waldie's quiz

i am always amazed at the buried treasure that i find every time i work out in the garden. today i spent the day raking pine straw and magnolia leaves. while i was raking i ran across an unexpected item buried in the ground. which leads me to this quiz:

which of the following items have i found buried in our yard?
a) broken glass
b) a rug
c) a can of paint
d) whole cinder blocks

post your answers in the comments section and i'll reveal the answer in another post in a few days.

happy thanksgiving!

i hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving! this was our first thanksgiving in our house and without family. plus, it brought up some difficult memories of the past year. but we tried our hardest to make it a great holiday and it really was!

we took a walk for a couple of hours this morning. it was a beautiful day so we went down to the river walk. here are a few shots of sites along the way.


kittens!



then we came back and got to work on cooking. we had some good friends over and had an excellent afternoon of eating, drawing, silly dances, charades, and playing outside. it couldn't have been a more perfect day in my opinion.

here are some pictures of the afternoon at the house and a video of us all doing silly dances to work off some of our dinner and clear room in our tummies for dessert.


playing outside.










drawing pictures.


charades.

our annual annual christmas party is back!

since thanksgiving is just barrelling toward us (this week!) and next sunday starts advent, it's a natural extension to forget all that and jump right to christmas!*

those folks who have known us for a few years might remember our annual christmas party. we had to put a hiatus on it last year but this year we'll be back in full swing, with a slight alteration. because of scheduling conflicts we're going to do it in january this year. so mark your calendars for january 10th and we'll have more details to come in a few weeks.

i'll leave you with this picture of yummy food to tempt you to hold that date on your calendars.

yummmm! be there!

*for those sticklers who are all for keeping holidays holidays and get mad when they put halloween candy out in august, i'm actually with you on that. it was a little jest about skipping thanksgiving and advent.

still sick but recovering

i stayed home from work for three days this week. that's a rarity in my life. (and i'll pay for it in the coming weeks.) i still have a bit of the sniffles and lots of phlegm (i just like that word, sorry) but overall i feel a whole lot better.

it was a guilty pleasure just lounging around for those 3 days, though. i think i watched like 15 hours of the newest season of dancing with the stars. i'm still not caught up to the current episode so don't give anything away if you've been watching. despite never being a fan of n'sync, i think i really like lance bass, even though i'm sure he won't make it all the way.

thanks husband

i'm staying home from bible study tonight because my throat hurts like mad crazy. baldman had this "cold-thingy" for a week and now, it seems, has passed it on to me. so i guess we do share everything.

i've not been regularly blogging, which some have pointed out to me, thank you very much. i have had things to post about but mostly no time. and then when i had a minute of time, nothing really seemed noteworthy to blog about.

i'm finishing up the last of the creative act classes. we've met some really interesting authors, the most funny was sophie gee who talked about sex and garbage in the 18th century. i think it would've been hilarious in any context, but it was especially hilarious given the age of most attendants. i look forward to hearing jane hamilton this week (if i make it. cold, go away!) even though her book made me want to slit my wrists.

i picked our first harvest of collards and put it in a delic quiche. the garlic has sprouted, as have some of our other seeds. now i have to get out there and tidy things up a bit and continue to pray that they grow grow grow.

we're not going out of town for thanksgiving, which is sad. this'll be the first thanksgiving that we've had at our own place though, so i guess that's good. we're going to have some company over and hopefully make some really yummy treats! i love thanksgiving foods!

benefit concert

gringo star

check it out. my cousin's band, gringo star, is mentioned as spin magazine's artist of the day. way to go guys!

yes we can

i would feel like i was missing something if i didn't speak a few words about yesterday's election.

i voted yesterday evening. it took all of 10 minutes (though it did take my husband 2 1/2 hours in the morning).

congratulations to our new president-elect obama.

what's been going on

i mentioned in my previous post that i would blog more about what i've been up to, which may have sounded like i'd been up to something really interesting. sorry for the let down.

but here are a few of the mundane things i've been up to.

i'm still really enjoying the lectures that i'm going to 2 times a week. last wednesday we welcomed richard ford. i find it fascinating to hear authors talk about their books because they (or at least those so far) have been nothing like their characters. yet at the same time they talk so much like their characters and when they read their books it just sounds so much better.

on tuesday evening i had to get all fancied-up for a gala that my work was having. baldman couldn't go with me so i had to fly solo. but he took this picture of me as i headed out the door.



this weekend i am working on getting my garden into shape. i took out all the old dead and dying veggies (pumpkins that never took, spent tomato plants and green bean vines). i tilled the soil and planted my garlic and a few more seeds. the last round of seeds didn't really take so i'm trying some lettuces and spinach again. i think they should survive the cold weather, if they grow at all. let's hope so. i also moved around a few plants to try to see if they will do better in a different spot. i guess i practice experimental gardening. whereby, i sort of read books and such on plants, and then mostly ignore or forget what it says, causing me to move things around until i find a place that 1) i like and 2) it will grow.

anyways, i worked a good part of the day and then collapsed for an hour on the swing. it was really nice to do that. this photo was not authorized but i'll post it anyway.