Happy Birthday, Kathy!

My sister, Kathy, is having her 49th birthday today. (or is it tomorrow???...)

Happy Birthday, Kathy! You old fart! We may both be getting old, but I will always be younger than you. Ha!

49. Gee whiz. You are FORTY-NINE YEARS OLD, Kathy. Oh, golly... I should have gotten you a cane for your birthday. Next year for sure! Coz then you'll be 50!

Even though you're so very, very old, I still love you, Kathy dear! Mostly because you gave me a beautiful niece and nephew...



hee hee

Sunflower - pottery

I made this sunflower shaker ball a long, long time ago. I painted the glaze on one Saturday morning at Space Studios, when I was doing a whole bunch of glazing, mostly on shaker balls. I remember this sunflower was one of the last things I was working on that day. I forgot to wipe it clean before I applied the glaze, and I didn't remember that until it came out of the kiln from the glaze firing... the glaze was chipping off it all over it. Wiping the bisque piece before applying glaze is very important. An important step I will surely never again forget.

So I touched up the spots with more glaze, and it was eventually fired again. Still chipping. Kathy Space suggested touching up the glazing again where it had chipped off, and then covering it all over with a specific clear glaze, which I did. This 3rd, and final, glaze firing was mostly ok, but still a couple of small spots where it was chipping. *sigh* Each subsequent firing, a total of 4, is more difficult on the piece, so yet another firing really wasn't an option. At some point you either take it as it is or give up. The remaining small spots of chipping are as good as this piece is going to get. The center of the sunflower used to be very round, and now it's leaning a little... not quite oval or anything, but not totally round now, either. Which, actually, is very sunflower-like.

I made this shaker ball for my sister, Janet, because she likes sunflowers. Even though it was far, far from perfect, I decided to give it to her. She was happy with it, and she'll touch up the little spots with some acrylic paint and some glue.

Good form

This morning, I was downstairs fixing to work on some pottery, and I had the TV on the History Channel. One of the 'Modern Marvels' episodes was on, and it was about chocolate education... since anything containing chocolate sounds good to me, I decided to watch it for a bit. It was called, "The Chocolate Making Process."

First, they showed the harvesting of the cocoa beans and other steps involved in it. I was thinking maybe this isn't such a good thing to watch... Something about covering the pile of sticky looking beans with large banana leaves so dirt and bugs don't get into it, or did they say droppings? And something about the beans fermenting. And then more on drying so the beans don't mold.

So... after that, I wasn't paying real close attention to the program, but then I noticed they were interviewing this older guy. He was standing near a large machine that looked to be sorting the dried beans or something. Turns out it was a de-stoner machine. I found what he said to be interesting enough to copy down and share with you here...

"You have to remember, that where [cocoa] beans are grown in the world are jungle conditions. This is a very wild place, including wild animals. You don't go out into the jungle unprotected. One of the things we pick up in this de-stoner is we also pick up live ammunitions. We consider it really good form to remove all the live ammo before we roast the cocoa beans, for some fairly obvious reasons."

Next Blog

This morning, I got up early with Kev, who had to go into work today. I sat down at my computer with a cup of coffee, planning to look at all the many, many photos I took yesterday of Christmas spent with my family. I decided to look at a couple of blogs, first, and then I got sidetracked...

I had a conversation yesterday, similar to a couple of conversations recently, about how Blogger has changed. More specifically, how the content of blogs has changed. A few years back, I used to sit down at my computer with my slow, dial-up Internet connection and "Next Blog" away... finding some very entertaining blogs. Some have become my favorites.

Then a change began. On using the "Next Blog" on the Blogger navigation bar, I noticed some of the blogs were not only just plain crap, but they were nasty crap. I eventually discontinued my occasional Next Blog'ing because it just was not worth the wait with my slow 'net access, and goodness knows I didn't dare do it at work on my lunch hour because of the porn that would randomly appear.

I didn't mind much, because in my opinion, the best way to find new blogs to read is by going to the linked blogs of a blog I enjoy reading. I, myself, don't feel comfortable linking to other blogs of people I don't know, even though I would highly recommend those blogs... for example, dooce. (And anyway, if you're blogging and you don't know dooce, then you're blogging from a cave somewhere.)

But since we have finally gotten high speed Internet access, I started hitting the Next Blog button on occasion. Woe is me.

The Porn

For all those of you using Blogger for your porn, I detest you. I suspect you're all smokers, litterers and tailgaters as well. I wish all of your ilk could be rounded up and put on your own island where you could not annoy the rest of us.

The Blogs Not Written in English

I enjoy looking at the blogs from around the world that are not written in English. I like to see photos posted on those blogs. I like trying to figure out what some of the words may mean. But... sometimes I wish I could have a "Next Blog in English" button on the Navigation Bar. *sigh*

And speaking of the Navigation Bar...

The Blogs Missing the Navigation Bar

You guys suck. Not only is the Blogger Navigation Bar extremely useful, but it's been pretty common knowledge that when you agreed to the Blogger Terms of Service, you agreed to leave it there. I'm pretty certain it's covered specifically in Section 9, Proprietary rights, i.e., 9.5, which reads, "You agree that you shall not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trade mark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the Services." The Blogger Navigation Bar has the Blogger trademarked symbol, which identifies your blog as provided (free) to you by Blogger, owned by Google. Show some respect and leave the nav bar. Otherwise, you're in the same group with the porn blogs that never have the nav bar, and is that really the kind of company you want to keep?

As long as I'm mentioning legally binding agreements and those stupid porn blogs, here ya go... Blogger's Content Policy. Which only serves to make me, and people who agree with me on this, justified in feeling those type of blogs should not exist.

So Dear Blogger, what's up? Why don't you just delete all the blogs that have removed the Navigation Bar? Oh, you could send a warning first, so those non-porn blogs could have a chance to comply with the Agreement to which They Agreed and put the nav bar back. But in my opinion, if a person has removed the nav bar from their blogspot dot com blog, that person deserves to have Blogger/Google delete their blog. Simple as that. Clean up our little Blogger neighborhood, would you please? I'd do it if I could, but you, Blogger, have the only magical delete key. Use it. I beg of you. Bring back the joy.

What's a rant without a pie chart?...

This morning, I purposely decided to Next Blog to 100 blogs and keep track of the content with which I was presented. I only made it to 90 and then my computer froze up, and though this exercise didn't take very long, it seemed painful enough. I stopped at 90.

I categorized them as follows, and I've provided the percentage that fell into each category: 1) Not in English, and if they were not in English, I did no further categorization though some of those would obviously fall into one of the categories following, 31%; 2) porn, 18%; 3) advertisements or sales, including political ads, 22%; 4) truly a blog, seemed to be written by a real person about nothing much in particular or something of their interest, like sports, computer programming, publishing, teenage angst and the like, 27%; 5) protected blog, open to invited readers only, 1%; and 6) Blogger content warning, 1%.

I also, of course, kept track of the number of those 90 blogs that had no Blogger Navigation Bar, and there were 31. Truly, my past experience would lead me to believe that number should be higher... I would have guessed at least 50%, not a mere 34%.

For your viewing pleasure, the pie chart with my labeled categories and the number of blogs in each category...



p.s. If you have a blogspot dot com URL and no nav bar, I won't read your blog on principle, no matter how interesting it may appear.

Merry Christmas!

Not having thought things through entirely...





Joycie and Sammy both got the new Guitar Hero III; Sammy for his Wii and Joycie for her PS2... so now we have That Darn Loud Rock 'n Roll Music playing both upstairs and down.

Ack! Turn it down! And get a haircut!

Looming

Looming, nearing, approaching, forthcoming, imminent, inevitable, inescapable, near-at-hand, nigh... *sigh*

Anyone else not yet ready for Christmas?... *sigh*

Warning: Whining ahead.

I finally got presents wrapped today, having finally succumbed to the pressure by Joycie and Sammy. Their lamenting over the lack of presents under the tree made my guilt unbearable. I de-price-tagged and boxed, and then wrapped as quickly as possible. It felt a lot like work. Which sucked. Took about 4 hours. Usually I enjoy that part, and usually I get it done much earlier than 2 days before Christmas. And usually not all in one painful session. Here's how lazy I was at it today... I took a big, fat black permanent marker and wrote their name on the gift in great big letters, and I drew a "bow" in the corner... in lieu of those stick-on bows and a gift tag. The bows were way over in another room, and I just didn't feel like getting them, peeling the little piece of paper off the sticky part, and putting them on the gifts... and also because without those little bows, you can stack up a great big stack of gifts which can then be more easily carried upstairs to the tree. Which I hollered Sammy down to the basement to do the carrying...

Something else that sucks is that I have some gifts to buy yet. Just a few little more things. I cannot believe that I have to go shopping on Christmas Eve. I have successfully avoided doing that for years and years... but not this year.

I finally got cookie dough mixed up and in the 'frige this afternoon... just have to roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, bake the cookies, make the frosting, color the frosting and frost each cookie. We planned on making cookies this evening, but after Joycie arrived home around 7:00pm, I was like... um, how about tomorrow?... [groaning ensued]

So in addition to the shopping I have to do & making Christmas sugar cookies tomorrow, I have so much else to also get accomplished. Or... perhaps to delegate. Yes! Delegating is an excellent idea... Oh, Kevvie, Oh, Joycie, Oh, Sammy...!

This year the whole Christmas thing has definitely, positively snuck up on me. It's ambushed me. Pounced. Assaulted. Ugh... Wassail my butt. Assail!

Christmas 2007 has many redeeming qualities, but it has been the most difficult one in many a year for me. Here's my Christmas 2007 inspried haiku:
     Pine needles, holly.
     And everything last minute.
     Christmas is painful.

Hey, you were warned.

What it's all about...

Every year in mid-December, my sister, Janet, and her husband, Bob, have a family Christmas get-together, so that we can all have some Christmas where the entire family is present. Some years not everyone can make it... the older we get, the more difficult it is to get everyone together on one day. Part of it is because our children are getting older, and they all have so much going on in their lives.

My two nieces, Janet & Bob's daughters (Susan & Sara), both live a few hours away from "home"... this area where most of their family (both sides) still live. Susan and Sara & their families, spend Christmas day at their homes. So that my brother-in-law's side of the family have a chance to also have some Christmas with them, they are all usually at this mid-December party, too.

This year, though, it was only my (Janet's) side of the family. And we were all there. Also, Mike, Joycie's boyfriend, and Troy, my niece, Michelle's, boyfriend, were both there, too, and since we all adore those two young men, it was nice to have them with us. The day was wonderful.

It was beautiful weather, a sunny day, with lots of snow on the ground. Janet always decorates her house so nice, and it felt like Christmas. Their house smelled so good, too. Janet and Bob had made lots of food, and Bob made his famous fudge. We stuffed ourselves, and we all talked and talked. Then we all gathered in the living room and watched Rogan and Austin, Susan's son & her soon-to-be step-son, open the Christmas gifts we'd brought for them. It was so much fun to watch those young boys open presents. Our Sammy is the youngest grandchild in the family, and now that he's 13 years old, the gleefulness of a little kid tearing open a present in front of the whole family is achieved only through Rogan and Austin now. So we all loved it.

I took many photos, like I always do, but this year, I made a special effort to get a photo of each person in my family. I also left my camera sitting around, and Sammy snapped some photos, too. Here is a sampling...

From left to right, on the sofa, Mike & Joyce, then my nephew, James (aka Jimmy), then Rogan is sitting on the floor on top of Austin's legs, then Stewart (Austin's dad) & Susan (Rogan's mom)...



Rogan, Austin and Sammy...



My Daddy (Jim), and Michael, and on the left, you can see half of Derek...



Stewart & Susan...



Troy & Michelle...



Jim, Kev and Derek...



Kathy & Bob...



Sue with James and Alana...



Sammy and Rogan, a photo Sammy took - he's really good at holding that camera out and taking a photo...



My Mom (Joyce) and Alana, with Sara & Derek in the background...



Sara & Derek, the newlyweds...



JoAnne (aka Joie) and Rogan...



Bob & Janet, not the greatest photo of Janet, but trust me, it's the photographer, not the subject!...



Tearing into presents...



There's a photo of Janet smiling! This is right after Rogan and Austin had opened their gifts from us. After each gift opening, they go to whoever all gave them the present and give them each a hug and a thank you... second-cousin Sammy was first, I believe, and that hugging was super easy for Rogan and Austin coz they just love Sammy (and vice versa!), then Great-Uncle Kevin, then Great-Aunt Julie, and then... they had to hug second-cousin Joycie. I'm not sure why the boys' shyness kicked in at that point, but it did. In this photo, Rogan and Austin are each trying to make the other be the first to go over to Joycie to hug & and thank her... it was really funny...



The party ended earlier than usual because of the predictions of a big snow storm... Susan and Sara and their family members all had over a 2-hour drive in front of them to get back home, and so to try to beat the storm, they all left around 4:00 pm. That part was kind of sad, because they had planned to leave the next day, on Sunday. But the snow storm prediction was accurate, so it was good they left when they did.

The snow came, and even more the next day, and on through the night Sunday and the wee hours of Monday morning. So even though the snow cut our family party a little short, it was all good... Sammy got a snow day off from school that Monday. Awesome.

Rudolph's furry little cousin

Kev set up his game camera over on the West 20 at my folks' property. We got photos of this cute, furry little one...

Bird feeder events

I've been working at home often lately, and I find I'm enjoying it. I could not do my entire job from home, but with a great deal of super duper organization, I can get a lot done at home. It's nice, with limited interruptions and with finally getting high speed Internet access, it makes for a pleasant work day. I'm only going into the office now 2 or 3 mornings each week... having convinced my doctor that taking a leave from work until after my surgery in January was not a viable option. Year-end and 4th quarter close is the busiest and most critical time of the year for me on my job... no way could I just stay at home through it. Working from home seemed to me to be worth trying, and I'm happy with the result so far. I don't think I would like to have a schedule like this as a permanent thing, and I wouldn't want a "virtual office" (work from home every day). I feel a bit disconnected from my team right now, like I'm missing out on too much of the goings-on in the office. I'll just be happy when this surgery event is over and done with... and life can return to our family's version of normal.

So, anyway... while working from home at my desk, I've been enjoying the views at the bird feeder, the views and the sounds. Especially after the snow arrived, the sounds of the birds at the feeder seemed to increase. Lots of pleasant little chirps, whistles and songs. The other day, I suddenly noticed it was so quiet... no bird noises. I looked up, and there on the arm of the shepherd's hook from which hangs the feeders sat a small hawk. Well, small for a hawk, but a large bird. Not like the hawk we caught on the Moultrie game camera. It must have noticed me, and it was staring right at me. My camera was sitting close to me on my desk, so I slowly reached my left hand over to turn it on. The hawk continued to watch me, and as soon as my camera made that musical little sound it makes when it powers up, the hawk took off. It was pretty cool, though. I explained what the hawk looked like to my dad, and he said it was likely a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. I did a 'net image search, and sure enough, that's what it was. I even found this photo...



which is what my photo would have looked like had I been able to take it. Cool.

On another day, I finally got tired of trying to scare away the 3 big, fat squirrels from the feeder by yelling at them and banging on the window. They've gotten used to me, so yelling and banging no longer made them leave. I discovered that if I opened the window, they would take off, flying off the feeder. But then, of course, they got used to that. So I went and got my trusty BB gun...



after a few pokes in the butt, they learned. Then I just had to hold it up, I didn't even have to open the window to shoot at 'em. These 2 fellas were eyeing the feeder... and eyeing me...



and as soon as they got to it, I poked 'em with a BB. Pissed them off good and proper. It was very funny. One ran up the nearby maple tree from where he had come, and the other ran way over the yard to another tree. The first one sat up in the tree and chewed me out, flipping his tail at me over and over and over. I finally picked up my camera and recorded a video of him, and posted the not so good quality (ok, actually it's pretty crappy quality) result here. So it's pretty bad filming, but you get the gist.

And, yes, they're back and no longer afraid of my BB gun. With their thick winter fur on, it must not even sting them, because I shot one in the butt a couple of times and all he did was stop eating for a second. *sigh*

This past Monday morning, I was up and working at my desk well before dawn even started to break... as the sky started to lighten, I realized how much snow we had received during the night.



The birds begin arriving with the daylight, and it wasn't long before they had knocked most of the snow off the top of the feeder.

Sammy stayed home from school on a snow day, along with pretty much every other school kid in our area and beyond. Our middle of the mitten area in Michigan got lots of snow. We've received more since, and it's beautiful! We loves us a white Christmas.

Doe, a deer, a female deer...

Kev has set his Moultrie game camera to take photos more often, and he set it up near a spot where he’s been feeding the deer. We have tons of photos of the same 10 or 12 or so doe... at least no recognizable bucks. It’s been interesting seeing the group of females interact.

One thing we’ve noticed is that when some or all of the group are standing at attention with their ears perked up like this...



This usually means the next photos will show more deer have arrived on the scene.



Most of the photos are night shots, but we did get some daytime photos...







The camera caught the first good snowfall...



And some other unusual shots, as well, like this pair, perfectly paired up...



Many photos of squirrels...



Isn't that pretty with the sun rays...

I think this is the only photo we possess of a doe taking a dump...



She somehow stills manages to look quite graceful. We have many photos of the does doing strange stances, with their legs every which way, necks stretched, heads turned along their backs. Gracefully cattywampus.

We have just a few photos of one or two bedding down at the dinner table, so to speak...



And then there are photos that have no explanation...



And the photo Kev did for me for a surprise...



Now there’s a buck! heh heh...

Something that has become very evident in all the many photos is the bickering. It seems to start with the ears...









Then it’s a brawl...









Unfortunately, the doe are usually moving so fast that the camera can’t keep up. But it’s pretty cool anyway.

Hello, birdie

This past Wednesday morning, this fellow showed up at the feeder...







He's the first Evening Grosbeak I've seen at our place... ever. Isn't his bold, yellow unibrow beautiful? He's a handsome one. He looks like he means business, y'know... but then he's so bright yellow... like a happy clown. A happy clown who means business. Don't mess with the happy clown with the big beak.

At least I'm assuming he's a he. My trusty Audubon field guide tells me the female has the same coloring, only grayer. The many, many photos I took of him doesn't do his coloring justice. The sun was so bright that he was mostly in shadow. But his white was Very White and his yellow feathers were Very Bright Yellow. Gotta be a male, nothing grayish about him.

He stayed around until midday, and I haven't seen him since.