ToadMama's Web Abode

This Blog Has Moved

2011-01-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

Wait! This blog has moved.

I have embedded code that should redirect you automatically to my new address. If it does not go within a few seconds, CLICK HERE. The new Blog address is http://www.toadmama.com.

The Change is Here

2010-01-15T08:30:00.001-05:00

Hi there. I have embedded some code that should redirect you automatically to my new Blog. If it does not go within a few seconds, CLICK HERE. The new Blog address is http://www.toadmama.com.

Change is Coming...

2010-01-13T20:20:00.016-05:00

As early January creeps toward mid January, I have continued my food and photo experimentation. In case you were wondering.

Food first... A couple of nights ago, we tried Pioneer Woman's recipe for meatloaf (I got her cookbook for Christmas). Neither of us were crazy about it when we ate it for dinner, but I must say it does make a pretty good sandwich. Tonight... Chicken Spaghetti. We loved it. Her recipe for pot roast, which I made on Sunday, makes really good pot roast (a really big mess on the stove, too).

The book, while a best-seller, has gotten mixed reviews. Personally, I love it. It's not the best cookbook in the world, but it's Pioneer Woman. It's full of comfort food, and amazing pictures, and critters (inclusing my all-time favorite cow photo), and her family. It's like I have my own piece of her with me right here in my house.

I've been a PW fan for a while now. She takes awesome cow pictures. She gets me into trouble though. With posts like this one about her new favorite camera lens. Just one more piece of equipment to work toward...

Speaking of working toward stuff, I really am determined to master this camera setting adjustment thing. Not all of my experiments are worth sharing. But today, I caught something I thought was very cool.

After I'd finished working, I was on my way downstairs to get dinner started. As I passed the front door, I just happened to notice a pink tinge to the sky. This time of year, you'll see some amazing pink and blue skies. But the riot of color is fleeting. So I ran and grabbed the camera, walked outside and started snapping away. All in Manual mode, thank you very much.

I only had socks on and my feet were freezing. By the time I went inside to grab shoes, the color drama was gone. But not before I got these shots.

It's not art, but it's a start. Right?

Actually, I could have tweaked the color with post-processing, but I liked the way it looked as it was.

Now that I'm just about at the end of my post, are you even a weensy, teeny tiny bit curious about what is changing? Just a little?

My blog. I'm moving it in a slightly different direction. I want to incorporate more photography stuff, which will completely alienate most of my current followers, so I need to make some modifications. But it will all be good. I promise.

I'll be unveiling a new look soon, which I think will definitely be a change for the good.

The Experiments Continue

2010-01-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

Hey, wanna guess what THIS is?

Come on, I bet you can't guess. I bet you have NO IDEA.

If you guessed dog puke (or people puke, for that matter), you are wrong.

It is soup. Broccoli Cheese Soup to be exact.

I decided this season to be a bit more adventurous with soups. My old standards, which are all pretty darn good, are: Maryland Crab Soup, Beef Vegetable Soup, Chicken Corn Soup (that's a PA Dutch thing) and, occasionally, Bean Soup.

Recently, I have tried French Onion Soup (the recipe in the Joy of Cooking Cookbook makes DELICIOUS soup), Cream of Crab Soup and now Broccoli Cheese Soup (a copycat recipe I found online for Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup).

Here's a shot of the Broccoli Cheese Soup in the pot.

And here it is in our giant soup mugs. I served it with toasted rosemary focaccia bread. Oh. My. God. The soup is good. With the bread it was tres magnifique, which I think means really damn good. The recipe is here.

Speaking of recipes, I forgot to share the link for that Cream of Crab Soup recipe that I tested. It is really, really, really good. And super easy to make.

According to my mother-in-law, it is "to die for." If you make it, go ahead and use the cheaper crab from Indonesia or China or wherever the "blue swimming crab" comes from. The more-expensive meat from blue crabs should be reserved for crab cakes. In my opinion.

I just remembered that I took pictures of the French Onion Soup the last time I made it. The recipe called for Gruyere cheese, but I used Asiago and it was delish. It takes almost two hours to make this soup, but it is so worth it. Someone else transcribed the recipe for their blog, so here's a link for you. I usually use more than 3 tbsp of cheese and I put the bowls under the broiler to melt the cheese. So make sure you use oven-proof bowls!

I'm going to have to get more creative. All of my soup pix are starting to look alike!

Here's my (New England) clam chowder post from 2008. It shows cooked blue crabs, too. And a pissed-off cat. That recipe from the Joy of Cooking was time-consuming, but so good.

I keep threatening to make the clam chowder again. Hubby doesn't like clams, but this chowder is extraordinary, so maybe I can convert him. I'll let you know if I am successful.

On Taking Better Pictures

2010-01-11T00:05:00.003-05:00

A little over a week ago, I wrote a post about cameras. The general gist of that post was that having a fancy SLR camera doesn't necessarily mean you will be able to take better pictures. Taking good pictures takes work. And practice.

I practice a lot. On Saturday, while Hubby was home baking cinnamon rolls, I decided to drive over to the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge to try out my new teleconverter (think of it as a booster that increases the power of your lens).

The reason I wanted a teleconverter was to increase the power of my zoom lens. So I can get clearer pictures of stuff that's far away. When you use a zoom lens, every teeny tiny movement of the camera will make your image blurry. That means, in addition to a zoom lens, you really need a tripod. Even with a tripod, if you are not careful pushing the shutter, you'll shake the camera and blur your image. A cable release or remote (wireless) shutter release button is good to have, too.

Often, I don't have the time or inclination to drag all of that stuff out. Saturday, I did. And I managed to get a few good images.

I was really just playing around to see how well the teleconverter worked, i.e., does it really bring subjects that much closer? Will it allow for clear focus? Will I be able to use autofocus or will everything need to be manual? That sort of thing.

With the tripod and remote shutter release, it worked pretty well. There weren't a lot of critters around to try the long-distance bird shots, so I was just shooting pics of the grass and trees and stuff. That's when a bluebird couple decided to drop by.

They were far enough away that I couldn't see them well with my naked eye. I am pretty sure there was a Mr and a Mrs, but the Mr was being elusive. The Mrs sat still a tad bit longer, so I was able to get a few nice pics of her. (This might be a male. Females are usually much duller than the males. This bird is much duller than the elusive one, but the more I looked at these shots, the more I realized it isn't as dull as most of the females I have seen. But it could have been the light making her chest look more orange. Her head is sort of on the dull side. Here's an old pic of mine with a male and female side by side, with the male on the left.

The camera was on the tripod and I used the wireless shutter release for all of the above shots. Those two pieces of equipment really do make a huge difference.

I snapped this image of the woods as I was walking out, then I edited it with Photoshop Elements.

As I was shooting pics, it was getting darker and darker. I had to stop shooting when the flash kept firing and I realized I don't know enough about aperture and shutter speeds to capture any really good low-light images.

That's because I have become lazy. I have been relying way too heavily on my camera's automatic settings to do most of the work for me.

So, this morning I decided that I was going to limit my SLR shooting to the camera's manual mode. That will force me to become aware of and practice using the various aperture and shutter speed settings. I told myself I would not revert back to automatic until I'd mastered those two things.

And then this bird landed in our backyard...

It is a Red Shouldered Hawk. I was fortunate to catch a glimpse of it as it swooped in.

They don't land in the yard often. And, when they do, they never stick around long. Luckily I still had the teleconverter and zoom lens on the camera. I did not have time to set the tripod up or use the remote shutter release. And, I had to shoot through the window. I also didn't have time to fiddle with manual settings I know so little about, so I went back to automatic temporarily.

I did tweak the shots with Photoshop Elements slightly, but overall I was pleased with how well they turned out. Considering I was standing at the window just snapping away.

It wasn't exactly close to the house either.

Since I started feeding the birds again yesterday, the yard was pretty busy with birds and squirrels today. I thought it would take the hawks a while to notice the smorgasbord in our backyard, but was very pleasantly surprised when this one showed up. Usually, it's Redtailed Hawks that we see.

Anyway... this year I am going to be working on learning how to use aperture and shutter speeds manually. That means you'll probably be seeing a lot of pictures of odd stuff. But hopefully they will be good pictures. Then maybe by next fall I'll be able to take good eagle pics when they come back to Conowingo.

Speaking of eagles, have you checked out the nest cam yet (there's a link in the navigation bar on the right)? I just added a link to the osprey cam today. My favorite nature photographer, Jon the Nikographer, was kind enough to let me use one of his osprey images for the link button. If you haven't looked at his stuff before, you should check it out. He's really very good. You'll have to remember to check the nest cams periodically to catch a glimpse of the birds.

Homemade Goodness

2010-01-10T06:59:00.025-05:00

I have an awesome Hubby. It's been awhile since I told you that, so I think it's about time.

Wanna know what inspired this particular gush of Hubby-gloat? If you are still reading, you must. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll show you...

I jumped to this photo on purpose. I think it's a cool shot AND I wanted to keep the suspense going, at least for some of you. Others, I know, probably know where this post is heading. (Like Shannon, who I should just apologize to now, because there's a pretty good chance this post might make her a teeny bit homesick. Or hungry. Or both.)

Let me back up a bit...

Does this shot help? I doubt it. I mean, I took the picture. I know what this is, but you can't really tell just by looking at this shot, which I think sort of resembles a mud pit.

How about now? Is this better?

That amazing Hubby of mine made CINNAMON ROLLS yesterday. From scratch.

His cinnamon rolls are quite tasty. Very. Heck, they're downright delectable.

As I was taking these pictures, I was thinking to myself, "My blog is going to end up looking all Pioneer Woman-ish." Which is cool, 'cause I love the Pioneer Woman. That wasn't my goal, though. I just love the way food pictures turn out when shot with my 50mm prime lens (if you are at all into photography, there's a good discussion on the lens thing here).

Hubby didn't even complain that I was all in his way as he carefully rolled the buttery-cinnamon-sugar-laden dough. He's nice like that. Or he knows that after almost 17 years of marriage it's best to just shut up sometimes (i.e., often) and humor your wife. Maybe it's a little of both.

Look at that focus!

Yes, this image is a repeat. But I like it. Not only do I think it is sort of artsy, it's a great example of where the "roll" in cinnamon rolls comes from. If you've never seen them made, you may not have known that.

Let's say you knew that the dough is rolled as part of the cinnamon-roll-making process. Did you know how the soft, squishy dough is cut without being all smushed? A knife would totally smush the things so you'd end up with oddly misshapen ovals instead of circles.

The cutting tool of choice for this particular baker (aka Hubby) is dental floss. Not the minty kind either. Just plain, ole dental floss.

See how neatly it slices the dough?

Here's another artsy shot. Click on the image so you can see the big version if you really want to appreciate the artiness of the shot.

See how nice and round they are?

The next step is baking. You may need to let the rolls sit for a while first. I'm not sure. The baker is not downstairs yet, so I can't ask. But it doesn't really matter because this isn't a how-to post, it's one of my I-bet-I-can-make-you-hungry posts.

Because I had to leave, I was not able to get a shot of the steamy, fresh-from-the-oven rolls. I missed the whole making of the cream cheese icing, too. In all honesty, I even forgot to take a picture of the finished product until after I'd consumed one (okay, two) and was going through these pictures.

However, knowing at least some of my faithful fans would want to see the end product, I did what any good blogger would do and made sure I got at least one good shot so I could include a shot of the ready-to-eat cinnamon rolls in today's post...

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go grab myself a cinnamon roll. Or two.

The Real ToadMama

2010-01-09T13:30:00.001-05:00

A post written by one of my favorite bloggers recently got me thinking. I'll tell you the name of this blogger, which is important because names are the issue here, but I must warn you that she exercises her right to free speech a bit more than I do. By that I mean she cusses. A lot.

That's fine with me. I mean, it's a free country, right? I choose to keep my blog relatively clean. Mainly because my Moms read it. So it's a respect thing. Even if I am almost 43 years old (gasp!). I guess even the ToadMama can be old-fashioned...

Anyhoo... Booshy did a post recently that was basically about there actually being other people in the world known as Booshy. Which is pretty odd, considering Booshy is sort of a unique moniker.

But then, so is ToadMama, right? Right? That's what I was wondering when I turned to Google and learned that, much to my dismay, there are other ToadMamas out there!

Of course, I had to be all nosy and check these impostors out. Since they're totally stealing my name. So here's the skinny, in order of their appearance on Google. By the way, I'm the first hit on Google, which is proof that I am the REAL ToadMama. Agreed?

IMPOSTOR(s) #1: The ToadMamas

The ToadMamas are a band, based in Charlottesville, VA, who describe their style as "hopping Celtic, New England, French-Canadian and American roots music."

Um, what?

It's a good thing their site has some sample Toad Tunes.

There's a schedule of appearances, too. Oddly enough, the closest one to me seems to be in Shepherdstown, West Virginia on February 6, which just so happens to be the REAL ToadMama's birthday.

IMPOSTOR #2: Doris "ToadMama" Pearson

This nice lady appears to be an upstanding citizen from Minnesota. She's a bit older than me, but seems relatively normal. Our pets would not get along, that's for sure. My three dogs would probably eat her five cats and four guinea pigs. But, get this, hazelnut coffee and creamer is her favorite. So, we could hang out. She'd just have to leave her pets at home. I think this is her, too. AND she's on Facebook.

IMPOSTOR #3: Tobey aka "ToadMama"

This particular impostor appears to be inactive. But I thought it worth mentioning that she's married to a guy named Mike and, in 2007, they were planning a move to Downeast Maine. I'll have to see if I can dig up more pond scum on this particular individual. 'Cause I love Downeast Maine. And, if she's cool, I might just have to go and meet her. Huh, guess what? Upon further examination, I have determined that she's still active on the 'net and looking for friends. Should I send her an e-mail?

IMPOSTOR #4: Unidentified ToadMama

Not much info here, but there's definite coolness potential. Although, she could be like 12.

NOT REALLY IMPOSTORS, BUT RELATED

Someone that goes by "laughingtodeath" at the Photobucket site created this particular toadmama, which is cute and definitely worth sharing.

LURVELY: Oddly, I found this Web page , which somehow or other gathered all of my favorite Flickr pix for public presentation. Weird.

ART: I now know where to buy a one-of-a-kind polymer clay horned toad sculpture.

SELLING OUT: There's a Toadmamma on eBay, but she has nothing for sale at the time of this writing.

So... after much time spent wading through and following links on seven Google pages, that's all I've got. There aren't as many ToadMama's as I feared.

And I still say I am the REAL ToadMama.

I'm At a Loss for Words

2010-01-08T08:13:00.000-05:00

Most days, if I woke up to this, I'd be all excited.

I mean, it snowed!

I love snow.

But it's been snowing so much lately, it just feels like more of the same.

My first thought, of course, was to turn the dogs loose in the backyard and grab the camera.

But just how many snow pictures can one person take?

How much can one person say about snow?

Sigh...

Our Ski Adventure

2010-01-07T08:14:00.029-05:00

As mentioned here on Tuesday, Eric and I went skiing yesterday. The trip was a success, even if things did not go exactly as planned.

Here's what was planned... drive to the WV place on Tuesday night. It's about an hour from Wisp. We would leave there early on Wednesday to ski, spend the night at the WV place on Wednesday, then drive home this morning (Thursday).

Eric got off work late on Tuesday, so we didn't leave my house until 11:00 PM. It's a three-hour drive to the WV place. So we should have arrived at about 2:00 AM. I say should have because we hit a bit of trouble. Nothing horrible, but we were definitely delayed.

Before I tell you what happened, you need a bit of background. The WV place is not far east of Wisp. It's more in the foothills than the mountains, so it's not subject to the extreme mountain weather that hits the mountains not far west of the cabin. We haven't been to the WV place since Thanksgiving. They were hit with the same blizzard as us in December. But that was like three weeks ago, so we figured the snow would be gone.

We were wrong.

Hubby wisely convinced me to take our big, bad four-wheel-drive truck instead of my car (wimpy little sedan).

Unfortunately, not even the big, bad 4wd truck was a match for the foot of compacted icy snow on Turkey Hollow Road.

We got stuck. A mere 100 yards down Turkey Hollow Road. We were only about 1/4 mile from the house at that point, but...

It was 2:00 AM. It was dark. It was COLD.

It didn't take long for us to realize the truck was not moving an inch in either direction, so we grabbed our essentials and walked the rest of the way. Lucky for us there were flashlights in the truck!

I did mention that it was cold, right? About 20 degrees. The heat at the cabin stays set at 50 degrees when we are not there. It felt absolutely balmy at first. Because it would have taken hours for the radiant heat system to kick in, we just slept in the back bedrooms, which each have their own baseboard heating systems. It was 40 degrees back there. By the time we went to bed at about 3:30, it had warmed up to 45 degrees. Eric had an electric blanket and I had lots of layers, so we were okay.

I seriously had no idea there would be that much snow left at the WV place. Here are some pictures I shot on Wednesday morning...

Our (undrivable) driveway.

The house surrounded by snow.

Another shot of the driveway from just outside of the garage.

The big hill on Turkey Hollow Road, heading back toward where the truck was stuck. Notice all the critter tracks? It's a mix of deer, turkey and people tracks (Eric and me).

Looking down Turkey Hollow Road toward our driveway.

Eric with shovel and rake in hand. Those were all the tools we had to work with to free the truck.

More people tracks, me and Eric, going and coming, taken from right in front of the truck looking down Turkey Hollow Road.

That's Romney in the distance.

Just after we crossed the Potomac River back into Maryland, south of La Vale. Notice the pretty blue skies? It did not last long.

Not far west of La Vale on I-68.

The highway exit ramp from I-68 onto US-219 at Keyser's Ridge.

Eric (dude in center) adjusting his boot.

Here I am. I felt like a mummy. I was warm, but being so bundled up made it hard to take pictures, which is why there aren't many action shots. Plus, it snowed all day. They'd gotten 5 to 8 inches of snow the previous day and were predicting another 4 to 8 inches yesterday. The snow was awesome. The wind was bitter.

Skiing in powder was quite a treat, once we got used to it. It's a bit different than skiing on packed snow.

The ride home was quite scenic with all of the snow stuck to the trees. (The farther east we traveled, the less snowy it was.)

All in all, we had a good time. Aside from the 30-40 minutes required to free the truck, that is.

We will definitely try to do it again. Wisp has a special on Wednesdays where you can ski for $21 all day, 9 am to 9 pm. The same lift ticket costs $39 per person any other non-holiday weekday and $59 per person on weekends and holidays. It was quite a deal. And there were NO lift lines. None.

Hopefully it will be a little bit warmer next time.

Readjustment

2010-01-05T07:03:00.008-05:00

Now that the holidays are over, it will be interesting to see just how long it takes the girls to readjust to my work schedule.

This scene was repeated over and over yesterday. It's a good thing I wasn't busy...

My girls can be quite demanding at times. After I'd let them out a gazillion times, all K wanted was to sit on my lap. Having her there tends to put a crimp in my typing speed, however.

With my handy new point-and-shoot, which I can keep by my side at all times, I snapped a couple shots of K on my lap. Then, last night, I did some editing with PS Elements and this is what I ended up with...

I applied some different lighting, color and texture effects. Then I framed it. What do you think?

I took Wednesday off to go skiing with my baby boy. I am determined to take advantage of some $21 all-day lift ticket specials this year.

Wish me luck. It's still damn cold. Tomorrow's forecasted high is 20 degrees with snow showers and some wind, so it will feel like 8 degrees. If I dress appropriately, all should be fine. Right?

Snow conditions are great. They've had 63" so far this year and expect some more overnight tonight. We'll be driving out to the WV place this evening if all goes as planned. That's about an hour away from Wisp and just outside the snow belt, so we shouldn't have any problems.

If you want to see how things are going for us on Wednesday, check out the Wisp web cams.

I Got to Hold TWO Puppies

2010-01-03T16:00:00.002-05:00

The family that served as K's foster family while she was still in rescue are fostering a young French Brittany mother and her two pups. I have always wanted to see a Brittany puppy. Other than Max, a friend's yellow lab, I'd never held any puppy, much less tiny little 4-week-old puppies like these!

Comet (shown on left) is the bigger of the two. He's a boy. Dancer, shown on right, is a girl.

I like Dancer's little freckled nose. Here she is all wrapped in a towel after I rocked her to sleep.

The first time we went down to see the puppies, we left K upstairs. She was not happy. She cried the whole time I was gone. So, when we got back upstairs, she wanted to hang out with me. Emily sat on the floor, too, and soon we were surrounded by critters. Other than me spinning K around to face the camera, this shot was not posed. Isn't it hysterical that even the cat got in there?

K was such a good passenger. On the way home, after stopping at my parents' house, I stopped at a pit beef stand to get dinner. I asked if I could have a couple of little scraps for K. They gave me a bag with at least a pound and a half of beef, ham, turkey and corned beef scraps. Thanks to K, all of the dogs ate well last night!

I created a slide show using some of the pix from yesterday. I did it with Photoshop Elements, and it was super-easy. If you are looking for an inexpensive but powerful piece of image editing software, that's the one I would recommend.

I had hoped to stop at Conowingo Dam on the way home for some eagle pix, but, as you'll see in the slideshow, it was ungodly cold. Most have left the dam to head for their nests. Eagles lay their eggs in mid-January. Wanna see some Eagles nesting, laying eggs and hatching the chicks? Follow the Eagle Cam link I just installed in the right navigation bar at the bottom.

NOTE: There's an error in my slideshow.
The picture of two dogs labeled Hannah and Brandy
should read Bella and Brandy. Sorry, Jenn!

The Big 2009 Rewind

2010-01-03T07:53:00.006-05:00

So, it's 2010. Not just a new year, but also a new decade. Dag. Where'd the last decade go?

While that is a completely rhetorical question, it seems, as a blogger, I am obliged to do a year in review post. I'm not talking about going over what happened in the world, just what happened in my world. So here goes...

JANUARY 2009

The biggest event in January was Belle joining our family. We adopted her from American Brittany Rescue. She was 18 months old at the time. I fell in love with Belle immediately upon meeting her. It took Hubby about 3 minutes to become completely smitten. She really is the cutest, most lovable little dog. That's when this Blog started to become flooded with doggie pics. But, you know what? That's my world.

FEBRUARY 2009

It was a quiet month. The biggest news was my birthday (I turned 42). The next-biggest even was when we got a new TV. I told you it was a quiet month.

March 2009

Belle caught a squirrel in our backyard.

Shannon died her hair magenta.

Meg got new eyeglasses.

Amy (our youngest daughter) had a birthday.

APRIL 2009

Joey visited the WV place.

Hubby and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.

My girlfriend tried to kill me (convinced me to attempt a 10-mile run).

MAY 2009

Hubby and I visited Oklahoma and Arkansas.

We found a painted turtle in our backyard.

I captured some really cool "welcome Spring" pictures.

There was a first ever girl's weekend at the WV place.

Belle killed a groundhog.

JUNE 2009

I struggled with my attempts at becoming a runner.

The weather was gross. (Not exactly exciting, but there are cool pics.)

I snapped my best ever picture of a Great Blue Heron.

JULY 2009

Joey, our youngest grandson, turned two.

We enjoyed quite a few awesome motorcycle rides, like this one to Tygart Lake, and my trip to Greenland Gap, and this one where I found the Paw Paw Tunnel, which we still have not visited.

My Dad celebrated his birthday.

AUGUST 2009

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

We declared the WV place FINISHED.

There were more nice motorcycle rides.

MOMstar Navigation system was introduced.

SEPTEMBER 2009

Annelies and Yves visited from Belgium.

I captured a picture of the grandkids that just might be my all-time favorite.

We had the last Thirsty Third Thursday before Shannon left.

There were more great motorcycle rides like this one and this one.

I posted a cool photo slideshow showcasing some Fall pix.

OCTOBER 2009

Shannon left for her journey.

There were lots of birthdays: Gaige (October 11), my Mom (October 7), Hubby (October 4) and Eric (October 1).

I finally visited the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware and Conowingo Dam. Two of the places my Flickr photographer friends frequent. At the dam, I captured one image that included 36 Bald Eagles!

I did a 5k run/walk, too, but didn't post about it.

NOVEMBER 2009

Our newest dog, K, joined the family. We adopted her through the National Brittany Rescue Adoption Network (NBRAN). There were lots and lots of posts about K in November. In December, too, actually. If you really want to review all of those, click here.

My mother-in-law celebrated her birthday.

Amy and all of the grandkids visited the WV place.

DECEMBER 2009

Christmas happened, of course. You can read about how we celebrated AND the cool gifts we received.

We had a blizzard!

Brianna and Shannon celebrated their birthdays.

I snapped the below image of Belle, which is now and will forever remain one my favorite images of all time.

And that was my year. I hope you enjoyed the summary.

Camera Talk

2010-01-01T10:03:00.057-05:00

Happy New Year to all of my Blog fans. If you're not a fan (yet), please pop back in every now and then to visit. Maybe you'll be inspired to bookmark this Blog. Or (gasp!) maybe even become a follower.

I won't go all into my personal list of resolutions for the year (there aren't many), but I will say that one of them is to take more and better pictures. "More" and "better" go hand in hand. Because, in order to capture great shots, you have to take a lot of pictures and/or know how to use photo editing software.

If you could care less about taking more and better pictures, just stop reading now and come back tomorrow because this post will bore you to death.

On taking MORE pictures...

Here's a unique image I encountered recently...

Cool, isn't it? It was taken by Monstergirlee. It's just a Christmas ornament on a tree, right? Here's what Monstergirlee had to say...

"I took 36 pictures of this ornament, something I'd been planning for 3 or 4 days. Or at least thinking about it, how to set it up, etc. I really wanted some nice bokeh and a warm light. I edited 6 of them, and finally decided this was the best mix of all that was desired."

She'd been planning the shot for 3 or 4 days and took 36 pictures of this one, stationary ornament. I'd say that's a lot of pictures, wouldn't you?

Here's one of my favorite, recent, dog pictures...

I took about 30 images of the dogs wrastling. I just clicked away as I watched them play. I know they make goofy faces when they play, so I figured if I just kept clicking I'd catch at least one of them looking silly.

Instead, I got lucky and captured them both looking "psychotic" as one friend described.

That means there were 29 other images I threw away. I might employ a different strategy if I were using film. All that developing would be expensive. (This is where Hubby would tell you, like he's told 50 other people and tells me about once a week, he's the one that had to convince me to use a digital as opposed to film camera. And he's happy because if I hadn't switched, we'd be in the poorhouse.)

Here's another recent capture that I love.

Shots like this cannot be planned. And 99% of the time, you need to click the ole shutter many, many times to capture something like this. Not only that, you need to know how to do some editing (more on that in some other post).

On taking BETTER pictures...

Quite often, when people see me with my digital Canon Rebel SLR camera, they say, "I need to get a good camera like that so I can take better pictures." So as not to sound like a know-it-all, I have resisted explaining what I am about to explain here.

SLR cameras like mine are not the best camera for everyone. Unless you work hard to set up the proper shot, the less-expensive point-and-shoots take better pictures.

What's an SLR camera? A single lens reflex (SLR) camera has one lens used for picture taking and viewfinding. What you see when you look through the viewfinder is what you capture in your shot. SLRs have interchangeable lenses, too, which is both good and bad. Good because you can have a wide range of image options. Bad because lenses are expensive. Also, when swapping lenses, it is easy to get dirt inside your camera. They are not easy to clean and it is very risky. One wrong move and your very expensive camera becomes a very expensive paperweight.

A point and shoot means just that. You point your camera and you shoot. There's no swapping of lenses. Most have zoom features and lots of different settings like macro (for close-ups), landscape, portrait, etc. Point-and-shoots are typically less bulky, too, so they are easier to carry in your pocket or your purse.

Here's some proof that you don't need an expensive SLR camera to take great pictures:

Look at this shot of Ernie in the snow. It was taken with a Blackberry camera phone.

A very nice landscape shot, captured with a Vivitar 6300.

All of Shannon's travel pics were taken with a Nikon Coolpix L18.

Shown below is a Nikon Coolpix L20...

I just bought it and an 8 GB memory card for less than $100. It's an awesome little camera that I can easily carry with me everywhere. And it takes videos. So you know I'll have lots more interesting content here in the future, right?

On choosing the right camera...

There are tons of things to consider when choosing a new camera. Tons. If you are considering a switch, here's a great article that might help you out.

On what you should focus on first...

Composition is the most important thing you need to master. If you just think your images are as interesting as those shot by other people, I bet composition is your issue. There are many aspects of composition that are important. Where in the picture is your subject located? Is your background too "busy"? Are you focused on the right thing?

Lots of stuff has already been written on composition, too. Do yourself a favor and try to work on this sort of stuff before spending even one cent.

I'm sorry if I have bored you fans that could care less about cameras and/or how to take pictures. I promise my next post will have more of the fun and excitement you typically find here.

- - - - -

To learn all kinds of cool stuff about digital photography, just visit the Digital Photography School. It's free and contains just about everything you need to know about digital photography.

Um, Is That Normal?

2009-12-31T05:00:00.005-05:00

Sometimes, when I post pictures like this of my dogs...

...people wonder if they are vicious killers. They probably wonder about me, too, posting pictures of what might look to many like two dogs fighting.

Normal people might not post pictures like this.

Some people might think this behavior and these images are inappropriate.

Personally, I find the behavior entertaining. And the pictures! Some of the pictures are hilarious. I find them so hilarious specifically because they make the girls look so ferocious and mean.

These dogs are not fighting. They are playing. Wrestling. (Or "wrastling" as my Dad would say.)

They may look like blood-thirsty killers at times, like in this shot, which just might be one of my all-time favorites (yes, it's the same as the first image in this post)...

...but both Belle (on left) and K are complete and total sweethearts. There's not a mean bone in either of their bodies. They just really like to wrastle!

Here's some proof for you. An actual video of Belle and K in action, which was taken earlier today. K does emit one short bark in the beginning, but other than tags jingling and a little growling, the sound is minimal.

I wish I'd had a video camera when we had all of that snow on the ground!

What Will They Think of Next?

2009-12-30T08:25:00.024-05:00

In yesterday's post, I mentioned briefly that I got a doggie cam for Christmas. I also shared this shot of Meg wearing said doggie cam.

Surprisingly, no one called me a geek. All of my doggie friends (people with dogs) thought it was cool. And since many of my doggie friends are regular readers, I thought I would share some pics today.

But first, some background.

Hubby stumbled across this camera on the Web a while back. Of course, I said, "Awesome! You totally have to get me one of those!" And then I promptly forgot about it.

Since I have such an awesome Hubby, he actually remembered. Imagine my delight when I unwrapped my very own Pet's Eye View Camera.

I tried it out on all three dogs yesterday. But I was having technical difficulties. It took me a while to figure out that you need to delete and/or reset the camera after you download the pics. So I didn't get nearly as many cool shots as I wanted. Like I for sure thought Belle would have captured several images of me with the Little Green Machine sucking dog puke out of the carpet. And I just knew Meg would have pics of me retrieving the poopsicles from the yard. But, no. I'll have to try again today to see if I can catch some similar excitement.

Here are some closer views of the camera itself. It is a low-resolution camera. LOW RESOLUTION. That means it needs lot of light to work well. Images will not be crystal-clear (think grainy security camera images as seen on COPS.).

I knew this, so was not surprised that many of the images were too dark or blurry to decipher. But the pups did manage to capture some fun (sort of) stuff.

This is the door to my office as seen from a doggie bed.

This is K's nose. The camera does hang from their neck. So if your dog sniffs the ground a lot like mine do, you'll see a lot of this.

Here you can see the yard relatively clearly.

This is Belle's nose. Don't you just love the way the sun hits her whiskers and her hairy little little lips?

I'm pretty sure it was Belle who captured this lovely image of K's feet as she flew down the hall.

This is a very clear image (probably as clear as it will get), which I know was taken while the photographer was sitting on the top step, waiting to be let back into the house.

This is one of those fun images that take some concentration to decipher. Seriously. It is clearly inside the house. But what is it? Hmmm.

Hubby gets the prize for figuring out that it is the bottom of my office chair. From a pet's eye view, of course.

Here's a clearer image for you.

Not all images will be clear, or even remotely clear. If your dog sleeps a lot and has floppy ears, chances are good you'll get a lot of black images, which are actually the inside of the dog's ear flap while it sleeps.

You'll also get lots of images like this. Unless you have a dog that sits still a lot. Low-resolution cameras do not handle motion well.

If you look really hard at the above picture, you might realize that's me in the upper right-hand corner, bending over. Or maybe not.

I'm pretty sure K captured this one. She often sits at the top of the steps, just outside my office door, because she can see out of the window.

Anyway... as you can see, none of these shots are great. But it's a toy. That's all.

You will not catch lovely candid images like this one...

...which was not only taken with my very high-resolution camera using a flash, but was also edited with PS Elements.

Of course, if you are creative like me, maybe you can use some of your pet's images to create abstract art. Like I did above.

You just might be able to find someone willing to pay a lot of money for this shit. I mean, for this art.

Friends in All the Right Places

2009-12-29T08:31:00.039-05:00

Gift-wise, this has been an interesting Christmas.

I mean that in a good way, of course.

The first gift Hubby and I received came all of the way from Alaska. And, it arrived in the middle of a blizzard, which was awesome. It, by the way, was a box of home-made goodies from Mike's cousin, June, and her family. The box contained yummy cookies--oatmeal, pecan sandies and chocolate chip (made with pretzel stix)--trail mix (a variety of nuts and dried fruits) and some homemade soaps.

There's nothing like homemade goodness. The oatmeal cookies served as Hubby's fuel on Sunday as he shoveled a path down the driveway through the 23 inches of snow we had. And Joey LOVED the trail mix. We all liked it, but he loved it!

Another very nice surprise gift was this intriguing and way cool object d'art.

It is made out of super-compressed graphite. That's the stuff they make pencils with. So, not only is it cool to look at, every surface of the object writes like a pencil. Neat, eh? I LOVE stuff like this.

The leaf is about 6 inches long and fits perfectly in my hand, for when I need to write something of course.

This bath scrubby of mine was selected and paid for by my granddaughter, Brianna (age 9).

Our oldest grandson, Gaige (age 6), shopped and paid for Hubby's gift...

... a small, ceramic dog. It's about 5 inches long and 3 inches tall, at its tallest point. Gaige apparently knows that Pop loves dogs.

Meg is wearing one of the gifts I got from Hubby. The big blue and white thing hanging from her collar is my new Pet's Eye View Camera, also known as a doggie cam. We can't wait to go to the WV place so we can see what she sees on the way to and from Buddy's house. Hubby also got me a digital picture frame, which I have wanted for years. Oh yeah, and a teleconverter lens for my camera, among other things.

My parents really surprised me with 3 bags of Seattle's Best Hazelnut Coffee, which Mom had shipped direct from Washington state with the help of a wonderful friend. I got some shopping money, too. And a short story book. I'm addicted to short story books, in case you didn't already know.

A dear friend sent Hubby and I a gift, which was accompanied by this card...

...that for some reason made her think of me. LOL!

As awesome as the card is, the gift is even cooler...

... real Belgian chocolate. YUUUMMMMMMM.

Oddly enough, we received it on the same day we received this...

This is the chocolate Mrs. Mac posted about that inspired me to try, and quickly become addicted to, Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels.

According to the Lindt Web site, this stuff "will surprise your taste buds with an unexpected alliance of nicely bitter, silky dark chocolate refined with tiniest crystals of "Fleur du Sel" - the flower, or the crown of the sea salt."

It was personally hand-delivered by Mrs. Mac, who came all the way from Switzerland just to see us, and her family, and her friends, and her former co-workers, etc.

It is quite delectable. You have to like dark chocolate, though, which I do. Hubby and I may be fighting over this one.

Speaking of chocolate... I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Rheb's candy, which Hubby and I gave several folks for Christmas. We bought ourselves a box, too, of course.

This image shows chocoholic Meg who is simultaneously wondering "Why, oh why, is Mama taking pictures of all of her chocolate?" and "Is she going to give me some? Is she? I like chocolate!"

This is a snowman ornament I've had for years. I can't remember if it was given to me by one of my girlfriends, or if I bought it myself.

I have the same issue with this ornament. Though I am pretty sure this was a gift from a girlfriend in a previous year.

I couldn't resist sharing this doggie picture. K and Belle were jealous that I was taking Meg's picture. So they joined in.

Wanna know why K looks so short?

It's because she sits on the steps with her butt on one step and her front feet on the step below that. We think it is easier for her to sit that way because of her very long forelegs.

I hope you enjoyed this little gift recap. I hope you have friends in fun places, too.

Christmas 2009, the Recap

2009-12-27T22:28:00.041-05:00

I finally managed to go through all of the Christmas pictures taken at various family gatherings over the past few days.

I didn't take nearly as many people photos as I should have. I realized that after having captured some particularly delightful (to me) kid pics at my mother-in-law's Christmas gathering.

The beautiful children pictured below belong to Mike's nephew, Curtis, and his wife, Candice.

First Adriana...

Do yourself a favor and look at it large (click on the image). She just has the most beautiful blue eyes and this angelic face that just melts your heart. Unfortunately, she spent most of the party napping. But this one perfect shot makes it okay. One time soon, we'll have to arrange a special photo session for this little cherub.

She has a brother, too, which you probably would have figured out for yourself.

Mason also has big blue eyes and a little cherubic face that just screams, "Take my picture!" I couldn't decide which shot of him I liked best, so here's another. In color...

The little guy on the left is Mike's great nephew, Ryan. He is Chris and Steve's little boy.

Ryan is not the sit-still-and-pose type. Actually, he doesn't sit still. (Don't worry, Chris and Kathy, I deleted the crazy pics of him.) But look at this boy's skin. Have you ever see such creamy, flawless skin?

He is sitting with his paternal grandmother. Her name is Kathy, which is really quite funny. Why funny? Well, my name is Kathy, and I am married to a guy named Mike. Ryan's maternal grandparents, my sister- and brother-in-law, are named Kathy and Mike. So this is Kathy #3 in our family.

The above images are from the day after Christmas. The day before Christmas, aka Christmas Eve, was at our house. For whatever reason, I didn't take many pictures at all. Most of the ones captured by my camera were taken by my daughter, Amy.

I did capture this shot of Joey, our youngest grandchild, digging the very yummy, homemade trail mix, gifted to us by June and her family (Mike's cousins) in Willow, Alaska. I practically had to pry the bowl away from him.

I did slide it away from him at one point (he wasn't paying attention). But he politely grabbed the bowl with two hands and pulled it right back. Notice how he's holding on tightly with the right hand?

Here's Brianna with the Shrinky Dinks Hubby and I gave her. I used to LOVE Shrinky Dinks, and I think it's super cool that she likes them, too.

This is the only full-face shot of Gaige captured all evening. He's trying to make Meg say "cheese" I think.

Here's Joey in his cute Santa apron. He knows how to say "cheese" for sure.

I got zero pictures of Amy and TJ. None. What a bummer. I was going to remedy that at our post-Christmas gathering, but the whole family was sick and had to stay home.

I did take a few shots of the parents on Christmas day. Here's my Mom...

And my Dad...

... who can now grow upside-down tomatoes without being called a redneck.

And here's Mike's mom. My mother-in-law. We camouflaged her candy in this box full of packing peanuts, trying to trick her into believing we forgot to get the one gift she looks forward to most every year. She dug, and dug, looking quite perplexed. Then, as soon as she hit the box, she said, "Oh, is this my candy?"

That totally cracked us both up. She LOVES that candy and knows we would have enough sense to warn her in advance if we weren't able to procure some.

And that's it for the highlights. I told you I didn't take many pics. If you want to see the rest, you'll have to go to my FLICKR site.

All in all, it was a nice Christmas. Even if Shannon is halfway around the world.

I'll try to get more shots next time. I promise.

I did take a few cool pics yesterday...

This is K, who was sleeping beside me, on her back, on my chair.

This one shot I took while testing my new 2x teleconverter lens. Doesn't this image just scream COLD?

A teleconverter increases the focal length of a lens. So, if you have a 300 mm zoom like me and use a teleconverter, you effectively can have a 600 mm zoom.

That's how I got this close-up shot of the moon.

You will not achieve the same quality you would get with a true 600 mm zoom lens, but it costs ten times less than the cheapest 600 mm zoom. The more-expensive 600 mm zoom lenses cost many thousands of dollars. For one lens.

That's it for now. I hope to get more people pictures later in the week. Stay tuned!

Catching Up is Hard to Do

2009-12-27T11:10:00.018-05:00

The blizzard of 2009 hit just over a week ago on December 19, 2009. I love snow. I have always loved snow. But I REALLY love watching the dogs play in the snow. They absolutely love it.

Between Hubby and I, we took hundreds of pictures of the dogs playing in the snow.

With all the stuff needing to be done in preparation for Christmas, I haven't had a lot of spare time to go through all the images, re-size them, tweak as needed, etc.

These may seem a bit untimely since the snow has pretty much all melted. But, so it goes.

My favorites are posted below...

If you want to see the whole set of snow dog pics, you can go to my FLICKR page, or watch the slide show embedded below.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:14:00.002-05:00

It may be a bit late in the day for me to say Merry Christmas, but I'm saying it anyway.

After all the mad (as in crazy, hurried, rushed, etc.) preparation, it is finally time to kick back and relax.

Ah...

I hope that your day was safe, pleasant and merry!

Merry Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T10:44:00.002-05:00

Shannon made it safely to my co-worker's house in Bangalore, India. Amy, TJ and kids will be coming here for dinner this evening. Eric will be spending Christmas Eve at his father's house this year, but we'll see him tomorrow.

Are we ready for Christmas? Yes and no. There are just a few last-minute things to accomplish. But work is first.

Before I get cracking, however, I thought you'd enjoy this little skit that Hubby, Meg, Belle, K and I put together for your viewing pleasure.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas eve!

Happy Birthday, Brianna!

2009-12-23T07:09:00.019-05:00

Our oldest grandchild, Brianna, turns 9 today. Nine! It just doesn't seem possible...

It is fun to watch kids grow and see them mature. Especially when you can watch from afar as grandparents! When Mom and Dad get to deal with all the unpleasantness of parenthood and we just get to enjoy all of the fun stuff.

Brianna is a very smart, bubbly, funny, vibrant child. And she's a fantastic big sister. It has always tickled me to see how she watches out for Gaige, even when he is being a PIA little brother. And she is great playing with Joey, too. I know she's been a big help to Amy.

It wasn't all that long ago that she was only 5, younger than Gaige is now, and we were getting ready for Amy's wedding.

Not that I want to dwell on her being 5, but just look how cute she looks in this picture...

It's always fun looking through pics to post on days like today. I inevitably stumble across shots like this one.

I admit, it's not a great picture. But it's one of those candid, slice-of-life shots that captures the essence of Brianna. She has a very expressive face and the picture just makes me smile.

Here she is with me doing a word search puzzle. She was beyond excited to know I like word search puzzles, too.

I like this picture, too.

She was only 6 in this shot. It wasn't long after Joey was born.

I have tons of other pics, but I need to finish this post. Because I am pretty sure Amy, Brianna's Mom, is thinking I forgot about her birthday post. I didn't, of course, I've just been having too much fun sifting through all of the old pictures.

So...

Happy Birthday, Brianna!

Blizzard Aftermath

2009-12-21T08:47:00.002-05:00

So, wanna know what my world looked like the day after the blizzard dropped about 23 inches (58 cm) of snow on us?

People tend to get cabin fever and do weird stuff when trapped by snow. I decorated the Christmas tree (finally!) and, while doing so, took some pictures of FibroDuck with some of our more unique ornaments.

I also took lots of pictures. Lots and lots, I should say. A blanket of snow just makes things look so much more interesting.

I took the above shot around 6:30 AM from the front window of our house. On the far left, covered in snow, is my car. In front of that, toward the center of the frame, is Shannon's car.

This is the view from our front door.

And here's what it looked like from inside our garage moments after Hubby started to shovel.

That's my car in the foreground. It's still snow-covered. So is our front sidewalk. I might have to clean my car off soon so I can get all my last-minute Christmas stuff done.

Here's my happy Hubby in the newly shoveled driveway.

The view of our street from the bottom of the driveway.

One of MANY dog pics I have to share. Belle and K have been chasing each other and having a blast in the snow.

Meg has fun in the snow, too, despite the grumpy look she has in this picture. (I'll post more snow-dog pictures eventually.)

I actually took this photo at about 11:00 PM on Saturday night, not too long after the snow had stopped. Because it was nighttime, the camera shutter stayed open for about 4 seconds. I am not sure why the sky is so pink, but I think the overall effect is pretty cool.

And now, I need to get to work.

Happy Monday everyone!

Oh, the Weather Outside is SNOWY

2009-12-18T21:45:00.001-05:00

When I went to bed last night, the weather man said we might get about three inches of snow overnight. That was to be topped off by up to 12 inches on Saturday.

Not too long after I came downstairs this morning (Saturday), I decided to take a picture of Shannon's car.

The snow was a bit deeper than a few inches.

This image was taken five hours after the first one.

This shot was after another three hours had passed.

And this was taken after another two and a half hours (around 7:00 PM).

By just after 9:00, the door handle could no longer be seen and the mirror had almost disappeared. The entire car had almost vanished. But it may have FINALLY stopped snowing.

Wanna see my car? It's much bigger than Shannon's, after all.

Good thing there's a mirror on the side, eh?

The airport won't release the official numbers until after midnight. I'm going to guess we got at least 23 inches of snow in less than 24 hours.

But, you know what? I LOVE snow. The dogs and I had a blast outside today.

Here you can see Meg completely airborne. The snow brings out her inner puppy.

She's even in the lead as the girls all cavort around the yard. (This picture was shown on the local TV station -- ABC2News -- after I submitted it by e-mail.)

You know I had to include at least one picture with Belle's ears flying, right?

The previous four shots were taken around noon. The snow wasn't very deep then. Yet Belle still looked like this...

We didn't go out again until about 4:00. The snow was so deep by then, Belle's body created a plow effect as she ran.

That doesn't help her snowball issue at all.

But she sure enjoys running through the snow.

The snow was so deep by 4:00 that our wall was almost completely hidden. Belle is the only one that cleared the wall cleanly. Meg did a face plant into the snow. Poor K forgot the wall was there and ran right into it.

She was a bit shaken by that, and was slow to get back into the swing of playtime.

She even went and sat on the step for a bit.

But soon enough she was back to normal.

Even Meg was still feeling pretty feisty. That's her inner puppy again. She is absolutely exhausted now, though.

The dogs really do love the snow.

So I had to let them out to play again after dinner. Even if that did mean I would have to de-ball Belle yet again. She's pretty good about not giving me a hard time while I brush the MANY snowballs out of her hair.

After K's wall incident, I shoveled out a spot so the wall could clearly be seen by all.

I think it's a really cool picture. It was taken earlier this evening. Since it may have actually stopped snowing, perhaps I can go out and get some more nighttime snow shots.

Does It Get Any Better?

2009-12-16T07:25:00.001-05:00

I really have not been in a very Christmasy mood this year. I don't know why exactly.

Maybe it's because this is our first Christmas with no children left in the nest. Perhaps it is that Shannon is halfway around the world. Or, maybe I've just become an old Scrooge.

As a parent in a blended family (parents and step-children), Christmas has always been a struggle. Trying to arrange where the kids will be and when for the holidays was never easy. It always added an extra bit of stress.

Now that Amy is married with a blended family of her own, that pressure hasn't gone away completely. But she and TJ always manage to work things out nicely. She and the kids will be coming here on Christmas Eve. We're hoping Eric won't have to work so that he can join us. Or maybe he'll want to be here on Christmas morning. Maybe both.

But that still leaves Shannon. In India of all places for the Christmas holiday. I might be revealing some ignorance here, but that's okay. I am not afraid to admit that I don't know everything.

I always thought India was a Hindu and/or Muslim country. While the majority of the population is Hindu or Muslim, about 25% of Indians are Christians. Christmas is actually celebrated with quite a lot of fanfare in India. It is even a national holiday, so everyone, irrespective of their religion, gets to enjoy it along with the Christians.

Of course, that begs the question of whether it will it be harder for Shannon to be alone on Christmas in a nation that actually celebrates Christmas. Or would it be better in a place that doesn't celebrate the holiday? So she doesn't miss her family too terribly much?

We'll never know. Because, although Shannon won't be with us, she will not be alone for Christmas.

The way things have worked out, she is only in India now because of her visa delay (she had a hard time getting a visa). She is currently making her way across the northern parts of the country. By the time Christmas rolls around, she'll be in the south, in a city called Bangalore.

The company I work for has a sizable operation in Bangalore. I don't know many of my Indian coworkers well since we don't speak often, mainly because of the time difference. But there's a woman named Joyce who works in the Bangalore office doing the same job as me. We do interact by e-mail occasionally, so I sent her an e-mail asking if she had any recommendations to share with Shannon for her pending visit.

Shannon will be arriving in Bangalore on December 23rd or 24th.

While Joyce was more than willing to give Shannon some recommendations, she did even better. She invited Shannon to stay at her house and spend Christmas with her family.

Hubby and I were both quite touched by that very kind, generous and completely unexpected offer. I mean, Joyce has a husband and two daughters (ages 10 and 16 months). Who would ever think she would invite a stranger to her house for Christmas?

Well, Joyce did invite that stranger (Shannon) to stay. And Shannon accepted. So Shannon will get to spend Christmas with a family after all.

Not just any family, either. A very special family with children. A Christian family that celebrates Christmas like we do.

While I know Shannon will miss everyone over the holidays, I think it is her niece and nephews that she'll miss the most. Because children are what makes Christmas so magical.

As I have told Joyce, we will never be able to thank her enough for opening her home and heart to our daughter. Of course, knowing what a special person Shannon is, I know Joyce won't be sorry. And apparently Joyce's oldest daughter is already making plans for Shannon's visit.

I don't think it does get any better. I've got some Christmas spirit now!

A Great Day for Soup

2009-12-15T08:09:00.042-05:00

Winter is finally upon us. Even if we haven't gotten to the winter solstice yet, it's been cold and wet (mostly rain). Great soup weather!

I've made soup each weekend. And this time, I had help.

As I have reported here previously, our oldest grandson, Gaige, is a wrestler. Wrestling is not like soccer or baseball where you show up, play a game and are done. It is played in tournaments and can be an all-day thing. I don't know who that is more torturous for, Amy, since she has to keep track of a very energetic 2.5 year-old in a gym full of people, or Joey and Brianna, who need to occupy themselves while their brother is off doing the Hulk Hogan thing.

So, knowing there was a tournament scheduled for Sunday, Hubby and I offered to keep Brianna and Joey.

It is quite a different dynamic with two kids here instead of three. Or, to be more precise, only one of the older kids. Brianna and Gaige tend to bicker a lot, like any brother and sister. It drives me crazy. My old brain can only take so much noise and chaos. They tend to run (literally) through the house chasing each other, too, which also drives me crazy.

Anyway... we had a very nice and relatively quiet visit with the grandkids this past weekend.

Joey just LOVES all of the emergency equipment we have here. It is all battery-operated with flashing lights and sirens. I have my parents to thank for saving all of the stuff, which was Eric's when he was little. That means most of the stuff has been around for 17+ years!

Amy said that as soon as Joey heard he was coming here, he was saying "Pop and G firetruck. Firetruck at Pop and G's. Etc."

We keep the emergency equipment with the other toys in our formal living room, which we call the library (it has also has bookshelves full of books). You can see some of the books in the background of this picture, which Brianna insisted I take to show that she and Pop finished this USA puzzle.

At one point on Saturday evening, Pop told Joey they had to put all of the trucks back into the "firehouse." What he meant was, before you (Joey) go to bed we need to put all of these trucks away.

Well the next day, while Joey was eating lunch, I said something to Brianna like, "You can leave that in the library when you leave." And Joey said, "Not library G, the firehouse." He'll remember that, too. So from now on, we'll be referring to that room as "the firehouse" when the kids are here.

He really does love those trucks.

He loves this ride-on train, too. All the grandkids do. It also belonged to Eric, who was on it all of the time. Who knew that it would get so much mileage?

As a quick aside... is there anything cuter than a little boy in red, flannel pajamas? Flannel pajamas, period?

Sunday was soup day. As you can see, Brianna helped me make a big pot of beef vegetable soup. The pot you see above ended up being too small, so halfway through the process, we had to switch to a larger pot.

She was really enjoying helping me. It's not often that she gets to be the center of attention. It's hard being the big sister/oldest kid all of the time.

She was telling me how "so not fun" it is playing hide and seek with Joey. First, he only counts to about two before he starts looking, so she has to hide FAST. Then, when he does find her, he decides that was a pretty good hiding spot, so that's where he'll hide for the rest of the game.

Pop must have overheard this conversation. When it was Brianna's turn to be the seeker, once she started to look, walking slowly and taking the high road to find him, Pop ran and grabbed Joey without her knowing it and plopped him in the recliner. She was quite surprised when he wasn't in the spot where she expected him to be. We all had a pretty good laugh when she finally saw him sitting in the chair, smiling away!

She really did make a pretty good helper. See how full the pot is? And we still have more stuff to add!

While Brianna and I were cooking, Pop and Joey were looking at family photos. Something else the boy loves to do. A couple of times, when he saw me in a picture, he'd get all excited and say, "That's G! Look, there you are, G! Pop, there's G!" It was very cute.

Joey really is the smilingest 2-year-old I've ever encountered.

After we got the soup transferred to a larger pot, and Brianna got dressed, the soup-making continued.

While Brianna and I continued to cook, Pop and Joey watched A Bug's Life and ate some snacks.

In this shot, she's adding the diced cabbage, which she had cut up by herself (mostly). I would have taken pictures of that, but she was using a chef's knife as long as her arm. So I figured I'd be better off paying very close attention to that. I mean, documenting this stuff is important, but so is keeping all of her digits and limbs intact.

Joey was quite engrossed in the movie. Shortly after this was taken, we fed him lunch and put him down for a nap.

By then, the soup was finished, so that's what Brianna and I ate for lunch.

Afterward, we worked together sewing a holiday outfit for Klondike (her dog).

I would have made Hubby take pictures of us sewing, but he was napping, too!

This grandparent stuff is tiring. Wonderful, but tiring.

We are both looking forward to doing it again. Soon.

Not Such a Happy Dog After All

2009-12-14T07:42:00.001-05:00

K has been with us for a whole month now. She really feels like part of the family. But then, she's fit in right from the start.

Those of you who have been following the transition have seen how happy she looks. Or has looked, I should say.

She's not looking so happy anymore.

Yes, there is a specific reason for that.

I think she is now convinced that we are total weirdos.

Seriously.

Does she look happy to you? She's not.

Do you want to know why she's now so unhappy?

Why I think she thinks we are weirdos?

It's sort of a longish story, which I'll do my best to shorten.

It's actually Meg's fault. You see, Meg is a brown dog with a white tail. The woods around our West Virginia place are full of deer, which are brown with white tails. (They aren't call whitetailed deer for nothing!) Although there's no hunting allowed in our community, hunters aren't always the smartest bunch. And I didn't want Meg to be mistaken for a deer.

She's too dear to use for that (pun intended). So, I outfitted her and CeCe with what I call "don't shoot me" vests.

Since Belle joined the family after hunting season, she didn't have one. We let Belle borrow CeCe's vest during our last WV visit. But it still says "CeCe". So I made her one of her own.

Of course, K didn't have one either. So she got a new "don't shoot me" vest, too. Which is why she is so unhappy.

Apparently, K much prefers running around naked. Not only did she not want me to put the thing on her, once she had it on she didn't want to move.

She was giving me this look as if to say, "This is stupid. I feel like a huge dork. I am not going anywhere until you take this thing off of me."

As you can see, she finally relented. When outside, K is not one to stand in one place for very long. She wasn't happy about it, but she didn't want to stay still either.

She got used to it after a while. Maybe she figured if Belle and Meg were wearing outfits, it must be okay for her, too.

Soon enough she was back to her happy self. Maybe that was because I declared the fitting session over and let her get back to cavorting naked through the yard?

I guess her previous owners didn't play dress-up with her.

I suppose she does still have some more adjusting to do after all.

And So It Goes

2009-12-10T23:13:00.001-05:00

I do realize we're almost eleven days into December and I have done a seriously crappy job finding taste-free Christmas stuff. I have encountered some other taste-free stuff that I would totally love to blog about. Because, really, it is AB-sah-LUTE-ly (you have to pronounce that like you're from the UK) hysterical yet, at the same time, sad. Pathetic sad and just plain unfortunate sad. But that's a can of slime I'd rather leave covered. So...

Did you notice that for like two whole days there were pictures of my oldest daughter, Shannon, from various stages of her youth posted here? She turned 31 on Tuesday, and that's how I decided to celebrate/spread the word. She's halfway around the world in India now, you know.

On another topic, I got a note from K's foster Mom this morning saying, essentially, "Enough already, send more pics!" So, I snapped a photo or two (or 100) today while the dogs were out on their various potty breaks.

The first picture below might just be my absolute, all-time favorite (in the humor category).

Belle and her weird expressions crack me up. It's not like she's trying to make weird faces, I just happen to snap quite a few pics of her wearing odd expressions.

Other times, like when she's sleeping, she just looks really cute. Just like a kid. Who would ever think this cute little girl can go from Sleeping Beauty to...

... a crazy little dynamo that LOVES chasing K anywhere and everywhere?

Speaking of K, she looks pretty cute when she is sleeping, too.

Hubby and I just love the coloring on her feet. And her brown toes. Her bald belly is pretty cool, too.

Have you been wondering what life with three dogs is really like?

It's just like this. Meg and I meander aimlessly while K and Belle rip around the yard like tasmanian devil-dogs.

Meg really is quite happy to have K around as the focus for Belle's "play with me" games. And I have been very well entertained. In this picture, it looks like Meg is at a standstill. Compared to them, she is. Those young ones are FAST.

Anyway... just one last little dog anecdote before I call it a night.

Meg is and always has been very stubborn and demanding. She snorts, forces out sneezes, mumbles, growls, and does whatever else she needs to do to get our attention when she wants our attention. When it's close to dinner time and she thinks we should be feeding her, which usually happens to be right in the middle of our preparing to feed the people in the house, she licks out the dog bowls. Not just a quick lick, lick, lick either. Long, slow, loud forceful licks that make the bowl slide all over the floor. It's annoying.

Yes, we should ignore her. But IT IS ANNOYING. So, like last night, when I heard the above scenario being played out, I said "Meg!" quite sternly.

And then I looked up and saw this...

It wasn't Meg after all. It was our cute little Tinkerbelle. She actually had both front feet on the rim of the bowl. But, by the time I'd snatched the camera off the counter to fire off the above shot, she'd already removed one foot.

Doesn't she look pathetic? That's even her bowl.

Maybe tomorrow I'll encounter some taste-free Christmas stuff to share. Or maybe I'll just snap some more dog pics.

It's the Big Three One!

2009-12-08T15:47:00.000-05:00

Today is Shannon's birthday. Of course, for her it is technically over since she's in India, which is 10.5 hours ahead of us. But I'm going to celebrate anyway. Because she deserves it.

I won't go and make her cry (scroll down to see his comment if you do follow the link), like Hubby did. I could get all mushy and stuff, but I won't. I mean, it is her birthday. She's supposed to be smiling and happy, right?

So, I just decided to post a bunch of pictures that will make her smile. Of course, if they don't make Shannon smile, they'll at least make everyone else smile. And who can't use a good smile now and then?

Anyway... back to Shannon's birthday. The image quality of some of these pics isn't fabulous, but some of them are as much as THIRTY ONE YEARS OLD!

The next one is only 30 years old.
Can you guess at what big event it was taken?

I find the next one particularly cute.

Who would've thunk she'd grow up to be a world traveler?
Especially since she looks all Green Acres-ish in the next shot...

She is with Hubby in the next shot.

I really, really like the next one, too.

And just look how darn cute she is here...

I had to post one of Shannon with Amy.
Because I know Amy has been looking at these shots,
thinking, "What about me?"

Let's Jump ahead to 1996 and Shannon's Senior Prom.

And I am pretty sure the next one
was on high school graduation day.

Okay, I have lots more pics to share, but if I don't hurry up and post this, she'll never see it.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Shannon!

I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

You know I love you, so I'll just stop here.

Taste-Free Christmas Videos

2009-12-07T07:30:00.000-05:00

These videos aren't all taste-free (aka "tacky"). The ones that are not taste-free, however, are pretty annoying. In a cute sort of way.

Oh, and remember they are videos. They do have sound. So if you're trying to be at all inconspicuous, you may want to come back later to watch.

If you are starting to believe I am obsessed with animals, you are not alone...

Virtually Extend Your Family

2009-12-05T20:10:00.003-05:00

As my regular readers know, Hubby and I have three dogs. Three "rescue" dogs to be more precise. Hubby likes to call them USED DOGS. Affectionately, of course. Our previous dog, CeCe, was a rescue, too.

CeCe is the primary reason we have stayed involved in the rescue effort. We don't do nearly as much as some people, but we do what we can. We have fostered dogs, helped transport dogs and have even pulled dogs out of area shelters (when asked).

One of the things I try to help with is the gift-wrapping effort during the holiday season. American Brittany Rescue (ABR) volunteers organize and staff gift-wrapping tables for various merchants across the United States. Not just to raise money, which is always welcome, of course, but to spread the word about rescue.

The dog shown above is Bodie. That's his Mom, Andrea, who adopted him through ABR,
trying to get him to pose for me. Andrea volunteers a huge chunk of her time doing a wide
variety of work for ABR, including coordinating the efforts in several states.

You'd be surprised how many people know very little about dog rescue. Many people believe the SPCA and animal shelters are the only places you can go to adopt a homeless pet. They don't know about breed-specific rescue groups like ABR and the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network (NBRAN). Not to mention the many groups that take in all kinds of dogs, cats and other critters in need of homes.

The conversations I and fellow volunteers have with people during these events is what I enjoy most. I really hate the begging for donations part, but someone has to do it.

Here are some of the common questions we get:

1. What is a Brittany? (It's sort of an uncommon breed. The answer is long, so you'll have to CLICK HERE if you really want to know.)

2. Are all of these dogs [in the pictures around the gift wrapping table] available for adoption? (Not now, but they were at one time.)

3. Is this dog available for adoption? (Sometimes we take real, live ambassadors along, as shown in the picture above. It could be a foster dog, or, as with Bodie, they are former fosters who have been adopted.)

4. Why just focus on one breed? Why not help all dogs? (There are actually a lot of breed-specific rescue groups. As the ABR Web site explains... ABR began "as a cooperative effort of Brittany owners, breeders, trialers and fanciers who believe we have a responsibility not only for our own dogs and the dogs we produce, but for our breed as a whole. Because many rescue dogs can be traced 1-3 generations back to a recognized breeder, we believe all breeders should take it upon themselves to assist Brittanys in need." Breed-specific groups like ABR, NBRAN and other organizations specializing in dogs of one breed, are great places to get dogs because they know so much about the overall traits and characteristics of that particular breed.)

5. Why is it so important to know the traits and characteristics? Isn't a dog a dog? (Nope. Dogs were bred for specific purposes and, as a result, tend to exhibit certain behaviors people should really be aware of before adopting a dog. Brittanys, for example, tend to be very energetic and need lots of exercise. They are people dogs and don't always do well when left alone for long periods. They are also hunting dogs and some have pretty strong prey drives, so you'd want to make sure they are cat-friendly, for example, before placing them in a home with a cat.)

6. How do you know if a dog is cat-friendly? Don't all dogs chase cats? (To an extent, yes. But there's a huge difference between being interested in what a cat is doing/wanting to play with a cat and wanting to EAT a cat. The latter is not cat-friendly.)

7. Aside from giving money, what else can we do to help? (Rescue groups are almost always in need of foster homes. That's where a dog lives with you and you feed, love and keep it safe, teach it good doggy manners, etc., until a home becomes available. You can agree to make phone calls to check with veterinarians of potential adopters. You can do home visits when there's a potential adopter in your area.)

Of course, donations are never bad and are almost always needed. Which (finally!) brings me to the point of this post. You can...

Extend Your Family Without
Bringing A Dog Into Your Home.

If you want to, of course. I'm not trying to be pushy and shove dog rescue down your throat. But I thought this was such a good idea and so well-done that I just HAD to share.

Our three girls are all rescues.
And they're all great dogs!
L-R are Belle, Meg and K.

Ten Taste-Free Gifts

2009-12-04T05:00:00.011-05:00

Looking for something to buy that no-so-special someone this holiday season?

I figured I would help you with ten totally taste-free gift ideas. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Here's a very special COFFEE MUG.

2. Is there a man in your life who is very proud of his big, manly truck? If so, here's a fake magnetic BUMPER STICKER for him.

3. Here's a neat gift for someone AT YOUR OFFICE who is frustrated by visitors dropping in, unannounced.

4. This one is sure to be a hit at the office. The recipient will no longer have to struggle over TOUGH DECISIONS.

5. Speaking of executive decisions, this one is sure to be a HIT AT MEETINGS.

6. For your perpetually single friends, here's one for the LADIES. And we can't forget one for the MEN.

7. This has got to be the perfect gift for someone that just moved into a new house/apartment/parent's basement that can't afford FURNITURE. If you really wanna splurge, you should get them A COUPLE OF THESE, too.

8. Looking to LIVEN UP the holiday family photo?

9. Know anyone that already has every Christmas decoration imaginable on display? You really can ENHANCE THEIR COLLECTION.

10. This one is really for those of you that just like to pull stuff over on people and/or see HOW OBSERVANT folks really are.

You can't say I didn't try to help solve your gift-giving dilemmas.

- - - - -

FibroDuck made THE NEWS!

Remember FibroDuck?

Wanna SEE ALL MY FIBRODUCK images?

Then click on that link. The one that says "see all my FibroDuck images"!

How Much is That Chick in the Window?

2009-12-03T05:00:00.000-05:00

Here's something new, which I think is quite taste-less.

I Just HAD to Share

2009-12-02T06:01:00.021-05:00

Every now and then I come across stuff on the Internet that I just feel compelled to share with people. It could be something that touched my heart, or that I found disgusting, or humorous, or unbelievable. It could be anything that I read and thought to myself, "This is so good/interesting/funny/amusing/unbelievable/sad that I have to share it."

Like this secret I saw when I read this week's PostSecret blog:

Dear Frank,

Sunday I was with my boyfriend (we are both young Christians). I grabbed his laptop to go to the postsecret website. As I typed in the postsecret address the computer filled in the url with a pornography website.

I used my boyfriend's laptop again to look up postsecret and the computer filled in the url with recently visited sites about pre and post nuptial agreements.

In my attempts to read other people's secrets, I discovered his.

New secrets are posted every Sunday, which I why I didn't just link to this particular secret.

Hopefully the person who submitted this secret has sense enough to RUN, not walk, away from this man.

Here's something completely unrelated to the secret I shared with you above...

Now that we have three dogs, Hubby and I decided it might be a good idea to do some actual dog training.

Hubby has already started working on K so that she comes when he blows the whistle. She's getting it, but is easily distracted and, therefore, much harder to train than Meg and Belle.

It's not that Meg and Belle aren't trained. They know the basic stuff like "sit" and "down" and "come." But they're both bad about jumping on people to greet them. Belle is a barker. Neither of them know how to "stay" when told.

Since K is a more-challenging dog, I decided to look for a good, comprehensive dog training manual. I even went to the bookstore the other day, but didn't find one I liked. Then, last night, I stumbled across this ASPCA Web page, which has lots of articles on dog behavior. It is not just about training dogs either. There's a whole list of topics on understanding various dog behaviors, too. There's also information on rehoming a dog to help people decide if getting rid of there dog is really necessary and, if so, the proper way to go about rehoming.

There is a lot of good information there. If you have a dog, please visit the aforementioned informational page to see if there's anything that can help you.

Now, you know I had to share at least one video, right?

Following is the most inappropriate zoo commercial EVER...

Yes, it's a real commercial. And there are more like it for your viewing displeasure at ilovelocalcommercials.com.

Let's not forget my mission to find totally taste-free Christmas stuff...

I think that's enough sharing for today.

Putting My Foot in My ...

2009-12-01T06:32:00.000-05:00

... mouth seems to be a habit of mine. I don't do it regularly, thank goodness, but when I do it, I do it. It's not that I am trying to be mean or anything. Just that I sometimes say things that offend people.

This time it was someone I don't even know. Someone I've never even met. I didn't even know her name until today. Not that I'm going to broadcast that name here...

I'll just call her SpunkyMom. She's the "older" woman I mentioned in my day-after-Thanksgiving post who had adopted K before us, but returned her after a couple of weeks. I reported in that obnoxious post that SpunkyMom had returned K after realizing "K has way too much energy."

I didn't choose SpunkyMom as a moniker for nothing.

SpunkyMom is actually one of my blog fans. She checks it out regularly to get K updates. (See, people? I told you there are folks that LIKE reading all the dog stuff and seeing the pics I post.)

SpunkyMom has not been able to comment for some reason (you are not alone, Spunky!). So she asked K's foster Mom to pass along this message:

"... I am not an old woman – I’m 65 years young with a young 40 year old daughter living at home with me and I didn’t give her up because she was too energetic for me but because I loved her so much in those two short weeks, loved her enough to realize she was unhappy being alone all day while we were at work – she cried when we left and often cried during the day according to the neighbors – and I wanted her to be happy – I knew she needed someone home during the day to be with her."

I really don't think SpunkyMom was offended, as in P-O'd. I think she just wanted to set the record straight. I admire that. I also admire the fact that she did, in fact, do the right thing. I can't imagine K being crated or even just left home alone all day.

Here's K on my lap as I work.

Typically, with rescue groups like NBRAN and ABR, adopters are required to sign a contract. One of the things on the contract has to do with allowing a six-month adjustment period. Sometimes, dogs have issues that just need time to resolve. I have to admit, I almost returned Meg. Until CeCe's foster mom, who I must have been whining to, reminded me of the six-month commitment.

Belle and K sleeping while I work.

Anyway... not all dogs fit all homes. The being home alone thing and crying thing weren't going to be resolved any time soon. NBRAN, being the responsible, dog-centric organization that it is, realized this and agreed that K could be returned.

SpunkyMom was right. Apparently no one realized K is a dog with separation anxiety (mild, I think). She lucked out finding a home with another young, energetic dog and me, a "regional employee" that works from my home office. Not to mention Hubby, aka "Dad." (I am "Mama" to the dogs.)

I mentioned the six-month commitment for a very specific reason. To point out that a lesser person, NOT someone like SpunkyMom, might have just dumped K somewhere. They might have been embarrassed to admit defeat. Or afraid they would never get the opportunity to adopt another dog.

So... the point of this long, rambling post is to tell SpunkyMom I am sorry. I assumed it was an energy thing mainly because I know I probably wouldn't be able to keep K sufficiently exercised if it weren't for Belle. The girl likes to run.

Actually, SpunkyMom, I should also thank you. Because K really is a perfect fit here. She's not a perfect dog, but none of her issues are insurmountable. And we do enjoy having her.

I promise to never again infer that you are old. Please feel free to check in for K updates.

- - - - -

I can't remember if I posted these here previously. The images that follow are examples of what has become typical behavior during my workday teleconferences.

World's Best Santa

2009-11-30T18:34:00.000-05:00

Those crazy Swiss have done it again...

How does one determine who is the world's best Santa? Well, they go to the Santa Claus World Championships, of course.

I don't consider this taste-free. It sounds like fun to me. I mean, there's a Zipfybob Race for gosh sake. I'd be all over the Santa Creative event. And there's even SANTA KARAOKE! Karaoke!

If you would like to register to participate in next year's event with me, visit the the official Web site for more information.

By the way, how do you like this year's December Blog header (that image at the top of the page)?

Not-So-Great Christmas Gifts

2009-11-30T12:53:00.003-05:00

ToadMama's Taste-Free Christmas continues with really crappy, tacky, ugly Christmas gifts. Not all are Christmas-themed, but all are, well, just plain weird.

Like this NUTCRACKER, which is, um, closely related to this CORKSCREW.

Here's a gift that KEEPS ON GIVING. And it's a gift pack, so you can share the love with four of your friends or loved ones. I'm not sure why SANTA isn't part of that gift pack, but you'll have to buy him separately. If you are into those kinds of Santas, that is. And if you really dig the reindeer, pictured at left, you can buy yourself A WHOLE HERD.

Here's something that really taste-free... a Talking Naughty Farting Santa. If you know someone who will like that, they would probably like a BULLSH*T BUTTON, too.

Looking to add some culture to your celebration this year? Try Pancho the Singing Chihuahua.

Are you thinking about remodeling your bathroom in 2010? If so, there's a great SOAP DISPENSER you might be interested in.

Ladies, here's a gift for the man in you life who is WAY too buff. His own BEER BELLY.

All-New Taste-Free Christmas 2009

2009-11-28T11:33:00.017-05:00

Last year, I thought it would be fun to collect Christmas-related stuff that's ugly, gaudy, tacky, etc., to feature on my Blog. Because what's more fun than seeing the crazy stuff people think of to decorate with, give as gifts, sell, eat, etc.

I figured this video, which is one of my favorites from last year, would be a great way to kick things off.

I like this little game (sort of), too, which I think is actually more fun than tacky. For about 27 seconds.

If you come across any taste-free stuff worth sharing, do let me know. You can send me an e-mail at toadmama_space_@_gmail.com. (Yes, you will need to type that address in. If I actually posted my e-mails address, I'd get lots of spam.)

If you'd like to buy some taste-free stuff of your own with which to decorate your home this holiday season, look no further than good ole Walmart.com.

That's where you can find stuff like this 7' Pre-Lit Paradise Red Tinsel Artificial Christmas Tree, Red Lights. It was on clearance for just $88, but it's all sold out. Sorry.

And nothing says "Christmas" like some holographic palm trees and pink flamingos. Even if I lived in the desert, where it NEVER snowed or felt even remotely Wintry, I still don't think I would EVER think light-up palm trees are appropriate Christmas decor.

When it comes to taste-free, nothing beats some of the lovely inflatables you see nowadays. Like the 8' Tall Inflatable Penguins Mailing Letters to Santa. Or the Animated Air-blown Mickey and Minnie Candy Cottage. (As the one product reviewer noted, the size on this one is not listed. If it were, said reviewer "wouldn't of paid 99.00" if they'd known it was only five feet tall.) They also have an Air-blown Inflatable Skiing Santa. Ew.

If I'm being honest, which I always strive to do here on ToadMama's Web Abode, I have to admit when the inflatables first came out, I thought they were cool. Especially the snowmen...

... but only when used properly. You know, like one snowman, or even one snowman family like this one, in the middle of a yard.

Not like this. Many large inflatables crammed into one small space.

Seriously, how could someone think this looks nice?

The Day-After Doldrums

2009-11-27T18:18:00.017-05:00

Can I just say that I hate the term, "Black Friday"? I do. In all honesty, I hate what Black Friday has become. It's just one more example of the over-commercialization of Christmas.

Not that I am super (or even remotely) religious. But Christmas should be about families and friends sharing and treasuring the time together. Giving gifts if you want to and not because you feel like you have to. Gifts that you choose, that have some meaning or are special in some way.

Anyway... I won't go on and on.

Thinking about Christmas just puts me in a bad mood. So I'll talk about Thanksgiving instead, even if it is history.

This is the first time Hubby and I have spent Thanksgiving at the WV place. It was quiet. Very, very quiet. It also happened to be K's first time here. (Yep, I'm back to talking about dogs again.)

Poor K. She's only been with us for two weeks. Before that, it was three weeks in a foster home (don't worry, it was a great one). Prior to that, about two weeks with an older woman who adopted her and then realized K has way too much energy. Before that, a couple of weeks in the same foster home. And before that, she was in a shelter, but I don't know for how long.

To make a long story short, the girl has been around.

So, I wonder what she was thinking when she was loaded into a vehicle, AGAIN, and taken to a strange house? At least she was with us. But dogs don't get the concept of a vacation home. And it's tiny. Way smaller than the MD place. All of the floors are slippery, too. So not only is there no room to run, it's very hard for the dogs to run.

All in all, K seems to have adjusted to this house well, too. In the picture above, she's in her new bed. The one that I made too skinny. But all the dogs seems to like it.

Yesterday afternoon, I gave them all some treats. K is on one of the bigger beds in this image.

Anyway, K does seem to like it here, except for the fact that we can't let her off leash to run. She is one of those dogs that has a super-sensitive nose, and when she gets onto a scent, that's all she is focused on. So, until we teach her to come when called every single time, no matter what she is doing, she's going to be on a leash.

I feel bad, because Meg and Belle get to run ahead of us, fast, through the woods. But I'd feel worse if K disappeared, never to be seen by us again.

Speaking of running through the woods... it's hunting season. That time of year when we make the dogs wear their "don't shoot me" vests. So no idiot mistakes one of the dogs for a deer. I made Meg and C's vests, but I haven't gotten around to making vests for Belle and K. So, Belle had to borrow C's vest...

... which still says CeCe, by the way. I think C would understand.

Hopefully, before we come back, Belle and K will have their own vests to wear. They won't be blaze orange, though. I could tell you what color they will be, but what fun is that? Then you wouldn't have anything to look forward to!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T07:57:00.006-05:00

I just had to take a moment to wish all of my family and friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

It's going to be a VERY quiet one for us this year. Just Hubby, the doggie-girls and me on a fog-enshrouded mountain.

No TV, so we won't even be watching any parades. Not that I am complaining.

This is the first time in many years that none of our kids have been with us for Thanksgiving dinner. Shannon is currently in Dubai. Amy and family are going to her in laws'. Eric will be dining with my parents.

I hope each and every one of you has a fabulous day.

- - - UPDATE - - -

Wanna know what a quiet Thanksgiving looks like?

Random Thoughts from ToadMama Herself

2009-11-25T17:30:00.011-05:00

I like this guy. I've never seen one of his movies. But, after seeing him recently on 60 Minutes, I really, really like him. He makes low-budget movies that are extremely popular. But "Hollywood" says he's portraying black people in a bad light.

Even Spike Lee made some sort of disparaging comment about him. Butthead. I think Spike Lee is jealous. Tyler Perry, the guy I am talking about, has had five movies open as #1 at the box office in the last four years. Or something like that. So he must be doing something right.

And he's now at a place where he can give $1 million dollars to the NAACP. Keep bucking the trend, Tyler. And screw Spike Lee, who should be praising you for what you do.

He's one of Oprah's closest friends. Oprah said that herself. Why do I care?

I don't, really. I mean, it's cool that both of them have friends. We all need them.

So why GIVE YOU A LINK to that Oprah video? Because in it, she does a great job explaining "friends." Real friends. There is a difference between being friendly with a lot of people and having a lot of friends.

Being friends with someone is special. It's not about longevity, necessarily. It's about that connection. The bond you feel immediately, or soon thereafter, when you meet someone. The bond that never really goes away no matter how much time passes between get-togethers, or phone calls.

This isn't something I think about often. I mean, I like people and I do have a lot of friends. But I was recently very weirded-out by a person who I saw frequently, but never felt that connection with, telling me that I was the best friend he ever had. I felt bad for feeling that way. Guilty sort of. I mean, I like the person and we do have a few things in common. And yes, we can be friendly. But the best friend ever?

Recently, a former co-worker invited me on an outing with two of her closest friends. I really like this person and always have liked this person. We were never particularly close, mainly because we never really got the chance to get to know each other. We could be friends, is what I am saying. But we haven't made that connection. Yet. Maybe we will one day.

But I have to say, I was overjoyed to see an e-mail from said person where she introduced me as a colleague or past colleague, and introduced her two friends to me as her friends. That made me so happy. Why? Because now I know there's someone else in the world like me that does not feel that knowing and being friendly with someone automatically makes them your friend.

There's different degrees of friendship, too. Again, that's not necessarily a longevity thing.

This is one of those posts that will leave Hubby scratching his head. But I understand. Most men don't get the friend thing at all. They have friends, buddies, even pals, but they don't have friends like women do.

I'm guessing I may leave some women thinking, "Am I her friend?"

If you are, you already know it. Remember, it's a feeling, it's not a title.

So, why the long diatribe about friendship?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, you know. And one of the things I am most thankful for is having a lot of good, true friends.

Enough With the Dogs Already

2009-11-24T17:30:00.001-05:00

You know, for a couple of weeks now, all I've been talking about here is dogs. Or so it seems. I mean, really. My last non-dog post was on November 13.

I know, I know, that's not quite two weeks. But I have to wonder how many of my devoted fans have become bored with the dogs? How many people visit the blog only to go away disappointed for lack of variety?

With all the kids grown and out of the house now, there's just not a lot of non-canine excitement. Thinking of new material to come up with is a stretch. So I decided to take it upon myself to add some magic, variety, and excitement to this blog (and, by extension, our lives) by adding...

... a cat!

Yep, that precious little baby is Maggie. She was perched on my knee when I took this picture.

Looking at her here, I'd say she's about eight weeks old.

Look at those long, white whiskers.

Isn't she just the cutest little thing? There's nothing cuter than a furry little kitten. Unless it's two or more furry little kittens!

Here she is on the steps. Don't you just want to eat her up?

Oh, wait. I probably shouldn't use "eat" and "kitten" in the same conversation around here. Since one never knows when someone with selective hearing might hear "eat ... kitten."

That wouldn't be good.

Here's a shot of Maggie under my desk chair. Stalking something quite intently.

I even got a picture of Maggie with my Grandma. Which is quite good if I do say so myself.

Just look at those itty, bitty, wittle feetsies!

And those blue eyes!

What a cute little fur ball!

I hope you enjoyed the change of pace. Tomorrow, we'll probably be back to those other animals. But you never know...

Sometimes, I'm just full of surprises.

Don't Quit Your Day Job

2009-11-24T07:07:00.007-05:00

Things have been pretty quiet on the home front as we adjust to life with K, dog #3. She's actually dog #4. Our first dog, CeCe, passed away just over a year ago. That means we are currently sharing our home with three dogs.

K is the first dog of ours to come from NBRAN, the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network. C, Meg and Belle were all adopted through ABR, American Brittany Rescue. Both are wonderful organizations full of dedicated, dog-loving people. They both have lots of dogs in need of a home, too.

When we decided to add dog #3, as a playmate for Belle, we were pretty specific about what we needed. There were no ABR dogs that fit the bill at the time. That's how we ended up with NBRAN. And I'm glad, too, because we got the coolest little dog.

Anyway... I promised her foster Mom I'd keep her up-to-date with progress reports. I told Belle's foster Mom that, too, which is one of the reasons you see so much dog stuff on here.

Fortunately for K's foster Mom, I remembered that Hubby's camera takes videos. So I've been trying to shoot little slice-of-life shorts to share. They are not particularly riveting for the average viewer. But I think my dog-loving friends enjoy them.

I shot the above video yesterday around 2:30 when I went downstairs to make lunch. I thought it was cute. When I showed Hubby, he said, "Don't quit your day job."

"What? You don't like my video?" I asked.

"I didn't say that," he explained. "I just don't think it will have any huge mass appeal."

He probably has a point. But today, I have nothing better to talk about. So I hope you enjoyed Lunchtime.

Training Day

2009-11-21T21:29:00.011-05:00

Today marks a full week since we adopted K, dog number 3. She's not perfect (what dog is?), but she is a really good dog. While we are not quite ready to leave the dogs alone for any significant periods of time yet, we don't have to watch them quite so closely. Hubby and I spent a good deal of time cleaning up leaves (again!) today. The dogs were cavorting in the yard for hours. Not unattended, but not closely scrutinized either.

Of course, if I weren't already convinced that it was safe, that wouldn't have happened. But I've been watching the dogs so closely all week, I feel like I've been monitoring some sort of science experiment.

It's really neat seeing them together. Just as we'd hoped, Belle and K are ideal playmates. But there is one problem with K. She has a super-sensitive nose. And when she gets on the scent of something, she is very focused. So focused that when we tell her to come to us, she doesn't always listen.

Which could be a problem at the WV place where there's lots of critters and no fences. So Hubby has been working with K daily, weather permitting. He's been working with the other girls, too, since, like kids, they are very jealous of each other. If we do something with one dog, we tend to do it with the others, too.

K does come after being told to stay for a period, but she just sort of mosies along. Hubby hoped maybe Belle would speed her up a bit. He said it sped her up a little bit.

In the photo above, K is still staying, although she did stand up. Belle, on the other hand, jumped the gun a bit. I had to take pictures from inside the house so as not to cause any distraction.

It was nice being able to watch while Hubby did his training thing.

Here they are holding in a "down" and "stay" position while Hubby slowly backs away.

Then, when he blows his whistle, they come. Well, that's the idea anyway. K needs a little bit of practice. Personally, I think she's just not completely sure about us yet. She likes us, she's just not as used to the routine, our personalities, mannerisms, etc., as the other girls.

Meg had a turn, too. She and Belle are both good with the "come" and "sit" commands. But we've never really had to use "stay" much. Well, we could have used it many times, but we never needed it enough to enforce.

Hubby says Meg is the best of the three with the "stay" command.

You can really see the focus on her face.

Yep, that is serious focus. Do you think the cut-up bits of chicken hot dogs he's using as a reward have anything to do with that?

A Year Ago Today...

2009-11-20T08:30:00.006-05:00

... we said goodbye to our sweet little CeCe.

Even if we do now have three dogs (amazing, isn't it?), we still miss this little girl.

I posted all my favorite pics of her in a set on Flickr. They show her journey from shortly after being rescued at 7 1/2 years old to just before her death at 12 1/2.

If anyone ever asks me, "Why rescue a dog?" C and her story is the very first thing that comes to mind. She was a bit neurotic, but super sweet.

She deserved a better life.

We think we did a pretty good job making up for all that she endured during her life prior to becoming our Pretty Little C. I think she knew even to the very end just how much she was loved.

Horrible Timing

2009-11-19T07:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's birthday. I did not forget it was her birthday. I totally meant to post a picture of her yesterday and announce her big day. But it was one of those crazy-busy days at work. I think I set a record for consecutive and cumulative minutes spent on the telephone.

Anyway, sorry for posting this late, Mom!

Happy Birthday!

I did remember to call at least.

For all of you out there thinking, "Uh, oh. You pissed your mother-in-law off! Your life is ruined..." She's not like that. She knows I love her. And I did call, but couldn't talk to her because her girlfriends had her out and about for the day.

Aside from work, there really wasn't much excitement around here. But there was no time for excitement because of work. And for those of you thinking I really don't work all that much because I work from home, or thinking you want an easy job like mine... it ain't all that easy. And sometimes I work many more hours than I would if I were in a office.

I did manage to get a few cute dog pics though.

Meg sleeps like this all of the time. Belle, not so much. So it really tickles me when I catch her because I just think she's the cutest little dog in the world.

I saw a lot of this yesterday. I often wonder if, during teleconferences, anyone thinks, "Hmmm. Was that the sound of a camera taking pictures? Who would take pictures during a phone call?"

Meg and Belle promptly ate their rawhides in the family room last night, as usual. K took hers to my office and saved it for later. So, later, while I continued working and K ate her chewy, Belle was jealous.

And now, for my favorite shot of the day...

... our three dogs. L-R, Belle, Meg and K (I think of her as Special K because she's so sweet AND her coloring, especially her feet, makes me think of a Hershey's Special candy bar).

Today MIGHT be more exciting. Maybe I'll have better pics tomorrow. Based on my schedule for the day, don't hold your breath.

You Be the Judge

2009-11-18T07:18:00.002-05:00

With all this talk of K, the new dog, some folks may be wondering what's going to happen to Meg. Will she feel left out? Ignored? Shunned?

Remember, part of the reason we decided to add dog #3 was for Meg's benefit. Belle needed a playmate so she'd quit harassing poor ole Meg.

And you know what? I think it's working...

Meg gets to mosey around the yard, doing what she wants when she wants.

Meanwhile, the other girls get to run.

Meg gets to soak up the sun (one of her favorite pastimes) completely unmolested...

...while the young girls wrestle like fools in the leaves.

Meg gets to observe, from afar, the chaos around her. And she knows to relocate when necessary.

The young girls also get to hunt. You really should click on the above image to see it large for a better view. Our backyard is full of moles. (I have more hunting pics to share later.)

So, you be the judge. Does Meg look unhappy? Or relieved?

The Big Disciplinary "Gun"

2009-11-17T07:47:00.015-05:00

Belle has always been crazy about critter watching. She can sit by the sliding doors for hours on end, still and quiet as a mouse, watching the birds and squirrels in the backyard. K, as shown here looking out of my office window, is similarly enthralled. But there's a problem...

K does not sit quietly. She cries. Since Belle and Meg were in my office, I left K alone downstairs. Periodically, I'd tell her to be quiet. But she got louder and louder. That's when I brought out the big gun... a squirt bottle.

She must have experience with one of those. All I had to do was show it to her and she stopped. I squirted her once, from the upper floor, about 15 feet away. She barely got spritzed.

The squirt bottle is a great tool. For some reason, these dogs hate being squirted. When Meg first moved in, she came with a shock collar. It didn't work, but the squirt bottle did.

For particularly stubborn dogs, you can mix some vinegar in with the water. Just enough that it stings a bit if the water gets in their eyes. I haven't shot a dog in the eyes for YEARS.

I doubt it would do well in the heat of an overly exuberant play session, but it does wonders in lots of other situations (stopping the crying, keeping dogs out of the kitchen when cooking, etc.).

K is very good. We're working with her on recall (to come when called), and she's learning quickly. Not only is she crazy for critters, she has a super-sensitive nose. She's even learning how to play The Nose Game pretty quickly. (NOTE: I have a video on YouTube showing Meg and C playing The Nose Game if you don't know what I mean. I'll work on getting a video of K.)

In yesterday's long, two-part post, I explained the adjustment the dogs need to go through. They're doing great. It's funny that Belle is the one that gets over-excited first. It's not an aggression or dominance thing, as I've seen the same behavior in her when she's playing with Hubby or me. She's just a little one that gets carried away.

Before she gets too wound up, they have a great time.

This is just one of a series of pictures that shows them playing in the leaves yesterday. I could've posted all 18 of them here, but it would have taken forever. So I uploaded them to Picasa instead. CLICK HERE if you want to see them.

The Adjustment Period, Part II

2009-11-16T20:13:00.019-05:00

I do realize this is the second long post of the day about the dogs, which may seem excessive to some, but there's a lot going on.

This was the first workday with K here. I was certainly curious as to how that would go. I mean, I need to keep a close watch on things, as I explained earlier. That doesn't mean I need to make sure I can see and/or hear the dogs, it means I need to be close to them watching them so I can intervene if necessary.

They're actually doing well. Belle and K are equally obsessed with watching the backyard for critters.

That by itself isn't a problem. The door they watch from, however, is on another floor at the other end of the house from my office. There weren't many issues today, but I didn't want to take any chances. So I encouraged K to hang out in my office with me.

She didn't seem to mind too much.

I found it sort of distracting, though. Because she snores. And she looked so darn cute.

I just had to take pictures.

I think I may have been getting on her nerves...

I wasn't keeping K prisoner or anything. I didn't even have the door closed. The other dogs came and went throughout the day. And I took them all outside every couple of hours. (It's a good thing I am not super-busy this week. I AM KNOCKING ON WOOD NOW!)

The only issues with K and Belle have been while they're playing and one or both of them get too wound up. They're just like little kids wrestling. They can be rolling around, bumping, hitting, biting, etc., but if one gets a little hurt or suddenly scared, they freak out.

With me or Hubby staying close by, as soon as we see things getting too exciting, we make them stop playing for a minute. That's usually enough to calm things down and they're back to being friends.

Late this afternoon, after they'd been romping and rolling for a good bit, I could tell K was getting tired. They heard the mailman or something and K took off running toward the front gate. Belle took off after her, body slammed K, bounced off and ran in the other direction.

Meg has learned how to anticipate and dodge this little maneuver, which is Belle's way of saying "chase me." Well, K turned around very quickly and chased her. K, who is also very fast, either stepped on Belle's heel or just scared Belle. All of a sudden, Belle yipped and got this look of terror on her face. Had I not been right there to step in, Belle may have snapped, literally. Which would have pissed K off. Their anger could have escalated quickly.

That's why, until they get to know each other really well, we have to stay close by.

Don't worry, though. This sort of adjustment is completely normal. Some dogs can't even be in the same room together for weeks or even months. I think these two are going to be just fine. Especially since most of the time they play with each other like this...

They'd been chasing each other around the yard, flopping in the leaves. Somehow, they ended up laying in the leaves for a while, just wrestling with their heads. It was very cute.

As for Meg...

She really is perfectly happy watching the crazy little ones tear around the yard. As long as I don't ignore her, of course, which I won't.

And she does her share of running, too. She may be getting older, but she still likes to run. She just doesn't have it in her to be chased by our two little speed demons.

The Adjustment Period

2009-11-16T08:15:00.000-05:00

Any time you get a new dog, whether it's a puppy or an older, "used" dog (Hubby's term for rescue dogs), there's an adjustment period as everyone gets to know each other.

I've never gotten a puppy from a breeder. It would be cool to have a puppy because they are so darn cute. But puppies are essentially a blank slate. You don't really know what their temperament will be, how big they'll get, if they'll be loners or like other dogs, etc.

When you get a "used" dog that's an adult, if you get them from a rescue organization where the dog spends a period of time with a foster family, there's a lot you know about a dog before you commit. And that can be important, especially when you already have two dogs in your family.

We had a very specific reason for adding a third dog. Belle, our 2.5 year-old Brittany needed a playmate. Meg, our 10.5 year-old, just couldn't keep Belle entertained. Not that Belle was being bad, she is the best dog in the world, but we could tell she was bored.

So, after thinking about it and searching long and hard, we decided to adopt K, a 3.5 year-old female Brittany, to add to our pack.

The biggest concern when putting adult female dogs together is whether there will be bad dominance issues. The way dogs work, there is always a pecking order as to who is the top dog, who is number two, etc. It's a natural thing. Some dogs are better off in one-dog homes because they are very dominant and, if placed with a similarly dominant female, very serious fights might ensue.

K has been with us for two days now. Meg has no issues with K as long as K doesn't invade her personal space bubble. But that's not a problem because, as we had hoped, K is more interested in Belle. The two of them have been wrestling and playing and tussling, but not in a bad way. Once there were some growls and snarls, but that's because Belle was tired and K didn't get the "back off and give me a break" message.

Still, we are watching them closely.

The biggest adjustment for me is going to be K's morning thing. She's even more of a morning girl than Belle. We have quite a routine where Meg and Belle usually stay in bed, even when Hubby gets up and leaves, until about 7:15 AM.

So, this morning, when K tried to get me up at the ungodly early hour of 5:11, I told her to go back to bed. I was thinking, I'll teach her that we don't get up that early. She tried again. Again I said, "No, K. Go back to bed."

A short time later I heard running water. Not water, pee.

Yep, K taught me a lesson this morning. When she insists on getting up, she has a good reason.

I sure hope she adjusts to our morning routine soon.

All in all, things are going very well. Most of the day yesterday was spent clearing the yard of the gazillion leaves that had fallen. So I don't have any pictures to share. But I did take some this morning of K and Belle playing, which I'll post later. The two of them seemed quite happy, chasing each other around the yard, sliding to a stop in the piles of leaves, wrestling for a bit then chasing each other some more.

As they figure each other out, I am pretty sure K and Belle are going to be very good company for each other. And Meg seems quite happy to watch the two of them cavorting around like crazy dogs, while she gets to go about her business. As long as Mama and Dad give Meg plenty of love and keep the younguns from getting on her old nerves, all will be just fine.

Our Special K Made It Home Today

2009-11-14T16:57:00.020-05:00

We were finally able to get K today. It's not like she was in dire straits or anything waiting for us. She was living with a wonderful foster family who loved her a whole bunch. But we were anxious to bring her home.

I made Hubby drive home so I could document the journey. This was taken not long after we left her foster home. She's looking a bit worried.

She still looks a little worried here, but she did relax gradually. She is a very good car passenger.

K has really long legs. So when she sits, she sits very straight. This is not the most flattering position. I'll have to teach her how to sit like a proper little lady so all her stuff isn't hanging out.

She really seems to like Hubby. Which is good, 'cause he likes her right back.

After the usual doggie greetings, the chase was on. Belle and K are both very fast.

I have a feeling I'm going to end up with a lot of blurry pictures.

It really is great to see them running together. K is exactly what Belle needed.

They even found a pile of leaves to wrestle in, which was quite comical to watch.

I know this isn't a fabulous shot, but it's the best I could do with the three of them today. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

Welcome home, K!

Tomorrow, Baby Girl. Tomorrow.

2009-11-13T07:28:00.001-05:00

If dogs could talk, here's the conversation Belle, my furry toddler, and I would have been having yesterday when I snapped this picture of she and Meg in my office.

Belle: Mama?
Me: Yes, Belle?
B: When is K coming?
M: Tomorrow.
B: Tomorrow?
M: Yes.
B: So later today, when you're done working?
M: No, tomorrow.
B: What's tomorrow?
M: You know how later tonight, it'll get dark? Well, tomorrow is when it gets light again.
B: Are you sure?
M: Yes.
B: Tomorrow?
M: Yes, Baby Girl, tomorrow. Your new girlfriend will be here tomorrow.
B: Good. Because...

(Here's where her voice dropped to a whisper. She stole a quick glance at Meg then back at me.)

B: ... because this grumpy old bitch is boooorrrriiiinnnngggg.

- - - - -

I have had similar conversations with Gaige, my 6-year-old grandson (minus the "bitch" part), who still has no real concept of time or distance. Just last night, in fact, while I was at Amy's house visiting for a pseudo Thirsty Third Thursday with Shannon (currently in Egypt) via Skype.

Gaige asked Shannon how long it would take her to get here.

"Well," Shannon said as she thought about it, "I think it would be about a 15-hour flight."

"Fifteen hours?" Gaige said.

"Yep," she replied.

"Is that like three hours?" he continued.

"No. Fifteen hours is a long time," she explained.

Gaige thought about it for a minute, then said...

"Oh. But what's a flight?"

- - - - -

Note to Shannon: In case you were wondering why the kids were so wound up when you called, in addition to all the excitement about seeing and talking to Aunt Shannon, they were wrestling and generally having a wild time right before you called.

Here are some other images from the evening. The older kids wouldn't be still long enough for me to get decent shots of them!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

A Little Humor Won't Hurt

2009-11-12T05:00:00.004-05:00

Hypnotism at the Senior Center
(submitted via e-mail by my brother, Tom Reichard)

It was entertainment night at the Senior Center.

Claude the hypnotist exclaimed: "I'm here to put you all into a trance. I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience."

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat. The polished metal gleamed in the light.

Claude the hypnotist said: "I want you each to keep your eyes on this antique watch. It's a very special watch. It's been in my family for six generations."

He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, "'Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch."

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light shimmering off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until, suddenly, it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces.

"SHIT!" said the hypnotist.

It took three days to clean up the Senior Center...

My Very Expressive, All-Boy Grandson
(plus ToadMama having a wee bit of fun with Photoshop)

Dear Reader:

You won't fully appreciate the small details that totally make this picture unless you click on the image and check out the larger size. So, please. Humor me. Put down that darn Crackberry/iPhone, whatever and look at the full-size view.

Fondly,
ToadMama

Did you look at the larger version? Well, did you?

Why not?
(The faces this boy makes crack me up!)

K Finally Expelled Her Tapeworm
(submitted by Jenn Myers, K's awesome foster Mom)

She really did. The above photo is a reenactment, staged by K's foster Mom who just may have a sense of humor weirder than me. Maybe. If not, she's pretty darn close!

Where Mom Jeans Really Come From
(submitted by Shannon, my oldest, globetrotting daughter)

Shannon found this Mom-cotton store in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. That's gotta be what they use to make Mom jeans, right? Mystery solved! Thanks, Shan.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought...
(found by little ole me while shopping for dog bones)

Amazon.com definitely has its pluses and its minuses, but I still shop there often because they have lots of stuff and you can usually find pretty good prices. For the life of me, I don't know why local brick-and-mortar retailers either don't sell compressed rawhide rolls or do sell them for exhorbitant prices. But that's a whole 'nother story.

I found the rawhide rolls on Amazon at a good price. And I got a little giggle out of the deal. Check out the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" recommendation.

You'd think more than one person would have to buy this item for it to qualify as a recommendation, right? Could it just be a weird coincidence that multiple customers bought professional noise canceling earmuffs with the bones?

I confess, I didn't so much giggle as just scratch my head and wonder what's up with that?

Wacky Web Sites You Might Enjoy
(most of these were found by Hubby)

Is your partner one of those not-so-handy men? If yes, you should be able to relate to this one. If no, go look anyway, just for some giggles.

Do you always feel like somebody is watching you? Apparently, lots of other people do, too. They see Faces in Some of the Weirdest Places. You may never look at things around you in quite the same way.

Need a cartoon for your Blog? There are some cool--FREE--ones to use at www.BZToons.com. Like this one, which made me think of K's foster Mom...

Here's one that describes yesterday's weather...

Speaking of crappy... you have reached the end of today's post.

That's a weak closing, I know. Sorry. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

It Finally Happened...

2009-11-11T07:12:00.029-05:00

What? What finally happened? A moment of peace that I can use to do a real Blog update.

Yes, I've had Blog posts recently, but they were pretty much filler-type stuff. At least that's what it feels like. Ever since October 30, when I went to the Bombay Hook NWR, it's been go, go and more go. Or so it seems to me.

But I shouldn't waste the time whining, right? I should just do the dang Blog post already!

One of the reasons last week felt so hectic is that I was working on a pretty large proposal (for my employer). I'd hoped to join Hubby mid-week at the WV place, but this was a pretty demanding project that required extreme focus. Since I don't have an office in WV, I was afraid Hubby and the girls would be too much of a distraction for me. So I stayed put at the MD abode until Friday night.

When the girls and I arrived at the WV place, I was quite surprised and delighted to discover that Amy had brought the kids up to visit for the weekend.

The kids were in bed when I arrived, but they were all happy to see me bright and early on Saturday morning (they got up at 5:30 AM, much to their Mom's chagrin). Amy tried to keep them quiet and in bed. After taking the dogs, including Klondike (our granddog) for a quick walk, I went and stole Joey from Amy. Then I told the older kids they could get up, but had to be quiet so Mommy could sleep.

Brianna and I spent quite a bit of time doing word search puzzles, and playing squares and tic-tac-toe on her little activity pad.

Notice the dog on my lap? No? Well, take note.

There's something that's very cool about three little kids being happy to see you. Not just like, "Oh, look. It's G." They were all excited, like, "Hi, G!"

It's neat. When you have kids of your own, you get that when they are little. Then they grow up to become teenagers and mostly you feel like you are just being a pain in the ass. Of course, you probably are, but they are teenagers, after all. Teens bring the evil, or at least all sorts of exasperation, out in a person.

So it's cool to have little ones smile when they say your name.

They were each even trying hard to get some lap-time. As you can see, I had a pretty full lap already. They just got as close as they possibly could to watch the YouTube videos I was screening on my notebook computer.

Perhaps the most entertaining one for me was You Spin Me 'Round (by Dead or Alive), which the kids know from The Wedding Singer movie. Seeing Gaige emulate the dude's 80s dance moves was priceless. I can still see his little face looking all puzzled when he asked, "Is that a boy or a girl, G?" I would have gotten up for the camera, but I was sort of pinned down. And that would have ruined the moment. Know what I'm sayin'?

You did notice Belle still on my lap, right?

Joey eventually got tired of the videos, but somehow Brianna and Gaige managed to get on my lap, with Belle, to continue the video screening. Even Belle couldn't resist YouTube; we were watching some of my favorite Brittany (the dog breed, not Spears) videos at that point.

It wasn't the videos keeping Belle on my lap, by the way. It was Klondike. It takes Belle a while to warm up to new dogs. Especially big ones. And Klondike is B-I-G. How big?

Really big. Much bigger than my little Tinkerbelle.

After lunch, a trip to the store for me and a nap for the kids, we got to go outside. Mike did fun stuff like air up Amy's tire.

The kids and I spent a good bit of time gathering kindling, and logs and prepping the campfire, which we planned to ignite after dark.

We did a good job with the prep work, as you can see. And once it burned down, we got to roast marshmallows!

Joey was a giant, sticky mess. Note the glob hanging off his face.

Brianna had reason to look unhappy here. Meg had just stolen one of her marshmallows!

Gaige wasn't quite as messy as Joey. And he's old enough to wash his own face.

Hubby, being the good Pop that he is, took Joey up to the house to get him cleaned up.

On the way, he stopped so that Meg could help get some of the excess marshmallow off of Joey's hand. Hubby was watching Meg so closely, he didn't notice Belle sneak in to help clean the excess off of Joey's face!

After Joey left the fire, Amy got to play with his fire stick.

The next day was gorgeous, so I got to take pictures of everyone outside.

These are just a few of the many pictures I took. To see the rest, you'll have to go to my Picasa site.

Catching Up is Hard to Do

2009-11-10T22:34:00.006-05:00

I swear, I had every intention of posting about the fun weekend we had in West Virginia with Amy and the grandkids. But, I had some other stuff to catch up on first. Stuff that was absolutely no fun.

Like paying bills.

And balancing (or trying to) various credit card and checking accounts.

I also had to renew Mike's truck registration ($154!).

Plus there was some shopping I'd been putting off, which meant I was just about to miss a special offer I didn't want to miss.

Ugh to all of it!

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to focus on fun stuff again.

Surprise Visit

2009-11-09T07:19:00.004-05:00

Hubby had off work last week, so he left for the WV place the day after Halloween. I had hoped to join him midweek, but was pretty busy at work. Now, we do have Internet access and I can work from there. But I knew with Hubby and the girls there, I'd be a bit distracted. And with a big proposal due today, I couldn't afford that. So I went up Friday night.

I arrived a bit after 9:00 PM to a happy surprise...

Amy and the grandkids had conspired with Hubby to surprise me with a visit. Which in itself was cool, because I don't get surprised very often.

We've tried for a long time to get Amy to bring the kids for a visit, but they are very busy with sports and stuff pretty much year-round. So I was delighted to have them there. They brought Klondike, our granddog, too, which made things extra interesting, in a good way. (TJ, Amy's Hubby, is away on a brief Army-duty trip.)

I'll tell you more about the visit later. Of course, I have lots more pictures to share.

Sunday morning, I was supposed to leave to go get K, our new dog. But Saturday night, her foster Mom noticed something not-quite-right with her poo. Sunday morning, she confirmed what she'd feared... K has worms.

To keep Meg and Belle from also getting worms, we decided it would be best to wait until after they clear up before moving K in. We are really, really anxious for her to join the family, but want to be smart. Foster Mom Jenn hopes to get her to the vet today for a treatment. Hopefully they'll be able to tell her when K can safely move in.

It was a very happy (and busy!) but disappointing weekend. We really did have a fun visit. I promise to fill you in as soon as I can. But that dang proposal is still due today. So I need to get to work.

Mornings At My House

2009-11-06T07:34:00.015-05:00

I am not a morning person. Either is Meg. She and I are a lot alike in that regard.

Belle on the other hand, as I have mentioned previously, is a morning girl. And that makes her a perfect Alarm Belle.

I finally decided to take my camera to bed with me (don't worry, Hubby is away) to document how Belle wakes me up in the mornings. Now, this picture makes her look like her legs are enormous. But it's just a perspective thing.

I am not holding her in place. I am petting her. If I don't, she beats on the bed as if she were playing bongos. Which is totally cute, but can be very annoying to a non-morning girl.

Meg is never ready to jump out of bed all happy either. Can you see that she's got her feet covering her eyes? And can you see Belle getting disgusted because I STILL haven't gotten out of bed?

Now can you see Meg covering her eyes? She's such a goof.

That's K's bed in the background, by the way. Just a couple more days and it'll be filled. I'm interested to see where she fits in the whole morning routine.

On a completely unrelated note...

I had to share one of my favorite Fibro Duck pictures (the seagulls totally wanted to eat Spotty Dotty). Some people have asked me why the Fibromyalgia Association UK chose a duck to bring attention to Fibromyalgia. Although I've been doing my part to take fun pictures of Spotty Dotty for a while now, I couldn't answer that question. But now, I can. Here's what they say on the Fibromyalgia Association UK's Web site...

... people with fibromyalgia are like ducks out of water. Before developing fibromyalgia they were hard working, fiercely independent people. After fibromyalgia their pain and fatigue prevents them from performing many of the tasks they took pride in. They have to rely on others everyday and stress about the things all around them that have to go undone. They are forced to live a life that is alien to them – like a duck out of water. The duck can survive on land but its movement isn’t quick and fluent the way it is in water. So the challenge is to draw attention to fibromyalgia by using the duck in places a duck wouldn’t usually go.

Wanna see all of my Fibro Duck pictures on Flickr? I'm not the only person going this, you know. You can see more Fibro Duck pictures, too, taken by other people around the world.

Here's another of my Spotty Dotty shots that I find particularly interesting, if I do say so myself.

I like the next one, too, 'cause it shows my "runner" shirt (like I am really a runner) and my 5k ID number.

Okay, I'll stop. I'm thinking no one is probably having as much fun looking at these images as I'm having creating them. Besides, I need to get to work. Well, FFFF...

It's All in How You Look at It

2009-11-05T08:26:00.013-05:00

Do you find this picture depressing?

Wait. Click on the image so you can see the full-size version before you answer.

Okay. Now, do you find this picture depressing?

At first glance, I did. I mean, it's sort of dark. The trees look dead. The marsh grass is all brown.

But the more I looked at it, really looked, I found it sort of peaceful. It's like a different world in a way. It's certainly different than the world most of us live in. It's a place where all you would be likely to hear is the sound of water lapping against the grass with the ebb and flow of the tides, the wind rustling the grass, birds calling, geese honking. Occasionally, you might hear the shrill scream of a hawk.

It's not a place where you'd have to endure hurtful comments from complete strangers. If you don't follow that link and read the blog post it takes you to, you won't know why I so want to fly to Provo, Utah where I would hunt down and kick the ass of that stupid, STUPID woman who could be so completely insensitive and say such a thoughtless thing to one of my heroes. You don't have to follow the link to know the stupid sort of stuff people can say.

We all have days when we feel down. Tired. Exhausted. Depressed. Pissed off. Whatever.

For me, yesterday was a pissed-off day. I'm thinking it's mostly PMS. Exacerbated, of course, by various things I had to deal with throughout the day. I won't bore you with the details. Just trust me when I say it wasn't a happy day.

I woke up this morning optimistic. Hoping today would be better. Then I read NieNie's blog (to which the aforementioned link leads). She's such a beautiful person. And she always reminds me that I really have absolutely nothing to complain about.

But when I read what that idiotic cow of a woman said to her, it just pissed me off again. It really made me just want to scream. Jeez, people. Think about what you say before you say it.

I already know my day is going to be unpleasant. Mostly 'cause my job can sometimes be a real pain-in-the-ass. For a variety of reasons. I know you don't want or need to know the reasons. I KNOW it could be way worse. I just had to throw out there that work is the primary source of my frustration. But, as Hubby says, it's a necessary evil. (Not that hearing that helps the least little bit...)

Anyway... I'll stop whining now, suck it up and move on. Maybe things will get better as the day progresses. Maybe. I don't have high hopes, but one never knows what the day will bring.

I should add the following picture to my desktop...

I can't look at that image and not smile...

You're Doing What?

2009-11-03T17:12:00.003-05:00

"You're doing what?" is essentially the reaction I got from Mawsie (my Mom) when I told her about our exciting news.

This is not the best picture of Mawsie, since she looks all pissed off (she doesn't like dogs). But it's recent, so I decided to use it.

Anyway...

She didn't take the news as well as I thought she would. I mean, you'd think she'd understand that, with Eric having just moved out, things are a bit quiet here at the ToadMama Maryland abode. I know he hasn't been gone long, but this empty nest thing is, well, weird. It's so, um, boring?

Yeah that's it. Without the proverbial patter of little feet running around it's just plain dull. Meg, at 10.5, is down with dull, to a degree, but not so okay with a bored 2.5-year-old Belle harassing her. I try to keep Belle entertained, but playing with adult people is apparently just not that much fun. If the grandkids lived closer and weren't always so busy, they could come liven things up. But, if they did, it would just be boring again when they left.

Considering that I am still relatively young, Hubby and I thought long and hard, then longer and harder, and made the decision to expand the family. There's just something about a third little being calling me "Mama" that tickles me.

Yep, believe it or not, we're adopting another baby girl. And we're naming her Kay.

She's about 3.5 years old. It may not look like it, but she is a Brittany, like Meg and Belle. She has a fairly uncommon liver and white roan coat. The "roan" just means she's got patches of fur where white and colored hair grow together. So she can't be described as white with liver markings and ticking (aka "dots").

We (Meg, Belle and I) went to meet Kay on Sunday. Belle, who is always bashful with new dogs and people, took a little while to warm up to her.

Meg was fine with Kay from the start. They'll need to figure out who is top dog, which is normal, but I don't foresee any major issues. Meg and Belle went through the same thing.

Kay is larger than Belle, who is a tiny little Britt, but not quite as big as Meg.

I do believe Kay will be the perfect playmate for Belle, but I also think she might just become Meg's occasional (we hope!) partner in crime. Both were equally intrigued by the open door at the foster family's house because there was a cat in the room beyond.

I didn't realize, until I was reviewing the pictures, that Kay does the same weird neck thing that Meg does. Instead of turning her head left or right and looking over her shoulder, Meg will often just lift her chin straight up and back, like Kay is doing in the picture above.

Hubby and I are both quite excited about the expansion. I would love to post a picture of Hubby and I looking excited about the expansion, but he's off work this week, hanging out at the WV place. So, you'll just have to trust me.

Kay is moving in on Sunday, November 8. Hubby, the girls and I can't wait.

As for my Mom... she may like to pretend she doesn't like dogs...

...but she can't seem to resist sweet old Meg. Meg is, after all, her oldest Granddog.

Of course, not many people can resist Meg.

UPDATE: I just HAD to add this picture, which K's foster Mom e-mailed me just minutes ago.

That's K waving "hi" to her new family.

Hubby is My Hero

2009-11-02T07:52:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I talked about how wonderful my Hubby is.

In fact, I can't remember the last time I did that. I always think he's awesome, I just don't Blog about it too much. I mean, that's sort of like bragging, right?

Anyway... this morning I'm thinking of Hubby a lot. Why? Well, I'll tell you. Regular readers will remember my All Good Things Must End post from the other day, where I revealed that my supply of Hazelnut and Vanilla Bean Seattle's Best coffee had been completely depleted. The stuff is just not easy to find around here.

Well, while I was away on Friday/Saturday doing my 5k thing, which I still need to talk about, guess what Hubby did?

He went and found me some Hazelnut and Vanilla Bean Seattle's Best! Woo hoo! I am drinking a cup of hazelnut as I write this, thinking about my Hubby and how nice he is to me, so figured I should share that sentiment with the world.

I love you, Hubby! The coffee is just what I needed to start my day.

An Eventful Halloween

2009-11-01T09:05:00.004-05:00

This was the most eventful Halloween ever. Well, maybe not ever, but at least in a long time. In the morning, I did my first 5k in Ocean City, Maryland (more on that tomorrow). In the evening, it was trick or treat time with the grandkids.

Their Dad, who is away doing Army training, was not able to be there. So Hubby and I went along to help. Not that Amy really needs help, because really is the best Mom ever, but because it's fun.

Whenever I see this picture, I'll forever remember hearing Joey, very loud yet muffled by the mask, saying, "Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!" The boy has been trained well.

I'll also remember Gaige, strumming his sister's pink guitar while serenading us with "If You're Happy and You Know It" to keep us entertained as the other kids got dressed.

After Brianna got her costume on, she joined the singalong.

Transformer Gaige was definitely the most pumped up of the three.

Although Brianna was excited, too. I even got her to vamp for the camera. (For the record, I wouldn't usually say my almost-9-year-old granddaughter was "vamping," but she is dressed as a devil.)

As for the little guy, he came running out as a growling, muscle-bound Power Ranger and promptly tackled his still-singing brother. So I think it is safe to say he was excited, too.

Finally, the trick or treating began. I wouldn't have thought an almost 26-month-old would be so into trick-or-treating. But Joey loves doing the same things his big sister and brother do.

Even if he did struggle to keep up at times.

He didn't care. He was having FUN.

Here's Amy with the kids as they patiently wait their turn.

Joey was a real trooper. It was obvious he was getting tired, but he never once got crabby. He didn't complain a bit when Pop started carrying him from house to house and I carried his bag. He'd come right to Hubby and I after doing his thing at the door, say "there you go" as he handed me his bag, then turn to Hubby, raise his arms and say, "Pick me up, Pop."

At the end of the night, the kids surveyed their loot.

Throughout the evening, Hubby and I kept remarking at how fast the kids are all growing. Compare the pics you've seen here to Halloween 2008 and you'll see for yourself. And look at Halloween 2007, which was even before I had a Blog...

Time does go way too fast. The older you get, the more you realize that. Which is why, I think, grandparents tend to appreciate the grandkids so much. Because we know it wasn't so long ago that their Mommy looked like this...

I hope your Halloween was equally as enjoyable!

A Glorious October Friday

2009-10-30T23:59:00.001-04:00

Today was a glorious day. The weather wasn't picture-perfect, but I wasn't working, I finally got to visit Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware, where I saw lots of cool critters, and I ended the day in Ocean City, Maryland with two former colleagues and a friend of theirs. We got to do some catching up over an Italian dinner that was way better than I'd ever expect for Ocean City. And tomorrow I'm going to do a 5k.

The weather not being perfect was actually a good thing. If it was a bright, sunny day, I wouldn't have gotten as many cool pictures as I did. Too much bright light is bad. Especially in Fall, when leaves are past peak and the colors are all so darn warm. If the light were too harsh, the images would not have looked nearly as dramatic.

It's late and I have a 5k to do tomorrow morning, so I am just posting a few of my favorite images without commentary.

Remember, if you want a better look, click on each image for a larger view.

All Good Things Must End

2009-10-29T08:30:00.004-04:00

Well, just as I feared it would, the worst has happened.

I have completely depleted my supply of Seattle's Best flavored coffee.

We killed the wine, which was very good by the way, way back when our friends, Annelies and Yves, from Belgium stopped for a visit.

I could have bought some Hazelnut and Vanilla Bean Seattle's Best at Amazon, but it is now out of stock. I may need to call that co-worker of mine, who lives in Washington (the state), to see if he can hook me up.

Luckily, the non-flavored varieties of Seattle's Best coffee are still available here in Maryland. It's very good, too, by the way. But I LOVE the Hazelnut. I really like the Vanilla Bean, but Hazelnut is the best. In my opinion. Which, go ahead and say it, is all that really matters here at ToadMama's Web Abode.

Have a happy Thursday!