Clouds

The Shrine

Patti asked the other day where my Dallas Cowboys shrine was. Well, here you go.


It's on the top of my computer desk. Here is a closer view of what is in the shrine:


We have the Felix Jones autographed helmet, a nerf football, Terrell Owens and DeMarcus Ware, a magnet, a keychain, stitch markers (that you can't see) and Roger Staubach's autobiography. There is also a football shaped lunchbox that I bought on clearance.


The other side contains decal, silver and blue tinsel, and silver and blue ornaments You can barely see the corner of the silver balls' container just behind the tinsel. And a blue Cowboys cap.

On my second place karate trophy is the white hat. Now, bear in mind that this shrine does not contain the t shirt, the four jerseys, and the jacket. Those are in the closet. Oh, and on the wall is my calendar.

Now, before you go, I want you to scroll back up to the first picture and take note of the mountain scene painting on the wall. That was painted by my older brother many years ago. He gave it to our dad, and after Dad passed, I asked if I could have it. I always did like that painting.

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Friday Flames

He said he didn't do it on purpose. He hadn't meant to burn the pile, but it got away from him. Something was smoldering, he said. I'm not quite sure how the fire got started, but get started it did. Ironically enough, it was probably the best time to burn the rubbish pile, what with all the rain we've had lately. J said you should have seen all the rats run out of the thing when the fire got going good. I looked out my back window and saw it burning, so I bagged up all my junk mail that I hadn't yet got around to shredding and ran and threw it on the fire. It didn't take long until it was reduced to ash.

I've got to be at work at 6 in the morning, so it's going to be an early night for me.

Whiskers on Thursday?

Whaddaya mean I didn't cooperate? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't cooperate Mama. I'll cooperate now.

See? Look how cute I'm being. Don't you think I'm being cute?

Lookit. I'm being cute. People always love it when cats do this. See how cute I'm being?

Whew. This is exhausting. I'm all cooperated out. Leave me alone now.

I mean it. Go away. I'm done cooperating.

I need a nap.

Laptops and WIPs

I've mentioned before that I wanted a laptop. Well, usually when I want something I don't need, I wait a few days and the wanting goes away. Not so this time. I kept on wanting one. I began shopping around, still not quite sure of what I was looking for. Mostly, I wanted to be able to get online without being tied to my computer desk.

I mentioned on Facebook that I was shopping for a laptop, and one of my old college buddies found one online that she recommended to me. It was a Gateway, a brand I'm familiar with, and so far haven't heard one negative thing about. It seemed like a good deal, and was within the price range I was looking to spend, so I ordered it.

Because of the holiday, it didn't ship until yesterday. Imagine my surprise when I got home from work today, and Cody met me on the front steps saying, "you got a big box". Yep, it was my laptop. The first thing I had to do was plug it in and charge the battery. Three hours never seemed so long since-well, any three hours spent at work.

Finally, it was charged, and what was the first thing I did? I took the silly thing and sat it on my computer desk!

Ok, so I needed my desktop to set up internet access, which I did, and am now blogging from the comfort of my queen sized bed. Which I need to be sleeping in, not blogging in. This wierd mouse pad thing is going to take some getting used to, but other than that, I'm loving it.

Now, since it's Wednesday, here is your WIP update.

1. Mystery Shawl KAL: I'm about halfway through clue 2.

2. Friendship Blankie: I got a whole nother row added, and still have quite a bit of yarn left to go.

Nothing else was worked on this week, so I'm not going to post photos of them. I will update when I have progress to report.

No Whiskers on Wednesday today. The cat doesn't want to cooperate. Ain't that just like a cat?

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Something Different

I did something different today. I've been walking the same road for, oh 4 or 5 years now. Every time, EVERY time, I take the right fork.

Today, I took the left fork.

I'd never been down this way before. Look, we are not alone....those aren't my dog's tracks.

Ok, I'm being dramatic. I know who those dogs belong to. But we aren't alone...

Deer tracks. Two sets. But no sign of the deer. Too early in the day for them to be out.

Whoever planted that cotton go a little over zealous.

Now, Katie's off on the hunt!

We're almost back to the paved road, when it starts raining.

Only, the sky looked like this:

So where was that rain coming from? I looked over my shoulder and found a more likely culprit.


So I tucked the camera away and high tailed it back to the house. And that was the end of my walk.

Memorial Day Music Monday

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

--George S. Patton, Jr.

Billy Ray Cyrus

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

Trace Adkins

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

Sunday Photo Safari

OK, maybe not so much a safari, but I did start taking my evening walks again.

This is the road I walk on.

Rylea came with me this time.

Once I got there, I discovered ...

cotton!

And ditches flooded from the 5 straight weeks of rain we've been having

filled with tadpoles.

I could hear the cacophony of the frogs, but try as I might, I couldn't get a photo of them.

So I settled for purple weeds.

Oh, Rylea heard something.


and she's offon the hunt
tracking down
whatever it was.

Must be her hound dog half.

All Patti's Fault

Here's another blast from the past:

This is my friend Patti on the left, and Susan on the right. They were college buddies of mine. Patti often comments on my blog. Sometimes she tells off on me. She loves to tell this one particular story, which I fondly refer to as The Sheet Music Incident. In the comments a couple of days ago, she again referred to this incident. Since some of you may have missed it, I will tell you the story here, too.

I went to college at Hardin Simmons University, in Abilene, TX. While attending there, I was a member of a church called Elmcrest Baptist Church. Being located in a college town, Elmcrest naturally had a rather large college and career group. Many of us also participated in their college and career choir. I was never musically inclined myself, but I did enjoy being in that choir.

One Sunday evening, the choir went to sing at a smaller church in one of the nearby towns. We sang our 4 or 5 little songs, then we were standing there, still in the choir loft. Someone may have been praying, I don't remember. I was standing at the end of a row, and Patti was just to my right. There was an empty chair beside me, so I decided to toss my sheet music down on it. As it turns out, I put a little too much oomph in my toss, and the sheet music slid off the other side of the chair, down some steps, and into the little foyer behind the choir loft. There was nothing I could do but to watch it go--flowing like water down the steps.

It finally settled, and came to rest on the floor in the foyer. I turned and looked at Patti, who had witnessed the whole thing, and said, "oops." She got the giggles. Then I got the giggles, and we giggled over that through the whole rest of the service.

In the comments to my post a couple of days ago, she again mentioned that incident, and I was thinking about it last night after I had gone to bed. And I got the giggles. And then I remembered something else we had done.

Patti and I had a friend named Jennifer. Jennifer had a car named Faith, because she said that's what it ran on--faith. One Christmas, Patti and I decided we were going to decorate Faith. Patti went out and bought some red and green yarn, and we tied little yarn bows all up and down Faith's radio antenna. Jennifer didn't like them on there, because she said they made the antenna bend backwards too much when she drove. She would push all the bows down to the bottom of the antenna. Patti and I would spread them back out, and Jennifer would push them all back down. One day the three of us were driving somewhere. Jen was driving, Patti was in the back seat, and I was in the passenger seat. Jen had again pushed all the little yarn bows down to the bottom of the antenna, where they sat there in a wad. We stopped at a stop light, and who should pull up beside us, but another college buddy named Cary. Our windows were down, and Cary said, "What is that on your antenna?"

"Decorations," I replied.

Cary said, "It looks like you hit a bird!"

And I'm rembering that last night as I lay in my bed, and I start giggling over that, too. And I giggle half the night. So, I'm sleepy today because I giggled half the night over college memories.

And it's all Patti's fault!

A Surprise

So, I'm sitting there knitting along on the blankie

and watching TV. Over by the couch is Cody's tuba that he's checked out for the summer.

I know he's been practicing, because he's taken the horn out of the case, and there is sheet music scattered all over the couch.

But what's that?

A box. I wonder where that came from. Cody didn't say anything about it. I don't recall having ordered anything. But I go over and look at it. Sure enough, it is addressed to me. I open it up and

it's a Dallas Cowboys mini helmet. Where could that have come from? And look, there appears to be something written on it:


Felix Jones' autograph. It looks like a real one, too, not just a stamped on there one.

There was a letter in the box stating that this was a free gift for using my Dallas Cowboys credit card. Cool. I didn't know I was going to get a free gift for getting a Dallas Cowboys credit card.

I'd just wanted a card with a star on it.

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A Blast From The Past

I found this old photo from my college days--circa May 1987. That's me on the left.


Get a load of those shorts! What was I thinking?

The Last Pill

This morning, at breakfast, I swallowed the last of my steroid pills. The very last one, and I am done with them! As the effects of this powerful drug leaves my body, I find myself awakening. As if emerging from a chrysalis. Becoming myself again.

Some of the effects were expected--difficulty sleep, increase in appetite, the like.

Some of them took me totally by surprise. The mood changes. I became dark, depressed, and angry. My tolerance for stupidity--tenuous at best--totally tanked. I turned into a monster. I didn't even like being around myself. I'm just grateful I didn't kill someone during those darkest days.

Then there were other physical effects, such as the inability to taste my food. That I wasn't expecting. Everything tasted weird. Nothing was cold. My Dr. Pepper straight from the fridge tasted warm and flat. Icy cold chocolate milk tasted like it had been sitting out for hours. The only thing I could stand to drink was ice water--not a bad thing, that.

(TMI WARNING) Another weird one was the inability to feel when I need to go to the bathroom. That was just weird. I couldn't feel when I needed to pee. This led to some very interesting moments, until I was better able to judge when it was time for me to go. Then there was the inability to move my bowels at all. I didn't feel constipated. I wasn't uncomfortable or in pain, I just couldn't go. It was like there was nothing there. It was kind of worrisome, knowing that I had eaten, so there had to be something in there, but where was it?

Now, the grip of the drugs is releasing me, and I am beginning to return to myself. The days are getting brighter. The nights more restful. I feel like a person again. I am doing exercises and flexes to try to keep my spine in alignment, so that this doesn't happen again. There's no way I want to go back onto those steroids, unless it is a matter of life and death. One thing I have determined was that my computer chair was very bad for my back. The pain was worse every time I sat in it. So, I bought a new chair.

It is much more comfortable than my old chair, and as I told Cody, the cost of the chair was much less than the cost of the drugs I needed to right myself. I was surprised at that, too. It was in with a bunch of other chairs in the $99-$120 range, but when I checked out, it rang up at $54. I feel like I got a bargain!

And now, since it's Wednesday, on to the business of WIP updates:

1.Friendship Blankie -- yes, the name has been officially changed. I got a few squares done, but with the arrival of a bunch of new sock yarns, I expect more progress on it this week:


2. Trekking Scarf--No progress this week.


3. Queen Anne's Lace-- I finished chart 1, started chart 2, then it got sacrificed to the new KAL.


4. Mystery Shawl KAL: I'm about half way through clue 1. I hope to catch up this upcoming long weekend. Just in time for the next clue.


5. Zokni socks: I made it past the heel turn of the first sock, and got a couple of pattern repeats done on the foot.


I'm totally loving this pattern, but unfortunately, it also got sacrificed to blankie love and the KAL. Next time I make this, though, I'm going to make the leg longer.

Thanks to everyone for bearing with me during these last few days. Things'll be better soon.

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