It's probably too late...

...but this is who I'd really like to be when I grow up...

http://www.robertfulghum.com/

...or if that's not an option, I'd like to be one of his friends.

Yay...

...once again, we managed to avoid the 'snowpocalypse'! All the precipitation we had yesterday melted off before the end of the day...and the clouds disappeared. So it's clear, sunny, windy...and friggin' COLD here, but no snow! The low last night was about 28 and is supposed to be in the teens tonight...today's high is about 32 but the gusty winds are making it seem a LOT colder. I'm just thankful I don't live someplace that has these kinds of temperatures on a regular basis!
They're forecasting that we'll be back to our regular rain and mid 40s by Sunday or Monday...that works for me! As a born Oregonian, I know I won't melt in the rain...and my undercarriage has already rusted out, LOL!
Have a good weekend, stay as warm and dry as you can...

Um...yeah...

Snow snow snow...

...looks like Winter finally arrived in Portland! We dodged the bullet a couple of weeks ago when they forecast snow for lower elevations here...and it didn't happen...but not this time. We had about an inch on the ground this morning, but that all had melted off by Noon. It started coming down again about 1:30PM, and is now snowing heavily with a forecast of lows in the 20s overnight tonight, and in the 'teens' tomorrow night...I think this might stick around for a few days.
Oy, glad we have lots of foodage in the house already...I'm NOT going out in it! I hate snow!
It's kind of weird, sometimes it seems we have our worst winter weather in February and March, it's worse when we've had a stretch of warmish temps, because then all the spring plants get started then frozen when it goes really cold again. And all the wild birds have been acting like it was spring, LOL...singing their territorial songs and "Look at me!" songs, and now they're huddled in the hedges wondering what the hell happened!
I'll try to remember to get a photo or two tomorrow to post...LOL, in the meantime, I think I'll have another cuppa tea and enjoy my nice warm snuggy home!

I hate to admit it...

...but I'm a "serial hobbyist". There have been so many things over the years that have caught my interest and that I absolutely KNEW I wanted to do...and I DID them...for a while. A few years ago it was miniatures...little houses, teeny tiny furniture and household items...trips to Miniature Shows and hobby shops for new and exciting finds...toys of all different sorts! We still have a back bedroom full of ALL kinds of weird and wonderful sh...um, stuff for mini roomboxes, vignettes and assorted whatnot.
I mean how can you resist wanting to play when you see things like these at the Seattle show:
(miniatures.about.com/od/miniaturescommunity/ig/Miniature-Roombox-Gallery)

Jewelry shop in a set of old books-1" scale

French Patisserie roombox-kitchen and shop-1" scale

Garden shop in a set of gardening books-1" scale

Picnic in a teacup-1/4" scale

However, it soon becomes very clear that this is a time-consuming and expensive hobby! Unless you know how to MAKE a lot of the stuff yourself, you pay a premium for the labor-intensive tiny accessories that you want. And rightfully so, I should add!
Can you imagine the work involved in not only this room but in all the tiny food?!

Bakery by Fern R. (www.fernr2000.com)

close-up of bakery case

 

Close-up of bread rack

And the artistic talent of these people is remarkable! The foods are all Fimo or Sculpey, painstakingly formed and painted. It makes me feel very inadequate, LOL!
At any rate, we have moved on from miniatures, PB found beading, and I gravitated over to digital scrapbooking, with a side trip into some papercrafting, LOL...I think there may be a giant garage sale in our future, involving lots of mini stuffs! Maybe sometime this summer, since I'm home all the time now and can try and get it sorted out! Plus it would be really nice to have that other bedroom available again...

Well, it's official...

...I'm no longer merely unemployed, I'm RETIRED! I got my first Soc. Security benefit payment today...
I think it may take me a while to get used to the reality, LOL...I pretty much always assumed that I would just keel over at my desk someday, but I certainly hadn't counted on the "reduction in force" that swept through the institution where I worked! And finding a new job here in Oregon (at my age) turned out to be a joke... So when the unemployment ran out, there really weren't many options left. So I decided to just go ahead and do it.
Between my retirement from work and Soc. Sec., I'm just over the "poverty level" guidelines for the U.S.! Yippee! Thankfully, my sis and I live together and share expenses...otherwise neither one of us would make it. Plus my youngest is here with us, and she contributes too...so we're all good.
So now I have an excuse to spend all day on the internet, ROFLMAO! Like I really needed one anyway...
OK, off to the grocery store...they're forecasting some snow for the Portland metro area over the next couple of days, so I want to make sure I don't have to go out for anything if it does!

St. Valentine's Day...

Seriously...

Truly!

I found the sink...

...it was hiding under every cereal bowl, spoon and cup we own, LOL! Three sick people in one household makes for a LOT of dirty dishes, and no one with enough energy to clean up after everyone... But I did get to it today, and even made pork chops and stuffing for dinner, with some buttered peas and (instant) roasted garlic baby red potatos (I Love Idahoan!)...and I owe Jen a birthday cake (um, from December) so I told her I would try to make that tomorrow. We'll see how I feel then...
PB & I did run out to K-Mart yesterday afternoon, we got a new cordless phone/answering machine and one of those laundry caddy thingys. It fits nicely in between the washer and dryer, I just wish it was longer...it doesn't really hold much. But it does keep the things we use most handy without having them on the top of the dryer.
PB went back to work today, but she was exhausted by the time she got home...I guess there was one day this week that they had 10 people out sick, so they were VERY glad to have her back! It takes a lot of bodies to feed over a thousand students 3 meals a day...plus the priests, staff/faculty and all the catering they do.
The whole crew here seems to be back on the road to recovery...but we 'staggered' coming down with it...first PB, then me, then Jen...so Jen's still feeling pretty crappy, but we did manage showers and a bedding change today too, so maybe that will help. I just hope PB didn't go back to work too soon, she looked awful when she got home. But she went to bed right at 8...she gets up at 4:30 to be at work by 6AM, so hopefully a good nights sleep will see her through tomorrow. She has Sundays & Mondays off, so that will give her a couple of days to regroup.
Thanks again for all the healthy healing wishes sent our way (towards the barn, LOL!), I do believe they helped, and they are certainly appreciated! Have a spiffy weekend all...

Graham crackers...

...and a tub of vanilla frosting...cinnamon toast and tea with lots of milk and sugar...hot cocoa and buttered toast. All variations of the "comfort food" we've been eating here this week, LOL. It's funny how sometimes you just need that little something that Mom used to fix for you when you were small and sickly. It can make you feel like you're being cared for, even though you have to make it for yourself.
I had to run out for milk last night, so stopped at Subway and got us all sandwiches...$5 footlongs, you know. Jen and PB each had the Spicy Italian, and I had a BLT. Pretty good, PB said she could even almost TASTE hers, LOL!
This crud has hit her the worst, she has no voice, or only a croak...runny nose, cough, sore throat, earaches, chest congestion...the works! And she works in Food Service, so she REALLY shouldn't be there as long as she's still germy. She hardly ever calls out, so they know it's pretty bad when she does...she's worked in the kitchen at University of Portland for over 30 years and they know she doesn't abuse her sick time! The rest of us (Jen & me) have just been generally puny, achy, and sinus-y (I know that's not a real word, but...) with sore throats and earaches and lots of snot.
It's just been lots of naps, tea, and more naps for the last week...oh yeah, and a couple of loads of laundry, LOL. Our old dryer expired a couple of weeks ago, and we got a new one delivered last Saturday. It's pretty spiffy...and it dries things REALLY quickly too, LOL! And today the answering machine part of the cordless phone went south and started just making odd noises continuously...so we had to turn it off to make it stop. So looks like a trip to K-Mart or somewhere is is order...we also want to get a "laundry caddy" to put between the washer and dryer to store the detergent, spray-on stain stuff, etc...like this, maybe:

So, maybe we'll both feel up to going out tomorrow...I hope so...
Many thanks to all who've sent good wishes for our speedy recovery...it's appreciated.

Cough, snort...

I don't remember...

...renewing our subscription to the "Virus of the Month" club, but apparently I did...we're all sick here. Lots of coughing, sneezing, headache, achy muscles...and lots and LOTS of SNOT! Bleh!
Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup for dinner tonight, yupyupyup...followed by a hot spiced cider with some "medicine" in it, LOL.

Interesting website...

I think I'll be spending some time here...

http://tinybuddha.com/

Well...???

Firefox has encountered an unexpected problem with windows...

 

Unfortunately, I can't find a non-YouTube version for Canada...sorry...

An explanation...sort of...

...you see...there's actually a story behind both our cats' names. We always wait to name any animal we get (unless they come already named) 'cause we believe they "grow" their own name. And they always do...
In the case of Turdle, she was a tiny kitten I got one summer from the proverbial "kid with a box in front of the grocery store". She was the last one left, and the kid was in tears...I didn't have permission to bring one home (I had recently moved back in with my Mom & Sis, also another story) but I stuffed her in my jacket and off we went.
Mom grumbled quite a bit, but PB (my sis) and I convinced her to let her stay. She was a tiny little thing, only about 10 or 12 weeks old, but she was a holy terror...into everything, and that game they love..."let's see how far we can get through the entire house without ever actually touching the floor!" Yeah, that one... Mom would sit in her recliner in the living room and kick her house slippers off and nap. On this particular day, she was in the house napping, PB & I were out front in the yard doing some weeding, edging, etc. The front door was open and suddenly we hear Mom yell "You little TURD!" The kitten had climbed into her slipper and peed...um, yeah...Mom wasn't happy...and we wouldn't stop laughing.
But it was a sort of natural progression...Tortie/Turtle/Turdle...it makes more sense if you have a warped mind, LOL.
In the case of Monster, again, nothing but a small handful of fluffy furball when he came to live with us...we got him from a friend whose cat had littered and had pretty much picked him as the one we wanted. We jokingly called him "our little porkchop". Turdle was an adult cat by that point, and had NO use whatsoever for this little extremely annoying bundle of energy! We found ourselves yelling elebenty times a day "Leave her alone, you little monster!" So that's how THAT happened...the 'Potamus part came about after he topped about 15 lbs. and just kept getting bigger! He's neutered, so he weighs more than he might otherwise...but that breed is very large, and some males can get up to 30 lbs. If you're interested, Wikipedia has pretty good info on them, plus some pretty cool photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Forest_Cat
I've always had a love of black and white tuxedo kitties...and he certainly is MY kitty...ask him, he'll tell you!
And this has always been my favorite photo of him.

I was a Mountain Lion in my previous life!

My second favorite is this one...

So furry handsome!

Both of these photos are several years old, he's 9 yrs. old now...and still my big baby...
Turdle is 14 and starting to get grey in spots...plus it's obvious her joints ache, and she can't jump up on things like she used to, some days she has trouble getting on the couch...
So there you have it...the story of how our kitties got their names.
TL;DR?

By request...

Someone...we won't mention any names...said I needed to put up photos of our two kitty-butts on here. Be careful what you ask for, LOL...

This is Turdle (aka Turd)

And this would be Monster (aka 'Potamus)

Both very comfy on the couch on a cold, windy day...

Turdle is a cranky old Tortoiseshell lady, and the Monsterpotamus is a domestic long-hair with a LOT of Norwegian Forest Cat somewhere in his genes! He's nearly 25 lbs. of the biggest, neediest, paranoid baby you've ever seen!

THIS is actually a much more realistic photo of his sleeping habits...

basket case

...upside down, belly showing...out cold with his eyes open!

Poor underfed, unloved puddy-tat, BWAHAHAHAHA...

This is freakin' AWESOME...

The Skin Gun!

Caution: Graphic images

This actually made me cry...imagine how many people can benefit from this treatment! Now we just need to get a skin gun into every hospital burn unit...imagine how amazing it would be to be able to see this kind of recovery in less than a week!

Grateful...

...is what I am! That I don't live anywhere in the path of the enormous winter storm that's going on right now. That we have power, and heat, and lots of food in the house. There's lots of folks out there right now who don't! Stay warm and safe, please.

It's cold and very windy here, but a clear beautiful day otherwise. It's very deceiving, you don't even realize how cold it is until you actually go outside...my Mom used to call this kind of wind "lazy wind", that is, it's too lazy to go around you and instead just goes straight through you! We're very fortunate to live in a place with a fairly moderate climate...but there are always exceptions, LOL. We've had the occasional snow and/or ice storm that brings the city to a complete standstill. And it doesn't take very much for that to happen,LOL! We're really not prepared for weather extremes, and the people here (unless they're from someplace where it DOES snow) don't know how to drive in any kind of snow or ice conditions. I certainly don't! The winter of 2008 was one of those exceptions...we had a week of snow and blizzard conditions that turned the streets into skating rinks, and caused school and business closures for several days.
This was our front porch Christmas week 2008:

And the back deck:

It may not seem like much to other folks, but we just aren't prepared for this kind of thing in the metro area, LOL! Just a few miles north, on the slopes of Mt. Hood, they are...but it happens there every year. Down on the "valley floor", not so much.

So to all of you dealing with wind, snow, ice, power outages and suchlike...you have my best wishes and good thoughts today. Hang in there...tomorrow (2/2) is Imbolc, we're halfway through Winter and on the way to Spring!