Thursday, May 15, 2008
Answer to Angie's Question, Part 1
Five things I love about Emma (in no particular order):
First, some linky love for Angie...

1. Her sincerity. I know they can't help it at this age, but everything is so earnest with three year-olds. I love her candor and hearing her world-view.

2. Her hugs and kisses. When given freely they are the greatest gift in the world. This is the stuff that mommies live for.

3. Her cuteness (I'm biased). I'm grateful that she seems to have pulled the best traits from M and me.

4. Her creativity. I love to listen to her while she's playing. The scenarios she cooks up for her "peops" are pretty entertaining.

5. Her intelligence. You can't get much past her.
Written at 7:23 PM by Highlandgal.
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Zoo animals
Western Crowned-Pigeon. These birds were very "friendly," for lack of a better word. They didn't seem to be at all intimidated by humans. They flew down and landed right in front of us. They'd walk all around us, even under a bench with people sitting on it. We tried to keep the kids from getting too close, but then someone else's three year old walked right up and started petting one. After that, our kids started doing it too. The birds actually stood for it.

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Written at 6:14 PM by Highlandgal.
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Look at my hot mama...
New Years 1972.

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Written at 6:12 PM by Highlandgal.
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Question answered #1
From rlgelber:

What about you drives M. crazy?

My guesses would have been...

1. He calls me a quail-driver. He means I schedule things heavily and then push, push, push him along. My vacations are the ones where we're going places and doing things. His are ones where we go somewhere and lay around all week. I just about kill him with our schedule over the holidays. He's somewhat forgiving of me for this one because he says I get it from Noni. (Sorry, Noni, but you've heard this one before)

2. When he says something he means it. If he suggests something it means he really wants to do it. If I suggest something I may be just floating an idea. So his word is law, his bond, whatever. Me, I'm just talking. I may suggest three different ways of doing the same thing. I think this makes him crazy sometimes.

When I asked him what about me drives him crazy he said...
"In a months time you probably have four minutes when you're at a comfortable temperature." He doesn't resent me for it because he knows I can't help it, it just drives him nuts.

(It will take me some time to think of an answer to Noni's question)
Written at 9:22 PM by Highlandgal.
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Ask me anything*
The post for when you've officially run out of ideas. So, ask me what you want in the comments and I'll post the question and the answer. Perhaps you've asked a question in the comments that I've missed answering in the past. Or maybe you just have a nosey question. Perhaps you'd like to put me on the hot seat. Whatever. Frankly, I'm tapped out for ideas.

*Questions I will not answer, as always...
1. What's my real name?
2. What do I do for a living?
3. What's my address? (OK, I will concede I live in a post office box :)
Written at 5:21 PM by Highlandgal.
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Zoo animals
Peacock pictures from the outdoor aviary.


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Written at 4:58 PM by Highlandgal.
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Summer of '74
My apologies to my non-family readers. You'll have to indulge me as I share these slide scans. Some of them are just too great to save for later. I know of several people who will enjoy seeing them now. Uncle B would be 6-8 months old in these photos. Pa Paw (Noni's dad) loved loving on his babies, as I've mentioned before.






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Written at 4:46 PM by Highlandgal.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Today's slide
My little brother turns three. He was dressed in one of his "ladykiller" outfits and I was dressed in an outfit that was made for me when our church had it's bicentennial(?) pageant.

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Written at 11:05 PM by Highlandgal.
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Stories from Africa
I got to enjoy an educational evening. M took care of Emma for me so I could go to see a storyteller at the library. We're a pretty homogeneous population here in the mountains so it was a rare treat to attend a cultural even featuring Africa. One of the board members asked me to bring my camera and take pictures for them. Unfortunately an exhibit of high school art on the walls made it difficult to get good uncluttered shots. The storyteller, who was raised in Zambia, kept the audience enthralled. I wish we could have more events like this around here; I really enjoyed it.

He opened the evening with some dancing...


Then he told about the thrill he felt as a little boy watching the adults in the village dance...


He played a drum that was handcrafted for him by a drum-maker in his village.


Here he was using a volunteer to demonstrate how they would sling their babies and carry their food, too.


He was a very animated and joyful man.


No, he's not signing autographs. He's writing down his website so the children could look up more stories from Zambia.

Written at 10:48 PM by Highlandgal.
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Zoo animal pictures
I'll have some pictures to share with you for a few days. Most of them were taken by M.


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Written at 5:28 PM by Highlandgal.
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Monday, May 12, 2008
National Zoo
The weather Saturday started out rainy, but by the time we got to the zoo the weather improved. We started at the bottom of the hill and made a giant circuit. We walked the zoo for six solid hours. It was a fun day and everyone got along great.

Here's our zoo crew. Add me, M and Uncle B. and that was the whole crew.


Here are the meerkats. Emma had never seen them before. The kids are watching the meerkats try to dig meal worms out of the box.


The zoo employee was telling them all about the meerkats.


Emma sleeps through her close encounter with a bold bird in the indoor aviary.


Emma and her daddy fulfill their quest...


...to find out what flamingos sound like. (Hint: They sound just like the audio clip Misty linked to for me in the comments ;)

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Written at 7:41 PM by Highlandgal.
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The tradition continues...


Written at 7:33 PM by Highlandgal.
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Howdy, Pardner!

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Written at 6:56 PM by Highlandgal.
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Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Noni's toy
We had a quick lunch with Noni today. We were running errands for our businesses today in town where she works. It was a horrific day thanks to my little monster and right now I feel wound tighter than a drum. I think this is why they invented drinking.


Written at 7:01 PM by Highlandgal.
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Pa Paw
Here was a man who loved his grandbabies...

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Written at 6:11 PM by Highlandgal.
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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
In honor of our plans this weekend...
Here are some pictures of me in 1973 at the National Zoo in Washington DC. We plan to take Emma there this weekend. I'd be about the same age as her in these pictures. What an amazing coincidence that these pictures would be among the slides the Noni sent me.





These fellows represent the Holy Grail for our trip to the zoo. Emma and M are on a quest to find out what flamingos sound like. This question dates back well over a year from when M was reading the Noah and the Mighty Ark book to Emma. As they'd name the animals being loaded on the boat M would make the animal sounds. He never knew what to do for flamingos. Emma would always ask him, "What sound do flamingos make?" Finally, we intend to find out.

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Written at 9:58 PM by Highlandgal.
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Noni and Popi, to answer your question...
Yes, the new slide scanner works. Hope you enjoy these!

UPDATE: I've been informed that these were all scanned backwards. Popi could tell because his ribbons on his dress blues were on the wrong side. Thank goodness for the "mirror" feature in PSP XI.







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Written at 8:56 PM by Highlandgal.
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