my poor kitchen

My kitchen, and my cooking, has taken a hit since Christmas. I started out fine on Christmas cooking the butterscotch shortbread. It turned out great, and it was a lot of fun using the stand mixer for it. I took it over to the Moreau's house still warm when I went there for breakfast Christmas morning. I considered getting up early enough to cook it (successfully) and still get there early enough to eat with everyone a major accomplishment, especially after having our gift opening the night before. Kathy's brother, Bill, was especially fond of the shortbread and called them "to die for." He made me feel really good about it, that and having three of them before breakfast. There were very few of them left by the end of the day. I don't know why, but I didn't even try one.

Anyway, I came home after breakfast to cook the biscuits, corn casserole and some peanut butter cookies and the biscuits were the only thing that turned out, and they actually were a little problematic. I put two pans of them in, to save time, and in trying to get them out and doing something else at the same time (I don't remember the exact sequence) I had the cabinet above the stove open and the cookbooks were falling out and the pans of bread on the stove were knocked askew so I had one hand holding one up and one hand holding the other up and I didn't realize I was leaning some weight on the stove hood, which pulled out of the screw holding it. Sigh. Now it hangs down a little further each day and I'm afraid it's going to pull the other screws out by its weight so I've got it duct taped up.

Talking to MIchele last night, she suggested the Mighty Putty they advertise on TV, so I went to Walgreens and got it last night, but it didn't stick to the stove hood. So, my next step, I think, is to mix up a little and stick it into the screw hole so it, in essence, is a new hole and not a stripped hole. Maybe that will work.

To add insult to injury, tonight while I was fixing dinner, while my stove hood was glaring at me, I used my salt grinder to add the final touches to my dinner only to have the entire bottle come out as the lid unscrewed, which I didn't even know was possible. I tried to salvage my dinner by spooning the salt out of the food, but it was too salty to eat. Ack. Ack ack ack. Bleh. 

I've been trying to finish my dishes since I did my cooking on Christmas day, but mostly I go in and clean what I need as I need them. Oh, the corn casserole was too soupy but still had good flavor, but I was afraid to take the peanut butter cookies because the last couple of minutes... maybe even just the last minute of cooking they just smelled like the oil in them was bad. But only in the last minute. It was very odd. I didn't feel like risking everyone getting ill, so I just threw them away, even though I ate a couple of them and didn't get sick. Just didn't want to risk it. It was probably just my nose and being overtired.

So my plan is still to clean up and organize the kitchen back to normal. I have been working on the living room when I get out there like yesterday. I was going to do some running around today but it didn't work out for today. It's kinda hot here (60s- wow I'm spoiled. A sunny day and in the 60s and I'll wait for a cooler or cloudy day.) this week, so I can wait for a nicer day to run around. I took Ozzy out for a drive the other day. I took some pictures of the llama that watches the herd of black cows just up the street, and the herd has had babies, too. I'll try to get those pictures up. I also need to take a drive into OKC and get some pictures for the photo blog, but I'm kinda waiting for the right day. I'll know when. 

I got nice phone calls today from Heather and MIchele. It's always nice to hear their voices. I get to talk to Michele a lot, which I like, cause we were playing GH, but now that we're not I like the fact she still calls me just to chat and keep in touch. 

We still need to go to a movie. We were going to go on Christmas Day but I had to beg off cause of the cooking. It would have been fun, though. I tried to tell Josh so he could get the concept of Michele and I going to the movie together, but he still had at least one eyebrow raised, as he usually does with anything to do with me. The way her schedule works makes it easier for us to try and find a movie at the same time, even with the time difference, so we can be walking out of the movie at the same time and therefore talk about it as we leave the movie. I love doing that. I haven't tried it with anyone else back there, but it would work just the same. It's a little with Heather cause she works all day every day so it's her evenings that may or may not be open, and then she goes home to Bill and making dinner. And, btw Heather, you guys have Rock Band - do you still play online? The four of us can make a band online if we can ever connect when my XBox gets back, if you do still play online. There are a lot of accomplishment points you can only get in a full band. If you're interested. I think it might be fun. Michele and I have a great time. Did you ever get Guitar Hero World Tour? That's the really good one, but we have both GHWT and RB. Oh, we're playing the original RB, not RB2 cause Michele doesn't have it yet. Let me know if you guys are interested. You too, Michele.

Man, I can't wait to get it back. And to have it back and working well. If we get into this I wonder if I might need to upgrade my internet speed? I'm at the slowest DSL speed right now. It's not a problem for being on the computer, but I wonder if that's what has stopped us mid song. Dunno. We'll have to see when it comes back. Itching fingers to play......

The iPod stereo, to explain it a little more, is a wired plug-in. There is a empty space under the stereo where the wire stays, and when I get into the car I take the wire and connect the iPod and it picks up where it stopped off when it was disconnected. I started A Lion Among Men (the third in the Wicked series) and its started off good so I have high hopes for it. I don't mind at all connecting and disconnecting my iPod cause I take it with me everywhere I go anyway. I did find my Pink cd. I thought it was stuck in the old cd player but Josh had brought it in and carefully placed it in a prominent place where he thought I could find it- under something without actually telling me it was there, on the night he surprised me with the new stereo. I had looked everywhere for it and finally got it off iTunes again. Alex told me not to, but I did, and I think that's the reason why I found it. Don't care. I just wanted it on my iPod.

So that's it for today. Just waiting out time for the end of the year to pass. No marathons today. I'm waiting for the next World's Stupidest..... marathon on New Year's either Eve or Day. I'll have to check on that one, cause that show makes me laugh, and I can't think of a better way to bring in the new year than to laugh.

post Christmas

Things seem to be feeling like they're getting back to normal now. I took Ozzy out for a drive yesterday cause he has had to stay home during the holiday shopping and visiting times. We drove away from town, not very far, and visited the herd of black cows who just had some babies, and the watch llama was close to the fence so I tried to get some pictures, but the pesky other cars on the road kept coming up behind me and wanting to go the 50 mph speed limit. So, we went and grabbed some drive thru lunch and took it home and enjoyed it twice, for lunch and dinner.

I don't think I have mentioned that, when Josh borrowed my car, he had the stereo installed in it that he and Alex gave me for Mother's Day and my birthday. The week before, when Alex was over visiting, she picked up the stereo and put it in her purse when she went to the bathroom. I didn't even know it. Josh told me they steal from me all the time. Just kidding. He said. Anyway, they definitely surprised me. It was midnight when they returned my car and Josh was really tired, but was hungry, so he wanted to get food and decided to go to IHOP and invited me. I kept asking if he didn't want to take his food home but he said IHOP was okay, so we jumped in my car and I saw the stereo, which, if you don't remember, is an Alpine iPod only. There is no place to put a cd. When I get in the car I plug in my iTouch and I can pick whatever is on the ipod. And it looks really pretty, very up to date.

Tonight I started the book I got for Christmas, A Lion Among Men, the third book of the Wicked series. I pulled out of the garage and was setting it up before I drove to Walgreens, and was trying to get everything right, but the one thing I was a little off about was just how far out of the garage I was. The garage door came down and almost missed my car... almost. It scraped the front tip of my bumper and the dirt and stuff on the bottom rubber of the garage door left some nasty scratches, but they might be able to be rubbed out. Maybe.

Let's see, what else has been going on? The weather is much nicer, not nearly so freezing, less windy, but sunnier. It's supposed to be in the 50s this week, which is comfortable for me. The evenings are really lovely. 

I suppose that's it for tonight. I'm just trying to get back into a normal routine again. My XBox is at the shop and won't be back, I'm guessing, for at least another couple of weeks. sigh  But, when it comes back it will work when it's supposed to and that will be worth the time away. So, until then I try to avoid looking at or fondling the wireless headset that Josh and Alex got me. I can hardly wait until it's time to play online with Michele again so I can use it. She's using the time to get more songs under her belt that we can play together on Guitar Hero. Actually, she's working at finishing the game. That will mean when we get to play we will have all those songs we can choose from. Rock Band is fun but my first choice is still Guitar Hero.

Sheba let it be known that she was unhappy that she didn't have any food tonight, so now that my bed has all be washed and remade I can finally go to bed. And here I have been bragging that she's been good for so long. Just like AA, this is back to day 1 for her. But I must have caught her right after because I got the sheets and cover off before it made it to the mattress this time. So, clean sheets and ready for bed. Night all.

muh dawg n stuff

 I was looking at Ozzy's photos I posted and noticed that his head is at a 45 degree angle and his mustache is even at the bottom. Not good. I still haven't taken scissors to him, all over. Yes, he has long hairs that need to be trimmed and cleaned up all over him. I'm not going to run him back to PetCo cause I imagine he's quite the handfull when they have him there, and his face is probably the last thing they do. It's not quite so obvious in the photos, but his eyebrows are the Schnauzer-type, in the sharp-in-the-middle kind, and they are hanging over and almost touching between his eyes. I don't think I realized, as a whole, just how silly he looks. He does make me laugh when I look at him. He has long hair under his arms (that just sounds stupid), and different places like his toes, but if I just pick up a pair of scissors, he gets this wild animal look in his eyes, or even worse, the sad, don't-do-this-to-me-me-mom eyes. I'm such a sucker. Josh figured that out a long time ago. 

Speaking of Josh, he came by today to borrow my car so he could get some work done on his and did a drive-by service call. I mentioned having trouble with my XBox. He turned it on and put a disc in it and, of course, GH came right on. "Of course," I said. He grinned, and opened it up and tried it again, and it did to him what it has been doing to me. I thanked him for trying that one more time, which was very thoughtful. Alex said it was the "new" Josh, that would go the one more time instead of just calling me crazy and walking away (kinda kidding).

So, he told me to do three things today (AND he made me repeat them): call XBox and start the return process, call Bose and start the return process and call Activision about my guitar(s) and start the return process. Egad!!! I don't want to do this stuff! Why do you think I've put it off so long? Sigh. I called XBox. I talked to the Indian man on the phone and only asked him to repeat himself four or five times. He told me the warranty was up on October 23rd, which was impossible since I didn't get it until Christmas day last year. I told him that and then asked for his supervisor. Ten minutes later he came back and connected me with her (I was very patient and polite). 

She was very nice and patient with me when I didn't realize what all entailed the hard drive (duh, I felt stupid), and she gave me the referral number and now Josh has to find the receipt or it will cost $99. If I have to pay it will be, in essence an extended warranty and I'm okay with that. I hope Josh is okay with that and doesn't stress too much about it if he can't find the receipt. The supervisor did say that it would be okay if we went a week after the date on the receipt, if he can find it. 

The Bose - umm, another duh moment. I have a Lifestyle 3-2-1 but I don't know which one it is, initials after it name-wise, and have to go look for the box or receipt or something. Josh would know but the last time we were on the phone he couldn't talk. He told me all he had to do was to take it into the store. What's wrong with that? That's what I want to do. I'll take that one. That's my choice. Why do I have to do this other stuff. I want it to be e-a-s-y.......

The guitar(s) - My GH guitar isn't acting right, and neither is the Fender guitar that came with the original GH. I did go to the Activision website and went to the service area. There they have pages dedicated solely to Guitar Hero, and there are questions about guitars not working, across all the game platforms. Since there are a couple of things, well, one thing I haven't tried, I have decided to try it before I go any further. How does that sound? Think it will work when Josh asks?

So, that's been my day so far. That and I had lunch. Woo hoo. big day. Ozzy's been sleeping away at my side, so his day has been quiet, too. Oh, I remember what I was going to put down. About Ozzy.

Ozzy was happily and quietly sleeping on the back of the couch, like a cat, when he let out this huge, and loud hiccup. It startled him and woke him up, and he looked around, then started barking, one bark at a time, like "Who did that? Where did that come from?" Ah my dog, ever on alert.

quiet day

Not much going on today. I just laid low so I could get out and about on Friday. I got to play some Rock Band with Michele last night, after trying for 45 minutes to get GH to play. This is a frustrating new development with my XBox but at least she got Rock Band and we have an alternative. Instead of playing together like we do on GH, we do scoring duels and tug of war on Rock Band. She gives me a real work out. Well last night she just trounced me. We always end the night playing Foreplay/Long Time by Boston, our favorite song on Rock Band. We feel like real rock stars playing it cause its such a blast to play. She accused me of letting her win the first night cause I lost it on the end free play. Yeah... we'll go with that, instead of me not hitting the last note.

It was really foggy today, from what I could tell, all day. It was a wet, heavy fog. We went out early this morning, before the sun was up, and it was, once again, really eerie and very still. I was going to take some pictures but I already have some of the neighborhood like that. Tomorrow I ... oh, Josh is going to have my car tomorrow. I forgot. Oh well. At least the car is clean, and I should be feeling pretty good. I thought I was going to have a headache this morning and took a relpax, and that kept it at bay. My shoulders are back to being like stone, which I'm sure doesn't help the head any, but whatcha gonna do. That's for after Christmas to find a chiropractor. Feeling good sparks me to actually DO things and TAKE CARE of things that need of taking care of. 

So, I guess tomorrow will be another day at home, taking care of things here, organizing things for Christmas. Everything that is to be sent has been sent, so now I just need to finish up my "for here" stuff. Kathy has been helping me a lot, as has Alex. She will be over here on Monday evening to make cookies, so I need to sit down and make sure I have everything I need to make butterscotch shortbread cookies. I'm not sure what she's going to want to make, but that's going to be my contribution. And I will make Josh's pumpkin pie this week. I need to check on what the schedule is for Christmas Eve, too.

That's it for today. Hope your day was good. Ozzy is happily on his back, snoozing away. Sheba has been in with us every time I open my mouth and talk while I pet Ozzy, getting her share of the pets. Looks like she's gone back to bed now, tho. I guess she doesn't like the shoot 'em up movie I've got on. So, take care and more tomorrow. 

no more squishy tires

I finally got my tires filled today. I went to the tire place across from Wal Mart and asked them if they could help, told them my sad plight and they had two guys fill my tires in less than a minute. The low tire light went off for the first time in months. I thought, as I drove home, how stupid of me it was to allow myself to get in the position of having a new car and not being confident of it because I allowed the tires to get so low. Shame on me. Funny how those things get away from you.

I also stopped and got the car washed, which I have done several times since I bought it, and cleaned out the inside a bit, which I haven't done (not trash, which I keep clean, but actual doors and stuff). The back seat was gross. I forget, since I never see it, that Ozzy leaves marks on the back windows, too, and stuff spills... Oh, I just need to look back there a little more often. We'll just leave it at that. Josh is going to borrow it on Friday so I thought I'd clean it up. Sorry Michele - I probably should have done it before you visited. It's funny how my "view" changes on a good day.

I've been watching a building go up on the service road that I take home. I noticed from the design of the building that it was probably going to be Mexican food - yay. Then it was definitely Mexican food, being Rickey's. It was just a matter of when. Going home today I noticed cars in the parking lot so I decided to stop and get a take out menu, then decided to take out when I smelled it inside. Turns out that today was their opening day! Cool. Love having a Mexican restaurant two miles from my house and not across the freeway. The lunch special is about $10 and is lots of food, and good, and didn't take too long. They didn't have take out menus printed yet but I got a business card, and food, and was happy the rest of the afternoon. I'll finish the rest of the chips and salsa after I finish this. Too late, must eat now. 

getting back to "normal"

I do have to put normal in quotes because everyone knows that normal is, for me, relative. My sleeping schedule is settling down and hopefully the migraines with it, but asleep before midnight and awake by 9 am isn't normal for me and never will be even if I do if every day for the rest of my life. 

I must, first of all, mention that it was 72 degrees yesterday and is 17 degrees today. Oklahoma weather is schizophrenic, and of course I love it. As usual with this year, I have procrastinated. Today was my day to do running around, but I won't actually do anything today as I have "squishy" tires. Michele was going to put air in them when she was here but it was cold and windy (with the wind chill it was 19 degrees then.... with the wind chill), and she wisely came home. I tried and tried on Saturday to put air in my tires but was confounded at every turn so now the lowest tire has about 18 pounds in it. I have no idea what a squishy tire does on frozen asphalt and I don't really want to put it to the test so I apologize to those of you who get late cards. Blame it on squishy tires and a fraidy cat me.

Ozzy is now all groomed and smelling much better. As you can see, his mustache is a little longer than usual, his Yosemite Sam look. As for the sitting up and posing, that was all his idea. I guess he knows now that when a camera comes out he sits up and poses all pretty.

So, I think the migraine phase is on its way out, and things are settling down again, Ozzy is soft and cuddly and smells good again. All's good here. Hope things are good everywhere else.

Electronics are making me crazy

After messing with the blogs all day yesterday, Michele called me after poker to play GH online. I've been having problems with my XBox (somehow, in the grand scheme of electronic things, this isn't a surprise) - it won't immediately read all the games. It seems to want to wait until the point of exasperation and then start. That's how it was the first time we played when Michele first got here, anyway. 

So, last night she called and surprised me cause it was a half hour past when she usually goes to bed. If we had planned ahead, I could have tried the game starting process earlier. But, she called and I put it in and for the next hour and twenty minutes I sat there with the remote opening and closing the tray, switching back and forth between TV and the game while we chatted. She got to play a little bit and got into the Options menu. She found the cheats, and cheated at it. She just put in some colors and actually found a cheat! I didn't even know you could do that - cheat on a cheat! Who'd a thunk it! Anyway, it opened up some songs for her and gave her air guitar, which means that there are guitars playing on stage and no people. I don't really think that would be one of my options.

I need to remember to get online and find some cheats. That was suppose to be my job after she left, but I forgot. I won't say I opened the songs the old fashioned way, cause I got a cheat when I pre-bought my guitar and it opened 84 songs. But she told me about Sharon had gone and gotten a bunch of songs from cheats of off the internet for their Rock Band on Wii cause they didn't know the ones they were playing. Cool! I want to do that, too. More important for Michele to do it, tho, cause we're limited right now to what she can play.

So it's looking now like our big cold front is going to be one cold day, on Monday, and 39 degrees. which still isn't as cold as it was on Michele's last day. The rest of the next ten days will be high 40s and 50s. Sunday is supposed to be 70. The weather here certainly isn't boring.

If the rest of the night goes well, I might try to take Bubbah for a walk tomorrow. We used to do that and I know he misses it. Heck, he misses the living room. But his hair is shorter now. Oh, I forgot that part. The first thing we did Monday morning after Michele got here, after her hugging him and nuzzling him and trying to run her fingers in his fur, was take him to the groomers. She was going to do it with or without me. So we dropped him off and went to the movies. Someone new did him and her interpretation of my instructions on his face has given him muttonchops. His mustache is longer than his little mouth, so he looks like Yosemite Sam, and his little eyebrows are already starting to point down, in their pointy little way. He looks quite distinctive, but the muttonchops have got to go. I'm going to have to wait until he's really sleepy to get the scissors anywhere near him to catch all the long spots that the groomer missed. 

So that's the news for today. Tomorrow, well, we'll let tomorrow take care of itself.

Crazy making

This is making me crazy, but I give up on this blog. I'm moving on to Ozzmatazz.blogspot.com. Blogspot is locking me out of this blog and everything I'm doing is blocking me at every turn. I'm just starting over, again.

***********

Nope, can't find Ozzmatazz. Made it this afternoon cause I couldn't do anything with Gravity, now I can't find Ozzmatazz and I have Gravity. Worse yet, I can't do anything with my photo site so I made a new one, but I forgot the .blogspot before the .com and now City Photo won't pick up my photos and all of my email accounts are used up and I just give up......

I'm sure there will be more later.

all day on the computer

The key word of the title is "day." I got up this morning, in the morning, and have been up since. I looked for Jackie online cause I didn't connect with her last night, and we spent most of the morning and early afternoon going back and forth on Facebook. Probably shouldn't have cause she should have been working, but eventually we caught up and she went off to her transcripts.

I still haven't taken Ozzy to the groomer so his hair is long, he's got a few mats and he's STINKY! I don't think he's too happy about spending this much time inside, either. He doesn't realize that when I was online with Jackie it was 30 degrees outside. There's a groomer in downtown Moore that I want to check out. I saw their ad in the Moore newspaper that got dropped on my driveway, and if they are nice and in anyway close to the cost of Petco, I'd prefer to keep my money in Moore. I don't want them to just pull and tug on those mats cause he'll yelp if you just tug a little on him, and don't EVEN mess with his feet! It seems like a small place might spend a little more time with him. (He's kicking and growling at me cause I'm in his way as he's rolling over to sleep! He's really getting to be a cranky old man as he gets older.)

So that's pretty much it for me today. Michele is coming to visit me on Sunday. She'll be here for three days. She's at a conference until Sunday morning in Tulsa, then she's going to rent a car and drive here, then turn it in either Sunday or Monday morning, then I think she leaves on Wednesday. I should probably be cleaning house or something, but I don't want to wear myself out. Ha! That's what I always say. I need to do the dishes and vacuum, but that really doesn't take that long. Thank goodness I don't need to turn the mattress again.

This morning, while I was waiting for Jackie to message me back, I was on the Netflix site, picking out my movies for the month-long free subscription Josh signed me up for. Now I have probably 150 movies lined up. I don't think I'll get to them all in a month. Cagey they are, those Netflix people.

I've already said it, but that's about it for me. Still not in the Christmas spirit. I'm not sure what it's going to take, but I sure don't feel it right now. Maybe it's all the gloom and doom on the news, but it's not "beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" for me.