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Sunday, January 28, 2007

JANUARY AT JUDE'S

When I came back from my doctor's appointment the other day, I decided to grab my camera and wander around the yard for some more snow shots. We've had a lot of melting but there was so much snow that it'll take a loooooong warm spring to make it all disappear.

There hasn't been a nice fresh snowfall recently, and you can see that in the teeny bits of dirt melting into the snow.




There are many places where you can see the layers from the different snowfalls we have had so far this winter:








And there are areas where the previous day's warm, steady sun left evidence of melting. This first one is a mound of snow underneath the garage's eavestroughing, where the melt was pouring off into this pile and leaving a splash pattern:








And still other hidden treasures were starting to peek through some melting snow:








It won't be long now, as the worst of winter here is pretty much over in another month. Come March we still could get some snow like we did last year, but the temperatures being warmer then keep it melted anyway. But for the time being, we can still see last year's foliage in bits and pieces in our wintry back yard.







As for the doctor's appointment, it is for my annual cholesterol check. As normal, he gives me a lab form and I take it to a lab for some bloodletting blood tests to check my count. So far the Lipitor has helped tremendously, I've been on it now for I guess about 5 years. This year though, he is also checking for something else, as I've had constant pain in some of my joints. He's ruling out things like arthritis with the same blood and urine tests. I should hear back mid week so we'll see.

This afternoon I attended a baby shower with a bunch of girlfriends. My friend Vicky had her first baby several weeks ago, a beautiful little girl named Emma Victoria. She won't have to buy clothes for Emma for some time judging by the gifts today! Vic I'm so proud of you, she is as beautiful as you are. (((hugs)))

Well peepses another weekend just bit the dust and it's back to the grind tomorrow. I have to work an extra day this week, so I won't have a day off until Friday, which is when my cable company is coming out to look at my internet connection problem. It takes me sometimes a half day just to get the connection up and running, and it might stay connected for a couple of hours. Like now, which is why I wanted to get this blog post in while I could! If you don't see me around much it's because of that.

Have a great week everyone, take good care of each other!

PEACE OUT!
Love Jude

Thursday, January 25, 2007

3 THINGS!

1. Guess what Saturday is???



To a young woman who has had one awfully trying and difficult past year, my wishes for my friend LEXY are to have a year of fun, inner peace, fun, blessings, and did I say FUN???? Please go on over and wish this really groovy chick a good one. Tell her that her pain in the ass "big sister" sent you!

HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS Lexy!! Hope you have one awesome Saturday, you surely do deserve it. (and I hope Major A has you spoiled rotten through it all too!) *wink*



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2. Putting your music skills to the test here, as fellow blogger and all round great guy BILL has a minute-long or so piece of pretty music playing on his blog, trying to see if he can find out what song this song ending belongs to. Please pop over and see if you recognize it, and solve the mystery! Thankew.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



1. A terrific lady and blogger friend FAT LADY SINGS has just tagged me to do this "Arts Meme". Well, I'm not at all the "artsy" type, but I do read books and watch some movies so what the heck, huh?

1. Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving copies away:
The only books I've given away time and time again are books on grieving, ones that I had for myself after my late hubby passed away. Since then, my life path keeps bringing me people who are going through the process, and I have over the last 11 years given almost every single one of those books away. HOWEVER, as far as a book that I read over and over again, that's easy! It's a set of books by Jean Aurel, "Clan of the Cave Bear". There are 5 books in the set, her most recent one was released maybe a couple of years ago. I have read that set about 4 times now and each time it takes me body and soul into another world; a world of the past. I'm probably due to read them all again soon!

Another book that was given to me back when I needed it so badly, was "Illuminata" by Marianne Williamson. A book about praying, about how to ask for what we need. Well written and it sits by my chair all dog eared and loved like an old friend.

2. Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music:
Wow, this is a loaded question. Firstly, I'd have to be honest and say that to answer the question literally, my answer would be this:

Back when I was a kid of 11 or 12 and my older sister Linda was a year older than that, what was on the radio then were songs like "Going To The Chapel" and all of the folk songs that singers like Peter Paul and Mary sang. Linda and I were in the kitchen after supper one night doing the dishes with the radio playing on top of the fridge. Suddenly, this SONG came on the radio, belting out a completely different kind of music than we (or the whole WORLD) had ever heard before. We stopped what we were doing, stared at each other, smiled a lot, and heard for the very first time, a song by The Beatles. It was "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Tame by today's standards, yes. But holy mamma how it sounded so damn cool from anything else that was being played! From that moment on, we became huge Beatles fans and listened intently to the world of music, including all of the other English bands that started up immediately with "a sound" so similar. It was the beginning of a new era of Rock.

The biggest ever impression that music ever played in my life though (my first example would be the second biggest, really) is a very long story but suffice it to say that when I first started listening to Def Leppard it was a time when music hurt to listen to, and I was hurting beyond belief. Listening to their great songs, their unique and wonderful sound and learning about the tenacity through hard times that the band has, gave me hope and healing. I'm not kidding. I got more healing from listening day and night to that band. I fell in love with them and they've been my favourite since.

3. Name a film you can watch again and again:
Oh there are a few of those! First let me clarify that I hardly ever purchase movies. I see them once and enjoy them, but I never usually feel the need to buy them so I can see them again and again. But there are a few exceptions to that rule for me:

One of the BEST roles I've seen one of my favourite actors in. John Travolta, playing "Michael", the archangel. It is HILARIOUS, sad and entertaining all at once, and I think a superb performance.

I have a few others, the "Bridgette Jones" movies with Renee Zellweger; the trio of her, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth is amazingly funny.

"The Glenn Miller Story", starring James Stewart and June Allyson. I LOVE the Glenn Miller big band sound, and this movie depicts his early years as a musician to the end when he lost his life. The music is GREAT in this movie, and so is the acting.

"Grumpy Old Men", and "Grumpier Old Men" just had me rolling on the floor. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon were the perfect team for these movies. And Burgess Meredith as the elderly father was just icing on the cake! Many hours of entertainment there, and I've seen both movies a few times at least.

And how can I not include Captain Jack Sparrow and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies??? Yes, imo Johnny Depp is one extremely handsome dude with those smoky dark looks and that smile..... but even with that aside, these are FUNNY movies, well done and excellent entertaining. I LOVE Captain Jack, he literally keeps me in stitches!

4. Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief:
I'm not quite sure what this question means literally, but my take on it is who is a performer that makes me "believe" his parts are real. One actor who does that for me (there are actually a few: Shirley MacLean, Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson and Jimmy Stewart) would be Nicholas Cage. I can't say I've ever seen one of his movies where I didn't completely forget he was just a guy "acting" a part!

5. Name a work of art you would like to live with:
Oh dear, here is where my lack of knowledge of the World of Art comes to the surface. I don't honestly know any works of art other than the usual Mona Lisa types. If I see something I like and it's inexpensive, it adorns my walls. Sorry! LOL

6. Name a work of fiction that penetrated your real life:
"The Excorcist" back in ....... was it 1971?? I went to the movie, had no problem, laughed at some of the antics like the revolving head and the green pea soup vomit. Then I went home. Hubby worked shift work and for the first week he was on graveyard shifts. Which meant I had to sleep alone. I was TERRIFIED. Scary movies don't always bother me much, I just don't normally watch too many of them because they don't really interest me. But this one got to me in my extreme naive youth, because a couple of Catholic friends talking about this movie told me that it really can happen. Well that did it for me! I figured if I was alone in our apartment I must have been bait for some evil spirit to possess me. LOL Remember now, I said this was in my extreme naive youth. Today it wouldn't do that to me, with my knowledge and experience. I sure was terrified for a few months back then, though.

7. Name a punch line and/or a sight gag that always make you laugh:
Easy!! Watching Captain Jack Sparrow walking or running like a girl. He does it so well and it cracks me up so I almost pee myself!! What a great actor!

I know there are plenty of others, but I can't think of them on the spot. I have a great funny bone and love to laugh though, I've been entertained so much with comedy.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


I'm not going to tag anyone, but it would be great to read others' take on these so go for it!

I've been fortunate in that my internet connection has been staying "up" for longer periods of time today SO FAR. It takes forever to get it though, when I turn this puppy on. Thankfully I got this entire post done in one sitting. I'm not going to push my luck, I'll leave it at this and say "see ya" for now.

Happy Birthday Lexy!

Take good care of each other and until next time...........

PEACE OUT!
Love Jude

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

COMPUTER WOES!

Howdy all, just wanted to get a quick post in to let you know I MAY be scarce on the net for the next 10 days.......... or at least sporadically within that time. My internet connection keeps going on me and they can't come out to fix it for another 10 effing DAYS! Right now, with the help of my dear sister Pammie, we've managed to get it running for the last 10 minutes. I'm hoping it'll stay all evening but who knows?

Going to take advantage of this "up" time to do some catching up. Hope it works for awhile now. Take care of each other!

PEACE OUT!
Love Jude

Sunday, January 21, 2007

STILL HANGIN' IN THERE!

Although we've been having mild temperatures, we've only lost some of that gorgeous snow drift that's been hanging off the roof at the front of the house.



The 2 ends have fallen off days ago, one right onto the top of the porch over the front door:




....and the other end onto the ground in front of the sidewalk:







We're slowly losing our snow "awning", but for now when you look straight out the living room window it's still there. In the 14 years I've lived in this house this is the first time this ever happened. In any of the blizzards we had.



It's turned out to be a hellish week for sleep, I never get enough sleep on my workdays anyway but it's on my days off that I can catch up. (sleeping in after hubby has got up at 4:30 a.m. for work, and a nap or two during my days off) This week, I did manage to get a couple of naps, but at night it's been horrible. I just can't get to sleep for the tossing and turning or snoring. BLEH. So I'm going to be starting out this work week already tired. I'm praying for a lottery win so that we can buy a home that has another bedroom! Who says you can't still cuddle "etc.", but SLEEP in different rooms. Man I wish. In the meantime, this is one tired Hippie Chick.

I have my yearly doctor's appointment coming up probably this week (still have to phone tomorrow to make the appointment) for my trip to the lab for blood letting blood tests for cholesterol. My joints have been aching so much of late that I'm going to talk to him about that too. Getting old + mentalpause = body falling apart. LOL

Speaking of acquiring new blogskins, our friend BILL is deciding what to make for his too. There are some pics he posted to try to choose from, kinda like a "vote". Go on over and vote!

Today sister Pammie and I are off for the grocery run. Anyone need anything? I hope you all have a good week, take good care of each other and until next time.....

PEACE OUT!
Love Jude

Friday, January 19, 2007

NEW HEADER PICTURE

I found something else that blew me away, and I had to make a new header pic. I think it's beautiful, and so much more elegant. (Not that I'm all that elegant, pffttt!! LOL) But I think this picture speaks volumes.

I tweaked lots last night and because of that I'm getting to bed awfully late, but it feels good to have it pretty much done the way I want it now.

I got rid of those nasty, evil underlines on all of my links.
I got the date to show up, that took some tweaking let me tell you.
I got a slightly better Haloscan template too. It's not as nice as the coffee one I used to have but until there is something that cool show up again something like the one I have now will suffice.

There are a couple more little things but they're not glaring so I can work away at them in time.

I'm happy. And I'm tired. G'night all!

PEACE OUT!
Love Jude

Thursday, January 18, 2007

SURPRISE!

**EDITED**


Kate did it. Tracey did it. I felt the need to do it too, after looking through gazillions of blog skins for Kate and Tracey.

Finally got Haloscan in, took me a bit to figure it out in this fussy template but it's done!

So......?? Whaddya think? Different for me huh? I've never been overly fond of black backgrounds but I thought it was time for a change and I like what I created at the top with this one. I have some more tweaking to do, and I'll be back!

**********************
**EDIT**

So I had to get rid of my old Haloscan template, the background pic in that template (remember the coffee cups?) seems to be no longer hosted by either the owner or by Haloscan... whoever it is that hosts those skins. I picked another one for now and unless I find something I like better it'll do.

I SO want to learn one day how to make my own blogskins. (and make 'em for friends at their requests) I know enough html coding to make basic changes to an existing skin but not near enough to make a skin from scratch. I would also need programs that I don't have.
So, what I looked for was a simple black skin ~ ONE scroll bar that moves the entire blog ~ black background, and not too hard on the eyes. I found this one.

Then........ I worked at getting my own flavour of picture at the top and my own wording beside it. I knew what I wanted more or less, just had to make it. So that's what I've been up to for the last several days.

This skin DOES have 2 issues I'm trying to figure out though. It won't post the blog post DATE..... the coding is in there exactly as it should be, but it won't work. I'll have to keep working on that, in the meantime I can type in the date myself.

The other issue is all those damn underlines in the links! Bleh! LOL Another thing I'll have to keep working on. But for the time being it's almost the way I want it now.

Who knows? I might find a picture for the top that I like better...... or I still might change the coding on my subtitles to my own liking. We'll see. **grins**

PEACE OUT!
Love Jude

Sunday, January 14, 2007

***********************
CHILLIN' OUT AT THE HIPPIE CHICK'S HOUSE TONIGHT

Another weekend done and gone. How come 2 weekend days go by just as fast as a blink of an eye? What's up wid dat?

It was another gorgeously pretty and sunny winter day today. Blue, BLUE sky and sunshine beating down on us. It is still c.o.l.d. though, but the temperature is going to warm up to 30F tomorrow. *grins* It'll be downright balmy!

As the sun lowered in the sky late this afternoon I was pondering what to make for dinner with some of the groceries I had bought today.




And I thought, Chili! So I made a batch:



With some big-ass fresh bakery croissants, mmmmm.



And even though I don't make my chili spicy, or at least not spicy to ME as I can't stand it, it still has enough chili powder in it to necessitate a very tall cold glass of this:



You know, to put out that "mild" fire in my mouth.


Well now I have to go clean up my kitchen and settle in for the night out here in the west of Canada, while Lexy has an orgasmic experience watching her fav show tonight out in the east of Canada. Hee Hee

It's a pretty sunset kinda night, too!




Yup, most of that snowdrift is still hanging off the roof! Goodnight all, I hope you're having a chillin' evening too. Have a great week and don't forget to take good care of each other.....

PEACE!
Love Jude

Thursday, January 11, 2007

************************
IT'S ALL MY FAULT

After my blog post bragging about a long stretch of mild, beautiful winter weather here, yesterday we got a blizzard, which means LOTS more snow and high winds which were gusting to around 40 mph. The temperatures dropped, and we're in the deep freeze again! So Albertans, you can blame it on me..... sorry! (yep, it's all about ME) LOL

I went out less than an hour ago to take some shots and a video, and the thermometer out back read this:


With the wind chill out there, it's about -30F.

It's a pretty, sunny day today, just cold.






I took a video, you can hear the snow crunching under my winter snowboots. (for those of you who have problems seeing these videos, try clicking on the link underneath the image instead):


OR CLICK HERE INSTEAD: Snow, Anyone? It's doing strange things today so if you do get through to this link, you may still have to click on the image it gives you to make it play....Sheesh.

With the winds we had, the snowfall was drifting something fierce. You cannot really tell how awesome this looks (especially from inside the house) but the snow drift on the front of the house is just hanging down precariously and looks so beautiful.





From inside:

From the left side (bedroom window), the little snow mound you see on the bottom is the little porch roof over the front door....


From the right side (living room window):







Hubby spent hours after work yesterday shovelling the stuff.

Out back:


And front:





(Our poor bunny has been back through the night looking for food. She has already eaten all the dead leaves off the little bushes though.)


The frosty outer screen door at the back:


Sun on the snow, so damn pretty!


Well I'm going to snuggle into my warm comfy bed for an afternoon nap. Have a great day everyone, and take good care of each other....

PEACE!
Love Jude

Sunday, January 07, 2007

***********************
ANTICLIMAX

Is it just me, or does anyone else always find the post-Christmas/New Year's celebrations kinda.......dull? Once it's all over with and all there are is January/February on the horizon, I always feel like there's nothing to look forward to. Spring? Well that's okay but it always reminds me of hot weather coming and that sucks. LOL

Today is Ukranian Christmas, and being of Ukranian descent it gives me a good reason not to have to take down my tree until AFTER today. Seeing as tomorrow is a work day though, it will wait until my first days off this coming week, so I'll do the yearly dreaded deed on Thursday or Friday coming up.

Taking down the tree always bums me out.

After working so many extra days since October, it's sure a relief to be back to my normal 3 day weeks. I tell you I sure could be a homebody. The only way that's going to happen though, is if I win the lottery. So as I do every Sunday I'll be checking my lottery tickets today while buying a new one. *sigh*

Not much to report. The weather here has been SO damn nice. With the exception of the short-lived freezing cold spell we had a couple of months ago, I've loved the winter here so far. It's really great to get snow AND mild temperatures all at the same time. Where else but Canada huh? LOVE IT! You just never know what you're going to get here. Out east, Lexy is still snow-less in Ontario. On our west coast, they've been pounded with high damaging winds and rain for what seems like forever. I seem to be nestled into this nice little pocket east of the Rockies where we have snow and mild temperatures to boot.



We've hardly really had many cloudy days of late, and that sunny Alberta Blue sky has been so predominate it's a blessing.




Waking up to this almost every morning is nice.....




And evenings like this.......



Hmmmmm now having said all that I feel the great need to go around the house knocking on wood! LOL

*****EDIT!!******
Hah!!

No sooner said....... LOL

Anyway heading out for groceries in an hour or so, so I'd best get my cup of coffee into me and get ready to go. I hope you all have a good week, take care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

*****************
WINTER GRAVEYARD PHOTO SHOOT

It's taken me a few days to get this post up but finally you can check out the pictures that go along with the video in the post from New Years below this one.


We set out on this shoot to capture the snow, and the light and shadow that is so beautiful on the sparkling white. The pine needles and animal and bird tracks everywhere were gorgeous, and we tried to be careful not to make any new footprints but where we were able, to only walk in ones other's had made before us.

There were 2 new burials in the section we were in that day, and several graves where Christmas trees and wreaths had been placed.

Ripples


Peaceful


Bunny Posing



Rose In The Snow



You can view the rest at VISION QUEST.

I hope you enjoy!

So the holidays are over and we're all back to work. What a let down! LOL I hope this new year will be better for all of us. Take care of each other, and until next time......

PEACE!
Love Jude