In reality, he had to choose one to master due to his shaking, which he can't control when he's trying to hold anything steady for more than two seconds.  Watching him try to get a screw in the wall or the door is not fun due to the number of times he drops it (and the inevitable cussing and swearing).  He always acts like it's a screw conspiracy against HIM.   

Now, I usually trust weatherbug more than the local weatherman.  This is due to the fact that it updates it's information about once an hour so you can find out when the forecast has changed.  Obviously, it changed during the night while I was asleep.  Not much help there for me and my plans.

I had today off from picking Chewlee up from school since it was the Princess's day off.  Then, I got a call from her that Chewlee had been sent home from school due to having a fever.  School rules say she must be fever-free for 24 hours before she can return so she wanted to see if I would be able to take care of Chewlee tomorrow.  Take care of my sick baby?    Why would she even think I would say no???

I let the Beast know she would be with us all day and he was concerned about why she had a fever.  I'm wondering if perhaps she has an inner ear infection that hasn't really manifested itself in a big way yet.  It's only because she has complained off and on about her left ear and has even laid it on my lap to it *would feel better*...her words.  Because it wasn't something constant and she would return to being herself, I really never mentioned it to the Princess but I think I will have to do that tomorrow.  It might be a good idea if the fever continues for her to take her to the clinic and let them take a good look.

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's and...oh!  I almost forgot to mention this but.....a couple of our peach trees are in bloom!    I know!  We were expecting it but it's always such a surprise when it DOES happen.  It will be a couple weeks and our cherry trees will be blossoming.  That's always beautiful even if our trees are young.  The dogwoods are really ready to burst into bloom, even the small stunted one.  I hope it eventually takes a good hold in the spot it's in because it has the prettiest crown on it.  It's well-formed and full.

I did check out the pear trees and the apple trees but those will require more warmth before those blossom.  The plum tree is full of buds ready to blossom and I can tell it will require a lot of thinning again this year when it starts to fruit.  The poor thing was so loaded the first year after we planted it (and we had no clue about thinning the fruit) that it ended up looking like a weeping willow tree.  We were gone for two weeks after the fruit had started but didn't know plums would get so big so quickly.

When we got home, I almost died to see the poor thing loaded down with so many huge plums (the purple kind) on those young, slim branches.  It has never recovered since the Beast refused to cut it back like it needed.  He just doesn't have the *farming experience* nor the *fruit tree* experience his father did.  His father, after all, WAS raised on a farm, unlike the Beast.  He knew how to correctly rototill, plant and all the other things you truly need to know to be successful.  There are things I learned from experience (planting my gardens, watching his dad prune and noticing how they show pruning on TV and when we passed some of the peach plantations).  But, of course, to the Beast, I am an idiot.  So be it!  I figured...*let him live and learn....hopefully!*

All he wants is growth...not necessarily the good kind where the branches are strengthened.  To him, growth is height.  There are still some crossed branches that should have been pruned last fall but he wouldn't do it.  I could strangle him because HE looked up the care and keeping of the trees and it even had diagrams to show what they were and how they should be pruned.  He STILL wouldn't do it.  You can't argue with a know-it-all.

I can tell you this much.  Once he dies, as we all must do, all those trees have a date with pruning shears, pruning saws and a chain saw.  The chain saw will be used to top the peach trees like they do in the groves, not for cutting them down.  They desperately need it and I shudder when I look at them and know they would be so much stronger if he had done it last fall.  It's just awful that he doesn't understand that.

Well, time to get this posted.  Love you all and I wish you a wonderful day with great weather.  Stay warm (or cool, whichever applies) and reach out and touch someone today.  Call someone you haven't talked to in a while and remember to say *love you* before you hang up.  It's quick, easy, painless....  but it could be just what they need to hear. 

The Beast put off having any because he said his stomach was feeling a bit queasy but made sure I had some sliced for him for later.  He couldn't believe I was almost out of yellow mustard but I have some of the Jack Daniel's mustard with horseradish and, trust me, it's wonderful with the corned beef and rye sandwich I had.

When I picked up Chewlee today, it was rather odd because I came into the school and walked to her room.  It was open but dark so I knew she was in another room where they gather all the kids that haven't been picked up.  I grabbed her jacket and the papers in her basket and headed over to the other hallway but found Chewlee and one of the teachers standing in the foyer.  It seems Chewlee *knew* when I walked in even though she couldn't see me come in.  She ran out of the room before the teacher could stop her but stop her she did and waited there to see if it WAS me that had come in.  Since there was one father leaving and another that came in with me but he went to the left as I went to the right, I don't see how she knew I was there.  She must have inherited the family esp.

The Beast had a doctor's appointment today to talk about his blood test results.  It seems he earned a D+ because his cholesterol count was sky high.  So the doctor gave him some samples and a couple prescriptions.  I have no idea why he got more than one since the Beast is always a bit reticent on details.  I did find out that his blood pressure has been consistently great so the doctor changed his dosage on his bp pills.  The doctor told him he will always need to be on something because of having had the stroke.  Especially since his bad cholesterol is so high. 

Bratfink laughed when I told her and she said, *Well, I don't exactly think you guys have been on a low cholesterol diet, do you?*  To which I replied that MY cholesterol count was just fine, tyvm.  I think it must be a genetic tendency since both his parents suffered with the same thing and so does one of his brothers.

I went to plant my lilac bushes and found out the ground was way too hard to get THAT done so I have temporarily planted them in one of my planters.  I've got them at either end so there's plenty of room for them to grow and spread out their roots until we either get some good rain and the ground softens or the Beast is home and can help me out.  He's going to plant the rose bush for me at the same time or sooner if he finds the ground easier to work with where I have planned on putting it.  It just might be since it's more on the south side of the house and that's supposed to be more of a protection for plants and the ground.  We'll see.

The Beast ended up making a trip down to Birmingham to check out the Bass Pro Shop there.  He was stunned because the place is absolutely HUGE and makes our Super Walmart look small in comparison.  He went to look at some special ammunition and a new type of clip for one of the new guns.  He's been doing some reading about it and found out that it would turn the gun from a short distance shooter to one that was more than 3 times distant.  He also ended up buying a pair of hunting boots that are also waterproof.  He asked me for my opinion on them and I told him I was sure the deer would just quake in their skins. 

That occupied most of the day between his window shopping and the long drive there (it's a bit over 2 hours one way).  The temperature never got over 50 degrees and had dropped down to 45 when he got home.  No way in hell was I going to get him outside to dig a hole or two for me, especially since it was also windy.

I did very little except work on the new challenges on Pogo that come out every Wednesday.  You have a week to get them done but I like to get them over and done with.  For completing them, you get a *badge* that you can display next to your name in the various chat rooms in the games.  You can change them at will.  I really don't care about the badges but I enjoy most of the challenges.  I like to see how quickly I can get them done.  I also did one of the challenges for Bratfink and did two for AZ who has been too darn tired from her 12 hour duty time in Iraq to get online much lately.  There are certain games she really does NOT like (and we know which ones they are) so Bratfink and I will do them.  It's kind of a trade-off we have.  They will do some of the ones I don't care to bother with and vice versa.  It works for us.

Time to get this posted.  I got an update from Weatherbug and it looks like we may have a quick storm move through our area.  If it does, that means an *iffy* internet connection for me.  So I will say *Love you all.  Have a wonderful day and I hope you enjoyed your St. Patrick's Day, if you celebrate it.*  Hasta manana!

She LOVED it and I can tell you, she had a ball.  She even got to see her mommy at lunch time since the Princess came over to eat more of the roasted chicken and stuffing.  I heated some up for her and added some green beans to balance out the meal.  Chewlee ate some, too, and watched Sponge Bob on TV. 

We watched....no...not Godzilla but Harry Potter movies!!!    She loves to name all the different people although she called Professor Snapes..Snake...but somehow it fits, don't you think?   She knows Harry, Ron, Hermione, Professor Dumbledorf (although I won't even TRY to spell how she says THAT one), Hagrid and a few others. 

She spent some time brushing my hair and then I had to brush hers.  I don't mind either.  She is bossy though, telling me to *keep your (my) head still*  *don't touch!* and pushing my head this way and that so that she can get both sides and then the front.  It's actually funny.  She won't let ME do the same thing to her, however.  She only wants to sit in my lap and she watches TV while I bend this way and that to get all the hair.

Today she decided she wanted pigtails.  Her hair is so long that the pigtails fell down below her shoulders.  She loves to look in the mirror and then turn her head from side-to-side quickly so that they fly around her face.  She just laughs and laughs.

She also had to put on her little princess *high* heels (slip-ons) and her crown.  She dug out her bracelets and even found the heart ring for it.  She's actually gotten good wearing those.  She used to kind of fall out of them and hurt her ankles but she wore them for quite a while today.  She walked into my bedroom to show Papa how pretty she was and he had to compliment her on her hair, her pretty crown and her jewelry.  She tickles him with how much of a little girl she is already.

She took good care of both her baby dolls.  She put them down for a nap, then tucked them nicely up in the rocking chair so they could watch Harry Potter while she sat on her Dora chair in front of it so they couldn't fall out of the rocker.  Yeah, like they were going to rock up a storm! 

I couldn't get her to nap but we had quiet time where she sat in my lap and leaned into my arm while I rocked her.  I hoped she might fall asleep but she wanted to watch Harry and didn't close her eyes even once.  But she stayed quiet for a couple hours actually.  Of course, my arm still aches but it was peaceful for both of us.

When her mother came to pick her up after work, she really wasn't going to go willingly until her mother promised she could watch Dora on her TV in her room after she took a bath.  It was the *bath* that turned the day and she headed out the door just waving goodbye.  She is not going to be happy, however, when she realizes that both baby dolls are here.  She usually leaves one here but takes the other one with her. 

I threw my corned beef brisket into my crock pot tonight and have it on low.  The last one I bought took so much cooking that I figured I would leave it on low overnight and throw the carrots in tomorrow and then the cabbage and potatoes later on.  It will make a great St. Patrick's Day feast, don't you think?  Oh, and HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!  Everyone is Irish today so enjoy!

Love you all and have a great day.  I will be planting my rose bush and the two special hybrid lilacs (the Eisenhower lilac bush) that came today with instructions to plant within 3-5 days.  They look wonderful albeit on the small size.  But, hey!  I am patient.  I sure didn't expect anything this year (or even next year).  But I WILL eventually have lilacs that bloom in the spring and remind me of my mother.  She just loved them! 

I got the floors all nicely shined up.  If the Beast doesn't notice it, he's blind.  The dog sure will....tee, hee, hee!  I can hardly wait for him to hit that floor.  I cleared everything up, put all my cleaning stuff away and got my rug cleaned in my computer room.  Everything looks great and I feel so much better for having gotten it done.  I wouldn't have half this done if the Beast hadn't gone away for the few days he has been away.  I'm really grateful for the time (and the energy).  I don't always have those things at the same time. 
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As you can probably tell, I am starting this before the Beast gets home.  I expect him within the hour now.  I just finished getting the chicken stuffed and the extra put in a pan.  I may just freeze that for another day but I haven't made up my mind yet.  If I do, I won't bake it first.  That just makes for lousy stuffing.  Defrosting just won't cut it.  It dries up too much no matter how well you wrap it.

Knowing the Beast, he's going to be hungry when he gets home but he'd better settle for soup or something light because I'll be damned if I am going to make him something that requires a lot of effort.  I'm fading a bit but loading up on coffee because I have to pick up Chewlee from school.  Her mother is coming to get her after work so she can get her fed (if she hasn't eaten well here), bathed and ready for bed.  She has to bring me clothes for her to wear to school tomorrow anyway.  That way, when she brings Chewlee back to me around 8:30pm, she will be ready for bed (I hope!).
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The Beast got home around 3pm.  He had made the stop at Publix to pick up his favorite bread assortment fresh from their bakery along with the rye bread I requested so I will have it here for my corned beef on St. Patrick's Day.

He looked pale, which is normal for him after driving for 8 hours straight.  He went through two bad traffic areas and managed to hit them during rush hours this morning and again at noon.   He actually noticed how nice and clean the house looked and complimented me on it.   No one was more surprised than I was.  He had to tell me all about his time up at his brother's house (condensed, of course) before he went to take a nap.  I had popped the chicken in to roast after he got here so we could eat after I picked Chewlee up from school. 

Chewlee was excited to see me when I got there and had to introduce me to the three teachers that were there in the Fellowship Hall where all the later pickup kids were playing together.  She spotted some cookies the Beast had brought home that his brother's wife had made so she asked for one and then pronounced them *good*.  They really were.  They were homemade chcolate chip with macadamia nuts.  She was go glad to see Papa was home and had to go over and give him a hug when we got to the house.  She then headed right for *our* room and shut the door to keep the dog out of the room.  The baby noticed the clean rug and pronounced it *pretty*.

We were eating when the Princess showed up so I made her a plate and she ate with us.  She then had to cajole Chewlee to get her out the door by telling her that she would come back to Gramma's after she got her jammies on later.  She should be back here shortly and will be ready to sleep, hopefully.  Her teacher said she hadn't taken a nap today and that usually means she is tired early.  Most nights, she has been in bed by 8pm.  I don't think she will come here and want to go to bed right away but I doubt she will stay up for long.  Good thing, too, because *I* am fading fast and will be heading for bed early myself.  It's been a long, long day for me.

All in all, it's kind of an anticlimatic day.  The Beast and Baron are back and we should be back into our normal routine in a day or two.  I'm just going to close this with a simple *love you* and I hope you have a fantastic day with great weather and lots of sunshine.

I talked to the Beast this afternoon and he told me he will be home tomorrow (Monday) so I tried to wind up all the things I wanted to get done and get the house back in order.  I always do that last of all and it drives the Beast nuts when he's here.  It's been a nice few days without him.  I defrosted the chicken I am going to roast for dinner tomorrow.  I'll make the stuffing for it in the morning and have it all ready to pop in the oven before he gets here.  I hope to time it just right so it's ready for the table shortly after he gets here.

I'm going to have the baby overnight tomorrow, too.  That means an early to bed for me, too, because I have to get her to school by 9am.  The Princess and Johnnycakes are going to some special party and will be spending the night there because there WILL be drinking and neither of them will drink and drive.  She also told me she bought a couple new dvd's for the baby (Dora and a few others) so we will have some new things to watch.  Of course, I realize that it only applies if Chewlee WANTS to watch them. 

I still have one more big thing to do and I will probably do that after I make my stuffing.  I'm going to polish the floor.  Every time I do that, the dog slips and slides around for a while and it's funny as hell until he slows down.  He's so hyper at times that I'm kind of grateful.  If I could keep it that way, I would.

I'm curious to see how much of what I got done the Beast notices.  We shall see.  He can be oblivious at times.  Well, got to get this up and I should think about going to bed.  I don't want to sleep until noon again (yes, I did that today) when I have things I want to get done before the Beast gets home and starts making his mess.  *Sigh*

The storm was a shock to me.  The rain was truly coming down in buckets so it had to have just started when it made the noises that woke me up.  I was grateful there wasn't all that much water on the wood flooring.  The storm was so forceful that it was actually very loud in the house with the doors and windows shut.  The strange part was there was no sound of thunder at all.  Since I love the sound of rain on the roof, I decided to go back to bed.

I slept a couple more hours before a phone call from my cousin Sue woke me up.  We talked about her son's upcoming wedding in May and she told me she hadn't sent an invitation to sister Cinderella because she didn't have her new address.  Of course, she never thought about calling me and asking ME for it...duh.  But she wanted me to know that if Cinderella wants to come (and Baby Brat), to just add them to my response card and that will be fine. 

After that, I got dressed and started clearing up a few things, put on the dishwasher, then found the vacuum storage bag I use for my down comforter so I could get that packed away in the closet.  A little later, the Princess called and invited herself over for lunch since the house was being *de-bugged* today and she couldn't go home until much later.  Then she has to wash all the dishes and pots and pans (besides cleaning all the flat surfaces like the table, chairs and the counter tops.  She asked me to feed the baby after I pick her up from school so that she isn't hungry when she comes to get her.  It'll take her an hour or so the get the things done she needs before she can consider making any food.

I laughed because I had planned on doing that anyway.  Chewlee had told me she wanted some of my *mater soup*.  It's actually a tomato based pasta soup more than anything.  It has green peppers, onions, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and I usually throw in whatever pasta I have.  Sometimes it's just macaroni, other times it's rotini or bowties.    I like to get the canned diced tomatoes in sauce to add and then throw in some V-8 juice.  Add some paprika, salt and pepper to taste and you have a fast homemade soup.  Today I browned up some hamburger meat and threw in the onions and green pepper for a few minutes before I drained the meat and added it to the broth.  Just something for a little more *body*.

Then, I heard from Bratfink.  I'm passing this along to those that know her and read her regularly.  She did up several days worth of posts so she could take some *time off* without worry since she hasn't been feeling well.  Good thing because she called me after she got home from the hospital today.  The Boy had to take her to Emergency early today because she did something that caused her to feel a *pop* in the area of her rib cage.  She was afraid she might have cracked a rib or some such thing and she was in a great deal of pain.  She said she had taken two vicodins just so she could get out the door.  They also gave her a shot of morphine but it didn't touch the pain.

When they took the X-rays (and she says they took a shitload of them), they couldn't detect anything broken but said she may have torn a muscle.  If that's so, those heal slowly.  I know.  I've done it.  She won't be updating her posts at all because she has too much difficulty finding a comfortable place or chair to sit and every movement must be done slowly.  During the course of our conversation, I heard more semi-screams from her than I produced during four labors.  I KNOW she feels afraid that she will probably live through this but she isn't liking it one bit!  She will give everyone a full report next week.  Probably on Wednesday or Thursday.

In the meantime, I am going to help her and KP out by doing their Trivial Pursuit every day (there are many reasons for this but I sure don't mind it.  It just ticks me off that THEY will get perfect scores because I will do theirs AFTER I do mine...LOL)

Oh, and the kicker for today?  After around Noon, there was no more rain, not even a tiny little drizzle, the sun came out (and dried up all the rain) and it got up to about 64 degrees!    I know!  Crazy, crazy weather.

I haven't heard from the Beast so I have no clue what kind of weather HE is having up in Centralia.  I hope he and his brother get a chance to get out and shoot the rifles after all that the Beast has gone through.  If they have had nothing but bad weather there, neither he nor Baron will enjoy themselves.  I guess I'll find out when he finally DOES call me.

I went and bought my own booster seat for the baby.  It's a nice one made by Cosco and it's designed for 3-10 year olds.  (10???)  She was NOT happy that I got it but she finally decided that she likes BLUE because I told her I bought it for HER.  She informed me that she likes PINK but I told her it was either blue or black.  That's when she looked down at the arms on the seat (which are padded) and said, *I like blue, too.* 

She wanted to take the Dora DVD home with her and I told her she could.  That was all I had to say...she wouldn't even let her mother hold it then.  She just kept saying, *I am taking Dora home!*  She almost ran out the door to make sure I didn't change my mind.  The Princess was happy because she said Chewlee could watch Dora in HER room and SHE could watch her programs in the living room for a change.  Dora is taped on their DVR in the living room so the Princess always has to wait until the baby is asleep before she gets to watch the programs she's recorded for herself.

I won't have her tomorrow (Saturday, when you read this) because her *daddy* doesn't work and will have her instead.  What's cute is the Beast said he would rather have her on Saturdays than to have me pick her up and only have her here for an hour-and-a-half every day.  He really enjoys having her around.  She can be so damn cute without even realizing it.  Hopefully, I can finish up the spring cleaning I started, change my linens on the bed and get the house pulled back together before the Beast decides to return.  Somehow, I have a feeling he will be home on Sunday evening or Monday at the latest.  It all depends on when his brother has to be back at work.