Honoring Sgt. James Ayube II

I did not know him and I do not know his family. All I do know is that he made the ultimate sacrifice in doing what he loved and what he believed.

My heart goes out to his family, his friends and his fellow Corps men and women. I cannot imagine how terrible you all feel. I know that today as the casket and funeral motorcade made their way through our little community there were thousands of us lining the streets with flags in his honor. The significance of what he gave in service to your country was not lost on any of us. It was very sobering and moving. Most of us were crying as the procession went by. We are all so very sorry for not only his family's loss but also our loss as a community.

Sgt. James Ayube II was a role model, a medic, a loving husband, brother, son and community member. Those who knew him only had the highest praise for how he lived his life.

He posted his favorite poem on facebook shortly before his death:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain;

Or help one fainting robin,
Unto his nes again;

I shall not live in vain.

- Emily Dickenson

What to do with leftovers

A couple days ago, I was a bit restless and tired of it being so cold that I couldn't comfortably do anything outside, so I finally broke down and bundled myself up in the most ridiculous looking way and went outside and commenced to fixing up the flower boxes and finally putting together the little wreath for our back door. I had had all this greenery laying around in my car - leftovers from jobs - bits of some sort of pine, boxwood, and some incense cedar. I also had three packages of rosehips that I had originally bought for my neighbor's garland, wreath and planter, but I decided to go with pepperberry for her instead.

For the baby wreath, I added a few accents with the pine, boxwood and cedar to the base:
It's simple and cute and just right for that door.

Our planter got an upgrade this year!I don't usually do it up in such a fancy way, but I had the greens and the gumption to do it! I love the curly willow in there - it give it a bit more oomph!

I started doing all of this stuff a couple afternoons ago in between walking the dogs and then walking to the restaurant to meet my friend for dinner. I had a two hour window to do the wreath, fancy up the planter and then do all 6 flower boxes!

So, the wreath and planter were easy peasy. I can do that stuff in my sleep! The flower boxes, however, required a bit more attention, as they were filled with loads of grasses and other dead things. Not so pretty. So I went about the business of cutting back all the dead grasses and most of the other dead stuff in there. I did keep the mini-licorice - even though it is no longer alive, it is a pleasant silver color and adds some interesting shape to the flower boxes:


You likey?

I ended up using all of the greens and then added the rosehips and finished them off with a couple types of preserved flat-leafed eucalyptus and some preserved lemon-leaf that I also had in the house! They are certainly not my favorite flower boxes I've ever done, but they look worlds better than they did with the dead crap in them!!

Man, looking at those pictures outside, our house needs a good paint job again! Jeez!

In other world news, we went our tiny local theater to see a holiday play last night. It was not your usual cheeriness-for-the-holidays type play. It was downright sad and quite dark, but it was a nice way to spend an evening and the acting was really quite good!

I also did an hour yoga DVD yesterday to start my journey to lose as much weight as humanly possible before we go on our vacation in February. My good friend suggested an easy weight-loss method of cutting off a leg, but that's really not the look I am going for!! Anywho, I'm good and sore today from yoga and despite that fact, did over 40 minutes of walking! Yaay for me!

Ok...Off to take the dogs for their afternoon walk and then will settle in for a nice evening. We've been out jet-setting for the last couple nights, so I'm happy to have a nice, cozy night at home!

Hope you're all staying warm!

Later!

Update on Koty and other randomness

He's totally fine. In fact, by the time we had to load up and get into the car to go to the vet? He was totally waggy and fine and happy and jumped right up into the car. So, there ya go. He probably just pulled something or twisted his leg in a weird way and all it took was a little bit of rest and he was good to go!

In other world news, it is SO COLD HERE. Yuuuuucccccckkkkkooooooo! Hate hate hate the cold. The weather website I use, accuweather.com, tells me it is currently 18. Wind chill brings it to MINUS THREE. Is this really necessary? I was completely fine with it being 50 degrees the other day. Even 40 is do-able. This crap we're having today? NOT fine. NOT do-able. Ridiculous is what it is.

Last night I walked to one of our favorite restaurants to join a friend for dinner. Walking TO it was cold enough, but then walking home was literally painful. My legs HURT by the time I got home and I had on a big down coat, jeans, a big scarf, a hat and gloves. I was prepared, but the cold was able to permeate even all of those layers.

The GOOD news is that we booked our annual winter trip a few days ago! We are heading to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Jost (pronounced YOHST) is heaven on Earth, my friends. We have been there before and it is just incredibly awesome. It's the most laid-back island you can possibly imagine. There are no locks on doors, crime just basically does not exist. HEAVEN.

Here is a live webcam overlooking the beach from this world-famous little bar/restaurant called The Soggy Dollar. The reason it is called that is that you can only reach Jost by boat. So, in order to get to the bar, most patrons are on their private boats that are moored off the beach, they swim in, and therefore, their dollars are soggy! They have a clothesline that runs along the back of the bar where they hang the soggy dollars to dry! It's a hoot!

Anyway, we stay on the side of the island where there is one of the most stunning stretches of beach in the world along White Bay. This is the view from the hill where our villa is:
Is that not stunning?

The Soggy Dollar bar is on White Bay, as is another really amazing little bar called Ivan's Stress-Free Bar. While you stay on Jost, you can go into Ivan's and, most times, there is not a bartender. You make the drinks yourself and then there is a notebook where you keep a tally of whatever you make while you're there for the week or however long, and then you just pay up at the end of the week. Seriously. Is that not the coolest thing? Love the honor system!

Anyway, I could go on and on about Jost, but I must bundle up myself and get the dogs out for a walk. Some of us that live in this house actually relish the cold since they are built with the thickest fur you can imagine!

Later we are going to a play at the newish Salem Theater Company.

Hope you are all having a good week!

Ciao!

It's frickin FREEZING!

It's a balmy 27 outside right now. It was 50 yesterday, so we've basically lost 1/2 of that. Oy. With the wind chill, the weather website I use says it's the equivalent of 16 degrees outside. I do not like this, I don't appreciate it, and no one asked if this would be okay! If asked, I would have said a resounding "Absolutely not!" Not nice, Mother Nature. Not nice.

On top of this coldness we are again experiencing, something happened to our dog Koty's leg today. We were merrily going along on our walk, he was running about as he is wont to do despite being nearly 12 years old, and then suddenly - poof - his demeanor and his body language changed. Something was amiss. It appears to be something in his front left leg, so we are on our way to the vet in a little while. Poor little guy. When you rub his leg, he just whines. He's not a whiner AT ALL, mind you, so this is highly unusual. Hopefully it's just a pulled something or a sprained something.

In cheerier news, I got new boots! I didn't realize they were simply kind of dressy-for-fun boots and they are decidedly NOT warm, but they are cute as all get-out:
They have very cute details, like the little strap held down by a silver stud, and then there are two little bangle things that I didn't even realize were there when I ordered them! PLUS they are PINK on the inside!
CUTE!!

I wore them this morning to walk the dogs and my feet just about froze to death, but I looked cute!! : ) hee hee!

In flower-ish news, the amaryllis from the grocery store has three huge blooms and there are two more to come!

The eggplant continues to grow:


And I finally remembered to take a picture of the finished product at my neighbor's:
The wreath, garland and planter all look so pretty, don't they?

Ok. I best be off - have to clean out the back seat of my car for my poor hurt doggie.

Wish us luck...

Later!

Not too much, you?

Today I am tired. I spent all weekend zipping about, doing this that and the other. Saturday I was the decorating queen! My friend over at Nothing Worth Stealing, who is a fantastically gifted artist, does all of my ads and marketing pieces for my business. So, in return, I do her decorating! I did up a pretty wreath for her and two planters. Of course, I forgot to bring along a camera, so I will have to take photos of her pretties and then also my other client whose planters and wreaths I did a couple weeks ago...

Anywho, in order to do these things, I had to go to my beloved Marblehead Garden Center to buy the wreath base, some more juniper and then for our house I got a pretty garland for our front door and a small, simple wreath for our back door. (Which reminds me - it is still sitting in my car!) While at the Garden Center it occurred to me that we were supposed to put up the Christmas tree on Sunday and the weather was supposed to be rather yuck (which it was - warm but VERY rainy and windy), so I decided to pick up a tree while I was there, as well...

Here's the garland and the wreath out front:
Pretty, no?!!

So, off I went to decorate my friend's house with the tree on the roof of my car...Flew home, and my husband was nice enough to hang the garland out front and get the tree set up for me (he is not one who enjoys this type of thing, so it was nice that he did it willfully and cheerfully!) while I FINALLY got around to decorating my neighbor's garland that I hung up over a week ago! Jeez.

Then I finally finished putting the pretty, white sparkle lights on the bushes on the side of our house. It all looks very festive and pretty...To end the day, I made the MOST delicious spicy chicken enchiladas! Yummm!

Yesterday I wrapped 3,852,00 presents (felt like it!) for the DCF kids we and our friends sponsored, collected gifts from the other friends who had wrapped gifts themselves and then went about the business of decorating the tree. Here's the finished product:



After we finished the tree, we ordered wonderful Indian food from our local eatery, A Passage to India. Their menu is on there if you want to see what's in the goodies we got...We ordered Dal Maharani, Chicken Saag, some raita and extra onion chutney (I'm crazy for it!) and then we also had vegetable samosas for appetizer. TO. DIE. FOR!

After all the running around and zippy zooming, I'm just plain tired out today!

Despite that, I did manage to do a power walk (it was 50 degrees here again today!) and then just got back from my chiropractor who reports that my back and neck are significantly better! Yaay!

So, that's all I gots for this fine Monday. Dinner is now in the oven (roasted chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots and some squash) and we are going to settle in for a nice, quiet evening.

Later, kids!