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| Five of our painted lady butterflies emerged ready to make the great outdoors their home. |
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| But one little painted lady emerged from its chrysalids with a damaged wing. |
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| We let our little damaged friend live in the habitat with sugar water and on the plants in the sun room. |
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| Papa Tom and I didn't go to the Grand Prix in Austin, but we did go to FanFest downtown, where a Formula 1 racer was on display. The "cockpit" was tiny, and not enclosed. These racers go from 0 to 100 in two seconds! A pit stop for tire changes takes only three seconds. We watched a pit crew demonstration and observed at least one time saver: there's only one lug nut per tire. |
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| Station wagons were a staple of our childhoods. My friend Buddy Barnes came from a family of six kids. One day, after his Mom bought ground meat for the month, she left all the kids and meat in the station wagon while she shopped. It must have been a long stop, because the kids had time to decide to unwrap the hamburger meat and slide around in it, coating the entire back of the station wagon and themselves with raw hamburger meat. Who needs Six Flags when you've got the back of a station wagon and a month's worth of hamburger meat? |
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| A two-seater Fiat from the 60s. Probably perfect for navigating narrow European streets. |
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| Got to spend some time with old friends the weekend of November 11. Sharon, Connie, and I worked together at The Williamson County Sun in Georgetown in 1986 and 1987. Since then, we've all moved out of journalism. Sharon's a manager with Farmer's Insurance, I'm an attorney and administrative law judge, and Connie was a newspaper editor in Scottsdale, Arizona, until the newspaper folded about three years ago. She returned earlier this year from a stint with the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan, bordered by Russia on the north and Iran on the south. She currently lives in El Paso and works for the Federal government. |
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| The flat newel caps had cracked since installed in August 2008. |
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| Water in the cracks was rotting the wood. |
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| Time for Papa Tom to use leverage to lift the old newel cap off the finial. |
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| Papa Tom used his chisel to smooth the finial surface, so the new newel would lay flush with the top. |
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| Using the vice grips to remove finishing nails |
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| New newel! My part in the project: helping choose the newels at Lowes, then painting them. |
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| Brandy says it's hard to get the laundry done when a little monkey keeps stealing the underwear! |
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| The painted lady caterpillars arrived around October 22. Within days, they crawled to the top of their container and began spinning their cacoons. |
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| Once their cacoons were spun, we began carefully transferring them to their butterfly habitat. |
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| They're supposed to remain attached to the paper, which you pin to the inside of the habitat. |
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| So far, so good! They should emerge as butterflies right before Thanksgiving. We plan to put fresh flowers and sugar water in their habitat to keep them there until Thanksgiving. Then, if it's above 55 degrees, we can release them over the the holidays. |
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| Around 8:30 p.m., when it seemed most of the trick-or-treaters had headed home, we headed to Sixth Street to see what we could see. |
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| Some characters were from movies or video games (do they still call them "video" games?) that I haven't seen, apparently, but a lot of people in the crowd seemed to know who the characters were. |
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| I did recognize Puss in Boots, from the fairy tale about the cat who didn't think he could accomplish anything until he was given a pair of magic boots. Then, after he was successful, he found out the boots weren't magic at all; it was his belief in himself that brought his success. A similar tale: Dumbo being given the magic feather from the crows. A similar tale without the magic: the little engine that could. The moral of all these stories: believe in yourself and keep trying! |
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| I definitely didn't recognize these guys. |
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| The witch, the poisoned apple, and Snow White. |
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| Mayan or Aztec king? |
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| OK, this is driving me crazy. I know I've seen the character with the golden antelope horns in a film but I simply can't place him/her. Any help? |
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| The newest Baby Lewis is due May 7th. What a busy week that will be! Mya will have her golden birthday, turning 5 on May 5th; Skyler and Otis will turn 31 and 5 on May 8th. Will Baby Lewis arrive on one of their birthdays? Stay tuned! |
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| Great-uncle Tom with Jim, who was two months old on October 24. Jim's going to be Captain Kirk for Halloween and already has his Trekkie outfit ready to go. |
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| Jade and I stopped at Chuy's Elvis shrine: appropriate for such music-loving girls! Jade recognized the guitar, of course. Here, Jade has mastered queso dipping! |
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| At dinner after Emma's choir concert on October 22. |
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| Emma's friend Holly, sitting across the table from her, is making a video of Emma. |
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| More mugging for the video |
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| Video playback |
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| River's only 19 months old but can already wear the John Lennon T-shirt that Mya wore at age 2 1/2, back in her NYC days. And Mamma's shoes too! |
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| Sweet Mya! |
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| Chickens and roosters have the run of Key West. We saw a hen crossing the street, followed by her whistling chicks. So chickens really do cross the road! |
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| This very happy fellow downed a fish just before I took the picture. Speaking of fish, is that a fin in the water? |
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| Key lime pie is the signature island dessert. |
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| I had expected sandy beaches, but Key West is a coral island with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other side. I took this from the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor. |
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| Guy juggling on a very tall unicycle at Mallory Square, on the western tip of the island. |
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| One of the six-toed cats at Ernest Hemingway's former home. There are about 40 six-toed cats on the one-acre property. |
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| Do you see the cruise ship? I took the photo from the top of the lighthouse. |
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| Isn't there a song about a straw in the coconut? |
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| Practicing my pirate face for a sunset cruise on the Western Union, a schooner that was used to lay telegraph cable (hence the name) and also to search for German submarines in World War II. |
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| At the end of the road |
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| More sunset sky |
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| Leaving Key West at sunrise on Saturday, we had to stop for a photo of what we think is either an abandoned railroad bridge or possibly part of the original causeway connecting the Keys. |
