90/365

Almost 1/4 of the way through the year and my 365 day challenge...

89/365

There aren't enough hours in the day!

88/365

The pinata at the birthday party had raisins in it, but the kids weren't exactly scarfing them up so I grabbed a couple of boxes for a photo op. I keep reading about the gin/raisin thing for arthritis but I think it only works with golden raisins. It sounds like a waste of gin to me... :-)

87/365

Today was Nathaniel's 3rd birthday party. He got this little John Deere lawn tractor which all the kids had to try. Sharing was not the word any of these little ones wanted to hear, much to the dismay of the adults. They did their best, though and no one got hurt, even when there was a tug of war going on with a hockey stick. I don't know about the little ones, but I needed a nap when it was over. :-D

86/365

Time for a Casper pic. She was dreaming right before I took this picture. I could hear her whimpering in the next room. When I zoomed in on her from the hallway she opened her eyes. Maybe she is like me and she wakes herself up on purpose by crying. I have learned to yell myself awake when I am having a nightmare.

She was having a very lazy morning in the chair.

I'm doing a photoless blog entry today because it is almost 11PM and I am pooped. Worked a full day, ran to the farm to feed the horses and went to Riverdance. The normally 45 minute trip to downtown Syracuse took about 70 minutes because of the traffic going to the NCAA basketball game at SU. It was the only glitch in the evening. Riverdance is amazing. That's all I can say.

83/365

No time. I need to get to bed early tonight, tomorrow is going to be a long day. Riverdance is starting at 7:30. That is like 11 PM to me because of my oddball schedule. And I have to drive to Syracuse at the same time that the NCAA basketball games are playing at SU. AND I have to try to stay awake to drive the 45 minutes home when it's over. But I am looking forward to the show!!

82/365

The birds are taunting me. I'm sitting at my kitchen table and watching the birds on my feeder. Tufted Titmouse, Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Cardinal, Goldfinch, Nuthatch. I cannot take pictures with my little camera because of the autofocus--there are screens in the window and I can never get it to focus without seeing the screen. But if I go sit on the sunporch where I could take a picture, the birds don't come. I get cold, go inside and the feeder is covered with birds again. So I'm posting a picture of a book I am about to start because it has a nice Blue Jay on the cover.

81/365

It's all Butch's fault. I'm tired and was searching for inspiration for my daily photos and he grabbed this little bottle of black cherry vodka that my sister gave me. The little dudes don't imbibe in anything stronger than hot chocolate but it was just so cute to have a bottle their size. Well, close to their size. LOL

80/365

March madness has begun. I'm not a fan, but my husband is a sports nut and my sister, too, so she came over to watch SU beat Gonzaga. I am really not much of a sports fan, and this week it is causing me a headache because months ago I ordered tickets to see Riverdance in Syracuse. It is playing there for three nights and I got tickets for Thursday, not knowiong that SU is hosting MM basketball games--starting Thursday. I'm hoping that because the game starts earlier we can time it to avoid the worst traffic, and I'm just hoping that it doesn't impact the downtown parking. It shouldn't, but you never know...Wish us luck. One more reason for me to hate sports. :-D

79/365

We had our first fire-pit fire of the year and it was fun. Butch kept saying it was "too cold" but isn't that the time to have a fire? We set up the chairs, opened a bottle of wine (A Mano Prinativo) and ended up having a good time. It is only about 40 out, but Butch was glad that we did it now because later in the season we will be plagued by mosquitos and we weren't tonight.

First day of spring!!

78/365

Today was a first for the year. Butch and I use our sun porch a lot in the nice weather and today was our first dinner on the porch. Our favorite thing to do is not to cook sometimes, so we make a up a platter with cheese, crackers, pepperoni, chips, raw veggies, dip, olives, pickles--whatever is in the fridge or cupboards and open a bottle of wine to go with it. We pop the iTouch into the portable Bose speakers and spend an hour or so eating, talking, listening to music and watching the birds. Casper joins us and entertains us by offering up behavior that usually garners a treat. (She will sit on her haunches and offer up a double high-five until you give her something. We keep a small container of training sized treats just for that purpose.) I enjoyed myself enough that I forgot for a moment that I have to go to work tomorrow. LOL

This little item is actually a very festive little wine glass coaster in the shape of a flip-flop. It slips onto the base of the wine glass and is one of those cutesy little ways of distinguishing your glass from someone else's. Personally I just take the one that has the most wine left in it. ;-) Happy weekend people!

77/365

Never did yesterday's blog, but kept my commitment to the flickr groups. Sometimes there just isn't enough time. Or inspiration.

75/365

I heard today that Timmy died. He had a nice retirement after showing with us. This picture is the last one I have of him, taken on the farm he lived out his days on, somewhere in NH. Vale, Timmy.

74/365

There is less and less snow everyday, so it really is beginning to feel like spring is right around the corner. The horses are shedding a little, but they tend to hang on a little longer up here for some reason. It's OK, since they are outside horses they need it so I don't push it. I think the next couple of days are supposed to be sunny again. :-)

73/365

We lit a candle for Courtney King-Dye today. For those of you who don't know who she is, Courtney is a US Olympic Dressage rider who fell from a young horse and is now in a coma. Horse people around the world are pulling for her to come through this.

72/365

My last weekend at the farm and Butch and Casper are here. They are watching basketball. I'm just glad they are here. :-)

71'365

A day late and a dollar short--that's me sometimes. I had such a better day yesterday that I forgot to do a blog entry. So I'll do two today. I have to thank my friend Mary for posting a link to a bunch of stuff on Etsy, one of which was this iTouch case. I love Etsy, I do a lot of Christmas shopping there and of course that is where the lil doubleheaders came from. I have been looking for a way to protect my iTouch when it is in my bag and most of them are metal or plastic and I am a natural klind of gal and would prefer wood, so this one made out of recycled bamboo flooring was the perfect find.

And I'm seeing a trend. The last three items I bought from Etsy were from craftspeople from Portland OR. They must have a great artisan community there.

70/365

I am having such an emotional week. Coming back from vacation, having a huge fight with my boss, and yesterday Casper's vet used the term "malignant". When he first told me that she had a tumor, he didn't use the term malignant. In last nights conversation he said that the sample showed signs of being malignant, but that because it wasn't a mast cell and because it was being affected by the antibiotics that we should wait and see. He is afraid that if we try to take it off that we can't get good enough margins. He told me that he didn't think that it was the kind of thing that spreads, so a "wait & see" approach might be best. Logically I understand that. It is the same thing with Maddie and her sarcoids. But godddamn I wish he hadn't said malignant.

I think that being away from home for almost a month now is wearing on me. While I adore my time at the farm, I am usually here by myself and a month is long enough. Casper will be coming back for the weekend and I should be home by next Wednesday.

Speaking of the farm.

(I know I seem to leave Butch out, but he and I have a funny, long distance phone relationship while I am at the farm. It's kind of comical. I have spoken to him 3 times in three hours, so I miss him being here, too, but I am in constant contact with him.)

69/365

The snow on the pond is changing color--you can see the definite outline of the pond in this pic. And I saw robins today. Spring can't be too far off!

68/365

I was going to bitch about my job, but I won't, well maybe a little. It's complicated and stupid and I had a big fight with my supervisor and she said some really hurtful things and told some out and out lies. She doesn't know that one of my co-workers called and complained to me about 6 times while I was off those two weeks and told me everything that was going on. Several other people told me things when I came back. When I told the Postmaster what she said about how things went last week his response was "Bullshit". I do think she knows she went too far because by the time we were done, she was being really nice to me. But you can't ever unring those bells once you start them pealing. There was a comical point when she almost called me by her girlfriend's name. She's been fighting with her girlfriend the last couple of days and I almost blurted out that she was probably wrong in that fight too. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

I had a big brownie and a glass of milk with my friends later.

67/365

Worked sucked and I miss my dog. This working for a living is the pits.

66/365

One of my bull terrier friends gave me an idea. She said that maybe I should send Diesel & Feezle to her in Thailand. Diesel & Feezle have to make appearences for a year on my flickr page, but after that--wouldn't that be fun!?! My bull terrier friends and horse friends live around the world. D&F could travel around the globe, and have photos taken everywhere. I think it's a smashing idea. This was the photo that inspired her comment.

(I could also "clone" them via the woman who made them and start the ball rolling sooner...)

65/365

The sun has been shining for three days in a row. It has been heavenly even if it is still cold. I have one more day of vacation left. Oh well. The days are getting longer and spring is coming. I have now been at the farm for three weeks. I was in my own house for the first time in about 10 days and I realized how much I missed it. Casper goes home tomorrow to stay there until I am done so it is going to be a bit lonely. I have been getting reports that work has been horrible while I have been out, but I know that part of the reason is that they depend so much on me. I like to prove it to them every time I am on vacation, but you would think they would learn when I try to get them to understand that they need to get some other people trained for some of the things I do so they don't struggle in my absence. But they never learn. I'm already starting to grind my teeth in my sleep, just thinking about going back...

This was taken in the late afternoon, when the shadows over the pond were starting to really lengthen.

64/365

Casper's vet was afraid that the new growth was a mast cell tumor, but after a fine needle aspiration he's pretty sure (and pretty happy) that it's not. It is a tumor of some sort, though. He has put her on a course of antibiotics, I can't remember why, I'm a bit fuzzy about that but I was really worried. Anyway, we are observing the tumor for the next few days and will be discussing removal of it next week. He feels there is time to wait a few days before we do anything.

She needs to be OK.

63/365

More Casper. I looked over and she was asleep with her back foot up against her cheek. The toenails gave it a rather creepy look. My little monster dog.

62/365

I had this whole long blog entry written only to find out I had somehow become disconnected from my mobile broadband. I'm too lazy to type it all over, so just enjoy a couple of pictures of Casper. Can you tell she loves Butch?

61/365

I really, really want to photograph something green. But until then...

Blame it on Bohjalian! I knew last night that I need to do a blog entry for the day, but I was so engrossed in this book that some stuff went by the wayside. I did manage to do my daily photo projects on flickr, but they weren't all that good, more like what they refer to as an "11PM photo". I just didn't get to the 11PM blog entry. :-) It was just one of those un-put-downable books.