Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…

Don’t you love a man who can laugh at himself?

Al Roker, you make a rockin’ gingerbread man.

What a good sport he is.  Cutest guy costume of the year….

Some things are so funny, they’re almost indescribable…

There is a product for dogs, made by Merrick Foods, and they’re called Texas Toothpicks.  That’s a more appealing name for what they really are, dried cow tails.

Both the girls adore them, but I haven’t had them in the house for months because they were animal protein, which was a nono for Mags when she had liver shunt, and I didn’t think it was fair to her to feed them to Mollie, who, by the way, has been a vegetarian for the last few months herself.

But now that she’s received the all clear to once again have animal protein, it was time to break out a new sack of Texas Toothpicks!

OMG, you should have seen her.  She chewed and she drooled, and she groaned and she moaned.  She was positively estatic, and chewed on hers all afternoon.

Mollie, a bit less enthusiastic than Maggie, but nontheless did a fair share of chewing hers, also.

I spotted Maggie, a bit ago, burying hers behind a cushion for later noshing.

One of these days I’ll get video of this.  The sound affects are too funny for words….

If you scroll down to their Trick Or Treat photo, that’s what’s dangling out of Maggie’s mouth, her big ole’ Texas Treat.  And no,  I didn’t resize it, that’s really how big it is!

The dogs are all decked out in their fall shirts this afternoon, greeting the kiddos, all four of them so far…

I’m thinking that ole’ Harvey is a jerk!!!!

We’ve come a long way, baby…

 

Does it get any better than this?

I’m tucked into bed with the fur kids and my laptop, just out of the whirlpool, freshly shampooed hair, cozy nightshirt, noshing on wedges of cheese and apples.  Is there anything more perfect than this? I can’t think of a single thing….

Jan, doin the happy dance….

Maggie’s test results came back, all of them perfectly NORMAL!!!!!!

She’s totally cured, and I’m so relieved. Now Maggie and I can grow old together. 

Thanks to all of you who were concerned about this sweet little soul.  Maggie has a lot of people out there that care about her…

I’m completely blessed tonight, life is so good…

~ jan

Memories…

You know how it is, you’re going thru your day, and a memory is triggered, and instantly you’re back in the past.

This morning I was looking thru my old battered cookbook with all the handwritten recipes.  I’ve had this since we were first married, and it’s much used and much treasured.

I was looking for my Texas Sheet Cake recipe, and stumbled upon a spaghetti and meatball recipe from Kathrine Cunnington, my neighbor when hubby and I were first married.

Katherine and her husband, Merle were in their late 60’s at the time, and I thought he  was such a special man.  They had been married since their twenties and every single month, on the anniversary of the day they were married,  he brought her a gift.  He had done that for 40+ years.  She said sometimes, when they didn’t have much money  it would be a simple thing, like a candy bar, and in the years I knew them, I saw a lot of flowers in her house,  he always remembered.  He also left a quarter tip on the table for every meal she cooked him.  I thought it was so touching, that he felt she was that special to him.

He drove this big old Buick Riveria, and I can just see him pulling into their drive.  John was a little boy, not even three years old, and I was pregnant with Ryan, and if we were outside when Merle got home, John would race over to their house as fast as his little legs would carry him, knowing that Mr. Cunnington would have a stick of Juicy Fruit gum for him.  I can see him now, that precious little red haired boy, those short little chubby legs flying thru the yard, often in his bib overalls and tennies.

Even though there was a huge age difference, Katherine and I were good friends and we talked daily.  I was always cooking, she gave me a lot of good recipes and we would discuss food.  She would know what I was baking and often, when I made a pie, there would be a knock at the back door and it would be Merle with a dessert plate and a fork.  He would just show up with a cute little boyish grin on his face, suckering me into giving him a piece of warm pie.

It was endearing and charming, and the memory of them is vivid this lovely fall day in Heavensville…

More on Bonnie Hunt…

I blogged about Bonnie Hunt when her show debuted and I just wanted to say once more, that if you’re not watching her, you’re missing out.

She’s on at 9am in Heavensville, every morning she cracks me up with her quit wit.

She’s adorable, wholesome  and folksy, but not nerdy.  I think that sums her up pretty well.

Her show reminds me of the way talk shows used to be, when they were entertaining instead of vulgar.

Bonnie Hunt, if you haven’t watched her yet, give her a try.  She’s a good thing…

~ jan

Maggie’s off to the vet…

It’s been three months since Maggie’s liver shunt surgery.  Today’s the day we’ve been waiting for, we dropped her off at the vet’s this morning for tests, blood panel, bile acid, poor Mags has to go thru this one more time.  I wish I could make her understand that this is it, we’re finished now, we’ve done all we can do.  She was shaking when I left her, my poor little fur child, it so hard to just hand her over and walk out the door…

I snapped this picture before we left, she’s all warm and cozy in her little gold hoodie sweatshirt, courtesy of her Auntie Trish…

We won’t know for a few days how her tests came back, I’m really hopeful that the surgery was a success, she’s such a fiesty little imp these days.

If you’re a new reader to my blog and don’t know Maggie’s story, you can read about her liver shunt surgery by CLICKING HERE…  She’s come a long way since July, her weight is up a pound, she has so much more energy now, she plays with her toys, scampers thru the yard,  and pesters Mollie.  In other word she acts… normal… Yes, that’s how she acts, like a normal little dog, and it’s a beautiful thing…

Frosty forecast…

We’re having a hard freeze in Heavensville tonight, and I cajoled hubby into bringing my two rosemary plants into his garage for the winter.  They are absolutely humongous, and they’re in these really big pots, they’re so big and heavy he had to truck them into the garage on a dolly.  You can imagine how he was lovin’ doing that!  They are so pretty, I just couldn’t bear for them to freeze!

Now that they are in there, they are, ummm, how do I say this, releasing their fragrance, yeah, that’s what they’re doing, releasing their fragrant aroma.

They’ve only been in there an hour, and already the garage  smells like a friggin’ pine forest…  I just don’t know how this will all play out, I never considered the smell!!!  Oh, the things that man does for me….

I’ll update you on the aroma later…  Do you think it will penetrate into the house??? Maybe the aroma will dissipate and won’t be noticable.  Uh huh, right Jan, sure it will…

Okay, worst case scenario, I can pretend they are living Christmas trees and decorate them for the holidays.  Ya think???

Ohhhh, Mary sent us a goodie….

As fast as you can type,  go to http://theradio.com – you just type the name of the artist you want to hear in the little box, it will immediately start playing one of the artist’s songs, and then it will keep playing songs of the same era.  This is cool.  I’m listening to Dean Martin right now…

Don’t bother typing the addy, just CLICK HERE!  And don’t forget to turn on your speakers.  ;0)

Thanks, Mary – this is a find….

Reed Diffusers…

OMG, I’m out of the loop, I really am.  I’m no longer on top of my game, on the cutting edge.  The torch has passed.  *sigh*

John just called to see if I knew if Yankee Candle sold Reed Diffusers?  “Huh, what are those I asked I’ve never heard of them.”

Apparently they are great, someone had given him one as a gift, and he said they make the house smell wonderful.  It’s a little bottle of essential oils with reeds sticking out of the top and it imparts a subtle fragrance.

I Googled it, sure enough Yankee makes them, I’m going to have to check these out.

Meanwhile, I found a make it yourself site, looks interesting.  Here’s the CLICK…

I just talked to Nisha, she knows all about the diffusers, has them in several rooms.  Now why didn’t she tell me about them?  Why didn’t SOMEBODY tell me?  I’ve gotta get a life, ya know, get out of the house, shop, get a handle on things like I used to….

Geezy Pete, I can’t believe nobody told me about these things…  I can’t believe I didn’t know this already.  It’s a sad, sad day in Heavensville…

Giveaway of the day….

Every day this site offers software that companies normally get paid for,  free.  Some days the offers are good, some not so good, like anything else.

  You have to download and install the day they are offered, or the offer will expire, and if it is something requiring registration, it can be a bit tricky to register, but I often find really good things here.  If you read the comments, people always give negative comments, probably a bunch of techkie snobs that make fun of other’s products, I usually just ignore them, but the comments can be helpful if you have problems figuring out how to register something, usually they tell you how to do it.

But anyway, today they have a halloween screensaver, it’s pretty cute, here’s the CLICK if you want to download it, but remember, you have to do it today to get it free.

~ jan

UPDATE:  I just installed this, oh my, it’s just about the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time.  Here’s how to do this – After you download it, Click on the Activate.exe BEFORE you click on the Setup.exe – that registers it for you, or you can just click on the readme file and follow their instructions -  ;0)

Then go to Start/Run, All Programs, it will be the last one on the list, just open it, and see if you like it.  Great music, too! 

You can go to your compuer desktop, right click, choose properties, then at popup choose screensaver, and set it up the way you want it from that screen.  Ya, I realize most of you know this, but there are some that don’t.  This stuff can be tricky if you don’t do a lot on the computer…