Dackel Princess

It’s All About…Paying Bills

Lili woke me early on Wednesday so she could go out and commune with nature. Since I find it impossible to go back to bed once awake, I made the coffee and sat down to read the email.

Shortly before 8 AM, the Oil Company delivery woman arrived to fill the tank. She is so amazingly kind and makes a big fuss over the dogs. I really enjoy her.

This got Jack and me to think about how much we have spent on heating oil (also heats our hot water), and currently we have spent over $2000.00! Yes, when you see gasoline prices go up at the pumps you can be sure that home heating oil is a lot more expensive.

All this and we keep the heat between 65 degrees in my bedroom to 70 degrees in the family living area. We are careful with our use of the furnace and we make sure that it is well cleaned each year. Still, the bills pile up.

Getting plowed out is another big expense. Currently, we are about $1000.00 in the hole. It is getting very expensive to survive a winter living where we do.

I’d love to move into a much smaller home. With a short driveway that wouldn’t be so expensive to maintain.

Wednesday was beautiful and sunny and warm. If it could be like this every day until official Spring I would be so happy.

I sat outside for a little while and watched the birds swooping by and the smaller birds come to my feeders. Very soon I will need to bring the feeders in at night. The Bears may wake early this year!

Tomorrow I plan to take Arnie over to see his special friend, Rebecca. I stopped in at her shop today and the look on her face told me she feared that Arnie wasn’t well or had died. I quickly told her that the Prince was well, and I would bring him in soon.

Thoughts

Tuesday I finished up programming our laptop computers. I needed to make a change in the actual program going into the configuration files, and I was nervous, but the changes were made, and yippee! I did it and I learned a little more about the programming wonders of computers.

Quite honestly, I’d love to take a few courses. I think I could add to my knowledge and who knows, maybe you’d call me for help sometime!

I will be getting my Corona Vaccine in April and after that…who knows!

I thought a lot about Greta during the day. March 9th would have been Greta’s 17th birthday.

Me with a very young Greta.

You know, it’s funny, but I remember all my pup’s birthdays and we always celebrated with them with a cupcake or something.

Greta’s 3rd birthday complete with cake.

Lili’s birthday is coming up on St. Patrick’s Day. Lili will be 7 years old this year. It goes too fast.

OMG!

I once again need to thank my former computer Guru, Brad. You see, after being inundated with horrific SPAM, I finally called to find out what the heck was going on with my ISP.

Well, the company that purchased my Metrocast Internet Provider two years ago, and promised us that nothing would change, decided it was too costly for them to pay for SPAM protection for those of us with Metrocast. We needed to change our service over to them, which required an email change.

So on Saturday, I set things up with the new company to change our email, and to have it forwarded for 6 months while we batten down the hatches.

It was a bit more involved because our email program wouldn’t just allow me to change things. I needed to download the files from our email, back up our address books, and then delete the old email program, and then reinstall it with the new email address. After that, move the files back into the program.

Now, I know how to do it, but my gosh, it was for Jack’s email address and my two, an awful lot of work.

Fortunately (or unfortunately as the case may be) I was suffering from a cold and a sore back. So, being quiet and doing the work on both laptops was probably a good thing.

However, that being said, by the end of Monday I was exhausted. (And also ticked off at our ISP Service for

Not telling us that they were going to stop email SPAM protection,
And also causing a mess, as they said our email would be forwarded to the correct new email addresses, but I am getting ALL of Jack’s email. (And he gets a lot!)

So life is going on and it’s my hope that the worst is over. I still need to call them to fix Jack’s Metrocast email from being forwarded to me.

Please pass the Aspirin!

Happy Birthday, Quinn!

My sweet grandson turns five years old today. It’s amazing how quickly time has gone.

I certainly remember before Quinn was born, but somehow it feels like he has always been with us.

My favorite picture of Quinn, right now.

Quinn is quite the little man now. So grown up and interested in everything. He is also amazingly interesting. At five years old he carries on long conversations that make perfect sense.

He loves life, Spiderman,

building things, making noises for his cars and airplanes, and is so very much a boy! I smile just watching him!

One of the nicest things Quinn has ever said to me was that he had a great time hanging out with me! High praise from a five-year-old!

So here is a short montage of the best pictures of Quinn from birth, until last year. Due to my computer issues, I wasn’t able to make a new one, so I added some current pictures to this post. Oh yes, and the song? Well, who knew back in 1968 when I first heard this song, that one day I would have a grandson with the same name!

Happy Birthday, Quinn!

A New Look

On Saturday I was still fighting a small cold and a sore back. Have you ever wondered how easily things are damaged when really, you’ve done very little to injure your back? Yes, well, such is the case with my darned back!

I was thinking that it was time for me to put to rest my old header and some sidebar pictures of my Anneliese. It was time to move forward.

I sort of knew what I wanted to do, and the pictures I wanted to use, but it just wasn’t right until Header number 7. Then I knew that this is good and I loaded it up.

What do you think?

The middle pictures are of Greta’s first litter and amongst the puppies are both Arnie and Anneliese. But they’re babies and it does not pain me the way the pictures of my old girl did.

We’ve also developed the new normal around here. Arnie and Lili are good pals and live quite harmoniously.

It is also nice to live normally with dogs again. In the end, Anneliese was taking so many medications and then at the very end, nothing was helping her. But that is past and now I feed the pups twice a day and life is wildly normal.

The Friday Five ~ March 5th

This week really flew by. I had so many problems to solve and I spent more time than I wanted to on solving them. Ugh! Not all of them have been resolved, but that is a post for another day!

Here is this Week’s Friday Five!

I saw this funny bit by Bill Engvall on Facebook and it made me laugh as I thought about my Lili and the dachshunds.

In fact, on Thursday I was walking Arnie outside and the two neighbor dogs were outside with no supervision. They began to bark, and one of them came over the stone wall toward Arnie! I was in my slippers and down parka and I went running through the deep hard snow to “save” Arnie and twisted my leg. Ugh! Anyway, watch the clip and have a little laugh!
Jack has now had his second Moderna Shot for Covid. Today I was able to make my appointment for April. Baby-steps! But at least I am moving in the right direction!
We have more wind again. This is the type of wind that rattles your windows and doors and makes everything sound so loud! I wonder if we will have power outages?
Will any of you watch Oprah’s ~~hatchet job~~ interview with Meghan and Prince Harry? I do not think I will. You see, I look at MM and PH as being two spoilt brats who think the world owes them. And somehow MM has convinced PH that she is Princess Diana and needs his devoted protection! At least this is my opinion. Oh, gag! No, I won’t be watching.
Lastly, this weekend is my grandson’s birthday! He will be 5 years old. I remember the day he was born so well.
Savi, Quinn’s other Grandmother, and I all came to the hospital right after he was born. I always joke with Quinni that I changed his first day’s worth of poopy diapers! And you know, I loved every second of it! Now Quinn is a big boy and so very remarkable.

I adore my grandchildren and they are God’s greatest gift to me!

Well, that is this Week’s Friday Five. I hope you have a great weekend!

TBT: Melodie & Me

I think this was taken when I was in fifth grade. Melodie must have been in High School. Those were two of my favorite dresses ever! Sadly the white one never really fit me well. But that chocolate brown dress with the funky collar I wore over and over until it no longer fit me.

It’s about the only time Melodie was taller than me. Shortly after that I went through a growth spurt and left her far behind! In the end, I was 5 feet 8 inches tall and she was 5 feet 3 inches.

Whines~day Wednesday

Tuesday was my first dental exam in a year. I’d been putting it off due to my own Covid Fears. However, I finally gathered up my courage, and off I went.

I was a little worried I might have cavities, and I know my jaw clenching isn’t a good thing.

All that being said, I came through my exam with flying colors, with the exception of tooth #5. It has had a small crack for a few years, but I’m afraid my jaw clenching caused the crack to get worse. Ugh!

So, I must have the tooth prepped and have a crown placed on it. Double Ugh!!!

I go back in one week to start the process and I will be footing the bill for half of this crown! That is $800.00 I will watch fly out the window. But I have made the commitment to keep as many teeth as possible, so I will cough up the money. The insurance company pays the other half. That is one very expensive tooth!

On the weather side of things, we had zero degrees Fahrenheit with 45-50 MPH winds and all the light snow that fell overnight was blown around, causing whiteouts! It sure was fun! Not!

I am sure looking forward to Springtime!

Have a great day everyone!

Bacon, Onion & Brussel Sprouts

1 pound of Brussel sprouts
3-4 slices of bacon
1 tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper
1 small onion chopped

In a saucepan boil, Brussel Sprouts for about 5-8 minutes or until sprouts are tender but still crisp.
Drain and set aside to cool.
In nonstick skillet cook bacon until crisp.
Remove and set on a paper towel to cool.
In the frying pan add onion and cook until the onion is cooked.
Add garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
Stir well.
Add Brussel sprouts and cook until the Brussel sprouts brown.
Place in a serving bowl and crumble bacon over the top.
Serve hot! Enjoy!

This is one of our favorite recipes. One way to cook and really enjoy Brussel Sprouts!

The Weekend Wrap ~ March 1st

After writing my Friday Five, I was off to spend a little quality time with my two grandchildren. I left early on Friday morning and drove quite happily down the highway to Mandy and Matt’s home.

I was feeling rather lighthearted as I drove along. I have not driven this route since Christmas Day, and it was so nice seeing all the spots that I know so well.

I arrived early, and as this was school vacation, both Savi and Quinn were home and ready to greet me!

I’d brought a craft project for us to work on (which was not a big hit) and I also brought with me stories I’d written some time ago about my first dachshund called “The Shubi Tales”.

Those they liked and I ended up reading to them for a while. (Note to self: Go through these stories now and correct punctuation and grammar!)

We had lunch, played a new game I’d gotten called “Memory Chess”, which was quite fun. My little darlings ganged up on poor Oma and beat me! But this game is a good one and we enjoyed it.

Late in the afternoon, we all got ready, and off we went for our first restaurant meal since this Covid Nightmare began.

We went to “The Tuscan Village” where they had these marvelous Igloos outside, where you could have your meal. The Igloos are disinfected between customers and are also lit with Christmas lights that change color and are also heated.

I had this marvelous cocktail, an Espresso Martini. It is deceptively delicious and one does not quite realize it packs quite a punch. I had two! And I will say, standing up found me feeling a little light-headed. Thank goodness I was not driving!

Mandy and I shared an appetizer of Calamari, and we each had a wonderful haddock with risotto. Also, Matt had gotten Asparagus on his plate and I took that as he cannot eat Asparagus.

Now I should have stopped there, but I splurged and ate cannolis! They were delicious, but I am sure I will burn in WW hell for this meal! However, that being said, it was so spectacular to be out, in such a festive environment eating such delicious food!

Afterward, Savi’s friend arrived and we were watching the new “Tom & Jerry” cartoon when Mandy asked if this green plastic cup was mine? Yes, yes it was. I opened it, only to find my dental retainer gone!

We looked around and there was Mandy’s dog, Winter, with my retainer in her mouth! The funny thing was it almost looked like she was wearing false teeth!

Do not let this innocent face fool you!

We jumped up and Mandy went one way and I went the other in hopes of capturing the dog! That little American Eskimo puppy was so fast that she outran us both! Fortunately, Savi’s friend, Kinsley, grabbed the dog and we got the retainer back, completely unharmed.

I did not put it back into my mouth, however, until I had brought it home and completely sanitized it!

The next morning, I woke early and looked outside. It was snowing! In fifteen minutes the road was covered, so I jumped into my clothes and loaded my car (remembering all the stuff I had forgotten at Christmas), and began my trip home.

The roads were not good. I’d expected the back roads to be messy but hoped the main highway would be easily drivable. This was not the case. As I traveled further north the roads became worse and worse. I never drove over 45 miles an hour. There were crazy drivers who sped by going 65-75 MPH, and I am sure that one or two of them were the ones I saw off the road in a ditch. Why do people do this?

I stopped and shopped, for groceries and gasoline and then proceeded home. I’d departed Mandy’s at 7 AM and after shopping and the drive, I did not get home until 11:30. But I did it! And not a skid or slip along the way!

The rest of the weekend I watched mindless TV and cooked meals. Oh yes, and the inevitable laundry, that seems to multiply overnight!

The week will be filled with doctors and dental appointments. The usual when one is advancing into their later years!

My hope is that New Hampshire will get enough vaccines so that people over the age of 60 will be eligible sooner. (currently, my group will be in May or June) Right now our neighboring State of Maine considers 60+-year-olds being in a high-risk group, while New Hampshire sees us being just as hearty as a 55-year-old. Trust me, this is not the case for most people I know.

So that is it for my Weekend Wrap! Have a good week everyone!