This is a picture from October 1970 at Uncle Burnis' house just outside the city limits of Roxboro, N.C. Uncle Burnis (not really my uncle, but my mom's, sort of) is showing my best friend at the time and me how to milk a cow. The back of the head with black hair is mine. The blonde is David Isner. This cow milking technique thingy we learned that day would come in handy a few years later ... :-)
Here's a little something that's 'udderly' ridiculous.
"To The Thawing Wind"
by Robert Frost
Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snow-bank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate’er you do to-night,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ices go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit’s crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o’er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.
(from "A Boy’s Will" - 1913)
At first, Toby was up by me on the ottoman with his head across my legs. He was loving life. Then in walked Parker. Parker jumped up on my lap, eventually working her way toward the ottoman and forcing Toby down and into his bed. She's a tough cat -- with sharp claws -- and she knows how to throw her weight around.
This is what one of the bird feeders in the back flower garden looked like after Sunday's snow. After a snowfall, it's particularly important to make sure there is food in your feeder.
Other FAQs about feeding birds can be found here.
Here are some bird games to play.
Meltdown Monday hit sort of a plateau this week. I lost one pound -- maybe a pound and a half. But I didn't really deserve to lose any more than that. I did nothing to help the cause as far as exercise goes and ate some bread -- which I shouldn't have. But there's promise of warmer weather to come once this snow melts and moves away. That will make it a bit easier to get out and about.
Here's a little Fatboy Slim remix I'm using to get me moving this morning.
My progress:
Weight 01.01.07: 274 pounds
Weight 02.26.07: 253 pounds
Karen sent me this ... it freaks me out just a bit that it is so easy to read...
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
So, were all of you able to read it as easily as I could? Freaky......
I shot this from the steps that lead up to the south side of the bridge over the C&D Canal.
Janet loves animals and TV shows. She also loves imitating the animals on TV shows and movies.
The movie trailer for Curious George can be found here.
With the end of the NFL season and the Eagles pre-Super Bowl exit, the only thing I could do was wait for NASCAR to start racing again. Hey, I grew up in North Carolina. I'm predisposed to loving the smell of gasoline and the sound of rumbling V8 engines.
Last Sunday was the season-opening Daytona 500. Today it's the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.
Here's the rest of the season's schedule.
Not a race fan but like to make fun of those who are? Here's a page of jokes for you.
UPDATE: Lacey wanted to know if I was a redneck. I wasn't sure how to answer that so I took an "Are you a Redneck" quiz and scored 15 out of 15. (A true redneck, however, would have had to have someone read the quiz to them.)Since Saturdays are my Fridays when it comes to my work week, here's a little something something about casual Fridays .... Watch for the "handshake."
UPDATE: OK.... That was a bit strange. But I swear there was nothing else in my coffee except vanilla and Nutrasweet. I swear.
I spent some time waiting around in a treatment room in the emergency room at Union Hospital in Elkton on Thursday night/Friday morning. Everything is OK, in case you're wondering. But with my apologies to all you nurses, doctors, orderlies, etc. and so on out there .... I hate hospitals.
Every office needs a good Fridge Nazi. The night copydesk at my job has the best there is. Introducing KP in all his glory as he kneels before the copydesk fridge, trash can at the ready, tossing out items that have been in there chilling for a day or two. Sometimes, less. After all, the Fridge Nazi rules. KP even has a cohort. Dave (back to the camera) will be next in line to take over Fridge Nazi duties.
This past week was the best. Someone put a glass bottle in the fridge, the temp was turned way down, the bottle froze and shattered, and stuff went everywhere. It was the kind of incident that completely justifies the existence of Fridge Nazis around the world. We are still hearing about it in our little corner, days after it happened.
I'll try to video the next cleaning session so you get the full effect.
I'm going for something calming in today's thing-along....
I can never pass this song by if I'm scanning through the radio and it is playing...
This photo from 1969 is of my brother Stephen (left) and me each wearing a pair of Pops' shoes. On the back of the photo, Mama wrote:
I wonder if they'll always try to walk in their Daddy's footsteps!!
The geese were landing in a nearby field (above) Monday as I helped my youngest brother move some of his things out of a storage unit he had been renting.
Most of the space in the unit was taken up by all of his duck and Canada goose decoys -- mostly Big Foot goose ones -- that he uses during waterfowl hunting season.
The upstairs toilet has not been filling with water correctly the past couple of days, so yesterday I went to Lowe's and picked up a new Fluidmaster fill valve to replace the old one. I'm just glad I didn't have to tell people in the store I was fixing my ballcock assembly.
How could I almost forget it was Presidents Day? This presidential tribute to Papa George is from Dazed and Confused ....
I lost two pounds this week bringing the total to an even 20 pounds since the first of the year. I still feel I could be doing better, although I am pleased it was another week of progress. My clothes feel looser and I feel better. I have not gone clothes shopping to buy anything new yet but will do so soon as a reward of sorts. I still need to exercise more, but I am working on that.
My progress:
Weight 01.01.07: 274 pounds
Weight 02.19.07: 254 pounds
So a special person sent me an e-mail with these pins attached to it. She said I could share with my friends -- and I consider you my friends -- but she said I could NOT tell anyone who sent them to me. I will abide by that request. There are some good ones in here. Let me know in the comments which one fits you or yours best. As always, you can click on each picture to enlarge it for easier reading. It will open in a new window.
ZOE ... Your pin is in the second set, bottom row, third from the left. If the rest of you want to understand why, click on Zoe's name to read an entry from her blog, Royal Mom.
There are rules men have for going to the bathroom and these three guys break all of them.
Don't know what the rules are? Watch this video. It's about nine minutes long but worth it.
Cecil County, Md., continues to see farmland and open space be gobbled up by McMansions. It's sad to watch these great old farms wither and die in their own fields...
So the back road was a little messy this afternoon when I headed in for work. That's thanks to the ice, snow and freezing rain we had Tuesday night.
A snowstorm turned ice storm has knocked out power to Chesapeake City. It's been out since 6 this morning and is not expected to be restored until tonight. This is the poor bush that only a month or so ago had bloomed because of the warm winter we were having. I will post more, including photos and video, after work.
As the back of the picture says, the top picture is of the roses Pops sent Mama before they were a Pops and a Mama. It was for Valentine's Day in 1965 while they were living in married student housing at North Carolina State University. It was their first Valentine's Day as a married couple and their next to last without kids.
It's snowing again ... This is the view out the front door.
Want to know more about Nina Simone? Click here.
If you know me at all, you know I dig the chick flicks. I was looking for a little pick me up and came across this. It's one of my favorite scenes from "Beautiful Girls".
I lost three pounds this week, bringing the total to 18 pounds so far. I feel pretty good about the way things are going. I still could exercise more and will be working on that. The dumbbells I bought have come in handy and I use them pretty much each morning. They are kind of light but I do multiple exercises with them, not really lifting-type exercises.
As for the cartwheel, it's coming along. I still need to hook up with TLC for some lessons when I get the chance. Maybe next week.
My progress:
Weight 01.01.07: 274 pounds
Weight 02.12.07: 256 pounds
The other night at the end of work, Dave told the following joke. I thought it was pretty funny ... but it's the kind of joke you have to hear, you can't just read it .... If blonde jokes bother you, don't hit play. I'll put up a short dick joke for you blondes later ... :-)
Esteban finally found the time to post proof he did the Polar Bear Plunge.
| 100 Years by Five for Fighting |
 "Every day's a new day... 15 there's still time for you Time to buy and time to choose Hey 15, there's never a wish better than this When you only got 100 years to live" 2004 was about thinking and reflecting - but isn't every year? |
This willy-related thing gives me the willies ... Willy, it does. I'm not kidding.
Some of the people over at Vimeo have been posting what they call lip dubbing videos in which the person films themselves singing songs -- but not really singing. The actual music is dubbed in to the final product. Here's my attempt at one:
I added in the old Folgers commercial because even I couldn't stand to sit there and watch myself sing the whole time.
I've known the words to that song -- "Your Smiling Face" by James Taylor -- since high school when I would sing it at parties in my parents' basement.
Here are some links to some cool lip dubbing videos done by other uploaders on Vimeo:
So a few years ago -- before I became wise to their ways -- I ordered one of those barbecue sauce kits being sold by a group calling itself the Maryland Police Association or something similar. It was like $60 and was crappy but I felt like I had helped the police help others and eventually solved all the world's problems. Then I started getting calls every few months from these 'police charity groups' -- with the caller trying to put on their best police-sounding voice each time.
This is a 3 minute video explaining how and showing where I got my most recent speeding ticket.
I can remember hearing this song coming from the boombox I had tied to the front of my bike handlebars. I'd be pedaling along and singing --
Hot child in the city ...Hot Child in the City was a platinum-selling Number 1 single in 1978 for Nick Gilder.
Runnin' wild and lookin' pretty...
Last Wednesday's post had a couple of pictures of the boys' football team Pops was on. This week's post includes the only picture I know of of my mom and the basketball team she played on. Mama is in the middle of the back row.
This hot sauce is awesome. It's called Sriracha and it's a hot chile sauce made out of chiles, sugar, salt, garlic and vinegar. I bought some the other night before the Super Bowl. it's great on wings and on hot sausages. I bet it would also be incredible on raw oysters. Anyway, I wasn't sure if I needed to refrigerate it after opening it so I did some research and learned that apparently you do not have to refrigerate this Americanized brand.
This Wikipedia site contains information on sriracha.
So I was on my way to work today when I crested a small rise in a road only to see one of these staring at me. He turned around pretty fast, hit his lights and pulled me over. I was so close to the Delaware state line -- about 200 yards -- I actually thought of just gunning it and making him chase me across a state line. I have no idea why I even thought that. Anyway, he wrote me up for doing 44 in a 35 mph zone ... $80 ticket. He said I was doing quite a bit more than that. Who am I to argue with him? Let's just say that was the best thing that happened to me all day.
Thanks for the monk-e-mails. I am really going to use them ...
Really ...
I am ...
I just got back from Walmart with one of my brothers. While there, I picked up these two nifty 15-pound dumbbells for under $9 each. I figured if I fail to use them for exercising, I can always use these as weapons or door stops or to hold down a tarp. I started to buy this dumbbell set instead, but thought better of it until I'm sure I'm actually going to get some use out of them. The funny part of it is when I saw the 15-pound dumbbell, the reason I picked it up is to feel what the amount of weight I've lost so far felt like.
I lost two more pounds this week, bringing the total since January 1 to 15 pounds. I wasn't much of stickler to my diet yesterday (Super Bowl Sunday) so that didn't help. But hey, if I can lose two pounds on a week that includes cheese dip, wings and beer I'm a happy man. The main problem was a lack of exercise. It really was too damn cold outside to do much of anything. You'll notice that even in today's picture of the scale I'm wearing Acorn Fleece Sox. Right now, it's 10 degrees and that's too cold to be trotting up and down the canal roads down by the water. I guess I can do something here in the house. I should ponder on that and get back to you.
Weight 01.01.07: 274 pounds
Weight 02.05.07: 259 pounds
I apologize for how dark the video is ...
I was trying to watch the Super Bowl and all that Toby the Jack Russell wanted to do was get me to fight with him over ownership of the blue heart. I could give a rat's ass which one of us owns it. Toby, on the other hand, wants to constantly fight over it.
and wings and beer and cheese dip ...
And are you ready for the Bears to run the opening kick back for a touchdown?
Holy shit....
UPDATE: 01/05/07 12:55 a.m. This is my favorite ad...
Esteban is a Polar Bear Plunge veteran and will be doing it again today. The temperature in Rehoboth Beach, Del., is supposed to be in the 20s when this happens at 1 this afternoon. Shrinkage is a definite, I would say.
I'll link you to pictures of his latest effort when he posts them. Here are links to some of his past plunges:
A little easy music ....
This song from 1977 reminds me of K-tel compilation albums, console stereos and darkened dens ... I was 11 in '77 but the song was still as magical a couple of years later when I had my first real boy-girl party, including that first slow dance nuzzle. You know what I'm talking about.... That, ummmmmmm, so glad to be here with you nuzzle....That, ummmmmmm, your bare neck tempts me so much that I am forced to brush my lips against it nuzzle.... That ummmmmmm, my hormones are going crazy in here nuzzle....
Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't even try to pretend you don't ...
In case some of you don't read Mara's blog -- Whole Lots o' Nothin' -- I'd like to pass along some props to her for this post.
I made this montage of government photos into a video about seven months ago and posted on BG. With the recent announcement of an escalation in the number of American troops being sent to Iraq and the request by Bush for more money to fight the war, I thought it appropriate to post this again as a reminder of something that is not as public as it should be -- the return of troops killed in Iraq. The administration says the decision to not release photos or allow coverage was a decision made out of privacy and respect. It could also be a decision that was made in the hopes that out of sight, meant out of mind -- and the public would not immediately equate war with dead Americans.
Here is the gallery of over 280 photos of the flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
OK.... that last post was a bit of a slap in the face for a Friday, literally. Let's move on to a lighter subject....
Here's a look at the real Thriller dance.
Others have done their own versions:
Like a horse focused on the piece of track in front of it, sometimes we are so focused on our own paths we are blind to all the things happening around us. But unlike the horse, who has no choice in whether to wear blinders, any blinders we are wearing are of our own design and doing.
I've decided to make an effort to look around each day -- to try to see more of what is happening around me so I can see things starting to happen further out. I'm trying to think things through more. To consider more possible outcomes before I do anything. But in doing these things -- making this extra effort -- am I creating a new set of blinders for myself. Are blinders built of questions, worries and fears just as bad as blinders built of ignorance and bliss?
You may have noticed I didn't post anything Thursday except for the Thing-along. I used the time I'd normally blog to make a video for this goodbye blog for a guy who is leaving the paper I work for and heading to The Baltimore Sun. He, like all the people I work with directly, is a great person and we are all sad for ourselves to see him go, but happy for him. Check out the video on the blog to see just a few of the people I work with.
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