Thanksgiving and Big Kitty

Time for dessert!

Yes, it was VERY good, right Jen?!

"I wonder if I could leap into that tree like Skittles?"

Okay, that's enough playing around for one night.  I like the blurred edges on these photo's.  

 For those of you have been worried about my crown, it was glued back in and hopefully it will last longer than 6 months or I'm looking at a new implant/and root removal by an oral surgeon.

  Moving on to more pleasant news, the thrift store will soon be a reality.  We are in need of donations, so if you have items you would like to get rid of, please save them for me.  I will take them at any time as we will be taking items as early as next week.   I think this store will be a good thing for our little town. There are so many people and groups stepping in to help.   We hope to open in January!

Miscellaneous stuff

This evening's sunset.

Shadow

Courtney & Kelsey

This photo is over-exposed and my big shadow is in the way.  But ignore that and notice the shadows in the corner and I used a setting called Antique.  You can fade out the color.  I think that will be fun to play with.  

Well, Thanksgiving weekend is drawing to a close.  My parents and Warren, Ann and kids were over last night for dinner.  We had a nice evening.  Did you notice the full moon last night?

Our neighbors were over for the Vikings game today.  Kay and I did not watch as she is not a very big fan and she wanted to discuss the thrift store.  I was fine with that and the game was a blow-out anyway. 

 Earlier in the day I drove into town to open up for the cats at the humane society.  I was happy to hear that three of them, including the one who looks like Ramona, are going to good homes.   We have about 15 cats so we needed to get rid of a few.  That sounds bad, but you know what I mean.

Now, I'm just stressing out over my crown.  I think it's loose again but I'm afraid to jiggle it too much to check.  I'll have to call the dentist and see what's up.  It was loose this summer and he said if it comes loose again we'll have to look at "other options."  That scares me.

Playing with the new Mac

Here's a picture that I zoomed in on and later cropped for a nice close-up.  Can you see that we have ice on the lake?
Kelsey and Sam walking Mollie.
They looked so cute walking the dog together.
Courtney's dog got tired so Dan gave Tootsie a break.
Deb and I with the pugs.  They were both snoring away for awhile.  They sound just like people when they snore.  We had a great Thanksgiving down in Sioux Falls!

This is my first post with the Mac.  Getting used to the little keyboard is the biggest challenge thus far.  There are lots of neat things I can do with my photo's so maybe I can share some of that on the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving

I put the tree up the other night so that the cats would have a few days to get used to it before I put the decorations on it. So far, they are ignoring it so maybe my strategy is working. It was very cold here today, 22 degrees according to my car. We also had light snow throughout the afternoon. We are heading down to Sioux Falls on Thursday morning to Tim & Deb's. I have a salad to make and crackers with dip. Can't complain about that! Hope you all have a long relaxing weekend!
Laurie
PS
This is NOT my tree, it's a page from Pottery Barn!! I'll show you a picture of my tree later.

Oprah on Tuesday

Oprah's Favorite Things Show will be aired on Tuesday. It was filmed somewhere in Georgia this year. It's always fun to see how excited the audience is when they realize they're on the favorites show and will be getting all that great stuff. One year she had an audience of teachers for this particular show and that was very neat to see. I am enjoying the pleasures of taping shows again now that we are set up for that with the new TV. It's just like TIVO and I am loving it.
It was a gorgeous sunny day here, close to 50. I left school as soon as possible so that I could do a little outdoor decorating. I picked a bunch of dogwood, some plant with a huge seed pod, and another plant with some feathery plumes. Sorry I don't know my wild plants like I should but I do know how to identify poison ivy and that's the important thing. Well, before I knew it, it was getting dark. The lighted deer are out and I put an old artificial tree in front of the garage since there's an outlet right there. All that's left is to cut some pine branches and the outside decor is complete.

Last Chicago Photo's

The top photo shows the Michigan Ave bridge raised to let some sailboats through. Isn't that cool? Photo 2 shows Dan relaxing in our room. Photo 3 shows the El-train, which we took from the airport and back for only 2 bucks each. Photo 4 shows the new shiny Trump building and Chicago Tribune just to the right. The last photo is from our room of the neat clock and Wacker Drive along the river.

Holiday lights and shops

Lights on Michigan Avenue.

Macy's window display. Crate & Barrel has 4 floors on Miracle Mile (Michigan Ave) It's their flagship store. It was unbelievably crowded. Most of the shops were chain stores but I did stumble upon P.O.S.H. on State Avenue. It's an independent store and has a good website. I wish the website showed more store photo's but believe me it was one of the prettiest vintage stores that I have ever been in.

Saturday happened to be the Holiday Lights Parade on Michigan and it brought out a ton of people. We had Jersey Boys that night so we didn't attend the parade. We loved Jersey Boys by the way.

Hotel Monaco

Our room was wonderful and very French. The Hotel Monaco is the black building on Wabash Street.



Here's the view we had from the window seat on the 6th floor. I felt like I was up in a nest watching the world go by. You can see the river and the State Street Bridge in the background. Notice the round Newhart buildings too? If you click on the picture you will be able to see how they park their cars around the base, very unique!

Chicago!

We came home from our anniversary weekend in Chicago today. It was a 3 day weekend thanks to conferences earlier in the week. We had a good time walking around downtown, going out to eat, attending Jersey Boys and relaxing in our hotel. I think the window seat was one of the highlights of the weekend!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Happy 18th Birthday, Matthew! Can't believe how fast all you nephews & nieces are growing up. Seems like just yesterday your parents were trying to figure out what kind of formula your system could tolerate and now you're looking at colleges! Hope you have a special day! See your Uncle Dan as he has some birthday cash for you. :) We are very proud of you and all of your accomplishments! Laurie & Dan

Don't forget this weekend!

New Camera

Here are the first pictures using my new camera, a Fuji FinePix 550. My Olympus camera that I've had for the last 5 years or so was becoming very inconsistent and it was time to update my megapixels anway. So now I have 6.5 instead of 3 and more zoom too. It was easy to pick out as we used our credit card points and there were only 2 to choose from.
How do you like my new rug? Kind of cozy and homespun, right? It's braided wool, in excellent shape and definitely hand-made. Can you guess where I found this....yes, the dumpster. Not just one, but three of them! I found a spot for all of them. Again, why would anyone just throw them? Even Dan likes them although he shook his head when I told him where they came from. I think they are valuable.
Here's another project that I plan to sell for the Humane Society, a decorated mini clipboard.
And here is Dan bringing home dinner the other night, pizza. So, do you think my photo's look better? I don't think I'll be able to tell until I print some out or try to crop or enlarge.

Gracie & Daddy

Here's a picture Royce sent of Gracie's first Halloween. How cute is that?!