Wordless Wednesday

Meanwhile, Back on the Ponderosa

I had just taken the water hose and washed off the entire deck. My toes inside my flipflops were still wet, when I heard the sound of the leaf blower. The ladder leaning against the porch should have been a sign, but I still didn't put it together. Anyway here's what was going on. . .

A crazy man was on the roof cleaning out the gutters with a leaf blower!

My freshly washed deck looks like this and the rest of the porch and yard look worse!
I think I'll just go join this guy that I saw under the tree this morning. He looks calm and peaceful enough.

DNA Day!

Yep, DNA has it's own day too. This Saturday, April 25th is National DNA Day. DNA Day was established by Congress seven years ago to commemorate the successful completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and the discovery of DNA's double helix structure in 1953. Without DNA I wouldn't have a job so I'm pretty fond of it, and I'm a nerd so that helps too.

Using DNA I've been able to identify victims from plane crashes and mass disasters like Hurricane Katrina, settle estates by determining paternity, solve crimes from burglary to murder, catch cheating spouses, produce thousands of DNA profiles for comparing with the FBI's CODIS database for "cold hits" (any CSI watchers have probably heard of this one), and the list goes on and on. Since this is the 7th year we've celebrated National DNA Day, I thought I would offer 7 fun facts about DNA.

1. DNA is an abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid.

2. DNA is found in all cells in our bodies - with the exception of red blood cells.

3. DNA can be used to broadly determine ethnicity - I submitted a cheek swab and was determined to be 93% European and 7% Native American.

4. James Watson and Francis Crick are often credited with discovering the structure of DNA, but their “discovery” would not have been possible without the work of a third scientist, Rosalind Franklin. SHE took X-ray pictures of DNA molecules, providing the key to solving its structure. For some reason she never gets credit - so annoying.

5. Each one of the cells in your body, with the exception of red blood cells, has about 6 feet of DNA all wound up inside one tiny cell (that would be like the length of J).

6. DNA profiles can be generated from may different types of samples: blood, cheek cells, fingernail clippings, hair, toothbrushes, half eaten candy bars, you name it and I can probably get a DNA profile from it.

7. DNA is what makes us look like our parents! Thanks Dad. :)

Happy Earth Day

It's Earth Day. I want to share what we have done for the environment! Joey and Jay say it's the least I can do. They claim I waste electricity! I digress. When we decided to trade cars last week, we choose this white 2009 Camry that looks like my other black Camry. But wait here's what is different:

It's a hybrid. It has lots of batteries and runs from both the gas engine and the batteries. I don't even pretend to understand this. I just know it is suppose to get outstanding gas mileage, as much as 40 mpg.

Here's what will take some getting used to: To start, you must put your foot on the brake and mash this button. There is no key, only a little square thingy that you must have in your pocket or in your purse. As long as this is in your possession you can start the car and open all the locks by just swiping your hand between the door and the handle! I am not sure I will ever lose the habit of reaching for the ignition every time I start and stop.
Another difference is the B you see her on the gears. When you know you are about to stop you put the gear shift in B for braking. This is for times like exiting the interstate and such. I don't have to use it much around Byrdstown.
That's all there is to it. We just go around saving gas and the environment! And no we do not have to plug it into an outlet. As I am typing this Peanut is outside burning leaves and causing air pollution. I know--we should compost! We'll work on that. Happy Earth Day!

*Just a little historical note. Earth Day began in 1970, I was in high school and we all had to go out and pick up trash. My friends and I cleaned up Olympus Drive. The whole school worked and picked up several dump truck loads of roadside litter!

What does Peanut do?

Many of you have asked me what does Peanut do, now that tax season is over? This afternoon when I came home, this is where I found him!

Wordless Wednesday

Arthur, Shelby and Brian Compete in Achievement Day

Last week we had achievement day at school. You may remember competing when you were in elementary school. After morning TCAP testing we all go in the gym or outside and have games like potato race, relay races, standing and running broad jump and many more. My only job during this time was to make pictures. It was a pretty good job and I wanted to share some of the photos I made of Shelby, Arthur and Brian competing in the games.
I also included a picture of their cousin Keyton in the egg toss!

Warning

FYI
If you are thinking about getting a Sesame Street tattoo like the ones I posted about you should know that soap and water does not have any effect on them. No effect at all!
So, choose one you can live with for a while.

It's Pa Lyle's Birthday

Today is Pa Lyle's birthday. He was born on April 20, 1932 so that makes him 77 years young today. He's a good guy. Say Happy Birthday to him!

Post from Pa Lyle

I'm making this post for Pa Lyle, he wanted to show Jay what he caught this afternoon. He said they were really biting!

An intervention may be needed...

I'm going to go ahead and blame Aimee and Wayne for getting me addicted to Sequence. Along with me, they have also taken down Jay and Trace (and possibly Mom). We pretty much can't stop playing it. If you don't own it, RUN - don't walk - and pick up your own game today. I think we probably need to start Sequence tournaments at our family gatherings to go along with the cornhole tournaments. By the way, I hear Carol has a super sweet, hand crafted Sequence board!

Inked

Parker is showing off his new tattoo. It's Elmo. We all got a Sesame Street tattoo today. They were only a quarter at Target, and you got six to the pack. So there was one for everyone.

Mine was a cookie monster.

Jay got an Elmo like Parker's.

Joey was gone to Lowe's and needless to say, he was very disappointed when he returned and we had used the whole pack. You had leave a wet cloth on the tattoo for 30 seconds, the video shows Pa and Parker counting down the time. It was hard for Parker to have that much patience!

Roughing it...

So, J finally talked me into going camping for the first time (in my life) and it wasn't too bad. We went with our friends Kristie and Todd - who we also have Predators season tickets with so now that the hockey season is over, Todd and J think it's time to start camping season. We spent Friday night in the woods. Below you will see me at our campsite wearing my borrowed backpack.

Below is a pic of our actual campsite. We had a four person tent and had to "hike in" to our campsite, though not very far....

J is looking at 5 deer in this pic. The deer were below the hill, so you can't see them in the pic, but you can see part of the trail we had to hike to get to our campsite.

Oh, I forgot to mention where we were camping....Fall Creek Falls. We hiked all over the park on Saturday. There are alot more waterfalls than just the one. I think we hiked around 7 miles and saw about 6 waterfalls. Oh, and in case you are wondering, snakes are out! We saw one on our hiking trail. Eeek. Anyway, the waterfall below is Fall Creek Falls. It is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies at 256 feet and it's right here in Tennessee!

Our hardest hike was getting to the bottom of falls. You've got to do a lot of climbing over rocks, and that's not easy going down or coming back up. Here is J taking a break, looking all outdoorsy (if that is a word).

We did finally make it to the bottom, the pic below is as close as I got because it feels like it's raining due to all of the spray coming off of the falls.

We all had a really good time. I wouldn't want to camp every weekend, but I will probably do it again!

SOLD

Please disregard the previous post. We sold it! :)

Need a boat?

Joey is selling his boat. Let us know if anyone knows of anyone who might be interested in it!


1988 Stratos
$2,600 OBO

(And YES, before you ask, he knows its for sale too!)

Wordless Wednesday

Party People

Where ever you find this group of friends and family gathered you know there is a party!

Wordless Wednesday

Take Your Vitamins

When I saw this cartoon it made me remember that when Tracie was little we had Flinstone vitamins but the only ones she would chew were the Fat Freds. She sorted through the bottle until she found Fred! She called them fat feds!

Weather forecast

Tim Ross says the weather will be sunny and 69 on Saturday for our egg hunt and picnic. I'm counting on him! That would be near perfect!

Boys will be Boys

There is nothing, absolutely nothing better than going to the pond with your Pa

Choosing just the right rock

And letting it fly

making the perfect splash!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to Sam and Barb, who chose this day to get married some 31 years ago. Now what kind of April Fool's Prank was that?