two blogs

In the right hand column you'll find two new blog titles. Testing the Waters, My Caribbean Adventure is written by my daughter, Rachel. She's going to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Island to live and work for a few months. I'm looking forward to some interesting posts and spectacular photos.

Milk Gravy on Biscuits is the work of my online friend, Clarence. He was writing Can You Hear Me Now? I think he made the change when I bought my new computer and during the changeover I lost the link to his new blog. I thought he had dropped off the planet until I received an email from him. So we're plugged in again.

dorothy's chocolate pie

Dorothy made a chocolate pie. Whenever she makes a pie I can usually wait until it cools before having a piece, but with a chocolate pie I like to have it warm. She holds me off until she thinks the filling is set enough to hold together then down come the barricades and I rush to the kitchen counter. I've eaten chocolate pie from the ovens of different cooks and it's always disappointing. Most people simply use chocolate pudding as the filling and that should be against the law. Dorothy makes hers from scratch using real cocoa powder. So, I cut a slice and with the first bite I saw a vision of Quetzalcoatl descending from Paradise with a cocoa tree under his arm. I saw noble Aztec chieftains take huge draughts from goblet after golden goblet of royal dark xocolatl. I saw deep brown rivers of cocoa flowing from the mountains to the valleys, across the seas and over the prairies to Dorothy's kitchen where she baked it into a pie. I had two slices.

3:10 to yuma

We watched the 2007 version of 3:10 to Yuma last night. Since it was a remake, first we watched the 1957 black and white version starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. The new movie is action packed and visually interesting, but I prefer the old version. The cinematography was just as spectacular in high contrast black and white as it was in color and the walk from the hotel to the train station was intense with suspense compared to the blood and guts in-your-face violence portrayed in the new film. The old film ended with good triumphing over evil but you can't really say that of the new version.

quote of the day

It may be that two souls meet and it is not destined that they are to be together in this world. They touch each other and part. They have other work to do. Yet the meeting can never be forgotten; it is ingrained on the soul itself.

--Reshad Field

Jenna poses

Jenna dressed herself today. Notice the chic inside out and backward shirt. The avant-garde use of a t-shirt for a skirt and the tasteful use of her big sisters shoes as a fashion statement.

a new room

Marley rejoices over her new room. Her dad is putting the bunk bed together.
Her room has a beach theme so her aunt Rachel painted this picture for her.

more birthdays

Jenna blows out both candles on the cake her cousin Sami made for her.

Dorothy gets an assist from Jenna.

It took Burk, Jenna, and Marley to blow the candles off his.

what i'm reading now

This book was first published in 1932. Here is a paragraph from the jacket: "While demonstrating that civilization is growing closer to barbarism as it drifts further away from Christian values, Black Mischief illustrates Waugh's limitless ironic imagination. With a little misguided help from some friends, black Emperor Seth attempts to modernize the kingdom of Azania, off the coast of Africa. The result is homemade currency, a "Birth Control Gala" festival, the rightful ruler's demise at his own rather long and tiring coronation ceremonies, and a good deal more mischief from the wit of one of the the finest practitioners of the art of satiric fiction."

quote of the day

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit, and simply never leave.

--Susan B . Anthony.

rachel's latest painting

Each person sees his own story in a painting. What I see in this one is a person's struggle out of depression as he approaches the crossroad that leads to joy or despair.

a welcome sign

After a sultry summer I'm always glad for the brisk air of autumn. A welcome relief. But the leaves have no sooner dropped from the trees when the bone chilling winter winds begin to blow. At first the cold is exhilirating but as time goes by I begin to yearn for the sound of bird song, the warmth of the sun on my back, and the electric green of springtime. This morning I went outside and there in the middle of a brown patch I found a crocus. That's what I've been looking for! The crocuses tell us that the ground is warming up and the daffodils and tulips are not far behind. It's time to get the tiller ready and the hoe sharpened. I'll be digging in the dirt before long.

Daffodils are sprouting next to this crocus.

movie date

Hunter and his best friend, Mia, are on the way to the movies.

Halle and Marley sit behind Mia and Hunter at the Hanna Montana 3D movie

annie

Marley and her friend Halle attend a production of Annie

valentine quote

Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.

– Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist (1922-2000)

quote of the day

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

-- H.L. Mencken, journalist, satirist (1880-1956)