Oops!

I forgot yesterday was Wednesday… not so wordless, was it?      

• I also forget to mention yesterday that I had stopped in the Dollar Store this past week.  They were tearing down all the back-to-school stuff and putting up the Christmas merchandise.  I swear, it gets worse and worse every year…

 

• I picked up my truck from the shop today.  If the Check Engine light stays off until Monday, I can get my new inspection sticker.  If it goes back on, then the real fun begins     My prediction:  the light will go back on either tomorrow on my way home from work or Sunday on my way home from church.  We’ll see…

 

• A lady at work brought in a picture of an insect that she had in her yard that she wanted help identifying.  It looked like this:

Pretty distinctive, isn’t it?  The only difference was that bug in her picture didn’t have wings, but still, pretty hard to mix up with something else…

I have a bunch of the Peterson Field Guides, which I use a lot and for the most part, I really love the series.  Except for the insect book.  I haven’t found it to be very useful most times I try to use it.  This wasp – or it’s entire family – wasn’t even mentioned, which is very frustrating.  It’s hard to find something that isn’t there! 

Many entries that are there aren’t very helpful, like this example:

“Some stink bugs are rather plain-colored, brownish or grayish, but many are brightly colored.  Although most of them are plant feeders, some are predaceous.”

Gee, that really narrows things down, doesn’t it?

Don’t get me wrong, I do love the Peterson books – I have a whole bookshelf full of them, most of them very well-worn – I just don’t recommend the insect book!

Oh – BTW, the insect is an Ichneumon wasp, which is a wood boring wasp.  Here’s a video of a live one – sound and everything!  She’s depositing her eggs, but the focus is kind of lost at the end…

 

I Need a Money Tree

News sure has been slow around here and what there is, isn’t great…

• It looks like The Ladies are starting to molt… I’m finding more and more feathers all over the place.  And Nugget has a big one hanging from her butt, but it won’t fall off yet.  I tried getting a good picture, but I think it would be easier nailing jello to a tree…  The Ladies aren’t really looking any different yet, but I’ve seen pictures of chickens that have gone through some really ugly molts.  We’ll see how nasty-looking my Ladies will get 

 

• The Jillmobile is in the shop.  So far, it’s costing me three weeks pay to get it fixed.  I can’t wait to see the total bill tomorrow     If it’s even ready tomorrow.  I guess it’s time to start thinking about looking for a new vehicle.  I don’t know how I’m going to be able to manage a car payment every month…

 

• My tractor is broken, too.  It steers left, but not right and there’s a whole lot of fluid leaking.  I was able to replace the starter myself, but I don’t think that this is something that I can fix.  I need to find a reasonable tractor repair person somewhere - So far I haven’t had any luck…

 

• My chainsaw is starting to act up, too – I’m hoping it’s just a bad fuel mixture 

 

• Boy, it’s hot out 

 

• Here’s an interesting observation from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:

Good News, Bad News

The Jillmobile is due for inspection next month…

The bad news is that it needs new tires and an alignment and the Check Engine light won’t go out.

The good news is that I planned ahead to get the tires and alignment taken care of today.

The bad news is when I went in for my appointment, they said that my tires weren’t in.

The good news is that because of that, they did my alignment for free!  (and my bank account really appreciated that!)

The bad news is that I have to go back tomorrow after work to get the tires put on.

The good news is… well, there is no more good news.  I still have to figure out the Check Engine light thing… maybe I’ll take a ride down to AutoZone and let them run a scan and see what comes up.  I know it’s not the gas cap – I just bought a new one… 

I wish I had a money tree or two in my yard!

150,000

Last week the Jillmobile hit the 150,000 mark.  Whenever my truck hits a milestone, something is always bound to go wrong – and go wrong it did.

Over the weekend, one of the pulleys on the engine broke.  Of course the shop didn’t have the part and had to order it.  Hopefully it will be in tomorrow like they said it would be and I will have my truck back in the afternoon 

I’m figuring that between the repair and the car rental, I’m going to be dishing out about $500.

Yippee! 

Not.

Bullet Monday

• Last week the Jillmobile hit 145,000. I wonder how many more miles I'll be able to get out of her.

• Coming home from work Friday, I saw a raccoon walking around on someone's lawn. It was weird because it was still light outside - I'm not used to seeing raccoons out before dark.

• I started getting ready for winter... the lawn got all cut, probably for the last time this year, I got the snowblower running and my generator is all set to go.

• Getting a two-year-old to cooperate for a picture at a pumpkin farm is impossible.

• I like watching Flipping Out - last week's episode was the funniest ever. I need a Deb in my life. And I need to go to Colorada to see the potato bugs.

• I hate stupid people. A lot.

• I love potato skins. I recently learned how to make my own - which may sound weird to a lot of you, but remember... I'm not a cook - and I can't get enough of them.

• I tried a new project for my chickens - the Cabbage Pinata...

Once they figured it out, they loved it!

• I also got a super-great deal on an outdoor webcam. I was so excited when I got it. Except I can't get it to work. The camera itself works fine, but I can't get it to broadcast. I've tried everything I know how to do... it's so frustrating having the Chicken Cam so near, and yet so far ~sigh~

Good News, Bad News

The good news is, my truck finally passed inspection - yay!

The bad news is, I had to waste a vacation day to get it taken care of - boo.

The good news is, it didn't cost me anything (more) - yay!


The good news is, I got my tractor running - yay!

The bad news is, I couldn't get it moving - boo.

The good news is, I finally got it moving - yay!

The bad news is, it sucked up most of my day and it was too late to hook up the brush hog - boo.


The good news is, I got some pictures of my chickens - yay!

The bad news is, they don't stand still, so it was really hard - boo.

The good news is, I did manage to get a few good ones - yay!









The good news is, I heard from a friend I haven't heard from in a long time - yay!

The bad news is.... well there is no bad news there :)

This, That and the Other Thing

The storm that blew through the area - was it Thursday? - took down half of a tree in my front yard. It pretty much split in half. It's too bad, because it was a nice tree. Fortunately, the part that's left standing, still looks OK - not too weirdly shaped or anything. Now that I'm thinking of it, I should take a couple of pictures of the part that fell down before I get around to cutting it up...

Saturday was a beautiful day - I got *so* much done around the house - it was great.

Sunday's rain messed up my plans for the day.

I made an appointment to have my truck looked at again tomorrow and hopefully pass inspection. Except the Check Engine light went on again on my way home from work today. I can't wait to see how much it's going to cost me now :(

Going back to Saturday - it was the first full day the chickens spent outside. Before that, they have only been out for a few hours at a time - from when I got home from until it got dark. When they came in, they totally zonked. I thought for sure that after spending a *whole* day outside they wouldn't be able to wait to come in sleep.

Nope.

I got them inside, and The Ladies were not happy at all. After a couple of hours of them totally not settling down, back outside they went. They haven't been back inside since. At night I have to make sure that they are in the coop on their perch, but once there, they have been settling in nicely. I still think they are still too little, and it's not warm enough to go outside permanently, but I guess they would know better than me what makes them happy.

I'm kind of bummed tho', because I don't have anything to show on my webcam now. I really liked having it. I am going to see if I can find an affordable wireless webcam somewhere. Hopefully I can and then set up something so The Ladies can be watched outside. I'm crossing my fingers!

And speaking of The Ladies, I finally have names for them. After the tenth person asked me if I named them (which I hadn't) I got together with my sister and she helped figure out names that I'm happy with. I still probably won't use them - they will still be The Ladies to me - but at least they will have names :)

The New Hampshires: Cocoa and Cinnamon
The Cochins: Banana and Nugget
The Red Stars: Pumpkin and Granola

I think that they all fit. Especially Banana.

Harper's Island - The finale is in two weeks. I am sooooo enjoying this show. I'm not a big fan of slasher shows, but there have been so many twists and turns, I can put up with the gore. Every time I thought I had something figured out, I was wrong. I love that. Shows and movies that are easy to figure out just aren't fun. The cliffhangers at the end of each episode have been great, too. I think the writers did a fantastic job with the show - it's going to be a shame to see it come to an end. I wish there were more quality shows like this on TV.

Maddening

Isn't it maddening when you throw red flags and outright warnings to people for *weeks* about a problem and no one does anything to fix it - and then at the twelfth hour all of a sudden everyone wants the problem fixed? And to top it off, *you're* the one that has to fix it? And it would have been *much* easier if you had been given the leave to fix it when the problem first started, but you weren't allowed? ARRRRGGGHHHH. That's all I'm going to say about that.

On the brighter side, I finally got the Jillmobile back today. The repairs cost a lot more than I can afford, but hopefully I'll be set for a while in regards to automotive repairs. I don't need a car payment right now, so I really hope to get a few more years out of my truck.

It's funny how much I take my truck for granted - not just for getting around, but also for the snow. About six inches of snow fell overnight. The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw it this morning was "Will the car make it out of the driveway without me have to clear the snow?". With my truck, I don't worry about the snow until it hits over a foot. Four-wheel drive is a wonderful thing :)

Bad Day

Aside from the fact that my Dad isn't home yet, Christmas was really nice. My sister cooked a really wonderful dinner, as usual (and I made sure I brought home enough leftovers for a change). I think we were all happy with the gifts given and received - I know I was! We all had fun playing games after dinner and presents. We visited Dad in shifts, so that he would have company throughout the day. And then lots of rest and relaxation the next day and catching up on things. It was all a really nice holiday.

Until today.

I don't know what I did to anger The Powers That Be, but they sure didn't like me today.

After waking up late from a good night's sleep and a refreshing shower, I donned some new clothes I got for my birthday and was ready to greet the world.

Except my truck wouldn't start.

AAA was kind enough to tow the truck to my mechanic. Paul said that he would look at it Monday. But in the meantime, I missed a birthday party I was supposed to go to today. I also wanted to visit my Dad and there were some sale items I wanted to pick up. I had plans tomorrow that I'm going to miss out on too. Ugh.

Relegated to the fact that I'm stuck home, I headed out to the mail box - surely there would be some leftover holiday cheer there to make me feel better. Not. I got a bill I wasn't expecting. Ugh.

OK then, I'll just work on some stuff I've been putting off. I know - I'll contact Time Warner and find out why I can't access my web page or any of the stuff that I had uploaded to my 'free space' for the past week. After going back and forth with TW for a good part of the afternoon, it turns out that my migration didn't work when they switched over to their new system. It seems that I've lost everything I had out there. Including the one and only picture of me that I ever liked - it used to be my profile picture. But surely I had backed up that picture somewhere, right? *Right*??? If I did, I have no idea where I put it. And to top it off, it turns out that the web space that TW has to offer me is not FTP friendly. Pictures and sound files that I liked to put there and link to have no home now. I was having fun playing with and learning HTML, and now I can't play around with it like I want to. I am really unhappy with TW right now - for what I pay for high speed internet and web space, this should *never* have been an issue. Ugh.

I gave up trying to accomplish anything today. I made myself a double batch of toffee chip cookies. Toffee chip cookies make everything OK.

No Way

You know, my truck has been running pretty good for most of the year. The past two days, I really needed the Jillmobile to be on it's best behavior so that we could get my trailer loaded and move a bunch of stuff with no issues. Naturally, that wasn't the case. I don't know what's wrong, but the truck is definitely not well. Fortunately we were able to move what we needed to, but I'm still going to have to get her into the shop. If something is going to break down or give me problems, why can't it be at a time when it isn't important? I guess it's just one of those mysteries of my universe.

The past week or so, it seems like I have been constantly on the move. I have watched hardly any TV for over a week and for the past two days I haven't even turned on my computer. If someone would have asked me a month ago if I could possibly do something like that and not go crazy, I would have emphatically said 'No way!'. Amazingly enough, it really hasn't bothered me. Granted, I taped the shows I wanted to watch and had a ton of email to go through when I finally did get around to my computer. I still have a lot of blogs to catch up on too, but the whole scenario is not as horrible as I thought it would have been. Not that I want to make a habit out of letting things pile up, but it's nice to know it's not so bad.