I like to wish every one a peaceful, prosperous and joyous Merry Christmas.
It’s never too late in my book for that. After all Christmas lasts right up to some time after new years for Christians.
Oh and check out the newly renovated Nativity scene.
My dad used some paper bark for the walls and pond grass for the roof. Something he’s been meaning to do for a few years now. It looks really great. Can’t wait to make some sheep to add to my collection.

All I want for Christmas is my two red shoes. LOL
Here are two links to the story, Red Boots for Christmas.
The first link is to a script to the story in case any one is interested and the story.
I'll try to see if I can find the cartoon too.

Play
Story

Enjoy.

Oh look what I found. The animated version of The happy Prince. I've been looking for this, for along time and here it is. Part one. The rest can be seen at YouTube.

Oops I forgot to put in the link to the MP3 version of the Happy Prince.
Enjoy.

Who say’s Christmas has to be expensive?
It’s the season of giving so its time to share some link goodies based on some pretty rare Christmas stories and or cartoons I remember from child hood. At the time I found them somewhat corny but then I saw the beauty of the stories. Very unique and un-cookie cutter like compared to the usual fair of Santa Clause related stories.
These are great Christmas stories for the young ones in your life and the kid at hearts such as your selves out there.
First link and story is called the Happy Prince. It’s about a statue that is really not so happy.
There are several ways of downloading this story and bonus it’s free.
It was first introduced to me as a traditional animated story in grade school.
The Happy Prince




Another bonus; there are a few more interesting stories by the same author as well.

I hope my American friends have had a great Thanks Giving?
As for me got my hair done the other day via my mom’s friend, friend. She runs her very own hair styling place out of her basement. The thing I like about it, is no gum chopping smart “a” talks about her latest boyfriend and charges you an arm and a leg because she or he is obligated to make a profit for the salon as a whole. I was even allowed to bring my own colour kit, which I bought at the store earlier. Turned out to be a good experience hair wise too.

Tuesday I conquered quince. My mother conquered buttermilk biscuits.

She mixed all the ingredients by heart after she watched a program from a cooking show.

I was trying to figure out which recipe I should use in making quince preserves.

She kneaded out the dough. It was the right consistency.

Me, I asked my dad for help translating a quince recipe from a Croatian cooking magazine.

My mom was searching for the right cutting tool cause the earlier one didn’t seem to cut it.

My dad went off to taking care of some other business else where in the house. I looked at all the ingredients and equipment and I thought, “What have I got my self in to!”

Finding the right tool for the job, my mom cut fancy biscuits and placed them on a pan. She placed them in the hot oven, went downstairs and watched TV.

Getting my composer, I cleaned the quince under the tap, cut and took the seeds out. I placed the cut up fruit in a pot, poured in a liter or two of water and turned on the heat.

My mom got up from her seat to check on the now rising biscuits. They were rising nicely.

I simply stirred and stared at the boiling pot. I later covered it and looked for reference from my collections of images to pass the time.

My mother went back to check on her biscuits. They were done and a little too done. Luckily she took them out in time or she would have had some newly acquired hockey pucks.

I stirred and stirred some more. It was about 5 hours worth, too much for me. My dad when to check on my progress, it wasn’t very much progress.

My mom brought a sample biscuit downstairs where I was cooking. It wasn’t bad.

I was getting frustrated. My dad and me decided it was a good idea to blend the stubborn mash of fruit. Finally something resembling preserves, I think. After blending, the mixture was placed back in to the pot and boiled some more with some sugar. My stomach was growling so I fetched a freshly baked biscuit. It was already 7pm. Oh joy the time was finally right, I poured the mush in to hot jars and closed them tight. I boiled the jars for the finishing touch of ceiling for freshness.

I think I conquered applesauce and my mom conquered almost hockey pucks.

Did you ever have one of those days where you say..."boy am I an idiot" as a result of being uninformed or mistaken identity? It was one of those " hit my head, face was red" moments. You can add another embaracing moment in my life to a long list of embaracing moments. Doh!


Oh and I got these "sugar babies" in the email. I guess you can put these on cakes. There made from marzipan and hand painted est.

Hehe. Check this out. I got this in an Email.
It’s a mural in a smoker's lounge.

I wonder what that artist could create for a bathroom.
;)

At the Zoo 7

This is either a pygmy hippo or a rhino. Can't remember but it was in some kind of animal tarentum thingy along with all kinds of other Asian animals.








And here's a lazy father Siberian tiger. The mother is in a separate incloser with two cute little cubs.
I guess they wouldn't be so small now. Just off the pic there was this big yoga ball toy. It had all sorts of nice large gashes in it You can just imagine what that would be like on flesh. Yikes.

At the Zoo 7
And this was the reason why I missed out on the photo opportunity with the meerkats.
What human would miss out on these colorful and shiny things. People love colourful n shiny things.
This is my most favourite set of pics. I kind of wish I had one of these in my bed room.

At the Zoo 6


Ha, its Lion king all over again.

Geez , what is with these cats, always perfectly timed so that you just miss there face.

At the Zoo 4



More lazy animals. Or possibly really bored of us weird humans. Or perhaps they want us to think of them as bored, but are secretly planing on taking over the world. Hummm

At the Zoo 3

Some sleepy flamingos. Probably not feeding time. ;)

At the Zoo 2
Some animals or inmates as some of them reminded me of, just don't like to cooperate but still saved the pic anyhow since I hate to waist a pic of an interesting animal.

Sometimes there are days where you don’t know exactly how to say things cause your having one of those “bla” days. It can go on for a few days sometimes a month. I have a feeling it has to do with the change of the seasons. Less light not to mention a lack of sunny warm or as I prefer hot days, really makes a persons brain feel like jelly. Sigh, I’m really not looking forward to being back at the fall n winter seasons. I wish I could just hibernate though it all or just sprout wings and fly south. Those Canadian geese got it all worked out. Ha! Still at least I got away for 2 days in Toronto. It was a good distraction and a reminder that summer was not yet over with. Personally it would have been better to go south to Florida for at least two weeks but this was still good too. Got a room at a hotel with a pretty cool view. You could see a really nice pool from the window. It had a kid section, a traditional deep end and a hot tub area. There were a few extras like a mini side in the shape of a frog and a conventional cork screwy water slide for every one else. The pool was pretty empty since the normal crowd of families with children was in school. It was tempting to have a swim the first day but I was pretty exhausted and a bit car sick, which made it harder to eat as well at dinner. I nearly upchucked at the restaurant. Luckily I didn’t but felt relieved anyhow when I found the bathrooms. The next day we went to the zoo, one of my favorite places to visit. If I lived close to one, I’d be there almost every day providing that the day was nice and warm and or if I had the cash. Even an arboretum/aviary with a small about of animal life would be nice to be at. It’s a great place of inspiration and a stress reliever not to mention great exercise too. I got to see the usual exotic animals, rhinos, elephants, large cats, gorillas, small monkeys, fish, assortment of birds and insects. Some of the animals even had babies. Some of the cutest babies were the little golden monkeys. Such a tiny little animal with an even tinier baby clinging to the back. I took a good amount of pics with my camera and my dads since he still had some film on his. It was feeding time for most of the animals so I got some pretty good shots but still missed a few as well. There were 2 to 3 mierkats just waiting to have they’re pics taken but I got distracted with this totally cool display of colourful fish covering every inch of the aquarium window. You had to be there. I finished the zoo day with a hotdog, a sore body and souvenirs of memories and pics, maybe just in time since it started to rain. In the mean time please enjoy these pics I’ll probably show a bit at a time since not all pics are available yet. Don’t forget to check out my Creative log, I have some new artwork in there.

Hay did any one watch the lunar eclipse?

Bonus question……….
Also did you notice any unusual happenings, like nuttier then usual people, animals really getting love sick est?

As for me I know the moon was out last night. It really lit up the night sky and yard only I really didn’t have a good angle or rather place to watch it unlike my old house. There was this old shed I love to climb on, stretch out and watch the stars. The only way I can visit that place now is in my dreams and fantasies. Some other dude owns my former place and totally changed what use to be there. Other then the fact of the moon supposedly turning red while the earth shadows it, there seemed to have been plenty of unusual activity. One of our neighbors had to be sent to the hospital via ambulance. A cat, probably an unfixed male roaming around the outside of my bedroom was making soft and tender meows to I guess woo a female. The only thing, it’s making me wooed. Ever since I lost my last cat Missy to old age, it’s all I can thank of, to get another furry friend and save one from the human society. My father is really giving me a hard time on this. Why now? We had cats before but then again he really never like the ones we had but tolerated them. Ugh! I’m too old for this. Too old to be living with parents and the stupid for the child rules of the house. Yeah I would leave to have my own place, but space, freedom and apparently being treated like an adult costs money, which I have a lack of considering there is a lack of work too. If I could just get some freelance work and for the right people to notice me, I’ll have it made. I mean I already have the skills and the will. Like I said so many times before some people have the silver platter of life while others have the dirt.
End of partial rant.

A little hug for a rainy cool day.
I had this little guy since I was a baby. He was always there to keep me company even against the scarcest child hood monsters. He even had a little brother but he’s with my uncle in Croatia along with a stuffed Mickey stuffed in a drawer. My little teddy still sits today beside my bedside; still guarding my bed and being all cuddly as usual no worse for wear.

Well, all finished with storing the last of the peaches for this year. I actually have some more still in a basket but no more jars to store any more. Oh well so I guess we’ll just have to eat those in a hurry before they go bad. The few peaches that were left on the tree were squired away by my friendly local neighborhood gray squirrel and a house finch. A small bird that’s a bit bigger then a common sparrow, that has stripes on its stomach and the male has peachy red hood. I kind of think that they plotted the whole thing and shared it with the local robins and yellow jackets. The yellow green grapes are just coming into season and I believe that soon it will be there turn to be visited by the local admirers. Oh and here’s a few pics of the canned and jammed peaches along with our new car.

Been so busy with those crazy good peaches to do really any thing else. Surprisingly enough, I’m still not sick of them; only maybe I’m sick of doing all the work of canning and making the jam by my self. I really wish could have a little help but no one bothers. I kind of feel like the “little red hen” the story about the chicken that tries to get the other farm animals to help in the bread making but gets snubbed and in the end she and her chicks get to eat the fruits of her work only it doesn’t seem to work for me like that. I do the work and every one else helps them self to the fruits of my labor. Oh well at least it all tastes good. I only hope there will still be something to enjoy during the winter.

Pretty typical of me not saying anything for a while but I'm back for a while or maybe not. Who knows? Any ways some of my recent highlights, a few weeks ago the family van broke down. We had that thing since 88. I kind of think it has seen its last road. It was as old as my cat that also recently died. Because we really needed a new ride we got one. A new black Buick with all the extras, like a years worth of GPS and 3 months worth of Sat radio. I'll probably take a few pic when I actually get around to it. My dad put the licence plate with my name on it on to the car. It’s really nice and all but I know it’s really not my car. If I could afford it mine would have been a cute Volkswagen Beetle, either a yellow or a green one. Of course I wouldn't mind a nice scooters, you know one of those Vespas you see in Europe. I saw a cute pink one a few years ago in a parking lot. But for the most part I would rather have a new kitty any day over any of these things.
But one thing that really upset me at the time and made me kind of depressed was that he said that it would probably be the last car he would ever purchase. :_( What a big downer to an otherwise supposedly happy experience. Kind of like adding salt to your jam instead of the sugar. He was always a bit of a downer for the most part.
Its no wonder why my mother went off the deep end like that several times in the past.

Any how, since its once again that time of the year when our peach tree is full of luscious peaches, its time to enjoy them. This year I tried my hand at canning and making jam out of them. I only hope that they turn out tasty and don't turn in to botchelisim. I'm pretty sure I sealed the jars OK I'm using a few of those old-fashioned jars with the flip top lid that later get sealed by means of that clamp. Can't wait to try that peach jam. I'm sure with in a few days, I'll probably be sick to my ears with them.

I opened a Cafepress store just for fun. Good for a side thing and still have to put up a few links to it. I have a few things in there and will add something else for Christmas since I already have it. I only hope people will be interested in my stuff.

Last but not least, went to a cat show yesterday. My first one. I only wish my mom was a bit more understanding since she sort of got me to go at an earlier time. Oh well I told her so. I only wanted to be there for a while like a half an hour but we ended up staying for hours. Totally unnecessary. Oh well, it was cool any ways since we got to see all kind of breeds, some of the judging and the souvenir venders. Pretty well disciplined cats if I do say so my self. I think the most interesting cats were the hairless ones and the Persian. The little white persians had eyes like owls. There was this black a white Scottish fold that reminded me of penguins. Sadly I was not able to take pictures since the room had low lighting and I try to avoid using the flash out of the respect of the animals.

Maybe he’s just a guy that has a little too much of time on his hands or just a creative thinker, but I think the whole concept is really cool.

This guy, he took a cheapo key chain camera did a bit of tinkering and put it on his cat. Now you can see what its like to be a cat. See the wonderful exciting adventures via his web site.

WebWorld of J.P: Mr. Lee CatCam

Wow I thought these articles were pretty amusing and I thought I share them with you.


Are the aliens invading Canada? check it out here.

Green Blood

A guy takes a road trip....the hard way.

Crazy wheels

Went to a small park-et called Colchester harbor last weak after a drive with my dad. A nice little park-et with a marina and small beach. Really nice, clean and quite private. I managed to take a few pics of the area but not exactly the ones I was hoping to get. They had this fox snake with the thickness of my big tow sunning its self on a rock but wasn't quick enough to capture it on film, the same with the cute family of mallard ducks with there babies because of people shyness. Sigh... Oh well here's some boring pics I took.












BTW last week I just installed some new software so wasn't online for a bit. But now at least it let me know who was trying to attack my computer. Here are the following IP's;
85-89-97-254 kbpauk.ru.
254.139.153.61 dial.jx.zj.dynamic.163dada.com.cn
ool-5471a756.dyn.optonline.net
61.153.224.108
218.106.91.25
219.148.1.66.
211.157.33.40.
To the following who are trying to break in, don’t bother cause I do not keep personal info in my computer only my artwork, so BACK OFF!!! I can report you.
Thank you.

Empty nest
One by one the kids left the nest. One didn't make it though. The little guy/gall flew across the yard to the street and sort of stood there for a moment but luckily it made a run for the yard of our neighbour’s house. I was worried that some car would go by and make road pizza. So thinking it was safe and sound me and my mother went to the mall and took care of a few things. We came back home and took out our things that we bought and put them away and decided to look out the door to see for any babies. Unfortunately we saw one as road pizza close to our yard. I'm guessing that was the same bird that we saw earlier and unfortunately made the wrong choice. Poor little guy/gall.

Mama bird went out to look for lunch in the park so I got an even better photo opp today. I wonder where is papa bird though?



As you can see the babies eyes are just starting to open. I hope though that I could possibly get even better pics of the mama and babies feeding but I don't want to go to far because of the possibility of spooking them too much.

I also remembered that I had a bunch of grapes that have been in the fridge for a while. I took them out and placed them on the porch near the railing. I think mama bird really appreciated them. It was kind of funny when she and the grapes she was pulling at fell of the ledge. Yep I guess she really enjoyed them. I only hope they’re a little more considerate when her and her family start to attack our fruit tree and grape vine when the season is right.

Well I managed to get some pics of the robins. Didn't get too close since those birds are kind of skittish. Luckily they're close enough for me to take pics. Would like to take some better ones if the opportunity arises. I think they're about 4 to 5 days old and I think there's about 2 or 3 of them.



Made another nest for my doves today. Its for my little sweetie who is a bit crippled on one leg. She tries to nest with the others, only they give her a hard time about it. So now she has her very own nest in a private part of the outdoor cage. I only hope the others don't take too much notice and let her be. None the less she was quite pleased with it, even excepted a fake egg and some bits of straw and twigs. I could just see her happy face and a sparkle in her eye.

Looks like we got some new neighbors. You know the birds that I guess pooped a smile on Pretty boys rock? Well they made a nest in the tree near the porch a few weeks ago, lade a few eggs and yesterday I noised two cute yellow and big mouths so far in the nest. Yep their robins. I'll try to take a few pics when of course no one is around. Its too distracting otherwise.

Well I failed again. What else is new. What I failed at only my cousin knows.
Sigh.. i really could use a cat. Still not ready for it yet. Still getting ready for a new buddy though.
Maybe by the time I'm ready hopefully this crazy pet food recall will be done with and resolved.

Oh yeah

I was looking out the window earlier today why'll drinking coffee and I notice the rock I buried my pet cockatiel Pretty boy under just a few months before. I know that birds like to sun them selves in the morning on it and they sometimes tend to leave things behind if you know what I mean. Well I guess either a dove or some robin was really being a Jackson Paulic and kind of enhanced the rock with a bit of artistic licence. You be the judge.

As you know I haven't been spending a whole lot of time on the net lately. Unfortunately I have been spending it as in life doing a whole lot of worrying about things. Well I can't help it and some how I still manage even if I'm sometimes just hanging on my rope. When I am online, its just checking up on things and just a bit of surfing. On a lighter note I found some cool things that were of special interest to me not to mention very helpful. That is software. Its from an open source and hopeful very useful. I think what I'll do is post the ones that I have already tried that I think are cool and useful that others might find useful as well.

Here's a nifty one that you might like and best of all its free.
Its called CamStudio and what it does it basically records what ever is currently on your computer screen. It has some nice controls as in you can adjust things like pan speed, it records in AVI or flash format and also records the sound just like you would here on the computer.
Its definitely a nice find for Window users. They might make it for Mac's as well but not sure but its cool none the less.

Origionally written March1 07
Things that I’ve been up to. Well I’m still morning the lose of my best bud Missy. When ever I have something really tasty I kind of think of her, I miss sharing it with her. Sometimes when I have left my jeans on the floor it looks a lot like her at night. It kind of reminds me of her lying asleep near the radiator. It really does look like her at night. My mom comes in my room time to time looking for her so she could give her a nice scratch, but then she remembers that she is no longer there. The other day I watched some doves sunning them selves on the mound of dirt where Missy is buried. I wonder if that’s significant.

We just had another I guess you would still call it a winter storm; only this time we didn’t have any snow but a whole lot of water. In fact it’s still raining and I think it’s suppose to eventually turn to snow. I really hope not. I only hope it warms up soon. It really sucks being indoors all the time. I’m really getting that cabin fever thing.

I had a weird dream last night. It had this old chimp in it. It was kind of ugly. He some how got into our porch at the house I use to live at. Anyhow he was just going around trying to get attention but all every one did was run away from him. No one wanted any thing to do with him because he was old and ugly. So I bravely came up to the chimp and gave it what it wanted. A nice scratch on the head. It was just a lonely soul that needed some one to make him feel a little less lonely in the world. It’s too bad there are actually real people in this world who are just like that chimp and all they ask is for a bit of friend ship with out strings.

In honour of my long lived and best buddy Missy and mother of Tiger and Goldy. 88-07 Feb 14