Thursday, November 28, 2024

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

I have so much to be thankful for. And I've taken to speaking my gratitude out loud each and every morning on my way to work and on Sundays on my way to pick up groceries.

I have a whole list of people and things that I speak my gratitude for. 

And today, we'll be visiting with DH's family, enjoying good company and good food.

May your day be filled with the same.

See you Monday.

Monday, November 18, 2024

Miscellaneous Monday

 

It's finally official--I'm no longer treasurer for my writers group. I handed over the reins at the beginning of October and I haven't looked back. It's been nice. Now, I am still on the board as I'm the website person and the Classroom Coordinator. But the workload is less and different.

* * * * *

As for being a member of a writers group--I'm not writing. I've had no interest and no motivation to work on the revamp I've mentioned in previous posts. I've been meaning to contact my cover artist and rework our agreement a little bit to forgo the print cover options and just get all seven covers and the Amazon A+ graphic and move on.

* * * * *

Hip, hip, hooray--we have finally hired a new employee to replace the guy that quit back in the summer. New guy starts today. We really enjoyed the break in expenses, but DH (aka bossman) was being run ragged; plus he'll be selling fireworks come mid-December so we really needed another tech in the fold to compensate. This is the "slow" time of year, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge for him to get ramped up. Not only that, but he's young--early thirties--so he should have the energy and none of the other challenges bossman is hampered with. Primarily that of being the owner and having to do owner tasks.

* * * * *

The weather has been gorgeous. Cool overnight and lovely during the day. Who'd have thunk a mere few years ago, much less a decade or two, that I would have embraced sleeping with the windows open with temps in the 50s? Certainly not moi. But as I'm now a woman of a certain age, the body is requiring less warmth, especially while sleeping.

* * * * *

Last but not least, I want to share The Asher House.

The Asher House is a 240-acre animal sanctuary in Oregon, run by a guy named Lee Asher. He LOVES dogs. You can tell so easily.

The Asher House mostly rescues dogs, usually from shelters where they're in danger of being euthanized or from bad home situations. But they will rescue any animal in need. There are horses, alpacas, llamas, cats, birds, goats, cows, and pigs. I'm sure there may be a few more species in the sanctuary, but those are the ones I've seen on videos.

Now, when I dream of winning billions of dollars via the lottery or some old relative coming out of the woodwork and leaving me a fortune, this type of place was the "dream." But watching this guy and these videos, you see just how much money and work and time and effort it requires.

And since he's got things sorted--if I do play the lottery and win, I think I'll just make a huge donation!

If you're interested in more information, here are the social media links:

https://www.theasherhouse.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheAsherHousehttps://instagram.com/theasherhouse?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= https://www.youtube.com/@theasherhouse_ https://www.tiktok.com/@theasherhouse

And if you have some spare money, please consider helping Lee and his crew help these animals. There's a donate button right at the top of the website (the first link).

* * * * *

Hope you're well. Catch you in a couple of weeks. And...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

 

Monday, November 4, 2024

Snoopy-O-Lantern!

 

Here it is, finally. I messed up the ear a little bit. Should have carved things in a different order. But over all, I was mighty pleased with the result. I love Snoopy. :0)

* * * * *

Now that Halloween has passed it's time to look forward to Thanksgiving and to Christmas...although Christmas is already on the radar. I've been buying presents here and there because I hate late minute shopping and I like to have most of the work done and dusted so I can actually enjoy the season.

As for Thanksgiving, we'll be spending the day with DH's family. 

But before we head out for good eats and good company, DD and I are planning a trip to the zoo on Thursday. The last time we went to the zoo on Thanksgiving, we'd planned to make a tradition of it, because we both love the zoo. But along came Mom and it's taken me a while to recover. 

When were last at the FW Zoo, there was some new exhibit construction going on, so we're looking forward to seeing the new stuff this year.

* * * * *

Running a little behind on the blog post today, but here it is finally.

Not much to share at the moment, so it's also a bit short.

Take care.

Monday, October 21, 2024

Miscellaneous Monday

 

Image courtesy of IMDB.

DH, DD, and I went to see this a couple of weeks ago as part of DH's birthday celebrations and it was really cute and somewhat of a tear-jerker. (Your mileage may vary on the tears, but mine flowed.)

From IMDB: After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

DD and I saw the trailer in one of our viewings of Twisters and made definite plans to see it. It's based on the book of the same name by Peter Brown.

I highly recommend the film, although I think by now it's no longer in major theaters. But if it comes to a streaming platform, definitely give it a watch. Also it has a message or two or three.

* * * * *

I'm a little late in my fresh start goals third quarter review, so quickly -- I'm not doing all that great. I made progress on five of twelve line items. *shrugs*

Sometimes life takes a detour. It's not a bad thing, but you're just not traveling the road you thought you would be. We'll see how the fourth quarter goes.

* * * * *

HOCKEY IS BACK !

So DD and I attended the home opener, which our boys in Victory Green won. They also won their season opener a couple of days prior as well as the two games following, to start the season 4-0... Then they lost game five to a team they probably shouldn't have lost to, but losses happen--can't win 82 games. We have tickets to Teacher Appreciation Night in December and the two bobble head nights in the spring. :0)

* * * * *

Hope you're well. Back in a couple of weeks.

Monday, October 7, 2024

It's Fall Y'all, (a Part II)

 

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos.

 

FIRST--If you can help the bee hives / farms in Florida and North Carolina devastated by the hurricane, please do so:

https://greatergood.org/help-save-bees-with-project-peril

GreaterGood.org is collecting money to send some sort of pollen substitute.

* * * * *

Since I postponed the previous post by a week, I thought I'd get back on track by posting this week. Not that it matters, really, lol. I just have stuff to share, so I decided to surprise y'all with back-to-back Monday postings.

Last post, I said I was going to bake and bake I did. I didn't make pup-cakes as I had been thinking I might. Instead, I tried a lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe that's on the back of my lemon extract box. I also wanted to experiment with it a little and make it pumpkin flavored rather than lemon.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Homemade Icing

And guess what? Both versions were tasty. I think the pumpkin version needs a bit more pumpkin flavor but otherwise, the experiment worked. I also saw a mini bundt pan while I was in Walmart, so I ended up impulse buying it. Now I need to test how much batter to put in it so that the end result isn't some over-puffed up bit of baked goods. A quick Google search said 2/3 to 3/4. Good to know for next time.

* * * * *

I've been tackling some backyard tasks in an effort to A) get the backyard tidied up and B) stay as active as possible each day. One of the projects I started last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) was clearing out the pile of dead branches and limbs that we've just piled up anytime something fell. I got tired of looking at the untidiness of it and decided to get started.

The brush, limbs, and chunks of old tree trunks came out to where the green stuff curves. There's still more to go as you can see, but for several hours worth of effort, it looks waaaaay better than it did.

* * * * *

In between bouts of the above yard work two Saturdays ago, DD and I went shopping and, along with some cool Christmas yard decorations--images to come in December, I bought a carving pumpkin. I've opted for a Peanuts theme. Pictures of my Snoopy-o-lantern also to come!

* * * * *

And something really cool happened--I recently discovered that an audio book narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch that I'd downloaded from YouTube and converted for my iPod many moons ago and whose files I can no longer find is available from Audible! I hadn't thought to search for it but I just so happened to hear it as a preview after the end of some other book I listened to. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear it and also to be able to buy/download that sucker into a safe place (that being my Audible account) where I'll have it for years to come!!

* * * * *

And last, but not least--

I finally found and tried the new Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I wasn't impressed.

* * * * *

Well have a super week. Catch you in two!