Trash deco

Um, thanks hon. Usually the plastic hook that they used to display your new guitar strap would go in the trash. But, instead, you are making a statement. That statement seems to be "Look how clean this bit of rubbish is next to the waterstained pot lids." Point taken.

Cheeky monkey

What's it doing with its handseses?

Dear Mother of Dog

It's cold out. This has been established in every posting by every friend I think I have at this point.

There are degrees and rationalizations "It's worse when it's windy" (duh), "It's not as cold as in ____. My ____ says that the pee is frozen before it hits the ground there!", etc. There's also the good old "You're from up north, you must like this" To which I make the generic reply "That's why we came here"

Whatever. It's cold. I am cranky. Time to suck it up, put on the cute hat Mum made me and go "once more unto the breach."

If it's your thing, you could say a little prayer for me. Just don't laugh - there's nothing that pisses off an already irritated person more than somebody else's joy.

Alright, off to spread some holiday cheer!

Plucked

How fun is your day when your job is to go get the feathers off a peacock?

Fortunately, the good people at Crate and Barrel have found an
important use for these feathers. They were once used to appeal to the peahens (?), but now they can decorate our tree. True, they may be sitting in a box for 99% of the year, but such treasures are not to be shown all the time. Those manbirds are just over-exploiting their best feature (we humans would never be so crass).

Master-napper

How does he breathe?

Treet

There's a monkey-man flying from tree to tree out there...

Card-worthy

Maybe one of these for next year's cards...

Party time

It must be time for a Christmas party. I am wearing my red velvet jacket and Grandma's green, Hermes scarf...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

He proves his love every year thru arborcide. Lucky me!

Cozy in my burrow

Making beef stew & roasted root veg. while listening to High Violet. Mr. says we can get our tree tonight. What could be better?!?!

Unsustainable...delicious

Out of step

Ever have that feeling that you are out of step with people? Sometimes I think, maybe if I'd been born 2 months earlier or if I had 3 extra heartbeats a minute or something - maybe then everything would make a lot more sense. My life is great, and what more could one expect, really? There's a song for every mood. Let's see, I guess this one would be...



At the very least, I sometimes feel as lost as George appears to be in this video (esp. in that fabulous hat).

Poor George, that wasn't very nice. To be fair, he was the best looking Beatle...

Not toooooo bad

Suspiciously cardboardesque cereal this morning. A really delicious curried crab chowder & spinach salad with dear C and her little sicklette at Basil & Co. for lunch. Dinner is Mr's ratatouille. It smells a-maz-ing here. Can't be all virtue though, so I made bee-bop-a-ree-bop-rhubarb pie.

Whose day is this?

Okay, so who has a narcissistic personality issue?

It might be me

Today that weird fella you always see me with turns 38. I can't frigging believe it! Most disturbing of all is how old that makes moi (memememememememe) Okay, perhaps what is most disturbing is all the white hair in his beard and the arthritic pain in his joints. Anyhow, thanks to Mom J for going thru hell 38 years ago. You all should harass him today. He hates birthdays - particularly his own. He makes this same horrified grimace as when I try to take his picture in the car...

A very southern past

Today we went on a tour of a revolutionary war site - the Alamance Battleground. There are a bunch of these places scattered about. What made this one particularly interesting was their giant cojones.
One of their monuments suggests that this was the first battle of the revolution (being from MA, I put up with that for all of about 2 seconds)...

Another changes the historic spelling of our adoptive state...

On the way home again, we stopped for this photo op...

Oh, and totally unrelated. But interesting to me and it's my blog, Mr. has a Michael Landon (circa 1985) hairdo today...

Persecuted pajamas

"Your shirt looks like it's losing frequency...only up close...from far away I can't see the jaggedness"
"Someone left their hobo bag on the bed"

*An update:
Further condemnation of my clothes/style (lack thereof) as follows:
In my my new clogs, I am "Mrs. Vanderhoofaloosen"
In my green, winter hat, I am "Feng Shui"

Merriness on my mind

Okay, there's a lot to be said for avoiding the holidays altogether. It would be fairly easy as we don't have the little midgets that most of our set are running with these days.

However, I am stubborn and like the idea of the tree and connecting with people. There are a lot of folks I don't see much of, but who are just wonderful and spend a good deal of time bouncing around in my gray matter. Mr. seems to put up with this weirdness and only grumbles a little bit.

So, I make an effort to send out a lot of cards. It may not be the most personal thing to get a card once a year. But, I love hearing from people this way. Thus, I project that they love hearing from me too.

I've already ordered the first set. Don't worry, I'm not sending anything out until after the turkey has come and gone.

Never mix your drinks

From Withnail and I...

New vocabulary

Okay, it's my fault. I look at this food blog and it is out of France. BUT, it is written in English. On a recent menu, one of the offerings was "Cardoon Agnolotti." Sounded interesting enough that I felt compelled to look it up. Why can't they just write Artichoke Ravioli? Can you charge more for CA than for AR? Probably.  Everything else seems to be listed in Americanese.

Surely if ever I see a menu with that listed, I won't remember. I'll think it sounds exotic and delightful. It will be delightful, but then I like artichokes and ravioli. Then we'll get the bill and be horrified...even though I should have read the price on the menu...even though I should have remembered looking it up once upon a time...even though I subscribe to a hoity-toity foreign blog about food and still get annoyed.

Adolescents

Can you guess where we like to put the accent?

Maryland vs. Delaware

Maryland may be working towards safety, but the attitude seemed just a little more kind-hearted in Delaware...

Enough to turn a gal cynical

No, we're not influenced by the corporate sector at all...

DC

Our road trip was beset by interesting characters. We drove thru the inner-loop as 495 was jammed with people heading into town. We came pretty close to the rally...

The gig

Threw on my jean jacket, picked up my date and we were off to the Green Bean to hear some toe-tappin tunes...

Tea and reading and stuff

So...It's a quiet kind of day. I relieved some frustrations. Walked this morning and whipped out a chunky hat (very satisfying after working for a week on a lacy scarf with only about a foot to show for all that effort). So, it's all about tea and reading now....

Chick magnet

Clovi-dog is my bestest traveling companion now. When I have errands to run that don't require a lot of time away from the car, he rides shotgun.

So, today we went on a little adventure to the gas station, the bank, a nursery and then finally a drive thru coffee pickup for the Mr. At each stop, the little beast made new acquaintances. By which, I mean, potential girlfriends. Men could only be less interested if I was knitting at the same time.

However, ladies of all ages, races, wealth, whatever your poison, seem to lose all semblance of sophistication and turn into quivering children when faced with 10 pounds of fuzzy dog. Seriously, I already have the Subaru. If I were single, I might be able to find a very pretty girlfriend this way. Of course, I would never use such an innocent for my own nefarious purposes.

All I can say is this - when Mr. gets too irritated and finally chucks me out, I am taking Clo. There is no way he's getting my man his next wife!

High ethics

To whom it may concern,

If you are looking for your sorry bag of weed, it is in the trash can near the gas pump where you dropped it. Whilst I momentarily debated what should be done with this find, a quick perusal of the contents indicated that no self-respecting pothead would wish to inhale from this stash. I could not imagine even one of my most desperately green friends going for it.

Granted, it's been a long time since I knew much about such things, but I wonder if perhaps it was an inherited gift from a beloved grandparent? Maybe you wanted to run archaeological experiments on what was living in it 200 years ago when it was first picked? In either case, I hope that you can move on and realize that fate and I have interceded in your path choosing the kindest possible outcome.

Haflinger 40's

The box says "Step into a friendship" and also "Die natürliche Art zu gehen SCHUH NATUR" (which Yahoo's babel fish translates to "The natural kind to go SHOE NATURE"). I'm not sure that you can be friends with footwear. The latter term might be referring to the wool my new slippers are made of. It's probably not what the sheep had in mind, but I guess that using the word "nature" (or a variation thereof) twice appeals to us crunchy types. Perhaps it is the reason that they charge so much for a pair of slippers (and why suckers like me pay it).
Aaaaaaaaanyhow, I stuck them on my paws and they are delightful! Seriously, now that I have them, I'd probably pay double (well, probably not).  They don't look like much, but they're warm and comfy with just the perfect amount of give. This is enough to put me in a stellar mood for the rest of the day!

Desire fulfilled

Lazy-bones

Okay, what the hell happened here? Oh yeah, I know...I sat on an ever-expanding behind relaxing in a relatively stress-free environment for the last half decade.
1.5 (count them) days back at landscaping whooped my rear. It took me all today taking it easy to just start feeling normal again.
What will I do when we lose it all and I have to actually work to survive. There's an unpleasant thought. Better to banish it with a cheap mystery thriller and head back to bed!

A forgotten fear rises again

In looking for items to put in the yard sale, I have to wonder - am I a hoarder?

Watch your plate

So, it turns out that Midian loves left-over Rogan Josh for breakfast as much as I do. Guess that's what I get for leaving the room.

Go, go hippie gadget

Mr's way of keeping his face hidden (mine too)...

Local shopping spree

Today was the farm fest at Rising Meadow Farm and the Goat Lady Dairy.
The hand painted yarn is from Three Waters Farm, the soft blue is from Black Tulip Alpacas and the Angora comes from Avillion Farm. All gorgeous!


It is a beautiful day - sunny and warm (not hot!). So, hopefully the vendors did well - certainly looked that way from what I saw. Anyhow, they did well enough off of us!

Summer's close

The last herbs went into pesto and we're safely out of a/c weather now. Back to jeans & tea.