Volume 18 - Day 97/268, 2026 - Tuesday

This is a pretty exciting day! It is not everyday that you have a crater named after you, the Carroll Crater on the dark side of the moon! I've been humming Pink Floyd for the last several days, too. Okay, not named after me, exactly, but my middle name is Carroll, so I'll take it. I also share that middle name with my friend Melody, so lots of cool people share that name! It is easy enough to see the exact Carroll that it was named after if you have access to the internet. Carroll Crater is a lunar impact crater located on the surface of the moon. It was officially named yesterday, April 6, 2026, by the crew of the Artemis II mission. Other than finding that out, today was a relatively normal day in the life. Breakfast with the ROMEOs, a stop at the UPS Store, an appointment with the CPA so I now know how much I owe the IRS, then home to take a nap with the girls. I am in the process of gathering stuff up to take with me on my trip with Paulina. We will meet Krisa in Berlin, and I will visit with Lisa and Hanna in Munich. In the meantime, it will be making new friends in Ireland and other points, and seeing how many family photos (ussies) I can photo bomb. It's what I do!

Volume 18 - Day 96/269, 2026 - Monday

I didn't have a lot of chores on my list today, but I did get a few tings done. I trimmed back one of the peach trees in the back yard that was a victim of a late frost, and hopefully that will help the pieces of that tree that are still alive. I also got all the prep done for my appointment with the CPA tomorrow, so I am pretty confident with that. Today was a platelet day, and all the staff at the blood center were wondering where Paulina and Marian were, but they were happy to see me. It is kind of odd to donate solo, but Marian and Paulina will be back to donating soon. Before I got home, I stopped to see how long the wait was for a haircut, and decided I would need to go back, since I was meeting a service man at Val and Paulina's, to see about getting their garage door repaired. I met with that guy, and shortly after that, Val was home, and he took over talking with the repair man. I took off and made a visit to the bank, and then went to get my haircut. The lady that cut my hair was a talker, and I was not particularly in the mood to talk, but it all worked out. I stopped at Cane's on the way back to the Curious House, and I just finished a three finger combo meal. Excellent! Now, I am in for the evening, and I expect I will be in the big chair with a couple girl dogs before long.

Volume 18 - Day 95/270, 2026 - Easter Sunday

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter, it was a lovely day in central Texas, the temperature never got out of the middle 60s, and it was jacket weather this morning! The photo is of the beautiful sunrise this morning, and it was well worth documenting. I met Reuben and Alisha for brunch, and that was fun, I haven't seen them in a couple months, I think. I got home, did a few little things around the Curious House, and went down for naps with the girls. Oliver, Val and Paulina came over for a few minutes, Oliver is headed back to Galveston after being home for the weekend. Val went to Home Depot and got a post to keep my plum tree upright. I think it is a plum tree, I am not sure, but it is something with some small fruits on it. I've had to windows open, but closed in the bedroom, it is too chilly for napping in there with the windows open. Tomorrow will be a platelets day, and Tuesday I have an appointment with the CPA. I am in good shape for the CPA, but there will be a few pieces of information I still have to collect.

Volume 18 - Day 94/271, 2026 - Saturday

One of my favorite things about the Curious House are the windows in my bedroom. I spend a lot of time back there with the girls in the big chair, watching television. I open the blinds all the way up when I get out of bed in the morning, and lower them about two-thirds of the way about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The windows are west-facing, so there is a lot of sun in the afternoon, which is why I bring the blinds down in the afternoon. I planned to NOT go to estate sales today, and then the rain caused me to coward out and not go to Holly's for Migas and Mimosas. We only got a little over a half-inch of rain, but it rained pretty hard for a while, and I understand it rained much heavier south of Georgetown. So...basically, I did nothing all day but watch tv. I went out a little while ago and did the best I could raking and sweeping and blowing the oak tassels (or catkins) off the front patio and driveway. They have dyed the concrete in many places, but I expect the summer will bleach the concrete back to white during the heat of the summer. The good news is, the sprinklers are off for the near-term, and the bad news is there is not more rain expected in the near term (or the long-tern as far as that goes).

Volume 18 - Day 93/272, 2026 - Friday

No more rain since my entry yesterday, but with any luck, there will be more over the weekend. My phone says we will have some light showers pretty soon, but it doesn't look like anything will fall from the sky any time soon. I took another virtual class today, and it was an elective. There are still two required classes I need to take, and I will hopefully be able to find them offered virtually in the near future. After the class, I went down for a nap with the girls, and Oliver came over for a few minutes. He is home for the Easter weekend, and yesterday when he arrived, it was the first time he had been home since Val and Paulina moved in. After a while Paulina, Oliver and I went in to Georgetown, we intended to go to the Georgetown Welcome Center to get Texas (or Georgetown) magnets to take with us next week. I am not sure if they will be open tomorrow, but they closed at 3PM today. After that, it was salad and pizza for dinner, and it was really good. We are all glad that we discovered the place on Leander Road. I am planning to go visit Holly, Gavin and Mace tomorrow for their spring time open house, hopefully with no rain. We shall see... Georgetown is officially recognized as the "Red Poppy Capital of Texas," designated that by the Texas Legislature in 1990. The recent rain was pretty heavy at times, and kind of beat these poppies down, but they are still pretty, especially en masse!

Volume 18 - Day 92/273, 2026 - Thursday

There was no walk this morning, because it was raining. This is not a usual comment about walking, so it is not straying from my vow yesterday to quit talking about walking. Since this time yesterday, we have received 2.28" of rain, and honestly, that amount was quite unexpected. Thankfully, the rain, pretty strong at times, cleaned the pollen off the solar panels for which I am very appreciative. The sun is out right now, and we will not be expecting any more rain until Saturday, which will be nice if that really happens. Whatever happens, I will try my best to turn off the sprinkler before it is scheduled to run on Saturday. While it was raining this morning, Gina came and picked me up and we went to Trader Joe's. You know, Trader Joe's, the place that I am really not cool enough to visit. I finished shopping quicker than Gina, so I went and sat in the car. While I was checking out, there was quite a commotion in the parking lot. Apparently someone was backing out of a parking place and hit a pedestrian (female). There was more commotion when several emergency vehicles arrived 'on the scene'. By the time we headed home, the rain had ended, and the rest of the day was dry and comfortable, I think the temperature only got up to the low 80s. I am not sure what is going on, but Callie is not feeling well...she might have pulled a muscle or something, she is not jumping up on the chair or the bed, but she is eating just fine. I will watch her overnight and maybe take her to the vet tomorrow, after my virtual class.

Volume 18 - Day 91/274, 2026 - Wednesday

The score is now 3-0, I have been in Austin for three days in a row now, but I will not be driving in tomorrow, in fact, I have nothing t all on my calendar for the next two days. Actually, that's a lie; I am taking a virtual class on Friday, but at least I don't need to go anywhere to take the class, and I don't have to wear pants. Yes, there was a nice walk this morning, I think I might quit remarking about that, and as of tomorrow I will only be reporting if I DO NOT take a walk, or if something extraordinary happens on the walk. You're welcome! Let's all work toward keeping Austin weird; on the way in to Austin this morning, I passed this truck, and was a little bit startled until I figured out it was a dummy in the back seat. Not sure if there was a dummy in the front seat or not, but I did manage to get a few photos during the next several miles. Interesting! I did make it to two meetings, and I was on time for both of them. This afternoon, I had an appointment to get 'cracked,' and I am on a monthly rotation for 'cracking.' If everything works out overnight, we MIGHT get a bit of rain, and I hope this forecast is not an April Fool's joke. I am reading a new book (for the last couple days), called The Secret Lives of Murderers Wives', by Elizabeth Arnott. It is very interesting, and I am going through it pretty quickly. It is about women who were married to serial killers, what they had/have in common and similar characteristics the men they were married to shared. Fiction (I think), but interesting.