Monthly Archives:November 2006

to quit being a slug.

I have had the last week off work – tomorrow I go back and see what is waiting for me. I’ll have a couple of quiet days to catch up as my boss will be away for a meeting until Wednesday. Of course, she may have filled my box while I was gone.

I had said I would likely use the week off to catch up on house cleaning and laundry and such. Nope – I was a slug – caught up on some daytime napping, I did, I did. Well, I did vacuum and straighten the living room. And, I did a couple of loads of laundry – was pretty well caught up on that anyway.

Today, however, I am working on a couple more loads of laundry. Hubby’s jeans for one load.

It looks like he will be headed off to jury duty on Tuesday – big murder trial. He filled out a questionnairre in October, and then went to the courthouse last week to be questioned. They sent him home with the admonition that they would meet as a group likely on Tuesday. Should be for more questioning though. He hasn’t been outright excused, nor has he been seated for the jury.

A co-worker was excused outright – because of where we work, you see. One of the “perks” to the job. No, not really. It does, however, seem to get us off certain types of cases.

It’ll be a bit of a bummer, though, if he is chosen to sit on the jury. The trial is expected to last a couple of weeks. He just started a job at a school. They go on Christmas break in two weeks – for two weeks. That means he will get little pay for December. Oh, the court will pay him a piddling amount, but it won’t come for about 6 weeks after he has served. $25 a day does NOT pay the bills.

But, it’s our duty and privilege to serve, right? Yeah, right. I thought so, too.

Anyway – I am back out to my chair to snooze through the rest of the football game. You all have a great week, now you, hear?

:moose:

with Santa.

I am THAT kinda gal. I love to visit with and talk with Santa. My Mom used to love Santa, too. She’d look at the many Santa’s around town and coo “oh, now THERE’s a pretty Santa.” And my sister and I would agree with her.

We always loved to see the old gents with real whiskers and the expensive, nicely done suits – something you don’t see a whole lot of anymore. Although, there are a couple of fellas around who have the whiskers in the right color who could pass for twins, you know?

Yesterday I went on the prowl for my weekly interview and decided to find a Soldotna Santa. He was so much fun to speak with and quite in the mood for it, too. I even had my picture taken on his lap.

No . . . 56 (soon to be 57) is NOT too old to sit on Santa’s lap for a photo session! Besides, hubby moose egged me into it. He called it blackmail. I called it fun. As soon as I receive it, I will post a copy so you can see – yes, I promise.

It’ll actually be posted on the Neighbors website along with the article, which will be published Dec. 5th.

Hard to believe that it is nearly a year since I was named the Soldotna Neighbors columnist. I have a printed version of each of my columns – having a bit of trouble finding a scrapbook long enough to fit them without folding, though. I’m sure there must be something out there sized for newspaper clippings.

Today I got to go back and visit this Santa, taking him a copy of the article for his approval. He laughed his way through it and gave it a white-gloved thumbs up. Very cool.

Hope you are having a great weekend – not too stuffed still, are you?

:moose:

Ummmm – delicious smells abound – even though I am not cooking the turkey.

I did cut up and cook down some turkey bones from an older bird – it was a bit freezer burnt, so we thought it not wise to use that bird for the T-giving main course. Nothing wrong with most of it, though, so I have been a busy moosie.

Yummy broth came from that bird – it is being used for noodles and the dressing. Some of the turkey meat will be used in the gravy which will go over the brown butter mashed potatoes.

By the way – if you are at all unsure about how to cook anything today, please leave here immediately and go over to visit CNL at the Purple Porch. She has PICTURES! And, just repeat after her . . . we rinse stuff off – because we don’t know where it’s been!

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And, no, I don’t mean this kind of gremilin.

You may have read about Lola yesterday at Lessa’s. It seems Lola simply wanted to visit her “daddy” for the morning. Nothing wrong that a little pat on the chassis couldn’t cure – right?

And, then this morning my own run-in with gremlins.

I started the car (from inside the front room – gotta love that auto start) before going to get TAT to take him to school. Left it running at his house when I went in to get him – so it was good and warm by the time we left there and got to the school.

Again, I left it running – it is, after all, well below zero this morning – then left to return home. Before I made it to the light (a good city block away from the school) the blower fan just quit! Humpf. I tried turning it off and then turning it back on. No go. I tried turning off the radio (no rhyme or reason here, folks – I was just thinking “blower=electrical . . . radio=electrical . . . maybe overworking electrical???)

No change – the blower was dead. By the time I reached home my hands were beginning to get a tad cold. (gloves? you think I should wear gloves? silly people) So, I am thinking that this car is going to have to go and see the lovely people at the fixit shop.

Again! 

For you see, I have been spending a lot of time lately (well, more than usual for me) at the fixit shop. Back in October I had the tires changed over before a trip to Anchorage. We change from regular street tires to studded street tires in October and back over in March or April (depending on weather). That’s just part of Alaska.

made the trip to the big city – came home the same day. About an hour away from home we discover that the left rear tire is flat . . .F.L.A.T! . . . as in riding on the rim, silly moosie.

We discovered this on pulling back out onto the highway after a refreshment stop. I noticed something was odd (thump, thump, thump . . . that doesn’t sound right, does it?) and pulled over immediately. Hubby and friend run (okay – they did not run – maybe ambled is a better word) back to the store to see if they can find a can of fix it stuff to hold us until we get back home and on to the fixit shop.

No such thing at the (very small) store. But an acquaintance who “just happened” to be there had a can of it in his vehicle. Seems he had noticed the flat as he passed me just before this store, but had a car full of teenaged boys and feared I might be concerned about a car full of men flagging me down. :s Yeah, maybe so.

Anyway – there was enough in the can to get the tire mostly inflated and we set off for home. Hubby has a compressor so he filled the tire the rest of the way – none of the stations we tried on the way into town had air!

Take it to the fixit shop the next week – along with an extra tire we have. (leftover from when a tire blew last year and we were forced to buy TWO to replace it – kept the un-flat tire at that time for such a time as this, I guess). They switch the tire over – and then we make an appointment to have the oil changed and the brakes replaced (sigh – they began to squeal right after the tire change).

Can you see where this is going? The last time was time number THREE the saturn had gone to the fixit shop in less than a month.

Then Monday, hubby moose notices that the same (!!!) tire is flatter than it should be. Something is wrong with this picture. Did they really change the “fix a flat-ted” tire the last time?

Off I go to the fixit shop – time number FOUR – and ask them to take the tire off, make sure they had changed the right one the last time - if there is no fix a flat in there, you all changed the wrong one! I said in what could probably be considered a snarky voice.

And then I settled in with my knitting to wait.

Verdict in – yes, they had changed the right tire (no fix a flat inside the tire). Apparently they had weakened or stressed the valve stem and that was the cause of the leak. (in actuality – that probably happened when they changed the tires over and was the reason the tire went flat on the trip home from Anchorage.) They changed the valve stem and didn’t charge me. Thanks, guys.

So, as you can imagine, all of this was going through my head when the fan quit running this morning.

What’s the matter, car, do you want to pull a Lola on me? Do you need to go and have your chassis caressed, too? Okay – but you have got to let me get a shower, first. Then we can go see the guys at the fixit shop.

Pulled into the driveway – put it into park – and then I turned the fan on once more – just to make sure it was not working you know?

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