Wordless Wednesday

Travel

Dave posted a list of 100 Places to Visit Before You Die.

I love to travel. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to go many places over the past few years due to various circumstances which included my back injury and finances. My back is feeling much better – I’d say I’m probably up to 85% of where I was before I got hurt. I don’t see me improving much more, but at least it won’t be holding me back from most things I want to do. I just have to get my finances straightened out and then I want to start traveling again. When I was younger, one of the goals I had set for myself was to visit everywhere at least once. I am so far behind schedule right now, there is no way I’ll ever be able to accomplish that dream. I guess I’ll just have to be pickier about where I go when I do start traveling again

I’ve only been to four places on Dave’s list and there are a lot of places on that list that I either have no desire to see or the chances that I would ever get to see are slim to none.

I found this list that is more to my tastes and more attainable. I’ve marked the places I’ve been with a smiley face

100 Places to Visit Before You Die:

United States

New England States

• Boston National Historical Park
• Portland Head Lighthouse
• Gettysburg Battlefield
• Newport Cliff Walk
• Independence Hall

Mid-Atlantic States

• Smithsonian Institution
• Lincoln Memorial
• The White House
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial (I saw the traveling one – does that count?)
• The Boardwalk
• The Statue of Liberty
• Empire State Building
• Hershey's Chocolate World

Southern States

• Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church & Parsonage
• Bathhouse Row
• John F. Kennedy Space Center
• Landmark District
• The French Quarter
• The Belle of Louisville Steamboat
• The Grand Ole Opry House
• Shenandoah Valley

Midwest States

• Niagara Falls (Niagara Falls, NY is considered a Midwest State???)
• The Gateway Arch

Great Plains States

• Mt. Rushmore

Mountain States

• Rocky Mountain National Park
• Glacier National Park
• Monument Valley
• Frontier Days
• Devils Tower National Monument

Southwestern States

• Grand Canyon
• Las Vegas Strip
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
• The Alamo
• The Live Music Capitol of the World

Pacific States

• Hollywood Boulevard
• Golden Gate Bridge
• USS Arizona Memorial
• Powell's City of Books
• The Space Needle
• Pike Place Market
• Deception Pass

Canada

• Charlottetown Festival
• Christ Church Cathedral

Mexico

• Chichen Itza
• The Beach

South America

• Festival of Flowers
• Christ the Redeemer
• Carnivale
• Incan Ruins
• World's Southernmmost City
• Angel Falls

Europe

• The Grand Canal
• The Colosseum
• St. Peter's Basilica
• The Acropolis
• Mount Olympus
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Stonehenge
• Tower of London
• Big Ben
• Westminster Abbey
• Edinburgh Castle
• Blarney Castle
• The Louvre
• Notre Dame Cathedral
• Champs Elysee
• Arc de Triomphe
• Eiffel Tower
• Monte Carlo Casino
• The Cathedral of Seville
• The Rock of Gibraltar
• The Running of the Bulls
• Belem Tower
• Neuschwanstein Castle
• Salzburg, Austria
• Vienna, Austria
• The Alps
• Prague Castle
• Parliament Building
• Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia
• Optimisticeskaja (Optimists' Cave)
• St. Basil's Cathedral
• Kazan Cathedral
• Hagia Sofia

The Middle East

• Western (or 'Wailing') Wall
• The Dome of the Rock
• Petra archaeological site
• Cedars of God Forest

Asia

• Taj Mahal
• Great Wall
• Imperial Palace
• Sapporo Snow Festival

Africa

• Pyramids of Giza
• Victoria Falls National Park
• Serengeti National Park
• Table Mountain National Park

Australia

• Sydney Opera House
• Great Barrier Reef

Oceania

• Moai (Easter Island Statues)

I really like this list. I will have to update it whenever I visit any of these places…

Katyn

If it weren’t for the plane crash which killed the president of Poland along with 96 other national leaders, I don’t think that the story of the Katyn massacre would have been in the news media in the U.S. at all.

Buffalo, along with Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Jersey City and Toronto, has a memorial plaque commemorating the 22,000 people killed in the Katyn forest in Russia. Yesterday a re-dedication ceremony was held at city hall marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre and a memoriam for all those Poles who died in the plane crash two weeks ago.

I was there and went to the Oscar-nominated movie Katyn, that was shown afterwards at the Arcade theater.

I remember vaguely hearing about this tragedy when I was younger - but when you are young, things like this just aren’t interesting.  As I get older, I understand more and more how important – and horrifying - events like this are in the grand scheme of things.

The movie explained the whole story to me, but what I found infinitely more interesting was the Q&A that was held afterwards.  Councilman Joe Golombek - along with someone else whose name I can’t remember – stayed after the movie and answered questions about the movie and massacre from people in the audience.

There were people that attended the movie that were living in Poland at the time and they shared with us what happened in their lives at the time.  I wish that there had been more time for more stories and questions, but there was another movie showing, so we had to leave after about half hour or forty-five minutes.

Emotional is probably the biggest adjective I could use to describe how I felt afterwards.

I have more of an appreciation of how important it is for a country to have a strong military to protect its citizens.  I think that it is good for the United States to be a friendly country, but I want every other country to be afraid of us too.  I don’t want to ever have to live through what those people had to live through back then.

The thought of living in fear that someone from another country could just take you or your family from your home and kill you for no reason scares the crap out of me.  I never would have had thoughts like that cross my mind before – I’m an American, after all.  But frankly, with Obama in office and the way he’s making a mess of everything… I’m getting kind of worried.  I’m praying that someone else will get into office before he does too much more damage. 

Rich Kellman did a piece about Katyn on Channel 2 news last night.  I can’t embed the video, but here is a link to it.

Fenced In

I sure hope that the great weather we’ve been having this spring is an indication of the summer we are going to have.  Normally spring is my least favorite season of the year – I hate the rain and the damp and the mud, but this spring has been absolutely fantastic so far.  Not just the unseasonably warm temperatures we’ve been having, but the lack of mud.  I love it 

I got the fence up around my garden.  My main goal is to keep the Evil Stupid-Garden-Eating-Rabbits out.  I’m hoping that it will keep the deer out too, but I know that they would be able to hop the fence if they really wanted to.  Hopefully they won’t want to.  I know The Ladies would be able to get in too, but they will probably think it’s too much trouble to fly over…

 

It’s just plastic garden fencing and will probably only last this season, but I think it will hold me over until next year when I can (hopefully) afford something more permanent.

I am definitely looking forward to getting some strawberries this year!

Peas, lettuce and cabbage are all in the ground now 

I want to get a load of compost to mix in all the garden beds.  I haven’t added any in a few years and they are definitely due.  Unfortunately the Amherst Compost Facility doesn’t open until May 1rst, so I’ll have to wait another week…  If the weather is nice next Saturday, that place is going to be a zoo!

 

 

 

Francis

Today I felt like Francis.  You remember Francis…

 

Today it seemed like some people just didn’t have the concept of personal space and it was making me very cranky.  I tried to lighten up on the outside, but inside…  

Wordless Wednesday

This ‘n That Tuesday

• I’m not digging the new Doctor so far. And they changed the opening music – I like the original better. I know it’s only been the first episode, but I really don’t think that Matt Smith fits the part. The story was good, but I want David Tennant back. Wah!

• I think I may have beaten the starlings this year… so far so good. So far no starlings in my hallway. So far no starlings in my dryer vent. So far no starlings in my shed. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

• Why do guys all think that anything having to do with farts is funny?

• The garbage man isn’t going to like me tomorrow. I’ve been busy cleaning up my yard this week. Anyone who knows my property, knows that the previous owners left a lot to clean up. I do know that they did clean up a lot, so things could be a lot worse, but there is still a lot left… This year I’m going to make an extra effort to get more cleaned up than I normally do. With the nice weather, I’ve made a lot of headway – yay me!

• I’ve been hitting a lot of good numbers on my odometer lately. Today I passed 151515

• After a lot of experimenting, Downy really is the best fabric softener – it gets everything way softer than any other fabric softener on the grocery store shelf. It is more expensive, but in this case you get what you pay for. The only thing with Downy tho’ – don’t pour it directly on your clothes because it will stain them…

• My seedlings are doing good so far. The only things that haven’t come up yet are my pumpkins, watermelon and peppers. If they don’t start coming up this week, I’m going to put in some new seeds…

Growing – or Not

I really liked my tulips…

 …and if you look closely – it looks like someone else was liking them too.

 

 REALLY liking them 

 

 

…but none of my daffodils were touched.  I guess I’ll just stick with daffodils from now on    

 

The culprit?  Either

      or    

But on the brighter side of things…

Last Sunday I planted seeds to get my garden started.  I jumped off the idea from Dave at The Door Garden.  While my setup isn’t even close to being as fancy as Dave’s, it seems to be working.  Yesterday a lot of the seeds started coming up… here’s what they are looking like today:

Yay!  I’m very encouraged and hope to have a really high germination rate…  I am soooo looking forward to a garden full of tasty goodness 

TVDuck

Did you ever have a TV show that you thought was really great, but only lasted a season – maybe two if you’re lucky – and then it just disappeared?  You can’t find it on DVD or Netflix… you might find an episode or two on YouTube, but that’s it?

Most of the shows I like never last very long and there are a few that I was never able to find again.  (Story of my life!)

Until today.

Today I learned about TVDuck.com

From the website:

Watch TV shows online quick and easy with TVDuck.com. Watch free streaming television online including full length tv episodes. The free full tv episodes are available to watch for free and are not hosted on our servers but linked to the best video sources on the internet. We are the source for free TV links and full movie downloads. Full Episodes of TV Shows from the early years to recent are listed, you can rate episodes (links), add favourite shows, and watch tv shows & movies free!  We are a free community run site, like wikipedia for tv shows & movies, users suggest links to add or remove.

While not guaranteed to have what you’re looking for, chances are really good it’s there.  Browsing through the episode lists brought back a lot of memories of a lot of shows I had totally forgotten about.

It took me a little bit to figure out the free viewers, but I found a couple of shows from the 90’s that were long lost to me and was able to re-watch some episodes.  It was nice to see that they were just as good as I had remembered 

Wordless Wednesday

Rolling Fields

Oh beautiful,
For spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain…

 

OK – got the picture in your head?  Rolling fields of wheat, with their golden stalks swaying to and fro in the wind – mesmerizing you with their dance as they wait to be harvested.  Ah, a picture of the heart of America…

 

Now change that picture a little - Color the golden brown wheat a medium green instead.

Now make the wheat a little bit shorter – say, in the 2 – 5” range.

Now change the wheat into chives.

Now you know what my lawn looks like.

 

I have to cut my grass this week.

 

I wish there was a way to eradicate chives besides digging them all up 

But at least they are only an issue in the spring 

This ‘n That Thursday

• The Ladies’ pen makeover was a definite success – the rain we had this week was a perfect test.   I couldn’t be happier with the results 

 

• During the course of the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen quite a few dead things on the side of the road:  a couple of cats, deer, possum, skunk… but the oddest thing was a huge fish.  Don’t ask – I have no idea 

 

• Ridge Road Express school bus drivers are the best in the world.  I am so happy that they are my area, and if I had kids, I would not have any qualms about them riding the bus (unlike some other school buses – which make me fear for my life….).  Ridge Road Express drivers are not only very safe drivers, but they are very courteous to other people on the road.  I wish all school bus drivers were trained like Ridge Road Express Drivers.

 

• I refuse to turn my furnace back on 

 

• It looks like my Bird Wars this year may have ended before they have begun…  There is evidence of the starlings’ advanced troops scouting out my hallway already, but so far they haven’t been able to penetrate the defenses I put into place last year.  Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned…

 

• I lost my favorite players on Survivor and The Amazing Race…  I really hated to see Boston Rob go , along with Jeff and Jordan – even tho’ I don’t think that Jordan was really into the race anymore.  I was happy to see the Cowboys make a comeback.

 

• People shouldn’t be allowed to drive with their pet in their lap.  Oh wait – they aren’t… 

 

• Finally - Today my daffodils and tulips started opening up! 

    

• Unfortunately, so did my dandelions