Hey Janice,

Great to hear from you..the weekend has went fast again..

I have never been to a card party..but I have been to alot of benefits with silent auctions and cake walks…and they were fun..congrats on your winnings…

I haven’t done anything exciting this weekend..just hanging out at home( as usual)..it has been raining most of the weekend..so I have been watching tv and im-ing my grandkids…Oh yeah..I had some strawberries dip in chocolate..yumyum..

I am going for Highlights and a cut on Thursday..I haven’t had highlights in awhile and thought it might camo the unwanted natural ones..haha…I love going to the salon and getting pampered..

Have a restful Sunday evening..
deb in tn

Hello Janice,
Thanks for the comment. I will take some photos for you guys and send
you some again. My weekend was okay. It’s already Monday here
It seems you had a good time at the party and you’ve won many prizes!
Cool, I cannot wait to see your new hair do, or just highlights???
What’s your natural hair color? Mine is just black. Have a wonderful day!

Hey Janice,

It sounds like you had a lot of fun! I’m glad you won some stuff. That makes it more fun! Next weekend I’ll be involved with a fundraiser for the health system where I work. The only thing is that since I’m the official photographer, I don’t get to try to win anything. It’s a Derby Day thing so we have all kinds of fun things to do, including the nail biting turtle race (which can be pretty hilarious sometimes). It’s amazing how serious the people are about winning that coveted prize! The turtles do get their revenge every once in a while so you have to be careful how you hold them!

Yesterday I worked out in my backyard. I couldn’t do too much because we had heavy rain on Friday and I really didn’t feel like sinking in the mud. We had a nasty thunderstorm yesterday evening that dumped over a half inch of rain in about 20 minutes. I took some great pictures of the clouds as the storm formed so I’ll have to send you some. There was such a contrast with blue sky, white clouds and dark clouds. I think I took about 50 pictures as the sky was constantly changing. I’ll send a few cloud pictures as well as my UFO creation.

I do have something important to remind everyone of. It just amazed me yesterday that when there was thunder and lightning close by (before the rain started), kids were out in the street playing. The sad thing about that is that the parents were sitting on the front porch watching the kids play out in the street with the lightning nearby. One of the kids was in a wheelchair and we know that metal and lightning don’t mix! Those adults certainly didn’t set a good example for those kids. So people, please, when there is a storm brewing with thunder and lightning–go inside or take cover under a porch! I stood on my porch and the lightning made me nervous there and with those kids outside, that made me even more nervous. God gave each of us a brain–I think some people better use theirs a little more often!

Janice, I don’t know when you’ll be making your trip to visit your friend, but I’ll be keeping you and him in my prayers. I’m sure your friend appreciates your concern. I’m glad he’s allowing you to be a part of his life during his illness. My friend did not allow me to do that and that will always hurt. I’m sure your visit will be a big encouragement to him. He is very blessed to have a friend like you.

Take care,
Margie

Janice, I thought about you yesterday: I went to the Bronx zoo!!
it was a last minute decision (as usual with me!) and I arrived late so I didn’t have time to see all the animals (the zoo closes at 530 PM).

But I did see the two elephants (they moved them to a new location where you can only see them from the Wild Asia monorail, which is better for them…but not so much for us!), the lions (sleeping), the tigers, snow lions, wild dogs (in original colors), the giraffes, the zebras, one polar bear (this one looked sad; I prefer the ones in the mini zoo in Central park), the grizzly (although he was trying to hide on top of his rocks), the seals, the rhinos, the camels, the okapi, a red panda (even cuter in real life!) and a very curious & daring ostrich.

But the funniest ones were the baboons and monkey houses.

And by far, the real stars of the zoo - who were both hilarious and incredibly expressive - were…the gorillas!

The whole exhibition of the Congo forest was actually very interesting and I bet you would enjoy it.

But what is amazing with the gorillas is that they not only gave the visitors the best show by interacting with us and playing/fighting between each others (you get to see the mamma, the big boss, the kids and all the siblings in between) but the look in their eyes is so profoundly human it is difficult not to feel connected to them.
Sometimes you really felt they were the ones looking at us as if we were weird curious specimens

As an advice, Janice, start with the Asia monorail right away when it is not crowded because it is not worth spending 45 minutes for that attraction.
And don’t wait for July and August when it’s going to be hot!

Finally, about a funny anecdote, ten years ago my friends in Como Italy told me there used to be a fountain on the main piazza of their city in the late XIX th century that was bought by a rich man who brought it back home with him to America. But none of my friends could find out where the fountain ended or who was the man who bought it.

I remember searching for many weeks (I didn’t have Internet home at that time!), until I finally found in a book that the fountain was in…the Bronx zoo!

For political reasons and, ironically, for “decency” measures (because of the nudity of some of its statues, oh my!!!), the fountain was removed from the piazza by local authorities and when the city needed money, they sold it to Rockefeller in 1902 who in turn gave it to the city of New York in 1903. It became an official New York City landmark in the sixties.

The fountain is beautiful and stands at the Fordham Gate. They are almost done renovating it and they did a great job.

OK I have to go back to the Zoo to see all the rest of the animals and the other special exhibitions; and this time I promise I’ll take pictures with a real camera so I can share with you!

Guillaume

Janice,

You are too funny. I really get a kick out of your typed sound effects….

I hate Sunday nights. It just feels so great to relax half a day a week, and Monday brings stress…. I need to become a meteorologist. (maybe not- I hear they get chewed out for the bad weather)

Anyway, I am an Iowa farmer, and it has been REALLY wet and cool here. We are fortunate to have started planting, but many people have not begun. Most years we would be nearing completion in the next week, so my patience is challenged…. I know it is not your fault, though…..!

I admire your courage in dealing with M.S. Most important is your incredible charisma and great attitude.

Thanks for making me smile. Keep lookin’ up….

By the way, Janice, have you heard about those scientific researchers in France who discovered that by studying the patterns in soap bubbles, they can better understand trajectories of cyclones and hurricanes, and hopefully predict their behavior and impact??!

According to them, the vortices that are created in soap bubbles behave just like cyclones and hurricanes in the atmosphere.

What do you think?

The results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Here is a link to the article in sciencedaily.com
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414214800.htm

Guillaume

Well, now that you mentioned it, I did do something invigorating this weekend. I rode 60 miles, a metric century, in Muenster, TX as a warm up for next weekends MS150. It was the first time I was on my bike with the majority of the Irish team. It feels a bit different for me after riding with the same group for 7 tours, but I am sure come next weekend I will get used to it. We sure will miss you, but I have more idea’s for us up my sleeve. I will update my blog Monday night, and include video I shot while riding on Saturday.

Have a great Monday!

Hey JD,

My daughter’s birthday was a huge success. I took her out of school 1/2 a day early, (please don’t call the local school board on me) and my wife, daughter and I did a little crawdad fishing. Much to my surprise, we actually caught one. She put him in the bucket for a while to play, then returned him to his happy little home in the river. We took our daughter to the same place where I used to to catch critters , the cuyahohoga river in Kent, Ohio.

Then she had a little sleep over with her buddies and now it appears I will be hauling all of her “Posse” to river soon.

What a blast, God love our little ones, they keep us young!!!!!

Steve-O

Steve-O…..

I’m glad you took my suggestion of spending the day with your daughter. There is nothing like a little me time with each other and it’s always great to have alone time with your two best girls (spouse and daughter). Those are memories that will last a lifetime for all three of you.

Hey JD,

The weekend in Upstate NY was not the washout that was first predicted, a little rain Saturday night and a gloomy start Sunday morning, but all in all a beautiful weekend. This made me wonder about that man you encountered in the elevator at work who blamed you for the upcoming weather on Friday. I truly hope he realized how wrong his words and anger were toward you and that he might have felt a bit guilty for being disagreeable!!!!

Thankfully the long awaited rain is here, the forecast was correct for Monday. This will successfully put an end to the spring fire season, (insert big sigh of relief here). Plus this will make the green and the flowers burst out overnight.

I traveled about 40 miles to the northwest into the southern Adirondacks to an area I had not been too in years. Many old small hamlets from the late 19th century can be found out in the woods all over grown and almost unrecognizable except for little clues here and there. Well I stumbled onto one of these little settlements, but what gave it away was the little apple orchard of this hamlet. I will send you a picture of an apple blossom in U-Report.

That’s it, another 2-day weekend that now seems to have lasted only a few short hours.

Bill S.

Right on….it was a blast for sure!!!!!!!