It Could Be Worse

Know why I am not complaining about the ice? Because we could have it so much worse!


These images are from Arkansas.


Now, this is some serious ice.


My birds have it easy compared to this.


Yesterday, my dogs were enjoying the ice and snow. Today, not so much. It did eventually warm up yesterday. Then it rained. The snow got saturated. The temperature dropped. What was once ice-crusted snow became solid ice. Belle, who is lighter and more fleet-of-foot, is coping better than Meg. Poor Meg has to tip-toe and is still sliding everywhere.

I risked broken limbs and a sore derriere to fill the birdbath. I might get some images later. For now, it is far too slick outside for me to be moseying around with my breakable camera. One good fall would do it–and me!–in. So I’m not going to press my luck.

Living in an ICY World

A very large swath of America has been covered in ice. Here in Maryland, things aren’t so bad. I’m not complaining, but I do have to share some images from today with you.

To be different, I decided to give each picture a title instead of rattling off a bunch of text.

Brrr Rabbit

If You Can’t Eat Them, Join Them

Slippery Stuff

Frozen Honeysuckle Vine

More Frozen Honeysuckle Vine

Interesting Lines in Honeysuckle Vine

Icy Pine

Pine in Ice

Finally, the Son is Out

The Son is Still Out

The Son is Gone

I hope you enjoyed today’s ice-related pics!

NEWS FLASH: This may be the first year we don’t buy any Girl Scout Cookies. They’re going to start putting fewer cookies in each box to save money. Soon, we’ll just be buying empty boxes. Full story is here. Empty boxes would certainly be healthier for us all.

My Talented Hubby

There are actually a couple of things to blog about today. The ice storm and my talented Hubby. But since most of America seems to have been subjected to the ice, and not everyone is lucky enough to have a talented Hubby like me, I’ll be different and talk about Hubby. More on the ice later…

Look what Hubby made me!

It’s my own personal set of goal posts. What with Super Bowl approaching and us having no TV in our family room since it went and DIED, well, I need something to do. So, he thought if he made me a set of goal posts, I could fold up some paper footballs like we did in elementary school and he and I could make a day of playing paper football instead of watching it on TV.

Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Maybe we can invite friends and family over, too. Make some mint margaritas, which Shannon introduced me to, and maybe some Mexican Pizzas…

Interested? No?

Okay, they’re not really goal posts. It’s a set of portable studs. You see, Hubby knew I needed some studs to fill a certain hole in my life…

… the hole where the TV used to be. Hubby made this niche and cabinet surround to hold a TV. He did it years ago before flat panels became so popular. It’s deep. Way too deep for a flat panel TV to be mounted on the back wall. So he whipped up some studs to mount it on.

The “goal posts” are mounted on an oak base, which is raised off the floor. You could see it better if the danged dog bed wasn’t in the way. The space underneath is where the receiver, DVD player and cable box will go.

The TV is supposed to come today, if the deliverymen can survive the ice.

Speaking of ice… I need to get outside so we can play on the ice before it melts. More on the TV and the ice storm later. For now, I’ll just leave you with the image of me trapped at home with two playful dogs and the studs Hubby provided to facilitate my entertainment.

Need A Good Cry?

Hubby, you can skip this post. It’s a girl thing.

Most of my fans have heard of Stephanie “NieNie” Nielsen and her husband, Christian, who were involved in a near-fatal plane crash that left the pilot, a dear family friend, dead and NieNie and Christian badly injured. How badly? Christian suffered burns over 30% of his body. Stephanie’s body was 80% burned. Did I mention that they are young? And have four small children? And that her sister volunteered to take on all four kids while they recovered? And blog for Stephanie to keep everyone updated? And that the blogging community and folks all over the world stepped in to help, pray, raise money, do whatever to help this beautiful young couple in their time of need?

I can safely say “most” of my fans because it was Shannon and Amy who first told me about NieNie. I don’t read the Blog regularly because it makes me cry. But I checked it this morning and was delighted to read that NieNie herself is blogging again. That’s amazing. That fact alone made me all weepy.

This video is a “thank you” from Christian for all the support he and Stephanie have received.

If you’d like to learn more about NieNie, click on over to NieNie Dialogues and poke around. It’s a beautiful story. You won’t be sorry. Just be sure to have some Kleenex within reach.

Photo Hodgepodge

This weekend was a mixed bag. What better way to describe it than with pictures?

Because my human babies are all grown, you get subjected yet again to dog pics. Dogs and birds, that is.

One of the more entertaining aspects of having bird feeders is watching the dogs watch the birds. And try to catch the birds. Belle is very spry, lightning fast, and has never-ending enthusiasm for chasing the feathered critters that visit. Meg is older, slower and quickly tires of chasing the birds. It appears she just decided it would be more economical from an energy standpoint to camp out below the primary bird feeder.

Meg, who is really very sweet, has quite an expressive face. Sometimes she can look grumpy, as in the above images, but really, the sun was just in her eyes.

Another thing I did this weekend was experiment with food. Back when I worked in an office, one of my co-workers and I would go to lunch at Famous Dave’s periodically. They have this dish they serve which consists of beef chunks served on a baked potato. It’s yummy and I have always wanted to try it. So Saturday’s dinner was barbecued beef chunks on a baked potato. I cooked the beef for at least two hours, which made it super tender. And quite tasty.

As an accompaniment, I elected to make salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing (courtesy of The Pioneer Woman). Who knew homemade salad dressing could be so easy? And so delicious?

While making salad, I discovered this little gem in a container of grape tomatoes…

The delight I felt at this discovery was sort of like cracking an egg only to find a double yolk. I thrill easily.

Hubby spent most of the day Saturday working (ugh). Most of the day Sunday was spent shopping for a TV online to replace the one we had, which died suddenly on Friday. We also spent a good bit of time training Belle to come when called, which she is doing very well with I must say. She’s a very smart little dog. And she’s a cuddle bug.

How cuddly is she? See for yourself…

I also experimented with different ways to present photos using Photoshop. In case you didn’t figure that one out for yourself.

My parents came for a visit on Saturday, too, which was nice. I didn’t take any pictures, though, because I was busy preparing the barbecued beef chunks.

Sunday morning’s food experiment was fried apples served over sourdough french toast. No pictures for proof, but it was really delicious.

I did some other stuff on Sunday, too, a project I am working on, but don’t want to talk about and jinx myself, which involves the computer and words. Lots of words.

That pretty much sums up our weekend. I would’ve posted this yesterday, but I was so excited about sharing my new AVATAR that I waited until today. You’ll just have to check back later to see what Monday brought.

Coolest News of 2009

I am sooo excited. This is really cool news. At least I think so. You should, too.

Do you remember me telling you about Katy and Elizabeth Hughes? Katy is a California teenager who also happens to be a blogger, budding artist and writer. She and her mother recently found themselves homeless. When I learned of their story and saw Katy’s artwork, I told her she should consider drawing avatars for people for money. I offered to be her first customer (I’ve always wanted one for my blog).

And she said yes!

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? I sent her some pictures, described what I wanted, and she did it. She did a fabulous job, too. Go ahead, zoom in and check out the detail. Motorcycles aren’t easy to draw. And my frog is wearing gloves! Oh yeah, I didn’t send her a picture of a leather jacket, I just told her to put me in a biker jacket. It rocks.

The good news is, Katy and her Mom finally moved into an apartment a few days ago. So no more hotels and/or nights spent in their car. Things are definitely looking up.

If you want to read more about Katy, check out her blog, Destination Anywhere But Here.