First Day

Please tell me if you've ever heard of anything more demeaning...

First day home the hubbie says, "Is this what you do all day? Wow, it's a piece of cake."

The Higgs Boson

So much to learn, so little time.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Something's Wrong With This Picture

Saudi Woman Beheaded for Sorcery

Saudi Arabia executed a woman Monday for practicing magic and sorcery, which is banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom. But it obviously doesn’t ban beheading, which was how Amina bin Abdulhalim Nassar was killed, according to the interior ministry. The woman was convicted for claiming she could treat people’s illnesses using witchcraft. Another woman was executed in October, reportedly for setting her husband’s house on fire, killing him. Saudi Arabia has beheaded 73 people this year


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Life

"Life is long enough to think it will never end and yet so short to hope it never will."



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

OMG

This takes the cake...

"Can you bring me a fork (because I threw all but two of them in the garbage)?"

"Don't you still have 2 of them left?"

"Yes, but they are in the dishwasher."

A Lot Of Listening To Do

Thanks, Ben... Now I feel obligated to listen to my Christmas CDs.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

ORIGINAL VERSION
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York
No good times like the olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us no more
But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows
From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

JUDY GARLAND VERSION
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

FRANK SINATRA VERSION
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:32nd St N,Arlington,United States

Palau

Flying high in front of the Capitol Building of Koror State is a symbol of new beginnings for the people of Koror as they grow and evolve democratically while working alongside our traditional leaders for a well balanced and an open government.

On the ocean of blue as the background tells a story of our greater resource, the vast ocean around us. The golden crescent moon symbolizes the new government evolving and growing with the six stars in unity. The six stars represent the six hamlets of Koror State. The larger star in the middle dividing six stars in half, demonstrates the union of the NgaraMeketii and RubekulKeldeu. The two separate leaders that once were separate, now united as one Body of Traditional Leaders of Koror. In the center of the circle is the traditional meetinghouse called "Bai". Bai will always remind us that we are sheltered in our heritage, resting on the strong stone platform, with our ten traditional leaders as our strong foundation.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bangkok to Manila to Palau (???)

Gotta be crazy to make this trip...about a 3 hour flight to Manila and then a 10 hour layover during which we brave the traffic for an outside meal. Mistake... we find upon return not only more traffic but a long line just to get into airport. (turns out the disgraced ex -president is trying to escape the country.) Despite 4 variant listings of our departure time and 5 security checkpoints we make our flight. After a little more than a 2 hour flight we arrive at our Palau hotel(?) at 4 am. And the hubbie wants to have business breakfast!! Would attach pics of the hotel but I'm afraid they'd be censored.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Metropole Hotel

This may be one of the loveliest hotels in the world, a "...5 star historic luxury hotel built in 1901 in the French colonial style. It is located at 15 Ngo Quyen Street in Hanoi, Vietnam. The hotel has a rich history and a century long tradition of welcoming ambassadors, writers, heads of state and entrepreneurs including Charlie Chaplin, Jane Fonda, George H. W. Bush, François Mitterrand, Isabelle de Valvert, Jacques Chirac, etc. Sofitel Metropole has been chosen to be the Best hotel in Vietnam."



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hanoi

Hanoi Jane

Giant bouquet! Police escort with a whisk through customs! My kind of arrival in Hanoi as Kim and I join Jim for his farewell mission to Vietnam. What a difference 40 years makes. Door-to-door in 24 hours.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

No New Taxes! (for Americans)

All expectant mothers in Finland get this "new baby" gift -






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ok

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Truth

“Never think you’ve seen the last of anything.”
― Eudora Welty

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

My Hawk

A frequent visitor to Country Club Hills


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Harry

RIP, Harry
I love you.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Oh, No!

I guess I didn't take the news about the hurricane seriously...

Here's the supermarket shelf today-

Bucket List Addition

A "bugnado" -- a vortex formed from flying insects -- was captured in the photo below. The photographer saw the large collection of bugs in southwestern Iowa in the early evening hours of July 4. He shot video and got some camera shots of the whirling bugs over a corn field. Entomologists explain that the bugs are probably either mayflies or midges, insects that spend their early lives swimming around in ponds or pools of standing water. When they grow up, the emerge from the water, grow wings and take off. But at that point, their hours are limited and they need to find a mate quickly before they die.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday

“Since she had thought about nothing, she did not realize how the time had slipped by.”
― Clarice Lispector



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ferrule

I learned a new word today.
Do you like the brass ferrule on this shovel?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Missing in Action

Rare Plant Eats Bird
The nursery of Somerset gardener Nigel Hewitt-Cooper may be turning into a little shop of horrors. Cooper was “absolutely staggered” to find that one of his carnivorous pitcher plants had eaten a blue tit, a type of small bird. The plants, from South East Asia, generally lure insects into a pool of liquid where they digest them, but they’ve only been known to eat frogs, lizards, and mice. The only other documented case of one eating a bird was in Germany several years ago.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What More DYW

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring- these are some of the rewards of the simple life"
John Burroughs (1837-1921)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Today's Crop

Tomatoes picked today and there are loads more to be picked tomorrow.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Future

Today in Walmart we were not surprised to see a Chinese family happily loading up their cart with the necessities of an American house (or apartment or dorm). Iron, ironing board, coffee maker, dishes, etc. Okay, they're all probably made in China but come on, what bargains! I bet the whole cart-full added up to less than $50. I never got to find out. They were behind us in the checkout lane when, as in other third world countries, the lights went off. Yup, Walmart in the dark. No checkouts, no air conditioning. I wonder what the Chinese family was thinking.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Still Finding The Sun

My Harry...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday

“I looked, I saw, I understood, I felt, "That's that, where do we go from here?”........... William Saroyan


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How's This For A Cuke?

Hope you like cucumber for dinner...

Fresh Produce

Crookneck squash from the garden...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pick-a-Pickle

Three to go into the pickle bath.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day eight

I think I love Palm Springs. Well no, it's too perfect.
Lunch was a shrimp taco...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:World Way,Los Angeles,United States

Road trip day seven

Started out looking for javelinas in Honeybee State Park. Slippery, dusty hike into the canyon, no javelinas but Zed almost stepped on a big diamond back rattler!

Then on to Biosphere 2. Wow, what a waste. Hope we're not paying for this. I thought it was like a giant greenhouse... Nope, a greenhouse would've been better maintained. And it was pretty darn hot.

Lunch at In & Out, number 2, animal style.

Hours on route 10 again. Dinner at Cary Grant's (Copley's) and it was goooood. Almost time to go back home....



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day six

New Mexico: spinach and artichoke enchilada, yum!

Fourth day on route 10 with nothing in sight but dusty dry earth
Lots of wind ...let's get some windmills here

Arizona: spending the night in Tucson. Just ate a Sonoran hotdog... it was good but all I can think about is ecoli! Uh oh!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day five

Alamo
River walk
Third day driving across Texas on Route 10
Hot hot hot
BBQ at Rudy's just outside San Antonio
Spending the night in Van Horn at the El Capitan Hotel:

According to the excellent Architecture in Texas 1895-1945 by Jay C. Henry, the El Capitan was perhaps the finest example of Pueblo Revival Style in Texas. Examples are rare, and it's entirely possible that the building is the last of its kind in Texas.

In the 1920s, architecture was changing to accommodate the independent motorist. Gas stations and out-of-the-way hotels opened up where it was unthinkable just a few years earlier. Their remote locations made them full-service out of necessity, but in a few years, "tourist courts" made their appearance and then motor hotels. The two words became motel after WWII, although there are a few photographs showing the word in use as early as 1936.

The Pueblo Revival Style enjoyed greater popularity in New Mexico, than Texas. The Franciscan Hotel in Albuquerque, built by the same architects of the El Capitan was the high-water mark of this style in 1921.

While the Franciscan has been razed, another example of this style is found in Marfa. The El Paisano was constructed by Trost and Trost in 1926. The
Paisano is still open at 207 N. Highland in Marfa, with 9 rooms for rent.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day four

Beer Can House, Houston


Lunch at Canes, a local chicken finger place in Louisiana and then a long drive to San Antonio, TX. On the way we saw the Museum of Printing History and the Beer Can House in Houston. And it is hot. It's over 100* ...sorta hot for 9pm.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day three

At the Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian, Mississippi we met Jimmie's nephew who is now close to 90 years old. He came in while we were there. Dinner at Emerils in New Orleans wasn't anything to write home about. Now resting for the night in Baton Rouge, LA.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day two

Today went through South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Highlight was our surprise visit to the one and only Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem, Georgia where Ollie was born. Dinner at Auburn university with Professor Kelly Jolley (see NYT magazine, September 19, 2008).


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip day one

Smooth sailing through Virginia and North Carolina now in Columbia, SouthCarolina which looks lovely. BBQ for lunch and dinner, not sure we need anymore, see photos.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Destination Unknown

Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia. This status is recognized by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru and Vanuatu and also by South Ossetia and Transnistria. No, this is not a joke.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's June

And the fireflies are back....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

70?

70, that's old!
Bob Dylan is 70 today.
Remember the Isle of Wight? Were we old then?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Why We Like The Beach

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy 4th Birthday, Moses!

Arlington

From Facebook:

How many people live in Arlington? (210,280) What's the price of an average home?($655K) Public school kids come from how many countries? (126/98 languages) How much has ART bus ridership increased in a year? (39%) Where do most Arlingtonians work? (in Arlington! 41,880)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wedding Day

Menu In Honour Of Kate And William

So far...
Coronation Chicken
Sticky Toffee Pudding

London and Arlington are ready!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hoarfrost (Or What I Learned Today)

Hoarfrost aka Rime
From Wikipedia:

Hard rime is a white ice that forms when the water droplets in fog freeze to the outer surfaces of objects. It is often seen on trees atop mountains and ridges in winter, when low-hanging clouds cause freezing fog. This fog freezes to the windward (wind-facing) side of tree branches, buildings, or any other solid objects, usually with high wind velocities and air temperatures between −2 °C (28 °F) and −8 °C (18 °F). Hard rime formations are difficult to shake off; they have a comb-like appearance, unlike soft rime, which looks feathery or spiky, or clear ice, which looks homogeneous and transparent. Scientists at meteorologically extreme places such as Mount Washington in New Hampshire often have to break huge chunks of hard rime off weather equipment, in order to keep anemometers and other measuring instruments operating.

Rime ice can accumulate on the leading edges and control surfaces of aircraft operating in certain meteorological conditions. Meteorologists distinguish between three basic types of ice forming on vertical and horizontal surfaces by deposition of supercooled water droplets. Of course there are also intermediate formations. Soft rime is less dense than hard rime and is milky and crystalline, like sugar. Soft rime appears similar to hoar frost. Hard rime is somewhat less milky, especially if it is not heavy.
Clear ice is transparent and homogeneous and resembles ice-cube ice in appearance. Its amorphous, dense structure helps it cling tenaciously to any surface on which it forms.

Under some atmospheric conditions, forming and descending snow crystals may encounter and pass through atmospheric supercooled cloud droplets. These droplets, which have a diameter of about 10 µm (0.00039 in), can exist in the unfrozen state down to temperatures near −40 °C (−40 °F). Contact between the snow crystal and the supercooled droplets results in freezing of the liquid droplets onto the surface of the crystals. This process of crystal growth is known as accretion. Crystals that exhibit frozen droplets on their surfaces are referred to as rimed. When this process continues so that the shape of the original snow crystal is no longer identifiable, the resulting crystal is referred to as graupel.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What About A Fridge?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Trader Joes

Isn't it the best?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Opinion: Film

Morris Engel....Ruth Orkin - I've found you. Just loved to see America in the fifties. I highly recommend The Little Fugitive and I loved Lovers and Lollipops (too close for comfort?). Weddings and Babies was a bit depressing but the Engel-Orkin team were genius. Take a look if you haven't already.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mason Neck State Park

Had a great day at the park with Moses and Harry.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Best Picture 2011

Are dismembered arms a requirement this year?
Note "Winters Bone", "True Grit", and "127 Hours".


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

RIP

I heard it fell over...yippee. DNR (do not resuscitate), it's ugly.

The Airline Cart

Now here's a gift for someone who has everything (and is a little quirky).

A Lecture

"Is my green your green? Would ultramarine by any other name seem as sweet? For Victorian England's most celebrated thinkers, including Charles Darwin and Prime Minister and Homeric scholar William Gladstone, such questions sparked a firestorm of intellectual inquiry that spread from philology to psychology, from the ivory tower to the local playground. Zed Adams, a philosopher at the New School for Social Research, sets up metaphysical shop at the Velaslavasay Panorama to chart the legacy of these debates beyond the annals of history, through Technicolor, and into our digital age." - Melissa Lo at Flavorpill


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Flamingos

Today's Moment of Nature featured flamingos at Hialeah Raceway in Florida. Although it seems like a dream now, it reminded me of the flamingos at Lake Momelia in Tanzania - the pink ring. Remember?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Just In Passing 2

I remember many years ago wondering why I thought that the word "recipe" was spelled "receipt" which even then didn't make much sense. But now I know why...I was reading "Sense and Sensibility".

"A Receipt is an old form that means the same as recipe. Both derive from Latin recipere, to receive or take. Receipt was first used in medieval English as a formula or prescription for a medicinal preparation (Chaucer is the first known user, in the Canterbury Tales of about 1386). The sense of “a written statement saying that money or goods have been received” only arrived at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Recipe is the imperative, “take!”, from the same Latin verb. It was traditionally the first word in a prescription, heading the list of ingredients. This was often abbreviated to a letter R with a bar through the leg, a form that still sometimes appears on modern prescription forms. Recipe has been used alongside receipt since the eighteenth century in the sense of cookery instructions, gradually replacing it over time. At the time the newspaper report was written, 1895, receipt was still common.
It’s by no means entirely defunct even today. It is often — but by no means always — a deliberate archaism. John Wilson noted, “It was used on British television, up to the late 1990s, on the programme Two Fat Ladies, featuring Clarissa Dickson Wright and the late Jennifer Paterson, who invariably spoke of receipts. She said this with (metaphorical) relish and I feel sure she did it for effect as a conscious statement of her background and style.”
But many other subscribers have told me that it has survived until recently in parts of the English-speaking world, especially the United States. Douglas G Wilson confirms this: “I heard it routinely in the 1960s, though only from older people. The Dictionary of American Regional English seems to suggest that it became more-or-less obsolete around 1960. William and Mary Morris wrote in their column Words, Wit, and Wisdom in 1970, ‘Throughout New England and in rural areas in many other parts of the country, you will still hear receipt more often than recipe.’ So at least the Morrises thought it was still very widely current in 1970.”


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Just In Passing

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day in the same year(1809).


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Think About It

"You don't get anything clean without getting something else dirty."
- Cecil Baxter



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

In The Backseat

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I've Gone This Long Without Knowing

I just learned that Teddy Boys wear winklepickers.

Pay the Man

I say Clyde Stubblefield deserves more money. And he needs a kidney.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Snow Day!

Some of the time poor Harry can walk on top of the snow and sometimes the snow cracks and he gets stuck.

Thundersnow

Nothing like a snow thunderstorm... although we got dumped with a little too much snow for our poor bushes and trees (and overhead utility wires!!!) 20 hours with no electricity, no heat.

Moue

A disdainful grimace...pout


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dilemma

While drawing a zebra I couldn't remember whether it was white with black stripes or black with white stripes. If only life was this complicated.


PS. Turns out deciding whether the zebra is black or white is more complicated than I bargained for.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Cable Guy

I'm getting to know Rico (or 3105, as he is better known) the Cable Guy quite well. He's been here at least 5 times in the past 2 weeks. He's good at letting Harry in and out and scooting around the painters while holding open the door for the furniture deliverymen. What a circus!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ice Storm

Crr-crunch, it's icy today. Only Harry can walk on top of it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Love At First Bite

Here's a pic of Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, home of Buddy the Cake Boss. Have to find out about Buddy now. Good cookies. And even better crumb cake.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

East Hampton

Like a Naples (FL) on LI - only nicer, much nicer.




We found the Barefoot's house and barn which is in the town. I had imagined it on a bigger plot of land. And we found the original Barefoot store which is now a Theory store.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

NY

On the way....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Done!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Baby Cake in Progress

Here's the diaper cake before it is completely decorated (K calls it a baby cake which is much nicer)...

It's "Snow" Beautiful

View from my bedroom...

Top This!

Finally found my perfect house...on Shelter Island, NY.

Staying Home

Here we are, home for the holidays.