We keep all medications (human and otherwise), chocolate, sugar-free items, etc. all out of their reach, and we could not think of anything in green plastic that he could have gotten into. There were no signs of anything in the house being chewed up or gnawed on. But, like this post title says, he wasn’t named for the Peanuts character; he’s called Snoopy because he can’t keep his big, doxie nose out of stuff.

They did x-rays and did see something in his colon, but it seemed to be moving along just fine with no danger of obstruction. The cost of all of this was great and we wanted to do as much for him as we could; the clinic was very helpful and understanding of this. In the end, we did the x-rays, he received subcutaneous fluids, an anti-nausea shot, a dose of antibiotics (a pill which we did not end up giving him – it was for if we saw blood in his poop or vomit, which never occurred), and the sedative: $477 and change. I paid for half and Sis paid for half; this way we are both mostly screwed instead of just Sis being totally screwed. He is Jim’s dog, but Jim would have just had him put to sleep because Jim is an asshole and won’t even fork out the $18 to have his toenails clipped (no, we cannot do his at home). But that’s another whine for another day.

We got home at 4:45am, right when my alarm clock goes off. I sent a text to my co-worker and told her I wouldn’t be in since I was just now getting home from a vet emergency. Sis kept Snoopy with her and slept with him in the recliner and I went to bed. The sedative wore off about the time she tried to go to sleep, but he stayed with her all morning. I got up around 1pm and was overjoyed to see that he was doing great! His eyes and head had stopped that weird flopping back and forth, and though he was weak, he was walking around just fine. He continued to get stronger throughout the day, and when I came home from work on Friday night, he was even better than his old self. When Luka came in for dinner, Snoopy ran after her into the kitchen – boing boing boing. His eyes were clear and bright and he just couldn’t seem to wag his tail enough. I nearly cried. Tonight he has been frisky, even initiating play with Les by pawing at his hands and nipping him.

Sigh…it was a close call and really scary. I hope he doesn’t do that again. I tried to look up his symptoms on The Google, but couldn’t come up with anything. I don’t know if it was the dehydration that caused those weird neurological symptoms; we still don’t know what he ate – if anything – that would have caused the vomiting and diarrhea.

We are just glad he is his good ‘ol self again.

Oh, and everyone at work was totally cool about my missing work; two of the guys I work with even came into the lab to ask me how Snoopy was doing and were so very happy that he was doing so much better. It made my heart feel happy.

TTFN.

Random Stuff and Things

As promised, here is a picture of my progress on Poppy Puss. Progress has been pretty hit and miss lately; fatigue, depression and a visit from Mom kind of got in the way of my stitching time. My super-duper nice (and very expensive) Ott light fell over during the middle of the night while Mom was here; it looks OK but I need to tighten some bolts and might have to replace the light bulb before I can use it in my room again. We had snow – well, most of it was down in the Portland area – and Sis couldn’t make it in to work so she was home for an entire week! It was weird, felt like she’d been home for a month! So, since the only chair she can sit in comfortably is the recliner in the living room where the only decent floor lamp resides, I wasn’t able to stitch out there. Since I never get to see her, I didn’t want to shut myself up in my bedroom to stitch either. Hopefully now that things are back to normal (or what passes for it in our house) I can get some more stitching done.

Mom brought her two dogs with her – we already have five, what’s two more? For your viewing enjoyment, here is her dog Stanley asleep on Mom’s robe on my bed:

OH, and speaking of stitching, here is a very rare picture of an actual finished project of mine. I am very proud of it as I designed it myself! It’s not a great shot because it is framed and hanging on the wall above a very tall (and cluttered) dresser. I zoomed in on it for the best detail, so the navy bit around the fabric is the mat inside the frame. You can’t tell, but the pink dots inside the diamond border are beads, as are the dark blue and red flowers under the poem. I made the pattern for the design on graph paper with pretty big squares, and the pattern was huge! About 4’ x 3’. I worked on it during my lunch hours at work and my all male co-workers thought I was nuts. I am really happy with how it turned out, and my sister and bro-in-law were very touched by it. The "L" is for Les, the "K" is for Karen, and the "B" is the first letter of their last name.

I like to make things; Sis and I got into making jewelry about 20 years ago. I’m not super accomplished at it, but I really love when something comes together. I have made many bracelets and tons of earrings but didn’t really keep track of them all. Here are a couple that I actually recorded for posterity! I gave the copper one to Sis as a gift; I am pleased as punch when I see her wearing it.

I made a really nice bracelet for Mom a few years ago. I tried to download the picture of it but the computer, Yahoo, and Blogger were not cooperating! I’ll try to post that another time.

Well, that’s about it for the time being. I reviewed another book, so be sure to check out my review page. Blogger has been a right booger about letting me update my lists on the right side of the blog; bear with me until I can get it all fixed up.

Take care and TTFN!

PS – I’m still trying to wade my way through all the blogs from the GYB party; please don’t be upset if you are following me and I’m not following you back yet! I’ll get through everything eventually!

It’s Been a Winter Weenieland

Howdy everyone, and a great big HOWDY to my new followers! I want to say thank you so much to everyone who is following – each one of you is a warm spot in my heart and I really appreciate your interest. Thanks, too, for all of the kind comments on my last post! I love comments, so please always feel free to say something, even if it’s just Hi.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything lately; between migraines, depression days, bad weather and slow internet, I haven’t been able to get up the gumption to get anything posted. I have some pictures to post but the batteries are dead in the camera and I swear there isn’t a single freaking AA battery in the house. Grrrr.

The weather bestowed upon us all here in the Pacific NW (south of Olympia, WA down to Eugene, OR) some lovely (unless you were driving in it) snow. Mom had come home with Sis last week to spend some time with us for what was supposed to be just a few days. They got home Monday night and would have gone back down to Mom’s in Portland on Thursday, but the roads were just not good enough. It wasn’t too bad at our house, but Portland really got walloped. Driving in the Portland metro area is terrible when it snows because the snow is really, really wet. Freezing rain often accompanies, and with all the bridges it can be quite treacherous. Let alone the idiots in their 4WD trucks and SUVs that are under the mistaken impression that having 4WD makes you magically stop better than everyone else. Uh, no. More often than not, they are the ones that wind up upside down in the median.

I was at work and was watching the WDOT cameras online. There is a camera where I get on I-5 at exit #36, and the next camera to the north is the exit (#68) where I leave I-5 to head for home. No cameras in between. When the snow started falling by the bucketful, my co-worker declared it was time to get out of town. The mill where I work generates a lot of heat, so if there is two inches on the ground on the mill site, there is going to be a minimum of double that in town. The snow fell heavily all the way home, and I didn’t go to work on Friday because I couldn’t get from the house to I-5. I sent a text to my co-worker, and she said she only got to work because her husband drove her, and she recommended staying right where I was. So I did. Unfortunately, I had called out sick (migraine) on Monday, and then didn’t work Friday, so I will get only half a paycheck tomorrow. Ouch. Sis couldn’t go to work at all this weekend, so she is out $500. O.U.C.H. That smarts!

Mom brought her two little dogs with her – Stanley, the Chiweenie and Shadow, the Chihuahua. SO CUTE! They had a grand time playing with everyone else and it was like a rodeo most of the time. Mrs. Weenie, Stanley and Shadow absolutely loved the snow! Did I get pictures? Nope. Hopefully next time.

I took Mom home on Sunday because I have 4WD (but I know how to use it). The roads were just wet but there were cars off the road everywhere. ODOT was requiring all vehicles over 10,000lbs to put on chains, so big rigs were parked every which way trying to get them on before they got into Portland city limits. This made driving rather exciting because I was either dodging the back ends of their trailers that were sticking out into the lanes, or trying to avoid the piles of thrown chains that were lying in the lanes. Getting to the general area where Mom lives wasn't too bad, but trying to get into her mobile home park was treacherous, and getting to her actual trailer was horrible. I had to engage my 4WD to get up the hill; as we were unloading the rig, some guy in a supped up 4WD that had chains on the back wheels tried to get up the hill and busted one of his chains! I spent the night (and risked death to get to my favorite Mexican place there in Milwaukie – Super Burrito Express – for their Super Nachos with Al Pastor. Totally worth the risk.) and drove directly to work from her place Monday morning. The piles of thrown chains had increased to approximately eleventy million, and I believe they were the cause of the flat tire I discovered when I went to leave work that night. I had to wait an hour for the Les Schwab truck to arrive (thankfully I had my lovely Kindle with me and I worked jigsaw puzzles on it while I waited), then stood out in the pouring down rain holding a flashlight for the guy while he changed my tire. Soaking wet and $45 later, I got home at 8:30pm. So. Not. Amused. The rest of this week has gone fine.

I will get on here this weekend and post pictures of my progress with Poppy Puss (yes, there has been some stitching going on over the last few weeks). I really want to get a small project to do at work on my lunch hour, but I’m having trouble finding anything. I’ll just have to keep looking.

To tide you over, here are two pictures of Stanley sleeping on the foldout couch at Mom’s, nice and cozy under the blankets:

Sorry about the quality - cell phone pictures!

TTFN!

Grow Your Blog party

Well, heck. I planned on participating on this year's "Grow Your Blog" party that is being hosted by a very nice person, and I forgot to post my introductory blog! BAD BLOGGER! So, in hopes that I will be forgiven, here is my introductory post:

Hello! My name is Heather, but I go by Big Auntie because I am an Auntie and I am...well, big. I currently live with my sister, her husband, and a friend of theirs along with five small dogs, one large dog, three cats, eleventy billion chickens, five geese and two pigs (in addition, that is, to the previously mentioned brother-in-law and his friend). We live in a very rural community in western Washington state near Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens.

I started blogging several years ago when I lived in Montana, mostly as a way to keep my family and friends informed of what was happening in my life in lieu of a newsletter. I have been told that I have a good style of writing, so I thought it might be a way to grow my skills in that area. It turns out that no one in my family reads the thing (that I know of), but I find it quite cathartic to be able to express myself in a way that is both anonymous and exposing at the same time.

I love to laugh, read, watch movies, do cross stitch, listen to music, snuggle with our dogs, take road trips to nowhere specific, spend time with my sister, read other people's blogs, roam the backroads with my camera, and wander in graveyards. I love pretty much anything having to do with psychology, forensics, and puzzles.

My blog is evolving these days; I have decided to talk more about my interests and post more pictures showing progress on my projects. I have also added a page for reviewing the books I have been reading.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will come back again soon.

TTFN.

How I Spent Christmas Day

For my immediate family, Christmas is just another day on the calendar. However, it was a rare occurance of my sister and I having a day off at the same time.

Sissy decided she wanted to run away on a mini-road trip to the beach. Unfortunately, we could not get our collective poop in a group so we decided to take a random road trip - something Sis and I love to do, and Les pretty much just tagged along to get out of the house.

We thought we would head for Layton's Prairie, a local area where Les has old family buried in a local private cemetary somewhere. We thought we would try to find the cemetary and take a few pictures for geneology research. On our way, we saw our old friend, Mt. St. Helens. It was a spectacularly crystal clear day, so we thought we'd head that direction since we would drive right through Layton's Prairie on the way.

Mt. St. Helens as seen from a small local airport on Jackson Hwy.



A lovely view of Mt. Rainier as well





A few miles closer, and a cloud has formed over the top

A small waterfall across the highway from a pullout spot

The "new" bridge built on Hwy 504 on the way to Johnston's Ridge

Some information about the blast zone at the bridge viewpoint

A blow-up of the blast zone map; we were where the black dot in the white circle is - far left side of the map. The black squiggly line is Hwy 504

Getting closer; a view from Elk Rock Overlook

Mt. St. Helens, in all her magnificent glory

Les and Sissy pose for a picture with Mt. St. Helens in the background

Looking down into the valley; just a trickle of a river where a huge lake used to be

Looking closer at the crater

The majestic lady at rest

If you want to learn more about Mt. St. Helens and her eruption, just give it a Google and there is lots of information about it online. I was able to read the actual US Geological department's report of the eruption and all the interesting information about everything that happened before, during, and after the eruption. It is in our library in the Environmental Department at work. Very, very interesting.

We never found Layton's Prairie, but we think we did find the cemetary. Les says it's not the right one, but when I looked the cemetary up online and printed out the list of everyone that is buried there, we think it is the correct one. We'll have to take another day and drive back out there to check it out.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

TTFN.

A Disappointment Rebuttal Post

This post is an opposite post. It is the opposite of the negative, down-in-the-mouth post where I discussed the many petty disappointments I was encountering a few weeks ago.

Petty disappointment #1 dealt with my (desperate) need of underwear.

My sister (whom we love v much) went to the Sears Outlet store down by Mom's place. I never find anything there that I like, want, or that fits. She found 10 pairs of underwear that fit me! Huzzah! Disappointment rebuttal!

Petty disappoinment #2 dealt with my discouragement in ordering a Kindle.

In steps benevolent blog reader Deb. She very kindheartedly gave me a $200 gift card so that I could purchase said Kindle. Kindle has been purchased, is lovingly cared for, and wholeheartedly enjoyed to the maximum of the battery charge every.single.day. I cannot even begin to describe the joy this fabulous little piece of 21st century technology has brought into my life. Disappointment SCHOOLED!!

Me, at work, with Kindle. I love it. (Don't know why Blogger is making this picture sideways)

Thank you so much, again, Deb, from the bottom of my heart!!!
(I was going to post a picture of me kissing the Kindle in a sweet, I-heart-my-Kindle sort of way, but they all came out a little...uh...creepy. I try really hard to keep the creep factor to a minimum on this blog, so they've all been deleted.)

To top it all off, when I went to pay the storage bill for both my and Sis' storage units - late, again - the owner only charged me a late charge on one of the units instead of both. On purpose. She was so sweet about it!

Sis has been having fits with her mortgage company lately. It's a long story, so I'll just give you the short version. After approximately eleventy-billion tries, she finally got some payment arrangements made for a missed payment that the mortgage company could actually remember making, and then Sis messed it up because she thought the payment was due on the 20th. Guess what? 15th. All of the other times, the mortgage company was to blame; this time, it was her fault. She felt so horrible about it, but she put her big girl panties on and called. She got a very nice lady with an actual brain (not one of those steampunk ones with the metal wind up key sticking out of it) who worked out a deal that not only makes the payments LESS than they were, but also the payments are now due on the 24th instead (which I have put on my Outlook calendar so I can remind her!).

Yeah, SCREW YOU DISAPPOINTMENT!!

Erm...yes. So, there you have it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

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To all of my blog readers - thanks for reading my blog. You may have noticed a few new tabs across the top; unfortunately, as of this posting, they are mainly empty right now. But that will change.

Whether you celebrate the holidays or whether they are just another uneventful day on the calendar for you, please take care and be safe. The holiday seasons seem to bring out the best in many, but the stupidity in many others. Watch out for drunk drivers (and for Pete's sake, don't be one!) and people that are willing to shoot you for that last sleeping bag with legs. Have a good time, eat some great food, spend time with people you love, and survive to do it all again next year.

TTFN.

The Wonderfulness of Strangers

I have something wonderful and completely unexpected to share.

Back on Dec. 5th, I received an email from Deb, one of my blog readers. In part, it read:

"I was just checking to make sure this email was still valid. I'd like to send you an Amazon gift card via email to help towards your Kindle Wish, and want to make sure you get it.[...] Life's full of disappointments sometimes, isn't it? But it's full of wonderful surprises too:-) Hang in there!"

Isn't that sweet? I responded that my email was, indeed, still valid, and thanked her for her offer of a gift card. She sent me a box a books a few years ago, but other than a few traded emails, we don't know each other; neither have we met. I was very touched that A) she reads my blog, and 2) she would be so kind as to offer help in my quest to aquire a Kindle.

Later that day I received the email from Amazon that Deb had sent me a gift card.

A $200 gift card.

Yeah. If you heard a weird noise around 1pm Pacific Time on the 5th, that was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.

Thank you again, Deb. I ordered that Kindle and it should be here on Friday! I hope this inspires someone, anyone, to do something kind for a stranger (or even a not-so-stranger). This generous act of kindness made me feel hugged, appreciated, gobsmacked, thrilled, choked up, and just plain down-on-my-knees grateful. I told everyone at work and at home about it, and everyone that heard was just as stunned as I. I will think of you every time I use it, Deb! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

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Whew. Hard to top that, eh? Well, here are a few more things that are going on around the homestead.

This is Cheddar, our newest addition:

He is a cat my mother has been feeding for about two years now at her tiny mobile home. It's going to be a very cold winter out here in the Pacific NW, and mom volunteered us to take him in. He is feral (as far as we know) but will let me pet him a little. In this picture, he is hiding behind a bookcase at the end of the hallway. He is currently living behind our washer and dryer (he's eating and using the litter box though, apparently when no one is looking).

And here is Gigi in a little dress my sister bought (god, don't ask). Doesn't she look adorable in it? Mom and Sis have made some simple coats for the boys, but the girls don't really have anything to help them stay warm when it gets chilly in the house. Gigi doesn't really need too much since she has a pretty thick coat, but Sis could not resist this set. There is a little grey and white polka-dotted shirt that goes with it, but Mrs. Weenie wears that (I couldn't get a decent picture of her in it).

She has those great Michelle Obama arms, doesn't she?

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As for my cross stitch, I still haven't gotten anything done. It's killing me. My fingers itch to stitch!

I found these cross stitch pattern books in our library system. I may have to purchase the Star Trek one - it's pretty cool! I found a few small patterns scattered in the other books that I may have to try.

Well, that's it for now. I will post pictures of my new Kindle when it arrives (whoo hoo!), and will hopefully have more pictures of Cheddar to show.

TTFN!

A Few Petty Disappointments

Today’s post is long and on the negative side, so there’s your warning.

I swear that there is some sort of cosmic alarm out there in the universe that sounds whenever I am about to finally have something, no matter how small, go my way. This week, and especially yesterday, is a prime example.

I need new underwear.

Yes, I said it, it’s out there, deal with it.

All of my underwear is a minimum of six years old and they are all falling apart. And you know what? Underwear is freaking expensive! Especially when your lower body parts are humungous like mine. I FINALLY managed to scrape up the moolah for new undercrackers and got them ordered. They came in last Thursday – not Thanksgiving Day Thursday, but the Thursday before that. Now, we have a PO box because a few years back some little gang of buttheads with nothing better to do with their time (like, oh…getting a JOB) went around stealing mail out of the mailboxes on our road. Sis and Les was targeted, so no more mailbox. Our local post office is only open Monday-Friday from 9am-4:30pm. I work Monday-Friday 7 or 8am-4 or 5pm. They are not open at all anymore on Saturdays. So, I cannot get to the post office to pick up packages that are too big to fit in our PO box. I checked the PO box on Thursday night to see if they were able to squish it in there, and it wasn’t there. I grabbed the mail that was there, hoping on Monday that they would then squish it in there. How big could the bundle be? It is five pairs of underpants in a soft envelope. I know they are big, put it’s not like they are tarp sized. I asked Sissy to pick them up for me on her way home from Portland. She said she would. She didn’t. She was home all day on Tuesday-Thursday, so I asked her everyday if she would PLEASE pick them up for me. She said she would. She didn’t.

I worked on turkey day and Sis and Mom convinced me to drive down to Mom’s after work, spend the night, then go back home on Friday evening since I had that day off. I did, and on Friday Mom and I had a nice time going to the Fabric Depot (where I bought some awesome fabric to make her a tote bag – more on that later) and the new Goodwill store by her house. I didn’t get to go to the cross stitch shop downtown because there was a parade and the Portland Christmas Tree lighting ceremony all right there nearby. No thank you. I had a brain storm and called our local post office and asked the gal there if the package with my unders in it could be stuffed in our box. She said YEP and I was all smiles. I could now pick them up anytime on my way home. And I did. I was so excited to get the package open (I’m a cheap date and easy to please, obviously). I pulled out a pair, and you probably could have put two of me in these enormous, awe-inspiring, colossal underpants. Jeezzy creezzy. So, those will have to go back. No new underwear.

Disappointment number one.

I have also been trying – unsuccessfully – to save up for a Kindle Fire. I have one languishing on my Amazon wish list; since this was the biggest shopping weekend of the year, I thought I would look around to see if they were on QVC or HSN, because they offer the ability to make payments. While I was working on Thursday I went online and discovered that QVC had them on sale, with free shipping, and you could make six payments of about $55 each. Now that I could swing! I was really excited but hesitant (as usual) because I wanted to be sure I could actually swing it. The offer was good through Saturday, so I decided to sleep on it. I couldn’t access the Internet on Friday because I was down at Mom’s, so I got online as soon as I got up Saturday. The deal was gone. Oh, the one I wanted was still available, but no free shipping, and now only five payments. I was bummed that it wasn’t as good of a deal, but I decided to go for it anyway. I got halfway through the purchasing process, when I got an error message saying that I would need to call customer service to complete the transaction. So I called their automated ordering number. Turns out they are all sold out and are on a waitlist status. That meant that IF they got stock in again within the next 45 days, they would ship it to me and then bill me when it shipped. Well, that won’t work for me. The way my budget is set up and how I get paid, I have to be able to know exactly when that bill was going to go through. CRAP. No Kindle for me.

Disappointment number 2.

We have a storm rolling in that is dumping tons of rain and the temperatures will be dropping below freezing for our highs for the next several days, and as a result we will probably get snow and lots of ice. Les discovered that the covers we had for the outside water faucets and for the house vents are all missing, so he needed to go to Home Depot to get more. He could drive himself, but he won’t; plus, he has no money (Sis needs the bank card with her in order to deposit her paycheck and buy groceries down in Oregon). So, I volunteered to take him and help him shop (and obviously purchase) these items. Before we left, we tracked down Jim and asked him to please go get a few bales of straw for the animals, so we could be sure they would be warm and dry during the storm. Surprise, surprise, Jim is broke and didn’t have any money even though he just got his check less than a week ago. He can’t afford the $15 for the straw. So I told him I would pay for them if he would please use his shiny brand-new pickup truck to go pick them up for me (oh yes, did I not mention the new truck? And the new 33 ft trailer he bought? And the fact that he contributes zilch to our house that he uses like a free hotel? No? Well, consider it mentioned now).

Disappointment number 3.

We went to Home Depot and got two small bags of Styrofoam covers. $45 smackeroos.

Disappointment number 4.

I was hungry and so was Les, so we stopped by Carl’s Jr. on the way home. He just wanted a small cheeseburger, and I ordered my favorite Western Bacon Cheeseburger, the kind with BBQ sauce and onion rings on it. Couldn’t wait to get that burger home and inhale it!

We got home, I gave Les his burger and he started eating, but the dogs were hounding me for dinner so I took a half hour and got all the animals fed before I ate. I knew that my burger would be pretty much cold by now but it would still be awesome. I got something to drink and some chips, sat down in the recliner to watch some Sons of Anarchy with Les, unwrapped my burger and found…his cold, slightly soggy, small cheeseburger. Now, Les knew as soon as he unwrapped the burger I handed him that it wasn’t his. The onion rings and bacon would have clued him in before he even took one bite. But did he say anything? Nope. Just chowed down on it without a word.

Disappointment number 5.

Now, I know these are petty things to be disappointed about. I own that. I tried really hard to just let them all slide, even the Kindle thing. I figure there will probably be even better sales the closer we get to Xmas, or even after, but I’ve waited so long for one. And to be disappointed over a hamburger is silly, but when you stack all of these things together, it just makes me kind of...sad.

**WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH** THIS IS AN ALERT OF THE “THINGS ARE GOING HEATHER’S WAY” SYSTEM. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. SHE IS ABOUT TO FINALLY HAVE ONE OR TWO THINGS GO HER WAY, AND IF THIS HAPPENS THE EARTH WILL CRASH INTO THE SUN, AND THAT’S NO GOOD FOR ANYBODY. COSMIC INTERFERANCE TO COMMENSE IN THREE…TWO…ONE…

Although, I did buy some lottery tickets on Saturday. Maybe I should check those out…

** WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH** THIS IS AN ALERT OF THE “THINGS ARE GOING HEATHER’S WAY” SYSTEM. THIS IS NOT A DRILL…

TTFN.

Let's Talk About Books, Baby

If you haven’t noticed, or just in case I haven’t mentioned it enough, I love to read. I cannot sit still without distractions for more than two minutes before I start looking around for something – anything – to read. Want to make the drive-thru lane at Taco Bell move faster? Whip out a book! This also works with those pesky red lights; nothing makes a light change from red to green faster than finding your spot in the book you’re reading.

Where do you find your next book? When I had the money to buy my books at brick & mortar stores, I would wander the sections that interested me, looking at titles and covers. It’s how I chose a lot of my books; something would catch my eye, I’d read the synopsis, and if it sounded good, I bought it. I still do this, but now it’s at the library. The problem is that our library is about the size of a 7-11, so there’s not as much to choose from.

In swoops my saving grace – a freebie magazine that the library hands out called, “Book Page”. It features the newest releases in all kinds of genres: fiction and non-fiction, young adult, children’s, cooking, audio, romance, mystery, etc. There are author interviews, my favorite one being in the children’s books section where the author gives his answers in pictures. I LURVE this little magazine and after snatching it up I dutifully study it cover to cover, turning down the corners of pages and marking books that I am interested in. Then I go to my library’s website and search for those books. At times I have had 20+ books on hold, waiting for them to arrive; one time I had six books come in all at once! YIKES! If they are really new and other people have holds on them, you can’t renew them. I had a bunch of overdue fines that month! If your library doesn’t have this little gem, you can check it out online at bookpage.com.

Here are the books from the October issue that I am going to check out:

This House is Haunted by John Boyne
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Identical by Scott Turow
Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas
One Summer by Bill Bryson (a rare non-fiction choice for me)

I recently finished The Cuckoo’s calling by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling. I never read any of the Harry Potter books, but I did read her other book, The Casual Vacancy, a while back. I liked this book a lot, and I hope she writes a couple more as sequels. I enjoyed the way she has an eye for detail, and I liked the characters.

I also put a bunch of different cross stitch books on hold – I can’t wait for those to come in! Here they are:

All Our Yesterdays: 33 Charming Designs From Bygone Days by Faye Whittaker
Art Nouveau Cross Stitch by Barbara Hammet
The Art of William Morris in Cross Stitch: Over 40 Projects Inspired by the Design Master by Barbara Hammet
Oriental Cross Stitch by Debbie Minton
Star Trek Cross Stitch: Explore Strange New Worlds of Crafting by John Lohman
Twisted Stitches: 30 Corrupt Cross Stitch and Embroidery Designs by Phil Davison

What are you reading these days?

I plan on going to Portland tomorrow to visit a cross stitch store I found online – very, very excited about this. I also want to visit the Fabric Depot to look for fabrics for some purses I’d like to try my hand at. It is THE most awesome fabric store around, and this is coming from someone who knows pretty much zilch about sewing. I’ll let you know how it went.

TTFN.

WIP pics - finally!

Well, whatever problems Blogger was having with my computer, they seem to have finally called a truce. Now I can finally share my cross stitch progress pictures! Yay!

My current project is a HAED pattern called Poppy Puss. I started it sometime in late 2011 and was pretty happy with my progress. However - and here I am blaming poor vision and horrible lighting to work by - I discovered that I had made so many mistakes that I could not really continue comfortably. I'm willing to let the odd counting mistake go, but the amount I had was really going to make things difficult to make things work out in the end. So I got rid of my contact lenses and discovered that I could see much better up close without any help at all, and bought myself a really good Ott lamp. Then I ripped out all of my progress, and with some tips that I picked up from some other blogs, I started over.

Here is where I was when I decided to rip it all out:

I'm sure you can imagine my angst at spending an entire day pulling out all of those stitches. But, I felt it had to be done, so there you are. I started over and this time used a water-soluable ink pen to mark the grid on the fabric. I was really amazed at how much that helps! Here is my progress to date:

If you look closely, you can still see the shadow of the other stitches I pulled out. They should be erased by either the new stitches, or the final washing once the project is completed. Cross your fingers for me!

My other project is a Country Sampler. Here is my progress so far on that one:

You may recall that I have mentioned that my bedroom is actually a storage room with a bed in it? It makes it very difficult to stitch in that environment. I cannot sit on the bed and stitch because it makes my back ache; I can't sit in the living room and stitch because I can't keep the dogs off my lap; the dining room is also out because the lighting is horrible, and that Ott lamp weighs too much to carry around the house. I got sick of it one day and decided to find a niche in my room somewhere; and here it is:

It's not pretty, but there is a window behind the chair that lets in some nice natural light, and combined with the Ott light, I see quite well!

Well, despite the truce, it has taken me bloody ages to do this post. I was going to talk about books, but I think I will do that post tomorrow since there won't be any pictures in it to mess with.

Take care!

TTFN

Down but not completely out

Well, so much for the blogging everyday thing. I caught the dreaded crud Les was infesting around the house, and I still have a cough that is capable of making me pee my pants at any given time. The slightest physical activity, like…oh, blinking, makes me cough. Thinking about blinking makes me cough. I am really, really tired of it.

So, I didn’t get any sewing done over the last few weeks. In fact, I haven’t gotten much of anything done over the last few weeks! I did finish Omens; it was not the kind of story I thought it was going to be, but I did enjoy it. And it left you hanging, so now I have to read the next book as well. I didn’t finish the John Le Carre book; I just find his style of writing to be kind of hard to get into, and can be a little hard to follow at times. Maybe it was because I was sick; I dunno. I also read Dr. Sleep, Stephen King’s newest. This was a follow up to The Shining, and followed the little boy – Daniel – into his adulthood. It was good, I enjoyed it. My experience (many times) is that his novels start out well, get either really weirdly out there or really off center and preachy in the middle, then either ends with a great twist or with a bit of an irritating fizzle (as in Under The Dome). This was pretty consistent all the way through, though the end didn’t have as big of a climax as I was expecting. Still gets two thumbs up from me.

I have now started a book by a new author to me: Sleep with the Lights On by Maggie Shayne. It appears that most of her books have been in the vampire/paranormal type genre, but this more of a detective/horror series. The follow up, Wake to Darkness, won’t be released until December, but I already have it on hold at the library.

I was so disappointed in myself this weekend. My bedroom is a complete sty that looks like a tornado hit it. I am famously terrible at being tidy, and to add to that, it is one way my depression manifests its self. So, I mapped out my entire weekend hour by hour to be sure I worked on cleaning and also my sewing. I overslept both mornings and only got a handful of things done. But, you can see my nightstand for the first time in about eight months, so there is a small amount of smug patting of one’s back going on. I joined a website called cross-stitching.com (most members seem to be in the UK, South Africa, and Australia) because there are absolutely zero groups to join locally. I’m still trying to get pictures of my work onto my blog, and will keep trying.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully will have more to talk about next time.

TTFN.