Domestic BLISS!!!

Not much rambling here.... just color and form.

This guy's an engineer!

The Engineer's Guide To Cats, by Paul Klusman with TJ Wingard
No animals were harmed in the making of this movie.



Now... remember... the man making, producing and starring in these videos is an engineer.
Here is shown doing his job.

You can lead a horticulture...

You can lead a horticulture..
but you can't make her think!

Ohmigosh! I read that and almost spewed coffee! WHEW!

Okay- I know I'm supposed to be continuing the saga of "Sally's Adventures in Quilting"- but, I'm not! At least I'm not today! Tune in next time for that... I am quilting though!! HA! and Mae did approve!

This morning though... I've been up since before the crack of dawn and in spite of all the coffee am probably gonna have to back and lay-down, but- THIS morning... I've been stamp-surfing for future projects.

Ohmigoodness!! My wish-list just keeps getting larger and larger. Uncle George better hurry up and let me stimulate the economy!

Check out these sites:

River City Rubber Works - the site with the most clever quotes I've seen in a long while!

Try to guess which ones I'm lusting for at GreenPepper Press

The round monogram stamps and interchangeable alphas and the cool new borders by Just Rite!

My Beautiful Sisters! and the textile arts

These dresses are from the 80's.

I'm not going to tell exactly how old these girls are... but- those dresses are well over 20 years old!

The neat thing???

The sisters can still fit in them in 2008!!

You GO, GIRLS!!!

The other neat thing... they were sewed by our grandmother, Mae!

Which brings me to the subject of sewing and textile arts.

Growing up- most of our nice clothes were sewed or altered by our grandmothers. Our mama didn't sew except for that one time one of us had to have a reindeer outfit for the Christmas pageant. The story of how one child appeared looking like an extra terrestrial being is legendary in East Texas.

Mae tried to encourage each of us girls to sew- and sometimes we actually finished a project. Mine usually were whump-sided and she had to do some serious alterations in order for me to wear it even inside the house and it probably wasn't going out in public either.

Grandmother Nancy was always sewing costumes for her drama classes and she had the most luscious fabrics.... all glittery and spangles. Probably not the best for little girls out in public either- but, since I couldn't sew all that well anyway and when I was at her house for too short of a time period to actually finish a sewing project- I made do with just draping and wrapping all those lovely textiles. Had some really great shawls and veils, too!! I decided then and there my sewing efforts should be limited to costume events only and since I attend so few of those- it wasn't going to be necessary for me to have to address the Singer very often.

That's not to say that throughout the years of dear son growing up I got away without sewing... when he was young I did sew several costumes and in a fit of domestic/holiday euphoria a "little Lord Fauntleroy" outfit with a companion jumper for me! No snarky comments on the 80's hair there, sisters... you suffered it, too- remember?

And, isn't Jess just such a sweet little boy?? He was! Still can be at times!

The fact is both my sisters can sew. Very well. One can quilt. As can our SIL, click here for her site! And, my MIL is the best seamstress I know! I'm not sure if she's ever quilted- but, she could if she chose.

Me? I admire their lovely handiwork and love to go to quilt shows; but, just content myself with paint & paper, glue and inks and a rubber stamp that looks like stitches.

Until last month.

I found some fabric on eBay that I just swooned over. At first I thought it was paper and hit the buy-it-now button before realizing it was *gasp* fabric. Oh MAN! What have I done???

Oh, well it's okay. I like pretty fabrics. Occasionally I drool over them in the notions department when I'm selecting some calico for Mae's quilting projects and I do have a small fabric stash that I use to make decorative "puddles" around my house.

Hmmm.... my own quilting project. That can't be tooo hard, right? There are so many mixed media artists out there doing this very thing.... it's do-able! I can quilt! I just know I can! In retrospect the 9 patch square pillow top I made way back in Camp Fire Girls was a bit hideous... but, I've matured since then. Surely I can sew a straight seam- I mean how hard can that be? I can draw a straight line, right? Right!

Fabric arrives. Man! It's so cute! Not quite enough to make a real statement.... go to Hobby Lobby to pick a couple of complimentary patterns to make the project large enough.... oh! There's so many to choose from! I can't choose! I bring home a yard each of seven different patterns. A tad bit overboard but I can easily see me cranking out a dozen or so of these little creations!

Discuss with Mae just how to get started... oh! What a PAIN! I'd forgotten you had to WASH, dry and iron the fabric before you even got to cut it! UGH. BORING!

Now I'm beginning to remember just why I hated whipping up a cute little dress from "McCall's Fast & Easy Only 3 Steps to a Lovely Sundress". My 3 steps- choose fabric, snip, sew. Their 3 steps... includes a 12 page (that is map sized pages by the way) pattern (oh, I'd forgotten how much I hate diagrams, too!) of seam allowances, dart points, bias and selvage compensations, arggghhh.... my blood pressure is going up just recalling it all!

After a chill-pill and a glass of wine- I'm now ready to cut my squares. I remember the old adage; measure once, cut twice. Or is it? Well. Whatever!

Before long I'm going to be the happy quilter working away on my lovely little piece of art, the birds are singing, the creative juices are flowing- I can see myself offering gorgeous pieces of hand-dyed, original textile arts for sale on ETSY and being featured in the likes of "Cloth, Paper, Scissors".

Okay. Straight seam sewing. Not a problem. Because I like to look at projects and figure the short-cuts; I figure sewing all my squares into strips is the most expedient way to get the piece work outta the way and onto the more important (read that FUN part) of quilting.

Snip, zip, strip. This is going fabulously! It's EASY! Three horizontal strips (rows for those of you thinking like a word processor). Now... to combine those three strips into one lovely 9 patch.

Wait a minute... those seams are STRAIGHT! So why is my 9 patch so whumper-sided??? It looks as if some drunk seamstress tried to replicate Picaso in fabric. What's up with THAT?? Why??? Everything was even and symmetrical when they were plain little squares, and again when they were plain little strips. Why can't I do THIS??? Just "sew" you'll know... I was only kidding about the wine earlier- I know better than to try to stitch "under the influence" as it were... but- why aren't these darned squares even????

Take it to Mae. She'll help. You know what she said??? "How do you sew such straight seams?" HA!!! Ta-DAAAHHHHHH! I'm glowing! She also says it's easier to start from the center of the strip and sew out then to try to line everything up from one end and expect the other end to not get stretched in the meantime.

All right..... I'm cooking with gas, now- baby!!

And, then she drops the hammer. "What design do you intend to use for the quilting?". That's easy.... I've heard that term "stitch in the ditch" many times on the quilt shows! Besides-- if it was easy enough for me to straight sew these seams then it was going to be a breeze to do the same with three layers.

But she says...."by machine? Why would you do that? Why would you want anything quilted if it wasn't done by hand? Who would want THAT?" uhhhhh..... I'm flummoxed.

I wasn't intending on doing this project by HAND!!! No WAY!. Hello?? All the quilt-artisans (including my SIL and sister) are quilting with a machine! Hadn't she realized this? No, she'd not by the way... just thought they had extraordinary skill!

*to be continued"

Link to the finished project here.

Simple fixes for High-Tech Devices

Ahhhh.... electronic telecommunications. What a conundrum.

You're damned if you do and
damned if you don't have a cell-phone and/or the internet.

First technological snafu for the week.

.
For quite a few days now our satellite modem has not been giving a steady signal. No surprise there-- it has been cloudy (which is a whole other reason not to use that means, but- I'm stuck with it until December). Okay... so we steadily watched the skies and worked around impending squall systems.

Until... it just wouldn't pick up a signal at all- and the sun was shining, dagnabit! It finally occurred to me to go out and look to see just WHAT my satellite "sees" when it looks up into the great beyond.



It should see this:











But this is what is the actuality.

No WONDER there's not much reception!!

And, mind you... this picture was made after B managed to pull some of the limbs down with a ski-rope and a rock. It may not look it in the photo- but, those limbs are well over 30 feet off the ground and there's no way a tree-cutting service could get near without miring in the muck.

A sincere warning to anyone getting dish-tv or satellite internet installed in the late Fall or Winter season. Just because that's an old tree and those limbs look dead on the ends- they may not be! Don't let the just-out-of-high-school installer technician put it where there might just be some leaves growing out in a few short months!

Second technological snafu for the week and a really weird solution.

I washed my lovely red Motorola Razr phone.

Yup. It was definitely not a "Cheer"ful event as the gravity of what I'd just done "Gain"ed momentum in the "Tide" of horror when I gazed down into the Maytag and saw its little lifeless body laying amongst the very clean laundry.

No kidding aside- but, I was almost sick and let out a very loud and unlady like euphemism when it hit me. I prayed forgiveness for every cuss word I've ever used over my air-time cuz it was obvious this phone had paid the price for those sins and had now been washed as clean as a whistle. I would say as white as snow, but it's still red!

After I very quickly remembered to take the battery out, B came to lend in giving it some CPR (clean-phone-resuscitation) maneuvers. He very carefully laid it on the counter and proceeded to toast it with the hair-dryer. In retrospect- probably not the best method, but it doesn't seem to have bothered it much. After a few minutes of this- he decided I should just go and replace the thing cuz it was a goner for sure.

Fast-forward to the Alltel store where Chad (yes, that is his REAL name!) gave me his technique for reviving drowned cell-phones.

Give it the big chill in the freezer. Huh??? Do WHAT?

Yup, you read that correctly. Pop it into the freezer for 30 minutes and then leave it to air-dry for 12-24 hours. Then, stick the battery back in and voilå! He didn't really know why (and the other clerk was pretty stunned, too!) but, he said it should work.

Well... it wasn't exactly voilå when we attempted it- but, after B had a moment of inspiration and plugged it into the wall-charger, it was up and sputtering. It flickered off and on a few times, but kept trying to live, 'er- I mean, work. At first it said no signal, no signal- but, eventually it found the mother ship, connected and I was talking to my MIL!

Who knew such primitive methods would be the solutions for such highly advanced electronic tools? A rock, a rope, and a freezer. I guess the old adage KISS *keep it simple, stupid* is right again!

Anywhoozie--I can communicate again... well- at least until it rains! And, I will really have to watch my verbiage! No more disrespectful, snippy, catty or disparaging gossip lest the evil cell-phone demons decide to punish me for good.

Blue skies and no roaming signals are my wish to you-- have a Happy!

Scrapbook widowers get unglued

Their houses a mess,
their wives MIA,
some husbands are wondering where it will all end

JULIA MCKINNELL | January 23, 2008 |

Attention husbands: are you tripping over your wife's glue guns, her ribbons and rub-ons? Is your house overrun with half-finished craft projects? Does she steal your tools? Worse, are you babysitting the kids again while she and her girlfriends set sail on a scrapbooking cruise to the Mexican Riviera? You are not alone. Around the globe, husbands are uniting to ask such questions as: what about the mess? What about
the money? Where does it end?

Some women spend more per week on scrapbook accessories than they do on groceries, says Calgary entrepreneur and mother of two Allison Orthner. Scrapbooking is not only a multi-billion-dollar industry, says Orthner, who organized last November's first all-Canadian Crop and Cruise, "it's the fastest-growing hobby in North America."

The latest Scrapbooking in America survey finds that one in four homes has a dedicated scrapbooker (most likely female, between the ages of 30 and 50). On Orthner's seven-day Mexican Crop and Cruise, the cruise line provided three rooms, open 24 hours a day for scrapbooking. "There were some diehards who didn't leave the ship," says Orthner. "They scrapbooked the whole time."

In Australia, a husband (under the pseudonym Mr. Grendel) writes a blog called "Scrapbook Widower," a reference to the time he spends babysitting while his wife indulges her obsession. In a typical entry last year, he writes: "Mrs. Grendel is off at one of those scrapbooking and craft fair thingies. This one has been going on for five days, which is just way too long if you ask me. Five days to see Disneyland I can understand, but five days at a craft fair?" Later, Mr. Grendel wonders, "Why does Mrs. Grendel buy so much paper in one go?" More recently, he's found himself pondering the etymology of the word. "Why is it called scrapbooking when all of the materials are bought new?" Mr. Grendel acknowledges that while a name like "High Grade Paper and Expensive Embellishment Archival Decorator Album System" is not as catchy a name as scrapbooking, "I reckon it's a lot more accurate."

In Holland, "Bubbah" keeps an online diary called The Life of a Scrapper's Husband. His bio reads: "Married, two kids, no life 'cause my wife won't let me." In a July 2007 entry he writes: "Ever had 13 women packed in one living room? Care to know where I'm going to be? NOT AT HOME." Bubbah says his wife talks about scrapbooking all the time. His advice to husbands? "Build her a scraproom. She will have her own space and you will have a scrapbook-free living room."

Calgary oil company engineer Rick Bawol concurs. "In our last house, we had stuff strewn all over the place." In their new house, "everything is contained in this one room. It's kind of the envy of all her scrapbooking friends. She's got a fancy office set up for it and that's fine by me because I have the rest of the house back." Bawol notes that his wife got involved after friends invited her to scrapbooking events. "Then she starts buying supplies, then she starts buying more and more of the paraphernalia and it works its way up, and then you've got a little computerized cutting machine that's programmable."

His solution for how expensive it all is? "Make a lot of money," he advises husbands. "Scrapbooking will still be stupidly expensive but you won't notice as much. How to make 'a lot of money'? Hey, don't expect me to solve ALL your problems."

Orthner's husband, Brad, accompanied his wife on the Crop and Cruise and offers such tips as, "Expect a mess and you won't be disappointed." And "Remember when asked, 'Do you like my new layout?', employ the same rules for 'Do I look fat in this?' "

Bawol, on the other hand, advises husbands to show little interest in her latest layout. "That would only encourage her to do more.She shows me the stuff, and sure it looks nice, but I'll never be able to get my head around spending several hours to make three or four photographs look nice."

Back in Holland, Bubbah has detected a worrisome link between women who scrapbook and women who wear Crocs, and has started an offshoot site called Scrappers with Crocs. Meanwhile, the Scrapbook Widower has launched "a serious investigation into the relationship between scrapbooking and the quality of the sex life of scrapbookers and their partners." Sixty-one per cent of respondents identified with the answer, "Oh God, I can't even remember the last time we had a 'lay down' instead of a 'layout.' "

Some views from Hot Springs....

Mmmmm...... our favorite pizza restaurant in the entire world!

Rod's Pizza Cellar, home to the Godfather Pizza,
is also a vision in the Springtime!

More flora and fauna from Arka-dilly!

A bandit in the bird feeder!

Begging for Trouble....

I hate typos.
I hate mispronunciations.
I hate poor punctuation.
I hate bad grammar.

And... I'm the worst offender of them all!

Ah, well... I'm happy regardlessly! I talk, write and speak with a hick voice, dialect and intellect. That's not to be confused with Southern or red-necked. I am those, too- thus explaining the influences and the intermingling of vernaculars.

Nor am I a hypocrite! I speak hastily and regularly pound out mistakes on the keyboard and gaily sail along in my daily life. Cést la vie! If you find 'em (the mistakes) please overlook. And, when I do call attention to other's mistakes... it is only because my brain kicked into gear, recognized it and my mouth voiced it before I thought "keep it to yourself!". Really and truly... does it matter if everything is correct? Exceptions being résumes?

But this guy is looking for trouble!

Jeff Deck is on a mission and he carries a punctuation repair kit.

His most recent conquest? OREGON! Now, I've got good friend out there who is a whiz-bang at English... I can't believe that he found any in her neighborhood!

Check it out.

an dunt grad e me bye mah arrows.

P.S. I have another good friend who used to be a whiz-bang at chemistry and she correctly identified caffeine in an earlier post this week! Good going, Kat! I'll send you some! I just this morning spotted that comment!!

One for Jess...

Ahhh..... bliss.
Some folks never outgrow their toys or childhood dreams.

Kid has been all excited as there is to be some big zombie campaign over on campus this week- real.... well... as real as mortals can play zombies, anyway. With Nerf guns.

He and the Chadster had to come dig through the attic room and find the vintage weapons.


Oddly enough... I found this news article about this other college kid in Michigan building his own Panzer Tank. Don't you just know his folks are proud of him??

Yes, Jess... I'm sure your Dad will help you build this as a History assignment...and Barry.... and Newton, etc!!

Basic... just basic.

a prize to the first correct guess!

The view from N 15th

These iris were planted by a former (very dear) neighbor, Miz Pat!


She won't recognize the gate-fence though!














The pink dogwood planted in honor of the birth of a beloved son!
It's 21 years old! And, that's our house far off in the distance!







Red honeysuckle on a white azalea that has not yet bloomed out.










New plants in the salt pot- water lettuce... and a little lady-bug!

The Wisteria Drive in SWArk

Today, my MIL and I took a drive up the road.
Spring has arrived and the wisteria and iris are radiant in their purple splendor.

Humor me...

I particularly love this actor... that he's afraid of plants (especially ferns) is even more hilarious!

thanks to Nancy for the heads up.... love the morning breakfast & coffee.

Aawwwww... rats! This video is no longer available! You shoulda watched SNL the other night!! Me, too! Oh, well! Find something else to chuckle over coffee with a beloved sister!

"Bob" the snapping turtle back with Fort Worth museum

Lost and Found?

Bob is Back.

Employees at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History say a 2-foot-long snapping turtle called Bob was located Wednesday in a construction area.

A worker noticed the dirt-caked turtle moseying along.

Assistant curator Leishawn Spotted Bear says Bob apparently had been with a group of turtles to be moved last September as the staff vacated the museum building.

But she believes the 15-pound turtle went underground, at least for awhile, when his fellow reptiles were relocated to another part of the museum complex.

The museum building was demolished and construction crews have been working on a new facility.

Spotted Bear thinks recent heavy rain loosened the dirt where Bob had been.

She says Bob appears a little thin, but is doing well and will get some treats, like minnows, to "fatten him up a little bit."

04/03/2008 • Associated Press



Visit the museum online!

We just love a happy ending! and turtle stories!

Godspeed on your Journey

May God bless each of you and protect you.

May HIS divine plan be furthered because of your willingness to serve Him.


















Godspeed, Jocelyn & Jessica.

Soooo cute!

B & I think this is the cutest lil' girl!

Her perspective of Star Wars is very perceptive, too.

Enjoy!

The art of V.L. Cox

Our friend, Lynnette, is such an inspiration!

So much fun!

And, so incredibly talented!!

Her site bears witness of that.

Earlier this month, B and I journeyed to LR to the M2 Gallery for her most recent show. We got there a little early and just enjoyed soaking up all the art privately before the expected crowd.

When Lyn and Sherrie got there, we had a walloping good time and lots of laffs! Sherrie even snuck away for a little while and introduced us to a great market nearby!

Other artists we enjoyed: (check out here) Ron Mynatt, Jason Gammel, Johnny Taylor and Ann Laser's art, too!

This month- L'nette's a feature article in "At Home Arkansas" and I know that her grandma, Louise, is just bursting buttons at how accomplished her granddaughter has become.

I know that she is a rising star in the art world.. and deserves it every bit! I'm just glad that I can say I knew her way back when!

These are a couple of other pieces that I'm fascinated with... yes, Msell- I see the orange trend growing!

Too many irons in the fire....

Houston! We have a problem!

I tried to upload this picture earlier this month and was having problems... so here goes again.
The problem.....
we need another computer! haha!

I never expected B's willingness to point 'n click as much as he does!! And, thank goodness for software that corrects the spelling for you!!

PROS: He can search all by himself.
CONS: I have to view everything he finds!

I must say though- that some of the stuff is very entertaining!



and....



And, his ALL-time favorite cat-video!


But... all this video viewing is wreaking havoc on our lack of bandwidth and even though I just added lots more RAM- I'm having to clean out the cache and am experiencing browser shutdowns like crazy! Thus the cause for all kinds of gnashing of teeth. I'll have started multiple letters and loose them or will have several tabs open with information that I've yet to follow up and it's all lost! ARGH!!!

Somebody SAVE ME!!!

Okay. Go enjoy the videos... compliments of B!

An Ode to My Peeps

at the end of the day....

after all the Easter baskets have been filled

and emptied....

there's not much to say.

Just another victim.

Only an outline left as proof positive that he really was there.

Mr Peep- he and many other of his large family of Peeps tragically ended the festive day when they lost the right ear first, the left ear second, the bunny-tail and finally their heads.

All gone.

Without even one peep.

May they Rest.... in Peeps.

He is risen!

Hoping you and yours a Happy Easter!

New study-- ARTifacts!

One of the big goals for the past few years is to document some of our family and childhood artifacts. Some of these are well known to all my siblings and still reside in highly prominent positions scattered around ours and our parent's homes.

A photo essay is slowly coming together and if I can ever get them all printed it will make a nice book of memories for the family.


Doll eraser.

If memory serves correctly-- this was just a clever little figure that we often used in our doll playing.

I don't recall any particular role this figure played other than just filling out the audience.
But, it was certainly worth a google and naturally-

I found all kinds of them on ebay! KOKESHI doll eraser.



Little green horse!
This currently resides with a dear sister in Abilene!
Neigh Neigh!

Used in equestrian events and may have played in Josie's Round-up Ranch once upon a time.







Frog Prince-

a gift to Mae from another sister that will remain nameless- but, her name rhymes with bobbin!
They just wanted a picture "just because"! So... here he is! In all his glory.

This isn't necessarily ancient.... we certainly do play with it though!

Sadly... he came to a dreadful demise in the last thunderstorm and lost his head when he attempted a Humpty Dumpty pose and fell off the wall.

Will notify if Dad's glue surgery is successful- haha!

Happy St Pat's Day!

The real truth to the "luck o' the Irish"!



If this doesn't load from my site... please go here! It may be that all the shamrock lovers are putting a strain on U-tube.

March is National DVT Awareness Month

Did you know?

• 2 million Americans are affected annually by Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).

• More people die in the U.S. from Pulmonary Embolism (PE) than breast cancer and AIDS combined!

• 60% of all DVT/PE occur in the setting of hospitalization or surgery.

• Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most common preventable cause of hospital-related death.

Remembering David Bloom

David Bloom and his famous "Bloom-mobile" went to work following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A blood clot in his leg travelled to his lungs and ended his journalism journey and life.


The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division placed the book "My Utmost for His Highest" at the memorial service. Written by Oswald Chambers, he shares how we need to be as broken bread and poured-out wine to please God. We are to be "separated to the gospel" which means being able to hear the call of God for our lives. Our lives are to be used to preach the Good News to those around us, just like Paul in Romans 1:1.

David's widow, Melanie, is using her life to continue raising their children in a Godly way and to help bring DVT and FVL to a higher awareness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PSA compliments of multiple DVT survivor.
It happens to everyday people in their everyday lives as well.

My, oh, my, oh, Mona.

Me oh, my oh!
Mona, Mona me!
Mona, Mona & Samson!

That mysterious smile on both their faces! and Sam's very bare belly!



To-do list:
• Find something GREEN for tomorrow!

• Happy St. Patricks Day by the way!

• Remember to finish filling out my "Brackets". Go Razorbacks!

Crazy people and what their cats allow them to do!

Uh.... no. I'm not BORED!
But, someone thought that I just needed to fill up my time with frippery and nonsense. So... they sent me to this site to waste a few precious moments. Please note... I am NOT responsible for that picture or any on that site... but, they do look like something I'd do, *snicker*!


see more crazy cat pics

I love this picture because it's so similar to one that friend, Mshell, took of me the other week!



Don't cha think this picture describes my outlook on life?
#1 • Go through life with your eyes closed shut. Blink as often as possible!

#2 • A girl can never have (or wear) enough scarves. Plaid compliments all styles- regardless of the occasion.

#3 • When out with a bunch of scrapping girls- assume that one (or all) will have a camera when you do something silly.

Enjoy the silly cats from the link above... and enjoy SPRING! I'm out to snap some pics when the light is right!

Having to learn to share.....

Who knew that at age 45 I'd have to learn to SHARE!!

It's not that I'm selfish!!

But.... having to share my computer is getting to be a PAIN!

This is what I used to see.....


and this is what I see on a regular basis...

Husband... honing his computer skills.
He can successfully check the AR Jobsite and race downtown to the ESD to apply within minutes of the posting!! If the recruiters would only be as impressed with his speed in persistence in checking the computer so frequently!


I used to pray that he got a day-time job... now, I just pray that he get ANY kind of job! His computer skills are improving, but- he's gonna HAVE to learn how to email, LOL!!


Oh... and what does he do when there's no "action" on that site? U-tube of course!!

Somebody..... please put a fishing pole in B's hands and let me exercise some mindless surfing on my computer, PULEEZE!!! haha!!

WANTED! Winter vacation....

It's March.

Finally.

You would think that being in the South we'd be preparing for moonlight and magnolias. NOT.

Oh, no.... it's a winter storm warning alert and cold, freezing rain.

YUCK.

Do you have any idea what this will do to the daffodils, tulips and azaleas?? Not to even mention my poor old Japanese tulip tree that is always a little tardy in blooming?

Such a bummer.

I really need a winter-break. Some place warm and sunny and as few stresses as possible. Maybe I should apply for a few jobs for Byron based on my requirements for environment rather than his criteria of sawmill? Hmm..... sand. mountains. water. avg. temp = 77.

So.. I plugged in those search words and do you know where I should live???

Turkmenistan

I don't think so!

I'd miss my signature flowers!!


Oh. Well. Guess I'd better go make sure old mother Hubbard's cupboards are not so bare. And, hope we've got enough firewood to keep me 'n Samson cozy! And, movies. I think I'll watch nothing but summer flicks!

Stay warm.