Wit, Wisdom & Wonder

Little duckling Prima is doing great. No sign of additional ducklings from Mia, however. Wendy is a wonderful mother and has taken excellent care of her little charge. I'm going to rig some sort of box for them to get out of the wind, as our back porch is part of a wind channel on the south side of our home.

The demolition derby was great. Could have done without the Elvis impersonator, though. I'm not a huge Elvis fan to begin with and the audio was quite poor. The audience was particularly quiet, which drove the folks running the show conniption fits. They kept screaming at us to get louder, rowdier, etc. We all ignored them. *grin*

Vicky and I had a particularly lazy weekend, so now I've got to catch up on chores this week. I'm stuck doing laundry all day today, hope to get the vacuuming done, too. I've dusted the front of the house already and we're going to need a dump run soonest. Not to mention a grocery run.

I was able to find someone on Freecycle who was willing to loan us a bunk bed for our exchange students. Once he heard about our situation, he offered to deliver it, so the pieces are hanging out in the foyer waiting. Tiger's husband, Jim, is coming over after her checkup to help us swap out the beds. I'll have to head into town this afternoon to pick up the girls, will do a bit of shopping to find bedding for the bunk beds. He's not sure he wants it back, so I'm to call when we're done with it.

The full size bed that's in there now will likely end up stored in the meditation room for the next month or so. Shouldn't be an issue, but we will be shoe-horned in here for awhile. I can likely get Tiger's permission to store it at her home, so we'll see how things go. Frankly, she could use a guest bed for a bit.

I'm waiting to hear back from the command as to when my slot is for the video teleconferencing with hubby. About all I know at present, is we're on for Saturday.

Update: I've removed everything I can from the guest bedroom and am waiting for Jim to arrive and help me move the full size bed, assemble the bunk bed and move it into place.

The coatings on my glasses, likely the anti-reflective and the tinting, are starting to peel off. Friends are starting to tell me that its driving me bonkers. Two have promised to take me frame-shopping.

Have I mentioned how much I hate shopping for new glasses? Without my prescription, I can barely see myself in the mirror, much less figure out if that discolored shape looks good. Ugh. Here we go, again.

Spent most of the afternoon running errands in Oak Harbor:

Finally have two filters for the Dark R2, the Sears dealer had them. Returned the wrong one to the NEX.
True Blood Season 3 on DVD was purchased at the NEX.
Commissary run - somehow I ran out of shakey cheese. *smacks head* How did that happen?
Father's Day cards have been purchased & already filled in, addressed, etc. Will mail tomorrow.
Grooming appointment has been made for Gracie for her summer shave next Monday.
Doctor's office has been called, message left requesting labs to be ordered ahead of annual physical.
Cute pictures of the Bassets napping together have been taken.
I tried to let the ducklings out of their pen to join the flock, they ran back in. I popped them back out, they ran back in, again. I popped them out, slammed the pen door shut and they ran at the door screeching. I gave up and popped them back in. Stockholm Syndrome, whacha gonna do?

Meanwhile, Scarlett, the Adventure Chicken, is supervising the neighborhood from our front porch.

Yep, just another day around here.

I need to finish getting around and get on the road into town, there's still roughly a dozen errands I need to run before I'm ready to step on the airport shuttle. Thankfully, the airline called with an automated check in so I'm set there. Just need to find a sky porter and have my luggage checked in.

Since I'm going to be spending a good portion of the day in the car, if you're trying to reach me via phone you likely will get a text in response. Mea culpa and all that. The Naval base doesn't allow cell phone use at all while driving, even with a hands free device.

More to come later.

We've been celebrating Passover Week by taking turns hosting dinner or dinner out. Last night at Tiger's, Renne & Jim decided that we needed to start learning card games for our cruise. We then proceeded to stay up until midnight learning Pinochle. Game was hampered on several levels, among which there was only three of us. Jim, who knows the game well, ended up playing two hands (his own plus the widow's), the 4th player represented by a black candle. Hence a volley of gags that ensued: "Candle is a jackass", "damnit, Candle won the trick again", "Candle, damnit, we can't possibly get enough hit cards to score that bid!" We just might have to take candle on the cruise.

Part of the hilarity is that this candle is bizarre. Its a carved black candle with sparklies on it. It was a gift and Tiger has yet to light it, so its been on the dining room table for awhile. I personally call it the Pimp Candle. Maybe you had to be there.

I overslept dreadfully today and I still need to go into town and buy the necessary equipage for tomorrow - fencing, staples and groceries. It'll have to wait until Wolfie comes by, she's painting the trim on the exterior of the house and I need to get her setup before I can head out.

The weather changed on us last night from t-shirt weather to see your breath coldness. Woke up to rain, will likely fall asleep to rain again tonight. Kevin dropped off the BooBoo yesterday, so now the four dogs are bored out of their minds. And *someone* got into things to entertain themselves while I was out this afternoon running errands with Tiger. And yes, Sushi was had for lunch!

I gave Noah, the Farm Minion, the day off yesterday to enjoy the sunshine with his friends. He arrived early today to clean the coops and clean the moss off of my roof. I need to buy something to spread around up there to stop more moss growth. Any recommendations? I made sure he saved it for any local friends, so if you could use some let me know quick.

Marc, my Chicken Addict buddy, texted today asking for egg crates. I'm currently drowning in them, the stack on top of the fridge was almost to the ceiling and I've a few boxes of them, as well. I was thrilled to drop off a huge box of them, then pick up 8 dozen eggs to sell in town on his behalf. Managed to sell 7 dozen at my first delivery, then gave my boss Diane a freebie dozen. Which means, I've got enough to buy another bag of feed. Woot-woot! Hobbies that pay for themselves rock!

The rest of our errands were a bit on the dull side - post office to drop off boxes for Josh filled with healthy and not-so-healthy snacks. You win some, you lose some. Spent way too much time at the Naval Hospital picking up prescriptions. The Ophthalmologist on base was concerned about my dry eye (Diabetes, too much computer time and antihistamines), apparently the over the counter stuff I've been using isn't strong enough. I'm not sure I understand this correctly, but the OTC only gets to the outer layer of the cornea and I need moisture deeper into the cornea. So now I have prescription, non-preservative (of course I'm allergic to the preservatives) eye drops.

I had completely lost track of the approaching Easter holiday, busy as I am trying to commit to a Passover dinner somewhere. I have two gorgeous little nieces who are likely counting on their Auntie Trista to spoil them rotten. Cute little things have been purchased, packed nicely into collapsible Easter baskets and packed for shipping. My SIL and I have an agreement - I don't buy much in the way of candy, I let their parents and grandparents handle that. Instead, I buy cute costume jewelry in cute little animal-shaped boxes. I buy little stuffed animals, stickers, Crayola sidewalk chalk, books, cute little clip-on stuffed animals for their school backpacks and purses, etc.

Came home to see the new neighbors move into the house on the corner that's been vacant for years. This is the same one that I routinely catch the neighborhood kids in, which I warned him about. He's changing the locks, so hopefully that will help. He's an older disabled man, very heavy and likely doesn't get around well. The house is wheelchair accessible, with a ramp and low counters. Should be a good home for him and his wife. The grandkids are very nice, they promised to come by and meet the midget chickens as the call the banties. Should be fun.

I also dropped by my backdoor neighbor, Vicki. She runs the doggie daycare that makes for loud mornings and afternoons when the dogs are dropped off and picked up. Frankly, I'm relieved at that because my Bassets are right out at the fence barking back much of the time during those times. We enjoy a mutually beneficial doggie zone here. We shared our concerns about the fence between us, the lower part is hanging a bit. I'm going to buy a few pieces of pressurized wood, then go over and hammer it into place. She can paint it to match her side of the fence. I can't access that area on my side of the fence due to the thick bushes, which I explained. She's recommended one of her employees as a dog & housesitter, which is a huge relief. Gods knows none of the ones I've chosen have worked out in the past.

I bought another plant for the pots on the front porch. I'm a crappy gardener and I do wish someone would take me out of my misery and just arrange pretty little pots and boxes for me. *sigh* Sadly, there is no senseless act of beauty in my front yard. I should try harder, though.

Time to sign off, the dogs are whining about dinner and I've some lovely Pesto Sausage from the butcher I'm going to pop into some pasta with olive oil and a hint of Alfredo.

Given the unexpectedly gorgeous day here on Whidbey, the motorcycles were out in force including a dear friend from the Mainland. I drove into town to meet up for coffee and convo. Its always nice to have friends with shared interests on the Island.

Dinner with Kevin at Zorba's, as per our usual Friday ritual. He's loaning me a space heater to warm up the house until warmer weather sets in. Looks like I'm gonna be dogsitting the BooBoo for a few weeks later this month. Woot-woot. Booboo-age! (Because Boobage has other connotations!)

Came home to find Doodle chewing on something. Thinking it was a piece of firewood he wanted to exchange for a carrot, I asked him to give it up and he refused. Which is really not like our Doodle. He's surprisingly generous about giving up his treasures, though likely putting up with Gracie constantly stealing his toys has made him resigned. When I knelt down to pry apart his long lips, I saw a pair of rodent teeth. I really do draw the line at dead varmint chew toys, folks. I truly do. Not knowing what else to do, I'm afraid I did what I generally do with Doodle - distract him by taking him outside in the backyard for a walk in the hopes he'd drop the corpse somewhere. And it worked. I am either a genius or a coward. Possibly both.

*shudder*

Been so insanely busy today and I'm so far past the wall I'm zoning out.

I began the day very early with a phone call from a friend who is transferring today. I finally managed to get a few bills sorted out and get the automatic payments set up correctly. Friends called on the road, they were in Seattle for the day up from Portland, and wanted to warn me they were en route to my home. *boggle* Spent the afternoon shopping, eating and catching up. We've all known each other since junior high, which was a long time ago! We managed to kidnap Kevin for a few hours, the ladies were delighted with him. He made an excellent shopping bag handler. And joke teller. And all around good buddy. It was a very natural fit.

The ladies came back to the house and met my farm minion, Noah, who was happily bonfiring that huge yard trash pile in the backyard. He jokingly told us its poetic justice that he's burning the branches, because he's the guy who piled them higher than his head! Along the way, he also found several duck egg nests. Now if I could just figure out where the Ameraucana is laying those gorgeous green eggs we'd be all set.

I made the mistake of buying a dog food and cat food that the furkids adore so now I'm dealing with constant feed bin raids. So far they've eaten through a week's worth of dog and cat food in the last two nights. So this weekend, along with fixing the incubator, we'll be setting up a new furkid kibble storage system. Gods help us.

Meanwhile, looks like Kevin is getting that Harley tomorrow. And we've a hay run to do on Sunday.

Day 21: no pips visible on the eggs, I'm neurotic as all Hell.

Another incredibly slow day at the bookstore, didn't even make $20 in sales. Though I did make a lot of Special Orders over the phone, perhaps that will help.

We had a lovely dinner tonight with Kevin to say goodbye. He's off for the East coast with his squadron for Nugget training. Nuggets, should you wonder, are brand new pilots. For the week he's gone, we'll have his beautiful old Labrador, Booboo. We brought him home with us tonight, he's contentedly napping on the dog bed we keep here for him, his beloved blanket folded underneath him. Our dogs are thrilled to have their buddy over, Gracie was so excited she kept jumping into my arms to celebrate.

Doodle is fast asleep, having conned me out of a carrot earlier. I've always made a point to give him a treat in exchange for whatever horrible thing he's chewing on that he shouldn't if he gives it up to me willingly. So now he's bringing in rocks, sticks, etc. to exchange happily for carrots. I've been had.

Wednesday will be a busy day, tomorrow I hope to catch up on sleep and housework.

What with the rain, has come the clouds and higher temperatures. I'm very grateful for the 46.5F day, especially because it means I can fill the waterers with the hose instead of buckets from the laundry room. Yes, shallow I know, but what with my knees bothering me, warmer temps have been a blessing.

The chickens have found that they can perch on the fence rails of the rabbit pens, safe from the rain under the pen roofing. I'm not sure the rabbits are thrilled by this but everyone seems to be getting along quite well. Our naughty little Thistle and Middy have returned to the pen and I've reinforced it again. Hopefully, this will keep them occupied for awhile and they won't get loose again for some time.

The drakes have been placed up for sale on Craigslist. What with the little Silkies incubating safely (day 4 for those not on my FB), we need to thin the flock a bit. Our three rare breeds (Hamburg, Dorking and Andalusian) are likely to join Lori's flock. She's a self-sustaining woman and not a single one of her birds are laying. We've been keeping her in eggs, but it would be behoove us both to simplify delivery by our giving her the birds. Bonus, we can still show them at the island County Fair. Kids will get to see them, Lori will get to have the eggs and we'll have room in the coop - win, win, win!

I've lucked out and escaped jury duty this week, I'll have to call again on Tuesday to see if I can carry this luck another week. I'm grateful to this unexpected week off from jury duty, as dogsitting visits every 6 hours around the clock have taken their toll. Tiger and Jim will be returning this evening, so dinner will be my last visit.