Feel Like Complaining

Here I sit early on Sunday morning enjoying a cup of coffee with chocolate mint cocoa mix in it and a few biscotti cookies. I haven't been up early on a Sunday in a long time. I could hear Nellie pacing around wanting out so I arose to find she had pooped right in front of the door. That had to be cleaned before I could open the door. She still frantically wanted out and I was working as fast as I could. At least she made it that far though and missed the living room altogether. All of that lovely mess at 6:00 am; so I deserve those cookies dammit! Thanksgiving was good, just us three. Didn't have to clean the house for anyone and kitchen clean-up went pretty fast. We took leftovers to Mom's yesterday and still have some left. The best part, turkey stock, will be made today. As our tradition, we put our tree up the next day. We bought some Tree Dazzler lights (don't laugh). First we put on a few strands of regular lights and then the new ones on top, concentrati...

We only have one tree to deal with as far as raking. A big old Oak that reaps us about 10 bags. Our neighbor's Maple trees contribute some but only if the wind is blowing the right way. Then ours blow in the street, so it's about even. Every Veterans Day the high school sends out different groups to rake leaves up in the neighborhood. It took us a long time to remember not to do it ourselves and wait for them. The weather held up and stayed dry and our leaves were raked in less than an hour. We don't send ours to the dump, rather mulch them up for our compost bin. In the spring, my husband dumps the bags on the lawn and runs the lawn mower over them several times. It's a lot of work and I was trying to find something to make it easier for him. Plus it's pretty hard on a mower and dulls the blade quickly. I did a lot of research and found a nice little chipper/shredder. It will take small branches and leaves of course. When the leaves were raked and I ordered ...

Since the beginning of the school year at my Daughter's college, there have been 7 sexual assaults reported. That's in 2 months. It's hard to determine if assaults have actually gone up or girls are just reporting more with educational awareness. Sexual assault is a horrible crime whether it's perpetrated by Cosby, Trump, or a dumb college student. There is no excuse that warrants that kind of behavior towards a woman. BUT......and this is the whole point I want to get across. You've got to stay away from activities or situations that could possibly put you in harm's way. Most of these assaults were associated where drugs/alcohol were present. The latest one was off campus, where a 17 year old girl went to a party. Some attacks were after a party (off campus) when women were going back to their dorm in the wee hours of the morning. Call me an old fuddy duddy but school isn't an invitation to party your 4 years away. No matter who's paying for it, you...

Hubby and I took another stab at our doggy doorbell problem. The only other solution was to bring it in under the screen and wood doors. Since they both were such a tight fit, we first used a drill to dig out a small trough in the wooden threshold for the wire to fit in. Then we cut out a small piece of the rubber under the wooden door to do the same. Placing some brown duct tape over all and added a few staples for good measure, I then put the speaker on the stair landing under a small box to muffle the sound. It's not pretty but very function-able. So far it is working great. The first night it woke me from a dead sleep but she got her point across! If she would just step on it once, it would be great. But she moves around so much I feel like I'm waking up in a 7-Eleven store after the bars close. In other exciting news I got my two crowns on Tuesday. Such an unpleasant and expensive experience. After four hours of torture I finally got to come home and take a nap. When...