A fabulous reward!

Recently Colleen posed a question about what kind of mushrooms are growing in her patio. I came up with an answer so I won the prize. I got a bunch of turtle clip art emailed to me.

The best includes kitties.

Aren't they precious?

Hello. I'm Forrest. Forrest Gump.

(This really isn't all that interesting.)

I might not be running across the country like Mr. Gump but I've been running.

This morning the odometer on my account on our treadmill turned over 2000 miles.


Without leaving the house I've run from here to Birmingham, Alabama. It's taken me a little less than three years. I apparently average around 5.4 MPH.

I think the calories burned (the 48K) must go back to zero every so often otherwise that's only 24 calories per mile.

(I told you that this wasn't very interesting.)

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Doorstop and friend.

Waste not

Our morning newspaper is delivered inside a plastic bag.  This keeps it dry in the rainy season.  The rest of the year the bag doesn't do anything that a rubber band can't do other than give us something more to store then haul to the recycling bin at the grocery store.

Today's newspaper's plastic bag had helpful water saving hints printed on it!

But wait!  The stop-wasting-water bag was an extra!  Inside it was the newspaper inside its usual plastic bag.

Let's hear it for reducing waste!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Concrete turtle on the front porch.

Another piece of art!

Back in January Jerry and I went on an expedition to jump start the economy by buying art with the money Mom sent us from Jack's estate. We ran out of room in the car before we ran out of money to spend.

One of the galleries we went through had some pieces by the glass artist Scott Amrhein. They were somewhat large and would have been a task to place even by such an expert arranger as Jerry. Besides, as I said, we had filled the car with other pieces so we had to leave them behind.

There is a gallery in La Jolla that carries Mr. Amrhein's work. Yesterday we went shopping in La Jolla. We came home with a piece whose scale fits our house.

Here are some pictures of it. I took several with different exposures. I couldn't figure out which to show you so here are three. You have to decide with shows it off best.

This picture was taken without a flash and was somewhat underexposed (thus the graininess). I tweaked it just a bit to increase its exposure.

This one is without a flash but was a bit overexposed.

And one with a flash. It brings out some of the colors that we probably won't see with normal lighting.

Glass is such a pretty material, especially in the hands of a great artist.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

An inscribed and painted soapstone egg with turtles.

Also shown is a painting of a scarab brought back by Mom and Dad from an Elderhostel trip to Egypt. Well, it looks a bit like a turtle (with six legs)!