Night Visitors 2

Tandi is up to two 10-minute walks per day now, though still not able to be with other dogs, as she gets too excited and wants to run or dance around. I try to take her when I don't think other dog owners will be out, but  I'm not always successful. While coming back towards the house the other day, I ran into Kathy, who has two Westies and another terrier, whose actual breed I can't remember, and lives up the street and around the curve from me.

After asking about Tandi, she asked if she'd told me about the bear yet. "Oh, did you see the bear in my yard?" I asked. She got a confused look on her face, and said, "No, in MY yard." AHA! Seems one smashed her feeders, too, even carrying one into another neighbor's yard. She said the dogs were going nuts, barking like crazy. She now brings her feeders in at night. I haven't bought any more yet, because I'm not sure I'll always remember to bring them in before going to work. The birds will just have to fend for themselves for a while.

Then 2 days ago, my neighbor The Mower Man came putt-putting up to mow my lawn. He lives closer to the entrance to our neighborhood, and he actually saw a mom and 2 cubs foraging around down by his house. In fact, he's had to find a different place for his trash cans. He said Mama Bear had shooed the cubs up a couple of trees while she snuffled around, and then WHOOSH!--she was up a tree in no time flat. Up until then, he'd thought he was okay being several yards away behind a chain link fence, trying to take pictures.

While at Home Depot last Friday, I ran into Mark, another nurse who lives just a few doors up from Kathy. Seems he has a nightly visitor, too--a raccoon. This one is rather bold; he comes right up onto the front porch. Mark said he grabbed his camera and was clicking away, flash and all, while the raccoon simply sat up and posed.

Oh, and Mower Man reported spotting coyote tracks in the field back behind his house, out of the subdivision. While bears will ignore dogs and cats, coyotes will go for them.

Taking Tandi out for a last, late night potty run is becoming disconcertingly treacherous.

Night visitors

I took Tandi out to potty this morning and look what I saw--right out in my front yard!

I think we had bears last night! One of my neighbors, before she died, told me she saw a mom and 2 cubs go through her back yard around 9pm one night, but this was several years ago. I've heard another neighbor say he saw bears go through his yard, too, but I've never seen them.

But what else could bend the pole like this?

Tandi walked cautiously over to sniff, but slunk away very quickly.  All the feeders are empty and I think one of them is going to have to be repaired with wood glue or something.

Who'd a thunk it?

P.S. The squirrels are very confused, too.

I wish malls had stairs like this!

A friend sent this to me in an email:

Amazing, the study of psychology.

Stairs adjacent to a moving escalator .... both lead to the same

upper level.

At first no one took the stairs, 97% of the people took the escalator.

Then a group of engineers got together, and decided they wanted to

change the percentage around.

Notice what these scientists did. Clever. And now they have

reversed the percentages.

66% more people took the stairs.


Now click on the attachment.  (And turn on your sound!)
 
 

Reminds me of the scene in "Big".

Do You Know About Goodreads?

My daughter introduced me to Goodreads a couple of years or so ago. It's a good way to organize all your lists of books--already read, currently reading, or to-read--and post reviews.

 Every month there's a newsletter of new books coming out by authors whose works you've read, or genres you've listed. I like to skim through it and put books on my to-read shelf to find later, because I know if I don't make a note of it somewhere, I'll forget about it.

Last month, I stumbled upon a list of their giveaways. Publishers or authors will make a limited number of their books available to win and choose from those who have entered their names.  Sometimes they're advance copies of books that haven't undergone the final editing, sometimes they're signed copies of books that have been out a while, and sometimes they're just the first copies of a book to be released. There are hundreds, in all categories, and I went nuts finding even more books I wanted.

These are the ones I've won so far:

I've finished The Power of Habit and The Dog Who Danced--both good books.  The book on habits was fascinating, and the book about a sheltie and the people who loved him made me cry and smile, both. Just started The Year We Left Home, and got an email telling me I've won another: Short Scares. It should arrive in the next couple of weeks or so.

Add this to the 726 books and short stories I have added to my Kindle in the year that I've owned it, and I question how there can possibly be time to work.

Seriously, if you love to read, go to Goodreads and check it out. Usually over in the left-or-right-hand columns there will be an ad about some of their books, and sometimes there will be a hyperlink stating "Enter for a chance to win a copy" just under the title of one of the books. Even if that's not one you're interested in, click it, then in the top left hand corner will be a link "all giveaways". You can use the drop down menu on the next page to list them by "ending soon", "most popular", "recently listed", etc. Of course, you have to become a registered member first, but that's easy peasy.  And the more you fill out on your profile, the more information they have when deciding whom to choose. I don't know if they're totally random, but since they really would like you to review their books if you win one, they may choose entrants who have already written reviews, or have similar books on their "to-read" lists, etc.

And if you do sign up, add me as a friend. I'd love to see what you all are reading, and especially, anything you win!

 Remember the catastrophe that was my sewing room?

Well, it's been downgraded to a minor disaster now:

Yeah, it's no coincidence there's a poster for the TITANIC in my sewing room. One good disaster deserves another, don't you think?

It's looking better. At least I was able to do a little sewing this weekend. No quilting yet, but some simple sewing to get back in the groove.

I covered some foam with muslin and then made another removable cover for it and placed it in Tandi's crate:

Her old pad is a fake fur kind of thing I bought at Petsmart when we first got her 5 years ago, and was getting pretty flat, so I opened a part of the side seam and shoved more stuffing into it, then whip-stitched it closed. But as it begins to get warmer, I figured the pad would get too hot and the foam might be a little cooler. Right now I put the fake fur pad on top so it's all super cushy for her.

We have a short pad that I lay out on the floor for when I tie her to the chair. She's still not happy to be confined, but it's better than staying in the crate so much.

Last Monday night, while we slept, she ate her bandage off her leg. As in swallowed it. I'll spare you the details, but she spent Tues. at the vet's getting progressive xrays to make sure it didn't remain in her system. I told you I was under no delusions about her level of intelligence. The vet just shook his head, and knocked $60 dollars off his bill, being as we have put out so much money on that rascal this year. He also took her staples out, saving us a trip to the specialist that was scheduled for Wed.  It's hard to keep her down now, as she's feeling so chipper.
 
Last, but definitely not least, I repaired the binding on a quilt I made my for my daughter years ago. It was my first flannel quilt, and I didn't realize you don't need batting for a quilt that's flannel front and back. This is one heavy quilt. Also, I didn't allow for the bulk when cutting the binding, so it pulled away from the quilt on the front in several places.

I tied this one (At least I had sense enough not to try to quilt it!) so that part's okay, though there was one square the cats had pulled loose and needed repairing. So I hauled the sewing machine to the dining room table and spent 3 hours yesterday machine stitching the binding to the front of the quilt. After a few stitches it was obvious I needed the walking foot, and then the upper thread kept breaking and the bobbin thread kept balling up. Grabbed the manual, loosened the top tension and that helped a little but not much. Searched the manual again and decided the thread must be too old (probably 6 years old), so switched to black YLI Select to finish it. Unless you look really closely, you can't see the areas that are a little balled up, because they're on the back, which is the same fabric as the border.

At any rate, I wasn't going to rip it out and redo it. Did I mention that thing is heavy?? Plus, it goes on the double bed in her guest room, so it won't be used much and I didn't make it to be an heirloom. Which is why I'll be taking it to the laundromat later this week to be washed and dried and then, after a final inspection, be mailed back to her. It's been languishing here for at least 2 years, so I'll be glad to get it off my to-do list and she'll be glad to get it back.

Now to finish the string quilt for her sofa, also started 2.5 years ago. Good thing she loves me, huh?