Thursday, July 28, 2011

Eagle On Headstone

My friend sent this to me and I was so moved by the photo I thought I would share.  WITH WHO!!   hehehehe  I think two people read my blog!  LOL  Anyway, it is a very moving photo!!

One of the most emotion-evoking photos I've ever seen. Taken at the
National Cemetery in Minneapolis on a June morning as it appeared in the Minneapolis Star/Tribune.

Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words!!! It says everything without a single word. This should become an official Memorial Day, 4th of July and/or Veterans Day remembrance photo; Our symbol standing guard.


Saturday, July 23, 2011

Hot Days


It has been so HOT in upstate New York that even the Ice Cream trucks are having problems!!

Friday, July 22, 2011

In Memory of Jodi

On this Angel Anniversary, I seek the spirit of Jodi who lives so deep within my heart to help me through this day~

~ If I had a single flower for every time I think about you Jodi I could walk forever in my garden.

~ We miss you so much
















Thursday, July 21, 2011

Just Stuff

My son-in-law was at the launching of Atlantis a few weeks back and toke this clip!  When I worked for IBM I had the opportunity to attend one of these launches as their guest, but could not afford the expensive at the time!  It must be an awesome thing to actually be there!


A friend of mine posted this little vese on Facebook and thought it was excellent!

 I have been to a lot of places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've also never been in Cognito, either. I hear no one recognizes you there. I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport, you have to be driven there. I have made several trips thanks to my friends and family! ;-)

My daughter is in Iceland and sent me this fantastic photo!!


Got a new point and shoot and was trying it out and caught this picture of my cat Seamus (Shay-mus) ... he is my little red haired Irish boy!!  I think he is eyeing the bird up in the tree!!


AND who is into "testing"??  Well they have some new codes for seniors - have you seen them? 

Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting, there appears to be a need for an STC (Senior Texting Code). I know that none of us qualifies as a "Senior" so just pass this along to your "older" friends.

ATD: At The Doctor's
BTW: Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM: Covered By Medicare
CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center
DWI: Driving While Incontinent
FWB: Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW: Forgot Where I Was
FYI: Found Your Insulin
GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA: Got Heartburn Again
HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL: Living On Lipitor
LWO: Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR: On My Massage Recliner
OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas
ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
SGGP: Sorry, Gotta Go Poop
TTYL: Talk To You Louder
WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again
WTP: Where's The Prunes?
WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil
GLKI (Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In)

HAPPY THURSDAY!!

Monday, July 11, 2011

A HobNob!!

Today I had thoughts of HobNobs!!   What is a HobNob you ask!!   It is cookie/biscuit that began in the UK. Here is a little description.
If you’re an oat-aholic, then McVitie's HobNobs are your biscuits.  First launched in the UK in 1985, they were later followed by the Milk Chocolate alternative in 1987.  

While in Ireland and Scotland I got hooked on these things, I could eat a whole sleeve of biscuits myself every day!!   Non-sweet, great tasting cookie.  Send your taste buds soaring with the mouth watering oat and wheat HobNob biscuits.  The initial crunch followed by the gentle melt leaves you wanting more.    I must say they are most addictive, these knobbly golden delights will leave you with just one difficult problem - to share or not to share?  NOT!!!

 While in NYC babysitting my grandson in early June I stopped in one of the markets and low and behold there they were on the supermarket shelf, I was like an old junkie, I started to shake, and place every last one into my cart ... price,  did I check to see what it was, NO, it was HobNobs, I had not had them in years!!   I have to say once I got to the checkout though I was not prepared for the total ... those little morsels were almost as much as gold ... well not quite, but almost!!   BUT it is also a market in NYC, on Broadway, so I expect some price increase but $4.99 a small box!   WHOA!!   Well I bit the bullet (and the cookie) and purchased my HobNobs and was in full glory walking back to my daughters place as I munched on HobNobs and dreamed of being back in the UK!!!  Guess where I am going the next time I visit my daughter!!!  YUP .... back to the market!!!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

NYC Pool

My daughter who lives in NYC posted this, I think it is a fantastic idea!!
Check out these three very inventive young men and their amazing idea.




+Pool from GYLo on Vimeo.

Here is the website:  http://pluspool.org/

OH, and congrats to the US Woman's Soccer team for their advancement to the World Cup Semi Finals!! Way to go!!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Birthday America!!

July 4, 1776, a celebrated in the United States to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.  Independance from England!!  Don't get me wrong, I love England!!  In fact there are days when I wish I was back there, but I love the USA!

I found this story this morning on Yahoo and thought I would share it!

There are a lot of stories surrounding the Declaration of Independence. One of the most famous concerns John Hancock and his comically large signature. According to legend, the founding father signed his name bigger than everyone else's because he wanted to make sure "fat old King George" could read it without his spectacles.

It's a neat story about American brashness, but it isn't very accurate. The truth is a tad less dramatic. Snopes.com explains that Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, gave a super-sized signature not because he was itching for a fight with the king, but because, among other things, he happened to be the first person to sign the document.

Because Hancock was the first to sign, he did the sensible thing and put his name front and center. He was the leader of the Congress, after all. He didn't know his fellow patriots would sign their names on a smaller scale.

So, why are some of the other signatures high and to the left while others are down and to the right? The National Archives explains, "In accordance with prevailing custom, the other delegates began to sign at the right below the text, their signatures arranged according to the geographic location of the states they represented. New Hampshire, the northernmost state, began the list, and Georgia, the southernmost, ended it."

And it's worth remembering that signing one's name to the Declaration of Independence was no small thing. Those who signed the document were sure to be hanged for treason should they be caught.

Another popular story says that the members of Congress were inspired to lend their own names to the document after seeing Hancock's epic autograph and the bravery it signified. Neat, but not true. Not only was Hancock the first to sign the Declaration, he did it weeks before anybody else. The National Archives explains, "One of the most widely held misconceptions about the Declaration is that it was signed on July 4, 1776, by all the delegates in attendance."

In reality, Hancock signed it in the presence of just one man, Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress.  National Geographic explains, "no one actually signed the Declaration of Independence at any time during July 1776. Signing began on August 2, with John Hancock's famously bold scribble, and wasn't completed until late November."
That famous painting of all the founding fathers gathered around, signing the document was a case of artistic license!!

This flag was flown over the United States Capitol in Washington, DC on Jan. 15, 2000 and then sent to me. I only bring it out on very few occasions.

ALL said ... Happy Birthday America!!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Camera Ramblings

WOW twice in the same week!! Can you believe it!!!

Went out today searching for a new "point and shoot" camera! Sadly my trusty old point and shoot Cannon has captured it's last likeness of anything. This camera toke some AMAZING photos for me and I am deeply sadden that she will not be accompany me on anymore ventures. Here are a few snaps she had saved for me .... I think you can click on the picture to see them larger, at least you use to be able to, so many things have changed since I have been away!!  *smile*   Enjoy the pics!
seagulls on Long Island ... they were looking for food!

This was taken at sunrise in North Wildwood, New Jersey, a lone fisherman.

Some very busy bees hard at work, taken in Gettysburg, PA

This is one of my favorite entertainers and fiddle players, Ms. Eileen Ivers.  I try to catch at least one of her shows at least once a year, she is amazing!!

This is my rescue boy Darby, named after my great-great grandfather in Ireland.

AND this is my red haired Irish boy named Seamus, he too is a rescue, his mom died when he was only three days old, so he thinks humans are his mom!  He is a very sweet boy!

This was taken in the spring at Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY, my great-great- grandparents are buried there as well as my great grandparents and other aunts and uncles.

This was also taken at Green Wood Cemetery, I liked the color contrast.

Another butterfly shot, this was taken at Robert Frost summer home in the mountains of
New Hampshire  (a female monarch)

One of my many whale shots, not bad for a point and shoot huh!!  This was taken off the coast of New England.  We saw so many whales that day.  This was a Humpback Whale.

Also a Humpback Whale.  The way they "ID" the whales is by the underside of their tail.  Each whale has a distinct imprint, just as a human has fingerprints.

This is a little blurry, the horse was trotting along, but look at the little boy looking out the window at me!   This was taken in Intercourse, PA.  (no wise cracks)

Taken in Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire
This was taken in Dingle, Ireland


OK, the same morning I was walking the beach at sunrise in North Wildwood I came across this girl taking pictures of a pumpkin on the beach.  OF COURSE I had to ask her why!!!  She was taking a photography class and the teacher told them they had to find a pumpkin (it was late Sept.) and take it someplace unusual and photograph it.  I though she was pretty clever.  Love the seagulls hanging around ready to attack the pumpkin!

You can actually see her furry back, this is a female Monarch, taken in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire
This was taken in Vancouver, British Columbia, loved the rocks, water and snow covered mountains in the distance.


WELL now all I have to do is find myself a new point and shoot, I have spent hours reading reveiws and I am undecided between two cameras.  I have only been at the store half dozen times, check each one out, get confused and leave again!!  Maybe tomorrow!!

PEACE!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Stoned Kitty

Stoned kitty after almost losing his tail, and 2.5 hours in the Kitty hospital!!

Missing My Blog

I miss you my BLOG ...............
I have been away for to long, and so much has happened while I was away! Well not really but isn't that what you are expected to say!! Actually my life has been rather BLAH ..... no travel, no big parties, a broken camera so no good photo's, just living upstate life!!
Hmmmmm I am still dwelling deep in the ghosts of my past. I did put together a pretty outstanding poster board of my English roots. I saw the idea on line, yes folks, I lifted the idea from another Englishman! However it was a TON of work to put it together!! I am very pleased with the outcome, I am not sure it can be viewed here since it is a file and not a jpg. Maybe I can try to capture it on my big camera, which may I add is also acting up!!
I really need to paint my bedroom and I kick myself daily in the ass for not being more aggressive about it. First I need to sort through clothes, get rid of what I know I will never wear again and then start moving stuff!! I have decided on a color, so that is one good thing! I am thinking a sage green/grayish color with bright white molding. My canopy bed is pine and I think that would work. It would also give me a chance to get some beautiful botanical prints that my daughter drew hung on the walls!!
I miss my grandson everyday! He is the joy of my life, how one little person can fill so many voids in your life and make you smile is truly unreal! He is a game player too and is learning to be quiet crafty in many ways, and they are not all artsy! LOL!! I love him to pieces.
Oh we did have a kitty incident, I accidentally slammed my poor Kitty's tail in the door. I have three indoor cats, all whom try to escape each time I come in or out. While bringing in groceries a few weeks back one escaped behind me that I did not see, hence the tail in the door!!!! We spent LOTS of money and 2.5 hours in the kitty hospital. I am happy to say the tail was saved, thank gosh! What is a Puss N Boots without a tail! Here is a picture after we brought him home, he is a little stoned from all the meds!!! LOL
For some reason I can not upload shots today????
Oh well .... tomorrow perhaps!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Another Change in My Life

OK first off I am confused how my blog got changed around! That will teach me never to tinker when you mind is not fully charged. I hate they way it looks but do not want to mess with the layout just yet!! AND the colors....YUCK!!!


This weekend marked my 20th year marching with a great group of folks, The BC Celtic Kazoo Band! I have led this band now for 10 years and it has been both a labor of love and a royal pain in the ass at times!! AND sometimes a part time job...of which there is no pay, except the grattification that comes on parade day when all run smooth! AND it did just that this past Saturday.


Thursday night at last practice we had well over 100 people show up. They surprised me with an appriciation award and a few very nice trinkets!!!



It was a great parade day! Here is a little clip taken on Saturday. I will post more pictures soon
.


Friday, March 4, 2011

Past Parades


Well I wanted to write some magnificent words of wisdom here, but alas they all escape me...so in prep for tomorrows local parade here are a few clips from previous years of our band!! YES, a KAZOO BAND!!!

This is a few of our drummers warming up ...


A rainy past parade day...


A SNOWY parade day ...
AND yes those are jello shots on the table!!!


The crowds love us ... not sure who toke this someone on the side lines, I found it on You Tube!! LOL


These are the Kazoo Band friends...the Philly Pipe band rocking with some Kazooers on parade day!! You gotta LOVE these guys!!! This clip makes me smile!!!!


HAPPY PARADE DAY Binghamton, New York!!!!

I will try to post some pictures next week of the festivities!!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

New York Tourists!!

Not from being from NYC proper but I have walked the city often enough to also be annoyed by the people stopping to "look up" or take photos and thought these two clips were hysterical



Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!!


If you want to pronounce the name the way his family did, say Zoice,not Soose. Seuss is a Bavarian name, and was his mother’s maiden name: Henrietta Seuss’s parents emigrated from Bavaria (part of modern-day Germany) in the nineteenth century. Seuss was also his middle name.

Theodor Seuss Geisel — known as “Ted” to family and friends — liked to say that he adopted the name “Dr. Seuss” because he was saving his real name for the Great American Novel he would one day write. But that’s probably not true. When talking to the media, Geisel was more interested in telling a good story than he was in telling a true story.

He wrote an illustrated 44 books!

I don't know if you agree but I think he looks like Mr. Rogers in this picture!!


Thanks for some GREAT books, and Happy Birthday Theodor Seuss Geisel !!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Getting Ready For the High Holy Month!

Well, I admit it, I have been lame about posting. I use to so look forward to the pearls of wisdom that would flow through my veins and onto the blog....hehehe. I have been lame about so many things in my life and I should really get my ass in gear, but alas no one has poked me with a cattle prod recently!!

I am however looking forward to the "High Holy Month (HHM)" as we so fondly call it in the kazoo band. When kazoo practice starts, we know soon so will the "HHM." To those who do not know what the HHM is, let me explain. Once the holidays are over and cabin fever starts setting in, we start thinking about kazoo practice. YES, I know that sounds like an oxymoron!! KAZOO/PRACTICE!! I know the kazoo is not a REAL instrument, but never tell that to a devoted kazooist!!


The winters are long and cold upstate New York so we try to entertain ourselves any way possible, yup, kazoo practice brings us all together once a week. We start in January and culminate on St. Patrick's Parade Day weekend in Binghamton, which always falls on the first Saturday of the HHM. Yes, March!

Most novice revelers only come out usually on the actual high holy day itself, St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, but being the dedicated Irish group we are, we celebrate the whole month, hence the term the "High Holy Month."

So as I said, we have been practicing for six weeks, this being our last week before we march in the parade. We are just hoping the snow and sleet hold off and that St. Patrick himself blesses us with a sunny day!

So to start off the HHM I found this neat clip. I KNOW, it is not every ones taste in music but give it a listen!!

More HHM postings to follow!!!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Happy President's Day!



Alright, here's a list of cool presidential fun facts and worthless presidential trivia that you are sure to impress your friends with at the big annual Presidents Day Party. These are all from the first 25 presidents.
•When he was inaugurated, George Washington was down to his last real tooth.
•John Adams last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still survives!" Unbeknowest to Adams, Jefferson had died hours earlier.
•Thomas Jefferson was the first president to shake hands instead of bowing to people. He died deeply in debt, and Monticello was sold off. It went unoccupied for almost 100 years, falling into a sad state of disrepair before it was made into a monument in the 1920s.
•James Madison was 5'4" tall, and weighed 98 pounds.
•In the election of 1820, the immensely popular James Monroe received every electoral vote but one, and ran for president unopposed. The one elector voted against him so that Washington would be the only president elected unanimously.
•John Quincy Adams had a pet alligator, and had a pool table installed at the White House.
•Andrew Jackson was a chronic drooler, and suffered from the hives. He was orphaned at age 13. Early in life he had smallpox and dysentery. Later in life he had tuberculosis and dropsy. His wife had a nervous breakdown.He was shot in a duel (he killed the guy who shot him), and since the bullet wasn't able to be removed, he had an infection for the rest of his life.
•William Henry Harrison's inaugural address was two hours long, despite the fact that it took place in a freezing downpour. He refused to shorten his speech or even put on a coat. He quickly developed a cold, which then became pneumonia, and was dead within a month. His is still the longest inauguration and shortest presidency.
•Martin van Buren's autobiography doesn't mention his wife once.
•20 years after being elected president, John Tyler was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. He had 15 children by two wives. His first child was born in 1816. The last Tyler child died in 1947.
•Zachary Taylor didn't vote in the election in which he ran for President. His death is still a mystery. His body was exhumed in 1991 to rule out death by poisoning, but no one is still sure how he died, since the doctors botched the autopsy. The best guess is heatstroke.
•Millard Fillmore's last words were, "The nourishment is palatable."
•Franklin Pierce was classmates with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at Bowdoin College. After numerous family tragedies, Pierce drank himself to death.
•Robert Todd Lincoln declined his parent's invitation to attend Our American Cousin the night Lincoln was killed. He was at the train station in New York where Garfield was killed and witnessed it happen. He was at the Pan Am Exposition in Buffalo when William McKinley was killed.
•Andrew Johnson was illiterate until his wife taught him how to read in his young 20s.
•Ulysses S. Grant's real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. He changed it because he didn't want to enter West Point with the initials H.U.G.
•Rutherford B. Hayes won the 1876 election by one electoral vote.
•James Garfield could simultaneously write in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other. He was killed not by the bullet shot by Charles Guitaeu, but by the incompetence of his attending physicians. They continually probed the bullet hole with unwashed fingers and instruments, causing the infection that ultimately killed him.
•Grover Cleveland was sheriff of Erie County, NY. One of his duties was executioner, and he tied the noose and pulled the trapdoor on two convicted murderers.
•Electricity was installed in the White House when Benjamin Harrison became president. He and his wife were horrified at the prospect of being electrocuted, so they never touched the light switches. The lights remained on at the White House during the entire Harrison presidency.
•William McKinley was on the front of the now discontinued $500 bill.