Science center socks!

Robert Moses

Long Island beach after big storm. Waves are breaking farther out than normal since the waves have dragged the sand out to sea.

NYC

Transportation: $40
MoMA tix: $40
Lunch at MoMA Cafe on 5: $53.27
MoMA bookstore: $101.54
Dinner at Maxie's: $52.64
A day out with Nathan in NYC: PRICELESS!

Seriously....how overdone is that phraseology? LOL But it definitely applied yesterday.

We took the LIRR from Babylon to Penn Station yesterday morning, along with 1000's of St. Pat's revelers on their way to the parade. I'd said that the only day I didn't want to go into the city was St. Pat's, but that was the best day for the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). As soon as we got to Penn Station, we saw a couple of guys puking their guts out! Remember, it's not even 11 am yet! There were lots of people with beer on the train.

The museum itself hadn't changed much since last time we were there, but the special exhibit itself was pretty crowded. We really enjoyed seeing his sketches and several items from the Disney archives and various movies-costumes, Jack Skellington heads (which we'd seen at DisneyWorld), maquettes, etc.

Lunch at MoMA consisted of a small thai noodle salad, three 1/2 hard boiled eggs with American caviar and prosciutto ham, flatbread with ricotta, a coke, and iced tea....all for the princely sum of $53.27! Welcome to New York City! LOL. Needless to say, we were still hungry!

After shopping the bookstore and picking up the exhibit catalog and some postcards, we walked back towards the station. We had eaten at Maxie's Deli (7th Ave and 48th St) before, so thought we'd stop there again. Two pastrami sandwiches, fries, coffee drink, and a "local" beer-Brooklyn Lager!-was pretty pricey. Not surprising since we'd done the city several times before.

We had an eventful ride home, except for the woman sitting next to me and the dimbulb girl across the aisle. The woman next to me picked her nose the whole trip!! Ewwww-what are you? 3? And the girl across the aisle yammered on her cell the entire time. I was reminded of Cybil Faulty and her "oh I know" on the phone.

Like I said, it was a great day with Nathan, and worth the blister on my heel! :D

Flatfeet KAL

Little shell

Buhbye

Sad to see my Saturn dealer go away...

Oh duh....I've just been informed that Jesus uses a Mac since Bill Gates is the Antichrist.
Dang-what was I thinking? :P

I'm in a Bible study with mostly fundamentalist conservatives. It's supposed to be non denominational, but they still tend to go off track at times. (I won't really go into the specifics right now, suffice it to say that it's very frustrating for me most of the time!)

Anyway, one of the things they tend to rant about is reading horoscopes. Yes, it clearly states in the Bible that you're not supposed to practice witchcraft, sorcery, divination, occult, etc. But who among us has not read a horoscope as a joke? It very clearly states in the paper that it is for entertainment purposes only. However, there are several people I've come across over the years that caution against even reading them as a joke as it's the "first step on the road to devil worship." Granted, I can see the point if someone reads them, believes them, lives his/her life by them, because they obviously have nothing else to "guide" them. But I always chuckle when I hear of someone who takes this all seriously.

Feng Shui was also mentioned as something that real Christians should avoid-actually anything Eastern or Mystical-because it's not the true way to salvation. (I'm not sure how they justify certain religions that believe in the "mystical," but that's not the point.)

There are Christians who believe that Yoga is evil because it isn't just exercise, but it's "brainwashing." There is actually a yoga like program that uses the same moves as Yoga but you say Scripture and prayers while you're doing the exercises.

Thanks to Terro for these links. I'd like to know if Jesus uses a PC or a Mac. :P


http://www.fengshuiconsultingsite.com/ChristiansandFengShui.html

http://www.servantsdiary.com/2009/10/feng-shui-apple-computers-and-jesus.html

RDA

Happy birthday to Richard Dean Anderson!  :D

60?  Really?

Eddie Izzard

Tonight at the Fabulous Fox!

Bono Says....

"The Left mocks the Right.
The Right knows it's right.
Two ugly traits.
How far should we try to understand each other's point of view?
Maybe the distance grace covered on the cross is a clue."

This Day In History 1/9 1493: Christopher Columbus, sailing the Atlantic, sees 3 "mermaids", in reality manatees.

From 2009

Greetings!  And welcome to the end of the decade.....or is next year the end?

Whatever, I'm posting from the MyTouch as a test, and to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Back from vacation...

Well we had a wonderful time on our trip. We put about 4500 miles on the car in about 11 days. Sheesh..... The oil change light was screaming when we got home. LOL

We had gone on the Lincoln Highway from Mt. Vernon, IA, to Times Square, NY, this spring, so thought we'd go west this time. We didn't do the whole thing, because it goes to San Francisco, but we did quite a bit of it. We started in Iowa City, after seeing Nathan and Alex and taking them to dinner.

We drove through a lot of the US before heading north to Banff, Alberta, Canada. We actually went into Canada in BC. The Rockies are really beautiful, but the Canadian Rockies are superb! Honestly, everything else pales in comparison. My pictures don't do it justice. We saw quite a bit of Banff and Jasper National Parks, and then came home through Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina. We stopped at the huge West Edmonton Mall (billed as the world's largest, but I'll bet Dubai has something bigger. :P), but didn't buy anything except lunch. Yeah, the place is huge, but when you aren't normally a shopper, it was sort of ho-hum. I was surprised to see all of the oil in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but probably because I think of those two provinces as Beef country and Canola country, respectively.

I've posted a few shots here, but the rest are here, password is longaberger:

http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a165/theshepards/canada0909/

Columbia Ice Fields-the glacier has been retreating, as most of them have.

Lake Louise-the color of the water is caused by the ice scouring minerals as it comes through the mountains and causing the blue color. Some of the streams were nearly milky white because of the minerals in the water.

Banff Springs Hotel in Banff National Park, Alberta. The hotel is one of those really neat Railway Hotels and was really expensive, of course. So we just enjoyed the lobby. :)

One of the most famous mountains in the area as seen from the village of Banff.

Last, but certainly not least.....the World's Largest Ukrainian Easter Egg, in Vegreville, Alta. It was computer designed and built for the Queen and Prince Philip's visit in 1974. You can read more about it here: http://www.tabloidcolumn.com/easter-egg.html

Canadians are soooooo polite.....

geocenter

Geographical Center of North America!

Oh those crazy Montana folk....

Whitefish, MT

Grafton IL riverfront

Nina or Pinta? Grafton, IL a few days ago!

One of the coolest things in the state....

Chimney Rock, NE

Update!

Hmm, guess I haven't been here in quite some time, but I've updated *other* blogs. Not that I don't love all y'all over here, but just haven't done anything exciting to talk about.

Well, that isn't true.....I went to the Longaberger Basket Bee with Monica-had a great time! Nathan moved up to his apt. at University of Iowa and has started classes and his teaching assistant gig. Go Hawkeyes! (I'm glad I don't live in Illinois anymore, because they are both Big Ten schools....like I know what I'm talking about. IA doesn't play Mizzou, so I don't have to worry about my car with IA stickers being trashed here in MO.)

But hey, I'm jazzed about this-so much so I'm blogging about it! (sad life....)

We've been invited to an "Ethnic Food Favorite" party/BBQ on Saturday, and I've decided I'm bringing this:

http://recipes.recipeland.com/recipes/recipe/print_full/Biff_a_la_Lindstrom_Hamburgers_a_la_Lindstrom_3590

Nope, never made it before, so I'll do a practice run on Friday to see if they taste okay. But what's so cool about this is the recipe has MY NAME in the title! So it has to be great, right? :P I can always fall back on Swedish Meatballs.

Fingers crossed....

Obama's birthplace

Since it's the anniversary of the adoption of the 14th Amendment, I thought this article was timely. Perhaps this will be the end of the "Obama wasn't born here" hooplah. However, I must remind myself that there are probably party members that don't realize that Hawaii (and Alaska, home of whatshername....that Tina Fey impersonator....) are actually part of the US now. Yep, as of 1959, they were both admitted to the United States as STATES! Heck, I knew that, and that was courtesy of a public school education. Hawaii had been a State for 2 years before Obama was born.

I guess this will dissuade any of them getting ideas of putting "Ahnold" forth as a possible presidential candidate. :P

Note to the GOP: "spend your time doing something constructive."

Can we move on now?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090728/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_birth_certificate

By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer Jaymes Song, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jul 28, 1:54 am ET

HONOLULU – State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.

They hoped to stem a recent surge in the number of inquiries about Obama's birthplace.

"I ... have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen," Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a brief statement. "I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago."

So-called "birthers" — who claim Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was actually born outside the United States — have grown more vocal recently on blogs and television news shows.

Fukino issued a similar press release Oct. 31, but was prompted to speak out again because of the renewed attention on Obama's beginnings. Hawaii's Health Department has been flooded in recent weeks with questions from individuals and several national TV news networks asking for proof that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii.

"They just keep asking over and over and over again," Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.

The Constitution states that a person must be a "natural-born citizen" to be eligible for the presidency. Birthers contend that Obama's birth certificate is a fake, and many say he was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland. They've challenged his citizenship in court.

One widely circulated YouTube clip of a town hall meeting showed a Republican congressman getting booed for saying Obama is a citizen. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh and CNN's Lou Dobbs have also raised the issue, and 10 Republican members of Congress co-sponsored a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate.

However, it appears Congress has moved on and has accepted Obama's island birthplace. The U.S. House on Monday unanimously approved a resolution recognizing and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state. A clause was included that reads: "Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961."

State law bars the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.

However, Obama's birth certificate along with birth notices from the two Honolulu newspapers were brought forward even before he took office. But that's done nothing to shake the belief by many Obama critics that the president was born abroad.