Curly

Okay, I lied.
I am not entirely sick of the Olympics, yet.
I got sucked into it again by watching the men's curling event yesterday. Both me and Mr. F enjoy watching curling, although he says he prefers to watch the Ladies curling. Hmmmm...
And why do they insist on calling it Ladies events and not Women's in the Olympics?
As for me, I like the men. Especially this man:


That's Andreas Lang from the German curling team. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see more of Andy, since the German team didn't make it to compete for the gold. *sigh*
That was up to Norway(who will always be remembered for those fantastic trousers) and Canada. The Canadian men's curlers were so good and deserved the gold medal. It was a great game! Of course, the response in the stands from the crowd was entertaining, too. Lots of spontaneous eruptions and singing from the Canadian fans. I felt a little bad for the Norwegians since there weren't many of their supporters there for them.

On tap for today:
**IHOP (soon, I hope...Mr. F still isn't up out of bed!)
**watching the rest of Slumdog Millionare (we started watching yesterday afternoon, but then had to put it on hold because of the curling, of course!)
**probably the supermarket (sometimes I feel like this is the only place I go)
**trying to like my new hair color and look. Not sure about it yet.
**getting the dog out for a good walk(it's finally sunny out there) and I think now is the time to do it.
I'm off with the dog, then.

A (Not So) Quick One

There's a been a change of plan..just a little...for this Saturday.

I have to open up at work and be there until around noon today. Waaa...

This week has been so stressful at work with all kinds of aggravations. One being a scary, woman-hating yelling customer(who is affiliated with a university women's basketball team, which is pretty chilling). Co-workers, with their little quirks are annoying me more than usual(as am am sure I am annoying them with my own little quirks). We have had nothing but huge framing jobs, either in quantity(it is so monotonous to put together the same thing x 10) or size(and dealing with giant heavy plates of picture glass is not my cup of tea). I want this week to be over, but I can't celebrate that until I get out of there and go to the hair salon.

In fact, I want a vacation. But that isn't going to happen any time soon.

So, I'll have to think of my pampering high-lighting session as my own mini-vacation.

My breakfast this morning?

Blueberries in my oatmeal.

Also, a bowl of Indian Pudding(I made another batch to bring in to work this week) with ice cream! Hey, it's Saturday, and I have to work, so I think I deserve it.

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about breaking the coffee machine's carafe? Well, yesterday, we discovered that now the whole coffee maker doesn't work anymore. It was a "cheapie Proctor Silex made-in-China" one, so I guess all we could have expected was five good years out of it?

So, before I went over to my friend's house for the book club wine gulping sessi----er, "meeting", I popped in to Benny's to buy a new coffeemaker, so we wouldn't have to start off the weekend with no coffee. The woman who rang me up remembered me and my story of the broken carafe when I bought the replacement one!! We both had to laugh about that. And...she told me that two days after I came in with my story about breaking the coffee carafe, she went and bumped her's and it broke! I didn't mean to jinx her.

Book night was lovely, with EVERYONE showing up for once. We got to sit in front of a lit fireplace(while the snowflakes swirled outside), we toasted each other with ice cold aquavit(and it was a Danish bottle, incidentally, Zuzana, if you are reading this), we all liked the book we read(Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo") and all agreed upon a Saul Bellow book for next month's selection(I know--some heavy reading, this time). We are also planning a "Julia Child Cook-Off Weekend" at a member's beach cottage this June, where we'll all make a dish from "The Art Of French Cooking" there and sit down to eat it all.

Then, when I got home, I had a slight headache(thankfully I don't have one this morning) and stomach ache(I think the combination of sushi, salmon and dill and stuffed mushrooms and wine...and schnapps churning in my belly might have had something to do with that), so took two aspirin and three Tums and fell into bed.

I have decided that I am sick of the Olympics(doesn't it end this weekend?)--I heard the sound of those damn cowbells that get rung at events from the TV on in the other room last night and they were driving me nuts. Enough!

And crap! That is horrible news about the huge earthquake in Chile. That was the first thing I saw when I logged onto the Internet this morning. Damn. There are way too many bad things happening and people suffering. It puts having to work on a weekend into perspective and makes me remember that my life(at this moment)is pretty darn good.

******

This didn't turn out to be as short a post as I thought it would be. But, I called this a "quick" one because this is all random, off the top of my head stuff, fueled by caffeine.

Hop on over to....

...another Friday Fill-In. (to play along, visit here)

1. A cup of tea _____________when I come home from work in the late afternoon is a satisfying routine for me.

2. A cat and/or a dog snoozing on the couch_________ makes a place feel like home.

3. Everything has its beauty __________if you are open to seeing it.

4. Who doesn't like_____________ the taste of strawberries?

5. Art makes me ______________ feel all tingly inside.

6. LOL I just noticed I forgot ________the laundry in the dryer again.(it's been there for two days now--hopefully not too wrinkled)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _____bookclub night,

tomorrow my plans include _____getting my hair hi-lighted (a gift from my husband--I have never done this before)

and Sunday,

I want to _____drive over the 2 bridges to the nearest IHOP! (been having my "once-a-year" craving for silver dollar pancakes and Boysenberry syrup for two weeks now)

Images of summer....

Okay..it's nearly March and I have reached my breaking point where I am sick to death of the dead grey cold of winter(and ice and snow) and want the summer to get here...soon, please? Dug these photos out of my personal archives of summer vacations past....

How about ...a summer morning with a fresh breeze blowing in through an open kitchen window?
Coffee sipped outside while sitting in an Adirondack chair,with bare toes dug into the cool grass.
With a lazy day ahead and plenty of time to work a puzzle....

an outdoor shower....

barefoot on a beach on Block Island ..

jumping into a cold mountain pool....wheeee....

bicycles...hydrangeas....

For some more summery images, go to Content In A Cottage

and Life Through Reflections.

Listening

Or "Repeat" Listening
I'm re-publishing an entry I wrote last year at this time.
Out of curiosity, I went back to exactly a year in my own archives, to see what I had written then. It was much nicer out, weather-wise than it is this week of 2010, since it's cold rain and snow on the ground(but melting into a mucky mess) today.

***from Feb. 24, 2009
Today I had my annual visit to the eye doctor.
As usual, I had to wait about a half hour there (even though I was right on time at 10:15), before I was called in to see Dr. Z. I guess that isn't so bad, considering this is the only one of my doctor's or dentist's offices I ever have to wait long in for an appointment.

Anyway....it wasn't a bad visit after the boring wait--nothing to make you feel uneasy or uncomfortable. But, I completely forgot that they put those drops in your eyes to dilate them so they can test them. And of course, it had to be a blindingly bright and sunny day out there, so even with sunglasses, it was difficult to see once I left the office. I drove straight home--not too bad with the visor down and my sunglasses on.

Once I reached home, I realised I was hungry and since the kitchen was kind of dark, I found it easy enough to manage to heat up some soup. Since it was so nice out and I didn't feel the cold(the wind had died down from the gale like gusts of yesterday) I decided to try eating my lunch outside on our sunny south facing deck. With the sun being stronger this time of year, it is often comfortable enough to sit there around noon, wearing a jacket, but without any hat or gloves. I have done it in the past. And I felt like I needed the sun's warmth on my face and body today.

I dragged a dining chair out there, and even put the dog's bed out next to the chair so Jewel could join me. With her black fur, she heats up nicely in warm sunshine.
It was as warm as I had hoped it would be. Even though the temps at the weather station said a high of 34*F(around 1*C), it felt much, much warmer, with the sun soaking into the house wall directly behind my chair. It is as if we have a whole different microclimate in our backyard because it is at the bottom of a hill, protected by tall fences and faces south.
Even with my sunglasses on, though, I couldn't read the book I decided I was going to read out there as I ate. The effects of the dilation were making it impossible to focus on anything, especially with the sun shining right on my face. I was annoyed, at first.

So..I had to give in and simply sit there, seeing nothing, and with nothing else to fill up my brain. I am so used to always busying my brain with something to read whenever I sit alone eating or even sit outside. But this time I was forced to close my eyes and just sit there, cupping the bowl under my chin so I wouldn't spill any soup from my spoon. And when I was done, I started to really listen to the sounds of my quiet corner of the world. Daily, I hear things like birdsong and sometimes the wind, but never pay attention to it for long, really.
But today, the sounds around me--
the cardinals singing from the very top of a tree(I did peek quickly),
the blue jay's and chickadee's calls,
the scampering of the squirrels along the top of the fence (bet Jewel was noticing that!),
the distant hum of the highway traffic,
far off seagull cries,
and the music of a few neighbor's wind chimes--started to take on a rhythmic quality.
It was almost like a random back and forth symphony and I can understand how someone who is blind might be more attuned to musical sounds in everyday life.
I loved hearing the sound of the wind that made the leaves on the ground rustle lightly and the still bare trees creak as the very tops swayed. But luckily, the wind didn't touch me in my secluded, protected spot.

I also noticed how truly devoid of most human noises my neighborhood is at that time of day and this time of year. There was only the distant sound of the highway(usually not noticed when all the leaves are on the trees). Once I heard the familiar sound of the UPS delivery truck making its rounds. For the most part, it was the furry and feathered inhabitants of my suburban world who were making all the noise. Although I wouldn't call it noise since it was so lo-fi and reassuring to listen to.
I kept noticing the fluttering of wings overhead and near the house. Finally, with my head tilted in the direction I heard these sounds coming from, I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see a female cardinal taking off with a twig (or something like it--very small) in her beak from the house's gutter. Then I heard the a flurry of wings again, and noticed another one--a male, this time. They were most likely building a nest. I'll mention to J that our gutters probably need to be cleaned out, but I think I'll wait a few days at least, so the birds can use whatever they want out of there.
Eventually, I nearly fell asleep, with my head lolling back. I could have used a real deck chair to lean back in but they are still stored away. It won't be long until they offically come out of hibernation, though. And today was a nice first touch of what is to come
and a chance to slow down and just "be" for a little while.