Hoppy Easter!

Every year my friend Cheryl hosts an Easter brunch, and it's always TONS of fun. Great food, good drinks (although this year we only managed to finish off eight bottles of champagne, whereas we finished off eleven bottles at Easter last year), and great friends. It's too bad we didn't have it Saturday... it was such a nice warm day. Oh well, we love it inside or out. Here are just a couple pictures. To see the rest check here.

Lynne, who couldn't be here got Cheryl this lovely Easter wreath to greet us at the door. I guess she got it at an action at the Oregon Library Association Board's retreat last year. LOVE IT! :) It's got eggs and feathers! I mean, how much better can you get! Hee hee. We did miss Jimmy and Lynne and the kids though.

Again, as usual Cheryl went crazy and made such amazing food! A turkey, a ham, this great vegetable dish, these fabulous beans, and fruit, veggies and dip, breads etc. Rachel brought her "famous" scalloped potatoes (which ROCK), Paige brought a quiche, and Colleen brought more fruit. Since we couldn't sit outside because of the weather we were a bit scrunched... but it all worked out perfectly. Here's April in the food line:

After dinner we played our usual card game, spoons. Know that one? Everyone gets four cards, and then you pick up and pass along cards that you don't want...the object is to get four of a kind, surreptitiously grab a spoon, and the last one to get a spoon "looses". Kinda like musical chairs but with cards and spoons. It came down to a showdown between Colleen and Kevin. Can you guess from this picture who won??? :)
However, in Cheryl's house no one is a looser...so the person each round that did not get a spoon, you get a prize! April and I choose the wind-up Peeps! they were so cute. We had Peeps races. Guess April just wanted her Peep to know who was who!

Sheila was trying to take a picture of one of the many candy bowls, but wound up taking this very cute video. The laugh that starts it off is Cheryl's awesome laugh! :)

Here chicky, chicky, chicky

On our way to the Summit yesterday we saw these chicks in the window of Donner Flowers. They're there for EWaster, of course. They're SOOOO cute! I could sit and watch them for hours. That one lying down in the back isn't dead...we thought it was for a moment, but it woke up. He's just sleepy.

Had a good St Patricks. A couple beers and a ruben sandwich....it was nice.

Something BIG this way....went

Sunday morning I went for a walk with Barrie and Izzy. We came across these HUGE paw prints in the muck! I mean HUGE! Izzy very considerately put her paw right beside the print so you can see the sizes. now, Izzy is a black lab. She's not small. Look at the size of those! Can't be cougar, since they retract their claws and this print has definite claw marks. I'm not sure Great Dane's or St Bernard's have paws that size...and bear feet are not that round. They're longer and more...well, more like our own footprints. What do you think it could be?

Izzy is SUCH a cutie! Here she is with all of the sticks I gave her. She felt she had to shred them. Silly girl.

We started our walk just past the Entrada Lodge and walked down to the river and then along the Deschutes River Trail for a ways. It was just gorgeous out. Nippy when we started but we were both sweating by the time we headed back. Simply gorgeous day.

Chugging along

Well, I've done nothing exciting 'cause I've been sick. This cold has just tired me out! I did watch a great documentary called Double Dare, about two stunt women. It features Jeannie Epper, who was Wonder Woman's double and has been working as a stunt woman for over 50 years. She's currently in her late 60's and STILL working! The other woman they profile is Zoe Bell...who I think is just the bees knees! :) Yea, love her!

It's a very interesting movie. Talks a lot about the stunt/movie industry, what it takes to make it and what it takes to make it as a female in such a male dominated field. The Eppers are evidently the Flying Waldendas of movie stunts.

My book club just finished reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. The book was....ok, pretty good but not AMAZING! However, the story around the life of Irene Nemirovsky is! In 1942 when she wrote Suite Francaise she was already a well-recognized and regarded author in France. She was a Russian Jew, so was arrested and taken to to Auschwitz where she soon died. Even though she had converted to Catholicism in 1939! Her husband fought to get her out, without realizing that she was already dead. In response to his requests they arrested him too, sent him to Auschwitz where he was executed immediately. :( So sad. but their two daughters survived and had with them the manuscript for Suite Francaise. It's a fascinating story.

For Sylvia....

I made an appointment for the 14th! :P

Weekend visit

Well, I had a great weekend with my parents...other than being sick, that is! :) They arrived Thursday and left this morning. We had a really good visit. Friday I took the day off work and we went skiing. This was my first downhill skiing since my surgeries. I only did 5 runs, because I didn't want to overdo it. I did two runs before lunch and then three after. I could have done a couple more, but I was also happy with what I did do.

The rest of the time I spent in the lodge reading and doing crossword puzzles. I was getting sick, and I could feel the work my legs were doing, so I was happy to rest. Then Saturday my cold got pretty bad so I spent the day on the couch and in bed and my parents went snowshoeing. They had a great time! Wish I'd been able to go with them. Then Sunday we just hung out and went on a walk. I still feel pretty rough, but I'm hoping I'm on the mend. I don't feel like I am...but I hope I am! :)

Last week I got some more catnip and it came with this plastic ball with holes in it. So you put the catnip in the ball and the cats go crazy over it. I gave it to them on Sunday, and pretty soon, guess where it wound up...

Beading class

Yesterday I taught my second beading class at the Bend library. It went, if possible, even better than the first one. I had 24 attendees and 9 people on the waiting list. Everyone enjoyed themselves, learned something new and 6 of the women have already signed up for the workshop I'm having in Sunriver on March 15. :) I love teaching, and I especially love teaching people how to bead!

Saturday I did manage to get out for a walk, despite the tightness in my legs. I haven't been particularly happy with them the last couple weeks. They're still REALLY tight, and still hurt when I walk or now that I'm trying to start running. But despite that we walked the River Trail from up on Aubrey Butte back towards town. It was just gorgeous! It was quite warm and the sun was out. Now many clouds in the sky...just perfect.

This week seems to be my doctor or physical body work week! I'm seeing my massage therapist today for what I am sure will be a very painful leg massage, tomorrow I see a specialist at the Center for my hand/wrist/arm, then go from there to my acupuncturist who is working on both legs and arm...more legs the last week. Then Wednesday I see a different massage therapist to do some more specific work on my arm.

My New Year's resolution is to NOT have surgery this year...and I plan on keeping that resolution! :)

My parents are coming to visit on Thursday and they're staying until Monday. That's a long time for them. Now that my dad retired they can come for longer. We're planning on skiing Friday, then snowshoe Saturday and just hang our Sunday. They'll drive home Monday. AND I'll get daily...or twice daily leg passages. Ahhhh. :)

The Goose came back, the very next day...

You know that song The Cat Came Back the Very Next Day? Here's a link to a video done for it. I loved it as a kid.


Anyway, that ceramic goose I got in the New Year's White Elephant? I took it with my to the BBC ExCom holiday party and gave it away for that. After all the opening and stealing...I wound up getting it back! Well, there was NO way I was going to take it home with me. So I hid it in Cate and Josh's . That's where we had the party. Hee hee hee. She eventually found it and laughed her ass off.

Well, this morning a friend came to pick something up, I was standing on the doorstep talking to her and what do I see? What the hell is that????I look closer....
IT'S THE FREAKING CERAMIC GOOSE!!! Or duck. Whatever it is. Evidently Cate had come over when I was not here and hid it in the snowbank. It's been there for about 4 days. The snow finally melted enough that I saw it. Funny, funny, funny. :)

Puppy Bowl IV!

I LOVE THE PUPPY BOWL! :) I'm not really a football fan, so instead I'm watching Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl IV. It's not a Canadian thing that I don't enjoy football...there are many Canadians that are American football crazy. It's just me. I didn't grow up watching football...and it holds no interest for me whatsoever. Football, baseball, basketball...whatever. I'd rather watch Puppy Bowl! :)

I think these two were my favourites. The first one is a Corgi mix named Bria and the other is an unknown mixed breed named Scuba. Look at those ears! Hee hee hee.
I'm not sure I can say that...they're all so cute!!!! The great thing about Puppy Bowl...other than it's histerical to watch, is that all of the dogs (and the kittens in the halftime show) are from shelters, and there is info on the Animal Planet website about adopting these and other dogs. If you didn't get a chance to see it since you were busy watching the super Bowl, check oput the videos on the Animal Planet page.

Today I also made cream of mushroom soup (yummy) and this great Mousaka! I haven't had Mousaka in a very long time. It toos a while, since you need to roast the eggplant, then make the meat mixture, then the sauce, put it all together and bake...but it was worth it. I made two, so one's going in the freezer for another day.

Snow, upon snow, upon snow!

Yesterday the Sunriver library didn't open. It was snowing like crazy here. The schools were closed, which is always an indicator to us that we should not be open either. So it snowed ALL day in Sunriver. And this is what it looked like this morning.

There was an ever so small break in the snow, and now it's back to heavy snow. I mean HEAVY! In this picture you can see that the snow and roof meet! Because it's so pitched, it slides off as soon as it's too heavy. Which is great because it doesn't overburden the roof. But bad because you get this wall of snow!

In fact, this is the view from our staff workroom, out to the entryway and parking lot. Can you see the liiiiiitle sliver of daylight up there on the top right? :)

Even in the spots that are not where snow is falling off the the snow is a good 3 feet deep. It's supposed to continue like this for another 3-4 days.