Uh-oh!

Though it looks like it could have ended very badly, Morgan (the dog) was just making sure that Iggy (the bearded dragon) understood that this is HER family room, not his.

Tune in tomorrow at 10:10 AM to see how it all turned out.

Amber

Deterrent

We have a weird dog.

She's a good girl, but sometimes cannot resist going up on the living room loveseat.

She is also deathly afraid of any type of electrical cord-- especially the one attached to the dreaded vacuum cleaner. (And, no, she was never beaten with a cord. We've known her since she was a pup and was always treated lovingly.)

We assembled these two facts about Morgan and have the perfect deterrent to keep her off of the furniture: we simply leave an extension cord on the loveseat and she won't go near it. See it there? Brilliant.

Now do you understand why I say she's weird?

101st post

Today marks my 101st post on this blog.

Ben Franklin, meet George Washington. George, Ben.

Now, if we could only find Sam Adams maybe we could have a beer to celebrate.

Be yourself

Don't worry about the others. They will look out of place, not you.

My girls

Misha and Saralyn from Winterdance. (2005?)

Planning

Started off innocently enough as "new cabinets". Then we figured we'd replaced the tile floor too. Now we're looking at completely gutting the first floor and going with a "Great Room" open floor plan. Scary, but exciting too.

My coffee mug

From the Life is good® collection.

Funny!

I guess the screener in the Wisconsin vanity plate division is either a Bears fan, or didn't get the joke.

NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that this is not an original photo. I grabbed it off Facebook.

Our headboard

Terri: "What kind of bed frame should we get?

Mike: "I don't care. Anything but wrought iron."

Another app

A simple shot of some Post-it index tabs taken with my iPhone using the CameraBag app. CameraBag has 14 different "lenses" that create various effects. This lens is called Helga.

Springfield, Illinois

BEFORE

AFTER

At the mention of Springfield, Illinois, you may think of Blago, or Lincoln, or the State Capitol building, or your 8th grade trip here. But there is something else that Springfield, Illinois is famous for. That "something" is the Horseshoe sandwich. Specifically, the Horseshoe at D'Arcy's Pint.

The Horseshoe is a piece of Texas toast covered with a half pound hamburger covered with french fries covered with cheese sauce (regular or spicy). It doesn't come with anything else because it doesn't need anything else-- except maybe the phone number of the nearest cardiologist and some Lipitor.

But I would not subject my body to that "heart attack on a plate". Instead, I had the Ponyshoe which has fewer fries and less cheese (shown here). Are you getting this? The one pictured is the small one!

With no basis for this actually being true, I imagine this menu item was "invented" by a waitress who dropped a plate with a hamburger and fries and a cup of cheese sauce on the way to the table, then put it all back together as best as she could and managed to convince the customer that it was "something new" that she thought he'd like to try. Later, when he said he liked it and asked her what it was called, she realized she got away with yet another dropped order, knew how lucky she was, saw an image of a horseshoe, and, Voila! the "horseshoe" was here to stay!




As you can see, I cleaned my plate. Does that mean I'm entitled to dessert?

Home

Illinois really is a beautiful state. Sure, our politicians are a bunch of crooks, but we have beautiful wide-open spaces, an international city, beaches on one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, some great rivers, bluffs, rolling hills, dense forests, and all four seasons!

And it's home.

Smells

The smell of rubber bands immediately takes me back to the days when I had a paper route and used them to hold closed the rolled up papers. Of course we used green bands then-- these are just some that we have in the office.

Tuesday papers were the thinnest; Thursday the thickest. (My route did not include Sundays.)

Diamond in the rough

Ah, it was probably a grand manor at one time. And could be again, couldn't it? I'd love to know the story behind the demise of this central Illinois house.

Cups

Just got the "ColorSplash" app for the iPhone. I've wanted to be able to create this look for awhile.

First you take a pic from within the app or import one from your files. The app strips out all the color, then you use your finger to put the color back in the areas you want.

All this for only $1.99-- how can you not be excited?

Miss Sara: Ballerina

Saralyn is a college junior and came home this weekend to participate in her mom's ballet show. Yes, she is as good as she is beautiful. My baby.

Baby cardinal

Here's a three or four day old cardinal just outside our screened-in porch this past spring. Amazingly, cardinals are out of the nest in only 9 to 11 days after hatching.

Observing cardinal parenting was quite interesting. The males are very involved with the care and feeding of the young. Then mom and dad both watched from a distance when it was time for the little ones to leave. One of the chicks was standing on the ground below the bush, not making any effort to leave. Both parents flew down, squawked quite a bit, chased him out from under the bush, and returned to their high perches. From there, they kept watch over him until he flew away on his own. Life lessons for humans maybe?

Jetta radio

Just love that red glow. Had a passenger one time say he was going to buy a Jetta just because of that.

Illusion

It's almost black and white outside. Is that what is was like all the time before color tv?

The family

Yep, that's us.

Zenith

This picture was taken at the top of a trail in Zion National Park.

John and his wife are retired schoolteachers from Canada. Each summer when school ended, they would take off in a small car and tent camp all over North America. And they still do.

This is why we hike: we meet interesting people in some of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Spring flashback

Two baby robins clamoring for more from mom. Hmm, we have two teenagers at the house...

This robin family lived just outside our screened porch during the warmer months in 2009. It was fun to watch them grow. We were especially lucky to witness them "leaving the nest" when it was time. Again, I am reminded of those two teenagers at home...

Leg of ottoman

The detail that pretty much sold me on the whole set.

Two kings

Fun with bearded dragons and the little gold sleeve at the top of wine bottles that can be made into crowns.

King Seb is at left and King Iggy is on the right.

The reading faerie

Hat

'Tis.

Front hall

Alex and Seb

Grandson Alex is plenty excited to be holding one of Terri's pets. This one is the "red" bearded dragon, Sebastian-- or Seb for short.

As you can see, Alex does not hold back on showing his emotions.

Brisk

Cold, clear and quiet: the good and refreshing things about this type of winter day. Ahhhh. Brrrr.

Happy New Year!