FUZZY MEETS OLLIE

We knew they were coming...

Boo, Saucy and baby,

so that Grandpa Fuzzy could meet Ollie.

They seemed to really like each other.

But I got a great surprise!

Robert!

My grandson that I have not seen in over 2 years...

and his sister...

Sukey!

 

Olivia, or Ollie as I like to call her...

is Sukey and Robert's sister too.

So the whole gang arrived together.

 

 

 As you can see, Ollie is growing fast.

She is a good baby.

Very little fussing at all.

She enjoys gazing in people's eyes

and listening to them talk.

 

 

Luck was with us... the weather was gorgeous all weekend long!

We were able to BBQ burgers and sit on the patio.

I have missed days like these so much!

 

 

 

Boo helped around the yard and house.

He built my treadmill... which turned out to be quite a task.

I'm not sure how many times it was partially assembled and then

partially un-assembled to be reassembled again before it was finished. 

Sheesh.

 

 

Roxy was in pig bull heaven.

So many people to play with...

and Sukey even slept with her.

According to Roxy, it does not get better than that.

 

 

Like all wonderful times,

the weekend ended too soon.

Sigh.

This time I was okay with waving good bye.

No tears.

My family does not seem so far away these days.

They seem happy to make the trip here.

And I know my kitty is almost ready to furnish us with a trip back up there.

 

 

 

But poor Roxy has been moping around the house all day.

She looked for them on the patio several times...

as if they had only wandered off a bit.

She checked all the rooms and they weren't there.

Poor Roxy.

 

 

SSS SUPERSTITIOUS

Welcome to another episode of 

Saturday Scavenger Shots!

The word this week...picked by little ol' me...

"SUPERSTITIOUS"

in honor of yesterday being Friday the 13th.

(A day that I actually consider to be generally lucky for me personally.)

So here we go!

I wanted to avoid the usual suspects;

four leaf clovers, broken mirrors, horse shoes and those 

awful, horrible, terrible, unwanted...

shiver, shiver, shiver...

silly rabbit's feet.

This is my lucky bamboo plant.

I've no idea what makes it an object of luck.

It is the only SUPERSTITIOUS object in my home.

It is my understanding that depending on how many

shoots are in the pot...

it is lucky in different ways.

This one is supposed to attract money.

I bought it because of the cute frogs on the pot.

According to the Carpenters...

the kiss at a wedding is for luck.

One of many wedding SUPERSTITIONS.

Something borrowed, something blue...

But I must say...

a fish was the last SUPERSTITIOUS item I 

expected to find in my search!

This poor little parrot fish has been given a laser

tattoo.

The symbols are rainbows, flowers or other lucky

SUPERSTITIOUS signs.

They are called "fortune fish" or "Lucky Fish".

They look cute and they are pretty, 

but if I were a parrot fish, I do not think that I would

consider my tattoo a bit of good luck for me.

There we have it!

Another fun SSS post completed.

I do hope that you navigated Friday the 13th

with no sorrows to speak of...

mine was wonderful.

 

Now then...

Do tell!

Is there something that you are 

SUPERSTITIOUS 

about?

Any little lucky ritual you perform before you

bowl, bat, or play your lottery numbers?

Well???

 

 

 

 

IN PROGRESS

an unfinished bear

It was a glorious, warm, sunshiny day.  We had errands to run this morning when the man got home.  A trip to section 6 and then from store to store to find the correct surge protector that was determined to elude us.


The man was tired and hungry, so I dropped him off.  I was unwilling to give up.  I can't use the treadmill until I can properly install it.  Kind of crazy making. What good is it to have a fun toy that you can't use?  Sheesh.


Then I found it at the first place I visited.  The first place that I wanted to go... but everyone kept suggesting this place and that place. Doesn't it figure?  Oh well.  I have it now and that was a victory!  Tomorrow we will work on setting it up.


Once the man was off to dream land... I was off outside.  Yay!  Or that's what I said until I looked at my sad, winter damaged yard.  My war with the weeds has begun once more and they are waaaaayyy ahead of me.


I decided to keep it simple.  Start with a small area that I can tackled in one day.  Such is the delusion in my head.  Its a small strip of a  bed completely surrounded by concrete... the house foundation and our walk to the front door from the driveway to the porch.  Its maybe 2 feet wide and about 30 feet long.


Last year I was able to use my hula hoe to clean it out in less than an hour.  But last year it had no desirable plants within it.  Not until C4C came up for the wedding and bought a bunch of violas and petunias to plant in it.  It made a very lovely bed.  


Violas and petunias are not perennials.  They are annuals, which means that they usually need to be replanted every year.  But because of our unusually warm winter and being so close to the warmth and protection of the house...  my wedding flowers all came back!   Of course they look a bit worse for wear at this point and needed care.


Because they were there... I needed to carefully remove weeds around them before I could tend to their individual needs.  I have a variety of weed here that is tiny, lacy and abundant.  I ended up sitting on a towel on the concrete with my feet placed carefully into the bed and weeding one weed at a time between my legs.  Not my method of choice.  It took sooooo long!


In fact, I took a break to buy myself some motivation.  I love the violas and petunias.  But eventually I want to let my yard evolve into a place that tends its own needs.  Perennials can be purchased that are self-weeding.  Either their foliage crowds out weeds or they repel them in some chemical defense way.  


Off I went to Bi-Mart to buy $20.00 worth of perennials.  That does not buy many as it turns out.  I will have to adjust that to an additional $20 tomorrow to finish the bed.  I bought a couple of  "candytuft" ,which are white blooms on dark evergreen shrubby plants, a couple of pretty orange and rose colored columbine and a couple of something new to me called lithodora, which has blue striped white flowers on a sort of succulent looking foliage.  


By the end of my day, I had half of my flower bed cleared and the new plants set where I will bury them tomorrow when the bed is properly watered.  I trimmed back my petunia and violas, cutting off leggy parts and dead parts. It was a late afternoon well spent.


I purchased all they had of the plants I wanted.  So tomorrow I will head a few blocks the other direction to Fred Meyers for more of the same.  I like a balanced look of color in my bed.  Once I remove the last third of the bed's worth of weeds and get these plants all in, they should fill the bed nicely as they become established.  Next year will be the last year I will need to add to this bed. Then I can turn my attention to another area of the yard. 


Okay... enough plant talk.


Good news!  Boo, Saucy and bran new baby Oliva are coming!  They will be here Saturday afternoon sometime.  I am so excited!  Olivia is 5 weeks old now... and babies change so much so fast.  I can't wait to see her now that she keeps her eyes open and is much more alert.  

Boo said he has a few surprises for me.  What can that mean?  Are they getting married?  Would that be a visit from Sookie or Max too?  So many happy possibilities!  What if Squeaky drives them down with his license?  Hummmm


I guess I will have to wait and see.  




Spring is inspirational!  What activities are you springing into?  Baseball?  Gardening?  Barbecuing?








 

I WALK THE LINE

(uglychristmastrees.com)

Alright!

Time to put up the Heineken tree...

shop the ads and buy...

because its Tax-Mas!

The man got a new 24" flat screen TV for his shop.

He's building a special sealed and vented cabinet to keep it in

with a plexiglass front.

I am watching in amusement.

I made a careful choice.

 Walking here is hard for me.

I miss my gym that had no traffic, no bad weather,

and no pot holes or sidewalk cracks.

My safe little capsule where I could plug into my 

MP3 player and walk without any worry about where I was going.

Okay...

except for the time that I tripped up the steps and fell down

into a trash can that led to months of physical therapy.

Boy you guys have good memories!

Anyway...

walking here proved to make me very anxious about what was 

happening around me as I walked.

I tried walking around the back yard, which is big,

but not very level or safe for my cranky ankle.

I began to walk inside the house.

That worked really well...

except that it excited Roxy...

who wanted to run next to me and leap around...

which led to happy yips and yaps...

and a very grouchy day sleeper waking up grumpy...

and my having to lock Roxy outside...

where she whines and makes me feel guilty.

So my choice this year is a 

TREADMILL!

YAY! 

I am hoping that it will not excite the dog.

If it does, 

its back outside for Roxy.

This is too expensive not to use daily.

We picked it up today.

I am so excited!

It was too heavy for us to carry alone.

So we unpacked it in the back of the truck.

I carried all the smaller parts inside

and the man helped me haul in the big heavy part.

Now it lays in a pile right where I want it to live...

in front of a sliding door by our family room 

where I can see outside,

open the door when its warm for a breeze,

or watch the big screen TV.

Though most of the time I'll be plugged into my MP3 player.

Tomorrow we have to buy a special surge protector.

Then we can begin to assemble it.

I am so very excited!

I can't wait to start walking on it.

=:]

 

Howling Wolf

Howling wolf.

The man asked me if I could get gas for him...

Unfamiliar area of town and I was very low on fuel

The station I tried first did not accept cash.

Off I set nervously for another station...

the only one I knew of was about a mile away.

I made it!

Yay!

I got in line.

The pumps were all full and I was two cars back

from the pumps.

Eventually the three cars at the pump moved on...

and three of us pulled forward.

You know how that goes.

I am now second in line at the middle pump.

I am trapped by the car ahead and the car behind.

Both were big trucks.

The one in front of me took a long time to be filled.

But I had to flag down the attendant for a receipt.

Just as he returned and I was able to drive away...

A big black SUV pulls in from the wrong direction...

not waiting in line like everyone else...

facing me.

She gives me a big smile showing how clever she thinks she is.

I look in my mirror and the big truck behind me is 

having its second tank filled too.

I am trapped.

Crap.

I look at the driver now blocking my exit and shrug...

the universal sign for "what the heck?" 

I was not rude about it.

I thought that perhaps she had not noticed that she was trapping me.

She laughed...

and did a mock shrug back at me.

Fine.

I am a mature adult.

She is an immature jerk.

I can ignore the immature jerk.

 Fifteen minutes later...

the attendant pulls the nozzle out of her tank.

Yay!

I start my engine in anticipation.

The jerk jumps out of her car...

leaving me blocked in and her open pump not able to be used.

There is a long line behind me now.

There are many empty parking places at the mini mart

right next to where she is blocking me in.

I say

"Hey!"

She tossed back her head and laughed

as she entered the mini mart.

I wave frantically at the attendant.

He is swamped and shrugs...

the universal sign for

"What the hell do you want me to do about her?"

I look in my mirror and the big truck is still filling.

I hear his pump click off and think...

finally!

Only he gets out of his truck and pulls three big gas cans out of the back.

I watch sadly as he unscrews all three lids.

But really, 

he has several cars behind him and can't move anyway.

We are both trapped until the jerk moves.

She comes back out and as she walks up to her car...

smiling...

tossing her trash onto the hood of my little truck.

How rude!

I sit mouth agape...

but once more starting my engine up.

She just sits there.

Laughing.

The big truck behind me honks.

I cannot go anywhere.

But the cars behind him begin to back up.

They want to get gas and leave too.

As soon as he gets free...

I get to back up and go around the jerk.

She revs her engine as I maneuver around her bumper...

like she is going to ram me.

I figure it out just in time...

she is now in a hurry to get out before the car

behind me can get to the pump and block her in.

He is likely unsympathetic since she made him wait too.

I slow down enough to let him slide into place.

I give her another shrug...

this one is the universal sign for

"Awwww... too bad!"

She starts honking her horn at me... 

at the car behind me...

at the cars behind her.

She is now screaming and flipping me off.

But that's okay.

I'm a mature adult.

Of course that did not keep me from laughing...

while I returned her sign.

SLOW MOTION CAR CRASHING

Okay... now that we have that straight.

(From many different places published and republished.)

Squeaky left last Monday.

sniff

Hopefully he will have his license soon...

despite the folk who ran the stop sign and tried to crash into us.

Squeaky did everything right!

I complimented him and he said it was pure panic mode...

no thinking involved.

I told him that was the way it was supposed to work!

You know what to do and then you do it automatically.

Of course we were slowing down as we neared my driveway...

and they ran the stop slowly.

Who does that?

It was as if the woman driver decided that crash or not...

she was just going to take us out at 1 MPH...

giving Squeaky time to hang a hard right to safety.

No matter... hopefully it gave Squeaky a feeling of being in control in emergency situations.

I miss Squeaky already.

It was fun having a boy in the house again.

We watched all of the first season of 

Game of Thrones

and all of the second season of

Boardwalk Empire.

Not to mention all of 

The Killing.

Sunday night we watched the season starters

of Game of Thrones and The Killing.

Very cool beans.

But you know how HBO is...

you watch like mad for a week and then you have

seen everything they have to offer for the month.

Still...

I'm truly enjoying their series shows.

I was blown away by the last season enders of

Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones.

Jimmy and Ned are gone!

I was not expecting that.

 Forgive me if I spoiled that for you.

I'm a bit blown away.

We ate too many pizzas and too much Chinese.

We had a popcorn fight.

He did his own laundry and the towels in the guest bathroom!

It was a great visit.

Then Monday I took him to the bus station.

We played "Find The Serial Killer"

with his co-passengers as choices.

It was hard to pick...

so many odd people that day.

Next thing I knew,

I was waving good-bye

and sniffling all the way home.

A couple of good things of note:

The man was hired on permanently at work.

WOOT!

The man complained to Comcast about some issues

we have been having and we got money knocked

off our monthly rate and 

HBO for free for 3 months.

Otherwise I would not be watching those series shows.

And that is how it is in my world these days.

What is up in yours?