Useless Facts and Trivia: Volume 11

Yes, it is that time again. Here is Volume 11 of "Useless Facts and Trivia", along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics:

1. All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

Wonder if this was what time the Director wanted to be off work?

2. "Dreamt" and "undreamt" are the only English words that end in the letters "mt."

You want to go get a dictionary and prove this wrong, don't you? DON'T YOU???



3. 47.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Including THIS one????

4. 26 (easily visible, there may be more) states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the old US $5 bill.

Wait here. I wanna go get my magnifying glass and a five dollar bill and check this out.
Still waiting?
The problem is finding the $5.00 bill.....




5. The almond is a member of the peach family.

So you might break your teeth on a peach pie? Maybe the peach pit is actually an almond? They kind of look alike,
don't they?

6. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
His poor Mom! What was she doing, a Polka?

7. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

You are going thru the states' names in your head, aren't you???
AREN'T YOU??? No trust in me, I tell ya'!




8. Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula."

And, they even shortened it MORE by calling it: L.A. Gheesh, no wonder!






9. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

Not that it will ever USE any
of those muscles. I mean, he
IS a cat. His main activity is
sleeping and ignoring you.






10. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

I have had a LOT of bosses that meet this description, too.
How about YOU?
Wait..maybe it was his MOUTH?!

More Local Police Reports!!!

Time again for more local police reports, along with MY COMMENTS. I have collected them for a while. As you can see, this one was from 2008!

Let's go through these, shall we?

1. Dead Squirrel? Man, I could call the police every day for this one, only related more to chipmunks, but I just don't have the heart to kill the ones invading my bird feeder by the hour.

Why didn't they just bury it? Why call the police over a DEAD SQUIRREL? These people have WAY too much time on their hands!

2. Dryer lint littering alley: Wow. Again, I wonder if this is the same bored people calling in dead squirrel reports to the police. For God's sake people, GET A LIFE! Besides, they should have gathered it up and stuffed some pillows with it. There, case closed. I wonder how BIG a ball of lint it was, for goodness sake...and if it was really big, what size dryer did it come from? How are they SURE it is dryer lint?

3. Not ONE but TWO reports about a motor bike in the road. At TWO DIFFERENT addresses....I don't get it! Aren't they SUPPOSED to ride on the road? Where else ARE they supposed to ride? I mean, there is no ban on motorbikes riding on the road in our county, so why did these two, separate people call this in? Was the motorbike rider naked? Was he yelling obscenities? Was it an animal driving? What? What was he doing that was illegal? I hope if it was an animal driving it, he at least wore a helmet.

Evidently, it was a slow, boring day in August 2008. Wonder what people would do if someone actually broke the law?...........................................

This and That....Part 2

As mentioned yesterday, I have kept some miscellaneous photos of flowers in bloom, wild flowers from the woods and other things we found during our woods road adventures over the last few weeks to share with you. Today is Part 2 of that collection.

First, we stopped at an old farm site for sale. I saw this old rope and steel cable apparatus there that was tangled up and had seed pods and spider webs on it. I loved how it looked:

Another shot of my lilies, still in bloom:

I think this is a moth on the seed pod, but maybe it is a butterfly? (Ratty? which?):

Another mystery flower growing in my garden. They had it on sale at a yard sale last year, and my husband bought them for a quarter. Anyone know what they are?:

Did you see the spider on the white flowers above? If not, back up and look at the top flowers!

I believe this is called an Evening Primrose. Another flower my hubby got at the same rummage sale...the really came up good this year!:

This shot is for Rainfield.....this is how far the apples have grown on my apple trees thus far!:

Look what is on the clover! Don't you just love his CURLY antenna? or wait...is it his tongue??:

This is a common weed on the side of the road...I loved the contrast of the purple against the rocks on the road!:

Another bee in the roses from that abandoned farm land for sale!:

I will be posting Part 3 of my collection over the next few days!

This and That: Part One

I have been taking miscellaneous flower and woods photographs over the last few weeks, because here in the north, we have a lot in bloom at once and then autumn hits and until the leaves get in full color, we have a lapse of good nature or flower pictures to be had.

So, for the next few posts, I will be posting all of my photos of the flowers or interesting wildflowers I have seen in bloom over the last few weeks for you.


First, here is a photo of the walkway up to my front door. I posted this same shot in the spring when my 200+ tulips were in bloom in the same spot. Now, it is full of my lilies:

I love this splash of yellow lilies that are there too:

We saw an old farm a few weeks past where there was some land for sale. Way in the back of the property was an old-fashioned rose bush buzzing with bees:

Along the woods roads there are many of these tiny purple flowers in bloom. They look like minature tiny asters. Does anyone know their name?:

I love all colors of lilies. Can you tell?:

These little yellow flowers are all over the sides of the roads up here too.

Does anyone know the name of these wildflowers?:

In our back yard, these tiny, tiny flowers grow on vines right amongst the grass. They look like wild Morning Glories. Am I right? Does anyone out there know what they are called?:






You know how I love my tree mushrooms! Well, this one is growing on the side of a tree in our yard:

A not-so-ordinary regular field lily, up close and personal:

Hope you enjoyed this collection today!

I will be posting Part 2 and Part 3 over the next few posts!

Ahoy, Maties!....You asked for it!!!....

For those of you who have NOT read my blog post about an upcoming Pirate-themed girlfriend reunion, go back TWO posts....)

I can't believe the reunion has come and gone already!!!!

We had a fantastic time. My stomach hurts from laughing and I am filled with memories of a wonderful visit with my buddies.

We drank, we ate, we giggled, we reminisced, we posed for pictures, we dressed in costume, we marched down our street in costume (Oh Lord! Can't wait to hear from my neighbors!).

And here we are, in all our glory!:

Which one is ME????

I am wearing fake teeth, and a black wig. I am the one to the right of the pirate in the bright blue skull cap. Hopefully, I don't look ANYTHING like I do out of costume. HA!!

I hope the picture didn't cut off my friend to the far right. She is wearing a mask and holding a parrot. She shows up on my computer, so hopefully she shows up on yours.

Can you tell we have a good time?

Can you tell we love each other?

Can you tell we are already waiting for the next 52 weekends to go by, so we can do this all over again?????

Any ideas for next year's theme????
We have already done the 70's (hippy) theme and an all-leopard pattern outfit theme.

I am open to anything.....so leave me a comment with ideas!

Because I have to torture them next year to come up with more costumes.

They keep getting better and better.

I mean, have you EVER seen better pirates?????

Stormy Skies over Duluth...

As you read this, I am probably partying with my best buddies during our reunion weekend. (Read yesterday's post). I pre-scheduled this blogpost, because I knew I would be too busy to post today.

As I mentioned last week, we went to Duluth, Minnesota a few weeks ago to visit my husband's sister and husband and to attend a surprise birthday party for my cousin, Amy.

While there, we had the pleasure of going down to Canal Park.

This area is along the waterfront of Lake Superior and has a variety of nice restaurants and shops, in addition to some lighthouses and lift bridges.

The skies were perfect for photography: dark, stormy and moody...and then the sun came out to hightlight the historical landmarks and buildings. Who could ask for more?

So, here are some photos I hope you enjoy, which I took while we were in Duluth:

Here is a liftbridge for large boats....I thought the sky behind it was really nice!:

You can walk all the way out to this lighthouse on a nice cement walkway:

The dark, stormy sky beckoned me to take this photo!:

This one was taken from the lighthouse walkway, looking back at Duluth:

Look at how the sun lit up the lighthouse against the stormy skies!:




Yet another lighthouse!:

They have horse and buggy rides available at Canal Park to tour the area:

This one was taken at Hawk's Ridge, which overlooks north Duluth:

The storm was moving in closer. But, we never got the threatening downpour:

If you ever get the chance to visit Duluth, there is enough to keep you busy for the weekend. There is a wonderful rose garden, a railroad museum, mansions to tour, Canal Park and beautiful shores of Lake Superior. It is a smaller "big" town, easy to navigate.

Bring it On!! (Or should I say Arhgggghhgg???)

I have been blessed in this life with some wonderful friends.

Even though I was an Air Force brat, and moved quite a lot during my childhood, I was lucky to have lived in Marquette, Michigan more than once during this time and therefore, held on to some pretty special women in my life.

About six years ago, as most of us had raised our kids and were getting older and had more time to ourselves, we decided that we should try an annual reunion.

Along the shores of beautiful Lake Superior every year, there is an outside art fair held in Marquette. Everyone seemed to like to attend, so we incorporated that into our annual weekend reunion. This always occurs during the last weekend in July.

Since I live close by on a different lake and have plenty of room, I volunteered to always host our reunion at our house.

Therefore, beginning tonight, eight giggling, happy, sweet, boisterous, wonderful friends will be descending on our house. We all wait for this weekend all year long. We get sentimental about our childhood memories. We catch up on each other's kids and grandkids. We have been together through the years through marriages, romances, divorces, miscarriages, career changes, retirement (for some of us!) the birth of kids, the birth of grandkids, the divorces of our kids, remodeling houses, moving, building houses...you name it.

I love each and every one of them from the bottom of my heart. I can't imagine my life without any of them in it.

My poor husband. Or shall I say: our Cabana Boy? He hauls mattresses down, blows up air mattresses, takes us for pontoon rides, runs and gets more mix or chips and helps me cook during this weekend. One of the other friends also brings her husband so that they can skip out and do some fishing while we get wild on Saturday night. (Some of us have some pretty wonderful guys in our lives too!)

A few years ago I decided to throw some more fun in the mix and decided that we should have a theme for the weekend, complete with costumes and a costume contest.

The first one was Leopard weekend. I told them they had to go out to Goodwill or rummage sales and borrow the tackiest leopard outfits and accessories they could get their hands on,....the more the better. They came up with leopard underwear, leopard hairbands, leopard gloves, leopard shoes, leopard skirts, leopard earrings, etc. It was so funny! I would show you some pictures, but we got pretty wild with the leopard underwear, so I promised not to share them with anyone.

Last year, we had a 70's theme......
Here is the crazy bunch of us, all in costume~!

Who couldn't LOVE this bunch of women?:

This year's theme?

PIRATES!!!!

Wonder if anyone found pirate underwear this year?

Wonder who will look the most like Johnny Depp????

I will try my best to get some blackmail pictures this year and post them on the blog.

After all, I'm not making ANY promises about not sharing the photos THIS year. :-P

The Unfairness of Beauty Bestowed.....

Nature is mysterious.

Nature is amazing.

Nature provides so many contrasts in the animal and bird world.

Nature, therefore can be very unfair.


Look at this eagle's nest on display at a nature museum:

Wowsa.

No small bird lives THERE!

It is a beautiful eagle's nest.

Here is a HUGE nest I saw last week in the middle of a pond. It may be an eagle's nest, I am not sure:

But the point is......it is from a huge, beautiful bird, no doubt.

Here is another beautiful bird on display at the same nature museum.

It is a beautiful pileated woodpecker.

Isnt' be gorgeous?

But, nature has a sense of humor.

Not all birds are created equal in size, .....or beauty.

Look what I saw two weeks ago in the trees!:

A turkey vulture!

He is not the most handsome bird in nature's choice of birds.....


There were actually SIX of these in the trees that day, but I could only capture 2 or 3 on camera.

Besides, I was getting scared. They really are mean looking birds.....

So, if I had the choice...............
and
nature asked me which bird I would want to be????




How about THESE?????:

Oh yes.

This is a mama swan with two little ones wayyyyy back in the pond in the woods.
It was in a wilderness area with no way to get closer to them....
but, aren't they beautiful????

Nature can be cruel.

Just ask those vultures..................................

Etc........

I like to wander in the woods and garden and get various plant, flower and wildflower photos.

Today, I am blogposting a menagerie of those type of shots for you that I have gathered over the last few weeks.

First, here is a cat tail that is starting to seed that was out in the woods:

And then: we found blackberry blossoms:

Here is a bouquet of wildflowers with my favorite Devil's Paintbrush in it:

I think this is a Goat's Beard blossoming. Anyone out there know for sure?:

We saw a lot of wild iris out in the ponds over the last few weeks, too. They are such a beautiful shot of purple and blue out in the fields of green:

Musk mallow grows all over wild in our area. I transplanted pink ones and white ones into my garden. They bloom for weeks and are maintenance free!:

Love this one that I finally got to self-seed in my garden!:

I saw these ferns in the middle of the woods with the sun spotlighting them. They were just asking to have their photo taken!:


Another wild iris I found out in the woods:

I hope you enjoyed the mixture of plants and flowers that I was lucky to see in the last few weeks of scouting!