Time Warp Tuesday: The Grumpy Reindeer

I only have to look up from the computer to find inspiration for Time Warp Tuesday, hosted by Jenn at Juggling Life.  I'm posting this early because I have to appear for jury duty at noon today.  I'm a little grumpy too!

Ernest came home from school one day, shortly before Christmas in 1999, wearing the cutest antlers and a spot of red on his nose.  I took a series of adorable photos, but he got annoyed partway through.

Here's the whole set.

Love and Hate on Facebook

I love Facebook for many reasons, mostly because I am nosy and like to know what everyone else is doing.  I like to know what Jen on the Edge is cooking for dinner, the cute things your kids and pets have done, when the Skipping Club will meet next, and the love poem my son wrote to his girl.

But where there is love, there is also hate.  Besides politics, I really hate the sharing of things that aren't true.   It only takes a few moments to do an internet search on these warnings and reminders to see if there is truth or some doubt.

The latest ones that have been bugging me...

• Don't call 112 in the US.  (A mother tagged her daughter on this.  Tell her to call 911!!!)
• Denzel Washington did not whip out his checkbook. 
• There are no free Southwest Airline Tickets.
• There' s no free Starbucks gift card, either.  The 40th anniversary was in 2011.
• The heat from a barbecue will not melt your contacts.  And I can vouch for that...my husband has barbecued for close to 30 years with contacts with no problems whatsoever other than a little smoke irritation.  And his barbecue was so hot it melted a hole in itself.  

I don't like to see misinformation spread but I also feel like a bitch if I point it out.   What would you do?

Skipping Club

I love Humans of New York.  One day, they featured Michelle Joni, who started a skipping club!

“I started a skipping club, and today is our first meeting!”
Photo from Humans of New York.

A skipping club!  You know I love to skip! I doubt I could keep up with the younglings but what an awesome way to have fun and exercise too!

Skip away, darlings!

Time Warp Tuesday: Peter Rabbit

Thanks always to Jenn, for hosting Time Warp Tuesday.

A nearby natural history museum usually hosts a traveling exhibit during the summer; often it has been animatronic dinosaurs.

Once, when Frank was very small, it was Peter Rabbit. As a Beatrix Potter fan, I probably loved it more than Frank did! Why didn't I take pictures inside? It was the cutest thing, with displays of original art and interactive gardens and fir trees where the wee ones could pretend they were rabbits.

And there were rabbit costumes to wear whilst posing in front of a giant cabbage.

At home, the picture sits on a shelf in front of this rabbit statue.

I'm not showing the whole shelf because 1) that would require more dusting than I want to do tonight and 2) there are great pictures for future time warps.

Pie Shake

This menu item recently caught my eye:

Pie shake?  PIE shake?  PIE SHAKE!!!  You know we had to try this at home, right?

The verdict:  If you like pie a la mode and you like shakes, you'll like this.  Pie in a glass!  Very useful if one is on a liquid diet.  Myself, I prefer my pie plain.

Apparently, so does Homer.

Saturday PhotoHunt: Upper

This week's Saturday PhotoHunt theme is Upper.  Here's the upper portion of the "Christmas tree" at my father's house.  One Christmas in the 60s, our tree was a foot tall redwood in a pot.  After Christmas he planted it and now look at it 45 or so years later.

And the lower portion...

The Daily Drive: Looming Clouds

I don't really have a daily drive anymore now that Ernest is mobile (edit - I mean since he's had a drivers license, not that he hasn't been able to move around!), but I do go out on a random basis.

Yesterday morning started off sunny, which was quite disappointing to the Handy Husband because rain was predicted and he had hustled to put the important things like his barbecue under cover.

By 10:00 the incoming clouds were ominous, so I sent him this picture to make him feel better.

It took until late afternoon to get the predicted rain.  I guess he's a happy camper now.  Or a wet driver.  Or whatever.

Wednesday has arrived with a perfectly clear sky.  Today's activities will include helping Ernest pack up the junk toys stuff he is purging from his room, taking him for another set of finger x-rays, and going to the farmer's market for pistachios.

What's happening on your Wednesday?

Perspective

This was from Frank's perspective.  Nothing better than a cat on your lap on a cloudy afternoon.

Thematic Photographic: Letters, Numbers and Other Characters

This week's theme is Letters, Numbers and Other Characters.

I've been away for a week but happened to get a quick shot which fits the theme.  The perfect bike rack at a library.

Calzone

Calzone and Catzone, photos and humor courtesy of the Handy Husband. Calzone preparation courtesy of Frank.

Hearts to You

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of my little projects, same process as the recession wreath.

It's Like That

Someone that wasn't me loaded the washer so full that it wouldn't run. Sigh.

Hobbled This Week

I woke up a week ago Saturday and could barely walk, having strange pains and soreness in my left foot.  Several years ago I woke up with a wobble in my ankle, but this time it's somewhere completely different.  As I have an blame my mother for that inherited fear of doctor's appointments, I am going to wait it out a bit longer. If I gut it out and actually move for a while, it starts to feel better.  Yay, Zumba.  I should really try Barb's golf ball thing.  Does anyone near me have a golf ball?  I could use the cat's toy lighty-uppy ball if I could find it under the couch.

Frank has been exceptionally kind and in addition to making dinner last night using leftovers, oh that boy of mine does shine, he has also entertained me this week with a marathon of Star Wars videotapes.  Yes, the tapes.  The tapes that are now collectors items since George Lucas changed his stories. Frank and I are of the HAN SHOT FIRST school and we saw it.  Must archive those tapes!

Ernest came home from a bike ride today, also hobbled after a fall on his right side.  The damage was largely to his middle finger, which has a small chip fracture.  He's splinted and looks like he's flipping the bird.  We do have the greatest ER here. We have a small town wait (almost none!) but it's a branch of a big town hospital so we get those advantages too.

He's hoping that the bushes he plowed through were raspberry rather than poison oak.  I think that's wishful thinking; he'd be a lot more scratched if they were berries. I know nothing about poison oak except to wash the clothing right away.  He says it's best to shower in cooler water.  Hot water spreads it more.  Brrrrrrr.

He's also hoping he's not splinted too long as it will interfere with the sax.  Frank tried to console him with, "you could probably still play guitar" but Ernest said "I play sax way better than I play guitar."

Um...I don't have a video of him playing guitar.  Which he plays just fine, by the way. But I do have the sax video which I shall re-embed here again BECAUSE I CAN!  And I'm too lazy to wait another 90 minutes to upload a different one. Besides, this is my favorite.




Well, we'll know more about the finger after another appointment this coming week.

A Finished Project! AKA Saturday PhotoHunt: Knitted

(What a wacky week.  Tuesday was on Monday, and now Saturday is on Wednesday.)

I have too so many unfinished projects sitting around and I'm getting annoyed with myself.  So I have been trying to complete a few.

Hooray, I finished this scarf!  It had been sitting around for several years, reknit twice because it was too wide and short the first time. and too scratchy the second.  Mixing in some soft heathery yarn did the trick.

I did something wild and crazy and mixed crochet and knitting.  I like the crocheted ruffle instead of a fringe.

If I start another knitting project but I should finish some other things first, it would be this beautiful Entrelac Scarf from Frecklesandpurls.com.  I've been studying this tutorial from verypinkknits.

Thematic Photographic: Soft Light

Carmi at Written, Inc. hosts Thematic Photographic. This week's theme is soft light.

Last Friday, we had a very cloudy evening and the sky was filled with soft light at sunset.  I was trying to get some sunset pictures when one of our regular cranes came in for a landing.  They roost in the pine trees in our back yard.  Once, I counted as many as 20 of them.

Time Warp Tuesday: Tuxedo Boys

Time Warp Tuesday is posting early so Jenn can get a head start on the links.

You doll phobes will be happy that I am giving you a break.

Instead, I'm taken my inspiration from Karen's post last week.  Look at her adorable boys, all 4 pictures taken at the same age and in the same outfit.  Now I know my Ernest wore a lot of Frank's hand me downs (and Frank wore his cousins'), but I was never organized enough to document that properly.

Except for the famous TUXEDO ONESIE!  Can I call it a TUXSIE for short?

1990

When Frank was 2 months old, we went to my cousin's wedding.  I'm sure those in the wedding party were a little concerned about a potentially squalling infant, but let me just say Frank was a prince.  Handy and my mother were with us, so between us there was always someone to take Frank out of the room if necessary.  But really, it wasn't.  He was a happy little camper and everyone was delighted at how cute he was in the tuxedo.  By the way, my cousin is still happily married and has two very tall boys of her own.

Now when Ernest's turn came to fit into the tuxsie, there wasn't a fancy event for him to go to.  Nevertheless, I took a picture.  Ernest was a... shall we say "sturdier" baby?...  so that light spot below the white part is the tuxsie gaping open to show his belly.

1996

And now look at them, all grown up.

2011 - They've cut their hair since then.

Another of Felix's Quirks

These three slices were next to each other inside the bag, but none match. I do not like to make a sandwich with mismatched bread.

Yet people continue to pull slices out at random. I can suffer, or I can solve my problem.

Sometimes I just trim the bread.

Better yet is to go Scandinavian with an open-faced sandwich.  Cuts calories that way, too!

And I believe I could suffer the mismatched slices if I panini-ed them into this delicious Turkey Apple and Brie sandwich shown on Idiot's Kitchen (the soup looks good too).

I showed that picture to Frank and he was all, "Apple?  In a sandwich?"  And I said, "Why not?"

I may be compulsively quirky in some ways but I am totally adventurous in others.



What's been your most adventurous food choice recently?

Egg Me On

While cleaning out the closet, I found a box of Easter decorations.  I haven't decorated for Easter in many years, so that was an easy purge.  Gone:   a half used bag of plastic grass, two unopened dye kits, three jello jiggler molds, three new packs of plastic eggs, a stuffed rabbit, a plastic duck, and a styrofoam cup bunny project.

I kept the hand dyed eggs.  Ernest named a batch he made in 2005.  We've got Squiggy, Georgie, Fluffy, Mickey and Quacker.

So that led me to a project, which also involves this

And this...

You'll see it closer to Easter.

Saturday PhotoHunt: Haven and Thematic Photographic: Softness

I thought I'd combine the two themes of haven and softness by featuring my idea of a soft haven:  a bed!

Our former cat loved the haven of the bed, especially if there was soft laundry to perch upon.

Francine's fur is the ultimate in softness.  Nothing can complete with her.  It's softer than unicorn breath or butterfly eyelashes.

Francine is not so fond of beds, but she finds other soft havens.  She could star in the princess and the pea here.

She will also accept a haven within the softness of an alpaca blanket.

Thematic Photographic is hosted by Carmi, at Written Inc.  More softness here.

Saturday Photohunt is hosted by Sandi -- visit some havens here.

Time Warp Tuesday: The Bad Ady Files

If the dolls made you nervous last week, watch out!

Here are the first few in a series of letters, either from my aunt or the dolls. These clearly illustrate the mischievous character Bad Ady displayed.

Cast of Characters:

Aunt Karky: my aunt

Janie Walker: the beleaguered, put-upon girl-sized doll

Bad Ady: herself

Blackie: young male cat, black of course

Hunter: young male cat, grey

Georgie: one of Karky's real brothers

Baby Georgie: a small plastic baby doll, a milquetoast character

Jingle Bells: a stick horse

Sister Rose: the one-eyed grey tabby cat matriarch

This is a dead ringer for Jingle Bells:

 (photo from Mitzi's Collectibles)

Here's Jenn's time warp and links to other warpers.

I Get the Hint, Homer

Homer was quite disgusted with his meal the other day. Francine was too. They have gotten used to tidbits in gravy and plain old pâté just wasn't cutting it. It's bad enough they were served it for the morning meal, but the indignity of getting it again at dinner was just too much.

"If I sit right here she is sure to notice my disapproval."

"Even the the kibble is sub par today.  I can't possibly eat those broken little nubs.  I must have complete Xs."

(Francine will take one kibble out of her own dish, crunch it into nubs, and eat them all before starting on a new kibble.  But I will not inflict Homer's leftover nubs on her.)

"Maybe if I just ignore the dreaded pâté, it will go away."

"But I really need to drop her a hint about the kibble."  So he opened the cupboard door for me.

(Oh Jen, now I have to clean the toe kick.)

Thematic Photographic: Multiples

Carmi at Written Inc. hosts Thematic Photographic.  The last theme was "multiples."

Did multiple woodpeckers make these multiple holes?

Panther Redux

When Ernest first started taking piano lessons, he was delighted as his abilities increased and he was able to play really cool songs. One of them was the theme from The Pink Panther, by Henry Mancini.

Frank joined him to play it at a talent show in 2005. Yes, I do have the old video but it's too much work to put it on the computer.

Fast forward eight years later, and Ernest is playing it again. This time, it is easy peasy to upload although it took 90 minutes.

Enjoy!