Buffy was fine today so we didn't take him to the vet.

After church this morning we went to Luby's buffet for lunch. Then we went to the funeral home for the viewing of one of our church congregation. In the meantime I got a call that the mother of another of our congregation died this morning.

The weather was great today.

I napped this afternoon. I suppose that means I won't sleep again tonight.

We ended up getting 2 to 4 inches of rain throughout the city. It wasn't as much as predicted, but still was a lot for us.

One of the kittens - Buffy - is sick tonight. He has thrown up several times and now his throat is raw and irritated so that the phlegm he throws up is pink. I think our vet has started staying open for a few hours on Sunday so we will probably take him in tomorrow to be checked. The other kittens are okay and they all eat the same thing - just dry catfood.

We had a light rain yesterday evening, a good hard rain this evening, and 100% chance of a very heavy rain tomorrow. We could get 7 to 9 inches of rain according to the forecast.

After I got off work at noon, we went and did our weekly shopping a day early, then stopped at Bud Jones for a late lunch. That left us too full to want any supper.

We have enough food on hand now that we can go another week without shopping if necessary. But the rain is expected to move on out of the area after tomorrow.

Several baptisms are planned at church Sunday; a meeting on Monday evening; and a funeral and funeral reception on Tuesday.

It was pretty busy at work today. A monthly group met there this afternoon and were still there when I left.

I just had a cheese sandwich for supper tonight. It's about time to skip supper and maybe lose a few ounces.

My arthritis is bothering me a lot tonight and this may be another sleepless night. I've not had one of those for a few days.

Maybe I'll go read a little more in my book.

I just finished doing up the supper dishes. Sis made omelets and home fries for supper tonight. It was so good.

The bierocks she made yesterday were delicious too. We had some for supper last night and again for lunch today.

This is what Sis is making for supper tonight. I don't think she is making that large a recipe of it though, especially since there are just two of us to eat it.

This recipe is from the Taste of Home files.
This is an old German recipe handed down from generation to generation, using foods grown or raised on the family farm. I remember helping my grandmother make these when I could barely see over the kitchen table!—Ellen Batt, Hoisington, Kansas


Bierocks RecipePrep: 30 min. + rising Bake: 30 min.
Yield: 24 Servings

Ingredients
•DOUGH:
•10 to 11 cups all-purpose flour, divided
•1 package (1/4-ounce) active dry yeast
•1/2 cup sugar
•2 teaspoons salt
•2-1/2 cups water
•1 cup milk
•1/2 cup butter, cubed
•2 eggs
•FILLING:
•2 pounds ground beef
•1 large onion, chopped
•2 teaspoons salt
•1 teaspoon ground white pepper
•2 pounds shredded cabbage, cooked and drained

Directions
•For dough, in a large bowl, combine 4 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well and set aside.
• In a saucepan, heat water, milk and butter just until butter melts. Remove from heat and cool to 120°-130°. Combine with flour mixture; add eggs. Using an electric mixer, blend at low speed until moistened then beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. By hand, gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make a firm dough.
• Knead on a floured surface about 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; let rise again until almost doubled.
• Meanwhile, for the filling, brown beef with onion, salt and pepper; drain. Mix together with cabbage; set aside. Divide the dough into fourths. Roll each piece into a 15-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Cut into 5-inch squares. Spoon 1/3 to 1/2 cup filling onto each square. Bring the four corners up over the filling; pinch together to seal. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Place on greased baking sheets.
• Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until brown. Yield: 24 servings.

We had a few extra faces at church this morning. That was nice.

We ate lunch at home today: Gorton's fish filets, asparagus stir-fry, and garlic bread. Really tasted good.

I didn't sleep last night, so I took a nap after lunch.

After a couple of naps this afternoon I feel much better and less achy. I had the rest of the fish in a sandwich for supper with some sliced fresh fruit (strawberries, peaches, plums).

I've started on Book 2 of The Cat Who Series: The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern.

I talked to my friend, Edna this afternoon. She just had her 90th birthday last Friday.

Sis took this picture of Calvin and Callie sitting in a rocking chair the other day.

It is warm here and very humid, but no rain. It's hard to imagine fall is officially here. We will still have plenty of hot summer-like weather, but I think the 100-degree days are probably over.

We went to Burger King for breakfast this morning and used a coupon that had come in a booklet in the mail. For $5.99 plus tax, we got two sausage croissanwiches, two small hash browns and two small coffees. It was really good and at that hour (about 8:00 a.m.), the restaurant wasn't busy at all. We sat there and enjoyed our breakfast, then went to Walgreens and Wal-Mart and finished our shopping.

Then back home. I cleaned the cats litter box - with that many, we usually clean it two or three times a day. They are full of energy this morning - racing back and forth, chasing each other. I wish I had that much energy. LOL

For lunch we went down the street to Snoga's and I had beef tips with rice, carrots, fruit salad, whole wheat bread, and water to drink. Sis had smoked sausage, and a couple different side dishes. It was only $11.72 for both of us. Let's face it, for two people, it's just about as inexpensive to eat many of our meals out. We go to the smaller, family-friendly restaurants most of the time. We can get what suits each of us, not worry about using up leftovers before they spoil, and best of all, not have to shop for all of the ingredients, cook, do all the dishes and clean up. So especially on weekends, we eat out often.

Friday morning - 5:30 a.m.: I did get several hours sleep last night. Hurray!
Friday evening - I worked until noon. Sis delivered lunches today for Meals on Wheels. Then we came home and had sandwiches for lunch. This evening she fixed pancakes and eggs for supper.

I have been walking the floor and just being able to sit and write for a few minutes here and there. My leg muscles (right leg) feel like they are contracting and I can't lie or sit still for very long. I didn't get any sleep at all last night, but have slept a little bit here and there tonight.

The above was written during the night last night. Today wasn't quite as bad.

After I got off work this afternoon we went and got the pickup filled with gas, did some shopping at Office Depot, ate supper at Luby's, and went to Wal-Mart. Our prayer shawl knitting group was cancelled tonight, as we all had conflicts. One lady nearly had a fire at her home last night. She woke to see the lights in the house flashing on and off and a strange smell. Her son ran out and turned off the breaker box. They called the fire department and found that the breaker box was old and hadn't been installed right in the first place. It will need to be replaced. So she has been contacting an electrician. Another lady's vehicle broke down. Next week we won't have the group meeting either, as two of the four ladies will be out of town. So we'll take a break and maybe get back to it in two weeks.


Now I'm ready to try for some more sleep, but I guess I'll probably be up and down again tonight.

Sure enough - I lay down for a few minutes, but the pains started and I couldn't lie still, so I got up again, watched the late news, read some in the Bible, and got back on the computer. The pains have eased off now, but as sure as I lie back down, they'll soon start up again. I'll wait a little while, then give it another try. I'm not sleepy right now anyway.

I ordered the 2012 update to my Quicken software a couple of days ago and it arrived today - much quicker than I had expected. So I installed it and registered it and it is ready to use.

The night before last I didn't sleep all night - due to arthritis pain (and perhaps all that napping I did on Sunday afternoon), but last night was much better and I woke up feeling much better.

The rain has moved out of the area, but it is still much cooler than last week.

It has rained all day today. We really needed that. We didn't go out to lunch after church, but heated up leftovers instead and napped most of the afternoon.

I've started re-reading the Cat Who books and am starting over from the beginning with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. Just as interesting as the last time I read it.

We are getting rain right now. That is so welcome. It is expected to rain quite a bit over the rest of the weekend. The kittens all got up in the window in the computer room and looked out to watch it rain.

I had been in bed but couldn't sleep and with the arthritis, couldn't lie still either. So here I am on the computer.

We went to our prayer shawl knitting/crocheting group meeting earlier this evening.

After I got off work this afternoon we had some errands to run. Afterward we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for supper. I ordered green chicken enchiladas with avocado salad. The "green" was tomatillo sauce over the three chicken enchiladas. I had never tried that kind of sauce before. It was kind of pickly tasting - not bad, but a little goes a long way. I probably won't order it again. The chicken enchiladas were very good though.

This has been “one of those days”. A man and woman came in to the church a little while ago, wanting money for gas. The pastor wasn’t here and I explained that we don’t keep money on hand, but gave him a number to call the pastor. The man did all the talking and got quite confrontational. He kept arguing, challenging everything I said, and making comments that I was treating him badly because of his race.

I asked him to leave, but he wouldn’t. So I called the nurse who was in her office at the other end of the hall. Her husband was there with her. She came down to talk to him and he treated her the same way. So she started to dial the police on her cell phone and I called back down to her office and asked her husband to come to the office. The man finally decided to leave and we locked the door behind him.

Things like that don’t happen very often, but it is a little unnerving when they do.

Today is another hot day. It started out about 60 degrees, but is expected to get up to 93.

Some of the prayer shawls made by our Spirit Sisters group

And life goes merrily on. . .just when I thought everything was falling into place again, I have plumbing problems in my bathroom and will need to call the plumber.
Later: The plumber came out this morning and fixed the problem fairly quickly.

We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant today. This evening I made a loaf of wheat bread in the bread machine. It just got done a few minutes ago and we each had a slice while it was still warm. Delicious!

I wish I could have taken a video picture of Callie just now. I was playing spider solitaire on the computer and she was watching the cursor move, fascinated. She followed it with her paw, trying to catch it. After I switched to Yahtzee, she kept watching and touching anything that moved. Buffy likes to watch TV.

The uverse technician got our TV working again in about 5 minutes. So things have been looking great this weekend.

We went to a spaghetti supper at one of the churches last night. The sauce was a little different than usual. It had fresh tomatoes, peppers, and vegetables in it, but no canned tomato sauce. It was good. Salad and french bread were served with it and trays and trays of homemade cupcakes. It was very good. We knew most of the people who came to it and enjoyed it all.

We had a cool front come through last night. Right now, 7:22 a.m., it has dropped to 68 degrees.

The pictures of the kittens, below, were taken yesterday evening.

Sis's computer had a couple of viruses that were causing it to not work, so we called Computer Nerdz and a technician came out and worked for about an hour and got it all cleaned out and working fine. He also installed an anti-malware program to try and keep this from happening again. He was so professional, courteous and explained everything as he went. I would recommend this company highly.

This afternoon we are expecting the AT&T uverse technician to come check the TV. They tried to troubleshoot it over the phone yesterday, but eventually decided they would have to send someone out to do it.

We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel Restaurant this morning, then did our weekly shopping at Wal-Mart.

Our next-door neighbors are having a garage sale today. We walked over, but they just have children's clothing, toys, etc. - nothing that we need.

New Pix of the Kittens

Louisa, sleeping in a basket

Calvin is on the left under the recliner. Buffy is getting to look more and more like him. Calvin gets along well with the kittens now.

Callie, trying to get up in the basket with Louisa. She ended up pulling the whole basket off on the floor.

Blackie and Calvin checking out Sis's bags of yarn and craft items - and making a pretty good mess of everything in the process.

Buffy

Yesterday was a LONG day. I got to work around 7:30 a.m. and didn't leave until 12 hours later. My normal work day ends at 3 p.m., but we had a meeting starting at 4 p.m., so I stayed for that. Then another meeting started at 6:00 p.m. So by the time I finally got home, I was totally wiped out. I soon went to bed, but shouldn't have bothered. My arthritis started kicking in and I was up and down for several hours before I finally took a couple pain pills. They finally worked and I got maybe three or four hours sleep. Well, I only work until noon today, thank goodness!

We took the kittens downtown to the spay center this morning and went back and picked them up at 3 p.m. They act like they are still under the effects of the anesthesia or something. They are supposed to be kept kind of quiet for a few days but they are all hyped up like they are on joy juice or something. We had to separate them to keep them from wrestling each other and racing all over the house.

The tree service finished pouring the cement to repair the cracks in the driveway. We aren't supposed to drive over it for a week to give it time to set good.

It seems like everything happens in bunches. The TV is acting up. We have u-verse. I called the service number and all I get is recorded messages telling me what to do to reboot it. Well, I did and it didn’t help. I would like to talk to a live person so I could explain just what it is doing and ask questions, but all I get is these robotic-sounding recordings.

Sis's computer is acting up. It acts like it has one of those viruses that has taken over and tries to force you to buy their product to cure it. I think I will call a computer company to come out and look at it here at the house.


Then my arthritis is bothering me so bad again this evening and nothing seems to help. All in all, it is a totally frustrating day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I got a little behind in posting here. The tree service company came out yesterday and inspected the damage they had done to the driveway while cutting down the tree a few weeks ago. They decided they need to replace two blocks of the concrete, so today they brought 10 bags of cement and stacked them there and started cutting the damaged concrete out. Well - it got up to 100 degrees this afternoon and they nearly did themselves in with all that hard work. They finally quit around 5 p.m. and decided they would come earlier tomorrow morning and work before it gets quite that hot. There were only two men doing all that and it sure was hard work. They aren't young men either.

We have an appointment to take the kittens to the spay facility tomorrow morning to be neutered and/or spayed. There are two males and two females. Then we will go back and pick them up a few hours later. So right now they aren't supposed to have any food or water for twelve hours. They evidently aren't hungry or thirsty yet, because they are racing all over the house playing and having a great time. They won't be that active tomorrow night. We'll have to keep them separated and quiet for a few days. That probably won't be so easy.