I try hard not to be political, but...

you've got to watch this.

POTD... and a bug story

I'm getting worse about posting my photos, but at least I am still taking them each day!!

Quick story before the photos.  There is a little porch off the back of the house that I have to walk thru, and open the far door to let the dogs out.  When I got home tonight it was dark and I grabbed the handle and to my surprise some kind of (large) flying insect was on the handle!  I didn't scream (yeah me!).  It flew to the floor and the dogs immediately went to find it.  Turns out it was a rather large green grasshopper (well, it looked like a grasshopper anyway.  Here in Texas who knows what kind of large strange bugs they have!).  Anyway, the dogs loved it.  They pawed at it and played with it and finally Bella picked it up in her mouth and took it outside.  What a good dog!  I'm sure they frightened the poor bug to death.  Either that or their little

 dog teeth did the trick.  Either way, it is out of my house so I am happy.

(For the record, I did grab my camera to try and get a photo of the chaos, but they dogs were moving so fast and by the time I could get a shot, they were outside.  Plus, I wasn't about to get too close to said bug!)

Saturday, 2/21:  We made calzones.  From scratch.  (Yes, even the dough.  Aren't you impressed?)

Sunday, 2/22:  Dan and I both like gnomes.  We have them in several rooms of the house to watch over us.  These little guys are in the kitchen.

Monday, 2/23:  My new favorite candle scent.  Pear by Gold Canyon Candles.  Yum!

Tuesday, 2/24:  I call this "the puppy and the pea".  You know, like Princess and the Pea...

Wednesday, 2/25:  I snapped this shot on my way to the car this morning.  I sure wish it were in focus... but a beautiful pink flower, right in our own front yard!  In February!

time for posting!

This post is going to be a bit random. :)  Like my friend Lyn, I have been spending just a little too much time on facebook these days!

First, my photos of the day for Thursday and Friday.

Thursday night I worked on this:

and Friday (all day) I worked on this.  Sorry for the bad photo.  All I had was my P&S and taking photos of a whiteboard isn't the easiest.  There is only so much Photoshop can do. :)

And this is what I finished last night, for a challenge at Jen Wilson Designs.  We were supposed to use imperfect photos!

One more little piece of information for all you photographers, if you want to win a free photo editing class, check this out!

of rain and accessories

Yesterday (today too, actually) it was rainy.  Now, we are familiar with rain (most specifically Portland, Oregon rain, which is a steady drizzle most days!), but Houston rain is different.  First of all, it is upper 70's, and so humid (even before it starts raining) that heaven help any hairstyle you're trying to accomplish.  And second, it's a strange sort of sticky rain.  Hard to explain.  At any rate, when the puppies came in last night, I just had to stick them back in their kennel because they were wet from head to toe.  I think they had been rolling around in a puddle or something!  They weren't very pleased about it, as you can see.

Today I took this shot (in the mirror).  This is one of my very favorite necklaces.  My Grandma Tritz gave it to me a couple years ago.  I can remember her always wearing it!  Love you, Grandma!  (I say that like she's reading this, which I know she is not. She has no desire to learn to operate a computer!)

{holiday} weekend

Well this was a sort-of holiday weekend for us.  Saturday was of course Valentine's Day (we don't really celebrate), and Monday is President's Day (neither Dan or I got the day off).  

But here we go to catch up the past few days.  {Warning: Lots of photos}

When Dan got here Friday night, we went out for Mexican.  We thought we would miss the Valentine crowd by going on Friday (the day before Valentine's), but no such luck.  We waited almost an hour for a table.  But we had a lot to catch up on, so it wasn't too bad.

Saturday was Valentine's Day.  I already mentioned that we really don't celebrate Valentine's Day.  Every day should be Valentine's Day, right?  :)

But I made a little Valentine page anyway.  (It's for a challenge at Jen Wilson Designs.)

Also on Saturday, Dan made his "famous" peanut butter candy.  It is soooo delicious!!  Plus, I had to snap a few photos of him in the kitchen...

After such a busy day, Bella crashed early on the couch.  I couldn't resist shooting this:

We had to speak in church on Sunday.  Neither of us was really looking forward to it, and we're both very glad it's over!  :)  But before church, I caught Dan the puppy-man.

And that brings us to today: Monday.  A little surprise showed up on my doorstep.  Jessica Sprague's new Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking!  Yippee!

And now, I'm off to clean the kitchen.  *sigh*

My $10 Haircut

Tuesday I learned about this neat little program called Shoebox. It's an organizer/browser for photos and scrapbooking supplies on Mac.

And of course all week I have been practicing my 2nd song on the piano: How Firm a Foundation.

And now it is Thursday. And so we come to the story of my $10 haircut.

I think one of the hardest things to do when you move (at least as a woman) is to find a new hairdresser. I had a GREAT hairdresser in McKinney, and I hated to leave her. I went online and tried to find one, but boy is it hard to pick one on the internet!!

I finally decided to be brave and try Paul Mitchell's The School, which is where all the budding hair dressers go to learn to be good hairdressers. I have to admit, I was slightly nervous about it. But the location (about 10 minutes from home!) and the price (already mentioned - $10!) couldn't be beat.

Here's a before shot.

Now, all I wanted was a trim. My girl, Ellen, was super. Super but slow. A basic trim took over 1.5 hours. By the time she was done, my neck hurt and I had a terrible headache. But look at the result!

In this case, I think it's a good thing that the before and after shots look so similar, don't you?

I'm an Aunt!

Yesterday we got the good news that Marsh & Emily welcomed little Tucker James into the world.  Congratulations to them!  We can't wait to see pictures (hint, hint).

In the meantime, I'm here to document my ongoing success with the piano.  This is the second song I have learned.

(Photos of the day to be posted later tonight.)

monday, monday

I've been craving real popcorn. (i.e. not microwave popcorn)

The problem is this: sometime during the move, I have lost my air popper.

So what to do?

Tonight I learned how to pop real popcorn - the old fashioned way - on the stove. And it turned out great. It brought back memories of when my grandpa used to make it that way. He actually grew his own popcorn in the garden, too. Impressive, huh? I don't think I'll be trying that any time soon!

Speaking of my grandfather, here we are together. Note the same bowl and everything. I love this photo. One of my all-time favorites.

Bentley

Bentley was so funny this morning.  I was sitting on the couch and usually Bella will be the cuddler, but this time Bentley snuggled right up under the blanket with me.  To my surprise, when I got up, he stayed right there!  I couldn't resist taking a few photos.  I couldn't believe he didn't move even when I got the camera and started snapping away!

In other news, I created this scrapbook page for the next challenge at Jen Wilson Designs.  The photo was taken 6 years ago, the night Dan proposed. 

saturday!

After we go up and moving on Saturday, Dan was craving chicken madeira, so off we went to the Cheesecake Factory.  It was a beautiful day - 76 degrees when we left the house!  Due to traffic problems around the Galleria, we decided to drive (all the way out!) to the Woodlands, and walk thru that mall.  Good thing, too, because after stuffing ourselves, we needed the long walk!!  We were so full we couldn't even convince ourselves to order cheesecake.  

When we got home, Dan watched some of the 3-D programming from last week.  Thank goodness for DVR!  And so, here is Saturday's POD:

what. a. week.

I've been lazy with Photo-of-the-Day.  Yes, I have been taking a photo every day, but I haven't taken the time to actually post the results.  So here's to catching up.  And I"ll try to do better next week.

Tuesday, 2/3: Bella, looking cute (as always)

Wednesday, 2/4:  chocolate milk.  My sweet little indulgence at the end of the day.  Mmm!

Thursday, 2/5:  Filing.  We are just finishing the setup of the "office" space  in the new place.  Filing is one of my least favorite activities to do, however I find it to be rewarding after it's finished!  Now, time to tackle taxes...

And finally, Friday, 2/6:  my car.  I figured it's good to keep a record of what I drive each day, right?  She's a good car!

And more to come, I promise.

February. Already.

I guess I have been busy or something, not having posted in a few days!  Dan was here for the weekend, so it just wasn't a priority! :)

Here's my photo from Friday, 1/30.  Mom & Pop Corn in McKinney is a great little candy store.  We especially love their popcorn.  Dan brought some down for Superbowl Munching.  This is called "Corn-fetti" because it includes all their candy flavors!

The weather was beautiful on Saturday, so we took the NSX out for a little antique shopping.  Our favorite music radio station is 106.9 fm, which plays what we call "retro" music.  That is, music from the 80's and 90's.  Our "era", if you will.  I remember thinking that I never wanted to listen to "oldies" - that I would always just stay current with Top 40 music.  But you know what?  I don't really care anymore. It is what it is, and 80's and 90's is what I like!  Does that mean I am getting old?  Don't answer that.

And of course, it was Super Bowl Sunday.  We had a little adventure right as the Superbowl was starting (more on that later), but after Dan left for Dallas, I sat and watched the whole thing.  What an exciting game!  I would have preferred the Cardinals to win, but I didn't really have a pony in the race (as they say), and was happy with a nice close match.

That brings us to today, Monday 2/2.  Usually once a week my boss, Dean (on right), and a co-worker, Pat (on left) punch out early and head for SRO Sports Bar to play Golden Tee.  It's a golf video game, actually quite fun and a great way to blow off some steam if you're having a rough day at work.  For the record, I did not have a very good golfing day, but it was fun nonetheless.