Not sure how the old posting on this topic got lost but it did somehow. Please join me at my new home . . . It's Just Me.

I forgot to get a Mega Millions ticket yesterday. I hear that two people won the $370 million. We bought one when it was $256 million. I think a dollar for a dream is a bargain. Greg and I talked a little bit about what we would do. We've played this game so often that we don't even need to talk about what we'd do for US -- we found ourselves talking about what we'd do for others. Getting our sisters established in their own homes. Making sure that our parents were retired in comfort. Setting up a foundation for public education for the schools in our community. Funding the pipe dream real estate project for a friend that we believe in and have helped with his project for 3 years. Heck, that would barely put a dent in it. Fun to dream about what we'd do if money truly were no object! (Which is not to say that I don't have deep, dark fears about what that sort of money would do to me and my offspring as well.)

I forgot to watch American Idol last night. AHHHHH! Greg is out of town and my whole schedule is out-of-whack. I don't sleep well when he's away. Both kids are sick anyway so I wouldn't have wanted them staying up late. I avoid the mainstream media for the most part so it was news to me that Antonella Barba has some trashy pictures circulating the internet. I have to say in all the hype that I read last night, I kept thinking about her parents and how sad they must be to see their daughter selling herself so cheaply by allowing pictures like that to exist. I don't think the girl can sing well enough and I don't think she should still be on the show but I feel really badly for her parents. Also, in the course of my late night surfing, I stumbled onto the existence of a website called Vote for the Worst. They pick the one or two singers they think are the worst on AI and encourage people to vote for them to up the drama on the show. Antonella is their pick right now. All that aside, I didn't care for her attitude. It seems very clear -- from the way she interacts with the judges -- that she thinks she's doing just great and doesn't need to do anything different. Now, maybe that's a brave front and I'm misjudging her (remember that I haven't seen last night's show -- yay for TiVO) but add all this together and she is not someone that I care to watch much more of this season.

Blogger vs. WordPress. In my avoidance of work, surfing the internet to avoid missing my husband, blur last night, I decided to play with WordPress and see what I thought of it. I kind of like it. There are a few features that I like a lot better than Blogger. The most important to me is the ability to see your recent comments -- I'm forever stumbling back through posts to see if I missed any comments -- but I didn't like getting emailed everytime I got a comment either. So, that's a big one for me that would be useful. I'm impressed with how easy it was to set up and import all my old blogger posts. I think I could even import my really old posts from back when I used TypePad with no difficulty which would include my really, really old Blogger posts and give a complete history back for several years. That would be nice -- just for me, not for anyone else, probably. Anyway, my question is this . . . what do you like about the platform you are using? What do you like or dislike about reading blogs on the other platform?

Oh, and you can see what I've done so far -- should you have nothing better to do:

Egret's Nest
Chickadee Chatter

Quick child update . . . Gage is responding well to the antibiotics -- yay! Ruthie's cough is getting worse -- boo! And, I woke up with one eye gummed shut this morning -- boo! I hope we can hang on to some semblance of health well enough to get through this week. Fingers crossed!

Quick Birthday Report and then it's "all Ruby; all the time."

It's a good thing my day on Sunday was wonderful because Monday wasn't that great a birthday. The kids woke up in foul moods (okay, okay, they are both sick but still . . . ). Gage has an ear infection and was one miserable kid. Ruth just didn't want to go to school and I was gonna pay for it. Sigh. My scale was not kind to me (subject for another post). No one wished my happy birthday until I was already wracked with Mommy-Guilt about Gage's ear and how much trouble it was going to be for him to stay home go to the doctor. Sigh. But things got better once I was at work. They know how to party at a school. Half-the-staff (only a slight exaggeration) are Pisces and so we had a lot of birthdays smashed together to celebrate but they picked Monday to celebrate so I got to feel a little extra special. Singing. Cake. Lots of well-wishing. Being told I was too young to complain about my age. That's all it takes! :) Even my 4th grade math class sang to me -- so sweet! Met Greg and Gage at the doctor's office. We're treating the ear with OTC but I have a prescription if I need it. Greg had to go run his errands after school so off he went. He suggested chinese food so I didn't have to cook which was FINE with me. We had a nice chinese dinner in front of TV. And then I got Greg packed for his trip (he leaves today for Boston) and then I got very indulgent and played computer games (we're setting up an older Mac for the kids with a bunch of fun, older games that they are finally old enough to play). At around midnight, Gage came in with a sore ear again -- bad enough to wake him up. Meds, meds, meds and a round of sitting on Mom's lap before he could get to sleep again. I'm going to fill the prescription today. Poor kidlet.

Now, on to Ruby.


Ruby is such a delight. Here's what I like about her and her breed.

• She's mellow around the house. Her favorite thing to do is curl up in a ball on your lap. Woe be unto those who disturb her princess-ness, baleful glances will come your way.
• She's playful. She's feeling comfy at our house now and with the kids and she is playful and silly. She LOVES balls. We got her a teeny-tiny tennis ball and she loves to chase it around the house. Ruth played with her for a good 1/2 hour last night and they both had a blast.
  
• She's naughty! She can. not. stop. getting. tissues. out. of. the. trash. But when caught, she immediately rolls over submissively and shows her belly, all but whimpering how wrong she is -- but five minutes later, back in the trash again. Naughty thing!
  
• She's finally chillin' about the kids. Kids scared her but she's gotten used to mine now. Hey, they scare me sometimes too! :) She'll still chose Greg or me to sit with first but if we tell her no thanks, she'll go jump up with Ruthie as a distant third -- two weeks ago, that would have been impossible.
  
• She's hell on squirrels. I have four of the fattest, sassiest squirrels you've ever seen. They plant themselves on my feeders and chow down. They eat SO much and then cart even more off and bury it. They keep the birds away. They'll rip feeders down and destroy them. Rotten little hoodlums. But no more. Ruby is on the job. It's amazing. She watches for them. She's absolutely silent on the hunt. Thankfully, they always have a 5 or more foot head start on her because she gets so close to catching them. She is absolutely serious about these squirrels. Instincts are amazing and powerful.
  
• Oh, yea, and she's really cute and she loves to give kisses!
  

This morning, Greg asked me what I wanted to do about my birthday. His gift to me is still my camera! :) But he wanted to help the kids get something for me. My mind was still on the painting I did yesterday and I suggested getting the wine barrels set up. So, we did.

Of course, the kids had to tell me that they were going to give me some stinky, old, used socks for my birthday first. Aren't I raising little angels?

We went off together -- all of us, including Ruby. In one of the nearby towns, there is a nursery that sells wine barrels -- 2 for $40. I have been coveting them for years. Well, today was my day. We got two barrels, three big bags of soil, and some geraniums.


The barrels are real wine barrels -- the ones we got had red wine in them. They are fresh from the winery and just cut in half. That's it. So, there is still a strong red wine smell to them and they are full of mold and mildew that's been growing on them. But they are huge and beautiful. When we got home, Greg moved them to the backyard and I hosed them out and then bleached them and hosed them out again. They looked great but I must say the aroma of red wine and bleach is an interesting one.


The next step was drilling holes in the bottom of the barrels for drainage. Needless to say, I called on my big, strong, burly, manly men and told them to bring power tools. They came running!

Next, I filled them with the soil and called the kids to help me plant. We dug and planted the beautiful little geraniums (really pelargoniums rather than scented geraniums) and watered them in.

So, I'm checking the responses to my latest poems on Chickadee Chatter and a woman writes that she thinks I'll like her latest painting . . . it's of a chickadee. And, I do like it, don't you? Her blog -- Momma Pajama -- is in my Bird Blog roll now. Her other bird paintings were just as charming!

I had a good day today. We did a lot of nothing much and I got a few projects done. The first one was to paint the ugly shed in the backyard.

Before:


After:


Thankfully, this was only phase one of beautifying this ugly shed. Phase two will be to get some wine barrels and some climbing guides and plant something pretty and climbing to hide most of it. The green is just to be a better backdrop than the ugly faded beige was. I hate spray painting though. It gets everywhere. Blech.

Still, it feels good to get a project done! The other one was somewhat less satisfying . . . we went shopping for some new pants for Greg. He's going on a business trip on Tuesday and I realized that he really doesn't have what he needs clothing-wise. We had fun though -- it's so nice doing trips like this with the kids now that they are older. When they were little we always had to plan around naps and moods and take strollers and diaper bags and . . . ahhhhh! I'm so over that now!

So, a quiet Saturday. I saw some great birds in the backyard -- nothing special just noisy, silly Chickadees, brave Juncos, California Towhees, and a Pygmy Nuthatch. So cute!