I only have a couple of minutes

before I need to dash off north to return DTE to school, but I just wanted to give you a quick Happy New Year again, and let you know there will be more recycling soon.
(Oh, and some finished hat pictures!)

This is a year

of a Great Conjunction.
I am sure most of you think of June 21st as the (here in the northern hemisphere) as the summer solstice. It usually is, but sometimes it is on the 20th instead (three times out of 14 years on that chart). Most years, ever since 1985, June 21st has been a day of a small conjunction, but I am sure there are several people out there who know this is pretty much intentional. As then Soon-To-Be-Hubband said when dates were being discussed, "What a great day for a big party." This year is only the fourth time in the last 24 that it has been the Great Conjunction of Father's Day, the Summer Solstice, and our anniversary.
As Hubband put it, "2 * 2 * 2 * 3. Gotta be magic, eh?"
Magic it is Sweetheart, without a doubt.

As I am sure most of you know,

it was Easter awhile back (like, before I went to see my dad in Idaho). DTE was home for the weekend, we cooked dinner together, and normal stuff like that. (Well she did tell me about a certain ice cream too, but that was a good thing as well. I think.)

Anyways (I am sure you're all wondering where this is going, right?), she and Hubband gave me a wonderful Easter basket. There was cheese and crackers. Well, there was more cheese than this, but being as how none of us had ever seen this before, it was the most important. It falls into the "things a lot of you might not know about me" category. My first job (well besides being a babysitter in high demand) was working in an import cheese store. Great job, lots of stuff to learn, remember, take tests on. Seriously, I had to learn all sorts of cheese facts and information (as well as taste) about over 200 different kinds of cheese. Great job. (Though ever since I have had a few people accuse me of being a cheese snob. That's OK,there are worse things I have been accused of.) Brie happens to be one of my family's favorite cheeses (should have seen my kids the day we found several pounds of Brie mispriced for three cents!), as well as goat cheese. So of course the combination of the two had to be checked out! Seriously yummy cheese!

There were also flowers because my family know how much I love flowers and growing things. (Hmm, another one of those "things a lot of you might not know about me," one summer when the children were small people I had a part time job working for a landscape architect. I like to play in the dirt.)

Of course the flowers had to be inspected,



and then they were promptly shown who was in charge around here by having a flower or two eaten.


Fortunately she has decided that plants outside are alright and can be left alone. Otherwise she would be knocking them off the bench and onto the floor, like she did with African Violets I used to own. (Well, she actually knocked them off a small table and onto Simon while he was sleeping at 2 AM, but who is keeping track?)
Happy WoW!

Catching up

On Wednesday (Christmas Eve), a tree was procured and put up in the front/music room. It was then very thoroughly inspected, from all sides, angles, and heights possible.

 

After lights were put on, it was completely reinspected, along with the lights, which had to undergo a taste test. (The tree had already had one of those.)

 

There was more inspecting every time something new happened with or near the tree.

 

Once we got the presents under it (and inspected) there was mostly guarding to be done. All of the repeated inspections resulted in Oribel having tree sap stuck under her chin and having a couple of her whiskers stuck in the sap. Guess what though? She smelled wonderfully just like a Christmas tree when I snuggled her!

 

Wednesday also involved baking birthday cake, church for DTE and me, picking up Chinese take-out for dinner, back to church for all four of us, and a bedtime story (this year it is Christmas Day In The Morning).
Our Christmas Morning/Day was filled with the usual suspects of stockings, eating said birthday cake, present opening/inspecting, snuffling, belly rubs, and such.

 

There was also a game played after the wonderful dinner DTE made.

 

Friday I got to play with my birthday present all day. Fun times, even with all the help I had.

 

 

Hubband took the dogs in to have their nails clipped, and we discovered that they have both lost weight. For some dogs this would be OK, but not these two. We have been able to keep their weight right around fifty pounds ever since they were full grown/out of puppy hood. Well, they are both at about 45 pounds, so now need to put some weight back on! (This might explain why Simon has been shivering when he goes out lately!)

Yesterday Hubband and DTE delivered the baby hat and it was declared to be very cute, tried on, and fit wonderfully! (Thank goodness, though I had sent them with strict instructions that I would make a different size if needed.) Mostly it was a low key day, though Hubband and DTE ended it with going out to the airport last night to welcome our friends home from their year-and-a-half in China. Turned out to be a good thing, as their three kids were exhausted and only one of their nine suitcases had shown up from the Chicago transfer. So the other friends that had also gone out were able to take the kids home and our contingent was able to provide follow-up transportation after all the requisite paperwork was filed.
Today has also been pretty low-key, other than the usual Sunday stuff, DTE heading off to Des Moines for SpamALot, DTY and I headed out to procure fabric and a pattern for a sewing project she is going to do, and other such general stuff. Pretty low key around here, which really means all is good!
(Don't forget to click on the pictures to bigify!)

Recycling, Take Two

Keeping in the "Recycling is a good thing" theme, feel free to go here.
Not very many plans for the day so far, other than a friend is taking me to lunch, and then Hubband is taking me to dinner. I hope to fit in some knitting as well.
(Just because I am sure someone out there is wondering, I am turning 47 today.)

Recycling is a good thing, right?

Well, most of the time it is, but right now I am not so sure. Is it possible to save bits, or bites, or 1's and 0's if I recycle blog posts? Would it help keep the tubes of the Internet from getting clogged up? How will we ever know the real answer?
Any way, it is time to say "Happy New Year" again. Main difference from last year's post? We are now in Year "B1." I still love the whole Advent thing and there isn't much to add, other than I can't think of a better way for a church to celebrate the New Year than the party St. John's got to throw yesterday.
Also for the recycling project, you can go here, and insert Thursday for Tuesday. Well, I guess we do know why, though, don't we?

Our Thanksgiving day

started with frost on the grass (and most everything else). There was putting dogs out and in (and *out and in,* repeat between *'s as needed throughout the day), feeding of dogs and a cat, making pumpkin pie, washing of dishes, and reading up on some HTML code, and stuff. Well, that was how my day went any how. Hubband did work things; DTE slept, relaxed, and stuff. (Isn't "stuff" a great, all inclusive word?)
In the early afternoon we all bundled up to set out on the annual Thanksgiving expedition with the dogs. Normally we would have loaded up in the truck with the dogs in the back, but since it still has a bunch of wood in it, they had to ride in the back of my car. Sadie loves riding in the truck as it normally means she gets to "sit on the furniture," but three adults and two dogs in the cab of a small sized pick-up just wasn't going to work. Simon doesn't mind the back of my car too much, but Sadie isn't usually impressed with not being able to leave dog hair all over the seat.
She did manage to survive the ordeal, especially with the excitement of the proposed outing.

 

After we arrived at our destination and got leashes attached appropriately to all involved parties, we set out on our way.

 

(Of course we followed the directions on the sign; it is not a good idea to let a basset roam free, and never two or more together!)

 

We saw a lot of things while we were wandering the trail, starting with some berries,
which look much better close up.

 

There were more signs to pay attention to,

 

harvested fields,

 

as well as ones "in process."

 

We never did see the field being harvested, but we could hear it happening, along with the jingle of the bouncing dog.

 

We also saw fallen logs and moss,

 

remanents of Halloween,

 

frozen creeks,

 

the last vestiges of a light snowfall and other trail users,

 

and tree mushrooms. (I am always amazed with these; I don't remember ever seeing them before we moved here. They seem to be all over the place, we even have one growing on a table on our patio.)

 

We also saw seed pods,

 

bridges,

 

lichens,

 

and more seed pods.

 

Of course there were all kinds of good things to smell on our adventure,

 

as well as a some of waiting for the rest of the pack to catch up. A great time was had by all, and then we headed home, with a couple of exhausted dogs!



After we got home I put the chicken on to brine, prepped items for cooking, and then put the garlic-rosemary chicken on to roast. Of course when everythig was done, we enjoyed our meal, but most of all we enjoyed each other's company! All in all, we had a low key Thanksgiving, but sometimes those are the best.
(I will give you an update later tonight or tomorrow about how today went. It is a bit of a different story with other characters involved.)

DC Replacement

So last Friday, Hubband and I went to the Big City. We stayed near the infamous bridge and wandered around
here. We walked past a famous statue and music spot, found dinner, and had fun relaxing together. Saturday we went for a drive to poke around Stillwater, MN. While we have not been impacted at home by any of the flooding around the mid-west, we could see some problems with it on our trip.
This is a road from one direction,

 

and this is another view of the same road looking toward the fancy bridge,

 

and where it goes under the approach to said bridge, next to the river. (Personally, I think the clearance sign is a bit off on in its measurements.)

 

Due to the higher than normal water level, some boats that normally would be able to zip right under the bridge with no trouble,have to slowly approach with caution,

 

or just get into the queue and wait their turn.

 

Of course, some boats always have had to wait for the bridge to do its magic!

 

(The bridge keeper did seem to pick when to lift it, based on this one's proximity I noticed.)

 

At this point there was the "All Clear" signal for the bridge to start back down.
We spent another night in the big city, walking past famous spots again, having a wonderful time, just hanging out together. We had a really wonderful anniversary trip!

 

I had started a pair of socks for Hubband before we left and got a lot of knitting time in while driving about, but totally forgot to take any pictures of "Socks on Trip"; I even had it with me while we were waiting for the bridge! So we are making do with socks on the deck and
"Socks with Frogs." (I have since finished the first sock and will be turning a heel of the second tomorrow.)