Welcome to the Family

I'd like to introduce the newest members of my family, Grodziskie, Okocim, Tyskie, and Zywiec. 

Grodziskie & Okocim are brothers born September 11, 2010. Grodziskie is a Wheaten Burmese and Okocim is a Siamese-seal point, or possibly agouti point.
Tyskie & Zywiec are brothers born October 7 2010. They are the nephews of Aquinas, Dylan, and Harrison. (The babies mom is sister to my boys.) Tyskie is a Black Eyed White and Zywiec is a dalmation. Tyskie is tiny at only 90 grams!!!

Aren't they all so sweet?!?! Can you guess what they are named after?

Priceless

Tolls - $10.30

Gas - $70.00

Baby Ratties - Priceless

Photo Phriday - Storm Windows In

With the help of my friend, Kim, I got the storm windows in this morning. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture...and now it's dark. So....picture coming tomorrow. For now-use your imagination!

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. To all of those who have served, I thank you.

Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense And Peppermints

Landscaping

The landscapers arrived. From afar, Dave was concerned that he was too late to save the arborvitae-but they looked better close up-so we're going to try to transplant. After discussing where to put them, and the 2 cherry trees (1 sweet, 1 sour), and concerns over the apple and ornamental plum I asked if he needed me for anything else. He said, nope, "go to bed". Seeing as it's past my bedtime, I will. It's nice leaving the hard labor to the professionals!

I'm Old

After my visit to my regular doctor I went to the eye doctor. I need bifocals! OMG. I'm old! Then I picked up prescriptions-including a new one for a nasty cough left over from a cold. Turn out my folks use the same thing! Auughhhh I am old! My new glasses should be ready in about 2 weeks. Then I'll need to adjust to bifocals. Ugh. Getting old sucks...but it's better than the alternative!

Got Some-Need More

I got an extra hour...but I really need an extra day. How about an extra week? I actually woke at a decent hour and went to the barn where I worked with my horse. Used some coupons (great deals) and came home. Doing lots of laundry and cleaned the Cheektowaga boys cage. It is nice to just relax....but I need to work on some crafts. I need to figure out the concept for my Thanksgiving Day cards-and make them. I also need to make some cards for a craft show and start a Christmas project that I intended to start a year ago! So, on that note, I'm going to get busy!

Time Change

Tonight we change our clocks back. I'm looking forward to gaining an hour-heaven's knows I need it! The time chance used to occur earlier-who gets to decide to change the day? For that matter, who gets to decide-hey lets change time around?

Closed

Yesterday evening I signed all the paperwork and closed on the refinancing of my home. I lowered my interest rate a great deal and now have only a 15 year mortgage! Plus, I'll be getting a check and don't have to pay my mortgage until January! As the title lady said, "Merry Christmas"!

15 Authors

So, who were my 15 authors in 15 minutes from yesterday's post?

1. William Shakespeare
2. Yukio Mishima
3. John Steinbeck
4. Lawrence Ferlinghetti
5. Madeline L'Engle
6. Douglas Adams
7. Elizabeth Peters AKA Barbara Michaels
8. Nikos Kazantzakis
9. A.A. Milne
10. Michael Bond
11. Brian Jacques
12. Edward Eager
13. Kathleen O'Neil Gear & Michael Gear
14. Tony Hillerman
15. Aimee and David Thurlo

My Own Disparity

When I lived in Texas I was a member of the Heart of Texas Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Sisters is a wonderful organization that promotes female mystery writers. The truth is that while females write many mysteries, the field is dominated by male authors who receive more press and recognition. There is a disparity and it's not pretty. I am a voracious reader and the majority of books I read are by female authors. However, I noticed a glaring disparity created by myself. Recently I was challenged to list 15 books of great importance to me. Shortly thereafter I was told to list 15 authors that have greatly influenced me in 15 minutes. I came up with my author list and while many authors are on both lists-there are differences. Here's my issue with myself-of the 15 books...only 4 were written by women. Of the 15 authors, again, only 4 were women and of those 4, 2 write with their husbands. Why aren't women featured more predominantly on my lists? Or at least closer to 50/50?

Vote!

It's election day-so go out there and vote. I did...even though they're all a bunch of crooks. Sigh. But I voted. I even used the new system. You get a paper ballot and have to fill in the circles, like the old standardized testing. Then you feed it into a machine that reads it. At first the machine wouldn't take my ballot. One volunteer suggested removing the privacy holder-that worked. My vote has been tabulated. Has yours?

Led Zeppelin - Black Dog (Live Video)