Author / Talmadge House

by Talmadge House

July 4th on Talmadge Boat

Another 4th celebration Talmadge style!  The fireworks this year were pretty good although nothing to brag about.  Guess cuts have to be made somewhere in the times we live in.  We had nine guests on the boat this year thus making for a nice time to celebrate.  Although I’m thinking a maid is in order for next year so I can have a couple drinks and be sociable.

We start the afternoon off with Margarita Mike’s Margarita’s.  Does the drink have them all mesmerized or is there something going on to the left that they’re all looking at?  Mike must have a clam stuck in his tooth there too LOL!!!!

The kids on the dink with a fishing pole.  I’m certain they caught something with Matt being the captain but I didn’t see anything.

Clams anyone?  YUM!

The captain and his first mate

The men on the boat . . . ar ar ar

The happy maid 🙂

Now onto cigar smoking (I passed on one this year)

We all thought the stogies would be good.

Emm not so good huh?  This picture cracks me up!

How bout this one of Meaghan and the goofy face she’s making?  So funny!

And lastly a group picture of the woman on the boat.

Here are a few pics of friends on boats surrounding us

Mike and his son Sean

Mike’s other son, Matthew (cute kids Dee and him have)

Charlie and Barbara

There were so many others that we didn’t get a picture of or the shot came out blurry.  Happy 4th of July, I’ll try to post about holidays a bit sooner the next time around.  This was what?  Like two weeks ago ~ albeit old news, hope you still enjoyed the post.

by Talmadge House

Alpha Trak, Pele and Me

It’s been awhile since I’ve joined the girls over at Chatting At The Sky for the unwrapping of life’s small but wonderful treasures.  They’re amongst us everyday it’s just sometimes we have to look closely to appreciate them.  Today I’m reminded of how blessed we are to live in a time where medicine is as advanced as it is.  Today I speak specifically on veterinarian medicine.  Not only are humans living longer these days, our pets are as well.

My close friends and family know that Pele, our 11 year old cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes.  We’ve been working very hard at getting his glucose leveled off.  A normal glucose range for cats is 64 – 170 of which Pele’s first reading was 540 (WOW . . . that is very very high).  Having a normal glucose range is vital to living, without it a human or pet will inevitiably die.

Well today Pele and I made our way to Dr Jim Micinilio’s office to pick up our Alpha Trak (Glucose Metering System) and off to training school we went.  Pele was my real live patient who receives a gold star for tolerance.  We did very well!  I obtained a drop of blood from the vein in his ear and guess what . . . glucose reading today is 280.  I’m elated that the insulin injections are working and that we can now check his glucose at home and work closely with the doctor to bring Pele to the best possible point of health attainable.    We’re not too far off from the goal of 170.  Yeah Pele, my big guy!  Next we’ll start Vitamin B12 with hopes it will fix the diabetic neuropathy he has.  He has great difficulty with walking but we’re on our way to improvement.

by Talmadge House

The Smallest of Gifts = The Soul of One’s Heart

Memorial Day on our boat this year was indeed special!  Bridget & Jeremy blessed us with their presence and in tow was one of the cutest little girls on the planet, Isabella.  And to my surprise she anxiously awaited my return to give me this special surprise she had made especially for mua.  One doesn’t “need” their own children to experience the compassion, love and thoughtfullness only a child can give.  I find it straight through my nieces and nephews whom are some of the most loving children I know!

Along with the beautiful flower Isabella so graciously picked out of her dance rehearsal bouquet she wrote a letter with a picture of our boat and how much she loves visiting us on the boat.  My sister allowed her to sound out and spell the words by herself.  By the way, I think the now dead flower looks just as lovely as it was alive, it’s just a different color now.  hehe

It says “Aunt Brandi I Love it” with an arrow pointing at her drawing of the boat.  The part that looks like the sun is the wheel of the boat and I believe the two little lines to the left of the wheel is the captains seat.

This is the backside of her letter saying she loves me and loves being at our boat.  Don’t you love how she spells “at Brade” meaning “aunt Brandi”.  Then she writes “I love you at Bran” . . . the “bran” cracks me up because I’ve always despised being called Bran for short.  Sounds like a box of cereal or something.  What a sweet thought to give a gift to her auntie that usually only mom’s experience.  From the soul of my heart, Thank you Miss Bella you make me smile!  You’re so sweet I could put you in my coffee.

Picture was taken of Isabella and I sitting on the bow of the boat.  I didn’t know Mike had taken this picture until I uploaded to find it amongst all the others.  She was telling me stories about a mouse of which I now forget how the story goes. I do recall her saying “he was the sweeeeeetest mouse!”

by Talmadge House

Photoshop Elements 6

My newest educational book arrived this past weekend, Photoshop Elements 6 The Missing Manual.  I’ve been using this software and getting through it by the seat of my pants or by getting so frustrated when I can’t figure out how to do the things I want to do.  Life and photo editing are much easier when you learn it the “right” way.  This book isn’t your typical dry catalog or computer book (snore).  It’s perfect for us non-techie people who are trying to learn Photoshop Elements.

So no more hair pulling or barking at my husband for not being able to help me quick enough, I’m learning this photo editing beast.  The Missing Manuals is a series of learning manuals for gosh I think almost anything.  If you click on this link you’ll be taken to their website where you will find all sorts of “missing manual” books.  I’m sure they have written one for a program that is making you go bald too.

My featured picture is of Mikey and the budster chilling by the boat last weekend.  It was edited by me and I added a Karen Russell Overlay.  I like it!  Trying to figure out how to add and use actions . . . I’ll surely post a picture with the result of it.  Actions are very very cool!

by Talmadge House

Frog Dreams

Haven’t we all dreamed of odd things that don’t seem to make any sense to us.  Or having dreams of all these weird things that don’t seem to have relation to one another.  Well I had one of those dreams last night and here’s how it went ~

I was preparing my home for a showing when the door bell rang.  Upon answering, it was a man who had previously looked at my home and said he’d like to buy the house but that he had to do some repair work around the house.  I told him that he could do that once he purchased the home but he was insistant to do the work right then and there.  In my dream I went along with it, but in real life I would’ve sent him off to pound salt (LOL).  So here he is inside my home with his saw, drill and tool belt making all these changes to the house.  Meanwhile I’m thinking that this other couple was suppose to be putting a bid in on the house and i’d prefer to sell to them but didn’t know how to get this guy out of my house.  I go upstairs to the masterbedroom and I see all these frogs on the floor.  There were big momma and poppa frogs and also baby frogs, all hopping around.  I hear the guy coming up the stairs and I tell him he can’t come upstairs because it’s a mess and we have frogs all over the place.  Then all of the sudden the frogs were dead (all of them)!  So I’m quickly picking them up and putting them into the trash.

The End ~

Okay, well I’ve never dreamed of frogs before so I googled what frog dreams could possibly mean.  It’s an array of things.

1.  frogs represent the alter ego/the darker side that we all possess.

HA!  So what about my alter ego?  My alter ego is a good one!  I have a dark side?  I will never tell LOL

2.  a potential to change or to do the unexpected.

Well this one could be related to the big change that is bestowed before us with moving.

3.  The frog may be a prince in disguise.

OOOO . . . a prince?  I thought I already had my prince?  🙂

4.  The frog may suggest you need to do some cleaning.

Are you kidding me?  No way!  Ask Mike about cleanliness around our home.  LOL

5. The frog may mean you’ve been jumping from one thing, person, or idea to another.

Well hmm . . . could be truth to this one with relation to my hobbies.  I have limited time for hobbies and I have a lot of them and don’t know exactly which one to work on when I have the time.  I therefore get confused and don’t do any.

6.  You are taking major steps toward some goal.

True ~ moving from our first home

7.  You need to take the “leap” on a risk.

Well yeah I would need a “frog” to tell me this.  I’m a conservative person and think long and hard before taking any sort of risk.  So it may be telling me to go ahead and take the risk of moving into a bigger home to accommodate our ever growing business.

Interesting non the less!

by Talmadge House

What happens on the Day before Memorial Day?

Well in our lives we spend the entire weekend celebrating Memorial Day OUT on the boat or just hanging ON the boat IN the marina with all of our friends.  Here’s a glimpse of our day.

Mike got the dink in the water and everyone knows this is Scottie’s boat.  He was all paws when he saw it go in and pitched a doggie anxiety fit for a ride.

Then there was Cosmo (our friends sheep dog)

Who perched himself way up high for a birds eye view of our odd bunch here –

Scottie was also curious of the odd bunch and why all the racket that awoke him from his breezy afternoon nap.

Then there was fishing and of course your apt to find multiple people throwing a line into the water to see what today’s catch will be.  Our very good friend Mike Malone –

Also our friend Mark and his iddy bitty catch that Scottie just had to get a lick of.  He’s so gross but crazy mad for fishing!

And look who paid us a visit, Crystal (my sister-in-law) who does not visit often, decided to pop in along with her boyfriend (Mike) for first time introductions.

And of course myself and Mike were amongst the crowd of activities.  I had to hand the camera over to my other sister-in-law (Carla) for this pic . . . thank you Carla!

Then Jeff Fox’s weather report held true.  Look what started rolling in on us.  I didn’t get a pic of what transpired but let me just say we got a mad amount of hard poring rain and hail.  YIKES!

Now we turn to Scottie sniffing his way

over to this . . . steamed clams.  He LOVES clams and not only does he eat the clam itself, he will lick the juice from the shell and chews off the leg that’s commonly left on the shell.  He’s a true boating dog!  By the way the collar Scottie has on is a new collar made by me entitled “The Picnic Series”.  It’s blue, yellow and white plaid.  Perfect for this weekend and dang cute I might add!

All in all it was a fabulous day relaxing with friends and family.  Memorial Day itself we are having Bridget, Jeremy and Isabella down on the boat for the day.  So I’ll have pics from this also, stay tuned.

by Talmadge House

Happy Birthday Little Peanut!

Scottie celebrated his 12th birthday this month!  Wow how fast time goes, our furry baby is getting older by the second and is like 80 years old in human years or something crazy like that!  I won’t get into how sad this whole thing makes me which will in turn will keep this post short.  A show of hands who prefer shorter posts . . . Mike I know you have your hand raised and better lower it if you know what’s good for you 🙂  Anywho, Scottie got his birthday bowl of vanilla ice cream.  This year I light a candle and put it in the ice cream of which he curiously but yet cautiously checked out and quickly realized it was not something he should have his nose close to.  He also got special walks, playtime and snuggle wuggles.

by Talmadge House

Laptop Bag by booq

I have not posted in a while so I figure I just post something that first came to my mind. I have had a new smaller MacBook for Thought Out for a few months and decided to get my third BOOQ bag. These bags are the best, the other two lasted with out wear and I recommend them highly. That is it for now and I look forward to this smaller bag in a few days.

Boa slimcase S90
Laptop Sleeves by booq

by Talmadge House

National Scrapbooking Day

A lo ha fellow scrapbookers!  Yesterday was National Scrapbooking day so I’m hoping all fellow enthusiasts joined me in celebrating by scraping your hearts out.  Here’s a layout I did of meself with more of Jenni Bowlin’s April kit.  Doesn’t this layout make you think of sherbert?  I think another layout is calling me today or perhaps a mini album {I heart mini albums}

Layout inspired by Lisa Dickinson.

by Talmadge House

Monkey Playtime

Waahoo!  I made the entry deadline to Jenni Bowlin’s April contest.  She’s hosting a contest where you scrap with her April kit and you then get a chance to win one of her May add-on kits.  Emmm yummy!  Don’t we all like getting something free and even better yet when it’s pretty?  Listen I’m not only excited for the chance to win but am downright ecstatic that I scrapbooked something.

This picture of Scottie was the first picture taken with my new 50mm f1.4 lens that I got for my birthday.  He was exhausted from our monkey playtime so off he went to puppy-dog dreamland.