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dooley
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dooley's Blog




Dooley's leisure time

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:20 am

Yesterday we went to take some pictures which I loaded to photo bucket today. You can see how I spend some of my leisure time.



I've been looking for and finding rocks since I was little. Arizona is a great place to find neat rocks. I'm not a rockhound in the sense that I collect rocks or do polishing or anything like that. In Wisconsin we lived along Lake Michigan and the water polished rocks and glass and washed them up on shore. I picked up quartz yesterday. No gold though a lot of quartz ore does have gold in it. I just pick up rocks that are interesting or have odd shapes. I have one I picked up a few years ago that looks like it has rope or cord wrapped around it. It was in the water so I guess the water must have ate away at it to make it look that way. I picked up several pieces of layered rock. That's sediment build up I think. Over many years, decades or centuries. I just like rocks I guess. Dooley

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A lazy sort of day

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:30 am

It was a lazy sort of day today. We went out first thing to play with Chance. We visited the lower garden. DR took some pictures. It's knee high. Well, it was knee high. Dan came along this afternoon and cut the backyard and the lower backyard so Chance wouldn't get lost. When we was in the lower backyard this morning you couldn't see Chance, only the grass moving as she ran about. There are a lot of flowers out there and things that I didn't plant. I planted the two apple trees and the butterfly bush, but I didn't plant any sunflowers and no cardinal vine and no tomatoes. Of course, I didn't plant the weeds. I did plant coreopsis, cosmos, poppies and Mexican primose, all of which are blooming. The morning glories took over the back gate. You can't even see it now. Chance's back yard did not look so bad, I just cut it last week. The petunias are beginning to wilt. The four o'clocks are doing well. Dan wanted to take a picture, but they weren't out. I told him to come back at four o'clock which he did. They still weren't out so I don't know what they were waiting for. AM I suppose. When we were all standing in the back yard, Chance almost got a vulture. It flew low over the yard and she jumped and the vulture took off. It made another pass but higher this time. None of us were dead so I don't know what it was looking at. Dan tried to get a close up picture on the second pass but missed it. We went up the little hill to the highway and turned in the by pass so we could get a picture of how green the mountains are now. There was a wash near by so I went to look at it while DR was taking the picture. I picked up a lot of rocks. DR took a picture of that too. You have to look out when those two guys are carrying a camera. I didn't get any on the computer yet though. Dan is taking his with a regular 35 mm camera and then getting them put on a disc. Whenever he gets his roll of film done he will e-mail them to me and I can post some of those. I cleaned out the waterfall tub. it was getting full of rainwater and I don't want misquitos to grow. We may get it done before the end of summer. We've been going to look for onyx to put around it but we have to go to the old onyx mine and it's across Big Bug Creek and it hasn't been safe to cross it the last few weeks. It would just be our luck to get across and back in the hills and have a thunderstorm dump on us and we'd be stuck there until it dried out. The paper said only 9 times in the last hundred years have we had more rain during the summer monsoons than we have had during the winter rains. We didn't have much winter rains in 2005-2006. But it said we may have a wet winter. That will probably mean snow. Geez! I hate snow.
Anyway, even with all the rain we've had the whole state is still under drought conditions. It's the snow melt that fills the lakes and water tanks.
We had left over spaghetti for supper and then went out and watched Chance run all over the yard and bark at stuff. She went to bed early tonight. She likes it the three nights we stay home. But, it's back to work tomorrow evening. Dan is coming to make cheesecake to take to a meeting he has on Wednesday.Andy called to wish us a Happy Anniversary. He wasn't home yesterday. They had gone to Chicago with the boys. They went to the King Tut? exhibition and then to the Shedd Aquarium and to the Museum of Science and Industry. They want to go back another time to the last because they were out of time. Ben especially liked the mummies. Jacob liked the T-rex dinosaur. At four and eight they like different things. Well, that's about it for now. Dooley

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small book tonight

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:35 am

The day started early playing with Chance before we left for the day. I worked six hours and she was going to be home by herself for 10 hours. We went to breakfast on the way up to Prescott Valley. The day went fast. One of the volunteers had a birthday and brought sweet cinnamon rolls. After lunch, DR showed up with a box of candy for the staff. They were all happy. They needed a chocolate fix. It was busy and everyone was hurrying here and there. I was putting books away and checking books in and out. The police showed up as I was leaving. One of the ladies accidently hit the panic button which connects with the police department. They really don't like it when you hit it by accident.
We went to the Thai restaurant for dinner. We started with the best soup. A coconut broth with chicken and mushrooms, seasoned with little red peppers, lemon grass, galanga, lime juice and some other unrecognizable thing. I asked DR the name of it and he told me number 10. He couldn't read the word. Galanga looks like a little round piece of a tree branch. It was not meant to be eaten because it felt like wood too but smelled so good. DR says it's related to ginger. The lady said it was too. I had red curry and DR had green curry. The red curry was so hot. We traded. The green curry had some leaves in it that tasted like licorice sort of. Anyway we left stuffed and brought some home. We stopped on the way home and bought ice cream because we needed something cool after the hot curry.
DR bought me two bears at the flea market. At the jewelry store he bought me a string of Kobe pearls. They are shiny and beautiful. He says I have to wear them often because they need the moisture from the skin to keep them beautiful.
He bought Chance several cans of gourmet dog food because they were on sale at the pet store. He really spoils that dog. He bought her a new squeaky ball too. They played with it tonight. We have looked all over for the new squeaky he bought her last week. We can't find it anywhere. It's not inside, it's not outside. Chance probably knows where it is, but she's not telling.
I didn't get DR a present but he says he doesn't need one because he has me. That's the best thing he could say, I think.
My eyes are wobbly. They keep wanting to go shut so I guess I should go and let them have their way. Goodnight. Dooley

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It didn't rain today!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:32 am

I know that some people desperately need rain but I am getting tired of gray skies. It seems since June we've had nothing but gray skies. It doesn't always rain. Sometimes it goes around us. But, it's always cloudy. The forecast ALWAYS says Isolated thunderstorms, Scattered showers or a stray thunderstorm. It NEVER says sunny. You can't believe it anyway. Yesterday, it said a stray shower. We got dumped on and up the hill in Prescott Valley and down the hill in Phoenix, they got flooded. Today, it said partly sunny. Well, yeah, for about thirty minutes. Then here come the clouds.
We had to take our truck for service this morning. We had to be there at 8 am. So we went a bit early because there was so much mud on the truck that DR said they wouldn't be able to work on it. Then, it got washed twice because they washed it in their car wash after they finished. Didn't cost us anything today but next time we have to have some sort of rear end fluid changed and the guy says that's expensive.
We went and had breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants. We only have a few. This one we like because they have two waiters who are very good. One always has our drinks in his hand when we enter. Today, though, we had a girl and she is not good. I ordered pancakes. She asked, regular or whole grain. I told her whole grain. When they came they were regular. I told her that the pancakes were not what I ordered. I wanted whole grain. She looks at me and says, Oh, I didn't hear you! She took them back and brought me whole grain. But it took time and DR was about finished before I got started. Last week after we had done some shopping we stopped at another restaurant up in Prescott. I had to go to work so we couldn't come all the way home. We had not been in this particular restaurant before. It was okay but we ordered and had some food from the salad bar and were eating when we hear, "Hey, Hey, Hey, what are you doing here?" DR said, "We're eating, what are you doing here?" It was one of the waiters from where we ate this morning. He said it was his second job. He works 8 hrs at the first place and 4 hours at the second place. The days don't always match up so he was on his 8th day in a row working. He has a cute little boy and an older boy from an earlier marriage. Boy, 12 hour days. On his feet all the time too. DR told him that he was still young enough to do that. He told DR he felt like he could, but his knees begged to differ with him.
This afternoon, I went out in the yard with Chance. I took my clippers and we went out behind the big shed and cut a few weeds with heavy stalks. I'm going to have to use the weedeater out there one of these days, but I'll space it out a little better this time. I've got to rake up the walnuts out of the grass in Chance's yard so DR can use the lawn mower there. I went into the garden and pulled some weeds and picked a couple of tomatoes and six squash. That's 28 in the last six days. I picked some swiss chard and some kale and oregano and made that for supper with some small steaks done on the grill. I also made squash with cheese and onions. I made biscuits with chopped up rosemary and chives. Chance loves it when I cut rosemary. She loves the smell and sometimes rubs against it just to stand and smell it. My tomatoes are rotting before they get ripe. Too much rain, maybe. But, earlier they were getting sun dried on the vine. Isn't there a happy medium?
We've started gathering firewood for winter. When we went by the elementary school we stopped and asked the custodian what he was going to do with the pile of wooden pallets stacked by the trash dumpster. He said throw them away, why? We put them in our truck and hauled them home. They make great kindling wood. We still have lots of logs that we hauled last year so when we cut up the pallets we'll have what we need for the winter. DR says some he will take apart and use for projects. He's always needing wood for projects. He even makes gates out of them. He made the side gate and Dan made a Celtic Cross for it. There were 32 pallets. It took us two trips. Well, that's my book for today. Dooley

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Done and not done

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:04 am

I've been busy lately. As you know, I started working at the Prescott Library 20 hours per week. I didn't think it would make much of a difference since it is evening hours when I wasn't doing anything at that time anyway. But, I haven't worked for several years and shelving books involves a lot of active work. You are on your feet the whole time. So I had to adjust to it. I neglected things outside and inside to the point I didn't know where to start to get back in order. I did some work with the weedeater and of course overdone it a bit and ended up with sore muscles. Then, we bought those plants and I found I didn't have time to get them planted because of working and doing other things. Then, it rained and rained some more. It seems every day it's been cloudy and gray or raining. I do wish some of the rain would go to places needing as much rain as we needed and still need. I would gladly share some of the weeds with you too. So, I got the mums planted along the flagstone path. I planted them a few inches further away from the path so the tulips will still line the path in the spring. But, it looked a little lopsided because I only had eight plants. DR thought it did to I guess because last night he went and bought eight more. This morning I planted them and now it looks fine. We found plants that had a lot of buds and I hope they will continue to bloom while they are putting down their roots. I couldn't put the wallflower into the ground. The root system was so dry and so rootbound that it was a solid lump. I watered it good and then put it into a larger pot. I will keep it wet until it softens enough to let the roots begin to grow again. I think that will do it.
There are so many things that need to be done that I don't think the list will ever be done. I think I need to spend less time on the computer and try to accomplish it. Some things are done and more things are not done. How did that happen? Dooley

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Not enough plants!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:20 pm

Last week, Julie sent me some flower seeds, but I haven't had a chance to do anything with them. The neighbor told me if I filled some gallon pots with potting soil he would give me some plants from his window box. Two days ago, I was in the garden and saw some pots already filled with potting soil that I filled in the spring and didn't do anything with them. So, I put them over the fence. I noticed this morning they have plants in them so he must have found them. He hasn't given them back yet but maybe he just hasn't had an opportunity.
Yesterday, dr and I went up to Prescott before I had to go to work. He had an errand to do. After we were close to Watter's nursery so I just had to stop to see what they had on sale. We bought a mauve wallflower for half price. It looks good. Just a clearence sale I guess. I told dr it was a good thing we didn't live very close to that nursery. They had a lot of plants on sale. I just couldn't buy them all. But, after we stopped and had something to eat we were still half an hour early so we stopped at K-Mart because it's close to the library. Well, we parked close to the garden dept and went in through there. Mistake? I guess it's the way you look at things. They had potted mums for $1.49 so I bought 8 of them in various colors. Since it is my day off and not sunny and hot maybe I will get out and plant them. dr bought me some padded thingies for wearing on my knees when I garden. They work well but are hard to walk in when you need to go and get something. They do go on and off easy though. I walked out with Chance this morning. It's became a routine thing with her. As soon as I come out of the bedroom she herds me toward the door. I have to go out and check out the whole yard. We even go out in the back, back yard to check for kitty cats. We could get lost in the weeds back there. I got Chance's yard done this week. My back can attest to that. Maybe I can con Dan into doing the rest of it. He's at a library conference in Flagstaff for a couple of days. But, he'll be back. The coreopsis are going strong. Cosmos are starting to bloom. The orange poppies are going well. The morning glories have taken off anything big enough to climb. I had to untwist Cardinal Vines from the apple trees. The butterfly bush has dozens of blooms. I didn't see any butterflies but is was damp. dr says he sees them in the afternoon. The four o'clocks were still open.
I went into the garden. The squash are doing fine. Just little ones this morning. Which is fine. I have at least a dozen in the refrigerator. Maybe I'll cut some for the freezer today. I checked the tomatoes. They aren't doing well, between the grasshoppers and the horned worms, the leaves are disappearing. Lots of green tomatoes though. I checked out the front yard. The half price geraniums are doing well. Growing and dark green. One is getting a flower already. Some stones are falling out of the stone wall in front. dr says it's too much rain at once. It's these gullywashers we have had this past week or 10 days. Toni, come and get some of our rain. I would like the rain to come down nice and gentle and soak into the ground. Instead, it comes pouring down and washes ruts and plants and anything else in its way. Oh, well, at least its rain. We need all the rain we can get with the housing developments that are springing up everywhere. My tea is getting cold. Better stop before I have a book here. Dooley

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Dooley's bear project update

Category: Dooley's bear project | Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:52 pm

The bear project is finished. Here is a photograph. For further details see Jubabe296s blog. Dooley



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weeds!!!

Category: Yard work! | Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 6:17 pm

Since it looked like it might rain again, I decided to tackle the weeds and grass in Chance's big yard. The grass and weeds were a little wet so I had to stop often and clean the wet grass out of the weedeater. But, now it is done. I moved the pots of petunias away from the bridge so I could get the weeds growing close.I found a centipede about five inches long and half an inch wide under one pot. Whacked him with a big rock. They are poisonous. Under one there was a black centipede about three inches long and quarter of an inch wide. Never saw a black one. But, I whacked him too. It is Chances yard. It is probably poisonous too. Some things I move or get someone to move, like the rattlesnake, but centipedes and scorpions always get whacked. Now, I need to take a shower as soon as dr gets done washing things. I cleaned my glasses good because I was seeing green spots. Dr says my shirt is ruined with grass stain. Good thing it wasn't a good one. I can probably soak it or something anyway. I don't have any of that spot remover. It's a big spot anyway. Okay, off to get cleaned up. Need to go to the post office and find a place to have lunch later. I have to go to the lab before work so we'll go early and get that done and then get something to eat. Dooley

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more steps

Category: Dooley's bear project | Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:26 am

I had to add a step between 8 and 9. But today, I finished 9 and 10 and 11. Only two more to go. I think I will finish it this week. I'm ahead of schedule, I think. Maybe not. Dooley

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This week!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 3:18 am

Boy, this week went fast. It seems like it was just Monday. There is always soooo much to get done and I seem to look at it and (working in a library with access to lots and lots of books) I sit down and read.It was a strange week at the library. On Tuesday night there was a soccor meeting on the fourth floor at the Recreation Dept. Parents who were attending brought their kids and turned them loose. They were running up and down the corridors and in and out of the library. In the end, one girl was chasing a girl who had taken a note not meant for her. First girl was trying to run and read at the same time and ran into the sliding glass doors of the library. These are large, heavy doors of safety glass. The glass did not break but she knocked both doors off the track and one was a stationary door that didn't move. The custodians were in the hall and one went up to the meeting to get the mother. The head person in the library really chewed them up and down about running in the library and not respecting anything, etc. The mother came down and the girl who had not said much, burst into these phony tears and told her mom that she'd just been sitting in the library reading a book and was walking out still reading and walked into the door. (Hard enough to push both off the tracks?) The father of the other one was very reasonable and apologized and said it wouldn't happen again. Next morning mother of the first girl calls the library director and and hollers about the night supervisor chewing her daughter out when it was really the other kids who were making the noise and her daughter just happened to walk into the door. Funny thing was, she wouldn't leave her name.
On Tuesday night, there were only two of us working. Normally there are four of five. But the volunteer didn't come and two employees are on vacation. So, there was only the night supervisor and myself. I thought that we wouldn't get anything shelved because she had to be on the reference desk and I had to be on the checkout desk. But, the day people knew there was only going to be two people and pitched in and had almost everything shelved before they left. I was able to work between checkouts and keep the books checked in and shelved. I think maybe it was because about 2:30 pm it started to rain and it stormed really hard and it rained until after 9 pm so a lot of people stayed home. It was a fairly quiet night. Last night wasn't too busy either. I bet tomorrow will be busy. School started there this week and the library will probably be full of kids. I thought it was funny because school started on Tuesday. Wednesday night a boy came in and checked out three large books on science projects. That teacher is getting started fast or he is homeschooled.
Today was my day off but I had a routine doctor's checkup. It went okay and there were no problems. I have to go have some lab work and make an appointment for a mammogram but that's routine also. The doctor took care of the billing problem that I'd been fighting about since January. I think billing depts. always give people a hard time. DR said the doctor could fix it because ultimately he's the boss.
We went to lunch and stopped at a couple of stores. I bought a wristwatch and a new purse. We bought a few groceries and it was almost 4 pm when we got home. Much too late to start anything but dinner. I took the easy way out and put a chicken in the Nesco roaster and some frozen potato rounds in the oven. We had fresh melon and grapes with it. Then, I went out and sat with Chance until it got dark and then it was to late to call Wannabe. I feel bad about that though I did send her an e-mail. I'll call her before I go to work in the morning.
I got a survey for a family reunion that will be held in the spring. They are going to hold it in Phoenix so I will go. DR says family gatherings are too noisy and they hurt his ears. I agree that our family gatherings tend to be noisy. I have three sisters and three brothers, though only two brothers now. But his family has five children and they all still come. Well, guess this is turning into a book. Bear project is at a standstill. Will try to get into gear soon Dooley

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