Red Squirrel...

We live in a two story house, that used to be my Grandparents. It wasn't a two story when I bought it, but that's another story. There is a huge pine tree on the northwest corner, by our bedroom window, that we could almost touch if we reached out the window.
We also have a particularly obnoxious red squirrel, not to mention the 1/2 a million grey squirrels that like to play in our yard, particularly in the trees.
This obnoxious red squirrel likes to get up high in the pine tree (we can easily see him) and chatter until Annie comes out to play. He starts chattering early, before we're even out of bed, and Annie hears him. She runs over to the window and starts to whine and do her little twirly thing she does when she's excited. Well of course we let her out, it is morning and she has been holding it since before bed.
Out the door she bolts, across the deck, down the steps, around the bushes and under the pine tree. She's whining and wiggling and the squirrel is chattering and clicking, and then she starts to bark. If you've ever heard a collie bark, you know this is NOT a pleasant sound. She sort of sounds like an adolescent boy with his cracking voice. Her bark is like that, high pitched and shrill mixed up with some normal tone barking. It's enough to drive you crazy.
She plays with the grey squirrels like this too, but they don't make as much noise as the obnoxious little red squirrel.
This squirrel will be our garage, on his way to hide in our wood pile, and when he sees our car pull in the driveway, he'll stop and cling to the post and stare at us, chattering away, like it's his home and we're trespassing. Yikes, he's icky!

As you can see, this is a picture of a "White Squirrel", not our obnoxious red squirrel, but I don't have a picture of him and I do have a picture of this white one. You'll just have to use some imagination.

LOST...

Last evening I started a commissioned dog portrait, and because I need to have something to both watch and listen to while I draw, I was looking for something good, that I had already seen, because I won't be paying a lot of attention. It took me longer to decide on something to watch than it did to do everything I do when I start a portrait.
I looked on Hulu, I looked on Netflix, I looked at my DVD's, I went back and looked at Hulu again, then I ended up back on Netflix. (I am not joking)
What did I choose???? LOST! I thought I'd start at the very beginning, because it's a very good place to be, and knowing how it finally ends, I think it will be fun to try and catch all the hints that J.J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber give us. No matter how many times I watch this show, I do not get tired of it. I only wish they had those little cheater comments at the bottom of the screen so I could actually catch all the hints they throw at us.
I'm sooo excited. The only other show that I find I can watch over and over is CSI, because that is just beyond words (for me at least)
Oh yeah, the portrait is looking good too!

Mango Tango...

After too many days being cooped up indoors because of high heat, humidity and rain, David and I went out to dinner. I suggested going out, because I had spent the better part of the day packing up more stuff to send off to Kira. I just didn't feel like cooking, although it's rare that I ever do feel like it. Cooking is NOT one of my talents.
We decided to try Brooklyn Center's new restaurant Mango Tango that finally opened in the old Chi-Chi's building that has been vacant for several years. Every time I drive pass, the parking lot has quite a few cars and we had been talking about going, so we did.
I thought it was great, David liked it too, but he's never quite as enthusiastic about things as I am. We both had drinks, David...beer (duh!) and I had a fruity Jamaican-Me-Crazy, full of rums and fruit juices. (I loved it)
David had the Jambalaya that he seemed to like well enough to almost lick the bowl clean. I had the Mango Papaya Pork Loin over mashed potatoes and julienne veggies. Yum! I had to put half in a container to enjoy for lunch tomorrow, or I would have kept picking at it until my plate was clean. David would then have had to roll me out of the restaurant.
I looked at the reviews it's had so far, and some are good and some are horrible. There are some people that can't say anything positive about anything though, so I tend Not to pay any attention to them and decide for myself instead.
The staff was nice, the place was clean, the price was very good, the decor was Caribbean, the entertainment was great! A man was singing and playing the guitar with a synthesizer and he both sang and played very well. If I had another drink, or if it was later, or more crowded, I would even had gotten up to dance. (another drink probably would have done it)
Anyway, I give it a thumbs up. I wish them well and I hope people give them a chance. Brooklyn Center has been getting a bad rap for awhile now, and it's slowly changing and pulling itself together.