This Perfectly Imperfect Life

A surprising beauty! (Zinnia)

At nearly 10am now, it's only 67 degrees outside and 55 degrees on the kitchen!!! I got up early, opened the windows & doors wide and read an entertaining gardening book for about an hour! It was as quiet as it can be around here - occassional street traffic, summer insects and the murmuring of Good Morning America on the tv. Of course around 9am the tranquility was spoiled by the little banshees that are allowed by their parents to run wild all over the complex from morning til evening! (Seriously, I wish I was exagerating!!! I don't have children and I can't wait til Back to School!) But, it's quiet again for the time being so I'm going to enjoy it! (And watch a rerun of a Fraiser Christmas episode!!!)

Hints of Autumn are in the air tonight! Wood smoke scents, cricket chirps & songs, a refreshing chill, windows wide open and we're going on a bus trip to Salem MA next month!!!

Sunday evening, 8/24

This replaced the original - it's no longer in use.

Seeing footage of September 11th, 2001 still takes my breath away, brings tears to my eyes and wrenches my gut. Every day now thru the Anniversary these images will haunt our television screens and then will fade away until next year. I could have been there that morning. Unlike so many have already, I can never forget.

The previous pic I took with my new cell last Thurs or Fri and this one was taken Fri

So far none of my pics from my phone are posting here and I am not sure why since none of my account info has changed, just the phone! And this phone takes great pics so I am disappointed with not being able to post any pics yet! I got my SSD retro last week (FINALLY!) and when part of it became available we payed some bills, fixed the trucks and I got myself a pink Palm Centro cell phone! This thing is amazing and is basically a hand held computer!

Full moon was night before last or so. Hubby suggested we go watch the moon rise last night. It started out as a deep red the slowly faded to a pumpkin orange then to an off white, like a glowing candle. It was beautiful!

Friday, August 15, 2008 3:33:01 PM More Random thoughts! Oh dear. The psycho chicks Mom that lives across the courtyard from us is wearing LEOPARD SPANDEX SHORTS. To say that she REALLY shouldn’t be wearing them has nothing to do with her age and I’ll leave it at that!!! I over slept this morning and have been playing catch up ever since! I’ve been automatically waking up around 7am/7:30am every morning recently. Today, I awoke and the clock said 9:30am on the nose! But, sometimes my “monthly visitor” takes a lot out of me, so I’m guessing that’s the reason for it! (Of course, now whenever I over sleep for no apparent reason, I panic! When I did so last September, I awoke to find one of my kitties dead as a door nail and as stiff as one too! But, I feel that God let me sleep that day so I wouldn’t have to be hysterical the ENTIRE day!) This week has been really bad for me and my dyslexia and motor skill coordination! I’ll have to keep an eye on it and see...

This is to make in a 9x13 baking pan or for cupcakes! Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the following well: 3 cups unbleached flour 2 cups sugar 3 tsp cinnamon 3 tsp pumpkin spice 1 tsp baking powder 14 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1/4 to 1/3 of a 15oz box of raisins In another, seperate large bowl, mix the following well: 3 eggs 3 cups grated zucchini 1 cup veggie oil 3 tsp vanilla 1/8 cup evaporated milk brown sugar to your liking Once you've mixed your wet ingriedients, you can then pour them into your already mixed dry ingriedients and mix everything together well. Spray baking pan or muffin cups with non stick spray! Crush a very small bag or can of shelled walnuts and sprinkle the crushed walnuts in the bottom of the baking pan or muffin cups, then pour the zucchini bread batter into the baking pan or muffin cups. Bake at 325 degrees, 45 minutes for the baking pan (or until inserted knife comes out clean) or 15-20 minutes for cupcakes (or until inserted knife co...

I noticed this spider last week in the evening on our patio! Hubby says it is a Wolf Spider! Gives me the icks but it is neat to watch it make the web each night! I named it Wolfie and took this pic last night!

Yesterday I also switched out some of the books on the back of the couch with late Summer and Fall ones like Sunflowers for VanGogh (rght), Country Roads (lft) and The County Store (cntr), not to mention the Organic Gardening book on the little end table with the Tomato Plants on the cover! (Books are a BIG part of our home, in case you had not noticed by now!) Sorry, I thought this pic came out better!!!

This is my knitting basket in the living room, which I referenced in my last post. Each season, I switch out the skeins with other colors appropriate for the new season! I always do it a little ahead of time to get me inspired! (Sitting to the right of the basket is a UFO from last Fall! I cannot believe nearly a year has passed already!)

In order to make room in our bedroom and catch the overflow from the basket in the living room, I designated a shelf in the linen clost for yarn! Now I only have 1 basket of scraps in the bedroom!

Afternoon naptime!

Visited a new dentist today. I do NOT like going to the dentist. And this place was a real peach. Nuff said! After having some soup at Panera, Mom and I went over to AC Moore (in the same plaza). I wanted to take a look at the new Fall and Halloween merch. As soon as I started seeing Scarecrows, Sunflowers and Pumpkins and caught a whiff of Pumpkin Spice potporri, I felt my entire being relax to the point I nearly cried! (Fall and Halloween are my FAVORITE time of year!) I picked up 5 packets of Seeds, only 33cents ea, (Autumn Beauty Sunflowers, Nasturtiums, Snapdragons and Old Fashioned Garden Mix) a Yellow Ribbon to tie to the porch (for our Nephew in law who went bk to Iraq) for 60cents, a tiny vine Pumpkin for $2 and all sorts of yarn skeins for $1, $2.49 and $2.99! (12 skeins of yarn for about $27! Original price would have been well over $60 or $70!) Total purchase? $33 and change! The smile it all gave me? Priceless!

This weekend we are hosting an Open House from 11am to 4pm Sat and Sun because Management thought it would be a good idea since we have 5 apts available / for rent right now and 3 more in addition to those as of Sept 1st! Only our current Tenants have come so far today! The weather is PERFECT for being outside, not stuck doing this! 80 degrees, no humidity, sunshine and a nice breeze! Ugh! Problem is, in NJ right now, most people looking to move cannot because they do not have the money so they are stuck or they have great credit and buying homes for what they would pay in rent or they just cannot afford to live in NJ anymore so they are moving out of state! That is why we have all these open apartments! It is not a good time to try and fill them! There is just no interest what so ever! We are lucky to get 1 to 3 calls a week now! We had waiting lists in 2006 and 2007 and we were getting a few dozen calls a week up through Halloween last year! But I have learned to play poker!

This beauty popped open yesterday!

My own Sunflowers?!

From one of our local fav bfast spots! (Sorry, I thought this pics came out better!!!)