Garage Sale find

I bought this chair at a garage sale back when we lived in Seattle . . . over 28 years ago.  I believe I paid $10 for it . . . and trust me . . . $10 was a lot more money 28 years ago then it is today.  Anyway, I had to immediately recover the cushion on the chair seat. I covered it with a piece of yellow fabric because I sat it under a picture that had yellow in it.  That yellow fabric long ago go so dirty that for years now, I've had a thin cushion just laying on top the seat to hide the dirt.  Well, re-upholstering the seat was my project for this today.  I took a scrap of some heavy material we used on a couch several years ago and made a new padded covering for the chair.  I had to make a run to Hancock Fabrics to get new upholstery tacks, but finished it around 6PM.  I could hardly believe how many tacks it took . . . 72 for just that little seat, but it now looks 1000% better than it did.

In Your Face Ostrich at Arbuckle Wilderness near Ardmore, OK

I'm not sure why, but I just love this picture.  It was taken at the Arbuckle Wilderness near Ardmore, Oklahoma a couple years ago when Alice and I took a long week end "sister trip" there.  The ostrich seemed sure we wouldn't mind if he (or she . . . who knows?) stuck his head inside our car.  They were very inquisitive and not at all bashful.  Come to think of it, nearly all the animals that were allowed to roam free were definately not bashful.  We had several heads invading our space during our visit . . . let's see . . . a buffalo, a donkey or two, this ostrich, a reindeer and even a zebra.  The buffalo had a bad case of the slobbers, but the ostrich was by far the most worrysome for me, because of that long neck.  He stretched it in and out of our car at will, and he was pretty quick too. 

A private yard in Bourton on the Water in England.

I'm ready for spring.  It's not that we've had a particularly harsh winter . . . on the contrary, it's been a rather mild one, but STILL . . . I'm ready for spring and pretty flowers.  Or maybe it's just that I'm so very tired of this "frozen shoulder" thing.  I'm ready to feel good again and not hurt everytime I move my left arm.  And I'm tired of going to physical therapy and paying them money to inflict pain on me.  I want Samantha to twitch her wonderful "witchy" nose and make it all better again. 

A Yard in Eureka Springs, ARK

I was naughty today.  I got a double-dip waffle ice cream cone when I went to Braum's to get juice, eggs and milk for the week.  It was a flavor called Peanut Butter Cup and it was DELICIOUS!  Thanks, Alice.  I used two of my Braum's gift certificates.

I got all of my errands run today except for looking at mattresses.  I guess we can do that tomorrow or Monday even, since Monday is a company holiday for me.  Several companies are having huge mattress sales this week end, and Heaven knows we NEED a new one.  Ours is so old that it has two deep grooves where we sleep at night.  Has anyone had any experience with those TempurPedic mattresses?  I'd sure like to get some feedback from someone who has actually slept on one for a year or so. 

Well, Mike and I are going for a walk now.  Gotta keep those old hearts working you know.

On the grounds at Bibury Court Hotel in Bibury, England         Photo & enhancement by Chris Duffy

Happy Days are here again!!   They've finally gotten my network/printer problems identified.  I had four of the IT guys in my office over a 2 hour period this morning and I was actually kind of glad that it had them all stumped, because it had been sort of hinted at that it was a bother for them to have to come to my office to fix a small little printer problem that anybody should be able to fix . . . but since I'm SO untechnical they guessed they could take the time to fix the problem.  It had them scratching their collective heads for over an hour and a half.  It was actually two problems.  The hard drive (storage) for the printer was dead AND the network port where the printer hooks up to the LAN was very sick . . not dead yet, but very sick.  Hence the intermittence of my problem.  At any rate, I'm printing up a storm again and I'm a happy camper. 

Quote of the day:  "Life is Good"  Michael Duffy

Front Porch Chairs at Johnson House B&B in Arkansas

I'm having printer problems at work and I'm just about to pull my hair out.  Actually I should say I'm having NETWORK problems.  The printer in my office is a network printer and the messages are intermittently not getting through to my printer when I send it a print job.  I'd connect it directly to my PC but then no one but me could print to it, and I sure don't want people sending their print jobs to me in emails with messages saying "Please print 10 copies for me".  I've been there and that's no fun. 

I turned in a "help ticket" a week and a half ago and still no one has come to my office to fix the problem.  So today I called the Help Desk to find out the status and they just turned in a new "help ticket".  We'll see what that gets me. 

I know this doesn't do a bit of good as fas as getting my network fixed, but it makes me feel better just to VENT about it.  Thanks.

Yet another house in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Mission Accomplished.  We've spent almost all week end taking down the Christmas decorations, and now I can say that the house is totally de-Christmased.  Mike got smart this year and hired the high school boy from next door to help him get the boxes up in the attic.  He earned his pay too.  There are 42 large plastic storage bins with Christmas decorations in them and they're all upstairs now.  Mike also built a couple rows of shelves for the boxes to set on up there rather than just stacking them everywhere. 

Not only that, but before they took the tree down, the young man actually found the ONE socket on the entire Christmas tree that didn't have a bulb in it, thereby causing one small section of the tree to not be lighted.  I had just pointed out to him that we had a non lighted section on the tree, but that Mike nor I could find the socket that was missing a bulb.  I couldn't believe it!!!  It only took him about 30 seconds to find the culprit. 

Ice Cream Shop in Eureka Springs, AR . . . . Photo/enhancement by Chris Duffy

I can't remember whether or not I've ever posted this picture before, and frankly, I'm too lazy to go backwards in my blogs to find out.  It's a little ice cream shop Alice and I ran across in Eureka Springs when we went to Arkansas for our "sister trip" in 2003.  It was raining and we needed a place to get in out of the weather . . . and besides, they boasted in their window about their scrumptous Apple Dumplings . . . and we just had to try them.  They were great.

This was my first day back at work and it took me nearly all day to get through all the emails that came in while I was off . . . not just reading them, but actually doing what the emails asked me to do.  Which kind of ticked me off, because the whole rationale behind us closing down and all taking vacation at the same time is that no one has to play "catch-up" when they get back to work, because supposedly EVERYONE in the company is off and not writing emails.  But I know of at least 116 people who were NOT laying off the emails while we were off.  Bless their pointed little heads.   

One of the ladies in our building took the two weeks before Christmas off as vacation so she was off for 3 weeks and had over 1500 emails when she got back today.  Now THAT'S a headache.  One of my bosses lives really close to the office (less than a mile) and he said he came in almost every week day around 6 AM and worked until 8:30 AM and then headed home just as his family was getting up.  What dedication!  But he says he's pretty much caught up now. 

Stream running by abandoned warehouse in Eureka Springs, AR

For those of you who enjoy reading Jan Karon's "Mitford Series" books, did you know that there is now also a Jan Karon "Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader"?  I received one for Christmas.  I've been reading through a lot of the recipes and can't wait to try a few of them.  Of course, there are some that I'm sure I'll NEVER try, like Dooley's Peanut Butter and Cheerios sandwich.  Yuck.

Today was the final day of our Christmas/New Years holiday/vacation time.  That's right, it's back to work tomorrow.  See the tears?  But I guess all good things have to come to an end sooner or later. 

Sunset on Bull Shoals Lake                         Photo by Chris Duffy

Well, I didn't make it till midnight last night.  Almost, but not quite.  We stayed up till the big ball dropped in Time Square, which made it 11:00 our time.  Our company wanted to go to bed and we didn't really want to stay up another hour, just so we could say we saw in the new year.  So by the time I closed down the kitchen, took my bath and got into bed it was 11:45. I thought surely I'd be able to keep my eyes open long enough to at least peek at the alarm clock as it changed from 11:59 to 12:00, but the next time I remember glancing at the clock it said 12:45, so I missed it altogether.  No big loss.  It seems less important to me as the years go by. 

Update on Millie and Viola.  Both are doing great. In fact, yesterday Millie was up trying to make sure everyone had their ice tea refreshed or had enough Coke, when a couple of her cousins put their foot down and told Millie that if she didn't sit down and rest they were going to leave.  After all, what were they there for if not to wait on her and Viola hand and foot . . . so Millie reluctantly sat down and let everyone else do their stuff.