Mr Moo's uncle's birthday is December 25th. Since it falls on the holiday, it tends to get overlooked a lot. Poor guy. To make up for it, my MIL decided to throw him a surprise party this time around. It was supposed to be on December 20th, but was postponed because of the bad weather. It was rescheduled and we all finally got together a couple weekends ago. He was suspicious something was up, but was still surprised. Here's a photo of him and I at the party:

Happy Birthday again, John!

My friend Jenny gave birth to her second child yesterday.

Welcome to the world, Sawyer.

For one of his Christmas gifts, Mr Moo and I bought my FIL a pair of onion goggles.

They're kind of like swim goggles with arms and are supposed to prevent the watery eyes you get when slicing onions. My MIL was kind enough to share a photo of my FIL wearing his new goggles.

It's Super Onion Chopping Man! All he needs now is a cape. :-) She said he said they work really well. I'm seriously considering getting a pair for myself since I'm a mess when it comes to chopping onions.

When I was last in Massachusetts, I gave my cousin's wife sewing lessons. I brought along a couple top patterns and fabric for her to learn on. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and only got one of the tops made. I brought the remaining materials home with me to finish the second top, which I did last week.

Here is the pattern I used:

If all goes well, she'll be getting it in the mail tomorrow. Hope she's happy with it.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 148

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"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 147

Click here for the entry form.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 146

Click here for the entry form.

I went ahead and backdated a few entries for the movie contest. There are a bunch open this week. Does anyone think I should start offering prizes again?

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 144



Click here for the entry form.

Hey. Look. Round 144 is still open.

I'm back. Did anyone miss me? Here. Have a cupcake.

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping the past couple nights. It's finally caught up with me today. I've got a screaming mimi of a headache. Fun. I wanted to get a bunch of sewing done this afternoon, but just the thought of listening to the machines running is making my eyes water. I'm medicating and over-caffeinating to see if I can nip this thing, and I might even go for a walk in a bit since the sun is shining for the first time since about November.

New hard drive is installed. Everything seems to be working okay. ((crosses fingers)) Mr Moo had no end of troubles backing up everything and getting it to copy to the new drive properly, which is why the fix took all weekend, but he prevailed in the end. Here's hoping we don't have to all that again anytime soon.

Hard drive's gone bad. Replacement's here. Going off the grid for a bit. Pray we can recover everything.

After dinner tonight, Mr Moo and I went to the grocery store for dessert and a couple other things. I picked up a single slice of white cake. As we were ringing up our items at the self service checkout stand, we both suddenly stopped when we noticed a sizable jump in the running total. We had neglected to notice the price tag on my cake.

Yikes! Fortunately, we noticed the problem while we were still at the store and the cashier was kind enough to correct our bill.

Add one more thing to my list of things that make me crazy - people who stop at intersections even though there is no stop sign and they have the right of way. They have no idea the chaos and confusion they cause when they do this. I just witnessed a near collision. I was waiting at my stop sign for the lady coming down the street to my right to go by. For whatever reason, she decided to come to almost a complete stop even though she didn't have to. Apparently, this triggered the stupid switch in the person across from me who was also waiting. Even though they didn't have the right away, they decided to go anyway, just as the lady who did have the right of way decided to start moving again. I still can't figure out how they managed to not hit each other. I can understand being cautious when going through intersections (no one wants to be t-boned), but stopping when you don't have a stop sign is just asking for trouble.

It's been a week since we took Bungee to see the avian vet for her weak leg. She's still far from 100% recovered, but she's definitely doing better.

She's standing up straighter and putting weight on the leg a lot more, but is still favoring the left one. Hopefully, she'll continue to improve as we have about another week's worth of antibiotics to give her. We still have her separated from Stuka just to be safe. We're thinking of putting her back in the main cage in a couple days. It will be interesting to see how they react to each other after being apart for so long.

Went to the dentist for a cleaning today. He's switched over to completely digital x-rays. Very cool and quick. I was given much praise for how healthy my teeth are, but chastised for not flossing enough, as per usual. I know it's good for me, but, for whatever reason, I just never seem to do it. I even have one of these flossing tools...

...so I don't have to stick my hands in my mouth, but I still don't do it as often as I should. Bad, Moo. Bad!

Some highlights from the past few weeks of MooCam archives.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 145

Click here for the entry form.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 144


Click here for the entry form.

Poor, sad, neglected movie contest. Worry no more. It's back! Round 144 is still open.

For those who are still having trouble reconciling the whole idea, here's proof that I did shovel when it snowed last month:



That's Mr Moo with me in the last photo. I think he was going to give me some crap about inspecting my work, but he thought better of it once he realized I would probably have hit him in the head with the shovel.

Found this photo from October hiding on my hard drive:

It's a pleasant reminder that winter and all this crappy weather won't last forever. Spring, sunshine, leaves on the trees and the birdies will be back before we know it.

I took some photos of the house last week. I'm glad we got the snow before the Christmas lights came down. The house looked so pretty.

The detention pond behind our house is usually dry and full of cattails.

This past autumn, the landscaping company hired by our homeowners association mowed all of the plants to the ground. Add in the snow melt and the monsoon rains we've been having and it's beginning to look like a regular pond.

One drain is completely covered. Fortunately, there are two more to go before we have to start really worrying. It's a mess since the landscapers left all of the plants they cut down. They're just floating around wherever the water takes them. I can't wait until the weather warms up and they really start rotting. That's going to be pleasant. Not.

From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, The Bovines in Blue:

The Filet Team
After escaping from a maximum-security stockade, this renegade herd of Holsteins has taken burger enforcement into their own hooves. Led by Mr. T-Bone, with his signature phrase, "I pity da' fowl!" the Filet Team practices a red-hot brand of justice, tracking down burger eaters and making them spit it out for chicken.