Saturday-9am

Lots of pictures today! First--this is what happens if I leave the string toys (or anything that reminds her of string) within reach of the little sharp teeth of Miss Karma.

Dagan and Leah were coming to make the furniture switch and bring their old big TV--so most of the day I was doing what I could to get ready for them--moving things out of the way. Karma was fascinated by (and a little hesitant about) the changes.

She always has to check everything out.
Dagan and Leah arrived about 7:30pm. This is one big and heavy TV. Makes you really, really appreciate the new flat screens!!
We had to switch this bookcase and TV/stand in the living room...

...with this dresser in the bedroom. Sorry for the blurry pictures. The camera (besides taking pink and off color pictures) has also started to take consistantly blurry photos so that, even if I take a couple of shots, they might both be blurry. It isn't just me--Leah took a couple of pictures and one was blurry. ??
Anyways, see this small laptop that Leah is working on? I didn't realize that it was an old one that they were reformatting to give to me! Way, way lighter than mine! Might be easier for me to actually use--hehe!
Dagan's very blurry. The other shot was worse. *sigh* He is working at moving the brains from the old computer (he made for me) to this new computer (that he got for free from work). This new computer from work has a spare brain! Two hard drives inside of it! Amazing! Dagan will probably be back this weekend to work on transferring brains from one computer to another and computer to laptop--whatever. :)
Here's the big TV in the living room on the triple dresser (only furniture I had large and sturdy enough to hold it!)--tada!

And now the other TV and bookcase are in the bedroom...
...and I have to put all these books back in the bookcase--hehe!
Dagan and Leah forgot the remote! The manual controls are on the very top of the TV--and it is soooo big that I need a stool to see the buttons--chuckle!
Hopefully they will find the remote and it will come over with Dagan when he works on the computers this weekend. Might see Leah, too. She's on call for her second job, so who knows?

For the first time in like five weeks I was up past 11:30pm--hehe! I didn't get to bed till 1:30am--but was up at 8:15am anyways!! TaDa!!! :):) But--I am just a noodle! A very weak and sore noodle. But a happy one! So--more tomorrow.... :):)

Friday-9am

I finally made it out and about yesterday--made the trip to PetSmart and Target. And that little cart, Leah, held all these bags! :) Karma went right to the PetSmart bag? It had nothing but canned food--how could she tell? Maybe the bags smell different?

After being out and about, of course, that was it for me for the day. I played with Karma and watched some X Files. I told you how much Karma loves strings. I was even playing with just a string on the end of one of her wand toys. She always tries to bite them into pieces.

When she gets tired and wants to catch her breath--she just hangs on like a fish on a hook!

When she starts to just watch...

...I know she's worn out. :)

She finally went inside the clothing rack to sleep.

Hopefully--if the weather holds--Dagan and Leah will be coming over tonight with the TV and we can push the rack back down to the storage area, too. As usual, Karma will miss it--I won't.

And--(not exciting for most of you--hehe!)--my big yearly Dick Blick art supply catalog came yesterday! I spent a couple of hours going through it--page by page! :):) Ahhh!!! Fun! Talk about a "wish book"!!

Well, supposed to be nice--around 70 degrees for a high--cloudy and humid--but not supposed to rain until tomorrow. I hope they're right this time. :) It was totally fogged over this morning when I got up--like a white blanket. Lifting now. Should be a good day!

Thursday-7:30am

I forgot to show you the new stack of DVDs that Caroline brought over on Tuesday! These will keep me busy for a long time! :)

Second Season of House, First Season of Monk, and the other six seasons of Gilmore Girls!

Dark morning. Not raining now, but the cracks of thunder were so loud during the middle of the night that it woke me up and Karma sat straight up in bed--hehe! Supposed to clear up by tomorrow--at least that is what they're saying at the moment--not what they were saying yesterday--hehe! I am hoping for good weather tomorrow night so Dagan and Leah can bring the TV over and do the furniture switch. It looks like a more promising forecast today for Friday--but they never do seem to be able to accurately predict very far ahead--chuckle! Despite all their radar and maps and equipment, they don't seem any more accurate than our old weathermen back in the day. You may as well just open the door, stand outside a spell, and take a gander yourself. :)

Karma refused to sit in the red/maroon chair for about a month. She wouldn't have anything to do with the chair and got mad if you tried to set her down on it? She would only sit on the ottoman. Who knows how her mind works or what causes her preferences. I finally removed the throw. Of course, then it got interesting again--hehe!

I put the throw back on. Cat hair really shows on dark red, let me tell you! Karma can be so strange and opinionated.

Well, my eye doesn't hurt this morning at all--tada! Feels very humid--just looked it up online--59 degrees, 100% humidity! Yup--should be more rain today--hehe! I am feeling the best I have felt for days. So--good morning and have a great day! :):)

Wednesday-8:30am

I kept busy all day yesterday. Karma napped, of course.

Had Caroline help me drag the clothing rack down from the storage area with my winter clothes and coats. Switched them, but haven't dragged it back yet. I might wait until I have help--possibly Friday. Dagan and Leah might be coming to switch up my furniture and bring their old TV over (big one!) on Friday night!!

Leah suggested we start getting together for Craft Night again here pretty soon. Maybe on Wednesday nights--next week or the week after that. Now that they have two cats over at the townhouse (Chuck and Michal's), she wants to make up some cat toys. Chuck and Michal's cats have never had a string toy!

I sent her a picture of what I have left from when she got a supply of things at Sportsman's so we could repair Karma's string/wand toys. (Karma loves to chew through strings, as I have mentioned, and she can do it very quickly! I have to hide her string toys on top of bookcases!) That had to be at least a year ago--maybe more? Sounds like fun! I am sure Leah is glad to have cats around that don't hiss at her.

Did I tell you Karma hissed at Caroline last time she was here? Not yesterday, but two weeks ago? Caroline came in--but instead of hanging around in the kitchen for a while and getting the bucket out of the pantry, she had to use the bathroom. Karma was parked in the hallway in her usual position for observation and--who knows?--thought Caroline was going to step on her--pick her up (she hates that)--attack her--or what? Now, Caroline followed her usual routine yesterday and Karma was fine--no hissing. Karma not being friendly or at least polite to people is very distressing to me. I am a Minnesotan, after all.

Anyways, I know a lot of you have probably gotten this email, but...

do you recognize these men?

They're Eddie Haskell, The Beaver, and Wally Cleaver!!

Now that made me feel old--hehe!

The stye is almost completely gone. I can now officially empathize with anyone who has had one. Mine were fairly small and gone in two days--but it is amazing how irritating and painful they can be! I didn't even know what it was. So grateful for the Internet. :) :) Even told me what to do.

This "being on days"--I may have created a monster! Now Karma waits on the floor by the bedroom door until she can tell I am waking up (how she can tell, I am not sure yet--because if I knew I'd try to hide it), and then she meows for me to get out of bed!! With my entire previous lifetime and recently totally irratic menopausal sleeping patterns that is something she has only done a couple of times in her life (she's 3 1/2 years old)--and I said "no!" and that was that. Not any more.

And now most nights, about 10-15 minutes after I have gone to bed--and Karma knows I am almost alseep and won't be wiggling about, I suppose--she comes up and plops down next to my arm with her head on the headboard for a pillow. And I think she is staying right there until I get up the first time--these days around 2-3 hours later since I am sleeping better--tada!

OMG!! A normal routine! I don't ever remember having any routine! It's like pod people have taken over my body! Karma even likes it--hehe! I think these new pills may have something to do with it??? But I am liking this having a routine, so I just go to bed--even if I am not super tired--between 11-11:30pm. Sometimes even earlier! May not seem like a big deal--but for a person who used to go to bed between 12-4am normally for as long as I can remember--going to bed at "a decent hour" just seems like a fairy tale or a dream.

I very literally could not physically go to sleep at a "normal" hour for as long as I can remember. If I laid down--I just tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. I have taken night jobs because of it. Avoided morning classes at college. Suffered all week long at jobs going with little sleep every night--only to collapse and sleep 12-14 hours stretches on the weekend or whenever my days off were. This was a fact of life for me.

When I hit menopause the sleeping (or lack of it) went totally crazy! Instead of going to sleep even at 4-5 am--sometimes I couldn't sleep at all. Or I was going to bed at 9am--or not at all for 2 days--or 4pm--or noon--or 7pm. I was often awake for 24-36 hours at a stretch--and not because I wasn't exhausted, but because I was unable to sleep--insomnia. That has pretty much been the last year--year and a half or so. So--this being on days--for more than just a few days--wow! I have stepped into the Twilight Zone! But I am enjoying it! And now I have a cat who wants me to get up in the morning! Will wonders never cease?! :):):)

Tuesday-9:30am

I woke up with no Internet yesterday. After a couple of hours (will occasionally go out for shorter periods so I waited a while) I called Cable One and they set me up for an appointment between 1-5pm. Later in the afternoon, before the cable guy had shown up, it was suddenly working again? So, I called and cancelled the appointment. They told me--if it goes out again just give us a call. So far, so good. :)

Meanwhile, I found this cool little secret pouch sewen into the inside of the leather jacket Michal brought over. Sat with the seam ripper and removed it.

You can see how this camera is getting funny with color. The actual color is inbetween these--not this brown...

...and not this green. Took the buttons off, too.
I finished Season One of the Gilmore Girls--loved it! Called Caroline to tell her I definitely want to see the rest of them (she said she has them all). If she doesn't forget them, she'll bring them over today when she comes. :)

Then I started a "House" marathon--not done yet. Painted a little--was not going too well, so very little. Left eyelid swelled up and was all red and itchy out of the blue? Nothing I have ever experienced before! When the Internet came back on, I searched--have a small stye, I think. Put warm compress on it every couple hours last night--feels better today.

Karma and I were playing with one of her favorite things--a pair of Dagan's fascinating shoelaces that she bit in half and he relinquished to her toy drawer--hehe! We have hidden shoes with shoelaces from her ever since--put them higher on the shoe rack and make sure the laces are tucked into the shoes and aren't hanging out. Anything that looks like a string to Karma is a toy for her--period--no discussion, as far as she is concerned. I have to hide the sketchbooks that have the built in bookmarks--including the Moleskines! She has bitten apart the pulls for several of the blinds...*sigh*

She may look innocent...

The penny jar is a handy dandy door stop. Keeps the porch door from slamming shut (windy up here in Fargo, you know) and I use it to hold the door open when the CashWise delivery comes.

I put a piece of leftover plastic (from the heavy duty JoAnn's plastic I used to cover the craft table) on the floor by the door so that if it rained it wouldn't get the carpet wet. It wasn't the most practical idea--the wood still gets wet, anyways--but Karma fell in love with it, so I have left it there for most of the summer. She rolls on it, sprawls all over it, and loves to have her catnip placed on the slippery surface. (Catnip above in lower left hand corner--hehe!) Sometimes she comes racing up to it and slides across it--reminding me of the water slide game (do they still make those?).

Anyways, I was cut off from the world for half the day yesterday and am home nursing my poor eye. Caroline comes to clean this afternoon--she'll think somebody hit me--hehe! Looks like the sun is trying to come out a bit, but the clouds are still winning. Been cloudy and raining off and on lately. I have to go pick up cat toys (incuding shoelaces) and gather up the trash...nice to be back online! :)

Sunday-8:45am

I forgot to show you the set of hand cutters that Ruby sent. Never even been opened! They are rather dangerous--as any of you quilters know. But there is a safety ruler that I want to buy before I ever even open these. :) Thanks Ruby! These will be great for all the odd things we might use them for in our crafts! :)

I finished Cry, The Beloved Country, by the way. And have ordered the movie on Netflix--will come this coming week. I was heavily into a Gilmore Girls marathon yesterday when Leah called last night. She and Michal came over to drop off an assortment of things. We had that order from http://www.specialtybottle.com/

Got some jars for Karma's treat drawer and to store some foiling I want to buy--two sizes of jars that look like this below (those are the larger ones for the foil). And the zip lock bag is full of milk carton tops--to use for making my own paint palette tins (also purchased from this company previously).
I am excited to see how these will work for holding CD/DVDs. (Leah got me extras on half the things I ordered!!)
Lots of cobalt blue spray bottles! We use them for misters for crafts and for room freshners we make from essential oils...and whatever else we can think of--hehe! Have plenty now! These are the smaller ones.
Here's what the larger one looks like. I bought two more of these--for room freshners. Leah found brushed aluminum ones she liked better.
And here's tiny little jars!! See the one with the red plaid top? Any time I have gotten (or anyone I know has gotten) those gift boxes of jams, cheeses, and dried meats--I have saved or asked other people to save the little tiny jars from the jam. Now I have a whole bunch of them! More than I expected, Leah--hehe! I use them for all kinds of things--safety pins, small nails, crafts supplies...endless tiny uses. :)
I now have two more gallon jars! These come in a case of four and Leah only needed two of them. She filled mine with Jasmine rice for me! And the two tea canisters were just an added little gift. I didn't even know they made those, too. I need to go thru that entire site one day! (You can see my favorite treat up on my recipe box--my French Vanilla coffee--ahhhh!)
And Michal brought a old leather coat that has a tear in the arm (on the left side). I can cut it up and use it for bookcards or journal covers--whatever! I immediately thought of the new cutters from Ruby. This is a perfect use for them--tada!
Thank you Leah and Michal!! Thank you Ruby!!

And Miss Karma was delighted to play with and lay all over the packing paper, of course! She even parked herself half inside this box that was way too small for her to hide in! Karma says thanks, too!

I left the papers out and they were all over the place this morning, so Karma had fun last night--hehe! All the packing paper (brown and white) will be saved for making handmade paper, too. Recycling!

I hope everybody has been having a nice weekend!

Saturday-8:15am

Sunny morning. Miss Karma is sitting right now on the chilly porch, just as you see her here, watching for the shadows of the swallows. She loves to sit and listen to them chittering and singing to each other. Don't know why she isn't up on the table to actually look out of the porch? Lately she has decided that she prefers the floor. Maybe because it is chillier?

Okay--I started Gilmore Girls yesterday and I really like it! Love the banter, the situation with school & her parents, the accident prone chef, the smoking dance instructor, the snooty French assistant (or whatever his official title is), the very short neighbor with her custom made shorter house...all of it--charming!

I've been kind of "off" the past couple of days. Slept wrong or something--hip's been really bothering me--osteoarthritis. Just another one of those things that can change my plans--hehe! (Told you my body runs the show these days.) Been taking the three flights of stairs every day to try to work the kink out. Seems a little better this morning. Should be good for shopping by this coming week, I would think. :) And maybe I can find a sunny day to go, too. *big grin* I never thought my dad and I would have so much in common this early in my life! hehe!

Have a good day! Work those kinks out of your life!! :)

Friday-8am

Another dark and cloudy day, like yesterday--with occasional showers. Just didn't feel like going anywhere or doing anything much yesterday. Wasn't a leave the house day for me. Just hung out with Karma and watched X Files--finished season two--a cliffhanger "to be continued".

Karma wanted you to know that she doesn't always sprawl--hehe!

Well, let's see what today brings? :):)

Thursday-8:45am

What a difference a day makes--hehe! Was a beautiful, sunny day yesterday.

Each morning Miss Karma purrs...
...and rubs in circles against my legs, the refrigerator, the cupboards, the stove, the dishwasher, the walls...
...prances and twitches her tail...
...and chatters her excitement...
...over this...
...her daily tablespoon of canned catfood. Takes 4-5 days to finish one of the smaller cans. She's working on salmon right now. (That is her treat bowl that Leah made in pottery class--BTW--only 4 inches across.) I confess that when the food has been in the frig I warm it for just 6 or 7 seconds in the microwave to take the chill off--sad, but true--hehe!

I got so wrapped up in the book, Cry, The Beloved Country, that I almost finished it yesterday. Reading is another activity that is included in my good hours/timed sessions during the day--and I used up most of my good time yesterday reading. I hope to finish the book today. Then I am going to rent the movie from Netflix. :)

Today--I am maybe going to do the shopping trip to Target and PetSmart--depending on how I am feeling, of course. Mornings are never a good indication. I wake up very sore and stiff--kind of thaw out after a few hours--am the best I am going to be for several hours after that. Usually--hehe! Some days never get any better, of course, but--on the whole--I have been feeling pretty decent since I have been on days now--for a month!! A whole entire month! I have been sleeping pretty well and that makes a difference--mentally, if not physically--hehe! Been very nice. :)

Anyways, if I don't go out, I will read for sure today. :) Cloudy day again today and scattered showers--for the next couple of days. So, I could always wait until next week to go shopping. (I try to avoid the weekend and evening crowds.) But if I have a really good day going--then I can go rain or shine whatever day it is. Having a car is a wonderful thing. :)

Hope you have a really, really good day!! :):)

Wednesday-8am

I did paint a little yesterday.

Just a first green layer. Just wasn't in gear. You know how sometimes your hand just doesn't work as well or something?
BUT--Remember I bought up some size 8 brushes to try to find a brush type and brand I really liked? Well, I LOVE my new Cheap Joe's American Journey interlocked nylon brush! I can paint a larger area with swipes and yet it comes back to that fine, sharp point to get to the tip of a pointed leaf. On the last painting, I even painted in the very skinny red legs on the bird with this brush. I need to try a different brush--hehe! I grabbed this one and haven't switched. :)
Yesterday we had geese already! You'll have to click on the pictures to see them. The far field was full of geese and they'd take off in separate groups--honking away. Here's three of them. What a dark day yesterday.

You can see the little red Paseo with its blue reflector shield in the windsheild, too--hehe!
Anyways, the geese left in groups--took at least an hour until they had all left the field. Unformed small groups. Sometimes a single goose racing to catch up. That honking of the Canadian geese--that is the sound of fall to me. Seems early for them to be here?

Today--I have CashWise coming with my food for the month--tada! I'll see if I am up to leaving the apartment to do the monthly shopping or not as the day goes on. I see some sunshine peeking out from behind the clouds this morning. Supposed to be near 70 for the next few days. 43 degrees right now--sunny--I love it! I could live with days like this all the time. :) :)

Tuesday-9am

No sun out this morning.

Rained so much during the night that the playground looks like a little pond!
Dark day today and not expected to reach 60 degrees. How's that for a temperature switch? From a high of 90 to a high of 59 degrees. Very humid--93% at the moment, but the coolness helps. That's the Upper Midwest for you. The joke is--Don't like the weather? Just wait a minute.

I keep a couple of paperbacks next to my keyboard so that Miss Karma (who loves hard pillows) might use them instead of my keyoard. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

This is Karma's favorite spot while I am at the computer. She prefers it if I keep my hand on her like that. Tolerates me typing. Purrs quietly. My computer companion.

Well, after a long, quiet weekend--I suppose I should get back to painting today. :) Just such a dreary day. I have no ambition. We'll see how the day goes. :)

Monday-9:30am

This is why it can be difficult getting the casual pictures of Miss Karma. I am inside--with the porch door shut and the AC on (about 90 degrees)--taking a picture thru the glass door. She is already suspicious--I can tell by her ears.

Now--how did she even know I was there? No flash? No noise? Karma must be psychic!

Well, Karma and I spent another day not doing anything creative--hehe! Just reading, watching X Files (the DVD ended with a part one, so I have to wait until the next one comes to get part two), and goofing around. I did go thru the budget and bills for September. Can you believe it is September already?!

It is supposed to get up to mid-80s. It feels pretty sticky outside right now at 75 degrees. I thought I heard thunder last night, but I don't see any puddles? They say scattered thunderstorms today--feels like it could rain. Air is heavy.

Labor Day. Vacation day for people. No mail. Feels more like a Sunday. For all of you who have a long weekend--enjoy!! :)