Evelyn's religious education reached fruition this day as she was confirmed in ceremonies this morning. After the indoor stuff - which included a yummy reception with CAKE - the 14 kids released doves from the church steps. Dang, do these guys look solemn, or what...

We followed this up with a scooter ride to Burlington for a BBQ with the gang that we will ride to Canada with next month. Had to admire George and Toni's sidecar. Friends Tom and Melanie on the left.

May 29, 2009 Fri

I know I say this every year, but this seems like the beginning of Memorial Day weekend. I guess in reality it is -- in spite of the fact that we've already celebrated five days ago. It's hard enough to get used to celebrating the Monday after a Saturday holiday, let alone celebrating the Monday a week before.

While doing a bit of research on what we were doing in past years around this time of the month I ran across the reaction game. It was interesting enough that I'm going to load it up again ~ in fact, here it is!

Here's a hint -- hold your mouse over the red dot and click when it turns yellow.

Along with the reaction timing test thingy we ran across this ping-pong game, at which I found myself less than proficient. Perhaps you will do better?

Our good friend Richard was awakened during the wee small hours by odd noises on his back deck. Clicking on the exterior light revealed a midnight visitor --
Richard found himself cursing the fact that his pellet gun was in the garage... The situation deteriorated further as Rocky raccoon began fishing. The fish pond was well stocked with Richard's hand raised goldfish. The operative word here, is: 'was'.

Extending himself over the water allows Rocky a two handed fishing style - which was apparently quite effective. Note all the water splashed out on the deck.

Ann had occasion to travel south for a training session in Moses Lake, stopping on both the way down and on the way back at this unique old timey Mobil station~~

The Flying Red Horse, of days yore...

May 26, 2009 Tue

The month of May draws to a close. The last four days were hopefully a glimpse of the summer to come, Sunny and warm - it did get in the 70's each day. Starting to get warm today, even though it did start out a bit damp.

Thanks to my darling daughter, Ambie Lynn, responding to my plea for pictures. She sends along a few, my grandchildren, and even her brothers, Jake and Brett. Brett is holding my other grandson, Hogan.

Brett and Derek

Herownself

thanks to Jarvis - aptly titled, Hanging on for dear life~

It has taken awhile to get my rib recipe perfected, but I think I finally have it. We tested them out on Richard last evening and he said they were fine. They had been coming out tasty enough, but my goal was -- falling off the bone tender. The recipe is secret, of course...

May 24, 2009 Sun

The weather holds - third day in the 70's and sunny! Spent a good part of the day as a repeat of yesterday - backyard lounging with the small guys.
Tizzy makes a new friend~

The dogs gravitate to Ann, all striving for a place to sit or lay, right atop her~~

Leo has a fondness for Ann's Latte - it's the foam, to which he is partial...

They all are pretty fascinated by any activity on the grill~

We did manage to find time to get out and about on two wheels -

May 23, 2009 Sat

We are being promised three days in the 70's - something that has not occurred on a Labor Day weekend in over thirty years. Today met the bill.

Earlier in the week we dropped the scooter off here in town, trying out a new mechanic. He did a great job replacing the throttle cable, as would be expected of the former Chief Mechanic at the local Honda dealer.

Today we took the scoot to the actual dealer for a new front tire. This appointment was made before discovering local talent, or we'd have had the local guy do the installation and saved a few bucks over Dealer rates. In any case, the drive over to South Mt. Vernon was pleasant, even at 7:30 in the AM. Nice weather!
We are now ready to ride in a 'Run' to Canada, later in the season. Well, almost. Still some work being done to the rear seat pad and backrest.

Then it was time to relax and enjoy the weather - glad all the yard chores got done yesterday...
Miss Tizia Maria (Tizzy) doing what she loves best -

Ann, doing some of the things she loves best~~

Me, doing what I love best - knocking over garages! Really, I didn't expect it to topple...

We also got in a couple rounds of Backyard Horsewashers - horseshoe tossing for city folks. We had replaced the three year old tin cans this year with a slightly larger variety - hoping to boost scoring. In the can with your two inch washer, three points - a 'leaner', two points - closest to the can gets a point - game ends at eleven. In between games, the cans are stored bottom side up in their holes. The holes may be any distance apart that suits...
Pictures from us playing in '06 and 2004 (with Jake) are HERE

May 22, 2009 Fri

Later edit:

Saw this fellow in mid afternoon, crossing the street about three blocks away. He didn't seem in any special hurry, but didn't seem too happy, either. Also managed to develop some agility and speed when I parked the car and tried to get a better shot...

Whoa! a rather sad effort to 'enhance' the picture~~

Was on the way home from the market when the raccoon sauntered by -
where these were on sale - flown in fresh from out east - still alive and kicking, laid out on beds of ice. There were these huge dark lobsters, some with claws 7 inches across - and also red lobsters, none of which were as large.

Happy Birthday to my lovely daughter, Ambie Lynn (yesterday) - still a mere child at age thirty something... Though Lord knows she has the many responsibilities of an adult.

Birthday wishes also to Trisha Stock and Jack Vettraino. I'm afraid that Jack can no longer call himself a mere kid...

The other day I mentioned a mouse that failed to work out-of-the-box. I had dismantled it looking for bad connections or a crack on the motherboard - neither of which I could find. I thought it wasn't working because no red or blue or any other color light came on underneath it, as we are used to seeing from laser mice.

Still needing a wireless mouse, I ordered another one (of the same variety), it came yesterday, and it didn't work either. No light under the mouse, and more telling - it didn't move the cursor. Figuring, what are the odds that two would arrive in non-working condition, I rethought matters.

I also started looking on the Internet, gravitating to the Logitech website. There I found information relating to dual laser mice, of which this is one. One of two, at this point. The dual laser setup allows the mouse to function over rough or uneven surfaces. It also requires special drivers, and neither of these mice came with any instructions regarding installation. Also, dual laser mice do not shine a bright light underneath.

I had high hopes after downloading the proper drivers. Alas, still no cursor movement.

Most wireless devices have buttons that allow synchronization between the sending unit and the receiving unit. The mouse itself is the sending unit, and the receiver is that small part that plugs into your USB port. This mouse did have a reset button on the bottom -- but nothing on the USB part? Repeated pushing of the reset button was accomplishing nothing. Back to the Internet.

We finally ran across a piece of software that, once downloaded, allowed synchronization between mouse and receiving unit. These were the instructions to synchronize the mouse -- it's no small wonder I didn't get it by just fooling around.

After performing this weird rite of synchronization and button pushing we were happy to find that we now had an operating mouse. And another mouse in pieces on my desk. Here's the second piece of good news -- the pieces reassembled themselves into a whole mouse. One which, after performing the unique button pushing rite of synchronization, also became operational.

So, we now have a spare wireless mouse. I'm using it at the moment, on general principles. It does operate on just about any surface. The black mouse is the one in general service, usually. It is also wireless, but of the single 'red' laser variety. It has always performed admirably, and may be a tad less 'jumpy' than this dual laser model - we'll see.

Could it be? Casey Jones, himself?
thanks to David K. - world traveler ~~

May 20, 2009 Wed

The week is skating by - nice weather does that...

I keep going out, but don't take any pictures? So, maybe you, or YOU will send a few?

Thanks to Remit - he sent along this shot of himself and recently departed V-rod - and allowed me to doctor it up and make this post~~

If you enjoy illusions (this one was too large a file to have it 'work') you may visit this site and see it, plus many more~

This is what you do not want to see on a recently delivered package of electronics ~

More hat tips to Richard - he took these shots of the 'hand made in six hours' boats. These are a feature of the Waterfront Festival, where several teams of boat builders all get the same materials to start with, and a deadline of six hours to build a boat. Then the boats must be paddled a certain distance, the winner being the first to complete the course. Alas, one of the boats capsized -- this puts one out of the competition, as you might expect...

I know, these pictures are a bit pixelated - for some reason Richard sometimes sends itty bitty files, and beggars can't be choosy...

Evelyn in costume for Midsummer Night's Dream~~

May 17, 2009 Sun

One of the nicest weekends for the Waterfront Festival in a long time. Over 70 today! Remit and I did a walkabout this morning, and Ann and I managed to get in another during the afternoon.

I think I may have reached my fair food quota, for awhile.

Bird house news: of the three backyard bird houses - 6 if you count all the units in the bird apartment - two have already launched their chicks into the world. The third house didn't get a family, but then we realized that the old nest hadn't been removed. The birdies like a fresh start, it seems.
This is the four unit apartment - we've yet to see more than one unit occupied at a time, in the three years it has been in service.

Ann removed this nest from it today~

This is the bird house from which the old nest was removed. This was a 'pretend', or, for looks only bird house, that didn't have a back. It hung on the old shed and birds used it anyway last year, so Ann made a back for it, and it saw service again.

Lily, sitting on her haunches, on Ann's lap~

Back there in MI, in the fine City of Flint, they are getting serious about dress codes. Not sure what that might imply about things in MI...

Signage for the day~ thanks to Rick ~
This was in front of a Florist in Indianapolis for several hours, until a concerned citizen stopped, took this picture, and then went in and told them the correct way to spell, 'peonies'...

Ann's computer time at home has been combined with dog lap time, usually after dinner. This has meant working with our now six year old Toshiba laptop on her knees - and that thing must weigh over ten pounds. It has been a reliable and steady, if heavy, machine. Getting a tad slow in its old age, however. So - enter this Lenova Ideapad - a 'netbook' type computer of the small variety. Weighs maybe three pounds, and yet is still a full functioning computer. Just smallish.

May 16, 2009 Sat

The weather cooperates (unlike some past years) and the Water Front Festival gets sun and 70, as predicted.

Before we get into that - a picture we missed from our ride yesterday - coffee up at Starbuckies ~

I was able to consume a cheeseburger before ten AM - (Ann, 'for breakfast?!') and Evelyn danced on the main stage around noon - a tightly choreographed pairing from Swan Lake.

That's Ann in the red hat taking a picture from the other side...

poster for the next recital - coming up in June

V-12 Jaguar convertible - about the only car I would consider trading Saab...

A couple summers ago, Ann made a small garden in the back yard and while turning the earth we discovered a giant rock - which we were able to remove by jury rigging a pulley/scaffold device, while wishing I had a come-a-long. So, we can appreciate Eric's efforts doing large stone removal in their front yard. Picture lifted from their blog.

May 15, 2009 Fri

The newness has yet to wear off the phone camera...

Our backyard Lilac (one of) ~~ quite a difference in camera phone picture quality when there is more light. The sun was below the horizon, here...

Didn't hit 70 yet, that will be tomorrow, we think - during the Waterfront Festival. You KNOW what this means - at least TWO cheeseburgers of the fair food variety.

It was near seventy, though - and that got us out on two wheels~

Gassing up in Mt. Vernon

The sleeves are the right length - for reaching over one's wrists when hands are stretched out on the handlebars while riding. I know, looks like my big brother's jacket.

May 14, 2009 Thu

Happy Birthday to my step mom, Sue Marx Smock! She's the reason I don't sit through dinner with my hand wrapped around my milk glass. And a lot of other good stuff...

Dude, what a great age - to be so curious about everything around one...

Run! Firemonster!

A classic case of mis-direction - works everytime!

Borrowed this picture from here or there - Anna, Barb and Heidi, and Harley the horse.

Tizzy likes to try and suck her pup's brains out of their ears -

She must also be gently encouraged to look at the camera...

Great ook class this day. Remit inherits a very fine accordion! Looking good for temps in the 70's quite soon.

May 13, 2009 Wed

In fond memory ~~ R.B.S.

Here's some good luck for you - thanks to Remit~

It is the inherent truth in this statement that keeps us out and about on two wheels.

Speaking of which - with any luck we'll soon be taking a long weekend trip to Canada on this very motorcycle. Over the years it has come to someone's attention that the passenger seat leaves quite a bit to be desired in the comfort department when compared to the passenger seat on our last motorcycle, the Goldwing. In an effort to improve upon this situation we are making some modifications -- which is why the sissy bar has been removed, as evidenced by this photo. Also missing are the saddlebags, which allows access to the rear seat cushion, which we hope to upgrade as well.

Heightening the sissy bar and adding some padding to the seat itself will hopefully mitigate the comfort to a more tolerable level. Long trips weren't really a consideration when we traded up to this, a more 'sporty' model - so we'll have to see how it goes.

May 11, 2009 Mon

Find the service tech~~

Years ago - and I do mean many - Gene Autry stuck his cowboy hat on a stick around a corner to see if anyone was there - and got an arrow in it for his trouble. The technique is still serving well in a different war with different arrows. This fellow was trolling for snipers.

Elsewhere in internet land, a rather unique talent - a ball point pen artist, on a scale that's somewhat surprising. See more HERE

A twofer - two shuttles for the price of one picture. One arrived safely in space this day.

May 10, 2009 Sun

Here's hoping that you enjoyed Mother's Day. We started by throwing Ann's completed aquarium stand in the back of the truck and taking it to her office building. After second coating the finish, of course. It took some doing, but we did manage to get the fish tank in position on the stand - that thing is heavy, even empty. Maybe we should have taken the gravel out...
Failed to get a picture of the finished product - Ann will send one tomorrow.

AM edit: here it is set up. Thanks Honey!

Then, as we prepared to head over to visit and grill burgers with Barb and Paul, Anna, Heidi and Evelyn - I couldn't seem to locate my car keys? I knew I had them on the way to Ann's office... Sometimes, this getting old isn't so funny.
But that wasn't much help. We looked and looked, finally giving up for the time being and I got the spare set. Of course, they had been hanging on the hook for so long that the batteries didn't want to work the remote to unlock the car. Fiddling with that took some time, and we were off. I was sure I remembered thinking as we went out the door to deliver the aquarium stand, that I'd have to carry two sets of keys in my pocket the rest of the day. I must have searched my pockets a hundred times. Searched the truck a few times, too. Then, as I was getting ready to put the hamburgers on the grill I remembered I was wearing 'cargo' style shorts - the kind with umpty two pockets. Sure enough, my keys were in one lower down the leg. Who needs so many pockets - obviously, not I.

A few phone camera pictures from Barb's~~

Barb is painting Heidi from a photo - that's the picture, on the wall~~
Evie is in make-up from the Midsummer's Night photo shoot.

On and off during the day, Ann - no moss growing under her feet - was recovering the dining room chairs.

Signage for the day...

May 09, 2009 Sat

We're hoping that this represents someone's rather bizarre sense of humor...

This might be one of the most unique bathroom sinks we've run across~

We've been 'making do' with the leaking dishwasher. Removing the front access panel revealed the leak to be emanating from the right underside of the door - so with judicious use of containers and towels we are able to run the thing. One more day - and the new one arrives.

The aquarium stand - nearly done. First coat of stain applied - argh - a tad sloppily. Trying the 'stain and polyurathane in one' stuff. A bit of sanding and another coat should do the trick. Could still be finished tomorrow. Picked up the needed boards in the Saab. Ground down 16 screws that were just a tad too long - wanted to poke through.

May 08, 2009 Fri

Ok! Ann's stand for her fifty gallon fish tank is 90 percent done. One more piece of trim, some stain and the wheels. Maybe wrap this up tomorrow. Because the tank is just over four feet in width, I came up a tad short in the boards department. These were taken pretty early on~

Ann with several dogs, updating Fbook from her Blackberry...

Richard's Photoshop skills are legendary amongst his former students...

Took a look at what we were doing five years ago at this time - Deja Vu!
I'd made omelets for breakfast - yes - just like I did this very morning. Whoa. And, the answer is, No - I don't make omelets all that often. Evelyn had collected the fresh eggs - we had hens, at the time.

May 07, 2009 Thu

A couple days of wind, low pressure and damp. But today - turned nice again. Top down all afternoon, after OOK class. (The correct pronunciation for ukulele, is 'ookulele', you see...)

Finally picked up the balance of the wood for Ann's fish tank stand - that was the last excuse.

Lots of folks upset about parking space abuse, out there in internet land. Here's one example:

Ah - an even worse offender - taking up no less than FOUR handicap parking spaces - see what happened to him, HERE

Much barking and looking out the window - what could it be?

Ah, this explains it~~

Gentleman enjoying what is probably his last smoke, if this picture is any indication...

Thanks to Bill - Richard and I, doing that thing~~

May 05, 2009 Tue

The month is off to a fast, fine start.

Here's a late edit:

Remit edits the WIKI

Here's what I'm supposed to be about - making a stand for this fish tank.

These are still getting a chuckle, but not the guffaw they did at first...

There seems to be an unwritten law that if one spends money on something just a bit extravagant, one may expect immediate breakage of more crucial devices. Since purchasing new trendy cell phones, the ignition failed in the Saturn (gotta' fix THAT, right?) and now the dishwasher started leaking buckets, is too old to be worth repairing, thus - hello new one.

Or go back to doing it by hand. Not.

May 03, 2009 Sun

Pretty nice weekend, all around. The grass is growing like crazy - had to mow again!

Lots of humor from Kurt today - thanks~

This fellow refused to pay his mechanic 1400 bucks to fix his air conditioning - feeling (rightly so, apparently) that he could handle the job himself.

This was sent (thanks Kurt) with the suggestion that it represents a woman's mind at work - and each ball is a thought or task she is concentrating on - all at the same time. The gist of the idea was that men are not doing nearly so well, with only two...

Where the language comes from~

May 02, 2009 Sat

Today (Friday) was the nicest day this year so far - into the 70's. Top down.

Our Toy Fox Terrier, Tizzy, has had a visitor these last few days - one of her pups, Bo - now over a year old. There were four in her litter, and we have two - Lily and Leo. Bo, and his brother Baxter, got adopted out. Bo's people went out of town, and we dog sat.

It was actually great fun having Bo back in the fold - he has the same terrific personality as his siblings, and they all got on fine. Bo is a very snuggly fellow, more so even than our two - which almost seems surprising, in a way - since Bo is an 'outside' dog, when he is at home. He did have some more 'worldly' dog skills, when it came to running and chasing - but not by much.
Here's Tizzy, watching her three play tug o' war with Ann.

Dick and Laura, possibly the most peripatetic couple we know, are off again~~

Just in case you've ever wondered...

We didn't get that movie posted today - just too nice to putz around in the house. Plus, the ignition locked up in the Saturn yesterday afternoon and it was towed to the dealer today. They had it fixed by late afternoon and we're back in business, a three-car family again. Talk about a carbon footprint...

Needless to say we are hoping for the same weather again tomorrow.

May 01, 2009 Fri

Hello! It's a brand new month. One of those special months that lead into the really pleasant and long summer days. OK, maybe I'm jumping the gun by a couple hours - but it's late and time for my show...

At the top of this page are various links and menus, to other areas of this site, and to other websites you may find interesting - family, friends and such...

Under the drop down menu called 'Links', S.U.E. had been added - the Senior Ukulele Ensemble webpage that Richard has put together. Click the S.U.E. link to see pictures and movies related to this organization. Nice work, there, Remit!

Speaking of Remit, he has improved somewhat on Ann's picture of Tizzy and three of her pups, the one that TJ had edited into the format seen here, and placed on the wiki~~

While we're on the subject of 'links' - that's short for hyperlinks, which are always underlined in blue and will take you to the page being discussed if you click on them. One of the wonders of today's internet, surfing from page to page on the World Wide Web with the click of a mouse button.

So - what else is at the top of the page? A drop down menu to all the previous Blogs, by month and year.
A link to davesmock.com, which was and is the 'home' page for the website. It has a few links, too - one back to this blog.
Also a link to the railroad website - the end result of my thirty year career riding the rails - stories, pictures and other railroad stuff. The railroad website has been viewed over twenty thousand times.
Next, the afore mentioned 'links' drop down menu - accessed by clicking on the wee black down arrow at the right of the box.
A newish link, to the WIKI page - see for yourself. Anyone may log on and add to, edit, or delete things from the WIKI. It is easy and simple to use. Any questions or problems, please let me know.
Next is a link to the Flickr picture website - various pictures too numerous to display here, may be viewed - there.
Utube - are we all familiar with Utube by now? Various family and friend videos are posted - or anything else we thought was interesting...  I'm about to add one of our temporary house guest, Bo, the Toy Fox Terrier. Maybe tomorrow. But, there are PLENTY of other videos posted - one of the train wreck videos has been viewed over thirty thousand times!
Kc_oms - why, that's Smock, backwards - by golly.

Over the last five or six years, first two or three, then six or seven, and now twenty or twenty five folks a day visit this blog. Makes me happy. I would REALLY be happy if about ten times that many dropped by - so, send a link to your friends. Your name doesn't have to be Smock, or kcoms, or anything close to drop by and maybe get a smile or two.

Oh, one other thing to mention - the Site Search Engine. Type a term in that box and it searches for any page that has the term, on any webpage on davesmock.com
Want to see other pages/pictures of the boat being built at the end of town? Type 'boat' into the search box, click GO and see what comes up.

What else? Ah, the Chat box. It took the place of the Tag Board, but works the same. It is a place to leave comments, etc. When you drop by - say hello. Ask questions, vent - but, SAY SOMETHING!

Something I don't say enough - THANKS for dropping by...

OK, here we go - MAY Blogging - let 'er rip!

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