Signs of spring and a funeral for a friend

We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun but the hp hard drive couldn't take any more. (I always loved that song by Terry Jacks) Yes my dear blogging friends, the hard drive in my computer is dead. Wade has tried everything including getting a restore disc directly from HP and talked to a tech person and we finally had to pull the plug on my friend. For now, I am limited to my laptop. It's not that I don't like my laptop, it does provide me with a little flexibility but the desktop and I just seem to click better.
Well how about a little happy news. I located the cable for my new camera and I was able to get the pictures from that so I do have new material. My other camera is still holding pictures hostage until I get a card reader though.
On April fools day I got a pleasant surprise. No joke, I found signs of spring.

I found the first signs of my Lupines returning. Of course the flower beds around my house are in horrible condition. I've been so neglectful. I love seeing these come back every year. My dad gave me the seeds for these years ago and every time they come up I think of him. They get a beautiful flower on them that dries out and the pods open up and drop their seeds for the next year. My dad had a ton of these around his house and had gave me several of the pods before they had opened. They grow in a very scattered pattern in my front flower bed because between kids and dogs things like that have a way of happening.

Beware of alien invaders

I dug in to the files to bring you something that you may find amazing (or not). It involves Duke though so I know you'll be impressed. This goes back to Duke's first Christmas with us. I know it's finally spring time and I shouldn't be putting up Christmas pictures now but remember I'm temporarily electronically challenged. In other words still no computer.
If you've been with me a while you may remember Duke telling you about the cat that used to live here when he first came to live with us. The cat seemed to adapt to Duke well enough to at least tolerate him. However, after seeing the picture I'm about to show you, I think that the cat was trying to send Duke away with his laser beam eyes.

 Lucky for Duke he was protected by his Winnie the Pooh shield.

You don't bring me flowers

But I've got some for you.

OK so they aren't real, but they are flowers. I used the mask from Shadowhouse creations on this. I've used it here before but I really like his stuff and have been using it a lot lately.

falling behind

This computer thing is really throwing me for a loop. I was over a week ahead on my posts now I'm down to nothing. Worse yet, I don't even have any brilliant ideas. I hope you'll all bear with me while I bore you with my UAO's.
What's a UAO you asked? (yes you did, I heard you and so did Duke) A UAO is an unidentifiable art object. I'm not sure if a digital image can be considered an object but that's what I'm going with.
Here are two of my latest.

I'm going to have to dig into some old files and see what I can find so that Duke can make an appearance. I have some really good ones (I think) stuck on my camera. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to get them.