Random Thoughts

1. I love seeing the leaves on the ground.  I say stop the raking! haha Look how pretty that looks!
2. We had a parakeet die recently and then his little friend died a week later. They were both elderly so it wasn't surprising.  The second one going soon after the first happened to our original bird couple years ago!  I can't help but think that they are broken hearted and lonely.  Aw.  Hope they are reunited in heaven and happy again.  No more birds for us, though. The zoo has now shrunk to cats only. What a difference a year makes!  No more rabbit, no more bird song.  Sigh.
3. Can you believe Thanksgiving is just next week?  Time is FLYING!  
4. Speaking of Thanksgiving, most of you know how I feel about mixing holidays.  No Christmas creeping into the autumn holidays! Thanksgiving is warm hues, pumpkins, pilgrims and turkey.  I couldn't believe my eyes scrolling through Instagram and seeing ladies decorating their Christmas trees before Halloween.  What on earth!  They said they have so much decorating to do that they must start early.  I say they are doing too much decorating, then! haha.  
5. I don't decorate for Christmas before December but I do start my shopping! haha.  Online, free shipping, in my jammies.  My favorite way to do it!  Already got a good chunk of it done!
6. I haven't been to an auction since August!  Can you believe that? With my extra storage room turned into a guest room, I don't have the space for a lot of pending items waiting to be sold in my shop!  So I've taken a break to let things sell down to a more manageable amount.  I've still had a sale or two almost every day, so it's all been good.  Tomorrow I'm off to an auction again!  Should be fun! I wonder if they've missed me. haha.

Any random thoughts in your head today?

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Slice of Life Saturday #2

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Monday

1. White tea with lemon.
2. Cantaloupe prep for dinner.
3. Peaches literally lived on our back porch all weekend but hasn't been seen today.  I think he knows the vet's hours!
4. Mr and Mrs House Finch came for lunch.
5. Laundry....and more laundry.
6. Socks....not the laundry kind, although he wears long white ones on his back legs!
7. Mr. Bird.  If I whistle, he sings back!
8. Two lumps, please.
9. Almonds, happy in a thrift store container.

Around Here Lately

The end of the week had me baking 8 dozen cookies!

I have to say this new kitchen made it an easy task.

96 cookies, rolled, cut out, baked, cooled and frosted in 4 hours!

Then the kitchen got put back together, the cookies got boxed up

and they waited to be picked up.  I hadn't had a cookie order in

a while, so that was very fun!

The rest of the weekend was lazy!

We ate buttermilk blueberry pancakes with

homemade syrup, thick sliced bacon and fried eggs.

We flopped on the couch.

We did a little bird watching outside.

Some of us did bird watching inside!

It's more up close and personal that way.

And the birds tease and sing like they know they

are safe in their cage. ha.

They don't even flinch when a paw tries to get through

or big yellow eyes peer at them upside down from the top.

We tried a new recipe, too.

Chicken breasts stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, pesto and feta.

omg...SO delicious!

The recipe was a keeper (I'll share soon)

and so were the weekend memories.

Now we're going to make a pizza and watch

the Super Bowl.  Well, I'm more interested in 

the commercials! ha.

♥

The Weekend

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Determination

Samantha

"If plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters ~ 204, if you're in Japan."

(and 9 lives if you're a cat!)

quote by Claire Cook, author

♥

Today's Awards

The Funnest Thing ~ giving Cement Bunny a bath.

The Most Beautiful Thing ~ Blue Jay in my Crab Apple tree.

The Cutest Thing ~ Cement Bunny decked out for

 Thanksgiving, wearing a glass beaded wreath.

The Newest Thing ~ A Nuthatch!

The Most Colorful Thing ~ crab apples against a blue sky.

The Most Photogenic Thing ~ Oreo napping in the living room chair.

The Sweetest Thing ~ Alex in a rare moment without

his headset, giving me a big smile.

The Snuggliest Thing ~ Oreo and Marmalade.

Oreo really has the diva look down, doesn't she?

The Yummiest Thing ~ warm potato and green bean salad

with bacon, onion and a vinaigrette dressing.

The Most Musical Thing ~ Mrs. Parakeet, who sang all

day long.  Must have been the sunshine! 

What did you notice around you today?

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The New Parakeets

Last month our little albino Mrs. Bird died. :(

She was the fourth mate for Mr. Bird!

I brought home a new mate for him but he only

lived a couple more weeks himself!  One morning last week he was laying  

dead on the bottom of the cage when I went to

feed them!  Apparently his old age finally

caught up to him!  He was a whopping 12 years old!

Unheard of for a parakeet!

Our pet cemetery in the back yard is growing!

Have I told you that The Mister swears he's burying me out there, too?

Hopefully he'll wait until I'm dead.  lol....

The new Mrs. Bird is on the left.  She's a pretty turquoise color.  She seems to like the new Mr. Bird, too. 

 Can you guess why I picked him?  I mean..it's obvious, isn't it?

Just look at those feathers...they look just like a blue sky with clouds! :)

The both sing such sweet songs to each other.

It's really quite sweet they way they kiss, feed each other and coo!  

Random Thoughts

1. What was the weather like today?  You name it, we had it, except for snow! ha.  We had heat and humidity, dark gray and cool breezes, rain, sun, and heat again!  See my mint growing around the crab apple tree?  It's going to take over the whole tree if it grows any higher. :)
2. We're winding down the school year here.  The last day is Thursday.  I sat in the silence this morning and puttered around online and drank my coffee.  The quiet was so wonderful after a busy holiday weekend!  I usually have the TV on the news, but all I wanted to hear was the ticking clocks, the oscillating room fan, and on occasional chirp from Mr. Bird.
3. We have those tell tale signs that school is almost over.  Worn out socks, worn out lunch boxes, and worn out back packs.  They are all going in the trash after the last day of school. Maybe even some of their worn out school clothes, too! :)
4. Alex has renewed an old autistic obsession of throwing things away.  He used to come and take a tissue away from me while I was blowing my nose and not finished just to throw it away!  He'll come running from another room to get it if he hears that little sound a tissue makes when you pull it from the box!  He also used to search for things to put in the trash...scraps of paper, unopened mail, grocery receipts, etc.  He started this up again last week.  This morning I walked into the kitchen to discover that he had removed the foil that was covering the pies.  Not only was the foil thrown away, but the pies were neatly sitting on the floor in a corner.  I guess he didn't think they should be adding clutter to the kitchen island! lol.  Hmm.  Could be a long summer! haha.
5. For the last week, I've been awakened to The Battle Hymn of the Republic blasting from Harry's CD player.  It's enough to raise us off the mattress, literally! lol.  You have NO idea how irritating that is. lol.  Occasionally, it's been accompanied by Alvin and the Chipmunks singing I've Been Working On The Railroad on Spencer's laptop.  Oh my.  Just another reason I call this place The Zoo.
6. Marmalade came trotting into the house recently with a bird in his mouth.  The tail and legs were hanging out.  Eew.  He was promptly shooed outside..and told to take his dinner with him! ha.
7. Can you grow a cherry tree if you plant a pit?  I have three pits drying on the window sill.  Should I try?
8. Today it dawned on me that I should move the silverware holder in the dishwasher to be closer to me and the sink, instead of on the other side of the bottom rack.  So much better.  I can't believe it took me 24 years to think of that. lol.
9. I got a call today from someone opening up a gift shop.  They would like to have my gift baskets for sale in it!  Isn't that fun?  I'm going to visit their shop and take a few baskets in and give it a go!  And you know, he randomly linked to me from LinkedIn!  So if you wonder if that business networking media is worth it, there you go. :)
10. Taylor finished May-term last week and hitched a ride to Pennsylvania with another student to visit "that sweet girlfriend" who was already home for the summer.  We pick him up at the airport tomorrow.  I miss him when he's not here. :)  It's cheaper to fly than to pay for the gas/tolls to drive!  Crazy!

How about you?  Any random thoughts?

Surely I'm not the only one! ha. 

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