Friends in All the Right Places

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.

Random Thoughts from ToadMama Herself

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.

If Your Friends Jumped Off a Cliff...

...would you follow them?

I'm hoping you're the kind of person that would say, "But of course."

Because I'm about to ask something of you. You see, I am...

It's pretty simple, really. I'd just like more people to admit that they actually read my blog. Or at least stop by periodically to see all my cool pictures, read about my wonderful Hubby, SNOOP, admire my dogs, marvel at my adorable grandchildren, follow our motorcycling trips and/or see just how boring my life really is.

Now I know there are quite a few people who read this blog. But only three have admitted to being followers. The funny thing is, I don't know any of them. But I love, Love, LOVE them just the same. Because they've stepped up and admitted publicly that they read my humble little blog.

Becoming a follower is easy. If you are reading this through Facebook (or perhaps on your Crackberry), the first thing you have to do is go to my actual blog. Look for the followers gadget (shown in the following image at lower right).


It's the little box that looks like this.
Click on the button that says Follow, and this window should pop up...


Use one of the designated account types to sign up and just follow the prompts that are presented.

It's that simple.

I won't know when or even if you are reading. So, you could sign up to be a follower and never come back again. If you wanted. By why would you do that? Then you'd miss out on all the fascinating and fun stuff I write about.

I ask this for a couple of reasons. One, it would just make me feel good to know I can prove the existence of more than three readers. Two, if new folks stumble across my blog and see that I only have a limited number of followers, they won't think it's worth hanging out to explore.

Besides, one day when I am rich and famous (as a result of what, I have yet to figure out), you can tell people, "I know ToadMama. I've been following her blog for years."

Please sign up to be a follower.

Pretty please?

Pretty please with sugar, whipped cream and a cherry on top?

Tell your friends to sign up, too. And tell them to let their friends know, as well.

Won't you please help? Click that Follow button now. Or click here.

As Oleta Adams sang, "I don't care how you get here, just get here if you can."

Thanks in advance!

Enjoying the Long Weekend

It's Labor Day weekend here in the US. The unofficial end of Summer. Boy, has this summer flown! The best thing about Labor Day weekend is that Monday is a holiday. Three-day weekends are always, ALWAYS welcome.

Today, we set out on our motorcycles from the WV Place to visit some new neighbors/old friends.

Our long-time buds, Kathy and Barry Spice, bought a chunk of land a bit north and west of Cumberland, MD. It's only about a 35-mile drive from us. Which is cool. I call it the Spice Mountain Retreat. In my head anyway. I'm not sure what they'll call it. But I think Spice Mountain Retreat has a nice ring to it. Sort of like they own a mountain on which they built (or are going to build) a retreat.

They have just started clearing a "driveway." They have their work cut out for them. It's a great piece of land in a very nice location, but it is a bit overgrown.

They spent the morning using weed whackers to clear a path. They'd like to be able to access the place easily enough to camp there this Fall. That's Hubby waving in the above picture.

There's a nice view from their driveway, too.

Here's the happy couple with their faithful pal, Max. Since we rode our motorcycles to visit, we didn't get to take Meg and Belle along.

Max would have enjoyed their company. He was happy enough hanging out with us humans, but nothing beats canine companions. Especially when they're girls.

Speaking of girls... Hubby snapped this shot of Kathy Spice (on the left) and me. We don't have many pics of the two of us together. It isn't bad, either. Especially considering that I have helmet head and she'd been weed whacking all morning.

We're hoping to do some more riding tomorrow. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. We need to take advantage of it while we can.

ToadMama Capitol Tours? Um, No.

If you read yesterday's post, you might have been expecting to see a very detailed post about our visit to Washington, DC. You know, where I show you a picture of a building and tell you all about its history, what goes on there, etc.

Well, sorry to disappoint you, but that's not what you're going to see. Because I know diddly about Washington, DC. I did take lots of nice snapshots, though.

Lucky for us, the weather was gorgeous. See for yourself in the pics posted below...

Annelies and Yves in front of the Washington Monument. I should have asked them how tired they were of my asking, "Do you want me to take a picture of the two of you here?" And saying, "Come on, this is the White House, the Washington Monument, the body of water where Forrest Gump was filmed, etc. You have to get a picture of the two of you in front of it."

They were actually very good sports. About the pushy picture thing and the fact that I really don't know much at all about Washington, DC. Despite the fact that, according to Google Maps, I live just over 31 miles, by car, from The White House. Pathetic eh? Wanna know what's worse? I am 42 years old. I have lived in Maryland pretty much all of my life. I like to travel and see stuff. Yet Tuesday was the very first time I EVER saw The White House in person.

It's a pretty building.

I am also 95% sure I'd never been inside the US Capitol.

We got lucky and happened into the Capitol a mere eight minutes before the last tour of the day. We actually got to go inside, stand in the rotunda, and look up at the underbelly of the infamous dome. It was magnificent.

And, as much as I hate politics and history (as evidenced by the fact that I didn't know if Ulysses S. Grant was ever a US president), it was really kind of cool to be inside the actual building where so much history has taken place. Where so many monumental decisions have been made.

The highlight of the day for me was the Library of Congress. As we were leaving the Capitol, Annelies either saw the sign for or heard someone mention a tunnel that takes you from the Capitol to the Library of Congress.

"Wanna go?" she asked. Neither Yves nor I really wanted to. After all, we'd already walked the 700 kilometers from the Lincoln Memorial at one end of the Mall to the Capitol (I'm an idiot when it comes to metric units of measure, too). But we agreed. And I am so very glad we did. I had no idea the place was so incredibly cool on the inside...

I mean, really. Look at this.

I have never seen so much colorful marble in one place in my life. And the ceilings and walls were covered with frescos and mosaics.

Just look at all the cool color and architectural details. Amazing...

There's Yves, on the bench at bottom center, waiting for Annelies and I yet again.

It really was a fun day. On the way home, we stopped at my favorite gargantuan liquor store. I just had to show them how ridiculously large it is. After that, we made a quick stop at the house to get Hubby then went out for a very tasty dinner of Mexican food. We all got fajitas. As usual, the service was poor, but the food was well worth it.

Hubby and I both really enjoyed having Annelies and Yves visit. Eric got to meet them both, too, and hang out with us two nights in a row while we chatted and laughed about various things.

Hubby couldn't stop saying nice stuff about the two of them. For someone who usually doesn't like people, that says a lot. He noted that Annelies and I are alike in a lot of way and said we could almost be sisters. He also pointed out that she and I both talk kind of fast. Yves and Hubby both talk sort of slow. As you can imagine, the boys had trouble getting those periodic words in while we chattered on and on.

All in all, it was a great time. We were all disappointed to see them go. I have never been so sad to see house guests leave before. Now we need to hurry up and plan a trip to Europe so we can visit them on their home turf.

ToadMama the Tour Guide

Hi all. Sorry it's been a few days since my last post. The weekend at the WV Place was pretty uneventful. Monday I was busy getting ready for some out-of-town guests to arrive. And Tuesday, yesterday, I was showing said out-of-town guests the beauty of Washington, DC.

The guests I am speaking of are Annelies, a coworker friend, and her boyfriend, Yves. They are from Belgium. They've been touring the northeastern corner of the US for a few weeks. They stopped here for a couple of nights to visit. And because I promised to take them to DC.

As you can see from the above image, it was a gorgeous day. We could not have prescribed better weather. We got to see lots of stuff, too.

I'll give you more details later. I actually have to work today (BOO!). I have lots of pics to share. And some stories, of course.

I just wanted to post a quick update so you wouldn't be too worried.

Hubby and I have enjoyed their visit immensely. More to come later...