2008 Honda Rebel

My midlife crisis has arrived. I have been talking with a few close friends about learning how to handle a motorcycle for the last few years. Keeping on the lowdown, I did not want to have a lot of people know about it. It started with me taking my first ride as a passenger and went from there. Got my permit a couple of months ago and took the rider's course last weekend. Only female in the class, but the guys were great to me. Armed with my new license and some good advice from some seasoned female riders, I went bike shopping. Knew that I wanted something smaller and light. Used bike, so that it wouldn't be so bad when I dropped it for the first time. Bought my first bike today and took it out for a little bit in the high school parking lot. My 2008 Honda Rebel with 1500 miles. Absolutely perfect shape, so I will feel bad if I drop it. now the goal is to get my comfort level up so that I can head out on the road and enjoy the ride.

Maisie

Maisie has come to join the family. Another dog who looks like she is made out of spare parts. Her tail is always wagging. Such a happy girl. Big head, short legs, big front paws, and long tail. She has won over the staff at the vet's office and settled in at home.

City Boy

My dad is a big fire bug. Nothing like a heaping pile of combustible materials to make him happy. This fall we ran into problems with him being cold while he was out with his brush pile. You see, the city slicker that he is was wearing a sissy coat. Alana and I hauled him off to our favorite outdoors store and got him his first Carhartt jacket and some heated glove liners. Next project will be to get him to wear some rather decent boots instead of his old man shoes.

Celtic Dance

The big night for the yearly dance presentation of Alana's Irish step dance group. She loves her dance. Loves her teacher. Loves being on the stage. Ofcourse, you can't see that in any of the iffy pictures I got. In fact, just about everyone in our group commented on the fact that this year she was not smiling. Whatever it was, she had the best of times with her clan. Maybe she saved all of her smiles for the end.

Josie

1996-2011

We lost another piece of our hearts yesterday. Josie was diagnosed with chronic renal failure and had more time to enjoy life than we had expected. She was the girl who had defied the odds from the very beginning. Left in a box outside the animal shelter one night with her littermates, she was the only one to survive until morning. The staff did not think she would live through the day. I brought he home so that she would be comfortable and loved for her remaining hours...and that would turn out to be many years later.

Almost Spring

Everything is relative. If I just bought tickets to the Red Sox-Tampa Bay game in September then it must be almost spring.
Toronto is usually our game of choice, but since Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez could be playing for the Blue Jays, it seems that the tickets went faster than usual.
Go Sox!

Check Off Another One

Patti should start chuckling when she sees this one. You see, I started this album over two years ago after our trip to Canada. In fact, I pretty much had this project about 3/4 completed...for about two years. I seriously have an issue with getting some of my projects finished. So, now I can say that I have one more thing checked off the list.