Friday, December 30, 2011

Cock-A-Doodle-Do

Here are several roosters that reside at my farmer friends place in Marshfield. They oversee, protect and share custody of twenty hens and all get along relatively well. Although, there are times when they'll square off and fight over a hen or to reaffirm their position in the pecking order but nothing to damaging. I drove down for a visit this past Wednesday and hung out. Boy it's nice to hear the sounds of crowing roosters and cooing hens!

Rhode Island Red cockeral -


Buff Orpington cockeral -


Barred Rock rooster -


Mongrel mix breed rooster-

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Halloween Turban Squash



Emilie's grandmother bought her the above Turban squash, at Emilie's request of course, for a Halloween decoration. At the request of my farmer friend in Marshfield, who saw it during his last visit up, I brought it to him today. His plans - to save the seeds for the 2012 gardening season, and to eat the rest! He claims it's very tasty. I'll just take his word on that but it's certainly unusual looking...

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

She Passed Baby!



Woohoo, my 1999 PU passed yet another Commonwealth of Massachusetts vehicle inspection. This yearly DMV requirement has had me very nervous for several years now, but knock on wood, my baby still passes and she didn't disappoint me this year!

Of course there are certain requirements that need to be met and out of your control, i.e. emissions. However, there are other requirements that are left up to the issuing service station, i.e. clouded headlights, or faded license plates. The later are really left up to the discretion of the person performing the inspection. Hence, why I worry come December when it's time to have my PU inspected. Some folks just love to have this type of power; you know the kind where you can pass blame onto someone else yet still hold your ground on enforcement because they get off on it, i.e. "yeah, sorry, your plate's too faded and I'm not going to be able to pass you. State law, Massachusetts license plates must be readable from 60 feet away. Sorry nothing I can do."

Anyway, I have twelve months before I need to start tweaking again...

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

Our Recent Featherd Visitors

Here are some feathered friends that have been visiting the ole homestead recently:

-Blue Bird

- Cardinal

- Waxwing

Note: These pics were taken through the window, which is why they're blurry and fuzzy.

Calorie Logic, Doral Florida


If you're in the Doral Florida area stop in at Calorie Logic to get your metabolic assessment.

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Armed with this information, Calorie Logic will provide custom energy smart diet plans, exercise programs and healthy tips.

They folks at Calorie Logic are fantastic - friendly, helpful and professional.

You can find them on the Internet at Calorie Logic, as well as on Facebook at Calorie Logic, for more information and directions.

I highly recommend them!

The Hardy Boys Game



1969 vintage The Hardy Boys game by Milton Bradley

Find The Critter



Can you find the critter in the above photo?

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Thumbs Down

Thought I'd be wild and crazy this morning and mix things up some, so I popped in a Green Mountain Coffee Gingerbread flavored K-Cup into our Keurig.

It wasn't good, nope. Falls in line with the McGriddle, from my perspective anyway.

I would rate it as: K-Yucky!

Plant of The Apes Game



1974 vintage Plant of The Apes game by Milton Bradley

Cheez-It Anyone?!



Trixie is DEFINITELY fitting in just fine!

Just like daughter.
Just like father.
Just like grandfather.

A Cheez-It junky...

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Gillette Stadium Blood Donation Day!



This past Saturday (12/10) the American Red Cross, Bob's Discount Furniture store and the 10 & 3 New England Patriots held their annual blood drive at Gillette Stadium. What a great take! The donation and all activities were held in the new "Putnam Club" luxury suite, which overlooks the playing field!!

I made my appointment for first thing in the morning, 8AM, to get there early before the crowd. While I was donating and hooked up to the double-red machine, JoAnne and Emilie were tooling around and taking in the other offerings, i.e. face painting, puppet show, getting autographs and taking pictures with some of the
Patriot cheerleaders and retired New England Patriot players - Joe Andruzzi and John Smith.There were all kinds of snacks, hourly raffles to win furniture and autographed Pats items and a great view of the stadium and field.



Here is a picture of Joe Andruzzi's left hand, which is adorned with one of his Superbowl rings, WOW! The three of us each posed for a picture with him and each time he took off his ring and let us put it on, incredible! JoAnne was gonna make a run for it but thought better of it. Wouldn't want him running you down... He was a super nice guy, very personable, and extra special with Emilie when it was her turn for a picture - a class act!



It was an excellent take and all for a good cause too! Can't wait to do it again next year.

McYucky For Sure!

I tried a McDonald's McGriddle breakfast sandwich this morning and it McSucked!

Don't know what I was thinking but never again!

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

New Outside Light Fixtures

It's that time of year again when Lowe's extends an additional 10% discount to their employees (for one week). This, along with the regular employee discount, brings it to 20%! So, we took advantage and make some purchases. One of which was to buy (3) replacement outside light fixtures for the back of the house.

The weekend was beautiful and warm, so getting them installed wasn't too bad at all. They look so much better than the old ones, plus these throw off more light.

New light fixture -



The old fixtures could use some cleaning like polishing the brass but otherwise they still work just fine, however, they're going to be recycled.

Old light fixtures -

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Friday, December 02, 2011

Shower Finally Fixed, HOORAY!

Yup, we finally made the call and the plumber arrived today and fixed the master bedroom shower drain! The PVC drain rim or lip, whatever the piece is that sits just below the shower drain screen, cracked sometime ago. As a result, the water wouldn't all go down the drain like it's supposed to. Instead, it would run outside the drain pipe and into the floor. Well, eventually the water softened the plaster ceiling in the kitchen below causing a hole to appear and water drip to the floor below and puddle.

The shower has been out of commission for about 6+ months now. As a result JoAnne and Emilie have been using my shower. Now that their shower drain has been repaired I get my shower back to myself again, yippee!

Before -


After -


Note: I will spare you the pictures from above, as they're kinda skive.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

My Blond Moments

Maybe it's just me but it seems like I've been having what I refer to as "blond moments" more and more these days. In and of itself these are more comical and embarrassing than anything else, for now anyway.

As a matter of fact I had one just yesterday afternoon. Let me explain -

We have a baby snapping turtle that we're wintering over in the house due to my poor timing on setting him free with enough time to fatten up and find himself a good place to hibernate before the cold weather set in. He's in a semi hibernated state I would guess. Not too much activity at all and no eating. Yesterday, after cleaning his bowl I set him in the sun, which stirred him up and got him moving. So, I thought it would be a good opportunity to give him something to eat. Off I went to the garden with shovel in hand and dog in tow to dig some worms. Walla, three bigg'ns with the first shovel full.

So far so good. Everything is proceeding as you'd expect. Here is where my blond moment kicked in...

Of course, the worms we're all covered with dirt, right! After all they live in the dirt, underground. Well, before I plop these dudes into the turtle bowl they needed to be cleaned or rather rinsed off, so under the kitchen faucet they went. Does anyone know what happens to worms when they're wet, hmm? Anyone? I'll tell you what happens to worms when they're wet, they become slippery, very slippery and difficult to hold. OOPS, worm down! Worm down! And when I say down, I mean down the drain they went!! Gone! Well, not all of them, two of the three. See what I mean..

Note: No offense intended to any blonds out there, bleached or otherwise!