You're not late, Afton. Welcome baby wishes are appropriate any time. 
Hubby took my car in and had the snow tires put on. I don't drive on studs anymore, but these snow tires are a softer rubber for better traction on ice and a deeper tread for snow. I have two sets of wheels for this car, and the snows are on the ugly stock wheels. I have my highway tires on the pretty custom wheels I bought, so I always miss my pretty wheels in the winter. But considering the gravel and mess they often have to drive through, it's probably best not to make my pretty wheels all dirty and gunky.
Back when my Lucy Cat was alive, I used to hold her cheek up against mine, look at hubby and ask, "Do we look alike?" He'd always say yes.
She was so patient with all the stuff I loved to do to her. I'd fold her ears over and say, "Puppy ears!" She'd just sit there and look at me. I'd wake her out of a dead sleep to clip her toenails and she'd just drowsily let me do my thing, as long as I was quick about it.
Our kids gave her a million nicknames and I made up a lot of different theme songs for her. Her favorite was one I sang to the tune of the "Cops" theme.
Can you tell I miss her? She died suddenly and unexpectedly in my arms in 2003 and I still miss her like crazy. She was the best kitty ever. It's even on her grave marker.
Many thanks to Daydreamer, Adamsdarling, Holliday, Sissy and Camera Chic for your congrats. I flipped over to my blog and saw six comments and couldn't figure out what could possibly have generated six comments. I guess I have a short memory.
DD, this makes our second grandchild, both from the same son and his wife, and 10 years apart. No need to rush things, I say. The other two sons are staying childless for now ... smart lads.
Speaking of Camera Chic, she has made an incredibly wise post on her blog that I just have to repeat here because of its wiseness and appropriateness.
"I don't even bother (well, usually) trying to argue with ignorant people anymore, because stupidity knows no logic. You say something, and they repeat themselves louder. You say something different, and they repeat themselves louder. On and on ..."
The bolding is mine, because this is exactly where I am these days. It's disheartening on the one hand to read message boards lately where it goes on. But on the other hand, it's kind of funny to watch it happen because they do tend to make asses of themselves. They don't seem to get that I hear them when they say it once. Saying it 10 more times doesn't make me hear them any better and it just makes me hate their guts.
The only problem is the ignorant and stupid people, because they are ignorant and stupid, will continue to say the same thing over and over and the normal people (like my friend CC there) will just stay out of it because they know it's pointless and useless to get involved.
So while it may look like the ignorant and stupid people are winning, they're not. They're just producing a lot of hot air. 
I synch my iPod every night because I have daily podcasts I listen to. I'm always scared I'll accidentally disconnect my iPod while it says, "Synching iPod; do not disconnect." What do you think would happen if I did it?
Lil' ol' homebody me had two engagements tonight. Unheard of!
Six of us from the office met for drinks tonight after work. I was racing to get done with everything so I'd be able to go have a glass of wine with them and I made it. I had to be the first one to leave an hour later because I had to meet hubby for dinner with some of his family to celebrate a birthday.
Hubby and I are grandparents again. Our new granddaughter was born this morning. They live a long way away from us, so it's hard telling when we'll get to see her, but it's nice knowing she's arrived safely.
Hubby went to the health department office after work with all the other high-riskers and got his H1N1 vaccine, so yay for that. It's a load off my mind. I'd like to get one and I probably qualify, since I have asthma, but I hate to take one away from someone who might need it more than I do.
Val Kilmer is one of those actors who I sometimes think looks really good and other times, not so much.
One of my besties gave me a Gummy Krabby Patty today, which I thought was just the cutest thing. I can take gummy anything or leave it, but these were just so darn cute, I couldn't resist. She gave me one for hubby as well, but since he doesn't like gummy anything, I knew I could eat one and still have one to save and look at because it's so cute.
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I wanted to go off on a big 'ol rant here about religious intolerance, but I'm so tired, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to make any sense at all. Right now, my head is flopped over to my shoulder, which makes typing difficult, but I just can't seem to hold it up. And it makes it really hard to type without typos ... I keep fixing them, but I'm sure I'll miss some.
I am going to bed and hopefully, then to sleep.
OK, it's late and I just finished with my weekly letter to my folks, so I'm tired. But I had to tell everyone that my hubby talked today to a guy he works with who also lives in our neighborhood. He said they had 700 trick-or-treaters at their house! Yes, 700. 
Now, the most we got was about 350, but Halloween was on a Saturday this year, and it was fairly warm and there was no wind or rain, so I'm sure kids were out in droves. So see why I hate staying home that night? They just come out like crazy because their parents drive them in. I swear, I don't know what's so special about our neighborhood because we don't even have sidewalks, which makes it extra dangerous with all the parked cars lining the streets and all the walkers and all the parents driving along slowly while their kids ring doorbells. It's just chaos and I hate it. 700 indeed. Little beggers.
I raked and bagged leaves again this afternoon. It was a gloriously beautiful day with sunshine galore. I worked outdoors in just a T-shirt and jeans and got too warm in that much.
Raking leaves gives me a sense of accomplishment. I put seven bags out at the curb plus the three yard waste containers I put out last week and I put out two more this week. There are still quite a few leaves in back and still many left on the trees, so hubby has vowed to attack them this week. We'll see. He's not a big fan of yard work.
After I had done as much as I wanted to do outside, I took a drive to run a few errands. On the way home, I had just cruised past the park and was speeding up because the limit changes from 25 mph to 35 mph there. Just as I got up to speed, I noticed a couple of half-grown cows ambling out of a front yard on the right.
Now this isn't something you see every day here, but it's not wildly unusual either. But I just knew these cows (one was red and one was black) were up to no good. They just had that look on their faces that said, "We're lookin' for trouble and we won't stop until we find some." They were even hopping and jumping a bit, like they were so excited to be out and about on their own.
So I slowed down, just like I have the last few mornings on the way to work when I've seen the mule deer up on the hillside above the road. And then those darn cows just stopped in the middle of the street and stood there looking around. So I stopped as well. I actually got out my phone and was looking for the non-emergency police number, which I have stored, because I thought this might cause some problems. But then they decided to amble off the road and into someone else's front yard. And at that point, I thought, "Well, now they're someone else's problem."
The police here are used to calls like that because we hear a lot of "cattle on the loose" calls on the scanner. Maybe someone else called them after I passed by.
Interestingly, we have open range here, so if I'd hit one of the cows, it would have been my fault and I would have had to pay for the cow. Good thing I'm an alert driver.
Speaking of blocking the road, the other night there was a gigantic tumbleweed in the middle of the road. This sucker was so big, it was going to take a major wind to blow it off the road and no one wanted to run over it, so we were all swerving to either side around it. I wish I'd gotten a photo.
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I really would like an answer to this, so please if you can give me one, comment away. Why do people who say they absolutely hate Bonanza World and who rip on it every chance they get, continue to register as a member?
I get that some people hate it. For whatever reason, they just can't stand the place and don't want to have anything to do with it. And really, that's fine because that just means everyone is different and people like different Websites for different reasons. Makes perfect sense.
Except apparently some folks who say they want nothing to do with it, actually do, because they continue to visit over and over (sometimes daily) and they continue to register new usernames.
I guess I don't understand because if I don't like a site, I just don't go there. It's easy enough. I dunno.
Amanda, I've gotta tell ya, there are rarely any leftovers from our work potlucks. We usually have them at noon for us day shifters, but we leave everything in the room when we're done. It's right off our office, and it's all windows so everyone can see what's in there. So when the evening shift starts rolling in in the afternoon, they go in and start grazing, so by the time we leave, there usually isn't anything to take home. There are a lot of men in our office, some of them are pretty good cooks and most of them can really put away the food.
CC, better stop coloring. If you don't, by the time you have a lot of gray and try to let it go natural, you will be so shocked, you'll be forced to cover it up forever. Or that's my theory, anyway.
I really thought when hubby and I got home tonight about 8:30 p.m., the mobs would have dissipated. But no, our street still looked like a parking lot. For some reason, people have decided our neighborhood is the place to truck their kids to, so they park all up and down our street and walk their kids around. I have no idea where they come from, but many are from out of state. Even worse are the parents who like to drive along slowly while they kids go from house to house. I mean, really. We could hardly get into our driveway.
It's stuff like this that ruined Halloween. When we got to the point where we had to lay in enough grub for 300 kids, I just gave up. And so many of them are just roving groups of teenagers that can't be bothered to even try to dress up. Blech!
On the upside, hubby and I just roamed around tonight staying out of trouble, but still having fun. We went to one of our favorite Chinese places and I was so excited to have wor mein. It was absolutely delicious and I plan to have it again and again. Yummy.
Then we went out to the casino and we lost millions of dollars. So now we have to move out of our house and sell our cars and set up a tent in one of the state parks. You can reach us there.
OK, just so you know, if that really did ever happen, you probably wouldn't read about it here. And, of course, to lose millions of dollars, we'd have to have millions of dollars in the first place.
I hope the weather is decent tomorrow. I am dyin' to rake some more leaves.
I think I fought off some sort of illness this week. I felt pretty crummy for a few days and yesterday afternoon at work, I thought I might have to go home or pass out or both. I couldn't pinpoint what exactly was wrong with me, just that I did not feel right. This is a weird time in my life anyway, so maybe it's just a combination of everything. At any rate, I felt a lot better today, so that was good. The last two nights I have fallen asleep with my laptop on, because I was just that wiped out, which is why I could barely post here Wednesday night and wasn't able to post at all last night. Just too darn tired.
I organized a potluck for us at work today. I do that every few months or so, usually tying it to some sort of holiday or something. It's fun to see what everyone will bring and I get the room all ready for us, as it's usually pretty messy and cluttered. A good time was had by all.
Tonight one of my nieces took photos with her phone of my mom and my dad in their assisted living place and e-mailed them to me. It was so surprising to see them, it made me cry. My dad is 88 years old and still has salt-and-pepper hair on his head and in his mustache. Mom's hair, on the other hand, is mostly white. I'm not sure what that means for me. My two oldest sibs have major salt-and-pepper hair in their 50s but they started on that in their 20s. I have my strands of white, but I'm not sure it will ever get to be as pretty white as my mom's because I'm almost 50 and my hair is still mostly dark.
I cannot imagine ever dyeing my hair. I know people who dye to cover up gray and then they're stuck doing it forever and that just sounds awful. And it usually looks really fakey too. Of course, I am the ultra in lazy so that could color (get it?) my perception a little. It just sounds awful.
Sleep, however, doesn't sound awful. So I think I'll get some.
I am ridiculously sleepy so this will be short.
My "Bonanza" DVDs arrived Tuesday and dear hubby has been watching episodes with me, which is sweet. Tonight after I fixed supper, I asked if we should watch a movie or a BZ ep and he said, "Bonanza." Awwww!
It's time for me to get to bed. I've written several different things and erased them all.
There ... just did it again. This has got to stop and I have got to sleep.
Snow has come to the mountains in these parts. It looks pretty, but the days of restricted travel are upon us. Almost time to get the snow tires on and I gotta track down the chains (which aren't really chains at all anymore, but we still call them that) and throw them in back just in case. Because it's better to be safe than sorry.
We are relatively lucky down in our little river valley, however, in that there are many, many days where I look up high on the hills above us and see snow. What's most interesting are the days you can see a snow line on the hills. I'll have to try for a photo of it this year. It only happens a couple of times during the winter usually where it's a line like someone was painting and tore off the masking tape. I think it's pretty cool looking.
Still no H1N1 vaccine in these parts. Bummer. I was really hoping hubby could get it and I was hoping I could get it as well. Someone I know said a doctor told her he isn't going to recommend the vaccine because it's too new and he's just not sure what it might do. This is a doctor saying this, supposedly, but I think it might be a total idiot. Not just a regular, every day idiot, but a total idiot.
Because really ... it's a vaccine for the flu. There is a vaccine for flu every single year. It's new every single frickin' year. This year there are two new vaccines -- one for seasonal flu and one for H1N1. It's called logic. It's also called listening to the CDC.
Whatever. I just don't want either kind. Of flu, that is. I do want the vaccine.
Would you like 2 exchange blog links? Best wishes... 
Merry Christmas, Jeanie!! 
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