Last gasp for 2010

Yup. No matter how much I try to pretend it's not true, another year has passed. 2010 is over! And here I am again, blogging on New Year's Eve. Even though I haven't blogged since September.

The back half of this year has been tough . . . since September. Maybe I shouldn't be introspective this year. Maa. If not on New Year's Eve, when, ne?

*sigh* Where to begin . . .

I was re-reading my last New Year's Eve blog, in which I was talking about the meeting with my boss to discuss my goals for the year. Well, that meeting did not go well. In fact it went so not-well it was like a personal attack on me, and that was so 180 degrees from all my previous goal meetings that I was . . . I guess 'shocked' would best describe my feelings after that meeting. But I also knew my boss was under serious stress herself, so I blew off the meeting as just her stress. After the meeting she didn't initially act any differently toward me, but things got more and more tense between us.

At any rate, she was unhappy enough that she has since left. She took a new position out east and left in September. That was great with me except for one thing. Before she left she did her damnedest to destroy my career. Yup. That also came almost totally out of the blue. There was tension, but I never expected she'd tell the department chair that I was not promote-able and send a letter recommending that I couldn't do my job and should look for another one elsewhere. To say that I was dumb-founded would be putting it mildly. And of course, this is the year I should be up for promotion to full Professor.

Luckily, it doesn't look like she's done me any harm in the long run, but it's been a tough Fall. My ex-boss antagonized enough people in the department before she left that people were willing to believe that she was not correct in her assessment of me. Plus, I have a lot of support in the department from other people I work with, who know my work ethic and my work in general. I have support from all over the US from colleagues at other universities and hospitals who I work with. So the department is putting me up for promotion, on the recommendations of the Chair and other professors in the department. The hardest part of the whole nonsense, once I got past the sense of betrayal, is that my new boss doesn't know me and only has the letter from my previous boss to go by. So I've had to spend a lot of extra energy proving myself to the new boss. I'm glad the year is over. Now we'll see if the University Promotion and Tenure Committee will accept everything even without a recommendation by the person who was my immediate boss.

Okay, enough of that! That's the old year. The new year is about to start, things are back on track and moving forward.

I got elected to the board of directors of my national organization this Fall, so good things have happened too. It's a three year term and should be fun, although a lot of work. I was also asked to chair the editorial board of a new blog that another of my national organizations is starting. Let's see, what else . . . I just returned a manuscript to my coauthor for a special edition of Biochimica Biophysica Acta, and I have a book manuscript that should be ready to go in within the next two weeks.

For a couple of months this Fall I was bringing work home every evening and weekend because a chemistry instructor in the med tech program quit and I picked up and finished teaching that class. I didn't have time to prepare for it at work, so I broke one of my cardinal rules . . that work stays at work. It couldn't be helped. I'm pretty well caught up now, so I shouldn't have to do that too often any more.

I'd have to say that despite a rough Fall, 2010 has been a good year for me. I've done a lot, learned a lot, survived a lot. I'm going as strong as ever and have a lot of new things coming up. Yesterday two new instruments arrived in the lab, so after the New Year we'll be validating and evaluating. These are the instruments I mentioned in last year's New Year's Eve blog that I needed to convince the powers that be that we needed. It took me a year, but we got them. Also, the positions that I was blogging about needing to be created are now created and filled. So despite everything, it's been a good year. If the promotion doesn't go through, it'll go through next year.

My family is doing well this year too, with two new additions, both grand-nieces. Coraline was born in May to my nephew and his wife, and in October Libby made her entrance to my other nephew and his wife. They're beautiful and we're all blessed. I spent Christmas in Colorado and got to see Julia and Coraline, then came home to Texas and Libby was here from Virginia. Of course they were with their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles. Yup, I'd say the family is growing. And I did more family-oriented stuff than is usual for me, but the Holidays are good times to remember how important family is.

All the stuff that happened this past Fall has kind of over-shadowed the year for me, but it really has been a good year. The Utah trip with Monica was outstanding. We saw some really incredible things, like a fog rainbow that was more of a multi-colored fog halo, and the condors at Zion which are shown in the picture to the right, and the Shiprock formation looking like an actual ship floating because of low lying fog, and a really awesome sunset in northern New Mexico which is in the picture from earlier in the blog, etc, etc. The weather was absolutely perfect, we were there during a full moon so the moon was gorgeous every night and the stars are beyond beautiful when you can see them without city light interference. The hikes were wonderful, the shopping was fun . . . it was just a really great trip.

Another plus is that I got to go to Grenada twice this year. I went back in October and we played some more.

So all in all I'd have to say I don't have much to complain about . . . *laughing* even though I spent the first half of this blog doing just that. Oh well. I'll blame it on the New Year's Eve introspection / retrospection. And I think I'll stop now.

Have a great New Year!!!

Yard Work

Yup. I've been doing yard work. Labor Day I worked at it for five hours. Amazing, huh? Remember those yaupons at either end of my house in the front, the ones that were uprooted by the February snow? All of a sudden I got tired of always trying to trim them reaching up over my head to do it (yes, they're back to hitting the roof . . . or were). I got my hand saw and started sawing off branches. Now they're both about chest high on me. Of course, the vast majority of the growth was above that, so it now looks like I have nice bare sticks coming up out of the ground at both ends of the house. Maa. As fast as they grow, they should fill back in fairly quickly. Plus they'll be easy to trim now as long as I keep up with it and don't let them get tall again. It did take me five hours though, to cut all the limbs off and them cut them up into trash-able sizes. I was going to take m electric shears/trimmers/whatever they're called to the rest of my shrubs, but after 5 hours, I was over it. I figured I'd do them the next day.

Of course, it rained continuously the next two days. And then I went back to work. So I got back to the shrubs this morning. I went out, mowed the lawn, weed-whacked and then took the trimmer to the shrubbery. Dekita! I'm done trimming and cleaning it up now for the year, except for I notice the rosebush needs trimming up. I was back out there working for about 3 hours this morning, so I think I've done my quota of yard work for the week now. Everything's neat and tidy . . . and I'm tired!

It's in the low 90s today and overcast, so the work wasn't horrifically unpleasant. I'm just not usually a physical labor type, except for weekly lawn mowing, so it tires me out when I do more than usual. I feel it most in my hands though, and in my right wrist. It's swollen again, but not as bad as it was when I cut up shrubbery in February, so I guess it's slowly getting better.

I did call the plumbers back for the leaking faucet in the back yard and they fixed it. It feels like everything is neat and functional now. I still think the little peach may not survive, but I'm pulling for it. We'll see. I think the two days of heavy rain may have actually helped a little, but it's hard to tell at this point. The Bermuda in my back yard continues to spread and thrive and the St. Augustine continues to struggle and die. I really like how the yard looks right after I mow it though. You can't tell how much of the back is weeds! :D Plus Zoe can't eat the black seed heads on the weeds and come in and throw them up. Sadly, that's one of the primary reasons I keep my lawn mowed short.

Anyway, I'm gonna chill now. I know I still need to do a post about vacation, but it'll have to wait until I have more energy. Here's a picture of Addy chilling in my newly-mowed lawn.

Around the House

Hello there! I've missed a whole summer . . . blogging-wise. Maa. I get around to it, or I don't. This summer, that's been a definite "don't".

Since I've been home I've been puttering around and getting some house stuff done. I found another swampy spot in my lawn and called the plumbers out to deal with it. Of course this morning I notice that my outside faucet in back won't completely shut off. It drips slowly and constantly. So after Labor Day I'll have to call the plumbers back out.

I've almost got all my camping gear cleaned up and put away. I'll blog at another time about the trip (which was fantastic). This blog is about house puttering. So besides the leaking plumbing issues, I've also cleaned out my closet, putting many, many clothes items into bags to be given away. Despite the fact that I'm exercising regularly now and beginning to drop some weight, I just have to accept that there are some things I'll never get into again. I've also been doing some minor re-arranging and general cleaning out of things. And of course basic lazy reading.

One big thing I had done on Friday was tree work. Over the summer my peach tree went from lushly overgrown to dying. Remember the pictures from early June with Zoe hiding in the peach-laden branches? Well, one over-laden branch broke and I cut it down and removed it. The first picture in this blog is the tree missing that branch. Now check it against the next picture down with the dying branches turned all yellow-brown. Granted some of those dead branches are other ones that broke from the weight of the peaches, but many of them were not broken, just dying. So I called a tree-trimming-removal service to come out and work on it.

I also had the tree guys do a bunch of other work while they were here, namely cut back the neighbor's trees to the fence-line on both sides of my house. One neighbor tree, a big elm, has been hanging over and interfering with the growth and health of the peach tree. And on the other side a Mulberry in the neighbor's side of the fench, wrapped by a huge vine (base as big around as my leg) growing on my side of the fence were both rubbing on my roof. So the tree guys cut back the elm and the mulberry to the fence lines and removed the vine completely. They also trimmed and cleaned up the tree out by my mailbox so that the lowest limbs are up at 6 feet, rather than down at three feet, causing me to have to struggle under them to mow and causing the mail carrier to have to drive through them to reach the mailbox. The tree guys did an OUTSTANDING job. Not only does that front tree look wonderful, and the neighbor trees are back out of the way, they cleaned up and hauled off all the stuff they cut. PLUS, they fixed my broken fence gate and fixed my half-knocked-over mailbox! Really! I was so surprised and delighted. Sometimes companies really do give you that little extra "After Service" that just basically makes your day. This company was Hallmark Tree Solutions out of Kennedale, TX, and they were wonderful.

And of course, they cut all the dead limbs off the peach tree. The last picture is what's left of the little peach. It's hard to see against the elm behind it, but there is a top section left, which shows just slightly brighter green than the elm, and the limb that projects toward us. I'm not sure if it will survive. I've decided I'll wait until it goes dormant (if it lives that long), then call the tree guys back and have them cut it way back. Then I'll just wait and see if it comes back in the Spring. Poor little thing. I don't know what got it, but it's seriously struggling to live.

I've had kind of a bad year for keeping things alive it seems. I've also lost pretty much all the St. Augustine in my back yard to "chinch bugs". The Bermuda is making a comeback in big patches where the St. Augustine has died out, and the rest of the yard is weeds. Bermuda in general doesn't do as well in the heat, and it's been a hot summer, but the Bermuda is happily ignoring whatever is taking out the St. Augustine. The Bermuda may take over the whole lawn eventually, especially given that the few patches of St. Augustine that are left look pretty sickly. The areas have been treated for chinch bugs, but I'm told it may take a while for it to recover. In this picture you can also see the dead lawn where the grass has died. The bright green in the fence corner is a small struggling patch of St. Augustine. The blue-green area in the bottom left corner of the picture is Bermuda thriving happily against the dead area.

So that's mostly what I've been doing for the last week. I'd like to get all the house-related stuff done before I dive back into work, so I'm probably going to be trimming shrubbery around the front of the house for the next several days. That should keep me out of trouble . . . maybe.

HOT!

It's really hot outside. The temperature did hit 101 yesterday, but I got my grass mowed while it was still in the low 90s. The paper this morning said it would be cooler today because of overcast skies. True to typical weatherman-form though, there's not a cloud in the sky. It's a gorgeous brilliant blue with the sun beating down and the temp sitting at about 95 currently. I'm thinking it will hit 100 again. It's a interesting thing that I consider it cool to mow the lawn in if it's less than about 95. I've mowed in 103, but it was miserable . . . to put it mildly.

As you can see from this picture (maybe), Zoe is in her favorite place, hiding under the peach tree waiting to rush unsuspecting birds. Mostly she just lays under there though. You can see the little peaches fairly clearly too. They seem to be doing okay this year. I took these three picture a little while ago. This first one is with Zoe pretty well hidden. Then farther down the post on the right, her peaking out at me when she heard me step outside. Lastly, at the bottom of the post, her proximity to the birdbath that she watches over so carefully.

The two pair of birds working on their respective nests out front are back this morning. Remember how I said it gets really HOT on that porch in the afternoon? Both bird pairs disappeared about mid-afternoon yesterday, but both were back about sun up this morning. The swallows are working really hard and making a fine mess of my front porch, although I don't see much structure to their efforts yet. Just lots of mud. The female finch seems to be adding padding to the old swallow nest. She brings things in and fusses with them in the nest and hunkers down in it and gets up and rearranges. Repeat. Repeat. She's not working as hard as the swallows, but she's definitely trying to get that nest to suit her.

I'm doing my usual Sunday chores today and loading music into i-tunes. My old desktop computer died, so I lost my i-tunes and have been restoring it slowly in my new computer. In the process I've realized that I need a bigger version of i-pod to hold it all, since currently my biggest i-pod is 16 gigs. I've restored 17.68 gigs so far and don't have all my music in yet. Luckily you can charge an i-pod without syncing it. I really like taking i-pods with me when I travel. They're invaluable for planes, airports and hotels, and of course when I drive long distances. I used to take boxes full of CDs when I drove to Utah or Colorado. A couple of i-pods beats that all to hell.

I really enjoy days like this, staying in, puttering around the house. Work has been . . .somewhat stressful lately, so I really appreciate the time away from work these days. Sadly, it's not the work itself, it's a few of the people at work who are stressing me. I keep reminding myself that I've ridden the waves of a LOT of changes at that place in the last 20 years. I can ride these waves too. But I do like my quiet, puttering weekends.

The next two weekends will be fairly busy, which is also probably why I'm enjoying this one. I don't expect to get any posts in for a couple of weeks either, so I decided to do another one today. Next weekend, I'll be visiting with my sister, and the weekend after is a party for a friend who both gradated for nursing school and turned 30. It'll be loads of fun, but won't make for a quiet weekend. At least I'm not traveling this month. July, August and September are the months I'll probably be traveling. August-September will be my usual three week vacation. I'll no doubt be seriously needing it by then.

I suppose that's all for the day. The swallows are still at it but I expect them to quit soon and go wherever they go to beat the heat. The thermometer in the shade on my back porch is reading 101. Beating the heat sounds like a great idea.

Two Interesting Things

I've learned two interesting things this morning. Two things related to my little bird friends around my house.

One thing I've learned is the reason the swallows built their nest on top of the twig nest from last year. Those boxes I put up are too slippery for them otherwise! Huh. Who knew?

My baby swallows are gone, although I see one or two around occasionally. So the parents have apparently decided to try raising another brood. I've been watching them this morning struggling to build a new nest on top of the left-hand box. And struggling is the correct word. The mud won't stick to it, and the swallows themselves slip when trying to stand on it. So before I mowed my lawn this morning, I wired a small piece of mesh up on top of the box, then went and mowed my lawn. I was a little afraid to do it for fear that me messing with the box would scare them away. Not so much. Instead they flew around scolding me for getting in their way.

Anyway, the two swallows are now incredibly busy flying back and forth with mud and twigs, so hopefully they'll successfully build on that mesh. I'm not too sure about them raising a second brood though. It's soooooo hot on the front porch in the afternoon. It faces west and the temps have been high 90s for the last couple of weeks. It's supposed to be over 100 for the next four days and probably won't be much cooler the rest of the summer. I've seen swallows do a late brood one other year. It only had one chick and the chick didn't survive. Maa, they successfully raised four chicks in the first brood, so if they want to try again I'll help with a little piece of mesh.

The other interesting thing I learned is that it may not have been a sparrow that built the twig nest last year. This morning a pair of house finches was checking out the now-empty swallow nest in the right-hand box. They flew in and out and checked it out several times this morning. I don't expect they'll nest there with the swallows nesting so close, but it was interesting to see them. I didn't realize the males are such a bright purple-red. This picture gives you an idea of the difference between the sexes. At first glance I thought it was a cardinal in the nest, until I realized how much smaller he was than a cardinal and his feathers are more purple-red than cardinal red. Still he was much more red than this picture, probably because it's that mating colors time of year.

After I mowed the lawn the cats went outside. Zoe is currently hiding under the tree and rushing any unsuspecting birds who try to use her birdbath. She's not quick enough to catch any, but she's enjoying herself completely. I imagine she'll wander in as it gets hotter. Addy's already back in, but her black coat makes it too hot for her much faster. There are blue jays and morning doves wanting to use the birdbath, so they'll be happy when Zoe gives up and comes inside.

Hmmmmmm. The female house finch is back making herself comfortable in the empty swallow nest. Guess I'll have to see how this plays out. O.O They don't seem to care! The swallows are still busily building on top of the left hand box, while the pair of finches sit in the nest in the right hand box. Maybe I'll have two new broods out there. I'll probably spend all weekend, randomly checking on the two pair out there. Fun!

Swallow report

It's Memorial Day Weekend, so I have a three-day weekend, which I am incredibly grateful for. Last week was a long, busy, stressful week, and I'm ready for a little break. I don't have any plans this weekend, other than shopping. And of course that's not any different from any weekend, except that I have more time to do it this weekend. I also have more time to clean things up around the house. Robovac is working as I type this.

I thought I'd give a baby swallow report. Those babies grow up so fast!!! Let's see. My last post and pictures were from the May 16th. The babies were probably just hatched, within a day or so. Today is the 30th and the little guys started flying on the 27th. So 10-12 days between hatching and flying. That's just incredible!

It turns out that there are four baby swallows in this brood rather than the three I first thought. The pictures in this post are a progression from the last post. The first one on the left above was taken on 5/21 and you can see they're already pretty well fledged five days after the first picture, although they still have some of the fuzzy, downy feathers sticking out in all directions. The next picture on the right was taken on 5/23, about four days before they started flying. At that point they were already looking pretty adult-like in color and size. And also for the most part doing a great job of hiding whenever I opened the door to try to take pictures. There really are four in that nest.

The last picture below was taken yesterday morning before the four of them left the nest for their daily excursions. They actually held still briefly for this shot. You can tell them from the adults when they're sitting still like this because they have yellow beaks. The adults have black beaks. In flight they're easy to tell apart because they still do a fair amount of clumsy fluttering, totally un-swallow-like. Plus their wing feathers and tail feathers are considerably shorter still. They don't yet have the noticeable scissor-tail the adults have.

They'll probably hang around and return to the nest every night now for a couple weeks, I guess until the baby swallows are more adept at flying and fending for themselves. Then they'll go on their way, and I'll be able to thoroughly clean my front porch. That's the only down-side to having them nest there . . . messy! But it's soooooo cool to get to watch them grow up. Totally worth the mess.

Anyway, just a short post today with a baby swallow report.

Swallows and peaches

What an interesting week it's been! It's even been "interesting" at work, but I'm totally not going to go there today. It's Sunday and it's currently pretty and cool outside, and I've mostly finished my Sunday chores even though it's only10:00 am-ish. So I'm in a good mood. No use ruining it by thinking about work.

Friday it rained quite a bit and it was supposed to rain all weekend. They even had flash flood warnings for the area (lakes are past full), but yesterday afternoon it cleared out and it's been gorgeous. Right now it's about 70 degrees and beautifully sunny, although I'm sure it will heat up as the day goes on and be muggy after the rain. Still, much as I like it like this, I wasn't unhappy to see the rain. The lakes may be full, but my yard needed the water. I actually watered the lawn Thursday because it was so dry.

One of the things that have made this an interesting week is the hatching of swallow babies. My baby swallows are so cute. You can see the tops of two little fuzzy heads in this picture. I've seen three little heads, and I'm pretty sure there are just the three of them in there. I took this shot through my glass front door so I wouldn't disturb them too much. The parents get kind of frantic even when I'm out front mowing the lawn, so I keep off the front porch as much as possible. In this picture you can also see my jerry-rigging to get that 'box' up there. Looking at it, it's really amazing that the swallows decided to come back and nest there. I just felt so bad about the siding closing off their little ledge that I had to try putting something up there. For whatever reason, it worked. I'll try to get more pictures as the little guys get bigger.

The other major event that happened this week was on Thursday. I took the day off to sit at home and wait for the insurance adjuster. I'm going to be having some repair work done on my roof. Anyway, about 7:30 am I looked out back, and guess what? A limb had snapped on my peach tree! And of course, it wasn't one of the dead limbs on the back side of the tree, but one of the live limbs, covered in small growing peaches! It's been really windy here this last week, so I imagine it was a combination of the wind and the weight of the peaches. So instead of sitting around and waiting on Thursday, I spent five hours cutting the limb down, along with the three major dead limbs from the back of the tree. Then I cut them all up into the size of pieces the trash guys will haul off, and bagged up all the foliage and baby peaches. Lest you think I whipped through this with a chain saw, I did it all with a hand saw. I don't own a chain saw. Anyway, I have a gap in the living side of the tree now, which you can kind of see in this picture. The limbs from the dead back side are now nicely cleared out. Interestingly, those three big limbs were full of carpenter ants. I don't know if they're responsible for the dead side of the tree, or they moved in when those limbs died. Anyway, it's significantly easier to mow under the peach tree now, which I know because I also mowed my lawn Thursday as long as I was outside doing yard work. The part of the tree that's living is doing well ... too many baby peaches, but it looks good.

The cats are continuing to enjoy being outside, although the black demon has put in a couple of appearances. Luckily, he hasn't appeared awhile they've been out there, so they continue to go out there and lounge or explore. They very helpfully laid on the patio and watched me work on Thursday while I was sawing and hacking.

So that was my interesting week.

A Pretty Day

It really is a pretty day, if maybe a little overly windy. Bright sunshine, blue sky, nearly perfect temperature. The cats have been outside enjoying it. And for the first time since the black demon cat began his territorial terrorizing of my cats, both cats were outside for an extended period of time. Zoe even laid out under the peach tree checking out the birds. She hasn't done that for more than a year thanks to that black tom. The limbs of the peach hang low anyway and when they're growing peaches they tend to drag on the ground. Zoe loves to hide out there amidst the limbs and watch everything. I have some blue jays in the area that are less than happy while she's out there, but she manages to ignore them fairly well. This picture is of her hiding out there. You can see she's fairly successful at it. (Yes, she's there!) Lower down is a picture of her emerging when she realized I had come outside. Hiding and watching birds takes a backseat to the possibility of strokes or brushing.

The little swallows are definitely nesting now. One of the pair is always on the nest, so I guess eggs are laid. About the only time when they're not sitting on the nest is mid- to late afternoon when it's hot on the front porch. They'll be gone or be standing on the edge of the nest rather than sitting on the eggs. I haven't bothered to try to see the eggs. I'm even going in and out through the garage or back door, so I don't disturb the swallows too much. I'll get to see them plenty after the babies hatch.

My roses are blooming like crazy as you can see. Again I have big, full red roses and clusters of smaller roses, as if I have two separate rose bushes. I only planted one the year after I moved in, but a couple of years ago it began to put out the two different types of roses. You can also see that my little yellow rose from last year may not make it. It's been struggling since it began putting on leaves before the multiple freezes.

Much of north Texas has been in bloom recently. The blue bonnets are past their prime blooming now, but everything has been really pretty. We've been getting rain fairly often, so things are nice and green and colorful. I was at my sister's place yesterday and she has flowers blooming everywhere, roses, iris, marigolds, snap dragons, and others that I don't know the names for. It's all really pretty. Unlike me, Lynne has a green thumb and does a fair amount of working in the garden. She's also got tomatoes planted and banana peppers. Yay! I'll be getting home grown tomatoes from her later in the year. Yum!!!

Yesterday my sister and I went with her son, her daughter and granddaughter to play at the Main Event. It was lots of fun. I don't see these folks too often, and we had a good time. We played arcade games and glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, and just generally visited a lot.

The hole in my jaw from the extracted tooth is healing well. No dry socket. Actually it's pretty well healed over but has left a nice little hole that traps food particles like a magnet traps iron filings. It's going to be a pain removing trapped food from that hole until it fills in. Not a painful pain, just a hassle pain. It's weird. Back a long time ago when I had all my wisdom teeth removed, there was nerve damage to the nerve to the left lower jaw, which left me with some permanent numbness to the lower lip and jaw on that side. This is the side where I've now had an implant and am having another one done currently. For about 4 days after the extraction, the numbness on that side was really bothering me. It's like the new Novocaine injections had aggravated the nerve or something. Besides the usual numbness that I've lived with for 30 years, there was increased tingling and numbness in the front lower teeth, lip and side of my tongue and stiffness in the corner of my mouth, like it was hard to smile. Luckily, it's gone away, and I'm back to the numbness I was used to from before. I was concerned for awhile that I was going to be drooling from that corner of my mouth. I'm glad it's back to 'normal'.

Not much else going on. I'm not traveling for awhile so I'm looking forward to spending some time kicking back and doing nothing. The next house project will probably be the roof, but I think I'll pay off the flooring first. I may have somebody come and trim the dead limbs from the back half of the peach tree. You can see from these pictures of Zoe hiding, that the front of the tree is doing well. We'll see how the peaches do this year.

Definitely Spring .... FINALLY!

This has been such a cold winter for this area. I've been waiting, relatively patiently, for Spring to make it's appearance. Just about the time I think it's going to be warm we get snow again, but I have some good signs that it's really here now.

One sign is the growing small peaches on my peach tree. Yes, they survived despite that snow when they were blooming. Another sign is that I mowed my lawn for the first time. It's growing well now.

The best sign though is that the barn swallows came back and are nesting over my front porch!!! They had been nesting there every year since I moved in here, but about 4 years ago I had siding put on the house. I didn't realize that when they put the siding on, they closed off a small ledge over my front porch where the swallows had always nested. When the swallows arrived that Spring they had nowhere to nest and went elsewhere. So that summer I put some small open boxes up there where the ledge used to be. The first year they ignored them. Last year they were around checking them out but didn't nest there. Later in the summer a small bird, house wren I think, built a twig nest in one of the boxes. This year a pair of swallows have built their mud nest on top of the twig nest in that box! I'm so delighted to have them back nesting there. I can watch them clearly from the small window by my front door. If course they make a mess of my front porch, between the mud for the nest and the usual bird droppings, but a messy porch to clean is worth watching them nest and watching the babies grow up. I've seen them have anywhere from 2 to 5 babies in a nest. One year I had two pair nest up there, but not at the same time. The second pair actually waited until the first pair had raised their young and left. The second pair didn't do well though, probably because it was so late in the year by then. My house faces west and the front porch gets very hot during the summer. They only had one baby and it didn't survive. This year, there's just the one pair and they're happily building on top of the twigs and staying there at night. They haven't laid eggs yet, but I imagine they will soon. This is a picture I found on the web of what these little birds look like.

Today its raining. It started yesterday and last night with some heavier rain, but now it's a light, steady soaking rain. My grass will need mowing again by the time it dries out. This is now the massive growth time of year for lawns, when mowing more than once a week is necessary.

Thursday I had a molar extracted. It was a crowned tooth that had decayed up under the crown. I'm going to have it replaced with an implant, but the first step is extracting the decaying tooth. The oral surgeon I went to was fast. He shot me up with Novocaine at 11:21 am and at 11:46 I was getting into my car to drive home. Amazing. I have a gaping hole in my jaw, but so far it hasn't been too bad. A couple Advil every 6-ish hours has been enough to keep it from hurting. I did take a prescription pain-killer Thursday afternoon when the numbness wore off, and half of one at midnight that first night, but since then Advil has been enough. I've been following post-extraction instructions religiously. I had a dry socket after extraction of my wisdom teeth a few millenia ago, and I'm hoping to prevent a repeat of that. NOT fun.

This will be my second implant. The molar behind this molar went through the same thing 6 years ago. A crown with the tooth decayed up under it. We tried to save that one ... remove the crown, drill out the decay and replace with a new crown, but the tooth was too far gone. There wasn't enough left to re-crown, so I had it removed and an implant done. The whole process takes 6 to 9 months, giving time for healing of the jaw bone, placing of the implant, various impressions, etc, etc. But I've never had a day of trouble with my other implant. It's just like having a good tooth back there. So I'm having another one done. Yes, it's more expensive than dentures or partials or bridges, but it's permanent and you don't have all the extra care you have to take with those things. You brush, floss, etc, along with all your other teeth.

Time to do the usual Sunday chores. I'll keep you up to date on how the nesting swallows do this year.

Grenada

I'm back from my vacation to Grenada, and it was a blast! I really enjoyed it, and the best part was getting to spend time with my friend who's going to school down there. It was so much fun.

The only travel issues I had were on the trip down there. I flew from DFW to Miami, Miami to San Juan and then San Juan to Grenada. They delayed us leaving DFW for about 40 minutes because they had too much fuel on the plane and had to off-load a bunch. True. Then on final descent into Miami there was a plane on the runway, so our pilot hit the gas and began climbing. We had to go around and try again. All of which would have been just typical travel events, except that I only had an hour between flights in Miami. Luckily my Miami-to-San Juan flight was also delayed.

I arrived in Grenada at about 8:30 at night and my friend picked me up at the airport and for the next week we played. Well, I played the whole week. Two of those days she had to go to classes, but the other days we ran around. She lives at a resort which sits up above a beach (BBC beach?). We spent time strolling the beach and also swimming, generally in the morning before it got too hot. The climb back to the hotel is steep and in the heat it's not very fun. There are a million flowering plants along the way though, so it's beautiful and sweet smelling. It doesn't matter if you take your time. The bird in the picture above is a little blue heron who was hunting from the rocks along the shoreline. He was polite enough to stay still and let us take pictures. The bird later down in the blog is a night heron and he was hunting up on the shore. You can also see in this top picture that the sky was grey rather than blue. I'll talk about that later.

One of the days I was there we took a car and drove to the "Seven Sisters" Falls in Grand Etang Forest Reserve. We took the 'scenic' route since roads are ... less than well marked, but it was a lot of fun and I got to see a fair amount of the island. Grand Etang is a reserve in the center of the island. It is tropical rain forest and it includes the highest peak on the island, which is just under 3000 feet high. One of the things to do in Grenada is to 'jump' the Seven Sisters, which means to jump off each of the seven falls into the pool below. We didn't do this. One of those falls is said to be a 35 foot drop and I'm kind of a chicken. So we hiked out to the last two falls you jump and waded in the pools below them. We also hiked to Honeymoon Falls which is shown in the picture to the right. Hiking in tropical jungle was a fun adventure and I'm glad to have done it, but all told, I think I prefer the mountains, and less heat.

We also saw part of the birth of a calf. A cow was giving birth on a small farm near the trail, so we saw the front legs and nose emerging as we hiked in, and arrived in time to see the afterbirth and watch the calf take it's first steps and drink it's first meal. We kind of wanted to watch the whole thing, but didn't know how long it would take. We had a guide for this hike, and he identified and showed all sorts of plants to us, including cinnamon and nutmeg trees. It was totally fun.

An interesting phenomenon was taking place while I was in Grenada. I thought that it was really foggy and wondered why the fog wasn't burning off. Come to find out, it was Sahara dust. At times dust from the Sahara Desert crosses the Atlantic and blankets the eastern Caribbean. It was amazing. Of course the sky wasn't it's usual brilliant blue, but also the sun wasn't beating down on us continuously, so I felt like it was a fair trade-off. That explains the grey sky in the first picture.

We also went to St. George University where my friend goes to medical school and toured the school. The campus itself is absolutely gorgeous, as well as being surrounded by the most amazing scenery and views.

I had to laugh, though. Grenada has the usual laid-back, get-to-it-when-you-get-to-it lifestyle, and into that you put all these type A medical students. I can see why my friend occasionally gets really frustrated trying to get things done. Luckily for me, on vacation things just aren't urgent. We could take things as they came.

The last night I was there we went to a restaurant called Aquarium. The food was great and you sit out on an open veranda. It was night so we couldn't see the undoubtedly gorgeous view, but there was a lovely breeze off the ocean and the whole thing felt special. Actually, the whole trip felt that way. I hope to do it again some time.

Is it summer yet?

Actually I'd settle for just Spring. This picture is my peach tree, blossoming in our most recent snowfall, which was March 20th. I was at a meeting in Chicago on this day and it snowed all day there. When I returned the next day it had snowed here and this is what my poor little peach tree looked like. Luckily, it didn't drop below freezing so it doesn't look like the blossoms or tree were harmed by the snow.

Unfortunately despite all these blossoms, and now new leaves, the limbs on the back half of the tree are dead. You can't tell from the house because the house side looks like this, but there are no blossoms or new leaves on the half of the tree facing away from the house. I'll have to either cut them off or hire someone to come and do it.

My aloe vera also were snowed on. Yes, the ones I had saved by dragging them into my garage. I left them out when I went to Chicago, and it snowed! Maybe I should pay a little closer attention to the weather forecast, especially when we've been having such a cold year. They also look like they'll be okay, probably because it didn't freeze.

The forecast says it will probably get up to 80 sometime later this week, which apparently will be the first time in about five months and is close to another record. That should reinforce how cold this winter has been for us this year, although they say it's only about the 8th coldest year on record. I'm not sure how they determine that .... most cold days in a row? Lowest temperatures? Lowest temperatures for longest period? *shrugs* Don't know, but this year has seemed pretty cold to me.

My roses are just starting to put out good leaves again after being frozen earlier in the year. And my grass is just starting to grow ... *laughing* just in time to be nice and long by the time I get back from vacation. I'm taking a week starting next Thursday and going to visit a friend in a hot and sunny place. I'm seriously looking forward to it. Which reminds me, I've got a lot of house-cleaning and packing to do before I go, so I'm making this short today. Just wanted to post the picture of the peach tree in the snow.

Starting to warm up

This has really been a much colder year than usual. I was looking at last year's posts and at this time last year I had planted a rose bush and on March 17th I mowed my lawn for the first time of the year. This year, here it is the 13th and the grass is just barely starting to come up in front and not yet showing in the back. My roses started to leaf out and got frozen in the snow. They're beginning to leaf out again, and the peach is just starting to bud out. We've had 2 days that hit low 70s, but it's been generally mid-60s during the day and 40 at night.

It's also been a lot wetter. The news says all the reservoirs, lakes and rivers are at capacity, so we'll have to watch for flooding. *laughing* It's always something, huh? I'd rather have the water than drought, I think.

I've made some progress with the yearly shrub trimming. Mid-60s is actually pretty perfect temps for outside work, though it's cooler than I like for outside stuff in general. I was 'helped' by the snow, in that I trimmed back those big yaupons while they were half-uprooted and laying in my front yard. Saved me having to get on a ladder to trim them. Then I tried to get them back in the ground and upright. The one close to the door should do okay. The other one will survive I think, but it's hanging so far out into the yard that I may have to take it out (or have it taken out). *laughing* My Colorado sister, Monica, called me during/after the snow saying, 'you need to shake that snow off the shrubs/trees or they break'. Too late!Shaking heavy wet snow off of foliage is not knowledge that we usually need down here, just like owning snow shovels isn't something we do. It was pretty amusing watching people shovel snow with dirt shovels.

Monica, her son Brian and his wife Jordan and my grand-niece Julia came down in February to help celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday. We tried to keep it a surprise and the whole Colorado gang descended upon east Texas with me. We had a blast. The weather cooperated mostly and my parents got to play with their kids, grand-kids and great-grand kids. It's amazing to think of four generations. We had a pretty nice group there, with all five of us sibs making it. So we had us five siblings and our parents, plus parts of the siblings families that could come. Besides Brian, Jordan and Julia, we had my brother Gordon's wife, Susan, and youngest son, Ben, my sister Caryn's husband, Rob, and my sister Lynne's son, Jason. It was a nice gathering.

My grand-niece is 21 months old, so she's on the go constantly. We had lots of fun with her. My parents feed a very friendly feral cat and Julia wanted badly to pet it. They were pretty shy of each other, but after some mutual maneuvering around the yard, Julia got to pet it with her Dad's help. Soooooo cute. She gets that curly hair from her Dad. Brian had a mop of thick curly blond hair when he was a toddler.

I have two business trips next week. Tomorrow I'm leaving for the one in Anaheim, then I have one in Chicago at the end of the week. This is going to be a fairly busy year, so I should be getting a bunch of frequent flyer miles.

I'm taking a week of vacation time and going down to Grenada the first week in April to visit a friend. *happy sigh* It's nice to have friends in exotic places. That way you have an excuse to go there. You not only get to visit with someone you haven't seen in a while, you get to see a place you might not have seen otherwise. We should have an amazing time, and I'm already seriously looking forward to it, even though I can't spend much time planning for it until I get these other trips out of the way. *laughing* Okay, that's a lie. I'm already thinking about what to take to Grenada, what I'll need, what to leave here, who to get to check on the cats, etc, etc.

Speaking of the cats, I grew some grass for them. Really. They've been going out and searching for grass along the patio, but because of the cold year, there's nothing growing out there, not even weedy grass. So I got one of those 'grow-your-cat-some-grass' things last weekend and planted it on Saturday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon the grass was three to four inches tall! So I put it down where they could reach it and it's a tremendous hit with them. They both chewed on it for a good while and still periodically go back and chew on it. And no, they're not throwing it up around the house. Apparently it's good grass. Hmmmmm. Maybe if I periodically grow them their own grass they won't go out and eat that weedy grass with the black seed stalks and come in throwing it up on my new carpet. Worth a try.

Anyway, I should start putting things together for my trip tomorrow.

SNOW!!!

Anyone who lives in this area knows what my post will be about today. We officially had 12.5 inches of snow here on Thursday. That's the most EVER recorded for a single day in Dallas. It snowed continuously and heavily from 3:00 am, all through the day and until around midnight. Huge wet sloppy flakes. I took a few pictures. Of course. It's not like I've ever seen it like this around here. This picture to the right was taken Friday morning, looking out my front door toward my little tree over my mailbox ... which looks like a shrub, all weighted down and hanging on the ground. Luckily I didn't have any limbs break on my two little trees.

Dallas dodged at least one large bullet despite the unprecedented snowfall. It never froze. Well it froze last night, but it didn't freeze while the streets were wet and snowy and slushy. They were calling for freezing temperatures every night but it hovered at 33 degrees. So although the work commute wasn't as smooth as usual, there was no ice. No commute at 10-15 mph for 30 miles. I was so happy about that. I could actually enjoy the snow, since it didn't cause me too much trouble.

That being said, I had a flat tire on my way home from work Thursday. I ended up having to change a tire on my car in a snowstorm, standing in ankle deep slushy ice water. Not my most favorite memory. And yes, I have an auto club service. But it only took me about 30 minutes to change it, even in less-than-great conditions, and there's no telling how long it would have taken the autoclub people to get to me. Of course, I was pretty cold, with soaked and icy feet and hands by the time I finished.

Yesterday I went out and spent about four hours cutting back the yaupon in front of my house. I could do it without standing on a ladder even though they've overgrown up to the roof because the weight of the snow partially uprooted them and they were hanging over into my yard. You can see from this picture that they were not quite upright. Usually this one is rubbing under and along the roof edge you see here. So I cut them back and righted them as much as I could yesterday. The one at the far corner of the house I may have to take out. It's hanging way over into the yard and if it doesn't straighten up it will be impossible to mow under. We'll see. I think the one by the front door, which is the one in this picture, may do okay. There are mockingbirds who nest in these yaupons and yesterday morning when I left to run some errands one little mocker was sitting forlornly on a branch sticking out of this snow-covered, bent-over yaupon.

Quite a bit of the snow is still around. Friday it only got to about 36, so only streets were melted, but yesterday I think it got to about 45. The snow was melted enough out of the yaupons to let me cut them back without too much problem, and it wasn't too cold for me to work comfortably out there. And you know how I hate cold. Of course I was bundled up, but it was still not bad. Today there's still snow in yards, but concrete is clear and most trees and shrubs are clear.

This picture is what my peach tree and backyard looked like on Friday morning when I left for work. Everything was absolutely pristine and snow covered. Of course, I'm one of the lucky ones. The news said 200,000 people were without power from snapped and downed electrical lines. And many, many people have damage to house, car or property from broken off and downed tree limbs, or even whole trees. The funniest thing was watching people try to shovel their driveways with regular dirt shovels. No one around here has any reason to own a snow shovel. Plus the cities have no contingency plan for lots of snow. They have sanding trucks galore, but we didn't need sand. We needed snow plows. So there were definitely some amusing aspects of the situation. Amusing in retrospect of course. Even a snowy tire-change is amusing in retrospect. I can't print the words I was screaming as I realized I had a flat tire, and was getting over and off the highway. I had to replace the tire since I drove on it flat, but at least the wheel rim was okay. I wasn't staying on the side of the highway to change that thing, and the next exit wasn't that far.

So we had some snowy advneture days here in the South. It's okay occasionally, but I hope it's not going to happen a lot. I really will have to move farther south.

Shopping!!!! :D

I really love to shop. It just makes me incredibly happy. I'm sure it's a serious personality flaw, but oh well. I'd like to claim that I'm simply doing my part to stimulate the economy, but the truth is, I just love to spend money.


From the title you can probably tell what I've been doing today. My intentions were good when I started out. I was going to run a couple of minor errands and shop for that oh-so-elusive 80th Birthday gift for my Mom. I did do those things .... too.


Here's how the morning went:


I left the house about 8:00 am, and started out by taking clothes to the cleaners. I think this may have been the only stop I made today that I didn't buy something, and of course I will buy their services when I go back to pick up those clothes. Next was Walmart for a hand vacuum, a current/voltage detector and a couple of surge protectors. Then I ran over to PetSmart to stock up on cat food and cat litter, and stopped by Staples while I was near to get some sheet protectors for trading cards. Next I went to Michael's (crafts and hobbies place) and got some poster frames because I ran out in January hanging calendars. Then I went to the Mall. While I was at the Mall I stopped in Barnes & Noble (bought a book ... yes, only one), J.C.Penney (bought clothes), Christopher & Banks (bought clothes) and Macy's (bought clothes) and window-shopped at multiple jewelry stores. I managed not to go into any jewelry stores, so no purchases there. Ah! I went into Things Remembered and didn't buy anything, so that was two places this morning where I didn't spend money. After leaving the Mall, I ran by Fry's Electronics for a possible gift idea and bought it. Then I stopped for gas (bought gas), and stopped at a fast food place to pick up lunch (bought food). I pulled back into my garage about 12:10.


*laughing* Not bad, huh? That's nine stops (counting the Mall as one), or 13 places I went to where I could have spent money. And I did spend money at 11 them. Pretty good average. And in only four hours. That's what I call a productive morning. I'm lucky all those places are within about a 5 mile radius of my house.


No, there's nothing wrong with RoboVac. I've been wanting a small hand vacuum for those small spills of cat litter or other things that I hate getting the upright or Robo out for. Robo still does a great job. Zoe is getting to the point that she doesn't run and hide whenever it's running, although she still stays well clear of it. Addy ignores it completely.


It's nice and sunny out today, if somewhat cooler than I like. It's about 45 degrees, give or take a few degrees. I'm watching the morning temps these days so I can drag the aloe vera back into the garage if necessary. This morning it was 38. It's supposed to stay above freezing until Tuesday, then hit 26 again. We've had a LOT of freezes this winter. We usually get one, maybe two good solid freezes a winter, so this one has been unusual. We call those "hard freezes". That's a Southern term and it means a freeze down into the mid-20's or lower, as opposed to a freeze right at 32 degrees or hovering just below freezing. I'm not sure where the term "hard freeze' started, but Northerners don't use it, so I suspect it originated with the citrus growers. Probably if it's going to be a 'hard freeze' they have to start countermeasures to save their crops. Just a guess.


Hmmmmmm. since I was so productive this morning, maybe I'll continue and get some house chores done.

Later.

Success!

It's been a fairly productive day so far for a Saturday. I got up and ran to Walmart at around 7:00 am. My new chair was being delivered between 10:00 am and noon, so I wanted to get a couple of errands run first.

One of the things I bought at Walmart this morning was a 'tree' floor lamp, a lamp with three staggered fixtures on it. I had a lamp like that before but it disintegrated when I moved it to replace the flooring. Literally, the base crumbled into fragments when I picked it up to move it. So I bought another one this morning and when I got home I assembled it. Of course it requires three 60 W light bulbs and I only had 75 W bulbs that weren't in use. I went around the house switching out 75 W bulbs for 60 W bulbs in light fixtures, until I had three. Then when I put them in, the top of the three fixtures on the new lamp wouldn't light up! Of course I tried more than one bulb. I think everyone's made that mistake.

That left me with a dilemma. Take the lamp back to the store since it doesn't work right? As you probably know if you've been reading this very long, I hate making multiple store trips, and especially for a $20.00 lamp. So I figured, what the the hell. It's broken anyway, I'll take it apart. That's something that I enjoy ... disassembling things to see how they work. I took the fixture apart (yes, I unplugged the lamp first) and figured out how it worked. The on/off switch fell into pieces as I was taking it apart, but it was pretty obvious how it was supposed to operate. So I re-assembled it so that it should work correctly, and I'll be damned if the crazy thing doesn't work fine now. Go figure. While I was fooling with it though, I realized that I need to get one of those devices that lets you test whether there's current to a couple of leads because that's the one thing I couldn't check when I had the fixture apart ... whether current was reaching it. Still, if something's broken and not worth getting a professional to fix it, might as well try to fix it myself, is what I think. I'm going to discard it anyway, so nothing's lost if I can't fix it, and maybe I can. This time it worked.

My chair was delivered on time and I've already sat in it and watched a TV program with Zoe in my lap. This picture is of her breaking in the new chair herself, although you can almost not see the chair for all the protection I have over it while the cats get used to it. I think Zoe's figured out that she can't get under it, so they'll have to give up on that as a hiding place. Which is fine. I have worries about them and the recliner/rocker mechanisms if someone sits in it while they're under it. Now, I hope I can keep the cat-kids from destroying it too quickly. I'm glad I went with the red (Burgundy) chair instead of the blue, even though it isn't even close to the wall color. It's far enough from the wall not to clash, and it's the same shade of red/burgundy in the pattern on my couch. Works.

The old chair is in the garage. Yesterday evening I tried to drag it out the front door and got it stuck in the doorway. Luckily a young couple were walking by with their baby in a stroller (it's been in the mid-70s here this last week). The guy offered to help and I accepted. It only had to go five more feet into the garage, but we had to unwedge it from the door. People are just generally nice, I think. So this next week I should be able to drag it to the curb for the garbage folks.

After the chair was delivered I made a trip out to the place I found that takes chemicals, old paint, batteries, etc. I finally got that leaky battery out of my garage and gone. So see. Fairly productive day. It's raining now, so my productivity has come to a grinding halt. I was considering getting out and trimming shrubbery since the weather has been so warm. About an hour ago though it began a steady, mild rain. This being Texas, it could clear up within the next hour, but I think they're calling for rain the rest of the day, clearing out tonight. Oh, darn. Guess I'll have to find something inside to amuse myself. It feels weird not to have to move anything or rearrange anything or clean anything. Weird, but nice. I suppose I'll be forced to just enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Two posts

I did get two posts in this weekend. Surprise, surprise. Of course it's a three-day weekend, so that helps.

I've been fairly productive actually. My house and garage are both organized and neat. And I actually sealed all the grout on my new tile yesterday. That was something of a chore, but I've been waiting to do it. The grout sealer stuff says to do it in a well ventilated area, with the house opened up or whatever. It hasn't really been warm enough since I had the tile installed to have the house wide open until yesterday. It reached about 66 yesterday afternoon, which is a lot warmer than it's been. So I opened all the doors and windows and sealed grout. The cats where immensely helpful, meaning that they were in my way and determined not to stay out of the stuff that says to keep pets away for about 2 hours. They just tracked through it like it was no big deal and had no clue why I was so excitable. To me the smell was strong ... not really unpleasant like some chemicals, just strong. They didn't seem to mind the smell at all and made no effort to avoid the stuff. Weird. Plus Addy has a strong drive to get into whatever I don't want her in. She probably would have ignored the stuff if I hadn't been trying to keep her out of it.

Here's a picture of the two of them sitting looking out the open door. They're still somewhat wary about going outside. The black demon terror shows up just often enough to keep us all on our toes. And yes, that huge, fuzzy, calico-colored creature is a cat. A massively overweight, Zoe cat. I've been struggling with that because Addy has been dropping weight lately. You can't really see in this picture but her shoulder blades and hips are beginning to be a little too noticeable. She's 14 years old, so it's probably just her age, but in keeping her well-fed, I'm over-feeding Zoe. It's a balance I'm not doing well with.

I checked on-line and the City garbage service will pick up furniture from your curb if you warn them it will be there before the day of pickup. So I'll probably call them Tuesday and drag that chair out there for the Thursday regular pickup. I also discovered that there's a waste center for hazardous chemicals that takes batteries and is open on Saturday. Whatever did we do before the internet? Rhetoric question, because I know the answer. We used the yellow pages and called around and asked our friends, etc, etc. Word of mouth was probably one of the most important ways people found things. Now the internet is. I still tend to do things the old way first before I realize I can find the answer on the internet. That also dates me. Most of my friends go to the internet first without even consciously thinking about it.

My new chair is red. Burgundy, the store calls it, but it looks red to me. I hope it doesn't clash with my red wall. I actually bought a denim blue one ('paige blue' ... where do they find these names?) so there would be no possibility of a wall clash, but when I got home I realized that I really wanted the red chair. So I called the store and switched them out. Hopefully it really will be the red one that arrives next Saturday. It's a very comfortable rocker/recliner. I took my shoes off in the store and sat in it the way I usually sit at home, with my feet up under me. I wanted it to be comfortable the way I normally sit, and also even though it's not a big chair I wanted to make sure there was enough room for me to curl up with my feet up in it. And if it clashes somewhat with the wall I'll probably be the only one who notices. It won't be up against that wall anyway.

My Mom's 80th birthday is next month and my sisters and I are working on getting a sizable percentage of the family clan there. It should be a blast. I'm working on a birthday gift. It's surprisingly difficult because the styles are soooooo bad right now. My 80 year old Mom in peasant blouses or low-cut smock tops is not an attractive thought. At least I have about a month to work on it.

2010 !?

Amazing. Time continues to speed by and I continue to have trouble keeping up. We're half way through January, 2010. It feels almost surreal.

I bought a chair yesterday, which they'll deliver next weekend. Now I just have to figure out what to do with my dead recliner. The poor thing has been destroyed by the cats over the years, so it's probably safe to assume no one will want it. So how do I get rid of it? Store it in the garage with the battery back-up that I also don't know how to get rid of? Hmmmm. I think I haven't told that story. It happened when I was moving everything into the garage so that the carpet could be replaced. After disconnecting all my computer stuff from the battery back-up, I lifted it and thought: "What the hell is dripping?" as I watched holes being eaten in my carpet. The battery backup was dripping battery acid! I ran through the house with it to the garage, and then back-tracked my trail of drips, spreading baking soda on everything that looked wet. The only place that ended up damaged was the carpet in the computer room where it first started dripping and I stood there watching it eat through the carpet. LUCKILY, it was the old carpet I was replacing, not the new carpet I was having installed. I'd have been sick. So that battery back-up is inside three cardboard boxes in my garage. It doesn't seem to continue dripping as long as I keep it level, but what do I do with it now? It's a Belkin, so it's not like it was an off-brand or something. I'll have to see who will take and dispose of a battery which leaks acid.

Back to the chair. I've got to figure out how to dispose of the old chair. It's not going to fit in the back of my Subaru, even if I could lift it into there. So I'll have to see how I can get it hauled off. I still haven't found a couch I like, but at least I found a nice chair.

I went to my parents house for Christmas and it was snowing hard when I left to drive there. Pretty, but driving in snow is not my favorite. I live in Texas and often visit my sister in Colorado around Christmas time, so I can drive in it if I have to but it's not my favorite. And my sister will tell you, I'm a total rookie at snow driving. This has probably been one of the coldest years I remember since living in Texas. We've had snow three times in December this year, and snow on Christmas is especially rare. We've also had over a week of sub-freezing temps and several days in the teens. Very unusual for here. Anyway, I dragged most of my aloe vera into the garage once I moved my house stuff back into the house. Three of the plants however, I covered up and left on the back porch. This picture is what they looked like when I got back from Christmas at my folks. Needless to say, the cover got blown off by the snowstorm. Also needless to say, these guys will not survive. Not after snow and multiple days below freezing. Looks like I'll have pots to split some of the other aloe vera into this year.

I'm still working on the stuff left in the garage, throwing away stuff I don't really need and deciding how and where to store the stuff I'm keeping. The house is pretty well set now, ready for new furniture as I find it. And now the garage is shaping up. I intend to keep it clean and picked up, so it doesn't get so nasty again. Hopefully I can keep up with that good intention. I storing my Christmas stuff out there now rather than in my closet. Plus I'm storing my sewing machine and my anime posters in the garage, so my closets are much cleaner and more organized. Soon my garage will be too. I've got to find a good place to store the extra carpet they left with me too. So this is my weekend to be organized and try to get everything around the house organized.

Last weekend I went to see Avatar for the second time with my sister. The first time I saw it, I went with my friend who was home from med school on her winter break. I'm blaming her for the cold weather because now that she's gone back to school it's been warming up. We had some great times while she was in town though.

I really enjoyed Avatar. Both times. I saw it in 3D both times and am really glad I saw it in the theater. I often just wait for things to come out on DVD, but this movie was definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

One that I wish I had seen on the big screen is the most recent Star Trek movie. I bought the DVD out of curiosity because I've been a Star Trek fan since I was a kid watching the original series as it came out. (Oops, just seriously dated myself). This movie was great! They did an awesome job of making an interesting, action-filled movie, with a unique plot in an alternate universe, but including enough of the original traits and sayings of the original characters to keep a ST fan happy. I think I've watched the DVD 5 or so times. Fun!

Anyway, just thought I'd get my first blog of the new year in this weekend. I may shoot for another one if I get tired of organizing.