Squirl's Nest

DSCN7244

2011-07-02T20:49:00.001-04:00

DSCN7244, a photo by Squirl on Flickr.

New post will happen

2011-06-03T12:47:00.001-04:00

The last time I tried to update Blogger wouldn't let me in. Now that it will I need to upload some pictures to post. :-)

Zero degrees Fahrenheit and pretty pictures.

2011-01-23T12:39:00.004-05:00

It got down to zero degrees Fahrenheit here last night. And that was the warmest temperature in the area. We decided to drive to breakfast as neither of us was ready for a walk in that kind of cold.

After breakfast we decided to drive to the beach to see how far the ice went out. It was so gorgeous that we drove back home to get my camera. Here are some of the pictures.

We were really bundled up but still didn't stay out long.

You can see the pier way out there. The only reason I might consider getting a new camera is that I'd like more than a 3x optical zoom.

You can't tell from the pictures, but every place there was open water it was steaming.

Just plain brrrrrrr

The trees down by the water were covered in frost.

It's supposed to get back closer to freezing tomorrow and I'm ready for it to be warmer. But this was fun for just one day. :-)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-08T14:09:00.003-05:00

Hi, just thought I'd get a post in before too much time had past in 2011. I hope everyone had a good holiday and isn't getting too much snow now. :-)

Fall lunch

2010-10-24T14:45:00.002-04:00

I just learned how to make butternut squash soup. It sounded good today, so Ichabod made some corn muffins to go with it. I also picked some of the last flowers from my garden for the season.

Crickets are chirping

2010-09-16T08:26:00.002-04:00

Hi, I haven't forgotten about my blog. I've had a fun vacation, worked a lot, and just lived life since my last post. My heartfelt gratitude to anyone who is reading this now and cared to check on me. :-)

January 2010

2010-01-28T18:56:00.003-05:00

Hi, I thought I would post something before the first month of the year had past. I've also turned verification back on for comments. I didn't really want to but I've been getting spammed like crazy.

The winter weather can stop any time now, but otherwise things are going fine here. How are you all doing?

Christmas post, with pictures and everything!

2009-12-06T19:21:00.002-05:00

Hi, I know I've not been here much. I've been fine, just haven't been in the mood to post. But, for the first time since my mother died, in 2006, I felt like decorating for Christmas. I don't do a lot, but I do love the lights.

Last week there was a silent auction at work for charity. One of things on which I bid and won was a little silver tree. Tonight I bought some blue bulbs for it.

I decided to put the lights up in the area that was originally a front porch. It's kinda dark there so they show up nicely.

I hope the season is treating you all well. And I hope to get to all of your sites along the way.

Lame Post

2009-10-20T15:11:00.002-04:00

I know. I can hear the crickets chirping here, too. Just haven't been in the blog world a lot lately. Finally got everything re-settled into the living. And Ichabod gave up the apartment a couple of weeks ago and is back home full-time again.

I'll try to get around to see everyone.
:-)

Living room is finally done

2009-07-30T21:55:00.001-04:00

I finally finished painting the trim and the carpet was installed today. We decided not to finish the oak floor, way too much to clean up. Here are the promised pictures.

I love the perspective on this one. Looks like Ichabod was worn out from moving furniture. :-)

My sister thinks it looks like I done kilt him here. I like the color of the carpet. It's called Green Whisper. Didn't want it to shout green. If we'd picked the tan I think the room would have looked too yellow. This one worked well.

You can all the stuff we had to move so the carpet could be installed.

Getting things pulled back together, finally.

His chair.

My chair.

There you have it. I'm just glad it's finally done.

Yin and Yang

2009-07-29T00:16:00.002-04:00

Hi, I know I've been neglecting my blog a lot. We've been busy painting and getting ready to put carpet in. Yeah, we gave up on finishing the oak floor. But the new carpet should be nice. I'll post pictures when that's done.

I also have been trying to get some decent photos of my garden. It's been so cool here the summer that it's not like it usually is. I'll see what I can shoot and then post that.

In the meantime, here's a picture of some eggs I was making one morning. Looks kinda like the Yin/Yang symbol. :-)

When life hands you lemons...

2009-07-02T16:37:00.005-04:00

I just got a reminder from Sometimes Saintly Nick that I hadn't done a post since May. Dang, it's July already. Well, I got this from my seestor, Bucky, and felt it needed to be shared.

I can't find a way to embed it, but please follow the link. You won't be disappointed.

Cute squirrel video

First step

2009-05-25T20:42:00.002-04:00

Well, I got the walls painted. I like yellow, but was tired of it in the living room. I picked Navajo White. The yellow paint had been a higher gloss than normal for a living room so it was a pain to cover it; it seemed like the new paint just slid around on top of it. But, I've got it as good as I plan to. Next step is to paint the woodwork, but I'm just not ready for that yet.

A couple of pictures.

In which Annie helps with the living room renovation

2009-05-10T13:34:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we ripped up the carpet from the living room and the area that used to be a front porch. This is what it looked like before we moved in.

The day we moved it rained. That off-white carpet started getting filthy that day and we never seemed to be able to get clean again. The previous owners had also had a cat. Ichabod's extremely allergic to cats. No matter how many times we cleaned the carpet it never seemed to completely come out.

That's why the ripping and tearing of carpet and pad last weekend. I kept busy, off and on, over the past week pulling up the staples that were still in the floor from the pad. I'm not used to physical work at all, but it felt rewarding to have it done.

We were very happy to see oak floor in the living room part.

Unfortunately, whoever planned to carpet figured there was no use in having a drop cloth while painting the ceiling, so there's paint all over. And we're not sure what the front porch area had before they made it part of the living room. But now it's particle board, including a rectangular patch in the living room where the door probably was.

I'm thinking about just getting that rectangle patched with more oak, then having the front porch area carpeted. Seems easiest and cheapest. Should look fine, too. So, since the flooring is all going to be changed I figured it was time to paint the living room. This is the only room on the main floor that we haven't painted. I don't mind yellow, but I'm thinking of something more like a creamy tan. It looks like I should repaint the baseboards, too, because they never finished them down to the floor. I know I'm going to like the outcome, but man, I'm just not much of a do-it-yourselfer. I'm more of a sit around and read, blog, tweet, and play at the garden type of person. But, it will be worth it.

Oh yeah, and while we're at it, we're going to strip the floor of the master bedroom and stain it the same color as the other bedroom. What have I gotten myself into???

But, Annie came this weekend to do some consulting on the work for us. Can you see the doubt in her eyes that we'll be able to do all this?

She also supervised Ichabod making Seven Layer Salad for the Mother's Day get-together at his folks'.

Here's Annie trying to figure out what to do with a large green olive that Ichabod gave her.

We'll be leaving in about a half hour to take Annie home and have burgers on the grill. Hope all y'all have a great Mother's Day!

Earth Day

2009-04-20T17:41:00.006-04:00

Wednesday is Earth Day. Even though every day is really Earth day I guess it takes kick in the pants every year to remind some folks. :-)

This year I'd like honor it by linking to a post by Ian Lawton. He's the minister at Christ Community Church that's in the city next to mine. His site is Spiritual But Not Religious, SBNR. I really love to read it. This week's is titled Eating, Living, and Sleeping Green. In it you'll find his sense of humor and his sense of caring. Enjoy!

Maybe Spring is here

2009-04-16T07:45:00.002-04:00

I leave for work around 5:40 in the morning. With Michigan being on Eastern time I can count on driving to work in the dark most of the year. But today was the first time this season that I've seen that faint glow of light at the horizon while driving in. It made me smile.

Thank you

2009-04-04T17:58:00.002-04:00

My thanks to everyone for stopping by with kind words. I'm feeling better already. But I need to move the post down one as that kitty makes me sad just to look at it. :-)

Here's a picture from Five Mile Hill in the city where I live. It's not five miles high, but you're supposed to be able to see for five miles on a clear day.

I has a sad

2009-04-03T07:56:00.002-04:00

I usually try to keep this site upbeat, but sometimes I just can't. Ichabod and I used to work for the same company. So when we moved from downtown GR to the lakeshore it was no big deal.

Well, Ichabod's talents weren't being utilized well at this company and he had the chance to move to another one. He has more creative freedom and is doing very well there. The only problem is that his drive time is doubled now. And that's only if the traffic and weather are good.

He's been talking about getting a place in that city for during the week so he can work more and won't be so darned tired from the drive. I know that the drive's been wearing on him, it hurts his back, it's putting lots of miles on his car, and it's costing extra for gas. Getting another place sounded like a good idea. Until last night when he told me found one and will be going there starting Monday.

I was surprised by my reaction. I cried before going to sleep. I cried in the shower. I'm crying as I write this. Not what I expected. I know that I will get used to it. We'll both get caught up on our reading. It's also a good thing that we're both on the same cell phone plan because there's no way we can just instant message. We'll be talking every day.

But, in the meantime, I has a sad.

And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden (and celebrating my fourth blogoversary)

2009-03-22T19:29:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again when the Frederick Meijer Garden has its "Butterflies are Blooming" program. The butterflies aren't easy to photograph so I usually see it as a chance to take pictures of flowers. This year was a nice surprise for me in that I got the best butterfly pictures I ever have. Here is the entire set.

This was over by the coat room.

So was this.

We have one that's similar to this. It's really dangerous. Those spikes can puncture skin very easily.

This is one of the pitcher plants. It thought it was cool.

This is just the beginning of the many orchids.

They also have some springtime plants.

I liked this fountain.

This devil's tongue plant was really interesting.

They're huge.

If you look at this on Flickr in the large size you can see the detail.

More orchids.

This one has a face.

The birds are constantly on the move, so the picture's slightly blurred.

If you look at this one in the large size you can see the brightly colored birds at the feeding dish. One of these days I'm going to get a camera that does better with zoom.

Another butterfly that has good detail.

This one worked fairly well, too.

Golden shrimp plant to the left in this one.

This is the very best butterfly picture I've ever taken. I'm proud of this one.

I just realized, as I looked at the date on this post, that this is my fourth blogoversary. How appropriate that I'd be posting pictures of flowers.

Que Sera Sera

2009-03-17T18:09:00.002-04:00

I found this quiz over at Courtney's. She's a Bette Davis. I thought it would be fun to take it, and wasn't thrilled when I saw Doris Day's picture staring at me over my results.

But, I have to say that it's pretty darned close. I have been working a lot on ridding myself of the "hard to be Doris" traits. Anyway, let me know if you try it.

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

* Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.

* Share fun times with me.

* Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.

* Let me know that I am important and special to you.

* Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

* Reassure me that I am interesting to you.

* Reassure me often that you love me.

* Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

* being able to relate easily to people and to make friends

* knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better

* being generous, caring, and warm

* being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings

* being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

* not being able to say no

* having low self-esteem

* feeling drained from overdoing for others

* not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish

* criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should

* being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them

* working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

* are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism

* try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding

* are outwardly compliant

* are popular or try to be popular with other children

* act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention

* are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

* are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)

* are often playful with their children

* wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"

* can become fiercely protective

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

Pizza Night

2009-03-13T20:44:00.002-04:00

Ichabod has gotten really good at making pizza. He makes the dough from scratch. Tonight he thought he'd try something different. He decided to precook the dough in the waffle iron.

The paperclip has nothing to do with making pizza. Not sure why it's in the picture.

We wondered if it would stick, but with the help of a little olive oil spray it came right out.

Then he put the toppings on and baked them for about 20 minutes. Here's the end result.

They were good and now I'm full. BTW, the music for the pizza making was the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. Everybody have a great weekend.

Last installment of vacation postings

2009-02-26T19:49:00.003-05:00

Well, it's taken me long enough, but this is the last post about my vacation. We went to the Air and
Space Museum. It was pretty cool. Here's the whole set.

The first thing we saw was the Moon Rock.

I think the sign is more impressive-looking than the rock. If you can't see then check it on Flickr, I've put a note on it.

Then there were lots of cool things, from hot air balloons to space stuff.

The previous shot was a bad angle. This one lets you see the color better.

This is from the Wright Brothers exhibit. This is not a really a Wright. It's just a dummy.

Then there was the National Gallery of Art. Here's what I posted of that set. I thought I put more out here, but, I think we were museumed out and I don't think I got a good variety. But here are a few.

The room was really dark, so this photo is a bit grainy. It's also a bit off-center. But I really liked the Mercury statue, so I posted it anyway.

I seemed to like Rodin.

Then, for our next to last night, we had the wonderful privilege of dining with Here Today Gone Tomorrow. We met in Alexandria and she treated us to a great Puerto Rican vegetarian meal and MOJITOS! Is was a really fun evening.

On our last night I finally met my sister, Susie Fairchild. She and Jif treated us to crabs. Yes, that's right crabs. As the batteries died in my camera early on that night this is the only photographic evidence I have of the evening.

Thank you to all of you who've hung in with me while I finally got my act together and got all of this posted.

A little procrastination

2009-01-25T09:44:00.002-05:00

Here I am, procrastinating again in putting up the rest of my vacation pictures. :-D

I found these over at Erin's blog.

You Are 2: The Helper

You always put on a happy face and try to help those around you.

You're incredibly empathetic and care about everyone you know.

Able to see the good in others, you're thoughtful, warm, and sincere.

You connect with people who are charming and charismatic.

At Your Best: You are deeply giving, altruistic, and humble. You devote your life to others while caring for yourself too.

At Your Worst: You are manipulative and enjoy making other people guilty.

Your Fixation: Rejection

Your Primary Fear: Being unworthy of love

Your Primary Desire: To be loved unconditionally

Other Number 2's: Mother Teresa, John Travolta, Princess Diana, Dr. Phil, and Mr. Rogers.

What Number Are You?

You Are Scrabble

You are incredibly clever and witty. You can talk your way out of (and into) situations easily.

You are an excellent decision maker. You are good at weighing the options in front of you.

You're the type of person who can make something out of nothing. You are very resourceful.

You know a lot of things. Most importantly, you know when people are wrong - even when they won't admit it.

What Board Game Are You?

The Capitol and the Sculpture Garden

2009-01-16T20:30:00.004-05:00

We wanted to tour the Capitol so we headed out fairly early in the morning. There was already quite a line when we got to the ticket booth. Our tour was about an hour later so we killed a little time walking around. Here's the set.

I still have a thing for metal grates in the ground.

I like the rainbow effect in this one.

Then we ducked back into the Botanical Garden.

Then we went on our tour. Here is our guide.

That was about for the Capitol for us. Then we walked over to the Sculpture Garden. We saw this on the way. So many pretty water features in DC.

We thought this building was cool.

There were a lot of interesting things in the Sculpture Garden.

This one cracked me up. There will be a lot of younger folks who won't know what this is.

These cubes were all spinning.

This is by Alexander Caulder. We have one of his sculptures in downtown Grand Rapids.

I think this is some kind of aluminum, like the one with the spinning cubes. I'm glad the sun was shining when we saw them.

Not sure if this is supposed to be a political statement. :-)

High spirits!

2009-01-08T20:00:00.004-05:00

Ichabod and I both enjoyed going over to Old Town Alexandria, VA. The first time we went we checked out the sites by the river.

If you click on this and choose All Sizes you can read about Alexandria.

While we were there we noticed an ad for Historic Ghost Tours. It sounded like fun so we waited for dark. Then we met up with our tour guide, Rose. She does other tours besides this one and really knows the local history.

This inn had a story about a mysterious young couple that lodged there. The woman was very ill and died within a few days. Her husband disappeared without paying the bill. I'm sure there were more details but this is what happens when I wait over three months to finish posting about my vacation. :-)

This is a tavern that George Washington liked.

This is the Carlyle house. You can read some of its history here. There were plenty of deaths and juicy tidbits here for it to be a main feature of the ghost tour. In this photo, and some of the others, you'll see orbs. Are they dust specks, reflections of light, or some kind of spirit energy? I don't know and I don't care; they're fun to find in pictures.

The orbs are easier to see if you click and choose all sizes.

And what would a ghost tour be without a cemetery?

Old John Carlyle himself is buried here.

I would recommend this tour. Whether or not you believe in ghosts there's plenty of history and old gossipy stories to make it worth your while.

1930s Marital Scale

2009-01-05T19:52:00.006-05:00

Well, here I am procrastinating finishing my vacation pictures and stories. I got this one from Erin. Try it, it's well worth the laugh.

As a 1930s wife, I am
Poor

Take the test!

I did a little better on the husband quiz

As a 1930s husband, I am
Average

Take the test!

Coffee and LOLCats

2008-12-29T21:02:00.002-05:00

Lord help us, it's true. I like coffee, but if I drink too much I just can't shut up. And I speak twice as fast as usual.

more animals

I don't remember asking for a white Christmas

2008-12-25T10:28:00.003-05:00

But, a white Christmas is what we got anyway. These pictures were taken last Friday and it's snowed more since.

Just picture the spring bulbs waiting under all of this.

The snow is definitely higher than this now.

There were some pretty big drifts. This is how high the snow drifted up against the front door.

Here's something you see very little of in a Michigan winter - the sun.

You might have to click on this and choose All Sizes to see it. The snow was all sparkly and I'm using this as the background on my computer desktop.

And this year Bucky is getting her Christmas wish. Well, at least the one for rum cake. It's the first time since my mom died that I made one. And I'm taking half of it over to her.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Fourth Annual Blog Cookie Exchange Ripoff

2008-12-17T13:03:00.004-05:00

Update at bottom. With earrings!

It's a ripoff because I didn't find the time to put together anything new this year. But, of course, I have to participate. If our lovely hostess can pull it together, then so can I.

My main Christmas recipe, that was my mother's favorite is rum cake.
Rum Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 small instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rum

Combine and beat 10 minutes on medium speed. Grease and flour tube pan. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Cool slightly, remove from the pan.

Sauce

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Bring to boil. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add 2 ounces of rum. Poke holes in top of cake with fork. Spoon sauce over cake while warm.

Here's the cake.

The last two years our neighbors had this display. They're not doing it this year.

This one looks like a study in Pointalism.

And, of course, a tree.

I bought some new holiday earrings from Silpada. Here they are.

Flowers!

2008-12-10T19:50:00.002-05:00

You know I can't pass up a botanical garden, especially if it's Smithsonian. Ichabod loves plants as much as I do so of course we visited. Here's the entire set of pictures. I'm going to have trouble deciding which ones to post here. I want to show them all, of course.

They had a traveling exhibition of globes. The theme was ecology.

This one had to do with proper roofing materials.

This one was just made of all kinds of stuff. If you click on it you can check out the larger version and the things are easier to see.

I liked this one, too.

And now I'll try to load too many flower pictures here.

This one's kinda hard to make out. It's easier to see in the large size.

This was out of focus, but I like the flower too much to delete it.

They had these metal ones, too. They were cool, but weird.

And, of course, an orchid.

Museums

2008-12-02T20:10:00.003-05:00

The Smithsonian museums are really cool. I didn't realize there were so many and that admission was free. The whole set for this post is here.

This was the original building

The first one we went to was the Natural History Museum

Petrified wood

Critters ready to pounce

I couldn't get a picture of the Hope diamond, but I thought this was more impressive. It must have been about four feet tall

This is copper from Michigan. It seems like it was at least five feet wide.

My sister thinks this one should eat a sandwich

This was the Native American museum. They had no square walls, no corners anywhere.

We also went to the Air and Space museum and the Botanical Gardens but I've been too lame to get my pictures out on Flickr.

Been there, seen that

2008-11-11T06:47:00.000-05:00

The next day of our DC trip we took a tour bus to various sites and memorials. I took so many pictures that it's going to be hard to choose what to put up here. If you'd like to see the set it's here.

We saw the Capitol.

We also stopped briefly way out in front of the White House.

There was the WWII memorial.

There was the Jefferson Memorial.

I really liked the FDR Memorial. This was the second statue they put up of him. The first one didn't have the wheelchair showing.

They also had four waterfalls, each representing one of his terms in office. The first one had no obstacles, the second a bit more, the last one had a lot because things got rougher to handle. Wars are not easy for anyone, least of all the president.

This was for the Korean War.

Wish I could've gotten a straighter shot of the reflecting pool.

Then there was the Lincoln Memorial.

Some girls, I don't know what country they came from, asked to take a picture of them. Then they offered to take a picture of us.

Vietnam War

And a lovely tribute to the nurses.

And, of course, we must not forget Arlington Cemetery.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

And the tribute to Iwo Jima.

Thank you to all of our veterans.

Moving on

2008-10-26T13:20:00.004-04:00

I know it's been a long time since I updated. I've been overwhelmed by the number of pictures that I took. It's hard to know what to leave in and what to leave out. So I guess I'll just start throwing some stuff out here.

The ride from Boston to DC wasn't too bad. The hotel wasn't too hard to find with the instructions that we had. We did have to fix a problem with our reservation. When I made the reservation it said nonsmoking/King. Our confirmation came back as a smoking room. I can't stand those. The bedding is especially nasty. But they did manage to get us switched. We ended up next to the elevator, but at least I didn't have to smell stale smoke in the room.

That evening we walked over to see where the subway, The Metro, was. It was a good two blocks, but an easy walk. This was the best way to get into town. And it was fairly inexpensive if we rode on the off-hours. We paid about $2 each, one way.

The next day we went into town and walked around the Mall. Definitely not a shopping mall :-) Here are some of the photos.

The Smithsonian Castle

The Smithsonian Natural Museum

To prove that I was really there :-)

And here's the person who took the previous photo

Our country's most obvious phallic symbol

The one place we did visit there that day was the National Archives. No pictures of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or anything else in there as cameras weren't allowed. So here's the outside of the building.

That evening we went to visit Ichabod's aunt and uncle who live kind of by Georgetown. His uncle is a professor at Georgetown University.

Here's the set of that day's photos.

The first part of the journey

2008-10-05T19:25:00.003-04:00

It seems like forever ago, but it was Saturday, September 13, when we headed out on the road to Boston. We went straight across Michigan through Canada and then on to Beantown. Took us about 14 hours. The first two thirds of the trip we had some pretty heavy rain courtesy of hurricane Ike.

The reason for the Boston part of the trip was to visit with my aunt and uncle who live just outside of the town. My aunt had a nasty infection on her shin with a huge swelling in her ankle so we mostly sat around. They have seven TIVOs and that means a lot of recorded movies and tv shows. That's mostly what we did while we were there.

The last full day, though, we went to their property that was about a half hour's drive away. They have some different things planted and quite a bit that's still wild.

Here's a sample.

Check this one out on Flickr in the Large size

Then, on the way back we stopped at a cool restaurant called Salem Cross. They had a big bed of dahlias in the front that they used on all of the tables. The place had a basement and two floors. There was also a barn/attic area. I was allowed to take pictures wherever I wanted.

The full set of pictures from this part of the trip are here.

They sent us on our with a big bagful of cherry and grape tomatoes that Ichabod helped pick from their property. As soon as I get the rest of the pictures ready I'll post about the rest of the trip.

I'm back

2008-09-30T19:51:00.002-04:00

I'm back, but I've just been too busy (read lame) to finish my pictures and get a post up. We had a lot of fun and I promise I'll share the events and pictures with you.

See ya!

2008-09-12T21:57:00.001-04:00

We're heading out in the morning. Bags are packed and I can't wait. If I find internet along the way then I'll try to catch up with everyone. :-)

Vacation, at last!

2008-09-06T11:30:00.002-04:00

We put off going on vacation until Septemeber this year. Ichabod started at a new company the first of September last year so he, just now, gets two weeks' vacation. We're going to drive straight across Michigan, through Canada, to get to the Boston area where my aunt and uncle live. We haven't decided exactly yet, but we'll probably spend about three days there.

After Boston we're going to head down to Washington DC. Neither of us has ever been there. I'm really excited. At first we thought about Sedona/Phoenix again. I love that idea, too, but DC will be a new experience for us.

We'll be leaving next Saturday and I'm already getting things ready to go. Ichabod will throw some things in a suitcase Friday night and call it good. We balance each other that way. :-)

Not sure how much intranet we'll have while we're gone, but I'll check blogs when I can.

The yearbooking mania continues

2008-08-30T21:43:00.003-04:00

My sisters Susie, Bucky, and Eclectic have all posted their "yearbook" pictures. I have been requested to also post mine. Sorry, but I couldn't bring myself to post the one with the cat's-eye glasses.

Here's 1966

And the Mary Tyler Moore flip from 1968

The almost 1966 'do done in 1972

Then I jumped to 1990. Believe me, my hair was never this big.

And I'll finish with 1996

Anybody else up for yearbook?

They don't have to be rose colored

2008-08-30T08:32:00.000-04:00

I got this one from Tweety

You See the World Through Blue Colored Glasses

You live your life with tranquility. You have faith that things will work themselves out with time.

You judge all your interactions through the lens of hope. You try to get all the facts before forming your opinion.

You face challenges with wisdom. You know that all bad things pass, and you have the confidence to see problems through.

You see love as the utmost expression of trust. Your relationships tend to be peaceful and stable.

At your worst, you can be cool, melancholy, and detached. You sometimes have to step back from emotionally charged situations.

You are at your happiest when you are able to reflect and relax.

What Color Glasses Do You See the World Through?

A short break from flower pictures

2008-08-24T21:49:00.001-04:00

Got this one from Sometimes Saintly Nick's site.

I'm a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life. You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood. Wherever you go, you like to travel first class. Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

More flower pictures?

2008-08-14T09:33:00.003-04:00

Doesn't Squirl ever run out of flower pictures? Doesn't she ever get tired of posting flower pictures? When did she start talking in third person???

Anyway, I've been busy and not posting very often. But, I'll say that gardening is one of my excuses. And, also, an excuse to put up a few more pictures.

I love this orange begonia. The color is really hard to capture, but I had to try anyway.

This is the first time I've had straw flowers. I should really cut some and bring them in before they go to seed. I'd like to see how long they really stay after cutting. Here we go with the orange again. :-)

And here's one of my new rose bushes. Ichabod really likes it as he's more used to single color roses.

Lilies and more

2008-08-03T11:58:00.005-04:00

My stargazer lilies are at their peak. I tried getting some pictures yesterday morning but the sun was too bright. As the sun got lower, the garage was shading them. It seems kind of fitting that the pictures turned out dark since they're called stargazers.

Here are some of the pictures I took. The rest are added to my 2008 Garden set.

The lilies

The cleomes

And one of the begonia

My Garden

2008-07-20T14:44:00.003-04:00

I just realized I hadn't taken any pictures of my yard since early June when the peonies where blooming. Since the gardens have definitely changed since that time I figured I'd better get out there with my camera.

Here's a slideshow of the entire shoot.

As always, if you want to see better detail just click on the picture and choose All Sizes.

This is a long shot of the backyard.

And some shots going around the backyard, starting with the fence garden.

This is the back garden of the back yard.

This is the garage side garden.

And here are the front gardens.

There's still some more planting to do. And some of the flowers, especially the fuschia and the impatiens will do more filling out. But I feel better now that I've documented the gardens to this point.

Some of the best shows are free

2008-07-11T08:11:00.000-04:00

This morning was just gorgeous. I get on the road before the sun is up. That's why I see sunrises at this time of the year. The one this morning had reds, pinks, and golds. To my right, west, I could also see lightning from the storm that was heading in over the lake.

I kept watching the sunrise as I was driving. Before I got to the spot where I could get a picture it started fading. Oh well, I got to see it even though I didn't get to shoot and share it.

Then, a bit further down the road, I looked back to the west and saw a rainbow that went to the ground on both sides. I should have stopped then to take a picture. It was out by farms and I could have gotten a really good shot, but I decided to wait until I got to work. There was even a hint of a double rainbow while I was driving. By the time I got to work the rainbow was starting to fade, too. I guess things of that great beauty are ephemeral. We're lucky when we get that fleeting glance.

Fading or not, though, I took the picture anyway. Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Post-Storm

2008-07-03T08:56:00.004-04:00

Short work-day today as we have a team get-together at 11:30. One of the guys has a house with a pool and hot tub and he has graciously opened his home to us for the party. Tomorrow is a holiday that my company celebrates by shutting down for the day - Yay day off.

Yesterday we had a major storm system go through. Winds, in my city, were clocked at 87mph. I only lost power a couple of times, one was before I got home. The other was less than one hour. It didn't go out at Bucky's during the time that General Hospital was being taped. However, the local tv station decided that we needed the full hour to go over the weather, so no GH. Good thing there's SoapNet where GH is rerun at 10:00.

The upside to the big storms yesterday was a gorgeous sunrise this morning. Kinda cracked me up when I downloaded the pictures. You know how people's eyes turn red from the flash? Well, the sun was that pretty red/hot-pink color and it came out white. Whatever... I'm posting it anyway.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Short post with picture

2008-06-26T18:56:00.004-04:00

I see that the last time I posted was Friday the 13th. Can't really call it a jinx that I haven't posted since then. There's just been nice weather, yard work, and not as much time in front of the computer.

Nothing major to report, except of course, that my sister, Bucky, got a job! We have to readjust our General Hospital watching, but hey, not important. I'm so happy for her that she's working in a field that appeals to her.

So, since I have nothing exciting to talk about, I'll leave you this evening with a sunset picture.

Peonies '08

2008-06-13T13:39:00.004-04:00

Well, surprise, surprise, I have more pictures of flowers from my garden. I think there are more blossoms this year than there were last year. But I was lucky enough last Saturday morning to get pictures with good rain droplets on them.

Here's a crop. This one is on my desktop right now. If you click on these and choose All Sizes, they really are much cooler in the large size.

Tiptoe through the...

2008-06-08T08:51:00.004-04:00

All of the tulips in my yard are done now. I've been procrastinating posting the pictures because I thought I hadn't uploaded them to Flickr yet. Pretty lame excuse, I know. Even more lame because, duh, I did have them uploaded. So here are some of them that I'd like to share.

This was at the beginning of the tulips in my yard.

The sun was a bit bright here.

I love the colors in this one.

These were hard to photograph because they were almost a black color.

You're getting three pictures of the inside of this color tulip. I couldn't believe how delicate it was.

Also because I caught this little guy at work. He looks cool in the large size.

Too much paparazzi for him. He's leaving.

A nice day for a walk

2008-05-25T17:04:00.002-04:00

Ichabod and I decided to go for a walk today. Usually when I post pictures of the river it's from an area where I need to drive in order to get there. This spot is easy walking distance.

We started off walking down the railroad tracks. Then we had to go down a sharp slope with lots of loose rocks. We both made it down without hurting ourselves. This is when I started taking pictures. Here's the entire set. I promise I won't post that many pictures here.

There's a willow that looks like it tipped over and one of the branches turned into the main trunk.

After I took that one Ichabod volunteered to stand on it too show the actual size. He's really good about letting me take his picture.
This one looks really cool in the Large version if you want to click on it and choose All Sizes.

Honeysuckle with the train bridge behind it.

Wintercress

I like this one of the boat in the large size.

There were a lot of people out walking dogs today, too.

This little guy was pretty patient.

He was waiting for his friend to stand still long enough so I could get her picture.

I really like the trunk on this willow.

More cool, twisted wood. This one also looks better in the large size.

Quite a few folks out on bikes today.

The highlight of the trip for me, though, was getting shots of a Scarlet Tanager. I'm not sure I've ever even seen one before.

Most of them were blurred, but a couple were sharp enough to get these crops.

And, of course, it wouldn't be the river without boats and water.

Met a new goal that I didn't know I'd set

2008-05-21T20:42:00.003-04:00

I did something today that I've never done before. My department had a 5K run/walk and I participated. I didn't run, but still, walking three miles quickly is not something I've tried before.

This time last year I was still trying to heal from that stupid fall in March. Since I'm not athletic in the least, I have to say that I'm pretty proud of my 48 minute finish for 3.1 miles. I didn't win any prizes, but I did prove to myself that I could do it.

We'll see how I feel tomorrow. But tonight, after a couple of shots of Glenfiddich, I'm feeling pretty good.

Some kind of apple

2008-05-14T19:35:00.004-04:00

I don't know what kind of apple tree this is but I love to see the flowers every spring. I'm glad I took the pictures yesterday because today it rained really hard and the flowers are mostly on the ground. Yesterday's weather was so perfect that I didn't do anything to fix the color on these shots. They really look best in large size, so if you click on the picture and choose All Sizes you can see better detail.

This one is my computer background. It's perfect because the blue sky on the left gives plenty of room for my desktop icons.

Contemplative Garden

2008-05-06T20:56:00.002-04:00

When I took these pictures in my friend's garden I thought of Here Today Gone Tomorrow. Instead of mixing these in with the flower pictures I thought I'd post them alone.

Flower pictures coming up in the next post...

I brought the donuts

2008-04-30T07:05:00.003-04:00

It's my birthday so I decided to bring donuts in to my co-workers. Wish I could share with all of you guys.

Car repairs...

2008-04-24T11:54:00.005-04:00

Update 4/25 6:00 pm
I got my car back about 20 minutes ago. Without having to replace any parts (thank goodness) the bill still came to $650. Parts and tax were only $100 of that. So I guess my economic stimulus package is stimulating the garage I went to. Oh well, I need my car. I'll feel better when I post the flower pictures that I took today. :-)

I took my car in to the shop Tuesday morning. I was having trouble getting power when trying to get up to highway speed in a hurry. I know, I know, I have a diesel Jetta with an automatic transmission. But, it was getting to be worse than usual.

Well, since VW automatic transmissions aren't the best, the red Golf had a lot of trouble, I decided to take it to the place that has the equipment to completely change out all of the transmission fluid. There's a shop that's usually cheaper, more honest, and does better work. But that one didn't have the equipment to fix what I thought was wrong with the transmission.

That last sentence should have been my clue. I THOUGHT that was the problem. Should have had Ichabod take it for a test drive. He'd've known that it was probably an exhaust system problem.

So, on Tuesday I dropped the car off and walked home. The only good thing about this place is that it's a block from my house. They never call me, I always have to call them. This story is sounding more and more like a bad date all the time. I gave them until early afternoon before I called. They said it wasn't the tranny, it was probably the mass airflow sensor. But they had to clean out the intake first. It was really full of carbon. They couldn't properly check the mass airflow sensor with everything so dirty. They were going to need to keep it overnight so they could wait for gaskets to be delivered.

Okay, I told them, I can wait until Wednesday. Thank goodness I was still able to work from home.

Wednesday afternoon I waited until about 1:30 to call them. Now they'd decided it wasn't the mass airflow sensor, but the EGR valve. They'd need another night. Great. I had an appointment I needed to make at 4:00. They said they had a car I could use so I went over to pick it up. Do you think I'd be smart enough to read the paperwork before signing it? No, but I did after I got home. It was a 12 year old car, and dirty to boot, and they wanted the greater of $28 per day or $.47 per mile.

For that kind of money I'm working from home again today. They'd better have the sucker done really soon. Of course they haven't called me yet and it's 1:12 pm. I guess I'll be calling soon to see how badly they want to damage my credit card.

Color in my yard

2008-04-11T20:44:00.002-04:00

My little green buddies have bloomed in the last week. Here's the proof!

If you look closely you can see daffodils starting to come up.

Flowers and butterflies

2008-03-28T20:46:00.001-04:00

It's that time of year again. Frederick Meijer Garden has it's butterfly display. It's also orchid time. I put a set out on Flickr. Here's the link to the set.

But these don't really give you a good idea what the flowers look like. So I decided to crop a few to show here. Please click on them and choose all sizes. They look so lovely in the large size.

Three years now

2008-03-22T20:40:00.002-04:00

Well, my blog is having its anniversary today. I remember being quite excited and not sure how it was going to go. Turns out that I've used it more as a photo blog. When I first started I didn't even have a digital camera. While I'm pleased how I've done with my picture-taking, Ichabod keeps complaining that I don't write stories much anymore.

Here is the second post I ever did, the first story that I ever told on my blog. And this is where I told why my name is Squirl.

But this all ended up being much more than a place to tell funny stories. I've met a lot of wonderful people in the blogworld. There have been a few idiots and jerks along the way but they've all dropped off. Some other have dropped out that I wish wouldn't have. It's been a very interesting ride this last three years. Thanks for being there with me.

New life

2008-03-16T14:44:00.003-04:00

No matter how lousy things are, no matter how long winter is, there is one thing that can really cheer me up. That would be new growth, new plants sprouting in my yard. Against all odds these wonderful little beings push up through the hard ground, snow, whatever else might be in their way. Such a wonderful example of pushing through all of the crap that life can throw at you and still be at your best.

Anyway, here are a few shots of my little green buddies. :-)

Hospital time

2008-03-10T20:34:00.008-04:00

Hi. I know I haven't updated in over a week. It's been kinda sucky. Ichabod's sister's been in and out of the hospital for about a week now. They've finally decided that it's her gallbladder and she'll be in surgery tonight. We hope that will take care of her problems.
UPDATE: She had the gallbladder surgery last night and is doing well.

Then, my sister-in-law in Iowa is also in the hospital. She's the one who was married to my older brother, the brother who passed away 4 1/2 years ago. Her lungs have been bad for a long time. Now she has pneumonia and is not able to breathe on her own. She's very weak and isn't able to speak because she has a breathing tube down her throat.

I know that everyone's praying for her to get better. But, maybe that's not what's going to happen. I'm not happy about that, but it seems more realistic.

Sorry about the downer post. Things just suck a bit right now.

Another UPDATE: Iowa sil is breathing on her own. She might actually be able to go home at some point when she regains strength. She'll need someone there to take care of her, but this is still way better news than I originally expected.

Foray into Photoshop

2008-03-02T15:33:00.002-05:00

I've had Photoshop Elements 4 for quite some time, but I haven't really learned how to use it. My lovely sister, Bucky, gave me a lesson this morning. Here are the pictures I ended up with.

More snow

2008-02-26T12:15:00.002-05:00

Yes, we've still been getting snow and cold temps. This winter has not been my favorite. But the snow this morning was heavy and slow. I tried to get a picture of it stuck to the trees, but my camera doesn't work so well in the dark. Looks like the flash caught the close-up snowflakes.

Well, I'm posting them anyway. I should really post a picture of the last from last spring when it was flowering. Just for contrast and all, you know. :-)

If you click on this and look at all sizes, the large will actually show you the trees.

This one is a cool effect. Check out the large size if you get a chance.

Here's the tree that will be covered in beautiful blossoms in spring.

This is more what it will look like in a few months.

Not much to post

2008-02-18T21:13:00.001-05:00

I don't feel like writing about the crappy weather again. So, when all else fails, post a test!

What kind of soul?

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone.
Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people.
Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run.
No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way.

You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle.
Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings.
A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning.
You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer.

Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

A little less wintery

2008-02-12T20:02:00.000-05:00

This week's weather has been worse than the one in the previous post. I'm about done with the cold and the snow. Then Tweety left a comment and gave me the idea to post some flower pictures. Don't know about y'all but I'm ready for something that's not wintery.

And I think this one is my favorite. It's not a crop, it was shot this way.

Hope that warmed you up a bit. It cheered my spirits just to look at them.
:-)

Mother Nature can take a hike, if she can find her snowshoes

2008-02-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

I see it's been a week and a half since I updated here. I guess I'll just have to post some pictures then.

One week ago today, Tuesday, it rained really hard and almost every bit of snow was gone. Overnight, as the temperatures dropped, the rain turned to a thick coating of ice on the roads. Then very dry snow came down and was constantly being moved by winds up to 50 mph.

For some reason I thought driving 30 miles to work on Wednesday morning was a good idea. I leave the house at 6 am and it's like night out. The dark, combined with total white-outs, on top of the ice, made my drive a living hell. How I made it without an accident or going in the ditch is something for which I should thank my lucky stars.

Anyway, I decide to snap a few pics after I got home. You can kind of see how the snow drifted. Some places it's still bare and in some it was up to my knees.

You can see my boot prints in the path I dug out for myself. Oh, and the garage that needs a paint job. :-)

Check out how it stuck on the fence and chairs, but it's right down to the bricks below.

I would've liked a better angle on this shot, but I was too chicken to crouch down in the snow. That drift was up to my knees.

Just another angle from the safety and warmth of my living room.

The storm even tried to coat my door. :-)

We had rain yesterday, taking the snow down some, but not all the way. Now they're talking big snow for tomorrow again. Can we just skip weather on Wednesdays???

Fossils and stuff

2008-01-25T19:15:00.000-05:00

These are fossilized fish that I got a number of years ago. I was told that the big dark streak in it is fish poop. Whether it is or not, it makes me chuckle.

My Christmas Tree

2008-01-18T20:15:00.000-05:00

I was asked to show y'all my Christmas tree. It's the Norfolk Island Pine that I bought 14 years ago, for the first Christmas that Ichabod and I were together. As you can see, it almost reaches the ceiling now. I just love it and hope that I can keep it for the rest of my life. :-)

The ornaments are silly, just bows I've collected along the way. But here she is anyway.

Cross your fingers

2008-01-14T19:11:00.000-05:00

I don't have my own, personal computer. I always use my work laptop, a Dell D610. Well, it's been running terribly slow, so I talked my boss into letting me get a brand new Dell D630.

The "cross your fingers" part is because I hope I don't lose all of my links. I hate Internet Explorer, I always use Firefox. Since Firefox isn't supported at work I'm taking my chances. Of course, I have the advantage of sitting and working closely with the technicians. The one who's doing my refresh will probably do his best to help me.

Anyway, if you don't see me for a bit it's just that I'm trying to find you again.
:-)

Time

2008-01-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

As in, it's time for a new post. I made no New Year's resolutions. But I did sign up for a yoga class at work. It's Mondays and Wednesdays for seven weeks during lunchtime. I will work toward my health, but I won't make it official with a resolution.
:-)

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T14:38:00.000-05:00

I'm wishing a warm, loving, happy, and healthy 2008 to everyone. Thank you for being my blog friends and family. You mean a lot to me.

Picture borrowed from here

300

2007-12-27T08:27:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not talking about the movie. This is my 300th post. That's really not a lot of posts considering I'll hit my 3-year mark in March. But, still, 300 seems like an appropriate number to thank you all again.

Thank you for coming around and reading and leaving comments. It always brightens my day. I thank you for your blogs. Sometimes I don't have as much time as I'd like to get around to all of them. But I love that they're there.

You guys have all been so encouraging about my photographs. As a Christmas present for Ichabod's grandmother, I put a calendar together at Cafe Press. I felt a bit funny putting it up for sale because I don't want anyone to feel obligated to buy. But if you happen to be interested let me know. I'll put it up for general sale.

So, everybody, enjoy the coming weekend. And just in case I don't post before then, have a safe and happy new year's celebration.

Although it's been said many times many ways

2007-12-24T10:02:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to you!

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

A Christmas meme thing

2007-12-20T07:45:00.000-05:00

Lotus Lynn tagged me. Rules for the meme include:

1) Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Lynn, being a Buddhist, says she really doesn't do Christmas anymore. About fifteen years ago I started observing the Winter Soltice. But that doesn't mean I can't get into Christmas, too. I mean, food, decorations, gifts, and spirituality. How can you go wrong with all of that!

1. Wrapping or gift bags? I use both, but mostly paper. I enjoy finding paper that's different. The shiny stuff is my favorite.

2. Real or artificial tree? Real. I mean real as in the Norfolk Island Pine that I bought the very first year that Ichabod and I were together at Christmas. It's now taller than we are. Some years I've put lights on it. Some years, garlands. This year and last I only ended up using pretty bows that came on other things. :-)

3. When do you put up the tree? It sits in the dining/kitchen area by the biggest windows we have. All year because it has to.

4. When do you take the tree down? Never.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes. When I was a kid my mom used to mix it with regular milk to make it go further. Now I love the rich, creamy taste of it without regular milk or alcohol to mess it up. My lovely sister, Eclectic, wrote about Silk Nog last year. It's soy milk eggnog. I need to go buy some of that.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My pink ballerina tutu. Oh, I can hear Bucky laughing right now.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No. I don't do any other decorating, either. But what I love to see are other people's nativity scene with Frosty and Santa hanging around the manger. I'm sure they must have a sense of humor. ;-)

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Tacky decorative items.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? I love to send Christmas cards. It's something that helps me feel close to my mother. She also sent letters, birthday cards, and of course, Christmas cards. At her funeral we were each given a tall candle in a glass that we could light when we want to remember her specially. Her birthday and holidays are times I've used it. I lit it the night I did my cards. It felt right.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the Christmas Story. What? I can't have two?

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I used to always start early. One year I was done by September. Didn't work that way this year.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Too much to choose from. But I have to admit that since I've known Ichabod I've learned that I like fruitcake. His mom makes it and it's good.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree? When the clear lights were new I just loved them. Now I like any color.

14. Favorite Christmas song? I love to sing so many that it's hard to pick just one. On the religious song side my favorite to sing is Angels We Have Heard on High. For secular, I think it's The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting...).

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Our travels don't go more than a fifteen minute drive away.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yes, but just because they're listed in the Rudolph song.

17. Angel on the tree top or a star? Just a bow.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? When I was a kid it was always Christmas morning. Since Ichabod and I have been together we have either hosted Christmas Eve or gone to his sister's for it. It's kind of fun, late that night, to get together and open stuff. Won't be much this year, though. Our big present to ourselves was a recumbent exercise bike. The scales will love that preset.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People having a fit over others saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. But at this time of year there's Hannukah, Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. They're each legitimate. And Solstice is the oldest of them all. So Happy Holidays is all inclusive, and that's what I'm all about.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? No. Too lazy.

21. What do you leave for Santa? Nothin'.

22. Least favorite holiday song? Little Drummer Boy. Sorry, Lynn. :-)

23. Favorite ornament? I don't have them anymore, but my parents had these very fragile glass ornaments in gorgeous jewel-like colors with winter and Christmas scenes done in some white stuff. I hated it when the cats got into the tree and one of those would break.

I tag no one. But if you're bored or looking for a post, go ahead. Let me know if you do!

Happy Holidays

Third Annual Blog Cookie Exchange

2007-12-11T18:27:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Bucky, for making my masthead all Christmasy and stuff!

Well, it's that time of year again. Susie is hosting her third annual blog cookie exchange.

First, here's my rum cake recipe. I have made as many as three or four in the holiday season before.

Rum Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 small instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rum

Combine and beat 10 minutes on medium speed. Grease and flour tube pan. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Cool slightly, remove from the pan.

Sauce

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Bring to boil. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add 2 ounces of rum. Poke holes in top of cake with fork. Spoon sauce over cake while warm.

Here's the cake.

And here are a couple of pictures of Christmas cheer at work.

Hope to see everyone today!

I'm not a nerd, but I guess I'm a dork

2007-12-10T12:50:00.001-05:00

Got this from Danielle's and Doc Ern's places.

Sweet and spicy. Who knew?

2007-12-02T12:57:00.000-05:00

You Are a Gingerbread House

A little spicy and a little sweet, anyone would like to be lost in the woods with you.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Found at Nick's place.

Guess what? Another sunrise!

2007-11-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

When I first looked out the plate glass windows at work yesterday the sunrise was a deep red and purple. Unfortunately, since I was at work, by the time I got out the colors had changed to the pinks and golds. But, I still think it was nice.

Sometimes my camera washes pictures out so I adjust the color a bit. This is exactly as they came from camera. No adjustments at all. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-21T22:41:00.001-05:00

I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. For the Canadians, have a great Thursday.

Here's one I found at Bucky's site. Yes, it does feel good to have someone call me genius.

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average

Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius

Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Proof

2007-11-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Okay, this proves that my sister and I are not exactly alike.

But here's my rating from the comments on this one:

Traveling

2007-11-12T20:22:00.000-05:00

I found out that it's worth it to get up at 2:00 am on a Saturday morning for a flight home. On the Sunday that I went to Madison, I left on a plane at 4-something in the afternoon. Both flights were packed. However, coming home on a 6:00 am flight, I had room to spare on both planes. Much more relaxing. And, even with the hour's time difference, I was still on the road home before 11:00 am.

Here are some pictures I took in Madison, WI. They're of Lake Mendota.

I realize this isn't the lake. But it is right on the lake. It's a dorm. I should have known this from all of the bicycles there.

Out of town

2007-10-31T07:47:00.000-04:00

Hi, I'm out of town at some training this week. I'm getting around to blogs as I can. Just wanted to say that I'm around. Kind of.

A few garden pics

2007-10-24T15:18:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures that I recently took of the garden.

My first try with zinnias.

Danielle, I know you weren't thrilled when you ended up as a canna in that flower quiz. But, I think they're beautiful.

Some begonia shots.

And a long view of the back garden.

Some of these look really gorgeous in the large size. You can always click on the picture, and choose All Sizes.

New arrival!

2007-10-19T17:53:00.000-04:00

One of my blog sisters just became a Nana today! Please go check out the pictures and say hi.

What number are you?

2007-10-15T14:53:00.000-04:00

Here's one I found at Sometimes Saintly Nick's place. I believe this comes from the Enneagram. My aunt introduced me to this a number of years ago.

Then, when I took this simple little test it came up with the same number for me that we'd figured out. It's fun, you should try it.

You Are 2: The Helper

You always put on a happy face and try to help those around you.
You're incredibly empathetic and care about everyone you know.

Able to see the good in others, you're thoughtful, warm, and sincere.
You connect with people who are charming and charismatic.

At Your Best: You are deeply giving, altruistic, and humble. You devote your life to others while caring for yourself too.

At Your Worst: You are manipulative and enjoy making other people guilty.

Your Fixation: Rejection

Your Primary Fear: Being unworthy of love

Your Primary Desire: To be loved unconditionally

Other Number 2's: Mother Teresa, John Travolta, Princess Diana, Dr. Phil, and Mr. Rogers.

What Number Are You?

I am a Harry Potter nerd

2007-10-08T20:10:00.000-04:00

I found this quiz through Courtney's site.

Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

Some flowers I've visited lately

2007-10-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

These aren't from my yard. I will be posting those one of these days. But I just felt like putting these up.

These are mostly sunflowers, but they were either so pretty or different, I just couldn't help myself.

This one was a touch blurry, but I really liked these flowers. Even though these were all taken on a cloudy day, this one's a bit darker because I was trying sharpen up the blur.

You can't really tell from this picture, but this one was quite large and very tall.

I particularly like this one as it looks like the bottom flower is being tickled by the bee.

And for a nice, subtle finish.

I'm an honored slacker

2007-09-26T19:22:00.000-04:00

I have been lucky enough to be given three awards. I'm going to start with the last first. Nick, Tweety, I promise I'll post the ones you awarded me, too.

So here's the award given me by tshsmom.

Lots of you are nice bloggers. We don't feel nice all the time, but we do try to keep things fun on the blogs. If you feel as if you'd like the award, please feel free to post.

Thanks, tshsmom!

Went to the river, took some pictures

2007-09-19T16:55:00.000-04:00

I went down to the river a week or so ago and the clouds were just gorgeous. Here are my favorites.

Hope you enjoyed them.

Recent conversation at my house

2007-09-12T19:41:00.000-04:00

Me: How was your swim?

Ich: There was a piece of poop in the pool.

Me: Oh, Ich, there was NOT.

Alaska, Cruisin', Part 5

2007-09-07T18:41:00.000-04:00

We got up early on Monday so we could drive the 2 1/2 hours down to Seward for the day cruise. It was raining a bit on the way, but it wasn't too bad. What was great was the double rainbow it caused.

We got there with plenty of time to spare so we sat and enjoyed the sun and scenery.

Then we finally got going. It was just beautiful, if a bit chilly.

If you look at this on Flickr I put a note so you could see where the eagle is.

Here's one of the shots of seals that I got.

Here's the glacier that we stayed at for about a half hour, watching it calving. I'd never heard the term before but I found out it means big chunks falling off and hitting the water with the sound of an explosion.

This one looks much cooler in the larger size.

Every time I look at this I expect to see palm trees. This just looks tropical to me.

This bunch of seals was really neat. I like the old guy who was heading down to the water. If you look at the picture in Flickr I put a note on him so you can find him.

Here is the lodge where we had a nice salmon dinner.

Here are some whale bones we saw on the beach.

And here's the boat waiting to take us back to port.

Here's the whole cruise set.

Alaska, Being There, Part 4

2007-09-03T17:34:00.000-04:00

Well, we'd had a bit of rain, but mostly sunshine and heat on the way to Anchorage. But Anchorage was cool, gloomy, and rainy. It didn't rain constantly, but there was a drizzle off and on. Like I said in the previous post, we weren't in the very best hotel even though it was a Days Inn. It wasn't bad, but the clientele was kinda noisy. But the good part about it was that we were right in the downtown area. We could walk to restaurants and the mall. One of the important parts of having the mall nearby was that we got umbrellas right away. This made walking around much more pleasant.

That day, Sat 8/4, we also went to the Anchorage Museum. There was some really interesting foliage outside. They used things like chard and kale for decoration.

The museum was pretty interesting. It's so hard to not take a gazillion pictures. Here are some that I did take.

wtf?

I'm glad I didn't meet this fellow in the wild!

Then on Sunday, the 5th, we were going to go on a flightseeing tour, but it was too cloudy and the flight got canceled. So we set up a cruise for Monday and spent Sunday driving around a bit. One of the places we went was the Alaska Botanical Garden. Here are some shots from there.

It was so sad, after seeing these beautiful mushrooms that someone had gone through and destroyed a lot of them. There was a sign at the beginning of the trail that had asked people to please leave them alone. I don't know why someone would do that, but it happened.

I know I posted a lot of pictures here. But there are even more in the slideshow. You may click here if you're not tired of them already. :-)

The next post will be my last installment of the Alaska trip, the one-day cruise. I might be able to talk Ichabod into doing a guest post for the part of the trip he did after I left.

Alaska Vacation Part 3

2007-08-25T19:34:00.000-04:00

After we had that lovely coffee/tea time with Eclectic, Ichabod and I took a bit of a stroll around the city. We were waiting for Sears to open so we could have something checked on the van.

Then we headed north to Canada. The weather was beautiful and we saw some beautiful scenery.

We stayed in William's Lake that night. The next day, Wednesday, we got onto the Alaska Highway. We think we saw a wolf cross the road up ahead of us toward evening. We also were bombarded by dragonflies. It was terrible hitting that many big bugs. They're so neat, too. Some of the carcasses were hanging from the windshield wipers for quite a while. We saw some deer that day, too, along with some osprey. I didn't get pictures, but there were some rainbows. That night we stayed in Ft Nelson, BC. That hotel was sweet enough to have a little hot tub. My muscles really appreciated it.

The next morning, after our complementary breakfast, Ichabod took some bags out to the car. I was waiting for him so I could help him carry the rest of the bags out. He took forever and I started to worry. Just as I was getting ready to go down and check on him he came back in the room. The van had a flat and the spare tire was kind of low. He had to run that to a close by station for air. Then we loaded up the van and went to the nearest tire place.

After a bit of a wait they got the tire plugged and back on for us. When Ichabod took out his wallet the man gave him the paperwork saying that they did the job for us for free! As we were walking out the door I turned around and said, "I love Canada!"

This was Thursday, 8/2, and we planned to make it to White Horse in the Yukon Territory that night. The day was filled with wildlife. Ichabod took this shot of the baby elk for me. He's blurred because he was moving right along. Thanks to tshsmom. I thought this was a moose, but she set me straight. :-)

We stopped for lunch at a lovely lodge. You could see a storm in one direction while it was sunny in the other direction.

The lodge had some gorgeous nasturtiums.

We saw these Stone Sheep.

The clouds were beautiful.

Then there were the Wood Bison.

You can bet we waited for these guys.

We made it to White Horse around 8 or 9 that night. We went to a couple of stores, then went to look for a room. The whole town was booked. The next town, Haines Jct, was 98 miles away. It was quite dark and I was getting pretty tired. It's a good thing we weren't going too fast because that's when we came across some caribou.

I was trying to prepare myself to have to sleep in the back of the van along the side of road. Trying to be stoic about it and all. Then, around, midnight, we made it to Haines Jct. I'd been in the car so long that day I could hardly walk straight. There was a sign for a hotel but at that time of night you had to go to the bar to book a room.

The bar wasn't very big. The crowd looked to be a bunch of locals. One of them was really drunk and trying to tell them a story. I don't know if he ever got through it. There was plenty of swearing, though. :-)

Thank goodness there was an open room. It was small but there were two queen sized beds so we did get a good night's sleep. It was luxury compared to the idea of sleeping in the van. The next day, Friday, 8/3, was spent finishing the trip to Anchorage. The Yukon Territory has some gorgeous scenery.

We made it to Anchorage that night and found a hotel downtown. It wasn't the greatest hotel I've ever stayed in, but being downtown there were plenty of places we could walk. I'll take up Anchorage in the next post.

Here's the link to see all the pictures from this set.

Alaska Vacation Part 2

2007-08-20T18:26:00.000-04:00

The next day, Monday, we drove from Montana through Idaho and into Washington. I was anxious about getting to the right place at the right time to meet Eclectic. I was pleasantly surprised that we did! She saw us and helped us find a good parking place. Then we had lunch at a wonderful public house. After that we took some pictures outside.

Then it was off to meet the little Eclectics. We all went to a gorgeous park. Of course she would take me where there were flowers. :-)

You know I had to take pictures.

Everyone, except Mr E.

We did, finally, meet up with Mr E for dinner. I forgot to get pictures of the whole group. My bad.

The next morning Eclectic met us for coffee.

And, after checking with Sears about an issue in the front end of the van, we took off for Canada. We got as far as William's Lake that night. The next day, Wednesday, has loads of pictures, so I think I'll save that for the next post. Here is the set for this post.

I have to say that I'm sooooo glad we stopped to meet Eclectic. She's not only sweet, but she's very smart and witty. Everybody should go meet her.

Alaska Vacation Part 1

2007-08-13T08:51:00.001-04:00

Ichabod and I had been tossing around the idea of using a larger vehicle for the trip. I was planning to fly home, so he thought he might like to camp along the way. He also was planning a trip up to the Arctic Ocean after I left and we didn't want either of our cars going up the long gravel road.

So on the Thursday before we left he found a 96 Pontiac Trans Sport van. The price was below $2000 and it looked pretty good. It started well. But then the owner said it had no air conditioning. Ichabod thought that was fine. I shot him a look that said I thought he didn't know what he was talking about, but we got it anyway. While I, obviously, didn't die of heat stroke, there were some very uncomfortable days until we got well through Canada. :-)

Friday night and Saturday morning we loaded up.

A spider thought it might hitch a ride. I'll bet he didn't make it very far. You might have to click on the picture and check out the large size to really see him.

We finally got away by 9:00. I'd been hoping to leave by 7:00, but we were feeling too lazy for that. This had us going through Chicago a bit later than we'd hoped, which slowed us down some. Fargo, ND, is all the further we ended up making it the first day. Here are some shots from that day.

On Sunday we really tried to make some time as we wanted to meet Eclectic for lunch in the middle of Washington by noon Monday. We saw some great white egrets and lovely sunflower fields. But we were moving right along, so no pictures of those. But we decided to stop to get pictures of the forest fires in Montana. I'm sorry they happened, but might as well grab the photo op.

The fires made for a gorgeous sunset, too. Of course, we didn't stop for this so these are through a dirty windshield.

That night we made it as far as St Regis, MT. It's not fun driving on curvy mountain roads after dark, so we figured that was as good a stopping point as any. The next post will be more about getting there.

If you'd like to see this set of pictures here's the link. There are five sets altogether.

Pictures are up at Flickr

2007-08-10T23:08:00.000-04:00

Well, I took even more pictures after the last dump from my card. It was over 190. I warned you.
:-)

Anyway, I finally got them all on Flickr. Eventually I'm going to put them into several sets. Too tired for that right now. But I thought I'd give you a shot that I got the night before we left.

Help me, I have a camera and can't stop taking pictures!

2007-08-05T20:45:00.000-04:00

Everybody has been asking for pictures. Well, I'm overwhelmed with the number of pictures I've already taken. I'm working on sharpening the colors on the ones I've taken so far. Thank goodness some of the first batch were bad for one reason or another and had to be deleted as I had 181 of them. Since then we've been to a botanical garden. And tomorrow we go on a one-day cruise. There will be more.

I suppose I will post a few here at the Nest. Then I'll make a number of different slideshows on Flickr. It's fun, but I'm overwhelmed. Maybe after dinner I'll have one of those little 187 ml bottles of wine and get back to working on pictures.

Catch up with you all later!

I'll be back!

2007-07-27T21:57:00.000-04:00

Well, we're pretty much packed and ready to go. My computer is going with me. If we find internet, I might be around. Otherwise, I can download my pictures. It's always worth it to bring my laptop. :-)

And I have to say that I enjoyed the Harry Potter book very, very much. I had it finished by 8:00 pm last Saturday.

Take care of yourselves. Maybe I'll have some pictures of another blogger I hope to meet along the way.

Alaska, here we come!

Anticipation

2007-07-20T18:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm anxiously awaiting getting my Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows book. If I'm still awake at 11:00 I'll go to the local bookstore where my book is reserved, buy my voucher, then take it home at midnight. Otherwise I'll pick up at 9:00 tomorrow morning when the store reopens.

You won't see me around much this weekend. That's a guarantee. :-)

The other thing I'm anticipating is my vacation that starts next week Saturday. Ichabod and I are going to Alaska. We're going to drive. It should be an interesting trip. We're going to drive along the northern part of the country and then head up along the coast in Canada.

I'll be flying back, as I'm only take two weeks off and Ichabod's taking three. He wants to go all the way to the Arctic Ocean. Then he'll drive back much faster than he can with me. I need to stop more often and sooner at the end of the day.

Anyway, I'll be back to blogworld Monday. Have a great weekend.

What kind of flower are you?

2007-07-13T21:51:00.000-04:00

I found this one at Tweety's place. I wasn't surprised as I love this kind of flower.

I am a
Daffodil

What Flower
Are You?

You Are a Daffodil

You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.

Looking up

2007-07-05T18:27:00.000-04:00

I've been lucky to be able to see some gorgeous sunrises on my way in to work. There was one, I think it was last Tuesday, that was so wonderful, but I wasn't at a spot where I could stop. So, it's not just being awake for sunrise, but being in the right place at the right time, too.

Anyway, I felt ready to share some, including a sunset. On the sunrises I tend to take two shots to make sure I get at least one I like. What the heck, I guess I'll post 'em all.

These first sunrise pictures were taken on the same day as the sunset that follows.

We had just had a thunderstorm before these.

And these were this morning, after a small thunderstorm.

Could I be any less evil?

2007-07-02T20:13:00.000-04:00

I found this over at the Lair of the Platypus. How I ended up so UNevil is beyond me.

You Are 16% Evil

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm.
Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

How Evil Are You?