Weekend Assignment #199

 

 

Let's see what Karen is offering up for this weekend's deep thoughts:

Weekend Assignment #199: What is your usual sleep schedule on weeknights? Are you an "early to bed, early to rise" sort of person, or do you stay awake far into the night (voluntarily or otherwise), and get up as late as your work schedule permits? Do you give priority to getting adequate sleep? If so, how is that working out for you?
Extra Credit: If you had no work or family scheduling obligations, would your sleeping pattern change substantially?

How's that picture for appropriate? Now for my answer...

Since I've been lucky enough to work at several little part time gigs over the last year and a half,  my sleeping habits can be a little erratic. I seem to be at my most alert from about 11pm to 3am, but I rarely stay up quite that late. I usually set my goal to be in bed by 1am, and usually make it by about 2am... except for those occasional nights when I just can't seem to quiet my mind to sleep. You will find me up either on the computer, or watching a movie till around 4am or 5 on those nights.

Now for the scary part.... Since I take care of horses on a regular basis, this means being at the barn by 8am... even if I did just go to bed at 3am. G gets up for work at 7am, so I'm up anyway. I hear the little calculators in your heads working now. No, I don't survive on 4 to 6 hours of sleep, I have a solution that works for me. I do my morning work with assorted animals from about 8am to 10am, then it is home to check my e-mail and Bloglines account, do the housework/laundry that is needed and try to finish up by 12:30pm. A quick trip across the street to do the Noon check on the horses and I'm done for the morning! Geoff comes in for lunch at 1. After eating, I curl up on the couch and usually catch a quick nap from about 2 till 4pm. If I am feeding the horses the evening meal, I get up at 4pm and trot over there to do that. Geoff gets done around 5pm. So, I do manage to get around 8 hours of sleep most days, just not in a row!

Extra Credit: If you had no work or family scheduling obligations, would your sleeping pattern change substantially?

Oh Yeah! I would sleep when I was tired and wake up when I wasn't. To me that would be the best. I've never really been good at doing the going to bed and sleeping 8 or 9 hours and then staying up the rest of the time. I actually seem to do better on a couple of broken up periods of sleep... eh, go figure, I'm not normal!

Want to play along?? Write up your answer to the Weekend Question, click on the link above and leave your link over at Karen's so we can all see it!

Can I have an Awwwww?!?

 

 

How can you look at that picture and not go "Awwwwwwwww"? I was there just a couple of hours after this guy was born and remember when he was still having trouble finding his balance and figuring out how to nurse. He obviously figured it all out! Isn't he a cutey? This picture was taken last July. I need to get down and see him again soon, but it is a little over a 2 hour trip each way now and requires more planning than it used to.

The HP laptop is home and I can't believe how much nicer it is to work with my wonderful 17" screen and all of my settings just the way I like! I edited several pictures today, which I will dole out to you all 1 at a time. Even if I don't have anything to say, at least you'll get a picture! 

I'm look forward to getting back into things like Wordless Wednesday, Monday Photo Shoots, Weekend Assignments... So, in that spirit, I decided to go back and pick up the first Weekend assignment that Karen did after John left us. I'll also be doing the actual assignment for this week later.

Weekend Assignment #197: Now that the WGA strike has had lots of time to affect the prime time television schedules, how is it affecting you as a viewer? What show do you miss most, aside from reruns? Do you miss your weekly appointment with that ill-behaved doctor, or your visits to Wisteria Lane? Does it bother you not to laugh at fresh jokes on your favorite sitcom? Or are you just as happy watching reality shows, or new episodes of shows that have been held back until now? We want to know!
Extra Credit: how are you spending the time instead?

 

Frankly the WGA strike has had little effect on me. I don't watch a whole lot of network TV other than my guilty pleasure of 1 hour of All My Children each day... and I don't even necessarily watch that on the network either. I am much more likely to catch it on SoapNet at 8pm than I am to watch it in the middle of the afternoon. Other than that, most of my favorite shows are on other channels, and so far haven't shown much effect. Torchwood, Eureka, The Dresden Files and other shows of the type seem to be unaffected so far. Part of the reason I don't watch network TV can also be laid at the door of DirecTV. For some reason we are unable to get local channels thru them other than NBC, and the only channels we can pick up off a regular antenna are ABC, and fuzzily FOX. So even if I wanted to watch something.... I couldn't!

Besides, I have found that for most programs, we like buying the whole season and watching at our own pace. I am currently in the middle of watching Season 2 of Supernatural, Season 1 of Criminal Minds (I have Season 2 waiting in the wings) and Season 2 of How I met Your Mother. If you watch and catch them on sale, the seasons aren't that expensive and you don't have to watch commercials, you watch when you want, not when the show is 'on', and you never miss an episode and wonder what happened last week!

Extra Credit:

Well, so far I haven't spent my time any differently because I haven't been affected at all. I guess when the shows I watch start to be affected I will go and pick up some seasons of other shows I've been meaning to watch. Besides, I only spend a couple of hours a day watching the TV (although it is usually on for noise). Now if the Internet goes on strike.... then I would really have a problem! LOL!

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!

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....

Weekend Assignment #162: Karma Chameleon

Woo Hoo! Look, I'm famous... well sorta... This weeks Weekend Assignment was inspired by ..... ME!

Weekend Assignment #162: Reincarnation is a fact and you are going to come back as some type of animal. What kind would you prefer and why?
Extra Credit: Do you think you have good Karma or bad? Do you believe in Karma?

My first instinct was a house cat! I mean... what a life! AND they don't even have to pretend to like you!?! But, John beat me to that one... Hmmmmmmm....

So....... what animal is beautiful, intelligent, loving, strong and, most importantly, admired?

"The horse is God's gift to man."--Arabian Proverb

"And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it and created the horse." ~Bedouin Legend

Both very appropriate quotes since some of my favorite horses are Arabians!

I think I would love to come back as a horse. To race the wind just because and to kick up my heels in pure joy of being alive. To have a pure and forgiving heart. To be strong, yet gentle and curious.

Horses - if God made anything more beautiful, he kept it for himself. ~Author Unknown

As for the extra credit portion of the assignment.... I don't believe in Karma with a capital K.... but I do believe that what you give to the world and how you see the world shapes the things that happen to you. Bad things sometimes happen to good people, but how you face the bad things makes us who we are. And, I do think the world helps the person who helps themselves. I've read lately that reality is created by thought and that you can change your reality by changing how you think... Sounds like karma to me!

Weekend Assingment #150

John Scalzi over at By the Way reports that there will be some big athletic/sporting event this weekend, not only that but he says that a lot of people are very excited about it. Eh... whatever! Anyway, in the spirit of the weekend he has decided to base this week's assignment around it:

Weekend Assignment: Share your memories of the first Super Bowl game you remember seeing. Which is to say, the first one you had an actual interest in -- Super Bowls playing in the background while you faced away from the TV and read a book or something don't count. If you remember watching one but don't remember quite the year, here's a list of the Super Bowls to date to assist your memory (click on the particular game to a full description of the game).
Those of you in Canada, the UK and elsewhere can substitute your own massively nationally important annual sporting event in the stead of the Super Bowl if, in fact, you have no Super Bowl memories. I mean, I'm sure there were some rockin' Grey Cup games.
Extra credit: So, ever been to a Super Bowl game?

Hmmmmm.... thinking... wracking my brain.... Nope... Nada! I have never had any interest in the Super Bowl game beyond the commercials LOL! And now, thanks to the Internet, I don't even have to watch the game to see the commercials, I can just go online.... bwahahahahaha!

On the other hand, I HAVE attended my fair share of Super Bowl Parties.. some of which I even vaguely remember <.snort> I also have it on good authority that there will be a gathering of people to watch the game tomorrow evening at G's bosses home. I will make my appearance, eat me some food, give everyone big hugs and... retreat to a corner with either my book or my DS and my copy of Nintendogs.

Extra Credit: Yeah, Right! LOL

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