So, while I am trying to be sleepy enough to go to sleep and stay there until 6 a.m., I’ve added two sub-pages for my pleasure. Maybe you will enjoy as well.

First – Crafty Moose: I want to track the amount of knitting I do in 2012, and this seems like a good way to do it. So far this year I have completed several hats and two scarves. On the needles I have another hat and a gift for one of my friends whose birthday is next week.

Second – Moose Browse: the names of books I have read in 2012. I read a lot . . . but I would like to slog my way through (and pass on) the huge pile of books collecting dust. So I am challenging myself to read – and list the books. So far, 4 for the year and I am reading a 5th.

Next week I am taking annual leave to celebrate my birthday. I hope to sleep in at least on Monday (best laid plans and that). I really should clean my house (nahhhhhh) one day. On Wednesday I am volunteering for Homeless Connect (where I will donate the hats I’ve made). The rest of the time? Yarn and books are crying out my name. I intend to answer.

So, go on over there to the right and click on the two new sub-pages and let me know your fave books or knits. Enjoy with me.

I must thank the Irish side of my geneology as well. Dad’s family carried those genes. Somewhere along the line I think I picked up the Irish gift of gab, and the love of a good joke, the turn of a phrase, the inside jokester in me sharing the inside joke. I’d like to think there were some funny people in my dad’s large family.

In our small family – hubby moose, two daughters and me – we have always shared laughter at our inside jokes. Punny people we are. Only, it was mostly I who was the punster. I did my dead-level best to get people to crack up using self-deprecating humor and plays on words.

So, imagine my delight when (after 42.5 years of marriage) I discovered just the other day that apparently I have rubbed off on hubby moose.

We were driving in his rig to the store and talking about just how cold it was that day. We both looked at his vehicle thermometer and remarked that it was 2 below zero. Without cracking a smile or missing a beat he quipped well, it won’t be 2 below forever – that’s in Mississippi.

Double take!

TUPELO – 2 BELOW!!!! bwahahahaha – you are one punny fellow hubby moose!

Another came into view and was quickly snapped up.

Another

And yet another

Until

Shelves were overflowing. I couldn’t keep up. The word got out and soon others were added to the mix by friends and family; every holiday, anniversary and birthday.

My home and work offices were inundated. Co-workers got into the act; online friends as well.

Now I have browns of all hues and purples, too.

One. Just one. That’s how it always starts.
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This is my answer to VV’s 100 Word prompt Obsession. I think I need Stuffed Moose Anonymous or something. The pictures don’t even show ALL of them. I give them away and they come back two-fold. As Monk says . . . it’s a blessing . . . and a curse. lol

Thanks to a new little Blog Hop thing-a-majig below you can see everyone’s entries to this week’s challenge. How fun is that?

Didn’t go anywhere – but did have some much needed down time. I did have to go to work four hours last Wednesday for my CPR training – missed it in January when I had that pesky little heart attack. Other than that – no work for me.

Came home with BIG plans to clean my house and the like – haha! Didn’t happen. Well, I actually got this room straightened a bit – enough that I can at least walk into the room and find my way back out – without having to tie a rope around my waist for safety’s sake.

Hubby and I spent some time with Master TAT a week ago – and TAT and I had that lovely time with Miss Jackie, but other than that I actually kept pretty close to home – taking it easy. It was a much needed break (and, don’t tell anyone, but it is going to be a bit hard to go back to work tomorrow).

Hubby and I decided that I couldn’t let the whole time slip away without at least getting out of town. We thought about running up to Anchorage, but he had some business appointments – so, we thought, how about Seward? It’s closer – so that even if we weren’t able to get a room for Saturday night (and we were not!!! Durned tourists! okay, just kidding) – well, it’s close enough for a day trip that wouldn’t wipe us out completely.

The plan was for us to sleep until we woke up this morning – get breakfast – get coffee – and get on the road. We headed for Seward just about noon. It was a drizzly sort of day, but we did find some sun spots here and there – and we had a lovely time together.

We saw some flora:
that’s an Arctic Rose – stopped alongside Kenai Lake and found a couple of huge bushes – can you see the rain drops? Well, maybe not in this smaller picture, but I hope to get some prints made of the larger shot. By the way – I know of at least one reader who likes to borrow other folks’ pictures. I don’t really mind, but please don’t forget to give credit where credit is due – okay? And it would be nice to ask first. But then, you all knew that.

We saw some fauna – first a shrew hightailed it across in front of our car – it made it safely into the underbrush. We saw a moose on the way home – and we saw a LOT of roadkill – looks like it is a big year for rabbits. (they are cyclical – I can’t remember if they have high years one in seven or one in two – I think it’s one in seven)

We visited the SeaLife Center and saw lots of animals there – harbor seals, and the like.

But on the way back from Lowell Point we saw:

see those two dots????

Here . . .

Sea otters just playing and rolling and eating while a fisherman sat quietly nearby watching them – and while we watched them. So cool!

On looking closer we noticed he did not even have his line in the water – he was so captivated by the otters – and I think he didn’t want to chance getting them tangled up in his line. You see the rushing water next to him? He is sitting on rocks below a spillway I guess you’d call it. Across the road where I am standing is a waterfall – it comes under the road and rushes into Resurrection Bay. His truck was parked nearby – and he walked down onto the rocks where he is sitting.

We also saw some kayakers –

We ate a late lunch/early dinner, walked along the harbor for a bit and then headed home. I took several more pictures in Seward and a couple of shots on the way home – I’ll show you at least the ones from the trip home next time.

I need to get off to bed soon – swimming early tomorrow and then off to work . . .

. . . our hem was torn and hanging, or
. . . our slip was torn, hanging, AND showing, or
. . . we had GREEN stuck in our teeth (no WONDER he didn’t care to kiss us good night), or
. . . we had a “ladder” in our hose – or our seams weren’t straight, or

well, you get the idea. Each of us has something like that in our history – maybe it even happened TODAY!

What’ve you got? What’ve you got to lose? Head on over to Shelly’s and get the skinny on the contest, write it up and email her with a link.

Then, tell all of your friends about it!

Oh, yeah, there are PRIZES, too!!!! How much fun is that?