I'm a convert.

When my friends from Australia visited earlier this year they brought me some Uggs. Well, they don't call them that there but you get what I mean. Apparently they originated is Aussieland and they thought I'd like a pair.

My feet were so cold the other day, even my warm sister made socks didn't help so I rummaged in my closet and pulled these out. Oh my, they're absolutely fantastic. Not only were my feet warm (without sweating) but so were my calves and ankles. I'm definitely in love and owe my Aussie family a great super warm thank you!

Yesterday was a long day. When I got home D had a nice fire going for me to relax in front of in the living room fireplace. Before I could pull up a chair and my Kindle, Nuttie picked out her spot and plopped herself down for a nap or two. As long as I was in the room, she was too.

Nissie doesn't like heat from the fireplace or space heaters. She prefers the electric blanket. I don't know why but she does. Nuttie will take heat anywhere she can get it.

Odd Couple of Days

It's been an odd few days. Friday I spent 3 hours sewing out this applique name tag for D's work apron. It's got over 300,000 stitches so takes forever to sew out.

Anyway, everything was going perfectly until about the last 3 minutes. Check out the bottom of the design. For some reason the darn thing came out of registration. I'm thinking it's because of the large size of the design and it has to go into my biggest hoop. It's too big for the next hoop down but too small for my largest hoop.

I've been scratching my head on how to stabilize the darn thing. I might change some of the sew out order and see if that might do the trick. Oh well....who says life was supposed to be easy? LOL!

I spent all day Saturday putting up more Christmas decorations. I have about 2/3 of them out and have decided to quit. I've got to come up with a quicker and easier method of decorating.

Soooo...the family room pretty much only has the fireplace decorated. The kitchen, living room and entry hall are decorated. Normally the entire house is festive, especially the family room but not this year. A lot of the problem is, now I'm working so time is at a minimum and my shoulder is killing me. Sigh....myabe next year.

I was pooped and pretty much useless yesterday (Sunday). I loaded a book on my Kindle, listened to the monsoon winds try and pull the shingles off the roof and watched the backyard rapidly fill up with the few leaves that were left on the trees. Yikes, what a mess!

I have to admit, I'm all rested today. I think a day of lazing around in my big chair reading and occasionally napping did the trick. I made the mistake of turning on the lap blanket to keep warm. That mean a lap full of wiener dogs. Oh well, with their weight, they also add warmth.

Catch up time!

Okay, I'm back. Like my niece, I quit blogging because I didn't feel like anyone was reading what I wrote. So now I'm back until I feel like I'm wasting my time again.

While I've been away from the bloggersphere I've done a few things. D and I picked up a few cars for Peter. Check out the Cuda above. It's a mess but the Aussies will love it. Go figure. It should be on the ocean now heading toward Australia by now.

The Cuda is actually a pretty good looking car compared to some of the stuff Pete buys and ships.

D and I picked this beauty up in Santa Rosa. It was just shy of a 6 hour trip. We left after I got off work at 2, so it was a long day.

We brought it home and then D called S to see if he'd like to take it to Oakland PLI with him. As you can guess, the kid had a blast. It put a little spark in him to work on the frame off restoration of his Chevelle a bit more.

Each year at Thanksgiving D cooks the turkey in the Webber. He's done that about 25 years and each year he tries to figure out how long to cook it. It must be a 'man' thing.

This year he took a picture of his cooking time calculation and wants to print it and put it in the Webber cookbook. Looks like a recipe from the cold war to me.

H came home for Thanksgiving. It's the first time we've seen her since she moved 8 months ago. She won't be coming home for Christmas, so this visit is going to have to last us until next November.

I don't know if the red eye will show when this posts. I felt it was appropriate to leave it because it really shows the inner aura of my little devils. LOL!

The decorations at work are minimal but the tree is beautiful. One of the couples who works there have relatives that own Windmill Farms. They brought in this beautiful tree and decorated it for us.

I told Maureen this morning that she's got the best smelling room in the entire building. The tree really looks beautiful when it's dark a yucky out. Once the newness wore off, I noticed how the tree leans to one side. Now it drives me a little bit crazy when I'm filling in for Mo at the front desk.

Okay, that's the end of this post. I promise to try and put something on at least once a week. Hopefully I might actually post twice in a week.

Upside...downside...

The downside.....I'm looking up more these days. While D was making the bedroom look nice and up to date, I noticed this huge cobweb in the entry hall. Look at this beast.

How can you go so long and not notice something like this? One day you look up and WHAM! There it is.

It starts at the ceiling and connects to the dolphin's mouth in the fountain. What's worse is, it isn't fine and thin. It's thick, dusty and definitely visible.

Now the decision is, take it down or see how big it gets for Halloween. If we were going to have a party, I think I'd leave it. You know, just to be annoying to the hubby.

I have a feeling I'll give in and suck it up with the vacuum cleaner. We'll see how long I can hold out.

Graduation Time!!!!

Yesterday was R's graduation party. I loved coming in the front door and being welcomed by this wall. The picture doesn't do it justice, it's very heartwarming.

So, here's my first picture of J. It's a perfectly normal shot. Her mouth moving and my having bad the timing of catching her in mid sentence. Of course, she's part Irish so it's hard to catch any of us without our mouths moving. LOL!

I think this shot really shows off R's personality and the fact that she's as outgoing as her mom. Don't tell her I think she resembles me in this shot. Look at the round face, dimples, squinty eyes....need I say more?

I laughed when I downloaded this picture. E looks like she's about to say, "So. Is that all you've got after all these years?" Hahahahaha!

I didn't think of taking a picture of all the women (Mom, daughters, grand daughters, great grand daughters) in one shot. I'm gonna consider that a senior moment.

Anyway, I love this picture!

J & me. She's such a lovely woman and put on a very nice party. C should be proud of her.

This is what happens when I take a picture without my glasses on. Ya know they're there but just a bit out of focus. I don't think I have any pictures of the three cousins together. I'm going to cherish this one, even if I messed up the shot.

This is J's main squeeze. It's not the best shot but it's only one of two I have of my sister C. She's camera shy and the other picture was just sooooooo bad. She'd probably sue me and win on the basis of bad taste and cruelness.

Basically that means I'll keep it for blackmail in the future.

On my way to Sacramento, I made a detour to the Tracy Mall. It's sad that about 1/4 to 1/3 of the stores are empty. But 3 our of 4 of my favorites were still there.

This little pink jobberdoo was on clearance for $6. I showed D the red and white top I got but not this. I'll meet him at the door this afternoon with it on and he'll just love me to bits.

The nice thing about being with the same man for 41 years is.....are you ready for this?...... In his mind I'm still 16. Yep....he doesn't see the lines on my face, the sagging arms or the dimpled legs. That's what love is made of girls!

I'm now going to head to the kitchen and get the beautiful fruit J sent me home with and polish it off this morning. I ate the strawberries and some of the pineapple last night on the drive home. It was absolute heaven.

Thank you so much J for allowing me to attend R's special party. I'm sorry I had to leave early but I had to take mom home.

Spoiled and Coming Along Nicely....

When I got home from work today, I was not met by the pack of canines that usually attacks me at the door. I couldn't figure out where everyone was.

It would seem, D thought the dogs were cold today so he rounded up two of the footstools and put them in front of the fireplace with the doggie beds on top.

Let's see...if I were a dog, would I run across the cold entry tile floor to meet the human or stay wrapped up nice and warm in front of the fire and let the human come to me.....hmmmm....sounds like a no brainer, even for a dog.

Busy Weekend

We're staying in the guest room while D is working on the bedroom. I opened my eyes to sun on Saturday. I was laying on my side and this is the picture I woke up to. Now that's just nice.

When I looked toward the foot of the bed this was my view. It's a shame the jasmine vine died but strangely enough the rose is trying to take over the arbor. Sooooo....I'm gonna let it.

Maybe this summer I'll get out and cut down the old vine and make room for the rose.

I think I'm appreciating nature more as I age. Oh....I always loved it but things seem more bright lately.

I spent all day Saturday removing the little bugs from this design and finally getting it on a picnic blanket for the customer. I sewed out two samples which took about 3 1/2 hours. The final sew out on the blanket itself took 1 1/2 hours.

D hates the B looking like an R and wanted me to change it. I told him it was their logo and it wasn't up to me to edit it. He didn't like that answer but as the saying says, "The customer is always right".

I think I need to start putting money aside for a better camera. My pictures always end up out of focus and grainy. The above picture looks warped, when the actual design has crisp straight lines and the Alisa is perfectly straight and even with the top of the box. It's not the least big wobbly and off kilter like the picture shows it.

I spent all day Saturday on Elite Volleyball but was able to finish up some projects on Sunday. I wanted to get this angel finished so I can give the tote to Nancy. She fell in love with the design and I thought this might help her carry stuff to and from her chemo sessons.

I finished the Walkers for Knockers Tee Shirts. I just had the 4 men's shirts to do. The one on the right is our team colors but Dustin wanted the ribbon for skin cancer on his shirt so it's all black. I haven't decided if I like it or not.

I got these samples sewn out for another customer. She couldn't decide what color she wanted. This cost me about $15 to do. I think next time I'm gonna put my foot down and say I'll do one letter in each color.

I did tell her if she wanted the variegated yellow that's on Rose, I was going to charge extra. I think all these names will take up my new spool of variegated thread. They come in such tiny spools and are pricey.

When I put the Nancy on this bag my machine made a horrible noise. I knew I should check but then it was okay. What it did was sew a tiny piece of the handle to the outside of the bag. Now here's the dumb part. I had one of those premonitions that was going to happen when I put the bag in the machine but didn't check.

When I slid the bag off the arm, the bottom of the N had sewn through to the handle. DUH! I trimmed the lower portion of the N. Since this is a gift, I don't think Nancy is going to notice there's suppose to be a loopieloo on the bottom left corner of the N.

That was a very lucky mistake. What is it they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men." hahahaha.

A Matter of Perspective....

Last posting I showed the field of beautiful yellow flowers/weeds. I'm having a senior moment here and can't remember their name. Something like mustard flowers. Anyway, I said I'd take a picture of the other beautiful field of weeds I drive by every morning to work. So here they are.

I wouldn't complain a bit if my hill was covered with these 'weeds'. Aren't they cool? They've been blooming for about 3 weeks now and are just starting to die out.

Who decided these were weeds? It would seem the things that grow fast and reseed themselves naturally are always weeds. Well, with the exception of sweet alyssum and nasturtiums. LOL!

Is it a plot by the nurseries to make sure we come back year after year to buy from them and keep 'em in business? Okay, okay....maybe I'm getting a little carried away here.

Anyway, I decided it's not the houses that makes a neighborhood pleasing to live and drive through. It's the trees and plants that are included in it.

I remember as a kid, the Manor was full of beautiful huge Sycamore trees. Every street had them. You didn't pay any attention to the little houses that were old even in the 60's. They looked quaint peeking out from within all the plants and trees they were surrounded with.

I drove through my old neighborhood about a year ago and all the trees have been cut down. Not just on our street but all the surrounding streets as well. The entire community looks, old, tired and naked. The 'quaint' was gone. It's now just another old neighborhood. Oh the houses are neat and clean but the lack of nature strips it of personality.

I was sitting at this light enjoying the weeds in the field and the view of the hills and thinking, "Wow, I don't miss all the years I spent driving down Meekland, then A then Hesperian to get to work." Other than a few new large box stores, the drive is still the same; Industrial, crowded with traffic and not the least bit pleasing to spend your commute time enduring.

Yep, I'm definitely a nature lover. I'd rather drive through an old area full of trees and plants than a brand spankin' new area with pretty buildings but not a lick of greenery in sight.

Different Stuff Today....

The other day I was driving to work and realized what a gorgeous drive I had. The next day I threw my camera in the car and took this picture. I know, if you're not suppose to talk or text on the phone while driving you shouldn't snap pictures.

Considering I wasn't looking at the camera when I hit the shutter button, this turned out pretty good.

I want to take a picture of these really cool weeds about 1/4 mile away from this field. Maybe today will be the day for that illegal picture taken venture.

I'm wondering if it would be a crime to super glue Nissies ears down. She spends more of her life with her ears turned back then in the correct position. Does she do this on purpose so she can hear better? LOL!

Look at those eyes, talk about devil dog.

Right after Nuttie finished her breakfast I walked by her bowl and she put a bone in it. I thought that was hilarious. Is she trying to hide it in plain site from the other dogs?

Last night was the Walkers for Knockers fund raiser. It was very hard work but a preliminary count says we made over $1000. Don sold $440 of tickets at the door and I sold another $600 of raffle tickets. Umigo was donating $4 from each ticket sold all day. I know by the time we arrived around 4 they'd already donated around $70 to W4K.

We have 20 team members but some people not being on the team made gift baskets. The raffle was a hit. We had so much wine, we were able to raffle off a basket then a bottle of wine.

At the end of the evening we had lots of wine left so we just kept raffling until they were all taken care of.

I'll post more pictures of the baskets and information about the evening on http://walkersforknockers2010.blogspot.com/.

Time to head to work. Everyone have a terrific day. I'm going to work to rest. Hahahaha!

Gifts

Look at my pretty cup. It's soooo girly. I love it. It's huge and will hold lots of tea.
The best part is the saucer. You don't see many cups with matching saucers anymore. It's screaming 'Look at me! I'm pretty!"
Here's D's new coffee cup. See the difference between men and women? Women get pretty stuff without writing on it. I know my cup can be used for tea or coffee.

Men need to have the purpose of the item printed on it so they'll know what it's for. See, it says coffee. Will it explode if he puts tea in it? Hahahahahahaha!

My cup is pretty and I can put coffee, tea, milk or whatever I want in it. D's is a coffee cup.

Mine has colorful flowers. D's has Coffee written on it.

Mine has Alice in Wonderland characters on it drinking tea. D's has Mickey holding a coffee cup.

Mine is shaped with graceful lines. D's is a big ole cup.

Hahahahahahaha! Just kidding, we both love our gifts from Nana and Darryl. It was very thoughtful of them to remember us on their trip to Disneyland.

I promise to be just as nice to D's coffee cup as to mine. Even though mine is prettier. Man, I just can't give up on the teasing.

D loves his cup because it's big, heavy and has a nice large handle that his fingers will fit in.

Thank you again Nana and Darryl for the very nice gift.

The Cycle Starts Again....

It's quiet here on the home front. The pups have gone back to my sister's house and we are back to three dogs again.

Part of me enjoys the normalcy, the other part misses watching the goof balls play and get into mischief.

As you can see from the picture of Nissie and Sassie, they eventually became friends enough to share the chair and snuggle up for a nap with each other. The visit was very good for Nissie to learn to socialize. She's rough around the edges and needs more interaction with other dogs.

It was definitely a very positive experience for my dogs to learn to share and get along with others. Soooo....big sis, when you need a dog sitter again, I'm here for ya.

I'm ashamed to say I really know less about birds than I'd previously thought. I was under the impression they only laid eggs once a season. Oh, I know Doves mate for life but that apparently is the end of my vast education on the subject.

The last babies were born, grew up and flew away in a matter of weeks. It amazed me how fast they developed.

I've been seeing the mom's head in the hanging pot again, in the past week and got nosey this morning. She's laid two new eggs.

The only difference I can see is, she's fixed the nest to make it fluffier. I guess kids are kids whether they're human or sport wings: they mess up their bedroom. After the baby birds left, mom did some housekeeping on the nest before the next brood arrived.

I'm going to pay more attention to her new little family this time around and see if I can get a bit more education on the subject. It was fun watching the last babies mature, so I expect the same enjoyment this time around.

Flock, gaggle, herd?????

Last night we were eating dinner and out of the side of my eye I saw dark movement. I turned my head and there was a huge flock of birds taking off and landing on the hill in the backyard.

For once, I had my camera sitting on the end table. I held it backwards over my head (because I had my dinner plate in my lap) and took this shot. This shows about 1/2 of the birds because they'd already taken off by the time I turned on my camera.

It's just cool! Not bad for not seeing what I was taking a picture of. Oh....these are big noisy crows.

Now if the crows were a flock what are these? Gaggle, herd, pack? Doesn't look like a viscous pack does it? The bear is smart. She's hiding in the closet. Although when she does join the wiener club, she just tries to ignore these little imps.

This is Vinnie and Nissie. They've taken to the habit of dumping over the toy basket and taking the bones and toys out. Then they spread them about the house. I come by, pick them up, put them in the basket, turn the basket upright and they show up a little while later and dump it again.

Sometimes Ringo just gets a little overwhelmed so he finds a crate to take a snooze in. I don't know who's crate is who's. He usually goes to this one or the one I'm guessing might be Vinnie's. Sassy always goes to the same crate so I figure there's a 50/50 chance this is actually Ringo's sleeping quarters.

Six wiener dogs is a lot to take care of but they all seem to be getting along just fine. Vinnie and Sassie run around playing (while Ringo & the Bear sleep). Nuttie and Nissie run around playing (while Ringo and the Bear sleep). Vinnie and Nuttie run around playing (while Ringo and the Bear sleep).

Yesterday, Vinnie, Sassie and Nuttie were playing together. Then Sassie got jealous of the fun Nuttie and Vinnie were having and attacked Nuttie. She learned quickly, that isn't tolerated here and has been a perfect angel since. Oh occasionally there's a growl out of Sassie or Nissie but it gets my immediate attention and they straighten up.

Vinnie is treading water a lot. He barks at the drop of a hat. I'm hoping he'll get tired of being squirted in the face. He was much better this morning. Yesterday he started barking around 5 a.m. so D put him in the laundry room, closed the door and then closed the bedroom door. We could still hear him so it was very annoying.

After being wet most of the day from barking, he was pretty quiet this morning. He barked occasionally starting at 4 a.m. (when D got up) but I yelled to him "Vinnie NO!" and he'd settle down for awhile.

I'm thinking of moving him in the bedroom with us tonight so I can squirt him with water when he barks. I'm pretty sure he'll get the idea.

Well, off to finish up some more Walkers for Knockers logos on Tee shirts.

Sad & Happy....

Well here it is less than a week later and look how much the birds have grown. I can't believe how fast they got feathers and their little beaks grew. They'll be flying the coup pretty soon.

I think I'll make sure there are no plants in the pot this time next year so it can be used again. It's the least I can do.

Speaking of flying the coup. H moved to Boston Saturday. It was great having her here for 7 weeks. We got to renew our relationship so it was wonderful.

D was very sad and quiet Saturday night. Yep, it's true, he can actually be quieter than usual. H got all her stuff unpacked and her bed (which is huge) put together Sunday. She called Sunday evening and said she was walking 1/2 mile down the road to Trader Joes to do some shopping. I asked how many people were out and she said, "Lots! Everyone walks in Boston".

She has a few clients that have business back east, so they'll continue to have her do their hair. She's very happy about that. She said she doesn't miss her car payment and is looking forward to not driving since the two trolly lines are a short walk from her brownstone. It'll take her between 10 and 15 minutes to get to work.

Oh....the picture above? That's how she dresses for work. Yep, to the nines! She makes fun of the other stylists for not dressing professionally for their salon.

As a going away gift, all the women wore high heels for her. She said the next day they all complained about how much their feet hurt. LOL!

This is my view while I work. Tough huh? I'm looking at one of my favorite trees....a Japanese Maple when I glance out the door.

This is the desk. I sure wish I had room for one of these for PAW's. It's got tons of room and is very versatile. The negative is, it's about the size of a Volkswagon. Hahahaha!

If you look beyond the chair real close you'll see a huge bundle of wires. From day one, I've been eyeballing them thinking I was going to shove them behind the computer tower on the floor before someone trips on them.

Guess who tripped on them and fell? Yep, me. I was faxing some invoices and got my toe hooked in the darn things. I fell straight on my hands and knees and then landed on my side. I was laying on the floor praying no one would walk in and see me. I lucked out and was able to pick myself up and pretend nothing happened.

The bad news is, I hurt my back, neck, knees, wrists, right shoulder and palms of my hands. I'm pretty much on the mend now with the exception of the shoulder. I've been fighting a frozen shoulder (like the one I had on my left side) on my right side. When I fell, the shoulder forced back and I heard this loud snap and felt a pain that almost made me scream. The good news is, when I got up, I could reach up and backward which I hadn't been able to do before the fall.

I'm thinking my doctor wouldn't approve of how to unfreeze a shoulder but it worked. It's still very painful but a different kind of pain. I probably should go see the doc for a muscle relaxer and something to help reduce the inflammation. Yep, I'm thinking that should help.

Well, here's hoping I can stay in an upright position in the future! Hahahahahaha!