i have so much

to do.  I really do.  The last week or so has been crazy.  No.  It's been a crazy week on steroids.  Talking about it wears me out.  Typing about it wears me out.  Thinking about it wears me out.  I'll just keep it simple.

Carpet, down.
Honda, in the shop.
Thanksgiving, done.
Pictures, some taken and being edited with more scheduled.
Sinus and allergies, going full speed.

I will say this.  It's chilly and I have meds for sinus/allergy crap.  This means I suddenly think I'll eat soup and drink tea.  I picked up a can of soup at Kroger, along with some of the Kraft macaroni and cheese single serve bowls.  I decided to have mac and cheese for breakfast.

This stuff sucks.  I added butter and even it didn't help.  I don't think I've ever had to stop and not finish a serving of macaroni and cheese.  Looks like I'll try the soup.  On the plus side, I picked up a box of peanut brittle at Tractor Supply and it's okay (considering I'm trying to eat it with my front teeth, avoiding any crowns).

I'm going to take a Benadryl and go through pics before it knocks me out.

has it been a week

yet?  No?  Okay, I'll find a spot to hide and cry.  Not really.  I only cried once and hopefully any and all meltdowns are done.  Really though, it could get ugly today.  Everyone knows how well I handle disorder.  I get frustrated, meltdown and cry.  Today's carpet day.  That means all the furniture from two bedrooms will be in the living room and entry way.  I'm hoping to keep it out of the kitchen because seriously y'all, I need a hiding place.  I need a place to pretend that everything is in order.  My plan is to stay in the kitchen today and work on Thanksgiving sides.  I really hope it all goes as planned.  Have I reminded you that Thanksgiving is in TWO days.  You should see this house.  On top of the work, I've been busy with other things.

There was a Capture Crawl on Saturday but I'll share those pics later, when I have more time... like actually have time to be sitting here.  After the CC I did some senior pictures.  We've all heard about the golden hour?

This light.  Right here.  I had to show the back of camera images right then because the light looked it was straight out of Photoshop.  I'm only showing a part of the picture here because I feel like I should show her first, right?

And by the time we left, this was the sky.  Look at it.  Seriously.  Look. At. It.

Now for a few other details from the past few days:

I wasted my money on something to paint edges.  I opted for the brush and a steady-ish hand. My brush job might not be perfect but it looks a heck of a lot better than this.

It got really cold one night.

Then it was back to flip flops the next day.

We finished painting yesterday.  I took a shower and plopped on the bed that is in the middle of the room... after I saw a few patches on the wall needing touch ups.

ps- I hate finding patches.

And one more thing as for painting goes.  I didn't try to protect the carpet at all.  Do you know that I've made bigger messes when trying to keep it covered?  I swear.  I guess that's how things work though.

Now I'm off to unload a bookcase and strip bedding off the mattresses.  I guess I'll do laundry too.

As you go through your day today, think of me.  Send good vibes, positive energy, prayers or whatever it is you do.  I need it all today.  Also, I'd really appreciate it if you could do it for the next few days as I recover and prep for Thanksgiving.

today is the beginning

of a weekend full of work.  I'm not happy about it but hopefully I'll be happy about it on Wednesday.  They're coming to put the new carpet in on Tuesday so I'm hoping things will be back to normal on Wednesday.  Wait, since I'll be cooking for Thanksgiving and trying to get the tree up, I guess things won't be back to normal until Friday.  Then again, if I don't get the tree up on Wednesday, I'll have to do it on Friday.  Let's just play it safe and say that hopefully I'll be happy about it a week from today, hoping for sooner.  I think that covers it all.

For now let's not think about paint.  Let's think about butterflies.

There was an orange one I tried to get one day (with my camera, not a net) while it was hanging out on the bougainvillea but he left in a hurry.  I managed to get a yellow one the other day.  While it might not be as vibrant as the orange, it was willing to chill for a while so I could get pictures of it.

I felt like I was spying.

Then his friend came to chill too.

Then I went inside to chill.

Now I'm going to chill on my way to Lowe's. 

This weekend's theme: TCB (insert lightning bolt here)

there is a lot

of work to be done before Monday.  I need to get all the little things boxed up and out of the bedrooms.  I need to pull all the furniture away from the walls.  I need to get busy with the painting.  We did finally find a color though.  That was so hard.  Really hard.  We went from gray to blue, back to gray to brown and then ended up somewhere I don't really know where.  We ended up with Shale, I guess that's where we ended up.  It shouldn't be so hard to pick out paint colors.  Here were the final few but it's not even accurate because look at the color of the piece of carpet in each.

Note: while the samples are all satin finish, the finished product will be flat.

Shale is the one on the right.  I think.  Maybe.  If not, it's similar.  And yes, the left and the right are two separate colors.  Maybe that's why this was so hard.  It's all too much alike to have a definite opinion.

I finally got around to baking those cookies yesterday.  They are good but have a weird texture.  They're not dry but they're crumbly.  It's hard to explain or maybe it's hard to understand.  Anyway, they're different than usual but still good.  I looked the recipe up online this morning to see if I did something wrong.  You know, I probably should have done that when the blurry print on the package looked like 1/4 c of brown sugar and 1/4 c of granulated sugar and I doubted that being enough sugar.  I was in a hurry so I didn't check then and just went with it.  As it turns out, that 1/4 c of each is actually 3/4 c of each.  Now I have a batch of chocolate chip cookies with 1/3 of the sugar.  Maybe that's a win?

I was out watering the grass yesterday and had a visitor.

Yuck.  Since he was so tiny and no threat of touching me, I let him go on his merry way.

Speaking of visitors, I had guests for breakfast.  I was looking through pictures on my phone this morning and couldn't remember if I'd shared this one of the dogs.  It was early one morning and I walked around the corner to find them like this.  They snuggle in their cage all the time but the way Archer had his arm around Maggie had to be one of the sweetest things EVER.

I couldn't stand looking back on all the sweetness so after Cosme ate and left, I threw the pan back on the stove and made bacon and eggs for the dogs.

They enjoyed it.

Oh, and why no pictures of the cats lately?  Because Strat is still having issues and they're still in their area of the house.  I'm calling the vet again today to schedule another check.  I'm sure everything is going to come back normal (like last time) so if it's not a behavioral issue, they'll need to look deeper into this investigation.

On a less frustrating note, you know those "buy 10" and get the sale price events I've talked about at Kroger.  They did it again but guess what was one of the items this time.  BUTTER.  I didn't only buy butter but let's just say I should be set for the holidays... hopefully.  I mean look at this receipt.

By the way, I think it was a total of 32 sticks.  I should be good.

I guess I'll go start clearing out the little things from my bedroom now.  I really need a tub or couple of boxes.  I guess I could head to Walmart once the sun comes up but for now I'll pull everything out and leave it in my way.  I figure that way it'll annoy me and I'll be more motivated to get it done.  Crap, I just realized the sun is already up.

Wish me luck.

this morning i went

for a walk and then jumped in the car to run some errands and now I need to start a roast and bake some cookies.

This is me, right now.

I've got to keep going before my motivation gets distracted and leaves me.  That's been happening most afternoons lately.

Oh, this picture was one taken on Friday.  Okay, I'm getting off of this computer before I realize how much I have to do and change my mind.

friday was what

I'll call the beginning of my... project?  Self-given assignment?  I don't know what you'd call it.  I guess project fits best.  It's an idea I had and it's something I want to work on.  Anyway, Friday was the beginning.  From now on, I will try to carry my camera with me as much as possible.  I'm going to have to get used to carrying a bigger purse all the time but I'm really going to give it a shot.

Here's a picture from Friday.

It wasn't what I went for but it's similar and this one was down the road.  By the way, I learned a few new things about cattle and it was really interesting.  And also, I probably couldn't raise them to eat.  I could raise them for somebody else to eat and then, in return, maybe that person could raise a cow for me to eat.  You know, a cow I don't know or have a history with.

On that note, steak sure sounded good so we had dinner in Danbury Friday night.  The place is called Main Street Steakhouse & Bar.  I had a rib eye and Cosme had chicken fried steak.  They sat us at a table in a back room with two other occupied tables.  It was very quiet, close together, awkward and I couldn't take it.  We asked to be moved to the bar where there was more noise and people.  We went to the bar and had dinner.  By the way, they only offer wine and beer but you are welcome to BYOB.  I should also mention that while the restaurant closes around 9:00, there is an after hours menu for anyone sticking around for the nightly entertainment.

Watching Andy Griffith at the bar in Danbury.  That would've been perfect for my new project but guess who didn't have her camera after deciding that morning that she would start carrying her camera with her everywhere?  I will say what my new project is once I get more consistent with it.  I think I even have a name for it.

We both really liked my steak and Cosme's chicken fried steak was good but I would've had them cut the white gravy.  White gravy is definitely not one of my favorite things.  The spinach artichoke dip was good and so was the pecan cobbler, even though it wasn't homemade.

Thanks to that little briefing on Danbury's steakhouse, I'm starving.  I gotta find some breakfast.

that was some

election night.  I didn't plan on watching but Cosme did and when I tried to put my headphones on to ignore whatever story the media wanted us to hear, a map would flash up on the screen so I'd get distracted and see what was going on.  We stayed up until about 11:30 or so... I think.  I left my ringer turned on but down last night.  My phone dinged with a text message at 2:00 from Eric with a screen shot of the election results, then we started texting.  I woke Cosme up to show him the picture and then he turned the tv on.  We fell back asleep for a few more hours and I'll be feeling it shortly.  Cosme already is.

I could go on about how bitter and ugly some people are being on fb but duh... that's obvious and was expected.  Instead, I'm going to talk about the 10 pound bag of potatoes I bought on sale.  It was about $1.50 so I had to get it.  I have no idea how two people can eat 10 pounds of potatoes before they go bad but I'm doing what I can here.

First up is potato soup.  I normally make a half batch of the recipe, using only 2-3 pounds but today I'm making the full 5 pound pot.  Maybe I can freeze some.  Maybe Eric will take some.  Maybe I won't be burned out on potatoes before I have to use the next 5 pounds.  I bought pork chops that I'll probably make tomorrow and I think we'll have baked potatoes with those.  I think I might bake a few more to fry up in bacon grease one morning.  Now to figure out what to do with the remaining three pounds. 

I've also been thinking about photography stuff.  More specifically, I've been thinking about subjects.  I started this thing doing assignments and the first was to take 15-20 pictures of something you love.  Well, nobody ever lets me take their pictures around here and I'm always using the animals but I wanted to think beyond that.  Then I had an idea.  What if it is actually some thing and not a person.  I started thinking and came up with something I really like.  I'm keeping my mouth shut for now, or at least until I know for sure that this might be a thing for me.  If it's something I stick with, I'll have pics here.  If it's something that isn't working for me, I'll probably talk about why and show examples here.  For right now though, I think I might take the first step and call someone who's offered to let me come photograph some stuff on their property.  That's a hint right there.  I haven't talked about it on here but I have in person.  Oh wow.  I'm really excited now.

i think i'll tune out

everything related to politics until at least after Tuesday.  I dread Tuesday.  No matter who wins the election, it'll be ugly.  It'll be ugly on social media, it'll be ugly on the news, it'll be ugly in real life.

So instead of focusing on the ugly things, let's focus on the awesome things like the Dallas Cowboys and apple pie.  To make up for all the bitterness going on around this country, I made up for it yesterday and baked a good ol' American apple pie while watching America's team beat the mess out of Cleveland.

Oh, I had to take Strat back to the vet for another urine test on Friday.  They should call back with those results this morning.  He's on pills until those results come in, and still quarantined to the "cat" room.  If the results come back still showing infection, add a trip to the pet pharmacy to today's to-do list.  The vet also asked that the next time I bring him in to drop him off in his crate (I normally only take it afterwards to bring him home) so they can sedate him.  I guess he is giving them a hard time.  When I picked him up he was growling.  He calmed down once I stuck my fingers in there to let him sniff and rub.

Cosme also let the dogs come in to run around on Saturday.  Guess where they headed.  Really now, guess.

Needless to say, the sheets had to be washed before bedtime.


In the middle of all the animal craziness and me trying not to get sick, I've got a stack of Christmas presents waiting for a tree.  I normally would've had it up but there's been so much other stuff going on.

Now I've got to go get ready and possibly squeeze in a trip to the store before the flooring guy comes to measure at 10:00.  On the bright side, after yesterday's time change, I woke up ahead of the alarm this morning and felt like I was totally caught up on sleep.

an update to

a day of the dogs.  I almost forgot the one where Archer gives me side eye.

You may continue with your day now.

today is a day for the

dogs.  A fb memory came up today that was a picture of Archer.  I thought it was cute and looked out the window to see what the dogs were up to.

Once again, Maggie was standing over Archer.

Clearly, I grabbed my camera and caught it through the window.  After that I put on old clothes and went outside.

It is SO hard to get a picture of Archer.  If he's not barking at me as soon as the camera goes in front of my face, he's trying to jump on me.

I decided to try something different.  I shot from the hip.  The bad thing about that is that sometimes his face isn't in focus

and then sometimes his face will be focused but there's a grill in the way.

 Sometimes I can hurry and sneak a picture when he walks away.

But then it's not long before he opens his mouth... again.  This dog ALWAYS has his mouth open.

Oh, then there are also the times when I just keep clicking, hoping for a closed mouth, and I get closed eyes as well.

 Maggie's a different story.  Sure, she will get excited but she takes to the camera better.  She will actually stand still sometimes.

And sometimes she might give me a head tilt.

And sometimes she'll sit for a different look.

And sometimes she'll look off for a more dramatic moment.

And then Archer will come and think he's helping by cleaning her face.

And then Archer will clean his own face.

And then I'll wait for them to be still and try to get them together but Maggie will shut her eyes.

And then they'll turn their heads away from me.

And then I'll sneak another one from the hip after Archer gets in a new position and it'll be a poor composition, leaving his paws and tail out of the frame.

And then I'll sneak one with the camera at my eye but with his mouth open. 

That's just the way it is with the dogs. 

i haven't been around

for a few days because I've been feeling blah.  Not even blah, more like blgh.  I've been convincing myself I will not get sick.  It started on Halloween.  We had already decided not to do anything.  We'd stayed up late watching the Cowboys WIN on Sunday night and then we figured there wouldn't be very many kids out on a Monday.  I picked up a few bags of candy a few days earlier and figured the less candy I bought, the earlier of a night it would be.  That morning I was fine and looking forward to my early night.  Then noon rolled around and I started seeing costume posts on fb.  That did it.  I took the bait.  I wasn't going to get too elaborate with it.  I figured a couple of red flood lights and a fog machine would work (all left over from our Walking Dead theme).  The only problem was that just after I got it set up, I started feeling a little lousy.  I ate some Airborne gummies and that had to work.  (I should mention I was totally out of Zyrtec and nasal decongestant.)  I pulled myself together at the last minute and painted my face.  I put on one of Dodo's old wigs and ran to the kitchen for several spoonfuls of black frosting.  I went back to the bathroom and just about wet my pants from laughing so hard.

Dodo's wig wasn't really working with my cape and I looked a little more crazed escapee than ghostly vampire.  I couldn't find my straight black wig so I went with the curly and had to tie it back because it was looking a little on the crazy side too.  Then I decided to ditch the cape because the string was totally blocking the "gash" in my neck.  I pulled out the fortune teller shawl and went with it.

I wasn't feeling my setup but stayed on the front porch and stuck with it. 

Then the sun went down.  This was my view.

This was me on the front porch.

I heard different reactions from parents, everything from "this is amazing" to them telling their kids to "just be brave".  It was awesome.

What was even more awesome was the fact I only had two flood lights and a fog machine to put away the next morning, especially since I wasn't feeling the best.  Yesterday I was feeling even worse and finally made it to Walgreens to pick up some Zyrtec.  Between Zyrtec and ibuprofen, I'm feeling much better today... but I won't be for much longer if I don't go take some now.

I'm also thinking about going back to that Wordless Wednesday I did several years ago.  We'll see.  Now I'm getting up while I have Zyrtec on the brain.