Sparkley Christmas Things

My glittery new Christmas ornaments. Even made out of genuine glass....not plastic!

I love a sale.

Gotta love a sale. The last thing I need this year is more Christmas things, the reason being that I decided to change my ornament colour to silver & blue this past Christmas (last month, I mean) so I bought all sorts of new ornamants, all blue and silver, lots of sparkle and glitter in December. I didn't have a colour theme prior to this, just a mish-mash of years and years of accumulated ornaments. Some from my childhood, some from my boys childhood and even some from my Mother's childhood. You know how it is.


So I gently, and rather sadly, packed away the ornaments from years gone by and almost reluctantly decorated with the new ones, I was very pleased with the results although I almost wondered if I would have rather had blue and gold.


Well, today I was in The Great Canadian Superstore and got myself tangled up in the Christmas "blow-out" aisle and what to my wondering eyes should appear? But a sale so wonderous that I shed a tear. Cards that were regular $6.99 were on sale for .54! Rolls of wrapping paper (30 sq feet!) on sale for .14! Containers of gold sparkley (some "unbreakable", but some were real glass)ornamants, regular $9.99, $8.99 and $7.99 on for only .74! And lovely plush Santa Hats (Steven always wanted a Santa Hat, I don't know why, but he does.) for only .34! I bought $74.00 worth of wonderful things for the grand total of $7.33. What a day!

We are in the midst of planning our trip to Cuba, but there are too many places too choose from, so my TA said that she'd do some research for me, and quiz her other customers who have recently returned.

Isn't that the height of laziness for me? Too lazy to plan a trip? But I think it's from the exhaustion of this cold that I can't seem to shake. I have had it since a week before Christmas, and it's so close to being gone, but it just won't quite go.

I just want to sit in the hot sun somewhere and have beach boys in small bathing suits bring me coconut type drinks. Preferably with coloured umbrellas in them.

What?

Have Brad and Angie split? The answer seems to be "probably not", but "maybe". The question is, "Why do I care?" Seriously, really, WHY do I care? I don't know, but in a strange, and unusual for me way, I do.

I'm not a massive Brad Fan, I think I've only seen the "Oceans" movies and "A River Runs Through It"...never seen "Fight Club", "7 years in Tibet" or most of his other movies. Of hers, I've seen (and loved) the Lara Croft ones...so what gives here? Why am I spending my morning frantically Googling all variations of their names, looking for news?

Perhaps it's a fascination with their globetrotting lives and their knack for naming children. Their generosity in helping less fortunate? Their looks? Maybe just seeing how The Other Half lives and what they have traded for Fame & Fortune. I don't know, I just know that I feel an odd sort of sadness. Not so much for them (because I am a bit selfish) but for me. And I never liked Jennifer Anniston either, so I am annoyed that she is probably thrilled with the whole thing.
Let's just hope it's all false and that there will soon be new Jolie-Pitt babies with "Z's" and "X''s" in their names.

Dinner for One

Steven wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I thought I'd make myself a little veggie stirfry. It just looked so appealing to me that I thought I'd post a little photo. It doesn't quite look like something from Martha Stewart, but it sure tasted good.

What's for dinner?

Well, not fish, that's for sure. These are mouthwateringly deelish...as Rachel Ray would say, but I just can't bring myself to cook a fish. Not 2 hours prior to this picture being taken, they were swimming happily in White Swan Lake, you can't get much fresher than that. Nice trout that would go for $18 or $20 in a local restaurant, but here at my house they go for free. After I dutifully admired them, Steven took them over to our 82 year old neighbour and his wife, and they fried them up with great joy (and onions and lemon).

What a phenomenal day. I love walking when the clouds are low and grey...everything is silent and it's like being in a black and white photograph.

Goofy Dog

Trying to get as close to her loved ones as she can...I have never known as dog who wants to be touched so much!

Silly Dog

This is how silly old Gypsy likes to snuggle. She is the meaning of the saying "Give her an inch and she'll take a mile."

X-mas Dogs

Gypsy and Chino home at Christmas

Shannon and Sue go to Africa...kinda...

Yesterday my cousin-in-law and myself took a bus tour to Spokane to see the musical The Lion King. It's the road tour group of the Broadway production, but I was a tiny bit leery because the road versions of things never seem to be very good. It's like the understudy of the understudies and the stages and sets and costumes always seem to be a bit tattered and worn. Well. Was my foot stuck in my craw, or it would have been if I had voiced my doubts to anyone. This was, without a doubt, one of the most impressive shows I have EVER seen. I can't even explain how vivid and crisp it was. It was like the difference between HD TV and local cable. I kept blinking my eyes because I just could not believe how bright and beautiful and breathtaking everything seemed.

From the opening moments when Rafiki sang (in a tremendous voice) as the animals paraded through the audience to Pride Rock, to the closing moments as the curtains droppped I was completely enthralled. I was extremely tempted to use my camera to take a little video clip, but I didn't want to risk being tossed out on my ear.

Another "Before & After"

Poor little ducks. You can see their webbed tracks all across the pond as they look for an open spot. It's early for them to fly south, but I guess they'll just have to adjust their schedual.

The difference a day makes...

The same spot, just a few days apart. The top picture is this morning, Oct 14, and the bottom picture is the day before yesterday, Oct 12. The top picture I am standing on the bridge and facing left, and in the bottom one I am standing on the bridge and facing right.

I love this picture. If you enlarge it, it's much easier to see the deer. They blend in so perfectly.

A world without who?

So I sold liquor to a kid the other day who looked like he was about 16...blond and baby-faced. I asked his for ID and he said: "I always get ID'd, and I'm 21, I was born in '88." He said it with such tiredness, as if the 88 he meant was 1888 and he was on the verge of death.

But, it got me thinking, being born in 1990 makes you legal to drink here in BC. 1990?? How can that be? That's like yesterday! I have meat in the deepfreeze older than that, I have underwear older than that, I have books that I set aside to read in a pile that is older than that.

Kids born in 1990 live in a world where Freddy Mercury and Bob Marley have always been dead. They vaguely know Woodstock as "some rock concert, wasn't it in the mud?" (seriously...go ask some young folk what they know about Woodstock.) They laugh at the stories I tell of the excitement in our house when I brought home a rental disk of "Alien" and we played it on the forerunner of the DVD, I can't even remember what it was called, but you had to turn the 'record" over half way through. We thought it was amazing that you could actually watch a movie at your leisure...turning it off and on and pausing it willy-nilly.

All this musing makes me think of my Grandpa, who was born in 1900. He was born before the Wright Brothers flew that plane at Kitty Hawk. And when he died, he had seen men walk on the moon. I wonder if there will ever be another period of time in which such massive strides are taken?

Duck, duck, goose.

I love watching the birds as they get ready for winter. The ducks just kick and scrabble around, paddling like mad to balance as they try to find bugs and other treats under the water. The geese just regally swim by, looking down their long, elegant necks as if to say: "Hmph...how plebian...I simply couldn't be bothered, dahling, I'll wait until something passes by."

I think that I shall never see....

I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. A tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair. Upon whose branches snow has lain, who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.

This is Gus, who belongs to a friend of mine and I think this is one of the best dog pictures ever!

These are our empty Christmas Child boxes. We picked 2 up at the hockey game last night, and what a good idea that was! They had volunteers at every exit, with boxes of these boxes and a pamphlet on how to properly fill it. No one wanted to walk by and not take one, so I imagine they gave away 2,400 (that was the attendance of the game last night) If only as few as 10% of the people return their box, well, that's 240 kids that will have a brighter Christmas. I looked up their website and watched the little video, which of course tugs at your heartstrings, but it seems like Samaritans Purse is one of the better Christmas box companies. It does have a bit of a religious bend to it, but they also mention that some areas where they send the boxes do NOT want any religious training or teaching, and that is respected. We will each fill up a box for a Boy 10-14. Everyone seems to want to do a box for a little girl, and from what I have heard and read, the pre-teen boys have the least amount of boxes sent to them. I'll post a picture of the filled box when it is done. Meanwhile, I suggest that you check out the site: www.samaritanspurse.ca and consider filling up a box of your own. It's the least that any of us can do, and I feel like $25 or $30 is such a little amount. I spend that once a month on a pizza, and some of these kids have NEVER had a gift.

Mule Deer

Last week this mum was walking through our neighbourhood with three young ones. This week we have seen her with only two.

If you click on the top picture, to enlarge it, you can get a good look at how sweet the baby is. Those eyes!