HappyTrails

Little Christmas gifts that I can actually use go a long way in making me happy.   Personal gifts meant only for my own use make an appropriate gift.  Call me a bit selfish, but there are things that I do not want to share.  Keep your mitts off my CD’s, mine are clean and have no fingerprints, scratches or nicks on them, thank you.  The dog is the only other female in the house, and she does not care much for perfume, so that is a safe bet for me, too.

Some perfume or cologne that is a very light fragrance and preferably flowery or with a touch of lemon verbena is nice.  Nothing heavy duty like where you can smell every last place the wearer went.  Those women who work at cosmetics counters probably end up with lifelong allergies from all the tester sprays taken by customers.

The really great fragrances can be tough to find discounted, but you can make your own discounts on them by using your retail store coupons or cash back bonus awards that some retailers give.  Discounted perfumes might also be found after Christmas when stores have overstocks on merchandise, that is if you are brave enough to fight the crowds returning unwanted gifts.

Elvis Presley had some good songs out when he was alive, but please, don’t anyone give me this one — I already have enough Christmas music CDs.  Oh — and do not pass this up on the video, there are pictures of Elvis Presley on it when he was pretty young and before he went downhill…dang, he was really good looking.

It is snow again and we have not yet got our decorations up.  That will be the chore for this coming weekend.  Fortunately, the past few years have not been that hard to do.  We cleaned out all the old ornaments we did not want or use anymore, so any box you open now has useable ones and you do not have to dig through the rubble.

More than likely, Hubs and I are just like most everyone else this year, we are not going to do as much gift shopping for Christmas because we are watching our money pretty closely.  In the meantime, the house is being cleaned and I think I went overboard on getting the dishwasher running tonight.  It is a nice Kitchen Aid dishwasher, but is situated on the end of the row of cabinets and the dang thing is loud.  We have been saving power by not using the dry cycle to lower our electric bill.  We open the door and let it hydrate the air in the house — and the dishes all dry by themselves.

So what is a nice German Gal like me to do?  Put on the music and headphones to drown out the dishwasher noise is what while I surf the internet for interesting gifts that will please a lowered budget.

It was time to find something relating to Christmas music, and even better yet if there was a nice dose of humor to go with it.  Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is playing now.  In case it runs through your head after you are finished listening to this, please remember it is NOT my fault and if you are feeling a little naughty yourself when you read this, pass the link on to this blog to your friends and loved ones!

Here you go:

Hahahahaha, I just got back from the grocery store and am still snarling over the prices of everything.  It is so cold out tonight and my feet are frozen from being outside — should have been wearing the winter boots for warmth.

Got a really good laugh tonight, the fellow that was gathering the carts in the parking lot has one of those electric carts that pushes a great load of used carts back into the store.  It must have been his first day at work.  Poor guy.  He had the electric cart facing downhill and was adding shopping carts to it, also facing downhill, then ended up chasing them through the parking lot.  Just WHAT was he thinking?

The groceries are still calling to me to be put away, and I am going to listen to KC and the Sunshine Band.  We will see how many repetitions it takes to get them put away.  By the way, watch the video and get a load of the outfit the keyboard player is wearing.

I’ve always told him there are two kinds of people in the world:  those who are German and those who are not.   He is one of the “who are not”.    He married himself a German Gal who can cook, and he knows he is lucky.  He also knows how to word things to stay lucky so he can continue to eat home cooked meals.

Anyway, to get to the heart of the matter, Hubs says I have been quit remiss in not featuring the Happy Trails song on this blog.  Okay, he is right about that, but it really is not an error.  If I wasn’t so busy cooking HIS meals, there would be more time for me to blog.  Omission noted.

As usual, Youtube has a really nice rendition of the theme song from the show that Roy Rogers and Dale Evans used to do.  Their show was good family viewing.  Nice person that I am, this one is dedicated to Hubs who loves nostalgia (and a home cooked meal).  We have no more Roy Rogers restaurants in this area, and we miss their fried chicken.

Happy Trails to you too!

Today started out normal enough, but then it started snowing ice crystals and that kind of cut the errands short.  I had to come straight home instead of the grocery store.  Well, now we are short of milk and a few other things.   Oh well, hopefully the salt trucks will be out and fix our roads.  The news channels were showing quite a few accidents and there is really very little snow, but so icy.  So, no going back down the big hill to go to the store tonight.

Might as well get some other things done at home, and decided to make sure I follow my own advice and put on some moving music.  The first CD that I grabbed out of my stash of oldies was a Janis Joplin album.  She was one of many celebs that died young, but not before she made her mark in the music world.  Fame always seems to have a very high price.

Her voice is throaty and sounds like she must have sucked cigarettes for 20 years or so in all of her songs.  Unique, especially in someone as young as she was.  Guess it was her hard living.

This CD has Piece of My Heart, Summertime, Try, Cry Baby, Me and Bobbie Magee and about 5 other songs.   Oh, and Janis Joplin’s cover photo for the CD has a lovely peaceful park-like setting with her on one mean looking motorcycle.  She has the 1960’s long hair and the biggest round sunglasses that look plain silly on her face.

Anyway, some of my friends thought it was funny that I liked Janis Joplin, and motorcycles, though we do not own one of those.  I got the last laugh when a couple of them decided to get their own CD.  ….there was something about me being contagious, but I did not catch the rest of that.

Okay, see for yourself, here she is live at Toronto in 1970 and at Woodstock in 1969 performing live.

It was finally time to sit down.  The grocery and other shopping is done, dinner was simple because I made it yesterday, and the dishwasher is taking care of the dishes.  So far, so good, but it gets dark so early and puts you into hibernation mode for the winter.

It is a good time to go online and find some new CD’s to jumpstart the brain.  Sometimes eBay has some good deals and there are lots of online places to look.  Problem is, when you want something new, you have to know what it sounds like ahead of time.  Cold weather calls for moving music.  Sappy, easy listening, or breaking hearts country just will not make the grade.  Oh, do not get me wrong, I agree there are a few good country songs — something like “My Give A Damn Is Broken” or “I Am Going To Hire A Wino To Decorate Our Home”, but for the most part, country has to be funny to pass muster.

Back to the moving music, and if you tiptoe a bit through the past, here is one from Ray Charles and the Blues Brothers that you might like.