I wish they WERE butts.

This caught my eye. I thought it was an ashtray with butts on the ground next to it.

Terrible flooding. Stay safe everyone and have a nice Holiday.

I read it in the paper. Of course it's true.

Here: This explains my last post. Just bad math. Clip from the article below:

Clarity check: Rest easy, 1 of 4 Americans aren’t HIV-positive.



A headline we wrote over a story that was published Wednesday might have led you to think that was the case.



After reading the story, that headline also might have lead you to think that we had bumped our heads on something hard.



In fact, neither was the case.



However, a headline that should have been worded “An estimated 25 percent of Americans with HIV are not aware that they are infected,” instead was cast in such a way that suggested one-quarter of the U.S. population was HIV-positive.



We corrected the headline in Thursday’s print edition, but I still was receiving calls about it as recently as Friday.



We’re sorry that we weren’t as precise as we should have been.

Leave no statistic behind.

This caught my eye on the front page of the local paper. Whew. Glad we have only three in our household.

The average human has one breast and one testicle. ~Des McHale

Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything. ~Gregg Easterbrook

98% of all statistics are made up. ~Author Unknown

Bob (the cat). 15 second videos.

I grew up a dog person. We raised English Springer Spaniels when I was a kid. Burpee was my first dog. What was he named after? I don't know. I never really thought about it. Anyway, that was his name. He was around till I was about 16.

Now our household pets are all Amy's: Cubbie, the Chocolate Lab; Rama and Bob (the cat).

Both cats came from animal control centers. They were lucky. Living with Cubbie, they act like dogs in a way. In the morning they would rather wait by the door to be let out than use the litter box.

Catch them in the right mood and they actually will come if you call them (okay, sometimes). But in the end, they still are cats and usually follow the beat of a different drummer.

Bob (the cat) in 4 acts on a Sunday afternoon:

Part 1. Bob (the cat) sunning by the front step.

Part 2. Bob (the cat) says hi to his (something going on there) friend, Cubbie.

Part 3. Brushing him out while he "air guitars". So much hair. So much cat emotion. You should see him do the Blues.

Part 4. Brushed out, Bob (the cat), the epitome of balance, almost falls off the picnic table. Ha.

The music was excellent Sunday. It was live from the archives weekend. Mostly live performances from appearances on WXRT or local concerts. This noted, I can keep track how long it will be before they do it again.

Living in the country.

The Fourth Annual Hebron Fest.

Amy, Steph, Matt, and I were walking over to Main Street to watch the parade. I had a beverage in one hand (which I was trying to finish), the camera in my other (turned off), when I heard the sound of planes overhead.

I just barely caught them as they flew over. I didn't even realize there were four of them until I saw the picture. Anyway, it's officially started.

From Hebron Fest

Amy, Vonnie, Holly, Alex, Leah, Mark, Steph, and Matt waiting. Doesn't look like much of a parade yet. It's hot and humid by the way.

Amy watches the beginning of the parade.

My Aunt Ethel is the Grand Marshall. You can hardly see her - just her hat. Ninety three I believe. She lives two houses over from me and still gets around mostly by herself.

Now it is starting to look like a parade. Firetrucks.

The Jesse White Tumblers doing their thing. I only caught them moving the mats. They are well known in this area (from Chicago) and perform at many sporting events. Urban, Rural. Rural, Urban.




I noticed this looking at the pictures: where did all the people suddenly come from? It was only minutes later.

Gotta have tractors,

trains, (parts of Planes, Trains and Automobiles were filmed about 15 miles away)

and floats,

and more tractors. All Sunday afternoon was tractor and truck pulls.

I didn't ask, so no names. Think Meadowlands.

Kenny, next door neighbor. Clint detailed his truck. He (Clint) is trying to start up a detailing business.

Miss Milk Day. Different festival, different town but local. We have people in their parade too. I had to march in it with the band when I was in high school.

My niece, Leah, helped paint this mural. The basketball our water tower. We won state back in the 50's. Hebron High School is still the smallest in Illinois to win a state basketball tournament before they went to different size classes.

I waited for him to get close so I could take a picture of the fire blasting out of the jet engine. He killed it. No fire.

Markie works for radio station sponsoring the concert. Iron Butterfly and Canned Heat. I hear it's "going up in the country".

John Cougar Mellencamp, Small Town.

Tony, Weeds, Poppys.

Just curious: was I the only person with HBO that didn't watch the season/ show finale of The Sopranos last night?

I added HBO and hi-speed internet to our cable package last November because it was on special. I never saw one show of the past five seasons because of not having HBO. If I ever do watch The Sopranos, I would want to start from the beginning with either reruns or DVD's.

In fact, I'm doing that with HBO's The Wire. I'm about half-way thru season two. That is a fantastic show. Very realistic (I think?) - I'm more rural. We don't get the big city crime out here. (Irony: we are about 20 miles from Delavan, Wisconsin where 6 people were found murdered this last weekend.)

The only premium channel we had was Showtime with its excellent Weeds and Dexter - a pot selling soccer mom and a police forensic analyst serial killer. A little dark but much better than shows I've gotten sick of: Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy , etc.

Below is my veggie garden. Peonys and some buttercups are blooming next to the little white fence. Its harder than hell to get the fence straight so I purposely put it in crooked to give it a whimsical look.

This wouldn't be a bad place to bury a body either, right Tony?



Buttercups with aperture mode setting. This was easy with my old film camera. I am just learning with digital. The focus seems to jump out of manual mode. Its probably something I'm doing.



Wider view of the back yard. Its a little dark but it was taken at dusk. I just like the look after mowing.



The wildflower sand box below. The poppys hopefully are starting to take off. (and I was wondering how I could tie in The Sopranos and Weeds with garden pictures.) Poppys. They just sound illegal.



Below is a peony taken in macro mode.

Famous brother.

Washington Post:

LONDON -- Little known musician Chris Jagger had been saying for years that his famous brother Mick would one day join him on stage. When it finally happened, the audience numbered about 40.

It happened late last month at the Bull's Head, a riverside pub in southwest London, and anyone who wants proof can see grainy footage on YouTube that someone captured on a cell phone.

Mick Jagger, 63, had been visiting his former wife Jerry and their children in nearby Richmond when he slipped into the pub wearing a purple sweater and joined Chris's Atcha! blues band. In the impromptu performance, Chris, 59, plays guitar, and the brothers use a single microphone to sing "Dead Flowers," a track from the Stones' "Sticky Fingers" album.

Chris told the Daily Mail newspaper that he persuaded his brother during a break in the Atcha! show to take to the stage. "At first he didn't really want to do it, but I said to him: 'You've got a tour coming up. I think you need the practice'," Chris said.

Mick and Chris Jagger sing Dead Flowers at the Bulls Head in Barnes.

Take a picture.

Daughter Amy, bartender, has a picture in the weekly trade magazine. It was sitting on the kitchen table next to her "IN TOUCH" magazine showing pictures of celebs with and without makeup. I couldn't pass it up.

I hate the way cameras pick up everything; the kitchen table has followed us for years and the missing piece of veneer was long ago picked off and splintered by another pet "Moe", our cockatoo. He is now living in another state, well taken care of, and, someone else's pet.

Jessica Alba looks great either way. Just an observation. I did like her in Dark Angel.

Anyway, Dave of DMB was also a bartender and is one of her favorite bands. I think its a good reason to post one of his songs.

Dave Matthews Band: Bartender.



Filter. Take a Picture.

What should we tip him?

(Buster Poindexter from the movie Scrooged, aka David Johansen of The New York Dolls)

CASH CAB. New summer fare... (get it?).

On the Discovery Channel (for my part, I at least waited till after dusk to turn on the TV and run across this show).
The premise: a taxi cab picks you up and you have to answer questions for money given to you by the driver. Three wrong and you are out on the curb. Or if you do well, keep the money you get for answering the questions correctly. It was a stupid show but the questions actually were above the norm of most game shows.

Clip from the show: CASH CAB.

Counting Crows, Big Yellow Taxi.

Taxi Driver by well known Stones fan, Martin Scorsese. I’m waiting for the documentary of the Stones at the end of this summer.

Death Cab for Cutie, Title & Registration.

Cab Calloway, Reefer Man

More J.

Still planting. Morning Glories by the mailbox. Cages for tomatoes and peppers.

I heard this song on the radio today. I like. I have nothing to say but posting a couple videos will help me remember the day.



Ocean is a bonus. I had never heard before. (maybe he'll do Lollapalooza?)