Zodiac

Here's my latest estate sale find. 

Try not to be too jealous. Oh wait. What's that? I got it for half price? uh-huh


Peace!
Corky

Double Negative

The Voice is currently my favorite television show. 


I shot this video right off my TV screen because my kid got tired of me rewinding. First, I wanted to make sure I heard this chick right. Then, over and over again because I found it way too funny. This girl is so serious and dramatic. I'm left wondering if she has yet to realize how much her double negative kinda muddled her intentions.

"I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact 

that someone didn't think that I was not sexy."

~ Erin Martin

Better her than me,

Corky

Thunderhead

Happy St Patrick's Day!


Just because I didn't go with Lola's idea of intentionally not wearing green to a bar so I'd get pinched, does not mean I didn't celebrate.


That's right. I just finished watching Celtic Thunder on PBS! 


Sláinte!
Corky

Hetero Sectional

I made a quick cut through the furniture department at BigLots! Saw this sign, stopped about two feet beyond it, then did the slow, dramatic turnaround to make sure I had read it right.

A second read confirmed, this sign does not say Hetero Sexual. Glad I didn't call a manager.

Geez. Is it too early for wine?


Unbelievable!
Corky

Hedgerow

An established hedge lined our back fence when we bought this house. And like good little homeowners we made a half-assed effort to keep the photinia happy by trimming when needed. We even timed our pruning to the city's yard waste pick-up schedule. 


Then our neighbor started online dating. 


Things began happening on her back porch that I did not need my teenage son to see. Acts I could only witness a few times before the dismay dissipated and I returned to my regularly scheduled television programming. 


Simplest solution seem to be, let the shrubs grow. Block the view. So that's what we did.


Now, five years later, that neighbor is married and living somewhere in the Piney Woods. The hedge, despite providing decent cover when needed, has seen better. Poor spindly, leafy up in the phone lines, neglected plants. 


That's why I've spent the past two evenings pruning.

Those are the clippings on the left.


I probably should have googled how to whack down photinia before I revved up the trimmers, but hey, that would have led me to Pinterest and we all know that particular time-suck is counterproductive to yard work. Pinterest will, however, come in handy if these ding dang shrubberies don't leaf. I am willing to bet someone out there has posted pictures of dead stumps artfully intertwined in holiday garland.


Bring it, Mother Nature!
Corky

Panorama

I'm guessing when I announced I'd be doing Book Review Friday you guessed I'd be reviewing books you might actually want to read instead of tomes such as Outwitting Squirrels and this one...

Panorama de las Americas: An Elementary Spanish Reader
by Crow & Crow (1949)

Sorry.


Here's the thing. I still haven't been reading much. 


Instead, I've been spring cleaning and decided the look of my blog has got to go. Say adios to the orange swirls and hola to some sort of jumble of illustrations from places such as Panorama. (Let's all hope this idea turns out better than it sounds).


While flipping through this stinky old book, I noticed Vocabulary Review I has an interesting subtitle ~ 500 Commonest Words.

I googled 'commonest' and it is still considered a word. Just made me wonder if I learn Spanish from this book, will my español sound as redneck as their English?


Abismo!
Corky

Humane Approach

I don't know a whole lot about livestock. 


But the advice 'don't name something you plan to eat' has always made sense to me. Because, really, who is going to be able to eat a pet? And enjoy it?


Taking that idea one step further you have those who say 'I don't eat anything that has a face'. 


Well. I don't have that problem. Unless it's a fish and the face is still there when they serve it.


Which is not at all where I intended to go with this.


At long last, the luck for those face-avoiders has turned.

The Peeps people have covered the Peeps' little faces with chocolate.


Bon appetite,
Corky

Outwitting Squirrels

Welcome to Book Review Friday!


This may be the wrong week to start this Book Review Friday! thing since I haven't read anything new. But, then again, when has a detail like that ever stopped me?


To simplify things, I've chosen a book that we can judge by it's cover.

Outwitting Squirrels: 101 Cunning Stratagems to Reduce Dramatically the Egregious Misappropriation of Seed from Your Birdfeeder by Squirrels by Bill Adler, Jr. (second edition - 1996)


I LOVE the title. Funny yet empowering. Since I didn't read the book (only took it's picture at a thrift store) I can't say with any authority anything good or bad about the writing. People on Amazon gave it four stars. Which makes me think if you need to dramatically reduce the egregious misappropriation of seed from your birdfeeder by squirrels this could be the book for you.


The illustration is perfect, wouldn't you say? The squirrel could only have looked more sinister if he'd been wearing a tiny Lone Ranger mask. The way he's rubbing his little hands together while he's cooking up a strategy to steal bird seed makes me shutter. The layout and color choices are a bit ill-advised but hey, it's a book about squirrels.


Now get back to work!
Corky