Happy Holidays!

Christmas is almost here! It seems to me that it was just yesterday when we were celebrating Thanksgiving and before that only a day or two since the sunny skies and much warmer temperatures of summer. With all the snow that we have been getting here in Erie I sure do miss the warmer temperatures of summer!

I have my house all decorated for the season. The Christmas tree is up with the presents under it that family is giving to family. I am sure that Santa Claus will add his gifts when he tiptoes in on Christmas Eve.

I have been collecting Hallmark musical snowmen for the past four or five years and they are all lined up in a row across the television stand. With the other holiday decorations my home is looking quite festive. I sometimes get the crazy idea that I will keep my holiday decorations up all year round. I love all the snowmen, Santa Claus', reindeer, nutcrackers, elves, angels, etc that are used to decorate this time of the year. I think houses look so inviting with all the lights and decorations in the yard. Jim and I are going to go out driving on Christmas Eve to look at the houses in the area and see the decorations. It is sad that the economy has caused many people to cut back on their celebrations this year. Many houses that usually light up the neighborhood are dark this year.

Four of my Hallmark singing Snowman
Despite having six cats in the household and four of them kittens that are just six months old the Christmas tree is surviving very well. A few sprays with water and they have learned to avoid the tree like it is going to eat them. I don't want them playing with the tree because all of them had a fascination with the icicles and I do not want to have to run a kitten to the vet that has ingested tinsel and has a bowel obstruction because of it. I prefer to keep the holiday season safe for everyone that lives here. The biggest danger to the tree has been the dogs tails. It seems no matter what is going on the dogs manage to turn their butt towards the tree and wag their tails merrily. It causes a dilemma because I can't yell at the dogs for wagging their tails. So we use distraction and get them away from the tree as soon as possible. Still the bottom third of the tree is looking a little worse for wear. The branches are a bit bent, the icicles pushed into the tree or on the ground. Ornaments have been doing half gainers all over the place. We did think far enough ahead to put all the unbreakable ornaments on the lower half of the tree.

Christmas tree all decorated before the dogs tails started their redecoration efforts!
Here are a couple of my other Christmas decorations. I love giving and getting Christmas decorations. They are something you can use every year to remember the person that gave you the gift. I also buy myself at least one new Christmas decoration every year. It keeps the decoration of the house fresh and new every year and makes every Christmas just a little special. You have the comfort and memories of the older ornaments that have been used every year and you have the new ornaments or decorations that will be in your memories of Christmas in the future.

Close up of the Angel tree topper
The angel is a treasured memento of Cindy Peters, Jims mother, she passed a few years ago. Christmas was her favorite holiday and she really loved this angel.

Dogs Christmas StockingsThe dog's Christmas stockings are definitely not hung by the chimney with care because we have no fireplace. So they are hung up out of reach of snoopy puppy noses which works out just fine.

I want to wish everyone peace and happiness during this Holiday season. May everyone be safe and enjoy this special magical time of the year.
Best wishes everyone! Merry Christmas.

Trouble is back

Trouble is back! I am not necessarily happy about it but you deal with what you have to deal with. Jim and I were sitting watching television the other evening when there was a knock on the door. The next door neighbor's child was standing at our door. He had a request to make. In the summer months when we had the entire litter of kittens to give away his family had taken the runt of the litter, they named her Trouble. We had heard nothing about her since then although we had seen her occasionally. Now he was on our doorstep stating that his mom told him to throw the kitten outside because she was not litter trained like we claimed. It seemed strange to us because all the kittens used the litter box only making mistakes if we did not keep the litter boxes clean. You could tell that he was upset about his mother's ultimatum. He told us that he did not want to put her outside in the cold so could we please take her back.

Trouble perched on back of chair after arrival back at our house.

I was also very upset for several reasons. One that I considered the neighbors to be responsible animal lovers and I would never consider that they would throw an animal out in the snow because of litter box issues. There are other avenues that you can follow, retraining her to use the litter box, finding her a new home, taking her to the shelter, etc. They have other cats and two dogs, I am wondering which of them will get thrown out for trivial reasons next. There are things that you can do to get a cat to use a litter box when it breaks litter training. Why if this was an ongoing problem had we not heard about it earlier? Something did not smell right about the entire situation but I did not want to see the kitten trying to survive on her own in the middle of winter or worse find out she died so we agreed to take her back. I am sure if they were callous enough to throw her outside they would not bother to take care of her and provide shelter or feed her anymore. I basically felt we had no choice.

This came at a very bad time because we had seriously considered taking the remaining kittens to the no kill shelter in town because having five cats was just a bit too much. Now here we are with six cats! This is not progressing in the correct direction.

Trouble right before she left our house when her name was Squirt!

Now we have Rommel going through cat infatuation again because there is an new cat in the house so he is on high alert to chase and play with any thing that moves. Trouble is hiding and spitting and hissing at the other cats in the house. She does not remember that they are all family. Of course the resident cats are all returning the favor and growling and hissing back at her. I have not ever heard so many sounds of cat discontent in my life. I have had to keep a small dish of cat food next to me so Trouble can get something to eat because the other cats will not let her share their dish yet. She has used the litter box so I guess that the reason for dumping her is a figment of someones imagination.

Now we not only have another mouth to feed and care for, we have chaos in the house that will probably take several days or weeks to resolve itself. We still have to make the hard decision on whether to take the kittens to the shelter where they will hopefully find good homes or keep them here because they have of course worked their little fuzzy selves into our hearts. I am not happy with my neighbors and I am hoping that I will not see them for quite a while so that I have time to calm down before I tell them what I think of their attitudes towards raising kittens.

Oh well, life goes on. I need to take a deep breath and get on with things. Excuse me but I have to go grab a German Shepherd that is flying past me chasing a cat. Life is definitely going to be so bizarre, that is for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving! Yeah I know I am late!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and gave many thanks for all the gifts and good things in their lives. I had a great day. We went to friends house and we cooked up a storm. I had a ball getting back in touch with the cook inside me again. I have not had much opportunity to cook lately. We of course had to have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. So that meant Turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and tons of gravy. Pumpkin pie and whipped topping for dessert is required in Thanksgiving cooking 101. It was a busy day in the kitchen but a day of good conversation and a chance to meet up with family that we had not seen in a great while.

One beautiful Turkey just out of the oven!!

All the extra fixin's get their turn in the oven!

Jim watched television most of the afternoon because there were football games to see. That made his day complete especially since the friends had a 55 inch LCD television. It was huge! What more could he ask for, football and a dream television. It dominated the room and the picture was great. He was in heaven because he is such a television addict that the thoughts of having such a huge TV is the stuff of which dreams are made. I was wondering if we would ever be able to pry him away at the end of the day but we were finally successful. Now I am sure I will hear the wonders of that experience for days to come. We have been considering upgrading our television because of the digital transition in February and our television is old enough in this day of rapidly advancing electronics to be considered a prehistoric dinosaour.

Jim with visions of 55 inch televisions in his head!

Randy with our hostess Charlotte

It was a great day and it will remain in my memory as one of the great holidays of my life. I am thankful for good friends and family and chances to spend time with them. I am thankful for the food on the table, the roof over our head and the beautiful day that God gave us.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May the spirit of giving thanks stay with you throughout the year.

Happy Birthday Stacy!

Today is my sister Stacy's birthday! She turns the half century mark today! Since she lives in Colorado we do not see each other much but family is still family. I sent her a birthday card with best wishes for her to have a wonderful day and a wonderful year. It has occurred to me that I do not have any recent pictures of Stacy. I will have to remedy that situation and post one here when I get a chance. Until then my best wishes will have to do. Happy Birthday Stacy.

It's snowing - UGH!

I know that I live in the unofficial snow capitol of Pennsylvania but really does the snow have to start in late October, early November. Why can't it wait until Christmas, give us the fabled White Christmas that everyone says that they want and then go away till mid-January sometime. By then I am adjusted to the fact that it is winter and snow is to be expected. I mean if you look at the calendar it is still technically fall. I think we are being cheated out of one of the best seasons in the calendar year.

This past Sunday evening through Monday we had about nine inches fall where I live. Snowfall throughout the county ranged from just a couple of inches up to a foot. At times there was thunder and lightening flashing across the sky. That is a strange phenomenon during a snow storm to hear the rumble of thunder and then the snow lights up with a glare of light. Since I usually only associate thunder and lightening with a summer storm it was sort of surreal.

This is a picture of my car with all the snow that had fallen by early Monday morning.

The one thing that I love about a heavy snow fall when there is minimal wind the snow tends to lay on the branches of the trees like white fluffy frosting. The stark white of the snow against the blacks, browns and grays of the tree branches is truly beautiful. So of course I had to take a picture or two!


Shortly after I took the above photo the snow started falling in a steady downpour almost like white rain. It obscured the view to across the street so that it appeared that you were looking through a fog. In the pictures I took you can't really tell that it is snow that is causing the foggy sensation but you can get a sense of the decreased visual acuity.


We have had a couple of days break where we have had no additional snowfall. I think that some of the snow actually had started to melt. That is of course until today when it started snowing again. Today we are having more of the light, large fluffy kind of snowflakes. I haven't heard anything about approximate accumulation amounts yet, I do not want to get depressed. I did dig out the camera and attempt some pictures of the snowflakes coming down.


As you can see the trees have lost their frosted appearance over the past couple of days. Also some of the trees have not even had a chance to lose all of their fall finery due to the early arrival of snow.
Kai and Rommel like the snow and they were outside playing while I was taking pictures. At one point when the snow was coming down a little heavy, Rommel was slowly being covered in a blanket of white and did not look too happy about the prospect of staying out in the snow much longer.


I think that the best way to spend the winter months is to hibernate like bears do. You go to sleep in the fall and when you wake up it is spring! What could be better than that! I don't have that option so I am going to make the best I can out of a bad situation and take pictures and try to enjoy myself. Since I have a bunch of sour lemons I might as well make lemonade! Only one month till winter officially begins and then just three more months until the official start of spring. I am already marking my calendar.

New Family Member

I want to announce that I now have a new family member. My friend Lynn feels due to harassment and other issues from residents at the building where she lives that she needed to find a home for her retired service dog Rommel. Rommel knows me and Jim quite well so when she asked I told her sure we would give Rommel a home. Rommel has joined my family now and he seems to be making himself at home. He is seven years old and a very well trained older gentleman. Rommel has known Kai since the day I brought him home and though he sometimes views Kai as a bit of a crazy puppy they get along well. Rommel has also played with Topaz so they are familiar with each other. We brought Rommel home a couple of days ago. I wanted to make sure he was going to be happy and settle in before I took the step to announce that he is mine.

Rommel when he first arrived, looking just a little confused and stressed.
Fortunately Rommel LOVES cats and kittens. He likes to gently pin them down with one paw while he sniffs them thoroughly from nose to the tip of their tail. If they run then he loves to chase them as far as they want to run. He was in heaven when he found out that there were four cats here and that none of them were afraid of him. As a matter of fact all the cats walked right up to him a few minutes after he arrived and gave him the once over.

Jim and D.C. say hello to Rommel

Rommel brought his own food, food dishes, leashes and collars as well as a large cushion that he uses as a bed. We put the cushion off to one side in the living room and soon the cats have claimed it as their own. Poor Rommel walked over to his bed and looked down at the cats that were sprawled there and turned and walked away. According to Lynn he won't dispossess a cat from anything that it has. That includes food, a cat can walk up to Rommel and steal his food right out from under his nose and he will just watch it walk away with it. So if the cats get on the bed first then Rommel looks for somewhere else to lay down. I keep telling him to climb up on the cushion and threaten to lay down on the cats, I am sure that they will move. He is such a gentleman, he won't do it.

Pippin and Gabby make themselves comfortable on Rommel's bed
I am thrilled that Rommel is staying at my house now. He is fitting in well with the rest of the menagerie that lives here and by that I mean the crazy humans also. He is such a handsome boy and an excellent ambassador of his breed. Considering he was rescued by Lynn from horrible conditions when he was three months old he has come a long way. Kai is very happy to have an older brother to play with. Welcome to my family Rommel.

After a long first day Rommel settles in for a nap.
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Spaghetti and Poker

We had wonderful weather this past Sunday with bright sunshine and warm seventy degree weather. Sounds like a good day for another picnic and that is what we did. We went over to our friend Roy's house and on the menu was Spaghetti and meatballs. Not exactly your usual picnic fare but if you are eating in the great outdoors even if it is just someone's yard then I am going to call it a picnic. Jim cooked the spaghetti because Roy claimed incompetence when it came to cooking edible spaghetti noodles. I took my camera with me and I spent the time while dinner cooked taking pictures of all the lawn decorations and plants that were present in the yard.

Log cabin birdhouse
It is an interesting collection of birdhouses, statues, benches and other items. Anything can make a good picture if you get the right angle, lighting, etc. I do not put together all the elements of a good photograph. While my pictures may never be award winners they do please me and they do remind me of a wonderful day spent with friends enjoying one of the last nice days before winter comes to northwest Pennsylvania.

Is this a frog or a turtle. It appears to me to be the head of a frog (buggy eyes) with the rest being a turtle!


Butterflies and Birdhouse
Roy owns a Cockatoo that came out on his perch to visit with us for awhile. He is quite the comic for a bird and very entertaining to watch. He would say "Hello" and then bob his head up and down quickly while raising his crest as high as it would go. When he got bored he would pull splinters of wood off his perch. Later he climbed down on the tray grabbed a large piece of wood that he had ripped off the perch and used it to scratch his head, combing his crest with it. And some experts say animals don't make or use tools!

Our friend the Cockatoo, responding to "Hello"
What a pretty bird!
The yard is overshadowed by a huge old locust tree and the sun filtering through the leaves made a wonderful picture. So of course I took several. Here is my favorite one.


The evening of course progressed to a game of Texas Hold'em Poker. For once I was doing quite well and really cleaned up on several of the hands. The black cloud that follows me when I am playing any type of game was absent for just a little while and I took full advantage of it to gloat and tell everyone what a wonderful poker player I am. I have to get my bragging in when I can because when it comes to games of chance I don't get many opportunities! Just one last picture of our host Roy. I apologize for it being blurry but Jim took the picture not me. I will have to leave it here until I get a better one to put in its place.

Another day spent with good friends that I can file in my memory book. I like to remember times spent doing simple things, sharing good food and time with people that you like. Even quiet get togethers can be the happy memories that weave together to make the quilt of your life.