HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To all of you from both of us, have a safe holiday! And PLEASE drive carefully, or don't drive at all if you don't have to.

We are staying home, having a little drop-in party here tonight... it's been snowing so we might have some folks staying over. Never tried to sleep more than 3 people here at once so somebody's going to end up on the floor. Times like this I wish I had a Murphy bed, or at least a pull-out couch, but an air mattress will have to suffice. At least we have no shortage of blankets or sheets.

Should be fun... see y'all next year!

Bummed

We always park the good truck all the way in the back of our lot, next to a fence, where nobody can park on at least one side of us. We don't park up front on the pavement due to the constant traffic in and out for the local grocery next door (the truck was bumped once in a minor hit-and-run). When we got home from making the family rounds yesterday, we recalled that the store would be closed today... didn't want to walk across the ice unloading the truck, so we left it up front along the side of our building.

Nobody hit it this time, but when we came downstairs the first thing we saw was our bug shield smashed to pieces and a huge chunk of ice on the hood. The snow on the roof had melted and refrozen, then today when it warmed up, sheets of it were sliding off from two stories up and one of them landed right on the nose of our Bronco. I wasn't concerned about the bug shield (didn't like it anyway) but there are now two dents in the hood and one in the top of the fender. Not majorly noticeable but there nonetheless. As soon as we can afford it I'm going to call the pop-a-dent guy to see if he can fix them. Why bother, you ask? Because the Bronco is (or was) immaculately straight and beautiful and now he isn't and it bothers me. That's my baby we're talking about.

Ironically enough, my old Buick was parked right next to the Bronco, and even though ice was falling on it too, nary a scratch could be found. Thing's a tank. Funny, the big bad "Ford Tough" 4x4 can't take a beating, but the junky former granny car doesn't even flinch. *Sigh*

Lesson learned... don't park so close to the house! The reason the Buick was up front stemmed from another lesson learned the hard way. My spot is next to an old barn out back. I came out one morning last winter to find my car buried in snow that had slid off the barn roof. This was the day after I'd spent half an hour digging it out so I could get to work... and I had to do it all over again. And I never even thought about the snow becoming ice on the house roof. Guess I will from now on. Going on seven years here and I'm still learning the nuances of living in a snow zone. Ice sucks...

Week In Review

Just got home from a night out. My longest-running friend here has a new boyfriend after being terminally single... just found out he plans to be married and have kid(s) on the way within the next year. My friend is of the opinion that words and actions are two different animals so we'll see what happens. Whatever the outcome, I hope she finds the happiness she wanted.

Work is winding down for the season. Just a handful of poinsettias left that only took me 2 hours to water today. Already started on the cleanup for the spring crops, spraying weeds and shutting down most of my greenhouse. We're shut down between next Friday and Jan. 2, so that's a lean week with no pay coming in. Bummer.

Hubby sunk his work truck today. A customer had put fill dirt in his driveway, but it wasn't packed and was covered with snow. B drove over it thinking it was solid and buried the front of the Mack up to the axles. A nice neighbor with a tractor pulled the truck out, wouldn't take any money for the help either. God bless farmers.

We had a soup party at work yesterday in lieu of a Christmas party. I was impressed with the Thai soup (spicy but very tasty) and the ham n' bean soup. There were four soups plus chili; I had to try some of each! Our Christmas gift from the company was a single glass ball ornament in a plastic gift bag. I'm surprised we got that much, really... Angela in Human Resources tries to have a little something for gifts, anniversaries, and birthdays, and it's nice that she goes out of her way to at least give a token of appreciation even if the company itself no longer does. Not that anyone expects anything, but she believes recognition is a morale-booster and people do appreciate the thought.

My buddy and co-worker Ray was having chest pains the other day. I ended up driving him to the hospital in a company car (quicker than waiting for an ambulance, and he refused to let anyone call one anyway). He's okay, nothing serious, just high BP and stress from working out in the cold. I got to drive a new Chrysler, which I didn't like. Too low to the ground and I couldn't see the front of the car. I hate that. I like knowing where the nose of the vehicle is so I can tell how close I am when parking and turning. Whatever happened to hood ornaments anyway?

B and I made our one gesture towards decorating for the holidays by hanging a string of lights on the porch railing (the old-fashioned big bulb kind, not those bitty things) and putting out my Moravian star. It's hanging from the porch and looks absolutely beautiful. I wanted one of those for so long, finally got one last year... it looks so nice! (Below image swiped off Yahoo; mine looks just like it.)

(For background on Moravian stars, visit http://www.mcnp.org/edeb/star.htm )

I have to get started baking tomorrow. My annual tradition of procrastination is going to bite me if I don't. We have no $ for Christmas gifts, so everyone's getting cookies and munchies. It's a gift that's always enjoyed. I make great cookies too... The Amish market no longer sells a certain trail mix I used for my family-famous dump cookies, so I'm going with date-walnut rocks and white chocolate-coconut this year, plus the traditional sand tarts, chocolate chip, and peanut butter. Maybe some chocolate mint too if I'm not sick of baking by then (or sick of eating the ugly ones!). I got an excellent chocolate-chip cookie recipe from the Amish market, which I tried earlier in the year, and let me tell you, the oft-used Tollhouse recipe can't compare. They're that good!

We had two days of sub-zero AM temperatures, with highs in the single-digit range, then a snow/sleet/ice storm that turned the roads into car ballet arenas. Our parking lot was as slick as an ice rink, or maybe more so, since I'm sure if I'd gotten a running start I could have slid from the sidewalk all the way to the fence a few hundred yards away. Of course, temps hit the mid-30s the day after, turning everything to gray slush which then re-froze overnight. I couldn't get into the Bronco tonight because the doors were frozen shut. A 99-cent can of de-icer is a must-have item around here. (I bought two, since silly me keeps leaving the can INSIDE the vehicle, where it does no good whatsoever. Nothing like being iced out of your car and being able to SEE the solution through the frosty window. Now I keep a spare can inside for those "duh" moments.)

Nothing much else going on. I have 8 Christmas cacti that will be presents for somebody, I hope, so I can get them out of my hallway. Anybody want one?

Painting What?

A European trend has made its way to Podunk, Pennsylvania. Suddenly painted poinsettias are The New Big Thing. Therefore, we spent some time last week... guess what? Painting poinsettias. I read the emails from Sales today and the sparkly blue ones sold out first. Blue poinsettias...*sigh* Just doesn't seem very Christmasy to me, but I guess all those people with trendy color schemes for the holidaze like being able to match their plants to their decor.

Anyway, we had fun painting them. I did a few trials on my own that were well-received by the Sales team, but I won't post those pictures. Don't want anyone else beating us to market!





My boss and a coworker on the "spray line." That's me in the background mixing paint.

Sting returns!

Former WCW wrestler Steve "Sting" Borden is rumored to have signed a deal with TNA Wrestling. This was more or less confirmed at the end of tonight's TNA pay-per-view, when the Sting logo appeared on the video screens and his trademark coat and bat were shown on a chair in the middle of the ring.

To be perfectly honest, I was hoping he wouldn't go back to wrestling at all, but TNA is hands-down a better choice than Vince McSatan's trashy WWE. It showcases more technical wrestling and is more viewer-friendly to younger audiences.

Steve is a Christian man, an elder in his church... he gave his life to God in 1998. As a result his marriage was saved and he kicked his drug and alcohol habits literally overnight. Lately he's been appearing at Christian conferences, stores, and on TBN television to give his testimony. He recently co-hosted Praise The Lord for the first time after being a frequent guest.

There are several Christian wrestlers out there but few who are as well-known or as vocal about their faith as Steve. It will be interesting to see what angles he, as Sting, is involved in, knowing how TV wrestling is all about getting ratings at any means. The unseen side of wrestling is full of temptations too... having experienced it for myself, I can say that only a person with strong faith would be willing to walk back into the lion's den and take it head-on after having the same scene nearly ruin his life. I first met him in his darkest days and he's truly a changed man now. Best of luck, Steve, and go with God.

Sting fans, come check out the Official Sting Site and stop in the forum to say hello. I'm there every night and Steve himself drops in often. www.therealsting.com

Determination or stupidity?

So it's supposed to be 0 tomorrow. As in 0 degrees Fahrenheit. As in cold.

And what are we doing? SITTING IN IT. Not just experiencing a bit of chill going between the front door and the truck, not dashing from the house to the store and back, not sticking our heads outside and saying " Woo! Cold out today" before returning to the relative warmth of the indoors.

Nope, we're going outside to deliberately park our tails in the woods for several hours. 5 AM to 5 PM, with an hour for lunch, which is just long enough to thaw out. Yesterday we were out in it, and even the deer were smart enough to stay in their beds. Not a creature was stirring, literally, except the two morons dressed in safety-orange winter gear, shivering under a tree in the snow. I lost my toes for a while... I mean, they were there, tucked into boots and socks equipped with heat pads, but the cold got to 'em anyway and they just didn't want to cooperate. I'm test-driving some battery-powered heated socks tomorrow. *eyeroll*

It's our last day to hunt so I hope we trip over a deer. I have a feeling it's the only way...

Now, if you know me, you know how much I love winter. I love the cold, the snow, pretty much everything except driving in it. I even like shoveling the walks. But there's a limit. I'm going to test that tomorrow. We were out hunting once when it was about 5 below, but we were moving the whole time so that was fine. Sitting still is going to be a challenge.

Too bad it doesn't apply to husbands!

He who knows the way of the Lord can find it in the dark.

Opening Week

The end of the first week of hunting season for us, and it's Deer: 3, Us: 0. Between us we've seen three bucks. One was a spike (not legal), one was a 4-point (not legal), and yesterday a big 6-point ran past us. B couldn't get a clean shot so we had to let him go.

I had a scary ten or fifteen minutes in the woods last night. I was walking back to the truck up the main trail while B went along the ridgeline parallel to me. I could hear and see him until I stopped to listen to some rustling nearby, thinking we'd startled a deer. When I started walking again just a moment later, my husband had disappeared. I whistled... no answer. I called him, still no answer. Now, a big man going through brush and dead leaves makes a lot of noise in empty woods, and I was hearing nothing except my own voice echoing back at me from the next mountain over. I called him for almost 10 minutes, at the top of my lungs, scared out of my wits thinking of what might have happened to him. I wanted to run get the truck but at the same time didn't want to leave in case he was lying in the woods someplace. By now it was dark and I had my flashlight out. I was two seconds away from firing off a three-shot distress signal when I heard a whistle from far off... and a minute later here came hubby down the main trail. Apparently when he dropped down over the ridge he couldn't hear me, nor I him, and he was almost back to the truck (a quarter-mile away) when he finally got up high enough to hear me yelling and came running. I wanted to beat him senseless but I settled for a hug. :-D My heart rate didn't drop for another half-hour though. Note to self: no matter that they might scare the deer, next year we WILL have two-way radios. My sanity depends on it.

Oh, and he was almost shot on Monday. We aren't going back there. Got some nice quiet private property to hunt on next week, thank God. The public lands attract ignorant, gun-toting, deer-fever-addled lunatics.

Of Trucks and Deer and Holiday Cheer

Hubby's truck is back home. All the problems it had (besides the unrepairable issue of it being a 1986 Chevy) were traced back to a broken wire. It *might* need an ignition module eventually but for now it's running and I haven't had to go rescue anyone. The entrance (ANY entrance) to Wal-Mart is not the place one wants to break down this time of year!

Rifle season opens tomorrow. We're going to sight in our guns today and get everything laid out, since we'll be up at oh-dark-thirty. By sunup I should be comfortably parked under a tree in the woods, sassafrass tea in a thermos beside me and gun across my knees. I'll watch the woods wake up. Birds and squirrels will start their chirping and chatter, sunlight will make crazy patterns through the foliage, and eventually it will warm up enough for the ice to melt and drip, loud in the stillness, on the dead leaves scattered about. Every sound is amplified to me. A squirrel can sound like a herd of deer if he gets feisty enough. My hearing gets a workout; have to rely on senses normally focused on tuning out, not in! I love it.
Since we'll be in a place I've never hunted, I'll spend the first half-hour of light familiarizing myself with the look and shape of things so if anything changes I'll notice it. Deer are sneaky and ghostlike and blend in quite well on a grey morning... knowing the landscape silhouette is important. Oh, and the camera goes with me this year. I just don't know if I personally want to shoot a nice buck, or snap a picture and let him go make more for next year. I really don't care if I get a deer or not. If hubby gets one, our meat needs are taken care of and I can just sit back and enjoy the scenery for the rest of the day. And that's the reason I go. It's my time for introspection as well as just marveling at creation.

The unfortunate thing about rifle season is that it falls so close to Christmas. Meaning, my days off are spent in the woods, not out shopping or baking or prepping for the holiday. In a way it's good; I don't like dealing with the madness that is CommercialMas. But on the other hand I have a lot to do... A friend and I are supposed to be baking cookies in the very near future and hubby and I have to shop for the kids in the family. It will be a lean Christmas financially, but it isn't about the money or the gifts, is it? I don't recall reading about Santa Claus and Rudolph in my Bible. I read about a miracle, a savior born... and isn't everlasting life a pretty swell gift? Bet you won't find that at Wal-Mart!

Counting Blessings

A very happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. If you aren't celebrating it, well, have a wonderful day anyway.

I am thankful for my husband, family and friends, for our health and happiness, the blessings God has bestowed upon us, and the beautiful world He created.

I'm also thankful for the first person who put marshmallows on sweet potatoes. Amen!

Victorian Dreams

The first time I visited my dad and his family here, in this particular borough, I fell in love. With a house. The neighboring communities all have houses that strike my fancy; some are more elaborate and beautiful than others, and some have property that greatly increases the attractiveness of the house itself. The old wooden farmhouses with ancient barns and stately Victorians with their fancy gingerbread trim catch my eye most often.

There is one house in my dad's hometown that I've admired since I was a child. It's smack-dab in the middle of the busiest part of town and is now either a funeral home or a law office. I always loved the curved bay windows with the inner polished-wood privacy shutters, also curved, and the ornate woodwork and dark green-with-cream color scheme. But that's not the one I was referring to, though it's on my list of favorites.

There is another huge Victorian, blue and cream, with an incredible wraparound porch and a matching guest house and garage, sitting on a corner lot in the Big Town across from the former Wal-Mart location. It was for sale at a surprisingly low price for a home of that caliber a couple of years ago. It needed a bit of woodwork which has since been done. It's gorgeous, also on my list, still not the one.

There is yet another, right here in town... an old faded white farmhouse on a large tree-lined lot. It's set back from the road in a private copse and is in need of cosmetic work. I love the location. It's a block from the so-called hub of town and fronts the main road, but is tucked away so neatly that it took me a year to realize it was there. To my knowledge it isn't for sale. I went up to the porch once to scope it out, thinking it was empty; a note on the front door told me otherwise. The house could be beautiful, truly impressive, with some fresh paint and new windows and landscaping. And, you guessed it, that's not the one either.

Finally, one out on Rt. 61, for two reasons: one, it has rainbow-colored clay shingles. Two, it has an impressive garage with matching shingles. I look for it every time we go that way. I'd like those shingles on my own house someday, but I bet they're outrageously expensive for a place that size. Now, on to The One...

The house I fell in love with the first time I saw it isn't brightly colored or dripping with scrollwork. It doesn't have a barn or a lot of property, though it does have a nice corner lot. The only people I ever see there are the ones mowing and landscaping in the spring and summer. There are rarely any lights on after dark. I know someone lives there; I was told it was an elderly couple, or perhaps just the woman now, but I haven't met or spoken to anyone there. It's a large hulking tan-brick with white trim and copper shingles. And a dome. I've never seen the inside, no idea how it's laid out or if it's kept up as well as the exterior, and I don't care. I. want. this. house.

I see it more than once every day, since it's across the street from my place. On a main road, no privacy or wooded lots bordering it, no buffers from traffic noise, in direct earshot of the emergency siren at the firehall (as are we), and on the corner where the parades turn (not that that's a bad thing, really). It isn't out in the country (which B and I both prefer) nor is it practical by any means. It's just a big chunk of house with a beautiful yard plunked in the middle of town. Oddly, it's easy to overlook, since most people drive right by, unless you stop and realize just how impressive it is. I do this on a daily basis. Sadly, even if it did ever go on the market, I'd have to win the lottery twice to afford it.


I love the ornamental iron around the chimney!

Not even going there

I could tell you what a crazy day it's been. I could complain about my job and the clueless people who call the shots. I could type half a page about how I got home, ready to warm up from the cold and relax, and instead had to go pick up my husband, whose truck had a serious internal mishap (two days after he hit a deer with it) and will be sitting indefinitely in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I could gripe about the fact that I'm still cold, haven't had any dinner yet, and am huddled in front of the computer because I'm just too tired to do anything else.

But I'm not going to.

My job can be a challenge, but when things get insane I take that challenge and meet it head-on. The nutsier it gets the more I'm forced to think and act on the fly, and I've learned a lot about that over the last few years. Give me five minutes to come up with a plan and I'll git 'er done.

The bozos in management? They sign my paycheck. As long as they keep paying me, I'll deal with whatever insane idea they come up with next.

The cold? I love cold weather. Gives me a reason to cuddle up with the hubby or soak in the bathtub. The air seems cleaner and fresher, the stars are brighter, and the black naked trees against a pale grey sky are visually stunning.

The truck? It's just a thing. Do we have the money to fix it? No, but so what? We have other options. One of us will drive the Bronco and the other one (me) will continue to drive the slag heap known as the Puick until we can get another vehicle.

Dinner? No big loss. The employee Thanksgiving lunch today was excellent, and I'm thankful that we all had plenty to eat and share. I'll have some cheese and cocoa and be perfectly content.

So... what AM I going to rant about? Just this: Every year at our employee lunch one of the suits gives a speech and then a manager offers the blessing, and everyone takes off their hats and waits until the prayer is said. This year nobody gave a speech (yay!!!) but no one said the blessing either... I waited... looked around... nobody missed it. I was shocked. So I said my own. And I missed the opportunity to say one aloud for everyone else... That bugs me. Some people who saw me did take their own silent moment. And granted, there are different faiths and the PC thing is to not offend anyone, but still... It's a sad day when a company changes their traditions to avoid getting sued over a prayer, if in fact that's the reason. Of all the things that happened today that's really the only one that is going to stay with me.

Turkey Trot and Fancy Doorknob

It was more like turkey run...

I have a big mouth sometimes. Usually at the times that are least conducive to my sanity and free time. In this instance, my boss announced that the site manager had just bought four turkeys for the employee dinner. He was going to fry two, someone in the office was cooking one, and that left one. He said to me (joking) "Hey, you wanna cook a turkey?" And my mouth overran my brain and said "Sure, why not?" It became less of a joke when I learned he wasn't kidding.

I don't have a turkey roaster or even a big baking pan (except the nice one I use for cookies and cookies ONLY.) I didn't really want to cook the bird either, but once I said I would I was committed. So I think, okay, I've roasted turkeys before. I just need a pan... I can cook it the night before and warm it up on Friday, so I need something to heat it in... two phone calls later and I lined up a warmer for Friday and my husband informed me that I did, in fact, have a roasting pan. It came with the new stove we got last year and was still in the bottom storage drawer. Whaddaya know...!

I hauled the turkey home on Tuesday and put it in the fridge to thaw. Tonight I got my marinade ready, heated the oven, washed and prepped the roasting pan... and the dang turkey was still frozen. *Brainstorm* Run to grocery store, buy fresh unfrozen turkey, and keep the other for the actual T-Day... that'll work! A nicer, bigger bird is in the oven as I type, oozing marinade and browning like it's supposed to.

About half an hour ago I heard crashing and thumping downstairs, like someone was trying to bash the lower door in. You can tell we live in a low-crime area because instead of thinking someone was trying to break in, I ran downstairs to open the door. See, this is an old house... the fancy brass doorknobs predate indoor plumbing... and something in the inner workings of the one downstairs finally went kaput. Therefore we haven't been able to close the door, since the slide jams and we can't open it again. Our neighbor was locked out, and he was, in fact, trying to bash the door in. My hubby got a knife and pried open the door; I took my screwdriver and proceeded to disassemble the knob with the intention of pulling the slide and innards out.

I have never seen such an old locking assembly up close. By "up close" I mean in my lap and all over the floor, since when I took the screws out a literal pound of various metal thingamabobs went everywhere. No tumblers in that baby... levers and springs and interlocking parts (and thankfully, several broken pieces that I personally was not responsible for). After ten minutes of head-scratching and rearranging I gave up, lined them all up as well as I could, screwed the thing back together and left it on the floor for the landlord. I did put the fancy knobs back in, though. So I don't feel entirely clueless... I hate not being able to figure gizmos out. At least I'm handy with a modern doorknob. I know exactly how to throw it out and install a new one. ;-P

Bits and Pieces, Part II

WWE and former WCW wrestler Eddie Guerrero passed away unexpectedly yesterday. He was a new man in Christ, although that doesn't make his death any less of a shock. He was only 38. It's a risky business. I used to watch Eddie a lot, both live and on TV, and he was always quite the character. Condolences to his family.

Today was an accidentally lazy day... I had a list of things to do and a pile of good intentions, but after getting out of the shower I made the mistake of lying on the bed to put my socks on... next thing I knew it was four o'clock in the afternoon. I was snoozin' with one sock on and had slept through the better part of the day. Guess I needed a recharge because I. Was. Out.

Didn't see the '59 Caddy yesterday. Bummer. I hate wasting a trip like that.

Hubby wanted some apples and cheese the other day, not typical of him but I wasn't going to argue. Between us we polished off a small bag of apples and a block of pepper jack in two days. Then we went and bought another bag of apples and some Havarti. I was hoping for Gouda or Edam but hey, if he's eating fruit instead of junk, I'll let him get whatever cheese he likes to go with it. Havarti's pretty good anyway. I just prefer Edam with apples and crackers. It's what my mom always got so it must be ingrained.

Have some fun and watch some "classic" dance moves... so it's a Gap ad, so what? Create your friends just so you can laugh at them. Hilarious! www.watchmechange.com (Volume essential for effect.)

Bits and Pieces

Why is Autumn so short? It's the most beautiful time of the year and only lasts a few weeks, it seems, before the six-month-long winter kicks in. I should go find some leaves to press before they're all gone.

Dad told me there is a 1959 Caddy up on Mt. Zion Road... must. go. drool. Think we're going to take the camera for another drive today.

Have to swing by WalMartHell too. Hubby said they had studded snow tires on sale, and I need two or my Buick isn't on the road until April when the snow melts. It won't get up the mountain without traction and the rear end tries to pass me on the straightaway. So, two good tires and a couple bags of coal in the trunk for weight should do it. No Buick Ballet on Ice this year!

The pheasant didn't wait for Thanksgiving. He was right tasty after being marinated a day or two and then wrapped with slab bacon and roasted. Good bird! Not nearly as good as the one my boss brought in, though... and that was a chicken! He has a deep-fryer... injected the bird and marinated it, then fried it... he usually does turkeys but the chicken impressed me more. SO GOOD. I got my dad a turkey fryer a few years ago and I'm thinking of borrowing it to do up my own chicken. (I roast a great bird in the oven, but there is no comparison...)

My company has blocked out any and all vacation time from now until Dec. 20. This time frame includes deer season. There are going to be a lot of people "out sick" for a few specific days. It's funny... the site manager won't approve a vacation request, but if you call in sick, they charge you vacation time for it... I wrote my own schedule and turned it in, gave myself my usual two days off each hunting week. I WILL be in the woods, vacation time or no. If we don't get a deer we become temporary vegetarians until spring, which is OK with me but my husband is a meat-and-taters guy and there is nothing I can do with eggplant or soy that will be an adequate substitution to him.

It's an absolutely gorgeous day out there... I can't sit at the computer any longer when it's like this, so I'm going to soak up some atmosphere. Might even jump in some leaves and have supper on the porch later. It's just that kind of day.

Loudly, and with the windows down!

James 5:13

Anyone who is having troubles should pray. Anyone who is happy should sing praises.

Lake Jean in the autumn.

Country rooooads, take me hoooome....

The Real Sting News

UPDATE: The Real Sting is back! Apparently someone submitted a false news item to the main site and it got posted accidentally. The result was a flood of fans wanting to know the story behind the rumor, and that overloaded the server. For the record: Sting will NOT be on WWE this week! It's amazing how a little blurb like that, which was only on the site a short while before the error was caught and removed, could cause such widespread interest in the space of a couple hours. Not to mention crashing the website... but we're up and running now.

In related news: Be sure to watch Praise the Lord on TBN, Thursday December 1st. Steve "Sting" Borden will be hosting Praise for the first time! If you miss it, you can watch a replay online at www.tbn.org

Catch the show, which airs at 10 PM EST (7 PM on Planet California), then join us for a forum party afterward!

Foooooo...

Feathers. Lots of 'em. In the hall, in the kitchen, but mostly in the bathtub.

Why? Because it's dark outside and my darling husband has no place to clean the pheasant he got today. So he's in the tub with the bird. Cleaning it. In the bathtub. Hey, why not? He WAS going to clean it in my kitchen, but after the squirrel episode I said no way.

When he's done I'm going to stick the Shop-Vac nozzle in the bathroom door, turn it on and suck all the floaters out of the air before tackling the tub. It's the least I can do for my hunter guy, who is so happy about his bird... Methinks roasted pheasant on Thanksgiving sounds good! A turkey shall be spared this year.

Thanks, God. Once again you have provided. (Next time, can you send us one that's already nekkid? Just kidding... sort of...)

*fooooo* (blowing feathers a la Hudson Hawk)

Faith, Snow, and Faith

Faith I

I was conversing with a friend on IM the other day. I re-read our conversation afterward, then went back and read some of the others we'd had. One thing struck me, and that was how I come across in (rapid) print as opposed to how I really sound. It's a common thing on the internet, and doesn't generally bother me. However, with the fast pace and randomness of our conversations, he has got to be wondering just what kind of Christian I am due to some of the comments I'd made. So, to explain (more for my own peace of mind than anything else):

1. Verbiage. I use masked cursing online more than I use it verbally (i.e. $#%@!!). It's faster when I'm aggravated about something (namely, my shift key not working) to type that than to say "Oh, gee, my shift key isn't working." I don't type 100+ words a minute so I use shortcuts. So assume it stands for "drat-diddly-dee" or something, OK?

2. The Playboy magazines. I've been an "automatic renewal" subscriber for years now. Why? I like to read them. No, really... I called once to see if it was available without pictures, but it wasn't except in the Braille edition. (I can't read Braille.) I like the interviews, the product reviews, some of the fiction and Raw Data. It's the only thing that might be considered smut that you'll find in our house. The hubby and I read it in turn and discuss articles with each other and I have no problem with that whatsoever. And we hide it when my brother is here.

3. Grade-school grudges. I don't have any, really, life's too short for that. But I refer to those people as I knew them then, since I haven't seen or heard from them since. Maybe they regret treating people like dirt. Maybe they talk about me the same way ("Oh, yeah, the weird chick..."). Maybe they don't think about it at all. I don't have any other points of reference so they're stuck in my memory as the mean girls. I hope we can find some other common ground to discuss besides grade-school history anyway, though I had a great trip down memory lane looking up our former teachers. I'm going to write to one of them.

4. Truck worship. Yeah, I'm just throwing that in there... (This is going out to everyone I've ever IM'd with a photo of myself hugging the truck.) I love vehicles, and I love my truck. I'm not obsessed with it, but since it's the nicest thing we own, I tend to yap about it. I picked him out, I named him, and he's like our first-born child since we don't have any actual ones to spoil. Not worship; unconditional love. Did I mention he's purple? What's not to love?

Snow

It snowed yesterday. Not here, but in the higher elevations. We took above-mentioned truck for a drive today to look at the fall foliage and wound up near Lake Jean. Hubby was surprised to see that there was enough snow to call out the plow trucks! It was the wet, heavy kind that's great for snow sculptures. Unfortunately I was unprepared, having only a long-sleeve shirt and no jacket or gloves, and the wrong shoes. I got out long enough to throw a token snowball at my husband, lost a shoe, and hopped around until I could retrieve it and get back in the truck. The remaining snow was pretty to see among the fall colors, though. The sky was simply incredible today too. Still... snow a week before Halloween? Might not have to move to Canada after all!

Faith II

Faith is a family friend. She and her husband are a truck-driving team; they are long-haul (or over-the-road) truckers and only get home a couple days a month. I missed seeing them this time around but my husband got to see them for a bit. They presented him with a goodie bag full of... drum roll... ELK! We now have elk steaks and elk loin in our freezer. Man, that's even better than venison. I'm stoked (and thankful, since we lost almost all our meat when the freezer quit). Faith, by the way, is the neighbor who invited me to come work for her for a couple weeks 6 years ago. I met my future husband my first day there, and I'm still working there. I'm grateful for the former; the latter is debatable. She was smart enough to get out. I got her job, but still, if a pay raise doesn't come my way soon I'm going to be seeking other employment. Guess I should be happy that I'm employed at all but I'm collecting job applications. (I'm also available for work-at-home computer stuff... hint hint.)
Anyway, Faith and Jeff are wonderful, down-home folks with big hearts and I wanted to give them a shout-out here. Hi y'all! Thanks!!! See you at Thanksgiving and keep the rubber side down!