My Christmas present to myself - a membership to Turtle Bay.  My New Year's resolution - to actually use it!  While I don't need a membership to walk on the River Trail, you are supposed to have a membership to visit the Arboretum.  Margene and I went for a walk there last Sunday.  The weather was a bit cool with a high overcast - not the best for pictures, but I think we did pretty good anyway.

Right as we entered the park, I noticed we had company.....

And the speck at the top of this tree is a very cold hummingbird.

When Meredith and I visited this pond earlier in the winter, it had a thin layer of ice on it.  Now, it has beautiful reflections instead.

Something startled the sea gulls as we were walking by......

While we were walking, we came upon a very odd sight.....

When I showed AJ the pictures, he called them 'fuzzies' - people who dress up in animal costumes just to dress up in animal costumes.  They may be odd, but they looked like they were having fun, and the little kids loved them!  The black and white creature on the right didn't speak - even to the others, everything was pantomimed.  They were there for a couple of hours at least - just wandering around in costume.

I made one of the three blocks for the new quilt yesterday:

I like how it turned out - my points are getting pretty darn close!  I also spent some time on 'the other quilt'.  I'm at the point that I no longer like it, so it may have to go sulk in a corner for a while.  I'll finish the part I'm working on now - adding the side pieces - and then wait a while and see if I like it again.  Whether I like it or not will determine how much more work I put into it.

Even Alli seems to have accepted Luna.  

Our only hold out is Indy, and he needs drugs.  Seriously!  He recently started peeing all over the house - the hallway, the dining room, even on Jasper's food bowl!  He had scabs on his back and tail, and was a miserable cat.  I switched his food out for (more expensive) all natural hypo allergenic, no wheat food, and flea treated him.  (I was worried that no one would like it so tried to switch it in slowly - they all loved it and would leave the 'old food' in the bowl....)  That didn't seem to help, so he went to the vet's.  They gave him two shots in his butt, and put him on prosac.  He also needs to 'be protected' from Luna, so he now spends most of his day locked in the bedroom where Luna can't scare him.  He comes out occasionally, usually in the morning, when it's quiet.

I started the newest quilt with my quilt club - All Around the Neighborhood.  This time, is it just a 5 month session - 3 quilt blocks a months for 4 months and the sashings/bindings the 5th month.  They are looking for another quilt to finish up the year with, but no decisions have been made yet.  This one is a bit different than one's I've done in the past - the only color that is mandatory is the color for the sky - and that is just because it takes more material than the other pieces.  We have the same amount of every other material in the monthly kit, so we get to pick and choose how to put the house together.  Here's the sample that the club leader made up:

Each house individually:

There is also a 'mystery' project to make.  All I was told was the number of half-triangle squares to make, and whether the colors should be 'light/dark' or 'dark/dark'.  Interesting,,,,,,,

Since I still haven't finished the last quilt, we'll see how it goes.  I have almost all of the pieces sewn together, and the thought of the next rows terrify me!  One row of the quilt is done with striped material, and includes mitered corners.  After listening to all the problems that the experienced quilters had, I may skip that!  I also will admit that I'm not a fan of the border that was done on the original anyway.  I may just finish it up 'my way'.

Today is AJ's 22 nd birthday.  Once again,  how did that happen?  He's planning on a bunch of guys in for hamburgers tonight.  I had plans to pull out pictures of him as  baby out and the didn't happen.  Maybe tomorrow.....

Well this morning started with a bang - or at least a crash.  Someone knocked off my kerosene lamp from the bookshelf. At 5:00 a.m.   Broke glass and spilled kerosene at 5:00 a.m.  Fun!  Not!  I'm assuming it was Indy.  He's been sleeping up there and he's too big I think.

Yesterday, Meredith and I went for a loooong walk at Turtle Bay.  We were gone a couple of hours - I don't know how far we walked, but I logged over 10,000 steps yesterday - most of them on the walk.  It was a beautiful day - chilly, but sunny.  We started at the Arboretum on the west side of Turtle Bay, and ended up walking past the Sundial Bridge to Hwy 44 and back into the park.

These are in the Arboretum - they looked really cool, and I forgot to take a picture of the name plate so I could remember what they are.

Same plants, different angle.  Love this one!!!

I love the sun and shadows in this shot.

One one part of the trail, "someone" put a lock on the fence (evidently as part of a trend in Paris, according to Meredith) and others followed.  Some of the locks are painted, most have writing on them - dedications, etc.

No turtles at this bay - there is a layer of ice on the pond.  I think every little boy (and some big ones) that went by while we were there had to throw a rock or something in the pond "just because".  The sound made by the rocks skittering on the ice was cool.

A view of the bridge.

This is a view of the river toward the highway from the park.

These geese just would not cooperate and let me catch a shot with both their heads up.

This guy was a little more cooperative......

I missed the shot of this guy flying off with a berry in his mouth - he grabbed one and flew right after this.

From the bridge - muskrats in the river.

I'm loosing one of my kids again.  Dallas is leaving today to go back to college.  It was nice having him here for Christmas break.  He is supposed to come back on Spring Break, but not for the summer - he has an intern job.  It sure was nice to have him home for a while.

I picked up a bad habit over the last few weeks - sitting around reading and not getting anything else done.  Now I remember why I don't read as much as I used to!  For a while, I could say it was because of the weather - it was raining, so I couldn't do anything else.  Now?  It has been gorgeous weather, and I'm still sitting on the couch reading.  (It's all the library's fault - they sent me a notice that my library card was suspended for lack of use, so I had to use it!!!!)  I didn't get nearly what I wanted to get done for Christmas, I still have a present to finish up and deliver, and I wanted to do something for everyone at book club for Christmas.  My New Year's resolution????  Besides the normal "loose weight, work out every day, blog more, etc."?  I'd like to do some more thread crochet work this year.  I think the only thing I did with thread this last year were bookmarks - not a single doily on my hook!  Maybe this year - may be even some snowflakes!!!

Someone's fitting in quite nicely.....

Merry Christmas!  I can't believe I didn't post anything for a week - and I had some days off in there too!  It must be the change in routine that got me.  Not that there was anything exciting happening....

We had a (relatively) quiet Christmas.  Margene and Dallas came over for turkey dinner, and Margene and I watched movies (White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye - she'd never seen it!!! - and Julia and Julie with Meryl Streep) while the boys played on the computers.

All dressed up for the Christmas Party!  (no - the soft focus look was not on purpose - I'm terrible at selfies!)

Ralph decided not to go to the party last night, and he missed a fun time.  There were around 200 people there - lots of glitter and sparkle!  Today is our 27th wedding anniversary too - how did that happen!!!!

We had a surprise visit yesterday afternoon.  Mom called around 3:00 and asked if were ready for visitors......of course!  Unfortunately, Ronna's truck had broken down (in Susanville) and was towed to the dealership in Redding and she and Mom came down with the tow truck to get a loaner truck, so they stopped by for a few minutes.  It was a short visit, but a very nice surprise.  Even better, I had procrastinated about mailing Ronna's Christmas present (it was on my to-do list......) so now I could give it to her in person!

I can't believe that my vacation is over - I still have so many things on my to-do list that I didn't get to.  I do it all the time, so I'm not surprised at myself.  The more time I have off from work, the more I add to my list of things to do.  One thing that I can cross off my list today - laundry!  The repairman will be here tomorrow to see if he can save my washer.  I have a funny feeling it is toast, but.....we'll see.  I'm not looking forward to catching up on the laundry, either.  AJ brought back dirty clothes with him, so I'll have an extra load or two anyway.  Bummer!

So much for trying to post more often - it hasn't worked well so far!  This week I was even on vacation (part of it at least) and I still didn't post.

I had my last Civil War Quilt club meeting last Saturday - I got the last of the material needed to finish the quilt, and haven't touched it.  Since that meeting is at my normal grocery shopping time, and the stores are madness now, I skipped my normal shopping on Saturday, and went on Sunday morning instead.  After shopping, I started cleaning up the leaves on the lawn and driveway.  I got most of the driveway cleared, and it started raining on me.  Bummer (sort of).  I didn't want to, but I needed to, clean up the leaves.  Since I couldn't finish that job, I went in and started my Christmas Baking.  Needless to say, I didn't finish it all on Sunday, so Monday morning, I finished my baking.  I was able to put my cookie plates together and distribute some of them - to Margene and Dallas, and to work.  That pretty much filled my day.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to Sacramento for a conference - leaving at 6:00 on Tuesday and coning back at 5:00 on Wednesday.  Two days of conference to learn how to fill out a 3 page form,  Wow!  It was a true line-by-line training session.  Very long and drawn out, but very needed as well.  It was the new Integrated Mortgage Disclosure that is effective next August....which means I may have forgotten it all by then!  It was a good conference, and a fun trip, but it sure broke up my vacation.

Thursday, I drove down to San Francisco and picked up AJ.  His flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:23, so I was planning on leaving here around 7:30 or so.  As I was piddling around after I put Alli on the bus, I checked his flight.....he was landing an hour early!!!  (That was some tailwind!)  I pulled myself together enough to not scare the other people waiting in the airport (it was SFO, so it would have taken a lot to scare people, but still.....I needed to do my makeup and hair!)  I hit the road around 7:00 for the scheduled 3 1/2 hour drive.  Let's just say that the map app on my phone was overly optimistic about the time it would take to get there.  I hit the toll booth stop-and-go traffic a couple of miles before the actual toll booth.   By the time I made it out of there (and into more traffic on I80 and 101) AJ had landed.  I shot him a quick message saying I was on my way, but was stuck in traffic.  His reply?  "Don't hurry - we can't get off the plane until our normal time to de-plane."
He actually got off the plane after I made it to the airport (which was later than the original plan).  Then he had to clear customs and pick up his luggage.  He landed at 10:21, and we left SFO around 12:45.  But...he was home!!!  I had a nice ride back to Redding listening to some of his adventures.

Not long after we got in, Dallas came down, and life was back to normal in a hurry.  I was cooking for an army once again, and telling the 'boys' to quiet down so I could go to sleep.  Nice!

Friday was the annual Christmas Breakfast at work, and I was assigned to bring a quiche, so I was up at dark-thirty to get it in the oven, get Alli ready, and me out the door.  I left for work before Alli got on the bus.  Breakfast was served at 7:00, and officers get to be there early to get everything ready.  Luckily I only had to bring a quiche - the 'guys' were there at 5:00 to cook sausage, bacon, and potatoes for 75 people.  It is a fun tradition, but we are getting so big it has become a big burden to prep for it.  After breakfast, I did the grocery shopping and I "think" I finished up the last of my Christmas shopping, came home and sat on the couch and read,  Period.  I fixed Alli some dinner, but that's pretty much all I did.

Tonight is the Bank's Christmas party, and I will go in at 9:00 this morning and help decorate the country club for it.  Then I need to come home and do some house cleaning/straightening etc.  Alli is going to daycare for the evening tonight, so I'll need to have her fed etc. by 5:30, and be dressed and sparkly myself, and then off to the party!!!!

It's too dark to tell yet if we have any wind damage from this storm - but if we don't, it's not from lack of wind!  I don't know how strong the gusts are, but they were pretty strong.  Ralph woke me up at 1:00 and it was windy, but Alli woke me up at 4:00 and it was wild!!!  I haven't seen any major power outages (one of the big fears of the storm) yet.  We've had an inch of rain since midnight, and I'm sure that it was all sideways.  Today is garbage day, and I waited to put the cans out this morning, and by the time I put the second can out, the top of the first one had blown back.  I geared up in Ralph's rain jacket and my boots, and I'm still damp around the edges.

Luna is fitting in quite nicely now.  My dogs are so patient - she leaves food in her bowl, and they wait a really long time before they will eat it.  She's looking more and more like a husky mix.  The more I look at white shepherds, the more she isn't one.  She loooooves her squeaky toy that Dawn and I picked up last weekend.  It's missing an ear, but is otherwise holding up pretty well.  She has found a few things round the house to chew as well - bad puppy!

Trying to fit a third dog into the family has been "interesting" to say the least.  Hema (Hindu for snow) came to us from an ad in the paper - free to a good home - 1 year old shepherd.  I didn't know that Ralph was even thinking about another dog!  Luna (the latest choice of names for her) came to us with none of her shots, un-spayed, and with fleas.  Lovely.  All the dogs got dosed with flea meds Thursday night, and Luna got another bath yesterday.  (She smelled like flea shampoo and was very clean, so I think they gave her a quick bath before Ralph showed up).  Today is low-cost (which is still expensive) vaccination day at the vet's, so Luna and I will be standing in line this morning.

She's an unusual dog in many ways.  She's still a puppy and wants to play - but Koori doesn't think anyone should be playing.  Koo doesn't snap at Luna, but she snaps at Jasper when I get Luna and Jasper playing tug-a-rope together.  Needless to say, that takes all the fun out for Jasper, so she stops playing.  It's been too wet (for me!) to go outside and see if she fetches or plays with a ball, but she loves tug-a-war.  She has a soft mouth, and is pretty gentle.  I'm not too sure about all that white dog fur, and can only imagine what she will look like after she finds a mud puddle!

She's not extremely photogenic,.., she's hard to catch with the cell phone camera (the delay on the camera has her wandering off mid-picture.)  She has beautiful blue eyes that look like they came from a husky.  She has the shepherd ears, and some of her build is shepherd, but.....no telling what she really is.  One of our biggest issues is feeding time.  She seems to be a grazer, which doesn't work well with my two gulpers.  That's getting better on both sides now.  We're still working on basic commands as well - sit and stay don't work well, but she's very polite about it. 

Ralph brought home a surprise last night.  He had seen an ad in the paper for a free dog.  Hema is about a year old Shepherd-cross.  She's very sweet and Ralph is smitten.