MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing every one a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May the season bring Joy to everyone

Sand Drags

Yesterday we saw in the local paper that the Avi Casino was hosting Sand Drag Races so since we are huge fans of the NHRA and have a friend that races top fuel funny car we thought we would go check out the sand drags.

The qualifying was to start at 10 am so off we headed, of course we forgot about the time change, when we cross the river we lose an hour so we were an hour early. No problem, we just hung out in the Casino for an hour. Didn't have any luck either.

When we walked back to the track, we found out that I had parked the car in the staging area for the racers. Moved the car to regular parking, and they thought I was going to race the villager, silly them.

It was a beautiful sunny day, not windy at all when we first got there, but by the time the qualifying started, the wind had come up, 20 mph gusts and for us it was flat ass cold.

Watched a bit, then headed home to thaw out. All in all, I'd go again although we didn't go today, the high is only in the 50's and with the wind it feels a lot colder. Getting spoiled aren't we.

These are alcohol fuel dragsters.

This is a top fuel dragster, forgot how loud those puppies are, my ears still hurt. Ah the smell of methanol, really cleans out the sinuses.

A couple of ATVs, the kid in the far lane kept trying, he never did win, but he sure gave it a try, I don't think he was any older than 7.

Just a couple more shots of the races, love those rooster tails.

Busy, busy, busy

Haven't posted lately, we've been helping a neighbor with a house that he bought, fixing it up to resell. Hubby has been doing a lot of building and I've had a paint brush in my hand for so long now it's locked in.




Almost done, and non too soon either. We had just finished screening in our porch and we both need a rest, and I want to enjoy my porch now that it's not so hot anymore.

Just a pretty picture

Nothing new here, just a picture of the butterflys in the garden.

I can see or at least it looks like it..

Last Friday we headed to Vegas again, this time to pick up Hubbies new eye. (He still can't see any better though). The Dr. did a pretty good job of matching the color, and personally I think it looks pretty good.

This trip was a whole lot better than the one we made a week ago, we ran into the worst down pour that I think Vegas has ever seen. At times I couldn't even see the road and when you are on the freeway that's pretty scary. Even with the windshield wipers running as fast as they could the only thing I could see was a dim outline of the tail lights of the car in front of me, if that guy would have gone off the road, I'd have been right behind him. Thank heavens it wasn't a snow storm....

I'm still not use to seeing him with an eye and at times I have to do a double take. It has does wonders for his self-esteem. There is some fine tuning that still has to be done, so we have to make another trip to Vegas next Friday, but the trip is well worth the time. The eye socket has to adjust to something being there again, and in time should move with the other eye. It does move some now, but down the road it will track even better.

Latest Project

Can you spot the boat in this picture?

It's just between the palm trees. This is what the front looked like when we moved in .

Well the boat sailed off into the sun set last weekend.

We started out making a stronger post to hold the humming bird feeder because the shepherds hook really swayed in the wind and on days when it was really ripping around here the feeder would be empty in minutes, I would say a few choice words and the hummers would hover in front of the windows asking for food.




So Monday morning after I got the clothes hung on the clothes-line, we took our favorite drive to Home Depot (I should buy stock in that place, most of our money goes there, even more than the casinos get) just to pick up a couple of posts to make a hanger for the feeder.














This is what it ended up as, our very own wishing well. Notice the size of the palm trees, I can't believe they have grown that much in a little over a year and 9 months. If the wind manages to blow hard enough to empty the feeder now I'm afraid that's not all that will be gone.


The hummers are really enjoying their new diner.....

A better picture

My favorite bug returned yesterday, and this time I got a much better picture of him/her.
Call me crazy if you want, but he/her actually looked at the camera and posed for me.

A little more work

After giving the kitchen a face lift, the hall way looked like hell, so out came the paint. It took us just the one day to slap a coat of paint on the ceiling and walls. We also painted the furnace cover. It is totally amazing what a coat of paint will do.


We then decided that it was time for the dishwasher to go, we never use it and it had a habit of emitting this horrendous odor. To put it mildly you needed a gas mask if you were going to risk opening the door. I had tried running it with bleach only, spent copious amounts of money on products that promised to leave it smelling fresh & clean. Yah right. Finally emptied a whole box of baking soda into it, which helped mildly.



At any rate, the dishwasher had met it's demise and out it came, Hubby built shelves in the void that was left and the end result is rather to my liking, and has given me a wee bit more counter space since the various items that graced the counter now have a home of their own.

Most Interesting visitor

This isn't the best picture, but I just had to post it, these are the most interesting bugs that grace our yard. I see them quite often, but have never been able to get a picture until this one decided to check out the porch light.

One mixed up bird

A little too big to be a hummer................

Face Lift

Last week we decided that the kitchen could use a little paint on the ceiling and on the walls. It should only take us a day to paint. So off to Home Depot we head.

After an hour or so, that's right an hour or more, we are headed home with paneling for the ceiling, two new light fixtures, a new ceiling fan, (the old ceiling fan hung down a little to far and to walk under it was to put the top of your head in danger and I couldn't open the cupboard doors with the fan on) and light yellow paint for the walls. I have that sinking feeling that our two hour job is going to grow into a monster again.

It took one whole day just to put up the furring strips to hold the paneling, we found that part of the original ceiling was starting to detach itself from the rafters and it would not have held up without the furring strips. Another 2 days were spent getting the paneling attached to the ceiling, thank god for neighbors. It took 3 people, Hubby, myself to hold it in place and another person to use the staple gun to shoot it into place, At times I felt like I needed a 45 mag. to shoot, I can see the humor now, but at the times I got rather distressed when I say go left, my left of course, only they were facing the opposite way and moved it their left, which was my right.

The light fixtures went fairly smoothly until we both had a brain fart, and wired the second light backwards, it didn't start a fire, but we did burn out two switches, until we noticed that we had wired the switch wrong. We self installed pull switches to the light so that we could leave the ceiling fan on all the time, but still turn the lights off.

The next few days were spent painting, washing the outside of the cupboards, installing trim and all the piddley stuff that has to be done to get things back to a usable space, (I got to eat out a couple of those days because you couldn't use the kitchen to cook in). I only had one more project for the kitchen and it's face lift would be complete. That was to put something in that hole in the wall. Little Louie finally had a place to call his own, Little Louie is another story in itself, one day I'll tell you all about him.
Done at last....... (Now as I look around, that hall way could use some paint......)

Pets

I would like to introduce everyone to my wonderful pets, Kegan and purrfect. I must add that they require no care what so ever, I don't have to pick up after them, and the cost of feeding them is nill.

More Roadrunners

It is hard for me to understand these strange birds, they don't seem afraid and will let you walk right up to them, haven't tried to pick one up, and don't think I will. They are rather prehistoric looking.

This one came right up to the door and was actually knocking on the glass. Don't know if it was because he saw his refelection or if he was just letting us know he was there and wanted a hand out. He also left me a present. (poop)

The lady across the street puts left-over cat food out for them, so I'm not sure if he had his houses mixed up.

They are really a strange bird-no pun intended.

New DSL

I didn't realize that I had been living in the dark ages when it comes to the computer. Yesterday (15th) I had dsl installed for the computer so that we could be on line and still get phone calls.

I'm getting rid of the cell phone since I can't use it half of the time because there isn't any service, Verizon LIES, you really can't (Can You Hear me Now) in Bullhead City.

I'm saving at least half of what my phone bills were when we had the cell phone, and the regular phone with dial-up for the computer, and it will probably result in me spending more time on the computer. Oh no, there goes all the other projects I had going just to keep me busy. Life is really fun......

It's been awhile

No excuses for not posting lately, just lazy although we've been pretty busy. Hubby has 5 more treatments to go and then we are finished with that. Hopefully the machine doesn't go down and result in adding more days to the treatment.

Finally decided to remove the killer cactus in the yard, every time we'd do work out there, I'd somehow end up in the cactus, result- cactus is gone.

Haven't even had the roadrunner around, not since he tried to make a nest in the flower pot on the porch. Put a stop to that right quick.

Time to go for now, company comming. Kids from New York here for a visit.

Reporting fraud billing to insurance company's.

This is one that you may find hard to believe. When Hubby had the eye removed, the anesthenist billed for that, then they billed for a tubal ligation (on a male no less) this billing went to Medicare and to tricare.

I called the anesthenist and told them that they were billing for an impossible procedure and they needed to clean up their records. They agreed that they were in the wrong and would correct the billing, they billed again the following month for the same thing. Now I'm pissed and am going to report them for fraud.

I then called Medicare, they told me that since Medicare didn't pay for the tubal ligation that there wasn't anything they could do. No problem, they didn't pay, don't worry.

I then called tricare, they told me that even if it is fraud, (they paid) that the Dr who did the billing has to call them and tell them they billed wrongly, (like the Dr is going to call and say: hey I didn't do this take your money back. Ya Right. I told the lady at tricare that this was fraud, she said: well if the Dr. doesn't tell us that, there's nothing they can do.

Go figure, they tell you to report fraud, then when you do it's; so what do you want us to do about it.

New bird at hummer feeder.

Is this one messed up road runner or what, he has decided that this is his yard and every so often we see him at the hummer feeder. He is getting so he doesn't seem afraid of us, and usually during the heat of the day makes a day nest under the lemon tree. If I hadn't taken a picture of him on the feeder, I don't think anyone would believe me.

Not much new here

A front view of the house, it was lavander, but painted it this spring. Don't get me wrong, I like the color lavender, but not my house.

The boat was built by the previous owner, I think it's rather neat.

Not much going on here. Hubby has had 8 treatments so far and haven't noticed any side affects yet. He has a 3 day reprieve, no treatments until Tuesday the 5th.

Yes, it's happened, the roadrunners think that this is their yard and have taken up permanent residence. We have to chase them out of the yard when we are outside, never thought I be one to chase birds away. They get rather upset with me when I hang clothes on the line and actually got verbal, a clacking noise, when we were trying to bar-b-que the other night. Had to turn the sprinklers on to get him-her to leave the yard.

The mask is used to hold his head in position while they do the radiation, as of today, he has had 3 treatments, only 6 1/2 weeks to go.

Afternoon visitors

This is just the babbies, hope they haven't decided to move in permently

Had a couple of visitors this afternoon. A momma roadrunner and two little ones. The one nearest the fence is the mother.

Quiet day.

Today was one of those days that went rather good. Baked finnish cardamom cinnamon rolls which does just about take up the whole day. Ended up with 5 pans, 6 in each, of course the first pan out of the oven was gone before it was completely cooled and I wonder why I'm gaining weight, although Hubby did help me with a couple of them. Talk about comfort food, I always get warm and fuzzy thinking about Grandma A. when I make them.

A short story about us.

Hubby recently had his left eye removed, had a melanoma, and after 18 months of driving from Bullhead to San Diego hoping against all hope that he would regain the sight in that eye. By a fluke of having to monitor eye pressure before cataract surgery in the left eye, the Dr. we saw here was a little concerned because there was another growth on the outside of the eye, and contacted the Dr. in San Diego about his eye.

Now here's a good one for you, we go back to San Diego, the eye Dr. there schedules the cataract removal, we get to the center at 6 am, which ment leaving the place we're staying at 4 am. We get to the eye center, and they tell us they called and left a message (upon checking when we get back to where we are staying at his Daughters place, no message) that the appointment had been changed to 12 noon. We decide to go shopping, no sooner do we get into Poway CA, and they call my cell and tell us to hurry back, it was a mistake, they want him now.

We hurry back, make it there by 8 am, they tell us it'll be just a little while and they will take him in. (right). Going on noon, they're ready for him. Finally.

Now comes the good part. They take him back, prep him for surgery, give him a happy shot, and wheel him into the operating room. The Dr. comes in, pulls down the left eye lid, say yup there's a growth there, can't do cataract surgery now. The eye has to come out.

Needless to say, we came home, got ahold of the Dr. here and had the eye taken out. (they wouldn't let me take the eye to Arbies, I only wanted it for a short while and I promised to bring it right back after I found it in my salad). They did let me see it before they sent it to the lab, which then it ended up going to John Hopkins. Guess it saw quite a bit of country on it's travels.

He starts radiation therapy this week, not yet sure the exact date, either thursday or friday. The oncologist made him a really neat mask that he wears during the radiation , it's to hold his head still. I haven't seen it but from what he tells me it's really neat. I'm going to take the camera when he goes for his first treatment and have the tech take a picture of him for me since they won't let go in to the treatment room with him.

Time to go, have to get the clothes off the line.

Getting my feet wet.

First of all I must say that this was never my intention to start blogging, but while reading my sons site I wanted to post a comment to him, and lo and behold I had to sign up for this and that and next thing I knew here I am. Don't ask me how I got here, I was wandering again and when that happens any thing is quite possable. So Thanks tatoshka, I still love you and who knows I might even be good for me and keep me out of trouble.