Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Best of the best

Perigee of the Full Moon

Tonight the full moon will be at perigee, offering sky-watchers a view of the biggest and brightest full moon seen since 1993. While we experience a lunar perigee every year, it infrequently coincides with a full moon. The next one will be eights years from now. Look for the full moon right after sunset as it is rising — it will appear impressively big!

This NASA composite picture, based on an image of the moon taken by the Galileo spacecraft, shows the apparent size differences between a full moon at perigee (the closest point in lunar orbit) and one at apogee (the farthest point), as seen from Earth.



You can still see Jupiter and Venus big as life early in the evening. Check out NASA's brief video about the sky in December.

Decorating

Last night we went out for dinner to Strawberry Fair, then to the Company Theater's Christmas show with B and B. My dinner was excellent and it’s a lovely restaurant situated in an old house. They had a man singing and playing a guitar and he was very good — he loved us, we were actually listening and applauding! The Christmas show was in two parts. The first was strictly singing and was fine. The second part was a short play about a small community church in NH trying to put on a Christmas play. The cast was largely youngsters, junior high and younger, and they were all very good.

DamCat’s house is starting to look a lot like Christmas! I hope she’ll take some photos. Queenee has done a bit of decorating around the house. We don’t bother with a full-blown tree anymore, but the small skinny tree is up as well as a little one in the kitchen window. She picked up these icicle lights in Costco a couple months ago — they were a bit pricey, but we haven't seen them anywhere since. I remember first seeing these lights in PA twenty years ago, but hadn't seen them since until now. They are very difficult to find, I can't even find anyone else who sells them so I can link to them.



Yes, it snowed! We weren’t expecting snow until Sunday night, but it actually snowed overnight last night and we woke up to see snow on the ground! It’s still snowing. I’ll post a little video later.

Another computer!

Dawg’s new computer arrived late Tuesday afternoon, about three weeks sooner than we had been told it would be here. I spent about five hours setting it up for him today.

Some nice things about this machine. It’s one of the small box computers and is much quieter than most of the ones I’ve seen. I wouldn’t want to run one more than an hour or so, the small form doesn't allow for much air circulation, but once hard drives switch from heat-producing disks to flash memory, the box will be even smaller and the heat won’t be as big a factor.

Also, finally, someone figured out that these big hard drives should be partitioned right from the start. It took over an hour to partition Deacon’s new computer, but this one was already done. I still moved all the user folders over to the new partition manually, but it was a good hour not spent doing the partitioning. Thank you Gateway/eMachines!

It came with 2gb RAM, a 19" LCD monitor and a Canon Pixma printer (on backorder, but no rush for that). It’s perfect for Dawg and Fluffy!

Happy birthday, Elder Pea!

Nineteen today! One more year of being a teenager!

EP had to work tonight, but spent the day decorating the Christmas tree with DamCat. Hope it was a good birthday, EP!

Dead tree falling

This tree has been a menace for years, and yesterday Dawg and a friend came and cut it down. Dawg brought his log splitter over and the guys spent a few hours cutting the tree up, splitting wood and hauling it away.

The north side was covered with lichen, moss and tiny shelf mushrooms and was quite beautiful. Queenee let me know and I took a few photos.



Dawg made two more trips in miserable weather this afternoon. The bulk of the usable wood is gone and when the weather clears, PopPop will start the clean-up.

Friday brings a new computer!

You know how things always seem to happen in threes? In our family, three computers died within a few months of each other. Dawg's computer died, then within about a week of each other (or so it seems to me) the P's and KeyDear lost their respective computers. Queenee's died first, about a year ago, so that it too far out to count.

The first replacement is installed. Deacon and the EP picked a nice Dell out at Best Buy a few days ago and I went and did the crapware cleanup and software setup yesterday. It went well, only took about six hours, and so far so good. Next up will be Dawg. His computer is on backorder and with luck will arrive just before Christmas.

That leaves YOU, KeyDear!! Tis the season of cheap(ish) technology, get back on the tubes, we miss you!

I was in Costco a couple weeks ago with Queenee and I always cruise the computer aisle. I had a chance to look at the tiny Acer mini-laptop. It's actually not a bad little, and I do mean little, computer. Acceptable specs (still has XP, no CD/DVD player though), good price. I couldn't use that little keyboard, but for those without mangled hands and arms, it is a decent portable computer. I was most surprised by the screen, a very nice display. Not a bad little computer at all. We shall heretofore refer to this computer as the Charlie Brown computer. For more money you can get a much better computer, but it all depends on what you need a computer for — if all you do is surf and check email, you don't need much juice. Juice is for graphics and gaming.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's hoping everyone enjoys the day.

Lucille is missing

When I went to feed Lucille this morning, her milk crates were knocked off the shelf and she was nowhere to be seen. This has happened a couple other times, so I thought she might just be freaked out and hiding somewhere. It rained hard all day today, so she could have been under the bushes somewhere. But after checking for her a few times during the day, and again tonight when she should have been in her nest, I'm afraid whatever was after her finally got her. There were no obvious tracks and no sign of a struggle, not even one feather, but it's after 6pm and she still isn't in her nest.



This has been a bad year for our pets here.

Roomba!

If you must have a Roomba, you may as well have one that is color-coordinated with your cat.

Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton

I don't know what made me think of this song tonight, but I was glad to find it on YouTube. I remember playing my guitar and singing this as a kid — ok, not quite a kid, in my early 20's — though I could never get anyone to do harmony (back then I could do either part). What a beautiful song, and what a treat to hear these wonderful voices again. I wish I could still sing on key.



I've long thought that Linda Ronstadt is underappreciated. She may not have the strongest voice, but she knows how to sing. She learned a wide ranges of styles, from light opera to folk-rock to big band standards to Mexican mariachi.

Dolly Parton is a unique talent and has written some beautiful and heartbreaking songs. I cry just thinking about her “Coat of Many Colors”.

Queenee and her Arizona brace

It isn't the most beautiful thing in the world, but it does its job perfectly. Queenee saw Dr. Chiodo yesterday morning and he is very pleased with her ability to get around while wearing her Arizona brace. She gets excellent support and can walk without her cane. He thinks she may eventually need surgery, but it can be delayed indefinitely. If and when the brace is not enough support, they'll talk about fusing the ankle, but for at least the foreseeable future, no surgery is needed.

She'll need to start doing her knee exercises again, soon. She's been hobbling around on that bad right ankle for over nine months now and it has taken a toll on her left knee and hip. The knee is especially vulnerable, being that it isn't a real knee to start with. I do my knee exercises twice every day, morning and evening, which is why, imho, my knee is able to bend so much further than those of most folks who have total knee replacement surgery. It's all about the rehab and the exercises. Now that her ankle is fairly stable, it's time to get back to exercising as best she can. In this case, something is better than nothing.

Queenee, PopPop and I went out for dinner last night to a local Asian restaurant, AsianC. I think they are known for sushi and sashimi, which sucks for those of us who pass on the raw fish. Queenee ordered Shanghai duck and a pumpkin martini, and didn't care for either. PopPop had a shrimp and scallop dish called Imperial Couple and a glass of Pinot Noir, and didn't care for either. I traded him my glass of excellent Gewurztraminer for his mediocre Pinot. My Thai garlic-wasabi chicken was good — not spicy, but good. I had Mango Chicken at this restaurant about a year ago and it was excellent. I guess we should have ordered that.

When we got home, DamCat had left a gorgeous cashmere sweater for me! Thank you D's and P's!!

Maru

Need a pick-me-up? How about some awesome Maru?



Check out some of the other Maru videos, he’s a pretty entertaining cat. Maru has a blog. It is in Japanese with some entertaining Engrish translations.

Many Japanese pet owners devote themselves to their pets, cat, dog, bunny, whatever, as much or even more than we do here in the US. Check out this house — now that’s a cat house! They are big on pet blogging. One of my favorites was Oolong, a rabbit with a talent for balancing all manner of things, particularly small pancakes, on his head.

Royal Quiet Deluxe, Chicken Band

I had posted about this back in July, and today I have an update. Jeff Simmermon tells the story of the chicken band Royal Quiet Deluxe on video. Fun.

Cats rule

Ce chat est très intelligent, n'est pas?

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is the best holiday of the year. We only get the kids from across the street, but it's always fun anyway. If I had any excuse, like school or work, I'd be costumed and wandering around. Maybe next year I'll dress up for grocery shopping!

In honor of Halloween, I'll post a video that I shot this past Tuesday. The starlings are migrating and there had to be thousands of them passing through. By the time I grabbed the camera, most of them were already gone, so you can imagine the sight it was! The sky over the backyard looked and sounded like a scene from The Birds! That was one of my favorite Hitchcock movies and is, imho, underrated in his oeuvre.



As my Halloween treat, the Teaching Company sent me a link for a downloadable lecture on Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique — give it a listen if you are interested. PopPop and I have bought several of their courses, and they are first-rate.

Pumpkin carving

The Peas and I bought ourselves some pumpkins and spent a couple hours carving them. Theirs came out great and look really cool with lights inside. Mine is so-so and needs more work. We had a gorgeous day for sitting out on the deck and sawing away. Let me add that I will never, ever try to carve or cut a pumpkin with a knife again. I invested less than $6 in a keyhole saw from Home Depot and it was totally worth it — like a hot knife through butter!

When I was taking the Peas home, a cruiser came flying up behind me on Broadway. He was right on my bumper, maybe six feet away from the back of my car. No lights, no sirens, and I'm doing maybe 35 mph. If I had hit my brakes, he would have been in the back seat.

Anyway, I figured he needed to get around me, so as soon as I got around a bend in the road, I pulled over to the right, and didn't the sob pull into a driveway just behind where I pulled over. Typical a*hole cop, thinking he IS the law instead of realizing he is there to enforce the law - and OBEY it as well. If anyone drove up behind him like that, you can be sure they would have been ticketed, if not arrested.

Lucky for me the Peas were with me, because had I been alone, I would have turned around and pulled into that driveway to rip him a new one. I probably would have gotten my ass kicked.

Happy birthday, PopPop!

Even though he still can't remember what a blog is and has never seen this one, we'll wish PopPop a Happy Birthday here anyway. Eighty years old today! It just doesn't seem possible. He's pretty spry, though slowing down little by little. He still putters around the yard, hitting golf balls and retrieving them, tending the garden and picking raspberries — he's out raking leaves right now. Little One has taken over for Eve as PopPop's constant companion.

DamCat is making a lasagna and the gang will be here for dinner. I'm making a loaf of bread. We'll see how that turns out, we know the lasagna will be delicious.

Once their computer is fixed, we'll have a personalized happy birthday song from the B&R label, which I'll add here asap!

Happy birthday, Key Dear!

Happy Birthday, Key Dear! You're as old as me now, hehehe!!!

btw, I don't know if you got to see any of the races today, but I caught the last one, and it was fabulous! Zenyatta won, capping off a perfect season — what a horse! She was about ten lengths back going into the far turn, then passed the field on the turn from the middle of the track. Awesome race. I think she has to be in consideration for Horse of the Year along with Curlin.

Cornea from Hell

Where do I start. The beginning was so long ago and the ending is not in sight.

On Sept 19th, a busy Friday, our Mr B was hit like a bolt of lightning in his left eye. Pain, Pain Pain. The local emergency room cannot take an eye patient on a weekend, so unless you drive directly to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, you are out of luck until Monday. Yep, our Doctors spend weekends up in the Palm Beaches and are no where to be found on weekends.

Back to the story. He "pained" it out for the weekend since the owner was going out of town the following Wednesday for 10 days or so, and it was a busy weekend, and she would be gone yet again the following day on a motorcycle excursion with the boyfriend and not available until Sunday afternoon, after her oldest son's Memorial at the Restaurant. Her oldest son was a police officer died tragically — very sad for this woman. She has been through the ringer so to speak. Anyway, of course he worked, as he always does, which might not have been the correct thing to do with an eye injury! He is driven and never has a sick day, until now.

Come Tuesday when the Doc could finally see him, he was prescribed med's for a bacterial infection, which is the normal course of action I guess. The pain got so severe Mr B thought he was dying. After day after day of driving to KW to the Doc's to let him see if there was any improvement, and none appeared, it became worse. A trip to Miami was in order.

We are lucky that Bascom Palmer, the best Eye Center in the country, is in Miami, so off we went. I wish I had bitch pills for him because he was miserable!!! They cultured, scanned, scraped, probed, and sent him home with new med's made in their lab, and new instructions for his Doc. Two days later… Nope, not working, and Mr B in such severe pain his brain was exploding. Oh, did I mention that he had to put these Rx drops in his eye every single hour of every single day??? Yup Yup.... we just don't sleep. Period!!! He'd scream when I'd put the Rx in, HELLO... it's not working!!!!

Okay, his Doc said, I'll call Bascom Palmer to see if the cultures are in. Well, it was a fungus, not a bacteria, and they advised to send him directly to them because it was more serious and his regular Doc didn't have the instruments that were needed. Since none of us had had sleep, driving to Miami right then and there was not an option… no one could keep their good eyes open long enough! We opted to leave at 3am that morning to arrive when the Doc's at B & P did at 7am. Polly was the driver since I had to continue to work — bullshit assness but I had to. Gosh Love her, she is awesome. B&P have had us ever since, every three days. We are all EYE Pals now.

Bottom line. I know you want it. It takes approx. 2 months to clear this fungus from the center of his cornea and it was completely set in by the time they figured out what it was. It is slow growing, but without the proper course of action can delve deep into the cornea so drastic action was taken. So with that said, last week it finally started to show some improvement, which continues for the next three days. Drops went from hourly to every two, to every three, and today they said every four. These drops can do damage themselves, but he needs them and the only reason they are backing them down is because they do harm when used for this length of time. For those of you Clinically inclined, they are Rx made at the hospital and must be kept refrigerated and only stay fresh for a week. Named: Amphotericin — not the type B, but plain straight Amphotericin which I cannot find any info on, and they gave no paper with it stating side effects and such. Still, it's much better than the killer Natacyn 15ml that he had at 238.00 for a tiny tiny thimble dropper. He hated that anyway, it was like glue!!

He is also on antibiotics eye drops four times a day — Polymyxin B/TMP 10 ml which they also make up there at the hospital, but I think we'd be able to get it anywhere.

Now for you contact lens wearers… B&L contact lens products had problems with just this same fungus awhile back, but Mr B uses ReNu products. Ill have to find out what he had in the Kitchen at the restaurant to use as his refresh drops, for cleansing his eyes from smoke etc. as he worked.The smoke alarm was actually taken off the ceiling due to smoke alarm sounding off many times and disrupting customers. It's an open air kitchen with fans blowing this way and that, so anything could have gotten into his eye, and I do mean anything. This Mold can come from anything, we have come to find out, not just yeast mold from bread which was what he initially thought, but from anything! With all the hurricane winds blowing our way this summer and the steady breezes, who knows!!! I do know this — protective goggles would not have prevented it, but would have only incubated it and made it even worse. He wears his bi-focals at work, but also switches out to lenses due to sweat, etc. He had a new pair in at the time, but when you're dealing with fungus, it attaches and doesn't let up, I guess. I feel for anyone in the same position. Many countries with hurricane aftermath are experiencing this same problem with patients. And it's also a problem with contact lens extended overnight users that use B&L product for moisture add. Anyway.

After we clear up this fungus, and possibly as soon as next week (!!!!), a cornea specialist will evaluate him next week in Miami to see if it was indeed a tiny cut or just something that got under his contact and had it's way dead center of his eye. The scarring on his cornea is extensive, but we'll see what the specialist says. Mr B can see light and about nothing else right now. He has only 10% vision in his left eye, cannot make out anything other than to say "that's a blob", and nothing else — milk bottle effect.

If we get the all-clear on the fungus, they'll start a Steroid drop to try to heal the scarring. They feel after a month or two of steroid drops they will know the full extent of the damage to the cornea. Most likely, they say, a cornea transplant would be done, but they will not commit to anything right now.

So we drive every three days to Miami, leaving at 3am and back at 4pm. It's a long day. Thank goodness for our good-hearted daughter Miss P, she is a dream!!!!! She can drive in a hurricane safely, she has Thursday off and will finish work Wed night at 11:30pm, go home sleep for a couple hours, then get up at 2am to drive here to drive us to Miami, and then have the night off of work. Mr. L has been fine with it all, he sleeps at a friend's house the night we leave so he can get to school. It's all working out.

Okay then, heard enough??? Questions? Just ask — I have more exacting information if you want it. Mr. B's pain has lessened, thank goodness… tonight we'll sleep!!! WOW — We have four hours!!! We may never wake up!!!

It's all so serious and interesting and eye threatening… scary stuff, but Cornea implants are the norm these days, so I'm sure it will be all good and the outcome will be what we are hoping for.

Blender Defender

Back when I had sixteen cats (came with the job), I had to get creative to keep cats off the kitchen counters. I found that giving three of them pills when they were on the counter was enough. They were vitamin pills, so no harm done, but you know how much cats like having a pill shoved down their throat. The three must have passed the word along to the rest, because my cats wouldn't jump up on a kitchen counter even if the yummiest food on earth was up there.

That was my solution. Squirtguns work too. The key is to get the cat to associate getting on the kitchen counters (or whatever behavior) with something they really dislike. Yelling at them doesn't work, cats are smart enough to know that they can do whatever they want if they wait until you aren't there.

For those who prefer a gadget, there is the Blender Defender. Effective, and a lot more entertaining for the human, and has the added benefit of not getting scratched when the kitteh tries to escape getting the pill. Check out the videos!

Swan Lake

Key Dear sent me this link. I thought I'd take a stab at embedding a flash video that didn't have an embed tag. It seems to be ok, but just in case, the direct link is http://www.sonnyradio.com/swanlake_0001.swf

What wonderful choreography! Makes me wish Cirque du Soleil would do Swan Lake.

Wasting water

I need to teach my cats how to flush the toilet.

As soon as I teach them how to use the toilet.

Fall colors

Autumn is here. The leaves are starting to turn and this weekend is traditionally the highpoint for local color. Peak color hasn't arrived here yet, but in Vermont and NH it is gorgeous. We've had just the right weather the past month to get excellent color — enough rain with enough cold and you get a beautiful fall. Maybe I'll take a drive one day this week and take some photos.

Our turkeys reappeared at long last. We have seen the single tom, but the group hasn't been through in quite a while, maybe close to 18 months. It was good to see them.

Monday is Columbus Day, so a lot of people have the day off. Schools are closed. I think MA and Arizona, of all places, are the only states where Columbus Day is an official holiday.

The Sox won 2-0 last night in the first game of the ALCS. We've had a terrible year playing in Tampa and many people expected us to lose these first two games, but we pulled it out. Philly is up two games to none over LA. Boo hoo for Manny. He did hit a home run in their game yesterday, and jogged around the bases with his finger in the air. Of course, he doesn't mean his team is number one, he means HE is number one. Nobody except Dam Cat's brother misses him. While the Sox have kept quiet on the subject, I'd bet the whole team is delighted he's gone.

Queenee and PopPop

55 years today — Happy Anniversary, Queenee and PopPop! PopPop is peeling apples so the Queen can make a pie for him.

I'm terrible at remembering anniversaries. I know I missed DamCat and Deacon's this year, which was August 29 (happy belated anniversary, you two!). Queenee reminded me about Key Dear and Mr. B's, which I had forgotten last year. And both are at the end of their respective months, you'd think I could remember one, which would remind me of the other. Leaking brain, leaking brain…

Autumn has set in here, the temperature is in the mid-fifties to mid-sixties most days now. We had a lot of rain this past week, but are looking forward to several gorgeous days. Sweater weather has arrived!

Queenee's ankle — the test results

No infection! We are just back from the doctor and it's looking good. We really didn't think there was any infection, but some orthopedic infections can be almost dormant. Her bloodwork was normal and the catscan looked very good, all things considered. The leukocyte scan seems ok, but the mealy-mouth doctor who wrote the report didn't really say anything useful, so Dr. Chiodo is going to get hold of the chief of radiology and have him read the scans. Regardless, things look good.

On Wednesday, Queenee is going to be cast for a more supportive brace called an Arizona brace. This should give her much better support than the heavy brace she has now, without being so unwieldy.

If she gets good support and pain relief while wearing the Arizona brace, she can delay surgery until she feels it is needed. If the brace isn't a big help, then she'll most likely end up having the ankle fused fairly soon, which should relieve most, if not all, of her pain, though she will lose what flexibility she has in that joint. Still, being pain-free might be a very good trade-off for her at this point. But we'll see how the brace works first.

Sophia is missing

I am about to have a very bad week. I haven't seen Sophia since yesterday afternoon. I've looked up and down the street. I've walked all around the yard calling her and saw no sign of her. She does wander a bit, but she has never been gone this long. I've checked the barn and the closets, no Sophia. I'm hoping against hope that a coyote didn't grab her, which is what I've always feared may have happened to Eve. There are large dog tracks in the side yard which may be the local coyote we've seen, along with deer and raccoon tracks. PopPop checked the barn cellar and has an eye out for her when he is in the yard. It isn't looking good. I feel like I've lost my best friend.

Ike's aftermath

Knowing that an ocean surge can devastate the land and that the aftermath continues as each and every plant continues to die and how much worse it gets and looks in the continuing weeks…
Knowing that the cleanup seems unending…
Knowing that the struggle to get through another day seems to go on unending…
Knowing that watching a bulldozer working to move debris from your street and wondering where will it all go, and how will you ever get it back…
Knowing that hearts and minds are tested to the limit…
Knowing that no matter how well your home is built, it simply won't matter…
Knowing that a single smile from a volunteer and a hug can lift spirits higher than imagined…

This post is for all those going as volunteers to help in this time of crisis. With strong will, determination and the generosity of those volunteers, there is hope on the horizon.

Happy birthday, Queenee!

Today is the Queen's happy birthday! After what she's been through this year, we're all feeling very lucky to have her with us to celebrate another birthday, and we're expecting her to be around for many more to come! Queenee, PopPop and I are heading out to the Olive Garden for dinner. PopPop has been there once before and has decided that he doesn't like their food, although he has no recollection of what he had or where it was. We're dragging him out anyway.

Queenee had her tagged leukocyte scan yesterday. What a long day, holy moly. We got to the hospital at 6:45am and got checked in, then went to nuclear medicine to have her blood drawn. Queenee does not have great veins and is not a good bleeder, so that was, as expected, the worst thing for her. However, after almost half an hour, the blood was drawn and she was fitted with a catheter in the back of her hand, ready to get the blood back at around noon. The tech had her cell number and said she would call us as soon as the blood was ready. We went to the main lobby, where there is a coffee shop and a lot of light, to sit and wait. And wait. And wait.

Queenee brought a book, but wished she had brought two. By the time 9:30am rolled around, she had finished the book and had nothing to do but chat with the few other people who were also waiting around for some reason. At 10:30am we decided to hit the trail, so we went to the gift shop and then to the cafeteria. They don't start serving until 11:30am, so we were sitting at a table waiting for them to open when the lab called. Back down to nuclear medicine, and she got her tagged white cells injected. That took only a minute or two, and she was very happy to be rid of the catheter. We were told to be back at 2pm for her scan, so we headed back to the cafeteria to get something to eat. After lunch, we went back to the lobby, since it was the nicest place to sit. And wait. And wait. And wait.

Finally 2pm came and she was back in the lab for scanning. They got her in at about 2:30pm and the three-part scan took a little over an hour. Then, because we hadn't been sitting around and waiting enough that day already, we got to wait until the head radiologist had a look at the images — they need to be good enough to determine whether or not an infection is present. If they were not, since she already went through the tagging, they would simply rescan the ankle and foot. So after an hour or so we got word that the scans were fine, and at about 4:30pm we headed home. It was almost 6pm when we got home, and as you can imagine, Queenee was beat.

We won't know the results for another couple weeks. Her follow-up appointment is on the 29th. I'll keep everyone posted.

We Love Our Queenee

Happy Birthday Mom, Nan, Tuck, Tuckie, Shots, Nannie, Pinkie Stinkie, Mama-cita… wish we could all be together to share cake, take a few schluk's and stories around the table, take a stroll in the yard, water the flowers and pick a few...

I can see you all sitting under the trees in the shade sipping Mojito's!!! picking fresh MINT!! Love our Drink pix wabbit!

I know your exhausted today. I'll call tonite.

Happy birthday, Dawg!

Today is Dawg's happy birthday. He's creeping up on the big 5-0, which Deacon hits in January. And while Queenee's birthday isn't until Wednesday, we thought we'd have a cake and small celebration today for both Dawg and the Queen.

We had a nice brunch of Eggs Benedict and mimosas, then this beautiful cake that DamCat brought. Lots of musical cards, a Navajo carved bear from Fluffy, beautiful mums from the D's and P's, as well as a fab new eyeglass case for Queenee from EP (to replace the one she lost at the hospital last time), some lottery tickets (still no winners) and winning efforts by both the Sox and the Pats&hellip a good day all around!

PopPop's face

PopPop smacked his face on the bathroom floor last night during dinner. He was rushing into the bathroom and tripped over his own feet and fell flat. He get occasional reflux and goes into the bathroom until it passes. Last night he wasn't sure if it was reflux or just something he needed to cough up, but he was moving too fast down that very narrow hall and tripped himself. Except for the bruising across the bridge of his nose, he's fine. He's feeling fine this morning and seems rather pleased with his bruise. He's gone off to play golf.

Queenee's leukocyte scan is scheduled for next Tuesday at 7am. We'll most likely be in the hospital all day, but at least this test will tell us whether or not she has an infection in her ankle.

Ike has passed south of the Keys and is aiming for the southern coast of Texas. Dodged another one!

Hurricane Ike

This is turning out to be another one of those nasty hurricane seasons, much like 2005. We're hearing that a tropical storm warning was issued today for the Florida Keys, from Ocean Reef south to the Dry Tortugas. Hopefully that's as bad as it will be. Haiti got hit hard and Cuba is getting it now, but I sure hope the worst of it passes well south of the Keys.



Just a small jog to the north will be a real problem. Stay on course, Ike, stay on course!

Turner at the Met

I went to NYC on Friday to see the Turner exhibit at the Met, which was wonderful. I've always been a fan of Turner, especially his watercolors and late oils, which are almost impressionistic, but show a very loose hand. He wasn't always popular with the critics in his time, but none doubted that he was the great talent of his generation.

It was also an experiment, to see if taking the Bolt Bus is a good way to get down and back. Turns out it is. The bus leaves South Station at 7:30am, gets to NYC at 11:30am, and drops you off at the corner of 8th and 34th, a block from Penn Station. The C train is right downstairs, goes uptown to 81st, where you take the crosstown bus to the Met. The whole day, including lunch, came to about $70, and I didn't have to drive or park! I can budget for that, so I'll definitely do that again! In fact, it's only a block from the Hotel Pennsylvania, where Queenee and I try to stay when we go into town, so it would be a better way to get there for our trips also.

Of course, we won't be making that trip anytime soon. I've got a call in to the nuclear medicine department to see about scheduling her leukocyte scan. They are supposed to call us, but we haven't heard yet. She's doing very well, worried about the weather in the Keys and how the Krew are doing, but otherwise is fine. She is staying positive about the upcoming treatment/surgery for her ankle, which surprises nobody.

Queenee's ankle

Queenee saw the ankle specialist, Dr. Chiodo, this morning. More x-rays were taken before he saw her, and he made a very strong point of telling her to stop thinking "fix" and start thinking "salvage". There is no fixing going to happen. She had a bad break to begin with, she'll never walk normally again and she just has to accept that. She'll have to dial things back, rest a little more, and stop pushing herself to be all things to all people.

There are some shadows in her x-rays that do not bode well. If she is lucky, the bone will turn out to be osteopenic, bone that just isn't as dense or strong as it should be as a result of the break, though osteopenia itself doesn't show up on regular x-rays.

If she is not lucky, she may have an infection in the bone. This could be very bad news, depending on how much the infection has progressed. A small infection might be able to be treated with a long course of IV antibiotics and perhaps some surgery. An advanced infection could result in her losing the lower leg. Yes, we're talking amputation. Obviously we all hope that is not the case. The series of tests that are underway will tell the tale. Bloodwork was done at the Faulkner, then we went to Brigham and Women's for a CATscan. Finally, she'll be scheduled for a tagged WBC scan &mdash some radioactive material will be attached to a sample of white blood cells, then re-injected into a vein, then she will be scanned. There is only one person at B&W that does the WBC scans, so we'll wait for him to call and schedule our Queenee. Once all the tests are complete, some decisions can be made.

In the best case, she'll probably have the ankle joint fused. She'll lose the flexibility in the ankle, but she's down to 20 degrees now and has significant arthritis in there, so that will only continue to decrease. At least she'll be pain-free. She'll also have a minimum of nine months recovery, and Dr. Chiodo said probably more realistically it will be a full year. That is sure to try her patience. In the worst case… well, we'll burn that bridge if and when we have to cross it. Meanwhile she maintains her usual good humor and will face down whatever needs doing when she knows for sure what that will be.

Humor break: Dramatic … whatever

At least this one is correctly identified as a lemur!



Props must go to the Dramatic Chipmunk, which is actually a prairie dog, for being the first in the Dramatic category. The short version of Dramatic Lemur is also good.

Gustav making its way to New Orleans

The poor folks along the Gulf coast are still trying to recover from Katrina, and now three years later almost to the day they have Gustav bearing down on them. The hurricane is all over the national news, so FEMA won't be able to get away with turning a blind eye this time, though they seem to be better prepared. Of course, anything would be better prepared when compared to "great job Brownie".

For our own family, we're happy to see that Gustav has largely bypassed the Keys. Fay was a lingering headache — Anhaga told me it rained for days and days after Fay was supposedly gone. Hopefully the approaching Tropical Storm Hanna (!!) won't become a hurricane, right now Hanna seems to be making a straight approach toward the Keys. Fingers and toes crossed!

We've been Technorati'd ! !

Queenee has been pining for a song she had on a tape in the Lincoln, a Bonnie Raitt song called Feels Like Home from the soundtrack to the movie Michael. In my travels around the web looking for it, I left a comment in another blog that had a top 100 drinking songs list. Mind you, I arrived very late to this particular party; the post itself was over a year old. Regardless, the most recent comment was from a couple weeks ago, so I left a link to one of my faves, the previously discussed Fifteen Beers Ago by Ben Colder, aka Sheb Wooley. The recording I found available online was a different version from the one we had on the "Live and Loaded" album that PopPop bought all those years ago in North Dakota. btw, we still have that album and it's worth more than PopPop paid for it. Anyway, I thought I'd keep going through Google and see if I could find our version.

When I got to the second page of Google links, in the 19th spot, I saw a quote that sounded very familiar. The link was to Technorati, a blog-post aggregate site, so I clicked on the link. Lo and behold, five links down, there we were!

This may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but this being a family blog, I post things that are of interest to me or to the immediate family (at least that's what I shoot for) and pretty much don't think about the world at large. In a million years I never thought anything here would hit Technorati. Evidently the link back to the NY Times obit for Eddy Arnold combined with the Ben Colder reference bumped us up for that particular search term, and there we are! In case those links expire or change, as I expect they will, I have screenshots!

Ok, you can all stop laughing now.

Tony Bennett

Queenee and I saw Tony Bennett last night at the South Shore Music Circus. His daughter sang a few songs to open the show… alas, she was slightly off-key most of the time. Tony came out to a big ovation and a photo session. You aren't supposed to take photos, but he had the house lights brought up and let people snap away, so people took photos throughout the show, me included. Without flash, none are any good, but they are very impressionistic, right?

Anyway, at 82 years old, he is in great shape and still has that wonderful voice. He forgets an occasional lyric, but he fluffs it like the pro he is and who cares anyway. He's Tony Bennett, he's a legend. He didn't sing my favorite song, I Wanna Be Around, or Queenee's favorite, Cold, Cold Heart, but we enjoyed every minute.



Then came the long escape from the parking lot. I don't understand why people are in such a panic to leave, you never get out of that parking lot in less than half an hour. We had a decent spot near the front, so Queenee didn't have a whole lot of walking to do.

Speaking of walking, she has an appointment with an ankle specialist on September 3. I'm still trying to get her in somewhere sooner, but there aren't many ankle specialists and nobody is booking appointments before late October. She got the 9/3 appointment because the surgeon who did the emergency surgery pulled some strings. She might have gotten in sooner had the insurance company not dicked us around for a week. Now we have to wait because the ankle doc is going on a lecture tour and won't even be in town. I have one more doctor to try, but at least she has a definite appointment.

Dead Parrot Sketch, 419-style

Anyone who spends any time on the Internet and has an email account knows about 419 scams. You get an email from someone claiming to be the widow of a world leader, or dying of cancer, or whatever, and they are looking for money. Often they already have a vast fortune and just need your help getting it out of some country, for which you will receive 10% or more. These scams are primarily run out of Nigeria, because they have good internet connections and lots of unemployed young men, and are named after Section 419 of the Nigerian Penal code. Millions of dollars have been lost and people have died because of these scams. The US State Department and FBI have webpages devoted to internet crimes largely because of the 419 scam.

The flip side of the 419 coin is scam-baiting. There are people who make a hobby out of scamming the scammers. The idea is to waste as much of the scammers time as possible, because while they are going round and round with a scam-baiter, they are not scamming some hapless fool. Scam-baiters are very creative and get scammers to go through humiliating rituals… and everything must be photographed or videotaped, of course. You can imagine the results, or you can see them for yourself on websites like Scamorama or 419 Eater.

Which brings us to this video… the recipient of a 419 email convinced the sender that he was the CEO of a video production company looking for creative people to make videos, act in videos, whatever. All they had to do was send a sample of their talent and he could surely get them a large grant. He suggested they recreate the classic Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch. This is what he got.



If you want to see the original for comparison, you can find it here.

OMG

The Beijing Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics have begun. So far, it's been a pretty good show on China's part. What I saw of the opening ceremony was spectacular and the venues are stunning, especially the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Nothing was left unfinished, as happened in Athens. China was prepared and then some. The Chinese spectators have been more than gracious to all participants, even their long-time enemies, the Japanese. It promises to be a memorable Olympics.

There have been some amazing performances so far, but the most inspiring moment for me was seeing Lin Hao walking alongside Yao Ming in the opening ceremony. Lin Hao is 9 years old. He was at school in YingXui, one of the hardest hit areas of the recent earthquake in China. Only ten of his thirty classmates survived when their school building collapsed, trapping him and two friends in a corridor during the quake. According to the BBC he said, "The corridor collapsed as I was walking. Two of my classmates were trapped beside me. I tried as hard as I could to climb out, and after I had climbed out I pulled a classmate out." After getting that unconscious classmate to safety, he went back and carried the second friend, also unconscious, to safety. When asked about his heroism, Lin Hao replied that he was the 'hall monitor' and it was his responsibility. According to some reports, he encouraged his fellow surviving students to sing songs in order to keep up their spirits while they awaited rescue and aid. Then, having lost both his parents, he left the area with his two sisters, hiking seven hours to Dujiangyan. Wow. In the aftermath of the horrific devastation for the people of Sichuan province, it is heartening to hear at least one story of hope.

There are a couple old broads competing, against the odds. The US women's swim team includes 41-year-old Dara Torres, and the German women's gymnastics team has 33-year-old Oksana Chusovitina. This is Chusovitina's fifth Olympics, and she qualified for the individual competition in the vault. Imagine still being competitive in a sport where the average athlete is washed up by the time they are twenty. Amazing. The US women got a silver in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay. Not too shabby.

Miss P's hot friend

In honor of Miss P's birthday, I thought I'd post her good friend Paris Hilton's new political commercial:



It warms my heart to see that Paris has a good sense of humor. It scares me to realize she has a better energy plan than the wrinkly white-haired dude.

Miss P's magic birthday!!

Happy magical-number (080808) Birthday, Miss P!!

Lyrebird

I don't suppose everyone is as crazy for birds as I am, but the lyrebird is truly something else. This is a clip from the David Attenborough series called The Life of Birds. The chainsaw imitation is remarkable. Years ago I had a cat who came running to the television whenever she heard Attenborough's voice; she knew there would be birds or insects or tigers to see and she was fascinated.

These days, everything is up for remixing, and this clip is no exception. The fine folks at Waverly Films made this clip to promote Wind River Gear, an online outdoor-supply store.

Queenee's ankle, pt. 2

Remember the x-rays from this past Friday? It gets a bit worse.

The screw that was bent last Friday is now broken. The remaining two screws are still straight, but the tibia might shift without that third screw if Queenee isn't careful. We looked at the x-rays from late April and they looked very good; everything was in place and healing well. Sometime after that something moved. Maybe she took a bad step, there is no way of telling, but she'll need to have more surgery for sure. So far there is no redness or heat, but infection is always a concern.

So, she is back to wearing the big brace and looking for a specialist. We had picked up a smaller brace this past Saturday, which turned out to be a very good thing, but she should probably have stayed off the leg longer than she did. She has the names of three or four specialists, but none seem to be covered by her insurance (at least online - we'll make some phone calls tomorrow). We'll find one, though. She may be looking at fusion now, but that is yet to be determined.

Driving while texting

I didn't realize that Massachusetts already had a law on the books prohibiting talking on a hand-held cellphone while driving. It is jurisdictional, meaning that it may vary in the details from one county to the next, but essentially you are not supposed to be holding a cellphone and talking while driving. It is considered a primary driving offense, meaning you may be ticketed without any other violation occurring. However, I believe you will not get points on your driving record, which makes it a small fine and no real damage done to the offending driver. I might be wrong about that, but it sounds par.

Many states have a novice driver provision, stating that drivers under a certain age may not talk on a cellphone or a speakerphone. Note that the novice driver is classified by age, not experience; if you are forty and just learning to drive, you are not, in the terms of this law, considered a novice driver.

There are exceptions. Truck drivers are allowed to hold a cellphone and drive, for some reason. You may call 911 or report an emergency while driving. Passengers are free to chat away.

Here is the part I don't understand. There is nothing preventing you from *dialing* a cellphone. Is it me? Isn't it more distracting to have to take your eyes off the road and fumble with those tiny buttons than it is to actually hold the phone and talk? Is holding a phone and talking really more distracting than holding and smoking a cigarette? And what about texting? Nothing in the law prevents a driver from texting.

Maybe someone with teenagers at home should have a shot at rewriting this law.

Buh-bye, Manny

I hope Manny Ramirez gets what he wants in LA - a team that appreciates him for being the great player he so clearly is. Here in Boston he was expected to run out his hits and try to field balls hit in his general direction. I mean, can you imagine the gall, expecting him to do the whole job he was being paid for, not just the part he enjoyed? No wonder he wanted out of here so bad. We actually expected him to play baseball for millions of dollars a year as part of a team. Ridiculous.

Poor Jason Bay, what a sucker. It looks like he might actually be a team player who will do his best in every game. He won't have Manny's home runs, or style, or piss-poor attitude, but what can you expect for a player who earns so much less than Ramirez.

LOL!!!!

I was very happy, and not surprised, to see Bay get a warm welcome from the Fenway faithful. I've been sick of Manny being Manny for a few years now, and it looks like a lot of other people have come around to the same opinion, including every other MLB team. He has been poisonous in the clubhouse and selfish from the get-go. No doubt he'll bust his ass this season, because he isn't the youngest guy on the block anymore and he's going to want a multi-year deal at the end of this season. But as for me, I'm delighted to have Jason Bay. He'll fit in nicely. Let Manny be Manny on the left coast.

Rat ladies

 

I'm known in certain circles as a lover of rats. I love rats about as much as a person can. As an outside observer, I'm sure this would be absolutely fascinating - to be able to watch rat behavior on a daily basis would be very interesting. However, I feel sorry for these folks who bought what was no doubt a very pricey house with no warning whatsoever from those in the know, particularly the real estate folks. Surely this must fall under full disclosure?

 

Hey Anhaga, does this bring back any memories?

My dream present

Now *this* is a gift! WOW!!

See all the images here.

Queenee's ankle

So, is this looking good or what? Not so good at all. It has been six months and she is still in a good amount of pain - and now we can see why. One of the screws is bent, another is working its way out. The "dusted" fibula has pointy ends. Ignore the bright white spot in the middle image, that's the camera flash.

She'll need another surgery for sure, those two straight screws have got to go. I think the bent one will be ok, it isn't doing any harm and it can't work its way out.

She sees the surgeon Wednesday afternoon, so we'll know more then.

Her knees look great, as does mine, so that's something to be thankful for. This series of x-rays was taken by the knee surgeon, just so he could see what happened. He thinks she'll be referred to an ankle specialist and says there is a very good one here in Boston, so maybe she'll be able to get this taken care of in September. Fingers crossed.

R.I.P. Randy Pausch

I missed this news; Randy Pausch, the professor whose "last lecture" encouraged people to appreciate life, died last Friday. He was 47, having lived five months longer his doctors expected. His last lecture was the basis for the speech given by the school superintendent at the Elder Pea's graduation this Spring.

If you've never seen the lecture and you have an hour or so, it's worth watching.

Christian's legacy

On the off chance you haven't seen this yet, get out the hankies and enjoy. The two young men in this video were London hipsters in 1969-70. They were on the Today Show this morning talking about Christian, whom they last saw in 1974 as a full grown lion with a large pride and cubs. The older man in the video is George Adamson, of Born Free fame. He helped re-introduce Christian to the wild. From the extended comments with the video:

Christian left the Kora Reserve in 1973. He made his new territory along the Tana river, but when the Wakamba herdsmen kept bringing their livestock to his hunting ground, he moved on. George Adamson said in his autobiography, "I used to count the days on which we hadn't seen Christian, but when they reached 97, I gave up recording them in my diary." Because a lion can live from 12 to 15 years in the wild, Adamson believed that Christian ended his days in the Meru National Reserve only a few miles up river.

As for the two guys, the Born Free Foundation tells me that Anthony "Ace" Bourke (referred to as Ace "Berg" in a Daily Mail article) lives in Australia as a lecturer and expert in the area of Aboriginal Art, and John Rendall lives in the UK and is a Trustee of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust...

Adamson was murdered in Kenya in 1989. The Preservation Trust was named in his honor, for all the wonderful work he did in Kenya. They ask that donations be made through Wildlife Now.

Catfish

Way high up on the too cute scale.

Blender drinks

Good Housekeeping has a bunch of recipes for blender drinks - 30, actually - just in time for the dog days of summer.

INGREDIENTS
5 scoop(s)	vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup(s)	orange juice
1/3 cup(s)	milk
1/3 cup(s)	frozen orange juice concentrate
	Orange peel (optional garnish)
DIRECTIONS
In blender, combine ice cream, orange juice, milk, and orange juice concentrate and blend until mixture is smooth and frothy. Pour into 2 tall glasses. Garnish with orange peel, if you like.

Sounds yummy to me.

Hero bunny!

MELBOURNE, Australia - A pet rabbit is credited with saving a couple from a fire that swept through their home in the southern city of Melbourne.

Metropolitan Fire Brigade commander Mick Swift said the husband returned home from a night shift early Thursday and heard the family pet, named "Rabbit," scratching at the couple's bedroom door half an hour after he had gone to bed.

Swift said the husband, whose identity has not been released, discovered a fire in a back room and smoke spreading quickly through the house. He was able to escape the house with his wife unharmed.

Swift said the rabbit saved the couple from injury.

He said the blaze caused substantial damage to the house before it was extinguished by four crews of firefighters.

Bunnies can be heroes, too!

El Greco to Antonio López García

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see El Greco to Velasquez today and spent the day seeing everything I could. I really need to do this more often.

I bought two tickets. There is a $4 charge for reserving tickets online, regardless of whether you get one or two, so I got two figuring I could give one away. I found a very nice woman who had driven out from the Amherst area for the day who had no ticket. She turned out to be from PA originally, had been a nurse and then late in life decided to become a painter, something she had been discouraged from doing when she was younger. Clearly it was my karma to give this woman a ticket. I hope she enjoyed her day as much as I enjoyed mine.

Good as the Philip III show was, there were other exhibits I found more interesting. An Art Deco jewelry exhibit was outstanding, so much so that I bought the catalog. Just gorgeous jewelry; when you see straight men oohing and aahing over an exhibit that you know they were dragged into kicking and screaming by wives/girlfriends, it's an impressive display of craftsmanship. I have to get Queenee in to see this, she'll love it.

A Japanese house interior was set up to display period furniture and artifacts. Another very interesting exhibit, and very empty. I was in there for a good twenty minutes and I doubt ten other people came in during that time. I even got to give myself a foot massage, courtesy of the museum.

There is a room full of Winslow Homer work, some paintings and a bunch of prints. He really is a master of watercolor, and he was a trained printmaker as well. It was very interesting to see how he re-worked his paintings into prints. One in particular stood out - The Life Line (Saved) verges on erotic in the etching, far more than the painting, and apparently Homer did this intentionally. It is a beautiful print.

The pièce de résistance was the Antonio López García exhibit. Garcia is a Spanish realist painter born in 1936, who stuck to his vision through the abstract art period, and thank god he did. This is, amazingly, his first solo show in the US. His work is exquisite. Incredibly detailed, yet not photographic, the work is real enough to be appreciated by the "my five year old could do that" crowd, like PopPop. PopPop wouldn't care for Garcia's subject matter; too much simple home life and nude men, but even he would have to acknowledge the mastery of form and space. Although Garcia is perhaps best known for the baby head sculptures of his grandchildren, his drawings and paintings are outstanding. He is an artist I knew nothing about, though I had seen some of his sculpture work. In my defense, he's not much interested in being well known, but I've got my eye on him now. What a treat.

You can't play in my yard

Wow. What a tortoise! I found this video online in several places and just had to add some music...

Hens in the band

When I need a break from working up a website or reading something that will hopefully be of some use to me in the future, I surf. I've found some interesting things drifting around out in the cyber-ocean. This is one. It is a story about a performance from about ten years ago involving a musical quartet, comprised of two man and two hens.

I played percussion on a modified vintage typewriter miked up loud enough to sound like the thunder of an angry God. At that volume, the space bar and shift keys rumbled like a kick drum, and the letter keys snapped like a tight snare. My friend Tim Gordon (the band’s other human being) played the guitar and bass semi-simultaneously, wearing the guitar up by his collarbone and the bass slung low at his hips – he’d loop the bass notes through a pedal and play rhythm guitar against himself while I thumped and cracked the typewriter. Once we hit a stride of sorts, we’d pull a blanket off the top of the cage where Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline sat with two little Casio Keyboards...

There is a link to the only known recording from this quartet, made at their first live performance. Check it out. It is surprisingly interesting, a lot more interesting than some of the crap making millions of dollars for gangstas.

If you keep up on what's being blogged, you may be familiar with Jeff - he's the guy who had the audacity to ask for iced-espresso. It makes for some pretty funny reading. Hard to believe the controversy this little brewhaha (sorry, couldn't help that) has created.

Mamma Mia

I doubt anyone who knows me would mistake me for an ABBA fan. Fernando not withstanding, I just didn't get their music; it always sounded so insipid to me.

Queenee and I went to see "Mamma Mia" last night with a couple of her friends. It isn't a great movie. It isn't really even a good movie. No matter what you have heard, Pierce Brosnan cannot sing. Not at all. And the dancing isn't really dancing. But if you don't catch yourself smiling, your heart is made of stone. Turn your brain off, dial down your expectations, and go with the flow.

Greece looks amazing in this movie. Meryl Streep is god. She can sing, she can act, she can take weak material and make it look fun. Her daughter is played by Amanda Seyfried, who also has a pretty good singing voice. The only other real voice from the main cast belongs to Christine Baranski. The three men are all good actors, but not singers. Julie Walters isn't a singer either, but she doesn't bother pretending, she just sings the songs like the rest of us do, which means like crap. And except for the SOS number, during which I found myself feeling embarrassed for poor Pierce Brosnan, you mostly forgive the non-singers. After all, it's ABBA, not Cole Porter. The supporting players are all quite good and often very funny.

The Dancing Queen bit was really cute, sweeping up all the women in the area and skipping along waving their hands in the air ... yep, it is dumb, but it's fun. If you are an ABBA fan, you should not miss it, and if you aren't, you won't want to slit your wrists if you find yourself sitting through the movie with someone.

Stick around at the end when the credits roll. Trust me on this.

I had a thought once the movie was over. I said to Queenee that I could see this movie doing the rounds as a participation movie, ala The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but on a much smaller and less messy scale. People would dig out their platform shoes and sequined suits and dance in the aisles and have a blast. Seriously. It could happen. You heard it here first.

Now I need to go see The Dark Knight and Hellboy II to get ABBA out of my head. Those movies are much more my taste.

New pickup for PopPop

The Toyota pickup I bought several years ago finally required repairs that would cost more than the truck is worth, by a not insubstantial amount. Last week Dawg spotted a likely replacement, a Ford Ranger, and PopPop negotiated a cash/trade-in deal. He is now the proud owner of a new used pickup! It seems like it was a good deal to me, the tires look very good and there is a cab cover on the back, which will prove its worth to PopPop come winter or in case of a sudden downpour. And the color is so lovely...

Actually, we're hoping for a sudden downpour, along with however much lightening is necessary to clear the humidity. 95F and high humidity = YUUCK. No rain forecast until tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Last weekend the washing machine decided it no longer wanted to go through a spin cycle, so it too needed replacing. I found a good deal at a local store and PopPop and Dawg went and picked it up in the new used pickup truck. It was a pretty good day for spending around here!

Hosting a parasite

Someone videotaped a Gordian worm exiting its cricket host in a swimming pool. Must be a Spinochordodes tellinii. Viewing not recommended for the queasy, though there is nothing gory or really gross-looking happening.

MLB All-Star game

I didn't make it to the end of the game, but from what I saw it was a good one this year. By the ninth inning, Tito had used all his field position players, so his team (except for the pitchers) was set for the duration. After a record-tying 15 innings and a record-shattering four hours and 50 minutes, after every player on each team that could be used was used, the AL finally put away the NL, 4-3. The last All-Star Game that will be played in the soon-to-be-demolished Yankee Stadium continued the AL's mastery of the poor NL, which hasn't won an All-Star game since 1996. There was the 2002 11-inning tie in Milwaukee; after that game the All-Star rosters were increased to 32 players per team and home-field advantage in the World Series was awarded to the winner.

For a while, it looked like this might be the NL's year to win...

The NL took a 2-0 lead, the first run coming on an opposite-field home run from Colorado's Matt Holliday. The AL tied it up with -- horrors of all horrors in Yankee Stadium -- a two-run homer from Boston's J.D. Drew. The NL struck back in the eighth with a run off Boston's Jonathan Papelbon (to the delight, somewhat strangely, of the Yankees fans). The AL tied it in the bottom of the inning.

And then they played on and on and on. And on some more. The NL got its leadoff hitter on in the ninth. Nothing. The AL had its first two on in the 10th. Nothing. The AL had its leadoff man on in the 11th and 12th, the NL in the 12th and 13th. Nothing. And some more nothing.

Then finally, in the bottom of 15th, with the NL on its last pitcher, Minnesota's Justin Morneau singled off Philadelphia's Brad Lidge, Tampa Bay's Dioner Navaro singled Morneau to second, Drew walked to load the bases and Texas second baseman Michael Young -- who hit a game-winning two-run triple in the 2006 game -- lofted a fly ball to right field that was just deep enough.

The throw from Milwaukee's Corey Hart was a little on the first-base side of home, and Morneau slid in just ahead of the tag from Atlanta catcher Brian McCann. Somewhere, commissioner Bud Selig -- who took the blame for the 2002 debacle -- let out a long, slow exhale...

Congratulations to Boston's own JD Drew. He was the fifteenth player to his a home run in his first All-Star game, and he did it with his first at bat. That tied the game at 2 runs each and won the MVP for Drew.

Some people should not be allowed to vote

Alright, seriously, there needs to be some kind of civics exam given before people are allowed to vote. Nothing to do with race, religion, gender ... strictly civics. If you haven't been paying enough attention to know where KFC is from, if you think Yugoslavia begins with a U (or even still exists), you fail. We make people prove they know at least some of the rules of the road before we give them a license to drive, why not do something similar for voting?

This explains how the shrub got elected, doesn't it?

Fun with cornstarch

Awesome.

NE Aquarium

Our NE Aquarium membership expires at the end of July, so we decided to go yesterday afternoon. Queenee picked the Peas up on her way home from work, then stopped for me (I am the designated driver) and we headed into town. The aquarium doesn't change much between visits, but there's always at least one thing you see that you haven't seen before. I watched the seals swimming upside down in their outdoor tank, and inside the octopus, who is normally quite sedate, was having a crazy legs day - suckers all over the glass. He needs a Rubik's Cube.

Queenee didn't have to work today, so at about 1pm we headed out to do some errands. She has been wanting to drop candy off at the Fire/Rescue and Police departments for a while, so we dropped off a basket at F/R. She'll get more for the Police and we'll drop that off another day. We got our library cards, since we were right next door. Then we dropped off two bags at the SS Hospital for the two nurses who looked after her.

We went to Marshall's and got a few things - I got two bras and a bathing suit, which someday I may wear in public. Then to TJMaxx so I could return a different bathing suit. It fit me, just didn't have quite enough coverage for my baggy boobs. Don't want to scare the dogs and small children. You'd think I could have returned it at Marshall's, since they are essentially the same company, but I guess they are still keeping the books separate.

We're having gorgeous weather here, today was sunny, about 80F with a light breeze and no humidity. Yesterday was just a tad cooler, maybe 75F. It will be warmer over the weekend, but looks to be lovely. This is my kind of summer weather.

Music of Nature

I don't know if anyone pays any attention to the layout, images or links on the this blog, but I actually take the time to change/update things every so often. Today's update is a link to Songs of Insects. You all know my passion for birds; I am only a bit less interested in insects, and was delighted to trip across this site today. I have my own cicada recordings, but to hear a clear difference between the cyclical 17-year cicada and the annual and familiar Scissor-grinder cicada was a good find, imho. Our local pod is hatching now, though we don't have any noise here. I'm up for a drive down the Cape to hear some cicada singing before it's all over. We are in a light area for Pod 14. When I lived in PA, our local pod was the largest, Pod X, and they were so loud in my backyard that I could not hear the tractor I was sitting on over the din of their singing. It was spectacular!



Key Dear and Mr. Bill are working at a new place these days, the 7-Mile Marina (and they actually get paid!!). The marina has a viewer-controlled webcam, so when Key Dear called me this afternoon, I was able to swing the webcam around (after much frustrating finagling) and get a quick shot of her on the balcony. How cool is that?!?

Trash bag balloon animals

From NY Magazine: Artist Joshua Allen Harris Turns Garbage Bags Into World's Greatest Balloon Animals.



I miss NYC.

Tropical Update

Hello everyone, sorry for the absence. I feel like I'm coming out of a long ether binge that has lasted about a month. Although I know nothing about what it would be like, somehow it must be much like how I feel, dazed, crazed, and wondering what day it is.

I guess I can start from the end and work my way back! Happy 4th of July everyone, although I worked and got home at 1:45am. I did see spectacular fireworks from the observation deck of the restaurant with a mass of folks enjoying the 360 view of the island of Marathon, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic (Straits of Florida). The city of Marathon put on a fantastic display as did many people doing their own displays seen everywhere else in Marathon, and I'm talking these folks had all the professional huge ones too. We could see beyond the 7 mile bridge as well and many of the larger islands doing their sky rockets. About 10 we at the restaurant/marina also had a display. It was as massive as the Cities and it seemed to go on endlessly, a real kick off to the start of the new business. Mr. B's food is hands down the best around and folks are raving about the new place, and it's all true. I don't know how he can even stand today, but he is already out the door going to tackle yet another 14 hour day. Today I'll go in after noon. R & L stayed home and I doubt they watched them from our top deck; we can see Sugarloaf's and Key West's displays and all the surrounding ones. Not much of a holiday was celebrated here due to working. Such is the life in the hospitality business.

Mr. R's friend/co-music collaborator called yesterday morning to say one of the songs was playing on the radio up in the Orlando area and was all excited. Mr. R has had one on the radio down here that he was on and that makes two for them and hopefully good things will follow.

I finally got all my taxes done, going over past years with all the deductions etc. and rehashing 2005 was depressing. I had spoke with the IRS regarding putting Miss P as a dependent due to her injuries etc. but with all 4 hurricanes that year, it was ridiculous to even add in the medical expenses. All told the damage figure came to approx. $150,000 and will take years of taxes to deduct. Believe me going through all the old photos and paperwork wasn't easy, then looking at the medical bills and all the other "crap" that fall in detail like the loss of 4 vehicles, it was just nuts. Four cars! How the heck did I lose 4 cars?? My rabbit, B's camaro, P's explorer, and yet another explorer that was sitting at the repair shop and off road at the time. All the insurance papers, deductibles, work that was done, replanting an entire yard that was stripped bare...but as always, it's the cleanup that kills your spirit at times like that, it is endless. The shining light was that the Peas had come that same year and we had a fantastic fun time in the middle of the summer with them, although they had to deal with a roof being put on during their stay. Many Mexican Siesta's were observed that summer.

I'm getting my fish shirts together for a line to sell and that excites me. I've had opportunity to paint and create which also is something I love doing, so I've been busy.

Miss P and I drove to Miami to fight two wrongful tickets (improper lane change, improper turn) about 300 bucks worth. Her car broke down in the middle of the road and she put her flashers on, then blinkers, and did everything possible to pull off the road before getting hit from behind. An officer pulled up after she was parked and started harassing her and Bo, and instead of advising them of the nearest gas station/repair he questioned why they were in Miami when they lived in Key West, etc. Which she explained, they were taking a anniversary holiday out of the Keys for an overnight at a booked hotel, showed him their online printout of the hotel etc. He continued to harass them, asking were they drinking etc., at 1:00 in the afternoon! Miss P said, are you kidding? We just drove from the Keys and are en route, two blocks from the hotel and the car broke down. He then searched her car and found nothing of course; neither of them smoke so not even an ash in the ashtray, her car is always meticulous... anyway, with finding NO reason for his BULLSHIT, he then writes her out two tickets.

Back to the ending to this story - at the court "hearing" in Miami, the judge refused to let her speak. She told Miss P, "Either pay these tickets today or get a lawyer for trial. What are you going to do?" I even at that point stood up and raised my hand and started to speak, "Your honor, her car broke down, can she explain here today?" the judge put her hand up and said, "I can't hear you today and pointed to Miss P and repeated, "Are you Paying today or going to trial?" She paid and off we went. It's a huge courthouse, mass of people everywhere and nothing like the Key West court house, where if an out of town person comes to their hearing, they are HEARD and a case/ticket is dismissed if reason is explained to the Judge and they make the decision to go further or not on the matter. Well, La Te Da... not Miami.

It was a long drive, long day, but we enjoyed having the together time, she really is a trooper that Miss P. Please someone find ankle replacement for her PLEASE!!!

Well, this is enough for now I guess, boring as it is. Believe me I could go on and on!!! OH, and I will! more later folks.......