Prickly Sunshine

I've never been able to grow sunflowers.

Not sure why, they just never seemed to make it past 4 inches tall.

But this one.

Wow.

A gift from my neighbor, I planted this in the "Golden" soil. I have a small spot next to the house facing East that has the sweetest soil. Annuals come back year after year, tomatoes grow like weeds and flowers are more colorful than the brightest rainbow.

Sunflowers will be in my future, for sure. And perhaps some note cards to savor through the winter months.

Best Cool Off

Oh, to be a kid again!

I love that I can see Little Man's eyelashes in this picture above.

Look at that smile! Big Boy was having a great time. He bet me one dollar that I wouldn't do the slip and slide. But I did.

I never got my dollar.

I did get a nice set of sore ribs for the next couple days.

Sunshine Through My WalMart Curtains

Yes, I shop at WalMart. Go ahead, throw stones. I get all the bad employee benefits and treatment and the selling of items from third world countries where an eight year old works for pennies a week. It happens, I bet that happens in the more expensive stores. Target and WalMart have some of the same merchandise, should I not shop at Target, either?

This is where I draw the line. I often need things, like curtains, underwear and diapers. WalMart has the best prices (at least they used to, I have been shopping around) and WalMart is friendlier to my wallet for those types of items.

But I was just awarded this, so perhaps Kohl's or Macy's is in my future:

THE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS PROMOTION

DEPARTMENT OF THE BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY

41 Wigmore Street London W1U 1PJ

United Kingdom

Draw date:5th/03/2009

WINNING NOTIFICATION:In the final draw of 5th day of March 2009 Your e-mail address attached to Ticket Number: 8603775966738 with the following Winning Numbers:6, 18, 40, 43,47, 49, 32 (bonus no.32) has won you £500,000.00 G.B.P. (Five Hundred thousand Great British Pounds) in the ongoing BMW AUTOMOBILE 2009 awareness program lottery.

WooHoo!

I have never owned a BMW, I have never been to the United Kingdom and I don't play any lotteries with my email address.

Great British Pounds. All mine, for my name, number, name of next of kin, their address and SS#...oh yeah. Are there really people out their that believe this junk?

A Little Bit of Sunshine

Buffalo gets a bad rap.

Snow, snow, snow.

Yes, we get our share of snow but it rarely causes any damage. We don't have to worry about terrible rains and flooding or mega winds that beckon a terrible rendition of "Oklahoma".

The difficult part of Buffalo is January. A Buffalonian can go an entire month and never see the sun, as it seemed this past January. And it wasn't until I started writing this that I realized January is over. January and February are depression inducing months in these parts. People hibernate, lovers quarrel at simple things, the gray gloominess outside can seep into ones body and mind like a virus. It is these months that I often wonder if I would benefit from some meds. Our economy and my empty pockets don't help with the entertaining of the wee little ones.

So, instead of 11 degrees or lower, we got up to high 30's, maybe even hit the 40 degree mark. But that 20 degrees is huge and very welcomed around these parts. We all went out for a little shoveling, building, falling, crying, laughing, creating, and photo taking. Ahhh, the power of the sun.

Welcome February! Oh, how sunny are thee. Forty and sunny, almost planting season.

But not too sunny, tomorrow is Groundhog Day and we don't want that little furball to see his shadow (or did I get that backwards again?)

See that carrot nose? I whipped that up two years ago for a snowman that was created while baby carrots were in our fridge. It was a triangle of orange, sewed up the long side and stuffed with whatever is around. I then did a couple rings (what are those little indents on the carrot called?) of thread to show the indents on the carrot and sewed up the end after inserting a long hook screw thing from some old project. It is the perfect touch for a house without edible carrots. It also is easy to insert, just remember to place in at an angle so that when 'Ned' melts, his nose doesn't droop.