A black kitty in the shade of an apple tree

Black kitty with cranes in the background

A coyote ran by me on the ditch

The coyote crossed the ditch, stopped, turned and looked at me from the other side of the ditch.

Crane choreography

With outside temperatures dropping into the low teens this week, the morning temps in our bedroom have been down around fifty. Laurie puts a pink sweatshirt over the heater vent to warm it up while she does some of her morning stretches on the floor with the heat blowing on her feet. The problem is Lola is a heat hog and stretches across the the bottom of the sweatshirt to soak up as much heat as she can while the furnace is running.

I'm on a bike*
Hey look at me cause I'm sitting on a bike
I'm on a bike
Take a real good look at the hairball-chuckin bike

I'm on a bike hairball-chucker take a look at me
Sitting on a bike in the bright sun, see
Baskin in the rays, I’m getting really psyched
Can't stop me now cause I'm sitting on a bike

Take a picture, click, I'm on a bike, which
WD-40, sick, it has a nice pitch
I got my fur fluffed, look at all these sticks
I'm sitting cool, you in the hallway taking pics

I'm on a bike and, sitting still, and
A cactus looking over a WD-40 can
I'm the king of the world, on a bike like Lance
If you're not out here, then you’ve really missed your chance

To be on a bike take a look and see
I’m sitting on a bike, you can see that’s me 
With the tools there, other stuff and the like
I’m still really cool cause I'm sitting on a bike

Hey man, if you could see me now
Sitting on the seat you would say like wow
I wanna ride this bike to the moon somehow
Like good old Neil… go take a giant leap

*Inspired by "I'm On A Boat" by The Lonely Island (look it up at your own risk, it has explicit language, if you are not familiar with the video).

With a portable heater blasting in the shadow a few feet away from the cold sun shining on Second Street, women worked pasting a mural on the east side of the Imperial Building in temperatures below forty degrees. At the same time a man painted the shady side of the Silver Street Market a bright green — possibly to extend the illusion of the non-existant green fields portrayed in the mural.  I didn't ask if the mismatched sections of the mural would be somehow corrected or simply "be" part of the art. Update 12-01-2016: I talked to the artist, Jessica Angel, and she has painted in the areas that did not match. She is a mural artist and has Jessica Angel Arts. You can learn more about her work at http://www.jessicaangelarts.com.

Spunk looking "Beastly"

We got a new hand me down bookcase today, and Spunk and Najar were quick to check it out. They both went through the same routine on how they inspected the bookshelves and the books.

Najar trying to look "Beastly"

Spunk eyeing our "Inspector Erlendur" series by Arnaldur Indriðason.

Najar found our "Inspector Erlendur" series to be of interest, as well.

Spunk thought the space by "The Book of Beasts" offered a good vantage point.

Najar also liked the vantage point the shelf with "The Book of Beasts" offered.

Spunk wanted to know if there were any mice recipes in our collection of Fine Cooking magazines.

We started Thanksgiving day by letting the kitties sleep in.

We snuck the anchovies in with the other ingredients for grandma's crispy potatoes while the kitties were sleeping in.

Laurie grinding up the paste.

The kitties weren't interested in the paste for granny's crispy taters, but we kept sneaking the paste and eating it on crackers.

Granny's crispy taters.

A field of Yorkshire pudding.

Greens with pine nuts, fresh herbs and chile peppers.

Prime rib with fresh herbs.

All made for a tasty Thanksgiving dinner.

Chocolate angel food cake with whipped cream for desert.

Raspberry sauce variation.

Last weekend was the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, about a 100 miles south of Albuquerque, where they celebrate the Sandhill Cranes that congregate by the thousands in the refuge. While we don't have thousands of cranes that hang out near by, there are 50 to 100 in the apple orchard next door at any given time, and hundreds more that fly in to roost on the river every evening. Instead of driving a hundred miles to see the cranes, all we have to do is walk a hundred yards down the ditch bank to the orchard or several hundred yards out to the river to watch cranes forage and play. Today I got the added bonus of cows running around the orchard among the cranes.

"What's up paparazzo? I thought you were making coffee?"

Coffee is almost ready

"Wait a minute. I don't see any coffee in there."

"Let me see here?"

"Just what I thought — dry as a bone!"

"Coffee's not good for cats? What do you know? Stupid paparazzo!"

Around the carrousel horse

The display on my buzzing cell phone showed Patrician Design calling — "This is Patti. Are you in the office?"  I answered "Yes" and Patti asked if I could come over and do group photos of her and her staff. I grabbed by cameras, headed next door, and we mapped out the shots. Patti wanted photos with the library and her storefront in the background, and then we decided to get a couple of shots by the carrousel horse.  Patrician Design has a lot of interesting and unique art, handcrafted jewelry and designs for living that make great gifts if you are in the Albuquerque area. You can learn more about Patrician Design at http://patriciandesign.com.

Straight on shot in the library

Test shot with Patti measuring out the space

Corner of the library

Another test shot

The storefront