Quiz... What year do you belong in?

You Belong in 1973

If you scored... 1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! 1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too. 1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all! 1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day. 1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Do the Defrost Dance

What I am doing on this fine Sunday evening? You might think I would be outside sitting by my fountain reading "return of the king" again or my most favorite book "The Count of Monte Cristo", or possibly listening to my Killers CD, but no. I am doing something I should have done years ago....

DEFROSTING the D*#& freezer. Well. The nice hot weather is helping quite a bit, but it's a pain in the neck to find room for all that frozen food for the next 3 hours where it won't get ruined. Guess I should be totally grateful that I have lots of food! The boys went to all the trouble of cleaning, scrubbing, washing (etc.) the floor out in the garage, and I felt a bit guilty that I have been crafting (scrapping) all day since I got home from mass early this morning.

TIP: Osco has Smirnoff Ice on sale! That is the closest thing to beer that I drink and I actually really like it on crushed ice. Mmmmm.

Can you tell I really have a big bunch of nothing to talk about?

Well, if I had a million $ or two I might have something more interesting to do on Sunday evening I guess. I might fly to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for instance. Certainly NOT Texas, ugh. I've never been to Oregon and that would be kind of interesting. I used to love reading books about pioneers and the Oregon trail. I have actually seen the tracks that the wagon trains left on the Sante Fe trail. There a lot of places where the depressions in the ground are still visible. The ruts they made are pretty deep in some spots. Most of it has all been plowed under by farmers though.

Well that pretty much gets you up to date.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We are spending the afternoon with some friends, so not quite as boring!

24 season finale...

I hated the last 5 minutes of the 24 season. Are you kidding me? Most of the show was really exciting, but that last five minutes.... So the Chinese government is somehow able to know where Jack Bauer is, even though most of the U.S. government still thinks he is dead. The Chinese are somehow able to break through top level security and sneak Jack away, and no one noticed... C'mon people.

Blog challenge - 90 minutes alone.....

You are home, alone for 90 minutes. Kids (if you have any) and DH (or DBF) are not home. You, though, do not have a car, so you will *have* to stay home. Home alone. Ninety minutes. What do you do? How would you spend that time, knowing you won't be interrupted? Catch up on housework? Do something for you? Tell us how you would spend a treasured ninety minutes of solitude in your own home.

Easy answer - I love old black and white films, and many of them are exactly 90 minutes! Watching with no interruptions would be fun!

European style beer in America.....

We took a grown-up field trip to a brewery this week. It was a lot of fun. We took a bus down, so we didn't have to worry about driving. The only bad part....I am not a beer drinker. I did enjoy the tour however, and certainly enjoyed taking blackmail pictures of some of my friends!

The picture of me is in the room where the final part of the brewing process takes place, the fermentation stage. Do you see those big tanks coming out of the ceiling? ........

No?.......... Okay, here is another picture.

So, we spent about half an hour on the tour, and then got to spend about 2 hours in the "Tasting Room". That was a lot of fun.

I probably learned some things about hops and malt and such, but don't ask me 'cause I sure as heck don't remember.

The bus trip home was fun too. I felt like I was in high school or something! Weird.

A robin grows up....

This morning as I was typing I noticed a bird in my maple tree. It looked like a robin. I had never noticed a nest in that tree, but it looked as if a female robin was sitting on a nest. After a bit, another robin came by to feed this bird. I finally investigated. Turns out it is a "teenage" robin. Almost ready to be on its own, but still being fed by mama bird. The funny thing is that the robin nest was in a pear tree on the other side of the house. I guess the eggs hatched and the adolescent birds moved to a new tree. Weird. A pair of sparrows has now built a new nest in the pear tree, so it will be interesting to watch for those little eggs to hatch.

Challenge - 10 things to be thankful for....

I was challenged to list out 10 things I can be thankful for. I just listed out things as they popped into my head. Here they are.

• Music
• Health
• Summer and sunshine
• Photography
• The Fine Arts - (libraries and museums)
• National Public Radio (as in www.npr.org)
• Anti-war protestors
• Chocolate
• John
• Children (hope of our future)

Goodbye Jack Bauer as another "24" season ends...

I can absolutely not believe another 24 season is almost finished. It seems like just yesterday was December and we were anxiously awaiting the beginning of the 24 nonstop season. Now a few short months have passed and the two-hour season finale will be Monday. It will be another long, long seven months until we get to see Jack Bauer save us all again. Jack Bauer, the perfect human. He can make something out of nothing. He is an idealist. He is what we want to be but usually aren't. We care so much about money, comfort, food and drink. Jack puts everyone else before himself. Is this kind of like Jesus? Maybe. Was Jesus as cute as Jack Bauer?

I need a road trip.....

Boy oh Boy do I miss Colorado. I am just itching for my vacation this summer. We are taking a road trip! Our stops will include Colorado Springs, Mesa Verde, Four Corners, The Grand Canyon, fossil digging in Utah, the Great Salt Lake, Yellowstone Park, Rocky Mountain National Park.

This picture was in 2004, on top of the Continental Divide near Georgetown Colorado.

Sunrise, sunset

I just love to photograph sunrise and sunset pictures. Why do I love sunrise and sunset so much? Maybe the colors, maybe the contrast of light and dark, maybe the whole concept of beginning and ending.

From Fiddler on the Roof:

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the years

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears

Blog challenge - best gift

I can't call any one gift the best I have ever received. I have been a very lucky person and received many gifts throughout my life, both tangible and not.

With that in mind, I will tell a little story about a gift I received when I was young. Our family had just moved from a small town in Kansas to the big city (Independence). My 12th birthday came a few months later. I got to open my present which was two tickets to the Kansas City Kings game. So, my dad took me to the game. It was very fun! We had a great time. The Kings actually won the game too! Dad and I had fun together.

We arrived back home and I was ready to tell everybody what a good time I had, but while we were gone, my mom and sister had created a surprise scenario! There was cake and also more presents to open! It was quite surprising to me and I was so excited. One of the gifts I received was my very first camera. I immediately used up the first roll of film shooting pictures of the family, the dog (Tiny), cat (Blackie). From then on I was HOOKED. I spent most of my allowance on film and film processing at the Skaggs drugstore on 23rd and Noland Rd.

I have come a long way with photography in the last 30 years and I am grateful for that gift of my first camera, and a night to remember with Dad and me. I still have that camera too!

Saturday in Suburbia

So, I have to work this weekend. It is a BEAUTIFUL day with a clear blue sky, no wind. This is great weather for MOWING. So, all day long as I type I will get to hear the sounds of mowers running. Other than my neighbor Bob, who mowed yesterday, everybody mows on Saturday. Maybe it is a conspiracy. If people mowed on different days, the lawn heights would not match would they? And that would be a bad thing probably. I am thinking of getting my husband an electric mower for Father's Day. It isn't as pricey and you would think, and maybe we could start a trend in the neighborhood.

Weekend Update

It has been a fun weekend. We all went to see Mission Impossible III on Friday night. I can't remember the last time I went to a movie on the day it opened. That was fun. The movie was pretty good. I guess I would give it three stars. Tom Cruise is a really good athlete. I think I still like MI:2 the best though. This one is close though.

We dropped off Steve at Josh's house after the movie, then the three of us had Pizza Shoppe and then visited "Vintage Stock" a new store that opened here. They buy, sell and trade movies, CD's, records, video games, and trading cards of all kinds. Very cool. I had on my Trogdor T-shirt and of course felt quite hip when the salesperson recognized it with a favorable glance! (probably thinking - cool for an oldster type).

Had a meeting Saturday morning, then I did a lot of tree pruning. My willow trees are getting a bit out of control, overshadowing my 6 year old sycamore. So, I cut the willow back a LOT on one side and pruned off the lower sycamore branches as well. The rabbits in our yard get bolder each day. I left a carrot out yesterday. Something nibbled it a bit. They don't care to eat my coneflowers, but they do seem to like my vinca. I will probably have to plant something else to replace the vinca they have eaten. Maybe some smelly marigolds. I will have to ask the garden center what the rabbits DONT like.

We watched King Kong last night. I was skeptical, but I actually liked this movie! They almost went overboard on the sappy parts, but not quite. It was really good. There were some scary moments too, with weird oversized bug creatures attacking, what seemed like continuously at times. Three stars from me.

I miss....

My cousin Beverly. She was more like my sister. Full of life and love, but troubled by schizophrenia. She committed suicide when I was 20 and left behind 2 young children. I want to sing "Rocky Top" with her again. She taught me two songs on the guitar that I can still play, and have taught one to my son. She loved me. Not because I was important. I was just 11 when she came to stay. Not because I was witty, pretty or smart. I certainly wasn't pretty or witty. She just loved me. If I could ask her a question, it would be "Can you come with me on a road trip?"

16 years.......

16 years ago I woke up married after eloping the night before.

• HE is strong
• HE loves me (how did that "happen" exactly?)
• HE has a wonderful laugh
• HE cooks gourmet food!
• HE reads constantly
• HE makes me strive to be a better person
• HE is my best friend