Ducks of Green Spring Gardens

Photo Challenge Reminder!

Today is the last day of February. All of you photographers out there know what that means: it's time to post your challenge photos. Remember, February's theme is RED. Get those pics developed (if they're on film) and post them within the next few days. If you're shooting digital (and most of you are) you should be able to post them sooner than that. :-)

UPDATE:
Barb's photo is here. As you can see, she avoided the Valentine's motif altogether and made an imaginative reference to winter. Way to go, Barb!

My entries are here and here. You can see that I stuck with the Valentine's motif. Booooooo-hisssssss - - - so little imagination! (Having said that, I will note [brag?] that the candy photo was decently received on my Through Evie's Lens photoblog).

Come on, everybody - show us what you've got!

Duck Hunting Season is Near!

I got to the park for 15 minutes this morning and came across four ducks, two males and two females, snoozing in the pond. They quickly woke up when they heard me crunching through the snow toward them. I had to shoot quickly (I got 40 photos) as they swam to the other end of the pond. These are some of the better shots I got. I'm a pretty avid hunter, but at least I don't hurt any of the critters I shoot.

Juke Box Video

This is a video I compiled of Saturday night's program. The sound track, Route 66, is provided by Joshua's band - Jazz A.

Juke Box Dance Night

Last night, the jazz bands at Joshua's school did a fund-raising concert with a name something along the line of Juke Box Dance Night, or Juke Box Saturday, or Juke Box Saturday Night Dance.... As you can see in the collage, Joshua was there, playing, laughing, having an all around good time. The groups dressed informally, but still looked pretty nice. Nothing looks as good as their white tuxedos, however. Those are so sharp!

After the two jazz bands performed, an a capella group from William and Mary College performed. Dave and I stayed for their first few numbers and thought they sounded pretty good. We left early, however, since I had promised Joshua I wouldn't embarrass him by trying to dance in public.

Busy Times - Again

This is a photo, from backstage, of Joshua's Symphonic Band concert, which was held this past Thursday evening. Joshua is in the trombone section, but only the side of his head is visible. He is the fifth trombone player from the end.

Last night, Joshua, Dave and I traveled to Harrisonburg, VA so that Joshua could audition for the Virginia All State Band or Orchestra. This evening we'll find out whether he made it. Anyway, we all just got home awhile ago, and we will be out again shortly for Joshua's jazz band performance this evening.

There's always something or other going on in our family. This is just one of those weekends!

Lady Book Notes: Quickie Comment: The History of the World's Most Famous Board Game

Since so many of my readers love playing board games, you may be interested in my recent Book Notes post. Follow the link:

Lady Book Notes: Quickie Comment: The History of the World's Most Famous Board Game

While you're browsing around over there, check out my template. It's pretty "girly" - surprising for me, really - but I sorta like it.

A Tale of Two (Photo)Blogs

If you check my sidebar, you'll see several new link buttons (created by yours truly). Some of these are for sites that used to have text links, such as BookPleasures, Lady Book Notes and Lady Photo Bug. There is also a link for another photoblog that I created sort of accidentally: Through Evie's Lens.

How, you may ask, did I end up with TWO photoblogs?

Don't ask.

When I initially decided to do a photoblog, I looked around the web for templates, etc., that I liked,since Blogger templates are not well-suited for photoblogs. I wanted something that would display a nice large photo, one per page. I downloaded some templates and discovered that the new Blogger doesn't like any templates besides the few selections they offer. So, I decided to host a photoblog somewhere else.

I found a nice photoblog host, entered all my data, and learned that it would be several days before the site would be ready to use. By this time I was pretty frustrated, so I decided to go ahead and see if I could use one of Blogger's templates for something like a photoblog. At least with Blogger, one can start blogging immediately. So, that's what I did.

Well, Blogger can be set to post only one photo per page, but the viewing size is pathetic. I decided to compromise and set it for three photos per page, plus individual pages for each post. In the meantime, I wasn't sure whether I would go ahead with the other host.

I eventually got an email from aminus3.com that my photoblog site was ready to go. I decided to check it out. Well, I really like the format, so I'm posting photos there too. I also like the fact that one can navigate easily from my site to other photo sites (Blogger is not good at linking similar sites together). If you check out Lady Photo Bug and Through Evie's Lens, you'll see that I'm not posting the same photos on each site every day. Each site has a unique selection. No doubt, I will eventually have duplications. After all, I can only take so many photos. However, they will be organized differently, so the duplications shouldn't be too obvious or annoying.

What have I learned from this experience?

1. I'm definitely a creature of the 21st century, especially when it comes to Internet expectations. If I want to start a blog, web site, etc., I want to do it now. Patience has never been one of my virtues and I'm paying for that now by having to maintain two similar blogs.

2. The good thing about having two photoblogs is that I'm connecting to different communities. I get a lot more traffic at the aminus3 site than I do at the Blogger site because aminus3 has taken deliberate steps to connect people with similar interests.

As you're browsing around the web, take a look at both of my photoblogs (read Lady Book Notes sometimes, too). When you're at Through Evie's Lens, click on the community link and check out some of the other photoblogs from around the world. It's lots of fun, very interesting and occasionally educational.

Spring is Coming!

I found this guy and a bunch of his friends digging for worms in the park this afternoon. The ice is melting off the pond, the birds are coming out - spring must be on the way!

Another February Photo

Yeah, I know - the rose on the piano is such a cliche. Well, I hadn't done it yet, so here's mine. I took this one yesterday at work, shortly after my boss gave me a belated Valentine's Day rose. It was belated because we had a snow day on Wednesday (Valentine's Day).

There's a new photo lab in the shopping center near our house, the one where our guests spend all their time when they come to visit us (you know who you are). Anyway, this lab has reasonable prices and better business hours than my old lab. So, that's where I've been taking my films for the past month or so.

The rest of you had better get some photos up fast.

By the way, if you haven't stopped by my photo blog recently, check it out. I post pictures just about every day. And leave comments so I know you've been there.

Nora, The Piano-Playing Cat

Barb: Can Oliver do this?
Cathy: How about Yoda?

Stick around and check out the "duet" about half-way through.

Lady Book Notes: Flower Confidential

I just came across an interesting book review in the Washington Post. Follow the link for more info.

Lady Book Notes: Flower Confidential

February Photo Challenge Entry

Since I selected the subject for this month's photo challenge, I figure I'd better kick it off with an entry. Just in case you've forgotten, this month's theme is RED.

Since I'm a chocaholic (I haven't gotten up the courage to enter CA yet), this one is a no-brainer. I'm playing around with some other ideas, so I may enter something else later in the month.

Another Family Photo

Since people have been sharing family photos recently, I thought I should add one to the mix. This is Dave in a familiar pose. He was probably watching a John Wayne movie. Apparently, John Wayne has the same effect on Dave that he has on me.

Lady Book Notes: On the Field from Denver, Colorado. . .The Blue Knights

A little over a year ago, Joshua acquired a book that revealed an "insider's view" of drum corps life. The book was based on a journal the author kept over one summer with the Blue Knights drum corps. Joshua briefly considered auditioning for this corps before deciding to go with the Crossmen.

I finally got around to reading the book a month or so ago and decided to review it. If you're interested, follow the link below:

Lady Book Notes: On the Field from Denver, Colorado. . .The Blue Knights

The book is available at Amazon.com (search the author's full name for a quick hit). Used copies are available if you want to save money. :)

Visit My Photo Blog

Yes, you read the title correctly: I launched a photo blog this weekend. You can check it out here. I've also added a link in the sidebar (Lady Photo Bug).

The idea behind the new blog is that it is a place where I can post photos and brief notes about them on a daily - or nearly daily - basis. Photography will be the sole focus of that blog, just as literature is the sole focus of my book notes blog.

When I started blogging nearly a year ago, I initially had the idea of doing a photo blog. As it turned out, I quickly felt a need to have a place to report family news, humor, thoughts about life in general and whatever comes to mind at a particular time. As the name implies, it's something of a freewheeling, anything-goes sort of place. So, if you want a grab bag of posts that may deal with almost anything under the sun, including occasional photos, check for them here. If you just want to check out book news or photos, check my other blogs.

CELL PHONES, CAPITALISM & CAMPAIGNS

Two years ago, there were quite a few cell phone companies competing for business in our area: Verizon, AT&T, Cingular, Sprint and Nextel come to mind immediately. In the past year, however, several of these companies have merged. AT&T has merged with Cingular, and Sprint has taken over Nextel. When the mergers were announced, consumers were assured that their phone services would be greatly improved. Don’t believe a word of it!

We dealt with Nextel for 3.5 years before the merger. In that period, the only problem we had with our service was the occasional dead spot where we couldn’t get reception. But Nextel was always building new towers, so that problem was disappearing quickly. I did not have any feelings one way or the other when Sprint took over the account. Ask me how I feel now!

In the seven months that we have been dealing with Sprint, we have had to dispute charges on our account every time we've gotten a bill. It’s taken us four (maybe five) months to get it through their heads that yes - we want voice mail, and no – we don’t want text messaging. So stop allowing text messages through and then charging us for them! To top it off, lots of the text messages are spam and junk mail from companies advertising stuff. You’ve got to be kidding! These jerks want us to pay for their advertising? I don’t think so.

Last night was a hoot. Dave opened up the bill and found a charge for $11.98 for a monthly subscription to something called Mqube on Jonathan’s phone. We talked to Jonathan, who knew nothing about it. Dave called the company (it was his turn, I argued with them last month) to find out what Mqube is and why it’s on our account. According to Sprint, when Jonathan bought some ring tones about three months ago, he also unknowingly subscribed to Mqube. (Apparently, they are supposed to send daily jokes and Bible verses to him. He hasn't gotten any jokes or Bible verses, but at least we now know why he keeps getting his daily horoscope - he's been trying to figure that out.) Okay, answer this: he bought the ring tones three months ago, so, why is this just appearing on our bill now? No good answer to that question. So, Dave yelled at them awhile and told them to remove the subscription because it was unauthorized - Jonathan is not the account holder. Dave also told them never to add anything to our account unless they have express written permission from either him or me.

When Dave was done yelling at the phone guy, we talked with the boys about capitalist economics. When Jonathan clicked on the button to buy a ring tone, he thought he was spending $2.00. He didn't know that he was also contracting for some other garbage for $11.98 a month. That ring tone suddenly got really expensive! We reminded them of two rules to always keep in mind when doing business in our society:

1. If an offer looks too good to be true, it’s not true.
2. Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware.

Be very careful before buying into something because, if it turns out not to be what you thought it was, you’re usually stuck with it. We were able to get out of this one because Jonathan is not the account holder. If he had been responsible for the account, he’d be stuck paying an extra $11.98 every month for a service he doesn't want. That must be some ring tone!

Okay, that’s it for cell phones and capitalists. I’ll move on to campaigns. Back in the fall, Jenn asked why American elections are so long. Dave answered that it’s because of the fixed election dates. Everyone knows when the next election will be, so they plan accordingly.


I don’t know if the Canadians among you are aware of it, but several campaigns are well underway for the next US presidential election, which will be held on . . . November 4, 2008! A number of candidates from both the Republican and the Democratic parties have launched campaigns and the dirty media smears have already begun. Several candidates have already made multiple trips to Iowa and New Hampshire to lay the groundwork for the caucus and primary elections that will be held in those states a little less than a year from now.

I’ve been paying more attention to this stuff than Dave has. For example, he didn’t know, until I told him several days ago, that Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy about three weeks ago in a web video. He really got a kick out of the tidbit I gave him last night: Barack Obama has announced that the official announcement of his candidacy will take place tomorrow, February 10, in Springfield, Illinois. What is the point of announcing when he’s going to make the announcement? Since he’s already told us what the content of the announcement will be, hasn’t he already announced it? I think I’m getting a headache! So, let the campaigns begin, and I’ll help myself to some Advil.

It's COLD!

A week or so ago, I was sitting around with some friends talking about what an incredibly warm, mild winter it's been. Guess what? Winter is here in all its fury! Well, lots of cold but little snow. I guess that counts as lots of fury.

Joshua had the day off from school. The ostensible reason was the inch or two of snow that fell overnight. The bitter cold probably had something to do with it too. I assume he practiced his trombone and did homework all day.

Jonathan hates school days. When the kids are off school, he has to spend the entire day with his before-and-after school program kids. That means he's got to keep them occupied all day rather than for just a few hours.

Dave had to make a fairly short business trip. Since it stopped snowing early this morning, it probably was not too big a deal. It's been cold and sunny all day, very pretty, actually.

I had a very quiet day at work. My job is usually quiet when the weather is disagreeable. Bad weather days are good work days - easy money.

This evening, Jonathan, Joshua and I have to go out again for band and songster rehearsals. Dave will stay home and keep the house warm for the rest of us.

Before you head out into the cold, check out the video below and enjoy Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Exam Cheaters

I was browsing through some old computer files and came across some funny photos I've seen on the Internet. This one is from a site called oddchick.com.

Lady Book Notes: Pilgrim Heart

I've just finished reviewing a fine devotional book that may interest some of you. Follow the link to check out my review.

Lady Book Notes: Pilgrim Heart