I got no sleep last night...zilch...nada...none.  It started because the Beast overdid himself (of course) and caused great pain along with stiff muscles to keep HIM awake.  His *bad* (stroke) leg was just overused yesterday while he was installing the water softener under the house.  I put some Icy Hot on the area from just above his knee to his ankle and he then laid it on top of the heating pad at its barely warm setting.  He still pissed, moaned and groaned every time he moved and drove me out of the bedroom.  I started having problems of my own then that kept me awake.  Shooting pains like an electric wire was being applied to my foot....then the leg...then the toes...etc.  Sometimes it was even more painful than that but it kept the leg jerking and the foot felt like it needed constant massaging.  It was a nightmare.  Especially because its my 12 hour day with Chewlee.

Once it was daylight, I got a second wind but you know those don't last long.  At one point, while she was playing her game on Pogo and watching one of her DVD's, I started to doze off.  Chewlee was surprisingly nice about not demanding my attention when she saw I had my eyes closed.  But she doesn't like me sleeping so it didn't last long.  Just closing my ewas nice.  I stayed in my recliner mainly because my foot was just killing me so Chewlee decided she was going to ask Grandpa to play with her.  Off she went.  With the door closed, I had no idea what was going on.  I wasn't even sure he was in the house.  A couple minutes later, she comes rushing back into the room, slams the door shut, with her back against the door she slides down to the floor and has a sad face on her.    She looked over at me and says, *Papa hurt my feelings!*  When I asked her how he had hurt her feelings she told me, *He won't play with me!*

A little later, I went out to the kitchen and asked him why he wouldn't play with her.  He said to me, *I was on the pot!* THAT made me laugh.  Later on, Chewlee went out and told him he had hurt her feelings and he told her when he is on the potty, she is NOT to ask him to do things.  When she innocently asked him *why*, he just said, *Because it's a Grampa rule!!*  He DID spend some time with her and Baron out in the yard and she wanted to water the flowers.  He had to remind her that we had a rain storm and she just said, *Oh.  I forgot*.

She has no idea how much her sitting in my lap and wiggling all over hurts me.  She doesn't even know what pain is like I have in my feet.  Hers don't hurt her so why would she?

Today she was able to have me spray her room (and closet...can't forget the monster in the closet) with the Ghost and Monster Spray.  When she was told it was for her to take home so the Princess can spray her room tonight, she was thrilled!  First of all, she loves the spray bottle.  Second of all, she loves the way it smells.  And, when she asked me where I got it from, I told her from the *Ghostbuster Store*.    She was impressed although she really doesn't know what or who the Ghostbusters are. 

I started a bath for her because she really looked like she needed it and she had something sticky in her hair this morning.  I think she got the two popsicles her mother gave her this morning mixed up in her hair.  It is so damn long now...but so gorgeous.  She loves for me to brush it for her now.    Of course, I DID tell her that if she brushes it really, really good every day, it helps it to grow long.  That's what she wants...Rapunzel hair. 

Her baths are always a real treat.....for her.  It's taken me a year to get her to put her head back correctly and now she also has to help me wash it AND rinse it.  She does, however, insist that I let her help put the creme rinse through it and then let her run her fingers through the long part to get all her tangles out.  That's where she is right now.  She needed the bath anyway since she was outside playing with the Beast and Baron AFTER it rained.  She'll sleep better tonight, too.  Especially with all her ghosts gone. 

Today the Beast got down to the business of adding the water softener to the hot water heater.  He filled up one of my shopping bags with the various fittings he was going to need, the pipe glue and pipe cleaner, the hand tools he would need, including his pipe cutter.  Then he headed down to the crawl space and started doing his thing.  This took a lot more time than he had hoped it would.  He took breaks because he had other projects he wanted to do. 

One of the projects was removing the scale that had built up in the coffee maker.  It's a Bunn with a storage tank on it so there is always hot water available for a pot of coffee.  It's really amazing because you can actually make one pot after another, the water heats so fast.  I love it and told the Beast when it dies, be prepared because I don't care that it's gone up in price, I will have no other in my house any more.  He laughed but he knew I wasn't kidding.  If I ever stopped drinking coffee, I guess I would feel differently but I don't right now.

So what does he use?  CLR.  Oh, it's not the same harsh chemical that it was once.  It's now *eco-friendly*.  Biodegradable.  Plus I read the label and it's recommended for cleaning the scale out of coffee makers.  Now, I am as anxious as anyone with ridding my coffee maker of scale.  It interferes with heating, makes your coffee maker draw more electricity and it does affect the taste.  BUT.....the tank on my Bunn holds a pot and a half of water in it.  I'm sure CLR is not harmless to anyone that ingests it.  So I worry about flushing all the CLR out of it.  Wouldn't you?  I sure as hell don't want to take any chances with drinking it.

It really did a good job if I judge by the pieces of scale that we flushed out.  The Beast poured 14 or 15 pots of water into it trying to just flush out the scale that had been loosened.  Then I took on the job and did another 10 pots.  It wasn't until the 8th one that I poured into it that I stopped getting big pieces of scale.  Another two pots before the smaller pieces couldn't be found in the pot.  I figured anything else will get caught by the coffee filter since it would be small.  I smelled the water and even tasted it to make sure there was no residual CLR in it.  Okay....okay....maybe 25 pots of clean water was a little bit of overkill on cleaning it out but the very idea of any being left in it (with the amount of coffee that *I* drink) was scary.

I actually poured out the first pot of coffee that I made after no scale was found in the flushed water.  It smelled a bit funky to me.  The next pot smelled and tasted just fine.  If I don't show up tomorrow, you'll know I wasn't thorough enough.    It would have been a lot easier on me if we had a Mr. Coffee or some other brand that has a reservoir you fill up.  But an enclosed storage tank like my Bunn....well,  you can't look inside and see whats going on.  Better safe than sorry.

The Beast had to make two different runs to Lowe's today while doing his *project*.  The first time was when he ran out of the PVC piping.  Then he ran out of fittings (elbows and others).  I just shook my head because the Beast used to have a good handle on all the fittings he would need for a job and it would work out perfectly.  I guess it's his age or something related because I can't think of a single job he's done with PVC the last couple years (except for the charcoal filters he installed) where he hasn't had to make several trips to the store for more fittings mostly.  That's what really made me dislike his starting projects.  No matter what, it always also included some kind of inconvenience also.  Like no water to the house.  With Chewlee, that often meant she couldn't flush the toilet.  She has a little bladder and also poops quite frequently.    That's just the one that plagued us the last couple of days.

Yesterday, she really needed and wanted a bath.  However, that became impossible even though Chewlee went to the Beast and asked him to turn on the water for her.  She came in upset because he told her he couldn't for a while.  When he finally got it turned back on, she wanted one then but I had to tell her NO because it was almost time for the Princess to come for her.  That reminds me....I have to remember to ask her what *water day* was at the preschool.  I'm really curious to find out how they entertained those kids with water.  They all had to bring their bathing suits and Chewlee LOVES her bathing suit with it's hearts all over it.  I'm sure she pointed them out to everyone that would listen.

I made up the *ghost spray* for Chewlee today and texted the Princess to let her know about it.  I also wanted to remind her that SHE would have to spray it around Chewlee's bedroom for her when they got home tomorrow night.  It smells nicely of flowers.  I had intended to use a different bit of perfume in it originally but remembered I had this body spray that Chewlee loved because it *smells like flowers, Grandma*, as she told me.  She loved when I would spray a little on her neck and wrists at times after she had a bath.  I had put it up and forgotten about it.

The Beast bought a really nice spray bottle that's purple (one of her favorite colors).  It kind of surprised me that he remembered that.  The bottle itself is even pretty.  It's not your usual round one.  It's shaped kind of squared and flared at the bottom.  Very pretty.  I hope it does the job for her because she shouldn't be afraid to go to bed because of *ghosts*, even if she's just dreaming them.  It should give her some peace, I hope.  I'll let you know.

Love you all.  Have a great weekend.  We have rain to look forward to tomorrow but, since we cut back all the bushes that seemed to have been affected by the water softener's water, the rain should help we hope.  I would hate to lose my yellow roses that are next to the barn (shed) and the Beast's blueberry bushes.  So we don't get any fruit on them this year.  Who cares?  As long as they live.  I wish everyone good weather. 

The Beast, never satisfied when he starts a project, has now redone the whole thing.  His concerns over the salt we might have been ingesting with the water softener going to the whole house's water supply set him thinking.....and designing in his mind....a way to forego it.  He ended up taking out the softener, adding two charcoal filters to the water supply and now is going to hook up the water softener to the hot water tank ONLY.  However, the only place he can put it now with the limited floor space in the garage and everything we have installed (sink, shelves, cabinets, work table) is under the house in the crawl space.  I told him that would mean he would have to go under the house even to put the required salt into the water softener but he said there was nothing else he could do.  Since it doesn't seem to use up much as it is (for the whole house water supply), using it just for the hot water makes more sense to him and it will use even less.  Let's hope so.  It gets really gross under there.

I told the Beast we should have put some concrete down there when we first bought this house but he's put down some plywood and says its not worth the money it would cost us.  Oh well.  It's HIS project.

See how he can complicate his life?  I will say this much....the charcoal filters installation looks very professional.  He did a great job on it and it's totally out of the way but easily accessible for when he has to change the filters. 

I've been watching the Ancient Aliens and other special documentaries related to that idea on the History Channel today.  They have some very convincing arguments for aliens having been here thousands of years ago.  And they were all over the world.  It's food for thought.

Chewlee sat in my lap today and said to me, *Grandma, I need to talk to you.*  When I asked her what she wanted to talk to me about, she said, *There is a ghost in my bed.*  I was a bit taken aback and said, *IN your bed?  Are you sure you weren't just dreaming that?*  She then said, *There are a lot of people in my bed, Grandma.  I don't know if I was dreaming.  How would I know?*  Good question.  I asked her if she wanted me to get some more ghost and monster spray for her and she brightened right up.  She clapped her hands together and said, *Oh, would you, Grandma?  Would you get me some?*  So I promised her I would and she could tell her ghost that she was going to get some so he should get away while he can.

After our *talk*, she returned to her normal, happy self and played her games on Pogo.  All this was while she sat in my lap.  She's like a wiggle worm when she's in my lap and, after a while, I had to make her take a break.  With her, that means she either eats and drinks something or she has some treat, like ice cream or the fudge bars that Grandpa bought for her.  We ended up sharing a fudge bar.  She ate about half of it and then told me I should finish the rest of it before the *juice* started running. 

She was ready for her mother when she got here and we had to go get her bathing suit out of the washer for her to take to school tomorrow.  It's *water day* and I have no idea what that means but it definitely involves the kids getting drenched out on the playground, I'm sure.  That will be fun for her because she loves getting all wet.

The Princess is going to have 11 days off of school and has decided that she is going to take a couple days and go with Chewlee to the ocean.  Chewlee loves water of any kind and she loved the ocean when they were down there last.  She'll enjoy that and I will have a few extra days off.  I think the Princess told me that Chewlee will start preschool (the REAL type of school) on August 15th.  That is going to mean a slight alteration of my evenings with Chewlee, I'm just not sure which yet.  I'll have to wait and see.

The Beast bought me a surprise.  It's a huge container for my coffee.  It looks like an insulated plastic beer stein in shape.  It has no BPA in it at all.  I'm guessing that the Beast read about that and got it for me to help with my health.  It was really a sweet idea.  It holds about a half pot of coffee in it.  It could hold more but I figured half is more than enough.    I haven't finished the first one I poured today and it's still warm.  Nice, huh?

I was determined today to move *beyond the pain* in my feet and try to be more active.  All this lack of activity on my part during the healing process has sapped my endurance and made it difficult to stay upright for any real length of time.  I can feel my legs starting to give out on me and MUST sit down or risk falling down.  I've definitely been upright and on my feet more today than the past several days and I can tell you this much.......I AM IN AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF NEW PAINS NOW!

It's really not funny but I now have muscle spasms in the muscles at the back of my thighs, for example.  That's entirely new.  My calves are tight and painful, too.  The Beast was laughing at the way I walk because he says it changes as I am moving around.  I can feel the difference so I imagine it has to look funny.  What I have been doing is trying to walk normally instead of walking a bit like a crab.  I started thinking back to the way some of my aunts used to walk and I thought it was just the way old ladies walked.  Now I know they were probably battling their own types of pain and just making the effort to do things normally.  It does make me glad that I wasn't the kind of kid that would blurt out what they were thinking like Chewlee does at times.  She was actually trying to give me lessons in how to walk and even how to walk FASTER.  It was so funny to see her taking little steps and then making them bigger and faster as she saidk *See, Grandma?  It's easy!  Just walk like I showed you!*  I was laughing so hard, she stopped and threw me that *mad face* look kids get when they know they are the butt of a joke but just don't understand what the  joke IS. 

When the Princess dropped off Chewlee today, she asked Chewlee what she was going to eat for dinner and without a second of hesitation, she said, *Toast!*  That puzzled the Princess and I told her she had chicken noodle soup but she wanted toast with it.  That's all she remembers eating because it was different and a bit of a treat for her.  At least now Chewlee even eats the broth , too.  She used to just eat (and fish out) all the noodles and didn't want the rest of it.  She would give it to Baron who apparently likes chicken broth.  He will lap it up enthusiastically.  Now she finishes it all and loves to dip her toast in it.  She thinks that is so unique that she will tell me, *Look, Grandma.  It's really, really good this way.  You should do it, too.  Go get yourself some toast and I will share the juice with you.*

We have a couple games we play together like *tickle ears*....not your normal, run-of-the-mill type game.  She gets so tickled and laughs so hard she gets the hiccups.  I will grab her and cover her face with kisses to make her get her hands away from her ears so I can tickle them.  How I love the way she laughs!  We play that until we both are tired and have to take a break.

I am always exhausted by the time she leaves every night.  I usually just drop into my recliner, put my feet up and take a short nap.  By then, Bratfink is usually online again and we chat for a while, play our games on Pogo and check out the late news.  Bratfink is a Letterman fan and tries not to miss it.  Sometimes I join her, but I'm not a fanatic about it.  I miss Johnny Carson.  **Sigh** 

Tonight Chewlee said something I have to pass along.  I asked her if she was ready to watch her Barbie movie and she said, *The one Aunt Bratfink bought for me?*  I said yes and she said, *Aww....she's so sweet!*  It sounded so natural and  sincere.  I thought it was a really nice thing she felt about Bratfink.  She wanted to call her so she could talk to her and was disappointed when I told her that Auntie Bratfink was taking a nap and we didn't want to wake her up.  So, she told me, *But we will do it another time when she is up so I can tell her thank you, okay?*  I told her that I tell her every time we watch all the movies she sent to her and that Auntie Ruth knows she really, really likes her movies.

We actually had a heat index here today of 105 degrees.  I was shocked when I heard that on the news.  I knew we had hit a temperature of 97 degrees but the heat index isn't usually that much higher.  Our humidity is high since we have had 5 inches of rain here locally just in the past two weeks.  Oh well.  The heat goes on......

Time and again I've told you about the Beast and his obsession with making up new projects for himself.  I really think he has this feeling that when he runs out of projects, he's going to die.  I don't even try to talk him out of it because I can sympathize with his concerns.  Especially now with the tumors in the bladder problem.

His latest project was to run a new water line to the spigot out back that is the main one used for watering the garden.  He decided that there was a good reason for the instructions for the water softener stating that the plumber needed to install the water softener after the lines for the outside water spigots.  He thinks that the small amount of salt that was in the water was enough, cumulatively, to cause some of the garden vegetables to die or just not even germinate.  I would have to guess that it was probably a good guess on his part, especially if there were instructions on not running the softened water to the spigots in the first place.  He ended up doing it mainly out of laziness.  It was easier and faster to install it where he did hence the need for the special project.

It really didn't take him long to put together the piping and run the line.  It probably took longer for the glue to dry on the joints since he said he didn't like the way it was drying as he put it together.  Normally, it dries fast but the high humidity had to be affecting it.  When he was done, no leaks and now he knows the water from that one spigot is salt-free.  If he needs a project in the future, he has at least three other spigots he could include.  But, right now, he took care of the one he mainly uses.  He's going to use the water from the rain barrel to water the flowers out front since some of those really don't look well.  That would really upset me since one of my special rose bushes is out there.  The Beast is hoping his blueberry bushes recover now that he's changed the water supply.

BTW, I did impart a partial bit of misinformation on the pears yesterday.  You know how it is when you know something and don't quite explain yourself thoroughly?  That's what I did.  When I said a pear will not ripen off the tree, I meant this:  if the pear is totally hard, including the area around the stem, it won't ripen off the tree.  However, if it has started to soften around the stem, it WILL.    I was reminded of this by the two pears sitting on my windowsill right now.  They started to show softening at the stem but were still hard so we knew they weren't quite ready.  We didn't pick them off the tree; the storm knocked them off.   It's happened a couple times already this year and we brought in the ones that had started to ripen but they have been eaten now.  These latest two will be ready in about a week.

We have so many that are just about ready still on the trees that I told the Beast I would just go ahead and make a light syrup and can them.  They will be fast prep, just about 10 minutes is all and we love pears so we will certainly use them up. 

More tomatoes were harvested today.  I put some aside for our hot dogs since the smaller, ripe ones that I think are over-grown cherry tomatoes, are perfect for that.  We make up our hot dogs Chicago style with chopped onions, tomatoes, sweet pickle relish and celery salt.  I use a thin slice of dill pickle and hot peppers but the Beast doesn't.  Another departure is the fact that we both use mayonnaise and I use some deli mustard (spicy) instead of the more used yellow mustard.   These tomatoes will be used just as they are minus the skins and will be canned after being cut in half.  The Beast laughed because we are going to have to buy some more canning jars after I get done with that if we do any more canning.  I reminded him that the pears will be using up some but I think that the full case of quart ones should do for both.

He brought in an eggplant today that would have you laughing if you saw it.  It looks like a huge radish!  I kid you not.  Why it came out that shape, I have no idea.   I told the Beast it will make a couple of nice breaded and fried up pieces for him since he loves it cooked that way.  He wasn't going to leave it on the plants because of the fact that insects had gotten to the others that had developed earlier.  This one is perfect, except for it's shape. 

More hot weather for most of the country....as usual.  Drink lots of water, etc., etc.   I'm sure I don't have to remind you now.  Too many people have died from lack of hydration and air conditioning both.  Surprisingly, most of them in the city of Chicago.  I say surprisingly because they have cooling centers all over the city for people who live in apartments and homes without air conditioning.  And there are city pools located in every neighborhood.  If I didn't have AC, I would be either at a pool or at the lake for sure.  If I had to work, I'm sure where I worked would have AC so I would be safe from the worst of the day while there.  The men in construction trades are the most at risk but they are provided ample drinking water and they have learned how to keep from becoming victims of heat/sun stroke.  The rest of us...well, we do what we must.  Even in air conditioning, don't forget you still need water during these days.  Air conditioning removes humidity from the air so don't neglect yourself.

How long does weather have to be strange, off-the-mark, hotter/colder than normal to stop being weird and become the norm?  The thought popped into my mind when it started thundering while the sun was shining brightly.  It was 10 minutes or more before the skies clouded over and the thunder continued.  No rain.  Just thunder.

The Beast went out early and checked the pears on the trees and found another one that was ripened.  He brought it in and we shared it.  He also picked a couple more green peppers that are just gorgeous and the prettiest green!  Very healthy looking and I am going to be happy to use them in my cooking.  He checked out the strawberries and is going to give them another day or two.  They still aren't entirely ripe and some of them are HUGE.  We were both hoping it would rain so that watering the garden was one thing we didn't have to worry about doing.  After a half hour or so of overcast and thundering, it finally started to rain.  Not hard but nice and steady and enough to satisfy the needs of the veggies.

In case you didn't know this....and it's important for you to remember when you are grocery shopping for fruit, pears is the one fruit that cannot ripen off the tree.  If you aren't sure if it's ripe, press lightly by the stem.  It should be on the soft side and that shows the pear was tree ripened as it should be.  If it's hard, pass it up unless you intend to cook or bake it.  If you bring it home and try to ripen it (even the brown bag won't help), you will be throwing it out when it starts to rot.  Save your money.

Remember I told you about the corn stalks that got beaten up when we were hit by the tornadoes here in Alabama?  Well, the Beast finally pulled those up because the corn on them just rotted.  Thankfully, others that were sheltered and not bent all to hell, are doing well and we expect the corn to be ready within a week or two, I believe.

Today I am making an attempt to carefully plan and execute an efficient way of doing my wash that requires the least amount of walking back and forth.  The Beast would happily empty the dryer and carry it in to me to be folded but he doesn't discern the difference in how you handle clothes to be hung up.  I sure don't want to iron anything.  Not in this day and age.  Hell, if I hadn't started sewing again, I wouldn't even own an iron.    Why not?  I went years without one.  It is NOT a required item in any household with a little care being taken.  I immediately hang up clothes right out of the dryer and they are great.  If they give me a problem that looks like it requires a touch of an iron...out it goes!  Oh, I don't mean in the garbage.  It goes into the donation bag.  I spent too many years over an iron and I sure am not going to do any at this stage of the game.  Unless I am sewing, of course.  **Sigh** There are just some things that you need to do to make sure all goes well while doing that.

Did I ever tell you about the Beast and how he complicates things with his *more is better* thinking?  When I first decided I was going to do some sewing and needed a sewing machine, I told the Beast I wanted one.  He told me to look around and find one I liked and just buy it.  So, I started looking around.  I knew what I wanted.  Nothing fancy.  But I did want a nice selection of stitches, automatic buttonholing, maybe some simple fancy embroidery.  I had a machine that did just that and it *fell off the truck* during our move to the west coast.  It was a few years old so the insurance payment for it was almost ludicrous and I never replaced it.  Well, I looked and couldn't find just the right one.  But, I wasn't in a hurry.

The Beast, however, once there is a *buy* decision of any kind made, was of a different mind.  HE started looking even though I have told him time and time again that there are just some things a man shouldn't try to buy for a woman.  He bought me a sewing machine.  In many ways, it's the sewing machine from hell.  The instruction booklet on it is about an inch thick and has small print.  It threads itself but it's not a simple process.  It also has a kazillion embroidery patterns on it and requires the removal of part of the machine, adding on another section and a special needle.  It has a touch screen on it for everything from the size and type of stitches to the embroidery patterns.  You can even download more patterns onto it.

Now I ask you, is that overkill or what?  I told him to take the damn thing back.  I had seen it and rejected it because it had waaaaaay more features than I wanted or needed.  He refused and said, *Oh, once you start using it, you will like it.  Wait and see!  It was on sale!*  I have not used the embroidery patterns at all.  I find I use about 8 of the different stitches, depending on the application and I am still getting used to the buttonholer.  Although that is one feature I find very nice because you take the button you intend to use and put it in place and the buttonholer automatically puts the perfect size hole for it.  Amazing.  It has a special holder for the button and, once in place, the machine takes over.  It surprised me to no end.

Time to get this up while I still have internet.  I lost it once while I was writing this and that scared me because I thought I might lose everything I had already written.  I hope you all are observing hot weather protocols and staying hydrated.  Love you all. 

I wasn't scheduled to have Chewlee today so I had made some plans last night about what I was going to do today.  That was all doomed to change.

First of all, I woke up and, as I got to my feet, the bottoms were so painful that I almost threw up then and there.  I gingerly made my way to the bathroom, bathed my face in some cold water, did my normal morning ablutions and then tried making it to my computer room to see if it got any better.  It didn't.  I sat up at the computer, checked my email, did a little bit on Pogo and then decided I needed to get my feet up.  I fell asleep for a while then had to (almost) scream my way to the bathroom.  That is when the Princess texted me to say she had been called into work for this evening so would/could I watch Chewlee.  She also said I would get Tuesday off so I would still have my two days in a row off.  I figured I would feel better by the time she dropped her off and promptly put the feet up and fell back asleep.

I kept waking up sick to my stomach and decided it was pain that was doing it.  Every damn time I overdo the walking around because the feet don't feel all that bad, I have this happen and I never seem to learn.  That is blonde to the bone!

Thankfully, the Beast was in a good mood and he kept Chewlee occupied.  They watered the plants (and each other in play) and Chewlee got to chase Baron around trying to water him, too.

It was evening before I really felt better and could get around but I am taking it easy this time.  Doesn't do me any good to have a relapse every other day, now does it?

I have no idea what happened but apparently Xanga posted two things for my blog yesterday.  One had just the title.  The second one was the full blog.  I apologize for that because I am sure Xanga will blame me for it.  I just don't see how it could have been.  I did it all in one sitting with no detours.  But, I deleted it today when I became aware of the problem.  Thanks to my sister, Bratsis2.  Sorry about that Sis.

Chewlee spent the night, as you know.  Around 4:30am, this little hand touched my face and it was Chewlee.  I asked her what was the matter as I lifted the covers and let her climb into bed with me.  She said, *It's lonely in that room, Grandma.*  I just smiled and we went back to sleep.   We slept until 9am and then got up to eat breakfast since we were both hungry. 

Chewlee makes me a bit nuts about her breakfast.  She waves off normal things like cereal, eggs and waffles (of which we have plenty) and tells me that she wants *something different*.  So, I go for things like grilled cheese or soup.  Know what she came up with?  Toast and jelly.    I didn't think it would actually fill her up but some days she is starving (at least it seems that way) and others she just needs a little bit of *something*. 

Later, at lunch time, she said she wanted something with noodles....long noodles.  Know why?  I've seen her so it wasn't a puzzle to me.  She likes to slurp them.  Doesn't matter whether it's chicken noodles soup or spaghetti.  She just wants that and nothing else will do.  Luckily, she settled for the Campbell's chicken noodle soup even though she really wanted long noodles.  I told her that the Beast was making spaghetti and we would eat that for dinner.  She brightened up over that and said, *I LIKE spaghetti!*    The Beast actually cooked up some spaghetti noodles just for her and didn't break them like he usually does.  That made her very happy later when we ate. 

She was in the bathtub when it was ready and she saw me walk into my room with a bowl of spaghetti.  She is always tough to get out of the tub but not today.  When she saw me eating, she was READY!  She really, really wanted those noodles. 

She's gotten so great about letting me brush her hair.  She loves for me to play with her hair and that was kind of how it started.  Who doesn't love that?  With her long hair, when I start to stroke her head and play with it, she gets all shivery and doesn't want me to stop.  It was how I got her to sleep one day even. 

The Beast made his spaghetti today and I usually just love it.  But, I told him today that I don't know what he did to it that was different but it wasn't as good as normal.  He said he threw in some neckbones and didn't really look at the package but he swears he thinks they might have been goat, not pork.  I told him that they probably WERE pork since I don't think our Walmart carries goat. 

He usually uses beef ribs and I like that better.  The spaghetti was greasier than normal, too.  I think Chewlee would have eaten more if it had been his normal recipe, too.  I doubt he will be experimenting with it in the future.  I will eat his regular recipe every day until it's gone but I will probably only eat this once more (for lunch tomorrow....or maybe dinner again).  The Beast doesn't do leftovers except for turkey fixings around Thanksgiving and ham any time....LOL.

I told you about Chewlee liking to play this pop the balloon game on Pogo.  Well, today she told me she wanted to learn how to play the tile game she watches me play.  It's actually a type of mahjong, if you know what that is.  It's called Mahjong Safari because the tiles are animals that you match.  She begged and begged me so I figured I would let her try it and see that it is harder than she thinks. 

I put the game on easy and spent the first two games helping her find the pairs of animals and telling her about the no-no's of the game.  She had the mouse and did all the clicking.  The one thing that struck me while she was working on the games was that it would be a good game to develop her small motor skills (which I discovered needs some developing while watching her).  I then let her do a game by herself after I selected one that was VERY  easy and had lots of obvious pairs.

Imagine my surprise when I found out she did very well, although I did have to point out to her a couple times that she couldn't cross over other tiles to make a pair.  But I didn't point out anything to her and she still won the game. 

She got so excited, she immediately started another one...but she just HAD to click through the different puzzles to see what her choices were.  I had to remind myself that this was just a 4 year old and I have seen adults that didn't *get it* as well as she did.  My mother-in-law leaps to mind and that was for a simple bingo game online.  May she rest in peace but she seemed to stay very confused and didn't get the whole idea of clicking the numbers with the mouse. 

When the Princess came to pick up Chewlee, Chewlee ran into my arms to be picked up so she could hug and kiss me.  She had kept putting her fingers in my ears today and then laughing up a storm.  It was a game to her (of course) and I would put my hand over my ear.  I was watching her out of the corner of my eyes and I would turn quickly and scare her.  When she laughs a deep, real laugh, she always gets the hiccups.  It's a little quirk of hers and I love to make her laugh that way so....when I kissed and hugged her, I stuck my finger in one of her ears to make her laugh.  I figured let her mother deal with the hiccups for a while.  I had to do it all day long. 

No Chewlee tomorrow so I have a lot of things I need to get done.  Laundry leaps into the picture, for one.  My feet are slowly getting much better and I am getting feeling back in them, too.  I hate that numb sensation.

Love you all.  Be careful during all these hot days.  I've said it before....keep hydrated with lots of water, which is best.  Have a great Sunday. 

Of all the things I could have been asked, when Chewlee asked me if I was Grampa's sister, that one was not expected.  She had just asked me if Grampa was my husband, and I told her *yes*.  That was the next one she asked.  I told her that I was Grampa's wife and she said, *OH!* like she had just made the connection.  But I know she hasn't.  At least, not yet.

The Princess dropped her off complete with pajamas and clean clothes for the morning.  She was *too busy* for a bath tonight but I told her she could always take one tomorrow morning.  She shot me a look and said in that kind of snotty-pushed-into-agreeing-to-something-they-didn't-really-want voice that kids can get and said, *Fine!*.  This from a kid who actually loves to take a bath.  But I guess she's entitled to be *too busy* on occasion. 

She was drawing with the markers and suddenly decided she was going to do something else, like talk to Grampa and went to rush out the door.  I yelled at her to come back and put the tops onthe markers and she (the little stinker) told me that *I* could do it.  I made her come back to do it and she said, *Okay, okay* and came back in to do that.  As she sat down on the floor and reached for the tops, I heard her say, under her breath, *Dammit!*.  When I said, *What was that you said?*, she looked up at me and said, *Sorry!*  Then she looked down while she struggled to make the tops *click* and said in a whisper, *Shit!*.  After a minute or so, when she had the tops back on the markers, she gave them to me to put up and said, *Are you mad, Grandma?  You sounded mad.  Are you mad at me?*  She stood there, looking me full in the face with the most intense, concerned look and waited for my answer.  I told her that I wasn't mad at her, just a little upset that she was using mommy and daddy words.  She knew what I meant when I said that because she has told me more than once that is what they are.  She put her head on my arm and her arm around my back and said, *I sorry, Grandma.  I won't do that again...I promise!*

Unfortunately, her promises last about as long as her attention span.  But I will keep working on it wiher.  This IS the Bible Belt, after all, and their tolerance for such language from a little one is about this--> || long.  This isn't the big, sophisticated, tolerant city....LOL.

Chewlee picked out our movie venue, as usual and one of her selections was *Rodan*.  However, after it was on for about 10 minutes or so, she got up from her Dora chair, went over and got Godzilla 2000 and said to me....*Grandma, I don't like that movie (pointing to the TV).  We need to watch the T-Rex movie like was watched the other day (T-Rex?).  It's better.  I don't like bird movies unless they are real birds.*  As she was saying all this, she ejected Rodan, found the case for it and put it in, then opened up the Godzilla one and put it in the dvd player.  She told me I could watch the *bird* one another time when she wasn't here.

It was a battle of wills to get her into bed, of course, but the *ghose AND monster spray (I had forgotten about monsters because she isn't afraid of my monster-in-the-closet)* helped tremendously.  She kept telling me where to spray so that I would keep them out and she even made me spray around the doorway.  It was almost too funny.  Now it's Grandma time for a while and I just made myself the last of my mudslide.  I'm going to have to text the Princess in the morning and see if I can get her to pick me up some more and drop it off when she picks up Chewlee tomorrow night.  As this is the Bible belt, there is no liquor sales on Sundays...at least, not in this county although I understand from Johnnycakes that there are a couple counties that do have Sunday liquor sales.  I just don't know them.

It was a sleepy day today.  The Beast let me sleep in and I was shocked at how late it was when I woke up.  I grabbed some coffee and went into my computer room, turned on the computer and waited for the Beast to get back from wherever he went.  Turned out he made a milk and bread run to Walmart since we will have Chewlee Friday and Saturday.  She TOLD me she was spending the night with me on Friday and also told me she was going to go to sleep in my recliner. 

I told you she thinks there is a ghost in there, right?  Well, I have some perfume Chewlee likes (she likes when I put it on her, too, but I told her it was special and not to be used every day).  It's called *Beautiful* and is very expensive when you buy it retail here in the US of A.  A friend of Bratfink got me a large size bottle of the essential oils.  You mix it with a special type of alcohol and voila!!!  It is the perfume.  Well, I am going to mix some of the oil with a bit of alcohol and then add water to it.  Just enough so that you get a whiff of the perfume.  That is going to be our ghost remover spray.  I'm going to do some and let Chewlee do a little where she thinks the ghost might hide so she will then feel better about sleeping in the room.  Thanks again, Bratfink, for the suggestion.  I will let you know how it works.

I told you about Chewlee possibly getting into this special preschool program.  I thought the Princess was going to find out if she got in today but the Princess says she told me she would find out next week.  Well, duh!  I am a blonde.  That part I guess I missed.  That is when she should also find out about the possibility of a scholarship (?) or it could be a grant that she might get in addition to her Pell grant.  She was really bummed out that her Pell grant, which normally covers tuition and her books wasn't going to hack it this coming semester.  Tuition has almost doubled.  Her Pell grant is based on her income two years previous and that is when she made the most money working for AT&T.  **Sigh**  Plus, in order to graduate with her math teaching certification, she will have to go to another college site for the next year and a half because that is the only site where that math is taught.  It's all part of U of A but is better than having to move to some place closer to the main campus.

It would be different if there wasn't Chewlee to consider and, for that, I am grateful.  I would hate not being able to spend some quality time with her whenever I was needed or whenever I wanted to see her.  I am crossing my fingers that she gets the help she needs so she can finish school without the need for a student loan. 

I told you how the Beast will sit around thinking up new projects for himself when he can't get outside to work on whatever.  Well, his new project was installing charcoal filters on the house AND in our bathroom on the shower.  All this to filter out the chlorine that his reading told him contributes to dry skin and unhealthy chlorine in the steam when you shower.  So, now we get coffee without the added ingredient chlorine and...guess what?  It tastes like the coffee you get at Dunkin Donuts now.    I kid you not.  That has to be the secret of the great coffee they have.  It's not just the grind or ingredients of the coffee beans.  It's got to be that they have charcoal filtering for their water.  How unique and inexpensive (sort of) for a *secret ingredient*.  It also explains why, when I used their coffee grind, it STILL didn't taste like theirs did.  I told the Beast to buy some now at the store and let's try it out.

He also bought us a new shower head.  It's one of those that are as big as a waffle made in one of the round waffle makers.  Neat as hell.  We once showered with one of those at a hotel we stayed at.  We loved it then and we love it now.  And guess what?  It actually has it's own charcoal filter that is supposed to be good for up to 10,000 gallons of water use.  But, since we have a filter on that line already, does that mean it will work longer?  Or is it the volume of water that is the key?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

He was amazed at the amount of calcium on the old shower head.  Especially since the water softener seems to clear that up after a while.  I told him it was probably really choked with it and it just hadn't had the time to get rid of all of it.  So, he's got it soaking in some CLR and we are moving it to the guest bathroom.  That should tickle Sheepie when she's here next because it is so much better than the one we have in there.  That one is the original one and it's cheap, cheap, cheap.

Time to get this posted before the clouds roll in.  We have the possibility of thunderstorms here tonight but we WILL have cloud cover if nothing else.  The humidity is 100% according to Weather Bug.  I'm so glad our AC is working well.