I Owe, I Owe, It's Off to Work I Go ...

Well, life had to return sometime and today is it. Although we were at the shop for a short time yesterday, making out a deposit and then taking it to the bank before continuing to enjoy our day off, today is the first day that we're open to the public in 2015. Chickie and I were really pushing to get off until Monday but it didn't fly. So we had Thursday and Friday (and will of course also have Sunday) off. But today was a normal day - awake at 3:15 am and writing my blog by 5:00 am.

I may not have been on a beach, soaking up warm sun, but it was still
wonderful to have several days off. 

Tomorrow morning I'm taking DH to see "The Hobbit - Battle of Five Armies". He'll like it - lots of battle and egos flitting across a giant screen in comfortable chairs. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

I'm looking forward to seeing this again. 

On our errands yesterday, DH and I dropped by the appliance store to look at the two models of washer/dryer I've been considering. It turns out that the Samsung I was leaning toward is on sale until Wednesday for a really good price. I'll go there on Wednesday morning after the gym and buy the set and arrange for installation. I can hardly wait to get a new washer/dryer. Happy!!!

There's nothing inexpensive about hockey equipment, but
the proper equipment can keep injuries down. On average, with
mid-range equipment, it can run about $600 to get fully
equipped. I think he'll get away for about $200 once he sees what
he already has in good condition. 

DH and I also went shopping yesterday to two separate sporting goods stores. He's made some new friends this year, several of whom are Canadian. They have pick-up ice hockey games every Saturday and Sunday afternoons at two different rinks and DH is thinking about playing with them. He needs to do an inventory of the equipment he has and what he needs to replace. I know he needs new breezers - no two ways about that. But a lot of his other equipment is still in good condition. A new stick or two would be fun, but he'll probably stick with wooden - the composites are quite a bit more expensive. Of course I fell in love with a Bauer composite stick while we were looking, but since I rarely go on skates any more (osteoporosis is not kind with hard impacts on hard surfaces) I left the stick in the rack and only purchased some socks to wear when exercising at the gym.

I did buy a pair of running shoes from Zappos. They are bright pink - I can probably be
found in the deepest snow or darkest night. But they were affordable
and I needed a new pair. 

I hope all of you have had a wonderful New Year so far. I'm still looking at these few days as a hangover of vacation even if I have to work today. Happy Saturday to all. I'll be back on Monday.

No Spoilers Here

Nice and easy and one word - YES!

Laketown

Go and see "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies".

All of the important people went to Erebor that year....

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Snow Returns and Unusual Christmas Trees

Snow had to return to my area, after all, I'm in the northern part of the US and snow is our norm for winter. I wasn't particularly anxious to have it return, but it arrived overnight despite my desire for it to stay away a few more days. That means I'll start my morning up by shoveling, but the snow should be finished for the next few days. Tonight as soon as we close at work, Chickie and I are heading off to see "The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies". I'm sure I'll have lots of fun watching it and if there is no snow, so much the better for driving to our preferred theatre (considerably farther away than the more convenient one). Now if I could just find my movie membership card.....

It looks like everyone is showing up at the front door of the Dwarven kingdom.
What fun! 

As promised, here are Christmas trees, alighted and beautiful, for your enjoyment. The final items have been purchased, the cards from friends and relatives are making their way into my mailbox, and all is right with the world (except I have to shovel snow - *sigh* - LOL).

This lovely Christmas tree is French designed but is erected
in Dublin, Ireland. 

This stunning, large tree is in Sao Paulo, Brazil. You can
get an idea of how large it is by the people clustered at
the bottom. It's HUGE! 

This lighted tree is from Tokyo, Japan. Unfortunately, I can't
tell the size of the tree, but it is quite the showboat, isn't it? 

This very modern tree was displayed in Madrid, Spain. It
looks alarmingly sharp, doesn't it? 

This is a Christmas tree made entirely of shed deer antlers. It was
erected in New Mexico, which is in the southwestern part of
the US. I don't think it's too large - probably somewhere between
six and eight feet tall, but it's an impressive pile of antlers. 

And for my final unusual Christmas trees from around the world
entry, I offer this wooden tree from Kalamaria, Greece. This one
would be a lot of fun to climb, don't you think? 

So there you have it for today. Now I'd better get my boots on and get going on my shoveling. I have a lot of snow to move before I can head out for the day... Happy Tuesday everyone. Oh! BTW, the plumber is scheduled for today so if all goes well, I'll have unplugged sinks and two upgraded toilets by the end of the day. Crossing my fingers....

An Eventful Week Ahead

All cards are in the mail. My tickets for "Battle of the Five Armies" are for tomorrow night's 7:00 pm showing (in 3-D) and I can't wait! My plumber is back in town and I'll be contacting him later this morning to get him out to the house. I'm starting to catch up a little bit. Today will be the last day of our incredible December warm-up and I've enjoyed it. While my friends in California are getting flooded with rain, we've had a week+ of warm temps that we normally wouldn't see until April. Grass is actually showing! The snowbanks are considerably diminished, and I'm not even zipping up my parka. It's been heavenly. It won't last forever, but I'll take it.

Here are some lighted Christmas trees because I think the
lights of the holiday season are the best part of the celebration. 

Here are some Brown Christmas shots and holiday pics because it's December and it's NOT snowing (at least right now)...

Not all holiday trees are evergreens. Other trees can also
be decked out in lights and glory. 

I love this tree. This tree is from Wroclaw, Poland.
It's flamboyant, joyous, and totally over the top and I love it! 

I'm totally out of time because I went on-line shopping for the last of DH's gifts. So I'll pick this back up tomorrow with a look at Christmas trees around the world. There are some great ones to share. Happy Monday to all!

Small Successes and Dragons

Sunday was a quiet day. We started out by shoveling snow and pulling snow down from the roof. After doing our home and the old house, we returned home to have breakfast and start watching football. DH's team lost, my team lost, football wasn't very good to us on Sunday. But, while I took a nice two hour nap late in the afternoon, DH watched hockey and our team won in overtime. At least one team was successful - LOL. We finished the evening up by watching "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and called it an early night. At least I had a chance to catch up on some needed sleep.

I've decided on this picture for my computer since I named it 'Smaug'. I know
I could have looked for an image of Smaug, but I just wanted a golden dragon
and this little studious fellow suited me well. 

Earlier this week, Chickie and I purchased our tickets for "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" at our favorite theatre. For a change, we're not going to the midnight premier, but we've got tickets for 7:00 pm on Tuesday the 16th with reserved seating and those fabulous reclining seats. Because it was on five-buck Tuesday, we got our 3-D tickets for $8. SCORE! I'm starting to really look forward to seeing this one.

Everything I was reading said it was going to be released on the 17th of
December. But my theatre is having a marathon on Monday the 15th and
showing it starting midnight on the 16th and from then on. We're catching
the 7:00 pm show. For a change I won't be running the shop on three
hours of sleep. Hallelujah!

I hope your weekend was glorious and you're ready for a wonderful week ahead. Happy Monday.

Yippie! Oy! and Yawn!

It's my day off - yippee! I'm really looking forward to having the time to take for myself, but I also have errands to do and places to go. My car is dripping oil since I hit a large pot hole in the road a couple of weeks ago, so I need to set up an appointment to get it looked at. But...not today.

Wal-Mart opens down the street from my home at 6:00 am this morning. 

Oy! My local Wal-Mart is opening a new store down the road from us. My DH is very excited about it, but I'm not really a Wally World fan so I can take or leave it. It opens in less than an hour and I think I'll skip going there. I'll leave it up to my DH to visit and tell me how wonderful it all is *sigh*.

I like the series, but can't watch it in long sessions. DH, on the other hand,
would happily watch hours at a time. There's a lot of violence in it, but I
read all of the books and at least know what is coming. 

He bought the set of Game of Thrones Season 3 DVD's last week, but there is an error in disk 6 and it stops the DVD player at that point. We tried it on two different players and had the problem at the same place on both of them. So I'll be off to Target today to exchange it for a different set. While I'm there, I'll pick up a copy of The Hobbit DOS while I'm there (and hopefully remember the other items I have on my shopping list).

He can watch his Game of Thrones, I'l watch The Hobbit - The
Desolation of Smaug. We'll both be happy. 

Yawn - it's always a late night on Tuesdays with both "Face-Off" and "Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge" shows. I'm dragging a bit today, so I'm grateful that I don't have an armload of errands to do. I need to get to the bank, my local restaurant is offering a great text bargain which expires tomorrow so that will be breakfast, and I'm tempted to drive out and take a close look at the Mazda I'm thinking about buying. I have to go to Target (see above) and I have chapters to beta and stories to write. This afternoon I'll be grocery shopping and finally I'll be chatting with Aearwen.

This has been a great show so far. It's only their first season, but it's
based on a Face-off style and it's working well. I like it, even though I
have a totally exhausted Wednesday because I only get five hours of
sleep after watching it. 

I'm absolutely sure that my time will be quite filled, so I'm going to end this here and get my trash and recycling together for today's pick-up. It's going to be 70 F in the Cities today so I'm really looking forward to some warm temps for a change. Have a great Wednesday!

Wow! I Had a Sunday Off!

Yesterday was the first Sunday I had off work since the end of November and I can't quite explain how really, stupidly wonderful it was. Because DH had to work on his birthday (as did I, for that matter), we decided to celebrate his birthday yesterday instead. He wanted to see The Hobbit-Desolation of Smaug in the theatre for the first showing - usually the least expensive and certainly the least crowded. I wanted a morning showing, but my local multiplex was only showing it beginning at 1:00 pm. Nope ... that wouldn't work. So I started checking out other theatres in the area and found an 8:45 am showing about 15-20 minutes away. Score!

The lobby of the Marcus Theatres, Oakdale. It's huge. Popcorn and soda
are sold ahead and there's a second restaurant on the right that sells full
meals and coffee (bless their hearts - cappucino for my 8:45 am showing).

The theatre was really beautiful - a large open central area for concessions with hallways to either side leading to the multiple screens. It was decorated in an art-deco style. But what really floored us was the fact that it was all reserved seating and they had these ultra-glide electric reclining seats that were AMAZING! These were in EVERY theatre. The chairs were grouped in pairs with an optional center cupholder armrest. It took us a little bit to get used to how to raise and lower the footrest and explore how far back we could go, but what a treat. Even to get up and go up and down the row, you wouldn't ever be tripping over someone's feet to get in and out because they are on the chairs and there's plenty of room in front of them. I'm sure they don't get as many people into the movies as other places with less elaborate seating, but it was a real treat. We'll go there again, for sure!

These are the chairs in the theatre (the click-through
isn't enabled). They are really, really comfortable and DH
said that it was the first movie in a long time where he wasn't
sore from sitting when he was finished watching. Great seats!

As for DOS - I was really pleased to see it again and catch some of the details I had missed the first time I saw it. What had seemed confusing choreography the first time I had watched, seemed clever and more organized the second. I think I still need a few more viewings, but now I can wait for the DVD. DH enjoyed it, although he couldn't hear most of it, but he was glad he went and is looking forward to the DVD so that he can have his captions.

I love my team, and right now we're clicking on all cylinders. 

The rest of the day was taken up by football, and since both of our teams won, all was good. The playoffs start next week. His team won't be appearing in those, and my team, since the Denver Broncos won their division, will have a bye week and be able to sit back and watch to see which of two teams they will face the week after. Super Bowl is coming up soon, and I'm really hoping that my Denver Broncos are in it this year.

We'll be coming and going all week, but hopefully I can recapture my
closet and get my house looking less like a bomb went off by the end
of the week.

This week's work schedule is a weird one because of the New Year's holiday. We work Monday and a shortened Tuesday, then we're off on Wednesday and Thursday, and we work on Friday and Saturday. Apparently Chickie wants to attend a funeral on Saturday afternoon, so if she wants to begin her new year by taking some vacation time, I guess that's up to her. As long as I've got two people on, we can handle it.

This particular funeral was for a Buddhist Monk in Hanoi, Vietnam a month
ago, but funerals, in general, are usually fairly boring to attend. I've been at
my share over the past few years. I'll pass, if at all possible. 

Next week on Tuesday is registration for the Bead & Button Show, so I have to get my hotel reservations made. I was originally going to be sharing with my friend Shruti from India again, but her finances changed and she won't be able to attend the show this year after all. That has changed things for me, so I'll be trying to stay at a less expensive hotel again. I've stayed at the one I'm thinking about before, and it isn't horrible, but it is a walk to get to where I enjoy spending my time and I have to plan things out carefully. Still, saving at least $40/day is a lot, and I guess my old bones could use the exercise.

The Show is at the Midwest Airlines Center with the host
hotel at the Hyatt. The secondary hotel is the Hilton. Both
the Hilton and Hyatt attach to the convention center via
skyways. I'm thinking about the Ramada again (free parking is
a draw, as is their free WiFi although it is slow and pokey).  It's
a one-mile walk to the Hyatt lobby from the Ramada. 

Have a great Monday!

Good News, Bad News and Pretty Pictures

The good news - Desolation of Smaug. Go see it.

So under all of my tile should be something similar to this...

Bad news - floor leak is from the shower pan. Since I have a bathroom that is 100% tiled from floor to walls, getting this repaired will potentially destroy my bathroom. The tiles are not available any more, the house is 1960's era *sigh*. But...no choice. I have to have a leak-proof shower. So I'll be talking more with the plumber today and going from there.

The Mittens, part of Monument Valley, Arizona. They are iconic and fabulous.

After all of that, I think I need pictures of something beautiful that doesn't entail water. So, no fountains, lakes, rivers or oceans today. Today I'll put pictures of the beauty of the desert. Think dry...

Saguaro National Park is located near Tucson, Arizona. The cacti are very slow
growing and are extremely tall. So beautiful!

One more view of Monument Valley as we leave that part of Arizona for different deserts.

The Grand Canyon in Arizona defies description. Once you've actually seen it,
you'll understand exactly why I say this, but until then, here's one small picture
of one huge canyon. 

This shot is a slot canyon in Antelope Canyon, Arizona. It's
my final picture of an Arizona desert. Now we'll move a bit east
into New Mexico and a magical place for my final pic of the day.

This is Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The ruins are huge with many stories behind
them. I've been in Chaco several times. It's a huge complex stretching down a
canyon. Pueblo Bonito (shown here) is just one of several huge pueblo ruins. Friends
of mine from my archaeological days have worked here as part of the Park Service,
and other friends have done archaeological work in the outlying areas. It's
almost like coming home, to have this picture end today's post. 

So, as I get ready to start my day and call the plumber to discover the next step we need to take, I wish all of you a safe and joyful weekend. See you Monday.

Desolation of Smaug

Oh yeah!

Dragon - very beautiful, sinuous, large, fiery dragon.

Dwarves and dragons and a hobbit and elves, oh my! This is a YES. Go and see!

Thoughts for Early December

So how are you doing on your holiday tasks and celebrations? In my part of the world, it's been frigid and snow-filled, affecting all of us with the knowledge that wishing for a "White Christmas" won't be a problem this year. My Solstice cards are progressing well, they have progressed past the printing phase and are into the embellishment phases. Every spare minute I have is spent on this phase, but I'm pleased. I was hoping to be able to include a few little special 'gifties' in the envelopes, but that probably won't happen. Still, I'm happy with what I have put together, and making them always gives me such joy.

It's always fun to make holiday cards. They can be as fancy as you want
and don't forget the glitter. 

The cold means that indoor activities are our best friends, so I've been continuing to write every day. I will miss Thursday and Friday morning writing times and blog times because this is the week of Smaug. Yes, after impatiently waiting for a year, this week is the premiere of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and Chickie and I will be there for the midnight IMAX 3-D showing. DH is sitting this one out, preferring to wait until the DVD is released, or we may catch it shortly after the turn of the year on an early Sunday show.

I'm really getting excited. We're going to the Lonely Mountain!

I'm really looking forward to this section. We'll get more Thranduil, the barrels, Beorn and maybe more of the Necromancer. Once again I will be embroiled in the vision of Middle Earth and there's nothing that I enjoy much more than that. It's like Peter Jackson has given me a personal holiday gift.

The Hobbit is like an early holiday gift.

Out theatre has linked the two films - for our ticket, we have to see both films - Hobbit I and Hobbit II, starting the first film at 8:30 pm. Chickie and I will head out to the theatre as soon as we're out of work and we'll just grab something to eat there. We want a good spot in line so that we can sit somewhere close to our preferred spots. Last time we got within a row, so we'll hope for a similar situation this time. I'm already so ready, but we'll be sleepless at work on Friday, so our customers will just have to put up with us.

Drive Carefully today and every day. There are crazy people out
there on the roads. (Our icy conditions just aggravates this and
many of you are having poor weather right now.) 

So as you begin your work week, tell me how things are around you? Are you hot or cold? Are you dealing with snow or rain? Are you going to see The Hobbit for the midnight showing or on the first day/weekend? Talk to me :-) Happy Monday!

Coming Up for Air

Wow - I completely immersed myself in my artwork and errands yesterday and didn't even have a chance to respond to comments on my blog. But I promise I'll respond today - promise! Yesterday was rather crazy from start to finish.

I wanted to pick up The Hobbit movie on DVD. Target, my local go-to source was advertising the Blu Ray/Standard DVD/Downstream version for $22.99, a price that I could live with, so I decided to go for it. After a totally FABULOUS breakfast (egg whites scrambled with a great veggie assortment and accompanied by a great variety of fresh fruit - Happy Me!) and equally FABULOUS coffee (coffee BOGO at my local coffee shop which led to a happy driver with two cups of espresso-boosted dark roast coffee sitting next to her) I entered Target's doors armed with four coupons to spend. Twenty minutes later I left with an iTunes gift card (15% off - SCORE!)  but NO DVD! They were completely sold out of all versions except the 3-D DVD version which I had no interest in. So...

$25 of iTunes for $21.25? SCORE!

Back into the car and north a few miles to the next Target store. This is the location where I usually shop, but it wasn't as convenient for me this time, but I had no choice - I wanted my copy of the movie. Here I got one of the LAST FOUR copies of The Hobbit that they had left of their shelves. Because they had the movie, they also got my standard business (after all, I still had coupons to use), so they got $60 of my business and I left happy with groceries, paper towels and my movie copy in the back of my car.

I like the David Tutera cardstock from JoAnne's
Crafts. He has lots of colors, etc, they are very
affordable, and I can take the blank cards
and make portable artwork for all of my friends.

One more stop - this time at my grocer for fresh produce and veggies and a quick lunch, a stop by the office supply store for printer ink and a quick drop-by Joanne's Crafts for holiday card supplies (40% off - SCORE again! and yes...I'm already thinking about my year-end Solstice cards) and I was ready to dive into work. I colored out the final inked piece for CB's Big Bang story. I'm really happy with it and I'll scan it today. That leaves me with a single small addition to an already completed piece and the finalization of my Erestor pic. I actually did get a good start on the pencil work, but at the end of the day, looking at what I had done, I decided to switch methods and put his pic into the same format as the other pics for the story. So I transferred what I wanted to draw onto a new sheet in my sketchbook before I put my toys away and I'll ink it today. That will leave me with the coloring portion, but that's the fun part - watching things come together is like magic. So I'll be working on that next week and have the final piece to her just under the deadline. Sorry for the delay...but it's been a lot of fun to play. Now to breathe again....

Holiday Traditions - Food AND John Howe Illustrations

Discussions have been moving around regarding the elk (possibly an Irish Elk - long extinct) that Thranduil is riding and the appearance of the Goblin King in The Hobbit. I'll show some artwork below the cut that may help the discussion below the cut, but want to continue my Holiday Traditions post first.

Holiday food. We all have foods that we remember as having been served most frequently at specific times of the year. Maybe it was a special birthday cake that your family only had that one time each year. Or maybe it was the turkey for Thanksgiving or a cookie recipe that only gets made around the end of the year. One of my own traditions is a holiday ham - more specifically a Honey Baked spiral sliced ham. YUMMY!

We eat it and share generous portions with my father-by-marriage and Chickie, 

and cherish every fattening bite. So good!

We also have Chex Mix (it's a very USA thing - a snack food made with a variety of cereals, Worcester sauce, nuts and butter all baked together to insure that the liquids penetrate the grains. Very tasty. We don't do cookies, but when we were younger and had a more reliable oven we did spritzes. My mother always baked German cookies - vanilla kipfel were here specialty. I'm getting hungry already - LOL.

Now, on to The Hobbit. Reading comments by friends who have seen the film, some of the commentary has revolved around the Goblin King and the beast that Thranduil is riding. So, I present some artwork by John Howe that may help clarify these two scenes. The Goblin King and The Great Goblin have been around for a while. The elf mounted on the elk, I'm less sure about provenance about - it could have been part of the storyboards for the movie, not an independent artwork. Either way, though, the pieces are interesting to look at as all of John Howe's pieces are.

The Great Goblin by John Howe

The Goblin King by John Howe

Elf by John Howe

So there you go - a lot of similarities here. The first pic I could swear I've seen in a larger format where the dwarves were being presented to the Goblin King, but I couldn't find it when I was hunting for the image this morning. However, I think this gives a good indication of what he was trying to show. Peter Jackson gets a lot of his inspiration from the artwork of John Howe and Alan Lee, so here you go - three views by John Howe that may have made their way into the film in a fashion.

The Hobbit - Worth Seeing?

Oh yeah - The Hobbit is MOST EXCELLENT! The book is not one of my favorites, I've never been fond of it. But the movie was scrumptious and it was absolutely fabulous to be back in Middle-earth again.

Chickie and I had tickets to the 12:01 am showing in the IMAX 3-D theatre. All 14 screens in the movie complex were showing The Hobbit, either in 2-D, 3-D or 3-D IMAX. Because we were at the IMAX showing we were given the set of four international posters - Bilbo, Gandalf, Gollum and Thorin. Lovely additions to my wall full of Middle-earth maps and my houseful of Tolkien books and artwork.

We waited in a long line mostly populated by younger "kids" who easily could have been my grandchildren. I had a great conversation with a lovely young man next to me for more than an hour about all sorts of trivial stuff - Game of Thrones, Tolkien, Star Wars, etc. He was a lot of fun and we seemed to hit it off well.  Many people were dressed up - I saw several Gandalfs, a few Arwen dresses, at least one Galadriel dress and lots of capes since they are easy to wear over Minnesota winter wear. There were books, Frodo dolls, candy of all kinds, phones and portable video game players being used by many of the waiting kids. Finally after a last check of our tickets we were allowed into the theatre. We got into the row we wanted in the center seats, settled down, and after another half hour and some previews (the new Star Trek movie looks like it will be pretty awesome) the music of Howard Shore hit and once again I was transported to another world and time.

I still think that the dwarven hairstyles are mostly just this side of totally ridiculous, but Thorin was excellent, I enjoyed Balin, Fili and Kili. Gandalf got to be much more wizardly than in LOTR, and Elrond, Galadriel and Thranduil (yes, you do get a small look) were marvelous. Imladris was as stunning as before, still coming close to my ideal place to live. Erebor was amazing - large, deep, multi-leveled and filled with dwarves. The story - always a bit impossible, suddenly became credible.

And then there was Gollum. Beautifully portrayed as both heartbreaking and insane, the characterization was by far the best of all of the characters and so perfect. Andy Serkis absolutely rocks!

So...is The Hobbit worth seeing? OH YES! See it again and again and again because just seeing Middle-earth again makes hearts soar. And Radagast and his bunny sleigh is pretty fun too...