I noticed a little bird hovering around my sliding glass door, so on a whim I pulled out a hummingbird feeder, mixed up the nectar and hung it up. Sure enough, an Anna's hummingbird started hanging around.

I even got a video of her.
I tried embedding it, but for some reason, it wouldn't work.

I love how she grabs the flower with her feet and just sort of hovers there. Eventually, I'd like to get another feeder, one with a perch. It might make it easier to snap pictures of her.


I was driving around town and happened to glance at the vehicle next to me. I cracked up.


And then, at my destination, I saw this poor car and the dog in the back seat. Before I snapped this, he HAD been laying down with his head resting on the back of the seat. As soon as I put the camera up, though, he started barking.
I only got one shot.
Because I ran.


It's so tough to get pictures of Nigel. He's just so BLACK that all the light just gets sucked into him. I got lucky on this shot. Too bad there's a box in the way. He was rubbing his face on it, as he so loves to do!


Nigel really is a loving cat, although if you ever come to visit, he will run away and hide. If you come often enough, he will MAYBE come out to see what's going on. He has finally decided that he sort of likes my neighbor Kim and my friend Dawn.
He is definitely my little shadow, though! He will follow me all over the house.

And he loves to give me head butts (his head is SOLID) and nose kisses. Every once in awhile, he'll get carried away and nom on my nose. Ow.

Treasures

I went digging around in Dad's Navy box again today.
I found many slides and was dismayed about trying to look at them until I found:


What a neat little gadget! You slip the slide in the slot...


and press down to make it light up!


With my camera on the macro setting, I was able to get shots of some of the slides.

Some of them were labeled. This one said, "Londonderry".


This one was labeled, "The Idiot". Not sure why...



And this one bore the labeling of "Seasick".
I wonder if that's how Dad felt when taking this picture?



"Lantflex"


"The dizzy angle".
Boy, it sure is!!!


"Mountains anyone?"


"Break in a storm"


"Rough seas on USS S. B. Roberts"
Here's the website for the ship! If you click on "about us" 
and then click on "history",
you will see that there were two ships.
The first one sank.
Pretty sure the one in the photo below is DD-823,
seeing as how Dad was 7 years old when the DE-413 sank.

"Water over the side"


"Lantflex"


I looked up "Lantflex" and all I could find was that it was some sort of operation and there were several of them through the 50's and 60's.

Treasures

Recently, I helped my Mom move, and I wound up with a box of treasures from my Dad's time in the Navy.

He is in this picture below. Hint: he's the whitest guy in the group, which is one reason why his nickname was Whitey. I was also called Whitey for a time in grade school, not only because I was the blondest kid in class, but also because there were about 3 or 4 other girls named Heidi.



He was stationed on the USS Courtney and traveled around South America.



Here's a map (from the inside cover of the book above) that shows the destinations and the dates they were there.



Dad hung out with a guy named Spoonamore (I love that name!) and they played chess and whist during their down time.



I love my Dad, but I am so, SO very glad I did not get his ears.



This book shows what goes on during training. Yikes.



I also wound up taking three chess sets home. The other two are just pieces in a box and a paper chess board.



Don't they look CRANKY???



I am so glad this note was in the box.
"Ivory nut
S. America '59"

Update

Wow, life has been downright CRAZY lately.

Relay For Life.


Rehearsal.

Looking for a job.

A hike at Frenchman's Bar with a good friend.

Looking for a job.

A broken bicycle (that got fixed and I suspect started the whole mess about things breaking!).

Looking for a job.

Going on interviews.

Being told you're over qualified.

Two broken cars, one of which is STILL in the shop a week and a half later.

Looking for a job.

Going on more interviews.

Being told you're UNDER qualified.

Bowling with Bozos.

STILL looking for a job.

A broken computer and having to rebuild it into a new case along with a newer hard drive and a fresh XP install.

(Broken computer)

New computer (in theory). Still having issues.

Stop the world, I wanna get off!

Toad's washerwoman outfit

The set and the costumes of Wind in the Willows has provided us with many opportunities to be silly.
The character of Toad has to be dressed in a washer woman's outfit to escape from prison.

Tony- who plays Toad

Matt- who plays the part of Rat

Martin portrays Badger

Evan, who plays the part of Tom Weasel, but is also Toad's understudy.

The limo has also provided us with a bit of fun:

Oh no! Somebody's hit the Assistant Director!

Great, now they got Evan and Michelle.

The two people who designed, built and painted the set, the limo, the train and a few other items to make this whole show fabulous:
Deb and Chris!