HoundBlog

Did nothing at the dog show — Tigger won his class both days but that was the closest we got to any points. We had a great spot for the camper, though with tons of room and although we let the club use it for their health clinic, it was no big deal. Ken went to work when he finished showing and I laid down for a nap. It worked out just fine.

I was a bad person last week and didn’t hit the gym once, but I did stop today and work out on the machines. I tried to do the treadmill, but gave up after 1/2 mile because my calves kept cramping. I’m sure it has something to do with the heat and all the water I’m drinking these days. Guess I need to get some bananas to keep the potassium levels up a little higher.

It is hotter than all get out here. Got up to 99ºF today which is too hot for the first week of June. We’ll be broiled by August at this rate and of course, while the Midwest is drowning, we’re dry as a bone to top it off. My flowers are parched. I noticed the blackberry bushes looked like they had a ton of berries on them, but today they appear to be all withered. No wonder the birds are flocking to my feeders like they are.

The Blue Grosbeaks are raising babies in the purple martin house – I have two pairs of them. The Cardinals have raised a big clutch of 4 and they’re all 6 of them at the feeders tonight. The Carolina Wrens have abandoned ship — headed for cooler climes I guess.

Ken says he’s feeling better but goes back to the doctor’s on Wednesday, so we’ll see what she says.

That’s it for us!

Love to all,

Margaret

Leaving as soon as Ken gets home for Asheville and the dog show this weekend. He’s got the truck hooked up to the camper, so it’s just a matter of putting the dogs and any last minute things in it and we’re off.

I groomed the dogs this morning before work and did toenails and cleaned teeth just a bit ago. Then I went to Greenwood to see if I could find someone to cut my hair. I had to stop at 3 places before I could find anyone and she did a fine job for $15. Funnily enough, her name is Linda Cox — I wonder if she’s some relationship somewhere along the way.

Gotta run — time to get rolling!

Love to all,

Margaret

I’ve been sadly neglectful of this faithful blog this past 10 days or so. I apologize!

Let’s see… well, you know I got a new car for my birthday, so maybe it hasn’t been that long really.

Ken went back to the doctor yesterday as the pain in his stomach and back hasn’t abated despite finishing the antibiotic. She feels like he now has a second hernia. She gave him steroids and pain killers which  relieved his discomfort a lot and he goes Friday for some massage therapy to help his back and then back to the doctor on Wednesday to possibly refer him to a surgeon about the new hernia.

Chrystalyn called me the other night to wish me a belated happy birthday. She fell the other day and twisted her ankle pretty badly — she’s in an air cast and they are afraid she damaged the growth plates in her ankle. She was supposed to see an orthopedist today, but I haven’t heard how that went.

Chris celebrated his birthday on the 2nd. I know Ken talked to him, but I had a meeting last night and forgot to ask what they talked about and how everybody was.

We have a show in Asheville this weekend. We have 3 Whippets and Payne (crested) entered. Keep your fingers crossed for us! When that show is over, Payne leaves with Angela and Michelle to go to a couple of shows in Arkansas. She’ll be gone a total of 3 weeks as they are going to Texas the week between the two Arkansas shows. I’ll miss my little girl! I know she’ll be good for them, though.

Work has been steady. We’re going to be upgrading the software on the 21st. We were going to do it this weekend and I was going to have to drive to Greenville Saturday night to get it done, but they decided to put it off a couple of weeks so some key people could get back from vacation.

Well, I think that catches you up on us. See, you weren’t too out of it.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, we never made it to the movies.

we went to breakfast at our favorite place, the Golden Corral in Anderson, then went to Sam’s Club just to look around. There wasn’t anything there we couldn’t live without, so left.

Ken wanted to stop at the Suzuki place and look at what they had. You all know how I feel about car shopping. I really hate it. But, that’s what he wanted to do and so that’s what we did. We looked at a little Reno hatchback that showed 33 mpg highway on the sticker. Of course a salesman came out to ask if he could help and started telling us about the car. Ken told him we were looking for something that got better mileage than the van for day-to-day driving and wanted a car payment around $200 per month. We never expected them to get anywhere close, but evidently the car business is so bad, they couldn’t let a live one off the hook that easily. While they were running numbers, we looked at other cars on the lot and found this SX4 which I think we both fell in love with at first glance. We asked about this one, again never expecting them to come close, but they did! Not only that, but we qualified for 0% interest!

So now we’re the proud owners of a 2008 Suzuki SX4 in "deep sea blue" and oddly enough, that makes us patriotic as well, since we now on a red truck, a white van and a blue car.  It’s supposed to get 38mpg which is a great deal better than the Dodge van gets (23) and a little better than the Venture got (30). We traded in the Venture which they gave us Blue Book retail for (!) on trade. It’s paid off, so there was nothing owed on it, plus they knocked $2,000 off the list price of the car. For once in my lifetime, we drove off the lot in a brand new car owing less than it’s worth. I sure never anticipated a new car for my birthday! Thanks, honey! 😆

Love to all,

Margaret

I apologize for my absence lately. I have no excuses — just haven’t had anything to say really.

Ken’s been down with his first ever attack of diverticulitis. He’s been quite uncomfortable with it, but hopefully he’ll be feeling better soon. At least he had this long weekend off from work and I’ve made sure he hasn’t done too much all weekend.

Yesterday he had a lot of distractions in the form of races on TV so that was good. I drove up to Greenville while he was watching the Indy 500 to see my friend Lee and on the way home, stopped at the gym to work out. He sat up until whenever the NASCAR race finished last night — something he can’t do when he has to go to work the next day.

Today I think we’re going to go see the new Indiana Jones movie. We’ve enjoyed all the others although it seems like the boys went with us to see those. It won’t be the same without the enthusiasm of blood thirsty young teenaged boys to pump up the exciting spots.

Eddie called me yesterday while I was at Lee’s. He was taking Randy for a walk — or Randy was taking him for a walk — that wasn’t 100% clear. He said the weather up there was finally nice enough for an outing. He’s going on what he called mids next week — I think that means he works a second shift schedule. Yvonne is fine and Randy was chattering up a storm.

I caught my first hummingbird of the year on disc yesterday — a little female who was quite curious about the camera since she came close to the window to check it out. The males are proving to be rather shy about having their picture taken. Last year the birds seemed oblivious to my snapping photos left and right.  As you can see, I have a new feeder — the old one developed a leak and had to be tossed.  That was a bummer as I liked the hot air balloon. This one is OK.

Well, you’re now officially caught up on all that’s going on with us. See- told you there wasn’t much to talk about!

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning! It’s a bit overcast here, but I think it will burn off and be a really pretty day today!

My wild birds have been giving me a show this morning. I’ve seen doves courting and two house finch females flirting with the same male who seemed to not be able to make a choice as he flew away and the two girls went back to eating — just like a woman to eat when she’s rejected by a male 😛

I was also treated to the sight of a new bird to my feeders — one I’d never seen before! It seemed co-incidental that just yesterday, on the South Carolina Nature Notes, the fellow was talking about receiving an email from someone describing seeing this beautiful iridescent blue bird and he identified said bird as an indigo bunting. When I saw this gloriously blue bird on my feeder (immediately recognizing that it wasn’t a bluebird), I thought WOW! I’m seeing an Indigo Bunting, but when I went to look it up online, my pictures didn’t match the images that were coming up. What I have instead is a Blue Grosbeak. I put other photos of it on the photo log, but isn’t he pretty? I guess the word is getting out in the bird world that there are some good pickin’s over here as this is the 4th new species that’s come to the feeders so far this year. The Cardinals, Gold Finches, House Finches, Sparrows and Doves have always been here, but Carolina Wrens are fairly new, Rosebreasted Grosbeak, Brown Headed Cowbirds and now the Blue Grosbeak are all new this year.

Well, I need to get back to the grindstone, but just had to share my new friend with you today.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning! Although it’s just barely still morning….

Ken did really well at the shows in Gray this weekend. Tigger was Winners Dog and Best of Opposite Sex for a point on Saturday and was Reserve Winners Dog on Sunday. Ms. Payne (that’s the hairy ugly, Ma) was Best of Breed on Saturday and Winners Bitch and Best of Opposite Sex on Sunday for a point each day. I think that gives them both 8 points each, so only 7 to go with them both needing one more major win.

I spent most of Sunday in bed as allergies struck me down like a hammer to a nail. I’m better today, but that’s a relative term. My voice is really croaky sounding and I can’t breathe very easily through my nose which is also dripping like a leaky faucet.

I went to the Jackson Perkins warehouse on Saturday – it’s not really a warehouse as it’s in an old Lowes building, but man did they have a ton of stuff! Bird houses, bird feeders, pretty wrought iron trellises and this on top of all the plants and bulbs. All their bulbs were on sale for $1 per pack, so I bought Dahlias, Gladiolias, Star Gazer lilies and Begonias. Now I just have to find time to plant them. Of course they had roses galore as well as other plants. It was an experience!

Well, I need to get back to work!

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, I did it.

I joined a gym yesterday and did my first workout.

I’ve been thinking about it for some time now — I just have to do something to get my weight under control. I’ve been really fortunate to avoid high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes for this long, but it’s only a matter of time if I don’t take some kind of action.

I looked into a couple of places before I decided on this one. With all the Curves places around, that was the first one I looked into, but it’s way too much high-impact stuff that would not work well with my knees in the shape they’re in. I needed someplace that was convenient and that had machines I could work on, treadmills and stationery bikes — the treadmill and stationery bike was what the orthopedist recommended. So, I found this little place tucked into the corner of a shopping strip that I drive by on my way to and from work. I elected to do a trial membership for a month just to see how it went instead of committing to a whole year. It cost a bit more, but then I’m not out the 11 months they want to charge if you don’t come.

I walked on the treadmill for 25 minutes — that was 4 laps at my max speed of 3 mph whatever that means – I think I walked 3/4 of a mile. Then I tried the recumbent bike, but either my knees were already swollen from the walking or they just don’t want to bend far enough to do that because I could only stand it for about 5 minutes. My plans are to go 3 times a week. I may have to change the day I talk to Mom to Thursdays instead of Mondays or we’ll have interrupted conversations since the gym is about halfway home.

Our photos from the chapel finally came and I’ve gotten them all scanned in. I keep looking back at the pictures I took while we were in Vegas and remembering what fun it was. I think I have a pretty good looking hubby who spoils me terribly. We’re talking about going to England for our 30th. That ought to be pretty memorable.

Today I need to go to Sam’s Club to get the bi-weekly dog food shopping done and get the oil changed in my van. I called Charlotte to see if she wanted to go to breakfast, but she had just woken up and wants to call me back later. She said she had to pick up a dog at 9:00, so she can’t wait too much later as it’s 8:00 now. 

I talked to Ken at 6:00  and he had a ring time of 8:00 so I guess he’s showing his dog. I’m sure he’ll call me to let me know how that went. 

I reckon I need to go get dressed as I need to get this show on the road.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, Ken is almost to Gray. He’s had a pretty uneventful trip if you don’t count the heart attack over the total to fill the gas tank 😛

I emailed a friend of mine to see if she could look out for him (if she’s going to be at those shows). I’m sure she will — she’s a nice lady.

He’s still giving me grief over deciding to stay behind, but he’ll get over it. He’ll probably do really well without me there to give him bad luck.

Not much to talk about today It’s quit raining and the sun is out for the time being. I’m sleepy since the hamsters wouldn’t get off the wheel last night, so I couldn’t get to sleep until the wee hours. Maybe I can get caught up over the weekend.

You all take care!

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning! It’s cloudy and spitting rain today. Would have been a great morning to sleep in, but here I am at work again and already slaving away.

I had to go home yesterday at 9:30 AM as I forgot my power supply for my laptop, so battery only lasted about an hour and a half. I felt really stupid forgetting it, but guess it was inevitable that would happen at some point. At least I haven’t totally forgotten the computer.

Anyway, first thing I did upon returning home was to order a back up power supply. I’ll probably leave that one in a drawer here at work. It should be here in a couple of days.

I’m always able to get more done working at home (or at least I feel like I do) thanks to an ability to focus on the task at hand and having very little in the way of distractions. Around here, there’s always someone stopping by to chat or something going on, so I get pulled away from projects. Sometimes that break is useful especially when I’m stuck on something, but more often it’s a pain in the tail.

I was reading a blog the other day that had a list of exercises you could do in your office/at your computer. It cited the benefits of exercise and talked about just doing 5 minute intervals of exercise every hour or so. I can’t drop and do 50 pushups nor can I drop and do 50 sit-ups — there just isn’t room on the floor of this cube to do that, but I can do the 5 minutes of shadowboxing. Now what my fellow workers will think of that is another question. No worry about the birds 😛 Envisioning someone’s face that has irritated me being the recipient of my punches might bring other benefits as well as just exercise. 😆

Ken leaves tomorrow for Gray, TN and the show up there. I decided to not go to this one. Only two dogs are entered — Payne and Tigger and Ken can handle that pretty easily. It will save us the $30 for a pet sitter which will help offset the cost of the fuel up there. He’s complaining about the price of diesel and is regretting our offering the use of our camper at Asheville next month for their health clinics. I think I can manage to use the expense as a tax deduction on our income tax next year, though. It’s for a charitable cause after all.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when the UPS truck pulled up and tooted his horn. I hadn’t ordered anything (other than the laptop power supply which would have been totally weird to get that mere hours after I placed the order). Anyway, it turns out Ma sent me a little sweeper thingy. I had seen it in her apartment and remarked that I should order one for myself as it would be lots easier to use instead of pulling out the vacuum cleaner every day. She must have hopped on the phone and ordered it Saturday before I got all the way out of the parking lot. Anyway, I put the battery on to charge last night and will get to test it out on my accumulation of dog hair, dust bunnies and birdseed when I get home from work tonight. Should be quite the test!

Well, now you know everything there is to know about us. Back to the grindstone!

Love to all,

Margaret