Good morning Everyone!
While this spring has sported unusually cool weather for Alabama, the azaleas had a brief chance to put on their usual fireworks show. Here are just a few of them:
Have a great day!
Nancy
Posted in Art, Just stuff..., working mom
Tagged azalea, azaleas, flowers, photography, spring
Good morning Everyone!
Kayla’s elementary school has a unique feature: a rock garden pool.
When we have a heavy rain the day before, the boundary of the pool slips ever so slightly out of its bounds onto the rocks as well, and then over the next day slowly recedes back into its normal boundaries.
A couple of weeks ago, the water was receding over the rocks when Kayla and her friends discovered a swarm of tadpoles that were caught in a puddle on the rock and which would soon die. Kayla collected empty water bottles from her friends, punched holes in the lids, filled the bottles with the pond water and proceeded to catch several tadpoles for each of her friends, including herself. She told me her friends were calling her “The Tadpole Whisperer.” She also presented me with the algae-and-tadpole ridden water bottle that was hers and informed me that she was going to take her six tadpoles and raise them into frogs.
Now, let’s back track just a minute. As many of you may recall, we have three “inside” dogs:
Tyra
Mandy
Darwin
Ever since Dog #3 was admitted into our home, Kayla has been repeatedly told that we will have no other pets, not even a goldfish, entering the house. (This wise rule has prevented sustained arguments over rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, ferrets, goldfish, aquariums, mice, baby squirrels, etc.)
When she presented the algae- and tadpole-ridden water bottle to me, I reminded her of this rule. She informed me, absolutely seriously, that the no-pet rule didn’t count here because she would merely be fostering them until they turned into frogs. Thinking that such a fine argument deserved at least a little credit, I told her she could bring the bottle home, but that she needed permission from both Mark and I to keep the tadpoles until they were frogs, and that I didn’t really think it was likely she’d be able to keep them. (I also started doing a mental inventory in my mind of the multitude of aquarium-related equipment we’d need for this to be a success and decided that it was not going to be cost-effective, either.)
Sure enough, once the tadpole bottle made it home and an inventory of the effort and effect of raising the six tadpoles was completed, Kayla was told that her tadpole project was a no-go and the tadpoles would have to be disposed of.
Bull frog Tadpole, Photograph from the U.S. Geological Survey and therefore part of the public domain
Kayla took it well and that was the end of it.
Or at least it should have been. Now we come to the part that annoys me – I just couldn’t dump the tadpoles either down the toilet or onto the pavement. I just couldn’t. Even though logic told me that 1) the tadpoles should have died on the rocks at the school anyhow , 2) even if they didn’t, the odds of any one of them living to be a frog were infinitely small and 3) if they had been spiders or insects I would have stomped on them (or had Mark do so) without hesitation, I just couldn’t dump them out without at least a chance at life. Nor could I just return them to the rock pool, since I gauged their chances of success there almost as slim as if I poured them out on the driveway.
Mark didn’t really understand it either, but since he loves me and Kayla he graciously gave us a couple of more days to allow me to have time, finally, on my lunch hour to carry the tadpoles to an offshoot of Lake Martin near our house where I could release them.
It is a testimony to Kayla’s skills as a tadpole catcher and feeder that all six of the little things were still alive when I released them in a quiet, warm, still section of the lake.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Child's Play, Pets, working mom
Tagged algae, Elementary school, frogs, Lake Martin, rock garden, rock pool, tadpoles
Hi Everyone!
Map of Alabama, from the Texas Public Library Collection of maps
An email encounter with someone from out West started me thinking about what it really means to be from Alabama, and so I compiled this list.
You know you’re from Alabama if:
From http://www.clickartonline.com, all rights reserved
1) Your first reaction upon meeting someone from any city with a population of over 1,000,000 people is to ask them if they know your sister’s neighbor’s daughter, Betty Sue, who moved to that city five years ago.
Lynyrd Skynyrd in Concert in 2010. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, by Andrew King.
2) The opening riffs to “Sweet Home Alabama” raise your heart beat and give you the uncontrollable urge to sing along with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
3) You think Jimmy Buffett’s rendition of “Stars Fell On Alabama” should be the state song.
from http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. All rights reserved.
4) You are surprised to find out that neither “Sweet Home Alabama” nor “Stars Fell On Alabama’” are the state song.
5) Your definition of a “mixed marriage” means that one spouse is an Auburn fan and the other is an Alabama fan.
From http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. All rights reserved.
6) You wonder why in a state with a large NASA facility in the north of the State, state of the art automotive manufacturers sprinkled across the center of the state, a state of the art steel plant and Airbus plant in the south of the state and several major universities, the national news media can only find the least educated and articulate of us to interview on television.
From http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. All rights reserved.
7) Air conditioning is a necessity, not a luxury.
8) You do not think running the heat at night and the air conditioner during the day in the spring and fall is odd.
9) You get your coat and car keys, not a tool box, when your husband tells you he is fixing to go somewhere.
10) You know perfectly well that there are three second person pronouns:
“You” – second person singular, as in “why don’t you come with me?”
“Y’all” – second person plural, as in “Why don’t y’all come over to dinner?”
“All y’all” - second person plural heightened, to be used when you are inviting large groups of people to do something instead of groups of five or less.
Picture by Torsten Bolten, on Wikimedia Commons.
11) You think that basketball and baseball are just something they do to kill time until football season rolls back again.
12) You have ever considered the date of the Iron Bowl as something to be avoided when scheduling important family functions such as weddings, births and funerals.
13) You don’t have to ask what the term “Iron Bowl” refers to.
From http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. All rights reserved.
14) You are astounded that the man who invented air conditioning does not have a national holiday named after him.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Football, Just stuff..., On the Home Front, working mom
Tagged air conditioning, Alabama, Auburn, fall, football, humor, spring, y'all
Hi Everyone!
I had hoped that by the time Kayla hit age 11, we would be evolving out of the stage where I continue to discover rules that I never thought I would need as a parent. Apparently, that is not true.
Here is the new rule:
Do not use the barbecue lighter to burn an egg shell and paper together in your bedroom, even if you were impressed with the welding demonstration at the junior college the previous day.
Sigh.
Fortunately, it was not necessary to call the fire department, and nothing in the house was harmed.
Here is the original list.
1) Do not squirt the ink out of a ballpoint pen in the bathroom and mix it with water in order to make ink “like Harry Potter uses.” (Age 10).
2) Do not lose control of the ballpoint pen and ink during the squirting process, spraying black ink all over the bathroom. (Age 10).
3) If you do spray black ink all over the bathroom, do not fail to call in reinforcements immediately. (Age 10).
4) Do not bring lady bugs, worms, crickets, roly-poly’s, moths, butterflies, lizards or any other type of insect or reptile into the house as pets. (Ages 5-10 and counting.)
5) Mom is the spider killing expert, but roaches need to be handled by Dad.
6) When your mother who is recovering from surgery tells you she has to take a nap, gives you the run of the house and the back yard with the sole restriction being do not go out the front door until she is awake, do not lock the dogs in the back yard, and play with your friends for two hours with the front door open, you on the inside side of the door and your friends on the outside side of the door. (Age 10).
7) Do not jam your elbow into a plastic hurricane glass until it gets stuck in an effort to keep the infinitesimal scratch on your elbow from getting wet in the bath and stinging. (Age 9).
8 ) Do not feed paper to the dogs as a treat. At least two of the three are dumb enough to believe you. (Age 10).
9) Soap is required for a bath to really be a bath. (Age 5).
10) Do not wash your hair with conditioner only. (Age 8 through 9).
11) It’s not a good idea to fill the bathroom sink with Dixie cups and then fill it with water. (Age 6 but she had help from a visiting 4-year-old.)
12) Do not dump the entire bottle of shampoo in the tub to use as bubble bath. (Ages 6 through 8).
13) Do not dump the entire bottle of liquid soap from the sink in the tub to use as bubble bath. (Ages 6 through 8).
14) Do not dump the entire bottle of conditioner in the tub for reasons I have yet to understand. (Ages 6 through 8).
15) Do not drag a dog into the bathtub with you. (Age 6).
16) The controls on the dashboard in the car, including the radio, are MINE! Please leave them alone. (Ages 4 to 10 and counting).
17) Do not try to pierce your ears with the end of a paper clip, even if it looks like an earring hole is there. (Age 6 and 7).
18) Do not cook eggs on the stove without a parent’s presence and permission. (About age 7: this one is harder to justify because the one time that she did cook the eggs by herself, she did a good job and remembered to turn the stove off, which is more than I do sometimes!)
19) Do not cut the screen out of its frame in the window. (Age 5).
20) Do not put anything in your ear, including rocks, without consulting an adult first. (Age 4.)
21) Do not put anything in your nose, including wooden sticks, without consulting an adult first. (Age 4)
22) Which led to: Do not put anything in any body part for any reason unless a parent says it is okay, with the exception of food or drink in your mouth.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Child's Play, working mom
Tagged daughter, humor, junior college, lighter, parenting, welding
Good morning Everyone!
From http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. Copyright protected.
Believe it or not, we are already half way through the first month of 2013! Studies show that by now, many who made New Year’s resolutions have already let them slide, and by the end of the month, most of the rest of us will follow suit. A few years ago, however, I discovered the secret to keeping a New Year’s resolution, and I thought today I’d share it with you.
A list of New Year’s resolutions – from http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. Copyright protected.
Before I learned this secret, I also participated in the New Year’s resolution mania, coming up with a long list of resolutions worthy of the finest list keepers in the realm, with all of the usual suspects on it – lose weight, eat right, exercise, get organized, keep the house better, and complete every uncompleted craft project I ever laid hands on along with a few inherited ones – only to wake up somewhere around mid-January to find that I had not kept one resolution out of the fifty or so that I had made. Then, one year, lightning struck and I discovered the way off of the New Year’s treadmill.
From http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. Copyright protected.
Here it is – the one and only New Year’s resolution you will ever need. (Do you hear the fan fare in the distance? Is the suspense gathering?) Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to introduce you to THE RESOLUTION:
RESOLVE NOT TO MAKE ANY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!
Applause!
This lofty but eminently keepable resolution is not without its pitfalls, however.
Avoid pitfalls!
From http://www.clickartonline.com by Broderbund. Copyright protected.
The worst pitfall is the peer pressure that slowly builds upon the resolver to make another New Year’s resolution, any other New Year’s resolution, as the previous year draws to a close. The pressure is at its peak the week between Christmas and New Year’s, as the media inundates you with stories about the types of resolutions to make and how to keep them and the way the life of Susie B. Smith in Smalltown, USA was changed forever to the good because SHE kept HER New Year’s resolution to open a museum dedicated to the noble history of chocolate chip cookies. (The free samples Susie B. Smith gave when you entered her museum certainly aided her success!). You start to think that maybe you could try just one little extra resolution. In spite of this pressure, stand firm. Cut the thought “Well maybe I should resolve to…” off at the knees. Think firmly “NO! Stop the insanity now! Not another year!” After a while it becomes second nature.
The second pitfall is to believe that by keeping the resolution not to make any more New Year’s resolutions you are resolving never to change. This thought adds to the pressure on you to make additional resolutions at New Year’s, since everyone wants to change for the better sometime. Simple common sense (which is usually neither simple nor common) shows the fallacy of this fear.
Instead of never changing, keeping this one resolution frees you to change whatever you want, whenever you want at any time of the year except January 1! By restricting yourself on one day out of 365 (366 in leap years), you gain 364(365) more days to make whatever changes you want. Such freedom is dizzying and empowering – if you believe you need to change something in your life, by agreeing not to package it up with the New Year’s insanity, you have freed yourself to make one small change at the time of your choosing, leading up to one huge success by June 16 or October 21 or November 2 or whatever other day you might choose.
Mind-blowing, isn’t it? So who’s with me?
From ClickArt Online, by Broderbund
Have a great day!
Nancy
Morning Everyone!
What’s good for the gosling is good for the goose!
Just a quick anecdote today, since I have a very busy schedule – rest, watch TV, eat lunch, nap, rest from napping, eat supper, etc…..
We got Kayla a small computer for Christmas this year – visualize one step above a netbook and one step below a true laptop – and she loves it.
I had been letting her use my netbook until it crashed a few months ago. She found the netbook frustrating because it loaded web pages a lot slower than a regular laptop does. Her Christmas computer is a vast improvement over the netbook, but still is not as fast as a full size computer. Kayla has a tendency to just keep hitting buttons when the web site isn’t doing what she wants it to do. While not unusual, this practice is a sure way to give your Internet Browser, or even your computer, a nervous breakdown. When she gets frustrated, I repeatedly remind her to hit the key once and wait to let the computer catch up with you rather than barraging it with keyboard strokes resembling a Texas-sized hail storm.
From http://www.clickart.com, by Broderbund
Copyright Protected.
This morning, I was checking my work e-mail, and tried to reply to a message. The window popped up, but my key strokes weren’t registering. I, of course, persisted in hitting keys repeatedly and at random trying to get the text to enter – until Internet Explorer crashed.
I’m glad that Kayla didn’t see it. I don’t expect I will share the story with her either!
Have a great day everyone, and very happy New Year’s Eve!
Nancy
Posted in Child's Play, working mom
Tagged computer, computers, family, geese, humor, kids, parenting, patience, technology
Good morning Everyone!
Some variation of the term “husky basset hound mix” has led people to this blog over 400 times since 2011. I have always found the popularity of that phrase interesting, since, for a long time, I thought our Mandy was absolutely unique.
Mandy and Mark in the Morning
Last January, when Sawyer’s owner e-mailed me, having read my post, “A Basset Hound/Siberian Husky Mix“, I learned for that first time that there was at least one other dog out there resembling our precious Mandy. Just to remind you, here’s a picture of Sawyer.
I was delighted! Sawyer had many of Mandy’s physical characteristics, but not all. Even more significantly, Sawyer shared Mandy’s joie d’vivre and laissez-faire attitudes.
I am happy to announce that now third basset hound/husky mix has made an appearance, and this owner has gone so far as to provide us with a name for the basset hound/husky cross – the “Busky.” Somehow it is fitting.
Meet “Bo” who was adopted by Ms. Hess.
He is the first busky we have found that is mostly black, with a white splash across his chest, but the body shape is there, and, Ms. Hess reports, so is the temperament!
Now, to me, Mark and Kayla, Bo is even more wondrous because of another resemblance he bears – to one of our two dearly departed dogs, Woof.
Woof, Back Yard, October 1, 2006
Can you see the resemblance?
Have a great day!
Nancy
P.S. Any other Basset-Husky mix owners, please let me know about your dog, too. Maybe we can make Busky’s as popular as Labradoodles!
Posted in dogs, working mom
Tagged basset hound, dog, dogs, husky basset hound, pet, pets, Siberian husky
Good morning, everyone!
I drive a black 2010 Hyundai Sonata that I really enjoy.
From http://www.clickartonline.com. Copyright protected. All rights reserved.
One feature in this car that impresses me is the push button start. Now, I know that push button start is not really a modern invention – many cars in the fifties and early sixties had them – but the computer chip in the “key” that tells the car that it is okay to open or start when the button is pushed is new. As long as that computer chip is about one foot from your car, all the push button features will work. The reason I enjoy push button start is – just imagine this ladies – I never, ever have to dig through my purse to find my keys. That is really cool, no matter who you are!
From http://www.clickartonline.com. Copyright protected. All rights reserved.
However, about three weeks ago, I came home for lunch one day, and when I got ready to leave the house, the car wouldn’t crank with the push button start, even though the lights in the car and everything else except the engine were working. I tried everything I knew to do, from using the emergency start key to charging the battery with our portable battery charger, but nothing worked. Defeated, I called the office, where one of my co-workers was gracious enough to come collect me and take me back to the office.
The Effect the Innate Sexism of all Mechanical Objects Has
From http://www.clickartonline.com
Copyright Protected; All Rights Reserved.
The plan was for Mark to check the Sonata once he got home, but before he did, while he went inside to change clothes, I tried the battery charger again. It still didn’t work. When Mark came back to the garage, he took the portable battery charger, connected it the exact same way that I had, and of course the car started right away. (For the women: Don’t you find the innate sexism of mechanical objects frustrating?)
The car ran well for a few days, but then it refused to start again while Kayla and I were running an errand. This time I took the portable battery charger, hooked it up, and the car started right away. I think the car knew that Mark was within calling distance.
When we took the car in for service the next weekend, the kind people at Parker Tire tested the battery for us while we were getting new tires from them. It was only at 200 crank amps when it should have been at 500 crank amps. I’m not terribly familiar with what a crank amp is, but since I can do basic math when I put my mind to it, I know that missing 300 of anything tends to have a negative effect on an object. I was relieved that Parker Tire replaced the battery for us, and I happily drove away, knowing that my battery troubles were finished.
Until…..
From http://www.clickartonline.com. Copyright protected. All rights reserved.
Last weekend, Mark was helping with inventory at his plant, so Kayla and I bought some Christmas decorations for the outside of our house. I asked Kayla to shut the trunk once we got everything out, but about three hours later, when we were finished, I walked into the garage to discover that the trunk remained open. Wanting to be sure that the battery was still good, I got in the car, pushed the button, and nothing happened. I was upset, of course, enough so that I made a special trip into the house to inform Kayla that I was not happy that she had forgotten to close the trunk.
I came back out into the garage, wearily hooked up the battery charger to the car yet again (really, I’m getting to be quite good at it), and tried to start it by pushing the button. Nothing happened. By now, I wasn’t just annoyed, I was exceedingly annoyed – even though the trunk had been open, a new battery shouldn’t go out like that. I made sure everything on the battery charger was working, and tried one more time before I went to call Hyundai. The car still didn’t start.
Oh.
From http://www.clickartonline.com. Copyright protected. All rights reserved.
I got ready to go back inside to call Hyundai, and automatically reached for my purse. At that moment, I realized that the car was not turning on because it lacked the key. My purse, with key tucked in it, was safe in the kitchen.
Sigh.
I apologized to my daughter, got my purse, and of course the car started like a charm. Problem solved!
Have a great day!
Nancy
Posted in On the Home Front, Technology, working mom
Tagged car repair, daughter, family, humor, Hyundai Sonata, push button start, technology
Good morning Everyone!
As I mentioned yesterday, I had the chance to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Huntsville during October. When I got ready to leave, I was stunned by the view outside the house. Here’s why:
The Fog LIfts off the mountain
In this next picture, the sunshine has reached part of the mountain, while the upper parts are still shrouded with fog.
The Sunshine Reaches the Mountain
This next view has all but a few spots in the sunlight.
Even More Sun
In this view, the sunlight has advanced even further.
For this final view, I took my cell phone camera off of “Zoom” to get a perspective of the clouds lifting off the mountain and the neighborhood.
Neighborhood View
Breathtaking, isn’t it?
Have a great day and a great weekend!
Nancy
Posted in Just stuff..., working mom
Tagged fall, fall leaves, family, mountain, photographs, photography, View
Good morning Everyone!
I would like to be able to tell you that my 3 1/2 week absence was due to something spectacular, such as completing a full novel during NaNo month, FN. 1, but, alas it is just due to puttering around with various things, some of which I am sure I will share with you later. I am fortunate enough to have a story or two to share with you that will at least make you smile, if not laugh.
In my ”little black book”, which these days is basically my cell phone, I have two cell phone numbers that have multiple sixes in them. One of those cell phone numbers belongs to my sister, and the other belongs to my friend. A little while ago, I spent the night at my sister’s house in Huntsville, and was able to leave later than my sister and her husband did. I enjoyed sleeping in, and their dog was happy to have me there, but when it was time for me to go, Wolfgang had to go into his crate. He was NOT happy about it. I sent a text to my sister telling her that “Your dog is not very happy with me right now.” I shortly received a reply to my statement – a question mark from my friend, followed by the pertinent observation that she very much doubted that her dog was unhappy with me, since she didn’t have one!
You’ve guessed it – I had mixed the two numbers up. I sent the correct text to my sister, apologized to my friend and that was that.
Obviously, having made that mistake once would have cured me from making it again – or so anyone who doesn’t know me through this blog would think. Apparently I am a slow learner, though – this weekend I sent a loooonnnnngggggg text to my friend about a project we are working on together. Shortly afterwards, I received a response, which was simply “?” from my sister. I mentally shook myself, sent the correct text to my friend, apologized to my sister and have resigned myself to waiting for the next installment of the story!
From Print Shop Professional 3.0
Used under license; protected by copyright
Have a great day!
Nancy
FN 1. “NaNo” stands for National Novel Writing Month, or something like that. It is fairly well-known among writers. It always is in November. The challenge in NaNo month is to write an entire novel, or 50,000 words, whichever comes first, in one month. I fully intend to participate in the insanity one year, but this year was not it.
Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front, Technology, working mom
Tagged absent minded, cell phone numbers, confusion, humor
