Ant Music

Here's another video of crawling ants. This one is of a bunch of ants and ant eggs in an umbrella that had fallen on the ground before a torrential downpour went through the area.

I love my brothers

I love my brothers ... and I feel extraordinarily special to have a family that is as close as mine is to each other. I am so very thankful for ALL of my brothers...

Finally.....

Haircuts are a great pick me up. I've been trying to get to the barbershop for the past couple of weeks and haven't been able to make it in time... until today. The picture on the left is from last week before my new cut. I like my barber. She's full of jokes and remembers me and things about me, even when I haven't been in weeks. But this guy didn't have such a great experience.

Meltdown Monday

Total loss last week was three pounds, an improvement over the week before. I'm on vacation this week -- a vacation at home -- so I hope I don't go and put it all back on by eating big meals, drinking cold beers and sitting around lazily on the porch.
Progress:
07/09/07: 284 pounds
07/30/07: 274 pounds
Total loss: 10 pounds

Maybe I should try exercising to this guy's little fitness routine:



I watch him and he just makes me want to dance .... Trust me, watch the whole thing when you have time. It's worth it.

Something funny for your Friday ..

Thursday Thing-along

"Formerly known as" or not, Prince is still one hell of a musician.

Way Back When-sday

The picture at top is me in the eighth grade and I'm leaning over a black case with my clarinet in it. Granddaddy gave me the money for this clarinet. I can't remember if he paid for the whole thing or just part of it, but I do know he gave money for it. At right is a picture I just took of me holding the same clarinet today. I always hoped I'd be able to play it like Benny Goodman. That didn't happen, but I did manage to earn first chair in the band. Maybe I'll buy a new reed for it to see if I can still play it at all.

Anyway, here's a bit of Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee for you to give you an idea of what it should sound like:



Any other closet band geeks out there?

Here kitty, kitty, kitty

You've heard of The Cat in the Hat. Well, this is The Cat in the Bag. This is Parker taking a nap in a Vera Bradley bag of Natalie's. The bag matches Parker's eyes -- she's so fashionable. Parker is not one of those cats that typically doesn't have to find a hiding place to get away or take a nap. She usually has no problem just splaying herself wherever she feels comfortable.

Movie Mashup

I haven't made one of these in a while... Good luck with your guesses. There are 10 movies here in under a minute.

Meltdown Monday

Week No. 2 of the new Meltdown Monday is down .... I lost one pound this week, but I forgot to weigh until after lunch so it may have been more. I've got to get back in the routine of weighing at the same time.
I decided not to run the picture every week. Instead I'll do a monthly comparison between the shots from the start and ones from the current month. That way, hopefully, there will be a difference to see.

Progress:
07/09/07: 284 pounds
07/23/07: 277 pounds
Total loss: 7 pounds

Dancing bees

The bees just absolutely love the flowers in the bed at the back corner of the yard. I took some pictures and video of them today at work gathering pollen. I especially like this picture with one bee on the flower and another bee in flight in the background. Click on it to see it big. I'll try to post more later. In the video at the top, I used the new Paul McCartney song because it seems to fit with the bees dancing back and forth with each other between the flowers. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Up on the roof ....

The roofing guys were here shortly after 8 this morning to redo the front porch roof. It's a rolled roof with a slight slope. The picture is after they have put down the torchable roofing (they used a torch to melt/adhere the pieces together. They'll come back later to paint it silver. The old roof developed a leak over the past couple of months and some water had made its way through the ceiling of the porch. The good news is the roofers said the boards and joists are solid. It's costing about $700 but is worth it to have someone else do it since roofing is not one of my strong points -- to say the least.

My brother Stephen said he'll help when it's time to put down new tongue-and-groove boards on the porch flooring. That should be soon.

Something funny for your Friday

An experiment ...

Flung apart by a sudden and unexpected upheaval of the world beneath them,
they reach out blindly, eyes closed tight against the pain.
A familiar touch or smell or voice would do wonders right now.
Desperate and lonely -- they call into the darkness around them and wait for answers.
Here I am. Where are you?
Here I am. Where are you?

The answers never come ...
Here I am. Where are you?
No answer ...
Here I am. Where are you?
No answer ...

But each holds on to hope ...
Here I am. Where are you?

Each holds on to the past ...
Here I am. Where are you?

Each holds on to their yesterday.
Here I am. Where are you?

Because yesterday, everything was normal.
Here I am. Where are you?
Here I am. Where are you?

They hold on to hope ...
Because yesterday ... everything was normal.

...................

Moonlight .... feels right

I was going through the computer files cleaning out old video clips and photos and other things I didn't want to keep and came across this clip. I shot it a couple of months ago when I decided to stretch out in the grass in the backyard to relax and noticed there were clouds moving in front of a full moon. I added some music to make it a bit more interesting.

Thursday Thing-along

Just trying to spice things up a bit. The words are printed karaoke style on this video, so sing along -- if you dare.



Here's hoping any reunion is short-lived.

Way Back When-sday

This picture was taken of us in the back yard of our home in Grifton, N.C. According to Pops' note on the back, it was the summer of 1969.

Stephen is using a watering can to sprinkle water onto the ground and his feet. I'm using a hose to keep filling up his watering can when he runs out of water. You can tell by the puddle I am standing in that there was no drought restrictions on water use. You can also tell by how white I am that those parts of my body may never before have been exposed to the sun. Either that or I've been coated in zinc oxide.

Here's what else was going on in 1969.

Meltdown Monday

Week No. 1 of the new Meltdown Monday is down .... and so is my weight. I lost six pounds this week, mainly through a combination of eating fewer calories and healthier food, drinking more water and working in the yard and sweating quite a bit. It's a promising start. I'm not sure if I should run the picture of me every week or just once a month. What do y'all think?



Progress:
07/09/07: 284 pounds
07/16/07: 278 pounds
Total loss: 6 pounds

Fun at the pool ... the remix

A remixed version of some of the clips from last weekend at Russell and Wendy's house.

Autumn loses another tooth

I opened up my e-mail today to find pictures from my brother Russell. The pictures are of my niece Autumn and the widening gap in her front teeth. If you remember, she lost her first tooth last Sunday. She lost her second tooth on Saturday. My how things happen so fast.

Here's a fun little Web site to help you learn more about teeth and dentists.

He is happiest ...

When I bought this house, there were some old windows in the cellar from when some had to be replaced on the side of the house. The front windows are pretty much the originals from the mid to late 1800's. We kept the windows, just in case, and at some point I saw something in a magazine about alternative uses for old windows. This is my interpretation of one of those uses. It hangs in the renovated guest bedroom. I was reminded of it by this post on Keep the Coffee coming, one of my favorite music blogs.

Here's the link to the main page of Keep the Coffee Coming.

Something funny for your Friday

It's not all that funny really, but it is kind of cute. The funny one I wanted to post was so adult oriented, I chose not to. But it was hilarious -- trust me.

Thursday Thing-along

I love a good rain storm ... and Sade.

• Here is her official site.
• Here is her wikipedia listing.

Way Back When-sday

This picture is from our vacation to the Land of Oz, a theme park in the mountains of North Carolina. This is from October 1970. On the left is our friend David Isner, I'm in the middle and my brother Stephen is on the right. Russell would have still been too little to sit up. The Land of Oz was a hit when it opened in 1970, with over 400,000 people going to see the Yellow Brick Road and the trees with faces. In 1980, the park closed to everyday tourists but it has found a new life today.

Watching the Wizard of Oz was a family tradition. We always knew what night it was coming on and we were allowed to stay up late to watch it. The flying monkeys would always freak me out.

Anyway, here's an interesting Wizard of Oz site.

And here's a little music semi-related to this post:

An afternoon at the pool

My brother Russell and his wife, Wendy, had a little cookout at their house Sunday afternoon and their pool proved popular. At top is some video of the goings on. To the right is a mosaic of a burst of pictures of Russell attempting a flip. Click on it to see it bigger. My favorite is the one with his head and arms in the water but everything else sticking out.

Tooth fairy alert

Autumn lost her first tooth on Sunday afternoon.

Meltdown Monday ... It's back

According to the new scales, I weigh 284 pounds. That would mean I gained nearly 40 pounds since stopping Meltdown Monday a couple of months ago. I have not gained 40 pounds, but did re-gain some of what I had lost. It's just a difference in how these scales weigh and how the other, now broken one, weighed. Anyhow, these are the scales I'll go by starting today as I begin anew my Meltdown Mondays and my quest for a happier, healthier me. I'll try to share with you my successes and failures.

I'll take you along on my attempts to exercise and give you the chance to give me tips and pointers. Perhaps some of you have great recipe ideas you'd like to share. And of course, if any of you want to play along, that would be great. The more the merrier...

Here's a little inspirational music:

Drinking Bird....

This is one of those drinking birds. My grandmom had one that I talked about so Mama and Pops gave me this one a couple of Christmases ago.

Here is how a drinking bird works.

Meltdown Monday set to make its return

I plan to start Meltdown Monday fresh this coming Monday and the above steak-stuffed pizza was my gift to my stomach Friday night. Life gets complicated sometimes -- for all of us -- and we just have to stop everything for a bit, gain a fresh focus, choose paths and attempt to move ahead. Since this is the simplest thing I can do right now, I'm making it the first step to regaining control of my life.

.....

Although I know I've re-gained some of what I lost, the other scales (now broken) were either off or these are. Either way, these new scales are the ones I will go by starting Monday. I'll start at a fresh weight with a fresh perspective and hope to once again start progressing toward a goal of a happier, healthier me.

Something funny for your Friday

Thursday Thing-along

A little Joe Jackson for you.

Driving to the airport in Philly

For all you who have never been to the East Coast, this is what a drive from Chesapeake City, Md., to the Philadelphia International Airport looks like.... Sped up, of course.

Way Back When-sday

In the photo at top from the summer of 1971, Russell (left) has a beater, Stephen (center) has a spoon and I have a beater. We are all enjoying licking the cake batter off our own utensils. But if you click on the photo at right, you'll notice that when I take time to lick some of the batter off my fingers, Stephen grabs my beater and starts stealing my batter. Licking the beaters -- and better yet, the bowl -- was one of childhood's most joyous moments. Despite the warnings, we never got sick from it.

My favorites were the cream cheese icing for carrot cake (my favorite cake) and the batter for homemade chocolate chip cookies.

'Now you try'

My niece Autumn tries to teach me how to do a cartwheel.

Emily, another of my nieces, had also tried to teach me.

But I'm holding off for now because doing cartwheels can get you in trouble.

Grillmaster

Pops puts some spices on the chicken and ribs we cooked for Canal Day. I drank too much too early -- as usual on Canal Day -- so there aren't a bunch of pictures. I'll post a few more later.

UPDATED: OK, I may as well get this over with. This is a picture of me asleep/passed out -- whatever -- in a chair on Canal Day afternoon. I'm not sure who put the flower behind my ear. At least they could have straightened up my hair or something. Anyway, this is obviously one of the pictures Oyster Girl and anonymous (I know who you are, BG) wanted to see. Especially since BG sent it to me. There are others, but this pretty much says it all. I had a good time.