ok, i hate them but....

more squirrel drama!!!
this one is crazy!!!

we just got back home from being at the boat.
it's a pretty far drive, plus we took back roads. that takes even longer...
dougal, my hero dog, was with us.

when we got home, we were all in the back yard.
i was inspecting these strange purple flowers that i did not plant and was wondering how they got there...
the boy was standing there with me.

the husband had just come outside and the dog was up there by him.

two squirrels were in our big oak tree, chasing each other.
they seemed to be fighting.

dougal was chasing them around the tree, and the husband was trying to throw things near them to snap them out of it, cause you know when squirrels are chasing each other, they are completely unaware of everything and anyone around them.

the squirrels went up further into the tree, and across to the next door neighbor's tree.

the one squirrel knocked the other one from a sturdy branch down below to just some leaves.
the unfortunate one was hanging onto the leaves for dear life.

the tougher squirrel dove down onto the leaf squirrel and knocked him further down, again onto more leaves.

the leaf squirrel lost his grip and fell head first onto our fence.

of course, he couldn't have fallen into the neighbor's yard, but he fell right into ours.

all woozy, he tried to slip under the fence, away from the eager jaws of my murdering dog.

not quick enough though...

dougal got him.

the squirrel struggled and was swatting at dougal's face, but dougal went right in for the belly.

he got him good. and squeezed.

i was freaking out and shouting at the husband to get the dog away from it.
i was afraid it would bite him or something and who knows if he has any diseases or whatever...

finally, the husband got dougal away.

the squirrel was there on the ground gasping for air.
i'm sure he's dead.

i know, i hate them, but...

that was SO disturbing.
(and of course i had to share it with you :P )

and once again, i skeeve my dog.
can you disinfect a dog???

squirrels are bad. very, very bad.

if you know me at all, you know well...
i am TERRIFIED of squirrels.
to the point of it being ridiculous.

well, there was squirrel drama here today!


the boy threw a jar of peanut butter in the recycling bin with no lid. and of course there was still peanut butter in it...

so i'm sitting out there and i hear all this rustling around, and the squirrel is IN the bin with his head IN the peanut butter jar.

i went over (terrified, of course) and tried to scare him away.

he was not deterred.

dougal (my loyal pooch) was inside demanding to come out so that he could protect me from all squirrel evil.

my hero!


he chased him over the fence, but the squirrel stood at the other side of the fence antagonizing him. even went so far as to climb to the top of the fence above dougal's head.


(that's the divil there. and me shooting from INSIDE thru the window)

while dougal distracted the evil one, i put a lid on the bin with a brick on it.
i brought dougal inside. (he was making a lot of noise)
the squirrel came back a few times, all annoyed about the lid and the brick.
good.
stupid squirrel.

monday...hrmph....

i woke up this morning all enthusiastic to go antique shopping for number 3's.
for a while there, i was seeing them everywhere.
now...
there is a 3 deficiency.

i made my son go with me, and we drove an hour to this place called adamstown? pa.
i assure you, there isn't a 3 in the town.

all was well though.
there were TONS of antique shops and we probably only went through 4 of them (they were BIG) in a span of 6 hours.

i heard the most stupid person in the world in one of these places.
he told his 2 daughters that "nothing in this world is free, and if it is, it isn't worth having."
i bit my tongue so as not to say anything outloud, but i'm sure something slipped out in a mutter...

niiiice.

so we are all pooped out and head home.
my car started acting funny and the temperature gage was going up and up and up :(
it had that funny anti-freeze smell too!
yikes!

we rang my husband who told us to TURN THE HEAT ON!!! and it might go down.
well, it's 90+ degrees out there today!
but we did, and sure enough the temp went down a little...
and we made it home.

now i am 3less and carless...
and very hot.
:P

"see"

new painting. just finished the frame this morning.
it's mixed media and found objects on a wooden panel.
about 16.5" square.

i really have room for improvement on my carpenter skills :P
i must have redid that frame 3 times!
it's always the frame that gives me trouble :(

anyway, hope you like!!!

saturday road trip

so, every chance we get, my husband and i get on his motorbike, and try to find interesting places to go for a day.

yesterday, we went to a town called bethlehem, pa.
i had wanted to check out this place...
the banana factory...

http://www.bananafactory.org/


the banana factory is an art center. there are artists studios, galleries, classrooms, a big glassblowing workshop...

i had heard about it a while ago, and was interested in seeing it...so off we went...
(it's always good to have a destination...) it was a great atmosphere. i really wish there was a place like that closer to where i live...

the best thing about going places on the motorbike is that we go all around on back roads and see things and places that we wouldn't normally see driving in the car on a highway.
(it also takes a LOT longer to get places this way...but that is the fun of it ;) )

we found an architectural salvage place that we stopped in.
it was like a big old barn FULL of all sorts of cool stuff!
i got a couple of small things, but really, it was sort of expensive there.

we also stopped at this "antiques and oddities" shop.
i got a few things there too!
i have to be really selective and buy small things to travel with, which is sometimes a bummer when i see something really cool! and i always swear i will go back to get it in the car. haha.

bethlehem is a way bigger town/city than i thought!
it seems to be split by a river in half.
there is a big steel mill there that closed down. it is still standing there...and it is GINORMOUS!!! but they put a casino in it? or somehow made part of it a casino.
i dunno.
we just drove past, and i wasn't able to get a photo...
but we'll go back.
here's a link to some really nice photos of it though...
shaun o'boyle photos

musikfest was going on there, which seemed to take over the entire town!!!
people everywhere, tents, music, jugglers, food, everything...


i don't know what i was thinking, but i didn't take many photos this trip at all, and the ones that i did aren't very good :(
sorry.

the one thing i keep thinking about from this trip was when we stopped to eat our packed lunch in the park, there were 3 homeless guys sitting just down a little from us.
the one came over to us to ask my husband for a cigarette.
he had been drinking (everyone seemed to be with the musikfest there)
but...
he seemed to think we were homeless too.
he invited us up to this spot in the mountains where there were "others" and we'd be "safe"
i thought this was really lovely, and i never had an invitation like that before
(but, to be honest, i was wondering what the state of us was like for him to think we were homeless)

he also thought i was 22 years old :D
maybe it was the drink ;)

he went back to his friends and came back a few minutes later to give me a little bottle of shampoo.
said so i could wash my hair.
that i gotta keep my hair clean.

i felt sorta bad taking his shampoo, but we were a little, erm, short for words here...
and he seemed so happy to be giving it to me.

he was telling my husband that he was unemployed and all of that...
which made me feel bad thinking of all of the people that worked at the steel mill before and now were out of work.

i hope they are safe up there. very nice fellas...

i'm thinking now...where to go next?