Cute with Eric too

No more Michigan State Fair pictures is what I told myself after yesterday's post. I figured three days was enough. On to different things I told myself. But I forgot that I had sent a synchronized sleeping pigs pic to Chris Leavins who publishes the infamous blog Cute with Chris, exploring the ugly side of cute, for the synchronized sleeping category. Either my brilliant pic of pigs sleeping side by side or my sad sad story of the Michigan State Fair coming to an end caught his attention.

Click here:
http://chrisleavins.typepad.com/chrisleavins/2009/09/synchronized-sleepers-1.html

     

      Here's the pic if the link doesn't work:

No cats? How about Fair Animals

Today is 9/9/09 - so here are 9 things:
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1 - Is there any significance, really? It's just another day here at This is Eric's Blog. Some say the world will come to an end today. I better hurry up and post this just in case!
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2 - Since cats are known to have 9 lives (and today being 9/9/09) it has been declared "A Day Without Cats Online." I wonder if it's only today or every 9/9 regardless of year.
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3 - On this day in 1850 (NOT a 9/9/09) California became the 31st state.
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4 - Update: I'm done wondering about #2 since I never post pics of cats anyway. Well except for the zoo pics and those are big cats.
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5 - Today is the last repeating single digit date until 1/1/11. (Do not confuse it with 10/10/10... which I think I like a lot.)
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6 - There used to be 9 planets in our solar system. Sorry Pluto.
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7 - Two weeks until fall, or Autumn as some call it.
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8 - I forget what eight was for.
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9 - Here is a collage of State Fair Animals due to the no cats rule:

All State Fair pictures from the last three days were taken with an ever-more-portable Sony Cybershot P200 that fits in a pocket.

Day after Fair

Nothing at all like a State Fair corn dog!

The gift that keeps on giving...

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delicious-

ness

Laboring

It's a holiday!!!

A yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

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and looks like today is also the LAST day ever for the Michigan State Fair which has been held every year since 1849. Too bad we can't help out a fair like we bailed out all the poorly run banks and auto companies. Just saying...

The end all ready? part 2

Saw a lot of squirrels scurrying around
and gathering nuts today.

They must not have gotten my memo
from yesterday yet.

The end all ready?

I'm not ready! I'm officially delaying the end of summer. Sure, go ahead and keep on with all your Labor Day Weekend celebrations but stop calling it the end of summer! The autumnal equinox isn't for another 17 days and I'm going to try to get that pushed ahead.

The other Ford's place

As I was planning on posting this in the category "How do I not know about these things?" I wondered into the first garden and then remembered that I HAVE been there.

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The Henry Ford Estate, or "Fair Lane". Sitting on the Rouge River this is a modest sized estate in comparison to what I've been visiting.

I once attended a wedding just beyond these garden gates.

Ecolo - Goddess of Earth

Who is this sweet maid who stoops
protectively to save the earth
from man's pernicious tread?

It is the blithe spirit of ecology
by whom all life and natural
things are fed.

Leave the house and forget something again? Never fear! At times a cell phone can take a pretty darn good pic!

VIRGO - The Perfectionist

Dominant In relationships.
Conservative.
Always wants the last word.
Argumentative.
Worries.
Very smart.
Dislikes noise and chaos.
Eager.
Hardworking.
Loyal.
Beautiful.
Easy to talk to.
Hard to please.
Harsh.
Practical and very fussy.
Often shy.
Pessimistic.
from the Body Mind Spirit Guide


But also a DRAGON............................................

Passionate.
Robust.
Short tempered.
Stubborn.
Popular.
Fun loving.
Life full of enthusiasm.
Love to indulge in gossip.
Good gambler.
from Buzzle.com-Chinese Astrology Characteristics

Dodge's place

Last week I had two posts under the subject

"How do I not know about these things?"

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In a somewhat similar subject is today's

"Why have I never been here (and I knew about it)?"

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Meadow Brook Hall & Gardens

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There's even a little cottage up on a hill...

I'm thinking

The Thinker

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sitting out in front of the

Detroit Institute of Arts

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is thinking

why didn't I check

the museum schedule

before coming down

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because it's closed

on Mondays

and Tuesdays.

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He's thinking I

should come back on

Wednesday.

Toasting and roasting day

Today (come to find out) is a hoilday!




National
Toasted Marshmallow
Day

You know what to do.

Random sky

Taken out of my sunroof while on the freeway. Just because.

Update in tomato land

A friend from another land (Canada) stepped in and might have saved the furry chipmunk by telling me that I may be dealing with tomato hornworms! Gahhhhhh!

This is what I now

have to look for

and possibly

d-e-s-t-r-o-y!

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So much for the Critter Ridder I bought (organic furry deterrent).

Tomato Catastrophe

News at 11:00!

Homley Homer who produced his first offspring back on June 25th has since been producing as advertised, although not to his full 5-6 foot size as promised. But today a devastating find:

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WHAT on Earth could be doing such cold-hearted damage to Homer's fruit???

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Could it be..................

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First seen back on May 23rd and hailed as a "food critic" I believe the truth is about to come out about this furry creature!

Buzzed

During the last few months I've been doing an in depth study of the flying insect we know as the bee.

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After closely watching their daily habits in and around my backyard I have come to the conclusion:

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Ford's place

More on yesterday's subject:

How do I not know about these things?

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Today it's the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House.

"House" is a bit understated describing this huge estate sitting on Lake St. Clair.

There is also a LOT of grass to mow. I mean A LOT!

Didn't get in the "house" but only toured the grounds which took about 2 hours. What a work out!

The D's island conservatory

Out in the middle of the Detroit river on an island

I came across a conservatory... with free admission!

How do I not know about these things?

Tulip experiment

Playing with AP-Elements and some tulips from this last spring.

Look through 11

Atmosphere and Environment XI

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50/50 Hawaii

Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono.
(The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness - Hawaii state motto)
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August
21st
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50 years ago today Hawaii becasme the 50th state of the U.S.A.

What's Up, Doc?

My garden is still growing. The latest is some carrots (of carrot length), a bunch more beets and some green onions. The second planting of radishes resulted in dwarfs for some reason and they all went to the compost pile today. Sorry tiny radishes! However, the second planting of lettuce is doing fine and made an excellent salad with my dinner this evening.

Sad day in August

It's only the middle of August and not only did I see the snow blowers being put out on display at Lowe's BUT I also saw the Samuel Adams Octoberfest AND the Beck's Oktoberfest at the supermarket this evening. Both delicious - but not when it's in the mid 80's.

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IT'S STILL SUMMER!!!

Dig it

On the last road trip I discovered how full sized trees are moved from place to place. They use a giant trowel like the one pictured here. Someone must have forgot to put it away after planting these pines.

It is called "Plantoir" by Claes Oldenburg.

Another lighthouse

Here's a non-square light house over in Grand Haven Michigan.

I posted this pic on a new site I came across today Living In HD. Well the site is new to ME. Not sure how long it's been around. I'm hoping to win a 50" Plasma in their contest for Road Trip Landscape photo! Poor poor me doesn't have a HDTV. I still watch TV like our ancestors did on a tube television. Good thing I just got back from a road trip with actual road trip pics.

E-I-E-I-O

The other day I was driving through the sticks (I mean country) about 5 miles north of Kalamazoo Michigan and I passed a farm.

And on this farm they had a:

With a neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there. Here a neigh there a neigh. Everywhere a neigh-neigh.

(That is if a zebra actually does "neigh".)

Lots of cars

Today was the 15th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise here in the Motor City. Well actually the cruise takes place on the 16-mile stretch of Woodward NORTH of the Motor City. Over a million of people came to my hood to look at cars. I really don't understand "looking at cars" but it sure was a BIG PARTY! And an even bigger traffic jam!















not my pic

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?

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

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?