heads up, finally

Thanksgiving is over, and it went pretty well, I think. Josh came over and had dinner, and did get a little sleep that night. I went over to his house the next day and took the leftovers and let the puppies out and took Ozzy for a ride, short tho it might have been, so Josh had some more turkey when he got home that night.

I don't know what I was thinking, but when I took Ozzy for his drive around the block on Thursday, I didn't wear a long sleeved shirt. It was sort of cloudy, but by no means was it clouded over. I had helped Josh with the speakers and didn't grab a shirt, so I guess I "broke" that, I don't know, that line of thinking. I haven't done it in years and I was tired and just hopped in the car with Ozzy for a quickie drive and, as I do, I want to believe that I can just be ok. 

So, here I am, after three days of migraines, thinking that probably wasn't the best idea. I'm sure it wasn't the only reason, but I think it was a contributor. Anyway, Ozzy was here, right by my side, the whole time. He was pulling for me to get to the living room, and we just might make it tonight. He just did his rooting and digging all over the bed and got himself under the pillow, so he's all set now, but I'm sure he'll be off the bed in a shot if I make a move in that direction.

Anyway, all better now, and tomorrow is a whole new month. Ack, it's going to be December.

scary little dog

Ozzy has been doing something new lately. I've caught him sitting in the bathroom, which is obviously dark, just sitting there. Didn't know why until tonight. Tonight, for some reason, I looked at him as he was sitting there, in front of the toilet, in the dark, looking intently at me, and I said, "Do you have to go outside?" and he took off like a shot to the door. Ho-o-ly cow. The dog is sitting in front of the toilet to tell me he has to go outside. I find this... funny, smart, and a little disconcerting.

Just wanted to get that down somewhere before I forgot.

Happy Thanksgiving. I miss you all.

no band time for a while

Michele flew off to Portland today to spend the holiday with Kathy, so no more band time for almost two weeks. At one point she said nine days and another she said eleven. But, we're going to try to catch a movie tomorrow. We figure it'll be the best time this week to catch one, before everyone is either off or busy with things to do. 

I just spent an interesting, wow, couple of hours maybe, catching up on my cousin's blog. She lives in Idaho. She's been doing this longer than me, but I didn't know she was doing it when I started (just to make it clear I'm not copying - I get enough of that from Josh. sigh Although I totally am on the Daily Photo, and thank you very much!!) Anyway, what a great thing it is to go back a year and catch up on what she and her family were doing, and what life for her was and has been like in the times we weren't in contact. I think it's awesome. (I need to get a new word. I'm tired of that one. If you have a new suggestion, I'd like to hear it.) She is a whiz on the web, and has had a couple of web business, but I think she should open a web design business, myself, but even more important, she owns, and rides, a bike, even if it is a little crotch rocket.

Yes, we do have our little differences, and motorcycle preferences are one of them, but the important thing to me is that she has one and is regularly riding it. I get a pang of envy with every post that mentions it and her bike riding group. The obvious, one would think, response would be to just get one, but it hasn't worked out that way. Maybe it will. Maybe that's just a part of my past... that I will forever longingly remember and wish for. Who knows. I have Ozzy, and too much balance on my credit card. Josh's wedding is coming up and I have to put money aside for that. I have to be practical here, but I've been putting it out there to the universe for quite a while, but I think I have mixed feelings about it. Josh doesn't want me on one, and I know that. It scares him. Me driving a car scares him, as his only parent.

Phewwwwwww, Ozzy, for a little dog, can pack a wallop of a fart. Just thought you should know. I think my screen is melting, just a little bit.

Well, my thoughts have just run away with my sensory ability, so I think I'll just leave it here. I'm pretty sure after my eyes stop watering that I should probably take the dog outside. Geez, what the heck did I feed this dog? Wow. 

never say never

I knew it when it came out of my mouth at the doctor's office, about not having migraines for weeks. I know it had to do with not sleeping the night before, but I had migraines for the next three days after that, but I think I know why. I had a prescription refilled for Ambien but hadn't been taking it, but took it to get back to a normal schedule. Three days of Ambien, three days of migraines. Now, tho, I'm sleeping in really late, again, but I also know what that's about, too. I have another sleeping pill that's heavy duty that I ran out of and didn't take for several days and when I stopped taking the Ambien, I started taking it again. Maybe I should stop that one again and see how I do. I like getting up in the morning. I liked the way it was before I went to the doctor, cause I've felt like crap since then.

Except for playing GH with Michele every day. That's been a blast. She's gotten pretty good really fast. We ran into a little speed bump when one of our head sets stopped working. I could hear her but she couldn't hear me, so we just put our phones on speaker and play away. It's so much more fun that way, and I get lots more money and points, making lots more progress in the game. On the off times, I've been practicing on guitar, cause when she comes to visit she's going to be playing drums, and I'm going to be playing lead. Don't want to lose my chops. 

I was practicing this evening, thinking she might get online, just fooling around, making some more characters. I found out you get awards for making them, well at least one award for making a female character. I got into the award section to see what the awards were, to see what I had to do to get more. What started it was a TV show on the top bad videos from Rock Band and I saw Joan Jett and I wanted to make a character that looked like her. But, all the female characters look alike. I think you have much more diversity with the male characters.

Anyway, I made a female character and played Steely Dan, and it didn't suit her, so I went back and made another guy, cause the singer in that gig looked pretty cool. He turned out to be my "jazz guy," more suited for Steely Dan, and I finished the song several times with him. About that time Michele got on and wanted to play, and her mom was there and there I was with a new character. Not our usual band. That wouldn't be a big deal, but our characters are special, sympatico. They mesh. She hasn't played with Jazz Man. And she wanted her mom to see us play. Us, out two characters.

So we played at the Bone Church, which was a surprise cause Michele hates the Bone Church, but we KILLED there, getting well over 200,000 on almost every song. But, when the time came for the encore, my Xbox froze. She kept playing at her house and I kept trying to get it to read the disc again, let the dog out, did a couple of things, let it cool off, and eventually got it to start again. So, I called her back and Kieran (my guy - all my characters have Celtic names) jumped in and we played one more gig, so her mom got to see both our characters together, and we did okay - not my best gig, but I was pretty tired by then, and the gig was a speed metal one - same note 25 times, then change the note for 25 more times. I have a lot of trouble with that. I tried really hard to focus, but I was getting tired. By the end of that gig, Michele was tired, too, and we called it quits. 

She's leaving for Portland tomorrow for the holiday, so I'm not going to have any band gigs for a couple of weeks, so I'll have lots of time to practice guitar, but it'll be lonely. I like doing it online. This has been a lot of fun. But, with Thanksgiving coming up, there are things I need to attend to, also. Speaking of Thanksgiving, Rob and Marti sent me the absolutely cutest talking card... well singing card for the holiday. I opened it while I was driving and would play it again at every stop light. It made me laugh every time. Love that card. 

Josh has to work at 4 am on Black Friday so we're having Thanksgiving here. I'm making the pie Wednesday so it will be cold for him on Thursday and then everything else Thursday morning. It's just a matter of figuring out oven time. I'm looking forward to it. 

Oh, that's about it. My eyes are killing me. I'm going to take a migraine pill again, and I think I'm going to stop taking that heavy duty sleeping pill and see what happens. I was doing so well. I want to get back to that. 

excellent news

Alex called me late the other evening and asked, politely, if she woke me up, which she hadn't, and then told me that she had some news. She and Josh are now officially engaged, ring and all. She said that Josh told her he had a gift for her, as she was sitting there, exhausted after a ten hour day, then he proceeded to give her the dog, then the cat,  etc, but finally, after the typical Josh goofiness, had her shut her eyes and when she opened them he was holding out an opened ring box. Her response was, "Really?" "Seriously?" 

As we talked on the phone, she was describing the ring to me, and he was in the background saying that he was going to email a pic to me, then he said they were coming over, which they did. In short order they were over and Alex showed me the ring, which description and photos would not have done justice to. It's just beautiful. It's a brilliant cut, carat and a half total weight, traditional style with a large (and I do mean large) diamond in the center with three (I think) .2 carat diamonds the band on each side, and there are chips in there somewhere, too, but I don't remember where. I just remember being surprised to find there were even more diamonds when I looked at it close up. This is not a ring that you have to use a magnifying glass to find the stone. Ohhhhh no. This is a very beautiful ring. Oh, and 14 k white gold. Alex has very graceful hands and the ring really looks beautiful on her hand. They had gone shopping together, and Alex and her sister had gone together without Josh, but Josh bought it alone, and he did really well. 

We talked for quite a while, especially considering they both had to be exhausted after working long days and having the adrenaline of the moment, but the time did finally come for them to leave. When we were at the door, the subject came up about if he put the ring on her finger or not, and it turned out that he hadn't put it on her finger, but he had Googled which hand and finger was the right one, so he was ready. I thought that was so cute, and so she took it off and he put it back on her finger himself. They are so cute. I'm so happy for them. I know Kathy is thrilled that Alex finally has a ring. She's been calling Josh Alex's fiance for years and now it's official. They called her first and woke her up and told her, and her response was "really?" then "Really?!? " when it finally sank it. This is going to make Thanksgiving a lot more fun. 

I had to wait until Josh called mom and dad before I could blog about it. I asked him to let me know when he told her (he called her the next day) but he was working so hard he forgot to call. I called him, and her (mom)last night, so we're good now. 

As for me, I woke up yesterday I'm sure with a smile on my face. I realized I woke up happy. I had so much fun playing online with Michele the day before, and we were going to do it again, easier this time cause we had the logistics figured out. I called her and told her I was up, and when we were ready we played some. She had played some on her own so we had some more songs to play and she had moved up to medium. The plan was that we would play and then take a break in between to run errands that we both needed to do and then come back and play until we were tired. And that's just what we did. And it was great. At one point, we took a break to give our arms and hands a rest and just chatted through the headsets so long that we had to refresh the game. It was great. Just great. So easy and so fun. I know how hard it is on your hands and arms so it's a good thing she has work and can't spend the hours that I do or it might be really bad for her elbow. But she's catching on quick. I just can't tell you how much fun I'm having doing this with her. I'm so glad she finally got it. She told me Kathy (Portland Kathy, obviously) had to tell her to stop talking about getting an XBox and finally "pull the trigger." Thank you, Kathy!

Today, I'm kinda tired, but I think it's from the shopping at Wal Mart, which I did pretty fast, like I always do when Ozzy is in the car. I don't like to leave him there too long alone. But, at least I have food in the house. So, I will chill today, and may or may not play with Michele again tonight. That will be up to her. Either way is fine with me. I know we'll be doing it again, so I have it to look forward to. By the way, anyone out there who buys Guitar Hero World Tour and wants to get in on the band, let me know. It just makes it more fun. We need a singer and a drummer. At least for now. Michele is natural drummer and I think when she finds a drum set she'll move over. As for me, I'll stick with guitar, but I'm really enjoying bass right now.

woo hoo, we did it! we be jammin'

Well, we got the headphones figured out a little faster today, although Michele did have to wait for me, cause for some reason I was up until almost 6 am again. I really thought I was over that. Maybe the fact I didn't sleep this afternoon will help straighten that out. I tried to go back to sleep, cause she called me around noon and I'm always afraid of a migraine if I lack sleep, but I didn't, so I figured I didn't need it, so I called her back, but I had a heck of a time connecting online. My internet has been going off and on like Christmas lights for the past day or so, so I just kept at it and we finally got the headsets going, then we started in on the band thing.

We stopped pretending that I was any kind of expert on the game, and I looked on the internet for answers, the book was no help, she called the number listed in the book and nothing was any help at all, so we fiddled. Finally Michele found the answer, and it was in the game and not on XBox Live. We were making it too hard. We've gone over several speed bumps, we've learned a few things, but we spent hours today playing together and it was so much fun. It was great cause we could talk while we played and at the end, when we were both tired, she finally did what I told her to and created a custom character (important to be able to save your money) and named her band. I do know a little about it. Anyway, the first session that we played (she quit after a while to eat and play her shoot-em-up game and I just kept playing - I'm like totally hard core, man) she played as this behemoth in KISS makeup with spike armbands. Umm, ok. The second session she made a character that was really cool looking, and looking at our characters I said, "Do you realize they look related?" I thought that was neat, actually. But, she was still creating and made another character and while she was doing that I gave my character some tattoos and to show them off made my neat and tidy character look like a seedy bar crawler.... with good hair. She was working away quietly and then would laugh every now and then, but I'm not going to get a chance to see what she's done until we play again tomorrow. I'm excited about this. This is so much fun. But we can only play as far as she's played. She's going to have to play on her own and open up some more songs. I wish I had kept the cheats I got when I preordered my copy. It opened 84 songs. I keep everything, but I do remember thinking that was one thing I'll never use again. THIS IS WHY I KEEP EVERYTHING! So, it's up to her to put some time in alone practicing for us to be able to play more songs. But, I'm going to have to be careful cause I know what it does to my hands when I play a lot, and she has an elbow that's gone through one surgery, so I'll have to keep control of myself and put her first and not push her too hard to play just cause I'm having so much fun. Cause really, I can't tell you how fast time flew today and what fun it was doing that with her. I can hardly wait til tomorrow. So, on that note, goodnight.

jammin with Michele

Finally, after much anticipation, Michele's XBox 360 came in yesterday, and she got her game (well, games really, but the only game that really matters is GHWT - she got some shoot-em-up game, too, but whatever). She called me tonight after setting everything up all by herself (well done, I might add) and we started trying to set ourselves up to play online. After 2 hours or so, we had figured out how to talk to each other through the headsets and to get our names together on the band list, but we couldn't go anywhere from there. I have no idea how long we tried everything we could think of, but part of the two hours that it took us to figure out the headsets was trying to get out of that screen and into the music screen. We finally gave up and decided that we needed to find a 12 year old to tell us what to do now. So, we stayed on the phone and she went through the tutorial and I played my songs on the bass. I wonder if the fact that she hasn't gone all the way through the tutorial has something to do with it. I hadn't thought of that but she is still working on her skills and since she's in the tutorial it might not allow us to play co op until she's played some songs at a certain level. So practice might be the key to that one. I'll keep practicing, but she'll have to do her part, too. Unfortunately, she's got that shoot-em-up game to distract her from her practice. Ah, the uncommitted to their art. Letting themselves be distracted. I have to tell you, tho, it was weird playing guitar while listening to someone else play something different on guitar on the phone. But, not as odd as playing guitar and listening to someone play Call to Arms over the phone. But we did it until my phone was just about out of juice. So basically we had a game night together, and it was a lot of fun, but it will be a lot more fun when we can get the online thing worked out. I'll keep you posted. And if you know a 12 year old with a few tips, drop me a line.

surfing

I'm not sure what I was looking for today while I was surfing the net, but I came across CNN's tribute to the fallen soldiers of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They posted every photo with the age, affiliation, hometown and country, if they were coalition, and the story of their death. I thought I would go through them, being the least I could do to honor them in some way, but I didn't make it through the A's before I realized it was overwhelming. Too many names, too many roadside bombs, too much to take in. I finally decided to look up Pat Tillman, kind of Arizona's own, so I kept scrolling. 

One entry caught my eye as I quickly scrolled through. The story of his death was a lot longer than most and it had a link. It turns out that he is the first Medal of Honor recipient for combat since the Viet Nam war. The link was to an official site giving the official story, the narrative of the president at the posthumous presentation, a picture of the redesigned medal and other information about the soldier. I don't remember his name. I remember Paul Ray (his middle name) but not his last name. I was surprised that there have been so few Medals of Honor given out, but then again, this is the first time we've been engaged in big time war. Bosnia, Somalia, Grenada - the soldiers who fought there unfortunately didn't have the war machine behind them and went all too often unheralded for actions deadly and costly.

Anyway, by the time I got to where Pat Tillman should have been, he wasn't there. I checked a couple of times, but he's just not there. Maybe it's at the family's request but there are plenty of other stories that read "killed by friendly fire," sadly. The cover up is what makes his story stand out, though.

Enough of that. The only other thing I did today is start to play bass in Guitar Hero World Tour. I found out I can do that, and it's easy to do (not the playing but the arranging to play). You can play bass in the other games but it doesn't count for anything. In this one you make another character and off you go, and you still get points for your band. I made my character and they started me on beginner, which was so easy that I almost fell asleep. I went from beginner to expert in one day on bass. I can't play everything on expert, but I try songs on expert first, and if I absolutely can't play them, then I can go down by levels until I can. I really like playing bass. Totally different from guitar, but you have to watch the repetition factor, which gets to me. I forget what I'm doing and I lose my fingers. I did pretty good on Hotel California, tho, and that's got a great bass part.

That's about it for today, and it's not even 7 pm yet. Man, is my schedule messed up. But I think I feel a migraine coming on. I think it was scrolling through all those photos, to tell you the truth. Josh is coming over tomorrow so he can help me ship back a subwoofer to the factory and take a look at the sound system in my bedroom, and then Kathy's birthday dinner in the evening, so going to bed early isn't a bad idea. Besides, I really doubt I'll be asleep anywhere near 7, or 8, or 9...

post lasagna day

Josh called me last night to tell me that he really liked the lasagna, let me start with that. That makes everything worthwhile. I had a good time yesterday and it went really well. I got up, as I have been doinglately, mid morning and decided to start. Alex thought her parents might be home around three in the afternoon, so that was the time in my head I was working around. I decided to have breakfast first, so I had a bagel and some orange juice and then put a pot on the boil for the noodles.

I got everything together as the noodles cooked and got a great tip from the box about laying out the cooked noodles on waxed paper or cling wrap so they don't stick together, always a problem, so when they were cooked I did that. Awesome tip. I started on the Moreau's dish. The meat sauce was cold and it made it a little harder to deal with, but whatever. I just kept layering - I love making lasagna. I finished theirs and covered it with cling wrap, wrote out the cooking directions then put aluminum wrap on and put it in the fridge. Then, I got a smaller dish and did the same for Josh and Alex's dish. By the time I was done I had about a half a cup of meat sauce left. I tried hard not to go easy on the meat sauce on Josh's in order to keep some for me, but I did want some. I figured I could do what I did the night before and use it for spaghetti. The fact that I didn't have enough to make some lasagna for me was my own fault cause I used twice what was left to make myself spaghetti the night before and it was GREAT!

So, I had both dishes done and I called Alex, who was surprised that I was done so early. I was, too, actually. It was only one o'clock. I went by her house and dropped hers off and picked up the key to her mom's house. By the time I got there, Kelsey was there to feed the dogs (her parents were in Texas for the weekend and were coming home that night. I thought having something they could just stick in the oven would be nice after a road trip.), so I just handed it to her and didn't have to use the key. I drove home the long way and got gas at a no ethanol station. As soon as I walked in the door my phone rang. It was Alex. Kelsey had locked herself out of the house and Alex needed the key back. If I was still out and about I could have taken it to her myself, but I was home and tired, so Alex came and got it.

I was in bed early last night. Oh, and by the way, I made sure the mondo mushroom made it into the Moreau's dish. Anyway, I was just watching TV and thinking, jokingly about a lasagna pot pie, when I figured out how to make one. I went into the kitchen and checked out my glass bowl, which is a pyrex and is ok for oven use, and used the remaining meat and made layers until the meat was gone. When it was done cooking, I moved it onto a small plate and it filled the small plate, so I did get to eat some of my own lasagna. Ironically, it was very filling and I only finished half of it. I'll make you a bet the lasagna goes a very long way. When Josh called me last night (which made me feel so good, he's such a sweetie and thoughtful that way), he said they had only eaten about a third of theirs.

This morning, I have already received two calls from the Harley Davidson store I visited. The first one was a survey about the visit and she asked about what I was looking for and about how much I wanted to spend. So I told her. Then, about an hour or so later I got another call from, I swear I think it was the owner, and he had a bike he thought I might be interested in, but it was $8500. I told them about my new car and that I couldn't afford it. If they are this interested in finding me a Harley, I might just end up with one. Someone might just turn in an old Harley in my price range. Who knows? If they're going to try that hard it's just a possibility. I can always say no.

So, that's about it. Ozzy tried to go outside this morning. We woke up to a really good rainstorm. He trotted happily to the front door and went outside for about four feet and stopped, looked at me, then realized that he was getting wet, then came back inside. I gave him a rubdown, which he really enjoyed, but surprisingly he wasn't really very wet for being in a downpour. It's not raining now but he's dead to the world and I hate the thought of waking him just to make him go outside to do his thing. I think I'll do the same thing and go back to sleep. 

lasagna day

I don't really know why I haven't posted in so long. I did go to a movie with Michele this week. We went and saw "Max Payne" which I liked and she didn't. But, since he is a cop, she had some major complaints about his procedures and would have written him up many times on his bad techniques. I, on the other hand, being enamored with New York City my entire life, loved the fact that it was filmed in the winter, which you rarely see, and they used the snow and rain for mood, and quite effectively, I thought. I also thought the photography was "arty" and dark, in keeping with the mood, and I liked that, too. So when Michele got out of her movie and called me, she said she wanted her seven dollars back, and I said I liked it. Still, I like going to the movies like that. I'm glad we figured that out. I can't believe it's been so long since we've done it.

After I came out of the movies I went over to the Harley Davidson dealership and looked at the bikes. I took my camera along and got a picture of the theater, which you can only shoot from the outside, unfortunately, because it's amazing inside, and wanted some shots of the bikes, too. I got a shot of a line of Harleys and decided to see what was inside. The first thing I saw, before I got inside was a little white bobber, which is almost the opposite of a chopper, very compact. I looked at it before I went inside. So, when I went inside and was met with a salesman rather quickly and he asked if I had found anything I liked, he mentioned he had seen me looking at the bobber. Man, these guys are good. I found out it was used, but only an '07, $10,000, and the payments for it would be more than my car payments. And to get it I would have to have $5000 down. No Harley for me. Big surprise. I did sit on it, and it did feel good, but it was a 1200, and I have no need for a bike that big, or that new. I'd be better off, if I get serious about getting a bike, looking on Craig's list and borrowing from my Visa or getting a credit union loan, but I'm trying to pay off my Visa, not add more.

Anyway, about the lasagna. After watching all the cooking shows with mom here, I had kinda built up an urge to really cook again, and for some reason, it's lasagna. I bought half the ingredients last week in a quickie market run cause Ozzie was in the car. I got the meat and the noodles but forgot the cheeses. So yesterday I decided I could start the meat sauce and let it simmer for a while. Alex had called and we were going to do some running around. I am making a big batch and Josh and Alex, and Alex's family are all going to get some. I just like cooking for a group. I grew up doing that. It's no fun cooking for one. Anyway, but the time Alex came, over the meat sauce was done and she got to taste it. Mind you, Alex works at an Italian restaurant, well, has worked at several Italian restaurants, so I felt bad cause I knew she couldn't be very excited about me making an Italian dish, but she thought the meat sauce was good and it's the foundation, so it's a good start. The funny thing is that I bought two bottles of sauce and needed one more, and I knew I already had one so I used it. It was Paul Newman's Sockeroo Sauce with bell peppers and stuff, so I dumped it in and out came the biggest sliced mushroom I think I have ever seen. I initially took it out, but Josh and I are the only ones who don't like mushrooms, and I've eaten them in pizzas and stuff and Josh eats them when he doesn't know they're in there, so I put it back in and I'm going to put it into the Moreau family batch. They'll appreciate it. All the other pieces are small. But that mushroom piece has to be three inches across. 

In fact, I should be getting up and starting the process now. I have noodles to cook and the layering process is going to take a bit and I'm pretty sure I'll have to take a couple of breaks. I used 5 pounds of meat, and the cheeses accordingly. It's going to be a lot of lasagna. But, like I said, I like cooking big. I'll let you know when the reviews come in.

Oops, there goes my firepit

My firepit on the back porch usually has the metal parts sitting upside down (so they don't collect water and rust), but when I looked out last night, they weren't there. Mind you, there was a hellacious storm front that went through, as you know from the hail storm that started it, but that really was nothing. Josh called me a couple more times, warning me that there was more hail coming, but once it was so loud that Ozzy barked, thinking that there was someone at the door, as the hail started. 

The wind was crazy, the lightening went on all night, the rain was off and on, but the hail was the cool part. The sad thing was that it was gone almost as soon as it hit the ground. It's just too warm yet. 

Although, this storm is bringing in a cold front, which I always like. When I was out running around yesterday, it was nice that it wasn't quite so hot. I did take my camera with me so I could take a few new photos with me. There were clouds in the sky and I think that always makes the photos more interesting.

Oh, sheesh, talk about a wandering mind. The firepit. When I saw the firepit last night, I had visions of having to wander the neighborhood looking for the parts that were missing, or hanging over my fence to see if they were in the big field next to my house, or worse, putting up flyers saying "Have you seen my firepit?" Well, I went out with Ozzy a little while ago and actually picked up the metal piece that was still there and thought about it. Hmmm, there was a bottom piece that I turned upside down and then I put the round metal net cover on top of that. Well, the metal bottom WAS still there, and I moved it to realize that and when I did that I saw that the cover was underneath. They just got turned completely upside down instead of flying away. Whew, good, didn't want to wander the streets looking for them. (wow, that was hard to read - good luck with that.) Anyway, it's all good.

hail yeah!

Josh called me a few minutes ago. He had been doing his weather-man duty (really, he's getting really good at it) since last night about the storm front coming in, so I got my running around done this morning. Anyway, it was raining when he just called, and he said he just wanted to warn me that I might be getting some hail in a few minutes. Then, WHAM, it hits he's while he's still on the phone and it's loud! I was in bed with the shutters next to the bed open watching the storm so I got up and watched from the door. He warned me that the shutters wouldn't protect me if they went through the door when a big one hit the door. The kid's a psychic. 

I told him that the ones in the backyard were pea to pecan sized but I went to the front yard where I saw this beauty. I am so glad I have a garage. Josh said he had to go cause he was going to call his friends on the

north side and warn them about the hail. This move to Oklahoma has opened a weather wizard in him I think he didn't know he had. Well, even if he did it wouldn't have been utilized much in Arizona anyway.

The next photo is the sky as it looked after I got the hail and took the picture and walked back to the backyard. It was over that fast. Even the rain is gone now. That's Oklahoma weather for you. 15 minutes and then it changes.

Halloween

Since this is the third or so time that I've uploaded these photos and tried to do this blog, I'm so hoping this will work. That will also explain why I haven't blogged in three days or so. I had a great time in Texas, but it took me a couple of days to recuperate. Not a complaint - more like a compliment. 

This first photo is me in my costume. Can you figure it out? The words in front say "Paper or Plastic?" I have handles on my shoulders and aluminum foil on my head, and of course, I'm holding Ozzy. Got it? I'm a doggy bag.

This is Alex being a Guitar Hero. I think she looks great. It's too bad that the little details don't show cause she has a guitar bracelet on and guitar earrings. Her shorts are Guitar Hero shorts and, of course, the GH guitar.

This next scary one is Alex's sister, Paige, being a control freak. What she's holding in her hands are remote controls, and they are also in her waist and has two in each sock. Her make up is. well, freaky. 

The couple here are Kelsey and her boyfriend, Drew, and they came kind of as a theme. Kelsey, you will notice, has a necklace of chili peppers and is dressed in scrubs with a stethascope. She's Dr. Pepper. 

Drew is dressed in scrubs and covered with sponges and drinking a beer. He's a self-absorbed doctor.

The winning costume of the night is the last photo, the little lady, or should I say the rabbit sitting in the hat. That's Alex's grandma and she's the one who threw the party. There were cousins and aunts and uncles and, well, me, and not only that, but a recurring sewer problem that the city was working on as we pulled in on Saturday. They actually fixed it late Saturday night, I think it was, but neglected to tell her. Well, it kept it interesting. 

We drove back on Sunday afternoon, and I went to bed pretty much when I got home and got out out bed, um, today. I just stayed in bed yesterday and slept for most of the day. But, I have to say, it was so worth the trip. That was such a fun trip. I just love Alex's family. I just wish Josh could have been there for it. They all asked about him.