The Last Messy Place

Well, I've done it. I've gotten rid of ALL superfluous papers in the house. All that's left to organize is my writing desk. And that'll be fun.
I feel like such a weight has been lifted off me. I hate paper clutter with a vengeance. We get so much junk mail. It seems that I'm on everybody's mailing list for catalogs and religious fundraising. I'm thinking about not opening the letters and marking RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the envelopes. Would that take care of the problem, do you think?
Now I can start on some of my big projects, but first I had to get through the slog of paper. I've spent the last two weeks making schedules and planning Darcie's schoolwork. I'm almost finished with that, and then I can begin painting the kitchen.
Every ten years I repaint the kitchen. When we built the house the kitchen walls were white with green trim. After ten years, I painted the trim blue. Another ten years have gone by, and I've decided to paint the walls yellow and the trim white. I painted one wall and have been living with it for about two months. I don't like it. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I'm thinking about going back to white walls and paint the trim white, too; or maybe light blue.
My kitchen is a combination 1920's-1940's kitchen. I think I need to go to the library and look at books with vintage kitchens. I need inspiration. When I see it, I'll know it.

Exit strategies

Last year I finally figured out that these were cicada exit holes. (I had mentally accused my husband... Derp.)
This was roughly the same spot where Jasmine discovered a digging armadillo at exactly 3:30 this morning. After the excitement was over, she was extremely messy but very proud of herself. Ick, but cleanup will have to wait til hubby gets home. The last time I tried washing her by myself (after the cow poop incident) it was... disagreeable.
But the extra-fun part was afterwards. We headed back to bed, only to find the bedroom door locked. Or actually, broken. A strict parakeet-protecting closed-door policy made me shut it on the way out.
Force of habit. I was still half asleep. Not my fault it decided to break, anyway. Sadly, the person who closed the door for no apparent reason usually gets the blame in these situations.
Luckily though, hubby excels at middle-of-the-night repairs.

Evening Cruise

Both chicks from nest #2 have hatched! Yesterday we spent late afternoon and early evening photographing them as they swam around the lake. Once both chicks are born they don't waste any time leaving the nest and once they leave the nest they don't go back. Heading up today to spend more time photographing them. Nice and sunny right now so I hope it stays that way!

If you thought that was funny...

Check out this post. I only wish I'd thought of it.
It would seem that last weekend's illness is taking longer to purge than expected. I thought I was OK on Monday, but the ride after work last night made me re-think that position. The only riding I'll be doing for the remainder of this week will be to and from work, as I make sure the recovery is complete. Then watch out this weekend! It's funny the way a person can carry on through some illnesses without being affected in the slightest, but this one seems to have floored me. I'm beginning to think it was more than just a cold -- which is actually a good thing in my view. That would still mean no colds since 2001!
Today I was reminded that fear has no place in urban cycling. On exiting a roundabout in Broadbeach, I was confronted with two lines of gridlocked traffic stretching right up to the next set of lights. Basically I had to exit the roundabout, but passing on the left of the left lane was not an option as it was a typical "Gold Coast" traffic queue (i.e. nobody in the left lane was actually queuing straight), I had to "split" the two lanes*. On doing this, the light changed and the traffic started moving while I was passing. A lot of people would have panicked in this situation, but I just judged the momentum of the acceleration, and picked my spot to change lanes, and did so, all within a split second. He who hesitates is lost, I'm still trying to figure out why people are taught to be afraid of such traffic, when it can be dealt with so easily with rational thought and a moderate amount of skill.
In other news, the bats are still flying south on the evening ride home from work, and I still haven't figured out to where they are migrating.
*NB: I was splitting two lanes of traffic moving in the same direction as opposed to riding contra-flow against the traffic. The latter is yet another dangerous and inefficient practice brought about by fear of traffic.

Entertainment Weekly’s list of the top movies of the last 25 years

One minute I was with Philo and MSS on the Pond Tour, snapping away while listening to the owner's tale of why they needed the extra bit of splash provided by the blue jar...

And the next minute I was looking at a permanently black face on our digital camera...

While I ponder what to write about the tour (and we go out to look at affordable cameras) here's a list from Planet Pooks to play with. It's Entertainment Weekly’s list of the top movies of the last 25 years.

The original instructions say to " 1) Bold the ones you have seen. 2) Put an asterisk after the movie title* if you really liked it. 3) Cross it out if you saw a film and really disliked it. 4) Underline the ones you own."

That may work for you "J" types, but these rules didn't work for "P"-type Annie, so I made up my own.

1) Bold the ones you have seen.

2) Put an asterisk after a movie title if you saw it, then watched it at least one more time on purpose.

3) I'm not a crosser-outer. There have been too many movies that I disliked when I saw them, but later came to appreciate. But if you want to do it - go for it.

4) Underline the ones you own.

It's not a meme or a tag - just a little game that was interesting on a day when the temperature once again had 3 digits and started with the number 1.

The instruction to underline had me baffled for a minute, so I first made my list as a word doc, put the underlines on there and clipped and pasted. Then I looked at it in the blogger Edit Html and the code appears to be just small letter u and /u enclosed in pointy brackets. Is it really that simple? You can stop laughing now. Here's my list - accuracy is not guaranteed but I did try!

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)

2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (..-03)

3. Titanic (1997)

4. Blue Velvet (1986)

5. Toy Story (1995)

6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)*

8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) *

9. Die Hard (1988)*

10. Moulin Rouge (..) *

11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)*

12. The Matrix (1999)

13. GoodFellas (1990)

14. Crumb (1995)

15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)*

16. Boogie Nights (1997)*

17. Jerry Maguire (1996)

18. Do the Right Thing (1989)

19. Casino Royale (..)

20. The Lion King (1994)

21. Schindler’s List (1993)

22. Rushmore (1998)*

23. Memento (..)

24. A Room With a View (1986)

25. Shrek (..)

26. Hoop Dreams (1994)

27. Aliens (1986)

28. Wings of Desire (1988)*

29. The Bourne Supremacy (..)

30. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

31. Brokeback Mountain (..)

32. Fight Club (1999)*

33. The Breakfast Club (1985)*

34. Fargo (1996)*

35. The Incredibles (..)

36. Spider-Man 2 (..)

37. Pretty Woman (1990)

38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (..)*

39. The Sixth Sense (1999)*

40. Speed (1994)*

41. Dazed and Confused (1993)

42. Clueless (1995)

43. Gladiator (..)

44. The Player (1992)*

45. Rain Man (1988)

46. Children of Men (..)*

47. Men in Black (1997)

48. Scarface (1983)

49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (..)

50. The Piano (1993)*

51. There Will Be Blood (..)

52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)*

53. The Truman Show (1998)

54. Fatal Attraction (1987)

55. Risky Business (1983)*

56. The Lives of Others (..)

57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)*

58. Ghostbusters (1984) *

59. L.A. Confidential (1997)*

60. Scream (1996)

61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)

63. Big (1988)

64. No Country For Old Men (..)

65. Dirty Dancing (1987)

66. Natural Born Killers (1994)

67. Donnie Brasco (1997)

68. Witness (1985)

69. All About My Mother (1999)

70. Broadcast News (1987)

71. Unforgiven (1992)

72. Thelma & Louise (1991)*

73. Office Space (1999)

74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

75. Out of Africa (1985)

76. The Departed (..)

77. Sid and Nancy (1986)

78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)*

80. Michael Clayton (..)

81. Moonstruck (1987) *

82. Lost in Translation (..)

83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)

84. Sideways (..)

85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (..)*

86. Y Tu Mamá También (..)

87. Swingers (1996)

88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)*

89. Breaking the Waves (1996)

90. Napoleon Dynamite (..)

91. Back to the Future (1985) *

92. Menace II Society (1993)

93. Ed Wood (1994)

94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

95. In the Mood for Love (..)

96. Far From Heaven (..)

97. Glory (1989)

98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)
Stay cool!

Vegas

I'm in Disneyland.
I didn't take the apple martini picture, but i did have a few after dinner tonight (last night). But of course it was for work, not pleasure.

Horseshoe Bend

My timing was a little bit off today. Apparently I just missed, by a matter of minutes, the opportunity to photograph a California Condor perched on the edge of the gorge at Horseshoe Bend. As I walked the trail to the edge of the gorge, I met another photographer who was heading back to his car. He noticed I was carrying a tripod and he stopped to tell me about the condor. He said there was a condor that had been sitting on a rock right on the edge of the gorge for close to half an hour. He pulled out his camera and showed me the images that he had just taken. They were unbelievable. Condors aren't exactly the prettiest birds, but they are big and very rare. This guy had some great shots of the bird, but did not have a website to share where the shots could be seen.

I may have missed the chance to photograph the unique bird, but I still had a great time at Horseshoe Bend. The bend is just a few miles south of Page, Arizona on the Colorado River. It is very easy to get to via a relatively short (although sandy) trail from the highway. During my visit there were about 50 other people there at the same time. The little parking lot at the trailhead was almost full, and included one tour bus, which apparently was filled with French people. Which brings me to one oddity of this trip... at times it seems as though I have heard more French than English being spoken as I visit some of these areas in the southwest. Today I felt like I was back in France as the people from the tour bus were spread out along the trail and I could hear French being spoken almost the whole time I was at Horseshoe Bend. I guess the southwest has become quite popular with European travelers!