I think my big treat is going to be a trip to Longwood Gardens to check out the lights and decorations, hopefully one afternoon next week. Maybe a day trip to the museums in DC (since admission to most of them is free) if we’re feeling ambitious. The Mutter Museum in Philly is on my to-do list too.
What about you? Anything exciting going on, or are you just relaxing at home?
Good morning!
We’re planning to drive up to the Berkshires later today, but forecast of icy rain up there may cause re-scheduling – horrible driving conditions 🙁
Young asklet was so looking forward to skiing tomorrow.
We’ll call up a little later to check on conditions.
Departure tomorrow morning @ 6 also being considered, dark and icy roads tonight will be no fun.
I see tomorrow’s forecast up there is sunny, with high of 22 (low of 6) – so a bit on the chilly side.
But as we Norwegians say (at least if you live in Bergen): There is no such thing as bad weather – only bad clothes (it rhymes in Norwegian).
First the electricity went off (clear skies, no wind, who knows why) and woke me up. Then 40 minutes later, it came back on (which may be a record) and woke me up. Then 30 minutes after that the power company’s automated call to tell it was back on woke me up. Then 15 minutes after that the dogs decided they weren’t going back to sleep after all those disturbances and woke me up. And I’m up.
I’m up too. My yoga class is over until January, and I can sleep in on Saturdays, and here I am, awake. Thinking about pulling out my knitting since I have a Christmas present I’m trying to finish.
If it’s something without much of a pattern, I can knit in the dark. 🙂 Which is what I usually do while we’re stuck in traffic when we go to Drinking Liberally down in the city.
Indoor fix-up or outdoor fix-up? I hope it’s warmer there than it is here.
CBtE and I are heading off to the Goodwill with Grammy this morning. We’re going to the enormous one a few towns away that everyone raves about, so it should be fun.
CBtY is headed to a friend’s birthday party. He tried to get me to buy the friend a “mature” rate shoot-em-up video game last night…we settled on a gift card so the friend’s parents could approve the (18 and over only) purchase. Oh, the drama of it all.
What part of “I don’t think those games are appropriate for anyone, whether they’re 13, 39, or 60, and I’m not purchasing one” is so hard to understand?
Is that like when I used to make my mom get me books from the adult section of the public library (I don’t know if they still do this but kids under 13 could only take out “children’s” books).
We haven’t had much of an outage problem since we moved into the village. When we were out next to the state forest, it was a different story, since we were at the end of the power line and one of the last to be restored. Can’t say I miss those times much.
That’s our situation. We’re last one on the Duke line. Past us it’s all REMC. Either one of them could have supplied us and neither one of them wanted to but Duke (well PSI then) had the closest pole so they got the “honor”. That’s why we have them call us — because a couple of times when they restored the power and assumed ours was back too, it wasn’t.
Yuck…you know you’re in trouble when neither power company wants your business.
BTW, yesterday’s Goodwill/multiple thrift store shopping was a rousing success. Just wait till you see my new shoes…
I think it’s going to be a good day here. I have about 6 rows of knitting left on one of my Christmas gifts, which I only started yesterday afternoon, so I’m psyched about that. And the family room full of sleeping teenagers gave me the perfect excuse to sleep in today. PLus, I had a peanut butter hershey’s kiss cookie for breakfast (the kids made them last night).
Jim and I both went to bed at 9:30 and slept for almost 8 hours and Giddy didn’t even ask to come in during the night so miracles all round. And thus, much better, thank you.
Congrats on the shopping success. I’ll have to check that out sometime but I’m not going near anything but online stores till the season is over.
So you going to show off your Xmas knitting in a diary?
Good morning.
Skiing yesterday was great fun. It was stunningly beautiful after the ice storm. Like being in a crystal forest, all shiny in the bright sun. Reflections everywhere. The ice had downed power lines all over and roads were blocked by fallen trees – we were forced to take a detour.
Asklet took this from the car in motion:
This was taken at about the same spot as two of those I posted in the FFF:
Battery is very low, forgot the charger at home. Will check in a bit later.
Lovely photos! Too bad the ice does so much damage. I see the morning paper is predicting the same for us tomorrow. We had our power & phone lines buried after a tree branch brought them all down one chilly January several years ago. Its a very expensive project, though. Have fun up there!
If we get the winds they’re talking about, it might the only thing I have to do this afternoon because we almost always lose power when there are high winds.
But if we survive the winds, it sounds like we’ll have plenty of other opportunities to lose power on Monday and Tuesday.
Hmmmm… no power – no work, but no heat at our place, either. We might have to impose upon my brother, who has LP gas heaters that don’t require electricity to run. At imes like these, I miss our old place with the toasty wood stoves.
Good Morning from a cool and clear Monday. The moon is just starting to drop behind the clouds low on the western horizon, but it’s bright blue overhead.
With any luck, we’ll keep getting mixed weeks of rain and sun. Which is just what the pasture grasses need. And the trees too, of course, but the lack of grass is what stresses the critters most.
The forecast for here looks like we’re in for my favorite meteorological euphemism this week: Wintry Mix. It sounds like some sort of seasonal concoction with peanut butter (that would be for the semi-frozen mud), peppermint (for the wintry blasts from the Great White North), marshmallows (little tiny ones for the smattering of snow we’ll get), all mixed in your favorite flavor of Jell-o for the encasing ice to come. South central Indiana winters are so much fun.
We bred the two females, Nina and Pacha, last year but I’m not sure if either of them is actually pregnant – if they are, crias are due in February. Inti needs his teeth trimmed, and they all could do with a nail trimming. Also I should start thinking about when to schedule the shearer.
Fortunately, the recent rains mean we can start putting them on the pastures more often, instead of feeding them hay, which they don’t really like.
Luna had a bath about two hours ago, and from the looks of it is currently outside rolling, with great glee, in something disgusting.
Luna is scheduled for an ultrasound this coming Friday at 2pm – which I just realized conflicts with something else so I’ll call to see if the vet can move that appointment for me.
When we have them, I’ll post the results here.
Actually, the current theory on dogs-rolling-in-smelly-stuff is that they are not trying to disguise their own scent as much as they are leaving their scent on something smelly enough to draw another dog’s attention. So when Rover seeks out the source of that oh-so-enticing dead possum odor, he finds a Kilroy-was-here message as well. That Kilroy now smells like a dead possum is incidental, unless of course, you are Kilroy’s owner.
Will they give you an ultrasound picture like they do with humans?
I can’t see or hear about dogs rolling around in stinky things without thinking about the scene from The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore when the story is told from the point of view of the 3 year old Lab, Skinner, who is having a barking fit.
Skinner had been banished to the porch that afternoon, after he had taken a roll in a dead seagull and refused to go into the surf or go near a hose to be washed off. To Skinner, dead bird was the smell of romance.
Gabe crawled out of bed and padded to the door in his boxers, scooping up a hiking boot along the way. He was a biologist, held a Ph.D. in animal behavior from Stanford, so it was with great academic credibility that he opened the door and winged the boot at his dog, following it with the behavior-reinforcing command of: “Skinner, shut the fuck up!”
Skinner paused in his barking long enough to duck under the flying LL Bean then, true to his breeding, retrieved it from the washbasin that he used as a water dish and brought it back to the doorway where Gabe stood. Skinner set the soggy boot at the biologist’s feet. Gabe closed the door in Skinner’s face.
Jealous, Skinner thought. No wonder he can’t get any females, smelling like fabric softener and soap. The Food Guy wouldn’t be so cranky if he’d get out and sniff some butts. (Skinner always thought of Gabe as “the Food Guy.”) Then after a quick sniff to confirm that he was, indeed, the Don Juan of all dogs, Skinner resumed his barking fit. Doesn’t he get it, Skinner thought, there’s something dangerous coming. Danger Food Guy! Danger!
It just makes me laugh. So whether it’s Kilroy was Here or Love Potion #9, dogs have a whole different way of looking at things. (And ain’t Google Books grand?)
I doubt they’ll have a printer on the ultrasound machine, but I’ll ask. Besides, puppies are only blobs with heartbeats at this stage.
That’s a great passage. I love that the dog is named “Skinner” (although, if I remember correctly, Skinner boxes were more likely to house cats than dogs). I’ve always wanted to name a dog “Pavlov”, but I’ve never had the right dog for that name.
dogs have a whole different way of looking at things – which in dog speak would probably have to be translated as “a different way of smelling at things” since their perception of the would is mostly mediated by their over-sized schnozes. In fact, they are almost as ridiculously olfactory as we are visual. Perhaps it’s that strong skewing towards one sense that gives us similar temperaments.
Yeah, I have to admit a partiality for “inside jokes” and scientific nods in novels – since its one of the few times being a nerd-it-all actually pays off.
My favorite real-life animal name “nod” was Nim Chimpsky
One of them only has 3 and a half days until vacay starts..,I am so not ready for 3 weeks of him home.
I’m trying to wrap up my work obligations this week so I can relax and enjoy the holidays too. I really hope the project I’m starting today is easier than I’m expecting it to be.
I really just want to play with my knitting and baking and decorating the tree. Why does work have to get in the way?
We have several brightly colored beetles that emerge from underground right around Christmas time. Thus they are collectively known as Christmas beetles.
This one is a female Golden Staghorn beetle. She had fallen in a rain barrel and was loath to let go of the finger that rescued her.
It’s Friday! And I’m on track to have all my work done for the week today!
Which means I’ll be able to spend the weekend on holiday preparations!
How is everyone today?
(ps, the gorgeous fairy wren photo above is courtesy of the lovely keres.)
Thanks for fairy wrenderful new cafe. 🙂
Glad you have a good weekend ahead. When are the CBs out for the holidays?
CBtE is finished at noon on Thursday (the 18th), and CBtY has a half day on the 23rd. When is Jim done?
Your break starts the 22nd, right?
Jim’s done a week from today.
Are you going to do anything special over the holidays?
I think my big treat is going to be a trip to Longwood Gardens to check out the lights and decorations, hopefully one afternoon next week. Maybe a day trip to the museums in DC (since admission to most of them is free) if we’re feeling ambitious. The Mutter Museum in Philly is on my to-do list too.
What about you? Anything exciting going on, or are you just relaxing at home?
This week’s diary is here.
The theme is Tools and Machines.
It’s been raining here for 24 hours and not done yet. What an ugly day.
Good morning!
We’re planning to drive up to the Berkshires later today, but forecast of icy rain up there may cause re-scheduling – horrible driving conditions 🙁
Young asklet was so looking forward to skiing tomorrow.
Hi ask! I would hold off for a couple of hours if you can.
We’ll call up a little later to check on conditions.
Departure tomorrow morning @ 6 also being considered, dark and icy roads tonight will be no fun.
I see tomorrow’s forecast up there is sunny, with high of 22 (low of 6) – so a bit on the chilly side.
But as we Norwegians say (at least if you live in Bergen): There is no such thing as bad weather – only bad clothes (it rhymes in Norwegian).
First the electricity went off (clear skies, no wind, who knows why) and woke me up. Then 40 minutes later, it came back on (which may be a record) and woke me up. Then 30 minutes after that the power company’s automated call to tell it was back on woke me up. Then 15 minutes after that the dogs decided they weren’t going back to sleep after all those disturbances and woke me up. And I’m up.
Yuck. But at least you have power….
I’m up too. My yoga class is over until January, and I can sleep in on Saturdays, and here I am, awake. Thinking about pulling out my knitting since I have a Christmas present I’m trying to finish.
Sorry to be sharing my misery with you.
Can you knit with your eyes closed?
If it’s something without much of a pattern, I can knit in the dark. 🙂 Which is what I usually do while we’re stuck in traffic when we go to Drinking Liberally down in the city.
What are your plans for today, besides napping?
Sadly, probably no napping — we’re going up to my mom’s to do some fix-up work at her place.
And it’s nice that you can knit without seeing — fine activity for those boring long power outages. 🙂
Indoor fix-up or outdoor fix-up? I hope it’s warmer there than it is here.
CBtE and I are heading off to the Goodwill with Grammy this morning. We’re going to the enormous one a few towns away that everyone raves about, so it should be fun.
CBtY is headed to a friend’s birthday party. He tried to get me to buy the friend a “mature” rate shoot-em-up video game last night…we settled on a gift card so the friend’s parents could approve the (18 and over only) purchase. Oh, the drama of it all.
What part of “I don’t think those games are appropriate for anyone, whether they’re 13, 39, or 60, and I’m not purchasing one” is so hard to understand?
Indoor (whew, because it is cold here).
Is that like when I used to make my mom get me books from the adult section of the public library (I don’t know if they still do this but kids under 13 could only take out “children’s” books).
Maybe you can get some naptime later on. In my neck of the woods we seem to have regular brief outages.
We haven’t had much of an outage problem since we moved into the village. When we were out next to the state forest, it was a different story, since we were at the end of the power line and one of the last to be restored. Can’t say I miss those times much.
That’s our situation. We’re last one on the Duke line. Past us it’s all REMC. Either one of them could have supplied us and neither one of them wanted to but Duke (well PSI then) had the closest pole so they got the “honor”. That’s why we have them call us — because a couple of times when they restored the power and assumed ours was back too, it wasn’t.
Yuck…you know you’re in trouble when neither power company wants your business.
BTW, yesterday’s Goodwill/multiple thrift store shopping was a rousing success. Just wait till you see my new shoes…
I think it’s going to be a good day here. I have about 6 rows of knitting left on one of my Christmas gifts, which I only started yesterday afternoon, so I’m psyched about that. And the family room full of sleeping teenagers gave me the perfect excuse to sleep in today. PLus, I had a peanut butter hershey’s kiss cookie for breakfast (the kids made them last night).
Are you more rested this morning?
Jim and I both went to bed at 9:30 and slept for almost 8 hours and Giddy didn’t even ask to come in during the night so miracles all round. And thus, much better, thank you.
Congrats on the shopping success. I’ll have to check that out sometime but I’m not going near anything but online stores till the season is over.
So you going to show off your Xmas knitting in a diary?
Glad you’re feeling more rested and that the power stayed on.
I’ll probably do a Christmas knitting diary later this week.
Good morning.
Skiing yesterday was great fun. It was stunningly beautiful after the ice storm. Like being in a crystal forest, all shiny in the bright sun. Reflections everywhere. The ice had downed power lines all over and roads were blocked by fallen trees – we were forced to take a detour.
Asklet took this from the car in motion:
This was taken at about the same spot as two of those I posted in the FFF:
Battery is very low, forgot the charger at home. Will check in a bit later.
I love the last one.
Have fun. Keep warm. Take more pictures. 🙂
Lovely photos! Too bad the ice does so much damage. I see the morning paper is predicting the same for us tomorrow. We had our power & phone lines buried after a tree branch brought them all down one chilly January several years ago. Its a very expensive project, though. Have fun up there!
Good morning Andi & CabinGirl. It looks like a good day for afternoon naps here.
If we get the winds they’re talking about, it might the only thing I have to do this afternoon because we almost always lose power when there are high winds.
But if we survive the winds, it sounds like we’ll have plenty of other opportunities to lose power on Monday and Tuesday.
Hmmmm… no power – no work, but no heat at our place, either. We might have to impose upon my brother, who has LP gas heaters that don’t require electricity to run. At imes like these, I miss our old place with the toasty wood stoves.
That would be “at times”;-)
Yep, wood stoves are especially nice when the power is out. Plus our wood stove has a cooking surface on it so we can do some simple cooking.
Good Morning from a cool and clear Monday. The moon is just starting to drop behind the clouds low on the western horizon, but it’s bright blue overhead.
With any luck, we’ll keep getting mixed weeks of rain and sun. Which is just what the pasture grasses need. And the trees too, of course, but the lack of grass is what stresses the critters most.
Morning Keres,
The forecast for here looks like we’re in for my favorite meteorological euphemism this week: Wintry Mix. It sounds like some sort of seasonal concoction with peanut butter (that would be for the semi-frozen mud), peppermint (for the wintry blasts from the Great White North), marshmallows (little tiny ones for the smattering of snow we’ll get), all mixed in your favorite flavor of Jell-o for the encasing ice to come. South central Indiana winters are so much fun.
I think they served that at some Lutheran church potluck I attended when young.
Speaking of critters, how are the alpacas doing?
The alpacas are well.
We bred the two females, Nina and Pacha, last year but I’m not sure if either of them is actually pregnant – if they are, crias are due in February. Inti needs his teeth trimmed, and they all could do with a nail trimming. Also I should start thinking about when to schedule the shearer.
Fortunately, the recent rains mean we can start putting them on the pastures more often, instead of feeding them hay, which they don’t really like.
Luna had a bath about two hours ago, and from the looks of it is currently outside rolling, with great glee, in something disgusting.
Speaking of breeding, any news on the Luna tryst? Is she craving pickles & ice cream at midnight yet?
That doggy idea of disguising their smell so you won’t recognize them just cracks me up. I hope for your sake it isn’t something dead.
Luna is scheduled for an ultrasound this coming Friday at 2pm – which I just realized conflicts with something else so I’ll call to see if the vet can move that appointment for me.
When we have them, I’ll post the results here.
Actually, the current theory on dogs-rolling-in-smelly-stuff is that they are not trying to disguise their own scent as much as they are leaving their scent on something smelly enough to draw another dog’s attention. So when Rover seeks out the source of that oh-so-enticing dead possum odor, he finds a Kilroy-was-here message as well. That Kilroy now smells like a dead possum is incidental, unless of course, you are Kilroy’s owner.
Will they give you an ultrasound picture like they do with humans?
I can’t see or hear about dogs rolling around in stinky things without thinking about the scene from The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore when the story is told from the point of view of the 3 year old Lab, Skinner, who is having a barking fit.
It just makes me laugh. So whether it’s Kilroy was Here or Love Potion #9, dogs have a whole different way of looking at things. (And ain’t Google Books grand?)
I doubt they’ll have a printer on the ultrasound machine, but I’ll ask. Besides, puppies are only blobs with heartbeats at this stage.
That’s a great passage. I love that the dog is named “Skinner” (although, if I remember correctly, Skinner boxes were more likely to house cats than dogs). I’ve always wanted to name a dog “Pavlov”, but I’ve never had the right dog for that name.
dogs have a whole different way of looking at things – which in dog speak would probably have to be translated as “a different way of smelling at things” since their perception of the would is mostly mediated by their over-sized schnozes. In fact, they are almost as ridiculously olfactory as we are visual. Perhaps it’s that strong skewing towards one sense that gives us similar temperaments.
And yes, Google books is way cool.
OMG I never put two and two together on the name until you said that.
I love novels that have layers of meanings.
Skinner is a great character. iirc he saves the day at the end – as any great dog character will.
Yeah, I have to admit a partiality for “inside jokes” and scientific nods in novels – since its one of the few times being a nerd-it-all actually pays off.
My favorite real-life animal name “nod” was Nim Chimpsky
another day of dogs wanting in and out. Yawn.
click for larger
Enjoy your day. We’ve already enjoyed ours and are readying for bed.
Night and pleasant dreams of pastures of green grass (or maybe dream of alpacas dreaming that).
Ooh, pretty.
How could the weekend be over already?
I’ll bet the CBs are wondering how it could go slow and why it isn’t vacation already.
One of them only has 3 and a half days until vacay starts..,I am so not ready for 3 weeks of him home.
I’m trying to wrap up my work obligations this week so I can relax and enjoy the holidays too. I really hope the project I’m starting today is easier than I’m expecting it to be.
I really just want to play with my knitting and baking and decorating the tree. Why does work have to get in the way?
Because you can’t get yarn for free. 😉
And speaking of yarn, how about that knitting diary?
Ditto to Andi’s comment. Post some knitting for us.
Oh, the pressure. I guess I can take pictures of my in-process lumps of yarn. 🙂
Please do.
We have several brightly colored beetles that emerge from underground right around Christmas time. Thus they are collectively known as Christmas beetles.
This one is a female Golden Staghorn beetle. She had fallen in a rain barrel and was loath to let go of the finger that rescued her.
So pretty it makes me want to burst into a round of Oh Tannenbaum.
It makes me want to decorate a new cafe with it.
sounds like a plan.