When Chewlee and I were on our way home today, we went past the high school and all the lights were on at their football field.  Chewlee knew immediately that it meant there was going to be a football game tonight so she said to me, very emphatically, *Can we go, Gramma?  Can we?  Can we?*  When I told her not tonight but maybe when she got a little bigger, she said, *Oh man!  Everything is when I get bigger.*  (If you have never seen Dora the Explorer, the *Oh man!* comes from Swiper the Fox whenever he is foiled from swiping something that isn't his.)  She still made me laugh when she said it.  I told her she was growing so fast that it wouldn't be any time at all when mommy and daddy would be taking her to football games.  She looked at me, eyes big, and said, *Really???*  I filed it away in my mind that I might be eating my words in the future.....or else sitting through high school football games on Friday nights a time or two.

When Johnnycakes got here to pick up Chewlee, she wasn't ready to go with him and told us all that.  When I asked her why, she said she didn't like Daddy.  Not tonight.  That puzzled me but then she said, *I am not done with my cookie or my chocolate milk.  He is too early.*  I assured her that he and Papa were busy talking about going hunting so she could sit down and finish eating.  They were still discussing it when she was done so she went into her toy box I have here and dug out some toys she wanted to take home with her. 

She asked me if it was okay if she took them home and I told her she could.  It was just a bucket, a sand shovel and scoop plus a couple sand molds.  I knew she wanted them for her bath time.  She also took her swimming turtle that I just replaced the batteries in so it will swim now.  The problem is, he really is almost too big to do much swimming in any one direction in a tub.  He has to be about a foot long and about the same wide.  His fins work independently so he really DOES swim but he's really more for a pool than the bathtub.  The problem is, her mother lives in an apartment building so the pool has been in storage all summer long. 

She never brought it over here for putting up in our yard but that makes sense since Baron would have made short work of it without meaning to do so.  He's got some long ass, sharp nails.  We just can't keep up with them and the Beast knows the vet cringes when we bring him in to her office.  It takes her and two assistants to keep him in place so they can be cut.  Once you start, you MUST finish and get them all done.  He knows it doesn't hurt but he doesn't like the sound, I think.

Chewlee got really impatient with Johnnycakes and came in to tell me she *really has to get home to her mommy*.  I told that to Johnnycakes and he told her that mommy wasn't home yet because she had to run errands.  That means she had to go to the grocery store.    Chewlee finally hit the door and opened it, telling Johnnycakes *Bye, I am leaving....I am leaving now!*  She went out the door, shut it, opened it up and came running in to my computer room.  She must have looked at all the dark surrounding this house and got a bit scared.  She slammed my door shut, put down the bag with her toys in it and said, *There are monsters out there!!!!*  I assured her that no monsters would DARE to stay around Gramma's house, she grinned and said, *Did you roar at them, Gramma?*  I told her *yes* and that made her feel better.  She opened my door after she kissed me goodbye and was telling me she would see me tomorrow when Johnnycakes told her to hurry up so they could leave.  She ran out the door with her bag of toys, yelled *Bye Papa* and was out the door that quick.  I know why, too.  She is just dying to get that turtle into the bathtub and turn it on to watch it swim.  She just loves that thing.  If I am not mistaken, I believe it was a gift from Tara.

Tomorrow morning starts my canning.  Today we got the rest of the supplies we needed (more apples, sugar, orange juice...stuff like that) plus I consulted my recipes to make sure we had everything needed.  The Beast got my big pot down from the shelf in the garage and we have already set who does what chores.  Chewlee gets to throw away all the apple cores.  The Beast will core the apples (after I make sure to show him about leveling the bottoms so it's a straight cut).  I will peel the grapefruits and section them.  I also will take care of the apples after coring.  The Beast volunteered to fill the big pot with water (which I appreciate because that sucker gets heavy) and he will also help with the light syrup for the apples.  He is capable of stirring the sugar water.  Chewlee will probably drag her little step stool over to watch.  Like that's really interesting. 

Yeah, I'm not going to go ahead and make jars of apples that can just be poured into a pie shell for apple pie.  That's a heck of a lot more work.  I DID tell him that he was going to help peel the grapefruit (those are work intensive to get ready) AND he can core the apples for me.  The rest, I don't really trust him to do.  He has a bad habit of thinking he knows better than anyone how to do something or else he decides that this or that isn't important (when it IS).  God knows, he's never cooked for himself even until we bought this house and he stayed here during the summer.  It was learn to cook at least a few things or eat nothing but TV dinners! 

But, he now considers himself a genuine cook after making some decent chili, spaghetti, pancakes and French toast.  There is nothing more irritating than a know-it-all whose expertise extends just three or four years and the most complicated thing he's ever made is spaghetti sauce.  Actually, we make what the older of my two brothers calls *Irish spaghetti*.  He was married to a gal that was half Italian and learned from her what real Italian *red sauce* was like.  To us, it was kind of a mish-mosh of veggies and meats.  We mostly used green pepper, onion, some garlic, tomato sauce/paste/puree and browned ground beef.  When things were good, we added Italian sausage.  Sometimes, we made meatballs out of the ground beef....just for a bit of variety.  I still like the small meatballs like my mom made for us kids.

The Beast won't even TRY making meatballs.  Nope, he doesn't even chop his own green pepper.  He HAS learned to cut up his own onion but he will never get a prize for any kind of size consistency.  Like most men, if it's chopped up (that means NOT WHOLE), it works for them.    Notice I said *MOST* men.  I have known men who take pride in any job that they do, including chopping up veggies.  I just didn't get one of them.

I told the Beast he was welcome to help out a bit but then he had to just sit and observe.  He gets a bit bent out of shape when I do that so I know he has no plans on doing so.  He will do what he must and then will go play games on Pogo or watch some of his news on Fox.  Thankfully. 

As I was going through all that he bought, I ran across some pickling spice.  I told him that it was a bit late for pickles so I would save it but he has that figured out.  He said, *Can't we use cucumbers?*  I gave him *the look* and said, *Oh sure, but it will cost an arm and a leg since cukes are out of season now and the skins will be tougher.*  A light seemed to go on in his head and he said, *Oh, so that's why some pickles have such tough skins to bite through!*  Well, DUH!!!  The big barrel kosher dills are a good example.  The taste, when they are spiced right, is wonderful but the skins are tougher than regular pickles.  It's the price you pay sometimes.

Chewlee told me that she had a good day at school when I asked her.  She wasn't really enthusiastic when she said it so I asked her, *Are you sure?*  With that, she turned and had her hand on one hip and said, firmly, *I SAID I had a good day, Gramma*.  I just said, *Okay...just making sure.*

She got into a discussion with me about the cold meaning that winter was coming and that meant no more rain.  I told her we would still get rain but....if it was cold enough, it would come down as SNOW!!!  Her eyes got big and she said, *Really??*  She got a kick out of that idea when I answered, *Yes, really!*

She also told me there would be no more snakes now that it was cold and I agreed with her, telling her that they would sleep all winter because of the cold.  She then told me that after winter was over, she was going to have her own garden.  I asked her where she was going to have her garden and she looked at me, incredulously, and said, *At YOUR house, Gramma.  Remember?*  That made me laugh and I told her that I didn't know if SHE remembered.  She then launched into all the different colors of flowers she wanted and told me that there would be purple ones for me since I like purple.  So cute.

When her mother got here to pick her up, she grabbed her pictures she had colored at school and a package that had come here for the Princess and said, *It's time for me to go, Gramma.*  She marched out into the kitchen, handed it all to her mother and turned for the door.  The Princess, ever the sweetheart (that is sarcasm), opened the package here so she could leave it for OUR garbage and handed the DVD that was enclosed to Chewlee to carry.  It was a new Sponge Bob so that got Chewlee more anxious to leave.  She ran to the door, turned on the outside light and was ready for her mother to open the door (her hands were FULL....LOL).  The Princess asked her if she wanted to go home with HER, Chewlee said YES and then we said our goodbyes.

The Beast didn't realize that Sheepie comes this Saturday and he started asking just WHO was picking her up in Birmingham.  The Princess works and that means I have Chewlee so, process of elimination, it means HE has to pick her up.  I did tell him that, if he wanted to watch Chewlee, I would go.  It's up to him.  I know what he prefers.  He doesn't want to have to check out Chewlee's poop so he will take Baron and pick up Sheepie.  Watch and see.

The Beast took Baron for a ride to get him some more dry dog food.  He was shocked to see how much it's gone up in just the past two weeks.  So, he decided that he was just going to go ahead and buy 3 big bags of it.  It's not like the dog won't eat it....eventually.  But I told him to be sure and put it UP on the shelves in the garage because otherwise the mice will get into it quickly and I sure don't want to be feeding a mouse colony.

Then he went to Lowe's to pick up a couple things and he buys a shitload of vegetable seeds.  Oh, and onion bulbs.  Regular onions, not green onions.  We don't need anything to have those.  They grow wild all over our property.  All we have to do is stop mowing them.    Some of the seeds made me raise my eyebrows.  I told him that he absolutely could NOT plant any of them.  That was my job.  He has no clue about rows or room needed for some of these things.  The last time he planted anything in our garden, it became a horrendous mess.  He had vining plants all over and they took over a lot of the plot.  I was pulling out long stretches of vines just trying to figure out which was which.  Some of them even started growing up and around the tomato plant cones.  It was NOT fun.

I did tell him that he was going to have to do a great deal of rototilling this time or else I would hire someone else to do it for us.  If it doesn't go quickly, his attitude is *it's good enough* when it isn't.  It's because he just doesn't have the strength and stamina and doesn't want to admit it.  I told him it MUST  be done right or the garden just won't be as successful as my other gardens have been.  Those I had someone else rototill for me.

I picked up Chewlee from preschool today and actually managed to get back here before it got really dark.  There is a rise in one of the streets that has a railroad track on top and then a slope down that Chewlee calls the *Whee hill!*.  I try to pick up my speed a little so that we have a sudden downward *rush* when we hit the other side.  We then go past the high school or, as Chewlee calls it, the *big kids school*.  Every time we go past, she points it out and tries to tell me that she is getting big all the time and she will be going there *soon*.

Tonight all the lights were off inside the school (she notices these things) so she told me that everyone went home tonight because the lights were off.  I had to look before I noticed she was right.  The lights were on in the parking lot and it looked like the last of the teachers were pulling out.  Strange things she notices.

When we got home, she asked for three things:  chocolate milk, some *food* (which turned out to be some bologna) and a sucker.  Of course, she got all three but not in that order.  After she was done with her snack, she also wanted a cookie and she was just starting to eat that when Johnnycakes got here to pick her up.  She barely said goodbye after she gathered up everything.

The potty training goes on and seems to be about 75% successful so far.  She still has pee accidents but not poop, thankfully.  However, I wonder how long it will be before I no longer have to go in to check out that she's pooped in the potty.  Today she wiped her own butt and told me I didn't have to do that for her.  I know she wants me to be able to tell her mom that she really DID use the potty but I told her today that *When she goes ALL the time in the potty and has her big girl pants, she won't have to call anyone in to check it out.*  She looked at me with this surprised look on her face and said, *Really????*  I said, *Really* as I laughed at her wonder over that idea.

Our high today was supposed to be in the 60's but it never got any higher than mid-50's.  As soon as it started to get dark, that dropped like a stone.  It's a whole 42 degrees outside now and heading downward into the 30's.  I'm glad the bed is made up for the cold weather and I got all my warm pajamas unpacked and in my drawer.  Winter is going to feel like forever to me.  I'm strictly a warm weather person.  Warm weather and sun.

When I woke up this morning, I found it was just pouring outside.  No thunder, just rain, rain and more rain.  I wasn't all that worried about it because I knew I didn't have to go out in it at all.  Today was my *day off* from picking up Chewlee.  Not that the Princess got to enjoy HER day off from work.  She was at home, sick.  I think she's sick a lot from the stress at work.  But, that's just my opinion.  She'll be fine tomorrow more than likely.  But, I digress.....

The grass, or what passes for grass in these parts, was greened up just from the rain yesterday.  How much we got today, I have no idea yet.  It didn't stop raining until early this evening, much to Baron's relief.  He is such a wimp.  If he hadn't had loose bowels, he wouldn't have gone out until it was critical.  But, he seemed to have learned to head underneath the deck.  That might not have been the perfectly dry place he was hoping for but it was the best he could find. 

I spent the day really just relaxing.  I have a couple days before Sheepie shows up but I am pretty much prepared for that.  The bedroom will just need some fresh dusting and the rest is ready.  She will have fresh linens and no need for an electric blanket since we have the baseboard heater in there.  *Grin*  I just have to call Greyhound and see about giving her a password because I found out she doesn't have a photo ID.  Duh!  If I had known that ahead of time, I wouldn't have to worry about it now.  I'll call them tomorrow and then call Sheepie (IF I can get a good signal on my cell phone.  God, I hate Sprint in this area...and a few others).  When we visited Aunt M for her big birthday in September, we couldn't get any service at all there in the mountains where she lives.  Everyone else there had phone service, even some of the prepaids.  It was humiliating.  I hope to have an AT&T phone soon, courtesy of the Princess.   I'd almost love one that I could text with but I'll take what I can get.  AT&T is supposed to have 3G service here by the end of December.  At least I shouldn't have a problem with dropped calls like I do now.

The Beast, being bored, made what he called a carmelized apple pancake.  It was more like a cake, actually, with a very interesting topping made with apples, brown sugar, tapioca (for thickening) and butter.  It was delicious and very filling.  Of course, I really hate eating when I first get up so I didn't really finish what he gave me (it was a BIG chunk) but it was warm and tasty.  He wants to try the same basic type of thing with blueberries now.  I told him save it for when  Sheepie gets here and impress her with your culinary skills but I know he won't wait.  Like HE said, he can always do it again...if we like it.  **Insert eyeroll here**

I'm starting this off about Sheepie because I forgot to mention it the other day.  Blame the fact that I was tired and had a headache and heartburn.  I made the arrangements to get Sheepie up here for Thanksgiving but...it looks like she won't be heading back South but further North to her mother's.  At least, that was the last thing that I heard.  I'm not really sure because I haven't talked to Buttmunch yet about it.  I don't know if Circle is okay with this or what but the Beast said that he's not worried about the sperm donor father (you know, the cesspool virus I talked about a while back) or his trying to say we kidnapped her because she will be going to her mother's.  I don't think it's going to be that simple and might end up in a horrible situation in the future but you know how the Beast can be when he feels he's right. 

So, when I talk to Buttmunch, since she obviously isn't coming for Thanksgiving and I'm sure it's because Circle's employment has been sketchy lately, I have to find out just when she wants us to send Sheepie up to her...what day, I mean.  I think she told the Princess a day before she would have gone home but I have to make sure of that.  Sheepie actually asked me just WHERE she was going for Thanksgiving and I told her HERE.  She didn't know if I was going to send her directly up to her mother's house or not.  When I reminded her that her father would probably want to see her ticket to see where it was she was headed and if there was a return booked also, she said, *Oh yeah!*  It hadn't occurred to her, I guess.  Well, she's a kid.

If it turns out that her mother can't take her at this time, she'll go back as planned and we will just have to wait and see what happens to the...ahem...father.  I'm pretty sure he's going to be going to jail and then her mother will have less problems all the way around in getting her custody.  But...que sera, sera. 

The Beast has been home a full 24 hours as of this writing and, so far, he's been pretty good.  He actually repaired my silverware drawer which had the back support break...the one for the glides.  The glides are all great but why do they use plastic supports from the wall to the end of the glide???  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  The Beast, unfortunately, couldn't find anything to replace it that wasn't also plastic although he tried.  I give him credit for that much.  But, the drawer is back in place and working.  The Beast suggested I switch my dishcloth drawer with the silverware drawer...just in case....and I told him it would take us months to start opening the right drawer the first time. 

When I picked up Chewlee today from preschool, on our way home I asked her if she had seen her other papa and she told me yes.  When I asked her what did they do, she told me he took her shopping and to *Donald's*...I'm sure you can figure that one out without me telling you.  She loves the playground there more than the food.  In fact, she told me she didn't eat there but she played there.  I asked her what he bought her when she went shopping, she told me toys.    And then she told me he bought her a Happy Meal, too.  I guess she must have taken it back with her after she was done playing.  Either that or it was a drive-thru thing. 

She told me he said he was *leaving her* and I told her that he wasn't doing it because she was bad or anything.  He was leaving to go to work far away so it would be awhile before she would get to see him.  She just sat there quietly and I think she was digesting that.  After that, her thoughts turned to other things.  She said, very sweetly, *Gramma....do you have a sucker in your purse?*  I, of course, pretended I had to look for one and gave her the one I had picked out for her.  She got so excited when I gave it to her and said, *It's a CAKE!*  What she meant was that it was a strawberry shortcake flavor one.  How she could tell in a dark car, I have no idea but she was right.  When I asked her how she knew, she said, matter-of-fact, *I saw it.*  Go figure.

It's definitely *winter comin'* as they say in the mountains.  Our high today was a whopping 51 degrees and it was drizzling all day long.  Granted, we need the rain but it's so dismal that we end up with all the lights on in the house all day long.  Yuk!  But get this!!!  Our low for tonight is supposed to be 55!!!    That alone is shocking to me.  And we are going to have a high of about 60 tomorrow with more rain in the forecast.  It won't be clearing up until Wednesday but our nighttime temperatures will be getting down into the 30's.  I'm sure not going to be remaking my bed any time soon.  I just know this is it.  By the time Thanksgiving is here, it will be cold as a witch's..well, it'll be cold. 

The Beast and Baron returned home this afternoon.  Thanks anyway to anyone that crossed their fingers for me.  It was too much to hope for.  I doubt the Beast noticed anything I did while he was gone (including having the bed set up for cold weather....and his lack of having the central heat on in the house).  That means I put the electric blanket on it. 

He came home bearing gifts because he stopped at Publix on his way home and picked up a few things.  Our favorite..fresh Chicago Italian bread along with some macadamia nut cookies, some Boars Head bologna and liverwurst and a few other goodies.  The first thing I did was make some sandwiches for us.  It was a bit early so I will make another one later on and count that as my dinner.   

The Beast was obviously very happy to be home.  He said his brother's dogs are really showing their lack of consistent handling and get out of control at the drop of a hat.  Oh, they aren't mean; just willful.  Inca has learned how to jump up on the back door and flip the handle down to open it in the wink of an eye and out she runs.  She can even jump over the deck gate and lands beyond the stairs.    It's really too bad that his brother owns her.  Sounds to me like she could be trained for some competition or other.  She's also the one that loves to play with a Frisbee.  Between that and her jumping capability, she could probably be good at that.  But she is wild.  It's one of the reasons I don't like going up there.  With the three dogs there, it can be a nightmare.  Baron listens but, if Inca and Ditzy start to fight (and they do), Baron gets excited and wants to jump in.  It's not fun.  His brother is a real jerk about dogs, too.  His wife has it together and can make the dogs mind but it pisses him off when he's there and she gives them orders.  So she keeps her mouth shut and just lets him handle it. 

Of course, she thought he might learn from all that but, of course, he won't and can't.  He's very like his brother in that way.  You just can't teach them anything at this stage of their lives.  I really believe it's a *man thing*.  We women are flexible.  We have to be once we have children (or a husband).  Otherwise we would go nuts since our children are all such different personalities and have different problems that WE have to deal with the majority of the time.

I'm having a bit of a problem with heartburn today.  I wonder if the Beast returning home has anything to do with that?  It'll pass along with the headache I developed shortly after he walked in and started messing things up.  More stuff *I* will have to deal with since he won't.  I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight.  It'll be better in the morning after a good nights sleep. 

Our high today was a vigorous 52....brrrrr!  I actually ran out in it without a jacket to move the truck into it's regular spot so the Beast could pull into the garage when he got home.  Also no shoes on.  I know....I'm an idiot.  But it sure didn't take me long.  I was out and in within a minute, I'll bet.

There have been times when I have watched TV and seen something advertised that would seem to make a problem easier if it really worked.  Know what I mean?  For instance:

The Woolite rug cleaning stick (or whatever it's called).  They show a woman using it on her rug.  She uses one side to apply the rug cleaner, flips it over and the other side scrubs the rug.  Let it dry; vacuum it up and problem solved!  IF it works the way it's supposed to work.

Well, I get tired of pulling out my big steam rug cleaner to clean the rug in my computer room, especially if it's just for a few spots.  So....I decided to try it.  Here's what I found.  First, it's not very expensive.  I paid around $10. for the kit which is the applicator and a small container of the cleaner.  Fair enough because I just wanted it for a couple small spots.  It's easy to put together and add the can of cleaner to the head of it.  BUT....you really have to press down a lot more than the TV ad showed to get the shampoo out.  Other than that, it was really great.  The cleaner worked just fine on the few spots I had (including a chocolate milk one).  Cleaned it up nice and it smelled good, too.  Well, it smelled clean. 

There were a few other things I wondered about that I've gotten to try.  One was the washing machine cleaner, which I really, really like.  It's the Clorox one and it not only got rid of the smell in the washer but it looks like it will get rid of the mildew on the gaskets after a couple more applications.  To me, that's the absolute best part.  I've tried a lot of things on it, including CLR and nothing seemed to work.  But the mildewed areas are much lighter today so I know it had a real effect on it.

I also used the dishwasher cleaner since we now have softened water and we never did that before the Beast installed it.  I figured it would be nice to get rid of the mineral deposits from pre-softener days.  Just once and the inside gleams.  It's a stainless steel Bosch dishwasher and, trust me, the inside was looking really crappy. 

I told you how the softened water helped remove some of the mineral deposits on the bottom of some of my glasses so I am a big fan of that, for sure.  I had wondered if it would really make a difference and it's nice to know that it did.  *Grin*  It also cleaned up those same kind of mineral deposits from the bottom of my stainless pots and pans.  Oh, not the first time but it didn't take long.

I wondered about how the wood floors would affect a few things around here.  First of all, you notice the dust a whole lot more than you would with a rug.  In fact, it made me feel a bit queasy to think that all that dust was in the rugs that were down and most vacuum cleaners barely touch the stuff that really gets down into the weave of the rug.  I even have my doubts about our Dyson being all that great about sucking it up.

The floors DO feel colder during the winter.  That only stands to reason since a rug acts a bit like insulation with it's pad underneath.  That's gone now regardless of how these floors are constructed.  There's only a thin moisture barrier underneath.  But, I wear either socks or slippers all winter rather than walking in my bare feet so that works out okay.  I have to admit, the wood looks fantastic in comparison.

That's all I'll bore you with for now.  I'll get to others another time.

I spent today mopping the floors and they look great.  I also got the down comforter down and changed my linens.  I've got to wash the bedspread yet.  I couldn't do it while I was cleaning the washing machine and I got a bit busy after that and forgot to do it.  No matter.  The comforter will be warm enough tonight.

We are supposedly getting rain tomorrow and Monday from that front going through Texas yesterday and today (Saturday when I am writing this).  We could use the rain as long as it doesn't soak the ground too much.  I don't want a repeat of the fungus problem again for our next crop of fruit on the trees.  It shouldn't but who the hell knows how it started....or even if it's totally gone?  I'm hoping the freezes we should get will kill off anything left so that we get some great fruit next spring and summer.

So I spent the day doing some cleanup that's tough to do right when the Beast and Baron are around.  I moved the couch and recliner to clean underneath it.  I was to see all the dust and other crap underneath.  I know a lot of it just had to blow underneath them since some of it looked like stuff dragged in on people's shoes.  The Beast also had a lot of cookie and cracker crumbs underneath his, probably broken when Baron jumped into his lap unexpectedly.  If you haven't seen the photo of that, I posted it to remind you just how darn big Baron is and he thinks he's a lap dog. 

He's also responsible for the unbelievable amount of hair that I can't seem to be able to keep under control.  You wouldn't think that a short-haired dog could afford to lose that much every week.  It sure made a mess out of the dryer filter when I dried the rugs.  It's obvious that washing them didn't remove it all....heck, I can't even attest to the fact that it removed ANY in the washer.  It makes you wonder, doesn't it?  Hmmmm!

I can't say I did anything in an organized manner.  It was pretty hit and miss and I still have a few other things I want to get done before I get to bed tonight.  Mainly, to mop the floors now that I have swept, dust mopped, reswept and dust mopped again.  It's depressing how much hair I got each time.  I will more than likely get more on the mop because I'm sure sweeping put many hairs in the air and floating around and not just in the pile I was making.  The dog gets coal in his stocking for Christmas!

There are some things that, when I dry them after washing, I can count on having a shitload of dog hairs in the screen.  The Beast's clothes, our bedspread, the rugs in the house, his dog blankets (of course) and the blankets I keep on the recliner and couch.  It's easier to wash blankets than to clean upholstery.  He hasn't been getting on the couch much lately since we started making him get off it every time he got on it.  He had started to claim it as his own and that sure didn't leave much room for company.  The dog is really the size of a small horse! 

When I tired of sweeping and dust mopping the floors, I worked on cleaning Chewlee's handprints on the doors and walls.  I also cleaned up the wall behind the dog's feeding area.  That was disgusting.  He has these huge bowls and I can't figure out how he manages to get dog food down the wall.  Not a glob or anything but little pieces all over the place behind it.  His rug underneath and the wall behind the special feeding stand the Beast made for him plus his bowls and the rubber mat to keep those bowls in place are all spic and span now. 

If you haven't guessed already, I didn't have to pick up Chewlee today and I don't have to watch her tomorrow either.  Her paternal grandfather is in town so he was doing the honors.  It gives him time to spoil her and enjoy her for a bit.  He took a job driving a truck or something overseas (in Afghanistan or Iraq, I believe.  I'm not sure).  The pay is fantastic (if he lives through it) and he doesn't have to pay any income tax on it, either.  There's nothing to do there (no alcohol in any of those countries so no bars or *men's clubs*..tee, hee, hee) so he'll be banking most of the money he makes.  I think this may be his last chance to spend time with her before he's gone for a year.  I know he won't be able to spend time at Christmas with her so I assume he's leaving soon.  He's a nice man and he loves her.  She is his only grandchild at least for now.

Tomorrow I can finish cleaning up the kitchen and trying to make some kind of sense out of the etagere so I will have room for my Christmas stuff I usually put out on it.  Yeah, it's that time once again.  I got my lights down from the attic but I haven't done anything with them.  I looked at the tangle and just couldn't face it.  I'll do it another day.

Well, love you all.  The weather is starting to deteriorate the next couple of days and I noticed on the weather that many places are already getting snow.  That includes Texas!    Somehow, I didn't think Texas got snow.  Don't ask me why.  I guess until we moved here, I never paid attention to more than the weather in Chicago, Indiana and Florida.  Only because of family and friends.  Now that we live in Alabama, we tend to get most of our weather from the fronts that hit Texas.  I doubt we will get any snow but we WILL be getting rain.  We could use it.

I have never been afraid to be alone in my own house except for one time.  That was when we had a prowler and the Beast was fishing in the Bahamas, leaving me and my four kids alone.  I guess I mean *without a man around*.  You know, one you can make do the hunting while you hide in a closet with the phone.  I had called the cops earlier when I first saw that someone was sneaking around our backyard.  It wasn't fenced (no one in our neighborhood had fences because we were on a canal that didn't have cement holding walls).  It sloped down to the water and I had palms, a mango tree and bamboo growing back there.  We had a screened patio area around the pool and were located on a corner.  Luckily, one of my neighbors was both a cop and a family friend.  His kids and mine grew up together and he knew I wasn't the nervous type.

They found some empty beer cans in one of the bushes out back but, like I told my friend, that could have been there from my kids....LOL.  He was concerned because the cans seemed to be fairly fresh.  He told me to keep my gun handy and, if someone did try breaking into the house, make sure to throw him through the window after I shot him.  He was just kind of telling me not to shoot him unless he actually tried to enter the actual house and he told me that coming onto the patio area counted. 

Great!  My answer was to sit on the couch in the living room with the lights on everywhere but my kids rooms and the bedroom hallway.  I kept the gun on the coffee table, in easy reach, because I'll be darned if I could imagine going to sleep with someone slipping around my house.  They were back after the cops left and, trust me, I was shaking with the idea of actually shooting someone.  It was scary.

Well, last night when I went to bed, I went around the house securing all the doors.  I don't usually worry about my doors since this area is kind of out of the way and it's not a wealthy area.  Also, except for the deck, none of my windows are easily reached.  That's because of the crawl space underneath the house.  I had heard some strange noises that almost made me think the dog was still here or the Beast was home early.  I actually put on all the outside lights and they are BRIGHT!  But, when it came time to sleep, I shut them all down.  I was exhausted because the Beast had kept waking me up with his restlessness.  I had taken two short naps before I went to Walmart then to pick up Chewlee. 

It was while I only had one light on in the living room and the light was on here in my computer room but it's at the back of the house.  My door was partially closed so there wasn't any light showing into the rest of the house unless I opened it fully.  When the noises first started, I really tried to think what could have made that particular noise that wasn't human.  We don't have raccoon problems so that was out.  I don't have large tree branches close to my house.  Heck, we don't have any large trees on our property (only the young fruit trees) except those that line the back property lines.  When I went and turned on more lights in the house, I kept looking for things that might have fallen.  Heck, I even considered if there were field mice in the house what they might have caused to fall over or some such thing.  But, everything was where it was supposed to be so the noise had to have originated outside.  That is when I turned on the outside flood lights.  We have them front and back so I inspected the outside and found nothing.

But, once you have a couple of rather loud noises that you can't pinpoint, you don't exactly rest easy.  This house doesn't have a big open patio door area where I could put a rifle down and scare the hell out of some possible intruder.  The windows are high, regular sized and there are only six of them in the house.  I'm not including the window on the rear door to the deck.  But, you get the idea.

I actually went to make sure the rifle the Beast has semi-hidden in our bedroom was there and easily accessible.  I also checked to see if it was loaded (it is) and that I knew where the safety was on it.  Then, like a dummy, I laid down on my regular side of the bed.  Not close to the rifle at all.  What an idiot!

I slept but not well.  Every strange noise woke me so you know I didn't have any really good REM sleep.  I finally gave it up around 5am and got up.  I made a fresh cup of coffee (Bless you, Bunn!  I love your 3 minute pots of coffee).  So, I tried sleeping (napping) once it got light out.  I was so bold as to open the doors like we normally do during the day and I laid down on the couch.  I slept for about an hour and a half but I woke up feeling quite a bit better.

I'm getting some stuff done around here a little at a time.  I ran some washing machine cleaner through the washing machine because it was starting to get a bit of a smell inside it.  I really think it's some of the mildew that's on the rubber gasket but I've been leaving the door open overnight after I use it so that it can dry out.  But, the Beast bought this stuff after I mentioned the problem so I figured it wouldn't hurt.  After it was done, I threw all the scatter rugs from the kitchen and bathrooms in to wash so I can mop the floors and have nice clean rugs down.  The one we have under the dog's feeder really gets scuzzy. 

The Beast about drove me nuts looking for his stocking cap with the face covering that he bought a while ago.  He's had it on his desk forever and, now that he wanted to make sure he had it with him, it has disappeared.  He looked everywhere for it (or so he says!).  He finally settled for the stocking cap he's had for a couple years but I don't think he wore more than once or twice.  It surprised him to feel how thick and warm it was.  I guess what he bought isn't nearly as impressive and that's why the difference struck him.  At least he got on the road around 8am and he called me around 3pm when he arrived up there.    I know!  I was surprised that he remembered to call me.  He probably just wanted to rub it in that he got there, alive and well. 

After I knew the Beast had landed, I ran out to the store to pick up a couple things before I went to pick up Chewlee.  I decided we were going to have some KFC for dinner so, after I picked her up, we went there and got what we wanted.  Chewlee wanted popcorn chicken, french fries (theirs are more like seasoned steak fries) and chocolate milk.  I got my hot chicken wings (Yum!), some french fries and a diet coke.  We ate a couple fries on the way home, much to Chewlee's surprise.  When she said, *We can eat in the car?*, I knew I had made a major blunder since there's no eating in Mommy's car.  So, I whispered to her, *Just this one time....and it's OUR secret.*  She whispered back to me, *Okay, Gramma...we won't tell Mommy or Papa or Daddy or Doggie.*

When we got home, we got right down to the business of eating and Chewlee wanted to get to the hot apple turnovers.  I told her she had to eat her food first before she got anything sweet to eat.  She sat quietly, watching Spongebob, drinking her chocolate milk and eating her food.  At one point, I really thought she was going to fall asleep in her Dora chair but, as soon as Spongebob was over, she jumped up, all excited and yelled, *Dora!!*  For watching Dora, it was my lap she wanted to sit in.  Of course, she asked if my legs still hurt me before that.  It was Saturday when she had my legs all sore from her wiggle butt but she remembered it. 

When Johnnycakes got here to pick her up, she was so excited but she didn't want to leave any of her food behind.  She had eated about half of her apple turnover and there were a couple fries and a few pieces of popcorn chicken left.  She wanted to take them all with her so I wrapped her turnover up, closed the box with the popcorn chicken and put everything in the KFC bag for her.  Then, she started to run out the door before she even realized she didn't have her shoes on!  Johnnycakes and I both laughed at her running back in here, pulling them on then starting to run out again without her tee-tee.  She has started to call it her *blankey* about half the time lately.  I imagine it won't be long before she stops needing it at all.  They all grow up eventually.  *Sigh*

I never made it to the UPS store or to the PO today since the Beast kept waking up all night long (and, of course, he kept waking me up whether he meant to or not) so I was exhausted.  It was only after two short naps that I had the strength to make it to Walmart for a few things and then pick up Chewlee, etc.  I am tired now and it's still early evening.    I guess I will go to bed early tonight so I can really manage to get the things done I want to get done.  Otherwise, it will be Monday before I can do anything.

It got up to 76 degrees today but was a bit on the windy side.  It felt chilly to me so I spent most of the day in my robe until I got dressed to go out.  I was glad that Aunt M got me a nice, plain white sweater because it was just the perfect weight to wear when I had to go out.  I still hate the fact that it gets dark so darn early.  Chewlee and I got home just a little after 5pm and it was totally dark outside.  I'm glad the Toyota truck has that cargo light that stays on for 15 seconds since it was enough light to get us up the stairs and to the front door.  I had left the dining table overhead light on so there was enough light at the door to make sure we didn't trip over anything. 

Chewlee missed seeing Papa and Baron.  She still shut my computer room door like the dog was going to come in even after I reminded her that he wasn't here.  Since I had the screen open on the front door, when Chewlee felt the breeze coming in, she shut it and told me NOT to open the door because it was too windy.  Did I mention that the Beast bought another cigarette maker since he was going to his brother's house?  He hates the one his brother has, especially since it only makes regular size cigarettes.  He prefers the 100's, as do I.  He originally said he bought ME a new one but he kept it in the trunk to take with him.  I always get the *old* things whenever he buys new so it wasn't unexpected.  What WOULD have surprised me is if he had actually given me the new one.