Daily Photo: February 18

Till the cows come home...

So this pic is of a cow that lives on a little farm near our subdivision.  Over the years, I have become fond of seeing these cows whenever I leave or come back home.  This one cow in particular is hilarious - it has this odd habit of somehow getting himself positioned up into the feeder on top of the hay.

This particular cow antic has begged many nagging questions...

1. How does he get up there??  Does he jump, climb, or get catapulted by the other cows?
2. Do cows jump or climb?  I mean cows hardly seem that ambitious!
3. Do cows catapult one another onto things?  I seriously doubt they do.
4. How does it get back out? 
5. Wouldn't eating his way all the way down to the ground just make it that much more difficult to get back out of the feeder?  I'd think it would.
6. Did I seriously turn around and go back to get this pic?  YES, I did - several people have asked me to get a pic of this cow up on the feeder.
7. Why do Mark and I find this SO amusing and hilarious?  Really...you gotta ask...have you met us??
8. Why is this picture of this cow the ONLY one I've enlarged in size so you can see the detail?

Daily Photo: February 17

Today's pic is of this crazy, sort of creepy thing on the dash of the car that I commonly refer to as 'Carl'.  I got a new coat earlier this winter, and I was SUPER stoked that it came with a removable faux fur collar!  Mark was not nearly as stoked as I was about it...neither were my co-workers...all of whom jumped on the opportunity to tell my how hideous they though it was.  Wha???  But to no avail, I wore it anyway....until...the day I realized (while driving no less) that I was clearly allergic to Carl.  I had suspected this may be the case, but one Saturday we were driving over to meet my Mom for lunch and the dang Carl allergy laid in and I was about to claw my itchy, watery eyes right out of my head!  Immediately, while driving down I-64 in the middle of Louisville, Mark had to figure out how to un-contrapt Carl from my coat and get it away from me!  So Carl got tossed into the backseat of my car where he has resided ever since. Today while I ran into the store, Mark thought it would be hilarious to 'carpet' the dash of my car with none other than, yep, you guessed it...poor Carl.

Reminder:  Carl is FAUX Fur...no actual fur coats were harmed in the making of this photo!

Together on Tuesday: Happy Valentine's Day, My Blog Reading Loves!

Yep, you guessed it.  This week we are sharing our Valentine's Day traditions!  Do we celebrate?  Why or why not?  If so, how?  Gifts, dinners, etc...?  

Do we celebrate Valentine's Day?  Why or why not?
Yes, Mark and I do celebrate Valentine's Day.  Not in any huge or extravagant way, but we like to have a little mellow celebration at home and buy each other something.  This year, I stopped at our local Kroger Wine & Spirits Shop where you can 'create your own 6-pack of beer' and put together what I thought would be a good mix of different beers that I either thought Mark would like to try or knew that he liked but didn't drink too often.  He loved it!  I also told him that I know there are plenty things he wants for his shop, so I would rather him pick out something like that for himself than me get him something that he'd like but probably not love as much as something new for his shop.  Mark got me this beautiful bracelet with Swavorski Crystals in it - he knows how much I love all things Swavorski!

Recently, our typical Valentine's date has been making a nicer than usual meal here at home.  We go out to eat a lot already anyways, and on Valentine's Day the restaurants are just too overcrowded and busy.  We decided a few years ago that we'd much rather have a nice meal at home where there aren't a zillion people packed into tables around us so close that we can't hear ourselves think, let alone hear what each other is saying.  The past few years we have gotten ourselves some really nice cuts of steak and made nicer side dishes than we would normally make.  This year, I made us a really great recipe that my friend gave me for Stuffed Shells...oh...so...yummy!

The caveat to getting Valentine's gifts is that I do not want him wasting all of that extra money on the V-day price gouging for flowers.  Really, I tell him every year not to get me flowers actually on Valentine's Day.  They just mark up flowers so much for this one day.  Really, go in your local store and see what the flowers are priced at the next day - if you bought or received flowers, the overnight price drop will make you sick.  Sometimes he will get me flowers the next day just because he wants me to have them, and knowing he didn't pay a ridiculous one-day upcharge makes them even sweeter!  They are ridiculously cheaper the next day.

There are several reasons that I want to always celebrate Valentine's Day.  First is because I think it is always important to celebrate LOVE.  Whether you are in a relationship or not, there is someone that you love and someone who loves you - so why not have a day to remind us of that so that we make a point to tell them.  I spent many a Valentine's Days 'relationship deprived', but I always had someone - usually my parents - but sometimes good friends, make me smile on Valentine's Day.  I have very fond childhood memories that I cherish from Valentine's Day.  Every year my Dad came home with three boxes of heart-shaped chocolates.  One of the big size ones (for my Mom) and two of the smaller size ones (for my Sister and I).  My Mom also always got each of us a card and a small but thoughtful gift on Valentine's Day.  For that reason, I think of Valentine's Day as just being about everyone you love, not just the one you are in a relationship with!

How Dogs Celebrate Valentine's Day!
Over the years, my canine boys have gone to lengths to make Valentine's Day even more...errr...special...for their mama.  Twice in particular.  In 2008, our first dog Watson decided that he was going to partake in the day's festivities and steal the giant heart-shaped box of chocolates that Mark had given to me.  Upon realizing how much chocolate he'd eaten and not wanting to risk the danger of a dog eating that much chocolate, we had to...forgive me for the graphic-ness of this....induce dog vomiting....ick!  We had to get it out of him before it could harm him, so we had to do the old half & half mix of water and peroxide and make him drink it.  Then, in 2011...Austin and Eli planned a really special surprise for me.  They brought a dead field mouse inside the house to give to me...they were so proud...I was so grossed out!  I thanked them, explained that it was just too much, and we quickly disposed of their 'gift'.

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Now, do tell, my loves!!  How was your Valentine's Day?  Did you celebrate?  How?  Why or why not?

Together on Tuesday: Places to Go, People to Meet, & Things to Do

This week, we are sharing our 'bucket lists'...I am sure all of you know what that is...things we want/intend to do before we kick that proverbial bucket along our way toward the light.

Well, my bucket list will have changed from what it would have been before - not that I have ever been much of a risk-taker with my personal safety - but since I now live with the reality that my body can no longer afford another neck or Neurological injury, and in the greater interest of not expediting my bucket kicking party while attempting to fulfill my list, I will likely have the least exciting list of the ToT group!

Places to Go

• Paris, France and of course, go to the top of the Eiffel Tower!
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates - if you do not know how cool this place is, go and read about it!
• Hawaii, United States - we all know that I love me some beach time!  I would be doing myself a grave (no pun intended, bucket list) injustice to not see the beautiful beaches of Hawaii in person!

People to Meet

• Tony Dungy - he's just such a great guy!
• Peyton Manning - he's Peyton freaking Manning - enough said.
• Meet all three of the guys from one of our favorite shows Top Gear US (Rutledge Wood, Adam Ferrara, and Tanner Foust).  Those guys are a hilarious riot and I would love for Mark and I to have a chance to meet all three of them and hang out over some beers (or wine for this non-beer girl).

Things to Do

• Go to an Adele concert - preferably, go to an Adele concert if she does another one at Royal Albert Hall in London!
• Punch a few people in the face (HEY, its MY bucket list - so don't judge me for this one!): Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, any other random tween pop stars I encounter, and the guy who lives behind us.
• Steal a cop car, race it through town at a high speed with the siren on...then hide the evidence by sinking it into a pond or lake and listening as the sirens gurgle out of ear-shot as the car sinks....and, here is they key part of this...NOT get arrested for it!  Don't even ask how I came up with this one, but I remember telling Mark this way back in the day when we were just friends, and I highly suspect that is the moment he first fell for me, LOL!  

Okay, now that you've got the (granted some illegal) goods on me...if you want to read some more moral and ethical ones, hop on over to the other ToT blogs and read what is on their bucket lists!!

Daily Photo: February 13

There are two daily photos today.  Mark ordered himself a new laptop, so both pics are about his new laptop that arrived today.

Photo 1:  Really Acer??  Yeah, I am pretty sure we got Step 1 figured out...

Photo 2:  This is what an engineer does within the first couple hours of having a new computer...he takes it apart and amps it up a bit...LOL...

Daily Photo: February 11

This handsome guy here is Sir Edwin of London!  My good friend Dawn had a two-week visit over to our London office and she brought some of us back one of these cute little guys!  Love, love, love him!  He is slated to live at work atop one of my computer monitors to ensure he remains safely tucked far away from my dogs!

Daily Photo: February 9

This is a great shot of the new Big4 pedestrian bridge that was just opened to the public.  Kentucky and Indiana joined efforts to turn the old, unused Big4 Railroad bridge over the Ohio River into something wonderful and useful!  Each state raised funds to build a pedestrian ramp up to the bridge and then re-furbish the bridge itself into a wonderful over-the-river walking path for pedestrians and bicyclists!  Indiana sort of dropped the ball on finishing their access ramps on time; but, in the meantime it can be accessed from the Kentucky side the bridge is fully open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic right up to where the ramps will head down to the Indiana side are supposed to begin.  The Indiana side is slated to be finished in the next couple months. Dogs are welcome to be walked on the Big4 provided they are leashed and their owners act responsibly and  clean up after any...errr....messes they may make while on the bridge!  How excited will my dogs be if once they are able to be walked over the Big4 and find their Grammy or Aunt Cathy & Uncle James there to see them on the Indiana side!

Daily Photo: February 7

The sweetest, most adorable Hoosier fan!

Daily Photo: February 1

Random things!  These are a few random things from my day:

Notice, the beard is still there and growing!  Can you believe that?!  I think I'll give him until the weekend to shave it or I'll blog you guys his cell phone number so you can all call and tell him to shave it off.  But what can I say?  He still looks adorable (shh...just don't tell him I said so!).

There was a very small amount of snow overnight.  But I still wore my snow boots.  I wear them anytime I get a chance - they are SO comfortable, every bit as comfy as house slippers!

This is the frigid cold temp when I left for work this morning - it was a balmy 8° F.  Yes car, it was icy!

Daily Photo: January 31

A few of our (new) favorite things...

The boys recently each got a new squeaky toy sent to them from our friends Chris and Cori.  The boys love them and they were each laying around with their new loot this evening!