Birthday celebration... no, not mine.

Yesterday we celebrated our DIL and youngest son's birthdays by all going out to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant. Their birthdays are only 2 weeks apart (similar to DH and mine - which are 9 days apart). We hadn't been there in a while and thoroughly enjoyed it. The food is great, the service is fantastic, and the people and servers are fun. We always take pictures of the food to send to DH's brother since he lives in Houston and loves this restaurant. It is on the 'must' list when he visits. Here are a few pictures of the food:

DH's sausage, pasta, and cheese - always gets this!

My GF pasta with tons of veggies and olive oil  - love it!

I'm still working on water-coloring my sketches. This silly frog is my latest sketch from a picture I saw somewhere. Can't decide if I want his eyes open or closed. Think I prefer closed.

silly frog with open eyes

silly frog with closed eyes

Always liked this quote:

– Henri Matisse. “Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

Also have to show you this picture I came across. For some reason, it hit home with me. I think that somewhere in my subconscious, 'this is me' (on the 'inside' - how I think of me) - not the old lady me that shows on the outside. Silly? I know, but it makes me smile.

And lastly, I have to share this 4000 year old Olive Tree with you. Some of you may have seen it on Facebook. But it's absolutely  amazing. 

and here is the story:

Well, tomorrow is September 1st! 

Early warning: 

It's Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit day!

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

(PS: now reading "A Trick of the Light" by Louise Penny)

I'm a clutz...

Yes, just possibly I'm a clutz... as I broke both my hearing aid and my glasses this week. Since I haven't had the hearing aid for a year yet, I was trying to do the mandatory maintenance... and somehow ripped something. We'll go to the place I got them and see if it's easily fixable. Hope so.

And as for the glasses, I read every night in bed and generally fall asleep with my glasses on, book in lap, etc. So this morning when I went to get myself together and went to 'clean' my glasses, I realized one of the lens was missing! Apparently I had been wearing them all morning minus the right lens and not noticed (I keep telling everyone that I'm not really awake for the first hour or so in the morning - so if my eyes are blurry... so what). Anyway, after checking all the possible places and floors, I finally found the lens in the bed among the sheets. Looks like a screw may have been lost that held the frame tightly around the lens. Anyway, the eye doctor is not far from the house, so we brought it there and they fixed it. 

By the way, this week I'm reading a Janet Evanovich and a Charlaine Harris book. Both of these are funny... I had never read a Harris book before (this is The Sookie Stackhouse series) and in a way it's like Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" (the young girl bail bondsman) except in Harris' book Sookie is a young girl Telepath in a world of vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, etc. Sometimes I find I need the unconventional humor... these books provide.

Outside of that, I've started sketching again. It's been a while. But I find that if I can find a suitable watercolor wash picture (that I can sometimes find in children's books), I like to sketch it out... and if I'm brave enough, try to do a watercolor wash over it.  

So far I've done several sketches... and will (maybe) try the watercolor wash soon.  Remember, it's been a while... and I do this for the joy of it... no other reason. It's fun. So don't be too critical... 

and

The first sketch is from the childrens' book "City dog, Country frog"... and the second is from "Frog and Toad". 

Oh, wanted to tell you about some 'cute' activity that is going on in our backyard. You know we have several feral cats as well as Box turtles, etc. back there. Well, one of the kittens (who is about 3-4 months old) has taken 'an interest' in the box turtles. She tends to follow them around running circles around them as they trek across the yard to the feeding dishes. 

And recently one of the bigger turtles has decided to just wait at the dish each morning for the cat feeding. He apparently knows the routine and has decided to get in on it. DH says he is waiting there by his dish with the cats each morning now.

That's about my news. Going to close with some cute pics/memes that I found and like:

love this cake!

would love to be sitting here drinking coffee in the rain...

... or here!

This would work too!

and 2 t-shirts that I like:

Ok, that's all I got. Nothing earth-shattering... just a tiny part of life on my block. Hoping you all have a healthy happy rest of the week. And yes, lately I have 'hope' in my heart...  

Hugs (virtually),

Rian

a fairly quiet week...

It's been a quiet week... not the expected hectic one of good company, eating out, and catching up. Our planned out of town visitors were themselves visited with some illness (not Covid as they tested twice) but similar and are on antibiotics, etc. So our get-together was cancelled - or at least postponed. Perhaps it's for the best... since we're in triple digits over here. If they decide to reschedule for September, it may be cooler. 

However, since I was expecting company, we are a bit ahead of ourselves - with a clean house, cooked and frozen red beans and stuffed artichokes, etc. I even had time to do a few extra de-cluttering - like emptying 2 drawers in my office desk, 1 in the middle bathroom, and clearing off the clutter on my desk (baby steps). 

Our oldest granddaughter returned from Hawaii earlier this week. We picked her up at the airport at midnight (that was a first for us who are usually in bed by 9). She was starving as she'd been in flight since early in the morning... so we stopped at What-a-burger on the way home (another first for us as we didn't know they stayed open 24 hours - who knew?). It was really good to see her and we had time to reminisce a bit and see her pictures the next morning before she took off back to the Hill Country.

Update on the Crow invitation: No luck so far. 

But the box turtles have been around a lot. One was eating some of the fruit I threw out on the back porch today. They come for the dry cat food, but also like to nibble on fruit.

Isn't this adorable?

It's been a bit hot here. Here are some memes I found that confirm this:

and...

and lastly this handy hint for cat owners:

... and a quick pic of my friend's quilt at the Quilt Show. She won a blue ribbon for this one.

Have a great weekend! Try to stay cool!

Hugs (virtual),

 

Rian

Welcome August and Triple digits...

August has arrived!

 

Well, August has arrived. 

It was 101 F yesterday 

and 

103 F today... 

Only note-worthy news is that I've been trying to attract crows to our yard. It isn't easy with all the ferals in the back. Crows are smart and keep away. But I put out a table of peanuts, apple slices, etc. as well as some shiny objects "on the side of the house'... and a bird bath to see if possibly I could get them to come. I have seen a few in the trees out back as well as around the neighborhood, but they never come up by the back porch where we feed.  So, I'm trying to see if they'll come on the side.

Oldest granddaughter is in Oahu enjoying the ocean there. She is kayaking, hiking, and zip lining. I love hearing and seeing the ocean videos...

Remember: click on the arrow first and then on the square on the bottom right to enlarge the video... it's so much better that way. And then the Esc key to get out of it and back to the blog.

And youngest granddaughter starts school this week! Seems so early in August for kids to go back. But with triple digits outside, maybe it's for the best.

We're all back to normal (more or less) health wise... and are preparing for more family to visit next week. Thank goodness my taste has returned as we will probably be going out to eat a lot. DH will make his famous red beans and rice one night and I've already stuffed and froze several artichokes for the occasion.

Going to close with a cat meme and the mention again that I really 'have hope' for this election in November now that Kamala Harris is out there... 

No coffee until cat is fed!

I will mention that I did try several new things this week... a cheese enchilada dish (that was OK, but I think we like the chicken enchiladas better)... and some GF banana nut mini cupcakes with (and without) cream cheese icing. These were a keeper!

OK... that's it! Enjoy what's left of the summer and hopefully the triple digits won't last too long. (For those of you bloggers who are just heading into Spring... I  love Spring!)

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

August 1, 2024 Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit!

Rabbit! Rabbit! White Rabbit!

 

August is here! Fall is on it's way...

Hugs (virtual),

Rian