Necromancing with the stars

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular

Pumpkin number three from me.

Cross country course prep team on the go

I finally got to play Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures when I met up with Pat and Ed last weekend. I had been wanting to play for almost a year, finally got the game in recent months, and finally had the time to break it out.  Pictured are the three ships in the core set, but I have others for bigger battles.

We played on one of the tables at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble.  The table was a little smaller than the recommended 36” x 36” field, but it worked out fine and did not feel cramped (except on the second table where we kept all the game pieces; that was crowded.)  After my X-wing took out the TIE that Ed was in charge of, we decided to throw in some reinforcements and brought in two TIE interceptors and an A-wing to mix it up a little.

We were still getting the feel for the rules, so it was a pretty easy-going affair, and I had a very good time. I am eager to play more.

Pen and ink house portrait progress

 

 Another progress photo. I think this is coming along quite well, and hope to have it completed in the next few days.

 

A note: I am having trouble getting this image to display horizontally.  If this picture is up on its end, then you know I didn't figure it out and gave up trying.

Rumble Through The Jungle photo 2

Rumble Through The Jungle cross country run

I like the panorama mode stitch twin blondes in the middle.

A Mushroom in the Compost

Actually, there are a bunch of them. I think they sprung from the timothy hay dumped out from the rabbit cage. They are sorta cute.

Argiope

I had to move slowly because she is skittish, and try various tricks to get my phone camera to focus, but with a little effort I took a decent picture of the black and yellow garden spider gracing the front of our house.

Anchorage

I noticed today while driving through Anchorage that they are re-doing some of the sidewalks.  Along Lagrange Road, there is a stretch of a couple hundred yards where the sidewalk has been dug up, and low mounds of dirt are hilled up.  It caught my eye because it seems like an interesting place to metal detect.  Since it is right along the road, there would be lots of trash there; but they also dug sort of deep, maybe 8-12 inches, so there is probably some old stuff exposed.  That's an old neighboorhood, more than a century, and the school is close by, so plenty of kids probably have walked along there over the years...  Unfortunately, I am not able to go out detecting right now. 

 

Cheese & Crackers

 

 

There have been a number of times in my life that someone has asked me what I am having for lunch, and I have responded, "Cheese and crackers," and they have expressed concern that I am not eating enough. 

 

"What else are you having?" he or she would ask.

 

"Just cheese crackers," I say.

 

"How can you eat only cheese crackers?"

 

"What do you mean?"

 

And they would elaborate a bit: "Well, cheese crackers just don't seem filling enough."

 

This never makes any sense to me.  I tell them that if four cheese crackers aren't filling enough, I eat eight.  If eight aren't filling enough, I eat twelve.  Shoot, I bet there are times I've even eaten more than sixteen.  What is their problem?  They don't mention the nutritional content, just their belief that cheese crackers (or peanut butter crackers) aren't "filling enough."  Anything is filling if you eat enough of it.

 

If I had a quarter for every conversation I've had similar to this, I bet I'd have enough to buy a pack of Kraft singles.

High tee

Get a load of this ski slope that becomes part of the golf course in the summer. That's teeing off from a high position. I was told the opposite is true on the back of this protrusion, Mt. Brighton.

Natural History Museum at the University of Michigan

I could have spent all day in this one room...tons to look at and read. However, with hungry and slightly bored children, and a mild hunger- and allergy-related headache of my own, we took in a quick overview and headed off for other activities and pizza.

Silver Lake was almost all ours

Wading at sunset

Gold and silver light, enthusiasm, a leech on Jill's leg. Fun!

Canoeing on the Huron River

Paddling up the Huron River

Nesting swans

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Big Portage Lake