The Race

These are daffodils, at least they are trying to be daffodils. We are having a sunny 60 degree day here in Michigan today. They might have the chance to pop out. But, I just heard on the weather report that there might be snow on the ground on Sunday. Will they make it?

Airport Entertainment

Home from Houston, and trying to adjust to jumping temperatures. Mid 80s in Houston. Mid 50s here. I sat next to Pierce Brosnan's brother on the airplane. I know you don't believe me, and I could not think of a non chalant way to take his picture. He looked just like Pierce. That is one of the beauties of being upgraded to first class. Pierce Brosnan's brother does not sit in coach.

Traveling nearly each week can be taxing in so many ways, so it is good to find entertainment wherever I can. Well, aside from people watching which is great in an airport. And, eating in the food court where I have so many choices of junk food.

I saw this in the George Bush International Airport. It says it all. After you see this, you can get right back on your plane and go home, you don't even have to go out into the city of Houston. You already know that Houston is all about cows carrying video cameras and the space program. Oh, and that you are in Texas. Houston We Have Landed.

Back at home in Detroit, we have an attraction worthy of Disney. Under the taxiway between terminals A and B they give you a light and sound show every day. It is different everytime I see it. I think it looks like when they showed people having acid trips on TV in the 70s. Somebody who has had an acid trip, please give me the word on that. In the video you see Niece 3 and an impatient man. We were touring. He was actually trying to catch a flight. We had a lot more fun than he had.

Fun to travel, but great to be home,

Normal Girl

Bad Ride

Howdy Houston! I looked the whole day for something pretty or interesting to photograph for you. Finally, I decided the best looking thing I have seen all day is my rental car in the sunset. I got an upgrade to a Mustang convertible and can that car GO! I had a blast driving around Houston today.

The next best thing I did was spend an hour in Archivers. If you have never been to an Archivers store, get in the car and drive to one. It is fab. I don't even scrapbook and I still think it is fab.

Normal Girl

A New Motto?

It has been the craziest of days, and it is not over yet. I am trying really hard not to make this my motto.

I want to.

But, I'm not.

Yet.

I am off to Houston tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Normal Girl

It's Official

It is officially spring in Michigan. Today. Forget the calendar or the weather man. I know it is spring when the woodchucks that live under my deck come out. I don't know if they hibernate or go to Florida for the winter, but they make an appearance at spring, and there was a sighting of the newest Woodchuck baby this afternoon. I am on the sixth generation of woodchucks in my yard. They have been joined by several thousand raccoons (OK, not several thousand, maybe one thousand) and a cute skunk family. Oh, and the newest resident of wild kingdom is a huge yellow cat. You must understand that I live in the city....sidewalks and all....and somehow, my yard has been selected as a wildlife preserve. By the wildlife. They all live together under my backyard deck.

The first year, I had Mr. and Mrs. Woody. They ate everything in the yard. Well, they don't like geraniums, but everything else. They would even reach up, grab branches, pull them down and eat the leaves. They ate two lilac bushes to the gound. Everything at the three foot level and below was stripped of greenery. And even though the critter control guy said it is not possible, they climbed my apple trees and ate every apple. I saw it. They dug holes in the yard. HUGE holes, big enough to break a leg in. They chewed through a 4x4 of the garage and went inside. They climbed up on the shelves and pushed everything off onto the floor. I had to keep all the windows on my car up at all times for fear they would get inside and pop up as I was driving down the street. My favorite Woody trick was the way they took everything they could get their claws on into the burrow.....which by the end of the summer ran under the deck out into the yard, around the side of the house and under the front porch. If I left anything outside for even a few minutes, it was gone. Into the burrow. They made quite a nest with flower pots, papers, a towel, and a welcome mat. They even have an American flag that fell down in a storm inside the burrow.

I read everything about how to get them out of the yard. One online article said to soak rags in ammonia and stuff them in their holes. Easy. I did that. Mrs. Woody came up to a rag in a hole in the middle of the yard. Sniffed it. Rotated her head around looking for......I don't know....me? Then she grabbed that rag and took it down the hole with her.

I bought a trap and started trapping and hauling them off to the woods. The second year I trapped 4 woodchucks and 6 raccoons. I trapped for 5 years until I had skunks move in last year. I got one in the trap and I was not getting close enough to it to let it out and I was sure not putting it in my car! Critter Control took it away for $100. I could not risk it or afford it and so I gave up trapping. Now the animals live wild and free in the city. They win.

Normal (Please don't tell the DNR) Girl

Every Bracelet Has a Story

Here's what I think. A bracelet completes me. I have piles of bracelets of all kinds. And, how cool is it that I have my very first bracelet? My amazing Mother did what all Mothers say they are going to do and put three albums of photos together for me. She did it for all four of her children. It took her nearly a year of work to get them all done. We think it was worth it, they are precious. She gave me my baby bracelet in the first book. This was the first bracelet in my lifelong love of beads and jewelry making.

I added the quarter so you can see the size of the bracelet.

This is not my last bracelet, but it is a special bracelet. Yeah, it looks like it has plastic junk hanging from it, but it is precious too. On my 50th birthday, my two pals The Human Pinball and The Diplomat, took a trip with me to New York City. We spent four days and three nights doing stuff that would make you jealous. We chronicled some of it on our bracelets. We each made one. We started on the first day with a charm bracelet with one red apple bead that I made. We added as we went to three Broadway shows, ate at restarurants, and classed it up by going to a museum (Museum of Art and Design).

You can make your own bracelet with your friends for any occasion. Attach the paper mementos to clear acrylic tags with glue or Mod Podge. Add charms or beads or whatever by wiring to the links or attach with jump rings. People will ask you about it!

Normal (I am 50, and I know how to use it!) Girl

I was up at church tonight helping to decorate for the next sermon series. It is called, "Some Assembly Required." You will make the correlation between that and the decorations. I am attaching this 2 second (literally 2 seconds) because:

- you won't get bored in two seconds

- I had no idea this little camera had video and when I pushed the button, I could not figure out what was going on, and video was on it!

- I did not get any still shots that were good enough to not delete immediately

- we need some video, even if it is only two seconds

Remember when the Sequoias were here and we went to paint pottery? I picked it up today. Here it is:

Don't you wish someone would teach me how to use all of the cameras I own? Me too.

Normal (Camera Spaz) Girl