Danielle Blog

Flowers for Friday – Lantana

Here are the flowers at their home, or as I like to think of them – in situ.

Closer….

and in large

Closer…

And another bunch of flowers…

And closer….

and in large

UPDATED: I’ve exchanged the previous – slightly underexposed – photo with one where I’ve altered the light in photoshop.

This insect is a fast little bugger. I ended up giving up on trying to get rid of him and just decided to take photos of him instead.

I love the look of that leaf. It isn’t as artistic as one with light shining through it, but I like it for the ridges. They remind me of lizards/dinosaurs for some reason.

Just in case you missed it, the 100 Things 11-20 is below.

Happy Friday and have a good Labor Day weekend!

100 things – 11 through 20 – the entertainment episode

As I mentioned in the title, this is the entertainment episode, so to speak. Yes, I mentioned what movies I don’t like in my 1 through 10 post, but I didn’t talk about which ones I DO like.

11. For movies, I love romantic comedies. I’m also really big into period/historical movies. If a movie has something historical and is a romantic comedy at the same time, it tends to be one of my favorite movies. One example would be Kate and Leopold with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman. I also like some fantasy movies like The Chronicles of Narnia.

12. For TV, I like shows that last one hour. I’m not a big fan of half-hour shows – which usually rules out most sitcoms. I like dramas – Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman was one of my favorites (of course, it was historical) I also liked the West Wing (at the beginning), JAG, and NCIS.

13. I am a huge fan of reality talent shows. I loved So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With the Stars, American Idol and Grease You Are The One That I Want.

14. I’m also a fan of Survivor and Survivorman. I like Survivor for the plotting and personal dynamics that go on. When Survivor started, I swore I wouldn’t watch it because it sounded stupid. Then HB was out of town one night, I turned it on and got completely hooked. I like Survivorman for the pure survival skills he has to display in arctic, jungle, swamp, or other inhospitable places.

15. I read romance and historical fiction. – mostly historical romance. I’ve recently found an author who writes historical mysteries that I really like (Fiona Buckley in the Ursula Blanchard series). I like some contemporary romance – like Nora Roberts.

16. I don’t read intellectual books or books that are on booklists. I have found them to be too depressing. This is why I’m not in a bookclub. Maybe someday I’ll find one that reads the kinds of books that I like.

17. Reading is probably my favorite thing to do. That and eat really good food. Most weekends find me on the couch reading a book. That is one of the things I missed doing when I was in college. There was just no time to read ‘fun’ books. I usually devoured books during Christmas, Spring break, and summer vacation.

18. I get choked up/really moved by Praise Music/Contemporary Christian music. I tend to only listen to it on Sundays on my way too and from church, because it makes me too emotional.

19. When I was growing up, I hated country music with a passion. Now that I’m older, I like certain artist. Especially cross-over artists like Martina McBride, the Dixie Chicks, Sugarland. (or is Sugarland pure country?)

20. My favorite musical group is the Corrs. They aren’t very well known. But I love them. They are best known for their song Breathless. They are a family group (3 sisters, 1 brother) out of Ireland.

100 things – 1 through 10

I have never done the 100 things that many bloggers have done. I always thought that I wouldn’t be able to come up with 100 things. However, because of Ern’s post – I’ve decided to brainstorm off of her first 8, which kind of means I’m just giving my opinion of the same topics. And then I’m adding a couple of extras.

1. I hate spiders inside the house. When I was little, I had my Dad or Mom kill any spiders I would find. Now, if the spider is large, i.e. bigger than a dime, or if it is particularly hairy, I ask HB to kill it. If it is smaller and thinner, I’ll do it myself. I hate that crunch sound. And I always try to use a big wad of tissue/napkin/toilet paper, because I hate the feeling of it under my fingers. bleck.

2. Once, when I was a pre-teen, I took off my glasses and got into the shower. I saw this glop of hair that was about the size of a silver dollar on the side of the shower and thought “Gross, Texas Seestor left a glop of hair in the shower.” And I started showering. After a while, I realized that the glop of hair had moved and that it was actually one of the largest spiders I’d ever seen. Definitely bigger than a dime, and definitely hairy.

Evidently my scream for Dad had a certain ring to it that let them all know I had encountered a spider.

Bleck.

3. I am not a big fan of people writing their own marriage vows either. So many times, it seems like they aren’t really vowing to do anything. They are just talking about what the love about the other person.

4. I’m not very ticklish.

5. I actually like most war movies, but the kind of movies that I absolutely will not watch are psychological thrillers. When trailers come on TV for psycho thrillers, I usually look away, shut my eyes, ignore it as best as possible.

6. I’m tired of seeing that preview for the Nicole Kidman thriller.

7. One of my pet peeves is when a road, like an interstate, is narrowing and while almost everyone is merging within a reasonable amount of space, there will be some idiot driver who insists on racing up to the very last bit of road and pushing their way in. I’ve been known to block cars from doing that. Particularly when I lived in Boston.

8. I used to hate cleaning the litter box so much, and Girlie-Girl was so blase about the litter box, that we’d change the litter out (the whole thing) once a week. As she has gotten older, she will not tolerate it unless it is scooped every day with a fresh layer on top each day too. She actually has 2 litter boxes.

9. I’ve discovered some new chocolates by Dove that I really like. One is their 63% cacao. And the other is their dark chocolate from various countries. One bag has squares that are labeled with the country where the beans are from. The chocolate really does taste different depending on the country. Note: these chocolates are not listed on the Dove website. So, I wonder if these are test market items. Maybe I should go buy some extras.

10. I drink All Day Breakfast tea all but one or two days out of a month. On my off days, I’ll drink Blackberry Sage or Passion Fruit Papaya.

Hot exercising Chicks – Week 62

Everyone did remarkably well the week before last. How did you do last week?

Fuzzy Friend Friday – newspaper

We were playing with the Girlie-Girl the other night with tissue paper. It is probably her favorite thing to play with out of all of her ‘toys’. But, like most of the things she likes, it usually requires participation by us, at least to get her started. Once she starts pawing at it, she will usually play with it by herself for a while.

So, we were playing with this tissue paper and HB has the idea to cover her with a tent of newspaper and see what she will do. Well, she tolerates it for a while and then she stands up and walks away With The Paper Still Covering Her! She was a little tent of newspaper, walking across the floor. I couldn’t believe it didn’t slide off. It was the funniest thing.

In order to remember the humor of it, we re-enacted it (as best we could) and took some photos.

Here she is covered with the tent of newspaper.

This is as close as we could get to her walking with it still covering her. Evidently, that sort of thing only happens once.

And here she is, fed up with the whole thing. At least, if you know her expressions, you can tell she is fed up.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t come out as funny as it did in person. But, well, it is enough for us to remember it, and at least you can kind of see what I’m talking about.

Have a happy Friday and weekend!

Hot exercising Chicks – Week 61

It seemed like most of the country was either having a heat wave or excessive rain. Were you affected by the weather? Or did you still manage to make your exercise goals?

Flowers for Friday – my favorite fushia photo

This is my favorite fushia photo out of the whole group. I like the way the upper petals curve with the points on the end. It is very fairy-like to me.

Here it is in large.

Flowers that are fuschia – part 3

Flowers that are fuschia – part 2

Hot exercising Chicks – Week 60

I bet Jenski did really well exercising this week! How did the rest of you do?