Thursday, May 17, 2007

Your Monday Photo Shoot: The Letter "B"

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of something beginning with the letter "B". That shouldn't be too brain-busting, right?

It's especially easy if your favorite horse is named.... Boo! LOL!

If you want to play along, just pop over to John Scalzi's blog By The Way and join in! 

Saturday, May 12, 2007

I've Been Tagged!

 

Pretty Flower

 

Mary Jo over at From the Edge of Dementia tagged me to do this... I don't do a lot of these, but for her I'll make an exception! O.K... here it is:

List seven things that most people don't know about you.  Tag seven people to play along.  Send a comment to their journal letting them know they're in the game. 

Let's see.... what does the Internet not know about me....

  1. I'm sure a few people know this, but I haven't mentioned it in a while, but I used to work for a major circus and traveled all over the country and lived on a train!
  2. I have a 4 year old grandson.
  3. I was born in the "Land of Beautiful Horses and Fast Women" or as most people call it, Kentucky.
  4. I was there when my horse was born and helped him stand and nurse for the first time... and he has been with me for the 17 years since
  5. After having 1 child I figured out that it hurt and I decided that 1 was plenty <LOL> (even though I was told I had an 'easy' delivery!)
  6. I am a Geek! But I spend a good part of my day outside taking care of one animal or another.
  7. When my family gets together in a few days we are going to be able to take a 5 generation picture. My grandmother is 92 this year, my mother 65, I'm 46,soon to be 47, my son is 31, and my grandson is 4 (soon to be 5). My Grandmother is his Great, Great Grandmother!

True story: When my Grandson was born, I was busy trying to come up with something he could call me besides Grandma! My Mother on the other hand was thrilled to be a Great Grandmother and went around showing everyone his picture and announcing, "I'm a Great Grandmother". She looks at my Grandmother and says, "And that makes you a Great, Great Grandmother!" My grandmother told her, "Shush, Janice Ann... You don't have to announce THAT to the world!" She turns around and looks at me and says, "Doesn't she know that we aren't old enough for this??"

The picture at the top of the entry doesn't have anything to do with the entry... I just thought it was pretty!

I'm not going to tag anyone... but if you want to play along, please do! Be sure to leave me a link so I can learn something new about you!

Late Weekend Assignment! Weekend Assignment #163: "Take a Picture of Your Local Weather."

I don't always do John's weekend assignments, but I had every intention of doing this one... I mean, how hard could it be to take a picture of some weather and post it?? AND we were having some really cool sunsets because of the smoke.....

Smoke, you say... What smoke? Well, it seems that we have a bunch of wildfires in Georgia and northern Florida, and while I am not anywhere physically near any of these fires, the winds have been blowing a lot of smoke our way. This smoke makes the sun a gorgeous red color as it goes below the horizon each night. Simple enough.. go outside at the end of the day and take a picture of the red sun... Yeah, right! It actually took me 4 days of trying before everything came together for me to get the shot. See, I do a barn check at about the time the sun is setting and by the time I walk back and grab the camera... Sun is below the horizon line!.. and then we had rain one night, and on the first night I noticed the red sun I was actually in the truck coming home......... Yeah, it took me a while to pull it all together.. LOL!

Red Sunset

Better Late than Never I guess.... I present for your pleasure... my weather! And, even with John's 'extension' I still didn't get it over there fast enough to be included. Eh! Maybe next week....

Monday, May 07, 2007

More Randomness......

Just another one of those random, stream of consciousness type posts...

If anyone with a blog on AOL has been missing getting a comment from me, well it's because AOL has refused to allow me to sign in all day on Sunday. Every time I would try I would get to the page with the boxes for screenname and password, I would enter my information, then I would get a 404 page saying something like the server didn't recognize the command. WEIRD! I finally got it to accept at almost midnight. Sigh!

Here's something for people who like things like the old Spirographs. I loved those things when I was a kid! Anyway, go here and when the page loads move your mouse pointer over the white square. Cool, huh! Now, click one of those little circles down in the left hand corner and move your mouse again. Seriously, this thing kept me occupied for about 30 minutes. ROFL!

It rained here today, a pretty good thunderstorm actually. Because I access the internet thru a dish, the weather affects if I can surf or not. You don't realize how much you use something till it randomly is denied to you.  ;p

If you haven't checked in with Kim lately over at I Shaved My Legs for This, drop by and say Hi! She could use all the support we can give her. She is a very brave lady, but it never hurts to know that others are rooting for you!  

Poor Morgan. In the first shot she is all... "Look, Mom has that cool box thing and wants to take my picture...... this is Great!"

Morgan at the Beginning of a Photo Shoot

Then, after several minutes of this we get, "Is she ever going to get that thing out of my face!" LOL!

Morgan at the END of the Photo Shoot

Friday, May 04, 2007

Feline Friday--Sad Edition

 

 

This was always one of my favorite D.K. pictures. I've used it for a Feline Friday post before. I have some recent shots that I would like to post, but they make me cry because you can see how much weight she had lost.

I've been trying to do a Feline Friday post every since I lost D.K., but just haven't been able to bring myself to do it. She had a lump in November that was odd. Upon being taken to visit our wonderful vet, we were told it was malignant and had already spread from the area of the lump and into her lungs. When told of my dismay at not spotting anything sooner, the Vet told us that this was a fast moving form of the disease and the lump had probably not been there in a size we could feel for more than a couple of weeks.We were told we couldn't do much as far as treatment except spoil her, treat any symptoms as they appeared, and enjoy her for the time we had left.  When I asked when, the Vet said we would know when it was time. After telling me that, she would receive several more visits from D.K. and I because if she even sneezed or wheezed I had an appointment and would start  my conversation with "It's probably nothing... But..." She made it 6 more months.

Although she lost a lot of weight during those 6 months, she continued to eat and move about the house somewhat normally, although a little slower than before. But, then she was 12 years old!  She remained bright and happy. And, surprisingly she gave us absolutely no problem taking the medicine each day that she needed. Sometimes it was one pill, sometimes two.... She seemed to know that it helped her! After having been given dry kibble for her entire life I started feeding her soft foods in any variety I thought she would like and we bought her favorite treats in quantity. I figured any food going in was good and was no longer worried about calories or her getting too heavy. Even with unlimited access to food she would go from a robust 12 pounds down to 6 before the end.

Finally on April 14 she showed no appetite for the first time... And on the 15th she stopped drinking. She quickly started to dehydrate, and I could tell she was ready to go. Her eyes no longer bright, she wanted to just stay in her favorite spot and sleep.

Early evening they gave her the shot and she peaceful fell asleep in my arms......

She was a wonderful friend who kept  me laughing and entertained for 12 years. She came to me at only 5 weeks old... a stray kitty who didn't even know how to eat solid food good yet. She would accompany me when I went on the road with the circus and traveled by train all over the country and even to Mexico! When G and I got together she slowly gave her approval and then finally started to prefer his lap to mine. (Something about his sharing of ice cream and other treats maybe??) She will be greatly missed by both of us AND her little 'sister' Morgan.

Rest in Peace

D.K.

1995 to April 15, 2007

 

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Random Photo... Random Thoughts

Today you get a bunch of random LOL!

O.k... First the Random Photo... and I admit to a little photoshopping here (and yes, I do know that Adobe HATES when you use their product name as a verb... they can just deal with it!). First I isolated the two flowers in the front (and the bug incidentally). I then decreased the color in the rest of the picture. Then I increased the saturation of the selected area slightly. A quick crop with a shape, a decrease in size for web viewing and Viola!  I feel like Steven with my little macro shot.

 

flower and bug

 

We have been having a lot of smoke hanging around due to a burn locally. I'm not sure if it was an accidental one or a planned one. For my purposes it all amounts to the same thing. Last night as the sun was going down it was the most vivid red. Unfortunately I was on the way home from Morgan's Agility class and didn't have my camera. By the time I got home it was too late. I'm hoping for a second chance tonight.

Speaking of heavenly bodies, the full moon we are having is called the Full Flower Moon (along with some other names, but I liked that one)... AND there will be a second full moon on the 31st making it a BLUE MOON! Cool, huh!?!

I'm putting this as a link instead of an embedded player for the convenience of my poor readers on dial-up. It takes a little for the download if you are on a slow connection, but I got a real kick out of it. The song AND the singers were so cool.... The Zimmers sing My Generation

I told you this was random... Check out this photo also. Very cute.

I think I'm done now.......