Thoughts from Alison that might at least entertain you!

Annual Shopping Madness

Well, Friends - I'm off for an annual adventure - outlet shopping in Birch Run with my mom, Ginny, and Lynn!  I'll update when I'm back...

Happy Spooky Halloween to All - have fun, eat a little chocolate (or whatever you prefer), and let your scary out!

Can't Help It!

Alright, I've tried to put away my desire to add a dog to our house for the time being.  I can't quite do it!  We're not collectively ready (the truth is this is just not the right set of moments) at Prune Ridge to add a dog to the Reed Family.  But isn't this girl precious?  I've been lusting over her for many weeks now.  I suspect she'll find the perfect home soon!

Television!

Yep, here I am - shortly after midnight, and I'm ready to blather on about T.V.  It's a work night for me (Sunday evenings usually are).  I try to wind down and be sleep-ready at a reasonable hour after working an evening, but it doesn't always work.  Tonight is one of those nights.  (It occurs to me that it's actually morning at this point.)

I'm half watching a favorite show in the background, and thought I'd pass along the tip of this show if you don't already know it.  If you get the Food Network, check out Iron Chef America!  John and I are both marginally addicted to this show, and I'm probably less marginal than he is.  This is the American take on a Japanese show, and it's approximately 98% entertaining.  The idea is sort of simple - there's a cache of Iron Chefs (the "champs"), and a new challenger on each episode.  The challenger chooses an opponent, and the two compete over 1 hour of cooking.  There is a secret ingredient revealed just as the timer starts, and the show is largely made up of commentary and footage of the two kitchens ("Kitchen Stadium") working over the hour.  Judges then eat everything and score the chefs and a victor is declared. 

Tonight's show is Halloween-themed, and the secret ingredients are a whole slew of various animal body parts (brains, hearts, pig's feet, and lots of organs I can't identify).  It's a good fun show - honest!  I was just poking around on the website, which was honestly a bit underwhelming - but the show is good and entertaining!

The added bonus/attraction for me is the host, Alton Brown, who I adore!  He has a couple of other shows, and is doubly entertaining as a host.  His own show is terrific - he's mostly a scientist who happens to be a chef, and the show dissects the science of just about everything you can cook.  He's also on the Food Network.

So there you go - my T.V. recommendations, just for you!  (FYI, John and I are also marginally addicted to Smallville - really a soap opera about Super Man, C.S.I, and The Office!)  Happy Night, All!

Couldn't Hack It

Alright, alright - I tried but I couldn't leave this pic of me with my eyes closed at the top of the page!  I'll leave it in this post, but that's all.  I tried!

Vacation Escape

Hello All!  Here are a few of John's expert pictures from our little getaway!  And yes, the picture of me to the left (eyes closed?) is new - stolen by John while I was sitting on a pillar on the dock at Lakeside.  I don't like it quite as much as my smiling pictures, but it's a good representation of my growing (and tousled!) hair.  I wasn't meditating... I'm not exactly sure what I was doing!

Lakeside, OH, is of course on the lake!  (Erie, that is)  The town is a collection of antique Victorian-style homes and cottages.  You can get an idea of the place from the shoreline picture here.  It was a cloudy windy day, but still lovely!  The color was great during our escaping days.  The picture with the fence is an apple tree - very heavy with fruit.  There were dozens of beautiful yellow apples on the ground, and many still high in the tree.  We found a pear tree a couple of houses down from the apple.  At least some critters will be happy and well fed, because neither tree seemed to be picked or tended!

Yesterday on our rambling way home, we stopped for a walk at Wildwood Metropark in Toledo.  Wildwood is one of my favorite pockets of urban green-ness in the world, near the neighborhood where Aaron Travis (my brother) and I mostly grew up.  Wildwood is also, of course, the park where John and I were married!  While we were strolling through, the very same rental company we called on for wedding day arrangements was setting up rental chairs at the gazebo.  The day was a lot more windy and a bit cooler than our perfect day 3 years ago, but the park was just as beautiful!  The last picture is from yesterday's walk.

Happy Windy Day, Friends.  Enjoy!

Home Again

Hello Friends!

John and I are just in after a couple of days away.  We spent two lovely nights at a little Victorian cottage in nearly-deserted Lakeside, OH.  We had plenty of the kind of time we are especially good at - not much planned, some good things to read, some pretty places to walk, some good local food to sustain us, and some Scrabble!  This was a week-after-anniversary celebration - Many thanks, Family!

I will update more as we get re-settled into home, and share a few pictures John took.

The girls are just glad we came home to feed them.  They are always starving!

Happy night, All - Be Well in the World!

First Session, First Pot!

Good evening, All!

I thought for posterity's sake, I should get a photo record of my very first (and only) pot produced in my first round of pottery class sessions here for the world to see.  On Thursday I will work at glazing the 9 (9!) successful pots from my second round of classes.

This first piece is about an inch and a half deep, and roughly four inches across.  With my next round of finished pieces, I'm most curious to compare the inside bottom of the pot.  You might see the ridges/circle thing in the center - that's because my finger nails were too long, and also I didn't know what I was doing!  I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm getting better!

Happy Night, Friends.  Be Well and Be Taking Care of You!

Vacation for Cats

Hi Friends!

The girls are also on vacation this week for "Family Vacation Week."  When asked what they wanted to do today, they both answered with similar lists:  eat, sleep, purr, nap, fight a little, nap some more, sleep a little, eat again, purr and fight...  Maggie B added "bite anyone who annoys me" to the list, and Tori added "sleep" again.  Enjoy these couple of pictures of the vacation festivities at our house.  Tori reeeeally wants to go outside.  She still doesn't recognize that she's an indoor cat, or that she doesn't actually like to move.

Choral bonus

I'm secretly pleased (ok, it's not a secret anymore if I post it here) with a change to the Masterworks Christmas program.  We were supposed to sing two different settings of the Ave Maria text.  One was by Jean Mouton, but it so happens that it is out of print and we can't get it.  I don't know the piece, and probably would have enjoyed it.  Instead, however, we get to sing the Rachmaninoff setting (in Russian) from the Rachmaninoff Vespers.  This is one of my most favorite pieces ever!

Blogging on the Interwebs

Happy Monday, All!

As a good friend of mine has just joined the blogosphere this weekend (Welcome to this silly world, Erin!) - I got to thinking about the fact that I've been "here" a while!  This blogging adventure of my random yammerings that may or may not entertain you began a little over 2 years ago!  A few stats from this adventure:

• Launch date: September 19, 2006
• 349 posts to date (this update will make 350!)
• 47 comments to date
• 4,979 page views to date!

Thanks to all who check in with me in this sort of funny forum.  I'm still enjoying the experience, and I appreciate the eyes and minds that read me!  In this chaotic world we live in, I love this "place" to stop occasionally, gather a few thoughts, and send them out to the world.  Please know I welcome comments - they add a conversational element to the stream of yammering!

Be well in the world, Friends - and do something today that feeds you!

Who Knew?

Tori (one of our cats) has told us a very interesting story this evening.  We knew, of course, that Tori is a princess.  We also knew that she started her life as a Barn Princess.  It is hard to believe sometimes that this dainty, girly feline was ever a barn cat - but she was.

Logic would suggest that Tori's mom was a barn cat - the Barn Queen, to be precise.  We had no idea, however that her dad was a Wookie.  Do you see the resemblance?  Tori would like to point out that she doesn't have as many teeth left as her dad-the-wookie had, but she was a rough and tough Barn Princess - she had to sacrifice some teeth for glory.

(Yes, we are watching Star Wars.)

John just pointed out that if Tori is half-cat and half-wookie, that makes her a Cookie.

Vacation

As of this evening, on my return from work (a half hour ago) I am officially off work for the next 6 days.  Woohooo and Amen.  I'm looking forward to several days of not very much going on.  John and I will tackle a few tasks, but the biggest task is "don't do too much."

Happy Evening, All!

Three Years

John and I have been married 3 years today.  I still can't believe that four and a half years ago, I didn't even know this man.  Life is simple, perfect, and mysterious all at once.  Add magical love to the mix, and here we are at Prune Ridge!

Thank you All, Friends and Family who started John and I off on our adventures that brought us to this good journey together.  Happy Night!

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

"Perfect Gift Guide"

I did something radical and crazy a few nights ago.  I went to the mall!  I didn't just go to the mall - I went specifically to go to Bath & Body Works.  I went specifically to Bath & Body Works to see a new product that I saw an ad for!  If you don't know already, this is not exactly characteristic of me.

I made some purchases, and because the standard procedure of that retailer is to include irresistible ads and coupons in every bag, I came home with the "Perfect Gift Guide 2008."  Last night I picked it up in the bedroom (after our "nearly-tomorrow" return from my workplace) as I was getting ready for bed and promptly whacked myself in the eye with the heavy-weight bound edge of the 8-page book.  "OUCH!" I yelled.  "Uhh, what's going on in there?" John says from the other room.   Yeah - not so "Perfect" a gift guide as far as I'm concerned!  This morning, it took a good few minutes in the shower with me wondering why my eye was sore before I remembered whacking myself with the book.

(In case you're wondering, I went to check out the store's new line of aromatherapy products for better sleep.  I was especially pleased with the "Warm Milk & Honey" scent, and I purchased some lotion.  So far, I love it!  I've slept better two nights in a row.  I'm exhausted and over-worked, so I can't say it's this fancy new lotion that makes me sleep better, but it smells wonderful and I can't complain about that.  I also got some hand soap pumps and a free stuffed sheep with my purchase.  How could I resist a soft fluffy grey sheep?)

FYI: I just whacked myself in the face again with the same guilty piece of marketing as I was typing.  I opened it to double check the name of the scent I bought.  That will teach me to try for accuracy in my blogging.

Happy Wednesday, and Happy Presidential Debate if you're watching it!  Be Well in the World, Friends!

7 til Tomorrow

It's 11:53pm according to my little laptop.  Tomorrow will be here in minutes, and my husband just brought me home from going to work for the 3rd time today.  Wooohoooo, new register system!

I'm thinking it will be 3 full months until we feel we really know what we're doing with these cash registers.  It feels like it might be 3 full years, but that's mostly my tired cranky brain talking.  (Yep, my brain talks.)

Happy Nearly-Wednesday, All!