Saturday, May 20, 2006

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it"


.
That is a famous quote of
Yogi Berra
.
A link to his quotes: (link)
[[courtesy QuoteDB]
.
[Click on pictures below to enlarge]
.

Well, yesterday on our walk,

Adi and I came to this fork in the road

.

We didn't take either path
but went straight up the middle
through those trees and ended up here
.
Do you see the duck in
the upper right, across the water?
.
There are a lot of balls in that water, Adi can tell
She also thinks maybe there is a
.
SNAKE
.
right down in there!
.
These ducks didn't seem to care for us
so they headed out
.
The ducks are in the right hand side here
[click here to enlarge this picture]
.
They live in the field in front of our house
We can gather eggs every day!
.
But we don't
.

Sometimes we don't worry about things like any of this
Instead, we just scratch a little
where it itches
.
.
Yogi also said,
"I couldn't tell if the streaker was a man or a woman
because it had a bag on it's head."

.
.

DAILY STATUS REPORT:
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 12x/6x/xx . . . . 6:55 A.M.
.
To Do--go with Mrs. Jim while she helps her mother with a bath;
-----go to Carman, daughter-in-law, to her graduation from Houston Baptist University with a Bachelors degree in Communication at the First Baptist Church of Houston;
-----spend the rest of the day and evening in Houston with GC#4 to help her celebrate her ninth birthday, Karen and Billy are doing all the work (pictures here later)

Labels: ,


# posted by Jim : 5/20/2006 06:45:00 AM  10 comments

Friday, May 19, 2006

303 Texas Wildflowers Pictures

From the 2006 Texas Wildflower photo contest

Remember the copyright (Link)

2006 Winners . . . . . . . . . 33
Blankets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Blue Bonnets . . . . . . . . . 67
Insects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Most Creative. . . . . . . . . 27
Paint Brushes. . . . . . . . . 16
Wild Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Yellow Flowers. . . . . . . . 37
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ===
Total pictures . . . . . . . . 303
.
Picture Web pages are courtessy of Abilene Reporter-News (link), Abilene, Texas.
My blog below tells some of the contest.

# posted by Jim : 5/19/2006 03:02:00 PM  1 comments

Texas Wildflowers -- link to them here!

.
This is a link to some awesome Texas wildflower pictures.
.
All images in the links are © 2006 Abilene Reporter-News.
.
Please don't lift them because they are all copyright material belonging to the Abilene Reporter-News, except the picture here with Adi belongs to me.
.
A friend of a friend entered the wild flower photo contest in Abilene. He did not place in any category, but they did pick the best ones after 1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mention and they showed the pictures.
.
His words, "my insect picture is #10, my bluebonnet is # 29, my blanket is #6, my photo for most creative is # 12, my paint brush is #5, wild card is #19, and for yellow flower it is #15."
.

The bluebonnet (link) is theTexass state flower. You probably have seen pictures of them. (my favorite?) Why don't you come next year. There isn't any law against picking them. More will grow the next day.

.

DAILY STATUS REPORT:

Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 129/64/75 . . . . 10:55 A.M.

ToDo--walk home with Adi after Mrs. Jim lets us off at the clubhouse; get a haircut; finish working on Sunday school lesson to teach Sunday


# posted by Jim : 5/19/2006 04:59:00 AM  1 comments

Trivia Question -- Beverly Hillbillies' Truck?

Time is ticking away!!
.
What was the make _____ and model year _____ of The Beverly Hillbillies' truck? Answer and winners will be announced here next Monday.
Were there two different cars, one for the TV shows, one for the movie? (Billy thinks there were)

# posted by Jim : 5/19/2006 12:11:00 AM  7 comments

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Eating with the Jim Bunch -- more pictures added below--click on them to enlarge

Next to bottom pictures are Southern Style Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas


Breakfast today
[click picture to enlarge]
.
Mrs. Jim called this cooking breakfast. That isn't a kalache. It is a free blueberry scone from the Kroger Bakery. Free because it was in an open box with the cookies for the kids. I asked Mrs. Jim if she ate one in the store too, she said no, just this one to take home.
.
Then how did she cook it if it came from the Kroger Bakery? She heated it in the microwave, of course, and then sliced it into four pieces! Wow!
.
Now yesterday she did a whole lot more work. She made fried (in my diet eating plan butter substitute) eggs with red and yellow peppers and sausage, and western hash browns. Also toast and jelly and some fruit. But no picture. It sure was pretty, I just didn't do the photo.
.
Does Jim ever cook? Yes, he generally makes the noon meal. It is light, usually a sandwich or a Lean Pocket. That will be embellished with cottage cheese, chips, a salad, or what ever else is handy.
.
Don't tell his cardiologist, but he makes good hot dogs too. Just about always a little melted cheese and then whatever is open besides, like hot dog chili or sauerkraut. Those are in place of the sandwich. Chili and pizza are Jim's specialties.
.
Tonight is special, no cooking for either of us. We are eating at our Yacht Club (link 1) with some friends. It is fried chicken and fried catfish night at the buffet (menu link)**. Reservations are for six P.M.
.
Our friends have a summer place (a large ranch) at Telluride, Colorado. They go there in the middle of May and will return around October 15. We can use their pool here while they are gone.
.
Right now Mrs. Jim is in the process of manrinating and roasting eight pork loins, each is a half loin, weighing between five and six pounds. They will get stuck in her mother's freezer until next week. Then they go for her family reunion in North Louisiana.
.
Ken Hoffman (link) today said:
•Another sign of an improving economy: Tuesday night I was leaving Minute Maid Park when a Houston outdoorsman (homeless guy) asked, "You got a few dollars you can give me?"A few dollars?
.
I always wish, but never have done it, that I would have given some of these people a hamburger, maybe a MacDonalds double cheeseburger.
.
DAILY STATUS REPORT:
.
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 124/64/76 . . . . 11:55 A.M.
.
ToDo--(besides eat with the neighbors tonight) work on Sunday school lesson for teaching again this Sunday; help Mrs. Jim with the pork loins; go to the driving range
.
Menu for tonight:
Thursday Theme Dinner at the Yacht Club
.
"Fried Chicken & Catfish"
.
COLD BUFFET
Romaine Feta Salad With Lemon Olive Oil Dressing
Spicy Green Bean Salad With Grilled Pork Garnished With
Huevos Del Diablo
Sweet Potato Salad
Classic Black Bean-Corn Relish
.
HOT BUFFET
Southern Fried Chicken with corn fritters
Buttermilk Marinated Hand Breaded Cornmeal Fried Catfish
with jalapeno apple smoked bacon hush puppies, tarter sauce, lemons, red sauce
Fork Mashed Sour Cream Potatoes
Cream Country Gravy
Fresh Corn On The Cobb
Black-eyed Peas With Ham Hocks
Southern Style Collard Greens
Fresh Steamed Broccoli With Toasted Pecans
Fresh Buttermilk Biscuits
Butter, honey, Cajun style hot sauce, red and green Tabasco sauces, pickapepper, and chaloula sauce on the side
.
Mama Lou's Own Strawberry Shortcake For Your Dessert
.
$15.95++ Per Person
Kids 4 And Under Free
.
Menu Service Also Available

Link to Bentwater facilities (

# posted by Jim : 5/18/2006 12:38:00 PM  1 comments

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Al Gore's Presidential Address

Missed Al Gore on SNL? Then watch his monologue here (link). It is a keeper. Common Dreams has the text (link).

# posted by Jim : 5/17/2006 03:33:00 PM  1 comments

The Day after Mothers Day

No, its not a Runza
[click picture to enlarge]
.
It's a Kolache. That is a Czech specialty desert and breakfast snack item. This one is hearty for breakfast, it is sausage and sauerkraut baked in a kolache. You might have them were you live, but they aren't necessarily Czech. People call them pig-in-a-blanket. Besides sausage, they might have ham or ham and cheese. Some have jalapeños.

The other Kolache type is more like a small sweet roll, with a patch of fruit sauce in the middle. Like strawberry, prune, apple/cinnamon, lemon, etc.

What does this have to do with the day after Mothers Day?

We went to Corpus Christi to visit a very dear friend, Florence W, who is now being cared for by Hospice at the nursing home where she has lived for the last couple of years.

On the way and also the way back, we stop at Hillje (link 1), Texas. That is on U.S. 59 a little west of El Campo. What is so good there is Prasek's (link 2). Prasek's has a bakery and a very nice smokehouse type meat counter. Of course there are cold and hot drinks and Texas souvenirss too.

Wealwaysy get some kolaches there and a sandwich to eat for lunch while driving. This time it was a big, poboy size, sausage and kraut. While I was getting the sandwich, Mrs. Jim was getting the kalaches. That's why we had sausage and kraut, both sandwich and kalache.

The kalache I ate for lunch yesterday while Mrs. Jim was playing golf. Adi got one bite.

Interesting things along the way or way back?
.
Well, there were a few interesting things that I didn't get pictures of.
.
First, the crops. The corn had tassled and was really looking good, still tall and dark green, in the Colorado River bottom land. There were a lot of Garst signs.
.
The beans,sorghumm, and cotton looked equally as good. Just a lot of times those people don't get a crop because it gets too hot and dry early. I think they will try for a second crop of something next.
.
Next, new fast food places. Our choice used limited to be Prasek's (not fast food), McDonalds in Refugeo, a nice BBQ place, a couple of older Whataburgers, or several Dairy Queens. Now there was a new Burger King in Refugeo, a KFC, and a newer WhataBurger. And a couple of more that I can't remember the names.
.
U.S. 59 out of Houston. That has been under construction forever, but now it is fairly well finished. It runs from six down to three lanes, with an HOV thrown in.
.
We found a new (to us) gas station betweenRosenberg and Hilge. It was a Conoco with premium at $2.97. It was $3.15 to $3.19 in Houston. Coming back we got Exxon premium for $2.85 in Corpus Christi. Regular was $2.65.
.
We stopped at Karen and Billy's on the way back. No, that '53 Ford Convertible you saw yesterday wasn't his, that Billy is our club president.
.
They have a new car. Now Mrs. Jim and I have never had a new car all the time we have been married, but they are the Yuppies we didn't get to be.
.
Anyone want to buy her '96 green Mustang GT Convertible with 80K miles? It's a neat car too, it would have been mine except Karen was with me when I went to look. Do I need to say anything more?
.
The car is a Toyota Prius. Achampagnee Gold colored four door. I should mention that it is a hybrid, meaning it runs on battery part of the time. Karen thinks it gets in the 60s for gasmileagee.
.
It is a very nice automobile, Karen mostly drives it. You can call on the phone (uses her cell phone) by talking. Sure talking, how else. But you push a button and tell the radio (it has nine speakers) what number to dial. From then on, everything is done through the radio.
.
Be careful backing up? This one has a TV camera and display as a part of the GPS system to show which way to turn and what to watch out for. I could have used that on the Ford Focus we rented in Europe.
.
That is all that might be interesting. Our friend was doing as good as we could expect. We stayed a couple of hours and did the four hour drive back home.
..
DAILY STATUS REPORT:
.
Health check--blood pressure/heart rate 125/61/101 . . . . 12:20 AM
This was to have been my last 'health check,' but maybe not since my heart is beating so fast?
.
Mothers Day--Went to church, early as Mrs. Jim (viola) and the orchestra were playing. Then Mrs. Jim, her mother, and I ate at the Cracker Barrel. A big thunderstorm came up, so we came home. All five kids and some grandchildren and in-laws called Mrs. Jim for her day.
.
Day's biggie--Do some more yard work, catch up with paper work around here, watch the final episode of The Amazing Race, I'm for the Hippies.
--Mrs. Jim is getting meat for the family reunion, taking her mother to get a haircut and set, doing church orchestra music work, helping her mother at supper time, and doing orchestra practice. I'm supposed to tape PBS for her, two hours at eight tonight.


# posted by Jim : 5/17/2006 01:41:00 PM  6 comments

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Day before Mothers Day

Billy's '53 Ford Sunliner
[click pictures to enlarge]

Charles '41 Ford Fordor

Al's '35 Ford Convertible Sedan





Jim's '46 Ford Fordor






Art's '50 Ford Convertible







Glen's '42 Ford Convertible








John's '37 Ford Pickup


We treated out wives very well the Saturday before Mothers Day, we took them to a picnic in the park.

We were the members of the Montgomery County Early Ford V-8 Club. Incidently, we are a local chapter of the national EarlyFordV-8 Club of America (link). Our chapter has 26 members and a few more cars than that.

We all met at the Brookshire Bros. parking lot in Montgomery and drove as a group to the Washington-on-the-Brazos State park (link). That is a one hour-34 mile drive, from Montgomery through the scenic green Texas hills. It was a beautiful top-down Texas day. A lot of people were out, they sure do turn their heads (our way) when we go by.

These last two are not "Early Ford V8s," nor was Herschel's 90's Buick LeSabre which I missed at picture time.
.

Ray's '60s Mercedes Convertible

.

.

.

.

.

.

Jim's (my) '98 Ford Mustang GT Convertible

Labels: , , ,


# posted by Jim : 5/16/2006 12:42:00 PM  9 comments

Monday, May 15, 2006

.
Dancing with cats?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Well, probably not this cat . . . . . . .. .
.
You can find pictures of cats that do dance, and with people. These dancers are mostly women who may be considered by some religious to be witches. There is even a book written about dancing with cats, Dancing With Cats by Burton Silver and Heather Busch(link). It may have started with the Cat and the Fiddle .

The history of dancing with cats includes the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme I posted (link) Friday. Seeker (link) commented [THANKS A LOT] there, directing me to The History of Feline Dance (link) for an understanding of Hey Diddle Diddle.
.
Well, I can't dance much better than I can sing, so please don't burn me at the stake. Thanks.

# posted by Jim : 5/15/2006 12:10:00 AM  0 comments

Sunday, May 14, 2006

There is a time for everything

Ecclesiastes 3
[NIV (link)]

(A Time for Everything)

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.

I had heard and read these Bible verses many times with many applications. There is a song which had been popular reciting these verses. It is still being sung on the radio.

But they hit home Thursday when the minister at a funeral read them.

He was reading for the celebration of life and remembrances of a young man, age 46. This man had lived a very productive life, he held a high position in his work, was married with a very vibrant and loving family, and was active in his church and music. Incidentally, that church, a large one, the Terrace United Methodist Church in Houston, was packed for his funeral.

The reading affected me like the words never did before because this young man's parents are our friends. Our children are this age. But no matter how well (or poorly for that matter) we lead our lives, God has a purpose in our deaths as well as our lives.

This man's testimony about his love for the Lord was so strong at that funeral. We don't know how many lives were changed by his death, and the relating of his Godly life at his funeral. Even though his family and all of us are grieving for the loss of him, it all surely was a part of God's glorious plan.

The minister went on to read from the Gospel of John:

John 14 (link)
(Jesus Comforts His Disciples)

1."Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4. You know the way to the place where I am going."
5. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."





# posted by Jim : 5/14/2006 01:25:00 AM  3 comments

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?