Crop Circles from the Drought

OK, so these aren’t like the REAL crop circles.  But when I went outside to fill the bird feeder and saw my front yard I couldn’t help but laugh.

 

So what really happened was that I chose the cheapest sprinkler that the store had and apparently the factory didn’t do a  lot of testing before they deemed worthy to sell.

There’s a nice green circle in the center where the sprinkler sat, which I’m assuming meant that the silly thing leaked water.  Surrounding the green circle is a nice ring of dead grass where no water at all landed.  Then it’s all wrapped up by a beautiful green circle around that where the water actually fell.

Then if you look closely at the top of the photo you’ll see the rest of the dead yard.  ~ sigh ~   Not a good year for grass around here.  And now I’m hoping that any aliens that fly by overhead will not misinterpret the crop circles as an invitation to land!!!

 

Consider the many special delights a lawn affords: soft mattress for a creeping baby;
worm hatchery for a robin; croquet or badminton court; baseball diamond; restful
green perspectives leading the eye to a background of flower beds, shrubs, or hedge;
green shadows - "This lawn, a carpet all alive/With shadows flung from leaves' - as
changing and as spellbinding as the waves of the sea, whether flecked with sunlight
under trees of light foliage, like elm and locust, or deep, dark, solid shade,
moving slowly as the tide, under maple and oak.  This carpet!
-   Katharine S. White, Onward and Upward in the Garden, 1979

Baby It’s Hot Outside….

I really wasn’t going to post about the impossible heat wave we’re having in North Texas, but….

I’m one of those silly people that really does like weather statistics.  When the news is on I’ll be the one shushing everybody so that I can hear what the weather guy is saying.

And right now they are all saying that we’re on track to be one of the hottest summers on record. My theory is that if it’s going to be really, really hot we might as well break a record and give ourselves something to high five over!

Today was Day 26 ….. 26 days in a row with over 100 degree temperatures.  We hit 106 yesterday.  That is just not right. 

Now the email pictures have started being forwarded and I find them very amusing.  Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

 

It’s so hot outside the ice cream trucks are melting!

 

Would this be considered the Dog Days of Summer?

 

Wax Color Love

My sister-in-law and I got to talking the other night about crayons. For many this might be a boring conversation, but we enjoyed it!  And it’s funny how all of us remember so distinctly the wonderful smell of the colored wax wonders.

 

This is how most of us started out – a box with a mere 24 crayons.  Good enough for most things, but no real inspiration.

 

Do you remember stepping up to the box of 48?  Enough color variation to really step out of the box and explore the world of color. 

 

But this bad boy, this was seriously the goal of all crayon lovers - the 64 count box.  Not only did it contain new colors, it also had the “Built-In Sharpener” for the first time!

 

Do you remember what your favorite color was?  And does anybody else have a sudden urge to go buy a fresh box of crayons and a coloring book??? 

At The Movies

We don’t go to the movies often anymore, but when we do it’s an event. Our favorite seats are, of course, right in the center and we’ve found that the first row of the upper section has a bar in front of it, perfect for putting our feet on. Because we prefer these seats we get there pretty early.

For Christmas this year my grandmother gave us a “dinner and a movie” package – gift card to Chili’s and cash to see a movie.  Side note here – have you been to a non-matinee movie lately? WOW – tickets are expensive!!! Anyway…a movie finally came out we wanted to see so we used our Christmas gift in March.

 

Since we were the only ones in the theater I thought it would be a great idea for us to take our picture and send to grandma in the thank you card.  And we got a little silly – well actually HE got a LOT silly. 

Oh, we saw the movie Unknown with Liam Neeson and I enjoyed it. Lots and lots and lots of action. Keith kind of rolled his eyes and said that too many things were predictable in it. BUT…I realized quite a while ago that really I am the perfect movie audience. I go in, sit down and never see anything coming. I’m like an irish setter – a new world every day! Therefore, I don’t really have a problem with predictable….

Christmas Cookie Time of Year

Even though Santa doesn’t visit our house anymore since the kids have grown up and moved out I still find myself thinking of cookies this time of year.

I keep thinking that I want to learn how to do cut-out cookies and the amazing icing that people are able to do.  One of the most gorgeous examples I’ve seen is at The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle – look at the cookie cookbook she’s giving away and then scroll a little farther down and be thoroughly in awe of the platter of cookies.

I’m feeling a bit lazy this year though, so I’m hoping that Santa might like one of the following:

 

And I keep going back to that blog and looking at her cookies.  Wonder how much weight I’d gain by trying to perfect my cookie making abilities???

Dad Life Video

I just got a link to this video from daughter-in-law and I thought it was great – and hope you do too.  It illustrates how we are a different kind of cool once we become parents.  :)

Hello Kitty Car Exhaust

Went out to lunch with friends and on the way out of the restaurant we saw this car. Who wouldn't take a picture of it as it is so stinkin' cute! But really, we've all seen Hello Kitty stickers on car back windows.


A closer look revealed the cutest thing - Hello Kitty exhaust pipes! This car absolutely had to belong to a girly girl for her to have even decorated this little detail.

I can think of two people I know that would go nuts over these. And I have to admit that even though I'm not one of the Hello Kitty obsessed, I do think this is just darling.

Wonder how Keith would feel if I put these on my truck???

Happy Computers Make For Happy Households

This will be one of my shortest, happiest posts ever - I've got a computer again! Just amazing how much I missed being able to get online. Equally amazing is how much I got done around here since I couldn't play on a computer - ahem.

Regardless, I'm all set up and now going to bed. I've been looking at my smiling keyboard and monitor for a while now (see their photo above???) and I'm a pooped puppy now.

And may all your pixels and gigabytes be happy ones.