Shadow Shot Sunday!

Get out the magnifying glass, get into your best sleuthing clothes and start prowling your environment looking for those wonderful, but sometimes elusive shadows. This fun and challenging meme is hosted each week by Tracy over at Hey Harriet! Click on the link under the blog title and sign up to play!! Hey, guess what? It rained nearly all week AGAIN! So, back to summer silliness with Mojo and a visit to the zoo!!

Weekend Reflections

Weekend Reflections is hosted by James each week beginning Friday at 11 AM Eastern Standard Time. It's another wonderful way of opening your eyes to new and different kinds of beauty. Click on the post title and sign up to play with us! Yep, same old, same old GRAY! So, back to the files for some reflective fun for the day!

If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water.
-   Loren Eisley

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
Michael Caine

Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.
Evan Esar

Some,
sitting with their mothers,
held safe
all wrapped up and fed
on the counter
of the
aquarium display,
unaware of their
luck....

And some,
separated at birth,
to live
alone,
in a small
watery enclosure
with fake trees,
artificial lights,
and
piped air...

A moment of
realization
as a vision
of mother
appears
fluid,
in his memory,
a gift
from the little one
watching from outside....



Posted by Ugich Konitari to Sylvia From Over the Hill at December 10, 2010 9:20 PM

Sky Watch Friday!

Time to share your skies, the beauty over your world, the clouds, the colors! Sky Watch is hosted each week by Klaus and the Sky Watch team of Klaus, Sandy, Wren and me. Join us and the many people from all over the world who share theirs with us each week! Click on the post title to be taken to the SWF website where you can sign up. Another week almost gone! Amazing! But then I say that nearly every week, don't I???? And time does fly these days and the older I get, the quicker it flies! Some wonderful skies this week in spite of the gray, grim and WET! And some new wisdom to share from another Ameican!

 A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.
Will Rogers

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.
Will Rogers

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.
Will Rogers

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
Will Rogers

Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.
Will Rogers

Golden rays
glistening clouds
pewter waves
on resting waters.

But to some ,
it is an uneven sky
beset with clouds
and birds scurrying home
before
the descent of the dark.

Just like a
woman
with hair pulled back,
face in the wind,
celebrating
a great evening,
while
another,
on the same evening,
wildly
shakes her head,
her hair falling forward,
and is frightened
by what she sees
through the
tangled
dark
strands of fate.

Posted by Ugich Konitari to Sylvia From Over the Hill at December 9, 2010 9:54 AM  

 

Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.
Will Rogers

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.
Will Rogers

 

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

The branches of a tree that are supple and able to bend with the wind are able to survive, while those that are rigid snap, though often they initially appear the strongest. 
Lee Jampolsky

You Have to Love This Lawyer ........

My 85 year friend who comes up with some good ones sent this to me and I hadn't seen it before, but even if you have, it's still funny and this is definitely the kind of lawyer I would want! Part of rebuilding New Orleans (after Katrina) often caused residents  to be challenged with the task of tracing titles to their homes... back potentially hundreds of years. With a community rich with history stretching back over two centuries, houses have been passed along through generations of family, sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership. Here's a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA  on behalf of a client:  A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client.. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove “satisfactory title” to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. It took the lawyer three months to track down the full title to the property which dated back to 1803. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply.  (Actual reply from FHA):  "Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."  Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows: "Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France, in 1803 the year of origin identified in our application.  For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France , which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from  Spain . The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus 's expedition...Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana . God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be satisfactory.  Now, may we have our damn loan?"  The loan was immediately approved.

ABC Wednesday - U!

Got your dictionary out? You ready to play with the letters? It's that time again! ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt and the ABC team: Denise, Annelie, Leslie, Nathalie, Joyce, Donna, Helen, Roger, Troy, Jay, Barb, Gattina and me!

Uh-huh! It's the U Day!! Doesn't matter if you're an Ugly American on a Unicycle or an Ugly Duckling with an Ulterior motive! It may be an Unappealing letter, but we owe it the Ultimate opportunity! We may be Uncertain of the outcome, but we don't need an Umpire to tell us what we need! We're not flying around in a UFO or stumbling around in the Underbrush! No time to go Undercover or Underwater for that matter. Grab your dictionary, go to the U page and get busy! The Ultimate day will be here before you know it! Ah, it's here!! And here are my Us for the day! U is for Underbrush, Umpire, Unique Ugly-cute Duckling ( and, yes, I actually think he's adorable, too) and Umbrella!

Except for the Underbrush, the rest of the photos are courtesy of the magnificent GOOGLE!

That's My World!

That's My World is hosted each week by Klaus and the My World team, Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and me. Join us and share your world with others from all over Our World! Just click on the post title, read the rules, sign up and play with us! So! How is your world this week? Have you taken time to see the beauty there? What is it about your world that makes you smile or laugh or feel grateful for?  As usual for autumn in Seattle, we have run the gamut from gay and gorgeous to gray and grumpy -- I'm into the G words today! But here's a few samples of what I mean!

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Mark Twain

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain

A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.
Arnold H. Glasow

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Mark Twain

Man was made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.
Mark Twain
 

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.
Mark Twain

MicroFiction Monday

Susan at Stony River Farm hosts Microfiction Monday. She posts a picture and you compose a story in 140 characters. You can click on the link under the title to get further instructions. To help you along she has posted a wonderful link that counts your characters for you! How great is that! You can get the counter at Design 215.

This meme is easy and it's fun! Thanks, Susan for hosting.

And here's the picture for the day!

As he walked through the old forgotten graveyard he felt his throat tighten.
The family he'd longed for but never knew, here. Who was he?

138

Pet Pride!

Hey guys, get up off your tush and lets go see Bozo over at his pad in Mumbai! It's always a fun time when we all get together and talk about what's been happin', Bro! You know? Get your human to click on the Post Title, that'll take them to the website where you can sign up! We'll be waiting for you!!

Well, I bet you never thought you'd hear me say this, but this old house sure gets big and empty feeling with Mojo and her Dad gone so much of the time.  I do get a little lonely without her pestering me!

I keep watching for them to come home!