trees

last Sunday, we were enjoying a quiet dinner and we both felt the earth move.  Under our feet.  We were used to years of earthquakes.  Then it dawned on me, well I am not in California anymore.

This came down in our driveway.





Took up the entire street.



The police came and blocked off the street. We were quite the hit for the evening.

A couple of the guys from public works wanted to wood, so they came after work on Monday, cut it up, and hauled it off.  I love small town living.

Miracle of miracles, the tree didn't hit a single person, car, or animal.  And with such a gorgeous night, everyone was out.  Whew.  It cracked our driveway.  At least we might get a new driveway out of the deal.  :)

Trees

This has been a most busy week.  From work, to ArtPrize, to more work, to ... well, the tree.  We had a great week planned, then came the email from our friend and neighbor, Amy, letting us know that a gi-normous tree limb fell in our yard.

No we don't "text."  We are old.  We still email.  Almost as old as the rotary phone.

Mostly Paul and some of me, supervised by @thedogsamson, moved some wood.  Next year, it will be great in the fireplace.

All this is from the limb.

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

From The Tree Limb

And yes, I am sore.  My right index finger hurts from taking the pictures.  :) 

The beauty of the midwest

Having lived a lot of different places around the country, we had the opportunity to enjoy truly the beauty of the country. We enjoyed the stunning tropical beauty of Guam, northern and southern California, the old money and small streets of Rhode Island and all the miles of highway in between.

Truly, there is nothing like the view driving up the coast in southern California through Laguna Niguel and Newport Beach, looking at the ocean on my left and the mountains on my right. Unbelievably breath-taking. (And of course, there was nothing like having a friend like Lynn who loved hockey and beer and good food, along with music and manicures).

But there are many things I love about Michigan. I love old trees - big trunks, enormous branches, beautiful leaves - sky-filling trees. If you read my writings with any regularity, you know I also love the snow and rain, sleet and hail. But mostly I love looking UP to the sky. When we have gorgeous sunsets filling the sky with pink, yellow, blue, purple and orange, the trees look the most alive.

Spring is almost here. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Let's Go Red Wings

It's been a nice evening. Paul made a nice pork tenderloin for dinner, cous cous and salad. Samson was very hopeful as he looked lovingly at Paul. He didn't get any of the pork but we did share our tomatoes. He LOVES tomatoes. Frankly, he loves just about anything that we will put in his dish. He is SUCH a funny dog.

He posed for a picture earlier this evening. After dinner, we played in the backroom while watching the Red Wings. He wanted to play with Kong (and peanut butter) and the knotted rope called buddha. Paul took him out once more and then Samson wanted to go to bed. He has gotten very good at communicating exactly what he wants. He is such an expressive dog that you would have to be a moron to not understand him. :) Sometimes we are the moron, but eventually we can catch on.

The construction company started on the bathroom and much of the old stuff is gone. The tub is ALL gone (woo hoo) and much of the floor is gone. Jim (doing the work) took out the sink and revealed some hideous wallpaper. Soon it will be gone.

I also have been playing with night scenes and finally got a good picture of the Charlie Brown tree and fireplace. Looks pretty good. :)

It's Tuesday

There was a silly commercial about Wednesday being Prince Spaghetti day. Around here on Tuesdays, I cook and it's Buffalo Wild Wings. At 40 cents a wing, how can we not? :) No muss, no fuss and easy.

I have uploaded two pictures of our Charlie Brown tree. One trying out my "night" setting on my camera (oohhh, ahhhh) and the other picture in just regular light. We are trying to stewardly with our resources and not add any more of anything to the landfills. We get a hearty laugh out of the tree. Unfortunately, we may be perceived as irreverent when really, we are just very funny people. Just ask us. We will tell you just how funny we are. (Hehehehe). Hilarious people. And I love our little tree. Not a tree to envy, by any means but admire away. ;)

Samson had another exciting day at home with Paul. He listens more and more and now is starting to show the 'I want..' behaviors. By going to the bedroom door, Samson was telling Paul that he wanted to go to bed. Apparently Paul was being too loud. (Now that is REALLY funny)

This evening, he had a little treat - his Kong is filled with puppy treats and peanut butter. It kept him occupied for an hour.

Paul is working on setting up his new computer- with Vista (funny M$ music in the backgroud). I am working on consolidating my pictures and playing on my Mac. I am learning Leopard and enjoying the operating system. Fortunately, neither of us have experienced the BSOD with either operating system.

Let's go Red Wings!

Back to work

Ahhhh, the grind. Back at it, back to work. It was a Monday after being off for 11 days, so it was a Monday of monstrous proportions! I did not ease back into the grind; no, rather I was thrown full body, feet first into the grinder.

The Christmas holidays are bearing down on us and I am woefully unprepared. It just "us" for the holidays and I am SO grateful for the time off. Not sure what we have planned but I do know that after the next few weeks, one agenda item for certain is SLEEP!

We have our holiday decorations out including our Christmas tree. This is a very funny story. For years, we would get a really nice tree from the East Grand Rapids high school booster. Last year, we spent Christmas in Chicago and didn't have the 'fixins' for a real tree so treated ourselves to a cheapy tree from Ikea. Well, it's a keeper. It looks like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We have lights on it, ornaments and even a Belleek Star. I will have to take pictures and post them. It's a tree to remember but NOT a tree to envy... :)