Wordless, but not Birdless, Wednesday......

Yard Bird

Sea Birds

Tuesday Tails updated ,a hummingbird, and one new plant, and Craft, too! Wolfie goes nuts at Carlsbad Beach.

My DD, Bee, sent these to me last week. Penguins, robots and little jumping spiders,with palps of wire!  I love all of them so much!  I must find those tools of mine, and the beads we bought last summer!  I really owe Elle and Bee some earrings and pronto!

I love that my kids are all crafters and gardeners, when they aren't in school.

When I visited my sister last week, I took some pictures of the hummingbird who guards her feeder.  It's an Anna's male, either new or molted.  By the ferocity with which he defends, I'd say he is a molting male.  This is the Tuesday Tails part, though there are lots and LOTS of pictures of the Torts that were taken when the girls visited.

Front

Back- see?  No red cap

New Plant:

This is a new succulent that I found in a planting in front of a commercial building.  It was in the ground in front of some Aeonium Giganta.   I suspect that this is nothing more than a heat stressed ground cover that covers most of the freeway hills.  I think it's called something like "ice plant" though why it is I have NO idea.  Lol! 


Oh, I almost forgot.  JoAnn's had a MONSTER sale this week, and I bagged some flannel for leisure pants to go with my spent t-shirts (you know- those shirts that have spills on them that can't be seen in public) as tops for after hour sprawls in front of the TV.  They were selling sewing notions for 70% off, too, so I bagged a few.

I've got lots and lots of old T-shirts. 

Well, there you are.  There is only one thing left.  A picture of a tiny tort, eating his first rose.  There will be lots and LOTS of Tort pix next week, catching you all up on the veritable Filmfest that the visit of out of town tort enthusiasts created when they were here.

For fans of the Wolfie

Wolfie went just a little wild on the beach a few weeks ago.  He loves the beach!  See the insanity in his eyes?

Good night.  Have a great week.  Since this is created ahead of time, I'll have to catch you all up again later in the week.

Music Monday, Waylon Jennings: "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys"

Of the more "modern" Country Singers, I mean the ones from the 40's on,  I loved the voices of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings the best.   Rest in Peace you guys.  I am certainly always going to remember you both.

I had wished to find a "live" version of  Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash singing this song but there wasn't one.



 This song was written by Ed and Patsy Bruce. 

Sunday Stealing

Massive Alphabet Meme, part one
Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme.
Let's go!!!


This week's questions come from a defunct blog called Tense Teacher.

Massive Alphabet Meme, part one

The Letter A 
Are you agnostic?   Nope.  See the sidebar
What is your age?  Younger than the Big Bang but almost as old as dirt.
What annoys you?  Annoy...  this is such a mild little word.  I don't get annoyed, generally if something upsets me, I am totally, radically P.O.d

The Letter B
Do you like bacon?  I love bacon, however I do NOT like the way almost all pork is obtained in my country so I don't eat any pork.
When is your birthday?   In December
Who is your best friend?  My DH is my very best friend. 

The Letter C 
What is your favorite candy?   I love anything with chocolate in it, even the IDEA of chocolate bacon, which I've seen at World Market, but I don't eat it.  See above at letter B.
Who is your crush?   Hmmm.  A crush is exactly what for a married gal?  Do you refer to something like the Young James Garner?
When was the last time you cried?  Today.

The Letter D
Do you daydream?  I don't have time for daydreaming.  Besides, that denotes a future.
What is your favorite kind of dog?   I love dogs, no matter what they are.  Having said that, I have to add that I really, REALLY love poodles.  But I'd take any dog given me. 
What day of the week is it?  You don't know this?  ;-)

The Letter E
How do you like your eggs?   Humanely raised, Free range and Organic.
Have you ever been in the emergency room?   Lots of times.  Want to see my scars?
What’s the easiest thing to ever do?   Fall off a log?  End up in the Emergency room?

The Letter F
Have you ever flown in a plane?  Yes.  I got over my fear of being flown by someone else when I was in my fifties. 
Do you use fly swatters?   No, I don't kill anything if I can avoid it.
Have you ever used a foghorn?   No, isn't a foghorn sort of big for a human to heft?

The Letter G
Do you chew gum?   No, but I used to like bubblegum.
Ever tried gazpacho?  Yes, and I like it.
Are you a giver or taker?  I give.  If I didn't I just couldn't live with myself.  Of all things I guess I hate selfishness the most.  I had to learn this as most people have.  Babies are naturally selfish or they wouldn't survive that first year!

The Letter H
How are you?   I feel shipwrecked most of the time.  You know, I'm always thinking the Mother Ship will come back for me and all of you.
What’s your height?   A whopping five-two, after losing four inches in height.
What color is your hair?   Black and grey

The Letter I
What is your favorite ice-cream?   I can't eat iced cream, sadly.
Have you ever ice-skated?   No, but I sure have wanted to!  We used to live about a mile from an Ice Rink.  I could roller skate like a Demon.  But, alas, I missed my chance to learn to ice skate.  
Do you play an instrument?   I can play guitar and a teeny bit of Ukulele.

The Letter J 
What is your favorite jelly bean?   If you are talking about jelly bellies, I'd have to say coffee ones.
Do you wear jewelry?   A little.  I like to make earrings and simple stuff.
Have you heard a really hilarious joke?   Of Course, but I can't tell it here.

The Letter K 
Whom do you want to kill?  I don't want to kill anyone.
Do you want kids?   I have kids and I'm so glad that we did.
Where did you go to kindergarten?   Alhambra CA.

The Letter L
Are you laid-back?  No way, I'm too nervous  to be alive!  I have to keep it real by contemplating the Prince of Peace, the Buddha, Lao-Tzu, and Kwan Yin virtually simultaneously!

Do you lie?   No.  It's simple.  God hears.  I love the Great Spirit so much that I do not want to disappoint.
Do you love anyone?   In truth, I love everyone, and that means all sentient beings.  It's the only way for me to live a life of Peace.

The Letter M
What is your favorite movie?  I really love, "Milagro Beanfield War".  A LOT. 
Do you still watch Disney movies?  I watch the Pirate ones.  I don't plan to watch that Lone Ranger one.  Tonto being played by Johnny Depp is just an eye roller.  What were they thinking?
Do you like mangoes?  I love Mangoes.  I wish we could have a full grown tree transplanted into our backyard.

Saturday Komeekz, philosophical compasses, My wonky Inukshuk

I have two cartoons today.  This is because, while I was trying to make up my mind about, "should it be dog days of August" day, or "ancestral misunderstandings upon which we have based our belief systems" day, this Amazing Clip was sent to me by k, at dottedyellowline.

Thank you k, you have reset my mental equilibrium to "a glass half full" thinking! If we can still laugh or find joy, then it's not time to let "them" be pulling any plugs.

And here we have what has probably happened more often than the Academics would be willing to admit:

We have to face it.  We are, collectively, both Wonderful and Horrible.

 Inukshuk:

They are pretty terrible but I'm learning

See more about them HERE and the other pages.  These are also piled up along a highway near us, and I love to see them when we whiz by.  Stopping is out of the question.  There is a place called Earth Sanctuary on Whidbey Island near Seattle which is somewhere to see some Inukshuk.


Now, I think I'll sit and watch the PBS special on the Buddha, just so I don't get it wrong anymore when I have occasion to ponder the topic.

Thankful Thursday: Open Letter to Trayvon's Father: Sue Zimmerman

This is not Politics.  These are our children.  I am thankful for Greg Palast who has the words, the fire and the skills to put together a post like this one:

Tracy Martin, taken at vigil on July 20th.

 
Open Letter to Trayvon's Father: Sue Zimmerman

We can make changes in our country so events  like this don't happen.  It's time.  We haven't got the guts to save America if we can't make this work.  Think about it.  We have to start now and move with one voice.  We have to say to the NRA that enough is enough, and we don't want your media circus anymore. 

Black and White Together, we shall overcome!

Wordless Wednesday

Frittelary Came Back

Music Monday: Simon and Garfunkel perform "The Boxer" , in concert.

I love this song. 

First Tomatoes...

We picked these last night, and they went into our salad.  Sorry for three posts in one day!

Aren't the nice?

Rain! Just enough to scent the air....

And spoil Wolfie's afternoon stroll.

It also brought out one of the tiny Alligator lizard babies, there are a few, for a snack of an earwig, and a bask on the big rock.

Isn't it cute?  SO tiny!

Sunday Stealing + Sunday Matinee

collapse
Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme.
Let's go!!!


This week's questions come from FoxyDanish but she didn't say where she got it.

Have you ever clicked on an ad on the side of your screen by accident?: 
Yes, that's another reason why I hate those ads.

When was the last time you were disappointed?: 
When we all didn't get to go on a sky trip to Colorado because the date was changed, and DH had to fly there instead of taking us all.  We even all got moon boots for the trip!  Well, that was one of the nicer disappointments in life; I have to admit it.  But I'm not into sharing any of the major downers.

Do you like the smell of rain?: 
I'm a desert dweller.  So, to me, there is nothing sweeter than the smell of rain.

What was the last thing you took a picture of?: 
This evening, I got a picture of the first tomatoes out of our garden, and we ate them in the salad.  Yum!

When you go to McDonald's, what drink do you usually get?: 
We never go to McDonald's.

What were you doing today at 2:15 in the afternoon?: 
I was reading The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, by Jane Smiley.

What's the nickname of your home state?: 
The Golden State

What's the worst type of weather in your opinion?: 
Anywhere in the world?  Hurricanes or Typhoons.

Do you have a Kindle, Nook, iPad or none?: 
The only thing I have is a tiny net book, and I like it.

Would you rather read or write?: 
Actually, I thought I'd be writer at one time.  I like both.

When was the last time someone took a picture of you?: 
A few weeks ago one of the girls took a picture of Wolfie, and I was in that.

Do you own a pair of slippers?:
 Yes, I don't do barefoot well anymore.  Before that, in my wild youth, I went running across the desert at high noon with bare feet!  I love you, Feet!  I think it might be that this is the first life I've had feet in.  Probably I'm usually a shell fish or a minnow.

Name something negative that you hate about yourself: 
I hate how upset I get over things that I really cannot do anything about, anything that is legal or moral that is.

Is your house currently hot, cold or just right?: 
The cloud cover came back and the house is just right!  Yay! 74°F!

Is there a Dead End road near where you live?: 
Nope

Do you roll your eyes often?: 
No.  I'm old enough to know that someone will ALWAYS see that bit of disgust, and will, without fail, report it to the person who engendered the action.

Growing up, did you see your cousins often?: 
I didn't see much of my cousins until I was 13, and then we became almost inseparable.  That was the most fun I had in my entire childhood!  Running with my cousins was the best!

Where was your first job at?: 

I was a bi-lingual telephone operator, mostly because I was the only operator that even spoke or understood ANY Spanish at all!

When's your birthday?:
 Do you really want to know, or is this just so you can put up side bar ads groomed to my day?

Is life a party to you?: 
Ya, it's a raiding party, with plenty of villains to go around. 

Who are you tired of seeing in the news a lot? :
 I don't watch the news because I'm sick of all of them! 

When was the last time you flew a kite?:
 When I was about 30.  DH and I spent hours flying those new kites that could go thousands of feet into the air.  Lovely things!  Why did we ever quit?  Oh that's right.  Soccer came to America!  Love Soccer.

How long have you had a blog?: 
May of 2004 but I did iRC chat before that, out of which came an amazing lot of truly creative stuff.

Have you ever had to call and complain about a product you bought?: 
I once sent a piece of a pineapple sticker back to Gerber.  I said, "Look what my baby found in your jar of pureed pineapple and pear!".  They were so appalled, almost more than I was, and sent me a big sampler of product back.  So nice of them, truly.

Name something positive you love about yourself:
Love?  Is it ok if I just like something?  My feet.  I like my feet.

----------------
Sunday Matinee.
But first, speaking of feet... I am sad to know that a very young woman in the documentary," River of No Return", had some seriously nasty joint disease going into this year of wilderness, and she went through incredible pain to finish even 10 months of the year that was planned.   I hope that she is now at least a little better.

Anyway, I degress...

My friend G suggested that I needed a better class of cheer-me-up documentaries, so last night we watched a Nature series Documentary called ,"The River of No Return" where various carnivores died of poisoning because some bastard set it out for them, or they dined on unlucky, physically challenged quadrupeds.  It was a Wilderness after all, and to be expected, but Poison?  I could do something seriously illegal to the one setting poison out.

We followed that up with a Nova called, "The Secrets of the Viking Sword", where we watched staged battles by re-enactors of when the locals in various countries battled the Norse hordes who possessed advanced, for the time, slice and dice weapons.  Yes, I'd say I got away from at least some of the dog eat dog competitions of the modern age.   I think my friend must have meant some OTHER documentaries from NOVA and Nature. 

 

Saturday Komeekz and a Gulf Frittelary story

I've decided to emulate Mooch.....

 and just purr my way through life.  I so NEED to learn to be as smart as a House Cat!

Patrick McDonnell is up for a very prestigious award!  I hope he wins!  He won the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award  in 2011.

Butterfly report:

Open

Closed, almost.  It was pumping it's wings constantly.  DH got the shots.

This Gulf Frittelary came and camped out for several nights in a row this last week or so.  It danced around and around the big patch of Geranium, and it settled down for the night.  Yesterday morning it was there but it didn't come back last night.  I guess it's migrated away.  It was lovely to watch it dance around the plant and pick just the right spot to roost.  We had several of them in the summer last year, flying and getting nectar from the wall of Cape Honeysuckle flowers.

Friday--- Zimmerman trial, and losing economic freedoms by the bucket loads.

In my opinion Zimmerman should be tried by the Justice Department in a Civil Trial for the hate crime that he committed.

David Simon , creator of "The Wire", comments:

"You can stand your ground if you're white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you're black, you're dead.

In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all. And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary.

If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve. I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own.

Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies: Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible. I can't look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country. Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American."

We had better stop sleep walking though through life (I should stop posting so late at night!) because we are losing freedoms and education, and the ability to provide (read feed) and care for our families.  This is true throughout the whole economic spectrum that exists below the highest paid, most privileged, most selfish citizens to take over an economy in the world, ever.  If we DO lose the unions, we will have lost any power we had over our futures.  The proof is in what has already occurred in American Labor.

Thankful Thursday- this is a downer post so beware.

I've reached my last nerve after watching a couple of Documentaries.  I'm thankful that it's going to be over someday for each and everyone of these greedy people, and they can't take any of it with them.

"In Plane Sight"



And, "Park Avenue, Power, and the American Dream"



Oh, one more little thing.  It is a SIN to lie to a soldier when you are asking one of them to put their lives on the line. 

 Knitting report?  I'm sewing the sweater together for my daughter, who visited with her sister last week, and I will knit the lovely Hedgerow socks.  I need to get my balance back, from after 911, all over again.

I knew it but I didn't really know it, you know?

When I get out of this funk,  I will post some nice stuff again about family, flowers and fun.  Right now I'm so shell shocked at the BLATANT disregard for any moral rectitude at all.

It's too hot for me. We are, unfortunately not cavemen...

It's getting over 83 degrees in the house.  Since I can't retreat to the depths of a nice cool 60 degrees of a cave or tunnel,  I'm beginning to hate the computer and any other heat producing creation of man.

If we had AC like most people in Southern Cal, it would be different.   Running around in wet clothes helps a little bit but not that much.   If this heat actually affected the computers, we'd have AC.  I know this.

This was Carlsbad beach, last week.  We've lost the clouds and gained about 20 degrees in heat.

Come on Winter!

Monday Music Smoke on the Water... Deep Purple at Montreux 1996

I love that it starts with a keyboard.... Yessssss!!!!! And Audience gets into it, too!




This will get your blood cooking, People!

Sunday Stealing

The Wackadoo Meme part 2
Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme.
Let's go!!!


This week's questions come from Shopafreakingholic and it was stolen there as well, but the search doesn't go back any farther.

30.] What brand of batteries do you usually get? EverReady or however in the heck you spell it, rechargeable, too, same brand.   Ooops, we also get Duracell. 

31.] Are any of your friends pregnant or have kids?  Preggers, Nope, not a one that I can think of but most of them all have kids.

32.] What is in your medicine cabinet?  There are boocooo Bandages, as well as toothbrushes. There are some packs of floss, some tweezers, and anti bacterial cream plus some Benadryl liquid.    

33.] What's your favorite aspect of the natural world?  I love the Earth, period.  I love it unspoiled as much as possible.  I love how it all works together, or at least DID.

34.] What's your favorite man made thing?  String.  I love all the multitudinous manifestations of it, too.

35.] Can you whistle properly?  I used to whistle more, like my mom, now there was a world class whistler of tunes.  She was great.  DH has this ear splitting whistle that I can almost match but he's the King of loudness when it comes to whistles.

36.] What song do you think is the most widely heard in the world?   Handel's Hallelujah Chorus

37.] Where's the strangest place a fast food restaurant was located?  I really can't say.  I'm not up on those things.  Sorry, it's not snobbery.   I just don't know.

38.] What states surround your state? Or are you not land locked? Cuba? hehehe  no, lets see.. there is Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and we interface with a foreign country, too.  Mexico! 

39.] Do you own binoculars or monoculars? What do you use them for?  I use binocs for bird watching.  I love birds.  I actually want a monocular but it's not likely I'll be getting one. 

40.] Do you ever wish you had a telescope on the roof or attic to stargaze?  Oh yes, we thought of building a platform on the roof in times past and getting a nice big Meade.

41.] What's your favorite chocolate bar?  I like to eat the truffle dark chocolate from T.J.s.

42.] Do you fall asleep easy in cars? How about planes, trains and boats?  I can fall asleep anywhere if I'm tired enough- except for hospitals.  They are my sleeping nemesis.  Planes are a bit of a challenge, too.

43.] Would you rather live a year of your life in every major country or stay in the same place you live forever without vacations?  There aren't many places I'd spend a year of my life in but parts of Canada, Italy and France are three.  And I could live in Ireland and all the Scandinavian countries for a year.  Yes, that includes the Balkan ones. :-)  But, mostly I like living in good old California.

44.] What will you not tolerate in a person?  I won't tolerate deliberate meanness.  I'll call them on it.  I have had it with meanness as a character flaw.

45.] Do you forgive others easier or yourself? Other's Why is this? Other people sometimes don't know they are hurting you, and even if they are, it's paramount to forgive them.  Myself, I have let down the side when I have done some egregiously awful thing, like .. I don't know, something like made a thoughtless remark and caused hurt feelings.   Usually I am VERY careful to not offend but it does happen. 

46.] How was God made, if he exists?  You've probably heard the poem that has a line in it that says, "Nature is it's own excuse for being"?  Well, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a God, and I also know that no human made that Being.  It is impossible that any human agency created it. 

47.] Have you ever done aqua aerobics or polo?  Yes to the first, no to the second.  If I could find a pool that wasn't over chlorinated I would do aerobics again.  It's VERY good for a person.

48.] What age were you when you learned how to swim?  I was terrified of drowning, so, at 13 I just decided to take off across the pool and the rest is history.   I think back and wonder why I wasted all the time!

49.] What shows or characters scared you as a child?  There just wasn't anything scary on TV when I was a kid. 

50.] Do you stay up all night on New Years Eve/Day or go to bed after 12am?  If the kids are here, we toast the New Year, and eat a chocolate as the first taste of a new year must be sweet, you know.  Very Swedish.  When we were rockhounding, we used to camp out over New Year's, with other rockhounds, in the desert.  And, believe me, after a day in the outdoors digging up Geodes, you are too tired to stay up 'til midnight.  So, we just toasted at 9pm with the New Yorkers.

51.] What's something unusual currently in your fridge?  Nothing noteworthy in the fridge unless you count the empty butter containers waiting to be washed for ceramics.

52.] How about your freezer?  Well, in the Freezer, we have a tortoise who died a few years ago.  And my little bird, Pepé.  They really need to be buried. 

53.] What could you be doing now that is more productive?  I could be sewing or knitting something, or petting Wolfie.   I'm not sure watching "Extreme Couponing" on Netflix is very productive but I have garnered some savvy clues to help out my Sis and BIL with their shopping.

54.] Give me some lyrics from the song that's stuck in your head?  Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky y y ....  I've been queueing up YouTubes for Monday Music.  Awesome Song!

55.] What's your favorite type of firework?  I like sparklers.  They are the only things that don't scare the living beejeebers out of all the birds and other wildlife when mankind decides it must celebrate some damn thing or other.  I'm old enough that I've had enough of it. 

Tuesday Tails, the Cartoon as Art Exhibit in Escondido through out most of July.

Art Imitates life:

Eno needs a bath. hehehe

Having recently mentioned in Sunday Stealing that an unwashed Human Being was one of my most loathed smells - unwashed dog was the other -  I was happily surprised to see the above cartoon in the Sunday Funnies!  Even dogs, at least Enos,  can't stand the smell of an unwashed human being either!  hehe

Cartoons as Art:

There is a show at The California Center For the Arts, in Escondido.  I'll try to get up there this week.  Lots and Lots to do this week so we'll see.  But, I really believe that Cartoons are an art form, a very enjoyable one, so I want to see this show.

Exhibit is through July 28th, admission: $8 for the regular herd, and $5 for slower herd - seniors, most well behaved herd - military and equally well behaved student hoards herd.  10am to 4pm Thursday through Saturday, and 1 to 4 pm on Sunday.  Try this Link to artcenter.org for more info.

Music Monday: K. D. Lang sings Leanard Cohen's "Hallelujah"- Juno Awards performance

K.D. Lang's beautiful Voice and this beautiful song is a thrilling thing to hear.  Sung at the Juno Awards.

Thank you K. D.

Sunday Stealing, and then some Facts from Fatness Researchers.....

Sunday Stealing:
Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme.
Let's go!!!

This week's questions come from Shopafreakingholic and it was stolen there as well, but the search doesn't go back any farther. (this was stolen from a Brit!)

Be sure to go to the WTIT blog above to see the linky and read other pages.  It's Loads of fun!

The Wackadoo Meme, part 1

1.] What age is your youngest aunt?   They may still be alive.  I do not know.  I have two aunties who are 77 years old. My family Grandams also share the distinction of having lost a first child, both of them females, in the great flu epidemic, the one that took hold near the end of, "The War To End All Wars". 

2.] Do you miss someone right now?  I miss my daughters.  And sometimes I  ache to see my mom again.

3.] What can you see North West to you?  If I go up on the ridge of the roof, I can see the Ocean.  Otherwise, from where I am now, I see the edge of a window to the NW.

4.] Do you like bowling?  Yes, and I was getting good at it when we quit going.

5.] Can you pronounce Italian words?  Yes, I can.

6.] Do you prefer black or beige coloured jackets?  Oh, this came from Britain. I love Brits!  To answer your question, I like Black jackets.

7.] Do you own a hoodie?  No, I don't like what they do to my hair.

8.] Do you like roasting marshmallows on a bonfire?  Yes, and I like to make s'mores, too.

9.] Do you like cheesy puffs?  I like the hottest cheetos but can no longer eat any of that stuff, hot or not.   
10.] What's your name without vowels?  zpp

11.] How many layers of clothing are you wearing?  it's summer in San Diego.  I am wearing one layer.

12.] When was the last time you got a take away? What did you have?  Two weeks ago we got Gyros.

13.] If you could climb any mountain or range which would you choose?  Sierras, and the Cascades

14.] Do you alphabetically arrange anything in your room? What?  No, I arrange by color mostly.

15.] Have you ever visited fat-pie [dot] [com]?  Never

16.] Do you prefer sweet or sour fruits?  there are sour fruits? 

17.] Do you like Flo Rida? Which song of his?  Never heard of the Dude.

18.] How are your dancing skills?  I just don't dance anymore.

19.] What is your favorite number?  37... Tao De Ching

20.] Describe your best friend to me?  Tall, built, and grey-blonde, with eyes like the sea, changeable from grey-blue to green.

21.] What is your favorite alcoholic drink?  I answered that but here you go because I like the pictures!  I will have one of these on my birthday sometimes, if we go out to eat.

See More HERE

22.] Do you do any sports or have you done any sport professionally?  Not any more but I once did inter-mural sports for lots of team and individual sports, though never professionally.

23.] What is your ringtone?  I have Generic ones but I want to find a salsa music one (or maybe two) for ringtones.  I'd also like a fire engine one.

24.] Do you like chilli flavoured chips/crisps?  Love is the word here but now I just cannot eat them.

25.] Do you curl or straighten your hair?  My hair is curly, and I like it that way.

26.] What's the nicest smell of shampoo?  I don't use shampoo but I like the conditioner I use that smells like a grassy meadow.

27.] What smell turns you on? How about turns you off?  Most strong smells make me sneeze.  As for don't likes: I don't like the smell of an unwashed human or dog.

28.] Who's your favorite comedian? I really can't say other than I like a lot of actors who are in Romantic Comedies and other Comedies. 

29.] RnB or Reggae? I like all music except I can't stand rap.
And that about raps it up for this week!

Fat Facts:

This Article by David Berreby was sitting in my email queue for sometime.  Bee sent it, and I think it's Amazing!  It seems that even Lab animals and wild animals are gaining weight over the same time as humans have been!

Here's the LINK, and ...

Here are three paragraphs from the article which is very long but worth the effort to read:

"To make sense of all this, the purely thermodynamic model must appeal to complicated indirect effects. The story might go like this: being poor is stressful, and stress makes you eat, and the cheapest food available is the stuff with a lot of ‘empty calories’, therefore poorer people are fatter than the better-off. These wheels-within-wheels are required because the mantra of the thermodynamic model is that ‘a calorie is a calorie is a calorie’: who you are and what you eat are irrelevant to whether you will add fat to your frame. The badness of a ‘bad’ food such as a Cheeto is that it makes calorie intake easier than it would be with broccoli or an apple.

Yet a number of researchers have come to believe, as Wells himself wrote earlier this year in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that ‘all calories are not equal’. The problem with diets that are heavy in meat, fat or sugar is not solely that they pack a lot of calories into food; it is that they alter the biochemistry of fat storage and fat expenditure, tilting the body’s system in favour of fat storage. Wells notes, for example, that sugar, trans-fats and alcohol have all been linked to changes in ‘insulin signalling’, which affects how the body processes carbohydrates. This might sound like a merely technical distinction. In fact, it’s a paradigm shift: if the problem isn’t the number of calories but rather biochemical influences on the body’s fat-making and fat-storage processes, then sheer quantity of food or drink are not the all-controlling determinants of weight gain. If candy’s chemistry tilts you toward fat, then the fact that you eat it at all may be as important as the amount of it you consume.

More importantly, ‘things that alter the body’s fat metabolism’ is a much wider category than food. Sleeplessness and stress, for instance, have been linked to disturbances in the effects of leptin, the hormone that tells the brain that the body has had enough to eat. What other factors might be at work? Viruses, bacteria and industrial chemicals have all entered the sights of obesity research. So have such aspects of modern life as electric light, heat and air conditioning. All of these have been proposed, with some evidence, as direct causes of weight gain: the line of reasoning is not that stress causes you to eat more, but rather that it causes you to gain weight by directly altering the activities of your cells. If some or all of these factors are indeed contributing to the worldwide fattening trend, then the thermodynamic model is wrong."

Anyway, I plan to just go ahead and have that Cookie...... I like the one in the second row towards the right, the one with sprinkles and dots.

 Photo is from TheBakingPan.com  which is a Fablevar place for delicious baking recipes; the one for these cookies is there, too.

Saturday Komeekz plus Friday Facts...This

Three Horrible Facts about Friday:  Save this for Saturday, or Sunday, or even Monday and Tuesday! 

This came from WeKnowMemes.com

Now for the Saturday Komeekz
I think that Death needs a new doctor. lol

Today I get to, in part, sit and read back posts on all my favorite blogs and answer comments!  Oh Happy Day!

Friday

Thank God it's Friday.  I hope the fire in Arizona is getting contained.  Horrible!

We went to have Fish and Chips some day this week, oh yes, the Beer Can Regatta was running so it was Wednesday.

So here's some snaps of the lovely cooler weather that is to be had down by the Bay.

Sailing into the 20 meter boat basin

The Boat with the Blue Spinnaker won this Heat Race

It was about a quarter mile ahead by the time the boats were down the reach.

This Gull was not having a good day, and if we hadn't had Wolfie with us, I would have captured it for Wildlife Rescue.  Someone did come for it, nonetheless, probably alerted by several others who had seen it.

Some of the walkways are being repaired, and this benchmark medallion was moved to the new site when that was done.  Isn't it cool looking.  I wish that I could have it but of course to take it would be very rude.

But of course, I still want it. lol ......it and another glass float from Japanese fishing boat nets.

Well, I hope you had a lovely weekend, with the Holiday in it and all.  I'm feeling a little better, and my hands seem to be getting better, too.  Hopefully I can drag out the knitting soon!  Sandy, I hope your hands are better.  I wish we could have met up!

Happy Fourth of July!

Here is a long time favorite HTML fireworks Display.  Enjoy!

Personally, I don't like large outdoor displays.  They scare the devil out of everything, including human babies, who have more sense than Adult humans!  lol

Tuesday Tails... Tort Report

Milagro met her mother a couple of days ago, and was introduced to roses as a treat.  She was not intimidated at all by the size difference and bobbed her head at Poko Ono, in challenge.

Poko just ignored Milagro and kept right on eating.

I had earlier given them both drinks of water after filling the bird bath:

The next morning, I was watering the shade patio plants, and the Lucky and his dad, Churchy, who know each other well as sparring partners, came down from the hill for a big drink.

Lucky is in the front, and Churchy is just almost out of the frame to the rear.

Tortoises love to get wet and to drink up the puddles left in summertime when I water.  In the wild, if there is a rain storm, tortoises will come from all around and just PILE into the resulting pools of a desert rain storm in Spring and Summer. 

It's really been hot here, up around a 100 or more degrees.

This next picture really gives a good view of the difference in a male tortoise's shell.   They curve down at the tail end very distinctly.

Dusty and Milagro spend a little time outside in an enclosure but with temperatures up so high, we can't let them stay too long.  The big torts all have dug tunnels into the earth so that they can cool down.  We can't let the two babies do that or we'd never see them again.  I remember catching seven of them one year, after we discovered Lucky overturned in a flowerpot, dropped there by a crow.  That poor little fellow, no bigger than a half a walnut, was walking crookedly for several years after that!

His sisters and brothers I caught by getting up very early and watching for them to reveal themselves as they came out of their hiding places in the rock wall.  So fun, having these pets but also a pain in heart because they are not easy to raise and must spend several years awake and eating just to get them large enough to survive.    A friend has two of them so with Lucky, that is only three that survived to grow up out of the seven. 

Hope you enjoyed this Tuesday Tails.  Wolfie has read this and approves of the content.  hehe

DH is reading something to me:  I am warning you.  Please don't you be eating what has been just announced as the worst fast food in America.   It's called a Big Catch.  It is a big, deep fried fish piece, and comes with deep fried hush puppies and onion rings.  Sounds yummy to me!  hehe..

It weighs in as calories at 1,320, which is no more than a Big Mac, fries and a shake, but this thing is a  60/40 split of fish and greasy batter.  Still sounds yummy to me!  I'd better go eat some carrot sticks! 

Monday Music : IZ singing his medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and "What a Wonderful World".

The internet was down at our house for several hours this evening, so we watched the film, " Finding Forrester". 

At the end of it, while the credits where running, I recognized a beautiful voice. 

This is a gorgeous medley of two of my favorite songs.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do whenever I accidently come across it.  And, look for the red star in the sky, Hokule'a, Star of Gladness.  The Greeks called it Arturus  and it has a very significant role in at least two mythologies.