I'm Back!

 Boy, I really whiffed on that 30 days of thankfulness, didn't I?

I mean blogging about it, not at being thankful.  I had good intentions, but you know what they say about those.  In my defense, I was kind of busy.  See, I went up to Memphis Wednesday evening and spent the night with Cody, so I pretty much spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning cooking.  I didn't really figure you'd want to hear the play by play of me making broccoli casserole and cranberry sauce.  

I got to Cody's apartment Wednesday evening, and he already had his tree up.

and his apartment decorated. He and his roommate are looking after their friend's cat, and she mussed up the tree skirt.  I straightened it out, and she mussed it up again.  Cody says she's not peeing on it, but it smelled mighty strong over there.  Oh, and he has a hamster, too.   He said I probably wouldn't see it, but I did.  It's so teeny. 

He calls it his robohamster.  I'm not sure what kind it is, but it sure is cute.  

Thursday, we went to Brennan's house for Thanksgiving, and naturally the overthinking introvert was dreading it the whole time -- ever since Cody told me that's what he wanted to do.  Also, just as naturally, I did all that dreading for nothing.  

Brennan's family was so nice, and made me feel so welcome.  They thanked me for bringing food, and Brennan's dad complimented my broccoli casserole.  It's Cody's favorite.  I have to make it every year.  The recipe is linked in the right sidebar, you know, if you're wondering what broccoli casserole is.  All the food was very delicious, and I ate way too much.  

By the way, I told Brennan I wanted to make a good first impression on her parents, so I wore my Weird Al T-shirt.  She said, "Awesome!"

I was afraid they wouldn't be a football watching family -- because Brennan isn't a football person -- but they had the games on, at least until we left.  Then they gave me the entire turkey to bring home, what was left after they'd carved the breasts off of it.  There was a lot of meat left on it, but none of them wanted the thing.  They were going to throw it all away, but Brennan's mom asked if I wanted it.  I said, "Sure.  I'll take it home and make soup out of it."  I'm probably going to boil it down and pick the meat tomorrow.  I've already got celery and onions, so I'll just need to get some carrots to cut up into it and decide if I want to make rice or noodles to go in it and I'll have enough soup to feed an army.  And I really need to get the old stuff out of my deep freeze...

After dinner, Cody and Brennan drove me out to the wedding venue they had booked, and it looked really nice.  They are determined to have an outdoor wedding and this place has a really nice gazebo, plus an indoor reception hall.  Cody said if the weather turns out to be inclement, they can move the ceremony inside pretty easily.  The best part is the venue comes with a wedding coordinator's services included, so that takes a lot of stress off of them. 

The date is set for May 20th.  

I was really thankful that I had finally upgraded my phone plan to unlimited data and a personal hotspot, because I was able to watch the game the whole way out there, and the whole way back, and also when we decided to go back to Cody's apartment.  I'm telling you, the signal up in Memphis is so strong!  I don't even get 5G here, but I had it the whole time up there.  

All in all, it was a good Thanksgiving.

Friday morning, I was up bright and early ready to come home.  I was pleasantly surprised at how empty the roads were.  I figured everybody would be out shopping, but no, there were very few people out and about.  I made it home in plenty of time to watch Texas beat Baylor, and began taking down my fall decorations in preparation to decorate for Christmas. 

This morning, the kids came down and helped me put up my tree.  

Cody insisted he was tired and needed a break before putting the tinsel on the tree. 

I'd wanted Cody to put up my outside lights today, too, but he didn't because it was raining.  I'm going to try to get it done tomorrow.  But anyway, here is the finished tree.  

That was my Thanksgiving 2022.  I hope you and yours had a good Thanksgiving, too. 

Monday

Monday isn't moan-day when you don't have to go to work...all week....

And it isn't a moan-day when all -- and I do mean all -- of your teams won over the weekend.  Yes, even Navy pulled the upset over 20th ranked UCF, and Dallas beat the Minnesota Vikings so badly CBS made the Switch Of Shame, and cut to the Bengals vs Steelers game. 

And the kicker formerly known as Maybe Maher hit two -- yes, two -- count'em two -- 60 yard field goals.  From here on out, he will be known as Money Maher.  

By the way, my friend Amy and her husband went to the LSU game, because they're both alums.  It was so cold and it rained the whole time, that after the game, I messaged her and asked her if she was frozen. She replied that they'd left before half time and finished watching from their hotel room.  Smart move! 

Still, thinking about being cold and wet reminded me of this one time when I was in the Navy, stationed in Italy.  We always had this big carnival thing over the fourth of July weekend called Festa Americana.  Since I was on Auxiliary Security Force, I had to work with the regular Security -- which is what we called the military police, Shore Patrol being the sailors on watch from whatever ships are in port.  

That particular year, winter hung on so long the temps were still getting down into the 40s in July.  In Southern Italy in July.  Not only that, it rained the whole weekend that weekend.  Those of us working Festa had to stand out in it all day long.  Sunday evening, when it was over and they'd closed the park, we were all back at the RV that was the police headquarters, huddled around one of those half drum barbeque pits, burning everything that would burn and a few things that shouldn't have been, when one of my shipmates popped up and said, "It just doesn't get any better than this."  

For you youngsters out there, look up the old Heineken beer commercials from around that time.  

But I digress...

Back to my regularly scheduled blog post.  While I was doing all that football watching, I finished the leg of my sock, 

and started the heel flap.  I had to restart it twice, because I couldn't remember how I did the first one.  You see, some patterns call for you to do the slip stitches on the purl side, and others do it on the knit side.  It doesn't really matter how you do it -- six of one kind, half dozen of another kind of thing.  I had to start over because I was doing my slips on the purl side.  A few rows in, I decided I didn't like that.  I'm pretty sure I always do my slips on the knit side, and doing them on the purl side just didn't feel right.  I ripped the whole thing out and started over, and was chugging away when I realized, a few rows back I'd forgotten to slip the first stitch of a couple of rows.  

I always say, "Is it really knitting if you don't rip and start over at least three times?"

Look here!  My first bloom of the year!

Unfortunately, it looks like this one is the only one that is going to bloom this year.  I'm not sure what happened, or what I did wrong.  I usually get bunches and bunches of blooms.  It may be because I repotted them all last spring, or maybe they got too much sun while I had them in the carport for those few weeks.  

Also, I'm sure you will all be pleased to know the Christmas cards I ordered came in.  I started to take a picture, but since most of you will be getting one or the other of them next year, I decided not to spoil the surprise.  

Of course, if you have a memory like mine, it won't matter because you won't remember anyway. 

Once I got them all signed and addressed, I got a wild hair and got my metallic markers and colored the seals. 

Not all of them, but most of them got highlighted.  It really makes the designs pop, and I think I'm going to keep up with it.  What I need to do is find a better way to melt the little wax pellets.  Cody got me this melter a few years ago, 

but it's only good if you want to do all the seals in the same color, and only practical if you have a bunch of seals to make at once.  I mean, yeah, I do a lot of Christmas cards, but I don't want to make all the seals the same color.  

So, I'm left with holding a little metal spoon over a tea light candle until the wax inside melts.  I've found some spoon holder things on Amazon, so if I don't get one for Christmas, I might just spring for one before next year.  

In other news, I had to run into town to pick up a few things from Walmart.  I thought by going on a Monday morning, it wouldn't be a complete madhouse.  I thought wrong.  Not only was it total chaos, I think half of ADP was in there.  

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what was so important that I had to go to Walmart during a holiday week.  Well, I'll tell you.  I had to get the free Thanksgiving items from ibotta.  

This was all there was, plus a turkey that I didn't dig back out of the freezer just for the photo.  It wasn't much this year, but every little bit helps.  Besides, those Bob Evans mashed potatoes are the bomb!

And finally, since it is officially Thanksgiving week, you know I had to post this.

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it.

First Batch

The first batch of Christmas cards are decorated and ready to drop into the mail!  

I'm almost done with cards for this year.  Of course, I'm still waiting on the ones I ordered, and a couple more addresses before I can finish.  Which brings up the point, if you commented on my post that you want a card, but didn't give me your address....well, you're not getting a card.  At least, not until I get your address.  

I've got to make some more wax seals, as well.  I stopped pouring the melted wax directly onto the envelope because for some reason, the seal would end up roughly triangular in shape.  I never figured out what I was doing wrong, so a year or so ago, I started pouring the wax onto a silicone baking mat, then using glue dots to stick them to the envelopes. It works much better that way.  

Because I am...um... me, I spent the entire first half of the Texas vs. Kansas game to sort all my wax beads by color.  

It just always annoyed me to try to pick out specific colors from the little bags they came in.  Somewhere around here, I have some little boxes with compartments in them.  If I can find them, I can sort the beads into those, and not have to fool with it in the future.  

By the way, just a bit of unsolicited advice; if you ever decide you want to get into sealing wax and stamps, spring for the quality wax instead of this cheap stuff.  It melts so much more smoothly and makes nicer seals.  Not that this is bad wax.  It's just not great wax. So go for the great wax, even though it might cost a bit more. 

In other news, I made a simmer pot to put on top of my wood stove. 

It has pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon sticks, ginger, cloves, and just a drop of vanilla extract in it, and it also has the added benefit of humidifying the house during these dry winter days.  The downside to this is, my stove doesn't really get hot enough for this to steam like it needs to, so I ended up pouring it into my crock pot.

It can simmer there all day long, and will likely be much safer anyway. 

Apropos of nothing, look what I picked up at Walmart yesterday!  

 They were just so cute, I couldn't resist.  

Well, none of my friends claimed Jesse's unused food and treats, so yesterday I messaged someone who is involved with a local animal rescue group and offered it to her.  She came out this afternoon and picked it all up.  

Let me tell you, that woman likes to talk!  She talked so much, I missed Texas' first touchdown.  She was very appreciative of the stuff, though.  She kept asking me who I wanted her to give the food to.  I told her to give it to whoever needs it most.  She said she'd probably donate the dry food to the local pound, because they're always running low.  

That's about it for today.   I have to get off here because I need the computer to watch Bedlam, while I'll be watching LSU on the TV.  

Later, peeps. 

Success!

I have successfully completed all my Thanksgiving shopping!  

I'd done most of it last week, but I wanted to wait until closer to Thanksgiving to get the fresh stuff -- you know, like the celery and strawberries.  I had a moment of panic when I couldn't find any fresh cranberries after I'd told Cody and Brennan I'd make fresh sauce, but I went to another grocery store in town and they had some.  

The bad news is, they didn't have the good recipe on the back, just the simple one with cranberries, water, and sugar.  The one I've been using calls for cloves and apple juice.  I'm trying to find it online, but so far, no luck.  All the ones I see call for orange juice instead.  I just remember it had apple juice and cloves, but I can't remember what else. I'll keep looking.  I've got a few days left. 

But if anyone has any fresh cranberries, and you happen to look on the back of the bag and the recipe calls for apple juice and cloves....please do me a solid and send me the recipe.   I'll be sure and write it down this time. 

The shopping successfully completed, I came home and put on some cheesy Christmas movies and began working on getting my cards ready to send.  

All I did today was get them signed and addressed, but as usual, I put out a call on Facebook for anyone who wants one to just let me know. I had a few people take me up on it, and if you're reading this and want a Christmas card, the same goes for you.  The caveat is, if I'm going to send you a card, I need your address.  

Anyway, between the ones I already send cards to, and the new requests, I did something I've never done before.  I ran out of cards!  

Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I got on Amazon and ordered more. They should arrive Monday, which will still give me plenty of time to get them addressed and in the mail by Wednesday.  Or Friday.  

I still have to get the envelopes decorated, but that's the fun part.  I should whiz through that in no time. 

While watching Football.  Tomorrow.

I’m Free!

 I’m free!  Until the 28th, that is.

Yep, today was my last day of work until after Thanksgiving. It almost seems surreal, and though I know it’ll go by so fast, I’m going to enjoy every minute of my time off.

I’d enjoy it more if I were getting paid for it, but hey, you can’t win them all. 

So, what am I going to do on my 10 days off?  Not much. 

There is so much I need to do, but in reality, I'll probably sit in front of the TV catching up on my cheesy Hallmark and Great American Family Christmas movies.  And knitting.  I also want to get my Christmas cards ready and mailed.  I'd planned on starting working on them last weekend, but I just didn't.  No excuses.  I just didn't do it. 

The weather ought to put me in the mood, though, because it's supposed to be in the upper 20s every night this weekend, with highs only reaching the low 50s.  Which reminds me, I finally found an accurate winter forecast.

I see many cups of hot tea in my near future.  In fact, I think I'll go fix some as soon as I get this posted.  

By the way, did you know the Peacock TV app also shows the cheesy Hallmark movies?  I know that now. And apparently, if you do watch them on Peacock TV, you don't have to watch a bunch of commercials.  

Also by the way, I am working on a few Christmas songs on my piano that I intend to record for you.  I may spend some time this week trying to figure out that new recording software I downloaded months ago, and never used.  However, if I am going to record some Christmas music for you, I'd better get off of here and practice a bit. 

Laters.

Whiskers On Wednesday

I’m sure you will all be pleased to know I slept much better last night— if only because you don’t have to listen to me whine about being sleepy.

But I’m still sleepy.

I guess it's just all part of getting old. 

We had a bit of exciting news in that an earthquake hit West Texas.  The news report said it could be felt in El Paso, but my brother who lives there said he didn't.  That would have been so cool if he had.  On the other hand, I live very close to the New Madrid Faultline, so I'd be more likely to get hit by a major earthquake than he would anyway. 

Other than that, today has been just another dull Wednesday, so here is a Whiskers On Wednesday. Lookit!  The cat is in the cat bed I bought her!

She doesn't get into it much, so it's kind of a big deal.  

In knitting news, progress is being made on the sock, albeit slowly. 

Just a couple more inches and I'll be ready to start the heel flaps.  One of my knitting friends suggested that the heels not being deep enough could be why my socks suddenly started falling down, but I'm not sure about that.  I haven't changed how I knit them.  Still 36 rows, and I pick up 18 gusset stitches.  

What I think happened is that I normally cast on with a size 3 needle, then switch to a smaller one to do the actual knitting.  Perhaps I forgot to switch needles, and just started knitting the whole sock on size 3, then just assumed that's how I knit them.  I don't know.    

I just know I paid too much for this high dollar sock yarn to be knitting socks I can't wear.  

Sleepy

I don't know what is wrong with me, but I have not been sleeping well these last few days.  I'm sure the time change has something to do with it, and getting old isn't helping things either.  As in, the older I get, the harder it is to adjust to the aforementioned time changes. 

Last night, I lay awake most of the night, finally falling asleep sometime well after midnight.  When one gets up at 4:30, that makes for a short night indeed.  And a foggy brain.  Oh, I've got things to talk about,  I just can't get my brain organized enough to get started. 

But the good news is, I only have two more days of work and then I'm off until the 28th. Unless the plant changes things at the last minute, that is.  How nice it will be to sleep normal hours, even if only for a few days. 

Whelp, Cody wants us to go spend Thanksgiving day with Brennan's family.  I don't really want to, but it appears that's going to be the only way I get to spend holidays with my son any more.  Go spend them with Brennan's family.  He says I can come up the day before and stay with him, so I don't have to drive at night, because I can't see.  I hate driving in Memphis anyway, and sure don't want to be doing it after dark.  I'm going to take his favorite broccoli casserole and a cream cheese pie.  I'm waiting to hear back from him to see if he wants me to do cranberry sauce, too.  

Shhh, don't tell him, but I plan on making my own dinner anyway, so I can have the leftovers.  With that in mind, I was looking in my deep freeze to see if I had some sweet potatoes in there.  I found them, but I also found some leftover turkey -- from 2017.  

I thought briefly about thawing it out and seeing if it was still good, but decided to take the better part of valor and tossed it. It made me realize, though, that I really need to clean that deep freeze out.  I have no idea what all is in there, so that will probably be one of my projects for the week I'm off. 

 When I'm not sleeping, that is. 

And one final note, it was 17 years ago today that I made my very first blog post -- which was a sketch I'd drawn of my cat Squeaky as she sat staring into that space only cats can see. 

 

My questionable drawing skills aside, it's been quite the ride.  I am thankful for each and every one of you who have stuck with me throughout the years. 

Here's to many more. 

Wee Doggies

It was cold this morning when I got up.  My phone said 30°, but I'm pretty sure the official reading comes from the airport in Greenwood.  It should be pretty close, but I've noticed at times there is a degree or two difference than what the app says and what I read here at the house.  

Except that I couldn't check my temp here, because my thermometer broke.  It was one of those old fashioned ones with the red liquid inside a little glass.  I noticed a couple of days ago the glass had broken.  It had to have been after I got home from the store Friday, because I surely would have bought a new one.

Be that as it may, it was cold.  Cold enough my heater came on, and I keep it set at 65 at night.  That little fire sure felt good, too.  I really want to widen the doorway between my kitchen/dining area and my living room so that the heat can reach into there, too.  You can definitely tell the difference in the temps as soon as you walk through. 

Well, I did what many of you might consider to be a very doofusy thing.  And what was this doofusy thing I did?  I blew up my DuoLingo. 

See, I've been using the DuoLingo app to try to learn French -- and also to refresh my Spanish and Italian -- but mostly French. 

They recently changed the way they structure the lessons.  In the old way, they had the lessons arranged in what we colloquially called a learning tree.  Like so:

For those of you unfamiliar with the app, each language tree had several units.  Each unit had these groups of lessons -- indicated by the circles in the photo above.  Each circle had usually five or six levels, and each level had about 5 lessons in it.  Once you completed enough lessons to reach level 1, it unlocked the next circle, and you could begin working on the lessons in it. 

Recently, they changed from a lesson tree to a language path, like so:

I'm not sure I like this way, because you can't skip around like you could in the old way.  For example, if I got tired of doing lessons about food, I could go do a few about animals, or family, or phrases, or whatever.  With this new way, you're stuck doing lessons about food until you complete the set.  

The problem was, when they switched me from the old way to the new way, if I'd completed even one level of a set, they counted the whole set as complete.  I'm guessing that's what they'd done, but I don't really know.  What I do know is they jumped me too far ahead, and it's like I've missed out on a bunch of stuff.  I mean, they were referring to stuff I hadn't learned yet.  They did this in both French and Spanish.  

I got so frustrated that I deleted my progress in both courses and completely started over.  It wasn't so bad with the Spanish, as I'd just started, but I'd been working on my French for over three years.  I had over a 1000 day streak -- longer really, because when I first started, I didn't know about streak freezes. 

Anyway, I'm back to square one on both.  Not that it's that big of a deal.  The goal is to get a basic foundation in the language, not get through the course as fast as possible.  

Finally, I got the cat moved out of the laundry room and into the kitchen.

She approves.

By the way, her tail boo boo seems to be healing just fine, so I've put away the Betadine for now.  She approves of that, too. 

Oh, and I almost forgot, when LSU beat Alabama in overtime, the crowd got so loud they set off the seismograph in the geology department:

Pretty rad, huh?  

A Present!

 Lookit!  I got a birthday present!  From my sister!

I don't often get birthday presents, but I can't really complain because I don't often send birthday presents either.  I do good just to get everyone a Christmas present.  Heh, one year, I was determined to send everyone in my family a birthday card, and I did.  Alas, it only lasted that one year. 

This year, my sister surprised me and sent me some new house shoes.  They are so soft and warm, and I love them. 

They got here just in time for this cold spell we're expecting.  

In other news, I'm making progress on the Irish Hiking scarf.

It's a pretty simple pattern, and the only thinking I have to do is to keep track of the row count.  It's a fun knit, but knitting such a large item as a scarf can get tedious, so for variety, I finally cast on the second Fab Forty sock, after letting the first one languish for several weeks.

I'm trying to get back to knitting more of my own socks.  I used to wear hand knit socks all the time, but then suddenly, they stopped fitting.  I'm not sure if my feet got skinny or what, but for some reason, they were always falling down inside my boots.  

I've switched to a smaller cast-on and needles, so maybe having some negative ease will help.  

We shall see...

When It Rains

It pours.  

Sometime today, the cat tried to skin her own tail.  

OK, OK, it wasn't that bad, but she did come in with about a quarter sized chunk of skin missing right at the base of her tail.  I didn't take her to the vet.  I just wrapped her up in a towel -- which she did not like -- and dabbed the wound with some diluted Betadine -- which she liked even less, and let me know in no uncertain terms.   But I got it done.  

When I let her loose, she ran up and swatted me with her paw.  Just to let me know how displeased she was.  Anyway, I'm going to keep an eye on it, and try to put Betadine on it a couple of times a day.  If it shows signs of getting infected, then off to the vet we'll go.  

By the way, I googled, and diluted iodine is safe for cats.  

In other news, don't let these beautiful skies fool you.  

It's about to get cold, and it's supposed to get here sometime during the night to night.  I'm ready, and so is my woodbox:

That'll be enough to get a fire going in the morning, then I'll trudge out to the wood pile and get more. I've still got some bigger pieces that need to be split down.  I might be able to get out and do a bit of that, too.  

What with the cold on the way, and the lows supposed to be getting down into the low 30s/upper 20s this next week, my big project for today was to move my outside plants into their winter home.  

That little shelf gets surprisingly dirty sitting out there all summer, so the first thing I had to do was to wash it down really well.  Once that was done, the rest was easy.  Now they're all settled in and ready for winter.  

The only other thing I did, besides the usual payday errands and household chores, was to start gathering up Jesse's things so I can find them a new home.  If anyone local needs some dog stuff, I have food, treats, vitamins, a bed, leashes and collars...lots of stuff.  Just let me know if you want it.  You'll get first crack before I advertise it on Facebook. 

Well, I suppose there is no point in trying to diet until January now. 

 How in the world are we supposed to stay thin in a world with such good tasting stuff?  And if you're one of those who says nothing tastes as good as being thin feels, you're just eating the wrong food. 

Now I have a hankering for biscuits and gravy....

And finally, I kept forgetting to mention it, but I did get to see the eclipse early Tuesday morning.  It reached totality right about the time I was leaving for work, so it worked out just right.  

ADP Logic

The logic -- or lack thereof, rather -- at my workplace is simply astounding.  Last week, they announced that they were shutting down the plant for the entirety of Thanksgiving week.  This week, they are having us stay over an hour late every day.  Today, they posted the weekend work schedule...and the entire plant is working Saturday.  At time and a half. 

Wut?....

Here's the thing, if they shut us down Thanksgiving week to save money on Payroll, then have us work this Saturday and next Saturday (still don't know about that, though)  at time and a half, then that is the equivalent of having us work Monday through Wednesday.  Thursday and Friday are already paid holidays, so what have they accomplished?

The only thing that makes logical sense is if they're shutting production down to deal with a maintenance issue, or something similar.  But they haven't told us that, and probably won't.  We're not supposed to know what's going on.  Just keep your head down and mindlessly do your job like a good little robot.  

You know, the first director of operations we had out there didn't even want clocks installed anywhere in the plant, because he didn't want us to know what time it was.  We started work when the buzzer went off, and didn't stop until the lunch buzzer went off.  We went back to work at the end of our 20 minute lunch break, then worked until the end of shift buzzer went off.  

I guess he never realized how easy it is to buy a watch.  

Anywho...

There I was at work, just a working away when I overheard the following conversation between two of my coworkers (paraphrased for clarity and due to bad memory).

Coworker #1:  was talking about Rep Bennie Thompson -- who for those of you don't know represents Mississippi's second congressional district in the House.

Coworker #2:  Bennie Thompson?  Who is he?

Coworker #1:  He's our representative in Congress!

Coworker #2:  Then who is Tate Reeves?  

Tate Reeves, Gentle Reader, is our state governor. And that sums up in a nutshell exactly what is wrong with this country.   And that coworker is not one I would normally consider stupid.  I mean, I do have some incredibly stupid coworkers, but she isn't one of them. 

In other news, look what we have coming next week:

 Check out those lows starting Saturday!  With that in mind, I got my mini chainsaw out and cut up some branches that had fallen in the yard.  That little thing is handy for 1 - 2" branches, which are too big to snap over my knee, and too small to drag out the big chainsaw.  I'm thankful I got that little thing when it was on a Prime day deal .... or something.  

Eh, I guess that's about it for today.  I think I'm going to go knit on my scarf and watch a few episodes of The Chosen.  I'm trying to rewatch seasons 1 & 2 before season 3 is released next month. 

Or next week -- if you're lucky enough to have a theater nearby showing it. 

The Right To Vote

 Today I am thankful I live in a country where I have the right to vote.  

There are many countries where women aren't allowed to vote, but I live in America where I can make my voice heard.  

I'm even more thankful I live in a state that takes voter integrity seriously.  There is no early voting here, nor is there mail in voting.  However, we do have absentee voting, but you still have to go to the county clerk and show your ID to get an absentee ballot.  Not only that, my county recently switched back to paper ballots, which was cool.  At least there will be a paper trail if needs be. 

We didn't have a whole lot on the ballot this time around, just our congressman and a few judges -- most of whom ran unopposed.  I was in and out in about five minutes.  But hey, I got a sticker!  And I posted it on social media -- because everybody knows your vote doesn't count until you post your sticker on social media.

(That's a joke.  Because apparently some people don't know what humor is.)

In other news, the plant announced last week that we will be off all of Thanksgiving week.  We're only getting paid for two days of it, though, so unless you saved your vacation days, well, you're getting a two day paycheck.  This is why I work all the overtime I possibly can, so I can put some by into savings for this type of thing.  They didn't say why, but I'm pretty sure it's because the housing market is softening.  

On the other hand, they put the sub brazers back on 9 hour shifts because we're so far behind.  We keep trying to tell them we can braze if we don't have parts, but they can't seem to wrap their heads around that.  I guess they think we're supposed to pull parts out of our behinds to braze.  Oh well, since I didn't blog yesterday, and this started yesterday, then yesterday's moment of thankfulness is for the overtime.  

The reason I didn't blog yesterday was because right after work, I went to the vet to pay Jesse's final bill.  I just didn't have it in me to settle up the day I'd taken him in.  I told the vet I'd be back Monday to do it, and he said it was OK.  

So I got there and after I'd paid, the receptionist asked me if I wanted my receip.  I said yes, because  I was thinking I could get one last thing with his name on it.  Alas, when she printed it out...it was blank.  All it had on it was my information and the amount paid.  Nothing about Jesse...or even what I was being billed for.  

They'd already deleted his records from their computer.  It was almost as if he'd never even existed.  That was just one more punch in the gut.  

I promise I'm going to stop moaning about this dog.  But not just yet. 

And finally, even though I' m not Catholic, I've decided to choose for myself a patron saint.  I chose Saint Nicholas -- the patron saint of sailors and unmarried people -- for many reasons, not the least of which is that he had no problem slapping the bajeebers out of a heretic.  

We're kindred spirits, me and him, because I also frequently feel the need to slap people. 

I just hope he's not also the patron saint of bad grammar...

Thankful

 Thank you to all of you for your kind words for my dog.  It means a lot. Pets really do become part of the family, and it's always hard to lose one. We know it's going to happen, but it still somehow takes us off guard. 

With Jesse, it was so sudden, too.  He was fine one minute, then suddenly he started stumbling and drooling and dry heaving and acting so odd, I tossed him into the car (not literally) and rushed him down to the vet's office.  As soon as the vet walked in and saw Jesse, I saw the look on the Dr's face, and we both knew.  He said it was some kind of neurological issue.  The vet used a big long word, but said it was like a form of doggie dementia.  I wonder if Jesse had had some sort of stroke, due to how suddenly it came on.  

Either way, there was nothing to be done for him.  Dr said, "Sometimes the right decision isn't the easy one."  

He also told me that he'd sometimes waited too long to make that call with his own dogs.  "And I'm supposed to be the expert, but it's a different story when it's your dog."  It's a different story when it's your heart that's breaking.  So, I signed the paper.  He gave Jesse the injection.  And I came home alone.  

All the things I'd planned on blogging about suddenly didn't seem so important.  

This does feel kind of weird.  I mean, except for those few years when I was in the Navy, this is the first time since I was 15 that I haven't had a dog.  I'm not planning on getting another one, either.  Maybe after I retire, but for right now, it's just not fair to the dog.  Sometimes working up to 12 hours a day, then when I come home, he wants attention because he's been alone all day, but all I want to do is sit and rest.  It led to much fussing between Jesse and I, and I don't want to put another dog through that.  

Maybe I should get some more cats and become a crazy cat lady, since being a crazy kraken lady just isn't financially feasible in these difficult times. 

Anyway, what I was going to talk about before ...all of that... is that hooray for me!  I've finally joined the 20th century!  How so?  I got a phone holder for my car!  

I probably won't use it all that much, but it'll be good for when I need to follow directions on Maps or something.  It is fully adjustable, which would have come in handy when I was coming back from Memphis last month and had to listen to the Navy game, but couldn't watch it. Not that I would have while I was driving...

It fits into the CD slot, which I never use, but the downside to that is, if I don't have the phone in the holder, it rattles something fierce.  

Or maybe that was just because I was speeding down a gravel road to get my dog to the vet...

I also ordered an outlet with USB ports, for when Cody and Brennan come to visit.  

This way, they won't have to hunt for a wall block, and I won't have to lose and outlet just to plug one in.   And I do plug things in there myself from time to time.  

Yes, those outlets were upside down.  There were only two outlets in the whole house that were like that, and they'd bugged me ever since I moved in.  I finally decided to do something about it, so yesterday, I cut the breaker off and turned that one right side up.  It wasn't too hard.  I just had to unscrew it and turn it around, then screw it back in.  I didn't do the other one, because it has things plugged in that I never unplug, so it's not as unsettling.  

Well, I guess this is long enough, so I'll tell you all the other useless stuff I was going to say another time.  But, just so this post isn't a total waste of your time, here is the scarf I'm working on right now. 

It's an adaptation of the Irish Hiking Scarf.  I added two more pattern repeats to make it just a bit wider.  I'm knitting it in Knit Picks Brava, which has got to be the softest acrylic I've ever seen.  It's a pretty easy pattern, but I had to set it down for a few minutes yesterday to watch LSU turn the Crimson Tide into the Pink Puddle.  That game finished just in time for me to turn over and watch the last inning of the Astros winning the World Series. 

Texas won, too.  Even though Navy lost, it was still a good day for sports. 

Oh, and one more thing.  Since I missed yesterday's moment of thankfulness, I am thankful for the rain we got. 

And today's moment of thankfulness is for everyone who took the time to offer condolences.  It means more than you know. 

Jesse

 Why can’t dogs live forever?

Jesse

August 13, 2009 —November 4, 2022

We had a good run, Bubba.

I'm thankful for the 11 years I had with you.

Yarn Chicken

How's this for a game of yarn chicken?

I definitely earned that Purl Scout badge today, didn't I?  And for my moment of thankfulness...I'm thankful I won. 

Oh, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't.  I'd have just had to tink a row and go from there, but I wouldn't have had the adrenalin rush that comes with a close call like this. 

Anyway, here it is, the finished object -- less weaving the ends in, that is.

I'll get to that in a minute. 

Or maybe tomorrow, as my day started very early and with somewhat of a jolt due to a cat fight right outside my bedroom window.  Very early.  As in, middle of the night.  As in, I don't even know what time it was. 

And as if that weren't enough, after work that self same cat caught a bird.  A live bird, and brought it into my house.  Alive.  Then she let it go and it was flying all over my house trying to get away from the cat and me, because we were both trying to catch it.  She to kill it, and me to release it outside. 

I finally managed to shoo it out the open back door, but I didn't tell the cat.  She kept looking for that bird and I just sat there laughing.  

It's what she gets for waking me up in the middle of the night.