Today I awoke with the blahs. I just didn't feel like my happy self and, as my husband says, "That's okay!" It's just a strange thing when I'm not all "Wheee!" and "Yaaay!" about life in general. I know I'm lucky that that is my normal state of being, so it's a funny thing when I'm feeling "Huh" and "Whatever".
Of course, a LARGE conspirator in my lack of good mood was good old Aunt Flo. She really puts a damper on the party, you know? She's the downest of Debbie Downers. So, the hormones are raging, the cramps were a'cramping and it was sort of dreary and snowed a little today. I did get a lot accomplished, which is nice - the house is spotlessly clean now, dishes are done, laundry folded, I did a little walking and also got the last minute things I needed for Christmas.
Later this afternoon, I decided to look up some funny animal websites to get myself in a better mood and I ended up on one of icanhascheezburger's many affliliates called icanhashotdog.com. One of the first things I found was this smarty-pants professor at some college and his smarty-pants dog, a border collie, who has a vocabulary of over 1,000 words. Now, this is not funny, I thought! Why on EARTH is this on some cute, funny website that is supposed to cheer me up? This decidedly did NOT cheer me up as all I could think is that I, instead, have a dog with the IQ of a cucumber - and I'm insulting a wide portion of the cucumber population!
My dog has a vocabularly of 5. She knows her name. That's one. She knows sit. Sort of. She knows come. Kinda sorta. She knows treat. So that's now four. And she knows the word walk. That's it. That's her repertoire. FIVE WORDS.
How depressing is that?!!
Oh, and just for kicks, she forgot how to go down the stairs again today! That's fun. She stands at the top of the stairway, and moans and groans and whines. So my husband or I ALWAYS have to be there to help her down now in case she forgets - which happens randomly.
Meantime, Professor Smarty Pants up there probably has his dog vacuuming the house and reading him stories at the end of the day. Jeez.
In other world news, I still haven't wrapped all the gifts I need to wrap. I just have a few more to do - will do tomorrow. I will be also cooking some chicken breasts tomorrow for those of us who don't eat red meat...We are going to a family dinner thing with my husband's Stepmom's side of the family which we do every year. It's really fun and we all get along wonderfully. However, meat is the main course, so I generally end up cooking something else for the few of us who don't eat the mammals. I stopped eating all beef and pork when I was 18 and I never looked back! It's easy to do, and SO much better for you. I was a total vegetarian for a while, but really did miss the occasional piece of chicken or turkey burger, so that's my thing now.
Lastly, I have this word of the day thing that pops up when I hit the icon for the dashboard on my beloved computer. If you don't have a Mac, there are all these "widgets" that you can get for free like a weather widget or a tide widget, spelling games, calculators, convertors, association games (which I LOVE!) and then there's also the word of the day widget. I thought - wonderful, I'll increase my vocabulary and get all smart and clever.
Here are the words for the past three days:
Frostbite. Is this really a difficult word? Anyone unsure what it is? REALLY?
Thrall. Which means slavery or bondage. How am I supposed to work that into every day conversation now? Really??
Mephitic. The meaning is "Of noxious stench from atmospheric pollution." And here is their charming usage suggestion: "The air he inhaled was no longer pure, but thick and mephitic, -- he was in prison."
So for the last three days there has been some horrid word describing some horrid condition like losing three frostbitten toes, being in slavery and then breathing in disgusting, noxious air. Who are these cheerful people putting this stuff out there? LIGHTEN UP!
No wonder I've been feeling a bit down!
My earlier post today featured some cute goats hopping around to cute music - if you didn't watch it, please do! It's silly as all get out and brought a smile to my sour face today!
As I was discussing our need to now own cutes goat with my friend June over there at Bye, Bye Pie, the subject of fainting goats came up. Do you know of these? If you don't, please watch this:
You know, in a way, those goats remind me of my dog that forgets how to navigate the stairs. Maybe she's part fainting goat. That explains A LOT!!
Not sure if I'll have time to venture over here tomorrow to do a posty, so if not, I will bid you adieu and wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Ho Ho HO!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
A GIGGLE with the GOATS Jingle Bells Holiday Performance
Merry Christmas from the goats and me!!
Much to do today, so will leave you with visions of goats dancing in your head!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Much to do today, so will leave you with visions of goats dancing in your head!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The colors? of winter
As I mentioned in my last post, we got our first proper snow yesterday and last night. Not too much maybe an inch or two and it's already commenced to melting. That's one thing I LOVE about living in MA. We stick so far out in the ocean, that we actually stay relatively warm and we rarely get big accumulations of snow that stay the whole winter. It's usually a cycle of storm, melt, nice, flurry, nice, storm, melt, nice...It's not like living in Michigan is what I'm saying where the cycle is snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, summer, snow, snow, snow...
You may think I jest, but I do not!! I remember the city workers having to pile the snow up in the middle of the streets at times because they had no where else to put it! And they'd transport snow over to the parking lot of our highschool where we'd have these ginormous mounds that wouldn't melt until well into May!! We once had a huge snow storm on my BIRTHDAY! My birthday, you ask? The very end of MAY!
And Michigan is cloudy and gloomy all winter. I remember getting so terribly depressed there in the winters. So, end of story is that I really love MA for the above-mentioned facts and also that the winters are generally MUCH shorter. Last year I started planting outside in March! The ground is still rock solid in March in Michigan!
Luckily, today the meterologists were wrong and we ended up with a sunny and relatively warm-ish day! We were supposed to get more snow and it was supposed to be cloudy until Thursday, but we got a surprisingly nice day! So I just returned from a bonus power walk and am eating some delicious soup for lunch!
I remembered to take some pictures of the snow in the back yard today, too...Shall we see?
View toward the back:
Not quite as pretty as the summer pics, right? The lack of color is the hardest part of winter for me. I love the vibrant colors of the garden all summer, so this time of year we get to choose from a lovely variety of browns and grays. Thank goodness for evergreens!! In the back yard I have the daphne bush that stays pretty all winter (it's over there peeking in on the left) and my butterfly bushes have some green leaves that remain toward the base:
Those are my new wind chimes that sound so pretty, and you can see the green leaves on the butterfly bush there, too.
Here's a view toward the front of the yard:
Of course, Sadie is out there with me! She LOVES the snow and takes any opportunity given to go out and lay in the snow! Both dogs are so built for the cold, they just adore the winter!
In other world news, there is a local jewelry store here that deals in very high quality gems. They have a limited number of earrings, necklaces, etc. I found the world's most beautiful blue topaz drop earrings. I am coveting them. So far I have been able to resist. They are similar to THESE, except the ones I want are less money and have tiny diamonds in a circle all around the topaz stone. Aren't they so pretty?
Ok. Gots to run. More errands to finish up today and then have to finish wrapping everything. One of the more challenging items to wrap is a gift requested each year by my husband's little brother. He gets a dozen boxes of the Keebler Grasshopper cookies - the chocolate mint ones! I wiped out two stores to get them this year!! hee hee!! Ahh, the little things in life!
Hope you're all having a fine, fine Tuesday!
Merry Ho Ho!
You may think I jest, but I do not!! I remember the city workers having to pile the snow up in the middle of the streets at times because they had no where else to put it! And they'd transport snow over to the parking lot of our highschool where we'd have these ginormous mounds that wouldn't melt until well into May!! We once had a huge snow storm on my BIRTHDAY! My birthday, you ask? The very end of MAY!
And Michigan is cloudy and gloomy all winter. I remember getting so terribly depressed there in the winters. So, end of story is that I really love MA for the above-mentioned facts and also that the winters are generally MUCH shorter. Last year I started planting outside in March! The ground is still rock solid in March in Michigan!
Luckily, today the meterologists were wrong and we ended up with a sunny and relatively warm-ish day! We were supposed to get more snow and it was supposed to be cloudy until Thursday, but we got a surprisingly nice day! So I just returned from a bonus power walk and am eating some delicious soup for lunch!
I remembered to take some pictures of the snow in the back yard today, too...Shall we see?
View toward the back:
Not quite as pretty as the summer pics, right? The lack of color is the hardest part of winter for me. I love the vibrant colors of the garden all summer, so this time of year we get to choose from a lovely variety of browns and grays. Thank goodness for evergreens!! In the back yard I have the daphne bush that stays pretty all winter (it's over there peeking in on the left) and my butterfly bushes have some green leaves that remain toward the base:
Those are my new wind chimes that sound so pretty, and you can see the green leaves on the butterfly bush there, too.Here's a view toward the front of the yard:
Of course, Sadie is out there with me! She LOVES the snow and takes any opportunity given to go out and lay in the snow! Both dogs are so built for the cold, they just adore the winter!In other world news, there is a local jewelry store here that deals in very high quality gems. They have a limited number of earrings, necklaces, etc. I found the world's most beautiful blue topaz drop earrings. I am coveting them. So far I have been able to resist. They are similar to THESE, except the ones I want are less money and have tiny diamonds in a circle all around the topaz stone. Aren't they so pretty?
Ok. Gots to run. More errands to finish up today and then have to finish wrapping everything. One of the more challenging items to wrap is a gift requested each year by my husband's little brother. He gets a dozen boxes of the Keebler Grasshopper cookies - the chocolate mint ones! I wiped out two stores to get them this year!! hee hee!! Ahh, the little things in life!
Hope you're all having a fine, fine Tuesday!
Merry Ho Ho!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Pretty posies and proper precipitation
Today we got our first "proper" snowstorm where it sticks and you have to clean off your car and everything! Wow! Not too bad that our first snow wasn't until Dec 20th this year! I know other parts of the country have been utterly slammed with snow! So glad it didn't do that here!
Now, mind you, it's actually quite pretty out there - when the snow is all white and pristine and then you've got the Christmas lights and everything, it's pretty! Looks all cozy like the scenes on Christmas cards! But then the dirt trucks go by and the salt trucks and then the plows and then it just gets to be this sloppy gross brownish mess! Not so pretty, so I always try to appreciate the prettiness when it first arrives:
That's looking out to our parking area. The snow had just starting coming down in these photos.
This is the current scene:
It's totally dark out, so I hope you get the gist of it from these! It gets dark at noontime now (feels like it sometimes!), so I often forget to take pictures earlier in the day while it's still light enough to take a decent photo!!
In other world news, I bought TULIPS today at the grocery store! Nothing cheers me up more instantly than the sight of tulips! I have a small arrangement by the sink:
And one on the far side of the kitchen that leads into the piano area and living room:
I also have a vase full of them in the living room, but it was too dark in there to take a decent photo.
In other planty news, the eggplant is still thriving:
The bad news? The grape tomato plant that I so carefully and lovingly rooted and then planted? Oh, it bit the dust BIGTIME!! It went from looking decent to looking a little eh? And then it went from looking eh to "Oh, no!" and then directly to PFFFFT - dead as a doornail.
Are doornails really dead? Were they ever living? Some sayings are so strange, right? Happy as a clam is another strange one. Who deemed them happy? I think they honestly have a downright depressing existence! All stuck in the mud, squirting for their entire lives, no contact with other clams.. And talk about the claustrophobia! No room to move, no ABILITY to move, and your house is a SHELL! No protection from the elements! No insulation! No heat or air conditioning! Indeed, clams could not POSSIBLY be happy! (Can you tell I have a bit too much time to think about such things?!!)
So, that's all I got for today. I've been running around all day just like the rest of the U.S. of A. getting the last minute things for the holidays. Now, we are going to start dinner!
Happy Holidays! Hope you are happy as a cla...Wait. Happy as a...
Oh, forget it.
Now, mind you, it's actually quite pretty out there - when the snow is all white and pristine and then you've got the Christmas lights and everything, it's pretty! Looks all cozy like the scenes on Christmas cards! But then the dirt trucks go by and the salt trucks and then the plows and then it just gets to be this sloppy gross brownish mess! Not so pretty, so I always try to appreciate the prettiness when it first arrives:
That's looking out to our parking area. The snow had just starting coming down in these photos.This is the current scene:
It's totally dark out, so I hope you get the gist of it from these! It gets dark at noontime now (feels like it sometimes!), so I often forget to take pictures earlier in the day while it's still light enough to take a decent photo!!In other world news, I bought TULIPS today at the grocery store! Nothing cheers me up more instantly than the sight of tulips! I have a small arrangement by the sink:
And one on the far side of the kitchen that leads into the piano area and living room:
I also have a vase full of them in the living room, but it was too dark in there to take a decent photo.
In other planty news, the eggplant is still thriving:
The bad news? The grape tomato plant that I so carefully and lovingly rooted and then planted? Oh, it bit the dust BIGTIME!! It went from looking decent to looking a little eh? And then it went from looking eh to "Oh, no!" and then directly to PFFFFT - dead as a doornail.
Are doornails really dead? Were they ever living? Some sayings are so strange, right? Happy as a clam is another strange one. Who deemed them happy? I think they honestly have a downright depressing existence! All stuck in the mud, squirting for their entire lives, no contact with other clams.. And talk about the claustrophobia! No room to move, no ABILITY to move, and your house is a SHELL! No protection from the elements! No insulation! No heat or air conditioning! Indeed, clams could not POSSIBLY be happy! (Can you tell I have a bit too much time to think about such things?!!)
So, that's all I got for today. I've been running around all day just like the rest of the U.S. of A. getting the last minute things for the holidays. Now, we are going to start dinner!
Happy Holidays! Hope you are happy as a cla...Wait. Happy as a...
Oh, forget it.
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