On another note . . .

I had lunch yesterday with a dear old friend . . . an old roommate, actually . . . as in two marriages ago . . . pre-kidlet . . . another life time ago . . . back in the dark ages . . . yup, we go back that far. I adore Robin. We have history. And about that history . . . we both keep our mouths tightly shut . . . except for the occasional snort or giggle that explodes out if we are doing a little reminiscing. Robin has a knack for putting things into perspective. That's one of the things I have always loved about her. That and that she is also one of THE most creative souls I know. Her drummer walked away from the crowd years ago and never once looked back.

Robin and I get together for our birthdays . . so we see each other twice a year . . . not necessarily on time . . . but we do get together . . . to catch up, check up, drink up. As I was driving up the coast to meet her at a little fish shack we frequent, I was awed by the scenery. The road runs up the coast with an unfettered view of the ocean for miles . . . well a clear view unless you count the wild sea oats and palmetto scrub . . . Sometimes I take for granted that I live so close to the ocean . . . so with top down, the theme song from Steel Magnolia's blasting, wind blowing on a clear bright beautiful day, I was thankful for so much . . . for the day . . . for friendship . . . for the 9TS waiting at home. Yep, it was a good day.

Stories in Hand . . .

Jessica Sprague's newest class started Monday. She is teaching a system to collect all the stories of our lives so that they will be easier to journal and scrap . . . great idea. The first project is a "sparks" book. A rather hefty sized little devil with 1000 prompts to get those ideas flowing and ready to be written down. The second is a little flip notebook for jotting goodies as they come to mind. Both are amazing little tomes in their own right.

Outsides:

Guts:

and of course I had help. Why Ninja and Bear are so fascinated with the inner workings of my printer is beyond me but it is certainly better than catnip.

Bear managed to extract his paw . . . up to his shoulder . . . from inside the printer, before I could get a shot. I have no idea what that little cat brain of his thought he would find.

Ninja is waiting desperately for another sheet of paper to come chugging out the door?!?!?!?

Bombs away . . .

My talented friend Sue, posted this really adorable 'pine cone' on her blog HERE. I think they are so stinking cute! So you know I had to try my hand. How could I resist!
But those of you who know me, know I rarely read the instructions even though Sue nicely provided them . . .

My first mistake was buying an ostrich sized egg. What was I thinking?

The second was the adhesive fiasco. Sue had recommended Glue Dots. My stash was low so I needed to improvise. I tried Tacky glue and immediately glued the wax paper to the decorative paper and then to my desk top. Not good. My second try was my Xyron. As I watched the petals fall off one by one, I resorted to my ATG. Finally a solution.

Then came the placement. Three rows in and I realized my staggering was off and I was now going to have a striped pine cone. Oh well, too late now.

I showed the 9TS the finished product and he uttered one word: Grenade.

Harumphhh!!!

So I sent a shot to Sue, who realizing that I had built the entire 'grenade' bss ackwards, carefully gave me a 'cone' anatomy lesson. Yikes. A little more fiddling and it's done. My first attempt.

And yes, there will be more . . . smaller versions . . . hanging from my tree this year. As with most new things, I am giddy with delight. Thank you Sue for sharing!!!

black cats . . .

Our neighbors, two doors down have a little black cat. Every time I see him, my heart skips a beat and I think Ninja has escaped. A quick check confirms our little Tasmanian devil is safely tucked inside. We see their little guy all over the place. Amazing how often he is sited. Or so I thought. Then this, when I let Snoop out for his morning constitutional:


Three, count them, THREE little black cats. No wonder he was everywhere at once!!! (Sorry for the quality of the shot but the sun was not due up for another hour or so.) It's raining cats!

Weeding the woods . . .

When we bought our house back in 1995, the previous owners had these glorious green thumbs and it showed. Gorgeous azaleas, hibiscus in every hue, elephant ears, tiger lilies . . . the list goes on and on . . . . even a Meyers lemon tree. It took me months to discover that the reason every cat in the neighborhood came to visit was because they had planted catnip in the herb garden. We also inherited a tiny cement pond and what we call our Chinese garden. No one remembers why we decided to call it the Chinese garden . . . maybe because it was serenely tucked away and the low slung boards hinted of something Asian. It was such a calming little area.

Fast forward 13 years and two black thumbs later and to say things are overgrown and in disarray is putting it mildly. Yesterday I decided to try and make inroads into the mountain of kudzu and tater vines that had all but covered over the 'garden'. Tarzan would be proud of me. It took me a couple of hours but I finally cleared the basic area.

Last night, I dragged my loot to the curb for pickup. If I keep this up, I just might discover the lost Mayan ruins or King Tuts Tomb. Hopefully with some more weeding and some mulch, things will be back their former glory.

But don't hold your breath.

catching up . . .

Tuesday, to celebrate Jackie's birthday, we went to:


Yep, Jackie, Joe, 9TS and I hit EPCOT for the annual International Wine and Food Festival. 9TS's foot still healing, we rented a wheelchair . . . I know I shouldn't be gleeful but it was so much fun to jump the lines . . . made up for pushing him around "the world" but, I can't take all the credit . . . Joe was in charge of getting him up the hills. Even Jackie took a turn, but she was rapidly relieved of duty after she ran me over. Ouch and major bruising. Snort!

My favorite, as has been since I was a kid, was the 3D movie. I get giddy with my glasses on. Love the flying debris that seems to come right at you. But leave it to Disney . . . when the dog on screen sneezed, little splatters of water/mist were ejected from the seat in front of you. Major "ew" factor but oh so much fun.

Least favorite? The meal at the Italian Pavilion. Now I know where the airline food went when they stopped serving meals on planes. Nuff said. But dessert, that was another story . . . we hit the French pavilion's bakery and waddled away content and ever so slightly drunk on chocolate. And of course I took the obligatory pictures but there was nothing spectacular so I will save you from the dreaded home slide show.

Justice . . .

Katie, refusing to walk away with her tail between her legs, managed a meeting with XXX and his boss XXX2 (they both have the same name, as do Katie and her boss . . . confusing huh?) Anyway, it ended up with XXX apologizing and XXX2 asking her to stay. But Katie said although ACS was near and dear to her heart and she had been volunteering since she was 12, it obviously wasn't a good fit and she was afraid of getting blind sided again. She said it wasn't worth the stress, offered to work with her replacement and handed over all her contacts. She wished them luck and left while the other Katie and her co-chair, Mike stayed. XXX2 asked them what it would take to get her back. Katie and Mike said they thought it was a moot question and that they had just lost a highly motivated, highly devoted volunteer.

I am so stinking proud of my kidlet for standing up for herself . . . sooooooo stinking proud!!!