The big 0.5

Yesterday was Big I's 6 month birthday. Happy birthday little man!

He had his check-up today and is getting to be a big boy. 16 obs 8 oz (32%), 27 in (72%) so he's long and skinny. Any guesses on where he gets that from?

This picture was taken Saturday.














For a little comparison, here he is at about 4 months:



And about a month and a half:



I guess sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same.

An outing...

Weather's been great here this weekend; sunny and 70. So this morning brother-in-law Sonny, nephew B-man, niece AJ and Big I and I went down to LLELA. We explored the homestead, hiked about, checked out an old cemetery, hunted down some bison and cruised the top of the dam.

Big I got to catch a ride from a new point of view thanks to a super cool hand-me-down backpack.


AJ made sure to check everything out thoroughly.


B-man was busy taking pictures of his own.


All in all, a very nice time.

I blame it on lack of sleep...

I'm such a dork.

Big I and I went to the hardware store (they aren't really hardware stores anymore, are they?) to get some caulk to .... wait, let me backup.

A few weeks ago I made some felted clog slippers like these. They are the best, coziest slippers ever. However I go in and out of the house a lot (to the yard, I don't wear the slippers to the store or anything) and I didn't want them to wear out too fast. I wanted to put something on the soles so they'd be protected and a bit more water repellent. I saw how someone else used silicone caulk and I wanted to do the same thing. So, back to what I was saying about the hardware store.

I found the section with all the caulk. White, clear, paintable, paint resistant, kitchen and bath, wall and cabinet....lots to choose from. Okay, definitely want clear and I suppose the kitchen and bath type would be best. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would need to buy a big tube of it and a caulking gun which would mean a sore hand and lots of leftovers. But then I saw that they had fairly small, hand-squeezable tubes. Perfect! I guess in all my excitement about finding the perfect application size, I forgot to double-check ALL of the details. And so I give you....




Seesh...not only the wrong color, but the wrong type too. I'm such a dork.

Totally wired

If you live with a guy who loves electronic 'toys' like I do then you may know how it is to have wires and cords and plugs and cables and chargers for everything. It gets tough to keep track of them all so I decided to do something to keep them corralled.

For several years we have had one of those over-the-door shoe holders in our front coat closet (see pic at right). It works great for stashing hats, mittens, scarves and so forth. So I figured one of the same type of holders could hold cables. I'm sure it's not an idea original to me and it's definitely not rocket science but I'll show you how I did it anyway.

I picked up a shoe holder for $6 bucks at Ross. It held things well, but how was I to tell what was in each pocket? Any number of ways would work. If the holder had nice see-through plastic pockets like the one above, masking tape labels would work fine. Or even labels you can use in your printer. But I had concerns about the longevity of something sticky on the cloth holder I bought. It occurred to me that I could pin a label to the pockets and since I have a ton of safety pins from my race numbers, I decided to go that route.

First I assembled the safety pins, some old note cards from college (actually, I think those are from high school), a pair of scissors and a pen. Baby feet and baby toy feet are optional.



Next, I folded the note cards in half and cut. Then folded those in half again until I had 16 roughly equally sized little cards. (16 since that's how many pockets on my holder, of course.)



Next, I used a hold punch to put two holes close together near the top of each card.



After that, it's as simple as pinning the cards to each pocket through the holes and deciding what goes where. Label as you go so you don't have to remember what's what...the labels do it for you.


That's it!


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In gardening news, the spinach seeds I planted two weeks ago that I thought were toast, er popsicles, in the ice actually germinated! Well, two have at least. (You may have to click on the pics to actually see the green!) I'll keep an eye out for any more.














Also got some red onion starts in the ground today. Hope they do well.

Shh! Be vewy, vewy quiet.

Cold and dreary has turned to cold and sparkly.



The dogs had to tip-toe carefully on the coating of ice that was everywhere.



Speaking of the dogs, I was sitting at the computer yesterday when Fozzie Bear came rushing in with that ground-eating trot that only sporting breeds (or what used to be a sporting breed) have. The look on his face clearly said "Mom! Mom! Come quick!" Obviously important news!

I got up and followed him into the living room, thankful that he didn't alert me with barking as he usually does. There I found Brisco diligently and staring out the front window all a-tremble with excitement. He had obviously been left as the look-out while Foz had been sent as the runner to get the pack leader.

After shooing the dogs away, it took me a moment to figure out what they were so worked up over. A walker on the sidewalk? No. A truck parked out front? Nope.

Ah ha! I should have known. If you look carefully to Brisco's right, you can see it.


Yup, Bugs. My dogs have been waging war on the rabbits in our neighborhood ever since we moved in. If they ask to go outside, I'm telling ya, keep your hands and feet clear. They are out for blood and don't care who or what is in the way. Brisco actually got a little baby rabbit a few months ago, speaking of blood. Good thing I got there right after a clean kill and before further gore could ensue.

I guess this little fella found a good spot to sit out some rain and munch on a few weeds.


At least there's some form of wildlife in this concrete jungle.