Ahhhhh

Monday

Ahhh - Love this. I'm cozied up in a motel room in Rock Springs with some new books, magazines, a sack of Fritos and some bean dip.

Tomorrow will be big WalMart day. I'm the only person I know who will get a motel room 100 miles from home just to go shopping.

I took the Wild Horse Tour Road across to Green River, then back to Rock Springs. The horses made themselves very scare today. I did see a good sized bunch off in the distance, but these two studs and a colt were all I saw close enough to photograph. Saw hundreds and hundreds of antelope, and they ran off the minute they saw the pickup.

I wish the news would find something besides the couple who crashed the party at the White House, and Tiger Woods. It's getting very boring. There must be something else going on somewhere in the world!

If you were a cat, where would you hide it?

Happy Birthday to Sally!

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I heard a lot of noise downstairs, and Kat came up with this in her mouth. She was hissing and puffing and growling like a lion in the jungle.

Of course the mouse was still alive and she had to torture and play with it. It got away and went under the chair and up inside it. I tipped the chair up, and it took Kat about an hour to catch it again.

Usually she catches her mice during the night and leaves them in the middle of the floor for me. She had been worried I would take it away from her before she was through playing with it, and I have no idea where she put it. I have looked under the bed with a flashlight and in all the corners and behind things.

They don't stink too long, do they?

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I had the big lens on the camera after taking pictures of deer the other day, and I decided to take a picture of the moon. Our air must be pretty clear right now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Dinner in about three hours!

Stuffing the bird

Kasey watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade.

We've had so many deer hanging out here lately. This buck spent some time on the ditchbank today and posed for me.

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I didn't get up until almost 10:00 this morning. Barrie and Kasey were gone. And the turkey was gone!

When Barrie and Kasey got back (they had been out to feed the dogs), Barrie brought the turkey out of the bathroom. It was still frozen, and she couldn't get the kitchen sinks to hold water, so she had put it in the bathtub to finish thawing.

It's in the electric roaster, and smells delicious.

Seven Dwarfs

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I love this Calvin cartoon - one of my favorites.

Judi has got us all scrambling around to prove how "smart" we are by posting pictures of her seven dwarfs collection. For years, I have been challenged to name the seven dwarfs off the top of my head. I still can't.

I did find a photo of the dwarfs with their names and am posting it for the enlightenment of all. By the way, did you know Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was made in 1937 and was re-released in 1944, in order to raise revenue for the Disney studio during the World War II period?

With Google's help, I am just SOOO smart!

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Barrie brought home fixings for dinner yesterday - 12 lb turkey, potatoes, an apple pie, celery, onion, and some canned goods. Yum! I think she plans on fixing the whole dinner tomorrow.

Finished NaNoWriMo

OK, this is it for today. All the news I have, and all that is happening here.

I actually completed putting more than 50,000 words down for the 2009 writing activity. It's been kind of fun, and I might try it again next year. There have been 1,708,584,120 words written collectively around the world by the participants. I'm not sure I can even read that number. Is that over one trillion? Really big number!

Yeah, it's supposed to be a novel, but it is more or less rambling disjointed and unorganized. If a person is really going to attempt something like this, probably should have a detailed plan and outline. That is, if you are serious about it.

Oh well,

Idaho Falls

Barrie, Kasey and I went to Sam's Club in Idaho Falls today. Fun trip. Roads were sometimes dry, sometimes snow packed, sometimes slushy. Barrie's truck has studded snow tires, so we had no problems. Then we had a pretty good load for the trip home, about 800 lbs of dog food, plus a few other things. Did I say a few? You never buy "a few" of anything in Sam's Club. about 5 gallons of animal crackers, 36 rolls of toilet paper, 5 lbs of cheese, two huge cans of coffee, a few other things. Every nook and cranny of the truck had something stuffed in it.

Beautiful scenery on the drive. The wind was blowing so hard here when we left, but as we got in the canyon, the wind quit and all the tree branches were covered with snow. There were some sheep right next to the road. We saw some bald eagles, and the river around Ririe was full of ducks and lots and lots of swans. That must be why they call that area Swan Valley!

And I didn't take one picture

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No special reason for this picture, except I love the interaction here between mother and daughter.

We went out to the dog lot for Barrie to feed before we left. Kimble was up on top of her doghouse, posing beautifully. As soon as I tried to take a picture of her, she went in and peaked out at me.

Sunday

Tracy forwarded these pictures to me - someone had sent them to the Summit County Sheriff's Office to share with everyone. She said to scroll down to the bottom to read the story, but there was no story! So I have no idea where these were taken. Pretty neat pictures, though.

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I made some applesauce in my pressure cooker yesterday. I had bought apples a long time ago, intending to bake something, and now I even forget what I was going to bake. It was time to either use them, or throw them out. I don't like mushy applesauce, so I make mine in big "hunks". Not just chunky, but hunky.

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Alice, my sister-in-law, is having her open house today. She invites people in for refreshments and to view her artwork. She has not been feeling well, so I am glad her daughter, Sheri, and our friend, Carmen, will be there to help her. She will be exhausted. Give her a back rub tonight, Bill!

Yeah! Coffee

Yeah! The coffee pot came yesterday. I put water and grounds in it last night, and set it to brew a pot of coffee at 9:00 this morning. It tasted so good! Barrie says she doesn't want to even touch it because it has too many buttons. I agree, and need to read the instruction book that came with it, that is, if I can find the part of the book that is written in English. It has buttons for "gourmet", "clean", and "TSB", some other buttons. I didn't get all these mysterious features on purpose. I just wanted a coffee pot that would turn on at the programmed time, and most important, one that would turn itself off. I really hate the smell of burned coffee!



Funny painting. This is a little 4: x 5" study I did to practice snow. I thought the colors turned out OK, but how did I get the little stream at that angle? Don't know if I can fix it or not, but I may use this scene for a larger painting - without tilting the stream.



I straighted and cropped the image on my computer, and it sure makes a difference!

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It is trying to snow a little today. Gloomy and a little windy, too.

Tank is finished

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Tank is finished. Barrie says her nose looks crooked, and I told her that's just the way I wanted it to look. I might as well claim that, anyway.



Judi wondered what I had done to my watercolor I started yesterday. Here it is, in all its muddy, ugly colored glory. I have already started a "do-over". I am going to use the back of this today to paint swatches of different colors and see how salt reacts on those colors. I know different pigments react differently to salt, but I can never remember which ones work well and which ones don't.

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I'm really sick of the writing project I got myself involved in. I'm up to about 42000 words, and I think I will take a break from it today. I've got the rest of the month to reach the 50000 goal.

Wednesday

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These are the "Artist Trading Cards" we have done. Well, mostly Judi has done them. Evidently these little things are very popular in areas of high populations whre there are lots of artists who get together and trade them.

Barbara shared some of her work she had done in the past.

This is Pam's acrylic painting of a rabbit.

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I photographed a few paintings we have displayed on the wall in the art room at Rendezvous Pointe. Next time I will try to get pictures of more of the work. There is so much talent in this group, and I look forward to going every week.

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I started a watercolor painting today of some quakie trees. I tried to put in a rather dark stormy sky, and I've already ruined it. Oh well - I have plenty more paper and paint.

Tuesday

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Because I was moaning about Tank's eye color, Barrie brought her to town yesterday and even brought her upstairs so I could examine her eyes. Poor Tank! She has probably never been in a house before, and I kept pointing a camera lens at her and taking her picture. (No flash). She was so good. We sure laughted at her trying to go back down the stairs.

Almost all the pictures I took of her were blurry, as she was constantly moving. But this one at least shows the eye color.

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I think I may be on probation for baby sitting Kasey! Because Barrie had so much going on during the day yesterday, she didn't go out to run her dogs until late, after Kasey had been put to bed. We do have a baby monitor, but I went down to check on her about 10:00. She was sound asleep.

After Barrie got home, she could hear Kasey giggling and talking in her room. Barrie looked in, and Kat was in there, playing with Kasey. They were both having the best time!

I guess Kat snuck in when I opened the door earlier to check on Kasey, and I shut her in here.

Monday

It's Monday! I wonder what happened to Sunday?

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I decided I would post this today even though it's not finished. Or none of you will believe I am really working on something. I can't tell what color eyes Tank has from her photograph. Barrie says they are brown, but there are a million shades of brown.

Seeing something on the computer screen really helps me see where my mistakes are. I've looked at it in a mirror, and that's good too. But there's something about seeing it on the screen.

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I hope things hold together around here. Last night Barrie said the refrigerator had quit. We fiddled with the dials and temperature settings, and I kicked it once for good measure. About half an hour later, it turned on and seems to be fine again. I don't even know if this refrigerator has coils on the back - the newer ones don't, do they? This is a small frig, and just barely fits into the space that was built for it. It's really hard to pull out, but maybe we better. If it has coils, they haven't been cleaned in ten years or so.

The furnace would not turn on this morning. Brrr! We had someone come check it out last fall. He showed me a "thingie", a round plastic thing, which I assume covers something else. He showed me how to jiggle it. He said if it kept doing that, I should have it replaced. Well, I went down to the basement this morning, took the front cover off, and jiggled the little thing. And the furnace came on.

Then I came up looking forward to a hot cup of coffee. Barrie had made coffee, and the pot was just sitting there. The light turned on, and the digital clock was working, but it was not making coffee.

Barrie took Kasey to the clinic today - another ear infection! She took my travel mug with her and brought me home a big cup of hot coffee.

I went to the basement and rummaged around and found another coffee pot. Don't even know if it works for sure, but I brought it up and will get it cleaned up today. I also found another coffee pot on a shelf in the dark corner. I have no idea where that one came from. I really think people break into my basement. They don't take things - they leave things. That's what my mother used to say about their "other house".

How to Keep Your Feet Warm

It's that time of year . . .

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This is about all I have done today. I have worked on the colored pencil drawing of the dog, and did some painting on the watercolor I started earlier this week at our art group. But nothing is ready to share yet.

I can't tell what color the dog's eyes are in the photograph i am using, so Barrie is going to either try to get another picture of her, or maybe just bring her to town.

Aren't those fun socks?? They are different patterns and colors on purpose. I bought a cute little basket of yarn at "Knit on Pearl" in Jackson several years ago. It came with a lot of wonderful unique patterns. But the thing is, these socks aren't even meant to be worn. They are knit with tapestry yarn that is not washable. So these socks are more or less for decoration, but I have the book of patterns and instructions in case I want to make some more out of sock yarn.

Today I charged up my iPod, and then decided my XM Radio was just going to waste. I have one in my pickup, and listen to it all the time. The one I have here will transmit wirelessly to my stereo. It has been so long since I have used it that I had to go to the XM website to "refresh" it. I am listening to the "Roadhouse" channel right now. I can listen to any kind of music imaginable, CNN, Fox and Headline News. There are several comedian channels, and a "book" channel. I think they are reading "Twilight Zone" right now.

But what is a real favorite with me is the "Radio Classics" channel. I love listening to old "Lone Ranger" radio shows, "Fibber McGee and Mollie" , and "The Shadow".

The XM subscriptions are birthday presents for my kids every year, and I have six of them on my family plan. Tracy and Paul each have one, and Barrie has one in her pickup. I have one in my truck and one in the house.

Thumbing my nose at the TV today!

Friday

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Barrie got Kasey a new parka, a really nice one! Tonight they went out to feed the dogs after dark and Kasey wore a headlamp so she could see to feed Jarvi and Shorty.


Barrie fed the sled dogs while Kasey fed Jarvi and Shorty. Barrie has three headlamps, as when she runs her dogs after dark, she wears one and she puts one on each of her lead dogs.

Hmmm! What is this? Another headlamp from the past! I took this picture of Barrie a long time ago. She was feeding her dogs after dark. She has never liked this picture because she had such a bad cold. But I like it.

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Bummer! The battery in my iPod ran down last night. I have gotten so I turn the TV off almost every night and listen to music while I read. I did just fine reading in the silence, though. Most nights there is nothing on TV worth watching. The new stuff stinks, and I have watched all the old reruns so many times I am sick of them. I have many many DVD's, but it's easier to just turn everything off and read.

I am redoing a watercolor I did last week. I'm painting it much larger this time, and so far I'm happy with it. It's too late to paint any more tonight, so I'll work on it more tomorrow.

Thursday

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Barrie was going through the things she has stored in her little cabin in Shelter Park and brought home dog booties and other various things, and found these boots. She thinks she picked them up at a garage sale a long time ago. Kasey thinks they are wonderful, and loves clomp around in them.

Kasey played hooky today and stayed home with me. Barrie was out giving her dogs a long run. I fed her sausage and blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

Yesterday I had things I needed to do - bank, recycling center, etc. and everything was closed. So today I loaded Kasey up and took her along to be my helper.

She carried a package out of the post office for me, she went to the bank with me, and she carried some tin cans into the recycling center. I asked her if she wanted to go home or to the library, and she chose the library. Boy, was that fun! I hadn't been there for way too long, and Kasey hadn't been in there since she was a baby. I checked out a few books and Kasey picked out two.

Ann, Nancy and Jackie were all there. It was good to see them and visit with them, even if they did chew me out for never coming in. I have vowed that I will go back often.

Tuesday

I finished this painting yesterday. The whole thing is an experiment/accident. I had a color of blue I had never used before, so I used it to paint the sky. Then, while the sky was still wet, I used a rusty brown mixture to put in a horizon line. Well, the sky was TOO wet, and the brown mixture bloomed up into the sky area. I had accidentally made trees. So I added more color and some branches.

I intended to practice painting rocks in the foreground, and they resemble turtles. Oh well. This was kind of fun piece to do - No pressure and not like my usual fussy picky method of painting.

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I went to Ridley's today. Gosh, I've been twice in the last two weeks now!! I had planned to make lasagna, and didn't have any lasagna noodles. I had every other kind though. We were also out of ketchup, When I got home with the groceries, I found a brand new bottle of ketchup in the very back of the bottom shelf in the refrigerator.

Also loaded some things in the back of the truck for the recycling center, and will take it tomorrow.

I stayed up way too late reading last night. I finished the John Grisham novel "Testimonial". I had read it before, but it was so long ago that it all seemed new.

Tracy just finished the first book Jerry Spence wrote and says she is going to send it to me. She liked it - he told about his growing up, his college years, his marriage to Ann, and their kids, and his early law practice. That was about the time I knew him. He divorced Ann and was getting weird - I was going to college in Laramie and needed a mattress for Tracy in the apartment I had rented with another woman and her little girl. Jerry loaned me a mattress. Tracy wet the bed a couple of times. I always thought it would be good for her to tell people that she peed on Jerry Spence's bed.

Monday November 9

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For some reason, I think this painting turned out kind of "blahh". There are some things I like about it, and it may be one that I will do over again one of these soon days while I am still interested in it.

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Barrie told me I could post some of the pictures she took on her camping trip over the weekend up Gyp Creek. She had a great time and got to run her team on some of the trails up there. The dogs have as much fun as she does.

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My big brother asked me if my beer and chips were as good as wine and cheese. Just about! The only thing is, I only drink wine when you're here, Bill. And if I have two glasses, I need to go to bed!

Sunday

A buck and doe were in my front yard this morning. They are both so slick and shiny, I opened my upstairs window to take a few pictures of them. They heard the camera, and looked startled, but couldn't find the source of the noise. It never occured to them to look up!


I had intended to have a painting to share today, but didn't get anything finished yesterday. Maybe today.

Barrie took Kasey down to Tara B. to have her picture taken in her unicorn costume. Tara is such a wonderful photographer. Very talented gal.

Saturday

I'm done with this one of my cat. I didn't say it's finished, I just said I'm done with it. I don't know how her nose got pushed off to one side of her face. And I will never again try to use the liquid friskit for things like whiskers. You just can't get a fine line with the friskit. It works better to just scratch them in with a razor blade after the painting is dry. These whiskers look like like ropes.

I am working on three different paintings today - all of them had been started some time ago. I work on one for a while, then put it aside to dry and work on another one.

But I spent a good part of my morning getting the sticky residue off the lid of a pallette that had a big paper lable glued on. Good old WD40! With duct tape, baling wire and WD40, you can fix anything! But baling wire is hard to come by these days.

I just added 500 words to the writing project, and maybe I'll do another 500 later today. I paid $10 for a little program called "Write or Die". The people at the NaNoWriMo forums have been talking about it. It is a stupid little program, but it works! You set a goal, 500 words in 15 minutes, for example, and start typing. If you hesitate too long, the screen turns red and your words start disappearing. That's alarming, so you start typing again, which is the point of the whole program. I don't know what happens if you just quit or don't make your goal. Maybe your computer will blow up??

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I'm excited for Rollie and Judi getting new computers! Congratulations!

Happy Birthday to Sally!

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"It's mine and you can't touch it!" Growling and hissing like she's possessed!

And then it escaped under the chair.

Now there is a dead mouse somewhere in my house. All the other mice she has caught during the night, had her ghoulish fun torturing them, and left them in the middle of the floor for me. But this one she caught during the day, brought it upstairs (still alive, of course) and I threatened ownership. It escaped under the recliner chair and went up in the chair somewhere. I tipped the chair over and loosened the Velcro for the backing. It took about an hour, but she caught it again. Then she went somewhere. She came back later, looking and acting very sedate. I have looked all over upstairs, and under my bed with a flashlight. Maybe it is downstairs. And maybe she will go get it and bring it back up to me sometime tonight.

Or maybe it will just start to smell bad.

I had my big telephoto lens on the camera after taking pictures of the deer. So I decided to grab a photo of the moon. So often it's hazy enough that I don't get clear pictures, but looks like our air was clean for a change!

Friday

Surely this has to be a set up photo. It was on my Google "funny picture of the day" yesterday. It is so funny, yet sad in a way. Well, I am kind of a pervert, so I think it's really funny!

OK, still no new photographs for today, so I went back and found a couple I have shared before, but think they are worth sharing again. These are for all you snowbirds who miss our mountains and skies! No, don't come home!! Remember, these were taken in the summer.

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Kasey is spending the weekend with her father, and Barrie has gone on a camping trip. She is going somewhere up the Green, with 29 dogs. She left about noon in her pickup with dogs in the boxes, and her big trailer with more dogs and a four wheeler. She took a below-zero sleeping bag, and food. i know she will have a good time.

Me? Hmmmm. I'm sitting here in front of the fire with a beer and some potato chips. I have written more on the stupid novel, and painted a little. And I have a good John Grisham book I started a few nights ago. Life is good!