What I did today; the long but funny version.

So, I woke up this morning and had some tent snuggle time with my 1000 year old cat. She has taken to wanting under the covers. I don’t mind, except she won’t lie down. She sits there, far away from me, purrs and falls asleep sitting up. My arms tend to get tired during these ‘don’t touch me’ snuggle moments. Today, I grabbed her and pulled her up close, petting her and forcing purrs from her. Once I was tired of torturing her with love, I got up and made coffee. I logged on, visited my usual sites, drank my 3 cups, ate my vitamins, had toast, and started sweeping up all the cat-fur dust bunnies in my house. I did dishes, which I attempt to only do once a week. I have discovered that if you rinse the dishes AND stack them, you can fit more in the sink, thus allowing yourself to put the whole dish washing activity off longer. After dishes I lint-rollered a bunch of surfaces in my house, moved the cat box outside to clean it, emptied my recycle bins and garbage, and moved the rest of my messes to my crafting table. I have discovered if I contain my messes in this manner, I can put off dealing with them a lot longer. Kinda like the dishes, but less smelly. I occasionally peeked in online, putzing around various sites, sending emails and making sarcastic and witty comments to various unsuspecting early risers such as myself.

I finally went out and watered the garden, and tied up my tomato plant, because plant bondage is really hot. Then I did a little harvesting, ate some strawberries and a nectarine, chatted with my neighbors, pet the kitties, including one stray that is finally letting me give her scratches. Pug (another stray) came in and amused me by playing with his catnip mouse. I sat in the sun a bit, and finally decided I should get out of my pajamas. Not like you could tell I was IN pajamas. My jammies are t-shirts and sweat pants, and are perfectly acceptable to go to various public places in. However, my morning hair is a whole other story, and I felt it about time to stop scaring the neighbors. I showered and decided to wander down to the local market for that brownie mix. Even though it would cost 3 times the amount there because I live in the middle of nowhere, I decided to splurge. I also wanted to buy the winning lottery ticket. But first I brought the cat box back in for Her 1000 Year Old Highness. Don’t want any kitty accidents in my house. I passed the park on my way home from the store and thought about stopping to watch the birds, but some butt head had just smoked a big bowl, and the smell was awful, so I opted to go home. On the way there I started thinkning about how wonderful it is to be single. I can go when and where I want, do what I want, without having to worry about forgetting to tell someone exactly where I will be and for how long and then being late and having to explain I wasn’t trying to hurt them and that I wasn’t cheating on them with the neighbor or some rot like that.
Then I started thinking about how much it kinda sucks to be single because there is no one to say, “You were gone? Oh. I didn’t notice.” And then grin when I smack then on th back of the head and stick out my tongue.

Once home, I proceeded to start refilling my sink with dirty dishes by making 3-bean salad and starting a big pitcher of ice tea. More poking about the Internet, making sarcastic comments, etc. I was getting pretty tired, so I took a nap. 2 hours later I arose refreshed and ready to do absolutely nothing. Instead I cleared my pile of crap off my table, watched a Farscape episode, ate dinner and desert, talked to my mom and dad, amused the mail lady (who is also my friend), trimmed up my peas after picking them, and sat in the sun some more. I started another craft project, cracked open a beer to wash my two microwave smores down with, and am now thinking about trundling off to bed. It’s rather late for me, and I still want to read a bit before I crash from my Very Exciting Day.

I was dreaming I was choking to death and awoke to find my cat trying to strangle me. Except she fell asleep because she's about 1000 years old and sleeps 23.5 hours a day. Her little, pointy paws were still jammed into my wind pipe, put she had tipped over onto my chest in the fetal position. I think she was dreaming about finishing the job, though, because she was purring.

another facebook album

Mom and Dad came for a visit this July, and I have finally edited the pictures for your viewing pleasure (and my stress levels and to do list lenght).
Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1736511391224.72576.1791798792&l=d71d473dc3&type=1

Jamboree Parade 2011

We had our yearly Jamboree parade last weekend, so I wandered to town to snap some shots. It's a big thing here, and is the only parade i have ever like. Proabably because it's small town, and it's my town!

Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1723829154176.72017.1791798792&l=7632b23083&type=1

Art from under my bed.

This is the last of the stuff I have been hauling around since high school.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1722475480335.71955.1791798792&l=7a04437b42&type=1

Enjoy!

Vacation pictures from Henderson, New York.

I had a fabulous time, as always. I miss my friend already. Here is a link to my facebook album, if you'd like a peek.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1711147437141.71459.1791798792&l=65c5742a59&type=1


Here is a link to my friends Etsy store. She makes great jewlery. Check it out!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LadyMockingbird

So many pictures, so far behind in getting them posted!

I spent a small portion of today editing my pictures from a revent visit to Seattle. It happened to fall on Gay Pride weekend. If you are interested in the pictures I took, clicky the link below to see them in my facebook. Don't worry, clicking the link wont sign you into facebook. It's simply like buying a ticket to the zoo. You get to go in once, but that doesn't make you a member.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1701428674178.70967.1791798792&l=3a28fbde3b&type=1

Well, winding down for the day. We drove into Adams and checked it out. It's about the size of Vernonia, but split into 2 sections. Nice little town. We hit the local super market, and now we are home and grilling some dinner. I'm taking a break from round one of dish washing to sip on my gin and tonix and type, while Diana finishes up the food prep and gets out of my washin' way! The breeze is stirring all the drapes, and the evening sunlight is spilling through the trees, making dappled patterns on the walls and floor. Tomorrow I Geocache, and check out a big cemetery near here. Tonight I rest, make one more postcard to mail, and then surfing the net while watching- you guessed it! West Wing!

updatey goodness from New York State.

All my days are blurring together, as all good vacation days should. Today we have spent most of our time working on logging jewelery inventory, and I will sort it all tonight. Yesterday we hit Fort Drum, and I got a patch for the Mist-Birkenfeld Fire station. I hope to get one tomorrow in Syracuse. Lots of good food has been eaten, and much West Wing has been watched. I have also done a huge amount of sleeping, which surprises me. Really didn't think I was that tired out from life. Tomorrow morning I will do some local Geocaching on my own, and then we will drive into town to look at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Salvation Army and a few other things. Matter of fact, I need to see If there are any Geocaches in town.

The weather has been cooler and raining at night. It rained almost all day yesterday. Today is sunny and windy, but cool. Very pretty. The furnace guy showed up to do some maintenance, and he was cute! I couldn't get a flirt in sideways 'cuz Diana was hogging it all. I did get to stare, though, which is good, too.

Now we need to decide whether we are going to start painting the living room, or o something else.

I am in New York with Diana, and happy as can be! It was a long night trip with 2 layovers, but I managed to sleep some, so was able to hit the ground and be awake and functioning. It was hotter and more humid that I think I have ever experienced in my life, and I was sweating from places on me I didn't even know I could sweat from. Life; it's a constant learning experience. Today is cooler. We spent the day doing an art fair. Lots of jewelry was sold, and celebrating was had by all. Dinner out at a small restaurant on the harbor was a nice way to end a long, hot day of working. Tomorrow will be resting and then a picnic on the water. We will eat and swim and rest. I am looking forward to meeting more of the local folk and slipping into pure vacation mode.

But for tonight, I will slip into 'looking at the back of my eyelids' mode. Night all!

Yeah, I get it from my Dad...

I was walking through town early this morning and came upon a gentleman gingerly nailing a sign to a signpost. It said, "SDA picninc". I had no idea what a SDA was, so I asked him. He said it stood for Seventh Day Adventist, and that his church was celebrating it's 75th year in Vernonia. He was excited, and I was caught up a little in his enthusiasm. I responded with a loud "Holy crap!!! That's awesome!", then wished him a great event and resumed my walk. Only after several seconds did I realize that maybe responding with "Holy crap!!!" wasn't quite the best choice of words.Sure was funny, though!

Mom's Day fun!

I made a banner to greet mom with at the train station on Mothers Day weekend. My friend Julie hepled hold up the 8 feet of glorious fun, and when Mom came into the station, half the people clapped and cheered. It was hilarious and wonderful! I couldn't have planned it to work out better. Mom saved the banner, and it is enjoying at home. Heehee!

My first veggies of yum!

My snap peas have been busy while I wasn't looking! I went to tuck some growth up so it would grow up the pole, and noticed that had green snacks growing. Squeeeee!

I started to be productive...

...but then it simply became too pretty and warm and wonderful out. The next thing I know, I am in my car, cruising down 47 to Fish Hawk Lake, and then Birks for a burger....Then I absolutely had to take a nap. I talked a bit with the wonderful Lady Mockingbird, who I am always happy to hear from, then I forced myself to do a little more 'work'. Now I shall retire with a book. Probably a cat, too. I want to get my seeds planted tomorrow morning, then go exploring up a road I found that has a sign posted saying I can actually play there. Yeah! Then it's into the big city for some crafting, that stupid meeting, and an overnight shift. Wee. I am charging up my Zune now so I have tunes for Sunday night.

My latest glitter creation!

These glitter glues I just purchased ROCK!!!

We sell these glitter glues by Tim Holtz that come out to $2 or more a piece. You have to buy them in a 3 packs. Michaels makes their own version and has them in the dollar scrap booking bins, and I have been a-eyeballin' them for a while. I bought some with an uber discount, and tried them on one of my 'Glitter some Boxes' projects.

O!

M!

G!

I bought a bunch of colors, at $.60 a piece, and let me a-tell ya, they are THE BOMB!!!! I am in love! Sorry Tim, but you are to expensive for this girl.

Sucess!

The weekend went fabulously! We had a great time watching 'Numb3rs', reading, getting our 'craft' on, socializing, and walking around town. Mom spent Saturday with me and the ladies crafting,. I taught her how to make Inchies. She and I both got to see the new tender the Mist/Birkenfeld fire station had been able to aquire. Ruth even came with us! We ate at the Blue House (Meditarainian food), the Grand Lodge( where Peter and Ursi stayed on their visit), and the weather was even nice! I have a new toaster, compliments of the house guest and Dad, which I have used a TON in a few days. I missed having a toaster!
Pug slept with Mom every night, and hung out with us while we played a game of dice.

Really, it was a great Mother's Day weekend, and I hope to get another one in before the year gets busy.

My child is such a dork!

BEcause my mom taught me to share.

Nothing like posing in a fire engine with a handsome hunk!

So, two firemen arrived at my house the other day...

Sounds like the begining of a joke, but it isn't! They did, and all ready to handle the heat, too! We became instant friends, and I took them to the firestation today to introduce them around. They were quite the hit, and everyone was thrilled that I had TWO new boy toys! How cool is that!!??!! I had my mom take a picture of us posing on one of the fire trucks.

So, I joined a swap called "I love toast". You get one partner and make them three different things having to do with toast. Since I love toast, I had a blast with this one! I felted a toaster, and made an ATC card of a place setting. Then I made toast from wood, with yummy melting butter pats on them. A picture of the end result;

Prezzies!

My fabulous friend in New York sent me little felted owls! Oh, the squeeeee!

$3 of Squeeeeee!

Went with Ruth and Ginger to a barn sale at the Farm Woman's Nursery. I spent $3 and came home with tons of happy!

The felted lamb table runner is folded in half here, but it is in great shape and I didn't even think twice about buying it. The candle holder is small in circumference, which is great. I have plans for it that involve shells and sand. The edelweiss pitcher is happily holding my pens on my computer desk.

I love barn/garage/rummage sale season!

Apartment stuff.

Been having issues with not having enough outlets or space around my computer for my stuff. Part of that is simple laziness on my part. I used to be fine, but got tired of always having to plug/unplug my various USB cords for my camera, Zune and other little electronic trinkets. I also have a cat who hangs out on the top of my computer desk, and uses my printer as a sounding board on the way up and down. not good for the printer. So, this morning I did a little measuring and swapped out two shelving units. Although this does nothing for the outlet shortage, it protects my printer quite nicely and give me a little more storage space. Now I simply want to find some nice lidded containers to place some of my junkier things in so I can visually tidy things up. This is the before picture.

This is the after picture.

Also, I was inspired by Lady Mockingbird and a lamp shade she is making from copper wire and beads. So, I sat down and pulled out my beads and some floral wire, and spruced up the bottom of my reading lamp. Now it is all shiny and sparkly!

My manager called me into the office yesterday as I was leaving work. She gave me a card with a $100 visa gift card in it. She had gotten a bonus for the year, and every time she gets one, she shares it with the managers. *blink* This is the first boss I have had that has recognized that she couldn't do it without others in a TANGIBLE way. Not just words, but a little sumthin' sumthin'. All I can say is wow! She asked me to please spend it on something that was fun and would make me happy, so I promised her I would. I have made my first purchase; two ginormous bags of really good dirt for my garden. The first I dumped into my compost bin and mixed with a half bag of fish fertilizer that had been sitting in a bin for years. I will give that three weeks to percolate, then dig it into my garden and plant. Not sure where I will put the second one. Might save it for the front beds, where I plan on mixing edible flowers with garden yummies. Oh, the gardening possibilities!

House cleaning and such.

I haven't been posting much because I haven't been doing much of interest. Yeah, I've been doing things like paying bills, working, and some swaps, but I ALWAYS do that, and figure you guys are tired of hearing about it.

Three super things have happened in the last few weeks, though. The first is that My dear friends- Bill and Liz- came down for a visit. They brought me a full sized mattress and box spring from the lake cabin that was waaaaay to hard for them, but that I fell in love with last August. So, I now have a bed that doesn't hurt my back, and I fit on it much better when there are kitties dotting the bed covers.

The next thing that has happened (actually a handful of times now) is we have had warm enough and sunny enough weather to allow me to open up the apartment and get the stink of winter out. There has been much spring cleaning and whatnot, and I even finally moved the new bed over to where the old bed was, thus freeing up my living/dining/studio room. It is quite nice to have that space free again, and to have a house that smells all nice and clean.

Smudge enjoyed my cleaning because it meant chairs in the sun with rugs on them. Those are nice places to snooze.

The other really awesome thing is, I attended my first foraging class! Watch out wild edible plants, here I come! It was most fun, and I have a stack of books I am browsing through every night.My teacher has been doing this for 30 years, and has degrees in biology, botany, and other plant and food related things. He's funny and easy to understand, and gets classroom participation very easily. I am hoping to teach others in Vernonia what I have learned, since money is tight and if you can pick it for free, why not then?

So, that has been my life lately. There has been a lot of early mornings at work and lots of reading of books. Other than that, I am simply gearing up for the end of spring, when I can plant and hike without getting soaked, and enjoy sun on my skin.

Spring

This is my least favorite season. I know that sounds strange to a lot of people, but to me this is simply an in-between time. Warm weather is not yet here, but it's no longer quiet, peaceful wintertime. This is when Nature's alarm clock is going off, and all I want is to hit the snooze button until I HAVE to get up.

I appreciate Mother Nature trying to disguise all the mud and rain and grey in-between-ness by dotting the place with flowers and such, but mostly she is simply trying to distract you from the fact that she has been able to let herself go for a few months. Now her legs are hairy, she needs a visit to the hair salon, a shower, and her old flannel pajamas and ratty house robe need to go back into the closet. The sun is rising earlier and earlier, and people are actually looking for her. She is in demand again, and there is no more hitting the snooze button for her, either.

Me, I have a little more time.

Her distrattions are rather adorable, though.

Spring is starting to flaunt it!

Note to self: Do not remove coffee grinder lid until grinder has stopped. Completely.

Vacation snap shots!

I have about half my photos up, so if you wnat to peak, here is a link to my facebook album.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54775&id=1791798792&l=ec8498559a

There will be more in the next day or so.

I adore my attorney!

We have been exchanging emails and phonecalls the last week. We finally wrapped up this round last night. I ended my email with;

"It's Friday, and I have been home a whole hour and still don't have a glass of wine and plate of nachos in front of me yet. It's a cryin' shame!"

I had a response from him this morning, which started my day off just right!

"Remember: pair Cool Ranch w/ a good Chardonay and Chipotle Doritos w/ Merlot (or Cuervo). Don’t be gauche and make any faux pas. Your cat might resent it."

Hehehe!

Proud of myself!

January is my month to get things in my home life tidy and ready for the New Year. I was just looking over my 2 page list of projects I wanted to accomplish last year, and only transferred 4 items to this years list. The rest I accomplished, with perhaps the exception of about 6 that no longer held interest for me.
Wow!
This years list was just finished, and there are only 14 items on it. I know I will be adding a few more, but compared to coming up with 2 pages in on sitting last year, that is a phenominal accomplishment for me! Of course a handful of items are time intensive, all year projects. Like learning to forage, finding good places to do so, and getting some mad gardening skills. However, I can take those skills with me wherever I go, and it's more like play to me that work, so I won't feel the 'have to' like I do with other things. The choice to consolidate my email accounts, journals, etc and my little bitty spending here and there has felt 'right' as well. I am actually looking forward to freezing my Netflix for a month and seeing how I do. Betting the reading and resting time will increase, along with crafting. Internet is one thing I will not give up. I will keep my high speed connection. I pondered going back to dial up when my 1 year deal with Frontier expires, but with everything I have to do online for work and life, it is worth the money.

Not bad for a mornings work. Off to sort piles and pet kitties and such.

What?!! two thousand-elebanty already??!!

I brought in the new year (or as close to it as I could) making a cool puzzle with Mary Lou and others at the fire station. It was nice to be surrounded by friends, all chattering away about this that and what-not; friends that had nothing to do with my job. I needed that.

I have been cleaning and getting things straightened up from the holiday season. This includes getting my pictures of the burn up on Facebook. here is a link for you.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49387&id=1791798792&l=3e6833a235

There will be another house going down, and I will try and find out when so I can attend. I want to see this one light up the sky!

All is still snowy and well in my neck of the woods. I have my pile of books by the bed, and have added a small note pad so I can jot down other books recommend by those books. I will be freezing my Netflix account next month to see if I can live without. I feel I am starting to spend to much time watching. Might be time to call it quits for a while.

Slowly putting away my Christmas gifts. I am a lucky girl. I can now see how unbelievably cold it is outside without opening the door. Thanks Dave and Beth! Right now it is a balmy 24F. I think I'll leave a bit early for work so I can avoid the slip and slide.

These are pictures I took in my front yard yesterday morning about 6:30am. Enjoy!

So, a few weekends ago I watched several fire districts come together and burn a house down just a couple blocks from where I live. I have a huge amount of really great pictures, but I'll limit my sharing to a handful.

It was very interesting to watch them set up, organize everything and run drills. I have even more of a burning desire to try on a suit and try it myself. I might even be able to make that happen. I'm working on it.

They set up pools to hold the water for the drill, and carted the water in from town. It took 2 tankers apiece to fill each tub. This water was sucked into the engine and pushed out the hoses. Nice little get up!

Anyways, here are some pics. Enjoy! I did. *smiles*

So, I did most of my Christmas decorating this last week. I finished the inside, and am going to finish the outside this weekend. Just need another extension cord...My Window of Joyous Lightage!

My tree of Glorious Pinkness!

I also painting a little decorating I bought 2 years ago, and covered bits of it with happy, sparkly glitter, and I put out various little trinkets and whatnot's. I hung my Snowflakes, and I am done. It's not much but I love it.

I have the nativity that Lady Mockingbird gave me; the one with the pissed off baby Jesus. Love it! Giggles galore every time I see it!

This made my entire day worthwhile!

Our weekly merchandise trucks are huge this time of year. Last week it took us 3.5 hours to get the truck unloaded. However, for most of that time, I had this to look at

and that made me smile and giggle. Yep! There was a leak in the truck wall, and it froze these boxes of freight to them and I couldn't get them off. We had to cut them open where they were and take the freight out. Hahahaha!

I think I have about 3 inches of snow. Should be fun driving today. They have been plowing the roads on and off all day, so I'm not worried. From the sounds of it, this is the winter I have to look forward to, so I might as well suck it up and get used to it. Can't hide in town for the next three months.

Off to shower and get ready for work. I charged my camera battery, so I should be snapping some pretty pictures on the way home today. Stay tuned!

Eeeeeeeeevil!

This is a picture (poor, but adequate enough) of my finger pointing at the first flakey-flake of evil. Wonder what things will look like when I head to work tonight at 10:30pm?

Happy dreams

Not sure what he's dreaming about, but I know it's a good dream!

Apparently, after I left, the cats carried on and on about the horribleness of it all. "Mom kicked us out and we are all cold and damp and starving and neglected so please let us come into YOUR house neighbor lady because we are making a racket and will continue to do so *insert kitty swear words here*. "My neighbor was amused. Thank goodness. I think I will need to clarify to her that unless I call her and tell her to let them in the house, they need to stay out. She knows where the spare key is, and was telling me she had been thinking about it because they were SO miserable and sad and whine-eee. They spent a whole 7 hours outside. Poor dears! They are sound asleep from their exhausting trial. They will probably sleep into next week from the stress of the "I had to be outside for 7 hours" incident. Poor dears indeed. *insert human swearing here*.
I had a fantabugrandious time crafting with Mary Lou and Merle. It's been to long, and we had a great time eating home made clam chowder and my apple pie. They demanded the recipe, so I have emailed it to them. In return, they had to pose for a picture. Merle is on the left and Mary Lou is in the middle.

Lost power again last night. My phone wakes me up when it comes back on, though. The instructional voice tells me I need to press the center button for 'menu'. Then it beeps. The microwave helps the phone by picking up the beeping and continuing until I put in a time. Then there is the red flashing of my alarm clock, and the green flashing of my oven clock. Really? Seriously? There is no way I can sleep through a power out in this house.

The cats decided to have an exchange of words about 4am. If I had a machine that could translate cat-speak into english, it would break. The sounds that come out of these cats mouths would make words that I am sure would make a sailor cry. Since I can't understand them, I try to play referee and calm the masses. "Misty, what are you growling at? You can't even SEE Pug from here!" "Smudge, he's not even TOUCHING you!" "Pug, stop laying so close to them. There is plenty of room up here. You are just trying to annoy them!" After a few minutes of this, one of two things happen. They settle down, or I kick them out. This morning they went out. They will stay out until I come back from crafting at the fire station. It will (hopefully) do them good.

So, it is Saturday, and I choose to arise at 5am. Why? Well, because I want to bake a pie to take to craft-o-rama day, and I didn't want to mae it last night. So, I have my hour to coffee and computer it up, then I will make pie, shower, pack the care with the entire contents of my magical craft cabinet, and head out. I be all excited! It's been months, and I am looking forward to hearing what everyone has been up to this summer.

Pig pile and recent swap.

This morning I saw this fabulous Kodak moment! These two sisters truly adore each other.

This is a recent hand drawn/painted ATC swap I finished.

I know you look to these journal pages for substance (Hahahahahaha!!! I crack myself up!), and I have yet to give you any updatey goodness on so many things that have happened recently. Especially the fabulous visit of Peter and Ursi. However, I am just not in the posty mood. Work is in full retail holiday swing, and it's a tough on this year. Just pop in occasionally and see if I have had a moment of posty excitement. It's bound to happen sooner or later!

Being Ruths friend can be so hard!

I adore her, though, so it is all worth it. We have high wind and storm warnings starting around 8pm tonight. They are to last until Monday morning. So, I went over and put up the last support post and stapled the fencing to it. Then I started on the wind break of clear plastic. She has a bunch of small sheets we could piece meal together, but the prospect of doing that didn't make me happy. So, I measured the place up and walked to the local hardware/liquor store and bought a huuuuge roll of 4-ply white-ish plastic. With her help I have gotten it up, and we will check how it is holding up throughout the day, and see if we need to put up more. About 1/3rd of the outdoor cat hotel has been sheeted off.Hopefully that is all we need to do, but there is plenty of plastic left for more encasing goodness

Hmmmm,,,a little behind, aren't I?

I see I have no posts about the fabulous visit with my uncle Peter and his lovely side kick, Ursi. Seems like I have been to busy to post much of anything. I did just spend 3 hours at Ruth's house, steam cleaning her carpets for her. Only 1/3rd left to clean. I really must like that lady to do all this crazy domestic stuff. *grin*

I'd promise to post about the visit, but right now I am

A. Not in the mood to do anything else structured.
B. Lazy.
C. All of the above, and more!

So, sorry folks. Nothing to see here. Move along.

A veggie so full of cabbage-eee goodness shouldn't be so hard to prep! I just made a yummy apple-rabi slaw, but good GOD!!! Peeling and grating exhaustion! I need a little food preper...

What a way to end a week!

Today, in the fabulous town of Vernonia, two men were standing between their trucks comparing rifles. They were in the post office parking lot. Awesome!

On my way home a few days ago, I had a car with 3 kids in it (all 12 or less) pass me. The adult driving was in full clown get-up! Face paint, red nose, afro orange hair.OMG!!! I love my drive home!

Spent the last 15 minute making faces at two kids on a school bus. They loved it! I really enjoy my drive home!

Dinner drive.

Drove Ruth to dinner at the Blue House. However, we took the scenic route to the resturant, since it was such a lovely evening! Drove out of town about 7 miles and hung a left on McDonald road. The animals up there don't see many cars, or they are so inbreed that their response time is mega slow. I drove over a chipmunk. Literally. I looked in the rear view mirror and he was still sitting there, trying to process what had just happened. Then he slowly wandered off the road and into the grass. Freak.

Had a close encounter with a squirrel, except in slow motion. I saw him and by the time I came up to him on the road I was going about 6 miles an hour, and he was still trying to decided whether to finish making a run for it, or abandon his quest for the other side and move the 2 feet back to safety. I went around him and left him to ponder his choices. Weirdo.

Had a similar encounter with a small Junco. Seriously? A bird?!! Hey bird! Try flying away BEFORE I get to ya, not after. Dork.

Anyways, after our exciting Northwest Trek experience with the wildlife, I filled up with gas and we ate greek. Ruth had never been there, and was thinking of taking some company there. Now she knows how good it is. We then hit the grocery store for cat food so that the little beasties wouldn't attack Ruth in the middle of the night and try and chew her leg off.

I helped bring the stuff into her house, said goodnight, and then gave Pug a car ride across the street to my place. He doesn't quite know what to make of being IN a moving vehicle, so I try and do this occasionally. Would rather it be familiar in case I need to take him somewhere, like a vet.

To think this little girl would run away from me whenever I came within 20 feet of her. Now she hogs the bed and begs for pets and head scritches! She rewards me by sticking out her tongue at me.

It's only taken me almost a year and a half to win her trust. Well worth it! She will be warm and happy this winterI believe her to be about 13 -14 years old.