Son Of Hogzilla

I am very unhappy to report that yesterday evening, the 'Rents and I both spotted what we believe to be the Son of Hogzilla.  He wasn't as big as Hogzilla, but pretty darned close.  

We've stepped up and have our traps in place, in hopes of capturing the varmint. 

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Ugh

I've been feeling pretty crappy since late this afternoon while at work, faithful readers. (And it has nothing to do with being at work.)   I sure hope to high heaven that I'm not getting the wicked stomach bug that's going around.  I didn't want any supper (you know I must be sick) and drank a few glasses of ginger ale and just laid on my bed most of this evening in between painting on four (yes, four) quilt block pictures.  I don't have time to get sick this week.  I simply will not allow it.  I have one person out in my department this week, so I can't stay home.  Plus, I can't be out of commission for a day or two and miss out painting our quilt block pictures.  In the meanwhile, I'm going to get another glass of ginger ale and lay back down.

Welcome To The World

TWIT and I would like to welcome three very special little people into the world -- Keegan, Knox, and Graham all entered into this world yesterday.  They are the new sons of three of my coworkers. 

To Keegan, Knox and Graham -- We all know this world is very cray cray, and our prayers are with you three little guys, that you will grow strong and make your marks in the world.  You have great role models - I work with your daddies and they are some of the best guys around.  I know they will take extra good care of you, and teach you all that they know.  . 

Trivia Update

I am very happy to report that for the past two weeks, Team Divas have come in second place.  Tonight's win was the hardest that we've had since we started playing the Monday night trivia.  But cooler heads prevailed, and we came in second.  It was only because of our final question betting strategy, because we sure as hell didn't know most of tonight's questions. 

Happy Easter

TWIT and I would like to wish you, faithful readers, a very happy Easter.  And in honor of this holiday, here is a link to an awesome song by the one and only Dolly Parton.  As Dolly says, I hope this is a blessing for ya.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbRPWUHM80M

Something You Don't Hear Every Day

"Is she a Christian?"

"No, she's Catholic."  

 

Flashback Friday

My cousin gave me the idea for today's Flashback Friday.  She took her two grandkids to a children's museum this week and on display there in the museum were some old school toys, one of which was the Rockem Sockem Robots. 

She and I had a good laugh about how I would always be the red robot, and she or her brother, or whoever else I could con into playing, would have to be the blue robot.  Some things never change. 

More Patrons Of Our Art

I am very excited to report that we have orders for two more barn art quilt block paintings.  And believe me when I tell you the only reason I'm able to find time to make this blog post is because I'm waiting in between coats of paint on three pictures that we are working on right now. 

This has snowballed and I honestly didn't anticipate this kind of response that we have gotten.  But I'm excited about it, and it's pretty cool being a double business owner. 

A Patron Of Our Art

Here is our latest barn art quilt block picture.  This pattern is the Mariner's Compass, and it was commissioned by my dear friend/coworker/faithful reader SDF and her husband.  This is the actual picture on their mantel.  And I will pat myself on the back and say it looks marvelous.

Welcome, Spring!!

You know it's spring when tonight, we had the first grass cutting of the year. 

I'm very happy to report that our yard looks very nice, and is one of the most well-trimmed yards on our part of the road right now. 

But this is just like when you break the seal when drinking beer; once you first cut, you continue to cut. 

Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Yesterday evening, I stopped at Krogers on the way home from my usual Sunday afternoon visit with Diva Stacy.  Keep in mind this is as usual as my Sunday afternoon visit with Diva Stacy.  But I digress.  While at Krogers, I kept running into a very strange guy.  He had on a hoodie, with the hood tied tightly around his face, almost like the Uni-Bomber.  He was a very nervous guy, and was zipping in and out of the aisle. 

Flash forward to the self-check lines.  The Uni-Bomber Wannabe was in the lane next to me.  I had checked out almost all of my groceries, and picked up the gallon jug of milk from my cart, only to have it drop to the floor.  I was there standing with milk splattered all over me, holding nothing but the handle part of the milk jug while the rest was on the floor.  A second before the jug of milk hit the floor, the Uni-Bomber Wannabe sprang into action, and he was able to catch it, keeping about half of the gallon of milk from hitting the floor.  And as quick as he caught the broken jug, he was there by my side, asking if I was OK, and grabbing some paper towels from the nearby clerk's area to hand to me to soak up some of the milk that had splattered on my coat.  And he even ran back to the dairy section and got me another gallon of milk, too, and put it in the cart for me.  

As I was pushing my grocery cart out to the car, I felt bad for being prejudiced or biased or whatever.  That was a very nice, polite and kind young man, and I prejudged him. He sure made an impression on me.  I hope that I will run into him again at our Krogers, so I can thank him for his kindness.

Thank You, Bonnie Raitt

TWIT and I would like to thank Bonnie Raitt for one hell of a performance last night at the historic Louisville Palace.  I've had the pleasure seeing Bonnie three other times, and this was the best performance by far. 

Thank you, Bonnie, for inspring so many girls and women to play the guitar.  And if you happen to read this, I would love to see you and Nancy Wilson share the stage.

Ohio Valley Weather Update

It's been another cray cray weather week here in the Ohio Valley.  Mid-week, we had the air conditioning on for a day when it was 80, and the next day we had to turn on the furnace when it got cooler.  Tonight, I had on shorts when we went out to supper; high is supposed to be 43. Which means in a few days, it will be back in the 70's.  Stay tuned.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

TWIT would like to wish you, faithful readers, a very happy St. Patrick's Day.  There's still some time left for you to go out and celebrate and even drink some green beer if you want.  If you don't want to, that's fine, too.  It's a beautiful evening here in the 'Ville, and I wish I didn't have painting to do, but mostly, I wish I didn't have to be at work at 5:45 tomorrow morning or else I wouldn't be sitting here at this computer right now.   But I digress.  I'm going to finish my painting, and then I'm going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with some tequila.  Sorry, I don't have any Guinness or Irish whiskey, so tequila and Bud Light will have to do.  I just might pour my Bud Light into a mug along with a tiny drop of green food coloring just to get into the mood.  

Erin Go Bragh!!

The Life Of An Artist

As I type this post, I am in between painting on not one but three barn art quilt blocks.  So far, we've sold 3, and have orders for 3 more, not including a big 3 foot by 3 foot block that we (me) are painting to go on the front of the garage.  So far, I am going to have half of a booth at a big bluegrass music festival in the south end in mid-May (a coworker in the plant has the booth and is graciously going to let me share it with him) and I am in the process of applying for booth space in 5 other festivals.  Our goal is to have at least 20 of the pictures for our first festival booth.  So far, we are on track.  

I never imagined that this would take off as much as it has.  And I am the first to admit that the painting is therapeutic -- just like the adult coloring books.  Once I get past the OCD stage of deciding what colors to use on a block, I'm home free.  

Ohio Valley Weather Update

I know some may doubt me, but I am very happy to report that when I came home from work tonight and opened the French doors into our family room, I was met with air conditioned comfort.  One of the 'Rents flipped the switch today when the temp got to almost 80, and the house is as comfortable as can be. 

I am getting ready to paint on two more of our barn art quilt blocks, and I will be painting tonight in air-conditioned comfort.  

This might be another sign of the Apocalypse. 

Happy Nap Day

In case you didn't know, today is Nap Day.  Everyone is encouraged to take a nap today.  It falls just one day after we "spring forward" to Daylight Savings Time, so I know that everyone is tired from losing an hour of sleep on Saturday night.

It's still early enough this evening for you, faithful readers, to take a nap.  I know I am going to. 

Link Of The Week

I was told that this would be the last weekend that the Girl Scouts would be out in front of the stores and banks selling Girl Scout cookies.  This makes me kinda sad.  But I will say that I did my party in buying a bunch of Do-Si-Do's from them this year.  But I digress.

If you have a stash of Girl Scout cookies at home and are feeling adventurous, here is a website just for you. http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/Documents/CollectionCookieRecipes.pdf .  You can get tons of recipes on things to make with Girl Scout cookies. 

Security Tip Saturday

A year or two ago, I posted a tip on Security Tip Saturday, warning women who take purses into stores to take a moment and use the child seat belt strap on the shopping cart to secure their purses.  Simply put yoru purse in the front compartment of the shopping cart, and put the child seat belt strap through one of the handles on your purse.  Someone would have a hell of a time taking your purse when it is attached to the shopping cart.  

Today, I ran up to Wal-Mart and while I was shopping, I ran into an old family friend, whose daughter and son-in-law are friends with me on Facebook.  While we were chatting and catching up, I noticed that she, too, had the child seat belt strap through her purse handles.  I mentioned it to her and she said that her daughter read it on my TWIT page and on my Facebook page and had told her about it.  

This makes me happy to know that at least one person is reading my security tips and taking them to heart. 

Call The Doctor

It's no secret that I'm going through menopause.  And we all know that pretty much every part of your body gets jacked up during that time.  But I digress.  In addition to aches, pains, weird hormonal changes, etc, I've noticed another strange change in my body recently.  And this bothers me the most.  I've noticed that within the past few months, whenever I eat anything chocolatey, be it M&M's, candy bars, cake, chocolate syrup, etc, I taste a lot of cinnamon in the chocolate.  

A couple of weeks ago when Diva Stacy gave me a jar of her new choco syrup, I gave her a review and told her that it had a strong taste of cinnamon.  She did put cinnamon in it, but not that much.  A few weeks earlier when I ate a Worlds Finest chocolate bar, it tasted like it had cinnamon in it.  And just now when I had some M&M's, they, too tasted like they had cinnamon in them.  

I'm not sure what's going on.

I Could Get Used To This

I'm not going to lie - I could really get used to working from home like a lot of my counterparts do.  I got more accomplished in four hours working from home today than I would have in an entire day in the office.  
And I even had my phone set on call-forwarding.  I didn't get the first problem call.  And when I checked in with my department, they said that it was also an easy day for them.  Yep, I could get real used to this.

Wacky Wednesday

It was a very wacky Wednesday today at work.  Things were crazy from the time I walked into my office this morning until the time I went home this afternoon.  Things are so crazy, that I'm going to be working from home tomorrow.  I'm not going to lie - I'm looking forward to working during the day in shorts and a t-shirt and house shoes. 

Ohio Valley Winter Weather Update

Today's Ohio Valley winter weather update is in the "winter" category in name only, given that we are officially still in winter.  It was 76 today, and supposed to be in the upper 70's for the next few days.  Then it is expected to cool down to just in the low 60's.  This, of course, means that some time in April we will probably get a foot of snow.  I'm just very thankful we are not in Texas or Oklahoma, with all of the severe storms, tornadoes and hail in the forecast.

As I type this, the house is very comfortable.  But believe me when I tell you - if it gets the least bit warm in the next day or two, I will be flipping the switch so I will be able to sleep in cool comfort.

Trivia Update

Team Divas got off to a great start tonight at the trivia contest, encountered a shaky middle round, but managed to come in a strong second place tonight, scoring another gift card for the pizza place.  

In case you want to know, eggs from the sturgeon is the true caviar.

Something You Don't Hear Every Day

We all decided that we wanted Taco Bell for lunch today, so after we got home from church, I dropped off the 'Rents at The Compound and headed up to Taco Bell.  I saw that the drive-thru had a lot of cars in the line, so I parked and went inside.  There was one customer before me, with four family members trying (key word) to place their order).  While I was waiting, behind me in line was a guy that looked to be in his late 30's, along with a guy that looked to be in his late teens.  The 30-something guy was very hacked off that it was taking so long.  Here is the transcript of the conversation that occurred:

30's guy: [insert exasperated noise].  Hahhhhh.  They are just catering to the drive-thru people.  The drive-thru people are just too lazy to come in. 

Me: [after waiting a few minutes for 30's guy to shut the hell up].  Excuse me - I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that you would much rather for the "lazy people" as you call them to get their food from the drive-thru, instead of having drive-thru mothers and fathers have to park their car and bring their hungry kids inside just to get their food to take home."  

30's guy: not another word was spoken about how long it was taking for our order, nor about the drive-through people. 

That's My Story And I'm Sticking To It

My Sweet Mother and I went up to Hobby Lobby this morning at about 11:00, and what normally would have been a less-than-ten-minute trip took about half an hour.  Traffic was bumper to bumper for a couple of miles, with people trying to get into the elementary school to vote for the Republican caucus. 

I am proud to say that I am a Democrat, but I will go on record and say that while I am happy that what will most likely be a record number of Republicans that voted today in the caucus, I have to ask where are they on all of the other elections that we have?   And I will pose this question to not just the Republicans but the Democrats as well.  In the primary elections when just local public servants are elected, voter turn-out is extremely low.  I urge everyone, Democrat, Republican, and any other party you are a member of, to vote every single time you get the chance. You have the opportunity, so use it. 

Being Crafty Again

Here is our latest barn art quilt block pattern, called the Carpenter's Wheel. The Old Man picked out this pattern and the colors, and I have to say he knocked it out of the ball park. 

Stay tuned.  We are currently working on three new patterns. 

Bless You, I mean, Me

I intended to post something else tonight, but while I was sitting here at the computer, I sneezed 16 times.  Yes, 16 times, as counted by The Old Man.  That broke the family record of 13.  I'm not going to push it and just sign off for now and go get some Kleenax. 

Hindsight Sucks

I am very hacked off at myself tonight.  I was busy this weekend with Dad's party and celebrating his Life Day and forgot to get my week's worth of Pick 4 lottery tickets.  And wouldn't you know that my set of numbers were drawn today.  I could be $600 richer right now.  If only. 

Something You Don't See Every Day

While I was driving down Cane Run Road today during lunch, I saw something that you sure don't see every day when that day is March 1: I saw a guy walking to the bus stop wearing flip flops.  He at least had on long pants, as the temps were in the low 50's, and it was pouring rain and the wind was whipping at about 30 miles an hour.  But he was wearing flip flops.  Yep, that is something you don't see every day on March 1.