Wednesday Trials and Tribulations

Woke up late this morning, I mean really late and it was 10 am before we were out the door for our morning walk.  And what to our wondering eyes should appear, no not Santa Claus, but deep ruts driven into our lawn by some idiot in a truck or SUV.  Not just at the edge, but 6 or 7 feet in and the ruts are deep!  They were either drunk or on the cell phone, one being as bad as the other.  They got our neighbor's lawn too, but not as bad as ours.  No pictures, it just made me so mad!!!!
Then we had to get checked into a flight exactly 24 hours in advance, can't pick a seat, just get put into a group and if you're in a group lower than B you're going to have a middle seat.
We don't usually fly cattle-call, and that's what I call it because that's how it feels, but these seats are a freebie.  I feel less than excited about all this.  Traveling is turning into a big pain.
My boarding passes printed easily, but Mac's printer has decided that he put used ink into it and won't print worth a darn---I'm sure there's a special circle in hell reserved for printers.  So I had to print his too.
Wonder what else is in store for us today.

It's Already Tuesday

Indeed it is.  Hurricane Patricia swooped through Mexico, rained all over Texas and as it heads north it's dragging moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico to give us a good soaking.
We picked up cabbage and red leaf lettuce plants yesterday and got them planted, after pulling out about 90,000,000 weeds.  They should enjoy the weather.  I thought I'd have time to plant the bulbs I bought (daffodils, paper whites and some others I can't remember the name of) but the rain got here sooner than we expected so bulbs will have to wait.  Mac did get the pansies we bought potted, they should last till next year's heat gets them.
We need to pick lemons too.  Most years we might get one lemon on out tree, but this year it produced a few more.  Not really lemonade season, wonder if I could squeeze them and just save the juice.
I've mentioned to several bloggers that I'm enjoying all the pictures being posted of the leaves changing colors because none of ours have and they wondered when did ours change color.   Not all our trees lose their leaves, the live oaks don't and of course the pines and firs don't.  Eventually the maples and sycamores will, but it won't be until late November or December.  Some years the leaves don't fall until the new leaves force them out.  So fall is nice here, but not very colorful.
I've been working on a gift for how daughter, really whizzing along, looked down and saw the WAY BACK I'd made a mistake and had to undo most of what I'd done.  Miss Kitty thought it was fun to watch me undoing it.  Need to do a better job of counting stitches.
Mac is having trouble tuning his mandolin and has decided to order  tuner meant for mandolins and violins instead of using his guitar one.  A mandolin have 8 strings in sets of two and is more like a violin than a guitar, who knew?  He read about a man who said he'd had a mandolin for 30 years, 15 playing it and 15 years tuning it.
I need to go do something productive, have a good Tuesday.

Saturday

As always Mac has been busy outside getting things done as the weather cools (marginally, it's in the 80's today).  He is cleaning our wooden deck with a power washer we borrowed from a friend.  The deck gets dirty, has mildew and looks grey and ugly.  Today it gets clean and boy doesn't it look better.  Then tomorrow we'll get stain for it.
And what was I doing while Mac was working?  I was playing the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart on the piano.  That was until I got to the part, in my mind, when the priest asks if their are any impediments to the marriage and Miss Kitty stepped up, put her paw down on the keys and said. " No more."  So I quit and went off to download some music for my Mp3 player and I do that so infrequently that in-between times I forget how to get the music from I-Tunes to my Mp3 player.  Eventually I figure it out and finish up.
Until lunch time I have some crafty projects to work on.  Hope you're having a good Saturday, it's beautiful here.

Five on Friday

It's Friday again, my they do come around quickly, and I'm joining in with Amy at Love Made My Home for this weekly event.
Nothing very special, just some things going on around our place.

First: In honor of Mac's new mandolin I'm posting a painting he did and I'm using it for my header for awhile.

Second:  I'm finished with my 12 Days of Christmas gifts and they're sitting next to the box that I'm mailing them in.  Hope to get them out next week.

Third: This is my craft room after I finished and with other Christmasy stuff going on I don't know when it will get straightened up.

Note the cat' tail, she was a big help, LOL.

Fourth: Is some extremely pink yarn that is being made into a Christmas gift for my daughter.  She likes hot pink and leopard print, but they don't make leopard print yarn unfortunately.

Fifth: And just because we're getting close to Halloween a Halloween picture.

That's my Five, hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my best friend my husband Mac.  It's a beautiful day for him, like Autumn always should be.
For his birthday, among other things , I have given him a mandolin, and a book to show how to play it.  He already plays guitar and has been getting the urge to try a mandolin so I thought I'd nudge him along.
For his birthday meal he's getting Paella, a proper Spanish meal for my Spaniard.

Oh What a Night!!!

We spent the evening with Monty Python or at least part of it.  An evening with John Cleese and Eric Idle.  It was wonderful!  It started with the 2 of them in comfy chairs talking about how they met and the early years.  It was like sitting in your living room with them and listening to them chat.
Interspaced with this were some clips from some of their films and the series itself.  They then did one of their skits.  It was all hilarious.
There was an intermission and then Cleese came out and did a monologue and a bunch of jokes, he still has perfect timing.
After that Idle came out and did some of his songs.
The whole time the show was going on a lady had been "signing" the dialogue for the hearing impaired.  So when Eric started doing some of his "naughty" songs he pointed out the lady signing and it was hilarious what she was signing for some of the lyrics.
We had a couple of audience singalong including The Philosoper's Song.  The lyrics were up on the screen, but Mac and I both remembered most of the words.
They finished with a question and answer session and then Eric led us all in Always Look on the Bright Side from Life of Brian.
Given their ages, Cleese said he was 76 and Idle was 72, we didn't expect a long show, probably about an  hour and 20-30 minutes.  Wrong!  It went well over 2 hours and never dragged.
It was an absolutely perfect evening.

Fans

Another of our fans has died, we have 10 of them and this is the 2nd one to depart.  It's in our bedroom and we really like it, so it took a little while and some review reading before we ordered one.  That's the nice thing about heavy stuff you order, it gets delivered up the stairs to your door and you don't have to carry it.
Our bedroom ceiling isn't too high so putting the new one in won't be too bad.  But it won't be me helping Mac, it'll be a friend of ours.  My days of holding up heavy objects is long gone.  Gone are the days when I'd hold sheetrock on my head while Mac hammered it or I held up wooden fence panels while he worked.  I'm strictly and onlooker now.
The first fan to go out was the one in the family room and the ceiling there is quite high, 18-20 feet and the man we called to install it wanted about 5 times what we'd paid for the fan to put it in.  Our friend helped Mac and its been there for about 5 years now.
The one I worry about is in the living room, the ceiling there is even higher.  There's a burned out light on it and it'll probably stay that way for a while.

I never want ceilings this high again, 10-12 feet maybe, but no higher.

Note the cat in the box behind the fan, she's been supervising the work and is taking a short nap before donning her tool belt and heading back up the ladder to lend a paw.

Bedroom Ceiling

Family room ceiling













Livingroom Ceiling, way, way, too high

When the Neighborhood Has a Yard Sale

Spartina Grass

When the neighborhood has a yard sale it's time to get up and take off.  So instead of walking in our neighborhood we headed down to Fr. McAllister a state park down the road from us.  It's on the Ogeechhee River and has numerous inlets, spartina grass, bat houses, a campground and if you're very lucky dolphins.  It empties into the ocean a few miles down the line and is a tidal river.  Depending on whether the tide is coming in or out you can find rays, sharks, crabs and shrimp.
Well we weren't lucky today, no dolphins, though we've seen them in the past, have also seen wild pigs there.  But it was a beautiful day for walking, just wish the road and shoulders hadn't been so rocky and uneven.  My old sore foot is not very happy with me.  When we eventually got home I soaked it in my bubble tub.  It's a little happier, but I'll probably have to baby it for awhile.
After our walk we headed into town to have a late breakfast  at Denny's.  It might not be fine dining, but they alway do a good breakfast.  A few other errands to run and town was jammed, the Great (over-priced) Ogeechee Seafood Festival is going on this weekend complete with expensive parking ($10.00), over-priced entry fee, expensive (bad) beer, Millers and over-priced seafood.  Wait till the festival is over and you can get the same food about half price.  We went a few times when we first moved here, now we just avoid it.
I think I hear my couch calling, it must be near Happy Hour.  Have a good weekend.

A Bat Condo

Five on Friday

Beautiful Fall day, hope it lasts forever.  I'm joining with Amy at Love Made My Home for this week's Five on Friday,

First:  There's the corner by my front door.  Love the little scarecrow and it makes me smile when I go to the door.

Second:  It's finally cool enough to have heartier food.  Today it's speckled beans  to which I'll add pork neck bones  Just enough meat to give it flavor.

Third:  The smell of fresh baking bread, is there anything better.  I use a bread machine because it makes my life easier.  I just pour in the ingredients  and it does the rest.  I make honey wheat bread and it's so good it almost tastes like cake.

Fourth:  Miss Kitty loves Fall, all summer she lays around sleeping about 26 hours a day (yes I know there are only 24 hours in a day, but we're talking cat hours).  Then comes Fall and she's on the move.  Yesterday she took out the screen in the backdoor trying to get to a lizard, today she's considering whether she can go through glass to get to another.

Fifth:  I learned that Lima Beans, also known as Butter Beans are poisonous if eaten raw, they contain cyanide.  I knew that kidney beans (read about that in a Felix Francis book)  have to be thoroughly cooked or they can be dangerous, but I didn't know about Lima Beans.  They recommend cooking uncovered and dumping the water .  Notice mine are covered, but then they were already mostly cooked when I started them.

That's my Five, have a good weekend.

Fall

It's a beautiful Fall day here, no the leaves aren't changing color or dropping yet, probably won't till late November, but the acorns are dropping you can hear them hitting cars, houses, the occasional person. Squirrels are busy hiding them everywhere.
 Mac is busy cleaning up the pool for winter, putting up the deck chairs and umbrella, and trimming back my clematis and the Rose of Sharon, both got very leggy this year. Still loads of butterflies flying around, they're mainly interested in the Lantana.  The Ginger Lilies that Mac transplanted earlier are all in bloom and smell like heaven.
Me, well I'm covered in Tacky Glue, paint, thread and other crafty things, I'm just about done with my 12 Days of Christmas gifts.  I should be able to wrap them up this weekend and hopefully they'll be wending their way to Northumberland, UK long before Christmas.
Then it's time for me to join Mac in the yard and get it cleaned up, probably need to mow one more time before we put the lawn mower away for the year.  And woe betide any weed I meet up with.

Ginger Lilies are very invasive and soon take over any area they're in, so we dig them up and start over again.

When I went out to see if Mac was through one of his armored divisions came up to see if I'd brought food for them.  A couple of them started eating mushrooms, hope it doesn't make them silly.

Getting Closer to Halloween

Mac decorated the outside of our house yesterday and I've been enjoying what some of the neighbors have been putting up so I thought I'd share.

Neighbor around the corner.

This one and the next one are the same house.

Our house.

A spider was inspired by Mac's work and put this next to his web.

Monday Doings

Monday or the day after sports overload.  We watched baseball playoffs, football (I hate you Denver Broncos), the President's Cup and then Mythbusters to learn about U-2 planes.
Today it's housework, ironing (hear the groans) and working on my 12 Days of Christmas projects.
Last week we ordered an Amazon Firestick so we could start streaming movies and I changed our Netflix account to 1 disc and the rest streaming.  This morning we hooked it all up.  Except for me typing in the wrong access code for our router it was so easy.
I've had Amazon Prime forever, but we've never streamed movies, which I could have on my computer or my Amazon Fire Tablet, but I hate small screens so I've never bothered.  Now we're going to give it a go and see if we like it.
If we can get enough of the programing we actually like I'm really going to cut back on our satellite service.
I hear my crochet needles calling me so I'd better go.

Five on Friday

I'm joining in with Amy at Love Made My Home, and others, for Five on Friday.  This will be a quickie because we have to hitch up the horses and head into town to go to the General Store, also known as the military commissary, and do that most dreaded thing, grocery shopping.

Our daughter lives in Japan and finds it rather strange that the Japanese have adopted Halloween and you see signs of it everywhere beginning in September.  It's mostly a grown-up holiday, but who knows, can Trick or Treating be far behind?

The Owls Have It

Not Quite Sure Where This one's From, But it Looks Good

That's my Five and a bit more.