Must be cold outside

We have an excellent barometer for cold, inclement weather: the cat. When it's warm, Casper is perfectly content to leave us alone. When it's cold outside, suddenly he's your best friend. If Casper isn't on Jamie's lap, or curled up in bed beside Jamie, he's here:

Yes - our cat has decided life during winter months is best lived next to the heat registers. He really couldn't get any closer. He tried and discovered his little head wouldn't fit inbetween the grate spaces. It's a good thing we have more than one heat vent - or the cat would soak up all the warmth. And we all know how well he likes to share...Not!

Much better than flying

I've fallen in love with a new mode of transportation: the train! Okay, okay. So it's not exactly new. I admit, trains have been around awhile - however most of the time the places I go to aren't usually accessible via anything other than plane or car taking the train for work is something new.

Rather than flying or driving all the way to to Chicago this week, I took the train. A short five-hour drive got me as far east as Aurora, Illinois, where I found the train station all decorated for Christmas inside.

I thought the train going into Chicago was nearly empty because I didn't see many others in my car with me. 

Boy, was I wrong! Stepping off the train, I was nearly trampled by the scores of folks rushing to get past me and go someplace. As we pulled into Union Station, dozens and dozens of people poured out of my train and into the station.

Union Station itself was quite an adventure. There were people and stores and nooks and crannies all over. On my return trip I had a few moments to spare and explored just a little before I set off to find my express train back to Aurora. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of friendly people who said hello, smiled, or stopped to visit.

While waiting for my train, I enjoyed looking at all the other tracks and trains down the row, wondering how excited my father would be to see all of this himself.

 Is this little buffer really strong enough to stop a train from crashing if it doesn't slow down soon enough when coming into the station? Somehow it looks pretty inadequate to me. Maybe it's just for show, to make people feel better.

 That's my 3:18pm express train back to Aurora.

That's my ticket home - before the conductor came aboard and took it.

The windows gave the view outside a green cast. I wondered if this is what the world would look like if I was literally looking through "Coke-bottle" glasses. Soon we were clipping along fast enough things nearby began to blur so after a short while I didn't look outside as much and focused on my book instead.

As we came within a few miles of every stop, several people would get up to stand in line behind the doors in anticipation of getting off. I'm not sure why they were so insistent on standing so soon. A few times the train lurched enough to bump them around, into each other or into the walls. I sat where I was and enjoyed the view as long as possible before my stop. I'd have to get up and off soon enough!

At 4:13pm we pulled into Aurora and I said goodbye to the BNSF before beginning the long walk back to my car where I hoped it would start after sitting in the cold for a few days. 

This old caboose marked the end of a good trip and a fun adventure.

The countdown is on

Want to know what begins in only 243 days? The Iowa State Fair! Cool, huh? Excited yet? I am. But wait. It gets better. The 2011 fair is the 100th Anniversary of everyone's favorite Butter Cow. She's so cool (literally) her mug is even on the tickets for next year.

A friend sent me a link and let me know advance tickets are on sale already - and you can save $3 on each ticket by getting them now and shipping is free! Just thought you'd like to know. Christmas is coming and all. Might make a nice stocking stuffer. Happy Fairgoing!

Goodnight Navy Pier

For the last three nights, this is the view I last saw before drifting off to sleep:

If you look closer, you'll see Navy Pier and Lake Michigan (pardon the shaky shot...it's hard to zoom at night with my little camera). This is the closest I've been yet to them and still haven't actually walked along Navy Pier or dipped my toes in the water of Lake Michigan - not that I'd recommend any toe dipping when it's this cold!

I was in Chicago for the American Seed Trade Association meeting (ASTA). The best part was the view from my window. Gazing occassionally out at Navy Pier certainly made working from my hotel room much nicer. Throughout the day the view changed dramatically as the sun rose and set.

Next time I'm definitely bringing Jamie so we can explore Navy Pier together. I heard there's a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant there and we'll just have to see if it's as good as the one at the Mall of America. Hopefully so!

Animal fix gone awry

A couple weeks ago we did chores for a friend. Thinking this was a great way to get a barnyard animal fix without actually having to buy barnyard animals, this seemed like a good idea at the time. It backfired. Big time. Please pray for my husband - who is a very patient man, but even very patient men have limits...or so I'm told...because I may have gotten in over my head. Well, lemme explain:

First we met the cutest little bitty baby kitten who was thirsty so we gave it fresh water in the water bowl. This kitt was absolutely adorable and super friendly. I think it might want to come live at our house. Then it can show Casper how cats can love more than one person, however nice their person may be.

Then we checked on the chickens and turkins and gave them fresh water and collected the eggs. The eggs were glorious - all brown and white! There's nothing better than farm-fresh eggs. And to top it off, none of the hens were nesting so none got upset that I was collecting their eggs so none pecked me. This was very good indeed. I'm not a fan of chickens pecking me. It's rather unpleasant. And I much like to avoid anything unpleasant, especially when that unpleasantness is in the form of an angry hen.

Lastly (saving the best for last, of course), we checked on the baby goats and gave them a little more food and water. And fell in love. They're so cute! It would be impossible not to fall head over heels in love with these little cuties. They're totally adorable, and little, and soft, and gentle, and such nice little babies.

Good, right? Not exactly. Now I really miss the dairy goat herd we had growing up and all the good times we had with those sweet girls. Now I really, really want goats again. And the problem is we live in town and goats aren't exactly indoor pets. Oh, brother and bother and all that!

So here's to hoping our friends let us visit their cute little baby goats again and play with them often because otherwise my husband is going to have a tough time telling me why it is again that we can't have goats. I'm sure they wouldn't like to eat dahlias. Would they? If so, don't tell Jamie!

Better than the catalog

Every winter we're enticed by the thoughts of spring whenever the Jung Seed Catalog arrives in the mailbox full of photos of bulbs, seeds, and plants which would look fabulous in our yard and garden. This summer I got to do one better than browse through the pages of Jung's catalog. I got to visit a Jung Garden Center on a trip to Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Jung's was on the opposite corner from my hotel, and after a good long work day, on the way to dinner - so convenient and so inviting.

Aisle after aisle and hoop house after hoop house was filled with the seeds, plants and bulbs we've only seen in print before. This time I could pick them up, turn them around and see so much more than the little photo with a caption underneath. It was more than fun.

The only way it could have been better was if Jamie had been there with me. To make sure he didn't feel left out, I called him and then ran around the store picking up everything he could think of that he might want or need. We now have really neat marigold seed, bedding plants, and some new dahlia tubers that we didn't have before.

To top it all off, a really cool variegated iris with a cornflower blue bloom and heavenly scent (can't remember the name) came home with me. Jamie liked it a lot and now it's planted near our front sidewalk so we can enjoy it everyday next year. I can't wait until it blooms! Is it Spring yet? I'm ready now. Let's skip this winter snow and cold stuff. We had enough last year.

His spot

Last night when I got home from the cookie baking marathon, I walked into the house to this:

Casper had claimed "his spot" and wasn't moving. The closer I got, the more squinty his expression became.

It didn't take a genius to figure out he was telling me he was quite comfortable where he was and wasn't about to move. Just 'cause I may get to live in the same house and sleep with his person, doesn't mean he has to be happy about it all the time. In fact, Casper was quite thrilled to have Jamie all to himself yesterday.