Happy New Year! ---the Geese

It was kind of a last minute idea, but we found some New Year's stuff to put on the geese.
They are looking forward to a ski vacation in January!

Christmas Roundup!

We had a great, exhausting Christmas decorating, baking, opening gifts and visiting. Everyone got cool stuff. I got a goat! And a Witch. I will blog about that separately (I want to take a picture of the witch.) I just wanted to put a few photos here of Christmas day.


Mary opens her Torchwood calendar.

Boo checks to see what Richard has in his stocking. We are waiting for the cryptozoologists to show up and tell us what species of giant cat she happens to be.

Doc in a stocking!

After we carefully cleared the area of feline friends, Doc came out to see the tree. He checked out his stocking. He's hoping Santa brings him an Alvin and the Chipmunks cd, but Mary is afraid that Alvin might be a bad influence. He also ran around in his ball in the living room a bit. Libby, who we let out after he was safely in the ball, was very disconcerted as Doc ran straight for her and tried to make friends.

Doc and Mary.

Doc rolls around in the ball.

Doc peeks out of his stocking.

I keep imagining the dialogue between Doc and the cats.
Doc: "Hi. I'm Doc. I'm a hamster. I run in my wheel and take naps. I eat grains and sunflower seeds and small pieces of dried fruit."

Cleo: "Purrr. Chirp."*

Doc: "What do you eat?"

Cleo: "Chatter. Purrrrr. Chirp."

*Cleo makes chattering chirping noises at the birds she wants to eat.

Decorating the Tree

A little late, as usual. But we finally got around to putting the ornaments on the Christmas tree. Mary wore her Santa hat. Richard and I donned our antlers. We listened to Christmas music and put a good assortment of ornaments on the tree. We left out some of the more breakable ornaments, which was for the best since I managed to break two of the ones we did put on the tree (one of five gold and purple tech ornaments and one of Mary's ornaments --sorry Mary!) . I told Richard that next year we are surrounding the tree with a layer of bubble wrap.

My antlers are crooked.

Richard and I stand in front of the tree.

Trying to take a picture of all of us together. We tried to get Sammy to take the photo, but cats aren't overly helpful.

We got antlers on Richard. He's such a good sport!

We got antlers on Boo! Boo was FREAKED out.

Mary puts an ornament on the tree.

Another cute photo of Mary just because she's adorable. And a great cook!

Christmas Goose!

When we were visiting Boston for Richard's Grandma Helen's birthday, these cute little dressed geese caught my eye. So when they were settling the estate this past year, I told Richard if no one else wanted the little guys, we'd be glad to give them a good home. I'm sure Helen would be happy that her whimsical tradition was continued.

So, after a very long journey made possible by Aunt Janet's impeccable bubble wrap skills and much effort on the part of Richard's parents and a moving company, the geese made it to Spring Hill from Lynn, Massachusetts.

We unpacked the costumes and the geese this past weekend. You would not believe the variety of costumes! There are outfits for every holiday and for other seasons. After a bit of research, I was excited to find that there is even a website that sells goose costumes, so we can further the collection.

Now we just have to figure out if they have names already. If not, we need suggestions on what to name the Winged Duo. I am looking forward to posting the changing costumes on the blog.

Let it Snow!

Snow with the neighbors' Christmas lights in the background.
They have a reindeer that plays festive holiday music.

We're getting a nice snowstorm tonight with gigantic snowflakes. It's very pretty and is sticking nicely. I let some of the cats out to see the snow. Sammy, Boo and Cleo took turns going out. Sammy walked around a bit, but hurried back in pretty quickly. Boo stepped outside the door into the slush and meowed at me in protest. Cleo scrambled out, did not like sliding everywhere and came in after just a few minutes. Libby can't go out at night because she has designs on leaving the country. When we do let her out, we usually catch a little glimpse of her hopping over the fence, bandanna tied up with some nip and Leon plus a few treats, off to find her fortune and a home that will let her be an only cat.

Riding the Santa Train and making gingerbread houses

We spent the weekend in Oak Ridge doing Christmasy stuff. We rode the Santa Train at K-25 and we made gingerbread houses with Matt. For even more photos, check out Beth's blog.

Matt and Charles watch the train roll in for boarding. Matt likes trains almost
as much as his uncle Richard.


Richard is happy to be riding the rails.

Richard stands in front of the engine after a tour.

Matt shows Grandma his half-eaten snowman.

My Gingerbread church...complete with stained glass candy windows.

Falling into fall

The temps around here are getting a bit cold and the rain is making it hard for us to mow the leaves this week. They are very pretty though, so I took a few photos today. The Bradford Pear trees usually have very red leaves, but this year, they didn't really change colors significantly, just sort of yellowed and dropped. We also have a couple of gorgeous maples that have bright yellow leaves, one that has red and one that has an orange-red tint to it.

We've been mulching the leaves as much as possible, adding them to the compost pile and chopping them up. I am quite fascinated by my observations of the cycle of decay and rebirth. Making dirt is cool.

Sophie the Wonder Dog

The people next door moved out and are trying to find a place for their dog, Jasmine. When I think of a dog called Jasmine, I always think of April's lab that ate (and later passed) my purple Scooby socks. So I call her Sophie instead. She doesn't seem to mind as long as I keep giving her dog biscuits. Since the people next door have moved out, I've been keeping an eye on her, playing with her, putting her back on her lead when she manages to get off, refilling her water dish 5 times a day because she likes to dump it out. Maybe she wants to wear the bowl on her head or something when no one is looking. I haven't quite figured that out yet. But she is digging trenches, so maybe there's a WWI reenactment in the works.

In any case, she's pretty big. She comes up to my knees at least, but she's still a puppy. She is also somewhat bewildering. I've known a lot of cats. They pretty much keep to themselves, they are self cleaning. They sometimes eat things I don't think they'll eat (cleo likes my sunflower peanut butter substitute with a passion.) She also likes anything sweet even though cats don't like sweet food. But at least she eats food. Sophie the wonder dog demolishes everything. Today she took out two bags of very innocent dirt. When she found the half full bags where I had stashed them under the porch, I decided to nip this in the bud and take the dirt and dump it in my flower bed across the yard. As I was dragging the bag, I noticed it started getting a lot heavier. Sophie had her mouth clamped down and was being dragged along with the bag. All I can say is that half the dirt ended up in the bed. The rest ended up on Sophie and in the yard. I just let her have the bag, which was apparently her original goal. She tried to eat some of the dirt, but found that distasteful.

Dogs are apparently not self cleaning. This is a big difference with cats. I kept expecting her to do something to get the pile of dirt off her, but nope, she seemed to like it. She also demolished a pool net, her toy rope frisbee, a pile of leaves, and she started in on a rake before I confiscated it. And my hair. Apparently, it's a doggie delicacy.

So here I am after an afternoon of playing with Sophie. I can't hear well out of my left ear because it is full of dog slobber. I'm dirty. And tired. And a little sore from throwing the ball. The cats are looking at me weird. Sammy keeps trying to clean the dog smell off of me with this grimace on her face. I can tell that they are wondering if I've gone to the other side and become a dog person. I don't know quite what to tell her. Maybe it's possible to be a cat and a dog person at the same time.

Cool Blog

This is a blog I like to read that some of you might be interested in called Chickens in the Road. This is a how-to for homemade vanilla. The recipe for snickerdoodles looks good too!

Click Here
http://suzannemcminn.com/blog/2008/11/07/homemade-vanilla-the-big-bottle-method/

Is there a Doc in the house?

The Doc says hello to a tasty sunflower seed!

Cleo knows she can figure the door handle out if she tries hard enough!

Mary's hamster Doctor Who visited during fall break. We got a couple of photos. He's a cute little guy and very well behaved. We kept him in the room with the door closed, with several interested felines watching and waiting for an opportunity to sneak in. When they did manage to sneak in, they mostly just looked at him with longing and somewhat hungry looks. And then they would look at us as if to say "we want to make friends with the rodent, bring him out!"
Boo was the lone exception. The hamster scared her half to death.

We upgraded his wheel to something a little larger (and quieter) and got him a cute little house that he very much likes to sleep in and climb on, so he's a pretty happy little hamster, even though he has delusions of someday being a chipmunk.

Halloween Totals

The information you've all been waiting for . . . no it's not election returns, but Robin and Richard's Halloween Totals!

Number of Trick or Treaters: 153.
We were down significantly from last year, but we still had a good turn out. Because I was expecting 250 kids, the ones that did show up got A LOT of candy.

Best Costume: Forrest Gump (the little kid even talked like Forrest and his trick or treat bag had a box of chocolates on top.) Richard's vote goes to the Pink Flamingo, which was not supposed to be scary, but for some reason it scared the crap out of me. Chalk up another phobia. He also liked the firefighters in reflective gear (for the obvious safety reasons).

Kids talking on Cell Phones: 1 (although he paused his conversation long enough to trick or treat, and was very polite while trick or treating.)

Obnoxious Teenagers: 0 (what's the world coming to? They were all way polite. Maybe The Host by Stephanie Meyers is a true story).

Pieces of Candy Bought: 1600

Decorations the kids liked: I was worried about the placement of my giant spider because he was pretty spooky where he ended up and I was afraid he would scare the little kids walking past him as he is about the size of a small child. I got a lot of delighted "Look mommy, it's a spider!" responses instead. The string of eyeballs hanging from a tree was also popular. One little princess was absolutely captivated by the severed arm hanging in the spider web.

The biggest attraction of our house I think is that although we have a lot of scary decorations, we don't go out of our way to scare people or jump out at them. I prefer subtle terror to overt scare tactics any day. Halloween, at its core is about facing our fears and reaping the rewards after all. It's a lot easier to face those fears in a place where you feel trepidation but comfort at the same time. I think the pint-sized lady bugs, spidermen and firefighters would tend to agree.

Can I go to work with you?

Libby is hiding out in the lunch box waiting for Richard and hoping he'll take her to work, getting her away from the other oppressive cats.

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween time again! We've got the decorations up and we've added some floodlights this year to highlight some of our spooky areas. I also made some really spooky sound effects on my Mac. We're hoping for a good turn out this year despite the fact that the neighbors have scaled back on their decorations. We really need a good turn out as Richard can no longer consume whole bags of the Halloween candy. Speaking of Richard, here's a photo:

Hehe. Just kidding. He hasn't actually lost that much weight. Here's a new skull we bought to add to our decorations. Thanks to mom for talking the people at the Railroad Museum into shipping some new hats :-)

I'll send some updates on Trick Or Treat totals.

An evening with Nanci Griffith

I had a great concert experience last Saturday evening. Richard very thoughtfully bought tickets to see Nanci Griffith at a new venue they are trying to set up called Arrington Vineyards. Arrington Vineyards is a local winery founded by Kix Brooks (of Brooks and Dunn, a fairly popular country duo). The winery has free jazz concerts and wine tastings every weekend, but this was their first real concert. It was a very nice evening for it, nice full moon and fairly warm for this time of year. Nanci was as amazing as ever. She seemed to really enjoy the small venue. It was very cozy. I basically could sit as close to the stage as I wanted, which was very cool.

The other cool thing is that Kix Brooks himself kindly chauffered me to the top of the hill on one of the little people moving carts. We had a pleasant chat about the concert and the winery. How's that for service?

Staining the Fence

The stained fence makes a good backdrop for my hanging baskets and my other flowers!

A picture of the painted fence next to an unpainted section.
The darker stain makes the fence look much less rundown and old.

Staining the fence has been an ongoing project for me this summer. Despite rain, extreme temperatures and an upper respiratory infection FROM HELL, I have persisted. I have put stain on about three-fourths of the fence. I have two sections left, plus a few spots where I am going to have to wait until the foliage dies down before I tackle them.

Once finished, I plan on also staining the deck the same color. I think the stain really improves the look of the fence and I think it'll also make the deck look snazzy. Although there has been a lot of effort involved, the cost for the project is actually on the cheap side, so I'm getting a lot of value for the money. I did have to sacrifice a shirt and a pair of shorts to the project. I haven't quite perfected how to stain something without looking like I've rolled around in it.

Best. Concert. Ever.

Richard and I have reached a consensus that the Eagles concert we went to Thursday night was quite possibly the best concert we've ever been to. Even though we were in the cheap seats, the sound quality, vocals and performance quality were amazing. The band played 3.5 hours straight with one short break in the middle. The playlist was mostly the classics, with some additional stuff from their new album.

Although I hadn't heard the new stuff, I did like it. I'm going to have to add the cd to my ipod and give it more of a listen.

We were sitting in the midst of a section of Joe Walsh fans, which was a hoot. I've listened to the Eagles a lot over the years. Seeing Joe Walsh play guitar in person was an absolutely amazing experience, even from the upper deck.

I have to say that I really enjoy seeing established acts in concert. The show is so polished, I always feel like I'm getting a good value for the money. I think some comparable concerts were Simon and Garfunkel and Billy Joel with Elton John. Yes, Mary. Both of our Ipods are filled with elevator music.

One funny thing that happened involved a guy a few rows in front of us smoking pot. He was being pretty blatant about it also. The occasional pot smoker is something I've just come to expect at concerts, so I usually deal with the extra smoke and not worry about it, but I've had a cold that I'm just recovering from and sidestream smoke was not something I wanted to deal with. I was having fantasies about pelting the guy with my water bottle when a little old lady in front of me did just that. After getting hit a few times with various bits o' trash and looking around in absolute confusion, he finally put out the joint. It cracked me up. So I say "Go little old lady!" I don't know if you are fighting a one-woman war on drugs or just taking umbrage at annoying people in public venues, but my lungs owe you some thanks.

As an aside, this assault by garbage was something I witnessed when I saw Bob Dylan and Paul Simon at Starwood. The very drunk hippie biker next to me (who very sweetly insisted on sharing his binoculars with me throughout the evening) stood up during the Dylan set and threw a bag at a lady dancing about 20 rows up. Granted, she was the only person in the whole venue dancing at that point (it was getting pretty late) and she was directly blocking our view of the stage. Oddly enough, when she turned around, I realized I knew her. She was on the faculty in the English department at Tech, where I was working at the time as a teaching assistant.

So she turns around to look at me and the drunk hippie sitting next to me and I sink in the seat, hoping she doesn't recognize me and think my drunk hippie date is assaulting her. The next morning at Tech I passed her talking to several teachers in the doorway at Henderson Hall. "How was the Dylan concert?" "Yeeeeah, it was really great, except this weird guy threw stuff at me for dancing. I mean, it was a concert." For what it's worth, drunk hippie guy loved the show and the chance to see Dylan was a transcendant experience for him. The English teacher was not injured. A good time was had by all.

Hey Loretta!

My friend Marc, who shares my love for ancient country music, scored some tickets for the Opry show on Saturday night. Loretta Lynn did a three song set (this was the main attraction for us both). Her performance was terrific! She sang Squaw on the Warpath, When the Tingle Becomes a Chill and Don't Come Home a Drinkin.

I was telling Richard someone missed a real opportunity to protest the Republican National Convention with a boom box blasting The Pill.

For those of you who have never been to the Grand Ole Opry, it's a pretty good value for the money. You see several headliners and smaller acts in between. So in addition to Miss Loretta, we saw Jimmy C. Newman, Roy Clark, Jean Shephard, The Whites, Patty Loveless, Connie Smith, the original folks who sing Rocky Top and of all people, Jessica Simpson.

Roy Clark is getting on in years. I remember him from his days on Hee Haw and I have to keep reminding myself that Hee Haw was at least 30 years ago. Jean Shephard is a real hoot. The Whites were good too. They did a gospel song but also one of my favorite Carter Family songs "Fair and Tender Ladies." Roy Clark introduced Jessica Simpson and was very sweet and polite to her despite her lack of clothing.

Seriously. Marc and I kept waiting for a major costume malfunction scandal. I mean, Dolly Parton dresses like that, sure, but I trust that Dolly has been in the business long enough and is knowledgable enough to keep her considerable assets from popping out and accidentally killing a stage hand. Jessica is going to have to earn that trust over time. She sings real good and her songs were not bad given current country fare, but I would have been more than willing to overlook the dress if she had stood still and sang some Patsy Cline.

From my point of view, Miss Loretta was still the highlight of the evening. Even though she's in her 70s, she still brought the house down. I wish her good health and I really hope she has some more good years of performing in front of her.

I'd like to post a video of her performance or a review, but the media only covered Jessica and her Opry debut. You can take a look at it, just click here.

www.lorettalynn.com

Fourth of July

Scenes from the Fourth of July picnic at my Grandma Hodgins.

Eva looks happy.

Mary says why, oh why, Robin, do you keep taking pictures of me?

A picture of mom hanging out, actually smiling. Where's the grumpy "don't take my picture" face?

Boomer, Eva and Wilene give me odd looks.

Alivia poses for the camera. She actually likes having her picture taken.

Richard nods off while talking to Doyle. He hasn't been the same since he lost his hat at the
Mexican restaurant and could not recover it due to an unfortunate language barrier.
We are searching for a new hat to help with the loss. This is the last photo of the hat.

Summer visitors

I have recently downloaded a bunch of photos from this past summer. This is Mary and Alivia and I hanging out at the house. We also had Mary's friends Kim and Tracy visit over the summer as well. We had lots of fun!

The Great Pumpkin and a blues lovin' squirrel

PUMPKIN 2008
"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" returns for its second year as Richard and I try our gardening skills. This year, we deliberately planted pumpkins and got one very nice pumpkin for our trouble. I don't guess we are ever going to make very effective farmers, given the limited yield of our crop, but in the end, it's all about quality, not quantity.

I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE
The other neat thing that happened today is that we've had a squirrel visiting our feeder. So far, he's been pretty polite about it and is somewhat solitary in his foraging. Today, I discovered the squirrel likes Billie Holiday. I'm working at the kitchen table, doing some ads with the windows wide open and the breeze a blowing. I look up and the squirrel is braving the cats and sitting on the deck right outside the window, listening to Billie Holiday's greatest hits with me. It's nice to know that even rodents have taste in music.

WHAT'S UP, DOC?
Speaking of rodents. I have been remiss in introducing a new member of the family on the blog. Mary has a new Hamster named Doctor Who or "Doc" for short. He is very handsome and has many fine hamster qualities that I get to hear about every evening and often witness over a program called Skype.

SO WHAT'S SKYPE?
Skype is a program that allows you to do video chat over the internet (if both people have webcams). It's really easy to set up, free to dowload from www.skype.com and is free when you are skyping someone else with skype. (You can also use the program to make phone calls to phones instead of computers, but this does cost something). The quality isn't always great, but it's a nice way to talk to someone face to face.

Pepper Lime Chicken

PEPPER LIME CHICKEN

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon finely shredded lime peel
1/3 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme or basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
bottled salsa (optional)
lime wedges (optional)

Place chicken breast halves in resealable plastic bag set in a shallow dish. For marinade, stir together lime peel, lime juice, oil, thyme, pepper, salt, and garlic. Pour over chicken; seal bag. Marinade in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Drain chicken, reserving marinade. Place chicken on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat about 6 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn chicken and brush lightly with reserved marinade. Discard any remaining marinade. Broil for 6 to 8 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink (170 ° F)
If desired, serve with salsa and lime wedges.

The Julia Child of Spring Hill

This is Mary making French Silk Pie. The expression on her face is very much "stop taking pictures of me!" Mary has recently discovered a love for the culinary arts. Tonight for dinner, we had lime-pepper chicken with the pie for dessert. Everything was very tasty. :-)

scenes from the garden

The white Rose of Sharon bushes are blooming, although the red ones haven't started yet.

The Bees are really enjoying the Bee Balm

The garden is starting to bloom and the bees and butterflies are certainly happy about it. Here are some shots of the pretty flowers.

Boo Flashback

I was looking through my old photos and came across this photo of Mary with a very tiny Boo. It's hard to believe such a little bitty cat grew into something the size of a small elephant. :-) To see a size comparison, notice in the left column of photos on the blog. Boo is the cat that takes up the entire back of the recliner when she sits on it. There's also a good post some time back with Mary holding Boo at Christmas, struggling to lift her. And here we have evidence of her tiny beginnings.

The Safest Tomato in America

Tomatoes are having a hard time finding friends this summer. With salmonella outbreaks, restaurants and food fans alike are proving to be fair weather friends to this little fruit that is oft mistaken as a vegetable. There is hope. Grow your own tomatoes now before the government decides to take an interest in things we grow on our own property for our own consumption. Wait. I think that might have already happened.

In any case, this tomato was grown upside down with all organic soil and was watered lovingly with rain water. It was nurtured by the sweet sounds of the neighbors playing Madonna's greatest hits every day for a week. Of course given that, I'm surprised it's not cone shaped. Mary, who has no idea who Madonna is, will not get that reference at all. So I may be old, but with wisdom comes the ability to grow your own food. And that's pretty cool.

Ye Olde Renaissance Festival

Mary, Kim and I went to the Renaissance Festival in Triune today.
This has pretty much become a yearly tradition.
The girls tried their hand at archery, with many a pleasant young fellow offering to help :-)

We also toured Castle Gwynn, ate some chicken on a stick and some kettle corn.
Drank lots of lemonade, watched a few shows. All in all, a very nice day.