I still miss him. Reagan, The President. The first I voted for. I've never since been more proud of any vote I have cast - not one.
Vive la Reagan Revolution!
I still miss him. Reagan, The President. The first I voted for. I've never since been more proud of any vote I have cast - not one.
Vive la Reagan Revolution!
(all pictures can be embiggened upon clickage)
My exercise buddies, you've seen them at this before but this time I took the picture from my perch upon the elliptical.
This shot would seem to say that Fiona is happy about it all. She isn't, I just happened to catch her mid pant - Gus's expression speaks for itself...
Miss Rose is doing well. At least I think she is. She's sound anyway. Hard to know what is actually happening in her foot without hauling her down the mountain for a new set of x-rays - but the vet assures me so long as I don't go riding her down a paved road or doing 5 foot jumps (yeah right) she will be fine. Without that nerve sending signals to her brain she feels no pain anyway - which makes us both happy. She's energetic and ready to do far more than her mom is in any shape to do, but with temps in the mid to upper 50s the last several days I've plunked my butt in the saddle and we've trotted around a bit together.
...
This is a little corgi I felted, stands about an inch and a half high .
And a felted heffalump... I mean effalent...I mean elephant.
and a woozzle - well, a 'possum. He hangs by his tail (as all 'possums should) from the cork board behind my computer.
After a workout a girl's gotta lounge about with her chewies and squeeky toys...
And Gus is lamenting his short legs as he cannot reach his tennis ball perpetually under the couch. You should hear the mournful sounds emanating from his silly self.
And of course, as it is 5:15pm and dinner isn't until 5:30 pm, a corgi must simply collapse from starvation as the cruel humans force him to wait...
And the beat goes on....
To be honest, there are a couple references in here I didn't get.... yup, I'm that old.
"Government should not intrude on private family matters," Obama said in a statement - USA today
What? Like what to feed our kids? Or how much trans-fat or salt we eat? Or whether or not we choose to buy health insurance? Or whether or not we choose to smoke in our own cars or homes (I don't smoke, I've never smoked, I've never even tried a cigarette - But I support the right of those who wish to smoke to be able to do it in their own homes, cars, or even open air areas such as IDK.... city parks?) Family matter such as end of life planning? How about what sort of light bulbs families want to screw into their sockets?
Oh yeah, I forgot - Government should intrude on ALL family matters except in the instance of abortions.... then government should simply pave the way. You know, shovel ready projects.
What? Like what to feed our kids? Or how much trans-fat or salt we eat? Or whether or not we choose to buy health insurance? Or whether or not we choose to smoke in our own cars or homes (I don't smoke, I've never smoked, I've never even tried a cigarette - But I support the right of those who wish to smoke to be able to do it in their own homes, cars, or even open air areas such as IDK.... city parks?) Family matter such as end of life planning? How about what sort of light bulbs families want to screw into their sockets?
Oh yeah, I forgot - Government should intrude on ALL family matters except in the instance of abortions.... then government should simply pave the way. You know, shovel ready projects.
Finished with his literature for the day, Gus moves on to Algebra review. After this he'll have his coffee break, then it is on to Physics....
Love the faces, love the voices, love the beat - hmmm, that's at least three loves
I have the bug - need to make something, create something, learn something new.
There are a few things I have decided to try. One is engraving with a rotary tool and the other is painting on dishes in something like a polish pottery type style.
I have the paints for the dishes (did some research then bought the paints at a large crafty type store yesterday) - but no dishes to play with yet.
Have the rotary tool (ordered it from Amazon, it arrived yesterday) and some bits of wood so I'm starting with the wood thing.
Also got my own camera yesterday so here is a picture of my first attempts to engrave. Keep in mind I've never done anything like this and I have no idea which bits will work well for the job so there is a lot of experimentation going on and none of this is as clean as I'd like yet.
Did the fish last night, the birds this morning. I need to find a better way to transfer my designs to the wood. I can see the design well if I transfer it to the wood without the stain, but then as I work I have trouble seeing what I have carved away because the carved surface is the same color as the uncarved surface. Staining the surface before I carve solves that problem, but then I can't see the design I transfered anymore. I'll keep at it until I get it figured out. Though there is only so much wood lying around here for just messing around.
update - another practice project done:
There are a few things I have decided to try. One is engraving with a rotary tool and the other is painting on dishes in something like a polish pottery type style.
I have the paints for the dishes (did some research then bought the paints at a large crafty type store yesterday) - but no dishes to play with yet.
Have the rotary tool (ordered it from Amazon, it arrived yesterday) and some bits of wood so I'm starting with the wood thing.
Also got my own camera yesterday so here is a picture of my first attempts to engrave. Keep in mind I've never done anything like this and I have no idea which bits will work well for the job so there is a lot of experimentation going on and none of this is as clean as I'd like yet.
Did the fish last night, the birds this morning. I need to find a better way to transfer my designs to the wood. I can see the design well if I transfer it to the wood without the stain, but then as I work I have trouble seeing what I have carved away because the carved surface is the same color as the uncarved surface. Staining the surface before I carve solves that problem, but then I can't see the design I transfered anymore. I'll keep at it until I get it figured out. Though there is only so much wood lying around here for just messing around.
update - another practice project done:
and another
Tar Heels Winning Bowl Games!!!! That was an interesting game, I must say.
I hate that I now hate snow - but I now hate snow. Too despondent to explain more than that. Nobody is dead or even injured - but until you have fought your way to a barn more than five miles from you home in order to take care of 17 horses who are continuously in need of buckets of water because their water buckets freeze up within an hour or two of being filled - horses who are on edge because the wind is continually banging the barn doors against the aluminum siding of the barn - horses who may at any time colic because they are on edge and don't have enough water... until you have done it three times and know that you will have to do it at least two more times - you would not understand the despondency. But take my word for it - it ain't fit for man nor beast out there and it ain't no fun.
But I'd walk all the way there and back in this weather if I had to in order to be sure they had that water....
Fortunately the first two trips a friend was willing to brave the roads and this last trip the hub was willing. Of course, we thought the roads would be better than they were. Second trip yesterday things had improved over the morning. Unfortunately between drop in temp and drifting snow things were much worse this morning - now we get to add lots of ice to the mix. Got rather exciting a time or two. I hate it when people leave their cars sitting across the road when there are two inches of ice and drifting snow over that on said roads...
And for any of you who live up north and think it is no big deal - believe me when I say it is different here. We don't regularly get enough "weather" to make it economically feasible to have enough of the right equipment to totally clear the roads - they do the interstates and the major roads pretty well, but we live several miles from a "major road" and there are no major roads between here and the barn. We have curves (hard curves), grades, curves going into and coming out of and in the middle of grades - sometimes curves on grades that empty into a T so that you must curve one direction going downhill into an intersection where you must then turn the other direction. All that without benefit of snow plow - salt, sand or cinders. All the while you have to worry about the people who think they can handle the conditions but can't. The people who think because they have four wheel drive they can drive as though the sun were shining and the pavement dry. Roads here in the ice and snow are not what you Yanks think they are.
OK, I'm going to go start cleaning the Christmas mess and make some potato soup before I have to get out there and do it all over again... Fiona is whining at the back door because she REALLY wants to go play snow frisbee. Any of you wanna take her out? It is too cold and windy for me. (PS - 21 degrees - 15 mph winds with 23 mph gusts - wind chill 8)
Oh, yeah, and I hate idiots driving Lexuses ( Lexuss -Lexus' -Lexusi?) on ice and snow while talking on their cell phones... jus' sayin'
But I'd walk all the way there and back in this weather if I had to in order to be sure they had that water....
Fortunately the first two trips a friend was willing to brave the roads and this last trip the hub was willing. Of course, we thought the roads would be better than they were. Second trip yesterday things had improved over the morning. Unfortunately between drop in temp and drifting snow things were much worse this morning - now we get to add lots of ice to the mix. Got rather exciting a time or two. I hate it when people leave their cars sitting across the road when there are two inches of ice and drifting snow over that on said roads...
And for any of you who live up north and think it is no big deal - believe me when I say it is different here. We don't regularly get enough "weather" to make it economically feasible to have enough of the right equipment to totally clear the roads - they do the interstates and the major roads pretty well, but we live several miles from a "major road" and there are no major roads between here and the barn. We have curves (hard curves), grades, curves going into and coming out of and in the middle of grades - sometimes curves on grades that empty into a T so that you must curve one direction going downhill into an intersection where you must then turn the other direction. All that without benefit of snow plow - salt, sand or cinders. All the while you have to worry about the people who think they can handle the conditions but can't. The people who think because they have four wheel drive they can drive as though the sun were shining and the pavement dry. Roads here in the ice and snow are not what you Yanks think they are.
OK, I'm going to go start cleaning the Christmas mess and make some potato soup before I have to get out there and do it all over again... Fiona is whining at the back door because she REALLY wants to go play snow frisbee. Any of you wanna take her out? It is too cold and windy for me. (PS - 21 degrees - 15 mph winds with 23 mph gusts - wind chill 8)
Oh, yeah, and I hate idiots driving Lexuses ( Lexuss -Lexus' -Lexusi?) on ice and snow while talking on their cell phones... jus' sayin'
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
