Things that go BEEP in the night

 The Zoom link has been sent for the free-motion class today. Dare I say that there are 100 people signed up? It will be crazy, but I've got it all planned out, so we should be good. I still have some prep work to do this morning, but I have plenty of time. 

I'm getting a wee bit later start to today because I heard this BANG in the night and then BEEP BEEP BEEP. That can only mean one thing. The backhoe is back to clear out the street. OH NO!! The plow had passed earlier in the day. They left a small windrow at the end of the driveway, which I had to remove first thin in the morning. 

Well, my e-mail about the previous storms got through because the driver spent time cleaning up, and at the end of the session, the driveway looked like this. 

The end of my "extended" driveway is clear

OK -- so I didn't do the best job shoveling the driveway, but the end of my tiny opening in the massive windrows is now completely clear of all snow. And so were the three driveways to my left that also got hammered the last two times. 

Those mounds of snow are NOT sitting in my driveway -- they are in the street, but that's the city's problem. It'll just take a long time for them to melt. But as long as I can get out, I don't care. It's a vast curve, and those mounds of snow extend about 10 - 15 feet past the curb into the street.  

I'll be sending another note to the city to THANK them for listening. I certainly do NOT mind shoveling some snow, but not what they dumped the last two times. 

That happened at 3 PM, and it took a while to get back to sleep. Perhaps I was excited? I still have to finish shoveling the driveway so the sun can melt all the ice. It won't take long - we just had a lot of stuff going on yesterday. 

But here's a disturbing thing that happened in the backyard. I don't know if it happened at night, but when I went out to check on Murphy's business, I spotted this in the pond. 

A hole in the ice

Oh dear --- someone or something tried to take a shortcut across the pond and fell through. It was near the opening where the heater is located. It's hard to tell when it happened, although it must have been in the night? It wasn't either of the dogs as far as I could tell, as I don't remember either of them coming in wet. If it was a coyote - why hasn't it got that rabbit yet? And if it was a coyote, he had to climb an almost 6-foot fence to get in. Hmmm   -- a mystery that will never be solved. 

So now I want a game camera. But how does one set it, so it only goes on at night when the girls are in the house? I must do some investigation. 

So my MIL needs a new denture, and since DH is conveniently away, I get the job of getting her to and from her weekly appointments. Only three more to go. I HATE the parking lot where the dentist is. There's our dentist, our bank, and a small international grocery store with a VERY busy parking lot. The parking LOT is jammed unless you go first thing in the morning, so we were at the dentist's at 8:30. This is one of the reasons I always walk to the bank and the dentist -- to avoid that parking lot. 

She needed some groceries, so M and I hung out after the dentist appointment while she shopped. Hmmm, ----I have no idea what some of this stuff is. 

Mystery veggies at the grocery store

And there was an entire section on Mouth Fresheners! Lots of different flavors -- I wonder how refreshing they really are? 

Mouth Fresheners

And this one looked like 99% sugar with 1% sprinkles. Actually, it's coconut! 

Looks like sugar to me!

These are trays of sweets at the counter. Sorry -- they don't look sweet enough for me! Ah -- there's that fear of the unknown. I'm sure it was all good, but I guess I'm a Western girl through and through!

Sweets at the international grocery store

Then M needed to hit a different grocery store, and I stopped at Tim's, and we finally made it back by 10 AM. The dogs never did get a walk. 

OK -- I shouldn't laugh about this story, but I will. I asked how the new fridge was, and the response was that it makes LOTS of ice. Too much ice. So when we dropped MIL off at the apartment, M went in to get the cooler she had to use and check the ice. We both had visions of the freezer filled with ice cubes. Nope -- the ice bucket wasn't even full, but it made ice, and she wants just a little bit of ice. I suspect that it senses how much ice is in the bucket and will make some when it starts to get empty. But at the beginning, it probably sounds like it's making LOTS of ice. 

Murphy seems to be better but I stopped giving her dog food. She got boiled chicken and plain rice yesterday. I bet she loves that! Well, she'll get that for a couple more days and see how things go. And then what she needs is a good bath and a good haircut. She has so much hair - it's obscene. I might try to bribe the groomers to take her. 

After a few false starts, I did manage to fire up the embroidery machine yesterday. The design I chose has over 100,000 stitches in it. Needless to say, I didn't finish it last night. 

Machine embroidery in progress

And I used my Master Project List for February to keep me on track. I worked on some homework and it's all ready to sew later today. Sorry --- can't share it with you. 

OK --- the rest of the pictures are dogs. Sorry --- they are just so cute that I couldn't help myself. 

Little Bear is like a doll. He likes to lay around and do nothing. And he's a pain when you move from room to room. So I dug out a basket that was in the giveaway pile, filled it with two pet mats and he was set. A makeshift dog carrier. Of course, his little Minky blankie was in there with him. 

A basket of cuteness

He was so happy and he slept for a good part of the day in there. Except when he needed a pee break and he is getting much better at asking. He still has his moments, but he's better. 

Is it time to eat yet? 

And how is this for being chill? What a goofball. We will miss him when he goes home this coming week. 

Chilling in the dog carrier

Then he was in the kitchen while I prepped dinner for the dogs. He seems to want/need a LOT of food for a little guy. 

Where's my dinner?

Then he grabbed one of Murphy's toys -- a squirrel to play with. The squirrel was almost as big as he is, but that didn't stop him from trying to shake the stuffing out of the darn thing. 

Bear meets the squirrel

I don't know why Lexi or Murphy do not cuddle with each other. They love to cuddle with people, but not other dogs. Lexi was in her (OK --Murphy's) bed, and I stuck Little Bear in with her. Oh -- she wasn't happy and soon vacated the bed. 

Lexi and Bear in Murphy's bed

But jumping on the sofa? I don't usually sit on the sofa, which is DH's domain with sports on the TV, but since he's away, I grabbed the spot with my book. Usually, Lexi jumps up because Murphy is driving her nuts, but last night? Oh no -- she just hops up like she owns the place. At one point, my legs were off the other side! No room for me but plenty of room for two dogs. And she had no problem being that close to Little Bear. She is getting some bad habits from Murphy! OK -- I didn't push her off. She so rarely asks for anything. 

Little Bear and Lexi on the sofa

I hope they like the new bed that's coming!

Even though I didn't walk the dogs in the morning, I still made my mileage for the day. That's because I did my afternoon walk and then walked to the grocery store because I had forgotten my mask and money, so I made an extra trip to get some chicken for Miss Murphy. 

Today will be all about free-motion quilting and prepping for the class. Then I hope to get back to the homework assignment. If I could get that one off my plate, I could prepare the presentation and be all set to go for later this month. 

I will say that I have so much time on my hands right now! Lots to do, but not much in the way of classes to teach, so I hope to get ahead of the game!

Apparently, Dolly Parton and James Patterson have written a book together. WHAT????? Yep, and there's a video for one of the songs that Dolly wrote. You might enjoy the graphics as it's all animated sewing and embroidery. 

And on that note, I'm out of here!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!