It was a dark and stormy night . . . .

Well, maybe not stormy but definitely dark and since Frank ended up soaked, stormy is semi appropriate . . . . Anyway, somewhere in the reaches of my dead-to-the-world sleeping brain, comes a niggling that all is not right in the cave. My first thought, and OK, we all know I have a tendency to be dramatic, was the toilet was flushing on its own. Makes no sense but there it was again . . . a whooshing sound. Maybe I really should wake up and investigate, but slumber grabs me back under . . . WHOOSH!!! Now I am definitely awake and pushing the button on my trusty Timex, groan when a measly 3:03 a.m. appears grinning back at me. Then nothing. I am counting my own heart beats it is so quiet. WHOOSH! eek. It is not the potty. Bru and Snoop are gently snoring undisturbed so the world isn't coming to an end but . . . WHOOSH! Now I am standing at the open window listening to the sounds of the night when THE sound breaks the silence once again with a vengeance. Yup, definitely outside. The a/c is not on, can't be that, the pool pump? Is it about to blow??? I hear a sprinkler system gently pitter-pattering in the back ground. Whoosh. OMG, maybe our well is going to erupt like Mount Vesuvius! Time to wake Frank. Oh, how over joyed he is to be waken at this hour. Hee, hee, hee. We have determined that it is coming from somewhere between our house and the neighbors. So picture Frank in his p.j.'s with a flash light wandering around the yard in the dead of night. I hear a yelp. He has found the neighbors sprinkler system or rather it found him. And of course he is greeted with silence and looking up at me in the window. Even in the dark, I can tell that face is glowering with that what-has-she-gotten-me-into-now look. Oops. But WHOOSH. He jumps, I am relieved. Someone else has heard it. Now he is on a mission. Darting in and out among the hedges, flashlight bobbing against trees and the neighbors house. It is their pump. I mean it is loud. They have a light on. Frank wants to know should he ring their bell. I'm thinking Jim is going to want to ring Frank's bell at this hour. Now I know Jim is an insomniac but somehow I am thinking now is not the time. Frank agrees and heads back inside. . . Dripping. I head back upstairs, close the window and trundle back into my comfy bed. Tomorrow is another day.

procrastination . . .

Remember this album cover? I finally finished the guts. Now I only have two half finished projects to complete . . . arrrgh. This one was fun to work with, although the gate fold gives me fits occasionally. Gracee gave me the idea to play around some more with photo editing.

that warm fuzzy feeling . . .

Frank, Katie, Bru, Smoke, Snoop and I all on the bed watching TV. I love that no matter which direction you move, you're going to touch someone that fills your heart with love.

Come out, come out wherever you are!

I was reading Donna Downey's blog the other day and she is making this wonderful stamp storage system. Very, very, neat. So of course it got me thinking of all my clear stamps sitting huddled in an Iris cart drawer, well on their way to never seeing the light of day again. Hum, what to do. And since I have fallen in love with making three ring chip board binders lately, out came the stamps into their new home, hopefully to be used more often. Oh, and thanks to Marg for her late night help. There is happiness in the cave today!

the rules . . .

It is slowly sinking in that there are some unalterable rules of the universe, at least in my corner of the world. The first revolves around shopping:

*If you don't have any money, you find tons of things you want to buy, if you have money, you find NOTHING.

*Some shoes are so ugly, you feel sorry for them and consequently have to buy them. This is the only exception to rule #1. (See above)

*As soon as you scrub the kitchen floor, SOMEONE is going to spill spaghetti sauce or Gatorade in great quantities. Or, grape jelly in glass jars tend to leap to their death from the fridge as soon as the door is opened.

*If you buy the chocolate for your daughter's Easter basket too early, you will end up having to replace a lot of it. Especially the malted milk eggs.

*It takes way less time to gain weight than to lose it. You can diet for a month and lose five pounds and gain it back just looking at those malt balls.

*Cats wait until you change the linen on the beds before presenting you with a yacked up hair ball.

and finally:

*Someone always waits a meager two seconds after the laundry basket is EMPTY, everything is clean and folded and then deposits one dirty something.

I want to make the rules from now on.

another new passion . . .

. . chip board albums. In this one, I used Foof*a*la and bazzill paper. So much fun to have everything coordinate. Ever since I discovered 12 x 12 chip board, I have become a little unhinged. This one is a gate fold. I misjudged the spacing for the holes so that it takes some fiddling to lay right but now I know for next time. The K is for Katie and it will be a series of black and white photoshopped pictures of her through the years. Thanks Gracee for the neat idea.

I'm addicted . . .

. . . to these darn cubes. Finally finished the family. This is so much fun, to say the least. Here they are front and back . . . and now I want BIGGER ones!!!