In Which I Decide About My Wreath

When I got the notice about ordering a wreath from my local boy scout, I was torn.  On the one hand, I don't agree with the BSA's policy on a certain issue.  On the other hand, I like my local scout and his troop uses the wreath money for camps.

I decided to support locality and ordered the wreath.

But how to decorate it?  Because as you recall, I just can't bring myself to hang up a plain wreath.

In 2008, the discarded Star Wars toys called me.

In 2009, the previous boy scout forgot to call me, so I had no wreath.  I think I bought a wreath elsewhere the next year, the year of my "recession" decorating.



Last year I got a new boy scout!  He's a sweet, kind boy.  I've known him since first grade.  His sister is in Ernest's grade.  I went a little more traditional.

But this year....what to do?  Well, there is another pile of discarded toys beckoning me.  I've also experimented with some paper creations.  You'll just have to wait until the Holiday Homes tour to see what I come up with.  

Time Warp Tuesday: Christmas 1971

Time Warp to 40 some years ago!

I was looking through my old photo albums for other things and came across this picture. I think it's 1971. Sixth grade was my year of the purple glasses.

What struck me about this photo, besides my awesome rocking purple glasses, is that my dad's cat Kit Catson (he let me name the cat) looked a lot like my Homer!  Although Kit had the better tail.  Homer has tail envy and often tucks his meager tail under his luscious body.

I really hadn't connected the two until now.

(This is a photo of the photo from my phone.  I'll scan it later and update the post.)

The rockin' purple glasses deserve a post of their own!

Visit Jenn's Time Warp Tuesday to see hers and other warpers!

Saturday PhotoHunt: Fall

The theme is "fall" at the Saturday PhotoHunt.

A display of fall pumpkins at a local winery.

 

Typical fall trash, found in the street after Halloween.  Or, this is what falls on the street after Halloween.

It's so easy for my darling Homer to fall asleep.

I Am Thankful for....

1) Ernest finally cleaned his room.  Although cleaning meant hauling out the loft bed which he hasn't slept in since we moved it in there 4.5 years ago.  And hauling out all the boxes of stuff that he stored on it or under it which he also hadn't touched in 4.5 years.  And leaving the boxes for me to deal with.  I should set up an ebay store!  Anyone want some lego?  Anyone want to buy a loft bed?

2)  Bribery.  Huh?  Why?  To get the traditional "Bye Mom" picture (his dad was going to be the one at the airport), I waved the promised bundle of travel money at him and said, "Want it?  I want a picture!"  So I got a pose.  He's ONLY going to New York for the week.  I guess he's there.  I got one text:  "The eagle has landed."  These free range children...

That pose was not unlike another pose I found on Facebook...

3) And I'm thankful for the living kit-cat clocks who stay at home.  Tick, tock...

False Advertising Part 2

This could become a regular series.

Normally I cook everything from scratch but sometimes a gal needs a break, you know, and I make a side dish from a box.

I generally have success with "rice boxes" but this one...  it tasted good but looked nothing like the "serving suggestion."

Blech.  Looks like dog food!  Would a dog even eat it?  If I'd rinsed off all the sauce and piled it on a teeny tiny spoon, and enlarged the picture, it might have looked more like it.

I had better luck with the dirty rice.

However the red and green flecks shown on the box were almost invisible in real life.  The green you see is what I added (green onions, bell pepper, and peas).  I can spot one pale red fleck in the middle of my spoonful.

Till next time.

My Homie

It's been ages since I've shared my darling Homer with you.

He works hard around the house. Homer was a factory cat, so he knows all about supervising the lunchroom.

And he's great at paperwork.

It's an exhausting job, but someone has to do it.

The Candy Issue

Going back to Halloween... Once again, we were not in the mood to hand out candy to scads of adults who come to the door with a token baby. For example: Six adults with pillowcases and one baby who is too young to eat candy? Or bearded teenagers (no offense to Frank, but he's not a teenager any more).

But I did my part to support the economy at the grocery store by buying some (a lot of) candy favorites for the rest of the family. Me, throw me a piece of dark chocolate once in a while and I'll be happy.

However the men in my family have powered through umpteen bags of snickers and reeses. They are SO PICKY about the reeses. You'd think they'd all be grateful, but no. Some of them say they don't like the pumpkin shaped reeses. The chocolate:peanut proportions are different.

I purchase what I can find. We have a limited selection here in SmallTownVille.

Time Warp Tuesday: Crafty Frames

With the holidays coming up, I am reminded of the kid-made picture frames they always used to bring home.  Delicately wrapped in tissue paper and carried home by sticky little hands on the last day of school in December.  "Mom, I made something for you!"

I really wish I'd remembered to date the back of them.  Obviously Ernest was in pre-school.

By cross referencing with the photo albums, I can tell that Frank made this one for Christmas 1998.  It was rare to see Frank in a buttoned shirt.  I'd asked him to dress up so I could take a few pictures for our Christmas card.

This is after Ernest's 1999's pumpkin patch visit.

And this is 2000.  He looks bigger in the previous one but my albums don't lie!  He loved his flaming suede Airwalks.  We managed to find several pairs in increasing sizes, so we were able to postpone the outgrowing-of-the-favorite-shoes-trauma for a while.

The buttons and beans may be falling off, and the construction paper is faded, but these precious pictures will always be treasured.

Visit Jen's page for her time warp and a list of the other participants.

Just Call Me Oscar

Because I fear I'm going to be a bit of a grouch today. It's 4 am and I've been awake for 3 hours.

It started with the usual noises (snoring). Then the heater. I've complained about its tinking noise before. So I retreated upstairs. Then I heard a scratching clawing type noise. I thought it was the cats but when I went in the hall it seemed to be coming from overhead. Oh joys, do we have critters in the attic? Or was it just something on the roof. It seems to have stopped now but I am still awake and twitchy. Grrrrrr.

If I can fall asleep now I might get 2 hours before a cat wakes me for breakfast.

I wonder how Oscar sleeps in his trash can?

Update. I think the critter was scratching on a metal vent on the roof. Kind Frank ventured up on the roof and could find no sign of entry.

False Advertising

I'm not stupid.  I know frozen food never looks like the packaging.  But it should at least be recognizable.

Here's the box.  "Choice-cut lean chunks of beef tender tails marinated and seasoned with 7 spices and extra virgin olive oil, and then charbroil grilled to juicy perfection served in a fresh pita pocket bread together with seasoned and grilled vegetables, fluffy white rice pilaf, and our secret sauce dressing."

Here's the food.  Looks like a turd, doesn't it.  And so much smaller.  They photoshopped the turd to look bigger than the pita.

Here they are together.

And to top it off, it tasted horrible.  The pita was rock hard around the edge, soggy in the middle, and the "meat" tasted like...well...what it looks like.  What a waste of $3.39.

Buyer beware.

Time Warp Tuesday: Montage

Thank you, Jenn, for Time Warp Tuesdays.  I enjoy revisiting these special moments.

There's a room at the front of our house, which should be called the den, but we weren't very imaginative so we always call it the Front Room.  Baby Ernest called it the Fruh-Fruh.

I had a large number of framed photos sitting on top of the TV cabinet.  When I forced a major furniture rearrangement last month, the frames had to go somewhere else.  These two ended up in my son shrine in the bedroom.  (Ooh, there's more timewarp fodder!)

Without resorting to the scrapbooks to find out the year, I'm going to guess these are from 1998, based on Ernest's bee costume and Frank's missing teeth.

Clockwise from left:  The bee pollinates a flower, a big outchie on his nose from falling into his brother's box of lego (the book he's holding is Kiss the Boo-Boo by Sue Tarsky), cutest thing with a velcro bandaid), after and before haircut.

Clockwise from top left:  Big Dog in Black (there was a Big Dog outlet in town, so he had a lot of those shirts), smiling at the Disneyland Hotel because he got his Star Wars Toy, where are his teeth?, and helping dad wash the big white truck.

Oh, the days of a film camera and double prints.  But then you have to DO SOMETHING with all those physical photos.

Saturday PhotoHunt: Seasonal

Saturday Photohunt's Seasonal theme inspired me to return.

It's Scarecrow Season around here.  I haven't made it all the way around town yet.  Here are the first two that are closest to my house.

I found a very relaxed Elvis in the window of a tasting room.  He may have indulged in too much Elvira wine.

And here's a well dressed redhead.  Could she be his contemporary Ann-Margret?  This consignment shop has the friendliest owners, beautiful displays, and lots of great clothing from local celebrities, but not much in my size.  But it's still fun to look.