Priceless.....

Since Irv was home early Wednesday to repair our leaky roof, he decided to run Wrigley to the vet. She has been scratching and scratching and scratching the past couple of weeks. We checked her for fleas and didn't see anything, but she had a very red spot under one of her front legs and a spot in front of her ear that was raw from her scratching it.

"Allergies", said the vet after checking her out. "A lot of dogs seem to get them at this time of year...or it could also be food related. Either way, we'll give her a shot and some pills to take and in a couple of weeks she'll be fine."

"Can we refill her heart worm pills too please?" Irv asked.

"Of course, but she will need a blood test to make sure she hasn't developed heart worm," the vet said.

"But isn't that why we are giving her the pills....so she doesn't get heart worm?" asked Irv, very confused.

"Yes, it is, but the heart worm pill company has a guarantee. If your dog is on the pills, and still gets heart worm, they will pay the cost for treatment....but only if you have the blood test each year," explained the vet.

"HUH?????" thought Irv.

"So I get the blood test to prove she doesn't have heart worm, which she shouldn't because she's been on the pills. Then we give her the pills for another year, and then we get another blood test to be sure she doesn't have heart worm again, just so the company will pay her vet bills in case she gets heart worm which the pills guarantee she will not," said Irv, "Is that correct?"

"Yes it is," replied the vet.

Routine Examination....$29.00
Injection....$35.00
30 pills....$24.50
20 pills....$9.00
Heartworm Blood Test....$23.00
Heartworm Pills....$45.00
Today's Total....$165.50

Wrigley......Priceless!!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

I sat down at my computer Wednesday morning to close everything up and turn it off...when I heard a very tiny little "plop". I looked in the direction of the sound, saw nothing and turned back to my computer. "Plop." What the heck is that? It sounds like water dripping. Then "plop, plop, plop." OMG it IS water dripping...and it's dripping from the trim above my computer room door!!! Uh oh!

I need to leave for work right now, it's pouring rain outside and my roof is leaking! We have lived in this house for 37 years and the roof has never leaked. We just had it redone five years ago.

I pick up my phone and dial "1-800-HELP!" No, not really....I called Irv. He was surprised and said he would try to come home. Meanwhile I grabbed a bucket and two big towels, put them under the drip and left for work. I sat at work feeling a bit ill. I have inventory for my craft show in two weeks all over the computer room. What it we spring more leaks?

An hour later, Irv called and said he was home and already went up on the roof. It seems the flashing where our roof and the peak meet must have caught some wind in the last storm and was bent upward. There were old nail holes with no nails in them under that flashing. Apparently the rain was running down the roof, right into the nail holes, into the attic and finding it's way down the boards to my computer room door and "plop, plop, plop".

A quick trip to Menards for some sealer and nails, a couple of hours of repair work and the roof is fixed....all for $11.00! Irv, the very handy man, took care of it himself.

What we thought might be a very large problem, was only a little drippy problem and all is well in the Kroll castle!

Chee Hoo!

A Place Called Home

As most of you know, my son Matt is a teacher out in Telluride, Colorado. He and a couple of his friends have been renting a run down little two bedroom, one bath house for about three years. The house has always been for sale, and every time the owner thought it was sold, the deal fell through. Well, this time it was looking like it might really happen, but the realtor kept telling the guys that it would probably be a month or two before they would need to get out.

Last weekend, the owner of the house called Matt to let them know that the closing was in two weeks and they would need to be out! TWO WEEKS?? The guys started scrambling to try to find a place for three guys and a dog and couldn't find anything. There was nothing in the paper at all except one that required first and last month plus a deposit. That would have been over $6000 and that was not in their budget.

This is Matt's current house. It is about 1200 square feet, falling apart and sold for 1.7 MILLION dollars. It will be torn down so the people can build a new house on the property.

The guys also really wanted to stay in town if they could. Matt rarely drives his car anywhere. He always walks or rides his bike. The thought of having to drive everywhere was not appealing to him and his "green" heart.

All three of them started looking for places to store their stuff and friend's couches to crash on until they found a place.

Well, lo and behold they found a house through someone Matt knows. It's nicer than the one they are renting now. It has three bedrooms and TWO bathrooms and a loft. There is no lease, no big deposit, in town, closer to the school and they can move in September 1st and it's even cheaper than what they pay now! That is worth a big CHEE HOO for sure.

Matt said it needs a good cleaning, but he is thrilled. He was living in the basement at his current place....and believe me...it was a true basement in every sense of the word! He is so happy to have a bedroom!

Now mom can quit worrying about her little boy.

Woe Is Me!!

I bought a new sewing machine this week, and we are building an indoor craft show booth, and a few months ago I bought a tent for outdoor craft shows, and I need a new computer.....do you see where this is going?

I really hated to spend the money after all I have spent in the past few months, but with the focus of myothershop changing to many things sewn, and my very old sewing machine jamming one minute and spewing thread all over the place the next minute, I had to have it. I had my old one cleaned and adjusted and repaired...even though the guy tried really hard to convince me otherwise...but I thought if I could get just one more year out of it.......

If you own your own business, what do you do when you have to have things in order to operate your business, and they just aren't in the budget?

I try very hard to pay cash for most of my materials, but I don't have a money tree in my back yard and things like the tent and the booth and the sewing machine end up on plastic. I hate doing that because I am bustin' my butt to pay down our debt. I have no desire to increase it....but sometimes I need stuff.

So, what do you do? Do you have a money tree? Do you just say, "Charge it"? Do you do without until you can pay for it?

UGH! Share your worldly wisdom and business expertise with us please....

It's Here!!!

The CD I ordered from CutNGlue arrived yesterday! CutNGlue is an etsy shop run by Angela of Pickles on Pizza blog fame!! Angela's husband Aubrey is an independent musician, and he just released an awesome CD titled Make Me Realize. He wrote all of the songs, sings and plays guitar on all of them! I popped it in my CD player the minute I got it and had it playing while I checked e-mail and wrote my blog yesterday. I kept finding myself gently bopping around in my chair. The songs are kind of mellow and the words are wonderful. It's a great CD!

Those of you that read my blog regularly know that I like a wide range of music. My Pandora Quick Mix has everything from Jack Johnson to Jimi Hendrix, from Ben Harper to Bob Marley. You can add Aubrey's music to the list.

If you have a minute, hop on over to Aubrey's MySpace Music Page and take a listen. If you want to order a CD, visit Angela's shop, CutNGlue and purchase one there.

I listened to it a couple more times today and I'm finding myself really loving the title cut, Make Me Realize and also the songs Spinning Around and Heaven or Hell. What I really love about this type of music is that you can hear and understand all of the words. It makes the songs so much more meaningful.

CHEE HOO to musician, Aubrey Holman and a big thank you for sharing your amazing talents with us all!

The Vision Takes Shape!

It's not quite done, but I just couldn't wait to show you. I'll show you again when I have the skirting for the lower shelves and the ruffles for the upper shelves done. This is just the most awesome craft show booth ever! I can't believe that Irv was able to take MY vision and MY sketches and create from scratch EXACTLY what I wanted!!

I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing because it is still taking up our entire one car garage. We will be taking it apart and setting it up in the driveway next weekend for a trial run, and I'll get some other pictures then. So, for now, you get it in sections.

The three big shelves on the right are for my pillows. I plan to skirt the bottom shelf for some color and so we can shove some of our bins under it. The four corner shelves are for cake stands. I am thinking I might make little ruffles for the fronts of all of the shelves. There is enough room between the pillows and cake stands for cute little hooks of some kind to hang part of my totes on.

The empty section on the back wall will be where the aprons will be hanging on these funky wood heads/bodies that we are going to make, but haven't made yet. Then we have four more corner shelves for more cake stands.

The big shelf on the left side will be for the coasters and I will skirt that one too, and then it's a little hard to see them, but there are three skinny shelves above the big shelf and that is where all of my light switch covers will go. I am really excited that they will be standing upright facing people rather than laying on a table. It also has two little front sections where I will be able to "showcase" an apron and a couple of tote bags so people can see them as they stroll by.

Remember that cute little sewing machine cabinet I "removed" from our neighbors garbage? That will be my check out table....there isn't much room for anything else. This show only gives you an 8 x 10 spot, and that isn't much in the grand scheme of things. The cabinet is being painted white right now. It will be skirted on three sides and I'll keep my bags and things under it.

So I am sending out a gigantic CHEE HOO to my wonderful husband Irv for all of his hard work on this project....and even if I don't sell one thing...I will have the best looking booth at the show...but that better not happen or I will be in BIG trouble!!

Oh, and just so you don't think that Irv is some kind of God or something...I was teasing him yesterday and he told me that if I kept it up, he wouldn't finish the booth and he would just hand me the keys to the truck on the day of the show and I would have to figure out how to set it up myself! The nerve of the guy!

Gotta Grocery Shop

Irv and I grocery shop on Sunday mornings. We are usually there by about 7:30 a.m. We drive about 25 minutes to get to a particular store because they have a great selection of everything and their prices are by far the best around. They happen to be open around the clock...not that I would ever need or want to shop in the middle of the night, but I'm sure some people do. I love almost everything about this store...even their bathrooms are very clean! They also carry lots of organic and gluten free foods. It's also "employee owned". Great place!

There are two things I don't like about the store. The first is that most of the time their produce sucks. It either already looks "old" or it is "old" by the time you get home from the store. That is a problem when you are a vegetarian and shop once a week.

The other thing that drives me crazy is that they like to use that big Zamboni looking machine to wash their floors....on Sunday mornings around 7:30 a.m. Now I am thrilled that they keep their floors so nice and clean, but why can't they wash them in the middle of the night when very few people are in the store? Sometimes you have to get out of the way of the guy doing the floors, and it always leaves the floor wet in spots. On top of that, they use some gross chemicals, and the smell wafts through the store making me wonder what I am inhaling and giving me a nasty headache! UGH!

I just might have to drop them a little e-mail and express my displeasure.....

So, where and when do you do your shopping? Chain store or mom and pop store?