Apr. 30, 2007 Mon

Apr. 28, 2007 Sat

Ann has pretty much removed not only the chimney, but all the old wallpaper (up to three layers, going back over 75 years) leaving us looking at the original wood walls.

This results in some interesting looking walls, to say the least. . .

This is 'art'. Those aren't real people in those bags. This is an example
of Mark Jenkins unusual 'placements'. Click the picture to see more.

A couple years ago, I swapped out the label on a wine bottle,  replacing it with a counterfeit one of my own making, anxious to see how long it would take until anyone noticed?
It took awhile. . .

Here is another effort, this time using a bar of 'trendy/fancy' soap that sits on the bathroom counter.

The clock is running. . . we'll just sit back and wait. . . Shhh - don't tell!

Thanks to Kurt~~
How your mouse works
 Explained at last! Click the picture~~

Apr. 27, 2007 Fri

You must see this movie - some real talent at work -
Adam's fine movie

Written, produced, filmed and starring my nephew and friend. I can't believe this!

As cats will, they've found their way to the high places available during remodeling~~

Roma is ready to come down, and I thought I was, too -

But she was too fast for me - nearly missed her jump. . .

Ann and the girls did 'Clean up Day' -

"The distortion of world maps"

By yoh-there - AKA our friend, Jerone - Says he:

All maps are inherently wrong.
He is so right - check out the rest

Why won't these guys hold still?

Apr. 25, 2007 Wed

Man, I can't seem to get both halves of my brain on the same date - I was a day off, there, for awhile.

Who left their boots on the couch?

Here's something you don't see everyday - this fellow makes plaster casts of -- Ant tunnels. Without harming the ants.
Nest overview~~

"The nest created by a mature colony of harvester ants is undeniably spectacular. It is made more so by understanding that it was created by about 5000 workers, who excavated about 20 kg of sand in 4 to 5 days, and that, because a colony moves once or twice a year, it creates one or two of these nests a year. This highlights two more significant facts: (1) the nest, with its characteristic structure and top-heavy arrangement of chambers is the “intentional” outcome of a short period of digging, not of long-term growth of the original founding nest. In other words, the relatively large size of the upper parts is not the result of having been in existence longer and therefore enlarged more. No colony occupies an enlargement of its founding nest. (2) No matter whether a colony moved a short or long time before excavation, the vertical arrangement of workers of different ages, seeds and brood is always the same. It follows that although the vertical arrangement becomes completely unglued during the move to a new nest, it is recreated in the new nest. This vertical arrangement is therefore not an accident of maintaining brood in the bottom of the nest, but is “deliberate”, and thus part of the structure of the superorganism."
See more, learn more - click here

Another beautiful sunset from Dick's, overlooking either the Guemes Channel or Georgia Straight. . .

The beef and noodles were pretty good, too!

More from Hubble - yes - another fantastic photo , this time the Carina Nebula~
BTW - the Hubble is 17 today.

Apr. 24, 2007 Tue

Many thanks to brother Adam  for these first pictures of our nephew Aiden - Trish's third child. Being held be Anne Smock, otherwise knows as, Ann of the East ~ Also pictured is Talia Smock, older sister to Devin Smock.

Herself, the Proud Mom!

Getting one's head around the concept of very large numbers has never been easy. Here are two sites that try, with some success, to put things in perspective: This first site does it with words, alone

This one uses pictures to great advantage -

Thanks to Steve ~~ fruit art

We are open to suggestion, here - what do you suppose is the meaning of this sign? If you have any ideas, please email them along, or 'tag' the tag board.

Apr. 23, 2007 Mon

Ann perseveres another day, and the old chimney is gone! Not only gone, but carried to the dump~~

Down to the last piece -

Gone!

Ann did creative block stacking, prior to loading for the dump -

Dinner with friends featured not only excellent food, but an unusual after dinner guest ~~

Our hosts, Becca and Tom

This is Tank - age six, and a fiend for peas. . .

Rode with Dick and Laura to fuel the boat - and a quick trip around Cap Sante - fun~~

Dick is listing to one side since his wallet is so much lighter after buying gas. . .

Congratulations are in order - Clare  completes her bachelors degree

What is the meaning of this. . .?

Apr. 21, 2007 Sat

Dick alerted me to the fact that a locally built super luxury motor yacht was being moved down the street last night.
This is somebody's personal water toy - all 150 plus feet of it. The thing towers over everything else in town - there being few four story buildings in Anacortes. It was something to see, as it crawled slowly along on the 32 tires of four hydraulic bogeys. It was a close fit between the street lights, etc.

It was moving down the street stern first - or, going backwards.

There were maybe a hundred or so spectators, including us - at 11 PM. The move took all night.

Each set of bogey trucks had a driven set of wheels, and each one could be steered, too.

I couldn't get far enough off to the side to get a full length picture -

But, you get the idea - big boat!

Hmmm - peering down what's left of our now defunct chimney. The portion that went thru the attic was removed during the process of adding the two upstairs dormers. That left the part that ran up the living room wall, left over from the days when heat was provided by an oil furnace under the house. Ann has been most anxious to deconstruct this last remnant of the old heating system.

She started out clean enough, but that wasn't to last. . .

All the bricks and some of the blocks went out of the house today - the remaining blocks - tomorrow.

A little soot would never deter a determined husband from getting a smooch.

While Ann was hammer and chiseling away, I finally replaced the broken fence post that last November's windstorms had damaged. This required digging around the old pole where it had been set in cement, going some three feet or so below ground level. This was trowel and pike work, shovels being useless in our stony soil. Once the entire cement 'ball' was exposed, so was the problem - how to get it out of the hole?

As you see, we tied a rope around it, and then levered it up and over, using the new fence pole as the lever, and those four by sixes as a fulcrum. That's the cement ball in the background, below. The idea here, was to not have to remake the fence sections, by positioning the new pole exactly where the old one had been. This proved to be easier said than done - but it happened, after some bracing, jacking, pushing and pulling. The cement is setting up overnight.

Amen. And thanks to Steve~~

Apr. 20, 2007 Fri

Here is another, and slightly better quality, video of that cruise ship caught in a typhoon

It is difficult to tell from the angle (above, in this case) how very huge the waves are - but note that they crash over the ship's bows. As if the degree of the roll isn't scary enough... seasick pill, anyone?

This is the lady we know that has chosen to stop posting to her blog, which some of us consider our loss.

Thanks to Bob~~

Apr. 18, 2007 Wed

Technically, the mechanism at work here is known as “motion binding”. To see this demonstration of 'motion binding' at work,
follow this link~~

Herself, La Cookie~~ pancakes extraudinaire~~

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Flash! Niomi tells us that in certain versions of win XP, pressing ctrl,alt and left or right arrow --
will turn your display on its side! Ctrl,alt and up arrow restores it.
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Won't somebody PLEASE play ball with me?

A most unusual stool - found in the Rainforest Restaurant, in Tempe, AZ

Ann with pets, circa 1980 - she comes by it naturally, then. . .

Thanks to Kurt~~

Hard to believe that's an A+ - shouldn't it end with a question mark? (edit: Ann says, NO)

Apr. 17, 2007 Tue

Mom's B'day party was arranged by this lady - my sister, Mardi~~ She and husband Jim flew in from MI, where they left a lot of snow for sun and seventies.

Mom's brother's families live in/around Tempe, and made it quite a party. The balance of the pictures are on
 Flickr
 including names...

The cameraman was a tad slow getting into the group picture. . .

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Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of World's Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records.

Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds. With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200lb limit. Hercules' owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: " I fed him normal food and he just grew ".... and grew and grew and grew. Thanks to Kurt~~

Apr. 14, 2007 Sat

Happy Birthday Mom!

Apr. 12, 2007 Thu

Thanks to Evie~~


Speed painting - with ketchup

Next generation of TV's - LED screens less than an inch thick -

Made neighbor upset - neighbor owns backhoe. . .

Egad - I do all these things. . .

Apr. 11, 2007 Wed

Thanks to Robert - the latest in Police mobility down there in LA land ~~

And from Linda - she has found a place for Barb's painting of their Motor Yacht, Voyageur

Barbara, is an amazing artist, in so many mediums. . .

Some humor from Uncle Steve - thanks!

The US Navy today announced that it has released a senior Al Qaeda terrorist after questioning him extensively for 27 days while being held prisoner aboard a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea .

In a humanitarian gesture, the terrorist was given $50 and a white 1962 Ford Fairlane automobile upon being released from custody.

The attached photo shows the terrorist on his way home just after being released by the Navy.

Apr. 10, 2007 Tue

Expect to be seeing

more of these, and smarter, too -  I'll make the rash prediction that you will have some sort of mobile robot in your home in the next 12 to 15 years, helping out in one way or another. . . and not just a novelty.

Are two heads really

better than one -

Thanks to Nancy - their traditional Bunny cake - The girl's names are Megan (6) and Kirsten (4)

Thanks to my sister - Mardi - responding to my plea for pictures~~
While we here in the Great Pacific N'west were having record heat, they got another foot of snow, back there in Traverse, MI. (which is the same parallel as we are here, incidentally) Mardi failed to appreciate Mother Nature's keen sense of humor. . . She allowed that with gritty determination, they shoveled a path to the outdoor grill.

Apr. 09, 2007 Mon

Now this is what we need at railroad crossings, instead of gates that folks can go around. It's called a 'bollard', and to see it in action, click here.

Slow going, but progress none the less - rebuilding the built in closet is taking a bit of time.

Still quite a bit of taping to go - as well as the shelves. Then Ann can paint.

The traditional 'Lambie Cake' over the last few years. . .

Save pennies? Then wrap them, take them to the bank? Nah - do this, instead - make a pyramid out of them!

This was an email going around, that read:

A police officer sent this to a friend of mine. It is not for the faint-hearted. If you have a nervous stomach, then don't click on the link below.

It is a picture of a suicide jumper taken shortly after he landed. It shows him with his insides now on the outside (bad). You can see the look of horror on the faces of the bystanders in this photo.

It's the faces of the bystanders as to why I believe this is real.

Followed by this link -
http://home.att.net/~songs2/Jumper.jpg

which produces this picture~~

Yeah, I looked. . .

Apr. 08, 2007 Sun

A very pleasant day - Happy Easter to you and yours

A great shot - borrowed from Ni's Bittersweetmuse blog~~

The continuing saga of sinking, top heavy vessels~ There's no way this boat should have sunk. From the news reports:

An Australian passenger, Katie Sumner, said the early stages of the rescue were chaotic. "We heard a big shudder and then the whole boat started to tilt," Sumner said. "Our warning that the ship was sinking was some of the staff running down the corridor screaming out, 'life jackets' and banging on doors." Lizbeth Mata, 15, was on the Aegean Sea cruise with her family and said some crew members left before the passengers. "They were yelling and screaming — didn't know what to do." Investigators were questioning the captain and three officers about Thursday's crash into rocks, which are marked with warning lights and clearly indicated on navigation charts. The Merchant Marine Ministry said 1,195 passengers and 391 crew members were on board. "Whoever is responsible for this will be held accountable in the strictest way." Authorities in Greece are particularly sensitive to marine accidents after 80 people died in the sinking of the Greek ferry Express Samina after it hit two reefs in 2000.

Extremely sensitive -- yes. Ships hitting well marked reefs and rocks and SINKING with loss of life - crew members panicking and jumping ship ahead of the passengers -- yes, bound to sensitize a person. This ship had water tight doors and sunk like a stone. Why? Ask yourself this - where are those water tight doors? Below decks - How much boat do you see in these pictures that might be called - above decks? No water tight doors there. . .

Apr. 06, 2007 Fri

Anna with some fellow students as they leave for Japan!

All the old ceiling is gone - most of the 2 x 6's are in the back yard, awaiting nail pulling.

Big money can still screw up department~~
The foundation site of the Infinity Tower was flooded after a wall holding back the Dubai Marina water breached. Crazy construction accident in Dubai

Apr. 05, 2007 Thu

Now - where'd we leave that boogie board. . .?

This? A carpet beetle - see more stuff up really close~~

Thanks to Barbara for this photo of Dick and Laura celebrating their 60th anniversary with a toast. Dick surprised Laura with these beautiful, engraved, Baccarat crystal glasses~~

Apr. 04, 2007 Wed

Thanks to Don - he and wife Deb - both riding FXDL Harleys - "photos taken in Custer State Park, South Dakota, last summer while we were at Sturgis."

The girls are on spring break and earning a bit of cash for a trip to Gay Paris, by making Kiwi jam. Shown here, they are conducting a sample tasting of the product for sweetness~~

Satisfied with their work~~

I managed to struggle out of bed in time to make Ann coffee as she headed out the door.

I am the Queen of this bag - Roma the bag cat

On occasion I've mentioned how we live in a 'Sun Belt' relative to the weather that goes north and south of us - here's a good look at the radar today, showing the rain splitting nicely around Anacortes.

Coffee Meets Milk

Apr. 03, 2007 Tue

So -- the final results are in -- the Edge Lover's Brownie Pan  is a success. If you too, think the edges are the best part of a brownie, then this is the pan for you. If you order one, please mention this website...

The mild temperatures and sunshine were enough to get us out of the house today and up on two wheels~~ a beautiful day by the water - Mt. Baker cooperates, standing tall in the background.

and this is? A UFO? No. It's an SFO. San Francisco International airport at night~~

photo by R. Mitlyng - thanks
Ivey's eyes on NI

Apr. 02, 2007 Mon

The Edge Lover's Brownie Pan came today  - the first batch is in the oven as we write. Results will be forthcoming~~

The ceiling is gone - just these 2 X 6s remain -

Also gone, the old (ugly) paneling -

We gain about a foot and a half of height -

Would you eat here? Underwater restaurant - thanks to Kurt~~

Ann is in her element - tearing up the house. The old ceiling in the living/dining room finally comes down. These are the only two rooms that don't have the nine foot plus ceiling. Well, didn't - they do now - or will, soon. First, those 2 x 6 joists that hold the furrring boards for the old ceiling tiles must be removed. Think using two by sixes was overkill? Me, too. But, when this place was last remodeled, Anacortes was still a lumber, as well as fishing, town. Also, as long as she's at it - the ugly, painted over, cheap paneling comes off the walls. These rooms are slated for new flooring - like the stuff that went in the office - engineered laminate. Maybe then, we'll be done remodeling for awhile. No?

Apr. 01, 2007 Sum

Welcome to Weblogging in April of 2007. We'll skip the April Fool stuff. . .

We begin this month as we left last - puttering around the house. Below, the cats observe that drywall now covers all the exposed shiplap wall boards. The taping is still not quite done. To recap, two small bedrooms are being made into one, by removing the closet that divided them.

It dawned on me that this formally built in closet that must now be built in again, should be reconstructed from the bottom, up. Isn't it interesting putting stuff back together that one did not take apart?

Having deduced that much, the hard part is over - the business part - that holds the large drawers - is redone.

Cool fountain