our friend Jimmy

this is our friend Jimmy, the Seabee and Puppy. 

everywhere I go, everything I see

every major road I travel is currenly under construction.  why?

I am detoured twice within 10 miles of my place of business .. and that detour is NO JOKE.  Seems everyone in town has also been detoured to this exact freakin' intersection.  I used to get really angry and not let people cut in front of me when the lanes merged, but now, after practicing the mantra "no F words" for days and days, I am feeling much better on my way home :)

Today will be even better!!  I don't have to get stuck in that jam-up for three whole days!!!

Happy Super Bowl!

me

** as an aside .. that IS an excersize manual and I AM laying on the couch

could it get any better?

my little jabberwock was down with the flu for 3 days .. very abnormal, he never gets sick. 

he and kitty were snuggled up for hours.  sure looks nice.

It's a girl, my lord, in a turquoise Ford slowing down to take a look at me!

Notice the perfect positioning of the "pin-ups" window decal in the reflection.  Heck yeah my girl is a pin-up!!  I couldn't have done better if I tried. we were just cruising along and I'm always trying to get a good photo of Big Blue's reflection, and the opportunity presented itself (quite nicely!)   

 I love my girl, she's lookin' good



point. click.

there are days that are so beautiful, you don't need an artistic eye or fancy camera to capture magic on film. this was one of those days! 

 I so have a crush on my town

ballad of todd & wendy

he's back in Europe .. I sure do miss him

Mom's Birthday, January 6th

food IS fun .. they kind of look like twin's

a river runs behind it

it's rained A LOT here over the past couple months.  my son has been trying to get me to go look at our creek, but I can get lazy.  one afternoon when the men were busy working on something in the garage, I slapped on my rain boots, grabbed a beer pulled that water-logged fence open to begin my adventure!

the water was really flowing after a solid week of pretty heavy rain, you could even see on the bank that the water had been about a foot higher.  I made my way down our terraces, hopped off the telephone poles, now used to support parts of the hill, and through some heavy brush to our creek.

in case you haven't noticed, I'm a total geek for the outdoors.  when I'm on a hike in the mountains, I feel like I'm as close to God as I'll get until I leave this earth.  the sound of a rushing river is even better than my favorite White Stripes song.  a wildflower growing up out of a mound of broken shale, more beautiful than any bouquet a florist could deliver.  so, for me - for us, to actually have moving water on our property is the bee's knee's. 

there was all sorts of beautiful stuff going on down by the water's edge, i was most intrigued with where the water has washed away some soil exposing hundreds of palm-sized and smaller rocks.  the moss that had taken root was SO green, SO soft .. I wish I could have moss for carpet in the house!

I found a perfect big rock that was juuust the right size and shape for sitting and watching the water.  The Seabee came looking for me later.  I made him come down the hill and sit with me.

 these are my cold feet, yes cold .. but happy.  the water does look a little dingy, but keep in mind, we had just been pounded by a weeks worth or rain!! 

ONE WAY =>

this photo... 

the Seabee and I have a very complicated love story.  it was hard to get to where we are now. I was a bit of a mess in the beginning.  he put up with a lot of BS from me, a lot of indecision.  but, here we are now and I'm so glad I went ONE WAY, that I didn't take that left or make a u-turn ..

 a little over a week from today marks the 2 year anniversary of his proposal of marriage

going home

a day in the life

Really, it's more like 2 months in the life ...

My Seabee husband came home for Christmas.  He arrived on December 20th and stayed clear through 'til January 8th.  It was wonderful.

Here are some of our activities and adventures ..

 a nice drive in his '65 Dart - Pine Mountain area

 brought a little snow home and made ..

 a beautiful snow lady

 a close friend is having a hell of a time with his chemo treatments, can't eat, so I made some "special" browines for him.  My mistake?  You see those 3 set aside?  Well, I ate them ALL, AT ONCE.  And not to mention that i scraped the knife after each cut and ate that deliciousness as well. There's a lot of "special" ingredients in the mix.  What a day!!

 we received a phone call from the really cool service called "find toto".  you lose your pet, you call them, they call everyone in the vicinity and give them a description of the dog.  we saw this little fellow running around looking quite lost, "charlie" we call to him, he runs right up to the Dart and then hops right in.  turns out, he wasn't the lost dog, but it was fun to have him ride around the block with us.

this is me, bored, while waiting for the Seabee to come out of our mortgage company's building. 

and this .. this is just a taste of the Christmas madness at my wonderful Aunt's home.  she get's down & funky when it comes to decorating.



Food is fun

I do really well with the before photo's, but when it comes to the after .. I am in serious need of improvement!!  I think I lose all control and just have to sample the creation.  sad..

This is from a cooking show on TV, saw it in the evening and knew that's what we were having for breakfast.

Nests:

Shread 4 potato's (dry well)

pre-make your meat (i used BBQ sausage from Fresh & Easy and bacon another time)

spray cupcake tin with non-stick spray

season and tuck potatos into tin like little nests

cook @ 350 for abour 15-20 minutes (until edges just begin to brown)

remove from oven

crack an egg on top, don't break that yolk!

crumble meat on top of egg

return to oven

bake @ 350 until egg has reached desired firmness (this happens pretty quickly, so keep an eye on them)

remove from oven an let cool just a bit

remove from tin, I used 2 rubber spatula's

top with maple syrup (if that's your thing, cheese is just a delicious)

makes about 10 if you're using the regular size cupcake tin

prepare for the coolest thing you're ever eaten!!  Kids (and husbands really dig theses)

Blackbird singing in the dead of night ..

I have developed a "thing" for birds.  I hadn't even noticed, my dear mother pointed it out to me. 

It started years ago with little tiny "real feather" birds I found while working at a thrift store.  I have used them to decorate my Christmas tree in all the years since, and I love them.  Well, little by little, I have collected more of these guys and other assorted bird stuff.  At the moment, blackbirds (crows, ravens, etc..) have really captured my attention. 

I used to have bluebirds in my yard, a whole family of them.  The "dad" would steal my dogs food, it was fun to watch.  They would sing all night sometimes, and we watched them raise 2 little families.  The daddy bluebird and I were friendly.  He'd fly over to where I was, we'd look at each other and I'd tell him to "go for it, the dogs are inthe house" and he'd glide over to the food bowl and pull out a few pellets.  He was very attractive, he had lovely white "eyebrows". 

When we bought Valhalla, I was very sad to leave my blue buddy and hoped there would be equally wonderful birds in our new area.  Not so much as it turns out, the only things I saw were grey/brown doves (boring..) and an occasional hawk (way past our fence line), then one day .. there were 2 fat black birds hanging out in a tree next door.  They were making the funkiest sounds .. almost like whale clicks.  I started watching them.  I would see them sitting on a electrical wire just beyond my yard, sitting on stop signs or street lights - just hanging out.  I began to appreciate them. 

 Here is my kitchen sink bird, I got him at the 99 cent store a could years ago at Halloween time.  He is my constant companion while I do dishes, and he's beginging to show his age.  All the kids that come into my home like him, I like him a lot too.  Hmmm .. i need to dust.

On another note, when I was in high school, there was a radio station that played Beatles songs all Sunday morning .. Breakfast with the Beatles.  I used to sleep with my stereo on and was awoken one Sunday by the song "Blackbird".  I hadn't ever really heard anything by the Beatles except their really poppy songs, so this was a whole new sound to me .. I loved what it song said as a young adult and it still speaks to me at 34.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

what do YOU see ...

Now I know why I had to stop in the middle of a busy street to take this picture ...

Note the artful use of such unexpected color .. very appealing to the eye.

Especially when your eyes and lips are so fond of ..

Note the artful use of such unexpected color .. very appealing to the eye (and lips)

Love is all around you ..

This is something my husband and I have gotten in the habit of doing while we're away from one another.

It started with "heart-rocks".  I would find them while hiking, he found them in the desert of Iraq.  As I type, I'm looking at a little black striped rock I found once while we were on the side of the road when the Camino broke down.  Next to it is one if those Iraqi rocks, and hanging from a wall is a beautiful piece of green marble he found for me when in Ireland (JEALOUS!! I want to go!!)  Now, don't get me wrong, all the rocks we both have collected over the years still hold very special memories .. but those heart-rock's are the found treasure's we fancy most.

Probably because we are so very in love (I know, I know) I have begun to spot hearts everywhere, in everything .. and I am so not a hearts & pink & fluffy & sparkly kind of girl .. really ..

I will snap a pic with my BlackBerry and send it to Seabee's email, so when he wakes, he gets a little dose feel-good.  And it makes me feel good too, it's almost like sharing the moment with him .. and I've got to take it where I can get it in order to make it through the next 4 months!

here goes ..

bite reveals.. a love apple

 heart cloud and an oil derrick

a super heart rock, and the sandy beach at Seward.

There are many, many more .. but three is good to start :)

I know the pixilation sucks .. I'm looking for a new camera.  Since becoming one with my very own BlackBerry .. I have completely stopped using my Canon .. well, I'm in the market for a newer model, a little more streamline thus making it as travel friendly as B.B.