July 30, 2009 by kim.

MONTH
*National Catfish Month - http://www.tnaqua.org/VisitorInfo/Catfish_Gnome.asp

*National Peach Month - http://www.eatcaliforniafruit.com/freshipes/newsletters/03_2008_08.htm

WEEK
*Simplify Your Life Week - First week in August -
http://www.onlineorganizing.com/CalendarHoliday.asp?holiday=27

*National Smile Week - Second week in August -
http://familycrafts.about.com/library/spdays/blaugweek2.htm

DAYS
*August 1 - National Mustard Day - http://www.mustardweb.com/mustard-day.htm

*August 2 (First Sunday in August) - National Friendship Day - http://www.friendshipday.org/

*August 7 - National Lighthouse Day -
http://www.lighthousefoundation.org/museum/natllighthouseday_info.htm

*August 8 - Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day - http://www.wellcat.com/august/sneak_some_zucchini_onto_your_ne.htm

*August 10 - National S’mores Day -
http://bakingbites.com/2007/08/national-smores-day-and-the-history-of-smores/

*August 13 - Left-Handers Day - http://www.lefthandersday.com/

*August 26 - National Dog Day - http://www.nationaldogday.com/

Posted in Holiday | No Comments »

July 26, 2009 by kim.

When the weather is really nice, I like to hang out on the porch with Matilda:

I had to put her on a leash because she decided one day to hop to the top of this railing and put her little paws on the cement ledge (on the left) leading around the house:

I was able to grab her before she got too far. Scary!

We do get to see our fair share of wildlife out here:

Spider

Ant

Squirrel

Sparrow

Robin

Actually, this robin has been hanging around quite a bit. There is a nest in a nearby tree, and he stops on our porch railing to tease Matilda before going to feed the baby birds.

What a relaxing way to spend a summer day!

Posted in Fun, Nature, Animals | No Comments »

July 21, 2009 by kim.

While visiting my folks last week, my Mom and I decided to see what was going on at the Fond du Lac County Fair:

Not much.

To be fair (no pun intended), we did go at 11:00 on a Thursday morning. Not much goes on that early except the judging of livestock and rabbits. No pictures of that, but we did take in a petting zoo:

Alpaca

Camels

Kangaroo

Goat

Tortoise

It was interesting, but I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it. Most of the animals were just laying down in their tiny little pens. Also – should most of these animals really be living in the Midwest? They are accustomed to much warmer climates than they’re being subjected to here. I tried looking up the company, but all I found was an address putting them in East Prairie, MO. Hmmmm.

Anyway, after the zoo, we took in a pig swimming race:

Off they go!

Jumping in

Swimming

Finish

They sure are cute!

Later that same day, we went to Mt. Calvary where there is an artesian well hidden in a little shack:

Shack

Here is where you get the water:

Well

I didn’t know what to expect when we went there, but the water was good and cool. We even took a taste before we filled our gallon jugs:

Mom and Dad tasting the water

The water runs constantly and anyone can fill their own container for a mere 25 cents. We gave a little more (payment is on an honor system), and who can beat that price?

All in all, a fun and busy day!

Posted in Fun, Animals | No Comments »

July 18, 2009 by kim.

Remember that storm I posted about that blew through Chicago and drowned our car? Well, we happened upon another casualty of that storm when we were walking through Rosehill Cemetery in our neighborhood:

Chris and the broken tree

Isn’t that amazing?

Side

Top

As you can see, it was pretty rotted:

Still – that’s how forceful the storm was.

You just don’t mess with Mother Nature!

Posted in Nature, Observation | No Comments »

July 16, 2009 by kim.

While sitting on the porch with Matilda recently, I noticed a lady wandering among the cars on the street. Using my covert picture taking skills, I got this shot:

I’m not very good at the covert stuff.

She is a city worker, and was looking to see if the cars on the street had up-to-date city parking stickers. One car in front of our building did not, so it was ticketed.

As she walked away, I got another shot:

Note what is written on the back of her vest:

They don’t beat around the bush, do they?

Posted in Observation | No Comments »

July 14, 2009 by kim.

Chris purchased a green screen the other day for the multimedia freelance work that he does. This enables him to shoot a subject on the green background, take out the green background in editing, and put whatever he wants to in the background. For instance, he could shoot me in front of the green screen wearing a parka, pretending that I’m shivering. During editing, he could put a frozen tundra background in place of the green screen, thus making me appear that I am freezing my butt off somewhere in Siberia. Can you imagine the possibilities??

He needed to do some test shots to get used to lighting it before taking it to a client for the first time. Naturally, we were the guinea pigs.

Here is what the 10′ x 20′ green screen looked like in our dining room:

Here are four of the five lights he had set up:

We videotaped ourselves doing a goofy little dance, and then Chris went to work editing the footage:

It took him all of 20 minutes to create this little video:

Aren’t we just the silliest?

Posted in Fun, Art | No Comments »

July 12, 2009 by kim.

Back in September 2007, I wrote a post about a flower that I couldn’t identify:

I remember typing all sorts of things into Google to try and find out what it was, but I had no luck. Until now!

My Wonderful Mother-in-Law, Vernie, has a friend in Scotland named Sheila, and she identified it for me! It is … wait for it … a Passion Flower! I found a site that listed the scientific name as ‘Passiflora ‘Incense’.

Thank you, Sheila!

Posted in Nature | No Comments »

July 10, 2009 by kim.

Riding the train this afternoon, I overheard a shell game swindle starting. You know the one. A person has three shells and hides a small ball underneath one of them. He then shuffles the shells around taking bets on where the ball is. Someone who is in on the game (a shill) makes bets and wins a few times, which in turn makes other bystanders think that the game can actually be won. It cannot.

I experienced this type of thing on the same train line about eight years ago. At the time, Chris and I were sitting very close to a guy who was trying to get a teen across from us to bet his gold chain on the game after he had already lost $20. Chris piped up with, “Don’t do it – it’s a scam” and got a dirty look and grumblings from the guy running the game. After the teen got off the train, the scammer turned to us and started talking trash. Being young and naive, I piped up with, “You wanna start somethin’?”. As soon as the train doors opened and before the guy could take a swing at him, Chris quickly dragged me off the train.

Anyway, I decided to mind my own business this time. Plus, he had two shills helping him and one guy was quite large. Eventually, he made his way to the seat next to me. Then he bounced into the seat across from me. I had my iPhone out, and decided to take some covert pictures (and we all know how well I do that). Here are the pictures I was able to take as my heart was threatening to beat out of my chest:

Bottle caps instead of shells

Scamming riders

Making a hasty exit

You’ve been warned …

Posted in Observation, Annoyance | No Comments »

July 8, 2009 by kim.

Looking around the house, I noticed that I have inadvertently started a small rooster collection.

Isn’t this the cutest rooster rug for the kitchen?

How about this rooster rug for shoes?

And this rooster sign?

Ooo! Ooo! Rooster napkin holder:

Pretty porcelain rooster:

Look at that little rooster!

I like roosters, but I’m not fanatic about them or anything.

Yet.

Posted in Fun, Collectible, Animals | No Comments »

July 5, 2009 by kim.

Chris and I went to the Taste of Chicago on Friday afternoon, which is a 10-day festival where restaurants offer up different dishes from their menus. You buy tickets when you enter the park and exchange them for food and drink.

One sheet of 12 tickets goes for $8.00. We bought 48 tickets, or 4 sheets. That works out to be $.66/ticket. Food is between 2 – 10 tickets each. We did the math.

1 slice of pizza – 8 tickets – $5.28
1 20oz soda – 5 tickets – $3.30
1/2 of a cheeseburger – 4 tickets – $2.64
1 corn on the cob – 5 tickets – $3.30

I never said it was cheap!

Posted in Fun, Entertainment, Food | No Comments »