What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread) Showing 1,351-1,400 of 8,509

[Jim]

I thought I shared it with everyone, but apparently did it for 'Friends Only'. Try now, Werner. You'll get to see the little red doe with her back hair up. Amber, the JRT, isn't sure what to do with them; play, attack or what. They're a lot bigger than her & different.

[Jim]

Well, I still managed to goof it up. They should be shared out to everyone now, though.

[Werner]

The link works now, Jim. They're as cute as they come; thanks for sharing that! (It brings back memories for me.)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim, since I'm not a member of Facebook, I can't log in to see the pic, but good luck with the new goats.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Am being kept busy with summer visitors. It's been fun.

[Earl]

I got jealous of Jim's pictures and decided to display some of my livestock:
http://mysite.verizon.net/crasso/squi...

These rodents chewed my Corolla to the tune of a $250 repair bill last winter.

[Jim]

LOL! & ouch!!! Squirrels are definitely a pest at times. We finally have one brave enough to come in our front yard for the bird feed, but it's taken 3 years. Our Jack Russell Terrorists love squirrels.
;-)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Wow, Earl, I guess they're not as cute as they look.

[Werner]

Thanks for sharing the photo, Earl! And kudos for just deporting the little offender --after that degree of damage, many judges would have seen fit to impose the death penalty. :-)

A warning to anyone who takes squirrels in or out of cages, though --they can be REALLY nasty. Before I was born, my mother tried to hand-feed a wild one; she wound up needing considerable stitching on her hand. :-(

[Werner]

Barb and I will be leaving in a few minutes for our middle daughter's house. Barb will be helping her take our youngest grandchild to the next county for an all-day major procedure on his teeth, and I'll be helping our son-in-law care for the other three kids (ages 1-4). We both anticipate a long and sometimes stressful day. (For those who are of a praying disposition, your prayers will be appreciated! :-))

[Jim]

May the Force be with you, Werner. 3 munchkins under 4?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Best of luck on your grandchild's dental procedure, Werner.
Hope your day will be a calm one. :)

[Werner]

Thanks, Jim and Joy! Well, we all survived the day, and it wasn't as trying as we'd feared it might be. Interacting with grandkids can actually be very enjoyable --provided they aren't trying to climb the stair banister, or committing mayhem on each other. :-) Today they were pretty well-behaved.

[Jim]

I don't have grandkids yet, so I'm not sure, but I'd think the best thing about them is that you can give them back. With my own kids, the little buggers would wear me down & then I'd have to take them home - insult on top of injury. Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel must make it easier to deal with them.

Well, whatever, I'm glad you had a good day & survived unscathed, Werner. How did the dental work go? All looking good?

[Werner]

Yes, Jim, the dental work went well --Joel had to have four teeth extracted (and of course had to have stitches in his mouth); but they're baby teeth, and he came through in good enough spirits to be climbing on the radiator and trying to play with the light switches within two minutes of getting in the door. :-) (You no doubt recall the "terrible twos.") All of these kids have had a lot of tooth rot from constantly drinking juice in sippy-cups; but I talked to their dad about that today, and he at least sees the light! (Now, we need to work on Deborah. :-))

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Werner, I'm glad to hear that Joel is OK and that all went well for you.

[Jim]

Glad to hear both pieces of news. My step cousins had the same issue with their teeth. Their mother used to let them fall asleep with a bottle of juice in their mouths.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Below are some interesting links about tooth decay and fruit juice:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/692...
http://www.doctorspiller.com/Tooth_De...

There should be more publicity about this problem in order to raise awareness.

[Nina]

My first four; ages four and under never had a sippy cup and somehow I managed to give them liquid at different times during the day. I agree with Joy, there should be some warning signs out there at least from dentists; it would cut into their business, though. Hope my dentist isn't reading this. nina

[Werner]

Thanks for the links, Joy! And Nina, our dentist was an ally of ours in sounding the alarm about this (though she isn't the dentist our grandkids go to, unfortunately :-)).

[Jim]

I uploaded some pictures to Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid...

Or to Picassa here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jimmaclac...#

Marg & I were reading this afternoon when she noticed we had a hawk on our front porch railing. He stayed for several minutes while I snapped pictures through the windows & door lites. Unfortunately, that means both glass & the screen was in the way, so they're a bit washed out. Eventually, he took off & dove into the tree you see behind him to snatch a sparrow for dinner.

There are some other pictures of Pixie playing ball. It's rather difficult to throw the ball & then photograph her, again with my little camera. Still, I got some good shots.

[Jackie]

What a gorgeous bird!
And Pixie looks so cute! I like the last one, with her mouth open. Excellent shot.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Great shots, Jim! Pixie is quite an athlete. :)

I wonder why the hawk came so close to the house.

What kind of bird was that in the bush? What's the blue strip in the background? Looks like a lake.

[Jim]

We had a hawk in the backyard about a month ago, Joy. I think all the birds we have around are attracting them. Each time the hawk has jumped into a tree, flapped around in an amazing way & then hit the ground with a sparrow in its talons. It's very cool to watch.

Jackie, doesn't she just look like she's going to swallow it whole? Silly thing.

Thanks both for the kudos. My little camera fits in my shirt pocket, but is a really good, expensive one given to me by my Uncle Colin who passed away a week ago. It's a Leica C-Lux-2, very nice optics.

[Nina]

Jim, was that your Jack Russell doing those tricks in the back yard? He is a funny one. We once had a red tailed hawk sit on our balcony fence at our condo which was eight stories up. He sat there quite a long time. nina

[Jim]

Nina, Pixie isn't doing tricks, just retrieving a tennis ball. She's a spayed bitch. We wanted to breed her, but it turned out she had a congenital knee problem, so we had her spayed. No sense passing along congenital defects like that. I must say that since the operation, she hasn't had a problem, though.

[Jackie]

Jim,
Yes! She does! I'll bet she's fun to play with.

[Jim]

It's cool out! 61 degrees!!! How odd.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "It's cool out! 61 degrees!!! How odd."

Yes, we're having a cool spell. It's 58 degrees here at 7:20 AM. It's a welcome relief from the heat and humidity.

[Werner]

62 degrees outside here in southwest VA, at close to 8:30 A.M. But I wouldn't expect that to last. Here in the mountains, our temperatures are cool at night, and that persists into the morning; but despite the cooling effect of the recent rains, our temperature was back up to 91 degrees when I got home from work yesterday. :-)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Werner wrote: "62 degrees outside here in southwest VA, at close to 8:30 A.M. But I wouldn't expect that to last. ..."

Let's enjoy it while we can. :)

[Katherine]

A perfect day for track going. At least we had the weather going for us.

Tomorrow is the Rachel Alexander hat give-away. I 'm going with my daughter-in-law to pick up a couple. Here in Saratoga residents who live near the track park cars on their lawns. The nearer the residence, the more expensive it is. Some spots were going for $30 today.
A friend of mine from High School, who lives 3 blocks from the track, lets us park in his yard, saving us $10. I always bring him one of whatever is being given away as a "Thank You". I imagine that he has quite a collection by now.

[Jim]

Zenyatta did it again last night. She's now 18-0 with over $6 million in winnings. It was a great race to watch. We were surprised Mike Smith moved her up so early, but she didn't strain at all, her ears were still forward at the end. ("Gee, this is fun, isn't it?) She had lots of energy left, too. The crowd was so big & loud, they actually stuffed her ears with cotton.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Katherine, that's interesting about the parking in Saratoga.

Jim, I had to look up "Del Mar" at Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Mar_...
I learned that the race track "was built by a partnership including Bing Crosby, the actor Pat O'Brien, Jimmy Durante, Charles S. Howard and Oliver Hardy." Delmar is 20 miles north of San Diego in CA.

Interesting about the meaning of the horse's ears being still forward. Body language. :)
"With her ears straight up, she sprinted to a 1 length victory."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Moss

[Katherine]

There's been some talk about a match between Rachel & Zenyatta. Someone was tossing around a 5 million dollar figure for that one.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Katherine wrote: "There's been some talk about a match between Rachel & Zenyatta. Someone was tossing around a 5 million dollar figure for that one."

Here are some links:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/hors...
"HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - In the boldest move yet to bring Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta together for the first time in a race, Oaklawn Park president Charles Cella announced Thursday that the purse of the April 3 Apple Blossom will be raised to $5 million if both horses start. ... The race will now be called the Apple Blossom Invitational..."

"The Apple Blossom Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run each year in early April during the Racing Festival of the South at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bl...

About Zenyatta:
"She is one of only a few undefeated horses in American Thoroughbred racing history..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenyatta

About Rachel Alexandra: "Rachel Alexandra (foaled January 29, 2006 in Kentucky) is a currently active American Thoroughbred filly racehorse and the 2009 Horse of the Year winner."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_A...

I wonder where the name "Zenyatta" came from.

[Katherine]

The Police,a group about which I know very little, had an album Zenyatta Mondatta. The owner of A&M Records owns the horse and named her after that recording.
Isn't Wikipedia wonderful?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Katherine wrote: "The Police,a group about which I know very little, had an album Zenyatta Mondatta. The owner of A&M Records owns the horse and named her after that recording.
Isn't Wikipedia wonderful?"

Thanks, Katherine. I followed the Wiki trail and found the following about the Zenyattà Mondatta album, "the third album by The Police, released in 1980":
"Zenyattà Mondatta are invented portmanteau words, hinting at Zen, at Jomo Kenyatta, at the French word for the world ("le monde") and at Reggatta, from the previous album's name, Reggatta de Blanc."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenyatta...

Also from Wiki:
Jomo Kenyatta (1894–1978) served as the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation.
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Ken...

Yes, Wiki is wonderful. :)

[Jim]

Zenyatta & Rachel Alexander have two completely different running styles, so it would be interesting to watch. Zenyatta is a late runner, coming from way behind, while Rachel is a front runner. She usually takes the lead & keeps it. In shorter races, she will have an edge, but the opposite is true in longer races. 9 furlongs (1-1/16 mile) is a good middle ground & happens to be the length that Zenyatta won at yesterday at Delmar.

The track will have a lot to do with it, too. Both have done well on both dirt & artificial tracks, but if the track is deep, that usually gives the late runners an advantage. As good as they've gotten at floating dirt tracks though, they tend not to get as deep as they used to.

Well, I'll certainly watch it!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim, what makes a track "deep"?

[Jim]

Water. 'Deep' refers to how far their hooves sink in. A fast track is one that is dry, their hooves don't sink in at all. Lots of rain means a deep track, where they can sink in several inches. Lately, they've gotten very good at floating dirt tracks which creates a barrier to the water settling in deeper.

It's like when you're finishing concrete & float it. You drag a float across it which raises the water to the top & creates a hardened barrier of aggregate just below it. New rain hits & runs off without going deeper into the ground.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim, thanks for the explanation.

[Werner]

Barb and I will be leaving shortly for another week up in the Fulks Run area, visiting her side of the family (our last vacation for the summer). While I'm offline, I'll miss all you folks; but I wish you a great week (and lots of enjoyable reading) in the meantime!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for the wishes, Werner. Enjoy your vacation. Have a good time!

[Jim]

Well, yesterday I took Munchkin in to the vet for the final time. He was 19, 18July1991 to 14August2010, a very respectable age for a dog. He had a good life & sent many varmints (coons, possum, groundhogs & such) ahead of him. His favorite food was a nest of baby bunnies which he used to swallow whole so he could eat as many as possible before Marg called him off. He managed one of those last year.

He was our middle child's dog, Brandon, who used to show him in a variety of classes. One time, Munchkin was dressed up as a parrot to complete Brandon's pirate, in a costume class. He actually managed to sit on Brandon's shoulder pretty well.

But for all the time that Brandon spent with him, he thought he belonged to Marg & pined, quite loudly, when she was gone. I would do in a pinch, but only if it was clear Marg wasn't available. He was Marg's shadow for all those years. I'm not sure she's tripped over any dog more often. He was constantly at her heels, but we'll all miss him. Erin never knew a time when we didn't have him since she's only 20.

[Jackie]

Oh Jim, I'm so sorry for you loss. Munchkin lived a good life and there's a comfort in knowing you were good masters. RIP Munchkin!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim, it's always so hard to say goodbye to a beloved pet. My condolences to all.

[Werner]

Jim, I join in what Jackie and Joy said! (Our family has also lost beloved pets at times, so I understand.)

[Jim]

Thanks all. Yes, he had quite a good run.

[Nina]

Jim,you probably know from experience that eventually the sorrow over a "lost" pet fades but never the memory of the love you shared with him/her.In the autumn of the year I still see my Irish running and how hard it was to distinguish her red coat from the brillant fall colors. That is when I miss her the most. love nina