Where Have I Been? Anyone Interested?

Well, I'll tell you anyway.  It's been almost a month since my last post.  What has been happening here?  First, let me tell you, I had a birthday.  A BIG one!  I'll let you try and guess which one from the pictures. 

It was a nice day with all of my family gathered.  It also happened to be Easter Sunday.  So, we did the Easter Egg hunt for all the little ones, and we also had wonderful Mexican food from a local restaurant.  My dear BB and my daughter catered the event since I told everyone I wasn't doing anything that day like cooking, cleaning, or doing ANYTHING.  It was my day off.   Don't I look like I'm having fun?

And for presents, each person brought a memory gift and explained the memory to everyone else as I opened them.  It was very touching that each person had such a great memory of something to share of me.  Here's a list of the particular memories:

1)  A cherished 1970 Chevy Nova and Black Sabbath (I LOVED that car!)
2)  A can of hairspray, some matches, and a fireplace incident (911 was called.... nuff said!)
3)  Some bits of lace for a pair of jeans  (My dear Mother's idea..... not a good one!)
4)  A couple jars of sand and a sandbox (this was a new memory for me! )
5)  A pair of shearing scissors and a wall  (sister, sister.....tried to kill me!)
6)  A box of Kleenex and a tissue stuck up a nose (there's a picture somewhere of this one!)

Now I got your interest huh?  Someday I might tell all my secrets, or maybe not.  It was a glorious day and I was happy all the way to the end.   Even after SOMEONE, who shall remain nameless (daughter!) thought it would be a hoot to smash my face in the cake!

What else have I been doing?  Well, not getting on the internet much since Hughes.net has been giving me NO SERVICE, or at best, very SPORADIC SERVICE.  Frustrating as hell.  I've called for a technician to come out and check our satellite dish settings because it's possible our dish got disturbed from its setting a little during Hurricane Ike in 2008.  And then all the high winds we've had this past winter and into Spring may have contributed too.  But, whatever it is, I hope it get's fixed soon.  I'm lost without the internet.  I have been using my iPhone to check blogs, but it isn't like I can use the phone to do postings on my blog.... that would take like, forever!  So, if I haven't left you comments on your blogs, that's why.  I can usually view pretty good, but writing comments and stuff isn't the greatest with my phone.  I decided to try and post today since I seemed to have a window of opportunity.  I get service, then I don't get service... then I get service, then I don't get service.....  frustrating.....Hughes.net customer service is not very prompt.  I'm still waiting..... are you reading this Hughes.net?  I'm about to switch providers if I don't get this problem fixed pronto!

I had a little accident with the truck too.  I was transporting an antique armoire, dresser, and triple dresser with mirror that I had won at an auction the night before.  Well, I did fine all the way home with it (over an hour's drive with stiff winds and lots of knuckle busting holding onto the steering wheel).  I was tired once I arrived home and decided to back the truck up to the carport for easier unloading.... I neglected to remember how tall the armoire was and heard an awful sound.  Yep, I backed up to far and rammed the armoire into the top of the carport hard enough for the armoire to tilt backwards on top of the truck cab.  Which in turn put enough pressure against the back window of the cab and it promptly shattered.  Oh man, was I in trouble.  Really didn't need to have to put out the money to replace the rear window.  But, no choice in the matter and a couple days later it was fixed.  It didn't turn out to be as expensive as I thought it would be though. I did put a noticeable dent in the top of the cab, and that will serve as a reminder of the stupid thing I did, because it's not getting fixed any time soon.  Lesson learned.... don't drive when you're tired.  Or at least don't back up to the carport when you have a large, tall item in the bed of the truck.  Believe it or not, the armoire only had a minor scratch on it! 

I also have discovered that I have mice in my house.  Yuck!  Our pest service is trying to help us with this little problem by leaving glue traps in various places sprinkled with pheromones to attrack the little buggers.  I have caught one!  Our cats have caught a little, teeny, tiny baby one.   I have heard little scratching noises in a couple of different places in the wall.  The cats sit and stare at the wall, and occasionally swipe at it like they can reach through the wall and get at the mice.  I don't like having mice in my house.  I realize I live in the country and there are mice, but please stay out of my house!   I plugged up any and all holes with steel wool that might have allowed the mice to gain entrance into our house.  So now it's just a matter of getting the ones inside to come out to the traps.  Hopefully that will solve the problem.  If not, there's always the SNAKE that I found on my screened in back porch.  EEEKKK!  I open the door to step out, and there's a snake.  Not a poisonous one, but still..... I'm sure it was following the mice scent.  My little dog Pickle went ballistic on the snake, but alas, it got away.  Pickle is a Westie, so he should have had that darn snake!  Terriers are great at that kind of thing, and it wasn't a lack of trying on his part.  But the snake was faster and squeezed out a little hole in the side of the porch..... I tried to get the door open quickly so Pickle could get out to round up the snake, but it slithered under the A/C concrete slab before Pickle got to it.  I haven't seen it again, since I plugged up that hole with steel wool too!

Oh yeah, and in the middle of all of the above, I got sick.  Like flu sick.  And I'm still trying to recover.  Still have a cough, and lots of sinus stuff going on.  I was down for the count most of 2 weeks with this stuff.  I think I'll survive but I really felt like 2 tons of dog poo and didn't really want to do anything... except water my garden and feed the animals... those things I absolutely HAVE to do no matter what.

Tomorrow I'm off to Las Vegas, and then driving to Kanab, Utah with my Mom.  We are volunteering at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for a couple of days.  I hope to do a post about that when I return, IF I have internet service restored properly.... keep your fingers crossed.

Have a good day all!