An Eerie 6 am

It's not suppose to look like this, nearly two hours before sunrise, at 6 am, in Grand Forks. The lighting has been really weird lately. A few nights ago, it was surpisingly bright at 10:30 pm, with just a crescent moon. I kept walking outside, looking at the sky, wondering what the heck was going on. And there's a pinkish tinge to the sky.

Last night, it was usual night; you know, kinda black.

Then this am, it's like this, with the pink again. I know there's a solar hurricane going on, but I'm not really sure if this is part of the Northern Lights, or just Grand Forks Weirdness.

Cold or Brutal?

From Drop Box

Cold or Brutal? You be the judge!

(Just doing what we do best in North Dakota: complaining about the weather.)

Thank God For Cheerleaders!

Thank God for colorful, cheery cheerleaders. . . .





. . . . to get us through days like this!

Cold Nights, Dreaming of Longer Days!

Sometimes ND is chilly. And a little dark. Like today, where sunrise was at 8:15 am, and sunset was at 4:58 pm. I'm actually excited about this, because there's more light now than there was a few weeks ago. And right now the windchill is 17 below zero.


Here's how I prepare to go outside with Ruby for a walk:

Northface Triseason jacket (excellent!); Northface gloves (not very good; fingers still hurt fairly rapidly); hat that I can pulled down further over my face; neck scarf with zipper that I pull up to just below my glasses; cuddle duds under my jeans (you can't see them, but they're purple); boots; dog leash, poop bag, and string cheese (partially split into little strings for easy puppy luring to walk on my side rather than dragging me at 10mph across ice). And out I go, lasting about 15 minutes max.

I've been thinking about future retirement and drooling over Austin, TX, weather, pulling it up on all my weather apps. Today, at 7pm, it's 44 degrees. Spring weather! But even better, I've realized that they actually have longer days! I don't quite get the whole planet rotation thing, but I do get that their sunrise is 7:30 am, and sunset today is 5:50 pm! Look at that! That's a whole 95 minutes more of sunlight! Of daytime! Like, an hour and a half's worth!

As in you could leave for work in the light, and come home in the light! Oh, the bliss that would be!

Someday. . . . someday. . . . .

All Gone!

Gone, but missed, are these pretty Christmas ornaments:







Gone, but not missed is my "trial" of Sirius! I made myself listen to this until the trial ran out, and I'm very happy to see it gone now. I could see if you were frequently driving across the country, or trapped in the no-where-lands of SD out of range of all radio signals, relying on Sirius for entertainment. But for my day-to-day life, no thank you! I'm really surprised by how many commercials and sales pitches for Sirius Radio took up their air waves! I felt I had to listen to it while it was "free" but am delighted to have Minnesota Radio back where it belongs--my number one spot on my radio!



See you next year, little Santas and Angels!

Christmas Present(s) and the Texan

My sweet sister-in-law, Barb, sent me this Texan ornament. It's part of her diabolical though brilliant plan to recruit Doug and I to Texas. We're thinking about Austin TX when we retire. (Oh, I don't know why. Something about it being 72 degrees right now when we're at 29, with a "real feel" of 15.) This Texas ornament really is the size of the local high school, too, because everything really is bigger in Texas!



Ruby got this crazy squeaky toy for Christmas. She loves it! She can drive us humanoids insane with its squeaking in just under 72 seconds! The way it's constructed, the squeaker is in the middle of the toy, with extra layers of plastic/rubber webbed around the outside. She hasn't shredded it yet! All stuffed animal squeaky toys have a very short life-span with Ruby, but this one looks like it's going to be around for awhile. She loves carrying it around in her mouth!
It won a Best in Show award at the 2010 Global Pet Expo. Here's a link.

A Beautiful Face of January 1, 2012

Today's prompt is wide aperture, and although I took this photo January 1st, I decided to use it. f/1.8; 1/100; ISO 400. Used external flash, -1/3 flash compensation, TTL/BBL. 85 mm lens, shot RAW, tweaked with Radical Lab to add some contrast.



I'm a little biased, but I think Ruby is gorgeous! And she's a great little poser; she'll "Stay" forever for one lousy Cheerio. How long would you stay still for a Cheerio? Actually, I'm lucky I caught the shot before she started drooling.

Good Bye Christmas Ribbons

Good Bye, Christmas Ribbons, your days are numbered. This weekend, you'll come down, along with all the other Christmas decor. The others will be packed away. But you. . . well. . . most likely the trash.



But you did your job well, after Elizabeth carefully hung you from the chandelier. You saved lots of tall people from bonking their heads, as they reached for the meatballs or phyllo and goat cheese pockets, during our Christmas party.

Such a sad ending for festive little ringlets . . .

I could let Ruby play with you for awhile, but it would just be all drool and slobber, and then wrestling you from her before she swallowed it. . . so I guess it's just the trash for you. sorry.

Christmas Open House Party

Don't you just hate it when you have a large gathering, and don't take very many photos? I had SO intended to do so!

I invited 40 to 60 people to our house the Friday before Christmas, as a Christmas Open House party, and to celebrate Scott and Elizabeth's wedding (in October.) So for months, I've been baking and cooking and baking, and stuffing my freezer to the brim! My wonderful sister-in-law, Maria, has been consulting with me on recipes, and she sagely recommended the Silver Palate Chocolate mousse (pretty red ramekins, from Maria, in the photo above). I substituted Kahlua for the Grand Marnier. I'll never again make the Chocolate Fantasy, in the little flared dishes, to the left of the chocolate mousse. Pretty, but nasty tasting. I don't get it; I did a trial run and liked them well enough. Most of the 24 little cups went into the garbage disposal after the party.

The punch with peppermint ice cream (foreground, right) was a definite hit! See the little white cups behind the punch bowl? I managed to buy them from a dollar store, 48 for $6. At that price, I would never give the "Northwest Airlines" stamped on the bottom a second thought!

Bottom left: the 3 tiered plate was inspired by Rachel Ray, and episode in which plates and tall glasses or vases are arranged together to make extra 3 tiered servers. I used a tall candy dish at the base.

Biscotti and raspberry linzer cookies are two of my favorite Christmas cookies.

Above: before the party, but before I put most of the items out.

And these two beautiful faces belong to Saxon and Scott. Bet you can figure out which is which!

A few of you marveled at the extraordinary ability of Saxon and Ruby (yesterday's video) to avoid knocking things off the coffee table while they wrestled and raced around the living room. They really were quite agile, and we were able to successfully tell them to leave the Christmas tree alone. But the first night, before the party, we were not as successful. Ruby's tail managed to down two glasses of red wine onto the carpeting, before we adult humans caught on and watched our glasses carefully.

The Mean, Mean, Ruby Machine Teasing Poor Little Saxon

Poor little Saxon (Scott and Elizabeth's four month old Cockapoo), valiantly tried to hold his own with the older woman, (Ruby, 11 months). But Ruby is in training, and must perfect her skills of using Saxon to clean up spills in the kitchen. After all, every dog should have a job to do.



But now Saxon has gone back home to DC, leaving Ruby to pine away for him, and him for her.

And we are left to our own devices, celebrating the New Year in our usual fashion: watching Reno 911 episodes and a touch of the bubbly at midnight. Hello, 2012!