2012 March 03

Better (cough cough cough) but not (cough cough cough) well.

2012 March 01

Being sick sucks!
Of all the things my great granddaughter has given me, I like this cold the least.
Wednesday morning I awoke with a raspy cough.  We went into Ankeny to babysit.  I sat in the recliner and went to sleep.  Ella woke me to move the truck so that Beth could leave (I was parked behind her).  I sat down and went to sleep.  Ella woke me to take Charlotte to school.  I returned to Nathan and Beth's and went to sleep.  Around noon, Ella woke me to drive home.
I sat in my recliner and went to sleep.  Around 5 some friends called and ask us to join them at Village Inn for pie.  I went.  I ate half a sandwich and ordered a slice of pie to go.  We didn't stay long.
I came home and sat in the recliner and went to sleep.  About 10:30 Kramer the cat stood on my chest and meowed.  She wanted to know why I was in the livingroom while Ella had gone to bed.
I went to bed.
I slept until about 9 this morning.
I've taken several naps today.
Of all the things that my great granddaughter has given me, I like this cold the least.

2012 February 28

A couple days ago I posted a picture of the moon Venus.  That night Jupiter was also shining brightly.  However, I wasn't close enough to the moon to capture them together with my cell phone.  The following night Jupiter and the moon were much closer in the sky.  Here is the picture ... I know it will not win any awards, but here it is.

Here are a couple pictures of the youngest great granddaughter doing "chair aerobics".

Here he she is in a quieter mood and showing Ella some love.

Melting Snow

2012 February 27 Monday

2012 February 27 Monday

            We arrived at Nathan and Beth’s shortly after 6:30 this morning.  Nathan had already left for work, as usual.  We did have a little time to visit with Beth however before she headed off to school and work. 

            Cierra arrived with the Charlotte and Lorelia around 7:15 which meant we had a little time to visit with Charlotte before leaving to take her to school by about 7:45.  That gave her time to sit on my lap and read the names of the states from a map in a new book. 

            As usual, Ella brought our dirty clothes to wash while we babysit.

            Lorelia spent time sitting next to Ella on the couch and talking / watching something on the iPad (r).  She and I also painted with a new toy which uses an electric paint brush to paint a clear paint (looks like Vicks Vaporub (r))  turns a metallic color on the paper.  She also sat on my lap for a “rest”.  It was supposed to be a nap but was only a rest.  We also watched the Disney Jr. channel (r) for about an hour and half.  Then it was time to take her to preschool.

            After dropping her off at preschool, we took the long way home.  It is such a nice sunny day that we wandered around through some back roads and across the dam atSaylorville.  I commented that I was taking a “Grandpa Wilson shortcut”.  My first father-in-law often took short cuts that were much longer than the direct route.  And these long way/wrong way drives are named in his honor.  I also take the most indirect route when I have the time.  The difference is; I know that they take longer.

            The remark about Grandpa Wilson reminded us that we had not checked with my ex-wife to see how her husband’s biopsy/surgery went.  So Ella called her while I was driving.  The lab work has not been done on the tissue removed.  However, it appears that it was not a cancer.  We also wished her a happy birthday a day early.

Our wandering brought us to the UPSStore where we have our mail box.  Other than new voter registration cards (due to redistricting) there was nothing of interest.

Quiznos sub shop is in the same strip mall as the UPS Store and, because it was almost one thirty, we stopped for lunch.  Generally, I prefer Subway to Quiznos.  However, Quiznos has much better roast beef and prime rib.  So, I had the thick cut roast beef with cheese and mushrooms on herbed bread.  Ella had the mesquite chicken loaded with veggies.  (I don’t care for salads in my sandwiches.)

Arriving at Cutty’s we stopped at the office to pick up Ella’s paycheck for her work camping.  We also signed out the storage area key so that we could retrieve a convection oven that was stored in our storage trailer.  While we were at the trailer, we also did a very small amount of straighten up the clutter.  Real cleaning and organizing will have to wait until the weather is warmer than today’s thirty four degrees.

Even though it isn’t terribly warm, it is bright and sunny today.  To celebrate the sunshine, we drove around the edge of the lake to watch the sunlight dance on the water.  We are also starting to have more geese landing on the lake.  Most of these will keep going but there are a lot that spend the summer here.

            When we got home and unloaded the laundry and the oven, Kramer the cat welcomed us with a lot of yowling.  She is really quite a quiet cat most of the time.  I don’t know why she’s become so talkative the last couple of days.  I know it isn’t hormone; we had that taken care of a L-O-N-G time ago.

2012 February 26 Sunday - yesterday

Sunday school and church for me and work for Ella.  Before we left home I started some beans and ham shank to cooking in the crockpot.  When I arrive home after church the beans were still crunchy.  So we had plan B for lunch.  We had purchased ten fried chicken legs at the deli in Dahl’s grocery on Saturday.  We had six left over from then.  The chicken went well with ruffled potato chips and spinach dip.  V8 Fusion to drink and balance out the meal.  I brought the lunch to Ella and we ate together at the clubhouse.

After lunch Ella returned to work and I went home and recorded a sermon to post on my blog, www.thomasewilliams.blogspot.com.  It was a sermon that I had written about a year ago but I want to create more videos for my blogs.  I was about ten minutes into the recording when Kramer the cat began meowing and yowling.  I guess she thought if I was going to be talking to myself for so long, that she’d join in the conversation.  I wasn’t pleased with her participation and chased her off to the bedroom.

I erased the video and started over.  After about fifteen minutes, Kramer returned to add a few comments of her own.  I just continued recording and left her addition to the sound track in there.  If you want to hear both of our comments, go to the blog www.thomasewilliams.blogspot.com and search for the entry “Free Will”.  It is also guest starring my sixty five year old teddy bear.

            Shortly after five I retrieved Ella from work and we came home and ate the beans before going to church for a Lenten study on the last words of Christ.  The study lasted a little over an hour.

            I ended the day as I usually do on Sundays by watching two episodes of Stargate SG1.  I was surprised to find one that I had not seen before.  

2012 February 26

Moon and Venus last night

"Official" time of sunrise

Moment of actual sunrise

Now off to work (Ella) and church (Tom)