Once Upon A Time

Ashcroft should quit his day job

I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 on Sunday at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring. I hadn't ever read or viewed any of Michael Moore's previous books or films. So I wasn't sure what to expect.

I thought he did a great job of putting the range of footage together (with music) into a coherent two hour package. There were parts to make you angry, parts to make you cry, and parts to make you laugh your ass off to release the tension. Yes, it's tilted to the left, but nothing was inaccurate as far as could tell. Clearly Bush & Co. wouldn't want you to see something so unflattering toward them, so they'd say just about anything they could to stop people from watching it. Yet it did show me that Dubya could speak coherently once....over 20 years ago, LOL.

The most shocking thing: Ashcroft singing....and well!

Everyone should go see this film....and vote in November.

Ringed Tail

Two days ago I saw a raccoon just before dusk wandering around on a neighbor's patio. At first, I had thought it was a cat. But when it looked directly at me, I realized it was a raccoon. And he realized I was looking at him and he decided to scoot under the patio through a small hole. I wonder if these neighbors in the next street know they have a raccoon tenant living under their patio.

(Not so) Hot, Hot, Hot

Thank God it's Friday and the start of another great weekend. Temperatures around 80 for another weekend. Gotta love it. So far, this has become one of the best summers we've had in a long time.

I prolly jinxed it now.....damn. LOL.

Rescue

Tonight during my walk around the lake, I paused to look at the heron. (Incidentally, last night I saw *3* herons in one area of the lake, a new record)

I heard some splashing and moved closer to inspect what was splashing close to the heron. I soon realized it was a duck in distress. I'm not sure if its wing or foot was caught on something, but it quickly became clear that it would drown if not freed. Two women and a dog stopped to see what was going on and they too became concerned for the duck. We tried grabbing a long stick to use in our effort to free the duck. Before we knew it, a jogger stopped and he made his way to the bank in a position closest to the duck. (There's lots of trees and underbrush one had to contend with to get near the duck).

He quickly found that using a stick to move the branch near the duck was not going to be enough to free the duck. And the duck was running out of energy from struggling and was starting to sink below the surface. He tried balancing on a log close to the duck, but that wasn't sufficiently close for reaching out to grab the duck. So the fellow braved the muckiness in his running shoes, unsure how deep the area of the marshy area of the lake was and moved closer to duck until he could reach it and extract it from the water.

The duck began to flap its wings forcing the guy to release it quickly by the shore. Once freed and released the duck quickly swam away and squawked, perhaps for its mother. The guy was afraid the duck's wing may have been broken, but there was no way to check. The duck quickly moved from our view.

Hopefully, the duck will survive. If its wing is broken, it may not. But we just couldn't stand by and let it drown. At least know it has a chance of survival.

Optical Confusion

Not sure why, but most of the pictures came out blurry while a few came out fine. I'm thinking something mst be up with his camera. My hand surely wasn't shaking that much! LOL. Here's a sample:

Name that Plant

Thanks to a woman walking past my yard, I now know what those plants are that are currently blooming in my backyard. They are Yucca Plants. I did take some photos this evening before dusk. I hope to upload them soon. Well, as soon as my brother downloads the pictures from his camera. *sigh*

Agave anyone?

I have these plants in my backyard garden that I believe are in the agave family. This spring they developed these spikes that are in the process of budding. On one of them, the branched spike is now taller than me....and I'm almost 5'4". I've been anxiously awaiting them to flower and now I think the buds may finally open this week. Or at least I hope so. I'm growing quite impatient waiting for them to do their thing. I saw similar plants at the Clara Barton House near DC, and those were blooming a week ago. And the blooms were prettier than I had imagined they would be. So I really want to see mine bloom...now. LOL.

And last year, I was hating these plants because I thought them ugly and boring....but then again, they didn't bloom last year.

Shark Bait

It appears Alex Kingston is "shocked and upset" her character has been axed on ER. It seems the producers felt she was too old and not exciting enough. Bah.

My advice to Alex is....don't sweat it. That show jumped the shark years ago. It's a longtime sinking ship. Better to get off it now and move on with your career.

I mean who do you know still watches ER? Where when it began it was a realistic drama, now it's a pathetic, unbelievable soap opera. Truly a pity. At least Clooney knew when to jump ship, LOL.

7-7-7

Is this my lucky post? I guess it's better than 666.

The question is have I blogged anything particularly worthwhile in 777 posts over almost 3 years.......

Secret Garden

One of the few things accomplished this week--the painting of my kitchen. I chose what I thought was a nice green color that matched my floor mat in the kitchen, (Glidden's Secret Garden, only I had it mixed at Sears). It turned out closer to being what I refer to as "scrubs green". I feel like my kitchen is now a surgical suite. Mom says it looks good. I'm not so convinced. Luckily I decided to only paint on the two walls amidst my cabinets. I figured it would make the room too dark to do the whole thing. Maybe with a few pictures or trivets above my cabinets, it'll look fine. LOL. ;)

Duck, Duck, Goose!

This week, Mom and I have been taking a walk around the lake every day. Most days we saw a momma wood duck and her 19 ducklings. Yes, 19!

We're not sure whether she layed and hatched all 19, but they are all hers now. Another wood duck has 6 ducklings as well, but we only saw her a couple times. And a third one has none, but seems to have wanted to abscond a few from the one with 19 yesterday, but the mom and even a few babies chased her away.

The sweetest thing is seeing all 19 plus momma wood duck perched on a fallen tree, snuggling together in a long line along its length. They look so adorable. We've found that in just a week they've already grown so much. They just grow up too fast! ;)

We also have a few sets of goslings at the lake, but they are already getting big and ugly. The ducks are so much more pleasant and amusing.