Some Kitties and Some Inchies

and probably some chatter from me as well....


Guess we'll start with inchies. We are up to 453 of them with this batch. They were done a week or so ago. Not sure how that squirrel got in with the mushrooms, but there he is. All of these are done with markers on recycled cardstock.


These four ATCs are for the "Look What The Cat Dragged In!" swap over at AFA. All are done in markers and done within the last two days. I've got them in an envelope and ready to start their journey to Arizona on Monday. I'd like to say the concepts for each of these was my own doing, but it wasn't. I got the inspiration for an artist by the name of Nicole Wong. The gray kitty is from a photograph I found in google images.

Cats are pretty cool subjects to paint and draw. That senile old Miss Blue cat was sitting here on the desk next to me while I was drawing that gray kitty early this morning. She decided she would fit in the small basket of markers that were sitting on the desk. She and the markers all ended up on the floor along with the basket which hit her in the head when it fell. She was certain I had everything to do with that indignity to her pride! Silly cat! It's been hours since that happened and she's not been back to talk to me yet.

I'm fixing to work on some chunky pages today. I wasn't aware we were having a chunky page-a-thon this weekend, but apparently we are! So I need to get busy. I'll be back after while with some chunkys to show you all.

Be good to one another! Go get your hugs!
Peace
831

A Thursday

Nothing special about Thursdays I suppose.
I've added two books read to the list in the last two days. No post yesterday, but I did add Treasure Island to the list. Then I read The Old Man in the Sea yesterday. Only took about three hours to read the whole book! It was a good book but I thought it would take longer to read! I've no idea what the next book will be. Guess I'll figure that out when I pull it from one of the shelves in the house.

I don't have any art to show you today cause I've got nothing scanned as of yet. The only thing to show you is the president's books I'm working on. George Washington's pages are done, but he's yet to be turned into a book. Not sure how I'm going to bind these little six page books. I have things ready for the next victim. John Adams I think is #2 on the list. I'd have to go look at the folder where all the ingredients for the next book are to be certain it is indeed John Adams I'll be working on next.

I should be doing some cat ATCs this weekend for a swap over at AFA. Those won't take me long. I have 3 ATCs to make for that one. Cats is the theme. I'll be doing them in markers on heavy recycled cardstock. Or I may drag out the acrylics and paint the little devils.

I have been faithfully cutting ATC blanks from the presentation folders. There are still MANY in the box to be cut though and then there's another 50 boxes in the burned house. I've a huge job ahead of me....

RJ and Rooster showed up to work on RJ's car earlier this morning. I thought T was coming with them. She said she was, but RJ said they left her at home. So, guess I won't be seeing T today.

RJ and Rooster came in the house to find me coming out of the bathroom with my face covered in green clay. My beauty treatment once a week... RJ busted out laughing and Rooster giggled. Ain't much funnier than a teenage boy giggling! Well, unless he's giggling at an old woman with a green face! RJ was calling me lizard woman. Least it was me he was laughing at and not out there in the driveway cussing at his car. I've since taken a shower and washed that green clay off. Those two have gone off to somewhere... probably for parts for that stupid car, as RJ calls it.
I hear them pulling into the driveway now. They didn't go far...just to town I'm thinking.

The propane guy delivered propane yesterday. I'm pretty sure he's cussing me for various reasons. The main one being he had to fight with the elm tree's branches hanging over the propane tank. He looked like he was fighting off bees out there trying to open the lid to hook up his hose to the tank. If that had been the worst of his endeavors in my driveway yesterday, he'd of been doing pretty good. But it gets worse. It's all his own fault though so I have very little sympathy for him on this next ordeal. I had moved the van out of the lower drive the night before so he could pull his truck closer to the propane tank. He got lazy and pulled that big ass Propane truck almost to the very end of the drive. The only reason he stopped where he did was cause he ran into my redbud tree and broke the side mirror on his passenger's side. He didn't want to have to unreel that hose so far. The closer to my tank, the less line of hose...Can't say as I blame the man for wanting to make things easy on himself, and perhaps that really doesn't make him lazy at all...just trying to save his energy for later. I'm sure that hose is pretty heavy. But I've little sympathy for his broken mirror. He should have been paying attention.
Course I didn't know anything about this broken mirror till RJ, Rooster and T showed up after he'd been here. RJ comes in the house and wants to know what's up with the broken mirror in the driveway. I didn't put two and two together until that moment. I'd seen propane man out there fooling around with that mirror while the tank was filling...had no clue what he was doing at the time. Then he goes around behind the truck and leans on the back of it and kicks the bark mulch in my driveway around...Like he was pondering something dire...it was that mirror. I had sympathy with him for the tree. Truly, I did. I trimmed that tree hours after he left so that next time he delivers propane he won't have to fight off the elm tree. I bet he won't ever back that big ass truck into my driveway that far again!

The day has progressed since starting this post. RJ and Rooster have gone home. RJ is still mad at his car.
Haven't heard from RW since he called this morning and didn't even leave me a message! I need to talk to that boy! He needs smacked upside his head for a little attitude adjustment to set him straight! Somedays you just want to pull your hair out because of your children! This shall pass.

Oh wow~! I really didn't expect this post to still be here after having gone away from this page. Cool! Hmm...now its telling me my request could not be processed. I didn't make a request actually. All I did was type this paragraph. Guess I should just post and see if it takes.
Here goes nothing!

Some Presidents and a Bit of Chatter

I made these two Presidential ATCs for a RAK over at AFA (link in the sidebar on the top left). They are simply collage. sealed with glaze. I typed up the words in Word Pad and printed them off. I'm thinking a whole set of these would be totally cool! That is where these two will end up...in an entire set done by many different artists for a fellow member's mother who is a History Teacher in Texas. I'm quite pleased with the way these turned out. I may do more if she doesn't get enough folks to complete the set. There are still a number of presidents that haven't been chosen yet.

I'm sitting here this morning playing Cave-In over at splashspot and listening to music. I'm about burnt out on Cave-In for one day. I made my highest score today ever though! I'm not sure how folks can get over 900,000 points on that game...my highest score is 360,000some. I keep playing in hopes of upping my highest scores. I was trying to get at least 229,008 to beat my lowest high score of 229,007. I was tired of looking at that score. Well, it's gone now!

I worked on a glue book earlier. The very beginnings of a glue book. I got two pages done. Those presidential ATCs made me want to do something with all the images I had left over from those two ATCs so I decided to make a presidential glue book. I'm still thinking a set of ATCs would be super cool though.
I have a set of trading cards of presidents framed. I believe the last president represented there is Carter though...I've had it for some time. I should go out to the storage trailer and bring it in the house. Though where I'd hang it is another mystery to figure out. In the hallway perhaps? Sure isn't any room in the deskroom to hang it on the wall. It's not a little frame by any means! It will have to stay out there for a bit though as it is buried under boxes of stuff. I know this cause I went out there and looked for it!

I did bring in a small table, a poster to make into ATC envelopes, some really cool play money and a book by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man In The Sea. I'll be reading it when I finish Treasure Island in the next few days.

I would love to change the message on my message machine but I can't remember just how to do that. I've had the same message for over three years now and people keep asking, "Who the hell is WE?" My message says, "WE can't come to the phone right now..." If I knew where the user manual was I could change that message but I don't know where the manual is or even if I still have it, so the message has to stay the same for the time being!

I told you there would be chatter when I gave this post a title. You were fare warned.

I need to work on inchies sometime before the month is out. I'd like to have at least 500 of them done before the month is out. If memory serves me correctly, and we can't be sure it does, there are around 416 done right now. I'm sitting here looking at the box the done ones are in. It is a tin with a clear window on the top of it. They look so colorful laying in that box! Someday I'll frame a few of them and put them on the wall in the livingroom.

I'm pretty well out of things to talk about for the moment so I'll leave you with this:

The finest clothing made is a person's skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this -----

Mark Twain

Ah indeed it does demand a bit more than just the skin showing. Shame. There is nothing quite as lovely as the human body in its natural state.

You all have a fantastic Monday and don't forget to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom. The cemetaries are filled with flowers as gifts for those who have gone before. I am in hopes my mother-in-law put some flowers on Gary's grave. He's a bit far for me to travel right now to have done so myself.

Go get your hugs! Today they're needed more than most!

Peace (If only peace could be had and then we wouldn't have to put anymore comrads in the ground for our freedoms.)

831

Another Saturday Upon Us....

Not much happening in my neck of the woods really. I'm sitting here listening to my brother mow the lawn between Susan's house and my own. Sammy came up again this weekend. He seems to spend every weekend here with us. His marriage is over and he just hasn't left completely as of yet. He can't stand to be around home on the weekends so he travels out of his way to spend the weekends with his sisters and his mother. We aren't complaining!
It's a nice day out. The sun is shining. It's warming up nicely.
I watered all the little trees yesterday. It took me almost an hour to do that. They are growing nicely. Some are pretty tall, some are short little trees. Kinda like people! All shapes, sizes and colors. One wouldn't think evergreen trees could be so many different shades of green!
I've been researching United States presidents over the last couple of days in preparation of doing a couple of ATCs. I've chosen to do Martin Van Buren and Grover Cleveland's 1st term in office. Interesting reading.
I also read a great deal about all of the First Ladies as well. It doesn't hurt to learn new information. They (whoever THEY are?) say you expand the pathways in your brain when you learn new things. They say it keeps you young. I don't know about all that, but I know I like to learn new things.
I finally got all the laundry done. OK, I didn't get all the laundry done cause it's damn near impossible to ever have all the laundry done for any length of time! But I did get both the hampers emptied for at least one day. I had been putting off doing the laundry cause I hate taking it to the laundry room.
I don't have any art to show you all today. I haven't really done any art since the last art I showed you. I did get my pink and green chunky pages finished off with their danglies and mailed off to the east coast yesterday. And I traded an ATC the day before yesterday. Still need to mail that one. I didn't have an address to send it to till this morning.
I've been methodically cutting presentation folders into ATC blanks on a daily basis. I've still many many more to get through before I'll have even one case of them transformed into something useful.
I think I will drag out the markers this afternoon and do a couple of ATCs with the presentation folder blanks just to see how well markers work with it. I need to cut some more flash cards into blanks too. I know those work wonderfully with the markers.
I got some good buys at the thrift store yesterday. More little things to use in my art were good buys. I got some cute little bumble bees for embellishments along with some gold sequined string, some blue and pink beads, a cloth tape measure, some little wooden hearts, and a bunch of other little things. The coolest thing I bought yesterday was a voodoo doll in a blue cloth bag. It is pretty funny actually. I don't know anyone I'd like to use the voodoo doll on. It's just one of those odd and quirky things that will go so nicely on the wall in the deskroom. Susan found it and showed it to me. She didn't want it so I got it. I bought me a new dress and a pair of sandals too. The sandals are going to take some getting used to... they kinda hurt my little toe on the left foot. My feet were swollen up like well-fed toads yesterday when I wore them though so maybe they won't rub the wrong way when my feet aren't swollen. Though I'm not sure when that will be cause those damn feet are always swollen! And I bought me a swim suit too. Not that I'm going to go swimming...I don't know how to swim!...but I do like to get wet!
Yesterday was my little friend, Sara's birthday. She turned 14. Not sure how that happened! Seems like only yesterday she was a tiny little girl. She got her driver's learning permit yesterday as well and was just tickled pink about that! I gave her a new watch with three interchangable bands (like the one I got for my birthday) and funky long necklace with bright purple beads. Her favorite color is purple so she was pleased with it too. She oohed and aahed over that shiny silver box I put the necklace in more than she did the necklace itself! But when she pulled the necklace out of the box, she slipped it over head and didn't take it off again. And as usual there was no birthday card from me. I got one out but forget to bring it along!
All my fur kids are doing alright. I'm kinda worried about Miss Blue though. She's getting skinnier and skinnier every day. She still eats and drinks. Uses her litter pan and sleeps no more than she always has. She is a cat afterall and we all know cats do love their sleep! She's getting up there in years and wasting away before my eyes. I almost stepped on her last night when I got up to go to the bathroom. She was asleep right in front of the toilet on the rug there. I don't turn on the lights when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I know my way in the dark. She was in the shadows and I didn't see her despite the fact that she's white. I didn't step on her though and she refused to move so I just worked around her. She and Doob used to sleep with me every night but for some reason they've not been doing that for the last couple of weeks. Billy is just as ornery as he has ever been and Fred is still Fred!

It's only been a couple hours....four to be exact... since that last sentence was typed. I've been to a garage sale outside of Alton, went to see the site of the Big Barn (the Big Barn burned to the ground back in '95), then to the car wash cause we got rained on while out and about and Linda just couldn't stand her van being covered with chalk dust which turned to mud cause of the rain and we had lunch as well. We, being Ma, Susan, Linda, Sam and me.
Someone was at my house while I was gone. No clue who. Probably one of my sons.
I guess I'm done with this post. You all have a fantastic Saturday! Get your hugs!
Peace
831

That Auction Is Behind Me!

Actually there is still stuff sitting in that building that my son paid money for...but I've not the gumption and neither does he, to go get it. Those signs I talked about... there were some other signs in that lot as well. We brought four or five of them home on Monday. Seems to me there are around 20 of them still sitting on the shelving. I suspect by now they have been moved off that shelving and put on the floor as that shelving had to go too. Good thing is: The boy didn't give big bucks for them. He paid $7.50 for 40 lighted signs that are sitting in the burned house AND these other signs were part of that lot as well. So he did REAL REAL GOOD on that deal.
My burned house is now pretty full of boxed things. Nice that it is all in uniform boxes! It certainly makes a tidier looking storage facility. You should see all the mix-matched boxes out in the storage shed! Ain't a pretty sight!
Course, I ain't intending for all those uniform boxes to stay in that burned house forever! Though I can assure you all they ain't gonna be gone by next month either....not really sure WHEN it will all be gone, but it ain't staying forever! That, I do know!
Once I figure out what to do with all that stuff, you all will hear about it.
The only thing I can talk about right now is the presentation folders. I have 51 cases of them. There are still around 70 cases sitting on the floor in that building where the auction was held.
I missed a school program in Pburg this morning cause sleep took over. Both Brenton and Gabe were in the program. Sorry guys. After that program RJ, Rooster and I were going to go back and get some more stuff but beings I didn't show up for the program, no one got anymore stuff.
I can get roughly 23 completely blank atc blanks, 6 blue one side/cream color on the other side atc blanks and depending on how I've cut them, 3 or 4 blank on one side and words on the other. I tried to cut inchie blanks out of the larger scraps of the folders left over from cutting ATC blanks but my hands gave out on me. Each case of presentation folders has 65 folders in it. It takes me roughly 9 minutes to cut each of them into ATC blanks. That's almost 10 hours of cutting time for each case....dang I hadn't thought of it in terms of how many hours it's going to take to cut those suckers up! I have 50 cases sitting out there in that burned house and only three folders made into blanks thus far.... I have a big job ahead of me! A goal to achieve! That's the way to look at this! Not how many folders and how much time and how many are left and all that gooblyguck. Here it is in writing! I intend to do 4 folders every day I am home. I'll plug along like the tortoise...no need to speed things up. I make the goal unachievable if I try to do an hour's worth of cutting everyday. I can't stand in front of that paper cutter for much more than 10 minutes at a time, and that's stretching it. Though I suppose each time I walk by the cutting room door I could go in there and do some cutting! Either way, eventually all those white and red boxes will be out of my burned house! Now, those beer koozies, keychains, letter openers and magnetic clips are another story...not sure when those will all be gone! Only time will tell.
I really have to figure out something to do with all those beer koozies.
Like I said, I missed the grandkids' program. The two boys are in the same class...both first graders. I really wanted to go to that program too. Terah told me it was The Tortoise and The Hare but there was a horse in there too? I don't remember a horse being in the tale of the tortoise and the hare, but maybe my old brain is not thinking right. Though that fellow at the auction site couldn't remember a horse in that tale either...anyway....I missed the program. Darn it! Missed it cause I was asleep!
I almost missed 8th Grade Graduation on Tuesday night too. I did make it to that event though. So glad I did! Sara was beautiful in her white chiffon frock and white wedge heeled sandals. I can't believe she is old enough to be graduating from the eight grade! Her mama and papa couldn't quite believe it themselves! Papa asked me if it was appropriate for men to cry at a graduation. I told him men could cry anywhere, that isn't exclusive to women. He said, "Good. Cause you might see some tears running my face." He and Mama are mighty proud and with good reason! Mama had tears streaming down her cheeks and Papa's mouth was quivering. My own eyes got a bit misty as well.
Her mama and her papa both introduce me to people I've never met before as 'the girl's second mama'. I've known these folks for better than 11 years now. To them, I am a part of their family, not just a friend.
It kinda saddens me the girls don't need me like they used to and I get down sometimes because of that. I bitch and moan when I've really no good reason, only speculation to go on...I love them like they are family. Because they are family... and we all bitch and moan about our families. Just means we love them.
I would have loved to have seen the little grandboys in their program this morning, but to have missed Sara's graduation from 8th grade would have broke my heart and hers as well.
I have chunky pages to put danglies on and get in an envelope to send off later this morning when I make it to town to the post office. I've five other letters and a package to mail as well. Can't put it off any longer.
I missed my vampire meeting. Not cause I didn't show up for it, mind you. I went to the clinic. There wasn't a soul there and note on the door saying they would be closed for the day. That was on Monday. I slept Tuesday away. So I will try again later this morning when I go to town to go to the post office to have another meeting with the vampires. The vampire I'm to have this meeting with is actually my neighbor... she lives up on the hill northwest of the house. I can see her house out my deskroom window. I may have to go to Pville for that meeting though...we'll see.
Get yourself some hugs today. I shall come yak at you all another day when I've either something entertaining or important to say or I have some art to show you. Be good to one another. It matters.
Peace
831

Koozies out the wazoo!

Beer koosies. Keychains. Magnetic Clips. Letter Openers. Envelopes. Plastic Shopping Bags. Lights. And a bunch of other stuff.....Saturday and Sunday there was an auction at the Brooke Corporation building in Pburg. I'm not entirely sure how it came to be that the Brooke Corporation was court ordered to sell all their stuff. The business closed its doors a couple of months ago. I had heard that the head guy or someone in the higher ups had embezzled like tons of money from the corporation and that was the reason for the closing of the business. My understanding is that Brooke Insurance is/was a national business...they had offices across the United States. Pburg, KS is a po-dunk little town in the middle of nowhere. Seems odd to me they would have even considered Pburg when they set up offices there. At any rate, there was an auction to sell the whole kit and kaboddle, right down to the fixtures in the building.
I spent roughly 45 dollars yesterday at the auction. I came home with a van load of goodies in the form of pristine cardboard panels - round 2 dozen or so, 14 cardboard tubes --- heavy duty ones about 5 foot long, a vinyl sign, and a boatload of small pcs of foamcore board and three good size pieces of foamcore board. I'm not sure what I brought home yesterday was indeed worth 45 dollars but what RJ brought home today more than made up for it! He spent roughly 80 dollars today. We filled the back of his truck and my van completely full earlier this evening and we will be going back tomorrow to get the rest of the stuff he bought. It will take the van and the truck to haul that home too.
What, you ask, did the boy buy? To those who don't know the boy, they are going to say that boy has lost his mind. But let me assure you, he hasn't. He got the packrat syndrome from his dad and me both! A double whammy if you will. That boy is a PACKRAT and ain't a woman on the face of the earth that change that about him.
He called me up around 3 and said, "Mom, you got to think of something to help me out!" I asked what he'd bought this time?
So, what did the boy buy?
Odds are you are sitting down. That is good! If you aren't. Please do so now cause you will probably need to sit down.
First off there are the 38 cases of beer koosies. That adds up to roughly 19,000 blue koosies with the Brooke logo blazened across the sides of them. He has decided he will hand out some of these at his wedding to Terah in October. Ok. That's cool. His buddies like to have a beer every now and then and a beer koosie will be useful to them. He, however, does not have 19,000 buddies, unfortnately. We could give one to every person we know and still not get rid of more than a few hundred of them!
I'm thinking there HAS TO BE something else we can make out these things! (If RJ had scored the 52 cases of mouse pads, we'd be designing a new couch! I actually saw that on the www. I thought it was really cool! But we got beer koosies...) So, what to make from them? I thought about sewing them together, they're made out of neoprene, and making a mat to take camping...put your sleeping bag atop of it. That is feasible, but what else can be made from them? Hotpot holders perhaps? (You could get a hell of a lot of blue hotpot holders out of 19,000 koosies!) Or how about bags of some sort. (You could make nice sturdy bags! And a bunch of them with that many koosies at hand!) I'll do some more thinking on this. If you have any ideas, don't hesitate to pass them along! I got 38 very large boxes of them sitting in the livingroom of the burned house and I really don't want any of them to stay there too awful long.
Now, you're wondering what price did the boy pay for the koosies? Well, if truth be known, and in this case it probably should be, he didn't want 19,000 beer koosies. He really didn't. He only wanted one box of 500. That was the fewest he could buy. There were 41 cases up for sale. The first two cases sold for 10 dollars each to 2 different bidders. The auctioneer then put the remainder of them up for sale and RJ thought he was still bidding on choice. The auctioneer wasn't expecting anyone to take any of that stuff with the logos on it off his hands, he told us later. When the auctioneer asked, "Anyone?" after trying to get a bid, RJ pipes up and says "I'll give you 5 dollars." The auctioneer says, "Great, they're all yours!" And he did indeed mean ALL!
Well, RJ being the packrat he is and knowing his mother has this half empty burned house that makes a wonderful storage shed, he decided he'd bring them all home and decide later what would be become of them. There isn't room at his own house for any of the stuff he brought home today.
RJ ended up paying a grand sum of zero dollars for these thousands of koosies. Shortly after having bought the whole shebang, a fellow took one case off his hands for 5 dollars.
Apparently the thrill of the hunt, the greater thrill of the catch caught hold. The boy was off and running on getting things in great numbers cause he brought home, I forget how many cases of plastic shopping bags...some of them are still at the auction site. Least the shopping bags have a potential future ahead of them, unlike the majority of the koosies. My sister, Kathy has a second hand shop. I think she will be interested in those for sure. It won't make her a bit of difference they are emblazoned with the Brooke logo. It's a SECOND HAND store!
I can't say the things the boy bought are useless things. They really aren't... unless you have thousands of them you can't do anything with. That's why I need a plan for the koosies, keyrings, letter openers and magnets. There are four cases of magnets. Strong, little house shaped, royal blue clips with a magnet on the backside. Useful little devils! That logo kinda turns you off from them though. I discovered one can remove that logo and leave only a ghost of a hint it was ever there. That improves them some, but they need to be prettied up some. I have ideas churning in the old brain where the clips and letter openers are concerned. There are three cases of letter openers I believe.
Then we come to the keychains that didn't cost anything. They were 'no sells' and would have gone to the landfill. There were a great many more than four cases of them. It was MY decision to take them. (Yes I am a PACKRAT too.)
You all have seen those letter openers...squarish with a long pointed stick across the bottom of them with a razor in the lefthand lower corner that the stick is attached to? I know you have! We have a boatload of those too and ain't a thing they can be turned into except what they already are. Though I suppose one could build a statue/sculpture out of them...I will have to think more on that!
We have well over 4000 keyrings. That's a hell of a boatload of keyrings. The all look alike. I plan on giving quite a few of them a make-over of sorts. I'll be experimenting on the keychains. I'll keep you all posted about the progress on this mass abundance of material the boy has acquired.
The best thing the boy bought, in my opinion is the 40 lights. Sure they all say Brooke Corporation on the front of them and they all look alike! But that logo is only vinyl and easily peels off to reveal a nice white pc of plastic that will take paints like a champ! The ideas started glowing when I laid eyes on them. They are actually lighted signs. Each with their own flourescent bulbs already intact. Mr. Packrat did good on this deal! REAL GOOD! $7.50 for all of them. I'm going into the lighted sign business.
RJ will tell you the best things he bought today were the 2 Coleman coolers for $12.50 each and the case of 4 camp chairs for $17.50. He did indeed do well on those items! These are the least of my favorite items he did buy.
I have to admit also that the 12 cases of promotional folders were my idea. They sold on Saturday. There were 129 cases up for sale. I was standing there when they were put up for bid but RJ was nowhere to be found! I really, really wanted some of these things! They are made of linen textured cream colored cardstock. PERFECT for artwork! PERFECT! 65 folders to a case. I didn't get any on Saturday. One guy bought one case. I'd of bid on them had RJ been there where I could have seen our number! I had no clue what our bidder # was! But it all worked out for the good in the long run. The folders didn't cost anything. FREEBIE ... I have a lifetime supply of cream colored linen textured cardstock for ATCs and the like. It was an excellent 'find'. We inquired about the lot of 'no sell' folders on Sunday afternoon when the auction was complete. The auctioneer said, "Just take whatever you want that didn't sell." I am a sucker for a good deal!
RJ had scored a box of misc. for 3 dollars early in the day. It was an excellent find also. Got a few more items with the Brooke logo on them in numbers much more managable! 2 ceramic coffee mugs, 14 nice pens, 8 rubber keychains (we had none of this variety of keychain, ours are nicer, thank God, cause we do have a few!), some books.... check this out! LOL One of the books is titled, "Death of a Salesman?" .... How appropriate! An auction for a defunct insurance company having such a book....we saw a couple cases of these books in one lot of stuff. There were afterdinner mints in that box as well... probably close to 100 individually wrapped ones. You know, like they hand out in resturants and places like that... these were so nicely labeled with the Brooke logo. Seems to be a theme LOL! My wall will be adorned with a nice lucite box made for brochures. Some cool stuff in this box.
It's a good thing we had Rooster along to do the heavy work. I brought the dolly along with me after RJ had called and said, "Help!" It has been a pretty good day! Without Devin's help, it would have been a very, very tiring day. I've no idea why RJ calls Devin, Rooster, but it fits the boy!
Poor Fred! He was devastated when I told him, for the second time in one day, he couldn't go with me to Pburg. I had gone to town earlier and told him the same thing. He couldn't go the first time cause there was no room for him. I still had a load on from Saturday's day at the auction. And he couldn't go the second time cause I was going after more stuff form the auction. Poor Fred!
He was quite happy to see me when I got home both times though. That's one thing I love about the dog. He's always happy to see me.
I have to get up early in the morning...round 8 so I can be in Pburg at 9, load the rest of the stuff from the auction in the van and truck and be back to Stockton by 11:30 for my vampire meeting. (I'm having blood drawn tomorrow at the dr's office...Isn't that a vampire meeting?)
I had to abandon the Inchie-a-thon in favor of the auction, unfortunately. I did make a few trades and happy to have done so. I don't have enough hours in the day.
Alright! I'm out of here for now. I need a shower. I need some sleep.
You all have a fantastic Monday! I won't let the vampires ruin mine! Get your hugs!!! You need them. You want them. You deserve them!
Peace
831

Some ATCs and a Few Inchies

It's been awhile since I had any new inchies to show you all. These were done within the last 8 hours. It's 5:21 a.m. according to that little clock down there in the right hand corner of my screen as I type this.
The 36 below are up for grabs this weekend during the Inchie-a-thon (IAT) over at AFA (link up top left hand side).


I've traded the first dog on the last row. All of them are done with markers (sharpies, bics, etc) on recycled watercolor paper. It's not really watercolor paper per say, but it's damn close and that's what I call it. It is actually refill paper for a photo album. It has gold embossed lines on the front of it and gold embossed writing on the back. I simply use the front where no gold lines are and ignore the writing on the back side and write my info overtop with a black pen. It works wonderfully. I paid a whole quarter for that box of paper. Enough to make thousands of inchies! I can get two ATCs out of a page as well.

All the kitties have traded. I didn't think they would last long. Most likely you'll see some more kitties in the next batch of inchies posted. I knew better than to do more mountain lake scenes. I still have two of them left over from the last IAT. We still have all day today and tomorrow till 11 p.m. to trade the inchies for the IAT so these might go.

These are done on stiff paper from a board game. No clue what the name of that game was. The paper is kind of like posterboard. The front of this stiff paper is coated with what looks like screen printing to me, in different colors. Once again I ignored what the backside of my inchie blanks had on them and simply wrote my information over the top of it. Can't use the dark blue or the black stiff paper from that game. I've yet to trade any of these but I'm confident the fruits and veggies will trade. And if they don't...I have a plan for those eight, plus one more. Seems to me I have some fruits in the box for 1000. I'll need nine of them, not eight for my plan. If it happens I'll tell you about it.

Zentangle Butterfly ATC- Markers on heavy recycled cardstock. (flashcards) I like the green parts of this card, but that butterfly does nothing for me at all. I should have got out the butterfly book and took a look at a real butterfly. Will have to do that next time!

Prayer On A Door ATC- markers on heavy recycled cardstock (flashcards). I realized much too late that I should have left the black dots off the stones around the door. Other than that...I like this card! It reminds me of Larry. He's a stone carver I know. I was listening to Keith Urban on the media player while I was drawing and when the song , can't remember the name of it at the moment, with the line 'like a prayer nailed to a door' came on, this picture came to mind.

Lizard Eyes ATC- markers on heavy recycled cardstock (flashcards) I'm really pleased with this one too! I did all these ATCs on early Friday morning. Matter of fact, all three of these ATCs were done early Friday morning. Early, like between 2 and 6 a.m. This one was done last. I really like it too. I must of been on a good level with my muse Friday morning. I really two out of three of them!

I think sleep is the only thing on the agenda for the day. It's only ten to six right now so my Saturday isn't over quite yet. I've been up since 9 pm last night. Slept the whole day away --- again. To sleep about 11 am and up at 9pm. Doc said don't worry bout it though so guess I shouldn't!

I've more inchies to make this morning. I doubt I'll be back anytime today. Have a fantastic Saturday. Give some hugs today...get some in the process!

Peace

831

As Promised.....ART

It is art! Little art, but art nonetheless.
And check it out! This new 3in1 machine doesn't wash out the colors like the old scanner did! I like that very much!
All of these ATCs were done since the beginning of May with the exception of the tan colored one with a green ink drawing of a car. That one was done in September of 2008. Why it hasn't been scanned till now is beyond me! It just wasn't.
I have, since downloading these pictures fixed them so that big white patch isn't on them anymore.


Sunrise ATC on recycled heavy cardstock done in markers. I bought myself a new set of Sharpies for my birthday.


P-bird Car ATC green gel pen on textured tan cardstock. I drew this one at the cafe in Phillipsburg, KS. It is called P-bird cause there was a note on the bulletin board that day. It was a flyer advertising lawn mowing services in the P-bird area. Most people call Phillipsburg, Pburg for short. The fellow who wrote the note offering his services called it Pbird. I thought it was hilarious and that's how this card ended up with the name it ended up with.


Nature's Way ATC markers on recycled heavy cardstock.


Meadow Life ATC markers on recycled heavy cardstock.


Martini Marvels ATC markers on recycled heavy cardstock.

Fore ATC markers on recycled heavy cardstock. These ATCs on heavy cardstock are made from what was originally a set of flashcards with different words, grammatical symbols and things of that nature on the front sides of them. Well the front sides of the flashcards become the backside of an ATC. On the back of this one is the FORE. Worked perfect for the title of a golf ATC!

Blue Bubbles ATC markers on recycled yellow cardstock from a greeting card. I know none of those bubbles really look blue, but trust me, they were rendered with a blue marker thus the name of the ATC. I have a terrible time coming up with coherent titles to my ATCs for some reason and sometimes the titles seem to be way off in left field. That's cause they are off in left field some times!

I don't have any inchies to show you all. I haven't done any inchies for awhile. I need to get at least 200 of them done this month if I'm to catch up to where I should be to get 1000 of them done this year. Inchies will be forthcoming, I assure you.

Now we are going to take a look at those green and pink pages for the swap over at AFA. Only four of these five will be going on a journey for that swap though.

I don't generally give my chunky pages titles. I have to give them some sort of descriptive heading for filing them though when I save the pictures of them to my documents on the pc.

This first one of the pink cat with green sunglasses doesn't have any danglies on it yet. That will happen later this evening. It is done in markers on a beer coaster. The backside is more more marker in a different design and with my info there as well.

I tried to scan Boots' danglies cause his danglies have something to do with the fact it says boots on the page. The danglies didn't show up in the scan~! It is as though they weren't even laying on the glass plate of the scanner along with this card. The danglies consist of a pair of little pink boot beads my sister Jeanny sent me awhile back. There's also some pink rick rack.

No danglies yet on this one either. The holes have all been punched and filled with an eyelet for the danglies to go through though. This one is kinda complicated. It was fun to make though. The base is a beer coaster. The background was first filled up with different shades of green found in magazines then there's a layer of ironed easter grass (If you check out 'go make something' from the link up on the left top of the page, you can learn how to iron easter grass into some really cool background stuff!). After the easter grass is the fish which is a foam sticker that I cut around the edge of and glued a pc of pink paper from a catalog to. That's a picture of a pink skirt the fish's body is made from. And of course, you know that is a googly eye on the fish. On top of that we have some gold threads, pink yarn, green cotton string and a piece of lace edging. Microbeads are such cool little things and they work wonderfully for underwater scenes like this one. The microbeads are the little gold things clinging to the other strings. The backside is pink tissue paper, green easter grass and my info on a pc of mulberry paper.

This is the one that won't be going on a journey with the swap. I'm giving this one to Evelyn. It will go in a chunky book I'm making for her birthday at the end of July. it is waiting for its danglies too. That's a pink tassle on it so far. I'm not sure why this scanner won't picture the danglies as well.... I'll have to look at the manual and see if I can figure that one out.

this one is a lot like the other one with the fish. The base is a beer coaster with pink tissue paper, clear ironed easter grass (the other one is made with different easter grass), eyelash yarn, green cotton string, pink rick rack, microbeads and small fake pearl beads. The glue wasn't quite dry when this one was scanned a few days ago. (The only thing scanned till today!) The fish is just like the other one, foam sticker....actually the sticker was inside the frame and I cut around the frame of the fish to use the background of the sheet of stickers. The fish's body is a pink shirt from the same catalog the other fish came from. And the googly eye. I forget what the backside looks like but I think it is the same as the other one.

I'll be working on putting danglies on these chunky pages this evening and doing a few inchies. I've only 18 days left in this month! Better get hoofing on the inchies or I'll fall so far behind I won't know how to get caught up. This is supposed to be fun, not frustrating!

Jesse gave me a couple of awards yesterday for this here blog. I'm supposed to tell you all why I like blogging. I like it cause I don't have to drag out my paper and pen to record my thoughts, ramblings and artwork. (Makes it real easy to share the artwork.) I like talking to people. Hell, I talk to myself, I like it so well! It is a good feeling to know that there are others out there who read what you have to say, regardless of how crazy they think you are or are not. I've always liked words. I have notebook after notebook of thoughts and ramblings from years past that came to be because of my love of words. This blog enriches my life to a degree...it is something that has become a good habit for me. Thank you for the awards, Jesse!

OH! And I added another book to the list of books read in 2009. Carnal Innocence was an excellent murder mystery! I do love a good murder mystery! This one did not disappoint! If you happen to run across it, by all means! give it a read! I read it in about 9 hours. Yep, nine hours straight actually. Never put it down once I turned the first page except to fix me something to eat. Excellent book~!

I shall come yak at you all another day. Collect your hugs! Send your smile to others! Behave yourselves!

Peace

831

Thursday ....Just Thursday

And Thursday is about over with.
I slept the day away again. I went to see the doc yesterday. She told me not to worry about sleeping the hours I sleep. She's quite aware of all my medical problems and she says if I want to sleep during the day and be up all night, there isn't anything medically wrong with that. Some folks are day people. Some folks are night owls. I'm a night owl. I told her to tell my family that. She said they'll just have to accept that I sleep the hours I sleep. One would think they would be used to it by now. I've been this way for damn near nine years. That car wreck totally screwed up my sleep patterns. I've always been prone to being a night owl, even before the wreck but before the wreck I was forced to be a day person cause I had a job and had to be awake during the day. I don't have that now. There is essentially no reason for me to be awake during the day if I don't want to be. And it's not that I don't want to be awake during the day, it's that it just works out that I am not always awake during the day. Lord knows I've tried to change the nights and days around so I will be awake during the day but it never lasts for long. There just isn't any rhyme or reason to the hours that I do sleep. I will show you what I mean. We'll start at the 1st of May
1 Friday 11pm to 4pm (saturday)
2 Saturday 9pm to 1:30 pm (sunday) this was my birthday
3 Sunday 11pm to 11 am (monday)
4 Monday no sleep
5 Tuesday 3am to 9am
6 Wednesday 4am to 10:30am
7 Thursday 6am to 2pm
8 Friday 11:30am to 4pm
9 Saturday 3am to 3pm
10 Sunday 6am to 6pm Mother's Day
11 Monday 6am to 6pm
12 Tuesday 12pm to 5pm
13 Wednesday 4am to 9am
14 Thursday (today) I slept from 4:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ....... 11.5 hours

Do you notice what happened from Wednesday into Thursday? I woke up at 9 a.m. and I didn't go back to sleep till 4:30 a.m. on Thursday. That's 19 hours awake. This isn't a random thing really. It happens quite often. I will sleep for many hours then the next day I'll sleep hardly at all and then the next I'll be up for many hours. It drives me crazy!
I have little trouble most of the time in adhereing to other's schedules if need be. Like if I have an appointment or something and I have to be somewhere... I will just set the alarm and get up when it's time to be somewhere. I usually get that accomplished with not too much problem. And then there are times when I will just blow off what needs to be done cause I can't wake up to be where I need to be. That alarm just becomes a part of sleep. Doc doesn't seem to think this is such a bad thing in the whole scheme of it all. She says that other's will just have to understand that that is how my body works and there is little I can do about it. She, herself has been one of those blown off because I could not wake to do what needed to be done. She's much more forgiving than others are at times though.
On the days when I am supposed to be somewhere or have something that I need to do and I don't get out of bed and do those things, my phone message machine is full of messages with folks telling me to get my ass out of bed and be among the living! Not so much in those exact words, but you get the point.
All I can do is try to please those who need placated and try to worry about those that don't matter so much. That in itself is a hard decision to make. Who is the most important? And who should I blow off without a second thought?
Doc also gave me a new diagnosis on Wednesday. She tells me my thyroid is out of whack and I have hypothyroidism. I saw an endocrinologist in Jan of 08 and he said my thyroid was fine. Least that's what I remember and there were no drugs prescribed or anything like that. It was like, OK, I've looked at you, we've done the tests and there isn't a thing wrong your thyroid. Keep taking your metformin and eat like you should and keep up with the checkups with your regular doc. Done all that, pretty much. I don't always eat right but I've done the rest. This new diagnosis came as a bit of a surprise to me. Actually what I thought was: Oh, great! Something else to worry about in the health department. Like I didn't already have to worry about the polycythemia vera, the diabetes, the spinal cord injury that will always be there, the occasional migraine and the fibromyalgia which kicks my ass on a daily basis. And now my thyroid is screwy too. What next? Oh, the next is that my teeth have gone totally bad on me too. Dentist is the next doc I'll be seeing. I think the teeth have gone bad as a result of the diabetes. Even though my blood sugars are well within range of being normal more than they aren't, diabetes wrecks havoc in all parts of the body. She wants me to see the dentist and the eye doctor. My eyes aren't the best they've ever been either.
I am falling apart at the seams!

Thanks for listening to me ramble on about the sleep issues. I'm done with that for now. I feel much better!

I'm going to do some scanning and I'll be back in awhile to make another post with some pictures in it. I got my green and pink chunkys done but some of them still need danglies. I'll scan them without danglies. I have some ATCs to scan also. Now let's see if I can remember just how to do that with the new scanner!

I shall return!

Wretched Machine is a thorn in my side!

I hate this wretched PC of mine! Anti virus tells me I have a trojan of some sort. What the hell that means is Greek to me. I don't understand the workings of the PC at all. I know how to turn the thing on, I can get it to do certain things, but other things are like asking me to cook you a five course Swahili dinner. I've no clue what the devil Swahilians eat for any meal.

Needless to say, you all aren't getting any pictures again today. You didn't need any anyway! I made two more ATCs last night and got my pink and green things done... minus the danglies. (Think I said that yesterday!) My teeth are still killing me! I have a dr. appt on Wednesday to take care of that mess I do believe.

Ma just showed up with a big bag of Kibbles and Bits for Fred. I asked her yesterday if she would pick him up a bag of food when she went to Alco today. I thought I told her to get him some Gravy Train, but she didn't. Next time she will, she says. Ma acts like she doesn't like that fool dog, but secretly, she really does. She's always bringing him things to eat or play with. She pets him every chance she gets too. She just doesn't want him in her yard, digging up her flowers. I'm not sure where she got the notion he digs up plants from but she doesn't want him in her yard. That's OK though, he's got plenty of room to roam elsewhere.

I added another book to the list of books read. It was a stupid book! One of the stupidest books I think I've ever read in my life! No wonder the author didn't care to take credit for it!

I'm headed next door to have spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. I'll come yak at you all another time! Be good each other. Collect your hugs and smile cause it makes folks wonder just what you're up to!
Peace
831

Machine Fixed? Nope, Don't Think So...

It ain't up to it's old tricks since the last post so I guess it's good to go. Is it fixed though? I've no idea! It's working, that's all that matters.

I still have no pictures to show you all. I have been busy organizing and sleeping. I should be organizing my sleeping so it doesn't interfere with organizing but I don't see that happening.

There are piles of stuff all over this room that need to find a permanent spot to sit. The spare room, which you all know is not really a spare room, is in better order than the deskroom where I sit at the moment. Sleep invaded before I was done putting things away.

I need to get busy and finish those pink and green pages for the Chunky Swap that is due on the 31st. That means I have about a week to get them done, packaged and to the post office on their way. I can do that.
I have four pages comepleted on the fronts with the back of one completely done. The other three are in various stages of the backs being completed. The thing is, I really wanted to make 8 pink and green chunkys so I'd have enough for a book when the returns came back. Eight may not get done, but 4 definetly will.

I did accomplish cleaning off the painting table. I know for certain now that it still has a green top. I couldn't see the top of that table on Friday morning. I slept the day away Saturday.

Fred is asleep on the floor behind me. Snoring and giving me a massage at the same time. That dog snores DEEP! Rattles the floorboards for my massage. I've pulled six ticks off his hide this week. They are thick this year.

RJ, T and Brenton went camping on Friday evening. I've not heard from them since RJ called me around 11:30 last night asking if needed, could he come borrow some blankets. Silly kids go camping when the temp is in the 50s and forget to bring blankets along! I didn't hear back from the boy so those that were expected to arrive still must have brought enough blankets for all. I suspect I'll see them sometime on Sunday.

RW's car is still sitting in the driveway. I went out there on Friday night when it was fixing to rain and put plastic over his window. Not sure it helped to keep the rain out though. The wind blew pretty hard and I didn't make a real good effort to make sure the plastic would stay with a lot of wind.

Fred and I went to town around 8pm Saturday. Filled the van with gas, bought me a big bottle of Coke, some smokes and a sandwich while I was there. I knew I should have filled that van with gas on Tuesday when I was in town. Gas went from $2.05 to $2.15 in that time. Cost me almost $33.00 for just over 16 gallons of gas. I can remember when gasoline was less than .70 cents a gallon. Memorial Day is coming and the price of gas will only increase. That is WRONG! The only reason it goes up is cause on Memorial Day Weekend people are traveling to other destinations and those who are in power of gasoline are greedy bastards who see dollar signs! That is WRONG! But they got us by the shorthairs, don't they? My van was sitting on empty and it won't run unless I put gas in it. I've no choice but to pay what they are asking.

I am going to turn on some tunes, shut down this machine and go sit at my painting table for a couple of hours and get my chunky pages done. I have other things that need to be put in envelopes to be sent out come Monday. I won't have time to do that tomorrow. I'm expected in Pburg with Susan in tow around 10 a.m. It's now almost 1 a.m. I might not get any sleep until I come home from Pburg tomorrow. I also have to wrap Ma's mother's day present. She's getting a new picture to hang on her wall. No. I didn't make it. It's a cloisonne picture. Really cool! That I found at a yard sale weekend before last. She will LOVE it!

I'm outta here for now. Collect your hugs. I'll do the same. Be good to one another! I'll come yak at you all again another day!
Peace
831

I'll be Away Until I Can Fix this Wretched Machine -- It's being a witch~!

This box I'm typing in doesn't even look like it should and I'm not sure this will even post but here we go....

No pictures again. I've been battling with my anti-virus program today. It failed bigtime and this machine is infected with I don't know what! I haven't had time to upload pictures. They just didn't seem as important as getting my anti-virus going again, which I have yet to accomplish!

When not in front of this machine cussing it, I've been in my spare room trying to organize some things in there. I accomplished a great deal in that room! Still a long way to go till I can say it is done, though. I wanted to get the little desk in place so I can move my mailing station into that room. The spare room isn't really a spare room at all. It is an extension of the deskroom cause all my crap doesn't fit in the deskroom! I did make a good dent in the mess in there but the little desk is nowhere near where it should be in that room. There's still boxes to empty and sort and organize. We won't even talk about the closet which I didn't even LOOK in today. I know it is full though.

There was moving around of things going on in the deskroom today as well.

I went out to the pond to take another look for those goldfish. RJ was here at the time and caught me heading back to the house after having taken a look at the pond. Fred had been IN the pond, getting his feet wet, stirring up the muck on the bottom and I didn't see a goldfish one. RJ says they ARE there, but I've yet to witness the miracle fish in the flesh. Perhaps tomorrow.

If you all don't see me for a few days its because I'm working on this machine or I've given up and sent the damn thing to the PC gurus over in Hays!
Either way, you all take good care. Have a great weekend and I'll come back as soon as I can!
Get your hugs!
Peace
831

2 books added to the list and lot of rambling from me

Actually I haven't yet added #17 and #18 to the list of books read, but by the time you all read this post Dear Mom and Memoirs of a Geisha will have been added to that list.
Dear Mom- Thank You For Everything is a book my oldest son gave me for my birthday. Wasn't a long book by any means but the sentiment behind it is HUGE! And it's a book read so on the list it goes!
Memoirs of a Geisha was an excellent book. It is hard to imagine a man writing such a book from a woman's point of view and making it so believable. He did a wonderful job! Loved the book!

I told you all last post I was going to show you some chunky pages but I have yet to get around to scanning all of them. Only one has been scanned just to check out the new 3in1 machine. It works wonderfully! No chunkys this time though cause I still have one more to make to get all of them done for that swap. I have three ATCs ready to scan as well so next post you'll get an eyeful.

I also told you all I would tell you about my birthday loot. I think the easiest way to tell that is by a list. So here's the list!
I guess it doesn't matter who gave me what... does it? Or does it matter???? Maybe it does...... It does matter to me, but it doesnt matter here I guess. I've already recorded it my journal and there it does tell who gave what so I've already covered that info.
1. 3 vintage glass coffee mugs with wood and metal handles in shades of pastels; blue, green and pink. I will be using these in my deskroom to hold pencils and the like.
2. 2 paperback novels---My sister Linda took one of them home with her to read. I forget what the name of that one is...She said she had started it some time ago and couldn't get into it and she wanted to give it another shot so I let her take it home. The other is a novel by Barbara Delinski. It is next on my to read list.
3. Black paper notebook. I have trouble finding black paper for my collages so this book will come in handy for more than a few things.
4.BUNCH of ribbons/arty stuff
5. Flag for the yard.
6. Windsock for the yard... a decorative one, not the real thing like you'd find at the airport. I'd love to have the real thing attached to the tall pole out in the backyard though! That would be cool! Not sure where this one will end up in the yard.
7.The glass mugs came in a nice basket to store things of the artsy variety in in the deskroom. I'm not sure the packaging can be counted as a gift as well, but I'm doing it.
8.Pad of watercolor paper! Yes! Yes! One can never have too much watercolor paper and it matters not that some of the pages from the pad are gone. I was very pleased with this gift! Very pleased!
9. A stack of pretty envelopes of different colors. I use tons of envelopes so this is a very useful gift.
10. Wooden elephant. He is pretty cool... carved, wood burned to show his features.
11. A very cute ceramic elephant that is pretty big. He's sitting on his knees! I love him! Ma gave me both of these elephants just mentioned.
12. A dozen red pencils with very fat leads. Most useful for drawings!
13. A dozen blue drawing pencils.
14. Some big push pins for my bulletin board. They are pretty cool. I've never seen any this large. They are metallic colored in different shades.
15. A watch with three different beaded bands that are interchangable. I needed another watch too!
16. Gel pens. Most useful for artsty stuff!
17. More ribbons and embellishments that I picked out myself.
18. 3 in 1 Machine and two extra ink cartridges.
19. Giant bottle of Tacky Glue. I go through that stuff like it's going out style!
20. 2 clay elephant votive holders and a dozen votives to go with them. The votives smell like magnolias if memory serves me correctly!
21. Book... Dear Mom-Thanks For Everything
22. $10 bill that I used as a bookmark and will use as a bookmark until I'm in dire need of ten bucks!
23. Very pretty box that I will use to store things of the art variety in. Again, I'm not sure you can count the packaging of your gifts as an actual gift....but I'm still doing it!

My friend Helena brought me the elephant votives and an Imitrex tablet for a killer headache I had on my birthday. The Imitrex tablet was the best gift of them all! I have a prescription for Imitrex but I didn't have any of my prescription left and I really needed a mega good drug to knock that headache out of me. I'd had it for almost three days by the time Helena brought it me. It did the trick and I was free from that killer headache within 20 minutes of taking that tablet.
I also recieved a lot of birthday wishes from my pals over at AFA.
There were hugs to be had and lots of love shared from those I love too.
And if that isn't enough...my sister Susan cooked my favorite meal of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and gravy. Ma baked a chocolate bundt cake and my brother Sam showed up for the celebration too. Even though I felt like death warmed over on my birthday, it was an excellent day actually.
And yes, I still feel older.
I know you all are thinking, "Good Golly, she sure got a lot of presents!" Yep, I did! My family is like that on Birthdays and Christmas. You can expect a lot of presents for your birthday and you'll be most surprised by them too!
I always buy myself something for my birthday each year and this year it was a new set of 24 fine point sharpie markers. I was in need of a new set as the fine points are getting low on ink and I use my sharpies/markers a lot.

I finally got around to bringing all the presents I got at Susan's house home today. Only four days after the fact....Susan jokingly said she was about ready to claim them as her own as they had been sitting in the rocking chair in her diningroom for four days! I retrieved my garden cart at the same time. That thing has been at her house for better than a year now. I got a new garden cart and she cabbaged on to the other one. She was laughing when she said, "Bring my cart back!" I was about a third of the way across the yard and hollered back at her, "If you want it, it'll be at my backdoor!"

It is raining as I type this at 2:20 in the morning on Thursday. The dog was out in the front yard in the rain a little bit ago barking his fool head off everytime it thundered earlier. He acted like he had no clue where that awful noise was coming from. Thunder never bothered him before tonight. He's a silly thing!
I'm glad for the rain though. So far Mother Nature has been watering my 147 little evergreen trees. They are doing fantastic!

Billy was missing for three days. I found him on Monday morning in the burned house. Locked in. RJ fixed it so the cats could come and go as they please in the burned house. There are rodents out there that need to be caught and that is the cats' jobs. They can't do it if they can't get in there on their own and they don't want to be locked in there with no food or water for three days. Billy wasn't a happy camper. He was happy to see me, but you should have heard that pitiful yowl he let out when he discovered someone was close enough to hear him.

I need to take the van to Shorty tomorrow and have him change out that front passengers side tire for the one RJ put in the back of the van. The tire was still inflated this evening but it won't be for much longer... it has a slow leak, it's bald as a baby's butt and it makes the van drive 'funny'.

I saw the oncologist on Tuesday for this wretched blood disease....polycythemia vera.... He gave me good news though. No phlebotomy this go around. My numbers were sitting at 48. On the low end of high but he was pleased with them nonetheless. He wants me get my blood checked every three months and go see him in a year if all goes as planned with the numbers. He also said I HAD to quit smoking. He gave me the scare tactic... telling me about a man my own age who he was seeing after me who had lung cancer from smoking. It scared me but I've yet to put down the fags for good...yet. I need a plan for quitting smoking and I don't have a plan at the moment. It's on my agenda though. At the top of the agenda!

So, I'm a year older but not sure I'm any wiser... Guess that remains to be seen!
You all have a fantastic Thursday. Go get some hugs! You know they dont carry over from one day to the next. You have to go get new ones everyday for them to count. I missed out any hugs today....I'll see what I can do for Thursday! Be good to one another!
Peace
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A Fish Miracle, My Teeth Still Hurt and I've A New Toy To Play With!

No pictures for this post. That may happen later today when the 4x4s I've been working on are done drying enough to play with my new toy!
RJ and Terah bought me a new 3in1 machine for my birthday. T came over today to install it. She was so worried about it not getting done this weekend. She was indisposed and could not do it then. She had her appendix removed on Friday evening and spent the weekend in the hospital. But here she was bright and early this afternoon to get it working! I've not tried scanning anything as of yet. We know it prints though! That's a good start! T is decopaging a metal kitchen step stool I bought at a yard sale the weekend before last. She printed off pictures of various people and animals I know to put all over that stool. She's not done with it just yet but it's looking so cool .....
So my new toy is the 3in1 machine! Not sure what I will do with the old scanner. There is nothing wrong with it, I've just no use for it now. Perhaps I will pass it on to another who is in need of a scanner. That is how I acquired it a few months back.

I am still battling pain in my mouth from the bad teeth in there! The dentist put me on anitbiotics to get rid of the infection and then they will pull some of those teeth and we shall go from there. I'd just as soon they yank all 15 of those teeth out of my lower jaw and give me some falsies. But finances are the problem with that plan. Unfortunately GIVING me the falsies is not in their plan! I think the worst of the pain is behind me. I've not been sleeping anymore than normal for the last two nights as opposed to sleeping from 11 pm on Friday to 4 pm on Saturday. I've given up with anbesol as well as it makes the gums hurt even worse when the numbing wears off. I'll be fine....just have to get those teeth out of my head.

While T was installing the 3in1 machine, RJ and Devon were out in the garage doing whatever they were doing. I'm really not sure just what they were doing out there.....but anyway, they put the garden hose into the pond out front to flush it out. That pond has not had any attention at all for the longest time. Last summer it was dry as a bone with a nice layer of mud all over the bottom of it. RJ cleaned out most of the mud and found two live goldfish in that mud. That was shocker to find LIVE fish in the pond beings there was nothing but mud in it. He then filled it back up with water for the hyacinths and water lettuce Ma gave me for the pond. After that the pond was pretty much forgotten about till today. It had water in it, brakish water....lots of dead grass, weeds, things of that nature in it but it didn't appear to have any life in it other than the few waterbugs that skittered across the water. RJ came in the house and asked if I wanted to hear something really cool. Well, of course I wanted to hear something really cool! He tells me there are two (more) live goldfish swimming around in my pond. They must of been buried in the mud at the bottom of the pond all winter. A Fish Miracle! I've not gone out to see the miracle fish. I'm wondering how big they are. The goldfish we found last summer were a good three inches long if not longer. Those fish spent a happy winter in Ma's pond with her happy fish. Her pond is much deeper than mine and it doesn't freeze but the top three inches or so. Mine freezes about that far down too but Ma has a lot more space beneath her ice then my pond does.

I went out to take a look at those fish and I didn't see any fish....only a toad that would have drowned had I not made it possible for him to get out of the pond. Boy, that water was cold! I put a big rock on top of a cement block at the bottom of the pond so the toad could climb out on his own. That pond needs a good cleaning! The water hyacinths are growing nicely though.

Well, I'm out of here for now. I need to figure out to get things scanned with my new machine. I will be back later with another post with some pictures.

Stay tuned!
Peace
831

Just a short post today.....

It might not be as short as I think, but it won't have any pictures and I really don't feel all that great to be sitting here yakking at you all.

I have a killer headache from an infection, probably an abscess in one of my teeth. I hurt like a big dog from the top of my head to the ends of my toes. The old eyeballs are slowly giving out and the lids are refusing to stay open. That is probably from the tramadol I took about an hour ago. I've slept the last couple days away.

I turned 48 yesterday. I hauled my beleaguered body out of bed long enough to go next door to eat my birthday dinner, some cake and ice cream and open my gifts from family. I came home from my birthday bash, took a shower, took a cyclobenzaprine and a tramadol and slept from 11 pm last night till 4 this afternoon. It's now a little after 8 pm and I'm ready to hit the sheets again.

I'll tell you all about my birthday loot and the good times had at Susan's yesterday for my birthday. Even though it was difficult to eat, I gave it my best shot cause Susan made roast beef with potatoes and carrrots and gravy. Ma baked me a cake and I got a boatload of really cool loot for my birthday.

Do I feel any older? Yes! Yes, I do!

Tomorrow I have a drs appt in Hays with the oncologist. I'm pretty sure a phlebotomy is scheduled for tomorrow. My hemocrit numbers are more than likely way too high. I blew off gettingblood drawn the last three months. I did go to the vampires last Thursday and gave them a bit. They had to poke me twice to get any blood out of me. No one has bothered to let me know just what the number are but doc will tell me tomorrow afternoon when I see him. I just hope this killer headache is gone by then!
Until next we meet: You all be good to one another and collect yourself some hugs!
Peace
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