December 14, 2008
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Yay, holiday greetings xanga pals
I have been busy… what is new with you? I hope you are well and happy.
well, yeah I had a birthday and that was fine. We were going to go out to lunch/dinner at Blue Ridge Grilllll last Monday afternoon, but hubby… well, he dropped his contact down the sink.
He wears one contact to balance out with his right eye that had the surgery. Anyway, it was just a “test lens” and even though he paid for it… well, he got a new different lens.
So, he was major miffed after he did that and I was feeling pretty bad for him. We took the sink apart but no lens I scoured the bathroom floor but did not find the lens.
He felt terrible but really, it was okay. Now he has a different new lens. This one is working okay but he complains that his bottom eyelid keeps bonking the lens.
He has a very patient and caring eye doc (mine too) and he is trying a new lens every week… or so.
We went out to eat lunch/dinner at the brand new Blue Ridge Grill on Friday. It is way different than the original one in Leesburg, as far as atmosphere but the food was great.Presently we are watching Casino Royale courtesy of NetFlix $4.99/month.
so I am blogging here on my NOO compoooter. Yep, yep I have a new MacBook Pro and it is wowie fantastical. I received this for my birthday from my hubby. I gave him my old MacBook Pro. His laptop is incredibly olde and he needed a new compooooter so, yeah, I got the new one.
Pretty nice huh? I am quite happy with it. It is much like the former but there are some things I have learn to manage still.
this is it, on my desky, and the keyboard below is my old keyboard that i use when I work at my desky,
right now I am sitting on the couch next to the Christmas tree.Okkay what else is new…
well, I finished all of my Christmas cards, I have a squillion of them this year and it took me FOREVER!
I finished the tree… it is all lightie and decoration-y and festive. Pierro is lurking around the house while we are watching this amazingly exciting Casino Royale movie.
Wow, a lot of running and shooting.Okay, here is a fun story.
We have a neighborhood about 12 miles from my house here in Northern Virginia, same county, called Sterling, Virginia. There is a street by the name of East Juniper Avenue in Sterling.
Every year, Juniper Avenue residents decorate the exterior of their homes and their property (all roughly 1/2 acre, more or less) Every owner on the street decorates their entire property. It is wild. If you live around here, you must go at least twice in your life. It is a little bit flashy, a little bit gaudy but also quite festive and fun. They also have a big white wooden box at each end of the street for food donations that go to the local food bank.
Here is a video on youtube that I found. This video does not really describe it but you can get some idea. Every year the decorations are pretty much the same, so that is good, you do not have to go every year. Lots of people go to Juniper Street.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRYwlpVcx_4So, here is another story. The guy next door, remember the real estate agent that had the midlife crisis and decided that he did not want to be married to his nutty depressed wife anymore so he gave her half the value of the house (that was 3 years ago and the house was worth $750 then) in cash? She moved to a happy life back in Canada where she was from and her family is there. The kids, wow, I will not go into that but there are kids. So, midlife Crisis-guy was living in the big house all alone, girl friends etc for a while and then he gets fired from his job because…. he is dating an employee. What a dope. He had a fantastic job, he was something like a big manager for several offices for a BIG real estate business here, making at least $250K. So, then months later Fired Midlife-crisisGuy decides to sell his house and … then we had this terrible market. LOL
He got a job in Wisconsin or something, so he managed to get lucky and get some renters.We have renters. These people are pretty nice but they have 4 cats that run loose, and they are a bit strange. Nice but strange.
They decorated their house for Christmas… and I feel like I live in Sterling…. on Juniper Avenue!
I am not even sure we are allowed to have that many decorations in our neighborhood. We live in a PUD and it has lots of rules, I think this is allowed but … we are all pretty low key here, nothing flashy, nothing garish.
They have decorated their house with every decoration that was ever invented and made both here and in China!!!
as always, with all photos, klick to biggify for viewing enjoyment
I do not mind this.
But.
It sure makes my house look drabbbb and unfestive like.
Oh well.I have loads more to blog about but the movie… it is getting really exciting now.
Here he is, Mr. Silly with Caesar’s stocking.
He likes it. I think he will use it this year
May Peace be your gift at Christmas
and your blessing all year through!
~Author Unknown
Comments (17)
Christmas kitties!! Yay!!!!
I’m glad you got a new laptop. I’m glad your hubby takes your hand me downs and is happy. That is better than the other way around.
The house across the street certainly has the Christmas spirit. Do you have to pull your drapes in order to sleep at night?
Your house looks pretty…more to my taste too.
Sorry I missed your birthday. I have missed a few lately. Happiest of belated B-Days ParsleyBirthdaykittydecoratedHappy girl!!
I hope your hubby can get things straightened out with his eye before long. That has to be totally annoying!!!
Loooooove you!!!
OMG! No….your house is WAY more festive.
I must go visit Sterling now. LOL.
I love your new lappy. Happy belated birthday!
Wow…I’m back from my visit to Juniper Street. Holy smokes…Mr.Incredible and I were cracking up at the Abominable snowman right next to the nativity.
Juniper Street is quite the experience. 
Your house looks beautiful…the kind of house I would choose over the neighbor’s house for sure! If it is NEXT to you and not ACROSS from you at least you don’t have to stare right at it (I hope) but oh, my, it really is overdone.
Yikes, I could not stand having something in my eye like that. that’s why I could never wear hard contacts, back in the day. : ) Hope your husband can get that fixed to his satisfaction.
I would love a Macbook – I drool over my daughter’s regular Apple computer (they gave her a brand-new one finally), but they are out of my price range right now. They really are lovely computers, though. Have fun figuring out all the bells and whistles!
What a wonderful picture of the kitty with the stars on his ears. Very calm for having that on his ears…
New computer…just for you! That’s wonderful.
Your house looks much more elegant and serene, in good taste. It is apparent that you are very classy people. I personally do not like gaudy and ostentatious(isn’t that a pretty word?) My least favorite are those big blow up santas and things that some people put on their lawns. When Val and family came 6 years ago(when John had his hip surgery at Christmas time) Val couldn’t stop laughing about the big blow up Santa.
Those houses are really well lighted ! a bit too much perhaps ! But it is so .
)
I am glad you had a great birthday with however some worries for your husband and his lens . But all is alright now .
Watched your video on facebook . very moving .
I hope Rosemary you have a great skating today ( read on facebook !!
I watched my name on the side . It is also colored …in blue
Love
Michel
Hey darling girl! I got my card, thank you very much!
We don’t decorate the outside of the house, and honestly, I don’t even have my Christmas decorations up downstairs. Danielle will have a fit if they aren’t up by the time she gets home (next Sunday or Monday) so I better get on that,
Maybe tomorrow.
We do NetFlix, too! Love having them in the mailbox! Have a great day, tootsie!
the cats are so sweet and your house is classier of course. we feel bad cause the widowed lady in her 70′s next to us put up lights and all (her family did for her) and her ours is dark.
That is sad about the fellow who owns the house but at least he can rent it and get the house payments made and were the kids still in school?
it’s called monovision and I used to wear one but now that I’m retired I don’t feel I have to look that wonderful so I just wear glasses. When will he retire or is he too young?
I forgot the most important thing-Happy Birthday
@jillcarmel -
Jill, please, do not feel sorry for the man next door… he brought this all on his own, he was a bum.
He has two kids and they have since moved out. The daughter is a strange girl that dyes her hair shocking pink and has some emotional issues. The son, is doing just okay. They are both in their late teens.
Hubby is only wearing the contact because his vision is SO bad that even though he can wear his glasses (the right lens removed) the contact will offer better balance to the repaired eye. This is a hard lens. I agree, for me, glasses are fine.
Thank you for the Birthday wishes.
When I took this photo, I later learned that they had not completed the “decorating” so I will take another photo this evening. It looks nutty. I am just glad it is next door and I do not have to see it unless I look out of the bathroom windows.
@jillcarmel -
YES, hubby is too young to retire.
He is retired from the US Govt but now he works as a consultant for the US Govt, so he is basically doing the same thing
So their lights are like the movie the Griswold’s lol
My sister and her hubby live in 2 houses. Now that he’s retired from Chevron they switch houses when he wants the cabin in Prescott. The house in Ca. has a wall built down the middle just incase they both have to be in Ca. He found out that he doesn’t want to give up his retirement and she wants it all. This has been going on for almost 20yrs. Can you imagine?
I told my sister that I won’t take any wine from him -I watch too many movies where the man wants to kill the wife for ins. money but my hubby said,”It could be the other way around with your sister.” She just turned 60yrs old
You have a gorgeous house hello!?!?!? Lights or no lights.
That’s a nice present. I got a little something for myself but I won’t let me know what it is. I might have to sneak a peak….
Your house looks great! Silly.
Where is this Juniper st? I’m familiar with Sterling but not that street in particular.
Hope you’re having a great week!
@MarkLupton -
Mark:
here is the location
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=East+Juniper+Avenue+Sterling+Virginia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image
you MUST go at least once. Drive in from sterling Avenue and park on one of the side streets.
Bring some food non-perishable to put in the box.
It is hilariously funny, and yes, every year the decorations are the same LOL
Happy belated birthday. Your kitties are just too cute as usual. I didn’t know you lived in a mansion! It sure is pretty. As to the neighbor’s lights, I guess, to each their own. I wouldn’t choose to decorate the same as they do but then I’m glad we are all different from each other.
I wish you and yours Happy Holy Days Rosemary.
Bon voyage en voiture pour aller chercher Elizabeth !
Finally the plombers will come only in January ( they have no time at this period near Christmas ) . Don’ t worry we will manage well but we will have certainly big works ( digging in the living and kitchen ) or create another circuit ( hard ) . But so is life !
Love
Michel