Day Before Friday.

Today was hectic and I am glad tomorrow is Friday. We are expecting company this weekend and I am sorry to say that we are not finished cleaning the house. We might have to do one of those push everything and a closet and hope it doesn't break open the door. My parents came up to from the promise land as it is always nice to catch up on things. I haven't seen them for almost a month. My eyes are getting cloudy and that usually means I am getting tired so it is time to sign off. I doubt I will have a chance to post again until next week as my weekend is going to be fun filled with the 3 F's. Friends, Family and Fireworks. Can you get any better than that?

Back From The Big City.

Needles and I went to the big city today. We picked up a few items we were wanting and needing. There is still a few items we didn't get before the weekend but that will have to wait until during the week. We ate breakfast at Denny's , I had the ham and jalapeno scrambler and Needles had the 2 eggs and more, it was good and we got plenty/too much to eat. While at the diner I noticed 2 coworkers from the hospital setting within 20ft of me. It was like a convention of hospital employees of sorts. Now that we are home I plan on taking it easy for the rest of the day as tomorrow it is back to the old grind stone.

Preparation.

Our newly shampooed living room carpet.

We are having guests next weekend for July 4th (Cynical and Ragged) and we have been rather industrious today in our cleaning. We moved all the living room furniture into the middle room and shampooed the carpet. After it was dry we moved all the furniture from the middle room to the living room and shampooed the carpet in there. Copper kitty although not caring for the sound of the vacuum cleaner or the shampooer hide in the laundry room. Tugger opting for the pantry and hasn't come out since. We have all the furniture back to where it was and the carpets are completely dry but still no Tugger. I guess it will take several hours or days to sort it out. Copper is flopped at my feet like nothing happened. Nothing seems to faze short bus kitty. We are making progress and hope to be finished with cleaning and thinning out the kitty fur tumbleweeds. I hope to get everything done by next weekend.

Here is Tuggers hiding spot.

Come on out little kitty.

It's Been Years.

I used to work at a little clinic in Southern, Illinois. I had a coworker that went to Chicago often and would bring back delicacies from the windy city and I and my coworkers would stuff our faces with said delicacies. Today I was able to enjoy a treat I haven't had in years. My lovely Needles found a place less than 10 miles away that sells cannolis. I was thrilled when I heard what she had brought home. I did the happy dance of joy in my head because if I did it for real I probably would frighten Needles and she would run off with the cannolis and I would be sad. So I played it cool and smooth and just passed out in the floor with a smile on my face. She got me 2 of them and after supper I dove into them, head/mouth first. They were as good as I remembered. I wolfed the first one down without any problem and then started on the second. They were so rich and delicious and I was getting full but I forced myself to finish it. It was a hard job but I feel that I was the right man for the job and wasn't going to let a things like side splitting fullness stop me from the creamy goodness of a cannoli. I know, I know I am an amazing person to go through something like that and not be scarred for life but now I think I am addicted. It's not like I have a weak constitution but.....Well, I guess I have a weak constitution. All I can say is it was and experience that I hope to go through perhaps once or twice a week. This addiction could get expensive at $2 a pop. Just because this new found addiction might make me weight 300 pounds doesn't mean it's bad for you right? Have a good weekend everyone.

Another Day Gone By.

As you may know I work in the medical field of diagnostic imaging. This is a fancy term for X-Ray Department. In my years of working in the field there are days that your job gives you fulfillment and is rewarding in the knowledge that you are doing good for the community. For example adult or child falls down and hurts his or her wrist. X-ray said wrist. Decide on a treatment based on visual interpretation of the images. Patient gets better and returns to normal life. There is a second category of patient that is working the system for aid money and comes into the Emergency Room every time they have a hang nail. This is one of those times when you just grin and do the best job you can to get them away from you. I know I sound unsympathetic but if you worked in the medical field as long as I have you would know what I am talking about. Don't get me wrong the people that are on some sort of public aid and need it has every right to it. I know that we are not all born healthy and live healthy lives. There is also the part of the job when you do an exam and the finding of the test has life changing and possibly ending results. Then there is the last major category, medical documentation of a death. This is probably the most unrewarding part of the job. This is when a person dies of a suspicious and we have to document the way they died by X-ray images. It has been awhile since I had done anything like this, but today was the day. Scenario: 75 y/o white male tired of living decides to commit suicide with a 22 caliber handgun to the right temple. After life saving measures was terminated by the wife's request we had to document the path of the bullet and that indeed the bullet was still in the skull and had not exited the body. Like I said this is not the best part of the job but it had to be done. I just hope it is a long time before we get any more like this. Days like this just make you wonder why.

Tooty Tuesday.

Got a call from Needles. The truck is ready to pick up. Turned out to be the crank shaft sensor. They changed the rotor cap too. $250 bucks total. I guess it is better than a new engine. As for the title of this post. Needles made soup beans for supper tonight. YUM! Also check out Wolf Creek Cemetery website. It's really neat.

Years of Yard Mowing

As some might have caught my type-o. All I can say is spell check didn't catch it so it must be correct. No wonder I'm so tired. Possible good news on the truck. They think it is the PVC valve and they are going to change the rotor cap on the distributor. We might hear something about it this evening or tomorrow. Hopefully we will get it back tomorrow.
Hope everyone had a good bay. snicker.

I stole this from Needles that stole it from Ragged.

Yourself: tired
Your Lover: interesting
Your Hair: brown
Your Mother: lovely
Your Father: wise
Your Favorite Item: Jeep
Your Dream Last Night: unknown
Your Favorite Drink: sweet tea
Your Dream Home: away
The Room You Are In: living
Your Pets: nuts
What You Are Now: exhausted
Who You Want to be in Ten Years: happy
What You Want to be in Ten Years: comfortable
What You're Not: rich
Your Best Friend: Needles
One of Your Wishlist Items: vacation
Your Gender: male
The Last Thing You Did: Mow
What You Are Wearing: shorts
Your Favorite Weather: Fall
Your Favorite Book: ?
The Last Thing You Ate: Chinese
Your Life: hectic
Your Mood: frustrated
Favorite article of clothing: shorts
Favorite color: green
School: over
Song: Plush

I just got done mowing 2 years so this might influence my answers.

Grocery Shopping on a Rainy Day.

Today Needles and I went grocery shopping in the big city. Not because we wanted to but because we had to. We were down to a few items left in the pantry. Hopefully we won't have to do that again for awhile. After we finished shopping we went to eat Chinese. We then returned home to relax for a bit. If the grass dries up enough I am hopeful to get the mowing done. I better get out there and get my chores finished. Tomorrow it is back to work. yeh!

Cuttin Kraut By Candle Light.

We just got home from Needlefinger's mom place where we harvested 11 heads of cabbage grown and picked fresh from the garden to make homemade kraut. I have eatten kraut for many years and always thought it came in cans and that was that. My parents and grandparents canned vegetables from the garden every summer. There was many a times during a visit with my grandparents we would spend most of the time in the yard snapping beans or grinding tomatoes, onions and peppers for relish. Even though I was exposed to canning vegetables at a young age the thought of homemade kraut never entered my mind. That is until I meet Needles. Her and her family has been making homemade kraut for years. I had often heard of them talking about it but had never been there during the production. Today was the day to remedy that. Needle's mom hauled the 8 gallon stone crock out of storage and the act of cleaning all the implements needed for this task was underway. One thing that really made it feel like it was back in the good ole days was the fact that about an hour before the power had went out and had not come back on yet. The teperature in the house was starting to climb and because this is a farm and they have a well we had to pump the water by hand to clean and wash the cabbage. After removing the hearts of the cabbage we then began to chop up the heads in nice kraut sized slivers and mixed each head with a tablespoon of salt before ending up in the crock. We repeated this for all 11 heads and then placed a clean plate face down on the compacted cabbage and perched a gallon jug full of water on top for weight. Then salt water was added mixed at 1 tablespoon per gallon until there was 2 to 3 inches of water over the plate. After that a cotton towel was draped over the top of the crock and secured with a string. Hopefully in 6 weeks we will have homemade kraut. All in all with 4 of us working it took a little over a hour from start to finish. Not bad as I was suspecting an all day production. I guess I had better wrap this post up we have storms coming from the west and the thunder is getting louder.

Friday....Not so great.

Today I was at work and it wasn't too bad of a day and then I saw Needles standing in the sliding glass window at which I work most of my day behind, and from the look on her face I knew something was wrong. Apparently the truck was acting up. I checked the transmission fluid suspecting that first and moved to the oil. The oil was a bit low but since I hadn't driven it I wasn't sure exactly what it was doing. Needles ran across the road to an AutoZone and picked up a couple quarts and I poured it in. I told her that I hope that might do the trick. She got about a block away and had to shut it off. She called me and I called a mechanic and had them meet her at her truck. Apparently it is an ignition or electrical issue. I suspect this might be from the new transmission work but will probably never prove it. The truck was supposed to go back to the transmission place for a 15 day checkup and it can't because it is in the shop again. Oh well , I am not going to stress about it and enjoy my weekend the best I can. Have a good weekend everyone.

Just a picture.

Neighbors Bad Luck.

Yesterday after coming home from an especially crappy day of work, I commenced supper. Shortly there after Needles came home and made mention that she had to pull in the backway as the road in front of the house was blocked by traffic. We are by no means a metropolis so I went to the front porch to see what was up. I saw my neighbor "T" with a garden hose watering his wife's car engine. The police and volunteer firemen were out there. I had to see what was going on so I walked over to see the engine compartment melted and steaming. The nice little plastic cover over the engine that usually read duel over head cam or multiport fuel injection was melted into a black blob and encrusted over the top of the engine. I have to say that "T" was taking it pretty well. The only comment out of his mouth was "darn it the thing was almost paid off!" After that bit of excitement and we finished off some supper we decided to go out to a friends house and visit for awhile. We were loosing light so we made a run for the gooseberry patch and got Needles some nice ones to nibble on for a few days. Today work was horrible. It was non stop from lunch on. I even had to get pulled away form lunch once to take care of something. I hope tomorrow will be better but the way the schedule looks it looks like more of the same.

AAAAAHHHHHHH the weekend.

Here is a lovely picture from a couple weeks ago. The Japanese Irises are all gone now.

It is the weekend and I am able to relax after a hellish Friday. I worked over an hour just to try and get most of my work done but had to leave some of it for next week. Rudy, King and I have been making plans for the upcoming Oct. Geocachng Event we are planning. We went to an excellent event about a month ago and got some ideas as to make our get together better. We are going to have less caches than last year but lots of fun and time to set around and chat. I have been emailing companies to see if they are wanting to donate promotional items to our event. We have had some success. Here is some of the items I have managed to procure. I guess May has left me all stressed out so all I could think of was stress relievers. So I got some stress relievers to squeeze and bring down my blood pressure. Do you think I have enough?

Here is a few of what I have. There are more on the way.

Here is one of Tugger's....um....er...friend. Shortly after this picture was taken Tugger was so upset he bounced off the screen between the 2 kitties and was a hissing, spitting ball of fuzz. He got so worked up when I went to remove him form the doorway to lower stress levels and keep Tugger from going through the screen. Notice Copper peaking around the lower left corner. Poor thing....Tugger was so frustrated he couldn't tear into the intruder that he took his frustration out on Copper's head.

Last night to today.

Last night we had a guest. It was Jenny from Jenny form the blog. It was her birthday and we decided to have her over for a small party. Needles served up her delicious hamburgers and for the side we had a sample tray of mozzarella cheese sticks, stuffed jalapenos and sour cream and chives potato wedges. For dessert we had a Dairy Dee ice cream turtle pie. It was all very good and it was nice to see Jenny again. Needles presented her with a few gifts and we sat the evening long with the T.V. turned off. We did have family drop by and visit for abit while they were out for there evening bike ride. Yuri, Yin, Rudy and Brando stopped by for a brief visit. This morning I must have been half asleep because I got up and got myself ready for work and of to work I went.....Later while going to the rest room I noticed something odd. Why was the tag of my underwear in the front? I was amused, frightened then dismayed at the ignorance I posses. This is not the actions of a person with the IQ of 147. Am I going through live with my underwear on backwards? There is no way those tests can be correct. I think my cats are rubbing off on me. I am slipping down the slippery slope to nutsville. Some people ride the short bus. I think I am the one that missed it and is now running after it. Have a nice day everyone.

New members of the EXTENDED family.

Here is the fuzzy bunch that was adopted into our extended family.

AH HA I"M GETTIN SMRTER!

The Super IQ Test
How Smart Are You Really?

Brian, your IQ score is 147

Your overall intelligence quotient is the result of a scientifically-tested formula based on how many questions you answered correctly. But it's only part of what we learned about you from your answers on the test. We also determined the way you process information.The way you think about things makes you an Intuitive Investigator. This means you have multiple talents and can do anything you set your mind to. You're able to detect numerical patterns easily and are able to grasp the true complexity of the world, both in its details and in a more abstract form. You've got a sharp logical mind and are adept at using words to get even a difficult point across. The combination of all these things makes you truly brilliant.
How did we determine that your thinking style is that of an Intuitive Investigator? When we examined your test results further, we analyzed how you scored on 8 dimensions of intelligence: spatial, organizational, abstract reasoning, logical, mechanical, verbal, visual and numerical. The 3 dimensions you scored highest on combine to make you an Intuitive Investigator. Only 6 out of 1,000 people have this rare combination of abilities.

Hooda thunk it?

I AM SO SMRT!

I just took a Tickle IQ test an this is my results.

Your IQ score is 124

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others. Your Intellectual Type is Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns — both in pictures and in numbers. These talents combined with your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture, which is why people trust your instincts and turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.

I wonder if this is true or if they are blowing smoke up my backside to sell a product?

Test your IQ at http://web.tickle.com/

Getting Harder to Post.

As the weather has become nicer I find myself having less to post about. I think my mind is wondering on to what I could be doing outside. I think in the next few months that posting will be less frequent and pick back up when it gets closer to fall and winter. I'm sure most blogs follow this trend as with the nice weather outside activities become more attractive.