Blog Archives

A little flag waving in honor of yesterday

 

     After a day loaded with food, fireworks, and military band music, it was nice to take time to remember why we celebrate the 4th of July.

     The freedoms we have are precious gifts given to us by those visionaries who fought hard to achieve the birth of a great nation.  What an amazing accomplishment.  Do not let their dream fade in apathy.

     Hang tightly to those freedoms and be proud of who we are as a nation. 

     This is a great country.  It is my country and I’m proud of it.  I am grateful to be a citizen.

Mittened kitten found a home

 

     I received some good news from G today.  It seems that the kitten who has been living on her deck has found a home.  That is if it stays around for a few more days.  G says that with her luck he’ll disappear when the woman comes to get him and then reappear a few weeks later.

     I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn’t happen and he goes on to live happily ever after with his new owner. 

     While I was visiting G today he curled up on my lap and stayed put for quite a while purring all the time.  He’s going to make a wonderful lap cat. 

     He’s gained some weight since he came to live at G’s.  He certainly has enjoyed the food they’re giving him.  You no longer see each rib, his hipbones don’t look like knife blades, and his spine isn’t sticking out.

     The day his new owner comes to get him, he has a vet appointment for neutering before she takes him home.  Poor baby is in for a big surprise.  He’ll get over it soon enough.  I’ve a feeling she’s going to enjoy spoiling him.

Holey pepper Batman

 

     I check the growth of my veggies every day.  Yes, I’m impatient for them to ripen.  So far it’s bugs two, me one.  The bugs have managed to destroy one patty pan squash and an Ancho pepper.  I’d been eyeing up that pepper every day since it was a blossom.  By the time it grew to the size of my thumb, some bug managed to nibble a large hole into it. 

     I declared war.  At night I haunted the garden by flashlight, picking bugs off the plants and depositing them into a jar filled with soapy water.  I rubbed the same mixture onto the tiny peppers every night.  Now I have quite a few nice sized peppers that will soon be ready to pick and they have no holes in them.

     The melon and cucumber plants are also bug free now and growing with wild abandon.  I have pea sized watermelons and cantaloupes on the vines.  There are enough baby cucumbers out there to choke a horse or fill a large gherkin pickle jar.

     There will be at least three eggplants since that’s how many blossoms we have today.  It makes me glad that I have my mother’s moussakka recipe.  That is a real treat.

Surprise! A new look.

 

     I thought it was time for a change.  I hope you like it.  One thing I noticed was the print is larger, which I like.  However,  it is lighter, which I don’t like. 

     I may have to play a little.

     The Blogrolls are now on the bottom of the page along with everything else that isn’t a post.  Not sure if I like that, but we’ll see.

     This is going to take some getting used to.  I hope you all like the changes.  If not, let me know.  I do want your opinions.

Are we sanitizing ourselves into oblivion?

 

     When we were kids, we used to go outside and play…in the dirt.  We’d come home so filthy you couldn’t tell us from the neighborhood boys, or the boy cousins, if we were visiting our grandfather’s farm. 

     Mom was lucky if we really washed our hands before dinner.  We went swimming in lakes and stagnant ponds and went wading in drainage ditches and creeks. 

     There was no such thing as sanitizing wipes or antibacterial soaps.  Do you remember the two-second rule for dropped food?  Don’t forget to blow on it too.

     We rolled in the grass, rode our bikes all day, played in the rain, and we seldom caught colds.  Allergies?  The closest I came to one as a child was a reaction to eating way too much fresh pineapple—I got a rash that went away the next day.

     I have a novel idea…for the entire summer put away the kids’ computers, game boys, WIIs, X-boxes, cell phones, and other paraphernalia and take them outside to play.  I mean really play and get filthy.  They might get healthier. 

     In fact, moving around and doing something outside would do adults a lot of good too.

Time management

 

     You have to be kidding.  Me manage time?  I wish.  That’s as much a pipe dream as organizing the house.  I’ve tried to do both and have yet to succeed.

     It never fails to amaze me that no matter when I get up, the day doesn’t have enough hours in it for me to do the things I’d like to have done around here.  Maybe if I could clone myself…

     I’d need more than one clone.  However, that would pose another problem.  Where would I put my clones?  This house is tiny.  How would I feed them?  If they eat like I do that would put a hurting on our food budget.  Clones won’t work.

     This, in turn, brings us back to time management.  How does one manage time?  I have no idea.  I remain clueless.  I’ve tried making schedules but between DH, his mother, and the dogs schedules don’t work.  Something always comes up to scotch it.

     I would try delegating chores and projects but when there’s no one else to delegate those things to, that doesn’t work either.  I need more hours in the day, or in my case, the night.

     How do you manage time?

Poor little kitten in mittens

 

     I wish I knew what possesses people to dump animals.  G has a kitten that someone dumped in her yard.  He’s about 4 to 6 months old.  The little guy is staying on her deck and in her yard.  He is a brown tabby with four white mittens and a white bib.  He has beautiful green eyes and a wonderful personality—very loving and outgoing.  G can’t take him in because she already has three cats and they have already protested his presence in her yard.  She doesn’t want to take him to the shelter because it is a kill shelter.  All the no kill shelters are full and they won’t take him.

     I can’t take him because Patty and Gavin don’t like kitties.  We are trying to find him a home.  Visually, he’s healthy no ear mites or fleas.  As far as other health problems such as feline leukemia, we have no idea.

     At least the weather is warm and G has a gazebo over her deck so he can stay dry.  He’s been eating as if it has been weeks since he’s seen food. 

     If you live in Eastern PA and want him, let me know.  I’ll put you in contact with G.  The word is out.  All we can do is sit back and wait for someone who wants a young cat.

The klutz was out and about again

 

     So there I was running the trimmer around the edges of the yard and the garden when I ever so neatly landed on my butt.  Yep, the klutz was out and about again today.  This time I tripped over the two bricks and the hose that extend from the filters for use while back washing the pond filter.  The hose spewed a bit of water so my pants were also wet.  I looked lovely. 

     Yes, there are bruises.  I have one on my butt, and another on my arm that I have no idea how I got one there.  I’m betting by tomorrow there will be more.  Not to mention the stiff muscles I’ll discover that I never knew I had.  I narrowly missed spraining an ankle, again.  I’m ever so glad no one saw me fall it couldn’t have been pretty.

     Falling once was bad enough, but not five minutes later, I almost repeated the same pratfall on the same two bricks and hose.  By now, I think I hold the klutz queen crown firmly within my grasp.  Next time I’m moving the bricks and hose before I begin to trim.

     However, with my luck I’ll find something else to fall over.  I’m taking odds on that.

Remembering those who have fallen and those who still serve.

My nephew in Afghanistan

      May you all come home safe and soon!

Here we go again

 

     I have my hands full with Gavin tonight.  One of his ears is once again inflamed and he won’t leave it alone.  This means he’s back in ‘the collar of shame’ at least that is what he thinks about the E-collar.  I had to put it on him because he kept digging at his ear, not a good thing.  He only makes it worse that way.  At least with the E-collar on him I can try to break the itch scratch cycle. 

     This is a chronic problem with him.  It took him an hour to settle down in his crate after I put the collar on him because he was not thrilled.  Last time I put it on him he did a Houdini and got it off.  I found it in the back of the crate.  We were fortunate that he didn’t chew it up and eat the thing.

Is it a bear or Sasquatch?

 

     There’s a man, who walks his dog past our house.  Sometime in the future, he will be a character in one of my books.  He wouldn’t be a main character or even a minor character.  He’d be a walk on.

     He’d be one for one reason only and that is for the way he dresses or…um…doesn’t dress.  The only reason I dread hot weather is that this man wears teensy shorts and goes shirtless or he wears a tank top with his shorts.  It hit 92 degrees here yesterday.  Someone gimme some bleach because I need to scrub my eyeballs.

     Gentlemen, if you have more hair on your back than your Pekingese has on his whole body, wear a shirt.  If you are hairy enough all over to be mistaken for Sasquatch when you wear shorts and go shirtless in the summer, you need to put on long pants and a shirt in public.  Please not a tank top because that only emphasizes your hairiness. 

     If in addition to the hirsuteness, you have a beer belly that extends so far out you haven’t seen your feet in at least ten years, cover yourself.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Tomorrow I am off to the conference.  Thought I leave you these pictures to enjoy in my absence.  I’ll post Monday.