I Like #146

Welcome to another week of things to like!

1.  I'm sorry but I have to start out with one last video from the holidays, this one of Blue playing with his toy.  We don't really have dog toys at our house because Bullett used to hoard them (though we do play ball).  However, my mom's dog Jordy got a toy as a present from his groomer and he doesn't play with toys so we gave it to Blue.  He was so excited,  he didn't even need someone to play with him, just ran around and tossed the toy for himself!  Of course he did want you to be standing out in the cold with him....  Bentley liked it too, but mostly just tried to rip it up.

2.  I finally (!) got around to blogging about one of my main quilts from 2019.  I thought I'd done it already but evidently not.  It's a part of my liturgical series featuring the Lord's prayer.  There are two posts, one in progress post and one with the final quilt.  Check it out if you didn't see it already.

3.  I went to Dallas this weekend to see my sister, it was really great actually, I said goodbye to her family at my mom's and then two days later said hello at her house!  I wouldn't normally go down so soon after visiting, but I had to take them their new pet rats.  The rats were a Christmas present from their parents, but we decided to adopt some research rats from my university.  They were so calm and snuggly, they really do make great pets.  Both kids were super super excited and did really well with them.  I'm so happy they have them!  The kids named them Silky and Puffy.  Becky made them all sorts of things for their cage, including a two-storied hammock!  Apparently they both crawl in it.  You can see one of them in it in the last picture.

4. I got home from Christmas to a lovely pile of Christmas cards and a very exciting parcel. I love getting cards from my grandma; in addition to the card itself, there are always a variety of miscellaneous stamps.  Some may remember my previously mentioning that she collected stamps for many years for her grandkids (including me) and there were usually lots of leftovers after pulling out the plate block.  This card has one from 1965 celebrating the battle of New Orleans (War of 1812!) and one from 1959 commemorating the St. Lawrence Seaway.  But my favorites are those 4 beautiful Forest Conservation stamps from 1958, really cool.  Love you Grandma!

5.  A new book!  I don't often recommend books, I'm not sure why, but this week I finished two set in the same world.  I really enjoyed both, but the first in particular.  It's called "The Rook" and is a sort of urban fantasy about a girl who is high up in the supernatural equivalent of the CIA and who wakes up one day with no memories.  I thought it had great worldbuilding and characters without sacrificing a good interesting plot.  Definitely recommend if you like fantasy at all.  The other book was its follow-up and is called Stiletto.  That was good too, and I especially liked that they were the same characters but separate plots.  I really hate books where there is no satisfactory conclusion between books.  So aggravating.