Proof That Snow Can Be Fun...

for dogs! I love this video. My dogs act the same way up north. We'll be up north in the U.P this Thursday until January 2nd. We didn't get much snow here in IL. but we have it up north.

Enjoy!

The Latest Happenings

I was out of town the last few days for a private jewelry show. I had a great time and sold lots of things. I also ended up with several new orders. It was great to spend time with my niece, nephew and the rest of my family.

Unfortunately I drove home and ended up going straight to the hospital with my husband to check in on his 97 year old Uncle. This man is basically my husband's Father. My husband's Dad passed away when my husband was 11 years old and Uncle Joe (his Dad's brother) took up where hubby's Dad left off. He's a great guy. However, he's now seriously ill.

One month ago he had stents put in 2 arteries and it was then that the Doctors discovered he had colon cancer (on top of this he has atrial stenosis and the biopsy results show the cancer has metastasized to the lymph nodes near the section removed). 10 days ago he had surgery to remove the cancer and he did not do well. He had to return to surgery straight from the recovery room to stem some bleeding. That required the removal of his spleen. Ever since he's been retaining far too much fluid and he's not very coherent. His condition changed greatly from last Friday to Saturday. The Pulmonologist told me he's basically just maintaining his oxygenation status which is so-so. Since then he's failed a test of his ability to swallow and his breathing is shallow, somewhat rapid with periods of apnea and crackly(a result of fluid overload). The hospital cultured the sputum and he has developed Staphylococcus aureus. They have him on vancomycin hoping that he doesn't develop MRSA. Needless to say, it doesn't bode well for Joe.

We spent an hour with him and he's very weak, very bloated and barely recognized us. So now we are on "Joe watch". We doubt he'll survive this and even if he did he'll never be the same. It's a very sad time for us. So every day it's back to the hospital to check with the Doctors and spend some time with Joe. Very soon my husband may have to make a final decision.

Until something happens one way or the other I probably won't be blogging. Our time will be spent keeping vigil. We love him dearly and wish him peace

UPDATE:

The decision has been made. Oxygen has been removed and morphine drip is making him comfortable. It's simply a matter of minutes. Thankfully he is at peace. We will miss him. He had a wonderful life and many family members that cared for him deeply. It's now time to mourn and get the funeral process going. I'll be gone for a time. We wish him a speedy journey to a better place.

A Song for Sarah Palin

That woman is everywhere..in my newspaper, on my teevee, on my internets. She's inescapable and I'm drowning in her image. LOL So anyway, I was trying to find a song that would fit Sarah Palin. Searching youtube, searching my CD's, searching. And then it came to me like a blinding Northern light--flash!

Living Colour - Cult Of Personality Lyrics @ LyricsTime.com

Check out those lyrics. Perfect. That's what I see, a cult of personality. Now, to be sure, the Palinistas will say the same about President Obama but it's only in their minds they think he's been ordained by God. Sarah actually has said God's opening doors for her. Ew, Ew, Ew.

Here's a sample:

I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your t.v.

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You gave me power in your god’s name (btw at lyrics they left out the word "gave")
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the cult of personality

Now if that doesn't peg Palin perfectly!

Here's the video:




Heh, I love Living Colour. They're still playing and you can check their website here. Wonder how many remember them? Enjoy

Thanksgiving

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. I'm busy making pies, stuffing, cranberry sauce...all the homemade goodies. Crazy since there's only 3 of us! OK OK, I'll include the dogs (2) and cats (3). If you get time off for this holiday enjoy the time with ones you love. Find something to be thankful for even if life is throwing you lemons at the moment.


And now for some Thanksgiving humor:

How pumpkin pies are really made!





Make sure you know where that turkey is lurking:



I lo-o-o-o-ve pumpkin pie. Enjoy yours!

Going Victim

I am a victim, always have been, will continue to be so and will tell you all about it in a little over 400 pages, you betcha. Buy my book, also, too.

-Sarah Palin

Chickenhawk Roasted

Yesterday, while playing around on the new laptop, I had the pleasure of witnessing a chickenhawk get roasted. Markos Moulitsas put Tom Tancredo on a spit and roasted him. It was well deserved.




Being a Viet Nam era veteran myself I can't stand people like Tancredo. It's time for all these war cheerleaders that have never served and yet presume to speak for all us veterans to be taken to task.

Tom Tancredo got his ticket punched for the draft after graduating from college in 1969 yet found a way to not end up in Vietnam. During his college years, as a member of his college's Young Republicans he was outspoken in his support for that military disaster. Instead of standing behind his words he found a way to keep his rear end from facing the horrors of 'Nam by garnering a 1Y deferment. All of his records state that he "eventually" received that classification. Eventually, huh? Just that word smacks of suspicion to anyone from that era. Prior to that he would have received a student deferment which was fine as many received that classification. But afterwards he went looking for a way out. A 1Y deferment meant he was available for service only in the event of national emergency. Tancredo received this deferment by stating he had been treated for depression. The interesting thing is that there appears to be no record of subsequent treatment for that ailment after he received said deferment. He still continued to cheerlead FOR that war.

I think it was an ailment of convenience. During 1969 deferments were getting more difficult to come by. I personally know of 3 people that tried the depression route. 2 even went so far as to spend 6 weeks in a psych ward to accomplish their goal...it didn't work. However, some men with the right connections did succeed in getting a Doctor to write them a letter to the draft board that ended up disqualifying them from service. Some other men just flat out lied. Some, like my ex-husband, pulled incredible stunts to garner either a 1Y or a 4f classification. And for some their lottery number was high enough that they were never called up. Some, like George W. Bush, had the right connections and received a stateside National Guard or Reserve assignment. Believe me, to many in that day a reserve/guard assignment was tantamount to being a draft dodger because many of us knew what kind of people received these posts. There were also others that were so desperate to go fight in "Nam that they lied to get IN the service. I knew a guy that should have never been around any weapon and was an unstable person yet he pulled a fast one and off to 'Nam he went to go kill. All kinds of shenanigans were pulled during that time. Since Tom was such an avid supporter he could have found a way to go serve.

Regardless, chickenhawks like Tancredo can never speak for all veterans. I know many vets and while there are some that bitch and complain about the VA, they're still mostly grateful that it exists. Yes, it could be run more efficiently and be better funded but I have yet to hear anyone demand a voucher to go purchase private insurance to take care of their service connected maladies. I could just see it; get a voucher and be denied for a pre-existing condition. Either that or the voucher would never cover what would be extremely high premiums. Most of the complaints seem to revolve around the time it takes to get an appointment and then the driving distance to get to a VA facility. If the VA were better funded and better run appointment time could be drastically reduced. In the past Republicans have voted against better VA funding so I find it rather hypocritical when they pull the "I support the troops" nonsense.

I also think it's time all the chickenhawks that gleefully cheer war get called out. People that cheerlead a conflict, never put their own life on the line, but are too damn eager to send someone else to go need to be exposed. These people are not ultra patriots and have no business telling those of us that have served that we are traitors simply because we are on the other side politically. That's what I heard them doing every time a Republican was President. They also have no business acting as though they know what we vets need when it comes to the VA. How the hell would they know, they've never been a service member. I call bullshit on them and their words. I call bullshit on people such as Michelle Malkin, Tom Tancredo, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mike Savage, Dick Cheney and whole host of other right wing neocons. If you collect deferments because you have better things to do (like Cheney) or never even volunteer to serve you have no right to speak for me and no right to cheer lead conflicts you never want to find yourself or your children in...ever!

Outrageous Hyperbole

As many of us have seen the so-called tea baggers resort to some fairly low and disgusting tactics to spread their poisonous views. However, a sign seen at today's rally in Washington D.C., organized by Michele Bachmann (lunatic-MN), has crossed a line.


Look closer:



These photos were taken by Think Progress's Lee Fang at the rally today.

I barely had words to express my disgust when I first saw these photos. How dare they use such a horrific world event to express their thoughts about health care reform.

We are not moving to socialistic health care and what happened in Dachau had nothing to do with socialism. It was murder, plain and simple, of people Hitler blamed for his own inadequacies.

This kind of hyperbole has no place in any health care debate. But this is what we get to see as a result of some of the ugly language employed by people such as Bachmann. Virginia Foxx and Eric Cantor also attended this event and when Cantor was asked on MSNBC for a comment about some of the ugly signs he never said a negative word. How any Jew can condone this is beyond me. How any HUMAN can think this is OK stuns me.

What I also noticed about this crowd today was how white it was along with being ill educated. They have to be ill educated to so cavalierly use photo in this manner. Now tell me once again how these people are not bigots. These people feed on hate and ugliness. How sad they are a partial representative of America.

This is also not the kind of garbage Americans should engage in ever. If they want to argue policy fine. But I'm sick and tired of the language being employed. The references to Hitler, socialism, fascism, communism, etc. None of those monikers apply. In fact, I would bet most of the people attending this hate fest have no clue as to the definitions of any of those words. But not so for the elected representatives that organized and attended this event. No, Bachmann, Cantor and Foxx don't get off that easily. They know exactly how to use this kind of language to fire up these clueless people.

It is time for this kind of rhetoric to stop. I called Bachmann's office and the woman that answered basically lied to me telling me Bachmann only engages in facts! I told her about the sign and she didn't care stating Bachmann's not responsible. BUll! I will be sending this photo to quite a few Synagogues with a request for a response. I will also call my state representatives. Alan Grayson was skewered for using the word holocaust in one of his speeches a few weeks ago and he apologized publicly. It's time for Michele Bachmann to be held accountable and apologize. Not just to all those that lost family in Dahcau but to all Americans with a sense of decency.

Finally

I finally bought a new laptop! Yay for me! The other computer is now doing fine too. So what did I buy? Not an Apple. Heh

I stuck with Windows and purchased an HP dv-7-2273cl Entertainment Notebook. Yes, I've heard all the horror stories about HP but I had my reasons (one being it's 17.3 in. and I needed a larger screen and another was that it was $400 cheaper at Costco and HP now offers a 2 yr. warranty instead of 1). The laptop that just died was also an HP but it was an HP Compaq running an AMD processor. Now AMD has a tendency to run hotter than Intel so I think that may have contributed to the frying. I had built a desktop a couple years ago using an AMD processor and I did run into heat problems.

I also bought an HP because I have a HP xb4 docking station that I absolutely love and wanted to continue using. I love the thing because it makes using my laptop damn near like using my desktop. It has reasonable Altec Lansing speakers, 6 USB ports, a wireless keyboard and mouse and all kinds of other connections that would be available on a desktop. It also has a slot for an extra drive to use for backup. Anyway, I love it.

I did purchase some other things to go along with my new laptop. I bought a 500 gb pocket drive for my docking station to backup all my goodies and a marvelous Zalman 2000 laptop cooling fan.

The Zalman cooling fan rocks. It's all aluminum, does a great job of keeping the laptop cooler, has 2 fans that are so quiet you have to check to see if they're running even on it's highest speed, 2 USB ports (it runs via USB) and is built for my larger 17.3 laptop. It also has an anti-slip strip to keep your laptop from sliding away. Zalman makes great fans. While it was more expensive ($62), it's worth it. Definitely a superior product.

So now I'm set for a bit. All I'm doing now is learning WIN 7. I never upgraded to Vista so it's a nice change from my XP Pro that I run on my desktop. I love the split screen ability and so far I've had no problems. Next purchase will be a new desktop

Computers Hate Me

I swear there is a huge bad computer cloud over my head! As though it wasn't enough that my laptop died but shortly after my last post my desktop decided to lose it's mind. It's being repaired and I'm using a friend's computer to post this.

I'm not ready to fork over the coins to buy a new desktop yet but I will be going out today to look at new laptops. I waited until WIN 7 came out because there's no way I want anything loaded with Vista. I've read enough about Microsoft vs. Apple and I'm going to stick with Windows for now. I refuse to pay the outrageous price Apple wants for their laptops. Meh, to each his own.

Anyway, I did say I wouldn't spend so much time on line but geez, I didn't expect my computers to make that choice for me! Will be back as soon as I get a new computer.

Dead Computer

Yea, dead as in toasted mother board. That's what happened up north in July. At the time the options were bleak. It was simply too far to drive to even have the thing checked out and a motherboard repair of a 2 year old laptop was just not worth the money. Plus there was no place to purchase a new one for a reasonable price. Instead I decided to live without a computer until I came back to IL. I arrived in IL yesterday.

At first I thought "OMG, how will I survive without a 'puter??!! I will surely die without instant, nanosecond info! No blogs, no email, no up-to-the-minute news!! No arguing with silly Republicans! Arghhhhhh!!!" Well, obviously, I lived. And, frankly, it wasn't so bad after all. I did learn to use my phone for email because I didn't want to come back to 500 emails wasting space. But the rest of it? Blogs, news, weather, etc.? After a few days it didn't matter. I found other ways to spend my time and was pleasantly surprised. I discovered that I had actually been missing some things.

I wondered if people truly realized the amount of time they spend on line. I would bet not. Even though I never did spend my entire day on line I found that I could do other things. Other things such as go outside and wander around in the woods with my dogs, swim, walk, read or just plain sit quietly and relax. It was an enlightening experience...turning OFF the internet noise. More people ought to try it more often.

So, I will be purchasing a new laptop but I'm not going to return to the number of hours I used to spend on line. Not even on the desktop. No way, no how. Heh!

Sunday Morning on the Lake

Beautiful day here so far. Here's some photos of what's going on on the lake today.


The Loon family:


Feeding the baby.


Following the parent.


Other parent swimming quickly to join the with the other two.

And now the dog version of loon! LOL


Tanner waiting for the return of hubby and Dad from fishing.


What a sweet Tanner face!

Another Day in the Woods

Things are going well here. We had a short killer thunderstorm last evening that gave us much needed rain. However, it also had a few wild wind gusts. Those gusts bent our flag pole in half and brought down a huge tree across our road. It was wild!

Our puppy is growing like a weed. She now weighs 5 lbs 8 oz! However, she had an accident and we had to take her to the Vet. She has a green stick fracture of her left front leg! Thankfully, if one is going to break a leg that's the best one to have. Poor little thing. But she's on anti-inflammatory meds and it's a stable fracture; no cast required as that would stop her growth of her bones. She'll be fine with some rest. She's in no pain thankfully. I swear, puppies can sure get into trouble fast!

We have discovered that she's going to be easily trained. Already she sits on command and no longer pees in her crate. She also sleeps nearly the whole night through. Silly little thing, Taffy wants to see the bigger dog, Tanner, but he still runs away from her. The 2 tuxedo cats sniff her and let her touch them but the other black cat flees the scene when she looks at him!. She also sleeps in some funny positions.



Taffy waiting by her bowl.


Taffy passed out on the couch! LOL

Our black cat Shadow is finally getting over the loss of his partner, Sammy. He hangs out mostly with Symba. Especially at bedtime.


Shadow's new sleeping partner.

Of course, like all our animals, Shadow is in denial about being neutered! So he jumps Bacchus on the window for cat sex with a lake view! LMAO!!


How rude!!! LOL

Then, like all men, Bacchus passes out afterwards! Sheesh.


How twisted. Heh.

So that's what's going on up here. Now, off to help with chopping up that tree that fell.

Sarah Palin: Exercise in Failure

Well, I've been watching and reading for four days now the laughable final political saga of Sarah Palin and I have to say: typical. This narcissistic woman has proved to the nation and world that she is nothing politically; an empty shell. While her quitting her term in the middle of her governorship surprised many it was her style. She did the same thing when she was on the oil and gas board in Alaska. So when the going gets tough, she whines and quits. All done for attention. She doesn't like anyone to tell her or ask her to do things according to the way things should be done. Her elevation to Governor was little more than a political fluke accomplished by Alaskans that were tired of their previous Governor and thought, wrongly I might add, that Sarah would be better. Boy, were they wrong and fooled. Fooled by a woman that talked tough but had no substance.

Her rambling typical Sarah-speak incoherent I'm quitting speech was a sight to behold. Of course she whined and blamed everyone else for her ineffective governing. She blamed the media, bloggers and anyone else that disagreed with her. I remember Sarah having the temerity to lecture Hillary Clinton about complaining when Hillary was running for President.




Seems Sarah should have taken her own advice! She complained about remarks about her family. The family that she put in the national spotlight. I'll tell you that woman hasn't put up with 1 tenth of what Hillary Clinton has over the years. Hillary is light years ahead of Sarah in knowledge and class.

The thought that John Mccain portrayed such terrible judgment in choosing this woman as his running mate speaks volumes. I can't imagine her as VP or, heaven forbid, President. Imagine if some world leader insulted her or said something she didn't like. What would she have done in response? Started a war or just whined and quit?

During her campaign she brought out the absolute worst in people that attended her events. The racists, the ugly and the ill-informed and hateful. Real America my ass. Real nasty America. That turned off many that possibly would have voted for McCain. One of those people was my Republican-forever-voting Father. She did sink his campaign whether she likes that or not and whether McCain's handlers ever admit that or not.

Now she can go on her merry way and make oodles of money giving nasty speeches and writing ( seriously, does anyone actually presume that this woman will truly write her own book) her foolish book. Now she'll have no handlers or advisers. Now she'll be able to say any stupid thing that jumps around in her flighty brain. This could get interesting and more laughable.

She and her lawyer, Van Flein, are threatening to sue bloggers. OMG. Does this woman not understand the meaning of free speech and that she is a public figure? Obviously not but any letter from her lawyer to cease and desist is nothing more than intimidation. Good luck trying to sue anyone, Sarah. IMO, she's nothing more than an empty suit and painted clogs...a crappy politician and a vindictive wench. Now come get me, Sarah. Pffffft!

She can also stop saying she's doing this for the country! LMAO Please, woman, go away. You've done nothing for this country except show yourself to be an ignorant jackass. And she's certainly not making any headway for women like she thinks. Good grief, I've put up with more nonsense in my jobs than she ever will...probably because I'm older than she is and have seen women actually make advances in spite of harassment at times. She has shown that, like some men, there are still some truly ignorant women out there that assume reasonable good looks can carry the day even if one is completely lacking in knowledge.

Thankfully, she ended her own national political career. She did prove to be an exercise in complete failure. Now,if she'd just end the whining!

A Beautiful Night

Up here the nights can be so beautiful. There are nights when the sky is clear of clouds and a billion stars come out. I could watch them forever---if it weren't for getting eaten alive by mosquitoes (skeeters)!

Then there are the nights when the creatures of the lake are heading home. Or just hanging out talking to each other.


A loon waits for it's family.


Mama duck takes her family to their night resting spot.

But the really awesome nights are the ones when the moon is full; like it was last night.


Looking leftward across the lake.


Just above the forest trees.


My favorite of last night...could almost see faces on the moon!

The New Puppy

Well, Taffy is doing quite well. She's adjusted to the house with amazing speed. Plus we nearly have her housebroken. When she yips we take her out and tell her to go and she does! Yeah! That makes training her very easy.

She eats like a little piglet which is good. For only being 3 lbs. 7 oz. she sure has an appetite.

She also gets crazy and bites everything in front of her. Tom calls her "gator girl"! LOL But we have lots of chew bones and give her that and then she stops biting us.

At night she plays around on the bed for a couple minutes and then we put her in her crate. We keep her crate right next to our bed. She usually sleeps for 2-3 hours and then yips. That means get up and take me out I have to pee! So we do and then she goes back in her crate and right to sleep. Last night she only woke us up once! I swear, it's like having a human baby but we don't mind. She's such a cutie!

Here's some new photos of her:


Sleeping with her toys.



Bacchus just had to whack her on the head just because! LOL



All stretched out. She's going to have some long legs!

First Crop

Yeah! Today I pulled my first batch of radishes. I love them and they grow so well and so darn fast up here. This year I put up 4 square foot boxes. I'll have to take a photo of the 4th one since it's in a different location because of the vegetables growing in it.

So, here's the first three gardens:






Now for the goodies. These are called Easter Egg radishes. They are so colorful; from white to pink to purple to red! Fun and tasty!



Next are the Giant Crimson laying on the right. The Easter eggs ones are in the basket.



And here's the combination of both all cleaned up and in the basket ready for the fridge. All the clippings go right into a composter that sits to the left and behind the first garden. I love that thing because it spins! Oh, the radishes tasted wonderful! Since they grow so quickly, I fluffed up the spoil, added some more soil and planted more radishes. Those will be ready in 25 - 30 days.



YUMMY!!!

A New Critter

Yes, we're adding a new critter to our menagerie. After the deaths of 2 of my beloved pets we decided we needed a new dog. Tanner has been sort of lost without Cinny so we're getting a new puppy. I'm sure Tanner will roll the puppy around with his nose and bark at her for a bit but that's pretty normal.

Anyway, I located some puppies up here, went and looked at them and chose one. A female that's 1/4 Lab, 1/4 Springer Spaniel and 1/2 Standard Poodle! I'm sure breeders of these individual dogs would have a fit but the hell with them. Sometimes their arrogance ticks me off. The whining of watering down the breeds, calling these dogs designer dogs, slamming the folks that breed these dogs, calling them names and all that noise. We'll they can take their AKC garbage and stuff it since the AKC will hand out papers to puppy mills simply because the dog is a purebred. I know that from experience because when I rescued Cinny from a pet store, we discovered through research that she came from a puppy mill in Iowa. Well, the AKC had no problem issuing papers for her and I can tell you that Cinny had a host of problems, but, oh, she was a pure bred so, of course, she had AKC papers. Pfffft! Now that's something to complain about but I never hear them raising a huge stink in that regard and as far as I'm concerned the breeders have done little to get the AKC to eliminate that practice. Our puppy is no designer dog and we didn't pay a zillion bucks for her either.

I know the folks that have the puppies and the puppies are so cute and healthy and friendly. Our new baby will be about 50 lbs max and a bit taller than her mom. When I picked her out she was only 5 weeks old. We pick her up July 2nd and then it's right off to the Vet for exam and puppy shots. She'll get spayed when we return home to Illinois in the fall.

So here's a photo of her Mom...she was so friendly.



And here's photo of Champagne at 5 weeks.



She will be a great addition to our household and be well cared for and loved. We're very excited about receiving her!

Now Back On Satellite Broadband

WOOOHOOO!. Finally, Wild Blue showed up Saturday and hooked me up. It's awesome. Darn near as great as cable broadband at home. The tech was fantastic and it took about 3 1/2 hours to do it. I'm so glad to be able to actually watch a page load in less than 3 days! HAHAHAHA.

Yesterday was my birthday, yeah, I'm now 56---yikes! LOL So we took the boat out for a spin. Well, wouldn't you know something bizarre would happen. We had to swerve toward shore to avoid an insane boater driving erratically and hit a freakin' rock. Well, that nailed our propeller. It now looks like it has fringe made of aluminum. It still functions but geezez, if you try and use higher speeds it's unbalanced so now we have to order a new one. I can still use the boat at slow speeds but if I want to go out fishing I'm just going to use the trolling motor instead. I swear, people should NOT DRINK AND BOAT.

There's this one house here that's really a corporate retreat for a big manufacturing owner and he brings these "clients" up to entertain and far too many are just idiots and get drunk and take out his boats. I was out fishing and I heard the drunks laughing and saw the boat coming out and could hear the motor cavitating. That means they were too stupid drunk to put the motor down into the water completely. That also means you have little control for steering. The housekeeper man had to jump in a little boat and go after them to fix the situation. Morons! Someday they will kill somebody or themselves. No excuse for that kind of behavior. Otherwise everyone else up here is really great.

Oh, here's where we buried Cinny. We call it animal boot hill...all our critters will be there either as ashes from cremation or buried.

Tragedy and Peace

Another pet tragedy for me. That makes 2 in less than 2 weeks. Yesterday our 12 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Cinnamon had to be euthanized. She had a tumor that basically she bit into and it bled like crazy. We knew she had limited time.

I had gone to the garage and when I came back into the house it looked like someone had been murdered. Blood was everywhere---the walls, the floor, the doors. Needless to say I was shocked. I knew what had happened and I went to work cleaning. It was horrible. I was so freaked out because I was alone and the Vet is 45 minutes away. I called my husband in Chicago and at 8:30 at night on Monday he jumped in the car and drove 7 hours up here to assist.

Tuesday morning we drove to the Vet and Cinny is now at peace. We buried her on a hill here on our property. She was a wonderful dog; my fishing partner and protector. We miss her so much and so does our other dog, Tanner. But hubby and I take comfort in that she is at rest, at peace. Now she's across the rainbow bridge with Sammy and all our other creatures.

Here's her last photo:



No more pet tragedies for me this summer. The rest should be a peaceful summer.



BTW, Wild Blue FAILED to show up on Sat. so I'm still on dial up..arghhhhhh. Now they are supposed to show up this Sat.---they better.

The Beauty of the North Woods

I just had to post these photos. It's so beautiful up here in the North Woods. We have all kinds of creatures. Some that swim, some that cruise the land and some that fly.

This photo is of a small island across from my home--it's part of my daily view. It's approximately 1/2 mile out in the lake. Up in that tall tree is a nest for Bald Eagles. Every year they come and create a new family.



Here's one of the adult pair taking off from the nest to look for food.



Here's the same bird in flight looking down at the lake in case a fish makes a fatal mistake and becomes dinner!



Sometimes they fly so low over my head I swear I could reach out and touch them. Ah, but those talons wouldn't be too much fun to feel. But they are so beautiful! Enjoy!


P.S. Tomorrow afternoon Wild Blue will come to hook up my satellite broadband. That will certainly be better than this crummy dial up!

Phone test

Ok I'm testing this text to blog stuff. This what happens when one gets a new phone toy. LOL Yeah, it works. Geezez, I'm like a 12 yr old with this new phone.

Quick Post: Aggravation

Yes, here I am in the woods and aggravation is the word for the day.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and it was beautiful here and we got right to work. The whole weekend was beautiful...until. Until I turned on our tv and discovered that someone at Dish Network screwed up our account and did not connect all the channels we pay for! So I called them. What a royal pain that turned out to be. You see, I'm having Wild Blue satellite broadband connected up here because this dial up that I'm using right now SUCKS! 26.4k SUCKS! lol Anyway because we are getting wild blue through Dish they told me I could only get the tv mess fixed if I canceled the wild blue date for connection! WTF!!!?? I said you've got to be kidding. They weren't. So, in order to get tv we canceled. Dish network's jackassery policy and inability to have an open work order and fix a problem THEY created ticked me off royally. So I yelled and told them that was insane but that they'd better fix the tv situation. Well, they fixed it. I have all the tv we pay for and got HBO and Showtime and TMC for free for 3 months and Cinemax for 1 cent per month for 12 months. Heh. Then they connected me to the Wild Blue rep and now I have to wait until Saturday for them to come out and connect my broadband. Grrrr, but worked out in the end.

Next bit of insanity was that I ordered a new washer and dryer for the house here---just like the set I recently purchased for the IL. home and it got delivered today. Of course we discovered a problem when I tried to do one last load of wash with the old set---The sump pump died! Arghhhhh. So that led to a mad dash--a 45 minute one-way dash-- on a holiday weekend to the nearest town to get the parts we needed. Geezez. Ok, new sump installed and working. So today when they delivered the new machines we discover the door to the dryer is F'd up. Geezez! Anyway, we got it to function but now there is a service order in for a new door on a brand new machine! Can we say AGGRAVATION!!?? LMAO

The third bit of just shoot me nonsense was the boat battery. Brand new battery...the second one mind you...dead as a door nail and with a bad cell and won't charge. So now we have to buy a new battery. We got the shore station in the water but have to wait until next week to launch the boat. AGGRAVATION! LMFAO

Other than all that insanity all is well. I already caught 2 bass off the dock but tossed them back because they were just under 15 inches. I got all my plants and seeds in the square foot gardens and all looks good. Today it's raining a bit but that's ok because I need a day of rest from all the AGGRAVATION!

I'll post again after I get the broadband connected since it was a real pain to even post this at 26.4k.

Take care all.

Preparing For...

Sad news and our trip to the woods.

This coming Wednesday will be the last day we have with our 16 year old awesome cat, Samuel.



This photo is Sammy when he was healthy. He's now simply skin and bones. It's a metabolic problem brought on by a malfunctioning thyroid gland. He's been on meds for nearly a year but they have stopped working. He's pretty much refusing to eat anymore. So my hubby and I made the agonizing decision to euthanize him on Wednesday. It will be a horrible evening but we wish him safe journey to cat land to rejoin his friends Chiba and Terra and Champagne.

I found him on my patio in California when he was 3 months old and he's been with me through all kinds of life changes ever since. He traveled 2200 miles with me to Illinois to a new life with hubby. He's been a treasure. Friendly, does tricks and loving pet. I will miss him terribly. 16 years of love is what he received return.

Our next agonizing decision comes in August when we must do the same for our blind and dying 12 year old Chesapeake Bay Receiver Cinnamon.

Animals bring such joy into our lives and leave us with much sorrow for a time but wonderful memories.

Since all this is happening in the next couple days I will not be posting until next week when I'm in Michigan. I'm getting satellite broadband! Wooohooo! Take care all and I'll post after I get Wild Blue connected.

Now, I must finish packing some things and spend time with Sammy.

Just Because It's A Beautiful Day

Yes, it's lovely here today. A light breeze, loads of sun and all the bees fighting over the lilacs.

And one comes in judging the flowers for a perfect landing:



Yep, successful landing:



Symba no want! He stays inside when the bees are out! Smart boy:




More:





Peek-a-boo through the fence

Saddam Loyalists/Taliban Interview Comedy

Oh man, this is hilarious!



Comedy. It makes my day!

Welcome the Goposaurs

The name is so fitting: GOPosaurs. Out of touch, out of ideas and out of power.

The new GOP mascot:




And now for something humorous. Jed Lewison does a great job in this video. I give you:

Goposauric Park



Too funny and sadly too true!

When You Have Nothing Left...

You use fear. Seriously, that's all the Republicans have and once again we see them prostituting the horror 9-11. Do they really believe that if we move these GITMO detainees to a supermax prison we will somehow become less safe? Come on, how many times has Cuba been attacked since they've been residing there? What do they think will happen? An escape? How many of our now resident criminals, that have committed heinous acts, have escaped? Why aren't the Republicans demanding we fear them being imprisoned on U.S. soil?

So what do they produce to attempt to keep us all in fear mode? Well, check out their latest "OMG, we'll all die if GITMO really closes" video. Complete with requisite scary music.



Please, Republicans, find a message that resonates with more than the loony 21%. A 2 party system is healthy for this nation but these people aren't even 1/4 of a party anymore. Partly because they continue to produce crap such as this garbage.

Another Beautiful Day

Today is going to be a great day to be outside. The sun is shining and the blue sky is incredible. I have another Cardinal visitor. This guy was arguing with the other male over the female. The female flew away leaving the 2 males to hash it out. This guy in the photo got chased to the top of this tree in my yard. I love watching them.



Most of our animals are thrilled that they can go outside now. I only let my oldest cat out because he never goes anywhere outside the yard. He actually lounges half in and half out of one of our dog houses. The second oldest, named Shadow, is an escape artist. If the door is opened a crack---ZOOM out he goes! He's such a scaredy cat though. He doesn't stay out long. So besides having cat towers near a couple of windows I bought them a platform to attach to the window in my office so they can argue over who gets to lay on it. So far this morning Shadow won. (It's only up temporarily for now as I just got it yesterday)



I have to mow the grass but I hate that. I wish I could just let the natural flora and fauna grow but the village has other ideas. Silly since Illinois is a prairie after all. I mow and lose my pretty yard weeds. This year the violets are not just purple but also white.



Oh well, I'll be in the woods soon. Enjoy the day.

Morning Cards

Yes, cards as in cardinals! It's a beautiful, sunny day this morning. I've got a breeding pair of cardinals that love to sit in my trees and sing. So I decided to try and get a couple photos.

The male is a total ham



Yes, he wants you to see his "good" side too!



The female is much more skittish so this is the side she shows you.



LOL. Well, how dare her not turn around! The whole time I was out there she refused to turn around. That's ok, I'll capture her front side one of these days. Beautiful birds though. I love seeing them and their incredible red hue against the sky and trees.