The Ducks' Prayer

Little Miss A. asked me to help her remember the words to a song. I asked her what song and she said, "The Ducks' Prayer." The Ducks' Prayer? Hmmmm. I couldn't think what that could possibly be. "You know... It goes, 'Pwaise God Fwum Whom All Bwessings Fwo'?" she sang.

The Doxology. Now forevermore to be known as The Ducks' Prayer. I like that much better!

Happy Birthday, Loretta

It's Loretta's 84th birthday today. Doesn't she look pretty?

A Stahl Thanksgiving

Wayne, Roseann and Sweet Baby E came to visit us for Thanksgiving. The weather stunk horribly, plus we were down a set of wheels because of Judy the Doe, so we didn't take them anywhere, just holed up and played with the baby and ate a lot and drank hot buttered rum and played XBox and Risk and read. The dog and the cats thought Sweet Baby E was very interesting - and when they discovered that she was also a messy eater, it was love.

Sadly, Thanksgiving morning, Roseann's grandmother passed away, so they all had to head home a couple of days early for the funeral. Thankfully they were able to find plane tickets, albeit expensive ones, back home on the busiest travel weekend of the year. We miss them already.

Doe No Mo'

Wednesday night, driving home along the river road, Barry hit a doe. Twice.

She leaped out behind an oncoming car while he was unable to see much from the headlights, bounced off his bumper, and fell, then leaped up - and ran right into the car again. The second time did the deed and she was dead. Car is not driveable, the grill, radiator and air conditioniong coil have all now become one with the engine fan.

Barry went back up to check it out in daylight and commented that there were deer all over the place, watching him and the car. I told him they were there for the funeral, and they were all whispering about him, "That's him. That's the one. The one who killed Judy."

I need to have less fun

I've been a blonde since the spring. I decided I'd had enough fun for one year or several, so this morning I'm back to dark auburn.

And, since you asked, I'm a natural grey, so I can be whatever I wanna be. I'm a blank canvas.

When in doubt, ask a butcher

I had thought about giving my electric frying pan to the thrift store because we hardly ever, ever used it, and now I'm glad I didn't. I bought a nice chuck roast from our local meat market, and not being very good with beef roasts, I asked our butcher how he would cook it if it were his.

He asked if I had an electric frying pan. I said, "To brown it?" He answered, "Yes, and to do the whole thing." He suggested seasoning it, browning it well on all sides in the frying pan, then roasting it right there.

It worked great. The roast was delicious, it looked great, AND all the drippings were right there in the pan so I could make gravy.

Yin, Yang and - What?

The boys, the blankie - and a guinea pig? Yes, that's Gary the Guinea Pig, snuggling with The Boys.

Gary is a girl, by the way. It's a little hard to explain.

Yin and Yang

Well, sort of, anyway. Two little boys curled up on a nice wool blankie.

Pump Organ

This beauty is now in our front room, where it is the first thing someone sees on entering our home from the front door (or driving by and peeking in through the front windows). It was a gift from Dave and Dottie Voyage, members of our church.It's not playable at present, but they also gave us a book on repairing and restoring antique reed organs, so that is on the project list: Getting this baby back to playing beautiful organ music. Oh, and of course, training someone in the house to play it.

Whited Sepulchre, Part II

Here is what the dining room floor looks like now.

October is Adopt-a-Stray-Cat Month

Meet Briggs. As in Briggs & Stratton. The newest addition to the family. Briggs is probably 6 or 8 months old and extremely sweet. He wasn't in terrible shape, but he did have worms, was abandoned with no collar and was not neutered. He is now a Stahl, has had the family jewels removed and is recuperating and worming his way into the family's hearts.

He's a real sweetie.