Who?

More to come.

Twig

More coming soon.

Monkey Business

I don't know why I find this hilarious, but I guess that's just me:

Allas, llama-lless-ness

After nearly three years of llama ownership; we had to give them up (see Amy on Stress post for reasons)

We loaded Angela, Pepper, and Mouse into the trailer and drove them to a kind-hearted friend's 1,000 acre ranch near College Station.






Adieu, little Angela of Angel Hill.

:-(

"YOU AND MOMMY KILLED HITLER?"

This guy cracked me up with his dialogue during a discussion of an Indiana Jones movie with his six-year-old son.

Geek with a .45

I love where I live

20 ways the world is different (better than) 25 years ago.

A very nice read from The Sippican Cottage, via Tamara.

Amy: On Stress

I think yesterday was about the most stressful day I’ve ever lived through!

Wednesday, our neighbors reported that our llamas had escaped but that 2 really good Samaritans had gotten them back in our fence. When Tim got home, he walked around the property and never found them, but that’s not really unusual. However, what WAS strange was that he put out food for them that was still untouched the next morning and they didn’t come to the car for their cookies on our way down the driveway to work.

So I called the Sheriff’s office to open a “missing llama report” and was a bit bothered that they didn’t ask for a description. If they saw them, how would they know if they were ours? When I mentioned this to Tim, he said “just how many llamas do you think are wandering loose around Bandera County?” Okay. Good point.

At 2:00 Thursday afternoon, the sheriff called to say our run-aways had been found and were confined on our neighbor Edwina’s property. On the way home from work, we stopped and got sunflower seeds to use as lures and then Tim and I set off gamely to wrangle them home.

By 6:30, Tim and I were running up and down our street chasing after the 2 fugitive llamas who were faster than we were and really seemed to be enjoying their time on the lam. We had 2 close calls with a pair of bloodhounds that stopped all progress and sent the llamas running for a mile, undoing all the progress we had made. And then an extremely close shave with a UPS truck. That would have solved all of our problems if it had hit only the llamas, but we were also this | | close to death as it came barreling down the street.

Finally, Tim was able to get Angela in a headlock, and put a leash around her neck and walk/drag/plead/cry/run/strangle her all the way down Bear Springs road. Pepper followed and we got them home. All in all, it took us almost 2 hours to move them 1 block down our street, up our driveway and into their pen.

Tim and I were barely speaking to each other when it was over and to top it all off, we still don’t know how they escaped in the first place. But we made a real impression on some neighbors we’ve never met. I don’t think their children had ever heard words like that before.

Once we got them pinned up and we collapsed into our LaZboy chairs, I got on the internet. Yesterday was my drop-dead date to purchase airfare for our trip to Rome in 5 weeks (yeah…cutting it a little close!) I’ve been searching myself blind for over a month trying to find tickets that:
a) weren’t on American (since they are cancelling flights willy-nilly)
b) didn’t go thru London/Heathrow (since they charge almost $500 “airport fees” on top of the ticket price, even if you are just passing thru)
c) didn’t go thru Paris/deGaulle (since they are having baggage processing problems)
d) didn’t include any flights on Alitalia – Italy’s largest airline (since they are filing for bankruptcy next month)
e) didn’t cost a million dollars (since we have to build a new llama fence)

So last night, the gods of travel smiled on me (or maybe they were still laughing over the whole llama-chasing thing) and I found the perfect tickets! Yay! Tim looks over my shoulder and says “May 16th? I can’t go on May 16th.”

Did I mention that I’ve been working on this for over a month? And suddenly, he announces the dates don’t work for him. You would have been very proud of me, I only said 1 (or 2) bad words. But the gods of travel were still smiling and once we adjusted our dates, found even better flights than before. So, we have tickets. But we don’t have lodging. And we leave in 3 weeks. But we have tickets. I’m starting to thrive on stress.

-Amy

Bearing troubles

I found one of my favorites on the random quote of the day site.

I try to follow the philosophy, but I don't have much success at it.

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.
Edward Everett Hale (1822 - 1909)

I frequently (and mentally) kick myself in the backside for mistakes I made years, or even decades ago. Something stupid I did pops into the forefront of my consciousness, and it's like I just did it today.

Dealing with the trouble of now is a bit easier, except that I often anticipate all kinds of trouble that could be just around the corner. Am I just being prepared? Heading off trouble before it occurs? Or am I taking out an advance of angst on trouble that might happen?

Let the police handle it ...

I've often wondered about the common refrain "Don't fight back, just let the police handle it," heard from the media, when people confront burglars, muggers, and whatnot.

I knew there was something wrong with the logic, and Lawdog put it into words far better than I ever could:

Meditations on Self-Defense

Awwwwwwww...crap!

Created by OnePlusYou

Decision time.

I have finally decided.

The only presidential ticket worth voting for is:

Obama/Hillary or Hillary/Obama.










Or not.


Happy April 1rst.

Another Geography game...

The folks at Sheppard Software have some great geography games.

This game (link) is not too hard, at least for a geo tyro like me!

Just drag and drop the state onto the map where you think it should be located.

Ain't Science Grand!

Last night at 830 post meridian, we watched the ISS fly overhead, closely followed by the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

The two objects were extremely bright, and it brought a sense of awe that both were created by human imagination and engineering.

“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.” HDT

Dear Hewlett Packard

I'm afraid you have finally lost me as a customer, as well as my not-inconsiderable referral business.

When the smallest install package for a printer is 70 freaking megabytes, and worse yet takes 30 freaking minutes and answering a half-dozen prompts, you have gotten too big for your britches.

All I want to do is print, for crying out loud. I don't want to launch the Space Shuttle.


Let me offer some advice:

Consumers like simple.

You know what they like even better than simple? Fast.

You have gone completely off the rails with your huge installs, and I, for one, and completely sick of it and I'm not going to take it any more.

Lexmark is right out too, as that is the only printer I've owned that drove me to commit violence on a poor piece of technology. My Lexmark met a terrible end.

Sincerely,

Tim

OST and Luckenbach.

I had a new part I had to put on the bike, and needed a ride to break it in. It took almost two years to get the paperwork processed, and was darn sure not going to delay as long in mounting it.



I met Tom, Carol, and her father at the OST.



After french toast, I planned a route to Luckenbach, tacking advantage of back and dirt roads whenever possible.



It soon began to cloud up, soon leaving only a small patch of blue sky.









I think someone hit a Chupacabra in the road.






Nice rock work:





This place had the most interesting guest houses:






Luckenbach had some great eye-candy.











And some car-candy too:



Home, sweet home:

Blast from the Past: Mt. Hood 2000

Back in 2000, my cousin and her then-boyfriend asked Amy and me if we wanted to climb Mt. Hood with them and a group of their friends.

We were non-committal, until she said, "It's the second most-climbed peak in the world, after Mt. Fuji. About 90% of the people who attempt it succeed. It doesn't require great fitness, or tricky mountaineering skills."

We decided to go.

Here's the group in front of the Hood.


The equipment list for the climb was pretty extensive, specific clothes, sleeping bag, lights, etc. Then they fitted us with these extremely uncomfortable plastic climbing boots, as we would be using crampons for the final ascent to the peak. Helmet and ice-axe completed the load. All told, we were toting about 40-50 pounds on our backs.

We set off from the Timberline Lodge (scene of the exterior shots from "The Shining") around 9 a.m. The first part of the climb is over loose volcanic scree. On the steep parts, I would take a normal length step, and my upper foot would slide back until it was just a couple of inches above the lower one. I felt like Sisyphus. It took us hours to get from 6,000 feet to 7,000 feet.





After about six hours of climbing, we finally reached base camp at 9,000 feet. This is my favorite photo from the trip.




We practiced walking on while roped together, and also self-arrest using an ice-axe. Loads of fun. Then we settled in for the night. Amy was snug in her Swedish-army sleeping bag loaned to her by Tom G.


That night it sounded like sand blowing against the tent all night. Around 3am the guides poked their heads in and said the summit attempt was off, due to weather. We had a good night's rest, and awoke feeling fine.


This is what awaited us outside.


A blizzard had blown in, and we were in near white-out conditions.


The women's bathroom was a little too exposed to the elements, so the girls decided to tough it out and wait 'til we got back down. Amy was not a happy camper.


We survived the trek, bud did not fully recover until the excellent dinner, drinks, and dessert at the Timberline that night.











Allison and Shane: Thanks for the adventure and stories!

A crisp March sunset.

Dayum

Xavier is another blogger I read frequently. This post (link) makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.


Excerpt:

" ...handed Little Darling her bag and took her hand as we began to negotiate the maze of parked automobiles. I glanced back and saw that the two young men had spread apart, one on either side of us and to the rear. That is when I felt it. They had matched my stride and were circling me. Like an antelope, I knew I was being stalked by jackals, only I did not know why. Time was accelerating at head pounding speed, and Little Darling, blissfully unaware, was along for the ride..."