November 14th

Today I accomplished some good stuff, and had an all over good day.

I got some, but not all, of my 'to do' list done. Fed chickens, washed a load of clothes, folded clothes from the dryer and from a heap that had come out of the dryer before. Washed some dishes. I think there was another one or two little things too, but can't think of them just now. I checked my emails, of course, had breakfast, then went to visit Mom.

Mom lives about a half hours drive from here... well, more like 20 minutes for me :o) and shortly after I got there we got into Mom's car and I drove us back down to this area. Mom wanted to see the new area that is being built up on the one mountain. There is Turtle Mountain, and The Rise that I think will eventually be one, collide in the middle, lol. First we drove up Turtle Mountain, all new roads up there with lots of side streets going off the main one, and lots of big retaining walls built there. There are only about a half dozen homes built so far, and these are being used as show homes and real estate offices to sell future homes to people at high prices. We didn't go in, though I would have liked to walk through a couple of them and see what they're like. We weren't terribly impressed with the look of the outsides. The main road was blocked off and a sign said it was closed due to construction (or something like that). So we drove back down and around and went to The Rise where the main road was also blocked off not far up. I'm fairly sure these are one road, but won't know for sure for awhile. There were more homes done at this location, though again we really didn't care for the look of them. Many looked like boxes stacked together, and the color was the same on most of them... ugly. As it was getting dark I didn't take any photos, but one day before too long maybe I'll go back up there and take some pics of the homes and the general layout... and the views.

We drove back into town and I stopped to buy some Extra Virgin Coconut Oil as I'm getting low on my stock of it. Then we went for dinner in a nice Italian Bistro called Tita's. While there, I read the 2 speeches to Mom that I've written and will be giving at Toastmasters on the next 2 Mondays. Very good food and atmosphere, so think we'll likely go back again one day. Later though, when back at Mom's house, I got back gas pains, so what I ate must have disagreed with me in some way. Thankfully this passed fairly soon.

We watched TV: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Private Practice, Larry King (with the Osmond family). Mom had some bread pudding and butterscotch sauce, so we ate desert and drank tea while watching TV.

Mom had talked before about a game she played with friends of hers, shes been looking for this game to buy one, but hasn't found one yet. I found one in May while I was traveling and visited a thrift shop, got it for $1.49 (gotta love deals like that). I kept forgetting to take it up there with me, but finally remembered today... so we had a quick game before I left for home about 11pm.

All the animals were happy to see me when I got home, except perhaps the budgies who were sound asleep until I turned the light on, but Reba & Shadow were especially happy to have me back. I often take Reba with me, but had left her home today as I knew I wouldn't have time to take her for a walk, and there's been a very high number of break-ins around here lately, so it is a good idea to have a dog home to bark when strangers are around.

I came online to do this writing and it turned out that I'd forgotten MSN showing me as online... so a friend saw me here and messaged me. A great talk, but lost about an hour for me, lol.

Now, as soon as I finish my posts for today, I am off to feed/water chinchillas and rabbit, give treats to all those and the dog and cat (Reba & Shadow) then off to my bed. I'll likely do some of the reading I have stacking up for me, then sink blissfully into the arms of sleep.

Hope you had a fantastic day, and that you are having another one.