imagination

Imagination. What a wonderful thing to let the mind run free. I was taking a picture of the neighbors house across the street because of the colored lights. I also liked the pretty deep blue sky.

When I viewed the pictures on the computer, the house looked like a giant pumpkin face with the windows as the eyes, the door as the nose and the lights along the bottom as the mouth. What do you think? Has my imagination run amuck?

This morning (Sunday) Mary made waffles with a dollop of whip cream in the center and a maraschino cherry with the stem still attached on top of the whip cream. Very pretty and good too.

We are both waiting for December 1 to start our Christmas shopping. It will be nice because we will be able to go to the stores on week-days and avoid the week-end crowds. What do I want for Christmas? Anything “overpriced” as Miss Piggy of the Muppets would say. Actually Mary and I are preparing want lists for presents for each other so that we won’t have to spend the day after Christmas standing in the return line at the stores. Have fun doing your Christmas shopping, listening to the background Christmas music at the malls and looking at the mall Christmas decorations. Be good because we all know who is making his list of those who have been naughty and nice. And he checks it twice. Merry Christmas. Lew

"big breakfast" Saturday

This is Mary holding her pet bunny. He is very friendly to her because she interacts with the bunny a lot. When she holds him, the rabbit likes to put one of his paws up against her cheek.

The rabbit gets to run around in the house in the afternoons and again on the couch at night after supper. When Mary is laying on the couch the bunny just climbs and runs all over her. He also likes to rub noses with her.

It is Saturday and today we are going to the library to check out the DVD’s. They have so many of them to chose from. I have a list of Steven Spielberg movies and I want to see if the library has any his films that I haven’t seen yet. I am a big fan of his movies. We will probably avoid the stores because of the crowds. We won’t start our Christmas shopping until December 1, that way we have 30 days to exchange things. I also like shopping on week-days when the stores aren’t crowded. It is much more relaxing that way. When I go shopping I like to stroll slowly through the stores looking at everything and stopping to take a closer look at anything that catches my eye. So when I go shopping at Wal-Mart, I am in the store for quite a while. Shopping is more fun that way. I guess that you might say that I do a lot of “window shopping”, looking a lot but buying little. Did anyone do any “black Friday” shopping? Here’s hoping that everyone gets more for Christmas than they hoped for and fun gifts (toys not clothing). After all, who wants to get socks on Christmas? Not me. The little boy in me still wants toys, expensive electronic toys. How about a new computer? That would be a nice gift.

It is cold this morning and that is the bad news. The good news is that it is Saturday and that means “big breakfast” day. Mary got the bacon out of the freezer last night to thaw and so I know that we will be having eggs and bacon and cinnamon raisin toast with butter and raspberry jam. Have a good day and when you go grocery shopping don’t forget to stock up on the packets of hot chocolate mix (the kind with the little marshmallows). Stay warm. Lew

golden turkey

It was 6:00 am on turkey day and it was time to put the turkey into the oven. Mary had done all of the preparations on the turkey the night before and had it sitting in a large roasting pan ready to go. All that I had to do was move the turkey from the refrigerator to the oven and “set it and forget it” as they say. It was a 13 lb. turkey so it was going to take a while to bake. The table is set and finally the turkey is done. I am hungry and ready to eat.

Everything turned out just right and done to perfection. The potatoes that were cut up and baked were especially good.

Actually, everything was good. And now it is time
to eat.

I know that the plate is turned the wrong way. I turned it around so that the meat was facing me. As you can see by the pile of dressing, I really like dressing. Cranberry sauce too. When I use to go to Morrison’s cafeteria and got their turkey dinner meal, they would give a teeny weenie container of cranberry sauce. The container was a small paper pill cup that nurses bring the pills to patients in. We both ate heartily of our Thanksgiving day repast and tried to save room for dessert which was pumpkin pie.

After cutting our piece of the pie, I put a mountain of real whip cream on top of the piece of pie. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at lunch time and then repeated the whole turkey meal again at suppertime. Today for lunch it will be turkey sandwiches and supper will be turkey once again. I really like turkey and so it is pretty hard for me to get tired of it. We will get many meals out of our turkey. I hope that everyone had an equally enjoyable meal. Even the cat and the dog had turkey. Such pampered pets. Tammy woke me up to go outside at 5:30 am this morning. Usually she gets me up at 4:30 am to go outside so I guess that she slept in a little. I went ahead and stayed up making myself a cup of coffee. Then around 6:00 am I heard a terrible cat fight in the garage. I ran to the door and when I opened it Tammy ran into the house. I couldn’t see the other cat. Now she has a sore right leg and holds it up when she sits and sometimes she won’t step on the right leg but at other times she will. I think that we have some bully cats in the area. But we are letting her recuperate by sleeping on the bed which she is currently happily doing. Such a pampered kitty. It is cold out today which should put the black Friday Christmas shoppers in the Christmas spirit. I am not going shopping today because of the crowds. Have a nice day and enjoy your turkey sandwiches. Lew

shop til ya drop

Here is a picture of Dolly just barely into the house into the dining room eating her supper. Remember that Dolly is Tammy’s mother. Tammy is sitting in the garage watching her mother eat. I think because Tammy has food available to her 24 hours a day and all that she can possible eat with lot food of leftover, that she really isn’t all that concerned. Mary and I are not sure if Tammy can remember that Dolly is her mom.
The turkey is thawed and Mary is going to prepare it for baking and I will put it into the oven tomorrow morning at 6:00 am. It is a 13 lb. turkey. I went to Wal-Mart to day to get some items for the outside Christmas lights. They were really busy. I guess that it must be all of the last minute shoppers. We put up most of the icicle lights on the eave of the roof yesterday.
Tonight we had homemade pea soup from scratch with dry split peas in a bag. Mary had to slow cook them for quite a while. She also put in some pieces of ham. The main course was a steak for her made into a steak sandwich and barbequed pork sandwich for me. Tmorrow is turkey, turkey, and more turkey. With all of the left over turkey scraps tomorrow, I am sure that the cats and the dog will be in food heaven tomorrow. Be sure to buy a newspaper tomorrow so that you can have all of the Black Friday ads. Just shop til ya drop. Have a good day. Lew

Project Aurora

This will probably be one of the strangest blogs that you have ever read. I have heard and read that there might be a new military airplane. It is suppose to go super fast and it is suppose to leave bubbles or smoke rings in its contrail. This new

airplane is suppose to be called Project Aurora. Now this is probably top secret and so don’t repeat what I am telling you, but I was out in the front yard when I looked up and saw this unusual contrail with the bubbles in it at regularly spaced intervals. I ran inside, grabbed my camera and ran back out to snap some pictures. So what do you think? Could this be a smoke trail of the next generation planes known as Project Aurora? Personally, I have no idea but it will be nice to someday find out, like with the stealth fighter. Lew

small and pretty

So what on earth is this a picture of? A flower bud on the gardenia bush? A small ant hill? Yeah, you guessed it right, the tiny little flowers. So easy to walk by and not

notice. So small and yet so pretty. It just caught my eye while I was checking the gardenia bush for “trip vines”. I don’t know what the actual name of the vines are, but I call them “trip vines” because when on occasion I was walking through wooded areas in Seminole county to do inspections I would trip on them and fall down. I was doing inspections for suture home construction and some of these future homes would be set back a couple hundred feet or more from the road. On occasion we would have to ask the developer to cut us a path through the brush. But most of the inspections were in more civilized surroundings. These vines are very tough and strong (almost woody). They also had thorns on them that looked just like shark teeth or the thorns on a rose. And so when I tripped on them and fell down, they would also cut my ankles. In the woods they grew along the ground and blended in with the ground making them almost invisible. That is why I call them trip vines. And there are some growing within the gardenia bush and at the first sign of them I cut or rip them out. They are very tenacious and keep coming back but I am determined to be the victor in this struggle with the trip vines. They are also located by the back fence and I keep after those vines as well. I am really their nemesis. If they would produce some flowers I might not be so tough on them but all they produce is thorns. Do you have a yard or garden pest or weed that you go after with a passion? By the way, sand spurs aren’t much fun either and they get into the cats fur all of the time, both Tammy and Dolly and Mary works diligently on getting them out of their fur ASAP. The dawn has broke and it is time to go. This morning I am having left over grits for breakfast. I got up early yesterday (Sunday) and I thought that we were having grits for breakfast and so I made some grits. When Mary got up she told me that we were having pancakes so I put the grits into the refrigerator to save them for today. The turkey has been removed from the freezer and is now down in the refrigerator to starts its slow thaw. Yesterday, we went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and it was just crazy. So many people. It seems that all of Orlando was at the same Wal-Mart grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. The aisles were almost impossible to get a grocery basket through. And a bottle of Heinz turkey gravy? Forget it, just a big hole where they use to be. I will stop by Publix today and get a bottle. Publix grocery stores are always well-stocked and well blocked. Clean, bright, cheery and a pleasant place to shop. But Wal-Mart is cheaper and so price wins out and we shop at Wal-Mart. But if I should ever win the lottery, then I would shop all the time at Publix. I always think of all the things that I would get and do if I should ever win the lottery. I could fill pages and pages of blogs with those daydreams. But until then, if you haven’t gotten your Thanksgiving supplies, hurry. Have a pleasant day. Lew

woodpecker nest?

In the front yard there are two southern oak trees on either side of the driveway. A couple of days ago Mary and I were talking next to the tree on the right. I saw a woodpecker fly in and land on the side of the tree. The woodpecker climb up to a higher point in the tree. I had seen this woodpecker recently on the tree to the left of the driveway. I commented to Mary about the woodpecker flying up but he was too high to see.

Yesterday I happened to notice a whole in the tree on the left.

The hole was about the size of a clenched fist. I have circled the hole in yellow. I thought that perhaps the woodpecker had made it for a nest.

I took some pictures and when I looked closely at the pictures, it appeared as if the rim of the hole was burnt. Also there appeared what might be a burn mark inside the hole. Now I am wondering if this hole may have been made by a lightning strike. I am baffled by the hole as to what may have created it. What do you think? All suggestions and theories are gratefully appreciated. So this is my bird story for Seaside. Have a good evening. Lew