HAPPY (EARLY) BIRTHDAY BRYDE!!

I know that Bryde's b-day is really on Saturday, but I wanted to get this posted now. Here's some of her fave rave eye candy:

Michael Rosenbaum with hair....

.....and without

Have a great birthday! I hope Michael has something great planned for you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VAL!

Have a fantastic birthday! Here's wishing you much luck, love, health, happiness and Vincentness now and always.

Thanks to Eliza for the pics.

A must-see Website

Each Friday our local paper, The News Tribune, features a current pop trend. This week they featured www.icanhascheezburger.com , which are really cute animal pictures (mostly cats) with text message captions. Some of the pics on their site are photoshopped, obviously. These are a few of my favourites:

We shoulda named him Goofy

We named Sagan after the late, great Carl Sagan, thinking that it'd be a great name for a proud, regal, intelligent German shepherd dog. Although he is extremely smart when he wants to be, most of the time he's a big clown. Here he is hiding behind the drapes in the family room. Whenever he bursts out from under the drapes, Brian and I always sing "The (Johnny Carson)Tonight Show" music. He's looking at us as if to say, "Here I am! I was hiding behind the curtains and you didn't even know!" (if you look close, you will notice that our nightlight is the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story").

But then when he comes over and puts his head on my lap, like this, my heart melts. This dog cannot get enough lovin'.

In the Pink

The thundercloud plum trees are in full bloom!! They are usually the first of the flowering trees to kick off spring in the Pacific Northwest. This stand of trees is along Locust Avenue, less than a half mile from my house, in Bonney Lake.

We have 4 thundercloud plums in our back yard, but these look so much more impressive. It was pouring rain when I shot these at about 4:00 p.m., hence the dark quality. These do not bear plums though. Their leaves are the colour of plums, a really cool dark dusty purple.

The daffodils are coming up in the valley as well, and are being harvested for the annual Daffodil Parade in a couple of weeks.

Spring has sprung!

What Tarot Card are you?

A big Thank You to Mark for posting this on his blog!

http://www.flarn.com/~warlock/tarot/ Take the test!

My card came up as "The Empress", surprisingly, because I answered the questions honestly and I really didn't think this is what I'd get, but it says:

"Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, or art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where is gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her."

All this talk about wombs and creation of life is just so not me. Brian must be The Magician because we always say he's the idea guy, and I'm the one who tries to implement them. I like the "good at home decorating" part though, that cracked me up. I've posted pictures of various rooms in my house, so you guys know how my home is decorated.

And another thing, why can't I ever be Saturn???????

What tarot card are you?

Blessed Ostara

Ostara is one of the eight major Wiccan holidays or sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. Ostara is celebrated on the Vernal Equinox, in the Northern hemisphere around March 21 and in the Southern hemisphere around September 23, depending upon the specific timing of the equinox.

Among the Wiccan sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc and followed by Beltane."The Festival of Ostara at the spring equinox marks the end of winter and the beginning of the season of rebirth, and is celebrated by a blot in honor of Frigg and Freya, and/or the disir, the collective of female fertility deities." The "blot" is a celebratory meal, also known as "cakes and ale", that is believed to be shared with the the God/ess.

In the book Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar, the festival Ostara is characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death.
Here's a picture taken exactly 20 years ago this spring of my 2 housemates, Dan and Carol, and the snowman we built for our house's spring party. We named him "Vern", as in Vernal Equinox. The banana was my and Carol's idea, as was the beer can in his right hand. I do remember this day, it was one of those absolutely gorgeous spring days following a pretty rough winter where we still had a lot of snow left. As you can see, it was warm enough for Carol to be in short sleeves. Unfortunately Vern's banana shriveled up, turned black and dropped off long before the party started.

Funny though, I have no memory of the party itself. Must've been good if I can't remember it.

That's when I reach for my revolver

She's a beauty, eh? Brian got it for me for Christmas in 2005. I've only been target shooting with it once (at an outdoor range) but I have to admit, I'm pretty dang good. Good enough to have impressed him, and he was almost sniper-certified in the army, but for his colourblindness.

HOME, HOME ON THE RANGE

Back in August, 1999, when we first moved into our house, Brian decided that he wanted to get a handgun for protection, now that we were living on a pretty dark street. He got a Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic, similar to the one pictured here. It's your standard cop-issue weapon.

He purchased the gun from Bullseye, in Puyallup, and discovered at the same time that they have an indoor range, with about 12 "stalls"

One Sunday afternoon that fall, he invited me to go with him. He figured that I should at least know how the weapon worked and fire it a few times. I was less than enthused, but decided to go anyway. After all, I'd played with capguns my entire childhood, so why should I be afraid of a real gun?

We got to Bullseye and I was provided with protective goggles and big honkin' ear protectors. Quite the fashion statement, let me tell ya.

The store manager assigned us to a stall, and pointed us in the right direction. To enter the gun range, you go through a door into what I decribe as "an airlock", just a dark, little vestibule with carpeting on all the walls, and one door into the shop, and another door into the range. Brian strode confidentally to our assigned stall, with me trailing half-heartedly along behind him, unsure of what to expect. He took his position at the little ledge/table and began to load his gun. I, meanwhile, tried to make myself as small as humanly possible, by folding my arms tightly, and squeezing in next to him, on his left side.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that there were only maybe 2-3 other occupied stalls in the entire range, the manager placed us next to Dirty Harry. He was firing a freakin cannon in the stall to the left of us, and hot, spent shells were raining down on my head and shoulders. Brian didn't notice at first because he was excited to squeeze off a few rounds. Meanwhile, I'm starting to sweat profusely from nerves and discomfort. It was so bad that my goggles fogged up and I couldn't see.

Brian turns to me and asks if I'd like to try shooting. I shook my head "no", arms still folded tightly across my chest, the smell of my singed hair thick in the air (OK, I just added that last part for dramatic effect). I shook my head again. He said, "C'mon, just shoot it once, OK? Just once." So I reluctantly took the gun from him and stood at the shooting ledge. He pointed at the target down range and told me how to hold my hand steady, aim and squeeze the trigger. Mind you, my goggles are still fogged up and I can't see the damn target. So I shut my eyes, turned my head, shot the gun, and dropped it on the ledge, and resumed my arms-folded-tightly-across-my-chest position.

Not unkindly, he said to me, "Would you like to wait outside?" and I nodded "yes" furiously. I turned and bolted towards the door into the airlock. As I entered, I couldn't see the door to the store because my goggles were fogged up. So I'm standing in the airlock, pounding on the walls with my palms like a crazed mime doing the "caught in a box" routine, till I found the door. I stumbled into the store, and whip off my goggles and ear protection. The manager was chatting with a Washington State Patrol officer at the counter, and they both stopped in mid-sentence and looked at me, somewhat amused. I slammed the goggles and ear protex on the counter and looked up at them with my bright red, sweaty face. The manager said, "Are you alright?" and I said, "That is so not for me...I'm just gonna go sit down over there for a bit and wait for my husband."

And that is the story of my first experience shooting a gun.

What is hip?

I've been hearing a couple of new descriptive phrases lately that, quite frankly, have me stumped. Maybe Kathleen can clue me in, since she's one of the youngest members of my blog family.

First, what in the heck are "boyfriend pants"? I first started hearing the term "boyfriend jeans", but now that obnoxious "Anything you can do I can do better" GAP commercial is advertising "boyfriend trousers". Are the female youth of America (and the world) actually being taken in, to buy pants for themselves because they are given the name "boyfriend trousers"? Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) to buy your pants in the men's department? It's equivalent to the designers cutting off the bottom third of a pair of pants, jacking up the price and giving them the fancy name "Capri"!!

Second, what's the deal with stuff being called "cowboy"? For example, the bakery at my grocery store offers "cowboy cookies". Now I see that one of the national pizza chains is advertising "cowboy pizzas" too. I 've watched A LOT of westerns in my lifetime, and never once do I recall the cook in John Wayne movies presenting the cowhands with pizza, or cookies for that matter. And Little Joe Cartwright never requested any such thing from Hop Sing either.

Help me out someone!!!

Happy Frisky Friday!

With thanks to the fabulous Val for sharing her photobucket stash with us....and thanks also to thereel!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy St. Patrick's Day! Go out and treat yerselves to Guinness, corned beef & cabbage....."BRILLIANT!"

I also want to do a shout-out to my cousin Jenna in Florida. I heard she was a Vincent fan from one of my other cousins. It's obvious that Jenna is related to me since I have such fantastic taste and it clearly runs in our family. I have to keep my frisky posts somewhat clean because there are a couple of teens who read my blog and I don't want to get too graphic. I'll leave that to my other regular Vincent Vixen bloggers (you know who you are).

BTW, since I froze my butt off yesterday in a short sleeved blouse and no jacket, today I dutifully wore a long sleeved shirt and my raincoat.....and guess what....it's 62 and sunny. I just cannot win.

How many different ways can you say it?

Yesterday, I wore a raincoat to work because they said it was going to rain. It was sunny and about 60. They said today was going to be sunny by the afternoon, so I didn't wear a jacket or raincoat, and it's raining.

Spring and fall sees our most unstable weather in the Pacific Northwest, but you'd think with all the fancy schmancy doppler radar, computers and other meteorology toys, that the meteorologists would be able to at least get the forecast right on a day-to-day basis. You'd also think the fact that we are sitting on the edge of the continent would make it really easy to see what's coming.

What really makes me laugh are the different ways they have to describe "rain" when they do their forecasts. We have: Rain, Showers, A Few Showers, Rain at Times, Light Showers, Light Steady Rain, Scattered Showers.....ad nauseum.

Graphic courtesy of KING-5.com

Making peace with the pine needle and other ramblings

So I haul my ass out of bed at 8:00 Sunday morning, which is really 7:00 but for stupid daylight savings time, and decide to finally clean the fur off the toilets and vacuum the filthy carpet for the first time in god knows how long. Brian decided to head out to the gun range to do some target shooting, so I let the doggies out in the back yard and started cleaning. We just purchased a Dyson Pet vacuum - pricey but well worth it, and I was marveling at the amazing job it was doing on the rugs. About an hour later, the house was vacuumed and dusted, and bathrooms were clean, and all was right with the world. Then I let the dogs in. 8 muddy, pineneedley paws later, I am looking at my once-freshly vacuumed carpet with chagrin.

I've lived up here now going on 8 years. Washington is called "The Evergreen State" for a reason (although the way trees are being cut down to make room for more developments, we may have to be called, "Formerly Known as The Evergreen State"). We have pine needles year round. All over the driveway. All over the backyard. Stuck to our shoes. Inside the cars. Ground into the carpets, especially on the stairs. Even when we get enough dry weather for Brian to use the blower on the driveway, it's coated with pineneedles in less than a day. There's no getting around it. So I have pretty much made my peace with the pineneedle because I can never truly eradicate it from my house.



Here's a sneak peak at our State Quarter, being minted this spring. Eastern WA ain't too happy about it because it has a distinctly Western Washington look but oh well. If they don't like it, they can secede.

Could our state flag be more boring? Which reminds me of an amusing story. Exactly 8 years ago, in March of 1999, I flew up here to interview for a job at a law firm. It was a round trip; the flight to and from San Francisco is only about 90 minutes so, while grueling, it's do-able. I rented a car at the airport to drive to my interview. As I was traveling along one of the state highways, I noticed that the signs looked like this: It didn't register at first. I actually said out loud, "why do all the signs have pictures of George Wa.....ooohhhhhh....." Brian still gets a chuckle out of that story.


We're pretty stoked though, we just scored tickets to see our favourite comedian, Brian Regan, at Pantages Theatre in downtown Tacoma on April 12. We've seen his special on Comedy Central at least 10 or more times, and it never fails to reduce us to hysterical laughter complete with tears, throat cramps and asthma attacks. Brian even said, "make a note so that we don't forget to bring our inhalers." To this day I cannot go to my eye doctor without cracking up, thanks to Brian Regan's routine about going to the eye doctor. I've had to apologize to Dr. Hartmann for cracking up when he's trying to do my exam.


Gas Prices. They are going up by the hour. When I left Bonney Lake today, it was $2.79. How about where all of you live? I'd like to know what everyone is paying. And yeah I know, we pay far less than what Europeans and Canadians have been paying for years so we should quit our whining, but still, we're not used to these prices and it puts a crimp in the ol' travel plans.

Daylight Savings Time - a necessary evil or a major league pain in the ass? I vote for the latter. It allegedly saves us energy during the summer months because people don't have to turn their lights on till later. But I have yet to see any statistics on this for verification. Especially these days when more people have air conditioning, multiple computers and TV's per household, etc. But up here, while we certainly aren't as bad as Alaska, it stays very light, very late during June and early July. We get this perpetual twilight that can last till after 10:30, and on a clear night you can still see the remnants of the sunset at 11:30. Then dawn starts around 3:30. It sucks to go to bed and it's light, get up to pee at 3:30 and it's light, get up at 6:00 and it's light. I know, I'm in the minority in that I hate summer. I love our cold, dark, wet winters. But I fail to understand why Washington observes daylight savings time. Arizona doesn't. Neither do parts of Indiana. I see absolutely no reason why we can't stay on Standard Time, year round. Thoughts?