Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Friday Five – Triops, Screech, Sheli & stuff

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There be dinosaurs here. Yep, my Grandson and I are growing dinosaurs, well, sort of. We’re growing Triops (tadpole shrimp) fairy shrimp from a Smithsonian kit. The Triops are considered to be living fossils since their fossil records date back from 200 million years or more.
When these critters hatched they were so tiny they were almost microscopic and could only be seen with a magnifying glass. Three days later they were a smidge bigger and I made a video of them. They’re the tiny smudges swimming around. I put a ruler behind the tank so you can kind of see how tiny they are.
There seems to be some issues with my  Not-Triops video loading. If it doesn’t load you may want to check back later. I figure YouTube is swamped with surfers and that causing some of the issues.

~edited in 12-27-2014~

I made some changes to the title and description of my video because my commenters on Youtube identified the shrimp as fairy shrimp and not triops.
~I originally thought these were Triops, tadpole shrimp because I used a Smithsonian Sea Monster Kit (that says Triops is what’s supposed to hatch.)
Last week, Within the first 24 hours of putting the egg-moss in the water, there were oodles of teeny-tiny almost microscopic critters that hatched out.
I’m guessing there were triops in the hatching, but the fairy shrimp were the stronger and they survived.
I’m going to try again to hatch some Triops using another Smithsonian Sea Monster Kit… maybe with luck a few Triops will hatch and survive.
🙂
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IMG_7667Even though the weather has turned super cold, Screech is still here most of the time. We were surprised when he showed back up last fall. We’re happy he’s still hanging around.
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IMG_8169Sheli has enjoyed napping ‘neath the Christmas tree these past couple weeks. Surprisingly he hasn’t tried to chew up any of the holiday decor. He’s such a cutie-pie I couldn’t resist taking a photo…
soft puppy, warm puppy, little ball of fur 2
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IMG_8464After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I figure most of us have earned a few moments to relax and unwind from the stress… and what better way to relax then with a treat that requires no cooking or baking… just mix 4 ingredients together and then enjoy or put in the fridge to enjoy later. Either way it’s a tasty treat.
Can of crushed pineapple, can of cherry pie filling, box of jello cheese cake pudding mix & whip cream. You could use other pie fillings in this instead of cherry. I think blueberry would be fun and I think apple pie filling might be yummy too.
Here’s a link to the recipe with the amounts needed of each ingredient and tutorial from the Country Cook. Cherry Pie Fluff
chef
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IMG_7845The other day, as I was taking groceries out of the trunk of our car, I saw a sticker on the side of the trunk. It’s a curious thing to me and I wonder what it means. I’ve asked several people and so far no one knows.
I think the no-gas part means not to put gas in the trunk, but the other part of the sticker is a bit odd. What does the exclamation point on a book mean?
I thought I’d share it here and see if any of my Blogging Buddies or Readers know and will help solve my mystery.
0rangespacer2This wraps it up for me for this week.
I hope you all had a joyous holiday and are getting ready for a wonderful new year.

b0614Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.
🙂skyspacer

Random Five Friday – 9-5-2014

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IMG_6765Sheli enjoyed some time sitting in my lap under a shade tree. We’ve been trying to take advantage of the nice weather in between storms.

IMG_6644Last weekend, My husband built a small fire for me and our Grandson to grill some marshmallows to make some smores. Our Grandson was surprised I’d never made nor eaten a smore before. It was a lot of fun for me to have my Grandson show me how to make one. Here’s a photo of my first and only smore. 🙂smore1

We were at our local department store and I was delighted to see that they have Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses stocked on the shelves already. Peanut Butter kisses doesn’t last long on the shelves and they’ll be out-of-stock within no time.  I scurried over and got me a couple bags. Apparently there’s a lot of us that share a sweet-tooth for these chewy sweet goodies. I wonder if that’s just a southern-thang or if they’re as popular in the other parts of the states and the world?
Do you have a seasonal candy or food that you look forward too buying or making over a holiday? IMG_6922

I chopped open some of my round squash to save the seeds. I didn’t keep the squash part, we’re burned out on squash for the year. I had my husband take them to the woods for the deer to eat.IMG_6824

While I was sitting under a shade tree trying to surf the net I finally got my blog page to load and then I noticed my reflection in my KindleFire, so I took a sort of a reflection-selfy with my digital camera. lol IMG_6801Notice the band-aid at the top of my KindleFire. It’s there blocking the camera lens. I do the same thing on my laptop too. I don’t like having cameras pointed at me all the time. I’ve never even activated the camera on my KF. I don’t see any reason too. If it had a camera lens on the back side like a cellphone, I’d probably activate it and use it though.
I wish I was more skilled at using the keyboard on the kindlefire, then I could do some serious blogging.  Honestly, I don’t have the patience to sit and correct-the-auto-correct. For some reason it constantly changes what I type. Oh well, gotta love modern technology.

So, how about you, other than texting, are you skilled at using the typing part of tablets or cellphones to make blog posts or comments?

I hope these last days of Summer are going well for you all.
Have a nice weekend.
🙂
spgrnbgln

Random Five Friday – 8-22-2014

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0-shelibeanI figure what better way to start off a Random Friday Five than with Shelibean.  I wanted a new photo of Sheli to post here, but he was having none of it. I scooped him up and sat him on an old table outside and still he wouldn’t cooperate. This was the only photo out of a half dozen that was even recognizable. It’s like he knows if he moves his head it blurs the photo. Apparently Sheli loves being a lap-landing-ornament but he ain’t gonna be nobody’s super model.

IMG_6329My husband’s flower bed is looking wonderful. It’s so pretty in real life.

IMG_6341Our Gerber daisies never have had a chance to flourish because something keeps cutting them down.
I was happy when I found this one with a bloom and a ladybug. I figure the bloom won’t be there much longer. It’s either rabbits or squirrels that cuts our Gerber daisies down. Nope it’s not a cutting worm. Want to know how I know it’s not a cutting worm? Because cutting worms don’t leave foot prints in the dirt and they don’t scatter the leaves and stems. lol

IMG_6325The walnuts are falling, which means that Autumn is soon to be here putting the land to bed getting ready for the long winter’s sleep.  We don’t ever harvest the walnuts, we leave them for the squirrels to eat and bury all over the yard.

IMG_6392I’ve been working a bit on burlap decor. I’ve decided it needs some color. Instead of buying colored burlap I dyed it with coffee and kool-aid. I’m pleased as peaches with the results.
While I’m discussing burlap, here’s a little stuffed heart I made that may end up on my new wreath. I’m quite pleased with the way it looks and I wanted to show it off. 😉IMG_6387

This is all for me at the moment.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend.
smileflower
spgrnbgln

Happy Lefthanders Day!

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It’s finally here, that special day when the small percentage of us folks can celebrate the fact that we’re different from the rest (and not be burnt at the stake for it. lol)

It’s August 13th National Lefthanders Day!

2lefties

I’m happy to be sharing this special day with you all.
It’s a fun way to make folks aware that we’re all human regardless what hand we write with.

b0118…b0105…chef

In honor of the day, I’m sharing my story:

I’m a Cross Dominant Leftie, with Right Hand tendencies!
(Sounds almost naughty, Doesn’t it? lol 😉 )

In the early part of my life, I hadn’t met more than a few left-handed people. Back then, not many folks would admit it openly. It carried a stigma and some folks thought it was a shame or we was somehow lesser than the average right-handed human. Happily in the last few dozen years, I’ve met many lefties and we’re just ‘proud as peaches’ to be lefties.

As a child, I was Ambidextrous  and was quite efficient with using both my hands equally. As I grew up, I became what is known as Cross Dominant and adjusted to being able to use my right hand for most everything except for writing.

I remember seeing some of my classmates brow beat, embarrassed and punished into using their right hands. I recall there was even a condescending little ditty the teachers sang over them to embarrass them, they also encouraged the right-handed students to sing it with them. I’ve heard many sad stories from folks and I also remember my parents telling stories about children being physically forced into learning to be right-handed.

My Dad was very firm in his beliefs and he was not a man to be trifled with. There wasn’t a Schoolmaster nor Schoolmarm nor Principle nor Teacher that would have dared tried to change my writing hand. Thanks to my Dad, I was never subjected to the cruel ditty nor did I ever catch any flack about being left-handed  … although I thought I did once…

When I was in first grade, I was sitting at my desk, doing my Math and my left hand grew tired of making the amounts of dots to match the numbers 1-10, so I switched to my right hand.
The next thing I knew my teacher had called in the second grade teacher. They both hovered around me saying things that I couldn’t understand and spoke about my switching hands and then called me ambidextrous.

I didn’t understand the word. They scared me to death. I thought I had done something bad and was in trouble. And like any normal frightened little 6-year-old girl, I began to cry. I thought they were talking ugly about me.

Thankfully I was literally saved by the bell, the last bell of the day. The second grade teacher left to go to her class and my teacher got busy helping everyone line up to go to the buses.

I managed to get my things, go get on the bus and I whimpered all the way home. I was confused and felt so ashamed. I had apparently done something wrong. I was terrified they would paddle me for it the next school day. I tried to hide my tears, but after I got to the safety of my home and parents I fell apart. My parents immediately wanted to know why I was crying and if anyone had hurt me.

Through storms of tears, I told Mom and Dad how the teachers had acted. I couldn’t remember the big word they had called me. I tried to say it but it was too big for my little memory.
So, Mom and Dad asked me what I was doing when the teachers came up to me.
I explained about doing my Math and my left hand getting tired and switching to my right hand.
Dad and Mom both smiled and explained to me that the teachers had called me an ambidextrous and it was a good thing to be and they explained why.
Of course I felt instantly better and special too.
thup

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful day
regardless of what your dominant hand is.
rightleft

spgrnbgln