March 26th, 2010

On Mom’s twitter page this afternoon, there was an announcement from the people who make this website that my blog is hosted on, Blogger. They made this new program that allows people like my mom who don’t know much about computers and HTML to make their own template. Mom and I picked and chose and came up with this new design. You all will have to tell me what you think of it. Currently, Mom is a bit peeved about the column issue, and the fact that by readjusting the template, the justification of older posts seem to be gone.

These are things that annoy Mom—I’m mostly happy about the new background. It hasn’t been fall around here for a long time, and the header was very fall themed! Our Windows Live Writer also doesn’t seem to really bring the template over to the edit window like it did before, so we’re going to have to double check our formatting before we post. Mom did save the old template just in case, so we can return to it if this doesn’t work out.

Mom feels better—she thanks you all for your good wishes. She still has a bit of a cough, but her voice is back. It makes work a lot easier, so she is glad that she is back almost to full strength.

I’ve been really enjoying chatting at BearPlace. When Mom has the day off, my path usually crosses with my English friends. They are approximately six hours ahead of me. So when Mom has the day off and we are chatting in the mid-afternoon, they are all getting ready to go to bed. I am surprised about how many things are different over there, yet so many things are exactly the same!

Speaking of my friends from BearPlace, they have helped me decide on a new friend’s name. Mom found this fellow at Goodwill a few days ago. My friends chose the name Jasper, and I think it suits him very well. He is a little shy right now, but he had lived in his previous home for quite some time before he was given up to Goodwill. We’ve been doing our best to reassure him that he will be in our hug for a very long time. Mom says that we just need to be supportive and he will realize that we are telling the truth!

March 23rd, 2010

Some of my friends that I found online a long time ago have returned to blogging. Their names are Spaulding and Teddy. They had their very own website. They had a blog on a place called Bravenet, but have moved their blog, here to blogger. Mom says that technically they still have their own website, but I’m not computer savvy enough to understand such things. I’m glad that they’ve returned to the blogging world! They are one of the reasons why I thought that I could blog! I just wanted them to know that I would be glad to play their role-playing game, but I cannot comment on any of their posts!

Things have been pretty quiet around here. Mom has been suffering from something that she calls laryngitis. It has made her voice sound funny! Sometimes, she can’t talk at all. This doesn’t really matter much around here—since we don’t really do a lot of talking. At work, it’s been mostly causing her trouble on the phone. Her mom says that it will go away soon. For Mom, I hope it does!

Spring has definitely decided to stay a while for Wisconsin. The trees are beginning to bloom, and the birds are returning. My friends and I are bursting with energy and we all want to go outside! When Mom is gone at work, we’ve been discussing what we want to do outside. The girls want to lie in the sun, but most of the boys want to climb trees! Some of the apple trees in the front yard are low enough to the ground that we ought to be able to get up on our own! (With Mom supervising, of course!) When I tell them about how scary it was to be so high up in the tree they scoff at me, but when they get up there they will understand!

March 19th, 2010

Mom took me outside on St. Patrick’s Day when she was walking the dog around the property. It has been incredibly nice in Wisconsin lately, especially since it is just March. It has been around 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit (or 12-16 degrees Celsius). Mom says that March is usually cold and still rather snowy.

First we sat out on the porch for a while. It was such a pretty day that we wanted to listen to the birds. Mom pointed out the differences between the morning doves and the red-winged blackbirds.

I told Mom that I wanted to climb the tree, and she helped me up. But once I got up there, I was pretty scared! Mom was there all the time, so I wasn’t in any danger, but it’s awfully high up there!

After a bit, I got my courage back up again and let Mom take a picture of me. I like this tree—it’s a silver maple and it’s rather old.

  After a bit of walking around, we went and sat on the benches on the porch and listened to the birds some more. It was a very nice day. It’s sad that sometime this weekend that real Wisconsin March weather is supposed to come back! But spring will soon arrive for good and we will have more of these nice days to look forward to!

March 18th, 2010

Today I am going to introduce our newest arrival. Cleveland was rescued from our nearby Goodwill. What makes him special—besides his charming personality of course—is that he is a very big bear. Our Build-a-Bear book says that his species—Polar Bear II—tops out at 21 inches or almost 54 centimeters tall. It gives him an introduction to our big boy group. He will join Taft, Briggs, Roscoe, Gulliver, and Elijah. The main benefit of being a bigger bear is that you can wear human baby clothes! (Mostly because they don’t fit in the regular BAB clothes!) Mom bought Cleveland an outfit at Goodwill and he fits into six month old baby clothes! (The other BAB and I only fit preemie and newborn clothes at best!)

When Mom went to BAB, she showed the manager lady our photos. (She has them on her itouch! She wanted to be able to remember which ones she had when she went thrifting!) The lady thought our hug was rather impressive. She told Mom about Briggs—who is a Buddy Bear—and how he got recalled. Larkspur, another of our bears, turns out to be a JC Penny’s exclusive! Look how small I am compared to all the other bears! Elijah is the bear on the left of the picture. He is not BAB but Mom rescued him a very long time ago from a thrift store somewhere. Cleveland and Taft are the white polar bears, while the bear with the soccer t-shirt is Roscoe, our American Eagle bear. Gulliver, a grizzly bear II, is one of our newer arrivals. Briggs is the bear on the right.

Tomorrow, I will tell you all about my outdoor trip on St. Patrick’s Day!

March 17th, 2010

Our St. Patrick’s Day Build-A-Bear friends wish everyone in the blogosphere a very happy holiday! Saeran is a Lucky Teddy and we don’t know what species of Build-a-Bear Sheridan is. We have a few of the holiday bears around here—I will try to remember to introduce them when their holiday arrives. They’re in charge of the celebrations when they arrive, so we thought they would deserve some highlighting here on my blog!

Things have been pretty exciting around here. Mom bought me some boots at BAB a few days ago and found my English riding habit. They’re western-style boots and an English style outfit, but Mom doesn’t think it matters that much.  I think I look silly with my ears pinned back by the helmet, but Mom says safety is the most important thing, and if I want to ride, I am going to have to deal with the helmet. Fortunately, she let me take it off for the rest of the photo taking, so it didn’t hurt my ears for very long. We have come up with ideas on how to make a bridle for Jefferson, but the saddle is still beyond our collective crafting skills. We are going to work on it for a while—it’s certainly not the end of my riding adventure. We have decided that the bridle can be made out of strips of leather. The saddle will need to be made out of some kind of fabric so Mom can sew it herself. She thinks that her sewing machine might be able to deal with leather, but I don’t want her to break it. Oh the possibilities!

I do think I look pretty snazzy when I am standing next to Jefferson. He is a good size. He has been hanging out a lot with our other four-legged pony friends. I think the added boy to our herd is balancing things out nicely! When Mom went to BAB to buy my boots, there was an advertisement for a gold and white sparkly pony, so I’m afraid that the balance is not going to last for long.

I have other adventures that I will tell you over the next few days. Mom took me outside today and we’ve had a few new arrivals. I think this is a long enough entry for now, so I hope you all are having a great holiday. I’ll talk to you later!

March 15th, 2010

It’s the ides of March! Yesterday was Pi Day! It’s all full of holidays—even if they’re minor lately! St. Patrick’s Day is a few days! That’s a major holiday!

This around here are much more focused on spring! A few days ago, Mom and her friend planted some seeds to grow in the summer garden. They were all sorts of flowers, like morning glories, and hollyhocks. They also planted various different kinds of tomato plants and some other vegetables. Yesterday, Mom noticed that the morning glory seedlings had sprouted, and today she noticed that some of the tomato plants had. They’re still very small, but it is a sign of spring that is most welcome!

These are morning glories. It turned out that Mom had bought a lot of morning glory seeds, and since she had plenty of pots, they decided to plant them all. Well, not every seed, but at least every seed variety.

Here they are pressing up against the plastic top Mom used. She explained to me that the seedlings need to have extra humidity and the plastic top gathers it. She said that it also helps protect the plants from drafts—since it is still rather cold.

These are the tomato seedlings. They’re much smaller than the morning glories.  They’re still very welcome. Later today, Mom is going to try to set up some lights that she bought for them. She explained to me that the sunlight coming in through the windows really isn’t enough for the seedlings, so we have to provide some extra light. It doesn’t matter—we’re rather patient around here. I will keep you all updated on our seedlings’ progress—along with the garden once we get to plant it!

March 10th, 2010

Mom has been spending a lot of time with her friend shopping and gallivanting around on her vacation. While it leaves plenty of time for snuggling and sleeping, it does not leave a lot of time for blogging or chatting.  As a condolence, Mom found me a brand new—new to me anyways—sweatshirt. It even has a fancy pedigree—it’s from Aeropostale!  A lot of my clothes come from Build-a-Bear, which is a bear clothing label, but I am impressed to have a sweatshirt from a human clothing label! I first felt bad that it once belonged to another bear and that bear was probably naked now, but Mom reminded me that some other human made the decision to take the sweatshirt off! So now I have my own Aeropostale sweatshirt!

Mom planted our seeds with her friend a few days ago. We have four flats of little pots filled with dirt and seeds. Now comes the anxious wait until they start to grow. Mom does not know what we are going to with all the seedlings if they grow, but I don’t think it matters. I like the idea of something growing despite the fact that it is so cold, wet and foggy outside lately. Tomorrow or the next day, Mom is going to set up something she calls growing lights so the seedlings grow short and stout. She explained to me that the seedlings need lots of sunlight that March in Wisconsin cannot provide. So we will put lights above them to give them more of what they need. Right now, all it looks like is dirt in pots, but I promise to keep you updated when things start to grow.