Christmas Morning.

We all survived and here is the new Christmas Photo..

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Oh did you hear about asteroid getting ready to hit Mars..don't you love the News? Especially CNN.. talk about the doom and gloom channel--I think it was Anderson Cooper who really pushed it into that mode, but what do I know?

MERRY CHRISTMAS HO. Ho hmmmmmm

I thought I would post a few funnies since Christmas is always such a pensive time for me.

I actually dreamed I was with my mother and sister and brother--we were all arguing about my sister eating up all the strawberry yogurt. My mom said to let her eat it all!! I woke up feeling sort of agitated. (My mother and brother have dead for many years now--I am not saying that to garner sympathy or project anything.. it felt like we were all just alive here like it used to be.. arguing about who ate the last bowl of ..something--funny)

And I will also include a couple of my favorite Christmas photos of Christmas past... OOOO! and this Christmas I think I am also down because I didn't get to see The Christmas Carol, by Dickens, I consider that a tradition.. FAMILY TRADITIONS..fa la la la la la la .. but I did get to see the National Capital Band sponsored by the Salvation Army at the Masonic Temple, the controversial, Alexandria landmark, (beauty is in the eye of the beholder--I love the monstrosity!!)

Ok Jay Leno's comment is a corny--but still holds water!

Christmas chaos

Shopping madly.. lol.. at five below ... and I will hopefully actually get my cards and international mail out by this weekend. Things have been strange lately, but certainly as they say,, Life does go on.

My only advice to everyone this season is probably the same advice I give out every year....

Tis the season to watch everything, lock your car,, park under the lights.. check your lists twice,, and very important as always, check your receipts,, either while in the store or before you leave the parking lot because as usual, for some reason, and I think it is because people feel so harried about getting things done for "quote/unquote" Christmas,, despite the fact, that we should be living like it is Christmas every day, because it is.. as long as we are alive on this planet----every year, I find more mistakes are made at the cash register than other times of year.

A quick example, I finally felt well enough,, (back problems) to shop last week and when I got out into the parking lot,, this time it was at the PX, military exchange, I looked at my receipt,, and started matching items.. and I had been charged 2Xs for tape,, and gloves, and the 25% discount on a purse had not been given,

so of course I had to turn around and go back to customer service, explain the dilemma,, and that cost me over an hour of my precious time, which is what so irritated me the most. The overcharge amount to 50.00 and I have that woman's face memorized, so I will never go into her line again. However, it was resolved, but it never should have happened in the first place. I appreciate the reminder and heads up that Tis the season to watch cash registers and receipts and SLOW DOWN.

It snowed here yesterday so I thoght I would include a photo I took last year when it snowed by the Potomac, a reminder that peace still reigns somewhere and it is obviously NOT at the mall. :)

izzy

PS,, have a great shopping season..

To Esme with Love and Squalor

Well that has been my life lately, but I won't paraphrase or change the title.. but it has been love and squalor

The love,, and the squalor or is that vice versa?

.. all taken on location in Wilmington, NC.

Photo contest

http://www.picture.com/voteforme/photovote1.asp?PID=1782746

Rate my photo

Baby Rose and Molly

A quick post tonight, as always because of all the multi tasking.. LOL, I remember when that described life.

I went to the funeral of a dear friend, Mary, close to my age who died of a stroke, I hate funerals, but the good news is that she left a great legacy, her great grand daughter, HELLO, she started young, I don't even have grand children, let alone, great grand children and also Molly, her puppy. Tyson, her beloved husband treated her as well in death as in life, escorted by the Alexandria Police so we wouldn't be "killed" going through traffic and I have to say, they did a good job.

Ok so much for the maudlin stuff. Here are a few pictures of Rose and Molly and Tyson too.

Well, we all have to have quirks.

Last night after watching the TV hype for a week, since I have been resting intensely, if one can do that, because I have had a flare up of a pinched sciatic nerve in my back,, now finally resolving.. slowly I settled into to watch the revelation of the newly found Codex by Nostradamus. The History Channel took us to Italy where the Codex filled with pictures of references to tbe Bible, Astrology, Knights Templar and if all this doesn't sound like a real Da Vinci Code being deciphered amazingly enough, it does appear that Nostradamus was able to predict the big chunks of the future. I truly was amazed. When the book is finally reproduced and the scholars are done with it,, and rendering their interpretations I would like to have a look at the Codex pictures,, actually drawings and see if there is any correlation to Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork. Sort of index the like images.

Anyway for Prophecy and Doomsday,,!! buffs it was quite a treat, and they also had short blurb on
Edgar Cayce, the 20th century "sleeping prophet" .. who died in Virginia Beach, where his library and bulk of all his readings reside. The next time I go there, I will visit the Edgar Cayce Institute.

My favorite of his predictions.. all while he was in a state of self hynpnosis, and when he was awake he remembered none of it.. is the finding of the Archived documents from Atlantis. He predicted the Atlantians time capsuled knowledge/fountainhead of knowledge will be eventually located under the Left paw of the Sphinx in Egypt. So far, one researcher actually "scanned" (not sure with what equipment) and said there is a huge "cavern" or man made tunnel under the Right Paw, and they can tell by echo location that "something" is in there--but they have not been allowed to excavate or explore further by the Egyptian government.!!

Links to explore: http://www.nostradamusonline.com/?gclid=CKrAi6-btY8CFQRuZQodBWBuMQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus

http://www.crystalinks.com/nostradamus.html

http://www.nostradamusonline.com/sample_chapter.php

http://www.edgarcayce.org/

Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): North Carolina

Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): North Carolina

Stephen Colbert, Alpaca Update

Stephen Colbert (black) and B. B King (white)

They were awarded Olympic Gold Medals by Lake Placid Chamber ofCommerece in special ceremonies at the site of the 1932 Olympics andat the ski jump area.

Chuck

I just got that note from Chuck Domm, Stephen Colbert and BB King were awarded Gold Medals.

He wasn't kidding when he said Stephen Colbert is the world's most famous Alpaca

http://colbert-alpaca-usa-icon.us/

Check out Stephen Colbert spokesperson blog and also

http://colbertthealpaca.blogspot.com/2007/09/on-main-routes-mail-was-brought-to-area_13.html

See him at Lake Placid at the above Blog and for fun more photos of Stephen Colbert and BB King

Will give you more updates and more photos too...:)

Kitty's paw almost crushes preying mantis.

Morning is the best time to get photo shoots of the local insects, mushrooms and Tom cat,,and I have had plenty of coffee. This morning, as usual, Tom cat, wakes me up by peeking in the window, so as usual I go out and give him his breakfast.

While sitting there, getting my dose of Vitamen D and sunshine, I noticed a preying mantis struggling on the pavement, so I decided to rescue it but first take a photo of it because it was clear, while I was taking a few shots, Tom cat decided to take a look at what I was doing and just as I took the picture his paw literally was in inch away from it,, well, take a look, and then I got another shot after I put it back upright, I thought it was dead, and then I put it in the grass and who knows, maybe it lived for another day.

izzy

Facebook blogging

I was surfing the internet and have recently added new photos to Facebook, which is a new blogging website, that I ran across a long time ago. I found out some disturbing news about Facebook, that Facebook basically has the right to distribute one's information to anyone they want.
check out the above website and also
http://www.albumoftheday.com/facebook/
the following video about Facebook, highly interesting. I will use it, but carefully..it appears it may be sponsored by the government. LOL.. da man, or something like that..

Alpaca meeting :)

http://www.alpacafarmday.com/

Felix and pulled over at the Truck Rest stop near Kings Dominion. When I was getting back into the car--I noticed two animals that looked like mini-Llamas. I asked the owner, his name is Chuck Domm and I will post more later if I could take a picture of his Llamas, well it turns out that these beautiful creatures are Alpacas.

The white Alpaca's name is B.B. King, short for Bon Bon King, and Chuck told me his father is a world class Alpaca. The black Alpaca's name is Stephen Colbert, (I think that is a news/commentator/comedian)

Anyway. Chuck, B.B. King and Stephen Colbert were taking a break on their way to the National Alpaca Convention that convenes September 29th.

He gave me a cool news article which I will read and post another day, since I am in North Carolina, but when I saw those beautiful gentle animals I decided to post it right away.

Alexandria Block party

The Mayer of Alexandria, William Euille thanking Foxchase for the donation and fun to Habitat for Humanity. The man to his left is the new Firechief of the City of Alexandria, and I didn't get his name, but everyone cheered. We all appreciate our firefighters here in Alexandria.

I know I know, have been tired and grumpy, but I got out of my doldrums and went to the annual Block party held in Alexandria and the Mayer of Alexandria was there.. and the live band Prelude was dynamite.

I was invited by my sister, Angie. I thought I would share a few of the photos before my next trip out of town. Wish I could stayed longer to hear Prelude the band, I am thinking of booking them for the Class Reunion. Got their card and I will post them on Classmates. They are a very dynamic local band, super friendly.
Mayor William D. Euille, spoke and you can see him on Center stage and the event raised money for Habitat for Humanity as well. My son, Joe when he was getting trained to be a brick mason worked on a house for the Habitat for Humanity. So overall, it was a great party. Lots of information, fun and dancing, good old fashioned Block Party, Dancing in the street.

The Band, Prelude rocking out, sober too LOL.

:)

Morning Glories

Summer Morning Glories

Thought I would show off the Morning Glories that finally have bloomed that I grew from seed this summer. Also a photo of me at Wrightsville Beach. Don't let that smile fool you, I was so tired, but we ate a very cool place on Wrightsville Beach, called South Beach right there on the beach, that is why I am dressed in clothes instead of a bathing suit. It was warm enough to swim that day too, September 15 or so.

North Carolina

Thought I would add a quick photo from Wilmington NC. The southern hospitality was great and the ocean was beautiful. The DRIVE home was long and I am still tired.
The old gray mare ain't what she used to.. many long years ago. I remember driving for six hours straight and would wake up refreshed the next morning, now,, oh well I did survive the drive and enjoyed the beach with my son Joe.
Summer ain't over yet folks.

Mushrooms in Bloom

Yesterday morning when I woke up early to check the garden these mushrooms spru

ng up over night, and the cool part was in the afternoon, I saw a squirrel munching on one of them. I just wondered to myself, how did that Squirrel know which one to eat? All my life
I have loved mushrooms and I actually inherited a book about edible mushroom collecting, but it is in German, so I have never tried to forage for mushrooms.


Look at that one, looks like Mushroom flowe and I will later look it up on line.

Ocean City reverb

World Famous Art Gallery at Ocean City..and the sign says...la la

After returning from the boardwalk on Ocean City I finally realized that the persistent state of humanity is total insanity. That most people walk around in a state of fear and anxiety, alone, and when humans get together on vacation it is like the gathering of elephants during musth. The proof is the pictures of the giant slice of humanity I saw at Ocean City. I haven't been on a boardwalk in many years and now I know why..LOL. The line for "Ripley's Believe it or Not" , modern era freak show was almost as long as the line for the Thrasher's (boardwalk fries), even though there were three Thrasher's on the boardwalk, only one had a line that was super long, validating my herd instinct theory. Why in the world wouldn't the folks just go down a half a block and go to the Thrasher's with no line? There is no reason why not other than the pack/herd mentality and people have finally grown used to waiting in totally unacceptably long lines of mass humanity from years of shopping and somehow, even though it is the EXACT same Thrasher's Boardwalk fry, maybe it could be a tad better because the line was longer, and there may be some truth to it, because by the time one gets to the front of the line, feint from hunger and dehydration, and suffering from serious stupidity, the fries could be tastier. It is sort like water tastes like Dom Perignon in the desert. Ok so much for mini lesson on mob behavior.
Here are some really cool photos from O.C. yes they also have their own version of a a nickname, O.C. Maryland, or is that Over Come, Maryland, or Obsessive Compulsive, Maryland, or is that Ocean Carnage, Maryland or is that.. Okay Corral, Maryland? Anyway, I made it back, sore, and got some cool shirts too. Note cool sand beach art....now that was worth it.
izzy

Showing off Lower Alexandria

Since I called my Blog Lower Alexandria I decided to post the Alexandria homepage website which is amazing unto itself, chock full of history and pictures and tours and information. It would take an afternoon to explore all the goodies. So if you have nothing else to do for a couple hours explore that. site.

http://alexandriava.gov/

Also for your visual entertainment and pleasure here is photo of one my favorite topics in Alexandria: The Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Semi Avocado

Monday morning I woke up with the left side of my face puffy and the last remaining Wisdom tooth inflamed. Yep I still had one left that I used to hang a bridge on.. wow that almost sounds architectural doesn't it? Anyway after making several phone calls to my dentist, I roughly put together an emergency dental tooth extraction for that afternoon.
By the time I got there the office was filled with the 20 something generation getting their wisdom extracted before school started.. which is happening soon :) eeks

Evidently I had forgotten about tooth extraction and all the yucky stuff that goes with it. Dr Smith, a young man with a great smile, behind the layers of masks and gloves, thoroughly numbed the area and then put two giant needles worth of novacaine around the Wisdom tooth and it came out .. crack. That is when things got rough.

I headed over to Fort Belvoir, feeling numb, no pain yet, when I walked in the pharmacy was implementing yet ANOTHER new system, this time,, creating a line,, to get into the pharmacy line. And they are no fools, behind the counter of the new line, handing out the tickets to get into the REAL line, was the sweetest little old grandmotherly looking lady with white hair and a genuine smile on her face with a jacket that was labeled AMERICAN RED CROSS, indicating that she was a volunteer. Not even the gruffest old soldier had one word to say about the length of BOTH lines now being generated. The pharmacists were loving it, because now if the length of time it took to get through the line was doubled, well blame the 80 year American Red Cross volunteer.

Ok Step One: I finally got up to the counter, and handed her my ID and both prescriptions, still feeling Ok, one was for antibiotics the other was for percocet, which I really didn't think I would need (WRONG) and she handed it to another lady, who I had never seen before and said, "She will put the prescriptions in the system for you," by now I would have already been protesting, because I never had given any prescriptions to the TICKET check in place before, so I knew this was a foreboding for the next serious of clusterboinks.. LOL that happened.

I sit down, patiently, numbness starting to wear off, and I see my number called 211,, come to the window. The pharmacist whom I do recognize, says, and what else did you get? I said, Amoxicillan and Percocet. She looked at my swelling face and said there is no Percocet here. I looked back over there at the innocent looking 80 year American Red Cross volunteer, tears started to come to my eyes, from the pain and the feeling that I wanted to run over there and grab the ticket dispenser. :) and said "She said the other lady would enter it."

The pharmacist walked around, and I clearly heard the so called other pharmacist, (they said she was fill in pharmacist, yea right.. handing out tickets) say, "Oh, I haven't put that one in yet."

So I ended up being held in line for an extra FIVE people, swelling mouth and while I was waiting there, after not eating all day, I read the instructions for the "extraction of a wisdom tooth", which included dire warnings about NOT eating, rinsing or drinking anything other than carbonated water for at least 8 hours. WOW and making sure to keep the "gauze in the socket" or I will get "dry socket" HOLY MOLY, now they tell me.

Driving home, staring at the prescriptions in the bag I started seriously wondering about how was I going to cope with this.

When I got in the door I immediately find my mineral water and pop the antibiotic and Percocet, and in 20 minutes I am feeling better except for localized pain around the "socket" area. Entertaining myself on the computer for about two hours, my stomach started growling and I started foraging through the fridge for food.

LO AND BEHOLD a fully ripened fresh Avocado in the bin, that I had just bought..
Yep so in conclusion here is the Website for California Avocados, and when I get back from the store I will post the recipe that I found that includes the one how to make your own UVB and UVB tanning oil from Avocados too..

So, there is it.. saved by the Avocado.
http://www.avocado.org/about/variety_chart.php

Another NEW plan

Evidently Blogging is like keeping a public/private journal so today was a good day. I swam today because my back was killing me from sitting behing the one eye monster last night editing the Target Universe, the econ book, and talk about a natural no side effect sleeping pill... WOOEEE, economic theory is boring.

Today I just watched some stocks that I am interested in.. and may buy a few shares next week if the price is right.. and let's see a photo.. must include a photo.. something relevant to today..like a photo of me sleeping :) well this is someone else sleeping,, and I can't mention names.. but you can guess. His name rhymes with Sean and he gets more shut eye than anyone else I know..(I am just jealous) LOL

or perhaps swimming-- where I am happiest.

Ok hanging tough.

izzy

Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): A Note Global Warming,

Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): A Note Global Warming,

Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): A Note Global Warming,

Uptown L.A.(Lower Alexandria): A Note Global Warming,

A Note Global Warming,

One night, last week after I watched Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which barely scratched the surface of what we need to do, I decided to invoke my lucid dreaming mode.

When I woke up in the morning the word: Nitrogen came to me. I saw on the news that morning how the Chinese had boosted protein in the food exports, harming our pets, by the introduction of a product called melamine.

My undergraduate degree is in Biology and by definition that means I minored in Chemistry. I looked up melamine and lo and behold, it is composed of urea, which is composed of ammonia, and the chemical composition of ammonia is: nitrogen.

That is when I came to the realization that we, as citizens of the USA, and the rest of the citizens of the world must come to an agreement or a global plan that slowly stops the poisoning of our planet and at the same time enrich and energize the planet.

I waited until today to write this, because to even attempt to come up with a realistic solution to allow us, the human inhabitants of this beautiful planet, figure out how to undo the damage we have done is a serious matter.

(I will address this in another blog since I have another unexplored and hushed up theory about the core of the beginning of global warming other than a mere natural phenomenon, and I think there is an element of that as well)

I wish I could write here that I have a total solution for that, but as a one human being, who has spent a lifetime observing ecological change, and degradation, before it became a "political fad," offer a few small ideas that perhaps could be implemented country-by-country, state-by-state, and person-by-person.

I want to take the time to mention that I became fascinated with ecology after I learned about the incredible adaptation of the Costa Rican butterflies and moths to their environment environmental ecology at GMU which used to be a required course for Biology students.

When I learned about adaptation of a species to an environment, where a species actually undergoes structural and physical changes to live in its environment I realized back then, as budding young biologist, that all species including human beings undergo physiological and structural adaptation to their environment.

I will let you dear reader, draw conclusions about the human plight overall in our struggle to adapt to our environment that grows more polluted every day. As our environment becomes more polluted, we as humans have come up with more medicine to allow us to cope with it:

e.g.,

How about all the ads and sale of anti-histamines, nebulizers, and tons of prescription drugs and non-prescription drugs that allow us the BREATHE without distress? Just taking a clean, deep breath of air now is expensive.

To the point: Globally can we as a nation persuade the other nations who are the beneficial owners of the jungles of the world to cease slashing and burning their native jungles? Can we pay them to stop burning them?

Life is sustained by oxygen. The jungles of South America, in the Amazon are being destroyed daily. Among the many functions of huge green, lush, jungles full of trees is the ability to produce oxygen and reduce carbon poisoning on this planet.

Those jungles are also nurseries for an amazing biodiversity of organisms down to the smallest newly discovered herb with natural healing properties all the way to the fresh water dolphins who swim and play in the Amazon.

As the jungles are being burned and slashed, so are the nurseries for animals and plants. One the world's natural cleaning mechanisms of our atmosphere.

The oceans: I could write a book about the protection of our oceans and their beautiful inhabitants. My senior research project, eons ago, was on marine mammals, specifically our dolphin friends. One the most fascinating facts that I ran across in my academic studies is that dolphins have no missing link in the study of evolution of a species.

Dolphins appear to us today, as they existed since the beginning of our ocean, or time, with minor physiological adaptations. Look it up. Dolphins have not changed evolutionarily to a changing environment over time. The ocean is a harsh and rigorous environment. Creatures that live in the ocean are not given the chance to adapt over time, they simply go extinct.

I am suggesting that the harsher and more unforgiving that our earth environment becomes that the species who live on the earth part of the planet will be become extinct at a faster rate as well, in fact, I don't have to look too far for confirmation.
Back to the ocean, even the ocean is reaching the limit of its ability to clean our pollution.

How does the earth itself clean water? Perhaps young scientists, (I am ready to retire) can look at the fact that aquifers, made of layers of water bearing rocks produce clean drinking water. How can knowledge that be used to help clean our waters?

The news had coverage on a few huge American computer companies who built their energy hogging companies near dams, so their energy needs could be met by energy that dams produced. That barely was a blip on the news radar. What a great example set by our young computer scientists! http://green.yahoo.com/ and

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/26/magazines/fortune/futureoftech_serverfarm.fortune/index.htm

It is truly amazing how much clean energy that Hoover Dam produces. (See photo of the back of Hoover Dam when I was there last fall).

What can our energy devouring societies do about our contributions to the overall degradation to our planet's deterioration? On an individual basis, every man, woman and child can recycle, personally as well as in our community.

No, not use one square of toilet tissue, but simple things, like separate newspaper and bottles and plastic. Carry the bags to the recycling center personally, not leave it out on the step and hope that it gets picked up and taken to a recycling center.
Actually turn off the computer at night, the lights, keep the temperature of one's home reasonable, plan one's daily routes logically to use the least amount of gas in one trip or better use public transportation. I actually did use washable diapers when my children were babies, because I didn't want to throw all those diapers into the environment, all my friends I was going overboard--but now I can look back and say that I did it and the landfills are not filled with my you know what.:)

Teach your children about the beauty of the world, young, so they will respect and love it, and want to conserve it. When I was in Germany I was amazed at how they recycled, I thought I did a good job. Every bottle, every can, everything was washed and separated, paper as well and then recycled.

As a nation, we can figure out how to use solar power, nuclear power, safely, and wind power. In 1985, I had a solar panel put on my house used to heat our water. It was expensive even then, but we got a tax break for it and over time, it did pay for itself. The laws need to be changed to accommodate the conversion from an oil-fed economy to a diverse use energy economy.

A short example: The man in Georgia who bought a hybrid car, using both natural gas and gasoline. The local government in Georgia put him through the gauntlet about his car emissions; they refused to allow him an exemption, made him take his hybrid through inspection, pay for the inspection, issue him an exemption, which he had to then take to the state to allow for registration. The state and local governments depend on those emission inspection fees that are higher than regular inspection fees. I know because Virginia has the same laws. Where is the incentive in that?

Who would buy a car, with super low emissions, and turn have to turn around and go through emissions inspection, paying money for nothing and losing time at work to comply with car emission laws?

Back to how I started out this article, every human being on this planet shares the burden for this planet's ability to sustain our lives. The most industrial society to the most simple societies can join together to come up with realistic solutions to help save our beautiful home in this universe: The Earth.

The request for photos

Ok since everyone who voted requested more photos and I am just figuring out how to use this, I am not sure I like everything on the left, but I will work on it.

Here is a photo of a stamp that I got for my birthday and it is in 3-D and of course, a tortoise.

Eight, count'em so called interesting things about me

My first language was German which I spoke exclusively until I was five years old and now have mysteriously forgotten it--so much for the first five years of life. (one)

When I was in 4th Grade I refused to speak to anyone for a semester, including my teacher, who sent me to office to take a hearing test, whereupon the nurse discovered I was Bullsh*tting after passing the hearing test perfectly, however they did discover that my vision had changed from 20/20 to 540/540 (minus) that is.. so I became known as the four-eyed skinny brat after that. (that counts as two)

I ran away from home when I was 15 years old and started my own life and never returned except to visit briefly when I was 22. (four)

I did manage to graduate from college, somehow despite being labeled blind, semi-retarded, just a girl, and an obvious candidate for early pregnancy and drug use, neither of which turned out to be true. (five and six)

I am highly competitive, irritable, petulant and moody so I like people are quiet, dumb and stable. LOL (seven and eight)

Ok there are you satisfied?