That fire picture was amazing and scary. Well look at it this way, if the condo redo doesn't make you crack it will make you stronger - or so THEY tell me.
It has been cold and tonight is really cold. I tapped a towel over the window on my back door. You can feel air coming in around it. I think I will be buying a tension rod and insulated curtain tomorrow.
Finally put coats on the dogs and took them for a walk this afternoon, they were going nuts.
I am off to California next Thursday and return on Sunday. A get together with Meredith and Jason. Crystal is on countdown for her baby. Due sometime in March. Also good chance to squeeze my little Alexis. I am going to buy a soft little doll for Alexis and wrap it in the blanket I crocheted. She may be a too young for dolls but I am going to give it a try.
Judi took a great picture of the geese and duck in the snow.
Oh, I managed to bring my computer down again yesterday by trying to download something. Soon my computer man and I will be on a first name basis. Gina told me not to download anything until I called my computer guy first. Perhaps she is correct.
Diana thanks for recognizing how patient we are, but I am not so sure you can continue to classify us as "patient" anymore. Let's describe our patience, Sid and I walking around the house feeling completely overhwelmed, sighing, whining (that's mostly me) and feeling cranky and annoyed. Well let's see, does walking around the house sighing, and talking about dreading all the clean up we will have to do after the contractors
I am in awe of you and Sid's patience as you live in chaos, Sandra! Can't wait to see some photos!
KC, the fire photos are scary! Isn't it weird to have a grass fire in the dead of winter?
We have snow on the ground, but that will not stop me from going to Spokane tomorrow to watch the Islanders play Southridge in the first game of the State playoffs! I am going with Gavin's parents. Bill will babysit Gavin's cat, and Jess will babysit somebody's dog and child. Lucky me!!!! I get to have fun while everybody else works!
What beautiful pictures from Judi's birthday bash!! All that water in the creek--oh my, how it makes our hearts feel so good. Water is so precious.
Sandra - I "copy" what I've written every paragraph or so. I HATE it when the blog drops me or refuses to save.
Tom's first day of work went uneventfully--at work, but here at the ranch not so much. Melissa called a little after noon saying a stranger pounded on her door, breathlessly telling her "Evacuate!!! Fire!!!" She called Tom who called me--I'm way closer, he works about 50 miles away. I positioned the RV, ready to haul all animals but luckily road crews working on Curtis Road (they started the grass fire by accident) bulldozed a fire break saving our pasture from fire. They also saved the house east of us that you see in the picture. It was a close thing tho. Wind was from the west so although it tried to puff the fire north somewhat, it mostly pushed the fire to the east.
Other news (sorry, nearly all dog related!!): one of Tornado's little 'boyz Einstein (used to be named One Spot) took reserve to the best borzoi boy showing yesterday. Here's a picture of the three E-boyz at the show yesterday. Elwood on the right (beautiful, but was nervous in the ring), Eclipse (my boy--beautiful but but lost out to brother Einstein), and Einstein which his VERY proud owner.
Forget about the pictures for now. I can't get the resizing to stick; I can't get the "insert picture here" function to work. Makes me CRAZY. Sid--don't the blog site people care that their website functions are functional? Thankfully, I copied my text because I've had to repaste it into "new entry" about a zillion times. I'm giving up on getting those pictures inserted though. I'll remove them and resize on my computer and reupload them later. Grrr.
This picture shows the fire almost ready to gobble up the house east of us. In the lower right corner of the picture, you see our old brush pile, so all pretty scary at the time.
You can see the white poles marking our oval track and then our fence line. On the other side, you see how the fire has burned, crews are dampening the ground.
Elwood and his friend Joy, Elwood's owner Peggy holding Eclipse for me, and Garrett with the winning boy Einstein.
I had much more to report about our colors issues and other related things. Unexpectedly, I lost a connection when I was writing and could not finish my message which would have been undoubtedly too long and boring.
The kitchen project is very slow and living with a non-functional issue, boxes, dust and generally a big huge mess is getting a bit "passe" now. Our poor kitties seem to be perpetually covered in dust and do we dare imagine what else. I guess the old adage about adding 75% cost and time to any home project really is true.
As far as colors, Sid and I have now embarked on a color scheme for the kitchen etc.... that is "philadelphia historic." It is not necessarily a choice we would make on our own but my very forward New Yorker friend insists that we need to take our colors down a few degrees to match the historical conservative quality of the place.
Hmmm, I guess that is right, who know. I think we still love vibrant colors, but I personally can see the beauty in either bright or subdued colores. For example, Judy your colors in the Corvallis home are looking quite stylish. I love that chair - the fabric is striking. Where are those book shelves from. They look great and exactly what we've been looking for. Any interest in shipping them over? Hee Hee!!
KC, I agree that Tory's jacket looks really cool and very Colorodo! She looks so sparkly and happy in those photos. I really need to get back to my 400 things at work, but I really wanted to just say hello and explain why my last message ended so abruptly.
Thanks for sending pictures over - keep them coming. Judy, I hope you had a wonderful birthday. You deserve the best!
Tom and I had lots of fun, bellowing out Judi's happy birthday song. Thankfully, the diaphragm of the phone survived--we really put a lot of decibels through, let me tell you. Of course, didn't ask Judi if her hearing was the same post-birthday song, as it was before. Kay -- you'll be happy to know that Judi's modest little birthday present has joined your's on the table. We PROMISE to get them in the mail this spring sometime and hopefully before Judi arrives in late March. Meanwhile, as you know Tory was here to celebrate her birthday. We actually got Murray's present to him relatively on time. Not our usual habit as you all are well aware. Here's Tory in her new Carhartt jacket, looking very Colorado we think. Also, Tory showing off her new orange nail polish and preparing to blow out curly candles.
Tory looking "Colorado" in her new Carhartt jacket.
Nikole knows Tory so well -- orange nail polish perfect for Tory's skin tone.
Thanks Sandra for making me realize that my home decorating skills are something more than I ever imagined: sophisticated!!! (Beam!)
I was out and about with my camera and snapped a photo of the birds roosting in a bush near the house--when they heard the "snap" they flew--so I caught that as well. Camera's are so much fun. Too bad I didn't have one around to capture Judi and Max chasing down the chickens. That would have been a treasure of laughs I think. That picture plus the one of Dee crawling out of the nice warm bed at the farm in her jammies--another great photo lost because I wasn't there to record it. See how much you all need me (and my camera?)
Birds, nice and quiet, as I snap their picture.
...hearing the "snap," the birds took off, so I snapped again. Scared them double I suspect but at least I got the picture.
Off to work this AM -- have to make sure I remain indispensable.
Well Kay and KC you may think that your choice of nuetral colors is uncourageous or boring but actually seems that such a choice would indicate how sophisticated you are. Unlike Sid and I who have such a hodge podge of colors - that after looking at for so many years seem almost childish. I mean seriously a green living room, an orange bathroom, not to mention the purple bathroom. KC, I like your idea of introducing colors with various pieces that "live" in the room. With our decorating scheme, you just have to be really open minded and search deep for how everything is pieced together. One thing I don't mind doing is laughing at myself.
Thank goodness I can do that especially when one of my friends comes over to "assist" us with the colors
The two remaining chickens now live in town but recently they escaped and Max and Judi were attempting to catch them. At the juncture where 3rd street splits and one goes over to First Alternative and the other out to the farm - well on the road going to Philomath, there is an empty lot with lots of blackberry bushes and that's were the 2 chickens headed. Judi and Max caught one and today Judi and I went over and Judi caught the other. But let me tell you Judi was way back in the blackberry bushes trying to coral it. I stood guard at the road like a good sister just in case the chicken decided to come out and head for traffic. Judi was finally able to grab a leg and throw a blanket over its head. I think Missy Hen was glad to be home with her sister and went straight for the chicken feed. The fence is a little more secure.
Do you have a picture of Tory in her jacket. Glad she made it out to spend time. I left a birthday message on both Murray and Tory's phones and hope they got them.
We got Murray a pulse measuring device with a computer hookup so he can keep track of his speed and distance as well as pulse rate. It sounded pretty cool--all that tracking and measuring capability appealed to me. Hopefully it does for M too. Tory got a new Carhart jacket--she looks so Colorado wearing it. Came in handy yesterday too--and even more this AM at 16 degrees and a strong wind.
It's the Super Bowl today. Tory's flying home today (boo hoo) but will be here long enough this AM to help prepare an hors d'oeurve--bacon wrapped lil' smokies. Tory says the treat is among the top SB party items. I'll take Tory to the airport and then get back in time to greet our SB guests. Melissa will be coming over along with one of Tom's buddies from the days they machined medical screws. Red also helped build our new paddocks--and mowed the front pasture when Tom was laid up. He's lots of fun.
We're impressed with the renovations you are doing Sid and Sandra. Getting professional help is great--especially some Irish brokes that are entertaining to boot. How can one lose? Tom and I often think of extending our house northward so we could have a winter garden and a great view of Pike's Peak. We just have to remember to enter the lottery so we can get the cash with which to work. Kay--I'm with you 100%!! Give me beige and white walls and plain hardwood floors. I think of the white walls as my canvas. I can bring in color with paintings, area rugs, borzoi statues, framed pictures, etc---or not, as I choose. And we can change them out without much effort.
I'm personally impressed with all the exercising you all have been doing. Kay and Judi biking about; Sandra doing her normal runs; Diana and Bill exercising. Good stuff. I'm really good at making sure the dogs are exercised. Hopefully that counts...
Don't envy you but I'll bet the kitchen will be wonderful when all is done. I noticed that nobody asks for my opinion re colors. Could it be because I stay with white, off white and perhaps beige if I want to live on the wild side. Unlike some of you, I like very very few colors on my walls. Intense colors make me very hyper and grumpy.
Judi and I did a bike ride the other day. We started at the Bald Hill entrance rode to the Midge Cramer trail then down by the fairgrounds to the highway and looped around to the Bald Hill parking lot. We are going to try another ride on Monday (weather permitting).
Heading off to retirement party for a fellow trailer parker. It will be a chance to meet a couple of other neighbors.
Hope all is well with everyone. Sid and I are doing well and living in a bit of a "shipwreck" at the moment. We
are giving a much needed facelift to our kitchen. After many years of living in a red (intensely red) kitchen we have decided to change the color, put in a new floor and rehab the cabinets. A good friend of mine who has been to "hell and back" with rennovating a really old home, recommended an Irish contractor for our kitchen project. So each day two cheery Irish guys show up, Shane and Victor and work on our disaster zone.
Don't know about any of you but contractors in Philly are not easy to trust. We have been bamboozled and disappointed so many times. In contrast, the Irish team is quite a pleasure to work with. And not to mention that we could listen to them talk all day long - love their Irish accents. They work really hard and are very respectful and not pushy. They have had to deal with indecision between Sid and I for weeks now. I think we have been through ten different decisions just about the floor.
Judy, I was ready to contact you several times about color, flooring etc.... but I thought I would spare you the chaotic state of things.
Okay , as a former Fairbanks, Alaska resident, I can sympathize with the extreme cold and although I walked everywhere in that temperature (no car), I could not do it now. Just to rub a little salt in the wound, the sun was out today and it was nice. A little chilly in the morning but nice in the afternoon.
If I can figure some way to get my bike in the car, I am going over to Judi's tomorrow, we are going for a bike ride. I wanted to get a bike rack for my car but only have two options - one that mounts on top of the car (not an option) or one that attaches to a trailer hitch. I have a feeling putting a trailer hitch on my car might be a bit expensive and the bike rack is $200 plus so guess that option is totally out. So, back to trying to get the bike in the car. At this point, I wish I had a pickup.
Mr. Ramone is scratching at my leg for a pickup so guess I am off the computer.
