Smart Car

I haven't seen many of these cute little cars on the road yet but the license plate Walnut 1 is very funny.

The size reminds me of my first car, a Karmann Ghia by Volkswagen. The windshield washer fluid ran off the air pressure in the spare tire. The back seat folded down for a surprisingly spacious trunk and it was a joy to drive.

My Ghia looked the same as the one in the photo except it was green. I have photos of the car but they are Kodak prints in an album that I never converted to digital. I should scan my albums since it would be nice to have a backup.

When the Ghia died I held a wake. I wish now I had kept it and had it repaired but I was in college and couldn't justify spending more on repairs than I did for the car.

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Your Body Has A Mind of Its Own or Stupid People Tricks

Sit in a chair.
Lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
While doing this, draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand.
Your foot will change direction; you can't prevent it.

The photo is this morning's sunrise.

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Auto Repair for 4 Cents = 3 Pennies + Duct Tape

My daughter's car has been chiming for a little over 2 years. It constantly made the "you left your keys in the ignition dummy" noise. She took it to a mechanic who thought it he repaired but it but the noise started again the next day. The mechanic said it was an electrical issue and would cost several hundred dollars to find and repair so we've just lived with the beeping.

Today my husband tracked down the problem; a switch was partially broken and he closed the connection by duct taping 3 pennies to the door. My DH said "To bad all repairs aren't that easy." I'm a little afraid since the cabin needs a new roof

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The Cherries Are Ripe & Cherry Tree Haiku

The birds left us a nice crop of cherries this year. We used to net the tree, they flew under—I hung CDs shiny side out to scare them away, they sang to them—I gave up and decided they were bird food, they started eating only half the cherries. Now if I could only get the bunnies to stop eating the peas...

scarlet orbs swaying
gently tug a luscious fruit
spat stones carpeting

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Daylily Haiku

I know many gardeners disparage the common daylily but I'm a fan. They happily volunteer to expand to other areas, suffer abuse graciously, are unbelievably hardy, and the foliage looks attractive after the flowers are done blooming.

I'm not a snob, pretty flowers that grow like weeds are always welcome.

coyly unfolding
come hither stamens thrusting
golden promises

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5 Things I Know For Sure

You are responsible for your own happiness. If you are not happy on your own, no one can ever do that for you.

You can't change anyone, only the way you respond to them.

It's hard to live in the moment but it's important to try.

Be grateful for what you have; not discontent about what you still don't have.

Never stop being curious. Learning is a lifelong journey not something that ends with a diploma.

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Fucking Austria

This is a real town in Austria. A family photo taken here would make for an interesting Christmas card; it beats the kids in front of the fireplace with the dog.

I found this photo on the web.

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Beck - Clap Hands

This is awesome and looks like a lot of fun!

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How to Cope With Death

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Box Elder Bug Convention

We cut down our Box Elder Tree years ago in a vain attempt to control the box elder bugs. The front yard was full of them today and there were large clusters of the bugs near the bushes.

I read that you can get rid of them with laundry detergent but I haven't tried it.

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Porcupine Grass

My daughter was taking a Minnesota ecology class and she told me so much about the porcupine grass fight that her professor started that I became intrigued enough to brave the poison ivy to look at the plant.

The tips are sharp like porcupine quills and the grass is sometimes sold as an ornamental plant.

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POST-IT LOVE

This is so sweet.

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Stencil Graffiti Art 101

I got in a rather heated discussion with a young man who thought it was everyone's right to spray paint graffiti anywhere they choose.

I'm posting some nice examples of stencil art that I found on Google images but I absolutely think you need permission to place these on a building that you don't own. I would happily place the maid sweeping the dirt behind the curtains on my building.

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Dueling Church Signs

I love these dueling signs I found on the internet. They were pretty obviously photoshoped but they are still funny.


















C
All dogs go to heaven

P
Only humans go to heaven. Read the bible



















C
God loves all his creations, dogs included

P
Dogs don't have souls. This is not open for debate



















C
Catholic dogs go to heaven. Presbyterian dogs can talk to their pastor.

P
Converting to Catholicism does not magically grant your dog a soul.



















C
Free dog souls with conversion.

P
Dogs are animals. There aren't any rocks in heaven either (me—huh?—rocks?)













C
All rocks go to heaven.

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

I just left the movie. It was action packed, funny, and definitely a big screen movie. A lot of teenage boys in the audience applauded when Meagan Fox first appeared. I don't have a girl crush but even I would have to say she looked hot. The first movie had a bit more plot and this one relied heavily on mega special effects but I recommend the movie highly.

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Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

When I found out that Tim Burton was doing Alice in Wonderland my first thought was good choice for a project, my second thought was will Johnny Depp be the Mad Hatter or the Caterpillar?

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DEADLINE post-it stop motion

I love this clever stop motion film.

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Dancing Robot - Lord of the Disk

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Photo of the Inside of My Refrigerator and Empty Refrigerator Haiku

The frig fairies have abandoned us. I don't know why but I hate grocery shopping; thankfully I'm married to someone who enjoys it.

The refrigerator is so bare of real food that I feel compelled to wash it out.

We have ice tea, lemonade, milk, half and half, water (we'll be well hydrated), eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, cabbage, broccoli, chocolate pudding (any frig that contains chocolate custard made from scratch is a happy place), cheese, left over pancakes and condiments.

frittata for lunch
eggs, broccoli, cheese, pasta
yay, shopping can wait

The frittata is in the oven. The frig is even more empty but now it's nice and clean.

Frittata is Italian for "must go". You combine cooked pasta, vegetables and meat—Pour beaten eggs over the top—Add cheese and bake at 375 degrees. Numm...

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A Blond Moment

I had a bit of a blond moment. We had been listening to an audio book on my iPod and I had written down the number I saw on the boom box style player, 219.

Today I looked for where we left off and I realized there was no 219. I wrote down the time on player; we were actually on disc 13.

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Wild Turkey and Her Chicks

I wish I had my camera earlier (this isn't my photo) since a wild turkey was taking her poults out for a walk. I only seem to see wild turkeys in fields or alongside roads; never in the actual woods.

Last summer we had turkeys in the nature area at the end of our block; a few were near the bus stop.

We got to hear a small group of wild turkeys calling in a field; they had an amazing loud sound.

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Sailing on Our Hobie Cat Sailboat

I used to think everyone had webbed toes; when I found out they don't, I took it as a sign that I was meant to live in the water.

This is our Hobie Cat. We fell in love with sailing at Sandals Resort in Jamaica. There is nothing better than soaring across the lake and since most fishermen only fish in the morning and evening, we usually have the lake to ourselves.

The best thing about a Hobie Cat is its ease of use. There is not a lot of elaborate rigging and it's outrageously easy to sail.

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Cabin Bound

I think I need to go commune with nature and swat some bugs while painting so I'm cabin bound. We are near a nature reserve so we have eagles, deer, bear, loons, turkeys and the hummingbirds will tap on the windows to let us know we need to fill the feeders NOW.

We've spotted some big cat prints and it's a little unnerving when the dogs go window to window at night sniffing and growling.















This is our driveway.















There is always something in bloom. It's daisy season now and in about another week we'll have lady slippers growing throughout the woods.















Sunset on the lake.

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Cell Phone Hijinks

My daughter took this through the screen using the negative setting on her cell phone. The chair is blue, the table yellow, and I'm fairly certain the tree isn't purple.

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Kaki King rocks out to "Playing with Pink Noise" on Ted

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Food Fight

My daughter tossed a small chunk of bread towards my ice tea, she missed. I proceeded to pelt her with all the bread at the table and went into the kitchen to reload. Mayhem ensued with the dogs frantically trying to catch the flying bits. Clean up was much easier than the previous spaghetti food fight and the neighbors still talk about the great watermelon battle we had last year. One of the seeds actually planted itself and we had this melon grow in the yard. It only got to 6 inches long but we were very impressed.

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Funny Star Wars Ads

I love this series of ads from Disney; I put my favorites here. Darth Vader is hiding a light saber behind his back while waiting line to meet Luke Skywalker. Bubba Fett is bringing Han Solo who is still trapped in carbonite through baggage claim.

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Irises Blooming Along The Pond

Blooming Irises along the koi pond. The pond attracts many birds and the ducks like to visit with their new families.






























Bearded Irises; I thought they were especially luscious after an early morning rain.

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Chipmunk Being Fed By Chewbacca

Chris McVeigh took these adorable photographs and they are not photoshopped.

Chewie and Billy the chipmunk were my desktop wallpaper until someone asked me about the photo and I did a little research to find out who the photographer is. McVeigh has other shots of Billy with other Star Wars toys but I particularly like the unsettled expression on Billy the Chipmunk and when he encounters an Ewok. (Billy was actually responding to another chipmunk)

There is an interview with Chris at "The Official Star Wars Blog" where he discusses how he got Billy to cooperate with the photos; it took time, trust and a lot of almonds.

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Stoners Don't Make Good Editors

I took a Sudafed this morning for a headache. I can't handle 2 aspirin in a day so a Sudafed makes me loopy as a tangled Slinky.

I read my daughter's college paper and she figured out that the praise came post drugs. I offered to proof read it for her and was told "Stoners don't make good editors".

Since I had time on my hands I did a ACEO ink and watercolor drawing of Martian carrots invading Earth. The other Micron ink drawing is of vegetarian astronauts who think they found the perfect planet to colonize.

I'm not sure if I was inspired by drugs or ambivalent feelings from trying to only eat raw foods today such as fruit and vegetables.

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It's Finally Raining

The yard was beginning to look dreadful. We have one of the few houses in the neighborhood without automatic sprinklers and since we have so many mature trees we can avoid watering until things become pretty dire.

The flowering cactus Micron pen ACEO ink drawing was tinted with watercolor pencils. I had the pencils but never seemed inclined to use them.

They work OK but I prefer ink or watercolors. They would be nice for outdoor artistic endeavors where you don't want to bring along a lot of materials. I need to play with them more and develop better technique. I wasn't sure what would happen when I added water and how much color needed to be laid down so I wanted to try them on a simple sketch. I think I saw a cactus like this in a magazine at Barnes and Noble but I don't remember which; I did the drawing from my freaky memory.

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Evolution of Dance

I was checking the most viewed youtube videos of all time and this one was towards the top of the list. I had totally forgotten about this fun video.

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Burning Marijuana

I was looking for some images for burning weed (a local plant that makes your skin burn) and all I could find was marijuana stories. We were talking about this video the other night so when I ran across it I had to post it in my blog.

The story featuring Damien Day, was a bit on a British sit com called Drop the Dead Donkey. The end is slightly cut off and Damien says to the camera man "Let's go for a curry"

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I Feel A Road Trip Coming On

In my past life (when I had excess income) I traveled somewhere exotic at least every 3 months. The pressure is building and I think I need to hop on my motorcycle and pick a direction.

It's supposed to rain for the next 3 days so I need to come up with a one day trip.

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Refrigerator Fairy Ink and Marker Drawing

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We keep going to the refrigerator looking for something good only to find the same things that were there 10 minutes earlier. Our excuse is that the frig fairy might have restocked.

She's been taking a bit too much time off lately—even the dogs don't get excited when we check—now they wait for proof of snacks before they get off the couch.

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Bad Day At The Dog Park ACEO 2.5" x 3.5"

Zelda, my Lhasapoo, is under 5 pounds—Marilyn, my Westiepoo, may approach 10 pounds after a hefty lunch and a dip in the lake—They should never go to the dog park.

I broke one of my rules, always take your own car so you can go home. I sat in the car with 2 furiously barking dogs and I sketched this while waiting for my friend to catch her beast, I mean giant canine. My dogs saw all the other big dogs and raced to safety on the top of my head.

Marilyn wasn't hit with an errant Frisbee but if she had barked much longer I might have taken a toss at her myself.

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