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

Cheese in defense of freedom is no vice

 

 

Memo

Sent from my Palm Pilot

Mice and Mystics

I’m still obsessing over board games.  It’s pretty bad, in a distracted, non-productive way.  And by bad, I mean I even enjoy reading board game reviews, rules discussions, people’s top ten lists, that sort of thing.  I don’t get much chance to play, partly because I just have too many hobbies and interests.  When I have time to play, it’s mostly with close family (wife and daughters), who aren’t generally “into” the sorts of long-playing strategy games that I am most interested in, though I appreciate and enjoy lots of other types of games, too.

On the Fourth of July we met up with some friends and played some games; the most involving was simply blackjack, played with poker chips, which was a nice hanging-around-and-chatting game.  We also went through some trivia cards.  Although they are not my favorite genre of games, this sort of thing makes me want some more party games to play with family and friends at get-togethers.  I recently read about a “werewolf” style game called “Resistance” that sounds great; I’d also love to try “Cash ‘n Guns,” although the cost for that game is very high, perhaps because it no longer in production. (Another problem with that game is that it centers around everyone pointing foam guns at one another, which might be excessively violent for certain people’s tastes within certain contexts, but among my adult friends I think it would be great.)

Over the past few days I finally managed to get my board game fix by playing Mice and Mystics with Erin.  I bought a copy a couple of months ago and had not had a chance to play it, but when I asked last week she jumped in.

The game is fairly simple as far as its basic rules, but is given a pleasant complexity by the players’ ability to make a wide range of decisions, the variability of the game board, and the long-term nature of the game’s story line.  If players choose, it is a heavily story-based game, proceeding through “chapters” that tell a story in which the players are humans who have been turned into mice and must accomplish missions to thwart the plans of an evil sorceress.  Gameplay involves moving one’s mouse figures across castle room tiles and defeating enemy rats, roaches, and other critters in combat.

After some though, I picked up the game based on: 1) Many reviewers said their children really enjoyed it; 2) Lots of adults really enjoyed it; 3) it has simple elements of strategy and combat tactics, appealing to the miniatures gamer in me; 4) the game components and artwork look appealing and well-designed.

I was a little worried that my immediate family would be turned off by a game in which the heroes ran around killing rats with swords, since we are such a pet-rat-heavy family, but thankfully the game rules and story line are not explicit when it comes to the bloodshed.  You can interpret “defeating” your enemies however you want.  If a mouse-player is defeated, he or she is captured, not killed.

Erin and I finished the first chapter last night, and she seemed to really enjoy it. Jill jumped in a played a little, too, and was interested on-and-off in the proceedings.  It went well, we won the chapter, and Erin said she wanted to keep playing to see what happens next, so I am very happy!

I’d love to pick up another game sometime soon, but it’s hard to decide what.  I think Ticket to Ride will probably be next, since it’s high on so many people’s top ten lists of family games AND games every gamer should own AND “gateway” games that would be enjoyed by non-gamers.  I even just heard one game reviewer call it one of the very few games that he would call “flawless.”

Sometimes terrible photos have a charm all their own. In my opinion, anyway.

Independence Day

 

 July 4: Rained all day. Went to parents' house with lots of family; great homemade ice cream and birthday cake; great brats, hot dogs, and vegetables; fun drawing contest; fun visit; went to friends in the evening, played games and talked; did sparklers after dark when rain let up.

 

July 5: Attended Old Fashioned Fourth of July celebration at Peterson-Dumesnil House in Crescent Hill. Rain threatened the whole time; ate ice cream; listened to live music; looked at art & craft booths; accidentally met up with some friends; our girls and their girls danced and played; watched fireworks while it sprinkled; heavier rain didn't start until drive home, late.

 

All-around success.

 

Painting gladioluses

I’m working on a commission that I’ve decided to do primarily with acrylics.  I’ve used acrylics for many purposes, and use them frequently, but I actually haven’t attempted many complete “works of art” with acrylics alone.

This is not a photo of the commission work, but rather a smaller painting that I’m working on alongside of it, only in acrylic.  A couple of years ago I did an acrylic landscape that I was not satisfied with; this will be only my second full acrylic painting (not counting murals) since, oh, probably 1987.

This is also my first flower painting since 1987. Ironically, the last floral I painted was also the first full painting I had ever done with oil paints.  I don’t normally go in much for flower paintings, but I love the glads that bloom in our yard each year and have sort of wanted to paint them.  Also, I hear they are popular, and I’d like to have another painting to display at the art fair later this month. (That’s another reason I chose acrylic: oils would never dry in time for the art fair.)

Seven-year-old's art

...She had this listed under "Invention's," but I think I  would file it under "What the hell?"