A post chock-a-bock full of ooey, gooey goodness

It's not often I do a post full of warm and fuzzies. But yesterday and today, they were everywhere I turned.



I truly believe Lorelei wants to be Elton John when she grows up. Her old sunglasses broke and since this girl is all about fashion, it was traumatic. We found her some rad blue shades and all is well with the world. They cost all of 75 cents at our favorite consignment store. This is all it takes for her to be happy.



Here's the new license plate (if you can see it through all that cuteness.)
The car feels like it is really ours now. That, and we made our first payment on it. Feels a bit too real.
: )

Random goodness...
While grocery shopping today, a group from the Loveland Food Pantry was handing out lists of food items that they needed to help people make Thanksgiving dinner this year. I could choose something from the list, buy it and then donate it.
So I did. That tiny thing made me feel so good...and someone who is down on their luck will benefit. Loveland is for the most part an upper-middle class town, but there are still those who will appreciate what the rest of us can do to help.


Lorelei "stole" my camera from the front seat of the car and took random photos. Many of them were of the sky.

I can't explain why that pulled at my heart strings.

This morning, I did a program in Mason, a nearby community. Why, may I ask, would anyone do a nature program at 9 AM on a Saturday? I needed toothpicks to hold my eyes open.

Their new nature lodge has a "porous concrete" parking lot. Storm water runs through a foot or so of concrete and then through a few feet of gravel. When the water hits the stream nearby, it is cleaner than when it hit the ground. All the salt, oil and grime is filtered out.
Is that cool or what? I was suitably impressed. We need things like this.

When I got home, the house was empty. And cold.
I turned the heat on a bit, started a fire in the fireplace.
I also made a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.

I like a little soup with my noodles. I used a potato peeler to make nice thin strips of carrot, and put in way too much chicken. We had it for dinner with fresh French bread and it was fabulous.
Did I mention that this was from scratch? I think Geoff will soon tire of all the chicken soup I have been making lately, so if anyone has some good soup recipes, I'd love to see them.

So. Twenty four hours of happy moments and cozy comfort.
Tomorrow, back to the smut.
: )

Susie The Fixer-Upper

This post is brought to you by Deflect-O, the cutting edge of rodent guards.


One of the cats chased a mouse across the basement floor last night. Dammit! WTF?
A few months ago, we did a whole-house overhaul, plugging every single crack and crevice! We used Great Stuff, we used plywood, we did it all. A hole in the garage and a hole in the sub-flooring by the back door, all fixed. Where the heck are they coming in?
Geoff said he had an idea. A few weeks ago, while I was in Cape May, the man moved the dryer to clean behind it.
I know. I will let all of you recover from that. I married up, baby.
He said that the dryer vent duct was pulled away from the wall a bit.
Let's see....


Hmmm...yeah, I think a mouse could maybe crawl through a FOUR INCH opening.
Man. That's...dirty back there.

So I was thrilled to get over to Lowe's to pick up a new duct. I love hardware stores.
Oh, and we needed a new vent cover where the dryer vents to the outside.
You know how most vent covers have those little louvers that open when the hot air comes out? Ever think that maybe a critter could just lift one of those thingies up and walk right in?

Hence, a wonderful invention:

It was the "Bird" in "Bird and Rodent Guard" that caught my eye. Sure, mice shouldn't get in, but I never thought of birds. My goodness! What if we have somehow endangered birds?
Well, we just can't have that.

I also fixed a tear in our linoleum, replaced a zillion outlet plates....
...and finally painted this desk for Isabelle. She needed a place to do homework, and this desk has been sitting in our garage for a few years.
Beth, my cousin and semi-lurker on this blog, and also the former owner of said desk, may recognize it. Or maybe not.
It used to be white. Isabelle has a lavender room, but she is fond of blue and green. I found a "pistachio" green, and got a small bottle of metallic purple for the drawer pulls. When I showed Isabelle the color, she said, "Can you make purple polka-dots on the top?"
Sure.
I tried to make the dots random, but not too random:

Now, that's a desk!

We apologize for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.

***There was just a bald eagle and a handler on The Colbert Report! Stephen! Ask ME next time!***

You know it's time to put out more suet when...

...a red-bellied woodpecker is hanging from one toe, trying to get a sunflower seed.
That's a position you don't often see a woodpecker in.

Here's a house finch saying, "Wha...?"


Here's same house finch saying, "Wha...?", but POOFIER.



Lorelei had a mystery fever today. She was NOT her usual sunshiny self.

Since our TV is still fried, I have to resort to playing DVDs on the laptop.
What a cute scene...my three kids snuggled on the couch.

I was taking random pictures in the house, and rather liked this one.
On the left is a picture of my parents on my wedding day (and this is the ONLY picture in existence of them kissing), and on the right is a picture of our Great Horned Owl (taken by the Fabulous Shila, aka Zick's buddy)

Don't let the cat out of the bag...er..box!

I put the garden hose on "Mist" yesterday for the hummingbirds. And they appreciated it. Did I get a picture of them appreciating it? Please.

I had a great presentation this afternoon. 150 Girl Scouts who were really into birds of prey.
And Elvis (our Barred Owl)
Stole. The. Show.
He was so...himself. He was named "Elvis" because he thinks he is the King. And barred owls have such a human look about them. Every time I would say something about his attitude, that head would swivel around and he would stare at me, cracking the audience up.
The lady who set up the program said that it was like he was a puppet on my hand, because it looked scripted the way he was interacting with me.
He is such an interesting bird. He is hard to catch in the mew sometimes (I have to wear him out and then sneak up behind him to grab his jesses) but once he is on the glove, he sits there like the royalty he thinks he is.


"My name is Elvis. Worship me and I may let you live."

To continue the goofiness from the other night:
(these are not original....)

Ever wonder what chairs would look like if our knees bent the other way?

From the brilliant comedic stylings of the the Boys of Monty Python:

"...I'm a kike, a Heebie, I'm a Red Sea pedestrian, Mom, and proud of it!"

"I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

"Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of silly persons!"

"Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed! "

“-She turned me into a newt!
-A newt?
-I got better...”

And a few from Dave Barry:
“Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night”

“It is a well-documented fact that guys will not ask for directions. This is a biological thing. This is why it takes several million sperm cells . . . to locate a female egg, despite the fact that the egg is, relative to them, the size of Wisconsin.”