Funday Monday

  

It's been a long day...started off with an early physical therapy appointment. The place I'm going is staffed with some really nice people and today I did enough new stuff to make me very sore tonight.  I don't go back until Wednesday and it's a good thing...I might be ready by then.  Maybe. lol

Picked up the young Prince and headed for IHOP for lunch then came home to be amazed by all the new kitties and chicks. It's been a good day, full of the blessings of family and pets and lots of love.  

He's going to stay for several days as it's spring break. Trying to figure out what wonderful stuff we can do tomorrow. Should be lots of fun.

This morning when I went to clean up the area under my desk where the kittens were born, I discovered that sometime during the night, Blaze gave birth to one more kitten, so we now have 6. They are all so adorable and mewling like crazy, every time she shifts or leaves them.  They are so tiny...they look like little gophers. lol  The chicks are doing well in their cage in the spare bedroom. I can't stop myself from going in and picking them up all the time and loving on them.  They are adorable, and it doesn't take long for them to outgrow that stage. lol  I want to handle them as much as I can to keep them used to me and to know that I am their caretaker. That way they'll be much more user friendly when they get grown.

Nice weather today and predicted for the rest of the week. It's rather warm tonight and supposed to stay this way, I hope. I so want to get out and start planting some stuff in the garden,  Get some lettuce started maybe and some tomatoes. Hoping to sit down with the Irishman and figure out just what we're planting soon. Lots of things blooming around these parts, and the fruit trees are budding out too. Spring fever--I got it, baby!!

Gonna hit the hay...tired to the bone tonight. Looking forward to another day of sunshine and blue skies tomorrow.

Namaste.

Sunday at the races...

That's how it's felt all day.  Got up late and kinda ran the rest of the day trying to catch up.

  Here are the 5 new babies that joined our family on the avian front 

Black Australorp

Buff Orpington

Little darlins at the feeder

The Australorps will be almost solid black with a greenish iridesence  on the wings, and the orpingtons will be a gorgeous golden reddish color. Both are great egg layers and on the nearly recovered list of once endangered chicken breeds.

  One of the cats also had a litter of 5 kittens today under my desk. Sigh....

All in all...a day of miracles and love and lots of magic.  But I'm tired....

Namaste

Saturday night...

 

The crazy factor the past few days has been quite remarkable.  Suffice it to say that my world has been going 180 miles per hour  and I have somehow managed to make it through intact. For this I am incredibly grateful.

We have had a few days in a row of pretty cool temperatures again , and I wish spring would make up it's mind to just stay. We've had some rain and thunderstorms, and so the grass is greening up nicely at least.  Today's high made it to 60 degrees, but it didn't stay there long. Got chilly and overcast and is supposed to storm some more tonight.  Yuck.

Tomorrow we are going to the farm store and buy some baby chicks.  I am very excited about this endeavor and cannot wait to ave those little babies to play with.  We keep them in a cage in the guest room...the cheeping and chirping drives the cats crazy, lol.  Not sure what breed we're going to get, but we might mix 'em up. Just getting a few, for eggs, and are still talking about the possibility of raising meat birds. The jury is still out as to whether or not we could manage to do the butchering process.

  I'm very tired tonight. I got up at 6 AM so I could cook and clean and get ready for a small family gathering today My youngest brother, wife and daughter, my sister and my son and grandson. And us. We ate fried chicken and potato salad and baked beans and deviled eggs.  And we laughed and played and talked and had a ball. I had people here from 11 AM til after 6:30. I am a happy camper and a tired old woman....all rolled into one.

Earlier this week  I spent the evening with a great bunch of women and we ate and watched The Secret and had a great time. I didn't get home that night until almost midnight.  Thursday night I attended a women's meeting and we moved all our stuff out of the place and will set up shop next week at our new location. It's a really good move for us on a whole lot of levels..  Friday night I attended a meeting as well, after spending most of the day doing household chores. We are also the proud caretakers of 4 new kittens. They are gorgeous little creatures and their mama is very relieved to have birthed them. We've already found homes for them.

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted in so many days until I logged in here tonight.  Wow.  It's good to have a full and busy life today.  I am especially blessed indeed.

Alright, it's creeping up on the midnight hour and I am going to rest my weary head.  Sweet dreams.

Namaste.

A Two-derful Tuesday (That's One-derful times two...)

 This is Merlin. Or, as he is affectionately known,  Merrman the Purrman.  It's the little jazz kitty, all grown up... He is by far one of the most laid back cats we have ever had, and that's saying a LOT!  lol  He's quite a literary cat, and anytime he sees a book or magazine laying on a table, he's all over it. Literally.

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  Ah...it was a gorgeous day here on the Prairie. About 70 degrees and sunny and I had a girlfriend over for lunch and made quiche and salads. Afterwards we sat out on the front porch in the big green rocking chairs and soaked up the sunshine. It was a delightful day. I got up real early this morning and got the office finished up, cleaned house a little and mopped the wood floors. I spruced things up a bit...new tablecloth on the table, burned some sandalwood incense, and opened the windows all up again. I took care of the neighbors dogs for the last time (they came home today) and even found time for some meditation and prayer here in my newly organized and born again office. lol

  My friend and I walked around the yard and took note of all the greening up that is going on.  Even the Japanese maple has  buds on it already. Typically, she oohed and ahhed over everything and all I could see was all the work I haven't done yet and need to get busy on. I'm really looking forward to my yards this year, even though it is a lot of work,. it's good work.  Soul food.

  It must be spring...I have ants in the bathroom!!!!  lol

  Oh yeah, DJan.  ES&H is Experience, Strength and Hope. I forgot that you had asked!

I'm ready to hit the hay. Tomorrow we are carpooling up to the recovery house for the womens meeting, and then I have to be back and at physical therapy by 3:45. After that, a bunch of women are gathering at one's house to watch The Secret.  I've told the Irishman that I will likely be gone before he gets home from work, so he's on his own. I'm really looking forward to meeting some new friends and catching up with old ones.  And of course, we'll be eating.  lol

  I'm planning to get some baby chicks this week...Will keep them in the house until they're big enough to hold their own out there in the henhouse.  I'm excited. I love baby chicks...no rooster this time though...he was way more hassle than he was worth.

   Count your blessings...and make gratitude a gift you choose every day!!

Namaste.


 

Mondays Moments

This is a new Goodwill find...caught my eye and spoke to me, so I ponied up the 2  dollars for it.

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  An interesting day today around here. I went shopping for a few groceries as a girlfriend is coming for lunch tomorrow. Bought some things like fresh asparagus and artichoke hearts and mushrooms to make a yummy quiche. Found fresh mozzarella and some lovely spring lettuce mix with raddichio and arugula and all the good stuff in it. Bought a cantaloupe and some more pineapple as well, as the price was right.Some butter and some half and half and my fridge is stocked !

  I made a couple of decisions today concerning some things that were important to my well being and unfortunately pissed a couple of people off.  One was very snotty to me on the telephone and practically hung up on me. She doesn't have a lot of social skills anyway...so it's hard to tell if she was hanging up on me forcefully or simply being her usual self.  The other had asked me to do something that was uncomfortable to me, and I declined.  She wasn't very happy either.  It's funny how people will expect you to fulfill their requests without ever thinking that maybe you won't.  lol  I'm not exactly a yes-man...you'd think the people in my circle would know me by now.  The most interesting part of all this, was that I really wanted to call the first one back and give her my opinion of HER and her behavior.  I picked that phone up twice...and put it back down. I called my sponsor instead. (And she hasn't, BTW, returned my call.)  But like most of the rash things I think about doing, when I let it lay for long enough to try to call my sponsor, I changed my mind about calling her. It wouldn't have accomplished a thing and I would have felt bad about it later. Maybe much later, but still...*grin. Sometimes I can actually take the time to ask myself..."How important is it, anyway? Will it matter in a month, or a year or 5 years?"  Most of the time I can lay it down and leave it there.

  I've been feeling like a change of venue may be in order. I live in an area where there are lots of meetings in different areas that are all about the same distance from me, travel wise. Each areas meetings are about as different as they could possibly be. To the north of me is rural and things are much  calmer and peaceful.  To the south of me is a college town, and the meetings there have their own flavor, I hesitate to say intellectual, but they are in a way, a different class of people. To the west of me, which is where I have been going the majority of the time,  it's more working class, and hard core.  I'm feeling a bit burned out and wanting to isolate. And I'm thinking maybe I need to get out and about a little more and switch my recovery neighborhoods around a bit.  Just feeling like maybe things need a little shaking up.

  It was a gorgeous sunny and warm day today. I opened up the house and let the breezes carry out the staleness of winter.   I think it's supposed to be like this the rest of the week.  I hope so. It was nice. I walked around the yard and checked on the plants. The forsythia are just on the verge of bursting into their magnificent yellow blooms. The lilies are all coming up like gangbusters and the sedum is looking good, in fact it's so interesting looking that I think I'll get out there tomorrow and get a picture of it.  My Egyptian Walking Onions (remember them from last year??) are up and looking good at about 6-8 inches high. And they have spread out nicely in the little plot I planted them in, looks like there will be a nice patch of them this year.  The shasta daisies are coming up too, little green mounds of leaves.  I forgot to go look at the asparagus patch. It should be showing some signs of life as well.

  It got me all fired up to start planning the gardens. 

  But, first things first. I have to get up early to get things ready for my lunch.  Which means I have to go to bed. Now. I'm making a concerted effort to get to bed earlier and get more sleep. And believe it or not...midnight IS an improvement (for me!).

  Happy Spring, everyone.  We have an equinox plan for Saturday and a potluck at the CSA gardens for Thursday. Life is good...

Namaste.

Sunday night at home....

 This is a picture of my backyard, the first day of spring, 2006.  They were predicting snow for today too, but thankfully, it didn't materialize.  Yippee !!!!!!

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  WHEW!  This week is finally over. It was long and packed full to the hilt. It was a good week...but it pretty much used me up.  Today was long-left the house around 11 to stop at the Walcrap and pick up snacks and rice milk...that latter for the Irishman and the former for the workshop.  Met hubby for lunch at 1 and went off to the District Mtg. at 2. When it was over, I set up for the workshop. It was a dismal day...raining and cold. Light turnout for the meetings...only a dozen for the workshop, so went to Plan B. Plan B was: IN the event of a small turnout, we had just a round robin sharing session instead of the panel.  It was actually quite nice and everyone shared a lot of ES&H...so, all's well that ends well.

  Didn't get home until after 6 PM...luckily I had the forethought to put a pork roast in the crockpot this morning.  Put some red potatoes and carrots and onion in with it and it cooked to perfection while we were gone.  SO supper was pretty much ready when we walked in the door.Good thing-I was starved! lol

  I made iced tea the other day, and when I poured a glass of it tonight and took a drink, I was momentarily disturbed at the taste of it. It wasn't bad...just different.  I had forgotten that I made it with 3 Earl Grey teabags thrown into the mix...Bergamot is one of those flavors that tastes like nothing else you can identify...I feel the Altzheimers slipping over me...I love Earl Grey tea and I especially love Earl Grey green tea. I am a big tea drinker...for being a coffee drinker. I adore Lapsong Souchong. Rooiboos is one of my favorites. I love most herb teas. I have peppermint teas and spearmint teas that I have grown and dried myself.  There's just something about a nice cup of tea in the evening that does something for me that nothing else can.

  I have a tea pot collection. I rarely use pots, because I am usually making tea just for myself. But I have a lovely collection, many with sentimental value, and a few that are actually quite valuable.  I am not sure how that collection got started, but it sits proudly above my kitchen cabinets, gathering dust.  lol

  I'm heading to bed soon. It's a chilly night and all my chores are done and that big sleigh bed with the beautiful quilts on it is calling my name. Not to mention my personal Irish heatmaster...lol

   Stay warm and dry, my friends. I'm reading all over the news of flooding and more cold...but spring is almost here. My neighbors daffodils and crocus are up and flowering...I need to go out and check the forsythia bushes...not tonight though....lol

    Namaste.

Saturday rides again...

 Here's one corner of the newly painted office...(notice how I've  artfully edited out the clutter that still sits in the center of the room??) This is one corner...man-that light bulb sure shines through that shade....

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   I was so tired and it was so late by the time I got to the computer that I couldn't even post. Yesterday was a full day. Housekeeping and laundry and sponslings and doctors. And then hubby and I watched Zodiac..about the killings in San Francisco in the early 70's..the whole decade actually from 67-78, I guess. It was a very well done, very LONG movie, starring Robert Downey, Jr  and Jake Gyllenhall  and a great cast of charaters.Scary stuff, serial killers...

  Today was an up and at 'em early morning. Filled with animals and peoples and a friend came by for coffee and I made buttermilk apple cinnamon pecan muffins to go with the Starbucks coffee...It's 1 PM now...the Irishman is out for his Saturday hike in the woods with his friend Jerry and we are going to another corned beef and cabbage feed tonight to hear a speaker  (a married couple, actually).  It will be a good time, and relaxing to boot.

   Just wanted to drop in and say good morning. Not a lot to report, but I need my blog fix!

    I have to get the sponsorship workshop stuff together today as well, it follows on the heels of the district meeting .  Just called down there--the pamphlets I ordered didn't come in...sigh....so I need to improvise some stuff...Also need to get some cookies and munchies and things for the crowd. lol  Have no idea how many to expect. That makes it hard as well. OH well--I'm always up for a good challenge...Need to call my panel  speakers too and make sure they haven't forgotten. 

  Here's another picture, little different angle, just to prove I haven't been lying about this office, lol.  More to follow, as I finish her up.

It's a little dark...oh well...

  Later taters...I'm off to search cyberspace for some workshop help!!

Namaste.

Thursday 's natterings...

So tired I can't tell which end is up.  It's been a really long day, starting with an official visit to a church where we are moving our womens meeting. I left the house at 9 AM, didn't get home til after 4. Left again at 5:30...got home after 9PM.  Sheesh...no wonder I am bone tired...

  Got a couple of things to do tomorrow between 1 and 4 and I am done for the day.  Saturday will be a day of rest.  And I am so ready...

 Great turnout for our womens meeting tonight. It was  such a wonderful  thing, on so many levels...I was the one with the longest time in the program (almost 20 years), there was a new new new one,  and there was everything in between.  It was full of gratitude there tonight.

  Feeling so blessed to have my life tonight. So blessed to be capable of being of service and so full of the love of God that I can barely stand it.

  Doesn't get any better than this....

I am off to rendevous with the sandman....May all YOUR dreams come true....

Namaste.

Wednesday again... lol

Somebody told me that they are predicting snow showers on Sunday...it made me cry.  We have been having temps in  the 60's. ..

  I know that today is Wednesday. I know it for sure. By the time anyone reads this, however, it will be Thursday. I will be meeting with a pastor of a church that our womens group is moving to in the morning, thenm I will go meet a friend  for lunch and THEN, I will go to my sisters for a bit. It will be another full day, much like the last 3 days have been.  I am tired. Friday is more of the same.

 I was up at 7 AM caulking this morning and got it all done (yippee!!). After I got back from the running I did today, I started working on putting things in order in here and I am almost finished. The wing back chair that I wanted to put in here will not fit through the doorway!!!  We struggled with it at every angle and in every direction we could and it was just not meant to be.  Dang! I told the Irishman..."But-- I have a PLAN!!!!"  sigh...so, the Bentwood rocker is in here instead. All the books are back on the bookshelves, most everything is cleaned up and put away except for 1 more box of stuff that came off the desk.  The desk itself is almost clean too!! I took some pictures of the almost finished project...It's nothing fancy, but it looks a lot better.even though I sure wanted a more comfortable chair in here than that rocker. OH well. Rocking chairs are nice too.

My son called this morning early and asked me a typical boy question: It went like this:

"Hey mom. Whatcha doing?"

"Hey mom--I have a question-what do they do for a broken toe?-Nothing, right?"

""I can just tape it to the toe next to it, right?"

Sigh.....

He is back at the martial arts gym and has been grappeling, I guess that's how he did it. He said it doesn't really hurt or anything, and no, of course it isn't gong to keep him out of the tournament next weekend. He was especially proud to tell me that for the first time when he was grappeling with his instructor, he made the guy tap out. From what I understand, you tap out to save your life when somebody's got you in a hold that you can't get out of.

  I'm not real crazy about this contact sport stuff, but he really likes it. The discipline is probably good for him and the exercise and diet regimen certainly is. He assured me that this isn't like the kickboxing he was doing before. THAT was hard to watch, even though he is very good and always got in more kicks than he took.

(Why couldn't I have just had a girl who got married and settled down and gave me lots of grandbabies????)  lol

Okay, I'm off to bed. I have a wayward kitten that refuses to come in and I'm giving her one last chance and then I am done.It's almost 1:30 here and I have an early day ahead. 

Happy Anniversary  ((((Steve))))  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  36 years is a long time....Thanks for lighting the way....

Namaste.

Wordless Wednesday

Painty Days and Mondays always bring me down...

This is Lily. Although it may look like it, this is her natural coloring...I did not paint HER. I swear.

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  Well, I did it. Got up early, finished the painting. 2 coats. Had to remove the contents of 2 bookshelves in order to move them off that wall, and that was time consuming. Thought about sponging  the wall after a coat of white paint on it, but I didn't like the way it looked. I was running out of the yellow paint, so I mixed it with some white and it came out just a hair lighter than the original color. SO I have 3 yellow walls and one white. The white one has 2 large windows on it and I probably have enough of the mix to put a coat on that too...but I am done. No more painting for me, at least not in this room. I may paint on that wall another time, or stencil or something, but it ain't gonna be now, muchachos...If I don't get this room finished and the order restored, I will slit my throat.  All I have to do now before I move those bookcases back is get the caulking done. It's a clear caulk and will take 7-14 days to completely dry, that's why I'm doing it last. I'm  gonna go to town with that caulk gun. I also have to clean up those window sills, as they've gotten a bit of mildew living there.  Then it's clean the bookcases with Murphy's Oil Soap and start arranging books and stuff.  I have a wingback chair I am moving in here with a little footstool. I'm going to start looking for some new curtains too, the ones there are faded and a hunter green. Oh boy...that means some shopping trips to my favorite recycling centers...Goodwill and the Salvation Army.  Maybe I can even find a cover for that chair...

  Tomorrow I am getting that massage that got canceled last week (or was it the week before???) . Thank goodness. This old body aches. Then Wednesday I have plans to have lunch with 3 girlfriends and visit a recovery home afterwards.  Thursday I am lunching again, with a friend, at Olga's Kitchen. They make great salads and spanokopita (SP--better look that up, doesn't feel right). Then Friday is busy too...and a dr appt in the late afternoon.  By the time the weekend rolls around, I'll be beat. OH yeah, and my neighbors are going to Florida for a week, and I'm feeding their doggies twice a day.  It's good to have a full and rewarding life, but this is ridiculous.  lol  We have plans on Saturday night and then Sunday I am running the District meeting and holding a workshop on Sponsorship afterwards.  Holy crap.  I'll be in the looney bin by Monday....I wonder if they have WiFi there?????

 I'm going to make some rooiboos tea and read a bit before bed. I've been listening to some wonderful music from a program called Echoes..kind of electronic jazz stuff...beautiful.  It's the local University station...one of the best I've heard. 

  I'll leave you with this quote from English author J.B. Priestly (1894-1984)....

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."

Namaste.

Grey and chilly Sunday....

 A really GOOD day for cooking comfort food in the oven...like the lovely chicken pot pie that's in there now, making the house smell all wonderful and feel nice and warm. I've been puttering around all day, after waking up at 10..or was it 11 ???  lol...Daylight Savings Time strikes again!!  After last nights meeting, where I drank 2 small cups of regular coffee, I was awake until 3 Am...so I really only slept about 7 hours.  Now...that doesn't seem nearly as bad, does it?   lol

  I met some really great new people last night and we all had a good time. I had one guy stop me after the meeting and say that he was told early on that if he kept coming around and listening, one day he would meet the person that would tell his story, and that I was that person for him. He had just celebrated his 12th anniversary...

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  Well, it hasn't exactly been a cell-free day like I'd hoped, lol. But the last 4 or 5 hours I turned the ringer off and put it in the other room. That helped. The Irishman and I had a nice quiet dinner and then watched the Coen Brothers film, Millers Crossing, starring Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, and Marcia Gay Hardin...to name a few.  It was quite good, even though gangster movies aren't necessarily my favorite. 

  Tabitha, I will post that recipe for the honey oatmeal bread on my Dragon Woman's Kitchen blog for you...I posted the Irish Soda Bread recipe earlier today...let me know how it works for you...I have been using a white whole wheat flour for these recipes...it has a ton of extra fiber and protein in it. I also always add flaxmeal and vital wheat gluten to my bread recipes. I was trying to think...it's been over 8 months I think since I last bought a loaf of bread. It was just getting too expensive, because we only eat the serious whole grain breads, and they were creeping up to 4 dollars a loaf around here. I approximately figured out that it's costing me under 2 dollars a loaf to make it myself.  'Nuff said....

  I slipped in the mud today and twisted my knee again. I don't think I did any serious damage to it, just enough torque to make it painful again.  Damn.   If the day ever comes when my knee is pain free again...why, I'll jump for joy.  *erk.

  I think I just might be able to finish this office tomorrow, if I get really diligent about working on it. If I get up early and get right on it.  Tonight we moved the loveseat out of here, and that will give me a lot more room to shift things around and get to the walls.  It seems like this mess has been going on a long, long time. On a bright note, I have located several books I've been looking for.  lol

Maybe I need to get some ice out for this knee and take it easy a bit before going to bed.   I have a full and busy week coming up and feel like I need some rest.   I also need to google the invisible dog fence and see what I can find. It's breaking my heart having to tie up this dog.  I almost wish another dog would get hurt, just so we'd know for sure it wasn't her...and of course, I don't really mean that, but...

Alright--off to fill the ice brace for my knee. Put some nice jazz on the radio and sit back and relax....

Namaste.
 

Happy Splatterday, people !!

This is how it looks now...only with more water...water on the ground, water falling out of the sky, water, water everywhere... A tiny bit of green showing....

 This is how it's gonna look by about the end of April, first of May.  I am so looking forward to it!!!

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  But, even cold and rainy days are good for something. I made a big pot of French Onion soup this afternoon, and have a nice loaf of oatmeal honey whole wheat bread in the breadmaker.  We are going to a potluck tonight where they are serving corned beef and cabbage dinner with all the trimmings, so I baked a gorgeous loaf of Irish Soda Bread to take.  I'm going to put the soda bread recipe on Dragon Woman's Kitchen later tonight.  Just took a picture.  Looks like this:

  YUM!!  Isn't it bee-oo-ti-full ????   It is basted with a mixture of melted butter and buttermilk while it's baking too, giving it that pretty crust.

   I  have been asked to come share my story tonight at this potluck meeting. It's always good to remember what it was like, what happened and what it's like now. Sometimes saying this stuff out loud serves as a good reminder of why it's important to do the little things we do every day to ensure that we get to keep living this good life....

   We have a problem.... the neighbors across the pond think that our Jack Russell Terrorist has mauled one of their dogs. They took the poor thing to the vet and it was put back together, and so we are faced with what to do about Molly....the problem is this:  No one has seen Molly do this.  And we live out in the country where there are lots of dogs that run the place. There are neighbors down the street from us that have 3 dogs, 2 of which have been known attack cats and other small things. Across the road from us, there are German Shepherds that come out when another dog up the road comes into heat. They travel with a Boston Terrier who likes to act ferocious.  But the neighbors really seem to want to believe that its our dog. We are keeping her tied up right now and keeping her in the house too. It's killing her--Jacks are roamers and runners and the most willful dogs on the planet. We are looking at the possibility of the invisible fence, if we can afford it....at least then she could run around our property.  It kills me to think that my dog could have torn up another dog.  And not knowing if it's really her is the other thing. Are we punishing her for something she didn't do?   It's a terrible dilemma and we are trying to take it one day at a time and figure it out.    It sucks.

  Guess I'd better go check on my bread and get a shower. We have to leave in about an hour and a half.  

   I have been on the phone a lot today and am thinking about turning it off...lol.  I think tomorrow will definitely be a cell-free day for me.  That sounds like a good idea...

  Namaste

It's Friday, Friends !

  My my...how the time flies when we're having fun!!  Here it  is, Friday once again...as the earth moves 'round the sun, and the sands of the hourglass trickle down....we find ourselves again in the throes of a thrilling day of 55 word fiction. Traveling around the world to read the good words, from the UK to the Yukon, from Michigan to Switzerland.  Another delightful day of lexicography awaits!


  Here's the deal.:  write a piece of delightery in 55 words, then go over and tell Galen that you've got it going on !  Easy peasey lemon squeezy.






IN fact....here's mine!

When all else fails…she muttered, fumbling with the needles.  This was turning out to be a much bigger deal than she had anticipated.  She was running out of time. Rummaging through the basket, she looked over at the dismembered body.  How to fix this?  

Raggedy Ann has lost a leg and soon Sissy would know.

Thursday's child has far to go....

Isn't this beautiful? Somebody worked on this piece of needlework for a long time...I found it at a flea market for one dollar. It graces my office wall. 

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  As you can see, I didn't get on here to post this morning. lol  Maybe tomorrow.  But don't count on it.  LOL.  I started painting kinda early and between that and other chores, I didn't even get on here for a while. 

  Had a great gathering of girls tonight at the Thursday 7PM... several that normally don't attend, 2 of whom are very new to the game. It was quite lively and the time passed so quickly. I didn't get home until close to 10...

  Made bbq ribs for supper and then ate and ran...am paying for that now.  Burping like crazy. Not sure if it's the ribs or the garlic mashed potatoes... Had a good day today, a number of interesting coincidences showed themselves, and it was gorgeous weather. Hit 65 again today. Very sunny and just a tad breezy, but nothing too bad. The tornado watch petered out and we did get some thunderboomers. One of them, just as I was going to bed last night, was a doozy, and lasted close to a whole minute.  Exciting stuff!!  It even woke up the Irishman.

  More seed catalogs came in the mail today.  It has me wanting to plant something sooooo bad.  But my new mantra is ..."It's TOO early, it's TOO early..."  The month of March cannot be trusted, this much I know is true.  Even April is dicey...but by the end of the month, I will be starting flats. That should take the edge off it for me, lol.

Thinking about buying some baby chicks and seeing if I can't fool one of the hens into thinking they're hers. Then she'll protect them. It might not be a problem since there's no male anymore. Roosters are known to kill and eat baby chicks, so you almost always have to separate them from a new brood. Since there are only 3 hens, it might be an easier transition. Only one way to find out, I think.. The thing is, if the hens won't accept the babies, they will freeze to death out there.  If I keep them in the house until they're bigger, the hens won't accept them. sigh... I gotta tell you-chickens are some freaky critters....

  Gonna hang her up and go to bed.  It's a tad past midnight...and already I'm hoping I don't forget to turn the clocks forward Sunday early AM.  I am so ready to "SPRING forward" !!!!!

  Namaste.

Windy Wednesdays

 Miss Sophie, at the marina at Pere Marquette Park, Grafton,IL  We were having a small picnic...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~

     As payment for a gorgeous sunny 75 degree day in the first half of March, we are now under a tornado watch.  I can never remember the fine nuances of distinguishing between a warning and a watch, and frankly I don't care. I have a really bad attitude about natural disasters and stuff...when it comes to me, anyway. I have a lot of empathy for people in 3rd world countries reeling from 'quakes and hurricanes and shit...but in my own life it's pretty much let the chips fall where they will.  I am nor afraid of storms. I am not afraid of any of that stuff. If it is my day to die, it will happen...regardless.  If it isn't, then there's no need to sit around worrying. I just try to keep it simple and live every moment like it may be my last. Natives have a saying about it being a good day to die. If I live right, love right and trust in the Great Spirit ...I have nothing to fear.   

  And so it is.

  The parental units took to the road about 6 AM and I barely heard them leave. The Irishman was feeling much better with the antibiotics, and he was off to work as well.  I lay in bed, savoring the silence and the knowledge that I wasn't going to do a damn thing today.  LOL  So I went back to sleep and didn't get up until about 9.

  Yikes...it's midnight and the temps are still over 60 degrees!!  

   Went north about an hour today to visit a halfway house kind of a place. I have gone there off and on since I moved here. Lately off, because there were no women there. Today was a good day...it feels good to be able to share experience, strength and hope with women who are down on their luck and struggling. To be able to lend a hand, a shoulder, an ear...good stuff.

  I should be getting to bed. Thinking maybe I'll start writing in the mornings instead of at night...I seem to be tiring out and talking a lot of gibberish in the wee hours.  Maybe I'll make more sense...or not.

   Tomorrow I'll get back on this painting and get this room finished.  I really like the yellow...bright and cheery.  The back wall is going to be white, as I'm running out of yellow. There isn't a lot of wall back there anyway, as it holds 2 big windows. I can't wait to have this all done and get this room straightened around again.  The chaos is killing me.  I don't do well in this kind of stuff.  Even when I move, I unpack and set up my house in the very first day or two usually.   The Irishman says I'm a nester. The truth is a little less cute than that.  I don't do well in clutter and disorganization. The inside of my head is crazy enough...I need structure and order around me.  And THEN, I can be okay....lol

  I am just LOVING this new monitor, by the way.  (It's not new, new.  Just a different one that happened to be laying around)... It's bigger and it's got really good color and definition. Plus, when I was in the control panel, dicking around,. I changed some color scheme from blue to silver...and I love the look. Clean and defined.  WooHoo!

  We had big salads for supper in honor of the summer weather. lol  Lots of veggies and chunks of ham and grated cheese...and shrimp cocktail too. ' Twas yummy!!

   In the morning I am getting the dehydrator going with apples and pineapples. I'll let you know how that goes...I'm excited about getting some drying going on. This will give me a chance as well to figure it all out before garden harvest time.  I'm not real sure about what to prep the fruit with to keep it from turning brown, but am thinking I'll just use the Fruit Fresh that I use when freezing/canning.  It's just ascorbic acid...I'm also going to leave the peels on most of the apples and peel just a few and try them and see which one I like best. The peels may get tough...

  Let the games begin  !!!!!!!!!

  Okay--turning in now, and wishing you all the best dreams available.

Namaste.

Tickle Me Tuesday...

 This is how I'm feeling tonight.  It has been a long couple of days, and I have been cleaning and painting and cooking and doing everything I needed to do to get ready for the inlaws visit.  And now it's all over and done. They are all in bed and will be gone by the time I get up in the morning.  We had a nice dinner and watched a movie and voila! it's done.  

  I dazzled them with a beautifully perfectly roasted chicken, with succulent chunks of roasted potatoes, carrots and onion. I drizzled them in olive oil and roasted them with some sea salt and rosemary.  I baked 2 of the finest looking loaves of french bread in my history of bread baking...they were perfect. We ate like kings.

  I cleaned my oven, did laundry and got the guest room all cleaned and ready this afternoon. I had to clean the oven because I spilled something in there that has been smoking up the whole house every time I turn it on. It was yucky....and I couldn't breathe for the smoke last time I used it.  Whatever it was, it wasn't burning off either. So---clean it I did, since I was going to have it going almost all afternoon.

  My knee was hurting so bad last night I had to get the ice packs on it. It was better today, but the sciatica started acting up, I guess from walking funny on the knee. Interestingly enough, when I put my knee brace on, it took the pressure off the sciatic nerve and it's only a little sore right now, and I've been on my feet all day.

  I'm pretty tired tonight, so I think it's gonna be an early one.  It's been grey and rainy all day, which never helps my energy level either.  I see the little weather icon flashing yellow on my toolbar.  Must be gonna storm....crazy thing is, it's 57 degrees at 11 PM.....the furnace hasn't come on once today.

  Thanks for all your wonderful comments and thoughts re: the death of my rooster.  It means a lot.

   Okay then...short and sweet on a Tuesday.  Signing off...

Namaste.

A Tribute...

 This is Big Boy....the world's meanest rooster.   This picture  was taken in the spring of 2006, and he was about 5 months old.  Today--March 8, 2010-- he breathed his last breath and crowed his final cock-a-doodle-doo.  He was a beautiful specimen of the old heirloom breed of Rhode Island Red. He got really big, weighing in at about 12 pounds.  Last winter he managed to get frostbite...on one foot and his comb. He must have had the one leg  and the top of his head sticking out the door of the coop  is all I can figure. So for a year he has been all gimpy, but he still managed to rule his little flock of hens. He started getting mean around a year and a half old....before that, he would let me walk into the chicken run and pet him and talk to him. Suddenly he didn't want anything to do with me, and would as soon rip my face off as look at me.   We had several close calls. Once he threw himself at me from the doorway to the chicken coop (which sits up high).  I was walking away from him, and he hit me square in the middle of my back and knocked me down. Luckily I had a full gallon water jug in my hand and I turned and knocked him ass over teakettle with it as he got ready to come at me again. He stood up, shook himself off and started at me and I yelled at him and threatened him with the jug again and he backed off. We had a few more encounters before I started just staying away from him as much as I could. He ripped my hand with his spurs a couple of times inside the coop when I was gathering eggs.

  For about a week he has been acting very listless and dug himself a shallow pit in the chicken run for a dust bath...I found him laying there this morning looking pretty rough.  Early in the afternoon the hens were making a lot of noise and I went back to check and there he was...right in the center of the run, dead.  I said a little prayer and thanked him for taking such good care of the girls, and we laid him to rest.  His crowing every morning will be missed, mostly by me, as I'm sure he drove the neighbors crazy.  He was really beautiful and had the heart of a warrior.  I've seen him take on snakes and he even caught a mouse once. One night a baby possum managed to slink through the chicken wire and he raised hjoly hell until we came and got it. He stood right there, lunging at it, making sure it didn't hurt his girls. When an occasional cat would jump on top of the fencing, he would gather up the hens and move them inside the coop where they would be safe.

   He was moulting here, but you can get an idea of how much he'd grown in just one year. (2007)

 Here he was when we first brought him home from the farm store....what's not to love?

So, here's to the memory of a rooster who lived his life to the fullest, gave it his best, and breathed his last breath  in the bosom of the Mother Earth.  R.I.P. You will be missed....

Namaste.