Didn't get it on TV...

Our local morning shows have a birthday section, where if you email them the person's name, age (optional), and of course what day, the birthday is announced.  

Mom's was coming up, so I got on it EARLY, I sent in the information, nearly a week ahead! I was rather pleased with myself, I usually have to write a note or something, but got it zipped out in no time.

Her day came. The birthday list!  And...

No Mom.  She wasn't on there.  

Let's just say, I was not saying ladylike things to the television...

So. I will put it on here, instead!

My Mom just had her birthday.  

I put this on her cake.  It's a nickname I gave her, when I accidentally spilled root beer where she was sitting, while she was sitting there!

Happy Ones, Mama, only happy Ones!

Family and meteors.

Mom and I were taking care of the weekly shopping Friday.  We'd just stopped for a bit, and were chatting about Parents-in-law coming up.  She asked if I knew when they'd be here.  I told her no, they were well on the way, about one state away, I thought, but not sure.

Mom pipes up, "They are probably here now!"

Tickity tick!  The phone let me know Husband had sent a text. 

Just met with parents, they are headed over to friends to stay. 

Uh.  Mom, do you know what the winning lottery numbers are?  

They have been over twice, once to just visit, and once to pick up the phone that was left... oops.  They intend to visit a few more times, and we have the proverbial fatted calf  ready.  If a fatted calf is pig ribs, with bbq sauce, and beans.  They have... very specific foods they like, so it's best to just get it and be done with it.

And in other things...

This morning was the primo for the Perseid meteor shower.  Husband woke me at about 4:30 ish.  I went out, and didn't turn off any of the lights, but just grabbed a chair and looked up.  There was several brilliant stripes of light, and a few little flicks, as well.  The moon is full, or nearly so, so early morning after moon set was a lot better.  I enjoyed most of it.  I was a bit sad not having Rudee dog snoring beside me, but Buzz realized I was outside.

!

Then realized I was sitting, and she could jump on my lap.

!!!**!!!!!!!!!!!***!!!!

I finally let her sit, after the "let's filet our way up a leg to get a seat".  She then decided to go round, and round, and walk up to my hair for a sniff.  So, a bit of a full Nelson was in order, so I could keep my person in one piece, as well as not having cat parts of various sorts in my face.  

No, she wasn't always looking at me... 

She settled right down, after I put her in a teddy bear hug, and she was purring while I watched the flashes.  It was very quiet, there was hardly a noise out, except for the neighbor's gate clicking in the breeze, occasionally, and the ever present ocean like sound of passing traffic from the road.  Then as time past, soon, cows started lowing a bit, the flap and noise from a flock of nearby turkeys, some horses started out pacing the fence nearby, looking for breakfast, and the wild birds started tuning up for the day.

Soon, the sun started rising, and the stars faded.  So, no more meteors, that I could tell.  So, then I rose, put down Buzz, who was getting a smidge fidgety by that point, and started my day. 

I was already up and about, so I opened the chicken house.  It was still pretty dark, and so ZOOOM, all the chickens see the light from the door opening, and run.  Welllll, one chicken was so intense on that, she didn't see/notice ME.  Poor thing did a face plant right into my shin.  She was okay, just dazed a bit, but she definitely seemed confused.  The oldsters were just not real enthused about the extra early wake up call, the youngsters were thrilled.  Both Mon Ami, and Jet Puff were crowing a bit, both, thankfully, are not loud birds.  I am actually surprised, Jet Puff has a nice crow, for a young bird.  Most adolescents have the "voice cracking" unsteady warble when they crow.  He just... Crows!  

I think there should be more meteors tonight.  If I am not comatose, I might have to get up and watch again. 

And have a blanket, or pad, or something for the cat.... Yeeks!

A wee bit of hooky for me...

I went on a trip last week to the coast.  Husband and I worked out how to give Mom a belated Mother's Day present.  A friend of ours has a place on the coast, and Husband was offered use of it.  After some back and forth, Husband and friend were able to get organized, that Mom and I could go and spend a couple nights.  I, with permission, skipped work the day before we went.  Figured I would do my blog from my phone.

I forgot two items when I went over.  Binoculars, and my password to get into my blog.

AHEM.

Soooo, I will now get back to bloggy stuff... 

It was a nice trip, we went to Newport, and had a nice place to stay.  The first night was just stay in and rest.  Mom loves the chicken soup I make, so I brought a container, and I had made a loaf of Stupid Bread* to go with it.  It's a bit of a drive, so I was sort of glad we didn't go out and make an evening of it. 

I just enjoy most of the activities on the coast, so I told Mom this was stuff she wanted to do.  We ended up going to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, as she'd not seen it before.  I meant to take her to Cobble Beach nearby, but forgot.  It's a bit of a walk to get to, but it sounds like applause when you listen to the waves on the rocks!  We also went to the interpretive center, I enjoy looking at all the "educational and historical" stuff.  Obviously, there was someone who didn't.  I didn't see the girl, but Mom said that there was a teenager that was walking behind the family, nose glued to her phone.  I told Mom, that might be for the good, at least she wasn't ruining the rest of the family's time... 😞 

I pointed out to Mom one of the "Easter Eggs" they have.  From the first lighthouse keeper to the early sixties, there was a book exchange.  They would have X number of books, and then the next time they were supplied, the books would be put in a big box, there would be new ones given, and then the old books would go to the next lighthouse.  Well, they had samples of the books in a crate.  Victor Hugo, Dickens, Bronte... Star Wars...  (I noticed it right off, the docent told me it's to have the kids notice so they will pay more attention, they have sort of a scavenger hunt thing... She also said I was one of the few adults that that noticed. SIGH...)

We also went to a majorly talked about restaurant.  I won't eat the clam chowder there, as it made me sick!  But I found out they have many, many other things to eat, so I told her, if she wanted to go, I would have something else.  I ended up having a cod burger.  Mom had a cup of chowder, and... Something with shrimp?  Anyway, we finished up, and she was okay with it, but said the hype, was hype, it was okay. Not great...  My cod burger, on the other hand, was perfect, and HUMONGOUS.  I was VERY full. 

The next day, we went to Depoe Bay, and went to the Whale watching center.  I guess there was a small whale that had spouted, but I was borrowing the one of many sets of binoculars, to watch boats, and missed it!  Mom saw it, I think.  The ranger was quite sure.  The people that were all glued to the windows, not so much... Oh, well, it was still an interesting stop.

We then went to lunch, at a place we've eaten at for years.  They have changed the menu, and had breakfast until 11:30.  Erk.  We were there at 11:10.  We asked if they were serving lunch yet.  No, the only thing they have ready is clam chowder.  We both laughed, that's exactly what we'd come in for!  So, we had clam chowder.  Quite good, too.  The only oddball thing, I kept getting a whiff of maple syrup.  Turns out, the gent behind me had a stack of pancakes, and was drenching them accordingly.  Fortune would have it, it didn't bother me, just was odd to smell maple, and eat clam...

We then drove home.  WHOA BOY, do people seem to want to drive fast.  I set the cruise to 55, the speed limit on the road home, and I was needing to pull over quite often, as there were lots of people late for pole position at Indy wanting to go considerably faster.  I don't fight it, I just figure, if there's a safe spot, or I can get to the passing lane, let the stinkers by.  I was just sooooo happy we didn't go on a weekend.  We were going HOME on a Friday.  The road going in was bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper...

If I can later, I will see if I can get a picture up.  Being immodest here, but I think I took a very good picture of the ocean... I hope to maybe make it into a poster or some such.

But for now, back to the home stuff!

* I called it Stupid Bread because it was so incredibly dense.  I was making it, and the bread machine tried to commit suicide by leaping off the counter onto the floor.  After cleaning up the dough, (i.e. cutting off the stuff that had managed to actually HIT the floor, eeeewwwww... )  The dough that was still intact was set to bake.  I thought. 

Husband reset it, and it went through the whole process of raise, beat down, raise, beat down, all over again.  It tasted fine, but soft and fluffy it weren't!

Getting into my Christmassy stuff…  I pulled out my Jingle socks.  One bell had fallen off, so I dug out a new one.

(Does it say something about me that I have several hundred jingle bells of various sizes?  Nah.)  

I sewed it back on, and reinforced the others, so they wouldn’t fall off.  Put on a red shirt with stars on it, finished dressing. (Husband thought I should wear green pants to go with the shirt. Um. No. Just… No.)  

Mom and I then went to a local bazaar.  I go to get my yearly fix of divinity.  The past few years, the event has been rather, well...  Not exciting.  I had dubbed it the “4000 ways to make a potholder” event.  Not to disparage anyone that makes potholders, or knits hats, or any other particular handicraft.  It was just that, year, after year, after year, ad nauseum, it was the same blasted stuff.  And it was more or less the same stuff in every booth.  It was a large event, so this really surprised me, after a bit, you would think the vendors would not want to compete with all the same items!

I don’t know if someone in charge agreed with this, or if it changed leadership, or what, but WOW!! The place had completely changed.  They had more food vendors, and lots of handcrafting, but there was carved wood, there was knife making, jewelry, fiber, in both yarn and roving, wooden signs, metal signs, apple cider, just lots and lots of things.  Yes, there still was a few potholders, and hanging towels, but it wasn’t the dead center, only thing for sale.

Mom and I walked, and walked, and walked, and WALKED!  Planning our route back to pick up items that we wanted to get when we left, we both saw some chairs set away from the aisle, and gratefully parked.  Mom mentioned that she was doing okay, she’d taken 2 Aleve, I said I was fair, I’d taken one.  We were overheard by an older gent sitting in a chair next to us.  “I had a shot of Vodka before I left, and I am doing GREAT!”  We all laughed.

We headed back up, and I ended up getting smoked gouda for me, cheese curds for Husband, (though I might sneak one later…) I bought some raw honey, spinning fiber, and took a card or two for ideas for holidays and events later in the season.

I arrived home, tired, but impressed.

Then remembered…  I didn’t get any divinity!    

Hi, Mom!

Happy Birthday to you!

Today is my Mom's birthday.  She was actually born on Labor Day that year (for real), with which we tease her sometimes...  

A woman who seems to have knowledge of things as diverse as how to make several different sewing patterns come together to make ONE blouse.  How to make a musty book not stink.  Several recipes to use up zucchini, including one bread recipe that I wait impatiently for the 'zukes to come up to make. (Ironically, I will have to PURCHASE zukes this year, the slugs ate them all... snif...)  She taught me to cook, to keep a checkbook, tried to teach me to sew (hey, I sew on a mean button...),  has a high tolerance for fun, a low tolerance for... male cattle excrement, and is a generally all around cool person.

Happy birthday, Mama...  Your kid loves you.

(Haven't been writing my blog lately, sorry.  We fixed the modem problem, now the company is having problems with PROVIDING the internet at any speed, we are presently SLOWER than what we used to have as dial up, making up, or down loading anything almost impossible... So, it is supposed to be looked at soon.  Ahem.  Right.  Keep watching for them flying pigs... )

Ahem...

Happy Birthday

to my

Mom!

I forgot to get your birthday on TV, so I put it on my blog, instead... 

Hope you had a good one!

Love,

Your Kid.

(Please feel free to wish my Mom happy returns of the day, as she reads my blog.)

Hello, Mom!

Ahem... Cough. Memememeeee!

Happy Mother's Day,

Mom!

Hope you have a good Mom's Day, Mom...

Pizza?  Don't mind if I do!

And to all of my blog buddies, Happy Mom's Day, or if you aren't a Mom, have yourself one great Sunday!

Hi, Mom!!!

Well, if you are reading this, and you are NOT my Mom, you should know that my Mom is bravely working at finding out about computers, and taking a class. She isn't exactly afraid of computers, but doesn't know enough about them to be comfortable with them.

So. She and my Dad will take a class (Dad already knows a bit about computers, but wants to brush up...) and hopefully Mom will learn enough to be able to get info from websites she's seen on TV, or listen to music, or radio, or just... read my blog!

If you are my Mom... Hi, Mom! This is my blog, if you want to read 'stuff' from it, go to the left under "recent posts" and pick one.

Why has it been so long since I blogged last? I had a cold. A cold that lasted almost 2 weeks. BLEAH!!!! I am starting back to the land of humans again, so hopefully blogging will thusly get back on track. Maybe. If I feel like it... Then again, maybe not.