“It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise”
Mark Twain (American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)
TIME: 8:52 PM
PLACE: Front porch
SUBJECT: Phyllophaga or June bug
I can never remember seeing these bugs in March. I guess it’s because of the extremely warm weather we’ve been having. It’s been feeling more like late May/early June around here than late March. Hence, the early arrival of the June bugs.
Q. What does the Easter Rabbit get for making a basket?
A. Two points just like everybody else!
A really bad joke
TIME: 10:41 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Schieich rabbit figure & basket
The Schleich animal figures are a favorite around here and if I happen to come across one in my thrifting/yard sale/estate sale browsing, they come home with me. I found this rabbit at a thrift store along with this tiny basket. I believe the duo set me back a whole quarter. This bunny looks like a rabbit we use to own many years ago by the name of Peter Rabbit. DramaQueen named him herself.
“The cistern contains: The fountain overflows.“
William Blake (1757-1827), British poet, painter, engraver. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 8, "Proverbs of Hell," (1790-1793).
TIME: 10:40 AM
PLACE: Our street
SUBJECT: Fire hydrant
A blue notice was hanging on our front door knob yesterday afternoon. It was from the water company telling us that we would be without water service from 9am until 1am today while they were making some repairs/improvements in our neighborhood. This morning, they opened the fire hydrant by our house to reduce the water pressure while they were making repairs down a side street. Now we are under a boil order until Saturday morning at 4am. Great.
“Just because you want to be glamorous, don't be a sheep about your eye makeup.”
Loretta Young (American Actress, 1913-2000)
TIME: 9:14 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: MAC eye-shadow
I indulged myself by purchasing an eye-shadow from the MAC counter at Macy’s today. The color is named “Girlie” I like it because it is a neutral color. I like neutral colors because I can wear the same color all over my lids without worrying about blending. I am a lazy make-up-putter-oner.
“Dear night-lights, protect my sleeping babes. Burn clear and steadfast tonight.”
Wendy Darling, Hook, Steven Spielberg dir., Amblin Entertainment, TriStar Pictures, 1991.
TIME: 10:41 PM
PLACE: Front yard
SUBJECT: Solar yard light
I ran this evening. 5 minutes of running, followed by 3 minutes of walking x 3. According to my phone, I went 2.11 miles in 27:13 minutes with an average speed of 4.66 mph. That made a pace of 12:52 minutes/mile and I burned 260 calories. Yay me.
~*~*~
Tonight, I decided to try some quick experimenting with some night-time photography. I like the patterns that our solar lights produce around the flowerbeds.
“... a key, a very large key, that opens something some useful door somewhere up there.”
Anne Sexton (1928-1974), U.S. poet. "Riding the Elevator into the Sky."
TIME: 9:09 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Church key/bottle opener
Why is it called a “church-key”? From what I’ve googled, it’s either because when monks were brewers they carried large keys to open the cellars where the ale was made – these keys were known as “church-keys”; or it’s because the rounded shape of other openers (the kind that pry off the bottle caps) looked like the handles of big door keys, especially the ones that opened large church doors. Okaaaay. I, however, associate this tool with punching holes – one in each side! - of a can of Hawaiian Punch. Who else remembers when Hawaiian Punch came in a 46 oz. can? If you do, you are old like me. I still use a church-key when I make spaghetti sauce. Force of habit has me punching my large cans of tomato juice instead of using a can opener.
“Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years.“
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 1, p. 60, Houghton Mifflin (1906).
TIME: 2:31 PM
PLACE: St. Louis City Museum
SUBJECT: Wall of printer’s blocks
Today I accompanied StellaDella’s Brownie troop and troop leader to the City Museum in St. Louis. DramaQueen, MonkeyBoy and DQ’s BFF also came with us. It was a trade-off – they could come and have fun, but we also used them to help wrangle the 9 girls. Another set of parents met us later for even more reinforcements – then we let the three older ones off on their own. It worked out well. At 1:30pm we ate lunch in a private room off the Skateless Park. These blocks were attached to one of the end walls of our room.
“Cats are the ultimate narcissists. You can tell this because of all the time they spend on personal grooming.”
~James Gorman
TIME: 11:23 AM
PLACE: Basement
SUBJECT: Tessa and her tongue
We’ve been doing some major remodeling of the upstairs bathroom which has left the walls exposed down to the studs. Ms. Tessa has been taking advantage of the open access to the crawlspace. She’s been disappearing and then showing up a couple of hours later with filthy, sooty, dirty paws. It takes a lot of grooming to get her fur back to its original white.
"The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears."
John Vance Cheney (American poet, essayist and librarian. 1848-1922)
TIME: 9:34 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Flower
HH’s co-workers had a ficus tree with a braided trunk delivered to the house in sympathy for the passing of his father. A container holding several flowers was nestled in the top of the tree. This Gerber Daisy was one of them.
“And weren't there special cemetery flowers, That, once grief sets to growing, grief may rest: The flowers will go on with grief awhile, And no one seem neglecting or neglected? A prudent grief will not despise such aids.”
Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet. "Place for a Third."
TIME: 7:21 PM
PLACE: Cemetery
SUBJECT: Flowers on Mom’s headstone
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn’t able to make it out to the cemetery yesterday. This evening, I made sure nothing stopped me from going there.
“Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature”
Gérard Labrunie aka Gerard de Nerval (French poet, essayist and translator, 1808-1855)
TIME: 7:07 PM
PLACE: Back yard
SUBJECT: Flowers
I’ve been taking photos of this bush since the beginning of my Project 365/366. And do you want to know something funny? I have no clue what kind of bush it is. In any case, the spring flowers it has are always good for a photo.
~*~*~
It’s been 7 years since Mom passed. I miss her terribly.
"Seems the caterpillar has emerged from its cocoon as a shark, a shark with a gun for a mouth. Touché."
Mr. Burns, C.E. D’oh, The Simpsons, Season 14, Episode 15, air date: 16 Mar 2003.
TIME: 10:29 PM
PLACE: Front porch
SUBJECT: Cocoon
I was trying to take a photo of the moths that were flitting around our front porch light. I’ve never seen so many, so early in the spring – I guess they are all out due to the unseasonably warm weather we are having. I was not successful, however. So, instead, I went with this cocoon hanging on the Purple Sand Cherry. Don’t know what will be emerging from it…more than likely a moth like the ones I was trying to photograph.
Winston Churchill once said: "The eyes are the windows of your face."Christopher Walken, “Indoor Gardening Tips From A Many Who’s Very Scared Of Plants,” Saturday Night Live, Season 33, Episode 8, Air Date: 5 Apr 2008, Television.
TIME: 9:35 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Dietitian scale with googly eyes.
I don’t know who put these googly eyes on the face of this scale, but I find it amusing. Also, me and this scale are good. I can tell. By looking into its eyes, I know. They’re like real eyes. They just make me feel comfortable.
“When service should in my old limbs lie lame
And unregarded age in corners thrown:”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Adam, in As You Like It, act 2, sc. 3, l. 42.
TIME: 6:27 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Front porch column
HH received a phone call from his sister around 11:30 this morning with the news that his father had collapsed at home and was being rushed to the hospital. HH left to meet his sisters and mother there, but unfortunately, his father passed away in-route. He was 80 years old.
~*~*~
I’ve been turning to Fat Mum Slim’s Photo A Day for March when needing inspiration. It was especially nice to have today…
“The closer i get to you
The more you'll make me see…”
Mtume, James, and Reggie Lucas. The Closer I Get to You. Single by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway.: Atlantic Records, 1978.
TIME: 5:33 PM
PLACE: Front yard
SUBJECT: Purple Sand Cherry
We had several rain showers again today. These are some of the rain drops on the branches of the budding Purple Sand Cherry. Do you see that rain drop furthest to the right in the middle of the photograph? If you get closer, you can see what it is reflecting. Here, let me crop that for you:
I can crop it a bit more to get you closer still:
Do you see it now? It’s a reflection of my neighbor’s house across the street.
~*~*~
Yes, I know it is St. Patrick’s Day.
Yes, I know it would be appropriate to post something green.
But I’m not Irish.
I’m Czech.
And Sicilian.
That means I can post what I want.
So there! ;)
“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.”
E. E. Cummings (American poet 1894-1962)
TIME: 5:21 PM
PLACE: Backyard
SUBJECT: StellaDella
This is the sight that greeted me as I pulled into the driveway this evening - SD wallowing in a mud puddle. We had waves of thundershowers most of the day and the rain collected in the ruts that had formed underneath the swings. It turned the depressions into lovely, muddy quagmires, perfect for sloshing and mucking about. And of course, that is one siren song that SD cannot resist.
Ralph Wiggum: [at the Lincoln Memorial, sitting on Lincoln's lap] I want a tricycle, and a dog who won't chew my Hot Wheels, and a brighter future for America. I'm Ralph Wiggum, and I've been a good boy.
"The Simpsons: E Pluribus Wiggum (#19.10)" (2008)
TIME: 7:45 PM
PLACE: Target
SUBJECT: Hot Wheels
(taken with my cellphone)
What do you do when the photos you took today left you feeling less than excited? Why, you process the jeebeezus out of them in Photoshop of course! That automatically makes them better. Right?
“Suddenly, she wasn't drunk anymore. Her hand was steady and she was cool. Like somebody making funeral arrangements for a murder not yet committed.”
John Paxton (1911-1985), U.S. screenwriter, and Edward Dmytryk. Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell), Murder, My Sweet, Jessie Florian spied by private eye Philip Marlowe making a telephone call after his visit (1944). Marlowe is offering the police his narration of a crime. Based on the novel.
TIME: 7:01 PM
PLACE: Living room
SUBJECT: StellaDella
I have no idea why she decided to start stacking books. But that’s what she is doing this evening. And according to her, there are way too many people in this house who walk heavy, breathe hard and do other things that sabotage her ability to do so.
“She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
"Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
TIME: 7:01 PM
PLACE: Shopping plaza
SUBJECT: Daffodils
Here is my sign that spring just might – just might! - actually be arriving. Daffodils in full bloom and it’s light out at 7 in the evening. I’ll take it.
“The world was my oyster, but I used the wrong fork”
Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)
TIME: 10:42 PM
PLACE: Kitchen
SUBJECT: Fork
A common object. Simple, yet effective. Used everyday. This one has probably been washed thousands of times. It’s ancestors in the eleventh century (belonging to a Byzantine princess who married a Venetian) were considered an affront to God’s natural forks…our fingers. She died of the plague two years after being condemned by the clergy for her fork use. Wow, God is quite vengeful when it comes to the correct eating utensils. (via Leite’s Culinaria)
“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”
Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family
TIME: 7:39 PM
PLACE: Living room
SUBJECT: MonkeyBoy
I actually was able to spend some one-on-one time with my son today. He and I went to the high school track this morning and ran/walked 2 miles. It took about 24 minutes. I’m sure he could have had a better time, but he stayed near and encouraged/cheered me on. He’s such a good boy to his old mom. I hope he remembers only that we had the time together and not my huffing and puffing around the track.
"If you don't have a mustache talk to me cause, my ‘stache ain't listening."
Sean Chandler
TIME: 4:26 PM
PLACE: Outside the skating rink
SUBJECT: StellaDella’s fake mustache
SD had a birthday skating party to go to this afternoon. These glasses and a package of 3 fake, furry, stick-on mustaches were part of the favor bag. I think it’s a good look for her.
“Life is a foreign language: all men mispronounce it”
Christopher Morley (American writer and editor 1890-1957)
TIME: 8:52 PM
PLACE: Refrigerator
SUBEJCT: Hoegaarden Belgium beer
First off, yes - I did buy this beer solely because of the name. And yes - I giggle like a 12 year old at the grocery store, when I saw it. It was a pretty good tasting beer though. And for your information? It is pronounced “hoo-gar-duhn”
“Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in Henry VI, Part 2, act 3, sc. 3, l. 31. On the tormented dying of Cardinal Beaufort.
TIME: 7:58 PM
PLACE: Catholic Church
SUBJECT: Mary statue
Miss StellaDella made her First Reconciliation (confessed her sins) this evening in preparation for her First Holy Communion next month. The highlight of the evening was when she re-joined me in the pew after her session with Father Bill - “I’m all clean now Mom, can we get ice-cream?” Of course we stopped by Dairy Queen on the way home.
Bill Nye: [talking about the Titanic] Don't call a ship unsinkable when it's built like an ice-cube tray, and don't call an ice-cube tray unshippable when it's built like a sink.
Bill Nye, the Science Guy. TV Series. 1993–1998. KTCS Seattle, PBS.
TIME: 11:57 PM
PLACE: Kitchen
SUBJECT: Metal ice cube tray
Before I took that photo of the UFO yesterday, I checked-out the Pink Elephant Antique Mall. And in that mall, I found something that I have been searching for – a vintage metal ice cube tray. Why? Well, I get tired of buying new plastic ice trays several times a year because they crack & break apart. (No, we don’t have an ice maker – we’re poor & deprived) I look forward to my wet fingers sticking to the frosted metal, just like when I was young. Ahh, the memories!
“ Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?”
Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis & Rick Moranis, U.S. screenwriters. Ivan Reitman, Columbia Pictures Corp (Annie Potts), Ghostbusters (1984).
TIME: 2:11 PM
PLACE: Pink Elephant Antique Mall, Livingston, IL
SUBJECT: UFO
Not only do they have a Pink Elephant, but they also have this gigantic UFO. This place is pure gold for photo opportunities.
“Some smart man once said that on the most exalted throne in the world we are seated on nothing but our own arse.”
Wendell Mayes, U.S. screenwriter. Otto Preminger. CINCPAC II (Henry Fonda), In Harm's Way (1965).
TIME: 7:45 PM
PLACE: Indoor soccer field
SUBJECT: Spectator chair
MonkeyBoy has been attending a soccer camp for the past 8 or so Monday evenings. Tonight was his last session. I sat my derriere on this chair, drank an iced tea and watched.
“Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.”
Jonathan Swift (Irish Author and Satirist of prose, 1667-1745)
TIME: 11:57 AM
PLACE: Bathroom
SUBJECT: Bottom of bathtub
Do you remember that little demolition project way back in March of 2009? Well, it’s been in a state of limbo ever since. This stagnation was mainly due to 1) money-lack of; 2) time; 3) sewer issues that needed to be completed before more remodeling could proceed; 4) time; and 5) money-lack of. This past fall, the HH broke up the basement floor, dug outside, laid new plastic sewer pipe and moved the sewer stack. THAT was a huge project all unto itself. Now, we are finally able to move forward with the actual bathroom transformation. Oh, wait, first we had to put a temporary bath in downstairs. Having a commode we can use on a daily basis is essential. We demoed the remaining bathroom upstairs which included removing the old tub. The tub wasn’t original to the house. We’re thinking they replaced the first one (probably a claw foot) with a more modern version around 1951 or a little later. How do we know? Because we looked at what was on the bottom of it. We learned a lot of information about the bathtub. I took a picture, then HH and my dad took a sledge hammer to it - it was the only way we were going to be able to get that 300-400 pound beast down the stairs and out of the house.
"Who's that tickling my back?" said the wall.
Ian Serraillier (b. 1912). The Tickle Rhyme (l. 1). . . Poems for Young Children. Caroline Royds, comp. (1986) Doubleday & Company.
TIME: 12:19 PM
PLACE: Around town
SUBJECT: House wall
It was a brisk, chilly day today. And where was I? Outside. Walking in a parade with StellaDella’s Girl Scout troop. Why? It’s the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. Did I mention it was cold and windy? Yeah…that. I survived though and even managed to capture this picture while walking. Quite a contrast of the old brick showing through the deteriorating stucco and the newer vinyl window. Our town produced many a brick way back when, so I’m betting the brick was made locally.
“Some (demons) are also in the thick black clouds, which cause hail, lightning and thunder, and poison the air, the pastures and grounds”
Martin Luther (German Priest and Scholar whose questioning of certain church practices led to the Protestant Reformation. 1483-1546)
TIME: 9:58 AM
PLACE: Around town
SUBJECT: Hail
We had a high of 68 degrees this morning. It came with thundershowers and this pea-sized hail. Then the temperature dropped to about 40 degrees with brisk winds this afternoon.
“An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches with spire steeples which point as with a silent finger to the sky and stars.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English lyrical Poet, Critic and Philosopher. 1772-1834)
TIME: 8:26 PM
PLACE: Freeburg, IL
SUBJECT: St. Joseph’s Church
I think a tripod is essential for night photography. Too bad I didn’t have one with me this evening. I tried setting the camera on the car roof but unfortunately, it wasn’t at the proper height for the shot I wanted. So I resorted to trying to hold it as steady as I could. I even held my breath while pressing the shutter button. The end picture turned out ok, but no where near as clear as I wanted. Lots of room for improvement.
