A Weekend of Celebrations

Friday was our wedding anniversary and today is Sam's birthday so I decided to scan our old photos in order to preserve them. Here is a slide show of our wedding back in 1971:

And here are some pictures of Sam:

This anniversary, we (the two of us with Richard & Nancy) had dinner at the Tam O'Shanter in Glendale and then saw Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal at the Greek Theater. It was nice to go home after the concert and wake up without having to pack up in the morning. Saturday was spent resting and recovering from all the great food and drink of the night before!

An Unexplained (Google) Phenomenon

I'm a great fan of Google's holiday and special event logos but today's is creating lots of comment because no one knows why they put it up. If you click on it, it automatically searches for "unexplained phenomenon" - however, the top result is this article in the British online news site, the Telegraph. Best of all are the comments and conjectures - click on the title to read them or google it yourself!
(Google has no better explanation on their Google-Logos blog.)

Smuggler's Blues, Star Wars Style

Thanks to my "wookie" friend, Annie, I'm being completely nerdy by posting this fabulous video here and on my MySpace blog. I've always liked the song and love the Han Solo character, so here's a very creative mashup:



I can't wait to see all six Star Wars movies when I play them at the library during a Star Wars Film Fest!

My Possum Friend . . .

. . . is becoming less timid. I've been leaving out apple or banana slices for this little guy every night for months. He/she eats the fruit along with slugs and snails and the occasional avocado, unless the raccoons are around. The nice thing about this guy - besides keeping the snail and slug population down - is that I often find a nice-sized avocado left on the ground for us many mornings when our tree is in season!

The Prairie

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, -
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

- emily dickinson
Until Carol and I explored the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge (4-5 miles from the Bergland cabin on Blue Lake) I had no idea how beautiful prairies can be. Until our visit to Minnesota a couple of weeks ago, I'd always thought of them as dry, flat, grassy expanses. I was very pleased to discover acres of summer wildflowers between areas of oak savannahs (until recently all but chopped down out of existence, they, along with the prairie, have been replanted and restored at this refuge. It was easy to imagine why settlers moved here - so many trees just right for building cabins and so much land available to farm. So good for the pioneers; too bad for the land!)