Grumpy

My neighbors have a piano. I live NEXT to them.. as in we share a wall. For the last hour they have been 'playing' piano. and when I say playing I mean YOU CAN NOT PLAY THAT DAMN THING PROPERLY. A 5 year old could tap better music out of that instrument than you can. AND could you just play a song.. rather than chords. For goodness sake, your a MUSIC teacher.. you would think you could play something other than chords. And, I have lived next to you for 3 years... and you still sound like shit.. .same as the day you moved next to me.

Christmas Catch-up

This years Holiday Photo…

My cousin was visiting, and we waited for him to arrive before we set up the tree and filled it with all the loving ornaments

Stocking Stuffer Openings…

Monroe even got a treat.. she loves yogurt popsicles!

Hope your holidays were filled with love & cheer.

Tuesday Tidbits to Tempt

Went to a fab French restaurant the other day to celebrate birthdays, and it was a great time! Food… divine! Company…chattering away and lovely! Atmosphere… rainy. Oh well, cant have everything right?

Here is a photo of the great looking crew…

I had a goat’s cheese tartlet to start with ( I know, not really a vegan thing, but sometimes I just gotta…)

Sweet Potato Soup for a starter… looked so nice & creamy

And of course, mom and dad’s escargot… which is not my thing, but they love it! I just cant handle anything slimy going down.. but the garlic butter is great to dip bread in!

Birthday boy got his Baked Alaska for dessert, and thankfully, he shared with all of us… oh goodness.. talk about yummy!

And, this happy looking couple will be celebrating 14 years of wedded bliss tomorrow…

What a great day! The weather wasnt all that shiny tho for the ranges, so my cousin didnt get to see the mountains as much as we wished.. but theres always another day.  And, we so need the rain, that I think we didnt really mind all that much.

Saturday Shopping

We were to pick up my cousin from the airport around noon on Saturday. He will be staying with us for a bit, and then head off to various parts of Australia before heading further on in his round the world trip. He will be spending Christmas with us... which is great, as we dont seem to ever get family staying with us at Christmas.. any other times of the year, we might get the call that family is coming for a visit, but never for xmas!

Due to unmentionables, lets just say the airport pickup wasnt at noon as planned. We knew his plane would not be arriving at the scheduled time, but we continued to head down the highway of happy travellers at our expected departure time anyway. We wanted to stop by the new hotel at the airport and be nosy.. so we had plenty of time to wander and be curious!

The highway was full of people, boats, campers, and everything in between. As we drove my camper after camper with drivers looking so unhappy, all I could think, was no friggin way... give me a hotel anyday! Im not sure what it is about the holidays where people convince themselves they NEED to be doing such activities... and still look so miserable. My feeling: if your not happy doing it, dont. Man, I couldnt find one group of people in a vehicle that looked happy to be on their way to holiday mode. The guy has a camper attached to his truck which is more than a few years of my salary combined, and a loan.. and he looks miserable. Oh the xmas joy was spreading quickly! So, whats a girl to do.. turn the IPOD on, and do a jig in the car... before we knew it, we were singing, dancing, laughing... and Im sure the other drivers thought we were on medication... didnt matter, we were in good spirits!

Bah Humbug to you Mr Grumpy pants with the kids all loaded, half of your house loaded into the camper, and the ice melting down the back seat...

Anyway, so of course, as Murphy's Law goes... we didnt have to be at the airport at any specific time, and guess what... we got the best run on the highway and it only took an hour to get there.. .and we werent even speeding! Of course, if we had to be at the arrivals gate at an allocated time, we would have run into traffic chaos and probably been delayed for our guests! Oh well!

We stopped by the new airport hotel.. nice! Spendy.. but nice! Then onto the Factory Outlet Stores to bid some time. Well, time & dollars later at my favorite store.. hello FILA! and then at the hair store (certain friends think Im opening my own hair supply store)! It was wonderful to be able to just browse in the shops and not be rushed. I never take the time to just go and look... and it was perfect time to not be on a schedule, at least for a few hours.

So, shopping done, lunch done, and we wander to the airport. Theres a slim possbility that my cousin is on the 2:15 plane, probably not, unless luck went his way (which clearly wasnt happening) but we went just in case. We watched the line of people dwindle, and then pick back up, and then dwindle, and then pick back up. What creates that long lull in the getting of the airplane? It was really neat to see 2 kids arrive off the plane with an attendant, and they walk over to their dad where he signs off on the kids and hugs them. We find out the kids are visiting him for a month. He looks thrilled & the kids look happy. As we turn the corner, I see the man wiping his eyes from tears... neat moment to see.

Anyway, my cousin arrived on the 3:15 plane, and it was great to see him! I always remembered him being taller.. so either I have had a growing spurt or he is shrinking. Neither one wants to admit those options.. so I cant really give you an answer there! Its been great catching up and showing him a few sights, and just having family around again. Feels nice!

Well, big day of appts tomorrow... chiro and then CT Scan on my hips, which may or may not give some answers to the knee issues. WHo knows.. all I know is I have to somehow figure out where the damn place is, as Miss Secret on the phone didnt know the address of where she works and therefore couldnt give me exacts. And, wouldnt you know it that the paper the doctor wrote the details on is an old pad, and the 'new' office is not listed. Oh the fun of tomorrow!

I will write tomorrow about our lunch at the French Restaurant.. yummy!

Quack Quack

I dreamt last night of times with my dad. I walked along the sidewalk next to the river and looked at the ducks. When I was a kid, my dad would always 'make the ducks laugh' for me. In reality, he would throw bread and they would go wild for it, honking away and playing and splashing in the water. We always use to say the ducks were laughing.



It always seemed to make my mom, dad, and myself happy. No matter what was really happening at home, how terrible the financial funds were, how angry my parents were at one another, or how stressful life just was... the ducks made us laugh.

I dont see many ducks now where I live. Ducks do not tend to populate near the beach. Im missing some duck laughter.

Slack. Slap Me Silly

Okay, so I have been a bit slack in the blog life lately. I have been so busy.. with life around me. But, here is a snippet of whats been happening..

There were Christmas trays to prepare and send off to Melbourne, and deliver to friends & our fav business’

Then there was the Adopt-A-Family Christmas hamper of food & presents which need to be wrapped and delivered to the drop off spot…

End result:  Here are the presents all wrapped and stuffed inside a giant santa sack!

And here is the food all ready for a wonderful couple to devour!

Then, there were the 100 Christmas cards I needed to send for the organization I volunteer for. I thought it would be such a breeze, told them I would take them home, and print off the saying on my computer, but guess what… my HP printer isnt a fan of the glitter on the front of the cards, so each one had to be hand written. Lucky me huh? Thankfully, the girls at our last meeting helped with addressing the envelopes, stamps, and such… almost done. The rest are being written tomorrow night.

Tonight was dad’s birthday, so that was a celebration of dinner and cake.  Its so nice to eat with the family again. Sometimes when you live alone, you forget how nice it is to be with your family at dinner time. I mean lets face it, Little Miss Monroe doesnt really chat to me.. she just sits on the coffee table or at my feet and begs for food… not really great conversation when your eating.

Aside from that… there were more christmas trays to do… and now, finally done.. just a few more to deliver and I can relax.  And, its my last week of work before the holidays, so I have 8 million things running thru my head of what needs to be done before i sign off for the week. Pressure? What pressure? Actually, I think its going alright… guess I find out next week tho when work is shut and Im sitting in the pool.

Grant lets 4 Paws pay vet bills | Sunshine Coast News | Local News in Sunshine Coast | The Sunshine Coast Daily

Grant lets 4 Paws pay vet bills | Sunshine Coast News | Local News in Sunshine Coast | The Sunshine Coast Daily



This is the organization in which I volunteer my time & skills. Such a worthy cause and so important to help those who can not speak for themselves!

Just had to share the local news!

Mice Mice Mice

So, my cat loves to play with plastic mice. She whips them up in the air, plays hockey with them, bats them everywhere possible, catch them with her mouse, and even fetches the mouse for you (if your lucky).

She absol loves her mice.

In fact, the mice all start out the same. But, after a few minutes of Little Miss having the mouse, suddenly there is no tail anymore. And, eventually, there is not fur anymore to the body of the mouse. But, no matter what, they all keep their eyes (which is creepy when you find a bitten piece of plastic with furry pink eyes and sometimes the ears still attached.)

Little Miss also like to hide her mice. Her favorite spot for me to retrieve her mice for her WAS the fridge, but now, since we got a new couch it seems to be this is the new collection depot.

I was looking everywhere for mice the other day to play with Little Miss.  Could not find any. So, Little Miss brought me to the couch so that I could get some from her stash.

Guess how many we found.

15 mice.. of different colors, different bite marks, different shades.. but one thing in common.. the tails were much shorter than they were once new. 15 in total.

So, I did what any parent did. I took 12 of them, put them in a drawer, and watched my cat pout at a selection of only 3 now available.

So, I think my cat is a pack rat…. get it… of mice… HAHAHA.

Loreal Sublime Bronze

I got an email today saying that I won this….

and to expect in it 3 weeks…

Hooray for me today, I won something! How cool…. I will keep you posted when I get it… if I like it, and so forth!  But for now, Im excited to have won something. Kudos to Loreal!