Unexpected visitors yesterday.

Everyday we break the heat record with another day over 90…record has stood from the early 1900s. And everyday Bill reminds me that for some reason this year it is cooler in Mazatlan than here and they are getting rain.
We had a strange incident yesterday afternoon. A knock on the front door and when I answered it there was a couple standing there. “Is this the Art Studio?” the man asked. “Ummm, yes.” I answered. “Do you let people come in?” “Ummmm let me check with the artist,” was my less than stellar reply. Left them standing there at the door (crap! are they casing the place?) and found Bill (woke him up) and asked him if he wanted to conduct a tour. Things went uphill from there. “Of course, come right in.”

They were from Illinois here on vacation and driving around when they saw the sign out front and stopped. Very interesting and nice couple. So Bill gave them the tour of his area where he works and of the glass shop. The woman is very interested in stained glass – wants to learn how to do it. They spent about an hour visiting with us. But need to get my act together in case it happens again. And guess we should always have some projects partially done so we can show them how the “studio” works.
Today Bill goes down to our little town to put some of his wood spirits and masks up for display (hopefully sale) in the Chateau Thomas Winery. It is a very busy place lots of tourists go there to taste the wine. I'll go with him but maybe in slippers - "foot finger" is really sore today and brusing has gone into toe next to it.
We had chicken burgers for dinner last night – still not sure what I think of them. Should you put ketchup on them? I did. Will try them again but cook them a little different I think.
Watched one of my favorite programs last night – The Closer. Wish I hadn’t. The main characters mother died in her sleep and when they put the camera on her she looked so much like my mom did when we found her dead. ….I’m still a little unsettled this morning. And dreamed about my Mom last night.
While its still cool I need to get some more cleaning done.

The deer did a NO NO

Watched the races over the weekend. Saturday was a disaster for my favorite driver – Kyle Busch. He was driving his own car #54 and it was very, very fast. In fact he lead a whole lot of the race. Then a little mistake, a spin and a bad finish. Been eight weeks of rotten luck for him. And Danica had a good race going until……nasty wreck. Felt bad for her.

Sunday was much better. The #18 was darn good, except for when it was belching black smoke??? What was up with that? But just couldn’t catch the #48 – no one could. All in all a good day for Kyle. Back up to 11 in points but really needs another win to clinch the Chase.
Last couple of days have been rather nice out – low 90s – so far this month – 30 days – 26 have been above 90. Unheard of for Indiana. And more in the forecast – and very little rain coming.
My little toe or “foot finger” as Bill calls them is still fat and purple. It’s okay if I’m barefoot but smarts like the devil if I put a shoe on.
Did get a few things done this a.m. Fun things like paying bills, think I have all the credit card information updated finally, vacuuming the way downstairs – basement, and doing the laundry. Then I spent about ½ hour on the phone with tech support for our Verizon MiFi. It’s been acting up for a few days now. Connects but doesn’t want to let us on the Internet first thing in the morning. I can usually get it working by fooling with it but not this morning. According to tech support, who actually spoke English as a first language, the problem is with something in Indianapolis that was being worked on as we spoke. Seems like there were lots of unhappy calls from this area. It is working like a dream for now.
Oh boy – Bill came in a while ago and was kind of put out with me. I am the one who sprays the plants out front with the Deer Off to keep them away. Well I kind of forgot to do it after the last little rain. Last night they had a feast. This used to be a really full plant. No leaves left.

Now that the damage is done I went out to spray to discourage them from coming back in hopes the plants will regrow. Using a new spray that is a mist instead of a stream of smelly stuff. All went well until I turned towards the front and discover too late that I was spraying into the wind. Guess now the deer won’t come near me. Bill either. Really stinks.

Day of Storms and Cooler Weather

Yesterday started out as a pretty warm day but by evening it was in the mid 60s YAH!

Had to wait for the water company guy to come over “He’ll be there between 8 and noon.” Of course he got here at quarter till noon. So we made sure all faucets, toilets etc were shut off in the house then he checked the meter – NO activity - NO leaks – thank goodness. Just that we have used a lot of water this summer for the plants. It’s nice that they check.
While waiting for him I worked on the computer. Got my new credit card with new expiration date – this is the card I have all the household bills paid on so when we’re traveling I don’t have to worry about them. So had to update all the CC info on each account. Good Lord was that a project. First I had to remember who which wasn’t too hard as I just looked at last months bill. So I go to the first account….username and password. Hummmm Typed it in. “Wrong username or password!” Crap. And so it went –Why does everyone have different rules for your passwords? One was “at least 8 numbers or letters 4 of which have to be letters.” Eventually I remembered them all and got them all changed. All except one who I have to call as they don’t do computer. Life in Brown County.
I cooked the matambre yesterday – Bill says it came out good – I never really cared for it. Any way this is what it looks like. The flank steak is pounded flat them rolled up – inside is hard cooked egg, carrots, onions, peas and seasoning. Used to put fresh spinach in there too but didn’t have any. After cooking for hours you cool it down then slice it.

After it finished cooking we went into town. A storm passed as we were going in. The temps dropped 15 degrees in five minutes. All we got were a few sprinkles and wind.

Did some shopping and when we were on our way home the temps were back up into the mid 90s. About half way home another wave of storms came by catching us on the highway. Lots of wind and rain. And the windshield wiper on Bill’s side – of course – popped off!!!!! Got into our town and pulled under a gas station and he got out and fixed it. But by then the rain had stopped but the temperatures had dropped to 65. All this in a matter of 15 minutes. We continued on home but……TREE DOWN…… a big tree was clear across the road hanging on the power lines. Not good. So had to turn around and go another way home. Good thing there is another way. Lots of leaves and little branches scattered all over.

Oh yes another little thing about yesterday. I dropped one of Bill’s framed masks on my foot and smashed my little toe! And for once I did have shoes on. – Didn’t think it was serious when I did it but by last night it was swelling and bruising. This morning I don’t want to put a shoe on. Whole toe is big and purple. That’s okay gives me a good excuse to watch NASCAR all day. Practice, qualifying, practice, qualifying and a race. Busy day for drivers that drive in both Nationwide and Cup. Kyle’s #54 Nationwide car was fastest in both of the Thursday. Maybe his luck will change this weekend.
Well now the internet isn’t working….been going on and off all morning. Fooled with it and for now it is working so will post this quick! Didn't make it - will try now again! Bye

Why do eyebrows grow so long when you get older?

Ended up running into Columbus yesterday a.m. – picked up our meat from Wal*Mart and got some out of the garden fresh tomatoes from a friend. Yum.

Also got my hair cut really short again. The lady always asks me – you sure you want it that short? Yep. She also trimmed my eyebrows. Why do the white eyebrow hairs grow so long when the brown ones don’t? One of life’s little mysteries I guess.
Stayed cloudy and humid all day. Wild rain up north but not here. Today in the aft we should get some rain or maybe just bad wind. Who knows? Just Indiana weather.
We did find out that our insurance will not cover the Shingles vaccine – how nice. Neither does Medicare – unless you have Part D and we don’t.
I was just looking through all my recipe books looking for my old recipe for matambre – rolled stuffed flank steak. And I found an old recipe I’d cut out of the paper for Fried Pickled Fish. Fried pickled fish???? Why would I ever cut that out and save it? Who would pickle fish and why would anyone then fry it? Not me. Also came across my old Betty Crocker cook book. I’ve had it for over 55 years….
Water company came by yesterday to read the meter and left us a note suggesting we might have a water leak. They are coming back tomorrow morning to help check it out. We’re hoping it’s just cause we used so much water on the plants this past month. Talking to the guy at the water company he said, “Well you must love your plants a lot more than I love mine.” Yes guess we do.
Yesterday morning we had seven deer out back, three of which were fawns. They are so cute. But didn’t get the camera in time – when they hear the porch floor creak they take off.

More School Costs and Shingles Vaccine

Our weekly paper came yesterday one of the articles in it was about back to school which is in a couple of weeks. The list of immunizations sure was long. Never heard of some of them. AND the book rental fees for the different grades. Kindergarten is $132.00 Kindergarteners need to rent $132 worth of books? I don’t remember any books in kindergarten! Here in Brown County if you’re not on the National School Lunch program breakfast is $1.50 and lunch is $2.50 – I continue to be amazed at the costs.

We went to the docs yesterday to find out about the Shingles vaccine – found out we can’t get it at the doctors office, need to get it at Walgreens. No problem – went into Columbus where there is a Walgreens. Found out our insurance whose prescription benefits go through Caremark which is CVS will not cover the vaccine at Walgreens – according to the pharmacist they “may” reimburse us. Cost of vaccine is $220 without insurance. Need to call Caremark today – then got to wondering what it would cost in Mexico? Hummmmmm Maybe I’ll try to get my cousin Jeff who lives in Mexico to look into it for us.
We also stopped in at Wal*Mart to buy some meat to freeze. Their choice steaks (in the black packages) – petit top sirloin – are very good. Small cuts just enough for two for a meal. And of course they didn’t have any on hand. Have to go back today or tomorrow for some.
Checked out the wall – display – space at the Chateau Thomas Winery where Bill is going to hang some of his Wind Spirits and Masks. Looks like it will be a good idea. Very nice place and there is entertainment there weekend nights too. Need a little more information but looks like it is good to go for next month.
It’s very hot out already this morning – never got below 80 last night. Today projected 104 without heat index – humidity is running at 80%. Glad I got some cleaning yesterday morning. Supposed to really rain all over tomorrow and cool down some for the weekend. Hope so – The big Brickyard 400 is this weekend.

Another Muggly day.

It is 8:30 and already over 90 on the back porch – going to be a lovely day. It “might” rain which would be nice, but if it doesn’t it will just be thicker “air you can wear.”

Got Willie fixed yesterday – I had said strut but reread the recall and it was the lower control arm that had to be replaced. Those are what always give problems in NASCAR races. Didn’t know we had them too.
Got a loaner car and went to the Mall in Columbus – what a shock – as we were going in being a smart aleck I said to Bill “We should be able to spend about 10 minutes in there at the four stores.” I think in 5 minutes we’d toured the whole place! At least 80% of the stores were no more. Store after store empty and gated. Book store gone, all four jewelry stores gone, food court closed except for one pizza place. No one in the place exccept the Mall Walkers. Really depressing. We did stop at the Chinese restaurant and have lunch though. Love orange chicken and it was delicious. While eating the car dealer called and said Willie was all fixed waiting for us. By then it was 102 out so we just went to Wal*Mart for groceries and home to hibernate.
Had company later in the evening so spent pleasant time talking about this little town and its quirks. Our company is an extremely talented and interesting woman named Laughing Womyn. http  Love it when she comes by to visit.
Today we might go in town for a little bit to check out the Chateau Winery where Bill might display his Wind Spirits for a month. And maybe I’ll do some cleaning – NOT!

Just odds and ends

Have had a few days of decent weather – but it is heading back up into the high 90s and 100s for the rest of the week. Good thing we might get some rain every day – or even a lot of rain. We’ll wait and see I guess.

Getting so I don’t want to turn the TV on – what are the people of this world becoming? I feel so bad for all the families everywhere who lose people to senseless violence.
When we’ve gone into the markets or stores lately I’ve noticed kiosks with “School Supply List” finally stopped to check them out. I’m sure glad we no longer have five kids in school – couldn’t afford it.
Here is the list for one third grade child for the elementary school here in Nashville: 4 colored folders, 3 spiral notebooks, 2 composition notebooks, 1 pair scissors, 1 pack glue sticks, 4 packs Post-its, 48 pencils, 1 pencil box, 1 pack colored pencils, 1 pack washable markers, 1 large pack erasers, 2 large boxes Kleenex, and 12 USB flash drive at least 4GB. The folders and notebooks have to be certain colors! Is it like this all over the country now?
Didn’t do too much – into town and out for breakfast a few times. This afternoon we take Willie the jeep into have his recall fixed so will have to fool around Columbus a couple of hours. Suppose we could go to the Mall there as it will be hot out.
Watched the Nationwide race this weekend from Chicago – Kyle’s luck has not changed. His car wasn’t real good but he did manage to stay in the top 10 then got hit from behind right before the end of the race. Into the wall – car was destroyed. Hope next week in Indy the black cloud has left.
Later we were watching something on TV and Bill asked me to make a phone call. I dutifully punched the numbers in and wondered why I didn’t get a ring tone. Then I looked down at my hand OMG – I had the remote control to the TV – not the phone. Am I losing my mind????? Bill practically fell on the floor laughing.
This year we have more hummingbirds then we’ve had for a couple of years. Love watching them swooping around.

Yipee More Rain

Sitting here listening to lots of thunder. Don't know if we'll get rain or not but sure hope so. Yesterday we had a downpour - Lots of hard rain and thunder and lightening. Temps dropped about 20 degrees in a matter of minutes. Turn your sound up and listen to the rain and thunder.

After the rain though it got hot again and it was like a steam bath outside. We could see the steam rising off the road and out in the valley.
Got a couple of visitors yesterday - guess they've been waiting for more corn. Glad we went to get some.

Still breaking weather records - not good ones

Trying to get this done before it is too hot to be upstairs. Another couple of days well over 100 here – breaking all kinds of records. Any way…..

Monday we actually had rain – and a pretty good one at that. Our first puddle in months! Pretty bad when that is our exciting event for the day!

And a look across the street through the rain. It was really coming down.

Then the sun popped out while it was still raining.

I looked up hunting for a rainbow but couldn’t see one. So I went through the house to the back to see if I could see one out over the valley. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered we had our own personal rainbow right in our back yard. I was so surprised I didn’t think to go out on the deck so these are both taken through the screen on the back porch.

Then I ran out front to get Bill to come see it – it was fading by the time he got there but still beautiful. And the plants looked a little happier for the rest of the day. Later that night I happened to look out and saw this colorful cloud.

We are starting to get our utility bills for this dry heat wave – The highest we’ve ever gotten while living here – especially the water bill. Guess we’ll let the lawn go and just keep the plants happy. Looking across the street we see lots and lots of very brown leaves on the trees. Sure hope they manage to make it through the year. We have a lot of oaks and they don’t seem too bothered yet. No watering bans here in our town yet. But they are popping up in lots of towns and they have big fines. Yesterday we headed into Columbus early before the worst of the heat. Needed to go to Rural King for corn for the deer and birdseed – can’t not have that! Also out for breakfast and to Wal*Mart of course for this and that. And to get gas as the prices are on the rise here again. Paid $3.31 yesterday at Sam's Club.
By the time we got home around noon it was already very high 90s. During the late afternoon we got lots of dark skies, wind, thunder and lightening but no rain up here – again it around the hills. At least a few of the towns and farms around us got about 1” of rain. Mostly too late for the crops though especially the corn. The state has disaster area classification for the drought already and very little relief in sight.
Bill went down to the Gallery for a few hours on Saturday during the Art Walk. Said it was pretty busy AND – drum rooooll – one of his little flower pins actually SOLD. How exciting! He has to work there a full day on the 28th.
Got a recall on Willie the Jeep – have to take him in next week for something in the back struts?? to be replaced at no charge. It will take a couple of hours to fix so they will give us a loaner car. The man told Bill to be sure to bring his license and proof of insurance. I guess Bill looked at him kind of funny cause the guy added that about 50% of the people wanting loaners either don't bring or don't have one or the other! Hummmmmm Lovely.
Got our weekly paper Tuesday and now the busybodies in town want to enforce the noise ordinance. (This article took up the entire front page and half of an inside page.) Especially for the motorcycles. A lot of motorcycles come into the area every weekend as it is a beautiful area to ride in. Yes some of them are really loud but don't bite the hand that feeds you. And they spend a lot of money here. Sometimes I wonder…..The comments from the instigators were “we want to go back to the peaceful little town we used to be.” You mean dead and dying? – Without the tourists there is nothing here. The same group has already managed to stop the micro brewery from expanding. [that would have been 50 jobs that will go somewhere else] They complain about outdoor music on weekend evenings. Oh well not my business glad we live up here in the hills.

Rainbow

Tuesday -

A quick post and a picture - saw this in our backyard yesterday - our own private rainbow.

Exciting Days - RAIN - Art Walk in Nashville

Saturday the 14th of July

Happy Birthday Paul - our 4th son He is the one on the far left – so many years ago.

Wouldn’t you know – it is finally raining here. Not hard but steady for the last half hour. Sure hope it keeps up. First time in months. We even have puddles on the ground. And wouldn’t you know tonight is the monthly Art Walk in town. And Bill is going to work it for a couple of hours at the Hoosier Artist Gallery. Here is the newspaper article introducing him! How exciting.

But back to the weather – this is longest drought with the highest temperatures since the Dust Bowl days. Most of the crops in the state are gone….It’s not like in the southwest where every field has an irrigation system. Here the farmers depend on the rain – and when there is now it is a disaster. In fact several counties have been declared a disaster area so the farmers can get some help.
The poor trees are really stressing. Without water their leaves dry up and fall off. Our driveway looks like it does in October with all the leaves in it.

Went to an Art Alliance of Brown County meeting the other night. Met a nice and very talented group of people who live and work here in the county. One of the reasons we moved here was because of all the art going on around here.
Into town –real town – yesterday and got me some different colors of polymer clay – having fun working with it. This is one of the necklaces I just finished – the face is clay. So I’m going downstairs, turn on the TV to watch NASCAR qualifying and play with the clay for a while.

Walk around Town

Wednesday

Enjoying the weather – by late afternoon it is up to 90 but I can live with that. We are even getting out of the house a little. Yesterday morning we went into town – Nashville – our little town – population around 900 to drop some cards off at the Hoosier Artist Gallery and the Visitors Center. Then to breakfast at the Hob Nob one of the older buildings in town. It used to be a pharmacy.

Then walked past the old Masonic building – next to the courthouse it is the biggest building in town. Saw an old picture of it the other day and there used to a gas pump in front of it.

Checked out a new shop in town – they sell olive oil in all flavors and balsamic vinegar in lot of different flavors. About $16 a bottle. You can taste everything before buying it. Hope they make a go of it. Nice place.

And saw these metal chickens – love them…Didn’t even check the prices cause I sure don’t need any more stuff. But if they’re still there next time we go by…….

Going into the Hoosier Gallery from the back door I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. Someone has knitted or crotched covers for the pipes. I’ve seen this before in a little town called Yellow Springs in Ohio. Very different. Supposed it keeps them from freezing in winter?

Any way today is the day that Bill’s stuff goes on display at the gallery – exciting.

One that I just finished

Been putting my new bracelets and necklaces on the jewelry web pages. Got the pictures up but none of the descriptions – have to be in blah blah mood to do that.
Guess we're going to take a ride to Bloomington now - nice day for it.

AT Last! Cool Weather

A wonderful day today – going to be below 90 most of day and rest of week. Hooray! It is amazing that through all that horrible weather the inside of the house stayed pretty comfortable. Guess it was built pretty good.

Again we got only a few drops of rain yesterday just enough to smell it on the dirt and rocks. A few miles south of us they got downpours – guess this time the hills worked against us. But by 7:00 it was cool enough to shut off the AC and fans – first time in two weeks. Bill has been out already this morning to water his plants and when he came back in he wasn’t bright red and soaked and didn’t look like he’d been run over like the last few times last week.
I should get off the computer and run right downstairs and pull out the vacuum and get busy. Well maybe in a little bit. Have to pay bills first.
Like I said I’ve been beading like crazy ‘cause it is coolest downstairs where my beading table is. Made several of these – fast, easy and cute bracelets in different colors.

Spent part of yesterday watching reruns of Andy Griffith show – they were cute. Remember watching them with the kids when they were little. Long time ago.

Musing on Rain Clouds Good and Bad

Sunday a.m.

I made a note to myself to mention something that happened at the NASCAR races about a week ago when they were racing in Kentucky – about 80 miles from where we live in Indiana. One of the trackside announcers wanted to show how hot it was there so he put a couple of eggs and slices of bacon on a plate and put them on the track. In no time the eggs were cooked, the bacon was taking longer but before the experiment could be completed that terrible storm blew through the track and blew the food away. So didn’t find out how long it would take the bacon. I should have tried the same thing here during the last couple of days.
Yesterday hit 106 – without heat index- before we GOT RAIN – YES we got rain! All 16 drops of it. Well – really it rained for about five minutes – just enough to turn this place into a real steam bath. Not enough to do any good. But it did cool down to 99…….. And the air conditioner actually shut off about 10 p.m.
Today it’s not supposed to reach 100 – and we might get some rain this afternoon. Sure hope so. Everything down out of the hills is really looking poorly. Brown crunchy grass and drooping plants. Even lots of leaves already drying up and blowing off the trees. Up here in the hilly woods things are still pretty green.
We got the Tri-fold brochures (took me three times to spell that right!) and business cards I made in the mail. Turned out pretty good – pat self on back!

I need to do some cleaning around here but every time I even think about pulling out the vacuum or mop I break out in a sweat – so guess it will wait - next week is supposed to be in the high 80s all week so I’ll put everything on my list for then.
When we go into town we pass a big pasture with four horses in it. It is several acres big with a little stream running through it and one side bordered by the woods with shade. A funny thing for some reason the horses like to stand in one particular spot right next to the fence next to the road. Has to be the hottest part of the whole place. They’ve worn the grass out and now stand around on dusty dirt. Wonder why. Creatures of habit? I remember that we humans are kind of like that too – when I was going to night school I always wanted to sit in the same seat and got upset if someone got there before me and took “my place.” Even now both Bill and I have “our spots” to sit in the house.
There is another pasture with another horse on the same road. She too has favorite spots – in the winter she is near the road in the sun and in the summer she is way back in the furthest corner of the pasture with her back end to everything. But that makes sense as she is in the shade back there.
It’s hot and I have a lot of time to “ponder” on weird things.
I may have fixed the problem with the PC as it has been working great this morning so far – shush – I didn’t mention that. But thanks for the info about the web site – will bookmark it for future reference. Looks interesting.

Watched the races Friday and last night. Friday's Nationwide race was exciting and good racing. Except for Kyle getting wrecked near the end. Last night – the Cup race – was 150 laps of boredom and 10 laps of chaos. Kyle ran a really smart race, stayed up in the top five all of the race – until the last few laps when he was wrecked yet again. Finished 24th sideways and backwards through the grass. That black cloud needs to leave! Anyone remember the guy in Little Abner or was it Alley Oop that had the black cloud always hanging over his head? Looked it up - Joe Btfsplk was a character in the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner by cartoonist Al Capp A small, dark rain cloud perpetually hovers over his head to symbolize his bad luck. Hapless Btfsplk and his ever-present cloud became one of the most iconic images in Li'l Abner.

Hot Hot Hot - and computer problems - Lovely

Just a very short and quick post
Wanted to let everyone know we haven't melted away yet - but today might be the day! Supposed to break an all time record for Indiana for high heat today - 106 or over and thats without the "heat index."  Yesterday was 105. The last eight days it has averaged over 100 - cools down to low 80s at night so AC and fans are running 24/7. Supposed to maybe rain tomorrow a little - and cool down to high 80s - thats cool? But I'll take it.
Bill cannot even go out to water the plants it is so hot. Will have to do so tonight though after the sun goes down.
We went into town yesterday morning as he had to go to orientation for the Hoosier Artist Gallery - it is pretty loosely run......Should be interesting. His first day to work will be the 14th and only a part day with someone else so he gets an idea how it goes. No computers, just notebooks and scrapes of paper with jottings in them.
Anyway - went on into Columbus - whats with the gasoline prices. Day before yesterday they were $3.25 gallon - yesterday up to $3.59????? did something happen??? Went to Menards and just walking from car to store made me dizzy from the heat - crap. Left there and hit Wal*Mart for groceries then home. Glad to get back in the house. Today we are going no where. Wish the race was this afternoon but it is tonight - so long day with nothing on TV - nothing I want to watch anyway. Last nights Nationwide race was pretty good. Wish Danica had of had better luck. She had a mighty fast car. Glad Kurt won - he and owner need it. Kyle wrecked near end. Hope his luck changes soon - like tonight. Will keep my fingers crossed for him.
Writing this on my laptop as something is terribly wrong with my PC - says I have a Torjan but when I scan it it doesn't show up. Scan says everything is fine - no problems. I haven't downloaded anything or opened any unknown mail so don't know what is going on. Might have to end up going to Geek Squad.  
The heat has keep me in the basement a lot so I've been beading like crazy and making some new hand towels on the sewing machine. Made a couple of necklaces - different ones. And we got the brouchers and business cards that I made for FMAS. Turned out pretty good - thank goodness - pulled out half my hair making them.

Just another day.

It is so hot here – What will August and September be like? And I am not look forward to our water or electric bills. Forecast for Sunday is 104 so things aren’t getting any better.

Guess I gave Bill a hard time last night (my snoring) he got up at 5:00 and when I got up at 8:00 he cooked breakfast, ate and went back to bed. And we HAVE to go into town today we’re out of CORN for the deer. Bill said he threw them some bird seed this morning and they gave him dirty looks and stomped their feet at him. Just so they don’t go out front and eat all his plants.
I’ve been downloading a lot of free books from Barnes and Nobel for my Nook. Sure have been reading some strange stuff. One thing I noticed a lot and I do mean a lot of their free books are erotica…..go figure. And vampire and paranormal. Not that desperate yet.
We’ve been having some strange suppers lately as I’ve been trying to use up everything in the freezers before we go shopping at Sam’s Club to replace things. Also thrown out a couple of mystery packages – what was that stuff and why did I think I had to save it in the freezer??? Found a container of lemon juice we squeezed? squose? A couple of years ago – forgot it was even there.
Have you ever tried the Pero Farms Sweet Peppers – they are fresh red, yellow and orange baby peppers in a sealed bag. They are in produce and are really really good. Especially in salads. Wal*Mart carries them but I imagine other markets do too. Much cheaper then buying regular sized peppers and keep longer and taste better.
I’m working on a new necklace – it will be really pretty when it is done. But lots and lots of work and really have to pay attention to it.
Bill is out watering his plants and I'm getting ready to watch Design Star - kind of interesting.

HOT HOT HOT - enough already!

Monday morning – already hot out. Got the laundry started and will get the bills paid in a few. We are in for another week – at least – of temps of 99 to 103. The earliest, longest and hottest days ever on record!! Aren’t we lucky we live here? We have all the ceiling fans running high all day and a floor fan upstairs blowing cool air into the computer room. At least we still have our power and the AC works really good.

The storm that powered through the area on Friday just missed us. We got some of the high winds but we were at the very southern edge of it. So the wind blew and the temps dropped for a while. Guess we lucked out. Usually Brown County looses its power if someone sneezes in the woods.
We did get some rain in the middle of the night but only enough to keep the plants and grass happy for a day or two. I wonder what effect the drought will have on the colors of the leaves in the fall.
Remember my saga with the outdoor lights. Trying to set them to come on and go off automatically. Well I finally gave up – they would either come on or go off – not both. Talked to the manager in the electric dept in Menards and he thought maybe with all the power outages here in the boondocks that the innards of the switches got screwed up. So we ended up buying new switches. After they were installed I happily programmed them. It was so easy – only two short paragraphs on how to do it instead of two pages like the old ones. Yah! It was done. NOT! – They didn’t come on nor did they go off in the morning. How could that be? Am I really that dense? Even Bill was losing faith in me. Then I sat down with a cup of coffee and reread the directions. Yep I did all of that – why weren’t they working? Oh look – one more paragraph to the directions…..and it said – drum roll…..”After programming be sure to set the switches to automatic”……DAH – Well now they work fine. Only took me all of April, May and June to get it done. Ever feel really really stupid?
Every morning when Bill goes out back a couple of deer are waiting for him to throw down some corn. He said this morning one of them was stomping her feet at him to show how impatient she was!
And we finally saw a turkey out back eating. First time this year. Last year we had six or seven of them and babies. Guess they fed someone over the winter.
Its been too hot to go out much so I’ve been watching TV – Times were so different in the 60s – 80s. Much more innocent. Watched “Annie Get Your Gun.” Some great music in it and then “7 Brides for 7 Brothers.” Love the dancing and the colors. In 7 Brides I noticed the girl’s dresses for the first time. Old fashioned of course but they were made using quilting patterns. Really neat.
The next couple of weeks will be busy for Bill (and maybe me.) He has to go to a meeting for the Artist Gallery this Friday and has to work there a full day on the 28th. His stuff will go on display the 11th which is just before this months Art Walk – exciting. Then next week there is the monthly meeting of the Art Alliance of BC. And I put together and ordered business cards and a tri-fold brochure – should get them in a couple of days. He really needs to give me a raise!!!!
The Studio Tour was kind of a bust….for the first time since we have lived here there was no one around us on our road with an open studio. All traffic was routed around the other road. So we had a quiet weekend. But it was worth a try. Isn’t this starting to sound too much like a JOB?!