Sitting on the patio
Dining on Chinese take out
Her favorite thing - Going for a ride
Joining her Pyr family at the 4th of July Parade
With half-sister Summer
Posing
With Lauren at 6 months old 
Waiting by the door
Getting some loving from Maureen
Just looking pretty
Guard duty at the gate 
There is a musician/comedian named Pete Barbutti that appeared regularly on the Carson show who had a strange sense of humor and always had me rolling on the floor with tears streaming out of my eyes every time he appeared.
In addition to his other musical talents, he is probably gives the world's greatest performance on the musical broom. (You have to experience it in order to fully appreciate it.)
My wonderful Irish bride, who, bless her heart, has never shared my appreciation for outstanding humor, never seemed to share my enthusiasm for his special wit.
/http://www.barbuti.com/ (His website seems to have been shut down)
Okay, here's the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO 2 emissions on our planet - all of you.
Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress - it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life. Without carbon dioxide there would be no life on earth what-so-ever, but your government calls it a pollutant and wants to tax you for creating or using it.
I know, it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.
The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud at any one time - EVERY DAY.
I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth. Yes folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over one year - think about it.
Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.
And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year.
Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus “human-caused” climate change scenario.
Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention “Global Warming” any more, but just “Climate Change” - you know why? It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bullshit artists got caught with their pants down.
And just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.
But hey, relax, give the world a hug and have a nice day!
Take this test.
This is an on-line calculator that was developed by Northwestern Mutual Life. There are only 13 life style questions, yet they can estimate your lifespan.
Watch your age go up or down in the upper right corner as you answer the questions!
I ordered 50 baby chicks that should arrive the week of June 3rd. They are 25 White Orpingtons and 25 Black Australorps. My neighbor Corey and I will raise them, and when they're big enough, we'll process them. We plan on keeping some pullets to replace the hens we lost last year or possibly selling some. It's illegal to sell the meat, so we will can what we don't eat right away. I've been canning meat for a couple of years, it tastes good, it's ready to eat, and it doesn't take up freezer space.
We're lucky enough to have access to a neighbors field that is outside the city limits to keep the chickens when they're big enough. We are in the process of building a chicken "tractor", which is just a large cage that will be moved easily and often so they have access to fresh grass and bugs and worms. So they will be "free range", healthy birds.
Then I found out I had an older sister
Update:
And this is the longer and more interesting version.
Back in those days when an unmarried girl got pregnant, abortions were illegal, dangerous and expensive. The alternatives were: get married, bring shame to the family and have the baby at home, or go to a home for unwed mothers. My mother chose the option of going to the home for unwed mothers and giving the baby up for adoption.
She was born and raised in a small town and couldn't have a baby there so she moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota which was the largest town in the state. She found work as a maid and eventually had the baby in a home for unwed mothers and gave her up for adoption.
Now, here's the part of the story where I come in.
While she was having her baby, her roommate was there giving birth to a boy named Donnie and they became close friends. She introduced my mother to her brother who eventually became my father. So, her roommate became my aunt and Donnie became my cousin.
Meanwhile, unbeknowst to me, my sister was adopted and grew up in a nearby town. She married, had four children, moved to Oregon, and became a grandmother while we
became grandparents of ten and moved to Illinois.When her adoptive mother died, she discovered she was adopted and found mother's maiden name on the adoption papers. So she decided to search for her birth mother and her whole family began the hunt. Mother's first name is uncommon and her maiden name is an extremely uncommon German name so it should have been easy to find.
They found the marriage records, but my father has a common Scandinavian last name making the search more difficult. In addition, both families were determined to keep family secrets. After a couple of years she gave up looking. But her son, my nephew, didn't.
My sister's family is in the photography business and they travel to different towns taking family portraits. One of her son's customers near Seattle was my uncle (mother's brother) and his family who obviously have the same uncommon German last name. The link was made, and my sister was able to travel to South Dakota to meet with my parents.
It was a couple of months before we were able to travel to Oregon and meet, but it was very emotional as you would expect. We've met a couple of times since then and our children have hooked up with theirs. We keep in touch, but we haven't seen them as often as we would like.
So, if my sister hadn't been born, my parents never would have met and I wouldn't be here to talk about it.
And that, as Paul Harvey used to say, is the rest of the story.
Fresnel lens solar cooker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprlzCDfLm8
How different Fresnel lenses work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xExXjXm0YV0&feature=youtu.be
How to tear apart the remains of a rear projection TV to salvage the giant Fresnel lens for a solar project. Also save a nice first surface mirror: http://www.instructables.com/id/Salvaging-the-Fresnel-Lens-from-a-Rear-Projection/
When we bought our new car last year, we compared the cost of owning an electric hybrid vs a conventional car. Let's say gas is $4.00 per gallon, savings is 25 miles per gallon, and you drive 12,000 miles per year. Your savings in gas will be $1,920.00 per year. If the difference in the cost of the cars is $15,000, it will take 7 years and 10 months to break even; and that's if you pay cash. If you finance the car, it will take even longer.
But, let's say you bought the electric car to save the planet!
A 2012 analysis in Journal of Industrial Ecology shows that almost half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to produce the car, especially the battery. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it has already been responsible for 30,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a similar conventional car is 14,000 pounds.
Electric cars recharge using electricity overwhelmingly produced with fossil fuels. For every mile driven, the average electric car indirectly emits about six ounces of carbon-dioxide, and a conventional car emits about 12 ounces per mile. To make matters worse, the batteries in electric cars fade with time, and require more and more recharging.
If a typical electric car is driven 50,000 miles, the initial emissions from manufacture means the car will actually have put more carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere than a similar-size gasoline-powered car driven the same number of miles.
That Irish woman was upset with me this morning because she dreamed I was dancing with another woman. In the first place I don't enjoy dancing, especially with anyone else. I can't win.
Any dream analysts want to explain this to me!.
Yesterday there was a leg of a small animal in the driveway. It was a leg, complete with bones, meat and fur. From the size and color of the fur, I assume it was from a rabbit.
As I was examining the area, Libby assumed it would make a nice snack and ran off with it. She wasn't going to give it up, so I had to chase her down and take it away.
There was no blood on the ground, so the act of separation from the body must have happened somewhere else. There are coyotes and foxes in the area, but this had to have happened during the day because they almost always never hunt in the daylight and usually take the food back to their lair. I assume a hawk or some other bird of prey dropped it from a tree or the roof of the house.
And that was the highlight of our day.
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