Ready for Spring

Here is Zoe lounging on the back patio. It is in the high 50's today and I think she is ready for Spring.

Tough love

I gave our squirrel Owen his weekly peanut allowance today. I only leave him peanuts once a week as I do not want him to get dependent on me. I want him to stay capable of finding his own food. It is tough love. I also mix up where I leave them so he has to work a bit harder because nobody likes a flabby squirrel.

Think Spring

Sandy gave Dale these flowers yesterday. They make me long for Spring.

Dreams hit an all-time low

Last night my dreams hit an all-time low. I dreamt I was in an episode of the TV show Saved by the Bell. Zach was pulling a scam of working two full-time jobs at once in the same place. One was as mall security and the other was an usher in a movie theater. He would sneak back and forth to each job trying not to get caught. I worked at the movie theater.

I cannot remember the last time I saw the TV reruns of Saved by the Bell, so I do not understand that dream at all. However it did take place at the Latham Circle Mall in Latham, NY where I used to work at Hoyt Cinemas while in high school and college break.

I think the only meaning can be I am secretly in love with Mark-Paul Gosselaar from Saved by the Bell.

Fun night

We made chili for dinner.
My Mom's recipe.
Judy Wodell joined us.
And brought cocktail wieners.
And corn bread.
And honey.
Sandy Stubbendick joined us.
And brought apple pie in a crock pot.
And vanilla ice cream.
Dinner was good.
But my chili was spicy.
Had Mike's Hard Lemonade.
Several.
Played Mexican Train Dominoes.
I won.
By a lot.
Was fun.
Lots of laughs.
Great friends.
Great times.

Double Batch of Chili

Dale and I made my Mom's chili recipe this morning. Dale was my sous-chef and handled all the chopping, while I handled the sauces, beans and spicing. It was fun to make the chili together.

We made a double batch. We are having our friends Sandy Stubbendick and Judy Wodell over for dinner and Mexican Train Dominoes tonight and will be serving chili. We also made a batch for our friend's The Spencer's. It is a lot of chili. The house already smells great with one batch in the crockpot and the other batch on the stove.

Double batch ready for cooking.

If anyone is looking for a good chili recipe, especially for the Super Bowl this is a great one and it is easy to make. My Mom made it for years and people used to request it from her all the time.

Melinda Whittaker's Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of parsley
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 4 cans of crushed tomatoes (16 oz)
• 2 cans of kidney beans (16 oz)
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (32 oz)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 box of saltine crackers

Directions:

Dice parsley, garlic, onion, peppers and add to slow cooker. Brown ground beef, drain excess grease and add to slow cooker. Add crushed tomatoes, kidney beans and spaghetti sauce to slow cooker. Add crushed red pepper flakes and chili powder. Cook in slow cooker or 4 1/2 hours on high. Serve in bowl with shredded mozzarella cheese sprinkled over top and saltine crackers on the side.

Dumb blonde jokes

Do the other coffees tell "dumb blonde" roast jokes?

That would be a great viral video for Starbuck's. Slightly offensive to blondes but they probably would not understand it anyways.

The Match Game

This morning with my cereal I watched 70's game show classic Match Game on the GSN (that's Game Show Network for you uncool people). You have to love a show that had the celebrities drinking and smoking during the show. From the 70's fashion to the corny answers to the legendary Gene Rayburn it was great fun.

They should bring this show back and put it on before Modern Family. It would be fun. Who do I need to call at ABC?

Or better yet...do a weekend of vintage game shows with current celebrities. Recreate Family Feud, Match Game, Password, $25,000 Pyramid and Battle of the Network Stars all hosted by the legendary Betty White.

I like pictures like this...

...because if I ever do snap and go crazy, the local news stations can use it and people will say, "well, he definitely looked insane."

Small but mighty

She is small but she is a scrappy fighter. She also has a bit of small dog syndrome and likes being queen of the stairs.

Tomithy

I wore my glasses today...yet nobody called me by my glass wearing alter ego "Tomithy" once. Disappointing.

Blackhawk

We went up to Blackhawk tonight for dinner and to watch our friend Stacie Stubbendick gamble. She turned 21 yesterday, so she went drinking last night and gambling tonight. It was fun except the crab legs at dinner made me itchy (shellfish allergy). I also lost $30, but Stacie won $75 and that is what matters.

Birthday Lunch for Stacie Stubbendick

We took Stacie Stubbendick to East Moon to kick off her birthday celebration. She turns 21 tomorrow. It was fun.

They're back!!!!!

Yes, the Girl Scouts are back and they brought me cookies. Our neighbor Sophia Krout came over this morning and did a great job selling Dale and I some cookies. She is so adorable.

Slower and melancholy

Here are some songs that spoke to me today. Most are slower, but sometimes the slower and melancholy songs just sound best.

Last night we all met "mean" Sandy

Last night was Couple's Game Night so the Gl-ittakers, Stubbendicks and Spencer's gathered at the Sam and Anjanette's for some "friendly" competition.

The evening started off with a wonderful dinner. Sam and Anjanette prepared Bobby Flay's Carbonara Macaroni Cheese and a fruit salad. It was good, good, good. Best of the veining started with orange flavored mojitos. You know I love me a good mojito, but I think it may have just been an attempt to get me drunk before the game started.

Hello, my love.

After dinner we had the ceremonial unveiling of "Pat". She is our Game Night trophy and each winning team gets the honor of taking Pat home until the next Game Night and adding a little something to Pat. The Stubbendick's won the last time, so they game Pat a little pet.

Check out the least and poodle Pat now has.

And then the games began. We played the game What's Yours Like and it was hilarious. Basically one team has to ask all the other teams questions to try to guess the answer. For example, the answer may be car. So when asked what's yours like, I may say black. Dale may said mine is dirty. From these clues, the teams have to guess the correct answer. It is really funny because for some reason everything also sounds dirty or sexual. Well, at least we made it that way.

Fun game...go buy it.

I snapped some photos of everyone last night of course.

Sandy, Steve and Timmy

Shannon, Anjanette and Sam

My teammate and love, Dale

Me

So last night The Spencer's kicked our asses. I am not exaggerating....they were on. They had the unagi and mopped the floors with us and took home a huge victory. What I love about the Spencer's at Game Night is 1) they are very competitive, 2) are great teammates and 3) get so jazzed with a victory. They make Game Night fun. I was happy to see them win. For those wondering, Dale and I took a distant third with Sam and Anjanette coming in 2nd and the Stubbendick's in dead last.

Here are the Spencer's showing off their trophy and Anjanette "cheering" them on.

Bye, Pat...we will miss you.

It was a great time last night. I personally got to use the word vagina about 250 times and we were introduced for the first time to "mean" Sandy and I have to say, she is my favorite Sandy and even more fun than "drunk" Tom.

Another great night with incredible friends. Dale and I are truly blessed as they do not get much better than our friends.

Natural barbed wire

While walking I pass several yards where they have vines that cover their fence. They are beautiful in the fall as they turn an incredible red...but in the winter they are not as beautiful. Yet I find them incredibly interesting as they look like natural barbed wire.

3 1/2 mile walk

Today rather than continuing to snack on M&Ms, I decided to get outside and walk to the library to return my book. I figured it was better than driving the car and much better than sitting on the couch. Plus it was absolutely beautiful outside and rather than complain about how I hate January, why not enjoy a winter day full on sunshine and nearly 60 degrees.

I took some photos from my 3 1/2 mile walk.

Ready, set, walk.

This banana was on the sidewalk. Thank goodness I saw it as I have seen the danger of a banana peel in many a Three Stooges episode.

Me on the walk singing.

Grumpy me on the walk.

Standley Lake

On my walk to the library, I walked along Standley Lake and snapped some photos of the lake as well as the Flatiron Mountains in the distance. It was a beautiful day today and in the high 50s/low 60s it was a perfect day to be outside.

Bad year for movies

It was a bad year for movies in 2011. Entertainment Weekly listed the Top 50 movies based on gross. I am a huge movie person and even belong to a movie club, yet I only saw 10 of the top 50 movies in theaters last year, plus 1 additional on DVD and 2 on airplanes..

Transformers 3 (on DVD)
Thor
The Help
Bridesmaids
Super 8
Horrible Bosses
Just Go With It
Bad Teacher (on an airplane)
The Muppets
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Zookeeper (on an airplane)
Contagion
War Horse

Let's hope 2012 is a bit better for movies...and let's stop with all the sequels and remakes. How about an original idea Hollywood...like the Tom Whittaker Story.

Domesticated

This morning I made Dale cinnamon pancakes drizzled in melted butter, maple syrup and powdered sugar. I know, right? Look at me all domesticated. I do not cook often but when I do...I like to make it special.

Do all dreams have meaning?

I usually love the randomness of my dreams. However, last night my dreams seemed more random than normal and seemed to have little meaning...or at least meaning I could see.

In my first dream I was a teacher in an elementary school. Based on the size of the tables and desks, I would say for either kindergarten or first grade. There were no kids in the class as it seemed to be either before or after the school day. In my dream, my neighbor Tripp Baltz came to my class and suggested I lock the door. Apparently he was a teacher too. I asked why and he said, "They're taking him out and you never know." We locked the door and watched as the police took out some crazy looking guy in handcuffs and leg chains. I have no idea who this guy was or what this dream means.

In my next dream I was in a car and had three small kids in the backseat. All the kids were about 6 years old or so. There were two girls and a boy. None of the kids were in car seats or wearing a seat belts. I kept driving from place to place doing errands and each time just left them in the car. I'd come back and they'd still be there playing in the car like it did not matter. I stopped several places and left them alone for hours. At one point I noticed the boy was missing and I asked the girls where he was. They said he left for food. I just said okay and continued on. Again, fairy odd...huh?

The final dream had me at Costco. I was with Dale and we ran into our friend Heather Sharp. She was holding her wedding rehearsal at Costco, which seemed very odd but there she was going down the store aisle like it was a church aisle with a bouquet and bridesmaids. Now this dream may be related to the fact that my friend Michelle Spidell mentioned she was in Denver earlier this week helping Heather shop for a wedding dress. Dale and I were also at Costco last week. However the two coming together was weird and not sure the meaning of that dream.

So there you have it...three random dreams from the same night. All were very ordinary in many ways but all had a peculiar twist. If anyone out there can tell me the meaning of these I will be impressed because I sit here wondering do all dreams have meaning?

I love when Lucy...

...sits at the top of the stairs and waits for Zoe so she can pounce on her. She bites at Zoe's legs and fortunately for Lucy...Zoe tolerates it. Sisters just love to antagonize each other.

Lucy likes to...

...snuggle. Here she is tonight all snuggled up below Dale. She is co cute.

Balloons like sprinkles

I feel balloons like sprinkles always make things better. How can you look at a balloon and not feel some sense of joy?

Are we done yet?

I have never been a fan of January. I know many appreciate it as the start of a new year. I assume these people see January as a chance to do things differently or even better. Not me.

To me, January has always been a bit of a downer month. It is right after the joys and magic of the holidays, so it always feels like a long month with little purpose. In December it feels like everyone is driving toward Christmas, while January just sits there all cold and dark. Every January starts my internal longing and countdown to Spring. I look at the dead grass, gray snow and dark skies and long for the sun, flowers and drinks on the patio.

So here I sit in the midst of January thinking...are we done yet? At least February has the decency to be short and offer Valentine's Day.

All legs

I love when Zoe lies this way...she is all legs.

Magically fall off me

I do not have great news to report in the weight loss arena. I stayed at the same weight as the prior week, which is not unexpected as I really did not exercise or watch what I ate last week. I guess my thought that the pounds would just magically fall off me was not a success.

I am back on the wagon and focusing this week on a 2 pound loss.

Some sort of spin dial

What a horrible night of sleep. It was like my brian was on some sort of spin dial turning from one bad dream to the next. Plus Lucy woke up and vomited at midnight and was restless the remainder of the night...poor girl. The end result is one exhausted Tom.

Pruney

Remember when you were a kid and you would be so fascinated when your skin got all wrinkled or pruney after a bath or if you were in a pool too long? I always wanted to stay in the tub until my hands were pruney because anything else felt like some sort of failure. It is funny how you measure success as a kid.

My bath with John Mayer

I took a bath this late afternoon. I am not sure why but a hot bath, a good book and some mellow music just felt right...so that is what I did.

I can't remember the last time I took a bath as I have long been a shower guy...but it felt nice and relaxing.

I sat, soaked, read more of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and listened to the soft sounds of John Mayer play on my iPod.

So yes, in many ways I took a bath with John Mayer.

I have always been a fan of John Mayer's music but lately I have been listening to him more than normal. I just love his voice and his lyrics incredible.

Snuggled up

That is Lucy and Zoe snuggled up on the couch. It is hard to see Zoe as she is under the blanket. You can see Zoe's head in the background on the right.

The adventures of Owen continue

A few week's ago I bought a huge bag of unsalted peanuts for our squirrel, Owen. When I say "our squirrel" I am referring to a squirrel, who has been living in our neighborhood since 2009. Back in October 2009, I named him Owen. I also started giving him nuts on and off over the years.

It was also in 2009, that we were introduced to Owen's girlfriend, Ophelia. However, tragedy struck and Ophelia was murdered in early 2010. Her lifeless body was discovered Sam and Anjanette's backyard. Her hands, feet and head had been removed, but based on the tail it was her. Based on the gruesome killing I suspected a mob hit. Sam being Sicilian has always been a suspect.

Anyhow, this morning the dogs and I came downstairs and saw Owen in the backyard drinking from our pond. He is usually in our backyard several times a day, so this was not unusual...but cute so I snapped some photos. We also saw him going to the birdbath, where I put out 2 dozen peanuts yesterday. However, all of a sudden we noticed a second squirrel. I immediately raced upstairs to tell Dale the good news. Owen had a new girlfriend and I had named her Olivia. I was so happy he was given a second chance at love.

Once back downstairs, I noticed something. Olivia was taking the nuts one direction and Owen the other. Now, Ophelia and Owen always shared their nuts and brought that back to their home. Olivia was definitely not heading back to Casa de Owen. Oh no! Olivia is NOT Owen's new babe...she was stealing his nuts.

I watched more and realized Owen was not taking his nuts home. He would grab a nut and quickly bury it at the base of a tree or rock in our yard then race back to get another nut. Olivia would come and get a nut then run along the top of the fence heading back to where I assumed she lived. Owen could move 3-4 nuts and bury them for every 1 nut Olivia took. 

On a side note, it is clear that Olivia lives in the yard of our neighbors, The Clampetts. This is not their real name, but how most of us refer to them...since we do not know their real name and they are sort of hillbillies, just like those on the show The Beverly Hillbillies. This is NOT a good place to live, since those people have a museum of taxidermy on their family room walls and most likely see squirrel as a dinner option. Olivia is living on the edge.

However, realizing Olivia was not Owen's new love, left so many questions running through my head.

• How do I feed just Owen? 
• Why does Owen not like Olivia? 
• Does Olivia have another man? 
• Why won't Dale let Owen live inside with us?

You may be asking how can I tell Owen from another squirrel. Owen has a very fluffy tail and a lot of junk in the trunk (which may be from the nuts I feed him). Olivia is smaller in size and she moves her tail a lot when sitting (probably some mating thing...slut). If you pay attention, squirrels look very different. Plus the collar and sweater I gave Owen help him stand out (kidding, Dale said no to both of these).

Here are the photos I snapped this morning:

Here is our backyard. The birdbath in the upper left is where I place nuts for Owen. You can see if you look close Owen sitting at the top of the waterfall next to the metal frog.

This is Own sitting at the top of our pond waterfall. I zoomed in the photo and blurred the edges, so he was easier to see. 

Here is Owen taking a drink. So cute.

This is Owen hiding one of his new nuts near a rock.

This is Olivia in the birdbath stealing Owen's nuts.