the Birthday

Abigail is 9!! She had her heart set on a certain kind of cake. I had never worked with fondant before but I gave it my best shot! It took two days to make and didn't come out at all like I hoped but Abigail loved it so I guess that's what counts.



Happy Birthday Abigail!

No more Zoom Zoom

the Miata was sold yesterday. it makes me sad. I was teary eyed watching tatto boy drive away in it. why? because I have weird car attachment issues. The Miata and I went through much stress and turmoil so that I could prove to myself I could drive a stick even with my palsy. I'll give dh credit here. He challenged me. He knew I could do it even though I tried to hide. He gave me the Miata for incentive. She was a beautiful car.


Boy did we stall and squeal and buck around the neighborhood for a good few months! She stayed tried and true and I triumphed! well ok - I still have hill phobias. I need to work on that. Still - I did something that everyone told me I could never do. Go me!

So WHY did I sell the car? because dh went out and bought himself a new toy. He told me I could have his old toy or keep the Miata. the new toy being the yellow car in the background there. (how do you like dh's butt? rofl) ponder. ponder. ponder. I chose his old toy. (insert foolish guilt here)

So here's Parkie's new ride:



yes it's the blue one! big bonus - it's NOT a manual retractable top! stick it in neutral, press the button and voila! horsepower horsemower it's a lot more powerful car but the retractable top was the seller! and yeah ok it is DAMN fun to drive!


it has a hardtop that you can snap on during winter. here's a pic with the hard top.



kinda changes the look of the whole car doesn't it?? It's like having two cars in one! It is a whole lot more car to handle. I need to go find some hills and get over my phobia.

Sometimes you hear a song

and it hits you. "You're Gonna Want This Back" sung by Trace Adkins did this for me. It's on the dawg howls if you want to click. I tried autoplay but it doesn't seem to be working. I'd heard the song before and I've always liked it. It was the timing.

Today my daughter Cassie had a school concert. I know I've vented a LOT recently about various issues we've been going through with her and I know that these things are still there. Today, however, when she was done getting ready for her concert it struck me how much older she's actually getting. As she stood with her friends singing I was still feeling maudlin and the the thought struck me that there wouldn't be too many more of these.

When the concert was finished she came and got me and introduced me to some of her friends and they all hugged me. I hugged some of the friends I already knew. It was a pretty day and we sat outside eating some desserts. We had a really nice time. I dropped her off at church for Youth Night on the way back and as I was driving home this song came on.

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this


and I AM. She's going to be on her own before I'm ready.

Earworm for my Sis!

For you my sister! crank it!

Tagged

Here are the rules:

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.

2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name).

3. After you are tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and your answers.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and that they need to read your blog for details.)


P - patient. or I try to be anyway
A - animal lover. I think everyone's guessed that one!
T - truthful. I'm shamelessly stealing that from Hoopy. :lol:
R - raunchy. great word! nice and earthy
I - intelligent.
C - charitable. it's my new goal for this year. I'm active in two ministries and am sub for two more
I - idealistic. I'll go with that one. I'd like to think I'm more that than cynical still in my life.
A - affable


That was hard!

New Habit in 21 Days

After much pondering - because there is so many things that could be possibilities here I've selected brushing out the dogs more as the new habit that both the bichons and I need to start. This thought comes to me every time I get them groomed .. I should brush them more. So the bichons and I will work on developing a new habit of regular brushings.

Ice, Ice Baby

The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.

--Norbet Platt


Here's a new revelation brought on by some deep thinking. Winter weather in the South. When something happens weather wise things shut down. People run for the grocery store. Knew that. We had a couple of scares regarding the weather and I watched and, yes, I laughed. Last Saturday we had snow. They shut down the church for Sunday and cancelled evening events. I drove to Durham for the Duke Basketball game. Didn't think twice about it, it was barely snowing. Fast forward to the last couple of days. Yesterday the kids were still on Winter break but apparently other school districts weren't. It's been raining off and on and the temperature is hovering at 33 degrees during the day and 20 or below at night. I was supposed to go to the Church to break down the alter flowers into smaller arrangments and make Nursing Home visits with one other member. She calls just before we're leaving and says she looked outside and saw ice on the street so we needed to postpone to today. I looked out and "saw" wet pavement and thought hmmmmm. Still thinking to myself that I've driven on much much worse than that to get to work that was never cancelled and it took lots of ice for the schools to call a delay in Ohio.

Later that night I'm watching the news and one of the school districts was giving a press conference. Apparently they thought they hadn't needed to delay school and rolled the buses. They were getting TORN APART by angry parents. I mean raked over the coals. Even by the news reporter a little bit. Furious calls had been made after parents saw the buses "skidding" and the school district had to call all the buses and tell them to pull over until a new call told them they could go again. I'm telling you these people were FURIOUS! Whoa ... these people take icy conditions very seriously.

So dh comes home and he tells me he was sliding a lot trying to get to work and I start paying attention a little more. I pick up the paper today and read there was actually 40+ car accidents during rush hour.

When I really started reading the article on the accidents I had a revelation. Ice is maybe different here. Icy roads in Ohio came with snow most times and in quantities where the height was elevated. It was not necessarily clear, more white. You slowed down. Sometimes you had patches of what was labelled Black Ice.

Black Ice: thin, new ice that forms on fresh water or dew covered surfaces; it is common on roadways during the fall and early winter and appears "black" because of its transparency.

Yesterday it was Black Ice - everywhere and definately on all bridges and overpasses and exits. Not just patches but large quantities. The rain here hasn't really been steady. It's been spitting and very spotty. Is it possible I had looked out the door yesterday while my friend was on the phone and did't "see" the ice that she saw? More than probably!

Today the phone rang at 6:00 am. I was expecting it to. It's still spitting moisture. I'm not even going to call it rain anymore. The call was the automatic school notification system. Two hour delay. This morning, based on my new revelation, a school delay sounds like a good plan.