Saturday

Go Rockies!  Charlie Blackmon had a hot bat yesterday!  He also had a big grin on his face!  I don't even know if I can get the Rockies games on my TV.  For one thing, the remote has quit working.  There are so many videos of the game on the Internet. Maybe I should just listen to the games on XM Radio.  I ordered a new remote this morning, just in case I want to turn it on some day.

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My brother and his wife are on their way home.  They called from Salt Lake this morning.  Bill's heart has been "misbehaving" and the doctors shocked it yesterday.  It was a success.  He had this done four years ago, so this is good.

 

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This may be true, but I'll feel better if I wash all those dirty dishes that are in the sink!  Then I can give more attention to the old barn wood painting I am doing.

 

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Friday

I think ten years from now, I will be in a bed down the hall in the nursing wing, still knitting on this sweater I started yesterday.  What was I thinking?

Actually, I have knit many sweaters and socks, so I know it can be done.  I just don't remember it being so slow.

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I made a big pan of lasagna yesterday.  It was good!  But I will be eating it for six months.  I saved some for Barrie and KC to take home the next time they are here.  Today, I have a batch of spaghetti sauce in the crockpot.

 

 

I don't even drink wine, but there are sure a lot of good jokes about it.  I used to drink wine, but have somehow lost my taste for it.  An old friend from my wine drinking days claimed wine made her elbows hurt!

 

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My friend Vicky and her husband have a home in the Dominican Republic, and have been there for the last month or so. She recently fell on the path on her way to the beach, and broke a bone in her wrist.  Bummer!  They are getting ready to head back to Wyoming soon.

 

 

 I took this photo of the moon last April.  Used a 400 ml lens and the camera mounted on a tripod. 

 

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I'm not enthused about it, but I am on my way down the hall to ride the bike for a while.  I know it's good for me, but it's a bother.  I take my Kindle reader with me, which helps.

 



 

 



Thursday

I got out the information I need to do my income tax, and it is sitting on the table, waiting for me.  It may have to wait a while, as I am in the middle of painting the side of an old barn with a lantern hanging on it.  I do have my priorities!

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Listening to Willie Nelson on my iPod.  I could listen to him all day.

 

 

As I look back through my files at photos I took in past years during April, there seem to be a lot of pictures of snow! Imagine that!  Here are my garden rabbits, wearing hats of snow.

 

 

 And a picture of the old pump sitting by the front porch.  I think I brought this pump home from Shelter Park.  I also had the pump that came from my parents' place.  My brother took that home with him when I moved.  He pumped a lot of water from their well with it.  I was too small (and weak) to even get the handle down!  So I never had to pack water.  By the time I was big enough to do it, we had water in the house.

 

 



Wednesday

I didn't go to art group today.  For some reason, I woke up at 2:00 and never was able to go back to sleep.  I finally got up and read a while, and went to sleep on the couch about 6:30.  I'm going to blame it on something I ate.
 
Guess what I had for lunch yesterday?  Sour cream raisin pie.  Guess what I had for supper?  Sour cream raisin pie.  Enough!
 
It wasn't as good as what my grandmother used to make.  (It never is, is it?)  I'm sure she used cream skimmed off the top of the milk the cow gave, not cultured sour cream.  Also, I didn't have nutmeg or cloves.
 

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Kick me! I have been thinking about it for awhile now, and this morning, I ordered some yarn and knitting needles to make a sweater.  I got rid of all my yarn and supplies when I moved in here.  I guess I am missing it.

 

 

 

I don't think this is done, but I am.  The mouth definitely needs work, and I may try to fix that some day.  For now, I have three watercolors started that need to be finished.

 

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This is an old picture from the files.  Guess my blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of Kat.  Can you see the spider on the ceiling?







Monday AND Tuesday

Another bright sunny day, and the piles of snow just keep shrinking.  Won't be long now until we have  mosquitoes!!

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I think I have ruined this day.  I woke up full of ambition, planned to work on the colored pencil drawing, maybe finish it, and work on a watercolor.  Instead of that, I made French toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs.  Whoa!  That was overkill.  Now all I feel like doing is sit on the couch and read.

 

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And now it's Tuesday.  My movie "Spirit of the Wind" came yesterday.  What a great movie.  It's about an Athabascan Indian in Alaska, George Attla.  He became one of the most winning mushers in the world, and won the Anchorage Fur Rondy for many years.  He had tuberculosis as a child, spent seven years in a government hospital, and his right knee was fused, so he had limited use of that leg. 

I never knew he ran in the first Iditarod, and placed 5th.  He preferred sprint racing, and never entered the Iditarod again.

 

 

 It was filmed in Alaska, and most of the cast was made up of locals, some of them related to Attla.  Two famous actors, Slim Pickins and Chief Dan George played prominent parts.

Beautiful scenery, wonderful dogs, good music, and a great story.  I especially enjoyed seeing the family setting up their camp and fishing for salmon with a net and a fish wheel in the river.  They caught salmon for themselves, but depended on the fish to feed their dogs through the winter.

The mother was cleaning fish with an ulu knife.  I have one, and use it a lot, but I sure can't handle it the way she did.

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I have a sour cream raisin pie in the oven, from my grandmother's recipe.  My grandmother used to bake it for all the holiday dinners for my brother and me, because we were the only two who really liked it.  This one won't be as good, though, because I don't have any nutmeg or cloves.  How did that happen?



 



 

Happy April Fool!

Sunday

I watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" last night.  I had forgotten how the movie ended.  It's kind of a goofy movie, but I watched it anyway.

Kasey took my iPad in the bedroom, sat on the windowsill, and used Kat's little "tree" as a desk.  She is wearing her boots because she is afraid the cat will jump out and grab her feet.

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It's that time of year when water and sewer lines freeze in Pinedale.  There were four city pickups there, and one piece of heavy equipment.  They must have gotten it thawed out.  They opened the fire hydrant for a while and had a good stream of water. 

 

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This has got to be the oldest box of toothpicks in existence!  Look at the price!  The box is pretty much beat up.  I have no idea where or when I bought them.

 

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I am washing the quilt on my bed today.  Xiao Ling would wash it, but last time she did, it faded a little bit on the sheets, and she about had a heart attack.  





Saturday

 

Someone posted this cute pic on Facebook.  I edited it and changed it from "Saturday" to "every morning".  Doesn't this make you want to take a nap?

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I just cleaned off the watercolor table, straightened things up, and cleaned the palette KC was using.  I have a clear plastic table cover (which I couldn't find when I moved in here) and will put it on and cut it to fit.  Then everything will look so neat and clean that I won't want to mess it up! 

 

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I went down to the nursing wing this morning.  I just found the book that came with the George Foreman grill and wanted to find James to give it to him.   That's the first time I've been in the nursing wing, but I wasn't even there long enough to look around.

 

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Six days left before the Rockies opening day at Coors Field!

 

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Paul and Tracy took me to the season opener a few years ago.  It was a day we'll never forget!

 

 

This is what it looked like on I70 on our way to Denver. 

 

 

Yes, they closed I70 while we were on it, along with hundreds of other people.  This was before we reached the tunnels.  On a positive note, all the trucks were parked along the highway down by Silverthorne, chaining up.  So there were no big trucks up there. 

 

We still had a fun day.  We eventually got to Denver, drove by Coors Field just to look at it, (game was cancelled) ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and went to the Tattered Cover book store.  By the time we went home, the highway was pretty much cleared.  Kudos to the Colorado Highway Department!

 

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I put the table cover on the table, went to mail a letter, and by the time I got back, Kat had it on the floor!

 

Friday

Finally got Norton Internet Security installed on my computer.  It had expired, and I long ago decided to NOT do the automatic renewal.  Got into a mess with that in the past when several computers were involved.

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Woke up this morning at 7:30 to the sound of two little girls giggling.  Rhonda was watching for Kasey to get here, and wasted no time coming in to play.  Grandma put her foot down.  Good grief, I hadn't even had one cup of coffee yet!  I told Rhonda that KC would be down to find her later.  At 10:00, we went down the hall to the therapy room (where I am riding a bike every day).  Rhonda was settled in on the couch with a blanket, watching a movie on her sister's laptop.  They played in the therapy room, then outside for quite a while, then sat down in the big room to finish the movie. 

 

 

I was following them around all this time. Grumpy Grandma decided four hours was enough playtime, and sent Rhonda to find her mom.  KC is reading a book now.

 

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The UPS man had been here while we were gone, and left two books for KC.  She is reading "Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilet".  Those books are not familiar to me.  I never read them to my kindergartners.  Kasey is enjoying it.

As a result of a class action law suit, I had a $40 credit for books with Amazon.  Didn't take me long to spend it!

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An old photo from the month of March sometime in the past.  Taken in the city park.



Thursday

Cloudy today, and it's snowing right now.  I just came in from outside - - been sitting on a bench outside, reading, and riding herd on two rambunctious little girls.

This Rhonda.  She and KC discovered each other this morning, and have been playing for over two hours.  Her mom is a nurse here.   

 

KC is videoing Rhonda.  They had so much fun that I felt a little guilty making Rhonda go find her mom and made KC come in the apartment.  They wanted to play the rest of the day. I had taken them out front to run and climb trees, and I swear they ran five miles. 

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There were at least a dozen robins outside my window this morning.  Looking a little grumpy with the snow.

 

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It looks like all the windows are in at the new apartments - also the outside insulation.  Love watching the progress.  Dave, the UPS driver, told me he has been inside, and they have made a lot of progress on the interior.

 

 

I know I've uploaded this video in the past, but I found it again to show KC.  We giggled, and watched it four times in a row.

 

 



Tuesday

Almost got caught in the vortex yesterday.  A notification popped up and told me I needed to update my flash player.  No problem, I can do that.  It was a while before I realized I was being asked to install and use Google Chrome as my default browser, use a program that detected if my computer was too slow, -- and so on.  I hope I got the installer shut down before those things were installed.  I did find a small program that was attempting to manage my device drivers, and got rid of that in a hurry. 

But there is something else that snuck in.  Once in a while I get a pop up telling me I need to update Internet Explorer, and I know for a fact I have the latest version.  I will use System Restore, and tattoo this on my forehead:

"I will never, never, never again download a "free" program of any kind."

And maybe I will ignore notifications that I need to update a program.

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I'm so glad Kasey loves to read.  She grabbed a book off the shelves yesterday and curled up on the floor with a blanket and read "Custard the Dragon".

 

 

She also likes to do dishes.  Of course washing dishes is just an excuse to play in the soapy water.

 

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I am getting sick.  KC found some "Barbie" movies on my Netflix account, and is watching one.  I'm hearing all about fashion, Barbie's clothes closet, her hairdos, and her chipped nails.  I may have to put the earphones on and listen to music or something. Maybe I can find a "Dukes of Hazard" movie for her.