Flamingo Dancer’s Friends

Wednesday

nobody@vox.com(Karen) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:16:55 +1000

I wish I had the imagination to come up with a snappy title for each entry I make here on Vox, but I don't. So Wednesday it is. Weekdays are great to fall back on when you are in a title for your blog rut. TFYBR

Well, they are almost done. Tomorrow they paint the last room, and then come back December 6th to paint the sunroom, and the 2 downstairs bedrooms and bath. Thank goodness! They are running me ragged. But the up side as I've said before, is that every thing is getting cleaned. It will probably be the last time for five years or until the house gets painted again!

It is rainy and cold here today, and I don't feel like doing anything. I did take everything down and out of the guest bedroom and put it in my NEW LAVENDER LAUNDRY ROOM! woot woot, it is much darker than I thought I orginally picked, but I am glad. I've been thinking all week: I should have gone darker. I should trust myself eh?

Yesterday I ran to the garden store to get some doodads to put on the shelves above the cabinets in the kitchen, because I've breathed life into my Longaberger Christmas baskets. They are no longer up there, and I needed to find some things that just would pop out of there because it is such a dark shade of blue. I found 2 lovely gray and blue pitchers, more country looking than southwestern, but my kitchen is pretty country. They were dirt cheap and they look great. No one will ever climb up there and see the prices! Today I went back and bought suet for the poor birdies, and a vase that matches. Pictures coming later.

It seems like I haven't had time to do anything but clean and move things in so long, the grocery list sits ignored on my counter. I've got all the ingredients to make stroganoff except sour cream, and I don't have the energy to go to the store and get it. I feel bad asking DH to stop on the way home after he's worked 8 hours so I need to get up off my butt and go get it.

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How old is too old ...

nobody@vox.com(Emjay) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:21:58 +1000

to drive a taxi?

My driver this morning looked quite elderly. When I got in the cab I told him the exact route I wanted to take. As we got close to the first street I wanted to turn down I mentioned that it was coming up because it does not have a sign on it .. -

He responded "you told me the name of the street, so I know. You'll stress me if you keep repeating streets. Turn here, turn there. It makes me nervous! I'm old you know".

Well, yes I could see he was old but good manners prevented me from agreeing, so I laughed and said, with a flip of the wrist - "oh, you're not old".

"oh yes, I'm about to be 72".

Now while 72 is not "that" old and I am happy to ride in a car with my 75 year old mother driving, she is not driving in a professional capacity. This guy drove faster than some of my younger drivers but his reflex reactions were slower!

My driver then told me that he was driving buses in my area during the Martin Luther King riots in 1968. Now those were scary days! It therefore surprised me that little old me, with an air-boot on my leg and crutches made him nervous!

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The Blind Cook

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:21:08 +1000

I just ran across this posting from Chocolate & Zucchini, a French cooking blog. They have sections in English and in French. Evidently, the author of the blog had an interesting conversation with a blind cook. An American from Salt Lake City, former geologist and current computer programmer, he participated in an interview about cooking without vision. Fascinating!

Rather than cut and paste a rather long article, I'm providing a link to it, below:

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/10/how_the_blind_cook.php

Like most of the people commenting on this article, I was incredibly impressed by this guy. Goes to show you what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it!

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CHEERleader

nobody@vox.com(felt) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:46:46 +1000

School 093

Here's Miss Ava, looking all hot and well, bothered at a game earlier this month. It was ridiculously hot. Tonight, they are choosing two girls out of 17 as "exceptional" cheerleaders, which I think is ridiculous. At age 8, aren't they all exceptional? Don't they all scream, shout, jump, run, and miss-spell the cheers exactly with the same enthusiasm? Exactly. Her coaches, thank goodness, are doing it the right way. They're drawing names out of a hat. Thank Goodness there's some sense this time around. Ava still believes that the amount of energy she puts into cheering has some impact on the outcome of the game! They're babies for goodness sake! They should ALL get spirit awards. And now, I will get down off this box....

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Tuesday

nobody@vox.com(Karen) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:11:42 +1000

Riley resized

When I was out taking pictures on Sunday, little RiRi from across the street came over and followed me around. This little dog has been in the neighborhood since January, and finally, she will let me love on her. She was/is so very shy, she loves my puppies, but is very wary of humans. She sure is pretty :))

Long eyelashes

Things to do today:

move big basket to living room
sort through the big basket
finish my laundry. does laundry ever end?
go to target to look at lamps for the guest bedroom and get a rug for the laundry room
go to store for fruit and potatoes
find things to put on top of kitchen cabinets
move plants back into the living room
finish emptying the guest bedroom
looks like I need to vacuum again bah...I just put it away last night.
print and frame a couple of pictures
sweep dirt off front porch
fill the bird feeders
put new candles out
figure out what the heck to make for dinner...still in a rut
catch up with my neighbors
have lunch with DH

I'm sorry for not visiting much lately, if I get to post at all I'm lucky lately. The house is clean clean clean for the most part. Having the painters here forced me into spring cleaning. How could I let them paint the walls above the cabinets with 2 inches of dust bunnies hiding up there? It feels so good to know there is no dirt hiding under the fridge (there were tons of mouse turds eww).

They are working on the family room today. That will take them all day today and part of tomorrow, and then they start on the laundry room (lavender walls, light green ceiling) and the guest room (buttercream yellow, bright white ceiling).

Pictures of the kitchen coming later...it is done but waiting on the bakers rack I ordered from Overstock.com. It is going to be perfect in the corner, the white wrought iron scroll work will really pop out. My red leather storage bench is going to be delivered today! Who knew UPS delivered such huge things? We tried to have the wine rack that DH's brother made for us delivered from Longmont to here, and they wanted over 200 dollars to package and ship it. Fed Ex, the same. Needless to say we left it there with the intentions of picking it up when we drive out in the RV.

Have a good day y'all.

Riley kissing turbo resized

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A Creative Way to End the Financial Crisis

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:11:24 +1000

From The Onion, one hell of a good satire site:

Financial Planner Advises Shorter Life Span

TUCSON, AZ—After reviewing his client's income, assets, and personal budget Tuesday, Morgan Stanley financial adviser Henry Dalton determined that Jason Hutchinson, 43, could make the best use of his portfolio by dropping dead at the age of 62. "Taking account of inflation and the rising cost of living versus the projected direction of the economy in the coming decade, I told Mr. Hutchinson that he could significantly reduce his spending by simply living less," Dalton said. "After looking at his investments, I calculated that he really shouldn't live a day over 62—or 59 if he wants a funeral." In order to help his client plan for his financial future, Dalton presented Hutchinson with several of the company's comprehensive suicide packages.

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Horses!

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:23:49 +1000

We were treated to Clydesdales at the Topsfield Fair and I took two videos of them strutting their stuff. Oddly, only one of the two videos I took seemed to "take" at sites like YouTube or Jumpcut. Maybe the other one was too long.

Oh well, I'll try it again later and may be able to post it. In the meantime, check out these enormous, beautiful horses engaging in some pretty fancy foot- and teamwork!

More Horses!

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Sunday at the Fair

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:16:13 +1000

I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, what with life being what it is and all. My husband, in-laws and I took a drive to the Topsfield Fair, one of the oldest state fairs in Massachusetts going back almost 200 years. That long ago it wasn't called the Topsfield Fair and, in fact, it wasn't even in Topsfield, but the fair in its current iteration has been around for about 100 of those 200 years.

We visited cows, goats, arts and crafts, vegetables and flowers, chickens and more. There were a zillion people and they were as much fun to watch as the exhibits were. I especially liked the woman who had dominion over the ladies' toilet near the arena, a feisty black woman crying out: "Right this way to your number one urination station! The place to be when you've got to pee!" The women in that long line were laughing hard enough to..well..pee right there.

And, I took pictures and videos - but of course! Come check out the critters and the crafts, the whole nine yards...ball of wax and everything else!

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Photo Quest - Backlit Photos

nobody@vox.com(Emjay) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:00:45 +1000

`
Clouds across the alley - backlit by the sun... 9am this morning - no editing.
Canon PowerShot set on automatic setting.

IMG_5740

IMG_5749

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secret weapon

nobody@vox.com(felt) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:41:35 +1000

My secret weapon is on board. Well, really, really on board. Meaning she is now READING this blog. She's my life-saver, my huge tissue, my teflon coated wall of protection, my partner in preschool crime, my tanto to her lone ranger...My wonderful teaching assistant. She really should be called a co-teacher, and paid for it!

I'll post a picture...flattering of course...if she'll let me. Just picture a J.Jill model, looking adoringly at a group of three year olds, and you'll get it.

She needs a name...I think it will be-Super B. S.B. She'll get that.

bye!

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