nature's beauty

these pictures are just so pretty. i would never have imagined anything could be pretty in eastern washington. but we never traveled to southeast wa.

and i can just see myself on my horse right down there .... looking for bad guys or buffalo or a good place to plunk down ....

nicely done!

this is absolutely the coolest video. did i already share this? it's neat enough to share again, if i did. this cute guy and gal showed her pregnancy the whole way through -- in 90 seconds. i wish they'd do another one of the little girl's first year. kudos to them for being excellent!

50 years at the same job

um, well, i just read about a couple of 69-year old prostitutes. they're from amsterdam and have been doing this for 50 years. they seem very salt-of-the-earth which is a good thing to me. strange though ...

very popular personage

have you seen this drunk make-up tutorial? the first time i watched it with the sound off. i laughed quite a bit. the second time i watched it with the sound on. i didn't laugh so much. weird. this gal has 3 million viewers and i have to say it must be a generation thing. i watched several of her videos (boys in the bathroom, girls in the bathroom, getting ready for a date)  to see what it was about -- wow. i'm out of touch. some of them were funny but in a VERY unacceptable-to-my-generation way. like i said, out of touch.

second grade??

this is too cute -- and the kid who drew this is in second grade!! for more winners, go here.

dum, dum, de-dum ....

MYS is getting married! they thought about it last year, but they're incredibly busy and couldn't make it work, so they're getting married this summer. the ceremony will be in a caldera, and it's a really beautiful spot. it's going to be low-key and attended by close friends and family. i'm looking forward to a really nice time!

oh, and didn't i say ... i LOVE our new soon-to-be daughter-in-law!!! she's a jewel of a person and i'm so glad she's going to be part of our family! the husband and i have always thought we were lucky with our boys and we're continuing to be lucky with their girls!

yay, the universe!!!

android users are sitting ducks

did you see where this unbelieveable company wants to make your cell phone spout ads as soon as you start to place a call??? this is too much. read this article and say bad things about this company. like other people are. thumbs down down down down down.

i've been working on the raaaaaailroad, aaaaall the live-long daaaaaaaay

too many things to do and no time to sit down and blog. but i did want to say that the husband and i particularly enjoyed our lunch last thursday! he picked me up from work and said, 'do you want to go watch them lay railroad ties?' and i said, 'yes' and he said, 'really??' and i thought 'silly boy'.

so we drove over behind the caboose (a noon-time eatery) and watched while the railroad gang laid the ties. pretty interesting. and nothing like you'd imagine if you were thinking 1850s chain gangs. there were quite a few strange-looking machines on the tracks, a number of them ahead of our view, and we got in at the point where one machine was going along laying ties beside and perpendicular to the tracks. then two other machines came along (one behind the other) and they seemed to sort of play leap-frog with the ties as they each picked up a tie and stuffed it into the empty space where one had been jerked out earlier (but not all the way in). that whole stuffing sequence was bizarre.

then the next couple of machines came along and fitted the tie the rest of the way in the designated space. in the meantime a worker person came along and laid down a small metal rectangle on the end of the tie.  then another machine came along and sort of made sure the tie was lined up right, or something.  then another three machines came along (in tandem), raised their section of the rail, scooted the metal plate under the rail, and hammered in the spikes. and yes, these machines all worked independently on their own task.

about that time an hour had gone by and we had to leave. it was fun to watch. but there was a LOT of downtime. that was not fun. still ... i always think you should stop and watch any kind of construction that is happening.

let's dance!

oh how fun!! don't you wish you knew when a flash mob was going to do something neat so you could be there?!

get him outta there

good grief. have these people never heard the word 'accident' or the phrase 'i just don't know how it could have happened'? lions and tigers and bears, oh my. for sure. she WANTS that kid.

the benefits outweigh the risks. spoken like a true scientist who lives with his head in the clouds totally discounting the number of dumb asses there are out there who want to do evil in the world. why don't you just teach the bad guys how to put the bad virus together (so they don't stumble on it accidently and let it loose), then you can tell them to play nice and not hurt anyone, counting on them to do the right thing. what idiots.

omg

no, thank you. i don't need to use the restroom.

isn't that cuuuuute ....

Rock Stars!! or dandelions, depending on how you look at it ....

look what we can do for you

i can see it now. these space adventurers want to go out and mine for resources they can send back to earth. for the good of humanity? ha! get outta town. for the profit and power and glory, of course. and i can see just exactly what would happen. they send down some stuff from space which carries a teeny little virus which kills us all. yep. republicanism at its best.

the old soft shoe, er ... shell.

so. there's something new on the market in the bicycle field. a new kind of helmet so that you don't have to wear the hard helmet all the time. this thing is a scarf you wear around your neck and it inflates if it detects some wild gyrations. see it here.