Friday

Today is Barrie's birthday, and I helped Kasey make a card on my computer.  She typed her own name and the words on the inside, "I love you, Mom". 

Here is the picture we put on the card.

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I ate lunch at Rendezvous Pointe today with others in the oil painting class.  We had some kind of baked fish, and it was very good.  But when I eat such a big lunch, I am worthless for the rest of the day.  Oh well.

Thursday

I was telling Kasey about all the mice Kat was getting, and she got her "There's a Mouse in the House" book.  She said "I bet Chloe can catch mice."  I have to agree with her.  Chloe was born a feral cat and lives outdoors.

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Some words of wisdom for you:

Cigarettes are like squirrels.  They're not dangerous until you put one in your mouth and light it on fire.

Time creeps up on you like a windshield on a bug.

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I'm not ready for oil painting class tomorrow.  We were to paint something using only red, green, and white.  I haven't finished last weeks project - using blue and orange and white.  Well, I did buy a tube of green paint, so that's a start.

Wednesday

I said yesterday Kat got one mouse. In the afternoon, there was another dead mouse on the bathroom floor. And this morning there was one by the rocking chair. That's three mice in two days.  Wow!

Charm says her cat plays with the mice.  My cat does too, but she kind of wears them out while she's playing with them.

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Another good Calvin cartoon.

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Linda joined us at art group this week.  She has been gone and hasn't been there for a long time.  Good to see her.

Listening to song on XM Radio.  Don't know the name of the song or who sings it, but the first line of the chorus goes "girl, you make my speakers go 'boom boom'".  Funny!

 

Tuesday

Another dead mouse on the floor this morning.  Kat works so hard so has to sleep a lot during the day.  I wonder why we are having so many mice lately?  If we'd had mice in the basement all winter, they would be chewing holes in Barrie's dog food sacks.  For some reason, the mice seem to think it's spring, and they are coming out of hibernation.

Someone posted this cartoon on Facebook. 

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I've done a little bit of drawing with pen and ink, but am neglecting all other art work.  A new tube of Sap green oil paint came yesterday, and I am supposed to be experimenting painting with only red and green, and white. 



Battle of the Plows

Barrie says she is running out of places to put snow at the places she plows. And she says the places she plows out, the city comes along and plows their driveways back in. Someone plowed the neighboring house and left the snow pile where it blocks access to our propane tank, so Barrie plowed it back over on their place. But it didn't block their driveway. Doesn't matter anyway, because the guys who lived there have moved.

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Another dead mouse on the floor this  morning.  No wonder Kat spends most of  her day sleeping.  She's  working the night shift.

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Two more old photos I have scanned. This is the old remodeled barn we lived in when we lived on the ranch at Ragged Mountain, Colorado.  Tracy was a baby when we moved there.  This is probably the house I loved more than any other I've lived in.  No electricity, our water was from a spring above the house, a beaver pond in the front yard stocked with trout, and very isolated.  A colony of bats moved in the wall space upstairs behind the stone chimney.  On rainy nights, they flew around inside the house.

I didn't post anything in my blog yesterday because I spent the afternoon finishing the Larry McMurtry book "Texasville".  I almosst hated to finish it.  I have the next book in the series "Duane's  Depressed" to read next.

Saturday

It's windy today, and a few snow fluries have blown through, then sunshine again.

I watched the movie "The Last Picture Show" last night on Crackle.com.  I've seen it before, years ago.  It's still a powerful movie.  And today I started reading "Texasville", the second of the series by Larry McMurry.  I've read it before, but wanted to read it again.  I also have "Duane's Depressed" on my Kindle.  Nobody develops characters quite like Larry McMurtry, and I always enjoying reading his stuff.

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Worked some more on the closets and dresser in my downstairs bedroom this morning.  The first big bag for the dump is full, and is so  heavy I could hardly drag it to the front door.  And the pile of stuff for the Food Basket is in danger of falling over and injuring someone.  And there's a lot of stuff left to sort through and pitch out.

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Friday

No pictures, so I decided to post two of my favorites of my girls. Old pictures from the past

This is Tracy with her cousin Ben at a dance at Fort Washakie.  (Cowboys and Indians)

Barrie, happy girl with a red balloon at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake.

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Two dead mice on the floor this morning.  Way to go, Kat!

Went to Rendezvous Pointe for the oil painting class this morning.  Oils frustrate me, but I am enjoying the class, and learning so much.

I took a large bag of crochet thread to the Pointe this morning, to donate to anyone who wants to use it.  Just one thing out of the closet.  I have filled a box with embroidery stuff for step-daughter Leslie.  And have one really large garbage bag full of stuff for the dumpster.  Slow progress.  How did all that stuff get there?

Thursday

I think we about blew away yesterday, and I don't know how much snow we got.  Half the roads in the state seemed to be closed, and sounded like the other half should have been.  Beautiful sunny day today.

Barrie  had a rough day yesterday.  She couldn't even get to the dog lot to take care of her dogs.  Couldn't stay on the trail and sometimes couldn't find the trail.  She finally gave up and turned back. 

Then she drove on hazardous roads to Daniel to pick up Kasey from her visitation with her dad.  She was to meet them there at 7:30. and she left early because the road was so bad.  At 7:20, he called her to say Kasey was in town and Barrie could pick her up at the courthouse.  So she had to drive back, and of course was late getting there.

Her ex is stilll not paying child support.  I don't understand it.  He just took her to court last month and the court (once again) ordered him to pay every month and start repaying the back support.  In other places, I read that guys are sent to jail for not paying child support.  Why are they so lax here?  He is ordered to pay it, but doesn't.  And there is no follow up on the part of the legal system. 

Barrie tried going through the Child Services to collect it, and had to pay a $25 fee to file something, I don't know what Child Services did, but she is not gettting the support.

OK, we have a sign in our house that says "Thou Shalt Not Whine".  That's all.

Lace

I'm on another closet cleaning binge. I asked at Rendezvous Pointe this morning if anyone there would use crochet thread. And they said yes.

Years ago when my Mom had a pig valve put in her heart, I spent hours sitting at the hospital in Casper for about ten days.  I found a hobby store and bought some crochet thread and a little "How to Book" and taught myself how to crochet.

As happens with most things I do, I went overboard.  I crocheted curtains for my dining room windows, Christmas Tree ornaments, doilies, a tablecloth, and lace trim.  And every time I went to Riverton, I went to WalMart and bought more chrochet thread. 

I did the same thing with embroidery.  What made me think I would use a dozen sets of embroidered pillow cases?  Or that I would sew crocheted lace on the edges of all my towels?
 

Rendezvous Pointe and the Food Basket will either benefit or suffer from my closet cleaning, depending on their point of view. 

I'm trying to clean out space for Barrie and Kasey to put their things.

Tuesday

This is a watercolor I started once.  Don't even know where it is now.  I think I cut it up into pieces to use the back as scrap paper.  I would like to try this same composition in oil paint, so I guess this will be my next project.  All I got done today was tone a couple of canvas boards, so I have nothing to show.

I watched the movie "Swing Vote" last night, a cute and funny movie.  But the portrayal of politicians is almost frightening it was so accurate. 

I watched the video of Kevin Costner's speech at Whitney Houston's funeral.  A very touching speech.  Then I dug out the movie "Bodyguard" in which they starred.