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local picks Lily~ Whatever it is, I didn't do it!

A daily Blog - Pictures and news of/from family and friends. So, please feel free to send along anything that you might have found interesting in your internet or lifetime travels. There are also the occasional links to absolutely fascinating (IMHO) information, scattered throughout. These links are underlined in blue and usually accompanied by a picture. The picture, hopefully, gives you an idea what to expect when you click on the link. However, accompanying picture or not, hyperlinks should be followed on general principles.
Further -- it would probably be a good idea for you to e-mail a link to this blog to everyone in your address book. :)))

Thanks for visiting -

Feb 28, 2008 Thu

Cheap ass plugs, anyway...

Spelling, not so much, apparently~

Walking the 'pack'

These guys, Leo and Lily, will get home from the vet tomorrow - minus this and that.

Walked by the boat we've been watching take shape at the end of the street - it would seem to have sprouted a helipad, almost overnight.

It'll take a minute...    earthquake is the operative idea, here...

Lastly, beware - you might get what you petition the city council for:

What.. a dog must dig...

Feb 26, 2008 Tue

Sometimes, it does seem that the focus of our media is totally off~~

A recent picture of the 'youngest' child - Jacob. turned thirty a couple weeks ago...

What an unusual job to have - not your normal 9 to 5!

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Thrip larvas - known for hanging out in weird places...

Oops - wrong shoes...     can you say, PISSED?

From the Mayor -   The AIER Site

Feb 25, 2008 Mon

The previous weekend was a    ‹Blogger Break›

'Eat your veggies, or else!'     they'll eat you?

The amazing depth of field in pin hole photography - i.e. - no lens, at all~~

Another graphical representation of the stages of life -- this time, using vessels. Thanks to Jerry~

Feb 21, 2008 Thu

click

Evelyn and friends -- photo thanks to Niomi

Went walking/riding this afternoon -- another glorious sunny day.

Saw this clever pontoon sailboat - the pontoons fold up/in for easy storage in tight spaces. Two phone camera pictures stitched together~~ the Port Side pontoon is extended, or deployed.

My eclipse photos were not so hot - I seemed to have forgotten everything I'd learned since the last time I tried lunar photography - mostly, I forgot to set the photo quality to the highest setting - a must for far away shots. Here's one from somebody that did a tad better...

Signage - Thanks to Jarvis~

Feb 19, 2008 Tue

For our anniversary yesterday, Ann and I decided to make a gate. The idea being: render the area behind the shed inaccessible to small dogs. With no plans ahead of time gate-wise, other than to perhaps make the new gate resemble the one on the other side of the shed, (that Ann made a year or so ago - an idea we gave up on within the first hour or so) we plunged ahead.

Things went along okay until we realized that we would have too much clearance under the gate until the gravel (as yet unordered) arrived. This called for a last-minute engineering change -- the addition of some pickets hanging down from the bottom of the gate -- giving it a rather toothy look. Worse, we came to the abrupt realization that these last minute changes prevented the gate from opening. The pickets hit the raised bed to the left of the gate, as seen below.

Today we removed the pickets and lowered the gate. We also installed that round silver thing -- a mini septic for doggie doo-doo, called a Doggie Doolie. It looks deceptively simple -- however, the hole underneath the darn thing is four feet deep! Digging down four feet in our exceptionally rocky soil is no picnic...
So far, we have not been able to convince the dogs to go in the Doolie.

It seemed fitting (due to the lovely weather we've had the last few days) to give the lawn its first trim of the season. An operation that always gives me a sense of deja vu.

I cut the grass for the first time on a visit out here in 2002~~ proving yet once again the wisdom of the old man's advice: don't do something once, that you don't want to do again. It's okay in this case -- I look forward to many more years of keeping up appearances in the backyard.

Thanks to JMV

Here is a swell idea: now you may send someone -- anyone -- that e-mail you've always wanted, saying what you really think and feel. E-mail sent with 'enote' is untraceable back to you, freeing you up from those nasty vestiges of conscience or good judgment from which you may unfortunately be suffering.  E-mail anonymously

Bet you thought this only happened in cartoons~~

Feb 18, 2008 Mon

Too True...

The Mayor  shot this pin hole camera picture back in 2003, on worldwide Pinhole Day Goto 2003 image 273 to see it online.

It is a challenge to get four dogs in one picture - quite a set up

Tizzy will not look at the camera, for me.

But, she will for Ann~~

Ann and I have been married for five years, today. Happy Anniversary, to my lovely wife!

Cats felt left out - riigghht

Although Leo's ears have both been up for over a month, Lily may finally catch up - one of hers popped up yesterday. (It's a TFT thing) (Toy Fox Terrier)

Feb 16, 2008 Sat

My Valentines candy is gone, but I've put the box to good use - and now I'm all dressed up with no place to go~~

Two pictures from atop Cap Sante this afternoon - pretty day.

photo by Ann - Evelyn getting her hair done~

Ann trying to get four dogs to all sit at once...

Leo posing by his big brother, Chico - the two boys in the family - besides me, of course.

Remit has a new ride - very cool. Fancy GPS, too... seems to have picked up the local Navy Jet Squadron at Whidbey~

Feb 15, 2008 Fri

Here's hoping that your Valentine's Day was pleasant and the chocolates went down easy.

After checking the Dakota Industries website  and not finding any information about the boat under construction at the end of the street, we e-mailed them, and got this reply:

This vessel is an Inspection, Maintenance and Repair vessel used for developing oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. It will have a 70 person crew and is an all electric vessel. The owner is Otto Candies LLC  out of Louisiana.

Well, that explains the insignia on the side of the boat's pilothouse... it would seem that Candies, LLC, has quite a fleet of boats.

The one under construction will eventually look something like this~

More Mobius - thanks to Kurt

This would appear to be a very secure antitheft device.

Reminds us of this rake, that we found slightly off the beaten track near a rest stop in Kentucky.

From Ni, to help get us in the mood for Valentines Day - fast upon us~

Feb 13, 2008 Wed

Perhaps you've seen those TV bits where they say, 'Today's high school students can't find Canada on a map.'? Well, it would seem some of those kids are making it into the real world and taking their education - or lack of - with them. Apparently they are working for CNN...

Each of the following two pictures will take you to impressive panorama photography of the cities shown.
London

Thanks JKZ
Paris

This is what 70% chance of rain looks like here in town --

Why you need to get a permit...??

My grandson, Malcom, photo by his mom -- my daughter, Ambie, using her all-purpose Blackberry. This picture was huge -- I had to shrink it for the blog.

Chill... Thanks to Nancy

Tizzy rounded up these three toys, placed them in a row, and came to get me for a game of fetch. I thought she wanted me to pick, but no, I forgot - she's a Terrier - she picked.

A Razr Vxx picture

Feb 11, 2008 Mon

Signage~~

An Iphone picture, thanks to NI

Hmmm... see if you can make one of these (I'm sure you can) and send it to me, please?!

3 water balloons shot w/22 caliber pellet - by kalimistuk /© All rights reserved

The seemingly endless damp grey days make us gravitate to this type of scene - at least mentally~~

Feb 10, 2008 Sun

Pictures from around the internet this day...

At least these guys got to ride today - more than I can say!

Say, 'Ahhhh....'

The rich colors from within -

Always glad to see more and better alternative power sources -
wind and sun are the tools of the future~

Mobius, revisited

Feb 09, 2008 Sat

Yesterday was youngest son Jacob's birthday! Happy Birthday, Jake!

How good to receive pictures from around the country! What with everyone taking pictures with their cameras, camera phones, Iphones, Blackberries, etc - we'd like to get even more! This means YOU! Take a picture, send it along: dave@davesmock.com

There would seem to be big snow in the midwest - this from Linda and John, near the Windy City

Sister Mardi's place, north of Traverse City, MI

Four wheel drive a must for the driveway, in the winter

From Ambie's new phone -
This sure looks familiar - kitchen remodeling!

Over thirty cupboard doors to sand and refinish...

More from Linda's Egypt pictures - thanks!

This odd critter is a 'Red Veined Darter'

The red-veined darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) is a dragonfly of the genus Sympetrum. It is a common species in southern Europe and from the 1990s onwards has increasingly been found in northwest Europe, including Britain and Ireland.

Feb 07, 2008 Thu

Waste not, want not...

It's been a quiet and peaceful few days of serious loafing. Mild, with plenty of dampness. Little sunshine. Nearly atypical winter weather for the great Pacific Northwest. Very windy. A good time to cuddle up in one's favorite chair with a dog or three or four.

Temperatures may dip into the 30s at night, but it's been 40s during the day.

Chico, Tizzy, and the Pups

Feb 03, 2008 Sun

Let me begin by saying that I haven't been an active sports fan since Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls basketball team to six national championships back in the 80s. I was fortunate enough to be living in Chicago at the time. I might add, that the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl in 1985 -- and I was there, and I enjoyed the victory as a resident. This was a huge change for me, coming from Detroit, where the Lions hadn't won their division since time immemorial -- and still haven't.

Today, Super Bowl Sunday, marked the 42nd playing of the NFC AFC pro football playoffs. It had the makings of an interesting contest -- one team coming off an undefeated season, and the other squeaking into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth.

Over the years so many of these 'big games' turned into lopsided routes that were basically decided by halftime. The game today certainly had the potential to go either way -- a blowout, or an exciting contest down to the last minute.

In fact, with less than 30 seconds to play, today's game was still basically undecided.

It had been primarily a defensive struggle with the only scoring coming early in the game. Until the end of the fourth quarter, when the unbeaten New England Patriots finally put together a march down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown. It was almost as if they were following a script to finish the season undefeated.

So, watching the underdog New York football Giants respond with a march down the field of their own with less than a minute to play -- was pretty exciting. With less than 30 seconds to play they went ahead.

However, they had to give the ball back to the Patriots, and count on their defense to protect their narrow lead. The defense held, and the Giants are the world champions. It was a fun game to watch, even without following any sports the rest of the year.

Thanks to Jerone  for posting this picture of a beach that we'd all like to visit - especially this time of year~

Thanks to Kurt - new Jet fighter

Aptly titled - DUCK

And you are..??
Tizzy meets distant relative

Feb 02, 2008 Sat

In regard to the light polluted nighttime skies mentioned HERE - wouldn't a view like this be something, without it?

Ann, working on the laptop - as I am so slow to get her computer back online...

Thermonuclear Test in French Polynesia

Thanks to The Mayor ~

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough" - Capa

Feb 01, 2008 Fri

Youngest son Jacob - this is at least his second success as a hunter provider~

As many times as we've seen this - it still impresses...

Drying, prior to...?

Trench Warfare