Saturday, March 28, 2009

Out and about

Well today we were out and about and decided to hit the park for a little spring fun!


First we spotted a place for a picnic barbecue. Good thing we beat everyone else to the park. Now, should we take the table on the left or the right?




Found a nice bench to take a rest on later.



Can you identify those tracks? Deer, squirrel, Bigfoot?


If you said....






CANADIAN GEESE,

You'd be right. Pretty cool!



Like to close occasionally with a picture of the river.



And a big thank you to my companions who I made pose by the graffiti.


.
Time to go get dinner started. Guess what we're having...

Come back here!
Just kidding, we had Taco Bell!
Have a nice weekend.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

BLIZZARD!!!!!

And yet ANOTHER blizzard in Minot, North Dakota.

Okay, okay... thankful we are not getting flooding. Bismark, Fargo, expecting very bad flooding. I can be thankful we are not getting flooding. Thankful I have enough food (and chocolate) so I can make it through. Thankful I have heat and electric. Thankful that no one on my street has ticked off anyone down at city hall and they are still plowing our road. Thankful my son in law will come shovel my walk (very heavy snow this time). Thankful to have a forum to voice this. Okay, attitude adjustment almost complete.

Favorite quote at this moment: Ms. Kitty in Fivel Goes West, "I've got a ticket to sunshine and I'm going west!"

Friday, March 20, 2009

Something to ponder

Okay, regarding my previous post
*
Never mind the funky carpet,
Never mind the chinked paint on the walls
and floorboards.
Never mind the "distressed table,"
but...
Doesn't it just really bug you that the table runner is not straight?
*
Okay, now have a hardy guffaw over that!!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

March 16, 2009

I have had some kind of bug with headache, fever, just felt really bad for almost 4 days, but luckily, am feeling much better now!
*
Okay so before I caught the bug I went shopping, and found this little treasure.
Now they say it is an antique and charged a pretty penny for it ($30.00)
I don't know about all that. All I know is I got a little lightheaded when I saw it, could hardly breath, and knew I had to have it!


It was a little hard to find the right space for it.
Ah ha! Here at the end of the little upstairs landing!



Good place for it to nest.

Good place for bunnies to court!

And another photo opportunity for my little companion!
Stay well!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Into the belly of the beast...

Off work today, time to get down to taking care of business. So, the task before me is to change the air filter. I know this must be done approximately every 6 weeks or so (with the filters we use) and Mr. Steve did it before he left in January that means it is past due. I know this has to be done but, normally through the years this has been a delegated task I mean after all, for the past 30 years or so I've had sons at home. I know the concept though and have faith in my ability to do this. Here we go.


Behind this door lies the belly of the beast, yea, the very bowels of the rental house.


Being a former girl scout, these are the tools I decided would be useful in this task. Phone in case... well just in case... and something to write down the size of the air filter.



Unlock the door and check out the goat trail that leads down. Luckily the beast has a well lit bowel!






I spot my target.


As I draw closer, what luck!! Someone has left me an unused air filter.
After some time I figure out where to put the thing. (Tip: If you do this make sure you see which direction the arrows are pointing before you pull it out). Being a quick thinker, I use my handy-dandy pen I brought along to pry it out and get it replaced.
Old filter into the bag that the new filter had been packaged in in and back up the goat trail.
Lock the door.
All told, took maybe 8-1/2 minutes and never needed the phone.

Good to go for 6 weeks. Will get more air filters today while at the store. Thanks for participating with me in this. WE DID IT!!!!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Store outing with the granddaughter

Okay, so you're in North Dakota...it is the end of February and the last thing you want to do is go to the store. You have to put on 4 layers (I kid you not) of clothes just to be out in the below freezing weather. Out to the freezing cold car and drive on the treacherous roads the maybe 8 blocks to the store (takes about 10 or 15 minutes to get there because you have to drive so slowly). Then trudge very slowly and carefully on the 8 or 10 inches of built up ice that covers the parking lot, into the store to buy your groceries. The last thing I want to do is... do it alone. So, I ask my little companion will you please go with me to the store and she cheerfully pipes up, "why yes grandma, sure!"

Ha! Yes! Now you may be thinking she is a very even tempered, docile child, uhmmm not so. She has spirit and spunk! She is what we in the '70s would have called a gal on the go!! So, we get along great. I would ask her to put this or that in the basket and she would say, I don't like it. I would have to remind her we were shopping for me and not her.

On with the story. So, we come up on the pop tarts. She says I should get some, I remind her we are shopping for me, pop tarts have like 500 calories a piece in them, and no we are not getting any. She insists yes, I insist no, and then suddenly.... she says well okay, just take my picture by them then. So, I pop out my digital camera and take her picture in front of the pop tarts and off we go. It was great! She was wonderful. Just having the picture made her happy.

It was so nice to have someone to trudge through the parking lot with back out to the car. She even carried one of the three bags for me! Thank you sweet Anabelle!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

All's Right With The World

All's Right With The World
by : Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)


The years at the spring;
The day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in his heaven...All's right with the world!


There are just some times when you want to deal with everything tomorrow and know that just for this moment, right now, everything can just be fine.

Two of my favorite bosses gave me this little teapot when I worked for Group Health in Washington, it was a Christmas gift one year. The hearts from hubby. A comfortable tea cup with a great cup of cinnamon orange spice tea. Tomorrow we'll work on the next big catastrophe, tonight... peace.

God's in his heaven, all's right with the world. Comfort and peace to you!