makes me smile

this is one of the sweetest things you'll ever see. cute little kid smiling as he keeps trying to not go to sleep.

ah, well, styles change. i've been trying to decide what to do about my hair. i have cut it myself for the last 17 years (no training, no, just grit) and it's getting harder to hold my arms up in my old age. so i went to a gal for about six months recently, but she was cutting it into an unflattering style and when we left to go to MYS's wedding this summer, i had to cut some off, just to tame it, because she was on vacation. so .... back to doing it myself.

it's actually pretty easy to do. you just cut it all the same length! ha! no worries. but, of course, in an effort to save my arms, i cut it really short. and then wait a looooong time while it grows out. after the wedding was one of those times when i cut it really short and i just now trimmed some off the bottom. four months later. and it doesn't look too bad.

but my hair's changing as i get older. it is very much into doing its own thing. when i wake up, it stands up three or four different places. the husband laughs. and when i get ready for work, it's as likely to look nice and fluffy as it is to go completely flat and straight. sometimes i despair.

but i'm doing things i haven't done before. just now i was tired of it being on my forehead so i braided my bangs. look nice. or they would if you could see them. the hairs are about two inches long so they aren't the best for a beginning braider. but, hey. i'm at home, settled in for the evening, the husband is watching football. no worries.

is that smoke i smell?

nature can be mysterious

these are beautiful pictures of various gorgeous places around the world. oh how i wish i could visit them all. especially the lowest point of the u.s., badwater salt flats. i'm curious if it would have any effect on my left-over lymphedema.

let's go for a drive. NOT!

OMG! OMG! OMG! you have to see this. it is hilarious/scary/unbelieveable!

do NOT go to russia and drive. or be anywhere on or near a street. or walk anywhere outside your house.

reasonable speeds hold no interest for these people. nor do obstructions. nor do people or animals.

these people are devoid of vision, as well as judgement.

i have NEVER seen such a collection of human initiative before in my whole life. and it's surprising how quickly 12 minutes goes by!

eat and eat and eat until you're dizzy ....

well, i like bagels and i think mobius strips are curious, but i wouldn't necessarily want to put them together.  like here.

a little food here and a little food there

like i've said before, there's a lot of 'art' out there that simply does not appeal to me. and then there's this. i don't know how this guy can do this stuff, since apparently he does it in layers, but i'm really impressed.

my favorites are the cucumber bridge and the corn candle. and isn't the banana balloon picture just as happy as can be?! and i'd like to dip my finger into the white castle hillside. and it's probably best to stay away from the chocolate express. after all ... chocolate. and pretty soon it would be all gone.

the husband was impressed with the fishcape, too. take a look and pick out your favorites.

how does she do it?

it's neat to watch the video of this dog. i had to keep reminding myself that she can't see anything.

and this there's this.

i mean, i don't have any use for a lot of 'art' out there and am suitably unimpressed with it. but this stuff: i. am. amazed.

how do they visualize these images and then put them together?

awestruck, that's me.

adults playing in the air

i wanna do this. 'course i would have to keep my eyes shut if my head pointed down, but still. isn't this interestingly weird?!!

this shouldn't be funny. i mean, it's going to cost money to fix things. but it is funny. and has to be embarrassing for the drivers. at least if they have any intelligence at all.

sign language

it's so fun to watch a really good sign language person. oh, yeah, and the music's good, too!!

what, what ... what?

oh, this is too funny. but what would you do? i would be swearing like crazy ... wtf?!!

have you been watching cartoons?

bad dog. but really funny. just skip the article and go straight to the video.

help with a wee one...

i wasn't sure there were any good samaritans anymore. i mean, i know oklahoma has good people, but this guy was just traveling through. pretty amazing and heartwarming.

space shuttle

this is pretty cool -- a quick-look at the final drive.

not sure?

this is pretty darn funny. if you are thinking about having kids, but aren't quite sure ....

looking out for your sib

big sister helps little brother grow up.

bygone era...

norman rockwell was a singular icon in a field by himself. i've always loved his stuff, and this article will show you some of his 'behind the scenes'. how very interesting!

different music

i still absolutely love and promote Groovera.com and somehow, through them, i started getting e-mails from TruThoughts, whoever that is. at any rate i finally paid attention to one of the e-mails and it took me to this site: www.hiddenorchestra.com and i listened to part of the first recording (vorka ... just really not my thing) and most of the second one -- spoken. i really enjoyed it, especially the trumpet -- did the guy every breathe? anyhow, if you want to listen to some music, check out Hidden Orchestra - Spoken.

pac man, yay!

omg, i just love marching bands. and this one is great! a lot of fun, and how much work that must have been!!! loved the horse and even though i didn't understand a lot of it, i totally recognized the effort and joie de vivre!!!

living on land or water....

futuristic housing....interesting.

different way of living

i see a lot of sikh persons at work, but i don't believe i have ever seen a female sikh with a turban. interesting article. and i like her attitude.

you have to smile and cheer

i haven't paid much (none) attention to this gangnam craze thats whipping around right now, but you just have to pay attention to a high school or college band. i mean, the infectious enthusiasm and sense of fun is just awfully hard to beat. and here, to the beat of the drums, is finally gangnam-style band music and a couple of shows!! yay!!! yaaaaaaayyyy!!!

loud crickets

i'm not sure that i knew that the earth 'sings'.

if it's not one thing ....

beware of fleas. and dead animals. and wild animals. and stuff. bubonic plague is very serious and 'returning to nature' can give you grief.

very fun!

do you like to see tree houses? yeah, me too! go here to take a look at a lot -- several of them are from my state!

beautiful colors and arrangments

wow! if you ever want to take a look at some gorgeous flower arrangements, go here and look through their galleries. i love what these people do with flowers and if i had tons of money, i would have them create for me.

far more larger

these pix of cats sleeping are great! oh, how lovely to be able to bend, swivel, and just relax like that!!!

... my fingers to the bone

oh my gawd, i've been so busy at work. i volunteered to work on a special assignment and it nearly klled me. over one pay period (2 weeks) i worked 46.5 hours of overtime. that's 80 hours plus 46.5. it would be fine if i were 35 or 22, but no. i'm much older than that. i won't be doing that again for awhile. as in, probably never. 'scuse me, i gotta go to bed.

senior humor

so have you checked out the blog called 'geezer planet'? it's got some pretty funny things in it. go here, and if the first thing isn't the old guy picking up the computer, you'll have to look through a whole bunch of  posts to find it. but don't worry ... you'll be laughin'.

do dogs marry?

short, cute, wedding video from the 50s ....

doesn't anybody have any integrity anymore?

it's time for bed, but i have to say first that i am really unhappy with my doctor's office. as i've observed the doctors in this area for the last 8 or 10 years, it has seemed that lately 'service' has gone down the drain.

my doctor's office has finally gotten to where they do the e-mail thing, but apparently it's the nurses who look at the e-mails and they're not just real whippy. i asked them to check on a small pill because the one i'm taking is huge. i researched it myself after not getting much help the last time i was in the office. there is a smaller pill, so i e-mailed them and gave them the details, asking them to fax in a new prescription.

they answered back that they can't tell the pharmacy which pill to prescribe. what? i know that the doctor can say not to use a generic pill. isn't this the same thing? pissed me off. now the pharmaceutical industry is god. fucking lawyers are driving this i'm sure.

and the next time i'm in the doctor office, if he's as indifferent and unhelpful as he's been the last two times, i may have to look around. which will be difficult since we are at least 30 miles from doctors on one side and have a foreign country on the other. time to move.

sci-fi is right around the corner

OOoooooooo, spooky .....

google is into futuristic glasses right now and this little 7-minute short shows us what kind of sci-fi pranks and evilness could come of that type of thing. not, it wasn't put together by google.

you sweet thang....

this is so cute!!!!  these little twin girls are movin' and groovin' to their daddy's guitar ....

prime playground for bad guys

hey criminals, have i got a hot tip for you. you can do anything you want (rape, murder, robbery, drugs, etc) and the most jail-time you can get is 21 years! in luxury! because they think they can rehabilitate  you. hahahahaha.... isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard?!

'where' you ask? norway, of course. just a-hop-and-a-skip away and the country is yours to bedevil anyway you like. i encourage you to leave this country and get over there as fast as you can. it'll all be gravy!

bombs away!

throwing water balloons -- every boy's fun game. this guy takes pictures of the results, and some of them are funny, some are great, and one of them is just soooooooo mysterious.

he gathered bald men and took their pictures as the balloon was hitting their heads. you need to check this out. where, exactly, was the balloon hitting 'the burning man'? the water forms perpendicular to itself on top and below, as well as front and back. too weird! and i like the 'jesus' pic.

and one of the untitled ones (third one down) i would have called 'frozen north' because it looks like furry ice that would keep you warm.

i liked pretty much all of them, but would probably have given them different names. except for jesus -- that one definitely suits.

when would you realize the danger?

this short video about pompeii is curiously intriguing. the disaster seemed to take much longer than i would have thought, especially since experiencing mt st helens (even from far away). and it makes me wonder ... at what point, time-wise, would a person have realized they needed to bail out and run away to escape what was happening. the husband would have figured it out -- he's pretty good about stuff like that. anyhow, if you have a quick 8 minutes, scroll down and watch the vid.

mamma ... mamma ...

awwwww.... these widdo biddy babies are soooooo cyuut!!

it's a dragon. now it's a puppy. now it's a castle. now ....

here are some fascinating pictures of clouds. i've seen some of them. some of the pictures were taken from above the clouds. isn't nature curious?!

talented guy

and then there are these photos. i mean pictures. i mean paintings.

wood you make me one?

you are not going to believe these clothes. they look sooooo real. very fun! and be sure to watch the video!!

all that fun again

whoa -- little red wagon. supersized!

grumble .... grumble ....

something is messed up with my computer. besides the fact that i never liked 'vista' and i absolutely ABHOR the huge change that ms made with windows 7 and up, my computer is doing weird things. like, i turned it on the morning and played mahjong (which is on my computer) while the rest of it was loading up. a little screen popped up which said i had dangerously high internet usage. ha! i wasn't even on! i told my computer guy about that message 5 or 6 months ago and he said he thought it was just a problem with comcast. well, when you have a monopoly holding all the cards, i suppose there's not a lot you can do about it. still ... that's not the only problem and i'm a little frustrated about it.

especially since the computers we have at work are for shit. i don't know what the problem is (except that there's not enough money to get the good stuff (including techs!! those guys in hq are total idiots, but our local guys are great) but i spend an inordinate amount of time waiting. that plus the word 2010 that i have at home makes me grouchy.

little kids and make-believe

do you like rhett and link? well, you should. and here is one of their vids, courtesy of the husband. you have to switch to another vid and it's well worth it. then be sure to watch 'the making of' and 'the challenges of'. if you like that kind of thing.

enjoy!

oh good grief

after years and years and years of them saying 'yo-yo dieters are going to die', it seems they now say 'meh'.

i'd say 'make up your minds', but ... yawn ...

whoa ... things and stuff ...

so ... i'm looking online to see images of types of braids i don't believe i've seen before (waterfall, fishtail, etc) and i come across this page. it's probably more for girls than guys, but it's got some really funny stuff on it. i particularly like the picture part-way down where the caption says, "i want my hair to be that long. i want to braid it like that. i want that vintage blazer. i want tha..." it cracked me up. and it's true. although i would have added, "i want to look like that."

the page just goes on and on and i finally had to just stop. there was even food. curious page.

break dancing, again...

i like this!! it's a creative dance thing with an excellent little guy in the spotlight. and the music -- oh yes, love the music!

music can pretty much make or break things for me. yay, vincent lee!

lindsey stirling -- yes!

this violinist is a cutie-pie and i very much enjoyed watching her play. she seems to be passionate about music. and i love her outfits.

kt -- listen to/watch the skyrim (peter hollens) vid -- awesomeness triplicated!

whoa there little guy...

watching this video causes me to laugh more than i have in awhile.

what in the world?

the husband made me a blue guy and little boy. the original was stolen from the park and i had liked it so much, i asked him to make me one for here at home. so he did and it's wonderful. it graces the patio. somewhere around here we have a camera and when i see it again, i will take a pix and post.

at supper tonight i mentioned that when it starts raining again i'd like him to take the blue guy and little boy to my office. he said if people asked about it to tell them to watch Terminus. i think i had forgotten about that, and we watched it again. totally funky. especially when the pieces of concrete start dancing. ha! and i particularly liked the comment from canoai.

and then i watched another one. it was good. and it ended much better than it could have.

the husband is wonderful!

awww, my little turtle guys

so while i was looking around etsy, i saw something about guitar pick earrings and checked it out. WHOA!  FUN! i fell in love with a number of them but one of my favorites was this pair:


little turtle guys ... aren't they darling??!!! i love them and have been wearing them the last two days. too cute! anyhow, check out etsy. life with etsy is good and it doesn't cost as much as life in the malls!!!

a great gift

i have discovered etsy!

that doesn't mean i have just discovered it .... MYS/W have told me about it for several years, but it has only been in the last few weeks that i have availed myself of its offerings. and, really, everyone should -- it's home-grown folks doing their thing and putting them up for sale. the new daughter-in-law offers her embroidery on that site.

so i recently needed a going-away gift for one of my favorite bosses and when i actually got my head together enough to think about it, there was only barely a week left. i looked on etsy to see what was there in the guitar pick line. my boss plays guitar (and has ever since high school) as well as doing motorcycle things. i don't know all that much about either, but when i decided (my spiritual guide must have directed me) to see what i could see about picks, i ran across this extraordinary item....

these are five guitar picks made out of wood, bone, and stone. and they are beautiful. my boss was very surprised and pleased with the gift and showed them around to a number of people. and it turned out to be a two-hug worthy gift.

i felt lucky that i had made a good choice. the people on etsy that i bought them from had been scheduled to go on vacation about the time i needed the order, but they somehow got them made and shipped to me to arrive on the exact day i needed them. i wrote my appreciation. and i can't help but feel it was meant to be. the stars are aligned.

funny guy

mr. bean. i liked mr bean but a lot of people didn't. still .... how quintessentially british! and now they've done a little olympic piece with mr bean but the olympic committee won't let it be shown a number of places online including youtube. i searched around, though, and found it here. i mean, come on, what's up with not letting us see it? good grief. and ha!

ice crystals

have you ever heard of a fire rainbow? i've never heard of one, let alone seen one, and this article says they are relatively common in the u.s.; the picture in the article is pretty and was taken in scotland.

a smudge of reality

this guy's pictures are so cool. because he has such a good imagination. and drawing abilities. i've blogged some before, here are some additional ones. enjoy!

today, class, we're going to make aspirin....

make your own drugs with a 3-d printer. it's becoming a reality, but i don't think drug companies are going to give up their power. that's another reality.

not to play with

okay all you loved ones in new mexico, oklahoma, and hot southern states. stay away from armadillos. they are the only non-human creatures which carry the bacteria which causes leprosy.

get in there and play!

3-d interactive art. interesting to do, once anyhow.

uh ... fred ... uh ...

c-17 aircraft are huge. and you would expect one to land on a very long runway. well, this c-17 was supposed to land on an 11,000+ foot runway but somehow touched down on a 3,000+ foot runway instead. it managed to stop with 10 feet to spare. mistake? or on purpose? don't know yet. funny though ...

life imitates art ....

banksy. yes, there is an artist who's name is readily recognizable. and he's being copied for real. see this.

they are blessed

MYS's wedding was lovely. the location was absolutely beautiful and even though it was new mexico, the temps were only in the low 70s. it rained a little before the ceremony, to dust everything off, then the sun came out and the ceremony proceeded in a little meadow surrounded by aspen and pines. afterwards we all gathered inside the lodge and ate, danced, and talked. it rained some more.

she's such a sweetheart and i'm so happy for them both. their friends came from all over, including germany, and relatives came from far and wide. it was just a grand affair and a wonderful mix of people.

i wish them a life-time of happiness, joyful surprises, success, sexy nights, comfortable living, and love.

just set it out on the porch

a pot of soil can burst into flames! who knew?!

uncle joe? cousin mary?

These are pretty interesting. celebrities as they might look if they were ordinary people.

great art!

these posters are just fabulous!!! and show you what we looked at back in the 50s!

husband, we need to buy some of these....how about star wars?

it really is better

the husband made THE BEST supper tonight. baked copper river salmon (with capers), fresh green beans, and broccoli au gratin rice a roni. oh man -- it was heaven. that copper river salmon is soooooo tasty and unlike anything else you've had. mmmmmmmmmmm, just out of this world. next time we have some, you'll have to drop by!

i'm not a fashion plate

the wedding date is fast approaching and the husband and i have been alternately stressing and getting ready for our adventure. we're so excited about seeing the kids and their wedding, and seeing other family and friends who will be attending.

part of the stress, for me, is that we'll be gone a week and i need to take a number of different outfits. that includes shoes but since i don't wear casual clothes to work, and don't go out shopping or sight-seeing here at home, i don't have a lot of casual clothes and shoes.

that was pretty obvious when i was trying to match things up this evening, so i decided i'd take a look through the brands i like at zappos. i mean, who wouldn't shop at zappos?? free shipping, to and from!! whoa -- mega deal!!

so i looked at aravon and haflinger and naot and pikolinos and gentle souls and on and on. just for fun i decided to look at a brand i wasn't familiar with, giuseppi something or other, and found this delightful item:











they were only $527.50 marked down from $1055.

hahahahaha...... woo-weeeee. i needed that laugh!

to wear or not to wear

who knew seattle officials could be so stuffy? but finally this double-mastectomy woman has won the right to go swimming without wearing a top. i'm glad she won that fight, because body image is a major thing for women without breasts who don't have reconstruction. i mean, i don't think i could go swimming in a public pool without being covered up. it's hard enough for me to find something decent to wear to work that doesn't make me self-conscious. but it would be really nice to be able to live without having to worry about what people were going to think about your shape.

strange toys

this is very cool and very curious. a slinky, dropped from high, maintains the position and height-above-ground of it's bottom portion until the top has collapsed to the bottom's position. and if you watch the first part of the video, at 1:30 it shows where the top portion actually PASSES the bottom portion on its way to the ground. whoever would have thought? it doesn't seem possible. but there it is. i wasn't interested enough to listen to the explanation, just will remember the image. very strange.

spain

so. you want to go to the beach, but you can only find one road.

well, that's okay. surely it will take us to the beach even if this road looks like it's going to peter out ....

oh. the beach isn't quite where i thought it would be.

pretty, though.

from here to here to there and there ...

here are a number of very interesting pictures showing various pathways across the u.s.  neat!

just playing in the sand

sand sculptures. or mud. regardless ... cool! and fun for kids! watch the video!

pix of animals

these are some neat pictures! i particularly liked the seven bee-eaters and the cuddling swallows. (but i'd want to be the one in the middle.)

Mr. Q is back!

i am soooooooo happy! Groovera is coming back! he sent me an e-mail to say he wanted me to be the first to know and i am so glad! it was just weird not being able to listen to that whenever i wanted to. but apparently quite a few people have let him know they'd like him to come back and, in spite of his health issues, he's going to try it. i hope he can do it and still take care of himself, because i really, really, really enjoy the station.

Yay GROOVERA!!!!!  thanks Tim!!

the cat and the kitty

this is pretty cute ....

two ways to look at this

oh good lord. how lazy can we get.

-or-

there's always somebody with a new way to take your money.

from the ballroom to the highway

this is so cool! a rear-view mirror which actually shows you something. at least it sounds like a good idea. i'll take one of those, please.

protecting your own

so in texas as father finds a 47-yr old man molesting his 4-yr old daughter and beats him to death. i'm from oklahoma and that's pretty close to texas.

this needs to be attended to

what is WRONG with people??? a mailman drives over a dog and kills it, and the postal service doesn't think there's anything they can do because the union makes it hard to discipline someone.

it's been pretty obvious to me that unions have way too much power these days, just from my observations at work. it's gone beyond protecting workers to total absurdity. as evidenced by the postal service employee's (and management's) total lack of brains.

what is it going to take to get things reasonable again?  probably nothing until vigilanteism forces things back the other way. good grief.

whoa ... realism in the paintbrush!

these are amazing. they aren't photos, they are paintings. and i thought they were beyond superlative until i read that he takes pictures, then draws from them. if he were to create these completely from his mind, that would be mindbendingly, fantastically, genius to the max. but, until then he's just beyond superlative. click the link to see more pix.

gets your blood going

a friend sent me a link to a bunch of gals playing benny goodman and i decided to go to youtube and listen to the man himself. i actually preferred the gals a little because they didn't play quite as fast as he did. then i ran across this video of dancing in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. waaaaaayyy much fun! it looks weird, but once you're out there dancing there's too much fun to be had!

after that i watched fred astaire, gene kelly, and lots of others. swing dancing, cha-cha, apache dancing. young kids today don't know what they're missing!

where several men have gone before ...

wow!!

the space station hasn't ended up anything like it started out. this is an interesting time line which has been put together. there are descriptors listed on the right side of the page. still ... it's hard to imagine what it's like inside. probably dusty.

movies! and popcorn!!

did you see the cute google icon today about the drive-in movie theatre? too cute!

i miss my music.

losing a love and learning to hate

all right, that does it. i found out the other day that my absolutely favorite listening station has quit.  yes, Groovera, aka FrostByte Groove Lounge, has called it quits. i loved that station -- specifically Low Mercury -- and it didn't have any commercials to interrupt whatever you had going. tim q. quitting, because of personal health, is a tragedy all by itself.

but now, we find out the first class airline tickets we bought for our trip to MYS's wedding has a leg which is messed up. the plane has been downgraded and they moved us three rows back. WTF??? oh sure, it's a computer system that makes the seating decisions and there's nothing they can do and no you can't have any money back.

well, i'm not in the mood. i've lost my music and now my money doesn't mean anything. after this trip i will never fly again. i don't care that it will take longer to get there. slower pace, back to the roots, remember how sweet it used to be. big business can just get along without me. and i totally do not care if they eventually have money problems, and i would help them down the tubes after experiencing their snotty/hateful attitude toward their customers. greedy bastards i can do without.

but i really miss my music.

awww, the suffering of dogs

this is pretty funny. the poor dog just puts up with it.

they are sooooo bad...

i have always thought the majority of women were HORRIBLE drivers. they're timid, they have faulty judgement, and when they get behind the wheel they turn into sleepy sheep.

what? do you say you don't agree? you must have never driven in seattle traffic. or in a parking lot. or on a very narrow two-lane road.

you still insist women aren't that bad? well, then ... watch this video. it could be anywhere, but it happens to be in poland. this isn't even a typical video -- it's much, much worse than most drivers i've seen. and not just the one -- there are two of them!!

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.