Looking at the Sky on Friday - The Pink Version!

We haven't had too many clear skies this week but that doesn't mean that I wasn't able to find some sort of sky picture for Tisha's new Friday Sky Meme that seems to be quite successful throughout the Blogosphere. Go, Tish!

For this week, I chose a picture of the sky that I took last week while Jamie and I were out slogging through the snow by Yantic Falls. There hadn't been much sun that day but it came out just in time for sunset and to tint the skies a lovely shade of pink.

Be sure to swing by CrAzY Working Mom's so that you can find links to more great sky shots (pretty enough to be seen framed and placed on tv stands everywhere!) and also don't forget to scroll down and check out the contest that I'm having that closes on January 19th!

Acknowledging Awards But Breaking the Rules!

Let me just start this post out by stating that I have never ever been given an ear before ... ever! Recently, though, I was awarded the very unique Van Gogh's Ear Award from the equally unique Roger of Idaho Daily Photo and the award comes in the form of an ear - naturally!

Roger developed this award as a way to recognize people who make a difference in the blogosphere. In Roger's own words:

Inspiration of the Van Gogh's Ear Award

You may know the story of Vincent Van Gogh, a well-known artist in history. Although a brilliant painter, in his later years went quite insane and he received the nickname of fou roux ("the redheaded madman"). The most bazaar of Vincent's behavior is when he cut off the lower part of his own left ear lobe, which he wrapped in newspaper, and gave to a prostitute named Rachel in the local brothel asking her to "keep this object carefully. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide July 29, 1890 he was 37 years old. His works of art are priceless.

The point of this award

We are all artist in are own way be it art, photography, writing, philosophy, comedy, blogging and we all go a little crazy sometimes. But if you ever feel so crazy to cut off your ear and give it to a prostitute "Seek Help"!

Always remember you're unique - just like everyone else!

Roger then went on to pass out his ears to a uinque group of bloggers, including myself, and you can now see them popping up all over the place. I can assure you there is nothing else like it out there and I am honored that Roger bestowed one upon me. Thank you, Roger, and thank you for your very own uniqueness!

Roger wasn't the only one passing awards on to me as I also received the Noblisse Oblige Award From Ohio With Love by the lovely Ivana. This very nice award comes along with a rather lengthy list of rules and must-do's:

1. The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervades amongst different cultures and beliefs.
2. The Blog contents inspire; strives to encourage and offers solutions.
3. There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Culture and Sciences and Beliefs.
4. The Blog is refreshing and creative.
5. The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking.

The Blogger who receives this award will need to perform the following steps:
1. Create a Post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award.
2. The Award Conditions must be displayed at the Post.
3. Write a short article about what the Blog has thus far achieved – preferably citing one or older Post to support.
4. The Blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions.
5. The Blogger must display the Award at any location at the Blog.

In this case I'm going to take a page from Sandee at Comedy Plus and be a rebel and ignore the rules of this particular award while saying a very nice thank you to Ivana for thinking of me while she was passing it out. What can I say? Every once in awhile I need to be a rebel - with or without a cause!

Thanks again to Roger and Ivana for thinking of me and my lil' ole blog!

Picture This! A Contest and a Sticky Post!

It's been a long time since I've had a contest here at the ole' blog (August 17th, 2007 to be exact!) so in honor of finally uploading some of my photography to Red Bubble in the hopes that maybe somebody somewhere will take pity on me and want to buy some of it (I think I qualify as a starving artist, I just need to buy a beret!), I thought it would be fun to have a contest to get the word out about my very own webstore, Mouseski's Photographic Musings, and it's potential to raise me up from lowly 911 dispatcher to world-renowned photographer! Well, that might be a bit of a stretch but it's nice to dream, isn't it?

After giving it some careful consideration and tossing around various ways to run this contest I finally decided to borrow a few ideas from Ms. Maggie Moo's Life is Short: Eat Dessert First contest as well as add on a couple of my own as obviously I'd like you folks to go over and take a look at my Red Bubble pictures.

I'm not going to be able to offer up a prize anywhere near as sweet and delicious as that which Mags offered but the grand prize winner of this contest will receive a 20" x 16" matted print of whichever photo you like best valued at over $25.00. The runner up will get three greeting cards with their choice of photos valued at over $12.00. I've got over forty photos currently uploaded in my account but if there's something else you've seen on my blog that you'd prefer to have that isn't currently uploaded at Red Bubble let me know and I'll add it for you. Now how's that for a deal?

Okay ... let's establish some rules ...

1. Go over to my account at Red Bubble and take a look around as well as take a peak at my BubbleSite, Mouseski's Photographic Musings, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what you think and which picture you'd want if you win. That's going to give you one entry into the contest.

2. If you leave a comment on any of the pictures at Red Bubble itself (this would require you to sign up for a free account which is very quick and very easy), that's going to earn you an extra two entries into the contest and one entry for each comment you leave on a picture there. With over 40 pictures uploaded, this gives you the chance to get mega-entries if you're so inclined!

3. If you write a post about this contest with a link to Mouseski's Photographic Musings and refer others over to this contest (who are not on my blogroll), I'll toss in another five entries for you and one entry for them if they leave a comment but the person coming over needs to make sure to tell me that you sent them in their comment. For each person who comes over from your post, you get one extra entry into the drawing.

4. Per my friend Cyndi's request, if you link to this post on your Facebook account and anyone comes over via that avenue and leaves a comment saying so, you will get one entry per person as long as they state in that comment that you sent them.

5. The contest will end on Monday, January 19th at midnight Pacific Standard Time with the drawing for the winner to be held on the following day and announced that evening. At that time, the winners will need to contact me with their full name and mailing address so make sure you're okay with that before you enter otherwise I'll have to go to alternate winners.

Alrighty then now that we've got all that settled - as Ben Bailey would say on Cash Cab - "Are you in??"

The Kindness of Strangers

I love how just about the time you're starting to lose faith in the fact that common courtesy and small niceties have gone the way of the dinosaur, life will serve up something that makes you take pause and think "well, maybe not entirely". I had such an incident happen the other day.

As I knew they would, the glasses that I had ordered from Zeni Optical for Jamie's Christmas present showed up Monday - after we had to leave to go to the airport! Normally the mailman is here long before we would have had to leave but due to what I'm sure was a combination of Murphy's Laws and the Laws of the Universe, that was not the case on this particular day. Somehow I knew that when I got home they'd be here and - sure enough - they were. Ah well, no big deal, I'd just hie myself down to the local post office and send them on their merry way to Florida and Jamie's eyes.

Of course, hieing myself to the post office is not the easiest task in the world here in Norwich as our post office - which is in a grand old building - is in an area of downtown where parking is difficult at best and non-existent at worst. Consequently as much as I appreciate the architecture of the building, I try to avoid it whenever possible and instead will head over to the post office in Montville which is a bit further but infinitely easier to get to.

Knowing that Amanda was going to need a ride home from school (she stays for a club meeting on Tuesdays), I decided that the best time to go to the post office would be just before having to go get her even though the post office in Montville is in the complete opposite direction of Norwich Free Academy. Still, it was better than trying to find a parking place in downtown Norwich and I had plenty of time. Or so I thought ...

Arriving at the post office I found that there was one person ahead of me in line so I figured I'd be done fairly quick and could be on my merry way which was good as Amanda had sent me a text message and told me that her meeting was going to be over a lot sooner than originally thought. Not to worry, though, I'd get Jamie's package mailed and still have plenty of time to get back to Norwich to pick up Amanda. And then I saw that the one person in front of me had a passport application ... ut-oh.

The postal clerk appeared to be doing an extremely efficient job of looking over the application and after perusing it for several minutes she asked the seeker of the passport for her ID.

"I need my ID?", asked the seeker.

"Yes, you do," replied the clerk.

"Oh." With her purse on the floor by her feet, the applicant bent down and rummaged through until she found her driver's license. She'd obviously missed the part on the application that states you need to show proof of ID.

In the meantime, another gentleman had entered the post office and taken his spot in line behind me with several boxes in his hands to be mailed. I smiled at him, he smiled at me, and then we both watched the drama in front of us unfold as the clerk then asked the applicant to write out a check for the passport fee.

"A check?"

"Yes, ma'm, you need either a check or money order."

"Oh, I have a check card, will that work?" Obviously the applicant hadn't really read the application very closely as she'd missed that part, too.

"No, ma'm, it has to be either a check or money order, not a check card."

"Oh dear, I left my checkbook at home but I live just around the corner, I can go get it."

As I was thinking "yes, yes, you can and then the rest of us can get our stuff done and out of here" the clerk offered the suggestion of using her check card to buy a money order. Groan ...

After more rummaging through her purse, which was still on the floor, the lady came up with her check card and passed it over to the clerk who ran it through and produced a money order which she then gave to the woman to finish filling out.

"What do I put on it?"

"Make it out to the State of Connecticut Passport Office and then fill in your name, address, and phone number."

"Where?"

I think I audibly groaned.

At this point I was getting a little antsy and starting to look at my watch thinking that Amanda was going to have to wait in the cold for a little bit as I was most definitely going to be late. Meanwhile another person joined the line and the postal clerk took that time to tell us all that it had been a busy day and it was just herself and one other clerk in the back working and they needed to still get the packages sorted and onto the truck and they were running late.

"Yes," I thought. "So am I but I really need to get these glasses mailed and I drove all the way over here and I have to work a double shift tomorrow so won't get to the post office then and there's no way I'm leaving without mailing my package because Jamie really needs to get these glasses."

After looking at my watch for the umpteenth time I must have been looking a little frazzled as the gentleman behind me asked me if there was somewhere I needed to be. I told him that I had to go pick up my daughter from school but she was just going to have to wait a bit as I really needed to mail my package. He looked at the padded envelope I had in my hand and asked if that was the only thing I was mailing and I said that it was.

"How much do you think it will cost to mail it?", he asked me.

It didn't weigh hardly anything so I said I was sure it wasn't much and he then said, "Give it to me and I'll mail it for you so you can go get your daughter."

Was he kidding me? A total stranger was offering to mail out a package for me? The postal clerk standing behind the counter looked on as the lady who needed the passport was still filling out the money order. When I said thank you but he didn't have to do that the gentleman replied that he would be happy to do it for me and to give him the package and go get my daughter so that she wouldn't have to wait in the cold.

For just a split second I wondered if it was a smart move to hand something over to a complete and total stranger and trust that he'd mail it and not just keep it but I quickly decided to put my faith in a guy I'd never seen before and gave him the package. I told him thank you several times over and promised him that I would pay his act of kindness forward at my first opportunity. He smiled and said, "That sounds great."

As I was driving back to Norwich I couldn't help but think "wow" as that sort of thing just doesn't seem to happen very often and it was nice - no more than nice - to have been the benefactor of another one of the angels who walks among us. Sometimes it's too easy to forget that there are truly good people out there who aren't trying to gain anything by being nice to others and performing random acts of kindness; too easy to be suspicious of every person and every little thing; and too easy to think that people just don't care about each other anymore. It's nice to have my faith in human nature restored a little bit and I hope that when I pay forward the act of kindness this gentleman did for me, that it will restore someone else's faith a little bit, too.

Perhaps I have not always "relied upon the kindness of strangers" as Blanche DuBois did but it's very nice to be on the receiving end of such a thing every once in awhile. Thank you, kind sir, wherever you are.

Take-Offs and Landings

Monday's trip to the airport with Jamie was an exercise in well ... exercise! Who'dathunk that Monday afternoon would be so busy for flying but it was! We got to Bradley Field with just a little under an hour to go before her flight was due to take off only to walk up to a Southwest Airlines counter with a line snaking almost out the door. Ut-oh! By the time we got through the slow-moving line and got Jamie's bags checked in, it was getting down to the wire and Jamie's flight had already started boarding.

Once we got through the TSA Security Checkpoint I had Jamie grab her boots out of the bin and we practically ran down the concourse to her gate where we arrived just as I heard her name overhead-paged along with one other passenger. Luckily there was a back-up of passengers waiting to get on-board which gave Jamie time to get her boots back on before joining the line. She wasn't the last passenger on, though, as the other lady they had paged walked up behind us (at a rather leisurely stroll it seemed!) as Jamie gave me a final hug good-bye.

The clerk at the counter had told us that Jamie's bags might not make the flight as we were checking them in less than 30 minutes before flight-time but as I sat down and waited for her plane to take off I watched the luggage handlers loading up what looked to be A LOT of bags with the tell-tale less-than-30-minutes-till-boarding-time bright pink tags. I was pretty sure that her bag had made it but if not, they'd get to Tampa at some point in time.

Right on time her plane pushed back from the gate and I waited as my youngest started her latest trip down the tarmac to get into position for take-off. I don't know exactly what good it does me to stay at the airport until the plane is in the air but I feel like I should just in case they have to come back to the gate for some unknown reason. Plus it gives me time to get my own act back together before I make the lonely walk back to the car as I've yet to figure out how to keep a lump out of my throat while watching that plane take off.

After leaving an arm and a foot at the parking lot cashier to cover the exorbitant price of parking, I started back to Norwich but on a whim made a quick stop at the nearby tobacco sheds in Windsor that I always pass by when going to or from the airport. The tobacco sheds have been there for an extremely long time and I remember going past them years and years ago when out for Sunday rides with my grandfather. It was kind of bleak out but the weather sort of matched my mood!

Click to make bigger!

Connecticut tobacco farms go back to the time of the Indians as tobacco was already being grown by the native population when the first settlers led by William Holmes came to the valley north of Hartford in 1633. By the 1830's, tobacco was an established industry in the Connecticut River Valley and tobacco farmers were experimenting with different seeds and processing techniques. Even though there are significantly fewer tobacco farms than there used to be - the number of farms peaked at 200 on over 15,000 acres between 1900 to 1921 - some of them have remained in the same family for six generations and are still going strong though the amount of acreage currently in use for growing shade tobacco is only 2,000.

In the summer months when you pass the massive red drying barns that you can see in the above pictures, you'll also see acres and acres of white shade tents which are designed to filter the sunlight and raise the humidity and ambient temperature providing the optimal conditions for growing the fields of tobacco underneath them. The shade tents are constructed by setting posts in a grid layout and then wires are stretched from post to post and covered with a light, durable fabric (once cotton but now a synthetic fiber) that is tied across them and draped along the sides. In these pictures you can see just the posts and the wires which are all that is left during the non-growing season.

It was nice to stop and take in a little bit of Connecticut history as that helped to take my mind off of the fact that the passenger side of the car was empty and there was no one chattering nonstop or turning up the sound on the CD even though it was already close to deafening! As it was, my pensive mood wouldn't have a chance to last too long as shortly after I pulled back onto the highway to continue my journey home my cell phone buzzed with a reminder that even though I had just dropped one daughter off at the airport, there was another waiting at home and she wanted to know what I had in mind for dinner.

Ah well, as the Beatles used to sing "la la la life goes on ..."!

"Washington 20500" - The Next Hit TV Series?

Pardon me for a moment while I roll out a bit of what could probably be called old fogeyism in today's post but this particular thing has been bothering me for awhile and what better place to vent about it and get it off my chest then right here on my blog? After all, it's why I have this thing, right? So that I can occasionally air my opinion and then wait for everyone else to come by and either validate it or tell me that I'm wrong!

Okay then, the thing that's bothering me is this ... since when did politicians in this country achieve celebrity status? Has anyone besides me noticed that Hollywood is going a bit overboard in regards to our new First Family that will be moving into the White House soon? It's not just President-Elect Obama whom the paparazzi are chasing down on the beach or First Lady-in-Waiting Michelle Obama whom everyone is waiting on with bated breath to see what she wears to the inauguration and all of the over-the-top parties that follow but it's also the new First Kids whom are being elevated to - dare I say it? - Miley Cyrus status.

I had the TV on the other night so that I could get an idea what Old Man Winter had in store for us and upon completion of the news, the channel that I had on sequed into one of those annoying "television magazine shows". I'm not sure if it was "Extra" or "Inside Edition" or "Entertainment Tonight" or what the heck it was as I wasn't really paying that much attention and had just neglected to turn the TV off but, regardless, I looked up when I heard one of the Hollywood reporters talking to a designer who was just gushing over potential bedroom decorations and furnishings for Malia Ann and Sasha. My initial thought was "Why?" quickly followed by "You've got to be kidding me!"

Never in the course of my 50 years can I ever remember anyone giving a hoo-rah-damn about what the bedrooms of the kids moving into the White House were going to look like! And there have been plenty of kids occupying the White House during the course of that 50 years so don't tell me that it's a new phenomena to have a couple of kids moving into the Presidential residence with Mom & Dad.

Wondering whether or not it was just me that had noticed this rather disturbing trend of Hollywood following every move the new First Family makes, I went in search of verification on the internet and came across this little piece ...

TV Week's Andrew Krukowski reports that "Access Hollywood" and "Entertainment Tonight" will continue to cover the Obama family in detail: It's a symbiosis in which shows such as "Access Hollywood" and "Entertainment Tonight" cover the Obama family like royalty, bringing back a Camelot mythology to the White House. In return, they are enjoying a ratings bump with unexpected staying power. "We're going to treat the Obamas like a Hollywood family," said Rob Silverstein, executive producer of NBC Universal Television Distribution's "Access Hollywood."...

Are you kidding me? Have ratings become such a precious thing in TV Land that we are willing to treat the family of the man who is supposed to be the most powerful leader in the free world and bring about massive amounts of change like the Osbournes? Geez, Louise, next thing you know they're going to be wiring The White House like the "Big Brother" house so that we don't miss a single moment!

This is where the old fogeyism I mentioned above comes into play when I say quite emphatically that we need to cut this stuff out right now before it comes back to bite us in the butt. Politicians are NOT celebrities. Even when Ronald Reagan, who was an actor and a celebrity long before he became a politician, was in office he wasn't treated like this and neither was his family. The media knew where to draw a line and they stayed on the other side of it. Sure, everyone liked to see what Nancy was wearing from time to time but they didn't roll it out on the evening news or the type of show that tells you when Brad and Angelina are expecting their next kid or if Britney managed to stay out of rehab for another day. WAKE UP, AMERICA!!

Barack Obama is NOT the new John Kennedy and Camelot is long gone and doesn't need to be resurrected. Besides which, if you were to look under the surface of the Kennedy Administration you'd see that it wasn't all royalty and roses there either - the man was a womanizer, he just did a better job of keeping it under wraps than Clinton did. He was cut down by an assassin's bullet before he had a chance to do something stupid with his Presidency and so he died a glorious hero rather than a goat like Nixon who was a brilliant President but managed to shoot himself in the foot and the only thing people can remember him for is Watergate rather than the end to the Vietnam War and his other many accomplishments.

President-Elect Obama needs to be his own man and he needs to be given the chance to prove that he can lead this country without Oprah and the rest of "Hollywood royalty" showing him the way. Let's leave the actors and actresses where they belong - on the movie sets and stages - while we put the politicians back where they belong - in Washington leading our country and NOT entertaining it.

We are setting a really nasty precedent here and - honestly - I feel like our country is beginning to lose its credibility in the eyes of the rest of the world because of stupid stuff like this which will only get worse as the media turns everything into a circus and a made-for-TV moment.

I don't know about the rest of you but when I turn on the television I want to hear about how my new President helped our struggling economy or addressed the number of other myriad issues facing our Nation - not what piece of furniture the new puppy chewed on, what Michelle is wearing, or how the kids did on their latest report cards. I don't cast my vote at an election to be entertained, I cast my vote for leadership and representation.

Am I wrong? Could I possibly be the only person who feels this way?

Here We Go Again ...

This is one of those days that I will never ever get used to ... the day I have to take Jamie to the airport and put her on the plane to head back to her father's. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I do it, it just always leaves a hollow place where my heart is supposed to be.

I'll be back to the blog later on today with a patch in place ...

Sunday Scenery

I was going through some of my older pictures yesterday in an attempt to organize them a little bit when I came across this one that I took while on vacation this past September. There's just something about it that's very peaceful and serene.

I took this picture from the deck of the ferry I was on while returning from Block Island, a small island about 12 miles off the coast of Rhode Island that has somehow become my ideal of a great place to live even though it's far-removed from almost everything. As a matter of fact,I have told Amanda that if I ever win the lottery that I'm buying a house out there and we're moving. She's good with that as long as we have internet and can get to the mainland for drawing supplies on a regular basis!

Maybe one of the big attractions is the fact that Block Island is far-removed (except when tourists descend like locusts in the summer) and that it's like taking a step back in time to when life was simpler. I could go for life being simpler and more serene.

This post is based on Lee's Sunday Scenery posts at Tarheel Ramblings. If you'd like to join us, just live Lee a comment and me, too, and we'll be over to check out the scenery in your part of the world!

Friday at the Falls

As I mentioned in last night's post, Jamie and I took some time out of our pretty boring day Friday afternoon to head over to the falls of the Yantic River and hike around a bit and take some pictures. Normally I'm not real keen on tromping around out in the cold and snow but I thought it might be a good chance to go take some pictures of the falls in winter as well as the area surrounding them. No doubt I'll be back out there again before the winter is through as the falls are just as beautiful frozen as they are in the summer.

It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be but that's probably because the nasty winds that we've been having lately had finally blown themselves out and there was nary a breeze. Well, either that or the four layers of clothing I had on was sufficient! Jamie was colder than I was but that's probably got something to do with that thin Florida blood of hers. Ironic that she was the only one of my three kids that was actually born in Connecticut (the other two were born in Southern California) and she's the one that gets the coldest!

She really was a good sport about it, though, and seemed to enjoy our time walking around on the railroad bridge and tracks as we made our way between the upper and lower falls. I wish the light had been a bit better but considering it was after 4:00 and cloudy to boot I guess I'm lucky there was any light at all. I guess I should have gotten inspired to leave the house earlier than we did but whatchagonnado??

While we were walking back across the footbridge that spans the river next to the railroad trestle we met up with a couple of guys who were taking their three dogs out for a little exercise. We ended up chatting with them for a bit about how beautiful the area was and how few people probably even now that this part of Norwich exists. One of the guys said that he comes out to the falls every single day and never ever gets tired of the view. I don't blame him, if I lived in the area I'm sure I'd be out doing the same thing!

As a matter of fact, one of the old historic townhomes across from the falls has been for rent for awhile now and if I thought I could swing the increase in rent, I'd be calling the guy who has the listing in a New York minute. If you look closely, the one for rent is the third one down in this row and I'd love, love, love to live there. Maybe I should give the guy a call ...

Anyhow ... I put together a video with the pictures I took while on our walk today and put them to music with a song that Amanda really likes. Don't panic! It's a very calm song actually and I think you might end up liking it, too! The only thing I don't like about putting the pictures in video format is that I lose a little bit of the quality but it still gives you a good look at the winter scenes that we saw. At least I hope so!

Everyone have a great Saturday and I'll see what Jamie and I can get up to today that might make for a good post tomorrow. After all, she goes back to Florida on Monday so we have to take advantage of the time we have together while she's here. Who knows? Maybe another snowy walk will be in order but I bet she wears warmer socks this time!

Fooling Around at Friendly's

After spending most of the day hanging around the house, Jamie and I finally ventured out into the world around 4:00 this afternoon and spent some time taking pictures over by Yantic Falls. We had a good time tromping around out in the snow and even chatting with a couple other people who were out walking their dogs and enjoying the view of the area, too. Once I get the pictures sorted out, I'll post a few but most of them didn't come out anywhere near as well as I would have liked due to the lateness of the day and the overcast skies that we had all day to begin with. Still, I think there were one or two that were a'ight and might make the blog!

I had promised Jamie dinner out after we were through so she picked Friendly's, a restaurant that specializes in ice cream but makes a darned good cheeseburger and other tasty eats, too. After perusing the menu we both decided on their crispy chicken salad with honey mustard dressing and while waiting for them to arrive we played around a bit with my camera and the mirrored wall that was next to our booth ...

As a rule I hate pictures of myself but Jamie had such a good time taking these that I couldn't disappoint her and not post them. At least I managed to smile in one of them and Jamie actually did a pretty good job with the D60 for it being her first time!

Our salads were quite tasty but one of the best things about Friendly's is that most meals come with dessert in the form of what they call a Happy Ending Sundae ...

As you can see, her two scoop sundae with forbidden chocolate ice cream, Heath Bar pieces, and a dollop of whipped cream made the end of Jamie's meal very happy!

All in all it was a nice afternoon and much better than being at work where I normally spend my Friday evenings!

Looking at the Sky on Friday and More!

It's the first Friday of the New Year which makes this my first sky picture of the New Year - woohoo! Thanks, Tisha, for this cool new meme, I'm loving looking at all the great sky pictures that people post and there will be 51 more of them to look at it in the coming weeks!

My picture for this week is one from last Saturday's quick trip to Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island. It was kind of bleak and yet pretty at the same time ... not to mention COLD but you can't really see that here. You might also have a little trouble separating the sky from the ocean but I guess that's what happens when you have an endless horizon and no clouds!

In other blogging news, Lee at Tarheel Ramblings passed along an award to me that he got from Jaffer over at Mania Ravings who in turn got it from Awake in Rochester who received it from Lady Banana who was awarded it from Karen & Gerard Zemeks who got the nod from Mother Nos Best. Mother got it from Felicia at Go Graham Go! who was awarded it by Susan from Life in a House of Blue! who had received the award from Bridgette at The Not-So-Blog Blog. I could probably go on forever before I found out where the award originated but I think that's a good enough trail for now. After all, I'm a dispatcher - not a detective and I was wading in the waters of the Mommy Blogs which are very deep!

The rules of this award are simple - list five addictions and then pass this fabulous award on to five fabulous other bloggers. I think I can handle that though it's going to be hard to pick just five fabulous friends from the many I've made since starting this blog! Okay, first things first though ... addictions ...

1. It appears that blogging is definitely number one!
2. Photography is fast becoming number two!
3. Good music is definitely on the list!
4. Mashed potatoes are more of a weakness than an addiction but perhaps close enough?
5. As Robert Palmer used to sing "Going to have to face it, you're addicted to love ..." even though love is apparently not addicted to me (thank goodness for mushy romances in both print and movie version or I'd be up the creek sans paddle!).

Now, whom to pick for this Fabulous award that might have some addictions of their own?

1. Definitely Lois who, with or without addictions, has a Fabulous Blog!
2. I'm pretty sure Jen has some addictions - some that I may already know about!
3. Oh, I bet Gandalf and Grayson might have an addiction or two!
4. Tisha, creator of the above sky meme, could have some secret addictions she might want to share!
5. Last, but not least, Ms. Maggie Moo may have an addiction or two that she would fess up to!

Thank you, Lee, for this fun and fabulous award. Hope everyone is having a fun and fabulous Friday!

Shopping Made Easy!

As this past holiday season has probably proved, I am not what one might call an enthusiastic shopper. Matter of fact, quite the opposite would probably be true so for me online shopping has really become the way to go. No crowds, no wandering aimlessly through a mall looking for Lord knows what, and no aching back from the cement floors that most stores us and my back really dislikes!

Sometimes, though, it's pretty darned hard to figure out which online store to use and that's when a buying guide or two comes in handy. Not only can it show me which online store offers what I'm looking for, in some cases the guides can show me WHAT I'm looking for - especially when I have no clue (which is quite often!).

Recently I was checking out ShopWiki's Gifts for Women Buying Guide and not only did it give me some great gift suggestions but it also broke them down into categories like Gifts for the Fahionista (neither of which my two girls are!), Gifts for the Pet Lover (definitely what Jamie is!), Gifts for the Fitness Gal (something I wish I was!), Gifts for the Gadget Loving Gal (there's one for Amanda), Gifts for the Culinary Loving Woman (hey! I know a few of those), and other categories that were really quite helpful.

With over 30,000 stores listed in the ShopWiki's Buying Guides, one would be hard-pressed to NOT find just the right gift for pretty much anyone and you can do it from the comfort of your own home with a cup of coffee in one hand and your computer mouse in the other. What more could a non-shopping-lover want?!?

Happy New Year 2009!

Wishing everyone a fantastic New Year full of health, happiness, and the chance to not only reach for the stars but to bring a few back down to Earth with you!

I've Got a Question - You've Got an Answer

Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle - it's the last day of December already! How, may I ask, did THAT happen? Whoever said that as you get older the years fly by wasn't just whistling Dixie as time seems to be moving at a rather alarming rate. Least ways, it is for me.

Looking back on 2008, it's hard to believe that some of the things that I recall happened this year and not last year as, another joy of growing older, all of my memories seem to pool together lately. However, that said, what I'd like to ask in this post is ...

What was the best thing to happen to you in 2008?
You can list more than one if you'd like!

There are so many great things from 2008 that I could list but my answer to this question - believe it or not - was my 50th birthday which I celebrated on September 9th. Even though I still have a little bit of trouble remembering that I am a half-century old and can't quite fathom how I got here so quickly, 50 was not a hard age for me to turn in spite of all the aches and pains that come with the number.

Perhaps part of the reason for that was some of the people whom I got to celebrate my birthday with ...

Erik from The Fire Insider - a former co-worker and still favorite Scotsman of mine!

Andrew, JM, and Dennis - three of the nicest guys I know (oh, and just for the record, that really cute one in the middle there - yeah, that's who I'm taking to my annual employee party next month and along with that I always get a dance with Andrew which I look forward to every year!)

My favorite Boston blogger, Ms. Maggie Moo, came down for the occasion and brought yummy cupcakes, too!

Claire's arm was in attendance, too, as was the rest of her but she's very camera-shy and, cheeky Brit that she is, she refused to take a picture with me on my birthday!

Now how, may I ask you, could that little get-together not be my favorite memory of the year and one of the best things to happen to me in 2008? Turning 50 isn't bad when you've got friends like that to share it with!

So, what about you folks, share with me your best memory/happening of 2008 - I bet some of them and I can guess (right, Star?) but others might be a total surprise!

Organized Randomness

Why is that if I take one single Tylenol PM tablet I can't seem to get out of my own way the next day? I thought the stuff was supposed to help you wake up refreshed, not feeling like you just stumbled out of an opium den. Not that I'd know what stumbling out of an opium den was like, mind you!

While picking Jamie up at my son's house in Bradford, Rhode Island yesterday I stopped to take some pictures at a small pond across the street from where he lives because there was just something about the two ropes that are there for summer fun just hanging forlornly in the cold that appealed to me ...

I took Jamie to see Twilight at the movies last night and liked it a little bit better the second time around as I tried not to view it with such a critical eye as when I went the first time. I still thought that Jasper looked like Edward Scissorhand's cousin or something and that Bella needed to have a stick surgically removed from her nether regions but other than that, it was okay and in certain scenes Edward looked quite hot for an ice cold undead guy!

I was quite surprised by the number of women my age at the theater who didn't seem to have a teenage girl along with them and also with the amount of guys that were there. The first time I saw the movie, I think there was maybe one guy in the theater and no doubt he had been dragged there kicking and screaming!

My good friend MizCyn reminded me that her husband is quite the railroad aficionado in a comment on my latest Creative Photography Meme entry so I promised her another picture for him. I thought perhaps he might like this one even though it's just a railroad bridge ...

My son got me a digital picture frame for Christmas that I'm really looking forward to using once I figure it out. It's got an 11-inch viewing area so even my old eyes should be able to see it quite well from across the room plus it takes MP3 music downloads. How cool is that?

All of the snow that we got a week and a half ago has melted because of the unseasonably warm temperatures we were having but it looks like more is on its way and right on time for me to have to try to drive to work in it on Wednesday morning. Figures!

I know that winter hasn't even officially been here for ten days yet but I am ready to bid it a fond farewell. There are days when I feel like I am never going to be warm again and can fully understand why so many people flock to Florida, a state I've never been all that enchanted with (an apology to all those who live there and love it).

Just for hee-yuks I looked at the Norwegian Cruise Line website the other day and saw the perfect cruise for next Christmas-time. It leaves out of New York City on the 26th of December, visits warm locales for 5 days, and then returns to New York on the 2nd of January. Unfortunately the price itself isn't perfect on a single-parent income but should I win that elusive Powerball sometime between now and then I can tell you exactly where I'll be next New Year's Eve! At least it doesn't cost anything to dream, right?

Jamie and I are going to do some after-Christmas shopping today with my mom. Even though I'm not keen on shopping my mom likes to go and supposedly there are bargains to be had out there. Plus Jamie still has a little Christmas cash burning a hole in her pocket!

Lastly, just one more picture of the pond in Rhode Island before I go just because I like it! ...

May your day be filled with random good stuff!

Happy Birthday to Princess Patti!

Oh my gosh ... I can't believe that I almost missed posting about the birthday of a member of Connecticut's Blogging Royalty! My bad ... my very, very bad!

Today is the birthday of not only Princess Patricia of Ansonia in the Valley (so dubbed by Mimi, Queen of Memes with a little extra thrown in there by myself for good measure!) but also her daughter, the beautiful Lady Allegra! Two royal birthdays for the price of one which means double cake for everyone! And that should make Empress Bee of the High Sea happy!

I first had the extreme pleasure of meeting Patti last March when we humble bloggers here in Connecticut were invited to dine with then visiting royalty from North Carolina. Queen Mimi, Princess Patti, and myself descended upon Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria in Glastonbury and I doubt that the place will ever be the same again! We had quite A Royal Time of It as you can read in my post of the event. There was much giggling, hiding behind shubbery, and shenanigans during the course of the evening and if given the chance, I would love to do it again. Though I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let us back into Bertucci's in spite of the fact that "it's okay, we're bloggers!"

I had another chance to meet up with Princess Patti again in August when she and her entourage traveled from Ansonia in the Valley to Waterford by the uh ... Water! This time Princess Patti was accompanied by her beloved Prince Ralph, another member of Connecticut's Blogging Royalty, and their lovely daughter, the beautiful Lady A, as we met at a local Olive Garden. Hmm, what is it with us and Italian restaurants?!?

Again a fine time was had by all while Dining With Royalty though we had to break out the "it's okay, we're bloggers!" excuse once again! Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with them putting us in the corner? Nah ... couldn't be!

Hopefully Princess Patti, Prince Ralph, and myself (the Duchess of Norwich Upon the Thames!) shall have the chance to get together again soon as I have thoroughly enjoyed becoming friends with Patti and Ralph both. They don't live too far away from me but with my crazy schedule and theirs ... well ... life seems to keep getting in the way somehow! We'll have to do something to amend that soon and then perhaps we can share some real birthday cake (belated or not it's still cake!).

In the meantime, I guess this virtual one will have to do!

Happy Birthday to Patti and Allegra! May you both have many more years of health, happiness, and hi-jinks!

Manic Monday - Tradition

The word of the week at the Manic Monday Meme is 'tradition' but rather than write about an old tradition, I thought I would make mention of a new one that Jen and I recently started at work on those long 16-hour shifts we spend in the dispatch center every Sunday. Some of you might remember that back in October I journeyed down to New York City to attend a live taping of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and, because it was Movie Week, I came home with a free three-month subscription to NetFlix which has turned out to be a pretty darned cool thing to have as it has become invaluable on those long Sunday shifts.

Jen and I now have what we call "Chick Flick Sundays" and in between 911 calls, routine transfers, and the other aspects of the job, we watch three movies to help pass the time. So far we've watched both Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version) and Sense and Sensibility, Made of Honor, Enchanted, Hair Spray, The Importance of Being Earnest, P.S. I Love You, Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, What a Girl Wants, Love Actually, The DaVinci Code, and a whole bunch of other movies that I can't recall right off the top of my head. I know for sure that we've watched every Colin Firth movie that we could get our hands on because - yeah, we're shallow - we both adore Colin Firth!

It's turned out that this new tradition is a great way to pass the time on Sundays and we've decided that when my current free subscription to NetFlix runs out, we're going to split the cost to continue it. After all, why stop a good thing?!?

Oh, speaking of good things ... or in this case not so good things ... we watched Mamma Mia! this past Sunday and I've just got to wonder who on earth ever told Pierce Brosnan that he could sing? Oh my aching ears! The movie was a lot of fun, though, and it was darned hard not to sing along but I didn't want to ruin the movie for Jen as singing is not my forte! Though that didn't stop her when we were watching The Sound of Music later in the shift!

One last thing when it comes to our new "Chick Flick Sunday" tradition - no men are allowed in dispatch unless they are dropping something off or making a copy of something - some traditions are just more sacred than others if you know what I mean!

Sunday Scenery

I snitched lifted copied borrowed the title of this post from my favorite Tarheel Rambler, Lee, who has been doing Sunday Scenery posts for quite some time now and has some of the most gorgeous pictures one could ever hope to see. I hope he doesn't mind but after giving some thought to what would work well for me on Sundays with my 16-hour shift and not wanting to be tied to the computer all day on Saturday, a Sunday photo post just seemed like the best way to go. Besides, it gives me a good excuse to take more pictures!

The pictures for this post come courtesy of a quick stop by Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly, Rhode Island that Jamie and I made before I dropped her off to spend the night at her brother's house on Saturday. It was pretty overcast and gray but I wanted to take a peek at the ocean while I was over that way and of course I had taken my camera with me just in case there was the opportunity for a picture or two. Apparently there was!

Hope you enjoyed this Sunday's trip to the beach - I'll have to see if I can find some interesting scenery to share with you for next Sunday! I'm pretty sure none of the pictures will have anything to do with auto insurance but you never know!

Creative Photography

I thought maybe I'd take some time out from searching for the best diet pill out there before the new year starts and make some wild attempt to lose a ton of weight overnight (kidding, just kidding, though I really do need to go on a diet!) to post my entry for this week's Creative Photography Meme hosted by Roger of Idaho Daily Photo.

I sort of forgot to do an entry last week what with the last-minute Christmas stuff that needed to be done and all but this week I dug through my archives and came up with the following picture that I have titled "Making Tracks" ...

Almost makes me want to go out and walk the tra