river images - part two - cue Music of Doom!

GB improved the story, the dramas, the potential of it all!!!!
(Reference previous post below.)

river images

Hydroplane on the river on Saturday

Picture taken from the press barge, pelican not impressed by hydroplanes.

The machines are here!

Big hydroplanes on the river, sometimes you can hear them from our house.
Air show overhead. Abby is concerned.
Today I was driving past the river and a HUGE jet flew right overhead. I could see the flames shooting out the afterburners.

Project Runway Season NINE!!!!

Well, that was a unique and different challenge. Felt the men were at a disadvantage but they, for the most part, pulled it off. Loved, loved, loved the winner. Sad to see the other go home. Also how brutal was the first four?!?! The previews looked full of dramas!

The nose has updates -

Okay you Southerners - how do you pronounce the number 9? Our interwebz was down and I went round and round with a tech support person. Finally I had to say to her, "I know you are giving me a series of numbers. But I've never heard of the number 'num'.

Called the contractor for The Great Flood - looks like all materials are in! Meeting on Tuesday to kick this off.

The vacuum almost went headfirst off the deck. Followed by the shredder. Followed by my not-so-smart phone. They were all misbehaving and needed to be punished.

I feel better now.

wednesday chortle

Pairs Division - Design Star

Guest judges for tonight's episode.

I really didn't like any of the rooms that they finished. I did like the art project that Leslie Ezelle did. I'm so going to steal that idea. She is becoming one of our favorites. Karl Sponholtz is also on our list.

The Engineer cooketh

a peach cobbler. In a dutch oven on bbq coals and it was perfectly cooked. Which to me is no mean feat in 90 degree heat. An old family recipe handed down by Granny Krusteaz. Okay, it wasn't that bad, especially if you pair it with a really good vanilla ice cream - which can save almost anything. Hopefully he has the bug to try it with big chunks of ripe peaches next time. I NEVER complain when I'm not doing the cooking!

This dog makes Tar look dainty!

Good gawd!!!

Who is that demon dog?

The Engineer took this from the front door. Abby didn't have time to control her inner demon. It always pays to be reminded from time to time.

x-small and x-large

Labrador Retriever versions.

Yard chores - puppy version

Over the winter our butterfly bushes went to the great garden in the sky. On the list of The Engineer's projects is to pull them out and put most of the twigs thru the chipper.

Knowing how slammed at work The Engineer is at the moment, the puppies have stepped in and demolished one of the bushes. I really, really don't want Abby to get a hold of the chipper...

My favorite white room

I won't say who won in case you haven't watched it yet. Our favorite challenge! We thought the bestest room was by Tyler Wisler.
Thought there was a strong bunch that did really well and a rather miserable bunch who didn't - do well. It must be grueling. Looks like next week they turn them loose on someone's house.

It's not a bird! It's not a plane! It's a man with a motor!

And a parachute. (clicken to embiggen) This drove Abby nuts. Abby owns the skies. Helicopters are especially suspicious. Dragonflies and hummingbirds are chased down the deck. When this fellow showed up with his parachute and motor Abby just about launched herself.
The end of the month we have an air show over the river. They make their turns right over our house. Abby will be exhausted chasing stunt planes and fighter jets for three days. We won't take her to see the racing hydroplanes that would be just too much for her Sense of Order!

this is so kewl - web cam

For Discovery Channel's upcoming Shark Week! They put a camera in the world's largest shark tank. There are all sorts of fish in there. Seeing the rays come swimming by is amazing! Go here.
Camera operating until August 7.

what is your patronus??

I'm a cat! Nice to be a cat and it doesn't bother my allergy!
Find yours here.

first tomato on the vine

Here in the northern climes!

5:30am we gets up

5.31am we gets our kibbles. 5.32am we are on Dog Alert.
Dog Across the Fence will appear any minute now.

OMG! Google Images and me

I have almost seven great nieces and nephews. And I am the book aunt. With more free time on my hands now I'm the writing book aunt. I found a site, Bookemon, where you can upload your own art and words and make a hardback book. It. Is. So. Much. Fun!!! I'm working on my fourth book - I've got birthdays and Christmas covered forever...

Anyway. I came up with two character names for the next one. And I decided to look one name up since I wanted to be sure I hadn't subconsciously used a name of another character.

OMG! Naked people everywhere, men and women, sprawled everywhere!!! Who knew?! My images are set on moderate. I can't imagine what would show up otherwise...

The name.... I'll give you in the comments. If anyone knows what it delicately refers to... because I can't figure it out.

Remember your past or you're doomed to repeat it

This humble little building was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor. It is about 20 minutes from our house. It produced plutonium for the world's first atomic explosion in the New Mexico desert and for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. It is currently being considered for national historic status. It stopped production in 1968. It is important to remember, to learn and never forget what man is capable of doing.

Dad is gone this week so I gets his half of the bed

Actually I kind of take the whole bed.

updates

The book, that had been banned, has been unbanned. We still have a committee to approve books that the teachers want to teach. School board race is crowded, this is a good thing.
The Engineer is at camp on the Oregon Coast. Just us girls at home. And Tar who isn't sure what he is after the Big Neuter. Actually he is sure he is a minion. Eldest looking for a job in his field (economics) that isn't bartending. GB still enjoying Silicon Valley. Abby on patrol, will report back later. Work on the Great Renovation, the early years, not happening this week.

Giving Design Star another chance.

It surely helps A LOT that they have put David Bromstad in as mentor. Let's hope we see much more of him. The usual cast of characters. Some auditioning for villain right off the bat... lady, you on the left I'm talking to you!
My usual complaint - judges acting like it is a high crime that certain things didn't get done when you ask people to complete a task in no time at all. Let's face it judges, on your own shows your minions are doing your work and you pitch a diva fit if something comes up against a deadline.

Hometown girl wins the match!

She won the final play in the quarter finals for the USA in the women's world cup. :-)
When the twins were running around the soccer field with bunches of other little kids she was one of them. When the high school added girls soccer to the program she was on the team. I think we can end the argument that money spent on girls' sports isn't worth every penny.

We have joined the community of them that bans books

This book we have banned from all classrooms. Even AP and Honors classrooms (classes that you choose to take). Never thought it would happen in our community.

So, of course, I ordered the book. Tomorrow night they are addressing the issue again and I'd like to get through as much of it as possible. Bonus point: it has cartoons! The protagonist makes sense of his senseless world by drawing cartoons (rendered by the illustrator listed above)*.
So far I've laughed out loud, teared up, gotten angry. I say good things for a book to invoke.

And it made me sad as I remember First Nation kids coming to our tiny village in Canada to go to high school. Two hours away, by boat, from their families. They lived with families in our village. The boys played basketball, the girls hung together in a clique and the only time they spoke to me was to call me a 'f'ing b*tch'. So there wasn't much interaction between the groups... why didn't our gov't (BC Provincial) provide the funds so they could go to school and stay home with their families? I can't imagine the stress they were under, living with strange people, going to school with teenagers who are at the worst age to be inclusive and compassionate.

Would a book like this helped? Would it have allowed the boys to speak and the girls to open to friendship? As I recall we were reading the Horatio Hornblower series and The Old Man and the Sea (good books for a village trapped by an ocean). I'd like to think we would have, at least, chipped away at the icy wall between the two groups of kids, helped us grow a bit, open our world.

Isn't this what a good book is supposed to do - invoke thought and discussion? There are discussion questions at the end of the book. I bet there are teacher guides out there.
I'm going to try and get to the meeting and the candidates' meeting that follows the next week.

There is time enough for a lot of classic literature, landmark literature, books that follow the ever changing benchmarks and prepare kids for the ever changing high stakes tests. There should be room for a book (with cartoons!). Or, at least, the choice to include whatever book the teacher and the language department decides will meet their goals. After all we are demanding expertise in the subject area, demanding master's degrees, demanding jumping through qualifying standards and tests, demanding continuing education - and we're going to second guess every single book???

* Trying to remain as anonymous, and non-searchable, as possible. Really, I'm not paranoid - much.

lift off - stage one - dog alert

Sometimes it is not efficient to sit on the top stair, you need to move several steps down.

If the frog won't come to you

you got to go to the frog. Abby has fallen in once already. Tar is behind her in true minion status.

blooming lilies

There are a lot of nutrients in this pond. Good for lilies, good for fishies, frogs, snails and aquatic insects but bad for looks - so I snag the gloppy green floating algae out with a rake every couple days and enjoy the lilies.

The TV has done spitted me back out...

I got sucked into the Casey Anthony trial. I accept full responsibility for it. And now it is over except for the playback and interviews and going over every detail. I hope the jury, eventually, feels safe enough to give some sort of statement or give an interview. I wonder if we'll ever know what happened? I wonder what will happen to all the people involved? I hope no more tragedy follows in its wake.

I sits on the sofa cuz I is such a big boy!

Tar does this several times a day. Backs up and sits on the sofa. He will even play tug of war with Abby while he sits. Abby is not impressed.

GB's adventures in Northern CA, takes pictures

He visited the campus of the company that sponsors this blog and took a picture of the little green guy that I find so cute..... (which is not why you should buy a phone but he's just so cute...)

Went to a Faire and met a famous buster of the myths. The second time he's run into this fellow as they came up here a couple times. Once for an IT conference and once to irradiate bugs.

The puppies first 4th of July

We are paying attention to the fireworks going off around the neighborhood but we aren't *too* concerned. There have been some bombs going off. Huge explosions and I've been more spooked than the puppies. Their birthday is on July 23.

Bacon Bubbles!!!

Abby snapping at bacon flavored bubbles. Tar didn't like the noise the bubble maker made and went inside to wait it out. I'll find a bubble wand for him tomorrow so he can enjoy the goodness of bacon bubbles. Clicken and you can see the bubbles.

eh?

Happy Canada Day to mine home country where I was born.
I spent 13 years growing up in Canada until my Dad was transferred back to the States.

What did my Canadian childhood give me?
A native's understanding of the use of the word 'eh'.
Odd speech patterns and spellings of various words.
An understanding of hockey.
Up close and personal encounters with bears, wolverines, moose, killer whales, seals and ravens.
Knowing all the words to God Save The Queen.
and
an attraction to men in red coats with boots....