Old Buddy(s)

I came back from Vegas and went to house/pet sit for Kyle and her cute and hysterical 14 year old cocker, Buddy. He needs to take meds each day but is so good about it and sleeps alot but let me tell you he still has some spunk in him. He doesn't see very well and will bump into things especially if he is happy to see you. I told Kyle he needs a helmet!
My old buddy, Anna came down the mountain and we ate and she took me to shop, that is another old buddy, shopping! Anna also has alot of spunk and should wear a helmet.

Busy times, Good times

I had gone to Vegas to see my family and have an early Thanksgiving with them and hang out. We had a great time eating and shopping and playing the penny slots at a couple of the Station casinos. I am addicted to MILK MONEY and CRAZY NEST. It is way more fun to be entertained with money sucking versions of video games than watching that old wheel with the cherries. I also don't miss the black hands from handling change but it takes away a bit of the fun watching the money fall into the tray. Now there are slots to put in money or your credit card (scary) and when you cash out, the machine prints you a receipt with your total winnings and you cash that in at another machine or the cashier cage. I can only imagine how many jobs were lost with this new system.
Besides the Thanksgiving meal with all the favorites like the green fluffy marshmellow thing, we ate at our favorite Mexican food place and had a couple buffets that were good. Mom and I met Deena and her beau Dave at Joe's Crab Shack. We ate and drank and drank so we could take home the glasses. We had to have some of the big pint glasses that light up like a strobe meets a kelidescope so we had to order the nasty drinks that came with but managed to trade in the others for some glasses as well.

Purple Orchid Licker

I admit it, I tasted the little dew drops and they taste like honey, no joke! I had to do it and luckily didn't die but this amazing Dendrobium specimen finally, after 3 years of pampering and hoping that I wouldn't kill it, did produce the first of hopefully many more spikes with the sweetest flowers in the universe. I loves me some orchids and have had the pleasure of raising my little alien plants only to be surprised from time to time when a hopeless looking plant just spits out a spike like that with no warning. I do get weeks of enjoyment with others that produce regularly and for some reason I have good luck with the white Phalaenopsis and this speckled Oncidium shoots out a spike from time to time as well. I worked at a foral design shop that created the most amazing floral events and adopted many of my orchids that would've otherwise been discarded and have since fallen in love with them and then I read
The Orchid Thief and was further fascinated with the amazing history of those who search the globe to find them.
I am due for a couple new orchid purchases and I did see some lovely ones at Trader Joes! I will wait until Tim moves in and then I will bring some more little babies home to be licked, err loved.

Yes, the Holidays are upon us

How nice it was to be a child anxiously awaiting Christmas Eve and thinking of how you could persuade the parents to let you open a present or two before going to sleep and then trying to stay awake to catch a glimpse of the fat man dressed in fuzzy pajamas bearing gifts, oh but the eyelids were too heavy to accomplish such a feat.
How easy it was to jump out of bed at the first sliver of a sunrise to begin the job of terrorizing the parents until they too dragged their butts out of bed to let the unwrapping ceremony commence! Sure, there was the occasional bad orange outfit from Grandma and those jealous moments watching your siblings get more or “better” gifts but the outfit was soon hidden in the closet and your sibling was to small to protest against sharing her toys so all was well with the world. And Thanksgiving, oh the food you would scarf down was heavenly and made more delicious when sharing the meal at your Grandparent’s home with the whole family And so it began year after year after year...
Soon the toys were left to collect dust and those trips to family holidays happened less frequent as parents tried to make ends meet and the children got too big to be so spoiled with gifts but that was okay as there were more important things in life like ridding your bike, with dog in basket, all day until the sun set and talking for hours on the phone with friends. Little did you know how you would long for those sounds and smells of the holidays gone by.
It’s rainy days like today, when you realize you are just a couple weeks till Thanksgiving and a mere 6 and a bit weeks and it’s Christmas again! You will certainly enjoy the Thanksgiving meal with dear friends and their family but you would give anything, even if it meant wearing that ugly orange outfit, just to live it all over again, just one more time.

I didn’t go to the WoHo Halloween festivities because, well I’m sane, though many might think otherwise. I got home from a day of work and it was dark when I left and that pissed me off from the start. Why can’t Cali be like Arizona and just ignore daylight savings time?! I had a bite to eat and started to throw together another costume and just as I was finished with the makeup, I heard on the news that they estimated close to half a million people would turn out or come out, I guess both. I dropped that and decided to start to knit another hat (picture is first one) and watch The Medium marathon. Good show. I did manage to get some pictures of the neighbors at work in their costumes.

I Love Devil Dogs!! They tase good and are cute too.

Here are the pictures from Saturday’s Herse Parade. Kinda cool but basically creepy. Most of the herses are still in use so it was morbid but here are the more exotic of herse models and some of the old school coffin carriers as well. Ewwww! I went home and had to shower.