Spinach Explosion

I have a return customer for my cookies. I just wonder why the favorites seem to be kinds that I don’t like. That means that the extras are not particularly enjoyable.

Today’s Exploit:

I had a spinach explosion this morning. 

I was making a smoothie.

I have been making lots of smoothies this week. 

I’m beginning to consider myself a master.

Ok not really, but some have turned out pretty good. Especially the ones with blueberries and plums because they cover the color of the spinach.

This means that the smoothie is pink or purple rather than army green or gross brown.

Anyway, this morning I was trying to make my smoothie, and I had everything packed into my jar. I put it on the blender base and turned it on. 

The next thing I knew, spinach bits were all over the wall, the desk and my shirt. 

It took some thinking through the ensuing panic before I got myself together enough to hit the off button.

For as big a mess as it made there was still a surprising amount of spinach still in the jar. So I wiped it up and cleaned as much of the green off the wall as I could. And the smoothie still turned out to be drinkable, albeit with a bit of a mess around the rim, but still...

I Was Hit By Lightning

I think the rain might be never-ending. I don’t like it because it floods the road and I can’t run. It would be fine, but I didn’t bring an extra pair of shoes and putting on clammy shoes is gross. And blistery.

Today’s Exploit:

I WAS HIT BY LIGHTNING!

Ok, so maybe not so much me as the rig that I work on.

But it hit within 20.376 yards of me. And that's way too close for comfort.

During one of the, seemingly daily, storms we were expecting a light rain, with most of the violence of the storm passing on either side of us.

However, the storm had other plans and took us all off guard. 

I was standing by the DD’s desk and talking to Reed. 

Suddenly there was a blinding flash and dragon roaring outside.

The dragon made the electricity flicker and one of the computers go SNAP!

While I was watching the computer to see if I needed to hit the floor to avoid shrapnel the dragon flamed and roared again.

And then some rain started.  And by “some” I mean “a torrent”. 

Matt ran back inside and yelled that I needed to check my equipment because they lost the monitor and the rig computers were down.

I didn’t really want to go outside, because the dragon was probably hiding behind the door, but I did anyway.

The lightning killed one of my computers and confused my signal receiver.  I had to make the other computer pick up the slack (and now it is running extra slow). And we had to call for a backup signal receiver because the computer would crash every time we started the demodulation program. 

Then the truck bringing the backup parts wouldn’t drive down the rig road because he was afraid of getting stuck.

Eventually we got things patched together enough to finish the job, but it’s sketchy.

I Win at Guns

My sister has “discovered” a drawing/guessing app that is somewhat like Pictionary. And by “discovered” I mean “I told her about it thinking we could have a fun distraction”. 

However it turned out to be “she has turned into a maniac and will not let me do anything else because she wants to PLAY!”

Today’s Exploit:

Yesterday Matt and George were having a conversation about guns and ammunition.

This is nothing out of the ordinary, generally when they are both awake and in the same room they are talking about guns.

Matt was telling George that could use soap for something, but George said that that might be bad since soap has lye in it.

While Matt was looking on the soap box to see if soap still does use lye, he suggested using candle wax, and said that you could use “shorts” with it.

I automatically assumed some type of ammunition.

George, on the other hand, assumed clothing and said, “No, I think I’ll be wearing blue jeans if I do that.”

Matt: No, shorts.

George: I don’t think that would be fun.

Me: Ahahahaha!

Eventually George realized what Matt was talking about, and I got to make fun of him for catching on before he did.

That is probably that I will know what is going on in a gun conversation before someone who actually uses a gun.

The Texas Bug Experience

I have a trainee. Some things he picks up really fast. 

But sometimes I’m left scratching my head in complete awe at how dumb he can be.

Today’s Exploit:

I have been having bug experiences this year.

Everyone has been telling me about how Texas has tarantulas EVERYWHERE! AHH!

But I haven’t seen a single one in 4.12 years in this oven.

Until last week.

Since last week I have seen about 17, Followed 2 around, watched the DD harass one with a stick and probably ran over 2 in Starla because they moved the wrong way when I tried not to squish them.

I have also learned how to catch them in a plastic cup, but I haven’t tested that lesson yet.

In other news I have seen a 7.863 inch long, poisonous centipede and an unknown millipede of the same length. Both were about as big around as one of my fingers. 

Exhibit A: The poisonous one. It has long creepy legs.

Exhibit 2: The unknown one. It has a bazillion short creepy legs.

The Great Mouse Hunt

Did you know that you can make flax seeds into granola? I didn’t. I want to try it but I can’t find flax in the middle-of-nowhere.

Today’s Exploit:

We have mice.

It appears that we have many of them.

We saw 3 in about 10 minutes the other day.

That is when the hunt began.

Matt and George and Reed take turns with the BB gun, they have set out a multitude of sticky traps and all the doors are blocked with towels to keep them out of bedrooms.

They do this because the mice seem to like to cuddle with me.

They managed to shoot one and catch another on a sticky trap. 

Another got caught in a sticky trap when they were all gone.

It was so sad. 

I hate sticky traps.

So I took the trapped mouse outside and dropped a brick on it so it wouldn’t have to struggle and eventually starve.

I didn’t like it.

I almost cried.

And there was no one there to give me a hug.

Cookies For Sale

I finished Accounting. I think it was the first really useful class I took. Some others have given me new points of view, but the majority of the information has been worthless. Yay for hard Accounting.

Today’s Exploit:

I sold some cookies today. 

I have been spending my free few days between turning in my final project for Human Resource Management and the start of my next classes reading and making cookies. Also I have been avoiding cleaning, but that is not important. 

I sent some cookies with H. one day. And one day I took some to his rig myself. While I was there H’s friend Slick ate six cookies. I heard a rumor that he at most of the rest of them later that evening. 

Then H. came home and said his driller had requested some White Chocolate Macadamia cookies. I assumed that they were the new favorites since I hadn’t made any oatmeal ones in a while. 

But no. 

He wanted some to take home to his family and wanted to pay for them. 

So I did my first ever calculation for how much to charge for cookies, which took longer than the making of the cookies. I might have to add a few cents for calculation costs. 

Then I made a bazillion cookies, because the recipe made a lot. 

And I sent them to the rig.

I feel silly having sent them in a ziplock bag instead of a real cookie bag, the way we used to get them from the Donut Ranch Bakery. Also, I need to design some stickers for the cookie bags! 

Agh!

So much to do. 

And I already had 731405 things on my list.

They Plague Me

I have been reading Terry Pratchett continuously for the past 2.475 months. I still have many books to go before I finish them all. Yet there are nowhere near enough of them left.

Today’s Exploit:

Another mouse is in our trailer. It was on my bed again the other night. I yelled at it and flailed around trying to throw it off my bed and into never-never land where it will live it’s life in rodent heaven and never want to climb on my bed again. 

Today I did laundry and washed my sheets to cleanse them of mouse filth.

Ew.

Also, today, George told me that he saved my life last night without me knowing it. He shot the mouse as it was making a dash for my room. Then he shot it again as it tried to escape from it’s spot under the stove. 

I’m not sure which makes me more nervous. The mouse or George.

At least it didn’t come and run around on my bed again. 

My sheets won’t last very long if it keeps doing that, since I have to wash them vigorously after being touched by the horrible, horrible monster. 

I think that this is one situation in which I would welcome Oni, and not hate her when she tries to sleep behind my knees. 

AAAAHHHH! They’re EVERYWHERE!

My strawberry preserves are pretty syrupy, but they are really good on ice cream, with some chocolate. And they are good on scones and waffles.

Today’s Exploit:

The other week I did yard work. I think I mentioned a garden.

The other thing that happened was an infestation.

We were out in the yard and Klay was trying out the weed puller tool. And like any kid (I know I did it a time or two), he managed to throw a lot of dirt in his own face. So I took him into the bathroom where he panicked when I tried to use eyedrops to get the dirt out of his eyes and was just fine with “water” being dropped in his eyes. 

While we were all crowded in there trying to get the dirt out a dog came in. The neighbor dog digs under the fence and H. left the door open inviting it in. The dog was lead out, and the dirt crisis was managed and all was good until H. noticed a tickle.

He found a tick on his side.

Ew.

He killed it with a lighter and started making dinner.

Then he found another one.

We couldn’t decide if this was from working in the yard, because I didn’t seem to have any, or from the dog.

Upon inspection the wall by the back door had several ticks, and the bathroom had more than desirable.  

We thought it must be the dog, since they were mostly where the dog had been.

But then H. went to the garage and shook his shirt out and several more fell off.  

Gah.

Nothing like the creepy-crawlies right before going to bed.

That night he sprayed the yard with tick-and-other-bug spray, and watched as multitudes tried to climb up the wall to escape.

Turns out it was the yard and the crazy-super-tall-spiky-poky plants he’d been pulling. 

The next day he sprayed again, and again.

The back patio looked like a rain storm, just before too many raindrops fall and all the concrete turns dark with the wet.

SO MANY!

I also spent that night going over the hallway and the bedroom inch by inch with a flashlight, a paper and a candle to make sure that they were not going to attack in the night.

Everywhere.

I get the creepies just thinking about it.

Of Snails and Pokeys and Bluebonnets

I am learning Accounting! Finally. Something I can use! And it’s really hard. Credit only sometimes means positive and debit only sometimes means negative. I thought math was supposed to be easier than this. Calculus is easier.

Today’s Exploit:

I have been longing for a garden for years. I have big plans for when I own a house, for a billion flowers in the front yard, and raised vegetable gardens and fruit trees in the back yard. I want so many kinds of trees I’ll probably end up with an orchard. And I want a swing set.

And LOTS of party lights and wind chimes and lightening bugs. 

*Side note: lightening bugs are pretty awesome, I see them sometimes if I go running in the late evening at the right trail down by the river.

This year H. decided to fix his yard, because he now lives alone and is in charge of all of this stuff and actually has a yard. So I gave orders on how to do it and played in the dirt and discovered that Texas has some super large snail shells, and lots of them still have snails in them.

I got to plant flowers along the walk way, and told H. to pull all the scary bull nettle super-duper-quadruple-stickery-and-poky giants that lived in the back yard (that are actually called Prickly Poppies). They were probably 4.527 feet tall. And leather gloves don’t do much to dissuade the stickers from sticking you. (I meant to help, but then I had to do homework and it took lots longer than expected.)

Then he added grass seed to the big gap where the monster pokeys were, and a timed sprinkler system to the back yard and drip hose to the walkway. So the flowers are getting lots and lots of water and not interested in flowering anymore, but H. won’t listen to me and they are still getting lots of water. 

Lastly I planted some bulb plants that I can’t remember the name of, but have big pretty orange and red flowers and a transplanted bluebonnet that I rescued from the middle of the yard. They are along the back fence where they get plenty of scorching light and the sprinkler still hits them. Who knows if we made it before the end of bulb-season, but maybe next year, and maybe they will put up leaves. Maybe.