Buy 'Em By The Sack

You have until July 12th...
Go here for your freebie.
(You can thank me when I see ya on 15 August.)

Trial Balloon

We tried this once before and reality got in the way...
Closed on Sundays, I didn't leave enough time for everyone to make plans.
Let's try again.
We're tentatively looking at 15 August. Several have indicated that day is open for them...
They won't be frolicking in Italy or attending a Doctoral graduation. It's far enough "out there" that you should available to come share with us.

So take a look, make a mark on your calendar, and give us some feedback.
It should be fun!

Guess who?

Just for fun!
The following celebrities all have something in common.
I’ve given their initials: Can you guess who they are and what they all have in common?

1. LP and ML ( Lisa Marie Presley & Michael Lockwood)
2. RR and JO (Rebecca Romijn & Jerry O'Connell)
3. JR and DM (Julia Roberts & Danny Moder: guessed by Ferdy)
4. JL and MA (Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony: guessed by GB)
5. AJ and BP (Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt: guessed by GB)

1st. clue: each numbered line contains 1 male and 1 female
2nd. clue: The male & female on each line are noted
as a "couple" (some married, some not)
3rd. clue: first set of initials in each line are female, second set are male
4th. clue: #1. ML = Michael Lockwood (celebrity by association)

The answer is: TWINS

They all had twins in 2008 except Julia Roberts who had hers in 2004.

A Wild Goose Chase

Just a quicky post so that those of you bustin' with news to share can do so...
I just finished with our annual "Goose Roundup". If you don't know what that is, I'll be back later to explain.
In the meantime, are you one of those that believe Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon are all chatting in another dimension now?
It's nice to think they might be.

More later.
Comment!

UPDATE:
If you are interested, details on the goose roundup are here, and here.

C.G. Teachers

Center Grove Art Teacher

Lloyd Ernest Huyser-Poston

Artist and educator, gardener and fine food aficionado, died on Friday, June 19, 2009. Born to Stanley and Gertrude Huyser in Holland, Michigan, on September 13, 1930, Lloyd graduated from Holland High School and earned a B.A. at Hope College, graduating as the first Art Major in the school’s history.

Lloyd’s education was interrupted by the Korean Conflict when he was inducted into the US Army and spent 1953-1955serving in the Far East with the C.I.A. Upon receiving an Honorable Discharge from the military, he moved to Indianapolis to attend John Herron School of Art, now part of Indiana University.

He began his formal career as an art educator, teaching at Floral Park High School, NYC, returning to Indiana a year later as he and his partner, Gene R. Poston, had decided to settle in Indianapolis. He continued his career in Art Education at Center Grove School Corporation, teaching in both the Middle School and High School.

He is survived by Gene R. Poston, his partner of over 52 years, his brother Earl Huyser, Ph.D. (Barbara) of Lawrence, Kansas, nieces and nephews and close friends Jack and Nancy Albright, Terry Lavering, and William G “Speed” Schumacher.

A Celebration of Lloyd’s Life will be held Saturday, June 27, 2009, at 11:00 am at Crown Hill Funeral Home, 700 West 38th Street, Indpls., IN. Visitation will begin at 10:00 am. Lloyd’s partner of 52 years and his family and extended family express deep appreciation for the many comforting expressions of love and support.

Memorial contributions in Lloyd’s name may be made to the Gene R. Poston Legacy Foundation, care of the IPS Educational Foundation, which provides scholarships and musical instruments to students at Broad Ripple High School, Indianapolis.

APB for The Joker

I am looking for that hilarious person that used to post so many great puzzles on our blog. It was a big hi lite of my week.
For some reason, the island has been having a resurge in her "Wicked Wahine" and I can't stop thinking about her and her many stories of her travels when I see a display. I keep imagining her story of tumbling in the waves and losing her swimsuit. I hope all is well with her and hope to hear more from her soon.

Happy Father's Day to all the daddys out there.

GH

Our New Cell Phones

I hate cell phones, have I told you that before?
I hate talking on the telephone. Like most people I value my time and I hate when someone calls and distracts me from whatever task I'm accomplishing. (Send me an email, but don't waste my time with a "Forward"!)
But on a couple occasions having the cell phone at hand saved me enough money to pay for the thing for years, and on another occasion, being able to call 911 may actually have saved a life.
For me then, the cell phone is a "necessary evil".

The first one I owned was one of those "bag phones". Roughly the size of a football, I hated the handset, but since it was the only thing available at the time, I didn't mind the size of the thing...
Actually, losing it, as I often do my present cell phone, was an impossibility because of its size...
The term "elephant in the room" comes to mind. The phone transmitted and received telephone calls... that's all. (Cell phones are not telephones at all, they're radio transmitters.)

Now cell phones can download music. They can be miniature computers. They can be used as alarm clocks. They can bake a loaf of bread. (Just kidding. But don't suggest you'd like that feature or we may be back to "bag phone" size with some models.)

For reasons stated above the stupid devices have become a necessity, so some years back I bought one for Sara Jean. She loves to talk on the phone, so she's talking on hers most of her waking hours. With her Blue Tooth device she can do her work while she's chatting away, and SHE DOES.

For a number of reasons, we have never had the same model phone at the same time. That's good in one way... I never mistake her phone for mine. But it's bad in several ways, not the least of which is that when we travel we both have to remember to carry our individual chargers for our dissimilar phones.
Yesterday I rectified that. I bought one of these for each of us... hers is the color shown, mine in basic black so we don't confuse them.
These phones have all sorts of features we'll probably never use, (I'll check to see if they bake bread), but I'm slowly but surely being dragged into the 21st Century and may need the ability to access my email on the road soon. This phone will allow me to do that.
I'm getting ready to retire. Can someone please explain to me why life continues to get more and more complicated as I/we get older?

Now, a challenge for you...
It's Friday "Vandy's Forum" time...
Tell us something that is irritating you, then tell us a something good in your life, IN THAT ORDER!
Me? I've got a leak in an upstairs bathroom soaking the floor in my office I have to chase down.
But next week I'll be chasing geese with the Dept. of Natural Resources biologists... always a hoot.
Now, it's your turn.

Adventure!

A friend once told me an "adventure" was setting out on a journey not knowing how it would turn out. I like that definition. Adventures can be good or bad, and the outcome may depend a lot on your attitude about having one.

Mommanurse planned a family reunion this weekend. I wrangled a few days off with my co-workers so I could attend. I set off yesterday (Friday) so as to arrive near Robertsdale, Alabama before dark. Fully intending for this whole weekend to be an adventure, I programmed the destination address and allowed "Carmen the Garmin" to point me in the correct direction. She decided to take me in a direction I had never travelled. I have found that sometimes Carmen will take me on a longer trip than necessary, for whatever reason, but yesterday I didn't care...
I was intent on having an adventure!

At 6 P.M. Carmen was indicating I had another three hours or so to drive. The thermometer indicated it was 90 degrees outside. The air conditioner quit working.
Oh well, no big deal...
The sun is getting low in the sky and the temp. will be dropping...
Windows down and it's reasonably comfortable. Turn the volume up a little on the radio and pretend it's 1964 again!

Half an hour later the battery discharge light came on. Now you may remember that I've had battery problems on this car before, so I shook my head in amazement thinking that this new battery had given up the ghost so quickly. I started thinking about how we'd have to find a Walmart with an auto shop to replace this battery tomorrow.

It was then that I noticed the car was hard to steer.
Uh-oh.
It all clicked...
A/C inop.
Battery discharge light on.
Power steering gone.
I've got belt problems.

I stop for fuel in Citronelle, Alabama and pop the hood. Sure enough, there are two belts on the front of the engine, one regular "V" belt that drives the A/C, and a serpentine belt that drives the power steering and alternator. Both are chewed up and lying in the bottom of the engine bay.

The AutoZone store had just closed. I asked about motels and got directions...
Both had "No Vacancies".
Back to the AutoZone store, worrying now about how much juice is left in the battery.
There was enough juice to roll the two front windows down, recline the driver's seat, and sleep in the AutoZone parking lot until they opened at 8 A.M.

The clerk showed up at 7 A.M. and asked how he could help. He sold me two belts and provided tools to do the work. While I was struggling, trying to figure out how to tighten/untighten the two tensioner/idler pulleys a guy came up and said "Let me help you."
Good thing too...
I'd never have gotten the job done without him.

Thirty dollars worth of belts and ten bucks for the work my new friend "Trav" did and I'm on my way. Even sleeping in the car wasn't as bad as I expected.
Certainly, this was an ADVENTURE!

Pretend it's Friday.
Tell us about your adventures.

Man In The Moon, And Marigolds.

It's just after midnight as I type this. We just transported an 84 year old woman with an aneuryism in her brain. She tolerated the flight well, but her prognosis is iffy, simply because of her age and her
(in)ability to heal.

The moon is about 90% full and the sky is clear.
At 1500 feet we could see the lights of the big city from over 40 miles... it's a gorgeous night to fly... with the moon so bright it's almost a lie to log the flight as a "night flight"!
Looking at the big, bright moon set me to thinking...
Can you see "the man in the moon"? I can. I see a wide-eyed man either expressing shock, or he's whistling, I can't tell.
Some claim not to be able to see him. TD falls into that category, although he may be pulling our leg. I also once had a flight nurse that claimed she couldn't see him even after I drew her a picture of what I see and took it and her out into the bright moonlight to compare it to the real thing.
If they truly cannot see him, I feel a little sorry for them.

I've talked with a few of you about our white-tail deer problem. We have does out the wazoo around our property... it's not at all surprising to see 18 or so in the field catty-corner from our home.
They have begun to attack my garden. They eat the tops of my corn plants so they won't tassle. They've completely eaten both my cucumber plants. They've even nibbled on a few of my tomato plants, and I didn't think they had any interest in tomatoes! So far, they don't seem to have any interest in my peppers.
We've discussed how to dissuade them from coming near our garden with anyone who will listen.
We've tried several suggestions...
Safeguard soap around the perimeter. We've tried human hair. We've tried urinating all around the garden... (best done at night when the moon is not so bright!)
This year someone said the fool proof way was to plant Marigolds all around... that the deer can't stand the smell of 'em. That seemed to make sense... I don't like the smell of Marigolds either.
So I spent good money on 12 plants and planted them all around.
Didn't work...
The damage you've read above was done in spite of the smelly flowers.
So help me here... short of staying awake 24 hours a day and shooting the animals that approach my garden plot, how do I convince them to stay away?

I'm gonna lie down and try to get a little sleep.
But first, you know the routine...
My calendar says it's 5 June, 2009, and it's FRIDAY!
Give us your deer solutions, or share anything you'd like to share.