Saturday, June 30, 2007
Onsite Auction
Happy Weekend!
Just a quick note - - I've got a new onsite auction up now and it ends on Saturday, July 7th. Send me an email with your bid amount if you are interested in the beads.
I think Devera and I are going to the zoo tomorrow morning. She hasn't gotten tired of that place yet!
Just a quick note - - I've got a new onsite auction up now and it ends on Saturday, July 7th. Send me an email with your bid amount if you are interested in the beads.
I think Devera and I are going to the zoo tomorrow morning. She hasn't gotten tired of that place yet!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Fish Flies
How strange are these pictures? The top is a close up of what a fish fly looks like - - my sister found the picture on the internet. The bottom is a picture of the post office a couple blocks from my sister's house. Yes, those are the dead fish flies on the ground! Holy Crap, they are everywhere! Apparently they only live for a few hours and then they die. Kind of sad when you think about it. Don't they remind you of those old "locusts" films they would show back in the 70's? Anyway, I'm glad that I got to have the experience of seeing the things first hand, but I probably won't be making any specific visits to see more fish bugs. Monday, June 25, 2007
Pictures from the Trip
Ok, so no fish bug pictures yet but here's a cute one of Devera (left) and Riley, one of my sister's daughters (right). This was before Devera caught the flu....happier times for sure.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Fish Fly Festival
I'm back from Detroit. My sister lives in a town called New Baltimore and every year they have the Fish Fly Festival in June. The fish flies were a total disappointment....Until the Last Night! They came out in droves and were all over the place. It was a pretty neat scene....kind of like those locust documentaries you see on the Discovery Channel but have never come close to observing in real life. My sister promised to send me some pictures so I could post them here later this week. Here's the link if you are interested in going and taking a look at what else the festival has to offer...including the best Elephant Ears on the planet (Toby and I had 2 each!): http://www.bay-rama.com/. Visiting with family was awesome - - the cutest part was watching Devera and her cousin Riley playing with each other. Other than the occasional squabble over toys they had a great time. My sister and I make a point to visit each other at least once a year at each other's house - - meaning the girls see each other at least every 6 months so they are really starting to get attached to each other - - super cool! Hopefully I'll have some fun fish fly pictures for you in a few days....
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Good Reading...
I've said it before and I'll say it again....Time Magazine offers some great articles for those of you who like to read but don't have more than 30 minutes at a time. This week there were a couple of articles worth reading. The first was about Arnold Schwarzenegger (Governor of California) and how he has really been one of the leaders to bring measures to combat global warming to his state (and others!). The most interesting part is that he has gone completely away from the party line (Bush just started even acknowledging there might be a problem this year). What I loved about him was he basically said, look, the federal government just isn't getting anything done, so I decided I would do it. How can we get more of these guys in office is what I'm thinking. The second part of the same article was about Michael Bloomberg (Mayor of New York City) and how he had also gone against party lines to draw up gone control. I can't imagine how hard it must be to go against the NRA as a Republican but he has done it - - and violence in New York City has gone down since he's been in office. Coincidentally, today he left the Republican party to go Independent (presumably to run for President). I like the sound of that, another qualified candidate!
The second article was one writer's perspective on what things we should look for in picking our next president. I won't give away the whole story but he basically tackled 5 issues and talked about how one might go about solving them. For example, education. His basic thought was to take the school system away from the local districts, manage it at a state level, pay teachers who want to work in poorer neighborhoods more money, pay teachers by merit instead of across the board raises, and make them work year-round (like every other job in the country). Gotta tell ya, I've got no complaints about any of that. But the part that sold me on his entire article was not all the specifics...the best part was that in most every case neither Republicans or Democrats liked the ideas. I'M SOLD! One things I've learned so far in life is that more times than not if both parties don't like something, then the idea is right on target. The education example holds true. Republicans hate it because well off students can't get better treatment than poor students (they wouldn't phrase it like that, but that's the gist of it). And Democrats wouldn't go for it because the Teacher's Union is so powerful and they want their workers to be treated entirely differently than just about every other job in America (they would phrase it differently too but that is really what it comes down to). So there you have it - - just like so many issues, the 2 major parties are out at the extremes and it leaves moderates stuck in the middle. Thankfully, the candidates for both parties seem pretty reasonable this go around.
So back to the point, if you want to read about everything from terrorists in Africa to what Paris Hilton is doing in jail, you won't be disappointed with Time.
I'm visiting my family this weekend but I'll still have an Ebay auction start tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
The second article was one writer's perspective on what things we should look for in picking our next president. I won't give away the whole story but he basically tackled 5 issues and talked about how one might go about solving them. For example, education. His basic thought was to take the school system away from the local districts, manage it at a state level, pay teachers who want to work in poorer neighborhoods more money, pay teachers by merit instead of across the board raises, and make them work year-round (like every other job in the country). Gotta tell ya, I've got no complaints about any of that. But the part that sold me on his entire article was not all the specifics...the best part was that in most every case neither Republicans or Democrats liked the ideas. I'M SOLD! One things I've learned so far in life is that more times than not if both parties don't like something, then the idea is right on target. The education example holds true. Republicans hate it because well off students can't get better treatment than poor students (they wouldn't phrase it like that, but that's the gist of it). And Democrats wouldn't go for it because the Teacher's Union is so powerful and they want their workers to be treated entirely differently than just about every other job in America (they would phrase it differently too but that is really what it comes down to). So there you have it - - just like so many issues, the 2 major parties are out at the extremes and it leaves moderates stuck in the middle. Thankfully, the candidates for both parties seem pretty reasonable this go around.
So back to the point, if you want to read about everything from terrorists in Africa to what Paris Hilton is doing in jail, you won't be disappointed with Time.
I'm visiting my family this weekend but I'll still have an Ebay auction start tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Dream Girls
Toby and I rented Dream Girls the other night. Gotta say, I wasn't too impressed. I didn't really like it the first time I saw it when it was called Chicago. The one thing that did strike me though was they had some old clips of Martin Luther King speaking in it. Wow, that guy had such a commanding voice. It's such a shame that he didn't live longer - - I can't think of anyone else that had such a strong message and such an easy delivery. It's so strange that those speeches are just as relevant today as they were then. If you want to know about Dream Girls it's basically a story about Diana Ross. The story itself could have been interesting but the whole thing gets kind of lost as many of the film's most dramatic scenes are sung instead of spoken. Kind of left me with a Variety Show feel. If you are going to see a movie about a star and their music go rent Ray or Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash movie) instead, those were a lot better. Or better yet, go see Borat if you like to laugh out loud!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo!
Toby's friend gave her a bunch of children's books for Devera that have been keeping us super busy reading this week. I think Devera's favorites have been the Cordoroy the Stuffed Bear books. But one was really funny....Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo! It's all about how a little bug sneezes and the connected events that follow. For example, the bug sneezes which blows the seed off the plant which falls on the worm which ..... So I told Toby that I was happy that Devera was getting her first lesson in Chaos Theory. If you don't know what that is it is sort of a mathmatical theory that every action impacts the rest of the world...usually described as a butterfly flapping it's wings in Alaska causing a hurricane in Florida at a later date. Obviously it's a little more complicated than that but that is the general gist of the theory. I can't wait until Devera starts learning math. She already surprises me sometimes when she lets me know how many things she's holding. She's like a little sponge these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, June 08, 2007
Picnic!
Today when I got home from work Toby had a little picnic ready for us to take to the park. we put out a big blanket and spread out our big feast on it...what a great way to start the weekend! Devera always loves walking down to go on the swing set and jungle gym - - so she was really excited too.
Also, in case you didn't see it, I put 2 new auctions up, one on Ebay and one on my website. I hope you enjoy them.
Ok, I'm off to soccer....
Also, in case you didn't see it, I put 2 new auctions up, one on Ebay and one on my website. I hope you enjoy them.
Ok, I'm off to soccer....