Chit Chat

[Kandice]

I am getting ready for work. I hate Sunday mornings because the rest of my family is off, but it's my earliest day at work. Selfish, but as much as I love not sharing the bathroom, I envy them all sleeping while I'm getting ready to go.

[Lisa]

That's no fun!! I do not miss the days when I had totally different schedules than everyone else. And there's nothing worse than watching someone sleep comfortably while you have to drag your tired bones outta bed haha. Sorry you had to work today!!

[Kandice]

Diane wrote: "It started raining about an hour ago and it's been coming down pretty well. We need the rain. I just hope it isn't raining tomorrow when I go to work. My cat Bailey is sitting in the window right n..."

I have two very small dogs and both are afraid of storms, but one almost to the point of actual panic attacks. It's pretty sad and you just can't help him.

[Jenny]

Dogs are often afraid for thunder. My old dog was always scared half to death and tried to hide under the coffee table. My roomies dog is scared too and wants to be picked up which is kinda hard to do with a full grown samojede. Horses hate thunder too as do my moms chickens.

[Lisa]

Overall my dogs don't mind thunderstorms too much. The two younger ones are fine as long as they are in the house. The older one however likes to play it off like nothing scares her but she follows me a little more and sits a lot closer on the couch when there's thunder. It's cute haha. Our cats couldn't care less. I do remember our horses hating it a lot when we used to have a couple when I was a kid. My daughter is always the one that freaks out the most poor girl. I for one adore thunderstorms.

[Kandice]

I love thunderstorms as well and my favorite summer is the one where we lived in Georgia and every day, regardless of how hot it got, at some point there would be rain, thunder and lightning and then back to the regularly scheduled hell heat. It was beautiful!

[Lisa]

Oh that sounds wonderful! All of my coworkers HATE rain and when it rains they all get grumpy and complain about it (I am not complaining about them, to each their own I say!) while I'm over at the receptionist desk feeling chipper and happy because its raining and it makes me so happy haha. There's a part of me that would like to spend a few months up in Seattle or something and just rent a little apartment with a huge window seat and just curl up on the seat wrapped in a big sweater and watch the rain come down.

[Jenny]

Oh I'd love that too! But I like snow even better. It makes the whole world seem silent and isolated. Like its wrapped in a blanket of pure white. I love sitting near the fire and watch the snow fall while drinking some hot coco :)

[Lisa]

Jenny wrote: "Oh I'd love that too! But I like snow even better. It makes the whole world seem silent and isolated. Like its wrapped in a blanket of pure white. I love sitting near the fire and watch the snow fa..."

Oohh yes! I agree! Nothing more cozy than being safe and warm inside and watching the snow fall over the world!

[Jenny]

I have had mice too and I got a cat (Molly) just to battle the mice but a owl is way cooler! Do you know where he/she sleeps at daytime? As a kid I loved to collect owl-balls and dissect them with tweezers and identify all the tiny rodent bones in there. Owls are awesome :D

[Jenny]

Its 6 in the morning here but now I know that Leonardo has an Oscar so I can sleep soundly now.

[Kandice]

Jenny wrote: "Its 6 in the morning here but now I know that Leonardo has an Oscar so I can sleep soundly now."

LOL I was glad about Brie Larson.

[Jenny]

Room isn't even in the cinema yet here so I have no clue besides that I now wanna read the book :)

Diane: Hahaha the little coward! Owls are cool though and worthy of collection (as long as they aren't life ones :p)

[Lisa]

Diane, That sounds like our biggest dog Jasper. Poor guy looks tough but he will turn tail and run at the slightest sound of danger haha. Also, I don't know why cats have to find one thing that they just cannot stand seeing put in it's place. Our cat Gandalf cannot allow a cup full of liquid to be on the table. Doesn't matter what it is, if there is a cup on a table or counter he will not rest until he has knocked it down.

Jenny, although I did not watch the oscars I did hear about Leo winning his Oscar and was happy for the guy! He's deserved one many times over.

[Kandice]

Jenny wrote: "Room isn't even in the cinema yet here so I have no clue besides that I now wanna read the book :)

Diane: Hahaha the little coward! Owls are cool though and worthy of collection (as long as they a..."

It was a very, very good book, but one of the few instances where I liked the movie just as much, even though it was...'different."

The book stops at a certain point (trying not to be spoilerish) but the movie is only half over by then.

[Jenny]

So I should def read the book first then :) I have added it to my tbr list

[Kandice]

Diane wrote: "Bailey went after a mouse last night, but didn't get it. It wasn't for lack of trying. However, he's not quite up to his brother Felix's skill. Felix has three kills so far. We got the mouse in a t..."

I LOVE Sherlock! Even when it is completely predictable, which it almost always is...but it's BENNY BATCH!!!!

Shoes are a lovely way to celebrate. Happy birthday. Cheesecake is my favorite so I hope you (two) enjoy it.

[Jenny]

House shoes? Why would you want to wear shoes inside?

[Lisa]

happy birthday!! Shared cheesecake and new shoes sound like a great birthday present! I love me some cheesecake!

[Lisa]

And Jenny, I don't know about Diane but I like to wear house shoes on occasion for the following reasons.
My feet are cold and I don't feel like wearing any of my 'good socks'
I don't want to risk stepping in random puddles which happens a lot when your 6 year old insists on pouring her own drinks
With 3 dogs and 2 cats sometimes you get a little detritus on the floor that I dont want sticking to the bottom of my feet. fur, dirt, dust bunnies, things of that nature.
And last but not least, I have really comfy house shoes!! lol

[Kandice]

We have hardwood floors and don't use the heater. It never, ever gets as cold for us as for Jenny, occasionally my feet get chilly and I will wear house shoes. I don't care for socks, so they are a compromise.

[Jenny]

Wood is good. It almost never get cold on wood. I'm not even a sock person. Indoors is barefoot territory. XD But when its really cold its double up on socks time. Wearing shoes indoors is just straight up rude. Are house shoes those floofy cloth indoor booties? Like, not real shoes?

[Lisa]

Jenny wrote: "Wood is good. It almost never get cold on wood. I'm not even a sock person. Indoors is barefoot territory. XD But when its really cold its double up on socks time. Wearing shoes indoors is just str..."

Haha maybe it is an american thing. There are different styles. Some are super fluffy, some are moccasin type shoes with soft insides and the ones I have are soft thick cloth on the outside and soft poofy cloth interior with a thin rubber sole and just kind of slip on type shoes. I love them!

[Lisa]

That sounds like the house I lived in when I was young and we lived on the farm. We would get critters in the house all of the time and I stepped on a wasp once and was stung. Not a red one though, yikes!! I'm glad I don't have to deal with that kind of stuff on a regular basis anymore.

[Lisa]

Yikes! Be careful Diane!

[Jenny]

12 inches of rain! Thats a LOT! Though having everything green sounds really nice. Here its only freezing and snowing and thawing and snowing some more. Everything is a dirty, depressing, grey mess. We're promised sun next week though (although that means the temp will drop) and I can barely wait. :D

[Kandice]

I remember cottonmouths as a kid and think you're right about 50 being too cold for them. We used to swim in the lake by jumping off a little "cliff" and there was always a tussle over who would go first for the day, because when they cannon-balled in the rest of us would watch all the snakes slither out making it safe for us.

[Lisa]

Diane wrote: "It's always raining over there. They complain about having a drought if they go without rain for a couple weeks. Seriously. They also have to deal with hurricanes and I don't envy them there."

Isn't it funny how different territories of one state can handle weather so differently? Up here in the high plains we don't get rain for like 4 months straight and we're just like eh, it'll come around again. We've survived worse haha. Last summer we had quite a lot of rain though and it was raining a little today as well. My daughter is heading down to Fort Worth this weekend to spend a few days with her grandparents so I'm hoping the weather clears up a bit for her sake. They've got this massive backyard that is like a gardener's heaven and she just loves playing out there with their dog. My hubby and I are heading out to Carlsbad Caverns and then to Roswell for a little mini vacation. I'm excited!

[Kandice]

Lisa, that sounds very cool! My son has a road trip planned for Area 51 next month. He's been building a drone and I fully expect him to get arrested. O_o He is staying in some motel Fox Mulder stayed in and has pretty much every minute of his trip planned.

[Lisa]

Kandice wrote: "Lisa, that sounds very cool! My son has a road trip planned for Area 51 next month. He's been building a drone and I fully expect him to get arrested. O_o He is staying in some motel Fox Mulder sta..."

Oooh that sounds like my kind of trip! I would LOVE to do something like that but yes make sure he is careful. He can get into some SERIOUS trouble over that including jail time and heavy fines. They do not mess around out there at all. If he succeeds at any of it let me know! I would love to know what he sees/finds and all the stuff he gets to do out there. Man that's awesome! I get absurdly excited about that kind of stuff haha!! I am a UFO enthusiast through and through! Also, what hotel is it?

[Kandice]

It's a sleezy motel, but I'll ask him.

The one careful thing he is doing is the drone. They legally need to be registered, but only if they weigh over a certain amount. He has built, re-built, rinse repeat, over the last few weeks and finally got it 2 ounces below the limit including the camera which is now not as a high a quality as he would like, but he swears the images are just for our kicks, so it won't matter.

[Lisa]

Kandice wrote: "It's a sleezy motel, but I'll ask him.

The one careful thing he is doing is the drone. They legally need to be registered, but only if they weigh over a certain amount. He has built, re-built, rin..."

Wow that's fascinating. I wish I could do stuff like that! You will definitely have to tell me how the trip goes!

[Kandice]

Well, I know it won't end in my bailing them out! I already told them they are on their own. All of his modifications to the drone changed the "pith and yaw" (I don't really know what that means) so he has had to relearn to fly it. He's been practicing day and night.

[Jenny]

Yeah, I can understand that, hurricanes sound very much not fun. I keep my own freezing snowy but rather uneventful weather thank you XD

[Lisa]

Kandice wrote: "Well, I know it won't end in my bailing them out! I already told them they are on their own. All of his modifications to the drone changed the "pith and yaw" (I don't really know what that means) s..."

Well good on you for telling him you won't be bailing him out if he gets caught haha! The only thing I know about pitch and yaw is that it has something to do with how a flying craft flies! Sounds like a fun hobby though!

[Lisa]

It appears that they have done a little updating our wonderful site again. Looks a little more modern now. What do you guys think about it?

[Jenny]

I don't see any difference... there was a weird update a couple of days ago though but that seemed to have changed back again for some reason.

[Lisa]

Interesting. I haven't seen it on my app but today when I logged on, the tool bar at the top looked a little different. I think there could be some good changes done to the app though like being able to share pictures easier, being able to add links to books like you can on the desktop site, and (for my own personal preferences) I would like to have it notify me that I have gotten a response or something like that. Similar to what Facebook or Instagram does.

[Kandice]

Diane wrote: "I don't mind the new colors, but I hate that bar at the top. It's getting in the way.

I've been busy trying to tame our backyard a/k/a the Jungle. We have those ugly spiky plants popping up all o..."

You are a brave woman!

[Kandice]

I like the bar at the top so I don't have to scroll all the way back up when I'm comments near multiples of 50.

[Jenny]

I'm still not seeing a single difference! T,T

[Lisa]

You sound like me Diane! I get so frustrated with the weeds and such I just start attacking those plants with anything I have haha

I can see how the bar seems in the way but I am used to it from other sites I use so it doesn't bother me too much. I'm pretty easy to please haha

I have no idea why it's not showing up for you Jenny! Maybe your browser needs to be updated or something. I don't think its a big deal though!

[Jenny]

Maybe it does not update for everyone at the same tim? Eh, I don't know. Also poor you two, no weeds to pull here yet but I've got a bag potatoes with eyes in my closet waiting to be planted next month if I get a chance :)

[Kandice]

Neither would I! Blech.

[Lisa]

Scary but I would do the same with a non-poisonous snake! Glad it wasn't a rattlesnake or anything!

[Kandice]

We are leaving at 2 pm Thursday for a family trip. It will be my 12th day in a row working and I cannot wait! We are going to L.A. for Wondercon and I won't go back to work until Tuesday, 3/29. I'm kind of counting the seconds.

I need to do Spring cleaning, but it will have to wait. :)

[Jenny]

Spring cleaning can wait, the snow is not completely gone yet! :D

[Jenny]

Good to know you're alright :D Your weather gets pretty crazy there. Here its just thawing, everything is mud and mud covered with mud and that mud is covered with half molten snow. Its just ... muddy.

I did nearly no reading this week, I'm trying to get into a prestigious-ish art school (because I can) that specializes in scientific illustration and spend most of the week creating a very specific portfolio (or what is it called when they demand a set of very specific drawings so they can easily compare students?) on top of the usual amount of essays and rapports. Luckily its Easter now so I have a couple extra days to work away the backlog... and eat tons of eggs of course.

So Happy Easter everyone! What are you all doing in this extra long weekend?

[Lisa]

Kandice, Hope you had a blast!!

Diane, I'm glad the storms passed without any damage! I need to get to work on planting flowers. I want to create a little flower bed in front of our front porch. I never got around to it last year but I've been planning stuff this year. We do have some Irises there now in one corner and they bloomed over the weekend and look gorgeous. I also need to get our bird feeders full! I miss seeing all the beautiful birds. I just haven't started on a lot of that stuff yet because we have had a few cold days recently. In snowed near us on Saturday for crying out loud! Hopefully that will be our last cold spell though

Jenny, fingers crossed on getting into the art school! You'll have to let us know when you get in (which you will of course!). I did not get as much reading done over the weekend as I would have liked but that's because I got to go see Batman v. Superman and go visit family so it was a fair trade. Hopefully this week I can get some heavy reading though. Our daughter stayed with my parents all weekend for Easter and then we went to pick her up yesterday and had an Easter lunch and all that with my parents so it was a lot of fun. Hope yours was great as well!!

[Kandice]

We got back from our trip last night just in time to plop on the couch and watch The Walking Dead. We had soooooo much fun! It was so much smaller and more intimate than ComicCon. Sounds funny when there were 69,000 people there, but it really seemed that way. I got to see a couple of old friends, introduce my children (to whom I was a celebrity for a brief moment) and buy a crapton of books I had no business buying and will now need to refrain for a few months!