The 2 am International Shelf

the shelf.
I found it somewhere along the way and had it hanging on the wall in most every apartment I've lived in. The other day while storing the extra Christmas decorations I spotted it. I wanted to hang it on my wall, but the wood was unfinished and it would have stuck out, then I remembered that I had some black stain in the basement, so I took it down there and painted it right away (this all gave me a good reason to use my $10 cordless drill and screwdriver, too.)

I hung it up on my wall and put the things I love to look at on it . My favorite picture of my grandmother, the driftwood that looks curiously like a rabbit's head, an old Mexican doll I found in this house, those Chinese jingling balls, feathers I've collected, my National Audibon Society Field Guides, my magnifing bug viewer, the Five Horned Beetle from Thailand, a horseshoe I found in the pasture where I was training in Florida, little Buddah, and a crazy little picture from Belarus with stones glued on it.)

Then I took this old frame just sitting on my bookcase and two butterflies I've had in an air tight container for the last three years, matted it, glued them in there. And oh, yes, that cute antique spotlight that I have been shuffling around since move number two, took me about an hour to find that sucker.
and it was like, 2:00 in the morning.
Pretty proud of it.

damn good.

Brazilian Girls.
you should be listening to them.

Thanksgiving

blogger is a jerk lately. I have to type all my posts in text editor and then paste them into blogger. W'SUPBLOGGERW'SUP.

I drove to Kentucky for Thanksgiving. My aunt, Joyce and uncle, Royal (yes, his name is Royal. neat, huh?) live there right outside Louisville, in a city called LaGrange about 5.5 hours away.
There's a neat little downtown area with shops mostly antiques and cheesy horse stuff. don't get me wrong, there is an over exposure to cool horse stuff here, too. I want one of those "finish line" watercolor prints so badly!
Anyway, the train runs right through the city. No, really...RIGHT SMACK through the middle of the two lane street where the little downtown is located. Pretty neat, but I had to think of the threat of accident being very high when I stepped closer and noticed the rail bumping and rising with each wheel passing. If that sucker tipped over, people would die, really. It was a great little shopping time. I only spilled my coffee on a few things in that antique store, and don't worry I've learned my lesson because now my jacket smells like eight-hour-old coffee and hazelnut creamer.

Thanksgiving dinner was so wonderful. My aunt and uncle prepared a feast. I really didn't even help, it sorta just appeared there when I arrived. There was a HUGE turkey, mashed potatoes, well I'm not going to name all the things we had. We all know what we have on turkey day. I'll just say the essentials for correctly built "turkey bombs" per "Sweetriver's" standards and one thing you sadly, didn't have: my mom's chocolate surprise.

Aunt Joyce and Uncle Royal also have this neat coffee maker, you get a cup at a time, there's no pot.


Stacy, David and Cory
I got to see my cousin, David and his wife Stacey and their new little boy, David Jr. whom they call DJ. He's totally adorable. Babies kinda freak me out a little though. Not because they're babies, but because they're like little aliens at first. Wow. That sounds really weird. I like babies just fine, alright. But I have more fun with the toddlers & younger set- Zach and Timmy. Way more fun. They like to wrestle and tickle...so do I. I think I'll break a baby.

After dinner, we relaxed in the living room, which is not short of Christmas decorations (it's BEAUTIFUL!). You know, when we were shopping in the little downtown, A.Joyce wanted to stop at this store called "Christmas in Louisville" but we didn't go in, not because we were cooked already but because in my mind there was nothing left to buy. Joycie-poo had already struck there once. Really though, it is beautiful.

On Saturday we all headed to Churchill Downs. This is my favorite thing to do when I'm there, so far. (I haven't gone trail riding yet.) Here's a pic of me and my little cousin Joselyn getting ready to head out.

Churchill Downs.

Number ten was a little fiesty sucker.

Number Nine is a jumper in his next life.

the shot I like the most: