Monday

A very short but cute video. Some days the winds just picks you up and moves you right along.  My backs doing better it’s still hurting so I think I’m going to go  to a physical therapist soon and I guess I will just have to give my back a little time to get better. Thank You for stopping by It was a such a great joy seeing your avatars and your comments. I’m hoping to stop by and visit your blogs soon maybe a little bit this weekend if my backs feeling OK.  I guess my plan is to blog a little bit here and there while my backs healing  and to try to avoid getting too lost in the blog sphere where time seems to disappear.  I hope all is well in your world and I hope to see you soon.   If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving  don’t forget to pace yourself.  What are your favorite dishes or sides or desserts?

Free Chat Thursday

1270-Amsterdam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The sun is out and the sky is blue and I feel like singing unfortunately my back been a little out of whack.  I finally went to the chiropractor.  Not my favorite thing to do, but walking well is important and not being in pain is important.   My moods not bad I think I was a little cranky a few days ago bouncing from negative thought to negative thought and then I realized that’s not really a fun a game.  Probably my back hurting didn’t help. :+) I may be slow getting around to your blogs it may be a few days I do look forward to seeing what you have posted. .  Feel free to leave me a comment or if you like or a silly and cute pet trick video or not.  Fill me in on the News in your world?  Hows is your week going?  What has caught your eye and made you sqeel or inspired you are just made you  guffaw is that word guffaw?

I was actually very inspired this week by Munchow creative photo blog.   Otto is offering bloggers a critique of a photo of theirs which is very generous. He is a great photographer and teacher. He also has wonderful posts on the subject of creativity in general which I find very inspiring.  I haven’t had the opportunity to take him up on this idea I may have to wait for round two, but I did find myself thinking about photos in general and thinking  that I’d like to try to take more photos of people.  I don’t take many people photos.  When I was looking through my photos I noticed I had several of the back of people’s heads.  I’d much rather take a photo of a wild animal or a landscape or maybe an abstract photo that is my comfort zone.  But just the thought of learning something outside of my comfort zone is really exciting so I will be working on that in the near future.  So those are my Thursday thoughts what’s on your plate on this fine Thursday?

After the Snow Storm

Free Chat Thursday

A homemade chicken noodle soup with bread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s Thursday the weatherman here is predicting three days of snow.  Calling for one to two feet of snow here today with high winds . But really I can’t feel too bad about it considering the folks that are having to deal with the Noreaster with rain, snow, and also high winds.  My heart breaks for the people still without power knowing that people are cold and having such a tough time.  It seems like it’s been a really  long couple of weeks with storms, elections, relentless political ads, and then spring forward no fall back.   I think Arizona and Hawaii have it right, skip over day light saving time.

Tomorrow is Friday that’s a good thing I hope you have something pleasant to look forward to this weekend.  I did some cooking this last week I made a crock pot lasagna from Frank Angle‘s recipe. The crock pot is a great way to cook lasagna it keeps the noodles very moist. I also cooked crock pot applesauce with cranberries the house smelled great with lots of autumn like smells.  This recipe is from Joy and Nikki instead of using 12 apples I used 6 large ones and that seems like a good amount.  And last but not least I made a pumpkin and bacon soup from Char this was so tasty and amazing I found myself scraping the bowl with my spoon at the end of this soup. Cooking this soup also made the house smell great.  In the near future I’m  hoping to make Gina’s chili and S Le’s meat pie  these recipes also sounds really good for a cold weather day.  Have you been cooking Fall foods?  Have you found a new recipe that you love or maybe an old tried and true?  If so feel free to add the recipe to the comment area or a link.  I’m enjoying doing a little cold weather cooking. These are mostly non vegetarian meals. I will print links some time to some vegetarian meals as well.   Or maybe just tell me what kind of foods  you like to eat when the weather turns cold maybe home-made bread, soups, crock pot meals, or maybe cup cakes?  I just threw that last one in to see if you were still reading. :+)  Let me know how your week is going.  Would you be interested in a few vegetarian recipes as well or just comfort food recipe only please.   Thinking back over my life when things have been difficult and I don’t know what to say or what to do like the storms on the east coast or when friends or family are not doing well sometimes I cook.  I remember when my best friends father was diagnosed with cancer I showed up with a potato dumping soup and cranberry bread and a large silk flower.  I really didn’t know what to say or what to do I just felt so frustrated so I just I cooked instead. I felt so helpless.  Not to end on a sad note I was just thinking about comfort foods in general.  What kinds of foods do you think of when you think of comfort foods?

Chain Reaction Video Fun

Are you a coke  person or Pepsi person or maybe you would say ” Hey don’t ya know that stuffs bad for you?”  For the most part we try not to drink much soda but I swear when you are eating pizza I can hear that sound of a soda pop top opening.  Do you call soda soda or pop?  I would say if we get the chance to drink soda Navar would order a coke and I would probably order a Pepsi or a root beer.

If you are at work and you have the Monday blues maybe you might want to do something with all those Halloween pumpkins that are just lying around.

Free Chat Thursday

Wow what a week

its been.  It’s difficult to imagine that hurricane Sandy could be so destructive.  If you are living in one of the States that she has hit I hope you are safe.  I also hope they can fix the power soon.  Watching last night’s News hearing the hissing of the broken gas lines I found  to be practically horrifying, I honestly can’t imagine how stressful that must be or having to deal with all the flood waters.  Trending on Twitter the other day was: Are You Ok?  And I’m Ok it’s interesting how social media is used to connect in emergencies like this.  Have you been effected by hurricane Sandy or it’s aftermath?  I watched so much coverage of the News in the last few days that when I went outside and saw the blue sky it looked odd to me after seeing so much grey overcast on TV.  I do hope the rebuilding is fast and the power is restored soon!

If you missed having little trick or treaters at your place heres  are a few from our local /1/”>News TV Channel KRTV.  I’m glad Halloween is over having bags of chocolate sitting around the house taunting me is just not fun any more.  Next year I will wait untill the last-minute a day or two before Halloween to buy the candy.  I’m feeling I need a little sugar Detox at this point.  I thought the kids where funny as we offered the basket full of candy some would take one, some would take two, and then there were the claw kids.  There eyes would glaze over and their little hand would drop into the basket like a claw fishing for stuffed animals. One parent said to their kid “Stop let go of all that candy!” The kid held onto the candy refusing to let go.  The parent said in a very loud voice  “Only one you little varmint!” Then the claw slowly open and the candy fell back into the basket.  I don’t know why this amused me.  Did you go out for Halloween this year? Did you stay home to give out candy? If you have kids did they dress up?  How was your week?  I know it’s been a long and strange week for a lot of people.  I hope you are Safe. Thank You for stopping by and saying Hello or just checking in.

I also like the blog Dog Shaming dog’s dressed up in Halloween costumes made me laugh the other day.  I know there are people who dress their dogs up and others that say ” what?”

Free Chat Thursday Big Foot Found in Billings Montana

Big Foot found in Billings Montana over the weekend.  Finally proof that the elusive creature really does exist. Wandering in his natural habitat foraging for food. At last proof that Big Foot is alive and well.  The physical body is intact ready for scientists to gather data.

The wood stove is going it’s pretty cold out  18 degrees outside brrrr chill.   We got caught in a blizzard driving home Tuesday.  I was so happy to finally turn onto our street. I’m not sure I’m really ready for winter, but ready or not here it comes.   How are things going?  Are you grabbing the tiger by the tail this week?  I am feeling better it’s amazing what a little restorative rest can do.  I’ve also been tackling my TO DO list, and that has helped bring a little order to my world.  I was hoping to post photos today, but after a two-day class learning Picasa I am clearly in the transitional  phase of learning and scratching my head.  Hopefully in the near future I will be able to put two and two together and post some photos.  What’s new on your horizon?

Must be Monday

Slow and steady wins the race.  I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.  It was a very busy weekend too busy really for my liking.  Navar had a teachers conference and I went with him just to get out-of-town.  It was strange walking around a school where most of the people are teachers.  I should have gone to the zoo.  Strange Segway I didn’t mean it that way I was just was thinking there was a zoo in the city and that might have been fun.  It was a long drive so it was interesting watching the light change seeing sunrises and sunsets.  I just realized I missed looking up at the stars this weekend, that’s how busy it was.  I hope you had a chance to take a look at the meteor showers.  How was your weekend?  Do you have your poop in a group or are you feeling overwhelmed too?  I took several photos  this weekend I think my favorite was a close up drive by photo of a sugar beet factor  I’ll try to put it up on Thursday.  We also went to a cattle drive one of the teachers  at  Navar’s school was moving 500 cattle 26 miles, crazy.  They even had to cross a busy highway it really looked like it all went pretty well.  They had several people probably family and friends on 4 wheelers a few hired hands working cowboys on horses and one person on a motorcycle.   At one point when we were trying to find where the 500 cows were so I could take a few pics  we drove down a small dirt back road, half way down the road all of sudden here comes a wave of black and red cows walking leisurely up the road.  Navar stops the car in the middle of the road and I thought this could be interesting.  The cows basically walked towards us and then parted us like the red sea.  I was feeling a little claustrophobic, but at that point there wasn’t much I could do about it.  When they got to the main road Navar got out of the car to help at one point, the sheriff had blocked the road with his car.  The cattle slowly crossed and off they went literally into the sunset crossing a huge field.  No wonder I’m tired.

I’m also a little stressed as I realize my part-time job a sales job is not going well so the reality of having to pound the pavement and look for something else is probably in my near future.  I watched a funny video the other day about going on job interviews at Frank Angles blog  it’s the 7th video down in the bunch its a funny video and I will keep it mind while I’m interviewing.  Feel free to tell me about your weekend or any short jokes you have memorized.  Hope you have a great week.

Free Chat Thursday

Unusual Thursday (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Good Morning Happy Thursday. I will be a little late this morning so please tell me a little something about your  Week.  I will catch up with you this afternoon.  How has your week been so far?  Any plans for the weekend?  Or  It was a dark and stormy night even the dog was afraid to howl….

The day turned out well no howling dogs or dark stormy sky actually a beautiful blue sky gorgeous day.  I enjoyed the sunrise and the sunset today took pictures of both.   I heard on the news today that we are in for some meteor showers this weekend, the Orionid  Meteor showers typical viewing in October.  I will hopefully be star-gazing the next few nights.  I’m taking a Picasa class in a few days.  I hope I don’t end up more confused could happen.

Rounding up Cattle in Montana

I hope you had a good weekend.  I wonder what the week will bring?

Here are a few photos I took over the weekend.  The photos with people I took on our drive Saturday to Slippery Ann Elk viewing area to listen to the Elk Bugle.   We had a great time watching the elk so close up and listening to the bugling it did not disappoint.  I will put up a few photos in the near future of that trip.   Anyway the cowboy and cowgirl photos I took from our moving car as we were flying down the highway on the trip there.  Navar driving, pointing and saying  “Look they are rounding up cattle.”   Rolling down the window and pointing the camera out the window ( carefully holding the camera more inside  the window than outside the window).  Not wanting to lose the camera to the road.  I’ve been wanting to tell you about a fun creative project for a while, hopefully I can explain it Ok.  You may have already tried this way of taking pictures before, but if not I will do my best to explain it.   Also if you have not tried  this before using a small camera is best.   I call it drive by photography.   As I rolled the window down I could hear the sharp short whistle from the working cowgirls and cowboys as we were driving by it was very exciting.  I  immediately felt like I was on the range.  Usually when I try taking photos from a moving car it’s more of a blur.  I think of it as a fun creative project instead of an official photo shoot.  If you’ve never tried this before I can tell you it’s really fun and it can also be very rewarding.  I know it sounds simple so the benefits could be easily overlooked.   I think in one way that it has changed my photography by making me more relaxed and more open to the idea of seeing other possibilities when I’m taking a photo.  Instead of just seeing what I think  might be a good photograph.  As you are flying down the highway of course sitting in the passenger seat not the drivers side now that really would be distracted driving.  Seeing interesting old or new  buildings or different shapes and colors and just snapping photos and having fun. The big part is just having fun, chances are you will be deleting most of these images.  Seeing things burr by and clicking as fast you can almost like watching  moving paintings going by.  It’s not ment to capture sharp photos, but to loosen up the ways of seeing.  As I click I may take a photo in a very different way then I would normally and some times when I look back at these images there are surprises, buildings or telephone poles that I would not normally think to put in a picture but some how it works.  It’s a fun creative project when you are bored going from point A to point B.  The two photos without people I took yesterday while waiting for Navar as he was talking on his cel phone.  This time I got out of the car and took more time with the photos.  It was nice to watch the light change as the clouds rolled by changing the colors of the field from tan to the bright yellow.