Home / Blogs / dooley's Blog / April 2008 /

Picnics

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:46 pm

---

Yesterday, we went down to Lake Pleasant for a picnic with Wannabe and my next younger sister, Maxine. But, it turned out that Maxine couldn't come because her husband, Ed wasn't feeling well. There was Wannabe, dr and myself, Dan and Laurel and Avery, and two of Maxine's daughters, Sharon and Laura and their families and later Maxine's son Eddie and his wife. So there were about 20 people there for most of the time. dr and I went down early because the picnic ramada's are on a first come basis and you need to get there early or there aren't any left. There are quite a few ramada's with only one picnic table but we wanted a larger one with four tables. We found one but it wasn't right on the lake. There was a path down to the lake but I didn't go down to the lake. The path was quite a bit steeper and rockier than I wanted to do. Wannabe didn't want to go down either. But, the kids ran up and down the path and weren't even puffing and out of breath. I told one of them she wasn't doing it right. She is twelve. She came running up the path. I told her, "Rachel, you didn't do that right." She asked me why. I told her she should be all out of breath and puffing after running up that path. She just grinned at me. Her mom says she's planning on running a triathlon this summer. I suppose at twelve I could run like that, too. Some of the kids went swimming but I thought it was a bit cold for it. I didn't even take my long sleeve shirt off. Most of the people were wearing shorts and t-shirts. But, I am usually cold. I am not a winter person at all. It was a bit windy and we had to anchor things with rocks. The kids thought that was great fun and brought more rocks than ten picnics could use. We talked, the kids swam and played and some people took pictures. I had the camera but didn't take many pictures. I took my binoculars but there weren't too many birds to watch. The kids had fun using them to watch the boats. So, all in all we had a good day. We left and come home about 4 pm. It takes a good hour to get up the hill from there. I was tired and we just had a sandwich for supper. I did take a couple of pictures but not great ones for sure. I was hurrying because talking was a priority yesterday. dooley

a sailboat


kids headed down to the lake



a cactus on the hillside


and packing up after the picnic.


This blog entry has been viewed 759 times

---

Saturdays

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:53 am

---

Saturdays here begin much earlier than the other days of the week. I normally get up around 8 am since I work evenings and get home around 9:30 I tend to stay up later and sleep later. With daylight coming earlier now, I do wake up earlier some days.
But, Fridays and Saturdays start at 6:00 am. The buzz of the alarm clock wakes us those days. Fridays are our yard sale days and Saturdays we work. I work at the library from 8 to 3:30 and dr goes to sell at the flea market.
So, this morning I woke up to the buzz of the alarm clock. I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. After I dressed I went into the kitchen and put the tea kettle on to boil water for tea. I dragged out the bread, cheese and meat for our sandwiches. I pack one insulated bag for me and one for dr. Sandwich, chips(100 calorie paks) a tangerine and bottles of water. Today instead of cooking oatmeal or scrambled eggs dr said we would stop at McDonald's on the way to work. So, I had time to check on the Stew before we left. I took my tea along. I usually take hot tea but today I had iced tea in a travel cup. We stopped at ate and dr delivered me to the library. He went on to the flea market.
It wasn't a busy day at the library. I helped check in the morning drop box and did our holds list and shelved books. Then, I took our missing book list and went out into the stacks to look for books that have been missing for more than 3 months. These are books that the computer says are checked in but no one can find them. The list had about 50 to 60 books on it. I found ten of them today. I found more on the adult side than I found on the kids side. Kids take books off the shelf, look at the cover and the pictures and stick them back on the shelf anywhere that is handy, never back where they belong. So missing books are harder to find in the kids side of the library. After lunch, I did the afternoon holds list and helped with the afternoon drop box and shelved books. I started on the trace list. These are books that haven't been gone long enough to be on the missing list but we still can't find them. I only had the front page started when it was time to go home but I did find 3 of the items.
dr came to pick me up. He said it was really windy out today and it was still windy because I had trouble getting the truck door to stay open long enough for me to get in. Of course, there wasn't much room for me to get in. dr seems to have brought more home than he took and he still made money. He bought a lot of tools and fishing tackle and tackle boxes from a man who was next to him. The man didn't want to take the stuff home with him. Now, that stack is in the dining room waiting to be sorted and boxed up for him to take back next week.
About the first thing I did when I got home was say hello to Chance and chase a cat out of the wood shed for her. She's not allowed out in that part of the yard.
I made an apple/raisin coffee cake to take for breakfast in the morning. We are going on a picnic to Lake Pleasant. That's down the hill toward Phoenix. I posted some pictures from there earlier this year. Wannabe is staying in Phoenix with my sister but with me working we only have Sunday's to visit with them. We went into Phoenix last week but this week everyone is going to a picnic at Lake Pleasant. We're all chipping in for Kentucky Fried Chicken and then bringing something for potluck. There will be Wannabe, my sister Maxine and her husband Ed and two of her daughters and their families and dr and I and Dan and Laurel and maybe Laurel's kids. Dan didn't think the kids were going to come but today he said Avery was coming and maybe Tim if he didn't go to his father's house.
Now, on Thursday I called the park to see about the covered ramadas. They can't be reserved but are on a first come basis. I asked the man how early you had to be there to get a ramada. He said if we were there by 10 we should be okay. So, I called the sisters in Phoenix. Well, it turns out that they didn't think that anybody could get there that early. They have kids? So, us who live farther away will get up early again and drive down to the lake and camp out at a ramada with picnic tables until someone decides it's time for a picnic. I have to turn my cell phone on so they can call to find out where we found a ramada.
So, after making the coffee cake to take along for our breakfast, I made two large pitches of extra strong tea that I can put in an insulated jug with ice for tomorrow. I made a huge bowl of potato salad to pack in ice for lunch. I packed up paper plates, two sizes and plastic eating utensils. I found two pairs of binoculars for bird watching or whatever else we see that we want to watch. I packed the camera. dr packed a metal folding table and a small kids size picnic table and several lawn type chairs, folding variety. I forgot, I wanted to pack some table cloths. I will go and do that in a few minutes. Then, after all this I made supper which consisted of soup from a box that we bought at Trader Joe's. It sets on the pantry shelf until you are ready to heat and serve it. This one was roasted red pepper and tomato. We had a sub sandwich with it. Chance had chicken with her dog food but she would have liked to have shared ours. I still have a few dishes to wash up but that's for later. Now, I have to go do a few other things before it's time for bed. I guess this had better be all for today. Have a nice evening. dooley

This blog entry has been viewed 707 times

---

New plants

Category: Yard work! | Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:16 pm

---

Last night a librarian gave me some begonias and some red verbena that she had used for a teen program and a bag of potting soil. So, today I repotted my kalenchoe. I put the verbena in a pot and sat them on the table in the front yard. I put some of the begonia's in the swan and some in the pig and some in a flowered pot. I tried to take pictures but the time of day was wrong and I either got too much sun or too much shade. Dan would have adjusted his camera to fix it but I'm just a point and shoot photographer. What I get is what I get. I tried to get the purple iris and another little purple plant but didn't get those either. I'll try those again in the morning. I see some different iris are going to bloom. They belonged to Dan and I dug them up when he moved and put them in one of my flower beds. This is the first they will bloom and I think they have too much shade because some aren't blooming at all. I will tell him if he wants them that he needs to come and dig them. I told him he could come and divide mine after they bloom, too.
I watered all the plants this morning. The rose bushes have buds now but they also have aphids so tomorrow I will have to spray they with some soapy water. I sprayed my kalenchoe at the beginning of the week. It looked like the bugs had died so I sprayed them with warm water this morning and wiped off the leaves. I now have two pots of kalenchoe instead of two plants in one pot. They were getting so big they really needed their own pots. It's still too cool to move them outside for the summer. I pulled some weeds and grass this morning. I watered the apple trees. They are two years old so I may not need to pick off the flowers this year, that is if they get flowers. The flowers looked a little brownish and I sprayed them with some soapy water, too. They had little bitty flying bugs of some kind. They weren't there this morning so I'm hoping the buds will go ahead and flower. I haven't had an apple tree in my yard before now. I always went to one of those pick your own places. Arizona doesn't have any close to us though. You would have to go where it's not so hot.
We fixed a place in the fence where Chance could get her head through. She was looking for cats. dr bought a humane trap last week so as soon as we find a place that will take them we can trap some of those feral cats. So many places charge you and we can't afford to take too many cats if we have to pay for each one. I can understand it because they have to have food but these cats are fending for themselves and digging in my flowers and need to be moved. I will try that no kill shelter but last time I called they were full.
I made spinach/mushroom quiche for lunch/supper today. Now it is time to get ready for work. Oh, the pictures. Let's see if I can do those here. dooley

The swan. Hopefully those begonia's will grow and fill the space.






This blog entry has been viewed 868 times

---

A mug of tea

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:26 am

---

I started my day at 6 am with a mug of hot tea.
Irish Breakfast was the choice this morning. I generally start the day with a mug of tea. It doesn't always start as early as 6 am though. Usually just on Friday and Saturday. I work in the evening and on Saturday. 13hours on the weekdays and 7 hours on Saturday. dr usually goes to the flea market while I work on Saturday. He sets up and sells things we pick up at yard or estate sales on Fridays. We are lucky in that we usually have yard sales year around. A lot of them are on Friday and Saturday. Some are on Saturday and we usually miss those. There was a long list of them in the paper for tomorrow.
Today, we went to one estate sale and 5 yard sales. The estate sale people have a large following so if you want to at least see the "good" stuff you have to get there before they open and wait in line. Today, the sale was in a place called Yavapai Hills. There is a good reason the word hills is there. That driveway was almost a 45 degree angle. I hate driveways like that and would not buy a house with such a steep drive. But, with the hills and mountains around here there are many of them. There was a set of steps leading up which I used as my knee simply doesn't like steep grades or ramps. It doesn't like stairs either but these were shallow ones so doable. We bought quite a lot. Had to make two trips back to the car.
We stopped for gas at the station on the reservation and then went to breakfast. We went to another sale in the high country. I made two mis-turns so it took a bit longer to get there. We didn't buy much. It was too picked over as we were late getting there. We backtracked to Prescott Valley and went to one and there was another one just across the street and one down the block. All three were bummers and we didn't buy anything. We stopped for a cold drink and continued on back toward home. We saw a sign for one and stopped and bought a few things. I got a small trunk that is really cute. The covering is torn but I think I can recover it or glue it. I need to put in a new lining. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Maybe dr can sell it after it's refurbished. I bought a metal mushroom which is a trivet but I stuck it outside with my gnomes.
The last sale was out in the countryside. I looked it up on my map and plotted how to get to it. We passed by a road and there was a sale sign and I told dr we would go to that one on the way back. I should have read the sign. We found the sale the way I plotted it on the map but we couldn't get to it. The road came to a deadend. No sign was posted either. So, we had to backtrack to the road with the sale sign and follow the signs around until we were just on the other side of the barricade where we had just been minutes before. There was a large ditch that didn't have a culvert so the road couldn't cross it. Oh, well! We didn't buy much but two fishing nets on poles. We came back to Mayer and stopped at the post office and then at the library to see Dan. We got home about l pm.
I went and watered the bushes, trees and flowers. Chance did not help. Whenever I get out the hose she disappears. She doesn't like water at all. That's how we discovered it was raining yesterday. Chance came in through the doggie door like something was chasing her. She was a little soggy in such a short time out in it.
After finishing my watering, I got a glass of cold tea and took my book and sat at the table outside and finished it. The hummingbirds were flitting around and buzzing my head. I couldn't figure out why as the feeders weren't empty. I finally figured it out. I was wearing a bright red flowered hat.
I made a chunky apple coffeecake to take to work tomorrow and while it was cooking made supper. Now, the dishes are done and I'm sitting here with a mug of tea. When it's finished I think my day will be finished, also. It's another early day tomorrow. I have a couple of projects that need done at work. The city is building us a new library, four times as large as where we are now. We currently occupy the third floor of the civic center. The library director wants me to count the number of shelves we have for each section, fiction, non-fiction, large print, etc. That shouldn't take long as I can count the first section in each row and multiply by the number of sections in the row. They are all the same in each row. Then, I have to eyeball the books author and title and make sure they are in alphabetical order. This will take some time. We do this about once a month as things sure don't stay in the order we put them in for long. The children's room is much worse though. They are always re doing their shelves. Anyway, I work tomorrow and have another day off. Wannabe is arriving in Phoenix but I probably won't get down there until Friday or maybe next Sunday. It's really to far to go down during the week and make it back in time to go to work. Have a good night. My tea mug is empty. dooley

Last edited: Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:31 am

This blog entry has been viewed 761 times

---

Home / Blogs / dooley's Blog / April 2008 /