Birthday Wishes to Rumbeau

Today is Rumbeau's 8th birthday.  You can wish Rum a happy day and give him a treat by visiting his Dogster webpage >here<.

Easy #33

Easy, like Sunday morning!  In honor of those who still believe in Sunday morning drives, here is one for you.

Tell me...

Is there a street in your city or town that you dread being on and will absolutely avoid driving, if possible?

There are a couple, but the worse one runs north and south and goes by the name Restaurant Row, aka 21st Street; I avoid it whenever I can. It is the busiest street in the valley, filled with the most insane drivers. My avoidance of that street started about fifteen years ago during a lunch hour which I spent the better part of stuck in traffic because of an accident.  One time was all it took and I will go completely around 21st Street no matter what.  I don't know what it is about that street but people just wig out on it.

You have at least one where you live, right?  Go to your journal and tell people about it, then come back here and leave your journal entry link in the comments below.  I mean, are there really that many crazy drivers out there, or were they all just sent to this part of the country?





        

50 Things

I was tagged again with the 50 that's going around! Here's mine!

This has been updated! Questions 21-28 have been added now!!

50 things you might not know about me -- erase my answers and put in your own, then repost in your own journal.  Make sure you tag 3 people to join in. Post their links & let them know they've been tagged.... HAVE FUN!!

1. What is your middle name?  Louise

2. What size is your bed? Queen

3. What are you listening to? Breathe - Faith Hill

4. What are the last two digits in your phone number? 57

5.  What was the last thing you ate? Shrimp Salad

6.  Last person you hugged?  My hubby

7.  How is the weather right now?  Cloudy and cold

8.  Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?  At work it was Ann our insurance agent; at home my friend Bona

9.  What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?  Oh, you know what they say, the eyes have it.

10.  Do you have a bf/gf/spouse/sig other? yes husband

12.  Do you drink?  I've been known to sometimes

13.  Ever get so drunk you don't remember the entire night? oh, darn, I'd almost forgotten about THAT time

14.  Hair color?  light brown with lots of blonde highlights

15.  Eye color?  blue...blue...blue

16.  Fav baseball team? Seattle Mariners!

17.  Fav animal? Cats

18.  Favorite season? Fall

19.  Ever cried for no reason?  Ummm, I'm a woman...nearing 50...nuff said

20.  Last movie you watched? Must Love Dogs

21. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? All winter sports....can't wait for the winter Olympics!

22. Do you live in town/city or in the country? Right smack dab in the middle of town but in a very mountain like setting.

23. How much do you weigh? I got on the scale this morning and that's all I will admit to for now

24. What’s your astrological sign? 100% Taurus

25. What’s your personality type? Mostly positive and laid-back but still evolving.

26. What was the hardest thing to master when you were learning to drive? Parallel parking; I even failed my driving test the first time because of it.  My Mom showed me a very cool trick for parallel parking, which doesn't work when parking behind a VW bug.  I was so ready on the day of the exam.  And my confidence was immediately deflated when the instructor pointed to the space between two

VW Bugs and said, 'Parallel park, right there.'   I knew I flunked the second the right rear tire of mom's 1969 Chevy Kingswood Estate with wood grain paneling rambled up on the curb and the hood of the car was still blocking traffic.  Ah yes, the sweet memories of youth.

27. How did you do on that on your very first drivers’ exam? Sure, rub it in.

28. Have you ever played Truth or Dare? Yes

28½. When was the last time you played a game? Way too long ago for me to remember.

Who were you with? Beats me.

29.  What book are you reading?  The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

30.  Piercings?  my ears

31.  Favorite movie? Can't do just one: Ever After, The Power of One, October Sky, The Princess Bride, Anne of Green Gables, Pride and Prejudice, Save the Last Dance, Field of Dreams, Late for Dinner, Silverado

32.  Favorite college team? Lewis-Clark State College Warriors

33.  What are you doing right now? Sitting in my jammies journaling.

34.  Any pets? Absolutely.  Two black labs, Rumbeau and Allie, one white cat, Miss Kitty...PLUS the returning members belonging to our youngest: one huge Rottie, Missy and one grey tiger stripped attitude going by the name of Ki.

35.  Dog or cat?   Both

36.  Favorite flower?  Carnations and tulips

37.  Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to?  Of course.

38.  Have you ever loved someone?  Always.

39.  Who would you like to see right now? My dad.

40.  Are you still friends with your ex's?  No freaking way.

41.  Have you ever fired a gun?  yes

42.  Do you like to travel by plane? yes

43.  Right or left handed?  right, but with some left tendancies: dealing cards, opening jars...stuff like that; I'm a natural lefty and began writing with my left hand until my teacher freaked out (literally) and rushed to my side to show me the correct way as she said "We write with our right hand."  I've heard these days teachers are told correcting a child's natural preference for writing is a major no-no.

44.  If you could be with someone right now, who would it be?  My sister Chris and her family.

45.  How many pillows do you sleep with? 1

46.  Are you missing someone?  yes...all my family

47.  Do you have a tattoo?  yes

48.  Do you watch cartoons on Saturday morning?  Cartoons?  Those are not cartoons.

49.  Are you hiding something from someone?  Maybe

50.  Do you play an instrument? I used to play the piano and the guitar, but that was in another lifetime...also known as my childhood.

 

I'm tagging anyone who hasn't done this yet! :)

Fun Fact #2

Did you know...?

My quiet little town is the place Walt Disney married his wife, Lillian.  It's true!  Their marriage took place on July 13, 1925 in Lewiston, Idaho.  Lillian was a local girl who attended school in Lapwai, just outside of Lewiston.  The couple met while she worked at Disney Studio.  That's just one of the little known facts (or secrets, depending on your viewpoint) about my quaint little town.  :)

And for all you doubting Thomas', the marriage record can be found on-line at the Western States Historical Marriage Record Index; click >here< to view it.

There's a new one for all you Disney buffs!

Photographs property of Walt Disney Company.

Down for the count (or last thing I remember....)

Cripes!!@!

Where did the past two weeks go?  One second I'm going on about posting the answers to the Easy question and the next thing I know it's two weeks later and the answers are still amiss.

Well let's just take care of that little matter right now!                      Before something else happens.

The question was...Are there any foods you enjoy eating now that you refused to touch when you were younger?

Robin...you all know our lovely Robin...was a bit stubborn as a child.  Hmmm, now there's a surprise.  Check out her entry >here<.

Thanksgiving dinners at Christy's childhood home must have been....interesting.  She responded in the original >entry< and after you read that, check out her two journals:  Christy's Thoughts    and    Tales from the Front and the ones Left Behind.

Barb shares similiar food memories with me; funny how kids respond to cheese in so many different ways.  Go pay her a visit >here<.

Thank you to every one who played along.  And in case you were wondering what happened, it's complicated but can be summarized this way: our front door is a revolving one for the youngest daughter.  Somehow during all that moving I pissed off my back, then got hit with a case of the woooooozies everytime I sat up, or stood up and spent the better part of this past week parked horizonally in the family room.  But, I'm doing much better now, thankfully!

 

PS.  How do you like my little Avatar?  Kinda fun...but I will be posting a 'real' photo of me, soon.  Gotta show off my new do!

 

~~What we do for ourselves dies with us; what we do for others and the world is immortal. -Unknown~~

Fun Fact #1

Did you know...

An acre of Christmas Trees produces the daily oxygen for 18 people.

Five Weird Things About Me

Time to catch up.  Mary (View from a Farmhouse Window) tagged me a while back, and now my guilt is getting the best of me...and I'm not even Catholic. 

Rules again:

Here are the rules; the first player of this game starts with the topic. Five weird habits of yourself and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

1. I used to stand on one leg while washing the dishes; I always rested my right foot on my left knee whenever I was at the kitchen sink.

2.  As a toddler, I was terrified of clowns and even the Disney characters at Disneyland.  I would scream like a banshee if one came anywhere near me, even loveable Pluto.  But fortunately, I got over that.

3. My childhood love of horses was so intense that I would actually whinney, neigh, and basically imitate every sound they made while running around the house on my hands and knees acting like a horse.

4. I can imitate Mae West and Marilyn Monroe...vocally, that is.

5.  I used to eat white rice with butter and sugar on top.  Weird, I know.



Now for the next five victims of "Tag you are it"...

Diane (Butterfly Girl)

Karen (Kbearsheart) after she closes on her house and gets moved...:)

Cheryl (BoiseLadie)

Sandra (Sandra's Scribbles)

Jimmy (Stupid Sheet Guy)

Parting Shots

So....did you miss me?  Did you even notice I've been a bit invisible this past month? LOL!  My buddy Robin did  :) .  I've been having some not so great side-effects from medication...excessive drowsiness.  By two each afternoon all I want to do is take a nap and once I get home from work, I crash.  So my doc switched me over to Cymbalta last week; we'll see if that works better.
 
Gosh, where did the last month go?  It seems I was just writing about the tree farm and now it's mid-January.  That was an experience!  I learned so much between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Owning a tree farm is 11 months of doing very little and 1 month of working your butt off!  And, people will steal anything, including a Christmas tree, in broad daylight!  I could not believe it when I noticed the tree missing after work one afternoon; it was perfectly shaped and I had it picked out for one of the girls.  We even had a guy who wanted a potted tree this year so he dug through about 2 feet of frozen rock hard ground to get his tree home.  I doubt the tree will survive being uprooted in 15 degree weather, and we advised him of that, but he didn't seem to care.  Oh well!  All in all, we sold 90 trees and gave away another 7 or 8.  So, come this spring we'll be busy planting many seedlings!  We estimated there were about 500 trees before the season began, and the horizon sure has changed since November.


Missy (aka Mongrel) and Liberty (aka Libby)

Our weekend get away to the cabin was a much needed break.  We had two additional dogs that week, Missy and Liberty, as Kari was away on a ski trip.  We took them for long walks each morning after breakfast and gave them the chance to really stretch their legs.  They loved it.  The snowfall this year is down from previous years.  Normally, we have at least two feet at the cabin and have to duck our head when stepping onto the porch.   It did snow at night, but between the morning sun and the afternoon rain the snow didn't last.  I took lots of pics, and will let them take it from here.

   
Move over Crown Royal...you have been de-throned; Pendleton puts the o-o-o-o-o back in smooth.  -*-   Frosty morning walk.

   
 Dinner...love that shrimp; really spicy hot, but oh so good!   -*-   A view out the dining room window with a bit of snow hanging off the roof. 


Me and my wheeler after a very slushy ride.

A moment from one of our morning walks.

 

~~Sssshhhhh,
Can you hear?
The wind is telling its secrets.
The seed is singing with hope.
The birds and insects are talking to you.
You will never be the same.

Easy - #32

Easy -- like Sunday morning!

My time flies...and I wasn't exactly having fun.  So much has happened...so much to write about...more on that later.  It's time for the next Easy question.

Tell me...

Are there any foods you enjoy eating now that you refused to touch when you were younger?

Over the years my taste buds and food preferences have definitely changed.  As a child I turned my nose up at so many foods that I love to eat now; green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, crab, shrimp...and yes, even escargot.  I actually tried it once and thought it was pretty good!   Although I can't deny that memories of days watching snails in my garden kept running through my mind.  Once I got past that, it was actually pretty good.  It's not something I eat on a regular basis, of course...heck it's been ten years since I last ate it.


Okay, now it's your turn.  Post your answer in your journal, then come back here and leave me a link back to you.  I'll post your answers next Saturday.