Life – Page 35 – The Dackel Princess

The Owl Box

My sister turned me on the Molly and MaGee. Who are Molly and MaGee? They are Barn Owls out in San Marcos, California. Currently they have nested in a back yard Owl Box that is on Streaming Video. Please go and check it out. If you are lucky you will see the Owlets in the box with Molly. MaGee, the Daddy, brings food in several times a day to feed his family.

The Owl Box

It’s addicting, I tell you, as you watch nature, up close and so beautifully perfect. My thanks to Carlos and his wife Donna for doing this so that we all can see this wonderful sight!

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Hubby and I hit the shops today to buy the food for Easter. We found a nice ham, asparagus and purchased the cheese to make my special Macaroni and Cheese. The store was not stocked very well, and we ended up having to go to two other shops to finish our shopping.

I was in the soda isle getting a few bottle of soda for Hubby and as I reached up with one hand to grab a 2 liter bottle, a second bottle leapt off the shelf and started to fall. I grabbed and I actually caught it! Just as I did Hubby turned the corner, but he missed my great athletic feat!

The day here was bright, with blue skies and warm temperatures. I even put the windows down in the car and breathed in the fresh spring air.

Ah-choo! Oh yeah, springtime. Allergy season. That’s okay, I’ll deal with it. Bring on the sun and flowers!!!

Cleaning, Dackels

Monday was Veterinarian day. The three dackels went in for their yearly shots, examinations and I bought their heart-worm and flea & tick medications. Now I am broke for the rest of the month! Not really, but it did take my breath away when I got the final bill!

All the dackels are healthy. The two girls are, a little too healthy! Like their Mama Maribeth, they need to be on a strict Weight Watchers program for myself and my girls! Greta has a good 2 pounds to lose and Anneliese is about 1 pound over.

What I am planning is to take the girls on walks once this rain stops. I could use the exercise myself. I’d like to take the girls out in the morning. Walk down and get the mail, and then in the afternoon, take Arnie and Anneliese out for a walk. Fritz doesn’t need to be walked as he is the best boy in the entire world, and runs between our house and our neighbors, but never goes any further. Unfortunately the dackels do, so they need to be walked.

I actually got some spring cleaning done today. Hubby is off training for working on the US Census during the day, and this gives me all kinds of time to clean. What I need now is motivation!

Does anyone out there like to clean?

This & That

I’ve been sitting here watching the Olympics and trying to think of a good theme for today’s blog entry. Usually I am full of ideas and my hands fly across the keyboard. Today I am feeling as tired as the Alpine Skiers after their last run, and my mind seems to be drawing a blank. So I will just tell you a few things that happened on Friday.

Just before midnight on Thursday, the power went out. Fritz freaked out and woke me to open the bedroom door, which I did, even though I had no light at all to guide me.
Hubby, who had a flashlight was just coming to bed and we all met at the door.
After making coffee the next morning, I went to turn on the TV and the channel was stuck on channel 2. Could the power outage have zapped our TV’s tuner?
We tried everything to switch the station and discovered that we could press in 12 to turn the channel to channel 12, but as soon as we hit the up or down button it went back to 2. We also had no upper channels.
Hubby called the local repair shop and the woman mentioned reprogramming.
I knew how to do that, but I noticed when I went to do that, that the TV had gone from “cable” to “TV”. So I switched from “TV” to “Cable”.
Then I reprogrammed the TV and life was good. And the fix was cheap! Nothing!
Hubby went off and I did some cleaning and laundry.
I had lunch ready for Hubby when he got home and he was off right after for another appointment.
While he was gone I did some programming on Hubby’s computer.
I also learned to bullet these entries!
I also took an old pair of speakers from a dead computer and brought them out to the family room. I like to watch TV shows on my computer after they air, and I cannot always catch the dialog, but with the external speakers it works very well. Hubby likes it too.
Dinner was easy. tacos, Weight Watcher style.
Now I am working on three projects. The scarf, a booklet and a drawing.

I do not have much else planned for the weekend, or on the docket. Our town elections are on March 9th. That is the day I will be voted on for the Library Trustees. I have my name badge all made up and I am ready to stand outside all day to shake hands.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Thoughts On A Snowy Day!

It’s snowing! My husband is a happy man!

Earlier this week we had a torrential rain storm, which resulted in much of the snow base in the mountains being washed away. The groomers worked hard to break up the ice that formed when everything froze and turn it into something ski-able. But the snow, which has started to fall, and is forecast for the next few days, will help replenish the slopes.

Meanwhile I want you to picture this. I let Fritz outside and then got busy doing things around the house. My cell phone rang and my sister needed me to assist her with a computer problem, and before I knew it, quite a bit of time had passed. I noticed that the snow had really picked up. I started to notice that things were pretty quiet. One, two, three dogs. Uh-oh, one dog short!

I looked outside at the top of the steps that lead to our driveway and there, sitting quietly, waiting for his Daddy, completely covered in snow, was Fritz! I called him in and spoke to him sweetly. After all, I am the mean old Mommy that forgot him in the snow!

Now before anyone reports me for doggy abuse, remember that Fritz’s coat is thicker than any winter coat on the market, and if I was forced to wear it, well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be a pretty thing to see! Me sweating like crazy, especially during a hot flash! Oh yes. At times I am my very own tropical island.

I digress!

I actually love snowy days like this. The flakes of snow are falling gently, and it makes for a pretty event to watch. The sun even came out for a while, during the snow storm, which made it even prettier!

A friend of ours from Vermont came by and we had lunch out at a wonderful Diner. The food was good and the company even better. A meal that usually takes half an hour to eat took us two hours, but it was worth every moment as we talked and laughed and joked.

I’d offered to give him one of our old desktop computers and when we got home, I fired it up to show him how easily it worked. Well, what do you know, the machine is screwed up and needs to have the hard drive wiped and the programs reloaded.

At first I thought I would take it in to my new favorite repair shop, but I started thinking and I decided that I would try the work myself. If it all goes south, then I will bring it in with the discs and beg for help. However, I think I can do this! I’ll keep you posted.

The winds have come up now and it is still snowing outside. I hope that the snow stops as I have to drive to my eye doctor’s office tomorrow for another exam. It’s just over 50 miles and this time I am on my own.

Happy Friday Everyone!!!

What If….

I was talking with my girlfriend Carol, in Florida and she told me I HAD to watch a new show on CWTV. The show is called “Life Unexpected”. I was skeptical, but last night the TV was poor, so I sat down and watched the first episode online here. It was terrific. Well thought out, and well written. I told Hubby he must watch the first episode during the day on Monday so we can watch the next episode together on Monday night.

The premise is, what if the child you gave up at birth, when you were 16, (and you thought had been adopted and wasn’t), suddenly appears in your life with a problem. She is not asking you to fix it, she just needs one thing. Your signature on a document.

So if you haven’t seen it and have a chance, take a look. You won’t be disappointed.

I guess we all have “what ifs” in this life. What if we had done this, or that, “what ifs” basically are quite often, about the road less traveled.

Sometimes we think we have everything all figured out, and then something that we had never even considered comes along and hits us on the side of our heads!

At times we think that these things are always bad. Not so. Sometimes something unexpected can turn into something truly wonderful!

I look at my marriage to Hubby. Falling in love with him after years of friendship was so unexpected, and yet, how truly wonderful!

In case you all need something to make you smile, here is a video of me making my bed. So, take a peek and see if you know why I have a tough time each day. They all love to help, but Arnie really gets into it!

Making The Bed from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Have a great day everyone!!

Welcoming 2010

I was up today. I did a little laundry, and cooked our meals. Nothing fancy, just the basics. It felt good to be doing a few things again after all the enforced down time.

It’s been bitterly cold today with high winds (49 miles an hour!!!!) so the dogs have all wanted to keep me company. Even Hubby stayed in until he was forced to go out to get the mail and a few groceries.

Funny, this week between Christmas and New Year. Nothing really gets done, no one really wants to do anything, and this year, no one really wants to do the after Christmas shopping….no money.

I’m hoping that 2010 is a whole lot better than 2009. In fact I want to go on record and say that 2009 was a really crappy year and hopefully will not be repeated!

I got an email from Princess Cruises offering me discounted travel in the Far East this spring. Yeah, well that isn’t going to happen, much as I would like it to. Perhaps another time.

For now, I am happy to slowly be getting my vision back, and I hope that I will not need further surgery on this eye. Yes, I have high hopes for 2010, that it will be the year of healing. Not just for me, but for my cousin as well.

Come on 2010! Be a year we can all look back on and say that you were a good one!!!

A Busy Wednesday!

Wednesday was a strange day. It started early with Greta getting me up for a visit to the great out doors. I had toyed with the thought of going back to bed, but then I knew I had Weight Watchers and so I decided to catch up on my email and shower before leaving at 8 o’clock for class.

Class went well, with me shedding one and a half pounds this week. I think I can safely say that I am back in the groove after losing it shortly after my father died. It’s not that I completely fell off the wagon, but I just wasn’t able to do the things I needed to do to be successful. Over the last week, I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to and it felt good and easy.

Coming home I found my little mother waddling around. I decided that today would be a good day to set up the puppy room. I placed the little baby pool in the room, placed a nice blanket in there, and two waterproofed pads. Anneliese and Arnie immediately came to see what the fuss was all about, and eventually Greta did too.

Later in the day Hubby brought in some peaches from our trees. There is enough to make a few batches of Heavenly Jam (peach jam). So late this afternoon we peeled and pitted the peaches and added all the ingredients. Now it must set overnight before we cook it all down and actually make the jam.

I had a dental visit today to repair a broken tooth and filling. All I can say is that after the Novocaine wore off it was painful. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Just one more day until we find out how many babies Greta has in there! I sure am excited!

Okay, I Got Nothing

I was washing up after dinner and I was thinking what I would write about, but then it dawned on me that not much has happened today.

Greta is getting bigger, the dogs did snuggle and love me, (after waking me at 6 AM by jumping on my head!) and I got my hair done. Aside from that, it was a fairly dull day.

Nice!

Friday finds me going over to have my eye examined with my Retinal Surgeon to see if the scar tissue is bad enough to be removed, or if I need to wait a little longer until I have more surgery.

Saturday I am going to a Seminar on how to train puppies to track wounded game. I am really looking forward to that. It’s being done by a man I consider my mentor.

So that’s it for tonight. Sorry this is impossibly boring. Please scroll down and watch my flight video for something pretty and terrific, cause today was blessedly quiet, and boring!

Clear Skies

Tonight as the sun began to set, we saw a plane circling above our lake. I called to Hubby and we stood in our front window and watched as it landed on the lake. (It was an amphibious plane.) I expected it to turn around during it’s taxi and take right back off, but it taxied to our little beach.

Because I worry, it’s a lifelong problem, I thought perhaps they’d had engine trouble, so Hubby and I went down to take a look. I grabbed my little camera to document the event. After all, in the 10 years we have been here, this sort of activity hadn’t occurred.

What we found was that the pilot was dropping off someone and once they were out, they turned the plane and he took off again. Luckily, I got it all on my camera.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It was so pretty to watch the plane as it took off into the sunset. It brought out the kid in me and I felt as though I were watching some great mysterious event!

Afterward, Hubby and I walked home and enjoyed the setting sun even more. It was just such a lovely, lovely, summer night.

The Eyes Are The Window To The Soul

I woke up on Monday morning and went and let two of the dachshunds out in the yard. Then I went in to say hello to Anneliese and her babies and weigh the puppies.

I picked up Mr. Yellow and he looked me right in the eye! Yes, his eyes had opened overnight!

I do have another little piece of news about Mr. Yellow. Instead of being called Bernie, his new owners are going to call him Bogart! So Bogie it is! I love it! Somehow that name just suits him perfectly!

As usual, Baron was being a ham! He was lounging in the whelping box rolling around winking at me and I swear I saw a smile! He is quite the ladies man already!

You may notice on the photo below, that Birgit is the darkest of the puppies. She is absolutely beautiful. Her eyes are open even more than this now, but I liked this picture of her because you can really see her coloring.

And last but not least Baerbel. What can I say? Well, perhaps that she is one feisty chick! Yesterday I trimmed everyone’s toe nails and she wiggled and squirmed and made me laugh. At two weeks old, she is one very strong girl!

I cannot believe how fast this is going. Before you know it they will be running around, jumping around, and then off to live their lives in their new homes.

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