Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.'s Comments

It's that time again (Repost for Christmas 2009) by Julie (there will always be a rainbow) G.

Dec 1, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 5

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 2, 2009, 5:54am EST

The Christmas I left my daughter's father (he'd been cheating on me with a woman at his work), my high school sweetheart and I "found" each other again after a 10 year absence and we moved in together with my daughter who I'd gotten sole custody of. We were absolutely broke... My ex got everything we'd owned together and my high school sweetheart had to change jobs to stay in the area... He bought me a tiny little 2-foot tall tree (luckily one string of twinkly lights was sufficient to light it up -- I bought them at the dollar store). We'd gone for a drive and stumbled upon the tiny coastal town of Bolinas in Marin County, Northern California where we found the beach littered with fossil shells and "holey stones" (sandstone pieces that had once held fossils that had washed out of them and left only the holes where they had been behind). I collected the best pieces and, when we returned to our tiny trailer that afternoon, I tied them to the tree branches... It was really a lovely little tree with just the natural stones and shells and the little blinky white lights on it...

Your "sand dollar" ornament reminded me of it. :o)

Thanksgiving, 2009 (I threw a feast and nobody came...) by Julie (there will always be a rainbow) G.

Nov 27, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 28

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Nov 27, 2009, 4:55pm EST

(P.S. -- I've only had 5 since yesterday.)

Thanksgiving, 2009 (I threw a feast and nobody came...) by Julie (there will always be a rainbow) G.

Nov 27, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 28

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Nov 27, 2009, 4:54pm EST

What a gorgeous table!

Hubby and I have gone out for Thanksgiving dinner before... I didn't care for it, either. The main things I missed were the smell of the stuffed turkey cooking in the oven all day -- giving the house that wonderful, homey feeling -- and the fact that then I never have any of my favorite food in the whole world afterwards: MAMA BIRD SANDWICHES!!!

For those poor unfortunates not in the know, a "Mama bird sandwich" is toasted whole wheat bread spread with Miracle Whip to which is added white turkey meat, stuffing and cranberry sauce. YUM. YUM. YUM. YUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM. Y-U-M!

Just For You, From the Bird Lady by Vivian P.

Nov 15, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 49

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Nov 15, 2009, 7:24pm EST

Isn't it strange that you live on the same coast as we do here in Sonoma County and yet you have species there which never come down here and even some of the birds of the same species in both places don't look anything alike? We, of course, have NO English/House sparrows here and neither our "American" nor "Lesser" Goldfinches look much like the photos of yours. We have both "house" and "purple" finches (purple being the scarcer) but, while our females look like yours, our male house finches have a much deeper and brighter shade of red on their heads than yours. I have photos here on Gather of all of these species that I took here in Sonoma County over the past 3 years or so and they should be fairly easy to find using Gather's search (under "photos", of course) if you're interested in seeing the differences. Try smacking in both the species name (aka, "American Goldfinch", "Lesser Goldfinch", etc., along WITH either "jeanz fotoz" and/or "Sonoma County" and they should be the first ones to pop up.

Stormy Weather - How Do You Handle It? by Sherrie H.

Nov 6, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 18

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Nov 6, 2009, 7:10pm EST

We have a very temperate climate here in Northern California where I live (Sonoma County) so, any kind of extreme weather was exciting and fascinating to me as a child. I delighted in listening to the thunder crash and the wind blow and would run outside to be awestruck by hail and the couple of times (in the last 50 years or so) that a light snow fell -- even if it melted the moment it hit the ground... Walking to school on foggy mornings, mundane objects I'd seen a million times -- trees, shrubs, walls, light poles -- would change shapes and morph into strange, ghostly entities... I remember well the afternoon the almost unheard of (for our part of the country) cyclone hit and dropped the corrugated tin roof of an old barn located 5 blocks away into our backyard and the 6.5 earthquake of 1969 (and its even, in some cases, more severe "aftershocks") -- along with the devastating wildfires of 1967 when 3 different wildfires coming from 3 different directions threatened the entire town of Santa Rosa -- ash covered everything, the sun looked like a blood-red ball in the sky and we stayed up all night listening to the transistor AM radio for bulletins...

A Photo by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.

Oct 29, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 29, 2009, 2:45am EDT

Thanks so much, Shirley! :o)

A Photo by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.

Oct 29, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 29, 2009, 2:17am EDT

Thanks, Erin! They were cool!

A Photo by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.

Oct 29, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 5

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 29, 2009, 2:16am EDT

It looked like someone swiped criss-cross across the sky with a paintbrush!

The Right Stuff - Shedding Light - The First Wave by sharon SugarMomma is a wise woman,

Oct 26, 2009 | rating: 8.6 | comments: 42

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 26, 2009, 10:04pm EDT

Where you and your daughter sing, mine and I "dance"! ;o)

A Call To Arms and Daylight Savings Time (Humor) by John Philipp

Oct 25, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 115

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 26, 2009, 3:26pm EDT

Okay. I think I get it now, but -- those things that tell us what time it is on a clock or watch are "HANDS", John my friend... Not "arms".

I actually like the use of the word better as far as slogans go -- regardezvous:

"A call to hands."
"The right to bear hands."
"To hands! To hands! The British are coming!"
"My god! The nuclear warhead is handed!"
"The enemy was handed to the teeth..."

but, then:

"All arms on deck!"

Weekend Giggles: Why dogs hate Halloween by John Philipp

Oct 22, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 86

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 23, 2009, 3:27pm EDT

OMG!! ROFLMBO!

With most of the cats I'VE had, if you even TRIED to dress them up, you'd be pulling back a bloody STUMP where your hand used to be...

Hey, dressing up dogs is nuthin' -- My mother used to put Santa hats on all her African fertility statues. VERY strange.

'Mariah Orpha McChristian' -- (Script I wrote that was performed at the 2009 Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk) by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.

Oct 14, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 17, 2009, 12:18pm EDT

Thank-you so much, Mugg! I was rather proud of it... :o)

'Harold: The Ghost of the Gravenstein Inn' (the script I wrote and performed at the 2009 Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk) by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.

Oct 12, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 13

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 17, 2009, 12:10pm EDT

Thanks so much for reading it, Jules!

Life With Buddy, a Continuing Saga 10/12/09 by Ron (in complete sheeple overload) W.

Oct 12, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 36

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 14, 2009, 3:36am EDT

I laughed and laughed -- (Hubby thinks I'm going more insane than usual but, he oughta be used to it by now, I should think...) ;o)

As far as the "boobytrapping via kibbles" goes:

It is my pet theory that our pets (ergo the moniker "pet theory") are very, VERY spiteful creatures! Now, I realize that many so-called "animal experts" will tell me that I'm guilty of "anthromorphidization" (or whatever the heck they call it when we humans credit animals with human behaviors they SAY they don't have); however, I have personally witnessed Plunkett -- after being told:

"NO! You had some people tuna this MORNING, you little runt! You are NOT-- repeat NOT-- getting any MORE today! Now, you can eat your VERY expensive Iams dry food and like it or do without 'til it's time for tomorrow's tablespoonful of tuna!"

I have seen him turn immediately to the nearest object that belongs to me that he can get to (purse sitting on the floor, shoes under the desk chair, etc.) and wage an immediate and full-on ATTACK of it -- back claws and e'ver'thang -- all the while GLARING pointedly into my eyes with that "Just pretend like this purse is YOU, you no-tuna-givin' mofo!" expression on his snout. The behavior was UNMISTAKABLE for just what it WAS, "spite"!

I can also identify with a critter around the house who INSISTS upon being right on TOP of you if you stop moving for more than 3.5 seconds and take up a sitting or lying down posture at all during that interval AND this includes when I'm in the BATHROOM on the TOILET. "Oh, GOODIE! She's sitting down! There's my LAP! I'll just jump up there, get comfortable and purr so she'll feel guilty if she tells me to get down..."

Today, I noticed he'd been practicing his "pitiful, rain-soaked, starving alley-cat with the big eyes" meow... Hubby and I came home from running some errands and I made directly for the bathroom (hey... it's a long drive...). I hadn't been in there 5 seconds when I heard a plaintive, weak, pleading meow outside the bathroom door... The second meow was even MORE plaintive, weak and pleading and third one was enough to tear your HEART out... (It gets to me -- right heah).

I'm POSITIVE he's been rewinding and watching the last scene of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" over and over and over -- trying to get it JUST RIGHT.

A Photo by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.

Oct 10, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 5

in reply to a comment by Jeanette(Nettie) R.

Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Oct 13, 2009, 10:07pm EDT

Thanks, Jeanette! I LOVE my Canon IS 100! The most difficult thing about photographing the moon for ME, was to get the light right... If you center the moon in your viewfinder, the automatic light meter makes it so bright that it fuzzes out the details (craters, etc.). I put mine on a "manual" setting and fool with the amount of light it lets enter the lens...