Happy New Year!

As 2013 comes to a close I am quickly nearing the end of our annual two week holiday break at work as well. In our last team meeting we talked about setting a goal for the break, and mine was to complete at least one sewing project. Technically I did, but it was no where near as complicated an item as I was aiming for. But I may still make it, I still have the rest of today and tomorrow to work on a black wool skirt. Even if I don't complete it, I won't feel bad because I have been busy working on something every day and have not just been sitting on my behind watching TV. I also cut out a blouse to start sewing next after the skirt is finished. Gotta keep the momentum going!

One of my other goals was to stay active, and walk at least every other day. With only two exceptions I accomplished that. Walking more is part of a larger goal of improving my health that I have been working on all year. I am working to get healthier and fit in admittedly small but sustainable ways. I am trying to be more realistic about what is going to work for me long term so that I don't end up giving up like usual if I don't see results right away.

I have never smoked or drank, food has been my vice. It has been hard to admit it, but I gained weight from eating partly as a way of building a wall around me, literally and figuratively. Part of that whole issue is that I am also working very hard to stop the self-defeating internal dialogue that I have had going on for years. That is a much harder battle to fight, but I'm trying. In that vein, I decided to treat myself to some flowers today to ring in the new year and bring a little color & cheer into my life. Here's to a Happy & Healthy New Year in 2014!

Buddies

This was featured on Huffington Post, and it is truly so sweet.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

classic Calvin and Hobbes

The Duplex

Stray Cat Takes Day-Old Puppy Off The Streets...from The Huffington Post

The pictures are from an article published today on The Huffington Post by Alexandra Zaslow. 

Earlier this year, we wrote about the interspecies love between a cat called Lurlene and a pit bull puppy called Noland.

Now, six months later, the Cleveland Animal Protective League, the organization that rescued the pair, has won a $25,000 grant from the Petco Foundation's 'Holiday Wishes Grant Campaign' contest.

A humane officer from the APL had stumbled upon a day-old pit bull covered in fleas in a Cleveland garage, Cleveland.com reported.




When the officer couldn't find his mother, she took the puppy to APL.

The team decided to place Noland with Lurlene, who had also been taken off the streets and had recently given birth to four kittens.

Molly, Noland's mother, was discovered later that day looking anxious and famished. Her owner, who was later convicted of animal neglect, had her chained up behind the home.

Since Molly was unable to care for Noland herself and he'd been getting along so well with Lurlene and her kittens, they decided to have the puppy stay with Lurlene's family in a foster home until he was old enough for adoption. He would occasionally go back to the shelter to play with his mom.

"Noland blended in with the family so well, he was even found using the litter box a few times," Judy Hunter, APL's director of development, wrote to Petco.

Eventually, he was placed in a foster home with puppies his age where he learned how to be a dog.

Sharon Harvey, APL's director, said their story encompasses all of APL's values, including "learning from them about the power of forgiveness and unconditional love and acceptance. And when you get right down to is," Harvey told Cleveland.com, "that's really what it's all about, isn't it?"

HAPPY FESTIVUS!

I marked my calendar so I don't forget next year

Travels to the Edge - Christmas Bus

Last year on Christmas Eve I took the bus to do some grocery shopping and was lucky enough to get on one of the city buses decorated for Christmas. It was a kick, it was dressed to the nines! Today I caught the bus home from downtown after doing some last minute shopping and was lucky enough to get one again. They don't decorate all of them - so I do consider it luck.

Cookie Party 2013

Cookie Party 2013

I did a little collage for the Around the Corner Gang Cookie Party.

Denise hosted again this year, and we had Don & Susan, Steve & Naomi (with grandsons Chase & Sam in tow), Jo & Glen, Dot, Barbara and Tina that all brought great treats and conversation to the table. Oh, so much good stuff!

Snow!

They were originally predicting snow mixed with rain for today, then the forecast was for it to start snowing in the middle of the night last night. Well it sure did, but it's noon and it's still snowing! I've still got packages to mail, so this is a little kink in my plans, but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that everything comes out fine.

Here are some pictures, and the best cartoon of the day and my song of the day, Leon Redbone's "Kitty Cat's Christmas" and I almost forgot, if you are a crossword puzzle lover, you've gotta check out the Google Doodle for today, it is in celebration of 100 years since the first crossword puzzle, and it was loads of fun!

Get Fuzzy - December 20 2013

Boo checking out the snow

Boo...finally looking up at me

December 20, 2013

Stephen Colbert - The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report

Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Into The Atmosphere

Check out this timelapse video - it's awesome. The photographer is Michael Shainblum, I saw this a few days ago on Colossal.com.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Cat?

This cracked me up - any dog and or cat lover will enjoy this.

Paul Lettieri timelapse video of Grand Canyon

This was on Colossal.com today. It was filmed on Friday, November 29th.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kid President has a list of 20 things we should say more often....

Winter Color

My Christmas Cactus are blooming before Thanksgiving - situation normal. I do love the colors though, so it really doesn't matter when they bloom, I appreciate the bright colors indoors during the winter.

We have had a week of cold temperatures at night here in the 4th Corner. It was 26 degrees yesterday morning, before 8am anyways. The upside to the cold is that it is at least partly sunny.

Dinovember

This was on Fail Blog today, it's too cool ☺


Refe Tuma and his wife have a very special set of pranks that they pull on their daughters every November - DINOSAUR PRANKS. In a move they call "Dinovember," their daughters' plastic toys "come to life" every night and wreak havoc on the Tume household. As Refe puts it, " In a time when the answers to all the world's questions are a web-search away, we want our kids to experience a little mystery. All it takes is some time and energy, creativity, and a few plastic dinosaurs."

Mom

Today was Prince Charles' 65th birthday. It would have been my mom's 80th birthday. She told me the story when I was around 20 of how she remembered when he was born. She was a teenager, and at the time she said it was pretty cool that he was born on her birthday.

Bonnie Prince Charles

Anne McDougal

The picture I took of her above was from 1982. We were on a road trip from my hometown of Kalamazoo Michigan to her hometown of Rochester New York.

I had earned a one week vacation from the job I had, and one of the main events of the trip for my mom was to go to her 25th high school reunion. After the reunion we headed to Vermont and New Hampshire. We were driving in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, which is a little ways southeast of Rochester, and came across this sign.

We immediately pulled over and got out and I got this shot of mom, we could not resist! It was a fun trip; I saw Lake Champlain for the first time, and we went all the way to the Atlantic coast in New Hampshire.

She took a solo trip to Nova Scotia the summer I took driver's ed in high school. I might post about that some other time, I have her pictures and other items from that trip. At her memorial service after she died in 1985, one of her friends told me how brave she felt my mom was at the time to make a trip like that, very independent.

It's something I think about in relation to when she and dad divorced. She said that part of why he left her was that he felt like she wasn't growing enough as a person. And I thought the irony is that after getting divorced I think she actually grew a lot. She and dad were both very smart, well read and into the arts, I'm thankful that I had that environment to grow up in.

Mom 1979

My mom's best friend Nancy Jackson Jones took this picture at the beach on Lake Michigan. She always tanned so beautifully, I wished I had inherited that. I expected my hair to go salt & pepper like hers since I had found my first gray hair at 21, but it was not to be. Like I said before though, I am the product of my parents; I got dad's height and her legs ♥

Mom on honeymoon 1956

Mom 3 or 4 years old

Cheezeburger was on fire again today

Real life provides so much entertainment, who needs the movies?


I love the auto-correct fails that are on Fail Blog. The fact that so many people don't apparently read what they have typed out before they hit send, is only made worse by the fact that they don't know how to spell in the first place.


The meme at the bottom is one of those that really tests how fast you can pick up on the meaning and scan the image at the same time!

There was also this funny dog & cat GIF on the website as well.

This 'n That

Tom Cat

I love waking up and seeing any one of the cats sleeping against the pillow like this. It's usually either Boo or Tommy. All four of them slept with me last night, which is usually the case, but Boo had moved on by the time I woke up.

Munchkin

Woody

Woody has definitely gotten way more snuggly in the last year. He almost always wants to curl up on my lap now. I also frequently wake up to him sleeping across my chest or neck even. This morning he was on the pillow next to my head.

First Christmas Cactus Bloom of the season

The Economy Hub with Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times

I just read this article on the L.A. Times about the Affordable Care Act, (I really hate the term Obama-Care). I felt it was a fairly thoughtful explanation, I hope you check it out.

I don't think that that the law is perfect, but I still greatly resent the lawmakers that have fought for years against affordable medical coverage for the average American. It is the height of hypocrisy to deny the public something that they get by virtue of being in public office. Funny how it's good enough for them, and they don't worry about having enough money in the federal budget to pay for it. But God forbid they can come up with anything for the rest of us. To me it shows that they have no conscience whatsoever if they have no problem with that.

And instead of just trying to block it, if they had actually been working with the President and the White House to modify it, maybe none of the problems they are having with the roll-out right now would be happening.

Today's Memes

Happy Halloween!

We are dressing up at work, and I came up with the idea a few days ago for a costume. I printed out some of my favorite animal memes and strung them together to hang around my neck. I'm going as "I Can Haz Cheeseburger"

Happy National Cat Day!

I'm marking my calendar so I don't get caught unawares next year!

Wes Anderson Spoof on SNL

I caught this online from Saturday Night Live last night. It was hosted by Edward Norton who was in "Moonrise Kingdom" by West Anderson. If you are a fan of Anderson's, you'll get a kick out of it.

 

The Coolest National Anthem You Will Ever Hear

This was on the L.A. Times website. A sophomore at a area high school playing the national anthem before a football game, on the violin. And he plays the shit out of it, check it out.

Today's Funny Stuff

Brian Williams Has Apple Down to a Science

I laughed when he said this on the broadcast last night. I love how less than 24 hours later someone made a meme out of it!

The caption said "They Rock & Roll All Night with Wine and Cheese". I love I Can Has Cheezburger, there is something every day to make me laugh.

'The Deep' a stop-motion short from PES

American director and stop-motion animator PES released this stop motion short on his official YouTube channel recently.

I saw it tonight on www.thisiscolossal.com. Check it out it, it is really cool. There is also another feature on the same website on Anthony Howe who makes kinetic sculptures, and is located on Orcas Island here in Washington state. I have a link to his website in my favorites.

 

Fog

Foggy, foggy night. Okay, this is not Don McLean. But it is foggy. Again.

It has been nice that it has been mild and dry for the last almost two weeks, but the trade off is that each night the fog seems to be rolling in earlier and earlier. The sun was completely blocked out by the fog by about 5:45 p.m.

Not that I'm saying I want it to start raining.....

Cats, Candy and a GIF for Good Measure

Th Cadbury letter was pretty funny; there are a lot of people out there way more clever than I am, Thank goodness for the internet!

The GIF at the bottom was part of a gallery of Zach Dougherty's digital work on Colossal.com. There are some pretty cool ones, you should check it out.

My Little Love Bugs

Munchkin loves to crawl up onto my shoulder after I pick him up for a hug. He settled in while I was making my Chicken and Dumplings.

I decided to try and take a few "selfies" while he was up there. Mind you my phone doesn't have a front facing camera, hence the interesting angles.

He finally jumped down onto the bed to have a face and ear washing session with Boo. That ended like it always does with him getting sassy and biting her and she runs off.