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I Missed WHAT!?!

I am totally bummed. I went to Maine a couple of weeks ago. One of the reasons I thought it would be cool to see Maine is the fact that so many Stephen King novels are based there. He’s been one of my favorite authors since I was a kid. (The image at left came from HERE.)

This is probably nerdy, but what I didn’t say during my trip log is that when I got to Ogunquit, I said to myself, “Hey, this is where Fran Goldsmith lived before her parents died and she hooked up with creepy Harold to start the trek to meet Mother Abigail.” That’s from The Stand, my ultimate favorite King novel. Ogunquit, like Kennebunkport (a close neighbor) did not look anything like I’d expected.

Why it never dawned on me to look up Stephen King, I’ll never know.

I mean, I could have visited his HOUSE. I was so close, too! I was in the same town for goodness sake. Granted, it was dark. But I could have driven back the next day.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Would you visit Memphis and not at least drive past Graceland?

Oh well. Hubby and I may go back to New England next year. If we do, we’ll just have to stop in Bangor…

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A Riot of Color

Can you guess what I love most about Fall? Aside from the cool, crisp air that is? The colors of course!

Not just in the leaves either. Check out this cool sunset photo I took while en route to WV on Friday.


I risked life and limb to get that shot by the way. I had to pull off onto the shoulder of the road–Route 32–at a place near Fort Meade, Maryland where there are signs posted about every ten feet saying, “Do Not Stop Here. Ever. We will shoot you. No questions asked.”

The signs don’t say that exactly. But that’s what they mean. I had to stop though. The colors were amazing.


I shot the above picture at our WV place. The foliage there is much closer to peak than at our house in Maryland. Which means I get to experience three autumns this year (New England, West Virginia and Maryland).

Here’s another neat shot. I love how blue the sky looks. I did not bump-up the saturation with Photoshop either. It’s all about the angle of the sun.

This is one of my artsy, grass shots.

If you want to see a few more images from this past weekend, go to my Flickr site. I’ll post more one day, when I am rid of this cold I seem to have picked up somewhere, which is making me feel like I am walking through a mental fog…

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My Food-Obsessed Dog

My dog Meg will eat ANYTHING.

Trust me when I say, you don’t want the details on that one.

It never ceases to amaze me what lengths she will go to for what she considers to be a tasty treat.

Take this series of photos as an example…

She’s licking a grill brush.

You know, one of those brushes with sharp, wire bristles.
Can you imagine touching your tongue with that?
How about licking it? I know I can’t.

It was actually pretty funny watching her.
The thing was moving. It was almost as if she was
trying play that bite-an-apple-on-a-string game.

She was quite determined.

I was almost convinced she wasn’t going to full-out lick the thing.

I thought maybe she’d get frustrated and give up.

I was wrong.
Apparently she was just trying to get the angle right.
(That white blob in the shot is my other dog, C.)

Then I started wondering when her tongue would start bleeding.
I mean, tongues are sort of tender, right?

I just knew bloodshed was inevitable.

I was wrong again.
That doesn’t happen often.
Me being wrong, that is.
Just ask Hubby.

Wait. What’s this!?!

For a minute, actually a very quick second,
I thought C, more mentally unstable than Meg
but way, WAY pickier about what she puts
in her mouth, was going to join in.

She didn’t.

Right about then, I got tired of watching.

I made the dumb-ass stop licking the grill brush.

And that’s where today’s post ends.

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Fun With Images

I actually had another post planned for this evening. But after sitting around, playing with some Photoshop effects, I created this very cute image I just had to share.

Aren’t they just the cutest kids? They’re my grand kids. From left to right are Brianna (age 7 3/4), Gaige (just turned 5) and Joey (15 months).

Coincidentally, these images were taken a month ago on September’s Thirsty Third Thursday. That’s a holiday of sorts my daughters and I created. A girls night out, if you will. It happens once a month. On the third Thursday.


It just so happens that TODAY is Thirsty Third Thursday. Woo hoo!

By the way, that’s me on the left, Amy in the middle, and Shannon on the right.

We’ll just be hanging out at Amy’s place because Amy’s hubby is off learning how to be a better soldier, and we can’t leave those darling grandchildren of mine home alone.

It’s not about where we go though. It’s about who we are with. And talking girl talk. To catch up on happenings from the previous month. Things we can’t always discuss openly or even over the phone in case any of the males or children in our lives are eavesdropping.

So happy Thirsty Third Thursday!

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It Isn’t All About Money. But…

I have a bit of a quandary.

I really like my dogs’ veterinarian. One of the reasons I started using this particular vet is because he helps American Brittany Rescue (ABR) by discounting services significantly. Which is huge. Quite a few ABR dogs have been helped by this particular vet.

I’ve known for some time their drug prices are higher than prices on the Internet. But they match prices, so it never really mattered that much. Besides, I’d rather the extra money go to this vet who helps ABR all the time than some other vet.

That changed today when I realized just how much said vet is marking-up the prices of some drugs.

Drugs like Frontline and Heartgard are usually a bit cheaper on-line than at the vet. But these are popular drugs, so the vet has to be competitive. It is the cost of the lesser-known drugs that are the real issue.

C, our oldest dog (she’s 12 1/2), has been suffering with chronic diarrhea for some time. We can’t figure out what is wrong. After quite a few expensive diagnostic procedures and several different drugs (yes, we tried different food, too) we’re at a loss. So we’ve decided to try a long-term course of an antibiotic known generically as metronidazole (brand-name Flagyl).

We decided this during our last visit. It is a drug that requires a prescription, which the office filled. For 20 pills, it cost $23 or $1.15/pill.

It seems to be working so I called in for a 100-pill refill today. Not until after I checked Internet prices, of course. I was amazed to learn that prices for this pill ranged from $0.10/pill to $0.26/pill. My feelings went quickly from amazement, to confusion, to pissed off.

I called the vet’s office thinking no way they’d match that price. They did, no questions asked. I just had to show them a printout.

The matching is nice and all, but I feel robbed. What if I’d bought 100 pills last week instead of only 20?

So, do I stay pissed off at the vet? Maybe change vets? That was my first inclination. Until I thought about it some more. I’d be willing to bet the practice is pretty common. Prices are not usually determined by considering cost alone. Prices are established based on what people will pay, or what the market will bear. And the vet is running a business.

I think I just learn to adjust. I’ll have the vet write an actual prescription, not sell me some pills. Maybe that will work. Time will tell I guess.

In the meantime, if you have pets and buy your drugs from the vet, do yourself a favor and check Internet prices. This is not the only drug I have saved significantly on.

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The Candidate for a Real Change

I usually try to avoid discussing politics with people I know. I mean, I’ve got this nice, pleasant, laid-back persona to uphold, right? I’m not argumentative by nature. I’m not the jump-on-a-bandwagon type either.

Of course, there was this post, but it wasn’t about politics really. It was just a cute kid in a t-shirt.

But times are changing. That means I need to change. We all need to change. We need to be honest, smart.

You REALLY need to think about who you want in office. Democrats? Republicans? Or an independent candidate like this one? (UPDATE: this link should take you to a page where a video, which is a joke by the way, loads quickly. It currently is not working. I suspect this thing got way more traffic than expected and the server admin probably disabled it. I have a feeling it was posted on said server without the admin’s permission anyway. Sorry you missed it. It was funny! Or so I thought.)