The Undertaker

No, not a funeral director type of undertaker but the super star Undertaker of wrestling fame.   This is a painting that Mary painted and I think that it came out pretty good.  I like all of the blue colors, they make it look like a mausoleum or large crypt.   Kind of spooky isn't it?   All wrestling fans seem to like The Undertaker who has had a long career in wrestling.   What do you wrestling fans out there think of it?   Mary worked very hard on it.   She is a wrestling fan also and The Undertaker is her favorite wreastler.   What do you wrestling fans think of the Undertaker as a wrestler?   Is he one of your favorites?   Leave a comment.   Lew

Resurrection

This is the case of the disappearing Resurrection Fern.   I spotted one growing on the camphor tree in the backyard.   The Resurrection Fern dries up during periods of drought and then comes to life when the rainy season comes.   We are in the middle of our rainy season here in Florida and so this small fern was doing quite nicely a month ago.

Can you spot it?   Here is a little help.

I took a look at the tree yesterday to see how the fern was doing.   We are in the peak of our rainy season and so I expected it to be doing quite well.  As you can see and to my great disappointment it is gone.   Not dried up, just gone.   

I can only try to guess at what might have happened.   I have seen the cats climbing in this tree and thinking that they might have accidentally knocked it loose, I checked the ground around the base of the tree.   No luck.   So maybe I will have to go on the hunt in the local parks to find a replacement Resurrection Fern.   Have a nice day if it isn't raining where you are at.   And if it is raining then just stay in the house and surf the internet and make comments on blogs like mine.    Be good.    Lew

just too big

When Tammy the cat was young she use to like to lay on top of my scanner when I was on the computer.   She was small and so she had room to spare.   As you can see I would even put small towels on top of the scanner to make a soft bed for her.    She was very affectionate.   She would even lay her head on my computer table and go to sleep.

She still wants to be with Mary and I when we are on our computers, but now she lays on my printer/scanner.    But she has grown up quite a bit and now she seems to hang off the edges of the printer a little bit.

She keeps changing her sleeping spots about every 3 weeks.   Her latest spot is sleeping on top of a hassock in the living room.

But she still has that problem of being too big for even the hassock.   Parts of her keep hanging over the edge.

Plus she tosses and turns and just can't quite seem to get comfortable.   But still she keeps coming back to the hassock each night.

You have to admit that she does have a lot of persistence and determination.   And it also helps to be limber.  

Here in Orlando the temperature is suppose top get up to 91 degrees.   Of course, 91 degrees is the outside temperature.   It is much cooler inside the house and the movie theater and the shopping malls and.........!   You get the idea.    However, I am looking forward to the cooler weather of fall.   Take care and have a good life.    Lew   

mule deer

This is Mary's latest painting which is of a mule deer.   I lived in Arizona at one time and we had mule deer there.    That is a snow covered mesa to the right of the mule deer.   Mesa's are also found in Arizona.   I use to like to climb up them because when I got to the top it was flat level walking.   There was one called Table Top Mesa that I use to climb up.    The name was quite appropriate because it was as level as a table-top on top.   Mary worked hard on this picture because it has so much detail to it.   It looks as if I could almost step into the picture.   Why don't I paint a picture?   I am left-brain dominant and therefore not artistic at all.   I once tried a paint-by-number painting of a horse's head as a child.   It came out absolutely awful and I was totally frustrated.   The only good part was that the painting made a terrific frisbee and I had a lot of fun with the painting that way.   If you had seen it, you would have used it as a frisbee also, it was that bad.   And so Mary does the painting for which she has a talent.    Have a pleasant day as we get ready to move into the fall season which has Halloween and Thanksgiving.   You just can't lose with those two holidays:  lots of candy on Halloween and lots of turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving.   And don't forget all of the sales in stores on the day after Thanksgiving.   Enjoy yourself and be happy.    Lew

the blueberry pie

Mary and I went to the grocery store and Mary saw some "bakery fresh" pies and the sign said that they were blueberry pies so Mary got one.   I mean, blueberry pies are really good.   Mary showed it to me and I was happy that she had gotten a blueberry pie.   I just don't seem to see blueberry pies that often in the "fresh baked" bakery pies.    When we got home and I was taking the groceries out of the grocery bags I noticed that the blueberry pie was really a strawberry-rhubarb pie.

Mary had showed me the pie in the grocery store and I had missed seeing the strawberry-rhubarb label.   I have tried strawberry-rhubarb pie in my lifetime but I can count the number of times on one hand and have plenty of fingers left over.   Rhubarb always reminded me of a sour and bitter celery.   We both went from elation over the blueberry pie to disappointment with it being a strawberry-rhubarb pie.   Now it has always been my understanding that the ingredients listed on food items has the ingredients with the greatest amount first.

Now it sure looks to me as though there is more rhubarb in the strawberry-rhubarb pie than strawberries.   So why label the pie as a strawberry-rhubarb pie?   Shouldn't it be labeled as rhubarb-strawberry pie?   With all that rhubarb in the pie how can they make it palatable?

After supper we cut the pie with much trepidation.   Yes, trepidation and not trepanation.  I need trepanation about as much as I need a hole in the head.   Just a little pun for those in the medical field.

And to our surprise when we cut the pie that it was a blueberry pie after all.   Evidently the box had been mislabeled.   And the blueberry pie was very good and I enjoyed it immensely.   I had mentally prepared myself for a rhubarb-strawberry pie.   What a sway in emotions.   First happy that we were buying a blueberry pie, then disappointment on discovering that it was a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and then once again happy to discover that it was really a fine tasting blueberry pie.   What an adventure in pies this mix-up has been.   All I can say is for everyone to go out and get a blueberry pie and eat it slowly savoring every bite.   Oh yeah, don't forget to double-check the label.    Lew

a shot in the butt

This is Charlotte who I thought was going to die.   She was weak , skinny, not eating or drinking.   When I picked her up to take her to the veterinarian she was draped over my hand like a limp dish rag.   The vet gives her a shot in the butt of some antibiotics and some oral antibiotics for me to take home with me to give her.   The results were absolutely amazing because within 24 hours she was chowing down and eating everything in sight.    Within 48 hours she was running around and playing with her sisters.    The vet worked a miracle with her.   As you can see she is now healthy and is still eating everything in sight.   She is the first to eat and the last to finish eating.    And then goes back for seconds and thirds.   Then her sister Polly gets sick and becomes lethargic and not wanting to eat.   She had an absolutely terrible eye infection.

So off to the vet I go once more.  He says that some cat hooked her next to the eye with a claw and now she has an eye infection.   And you guessed it, the vet gives her one of those miracle antibiotic shots in the butt.   And just like with Polly, within 24 hours she is doing wonderfully.   She is running around now, playing, eating and back to her old self.   Yeah, the vet sent me home with some liquid antibiotics which I put into her food.   I don't know what is in that shot in the butt that the vet gives to the cats but it is absolutely miraculous.     Have a nice evening.    Lew

California Whopper

Has anyone tried the new California Whopper yet?   I have just learned of it being offered here in Orlando.   I am curious as to how guacamole sauce will taste on a hamburger.   Mary and I are going to stop by a Burger King for lunch today to try one of these California Whoppers.    This is how they are suppose to look.

But I am enough of a realist to realize that it will probably look like this.

But I will be happy if it does look like this.   After all, the taste is the important part.   And if I shouldn't care for the taste, what then?   Well, that is what they made ketchup for.   One of my favorite expressions is that with enough ketchup I can make anything taste good.   Yeah, I am one of those ketchup fanatics.    Much to the chagrin of Mary, I drown everything in ketchup.   Yeah, I prefer those fast food restaurants that have a ketchup pump rather than the little individual sealed packets of ketchup.   It takes me a long time to tear open 8 or 9 of those little sealed packets of ketchup.  I can do the same thing in a matter of seconds with three long pumps of the ketchup dispenser.   If anyone has tried the California Whopper, I would be interested in hearing what you thought of it.     Have a great day.    Lew

space shuttle tiles

I was visiting the Kennedy Space Center and prior to leaving I visited the gift shop.   I was looking at all of their various post cards when I happen to see my nephew Pete on a post card putting tiles on the space shuttle Columbia.   I bought a couple dozen of them and called my nephew to tell him the news of his fame.   He told me that he remembered someone coming around and taking pictures one day but he hadn't paid much attention to it.   I sent him most of the cards, kept some for myself, and sent some to his father who is my brother.    I always find the Kennedy Space Center an exciting place to visit.   And I still watch the rocket launches on television and then run outside to see the smoke trail from the rocket in the sky.   As I say, Central Florida is an exciting place to live.   Have a terrific day wherever you may live.    Lew



the bunny box

This is Roebling, affectionately known as the Brooklyn Bunny.   There is a webcam site for the Brooklyn Bunny which I like.   You can visit the website also by doing an internet search for the Brooklyn Bunny.   It looks as though the Brooklyn Bunny is leading the good life.   We liked the idea of the cardboard box with the holes cut into it for the rabbit to explore.   Mary made a similar cardboard box for our bunny Benny.













Tammy the cat gets along real well with the rabbit.   Here she checks out the box to see if the rabbit is in there.

But no luck.   The bunny is somewhere else at the moment so she decides to sit and wait for Benny to come along.

But as she sits and sits and waits and waits, there is no sign of her buddy.   So where is Benny?   Benny is in the outdoor cage playing with the outdoor cat Betty.

Benny the rabbit has an interesting life because there is a variety of things for him to do.   Plus he gets to run around the house in the afternoons and evenings, and he likes playing with the cat.   Well, that is my blog for today and I hope that you enjoyed it.    Lew

square peg in a round hole

 How do you get a square peg into a round hole?   I don't know the answer to that age-old question.   But I do know how to get a large cat into a small space.

The cat just scrunches herself up into a round ball and squeezes into the square corner.   Sort of a round peg in a square hole.   Every few weeks the cat chooses a different place to sleep.   At one time it was the couch and another time it was a window ledge.   Now she sleeps each night in this tiny square space.   It looks as though she would be uncomfortable but she keeps coming back to that spot.   I am not worried because in another week or two she will select another spot to sleep.

     Tomorrow is Saturday and hopefully the moon rocker will launch from the Kennedy Space Center.   I like to run outside and watch it go up in the sky with its fiery exhaust and a long white trail of smoke.   If you don't live in Florida be sure to watch the launch live on television.   Have a great week-end.   Lew

mysterious crop circles?

 

Well, not exactly mysterious crop circles but rather mysterious ant circles.   I am use to ant hills being cones shaped with a single entrance in the middle for the ants to come and go.   But this is a perfect circle.



If you look around the perimeter of the circle you can see numerous openings for the ants to come and go.   Just kind of a strange thing.   I have never seen this circle formation for an ant mound before.   Could these ants be from an extraterrestial world?   Hmmmmm.   Let me take another look at that picture and think about that.   LOL.   Lew

resurrection fern?

 
 This is a camphor tree in the backyard.   It smells like a cough drop.   Really!   That is Mary behind the tree working in what I call her plant ICU (Intensive Care Unit).   This is where she gives extra special attention to plants that aren't doing too well until they recover.

 There are all kinds of things growing on the tree, like mosses and a bunch of other stuff that I don't know what they are.   Like this weird thing.   It looks like something that a sasquatch might eat.

But as I looked closer at this stuff growing on the tree I spotted what might be a resurrection fern growing.   It just might be what I have been looking for.   But I am not sure.

Can you see it?   No?   Here is a close-up of it.   What do you think?    Is it a resurrection fern?   I am not real sure.

Please make a comment if you know what it is.   Thanks.    Lew

Tammy's in Love

 

Tammy has a boyfriend and his name is Oscar.    I don't know where he lives or where he comes from.   He wanders into the yard and works his way into the garage at feeding times to get a free meal.   Tammy has been smitten by him and appears to be in love.   Whenever he is in the yard she goes to him and lies down near him.   I am glad that she has found a friend because the feral cats were driving her crazy.   She likes Oscar but not the feral cats.   Of course the feral cats are all female.   I am not sure if Oscar has the same feelings for her because when they are together, he has been known to fall asleep.  

Poor Tammy, she finally meets a guy that she is interested in and he falls asleep.

She finally catches me taking pictures from the window.   Can't a cat get any privacy around here!

I am happy for her.   Everyone needs someone in their life.   I think that she has a friend for life (at least as long as I keep putting yummy cat food in the garage).   Have a great day and live life to it's fullest.     Lew

toadstools

August in Florida.   Hot, hot, and humid.   In fact lots of humidity.   Every afternoon we get the heavy monsoon-type tropical downpours.   And with all of that water each day, we are getting a bumper crop of toadstools.  

This particular variety is quite large.   And they just seem to pop-up overnight.

Just look at how funny they look on the underside.   Almost lacey.

It happens each time that we get the heavy rains.   The toadstools start popping up all over the place overnight.   And different varieties of toadstools as well.   Take care and have a grand day of fun.    Lew