and so...turkey day has come and gone...and i'm safe in my shop...while others are braving the hazardous duty of the malls today. not this kid... there are a couple of places advertising 4:00 a.m. openings...my mother and i were laughing last night - we would get up at 2:30 - shower and be ready to leave the house by 3:30 to get there in time for the 4:00 a.m. opening...and we both looked at each other and said there is absolutely NO WAY!!!

our steaks and steamers worked very well indeed - we actually had prime rib cut into steaks...and we grilled them...and when we were finished eating...the pups had quite a feast...all the goodies mixed in with their regular dinner...plates were absolutely clean as a whistle.

got quite a bit accomplished yesterday and it felt good - and now the lists are getting longer again but it's okay. the worst part is sitting down at the computer to do something and totally forgetting what it was that i was supposed to do - i HATE getting older...i truly do hate that part of the process - thus - the notepad strapped to me at all times - or certainly within "finding" distance - if i remember where i put the list.

did some research on the almond trees. did you know that the "shelf life" of an almond tree is approximately 25 years? the ones that got ripped out in the orchard belonging to our favorite fruit stand were 31 years old so they really did need to be ripped and they are going to be replaced...good thing. it breaks my heart to see huge orchards ripped out in preparation for houses...and then, given the state of everything - no houses are built - and the trees are all gone. i think it will be a very, very long time before anymore houses are built around here - so many are standing empty - nothing is moving...except it seems for businesses that are closing their doors around here. oops - not going let this head into that subject matter - so, turning around and heading the other direction.

doodles has changed her place of choice in the evenings. she is back on my desk chair again and i come in to giant "tufts" of dixie that she has cleaned out of herself in the time between me leaving and arriving again. this morning - the equivalent of a small cat was waiting for me on my chair.

am working on some fun things for the shop - am working on getting in some vintage pincushions that are absolutely stunning...and some boxes...pretty stunning too...and of course making lists of things to order and the list of "to dos" seems overwhelming right now...but i'll slug thru those too.

so...if you braved the crowds in retail land today - god bless you one and all - you are far, far braver than i am...and if you didn't brave the crowds...by sunday afternoon it should be fairly reasonable again...

hope you all had a wonderful turkey day and are able to enjoy a long weekend. off to hit the web site and see if i can play on that one too!!! be safe...the world is revving up for december and sunday is the end of november... i won't even ask where it went!!