The Carpenters and Paul McCartney

The Carpenters

Few people know this about me, but I have a disdain for Christmas songs by the musical group (duo?) the Carpenters.  I find Karen Carpenter's voice haunting and, to be honest, it creeps me out.  In general, I love Christmas music.  My favorite Christmas "albums" include The Temptations (Give Love at Christmas), Luther Vandross (This Is Christmas) and Boyz II Men  (Christmas Interpretations).  There are also a whole host of individual Christmas songs by various artists that I like.  This year, I downloaded several Christmas compilation "albums" on my iTunes.  One of the albums I downloaded has the song "Merry Christmas Darling" by the Carpenters on it.  I hate it.  I hate that song.  Usually when it comes on, I fast forward to the next song.  However, the other day I was in the midst of a baking project when the song came on so I couldn't get to the computer to skip over it.  So, I had to suffer through it.  I noticed ol' creepy Karen Carpenter sings this line repeatedly in the song:  "I wish I were with you."  Isn't that some really bad grammar?  Shouldn't the line be:  "I wish I was with you?"

Like I needed another reason to hate that song.

Paul McCartney

If you think dogging the Carpenters, as I did above, is a sacrilege-- don't read anymore of this post.  It's about to get even worse.

I have satellite radio in my car and in my office.  One of the stations I have always enjoyed is Sirius channel 33, The Bridge.  That station played a nice mixture of older, mellow pop/rock songs.

Until about 2 weeks ago.

About 2 weeks ago, The Bridge started playing nothing but Paul McCartney songs.  Now, I realize Paul McCartney was with the Beatles and he is Sir Paul McCartney and all that.  But let's be honest.  When he went solo he made some really bad music.  How about his song that goes like this:

"Somebody's knocking at the door.  Somebody's ringing the bell.  Do me a favor.  Open the door, and let 'em in."

That's the chorus of the song.  Was he trying to write the stupidest song lyrics ever?  If so, mission accomplished.

A Paul McCartney song here and there is fine, I suppose.  But an entire radio station of his songs?  Stop.  Please.  I'm begging. 

Home for the Holidays......Maybe

We were hoping to leave tomorrow to head home to Columbus for the holiday.  Doesn't look like that's going to happen.  They are calling for up to 8 inches of snow here and freezing rain.  It's already started snowing and it's coming down pretty good.

We've got our fingers crossed that it will do it's thing and clear out in the next 24 hours so we can go home on Wednesday instead.

Happy Moment

Nearly every day I experience a happy moment.  That moment is when my car heats up to temperature and starts blowing warm air out of the vents.  Ahhhhh.
That warm air has felt especially good recently considering how cold it's been.  One day this past week it was negative one degree when I woke up in the morning.  That's no wind chill factored in.  That was the actual temperature.  How crazy is it that the past couple days have felt warm and mild because the temperatures went all the way up to about 20 degrees?  I guess that's, like, bikini weather in Wisconsin.  

Lit Up- Parts 1 & 2

Lit Up- Part 1

Scott and I finished decorating for Christmas yesterday.  We started last weekend with putting the trees up (see previous post) and yesterday put the finishing touches on the inside and out.  One of the many, many things I love about my husband is that he is meticulous, attentive to details, and patient.  For example, when he puts Christmas lights outside, he makes sure they are spaced evenly, hides electrical cords to the extent possible-- the kind of sh*t I would have absolutely no patience for but makes a huge difference in the overall appearance.  Below is a picture of the outside of our house.  I love it.  I think it looks so pretty.  And you can see my love muffin in the picture walking down the sloped and slippery driveway.  (I captured him in the picture on purpose.)

The next one is a little closer up.  It probably would have been a better picture had I shut the garage door.  Oh well.

Our next door neighbor said to Scott yesterday that our house looks "marvelous".  I agree.  Scott did an outstanding job.

Moving on to the inside:  Below is a picture of the entry way and then next is the mantle.  Scott wants to put a wreath on the mantle where the artwork is currently.  We also want to continue with the garland and lights up the banister to the second floor.  Maybe we will get these things done at some point, but we'll need to go shopping for supplies.  Can't do that today, though, since there is a state-wide no driving order due to blizzard conditions.  No driving in the whole flippin' state.  Welcome to winter in Wisconsin.

Next up is the coffee table in the living room and a lighted piece of garland Scott laid in front of the fireplace.  I would never have thought to put it there, but it actually looks nice.

Last picture of the living room, a broad view.

Last year, the only Christmas decoration we put out was a ceramic tree.  We put it out again this year on the buffet in the dining room.

Also in the dining room is a wooden Rudolph.  Scott strung him up with lights this year.

A slightly broader view of the dining room:

There you have it.  Christmas decorations at our "new" house.  We think it looks beautiful and we are loving every minute of it.  Mostly we are loving being together with our pets and working on decorating and other little projects together.  Well, the pets aren't working on decorating and projects of course, but they are right up in the mix of everything we do.  All 4 of them. 

Lights outside.  Lights on banister in foyer.  Lighted garland in front of fireplace.  Lighted Rudolph.  That's Lit Up- Part 1.

Lit Up- Part 2

While Scott and I were decorating, we brewed a pot of coffee and indulged in a little "special sauce" with our coffee.



That's Lit Up- Part 2. 

Christmas Tree! Two uv em!!

I love Christmas trees.  I love the lights- all colors.  I love all different styles of decorating trees- contemporary, traditional, personal.  I love sitting in a dark room with no lights on other than the glow of the Christmas tree.

Last year was a first ever in my life.  Scott and I didn't have a Christmas tree.  At the time, I was in the process of packing for the move to Wisconsin.  It just didn't make sense to drag the Christmas decorations out when we were trying to pack things up.  My goodness, it was sooooooo depressing to not have a Christmas tree.

Finding a house here in Wisconsin wasn't easy, as most of you already know.  Throughout the daunting search, one thing never waivered.  And that was my position that, no matter what it took, I wanted to establish a living arrangement where we could have a Christmas tree this year.  I wasn't going another year without one.

Guess what?  Last weekend we got a tree!!

Isn't it lovely?  Not only did we get a tree for our living room, we got a second tree and put it up in the kitchen. 

So not only did my wish come true to have a Christmas tree this year, it was doubled.  It's fun to have 2 trees.  It feels festive and a little bit fancy.  It just downright feels good.  

First Snow of the Season

We've had our first snow of the season here in Stoughton/Madison, Wisconsin.  It was bound to happen.  Tis that time of year.  According to the news, about 4 inches of snow fell.  Typical December snowfall in this area is 12.6 inches, second only to the month of January during which the average snowfall is 12.9 inches.

One of the things that's different here than what I was accustomed to in Columbus is that once the snow falls, it stays on the ground all winter long-- until the spring thaw.  In Columbus, it usually gets warm enough that the snow melts between snowfalls.  Not always, but usually.  Now that we have snow on the ground here, I expect it will be white outside until next April. 

Yesterday morning, the first thing I saw when I opened the window blind over the kitchen sink was birds eating at/around the bird feeders we have out back.  Scott and I have always had bird feeders in our yard.  The birds need to eat and we enjoy watching.  Kind of a win-win.

Amongst the crowd at the bird feeder were a number of Cardinals.  At first, I saw 6 of them:  3 males and 3 females.  A little later in the morning, I saw 7 males and 3 females.  The bright red male Cardinals looked so pretty against the snowy backdrop.  In the picture below, Mr. Cardinal is at the feeder and Mrs. Cardinal is in the upper right of the photo, sitting on a tree branch. 

In the next picture, there are a total of 7 male Cardinals:  two on the ground under the bird feeder, one behind the bird feeder (can only see his tail) and 4 in the trees to the right of the feeder.  I've never seen that many male Cardinals in one place at the same time.  The pictures don't really do it justice.  It was such a pretty morning with snow on the ground, a light snow still falling, and the bright red birds starring in the wintry show.

In addition to the Cardinals, a bunch of Sparrows were also having breakfast.  It's definitely not unusual to see a bunch of Sparrows in the same place at the same time.  At one point, there were about 30 of them out there-- all eating with my beloved St. Francis statue looking on. 

Our house in Columbus was on a wooded lot.  It was lovely because it was fully wooded in the back- no houses in view behind ours.  Scott and I prefer to live on a lot with mature trees or, preferably, woods.  It proved challenging for us to find a house (we could afford) on a wooded lot here.  What you see is about the best we could do.  It's more of a pseudo-wooded lot.  Immediately behind our house is a thin row of trees.  The bulkier section of the "woods" is on the back right side of our property.  Even though during the winter when the leaves are off the trees we can see the houses behind ours, it's fortunate that both the houses in view are aesthetically pleasing.  Scott and I actually looked last year at the green house you can see in the photo above.  It's brand new and still vacant.  Anyone want to buy it?  I'd sure love to have a familiar neighbor here in this little town of Stoughton, Wisconsin.....