Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

I did manage to get some of them mowed today.  I started raking and decided that was just ludicrous, don't know why I even attempted it since I go through this every year.  It is now raining which will just knock more of them off.  By tomorrow you won't be able to tell that I mowed any.  My yard will look like crap.  To make it worse, deer season (bow) is in and I already have deer bones in my yard.  Gotta love Kimmy and Vagrant.  I let them both in last night and Vagrant went straight to the milk bone container and plopped himself down and looked back and forth from me to them like he was saying "There they are, aren't you going to give me one?"  Kimmy is much more polite about it.  She'll gently take one out of your hand and go eat it.  With Vagrant, you have to be careful not to lose a finger in the process.  I've decided the best way to deal with him is to just throw it to him from at least 6 feet away.

I've been sitting here working on a presentation I have to give tomorrow night.  I HATE public speaking!  I'm sure I'll get through it though.

Anyway - I'll have to call sometime and fill you in about the "secret".  No announcements yet.

Scenes of Fall in Illinois

Our road

The path between me and Richard's

Right in front of the house

My red, white, and blue mailbox and marker

All the leaves right by the driveway

The driveway-more leaves to mow

my new sign - McCoy Coat of Arms

The tree beside the house - one of the prettiest

The deck

Can't leave Kimmy out!

Asian Beetles

They have hatched!  I literally had to turn my windshield wipers on yesterday to get them off so I could see.  I don't know if you guys had them in Texas or not - probably not as bad in a city.  Do you have them in England?  They're not even as bad in Carthage as they are here at home.  They come out of the fields every fall and make life miserable.  Anyway, Kimmy doesn't seem to mind them.

I'm sitting here drinking a beer. Does that tell you what kind of day I've had? I had class tonight that was nothing but lab work.  Usually the instructors lectures, then we do a lab - more lecture, lab....  Tonight we had to do all the labs on our own.  I came home and took the assessment online and I don't think I did very well.  I guess I need the lecture to reinforce it for me.  Good thing I had a strong A going.    Tomorrow will be better. Sam is NOT here so at least I can just sit here and relax now that I have all my homework done.  In fact, I think I'll have another beer!

Exciting news I think!  I suspect that Heather may be pregnant.  Let me tell you why.  Last Friday she called and wanted me to meet her in Macomb for dinner.  It was cold and I really didn't want to go anywhere.  About half an hour later she called back and Faron told me to get off my "___" and go to meet them.  I immediately thought - she's pregnant!  I pulled into the restaurant and saw that Kathy (Faron's mom) was also there and I just knew there was going to be an announcement!  Unfortunately her dad didn't show so no announcement was made.  You'd be proud of me - I kept my mouth shut- thought they wanted to tell everybody at once.  Now she's coming over tomorrow to "go over her insurance" with me!  What else could it be!  DO NOT tell Jery as I'm not sure and she'd kill me if he knew before she got the chance to tell him herself.

Another Weekend Gone

Time flies when you're having fun! I spent another weekend fighting with programming problems. I was stuck on one and ended up having to email the instructor for help. Of course it was a stupid mistake on my part - but it's working now. I did have Saturday pretty much off as I was waiting for an answer from the instructor, so I sat down and made a Christmas sock from a pattern that Heather found for me. I took a picture of it-pretty cool - red, white, and blue with a snowman (as you know - two of my favorite things). Anyway, I'll post the picture. I also took a picture of the "self portrait" I told you about so you can see what I'm doing in "college". That's about it - fought with Sam all weekend when I wasn't in front of the computer. I'm really tired of being taken advantage of!

School - blah! I'm too old for this. Let me tell you about my classes.
First there is Graphic Design- which I thought I'd really like. Our first project was to create a self portrait using only text - about drove me nuts but I got it done, tried to upload it to show you but can't get it to go.

Next comes Programming. This one makes me think. It is actually my favorite class but also the most challenging as I've never had any experience in it. Last weekend I spent about 10 hours working on one problem. It was to create a program to prompt an operator for their birthday and then tell them their zodiac sign and their horoscope. Took me FOREVER to figure it out. I actually did a little victory dance when I got it to work! Sam thinks I'm nuts.

Operating Systems - VISTA. Can't say I'm not learning anything but do not understand why I have to learn Vista as most businesses have avoided it like the plague. I hope most of what I do learn will apply to Windows 7.

Introduction to Information Technology - I'm learning to use Office 2007. Let's create an Excel file, a Word file, Powerpoint, Access. You're kidding, right? I've been doing this for 12 years! Should'nt have any trouble passing that one. I do like the instructor though, and she has a son in the Air Force.

All in all, I guess it's not that bad. Homework is time consuming though and I've been neglecting my house a little. It stayed clean all summer long but could use a little work now. I'm done canning for the summer - did my Apple Pie filling and applesauce last weekend (after I finished the programming problem). I've canned so much this year I had to go buy two more shelves to put my jars on. I had two and had them so loaded they actually started to collapse!

Craft shows have started. Me and Marla are going in together this year with her candles and my crocheted stuff. Had our first show in Carthage last month and did pretty well. Spoon River Drive was last weekend but it was cold and we didn't do very good. We'll try again this weekend but I think it's supposed to be cold again so who knows. Next month we have the Altrusa show in Macomb then another show in Carthage right after Thanksgiving. My goal is to make money for Christmas. I worked on things all summer long when I didn't have anything else to do. I figured out that if I could sell everything I made, I'd have over $1000. I'd be happy with half of that.

The animals are all doing good. Vagrant still thinks he lives here. Richard has just about given up on him. He'll come after him, take him home and within half an hour, he's back. I think he likes it here. Kimmy enjoys having someone to play with though and he's not a bad dog - just not the brightest crayon in the box. Can't help but love him though.

I've rambled on enough. I still have homework to do and Sam is already snoring. Later...........