Public Service Announcement

For those who celebrate:

Six months until Christmas.

Just wanted to let you know!

Happy Birthday!

Made it home in time to say Happy Birthday to Kathryn and Susan. (Well, technically I missed Susan, as she's over on the other side of the world and it is now Monday, but . . . )

Kathryn and Susan have been blogging friends for years and years now. They're both fine people and fine reads.

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

Compulsion :: Obsession
Spiritual :: sweet songs of old
Spray :: Paint
Compatibility :: Get-along-ness
Pursuit :: Trivial, of happiness, in hot
Fake :: Fraud, charlatan
Mobile :: phone
Ceremony :: Marking the moment
Ribbons :: bows, presents, girls' hair
Mozart :: Cosi Fan Tutte

Peas, peas, eating all those peas

I'm going to be upNorth for the next couple of days, so I won't be on-line. If you would all be so kind as to leave me your favorite pea recipe in the comments I would be ever so grateful . . . 'cause the peas are poppin'!!

In Praise of Boo

My kid brother is a guy's guy type guy, at least on the surface. He was a football center in high school and college; he was in the Air Force, he has a couple of tattoos (of which my mother still asks, are you sure they won't wash off), he's balding and it troubles him not a whit as he merrily shaves it all off. That is the exterior Boo. (Boo is short for boo-boo, for what else can you call the kid who is so much the baby in the family??)

As often happens, Boo has no sons. He has three daughters. His daughters dance at the same dance school their mother attended as a child. Boo and his wife are very involved parents at the studio, helping with repairs and recitals. The last two years, Boo has been drawn into the actual recital, adding some comic relief, and this year doing the lifts (with his middle daughter, which is a REAL trust-building issue.)

Because Boo is such a guy, a couple of the other fathers broke down and joined the company. Boo was especially close to Larry. Together they were going to be Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Doo in last week's recital.

Boo got a call from Larry's wife the Sunday before the recital. Larry had been involved in an automobile accident. He was gone.

Big men don't cry? Nope. Big men cry, and then they carry on. Larry's daughter had a large part in the recital, and felt that the show should go on. So the remaining Tweedle donned Larry's shirt, donned these cute shoes (okay, how many of you thought those were MY legs?) and did his part.

Delphiniums

We were walking in Mom's garden yesterday. She said, "Delphiniums look really funny close up." I had never looked at them that close before. She, as always, was right.

Ann Baldwin's Art Gallery

You might want to check it out!

Lonely Sounds

Midnight train.
Doves cooing. (I know, it's pathetic, but they always sound mournful to me.)
Wind soughing through the pine trees when you're walking in the woods alone.

Yours?

Hey! I'm closer to the family farm than that!

Aunt Owwee Highway Bankruptcity 3 Loony-Bin Lane 13 Childbirth Hospital 66 Confusion Lane 135 Family Farm 392 Please Drive Carefully

Username:

Where are you on the highway of life?

From Go-Quiz.com

Hear Me Roar

Up from the archives. (Beware, Chinese music plays rather loudly once this is fully loaded.)

Which Chinese Mythological Being Are You?

You are Long-wang!Mythological Background: Yes, the dragon represents everything you think of when you think of a dragon - fearsome and invincible. Also, it is greatly respected just because of that fact. The dragon has a very protective aspect to it. Even Jupiter reminds you of intense smashing power. The dragon is almost always surrounded by rain-bearing clouds and fog; and the appearance of its constellation always signals rainfall and lightning. It's also a symbol of authority worn by the nobility and the imperial class. Japanese Name: Seiryuu.
Take this quiz!








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Senseless

One of our installers received a bad phone call on Tuesday: his sister had been murdered. Murdered by her husband, who then killed himself. Senseless.

In the next county, a woman suffering with cancer killed her 24-year-old Downs Syndrome daughter, then turned the shotgun on herself. Senseless.

What Month is THAT??

I must have hit something on the control panel: I don't recognize the language of the months in archives, but I don't think they are English!

well , , ,

Which random phallic object are you?
Quiz by Andrea.

Belated Father's Day

I'm still wandering through June, 2003, over at my old blog and I found this:

Yesterday's roofing project at Mom's took on an unexpected twist. The attic of the garage came under cleaning attack, and there were scads of photos and old memorabilia we had stuck up there through the years. Old toys were found, faded prom flowers, and for me, there was the box of letters that I had saved from my freshman year in college.

On Fathers Day I would like to share a piece of a letter my ole man wrote me in January of 1970. He wasn't an outwardly sentimental man. He was short and stocky and loved cars and sports and was often mistaken for a football coach instead of the auto parts salesman he was. But....

What do you mean, "Don't forget me." We don't and we won't ever forget you. Every once in a while I look up on the book shelf and say, Hi Punkin, to your picture. Silly ole me. I know you can't hear it.

Dad's been gone since 1982, but I won't ever forget either.

Told You He Fetches

Rules of Lomography

Fans of cameras: click the title. Ten very good rules!!!

Fireflys

Bryn gave me this firefly information four years ago:

Bryn is an amazing researcher. I love to read her responses to the Wednesday Wonder. In the firefly post below, she has tons of firefly information that I need to bring up here: ***Okay, I wrote this, bryn didn't***

"Firefly" is the common name for the nocturnal luminous insects belonging to the beetle family .

Lightning bugs, also called fireflies, are not simply bugs and are not flies. They are beetles and part of a scientific family that contains the largest order of living things—290,000 species at last count.

The light given off by fireflies during their abdominal flashes is called bioluminescence. It happens when oxygen and the organic compound luciferin react together in the presence of the enzyme, lucifereace. This creates light.

Although other insects can produce light, fireflies are the only insects that can flash their light on and off in distinct signals. Even the eggs and larvae of some firefly species glow. That’s where the name "glow worm" comes from.

Some fun facts about fireflies:

Did you know that the state insect of Pa. is the firefly ?
Did you know that you won't see fireflies west of the state of Kansas ?
Did you know that you can set up your backyard to attract fireflies ?

FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES

Word of the Day

Are you pronoid?

Sorry I Missed Posting Yesterday

I got on-line late last night to post, but my nephew was on, and wanted some feedback on his essay due today. So I spent my internet studying the rubric for MLA expository essays. Yikes!

Archives Time

I'm looking at the June 2003 archives of my old blog, the Other Side. I must have been in a weird mood on the first, because I posted these questions:

Questions from late at night:
Are you, or have you ever loved, a fisherman? or fisherwoman?
What was your favorite playground activity in grade school?
Is it really better to have loved and lost?
Will we have any 90 degree days this summer?
Why do you read the books that you read?
Where are you going to?