Book Board Chat

Good Morning for sunny FLA.

Patsy we got a bit over a half inch of rain yesterday [got a trace on that previous rain] don't know yet if they are going to lower our fire level yet. Probably not, half an inch isn't much.

Jim I have a HP 70somethingC. I use one black cartige every approx. 2 1/2 reams of paper. [don't use the color which I think only has a little yellow left]. I always print on DRAFT black, until it starts fading [approx. that last .5 ream] when I put it on regular black.

Phone calls -- I use callwave as an answering system for my computer, so I know who calls and they can leave a message when I am using the computer. Callwave has caller ID. I've been getting weird phone numbers lately -- like 115616934118 -- they vary but always have the 11 start. No message. No name just the 'number'. I googled it and just got UPC code possibilities [no actual products]. So why are UPC codes calling me?

Jim next time they call you and say it isn't a survey, see if you can get their name. And a number -- 'oops, got to go to a dr app. give me a number I can call you there.'. Then report them on the DONOTCALL list - assuming you are registered. They aren't allowed to do that. even using 'survey' phone calls to start a pitch for whatever.

Jim -- there are more complicated versions of that RIVER word problems. With larger numbers. Pioneers/Indians or Missionaries/Cannibals or Cops/Criminals. But I don't think I have seen three part larger number River problems -- they must exist.

Good Morning Everyone --- Looks like it will be a nice day here in FLA.

lookwhatbobfound I remember seeing that tree [twice I think]. Yesterday the news said it was thought the tree was set on fire. Now they seem to be saying it wasn't. Maybe that bit of rain we got started a hot compost going and the tree set itself on fire. Has to be a lot of dry dead wood in it. Very sad.

aeg I love that boat word problem! torture kids with it all the time [the version I use is corn, chickens, fox, farmer.

sigh -- sago's are not proper palms.

Good Evening Everyone! frost this morning. Terrible stuff on the windows of the car -- we don't have ice scrapers here in supposedly warm FLA. Had to leave the car running with defroster who knows how long so it would be warm for mother and I could see driving to church this morning.

casinokat Liked the 60 minute section on your DGS. Very good. And he seems happy and thriving. Don't let anyone push him to get his phd [even if he wants it]. Some other poor kid will be pushed stressfully by his/her parents to do better. Children that age should go at their own speeds, fast or slow. Your son and DIL are great.

Liz "External Use Only" we've had some trouble with 'products' labeled 'External Use Only' here in FLA. Bath salts -- were really designer drugs. And designer drugs of the MaryJane super variety sold as incense. Killing kids. Laws changed, 'they' change the chemical makeups. Sherifs are starting to 'ignore' the law and just telling the quick stop type stores to stop 'stocking' such. Have gotten many owners to agree [however willingly]. Last week I think a store worker was arrested [owner says store didn't have it but it was there with the cigs] and stuff cleared off. Police just let the lawyers argue the issues afterwards and are happy with getting it off the shelves. Of course, the stores [often connected to gas stations] are shut down for a day or so too, making the often absentee owners unhappy. But the technique has really managed to cut down on sales and deaths. [and pushed up the costs cutting back on those who can buy it]. And given a chance for laws to be updated, and then new technically changed items to appear.

Epson salts are great for palm trees and sago palms [sagos are proper palms].

Downton Abby -- just saw the second one. At the end, they had an ad for that 'new updated' sherlock holmes. Showed clips from the orignal show, so maybe they are planning on re-running that before the new ones. Hope there are knew ones. Liked that show.

Good Evening All! pleasant day. They promise rain tomorrow night [dry dry dry]. Got our own terrorist caught down here [reported by other muslims].

DOWNTON ABBEY -- sigh. I 'watched' it last night. Use rabbit ears. when the wind blows the wrong way, don't get certain channels. Or when the television company lowers their power. [Don't have channel 8 right now even though the wind is the same, cheap station, always used to be the best station.] Anyway, I watched Downton Abbey with regular breaking ups [I hate HD, used to be if things were fuzzy you could still hear things....]. PBS station. PBS station has 4 channels here. I could get the other 3 PBS channels BETTER than the main one with DOWNTON ABBEY on it. arrgh. well, I at least know more or less what happened. need to find out when it is rerun [mind you that station was fine tonight....arrgghhh].

Good Evening Everyone. Real nice day here in FLA. Raked up some more leaves for the chicken coop. I don't suppose that anyone knows where Robin is hiding her eggs -- two days and nothing from her. Chickens will skip one day, but not two. So I suspect she is hiding them.

@headlinehill -- Janice -- Margery Allingham wrote the campion books.

lookwhatbobfound -- I've been selling stuff that's obviously going to colleges/universities this week. [5 items, one really nicely priced] Best week on Amazon for me in a goodly while.
I've sold children's books to school libraries and county libraries. When I was employed at the HIllsborough County Library system, if a book was 'lost' the parent was given the option of paying $X amount or buying a replacement book. The librarians would help the parents find the book on Ebay or Amazon or ABE; and would make sure it was comparable to the lost book. The parent would buy the book and it would be addressed directly to the library. So either a library is trying to stretch funds buying used books, or it is a replacement for a lost book.

A couple of the weaker ones can be read more out of order [or skipped] than others. If just depends which ones you have -- but you definately need to read the first one first to get things going.

Bedtime. Good Night All!

Jean

Hi am back.

Oh, I remember the Champion series. That was a good one. And the Jeeves [ok, it isn't a mystery] series.

Irene Stephanie Plum -- I suspect it depends more on which ones you have -- because some do depend more on [or tell more about previous ones] than others. You probably should read One for the Money first to get the proper set up. some of the others can be read out of order, I suppose.

Good Evening Everyone! Finally warming up -- went from sweatshirt to tee shirt today [of course it is cold now -- 53 in the chicken coop.

Like the M.C. BEATON books. and if you want to go retro, Father Brown mysteries are another choice. [and don't forget Agatha Christie]. And I just finished THREE SILENT THINGS by Margaret Mayhew. Cottage in Frog's end, can't get much cozier than that.

Rusty seems to have recovered. He checked out my jeans the other day and acted normal after that. Picked a bunch of sour oranges for him at a neighbors -- He loves citrus.

Got a phone call to make -- I have call wave. Be back.

Good Morning from a strange Florida that has white stuff on the grass and car [who down here has a window scraper except snow birds]. It is 9 am and still 27 degrees in the chicken coop. Broke ice everywhere earlier this morning [24 was our low]. Rusty thinks it might be a good idea if the 'solid water' happened in July and August because it would be more enjoyable to drink then. [he licks it until I break it -- and no his tongue doesn't stick]. The dog is happy happy happy. Didn't see the outside cat, which means she is in one of her beds in the garage which held the heat nicely.

Got a sale on Amazon and I need to wrap up. Taking Mother to a dr. appt. so don't need to walk down to the mailbox. Clear blue skys. Pretty outside.

29 in the chicken coop. Going to be a bad night. I'm in Pasco County just north of Tampa [Hillsborough]. Strawberries are taking a hit too, Ginnyrose Carol.

Outdoor dog and cat still happy in the backyard. Garage holding heat nice. Some towels drying in there now.

Good Night Everyone

31 degrees in the Chicken Coop -- their water should start freezing. Don't know how cold it is wherever Rusty has gone to bed. The garage has just dropped below 70. Neither dog or cat are in there -- they are somewhere out in the backyard being happily cold.

Good Evening Everyone. Going to be a hard freeze night here. Doing laundry so the pipes outside will be nice and warm [septic system] and the garage warm from the dryer for the outside dog and cat [who insist on staying OUTSIDE -- but at least they have a choice what with the dog door. Will have to get up early tomorrow to break ice in the dog's water dishes outside [she refuses to drink out of her inside dishes, sigh], the chicken water and Rusty's water.

Prejudice -- Back when my Dad was getting his Master's in International Studies, I went with to some professors party, most were professors -- was youngest person there, a freshman. All were polite, but not like I was even close to being in their conversation interest zones. Well, so I was sitting at one place and there were three professors behind me talking. approx. grist condensed.
Prof #1 [male white American] -- What, why are you bothering with that student number mess?
Prof #2 [female American] -- I don't know what I am going to do, there is this one student I can't stand and I've figured out what number matches him. Going to have to have my assistant do his papers. But why are you bothering?
Prof #3 [black african with a pleasant accent] - I know, but I had to start it this year.
Prof #1 and 2 -- why?
Prof #3 -- I was taking my car to get it checked this summer. Took it to my garage. My mechanic was gone, moved. A new mechanic was introduced to me. Said none of the scheduled times worked for me. Drove off went to another shop. Another mechanic. It wasn't until I was paying that I realized that I didn't want the replacement mechanic to work on my car. He was American black but looked pure - name of some tribe -
one or the other Prof -- So? Why?
Prof #3 -- name of some tribe are considered lazy, clumby, incompetent, cheats by my tribe, and a few others. I see the different tribes in the American blacks all the time. Without thinking or realizing it I took my business elsewhere. So now I am using student numbers to identify papers just like everyone else. Don't want to knock down grades just because of raised biases I'm doing without thinking.

Good Evening Everyone! Pleasant day, not as warm as yesterday. A front is moving in. Going to be cold. Futima already has the front. Grano will get it next. Then LookwhatBobFound and Aquiltmaven and me. I suppose it will go all the way down to Antsy.

Rusty [see avatar pix] is going to have to go into deep therapy. I was raking some more maple leaves for the chicken coop [it upsets them if you put in too much at once]. Rusty was supervising on his side of the fence. I bent down to scoop more leaves for the garbage can I was carrying them in. Riiiiiiiiip, went my work jeans only a few feet from his face. They now have joined the rag pile. Poor Rusty thinks my clothes are my skin/fur and he had a worried expression on his face.

Joanne Jhill -- yep, they have preduices everywhere. Mother said an older officers wife had a little chat with them[other wives] before they went over. Said the Germans had to put everyone in a racial groups and that was left over from all those years of Hitler controlled schooling. Well, racial 'groups' mean one thing to Americans and another to Germans. It took my mother awhile before she figured it out. She was always being called an Englanderin [female English Person] and sort of ignored that because her father came over in 1905 at 4 years old. We always lived off base; she sort of thought it was because they thought it was politer to call her English than American.
Then a distant german cousin lady was visiting from my Father's side of the family. She commented, with extreme amazement in her voice in a mix of german and english to my mother "How could an englanderin have two such beautiful german children". Apparently, my brother and I both qualfied in the German 'box' of identities. That's when my mother 'got it'.

WAR HORSE -- thanks for the info, not that I am going to see the link to avoid the spoilers. I know they can train well [when they want to and the ASPCA really regulates things now.] but someone like spieberg can make things so real.

GERMANY -- My german grandparents talked about how worthless money was after WWI [they came here approx. 1906, but relatives were still there, some coming over here after WWI]. The 'wheelbarrel of money to buy anything'. But also remember them saying it wasn't worth it for farmers to sell anything. That even if a small potato sold for thousands of marks, you couldn't buy anything with the money once you sold the potato -- which you at least could eat. Also remember them saying how they tried and tried to get various relatives to come to America after Hitler got in power to 'be safe' and how the remaining relatives in Germany said 'everything is going to be fine over here now'. Some of those relatives no one was able to figure out what happened to them after the war.

Today's project was cleaning the Chicken Coop. They aren't overly thrilled. Chickens don't like change.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from warm and cozy FLA!

diane furtima Alexander McCall Smith. This book is called THE SATURDAY BIG TENT WEDDING PARTY. I snagged a large print one so there isn't a list of the books in order inside.

And the correct series name for this series is No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Have you ever noticed that. Most series list the books in order by the author; plus other books by the author in the front. But not Large Print books. Don't they think Large Print readers what to know whatelse the author wrote?

Good Evening All from warm, if cloudy Florida.

On November 22, 1963 -- I was 7 years old. I remember seeing 'a bad man shot on TV' which would have been Oswald. I assume that I saw the actual event, but don't know how much they replayed it.

Frontal Lobes and brain development. for milliena girls have become mothers well before the age of 21 [and multiple times]. And the young men warriors. You can say all you want about 'it takes a village' but brain development doesn't have much to do with anything at one time in our history. Not when the average life expectancy was in the mid-thirties. For most of history the bulk of the population had non-functioning brains [unconnected frontal lobes] which is probably why history is the way it was.

A mild, maybe connected, digression. Most of the girls were married off to older men [i.e. proven survivors and maybe even having a functional brain]. Many cultures didn't even think men should marry until a older [functional brain] age. So is that an evolutionary aspect -- did all these girls marrying older men promote later functional brain development and thus pass those genes on to their offspring? Did that cause the later brain development to even take longer, since early brain development was selected for? Was this good or bad? Maybe the expanded brains we humans have is due to long brain development time.

DON'T TRUST ANYONE UNDER TWENTYFIVE.

[I picked 25 because that is the age that car insurance companies generally start lower rates for the good male drivers.]

TOTALLY DIFFERENT -- was in the line at the grocery store and briefly passed my eyes over the celebrity/tabloid mags. And had to to back and read one. I thought it said Bertram Russel and couldn't believe it [it was actually 'betrayed Russel'].

Found on the NEW SHELVES at the library today the latest #1 Detective Agency book.

Good Afternoon all!

Lookwhatbobfound whereas we rotten Floridians, who will have highs in the mid 80's today aren't bothering reading.

Good Evening All!

diana Love you work. thanks for showing them.

CAT FOOD CAN TABS -- mother has trouble with the tab cans. I've bought a few different types of openers over the years and one really worked for her. We have two. One in the kitchen and one in the garage [for dog and cat food cans].

http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/pull%20ring%20can%20opener?_dmd=1&_sop=12&clk_rvr_id=286477653961&MT_ID=70&crlp=7618057840_1&tt_encode=raw&geo_id=1&keyword=pull+ring+can+opener&adgroup_id=2140727200

It is the ring pull can opener that has the black hand grip part. I found them in the grocery store [Publix] in the pet and soup aisles.
or the top picture on this google page to the right.http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=pull+ring+can+opener&pbx=1&oq=pull+ring+can+opener&aq=0&aqi=g1g-v1&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=3128l6462l0l11019l20l10l0l0l0l0l2194l4211l9-2l2l0&fp=1&biw=1024&bih=541&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&cad=b

Good Evening everyone!

Mim! Good to hear you are back home. If God wanted leaves raked up off the lawn he would have fixed it so they would fall directly in the trash can/compost heap/fire pit. Which isn't to say that God doesn't send winds to blow the leaves away upon occassion.

ACEOS ACEOS ACEOS
we liked to see some ACEOS

Jack liked the Anne Beattie blog. I get why mantels are de rigor for literary writing. But incandesent lighting and, particularly, refidgerators isignificance is lost on me. [but then a lot is].

I have finished my 1493: Uncovering the new world columbus created.
Now I have to find a copy of 1491 and a couple of other interesting sounding books.

Good evening everyone. cooler here in FLA. we used to sing musical songs in the car. and I was pretty much always in a choir. my brother hated singing [can't really carry a tune though he's learned to fake it].

MIM let everyone else wait on your for a change [and a few days] and take care of yourself.

Good Night Everyone!

Got a curious question. I use Abi word for my word processing system [think Free Word].

I have been working on a long text. Occassionally saving and renaming. A1, A2 and so on. Well, I was working on A4, then sometime I started working on A3 again. Well, I have revisions in both. How can I meld them together? I can't seem to yet do a 'side by side' to see where the differences are. I can make columns, but I can't seem to run the two texts one down each column. talking about mroe than 30,000 words. Going to eat lunch and may just have to go back and forth between windows to see any changes....

Good Afternoon Everyone from sunny very warm [in low 80's] FLA.

Had a short rain this morning. Still humid they promise it will dry out.

wellington laurie hunting season proper starts thanksgiving weekend here. But I think the bowmen and musket hunters are already allowed to hunt. A fair amount of shooting by either target practice or poachers but not as much as previous years.

BREAKFAST -- morning person. got to have it. Cereal in milk with a glass of water on the side. rice crispies. corn flakes. total. Childhood favorite was Alphabets.

POETRY UPDATE -- well after ignoring the SIDEWALK book on Monday, both boys declared it was their favorite; grabbing and fighting over it. [or the author was, can't tell with their wording]. Showed them how to use the index to find their favorite poems. Their method of reading poetry is to say everything as one long slurred word. Sigh.
I used one of the 'tricks' to break that up. You read a poem with a stop watch, three or four times working on improving your speed and removing mistakes. If you don't slur you go faster and the words were much more understandable. enunciation is good.

Also, there was one poem which they wanted me to read. Found out why. It contained the word 'hell' As a place. In the paul bunyan poem. I read it -- using the ...... to show how the author wanted the poem read [they totally ignore any punctuation marks] and happily read 'hell' to their slightly bugged out eyes each time it appeared.

Fifth grade boys are so cute. Do know better than to pick a poem that uses the word 'breast' though [think whatshisname's TREES] with boys.

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS is working well. Reading boy didn't remember what 'perish' meant [and probably some of the other words we had gone over on Monday]. Since I read it the first time, Reading Boy enunciates even the hard words. He originally said he didn't want to do it again. Then I said, 'OK, it really is a sixth grade level...' he didn't let me finish and started reading.

Fifth grade boys are so cute.

Reading Boy's favorite poem was For Sale [about selling a little sister]. He has two younger sisters.

Milking almonds!?

Can you imagine the small size of milking machine? [No way you could hand milk an almond]. Or do they grow supersized almonds now? [think genetic engineering, nuclear plant radiation.] Frankenalmonds

Going to be a warm day here in sunny florida.

Good Night Everyone. Going to watch the end of the news then to bed.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Good Night Laurie and Maureen.

Good Evening Everyone!

I hauled my Sidewalk book [which I didn't find on a sidewalk] and both boys ignored it. I tutor two boys back to back [they are friends] one in reading and the other in math. I take papers and things [mazes] plus AR books to keep the other one occupied [translation, not distrubting things too bad]. They were both interested in the book on Pearl Harbor [book level 5.7 I think] and flipped through it asking questions. That translates as, they will start reading it but have to play hard to get. 8^)

I read the Sidewalk book but won't pull anything out of it yet because so far The Gettysburg Address has the boy's attention. We worked on word means [and multiple meanings] and why the Address was given, the Civil War, answered questions about it and Lincoln. For the first sentence he went from reading it in 30 odd seconds with errors to 15 seconds with no errors. [we use a stop watch upon occassion, boys in particular like that. I had to read the whole thing and be timed]. Then we went on to other things.

Didn't recognize Robert Service until I checked the what he wrote and remembered the Mcgraw and cremation poems. [don't remember them as rhyming so I must have read them before 9th grade as 'stories'].

Laurie he 'gets' rap, but it is considered 'black' music form and there is a bit of historic friction between the poor black and poor white and poor mexican in the neighborhood [add to that mexican rap is considered drug/gang music]. tensions have gone down and things have improved, but it might be too black for him. [unfortunately, I get rap easier than most poetry]. I have considered taping him [he has a bit of a vanity streak in him].

carol will check those sites next.

Jim The book has the old notation. I didn't know there was a New one. egads.

The math boy spent some time with the book [winning chess for beginners or something like that] the deliberately stuck it under the Sidewalk book [which wasn't found on a sidewalk] and watched Reading boy to see if he'd get it out. Reading boy naturally didn't. [don't you love 5th grade boys!].

Reading Boy is the one I taught chess to last spring. Along with a high school girl that wanted to learn. After playing each separately with the other watching until they more or less figured out properly how the pieces moved, I would play both at the same time [like a grand master!!!!] after spotting each their choice of bishops or rooks, and helping say a first grader with reading or math. Reading Boy learned humility [he needed to] then the advantages of using multi pieces in actions at once. High School Girl learned to concentrate and plan ahead. Both learned slowly to be a bit more aggressive in their actions. By the time summer vacation started both had beat me -- abet with the missing bishops and rooks on my part.
Before you are impressed, I am not a good player. On the computer I can best the computer on level 1 most of the time but level 2 out thinks me [and the computer won't spot me pieces] but then I don't concentrate and treat playing chess as just another multitasking item because I am on dial up and things load slowly.

Reading boy has taught Math boy some chess. After the Fcats I will do the chess matches again.

***
striped chicken?
****

Found the SIDEWALK and another book by someone names X. J. Kennedy. And a book winning chess for beginners. Now I have to do something I dislike -- reading poems one after another.

Oh, I am presently reading 1493 -- a very interesting book, non-fiction, about 1/4 the way in.

Looked in my Amazon stock. Appears I have a "where the sidewalk ends" somewhere. And a Prelutsky cassette of poems. -- new kid on the block. no Robert service [unless it is somewhere in an anthology. Yes, I have heard of sidewalk ends. But I don't know these writers at all.

One teacher once made me memorize Ozmandiaz -- I think in fifth grade. Well before I 'grasped' rhyming. I do remember it having a beat. I remember being introduced to shakespears sonnets, but didn't like the fact the beats weren't strong. but that would have been shortly after I figured out Dr. Seus. Of course, by then I finally figured out limericks [which had been completely confusing].

Good Evening Everyone.

Have been following along with everything.

Belated Happy Birthday Maureen!

Glad you are being taken well care of grano.

Anyway, as a reasonable mentally deranged person [I have brain connection problems, these are not self induced derangements]. Anyway, I am tutoring again. And a 5th grade boy I am tutoring is having difficulties improving his reading fluency. I've done my normal tricks. He is improving [but frankly not as much as I think he his capable of]. English is basically a second language to him [though his spanish is probably atroicious]. My normal procedures at this point is to move into poetry. BUT what sort of poetry would a 5th grade boy like???? With girls I bounce back and forth between seveeral poets [I've found robert frost works well. -- me and poetry are not fluent. Remember my brain connection problems. I did not 'get' rhymes/poetry until 9th grade. I could 'get' the beat but the rhyme aspect missed me to then. I just learned 'tricks' to cover for it. Anyway, in 9th grade I figured out hymns were 'poems' and that Dr. Seus finally rhymed and was fun to read -- it did not rhyme before that to me. Of course, I do NOT hear sounds generally when I read. I have to force myself to hear sounds when reading poetry silently. So it is a lot of work. But prior to 9th grade I did not hear the rhymes outloud either.]

Anyway -- you guys KNOW poetry.

It has to be shortish. And various ones in case something doesn't HIT. Or we just change to a new poem to variety.

He is a boy from a fairly macho culture but likes the idea of being a gentleman and playing chess. He has lost interest in 'fiction' stuff and we have been focused on non-fiction readings and science in particular. He has improved nicely on the vowel beginning words [where I have found the esl have the most difficulty with] and hardly pauses before 'organic', 'ignite', 'extinguish', 'inital' and so on. And frankly, some of the stuff he is reading is sixth grade science. [he does have problems with comparisions of stuff but we're working on that].

essentially he is reading outloud at say 60% of where he should be. something with a nice strong beat a couple/three of hundred to develope a 'flow/beat' would probably do the trick.

HELP short male poems needed.

Anyway. I do not think this boy will go for Frost. In fact, for tomorrow I am going to print a copy of the Gettysburg address to kick up his reading fluency a notch. [I have noticed that 'official' speech like things also work well. And there are some great words there to work on increasing his vocabulary.

Good Evening Everyone! Just been reading lately.

Rose Haldol, frankly, doesn't work for older adults [at least who haven't had it prescribed at earlier dates in their lives] [but them I am not a doctor and don't pretend to be one, just personal observations]. Know of 5 or so cases it caused more trouble than it solved. [ditto with paxil or something like that, with three cases I personally know of. Seniors frankly need a geriattic experience doctor or pysch doctor for the meds that work for them.

Now, I took care of my Father who did have senile dementia [with a nice selection of meds for that] and during a couple of hospitalizations whatever the hospital ever gave him either made him violent or didn't faze him [I'm speaking of non-pysch meds; rather pain or sleep meds].

Anesthics -- My great aunt halicinated etc after her gall bladder surgery [approx 83 yo] and again after a hip replacement. It took 2 days each time before she stopped seeing little children, a refridgerator, deceased relatives, etc. After the hip surgery she did have anxiety issues for several weeks afterwards. The doctor really didn't want to prescribe anything as he was more worried about side effects/bad reactions/over-medicating.

Her doctors at the time considered it a post-op matter and they were right. Now, she really wasn't on much in the way of pain killers [curiously she showed minimal pain after both surgeries and healed amazedly fast].

ginny rose No, I've always just picked them up at the feed store. Just get a few at a time [which is why light heat is even more important]. One of the companies that one of the feedstores ordered from was Ideal. Can't remember the other. Always amazed me that McMurray wasn't one of them. I know folks up north that swear by them, but then I thought, perhaps being here in FLA other suppliers were better -- whatever.

Just remembered, not only did the underwear have to be clean, with no holes, but it should be matching!

Liz yes, most of the time are acorns are big [not like northern acorns] and fat. the present crop seems wimpy. It will be a bad year for the squirrels, possums, deer and everything else that eats them. [Including a Rusty who likes acorns but doesn't have to depend upon them].

Haven't seen any wooly caterpilars yet. But there have been fewer butterflies of all kinds this year. Not as many wild flowers.

Good Evening Everyone! Went to home depot today and while walking past the bulb section remembered they were banning the 100 watts so I picked up 6. I don't mind those silly looking curly ones but don't like the environmental nasitness of the mercury. But if I get baby chicks I will want the higher watt bulbs. I know I will always be able to get the hot heat lamp bulbs [250?] but frankly, the chicks don't need that full time, or depending upon the ambient temp. Yes, you can raise the lamp, but what is the purpose of a heat lamp up by the ceiling heating the whole room? I've raised day old chicks starting on 100 watt bulbs and going down in wattage from there. So I got six and going to hide them in my closet upstairs so they don't accidentally get used in lamps. Are they going to get rid of the 75 watt? And if so does someone know when?

Dan otherdawg -- I think this is our third year of drought. We get wet spots but not enough to break the drought. So everything gets gradually drier and drier. And winter and spring are our dry seasons on top of which.

bookleaves --- small acorns. smaller stuff for animals to eat [less inside because the whole acorn is small]. Smaller acorns. Less water. Smaller acorns generally also mean fewer acorns. All the critters that depend on them will have less to eat this fall, winter and spring.

carol -- clean underwear with NO HOLES! That's what I always hear.

Good Morning everyone! Only got down to 71 last night. So today will be hotter.

Agree about the potential for a dry nasty winter Patsy grano9 . The acorns started falling this week. They are very small. Not a good sign.

Good Evening Everyone!

I can't stand lima beans either. But I have had butter beans cooked like fresh green beans and they weren't too bad. Picked young.

laurie/wellington I've been having mushrooms growing all over the place. look like the portabellas and they grow enormous. Don't dare touch them though. Farmers call these pasture mushrooms. There are two types. One very delicious and edible. One which causes hallicentory effects and possibly death if too much is eaten. No one says how to tell the difference. I am sure there is a way, but no one wants kids going into pastures. Not parents or medical sorts. Nor farmers who probably worry more about lawsuits from some bull 'dealing' with a tresspasser before they even get to the mushrooms.

So what does anyone think? Will all that money the various BIG BANKS/Government Banks put into Greece's banks work? Or is it more good money gone down the drain. It definitely is good money no longer available to loan to someone who might actually use it productively.

Good morning everyone! Didn't get as cool last night -- 69. Going to hit the low mid 90's again today. Presently sunny. Nice low low humidity of 65% [up from yesterday but still great for us]. Probably shall do some mowing.

Sold an oldie out of print paperback for a nice price on Amazon last night. Hero from otherwhen by williams. 2nd printing. $18.18 [I was in one of my let's make odd price endings moods]. Don't go rushing out looking for one because it sat there forever before selling. But it also doesn't take much space.

stamphick Read the editorial. Didn't have to sign in. Interesting to say the least. It is the website's responsibilty to police the honesty of their users not the government. I suspect that case where a 'The woman had been part of a group that set up a MySpace profile using a fake picture. ' might be related to that business where the girl killed herself because her 'boyfriend' who was internet figment dumped her. Or not. Perhaps just to develope presceisdence for the next case. Just the law over reaching itself in trying to figure out how to deal with the brave new world of the internet.

Going to teach a neighbor how to download and see what is wrong with her printer today.

Off to move the chickens.

Good Morning Everyone! 66 degrees right now probably will go up to the lower mid 90's today. No rain again yesterday. Things starting to dry up. The pond's water line is down to where I cut it with the mower last time [and it was high then].

Where are libraries dying? Ours have people standing waiting for the doors to open [and then have to be chased out] and it's not just because of the computers. They are quite busy, how much of that is due to the shorter hours they cut the libraries here in Pasco County and how much are due to 'it is cheaper to check out than to buy' is another matter. They did get wifi in the libraries and now folks sit out in the cars doing the computer bit even [so those folks aren't counted with the people who do go through the doors].

All purpose rant about newspapers Read MoreHide

Good Evening Everyone! Hot here in FLA. NO rain so ground starting to dry out [no wet spots in drive and lots of other areas just squishy now]. Rusty doesn't like it real squishy because 1] he has a tendency to sink in, and 2] his wallows generally have standing water when it is real squish. The wallow by the maple tree is only damp. The wallow in the barn [because he digs it out it fills with water] doesn't have standing water, but the wallow stall is squishy between the toes [Wellington knows what I mean]. I have started some bread. And thinking about what I'll make for supper.

lludwig Glad to hear you have good water again.

FALL even though it was 92 or so, the humidity was around 45, so that is the start of Fall for us.

Have started doing my homework help at the migrant center. Won't be officially tutoring until October [for money]. "What letter is this?" She didn't know. We did something else and I went back to it. She guessed 'd'. I wrote the first part of the alphabet for her. It was 'b'. And, yes, she flips most everything but I don't think it is dyslexia [there is a retired teacher expert there who doesn't think so either] just a lack of exposure to writing numbers and letters. The girl is in first grade. And we've mostly been working on unflipping her numbers which are getting better.

Birds I saw something white at the far end of his pasture. Thought it might be a plastic bag [you don't want them around cattle or horses, though less of a problem for bovines than equines]. It was one of his cattle egrets. Dead. Head/neck twisted funny, but it wasn't worked at by a hawk or owl. No high wires. I don't know how those die 'naturally'. Mildly wonder if it tried to take on a mocassin or rattlesnake.

Off to fix supper.

Good Evening Everyone! Light rain -- so the puddles are filling again. [no rain yesterday].

devonia/ttg Hi! Give me a day or two to build into reading about that day. All these visual images on TV haven't been easy. But I do think I should re-read the BB.

kathleen/lludwig your hot water heater doesn't have a spigot somewhere around the bottom? Good to hear no water in your place.

wellington nawh, wrong fingers. I'm a touch typer. I think it is rather an issue of an update I had a couple days ago. Everything I see is BOLD regardless of site. Which doesn't bother me -- easier to read. My tool bar got all messed up. [bold not checked there, probable further into the computer controls but why would that change]. I had to put back up rows in my tool bar. now my tabs are in the wrong place. And I had been able to go to Favorites -- and click new tab there and get a new tab. Now I have to go down to the bottom row right click explorer to get a new tab and then a get this weird page 'about tabs' with an assortment of my more common/recent pages and then I click Favorites. Is Teddie being good now that he doesn't have his photographer around?

lluwig Turn off the access line to your hot water heaters. That way the 'bad water' won't mix with the water in the hot water heaters and you will have a source of clean water. If you have 2 heaters, you can keep using one and have the other become your reserve water source. It can take weeks sometimes before the powers that be will say the water is safe. And with all the free flowing water you got up there everything must be getting contaminated.

beth no, no new 'news' but jcorn hasn't been in the loop. don't see how they can restart the chat at a later date. particularly if they 'monitor' things like live world does.

Ha! Mother is having fun talking back to the Prez.

Do others see my bolds?

Beth Whats his name John whatever came on the ebay book board chat. First saying it was going to be closed...whenever... then it got moved to early August... and the last [or maybe second to last time he was there] he said it was going to be closed in September. There might be a link at where ever it was being discussed, but I can't remember where that was. I'll wander about ebay looking. Nothing on TV but Obama talking.

hmmmm, wonder what happened to my BOLD off to read the How To Manual again.

Good Evening Everyone!

Thoughts for all you getting that rain from Lee. We are soggy here in FLA [neighbors chicken coop area under a few inches of water -- they resolved that by dumped wheelbarrel loads of mulch [from when the road tree trimmers were doing the street] so now the chickens are walking above the water. Being 'flat' we have 'sheet flow' flooding which can mean the water flows everywhere at whatever depth the present rain situation is. In actually, here, it is just standing water in the 'lower' areas of our flatness -- and in the case of the neighbors, overflow from their pond. Rusty lost one of his favorite 'wallow' places by a maple tree and there are other areas under an inch or squeshy amount of water all around.

You poor folks up north have uneven ground, so all your water starts running off in a rush, cutting into roads, bridges and finally really overflowing streams and rivers. Please take care up there.

Nancy Too Old 2 Tap if your outside porch doesn't get much rain [and particuarly if there is any floor covering, try using 24 mule team borateen [or boric acid] sprinkled around. That is great at killing fleas where they hid. And if you vacuum it up it keeps killing them in the vacuum and then the trash. [it kills other insects too -- it used to the be old standby for the snowbirds being sprinkled around the house when they would leave. I've dumped it in the carpet [and furniture] in the past during infestations. As a further note, should you 'brave' giving the cats a bath. Use boreteen in the water [you really don't even need to use any type of soap/flea product]. The boreteen kills fleas and is a GREAT for itching [I know this from fire ant and mosquoto bites].

lludwig note I used the full name 24 mule name in honor of the 'two mutes/mules'. And I read it as 'mules' too originally. In fact, I was thinking when I initally read it -- the old 'one dog town' phrase.

jcorn sympathies on the loss of your mother. It is now just over 10 years since my father died.

News -- Ebay has decided to remove the CHATS. They keep changing the actual deadline. Fortunately, Curt [the blessed webmaster] set up this lovely site for us and for a bunch of other boards -- see the side bar. Ebay's reasoning was that their system no longer supported the old Chat boards. But if so, then why are they continually delaying the end of times? Probably no conspiracy theory, just ebay lack of competence even in the wiping out of a whole ebay culture [which will probably not do them any real good]. The old Board Board, though, as you see is pretty much dead. Even a few weeks ago it was still popping along. Very glad you are here.

Good Evening !

MIM we have been worried about you. You've been in my thoughts and prayers. Keep posting and reading.

lookwhatbobfound But you have to be a bit careful with the 'hot water tank' method. If you are on city water you want to make sure that you turn off the incoming valve so that your hot water heater water doesn't become contaminated [all those boil water notices] when the water lines water pressure gets low. Then you want to make sure you turn off your hot water tank either at the switch or breaker [or both is best] because if the power comes back on and either 1] you forgot to turn the city water back on, or 2] city water isn't working yet, then the hot water heater is working with no water in it and you seriously risk fire.

Also, it helps if you drain out the hot water heater occassionally. Did the down stairs one this spring. Gets any crude deposits out that might have settled in [or rusted from the inside of the tank].

beth in FLA we are FLAT. Yes, they use towers, but they use pumps also to keep the pressure up. [they also use pumps in lift stations to move the sewage too, a whole nother issue]. The main water source for Tampa, south of me, is a resevoir which draws from the hillsborough river. Pinellas county, where I used to live, got all of its water from other counties. In great big monster pipes -- basketball players might have to stand on tipie toe to touch the top. and those pipes move the water underground. then pumps pump it up into towers, or just push it into the regular lines.

After Andrew, one of the big problems getting the sewer and water going again [I knew someone from Church who was a city worker spent months over there helping them get things working again] was that salt water had pretty much gummed up the whole sewer and water pumping systems and everything had to be replaced -- and then they didn't have the power, used generators. He and two others left Pinellas with a truck towing a large generator and fuel for it. Had all sorts of replacement parts. Then they found out what had really happened [the news didn't get out fast]. He emptied the truck out in a dry damaged/shot pump station they found and sent it back for whole pumping systems while starting to work on fixing that. Plus, they kept getting their generator 'liberated' for this or that need. He didn't mind, because they generally put the generator to good use, but it continually kept his work from being done.

well, the bread didn't come out 'perfect' the top rose right but then dropped back in. it'll still be edible. maybe the air pressure change.....

Good Day Everyone! Had a spot shower from an outer outer outer band of Irene this morning. not enough rain to drive the chickens under shelter.

Regardless whether or not Irene hits or not at whatever strength. there will be rain and there will be wind and there will be power outages. And because there is such a large area effected [affected?] there won't be power crews from the next county/state over running to help fix things [assuming the roads were clear]. Jeannie knocked out power for however many thousand of homes in Tampa [at just tropical storm level] and they were out of power for several weeks because the crews still hadn't gotten things fully working from Charlie [much less Francis, Ivan et al]. Remember poor aquiltmaven had to go to a hotel just to get air conditioning/hot water for a few days as a respite?

Hand crank radios are nice. Look for them for the next storm. Ditto with the hand crank flashlights [most of the hand crank radios are flash lights too]. And those stick in the ground solar lights can be used inside too.

lookwhatbobfound Francis and Jeannie shifted from their classification from Hurricane to Tropical Storm above us [or close enough not to make any difference]. I am north of Tampa. In 2004 it seemed like ALL the storms at one time or another where charted to roll right over top of us. I was rushing around getting all ready for Charlie. Poor Rusty [see avatar] was all upset watching. He couldn't even chew his cud. I mean, I was hauling stuff to put out in his barn and under normal circumstances he would have been 'helping' and I didn't what to worry about him tryng to get out of the pasture while I was going back and forth [sometimes on the riding mower with the trailer, which definately always gets his attention].. And hauling stuff to cover windows from the barn. Then all of a sudden, his sad little ears perked up and he started following and poking around [i.e. helping]. I went into the house and listened to the TV which was on full time and heard the meterologist [Jon Winters] say that it looked like Charlie stopped or turned inland early. A couple minutes after that it was definately declared a 'turn'. For Francis and Jeannie it was all sad ears. For Ivan he was all bright eyed and bushy tailed [so to speak] and he had a grand time watching me on top of the garage roof replacing ridge singles that Francis knocked off. So I did suspect Ivan wasn't going to hit but thought it might be the first heavy rain since Francis.

This Irene looks like she's going to be nasty, but for us over here on the west coast all she's going to do is pull any rain we might have gotten away from us and into her monster cloud system.

aquiltmaven had Charley, Francis and Jeannie all go over her. I forget how long her power was off. She is a bit south of you.

lludwig The only First Line I have gotten is WAR OF THE WORLDS.

Good Morning Everyone. Looks like the poor islands are going to get a bad pounding from Irene. Plus, whereever it ends up hitting along the East Coast.

Has anyone heard if salmegal is OK from Harvey?

Good evening everyone! Got a lot more rain. Wet chickens [just put them to bed]. Rusty isn't ovely happy either -- that much rain makes him Clean but I just told him that he could have fun getting dirty all over again.

antsy My Dad passed away just after my 45th birthday. He had dementia. I took care of him 10 years, plus a few years before that dealing with what might be going on. If something had happened to me [or perhaps he did something to me violent during one of his violent episodes] in the beginning it wouldn't have mattered because he still knew how to open the front door and he'd just leave [he liked running away, a whole other issue, but he always took the dog with him]. Basically, I am saying I was young and healthy. Would your mother be able to [or bother to] call the doctor if you needed it. [can she remember to dial 911 if she sets a fire?]. If somethng happened to you while you might be out [shopping...] would she open the door to anyone that came to check on her? Would she be able to convince them she was able to take care of herself while you, say were being treated in the hospital? My dad wouldn't have been able to convince anyone once I was with him full time. I had a aide coming 3 morning a week to help with the morning routine. I had a sitter come other days so I could do things, get out, or deal with other family issues. [When I started taking care of my father, there were 5 family members over the age of 80. By the time he passed away, all of them had died.] I put my dad in a nursing home once a year so I could have a week off. [or go up north to do the last minute in the hospital, burial stuff]. Get a sitter -- one that smokes perhaps. My sitters would take my dad out for rides and to go places [he liked car rides and was pretty much taking them until the end]. My 'old' sleeping patterns never re-established themselves after my Dad passed away. I still get up 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours after I go to bed [doesn't matter what time] because that was bathroom trip time.

LOL grano Ah, but I have met practioners of wiccan etc that insist that their books be kept in the religion section. Also, those of an atheistic bent who insist that religious books should be in Fiction.

Sold a book on ebay once [IRON MOUNTAIN some such name] got an email from someone saying it was a faked thingee and should be in Fiction. I emailed him back and mentioned that I was just using the LIBRARY classification and that even the abominable snowman was listed in Non-Fiction. Person was completely polite, even then emailed me back and said he hadn't thought about that or all the other things listed in Non-Fiction.

ANGELS!

antsy people with COPD should not be around smokers. you have your health to consider, too. You need to chat with both your and HER doctor [in front of her if possible]. Lots of Hugs. Took care of my dad for years.

grano I suspect that it is re-sale more than censorship. Pulling out noticable amounts of books requires more than gall [whatever the reason].

But we all know that books have little feet and happily move about. Maybe they got together and teleported themselves.

Am assuming that the books haven't been stuck into the Religious section -- based on someone's idea that they should be considered such.

Good Afternoon Everyone -- just had a heavy downpour, but the sun's out now [dropped the temps outside to 88 degrees at whatever humidity level].

Patsy Grano Jim may be onto something. Maybe those books don't want to be bought. Perhaps they know exactly who is going to grab them at the sale and want to avoid that fate. Then they might reappear for the next sale.
Been enjoying your Alaska pictures!

Treasuremomz Sam -- neat flowers, but the actual plant makes me think of Seymour of LITTLE HOUSE OF HORRORS. You aren't missing any house pets or obxious neighbors, are you?

UNIVERSITY CLASSES appear to be starting. I got two orders of WAITING FOR GODOT this morning. I always pick up plays [particularly on bag days], those paperbacks are easy to pack and I ignore all those 1 cent listings on Amazon because they generally all get sold out. One of the sales was Expediated, too.

Classics -- speaking of WAITING FOR GODOT. Obviously it is something teachers consider a classic form of play, but I couldn't stand it -- not when my brother was doing it in high school and in deep awe at various phrases or when I was forced to watch part later in College myself. [where I did learn that is you have to deal with someone who is deep into whatever those meaningful/meaningless lines are, that if you pop some part/song from a musical that is even vaguely related you can kill the conversation fast. WAITING FOR GODOT fanatics seem to particularly hate Rogers and Hammerstein. Yes, I have a 'mean' streak in me]. Some things are classics to some people and some are not. Goes for books too.

lluwig I got the WAR OF THE WORLDS one!

did green alert come in green? I see it as black [sign]. Or maybe my monitor isn't calibrated correctly.

@dainisjg and @jimd : And don't forget -- no seat belts. And my brother and I would play in the back of the station wagon! not to mention climb back and forth over the seats. I never liked those old transitor radios that had those old ear plugs -- didn't see the point of them, the music sounded tinny enough coming out of the radio. And there is a point after which you really can't tell the difference in sound quality from speakers of all these sound systems [ I can't]. And what was the big whoop about going HDTV? It is a little better at most/maybe from a old picture from a strong station. Remember all the joggers with their walkmans? from there things have gone into ipods.

<

Within all the recent posts there are occassional words/phrases that have come from the FUTURE!

Note my use of the term 'First Lines'. Check your posts the changes are very, very very minor.

BUT

WE can still use this to our advantage!!!! Quickly everyone [except for @kathleen Lluwig who is in charge of calculating when she is going to start using FIRST LINE quizes] Check the prices of your favorite stocks, precious metals, currancies. Make a post with that information. It doesn't matter if we duplicate each other. Because we don't know when the small insertions/ breaks in the space-time continuum will occur. Then we check the quotes with what is 'really' happening now. Any discrepancies and we have ALL 8^) hit the mother lode! And lludwig's calculation will determine from what part of the future the information is coming from.

Good Evening Everyone! Had misc. on/off computer problems. But because the board is 'eternal' I didn't miss anything.

Diana Furtima -- condolances on the passing of your mother.

lludwig -- been doing the FIRST LINES. Got The Christmas Carol and Uncle tom's cabin [neither of which I have read]. And only knew that Jane Austen wrote the last line of the Emma one [but couldn't remember which one]. Have read that. It is amazing how much 'stuff' I haven't read [I often started many but didn't manage getting far. I mean, I think I tried Oliver Twist 3 times and the Genji twice, others often only once. And this from someone who read War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, Tolkien etc in 7th grade].

Best Sales of the Month -- Only selling on Amazon now. July though is a slow month for books either on ebay or amazon. Did my 'dead week' early in the month. Things only picking up this last week.

Best sale though was :

COWBOY SAM AND BIG BILL by Edna Walker Chandler for 14.95. Whenever you see any of her books pick them up.

Good Evening Everyone! Shall poke around Shivadiva's bookroom for awhile.

Finished my Piper - Junkyard Planet. Good fun. They still smoke and drink in the nth century. Don't seem to worry much about residual radiation from setting off nukes either [and everything powered via nuclear sources]. Positronic computer [stolen from Asimov]. Paper print outs [that end up having to be translated from 'computer' into human].

With this heat [and, yes, I know it is hotter up north than down here] I have decided that I am only going to read winter/snow from now one. In hopes that mind over matter works. Reading a mystery now, but I have an old Silverberg about a future ice age somewhere...

Other than that...It is hot. no rain for 2 days [and the day before that less than a quarter of an inch]. plenty of rain around us, but not hitting us.

Going to the bookroom then back to my christmas mystery.

Jean

Good Morning Everyone.

Glad to hear DIL is feeling better, bookleaves

June/dupo hope the vet can get Miss Kittie to eat better.

bookdelle Holsteins are the black and white cows [yes, I know there are other breeds with black and white, but they are the common black and white ones in this country. Milk producing breed. Don't think pictures are ready to put up, but you can put a link in to the picture.

glad to hear you are getting back into painting again, furtima

Time to move chickens and do some mowing.

Scrolling, scrolling scrolling,
keep the bookboard scrolling,
book board!

Oh, library related. Kids bookmarks. Picked this one up.

Read MoreHide

Oh, the Board is moving so fast! Like old times! Mostly an outdoor labor day for me [mowing, chicken stuff] because it didn't rain until later.

Book I am reading now. I picked it up at a thrift. JUNKYARD PLANET by H Beam Piper. Thought I had read all his stuff years ago. Then checked, like a lot of the 'old masters' it was renamed the Cosmic Computer. [There was a while there in the 60's and 70's that you had to look on the copyright page to make sure that a book wasn't a renamed one]. Since I recognize 'the feel' of it I know I have read it, but am having fun re-reading it after all these years. Of course, this one like most of his books was initially a long short story. It's a hardback, putnam ex library no DJ unfortunately.

Hi MIM!

Too late at night for coffee, don't you think. Go straight for the Chocolate.

Good to see you.

Off to bed myself.

Good Night Everyone!

Good Evening Everyone! Hi all you 'new' folks!

Alas and Alack, all my dreaming about financial wealth and glory is gone. With 4 inches of rain in 24 hours there is no way I can mail any rusty produced organic products, even in sealed plastic they would weigh too much.

Doomed.

Our blackberry and mulberry seasons are long over here in FLA.

grano True. True. Especially if I used thick plastic bags to wrap it. But could you imagine what would happen if they decided to open one [ummm, says Postal employee. for a big package it sure doesn't weigh much. perhaps we should inspect this one]
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The heavy rain stayed on our side of the state, so the Space Shuttle made it safely up. 135th Shuttle launch. Seem to remember each Shuttle was originally supposed to do more than that individually. East coast is going to get a bad economic hit like after the end of the moon shots.

I agree with stamphick A link for donations from us.

bookleaves I would be rolling in cash [instead of Rusty produced organic products] if the Post Office didn't consider such unmailable. think of it. briguy could order a ton to toss on his garden area before winter. By the time the spring thaw came, all the 'good nutrients' would be in the soil, he could rake the rest to put into his compost heap and he'd be ready for a record harvest [to feed the bunnies]. And if there was a serious blizzard and the power went out and he ran out of fire wood, he could dig through the snow and use the patties in the fire place!

Good Morning Everyone! rainy rainy FLA day. Shuttle Launch in Question. No mowing for me today. Instead I plan on doing laundry and listing on Amazon [I originally started typing 'The River' when it occcurred to me that I didn't have to bother with that silliness anymore.] I presently do most of my book selling on Amazon [started typing the River automatically, going to be a hard habit to break] now because I got tried of all the changes and all on Ebay. End of June and beginning of July is slow there. Got more than 3,000 books listed and I don't have to worry about changing each listing if ebay decides some wording has be to removed/added.

If I do list on Ebay again will be only because I have been able to keep up with the changes by what folks say on the Chat. When it comes to books, The Fall/pre Christmas season and the first 3 months of the year were always best for me on ebay. After that it dried up worse than Amazon.

grano9 Yes, do let us know how the ipad does. Will you be able to check up on the BookBoardChat anywhere now? Alas and Alack for all us plugged into the wall dial up desktop users.

Would Irene and Curt like some Rusty produced organic products for their garden? Though I have never figured out how to mail such. [I know adderbolt is living in eternal hope that some day Rusty would mail him a present.]

This is a great, well thought out website Curt, thank you.

Jean Ann

ummm. the greater than symbol and the lesser than symbol do not seem to show up. <

It appears that my mistake was using instead of [ and ]. It worked this time.

Good Evening Everyone! Nice to see so many old friends. Still raining, had a good deluge earlier. But I got some mowing in.

This afternoon I took some boxes of books to a summer day camp I know [migrant, farmworker, parents not speaking english as a first language] And the kids got to pick out three books each. [used books though some looked 'like new']. They had a good time and now have something to take home.

The trouble with the grade/test scores, is that in Florida, in the past they didn’t ’follow’ the grades. i.e. A teacher was expected to do as well as everyone else as the ’starting place’ [previous years FCAT] of the students wasn’t ’followed’. As I understand it speaking to teachers now, that has been changed. Though I have no idea how any teacher can manage with a class of kids say with past records of two years behind to one year ahead…

I will now try the SHUSH feature. again

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I see the SHUSH. Should I see my own SHUSH? Or did I do it wrong. Do I need to delete it?

Back from taking Mother to a Dr appt., Bealls outlet [she didn't find the purse she wants], and the grocery store.

I found the ebay Book Chat before I registered for Ebay! [probably what got me to register]. Bought a book to see how it worked, then started selling. [You didn't need pictures then].

adderbolt I am sure that Rusty would love to be invited to a BBQ. He does have some dietary restrictions [no meat and he doesn't like onions or tomatoes], but I am sure he will enjoy all the fun and camaraderie any party of yours would provide. Oh, and don't mow the grass ahead of time.

Note to self : Diane does not equal Irene. I am not used to 'names' but rather 'id's.

Sorry Irene. And Irene, thank your husband [I am assuming Diane did on general principle, too] for this site. It is looking real good.

Russian Myths -- C. J. Cherryh did a couple of books in that venue. Rusalka [sp] if you want to try a different author. She's primarily a science fiction writer but does fantasy.

Normally our area is known for water moccasins [aka cottonmouths] but I guess the drought hit them hard and rattlesnakes moved in. San Antonio [Florida] just north of us has a rattlesnake festival every year -- higher drier ground. Nature is always in flux -- example, part of the property is wetlands, though most of the time you can easily walk in it. There are cypress growing right beside pine trees. When it is wet, the cypress are happy. And the rest of the time the pines, sweet gum etc are happy.

never2old2tap I just finished the most recent in that series. when it appeared on the new book shelves at the library. Cat Sitter among the pigeons. Probably should be read in order for anyone who hasn't tried the series yet. But the author fills in things so you could come in mid-series.

This is a scary Rusty story. Almost two weeks ago I was putting the chickens [one hen -- long story about the rest, and 3 young ones] up in the chicken coop. I noticed Rusty was looking at something in the pasture. And he was still looking at it -- oddly -- when I was done. I called to him, he just looked at me and went back to looking at whatever. So I went to the gate and he still didn't come. So I went in. And walked over to him. There was 'something' there and I thought it was a small armiliddolo. Till I 'heard' it. It was a rattlesnake happily rattling all coiled up. And Rusty loved the sound of that rattle. I mean, he was in striking range! So I got Rusty to step back away, but he wouldn't stay away, nor would he follow me [if I could have gotten him to the barn I could have shut him in a stall]. So there I stand. Bare foot in the middle of the pasture with my body between the angry snake and the 'I want to hear that sound' Rusty. I see my neighbor's truck on the next five acres over and start yelling his name. Only got his dog to bark at me. My neighbor the other way --2 -3 times as far -- hears me yelling my neighbor's name and saying 'No Rusty'. So he calls my neighbor and tells him I'm screaming for him. So he pops his head out and I ask for a shot gun. "For What?" he yells back. "Rattlesnake" I yell. "Are you sure?" [boy his life expectancy almost dropped to zero at that split second]. But he comes over with a hoe [no shot gun, calls the neighbor who had heard me and tells him it was a rattlesnake and asked if he had a shot gun. Nope, pardon me, aren't guys supposed to have shot guns????]. So he kills the snake with the hoe. It rattled all the way out of the pasture and he carried it on the hoe. Rusty was upset his friend was gone. The snake measured 50 inches. Then I killed one with a garden rake 3 days later in the south pasture -- 52 inches. [these measurements are taken on the ground, not held up, they would have been longer then]. The second one was crossing the driveway from the pasture heading for the air conditioners. no siting since.

Ooo, that was easy. Diane please thank your husband greatly for this site!!!!!

Hello, everyone. Like the look of this site. And it is a lot easier to sign in that liveworld's -- that and other reasons have limited my posting there.

Presently I am reading A Detective at Death's Door by H. R. Keating. Part of a longer series -- somewhere in the middle of it I think -- British.

Nice to see you all!!!