Divine intervention...

I can't remember if I used this graphic before, but if I have - well, it bears repeating.  I am thankful every day for the blessings that God has showered upon me - many of them in time of great need.  Even more when I'm feeling absolutely desperate.  I've been concerned lately about moving my office home in July and how I am going to make enough money every month to just keep going.  Well, yesterday, God sent me yet another opportunity - a tax client who wants me to do something for them on a monthly basis.  And I thought to myself: well, there's the electric bill.  I love how God looks out for the little things in our lives.  That thought has made today's events a little easier; I'm dealing with an unexpected auto repair right now.  I had the oil changed a couple of weeks ago - just routine service, I thought - and have had nothing but trouble since.  Today the SUV overheated terribly and the engine started making a funny noise.  The man from AAA (sounds like The Man from U.N.C.L.E, huh?) just towed it to the nice garage that helped me with my small key problem last fall.  That unexpected repair wasn't nearly as costly as I had imagined (worried!) it would be and I am praying that today's problem is of the same, low-cost variety.  Yes, everything is a blessing in disguise - I just need to keep reminding myself...

Thin mint revenge...

Aggie and I - well, mostly me - ate a whole box of Thin Mints this weekend.   I had gotten them for Tim, along with an extra bottle of blood orange soda because he loves it, for when he was supposed to come and visit us week before last.  He was apparently too busy to drive down from Tampa during the two weeks that he was there, so we decided not to save his treats for him.  It's not like I even know when we will see him again.  I don't know why I let it bother me; it sure doesn't bother him.  All that sugar didn't do anything for my mood, either. 

Yo-yos!

I love the kind that spin on a string, too - but aren't these yo-yo flowers great?  I have an age-old pillow made of flour sack fabric yo-yos that was my grandmother's - it's one of my greatest treasures.  I think that these are the cutest idea I've seen in a while!  Makes me want to stitch some up...

Lost in Austen...

Exactly.  See you tomorrow!

Three things today...

Top o' the mornin' to ye!

We watched Did You Hear About the Morgans? last night.  It was typical Hugh Grant fare - hesitantly funny, I call his demeanor - and the bonus was Sam Elliott as the Wyoming US Marshal who watched over the Morgans in Witness Protection.  Mary Steenburgen was great as his gun-loving wife.

And finally...

Why do we think it's okay to fertilize organic vegetables with cow manure - and mulch our flower beds with nutrient rich materials, but it's somehow unsanitary to let dog poop decompose in our yards?

Irish jokes...

I've received a plethora of emails today with Irish jokes.  Here's the best one:

An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut . The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.

He says, 'Sir, have you been drinking?'

'Just water,' says the priest.

The trooper says, 'Then why do I smell wine?'

The priest looks at the bottle and says, 'Good Lord! He's done it again!'

Another new flavor...

Pepsi Max with lime - and zero calories.

I had good intentions this weekend - I took my camera home and was going to take pictures of my new place (since I've finally gotten everything put away!) but all I ended up photographing was an ever-wiggling Aggie and this Pepsi on the kitchen counter.  It's actually quite good, for Pepsi.  I'm a Diet Coke diva.

She's faster than digital technology!

And check out this hilarious movie - I watched it twice.  It's a very fast-paced comedy and I missed some of the key points the first time around.  Very neatly-wrapped up ending, too.  And it didn't hurt that Sam Elliott plays a hitman known as The Mormon.  The film festival continues tomorrow with Did You Hear About the Morgans?  - stay tuned...

Is the Bronze Star for bravery?

Well, if it is, then Peter deserves one.  He has ventured up on the desk! 

Of course, I was the only one in the office, but still...

Dapper Derek Dumbass and the lint-laden drainpipe...

Okay - I'll admit that it's my fault that the washer drainpipe was clogged.  I washed two chenille throws that I had no business washing and the lint from said throws was everywhere - it is no small wonder that the washer drain was clogged.  I was truly amazed that the thing didn't blow up.  It was clogged so badly the washer wouldn't even drain - just kept flashing F21 on the front panel.  I wrung the stupid throws out by hand and put them in the dryer where they basically disintegrated into lint and small green fibers.  I promptly bagged what was left of the throws for the trash and had to vacuum out the dryer!  That was Sunday afternoon.  On Monday morning, I promptly called the condo office and put in a maintenance request.  When I had heard nothing as of Wednesday afternoon, I called again.  They promised me that they would see to my washer problem (at this point it's a debacle...) first thing Thursday - today - morning.  Well, at a little after three, the appointed maintenance man, if you could even call him that, knocked on my door.  He was spotlessly clean, immaculately coiffed and jumped to the side like a girl when Aggie tried to greet him in her classic cairn way.  I mentally named him Derek and directed him to the laundry closet.  He was carrying the manual for the washer as he minced across the living room in his polo shirt and pressed khaki shorts.  He became Dapper Derek at that point when I realized he was wearing top-siders and no socks. He proceeded to push buttons and unplug the washing machine, all the while consulting his pristine Sears Kenmore manual.  That's when he became Dapper Derek Dumbass.  There's just something about watching a mere mortal man flounder about helplessly trying to fix something simple that just brings out the snippiness in me.   A snip, my grandmother used to call me.  Well, I couldn't help myself.  "I know what's wrong with it," I said, a bit sarcastically.  He turned and looked at me.  "The drainpipe is clogged.  That's what F21 means."  I added helpfully, "I looked it up online."  He gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look.  "I'll have to go look up how to fix it," he said and started for the door.  There was no way I was letting this guy get away so quickly after having waited almost all day for his arrival - I couldn't afford to waste another day at home during tax season.  "I already know how to fix it," I replied.  "You take off the bottom panel on the front."  He started to speak and I interrupted him.  "There are just three screws."  And then I saw the panic on his face.  He might have to get dirty.  Or ruin his manicure.  Honestly, if you were a prissy guy, would you even take a job as a maintenance man?  When I call for a repairman, I want a dirty, unkempt guy.  I want someone who looks like he's been working.  Not some clean preppy guy whose name probably is Derek.  Just then there was another knock on the door.  "Come in!" I said, hanging on to Aggie's leash.  Thank you, Lord!  It was Sean, the regular dirty maintenance guy who knows everything.  He greeted Aggie with a pat on the head and a "Hey there, varmint."  He and Derek conferred briefly and then Sean went out to get the shop-vac to get the water out of the washing machine and drain the clogged pipe.  After a few minutes of expert maintenance conducted almost single-handedly by the unkempt regular guy, the job was done.  Sean even tightened my doorknob on the way out the door.  It's a pity we can't just contact the right maintenance guy for the job directly, instead of having to put in a request and take our chances with the repairman lottery.  All's well that ends well, I guess.  Now I just have to catch up on the laundry!

Thinking deep, theological thoughts...

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise.

James Russell Lowell

The other day a friend of mine said that she doesn't like the idea of God testing us.  She said that she doesn't think He has time to sit around thinking of things to throw our way with which to test our mettle.  I asked her if she thought God had time to watch over us and send good things our way.  "Well, of course," was her reply.  I asked her why she thought He had time for that but not time to test us.  All I got was a puzzled glance.  She admitted that she just didn't really like the idea of a God who would test our faithfulness.  "I just don't like the word test," she said.  I suggested that maybe God challenges us to make the right choices and in doing so, helps us to become better people.  She decided that she could live with an occasional challenge from above more easily than she could a test.  The whole idea of challenges from God got me thinking about how everything, from little challenges to major hurdles, is really a blessing in disguise - like James Russell Lowell's thoughts about weeds and flowers.  I've made more than my fair share of wrong choices in what were surely tests from God , but I'm learning to make the right choices much more often. 

If I could just kick the habit...

of daily Diet Coke, I'd switch to italian soda.  Same habit, I guess - different flavor.  I love the Archer Farms Blood Orange Soda from Target, but they don't always have it.  I got a bottle the other day ($2.47! - another reason why I haven't made the switch...) and I was just enjoying a refreshing beverage on ice.   Hmph - sounds funnier when David Letterman says it.  Well, I actually think he says adult beverage, in which I very rarely, if ever, indulge.  Okay, everything is funnier when David Letterman says it.  Another small sip - oh yes...  That is just too good for words.

I'm not complaining...

mind you, because it will be hotter than a June bride in a feather bed before we know it,

but is it even going to warm up just a little?  This is Florida, for heaven's sake!

Better with age...

just like Sean Connery, don't you think?  We are having a Sam Elliott film festival at my house right now.  Last night Aggie and I watched Road House for the umpteenth time.  Who could even think Patrick Swayze, may he rest in peace, was even worthy of second look with Sam Elliott around?  The best part of that whole movie was Sam Elliott dancing in the diner with Kelly Lynch.  When she walks away, he's leaning over with that look on his face and says, "That girl has altogether too many brains to have an ass like that."  The quintessential Elliott.  We watched Ghost Rider on Thursday night - I'm not a Nicholas Cage fan, but any movie with Sam Elliott in it, even for a minute, is worth watching.  I've always wondered if he's as nice as he is seriously good-looking - and well, sexy.  It might just be the voice, but he's got that whole silver hair thing going on too.  And the mustache.  And that look.  You know the one.  Sigh.

Serious cuteness...

You know how when you start a new business you have all sorts of ideas - most of which never come to fruition?  Well, I was going to have shirts with my beehive logo on them.  One thing led to another and things didn't start out as well as I had hoped and these lovely shirts languished in my store room for almost two years.  I had all but forgotten about the idea when one of my favorite clients who has a consignment shop told me that she got a new embroidery machine.  The aha! moment arrived at last...  I asked her if she would be interested in doing a beehive logo for me - this was last fall, mind you - and she said to let her play around and see what she could come up with.  When she dropped her tax stuff off last month, I gave her the shirts and I have been waiting with anticipation for the finished product.  And look!  They're here!  Aren't the beehive and bees just the cutest thing?  She had to create the design from several different pictures and digitize it, but I think they look absolutely wonderful.  She said it was a great learning experience; she had always thought that creating her own design would be too hard, but she was proud of the results, too.  It looks great on the purple, doesn't it?

This shirt is actually that sort of pukey-green I like, but it's hard to tell.  Maybe it's more of a sage green.

The pink is very pale - even more so next to the purple.  I think she did a wonderful job - even if I am only going to get to wear them to the office until July.  It's not like I'm going to change my logo after I'm working from home.  And it goes with the Busy Bee Cards theme, too.

Aggie is driving me nuts...

I love my little dog.  Wasn't she the cutest puppy?

Our cat Louie (no tail - sweet boy!) was her first friend.  She would dawdle around outside when she went out to go potty and to get her to go inside, all I had to say was, "Louie's waiting!" and in she'd run.

Most of the cats, like Frodo (el cow-cat grande) here, would just ignore her.

She is always full of surprises.  Actually, I think she likes to have her picture taken.

She also thinks that cairns belong on tables.  She would wait by the door for her dad to come home.  Or maybe it was just to be close to her leash and little LL Bean backpack.  Yes, she would actually carry her treats to Grandma's house in her backpack.  Too cute for words.

But... her allergies are acting up - dry skin from the dry air with the heat on lately, I guess - and she is scratching like mad!  I've given her benadryl and sprayed her with benadryl anti-itch spray to no avail.  I guess we are going to have to go for an allergy shot.  The itch-itch-itch and the follow-up lick-lick-lick is driving me crazy!

Menopause - not for everyone...

Don't they make this look like something you ought to join?  Like the DAR or something?  Kinda makes you want to start an all-girl rock band called The Hot Flashes...

Maybe my sense of humor is out of whack...

but I didn't think that this movie was all that funny.  In fact, parts of it were downright sad.  I will have to say that there are times when it would be absolutely refreshing to say exactly what I am thinking - and there are also times when I am incredibly thankful that people cannot hear what I am thinking.  Case in point - my last client on Friday, who is a study in bitterness.  I've been mulling the whole interminably long hour she was here over and over again and I feel a diatribe on bitterness coming on.  First, however, I will have to introduce the Chihuahua and her dead poodle, Pepito, to you, dear readers.  And I can't even begin to think about them today.  Suffice it to say, La Chihuahua is a long story for another day.  Stay tuned...

Medicinal chili...

My head is so seriously stuffed up I have resorted to medicinal chili to facilitate breathing.  The Zyrtec is just not working its magic today.  Of course, the chili (think liquid fire!) is not helping my sore throat.

Thank goodness it's Friday!

Would someone please tell me...

if Glenn Ford ever played a bad guy - except in The Sacketts?  I finished watching the second DVD of the mini-series last night and I was absolutely gobsmacked that screen legend Glenn Ford, one of my dad's favorite actors, played the bad guy.  Tom Sunday started out so nice on the first disc and then, well, he wasn't really nice at all.  And to think he held a grudge against Tom Selleck, I mean Orrin Sackett - what was he thinking?  It was pretty good as westerns go - and it had Sam Elliott in it - so it was worth watching.

Did you know...

it’s Girl Scout Cookie season? They are everywhere, it seems, hawking their wares and tempting those of us with even the best intentions of not buying any. I confess: leaving Publix the other day, I was lured by the gleaming purple box of Samoas – coconut and chocolate and caramel. They remind of cookies my Grandma used to buy when I was a kid; they were almost the same, but called YumYums. Of course, my grandmother would eat anything that had coconut in it or on it. She loved Mounds and Almond Joy and at Christmas, she would make this horrifically, sickeningly sweet coconut candy which she always colored pink for some inexplicable reason. That didn't stop us - we ate it up like there was no tomorrow. I have her recipe, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to make it in years. I don’t know if it’s the memory or the risk of a cavity…  Sorry I haven’t thought of anything positive to write today, but coconut is positive, don’t you think? And Girl Scouts!

Another great movie...

in the ongoing Gerard Butler film festival!  Last night we watched Law Abiding Citizen - thank you, Netflix!  I'm not a real Jamie Foxx fan, but the movie was excellent - very suspenseful and if you love a good revenge flick, then this movie is for you.  "Vengeance is mine, " saith Clyde Shelton, the protagonist with some seriously sneaky technological know-how.

New shoes!

Yikes!  You can see my ugly white socks - but don't you just love my new pukey-green shoes?  They're those old-lady Easy Spirit slip on walking shoes.  I just love them - ugly but seriously comfortable.  I have worn out a white pair and a pink pair and then I got another white pair last year.  And then, will wonders never cease, I get this shoe catalog with the same style in pukey-green.  Well, they called it lime but we all know what color it really is.  I'm wearing a lime t-shirt - and I should have worn my lime green argyle socks!

Same old Saturday...

I just wanted to get in the car this morning and GO somewhere.  Alas, I had to work; I had three clients scheduled after lunch, so I had to stick around.  Ariela came in and we actually had one spanish-speaking client.  Mostly we chatted and had lunch.  Cari makes a mean tilapia Caesar salad.  After the clients left, Ariela helped me put some stuff in the SUV that I wanted to take home (a table, a silk ginkgo tree and a lamp) and then she followed me home to carry it in the apartment for me.  She's a good girl and I appreciate her.  We also had a good laugh over Baby's latest adventure.  One night last week, Ariela was dead tired and asked Marco, her husband, to watch Baby (he's three) when she decided to go to bed early.  Apparently, no one heard her.  She awoke some time later to the sound of running water and a funny smell.  She found Baby standing in the bathroom, looking into the overflowing toilet and then down at his wet feet.  She immediately enlisted Marco to clean up the mess while she cleaned up Baby.  She kept asking her little boy what he had done and he kept denying any part in the great toilet paper caper.  She ended up spanking him and sending him to bed - and he didn't even complain.  I guess he knew he was in trouble because he covered his head up and went to sleep and stayed in his own bed all night long.  The next morning, he changed his story, admitted that he had stuffed the paper in the toilet and was very remorseful.  Funny how the three-year-old mind works.  She said it was hilarious - but of course, she couldn't laugh and Marco was really steamed about having to clean up the mess.  I adore Baby, but I am very thankful for my four-legged kid who has no idea what toilet paper is or how to flush a toilet.

One of the advantages...

of living alone is not having to cook when you don't feel like it.  Boston Market is about three blocks away from my apartment and they are always cooking, whether they feel like it not.

Working toward the weekend...

I don't usually wish my life away, but I've had a really busy couple of days and I am really looking forward to the weekend.  I'm not doing anything special or going anywhere but home, but I really can't wait until Saturday afternoon...  I want to go home, put on my pajamas, put my feet up, snuggle up with my little dog and read a book.  Or watch a movie.  Or just enjoy the silence.  I am going to wrap myself in the little cocoon of comfort that my apartment is slowly becoming.

I confess...

I'm having a Gerard Butler film festival at my house.  Last night I watched Timeline again.  Aggie slept through it - but I liked it better this time, having actually noticed what a hunky fourteenth century guy Gerard Butler made.  I'm not usually much on anything medieval - weird considering my thing for early British literature - but I'll make an exception here.  I need to revisit my Netflix queue and add more of his films.

Back to the grindstone...

I spent the day at home yesterday - I still felt too bad to drive, much less spend the day at the office.  I didn't really miss much - just a few phone calls and a cancellation.  For some reason, people always think I'm closed on Federal holidays.  I've been doing some catch-up work today and working on the growing pile of tax returns.  My regular here's-my-pile-of-crap clients are starting to come in.  Some of them are pretty organized but most have, well, a pile of crap.  That's okay - I love a puzzle!  Sometimes, I guess because I work alone for the most part, I have a little trouble with concentration, what with the phone ringing and people coming in, but when it finally quiets down by mid-afternoon, I manage to get some work done.  I've been trying not to come in on Sundays because that's my only day at home with Aggie (and the housework and laundry...).  I know that sounds silly, but she's my baby.  I'm also pretty excited about my new client who is willing to barter with me for the enclosure reinforcement I need for the screened patio so Aggie can go out there are watch the squirrels to her heart's content.  She has really been enjoying the new view - and barking less.  I'm happy, too!

So much for Valentine's Day...

I spent the whole day Sunday feeling dizzy and sick and losing what little lunch I had eaten on Saturday.  Aggie took good care of me and we watched movies and napped most of the day.  I guess I'll be cooking the little rib-eye steak I got for our Valentine dinner tonight.  I know, I know, it's meat - but at least it doesn't look like a cow!  Oh, and if you haven't seen the movie, Nim's Island, check it out.  Very family-friendly and a great story.  It has Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler.  Breslin is precocious, Foster is agoraphobic and Butler is dashing.  That's all I can say - watch it!

Down but never out...

You know, I have just got to stop worrying.  I have good days when I think that I will be able to handle all of this business of life and running a business on my own and keep going and then I have days when I feel insecure and doubt my ability to be successful and take care of myself.  And just when I feel like crying and start feeling sorry for myself, God gives one of my existing clients a gentle nudge and they refer a new client to me and things start looking up again.  I need to spend more time looking up myself, I think.

And stop worrying about the future!

Grey Gardens...

Aggie and I watched Grey Gardens last night.  Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange were perfect casting for Big Edie and Little Edie Beale!  If you've never seen the original documentary, by all means watch it before you see the movie version.  I ran across the original one night several years ago while I was channel-surfing and it was like a complete train wreck.  I wanted to change the channel, but I couldn't stop watching.  I was so fascinated that I set the TiVo to record the whole thing.  Of course, I could see how I could become Big Edie the crazy cat lady - it was horrifying! - and the mother/daughter dynamic between the two hit pretty close to home, too.  The new movie version is like watching an enhanced version of the documentary; the protrayals of the Beales are spot-on and the "live action" drama is wonderful.  Jeanne Tripplehorn does a  good job as Jackie Kennedy, who comes to the rescue of her relatives, albeit almost too little, too late.

In the nick of time...

Okay, I'll admit it.  I'm cheap.  I like to say frugal, because it sounds better, but the truth is: I'm cheap.  The first year I was in business, I pondered having client tax folders custom-printed, but that was way too cost-prohibitive for my meager budget.  I had missed the school supply sale at the end of summer, so I was forced to buy folders by the box from the office supply.  Thirty-five cents each!  The next year I got smart and bought them for seven cents each when the school supplies went on sale.  Well, somehow this past fall I missed the big sale.  I bought a hundred folders - all I could put my hands on - for about ten cents each.  And then I ran out of folders the other day. How could that be?  I plan ahead; I'm organized.  I started to panic. I thought I had more in the storage room, but alas - none to be found.  I was able to find discount (read cheap) folders online from a school supply warehouse with free shipping.  They're not extravagant in the least, but they serve the purpose.  One of my new clients said her friend recommended me to her, but the real reason she came in was for the pretty folder.  I guess it takes all kinds...

Black bean soup...

Well, I'm not completely out of the turkey on rye rut, but I did have a big cup of black bean soup for lunch.  With chopped onions and sour cream.  How can something so ugly taste so good?  Of course, the most amazing thing is that while wearing a white shirt, I managed to eat the whole bowl without getting any soup on myself.  Yes, there is a God.

The Ugly Truth and The Great Hot Tamale Caper...

Saturday was supposed to be Spanish-Spoken-Here Saturday at the office.  Ariela and I arrived bright and early and waited.  And waited.  I had several regular clients show up, a few new clients, but not a single client who wanted to prepare their taxes speaking spanish only.  Ariela had called those potential clients who had requested her and told them about our hours for Saturday and urged them to come in.  Nope.  No one.  Nada, as they would have surely said had they appeared.  She was so mad - she hates to sit and do nothing.  We are reconsidering the wisdom of trying to accomodate people who clearly cannot be bothered to come in when she is available.  I guess we're back to having the die-hards contact Ariela directly.  Which brings me to the tamales...  Ariela's neighbor makes homemade tamales and sells them by the dozen.  I ran by Ariela's house after work to drop something off and she gave me a dozen fresh, hot out of the pot tamales for dinner.  I couldn't wait!  Seriously, I couldn't wait.  So I sampled one on the way home - I keep extra sporks from Taco Bell in the glove box.  Hot.  And not just the temperature.  Just then my phone rang; it was Ariela.  She said, "I just tasted the tamales and I said to Marco, 'These are too hot for Dawn.'"  I told her that I had sampled one already, but I was confident that a little sour cream on top would alleviate the heat.  Onward home I drove and to my surprise, there was a parking spot available right in front of my door.  The evening was looking up.  And then, disaster.  As I walked the short distance from my SUV to my door, the bottom dropped out of the bag with the tamales and the foil wrapper, which I had not properly sealed after my in-transit taste test, came open and to my dismay, there were eleven hot tamales on the sidewalk.  Undeterred, I scooped them up and carried the steaming things into the apartment in my hands, trying to hang on to my purse, my keys and my cane.  I'm sure it was quite a sight!  I shooed Aggie back from the door and dropped a tamale.  "No!" I shrieked and picked it up.  I finally made it to the kitchen and deposited the steaming pile of cornhusk-wrapped delights on the counter.  You see, tamales are exempt from the five-second rule: thank Quetzalcoatl (or Whomever) for imparting the wisdom of wrapping tamales in cornhusks to Albert Einstein Tamale.  I quickly unwrapped them all and put them into a sealable container - well except for the ones Aggie and I planned to have for dinner.  They were spicy, but wonderful.  Sour cream and all.

Oh, and about the movie.  It was okay, but a little raunchy for my taste.  It was a typical romantic comedy, but I could have done without all of the innuendo and double entendre.  Gerard Butler is cute, though. 

Network meltdown...

You know how a dog or a horse senses when a person is nervous around them and they get skittish?  Well, I have come to the conclusion that computers are the same way.  Only they get skittish when they sense that you are desperate to use them.  Invariably when it is crunch time and I really need the office LAN and the internet, some queer electron runs through the system and we are DOWN!  I guess I am fortunate that Tim, who set up the network to begin with, was still in Tampa tonight and he came down and fixed the problem, although we had to solve the network printer problem by connecting it with a USB cable to my computer, which is the network server.  Tomorrow morning I have to download my 2009 tax software to the other computer because Ariela is coming in to help me with spanish-only clients.  Lord, watch over my temperamental office LAN!

Charmingly creepy...

Christopher Walken, that is.  He's just so quirky - he can play bad, he can play funny, he can play evil and he's sometimes, well, charming in a creepy sort of way.  The Maiden Heist is very funny - and how could it go wrong with Walken, Morgan Freeman and one of my favorite guys, William H. Macy.  They are all security guards at a museum where each one has his favorite piece of art.  And the new curator has decided to move the exhibit containing all three to Copenhagen.  Do you know how far away Denmark is? they all ask one another.  A plan is hatched and a comedy of artistic proportion ensues.  Worth watching!

I really like The Lonely Maiden portrait that Christopher Walken's character is obsessed with:

He is not a crook...

One of my clients was here the other night with her new boxer puppy (he was huge!) and he was just adorable.  I asked his name.  Her reply: Nixon.  And dang if that dog doesn't look just like our esteemed President Nixon.  Rebecca says her Nixon is not a crook.

Five minutes for myself...

I've been so busy the last couple of days that I haven't had time to even think about anything but taxes.  I just had a brief lull in the chaos that has become my life, so I took five minutes and got out a couple of Valentine decorations.  I love valentines!  I like making them and I especially love vintage valentines with kids on them.  No SpongeBob for me!  When I was a kid, the lacier and flowery-er the better.  I loved those white paper lace doilies, too!  I have this great Stampin' Up stamp set for valentines with kids and hearts - very old-timey looking.  I don't know if I'll get a chance to make any cards before the 14th or not at the rate I'm going.  But I shall not complain!  I put my granola bar giveaway goodies in my Mary Engelbreit mailbox and gave Muffy the job of watching over the supply.  She's a bear of few words, so I hope she'll let me know when I'm running low.  I used to give out Hershey bars to my clients, but the kids went completely nuts for the chocolate and I'm sure their parents had to scrape them off the ceiling when they got home.  No more chocolate - but I am thinking of buying stock in Quaker Oats.  People love these things!

Something new...

If you are anywhere near a Publix, go and buy some Publix Premium Red Velvet ice cream.  I was only mildly disappointed (for about two seconds!) that it wasn't chocolate ice cream, but it's sort of pink like it's got red velvet cake crumbs all through it - and it has big chunks of red velvet cake (more like a brownie chunk), pecans and cream cheese icing swirls.  It is to die for!