January 13, 2012

My Christmas gift to Aunt Nene

Outside in single-digit weather - one of the few times that hot flashes are welcome.  At least it is still above zero, unlike our friends in Laramie who have been experiencing down to 17 below.  Brrrrrr!  Wednesday, at 10 degrees, I got lazy and took firewood off the porch instead of bundling up and going out to the woodshed.  Always a nice option. 

Above is a photo of the picture frame I made for my Aunt Nene.  It was rather time consuming, especially gluing on the individual pine cone "petals."  I also used moss, small pine and fir cones, and bark, and put a picture of foxes in it as they are her favorite animal (besides the Rose Camp bears).  I was very pleased with the final product and may make some more.

The linen closet finally got my attention the other day.  This is one of the largest linen closets I have ever had, so it is quite a project to reorganize and clean it out.  And every time I do, I find items I have quite forgotten about.  I had no idea I could store so many boxes of Swiffer Sweepers and Wet Mops in there.  Won't need any more til at least 2014. . .

JB drove Down There on Wednesday and was able to slide down quite nicely without chains.  It has only been two weeks since he was last there, but, my how the junk mail does stack up!  He has to go down again next week and will take a couple bags of recycle paper to drop off.

Earlier this week we finally fastened down the two kitchen cabinets we purchased and installed last summer, along with the extended counter.  Should have been an easy enough project, but as I mentioned when we first got them, both the cabinets and counter have been slightly modified from when we first created our kitchen.  But using shims, we were able to get the old and new fairly well aligned.  The "rustic" in our finished project probably won't be noticeable to the casual eye, although I'm sure my brother will see it next time he is up.

We have become addicted to the TV series, "Fringe".  Our son gave the first two seasons to JB for his birthday, along with the first two seasons of "Supernatural", which is also addicting.  Right now we have seven TV series that we are watching, and have scheduled one for each night of the week.  If we want to watch a movie, we just skip that night's program.  "Castle" and "Fringe" are definitely our favorites, but the other six are very close behind:  "Burn Notice", "The Closer", "Bones", "Supernatural", "White Collar" and "Dexter."  Well, except for "Dexter," which is just a little too dark.  We have finished watching the first season of "Justified", but that program is right up there with "Castle".  Last night we watched "Sherlock Holmes" and were very entertained.

Thought for the day:  Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator.  But among those whom I love, I can: All of them make me laugh.   W.H. Auden