Blue Monday: Toothy Blues

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Haven't been doing much blogging lately -- mostly because of the dental work I'm in the midst of. I'm getting an implant to replace one of my molars that fractured and had to be ripped out. More than that you don't want to know, believe me. It's all been pretty painful and time-consuming, but I  have a very good dentist and a very good oral surgeon and things are moving along pretty well. But the pain meds keep me in a sort of semi-comatose state much of the time -- so, not much blog time.

Took this snap of the oral surgeon's waiting room last week while I was there to schedule my surgery. It's a view I've seen waaaaay too often lately, but they do have some very pretty blue-upholstered chairs (actually pretty comfy, too).

Oh, and I've got a little blue metal cap in my mouth now, covering the posts for the implant. But I'll spare you that picture!

After that appointment, we had lunch at a new Serrano's restaurant nearby. (Just about the last good meal I'll be having for a while.) Nothing blue there, but I did manage to grab a shot of the front of the place against a lovely blue Texas sky.

Unfortunately, that gorgeous weather didn't last long.  It's cold and rainy here today -- well, cold by central Texas standards. I know it's nothing like the awful conditions they're having in the northeast right now. But I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we should really start thinking about moving further south.

Blue Monday: Winter Blues

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I hate to have to say this, but ... it's winter. Words to send terror through my being. I may have mentioned (one or twice) how I hate winter. If I haven't -- well, I'm mentioning it now. And I apologize to all you cold weather enthusiasts -- I just really never have warmed to winter. (Hee-hee.)

We've been having an awful lot of rain here in central Texas this winter. (Yeah, rain is also not one of my favorite things.) Not enough to bring Lake Travis up to its normal levels, but much more than usual. It's also been much colder than normal all during January. But the last few days have been blissfully sunny and a little warmer -- although still too cold for my liking. I do love the intensely blue skies we get, this time of year, though. Don't get to spend as much time out in the sunshine as I'd like because of the red cedar that's going crazy all around us right now. Haven't had as much trouble with that this year, but I do remember what it did to my eyes a couple of winters ago:

Ah, yes! Alligator skin! Call me the lizard lady. OK -- I can't blame the wrinkles on the cedar. But it was definitely the cause of all the swelling, itching and redness -- which lasted for several months and nearly drove me out of my tiny mind. So when the cedar turns red, I retreat indoors and stay there until it starts turning green again. And that's only a month or so away. Well, at least I should get a lot of reading done. Assuming my eyes don't swell shut again.

Blue Monday: Charming Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

Can you believe we're nearly two weeks into the new year? I'm having trouble with that. I know that's a sign of being exceedingly elderly, but it does seem like time is just flashing right past me. What happened to the holidays? What happened to Christmas? I blinked and it was over!

The Hubby decorating the tree.
UN-decorating looked pretty much the same.

Actually, we had a really nice Christmas this year. Got to visit with some very old (in length of acquaintance, that is!) friends who we don't see all that often. We had intended to be out and about a little more during December, but the weather just didn't cooperate. Still, it was a nice, festive holiday -- if a little quiet.

And we got some very nice gifts. Michael and I don't generally give each other Christmas presents, but this year he surprised me (!!!) with this:

I had been hinting that I'd like a Pandora charm bracelet -- for several years now. But for some reason, this year it clicked.

OK, I know it's not blue -- the bracelet and the charm/spacers are all silver. So here are a few of the blue charms I'm thinking of putting on it.

I'm having trouble deciding whether I want it to be strictly a "biographical" bracelet, with only charms that represent my life and my family. Or if I just want to go with a color scheme or some other theme. It'll probably take me quite a while to get it filled up. Or even partially filled. I've got a Pinterest board with examples of charm bracelets I like, but of course I wouldn't want mine to look exactly like any of those. So coming up with a design and filling it up should be lots of fun.

Oh, and one more thing -- just to be perfectly circumspect -- I am in no way affiliated with the Pandora people. I just like their jewelry.

Cold Saturday

Today's snap is the view from my craft room window:

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Sorry about the blurriness -- the window isn't as clean as it might be. Tsk, tsk.

Bleak, isn't it? It's a view of our back patio/garden area, and it looks so sad with all the flowers and plants gone. And even though you can't really tell from this photo (there's a lot of evergreen out there), it's pretty icy this morning. Cold, cold, COLD.

I hate winter. Can you tell? January is typically our coldest month here in the Texas Hill Country, and every year I have a harder time getting through it. Of course, it's nothing compared to the winters we used to struggle through up in Northern Virginia. But I guess somehow when we moved back down here, I was expecting year-round summertime. Don't know why -- when we lived in Austin back in the late '60s/early '70s, we had some of the coldest, nastiest winters I've ever experienced, anywhere. So I should have been better prepared.

And there's more cold, damp weather predicted for the rest of the weekend and into next week. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the red cedar and mold amping up my allergies and asthma. Bummer.

One question: Why am I not in Key West right now?

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