Livin' in a Blue Hick Town

she says the funniest things!

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:44:00 +0000

We went to get groceries today, and I was walking sloooowly past the fresh sushi display (cuz I was hungry) when the nice little Asian guy who was busy making sushi offered us a sample. California rolls. Moops and I both ate one. Mmmmm, delicious. Kinda out of character, though, since we're vegetarians. It's been about 13 years since I've eaten any kind of meat, but what the heck.

Anyhoo...the little Asian guy was quite a character. "Here, here, take one. Here, have a toothpick. I've got the sauce right here. You try it now, don't worry, it's cooked. Go ahead now, eat it. Yes, taste it. It's good..." Nice guy. How could I say no?

As we walked away, Little Miss said, "I was really nice to that little brown lady!"

I almost spit sushi rice all over the floor.

I'm enjoying this book...

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:00:00 +0000

From Pompeii, by Robert Harris:

He reached for the decanter but stopped, his hand poised in midair. The heavy crystal glass was not merely shaking now: it was moving sideways along the polished wooden surface. He frowned at it stupidly. That couldn't be right. Even so, it reached the end of the sideboard and crashed to the floor. He glanced at the tiles. There was a vibration beneath his feet. It gradually built in strength and then a gust of hot air passed through the house, powerful enough to bang the shutters. An instant later, far away - but very distinctly, unlike anything that he, or anyone else, had ever heard - came the sound of a double boom.

and:

...the thermal energy released during the A.D. 79 eruption would have been roughly 2,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules - or about 100,000 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. (that number was in scientific notation, but I have no idea how to type exponents.)

it's somebody's birthday today...

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Happy Birthday, Little Miss!

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:38:00 +0000

he's still here...

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:26:00 +0000

Oliver's still hanging out with us. Although he still spends most of his time indoors, Moops takes him outside to do bird stuff (fluttering, flying, pecking, preening, strutting, perching, etc.) several times each day.

And sometimes she has a treat for him.

Here he is posing in a tree, pretending to be a real bird.

overheard

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:40:00 +0000

You know how little kids sometimes talk to themselves?

The other day I overheard Little Miss whispering to herself,
I'm a good, hard workin' girl.
It's true. She is.

Later, getting ready to go outside, she was running through the house saying, I need my straightjacket! I need my straightjacket!
We didn't find it, but it's gotta be around here somewhere.

Today she said (to me),
You're a big smelly skunk!
I am not.

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:30:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Oliver and his Auntie KK

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:43:00 +0000

We're looking forward to the day that Oliver decides to fly away and live among the birds, just as a bird should. We'll miss him, yes, but that's where he belongs. It won't be long now.

and now, he's a fledgling...

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Yes, little Oliver has been testing out his wings, fluttering back and forth across the yard... and the living room!

oliver, an update

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Little Oliver, the mourning dove, has been in protective custody for just over a week now, and he's growing bigger and stronger every day.

He's actually starting to look like a bird now that his feathers are coming in.

Just look at how pretty they are.

He does still need a little help in the neck area, though.

He likes to spread his wings and flap them wildly, exercising his wing muscles.

All that resistance training is turning him into one buff little dude, eh?

Careful not to burn himself out, Oliver likes to spend a few quiet moments in the sunshine after working out. And then it's on to perching practice.

Moops carefully places him on a privet branch, helping him grasp the branch with his tiny toes.

Success!

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:57:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:52:00 +0000

front door/back door

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:29:00 +0000

dlyn tagged me for her front door back door meme awhile back, and I'm finally getting around to doing it. Here are her rules:

1. Step out your front door and take a picture.
2. Step out your back door and take a picture.
3. Put them on your blog, along with the rules.
4. If there are things in the photos that you particularly like or dislike, you can point them out, or just explain what we are seeing. Maybe changes over the seasons or some junk in your neighbor's yard that drives you nuts.
5. Tag as many or few people as you like - preferably at least one though.
6. Do it again next month if you like.

Ready? Here we go...

This is what I see when I step out my front door:

Our patio. It's a mess. What you see: a car seat with a blanket on it (the car seat is from a car and the blanket is from when we were playing in the yard last week), part of a drum set, some boxes of clothes waiting to go to goodwill, an old futon with a kid's jacket on it, an empty flowerpot, a playset in the back ground, yada yada yada. The open windows on the left are where the snake attempted to come in and investigate the baby bird smell. This picture was taken before that happened; my windows have no screens, therefore they will not be open again until sometime in December.

Our front door doesn't really face out the front of the house, so let me step forward and turn a little:
What you see: Christmas lights hanging from the roof, grass that is at least 3 ft. tall, a BMW that can't move because it needs a new transmission (I think), and a large orange depression in the ground. That's our "pond." As you can see, it's dry right now. Sometimes it has muddy water in it, and the ducks swim around in it. One day it will have a liner and some landscaping and some... water.

What you don't see: no road, no houses, no neighbors. That makes me happy.

And now for the back door...

What you see: an old overgrown pear tree, a lot of privet and brambles, some broken pottery under the tree, and over there on the left, towards the back, is where the ducks live.

What you don't see: any evidence that we own a lawn mower, weed whacker, or even a pair of clippers. We do own all three, we just rarely use them. You also can't see our woods; they're back there behind all the privet and brambles, and they're one of my favorite parts of this property. I'll have to post a picture of the woods sometime.

I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, but if you're reading this and you'd like to do the front door back door meme - grab your camera, and let me know about it so I can come see.

note to self:

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:00:00 +0000

If you're caring for a baby bird in your home, you might not want to leave the windows wide open.

You never know who might try to invite themselves in for lunch.

Oliver

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:52:00 +0000

This little fellow has been keeping our resident animal lover very busy. Moops found him on the ground Wednesday evening. The nest we believe he fell from was too high for us to put him back; so we tied a little basket into the privet underneath the tree and put him there, hoping his mama would find him.

By Thursday morning we had seen no sign of his mother, and he was cold. So Moops adopted him and has been feeding him and keeping him warm in a little box in her room. He feeds well and is quite energetic.

Surely he won't always be this ugly...

my baby can sing

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Little Miss loves to sing, and her favorite song by far is Frosty the Snowman. She sings it every day, without fail. It seems she needs to keep in practice. Who knows when it will start to snow and she'll need to know how to bring a snowman to life?

Just in case you don't know the lyrics, I'll post them here:

Fros-dee duh No-man

wuzza happy jaw-wee soul,

widda cute hat-top

anna buttin nose,

and two eyes made outta coal....

Now, don't let anyone try to confuse you and tell you there are actually more lyrics to the song - because there aren't. You just repeat that stanza over. and over. and over.

egads!

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:31:00 +0000

Look who's in town again.
Mmmm, nothing hits the spot like a good old duck egg!

Moops found this hungry rat snake in Quacker's nesting box and called me out to take a picture. As I was clicking away, I began to wonder how long it will be before she calls me out to see a copperhead or a rattlesnake eating one of those delicious eggs...

Then I started to get creeped out.

I needed to squash that mental image and replace it with something more fuzzy. Something soft, and warm, and cute. Something without scales, fangs, or venom. Something like this:

(I think I'll call him Nutkin)

There. Now I feel better.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:18:00 +0000

loldukz

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:15:00 +0000

(I am so, so, very sorry for posting the image above. It is silly, tasteless, and horrifically strange. My only excuse is...Moops made me do it.)

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0000

early evening visitor

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:08:00 +0000

It's almost embarrassing how excited I become when I look out the kitchen window and see a bunny hopping through the grass. If I were, say, 2 years old, I could get away with hopping up and down and squealing, "Look, a bunny! A bunny rabbit!!"

But I'm not 2 years old. No, I'm not. So I squeal inwardly, clasping my hands to my heart, and open the window as quietly as possible... run, get the camera....run back to the window... point, focus, click. click. click.

Yay! I've got some bunny pictures to play with!

Later, I pull this one up on the 'puter...

huh. Wait, what's that? Is that a third eye on the back of the bunny's head??

Zooming in...

Eeeewwwww. What is that?

All I can come up with is:

a). It's a third eye; therefore, we must be living on a nuclear waste site. Not comforting.

b). Okay, maybe it's not a third eye, maybe it's the biggest, most disgusting tick in creation. Still not comforting, but not quite as bad as living on a nuclear waste site.

c). Wait... maybe it's just some kind of wound, or, um, something.

d). Do bunnies have horns? Maybe that's just a little horn starting to grow there. Maybe I fell asleep during 9th grade biology class and didn't hear the lecture on bunny horns. Yeah, maybe that's it.

Mommy's little helper

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Hey, everybody! It's me, Little Miss!

Mom-Mom and I have been looking for pretty little things to take pictures of because she likes taking pictures of little things almost as much as she likes taking pictures of me. Would you like to see some of the pretty things I helped my mommy find?

NO?

Yeah, well, too bad ~ because I'm in charge today!

My sister Moops planted some daffodils last fall, and this is the prettiest bloom we've seen so far. Mom-Mom thinks it looks just like a little fairy has landed right in the middle of it. Do you see her there, hiding her face? Mom-Mom said fairies don't like to be seen by regular people like me, so we didn't bother her. Don't tell my mommy, but I really wanted to grab that fairy and take her home with me!

My mommy really likes flowers, so I found these for her:

a pretty little pink one...

and a pretty little purple one.

Mom-Mom snuck out of the house the other morning to take this picture of a flower in the rain. She said I couldn't come out because the rain might make me get sick; but I know she really just didn't want me to come outside and get muddy.

We found lots of pretty little things in the woods, too.

Mom-Mom said this was a cedar tree, but I think it looks like a Christmas tree.

Here are some brand new baby leaves. Just last week, most of the trees in our woods were naked, but now they all have baby leaves growing all over them. Everything is turning green, and my mommy says that means I'll get to play outside more often.

And look! Baby pinecones! Once they grow up and fall off the tree, they'll be a lot of fun for me to play with.

We also found this mushroom in the woods. I like to eat the mushrooms in Mom-Mom's spinach pie, but she said I shouldn't eat this one.

And finally, here are some pretty little rocks I found for Mom-Mom. That's my hand in the picture! Mom-Mom thinks my fingernails are awfully dirty in this picture, but I like them that way.

Well, bye now. I'm going to go play with my new play-doh.

conversation with a 2 year old

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:50:00 +0000

Little Miss: Daddy!

Big Daddy: Yes, dear?

Little Miss, angrily: I'm not a deer!

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (sleepy jeanne) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:52:00 +0000