Winter Procrastination

Sad Bailey is Sad

Not much is going on in my life at this moment, Internets, except my own procrastination. I am sitting in front of my fireplace, drinking a cider (with a teenytiny shot of cinnamon whiskey), looking at our Christmas decorations, and thinking about paying some bills.

I'm enjoying having evenings off.

Yes, the chickens have stockings

We ate fondue and put up our tree on my day off yesterday.

Abe cut off my feet when he took my picture, so I cut off his in retaliation.

I love wintertime.

Peektures

I've been sort of obsessed with Instagram lately ever since I finally got an iPhone.

It makes my usually somewhat blurry/bizarre/crappy photos look halfway decent.

Here are some of my favorites. (I kind of want to make the last one into a poster and put it up on my wall.)

P.S. Yes, Abe was Colonel Angus for Halloween. I don't know.

Cold weather and house pictures

Y'all. It's so cold and windy outside.

Abe went to Costco, but I prefer to experience the howling of the wind from the comfort of my pajamas. I don't know about you, but I believe that people who live in places with months of 100+ degree weather should be allowed to whine and sit inside by the fire when it gets cold enough to kill the aloe vera plants.

Ergo: wah!

I got sort of bored with whining (who knew that was possible?), so I decided to take some crappy cell phone pictures* of the kitchen/dining area of our house in its still-in-progress state.

*I still haven't packed and moved my camera charger because I'm lazy.

This is the kitchen/dining area:

Likes: the fireplace, the big window, over the sink, the color of the kitchen cabinets.

Dislikes: SoMuchBrick!, tile floors, kitchen lighting.

I'd like to paint the brick and take down the mantle, but 1.) I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to do that, and 2.) I'm afraid we might be overwhelmed by too much white space on the walls.

The tile floors would be great, except that they weren't sealed well when they were installed, and are prone to staining and sucking in dirt like weird little tile vacuums.

I'm not sure what we'll do about the lighting.

This is a better picture of the kitchen:

(Note the little bird salt and pepper shakers to the left of the fruit bowl. Love them.)

We painted the kitchen and dining area much brighter colors when we moved in (previously, the rooms were a combination of beige, dark grey, and wall-to-wall wood paneling). I love how bright the kitchen is.

On the other hand, I wish the countertops were solid surface instead of tile. I also have a love/hate relationship with the mini blinds. While the kitchen gets fantastic light during the day, and I love being able to open the blinds to let the sun in, the mini blinds are sort of ugly. Abe hates curtains, so I'm guessing we'll end up getting Venetian blinds or something similar.

I doubt that we'll upgrade the appliances (except maybe the fridge) since it's not our house.

So that is that.

In other news, here is a picture of Bailey looking pensive by the fire:

And here he is doing his Mrs. White impression:

"Fl- flames... Flames on the side of my face!"

And I think it's time for me to put the cell phone down now.

You better work.

Dear Bailey,

Turn to the left. Now turn to the right.



Good boy.

Love,
Momma

Sunday already

Dear Internets,

Is it just me, or does it seem unfair that the weekend is almost over already?

Here are some pictures of Bailey enjoying the fall weather. I think he's happy that the leaves actually changed color this year (Don't even try to tell him that dogs are color blind. He loves the leaves!):



Valentino (the betta fish) was feeling left out, so I took a picture of him, too. He's an art aficionado who does a bit of Java fern gardening and bubble nest blowing on the side:



Hmmm... It's probably a good thing that I'll have to go back to work and start interacting with adults tomorrow. Hope you enjoy what's left of your weekend, Internets!

Love always,
Jane

Dog days of November

Dear Internets,

I just deleted a post about how awesome the "PediPaws" tool is. It sounded like an advertisement.

But for reals, if you have a dog who 1.) would love nothing more than to have an excuse to sit in your lap, and 2.) turns into Cujo when he gets within 20 feet of a pair of nail clippers, it's worth checking out.

Deep down, Bailey is just a lap dog in a horse's body.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


I think Bailey and I are going to head out for a walk to enjoy the dreary (but lovely) fall weather. Achilles is brewing beer right now, and the whole house reeks of hops. Hops have a fairly pleasant smell, I guess, but right now I sort of feel like I've fallen into a fermented feed silo.

When we get back, I'm going to make ham, cheese, and cornmeal muffins for dinner. I think they'll be delicious served with black beans.

Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon, Internets!

Love,
Jane

Sunday cop out

Dear Internets,

When friends visit my house, they always say Bailey looks a lot bigger in person than he does in pictures. The problem is, when I get on "dog level" to take pictures of Bailey, I get stepped on. And he is pretty big. And I am a wimp. But for you, Internets, I tried.

Big Bailey:


Small Bailey:


Don't let that innocent look fool you. He's a maniac.

Now I'm going to go eat a cupcake.

Love,
Jane

Question

Dear Internets,

Since I am posting every day in November, I think I'm going to make Sundays "pictures of my dog days." What do you think?

Love,
Jane

P.S. I got one of those Twitter thingamajigs. Lord help us all.
P.P.S. Firefox apparently recognizes a correct spelling for "thingamajig." Who knew?

See Jane Photograph

Dear Internets,

I finally figured how to upload pictures from my camera phone (for the love of Apple, cell phone companies should not make the process so difficult! But I digress...). My normal camera has been broken since before I started this blog, so in celebration of my new ability to add somewhat relevant, mediocre-quality photos to my posts, I retroactively added some to my post about my colony of tiny paper cranes*.** ***

*Technically, it is a colony of paper flapping birds, but let's not split hairs.
**Also, I took the pictures after I made two more little flapping birds so that the remaining three wouldn't be lonely, so the pictures don't really 100% match the post. But I like them. And am still not splitting hairs.
***And also? It actually was Hawaiian Shirt Day a few days after I titled that post (hence the lei in the pictures). So the picture is kind of appropriate after all. Yay!

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the truck nuts or the grape stomp, or any good ones of minor celebrities/Bevo. But I did get pictures of my new Eee PC!

This is not my picture. However, all the photos I took of the green case had my hands in them, and since the computer is so small, it created an optical illusion that made it look like I have some major man hands.


Look! It's a Distractible Jane window inside your Distractible Jane window! It's like it could go on to infinity!


Not particularly related - I just love Talia's picture of the man in the singlet. A whole lot.


Tomorrow I'll try to get a picture of the Eee PC with the Swingline for size comparison. Until then, be cool soda pops.

Love always,
Jane

P.S. I will update on the foot tomorrow.

Pictures of puppies make the Internets smile

Dear Internets,

I'd like you to meet Bailey, my bad dog.

Love,
Jane