She is soooo funny!

Well as you can tell, the EMPRESS has been at my computer while I was gone. SHE FIXED IT!!! It was Internet Explorer all along. I am now using firefox as my browser now...WHO KNEW??? ANd now I have my edit bar again!!! WHOOT!!!!!

So Joanie, you can send Balonie back to the basement, and EDT, thanks for all of your support too.

I'M FIXED!!!!!

shhhhhhhh...

Be very very quiet. The gnomes are tinkering.

The Mountains are out!

We are in the midst of actually having a few days of summer! Today it was in the high 70's F. I had errands to run in Oak Harbor so I got up, ate my yogurt and headed into town. It was an absolutely glorious day out!! Sun was out, no clouds and a nice breeze blowing. I did my errands which took about 3 hours, and then headed back to COupeville.

I wanted so badly to just keep on driving up into the mountains, where my heart actually lives. But with the price of gas up over 4.50 a gallon, I did not. I did however stop by the Sunnyside Cemetery to see if I could get good pictures of the "Mountains". It sits on an east facing hill, and has a gorgeous view of the Cascades and Mt. Baker.

I was able to get this one. which shows Baker in all it's glory. It is an active Volcano that has not erupted Lava in about 200 years, but it steams all the time.

THe one above is looking to the SOuth from the same location. Mt Baker is to the North, and Mt. Rainier is to the south. You can barely see it because it is so far SOuth. It is about 100 miles as the crow flies, and If it blows, Seattle and Tacoma are toast! History has shown that it will send Lahars and mudslides right down the NorthWest side and COver the Kent Valley with about 50 feet of mud. We have Volcano sirens to warn the nearby towns to move to higher ground. People know this and STILL they build their houses right in the path. STOOOOPID!

We rarely see Mt Rainier as there are usually clouds or haze in the air, so when the "Mountains are Out" it is truly a gorgeous day. Mt Rainier sticks up above the horizon like a giant Snow cone. Of all the volcanoes along the Pacific Rim, This is the one that the geologists say is most likely to blow in the next 50-100 years.

I hope it is a good clear day, with a wind blowing from the NorthWest...Then I will back up at the same spot snapping pictures like mad!!

Sposed to have two more days just like yesterday only hotter...YES!!!! I slept last night with NO electric blanket on! Felt nice. WOke up with the covers kicked off, and the sun hitting me right in my face. I have a house to clean so I had better get busy.

Have a nice weekend!

the empress takes over

Just trying to see what her tool bar problem is...

Stupid Blogger or is it me?

I STILL do not have an edit bar on my posting page. I have the title box and the main box, that.is.it! I have switched to the new blogger template, and if I use PICASA I can post pictures from there, but not from here. I also can not add anything to my sidebar now. I can edit the links, using html, but I can not add a weather pixie, or any books to read, or a clock, none of that good stuff that I used to have. PISSES ME OFF!!!!

I have written and written to no avail. I think it might even be something in my computer keeping me from getting it, but I am not smart enough to figure it out. When I switched from old template to new blogger, I DID have everything for about two days, and then NADA!!!

I wish I was as smart as Jazzi is about computers. Ny daughter just has no patience with me on it either. "READ THE MANUAL MOM!" I HAVE no manual for this. and blogger help doesn't help either. frustration!!!

My eye has pretty much quit oozing and itching, but it is still swollen and my head hurts like HELL! It is jsut the right side of my head from my browbone to the top of my scalp. I sure wish I knew what little Brat exposed me to this!! I may have picked it up in the pool, but you would think with all the clorine that any bug/virus would never survive! The bridge of my nose is swollen too, so my left eye looks puffy, but it is fine. I am sooo tired though. I have been taking Benedryl at CATMOMAJ's advice for the itching, and that works great, but I am a CHEAP drunk, and sleep all day and all night. I have not taken any today, so I will see if any energy comes back tomorrow.

I advise all of you over 60 to go get your SHINGLES VIrus shot. It is new and Insurance covers it. DO it before you get this damn stuff!! Seriously...I have a very light case I guess, but I do not want a BAD case of it.

Summer is sposed to hit with a vengeance tomorrow, but right now even though it is sunny out, it is COLD!!! The wind is blowing in off the North Pacific, right down the Strait, and smacking right into my house. BRRRRRRR!! It was the coldest it has ever been at SEATAC last night for June 24! got to 44 I think. It was 40F on my front porch...THat is only 8 degrees from FREEZING for GOd's sake.

I think I will go try and find my kitchen counter...the dishwasher is broken and leaking so Bob has it torn apart to fix it...and we all know how he finishes things!!!! NOT!
Catch ya tomorrow.

YUCK!! This sucks!!

Well the Dr took one look and said SHINGLES! huh? It is on my face not my body. But I guess you can get them there too. In fact it is fairly common to get them on one side of your face. The only blister like thingies are on my forehead, but he said that is common too. My glands are full and trying to fight off the virus.

Swell! and I just got notification on Friday, that there is a new Shingles immunization that my insurance will pay for, but it is too late now!! Not for at least 6 months!! Meanwhile just to be safe, he also prescriped some Keflex in case there is a bio-bug in there somewhere.

So I am sitting here with one eyelid so swollen I look like I have a black eye!! I was looking real close in the mirror at the bump and then I started really looking at my face. OHMIGAWD!!! When Did I get so DAMN OLD? wrinkles, and age spots, and saggy chin, and wild eyebrows. (they only grow in spots anymore, and most of them are grey so you cant see them anyway. )

Now with swollen eye I look like I have been on an all day cry.

first day of summer...

What a week! The pool in our communitee opened up on Saturday, so Starting Sunday, I Swam every single day. EIther in our pool or at Oak Harbor's. We dont have a good aquarobics class here, so I go in to O.H. for their's. I also have discovered the Sauna. I have always pooh-poohed it...why would anyone want to go in and sweat? Well the sauna at OH is a dry sauna and the heat after swimming for 2 hours just soaks right into your bones and I felt like a new person after I got out. We have a sauna here, too, and they keep it VERY hot, around 180 F. (too hot) and they also allow water on the stones. I cant do that. But if no one else is in there, I can keep it dry. Wonderful!!!!

I also have a "happening" on my face. Started out as a lump under my right ear, and felt like a big golf ball...I thought maybe Mumps...????? then it spun off another lump right in front of my ear about the size of a pecan, then another formed on my temple and another on my brow and then two smaller ones on my scalp. Now these did not hurt unless I pushed on them, and I felt fine. Then the one on my brow grew bigger and started to jurt, I must have scratched it in my sleep, because it got really red and hurts like hell. Now it has grown to encompass my right eye. It itches like mad, and is so swollen!! It looks like I have been in a bar brawl!! I have No idea what it is, but it can leave anytime it is ready...preferably NOW!!! :( THe lump under my ear has gone way down, and it seems to have manifested itself into one lumpy thing a ma jig on my brow/eye. Naturally, there are no Dr Offices open on the weekend, and I am not gonna pay 500.00 for an emergency room visit, when All they will tell me is go see the Dr on Monday. SO here I sit, one eyed, and not itching as much because I took two Benedryl tabs. Sure am getting sleepy though.

Summer finally arrived here. GOt up into the 80's in Seattle, and the 70's here on the Island. SUNSHINE!!!! WHOOT!!! But the clouds are blowing in from the ocean, and there is another cold bite to the wind. did not last long, our summer. But that may be ok. I cant do the heat too much. 70-75F is just about right for me providing there is not much Humidity!

I wish my camera worked, I would take a picture of the weeds growing in my gutters!!! The birds must have taken bird seed up on the roof and now it is growing...and my gutters are about 12" tall!!! I am not kidding...Hey Blogeois, wanna come work on my house?

Brent, I sure hope you are keeping your feet dry up there in Des Moines!! I am thinking about you and your family. ANd of course Kim and hers, and then we need to watch out for Brenda when the water gets that far down river. It surely has been a rough year weather wise, hasn't it? I hope all you Forigners are not having it as bad as we are.

Let's see what Tomorrow brings...

HMMMMM...

What type of Fae are you?

SAAAAD Week!

I was never very good at Politics, they just did not interest me. THose of you who have been reading me awhile, remember Wanda and her very public opinions of our government. I envied her, even though I did not agree with her opinion, at least she was passionate enough about it to put it in print. I just voted the way I thought I should, never delving into the issues very deeply. I went the easy way, and thought I was doing good.

Wanda got me thinking, and then I started watching TV more and more and listening to the talking heads, and their opinions. THey confused me even more, because there just was no place where you could go to get an unbiased view of the issues and candidates.

Then one Sunday morning about 5 years ago, I watched MEET THE PRESS with TIm Russert and got hooked on politics. Tim had a way of interviewing the candidates and holding them to what they had previously said, that showed their true leanings. I watched MEET THE PRESS every Sunday from then on...

Friday I was shocked to learn that TIm Russert had died suddenly at age 58 of an apparent heart attack. Stunned is a better word. He CANT go now, we have an election to get through. How am I supposed to form an opinion if I can not get an unbiased interview with the candidates? How am I going to watch the results of the elections without Tim and his magic White Board and Sharpie? I feel like I have lost a very good friend. MEET THE PRESS will never be the same. He was likeable and admired by EVERYONE! He would put each person he interviewed on the hot seat and make them wiggle. He said he would call BIG RUSS his father, every Sunday after the show and get his take...he could spot a phony a mile away. Tim valued his opinion, and the next time he interviewed that person, he would ask them again an imortant question, and if the answer was NOT the same, he would have it on the monitor and read it verbatim back to them...SQUIRM!!!

I have, in the past 5 years learned to listen to the issues, and ask more questions of myself, and form my own opinions. I think I have a candidate in mind, but I am not sure, the election is still several months away. I do have questions and I will listen for the right answers.

THen to top of my weekend, I decided to catch up on my blogwalking and read some of those that I have not read every day, as they have been on hiatus, or not blogging for one reason or another. I cliked on MAYAS GRANNY and was stunned to read that she too had died over the weekend. She was a Senior CItizen who lived in Juneau, Ak and was still working because she had to. SHe had a small apartment up a hill, and stocked her apartment with books and her HOOLIGANS..her cats. A few months ago she collapsed, and her daughter moved her back to California to be closer to her finding a home for her HOOLIGANS. MAya's Granny was very depressed about the move and the upheaval in her life, and she just did not make the transition very well.

SHe wrote with such spunk! She was very alive in her mind and spent last year writting about her memories in aswer to questions that her daughter had asked. Hard questions sometimes, but they got you thinking. Not just the typical "tell me about your childhood..." but questions that would tell a story in their answers.

SHe left a wonderful legacy to her Daughter and her grandchildren, and hopefully they will leave her blog up for awile, so the rest of you can go back and read her memoires too.

Rest in Peace Tim Russert and Maya's Granny!! You will both be missed.

(I dont have an edit bar so I cant link but her blog is at mayagranny.blogspot.com
go read her archives!)

Been busy

My flash on my camera is all wonky so the colors do not show up like they should, so I putzed with Photoshop to get the hat as close as possible to the correct color. The bedspread is s'posed to be white and the hat is a merled purple Merino and silk blend that Donna spun her little self. I made the hat.

This one is a heavier wool that she spun, and it is a bright orange with a brown silk rose. Notice how GREEN the spread looks after I adjusted the color for the hat.

THis afghan is one I have been working on for awhile. It is from left over scrap yarn, and it is sooooo pretty!! This one I am keeping for ME!! Selfish huh?

I wish I knew where I could take my camera to have the flash fixed so inside shots would show up better. Maybe I should try Kits Camera's huh? It is a Sony, But I don not want to send it to Sony America for repair, and rish it getting lost in the shuffle.

So Rusty, any of them catch your eye? or should I keep trying...

MAN! It is COLD!

I realize that in another month or so, the weather will turn to summer and I will bitching about the heat, but BROTHER is it ever COLD here! It even snowed 10" in the passes. Our passes are usually snow free from May through October. Not this year. Our snow pack has to be pretty good too, so we should not have any water problems or brown out problems, unless we start selling it to California! (GRRRRRRR) We have Hydroelectric plants here, and it works very well for us. generates enough electricity to keep us cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and is replenishable. (as long as it continues to rain...) Our rivers are all running full right now because of the Big storm we had yesterday. Thunder and wind and RAIN and COLD!! The juet stream is curving from way up in Alaska to right down the west coast, bringing asll that cold weather with it. When It turns and heads back up is when all the warm weather from the Southern Pacific will head our way.

The baby birds are growing fast. And the babies are really getting the hang of tearing apart a suet block to get at the raisins and peanuts! I leave them up all year, and vary the type to match the visitor. Soon the woodpeckers will head to where ever woodpeckers go, and I will start getting ruby-crowned kinglets and black-capped Chickadees. THe Chestnut-backed Chickadees are already fledged. I am not fond of the messy starlings though, and try to shoo them away. I know, I know that is probably not nice, but they are so noisy, greedy and eat the eggs of other birds. THey also can peck a hole into your attic and fill your eaves with bird nests.

Lola has babies, I do not know how long squirrels nurse their young, but she has been showing her titties for about 3 weeks now. SOon I will have a lot of Douglas Squirrels if that DAMN CAT does not get them all. i let Sadie out this morning, and I heard her "I Have a squirrel treed" bark, so I went running out, and she had Jupiter backed up and hissing at her. She would not hurt him, but she will bark like mad at him until he runs and jumps back over his fence into his own yard.

My back has been giving me fits again. I swam last night and It felt soooo good. I have been sitting in the dry sauna afterward for about 15 minutes letting the heat soak into my bones. AHHHHHH. I really wish I had a hot tub. I just do not like the public one at the pool. I just feel like I am another ingredient for their stew! YUCK!!

I have putzed all day in the house trying to keep it fairly clean, and everytime I go into my bedroom, I have to lay down across the bed on my tummy and stretch the back out. I have been losing weight, so maybe this time when I go to the Dr, he will listen to me and find out just WHAT and WHY I hurt so much. ANd if it is fixable. I HATE not being able to walk without severe pain.

Mike is getting worse. I fear that he is just holding on until his son's wedding in July, and then he will just let go. I wish I could do something for him, but there is nothing I can do, except be there when he needs me. I am not a big one for sitting around holding hands and praying, I leave that to Phyllis and SHerry, They do that well. I do all of mine in private. I will really miss him when he goes. I just wish he could have a good quality of life for as long as he has left. unfortunately he does not. SIGH!!!

Fledged!!!

These are not the best of pictures, as I was taking them trough a window with cat smudges on it, and through a screen. But it of the Baby Downy woodpecker, being fed by her daddy. He brings them one by one to the suet block and teaches them to eat the suet. After a few days, they get the hang of it, and become very noisy and MESSY!! Just like little babies with their first time feeding themselves. I will soon have suet pieces all over the window and the side of the house.

This one is a little better, but not by much. Baby is on top, Daddy is getting ready to fill his mouth with more suet.

This one is of a chestnet backed Chickadee doing the same thing. Baby is on the right, with it's wittle yellow edged mouth wide open. I just LOVE to watch the babies every spring. THe Hummers are flying really good now too, and I have to refill the feeders every day.

It has been so cold this year, that I have not switched to summer bird juice, figuring that they need the extra energy at night to keep them warm. I usually cut back on the sugar, from 5-1 to 4-1 around the first of May. THat encourages them to find flowers to feed from. But the flowers are just now blooming. SO maybe soon. If it ever warms up. They are talking SNOW on the lower passes and higher foothills tonight!! and this morning at 430 it was 42F on my front porch!!! MAN!!! Global warming my freezing ASS!!!

Sunset at Deception Pass

I had to post this to remind us that yes indeed we do have beautiful sunsets on this Island. This was taken from the bridge across to Fidalgo Island which is how you get to the mainland. Our weather this spring has been terrible. With the exception of 2 weekends, when it was warm and sunny, we have had stright rain and wind and clouds. Our weather prognosticator says that for the rest of the summer it is going to be cooler and drier too. That just means that we wont get quite as much rain, but we will still have clouds, and we will still have to wear jackets when we go out.

I screwed up and planted three tomato plants and they are sitting there shivering, I will be very lucky indeed if they fruit at all this year! even the strawberries are not ready yet! They are usually ready when school gets out and that is next week. We need some dry sunny weather for the berries to ripen. ANd then they will be full and juicy!!

I have a garden of weeds growing 12 " tall in my gutters!! I cant climb the ladder to get up there and clean them out. Where is a starving teenager when you need one? dont young boys do yards anymore? HMMMM! Rusty, What are your boys doing? are they still doing odd jobs? Are they cheap enough for me? If I wait for Bob or Tim to get it done, it will be September.

I worked on Sherry's scrapbook today and finally finished her ancesters! I found them all the way back to 1735!!! took me three days to get it all done!! It will be nice when she needs it though. Then it is on to the ones for the Kids. gotta get those finished in case I lose my memory!

JimBob???you still out there? havent seen you lately!

For Leslie

Everytime I see an Elephant picture I think of Leslie. She stopped blogging over 18 months ago, and said she would return, but so far she has not. When you find a friend on the internet that you "click" with, you feel like you have known them for your entire life.

I have never met Leslie, and may never. But I feel like if she walked in my front door right now, I would know her, and she she would not mind all the cat hair on the furniture, and the doggie shmarm on the storm door, nor the noseprints from the kitties on all of the windows.

She would understand.

I hope where ever she is she knows that we all care deeply about her, and hope that she will come back soon. She is sorely missed!

When ANYONE leaves their blog, it leaves a big hole in our lives. Isn't it amazing what a few little electrons can do to change the world? Pity that bloggers are not in the position to make peace. We surely do in our postings.

Long night

I have been waiting since 845 this evening to find out how my brother is. Sherry took him back to the hospital tonight puking. He had his Chemo today, but all day yesterday he was sick. He was dehydrated. Phyllis went and releived Sherry so she could get some sleep as she gets up early for work. THe ER was full of people with virus' so they finally hydrated him, gave him some no puke meds and sent him home. Phyllis just called, she had dropped him off at home, so now we can all sleep again. (whew)

While I was waiting, I putzed with the NEW Blogger and I THINK I fixed it so I can post pictures again...maybe. hrmmmmmmmm maybe not...I still dont see an edit bar...gotta go tweek some more.