Postage lacking...

Sorry guys... other than the month before Christmas this is probably my busiest business time of the year.. and actually I think this month has already surpassed the 'busy' level of that buildup to Christmas... anyway.. I'll try and fit the blogging in as much as possible... I promise... cause frankly I do miss it... Now if the weather would just break you might get some nice outdoor photographs as well but no way in heck am I going outside unless I absolutely have to... it's freakin' ONE degree out there this morning... it's not safe for woman nor camera... maybe it's a good day to get some nice 'indoor shots'... practice a little portrait photography or some macro stuff of ordinary objects... something.. anything..

I may have to add some more photo's to Masslive.com as well... I haven't posted in a while and my pics have dropped down in the listings... If you get the chance take a look at some of the work on there... especially that of my new friend Sandra... she spotted my pics on the site and recognized many of them as being very similar to her own... it's kind of freaky... our 'styles' (if we do actually have a style) are very much the same... I'll have to ask her this afternoon if she minds if I post some "hers" and "mine" examples on here so you can all see how similar... that is the nice thing about sites like Masslive... it really is a community service that bring like-minded people together... hopefully she and I will be able to get together soon for some photo-talk and a nice ration of donuts... who knows.. maybe we can even do a tandem photo shoot in the area.. it would be interesting to see the differences (or the sameness) of both of us shooting the same things... of course... weather permitting... fun is fun but 1 degree is death..

Anyway... OH.. that's right.. another dead uncle... Dennis Weaver... OH, how I'll miss Uncle McCloud.. they say celebrity deaths come in threes... so that's Uncles Don, Darren and now Dennis... I hope it stops there...

ok.. so ... Later...

Don and Darren...

Sad news this weekend.. The entertainment world lost 2 of it's funniest... Don Knotts and Darren McGavin... As you know (if you've been reading along) I was raised by tv and Deputy Fife and Kolchak were like two crazy uncles to me... The kind of Uncles that you don't want anyone to know that your actually related to but uncles just the same.. Every week like clock work they would show up at my house and entertain me... and what entertainment it was... spending time with those whacky folks down in Mayberry... chasing demons around abandoned buildings in a light blue leisure suit... forming a gang with Tim Conway... spending the night in an old mansion and finding bloody fingerprints on the old organ... swimming with the US Navy... and wrestling furnaces while expounding on some of the finest words in the english language...
Hours and hours of good old fashioned fun... these two will definitely be missed... Thank goodness for cable tv so we can all visit occasionally...

Later...

Will work for beer!

OH boy, but it's just been a peach of week here at 9 2 Bay... How bad could it have been you ask? Well.. let's just say that if a job as a cashier at Wally mart actually sounds like heaven to you... there may just be a problem...

The only bright spot is that the stupid little angry sick dog has been feeling tons better, her kidneys are fine(however her liver needs some special herbs), and she's been getting better about taking her meds... The rest of the week? One for the record books I tell you...

So.. now if you'll excuse me... I've got to run to Wally mart for a 12 pack of Corona and a job application. Well.. maybe that wouldn't look so good, asking for a job while holding a 12 pack and a sack of limes.. Oh well, I'll have to pick up the beer at the package store so I don't make the wrong impression and jeopardize the possibility of getting my dream job!

Later...

A new look...

So yesterday's blogging time went into changing up the design here... So what do you think? The most noteworthy probably is the the slide-show at the top... cool isn't it... those are all of the pictures that I was able to upload to my free flickr account before I maxed out my monthly upload allotment.. unfortunately I didn't realize they have a 20 meg threshold before I began uploading so I ran out of room pretty quickly... next month I'll make the images smaller before I upload so you should see more (either that or I have to pony up the 25 bucks for the pro account - donations anyone? HA.. no actually if I had known to resize them I can get an awful lot of pics up there in that 20 megs so going "pro" isn't really necessary.)

Another new feature is ME... yes.. that IS me over there on the right hand column hiding in the forest.. not the greatest pic... but I kind of like it.. it was taken by Mr. 9 2 Bay as we were working our way thru the icey snow to a lovely stream with some great old stone dams...

There were a couple of deletions... I've removed the newsletter signup box... that's right.. I knew it was ambitious to try and fit a newsletter into my week and it proved true... who knows... if things calm down.. maybe I'll still re-instate it at a later date...

I also removed the Google adsense ads... considering I've never seen a check from them I'm assuming everyone just found them annoying... so poof... GONE..

Ok.. so if anyone has any suggestions for more changes.. or comments on the current changes... have at it..

Later...

Springfield Quad Museum...

Some freaky things we saw at the Springfield Museum today...





and some not so freaky things...





A great way to spend a frigid day with the family... my personal favorites... The Salvadore Dali interpretations of Currier and Ives prints... and the Earthquake exhibit... you actually got to sit at a table and control the shaking to see what it would feel like to be in an earthquake... I'm sure it's scarey as hell.. but take away the fear of the earth attacking you and it was like an all over body massage... just a giant footsie wootsie machine like you find at the fairgrounds... only better!

Later...

A few pics..

Here's a few pics from our Geocaching foray that for one reason or another didn't make the blog...








Later...

Twice a day... every day...

Give her the finger...

Well... we've given up on the lunch meat... last nites pill odyssey consisted of left-over chicken fingers... stuffing a capsule down into the cold greasy meat and feeding it to her out on the porch in full view of the barn cats... 3 fingers later we were now faced with a greasy melting capsule that she had somehow managed to eat the chicken from around without distrubing the medication... So it was back to Plan A.. the peanut butter syringe... Of course now tho, she was on to us so it was a matter of waiting until she calmed down so we could catch her...

About an hour later Mr. 9 2 Bay managed to grab her from the office sofa where she had crawled off and fell asleep... What transpired then was so hilarious I had to fight to get off the sofa and get the camera... laughing so hard it started another of those horrible coughing fits.. which then began to cause my bladder to implode... Yeah.. just another exciting Friday nite here on 9 2 Bay... To top it all off I was laughing and coughing so hard the pic came out horrible...



The peanut butter syringe worked... but personally... I wanna go back to giving her the finger...

Later...

Dropping like a rock...

The temperatures are dropping like a rock around here.. over 60 degrees yesterday and by tomorrow morning we're supposed to be below zero... It's gonna be bad... and it's not just the weather channel that's predicting the temperature drop... the little birds have gone into a feeding frenzy...



At least I have a little touch of spring in the house... courtesy of my Valentine flowers from Mr. 9 2 Bay... I don't usually get fresh flowers per my own request, I'd rather have a nice lilac bush or some bulbs that will provide me with flowers for years... but secretly... I'm loving my fresh cut flowers... they are beautiful...


Later....

Who's stupid now?

Yes.. the stupid little angry dog is still taking her medication... but what a pain... You know every one wants a 'smart dog'... how many times have you played hide and seek with your pooch and when they finally do find you as you hide behind the bathroom door you liberally praise them... "Good dog... Good girl... you found me!" followed by a doggie treat... Well.. you know what... there is something to be said for keeping your dog dumb as a post...

Take our lovely little Gretchen... (please..) and while you have her see if YOU can get her to take her pill! She's just gotten way too smart... mix the contents of the capsule with food and she hides... try hiding the whole capsule in a nice juicy roll of lunch meat?? Yeah.. good luck.. she's taken to shaking her food before she eats it... that's right... no matter how yummy the food... or how hungry she is.. she now gingerly picks up the piece of Smoked Ham by the edge and gives it a liberal shake before eating it as we helplessly watch the little blue capsule go flying thru the air.... foiled again... so.. plan D...

Now we feed her on the front porch in front of the barn cats hoping she will be so intent on getting the food before those freakin' cats that she will just gobble it down and not do her little head-shake routine... guess again... she now grabs the meat before the cats can... runs off the porch to a 'safe cat-less' location... shakes it.. then eats it... *sigh... This morning alone it took 4 slices of ham and half of a bratwurst sausage to get that pill into her...

Currently she's snoozing on the sofa and intermittently licking the yummy meat grease off of her face as Mr. 9 2 Bay and I eat our cold cereal and prepare to go to work for the day... As I look at her happy sleepy greasy face I swear she's thinking... "So who's stupid now lady?"

Later...

An actual roadtrip...

Yes.. that's right.. I actually made the 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10 roadtrip yesterday... hence the lack of postage here... I tell you.. it was a lovely ride... although I'm not sure what I enjoyed more.. the lovely scenery, the chocolate-frosted Atkin's donuts that make Dunkin's look and taste like shredded cardboard that has been jacked full of air with a bicycle pump, or the just getting out and about with other humans... Frankly.. they were all pretty spectacular... My only regret is that even tho I had the camera along for the ride I never got the opportunity to pull it out of the case...

I even scheduled a haircut at my fav Easthampton salon (note to those other curly headed people out there... Caroline at Madison Ave understands curls... and we all know the frizzy nightmare that results from amatuer curly hair stylists! Everything 70's may be all the rage, but last I checked Afro's were still 'out'... especially on a white woman! Give Caroline a call and tell her Laura sent you!)

So it was a crazy day.. full of donuts.. hair cuts... client meetings... and gorgeous scenery... I even got to spend a quick break out back with 3 lovely bluebirds (unfortunately they were long gone when I went back out with the camera)...

So.. yeah.. sometimes I miss my ride... and those donuts...

Later...

Happy V Day!

May your Valentine's Day be spent with those that you love and those that love you! We have no special plans here at 9 2 Bay, although I did have a very nice card waiting for me at my computer this morning... Mr. 9 2 Bay, unfortunately, will have to wait for his Valentine's presents... they aren't being delivered until approx. Friday... So what did I get him? Bugs... that's right... Travel Bugs (5 of them!)... again with the Geocaching... for those non-cacher's out there.. a travel bug is kind of hitchhiker... they look like dog tags with a tracking number on them... you register them with the website and if you like, you can assign a requested 'job' for them, attach a little toy/item to them, and then you can follow along with their travels on the site... some of the ones that are out there are, for example, currently trying to travel to as many zoo's as possible (taking pics along the way)... another is looking to have it's pic taken with as many classic cars as possible... many of them are looking for trips around the world and back to their home cache... How fun is that? I'll let you know what tasks Mr. 9 2 Bay decides to assign to his bugs once he registers them...

And that's that... Again... have a wonderful Valentine's Day, Dear Readers... now.. go hug someone!

Later...

History repeats itself...

The Pink Panther... War of the Worlds... Cheaper by the Dozen 2... King Kong... Yours, Mine and Ours... Curious George... The Shaggy Dog.... The Hills Have Eyes... The Producers... When a Stranger Calls... The Fog... The Incredible Hulk... Herbie the Love Bug...

Man... we need some new movies... OH.. wait... those ARE all new movies... kind of... sort of... but not really... "Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it." Not to worry... I'm sure someone will do a remake of whatever you may have missed....

OPS... Other people's stupidity...

So if you read my "100 things about me" you know that one thing that makes me crazy is stupidity... Well there seems to be a plethora of it in the news today... Yes... our illustrious VP Dick "Great Whittington Hunter" Cheney... I'm not sure what's dumber... what he did.. or his excuse...

Stupidity...

1. Quail hunting via car... yeah... great sport... "Let's take the caddy out to the back 40 and see if we can shoot us some bird. I'll get the new Barry Manilow CD if you go warm up the heated leather seats."

2. "I was blinded by the sun and couldn't see a full grown man in blaze orange standing in a field, but I saw me a little bitty birdy so I took my shot."

3. "I shot him but it was his own fault, he was supposed to yell 'Coming up behind you.'so that I would know where he was as I was shooting blind."

4. And to all those whining reporters at the White House Press conference... get over yourselves.. when you ask the same question as the first 12 reporters in an 'appropriately' outraged tone of voice... you just sound... that's right, say it with me... STUPID... yeah.. it is definitely news when the VP blasts a lawyer in the head with a load of birdshot... yes, the news was delayed... yes, the news came from a (ooooohhh) PRIVATE citizen rather than the White House... but hello... talk about embarrassing... and last time I checked NOBODY is ever in any hurry to get their embarrassing news released to a bunch of press core vultures and have them ask the exact same freakin' question as the first 12 reporters that asked questions...

To the whole covey of you, take a page from Mrs. Gump "Stupid is as stupid does."

Later...

Snow 2...

Amount of snow received: 16 inches
Height of stupid little angry dog: 13 inches
Running around in the yard: impossible

Snow...

And it's only 10am! We're looking at the potential for several more hours of this crap... sheesh...

Later...

My new morning routine...

So this Lyme Disease crap has really effected not only the stupid little angry dog (poor thing) but yours truly as well.. My whole regular morning routine of a nice quiet cup of coffee (ok... several nice quiet cups of coffee) and spin around the news sites of the internet has become a thing of the past... My new routine? Put the coffee on and get out the mayonaise, the giant doggie pill and plastic baby syringe.. While the coffee brews I do my best to get all the icky yellow powder out of the capsule and mixed into the mayonaise and then the mayonaise into the stupid little syringe... not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination... especially pre-coffee... then comes the really fun part... catching her...

Seems she's on to me... she see's me get the mayo jar and she's off and behind... off and behind the sofa in the living room... off and behind the sleeper in the office... off and behind the chair in the kitchen... *sigh...

So.. enter cup o coffee number one... I sit and sip and surf with the syringe hidden on my desk.. eventually she gives up and comes out and over for her morning pat... only to be grabbed... forget that cup of coffee... cause now the next half hour is spent shoving mayonaise into a squirming, amazingly strong 20 pound pooch... Do you have any idea how difficult it is to hold a plasic syringe covered in greasy mayonaise with one hand and wiggly grizzly bear with the other? It ain't easy.. trust me.. and I've got the mayo stains to prove it!

Ok.. so mission accomplished.... one dose of antibiotic administered... after cleaning the remnants of the gritty greasy mess from the syringe so it will be ready for the next dose... I get myself a fresh cup of coffee and settle back in front of the computer intent on updating the blog...

Ten minutes later, I notice my lovely little Gretchy-poo is no where to be seen... Where could she be? Oh.. there she is... cowering on the bathroom rug.. uh oh... she only goes in there when she knows... she's... been.... BAD... CRAP! Sure enuf.. a search of the rest of the house uncovers a foamy yellow pile in the middle of the living room... *sigh.... back to square one...

So as my still undrunk coffee cools on the kitchen counter I clean up the mess... call the vet to get the weaker antibiotics, only to find they are closed on Thursdays... and resign myself to getting the mayo jar back out of the fridge...

Well.. maybe after this cup of coffee...

Later...

Caching out...

Well.. even with all the hubbub surrounding the stupid little angry dog we still did manage to get a little fun into the weekend in the form of Geocaching... So what's Geocaching? Using a gps unit you travel to a set of supplied coordinates (from the geocache website) and find whatever it is that is hidden there... It's an actual treasure hunt! Ok.. so here's a better explanation from the Geocache website...

Armed with Mr. 9 2 Bay's brand new Legend C we headed out to collect a couple on Sunday... the first being at the Dinosaur Footprint Park on Rt. 5 in Chicopee... here's a snapshot of the stash...



What a beautiful location... that really is the nice thing about geocaching, it gets you out and about in the most unusual and beautiful places.. places that you may even have driven past hundreds of times but never bothered to stop before... like the Dino-prints... We've been past there multiple times but who's got time to stop and look at footprints? Here's a pic of why this was such a nice Sunday outing..

That's the hotel on top of Skinner Mt. that you can see on the ridge-line... We definitely will be back to this spot again...

Another we went after was at the Quabbin Tower... (note to other cacher's out there... this is where we collected not only the cache but the umpteen deer ticks... check yourself carefully after attempting this one... OH... and watch the forest peanuts... you'd think all that deer scat would have tipped us off to the deer tick problem, but no... live and learn!) We didn't get a pic of the stash on this one.. but here's the lovely view from the base of the tower...



Watch the blog for more of these... what a perfect combination.. Mr. 9 2 Bay gets to play with his new toy, while I get to photograph some areas of Western Mass that I never would have gone into before... Add a liberal dose of exercise, fresh air, and the thrill of the hunt and it's a winner!

Later...

Dog daze...

WOOHOO... She's up and about... see!



And look.. all 4 feet in use... *whew... Actually she was up and about yesterday after just one dose of those miracle anti-biotics.. although she was still shakey... Today, there's no stopping her.. believe me I've tried... sick puppies shouldn't be tearing around the house, launching themselves off the furniture... sick puppies shouldn't be running headlong thru the woods in pursuit of the neighbors cat... but nevertheless.. this sick little pup has been doing it all.. so nice to see her back to her old self... she's still not eating the way she should be but I assume that's because she thinks we're trying to poison her with all the pills we've been slipping into her meals... LOL

So it seems she's gonna be alright... we still have to get those kidneys checked out though... The really sad footnote to all of this... This was EXACTLY how we lost our first dog, Roper... unfortunately Lyme Disease wasn't as known then as it is now so she was never tested for it when she came up lame... she eventually suffered kidney failure and we had to put her down... she was an awesome dog and it hurts to think that a month of anti-biotics could have saved her life...so VERY sad...

Later...

One sick puppy....

Poor thing... on Friday nite she didn't want to jump onto the bed when normally we can't keep her off... on Saturday we awoke to a 3-legged dog... pitifully hobbling around holding her right rear leg gingerly off the ground... forget the food... come Sunday we had to resort to carrying the poor pooch and placing her gently in the yard to do her business... She spent the Superbowl laying on the couch, ignoring the shrimp and Dorito's we tried to tempt her with and still refusing to walk...
Come Monday and a Doctor's visit later we now have a pooch with Lyme Disease... Luckily we seem to have caught it in time to avoid any damage to her kidneys, although her blood levels were elevated so in a couple of weeks we'll return to the Doc's for another round of blood tests to insure there was no permanent damage to her kidneys...

So... one pain pill and one antibiotic later (she'll be taking pills for the next 30 days, minimum!) she already seems so much better... still not walking, but the doc says that will come in the next couple of days.. but she did manage to suck down a big bowl of milk, a small bowl of water, and almost a whole pouch of tuna! WOOHOO..

So.. moral of the story.. if Fido quits walking around... get him/her to the vet asap... and people... the deer ticks are out in FORCE already... we took a quick stroll thru the Quabbin yesterday and by the time we got back to the truck I had 4 deer ticks and Mr. 9 2 Bay had 6 crawling up our pant legs... eeekkk.... luckily none had latched onto anything...
Hopefully my favorite photo model will be up and around and her old self shortly...

Straight out of Stephen King...

Mr. 9 2 Bay is the one who put this one together... Stephen King's Pet Cemetary has got nothin' on us... First... allow me apologize to all you animal lovers out there and assure you that what I'm about to tell you was conducted with the utmost dignity and reverance...

Yes.. I admit it.. we seem to have our own little pet cemetary going on here... with the latest additions, we now have 2 gerbils, 1 dog, a dozen or so barn cats, and various birds, moles, mice and squirrels (which we found laid out on our doorstep courtesy of the barn cats) buried behind our barn. The latest being the gerbils, which were buried in the middle of the night by none other than "the man-Jeff"... They were his girlfriends and after a serious bout of pneumonia took both their short little fluffy lives they were faced with the ultimate pet owner's conundrum... What to do with the 'remains' once "Nibbles", well, bit the big one... The dumpster behind her apartment just didn't seem a fitting fairwell to such beloved pets and due to lots of lovingly fed treats a 'burial in the Porcelin Sea' just wasn't feasible without lots of plunger action resulting in a horrified funeral party and a huge plumber's bill.

So the stiff little fuzz balls were transported via makeshift hearst from Hartford and lovingly laid to rest in the Family Pet Plot... And so the body count continues to rise...

Stephen King would be impressed.

Later...

While I'm at it...

Here are a couple of other photo's of mine that have been used on various websites... it's funny, I didn't realize how many of them are actually out there until I really started to think about it... Here's just a couple that appear on websites...




Later...

Look it's my Chickadee...

How cool.. my chickadee made an appearance on the front page of Masslive.com today...
Ok.. so it's really little... and I'm sure it'll be replaced shortly... but I fully intend to enjoy the spotlight while it lasts! WOOHOO... Happy Dance!

Later...

Another Bird in the Hand...

I don't know how I missed posting this one to the blog... The lighting on it is awesome...

Later...

Where's Johnny...

So.. did you all see John Kerry at the State of Union last nite? I sure did... but you know where I didn't see him... at the vote being held earlier in the day... you know the one... the one where he spent days and days screaming "Let's Fillibuster and block this vote.." So.. where was Johnny? Beats me... What was that? Did I hear someone murmur "If I can't win, I'm not gonna play." Nice... You know.. I can respect (and DO respect) people of all bents that are willing to go the extra mile for their beliefs no matter if I agree with them or not... but in my book... Quitters just suck.

Later...

**update: Well.. upon a visit to Senate.gov it seems there is a vote listed for Johnny... What did he do, phone it in? I watched the vote live and there was nothing but crickets chirping after they called his name in the roll... OK... so my bad... I would still think he would have shown up in person for a vote that he cared enough about to want to fillibuster over it.. but.. I guess not.