twistee ties

What do you do with those pesky little twist ties on the bread bags? Throw them away? Seems like there must be a use for them some way. It seems a shame to discard them.

My mother was very thrifty. Everything got used. Left over mixed vegetables from supper? Yep, we got them the next night in the form of a soup. Need a storage container. Yep, an old cleaned out mayonnaise jar worked just fine. I asked my mom once why she was so thrifty. She told me that after having gone through the depression and going hungry, that she was always afraid that those bad days might return some day and so she didn't want to waste anything just in case. Well, we don't waste those twist ties. We straighten them out and put them into a couple of ceramic owl toothpick holders.

We put them to use for all sorts of things. I especially like to use them for bundling excess wire together like this computer cable that hooks my digital camera to my computer.

We don't accumulate a whole lot of these ties because we are always using them. So tell me, what use do you make of these twist ties? Just click on the comment button and type away. Have a good day. Lew

sunrise

What a magnificent sunrise. The blue colors of the sky contrast nicely with the bright white of the clouds. This is one of those “in the right spot at the right time” type of pictures.

Five minutes sooner or 5 minutes later and this display in the morning sky would not be this spectacular. A fine example of mother nature and her colorful palette at work. Can you see the thin white streak towards the upper right of the picture? Look close because it is very faint. Try clicking on the picture to enlarge it. It is the contrail of a plane. As I watched, the contrail went from right to left. Orlando International Airport is to the right. This must be a planeload of people returning home after a weeks vacation at Disney World. Not only do they have their clothes packed in their suitcases but lots of souvenirs from Tinker Bell’s toy shop in Magic Kingdom as well. And maybe even a pirates hat and a rubber cutlass from the gift shop at Pirates of the Caribbean. You know, once you have visited Disney you keep coming back. Such a truly magical place where all your cares just disappear. Maybe, just maybe, some day the contrail of the plane will be going from left to right bringing you to the Orlando airport for your own magical adventure at Disney. And no, I am not selling tickets or vacation packets for Disney, just a big fan of Disney. Take care and have a fun filled magical day wherever you may be. Lew

the day after

Today is the day after, the day after my birthday that is. These are the presents that I got. Lots of neat stuff. The cake was a chocolate carvel ice cream cake. There was a layer of Oreo cookie crumbs in the middle of the cake. The Oreo cookie crumbs is the darker layer.

These are the multitude of presents that Mary got me.

A new green polo shirt and a set of high tonal quality headphones. Plus a photo editing program for doing all kinds of neat things with pictures. And a couple of Meat Loaf CD's. All-in-all it was a pretty good haul. We are going to go on a dinner cruise on the boat Rivership Romance which cruises the St. Johns river near Orlando (actually Sanford).

It is a three hour cruise and they serve these fantastic gourmet meals. They even serve all-you-can-eat appetizers before the meal at an appetizer buffet.

This is the beef dish that Mary and I are going to have. Look good?

They also have chicken dishes, and pork dishes, as well as vegetarian dishes. All gourmet and all served very elegantly. We are looking forward to it. How much does it cost? Well, for me it is free. They sent me an email giving me a free cruise and meal with no strings attached for my birthday. For Mary it will cost $38. So in essence it is $38 for the two of us which is a pretty good deal.

I also got a nice medal from Villager and Seaside. The medal has an image of a buffalo on it.

Time to go. Have a nice day and if you live in Florida, try to stay dry with all of the rain that we have been having. Hey, if you don't like rain, go to Arizona, but then you won't have the magnificent ocean or Disney and all the other attractions. Take care and be good. Lew

life is a struggle

I saw this vine on a tree in the front yard and thought to myself what a struggle it must be for the vine to grow. First of all it has to pull itself up the tree. The end of the vine keeps reaching ever higher.

It's interesting how the end of the vine is red while the rest of it is green. But now for the real point of the blog. This vine is not growing out of the ground. There is a small depression where the trunk splits which has some old leaves in it. The vine must be getting enough nourishment because the leaves look quite healthy.

Can you see the leaves in the bottom of the depression? Plus I see something else starting to sprout. What is the tin cup for? I put water in it for the squirrels. But first I have to clean the leaves out. Maybe I will throw the leaves down in the depression for nutrients for the vine. I guess that the vines elsewhere in the yard that are growing in dirt don't realize how lucky they have it.

Today is haircut day. I didn't like getting haircuts as a child and I still don't like getting one today. And now matter how tight they wrap the drape around my neck, tiny little hairs still get down my shirt and make me itch. So I usually have to take a shower as soon as I get home to get rid of those pesky little hairs that itch so much.

Tomorrow we are going to the movies to see Piranha in 3D. It should be exciting. When I worked at Disney in the Tree of Life I always enjoyed working in the theater insidde the tree which showed the 3D movie It's Tough to be a Bug.

It was a great movie also. And the 3D effects were spectacular. I am hoping for spectacular 3D effects in the movie Piranha that we will see tomorrow.

This is a lapel pin which I always liked from the show. It is a reminder of the good times of working at Disney. And in conclusion, as we use to say at Disney "Have a magical day. Lew

the white stallion

This is Mary's latest painting. She works so hard on these paintings and the woman-hours that she puts in creating her paintings is staggering. Today was spent at an indoor flea market. It was so incredibly hot. We were there for about two hours and by the end of the two hours my shirt was damp with perspiration. I don't know how the sellers manage to stay in those hot buildings all day. And it was crowded which probably made it even hotter. We bought a number of small items. One of the main things that we were looking for was a night lite. We wanted one with an on/off switch. The switch on the old nightlight went bad. The only kind that I could find at Wal-Mart had a light sensing eye and automatically turned the light on when the room got dark. Unfortunately the light didn't glow that brightly at night and didn't go out completely during the daytime. What luck, we eventually found a night light with a switch and it was only one dollar so we got two of them. Lunch was at Burger King. They now have soft serve ice cream in cones and also as sundaes. I had the sundae with chocolate syrup poured over the vanilla ice cream and Mary had caramel as the topping on hers. We returned home to the air conditioned house and stayed cool for the rest of the day. Have a nice day and wherever you are, try and stay as cool as possible. Lew

circadia

I believe that this is a circadian outer covering that has been shed. I remember finding these when I was young and always found them fascinating because they preserved so much detail of the insect that had once been inside. I was out walking in the front yard and noticed it on the under-side of the squirrel feeder/platform on the tree.

Can you see it circled in yellow. During the heat of the day when I was young there would be these loud buzzing insect noises which was suppose to be made by these circadia's. I don't know if that is true but that is what I was told.

Well, the weather is hot and humid here in Orlando and I am listening for the circadia's. Some people called them locusts which I think is a misnomer because a locust is a grasshopper as I understand it. But our little chihuahua dog duke can attest to the heat.

He likes to go outside with me. But after about 10 minutes he starts hanging around the door to go back in. The heat just gets to him. Just look at the expression on the dog's face. It says it all.

Being that chihuahua's are from Mexico I would think that he would like the heat. Especially being a short-hair dog. But I guess that he has gotten use to the good life of being in a climate controlled house; not too hot, not too cold, not too humid. The heat just seems to sap the energy out of him which it does to me also. When he has had enough of the heat and starts hanging around the door, I let him back into the air conditioned comfort of the house. Plus he has a real soft doggie bed to lay in.

Doesn't this chihuahua look "cool" in his Rae Mysterio wrestling outfit? Rae Mysterio is a wrestler from Mexico and wears masks like the one on the chihuahua. A cute picture.

Have a comfortably cool day and for those of us in Florida remember that September is the peak of the hurricane season. Let's hope for the best. Lew

religious quest

This morning Mary and I went on a mission, to find a gold Scapular medal. My current Scapular medal is gold on top of silver. But as you can see in the picture above, the gold is coming off exposing the silver beneath which is corroding.

I decided to try the Basilica of the Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. Boy, that sure is a long name. They have a huge gift shop and so I was hopeful of being able to find the gold scapular medal that I wanted. I wanted one just like the one that I have but in solid gold because this particular style of the scapular medal is what I had when I was younger but in silver. So out of nostalgia, I am holding out for the scapular medal that I want. The price of the gold religious medals have gone right through the ceiling. I figure that if we are going to spend that much money, then I want the one that I really want and not settle for a second choice. The picture below is Mary standing in front of the gift shop. Just look at the size of the building.

Mary and I looked and looked because thewere a lot of religious medals to look at. We had bought my current Scapular medal from this gift shop. We had no luck in our search. We asked a sales clerk for assistance and they couldn't find what I wanted either. I mentioned to the sales clerk that I might try The Abbey which is a Catholic gift shop/book store in Orlando. This is where I got Mary's Scapular medal which is solid gold and I had to special order it. I figured that they could order one for me of the style of Scapular medal that I liked. I was stunned when the sales clerk told me that The Abbey had closed in December. As you can see by the picture below, it was a cute little place with the little Friar Tuck painted on the wall beside the door.

I was running out of ideas. I asked the sales clerk if they could special order one in for me. She told me that they didn't like doing that. I told the sales clerk that we would pay for it in advance. She suggested that I call on Monday and ask for the girl who does the ordering for the gift shop. I feel like I am on a quest of sorts. On Monday I am going to call and hopefully they will be able to help me. Wish me luck. Lew

bumps

This is a southern oak tree in a park called Lake Eola Park here in Orlando. I noticed a pipe going up the side of the tree. The bumps on the tree surrounding the pipe caught my attention.

At the base of the tree the pipe went into a box that looked like an electrical junction box. So I assume that the pipe must have been a conduit for an electrical line.

Notice how the tree completely surrounded the pipe. And it only surrounded the pipe at two spots.

What could have caused this? I wonder if they cut some tree limbs for placement of the pipe and then the tree grew the bump much as we grow a scar over a cut. It is really curious. The pipe just seems to end. Puzzling.

Notice all of the black spots on the tree. Woodpecker holes looking for insects. You would think that a woodpecker would get a terrible headache from banging his head against a tree all day. I think that if I were a woodpecker that I would fly down to the ground and join the pigeons in eating popcorn that the people throw.

See the date palms in the background? Nothing like living in paradise. Enjoy. Lew