I Just Don't Get It

Today was a slow day for me. I think my brain is not working on overtime like it normally is. As a result, I couldn't think of anything to blog about. But I went out for lunch and heard more yapping on the radio about the stupid controversy about Madonna and her color-dyed sheep. This just kills me. Apparently the animal rights activists are all up in arms because of the potential to harm the sheep. Madonna swears that she did it in a non-hurtful way and the animals were not harmed at all. I guess this was not good enough for the animal rights folks so they responded with the notion that Madonna is setting a bad example and other people will now start dying their sheep in hurtful ways.

Now I have a few problems with this. The first being . . . How many people do you know that actually OWN sheep? I happen to know a couple that own sheep, but what were the chances of that? These people that I know keep sheep for pets and I can not think of one good reason that they would want to go through all the trouble of figuring out how to dye them. I am assuming that MOST people that own sheep are farmers of some sort and they probably own sheep for their wool - a business for the farmer. Why on EARTH would THEY want to dye their sheep? WHO exactly is going to try to dye sheep if it's not for a publicity stunt?

My second problem with this whole thing is . . . Don't these people have anything better to do than worry about the potential of a sheep being turned a different color with food coloring? Aren't there bigger problems in this world? Give me a break.

I love animals just as much as the next person, but personally I'm much more worried that innocent, intelligent, marvelous greyhounds will get a bullet to the head when they reach the end of their racing careers. If somebody wants to dye them pink, who cares. Just don't kill them!

And my last thought on this whole topic is very simple . . . Does NOBODY on Madonna's staff know how to use Photoshop? The photo above is the actual sheep from Madonna's campaign. Here's a picture I grabbed off of Google:


And after approximately 1 minute of Photoshop work here is the same picture:


People, get with the program. It's no longer necessary to dye animals a different color in reality when there is a whole beautiful virtual world out there!

Ode to My Beloved Bentley

I love my dog! I always knew Bentley was a smart dog, but I never truly appreciated just how smart he is. I guess now that I have something to compare him to it’s very evident how brilliant my little pooch really is. I don’t mean to knock Peanut (OK, maybe I do – a little). Peanut is among the cutest little buggers in the world. And it’s a good thing she’s so cute. It makes up for her complete lack of brains. I’m pretty sure that she has the intelligence of a flea. I can blog all day about how stupid she is, but that’s not the point of this entry. This is all about Bentley — our smart dog.

Tonight Karlo called from the road. As soon as I start talking about the dogs over the phone, Bentley knows I’m talking about him. He stares intently and groans. I told him it was “Daddy” on the phone and, embarrassingly enough, even let Karlo “talk” to Bentley. He gets all excited when he hears “Daddy’s” voice on the other side of the phone. There is no doubt he completely understands what the phone is all about. Let’s not forget that Bentley howls up a storm every time the phone rings. He knows the phone is important and wants to alert us that it’s ringing.

Not only did I talk to Karlo on the phone tonight, but I also talked to my father (yes, very busy phone night for me!) This time when I hung up the phone I told Bentley “That was Grandpa.” Well, when Bentley heard that world “GRANDA” he went crazy. First he ran to the kitchen door with his ears up and crying. Then he ran to the front door, ears up and crying. There was no convincing him that Grandpa wasn’t really coming to visit us . . . he was just on the phone. Maybe Bentley thinks that only Karlo is on the other side of the magic phone. The poor dog . . . he cried non-stop for 20 minutes. I never saw a K9 miss a human as much as Bentley misses his Granpda. Sorry Karlo, but I never saw Bentley get this excited when I tell him “Daddy’s coming home.”

Dad, I have to get you and Bentley together soon. The poor little guy really misses you!

How Times Have Changed

I just went downstairs to our community work kitchen to discover that the tea fairy arrived last night. There was a brand new box of my new favorite sitting flavor on the counter. It was as if Santa showed up with a sack of toys for me. This just made my day. My co-worker laughed at me and told me that it was a “Christmas miracle.” He just doesn’t understand how much I enjoy my Candy Cane tea.

Last night I was sipping my nightly brew and I was actually thinking about my strategy of buying several boxes of this tea this season, knowing that the stores only sell it during the holidays. I will need my rations to get me through the rest of the year. As I was plotting this shopping spree, I was reflecting on how much my life has changed and how old I feel. The big exciting event that I look forward to these days is having my nightly 9 o’clock tea and my tea biscuits (yes, I eat tea biscuits!) curled up on the couch in my jammies after my shower. I used to be shooting kamikaze shots at the downtown bars and now I’m in my PJs by 8 PM. Oh well, I don’t think I would go back in time if given the chance. I’m very happy sitting at home . . . sipping my tea.

Christmas Shopping

I’m really struggling with my Christmas shopping this year. I’m uninspired and I don’t seem to have much Christmas spirit. Ba humbug. Not only am I drawing a blank as what to get everyone on my list, but I don’t even know what I want. This weekend we got some fliers in the mail and one was from a local book store. I flipped through and what do my wondering eyes do I see? A book that I didn’t know existed. It was called “Sting Lyrics.” How did this slip by without me knowing about? So I ripped out the page of the flier and strategically placed it where Karlo sits at the table. He completely dismissed it. Sigh.

I had just a couple meager little ideas for what to get Karlo and he managed to ruin everything this weekend when he so nicely suggested that I get the very things that I already had on my list. This is really getting depressing.

I’m sitting here thinking back to one of my all time favorite gifts. One year Penni got me a simple t-shirt. Well, it may have seemed like a simple t-shirt, but I thought it was the greatest shirt in the world. Nothing screamed PAULA more than this shirt . . . (unless somebody made a t-shirt that showed Sting walking a greyhound and Snoopy biking, while eating ice cream.) But back to my gift . . . This shirt was a “Life Is Good” shirt and if any of you attended Karlo and my wedding, you would know that “Life Is Good” is the motto we live by. Not only was it a Life is Good shirt, but it depicted both kayaking AND biking. And did I mention it is the coolest color in the world? The shirt was really special to me because it showed me that it was picked especially for me! When I opened it I proclaimed, “Somebody understands me.” It really was a great feeling to receive that gift.

And now that I’m thinking back to that wonderful shirt, I’m feeling terrible. I want to get gifts like that for everybody. I want them to know that I picked the gifts out especially for them. Only problem is that I can’t think of one single present for one single person. In addition to getting the things on my family’s wish list, I just want to get them one thing that I personally selected. I had fun with this task this weekend shopping for Nicole. She is easy. I know she loves clothes and I wanted to get her a little outfit that hopefully when she wears, she will think of me. But outside of Nicole, I’m severely challenged. I feel like I don’t know my brother at all. And what do I get Penni, aside from cute scrubs? I get poor Penni the same darn gifts year after year. I think I can manage something creative for John, but the bigger John (my Dad) is the biggest shopping challenge of the universe. I need a little shopping fairy to come to me at night and bless me with some insight as to what to get my family.

Thanksgiving Recap

This glorious long weekend is coming to end and it seems to have passed far too quickly. I hope that everybody reading this had a wonderful holiday. We managed to really enjoy ourselves over the past few days. I’ll try to recap the weekend with a summary and some photos.

Thanksgiving started off with Karlo working away as a lumberjack. He is truly in his glory working around the house and yard. Here are some pics of my little lumberjack:

And me with another painting project. I wonder when I'll run out of finding new walls to paint. Here's our new and improved front wall upstairs:

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s place. Penni had to work (the life of a nurse) and my brother managed to whip up quite the feast. I’m so proud of him . . . and then there’s me, who has yet to attempt to cook a turkey. I only wish I had my camera out to capture Nicole chomping on a Flintstone sized turkey leg! On the way home, we stopped at Tina’s to see some of her home improvement project – great job, T. It was quite the little bonus visit with the girls.

I decided to join the nut cases at the stores early Friday morning. Although I was not brave enough for Buckland Hills, I did venture out to the Eastbrook mall – much quieter and tamer and more my speed. It wasn’t so bad and I did manage to scoop up some good deals (mostly for myself) and that made my day. When I returned home it was all work and no play. I did my best at trying to decorate for Christmas. I knew Lisa would not be happy with me if I didn’t put up some sort of tree. This was the first year, since our soot disaster in Andover, that we took out our old tree. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be so I decided to trim it up. In the process of this decorating day, I came to the sad realization that I don’t own any nice Christmas decorations. I’m not sure if we threw most of the items away after the soot ordeal, if we lost them during the move, or if I just never owned any! My day went from happy, happy after buying myself clothes to somewhat depressed trying to decorate the house.

On Saturday morning we went for a wonderful hike with our neighbors. We walked for 2 hours and discovered a huge network of trails bordering our property. We are so excited to do more exploring. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures that morning. I had on the biggest mittens that I own and still had frozen hands the entire time. I’m praying that no “dots” sprout next week because of it. Later that day we some friends over with their dogs. Since holidays are all about family, we had Bentley’s cousin over. Here is what a big and exciting greyhound play date looks like:

Wow, that was a lot of excitement for one day! We had to recover from it all today. Fortunately (oops, I mean unfortunately) Karlo’s chainsaw broke and that meant he spent some time with me today. We went shopping and out to lunch and then hung out for a bit before Karlo had to take off to his next work gig. I hate that goodbye at the door, especially on a weekend. Me and the dogs, with our sad eyes, waving and watching Karlo as he drove away. We will be all alone this week, freezing our tails off without “Daddy” to build us fires. I’m bummed that the weekend has to come to close with Karlo gone and the house painfully quiet, but overall, it was just great.

Paula’s Picks From Oprah’s Favorites

Yesterday was the big annual “Oprah’s Favorite Things” show. I usually watch it every year and every year it just depresses me. I get the feeling that Oprah is just flaunting the fact that she’s stinkin’ rich and she recommends insanely expensive gifts that nobody could actually give. How does that help the normal people of the world?

Well, yesterday’s show seemed to be much more down to earth. She had many affordable items and a good mix across the board. I have to say, the show is easier to watch than HGTV’s “I Want That.” That darn show is dangerous. No matter what the topic, I want every single thing they show. They really do introduce you to some unique and handy gadgets. But Oprah’s list was almost ho-hum (to me, anyway). She included some cleaning products (yuck), some bathing products (better, but way too expensive), some ridiculous looking and over-priced clothes, a book, a CD, a DVD set, food and some appliances. Nothing made me jump out of my seat.

After all is said and done, I picked my three favorites from Oprah’s List and one will certainly surprise you . . . its a cooking gadget (shhhh, don’t tell anyone). Here they are:


A set of mixing bowls from Williams Sonoma. Lisa introduced me to my very first mixing bowl and I honestly don’t know how I got along without one. Brilliant invention.


A skin care system that is supposed to remove 6 times more make-up than regular washing. Just the thought of all that excess make-up staying on my face makes me cringe.


The Planet Earth DVD set. Now this just seems really cool. I love this stuff. Oprah said that everybody on the planet Earth should own one. Imagine how rich that would make somebody?

One of these days, I’ll come up with my own “Paula’s Favorite Things” list. Stay tuned for that.

I'm On a Meal Making Roll

I’ve been a cooking maniac. Last night I made yet another homemade meal. Nancy (previous owner of our house) came over for dinner. I made a very yummy meal (which killed my stomach). I told Karlo that after last night’s dinner I am on strike. I am done with cooking for at least a week. I need a break.

We had such a nice visit. I couldn’t wait to tell Nancy all about our weekend drama and I was amazed that word hadn’t already traveled through our small town to her. I also couldn’t wait to see pictures of the construction of their new home . . . I mean of "our new vacation home." Holy Moses, I can’t wait to see it in person. Positively gorgeous. Nancy’s husband Rick got so inspired by all the colors that I painted at home that he decided to use the same ones. The poor guy is now on his 5th coat of paint. Right about now, I’m sure he’s cursing me. I bet his old standard white would have covered in just one coat. Sorry Rick!

Nancy is so nice. She showed up last with flowers for me. I’ll include a picture below and she has even offered to house/dog sit while Karlo and I are in Florida next month. This will be the first time we could travel (after acquiring the hounds) where we didn’t feel guilty every minute of our trip. Nancy will be back in her familiar house, taking her nightly bubble baths. I wonder if this will confuse the dogs.

The Non-dramatic Part of My Weekend

I got so caught up in the drama of the chimney fire that I never even documented the other parts of my weekend. It was such a busy two days that I’m still recovering.

We spent half the day on Saturday helping Sue and Dan with projects around their house. I had a ball. Karlo did all the work and I got to visit with Sue. Here you can see everybody working hard.

Karlo working on installing lights under their cabinets.

Dan getting all the storms windows ready for install.

Sue working hard trying to stay warm.

I think Sue’s job was the hardest seeing as the new programmable thermostats that we installed didn’t work properly. Seems they were hell bent on turning the AC on rather than the heat. Ooops. I hope to God that wasn’t our fault. Poor Sue and Dan!

Our breakfast on Sunday actually turned out to be quite fun once all the firemen left and things settled back down. I made my first batch of blueberry pancakes ever and I must say, they came out really good. Then we all went for a hike in the back woods.

And before I forget, we also had JoAnne and Joe over the weekend before. Not sure how I managed to not add them to the blog, but here’s a picture from 2 weekends ago. You can see Peanut sporting her new bright orange jacket that I made for her.



Back to this past weekend . . .

Yesterday, after the breakfast guests left, I re-cleaned the house and spent an hour preparing our dinner with the neighbors. I worked really hard and made baked stuffed shells. Karlo cleaned out the stove chimney and (yikes) relit the fire. So now we are back to pacing around . . . nervous about the fire, anticipating the company arriving . . .waiting, waiting. When they got to be 15 minutes late (and they only live 1 mile away) I decided it was time to call them up. Sure enough, they completely forgot. Uuuugh, after all that work I did. Here’s the funny part of the story. Just as I called, our neighbor Sharon was online surfing for herbal memory supplements. What a riot. I think this was her sign that she needs to buy and take them!

They managed to scramble and get to our place in 10 minutes and we ended up having a lovely, smoke and drama free dinner.

"Welcome To Eastford"

Where do I even begin to tell this story . . . (Warning, this will be a long story – so get comfy.) What an exciting day it’s been so far. It went something like this:

Company was scheduled to come over for breakfast at 8 am this morning. As usual, Karlo and I were more than ready. The house was spotless, the food preparation was done, I had the music going and Karlo started the wood stove so everything would be perfect when guests arrived. The time is now 7:50 am – 10 minutes to show time.

And what a show it was . . .

I was in the office getting the music going and when I walked out toward the kitchen, I caught the wiff of a funny smell. Right near the stone fireplace, I could swear I smelled a “burning marshmellow.” I alerted Karlo right away, but he dismissed me and my “way to sensitive nose.” Then I could swear I heard a strange crackling sound coming from the wood stove chimney that I never heard before. I was CONVINCED something was wrong and it wasn’t just my “pre-company” jitters. This time Karlo took me seriously and went out on the deck to look up at the chimney. It wasn’t good.

He came back in with a look on his face that I didn’t like one bit. He said “I don’t like the looks of the smoke coming out of the chimney.” What the heck does THAT mean exactly? Now I’m starting to panic. The crackling sound was getting worse and the smell more intense. Karlo decides that he must “remove” the fire from the stove. Oh Lord, how does one remove a raging fire?

Well, he opened the door, reached in and GRABBED the burning logs with nothing more than work gloves on. He threw them into the metal ash bucket near the stove. I’m standing there terrified as I watch the flames shooting up his arm and sparks flying all over our very wood house. I quickly open the door to the deck and out he goes. Meanwhile the door to the wood stove is wide open. There’s still plenty of fire left, smoke is filling the entire house, the fire alarms are blaring, and I have two greyhounds on the verge of a heart attack.

By the time Karlo gets back inside, smoke is starting to stream out of the stones of the fireplace wall. That was it, I was with the greyhounds clutching my heart. Karlo said it was time to call 911. This must be bad because Karlo never makes rational decisions like this. I called and they said somebody would be right over. The alarms are still blaring, all the doors are now open, the house is freezing, there is dust & black soot covering the counters and entire kitchen. Perfect. This is exactly what we planned for our big breakfast get-together.

So we are standing out front waiting for the fire truck. Instead, the first set of friends show, probably thinking, “How nice, they are waiting outside to greet us.” They quickly changed their mind when Karlo walks over the car and says, “Can you please move your cars to the next driveway to make room for the fire truck.” You KNOW what their first thought must have been . . . I can just hear them . . . “Why did we agree to a meal cooked by Paula?”






OK, enough drama . . . the firemen finally arrived: Two big red trucks and about a half dozen volunteer vehicles. I swear half the town was here. Could have been the biggest event in Eastford for awhile. We even met our neighbor across the street whom we have yet to catch a glimpse of. The house was full of guys in big coats, boots and funny hats. They were on the roof, at the stove, in our bedroom. They seemed to know what they were doing. They took care of everything and the last thing they said when they were leaving was , “Well, welcome to Eastford.” Not exactly the welcoming committee I had expected, but it was actually a very amusing and pleasant morning after they arrived.

Our second set of friends had to park on the street when they arrived because there was positively no room in our horse-shoe driveway and two big fire trucks in the back driveway. I told them that I had invited the whole town to the party. Of course these friends had to be co-workers so by tomorrow morning the entire company will know this story. Do you think we will EVER live it down?

I had to add this picture to show off the lawn. I guess Karlo is right. It's very important to make sure that EVERY leaf is immediately removed from your lawn. You never know when half to town is going to drop by unexpectedly for a visit!

Random Reflections From Boston

After not blogging for the past three days, I have all sorts of random reflections filling the space between my ears. Being away from home, in a place very different from home, with not much to do, gave me all kinds of time to ponder. In no particular order of important, I’m going to let my brain lose on you. Here goes:

* First of all, I need to really appreciate the fact that I don’t have to deal with traffic in my normal every day life. I know I moaned and whined a bit about doubling my work commute and having to drive much further to get to stores. But holy CRAP – if I had to drive in city traffic every day to get to work, I would shoot myself. Well, maybe not shoot myself, but for sure quit my job and be a bum. Anything would be better than fighting city traffic day in and day out. It was torture. It took me 2.5 hours to get to Boston (which, by the way is only 71 miles from home). The last 28 miles were bumper to bumper, stop and go, mostly in 1st and 2nd gear. Not fun wearing high heeled boots and driving a stick shift. My ankle was killing me by the time I arrived.

* The magic of 40 really does exist. Now I’m not there yet, but I can already see the effects. I still don’t need glasses. I can see fine far away and I can also see fine close up. But what I realized this week is that it’s hard for me to go from one to the other after being fixed at one distance for a long time. For instance, I would look at my book during the breaks for 10 minutes and then when it was time to look back up at the screen . . .well, it took me a few minutes to focus. Sucks. I don’t like it!

* I look like I live in Eastford, CT and that just depresses me. As I was packing for my little trip, I stood in my closet completely frustrated. I don’t have any clothes appropriate for strolling the streets of Boston. Now if I had to pack for a hiking or camping trip, I’m all set. I would be the best dressed camper in the park. But I can not compete with the stylish chicks in the city. Walking around Boston was so depressing. Everyone looks so hip and chic. I decided that I needed something new to make myself feel better. I found a little mall and low and behold, my favorite store (Ann Taylor Loft). I had no problem finding lots of things I loved in there, but then the even more depressing part of shopping in the city came in to play – the prices. Gadzooks. How can I spend that much money on clothes right now? I can’t. So sad. I think I need a shopping trip, with my fashion consultant Tina, to that Steve & Barry's store.

* And this leads me to my next random shopping thought. What is up with the sizing today? I hate it. I have lots of clothes from the Loft and why is it that what used to fit me last year no longer fits me this year? I have not changed in size one inch. I went so far as to bring some clothes into the changing room. Maybe just putting them on will make me feel better . . . well, that didn’t work. It just frustrated me. Is it so difficult to make consistent sizing? I even asked the sales girl why my size doesn’t fit me. She launched into her lesson on all the different names of the various styles. You see, there are different lines all named by woman’s names. For instance Ann, Julie, Marisa, Shari, etc. Every name has a different cut. That’s all fine and dandy, but shouldn’t all the names in one size fit? The sales person told me that perhaps I need to try some different name because they have a slimmer cut. Who has the patience for that? Shouldn’t shopping be easier than this? Do I need to shop with a reference card to assist me picking out something that will fit? Ridiculous. Well, that made not spending lots of money easy. Nothing fit so I bought nothing.

* And my last piece of random thought is that it’s very frustrating to me to be so lost in my own backyard. I got lost getting home last night! Can you imagine . . . I navigated my way in and out of the big intimidating city and got lost 9 miles from home. I only got off highway coming from the East one other time (in broad day light) and last night it was pitch dark and raining and I got completely disoriented. There’s no place to pull over and ask for directions. There are no landmarks other than trees, trees and more trees. Yes, we have a GPS sitting safely at home! I can’t wait until I’m more familiar with home!

Off to Boston

I forgot to mention . . . I'll be in Boston most of this week. I'm going to an Adobe conference so I can learn lots and become a better print and web designer. Yeah! I'm such a software geek too. I'll be sitting in my room every night playing with my laptop, testing out all my new knowledge. Sickening. According to the hotel web site, I'll be in the heart of Boston's finest shopping too. But I'm going to try real hard to not venture out and get myself into trouble.

Hopefully I'll have web access in my room so blogging shouldn't be a problem. But just in case I disappear for 3 days, don't worry . . . if the stress of the traffic doesn't kill me, I'll be back!

I’m Not Afraid of Heights

I’m just not particularly fond of ladders. And I therefore did not enjoy this project very much. All I asked of Karlo was that he stick around and hold the ladder to ensure it didn’t slip out while I was on it. I guess that was where I went wrong. Karlo can’t just stand there idly and not be up to no good. If he’s going to stand at the bottom of the ladder, he may as well have some fun . . . by shaking the ladder, poking the back of my knees, just plain getting his kicks by scaring me. It was not a fun project and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I’m just so thankful that our new neighbors lent us their awesome ladder! I can only imagine the contraption that Karlo would have engineered in place of their ladder. I’m sure I would have been strapped into Karlo’s climbing harness and dangling from the ceiling. At least this was better than that.

So here’s the big unveil of the new color. Are you ready? (click on the small picture below to enlarge) I had to draw notes on the picture – otherwise you would never be able to tell the difference between what was painted and what wasn’t. Good grief. All that work and for what? Well, I must admit . . . it’s not as bad as the picture portrays. At different times of the day, in different lighting, the paint color is less subtle and much more noticeable. All I know is that it’s no longer blaring white and I am therefore happier.

Why Everybody Should Own a Greyhound

Since my last video was a blogging disaster, Penni went directly to YouTube and did a search for "singing greyhounds." She didn't find my video, but she did find one that I saw a long time ago and loved. I told Karlo about this and always meant to hunt it down and save it. Well, thanks Penni - you found it for me without even knowing I was looking for it. This is classic greyhound:



And it really makes me appreciate my lazy hounds. It just so happens that I'm babysitting a pooch at work today. Since my office is set up for dogs (complete with a blanket, a water bowl, a bone and several toys) what better place to house my coworker's dog? Well, this little devil got here at 8:30 this morning and has not settled down yet. He's continuously on the move, pacing around and around and around . . . walking in and out of my office, to the end of my little hall where he hits a road block. Back and fourth, hundreds of times. Lay down already!!!! You never appreciate what you have until its gone and you have something else in it's place. I love my 'lazy as can be' greyhounds!!!!

Just To Put More Pressure On Tina . . .

I stumbled over a place last night that will take an entire blog and turn it into a real book. I’m thinking that I may do this with my blog. Now don’t worry, this is not a cop out to me writing my real book some day. I just thought it would be fun to have a hard copy of all my blog entries. The software will automatically suck in, not only my words, but also any pictures that I uploaded and you guessed it . . . all the comments as well. So not to put any pressure on ya, but everyone’s embarrassing typos will be forever documented. Hee hee. Oh what fun.

I can just see what this is going to do to all future postings . . . I’ll never get another comment again. Now come on . . . just think . . . everyone who posts a comment can claim that they are “a published author.” And it’s the comments that are always the most amusing part. For instance, Penni's band name suggestion of the "Cheese Hounds." That was hilarious and needs to be remembered. So I am expecting all you commenters out there, and especially those “wanna be, but are too scared to try” commenters to get on the ball. I want to remember all these little conversations for years to come.

The Singing Hounds Video (Take II)

Darn YouTube doesn't seem to be working. If you want to see the singing hounds, please click here.

I’m Starting My Own Band

I haven’t come up with the band name yet. Maybe you can make some suggestions . . . .

Last night I realized that Bentley likes to sing when he hears me playing the bass. Normally, he only lets out the big belting ‘baarrroooooooos’ when the phone rings. But last night he started howling like crazy when I started to practice the bass. I stopped . . . listened for the phone . . . nothing. So I went back to playing. There he goes again “Barrrroooooooo.” I stopped again, listened for what he was howling at, and again I heard nothing. So I plucked a few more notes and there he goes again. What a riot. He was SINGING along.

I decided that we should form a band. Me on bass, Bentley on vocals, perhaps John on the guitar, and Nicole on the keyboard. I started some auditions last night . . . see the video below and now I realize that, although she doesn’t sing, Peanut can definitely steal the show. She seems to love cameras and loves to be in front of them.

This is Bentley singing “I Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog.” Make sure you have the volume up.

Foot Frustrations

I am so fed up with my feet! Buying shoes has always been an agonizing ordeal where I usually end up in tears. I HATE buying shoes. It’s worse than shopping for a bathing suit. But I needed some comfortable and cute black shoes that I can wear when I work trade shows. How hard should it be to find flat black shoes that fit me? Well, the answer is impossible.

Last month I set out to find these shoes. Shopping for clothes is a very rare occasion these days and I really need to justify every purchase. I found some shoes at Kohls that weren’t too expensive and were really nice. I think I loved them. They were perfect. I tried on an 8.5 (which would be my size of choice in shoes that I wear with socks) but they were way too big. I tried an 8 and those seemed better, but I still walked completely out of them with every step. OK, so next I tried a 7.5, but those were too tight up around the ball of my foot. Uuugh, so much for those nice shoes.

The hunt continued and I found my Plan B shoes. Not my favorite, but still kind of cute and more importantly – very comfy. I went through the same trying on process and these 8s seemed to be better. I didn’t walk out of them . . . at least not in the store. Today is my second day wearing them and guess what? The leather must have stretched ever so slightly and now my heel comes right out of them. Is there no hope for me? Are my heels to skinny for normal shoes? I refuse to go to Footprints and spend a fortune on a pair of shoes. I just want to go to normal stores and buy normal shoes. Does there exist some kind of contraption that goes into the heel of the shoe to fill the gap? Or maybe some special heel plumping socks? Hmmmm, maybe I’m on to something here. Sounds like I have a new invention. Shhhhhhhhh, don’t tell anybody.

Hard Working Slacker

Boy, that sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? But it’s true. We worked so hard this weekend – non-stop – and I don’t have a thing to show for it. All the things I could have taken pictures of . . . but didn’t. I’m sorry.

Here’s a short recap and (some) pictures will follow shortly. I couldn’t stand the glowing white walls in our house anymore and finally did something about it. I’ve been thinking about painting and struggling with paint chips for a month. I finally decided to just go for it and on Saturday we went to Home Depot to buy the paint. Yesterday, I tackled most of the first floor and painted for at least 4 hours (and that doesn’t include the endless prep time or clean-up time). What a job. There was almost nothing that could be rolled. It was a cutting in nightmare. Where was Lisa when I needed her? After all that hard work, I sat and took it all in. Guess what? You can’t even tell I painted!! The color is so subtle that it looks white. Good grief. That’s OK. I know it’s not white anymore and I, therefore, feel better! Well, I mentally feel better. Physically, every part of my body is sore.

After the half day of painting and cleaning, we went out for a mountain bike ride. What a beautiful day. And I can’t believe I didn’t bring my camera. The pictures would have been nice, but the video of me trying to cross a river by jumping across rocks would have been priceless. Karlo makes it look so darn easy. Well, it’s not! Not if you’re wearing bike shoes. For those of you who never wore bike shoes, they have metal cleats on the bottom that clip into the pedals. Those metal clips are very slippery on pavement, let alone wet, moss covered rocks. Holy cow, that was an adventure. And poor Karlo, he had to cross three times. Once carrying his own bike, one time back across to get my bike, and then back again carrying my bike.

In addition to all that adventure, we raked leaves and Karlo even walked into our pond to rake the leaves out of the pond. Who does this? And where was my camera for that? Karlo did some more work on his beautiful stone wall masterpiece and I’m not going to show it off until it’s done. I know you are waiting Tina, but hang in there.

My New Favorite Photographer

I discovered a new photographer yesterday and I think he’s become, at least one of my favorites — certainly my new favorite this month. His stuff is bizarre and creative. He thrives on humor and I love the fact that you really have the think to appreciate each of his photos. Check out his site here: http://www.mattstuart.com/

But after the novelty of this guy wears off, I’ll go back to my long-time favorite . . . Braden Summers. His stuff is amazingly beautiful. He just happens to be the son of the owner of the company I work for. I practically watched this kid grow up and he’s not a kid anymore. He’s well on his way to becoming a very famous photographer. If you have a moment and want to be awed, check out his work here: www.bradensummers.com

Another Eastford Perk

Guess how many trick-or-treaters we got last night? Exactly ZERO. It was great. Now, I don’t mean to be a Halloween ba-hum-bug, but given that I’m too old to dress up and party and I don’t have little ones to be festive with, what is the point? I just plain don’t like the holiday. In Andover, our night was completely wasted. You couldn’t do anything because the doorbell would ring every five minutes. Then there was the fiasco of trying to hold back the dogs, who were always very interested in running to the door and greeting the poor little goblins that were eye level with the giant hounds. Hold back the dogs, give out the candy, make small talk with people I don’t know. I hated it.

Last night was a normal productive night. I had the light on and I had candy ready . . . I swear. We ate our dinner, uninterrupted, and then we proceeded to get busy with our projects. We even got our peaceful couch/TV time. Yup, I don’t miss the subdivision one tiny little bit. We are happy hermits.