Joe Cool

Getting bigger

My real computer is coming home. It's been a hard week  but the tablet and I have a much better relationship than we had before all this happened, so that's good

I'm still not enjoying this, the keyboard  is a giant bitch for such a tiny thing and while  I've  gotten better it's a daily pain in the ass that I look forward to not doing anymore.

Friday Cat Blogging

Made with #Pixlr #

More tiny

I heard a couple arguing   in the street as I left  my house to walk the dog. I hoped they would evaporate. They did not. I imagined confronting them, telling them to take it elsewhere. And I imagined they would  because I'm a middle aged white woman with a big dog and a cell phone! Kneel down  before my privilege .

Loud and stupid , both of them trash. I made further plans to  avoid them if possible - not easy as we were  heading in the same direction. I stayed on my side of the street  and hoped they might get hit  by a runaway bus.

Then he grabbed her by the neck and made her change directions. In front of Gawd and all the DMV employees getting off work. One of them told me from her car to call the cops.

I did.  I'm so brave. So down with sisterhood I wished a runaway bus on her.

They calmed down and changed directions again while I chatted with 911. He saw me behind them on the phone and shouted at me to "stop following" them. I assured him I wasn't  and we went our own ways.

I hope the cops found them.

I didn't see them  again and went on to get rained on and had to cut  our walk short. It was pouring but  I found shelter and that was nice. Go me.

Tiny computer fun

My lenses are ready. It normally takes ten days to two weeks for new lenses to make  an appearance.  I'm not sure this is good news. I also don't  look forward to being blind at the mall for however long it takes them to put the lenses in my frames.

I didn't  pick them up today because I wanted to go home on time, eat my regular  dinner at my regular  time and walk my dog at my regular time. I also needed  to hit Wally  and I wanted  to do that before it got too late.

I was going  to make a list but I thought any list would be too short to write.  The longer  I was at the store the longer my short list got. I managed to forget the item that had made up my short list. Brilliant.

Now I have a good week's worth of meals, lunch and dinner. I even found a big box of the dog's crunchy dental treats.  And some cheetos.

How I spent my weekend

https://plus.google.com/109848310919522741577/stories/91a0a83a-a4ec-3b6d-91e6-b8bbf27d859c14d8d7efdbf?authkey=CIjCw9O6rNOsHQ

Testing my patience

Brilliant thinker that  I am, I forgot my computer at my parents house. It will be  visiting them for a week for vacation and then it will head back to me.

I am going to use my tablet in the mean time. If this proves too onerous I will go back to my desktop computer that I haven't  turned  on in three years. It uses  dial-up. Let us hope for a detente between me and the keyboard on my tablet.

Let us pray I get  very  good at typing  on it .There is a button I keep punching that kicks me out of blogger and back to my start  page. I have done  this four times so far . I don't  know which button or sequence of buttons being  pushed caused this to occur over and over again . It seems to work better when I use only one finger  to "type".

Also the program guesses badly when it tries to finish  words  for me. I thought  it knew me better than that. By the end of the week it will.

Bridge

Boat House

Sunday

Garden Update

We have baby tomatoes!

Friday Cat Blogging

Dear Lenscrafters, Its Over.

Dear Lenscrafters,

I'm going to break up with you. We've had a great run, we've been together for a very long time, but I think we've grown apart and want different things. For example I want these

And I can't have either of these because while they are featured on the Lenscrafters web site they are NOT available in the stores. They are not in the warehouse and the only way to get them through Lenscrafters is if the clerk who helps you is really up for a challenge. Last year they found my glasses - glasses I found on the website and went to the store to see, only to be told that they didn't have them and couldn't get them. I was as brokenhearted as you can be over a missed opportunity with glasses frames, but the guy promised to try to find them and he did! He called stores all over the state and rattled cages at  warehouses and low and behold my glasses surfaced. I am so glad he went the extra mile and did that for me. I am complimented on them all the time!  When was the last time some stranger told you they like your glasses? Yeah, its not something that happens. It happens to me because I have special order glasses and last year, I had the benefit of great customer service.

This year I went back to my Lenscrafters and told them I am not buying new frames but I am getting new lenses. I am paying more for this than if I had bought a complete pair. They punish you for not getting new glasses and then they won't let you use your frame allowance to buy sunglasses. Or maybe they would but my clerk was not up for a challenge or offering anything above the barest minimum of customer service. She was kind of a bitch actually.

When I told her I got my frames from them last year and the guy who helped me really helped me, she said "Yeah. That happens sometimes", in a tone that told me it was not going to happen this time. I decided that next year I go someplace else.

On my list is a  lovely  glasses store downtown that I had thought was "Dr. Chichis' Spectacle  Boutique" but is in real life is just a Eyecare Center! Not a fancy boutique at all. I see sexy frames in there in their windows all the time but I never looked too close because it looks expensive. It's not, its just good window dressing.

So. Next year? Maybe stripes.

No Love,
Diana

Phones

I'm trying to get a new phone and the more research I do the more confused I get! For every good review of a phone I find six that haaatttteeee it. I am now very confused.

I went and looked at phones and they are much cooler than they were two years ago. I saw three I liked but one was really way too big to be useful and the others were nice but they were smallish like my current one and it s a touch small, there isn't an in between size. I use it  for reading and my vision is not great and I would like a bigger screen - enter the tablet , which I all ready have but I don't carry it around with me. I thought I liked the Galaxy 6 but then I read dozens of angry reviews of it from end users.

I had to say no to the HTC because the battery is not a strong point and I want a really good battery, I liked the Nexus too but lots of people did not. I like the idea of the Note but I would lose the stylus  immediately.

I'm the getting the one with the stylus.

Monday Evening

My excuse for not writing an entry this time : I mowed both yards and before that I went to the store and refilled one of the dogs prescriptions and got him new food and found him the doggy dental cleaning treats he really, really, really likes. I wasn't going to do the mowing, I was still coasting on a dental treats high, but after dinner I went into the yard to read my book in the restful outdoor environment and I got to looking around and it it didn't look good and did not invoke feelings of  ease. Its an an unwelcome side effect of having nice yard furniture - I spend more time in the yard.

And I'm sitting there thinking about the yard and what I have to do pre-mowing of yard.

1. Put shoes on, which means going in the house and finding the shoes and then finding the keys to the shed and getting out the cords and the mower. And its hot.

2. This is a lot of work for  the relatively invisible back yard. I am the only one who sees the back yard and I get no neighbor shaming points for having the back yard in a mowed condition. If I am going to mow, I am going to mow the front yard.

3. The front yard is bigger and requires both extension cords.

4.There are a lot of tree roots in the front yard.

5. I have to continually re-set the height of the mower.

6.One side of the yard is always longer than the other side of the yard because of the tree root issue.

7. Pretty sure this is not clear to passers by or neighbors.

I mow the front yard. The ground cover looks much nicer when it is short. I also water the plants on the front porch. Hard choices are going to be made about the dead ferns.  I move to the back yard because it now looks really bad, even worse than the possibly dead fern, and I will kick myself if I don't take care of it now that I have everything out.

8. Discover that the hedge in the back is awful and the vanquished red buds are staging a come back.  Trim the hedge and beat back the nascent red bud insurrection.

Put everything back, re-lock the door and watch my daily fourteen year old NYPD Blue rerun.

Monday

Not much to add today. Just trying to catch up and get everything I would have (hopefully) gotten done ove the weekend had I been here to do it plus all the regular start of the week chores that  always need to get done right now. I'm learning that there is no gun to my head and some things can just get done when they get done, the sky is not going to fall out of the sky if I have to put a tea bag into a mug first thing AM. Really, it will be all right, its more convenient when I don't have to do that, but its okay if I do have to.

At work I powered though all my Friday work and then took care of  my Monday work! I was really tired when I left for the day, but it was worth it. On Tuesday, all I have to worry about is Tuesday and that will seem like a break.

This week I need to mow both yards, do a butt load of laundry and prepare my To Be Donated pile to be donated. It will be a nice feeling to make the stuff available to someone who needs it, but an even better feeling to get them out from under foot! The clutter makes it feel as though I have made no progress. Lets hear it for progress!

We have curtains and they look so nice! The job is almost done!

Home!

I had a fantastic time! I made some great memories and I am so glad we got together! I wish I took more pictures but was too busy chatting and shopping and being with my oldest friend, her very old child and my Mom. What a great weekend in a great city!

Friday Cat Blogging

Selfy!

Before and After.

I just relized I'm going out of town on Friday and I suddenly have all these things that I needed to get done say, last week and now I have to actually do all these jobs so, tonight instead of writing an entry I crossed off one of those jobs instead.

Before

After

I wish I could get the dresser cleaned off but thats been a mes for so long that I will have to deal with several layers of crap to deal with, a job for another day. I'm just going to be happy with the progress I made this time around.

Garden Update 5 2015

Time has marched on!

I think the peppers are very happy in there new bed. They seem to be doing well and growing tall. I thank the rain we've had and the cooler temperatures for being so kind to the baby plants. If it was too hot and there was too much sun, they might have been burned  and cooked in the ground! They love the sun but they need some over cast days too. The rain has been my friend. I have noticed some bug nibbles, but not enough to pull out the  pesticide - yet. So far so good. I think they are doing better here than they did in the other garden because they don't have to compete with the taller, faster growing  tomatoes for light. In this space the only competition they have is with the leeks and its really no contest.

I thought I planted a lot of leeks, but I either didn't or there has all ready been some bad days. I've never tried to plant onions before and if this doesn't work I'm going to leave it to the people who know what they are doing - like Alphagal, who can plant and harvest onions successfully.

The tomato's! They are doing very well! The rain has been very very good to them. They are all growing, even a little puny plant that I almost threw out when I was planting because it was  hardly an entire plant, it was mostly just roots and a shoot. That was all it needed! Its still very small and looks  a dwarf next to the other, taller plants but its getting there.

The taller plants are also further along with their development, I have flowers! It sreally early for these buds and they will most likely fall off, but it s start and the real bloms with show up when the plants are a little more mature.

The corn is growing well. It doesn't seem to mind being in containers as yet. I keep them fertilized with alfalfa pellets and coffee grounds.

The blueberry bush I decided to let live seems to be living the good life. I would be good if I even got some of those berries before the birds take them all. Hopefully they will actually A) ripen, and B) not get eaten by birds.  I have tried using bird netting but it also served as Diana Netting and it was more trouble then it was worth.

This is this years Elephant Ear. I moved it out of the more direct sunlight into the more indirect sunlight and I think it is happier.

My long awaited Huneysuckle! I tried and tried to get a huneysuckle plant to take and I finally got a a cutting to grow! I love the scent of honeysuckle and I really hope this does what the plant is supposed to do, I can cut it back as necessary but I really like huneysuckle and it will look great around my door as it matures and gets more flowery.

 My door. Clearly, there is work to be done but the plant is reaching over and meeting up with the Non-Blooming Ever honeysuckle variety I bought at the store, hopefully it will take over and be nice.

Every year I say I'm going to take this out and every year it just saves it self.

Last years Elephant Ear. It is not a happy plant. It was gorgeous last year but its not very interested in growing and developing this year.

 The rose plant. I also always say that this is its last year and it always fools me and comes back. I really do want to get a better plant, this one is really aging out. It makes very pretty flowers though and it has a lovely scent.

Monday

Almost there. Almost.  I am pleased with how this turned out. Of course the first thing I noticed after I brought it in was that I did not paint under the lazy Susan! I didn't realize that it was that much larger than the table top. I thought they matched. Oh well, it'll get done at some point. I added some birds but only a very conservative number of hem. Still, birds though.

Before

After

And what of the bookcase?

I am not pleased with this.

The paint peeled off is sheets. I went to remove the tape and things went very wrong after that.

I don't know what happened. I can't imagine that the cheap cardboard book shelf unit would be painted with oil paint? I don't know if I painted under bad circumstance, if it was too humid or too warm or what exactly happened but it happened and the case isn't painted anymore. It may be a sign and it maybe won't get painted, the other bookcase is not painted and I'm okay with it but I don't like being thwarted! Maybe I'll go out and find a real wooden book case and I'll paint it out and it will look nice and the paint won't peel off in sheets. Damn it. Or not, I'll just deal with it,but I'll also deal with it sitting there and mocking me. Sigh.

Saturday and Sunday

Paint, Paint, Paint, go-shopping, Paint, Paint. Shake your brushes out, shake your brushes out.... Also, it rained, a terrific way to raise the level of difficulty of painting outdoors.

This is what we have so far.

Pictured : Lazy Susan the TV sits on - note that it is two different colors, lots of OCD futzing here. I have entertained painting the edges in contrasting colors because it would look really neat but I decided that people in hell want water too, the table the TV sits on , and a book shelf that now lives in the dinning room that needed to mirror the same treatment as the book cases in the living room. Because, of course it does!. It is however much more cardboard than the built on book cases. I was shocked and I put this together. Card Board, not press board, not MDF, the back wall that I painted is Pure D 100% cardboard.

Since this was taken they have all gotten a second coat and the table has been put back on its feet. I flipped it over to get the bottom parts painted as thoroughly as the top parts and because its not done until it is all done!. I am so my fathers daughter.

Also raining.

I took a break from the painting and went shopping, I was gifted with a couple of coupons from Broskey and Alphagal and I got the curtains for the dining room and the hardware for the curtains in the living room.

 This whole widely blown out of proportion project may be over soon.

Speaking of After and "over", I finished the wooden side table!!

I did remove all but one of the birds on the front face, it looks better without them, I added them to the tip and sides. It is GRAY. I know it looks white, it was very dark to start out and I think that is the problem. It looks lovely.

Friday Cat Blogging

Friday

Weekend Projects

1. TV table gets its turn under the brush
2. Small book case gets tarted up
3.Vine over front door gets trimmed up and woven into place
4. Shop for dining room curtains?
4a. Shop for seat pads for dinning room chairs.
5. Continue to clean out downstairs bedroom
6. Laundry


With a great deal of brute strength, I moved the table back into the room and got it back where it belongs

Floor Show

In further pursuit of my new obsession with the interior of my house, I got a couple of on special 5x7, discounted, carpets are Target. So much cheaper than buying a big carpet, small carpets = small price.

My last carpet came from a yard sale. It was a remnant from a hotel, and at the time it was perfect, like a gift from above. And then, eight or so years later, I went to Target and there was another gift.

Old carpet needed to go, and after it was rolled up,  I saw that the carpet had left a little bit of a , shadow, a dusty, icky shadow.  I knew it was there, but it also needed to go. So I made it go. I swept  and vacuumed and moped with hardwood floor cleaner. And mopped, and mopped.

Before

Kind of blah, dusty, yucky. In need of attention.  I should have been paying attention to it, they are nice hardwood floors that should be taken care of like they were years ago. They looked better years ago after I took the carpet up when I moved in. Nice floors like these deserve to be treated better than I have. But here I am and here they are and  I'm going to put another carpet down and hope it protects the floor until I can wax it or put a sealer down or whatever it is that people to to care for their hardwood floors.

But in the meantime, I cleaned it up.

During

After

It looks much better, there is a weird patch that I don't know what happened to, but over all, it still looks good and I'm happy with it. I'll let it sit over night and tomorrow after work, I'll put the carpets down and put the table and chairs back and there we go. I couldn't wait!