I LEAVE YOU WITH ONE OF MY MOST FAVORITE...

Youtube videos! It reminds me SO much of my gang.
I think I need to take a little break from the computer. I have had a few things happen over the last few days that made me stop and think about STUFF. Nothing terribly serious, just me spinning out of control and not getting anything accomplished. Instead of me taking a deep breath and getting my head on straight, I've been "escaping" to the Internet, reading blogs. surfing around reading. pinning stuff, just being mindless and in denial of things that need to be taken care of and figured out.
Denial and Procrastination.
2 of my not so fine personality traits. So I am taking a break...it might be 12 hours or 12 days, but I'll be back.
In the meantime, I think you might enjoy this video.
Most of you probably have already this but in case you haven't (Christer) here it is:

I WON"T BE AT.....

Target, Kohls, Walmart, Best Buy on Black Friday.
First on all, I'm working....
but mostly because they don't have what I want.

GIVING THANKS

TRUMAN

I'm going through old photos and just found one of Truman and my niece when she was little. This photo must have been taken about 13 years ago. At the time my sister and her family had been visiting the local shelters looking for a puppy to add to their family. They went to both the no-kill and kill shelters and hadn't found the right dog. Eventually a litter of puppies were brought into a shelter and they adopted a little yellow lab puppy who grew into a wonderful dog.  But during one of the shelter "visits" my sister saw this huge old black dog and she ended up mentioning him in a phone conversation to me. She said he was this big old sad lug but he was just not what the family was looking for. Her words haunted me and I ended up taking a drive down to the city shelter. The animal control officer said he was at least 7 and he had been there for the required amount of time and now his time was up. He would be put down on the weekend, just a couple of days away. I looked at him and he looked back at me through the chain link kennel door. He pressed the side of his face against it and I poked my fingers between the wire and stroked his temple. I asked what the huge golf-ball size lump was on his lip and the officer said she had a vet that would take it off for 20 bucks if I took him.

So the removal was set for the next day and I said I would be there after work to pick him up. When I arrived he was still out cold and they wheeled him out to my car on one of those things that mechanics use to lay on to slide under cars. I had a 4 door sedan at the time and it took three of us to push and pull his body into the back seat. I drove to my sisters with him passed out. When I got to their house they said to come in and have dinner and afterwards he should be awake. We finished the meal and walked to the car. He was still unconscious, but I thought I smelled "poop". He was just starting to let some "go" so my sister and her husband and I hurried and pulled him out. He was so wobbly he couldn't stand up on his own. We got a sheet under him and formed a kind of sling and started to walk him around the yard. He staggered slowly like he was drunk. After a while, he got his footing and stood by himself. We sat on the deck steps and looked at him. A big black old dog stumbling around the yard. They asked me if I was regretting my decision. I shook my head  "No".

 He and I drove home a little later and he walked in the house and instantly became part of the family. Never a problem. Never a moment of trouble. He would let my cat sleep on him and he was submissive to my other dogs.

I adopted Truman when he was 7 yrs old, he weighed a 155lbs and was a Newfie/Lab mix.

He was the most gentlest dog and shared his life with us for 5 more years....just a reminder to everyone that it's not just the puppies that need homes.

Who says you can't buy LOVE?

It was the best 20 bucks I've ever spent.

LESS IS LESS

I WAS trying to be more of a minimalist. I like the clean simple thought of it but the more that I read about it, the more I started to decide that it's not totally for me. While I love the photo above I know that if it was MY home, I would slowly add things to it.

Yep, while I LOVE the clean white space....but I would start adding color, and....things

Don't get me wrong, minimalism has so many good points. I like the idea of doing with less. It makes sense to have only what you need. An example would be that there's no reason to have a huge collection of pots and pans if you just use one or two. By saving on NOT buying the whole set, you are able to buy really nice quality ones. But there's a lot of minimalism ideas that I just couldn't live with. One was having just 2 sets of sheets. One for the bed as the other was being washed. I guess that works for many people but not me. My situation of course isn't typical. Most people don't have several dogs on their bed every night. The thing that really sent me over the edge is when some in the minimalism movement seemed to be all about counting what you own. Really? Must we make everything extreme and put a number on it? Why must it be 100 things owned total? Or just 10 items of clothing. I agree, someone really doesn't need to have 50 pairs of shoes but everyone has different shoe requirements and I don't think you can put an exact number on everything. They also talked about knick-knacks and mostly bare walls. Whoa! BARE walls. I love ART too much to be restricted in that way. My walls have works of art by artists I know and adore. Walking through my home makes me happy.

And then there's the idea that an object isn't a memory.

OK, I agree you don't need some tourist trap chotchkie

Chotchkie	:
	A small piece of worthless crap, a decorative knick knack with little or no purpose. Side note: Chotchkie can be pretty, sentimental, or even occasionally useful though it usually breaks easily if useful. If you are having trouble identifying Chotchkie just look around your house or someone else's and whatever you see that a burgler wouldn't steal is probably Chotchkie.

	http://www.urbandictionary.com

 to remind you of a vacation or happy time but sometimes just the right thing can bring a fading memory soaring back to the surface. I once found a little smooth stone and I had it sitting on my window sill and every time I saw it, it made me think of that nice day.

SO I guess I'm trying to just get rid of the excess, the collection of things that I think I will someday use and still never have, the things I'm going to sell on Etsy and never have, the clothes that don't fit just right or make me feel good in them, the things that bring back bad memories like journals or photos that hurt to look at.

I'm keeping what makes me happy to see and all my art supplies, my closet full of fabric, an assortment of Holiday decorations, the broken china and tiles that I'm going to make a stepping stone path with, the little scribbled drawings from my nieces and the weird little odds and ends that most people don't understand but I know that I will someday use.

WHY IS IT...

that when it's WARM out, all I do is look for ways to cool off?

and when it finally cools off, all I want to do is burrow under the covers to get warm?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLUE!

Blue is SIX today!

For the average dog that equals about 42 years of age in a human. right? 6 x 7 = 42

I found THIS info at http://www.dogster.com
A popular misconception is that dogs age 7 years for each calendar year. In fact, canine aging is much more rapid during the first 2 years of a dog's life. After the first 2 years the ratio settles down to 5 to 1 for small and medium breeds. For large breeds the rate is 6 to 1, and for giant breeds the rate is 7 to 1. Thus, at 10 years of age a Great Dane would be 80 years old while a pug would only be 64.
Use this chart to calculate your dog's age:

Last month I took Blue into the vet to run some blood tests just to check. I was told that since he is a Giant Breed, he was considered a Senior. So they did Senior Blood work. Everything came back fine, except his weight. In May he was down to 150 lbs but since I had been leaving him home all summer, his weight was back up to 171. (His all time high being 174 last year).

The vet was concerned about the huge weight gain but then I let him know that Blue had been eating "bread" for treats and "vacuuming"  the floor after the little dogs had finished their dinner. AND I had read on the dog food package to give 1 cup per 10 lbs. So I had cut that in half and had been giving him 8 cups a day. The vet said he only needed Half of THAT. Now he's down to 4 cups of special expensive holistic Fish and Sweet Potato food. The special food is an effort to help with him licking his paws and the chronic skin problems. (all very common in white, pink skin dogs).

So he's down to 151 lbs. a 21 lb weight loss in a little over a month.

(Maybe I should measure out fish and potato's for myself).

Anyway...

Why did I take him in for blood tests to begin with?

Well....he's been kinda cranky lately.

Grumbling when someone when get on the sofa with him.

(except Twinkle of course)

and barking at the other dogs and sometimes curling his lip.

Of course when any of this happened, I would immediately grab his face and yell with big exaggerated gestures (since he can't hear) and then vehemently gesturing "NO" at him.

and then I would put him in the backyard to cool off.

He would go outside and walk around the yard and then come back

and lean against the door.

LET ME IN, I'M SORRY.

So in he would come, ignoring his miserable little housemates and go back and lay on his sofa.

After the this weight loss, he's been much less cranky.

I guess that was his problem.

Feeling Fat and Old.

I can sympathize.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLUE!
XOXOXOXO

POTLUCKS......i.e. FORCIBLE COOKING

http://www.myrecipes.com

I don't really cook.

I cook baked potatoes in the microwave. Chicken breasts in the ovens. Noodles on the stove. Pizza.

and Grilled Cheese.

It's not that I can't cook. Years and years ago I used to make quiche and spare ribs and meatloaf but that was when I was young and trying to be the perfect girlfriend. But I burned out on that and started buying carry-out and scraping it into pretty dishes.

Eventually both the relationship and any attempts at culinary skills went down the drain.

For a while I dated someone who LOVED to cook.

He would buy the food, cook it up and I would wash the dishes and sweep the floor.

When that relationship ended the only thing I really missed were the gourmet meals.

And his dog.

Fast forward a few years and I am working at a high-end Department Store.

Selling clothes. Which is a whole other story in itself.

You see, I'm not really into buying clothes.

Sure, I like nice quality things but I kinda feel like once I have my basics together and a few seasonal trend items....I don't really need or feel the desire to go looking for more.

So my friends were amazed that I worked somewhere that catered to such an exclusive clientele.

But I needed a job and I'm actually good with the public.

Working at this posh store, I was required to keep a contact book of customers and call them and send postcards about the merchandise. I did very well. Probably because I was very honest.

When my clients would come out of the dressing room and I wouldn't lie.

I had been known to exclaim "No! No! No!"

and then run off and bring back what they really needed.

Sometimes I would KNOW that something was going to look bad but I'd let them try it on.

So they could see it for themselves. And then I'd bring them what flattered and fit them.

I always thought it was better to let them leave with nothing than have them go home with something that wasn't right. That was how I built my contact client book.

A book filled with notes on what they liked and cared about.

We did a lot of cross-selling in the store.

I would go to from Department to Department gathering together shoes, handbags, jewelery, everything to make a complete outfit. I would get calls from customers asking me to pick out gifts for their family members which meant that I got to know everyone throughout the store.

One day one of my co-workers/friend from my department was up in "Men's" and this arrogant salesman, Dave came up to her.

She said that they got to talking and he said to her that I didn't like him. She said that wasn't possible!

"She likes everyone!"

"Not me" he replied. "In fact I think she HATES me"

"Nooooooo,  and why would you think that?"

So he told her that he had said to me that the only good cat was a road-kill cat.

She said that she looked at him and just said -

"Yeah, you are right. she hates you."

So why am I taking about clothes and this job, when this is about forcible cooking?

Because every month the employees held a potluck lunch.

Everyone had to bring a dish and then the employees would "buy" a lunch.

The money went towards our "Christmas Party".

I didn't like doing it but I always brought something and the weird thing is everyone always liked my creations.

Probably because I always dumped a lot of cheese into my casseroles.

Or poured bacon grease into my Potato Soup.

and stirred in Chocolate Chips into the brownies.

At one of these lunches we sat at the long tables eating each others food and Dave sat at another table, gobbling down my casserole. He was loving it and said

 "This is DE-licious! Who made this and what is it called!?"

and even though I always ignored him, I spoke up.

I made it!

and I call it "Cat Hair Casserole"

All co-workers burst out laughing and he turned red, got up and dumped his plate in the trash and left the room.

I think that was probably the only time that I really ENJOYED cooking.

http://iruntheinternet.com/0632

THIS IS FOR SANDY....

she knows why.

I APOGLOZIE...A LOT, GOOD-BYE ALOT.

from : http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_lot

Alternative forms

• alot widely considered as an incorrect/nonstandard spelling of "a lot"

Noun
a lot

1. A large amount
2. I have a lot of things to say.
3. Many things, much.
   

   A lot depends on whether your parents agree.

Translations: a large amount many things

Select targeted languages

Catalan: molt (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 很多 (zh) (hěn duō), 多 (zh) (duō) Dutch: veel (nl) French: beaucoup (fr) German: viel (de) Greek: (uncountably):πολλά (el) (pollá), (countably):πολύ (el) (polý)		Hungarian: sok (hu), egy csomó (hu), egy rakat (hu), számos (hu), rengeteg (hu) Irish: mórán (ga) m., neart (ga) m. Manx: mooarane (gv) m. Persian: مقدار زیاد (fa) (meqdâre ziyâd), زیاد (fa) (ziyâd) Russian: много (ru) (mnógo) Swedish: (uncountably):mycket (sv), (countably):många (sv), (either):en hel del (sv) Vietnamese: nhiều (vi)
		Add translation : More masc. fem. neuter common gender plural Transliteration: (e.g. ázbuka for азбука) Page name: (e.g. amo for amō) Qualifier: (e.g. literally, formally, slang) Script template: (e.g. Cyrl for Cyrillic, Latn for Latin) Nesting: (e.g. Norwegian/Nynorsk)

Select targeted languages

Catalan: molt (ca) Dutch: veel (nl)		German: vieles (de) n. Russian: многое (ru) (mnógoje)
		Add translation : More masc. fem. neuter common gender plural Transliteration: (e.g. ázbuka for азбука) Page name: (e.g. amo for amō) Qualifier: (e.g. literally, formally, slang) Script template: (e.g. Cyrl for Cyrillic, Latn for Latin) Nesting: (e.g. Norwegian/Nynorsk)

Adverb

a lot

1. (idiomatic) very much; a great deal; to a large extent.
   

   Thanks a lot for listening to me.

   It's a lot harder than it looks.




2. (idiomatic) often; frequently
   

   I go swimming a lot.



I use the word alot, a lot. Spellchecker always turns it YELLOW. but I ignore it. After all it turns my own name YELLOW. But finally, I decided to double-check and WHO KNEW!?

Probably everyone, but NOT me.
So from now on it will be A LOT.
(FYI :Good-bye can be hyphenated or not.
Either is correct. Good to know.)

I AM NOT GOING BACK

Until a couple of years ago, actually not until I started blogging, did I learn about Dia de los Muertos aka Day of the Dead. But as I met fellow blogger and artists, I became introduced to this day of celebrating the lives of our deceased loved ones. I think that I first discovered it over on Pam's blog: http://yoborobo.blogspot.com/ she's a fabulous writer and artist and whenever I see a "Skelly" I think of her. You should drop in and visit her blog, she just created this wonderful shrine in memory of her pets that she has had through the years. I intended on making a shrine this year too, but as it usually goes in my life, I put it off until last minute and I ran out of time. But  I remembered commenting once to Pam that my sister had gone to the local cemetery last year on Dia de los Muertos and how she said many of the graves had candles, flowers and decorations. So Pam had said that I should try to get some photos THIS year.
I called my sister and we planned to go. She said that we had to wait until it was dark. Now I'm about 99% sure that you are not supposed to go into cemeteries after dusk but as I've mentioned before, she's fearless. So I said OK, I'll be over!
The cemeteries that we planned on going to are two different ones separated by a main street. At that time of night there isn't much traffic, just the occasional car.  Two of my nieces came along, they are both adults in their early 20's, so NO we weren't dragging little kids along with us. My niece drove and as she pulled into one of the tree-lined gravel lanes into the cemetery, she cut the lights to the car. Branches dragged across the top of the vehicle as it rolled slowly deeper into the dark. We parked and got out. We had our cameras ready and a couple of penlights and my sister and I headed down towards some lit-up grave markers. She was walking fast and I wanted to go slower because it was hard to see the ground. The earth felt soft and thick with leaves and it seemed like we were making alot of noise swooshing through them. A car's headlights would come up the main road and we hunched down behind some tombstones. After it had passed I turned to my sister and whispered "I can't believe I'm hiding behind a headstone much less holding onto it." Then I said "Where are the girls?". My sister replied "They ditched us, does that surprise you?"....well yeah, it did.
We walked some more but then realized that the lit graves were very much out in the open and visible to the main street and the intersecting one. So we decided to back track.
We got back up to the main street and my sister wanted to cross over into the older cemetery with the statues and mausoleums. We stood next to trees along the road until cars passed and then ran. When we got to the other side we scurried behind some statues. My sister whispered that no one would probably even notice us anyway. The drivers would be busy concentrating on the road and not looking off to the side into the cemetery. I whispered back, "What about a little kid looking out a back window? Poor thing, the parents wouldn't probably believe them."

http://claytmiller75.com/UniqueIndividuals.html

So we walked deeper into the cemetery. We started to try to take photos but I'd hold up my camera and see NOTHING. I had the flash off, so I turned it back on and I got the photo that's up on the top of this post. The act of taking the picture kinda freaked me out. It flashed bright, like Lightning.

My sister was flashing her penlight around and I told her to be careful because every once and a while a car would go by. She said to quit worrying and I replied "What if it's the COPS?".

She chuckled and said she didn't think they would do anything to us anyway, after all we're just a couple of 50 year old women, not some punk vandals.

I whispered back to her that Yeah, she was right. I had forgotten that we were old.

She had me hold the light on a few stones in an effort to get a better photo and I told her to HURRY. Now I was more worried about some WEIRD LUNATIC who liked to wander around cemeteries. She told me that there's strength in numbers but unfortunately OUR numbers had ditched us. I was worried about THAT too.

Where were the girls?

My sister pulled out her cell phone and called one their phones.

"Where are you?" she asked.

Then she said. "OH, Never mind, FORGET IT!"

I asked "What did she say?" and my sister said. "She said she's on the couch watching TV"

WHAT?

Actually my youngest niece had answered the phone. it was in the charger in their living-room at home. So that meant they had no phone but my sister didn't seem concerned. She kept taking photos, momentarily lighting up the area where we stood. I hurried and took some photos of the darkness and tried to get one of the Moon, but I wanted to go. I said that we needed to find them and I wanted to leave. My sister said I was a scared-cat and I replied

"Yeah?! Well, you've always know THAT!"

So finally we started back. There were so many leaves and the sound of swishing through them was SO loud. Then we stopped. What was THAT sound?

Now we were running, why in the Hell did I wear my Crocs?

Then we heard voices. "WAIT!"

We turned around.

It was the girls. We walked back again and now went deeper into the cemetery.

 I WANT TO GO!

But I was ignored and they followed a noise.

Is that a bird or what is that up that tree?

After some more lallygagging around we headed back.

We were just to the road and a car came by. Me and one of my nieces huddled behind a tree. It passed and I asked where my other niece had gone. Then I realized that she had dropped to the ground and then she was up and both of them were running across the street. I followed and they continued through the night towards the car. I loudly whispered

"WAIT! Your Mom is still over there!"

I could see her in the darkness and then random flashes of light.

HURRY UP! I hissed.

As she came towards the road I tried to take her photo.

This is what came out.

Where IS she in that? and what is that round ORB thing?

She was dead center when I took it, and that is NOT her to the right!

When we got back to their house and sat at the dining room table, I looked at my photos in the camera.

The Angel statue, the one of the street and then nothing.

Just blackness except one with a faint image of a tree and the Moon.....

So I came home tonight and loaded them onto the computer.

Maybe if I brightened them up in the editing I could see something.

As I slowly lightened up the image I started see all these ORBS.

What the H?

I called my sister and left her a voicemail.

"I just uploaded those photos and I am NOT kidding. I am totally SERIOUS. This is NOT a joke. There are globes or circle things, like Orbs showing up in the once black photos!....

I'm just calling to say I am NOT ever going back there again".

Later she called and asked what they looked like, I said I'd post them but since she doesn't usually read my blog, maybe email them to her. She said that I sounded SO FUNNY on her voicemail. She even had one of my nieces listen to it a couple of times,

it was that funny.

Ha, HA!

Whatever.

I AM NOT GOING BACK.

She said if it hadn't started to rain, she and her girls would probably go back to see what they could see tonight. I don't want to SEE anything.

So here's the photos. I did not edit them in anyway except to "brighten" them up a bit. What do you think?