Merry Christmas, Dude!

From the Blue Man Group and me! :)

Create Your Own Video

Deck the Halls and Happy Holidays too!

Hurray! I'm done for now!

I'm done with classes for this semester! Hurray and praise God! Okay, it was just one class, but hurray! I know I haven't posted in a long while, but I've been super busy. I hope to show some great pictures from Thanksgiving soon!

Pomegranates

My photos are blurry for this (it kept focusing on the leaves instead of on the flowers and fruit), but here are the hopeful pomegranate flowers and fruit in my backyard. The bush/tree is a pygmy, but it's getting pretty tall. It flowered earlier this year and all the blossoms fell off when it rained. This time they are here to stay and I can't wait to taste the fruit - YUM!

MPD?

Okay. It didn't occur to me until a bit after posting the Zzzzzzzz message about my dream bedroom from Ikea that I was just like the dude in fight club. Yikes. I hope my personalities are splitting yet! ;)

Riff Ram Bah Zoo - Give 'Em Hell - TCU!

Well, since this is MY random site, here's my post for today. It's a link to a Sports Illustrated article about TCU. I was surprised at how much I agreed with it.

Road to Respect

Here's an excerpt:
Yet if the Horned Frogs knock off the Longhorns this weekend, the story will undoubtedly be that of a "non-BCS" team "stunning" a "BCS" team, and how the victory might help little 'ol TCU "crash" one of the major bowls.

Never mind that the two schools played in the same conference for 72 years. Or that TCU, which opened its season last week with a 27-0 rout of Baylor, currently carries a longer winning streak against Big 12 teams (five games) than its Big 12 adversary. Or that the Horned Frogs' defense held Texas Tech's notoriously high-octane offense to 28 fewer points last year (in a 12-3 win) than did the 'Horns (35-31). Or that TCU has had nearly as many 10-win seasons this decade (five) as Texas (six).

Riff Ram Bah Zoo!

New banana babies

Alright. After giving one banana child away, three more have popped up! So, I now have six banana trees. The one on the very left is the third oldest baby, then the little one with the pretty light green leaf, then the little baby one just barely popping out of the ground is the newest addition. They are loving that we have rain again. Of course, so am I. So much less watering.

I don't know how long these will last, but last year they were alive until November or December, I think. A good frost or ice forces them into hibernation until early spring!

Rain Lily and other Blooms

Here's my rain lily - finally! This thing does not bloom often, but it has bloomed three times, that I know of, in my yard! This is one of my favorite blooms, although I didn't think it bloomed in the summer time. Also, it doesn't usually bloom when we haven't had rain - I've been watering, but in the past that hasn't done the trick. Anyway, if you click on the picture to make it super big you can see the little insects staring at it in amazement! ;)

Also, this other one is my Autumn Joy Sedum which is starting to bloom already. I'll try to take pictures of it when it turns to this gorgeous dark magenta color.

Spider Babies!

Okay, you can't see them, but they are in there. This is the sack of babies that appeared after Taxi the Spider Guard Mom went back to her normal size. I don't know where she is now, but I'm pretty sure this is hers.

It's hanging between the overhang of the sunroom and the west side window of Mom's bedroom. When I told her that a spider lived between her windows, she was not happy. I told her that she should be since they eat so many insects!

Here's a link to the kind of spider this is: http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/spiders_scorpion/garden.cfm.

Argiope aurantia also known as the yellow spider or the writing spider.

I should have taken a picture of Taxi yesterday when I saw her. Yes, it is a her. She was HUGE yesterday. Today she is back to normal size. I don't know who the daddy is, but there's a enormous sack of eggs hanging towards the top of the house.

I need to get that camera out more often to show fun things like that. Taxi the Spider Guard is investing in next year's Spider Guard. We'll see where they live next year!

Zzzzzzzz

This is usually not my style (except for the green and orange lights/wall), but I really like this bedroom. I don't have room to pull this off right now, but I just thought I'd share it here in case someday I do have room to pull it off.

This, of course, is from the greatness of Ikea (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/rooms/bedroom/). A friend turned me on to them years ago and now that we have one less than 60 miles away from here - woo hoo! Most who know me, know this is one of my favorite stores and I really like their style. Much of my house is furnished by them.

Maybe someday .... :)

Just call me Grace ...

As Mom and I were coming out of a restaurant today, I decided, after getting Mom into the car to not watch where I was going. I walked around the front of the car and did not see the little concrete thing that stops the car from hitting the restaurant. So, I tripped over it hard enough to go flying and hit the pavement. It was a sight to see. Mom didn't see it all. She only wondered where I went. Ha! I'm sure some in the restaurant saw me, but thankfully we had already eaten and would not venture back in there. I laid on the ground for a few seconds laughing at myself, like I tend to do when something hurts on me. Then I got up and told Mom what happened (and this is when she asked where I went .... lol). I am sure I didn't break anything, but I'll have a nice bruise on my shin. I think all those years of learning how to fall in soccer has helped me ... I rolled with this like nobody's business.

My newest place to shop

Cowtown Farmers' Market is my new favorite place to shop. They have great produce and the best doggie treats ever. If you are in FW on a Wednesday or Saturday morning, you need to check out this little gathering to see what's fresh!

http://www.simplyfreshfw.com/simplyfreshfw/

Comparision Pictures

Here are my bananas from the spring. They came up like this around May. You can also see the fountain grass behind it. I added that because I knew it would get tall and add some height to that corner.

The two banana trees there are little and I was thinking about taking one out and taking it to Tiff, but the nursery guy said wait until June 1 before splitting them.





I let them grow and I'm sure all that rain we had helped, but this is what they looked like last month. You can again see the fountain grass in the back.

I need to take more recent photos because now there are three main trees with two new babies popping up. Also, the three main ones all have pink flowers/bananas now. It's crazy! They are everywhere and it hasn't been raining like it had before.

I hope I'm able to split some of the babies and give them away or move them to a different part of the yard.

H U R R A Y ! ! ! ! ! !

This summer semester is done! I turned in my last assignment very very early Wednesday morning and took my two finals (okay, one was really just a quiz) today. This semester (only 10 weeks) felt longer than the spring semester. Go figure!

Now, I have two weeks before I start another class and have kids at work. I'm glad I get a little break.

Mas Musica - pandora.com

If you have a certain song that you like and want to find more like it, check out www.pandora.com. You can go there and put in any song or artist and they will play similar songs to what you like. It's pretty cool and if you're looking for new music, it's the way to go.

Right now, I have a Jack Johnson channel going. So far they've played Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, and Dan Reeder. This is the mellow stuff. I'm hoping it will pick up. Okay, I decided to give up on that and try G. Love. So now I have a G. Love station playing music. The great thing is, though, if I want to go back to the other stations I created (Jack Johnson station, Bubble Toes station, etc.) they are still there and I can just click back there if I want.

Yahoo's music has radio stations that do a similar thing to pandora.com, if you're not happy with pandora's results.

Andy Hunter

Moving away from football just a bit and talkin' music (my first Jack Johnson CD is on it's way via USPS, btw!) for a bit.

For those of you who have never heard of him, I'd like to introduce you to Andy Hunter.



His music is fun and energetic. I first heard him on the TV show Alias, but had no idea who he was. Then I heard him on Sirius radio and checked him out. I got two of his CDs and love them both. Since then I've heard his music on ABC promos on the radio. Anyway, check it out if you're looking for new music!

Fantasy Football Names - brainstorming

So far I have:

Real Men of Genius
JJAbram'sUnamedMonster (too long)
AMonster2BNamedL8r
Slusho-nators

That's all I got right now.

Am I a Sucker?

First of all, yes, I went to see Transformers. I didn't want to go, but I went and actually liked the movie.

More importantly, I saw the genius trailer by J.J. Abrams about his upcoming movie. He didn't name it, but just had the date. I didn't think about it immediately, but he was starting a viral marketing campaign. So, now I'm interested in finding out about the movie ... of course, it's J.J. Abrams, so I'm automatically interested. Anyway, I'm suckered in with all the other internet geeks out there. Cloverfield is the working name of the movie, but it's easier to find by the date: 1/18/08.

Here's the latest from nightowl3090 on their theory:



Here are some of the web sites that relate to the movie:
http://www.1-18-08.com/
http://www.slusho.jp/

Now, this one is new, but I'm not sure it's from J.J. Abrams and his peeps or not:
http://www.slushozoom.com

Here's where you can see the official trailer for the movie:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/

Now, keep in mind that J.J. Abrams tried this viral marketing thing with Alias. I don't know if he made it too hard or people just got tired, but I don't think it continued after the first season or so. I also heard that he did this sort of internet puzzle/scavenger hunt with Lost, but never saw any of the sites myself. You think he did this for Felicity? ;)

Fuzzy Pink Bananas and more ... FINALLY!

Well, I finally charged the ol' batteries and took pictures of the fuzzy pink bananas so I could share them with you. I also have some other pictures as well.














Close up of those cute little bananas.

























Now, here's a moth from the front of my house and a bad picture of a bug I saw at my friend, Tiff's, house. Anyone know what it is? I've never seen one like it before:

Fantasy Football

Alright, it's time for Fantasy Football. This will be my ninth year of playing with the same group. We don't play for money, but for something far more important ... bragging rights. Something very important to me is coming up with a clever team name. I'll give you some of the names my team has had in the past:

Nemesis
TheAntiCowboyFaction
Bend it Like Zee Zee
BoomGoesTheDynamite
and last year's genius team name .... MamaSaidKnockYouOUT

Well, I don't have a name yet this year. I wanted to create my team so I went with APlayerToBeNamedL8r for now.

Right now I'm open to suggestions of what my team name will be. I am not promising that I will use your suggestion because I'm so picky, but I will definitely consider them. :)

p.s. The Fighting Michael Vicks is already taken, so that and Ron Mexico are already not a choice ... dang it, I wish I would have thought of that!

I love summer!

Especially when you can get fresh fruit for yummy desserts. Something about fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries that just makes my tummy smile.

Honestly, this was not even for myself; this was Mom's. I made hers look much prettier than mine.

Van Gogh

I really like this painting. I think it's amazing and I love the colors. I think I'll show case it in the new butter yellow bedroom. That bedroom has made a 180! I used to have white primer walls with pepto bismol pink trim. Oh yeah, the vent cover was painted baby blue. I thought whoever had owned this house before was just making a kiddie room, but under the pink trim was baby blue trim. Yikes. Anyway, the room is now a beautiful butter yellow with white trim and I think this painting (I just have the print of this don't ya know) will look great in there. That and I just love Van Gogh's work and his story. It's a sad one, but one I can relate to.

My first glue book

I kept meaning to take this to our fine arts group to show the last two times and kept forgetting. So, I'm posting it here. I have changed one thing on the cover, but other than that, this is what it looks like! I put the images in order. The last one is the back cover and it has the table of contents on it. I had fun doing this one and will probably attempt more. I have finished one little one, in addition to this one, but it hasn't made it's public appearance yet!

This is not where I heard about gluebooks, but here's a site that talks about them: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gluebooks/.

Here's another site about gluebooks:
http://alteredsilver.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/02/13/infogb.html.

If anyone wants the original instructions I received, just let me know and I'll email 'em to ya. I have them in pdf form and they have pictures and everything! Thanks to Jef for the pdf!

More stuff from the yard

These first three are my lantanas in the front yard. I have three different varieties. The lavender one is always the first to come back, but the last to flower. The orange and red were the first to flower and then the pink finally came in. The lavender one actually has lived through the winter in the past. All are returning from last year (or longer - lavender). They are fuller than ever this year - I love them!








This is one of my daisies. They never die down, but only flower in the summer. The banana trees are left from last year also. I started with one and have four now. It's hard to see, but if you look in the middle of the big one it's about to have bananas. Now, these are not bananas that you can eat (they are pink fuzzy ones), but they are pretty! I need to get busy and dig one of these up for Tiffany! If you look behind the banana plants you can see this year's addition of purple fountain grass. I bought it for height and texture - not thinking my banana plants would be just as big as the grass! The bananas die after a freeze and come back when it warms up. I love 'em!






This is a picture of a couple of my jalepenos. They seem to be doing fine. I thought they were so cute that I took a picture of them. :)

This is my backyard protector - spiderguard. This is my attempt to get a better picture of him than a few days ago. I had one just like him/her last year down by my huge tomato plant (the tomato plant that grew huge and gave me no tomatoes :( ... what's up with that?). This year - son of the spiderguard has moved up by the house. He lives above the daisies and in the forsythia plant. I leave him be because he was so good to me last year - even fed him a hornworm that was trying to eat my gigantic tomato plant. Anyway, I like him and should name him. Any suggestions anyone?

I'm a Cougar

Okay, it is official. I'm a Cougar. I got a new job in Burleson at one of their middle schools! I've been a Hornet for so long I am not sure how it will feel to be a Cougar, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

I had my benefits meeting yesterday and took, what quite possibly could be, the worst ID badge photo every. I'm not going to cry about it like Jen on Big Brother, but I am thinking about losing it. ;)

I'm still taking my grad school classes and hopefully will be able to move into a library position next year or so! Hurray!

Yesterday's Backyard Finds

Here are just a few things that I photographed in my backyard yesterday.