Sue - my bad... I was multitasking at work when I glanced at the response.. guess I should have taken the 4 seconds to actually READ it, huh. But, as I always say: Multitasking: screwing up many things at the same time. :D

Multitasking: screwing up many things at the same time

Good one Toni!!

I am up WAY too friggin' early this morning.. got over a foot of snow in my driveway. Having to call clients & cancel their appointments. Ugh.

- And I used to think I wasn't good at multitasking. Thanks for setting me straight; I see I've been doing it right all along.

Toni, so sorry about the snow. I just hate it when it snows.

Rita - don't mind the snow.. I see it as free water!! Don't have to water my trees this month! Its the extreme cold that I don't like. It's supposed to get down to zero to negatives tonight.. Thank goodness for 16" of insulating snow!!!

Well, I do know that snow is great "white mulch" for the plants, especially the roses. I am with you on hating the cold but I hate the snow and cold both. We never get down to zero here and if it gets even near there, it never lasts thank goodness.

Hey, everone got the Christmas shopping done? I am finished and have been since last week. I just can't see how people cope with shopping these last few days before Christmas. The stores are a madhouse. In fact I like to shop on line as much as possible that way packages just come to the door and that makes life easy for me. Of course that means you have to order soon enough to allow time for shipping. I like Amazon as I get the free super saver shipping.

The most fun present I was doing is a Gift Basket Idea that I did for my neighbor as she is such a great cook. It was actually a gift box as I took an open box, cut off the top and wrapped in holiday paper then filled it with stuff I bought in the supermarket and Waldgreens drug store. Got candy canes and candy box and packages candy for the kids and a scented candle all in Waldgreens. Some of this small mini booze bottles for the adults and the rest I got in the supermarkert. Condiments and spices and dried sausage and such. Honey, jams, real maple syrup, imported olive oil, some fancy spices and all sorts of things like that. I just enjoyed picking the things out that I thought would be truely useful and make a neat present. It was really well received as I gave it to them and she told me that she thought it was a very great idea and had to pull everything out to see it all. She does the cooking and is a fabulous, fabulous cook so stuff is indirectly useful to the entire family.

Rita - That sounds wonderful! :) :)

Today's our office Christmas shingding. Make chicken fajitas for the shingding. I'd also made home-made candy (chocolate cashew drops & cherry chocolate drops) to give to my coworkers along w/presents. Was pretty brutal cold last night... not really sure how cold it got but when I got up this morning it was only -1F out there, so it probably went to -5 - -7 last night. Hate that kind of cold. The snow's coming up to right below my knees, so we're looking at 16" in the front yard. I didn't prune my roses after August, so what gets killed by the cold will hopefully only be the tops of the roses. Some of them are able to stick up above the snow, but about half are about 2' so some of them are going to be sticking out of the insulating snow & that cold will really do a job on them. :(

EDIT: Here's some pictures of the back yard that I took this morning. The sunglare was superbright, so I had to take the camera off of Auto so you could actually see something. The pond is *still* running, even though it's mostly frozen.

Rita, are any houses near you for sale? You sound like one awesome neighbor.
Hope everyone gets to spend time with family and friends over the holidays.
Cindi

Thank you, Cindi. I'll add to that wish -- I hope people who don't want to spend time with family don't have to.

Lots of houses and neighbors here and I say hello and small talk with them but the one neighbor family is different. I know that she is a great cook as she has often brought me over food. The entire family are just extra nice people. I wanted to think up something different so I thought of doing my own style of gift basket for a present.

Merry Christmas

Mery Christmas and happy Holidays to all!

I got in the J&P catalog on Saturday, just started to thumb through it. That "Summer Nights" is GORGEOUS. But can't find it in HMF and they don't have the "official" name listed. I'm noticing that almost none of the "new" or "exclusive" roses have the exhibitor name. Tempting to order, but I have to tell myself NO! based upon the crappy service I've received in the past. *sigh*

I got a J&P Catalog a few days ago also. I was good and just dumped it in the trash with out even looking! I do know they are always renaming roses, one of their tricks that they commonly use.

It was cold here for the past three days and nights and the wind was blowing and gusting. Really felt like December for the first time this winter. But thankfully no rain to turn to snow during that time and today it feels so mild outside. Sunny too so spring compaired to yesterday. I hope it stays like today all winter. I hate the snow and don't like the cold either. Many of the roses still have green leaves in spite of the fact that it is almost January. The CHERRY SUNSPRITE roses are still blooming. Not that many blooms but still, they are blooming. Strange weather as the honeysuckle vines are totally green and look like it is the middle of summer or spring, not winter.

I stay inside mostly during winter although today I did feel like I should have sat out on the patio in the mild weather. I catch up on my reading and watching Netflix rented DVDs. I have no time to do much of either in the warmer weather as I spend my time out in the garden doing garden stuff. Plus I take and post lots of pictures of my flowers. But I really do love to read and read fiction. My taste is very varied and I read romance novels, historical romance, mysteries, fantasy, romantic thrillers and just plain thrillers, plus more. And I catch up on the DVDs I wanted to see as again, no time during gardening season. Plus I dream of spring and when the garden will start to green up and it will all start over again.

We've been having some rain - FINALLY! This week it is sunny and warm again so I'm working outside. However I was given two good books for Christmas: Wicked Bugs and Wicked Plants both by Amy Stewart. Fascinating reading for the rainy days.

Two of my college kids made it home for Christmas, which was wonderful. The entire house is torn up with the never-ending remodeling projects, which wasn't so wonderful. No tree, no decorations, <<sob>>. We all took turns reading Crichton's new book Micro, the new Stephen King book, and Shockwave by John Sandford. We're not big on spending money on gifts, but the girls got us the best gift--something I had seen in the SkyMall catalog- it's a DNA test for dogs. Our 11 year old dog is the best pet you could imagine. My youngest calls her a "premium blend" when people ask her breed. She retrieves, points, herds, guards, and catches mice. Size wise, she's as wide as a rottie, but her personality is friendly labrador. She loves to swim and stalk rabbits. I wish we could clone her. It's going to be fun finding out what mix she really is. My oldest daughter picked her out of a litter that was headed for the pound on Christmas Eve 11 years ago. Her litter mates were all different. My husband spent quite a bit of time training her and without that, I think she might have been a problem dog. Up until 11 years ago, I had a severe dog phobia with nightmares about big black dogs. Now we own two big black dogs! ha. My girls refer to this dog as my "therapy dog". Don't know what I would do without her, now. The weather has been in the 60s the last few days, so I've added more mulch to flower beds while throwing balls and bumpers to the dogs. Finally, we got a good rain, and the ponds filled and I brought all the hoses in. Maybe the evergreens will survive the winter after all. I lost many to the heat the summer so the survivors are probably stressed to the max.
I should be doing end of year tax work, or maybe staining woodwork or laying the new floor, but instead I'm heading out to trim climbing roses while it's still warm. Priorities, right?

I was planning to paint the trim on the garage but, inspired by you, I think I'll go plant a few roses I had been holding in pots over the summer due to the drought.

I was given a DNA kit last year for my birthday. We have a collection of "Texas Ditch Dogs" but one in particular was of intriguing heritage so I sent in his DNA sample. I was surprised at the results and will be interested to hear how yours' turn out. I don't want to spoil the suspense, but I'll post a picture and their findings after you get your analysis.