maddyjean08

Sometimes, full moons feel different. Certain ones bring on changes...... But you might not understand.

marius

matthew - I do not see a butterfly either way, but then, I don't see a lot of things. : )

Sheftali, I'm in love with your rabbit pic! Makes me smile. Just know he has all kinds of tricks up the sleeve. Re-read the comments on your pic, and yes, pookas are fairy that can take the shape or form of other animals, sometims a very large animal form. So am thinking Harvey the rabbit was indeed a pooka, and swear your rabbit is too!

And, speaking of things that make you smile ... sent Dragon's kitty link to several folks telling them if I could make it into a Christmas card, I would. Wouldn't you know, someone made it into a card for me! Soooo cute.

Dragon

sheftali, I don't know about your neck of the woods but when we get a halo around the moon here it usually means it's ridculously cold. As I understand it the halo is the moon's light shining through ice crystals in he air. It's terribly beautiful but makes you want to rush inside and sit in front of a fireplace with a Hot Toddy.

Dragon

Here's another one for the cat lovers around here. This always gives me a chuckle, the same artist does a number of different ones and every one of them reminds me of at least one cat I've known.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q

Login

I loved the cat videos, dragon ... very amusing and worth revisiting again soon.

maddyjean08

I simply adore cats! I have at least fifteen of my own...

Login

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=72380
There's something in the ether around the full moon time: Sheftali has stray cat's joining her on the deck, and the normally vigilant dogs don't bat an eyelid; marius gave a good description of scatiness in drivers; Robin gets a freezer full of food ruined, despite the cold surroundings; matthew sees butterflies and old TD drawings where they shouldn't be; my computer's gone mad and I've completely lost my e-mail address book; my husband invariably becomes angry and volatile around full moon time (thank goodness he's not a violant person); Baldur's red backgrounds can't have anything to do with the moon as they've been around for too long. Well, it's that time of year ... santa's and red berries ... I think I'll go and have a pint of moonshine and see what happens!

marius

Dragon - loved that one too, funny! When Baldur was off being a pirate, thought I posted that same one only with a different title. Could be I only thought about it! ; )

Speaking of Baldur makes me think of food. marius *finally* made a dish with a "kick" to it that spouse could taste, but that didn't set my tongue on fire or make me think the teeth were melting! Yippee. Has taken 13 years to accomplish this.

Made stir-fry. To get a spicy-hot taste for spouse, I did chicken pieces with jalapeno, seeds removed and set that aside. Then stir-fried cabbage, snow peas, carrots, celery, water chestnuts, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic and red onion together. At last minute added the chicken without the jalapeno and seasonings.

This worked great as I made the chicken pieces large enough that I could select only a few and blended with all the veggies, the chicken flavor did not start a five-alarm fire in the mouth. Spouse said there was a pleasant hint of spicy-hot ... that was all I was going for! : )

marius

Login, you are funny! Enjoyed that very much.

The full moon was doing its work in my hometown of St. Joe last night too. My Dad, my sister and her husband went to a fundraiser called, "Knights and Tights." It was based on a medieval theme, food and all. So, guess Dad (age 87) was dressed as a knight in tights or something odd. He went on home after the dinner cause sis and her spouse had to stay clean up.

On the drive home Dad got bored at a red light and ran it "because it was eating up his time and there were no other drivers on the road." The policeman who pulled Dad over only gave him a warning. Guess when you are 87, wearing tights and knightly garb late at night there is mercy?

Dragon

You know marius, I think you did post Simon's Cat a while back. I totally forgot, sorry 'bout that.

I got a real good chuckle thinking of your aged father in his knight costume explaining running the red light to a cop. In my experience most cops have a pretty good sense of homour, I imagine a great many members of the police force in your home town now know the story of the knight in tights who was in to big a hurry to bother with a red light

Baldur

Baldur spent today in the garden. 66 degrees is not bad for Primrose in December.
Yesterday I moved a reasonable sized lilac shrub to just inside the north wall.That freed up the center of the area that will become a new vegetable garden next Spring.
I felt like doing something seasonal so I went up the hill and thinned out some evergreen saplings. That little project needs to be done every few years. Doing it in December gives me a mound of greenery to work with for holiday decor.
To the pile I added some holly cuttings and a wee bit of golden cyprus.
Then I found some stout garden twine and my green floral wire.
Baldur proceeded to make two twelve foot garlands for my front entryway.
Generally I have purchased this item each year, usually for about $50 (USD).
However even being my first attempt and garland making, this was far nicer than anything I've seen for sale. It is very fresh, fragrant and definitely plush.
The only drawback was that my hands got covered in pine sap. Easily remedied with a bit of Citru-solv.

Baldur

Tomorrow evening Baldur has his first gig as Santa of the.season.
I will be Ho-Ho-Ho-ing at a school in nearby Woonsocket for less than 2 hours.
You cannot imagine how much fun this is.
The childrens reactions are always completely unpredictable, Baldur needs to reign himself in at times as being too boisterous can frighten the children.

maddyjean08

Especially the little ones. My brother, he's two, whenever he sits on Santa's (sherrif's) lap, his face gets red and water spills over the eyelid. He does, however, like Mrs. Claus (sherrif's wife). She gives him cookies and soda pop in a baggie. The only reason I'm in the picture is to hold Jackson's hand. It never really helps. I'm telling my step mom I'm too old next time.......

sheftali52

Sheftali apologizes for not responding in a timely manner to comments. Marius, the pooka rabbit was a spur of the moment thing that just turned out quirky.

Dragon, the halo around the moon here was not as ominous--the temperature was probably in the 40s, therefore tolerable. Loved the cat video!

Maddyjean--15 cats? Wow, you are definitely a cat lover. Surely, they are not all indoor cats?

Login--loved the pic you drew for me of the two cats facing the full moon. It really was odd to see those two on my deck.

Marius--the mental picture of your dad in tights and knight regalia was funny!!! Go Dad!!! As he's 87, my hat's off to him.

And Baldur, good luck with the Santa stint. I imagine you'll have an entertaining tale or two for us afterward.

The weather in Yorktown, Virginia, was lovely today. The temperature got up to about 70 degrees (about 21 Celsius, I believe). That meant it was nice enough for Sheftali and her husband to drink a beer at the back fence with our neighbor. We catch up on family and neighborhood stuff at those fence sessions. The beer bottles get clinked and we say the German toast "prost" before we imbibe. On those occasions when a second beer is in order to continue the discussion, the toast is "skinny a--es", an irreverent version of the Greek toast "stin yassas" (my spelling is phonetic here). It's amazing how many world problems we've solved in those sessions at the fence!!

Dragon

Just watch out for the crazies Baldur. I read an online news article today about a man in his forties who dressed up like an elf, went to the mall, stood in line to see Santa and when he got there informed Santa he had dynamite in his bag. The mall was evacuated, the elf was arrested and searched. No dynamite whatsoever was found but they charged him with terrorism or threatening terrorism or something. Hope all your little elves are the pleasant, dynamite free type

Robindcr8l

Robin has had a very busy and productive day despite only 3 hours of sleep last night. (only 2 more weeks of night shift...maybe the insomnia will be cured!). Had to go to work for some training on our impending new computer system. Ugh! It's a big deal changing the whole system for a moderately large hospital. But they have known for several years that we were doing this, and kept delaying the "go-live" date. Now it's set to "go-live" in May 2010. Why they have to schedule us for all of these training days during the busiest time of year when it is still MONTHS from starting is beyond me. The other thing that struck me is that when they posted the positions for trainers several months ago, they clearly hired anyone who applied. No consideration for whether or not the individuals had any teaching skills. Unfortunately, my trainer was very disorganized, easily distracted, and went off on unrelated tangents. I have worked with her for years and she is an excellent nurse and a nice person, but teaching is clearly not her forte. Teaching, by the way, is not MY forte either, but I have enough insight to never apply for a job that requires a lot of teaching. I won't even be a preceptor. So, training sucked, but oh well.

The rest of the day was spent putting up the rest of the Christmas decorations and cleaning and baking and preparing for my cookie exchange tomorrow. Has anyone else ever been to a cookie exchange? I invited 6 of my closest friends. We each need to bake 7 dozen of our one favorite Christmas cookie, then keep one of those dozen for ourselves. At the party, each person will get 1 dozen of each different variety of cookies. Then we will decorate the cut-out cookies together! I am making chili and cornbread for dinner, too, and mulled cider (with rum on the side if desired as a mixer). When the party is over, I can take all the different cookie varieties and make several plates of cookies for neighbors, teachers, bosses, friends, whomever!

But now my feet are killing me and my bed is calling to me. I must get up early and start the chili in the crockpot, and roll, cut, and bake all the cut-outs to be decorated. No rest for the weary.

PS. I am very envious of you East-Coasters this week! 66 at Chez Baldur, 70 in Virginia! It's Indian Summer in DECEMBER, for goodness sake! I woke up to 19 degree weather today. That's ultra cold for Boise.

sheftali52

Sorry your training was such a drag, Robin. Bummer. A bad instructor makes any training a trying experience. Not everyone can be a great instructor, even if they're good at their profession. My husband was an outstanding technical instructor in the Air Force, but he went to a school to learn how to be an instructor. I was not an exceptional instructor, except perhaps in limited, one-on-one situations.

The cookie exchange sounds like fun. Haven't been to one, but interestingly enough, our local paper had a nice article on cookie exchanges today.

Ah yes, the weather here on the East coast now is milder than Idaho's. In this part of Virginia, the weather is much to my liking. We get the four seasons here, but a mild version of those seasons. Our winters see a little snow once in awhile, but rarely any accumulations, and the summers are not nearly as hot and humid as in Texas, Alabama, or Florida. For a gal who grew up in Hawaii, with its year-round balmy weather, Virginia is a great place to experience the four seasons!

A few years ago, there was an unusual snowfall here just after Christmas--14 inches--and the area was paralyzed. Hubby whined about shoveling snow then, though Sheftali did most of the shoveling. And then he went out and bought a snow blade for his John Deere lawn tractor. Since then there hasn't been any snow to shovel, much less move, and the snow blade has never been used. Grrr.

Robindcr8l

sheftali, I think the price of the snow blad was well worth the assurance of no snow ever again! I would run out right now and buy one if that is all it takes! Growing up in Buffalo, NY, I had my fill of snow for a lifetime! Here in Boise, we get a similar version of weather to what you describe in Virginia, although it is desert here, so much drier. The hot is not as hot and the cold is not as cold when the humidity is low. And we can drive to the snow in the mountains in about half an hour, but don't have to live in it and shovel it for the most part. 2 years ago we had a winter where I had to shovel frequently, and then once, while I was pregnant about 13 years ago, I remember shoveling and cussing because I didn't think a pregnant girl should have to be shoveling several inches of snow! (My honey was out of town, thanks to Murphy's Law.)

Well, I am up early, showered, checking the email then starting the chili and the baking. Any of you are welcome to join us for festivities tonight. Don't worry about bringing cookies...there will be plenty to share! I started these little pecan tarts last night but gave up. They are so labor intensive. People love them, but these did not turn out pretty, and they made a mess and even if they taste good I HATE them now! But I still have 3/4 of the dough/filling left, so better finish them up, I guess...

Dragon

In Red Deer right now we're in the middle of a snow storm. It not a full blown blizzard but there are storm warnings out and the raods are absolutely miserable. We've been fortunate this year not to have had much snow, we usually start getting it in late Oct or early Nov and except for a couple of snowy days it's really held off. So what I'm saying is that I shouldn't be complaining about it but I'm going to anyway. My inner Mexican is crying.

Dragon

Robin, the cookie exchange sounds like a lot of fun. What a great idea to make gift batches out of them (that would keep me from eating the entire 7 dozen myself )