songbird's crazy world

     Isn’t he a pretty kitty? Don't you just want to take him home? As for my domestic felines … Yes, we took them to the vet on Saturday for their annual checkup. Duchess was in good voice, caterwauling from the moment Drew put her in the carrier until the moment the vet tech opened the carrier.   Shadow surprised me, though.  She has never caterwauled before…but when she heard Duchess, she answered.   She yowled for a few minutes but eventually settled down. At the vet’s … I’ve always joked that Duchess would rather brave the big dogs in the waiting room than stay in her carrier…but Shadow?  A very large dog came over to us, put his nose up against the carrier …and Shadow jumped  back so hard the carrier moved.   And Shadow hissed when the vet tech took her out of the carrier.  She hisses at me sometimes but I’ve never seen her hiss at another person.   But she was OK when the doctor examined her. And Duchess?  She was very c...

 So … the holiday lights festival. There are lanterns, representing the animals and plants preserved at the zoo.  There’s ice carving, a carousel, puppet show and train ride for the children.  Costumed characters, of course.  And, as always, there’s a Christmas tree display.  Here are our prior visits:  2019 ,  2020 ,  2021 . Sorry,no post from 2022, we were in the Caribbean for most of December. We got lucky this year, the weather was relatively mild. We got our refillable mugs. You can have either hot chocolate or coffee.   We grabbed a bite at the Crane Cafe.  You can get burgers, hot dogs, pizza …or a salad.   We started looking at the displays before it was dark. They look almost real in the twilight. Some even move. And when it gets dark … The main building all dressed up for the season. More lanterns. The peacock changes colors. So does the snake. And the trees are amazing. We even went under the sea. As always, a fun evening...

 Loved this house These folks have the spirit This house asks for charitable donations 

They won 4 Stanley Cup championships in the 1980’s, but haven’t won a championship since then.  Still, who could resist when offered tickets to an Islanders game? Not that we are huge hockey fans, but we did see a game back in  2022 .  So when we were offered tickets to last night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers , of course we accepted. This time around, we were able to park in the brand new garage, thereby avoiding the long hike from the Emerald Parking lot.  Even better than  the lot we used when we saw  Andre Rieu , (we parked in the Silver lot for the concert) and  certainly not the horror show of the Emerald Parking lot. (Taking a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the arena can be a bit aggravating.) As I remembered from our visit last September, you can buy hamburgers and hot dogs on a gluten free bun at a food stand behind section 108. Our seats last night were in section 106, so food was easily accessible.  I had the most incredible c...

 We are members of the Wildlife Conservation Society. The WCS runs the Central Park Zoo, the Queens Zoo, the New York Aquarium and the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, but the crown jewel of WCS properties is the famous Bronx Zoo. This time of year, you can visit the zoo during the day and see all the animals.  Or you can visit the zoo at night to view the holiday lights. If you time things right, you can use your holiday lights tickets to enter the zoo in the late afternoon, so you can view some of the real animals before the light show begins. We went to the zoo Saturday night.  Today I’ll show you the real animals, and on Thursday we’ll do the holiday lights, If you enter from the Bronx River parking lot, you’ll be greeted by a lovely waterfall. The bison were being shy, but we did get to see deer. We saw tigers! The trumpeter swans were loud. I love peacocks!  They’re allowed to walk all over the zoo. It was a fun afternoon.  We plan to go back in the spring, ...

 Doing something different today … An entire album. A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector It’s a classic album from 1963, featuring Darlene Love, the Crystals, the Ronettes… Christmas music gets the Wall of Sound treatment …  Released November 22, 1963 (the day JFK was shot), the album was initially a commercial failure, but grew in popularity after its rerelease, and is now considered a holiday classic. Enjoy. You like? Well, then here’s a bonus hit.    Not bad for 77 and 82.   Did you know Cher was a backup singer on Darlene Love’s original recording of the song? I’m loving the holiday music …

  The Christmas Blues Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions! Saturday 9: The Christmas Blues (1953) Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here .   1) In this song, Dean Martin sings that the streets are white with snow. Do you anticipate a White Christmas this year? No.  We can get snow this time of year, but we usually don’t get snow until January.   2) He tells us  he's done plenty of window shopping this season. Do you find you're influenced by a retailer's window dressing and store decor? Are you more motivated by...