I found out last night that my grandma is in the hospital. She will be ok, and will probably be released to come home this weekend. But she had a heart attack & needed a double by-pass & valve replacement. Despite her being ok it's still not a fun thing to go through at all. She's not my biological grandma, but she's the only grandma I've ever had on my dad's side of the family. She's one of those fabulous old ladies who is loud and speaks her mind and is embarrassed by absolutely nothing, and seems to think everyone else in the world is the same way. When I was 17 she asked me (in her very loud fashion, in front of the entire family) if I'd gotten implants (you know what I'm talking about) which of course made me turn as red as a cooked lobster. When I assured her that the answer was no, she replied with a shrug and "Well I just thought maybe you had. I mean they're so big." Yeah she's THAT kind of grandma - the one who won't hesitate to point out things like that even in a large crowd or out in public. She prays before she leaves the house, and if you ever let her drive you'll understand why and you'll be praying too even if you are not normally one to pray. Yes that's my grandma. Loud, crazy, unabashed, drives way too fast, will make you laugh till it hurts and embarrass you like no other grandma. She is fabulous.

I am sure you've noticed the new background. I don't know yet if I like it or not, I may revert back to the old one. I wanted a little bit of a change, but not too much of a change. If anyone thinks I should change it back, or just do something different about this one (like if it's too hard to read now or something) just let me know and I will fix it/change it back.

The Redwings won last night. Phooey. I have to say in my (perhaps biased) opinion it was largely thanks to the refs letting them get away with a heck of a lot of cheap plays, as they have through the entire playoffs thus far. One thing that bugged me in particular was how they (the commentators for VS.) were making it out like a certain Detroit player is such a great player with lots of "good clean hits"... uh, I'm sorry but anyone who knows the slightest bit about hockey could watch the clips they were showing and know those were cheap, dirty hits he should have had major penalties for. If the skates leave the ice (as they seem to do EVERY time he hits someone) it's charging. And that's just one of the many things they repeatedly got away with.

I have to say that is the one thing I don't like so much about hockey. The refs decide to let more things go "because it's the playoffs".... and I don't get it. It is still the same game. The same rules are still in place. If it is a penalty during the regular season, then it should be a penalty during the playoffs. They do the same thing when a game goes into overtime and again I ask: why? It's the SAME game, with the SAME rules. *sigh* Ultimately it's the same as any other sport though where when they completely mess up on one play in whatever way, they "make up for it" by making a totally bogus call to "even it up".... which is completely wrong IMHO but that's the world of sports for you. All I can say is if I were in charge, things would be run MUCH differently, and much more fairly.

It is raining AGAIN. I thought the old saying was "April showers bring May flowers".... so why does it seem like we've had more rain in the first week of May than we did all April?

I suppose that's enough of my rambling for today. Have a great weekend everyone and I will see you Monday!

Well I finally did it. I bought some new books at long last. It's been ages since I've bought any new books! Well not really, but it feels like it to me, and it has been a few months and that's a long time to go without new books. I ordered some online - have I ever mentioned how grateful I am that one can buy pretty much anything online these days? I'm not really much of a people person IRL; as an empath going out in public can be a really draining and dreadful experience so I really only go out when I absolutely must. (I know, I make it sound like it's only a negative thing but being an empath can be, and usually is, a really wonderful thing - but when you're as sensitive as I am you really need to choose your battles so to speak.)  My mother and sister insist I need to "get out more" - but what they don't understand is that I don't want to do that. I am perfectly happy staying home and doing my own thing. I don't see why putting myself "out there" as they would say would be a good thing when doing so only makes me miserable, I rarely have fun when I'm out and about, and I've had more than one (albeit mild) panic attack just out grocery shopping because the crowds get to me. I shouldn't have to subject myself to that just because THEY like going out. I will never understand why people feel a need to pressure introverts to "get out" so damn much. If a person likes just hanging out at home why is that so bad?

But I digress big time. haha I bought my books from the literary guild - which I only discovered because I got one of their mailings. I normally throw stuff like that away, but seeing as I've been wanting new books lately I thought I'd take a look at their policy and books and I ended up deciding that I liked what I saw enough to join. So now all that is left is to wait for them to get here. And I already have a list of other books I'd like to get.

Conference finals start tonight. I really want the Stars and Pens to make it to finals. Of course, I want my Pens to bring Lord Stanley home to the 'Burgh again... but.... if they have to lose I wouldn't mind it being to the Stars, since I like them a lot too. But for now it's a matter of the Pens needing to beat Philly and the Stars needing to beat Detroit. And of course conference finals means.... there's a game every night from now till at *least* the 15th (I don't think either series will be over in 4 games though so it'll be longer than that!) with the exception of next Friday. This is what I love about playoff time. Hockey every day!

Well, boyfriend called so I'm on the phone & gonna go. Have a great day everyone and I'll see you tomorrow!

Well, it's that time again. =)  But before I get going with the pics.... I think I've been given a sign that I need to keep my butt indoors this year, or at least stick to the porch and deck rather than hanging out in the yard. Twice in less than a week I've gone out with Jenna, and run into a snake. Now - I'm not mortally afraid of snakes. I am scared of them I will admit that - but not to the extent that I fear spiders. (I think most of you know by now how terrified I am of spiders, and WHY...) I live in an area where snakes in warmer weather are just commonplace. However, USUALLY I don't have such close encounters with them. And the fact that in less than a week there have been two such encounters where I was less than a foot away from them (aka "within striking distance") bothers me. Call me nuts but it's one of those gut feelings you get about things, that sometimes you brush off because it sounds so silly and later wish you'd not brushed it off. So I'm going to listen. The first snake was bigger - at least 3 feet in length. I think he was just as startled as I was when I ran into him. But he didn't seem agitated or anything, just in a hurry to get where he was going because as I backed away (pulling Jenna along with me) he looked for a couple seconds then hurried off in the same direction he'd been going.

This other one yesterday though was smaller, but seemed agitated and wasn't about to just go away. I didn't see this one till Jenna had walked past him, but I didn't really want to run past him myself so I backed up as far as I could (being between the garden and the picnic table I didn't have much room) and pulled Jenna back with me then slowly worked my way around the picnic table and to the driveway. My plan had been to chain Jenna up so she could hang out outside, and I was going to sit at the picnic table and read a book. Obviously that wasn't going to happen with an irate snake right there - so I took my book inside and took Jen for a walk up the road instead. I still see snakes on the road occasionally but at least then they can't hide in the grass, I see them from a distance and can turn around well before putting myself and Jenna in any immediate danger of being bitten.

Anyway, on with the pics.

My pink bleeding hearts are blooming! The white ones aren't yet; in fact it is still pretty puny compared to the size of the pink one. But that's because my dad accidentally stepped on it. So it might take a while - at least it's still alive and growing even if it doesn't have flowers yet!



Some random outdoors pics, including the first rose bud that I noticed this year. Doesn't mean it's the very first one, just the first one I saw. Which made me take a good look at all the rose bushes and 5 of 9 have buds on them.







My lemon tree.... which is very sad looking I know. My dad left it outside overnight several weeks ago when it was still far too cold for it (I told him not to even put it outside yet but he did and didn't tell me about it) so I was sure it was gone. But it amazingly has some new growth!




Both of these pretty much break all the rules of photography - but I like them. And rules are for breaking, right?






And, before and after photoshop. I just wanted to add a little blue to the sky; it was bright enough out that the sky didn't really look too blue when I took the picture so the original is accurate to what I was seeing when I took the picture. I really just wanted to play with photoshop a little this morning. lol





And my final note for the day... I ordered this cute ring from Amazon yesterday. click me baby!  I thought it was cute; and it's going to be a temporary promise ring till boyfriend and I have a chance to spend some time together and get real promise rings. Yeah I bought something meant to be a promise ring (even if only temporary) myself. I'm weird like that. We made an agreement about the promise rings, but I really want a ring to wear in the mean time. I found some really cute cheap silver rings but of course I can't wear them. I've discovered if I coat them with clear nail polish I can wear them - but that's a bit of a pain to have to do, and re-do when the nail polish has worn off. So I started looking for an alternative that was just as cheap... acrylic it is! It might not be fancy or scream "I'm taken" - but it's cute, I like it, it won't turn my skin blackish green or cause irritation/bumps the way silver does, and it was cheap. So for now, it'll work!

Enough of my rambling. Have a great day everyone!

From Music Memoirs, click the pretty little blinkie to give them a visit.



Word associations again! Remember answer with the first band/artist/song/album etc that you think of when you see these 10 words:

Rocking: Nickelback
Bird: Hollies "Rockin' Robin"
Art: Art Garfunkel
Mountain: Michael McDonald "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (Am I the only one of my age group who LOVES this man?)
Road: 3 Doors Down "The Road I'm On"
Animal: Nickelback "Animals"
Car: Alan Jackson "Mercury Blues"
Walk: Mandy Moore "Walk Me Home"
Cloud: Bush "Comedown"
Wilderness: Julie Andrews "The Sound Of Music" (Don't try to get into my head - it would only confuse you more. LOL)


From Tina's Tuesdays:

Topic: Nose in a Book

What was the last book you read?
The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Anne Stuart, Jennifer Cruise and Eileen Dreyer. For about the 7th time. lol
What are you currently reading?
Not reading anything at the moment - I need to buy some more books.
What books do you want to read next?
Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (maybe, I'm not sure on this one), Message In A Bottle by Nicholas Sparks... I could go on but I won't. LOL (Yes I'm quite a book worm.)


And last but not least, from Ten On Tuesday:

10 Places You'd Love To Travel To (That You Haven't Gone To Yet)

1. British Columbia
2. England
3. Ireland
4. Rome
5. Athens
6. Montana
7. Texas
8. Georgia
9. Maine
10. Hawaii


Have a great day everyone!