Our visit with M and C was wonderful. It's always so good to see them (that is the correct usage of "it's" isn't it?).
There was a time in my life when I saw them every week, and just sort of assumed it would always be that way.
That changed a long time ago, when they moved, but I still miss that weekly encounter, and the WAY fun parties they used to have in their lovely home in Chicagoland.
They are very wonderful people, in every way.
While they were here, we spent lots of time just hanging out, talking. Also went to the Cowboy museum, and had a rousing game of dominoes.
They went on from here to drive to Monument Valley, and then are heading to Wyoming after that.
In other news, I HAVE MY FIRST MASSAGE CLIENT BOOKED FOR TOMORROW!!
During the visit here, M was able to get my website email up and running (Dave had not been successful thus far). The next morning, while we were sipping coffee and surfing the net, and C and M were determining the next leg of their adventure, I got my first email through my web site!
That person scheduled an appointment!
Once she has actually shown up, and paid me, I will rejoice!
(having been a massage therapist for almost 25 years, the number of people who schedule and never show up is alarming....but let's hope the business ball is FINALLY rolling!)
Thanks, C and M, for including us on your route, for being VERY generous guests, and for your abiding friendship.
We love you!
This weekend brings the first of August, and with it, a weather forecast the likes of which I have been dreading ever since we decided that I would have to move here, if I wanted to ever live with my husband.
Starting tomorrow, on the last day of July, the temperature will pass 100, and the prediction is that daily highs will be in those triple digits for at least the next 10 days.
It was 95 when I got off work today. It's 97 now, at 8 pm. Here we go!
Please, wish me luck.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Preparing
Today, we're spending the day preparing for our out of town guests for THIS month.
Last month, it was my sister and brother in law who visited. They stayed at a nearby hotel, but our guests this month are staying with us.
They are coming through here as part of a country-wide visiting tour. Cathy and Mike, a.k.a. BlueHeronDruid and hobbitt, will be here for a couple of nights. We can't wait to see them! (for those not in the know, I have known these folks for 16 years. Met them while they were living in Chicagoland. It was Cathy who introduced me, via the internet, to Dave)
This has made it necessary to actually clean the place! I know they couldn't care less, but I care, and it's been too long since this place had a really good cleaning.
We keep it up pretty well in general, but once in a while, you really need to have house guests to get it really clean!
This apartment now smells like "Pledge," "Murphy's Oil Soap," and incense!
Oh, and a note to my sister: The necklace is on it's way. The cookies you brought were REALLY GOOD, so if you've never tried them yourself, go get some! I love the hand motif ornament from Austin. It hangs on the wall in my office. And that whole wheat pasta from Barilla isn't bad!
Thanks again for everything you brought!!
In other news:
Jack the Cat continues to exhibit odd behavior. He has been crying in the night a LOT less since I put the puzzle pieces together, and figured out that he has been constipated.
He now gets two kinds of hair ball remedy, at different times of day. Hair ball remedy acts as a laxative, too. He now has a good poop every day, but, when he was having more trouble with his tummy, he started to poop in the bath tub for some reason, and he continues to do that.
Having asked for advice from other cat people, it was suggested that he now associates pooping in his box with some kind of discomfort. It was suggested we try a different box.
(Note: I am not against going to the vet, but our finances have been very tight with all of the medical bills, so I have been trying to avoid another costly visit to the vet. We already had an emergency visit to the vet back in May when Jack had a very strange episode that the vet thought may have been a seizure)
SO, yesterday we bought a new litter box (cheaper than a visit to the vet!), and set it up for him.
Last night, he pooped in the bath tub.
I put some of the poo in his new box, and hope that he will re train himself to use the box. He has been peeing in the box as per normal all along.
If this doesn't work, we will just have to go to the vet after all.
Nothing much else is new. I am possibly going to have a shift in my job description at work. Maybe this will make the job less mind numbing/soul sucking.
I have not been dealing with the heat very well. I have been having daily head aches, no matter how much water I drink, or how careful I am.
It will probably take me a few summers to get used to this crap. It's really bad down here. It was 100 while we were out doing grocery shopping yesterday, and that's just normal for this time of year.
It's only going to get hotter, too. Yay.
Anyway, back to chores. Got laundry to do, and some cooking. Gonna make Picadillo for our guests' supper for tomorrow. It always tastes better the second day!
Last month, it was my sister and brother in law who visited. They stayed at a nearby hotel, but our guests this month are staying with us.
They are coming through here as part of a country-wide visiting tour. Cathy and Mike, a.k.a. BlueHeronDruid and hobbitt, will be here for a couple of nights. We can't wait to see them! (for those not in the know, I have known these folks for 16 years. Met them while they were living in Chicagoland. It was Cathy who introduced me, via the internet, to Dave)
This has made it necessary to actually clean the place! I know they couldn't care less, but I care, and it's been too long since this place had a really good cleaning.
We keep it up pretty well in general, but once in a while, you really need to have house guests to get it really clean!
This apartment now smells like "Pledge," "Murphy's Oil Soap," and incense!
Oh, and a note to my sister: The necklace is on it's way. The cookies you brought were REALLY GOOD, so if you've never tried them yourself, go get some! I love the hand motif ornament from Austin. It hangs on the wall in my office. And that whole wheat pasta from Barilla isn't bad!
Thanks again for everything you brought!!
In other news:
Jack the Cat continues to exhibit odd behavior. He has been crying in the night a LOT less since I put the puzzle pieces together, and figured out that he has been constipated.
He now gets two kinds of hair ball remedy, at different times of day. Hair ball remedy acts as a laxative, too. He now has a good poop every day, but, when he was having more trouble with his tummy, he started to poop in the bath tub for some reason, and he continues to do that.
Having asked for advice from other cat people, it was suggested that he now associates pooping in his box with some kind of discomfort. It was suggested we try a different box.
(Note: I am not against going to the vet, but our finances have been very tight with all of the medical bills, so I have been trying to avoid another costly visit to the vet. We already had an emergency visit to the vet back in May when Jack had a very strange episode that the vet thought may have been a seizure)
SO, yesterday we bought a new litter box (cheaper than a visit to the vet!), and set it up for him.
Last night, he pooped in the bath tub.
I put some of the poo in his new box, and hope that he will re train himself to use the box. He has been peeing in the box as per normal all along.
If this doesn't work, we will just have to go to the vet after all.
Nothing much else is new. I am possibly going to have a shift in my job description at work. Maybe this will make the job less mind numbing/soul sucking.
I have not been dealing with the heat very well. I have been having daily head aches, no matter how much water I drink, or how careful I am.
It will probably take me a few summers to get used to this crap. It's really bad down here. It was 100 while we were out doing grocery shopping yesterday, and that's just normal for this time of year.
It's only going to get hotter, too. Yay.
Anyway, back to chores. Got laundry to do, and some cooking. Gonna make Picadillo for our guests' supper for tomorrow. It always tastes better the second day!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Take me out to the ballgame
We decided to FINALLY go to an Oklahoma City Redhawks minor league ball game this weekend. After months of speculating about it, we picked a random day, when it was 102 degrees! Crazy, I know....
Turned out to be a Cubs game, though!
It was odd, as we walked toward the park, and stood in line for tickets, the sheer number of cubbie blue shirts and caps, and jerseys with famous Cub names on them, that we saw.
Hmm...thought I...how interesting to see so many Cubs fans here! Cool!
The explanation? The team in town to oppose our home town Redhawks was the Iowa Cubs. The farm team for the Chicago Cubs!!
The game started at 7 pm, and was a lot of fun. We got left field (OF course) bleacher tickets, and had a huge choice of where to sit, because the park was mostly empty.
Thankfully, the sun had moved to a point in the sky that made it possible for us so sit in the shade.
It was still incredibly hot and uncomfortable in the shade, but that's what cold beer is for, and a little breeze was my salvation. They also had a vendor who made "Chicago Hot Dogs," and they were authentic, and tasty!
The Iowa Cubs played a very good game...won 9 to 4.
I struggled the whole time with cheering for the "wrong team," because I am so conditioned to cheer for blue shirted players as opposed to red shirted players!
The game didn't REALLY get interesting until we had gotten up during the 9th inning to wander the park and leave. Then it started to get exciting with some good plays and drama on the field. The Cubs pitcher filled the bases, mostly on walks, and walked a Redhawk home before he got pulled at the tail end of the game! The score was 9 to 2 until the last inning!
The one bit of excitement before that was the 1 run the Redhawks had gotten in the early part of the game. It was a home run that clanked against the benches in our bleachers a few feet away from me while Dave was on a beer run. That was fun, but Dave missed it!
And there was a guy in our section who was a true fan who REALLY went all out.
He didn't have a scorecard, he had a spiral notebook. He also has two glasses cases on the bench next to him, a bag of sun flower seeds, extra pens, two different sizes of cow bell, and one of those plastic horns to blow when your team hits a homer.
He wore a head set, so he could hear the play by play somehow (oddly there was NO play by plan announcer in the park, so we had to actually WATCH the game to know what was going on!), and he yelled at the players with great passion.
He's the one in the picture above.
The crowd was a LOT more subdued than I am used to...but we had fun anyway.
It was still close to 100 degrees when we walked to the car at 10:30 last night.....I felt ill when I went to bed last night, and have decided to stay in today...no matter what. I am not getting out into the heat today. It's another 100 degree day, and I still have the head ache from yesterday's heat.
The coming week is supposed to be upper 90's, low 100's. I guess that 10 day period after my sister and brother in law left was the last of the "cooler" weather we'll see for a while.
This is the part of moving here I dreaded.
Anyway...we hope to go to another game or two.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Arkansas get away
About three hours east of here, there's an area of significant beauty and history.
We decided to make that our destination for a very little get away this weekend, to celebrate, in advance, our second wedding anniversary (which falls on Monday, 7/12).
Fort Smith, AR lies in a picturesque valley, nestled between rolling green hills, and acres of beautiful country landscapes.
We booked reservations for date night dinner at a German restaurant in Ft. Smith, called Emmy's, and booked the jacuzzi room at the Hampton Inn.
We both got off work early on Friday, met back at the apartment, put the packed bag in the car, and took off!
The drive there was lovely. It was somewhat cloudy, and it rained a little, but mostly, it was a nice drive. We arrived in our destination town around 6:30, checked into our BEAUTIFUL hotel room, then went out for dinner.
We didn't get to spend much time sight seeing in Ft. Smith itself, but it was such a cool town, we know we want to go back.
Dinner was really good...we shared the entree, an authentic rouladen with a dill pickle in the middle, and brought black forest torte back to the room to have with our champagne.
The room wasn't QUITE as lovely as we first thought, as we found out that the air conditioning unit was leaking water into the carpet beneath it, there was a fly buzzing around in the room, some creepy little beetles in the bathroom, and a rather, shall we say, disturbing residue in the jacuzzi tub....but we enjoyed it anyway.
The breakfast this morning was included, and we decided that the "cheese omelets" that were our only hot option were filled with cheeze whiz. Yes, seriously...but, we laughed it off, and went on our way.
Our main destination for today was back over the state line in Oklahoma, but we did some scenic driving around in west Arkansas, too. It was a beautiful day for it.
Spiro Mounds historic site and archeological center is located out in what some would call the middle of nowhere. It's the remnants of what was once a bustling city of mound builders, similar to what is located back in Illinois at Cahokia, as well as numerous other sites around the southeast.
They have excavated several of the mounds at Spiro, and have determined that there was, at one time, a community of as many as 800 people living at the site. There was a temple mound, and residential areas, farm areas, and a burial area.
It was really interesting to go through the visitor center and museum, and then to go out into the landscape with a guide book and look around.
Unfortunately, it was stiflingly humid, and just a short partial tour of the grounds had me drenched in sweat.
Next stop, a bit further back toward home, was Sequoya's Cabin national historic site. Again a very interesting interpretive center, and the cabin Sequoya last lived in before he walked off to Mexico and never came back.
For those of you who may not remember from history class, Sequoya was the Cherokee farmer who took it upon himself to preserve the Cherokee language in writing, by developing what some call an alphabet, but which is actually a syllabery.
Through his studies of various alphabets, he developed a phonetic writing system which provides a character for each spoken sound or syllable of the Cherokee language. No other native American language has such a writing system.
One of the cool things at the museum there is a typewriter in Cherokee characters.
Anyway, in the 1930's, the cabin itself was preserved by having a stone building built up AROUND it to protect it from the elements. Inside, the cabin stands, with artifacts and interpretive stations around it.
The grounds are lovely, with a picnic area, and the spring where Sequoya and his family used to gather their water can be seen.
(not just of historic interest to me, but also of cultural interest, as there is a very good chance that my great grandmother Sarah Cloud was Cherokee)
Then, we headed back to the big city. Tomorrow, laundry, errands, and hopefully some relaxing, too.
It was a nice little get away, and the eastern part of the state of Oklahoma is really very pretty! Lots of hills and dales, as it is, I believe, the western edge of the Ozark chain.
We decided to make that our destination for a very little get away this weekend, to celebrate, in advance, our second wedding anniversary (which falls on Monday, 7/12).
Fort Smith, AR lies in a picturesque valley, nestled between rolling green hills, and acres of beautiful country landscapes.
We booked reservations for date night dinner at a German restaurant in Ft. Smith, called Emmy's, and booked the jacuzzi room at the Hampton Inn.
We both got off work early on Friday, met back at the apartment, put the packed bag in the car, and took off!
The drive there was lovely. It was somewhat cloudy, and it rained a little, but mostly, it was a nice drive. We arrived in our destination town around 6:30, checked into our BEAUTIFUL hotel room, then went out for dinner.
We didn't get to spend much time sight seeing in Ft. Smith itself, but it was such a cool town, we know we want to go back.
Dinner was really good...we shared the entree, an authentic rouladen with a dill pickle in the middle, and brought black forest torte back to the room to have with our champagne.
The room wasn't QUITE as lovely as we first thought, as we found out that the air conditioning unit was leaking water into the carpet beneath it, there was a fly buzzing around in the room, some creepy little beetles in the bathroom, and a rather, shall we say, disturbing residue in the jacuzzi tub....but we enjoyed it anyway.
The breakfast this morning was included, and we decided that the "cheese omelets" that were our only hot option were filled with cheeze whiz. Yes, seriously...but, we laughed it off, and went on our way.
Our main destination for today was back over the state line in Oklahoma, but we did some scenic driving around in west Arkansas, too. It was a beautiful day for it.
Spiro Mounds historic site and archeological center is located out in what some would call the middle of nowhere. It's the remnants of what was once a bustling city of mound builders, similar to what is located back in Illinois at Cahokia, as well as numerous other sites around the southeast.
They have excavated several of the mounds at Spiro, and have determined that there was, at one time, a community of as many as 800 people living at the site. There was a temple mound, and residential areas, farm areas, and a burial area.
It was really interesting to go through the visitor center and museum, and then to go out into the landscape with a guide book and look around.
Unfortunately, it was stiflingly humid, and just a short partial tour of the grounds had me drenched in sweat.
Next stop, a bit further back toward home, was Sequoya's Cabin national historic site. Again a very interesting interpretive center, and the cabin Sequoya last lived in before he walked off to Mexico and never came back.
For those of you who may not remember from history class, Sequoya was the Cherokee farmer who took it upon himself to preserve the Cherokee language in writing, by developing what some call an alphabet, but which is actually a syllabery.
Through his studies of various alphabets, he developed a phonetic writing system which provides a character for each spoken sound or syllable of the Cherokee language. No other native American language has such a writing system.
One of the cool things at the museum there is a typewriter in Cherokee characters.
Anyway, in the 1930's, the cabin itself was preserved by having a stone building built up AROUND it to protect it from the elements. Inside, the cabin stands, with artifacts and interpretive stations around it.
The grounds are lovely, with a picnic area, and the spring where Sequoya and his family used to gather their water can be seen.
(not just of historic interest to me, but also of cultural interest, as there is a very good chance that my great grandmother Sarah Cloud was Cherokee)
Then, we headed back to the big city. Tomorrow, laundry, errands, and hopefully some relaxing, too.
It was a nice little get away, and the eastern part of the state of Oklahoma is really very pretty! Lots of hills and dales, as it is, I believe, the western edge of the Ozark chain.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Grillin
The weather this past week has been SO much nicer! Tolerable, even!!
It's even cool enough today to grill something for dinner! New York strip steaks, to be exact. It's only 80, and though it rained much of the day, it's dry now.
Nothing much else is going on, though.
We had a verbal invitation to my cousin's for tomorrow's 4th of July festivities, but 2 emails and a message on face book, asking what time, and what to bring, has not brought about any kind of confirmation.
Not sure what to do there. What if we show up and no one's home, because we're too early?
Jack the cat has been very yowly at night again. I got a total of 5 hours of sleep between Wed. and Thur. nights last week. Then, he was bad again last night, but more intermittent, so I could sleep for an hour at a time.
He threw up last night and again this morning, and he had a poop accident in one of the bathtubs. My guess is he has been feeling uncomfortable in his belly, so I got him some sensitive stomach food today.
Between that and giving him extra hair ball remedy, I am hoping for this new behavior of his to be gotten under control.
I need some freaking sleep! He's been doing this for about 6 weeks or so....some nights, he's quiet....some nights, he yowls all effing night.
We'll see how tonight goes, now that he's no longer constipated. *sigh*
Well, the steaks are ready!
It's even cool enough today to grill something for dinner! New York strip steaks, to be exact. It's only 80, and though it rained much of the day, it's dry now.
Nothing much else is going on, though.
We had a verbal invitation to my cousin's for tomorrow's 4th of July festivities, but 2 emails and a message on face book, asking what time, and what to bring, has not brought about any kind of confirmation.
Not sure what to do there. What if we show up and no one's home, because we're too early?
Jack the cat has been very yowly at night again. I got a total of 5 hours of sleep between Wed. and Thur. nights last week. Then, he was bad again last night, but more intermittent, so I could sleep for an hour at a time.
He threw up last night and again this morning, and he had a poop accident in one of the bathtubs. My guess is he has been feeling uncomfortable in his belly, so I got him some sensitive stomach food today.
Between that and giving him extra hair ball remedy, I am hoping for this new behavior of his to be gotten under control.
I need some freaking sleep! He's been doing this for about 6 weeks or so....some nights, he's quiet....some nights, he yowls all effing night.
We'll see how tonight goes, now that he's no longer constipated. *sigh*
Well, the steaks are ready!
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