ha ha – Page 6 – This Old House 2

Hipstamatic

I am not a techno-geek. No… if I can figure out how to turn it on and turn it off, we’re golden. Right now I’m talking about my iPhone. Which I love beyond the good sense I possess. Most of the time.

So.. there’s this APP on the thing which someone in the blogosphere was raving about. I managed to find it on my phone and I actually figured out how to use it. It’s so easy, a Cave Man could use this application.

Anyway… I walked around the farm in this lovely heatwave
and snapped some hipstamatic pics.

If you have an iPhone, I highly recommend it.
It’s just fun to see how they turn out.

If you shake the phone,
the camera picks the flash and shutter setting at random

and you get what you get.

This is what I got.

130 Steps

That’s how many steps it takes to get from my side door to the tack room at the barn. I’m cracking up and I am truly touched by my fellow bloggers concern over the distance I must travel to get from house to barn and back again. I was compelled to go out and count tonight, just so ya know.

This is how I see it…. If I can’t walk 130 steps to and from the barn to feed, muck, water, what-have-you… then I have no business building a barn again, now, do I? I need the exercise!!… You see… I’m gonna brag here for a minute, and I really never brag because it just isn’t me – I’m nothing special and I’m not even gonna try to fool you. But… I have always been in decent shape due to the amount of barn work I’ve done over the years. All you horse people out there know what I’m talking about. (Ofcourse, I can also thank these chores for my awesome back and neck aches and pains too – yeah, there’s that ). I’m sure I’ve paid my chiropractor’s boat payments because of my barn chore history.

Anyway… for the past two years I have become a slug, a SLUG I tell you.. because I have NOT had to walk to the barn and do those chores. Nooo… someone ELSE has been doing that for me on another farm! Oh, I enjoyed the reprieve, but I also missed my horses in the backyard and muscle tone has started to head South. So it’s time to kick this behind back into shape, and those 130 steps are gonna help.

Now if we have another winter like the one we had this past year…

well let’s not go there.

I have a question for the barn buddies among us…

How many steps is YOUR barn from the house?

John Travolta Doesn’t Live Here

To all you locals who read my blog… just letting ya know…

John Travolta did NOT buy our house, and no landing strip for airplanes is going in the fields. For those of you who don’t live around here, the John Travolta rumor has been floating around our little town for 20 years or so. Although I surely wish it were true, it just ain’t so. It’s hilarious that town folk are now applying that rumor to the sale of our previous house.

I do love the man, he is my favorite actor and I’ve loved every roll he has taken.

I was madly in love with Vinny Barbarino and then Danny in Grease.

I still know every word to every song,

and the Welcome back Cotter theme song brings back

fond memories of a beanpole adolescent with a wicked crush.

His roles ever since have been admirable and diverse.

I love that he is a genuine family man too.

Dear John, ( or John’s People!)

If you ever come across this post, please dispel the myth
for this tiny New England town…

leave a comment telling us that you really don’t live here.

Or maybe shine a ray of hope for us all 🙂

You have many fans here, apparently!

P.S. You can build a landing strip in our hay fields any time!

Love, Karen

The new owner has decided to put up a security gate at the entrance to the driveway… which will fuel the John Travolta rumors even more, I’m sure.

Sorry if I’ve burst any bubbles here…. 🙂

What do YOU find under your couch cushions?

Making a spectacle of myself

My grandfather Al used to call my grandmother Elsie “Squint Eyes”, which doesn’t sound like a very affectionate pet name, now does it. I can tell you this… theirs was a true love story that never petered out. He was writing her love notes on the bedroom and bathroom mirror (with her favorite red lipstick, much to her chagrin) right into his eighties.

Dear Squint Eyes – I do love you so. See you at dinner – xo

I, on the other hand, have never been called Squint Eyes. NOoo… I am Hawkeye! Eagle Eye! Laser Vision Woman!… My husband teases me constantly because he is the competitive type, you know.

When we’re on the road, he’ll challenge me to

“Read that sign up ahead.. let’s see who can read it first!”

… I always win.

I am the one who sits in the Eye Doctors office

and proceeds to read the copyright year at the very bottom of the chart,

just to show off.

Last year the Dr. said…

“Well, you still have perfect vision… but it gets us all sooner or later.

You’ll be in to see me for glasses in the future, it happens to all of us”.

I scoffed!

Silly girl.

I’ve been catching myself lately…

holding the menu at a distance

trying to read the fine print on a bottle of aspirin

The eyes taking just a bit longer to shift focus from the book to the television.

You know what this means, don’t you?

Now any time we take a road trip,

I’m gonna have to memorize all the signs beforehand.

Frankly speaking

I think I got it from my grandmother Elsie… the deep affection for a good hot dog. The flames were fanned by the fact that the best hot dogs in the world were located in the state of my origin. If you’ve never had one, put it on your bucket list…. a NYC hot dog, straight from the vendors cart. Never mind that the water those dogs are boiling in looks like they got it straight out of the harbor – those dogs are awesome.

Oh, I know they’re pretty much made out of crap, but there are regulations afterall…

According to an article by Peggy Trowbridge Filippone of About.com, Frankfurter content is regulated by law in the United States. Traditional hot dogs are made of beef, pork, veal, chicken or turkey. They are available with or without skins and may contain up to 30 percent fat and 10 percent added water. For vegetarians, there are tofu hot dogs. (ick. That’s not a dog)

Hot Dog Terms Regulated by Law

• Beef or all-beef: Contains only beef with no soybean protein or dry milk solid fillers added.

• Kosher: All-beef, usually heavily seasoned with garlic.

• Meat: A mixture of pork and beef, usually 40 percent pork and 60 percent beef with no fillers.

• Frankfurter: May contain up to 3.5 percent fillers and made from a combination of meats.

Hot Dog Style Glossary

• Chicago dogs: Yellow mustard, dark green relish, chopped raw onions, tomato slices, celery salt and a poppy seed bun.

• Kansas City dogs: Sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese on a sesame seed bun.

• New York City dogs: Steamed saurkraut, onions and pale yellow mustard sauce. See second photo.

• Coney Island dogs: Topped with a spicy meat mixture.

• Southern slaw dogs: Served with coleslaw on top.

• Corn dogs: Placed on a stick, dipped in corn bread batter, and deep-fried.

• Tex-Mex dogs: Topped with salsa, Monterey Jack cheese, and chopped jalapenos.

• Pigs in a Blanket: Wrapped in pastry and baked.

• Baltimore Frizzled: Split and deep-fried. ( I didn’t find a good picture of that)

What ticks me off is, my blood pressure has been on the rise (what? am I that old?? No!!!)…and someone told me a variety of stupid symptoms I’ve put up with over the years may have to do with a gluten allergy. So I’m trying to get sodium and glutens out of my diet. Guess what’s the number one offender… GASP….

My beloved hotdog.

That’s just ticking me off…. It’s the little things, you know.

You’re craving a hot dog right now, aren’t ya?

Hmmm….

…do ya think he was in a hurry?

It seemed like a good idea at the time

Last night Junior decided to have a bonfire in the firepit and invited a few friends over. Then it was a sleepover. So at 9:30 the husband went to Stop & Shop and got burgers, hotdogs, marshmallows for the smores deal, and there was a late night grilling session. Then someone thought it would be really cool to set up the tent and sleep outside.

I took these photos from my spy area, the porch behind a shrowd of darkness because moms aren’t supposed to be anywhere near the camp vicinity, you know.

I warned that it was still kinda chilly,

but at 15 these things don’t phase you.

But rain does.

No one bothered to check the forecast, and that includes me.

So at 4am, voices were heard climbing the stairs to the bedroom

where there would be no blankets or pillows

or even an air mattress

because they were ALL

here.

Soaked.

So much for rough’n it.

Misery Loves Company

So I have been sick for the past two days-

– coughing.and.sneezing.and.achy muscles.sorethroat.sleepless.and.generally.miserable and last night I had to leave a meeting because the wave of coughs and sneezing were about to drown everyone in the room so I did the only thing acceptable and left almost rudely right in the middle of someone’s speech. Not cool. Tonight my son is making his confirmation and I don’t think I can shut it long enough to sit through the ceremony. Not cool at all.

But you know… I’m not really complaining, because it’s just a stupid cold and there are worse things in life, don’t we all know it.

So, in light of the fact that I might be up for the third night in a row at 3am reading your blogs… I’m putting something fun in this post that will help you to help entertain ME when you’re sleeping and I’m probably not. ( I’m not complaining tho, really! )

I saw this idea on another blog and although his was more challenging (he’s got a macro lens, I don’t yet)… here’s my version. See if you can guess correctly what all of the items below are…

and PS>>>> do not click on the pictures to make them bigger… a reader informed me that I (stupidly!) titled the pictures by what they were and you will see that if you click. SO.. no cheating.