Holiday Music

If anyone is interested...
Amazon.com is offering 25 days of free holiday music.
Every day through December 25, they're unveiling a new holiday song available to download for free.

Attention:

Anyone saving Pepsi codes...
The Pepsi Stuff promotion ends 12/31/2008.
Be sure to submit your codes to be able to redeem them soon.
Happy Listening!
(FYI: My Coke Rewards can be redeemed until 12/31/2009.)

A Time of Loss

This long holiday weekend was apparently a time of loss. Rather for losing things.
First, Mickey lost his head. Then, I realized I lost an earring sometime while I was away. Now, I've discovered my glasses case is missing. I would have loved to take off my glasses at work today (I had a headache) -- but since I had no where to put them... (that's when I discovered the disappearance!) Last but not least -- my car made me lose $100 by replacing the battery. It died. Twice actually. Yesterday it was revived. Today it kicked the bucket!

Not for the faint of heart*

[*Disclaimer*]

Thanksgiving was not so kind to Mickey this year.

During all the excitement he lost his head.

I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love and laughter!

Today was my last day to enjoy my time off. That and to finish up some cleaning & laundry that got pushed back by my travels. I was catching up on some old Supernatural episodes & having a good laugh or two! I think you'd enjoy some of it too. Whether you watch the show or not (or never even heard of it), you should check out the video... [As a reference, the characters are rough & tough guys, who fight the big bad beasties daily. ]

In this episode, Dean gets infected by something which causes him to be a big baby -- scared by everything that is there and even by things that aren't! :) HaHa

Wishing everyone a ...

Gift Card Shoppers Beware

Just an FYI........
I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankrupcy Planning). Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Lowes to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

Project

Here's a long overdue showoff of a project.
It started back in May... but there were bumps along the way.
(You may notice the door prior to installation doesn't quite match the final picture!)

We LOVE the door!
It's *more* window... so the cats love it too!

Fundraising

As I've already mentioned in September, a fellow Blogger has been reaching out to those far & wide, seeking help for his daughter with an assistance dog. Training one of these dogs is very expensive. So far they have raised an amazing $5,080. But they still need help -- it costs $13,000 to train an assistance dog.

The ways to contribute have expanded, and I wanted to share this information with my "far & wide" people...

• morganbosley has created a lovely fundraising photo & photo card set with Amelia in mind -- all the money goes directly to 4 Paws for Ability


• The Freemans are putting together a fundraising cookbook -- donations can be made in the form of recipes!


• the standard forms of donation are still welcome too... online donations via Network for Good or PayPal, as well as check donations

Helping the family to raise training money allows Amelia to have her dog much sooner. (Otherwise it would be a 2-5 year wait.) Any donation, large or small, money or recipes, is greatly appreciated!

Random Humor

more animals

Sorry...

... yet again. I've been really lax with posting -- for quite some time now. (Bad me.) I think of ideas when I'm away from the computer... then it slips my mind when I'm near it. Plus, I've been diligently working on a project elsewhere in the house. All in hopes that it will become a Christmas gift for someone. I know if I put that to the side, it could easily become unfinished (and I don't want that to happen -- I've invested too much time already.)

Update on my last post:
My eye infection at least had good timing. At the end of that week I had an eye exam already scheduled -- the doctor was able to give me a thumbs up for keeping my contacts out all week. Also provided me with a different antibiotic eye drop to finish the healing. The disadvantage to the eye appointment was the timing of the exam itself -- turns out with the infection, my eye was swollen, thus altered my "results." I wore my new glasses for about a week, giving me plenty of time to get used to them. But they just weren't right. I was seeing colors that weren't there (light blue on one side of an object & a yellow/brown on the other) -- I felt like the world turned into a 3D movie, but I left my glasses at home. As I already mentioned, my eye exam wasn't accurate, I found this out Tuesday when I had my Rx rechecked. The color "thing" was no surprise to him. So yet another order has been placed. Hopefully it will arrive soon. (And more importantly, be accurate!)

(Mainly for Mutti...)
Another thing I learned is that an astigmatism is not as simple as the shape of your eye being different. There are different forms of it. Mine is in the lens of the eye, which can continue to fluctuate (getting better or worse) until the age of 43 (there abouts). I mention this because at my first exam I was told the astigmatism in my right eye got much better, however the nearsightedness got much worse. (Which is why I was told to give my glasses a chance -- they were such a different Rx.)

Falling Apart

Ok, so I didn't want to go writing another post about how crappy I've been feeling lately. I kept away for a week for that reason. But since I've seen the I'm not dead yet post, all I can picture is Monty Python... 'tis but a flesh wound.


While for me there is no flesh wound, but I feel like I'm falling apart nonetheless. The congestion has been rediculously long lasting and painful -- my jaw & teeth have been hurting due to the sinus pressure. Then I began feeling pressure in my left ear. Which lead to various other issues: pain, a fluid like movement (irritating, but tolerable), a high pitch sound when I blow my nose. Then this morning I woke up with what could be pink eye -- red, itchy, burning, lovely discharge (off and on).

Hense, I'm falling apart. I can hear a voice in my head saying, "They shoot horses that limp." So at least I'm not limping.

Bueller... Bueller... Anyone... Anyone?

Yeah, I've been skipping the whole blogging thing as of late. I've been sick... and tired... and sick and tired of being sick and tired. (Know what that's like?)

During this time frame, the hubby & I were able to share the love of BBC America. A good long time ago, he mentioned the name of a show... I looked it up & set recordings for it. Well, we shared the enjoyment & now I'll share it with you -- Top Gear.

1) Love the accents. 2) Funny! 3) Cars. Ok, so the car thing doesn't really matter to me, but it may be the pull some of you out there need. It's what they do with the cars -- it's just pure humor. I wish I could post the video directly here, but alas I cannot.

I can however offer you a link: Car-Boat Challenge It's just one example of what they do. Here's my other favorite: Caravan Road Challenge

So hopefully when you're not sick, or tired, or both, you'll go check it out!

Green, Blue, Brown

Ok, I'm cheating...
I'm not actually writing this post up myself, I'm copying it. Not even that, I'm giving you a link. But I think it's a worthy cause, so it's worth it. Please take the time & read it. Or even better, help out.

Green, Blue, Brown writes a humble request...

~-~~-~~~-~~~~-~~~~~-~~~~~~-~~~~~~-~~~~~-~~~~-~~~-~~-~

Day 2:

So now that I've had more time to follow my own links & keep looking, I've decided to add to this. My attempt to make it eye catching for you. Crossing my fingers that you will take the time to follow the links yourself...
Learn about:

Autism
Autism Service Dogs
Amelia's personal story
How you can directly help the life of a child in need


Listen to another child's story...

Alive... well?

Apparently I haven't been here for a while.

Life's been a blur.

School started back up the last week in August.

As did my brand new, oh so lovely, once a week, 7am meetings. Yippee.

I've been very tired lately. So has Keith.

We're the life of the party, aren't we!?!

Well, seeing as I have nothing much to say...

I'll leave you with this...

Two Days Old

...So to speak. (As far as it's existance in our life is concerned -- and since that's what matters, I'm going with it.)

Two days old & we took the "baby" to see the windmills.

They really are so amazing. I don't know why people complain about them. I realize I have no idea what their perspective is... but I just can't wrap my head around the idea of them not being a good thing.

Then we drove a little farther to the Flight 93 Memorial.

I know it's hard to see, but to the right of the flag on the post is a flag on the field. That flag marks the spot of the plane crash. (It's the faint rectangle in the middle of the photo below.)

It was a sad stop for us... a very emotional location for one and all.

A Day Later

Back to Keith's adventure... (as mentioned in 90th)

Last weekend after the birthday lunch we drove to see a VW bug that Keith found for sale. He had been communicating with the seller during for about a week before hand. Since we were so close (about an hour away) it was an opportunity that couldn't be passed up. Well, that day he was so pleased with it they came to an agreement & a deposit was made. Yesterday after work we drove to my cousins to spend the night so we could be a good bit closer for today's appointment... A day later we're back home with his new baby -- it was a big day!

Lilies

Some new blooms in the garden this summer. Compliments of last year's family reunion/auction.






Next year, new irises...

90th

This weekend was another busy weekend...

My mom & her hubby arrived here Friday evening. (While the door guy was working on the door, again. *Another story to tell* Incidentally, both drove in from Cleveland that day...) We had a night of fun, compliments of Wii Fit (& Wii Sports too). Nothings more amusing than getting the giggles during a balance game!

Saturday after a delicious breakfast out, I left with them to head East. (Keith had some working to do & was unavailable that day.) Once there I did a little visiting with my aunt & grandmother -- time for a little kibitzing & shared photos with them from "The Road Trip." After that I made my way to my dad's for the evening. That night I had one of thee best pizzas ever -- a white pizza with spinach, mushrooms & feta cheese. Mmm-Mmm-Mmm-MmmMmm! It was Divine! Later I was the one viewing the vacation pictures. Normally you think of photos of flowers, but I've got one to top that. A video. How many of you can say you've seen a video of a flower? (One that's cool mind you.) Well, here you go, an awesome flower video (real time too):


Sunday morning we walked to the main street in order to check out the farmer's market. Looked like they had some delicious fresh fruits & veggies, cut flowers, even some shoofly pies. Alas I had only a little cash -- so I got my grandmother a beautiful sunflower. I figured that if I combined that with some cut flowers from the yard they'd look great (much better than the wilted black eyed susans I brought from my house -- they didn't travel well, but later some had perked up, so they were added to the mix also). After Keith made his very, very early trip East, we were all around to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. I emphasize the all because there were 19 of us among 5 different tables/booths at the restaurant. I maintained my theme for food & had an omelet with spinach, mushrooms & feta (the first omelet I had like this in Ohio was still the best & the pizza was the second runner up). After lunch we hung out & listened to stories (my uncle was the primary storyteller for the day -- it's a talent!)

Then we were off on Keith's adventure... Which I'll tell you about later -- his story continues this weekend! After that... Home again home again jiggity jog. Too bad it was after 9:30pm. I don't like coming home that late. Particularly on a Sunday -- I like my weekends at home to do my routine things! (Plus the whole coming home to get ready for bed thing doesn't work out so well for me.)

Busy bees

A busy week of friends! The 26th we went out to eat with friends of ours to celebrate a birthday. With the occasion, they had a sitter for their boys, which allowed us to go out & take our time -- fully enjoying the company! It was a lovely evening out.

Then on the 1st we had friends over (a different couple) for Keith's famous grilled wings. (Too bad she gave up meat & couldn't enjoy any -- she was satisfied with her veggie burger, so don't feel bad. Plus she had killer homemade ice cream cake!) We had a funfilled night of conversation, good food & games. I love spreading the fun with "Apples to Apples." (If you haven't played it, you should!) We also tried out one of my new (birthday) game of "Left, Center, Right" (possibly the words are in a different order...) Then there was Saturday...

Friends of ours (a 3rd couple) made plans with us to go to the Inner Harbor for the day to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. We were talking about the exhibit around 4th of July & decided we had to see it. It took about a month 'til it all came together, but we finally set the date -- August 2nd. Keith was such a good sport about it too -- between Friday night's dinner & Saturday's trip, he really had to change his work schedule (I had a big reminder on the mirror "no working..." I appreciate the flexibility!!!). So we left bright & early Saturday morning, picked them up & headed on our way. Looking back it was a fun day, but in the moment it seemed somewhat disappointing... (I don't think being tired was helping our outlooks.)

We originally saw this exhibit in Cleveland so we were anticipating different displays. Some of which weren't there. Hense, some of the disappointment. Two in particular were ones we were really talking up. I don't know if they had a smaller space to fill, or what. Keith disagrees, but I question it. I think there was less open space in between the displays (it seemed a lot more crowded for viewing) & the exhibit had to spill into the hallway (covered with black curtains of course so non-payers couldn't see it).
Then we headed to the aquarium... It was packed!!!! Keith & I loved this place, but today, we just couldn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked. There were just so many people. (But I guess that's what happens when you're there on a weekend & in the summer -- versus our last trip in March.)

Anything is better with a pirate though, right? Here's our token pirate for the day.

Mwahahahahaaa... Joss strikes again!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a three part, web only, musical mini-series.

Joss Whedon created & wrote it during the writers' strike 2008 with his brothers Zack (a television writer) & Jed (a composer), & Jed's fiancée, actress Maurissa Tancharoen. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike.

In Joss's own words, "It's the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to."

Each of the episodes has a duration of just under fifteen minutes. The offbeat project is available free via the Internet. That is until late November, when, reportedly, the free online viewing will disappear. Uh, that's Horrible.



(If it is running slow, try pausing it for a bit. It may be the video, it may be my computer... it helped.)

In case you need to break down the 3 parts into 3 viewings, here are links to each episode:
Act 1, Act 2, Act 3


Some people you may or may not recognize...

The Cast
Neil Patrick Harris as Billy / Dr. Horrible
Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer
Felicia Day as Penny
Simon Helberg as Moist

Friends of Joss Whedon also take up many smaller cameo roles in the series. Marti Noxon, a co-executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrays a newsreader alongside Buffy writer David Fury (both also cameoed in Buffy musical episode "Once More, with Feeling"). Buffy writers Doug Petrie and Drew Goddard cameo as supervillains Professor Normal and Fake Thomas Jefferson. Jed Whedon cameos both as a member of Bad Horse's chorus, and as the supervillain Dead Bowie, while Maurissa Tancharoen plays a groupie of Captain Hammer's (and later Dr. Horrible's). Many members of the Dr. Horrible crew also play small acting roles in the musical.

Puzzle

Sometime last week I pulled out a puzzle. It took us, well, probably a week to put together. That includes replacing pieces we'd already attached, but found on the floor the next morning! (Cats do not assemble puzzles.) We finally finished it Wednesday night. The last piece was placed, after I retrieved it from the vacuum cleaner bag. =)

Anybody recognize the image???

July

Oops. Looks like I'm long overdue here. June really was the big fun event with the road trip & my birthday... I can't believe July has come & is nearly gone already. Yikes.

I'm trying to think what has been going on lately... But I'm just so tired. I should be moving & trying to get myself ready for work. Fortunately I start a bit later in the summer so I'm not running late right now. Just running on empty is all.

I did clean off my desk the other day -- came across the cd of photos from my cousin's trip to Thailand for his daughter's birthday & his wedding. So I'll have to post pictures from that. (Don't believe I'll have enough time this morning.) Also came across a post card for my friend's photo business -- check it out! (A link is also on the sidebar under "Things I like.")

I'm trying to recall what July held for us... There's the 4th of July & all the celebrations that go with it. I didn't take any photos this year though, so I don't really have things to share with that. It was a good time - I enjoyed the moment. Was hoping my NC friend would have been in PA then to join us, but alas she wasn't. Then there was one of Keith's family reunions. And a wedding. ... Now I know where July went -- our weekends have been pretty full.

It's also been so hot here. I'm afraid I've been letting the weeds take over. Keith's none too thrilled, but there's so much else that looks good outside, that nobody else notices!

Our other big event was putting in a sliding glass door in the kitchen. It gives us "more window" (as our friend says) & really adds to the enjoyment of the patio. I didn't post about it earlier because I wanted it to be a surprise for when my mom was here in June. (It was.) Then I didn't because it didn't get finished -- long story short, it wasn't the door we ordered (too many bars on it -- not like prison bars or anything!). A guy was sent all the way from Cleveland to repair it. (After he had to wait for a second shipment because the first was missing pieces.) But now it is still not right -- pieces aren't recessed enough from when it was taken apart/put back together to be "fixed" & the door rubs against this when it opens/closes. ) So it is still not finished. Yipee.

Ok, now I do need to get moving! I'll try to get back in the relatively near future with photos of the above mentioned. :)

Road Trip

I finally finished posting photos from our road trip. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mom & I left here on the 13th of June. We made our way to Eastern PA to visit her mom & family on my dad's side. Our lunch plans for Saturday didn't work out as expected, so be it. We still enjoyed our time with my grandmother. :) Then we headed to Maryland to stay with my aunt... The journey after that picks up in the next few posts.

*** As my vacation blog goes, just read downward to go in the order for the trip (the 15th to the 20th).
[Not in "blog-like" fashion of the top being the most recent.]

Happy viewing!

June 15th

Sunday morning my aunt took us to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD. There to our delight we discovered a butterfly exhibit!

First they showed us the babies & the plants they enjoy... then to the adults...

I took over 300 pictures of butterflies alone! I don't know how long we were there... since I was preoccupied, time meant nothing.

We did finally leave though when it became too hot to take much more.

We had enough time to visit one (cooler) area... it even had it's misters on to provide extra relief (plant & human).

There I encountered this flower...

I see a face, how about you?

Before we left there was silliness to be had...

Later when we dropped off my cousin at school we had a lovely meeting with Kermit & Jim!