I must say that at least once a month, but I think this may be the driest spell that I've had in my blogging life. I've been blogging in my head, but I just haven't made the time to get things onto the computer.
While I've been away we celebrated Elegante Mother's 91st birthday. She spent the day before shopping with My-Sister-The-Nurse, and having her hair and nails done. I met them for a lovely lunch, and then spent some time shopping for the gift cards that EM will be giving her family for Christmas. We have more than half of them signed, and addressed and slipped into gift bags, but I still have a bit of shopping to do, and five sets of gifts to box up and mail.
The day of her birthday, December 7, we spent a quiet day at home, then went to McCormick & Schmick's for dinner. She was delighted. She rose to the occasion, smiling, thanking people for their birthday wishes, and flirting with the 20-something waiter. He did a great job, to the extent of singing "Happy Birthday" to her loud enough for the entire room to hear. The manager and hostesses were charming as we made our way back to the car, and even the valet cosseted EM. I think she would tell you that it ranked up there with some of the best birthdays she's had.
The day EM went shopping with My-Sister-The-Nurse was the first day she had been out for easily ten days. The entire family is down with a wretched cold. Dear Husband, who NEVER gets colds developed a doozie, and one by one we succumbed. I was the last to get it. It's really tough to take care of sickies, and then not get any commiseration when you get sick, too! I took today off to have one more quiet day before I have to fling myself into office work and Christmas preparations.
We've had our first lasting, measurable snow. The day before it arrived, I asked DH if he had put the plow on the truck. "No." "Why not?" "There won't be enough snow to justify it. Maybe for five or six inches..."
Want to guess how much snow is out there? Ohhhhh....five or six inches. The plow is on the truck now.
Yesterday I woke up to sleet on the skylights. DH walked down the drive to get the papers, sanded the sidewalk and fed the birds. Normally feeding the birds is my job. It was really kind of him to spare me having to dress for the cold weather. I've shoveled a path to the feeders, so it was a snap for him to fill them.
Yesterday, we had so many birds at the feeders that you could hardly see the snow. I've changed the formulation on the mix of seed just a bit, and they seem to be using it all. I added a small finch feeder this year, and filled it with Niger seed. The ground below it looks messy, but the birds seem to really enjoy the seed. This year's crop of blue jays has one that doesn't play well with others. I know they have a reputation for being pushy birds, but the blue jays we've had previously have been very gracious birds. It's a pleasure to see them get along, but this one is more aggressive. More cardinals are beginning to show up at our feeder. When we had fewer neighbors, we sometimes had as many as eight or ten pairs of them. There aren't that many yet, but it's early in the season.
The tree service was here to cut down a pod of trees that would have taken out part of the master bedroom suite if they'd fallen. After they'd left, I realized there was one more tree in that area that needed to be cut down, and a much larger one to the east. I asked the boss to come back to do another proposal. This is not a company you want to call if you need them on a specific day, but they do good work. I showed him the two trees, and for the heck of it, asked what it would cost to cut the sumac out of two pods of evergreens on the front lawn. When I saw what he wanted to charge, I snapped it up! I've been obsessing about the sumac in the evergreen, because I was going to have to encourage DH to cut it down, and he's allergic to the evergreens. The guys did a fantastic job! I haven't seen it look so clean in more than 16 years! I know the sumac will return, but we may be able to keep ahead of it this time. They even cut out the wild raspberries! And....the tree trimmer has given me a bid on three trees off the corner of the garage. The trees were just $50 a piece, but I kept passing on the proposal, thinking DH could get to them. When I called to see when the trees would be cut down,for the heck of it I asked if he would throw in those three trees for free. I couldn't believe it!! He did it for free! I made brownies for the crew. Too bad they left about 60 seconds before I got down the driveway to hand them over.
I miss reading your blogs, and hearing from you. I hope you're all having a good month and have reached the point where holiday cheer is rising in you. Take care!