More moon

Looks like my mobile cell blogging worked this time! Don't you just love technology... when it works. And I would like to thank Verizon for adding the ads to my post! Too bad I won't see any of the benefits from that advertisement but I'm sure they need all the monetary help they can get.

Anyway folks, around the same time as yesterday's mobile upload I took this pic with the Canon G9 of the moon in the sky and a gull on the lighthouse (a square lighthouse at that). Last week I posted The (full) moon seen round the world. Here it is in the last quarter. The gull looks very uninterested in it all!

Lake Mich in the morn

Cell blogging try again: Gibberish or beautifulness?

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Mini trip #2

Goin' west until I hit big water.
(Lake water that is.)
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OH... and I saw NO meteors last night! Come to find out best sighting was late late late right before dawn. I don't think so!

Early morning shower

Long ago Perseus may gave slain Medusa but tonight (or early tomorrow morning) his constellation will be showering down on Earth. In other words, the peak time to see the Perseids Meteor Shower will be tonight between midnight and dawn. Put on some coffee because it's going to be a late night out!

Today in Windy City History

Today in 1833 Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200 peeps.

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But they didn't have a big shiny Bean back then did they!

(I mean the Cloud Gate.)

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The pic is from a cold windy day in December 2006. Right now it's all about the bean and not when the pic was taken.

Hottest day so far!

Today was the hottest day so far this year (here at This is Eric's Blog headquarters that is). They say it "feels like" 105.

Heat index or apparent temperature is the combined air temperature and relative humidity in an attempt to determine the human-perceived equivalent temperature. To calculate this use the following equation:

Or just call your local weatherman. That's easier!

Rain in August

A much needed rainy day here.

But just remember:

"Never sell your hen on a rainy day."

Howl at the moon.

Last night was a full moon and here in the Detroit area we had clear skies and cooler than usual weather. A fellowette Blogspot blogger MargaretPANpipes posted on Monday that we take a photo of it from wherever in the world we are. Here it is from a few miles north of Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.

I never had good luck with photoing the moon before so first I hit Google to read up on camera settings. Found good info at TZPlanet.com. Seems that I was assuming that since it was night time I should expose for a nighttime scene. Come to find out that is untrue since the moon is actually very bright (so you should wear shades). Here it is with my Canon PowerShot G9. Not spectacular but the best I've done to date and pretty good for a point-and-shoot camera. Just wish I could zoom closer.

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Update: Operation Moon Watch participants ranged from Australia, The UK, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ontario, Michigan (me), Missouri, California and Hawaii. Details at the moon seen round the world.

Fuzzy Butter

The butterfly bush in the yard finally produced a butterfly. I was starting to think it was faulty and should be returned. The fuzzy comes in to the picture here due to my camera accidentally being set to ISO 1600. Egad! 24 pictures later I discoved what had taken place. Oh well, I'll just call it all fuzzy.

B-E-E-T-S

Woody Guthrie sang about b-e-e-t-s not b-e-a-t-s.
(X - I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts)

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And on the small farm here we got some b-e-e-t-s! Picked 3 of them today but not sure what to do with them yet. Also picked a carrot. It wasn't quite carrot length yet but it was yummo.

Fire Breath

Here's a dragonfly that was very excited about the flowers on the arugula (that's an aromatic salad green also known as rocket, roquette, rugula and rucola, and is popular in Italian cuisine.)

Note: the Eat/Drink label applied to this post does not apply to the dragonfly but the arugula.

Nature Merge

From my travels last week: a 5 frame merge of a scene at the Chippewa Nature Center somewhere out on the 2.7 mile River Trail.

Drastically downsized for this blog. Sorry but space is limited.

Bigger bugs at night

While kicking back on the porch up north (a Michigan term) I saw a big thing fluttering. Turned out to be a huge moth drinking nectar from some flowers. I got two shots of him and then the flash pretty much ticked him off and he flew off into the night.

Good bye, country life.

Ahhh, back to the suburbs and my suburban mini-farm. And by mini I mean 0.00165 of an acre. I can't imagine taking care of 10.5 acres. That's 10.49835 more acres! Who's got that kind of time?

OE or Other?

From the library in the semi-sticks:
(the real library and not "the library")

Seems my blog posts from my new cell phone are a bit jumbled. Except for Tuesday's post about memories. What up with that? Will have to fix later (when I get home as in later) since the public library isn't the place for that. Mostly due to the limit on my log in time is almost up on this public computer. Damn RULES! See ya!

Oh, and the farm is a farm and has crops! Sugar beets I hear. But what's the diff between a sugar beet and a beet beet like I grow on my farm? I will investigate later (when I get home as in later). Note: what the farm doesn't have is internet & tv (the darn digital conversion never made it there yet). I feel like the Amish. Almost.

Crypticism 2

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Crypticism 1

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Don't leave memories at home!

Tip: when going on a road trip to take photos do not leave your camera's memory stick in your computer at home.

I eventually found that I had brought a MicroSD adapter so I used the tiny little memory card from my new cell phone... only 1GB but better than 0. And it all worked out just fine.

Mini trip into the semi sticks

Tomorrow I leave for a partial week at a farm. 4 days to be exact. Maybe 5? I don't think there's any crops (like MINE) or animals (like CHICKENS) but I hear it's a farm. Or maybe I hear it's a farm house. Maybe I should pay better attention. Anyway I'm going away BUT I have set up mobile blogging between "This is Eric's Blog" and my new cell phone. What's that I hear??? Oh, just the sign of relief! I hope this works!

If not... see you later!

Spud farmer update

Back on June 29th

I showed that my potato farm had just sprouted.

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Here they are today! Not sure if there are any actual potatoes in there but they sure are growing green.

Fire bug

Lampyridae

better know as a Firefly

What's he up to in the daytime anyway?

Come to find out Fireflies / Lightning Bugs are neither flies nor bugs, but beetles.

It's the 21st Century

AWESOME CD!
Released on May 15th, 2009.
Green Day keeps getting better and better with age... a lot like me... oh, and wine too.












A sample: live and in HD.
(It doesn't quite fit in my format.)

Today in automotive history and today

Today in 1903 the first Ford,
a two-cylinder Model A,
was delivered to its buyer.


Today today (2009) Ford Motor Co. posted a second-quarter profit of $2.8 billion as the other two U.S. car manufactures come out of "poor management related" (cough cough) bankruptcy bothleaner, stronger, etc. and ready to ummmm... ummm... make cars and profit? I MEAN I MEAN bankruptcy due to unforeseen (except by the management at Ford) economic changes.

DON'T judge me. I grew up in a GM family and worked at Chrysler for almost 13 years. Just telling it how I see it.

Best food ever

Enough said.

(nachos)

Kitchens and projects 2

Project update from the other day:

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4-paint insides white. Ahhh... peaceful white.

5-paint outsides dark grey (or is it gray) as an undercoat

for the final process.

(of all 13 doors & 2 drawers)

More of My Cranbrook Garden Walk

Persephone - Goddess of Spring

Marshall M. Fredericks

In the woods I came across a "What the ?"

My Cranbrook Garden Walk

Today I met up with the RODP MeetUp group at the

Cranbrook Gardens here in Bloomfield Hills, MI.
I found a subject that fit into some of the themes of this summer:

fuzzy and buggy things.

I shall call it Fuzzy Bee Ball.

Kitchens and projects

13 DOORS & 2 DRAWERS

More painting fun!

1-strip last 60 years worth of paints and stains

2-sand them all smooth
3-prime them for painting

(more to come at a later date)

1999 Barracuda

You lying so low in the weeds.
I bet you gonna ambush me.
You'd have me down down down down on my knees.
Now wouldn't you, barracuda...
(Heart)

A pic from the past.
He was smiling at me as I snorkeled by.
Spring 1999 on Providenciales.

Itsy bitsy long legs

Yet another creature on my new painted house. Maybe they are attracted to the fantastic new color or maybe they just stick out now.

Fuel is explosive

13,000 gallons of fuel explode on the freeway

down the street from my house...

and I miss it all while watching Weeds (season 4)!

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(photo from Detroit channel 7 - WXYZ.com)

Home business part 3

I was SO excited to see that my avocado farm had FINALLY sprouted after 4 months soaking in a shot glass (of water) that I picked it up and it broke apart!

It may live... I'll let you know.

So much for making guacamole THIS year!

World full of geniuses

Mobile phone giants to make one-size-fits-all charger... ......in Europe.

The new standard charger will replace the more than 30 different kinds of chargers that are currently in use across Europe.
(news from June 29, 2009)

What about the rest of the world?

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle

Sun Pickles

While reading "A Way To Garden" I came across this refrigerator pickle recipe. I like pickles. Not so much the soggy grocery store kind that are mass produced by a huge corporation but the crunchy just made kind. So why not make some. Seems pretty easy. Just need a trip to the farmer's market for the cucumbers and some dill (since the dill in my garden mysteriously died a few weeks ago... hmmm).

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The thought of all the little jars just made me quickly become bored with the idea. As I thought and sighed and paced the kitchen I noticed the sun tea jar up in the cupboard. (Insert light bulb pic here.) I haven't made sun tea in so many years I can't remember what it would even taste like. So it must now be a sun pickle jar. Minus the direct sunlight of course. But the sun is painted on the jar so it must remain a sun ____ jar.

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Here it is: 1/2 gallon of refrigerator pickles souring on the counter.

(The sun is on the other side as not to hide the pickled goodness.)

Just remember: if I ever offer up some sun tea it may taste a bit pickley!

Bug on the screen

There was this bug on the screen today looking in to the kitchen. Maybe he smelled the pickles and didn't realize they aren't going to be ready for a few days. (More on that in a future post.) He just hung there motionless for a bit but then got a little agitated and started crawling around trying to get away from his close up.

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So what kind of bug is he?

Or She?

Besides just creepy!

Next door's view

Here's the view from my next door neighbor's upstairs window. They should be very happy looking at the new color. VERY HAPPY.

Maybe I should charge for the view.

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Today in alter ego history

Today in 1972 at a London concert hall
Ziggy Stardust takes the stage for the first time.

Chim Chim Cheree

SO the last thing left to paint on the house (the chimney) is DONE. NOT only is it painted Olivine (as is the rest of the house) but the motar has been painted a lighter shade I personally mixed with Olivine and Pure White (the trim paint). Many say "DON'T PAINT THE CHIMNEY" but it was painted by the previous owners and peeling. The easiest and most cost effective thing was to repaint it. Most cost effective because I seem to have miscalculated and ended up with almost 2 gallons of paint left............. SO OLIVINE CHIMNEY IT IS!

The utmost most funnest part was painting the 334 1/2 feet of motor with a 3/8" brush!

More Mourning

The "Pre-Easter" Mourning Doves are still hanging out. Today they watched me as I tried to relax in the lukewarm tub after a long day of painting trim and chimney grout.

They are wondering why THEIR tub doesn't bubble.

They are also wondering why I'm STILL not done painting the house!

As the farm grows

Another pepper growing.
This one is a Goat Horn.
A what?
Exactly.

But I bet it will be delicious!!!

Lukewarm tub

I found an issue with the solar "hot" tub. It's only hot when it's really hot outside. Go figure! It was a bit relaxing this afternoon at the balmy temperature of 83 degrees (the water temp) but isn't a hot tub supposed to be at least 100 degrees. When this thing worked like a hot tub I heated it to 102 usually. Oh well, it's just a bubbly tub-o-fun. Still refreshing!

Independence

Happy 4th of July.

Today we commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. See ya!

We do this by barbecuing anything that doesn't move too fast to catch, drinking a lot of beer and cocktails and lighting off explosives. Fun times for all.

Farm expansion

Found a peanut growing while weeding. (Insert light bulb pic here.) YES! Peanut farming. In 3 months I should have peanuts to roast and salt and make into peanut things for the nonallergic.

New every three for me

I've been flip phoning for 3 years now with my LG Chocolate (Flip Chocolate that is). Got it mainly for it's MP3 player which was rare in cell phones back then. I have to say I used the MP3 player a few times! Yup, a FEW times in the last 3 years. I really prefer to use my iPod Nano for music. That said it was finally time to use my "New Every Two".

Sure it's been well over the two but I have a very hard time making a new commitment. I've grown to like the this cell. It's been a good cell, as cells go. Sleek and slim. The battery even still holds a charge for days and days.

Tomorrow arrives a new era. The LG Env3. With a keyboard? Like having a notebook in my pocket! This is crazy talk. Yup, 4 years later I'm catching the wave of a QWERTY in my pocket. Slow? Maybe. Cautious? Probably. Touch screen? Slow down! Maybe next time.

And I will have to say that out of all the (few) phones I've had over the years the LG has held out the best. As I type this blog viewing it on a LG monitor I start to think this post is an advertisement for LG.

The migration begins

Southern Michiganders start to make their way "up north" for the big holiday weekend. You better hurry and beat the rush! Go go go. And DON'T forget anything.
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Then they will rush back in bumper to bumper traffic to get back to their lives on Monday (or whenever they have to resume their lives in the south).
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Do other states have a similar migratory pattern?