Author: April

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Rainy and Cold New Year’s Eve

Well, everyone that I know was planning to go downtown and party on the riverfront tonight. But the weather forecast is for cold temperatures and 80% chance of rain. I don’t think that sounds very appealing to me, so maybe I’ll cancel on the downtown party.

If I stay home and watch the New Year’s Eve show, I can have some little finger foods and wine. In fact, I think I have a bottle of champagne in the back of the refrigerator. So I can have my own little party right here and not worry about being cold and wet on the first hour of the new year.

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Christmas Traditions Can Differ a Lot

When I was a kid, we had Christmas on just one day – Christmas Day – and it was a very busy day for us. We always woke up early and tore into the presents under our tree in the living room. Then we had brunch, got dressed up and visited my Grandmother at her house. We always took gifts to her house for her and she always had gifts for us waiting under her tree. We visited for a couple of hours and then left her house and went to my other grandparent’s house for a huge family party.

I am amazed to learn that many people open their gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. Some families hang stockings and some don’t. Some families don’t even have Santa come visit – I think that is sad. Even when the kids are grown, everyone still likes to get a little gift from Santa!

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Alligators Dancing for Christmas

graphic of alligators dancing

One of my good friends was born and raised in Louisiana. I found this cute graphic of alligators dancing while wearing Santa hats. I posted it on his Facebook wall and he got a great laugh about it. I think it is so cute!

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Last Full Moon of the Year

I hope the skies are clear tonight so I can see the last full moon of the year. This month is special with our night skies, as there are planetary alignments and Jupiter is extra close to the Earth so it is the second brightest light in the sky, after only the moon.

Last night it was mostly clear but something in the atmosphere made the moon appear to have a large halo around it. I could not stop staring at it. I love the night sky, especially after midnight when everyone in the neighborhood is sound asleep and there is no traffic. It is a magical, peaceful time.

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Peace love and pets

drawing of symbols for peace love and pets
Peace, love and pets is what we all need in life to be happy. I wish everyone could enjoy having a dog or cat in their home, a peaceful life and lots of love. That’s what it is all about. I have been blessed with many pets throughout my life. I love my dogs and I miss my cats. But in this house, we can’t have cats anyway.

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Happy Birthday Cassandra

My girlfriend, Cassandra, who used to live here but moved away to Oklahoma is having a big birthday today – she turns 30! Wow! That is a milestone.I wish she was still living here so we could go out and celebrate with a nice dinner and some fun! We still keep in touch with our blogs. Her’s is called The Twin Diaries – because last year she had twin girls and had to move closer to her family for help with all her kids. At least they promised to help but then after she got out there they didn’t do shit for her and now she is stuck out there.

My dad used to tell me that where you are are in life when you turn 30 is an indicator of how the rest of your life is going to turn out. Such as, if you are married and doing well financially, you will probably be stable and secure for most of the rest of your life. But if your life is a hot mess at 30, then you are probably never going to be happy and successful.

I don’t know why 30 is the magic number, but he pointed out a lot of good examples from friends and relatives who were doing well at 30 and still are, and the few black sheep that were having drama at 30 are still pretty much having drama in their daily lives.

for Cassandra, I think it could go either way. She has been working toward a more stable and secure life, but she has a lot of family issues and too much drama from all the baby daddies. I sure hope that things just keep getting better for her and her kids. Maybe she will find a way to move back out here – I would love that!

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Surrounded By Difficult People

All day today has been really challenging for me. I feel like everyone around me is going out of their way to be difficult. Even people who are normally very sweet and friendly are acting rude. Maybe it is something in the water? It’s not the full moon, so we can’t blame that. But I have bitten my tongue way too many times today in the interest of keeping the peace and not offending anyone. I hope tomorrow these same difficult people change back to their normal selves and appreciate how much trouble they’ve been. If they show up grumpy again for a second day, I think I will have to leave early and just escape. I don’t think that I can put up with so much stuff two days in a row. I don’t have enough patience to be babysitting everyone who is supposed to be a grown up anyway.

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Apron in a Rainbow Tie Dye Pattern

Look at my new apron! It was made by friends of mine in Virginia who do tie dye designs and sell them at a little store in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Photo of apron tie dye
Milky Wave Tie Dye Makes Aprons, Shirts and all kinds of wonderful tie dye items

Laz and Jessica are a wonderful young hippie couple who do amazing tie dye work. I had them make this apron for me since we have the holidays coming up. I always spend the entire day on thanksgiving in the kitchen and then I bake cookies all throughout December, so this new apron will be getting a real workout starting next week!

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Strange Skies This Week

This week has been all about the weather and the moon and some very strange skies. First of all, we had a huge earthquake just of the coast of Western Canada. It was so big that it triggered a very Tsunami that put all of Hawaii in danger. Since I have some very good friends who live in Hawaii, it worried me quite a bit. Thankfully, the tsunami was not as bad as they feared and there was no damage.

But right after that we started hearing about a major hurricane threat that was forming in the Atlantic. Although large storms are rare this time of year, it is officially hurricane season through November. The weather forecasters warned that not only was this storm very large and powerful, but that it was about to collide with a major cold front coming down from Canada and that the full moon with the highest high tides would make this storm a big threat for flooding all along the East Coast.

The hurricane did turn out to be a perfect storm. It did hit on the New Jersey and New York coastlines and we have terrible flooding throughout 20 states. Plus, the cold front has brought snow to some states and those people have blizzard conditions.

Here the storm has had little effect although we have had some rain and it has gotten colder. But the skies have been eerie. There are some beautifully strange phenomenons occurring, with the clouds and lights from a winter sun and the full moon. I wish I could have taken some photos of the halos I saw a couple of night ago, but the camera would not take a decent photo in the darkness and show the effects that I was seeing with my eyes. I think someone down in Alabama got some good photos of the daylight halos. If I can find a photo to download and share I will post it here. It is beautiful and eerie at the same time.

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Not Many Trick or Treaters at my House

This year we did not have many Trick or Treaters at my house. That was disappointing to me. I love holidays and was looking forward to handing out candy to lots of little kids. There are not many kids in my neighborhood, I guess.

I bought three bags of mixed candies and put them in a bowl by the door. When the kids rang my doorbell I offered them the bowl to take whatever they wanted. I think that is more fun for the kids than the adult rationing out just one or two pieces and not letting the kids choose what they like.

The doorbell only rang 6 times and altogether I think it was maybe 20 kids came to the door. All of the groups had at least one adult with them, which was good. Only one of the kids looked to be older – he might have been a parent or just an older brother escorting the little kids. He was wearing a mask so I couldn’t tell how old he might have been.

By eight o’clock they were all gone. I hope the kids who did get out had a good time. I wish there had been more.