Tis the Season

Tis the Season for many things and one of them is to blog - oh that would be any season wouldn't it. Oh well, it is like a party, any excuse will do.

It seems that some of my readers have defected to Facebook and, try as I would, I could not find them once I had signed in, registered, etc. Ah well. I am still here and happy to add my little comments as regularly as possible.

The smell of roses permeated the household after last weekend's final football games. Thank you USC for at least beating cross town rival UCLA and making it to the Rose Bowl. Not quite the big one where another 2 loss team (how does that work) is headed but it is still a place near and dear to our hearts and we are happy to be there on New Year's Day.

The rest of life is just about as good as can be. Thanksgiving brought lots of good food, company and family and much needed weekend relaxation although the ever present yardwork, housework, study cleaning, ATW, FDS, PAAS dog walking still continued. I took some time and got caught up on the TV shows which had piled up on my TIVO allowing me to have a delayed reaction to the Hollywood writers strike. Dancing with the Stars kept me entertained and I was happy to see Helio win although Mel B. would have been a good candidate as well. Marie entertained and I enjoyed watching her (think that the Doll routine was actually much more difficult than the judges made it out to be) but she was not tip top like Mel B. and Helio.

The new HD TV viewing is still not the experience it should be. Comcast has come out and changed all of the lines and the TIVO was changed for a new one but there is still that (very) annoying dropping of the sound several times during a TV show that causes one to miss key parts of the dialogue and, after paying so much money for the TV, system, etc. why am I getting worse sound quality than on my standard def TV? Anyone out there with a clue of what the problem is, please let me know so that I can get it fixed. I am all out of ideas.

Work continues although I will be off this project on Dec. 14th. Hoping to be on the next soon so that I can collect my Holiday Pay over Christmas and New Years.

Painting also continues and we are at the completion of a project which should be on exhibit soon. Here is a sneak preview

and a little bit more

It has been a fun project and I am sorry to see it come to an end. However, there is a wonderful snow picture that Lorraine sent to me that is calling my name. Hmmmm...........

The car has finally been fixed after six weeks in the shop last summer and another week last week. It is nice to not have the wind noise anymore and to listen to the radio at a normal level.

And, to leave you, a few pictures from my summer holiday which I have promised and never delivered.

The View from my friend's place:

Columbine - Colorado state flower:

Sydney, my hiking companion while Lorraine was working:

Thelma and Louise? Those Badlands do get windy!