ceeceemee

We made it to Texas today.  We left Illinois around 7:30 this morning so we made really good time.

Today I'm posting 2 photos instead.  First of the "Mighty Mississippi" and the second of a beautiful rest stop along Highway 40 in Arkansas.
 

We only have another 13 hours left on our journey.  *WOOT*

Here's a picture of the "Big E Plantation," (aka my parent's house) which is where we'll spend the night before heading out early tomorrow morning.  And when I say early, I mean that Bill wants to be on the road at 7am.  Silly man. 

Turning up this gravel road to my parents always, always makes me smile.  Bill commented on how much he likes coming here as well.  Right now he's sitting out on their back porch reading, watching the bunny rabbits and hoping for deer.
 

We had some interesting storms come through our area today.  No where near as interesting as the tornadoes out west thank goodness.

We had sunshine and high humidity followed by strong winds and heavy downpour followed by more sunshine.  All within about an hour.

It made for some interesing clouds though.

Sunday was spent, not having fun with my sims as I had wanted, but getting my Spring/Summer clothes out of the garage and putting away my Winter clothes.  Finally.

Considering I was still wearing sweaters last week I may regret this, but I really needed to get ready for Texas. 
 
So here's a pic showing some of what I was doing today.

Yeah, you read that right.  The last day of school, a picnic at work, water fights, lots of food, and I forgot to take my camera.

/me bangs head on desk 
 
So, what should have been Day 37 is now 36.  And, while it isn't exactly a photo I took, it does show what I did for the most part of the day.
 
Yeah, I played Sims3 all day long.  Gotta love the weekends. LOL

I've mentioned to some of you about my cat and how he really can't stand to have a closed door between us.  Well, I went outside to look for some picture ideas and heard something behind me.  When I turned around, there was Roscoe, in the kitchen window watching me.

I don't know if he thought I was leaving or was afraid I'd do something fun without his knowing it, but I really got a kick out of it.   And, contrary to the title of this posting, I'm sure it wasn't a bodyguard type of thing.  lol

i used to tell people that I had a green thumb but not a flowing thumb.  In other words, I could keep ferns, cacti, rhododendron, etc., blah-blah-blah, alive but if a plant was supposed to flower I could kill it by looking in it's direction.

But then my former boss brought in an African Violet to the office,  At that time our offices were combined so I tried to warn her that plants don't flower near me but she proceeded to prove me wrong.  Then, after her violets had all flowered at least once, she gave me a start off each of them and told me to give it a try.

Behold!  The only flowering plant I have ever been able to keep alive and actually have it flower.  On a regular basis even!   Plus, the best part is that I have 5-6 violets in my office but none of them seem to want to flower at the same time as the others.  This means that I have different color flowers popping up at different times of the year.

Very pretty.

I don't remember if I've alays had a fondness for stuffed animals or not.  I remember having several in my teenage years, including one hugh pink polkadot pig I used as a chair while I was on the phone.

However, in the past few years I've been finding myslef buying souvenir stuffed animals whenever possible.   I have a stuffed bear Beefeater and a stuffed raven from my last trip to London (or plushies), a pony and a buffalo from a trip to Texas, and a camel from a trip to the Holy Land amusement park in Florida (which is a story for another time).  I also have several disney-oriented stuffed animals from my various trips to Walt Disney World.  Duh.

The few non-souvenir stuffed animals I have are just as sentimental, such as the 3 Build-A-Bears I have from the times we've taken my granddaughter there.  
 

Tomorrow is June 2nd.  Yeah, most people are probably thinking "So?" but for a few people... ok, way more than a few people, who have been awaiting tomorrow with eager anticipation tomorrow is the day The Sims3 is to be released to the general public.  *and there was much rejoicing*

Well, maybe not much rejoicing, but some.  Several of my friends have already pre-ordered this game as well as a certain companion book printed by Prima Guide.  I didn't pre-order the game but I should be receiving my copy of the Prima Guide in the mail at work tomorrow. 

I'm still not sure when I will buy/install the game (probably not until after EA has released the second patch) but since I know that I will buy it I had no problems buying the guide long before I get the game.

How do I know that I will buy the game?  Well, you tell me.  Do you think I'm a fan of The Sims2 game?

Well, I certainly wasn't going to call it a Dog Day Afternoon!    Although in a way it was, only in a good way that is.

A good friend of mine does white shepherd rescue and was showing one of her own white shepherds for the first time today.

Wolfie (or Wolfgang Pantera) first came into Dee's life around five years ago.  The poor dog was afraid of men and couldn't stand to be touched.  But thanks to the love and care from both Dee and her husband Ron today he is a completely different dog.  Today he's a show dog.   A First Place show dog, thank you very much!

Yes, this rescue dog went up against others of his breed and brought home a trophy, a ribbon and a rosette in the categories of Best Altered and for Best of Breed!  (I don't remember which was for which though)
 
I had planned to go today entirely for Dee's benefit and as a show of supprt but found myself enjoying it.  I had no idea what to expect since I'd never been to anything like that before but I had fun.  Of course, everyone in "Wolf's Pack" helped to make me feel very comfortable.  And to top things off, "Wolf's Pack" had their own shirts and now I have one too.  Yippee!!

Congratulations Wolfie and Dee!  You did a great job.  And Wolf, you totally ruled the show!

Yeah, so what if it'll be June in two days?  I got a Christmas present today.

Ok, so that's only partially true.  My dear sweet wonderful husband (aka Bill) gave me a gift certificate for Christmas because he knows me way too well.  I hadn't been out to our rinky-dink mall since before Christmas so I hadn't had a chance to use it.  Until today. 

I can hardly wait for him to get home from Detroit tonight so I can show him what he gave me.  LOL 

Today was an "It's all about me day" since Bill was out of town.  I finished reading a really good book, got my hair cut, then bought some new makeup, a purse, ice cream, and, with my gift card, this necklace.   It is just over an inch long and, although I hadn't planned on buying jewelry, I couldn't walk away from it.

I am one multi-tasking fiend tonight.  I'm watching (listening to) the White Sox lead the Royals 11-2, chatting with 3 people on FaceBook (including my granddaughter) and now uploading a picture I took today.

Tonight's photo is of the woods behind our house.  There are deer, raccoons, rabbits, and many different kinds of birds hiding in here.  I know because at various times of the year I've seen them.

I really like having this behind our back yard rather than another house.  Being in my backyard is one of those times when I don't miss living in a big city at all.  Sure, I miss the convenience of the big city, but I don't think I could ever go back to looking out my window and into someone else's house. 

Looking out your back door and seeing deer walk across your backyard?  Only to be followed by a few more as well?  Yeah, that's something I can live with. 
 

And just so you know that I'm not just a tease, here's a picture from last October...

I think that my cat may have me well-trained.

When I get home from work I must pay attention to him immediately.  That is, if he deigns to come out and greet me.  If he is asleep, he is not to be disturbed.  (I have had many scratches over the years to remind me of this fact)

If he chooses to play, he will play.  This is usually either batting toy mice out of the air as I toss them down the hallway, or chasing after an LED light I shine on the carpet.  However, once he is through playing there is nothing I can do to get him to continue.

Not even tossing the mice at him, or on him, will work.  
 

I've noticed that since I've started taking these photos I'm seeing a few things I had thought I had seen before.  It's only now that I'm starting to wonder if it was true.

Bill's sitting in his art room listening to the Beatles and the song "Til there was you" came on a few minutes ago.  I know that the sky had been this shade of blue many, many times before and the trees had been this shade of brillant green and yet I don't know if I had ever paid attention to how well they play off each other. 

As poetic as that sounds, I was sitting outside on the back steps taking photos of my backyard for today's shot.  I didn't really pay that much attention to the pictures I took until I had downloaded them onto my computer.  So, maybe I'm not really seeing things differently than before, maybe I just lucked out.  *shrugs*
 

Yeah, so actually this should be Day 28 since I've failed twice now, but oh well.  *shrugs*
 
Now that most of the television season is over (except for Rescue Me) we'll be breaking these out of their cases more often.  This isn't all the videos we have but it is most of the DVD's.  The video tapes are in boxes in the closet.  And yes, we still watch them on occasion.

From Rope and To Kill a Mockingbird to Dogma, Godfather and Hellboy II, we obviously have varied interests and no system of sorting at all.  lol

Roscoe loves this weather.  Mainly because we open up the windows and he can then run from one to another depending on what's going on outside.  He has two favorite windows for perches though.  One in the living room and the second in the kichen.

I came through the hallways into the kitchen and this was the sight I saw there. 
 

Ok, it's not actually Chicago, but it is Chicagoland. 

We spent the day visiting with friends in Deerfield.  We had a wonderful time but I had left my camera in the car and didn't even think of going out for it at all.  So I was maybe just a little panicked when I realized I didn't have any pictures to load for today. 

Considering my last moment scramble, I am quite surprised at how well this shot turned out.  I was snapping photo after photo hoping that one of them would be as pretty as the clouds and sunset really was.  Color me a very contented person today.  Tired but contented.

Thanks to a certain "GamerGirl" I have been stuck on a farm for the past few months.

I come home from work, chat with DH for a few minutes, check email then head straight to FB and straight to Farm Town.  I swing by everyone else's farms first to help them out (and pick up some extra coins) then head over to my farm.  There I check to see if anything is ready for harvesting then sort through my most recent Farm Town gifts.

Some get added to my farm while others get sold at the marketplace.

Tonight I was just getting ready to go offline when a certain birthday girl happened to stop by my farm.  I snapped the picture before i realized that she was there.  What a nice surprise for me.

As I was walking into the kitchen for coffee this morning I spotted something unusual on my tv screen.  It took a few seconds (I hadn't had my coffee yet) to realize the sun was at the right angle to come through the kitchen window into the living room. 

Of course it was also picking up some shadows on some items we keep on the half-wall divider between the rooms.  Namely the glass globe from a hurricane lamp and a small glass ornamental bowl.

Strange how something can strike your fancy at 6am with no coffee in your system.

A few years back, some friends and I had a "Just How Messy is Your Desk?" contest and I (surprisingly enough) didn't win.  For some reason that contest popped into my mind as I was headed home from work today.

So for those of you who were in that contest with me, pull to mind (if you can) the condition of my desk at home, which has not gotten any better.  Now, do you have that image firmly in your head?  Good.  Now here's my desk at work.

As I had mentioned in my reply to Ange, when school ends I finally get the chance to play catch-up.  That's when I can finally clear out the stacks of paper on the far right side of my desk. 

Yeah, I know that "the experts" say that you shouldn't have anything on your desk you aren't currently working on, but by having them at ready reach I am able to work on an inch or so every few days.  Of course, the pile still grows to mask the work I've completed, but it literally is a work in progress.  LOL