Sunday over already?

It got just about to 80 degrees today and the sun was out full force without a cloud in the sky.  This is the reason I love living here!! 

So I got a bit more of that book read. For my oldest,  I'm on page 90. :-)

I went to the grocery store this morning to get bread for my mom. I remembered why I hate going grocery shopping on Sundays.  So glad I only needed to get a few things though so I got in an express line.  I got some apples and blueberries for me too. I visited her a few hours too while a contractor we use a lot replaced the kitchen faucet and tightened up her bathroom toilet.  We played cards. She beat me almost every game of solitaire. Oye!

Well back to work tomorrow. It was a nice weekend. 

Fudge

I have off this weekend so it has been nice having time to do whatever.  I did run a few errands. I did some banking and got the dogs licenses, less one.  We got post card reminders for all 5 but now that Kaci passed in October, I asked them to go ahead and remove her from their records. So that's done and all 4 dog are legal for another year.

It was really nice out today. Got up in to the mid 70's.   Ahhh..... Too bad it won't last.  I did 3 loads of laundry including my mom's.  I also did get some more of that book read.  I'm going to read now for a little while until Pit Bulls and Parolees comes on.  Right now I'm at page 79. 

I also sang some on Singsnap and also made some of the fudge I sell at Southernbellegourmet.com. I added some peanut butter on top too. Yum!!

Temperature Ping Pong

It is no wonder layering these days is so popular. It makes total sense here in central Texas.  This morning it started out in the 30's and by afternoon it was in the mid 70's. The problem is it stays pretty cool in the house even when it is warm out, until it stays relatively warm (morning to night). So I walked this morning with hat, scarf, gloves and long coat. Then this evening didn't even wear a jacket to mom's.

I'm looking forward to a nice warm day tomorrow again! 

My oldest finally had closing on her and hubby's first home today.  It took several months but they are finally homeowners. I hope they love making their first house their very own.  Too bad it is still icy and snowy back there which will make moving a bit tougher for them.  But I wish her luck and much happiness in their new home.

Oh Deer...

Today while I was doing my aerobics portion of my exercise, I glanced out the front door and saw a deer grazing on our grass. So I grabbed the camera and got a pretty good shot.   I feel bad for this deer because it has a lot of spots on it which I can only assume are scars from being hurt.  I see plenty of deer limping around too, but they seem resilient. I guess as long as they can bend their necks to eat, they'll survive.

I have been faithfully reading every day and I'm on page 61. It is not all that intriguing to read as is it more about different stages in life as we age. I haven't really read anything I don't already know.  I'd be more interested in a story line with a juicy plot. But I'll finish this one first. No really. I will.

Veggie heaven

This evening I could get creative with dinner because hubby was looking at some antiques right after 5 PM. So I pulled out some of the vegetables I stir fried last night and got some more out to cut up and use. I added some peanuts to it too for protein and had stir fry again for dinner. It has been a while since I used my cast iron wok.

See  the orange cauliflower?  It is called cheddar Cauliflower due to extra beta-carotene it has. It has 25% more Vitamin A than the white cauliflower but it tastes the same to me.









Today I put the last set of Invisalign trays (braces) in for this 8 week period. Next time I go I am suppose to start wearing rubber bands supposedly. I am not too thrilled at that prospect. I just really hope that they are easy to put on.  I really didn't know that getting these type of braces would require rubber bands.

I have a dentist appointment next week too but I am not concerned because I have brushed my teeth more times per day the last several months than I ever have. If they find a lot of tartar I will be shocked (and mad)!
 

Solitaire

Every night that either I or Steve go over to mom's house we play Solitaire.  We each take turns at it and cheer each other on. It started back right after dad died. It was sort of something that we did to spend time together and at the same not not feel obligated to talk about anything that might have been painful to discuss. Now it has become a nightly ritual.  Hubby went over with me this evening and he had the best score since we started playing last July.  He got rid of all the cards on the table and had 8 CARDS LEFT in his hand. He has set the bar high now.  My best score was all cards gone and 6 cards left in my hand and that was a few months ago.

It is a chilly 44 degrees out right now, but it is suppose to turn warmer again with a possible high of 80 degrees by this weekend.  I'll take it!

She's back....

After at least 4 months my car is back in the garage...finally!  Hubby even got it cleaned inside and out so that it was all pretty coming back 'home' into the garage.  Hopefully I can keep it there again.  Hubby promised not to buy any more things unless he can fit them on his side of the garage. It has been parked in the driveway all these months (just to clarify it wasn't gone).

I made sure to use some more of the goodies from the Farmers Market.  I made Kale chips and had some Brussel sprouts and beets (which I cooked in the crock pot).  This was to go along with our meal which was hot dogs.  The good (my food) with the bad (hubby's pick).  He just had hot dogs.  :-)

Reading

I actually started reading a book. Those who know me well...pick yourself up from the floor.  My oldest took on a challenge to read 52 books in a year and I was so impressed, and embarrassed at the same time that I never read books.  I can't remember when the last time was that I read a book.

So I started reading New Passages by Gail Sheehy.  I have only read the Note from the Author so far but I do plan to try to read some every day.  It may not always be a chapter but this way I will gradually get it read.  My goal is to read two books this year.  I know it sounds easy peasy but again we're talking about someone who hasn't read a book in years.  LOL

I got some work done today and also dusted and swept the living room, hallway, and cleaned the powder room too. The entire time I clean I wish I had a cleaning person again.  I just hate it that much.  LOL.  It just gets dirty again so fast.  But for now the living room looks fantastic!  

Watched a little figure skating on tv too.  I'm impressed how so many men can do a quad jump these days!  There just doesn't seem to be enough time for that many rotations.  Impressive!

Thinking about the youngest today too because she is back east where they had over 30 inches of snow over the weekend.  That is a ton of snow.  I sure hope she stays safe and doesn't have to drive anywhere until the roads are good and clear.

Farmers Market

Since I discontinued Greenling due to their requirements to take delivery every 2 weeks minimum I went to the local farmers market today and will keep doing that for my local veggies shopping.  I had to scrape the windows!  Felt weird having to do that but it was light enough that I could use a credit card.

I got a bunch of food!  I froze 7 packages of a variety of vegetables.

Still have a lot of the cauliflower as it was a big one, beets, spinach, salad mix, Bok Choy, Swiss chard and left over scallions and broccoli and Brussels sprout to have this next week too.  I may try to break up the spinach/salad mix into little zip baggies to see if the servings can last longer.  Could stir fry some of the spinach too.  Hopefully not much will go to waste.  It sucks that hubby doesn't eat any of these vegetables.  Oh well.

The reason I got the salad mix is because I have been getting the bagged salad (due to lack of time to make one) as I like the bags with carrots, & other things included and you guessed it, yes they were DOLE.  Luckily nobody in this state has gotten Listeria from Dole pre-packaged salads but sort of made me not want to go there any more.

I got my hair done today and she did it wrong. I wanted the whole thing colored brown and then a few blond chunks.  She started with some chunks but did way more than the 4-5 she did last time and I should have brought the picture because now it just all blends in together, nothing distinctive.  She just touched upt my brown after finishing removing the foils from the blond (which don't really look blond to me). I kept asking her when she was coloring my brown but she didn't understand me, because she said she was going to do it last, but as I said only touched it up. When I got home I could pull away part of my bangs and yup there was the gray I wanted colored.  I've been going to her for years and we are sort of friends too, so I'm letting it go, but next time when it is time for a coloring which at this point will be a few months away, I'll take a picture and explain it better.  Now that I think of it I think she did the entire coloring brown and then a week later did the chunks last time. I actually don't know why the chunks can't be foiled, then the brown done to all the rest. With the foils on the brown wouldn't get into the blond right?.Let it set and then rinse, etc.

It actually looks more reddish than anything else. Oh well.  I don't really go anywhere often anyway so no big deal, but I wish I could get what I want and it is foolish of me to expect her to remember what she did last time.

Ha-ha

This morning I was coming back from the walk with Merlin. The wind chill was somewhere in the 20's. The winds had been gusting all night long.  I glanced toward our house and saw something hanging from one of our trees in the back. It looked like a blue bed sheet or something.  As I walked by I thought that I need to remember it so we could get it off of the tree.

I came inside and took off my coat, hat, scarf, gloves and hung up Merlin's lease in the garage. Then I went inside and hubby was sitting on the stool at the kitchen counter. He glanced up from his computer and said "Hi".  I was trying to thaw out and said there was something blue hanging from one of our trees out back.  He went to the window and didn't see it. I told him he had to go outside to see it and I went out to the porch with him.  There was NO blue sheet thing hanging from any tree.  I looked around to see if it fell or got blown off.  Nope.  Then I looked out the front window to see if it was on the ground there. Nope.  I told him I swear there was a big blue sheet hanging there.

He couldn't wait any longer and opened a cupboard under the counter and pulled out this blue thing which was a tarp he had on the back porch and said "Oh do you mean this?". 

He had seen me looking at something a bit longer than normal  as I was approaching the house so he went out, saw it and got it really fast and hid it so that he could play a joke on me and let me think I was losing it.
Ha-ha, very funny.  Not!

The pictures were a re-enactment to show you what it looked like. Before and After. The neighbors dogs played 'extra's.  :)

Lunchtime blog

Well so much for thinking it would turn out to be a nice day.  It is now cloudy again (I'd say at least 50-70%) and the temperature is still only at 54 degrees with wind gusts up to 35 mph.  Oye!  Still I know that is better than at a lot of other places!

I turned all my sound settings to the original defaults and got my regular computer sounds back today.  I'm waiting to see if a local computer place contacts me as I wrote to their contact page yesterday but didn't get any ..thank you. screen after I entered everything. Just got same contact page up again. Who knows if it is working. If it is not, what sort of computer place is that anyway, right??

I may just sing on a different computer. I tried on my laptop but it sounded like I was singing into an empty soup can.  So next is to try the one upstairs that I used for back up last week. But that will likely be on the weekend when I have more time.

At least it is nice to be back in my office working again and all the furkids have their favorite sleeping spots filling up again. A few of them like it here in my office so much that they want to sleep in here even when I am NOT in here. LOL.

Not sure if I will write anymore this evening. There may just not be anything that comes to mind.  Well off to go finish eating my salad and getting back to work shortly.

First One

Okay I didn't blog yesterday.  It was a long work day and I also managed to screw up my sound system trying to get the microphone to work that I couldn't even hear any pings from my computer anymore, which may be a good thing normally but they help alert me to important emails and such.  So anyway, will post twice today then.

It was rainy when I first got up but today was exercise indoor day so that didn't matter. It is already looking sunny out and it is 53 degrees. Not bad for mid-January!

Cute!!

I cannot take credit for this picture. Hubby went out on the balcony and saw a little movement from the watering can, so he got his camera and got it ready to shoot.  He opened the door from the other end of the balcony and used the zoom in and saw the squirrel pop its head out just in time for a picture!  See now do you believe me ??  :0)

I'm happy I got my new computer.  I'm happy I can work again on the system back in my office. I am NOT happy because I cannot get the microphone to work with the dang thing in SingSnap.  So I am at the frustration point tonight.  Going to go get a snack and cool off!

Yippee

I got my new computer today. Yippee!!  It was really fast. Ordered it Friday and got today at no extra cost. Now please last me at least a year if not two. Please!!   I am looking forward to working back in my office tomorrow. I was getting quite a workout working upstairs in Stac's old bedroom.  I would forget something and need this, then I'd go down for breakfast and take it upstairs. Then I'd take down my dishes, then back upstairs, then downstairs to let a dog out, then upstairs back to work, then downstairs to let the dog in...you get my drift?  :)

Odd Nest

The other day it was really windy outside and I kept hearing banging up on the balcony.  So I decided to go up there and see what may have been making noise.  I saw two watering cans near the railing and thought maybe they were causing the noise. 

So I picked up one and then the other. The second one was heavy. My first thought was that hubby must have put some dirt in it or something.  Next thing I knew there was movement so I put in down next to that plant that you see and in FRONT of the wooden planter.  I was a bit startled by a fat furry gray thing climbing out of it!  It was a squirrel!!  It ran off the porch.  I went inside and just left the watering can upright there in front of the planter.  Too funny!!

The picture above (and below) is actually one I just took. Would you believe that squirrel (or squirrels) moved it back over to the other side of the planter with the opening facing the outside (which part of the lower roof  is close to it). So the watering can does have another purpose that a creative squirrel discovered. :) 

Evening

Got Pit Bulls & Parolees on TV.  Ever notice that all the potential adopters are from far away like L.A.?  Doesn't anybody local like these dogs?  LOL I'm just impressed that they do a house check and drive all the way out to these potential adopters house!  (the show is on Animal Planet station) for anyone interested.

I did some laundry today and got some work done.  When I was upstairs using the computer in Stac's room this afternoon the wind was picking up and the door from the balcony flew open and startled me for a few minutes and scattered some papers too.  Glad I was up there though because it is cold out and it would have made the house very cold if we were gone for the afternoon and  then came home. We'd probably be wondering why it was so cold too until we investigated it.

We got Sonic for dinner with mom. She eats a kids burger, well half of one and a few fries and part of a mini milk shake. She thinks they should sell 1/2 kids burger size.  Oye!  I don't think a kid unless really young would have much trouble eating a whole one. :)

Camera shots

After I took my first walk this morning, I grabbed my camera for my walk with Tika.  There were so many pink clouds out. It doesn't show up all that well but a few of the pictures I took I'm happy with so I'll share here.

I'm actually glad Tika stood still well enough for me to take them.  LOL. 












I've been watching a little of the American Idol try outs. I'm not surprised it is on its last season. It just has been on for so long. Besides there are other shows that compete with it now too like The Voice (and that has no age limit I'm pretty sure).  I've been doing more singing on singsnap these days and hope to get some singing done over the weekend too.

Today it got up to nearly 70 degrees outside.  Now this weekend it is turning cooler with highs only getting to the upper 50's. It will be like this for another month or two. One day it is bundle up for my walk, another day it is just a heavy sweater. That's okay I'm flexible!  At least it isn't in the 20's with snow outside. I'd probably skip the walk if that were the case too. ;-)

What the...?

Well so much for getting 'refurbished' computers.  The one I got in October is already shot. Well I suppose I could take it somewhere to get fixed but it may cost as much as just getting a new one. This morning I was working, systems on life was good. Then nature called.  I came back from using the bathroom and the screen was black.  So I moved my mouse around and still black.  Turned off computer and back on again and it started beeping at me.  I tried to jot down the number of beeps and look up the beep code but I didn't see anything specifically with the amount of beeps I thought I heard.  Tried off and on twice again, to no avail.
Had to go upstairs and use the back up (thankfully have one). 

I had already done the books for my vendor sales for the year too.  I'm just going to write down the figures now. No more keeping the books on a computer.  I'm going to go old fashioned route and keep the dang paperwork.  Yes I know I could have printed out my spreadsheets when I was done but who would have thought my computer of not even 3 months would crash.  Guess refurbished means it is fixed and will work like a charm for 2 months but after that all bets are off...

So..I have been great about not shopping this month so far but I'm going to have to cause this expense but it is work related so it doesn't count. Right?

Finished pictures

Hubby cleaned up the dining room floor and put another coat of sealer on it. It looks so good!  We unrolled the new rug we got for underneath the dining room table.  Everything is in its place and the room is looking mighty fine.

The tile trim around the living room perimeter is done now too.  So here are some pictures of that as well.

Nearly forgot..

I almost forgot to blog. I had to turn my computer back on too, but I remembered so I am writing a short one. I watched the State of the Union presented by President Obama tonight. His face looked very orangey to me. I think they used too much orange foundation on him. As far as his speech goes, I liked it. I cannot criticize a man who speaks about the future with hope and optimism. Period. I think he did not accomplish nearly want he wanted because of constant opposition. So we'll likely see a Republican president next. Will be interesting to see who. I'll still vote but I just don't see Democrats winning the election this time around. It was a long day and I'm pretty beat so I'm going to hit the sack. Until tomorrow...

Sad day for Bowie fans

I heard the news today about David Bowie as I'm sure many others did as well. I was so very impressed that he was able to release a new Album just a week before his death. He must have pushed on, even when feeling as bad as he looked in his video (Lazarus). 

There are many songs that must come to mind for different people when they think about him.  I couldn't get Space Oddity out of my head and starting singing Ground Control to Major Tom.  So I decided to find it singsnap and sang it in his honor.  

Tonight after I got home from mom's I heard some dogs barking out back. They weren't our dogs but they were high pitched sounding barks so they didn't sound like the dogs next door to me, until I opened the door and saw them bark frantically at the back fence in the corner. I grabbed a flash light and of course all 4 of our dogs came down with me. At first I thought a stray dog had somehow gotten into their back yard because I saw a third fairly large thing with what I thought was white-ish fur and then I saw its face. It was a very large possum hissing like crazy at the neighbor's dogs. I got my dogs in and looked up the phone number for the next door neighbor. Their phone number was disconnected!! I was really concerned for their dogs so I ran over there without even putting my coat on and rang their doorbell. Mr. answered the door and I explained what was going on in their back yard. He was so nonchalant about it, although did go out back and got his dogs inside. If they were my dogs I would have been out there as soon as I heard my dogs barking frantically like that but some people just don't care about their dogs at all. How sad! I don't know how long they were barking like that because I had just gotten home from moms. If we didn't already have 4 dogs, I'd just ask them if they want me to take them off their hands! Okay enough of my bitch session. Going to try to wind down...oh forgot to mention stepped in a big pile of dog poop so prying it out of my new sneaker bottom was fun too (not) !

2nd post

I went over to moms  this afternoon to watch a movie with her and my brother and sister and also take my mom her birthday gift.  We watched the Age of Adeline.  I had seen previews once but never saw the movie. I enjoyed it and I glad I took the time to watch it and visit. I worked today as well so it was a pretty full day.

My brother is headed back home tomorrow. My mom really enjoyed having him here to visit. She sort of got a double treat as my sister drove my brother around so when he visited she did too. She rarely visits her and so my mom got to see her more this weekend than she has in months too.

Mom requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for her birthday and my sister picked one up from a local store.  It was really delicious and I don't normally like cake.

It is going to be frigid tomorrow morning for my walk but I'll just wrap up nice and warm.  

Not a winner

I was going to blog last night after the Power ball numbers were picked but then I got distracted with letting the dogs out, then it was Saturday Night Live time so shut down for the night. 

So I will blog twice today, even if it is ramblings. The bad news is we didn't win the lottery but the good news is that no one did, so we'll play again, like millions of others. LOL  We did hit the Powerball number 13 which was a 'lucky' number for once.  That pay out is $4.  But hey, better than a stick in the eye.

My brother and sister visited my mom yesterday in the afternoon so we still had to go over for her dinner last night. I was a little bummed as I thought we might have the night off. 

Will write more later.

Got in on the craze

Well we did it. We bought some Powerball Lottery tickets. I don't normally play and the odds are incredible that we even win but I went with the ol' 'Got to Play to Win' idea. So fingers, toes, everything crossed.  It adds a little excitement to an otherwise ho hum Saturday evening too!  :)

It was in the low 40's this morning for my walk so it wasn't too bad.  I got to see some beautiful pink streaks as the sun was starting to rise.  That was nice!  It is Friday too, which is also nice. 

My brother is flying in to visit with my mom for her 89th birthday.  Hope his flight goes without a hitch.

New chairs

Hubby picked up our new la-z-boy recliner today and also the one we got for my mom who really wanted a new one that swivled. We got her one at a great clearance price, brown like she wanted.

Here's ours. I know! Doesn't it look like it belongs here??

We took dinner over and we got her chair set up for her but of course it has nice padding in the back and lower back of the seat so she isn't sure she likes it because she is used to her old chair that is broken in.    So we'll see how it goes.  If she hates it, we'll put it elsewhere in the living room and she will just have to use her old chair because nothing is going to feel exactly the same. 

My brother is coming to town tomorrow to visit my mom as her birthday is on Sunday.  It will be nice for her to see him again.  She'll be 89 years old, getting up there.  It is easy for me to remember her age, because I'm 30 years younger than her, well a little more than that until my birthday.

Weather is teasing me again. It got up to 70 today.  May be the same or slightly warmer tomorrow too. But then will be colder again.  Oh well. Just a few more months until it is Spring and it will be warm and stay that way.  Yah!

Hump Day

Well the work week is half over now, well actually over half with today being done.  It is all coming back to me now..lol.

My oldest finally got approved by the sellers lender for their short sale first home.  Only took 9 months or about that.  Sure hope this house is worth it! They'll probably stay in this home for a while!

I got a call from Greenling today. This is the place I get local produce and vegetables delivered to me once or twice a month.  I was getting the organic fruit mix until I got all the pears from my mom (she gave us Harry & David for Christmas, and then my brother accidentally sent her two dozen).  So I was eating a lot of pears for a while there.

Anyway Greenling is merging with another company and they will require a commitment to weekly or bi-weekly delivery. I checked out the new company but the selection they offer is no where near the one I'd be leaving.  I guess Greenling wasn't doing well enough so they are merging. Anyway they also were going to offer a smaller amount of vegetables called the medium bushel, for only $12 less. So you'd get nearly half the amount but for only a little over 30% less in cost. Um...no bargain there.   So no thanks.  I'll just start prying myself away from my desk and go to the local farmers market they have on Saturdays a few miles away.

I don't know how many of their customers are going to be fine with a minimum bi-weekly commitment, maybe they won't have an issue with it. But I am the only one who eats what comes from them so I'm not interested.

Okay, now all this talk of food is making me hungry.  Going to go get a snack!

Back in the groove?

So it was my second day back from the holidays and I'm back in the groove right?  We'll getting there anyway.  Still have to stop and think ..2016.

It turned winter again on us here in Central Texas. This morning it was in the low 30's and didn't get much into the 50's for a high.  Oh well. I'm sure it is much worse elsewhere like back east where my oldest is.  There is a 25% chance of rain tomorrow morning too but I still plan to walk unless it is pouring! That is where I draw the line, because even if I wear a poncho, my legs get wet!

Since my mantra this year is 'saving', I have tossed every catalog I've gotten so far this year and deleted every 'sale' email too.  I even have not ordered any jewelry from my Paparazzi business which is often very hard for me to avoid!  I haven't ordered from there since last month! LOL.

I got hubby to go over to mom's tonight as I needed to get back to work and wanted to keep my train of thought in tact.  When I go to mom's we play solitaire every night and by the time I'm done meal prep, dishes, and playing cards...it is sometimes challenging to get back into 'work' mode.  So thanks to hubby for going instead!  I got finished though so thought I'd quickly blog before he gets home.

We are getting a new lay-z-boy chair for the living room in a few days.  Will be nice to have more seating available in the living room and I'm glad we are getting a relatively smaller one because I like how the living room is larger without that love seat in it and replacing it with a chair will take up less space than another love seat.

I'm glad some of the television shows are starting back up again, including the Tonight Show although last night I didn't hear more than a few minutes of Jimmy Fallon's beginning monologue before falling asleep. Oh well. At least some prime time shows are new episodes and I will be awake for them! That;s it for now. Later!

When I am old...

When I am old....

I will be grateful for any meal made for me..
I will be happy to let my daughter take laundry to do at her house, including my unmentionables...
I will leave the outside light on at night until my daughter has pulled out of the driveway, not when she just closes the front door behind her....
I will not start every other phone call with "We've got a problem"...
I will get a hearing aide if my daughter tells me I need one..
I will unload some of my belongings that I don't need..and not ask for them back two days later...
I will make sure my grocery lists cover at least 1 week's worth of supplies...as opposed to giving out a new list as soon as I get the groceries from the last list.
I will not insist on buying brand name things that haven't been manufactured in 20 years. 
I will be flexible as to meal time if being provided for ...and won't guilt my company into staying longer.
I will try my best to never be house bound, even if its only going out once a week for lunch, and this does not include medical appointments...
I will vow to live each day to the fullest... ..

hmmm...maybe I better print this out in large print and put it somewhere where I'll find it in 30 years.

Last evening of the 'holidays'

I'm sitting in the living room la-z-boy with Ditzy on my lap, watching Long Island Medium and enjoying the last night of the holidays.

We got Sonic tonight for dinner including for mom. She gets the Jr deluxe (kids) burger and even that she thinks is too big.  Hubby said, next time we'll order from the infants menu.  LOL.  She eats so little.  But at least she is eating.

I noticed something really neat this early evening. It was not dark at 5PM!! It was even a little light after 5:30PM. Woo hoo!  I love when we are past the winter solstice!! The mornings will start being noticeably lighter earlier too. Can you tell I love daylight? :)

Going to end this now. Until tomorrow... 

Oops...

Already didn't keep my resolution to blog every day.  Just now remembered. So I'll blog twice today.  This is the first one. ttyl...   ;-)  lol...just kidding..

I was going to blog yesterday, honest...because I thought about it when I was in my office. I was clearing off my desk in preparation for back to work tomorrow.  There were several things like old receipts and stuff that didn't need to clutter up my work space and while clearing stuff off my desk blotter I looked at it and thought about needing to get a new one for this year.  I always get one of those calendar blotters that you rip off each month after it has passed.  I hadn't changed it since September... :-)  That is because I write things on them that I want to keep.  But I will get a new one soon so that my desk looks fresh and ready.

Off to grab a shower.  Will write again later..no really!!

Happy New Year~!

Today is the first day of a brand new year.  Clean slate, fresh start...blah..blah..blah.  Now we all have to get used to writing 2016. That'll take me about 3 months most likely.  We didn't stay up until midnight but had the east coast New Year's Eve show on TV and so we pretended we were in New York and said Happy New Year at 11:00PM instead. :0)  Close enough!!  What I don't get is why call it Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest. That just sounds dumb to me.  So if Ryan Seacrest stops being the host is it going to be Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve and Ryan Seacrests for a few years, now with so and so 2000 something?? I loved Dick Clark and enjoyed watching him in his prime, but he is no longer around for close to 4 years and therefore not hosting, so let's just change the name next year. Okay?

This morning I got up and took my walk like I always do on this day (if it were any other week).  I usually see a bunch of deer laying in yards or grazing on grass but I think the fireworks last night scared them away.  The first living thing I saw was a turkey vulture pearched up on a roof top of a house ahead of me.  Great!  Talk about an omen for the year to come...

Then I finally saw my first deer. Unfortunately it was laying on the grass just off the road, lifeless. Poor thing. I then realized why the turkey vulture was on top of that nearby house.  I couldn't see any outward bodily damage to the deer although I only saw one side of it. I don't know if deer can get heart attacks from fireworks.  It likely did get hit by a vehicle I guess.  I did feel sad for it.  That was the only deer I saw this morning. 

This year I'm going to have a theme. Last year's theme was Improvement, that is home improvement.  This year the theme is going to be Saving.  I want to try to save more this year.  All the major home improvements have been done (well nearly done). We still have tile around the living room floor that needs to be completed and should be done by Sunday.  So I will be spending this year focusing on the theme and seeing if we can save more this year.  Woo hoo for themes!!