Bring a voracious reader, I can fly through a book in a day though it usually takes me as long as two. Three if it’s summer and I have to mow the lawn.
This habit can get expensive so while I’m sure I’ve bought Jeff Bezos a new yacht or two over the years …. I do like to shop Goodwill, thrift stores and yard sales for my reading material. And when our little local library has its annual cull? I’m smiling ear to ear.
So last week… when I discovered the library now has a small store that will be open two days a week selling $2 books from it’s shelves as well as private donations?
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I was positively orgasmic.
Dying to check it out, I dragged the husband in there on our way home from lunch the other day and only made it through one shelf before he was crying uncle.
Since we’ve been having a warm winter and so little snow, Lord Dudley Mountcatten has been enjoying stretching his legs outside. And after a particularly warm spell where I took him for walkies everyday, he’s been antsy for exercise.
Even when it starts to snow.
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Crying and scratching at the door, he talked the husband into harnessing him up and heading out.
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But then? He had second thoughts.
Snow is cold, and more importantly… wet.
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Which is why he hightailed it to the shelter of the woodshed and left the husband out in the storm. Cats are a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.
When the husband had enough and tugged him back out into uncovered territory?
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His Royal Highness beat feet for the back door.
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And assumed the position for a warm rub down and toweling off.
I’d love to say a green apple margarita or a strawberry basil martini…. but alas, it’s just a humble glass of freshly brewed unsweetened iced tea with lemon.
It’s my go to daily fluid and since I don’t drink coffee, what I wake up to every morning. I love hot tea, cold tea, black tea, herbal tea and yes, I even have a canister of strawberry chocolate tea. It’s a versatile leaf.
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No sugar, high in antioxidants… a lifetime supply? Bring it! I could do worse.
(As long as it’s not green tea. That tastes like swamp water.)
So what are you drinking for the rest of your life?
After 13 years of faithful service… it’s time to say goodbye to our beloved washer and dryer.
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My husband (who DOES NOT shop for anything other than antiques) stood in line outside, in the cold, at 2:00am on Black Friday in 2010 to purchase this ( ultra fancy for it’s day) set as a Christmas present for yours truly.
I didn’t need or even want a new set at the time, but it was almost half price and he was thrilled with the deal.
Fast forward 13 years and the dryer (otherwise known as Lord Dudley’s bird watching perch) is kaput. It’s been acting up for the past few months… running one day but not the next… and after having two repairman unable to find the problem, it’s time to bid them a fond farewell.
So we shopped.
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(The husband’s good friend just got Covid so his mask paranoia is temporarily back.)
After checking the big box stores and the small mom and pop stores, we played Goldilocks and chose a set from a medium sized Maine store.
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We could have taken them home today, but of course I didn’t want blue.
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So we special ordered the graphite gray.
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Billed as “ The smartest washer in it’s class” I wondered what that entailed. A diploma? A degree? A doctorate?
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Turns out smart means Alexa…
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Sorry. I don’t care how smart it is…. I’m not talking to my washing machine.
For the last 39 years I’ve lived with old westerns playing in the background of my life. The husband loves them and they’ve been his go to when he has nothing specific in mind to watch on tv for the almost 4 decades we’ve been together.
He loves old western movies with John Wayne and Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda.
He loves old western television series like The Rifleman and Tales of Wells Fargo and the Virginian.
Me? I hate them all. Always have and thought I always would.
Until I started watching Yellowstone, which I really don’t consider a western, and liked it so much I had to subscribe to Paramount Plus so I could watch 1883… which most definitely is a western.
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Yup. An honest to God western complete with cowboys, a wagon train, bandits, buffalo, Indians and some breathtaking views of what the Great Plains once was.
I loved it all.
The acting was surprisingly good and Sam Elliot made me cry. Who woulda thunk it! This show is a love story… to the west and a way of life long gone. It has a gravitas that grabbed me and didn’t let go.
I binged, and when it ended? I wished for another 30 episodes.
Me. Wanting more of a western. Somewhere… pigs are flying.
Starring Tim McGraw and an almost unrecognizable Faith Hill…
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With cameos by Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thornton and Graham Greene… it’s newcomer Isabel May who narrates it’s heart.
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Her voice can be haunting, and with the right swell of music laid on top of glorious cinematography?
I’ve been known to spend a fortune on unappreciated cat toys to amuse our four footed furry family members.
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Some they like, some are banished to the drawer never to be batted again.
And then…
I bought a fish.
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Which Lord Dudley Mountcatten has given his Royal stamp of approval.
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He flings his fish all over the living room and happily chases it down.
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And while he usually rejects toys that move, shake, spin or make any type of noise, he’s made an exception for this motion activated catnip fish that flaps.
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You’ll have to trust me when I say he was going crazy for it, because in true cat fashion he stopped playing as soon as I started filming.
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Buy your cat a fish.
Tell them Lord Dudley sent you…
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 