The Doggy Diaries... gone to the dogs!

Planning for Christmas, 2006

Each year, it seems, more and more people get an early start on their Christmas shopping. But I know there are folks out there who, like me, just can't think of Christmas in June. (Personally, I don't even want to see Christmas decorations or start talking about Christmas planning until Thanksgiving dinner has been digested, but that's another story altogether.)

If you know me, you know I'm an incredibly organized person; I'm so organized, in fact, that I've been called "anal retentive" by more than just a few people when it comes to organization. Unsatisfied with how inefficient I've been in years past, I decided to try a different approach to keeping organized during Christmas this year. While hunting for organizational ideas on the internet today, I came across D*I*Y Planner. What an awesome website! It's chock full of homemade planning pages and other organizational tips for people who like to organize their lives on paper (lists, calendars, Day Runners, etc.).

My first search -- Christmas organizational material. Quite handily, D*I*Y Planner offers a holiday planning set. It comes with a master gift list, menu planner, holiday planning calendar, several checklists of common holiday tasks (organization, planning, gifts, cooking, decorating, and celebrating) and a couple of pages for writing down tidbits of info about people you're going to give gifts. The set's creator even offers a short instruction set (a half-dozen paragraphs, or so) on how to most efficiently use the planner.

But the best part? Well, that's easy. It's FREE! In fact, everything on D*I*Y Planner is free. Each sheet or form has been converted the the incredibly handy PDF format. Entire sets, like the holiday planning set, download as compressed ZIP files.

I'm going to try the planner this year and see how I like it. It may take a bit of getting used to because I've relied so heavily on my monthly planners for several years now. Even if I don't use it the way it's intended to be used, at least I'll feel like I'm approaching the Christmas holiday in a more organized fashion.

Autumn Color Part VIII

For this week's installment of "Autumn Color in California," I've decided to stop showing the photos for prior weeks. The web pages had become too bulky, cumbersome, and long when showing all the other photos, and I have yet to find a slideshow program that I like and works well within my blogging platform. Consequently, I've resorted to showing just this week's photos in this entry. If you want to compare them to previous weeks, please see my last posting, Autumn Color Part VII, which contains a chronological view of all the other photos.

Thursday's Thirteen No. 5

Thirteen Things I Am Thankful For

1. Of all the blessings in my life, I am most thankful for my husband. He is the light of my life and the only person who can always make me smile, even when I'm sad and feeling rather blue. He is the very best friend I've ever had. Having seen how few truly good men there are in this world (I'm talking about real men here, folks, not boys whose bodies have aged and matured but who still act like the boys they are. I'm talking about men who own up to their responsibilities, who do what it takes to get the job done with work ethics that are par excellence, who would never think of being unfaithful or disrespectful to their wives, and who take immense pride in providing for their families no matter how hard they have to work to do so.), it boggles my mind that I was one of the lucky few. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? ... I was one of the lucky women who, in my random travels through life, happened to bump in to one of the dwindling number of real men out there. Not only did I bump in to him, but I ended up marrying him! To me, that is a miracle beyond all belief, yet here I am, living this miracle every day. So yes, I am most thankful for my darlin' hubby. He's the absolute best!
2. I am incredibly thankful that both DH and I are, as far as we know, in very good health. Having seen some of the medical ailments inflicting other members of my family, how common poor health is among the population in general, how ailments and poor health impact daily life and the stress and worry they bring, it is both a wonder and something to be truly thankful for that both of us are doing as well as we are.
3. I am thankful that I live in a comfortable, homey abode located in a nice neighborhood where I don't have to fear for my personal safety. That may not make sense to some people, but a scant three years ago, we lived in such a neighborhood. At the end of our time there, things had become quite bad, indeed, and even though I had a very large dog to "protect" me, I was still very scared of walking around in that neighborhood. So having enough money to afford to live somewhere other than a neighborhood like that makes me very thankful.
4. I am thankful that (knock on wood) we have reliable vehicles to get us to and from work each day. I've had an unreliable car before, and the stress of worrying if the car would turn over in the morning or leave me stranded on the highway took it's toll on me. Now, not only do I have a reliable vehicle, but I have one of those "real men" husbands who takes pride in maintaining our vehicles better than I would expect from a dealership! All I need do is mention that I think the oil needs changing, or I saw a drop of fluid on the driveway, and he's out there giving it his 100-point inspection. And if he discovers that it will be a bit expensive to repair the problem, we don't stress over it because both cars are paid-in-full, so the money we save in car payments each month can go into repairs when the need arises. True, our vehicles are both more than ten years old, but they run like champs. What a feeling that is! ** Now throwing a bit of salt over my shoulder, knocking on my wooden desk, and making sure I don't cross paths with a black cat or accidentally break a mirror! **
5. I am thankful that I have three (yes, three!) families who love me and will be there for me, no questions asked, if I ever need anything. That kind of family support is something I've always had, but never fully appreciated because I just believed that all families were that way. (Naive? Absolutely! Then again, I've always been fairly naive and gullible about many things.) Now, as I've grown older, I've learned that not everyone is blessed with such wonderful families, and I am truly thankful for mine. Let this be an example that just because you may have had something all your life and never realized how special it is doesn't mean that you can't one day grow to appreciate what's been right under your nose the entire time.
6. I am thankful that my life has settled down and is no longer worthy of being nominated for a daytime Emmy. Yes, I am a drama queen, but thanks to the influence of my stable and rock-solid husband, I have entered Drama Queens Anonymous and am in rehab. My time in the theatre has pretty much come to an end. Oh, sure, every once in a while the stage still beckons, but my performances are becoming fewer and farther between. Believe me ... that's a GOOD thing!

Hmm ... this list is so serious it would make a great Hallmark film or television show for the WE network. Let's lighten it up a bit, shall we?

7. I am thankful for ... what else? The Sims! Those wonderful little walking, talking ones and zeros that exist nowhere but in the cyberspace of my computer. To have such control, such power ... I'm a god, and don't anyone forget it. Let no Sim anger me lest I teach them how vengeful gods really act. They might find themselves living in a one room shack with no plumbing and only an outhouse with no walls to relieve themselves. Or, worse yet, they might find themselves stuck in the purgatory that is the "Sim-bin." Ha ha ha ha ha! Cackle cackle! Ha ha ha! ** storm clouds start to swirl above me **
8. I am thankful for American Express for allowing me to spend so freely. They're just so generous and altruistic to let me spend and spend on anything I need without having to fork over any Ben Franklins. Well, generous, that is, until the end of the month when, strangely, they like to send me a statement and proceed to act as if I actually owe them something! Harumpf! The nerve of some people. ;)
9. I am thankful that I am a safe driver. Otherwise, I'm sure my auto insurance company would have a field day with my premiums!
10. I am thankful to have great hair. It's thick, and other women have always commented positively on it's color. DH is now in charge of cutting my hair, but when I used to get it cut at a salon, the stylists would always gush over my hair. Not that I'm some kind of remarkable beauty in any other physical aspect, but my hair really is top notch.
11. Speaking of physical attributes, I am thankful for my freckles. ** thinking, thinking ** Nope, sorry, 'bout that. I must take back those words. No matter how silly I'm trying to be, acting thankful for something that has done nothing but garner me strange looks and teasing comments is beyond my capacity as a drama queen. So, let me think. What can I put in place of freckles here? Oh, I know. I've got it! ... I'm thankful for the spiders living in our house. Yes, they love to annoy me with the cobwebs they leave all over. But darn it, if it weren't for cleaning up after those spiders, I'd have nothing to do around the house! How boring would my life be then?!? ** wink, wink **
12. I am thankful for Post-It Notes without which I wouldn't be nearly as organized as I am. Plus, they come in such wonderful colors these days. No longer am I limited to light yellow. Now I can really shout from the top of my lungs, "Hey, look at me! I'm so effervescent that I need lime green Post-Its to write my To-Do lists!"
13. I am thankful for Tapioca pudding. DH loves the stuff, especially when I make it from scratch. When he's devouring an entire container of my homemade Tapioca pudding, it's like hearing the words "You're a culinary goddess. Thank you, my dear wife, for opening my eyes to another level of Tapioca. I never knew pudding could be this good." Ha ha! OK. So he doesn't say that. But we can all make-believe, can't we?!?

So have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone! I'll see you on the flip-side of turkey day when the real craziness for the year begins. Au revoir!

Autumn Color Part VII

For those of you in the wintery states who are already starting to see your first winter snows, believe me, I'm not trying to rub this in. But out our way, fall is still in full swing. Although many leaves have fallen, many more are still on the trees, and the hues are absolutely beautiful. I love the deep reds and ambers. They make me feel warm all over.

You'll find this week's photos of my two favorite trees in the extended entry section of this post.

(As usual, clicking the smaller photos will bring up the larger, browser-sized version of the photo.)

With that, I must now take my leave. (No pun intended.) I'm scheduled in a "Lead Safety" class for the rest of the morning. As far as I'm concerned, I don't need to take a lead safety class. I already know everything I need to know about handling lead ... basically, don't monkey with lead bricks unless you absolutely have to. Then, if you really have to deal with them, talk someone else into doing the work for you! And voila'! You're safe from any harm that might come to you from handling the lead bricks. (Gee, maybe I haven't lost all my intelligence yet!)

Autumn Color Part VI

Only two of the trees I've been following these last several weeks are still undergoing their annual color change. There are other trees in our neighborhood still dressed festively for the autumn holidays, but I've not been taking photos of them. As such, I didn't feel it would be beneficial to take photos of anything else because I have no baseline photos of them. So today, you only get two new photos. :(

In addition, it rained on Saturday, and our skies continued to be overcast all day on Sunday, so the colors in the photos are very dark and rather skewed from what they have been in previous photos with ample sunlight. Please keep that in mind as you view the pictures from Sunday. :)

Here they are, in reverse chronological order.

In the future, I'm thinking of implementing a slideshow or some other type of photo view as these photos are starting to require a lot of scrolling to view them all. If any of you have suggestions on a good slideshow program I can incorporate into my blog, please let me know either by sending me an email or leaving a comment. Thanks!

(Clicking the smaller photos will bring up the larger, browser-sized version of the photo.)

Autumn Color, Parts III, IV and V

Having lost my blog entries from 12-Oct to 25-Oct, I did, in fact, lose some of the photos I had taken of the autumn color in my neighborhood. Fortunately, I had two out of the three sets of photos backed up to my external hard drive at home.

Today, I'm going to display all the photos, in chronological order, so it's easier to see the changing leaves.

How to Show Someone You're Really Sorry

Have you ever wondered what you'd look like if you were truly, honest-to-goodness sorry about something you did? Well, wonder no more, dear friends. Here's what you'd look like ...

Thursday's Thirteen No. 4

I decided to get an early jump on my Thursday's Thirteen for this week!

Thirteen Bad Things About Allergy Attacks

In honor of last week's events, I dedicate this week's Thursday Thirteen to the allergies that have only hit me about three times in my entire life and decided to strike after 11 years of dormancy. Feel free to add your own list of bad things about allergy attacks in the comments section!

1. Red, watery eyes that give me ...
2. ... blurry vision.
3. Ear aches
4. Having a such a sore, dry throat that ...
5. ... when I talk, I sound like I've been a smoker for 60 years, and ...
6. ... swallowing puts such pressure on my ears that I can't sleep.
7. Constant sinus pressure that makes me ...
8. ... feel like my head is being squeezed by a vice.
9. Not realizing that I'm having an allergy attack (because they are very few and far between), so ...
10. I waste time and money going to the doctor thinking I've got strep throat, an ear infection, or possibly a sinus infection.
11. Inability to focus or think for very long
12. Three little words ... post nasal drip
13. Always feeling tired and worn out