Memories

Roland and I were watching a bunch of VH1 the other day. I think we were watching the 100 best songs of the 80's or 90's or something and who should pop up? Steve Huey! I went all "I went to high school with that guy and we did a skit in French class where the Tupperware lady was going to have satan's baby and I think we made Madam Bateman cry!" Somewhere there is a picture of him with my sister because at one of our band concerts she wore his band suit and he wore her band dress. Good times, good times.

Merry Christmas

Andrea, who is on the flyball team I take classes from sent me this link today. It is a crazy amount of lights and coordination.

Industry

Clairstown update. Now I can have industry! Once again I'm not quite sure all that means, but now, once and day, you can choose to go to here and you will add a person to my population. OR you can click here and add a factory to my city. Apparently if I get too many population clicks and not enough industry clicks I get unemployment and people start to leave.

Oh no while I was typing this I aquired 6% unemployment! I need a factory stat ;)

Avocadzilla

While visiting with Kala (the Cavalier breeder) it came up that they had an avocado tree with a whole lot of avocados on it. Just about ripe too. Turns out that Kala doesn't like avocados though, would we like to take a couple home? Sure, my mom is coming for a visit and she loves guacamole. What we didn't realize is that apparently here in Florida they are slightly larger than we are used to seeing in Michigan. What are we going to do with four of these behemoths?

A mess of Cavaliers

A while ago I mentioned going to a Holiday party for the Boca Raton Dog Club. It was a very nice time, albeit a little on the loud side as it was held in an old train depot. While there I met a very nice woman who breeds Cavaliers. She invited us over to for a play date sometime. Since January is apparently very busy with her show schedule we made arrangements to meet today. She has a nice house a bit north of here with a large (for around here) fenced in yard. We had a very nice time and Bleys really seemed to enjoy the company of this own kind of dog. Here a some of the pictures I took while we were there.

Clicky

Okay, so this is what Clairstown looks like today. I'm still not sure exactly what the plan is, but it seems like every day that someone visits I get more houses, roads, or something and each person gets one visit counted per day. So keep visiting Clairstown every day and I'll get to continue to see what develops there!

Endo

Ever wondered what the inside of a cranberry looked like? I didn't...until I was cutting some up to make Roland some cranberry bread (which turned out pretty well).

Clairstown

Clairstown
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Via Anne. Visit my city so I can have a thriving metropolis. Or at least more than one house.

You can also visit Anne's city Wampville.

Asnorable

On the way back from Clearwater yesterday Bleys was in the back seat. We are very lucky because he doesn't mind riding in the car at all. In fact mostly it just makes him sleepy.

I do believe I'm getting tired.

It's gets so hard to keep my eyes open.

I think I'll just rest my head...

And take a little bitty nap.

Pier 60

This weekend we made a little trip over to Clearwater to meet up with Roland's Grandparents. His dad had just driven them down for their yearly stay in Florida. By going over now he got to see both his Grandparents and his Dad at the same time. And to be honest we haven't been over there to see their trailer yet so it was probably about time. It was a long drive with some not very fun parts as it decided to pour rain for a while and there was also quite a bit of traffic at the end that was a little stressful. But we got there just fine and went out for a little walk on a nearby pier and grabbed some dinner. As an added bonus we drove right past the headquarters of Scientology, which Roland found particularly thrilling.

While we were on the pier I managed to take some pictures. I've noticed that Roland's families pictures are almost entirely of people all lined up in a row smiling at the wrong camera. So I tried to take some when people didn't know it, or weren't expecting it, so they didn't have time to line up. The first is a picture of Grandma Rosemary taking a little break on one of the benches along the pier. I'm pretty sure she didn't have any idea I was taking pictures at all.

The second picture is probably my favorite. I like the three generations thing and I sort of caught them off guard, giving them just enough warning to get them to smile (which they all did!). I really like how it turned out. Although I think I might crop it a bit and get rid of a little Roland's arm.

Third is another picture of this handsome fella with the monochrome filter. This was actually a practice shot, I was trying to sneak around Roland a bit so I could get a shot of him, his father, and his Grandfather who were all in a row leaning on the railing and looking out at the ocean, but I just wasn't fast enough and they started to walk away.

Therapizing the masses

Last Thursday I participated in a Yuletide parade representing the Humane Society of Broward County Pet Therapy Pack. I wasn't sure exactly what that would mean, but they needed teams and it sounded like it might be fun. It turns out we just walked along the parade route as a group and let some of the people pet our dogs and generally let people know about what pet therapy is about. Roland was nice enough to come along and take pictures. An easy request, or so I thought. Unfortunately by the time our group actually got to being part of the parade it was full dark. Being a trooper he still took a bunch of pictures in hopes that some of them would turn out.

Here we are waiting for the parade to get a move on. The lady in the front was from the group in front of us, a Police Bagpipe and Drum Corps. They were pretty cool to listen to seeing as how we were outside so the volume of the pipes wasn't offensive.

On the left is one of the other teams that walked in the parade with us, Patrice (leaning over) and Max (lying regally at her feet). I originally met Patrice and Max during our training and certification at the humane society class. Max is a beautiful Briard and they also go to the Renfrew center, which is where Bleys and I go.

On the right are Bleys and I, waiting with a cute Rottweiler mix (check out the other pics on Flickr for a picture where this Rottweiler mix has some seriously intense eye-glare). Isn't Bleys resplendent in his tiny green vest? There are a couple more shots that I liked over on my Flickr account, but I kind of been feeling like I've been over doing it on the pictures lately so I will leave off here.

Tofoodles

Is everybody ready to try something new?

I was on my own for dinner tonight as Roland is giving his ethics final exam. I decided to go over to Publix and pick up some vegetables and stuff for a stir fry. While I was perusing the produce section, which is where they also keep a lot of their vegetarian stuff, I saw these Tofu Shirataki "Spaghetti Shaped Noodle Substitute." It's on baby! I mean "noodle substitute" doesn't necessarily bode all that well (smacks a little of cheese food product), but I'm up for an experience. Mostly I think people want them if they are vegan, or if they aren't supposed to have cholesterol or starchy things for some reason, none of which really apply to me.

They are simple and fast to prepare, but the real test is the taste right? I thought they were pretty good, I mean they aren't noodles and they do have a slightly different mouth feel. But overall they are something I would eat again.

Go on, get crafty!

I'm going to a Holiday dinner for the Boca Raton Dog Club and they are having a gift thing. So I needed something dog related (either for a dog, or for a dog loving human) that was under $25. I decided that I would make something and it would most likely be cheaper. Plus I like making things. I opted for this shoulder tote with Scottish Terrier embroidery. I chose this design because of all the canine choices that fit in my hoop, this one was on sale (only $1) and I already had colors of thread that would work. It only has three colors in it: black, dark gray, and light gray. If I had unlimited funds I would prefer that the dark gray was darker, but cheap won out. All of the fabrics I chose were on sale, and not very expensive to begin with, so all told I think I spent $13.

We're taking on water

Alright, this post is going to be picture heavy, because I think my dog is pretty darn cute. Yeah I'm totally biased. While I was gone Roland was awesome and took Bleys to that Splash Adventure thing again and took some great pictures. He had my old camera, which has quite the shutter lag, so it was a little frustrating, but a lot of the pictures turned out really well. We went last year (at a different park) and had a great time. We were at Disney when they did the dog day at the park we went to last year so Roland had to drive a bit longer this time, but it

sounds like a fun time was had by all.

In the first picture, which is much easier to see in the large version over on Flickr, Bleys has three - count them three- tennis balls he is sort of corralling and trying to decide which to bring. At this point he seems to be leaning toward the largest one, which clearly he could never fit in his mouth. But, I guess we should all dream big!

They don't allow you to bring your own toys and they didn't have any small balls, so Bleys ended up settling for a regular sized tennis ball. Still way to big for him, it's hard for him to get it in his mouth. But he will go after it over and over again, until exhausted. When he is swimming he looks much bigger than he really is because all his fur floats out. He looks downright chubby here!

Some of the sporting breed must be left in the Cavalier because I think Bleys likes to have a job to do. I don't suppose his job is to empty the pool of water by carrying it out one coat-full at a time, but he's going to make a go of it. Boy does that little dog soak up a lot of moisture!

Just look at that concentration, this dog is on a mission.

And last, but not least, is my personal favorite. The situation where the dog is soaking wet and looks up at you like he is saying:

"Want a hug?"

Plus, Roland got the added bonus of catching him mid-lick. What a cute little drowned rat! I love him even if much all of his majesty is lost when he gets wet.

Stay

While I was in Big Rapids I also got a chance to visit with the Grants. Susan and my Mom are good friends, she is a local judge and Don is retired. In college I used to house sit for them while they went on vacation in the summer, tending to their dogs (at the time two corgis) and keeping an eye on the joint. A number of years later, while I was working for the Humane Society of Kent County, they were looking for a dog to add to their family (they also have a retired greyhound named Maggie) and I found Bailey for them. Now they have a third rescue named Guinney (which she pronounces like Gwinny). Here is a picture of the two little ones, with Bailey on the left and Guinney on the right. It isn't the best picture ever, but as Don said, taking a picture of the two of them is like herding cats. Guinney has some issues to overcome, I think she was an entirely outdoor dog and consequently has very little idea about what humans are about. But she sure is cute!

Home

Speaking of my parents house, here is a picture I took of it...this was one of the reasons I had so much snow on my shoes in the previous post. They recently had new windows installed and the whole exterior of the house repainted. The color is very similar to what they had before, but there is a little less yellow in it. I was ready to be skeptical, but I like it better than what was there before. They also had their deck redone in that not-wood-but-looks-like-wood stuff. It looks a little different now, as they did away with the built in bench, but other than that it is very similar to the old one. It looks very nice, but visiting in the winter meant that I didn't spend a lot of time enjoying it.

I pretty much just walked across it to get to the wood shed for fuel for the fire.

Now that I think about it my parents are redoing a lot of stuff about the house. But I suppose they didn't really do much to the house for so long that many things needed attending to. I think this was the first time they had repainted since the house was built 30+ years ago. The deck was only slight younger (and was getting a little unsafe, with rotting boards), and some of the interior did scream 70's decor. Before they redid the kitchen awhile ago, we did, in fact, have Brady Bunch orange counters.

Where's that propane torch?

After visiting for while in North Muskegon, my Mom came over and drove me back to Big Rapids. It was really nice to go home. Although I don't have my room anymore (my Mom made it into a really neat library/den) my sister and I are rarely at home at the same time so we sort of time share what was her room. My parents are in the process of making choices about how to remodel their bathroom, flooring, vanity, fixtures. And I got to add in my opinion. I think what they have chosen will look really nice and be very different from what they have now (which is a good thing - this bathroom hasn't been touched in over 30 years). As a bit of a bonus not long after I arrived it snowed! Not a lot, but more came later. Although what came later was more of a sleet so that wasn't nearly as fun.

There were a couple of days where I was home alone for the day while my parents were working and I wasn't driving to visit anyone. Since it was conveniently snowy and cold outside and there was this fireplace all handy, I took the opportunity to have a couple of all day fires. My Dad has a nice wood shed out behind the garage and apparently they haven't been having very many fires because it's on the full side. I used up a bit of it, but I didn't really make a dent in the total. There is just something about a fire...and maybe a cup of cocoa along with it. It was so nice to light it and sit in front of it all day doing a puzzle. Very comforting.

Velveeeeta

Another evening I was in North Muskegon Ryan and Laura drafted Ryan's mother to babysit Jackson, and Jason was totally awesome and drove up from Kalamazoo. We went out for dinner to at the BLT (where they have the largest crab legs I've ever laid eyes on), and then went back to the Wiles' house. We enjoyed some margaritas and played a couple rounds of Spite and Malice. Ryan was super fantastic and kept a fire going for a long time, which Laura and I really liked.

Here you can see Ryan, Jason, and Laura (after some beverages) while we partake in some Euchre playing fun. And get this, Jason and I actually won one game (perhaps Ryan and Laura were just taking it easy on us?). It was so nice to hang out with my friends, but it makes me appreciate how much I miss them now that I am back in Florida.

Cookie!

Another good thing about staying in North Muskegon is that Ryan and Laura live there now. They have a very nice house not too far from the Clevelands...although, if two people both live in North Muskegon, then no matter what they aren't too far from each other. Anyway, one evening while I was in there Mrs. Cleveland let me borrow her car and Ryan, Laura, Jackson and I all went out to dinner. It was quite an adventure and afterwards, we went over to a place called the Grand Traverse Pie Company. This place wasn't there when I lived there, and what a shame. All those desserts! Laura went for some pie, while Jackson picked a sugar cookie, and Ryan and I opted for chocolate chip cookies. I don't know about the pie or the sugar cookie, but the chocolate chip cookie was delicious. It was a lovely evening and Jackson was very patient when dinner took much longer than expected and he was still adjusting to the time change. He is also in a stage where he talks pretty much non-stop. You don't really even have to be listening, he will just keep on going. And some of the stuff he says is pretty hilarious. All in all an adorable 3 year old. There is another picture of Jackson and one of the Wiles' cat, Adventure in my Flickr account.

A little later Jackson was getting ready for bed and I caught Laura unaware with the monochrome filter. I'm not sure what she's thinking about, and the picture quality isn't the best, but I like this shot. Probably because Laura is always such a bubbly and fun person it is interesting to see her both in a quiet moment and without color.

There is one big down side to visiting with Laura, I remember just how much I miss her.

Snuggler

Here is a picture of my niece Mila. I took this while I was up in Michigan and staying at the Cleveland abode. Here she is snuggling with Mrs. Cleveland, isn't she adorable? Marcie is just waiting for her hair to grow in a bit so that she looks more clearly female, but I think she's super cute. She is only 9 months and already cruising around the house. But her legs aren't quite ready to hold her up yet so she takes a lot of spills. She seems to take them in stride though, maybe it's all the padding from the diaper.