Wordless Wednesday — The One I DID Get!!!

Remember around Christmas when I found a great Edgar Allen Poe/Raven Christmas shirt but I didn’t get it? This time I got it.

Happy (nearly) Valentine’s Day!

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Clothing

Love and hate
One or the other
When you fit, I love you
When you don’t, hate is too mild a word
Today, I hate you
Clothing from Hell

More clothing inspired poems at read write poem.
All content written by Liza Lee Miller unless otherwise noted.
© 2008, Liza Lee Miller.

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby is a beauty. You can click on that picture and see the amazing patterns in her coat. It’s lovely. You can also look close at a new flaw . . . Ruby has discovered a hard learned truth. BBQs are hot. Very hot. They can burn you.

My old dog Rosie had exactly the same mark on her nose.  (Wasn’t Rosie a beauty?  Sigh.  I should do a post on my labs someday.  I miss that old girl!)

It’s a little harder to see, but it’s there.  That’s why I’m so sure what happened to Ruby.  When Greg was bbqing steaks on his new grill a week ago or so, Ruby decided it smelled too good to ignore.  And, she sniffed at it and burned her nose.

The pigment will never come back.  She’ll always have that pinkish spot on her nose.  Sigh.  If I were a dog showing person still, I’d use a black sharpie on it to make it look black for the dog show ring again.  As it is, I’ll just sigh when I see it.  Poor Ruby’s nose.

Making progress

Back in the depths of time, our house stood empty for a number of years and there was a lot of water damage done at the time.  Hey, we live in a temperate rain forest and lack of maintenance takes a toll quickly.  The hardwood floors that are under our carpet are in bad shape and in part of the dining room, no longer exist.  Fortunately, we’d already figured that out and planned to replace them with bamboo flooring.  Greg pulled back the carpet to see what he could see on Saturday.  While we were getting ready for a party.

Isn’t he lucky that I’m a good sport?

Anyway, it’s ugly but not surprising.  We’ll pull the rest of the carpet out soon.  We worked out a schedule — with rough dates and stuff.  First thing is to pack up the kitchen.  I can’t believe we’re there already.  Guess I’m getting some paper products at the grocery store tomorrow.  Then we’ll take out the countertops.  Then we paint the interiors of the cabinets.  Then we sand the doors and exteriors.  And, then we paint.  and paint.  and paint.

All in our copious free time.

Hopefully we’ll be done before the kids go away to college.

Holding wood with style

Chaos = 8 year old boy birthday party

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve taught 2nd grade. I know that 8 year olds are chaotic. Here’s the thing, I thought we’d dodge a bullet or two. Gage only invited 4 friends over. His plan was to watch at Star Wars movie, eat pizza, then cake and ice cream, and presents and boom! we’re done.

But, one boy couldn’t come and then we remembered our neighbor who has to come because he lives at our house on the weekends — so much so that we forgot to include him! Sheesh! — and then there was an RSVP phone call in which a brother got invited too somehow. Anyway, we ended up with 6 boys and 1 girl (who hid in her room most of the evening with her dad standing guard — the boys were NOT respecting her wishes! 🙂 ). First there were sword fights with much running and jumping and yelling. We finally got them chilled and watching the movie. A couple of them have issues with being still so it was a bit chaotic even during the movie. Pizza helped. One boy could not sit still even to eat — Wow. That was intense. When the movie was nearly over, we did cake and ice cream — totally fun. After though, none of the boys (except Gage) wanted to watch anymore. The sugar was coursing and they wanted to PLAY! Gage was a little bummed so I went and “teacher voiced” them. They are such good boys — they all came and sat and watched the end of the movie and were good sports about it. Presents were an intense group activity. And, then there was about 10 minutes of playing before parents started arriving. Great timing. My headache was just ramping up from simmer to boil.

Most important though. Gage had a great time. He loved having his friends there. Loved watching the movie with them. And, since we have the world’s biggest TV, it’s almost like being in a movie theatre.

Happy birthday, Gagey. I wouldn’t do it for any boy but you!

Winter Wonders – One Deep Breath

I watch your flock land
I can’t tell what birds you are
You are so lovely.

More Winter Wonders poems at One Deep Breath.
All content written by Liza Lee Miller unless otherwise noted.
© 2008, Liza Lee Miller.

Rainy Day Ravens

Ravens staying out of the rain, 1/25/2008

As regular readers of my blog know, I have a love/hate relationship with Ravens. Okay, that isn’t really true — I just plain love them but they are totally disrespectful of my camera. In the past, they have posed for me beautifully. This year, slowly reaching for my camera and turning it on assures that I will be treated to a a picture empty of ravens as they fly away. I swear I can hear them laughing at me as they do it. My kids now call them “Rotten Ravens” because of this habit.

However, Ravens are really smart and Friday morning when it had rained hard for the entire previous day. This pair was in a dry spot and didn’t want to move. They were annoyed by my snapping pictures but not enough to leave or anything. Smart cookies!

It was dark enough with the rain that I had to use flash. I love that I got eye shine on all of them. Ravens don’t usually have yellow glowing eyes but it adds a certain something, doesn’t it?

Corvid morning

A rushed and hurried morning last week but I took a moment to look up at a favorite Raven spot here in town.  Voila.  I count 22 corvids.  My impression was that this was a mixed flock of Ravens and Crows.  That is unusual from what I have read but I’ve seen them flock together at a local Persimmon tree so I know it does happen.  I couldn’t get a good enough look to be sure so the smaller birds could be young Ravens.  Still, what a beautiful picture, if I do say so myself.

I feel so blessed to be in a place where I can see such beauty daily and that I live a life where I can stop on a busy morning and snap a quick picture of it to remember and share.

Storm Watch, part deux

4pm, 1/25/2008
3.54in in last 24 hours
13.31 total inches for year

5:30pm, 1/25/2008
+.24 in.

9:30 am, 1/26/2008
+1.9″ (but no rain for a couple of hours)

See why we relax when the rain stops even for a bit?  We’re near the top of the creek, so the levels go down QUICKLY!  The rains are due to start up again tonight but hopefully it won’t be as intense.  It’s fun living in the mountains!  

For comparison, go look at Storm Watch, part uno 🙂

Note: At 4pm on 1/25, the creek is as high as it got in the last storm. The rain is still coming. This is the kind of storm we dread — tons and tons of rain, with wind when the ground is already saturated. The trees are coming down, folks! Think good thoughts! (We’ll be fine here but we may have trouble driving around by tomorrow!)