I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Shadow Shot Sunday!


Had any sun lately? Found any shadows? Time to share them! Shadow Shot Sunday is hosted by Tracy at Hey Harriet! So for the most fun ever start looking for them and share them with us.

We were promised a lot of sun for this week, but they lied! I really needed a magnifying glass this week!! But here's what we came up with.

Wine anyone??



Shadows of our neighbors deck!



Lovely lilac shadows!



That old broad checking out the fridge! Probably looking for snacks!!



And back prowling in the basement, looking for colored stuff!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



The best portion of a good man's life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
-- William Wordsworth



The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.
-- Elbert Hubbard



You're only young once, but you can be immature forever.
-- Author Unknown



Woman are meant to be loved, not to be understood.
-- Oscar Wilde



We don't stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop playing.
-- George Bernard Shaw



We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
-- Phyllis Diller

Alternative Meanings for Common Words

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): it's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n..): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into
your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:
16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an a-hole.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sky Watch Friday

Look up and see the beauty of your skies and share them with us! Sky Watch is hosted each week by Klaus and the Sky Watch team, Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and myself! Click on the icon, read and follow the directions, sign up and share the beauty!

We have had such beautiful skies lately, spring arrived so early this year and it's wonderful!



Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
Rabindranath Tagore



Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
Henry Ward Beecher



All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.
Marie Curie



Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran



I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
e.e. cummings



The poetry of the earth is never dead.
John Keats



Choose only one master - Nature. Rembrandt

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Bill Mauldin Stamp Honors Grunts's Hero


Some of you thought that I had written this piece -- I did not, it was sent to me by a good friend and because I did know of and had followed Mauldin for many years, I was very moved by the piece and wanted to share it with you. I'm not this good of a writer to begin with!! I'm sorry, I should have stated this in the first place. For whatever reason the authors name was not on the piece that I received. I have since searched for the original and it was by Bob Greene, a CNN contributor.

The post office gets a lot of criticism. Always has, always will.

And with the renewed push to get rid of Saturday mail delivery, expect complaints to intensify.

But the United States Postal Service deserves a standing ovation for something that's going to happen this month: Bill Mauldin is getting his own postage stamp.

Mauldin died at age 81 in the early days of 2003. The end of his life had been rugged. He had been scalded in a bathtub, which led to terrible injuries and infections; Alzheimer's disease was inflicting its cruelties. Unable to care for himself after the scalding, he became a resident of aCalifornia nursing home, his health and spirits in rapid decline.

He was not forgotten, though. Mauldin, and his work, meant so much to the millions of Americans who fought in World War II, and to those who had waited for them to come home. He was a kid cartoonist for Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper; Mauldin's drawings of his muddy, exhausted, whisker-stubbled infantrymen Willie and Joe were the voice of truth about what it was like on the front lines.

Mauldin was an enlisted man just like the soldiers he drew for; his gripes were their gripes, his laughs were their laughs, his heartaches were their heartaches. He was one of them. They loved him.

He never held back. Sometimes, when his cartoons cut too close for comfort, his superior officers tried to tone him down. In one memorable incident, he enraged Gen. George S. Patton, and Patton informed Mauldin he wanted the pointed cartoons -- celebrating the fighting men, lampooning the high-ranking officers -- to stop. Now.

The news passed from soldier to soldier. How was Sgt. Bill Mauldin going to stand up to Gen. Patton? It seemed impossible.

Not quite. Mauldin, it turned out, had an ardent fan: Five-star Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe . Ike put out the word: Mauldin draws what Mauldin wants. Mauldin won. Patton lost.

If, in your line of work, you've ever considered yourself a young hotshot, or if you've ever known anyone who has felt that way about himself or herself, the story of Mauldin's young manhood will humble you. Here is what, by the time he was 23 years old, Mauldin had accomplished:

He won the Pulitzer Prize. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine. His book "Up Front" was the No. 1 best-seller in the United States .

All of that at 23. Yet when he returned to civilian life and he grew older, he never lost that boyish Mauldin grin, he never outgrew his excitement about doing his job, he never big-shotted or high-hatted the people with whom he worked every day.

I was lucky enough to be one of them; Mauldin roamed the hallways of the Chicago Sun-Times in the late 1960s and early 1970s with no more officiousness or air of haughtiness than if he was a copyboy. That impish look on his face remained.

He had achieved so much. He had won a second Pulitzer Prize, and he should have won a third, for what may be the single greatest editorial cartoon in the history of the craft: his deadline rendering, on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial slumped in grief, its head cradled in its hands. But he never acted as if he was better than the people he met. He was still Mauldin the enlisted man.

During the late summer of 2002, as Mauldin lay in that California nursing home, some of the old World War II infantry guys caught wind of it. They didn't want Mauldin to go out that way. They thought he should know that he was still their hero.

Gordon Dillow, a columnist for the Orange County Register, put out the call in Southern California for people in the area to send their best wishes to Mauldin; I joined Dillow in the effort, helping to spread the appeal nationally so that Bill would not feel so alone. Soon more than 10,000 letters and cards had arrived at Mauldin's bedside.

Even better than that, the old soldiers began to show up just to sit with Mauldin, to let him know that they were there for him, as he, long ago, had been there for them. So many volunteered to visit Bill that there was a waiting list. Here is how Todd DePastino, in the first paragraph of his wonderful biography of Mauldin, described it:

"Almost every day in the summer and fall of 2002 they came to Park Superior nursing home in Newport Beach ,California , to honor Army Sergeant, Technician Third Grade, Bill Mauldin. They came bearing relics of their youth: medals, insignia, photographs, and carefully folded newspaper clippings. Some wore old garrison caps. Others arrived resplendent in uniforms over a half century old. Almost all of them wept as they filed down the corridor like pilgrims fulfilling some long-neglected obligation."

One of the veterans explained to me why it was so important:

"You would have to be part of a combat infantry unit to appreciate what moments of relief Bill gave us. You had to be reading a soaking wet Stars and Stripes in a water-filled foxhole and then see one of his cartoons."

Mauldin is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . This month, the kid cartoonist makes it onto a first-class postage stamp. It's an honor that most generals and admirals never receive.

What Mauldin would have loved most, I believe, is the sight of the two guys who are keeping him company on that stamp.

Take a look at it.

There's Willie. There's Joe.

And there, to the side, drawing them and smiling that shy, quietly observant smile, is Mauldin himself. With his buddies, right where he belongs. Forever.

Could This be Us?????



A group of 40-year-old girlfriends discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View Restaurant, because the waiters there were good looking and had buff bodies.

10 years later at 50-years-of-age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed that they should
meet at the Ocean View Restaurant, because the food there was very good and the wine selection was good also.

10 years later at 60-years-of-age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed that they should
meet at the Ocean View Restaurant, because they could eat there in peace and quiet and the restaurant had a beautiful view of the ocean.

10 years later at 70-years-of-age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed that they should
meet at the Ocean View Restaurant, because the restaurant was wheel chair accessible and they even had an elevator.

10 years later, at 80-years-of-age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed that they should
meet at the Ocean View Restaurant, because they had never been there before

And another lost Kodak moment! Check out the couple walking on the beach in the background.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
-- James Dent



Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts.
-- Author Unknown



Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.
-- Elizabeth Stone



Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.
-- Richard Bach



Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be. -- Author Unknown



Too much time away from nature and you forget that you are part of a quiet rhythm.
-- Dr. Lee Jampolsky

ABC Wednesday - N!




Time to play with the alphabet! ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt and the ABC team -- Denise, Roger, Troy, Jay, Barb, Gattina and me, Sylvia. Click on the icon, sign up and show us what you know about the letter N!

N is for Nibbling on a Nectarine!



And N is for the Nightingale!



And N is for lovely Night time skies!



Monday, April 19, 2010

That's My World -- And More Flowers!!




Time to share your world with us! That's My World is hosted each week by Klaus and the My World Team of Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and me, Sylvia. Click on the icon, read/follow the instructions, sign up and share the beauty, the fun, the interesting things in your world!

I took another ride around the area near the harbor the last few days. The colors and the flowers are breathtaking, so I'm sharing some more of them with you today.

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson



To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat.
~Beverly Nichols



Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin



Flowers really do intoxicate me. ~Vita Sackville-West



Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. ~The Koran



Break open a cherry tree and there are no flowers, but the spring breeze brings forth myriad blossoms. ~Ikkyu Sojun



When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. ~Chinese Proverb



God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, "Ah!"
~ Joseph Campbell

Sunday, April 18, 2010

MicroFiction Monday


>Susan at Stony River Farm hosts Microfiction Monday. She posts a picture and you compose a story in 140 characters. You can click on the icon to get further instructions. To help you along she has posted a wonderful link that counts your characters for you! How great is that! You can get the counter at Design 215.

This meme is easy and it's fun! Thanks, Susan for hosting.

And here's the picture for the day!



Sue hated this silly play. All she did was get wet! Holly was the star, but
surely no angel! Even with a harp! And sing? Ha!

Weekend Reflections


Weekend Reflections is hosted each week by James at Something Sighted. If you'd like to join the fun then click on the icon and sign up! It begins at 11AM each Friday!

The first shot is a reflection I caught at the zoo last spring when my son took me to one of my favorite places -- the zoo! If you look closely you may be able to see the rhino snoozing in the shade! What a great day it was!



This one is another one that I took last week at the bird sanctuary.

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

Portland Time