Tea For Two, and Two For Tea(aw heck I just want enough tea for me!)

   Do you have an object in your kitchen that you use daily? That you would be lost without?

  I'll give you a couple of moments to think about it.... ((clock ticks...ticks...ticks...ticks....))

  OK, so what did you come up with? A coffee maker for your daily java? What about
a waffle iron because Sunday wouldn't be the same without the weekly
waffle? Maybe your thing is a nutcracker, cuz, ya know, ya just have to
have your daily macadamia.

  My lost-without-daily-kitchen-item is my tea pot.

Not my yellow Le Creuset
kettle that sits on the stove to heat water, though that is an
important item in our house. Nor is it a typical little tea pot that
you think of

when you think "tea party" a la the Mad Hatter and Louis Carroll. No, my special friend, my good buddy in the morning is my Bodum Assam teapot.

*sigh*.
While it isn't the world's most cleverly crafted utensil, nor is it the
most aesthetically beautiful, and it isn't the prettiest of the teapots
I have ::I do happen to collect teapots a la the Mad Hatter::, it
is by far the most useful. See this little glass friend has a strainer
basket that sits down in the middle of it. It holds over a quart of
steaming water. It takes a couple of tablespoons of dried, smoked,
ripened,  scented, blended, and lovingly packed in tins or
hermetically sealed tea that has made its way into my greedy, erm,
eager little hands.

  You see, I love tea. LOVE IT I tell you. You know that friend or those friends you have that are total coffee snobs? The ones that ONLY buy the finest beans,

fresh
roasted from a little shop that has been owned by the same family since
before Moses was a babe? The ones that grind those beans with the
funky, exotic names, ever day fresh, with a grinder that was especially
made and calibrated to grind the perfect size, and is maintained more
lovingly than a '67 Jag with the original paint job? Those people that
make their coffee with water at a precise temperature in a carefully researched and purchased high end cafe' maker ::no simple coffee maker for them, no no!:: Well, now you know of someone who has turned into almost as big a nutcase about her tea.

   Yes people...I have become a tea snob. It all started at a local shop with the purchase of
tins of loose tea from Harrod's of London. ECSTASY! I as of that point
didn't have my little Bodum beauty, so I used my coffee pot ::only ever used for tea, by the way, please take note::
to make this delightful brew. To try and compare the taste of freshly
brewed, high quality tea to the ubiquitous American favorite of a
Lipton Tea bag is like comparing a pair of Prada shoes to something
from Payless, or to compare gramma's famous pot pie to a frozen 49c
rock from the local discount shopping market.

  Basically, there is no comparison.

   So therein lies the start of my affection with REAL TEA. No disrespect to Sir Lipton or his tea bags ::I happen to love Lipton Yellow Label loose tea, I am drinking some at this very moment...*slurp*::
but honestly, once you try loose tea, or even the Queen of tea bags,
Red Rose, you will lose all desire to ever drink "tea" made from Lipton
tea bags again. I have given most of Lipton tea bags in fact and don't
plan to purchase any more. I have kept a bit on hand for friends who
like it ::shudder::
but I no longer drink it myself. I was in my glory when I found a shop
at Rockvale Plaza in Lancaster that sold nothing but tea. Tea and
teapots. An entire wall of loose tea. Another whole wall of varieties
of bagged tea. OH... My... GOODNESS! I was like a chocolate junkie let
loose in Godiva's chocolate factory ::by
the way, it is well documented that the best trade teas are loose teas,
while "most" bagged teas are lesser grade and of lesser quality::.
I want to go back soon and pick up some more loose teas of various
types. Variety is the spice of life and all that after all. Mmmm...

  Unfortunately last week my Assam teapot suffered a fatal injury. ::sniff:: I
was moving the teapot when I went to take a plate out and the teapot
bumped hard against the top of the shelf directly above. The ENTIRE
front cracked but didn't shatter.

  I shattered though. ::snifffff...my precious...I miss my precious::

  I
searched today in two different places to replace my Assam teapot. NO
luck. There is a new kitchen store locally where I did find the teapot,
but GOOD NIGHT NURSE! They wanted close to $30 for it. I think I paid
$13 for it originally at Tuesday Morning. I looked there tonight for a
replacement for the cracked-but-not-shattered Assam teapot. No
go. ::sniff again...and blast and whimper, moan, complain:: 

 
Dang it. See what addictions do to you? I am going to go broke getting
in my tea daily fix. But, obviously, first I need to replace
my favoritest-largest I could find-able to see the tea and know its
perfectly brewed-doesn't five the tea a funky flavor because it was
glass-neat little buddy of a tea pot.

 
I just hope after I wind up paying through the nose for the replacement
I have enough money to get some tea to brew in it. What good is
the teapot without the tea to fill it? The 30 packages of tea I have
now are JUST not enough...of course not! Not to someone with a
perfectly obvious addition to loose-leaf tea such as myself.  

                                                   
                            Kathie

Black Friday

  
So...did you
do it?

  
Did you get up at 4, 5, 6 a.m. and stand in line to get

PRICES ?

  
Did you brave the cold,
the crowds, the lack of sleep to get a jump on gift shopping?

  
We did. Both of us. At different stores. At 4 a.m.
  Yeah I know...we are

insane. As if y'all hadn't figured THAT out about me yet, hmm?

 
What is even crazier is that most of the shopping we have done the past
several black Fridays is not holiday shopping. It is shopping for updating
the computers, for birthday gifts, for what-ever-it-is that we need for
maintaining the house ::tools,
ladders, and more tools ..oh my!::. THAT is
the reason I LOVE black Friday. It has not a durn thing to do with getting
holiday gifts. I generally shop throughout the year for friends and family,
watching sales and clearance. That is how I can afford to get good gifts on
a tight budget. I would love to make gifts but I never am able to mentally
get organized enough to start gifts far enough ahead of time to get them
MADE by Christmas. Well, unless it is a fast gift. I need to start quilts or
crocheted items or sewn things in like...well...FEBRUARY. Then I would
actually have them done by say...DECEMBER 24th! The thing is, I always have
seasonal projects that are immediate needs. Dang it.

 
So Friday morning we got up, barely,

at 4 a.m.
Drug ourselves out the door and Mike headed to Staples for all the computer
stuff that we have been waiting to go on sale for a year. There was one big
thing I wanted from Best Buy so I headed to peer and see if the line was
really as bad as I thought it would be.

 
Oy...it was worse. I didn't stop there...I went on to Safeway because they
had a bunch of toys that were a great price
::half price..WOO HOO::
The only bad thing was here I was 5 a.m. sitting in front of a store that didn't open until 6 a.m. and there
was ABSOLUTELY no reason for me to be there! There was one...count em
people, ONE other car there waiting for the store to open. Gads...I could
have gotten 2 more hours of sleep! Oh how I do love my sleep. ::wah:
So I sat with the heat on in my van for an
hour while poor Mike was standing out front of Staples in 18 degree weather
for
over an hour. I felt bad for him.

 
Not bad enough to switch places, but bad.
::ok I sound mean, but he wouldn't have let
me switch places with him anyway, so...::

 
Safeway was obviously not going to be an issue to get in and out of. I went
in, selected my dozen half price items that I was purchasing for Brenna and
some friends' children and headed to the checkout. Checkout gal rings 'em
all up...and ....nada.

 
...seems the register will not ring up my order because I HAD TOO MANY ITEMS
TOTALLING TOO MUCH OF A DISCOUNT. To make it even more of a 6 a.m. happy
place, there was no manager at the store yet, and there wouldn't be one
there until 6:30 or 7, and no one could find an override card. After
standing waiting 15 minutes while the cashier frantically tried to find a
card and figure out what to do, she came back to the register and I
suggested that we void the order and ring it up in 3 parts. Well, that
worked but we had to change registers because, of course, SHE HAD NO CARD TO
VOID THE ORDER. ::ok...I was still
cool with this yet as I wasn't angered with her this wasn't her fault, and I
hadn't had to stand out in the cold::
So we head over to another register and ring the order up in three parts.
Whew. Done. ::oh..I didn't mention
that the ENTIRE freaking time I was at the register this dude is using one
of those big floor cleaning machines that is WAY louder than my John Deere
tractor, and I was rapidly losing my hearing because IT WAS WAY TOO FREAKING
LOUD..my ears were ringing by the time I left Safeway::OK...time
to head to Lowe's. ::mental note..next
time I go to Safeway take ear protection...and did I mention that cleaning machine was WAY..TOO..LOUD???!!!::

  
Lowe's again, wasn't very crowded :woo hoooooooo!!::
I picked up the three items that I had circled in the sales flyer: my MIL
was buying me a table saw for Christmas ::Yesss...you
did get that right..she is buying ME A TABLE SAW for Christmas. I am
building up a wood shop and I LOVE to build things! Just call me Norma
the Tool Girl::
and a gift for my BIL, and I picked up a couple of poinsettias for
$1.88, a roll of snowmen wrapping paper, and a drill bit and
screwdriver bit set for the house. Headed out the door and proceeded to
put the two big boxes in the back of the van. Unfortunately, for my
head and neck, as I lifted the table saw box into the van, due to the extreme cold the shocks to the overhead lift-gate suddenly gave way. The end
result of their failure being that I was WHOMPED on the top of my head by
the lift-gate of my '94 Astro van. Now, any lift gate whomping one on the
head is NOT a good thing. Being that the doors on my van are not made of
ultra-light polymers like most of the newer vehicles are constructed of explains why I
resembled this:

I went down on one knee ::not dropping the table saw in its HUGE
FREAKIN' BOX by the way:: saying
a few choice expletives ::yeah
I repented for it later but the stars and little tweetie birds I was
seeing really deserved a good ole fashioned *((*&*&^ or three::
while a gal ran over from her SUV to see if I
was ok. ::OY how embarassing:: Yea...I was ok...mad as a wet cat and as embarassed as can be but ok. Whether it was the hard-headed Irishwoman in
me, the fact that I am  thick skulled or just  that it takes more than a wussy
whomping to put me down and out, I survived and gained neither
a concussion nor compression injury. What I did wind up with was one
byatch of a headache and by late Saturday evening and by Sunday my neck
and upper back were aching. Its always worse the 2nd day after an
injury for some bizarre reason and it held true in this case too. Today I am just achy and not terrible
and I will pamper myself by not lifting anything heavier than a cup of
tea. )

  
After Lowe's and my near-loss-of-religion-experience 
:goll-darned-sumna-bleeping-blooppin-watsa-frakin
GAS SHOCKS:: I ran into Einstein bagels to
grab a Chicken and Asiago Cheese Salad...ate some of that...took Mike the
Asiago cheese bagel that came with my salad where he was now in line at
Circuit City ::they have the WORST Black Friday arrangements in the
known universe...just in case you were wondering...I know you have this NEED
to KNOW these things:: and then wandered
through Michaels' Arts and Crafts, not finding anything that screamed out
TAKE ME! Next I ran into Home Depot to look for a ladder that was on sale
that we wanted. Whoops! Sold out in 20 minutes after the doors opened. Guess
I should have hit Home Depot first??!! ::this wound up being the
only thing all day that we had wanted that was sold out, and I consider that
pretty stinkin' good::

 
I followed my unsuccessful Home Depot stop with wandering into JoAnn's ETC to see if I could find a pattern for a
blouse that I fell in love with online from Alight.com. They wanted
::cough, choke, gasp, wheeze:: $108.00
for this blouse. GOOD GOOGLAMOOGLA PEOPLE! It isn't even made of SILK!!! What in the heck are you THINKING? I KNOW that I
could make a blouse almost exactly like it for less than $40.

  
WOOO HOO SCORE!
Not only did Vogue have a pattern that was almost exactly like the shirt

::original shirt from Alight.com:: but

the pattern was half price plus I had a 20% off 'Your Whole Order" coupon.
::I bought teal blue crepe backed satin to make the shirt on the left in
the pattern drawing, but with the sleeves and bottom front of the shirt on
the right. I also will make myself a nice carnelian red shirt like in the
Alight.com photo. LOVE IT!:: I wound up
getting the shirt fabric, pattern and sew-in interfacing for all less than
$26. TAKE THAT ALIGHT ! ::can I just TELL you how glad I am that I
can sew??? I have done this dozens of times...its the only way I can afford
a decent wardrobe. Women's size clothes are either heinously ugly or
ridiculously expensive...if it is over a size 12 ffftt...::

  McCall's and Simplicity Patterns were
also on sale for 99c each. Never being one to pass up patterns at
ridiculously-awesome-prices, I bought a few blouse patterns for myself.
Remember the whole plumber crack deal with the pants? Well the shirts and
blouses that I have are either baggy as all get out or are so large that
they are starting to garner stares for the obscene amount of skin that is
showing. I am pretty sure that when a V-neck  turns
into hip-huggers then it might be time to make a change.

  
Now hold on before you think it even ... I am not a prude. I love
breasts! I have two myself. They are one of the most marvelous things
God blessed women with. They nourish children, they make a shirt fit in
amazing ways, they can be a magnet to get the attention of a particular
male of the species that attracts interest, and they also provide an
awesome excuse to buy some amazing undergarments. I am not flat chested
:truthfully
the Lord could have blessed an additional woman with part of my
bustline and both of us would probably been quite content with the way
we filled out a sweater and demi-cup from Victoria's Secret:: but neither am I an exhibitionist. Therein lies part of the problem. I love V-neck shirts, wrap like
the ones above that flatter and fit a "woman's" figure, and anything with a sweetheart or keyhole neckline. I'm just tellin' ya
... some of my shirts well...they will not be darkening my breast's doorstop
again. k...consider that I sing on
the worship team at church and a peek-a-boo show while singing on
stage...erm...no..not gonna fly::
When
the shirt isn't doing its job and keeping the girls covered, that shirt
is history. On to bigger..er..smaller and better things!

 
By the time I was in JoAnn's ETC Mike was FINALLY out of the
wicked-arse-ridiculously-long line
at
Circuit City. ::this
year he REALLY got the short end of the stick on the whole shopping on Black Friday thing::
He met me over at JoAnn's ETC to help me pick out the
fabric for my shirt and we looked at the knickknacks that the store
carries. Nothing spectacular screamed out at us in that department, but I did pick up two
rotary cutters for 50% off and a carry-all for my sewing accoutrements that was on sale
for a great price ::regularly $89.00 but on sale for $35 plus an additional 20% off::.

 
On our way home we
breezed past Safeway again because there was something Mike wanted to see if
they had ::I'll be hanged if I can remember what it was though::. Nope....home again home again. I tried to take a nap because I was TOTALLY ragged out. I guess I was too wired
... I.slept fitfully for about an hour.

 
Mike and I went to supper at Outback later that night: tmmm..prime rib, shrimp..salad::.
Brenna had spent the night with his mom so we could go out early to
shop. She then spent Friday night with my mom so we were able to go
out, something that we hadn't done alone in quite a while.

 
If we did anything else on Friday I just plain can't remember. Getting up at 4 a.m. is not normal
and sure isn't healthy for my brain cells.

  
The blow I took to the top my head probably wasn't a help in
lending aiding to memory retention. By next year I will probably have forgotten how
lousy getting up at 4 a.m. on Black Friday feels and repeat the whole process.

  
I can just blame it on

The Whomp.

                                      
 
  
~Kathie

Of the
Weekend, Thrift Store Scores, and Heinous Teens

   
Friday morning
I put on a pair of jeans...

   
....which promptly slid down to plumber crack level.
::Grrrrrrrrr::

    
Uhhhh....no. I have to say this isn't the look I am striving for.

   
Every pair of jeans I have are doing this except for a black pair I
purchased a few weeks ago.
::we were going to a
casual birthday/anniversary party, and black jeans are a bit dressy, no?
serious desperation too...no baggy arse pants at a party where 50 people
will be:: They
were in the laundry being washed and would not be ready to be worn in the 10
minutes I wanted to head out the door.

 
Monday the head gasket blew on Michael's car.::weee...fun. Great...just...great::. So the balance of the
week was spent with Michael taking my van, my borrowing his mom's car, and
his arranging to carpool with someone in his department. Friday he had a
ride and I could catch up on all the things I had needed to do all week.

 
Thanks to our friend Brian who is not only a mechanic but a danged good and
honest one, the car will be repaired this week. . There is nothing worse
than needing help with repairs
::household, car, or what-have-you::
and not having a person you can trust to do the work. Brian is not only one
of our best friends but a huge blessing in many ways. He also makes me laugh
more than most anyone on the planet! Bri's planning to swing by this week to
look at the engine and see if it really was the head gasket or another
problem. I was so tired last night that I can't remember what else it was he
said might be the issue, but as a head gasket is an expensive fix, here's
hoping it is the lesser fix of the two.

   
Anywho, back to my plumber crack experience.

   
Needless to say I wasn't flying with that one. So I dug out a pair of
sweatpants, which barely stayed up also
::sheesh::
and decided the first stop we would make would be Goodwill to hunt for
jeans. ::I am
liking this weight loss but the not having clothes thang is a byatch...an
expensive problem::

   
Have I ever mentioned that I NEVER find jack squat in our local
Goodwill? I don't know if it is just because it is so heavily shopped,
but  I am disappointed constantly every time I go in there. Not
only do I rarely if EVER find anything , but they are, in my humble
thrift-store-shoppin'-kinda-gal-experience, expensive on what they do
have. I know they get a ton of good stuff in as I watch people line up
to drop things off ::I have dropped stuff off there myself on occasion::. It may be
that the items are being distributed to different area  stores because I am not seeing them IN the store. Many of
the things they have out in the store are dirty, worn, and nasty yet
they put prices on many of these things that are comparable to what one
would pay for a new item.  My question is WHAT THE HECK are they
thinking???

  I
guess my next question would be why the heck do I keep going back?
::Desperation. Hope. A
super tight budget. They do occasionally have sales that I try to catch::

 
So again it was a bust at Goodwill. I tried on 3 pair of jeans but each was
just a wee bit too small. I am between sizes and the 18s and 17s wouldn't
fasten over my stomach.
::()*( ed stomach...Why
is that always the last to go?::
I would have gotten all three pairs to have for the next down-sizing, but
money is tight this week and I needed jeans I could wear NOW.

 
So I decided I would bebop over to a local consignment shop that I hadn't
been able to get to when it was open. I NEED PANTS that don't look like I am
trying to emulate a pre-teen boy with the big ole droopy drawer thang.

  
Up the road 2 miles we go. YES they are open.
::best be as  it is
the middle of the day::
In we go...Brenna heads
to the kid's clothes, I head to the jeans. Towards the end, because I am
still in plus sizes and those are always scunched into the end of the rack.
Kewl...there are 18s and 20s here that are looking brand new! Store tags on
some of them...I grabbed 6 pair to try on...

  
...end result being that I scored 3 pairs of jeans, all brand new with tags,
for $18! AND they aren't baggy-butted, high waisted, heinously unattractive
mom-jeans either
::have y'all been watching Saturday Night Live and seen the Mom-Jeans skits?
buahahahahahsnort::
What a huge relief! I
have been purging my clothes and it has left me with just the one pair jeans
I can wear plus a bunch of jeans friends have blessed me with that are yet
too small. Those are going to be packed up for when there is "less of me". I
need to make a trash pile, thrift-store pile, and an eBay pile. I need to
fund my new wardrobe! 

   
Oh, I didn't mention that I wore a pair of jeans up to the counter and
pulled the tag off for the girl when she went to ring it up. I was SO not
going to try and wrestle myself into those pants outside in my van! lol
Neither was I going to wear those danged baggy sweatpants that were falling
off.

   
I know I know...they were in a thrift store. They were new with tags, and I
said a prayer over them that any germs would die.

  
I was desperate. It's too cold now to have my bumm hanging out.

  
Plus my bumm isn't hanging-out worthy. Maybe next year.

  
Off to other errands: match a piece of fabric at JoAnn's for a project, a
quick stop for lunch,  homeschool portfolio review, the library, back
home because Brenna left her library books at home
::she was the one who
was nagging me about getting to the library and she walked out without the
bag of books...heavy sigh::,
back to the library, over to mom's to start her furnace for her since it
actually has gotten cold here now
::20 degrees at night 2 nights ago...yuck::.

  
 After mom's
my friend Andrea returned my call from earlier. She was having her 15yo
daughter's birthday party at a local ice rink so offered to come by if she
needed any help/wanted company with all the teens. Her husband works every
Friday night so I knew she would be on her own with it. I decided to go
ahead and take Brenna skating and hang out with Andrea, and Brenna and
Andrea's middle daughter are friends. Morgan would be able to have a friend
her age to skate with and Brenna had been asking me to take her ice skating
again.Not a bad Friday night!

  
So now we had an hour to kill and there happens to be a good thrift store
right around the corner from my mom's. Yes! Another good score! Three shirts
and a pair of snow boots for Brenna. I didn't look for anything for myself,
but I will go back after payday.

   
A quick stop for something to eat and then we headed off to the ice rink.

   
Can I just tell you...the ice skating was good *I didn't skate because of
the foot I broke that is still healing* and the kids had a ball, BUT...

  
...I have never in my life seen teenagers so disrespectful of property,
messy and foul-mouthed as the bulk of the kids were at the ice rink. They
were throwing food, spraying soda, dropped every bit of trash that there was
on the floor. While it wasn't every kid that was there that was acting that
way, by in large it was the bulk of them. It was appalling I have to say.
And sad. I will NEVER drop my child off there alone. I couldn't believe
people that dropped there 9, 10, 11 year olds off and just left them, not
having a clue what is going on there. My gf overheard two 10ish, 11ish year
olds " Can I touch your booby?" "Yes
::giggle::""Can
I touch you there?" "Yes
::giggle::"

  
Oh good Lord in heaven those kids best be glad it wasn't me that
overheard that exchange. I would have shadowed them until I found out
their names or til I saw their parents pick them up. *shakes head* I am
so sad and disgusted and appalled and ... it just goes on. My stomach
is sick just thinking about the future for those kids.

  
Needless to say I wasn't impressed with the Friday night open skate. I will
stick to taking Brenna during the day.

  
Saturday I went over Andrea's to fix her computer and have her cut Brenna's
hair. Andrea is a hair stylist so we were trading skills :0) Brenna's hair
looks SO much better, and Andrea's computer is now virus free and working
properly. Morgan came home with us and spent the night.

  
Sunday morning meant getting up early for church, and leaving church early
to come home and make lunch. Since Andrea and Grahaem were going to come by
after church to pick up Morgan I invited them to lunch. I made grilled
teriyaki pork chops and burgers. Yummy! Then we went outside and took pics
of her kids for Christmas cards. It appears something is going on funky with
one of my camera bodies.
::grrrrrr::
Andrea said that
everything looked good but the pics were really dark and shadowed. I need to
see the film since she took it to get processed, but I am SO not pleased
needless to say as I just bought the camera body a couple of months ago. I'm
hoping it was the processing and not my camera, but until I see the film I
won't know.

  
Brenna then went to Becca's house to play for a few hours, and I picked her
up about 9.

  
I only slept about 4 hours Saturday night and was soooo tired all day
yesterday.  After Mike took Brenna to Becca's I sat and cleaned out my
laptop and fell asleep for about 1/2 an hour. Slept like crud last night for
some reason and now I am kinda tired today. p~~~

  
But I am wearing jeans that fit! The sighting of my pasty white arse is
not something that Harford County Maryland needs fear anytime in the
immediate future. And should that make for a good Monday morning in
anyone's book.

                                                                                                      
 
~Kathie

Halloween 2005

   I finally
scanned the pictures of Brenna's Halloween costume! I kept forgetting to
scan them.

    We
went to Renaissance fair this year on Pirate weekend. That did it! Brenna
decided she wanted to wear a costume like the pirates next year, and that
spawned the idea for a Renaissance pirate on Halloween this year.

   The costume
was easy to make and I picked up the hat, tights, and boots at various
places. I really like the way it came out!

Why does she look like she is drunk in the first photo?
I have no idea. Look at the circles under her eyes! Egads that child needs some sun!
Why didn't i see that in camera?
Again no clue.

                                         
 ~Kathie

Fall Has Fallen and So Have the Leaves...

  
 We have had
an incredibly mild October and November, and trust me, I am SO not unhappy
about it! Besides the fact that we have actually had a real Fall *nice days
and cool nights*, the first one in years, it has saved us a small fortune in
heating bills.

  
Yes folks, we are one of the lucky many that have gas heat.

  
For today I will not go off on my feelings on the lousy, price-gouging,
so-n-so's that are raping the American public with fuel costs....it
really
gets my blood pressure up when I think about it too much...

*deep
breath in, deep breath out....find your center...peace peace*

   OK...better now...back to Fall...

   In my side yard we have a large, round Maple tree that turns a luscious gold
before it drops it's leaves. I was doubtful this year if it would have any
color to it at all. July and August were incredibly dry here, and while it
didn't cause drought conditions it was way too dry.

  I
was pleasantly surprised by the display the Maple tree put on this year. It
turned color really late, but it went gold in the space of one week, and
pretty much dropped all it's leaves in 2 days. I sent Brenna out with a
rake...

..Yes
that leaf pile really is up to her shoulder. It isn't the camera angle.

  
The dogs also had a blast! Perry tunneled
and
dug through that big ole leaf pile and was in his glory! I can't wait to see
him in the snow. He is such a funny, fun fluffy boy. Can't you see his
personality in his face?

 
Shia had a blast too. She wasn't as enthusiastic about the leaves as Perry
was, but when I picked her up and put her in the leaves she had fun. She
jumped in voluntarily after that. Guess she is the kid that needs to be
thrown in the pool!

 
The leaf pile that they
are sitting in easily measures 4 feet tall.

     
At least I will have lots of leaves for my vegetable garden! I really wish
the weather wasn't going to be turning cold this week. I need the time to
finish working outside.

     
I guess I just need to wait until we have that warm spell in January or
February to work more outside. Until then I will have to work on painting
and decorating inside. I have extra paintbrushes and 11 rooms to paint.
Any takers???

                                                                                                     
 
~Kathie

   
   
   
     OK... I am so
    FREAKING out of shape.
   
 
As if that wasn't immediately noticeable by the fact that I was 57
pounds heavier at the beginning of this past summer than I am now .

    **note new profile picture on left**

   
  I just started "kicking it into high gear" at the gym last week.    
   
   
 
Suddenly I am finding muscles I didn't know existed in my person. In
fact, this evening I pulled out the Gray's Anatomy
that I used in art school to figure out if I have
mental issues and am experiencing psychosomatic pain...'cuz I am
hurting in places I didn't know that muscles resided. At any rate, that
I can recall my body never noticed these muscles in any of my past 39
years  .
   
 
Who the heck thought that the muscle between your shoulder and the
upper part of your boob would SCREAM when you try to
put the top back on the Tylenol bottle? **which you
are opening because you need to pop Tylenol like TicTacs**

      
Why have I never been informed of the fact that my butt could feel
like someone took and gouged it 30 times with a
rusty saw. My rear didn't feel like this after
riding a horse for 6 hours in the mountains.    
   

          
AND WHAT THE HECK exercise is there in the circuit
that makes the top of your feet hurt? I don't recall a sheet with Premier Fascia Pedia Katia *i.e. top of Katt's feet* on the
little  tag sheet accompanying each of those torture
devices..., er...wonderful workout machines.
   
           
Not to mention my neck feeling like I spent three
10 minute rounds on a 70s bucking electronic bar bull... OY...

   
    Last night I stuck to just swimming for the aerobic
benefit and I swam a total of 46 laps in the pool.
Not sure what it equates to as part of a mile but I need to find out as
my
goal is to eventually swim a mile. I am
swimming side and breast stroke because of doing
something nasty to my left shoulder, so unfortunately I am not getting
the benefit of swimming the crawl. I hope as I strengthen the 
muscles in
that shoulder I should get where I can swim overhand. I am just hoping
I didn't tear
my  rotator cuff. *wince* I have no idea how I did what I did,
either.
  
    Ahhh age... marvelous. Just. Marvelous.

  
I have  got to get rid of this fat around my middle.
Tonight if I go to the gym I am going to try out the
elliptical trainer. I am aiming to be in a size 16 by Christmas.

   Who can lift a leg to kick an elyptical machine when their
butt feels like it has been chewed on by a rabid beaver?

   
I  am going to need a whole new wardrobe by January.
Not that that is a bad thing, but it is going to get
expensive! I can sew like a fiend when I put my mind to it, but I hesitate to make anything when
I may not be able to wear it for long if I am able keep losing weight.     
  

   
   
                                                           
                   
             ~ Kathie

Take A
Picture It'll Last Longer

...that's my
creedo and I will stick to it!

  
 I am a photographer and photography has been an
addiction of mine since kindergarten. No really...that long! I STILL have
the first camera I ever took pictures with  waaaaaaaaaaaay back then.
Its a little Kodak 110 camera.
Did it take good
pictures?  No not really...but I still loved it! Somewhere in the midst
of all my albums and packages of photos is an album from my elementary
school days. It is filled with grainy photos whose colors have shifted and
lightened,
but
they still hold their memories as strongly as ever. Each page of the album
is filled with pictures of squirrels and neighborhood cats, ponies at the
local fair, people who worked with my mom at the IHOP she managed in
Baltimore, friends making the typical goofy faces, the "first crush" ( oh
yeah..I remember his name... it was Brian Smith...he was blonde haired and
blue eyed, and his family moved to Florida after kindergarten, breaking my 5
year old heart).

  
In Junior High I graduated to a 35mm camera that I purchased with money I
saved
from
allowances, birthdays and Christmases. I still have that camera also. Its a
Mamiya Rangefinder, and that camera to this day still takes some awesome
photographs. The albums from that period are of much better quality, and my
skill level was increasing as well. Far fewer photos of my thumb or the
camera strap are to be found, a lot more photos of friends and nature, and
lots of pictures of nature. In Junior High I also took my first photography
class. I think that is when the photo
bug really bit me deep. It was the late 70s, I was a non-Catholic kid in a
Catholic school, and I had a teacher who was a total cut-up, a great teacher
and irreverent as all get out. He really encouraged my in my photography and
my interest in the craft. I was "the" photographer that was called on
everywhere I went: newsletters and school papers, year books and publicity
campaigns at school held by local politicians, bands and advertising at
church and youth group, friend who wanted a good photo for one thing or the
other. I kept shooting and shooting, and by this time I had my first 35mm
SLR : a Pentax ME Super. I still have that camera, of course! lol Why should
things change ?! From there I started doing portraits and learning as I
went, I worked for several photographers, managed photo labs locally, worked
at 3 different custom photo labs, and more. By the time college came round I
was interested in photography and architecture, and decided to major in
architecture and minor in photography. After 18 months of college
photography won out over my interest in architecture and my major changed to
all photography. I
never
turned back and have never stopped shooting. I just kept adding more
cameras, flashed, tripods, etc. to my camera bag(s) as time went on.

  
I don't know what exactly sparked my imagination and interest in
photography, but I do know that even now each time I pick my camera up and
start shooting something inside me comes alive that is sleeping until that
camera is in hand. Opening a newly printed package of photos is the greatest
thrill to me! Seeing the images I envisioned with eye to camera in print
form is akin to giving birth.  You know what to expect, pretty much.
You have a good idea of what the "child" might look like, but there is
always that small chance of a total surprise. When they look exactly as you
envisioned or even better, I suppose it is similar to the rush an athlete
gets when they reach a training goal.

  I
have a fair amount of photography equipment.

 
OK...ok...

  I
have a lot of photography equipment. Enough to outfit several people. Its
part of the
trade, and when you have a addiction, you need to FEED it, right? (She who
dies with the most toys WINS!)

 
The last wedding I photographed, my 35mm Canon portrait camera DIED at the
end of the day. It was locking up and hanging up on me like crazy, and I
could FEEL it. I started shooting triples of everything and I lost only 1/2
dozen shots out of 13 rolls. By God's good grace it DID NOT die WHEN I was
shooting the wedding. Can I JUST tell ya .... *shudder* I don't even want to
think of shooting a wedding and having something catastrophic happen. That
is one of the reasons shooting weddings are so stressful. No going back if
you crash and burn.

 
So anyway...the camera...Its dead, Jim.
And right
after I bought a set of studio lights and a brand new flash specifically FOR
a Canon camera. Nice. Spend $800 and your screwed. The camera is old enough
that it isn't worth repairing... repairing it would cost more than simply
replacing the body. Stinks when you spent $900 on a camera and it is now
worth ffftt. Little to nuttin. So 2 weeks ago I purchased TWO used Canon
camera bodies and have been testing them all week. I am happy with the
results.

  I
won't be caught without a backup camera again, that is for danged sure!
First, last, and ONLY time for me!

 
Consider my addiction fed. Well, til I can get that $3000 digital SLR I am
drooling after. Hopefully these new camera bodies will help me reach that
goal.

 
Eventually.

 
Til then, if you see a "flash" out of the corner of your eye, realize it
could be me.

 
Just makin' it last longer, tis all!

                                                                 
~Kathie

I've
Been Tagged!

Anna
got me! I haven't been tagged before that I recall. WOOT! So here it goes
the quiz..

List 10 songs you are currently digging. 
It does not matter what genre they are from, or even if they are no good,
but they must be songs you're really enjoying now.  Post these instructions,
the artists, and the ten songs in your blog, Then tag five other people to
see what they are listening to.

1.

Third Day, album-Wire, song-Innocent I love this whole album...but this
song is TOTALLY cool!

2.

Nickel Creek, album-Why Should the Fire Die? , song-When In Rome

3. Shameless promotion: My husband's band

Dwell, song-Naked Sky This album isn't their current line up. If you
don't like hard rock, or goth music. Stay away. Far...far...away.

4.

Sugarland, album-Baby Girl, song-Something More

5.
Leela
James, album-A Change is Gonna Come, song-Music Oh my GOODNESS this girl
has a killer voice

6.
Gwen Stefani, album-Love.Angel.Music.Baby., song-Hollaback Girl She has
an awesome voice and I LOVE her spunk and her funk!

7.
Anna
Nalick, album-Wreck of the Day, song-Breathe

8.

Vanessa Carlton, album-Be Not Nobody, song-A Thousand Miles

9.

Hootie and the Blowfish, album-Cracked Rear View, song-Hold My Hand

10.

Outkast, album-Speakerboxxxx, song-The Way You Move MAN are they funky
and fun or what? You HAVE to dance when you listen to their music.

  That was fun! Thanks Anna. ) Since I
have over 600 CDs it took me a bit to think about. lol

  Oo and now I get to tag a few
others...Shea,
Bethie,

Kipper,

LaQuesta,
Laura,
and

Dawn's Early Light. Let the games begin!

                                                                      Kathie

The
Perseid Meteor Shower

 
Tonight
the Perseid Meteor Shower will be visible. Tonight we plan to go out at
about midnight...drive a few miles up the road to where there are more farms
than lights, and watch for meteors. Brenna and I did this last time there
was a meteor shower, and she has talked about our midnight excusion off and
on since then. Its very worth being up late at night if it makes that kind
of impact! That is the kind of cool stuff one remembers doing as a kid when
you get older after all! 

                                
Photo by
Dauthel Nathalie

 
I am off to look up information on the meteor shower and meteors in general.

Everything is a lesson when one homeschools!

             
       Kathie

BULLET BLOG
WEDNESDAY

i.e. insert
random thoughts here

8I've
been drinking my water. How about you? ::takes a sip of water:: Drink my
friends ! DRINK!

8
Christopher Reeve's widow has been diagnosed with lung cancer. ( While I
often do not agree with her and Christopher's spiritual, social, and
political views, that is not an illness I would wish on anyone. I hope she
gets healing...for the sake of her kids. They have lost their father...they
need her.  Losing their mother so soon would be a mighty blow to them.

8NBC
News anchor Peter Jennings died Sunday evening ... coincidentally enough, of
lung cancer. He died at home with his family. Prayers for them all. Cancer
is ugly. So. Very. Ugly.

8
I am so tired this week. Tired to the bone. I had my gall bladder out two
weeks ago Monday **not laproscopically**. Since then I just have had NO
energy.  I know it is normal...I just had major surgery. Doesn't mean I
have to like it.

      
Did I mention I 'M IRRITATED THAT I FEEL SO RAGGED OUT????

     
Ahem

8
Because I have had no energy and am too sore to be bending, weeding, and
pulling, over the last three weeks my front garden bed against the house has
GONE OUTTA CONTROL. Oh my gosh...the weeds...I CANNOT believe how fast they
have grown! *sniff* I put so much work into those flower beds...and now they
just are overgrown and nasty **whine**. It is too hot to work out there so I
am having to wait until I can handle the temperature (mainly the humidity)
so I can weed. At night when it is cooler the mosquitoes are so bad that it
is nigh impossible to stand being out there.

    
Unless you particularly enjoy being the target of parasitical
insects. Ick.

8What
is up with this whole Harry Potter thing? I don't get it. Why are people so
vehemently PASSIONATE about it? Good grief. With wars, child abductions,
murders, illnesses, etc. going on, people are expending a lot of unnecessary
energy in fighting about it. Not worth arguing over...each has his own
personal conviction about the story, author and series. Fah.  Its not
eternal. I am not going to get bent about it.

8Perry,
my rescue Keeshond that we picked up in March from West Virginia, is doing
amazingly well. He is calming down more and more daily...and he is a great
dog. Such a clown and he is turning into a major snuggler and lover of
people. Just as a Kees should be! I am so glad we have him. He was listed as
a mix, and unneutered on the web site. He is neither a mix, nor unneutered.
Eh?

8Three
Saturdays ago my husband and his band,

Dwell,  played a gig to benefit a 10
young boy with leukemia. Unfortunately, the Friday before they did the gig
the boy passed away from the leukemia. On a nicer note, the guys went ahead
and did the gig, and along with several other bands, raised over $14,000 for
the boy's family.

    
Our daughter is 10 years old. I can't imagine. I never want to have to go
there. Ever. Prayers for healing for this family are appreciated.

8I
had to go to the local post office today to talk to the Post Master, who
happens to be a very nice man. Seems there is some funky change in mail
routes and we don't have a regular carrier and that is what is causing the
problems. After today we will have a regular carrier. I wasn't nasty just
firm about this costing us over $200 in late fees and misc issues. I let him
know that whatever was causing the issue I am done...this has gone on
intermittently for a year and it needs to stop. Now. ::grunt:: Here's
hopin'...I may just stake out my mailbox for a couple of days and talk to
the carrier.

   
I am SO not happy. My SIL, and my pastor and his wife sent me get well cards
following my surgery. Both cards were returned with "No Such Address" marked
on them. What the heck? I'm preeetty sure that for the almost five
years we have lived here that the house, and its address, were here. Not to
mention that the house is over 230 years old...and its been here that whole
time.  Now, I have had two people tell me that mail has been
bumped back to them. What has been bumped back that I don't know
about? I know of several bills we  never received (because of the
ensuing late fees and pain-in-the-butt dealings with said companies), and
did I mention the hell I went through getting my vehicle emissions
inspection done on my van? It took 8 MONTHS to resolve because every letter
the DMV sent me to verify where I live was returned. I assume they were
returned because *I* never received them. We all know the JOYS of dealing
with the local motor vehicle division now, don't we? ::grimace:: Finally, to get
the issue straightened out I drove the 1/8 of a mile from my house to where the inspection
station is, and had the van inspected. While there I found out that I had been
driving with suspended tags for 3 weeks due to not having had my van's
emissions inspection done.

   
By the way, I never received notice in the mail that the tags were suspended.
    Surprised? I think not...

                                          
     ~Kathie