rainy morning relaxation

It's raining here this morning. The sun's rays never managed to penetrate the bedroom early this morning and that is the only chance it was going to have today. Sweets and the dogs are cocooned in the darkness. That gives me time to relax a bit on my own. First things first, I made myself a mondo cuppa coffee. A package arrived from Portugal with my Coloriffic Swap-o-Rama green swap on Friday. I photographed the wonderful goodies as best as I could in the avaiable light from the kitchen window. Seperate post to come on the swap. The poor little birds looks so bedraggled at the bird feeder this morning. I put out some nice soft bread heels under the shelter of the back door overhang. Next thing I know a pesky squirrel was munching away. Guess he got tired of rocking the big feeder to rob it of it's seeds. Hopefully before Sweets wakes up I'll manage to post the photos I shot last weekend at the New Pornographers and Belle & Sebastian show in Philadelphia. We have never been there before and found a really good spot to watch the show. I love having my secret spots at venues. Yesterday we went to see Dr. Staci, our chiropracter in the morning. She said my shoulders feel like concrete. Was that supposed to be a compliment? Afterwards, I drove Cyndemouse to the airport shuttle. She's on her way to SXSW in Austin. Lucky duck! We've been talking about going for years. One of her friend s just bought a big old house outside of the city to fix it up as a bed and breakfast. With that kind of hospitality at her disposal, the trip had to happen. I couldn't go this year with Grams being sick but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. Sweets and I spent the late afternoon visiting with Grams. She started taking morphine on Friday so she's pretty out of it. We just sat with her quietly, holding her hand. On Thursday, I just broke down and said all the things that I needed to tell her while she appeared to sleep. After a while, I composed myself and started to tell her about the blue jays making a terrible racket at the feeder that morning. She opened her eyes and said, "Oh, you're here" in a surprised tone. I have a sneaking suspicious she heard everything I said and just wanted to keep things light. She's avoided any heavy conversations with my sister, too. How much is there to say, really? I told her I loved her everyday. She knows it. No need to keep waking her up jabbering on. Later in the evening we went on a little shopping expedition and bought a new stove. Ours has been on the fritz for months. The oven works fine but the range doesn't light when you want it to. It's like range roulette. Sometimes it lights but mostly it doesn't. If I do get it on, I leave the gas burning and run to the stove for ingredients. We started doing research last month and found a Kenmore model we liked with five burners. It's coming on Tuesday. I'm very excited to get cooking.