Hanging with the Sickie

We have entered day 2 of "Bored at Home with Mom". Today her fever was up to 103.4. She said she felt fine until I told her she couldn't feel fine with fever that high. Nice try, but you are still not getting on the computer and phone all day. Today was also spent with our good friend SpongeBob. I love Spongebob and even more, Patrick. I can stand a day of SpongeBob alot easier than I can stand a day of Dora or something similar. She is enjoying all of the phone calls from friends letting her know she is missed.

Hopefully she will be fever-free soon. She has a talent show at a nursing home with her Girl Scout troop planned for Saturday and a horse back riding trip planned with the troop on Sunday. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Hot, Hot, Hot

Cara woke up this morning running a fever. I took her to the doctor and they ran strep and flu tests. I was positive it was an ear infection, but her ears looked fine. She keeps telling me she feels fine. She is bored when she stays home cause the mean old mom doesn't let her hang on the phone and the computer when she is sick. I just hate when that happens.

P.S. Both the strep and flu tests came back negative.

Stay Off the Roads...Not Really

Robyn finally decided she wanted to learn how to drive. She took the classroom portion of Driver's Ed over the Easter Break. Now it is time to get behind the wheel. She was excited about driving. Me...not so much. It is a rite of passage for a teenager, but I am just not ready for her to grow up. Talking about college visits, asking teachers for letters of recommendations, taking AP exams...I feel a Mom rebellion coming on. I keep telling her to stop growing up. She doesn't listen to me.

Draft Dodger

Originally, we had carpet through most of the house. Over the last several years, we have put in hardwood as the carpet started to "ugly out" instead of wearing out. The bottom of the master bedroom door was cut to allow for the carpet allowance. Since the carpet is gone, the air conditioning from the bedroom flows under the door. Jasmine is ready any time of day or night to jump in and block that air from entering the den. What would we do without her? She chooses to lie upside down so as to block the opening in the most efficient manner. We are so fortunate to have such a considerate and giving canine daughter. Thank you Jasmine.

A Cat's Work is Never Done

One of Whiskers' favorite places is on the sofa. Last fall, we bought new furniture. On the old sofa, her perch was on the right arm. The new sofas do not have arms perfect for setting up a cat's office, so there was some discussion in the family as to whether she would claim a new spot or ignore the new furniture. She has claimed her office space. On the new furniture, her spot is on the back of the love seat. It still has to be on the right side. She is completely uninterested in the left side. Pretty sometimes uses the left side when Whiskers is working elsewhere. Once Pretty made the mistake of working on the right side. Whiskers let her know pretty quickly that was unacceptable.

Whiskers particularly loves to stick her leg out for everyone to admire. Sometimes she will stick them both out. It often does not look comfortable, but she doesn't seem to mind. We will walk by and discuss how lovely those legs are. She acts as though she already knows it, but I guess even cats cannot be told too often how beautiful they are.

PMC Class

Today, Robyn and I drove up to Jackson to take a class in PMC (Precious Metal Clay). PMC is made from silver which has been reclaimed from old film. It is mixed with a clay like binder material, making it easy to work with. When the PMC is fired in a kiln or sometimes with a torch, the binder burns away and fine silver is left. I was supposed to take the class with my friend, Lisa, but she was unable to do so. Robyn happily stepped in. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with her. I would love to be able to say that any skills I learned several years ago from my clay (wheel)classes came back to me, but I can't. We did have a great time creating silver pieces to wear or to give as gifts. Hopefully, we can attend another class and continue the fun.

Working the Needles

Lately I have been knitting up a storm. I really am loving it. I posted about it twice already here and here. I have found a pattern that is easy for me and one I can adapt in size, texture and color. The last two hats I knitted, I used bamboo circular needles. It was ok for one of the hats. That yarn was a little slippery and moved easily on the needles. The last hat I completed, I did not like the bamboo needles. I am not real thrilled with the yarn either. I bought some new nickel circulars and as now using them on this new hat. It is making a big difference. I am using the same yarn as the previous hat, but the new needles are making it easier to knit with it.

I am making these hats to donate to Children's Hospital in New Orleans. Robyn's best friend, Jonathan, lost his battle with brain cancer in December. He spent some time in Children's Hospital during part of his treatment. He was a wonderful person and is greatly missed. You can follow my progress on my hats by looking at the little graphic on the sidebar. I will update it with the latest number of hats completed...in case anyone is interested.

Slap Ya Huh?

I went to the grocery store today to pick up the goodies to put in my Pay It Forward box. I wanted to get some Louisiana items to share with my winner, Paige, who lives in the Midwest. I had a fun time going through the store and picking out items produced in the state. One of my favorites, is "Slap Ya Mama" Cajun seasoning, not because of how it tastes, but because of the name. It is a phrase heard around here occasionally like, "That gumbo was so good you wanna slap ya mama." There are great phrases like that all around the country. I love to hear the "local speak", especially when they are "passing a good time".

Meeting Inspection

Today I received my Pay It Forward goodie bag from Lin of Duck and Wheel with String. Lin sent some wonderful treats for me and even a little something for the cats. The strawberry jam body yogurt smelled so wonderful. Jasmine and Skittles followed the jar as I moved it from the bag to the table. They were extremely interested in everything in the bag. They assessed each item as it was removed. It is a good thing our personal inspectors were here when the package was opened. Lin, you will be happy to know your items passed the rigorous scrutiny of our highly paid examiners.

Sluggish

Yes, it is a second installment of Merry's Morning Musings. Sometimes when we open the garage door, critters will come in the garage. Other times they take a ride on the "garage door express". This morning, Mr. Slug took a ride. He just hung there twisting and turning as he worked toward turning himself around on his slime strand so he could crawl back up to the top. I started thinking about how strong his stomach muscles must be to turn himself around like that. Do slugs do crunches to keep in good shape? Do slugs have a "good" shape? Oh, it is way to early in the morning to have such deep thoughts.

Moon Musings

I am not a morning person. In fact, no one in my family is. Mornings are pretty crabby around here. I do not enjoy getting the girls up at 5:30 to get them ready for school. This morning, I was standing on the driveway with Robyn, while she waited for the bus to come. In the sky was the moon. While most of the time I think it is pretty cool to see the moon during the day, when I see it at the crack of dawn, I think I should be sleeping. I am not a morning person.

The Boil

Today was Ye Old Boil. Phillip was so happy. It is his "thing". I was happy to be in the shade. We had a great time visiting with friends and just enjoying the day. The mudbugs were spicy and the sausages and potatoes were supreme. I parked myself in front of the taters and sausage and went to town. Yum. I like crawfish ok, but the potatoes and sausage are my favorites. Last weekend was Gary's birthday, so we put a candle on a cupcake and we sang Happy Birthday to him. It was a great ending to our Spring Break.

Watch out Mr. Trump

Phillip has decided that when he retires, he will become an Ebay mogul. He likes to look around the house and find things "we" could sell on Ebay. I use the term "we" because he doesn't want to learn how to do the listing. He wants to be the one who finds the item, tells you what to say in the listing, and the one who bugs you to find out if there are any bids. He is so funny about it. He gets such a thrill out of a watcher and even more...a bidder. He has roped Robyn into helping him with his latest Ebay offerings. She is frequently without or short on funds, so he appealed to her monetarily. She will get a percentage of the selling price, if she helps him on the front end of the deal. It has worked in her favor about as many times as it has not. I hope they are successful. It is always good to have money in the old Paypal account.

Goldilocks and the Ker Cube

We have a couple of beds for the cats. Not that they don't take a nap wherever they want, but around the house there are additional spots for them. One of these has been named the "Ker Cube" which is short for WhisKERs'Cube. Whiskers loves to spend time in the cube. It is one of her many places to do her "work". Every once in a while Goldilocks AKA Pretty will do her work in there. When the Baby Bear AKA Whiskers comes in to go in her bed and sees someone in her bed, she must get the intruder out of her bed. Whiskers will nonchalantly sit on the side, looking around or washing her face. Then she rears up and starts swinging. Pretty will put up a small fight, but she eventually shoots out and finds another spot. I tried to take the picture in mid-leap, but I was not fast enough. Baby Bear was successful. She was able to regain her bed and set about her "work".

Preparation

Boil King decided that he could not get through this season without having a crawfish boil. So he has planned a boil for Sunday. My job today was to go out and get the fixins. He wanted small potatoes, onions, salt, and sausage. He said he had enough boil seasoning. When I took it out of the panrty to put it in the picture, I see that he must have forgotten he used it earlier. A job tomorrow will be to get more "boil".

Check out my other blog, Cheese and Chocolate. I am holding a Pay It Forward challenge. You might want to enter.

Added later...I stand corrected. I didn't look on the pantry floor. He does have enough "boil".

My Library Haul

I know we all heard about my hat yesterday, but today it still about knitting. I thought I would check out the library to see the treasures I could find. I found several knitting books that looked interesting, as well as two Jodi Picoult books I have not read. Woo Hoo...books for me. I love books!

Knitting in the Round

On Saturday, I posted a picture of my first hat. It seems as though I am on a knitting kick, because I could not wait to start another hat. This time I am trying circular needles. At first, I have to admit I was a little worried. As soon as I figured out how to connect the first row to the second one, I was off. I like using these needles. The first pair of needles I bought were 29" long. That was annoying, because it was too much cable connecting the two needles. Yesterday I bought some with 16" cables and I love them so much more. Now of course I didn't read the hat directions all the way through. As I work toward the top and start decreasing stitches (another new first), I will have to switch over to double pointed needles. Those look even more scary, but I know I will triumph over those needles too.

I like the way the hat is turning out. I am using two different types a yarn. One is a regular acrylic yarn and the other is called "eyelash". The eyelash yarn is what gives the hat the fuzzy look. I might need to make me one to wear to an LSU game.

Fluffy Dog

Jasmine is our resident diva. With a house full of females, someone is bound to be. Jas is happy to fill the role. She loves to sleep on fluffy things. Flat does not work for her. We often call her Fluffy, because she is a collie and she loves fluffy. It is funny to watch her shifting around the blankets in her crate to create just the right loft. Sometimes she comes in the computer room with me and tries to fluff up the carpet. We have many discussions about how the carpet does not fluff like she wants. The piece de resistance of her creations is that her head is usually lying on the highest point, like it is her pillow. When she is lying "on the flat", she will find something to lay her head on for her pillow. Tonight my shoes were the pillow. It does not look comfortable to me, but it works for her.

Babies...(horses that is)

In the spring, we like to drive up to Folsom and look at the new foals. Folsom is about 15 miles north of here and has many wonderful horse farms and riding stables. One of the larger farms is on the highway and has the best horse and baby viewing. The foals are so cute. Two of them were jumping and running around. They would play a bit and then stop to graze. The mares just continued eating and pretty much ignored the young characters. Another foal was lying in the grass, enjoying the warm sunlight. I could sit by the side of the road and watch them frolic for hours. It was a great day for baby watching.

The Knitting Bug

Sometimes I go through phases of reading, scrapbooking, or doing some other craft in my spare time. Lately, I have been doing a little bit of knitting. One of Robyn's teachers asked Robyn to teach her how to knit. Mrs. V has some friends who are knitting hats to donate to cancer patients and she wanted to make some as well. I thought it sounded like a fun project for me. As usual, I did a lot of buying of supplies before starting the actual project. Today, I finished my first hat. Those who are knitters can probably see every flaw (and believe me it is flawed), but I was excited it turned out looking like what it was supposed to be...a hat.

Cara is modeling my creation. She likes to have me take pictures of the back of her head (that is a whole other topic). It was fun to make the hat and I already have my yarn ready for the next one. This time, I will attempt to use circular needles. Robyn will try to teach this old dog a new trick.