Bogieblog

Dinner and a Different Show

We got to the TSO concert last night. WS had asked when I wanted to leave, I decided about 5 would be about right so we could get a parking place, find a place for dinner and have plenty of time to eat before having to get to the arena for the show. Little did we know that half the entertainment would come before we even got to the arena.

We made good time to Manchester, getting there in about 40 minutes. When got within 2 blocks of the parking garage that is catty-corner to the arena, we suddenly found we couldn't get any closer. The police had cordoned off the area and traffic was being shunted back to other areas of the city. our first mistake; forgetting about the 3:00 show, which meant the area would be shut down before the show ended, and, more importantly, that all the parking in the immediate vicinity would be taken.

Work and a Show

After a week full of staining and polyurathaning (no painting though), the stereo cabinet is about done. I have put 4 coats of polyurathane on the outside and 3 coats on the doors and shelves. Today I am putting a couple of coats on the bottom and finishing the doors up. Over the weekend we should be able to switch everything over (assuming that Jim is ready for the old entertainment center - otherwise we have to wait until we can get that out of here).

Tonight we are going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Verizon Wireless Arena. We have no idea if they are any good, or even quite what to expect, but the DJ's to the local rock station just rave about them (and they don't rave about just any band either). Additionally, the original 8 PM show (the one we are attending), sold out so fast that they added a matinee show at 3.

Should be a good ending to the week anyway.

Christmas Doings

Christmas day was great. We slept late,  got up, went upstairs, turned on the Weather Channel and zoned out on that for a while. We opened cards and presents (best card was one with blinking lights from Dudette and Wichi Dude). Ws called his brothers, and tried to get ahold of his sister, but she has a new boyfriend (according to one brother), so wasn't around. I called WD/Dudette then Cop Car and HH. I got totally jealous because they had temps in the 60's, while we sere stuck with low 40's, clouds and occassional rain.

WS and I just piddled around for most of the day. We brought up the wood CD organizer (which I had finished polyurathaning Saturday) and started alphabetizing our CD's. We got up to Pink Floyd before we ran out of room. That is okay though, the rest of the CDs fit in the small, tabletop CD organizer we have. We did get all the CD's out of the drawer of the china cabinet (which is slated to hold DVDs instead).

We moved the desk back to its place in front of the window in the den (it had been moved so Harry could put in the new window), then WS went out and fixed the generator (that is a long story, but we bought it 1 1/2 years ago from some friends that were moving, and it never worked for us - our luck again. I finally got the part we needed from a web store a couple of weeks ago). The generator actually fired up after WS replaced the sending unit, so now we just need to find an electrician to hook it up, then have PSNH come out and inspect it. I figure another 2 years and we will have the generator hooked up.

Just as WS was finishing up with the generator, Karen came bearing gifts (and cookies), so we excahnged gifts and visited with her for a while. She also brought the movie Robots, so we watched that and laughed our asses off.

After Karen left, we re-attached our asses, and headed to Harry and Heather's to drop off their gift. We gabbed with them and played with their puppy (a 5 month old mastiff that is as big as Prince) then came home and heated up spaghetti that I had taken out of the freezer.

All-in-all, it was a great day!

Curtain Call

Saturday, Jim and I convinced WS to go out and ride his new sled. Although it was fairly warm, the trails were good, but with the forecast warmish weather for the next couple of days, they wouldn't stay that way. WS had a blast, and loves that this sled has a suspension.

They were gone for 4 hours, so I got a whole bunch of house cleaning done. I also made curtains* for the den and got those hung up (try to keep up, I'll only expain this once, we had curtains in the den, but I used those to replace the crappy curtains in the bedroom, so I needed to make new curtains to replace the den curtains). I had originally bought a couple of cheap, scratchy blankets to make curtains out of, but then, while looking for yarn, I found some felt tapestries that WS had gotten me for Christmas (or my birthday) 20+ years ago.

One tapestry features a unicorn laying under a apple tree, encircled by a crown. It is in a meadow, between two converging rivers with mountains in the background. The other tapestry features a white pegasus in flight amongst the planets.

They used to hang on the panelled walls of our apartment on E. 8th Street. When we moved to NH, they spent most of their time packed away. A couple of years ago we finally cleaned out the attic, and I rediscovered the tapestries. Unfortunately, at that point, all walls large enough to hold the tapestries were taken up by plates, shelves of knick-knacks, book shelves or pictures. I just couldn't figure a way to work them into the scheme of things, so re-folded them and put them away in a drawer in the workout room.

Upon rediscovering them (again), I decided that there was no better place for them than in the den, where there are shelves upon shelves of fantasy/science fiction books that feature unicorns, pegasus, and other fantastic creatures.

When WS got home from sledding, I told him I had made curtains and that he had to go look. He was expecting to see blankets featuring wolves amongst trees (the design of the cheap blankets), instead, he was utterly blown away because he had forgotten about the tapestries too.

* I took pictures, which will be posted some time in the future.

Where I Should Live

Farm or Ranch You scored 9 out of 40 on urban-rural and 11 out of 40 land intensity.

People know you as: The Milkmaid Quote: "You get to not mind the cow smell." Your score indicates that you prefer a rural atmosphere to an urban one and low land intensity. You’re no hermit though; you like other people and, once you start talking to them, other people like you. As far as you’re concerned there is no difference between living in a city and living in a suburb, not that you would want to do either because you’re probably a bit scared of cities in the first place. Examples of places you should live: Amish country, PA; Kansas All Categories Secluded Hideaway / Farm or Ranch / Small Town / Little City / Suburb / Streetcar Suburb / Rowhouse 'Hood / Downtown Loft

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 1% on urban-rural You scored higher than 1% on land intensity

Link: The Where Should You Live Test written by TwelveFloorsUp on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Check out the examples of places I should live - too funny!

Thanks to Jay for the link to the quiz.

Equal Time

Because I showed so many pictures of Shadow, or parts of him anyway, I have to give some visibility to our other animals (if this doesn't make sense, it is because I am working forwards on the psts, and you are working backwards).

Here is Missy (Mischief) actually laying down while a camera is in use.

Prince, who as usual looks like he just got beat, or thinks he will get beat soon.

Tory, who gave me a heart-attack because it was his sister, Indy, who always laid on the couch. Tory never lays there unless he is laying on a book or newspaper I am in the process of reading (or trying to read). I don't know, maybe he had to try out the protective pad I got since I will never break Prince of getting up there whenever our backs are turned.

This is not the shot I was hoping for. When I went to go get the camera, Shadow was laying down, between the dogs, and everyone looked like they were asleep.

Ah well, maybe next time.

Throw Tails

A couple of weeks ago, I came up the stairs and found a throw, that usually resides on a wood chair, on the floor and in front of the doorway to the kitchen. It hadn't been on the floor when I went downstairs, so I figured the dogs had knocked it off. I was about to step on it, to go into the kitchen, when I took another look:

Hmm, last I knew, the throw didn't have a tail. Upon closer inspection:

I believe that Shadow was happy that I decided not to take that step!

Icy Road

Last month I was complaining because water was coming up thru cracks in the road and freezing, making the road in front of our driveways a sheet of ice. WS took pictures:

This is from the upper part of the road. From the bottom driveway, with the glare from the sun, you can really tell it's nasty:

Fortunately, the road slick is pretty much gone so we just have to deal with the regular snow, sleet and freezing rain (although it has warmed up and stuff has been melting the last couple of days).

Bear Feeder

Yesterday, I finally put up a bunch of bird feeders. After a bear visited us two weekends in a row, decimating the feeders, I only kept the general seed feeder that is inside the fence, the thistle feeder (which the bear had ignored) and 1 suet feeder (the only one the bear ignored). I have added a new Squirrel-proof feeder, a Non-No feeder (the last one which the bear carried off to part unkown), and a suet feeder (in the back yard). I'm hoping that my new squirrel-proof feeder doesn't end up like it's predecessor!

Greetings!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!