The Weekend Review.

Here is the Medicine Man selling his Tiger Fat Salve and Snake Oil to his next unsuspecting customer.
A gentleman in period attire amid the wares to be sold. Even the frontiersman needed bling.
This symbolizes Old Settlers Day. An authentic hand made product from the period, what else could be said about it.
This is an iris from my parents flower garden. Enjoy.

This weekend was Old Settlers Days at our local 4 H center. Since Cynical and Ragged was gracious to put up wit us last weekend, we thought we would invite them to our small town's festivities. We started the weekend late as Cynical had to work Saturday so there arrival wasn't until Saturday afternoon. This made the weekend seem to fly by even quicker. We, however, we were glad to have the extra time to whip our pig pen of a house into guestworthy shape. We were following the fuzzy folk around with a dust buster almost at the time our company showed up. Our weekend although a fun one was not without frustration. About an hour before our company arrived Copper started his puking again. I was proud he had made it 2 days before his record was dashed. Also Needles had peeled a bunch of vegetables for vegetable soup and the garbage disposal got plugged up. I started to work on it to see if I couldn't fix the problem and ended up finding a corroded pipe and ultimately stopping the usage of the kitchen sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher. Needless to say this didn't make me happy. After I vented for a few minutes the arrival of our weekend guests was just the ticket to take my mind off the problems of the moment. After we visited for a few minutes we went out to Old Settlers Day and was able to peruse the wares of the patrons of the event. There was hand spin yarn, hand crafted black smithing, wood work and pottery of all types. The hand dipped candles was fun to watch and Mother Goose put on an entertaining yet shortened show due to the sporadic sprinkles and threat of impending rain. We were also able to meet up with Farm Wife and her little ones in tow. It was nice to see Farm Wife again as the last time I saw her she had only one little one. After we walked and spied the going on at the event we didn't want to say good bye just yet so we all decided to meet up at my Mom and Dad's home to visit with Rudy, Brando and allow Farm Wife's little ones to meet and play with Yuri & Yin. We enjoyed the visit until time for Farm Wife to head home and Yin to be taken home for bed time. We then made our way to a local coffee shop and enjoyed each others company and scattagories while riding the caffeine high. The caffeine kept us awake until 1am and we decided to retire for the night. The next day we had breakfast and chatted while Needles was getting the soup together. Rudy, Brando and the broods Sunday plans were cancelled due to the weather so they were able to visit and enjoy vegetable soup along with us. We laughed and shared interesting stories and talked about whatever topic came up. I have to say things got a little interesting at one point. All I have to say is "What happens at Paw Paw & Nee Nee's stays at Paw Paw & Nee Nee's." We do have pictures but that's a story for another day....or month....or year. Anyway, all too soon it was time for Cynical and Ragged to head back home. We waved as they backed out of the drive way and was off to the promise land. We then returned inside to visit and have seconds of Needles vegetable soup. Later we decided to return home and get caught up on some laundry and other things needing attention at home. (Fuzzy People) I walked into the bathroom and there they were. Ragged's glasses. I made mention of it to Needles and she put in a call to chez Ragged. We are on track to return the spectacles to their owner ASAP. We wouldn't want to delay Apples sock mate from being completed. Well I guess I have blabbed on enough about our lovely weekend so I will sign off for now. Hope everyone had a good weekend as tomorrow it is back to the same ole grind.

Weird Dreams & Drown Rats.

Yesterday when I got home I usually check the food and water bowl of our furry house mates. The food bowl was fine but the water bowl was a bit off. There was Copper's toy red mouse drowned in the water bowl. I don't know why Copper seem to like to add his toys to the food and water bowl but this has been a regular occurrence lately. We usually just fish it out of the bowl and go about our business. The other day Needles made another discovery. As you know the fetishes of our fuzzy friend this may not come to a shock. Apparently Copper wanted to add toys to another of his daily routine. The litter box. The food bowl, no problem, the water bowl, soggy but still no problem but when he poops on his toys, then it time to find a new favorite toy. Needles quietly discarded the blue ball and it was sent to the trash graveyard.
Copper has been throwing up several times a day over the last week. I am not sure what was going on with him but I have decided to take up their food during the day and at night and it has seemed to help. The last couple days I have been doing this, there has been no puke episodes. I think maybe he was over eating. We will see if this therapy helps the situation.
The other part of the title mentions weird dreams. I am not a lucid dreamer and I rarely remember anything at all from my dreams but last nights dream disturbed me enough to remember it the next morning. I dreamed we had a tornado touch down near the house. I remember walking out the front door and there are no houses left standing with in several blocks. I don't remember the condition of my own house but I clearly walk out of my house. I do however remember the garage is mostly gone. There was one walk standing and a clean slab of the concrete floor. The is more of a night mare than a dream but the weird part of it come in right now. I clearly remember being mad and upset. Not about the garage being gone or the neighborhood being destroyed, but that it was a work day and all three vehicles were missing and I had no way to get to work. You would think in a situation like this that work would be the last thing on your mind. Clearly I must have some mental issues but this discovery doesn't come as a great surprise. I hope tonight the dreams/nightmares stay in the background and I don't remember a thing.
I am hoping the rain holds off for some of the weekend, as Cynical & Ragged are coming up to join us at Old Settlers Days. I am hoping that we don't become drowned rats ourselves.

Come On Weekend.

Here is the gun case my Sweetheart got me.
Here is the sofa table.
Here is a nosy little kitty that has to be in the middle of everything going on.

We finally got the new camera today. We haven't messed with it much because Mom and Dad and Mamaw C came up today, so we spent the evening out there. When we got home we broke into "If it hasn't been touched in 6 months, pitch it" mode. We got rid of 2 trash bags full of crap just setting around gathering dust. I am proud of some of the head way we made in the clutter. Now that we got rid of that stuff we have to get down to business and clean this pig pin. The guest room, bathroom, utility room and kitchen is clean, The living room and middle room are on schedule for tomorrow evening and our bedroom will probably not get touched. We had to make sacrifices and that was the room to fall from the list.
As for the furniture I mentioned in yesterdays post, My Sweetheart picked me up a solid oak gun cabinet. She also picked up a sofa table that we are now storing our laptops on to get it out of the racing groove of the kitties. We have caught them playing with the cords on several occasions.
Saturday we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ragged and Cynical for a fun filled weekend at the 4 H center and Old Settlers Days. We haven't had the event for a couple years now and the weekend they usually had it, it rained. As usually it will be a rainy weekend so it almost like it was never gone. I was hoping to take the top off the Jeep and run around but it isn't looking good for that to happen. With the good company coming up, the rain just fades into the back ground. Have a good weekend everyone.

Too much crap....Too little time.

We have been trying to get the house ready for company this weekend, but our cleaning schedule has fallen far behind. We now have 2 and a half days to get done. I think we will finish.....Ohhh about Christmas. Needles went to a dental appointment today and returned with furniture. There has been a couple of pieces we have been wanting to replace and Needles found just the items. I will post pictures of the items later. One is now my pride and joy:) Now if we can keep the fuzzy people away from it. Well gotta go. Like I said Too much crap (to do)...Too little time ( to do it.)

Weekend Pictures.

Here is the sign by the picnic area.
The elevated walkways in the park.
The suspention bridge across Panter Creek.
The trail head markers.
A view from the fire tower. pronounced (Fire Tire)
A caboos.
A iris in Raggeds back yard.
Cooper at the front window.
A building by the river.

We are home....Even though we wanted to stay.

We are home to our brood. I was hoping to get home and find a home no worse for wear. Well that didn't happen. Copper has been known to chew and shred magazines and other useless stuff we leave laying about. This time is wasn't so useless. He chewed up the back cover of my MRI book. This is a $80 book. Needless to say I was a bit upset. The same reason he is afraid of pillows may be the same reason he is going to be afraid of books. Oh well. It could have been worse, he could have pulled the T.V. over or burned down the house. Nothing and I mean nothing surprises me with this problem kitty. Needles got her lotions from her friend, so it was a good mail day even though it was Sunday.
We arrived a Chez Ragged around 5 ish Friday. That night we went to the O.G. and had more than enough food. Thanks for picking up the tab Cynical. I will get it next time. After that we toured O'town until it got almost too foggy to see much. Once back at Chez Ragged we lounged in the living room and discussed a multitude of topics. We finally called it a night at around 2 am. Saturday morning Cynical made cinnamon rolls and we loaded up for a caching trip around O'town. We found four caches which included one that eluded us last time. We got a bit peckish so we decided to go back to the house and have sandwiches as we were going to have cookout later with Cynical's sis, his niece M and his bro in law C. We had a good time talking and catching up. This was the first time I had seen Miss M in person. I had seen pictures but that was it, and here she was all 18 months of her. Miss M enjoyed looking at the furry brood of Chez Ragged, and I'm sure if she could have caught them they would have had loads of fun with her. The cookout consisted of steaks, grilled asparagus, baked potatoes, spinach salad and for desert strawberry shortcake. My belly was more than full by the time I got done. After the cook out we sat in the back yard until it it turned off a bit too cool and some drops of rain fell. We went back inside to break out the cards and try our hand in a few games of euchre. The night ended with Pilot/Ragged 2 Needlefingers/Cynical 2. We were too tired to break the tie so we retired for the night. Sunday we awoke to enjoy Cynicals scrambled eggs, biscuits and sausage. We then enjoyed some of Raggeds sliced strawberries and was ready to start our trip to Panther Creek Park and another Geocaching trip. Cynical and Ragged packed a picnic lunch to have at the park. We walked all over the park and managed to pick up 3 geocaches. After that we had the picnic. Turkey sandwiches with chips and fresh green grapes. Then there was a stop off at the pond where Ragged and Needles threw what was left of the loaf of bread out to the ducks and geese. We then returned to Chez Ragged to relax before our trip home. We were very glad to spend time with them and can't wait to do it again. Perhaps next weekend. (snicker)

Countdown to KY.

In less than 24 hrs we will be in Kentucky visiting Ragged and Cynical. I can hardly wait. Since I got home I mowed the lawn, and did 3 loads of laudry. Still gotta do some dishes, pack and try not to forget anything. I hope tomorrow goes quick and I get off work when I am supposed to. Hope to return with some good pictures and stories to share. Have a great weekend everyone. I am sure we will. :

Needles New Camera.

We have been knockin around the idea of getting a new camera for some time now. The Canon A70 has served us well over the last few years and we will still be using it, but we have been thinking of upgrading and tonight was the night. Since Needles had some extra cash to blow from her Fleece Fair Trip and she shot down buying some fiber combs, I think the updated tetanus shot recommendation may have had something to do with it, She thought now is as good a time as any. So she just put in the order for a new Canon A700. Now we get to anxiously await it's arrival. I can't wait to try it out and hear the simulated camera exposure sound when you press the button. I guess it is another camera manual to read.....hint hint Rudy. This new camera has twice the settings as our old one so I'm sure figuring out all the bells and whistles will be fun.

Kentucky Plates

K dense notified me that Kentucky is phasing out the smiling sun license plates so I did a search for the new one.

Is it this one? Nope.... That's 1998

HEY HOW ABOUT THIS ONE. Bullet bras and license plates....Can't go wrong there.

I think this is the new one.

Kentucky changes there license plates more that any other state I know. I think I have lived in Illinois for almost 22 years and we have changes our plates once. I think. I guess that is because we live in a broke @ss state. To poor to even pay attention. Ahhh the promise land. I hope to go back there some day.

Here it is Tuesday.

I still maintain that this week is going to drag by. Yes it is a perfect Tuesday afternoon. It's 73 degrees and a light breeze from the west. Needles and I again find ourselves relaxing on the front porch enjoying the nice afternoon. It seems that since the time change that the days go quicker and there is not enough hours in the day to get things done.

End Of The Weekend.

Today and the weekend was rather productive. We finally got all the tree cleared out of Mom & Dads yard and it mowed. We did go down to Needles Mom's and eat Easter Dinner. Ham and brown beans, corn muffins with butter, asparagus with potatoes and for desert, holy cow cake. Yum Yum. She makes a mighty good spread. Needles colored Easter Eggs and they turned out beautiful but we forgot our camera. Of course, when you got something to take a picture of you don't have it with you.
Since we are planning a trip to the promise land to see Ragged and Cynical this coming weekend, that means this week will never end. I can't wait. :)

Out and About Part 2

I finally got the yard mowed and since I was already hot and smelly, Needles and I decided to go out to Mom & Dad's and clean up a bit. We got most of the stuff we could tackle, but there is still the main part of the tree to get down and removed. After we finished there we stopped by the Dairy Dee for strawberry slushis. They were so good. After we got home we sat on the front porch sipping our beverages and watching the sky get darker. We did do a little pruning of Needles Russian Sage and as the sun was going down, I replaced a couple of light bulbs in the garage. By this time it was almost dark and time to go in for showers, a bite to eat and to relax with the fuzzy folk. Well I think Copper relaxes he's busy pouncing bugs flying again the glass on the storm door. He's not the brightest crayon in the box. Hence the picture above.

Out and About.

Here is he light we selected for over the kitchen table.

Today after Needles and I went out to finish putting her dyed fiber on the drying racks, we went to the big city. The plans was to find a nice ornamental tree to put beside the garage and some pavers to finish the walkway to her yarn room. Well we came back with a light. That's it. We checked at 3 places for the pavers and the tree Needles wanted and nada. We did get some news that the tree she wants would most likely be in next week. We ate at Fazoli's and I ran into a old co worker of mine. Small world. The light that we did get was for the kitchen, over the table. We looked at some a few weeks ago and was rushed for time so we dropped the project for a better time. We looked for a hang down light that wasn't over gaudy and somewhat simple. It took about 30 minutes from opening the box to flipping the switch. I need to mow the lawn again. Good it's only the second time I have mowed and I am already tired of it. Tomorrow we are venturing down to Needles stomping grounds and having Easter dinner with her family. After that I am hoping to get back up here and finish cleaning up the downed tree that fell a couple weeks ago, during the storm. Since it was a nice day and at the moment I am too lazy to mow, I thought I would set on the porch and surf the internet. Needles by my side spinning on her wheel. Have a good weekend!

Things to know......Or not.

This is a familiar site as the windows open the cats lay in them. Notice the extra window screen insert. Some kitties don't know not to lay against the screen and almost fall out of the window.

Things I bet you didn't know about our crazy cats.

1. Tugger & Copper are afraid of trash bags.
2. Tugger is scared if the vacuum cleaner. Copper is too but only because he sees Tugger run for his life.
3. Tugger is scared of pillows. (I don't know why.):)
4. Copper like to play with his toys on the bath tub.
5. Copper like to put his toys in his food and water bowl.
6. Copper is a peeping tom when we are in the shower.
7. Copper tags Tugger on the head when Tugger is in the litter box.
8. Copper likes to lay in the litter box. (poopy fetish)
9. Tugger like to play with poopy. (poopy fetish)
10. Tugger is a sore winner & Copper is a sore looser.

P.S. I am feeling much better. Thanks for the well wishes.

Home Sick

Today is the first day I have stayed home sick in probably 8 years. Last night Needles and I had some ham sandwiches and shortly there after I went to lay down. I napped only for about 30 minutes and I had to get up. My stomach was aching and didn't feel right. At about 7:30 pm IT hit. Throwing up and other symptoms of a stomach bug was very present. I was up most of the night making trips to the bathroom. This morning I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. Fever around 101, headache and body aches. I could only stand for a few minutes at a time without getting weak and dizzy. I got out of bed around 10am this morning and was up and watching T.V. until 1pm then back to bed. I woke up when Needles rolled in from work at 5:22pm. I am now feeling much better but still a little light headed. I am hoping to go to work tomorrow but we will see.

Happy 200th

I just realized that yesterday was my 200th post. Happy 200th to me! Have a good Monday. Pronounced "Mundee" in the promise land.

@#%$&* Spyware!

I got hammered with Spyware last night. I have just been running Nortons Antivirus and neglected to add Spybot to my protection and I paid for it last night and today. I got nailed by the perfected protection.com hompage hijacker. It is a spyware program that takes over your homepage and doesn't allow you to change it. The kick in the teeth is that the wesite that it directs you to sells spyware protection. If I could I would find out where this business is I would go there and burn it down. I hope that Nortons and Spybot gets an update to shut this crappy business down. Apparently it accesss a vulnerability in Widows Media Player to get into your system. In my line of work it would be like walking around bashing people with a baseball bat to drum up busines at my hospital. These people should be strapped down and put electrodes on sensitive parts of their body and hooked up to 220 amps. I just got done reformating my laptop, this with additional drivers, Norton's and updates took about 4 hours. Doesn't that sound like a fun way to spend your weekend. I am so pissed off that I had better say bye for now.

Spring is here.

You will know Summer is here when you start seeing sites like this.

The other night's storms seemed to have totally miss us. Other than a bit of rain and some distant thunder we were lucky. Looks like Tennessee got it again.

Since Needles went to Greencastle, IN. with Jenny from the blog, I have been home alone........Well not totally alone. I got the furry housemates to keep me company. I went to a friends house after work yesterday and got home rather late last night. We I walked in I noticed the lamp on the end table was knocked into the floor. The Kleenex tissue basket was also in the floor and everything that was on the end table was in disorder. In the bathroom a disposable drink cup was chewed up and laying on the floor. I looks like they had a good time while I was gone but I just wish they would learn to pick up after their selves.

Today I got up LATE. Fixed a bowl of cereal for breakfast and watched a movie. After the movie was over I went out to mow the lawn and spray areas around the patio and garage. It was still a little cool out side at 51 degrees so when I got in I made a pot of coffee and now relaxing on the couch and hope to get some laundry caught up. I'm not sure when Needles is supposed to get back but I hope it s soon. I already miss her.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Picture?

I was going to just post a funny picture but it seems that blogger is having fits again. Maybe tomorrow. WHO KNOWS!

Just Another Day.

Today was Hump Day and I am glad I am on the down hill slide to the weekend. I have lots to do, to keep me busy as Needles will be away for a few days with Jenny from the Blog. We still have a bit of the tree that fell at my parents house to clean up and I am planning on getting the lawn whipped into shape. I sprayed it last weekend and the weeds are looking sick. Now I will mow, trim and spray the drive way. I don't have much else to talk about other than I have been fighting off a cold since last weekend. Started with sore throat and lessened to a tickle in the throat only to go into my chest. I am coughing now and it feels like someone poured acid in my lungs. Hopefully I will feel more like blogging after this stuff is gone.

Wild Night.

Last night we had a bit of a storm roll though. It was only after day light that we could survey the damage. Since the time change this weekend, this morning when I left it was still somewhat dark, so I wasn't able to check the roof and see if there was any shingles missing. I just let it be and went on to work. On the way to work I drove by Mom and Dad's place. This was abit of a shock. A 40 Ft section of somewhat healthy tree was blown over into the tree standing 20 Ft to it's east. The tree that the section fell into had a section knocked to of in and it hit the house and then the ground. There is only minor damage on the shingles and the drip edge is a little wrinkled. The larger section of tree is still connected to the tree it fell out of and is wedged into the other tree. Might be a little tricky to remove. This we will have to tackle on another day. We did go out to the storage building Rudy and Brando stores their camper and about a 30Ft section of the roof is missing. Luckily no damage to any of the campers stored inside. There are several trees down in the area, and reports of things blown into the road. For one a house.....Yes and house. I thinking modular home. Also a tractor was blown into the road. These are just stories from people but no specifics on where. Needles says there was a lot o damage on her way to work. Roofs missing from homes and trees up rooted. We I got home I looked over the homestead and everything appears to be fine here. We dodged the bullet yet again.

Movie Trivia Answers.

1. Parley? Damn to the depths whatever man what thought of "Parley".That would be the French. Pirates of the Carribean
2. There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and Tex...well, I don't remember where Texcome from. Forrest Gump
3. Men are rats, listen to me, they're fleas on rats, worse than that,
they're amoebas on fleas on rats.I mean, they're too low for even the dogs to bite. The only man a girl can dependon is her daddy. Grease
4. Mickey is a mouse, Donald is a duck, Pluto is a dog. What's Goofy...?He's a dog, he's definitely a dog...He can't be a dog, he wears a hat and drives a car...Yeah, that is weird. What the hell is Goofy? Stand By Me
5. You can't win. You know that, don't you? It doesn't matter if you whip us,you'll still be where you were before,at the bottom. And we'll still be the lucky ones at the top with all the breaks.It doesn't matter.Greasers will still be greasers and socs will still be socs. It doesn't matter. The Outsiders
6. Hi, do you have the song "I Just Called To Say I Love You?" It's for mydaughter's birthday.Yea we have it.Well, can I have it?No, actually, you can't.Why not?God. Do you even know your daughter? There's no way she likes that song. Oops,is she in a coma? High Fidelity
7. What's that on the steering wheel?Cellophane. If you had any idea of the crap that people carry around on theirhands.What kind of crap?You don't wanna know. Aviator
8. I refuse to endanger the lives of my children in a house with less than fourbathrooms.For 1,300 dollars they can live in a house with three bathrooms and ROUGH IT. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (oldie but a goody)
9. That's right, Mr. Martini. There is an Easter Bunny. One Flew Over The Coo Coo's Nest
10. One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach, all the damn vampires. Lost Boys

Farm Wife edged out Brando by one answer. Congrates Farm Wife. Thanks for playing.

It's Over.

We made it through with some wind, rain and hail. Still lightening off to the East but the worst is by us. Hope everyone is O.K. out there. Time to get back to laundry for work tomorrow.

Big Storm

We are getting hit right now. Wish us luck. Winds 70 mph. power flickering and hail/rain.

Spring Time Saturday.

Today was a nice day. It could have been warmer and the sun could have shown more but otherwise a nice day. This morning we started off by running into town and doing a little grocery shopping. As I walked into the grocery store I noticed that there wasn't a lot of shopping carts in front of the store in the cart corral. It is at that time that I turned to ask a rhetorical question. "What day is it?" Of coarse it is the first day of the month, when every body and their dog is out shopping because government checks have been received. Let's just say I wasn't thrilled about the crowds of people in all the stores. We quickly ran up and down the isles throwing food item after food item in the cart in an attempt to get the heck outta there as soon as possible.

(shouting out food items as I ran.)
Me: Loaf of bread!
Needles : What kind wheat or white?
Me: No time to think about it, just grab one.
(Poof!) sound of loaf of bread being thrown into grocery cart.
Needles: Jar of spaghetti sauce!
Me: I got it!
(Poofffsmush!) sound of jar of spaghetti sauce landing on loaf of bread.
Me & Needles: CRAP!
Needles: I don't think were going to make it!
Me: Do we need any potato chips?
Needles: Don't forget the milk!
Me: I grabbed one that's half full.
Needles: That'll do...No time!
Me: RUN!

Before.

Isn't she a beaut!

After.

Ok so maybe I am dramatizing the situation a bit but this is (based) on a true story with a few liberties to enhance the story.

After the grocery store we thought we would hit Wally World. We entered the store with our list of things we needed and left with those items plus several items that wasn't on the list....Like why do I need a can opener that has a digital clock on it? Or a hair brush with a dental floss dispenser in the end of it? I think that Wally World should be called Wacky World as I seem to loose my ever lovin mind and buy items that 99.9% of the population didn't need in the first place and the .01% that did need it, is insane...... Like me. I think it the way they present the item that makes you want to buy it. HEY, adult diapers 30% off. I don't need them right now, but I can't pass up a bargain like that. Throw'em in the cart. But watch out for my Spiderman glitter pen. It writes in magical sparkels. Dur!


After the fog of Wally World and for Needles B'day meal out, she requested Chinese. We hit the place at 11 am. This is the perfect time as they open at 10:30 am and the food is fresh. If you show up right at 10: 30 am the food is super fresh but they don't have all the items on the bar just yet. The food was magnificent and I made short work of my first plate thinking I would go back for more. I waited too long and that was all she wrote. I was miserable waddling out to the Jeep. If I had went back for the second plate Needles would have had to roll me out there. I thought we would stop by Ophelia's Cup for pre B'day treat for Needles, but was thwarted by the closed sign on the door. Apparently the O's C is closed for re modeling until next Wed. DRAT!

We returned home to put away our purchased items and relax a bit from the hussel n bussel of shopping on the first of the month. I hope to not relive that experience for awhile. I am just glad we made it home in one piece and got what we needed, an some we didn't. I did manage to get some lawn work done and Needles got to spend some time in her yarn room. Tomorrow we are going down to Needle's Mom for a B'day meal. My belly is still full of Chinese but I can hardly wait. Momma Needles puts on a good feed.