neal boortz is the coolest!

neal boortz was in tulsa last night at the PAC, mom won tickets on KRMG. we were in the orchestra row H seats 1 and 2. it was great! he had a funny about chicken cannons that they use to test airplanes. the french borrowed one from the FAA to test their fast trains. they shot a chicken at one of the trains, it went through the window, destroyed a seat and hit an instrument panel and caught the train on fire! they complained to the FAA, who asked to see the test data cause they had never had that happen. they looked it over, and told the french to thaw the chicken before using the chicken cannon next time! some people...

working on 12 inch granny squares for a charity project. i need 12 done by next saturday, i've got 6 done. i need to buy more yarn. we're making them for the veteran's home near claremore. i'm doing mine in OU colors.

nice to have fall here. i'm enjoying the cooler weather. last friday, i got industrious and waxed my car! it's a red 1991 volvo sedan, and you know how red likes to oxidize. i'm not real fond of red, but as i never get to pick the color or the car... my last 2 cars (both volvo's) were hand me down's from mom. i started out with a 1974 green volvo station wagon that i bought off the neighbor for $500 when i graduated high school in 1991. i drove that car until 1995, when a drunk driver in a taurus didn't stop at a stop sign. i tried to stop, left like 40 ft. of skid marks, but i plowed into him anyway, pushing in the entire drivers side of the car. i crunched the front drivers side of the volvo enough to bend the frame and puntcure the battery. i got out of the car and started saying some not very lady like words to the man. he went to the hospital and then to jail. of course, he didn't have insurance... so, anyway, i had $1000 in the bank, and the bank gave me another $1000 loan and i bought a 1982 cream volvo stationwagon the next day. this i drove until 2001, when the 1982 developed a nasty oil habit and was well over the 200,000 mile limit. mom being the nice person she is, gave me the 1987 silver volvo sedan. she had just got the 1991 red volvo that i drive now. 3 years later, the 87 up and died, and mom sold me the 91 for $1000. she had gotten a nice 1998 dodge grand caravan, and wasn't using the volvo. so, now the 91 is well past the 200,000 mile limit. i'm not real sure on the exact mileage cause the odometer broke about 6 months after i got it. it was at 178,779. what i want is one of those new toyota fj crusiers in voodoo blue... but at about $28,000... i don't see that happening.

well, i've gone on long enough... stay tuned...

one of those weeks...

this was one of those weeks where i'm trying to figure out when i'm gonna do the laundry at the local mat.
monday, i helped with TAPS duties until about 10 when i could get into the cleaning job that i help mom with every other monday. their grown son, his wife, their 7 mo old baby and his 3 kids are living there while they build their new house... aaaaaaah! luckly, i think his 3 kids are only there 1/2 the time, the other time at their moms. but still...
tuesday, was a advisory board meeting for all the TAPS people to meet with the superintendint of schools. we meet once a month and discuss issues going on at our elementary school we represent.
wednesday. 9 yr old has an eye appt. at 10:15. so, i pick this morning to rewire the phone into the house from the gray box on the back of the house. the old wire was old... so i got some CAT5e and went at it. by the time i looked up it was 9:50 and i still wasn't done! we rush to the doctor and then home where i finish hooking up the phone. wow! no more static on the line, it's like magic! see my redneck networking below.









thursday. dentist for the girls at 11:30am. we're out of there by 1pm. we eat at mcd's for cheap happymeal day and then finally make it to the laundry... only to find that someone is using the big side loaders i like to use. so, i have to use 4 of the smaller ones. and spend more money. ugh!
friday. i clean another house with mom. this one they have 5 kids. 2 are hers 3 are his. the house is 4700 sq ft. i change all the beds and vacuum. 3 hours later... we go pick up 9 yr olds new glasses, face wal-mart (briefly) and head home.
so, this was my week. tomorrow is the dentist appt. for me! yea!
stay tuned...

one red leaf and my stretchy cat

we had an out and about day yesterday. actually, new fridge hunting. the one we have is going...as to when we don't know. but it's making a noise that my husband tells me means the compressor is on it's last hurrah. something about losing freon? looked, only found prices higher than we can pay. looks like it's the bargain post for us.

our first fridge we got the week after we got married and moved into a duplex in sapulpa. husband traded his vcr to his brother for the beer fridge from his shop/garage/place to hang out with his friends and work on cars. it was a lovely 1974 hotpoint frost freezer/refridgerator in harvest gold with racing stickers on it. (when the girls got big enough to play with crayons, i let them color on it to make it look better) the strip of metal between the fridge and freezer doors was a nasty rusty mess. it was 14 cubic feet. this lasted us until about 2000, when i'd had it with the lack of space, and found the fridge we have now for $400. it was my uncles landlords fridge from the lake house they were selling. a 1992 roper in a lovely white. 20 cubic feet! oooooh! the space! it was frostless! and looked brand new despite it's age.

so, anyway, to the above pic. after our south tulsa adventure, which included lunch at the food court at woodland hills mall and a trip to the candy castle, we ended up at hunter park on 91st street. i let the girls loose for a while while i read "the end" by lemony snicket, then we headed for a walk. i snapped the above pic to the east of the play area by the woods. i liked that one leaf, just lying there...

rain today! and boy do we need it! water tank full out back, but it wasn't down that much. the ground is getting some much needed moisture. maybe the pond will get a little fuller.

on to the next picture. this is sequoyah. and he's a spoiled rotten baby boy kitty! this is his stretched out pose. he does this same thing on his back too. hard to imagine that when he came out of katie, he was only about 5 inches long. katie dropped 6 her first and last litter. 3 boys that look like coy (which is what katie looks like) and 3 girls. 2 black with patches of white and orange and one mostly white with a few patches of black and orange. the daddy was mom's tom cat, levi, who is black and white. we kept coy and the white one with patches who we named emily. so we have 4 cats including fred. i have a pic around here somewhere of all of them...

jack thinks he's a cat, but this is because he was raised by cats from the age of 6 weeks. he even tries to take a bath like they do! it's the funniest thing!

so, i guess that's all for now. stay tuned...

i am the chili princess!

entered the central tech chili cook off on friday. me and mom's chili. actually my chili recipe. anyway, we got 2nd place! i'm so happy! out of 23 entries and i get 2nd! this just adds on to my happiness with the county fair wins.

been teaching the ebay class at tech on tues and thurs. nights. last week and this week. 11 students! the last thing i taught was a small photography and darkroom class for my art teacher senior year. i was the head photographer and darkroom editor for the school paper and yearbook. i should have just moved into that darkroom second semester of my senior year i was in there so much. even after i graduated, i was in there for another 2 days finishing up for the yearbook, developing film and printing pictures. it was a lot of fun! now it's all digital... black and white photography is an art. i love ansel adams!

this last week was such a blur! on class nights i'd come home, cook dinner, and leave so i could be at the class 1/2 hour ahead of time to get everything going. tuesday night was the eureka season finale on scifi, so i had to stay up until 11pm to see it. i got to bed at 12:05am. yes, i do own a vcr, no i didn't feel like messing with it. i think it's time to get one of those dvr things. directv has them built into their boxes. maybe it's time to upgrade, we still have the basic box we got back in 1998. yes, we do have a dvd player, a nice phillips one. i can change the region code on it so i can watch the catherine cookson movie "the round tower" i've got in region 2. it's the only way to get that movie on dvd, i sure wasn't buying another video tape! i got it off ebay. anyway, i googled how to change the code back and forth, found it pretty easy. we have 2 vcr's too. one is about 7 years old, got it when my uncle died in 2001. the other is the vintage 1985 RCA, tank that one is! still works great! had to miss survivor too. for 2 weeks. i'll live, it's the last bit you have to make sure you watch anyway...

i might do an e-book. i've got a great bunch of recipes i've come up with, most use what i like to call "dump cooking". dump in the cans, and instant dinner. no real measuring required. i've got my chili recipe, 2 pasta sauces, and a mexican lasagna that use this principal. i've probably got about 15 or so recipes i could put in it. i'll have a picture for each recipe too. they've got a pretty good set up over at lulu.com.

here's a picture of my baby dog, jack! (see above). this was the pic i got 4th place for.

well, guess there's not much else. stay tuned...

jcpenney now selling clown wear...

note the attached picture. dad made the comment that "clowns have to have ties too." doesn't the green and orange ones remind you of some of the totally horrid ties from the 70's? they look like they belong in the 10 cent bin at the salvation army thrift store. i certainly wouldn't pay the sale price or the regular price for these ties, nor would i been seen with anyone wearing one! i really don't know what is up with the tie, shirt, jacket combos that i've seen some guys sporting on the t.v. there was the spokesguy at the white house that was wearing a white shirt, red polka dot tie, and grey striped jacket... give him a red plastic nose and he could have been the hobo clown in the circus! it's like they're all getting dressed in the dark AND they're print and color blind as well! it's scary... i can't even pay attention to what the news is sometimes because i'm focused on the gastly clothing combos the news guy is wearing. not that they're saying much lately anyway... ever heard the song "dirty laundry" by don henley? it's SO TRUE!

ok, so, i'm back online at home. had to get a new modem. DO NOT BUY MODEMS MADE BY U.S. ROBOTICS!!!!! they are crap. i went through 2 of them in maybe a year and a half. and it's not that lightening is getting them... i always unplug the cord outta the back when i'm not using it. the phone company likes to test the lines around here too much. the modem before the bad ones was the one that came with the dell computer back in 1999, it lasted about 6 yrs. i went to best buy this time (i was over there, the 9 yr old had a orthodontist visit. just a check up. she'll need to start getting those teeth fixed in about a year and a half.) and had to give up $40 and tax for the new one. but it has intel stamped on it, so i'm happy. i finally traced the problem to the modem when the phone guy called and said he'd tested the lines and they were fine. (sure, just wait until it rains again!) i dug out the ibm 486 processor thinkpad laptop with the 14.4 modem running win95. i hooked it in, and it dialed up just fine.

you've just gotta love that it's 92 F on october 1st! our weather can be so strange. i don't dare put the summer stuff away until almost december... and then you're never really sure.

OH, a word of warning. bacardi 151 is VERY STRONG. i'd seen some report about a lawsuit in a bar in like florida or somewhere. so, i'm like, sounds like some good stuff to try. i bought the small bottle at the liquor store, and added the usual shot to my pop of choice (this time it was diet mt. dew). i have vague recollections of my husband taking off my jeans and socks and putting me to bed. if i would have paid attention, i would have realized that "151" isn't just a neat sounding name, it's the PROOF! one good thing did come of this, i had a toothache and now it's gone! i do not normally drink like this! i can truly say that i have never been this drunk in my entire life. i never saw the point in high school... at the keg parties thrown by the baptist preachers son. i still hate beer. i was always telling them when i got invited, "if i'm gonna have a hang over it's not gonna be from drinking too much beer! just think of it as more for you!".

went to the tulsa state fair yesterday and my 7 yr old rode the super round up for the first time! her first adult ride! i'm so proud! this was my 9 yr olds third year for adult rides. she goes on zingo and the super round up with me.

well, that's all for this week! stay tuned...