Friday Rantings

Remember last week I was ranting (and rightly so) that someone had published my personal tax information on their blog. Well my son tracked down the blogger and I went on the site to see it for myself. Now we live in a small town of about 8500 people and aren't afforded the luxury of the anonymity of a larger city. Everyone pretty much knows or has a pretty good idea who everyone else is but for the most part minds their own business. There is always an exception to that rule.

The person that posted our information unfortunately is that exception. He's on the city counsel no less! We've known him for years, not as a friend but as one knows others in a small town. He loves being on the counsel so that he knows everything that is going on in town. Why he keeps getting re-elected is beyond me. :o(

Thankfully his blog is rather confusing with time lines, links, plots and subplots. I had trouble finding the list, it took me three different tries to finally get it. Hopefully other people will overlook it in all the jumble of things on his site. To add further insult to injury beside the list of us unsuspecting citizens he had written: Enjoy!

Now usually I have a pretty decent sense of humor, remember the baked beans debacle, but I think this is terribly unprofessional for someone on the city council. I would like to make a formal complaint but this would draw even more attention to the situation and some things are best left to die a natural death. So, I will just sputter and rant to you my faithful readers, and now I feel better! :o)

Tina, my buddy over at Palm Tree Fanatic has tagged me for a meme. I have to make a list of 8 weird things about myself. Hummmmmm....this should be easy, just ask my family!

1. I wash my hands a lot. My friends make fun of me as I look like I am getting ready to do surgery when I come out of the ladies room at a restaurant before I eat. I don't want to touch the door to open it with my bare hands so I use my coat sleeve or some paper towels. BUT on the other hand I can eat anything at the barn after brushing my horses and not even care if I wash my hands. Go figure.

2. I don't like my toenails unpainted. They just make my feet look like I have been dead for three days and it grosses me out. Even if I am way overdue for a pedi I am okay as long as there is a shred of polish left.

3. I don't like other peoples noise. If I am in a hotel I don't want to hear my neighbors television, their mumbled talking or their dog barking (remember also the dog wing debacle at Hard Rock Hotel last year).

4. I HATE static cling. I will go to great lengths NOT to have any static cling. It feels weird and looks worse. I carry a can of Static Guard in my car.

5. I have claustrophobia. Even putting my snowmobile helmet on each time takes me a few minutes to adjust. If I leave the face mask open a tiny bit so some air comes in on my face it helps.

6. I like my hangers all going in the same direction in all of my closets and even if I am in a store shopping I will occasionally stop and adjust the hanger on a rack if I notice one. Little OCD maybe????

7. I hate perfume. It stuffs me up, makes my nose run and gives me a headache. I can't sit beside anyone at church with heavy perfume on, I have to move. As a teenager I always wore copious amounts of Ambush but if I did that now I would be 'sicker then a dog'.

8. I don't like rattles in my car or any car that I am riding in. I have been known to stand on my head to get under the dashboard to find a rattle!

Guess that's it. I'm sure there are many more weird things but those are the first to come to mind. Now I want to know some of your weirdness! I tag Pea, NeedledMom and MeowMommy! :0)

Tuesday Talk

Tuesday already. Seems like it still should be the weekend. Funny how that works.

Saturday evening Hubby and I decided we would go to the local truck stop (nothing red neck about us!) and have some of their home cooked style food. They really do have good food especially their yeast rolls that just melt in your mouth and their baked beans. FIL won't go with us when we go there as it's about a quarter mile from the local landfill which I'm sure glows in the dark from all the stuff they've brought in from out of state. Why can't states keep their own toxic waste in their own landfills instead of sending it to other states, but I digress, that's another whole story.

Anyway, we had a nice gal waiting on us and the food was good. I had a turkey & stuffing sandwich and Hubby had the baked beans and franks, or hotdogs, what ever you choose to call them. We had just ordered our grapenut custard for dessert and our gal was clearing the table. We happened to be in the booth right by the door that goes into the kitchen with my back to the door. This is all leading up to something.

Crash! A tray loaded with dirty dishes hit the floor and jumped me right out of my seat as it was right behind me. I hear our waitress saying OH NO! and feel something dripping down the back of my head. Beans.

It couldn't have been a better shot if she had tried. Poor girl was horrified to see my white shirt and hair covered with beans and bean juice! She starts picking the beans out of my hair. I started to laugh, it was so funny but I felt badly for her as she was so upset over it. I told her not to worry it was no big deal and it wasn't. There are bigger things in life to worry about then getting baptized with baked beans!

We finished our grapenut custard and she came back with the bill and I could see she was still upset so I looked her in the eye and told her I DID NOT want her to give it another thought! She looked a bit relieved and we paid the check and came home. When I changed my shirt I could see why she was so upset, it was covered with splatters. But like I said, there are bigger things to worry about plus it makes for good blogging material! :o)

Sunday after church we came home and decided to go snowmobiling for a while. It was warm and the trails were still good so we headed out. T and D like to ride in the sled behind Daddy's machine.

I think they look like little creatures from out of space.

It was beautful out and I love seeing the old barns.

Destination!

D was sad about something for a couple of minutes till I gave him my camera to shoot some pictues.

Yikes! Who's that crazy woman????

We headed home as the kids had Awana and we had evening service. T actually rode with me part of the way home AFTER we went across the hill that we tipped over on last time we were out riding!

Today we are in the middle of a heat wave. It has been 50* today and the snow is melting like mad. It's good as far as the streets are concerned but not the snowmobile trails and with rain predicted for tomorrow it's going to make them even worse. Great for the oil bill though! :o)

Well for some reason my spell check won't work so I will not be held ressponcible fer miscspelled worrds!

Saturday Ramblings

It's Saturday again already. It's a bit warmer then it has been the last few days and they are telling us that we are going to be having temps up in the 40's so it must be our January thaw! Just saw Son go by on his snowmobile pulling the three munchkins on a big plastic sled. Cousin K spent the night last night with them so there was an extra head bobbing away as they went by.

Funsize and I met my friend Ann at the stable this morning as we always do on Saturday mornings year round. It was very cold so we just groomed the guys, visited with them and came home. Just too cold to ride. All of them are doing well. Buddy has been fine without his shoes on and now with all of the snow his feet are well padded.

There was a major scare yesterday though. Jean, the owner of the stable told us about it this morning. Ann's horse Bucky is 27 years old. He has some respiratory problems or heaves as we used to call it but otherwise is in good shape for an old boy.

Jean walked out by the pasture yesterday and Bucky was in the deep snow on his back with his feet right up straight! His head was lolled over to one side and he wasn't moving. She thought he was dead as she hurried out towards him. Well he wasn't dead but he got stuck on his back while rolling in the snow!

Now we have a serious amount of snow here at present but Jean keeps an area plowed out for the horses to roam around in but wouldn't you know the grass is always greener on the other side and Bucky ventured out into the deep snow. She thought she was going to have to shovel out around him to get him back up on his feet. It's very dangerous for horses to be down like that and especially with advanced age it can be a precarious situation.

The good news is she got him out and back up on his feet and he is no worse the wear. If she hadn't noticed him till feeding time it could have been a very different outcome so we are all thankful she saw him.

Is this a pretty butt or what??? This is Justin one of the other boarders. He is the one I rode this summer while Buddy was out of commission.

I enjoy blogging. I have met some wonderful people and enjoy so much learning about them, their families and lifestyles. I know if I could meet some of them in person we would just click as if we had been friends for years. Blogging can be a wonderful way to make these new acquaintances, have fun and as in my case be putting a journal in place for my grandchildren to read when they get older and want to read about what we did when they were 'little'.

With all that said I must say that some people use the blogosphere for some rather rude purposes. It was brought to our attention this week that someone took it upon themselves, theirself, themself, herself, oh you know what I mean, to post some of our private business. Now I know that it is perfectly legal to go to your city hall and look up what other people pay for taxes (but who in their right mind would care) but why in the world would they want to put it in their blog???????

I am trying to find out who it was so that I can see if they wrote why they would want to do this. It wasn't just us but a number of people in our town that they singled out. To be continued.........

Judy over at judyhartman.blogspot.com is having a give away to celebrate her one year blog anniversary so stop by and leave a comment! This is what she had to say:

I'm announcing a give away in honor of my one year blog anniversary!! In a lovely Anna Griffin folder I have packed three red blank cards and envelopes and a selection of black, white and red beads, buttons, ribbons and trims. As I go through my private stash of embellishments, I keep adding more goodies, so it should provide a good start for the winners' valentine card or collage making experience!!
There will be two winners. You can enter by leaving a comment on this entry and, if you refer someone else to this giveaway, I'll put your name in twice!! I will pick a winner Wednesday night at midnight. There should be a nice package of creative materials to give away by then, as I am cleaning my studio this week!!!!

I've been going through old pictures and found this one of dear Smokey Jack our wonderful old appy that we had for many years. He is shaggy as it is in the middle of the winter. Can't remember if we had sleigh bells or not.

Just to prove to you all that I really did have a waist once! This was my junior banquet at boarding school, I was 16. Those were the days! :o)

Oh, BTW the pot roast was yummy! :o)

Thursday Thoughts

It is cold today! When I checked the outside thermometer this morning it was -1*. This is the coldest it has been so far into this winter. Now snow wise we have had new record breaking amounts but we will see colder temps then this, hopefully not till February.

I went to the gym this morning and had other errands to do but I came right home. Sometimes it's just nice to be in where it's snug and warm.

I took some pictures of the darling little chickadees yesterday but they aren't very good at sitting still very long! If you look really close at the second picture you can see the wings fluttering. Hey, anyone out there know how to tell me how to be able to click on my pictures to enlarge them????

Bar-be-cue anyone????

The trees are still laden with snow from this last storm.

The snow is sure piled high on the bird feeder, looks like a hat!

Noodles knows what to do when it's cold outside..........

Remember making snow angels when you were a kid? Kids are still doing it today, some things just never go out of style! D was out behind Great Grampa's house making them the day we were sledding.

Great Grampa's house looks like a picture post card in the winter.

This is looking over at our barn from Great Grampa's house.

Just wanted to add a little color to this post!

The pot roast sure smells good, I hope it's cooked! Guess I'll be going out and buying a cast iron pot to cook in soon. Continued next time. Did we have pot roast or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner????? :o) Now is that a cliff hanger or what??????

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Wow! Have we been hit with tons of snow this week! Now I'm not complaining mind you, but it is noteworthy as it's the most snow we have had this early in winter for 100 years! Now that's a record!

Saturday morning Funsize, Ann and I went to the stable to see the guys. They don't mind the snow at all especially since they get nice hay put out for them to munch on all day. No green grass under all that snow!

Nick, Kipper and Skipper are in a different pasture so that all the big boys won't pick on them. Of course they fight amongst themselves like naughty little boys until we get their hay out to them! Notice the laid back ears!

Nick is embarrassed because he still has on the old hunter orange halter. Hey Funsize, how about a new halter????

Kipper looks like he is having a static hair day!



Came home and got the snowmobile out as the kids were coming over. We decided to do some sledding next door at Grampa's on his back lawn. It's a great place to slide, all the neighborhood kids come over to use it.

D was flying down the hill and tipped over but came right back for more! Dad was running a shuttle service back up the hill.

I decided to take a ride down with T. I'm the one that looks like Mrs. Conehead from Saturday Night Live!

Poor T, I think she is going to give up on riding with me on ANYTHING!

The kids got a new toboggan for Christmas and wanted to try it out.

We were all ready to come in and get warmed up after that. I had a nice yummy lasagna ready to go in the oven that was calling our names too....... It was a wonderful New Years Day! :o)