Nice butt

Roscoe tries to hide when he hears thunder or someone raises their voice. This is what happens when the computer compartment in the desk is open and I have a bad moment on the job.

I guess we're lucky he didn't take out the cable modem!

Here Comes The Rain Again

Fallin' on my head like a tragedy
Fallin' on my head like it's not almost freakin' June already!!!

Shit weather in NM Thursday and Friday. More of the same when we got home last night. Summer sure seems to be dragging its feet this year, and winter still has spring tied up in the closet.

The good side is that all the plants look wonderful. I planted some zinnias, hollyhocks, and rose moss seeds before we left and they're all coming up. Sunshine after all this moisture should make them grow like weeds. Ha.

Yesterday before we left the mouse appeared again, but this time Roscoe caught it! We made him drop it for fear of rabies or hantavirus. Guess who got stuck disposing of the poor little critter? Yours truly! I picked it up with a couple of paper towels. It wasn't quite dead, and I didn't want it to suffer too terribly in the hot waste bin I was going to toss it in. So I put the entire bundle on the ground and stomped on it first. A little bit of bloody goo shot out from the paper towels. I was unsettled for a few hours afterwards.

No sign of mama robin today. I'm bummed and not looking forward to retrieving the eggs out of the nest.

Non-blogging vacation

Hi all, just thought I'd let you know I'm in Albuquerque for the holiday and not really blogging. You'd have been quite tickled to watch Ripley chasing a mouse on my mother-in-law's patio, or to see me jump a few feet in the air when the mouse ran out from under a bench straight towards me, but unfortunately the videographer was on a smoke break.

So, happy barbecuing to all! I'll let you know what the nest looks like when I get home next week.

Painblogging - now live!

I'm sitting in a periodontist's lobby waiting for the spousal unit while he has a tooth extracted. He grinds them at night and fractured one to the roots.

This is not pleasant. There's no doors in this joint and I can hear everything.

"Good job!" -frequently

"You're going to hear a sound, don't be alarmed..." WTF? I heard that sound out here!

"You definitely made the right call..."

And the constant grinding sound. He's getting a bone graft with something the dentist called "human bone product". Doesn't that sound nifty?

Etc., tweet tweet!

Wow.

Work and softball and wait, cancelled due to rain that wasn't and more work work work and birthday party and Iron Man, overrated and shopping for plants and bird feeders and food and dinner at The Med in Boulder, yumity yum and planting and digging and pulling and cutting and scraping and work and trip to the pharmacy and dinner and...phew!

I forgot to add in sleep and trips to the loo, but that's more or less what I've been up to since we last typed.

This little robin has been equally busy. She's got a nest on our porch. Opening the front door scares her off so I spy on her through the window.

I've been dying to see what the eggs look like, so today I busted out a ladder and the camera while mama and papa were out on a date, or whatever birds do while they are away from the nest. Aren't they beautiful?

Mama bird hasn't been back all day. I didn't scare her away when I took my pictures, did I? I was very careful not to touch nest or eggs.

Here's a little black and orange fella feasting on the bounty in my newly hung feeder. Orange head and chest, black everything else. Oriole, perhaps? You can see him better if you click on the picture. It's not all the bad considering digital zoom was engaged and it was taken through a screen.

Then later today a big grackle was trying to figure out how to land on the feeder without tipping it. He ended up just picking the leavings out of the rocks below.

Megan's Meme

Haven't done a meme in awhile, so here goes. Thanks Megan!

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Locate the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences on your blog and in so doing…
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

"As he had for months now, Adams struggled to keep a balance with the need, on one hand, for all possible haste, and the need, on the other, to keep from pushing too fast, forcing events too soon. Some things, some people, must not be hurried. Time and timing were both of the essence, now more than ever."

I don't have that many readers, so everyone who reads this is tagged.

Dia de los Madres

Headed down to see the mamacita for the weekend. She lives just 2 1/2 hours away from us now so it's a quick skip. The trip yesterday morning took me through Castle Rock.

Stephen King fans know the name of this fictional Maine town well. What you may not realize is that monsieur King lived briefly as a child in our lovely state. Makes sense, given that a few of his non-Maine books (The Stand, The Shining, Misery) are in fact set here. Thus, I choose to believe that above rock partly inspired the stories that have haunted me over the years.

Next stop, Colorado Springs, or as locals call it, the Springs. Gorgeous vistas abound, of the quality that make you think God likes this place. Perhaps that's why so many of his Christian followers flock here.

I snapped a shot with my phone that didn't come out of a Got Jesus? bumper sticker. If I didn't, do you think I could pick up a quart of Jesus at the corner store?

Finally, to casa de Mama. We spent a leisurely day lunching and taking the dogs (all 4 of them) to frolic in the Arkansas river.

Sunday we had waffles for breakfast and then headed out on the Royal Gorge train route. Mother nature cooperated and we were able to spend some time in the open air car. Here's a pic of the world's highest suspension bridge.

And finally, back home. Ripley and Roscoe were not thrilled by the long car ride.

Grassically Challenged

You probably realize that I like to garden, but it may come as a suprise that the spousal unit and I suck at keeping the lawn.

Yesterday I went out to dig out all the weeds that have crept in. Who knew it was so satisfying to call a dandelion a stupid twat? It's too bad though, because now most of the green part of my lawn, the weeds, is now gone. There are a couple rental houses in the neighborhood whose lawns are more dead than ours. I'm sure the neighbors on our street are pleased with us.

I know it would help if we watered the damn thing. Some day very soon we'll get our sprinklers running for the season. Fertilizer? Weed and feed? Got bags of the stuff in the garage but no clue when or how often we should apply.

And mowing? Let's not discuss that.

I think we're going to throw in the towel and hire a lawn service.

Moniker Chuckles

Just thought I'd share with you a couple of names that have made me giggle lately.

The spousal unit's boss is named Tom Waits. Seriously. Now, that's got to be a common name, a'la Rod Stewart or Chris Martin, but it still makes me grin whenever I hear it.

I love Dutch words and names specifically with their overabundance of vowels. I stumbled on an article in National Geographic the other day by one Stephen Van Der Aa. You have to pronounce it out loud to get the full effect. "Van Der Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah".

Share with me some names you've found amusing!

All is Not As It Seems

What is this, you may ask. Does Slave have access to Amy Winehouse's flat in London? Did she somehow get backstage at the Good Charlotte concert to whoop it up with Paris and Nicole?

Nope. This is what happens when you have to travel with injectable fertility drugs and are too lazy to clean up the mess you made using your in-room coffeemaker. They never give you enough sugar to go with the coffee!

Kudos to the spousal unit for having the presence of mind to capture this clever shot.

Bizarre Love Triangle

Roscoe and Sasha share a tender moment.




Ripley must console herself by remembering that she still controls the pocketbook.*

_{* Photos actually taken within seconds of each other}