Wishing you a very Merry

Tree lot goings on.............

I'm sure you know by now that Mr Doodles and I manage a Christmas tree lot in Southern California.  Now having said that the weather is usually quite nice,warm days in the 50's or 60's and nice crisp cool nites.  Well the weather God's must be annoyed at someone cause the forecast is to rain for the next three or four days.

The weekend before Christmas that't just not right!!  But we have about eight really great, young burly lot boys that can do just about anything  on the lot.  But they are happiest when the place is packed with people and they are busying around load trees for the nice folks.

That just isn't happening right now, it is cold and rainy and the BOYS get bored.  When we sell a tree it is put thru a contraption that is called a netter.  It keeps the tree from getting limbs broken plus makes it eeasier to get the tree into the house.

keeping track and tabs on boys that are in their early 20's is like herding cats.  But this group we had this year is just the best. They make me look forward to next year cause they all have said they will be back next year with the exception of one.

They all have other jobs or are going to school.  We have a couple of paramedics, a  fellow that is going to be a Dr,  ones a dirt bike racer, And what makes it the best is they can lift big a$$ trees up on top of cars all by themselves.

It's a fun and festive place to work/play, the owners are terrific, our family is close by so we get to have Christmas with them............life is good..............we look forward to next year 

Miss her everyday

Happy Birthday Momma!!

One of many favorite quotes

May the light always find you on a dreary day.

When you need to be home, may you find your way.

May you always have courage to take a chance.

And never find frogs in your underpants.

Good Morning

LET THE STRESS BEGIN!!

The Christmas season is upon us and we will be very busy.  My friend Bee is an avid collector of quotes I hope she enjoys this one as much as I do.

I'll try to post a few photos of the trees in our lot.



Shhhhhhh............... they are sleeping

Next stop 41

But in the mean time the celebration for our 40th anniversary was so very special.  Sister found a cool little tratorria over in Culver City.  Brunello's was a terrific choice. 
After spending the afternoon at the Petersen Auto Museum, we met up with sweet niece and hunky nephew in law at Brunello's.

They have a pretty standard Itlian fare menu but their specials were quite special.  One of which was an artichoke potato soup.  Sister and I have a habit of trying to recreate a dish if it's something that alerts our taste buds.  Well that soup certainly was one that caught our attention.  If it sounds like something that would tempt your taste buds try this recipe.  I should have known Giada would have this in her repetoire. 

I made this soup exactly as the recipe stated and turned out just divine. Yes I said divine.   Oh wait I think she calls for two cups of chicken stock I used the whole package which is 26 ounces. It was thick and creamy just as I remembered that special nite of celebrating.

Thankful early

To be honest I'm rather thankful all the time but it seems

this year I have a lot to be thankful for.  I'm not gonna bore you to tears with my list of thankfuls, because those that read my blog know what I'm thankful for. 

But I will tell you here and now I am so very thankful for family.  If you have family hold them close because everything else is secondary.

We as a family gather early to be thankful earlier than most.  Reason being is that Doodles and Mr Doodles open up that Christmas tree lot the day after Thanksgiving.  Lots of preparation needs to be done to open the tree lot on that dreaded Black Friday.  I know I was shocked when I found out how many folks want to purchase a tree Thanksgiving weekend.  Guess it has a lot to do with tradition on when folks want to put up there tree.

I also need to put in a plug here for real trees vs fake trees, real trees are so much better for the environment as well as good for stimulating the economy so I would appreciate it if you would stimulate the economy as well as the environment.

So back to being Thankful.  We will gather our small family this Saturday to be thankful together and of course EAT!!!  We have a wicked menu planned of all the usual food items with a few newbies making an appearance.

So.................

Forty..............WTH!!!

Forty years................................ good lord seems hard to believe.  Not that we haven't enjoyed most moments of the past forty years, but it just flies by.  I swear I am hearing all the elders in our family that told us stuff and we all just laughed. 
Trust me young-uns  it's right around the corner.

Trust me Mr Doodles is dern lucky after this incident a few years ago.  I thought I had written a blog about us getting hitched and why Tombstone guess not.  I'll save it for fifty maybe.  The other day Mr Doodles  heard about a couple celebrating  their eighty years of marriage (holy crap) he says "hey we're half way there".  Gotta love a guy with a vision.

Look at that picture, I had hair,  Mr Doodles had dorky glasses and a pocket protector.  We had just gotten married by this wacky Judge Sharpe who had just gotten out of the hospital wearing a neck collar.  Here we both are  with our witness  standing in Judge Sharpe's  antique office, I mean some gorgeous antiques.  And the view out of his second floor office window was over looking the Lavendar Open Pit Copper Mine just outside of Tombstone, Arizona, home of our favorite movie Tombstone.

Thanks Mr Doodles......................it's been a hell of a ride!!  .

If Bogey ever requested a playmate this little guy would be perfect. Is that the sweetest face!!
Maybe I'll just get Bogey a hat next year.

Here's the trick

When your born start out your life eating really healthy, then when you get older your arteries won't be clogged and you can enjoy that fried chicken, biscuits, gravy, pecan pie, etc.


But now here we are with sodium, fats and sugar are evil,  lurking everywhere. Oh don't even get me started on the calorie counting.   Keeping us healthy has always been at the top of the list.  Retirement is easy it's the rules of life that make it difficult. It isn't that one does not want to change their eating habits, it's hard to change your taste buds.  


Grilled  chicken and salads are fine but to a point.  But we all know that moderation is the key.  I will accept all recipes emailed to me as long as there is NO kale, green tea or spinach smoothies.


So here we are at this stage in our life about to celebrate our 40th anniversary and my dear Mr Doodles has been recently diagnosed with plaque.  Nope not your easy to remove dental plaque, oh no he got some sticky arterial plaque diagnosed by a cardiologist.


So now the next step is the roto rooter dude, aka cardiologist is going to remove that plaque.  Should be an easy procedure "they say". 


Here's a question if your heart and most of your arteries are positioned around your upper left hand side of your body/chest, why would the cardiologist go in thru your groin waaaaaaay down there.  Couldn't they train dentists to do  angio whatevers and go in thru your mouth, it's a lot closer.  It's just the way my mind works folks.

As always

Greetings.............from my favorite Witch!!

My last Halloween best wishes...............isn't this just the greatest!!

Happy Halloween

Here's hoping

that President Obama didn't lose the UCLA vote.........  read about it here

Bogey

Nope I don't have one of those beautiful Cossack hats with a long black tail that is our crazy cat  Bogey.  Bogey usually jumps  up on the top shelf of the closet mid morning  and retires for several hours.  I thought it would be because he was cold but oh no he was up there during the hottest temps the last few days.  Like I said  Bogey is a bit loony!!

Weather update

The weather has cooled and the A/C has been shut off. 

My prayers have been answered cause no one wants to get ready to Halloween in 90 degree weather.

My dear, sweet Sister has offered to sacrifice a chicken for me.........God love her!!

A complaint

I am sick, sick I say of HOT weather!!!  If I wanted hot weather I would go see our friends in Texas and visit friends or go see step-momma who lives in the desert.

Having said all that Mr Doodles loves it hot, the hotter the better.  Guess Bogey does too cause he sleeps in the closet all day and it's danged hot in there.

My motto I can always warm up but sure is hard to cool down when it's...............

96

The good news is it's expected to cool down for the weekend cause FYI the pumpkins don't like it hot either.

Greetings from Sunny Southern California.......update

Oh I forgot.................greeting from freakin hotter than the hinges of hell Southern California. Holy crap I long for the cool windy days and brisk nites of Colorado.

In spite of the hotter than holy hell weather we are having fun doing what ever it is we do. 

By the way Bogey is pretty angry we made him bring his fur coat with us cause it certainly isn't necessary here!!Temp today 109 degrees.......................yep 109!!


Todays update ...........temps have cooled drastically, plus there is moisture in the air.  Supposed to change to a bit warmer but praying to the weather Gods it stays out of the three digits.  Bogey still has that fur coat ya know.

One more update..............http://frenchbenefits.blogspot.com/2010/09/there-is-disturbance-in-force.html

Sea level, seafood and sea views

Most of you know we have made the Western slope of Colorado our summer home for the past three years. We have enjoyed and benefitted every minute of this gorgeous area.

What's not to like................ fishing on the beautiful Blue Mesa Lake, or on the banks of the Gunnison River, drives thru the canyons that can literally take your breath away. A perfect example of that is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  We would ocassionaly like to take a drive over to Lake City, where the views of the many ranches are so beautiful. Once we arrive in Lake City the stop would be either the BBQ joint or the New Orleans Cajun spot that is pretty tasty.  If there was room after a walk down the picturesque Main Street we just might stumble into the San Juan Ice Cream Shoppe.Then there's hiking for a view of the wildflowers and some wild animals that will pop into view from time to time.

I cannot forget the twelve mile trip to the town of Gunnison.  Riding thru the canyons with the mountains to the north and the Gunnison River to your south.  I will forever keep that picture in my mind.

And the people we met we will forever hold  dear in our hearts and lasting friendships were made.

Of course there's the photo taking that I have enjoyed immensely.

I would have added some photos here but blogger seems to be misbehaving, I'm wondering if blogger is related to facebook.

Well we have done all we wanted to do in this area so it's time to move on. I'm a Pisces, I need some ocean near me, Mr Doodles he doesn't care one way or the other.  He says as long as I'm happy he is also. Such a sweetums!!

Between now and April we are going to be in Southern California with family and friends. Possible going to Yuma/Tucson for the Gem show this winter. Come early April 2011 we will be heading to the Southern Washington hanging out for the summer in the beautiful area of Long Beach, Washington.

As always

Join me please.........

In wishing our cat Mr Bogart, aka Bogey the terrorist, a Happy Birthday.

You may remember last New Years Eve we rescued this little guy and most days we are happy we did.  When we got him they said he was born around the first of September  so we decided that we would celebrate  Bogey's birthday on Labor Day.

The photo is one of my very favorites cause it was Bogey playing with one of his first toys. 

Happy Birthday Bogey, here's hoping for many more fun years together.

A new favorite site

http://www.curlygirldesign.com/

Her messages will certainly bring a smile to your face.

Boots

for sister maybe to paint my boots

a visible collection of particles of water or ice suspended in the air, usually at an elevation above the earth's surface.

The title is one of the many definitions of a cloud.

I'm on facebook and I discovered a very interesting site you might want to visit or even participate.  Click here  to view and participate in the project, I am.  You'll see clouds from all over the world.

I think I'm gonna post my cloud photos over on my photo blog.......................maybe we could do name that cloud, have a contest, do some dreaming on a cloud. 

As always

110 years

That's a very long time  to hold a rodeo, but the very fine folks of Gunnison Colorado have done just that.  Cattlemen's Days is a week long event ending with the rodeo.

                                         My boots need a good cleaning

                                              a patriotic beginning

                                          the Queen of the Cattlemen's Days

                                 and our favorite event...................bull riding

Great weekend, weather cooperated............great job Gunnison!!

Now to the wildflower festival in Crested Butte just up the road a bit.

What ya think

Mr Doodles trying his hand at a different kind of beading.  And I'm the lucky recipient of a beautiful new bracelet.  It's about two inches wide, not stretchy and very comfortable to wear.

Star gazing

Sister got me started stargazing when we were in Yuma this past winter.  Nothing like a navy blue sky and sparkling stars shining down on you to get your juices going for more star gazing.  I have a curious nature  so I wanted to learn more.

Fast forward to Gunnison, Colorado where we have spent the last three summers.  Guess what they have an observatory!!  Click here  to see the site.  This place is run totally on volunteers and has been in existence since 2007 I believe.  They now have some fairly fancy telescopes for viewing. 

Imagine the nite sky in the Western Rockies in SouthWest Colorado.  Many navy blue skies I'll tell ya.  And the stars sparkled like diamonds

The local college has some nite classes that they call Wednesday at Western, well one of them was an astonomy lecture and visit to the observatory, fee $5.  When I saw that I checked with some friends here and we quickly made a reserve since I figured these kind of things fill up fast.

Last nite was our lecture...................what a terrific experience.  Professor was a tad geeky but then I kind of expected that of an astronomer. 

The clouds cleared, all but a couple of wisps and low and behold there was Saturn in all its splendor includng the rings.  Everyone that viewed walked away from the scope say WOW!!

If you would like to partake  in some amateur star gazing check out Skymaps.com   You'll print out the map calendar and wander out in the nite time sky and see some pretty amazing  sites.  Best viewed on a pretty clear sky, no clouds, and when the moon is not real bright.

It was a wonderful nite and I will definitely go back because they have public viewing on Friday nites.