Recuperation Day

I think we spent most of the day recuperating from getting the new dishwasher in place and connected...

Not that we didn't do some other things. Bob put his tools away. A door to cabinet next to the dishwasher needs to  be put back on. Bob took it off so that he could get the electrical, water and drain fittings.

It seems like every time he sat in the recliner he fell asleep and snored mightily. 

Took Jack ( gray striped elder cat) to the vet for his 6 month check up...Jack is old ( almost 20) and scruffy and sleeps a lot  but the vet says he is as expected but fine. Tonight Jack is very irritable -his shots hurt.

I read... worked on a bear.. dyed some fabric for another bear.. and cut out another bear.. Dinner was an easy peasy one - french toast, bacon and applesauce.

While Bob was at the vet I had a young man at the door. He was from Direct TV and seemed to want my neighbors on both sides. We don't have Direct TV and when he heard that he went into talking about how expensive it is. I told him we had Comcast/Xfinity and he wanted to know how much that cost. I'm sure he wanted to tell me that Direct TV was cheaper because he looked so disappointed when I told him I don't pay the bills so have no idea what it costs...picture him slowly going down our front steps and having to decide what to do next!!

 Bob is getting ready to run the dishwasher... still learning the new machine's ins and outs. 

Severe storm forecast

All of the weather news led to a very interesting day...Decided to grocery shop early just in case everyone else had the same idea!  It wasn't too bad but don't know what it was like later on.

After I put the groceries away Bob and I decided to make sure the deck  and grill were ready for the super high winds that were predicted... stacked chairs, turned tables upside down and so on.

Then we heard on Facebook that the school districts around us were closing early - lunchtime - and busing kids home. Then my teacher/daughter called to tell us her district was doing the same thing and she'd leave after the kids were on the bus..

Around 3.30 I decided to take a look at the weather channel to see what they were saying... Yes severe weather was on its way and was already  in Iowa, Wisconsin and northern Illinois.  

Then moved to the local tv stations. The weather people and their maps and radar were already on!!  Severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings, hail, heavy rain and high winds were on their way..

So prepared to go into our safe area...water, cell phones, my purse, his wallet, shoes... a sweater because the basement can be cold! By the time things had calmed down ( after 6pm) we did have thunder and lightening, sporadic heavy rain but nothing else. Some areas did have more and there was one tornado and loads of flooding...

Time to turn the tv off and have tunafish sandwiches and leftover potato salad... an easy peasy dinner  just in case! 

busy all day

 It seems like we were busy all day...first it was a trip to Target  for pills and cleaning supplies. Then to Ace Hardware to return plumbing supplies ( dishwasher stuff).

Home to work on getting the new dishwasher in  and I  washed dishes by hand...

Bob decided to paint the inside of the cabinet where the new dishwasher will go... found a new can of Kilz paint in the garage but no paint brushes. He must have left his stash of brushes at out daughter's house. So off he went to Ace again for brushes... then filled the car's gas tank and went to the library to return books and pick up more that were on hold...

Then it was time to paint...he struggled mightily on the floor ... I became his gofer...but  he managed and then figured out how to get up. Not much fun being old - Bob turns 85 on the first!

BTW both daughters think Bob should have had the dishwasher installed... but he is sure he can do it! And I don't think it was the cost...he just doesn't want to give up doing what he's always done!

In the midst of all that I chopped onions, celery and  shallots. Boiled thin skinned  potatoes for the first potato salad of the spring/summer season!! It was a success! More dishes to wash.

Bob and I have been struggling with my cell phone... something strange about storage.. It doesn't want to do things.  It is old -- 10 years old . Both daughters and a quilting friend think I should get a new one..we'll see.

 

Dishwasher..

Bob, with a little help from me, disconnected the old dishwasher and get it ready to be taken away. The new one has  arrived . Bob has a few things he wants to do before he puts the new one in place and connects the electricity and water and drain.  So dishes by hand for a bit!

This morning was gray and drab and it looked like rain... but it looks great now and the temperature has reached 81F !

The NY Times post cards are gone!!

Now the delivery men are gone.. the cats can be released and the furniture  we moved so they could bring the dishwasher in  can be put back!

Then severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches popped up on the TV....We ended up being lucky... just rain! Hail was nearby as was a tornado...

 

 

 

New dishwasher

Our ordered dishwasher arrives tomorrow! Hooray.... sometime after 3pm. Bob will disconnect the old one so they can take it way!!

Today hit a high ...87 degrees!! Tigger , the orange cat, is finding this difficult. He wasn't hungry at dinner time and spent  the time next to me on the table. Not crazy about that but he did seem very unhappy.

My teacher/daughter took her youngest Code students on a field trip today... Burr Oaks. One of Missouri 's Dept of Conservation sites. They offer a free program for students... geared to age etc. The kids had a ball..seeing toads, box turtles, snakes and so on. My daughter was delighted to hear her students praised for their good manners  and great questions...and for their cleaning up after eating lunch outside.

The field  trip  school bus drove past my daughter's grammar school... the kids were so excited when she told them!! 

Trip to the PO ,,, and so on

After doing all the usual morning stuff like getting dressed, emptying the dishwasher and breakfast we loaded up the car with the few bear boxes and the Priority Mail no longer used boxes. Ans headed out to the PO.

Lots of street construction going on... new gutters and sidewalks. But the traffic was surprisingly light.

There are still some Priority Mail boxes and the attic... so I will put them in our IKEA blue bags and bring them done... ready for another trip to the PO. Did this plus rearranged the ULine boxes I use  for  USPS Ground Advantage.

Keep your eyes on spam calls you receive... there seems to be an increase in them recently .. 

LATER... 

We just had a bunch on nasty thunderstorms ..plus just over the border into Kansas , they had three tornadoes! We were on a tornado watch..so we prepared. Turned off the computers... kept a watchful eye on radar... listened for sirens. If they had gone off we would have grabbed our cells, kindles and bottles of watch and headed downstairs to our "safe spot".  But everything sort of petered out!

Remember the 100 postcards Bob and I filled out?  They have to go out into the mailbox on Wednesday! Wonder what out mailperson will think of that! 

 

 

Tax time... etc

 Yes... Bob finished our taxes - done and submitted... and last night we took care of the annuity I have which makes money from my bear profits. Its a KEO (?) with Knights of Columbus.Its not huge but it's been fun watching it grow...

Looks like today will be cool and occasionally wet. My lilac bush just below the windows of our computer room  is covered with blooms! If I opened the windows I could smell them!!

When I was at the PO yesterday I asked one of the clerks what we could do with all the Priority Mail boxes we no longer use. USPS now has  Ground Advantage . It's cheaper and still has all the Priority Mail advantages.. Only thing, We have to provide the box and can't use theirs. So ... what to do with theirs. I was told I could bring them there...So I spent time lugging down boxes from where we stored them... the attic.

Another trip to the PO tomorrow.

It was wet off and on all day and after I de-cluttered the boxes I worked on a bear. I also de-cluttered the refrigerator by serving leftovers for dinner.. chili, pasta salad, asparagus and fruited jello!!  

Sorry for the mailperson

Bob felt sorry for the mailperson...he would have to make multiple trips to pick up my boxes and put them into his vehicle. So we went to the PO and dropped them off instead.

Decided to drop off our glass recycle items on the way... There is a Ripple Glass container next to our grocery store... glass only. The crushed glass goes to local beer and liquor distilleries for their bottles.

More bears to box up...

Our local Saturday farmer's market opened this morning for the season. Our daughter went... we will go next Saturday.  

Watching

 I have been spending the day watching for sales from the online bear show... and then boxing the sold ones up and making them ready for our mailperson to pick up tomorrow. Thank goodness for the USPS "Click and ship" labels! And thank goodness for a mailperson who is willing  to get out of his vehicle and come to our front steps for the boxes!

In between this I have been getting the ingredients ready for a new dinner recipe... a creamy chicken,mushroom,pasta etc. dish... The recipe calls for lots of everything which means leftovers! If it works out.. I will figure out a way to halve things next time.  Bob gave it a two thumbs up..

.We ate our dinner in our recliners in front of the TV...didn't want to miss any of the Artemis splash down. Tried the NGeo one first. It was too much ( CBS News was its partner) so we switched to CNN which was better. We enjoyed the guests ( former astronauts) who added their experiences to the talk.  

Bob finished our taxes! Yay! He had to print out the whole thing( lots and lots of pages) for Missouri and put it in the mailbox. Federal can be uploaded online.... much easier...

 

 

Round errand trip again

After Bob received a text yesterday from Target's CVS pharmacy we decided to head out this morning...First to pickup my prescriptions from Target...Next to the library to return books . Then to our Neighborhood WalMart to pickup things on our list!!  I think I have finally mastered the new layout .. remodeling leads to confusion. Bob told the checkout person that now we have it figured out WalMart can remodel anew. Not sure if she thought that was funny!

The fresh produce was great.. green beans, shallots, cutie oranges, bananas, spinach! 

Worked on my newest bear and finished the book I was reading... Temperature has been great..windy though.. it's still 72 F. There is weatherman talk of a storm tonight and tomorrow.Maps show a possibility of the storm going north of us which would be  nice!

Tomorrow I will be hovering at the computer. The online bear show starts at 10am and runs till Monday at 5pm. 

Keeping busy

After a not so great night's sleep I  decided to keep busy... even so I dropped off to sleep several times. 

Found some smaller leftover pieces of mohair... a creamy off-white and a slightly darker piece .Cut out my baby bear pattern and started working on it. 

I had finished the icey pink mohair bear yesterday and today I made a collar from a scrap of embroidered cotton fabric.

Read  a bit...and made a new sweet potato recipe for dinner. I used two huge sweet potatoes... next time I'll buy smaller ones and not use so many!!  LOL

Bob thinks our taxes are finished... he's reviewed them several times.. still not quite ready to submit them!

 

 

Asparagus

 Called the asparagus grower at 9 to see if he had some!! He did, so Bob and I put on our shoes and headed out. He is in Bates City... about 20 minutes away.

I-70 is in the midst of being widened both East and West and as we drove to Bates City there were many many workers hard at it. The huge machine that lays three lanes of concrete  at once was going to be at work shortly.

 MoDOT demolished a bridge over I-70 and there were workers on the new replacement bridge looking like they needed safety harnesses to me!

So an interesting and successful errand! 

Texted my daughter that I had asparagus...she is excited...hope she'll stop by on her way home from school.

When we returned home Bob went back to work on our taxes... 

Happy Easter

 Today has been filled and we were busy. Our grand-son-in-law is converting from Mormon to Roman Catholic and was baptized last night during the Easter Vigil! This morning he had a shift on line ... picketing! He works at Lake City where they make bullets etc and his Union has gone on strike.

But he and our grand daughter made it to our Easter get together! Our grandson had to work a 9 hour shift so he wasn't there. ( His Mother - my daughter - did put together a plate full of food to be reheated when he gets home).

We all enjoyed the white hot dogs from Rochester's Schweigle, lots of deviled eggs, baked beans, carrot salad, potato salad and Easter candy!! Not much for left overs!! Bob did the  grilling !

After eating we sat outside on the deck... our daughter has an app on her phone for recognizing birds through their songs... so we had robins, blue jays, hawks, vultures... and more. 

Bob and I put the deck cushions away since the weatherman is talking rain or snow tomorrow night! Yuck!! But a sign of spring... the local vegetable farmer person mentioned on FaceBook that he has asparagus.. $3.00/lb. Will call tomorrow and find out if he has some!! Love really fresh veggies!

Birthday

 Today I reached 81... oh well... could be worse!!

We went to our Price Chopper to pick up the last few things for tomorrow. Bob went to Ace next door for Terro ( we had ants yesterday). We went early thinking things would be crowded. It wasn't!

Later... my younger daughter and her family stopped by.... birthday card, home made English muffins and home grown yellow grape tomatoes and a resin window hanging. Independence was having its 1st  Saturday of the month farmer's market ...I don't need stuff so this was great. The tomatoes are to die for...hot house grown.

We all sat around and talked... Our grandson works today and tomorrow so won't be able to come for Easter.. I'll make sure he gets some stuff. I think he is eager to try the white hots I ordered from Rochester, NY.

Boiled eggs and peeled them... will devil them tomorrow... think we are all set for tomorrow

Costco trip

 One of my hearing aids doesn't seem to be working. I replaced the battery with two new ones.. still a problem. I bought them through Costco, so called the hearing center and have an appointment for 4 this afternoon. It won't surprise me if it's "broken" because they are over 4 years old...

Made it to Costco for my appointment. Boy was it crowded! I'm glad we weren't going to need the check out aisles! The hearing aid person decided that the problem was wax and cleaned the unit. It seems  fine but he told me to call if it didn't continue to work!

Afterwards we were blocked into  our parking spot... cars waiting to find a spot to park in were lined up behind us! 

I expect tomorrow will be just as bad! 

 

 

cool wet gray day

 I woke today to a cold wet gray day... the kind of day that vegging out seems to cry for.

So I started with reading and working on another bear! I even spent some time on MNSNow... We haven't been watching must TV news lately... too upsetting.

Our daughter is having trouble with her washing machine... something to do with the tub's balance so Bob is off to see what needs to be done. They both watched a UTube video and think it won't be too bad to fix.

He fixed it... found the tub had shifted when the machine was moved. After he moved it to where the tub belonged... it worked. They ran two loads just to be sure!! 

 

Rain... cooler..foggy

It rained last night... not a lot but things were wet. It was also cooler and later in the day it became foggy. Supposedly we will have more tomorrow.

I went grocery  shopping and Bob tagged along. I think I have everything for Sunday's get together. 

The off to the library to pick up Bob's "hold" items... when we got home Bob settled down with our taxes... again... It would help if things didn't change annually. I puttered around.. 

Dinner was another new recipe... ground chicken burgers with spinach and feta. They were great!! Green salad on the side...