Deer Friendly Chickadees...

We made another trip up to our lovely free petting zoo tonite.. armed with some baby carrots in hopes of coaxing the locals a little closer.. it worked.. kinda... maybe next time we'll try a little sweet apple... We also made quite a few new friends... so next time we'll take along some sunflowers for them as well.. Check it out..







Later

My New Friend...

So I took a last 2005 vacation day today and spent the day taking a lovely drive through the back roads and hill towns of Western Mass... It was supposed to be sunny out... but actually.. not so much... It was a nice day anyway... Funny tho.. you can drive for miles and still not see as many neat things as you can right in your own backyard... Here's my new friend, that I met just up the road in the Quabbin...



A really sweet baby, and 5 adults... I was even able to get within 10 feet of Bambi... Unfortunately I had the freakin' coffee-hands anti-shake turned on so of course the images came out blurry... I'm gonna have to head back up there again tomorrow and see if I can get a better shot of them... and in the meantime I'm gonna see about getting ahold of Minolta and seeing if it's just me or is it the camera?

Later...

After Christmas and I smell good and CHEAP...

LOVE.. those after Christmas markdowns... unfortunately there's never any money left to scoop up those bargains... ok.. so I did manage to snag a couple of them... how can you not? Red Door perfume (yours truly's signature scent, if I'm not wearing the Red Door I'm not wearing anything!)... Unfortunately I could only find one small bottle.. but 50% off! Woohoo! Same with the little manicure set I picked up... clippers for everything that could possibly need clipping on the human body for a whole $2.43! OH.. and then there's that lovely half price box of Pecan Clusters.. YUM!... Now.. I'll just give it a couple of days and hit the local pharmacies... they tend to eventually go to 75% off their candy and perfume sets... Love it... For those prices I'll hunt thru every CVS in a 30 mile radius for more Red Door... So yeah... I smell good and cheap!

Later....

Merry Christmas from 9 2 Bay...

So here I sit.. on a very early Christmas morning and not a creature is stirring, not even a stupid little angry dog... The kids are still all nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of MP3's dancing in their heads... With Mr. 9 2 Bay in his down comforter and the little dog swaddled in her fleece blankie, I sit and sip coffee while the WB's Yule log burns brightly on the tv.

I sit and watch the sky brighten out over the snowy landscape turning everything an icy blue and that first strip of pink begins to show on the horizon. A moment of quiet and peace before the hustle of the unwrapping, the food, the travel to the in-laws, the visiting and the hugs... The lovely beginning of a wonderful Christmas day.

May the peace and beauty of a Christmas sunrise be with you and yours on this lovely Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas Dear Readers.. Merry Christmas indeed!

Milestones... Get your sneakers on...

Well, we hit another milestone here on 9 2 Bay... No more teenager... that's right the Man-child is no longer a teenager... oops.. did I say "Man-CHILD"? Sorry, we were getting rid of that misnomer weren't we? Geez, and I haven't thought of a replacement yet... Man-man? no.. New-Man? ha.. maybe... How about Man-son? I don't think so... Well.. until we come up with something better we'll just have to go with "the Man-Jeff"...

But I digress... yesterday was "the Man-Jeff's" birthday.. a whole twenty years old.. We had just a lovely quiet celebration here at home... nothing fancy... just a nice chili dinner followed by his birthday cake... Which looked like this, courtesy of the stupid little angry dog:



See.. she gets a little excited when "Daddy" gets home, and the routine is that I let her run outside and greet Mr. 9 2 Bay in the driveway... unfortunately yesterdays greeting took place on that slippery spot that no amount of salt will get rid off... So husband brought cake, dog met husband, husband met driveway, and cake met snowbanking... Oh well... it was still delicious... ugly, yup.. but delicious just the same...

Later...

OH, Johnny.. say it isn't so!

Oh.. who am I kidding... FIFTY-TWO MILLION DOLLARS! I'd mop up the globs of discarded 'chew' from the dugout floor for that kinda money...

Nevertheless... we'll miss you Cowboy!

Later...

Man-child seeking new name...

So, it's official.. I don't think I can accurately call the Man-child - "a Man-child" anymore... The child part just doesn't seem right anymore.. He's been rather amazing lately... stopping at the store on his way home and calling me to see if I need anything, and not a single complaint when I do say "yes, pick up some fill-in-the-blank"... I think the topper was last nite tho... He and his girlfriend headed out to the mall to do some Christmas shopping and before he left he checked with both his father and I to see if there was anything he could pick up for us... Mr. 9 2 Bay handed him some cash and made a couple of requests... and I also made several requests and handed him the debit card (with appropriate sizes - colors - and price limitations)and sent them off with a "If you don't see anything, don't worry about it."...

Well.. lo and behold.. several hours later they returned with several of my requests fulfilled (AND Mr. 9 2 Bay's as well) and handed back my debit card, complete with receipts! HOW freakin' awesome is THAT?? But wait.. it gets better!

After an hour or so of laying in bed unable to sleep, I got up to see exactly how many elephants were in that herd that was running up and down the stairs... As I rounded the corner into the living, what to my wondering eyes should appear? Our giant Christmas tree - AND ALL OF THOSE PRESENTS WERE THERE! Fully wrapped, tagged and bowed, and nicely displayed beneath the green plastic branches of the Hannukah tree! LOVELY!

And so that's that... no more "Man-CHILD"... What a lovely Christmas present!

Later...

I'm an apple...

And here's the tree I fell from... Explains loads of stuff doesn't it?



Everyone HIDE.. she's making those "crazy eyes" again!

Later...

My Life - another example...

So.. did you all read that article about the guy in Westboro that left his car unlocked at a train station only to return and find a 15 thousand dollar diamond ring on his front seat? Yeah... I read it too... Can I borrow this guys life? Come on'.. just for a little while... we already have alot in common.. I too left my truck unattended only to find a nifty Christmas gift awaiting me upon my return! Really... Addressed personally to me and signed "Santa".. OH the joy... the glee... the wonderful surprise... The man-child said I should wait till Christmas to open it but never being one to enjoy waiting for anything I of course ripped the festive paper off that puppy quicker than you can say "POTATO MASHER???" That's right... so some guy out in Westboro got him self a genuine golden sparkler for Christmas and I got a potato masher... and that's just another perfect example of "My Life"... So the moral of the story is "When life leaves you a little surprise, don't get all worked up, just boil yourself some potatoes and take it out on them in style... with a brand new black plastic potato smasher!" The End...
Laura
ps.. Thanks Santa... I guess you really do hear everything. Even conversations with sisters who suffer third degree burns while mashing potatos at my house on Thanksgiving with a fork!

It can't be a Christmas movie - nobody died!

Amazing... one whole Christmas movie and nobody died... nobody got sick... no alzheimers... no dead wife/husband/grandma/grandpa/dog... not a single hint of "I lost my loved one and it just isn't Christmas without them"... How could that be? No George Bailey Financial Ruin... Mom Meredith Baxter-Birney doesn't come back from the dead to set the family right... James Garner's alzheimers' victim/wife doesn't kick the bucket while he hangs out with Julie Andrews as she mourns her own dead husband... Dolly Parton doesn't even have to step in help those poor motherless children...

One nite I actually watched Maureen O'Hara die in two seperate Christmas movies...

It's called "A Boyfriend for Christmas!"... Just a light hearted romp thru the fake California snow with a pretty good Santa, and ok, some pretty bad acting... but hey... NO ONE DIED! I didn't think it was possible to make a Christmas movie without killing off someone...

So.. YEAH... it's an actual Christmas movie and I don't see dead people! Let the Holiday begin!

Later...

3 Looks for Christmas...

So.. we got a little fancy with the Christmas tree this year on 9 2 Bay... ok.. so it was a complete accident that happened when Mr. 9 2 Bay had a little "which end is which on these lights" issue... Frankly.. it turned out so well, we may try to replicate it again next year... Here's a pic... you have to watch it for a few times thru to get the idea, but basically, I was going for a mixture of blue and white lights on the tree this year, with nothing but silver and blue ornaments (yeah.. I know.. it has been dubbed the Hanukkah Christmas Tree!)... Well.. with Mr. 9 Bay's goof on the lights we ended up with a seperate plug for each color of lights.. so now, depending on which plugs we plug in, we can have a blue tree.. or a white tree.. or a blue and white tree! Pretty funky huh? Next year I think we'll do Red and White... OH.. or maybe Red, White and Blue.. WOOHOO..


Cool huh?
Later...

4 Crazy Americans in Amsterdam...

So I never did post any of the wonderful pictures Mr. 9 2 Bay brought back from Holland with him, so we'll rectify that today... So.. what did 4 crazy American men do for 5 weeks in the Netherlands? Well.. Let's take a look and see... OH.. my it seems they took a tour of Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum... How fun! Here they are enjoying some of the Celebrities likenesses up close and personal... (OK, so I blurred their faces so they could.. well.. save face!)

Here's a pic of one of the guys examining the statue of Marilyn Monroe...



Seems he's a huge fan of the blonde bombshell and wanted to make sure he remembered everything he could about her...



OH.. and one of the guys was a J-Lo fan..



Here's another of one of them making really good friends with the Michael Jackson statue!




And last but not least.. who knew looking at all that wax was such thirsty work that they had to stop off for a drink midway thru the tour!



And that's about it.. OH.. there's some cool pics of Windmills and Canals and bikes and War Memorials and stuff... but I really liked this series of pics.. It just is such an explanatory slice of their trip... captured for posterity in living digital color... now I just have to decide if I should get a coffee mug or a mouse pad made out of those Marilyn pics! HA!

Later...

A little snow...

So we had a little snow round here... just about 10 inches... it was coming down at a pretty good clip there for awhile...

Later

The Problem with Plowing Snow...

Is the stuff is freakin' slippery! Just ask this guy... Unfortunately the pic doesn't really do it justice, the truck is kind of hanging there.. nose down... it's gonna take some major horse power to drag that back up the embankment.. and down is not an option either... the boulders just get bigger toward the bottom!

Later...

A Few for a Flakey Friday...

From what I hear, I've got a new family reader... Welcome... it's about time! Only thing is, she claims she's almost done reading the WHOLE blog, and frankly, I don't think so... HEY.. you... look over to the right and scroll down a bit... see the listing of all the months? Those are called Archives... every entry I've ever written since July 2004! Just click on a month... I think you've got a bit more reading to do!

A lovely snowy day here... woohoo.. not that there is such a thing as a snow day for me... hard to claim it was too snowy to go to work when all you've got to do is walk into the back office and log on to the computer... It's a conundrum... Home Office tax deduction.. or never being able to take another snow day... EVER... Bummer!

Here's a little pic so if your down south you can join in on the snowy Christmasy feel around these parts...



Well.. that's about it for this flakey Friday... I'm gonna go see if I can get Mr. 9 2 Bay to light the fireplace and I'll just move my laptop in there and work from in front of a roaring fire... Maybe we'll even get the Christmas tree up today... WOOHOO...

Later...

Learning Curves...

So much for assuming that because the new camera is newer version of the old camera that there wouldn't be much of a learning curve. After shooting a hundred or so pics with the new one with some pretty terrible results I've given up the theory that a Z5 is the same camera as the Z1. It seems to be that "anti-shake" module that is causing the issue... the old camera didn't have it but the new one does, and I've found that (especially when shooting close up) causes the pics to be blurry and very "soft"... unacceptable! Blurry to the point of considering sending the camera back! Luckily it allows you to shut the anti-coffee-hands off! I'll try some long range hyper-zoomed photo's later and see what kind of results I get with and without the anti-shaker, it is more a correction for that type of photo anyway..

Well.. anyhow.. here's the first decent pic I got out of the new bugger... or at least a section of it.. LOVE the 5 megapixel HUGE image size... if you click to enlarge this one you can even see my reflection in the little monsters eyes! VERY cool!



Later...

Frozen pixels...

Woohoo... the new camera has arrived! But I can't use it yet... Why?? Cause it's FROZEN solid... it seems the FedEx man either didn't like the look of my driveway or was just too freakin' lazy to drive on up... I went to their website and did the online tracking thing and saw it said "Delivered"! HUH?? at 2pm!! So.. down the driveway I went to scope things out.. and there was my $269 camera, in a plastic bag, tied to the bottom of my mailbox, sitting in a snow banking, just 5 inches from the road!! DAMN!!!! Can you say "Silver Toilet Paper Award" coming right up, and you better believe they will hear about it too! *sigh...

If it ever thaws out you'll get pics!

Later...

Doing the Walmart Math...

ok.. so there's articles all over the place about Walmart... Love 'em... Hate 'em... Protest 'em... Line up on Black Friday at 'em... it's a hot topic... So ok... There are as many opinions as there are people... so here's mine for what it's worth...

LOVE 'EM... that's right.. I LOVE WALMART... I understand all the arguments.. killing Main Street.. strong arming the production companies for their lowest prices.. etc... but let me tell you a little story...

Mr. 9 2 Bay and I were standing in line at the Wallymart registers on the nite before Thanksgiving... in front of us was a gentleman... rather shabbily dressed... slightly dirty... and missing more teeth than he had left... as he put his 3 giant cases of baby food up on the belt he turned to us and apologized for taking so much time at the register as the cashier was having to scan all 90 mini jars of baby food one at a time... Here was his story... It seems his son, now 11 months old, was a whopping 10 pound baby and came out of his momma screaming for "MORE food" and he hasn't stopped screaming yet.. it seems the little nipper goes thru 4 jars of food for each meal... 4 times 3 = 12 jars a day... Explaining further it seems he was from Southbridge, which is a long way to drive, especially with the gas prices, but having done the math it was still cheaper to do a run to Ware... The cheapest he could find his sons favorite foods in the Southbridge area was $1.09 per jar... times the 90 jars he had, that's $98.10... here at the Ware Wallymart? $.58 per jar times 90 jars, that's $52.20.. a WHOPPING savings of $45.90! Now lets say the guy takes home 7 bucks an hour... He would have to work an extra 6 and half hours to pay for the same food in Southbridge... That's right... I'm no math wiz but I think I got those numbers right... go ahead.. check me on it.. SIX AND HALF HOURS!

Now.. I don't know about you but I would MUCH rather see Daddy at home with the little nipper for those 6 and half hours than out working overtime so he can feed his baby... and don't even get me started on the math where I have to add time to his working hours to pay for the babysitter that allows him to work that overtime to feed the baby... lets just estimate and say he probably would have to do at least an extra 3 hours to pay the sitter...

As we we're leaving the store... there was Mom and the little nipper himself... an adorable little tow-headed bugger, with a smile that was melting the heart of the designated Wallymart greeter...

Yeah... Walmart... a GOOD thing!

Later...

Yeah, I've become addicted...

So, the 5 weeks that my camera traveled off to Holland with Mr. 9 2 Bay was incredibly hard on me. Now, I'm not saying that I missed the camera more than I missed Mr. 9 2 Bay, of course not... but boy.. did I miss that camera! Well, you'll all be happy to know that the problem is now solved! I found a 5 megapixels refurbished Minolta Dimage Z5 at an online auction site! WOOHOO... it'll be here via 2nd Day Air... well.. I didn't actually win my bid, the site also allows you to just purchase the camera outright, OH, I started out bidding... and re-bidding once I got knocked off the listing... and re-bidding again... the bidding was so fast and furious that the auction got extended for over an hour and half... somewhere in there I gave up and hit the "buy now" button.. even their purchase price was cheaper than any other 5 megapixels out there on the market right now, and seeing that this is the Z5 verion of the Z1 3.2 Megapixel Dimage that I already own, I know these camera's are awesome.. so YEAH.. I'll never have to be camera-less again...

So what else have I been up to... well... of course while I was in the auction site watching my bids slowly fall off the board for the camera, I had to investigate what else they have to offer... naturally... so... I now have a new addiction... They have these "Express Auctions"... 20 minutes of bidding and the piece is sold... So what other bargains did I pick up? Well... you've got to keep in mind their shipping is outrageous.. $9.99 per item... but here's some of what I picked up...


Yup.. The topaz is real the diamonds are cubics... but for 8 bucks - how can I go wrong?


How about this diamond ring? For 10 bucks?? Yup.. SOLD...

Unfortunately I didn't think to grab the pics of the $3 Ruby and Diamond earrings or the $8 Topaz and Diamond necklace I snagged but if they come up again you can bet I will!

Can you say jewelery for everyone this Christmas! HA... I love it...

Christmas shopping... almost done...
Bargain prices... wonderful...
Having fun while Christmas Shopping... priceless...

Later