Halloween

Normally, I don't go all ghoulish and gory on Halloween, but when I saw this mask in Walmart a few weeks ago, I simply couldn't resist.  

As soon as I saw it hanging there, I thought, "Boy, I'll bet I can scare the life out of [Coworker] with this mask!"  And even though it was kind of pricey, I bought it anyway. 

I went to work bright and early this morning, and as soon as I got to my stand, I put the mask on.  I had to take it off before my shift started because I couldn't see a blamed thing, but before...I was doing something -- I don't even remember what -- and when I turned around, I heard a scream.  Success!

The really funny thing is, sometime later, I walked over to tell that same coworker something.  She was talking to someone else, so I patiently waited behind her for her to finish, because interrupting is rude, you know. 

But when she turned around and saw me there -- without the mask on, mind you -- she screamed even louder than before.  I laughed so hard I thought I was going to wet on myself. 

In other news, I submitted a search request to USPS for my still missing stamps.  Hopefully, that'll kick them in the rear to track them down and deliver them. 

And finally, I'll leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer, 

A Government Operation

Here I was needing some more international stamps so I could mail letters to my international pen pals.  Since my local podunk town in the middle of nowhere Mississippi doesn't always carry international stamps, I usually order them from the website.  

Since I'll be getting my Christmas cards ready soon, while I was on the USPS site, I ordered some new Christmas stamps, too.  My stamps were supposed to be here Tuesday.  Last Tuesday.  As in October 27th Tuesday. 

Somewhere between Memphis and here -- less than 100 miles, mind you -- the post office lost my stamps. 

The Post Office lost my stamps that I ordered from the post office.  To be delivered to my house by the post office!  And they lost them.  

Tell me this isn't a government operation. 

Other than that, not much else went on today.  I watched football (the Cowboys won), and cheesy Hallmark movies, and knit on the scarf.  I always feel like I should have something profound and earth shattering to talk about when I blog, but hey, today it just isn't going to happen.  

It's been cloudy and dreary all day -- even a little chilly, which made it the perfect day to sit inside in front of the TV and knit.  Even more perfect for cheesy Christmas movies. 

I've started watching a channel called Great American Family Channel.  It's on my Frndly.TV app, and it's a more family friendly alternative to Hallmark, since they went woke a few years ago.   Even a lot of the more well known Hallmark actors have moved over to GAC, like Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKeller.  

I'm not sure if they're exclusive to that channel, or will still do some Hallmark movies, but I've seen a lot of familiar faces on the new channel.  

Well, I guess that's about it for today.  I need to go feed snakes, take a shower, and finish this cheesy Christmas movie. Maybe something worth writing about will happen soon.  

Maybe it won't.  But hey, that's what makes life exciting isn't it? 

Stormy Saturday

 Whew!  What a way to start a day...with a cat fight in my back yard at 6:00 this morning.  It was that orange stray again -- the one who had kittens in my woodpile last year -- coming into my yard to pick a fight with my cat.  I shooed her off, and told her next time, I was getting my water gun out.  

Then I had to turn around and shampoo the bedroom carpet because one of these critters urfed on it. I'm pretty sure it was the cat, because the puddle was too small for it to be the dog.  Oh well, that's life with pets.  Besides, it was almost time to shampoo it again anyway. 

 Other than that, my Saturday was just as you'd expect a Southern Fall Saturday to be.  I piddled a bit, did some yardwork, and ate the two bags of Halloween candy I'd bought just in case I get any trick or treaters, which better not happen now because I don't have any candy left.  

LSU and Texas both had the bye this week, so the Navy game was the only one I was really interested in, though I watched Auburn vs Arkansas, and plan on watching Ole Miss vs Texas A&M when it comes on.  Can't have a Saturday without football on.  While I was watching those football games, I spent a few moments straightening out my craft/snake/computer room.  

Believe it or not, this is not the before picture.  This is the I'm tired of fooling with this mess so I'll finish it later kind of in-between photo. It was much worse than this when I started.  Even the chair was stacked up with junk.  I really want to get rid of that whole computer desk, since I never use it any more, except to stack junk mail and bills on.    I could replace it with a smaller writing desk, and it would open up that whole space.   Years ago, I had a little roll-top desk.  It wasn't anything special, just a little one ordered from Sears, and I sold it back in 2006.  I don't know why, but now I sure wish I had it back. 

And of course, once my seemingly immortal snakes go to that great herpetarium in the sky, I've got plans to make myself a little den out of that room, with my writing desk, and spinning wheel, and a day bed in case I ever have company.  I may even put a fake fireplace in there.  I don't know.  I'll figure it out later. 

I finally got all those canna lilies dug up, and it makes that area look so much cleaner now. 

Let me tell you, there was a bunch of them. 

I'm going cut the stems and leaves off, then clean up the bulbs and advertise them in the local free-bees group.  Any that don't get picked up within a few weeks are going to get thrown into the fire.  I also have a bunch of Spider lilies I need to move out of the middle of my front yard, but they're going to have to wait a bit.  I'm about all dug out with this digging. 

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know, I managed to redneck my wind chime so that it chimes much better now. 

I used the top to a pre-made pie crust and just tied it to the anchor with scrap yarn.  It catches the wind much more easily, though it still has to be a pretty strong breeze to move the clapper. I'm wondering if I hang the whole thing from a chain or something, which might help it move better.  I'll have to see what I can come up with, and I'll let you know. 

In knitting news, I'm a bit lost without my blanket to work on.  Not really, because I've got lots of other projects to work on.  It's just that I've put so much focus on that one thing, it's kind of hard to suddenly switch gears. Still, I must knit, so I pulled out this old scarf that I've been working on for over a year, and picked it back up.  I am just that one small ball of yarn away from finishing it.

And finally, just because, here is a picture of Jesse.

I don't know if it's those vitamins I'm giving him or what, but boy howdy have his toots been stanky these last few days!

I hope he gets over it soon, because he can absolutely run you out of a room!

It Is Finished!

 It is finally finished!

We had our annual inventory at the plant yesterday.  My favorite day of the year.  Oh, you should have heard the whining and grumbling and complaining... but enough about me. 

Seriously, though, it always blows my mind how they refuse to let people inventory the areas they work in.  I work in sub brazing, and they had me working in sheet metal.  I don't know anything about sheet metal -- neither did anyone else who was doing inventory in sheet metal, because they all came from different places in the plant.  And I mean, places that aren't sheet metal.  Even the "chieftain"  didn't work in that area.  You would think they'd at least get someone from the area to be the one responsible for the area, but nooooo.  He was as lost as the rest of us.  I don't blame him.  I blame the people who just throw us out there with a bare minimum of training, but then get so nit picky about the way they want things done. 

Then there is how unorganized the whole mess is.  Back in the day, they'd spend several days doing inventory prep -- you know, things like organizing all the parts, making sure the same parts are all together, making sure each area had a working scale and someone who knew how to use it -- that sort of thing.  Not any more. 

Heck, they don't even teach the people filling out the cards how to do it apparently.  This one girl from second shift wasn't even filling out half the required fields -- one of which was the unit of measure.  There are six options, such as pounds, each, gallons, etc.  We have to circle the one unit each part or component is measured with.  The vast majority of what we count out there is counted as an "each".  So, someone pointed out to this second shift person that she wasn't circling the unit of measure, so she just started circling all of them -- on the same form.  She had a lot of corrections to make.  

It's all very frustrating, but nothing lasts forever and at long last, the day finally ended. 

What?  Did you think I was talking about something else? 

Something like....Square #2

and square #1

of the blanket?  Yes!  It is finished!  After all these years, the blanket is finally finished.

Oh, I've still got to weave in the rest of the ends and decide if I want to put some sort of border on it, but the knitting part is done. 

I'm not quite sure what to do with my life now....

I've got two more of these kinds of blankets on the needles, but they won't take nearly as long to finish, since I won't stubbornly insist on never re-using the same yarn.  

In other news, I'd thought about running up to Lowe's in Batesville tomorrow and picking up some top soil to fill in the spot where the plumber fixed my sewer line, but while I was in Walmart this morning, on a whim, I decided to check their garden center to see if they had any.  Lo and behold they did!  

I picked up a couple of bags and went ahead and spread it, since it's supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow.  

Now that I don't have a two inch gap in my sewer line, it won't be washing away, and I'll finally be able to get that hole filled in. 

 It's the little things.

Now that I've gotten my plumbing fixed and right this time, I'm thinking about finally getting my patio re-done.  The first plumber had torn it up to replace the sewer line, and I've procrastinated getting a new one poured ever since.  A while back, I'd even bought a mold you can use with Quick-crete, but even so, I just never got around to it.  

 Now that I've got some bills paid off and a little bit put by in my savings, maybe I can finally get around to it. 

Wish me luck. 

Insomnia

 Last night was one of those nights when I simply could not sleep.  I don't know what was going on, but no matter how long I lay there, not matter how much I tossed and turned, sleep would not come. I'm pretty sure it was after midnight before I finally dropped off. 

Considering I get up at 4:30 -- yes, that is ante meridian -- as you can imagine, I'm a might tuckered today.  

Anyway, while I was laying there in the throes of insomnia, I thought about my telescope.  And fretted.  I was so excited to get it, and it's pretty much been a disappointment so far.  Oh, the scope itself is OK, but ... well, it's got issues.  

You know about the broken battery pack that they wanted $40 to replace, but the other problem with it is the app.  That is the only way to control the scope, as attempting to move it by hand could damage the motor.  But the app is nearly impossible to align to the scope.  In the year I've had it, I've only been successful one time, and you have to re-align the stupid thing every time you move the telescope.  Even worse, if you get frustrated and give up and try again later, you can't just exit the app and start over.  The app stays stuck where you left off.  The only way I've found to start over is to completely delete the ap and re-install it on your device.  

So, I was thinking, my telescope has a couple of auxiliary ports on it. 

I thought if I could find a manual controller that could be plugged into one of those ports, I could dispense with the app altogether. Grabbing my phone, I opened my Amazon app and began looking for one.  I was intending to find one that just moved the motor, with nothing more than up/down/left/right buttons, but the only thing I found was a computerized controller that cost like $250.  I'll have to look into it more and see what it's all about, but for now, we're going to have to pass on that, at least until the overtime starts back up.  I'm going to keep looking around, though.  I might have better luck, not in the middle of the night...

In my search, however, I found a lithium battery for Celestron telescopes.  I added it to my shopping cart, but haven't ordered it yet, as it's a bit pricy itself.  I know I just ordered the ac adapter, but with a battery of some sort, I won't be tied to the length of my extension cord, you know, if I ever managed to leave the house and go somewhere with less light pollution.  Still, between the price of replacing the battery holder, and constantly replacing the batteries, I think that lithium one might eventually pay for itself over time.  

In other news, tomorrow is inventory day at work, so I'm going to bed a bit early tonight.  OK, I say that, but by the time I actually get to bed, it'll be the usual time.  But before I go, I wanted to show you the next blanket square.

Square #3

Only two more to go!  

Well, Poop!

It would seem there was quite the kerfuffle in the plant Saturday, and wouldn't you know it, I missed the whole thing because I was off on a vacation day I'd scheduled months in advance. 

Before I get into all that, let me give you the back story.  As most of you know, I work in a facility that manufactures evaporator coils for home air conditioning units.  My job is to braze the header/manifold assemblies together. 

Here is an example of the type of coils we make.  Note:  This is not one of our units, but a photo I found on the internet of a similar product.   

That copper tube up at the top with all the smaller tubes sticking out if it is the header/manifold assembly.  Also note:  Header = manifold = two different names for the same part.  Also also note:  There is no way on God's green earth I would send something with brazing as bad as that to the assembly areas.  I take pride in my work, and for what it's worth, I enjoy the actual work that I do.  It's the toxic environment I have to work in that I hate. But that's a different story for a different day.

Our plant is divided into two big rooms -- the assembly area and the component area.  I work in the component area.  We make all the different parts for the coils -- each department being responsible for a particular part -- then send them back to the assembly area for...well, for assembly.  

Now that I've set the stage, on to my story. 

There is this one supervisor back in the assembly area who seems to think the sub brazing department is her own personal convenience store.  Any time she is short handed, she comes up and says, "I'll take her, and her, and her, and her," pointing to the brazers she wants.  It isn't always for brazing positions, either.  She'll come move a sub brazer to put on panels, or screw in drain pans, or whatever else she needs.  She's done it for years, and we've always had to give her what she wants.  

"We've got to get these units down the line," they'll say.  "You aren't sending any units down the line without a header on it," is my reply -- a plea which goes unheeded.  So any time she whimpers, we have to move, then they'll turn around and complain that they don't have any headers.  Sorry, you ain't getting any sympathy from me.  I mean, what did you think would happen?  

Lately, the powers that be have been complaining that the sub brazers aren't getting our numbers, so Supervisor got us all together and told us we haven't been getting our numbers and we need to work harder. Apparently, my face forgot to use its inside voice, because he looked at me and said, "Did you hear what I said?  You're looking like..."

I said, "How are we supposed to get our numbers when you keep moving us out of the department? We can't braze if we aren't here!"  I then pointed out another problem, which is bad parts and incomplete orders.  The first three orders I set up on this morning, two of them had something wrong with them. One of them had a part made incorrectly, and the other one -- a four piece order, only had three headers in it.  Seriously?  My dog can count to four!  I told supervisor that when I'm over in tubing reordering parts that were made incorrectly, or that I didn't have enough of to complete my order, I'm not here brazing.  

I won't go into all the ins and outs of that conversation, but basically I explained to him that the more of tubing's job I have to do, the less time I have to do my own.  

After he walked off, my brazing neighbor told me what had happened Saturday.  She said our supervisor and the assembly line supervisor got into a literal shouting match, going at it over her constantly wanting to come get brazers and move them to the line.  She said they were standing right over there (pointing) screaming at each other.  Then she told me the assembly line supervisor went and got the production manager over the assembly area and he said that yes, we have to give them whoever they want any time they ask for someone.  Then our supervisor went and got the production manager over the component areas and he said that no we did NOT have to give them whoever they want and that was that. 

According to my friend, the assembly line supervisor was livid.  She is so used to getting her way all the time, and this is the first time anyone has ever stood up to her.  The production manager was angry, too, but he wasn't as furious as the supervisor.  My friend said she started to video the whole thing and send it to me.  I told her, "Oh, I wish you had!  I would have loved to see that!"  

But no, I miss all the good stuff.  Hey, I'm just glad we finally have someone who will stand up for us. 

In other, less exciting news, my lawnmower part arrived.  I ran straight out to my shed to see if it fit, and glory be, it did, like a glove. 

I didn't even change clothes, but immediately mowed my yard.  OK, I fed the dog first, then mowed.  As you can see, my grass desperately needed cutting, and I wanted to get it done before the next round of storms hits tomorrow. 

Speaking of storms, I have one coworker who is terrified of them, so I gave her a heads up.  I said, "They're supposed to hit during the work day, so we'll take care of you."  

When she's at home and a storm hits, she gets so scared, she goes to the Emergency Room and waits it out there.   I told her to check with her county EMA office to see if they have a safe room where she lives.  

Heh, she told me one time she'd hurt her hand and went to the ER to get it checked out, and they were surprised to see her, since it wasn't raining.   

And finally, what with all that went on today, I only have one blanket square to show you, and here it is.

Square #4

Only three more to go!  

More Squares

There isn't really much to talk about, since I didn't do anything else but watch football and knit blanket squares.  I got these done since lase we spoke.

Square #9

Square #8

Square #7

Square #6

I think I must be getting just a bit burned out, because I only knit this one today. 

Square #5

But I'm so close to being done, I don't want to stop now. 

Earlier this year, I cut off one of my streaming services, Frndly TV.  It's got lots of family friendly channels, including like five Hallmark channels, UPtv, INSP, and Great American Family channel, among others.  The main reason I'd gotten it in the first place was so I could watch my cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, since none of the Hallmark channels are in my Hulu package.

Frendly is a pretty good deal.  I mean, it's not extremely expensive, but when things started getting tight budget wise, I decided to cut it off.  I couldn't see paying for a service I only watch for 3 months out of the year.  I'd said I was just going to stick with watching Lifetime cheesy Christmas movies this year, since I already get Lifetime with my Hulu plan.  However, when Countdown To Christmas started this weekend, I just couldn't help myself.  I signed back up.  

This time around, though, I'm paying monthly, so I'll cut it off after the New Year movies come out.  

All that to say, cheesy Christmas movies are great to knit to, so I'm off to cast on another square.  

Laters

Squares!

Here we go!  

Blanket square #12

Square #11

And square #10

Nine more to go.  I have so much stuff I need to be doing, but not going to do any of it.  I'm just going to sit here and knit squares and watch TV. 

In other news, I think I found the part I need to fix my lawnmower.  It's from a newer model, but it looks exactly like the one that goes to my mower.  Same brand.  Same 21" mower deck.  Just a different year. It was only $30 instead of $97, so I took a chance and ordered it.  Hopefully it will fit.  I really need to get my grass knocked down one last time before winter. 

Speaking of winter, it is supposed to warm back up for the next couple of weeks, but it was chilly enough this morning for a nice little fire -- the first one of the year.  I didn't actually use any real firewood, just a bunch of the smaller stuff the storms last week knocked down, but it was enough to knock the chill out of the house.  

Once it had warmed up a bit, I dragged out the old pressure washer and knocked the moss off of my back steps, then moved my houseplants back outside until the next freeze.  One of my friends suggested I spray my bricks down really well with salt water to prevent the moss from coming back, so I did that, too.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

Other than that, not much else went on today.  I just piddled around a bit.  Moved some more stuff from the craft room to the cabinet.  Tidied up my shed a bit. You know, just everyday household chores.  

Oh, and I plugged in my telescope using the AC adapted I bought to replace the broken battery pack they wanted $40 to replace.  And it was just a holder.  I still had to buy batteries myself.  But that's not the point.  The point is, the telescope came on and I might just take it out for a run later tonight.  

But for now, I'm going to cast on another blanket square.  

Jesse

 Yeah, it got a mite nippy last night.

I'm glad I broke down and turned on the heater.  Still haven't built a fire, though.  Right now, I have my Christmas cacti on top of my wood stove, so that wouldn't be a good idea.  It's supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow, so I'll be putting them back outside for a bit longer anyway.  My flower bed is toast, though.  Oh well, such is nature's way. 

If you'll recall, Jesse has been having trouble with his back legs.  I've been putting off taking him to the vet, because I'm kind of afraid of what the vet might say.  I'm not mentally or emotionally prepared to hear him recommend euthanasia.  Not just yet. 

I don't think Jesse is ready for it, either because for one thing, he doesn't appear to be in any pain.  If he did, there'd be no question, but he doesn't.  No signs of pain, his appetite is still good, and his energy level is high -- well, for a 13 year old dog anyway.  He's just got weakness in his back legs.  

I was sitting there at work, or standing, rather.  We aren't allowed to sit except for our lunch break.  But that's beside the point.  So, I was standing there at work when it occurred to me to try some of those hip and joint vitamins I've seen.  Despite it not being my regular shopping day, I went straight to Walmart after work and picked up some.

We're going to try these and see if they help any.  If not, then it's off to the vet we go, with the goal of making his remaining time here as comfortable and pain free as possible.  When he starts being in pain, then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

But look what I saw while I was there!

I exercised restraint.  I didn't buy it.  I did, however, pick up a half gallon of Blue Bell Christmas Cookies ice cream.  

It's the only thing that could have made me pass on the Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights Ice Cream. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get to knitting.  I'm watching something on the PBS app.  I don't know what it is.  Some British mystery show.  It's pretty good, even though I have no idea what it is. 

I Did It Again

I finished another blanket square. 

One more row -- 12 more squares -- and this blanket is done!  And yes, I will let you all count them down with me.  

But, before I finished the square, I did it again.  What did I do again?  I came home and didn’t sit down. I didn’t get something to eat, and I didn’t even change clothes. 

What I did do was to start moving stuff from my craft room into the cabinet in my shed.

I've still got a long way to go, but hey, it's a start.  I'll need to get some sort of organizers for all my small things -- screws and such like -- and fix up a small tool box of basic screwdrivers and pliers and stuff to keep in the house for basic home repairs, etc, but the most of the rest will be moved outside.  Eventually that entire shelf will be moved to the shed, too.  It's what I bought it for after all.  

Ignore the mess on the floor.  Most of that is junk I pulled off those shelves to reach the stuff I wanted to move.  By the way, Salena, you'll be very pleased to know I found the charger to my cordless drill/screwdriver!  Woo hoo!

While I was moving my little mini chainsaw out to the shed, I said to myself, "Self, while you have this mini chainsaw out, you might as well trim back those branches that are rubbing against the house and making that intensely annoying noise."  And I got my ladder out and did just that. 

Yay!  No more intensely annoying noise!   It just occurred to me I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't.  You'll just have to take my word for it. 

Weatherwise, it was down to 38' this morning when I got up, and it's supposed to get even colder tonight.  Yes, I did break down and turn on my heater.  I'm too old to play the Let's See How Long We Can Freeze game.  I usually turn on the heater the day the house temps get below what I normally set my heat to.  That day just happened to be today. 

Remember how I told you they were remodeling the restrooms at work?  Remember how excited I was?  They're not quite finished, but today, they opened the ones nearest my work area back up for use.  Guess what I saw?  Look closely...do you see it? 

Sigh...

Seriously?  How flippin' hard is it to line up the two sides of the door latch?  Looks like we're still going to be propping the doors shut with the garbage cans, because I checked, and there are several stalls in both bathrooms that are like this.  Taylor?  Anything you can do to get it fixed?  

And finally, I've been intending to give you an update on how my piano progress is going, but right now, it's kind of just limping along a bit.  I'm going to get back to it, though.  Once my piano mojo gets back from wherever it wandered off to, that is. 

This’ll Be Quick

This is going to be a really quick post, because I’m so close to finishing this blanket, and all I want to do is knit on it and watch Outrageous Pumpkins. 

But I did want to tell you a story.  I broke my lawn mower a few weeks ago.  The little bar that you have to hold down to get the motor to start just snapped in half.  I tried to order a replacement part, but I guess my model has been discontinued, because the cheapest one I found was $65.  

I had the bright idea that I could just zip tie an old 14" Boye knitting needle to the two halves and maybe it would work well enough I could knock my grass down one last time before winter comes.  After work, I went out to the shed...

By the way, I've figured out the secret to getting stuff done after work. And that secret is...are you ready?  

Don't sit down. 

Seriously, don't sit down.  Do what you need to do as soon as you get home, before you sit down -- even to eat.  How many times have I said, "I'm only going to sit down for a moment, then I'll get up and do what I need to do" only to look up at the clock and it's almost time for bed and I haven't done a thing.  

So, today, as soon as I got home and fed the dog, I grabbed my shed keys and headed out to fix my lawn mower. Only to find one of the pieces of the bar thingy missing.  I know I'd laid it on the floor right beside the lawn mower, but it wasn't there.  I looked all over, and never did find it. Now, I don't know what to do.  I'm thinking of ordering one for a different Snapper 21" model, and hoping it will fit.  Or that I can make it fit.  

That project being a bust, I grabbed the old broom handle I had out there and cut a piece off the same length as the support tubes for my Rubbermaid cabinet.  And it fell all the way to the bottom.  For some reason, I'd thought there was a solid piece in there between the sections, but apparently there isn't.  

Giving up, I just left that one support tube out and finished putting the cabinet together without it.  Even with the part missing, it's surprisingly sturdy, so I think it'll be OK.  

Over the next few days, I'm going to start moving my tools from my craft room out into this cabinet.  Like my circular saw, belt sander, angle grinder, etc..  That'll free up a lot of space in that room, so maybe I can finally get it cleaned up again. 

They're still predicting upper 30s for tonight, and upper 20s for tomorrow night, so I went ahead and brought in all my plants.  I debated for a long time on whether to cut this flower from my front bed.  It's one of the few flowers I got this year.  

It's one of the few flowers I go from that bed this year. In the end, I decided to go ahead and bring it into the house, so the frost won't nip it. The few other flowers out there are on their own.

That north wind was so strong, it actually made my wind chime sing.  I managed to get just a bit of a video of it, but you might want to skip ahead to about 20 seconds in.  

Well, I guess this wasn't that quick after all, but I'm done now.  There is knitting to be done!

Winter Weather

It’s a good thing I’m almost through with my sock yarn blanket.

Why do I say that?  Because it looks like winter is trying to make an early appearance. Check out the lows Wednesday!  

 

Of course, I don't expect it to actually get quite that cold, but I think I’ll have to bring in my outside plants tomorrow afternoon, just to be on the safe side.  Heck, I might even start me a little fire in my wood stove. I probably won't turn on the central heat just yet, though.  Or maybe I will.  It all depends on how cold it gets in the house.  

By the way, I don't know why that picture posted upside down, but I do know I'm not going to re-do it, so you'll just have to turn your device upside down, or stand on your head.  Whatever floats your boat. 

As far as the blanket goes, I have two more squares to go to finish the row I'm on, then I'm going to knit one more row, and it'll be done.  Well, as far as knitting goes, that is.  I'll still have to weave the last few ends in, and decide if I want to do some sort of border.  I'm thinking an applied I-cord, probably in a solid color medium brown, just to neaten up the edges a bit.  I'd originally planned on using black, but I think that might be a bit too harsh.  Brown will tidy things up without dominating the other colors within the blanket. 

On a completely unrelated note, I started watching the new Quantum Leap.  It took me a long time to watch the first episode, because I'd loved the original show so much, and didn't think I'd like the re-boot.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  It wasn't just a re-hash of the first show, but picked up sometime after the first one left off.  The characters often refer to Dr. Sam Beckett and Al, and events that had happened in the old show.  Ziggy is still there, too, just in an upgraded version.  All in all, I'm really liking it so far. 

Now, lest you think I've done nothing but sit around and knit all weekend, let me show you the progress I'm making on getting my cannas dug up. 

When I started, the patch was all the way to that gate.  I've still got quite a ways to go, but dang I've already dug up so many bulbs!

Once I get them all dug up, I'm going to put several layers of weed barrier cloth down in that spot, with a few layers of cardboard over that.  That should keep any bulbs I've missed from growing back.  I hope. 

I've also finally started moving that old fire pit behind the fence. 

Again, I'm only doing a little bit at a time, because those cement chunks are heavy!  I'd thought about re-purposing them into a new flower bed, but I don't know.  Right now, I'm just stacking them here beside the fence until I decide what to do with it all. 

I'm telling ya, the people who lived here before apparently just tossed all their garbage over the back fence.  I've already cleaned up tons and tons (not literally) of junk, and am still finding stuff back there.  Like this...whatever it is. 

And what appears to be an old scrub brush half buried in the dirt.  

Every time I think I get all the junk up, I find more.  

And last but not least, y'all all help me wish my big brother Russell a happy 60th birthday!

You Would Be Proud

You would be proud of me for what I did yesterday. And what was it I did yesterday that you would be proud of me for? Well, I’ll tell you.

I *whispers conspiratorially* left the house. 

I mean I really left the house, and not just to go to work or to Walmart. Nope, I went to — are you ready for this? I went to Memphis.

Yes, you read that right. After all these years, I finally made it back up to the zoo.

The last time I went, they were still building the Zambezi River Hippo Camp.  Yeah, and that opened in 2016.  I'd been wanting to go see it, but the older I get, the harder it is to leave the house, and honestly, if I hadn't told Cody I was coming, I wouldn't have gone this time, either. 

On that note, there was a miscommunication between us.  When they were down for the company picnic two weeks ago, I'd said I was planning on coming up last Friday.  He told me if I wanted until this Friday, he and Brennan could come and we'd all go to the zoo together.  The miscommunication was, I'd said Friday, but he heard Saturday.  They did come, but I had to wait until he got off work at 3:00.  

So, the thinking was, if I went on a weekday, all the kids would be at school and the zoo would be less crowded.  I thought wrong.  Every single school in Memphis must have been out yesterday, and most of them seemed to be taking a field trip...to the zoo.  Still, shrieking kids aside, it was a nice trip. I didn't take a whole heck of a lot of pictures, because all I had was my phone, but I'll post a few of my favorites.   As always, I'll add the rest to my albums on Facebook and MeWe. 

First up, this is LeLe the male giant panda. 

The Burmese Python. 

They had the place all done up for Halloween.  This was one of many decorations, but this is the one I wanted to swipe and set up in my front yard. 

One of the African elephants.  

And, of course, Boudreaux the alligator.  OK, I don't know that that is what his name is, but to me, all alligators are Boudreaux.  

And some seahorses.  You might want to keep the sound muted for this one.  There was a very loud lady with some very loud kids right behind me.  

Next time, we're definitely going to have to coordinate better.  It was nice to spend time with Cody and Brennan.  It would have been nicer to spend more time with them.  

After we left the zoo, we went and had dinner at Huey's in Southaven.  That was a blast from the past, because it's where we used to eat when we'd go hang out at the old Hank Of Yarn store, just across the parking lot.  It's still good, and the burgers are still thick, and I told Cody, "I don't know if I can open my mouth wide enough to eat this."  

And finally, Cody got to go see Weird Al in concert last week, and he brought me a t-shirt!  

He'd told me he was going to go see Weird Al, and I thought he meant the movie, but no, he meant actual Weird Al. I told him I was jealous.  Actual Weird Al is probably the only concert my introvert self would ever actually go to. 

Now, I've got to go.  I've got football to watch, and need my computer to see it all. 

Laters.