oh, the dendrology and all the majesty screaming ...

below is an example of what happened to some beautiful trees in this country from 1931 until the 60s. i remember seeing streets like this and i tell you that we lost something really truly beautiful to this bark beetle-carried fungus. replacement trees just aren't the same.

onju, ayoon, apo, an, 'ello, emo, umbo --*

we got to babysit yesterday. it was soooooo much fun! i have the cutest, sweetest, smartest grandaughter in the whole wide world!

we headed down to the seattle area just after lunch and got to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with her. the parents headed out to the space needle for an evening of adult-speak before grandbaby number two shows up in another 6 weeks or so.

it was enough to make me wish we lived closer so we could do that more often. i may start keeping an eye on any job openings in the seattle office. but don't tell the husband -- i don't think he wants to live anywhere near that traffic schema.

*orange juice, balloon, apple, hand, yellow, nemo, dumbo

let's have FUN!

i'm up this morning needing to do some things and wanting to just ignore everything when i get an e-mail with this attachment from my wonderful ex-boss lady from oklahoma. it's delightful!

meowww

MYS reminded me there's some pretty funny stuff out there:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/ (i like the 'little less love' and the 'awesome box')

oops, i'm late getting ready for work!! had more, but ....

one more trip ...

well, that's all for now. i still need to post the resort trip but it's going to take time to go through the pix and with all the overtime i've been working, it's a weekends-only kind of thing. and then things keep getting put into my weekend time. drat! but i hope to get them up soon -- it was an incredible get-away!

girlfriends #3

one thing which was very cool was one morning when it was foggy -- we looked outside about an hour after we'd gotten up and saw this ...

after we realized what it was, we watched 'til it disappeared ...

later the fog lifted or dissipated and we could see they were headed back the other direction ... and will you look at that gorgeous collection of clouds in that fabulous view!

and then later the flotilla headed the other direction again ...

very cool!

girlfriends #2

the area we stayed in had a private beach with playground equipment, a tree swing, a rowboat, a picnic area, and a sandy seating area ...

people obviously used the park ...

and the girlfriend delighted in finding tiny crabs, like this little black guy with the pac-man thing going on across his back ...

and this little green guy ...

and this little brown and cream guy ...

and then there was this squishy guy who we left alone for the tide to reclaim (apparently he was still alive) ...

girlfriend's getaway

our annual girlfriend's getaway was really nice. we drove south to a lovely little place by the water. it had incredible views and was only about 8-10 minutes from poulsbo. we drove into the driveway in the late afternoon ...

and the back of the house faced the water ...

their yard was full of lovely flowers and bushes ...

and they had several seating areas, walkways, and patios ...

this dusk-time view was serene and beautiful ...

it was great!

i'm going to try to bring you up-to-date on the lovely places around here a person can go, to enjoy themselves, without all the glitter and bright lights that usually come with a vacation. all 6 of us were able to arrange our schedules to get together, almost like old times!

this summer's trip took us to a place close-by the northern loop of the cascade mountains. we rented this little number:

this next picture shows the view from one of the back windows (a huge, 2 stories-of-windows type of house) -- there's a shallow river out there just beyond the grass and rocks:

the interior of the house was gorgeous and comfortably decorated -- with three bedrooms and two full baths and all the utensils, towels, etc. we needed:

this is the view of the back of the house at sunset:

and this is a view of one of the dramatic sunsets over the mountains:


and this is the view of one of the little up-the-mountain trails you can drive up and see forever:

isn't it all beautiful?! and don't even suggest i'm being paid to advertise for this. are you kidding? who would take money to say this is beautiful when you can see for yourself that it is. at any rate, if you think you'd like to know more about this place, e-mail me and i will let you know how to find the particulars.

it takes a family, friend, village to watch out for oldsters

i forgot to credit my bro with catching the woods picture problem. thanks, larry, for watching out for me!

wha..???

ohmygod. you have to check this out. i've never seen anything like it and wish i could in person. i've been wanting to go to scotland and that's where these are. can you imagine coming upon them on a walk in the woods? it would be totally spooky, then totally cool!!

update: dammit! i thought the link would take you right to the picture i was in love with, but it doesn't! go to picture 8 of 15 to see the correct image.

little old lady from pasadena ...

remember how guys used to soup up their cars and add dumps and a 4-on-the-floor and button-and-tuck and stuff like that?

they had nothing on these guys!

in fact, now that i think of it, they're probably the same guys! hahaha...

good grief

you know the old pyrex dishes you used when you were growing up? they seemed to last pretty well and survive bumpings, droppings, etc.

now i find out that corning, who originally made borosilicate glass dishes, sold the technology to a company which switched to using tempered soda-lime glass, a much less durable material.

i've noticed, over the years, that some pyrex things don't hold up and i've wondered why. and now i feel validated -- it wasn't my imagination or faulty memory of how good things used to be.

it's disgusting, really. you take an excellent technology, weaken it to make a bigger buck, and foist it off onto an unsuspecting public. tacky, tacky, tacky. and undoubtedly a republican's idea.

generally speaking you want to trust your instincts, friends. and, for your edification, read the article.

up, down, up, down ...

this is pretty funny -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axOeUBASt7E&feature=related

oh noes!

i was late this morning. late for waking, that is. when it got to be 40 minutes later than the usual time i put in an appearance and i still hadn't shown my bleary face, the husband rousted me out of this really great dream.

every-once-in-a-while i dream about getting food in a cafeteria. one of the places in my dreams has this really great selection of cinnamon rolls. not the crap that you can get in the malls, but the old-fashioned kind we used to get in the school cafeteria. this place seems to be a hospital, rather than a school, but the food is outstanding.

last night's dream, however, took place in the student union of my alma mater. it had almost the same layout, too, but, as dreams usually are, there were differences. at any rate, this cafeteria had a lot of stuff -- several islands full -- and what i had finally decided on, after wandering all over to view the different selections, was a piece of prime rib and a potato with a little bit of gravy and salad on the side. that was exactly when the husband woke me up!

whoa was me.

would you swallow this story?

i apparently have a vitamin d deficiency. i'm not sure what that means or how i should correct it, but i had to fill a prescription for mega-doses of the stuff to take once-a-week for the next 8 weeks.

the husband looked at over-the-counter vitamin d and it said a dose was 1,000 or 2,000 i.u. my pill is 50,000.

i'm supposed to get another blood test in 8 weeks.

i don't remember hearing of someone being low on vitamin d. that's like being low on sunshine, isn't it? oh. yeah, we live in the cloudy northwest.

they come and they go ....

i use google these days. i used to use altavista and somewhere in there i used netscape. but aol got in and messed with netscape and i haven't spent any time with it for years and years until tonight -- i think i was looking through for about 45 minutes -- all those celebrities and their problems ....

but back to the point, apparently there's a new way of searching for information. you can check out tweetmeme (which i didn't like at all) or oneriot (meh) or topsy (okay) or collecta (which i thought was horrible).

these search engines are supposed to be much more up-to-the-minute than the regular ones. from what i've seen this evening, they leave me less than satisfied. it's either my age talking or these new paradigms are crap.

time will tell.

coming to a theatre near you ....

where the wild things are ....

i checked out a couple of previews of this new movie and was left wondering if it would really be any good. of course, that's the same way i felt about the original star wars. *ahem*

so i'm open to this movie being good and i hope it is. the kid in the movie just didn't seem quite right to me though. and spike jonze? his name doesn't spend much time coming out of my mouth.

oh well, for the audience's sake i hope it's great -- the book was.

off into the wilderness...

the husband and i are going adventuring in another week -- we're headed for this cool place.

i like their video, but go here to see where we're going to stay. if that link doesn't work, from the home page click on 'view gallery' then click on 'tent house suites' to get a feel for where we're going.

i expect to enjoy our trip -- it's on an island, after all, and we take a ferry to get there. it can't help but be beautiful country. it's really too bad our forefathers couldn't have somehow gotten their hands on that whole british columbia area. it's so pretty it'd make you cry.

the getaway

the girlfriend and i had a good trip down on hood canal by poulsbo. we got to watch a submarine go past the house three times, accompanied by two coast guard boats, a tugboat, and two container ships. it was interesting and intriguing. i'll post pictures when she sends them to me -- we used her camera since i forgot mine.

we did some shopping in poulsbo, ate at a really great restaurant (although some of the reviews i read later really dissed it -- we loved it), and explored port gamble. the weather was good with some sun and some sprinkles.

the house itself was lovely and just right for two people or two couples. it had two bedrooms with queen beds and two big bathrooms, a nice-size kitchen with tons of pots/pans/dishes/glasses/spices/etc, two couches and two chairs with t.v. and a music system and music, a dining table and four chairs, plus lots of windows and two decks with a beautiful yard in a very quiet neighborhood which made everything pretty darn great.

you might want to try it sometime.

playtime

MYS decided to make a coffee table. he's had one in mind for quite awhile now and decided it was time to do it. yes, he's writing papers and preparing to argue his dissertation, but there's a time for work and a time for play.

(my sweetie is the cutie on the left) and here it is:

nice!!!

and the beat goes on...

watching someone die has got to be a pretty horrible experience. i know my brother, who was a train engineer or conductor or (apologies) whatever his exact title was, saw accidents as they were played out -- people driving into the path of the train, for instance.

i don't believe he ever saw people deliberately getting on the tracks, like these people have, but no matter how it happens any of those memories must be awful.

my bro retired last month and is going to be playing now -- kayaking and biking with his new foldable kayak and foldable bike. he got a degree in anthropology way back when and is planning on taking up the offer from universities nowadays where they let oldsters take classes for only about $25. major deal!! and this time around it can be mainly for fun! although for my bro anthro was always fun.

i hope you have much fun with your retirement, bob!!! love you!!!

lucy's grandmother

we all know about lucy -- the fossil find which gave us information about human ancestors living about 3 million years ago.

now they've uncovered ardi -- a new fossil find from 4+ million years ago which gives rise to all sorts of new educated speculation about our ancestors.

for your edification go here, or for a picture and info go here. for complete and very technical information, go here.