2 Thumbs Up!

We made our destination!  We were both starstruck!

Giving Gifts

Danielle graciously receives this 1940's kitschy toilet lid cover!

Breaking the ice....

Patrick brought in this great Victorian Fireplace Screen, Abby popped on it!, Danielle forked over the $$!

Inside Antique Archeology!

A Chick with her Pick of a Lifetime!

Our Pilgrimage

We are setting out Wednesday morning for our Wisconsin home and Xmas with the families. Part of our journey will include a pilgrimage to the shrine of the American Pickers in LeClaire, Iowa. We will stop to offer sacrifices to the picker gods (a bottle of Georgia moonshine, an old can of Texaco oil, and a lighted candle will be placed at the entrance). We will take some pictures and hopefully break the ice by selling them some of our picks. Pray for good travel and that the picking gods will shine on us.

Sunday Brunch In Opelika Alabama

That is Phyllis in front of Whispering Oaks, an old plantation house. Brunch was good southern fair. Loved the fried pork chops.

Our Christmas Picture

No seriously, this is it. No we are not printing them up and sending them out. You have to come to the blog to see it. We are not going to load up the postal system with cards that will eventually be used as coasters for your party. Those postmen are on the edge already. Have you ever heard of the phrase "going postal?"

Can't pass up a good yard sale.

On the way home from Sunday Brunch. Last days xmas shopping. Weather was great.

Civil War Christmas

In the Thomas Nast cartoon that first depicted Santa Claus with a sleigh and reindeer, he was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the U.S. Civil War. The cartoon, entitled "Santa Claus in Camp," appeared in Harper's Weekly on January 3, 1863.

Day 13 of the World Famous Banana Experiment

Note that the emitted radiation from the banana has severely tanned the banana. Slight shrinkage noted. Lead lined underwear very uncomfortable. This update brought to you by CoCola.

Go ahead. Just try to pass that bucket without putting some cash in and see what happens.

The Salvation Army has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s.

Ringing the bell for Salvation Army

Reindeer antlers, one dollar, used longjohns three dollars, four hours, thirty degrees, winds twenty gusting to thirty. Hitting the jackpot because people feel sorry for you. Priceless.

Feeding the hungry this holiday season.

Busted and Disgusted

Cat Burglar and failed criminal becomes exhausted breaking into christmas presents and falls asleep.

A good mechanic is hard to find.

.

But once you find him, its even harder to keep him alive long enough to use him.

Yep, that plane is airborne.
Truth be told, I have read many aviators accounts that mention such acts of bravery when faced with the option of ditching in the Pacific ocean several hundred miles from land. So out on the wing they went to tweek an engine.  When most folks think Pacific, they have visions of Hawaii and Tahiti, but I assure the Pacific is very large and very, very cold.

As you send out Christmas cards, ponder this.

What is believed to be one of the first mass-produced Christmas cards -- dating back more than 160 years -- can be found among the extensive special collections of Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology. The lithographed card caused a controversy in some quarters of Victorian English society when it was published in 1843 because it prominently features a child taking a sip from a glass of wine. Approximately 1,000 copies of the card were printed but only 10 have survived to modern times. Bridwell Library acquired its copy in 1982. The card was designed for Henry Cole by his friend, the English painter John Calcott Horsley (1808-1882). Cole wanted a ready-to-mail greeting card because he was too busy to engage in the traditional English custom of writing notes with Christmas and New Year's greetings to friends and family. The card pre-dated color printing so it was hand-colored. The card is divided into three panels with the center panel depicting a family drinking wine at a celebration and the flanking panels illustrating charitable acts of feeding and clothing the poor. The greeting reads: "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You."

Archeologists Find Evidence of Ancient Chiropractic Techniques.

It is all very clear to me now.

Phyllis says I should hire someone to plow at our house in Hudson after the snow falls.

I told her I think ya'll have gone soft up there. Tough up little campers and get shoveling!

Our Redneck Christmas Tree

Set about decorating for christmas. Phyllis decorated the tree with tigger's help. Tigger was soon exhausted and settled down for a long winter's nap and Phyllis curled up with a book. I went to the kitchen to start dinner.

Holly In Its Prime

Watch Your Step

All Kinds in the Christmas Parade

Watching the Christmas Parade From the Red Door

Slackers! Get back to work!

One of Luthersville's Finest Doing Crowd Control

Santa Making a P.R. Stop

Elves Spotted In Luthersville

Hey! You elves there! Get back to work! You have toys to make!

Move over Heinz Ketchup.

The world famous Pitch Drop Experiment was started in 1927 to demonstrate to students that some substances that appear to be solid are in fact very-high-viscosity fluids. Thomas Parnell poured a heated sample of pitch into a sealed funnel and allowed it to settle for three years. In 1930, the seal at the neck of the funnel was cut, allowing the pitch to start flowing. Large droplets form and fall over the period of about a decade. The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, allowing experimenters to calculate that the pitch has a viscosity approximately 230 billion times that of water. This is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest continuously running laboratory experiment, and it is expected that there is enough pitch in the funnel to allow it to continue for at least another hundred years.

All together now: "Anticipation Is Making Me Wait..."
Just takes ya back don't it?

I am starting my own experiment. See below.

Snow Coming to MSP?

Well I have to say I do not miss this part of winter up there. Down here we stay home with one inch of snow. They do not have snow removal equipment. As a result, grocery stores have a run on milk and bread the day before any forecasted snow.
I do miss getting bunbled up, hopping on my John Deer to clear the driveway and after being thoroughly cold soaked, standing in front of the warm fire in the fireplace.

Tigger wrapping presents.

Karen went home yesterday. Tigger was very depressed so he set about preparing for christmas. Worked all day wrapping this one gift for Phyllis  All day because he is so easily distracted.

Sunday brunch with a view.

Hide and seek on a dull afternoon.

Karen, Pat will never find us here. Well, Karen stands out a bit, but other than that...

The Idea House Tour

In Senoia, Georgia.  4 - Level condo, beautifully designed & decorated!

You know the story of the three wise men. But have you heard the story of the two busy bodies?

Still harvest season here.

Couldn't pass up an open farmer's market.

Apples For Cobbler.

Just couldn't pass up a good deal.

Thee dollars for a pile of chritmas tree trimmings. We just had to have em,

The Package Store

Because "Liquor" just sounds evil, Down here it's "Package" store. We live in the middle of a dry county so a Package store is a twenty mile drive any direction, Lucky I gave it up but I need it for cooking and the girls wanted wine, so a beautiful fall drive to Palmetto with the ladies. I really think that Coweta county is dry because the moonshiners have a really powerful lobby group but that's niether here nor there. Package stores do know their customers here vey well. Because package stores are magnets for inebriated patrons, let's sink rail road rails deep in conctrete in front of the store in case they think it's a drive through.

Macy's Parade at the Barbie Beach in Turin Ga,

Marilyn Munroe had nothing on these kids.

Thank you God

Good food with good friends. Is there anything better?

Cooking and carving.

Yep, they grow em big down here.

What a find on turkey day!

A walk through Oak Hill Cemetery

Went out for a walk on this beautiful fall day. Ended up at the very old and very large Oak Hill Cemetery. Many confederate soldiers burried here.

Fallen at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain

Say what you will about the cause for which they fought, this guy had courage. Sherman had kicked their ass all the way from Tennessee and they took their stand north of Atlanta at Kennesaw Mountain. They lost but at a great cost to the union army. But this battle broke the back of the confederate army guarding the industrial giant of Atlanta.

Georgia is a state of proud fighters from way back.

This gentleman fought in the indian wars.

Time and pressure.

This stone slab has been laying here 150 years. When layed it was as straight as an arrow. It has slowly begun to sag under its own weight yet not broken.