Had a new friend over last night and it was such an enjoyable time.  She brought her "children" - her two dogs.  I've really missed having a dog, so it was fun to get to play with them and love on them.  They were very sweet and well-behaved, even though "mom" was worried that they would get into something.  But my house is very dog friendly.  I'm hoping she will come back for more pizza and movie nights!

Meet Monroe and Lizzy.  Aren't they adorable!!

November 5, 2006

I have uncovered a conspiracy of indefinable proportions!  It is a hideous conspiracy.  Evil.  Maddening.  Frustrating.  I believe it is designed to produce insanity in society, crippling even the strongest and making blithering idiots of the weak (which would explain why we have so many blithering idiots on the road these days).  What, you ask, is this horrible conspiracy?  I have come to call it the "Great Battery Conspiracy."

First, I started getting this "low battery" message on the panel of my home alarm system.  It nagged me incessantly, but  when the alarm company told me what they charge for a replacement, I determined to find one elsewhere...when I had time.  Then, the atomic clock I have sitting on my office desk began to lose its display.  A sure sign that the batteries were getting low and needed to be replaced.  Then my garage door opener started opening my garage door only part of the time while appearing to be dead and useless the rest of the time.  Next, my remote that sets and disarms my alarm system while I'm in my car or outside the house stopped working.  Then my camera batteries were so weak, the flash would no longer operate.  And finally, my thermostat started flashing "change batteries" on the display panel.  All in the space of a week.  So far, only the remote for my television and DVD player, my cordless phones, my cell phone and my mouse and keyboard have survived unscathed, but  most of these items are recharged ever night, so are much less prone to joining the revolution.  I'm waiting to see if they join the conspiracy. And it is a conspiracy.  There can be no other logical or reasonable explanation for so many batteries to require changing at the same time. 

It's frightening, it's devious, it's insidious.  But I felt I must warn you before you are also targeted.  Be prepared!!!  Stock up on batteries now before everything in your home comes to a grinding halt for lack of battery power.  Stay strong.  Don't let the batteries win.  We must take charge and show them that we are stronger than they think we are!  We don't need any more blithering idiots semi-piloting vehicles all over our roads!! 

I normally vote.  I see it as a privilege and though my one puny vote doesn't seem to make much difference, in the overall scheme, it is thousands of "one puny votes" that make democracy work.

Having said that, I have decided NOT to vote in this election.  Why?  Because I have been inundated with pre-recorded messages from every candidate under the sun and most of them have told me to vote for them because their opponent was an evil 3-eyed person who would single-handedly destroy life on earth.  I got 15 of these calls yesterday...on Sunday!  I received as many, or possibly even more on Saturday.  I didn't think to count them until yesterday.  I've averaged 5 a day for the last week.  It's 10:15 a.m. right now and I've already had 2 calls.

Quite frankly, I'm offended.  I'm on the national and state "do not call" lists.  I know this still allows charities and politicians to call me, but this absolute abuse of the loop hole has me spitting mad.  If candidates honestly thought their stupid pre-recorded calls would make me suddenly want to vote for them, they were dead wrong.  And I hope it shows at the polls.  This "marketing technique" is NOT acceptable.  So count me out.  I don't think any of them deserve to win. 

November 21, 2006

Hope everyone is getting ready to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  May you have many things to be thankful for!

November 25, 2006

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  Hope everyone can still zip their jeans!

I wanted to share something that a friend passed along to me.  I wasn't aware of this contest prior to receiving her e-mail, but I must say, even without seeing the other contestants, they found a worthy winner for this years "It's Not My Job" award.

Prepare yourself...drum roll...and the winner is...

And they say that American's are lazy...go figure...

November 27, 2006

Saturday night proved to be a little exciting at my house and my neighbor's house.  Some kids smoking cigarettes in our yard - no doubt so their parents wouldn't see them smoking in their own yard - set our front yard on fire.  It came very close to our houses and while we are both extremely thankful our house or fence were unscathed, we are both very frustrated with kids who are constantly roaming the neighborhood unsupervised.  Here is the lovely result of their irresponsible behavior.

My house is the one with the blue shutters.  You can see how close it came to our houses and to the fence.  Thank goodness for the fire department's speedy response.

November 30, 2006

We have made that subtle, gentle transition from an Indian summer to winter.  This gentle transition took place yesterday. 

We awoke to a day that found the temperature between 65 and 70.  The skies were overcast...just a generally gloomy day.  Certainly not bad for this time of year.  Shortly after noon, thunder could be heard rumbling in the distance.  It began to rain off and on, sometimes accompanied by blinding displays of lightening; sometimes not. I had to be somewhere at 4:00 and the rain was so heavy, I could barely see a few feet in front of me.  The cloud to ground lightening was impressive, if not terrifying. Roads were flooding because we had gotten so much rain in such a short time.  The temperature had dropped and it was chilly, but still bearable.  By 6:30, the temperature had dropped a lot more.  It was no longer chilly...it was COLD!  It was also still raining, though not heavily, and was not a nice evening to be out.  By 8:00 p.m., the temperature was 25 (or lower) and we were "enjoying" sleet and snow.

It has continued to sleet and / or snow throughout the night until the current time.  It's expected to continue through tomorrow morning.

There's nothing like going from summer to winter in one day.  And so ends November in Oklahoma.

Afternoon addendum:  It started snowing harder - those big beautiful flakes.  I decided to take a picture, but found out that snow is hard to photograph when you don't know what you're doing (like me).  I did manage to get a couple of shots that will give you an idea of how big and pretty the flakes are, but I obviously need some digital photography lessons!

Just keep in mind that it was between 65 and 70 degrees yesterday morning...