The Last Post of the Last Year of the First Decade of the First Century of the Two-Thousands

Another year rolls to an end...

Apparently there are factions in the calendar-aware community (or whatever they might be called) at war over whether we're at the "end of a decade" or not. I'm not jumping into that fray, but my own personal opinion is that if there is a zero at the end, we're at a starting point, but that's just my own personal way-to-see-it.

Jack and I are spending a quiet New Year's Eve at home, because for us, ringing in the new year in the warmth and comfort of our own house with the dogs and the television and the pot of homemade chili Jack has carefully crafted over the hours is the best possible way to celebrate.

We were invited to a party at the marina this evening; but the weather outside is frightful, and the fire is so delightful, and even though we don't have snow, we're still aren't going to go.

I sang that last part as I typed it.

The dogs seem to finally be catching on to the fact that the field across the road is a much better place to play than the yard of the neighbor who doesn't like them. Enjoy the pictures of this afternoon's supervised "romp".

Once in a Blue Moon

Heading back to work after Christmas break, no matter how short or long that break might be, always feels a little bit strange.

The weirdness seemed amplified yesterday as I drove into the city. Monday. Rush hour. No back-ups in Hermitage. No congestion at the 24-40 split. A speed-limit drive on the in-bound downtown loop. All green-lights cruising up West End.

Jack was along for the ride to get the Camry's 100K maintenance and buy a new pair of tires while I spent a few hours in the office. Most times it works for me to jet over to the dealership for such stuff during my lunch break, but when it's going to be a long appointment, like getting new tires, Jack generally co-pilots for the day to help out with "car duty".

Yesterday was one of those appointments.

As we neared the hospital, he commented, "I'll bet you'd like traffic to be like this every day, wouldn't you?"

"Absolutely."

As the old saying goes about "once in a blue moon", this period between Christmas and New Year's is a commuter's delight. And this year, we actually have a blue moon. How cool is that?

When two full moons occur within the same calendar month, the second is traditionally considered a "blue moon"; and we're coming up on one between now and this time tomorrow night.

I scampered out into the cold in my pajamas and bathrobe with my camera an hour or so ago and am once again pleasantly surprised by how well the camera works with photos of the moon.

A Few More Christmas Photos (while I'm at it)

Merry Christmas!

I thought I'd take a few moments to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before the day is over...

Jack and I have had a fantastic day, highlighted by the traditional holiday visit at the farm. With everything Mom and Dad have had going on with keeping Lucia at the baby house and Lucia's growing curiosity with everything within reach, Mom kept the tree small (and elevated on her piano bench) this year, but the pile of gifts underneath seemed as substantial as ever, even though we'd all promised to "scale back"...

Mom, with assistance from Dad, Sis and Jack, fixed a sit-down meal for the first time in years. We started having finger foods and heavy appetizers a few years ago, but this year called for turkey and dressing, and it was delicious. I don't know when my mother has made better gravy.

Lucia was much more ready for Christmas this year. It's hard to believe how much change occurs with a baby from one season to the next. Last Christmas Lucia was a tiny two week-old, and this year she was fully-engaged with the activities; not quite fully understanding what was going-on but still "digging it". Hard.

I took a bunch of great pictures and will have them into a photobucket album by the end of the weekend. I've spent a good part of the evening going through them, weeding out the bad ones and working on the file sizes of the good ones to make them easier to share, store and post online. The Nikon takes fabulous pictures, but the files are enormous, which is great if you're designing a billboard but not-so-great when you're trying to e-mail pictures to your mother and sister...

So far my favorite photo of the day is this one of Sis. It's good in color but wonderful in black and white.

I'm also a fan of this picture of Dad and Chris that I took when I was setting up the tripod for the annual family Christmas photo.

Lucia really liked the gift she and her parents gave to Uncle Jack - from the time she helped him unwrap it until long after he took his cast iron dragon humidifier (for the wood stove) out of the box.

Oh the laughter and the love and the food and the stockings and the merriment...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

The Longest Night of the Year

A few more photos of Lucia to brighten it

Sunday

The final weekend before Christmas is rolling to an end, and I'm no closer to being ready for the 25th now than I was when I left Nashville on Thursday. Oh well. As I posted yesterday - it will be done.


Luckily for me, my family is no problem when it comes to gift-buying. Nobody is so trend-driven as to require hard-to-find items. Yet. Lucia still has The Barbie Years ahead...


Jack and I have had a wonderful and relaxing weekend, despite nasty weather and chilly temperatures. Jack has fed us well - healthy, home-cooked food. Roast chicken. Navy beans cooked in some of his homemade chicken stock.


While I was in town yesterday, I visited The Bread Ministry on Bryant Street and purchased some wonderful goodies for the weekend menu. So far we've only worked on the brownies, which are perfect. I got a carrot cake. We've had it before, and it's delicious. I also got a NY cheesecake, which I'm carrying to work with me tomorrow for "vulturing" in the break room. There are raspberries and blueberries to go with...


Today's photo is one I took Friday, but this has been the scene virtually all weekend. Like that line from Dr. Seuss - "it was too wet to play" seems to be the general theme. They've played, but it's been in short bursts, followed by literally "hang-dog" expressions and lots of deep sighing.


Hopefully we'll have at least a couple of sunny days between now and Christmas that will allow for some fulfilling, supervised, outside play.


For any blog readers that have children, NORAD is once again providing a "Santa Tracker" to provide updates on Santa's location as he travels the globe, bringing toys and goodies. I am posting a link on the sidebar...


Have a great week, and look for a special goodie as a Christmas update!

Lucia at the Farm

It's very uncommon for me to have a Saturday visit with Lucia, but Sis and Chris had Christmas-ing to do and are "home" for the weekend.

I went to Mom and Dad's to spend some time with everyone this afternoon, and got a few nice photographs of Lucia, though I managed to do something screwy with my aperture and ended up with entirely too many entirely too dark pictures. I monkeyed around with them in photoshop and was able to render some half-way decent black & whites. As I've been into the black & white "effect" here on the blog for the past few weeks, I can be happy with that.

I just have to be much more careful on Christmas.

We're starting to see a few flakes of snow this evening. Fingers are crossed...

Rain. It was supposed to be snow, but it isn't...

One of these days I'm going to stop getting excited about snow in the forecast, because like today, it usually leads to disappointment. I had left the picture of our snowy woods as the title shot here on the blog, hoping it would somehow be a "witcher" to bring us more snow, but that obviously didn't work.

The new selection "up top" isn't my best photographic effort, but at least it's something, and I'll try to find a better photo over the weekend - I was just ready for change.

Christmas is less than a week away, and Jack and I still have many things on our "to do" lists. I've done a little shopping and made a few preparations, but for the most part, it's going to be last-minute Christmas for us. I'm not stressed about it, though. The things remaining on the list should be fairly easily found once I start looking. I know those sound like famous last words, but I must believe that "it's all cool" and that it will all get done.

My plan for the afternoon is to bake some biscotti, so I'm off to the store for provisions...

Here are a few recent pics of the dogs, until the next batch of Lucia pictures happens!

Slideshow Snafu

I have reposted the album of Lucia's birthday pictures from photobucket. I realized a little bit ago that I had put them in the wrong online album and moved them to where they were supposed to be, which screwed up the link to where they were...

Now they're in backwards chronological order, and while I have fixed it on the album at photobucket, it's still not doing the right thing here.



Grrrrr....

I'm sure this is a lot more frustrating for me --

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday, everybody!

Jack and I are doing the "quiet day at home" thing and enjoying it muchly. As chilly and breezy as the weather is today, neither of us have any interest in doing anything outside other than making brief trips to the woodpile. I'm finally back into the swing of "remembering" that warmth and comfort is dependent upon having wood in the stove - it's a good thing, because I've been known to forget to "reload".

As I posted the other evening, Lucia's birthday party was wonderful. She was in a great mood, as usual, and ready to be the center of attention, also as usual.

Chris made her a birthday hat with a "1" on it, and once he & Dad got the fit adjusted, Lucia was happy to wear it all night. Several people who have seen some of the pictures of the party commented on her willingness to have something on her head and keep it there for so long. We weren't sure whether she would like it or not at the beginning, but I believe she understood that it just meant she was extra-special for the occasion.

I finally made it through all of the pictures I took the other evening, selecting some of the very best ones to post on Photobucket, and I've posted the slideshow below. Hopefully you'll be able to view it from there, but if not, please send me an e-mail - 2busyandersons@gmail.com - and I'll help you out.

Lucia's Birthday - #1

I'm never up this late on a work night, but Jack and I tripped to visit The V3 earlier this evening to celebrate Lucia's first birthday. Sis cooked a great pecan crusted pork loin with all kinds of sides (pictures and more info over the weekend) --

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the evening, and then I'm going to bed. The fire has finally "kicked in" and warmed the house enough for us to sleep --

New Moose

Enjoying the black and white effect...

The ragged patches of remaining snow continue to melt today. Very little else is happening other than watching a football game that isn't going our way.

I entertained myself for a few minutes earlier today by taking some photos of the downspout for our front porch gutter and the by-product of the melting snow, playing around with some of the different settings on the camera. The black and white was taken at a shutter speed of 1/8000.

It's another of those late-night posts, but Jack and I are both wide awake, even though we're well past midnight...

Earlier in the evening Jack and I made a brief-but-fun appearance at a small holiday gathering at my boss' house. She lives west of Nashville, and our round-trip was well-over 200 miles, but I wouldn't have missed Debbie's get-together for anything. She bought a new house this year and just got engaged two weeks ago, so this was an opportunity to see both the house and the boy. Both are very nice.

Debbie also has two sweet boxers that we got to meet. They were hidden-out in an upstairs bedroom, and when we got introduced to them, we felt right at home. They're every bit as friendly, happy, and energetic as our pack.

During our travels we drank more than our fair shares of late-night caffeine and are now paying the price. Jack not so much, as he is beginning to nod off...

We still have snow on the deck, and considering how cold the weather is, it will likely be with us for at least another day or two to some degree. This time of the year, the north side of our deck gets very little sunlight at all, and any snow that falls tends to stick around...

Who knows? There's an old saying that snow lingers waiting for more, and there's nothing Jack and I would like more.

One Word

SNOW!!!!

Yes, we got a light blanketing of snow in the wee hours of the morning, and wow. It was pretty.

Quite a bit of it hung around until almost lunchtime, but other than our deck, which is still covered in snow, the sunny afternoon took care of it. When Jack and I watched the early news at 8:30-ish, interstate 40 was closed in Wilson County due to hazardous conditions and several accidents. That HAD to be a huge mess, and I am so very glad today wasn't a work day. The Highway Patrol is probably glad of that too.

I've added new pictures in a post below that will hopefully work for all of you. It's linked from an album on Photobucket. Click on "play again", and a little slideshow should run for you...

If you have problems viewing the slideshow, send me an e-mail, and I'll post a link or do something else to fix it --

Time to motor...

Spreading the Love

Monday after the long holiday weekend was, like the weekend, LONG. But is wasn't bad, and there is a lot to be said for that.

Sis, Chris and Lucia safely returned from their travels and embarked upon return to normal with the rest of us today, except for Lucia, who had to take inventory of her books and toys at the baby house this morning before settling down for her early nap.

As great as Thanksgiving weekend usually is and this one was, it is always nice to get back into the regular routine. At least until Christmas!

I appreciate someone pointing out that since Moose has become so photogenic, the other pets are perhaps getting slighted as far as their exposure here on the blog is concerned. Moose IS a beautiful dog and a great model. And he's "the baby of the house"...

While I still take just as many pictures of everyone as usual, those just haven't been making the cut lately, and it is bias on my part, and I admit it - my bad.

Please enjoy the photos -