violetismycolor

clean-up...

Adam and Bonnie are back in Europe.  Ross is back at OSU.  My niece and nephew have departed for points south and east.  Now, it's just John and I and (of course) Cookie.  That means back to the job of housekeeping.  I have fought the urge to spend my entire days with the new puppy.  I admit that I feel guilty when I leave her alone in her laundry room-den.  I feel as though I am abandoning her.  Even though she seems fine when I let her out again.  Still,  it's like having a toddler again, following you around...even into bathroom.

Yesterday, I managed to stain the windowframe of my new window. I cleaned up the kitchen and the downstairs bath.  I did the laundry.  Today, the upstairs bath, the sheet-changing, and even re-arranging the furniture in the family room.  It feels like I got so much done!  I am amazingly thrilled at my progress.  How sad it that?

I am trying to get back into the swing of things.  Hard to do when there are lots of people around and I feel as though I have to entertain them, or make their days perfect, or whatever.  I have even had the chance to sit at my kitchen table and enjoy the beauty of tonight's sunset.  What a relief!

lost socks...

I have my puppy up in my room, having my fingers crossed that she is done with her piddling for the morning.  I had my laundry sorted on the floor of my bathroom and the puppy picked out one of my socks as her new favorite toy.  I don't mind giving up one sock that I don't really like anyway.  And she seems to love it.

Cookie and Biscuit are not making nice, as they should.  Cookie barks, Biscuit scoots behind the couch, Cookie runs away and peeks around the corner to see if the scary cat has run away...yay!  Success!  It is a kind of dance they do.  Not very satisfactory for the cat, but of great satisfaction for the puppy.  I am hoping this gets better soon.

puppy and Calhoun cousins

*click on the picture for a closer look*

We have named our new puppy 'Cookie'.  Since our cat is named 'Biscuit', Ross and I thought that the two names just went together. 

This picture was taken last night.  Ross came home for the weekend to meet the puppy, and to celebrate his birthday which was yesterday, the 27th. 

My niece, Betsy, and my nephew, Alex, are also in the picture.  Betsy is here for a week and Alex spent a few days.  They both had good visits with their grandmother and we certainly enjoyed having them both with us. 

puppy pics...

Click on the pictures to see them larger...Ain't she sweet?

...new puppy...

I have been off the radar for the past few days because I got a new puppy!  She is not a little puppy because she is 5 months old, but she has all the puppy issues.  She is a sheltie, so very smart but still is in need of training.  She was being raised as a possible show dog, but her breeder decided against it just at about the time that I contacted her about possible Spring puppies.  I went out to meet her and loved her and brought her home. 

Previously, she was being raised with two of her littermates and wasn't inside all that much.  It took me about a day to get her leash trained but today she went on a couple of long rambles with me.  She is in the process of paper-training...she was in a fenced yard and kennel before.  She is very sweet, quiet, and loving. 

She is NOT a big fan of our cat, however, and the cat feels the same way.  I think Biscuit (the cat) would put up with her, but the puppy feels that our home needs defending against the intruder cat and barks and scares her away.  Then, she looks very self-satisfied that she has succeeded.  Hmmm...we have to figure this one out.

Ross is coming home for the weekend for his birthday and to meet our new dog.  We have a tradition of naming our animals food names (Chutney, Sundae, Biscuit, Barley) and John and Ross want to keep up this tradition.  We are weighing:  Cookie, Toffee, Taffy, Pudding.  I am not stuck on the food thing but will acquiesce to the family wishes.  Her breeder called her Emily, but we have a little girl across the street with that name and Bonnie has a good friend by that name, so we don't want to keep that.  Any ideas?

IF...superhero...

*click on illustration for larger size*

Our superhero, SuperRoss, finds himself flying in space, and is frankly freaked-out by it.  Perhaps flying would be better if done closer to the ground...

new window...

This is the long-awaited new window in the above-garage bonus room, that I have been remodeling for the past several months.

Believe it or not, I have a 'Photo Album' of my window installation.  You can find it here.  I thought it was fascinating to watch them cut a new hole in my wall and put in a whole new window.  It took them all day but Jesus (pronounced hay-suse) and his crew were very, very good.  They covered their walkways with canvas and vacuumed up any and all debris. 

The room is so much lighter, since this new window is a southern exposure and the only other window faced East and there are large trees in front of that one.  Now, we won't need the lights on 365 days a year!  And there will be a cross-breeze on those hot summer days.  Yay. 

This has been a dream of mine for years and it is finally realized.  Now all I have to do is stain the new wood trim, repaint that section of the wall, and make the new curtains. 

one more day...

Just one more day till Bonnie leaves. 

One more sushi lunch
One more trip to Costco
One more trip to have the eyebrows waxed
One more dinner together
One more heart-to-heart about life and where she wants to go
One more round of packing
One more quick pick-up of her room
One more night in her own bed
One more early-morning ride to the airport
One more cup of coffee in the morning (Coffee People's Black Forest Mocha)
One more hug before she goes through security

Sigh.

white madness...

SNOW!!!  and 'freezing fog'.  What the hell is freezing fog?  But that's what we have here.

What can I say?  I have been in my house for the last 40 hours or so because of snow.  Bonnie and I are venturing out this morning so that she can get to the hairdresser. 

She leaves Friday, but will the snow be gone?  Will we have to go out to the airport and get a room there on Thursday night?  They are predicting possible freezing rain for tonight and they can't actually say if the same is expected for Thursday night.  I don't want a repeat of the time 2 years ago when snow and freezing temps caused a frantic and scary trip to the airport in which John fell and cracked a rib.  Will see how things go...

IF...80's...

*click on the illustration for a larger version*

Wow, has it been a long time since I have participated in Illustration Friday.  I am going to commit to starting up, faithfully, again. 

The prompt this week was the 80's.  In the 80's, I was in my 20's and drove a hot convertible.  Mine was a brown MG Midget, not quite the cool blue one shown here.  Blue just worked better in this illustration.

The photo is actually one of me in 1980.  Look at that 80's hair!  Can you believe I could look that young?   

cold snap...

I have been accused of being a 'weather weakling'.  Oh so true.  I don't deny it at all.  I like being comfortable.  I like not having to be dressed in 20 layers to go to my mailbox.  I like not having to fight the wind while walking forward.

Unfortunately, the weather here is not cooperating.  It has been horrendously cold here.  And by my definition, that means weather in the 20's with the wind blowing (or not).  Hey, 20-something degrees is cold with or without the wind.

Our house must be leaking like a sieve, too, because it just cannot warm up and we can feel the cold air coming in around the doors and windows.  Not good.

I know that Portland is not alone in this cold-weather-thing.  Much of the country is suffering.  But I have had enough.  Okay Spring, I'm ready for you.  Do you think you could show up a couple of months early?

kids on the move...

Ross's friend, Michelle, drew this cute illustration of Ross.  I love the shirt, which reads "I go to college", since she now refers to him as 'college boy'.  She is a year behind him in school.

Note the glow that emanates from his D&D book, in his hand...

My one question is:  Michelle, where are his feet?

I drove Ross back to Corvallis on Sunday.  Term #2 began on Monday.  We were actually surprised to see the amount of damage in Corvallis, due to that big windstorm we had last month.  It took out many trees in front of Ross' dorm, and they took out most of the metal awnings in front of the dorm. 

All over Corvallis, there were trees down and cut up, or mostly cut up and waiting for removal.  Tons of them.  It must have been quite brutal there. 

We were up at 5:30 this morning to take Adam to the airport.  He is on a Continental flight that flies non-stop from Portland to Newark, then he gets on a Newark to Edinburgh flight.  He will be back in St. Andrews for his LAST semester, tomorrow.  He got all his applications in for grad school (10) and is more-or-less ready to take his finals.  After finals, the poor guy has to have surgery for his front tooth implant.  What a way to begin the new year!

family pictures...

movie review...

I enjoyed the movie (The Good Shepherd) last night, though Angelina Jolie did nothing for me.  She isn't that great an actress and in a 'normal' role (not as a sexy Lara Croft-type), she is unappealing.  Matt Damon was good, but his character was a total ass.  Total Ivy League-Frat Boy-knows better than the rest of us-type. 

I was engrossed by the story, but I didn't really like most of the characters, so that was less than satisfying.

Tonight, we're off to see the new James Bond...yay...

films to see...

Ross is going back to OSU on Sunday.  Adam leaves Tuesday.  There are so many movies that we want to see yet.  But John is sick...horrible cold...and we have been waiting to try to see things together. But now we are going off to see a movie without John, as time is running short.  We are seeing the Angelina Jolie/Matt Damon film, The Good Shepherd.  It is supposed to be really long, but really good.  Will report tomorrow.

puppy love...

I took Ross to the orthodontist this morning and the assistant there has a Sheltie (like our dog, Barley).  She had a picture of her dog with a Sheltie puppy who was sooooo cute.  We ooh-ed and ahh-ed long and hard at how adorable it was.  And I kept saying, 'I want a sheltie puppy, too.'

My hubby keeps saying he is just not ready for another dog, but maybe by the beginning of the summer, his resistance will have melted?  Huh, John, huh?

Anyway, Ross and I agreed that early summer would be perfect, because then he would be home and able to help walk and train it.  Maybe the word of impending puppy-ownership would convince Bonnie that she would like to spend her summer at home, instead of at Colgate (which she is talking about).  I mean, who can resist a puppy?

special guest artist, Carol Channing...

The Pink Martini concert last night was excellent.  They are always such a pleasure to listen to.  They started out with an interesting and incredibly exciting Ravel's Bolero.   

But they have a disturbing habit of having guest artists in their program.  And they always choose someone really old.  Why is that? 

We went to a Zoo Concert a year ago and they had some really old lady (who I believe was local) onstage, but it was only for one number.

Last night, they were supposed to have Kitty Carlisle Hart, but she was in the hospital.  Lord, she's 97...what could she possibly have done onstage?

Instead, they had Carol Channing.  I remember her from various 60's and 70's variety shows on TV...which my parents liked to watch.  Last night, she did some singing and a little dancing and shimmy-ing (which disturbed Adam and Bonnie as being just so wrong...lol).  And it lasted way too long.  Unfortunately, her voice is not what it was and her duet with China Forbes really reminded us of that fact.

I had to look Carol Channing up on Wikipedia and found these interesting facts:

She is turning 86 in January.

When she left for college, her mother told her that her father was half-African-American and passing for white. 

She fell in love in junior high, but lost touch with the boy.  She finally was reunited with him and married him when she was was 82.  He is her 4th husband.