Bacony Bacon

Aug. 18, 2012
I awoke to the delicious smell of bacon. Seth was such a sweetheart--he made me breakfast. It consisted of bacon and coffee :)  It smelled so good I ate it all before thinking of taking a picture, but here's the note he put at my spot at the table:

'Twas baconicious :)

Occupy Eastside!

Aug. 17, 2012
Seth mentioned that he and the other potential Physics C kids were joking about holding an Occupy Eastside rally on Monday morning, to protest the lack of administrative support for the class. I said any self-disrespecting Occupy protest needed a drum circle, or some bongos :)  I went to Hoggetowne Music to see if they had some cheap ones. They didn't--boy, bongos cost a lot more than I expected! They did have a small used toca djembe (or is it djembe toca?) but it's still too big for a backpack. But it looks cool :)

Sorry Hoggetowne Music--maybe next time. The next best thing is the bongo app! Now Seth can be just like Sheldon and play bongos at 3 in the morning :)

I Love My Moose Candle Holder :)

Aug. 16, 2012
It's so pretty! :) Not sure if they still sell them, but check out Angie's PartyLite page for info.

What a Tangled Web We Weave

Aug. 15, 2012
I was pulling out of my driveway on my way to pick out a new bathroom cabinet when the sunlight caught this web just right. I parked and walked back to photograph it. Spiders and webs are fascinating, but I don't want to get too up close and personal with them.

Did you hear about that new family of spiders discovered in Oregon? Kind of cool, in a frightening way.

More Supplies

Aug. 14, 2012
More building supplies for the parking space construction arrived. It turned out we didn't get enough sand and gravel so Mike bought more and Home Depot delivered it. Poor Seth has to do the rest on his own since Mike is in Seattle.

La Cucaracha

Aug. 13, 2012
Another day of clearing out closets and cabinets for the remodel. Today I found the kids' old Halloween costumes. One year Seth wanted to be a cockroach, and we cobbled this together from various other things--the mask is supposed to be a bee, the wings were fairy wings that we de-glittered and spray-painted over, and then he wore brown sweatpants and a black turtleneck to complete the outfit. He was the most adorable cockroach ever, and I do not exaggerate! ;)

It Was a Dark and Stormy Afternoon...

Aug. 12, 2012
I dropped Mike off at West End golf course and got an eyeful of the day's storm building. Of course that didn't stop Mike from playing--it just meant a long break at some point to wait for the downpour to taper off and the sun to return.

Rainbows and Unicorns

Aug. 11, 2012
Minus the unicorns. We were driving home from Alachua and were treated to this partial rainbow :)

Living in California did tend to spoil me on rainbows. We saw them often--complete rainbows, and even double rainbows which I didn't think were a real thing until I saw one. Illinois was lucky to get the single version :)

Sneaky Snake Goes Dancin', Wigglin' and a-Hissin'

Aug. 10, 2012
I love the fact that our neighborhood is forested and the view from our living room is beautiful, but sometimes the creepy-crawlies give me the wiggins, as Buffy would say.

I glanced up this night and saw not only frogs, not only a gecko, but also a snake looking to cash in on the insect buffet.

The two frogs are easy to see. The gecko is up at the top to the left of the top frog. The snake is over there all the way on the left. There's a reflection of the corner of our bookcase that's sticking straight out. Under that is the rounded head of the snake curving out onto the glass, lit up. His body went up the track of the glass door and onto the bricks on the outside wall. I'm glad none of them decided to try to bust inside.

Here's Tom T. Hall singing the song from my title--remember him? :)

I'll Level With You

Aug. 9, 2012
The ground where Seth parks his car is getting soft from all the rain, so Mike and he worked on making it a bit more stable. Here they are leveling the dirt.

NJROTC

Aug. 8, 2012
The last day of College App Boot Camp, I was leaving after hearing the recruiter for UF speak. The Jr. Naval ROTC kids were out in the blistering heat, doing their own Boot Camp--significantly tougher!

Another Primary (Secondary? Tertiary?)

Aug. 7, 2012
Early voting at the library was up and running and I got tired of Mike not having time to go, so I stopped in while on other errands. There were more volunteers than voters, but there's a week of early voting so who knows how many turned out over the course of the week.

College App Boot Camp

Aug. 6, 2012
Eastside H.S. ran a 3-day program to help students prepare for college applications. Mostly this involved going over how to submit a good essay, but sometimes the advice was contradictory. For example, the first speaker said don't talk about how someone inspired you--they are not applying for college, you are. You can talk about what you did as a result of their inspiration. Then the second speaker said a good essay topic was "someone who inspires you". Sigh. Parents were invited to hear the two speakers--one on Monday and one on Wednesday. EHS was working on the AC in the auditorium on Monday, so we were all in the media center.

Seth decided to write about his experience in lobbying for an advanced Physics class. I can't believe EHS is making it so difficult for a group of kids that want to take extra-hard Physics, and a teacher who is willing to teach extra-hard Physics--all of whom are willing to show up an hour early for school so they can take the class in 0 period, mind you.

I'm writing this the weekend before school starts, and the whole thing is still up in the air. As near as we can tell it is the whim of the principal. He has tentatively ok'ed it, but can pull the rug out from under it. Seth, 19 other kids, and the teacher are going to show at 7:30 Monday morning to see if they are allowed to have a Physics C class.

Local Hero

Aug. 5, 2012
So it ended up being Andy Murray beating Roger Federer for the gold medal. Good for him, and good for Britain. He gets the English to cheer for a Scotsman :) . I'm glad Andy got to win a championship on his "home field" at least once.

Golden Serena

Aug. 4, 2012
Serena is freaking awesome! And she didn't even threaten anyone this time ;) I can feel I'm getting stronger with my training sessions, but I can only dream of having the power of Serena Williams. She totally dominated at the Olympics. Maria Sharapova is no slouch, and Serena beat her 6-1, 6-0. Simply astounding.

When Geese Attack!

Aug. 3, 2012
Here comes the Goose Dictator and his ninja bodyguard detail. Make way! Make way!

Take a gander

We were on our way to lunch and drove past this pond. I was worried the geese would wander into the street. One of them started to, but pulled back to the curb.

I Heart GHFC

Aug. 2, 2012
I've been admiring these plants for a while and noticed they are starting to wilt, so today's the day to get this picture. I love how the leaves are so heart-shaped :) These are planted outside of the health club.

Grr. I wanted my title to be "I <3 GHFC" but the website is choking on it :(

Art Project

Aug. 1, 2012
For a long time I've planned to photograph my kids' art projects that I have stacked up in several cabinets, boxes, bags, and drawers. I had hoped to have a better camera before doing this, so I was procrastinating on it. We are looking to remodel our bedroom/bathroom and it could be sooner rather than later, which means I have to get all the stuff in the bedroom cleaned out and sorted. This includes a lot of the aforementioned art projects, so my photography plan is happening NOW!

This masterpiece was by Zach circa 2000

Eyes on the Prize

July 31, 2012

The USA women's gymnastics team awaiting the final scores to see if they win gold.

They did :)

USA!

The downside was the sad situation of Jordan Wieber who is the World Champion, and came in 4th of all gymnasts, but 3rd on the USA team. The Olympic rules only allow the first two members of each team to compete in the All-Around, so Jordan lost the opportunity.

Swiss Mis-ter

July 30, 2012
It is really awesome watching Roger Federer play at Wimbledon. How lucky is he that the Olympics are on his favorite courts? :) I don't know if he'll win gold, but it would be cool for him if he could pull it off--it would give him the career "Golden Grand Slam". On the other hand, Andy Murray is again the hometown favorite and it would be so nice for him to win at Wimbledon. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I Watch For the Technical Scores

July 29, 2012
Ah Olympic Men's Gymnastics, how I love thee :)
Due to a major screw-up at State Farm, technically we didn't have car insurance over the weekend, so I stayed in and watched a lot of the Olympics.

USA!

It's too bad things didn't work out better for these guys.