Thirteen Fun Things I've Done Already This Summer

1. Gone camping.
2. Taken lots of photographs.
3. Gone to see fireworks (twice)
4. Gone to three movies.
5. Walked around a part of Chicago I didn't know very well.
6. Gotten together with friends.
7. Enrolled in an art class (more about this later).
8. Read several books.
9. Slept late.
10. Played a board game with my kids, husband and a friend.
11. Worked in my garden.
12. Started planning our August vacation.
13. Taken big kid and his friends to Taste of Chicago.

I'm trying really hard to be a fun and adventurous mom this summer. I have hopes for a theater outing, more movies (Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix is coming out soon!), reading the newest Harry Potter with the kids or listening to it on tape (the latter is highly recommended), going to the Dunes (Indiana or Michigan on Lake Michigan) and of course the all-important family vacation in August.
Have a great Thursday and weekend!

Thursday Thirteen--Thirteen photoblogs worth taking a look at.

I haven't done a TT in a while and haven't put up any links of interest either. I don't want to have any old favorites feel neglected but my goal today is to list photoblogs from as many countries as I can find and also ones that I haven't mentioned before. So here goes.

1. moodaholic--Denmark I think. Very atmospheric photos and besides I like the site name.

2. torekimi--Germany and Japan

3. The Wink photoblog--France

4. JvA fotoblog--Netherlands

5. Nikos Laskaridis Photography--not the usual photoblog. Pictures presented in an unusual way and there's music too.

6. Wyss and Wyss--Switzerland

7. Arco Iris Reloaded--Portugal--This is one of my favorites of the Palacio de Monserrate--but look at others of the series.

8. http://kepesvagyok.my-expressions.com/--OK it is in Hungarian and I'm not going to attempt it.

9. jggweb--Spain

10. http://photo.sistek.name/index.php--I think he is Czech.

11. From Belgium with Love--no guesswork needed here.

12. Look and See--Australia

13. JR photoblog--Montreal, Canada

Thursday Thirteen--Thirteen birds

Here are thirteen birds I've recently photographed.
1. Red winged blackbird.
2. Northern Flicker
3. American Goldfinch
4. Starling
5. White crowned sparrow
6. Cooper's Hawk
7. Canada Goose
8. Yellow bellied sapsucker
9. House sparrow
10. American Kestrel
11. Magnificent Frigatebird
12. Junco
13. Monk Parrot

You can see many of these photos on my blog and others on my Flickr site (click on widget on sidebar) in my set labeled Birds (duh!).

Thursday Thirteen--Thirteen Plant Catalogue Adjectives

Bromeliad flower in Puerto Rico

Ever marvel at the language used in a plant catalogue? Here is a sampling of excessive use of adjectives from a plant catalogue or two, in honor of the effusive, glowing, marvellous and intense glamour of spring.

1. Shining
2. Robust
3. Adaptable
4. Striking
5. Lush
6. Unique
7. Stunning
8. Dramatic
9. Exotic
10. Intense
11. Wondrous
12. Vibrant
13. Delicate

Now for homework use, each word in a sentence applied to yourself as in: My intense dark eyes looked vibrant as I combed my dramatic shining hair.
See, you too can be as gorgeous as a catalogue plant! Not bad for instant self esteem!

Thursday 13

When I was little, my grandparents used to sing to me: "On the freeway, on the freeway, to Grandma's house we go...." I guess they made the song and tune up. I miss them and wish I were heading to see them now. Here are things I don't like about freeway (expressway for those not on the west coast of the US) travel and other parts of commuting.

Here is a picture from my twice weekly commute on the Eisenhower Expressway. Note the small Sears Tower in the foreground.



Thirteen things that annoy me while driving to work.
1. People who block my garage so I can't get out.
2. Jaywalker who seem not to be bothered by the cars going through the green light.
3. People who cross the street and seem to slow down when they are in front of you. Is that some kind of power trip?
4. People who honk at you even though you are fifth in a long line of stopped cars.
5. Drivers who block the left lane by turning at a no left turn sign.
6. Drivers who suddenly change lanes without signaling.
7. Driver who don't like to wait their turn so try to get into an exit lane at the last minute thereby snarling up traffic in a through lane.
8. People who double park, especially if there is an open parking space right next to them. Even more so cab drivers who do this.
9. Bus drivers who don't seem to notice there are any other cars on the road. They will change lanes unexpectedly even though you are in the lane.
10. Drivers who drive below the speed limit in the left lane.
11. Drivers who weave all over the road in a vain attempt to get ahead.
12. People who pull out of driveways and alleys while talking on their cell phones and nearly run into you.
13. People who can't be bothered to stop at stop signs.

14. People like me who complain too much.

Thursday Thirteen--Thirteen things I can do to help the environment.

1. Walk and bicycle more for nearby errands.
2. Replace windows in my coach house office.
3. Replace and increase efficiency of water heater in office.
4. Research possibility of solar for my house.
5. Consider seriously getting a hybrid car.
6. Write letters regarding environmental issues.
7. Plant a tree or two or three.
8. Help educate my children and promote consciousness at my children’s schools.
9. Recycle more.
10. Pay for energy offsets when I travel.
11. Turn off my computers when I am not using them.
12. Speak more about environmental issues on my blog.
13. Hold myself accountable by updating this checklist with my progress!!!

Thursday Thirteen--free associations

Still trying to be original with my TT's.
Thirteen word verifications I saw today and what words my mind makes of them.

1. kjzqyshp--Kinkajou quickly shops
2. wjwfbizk--What the f--in' business, Kay?
3. gnddy--grand-daddy
4. Inwcit--In which it
5. duacnkby--dual conk beach (getting tired now?)
6. trlriaxn--trial action
7. hdeqna--his deck not yours.
8. xtxun--exhaustion (actually was attached to a post about tiredness)
9. aucbk--a cookbook
10. uzulkxb--(too obscene to print here)
11. nvyspfkh--navy spinach
12. pjhqspwo--pajamas would be nice now
13. utpqvp--utter pique vapors

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I liked about Puerto Rico
1. Mofongo
2. Seafood
3. Sunshine
4. Beaches.
5. Nice people
6. Pastel colored houses
7. Pina coladas.
8. Pineapple
9. Warm rain showers
10. Great birding
11. Lizards
12. Tree ferns
13. Snorkeling.

I plan to post more on Mofongo one of these days.

Meme #4--Thursday 13

Thursday 13--#15
Thirteen magazines I browse at Border’s
1. Country Home
2. Cottage Living
3. Piecework
4. Cote Sud
5. Old House Interiors
6. Coastal Living
7. Chicago Wilderness
8. Midwest Living
9. Cote Ouest
10. Outdoor Photography
11. Popular Photography
12. Real Simple
13. Cloth, Paper, Scissors

And any others I can get my hands on. I have to confess, I take them upstairs to the café, buy some coffee and read them. Or rather, usually, I just look at the pictures. I generally do my more “serious” reading at home or on airplanes. I figure Border’s is the modern version of a library—I rent a chair and a magazine with the price of the coffee (and the 10,000 books I doubtless buy there). I feel guilty for not using the fine, small bookstore near my house but they don’t have a café. Border’s has become my haven from stress—no kids demanding meals or play-dates, no work duties. I can still be paged there so work or family can intrude but it is nonetheless my weekly treat. I keep interesting work hours so sometimes I’m there on a weekday with the homeless, college students, stay-at-home moms and unemployed even though I am none of the above.

Thursday Thirteen--A Shopping List

13 Things I Want to Buy Myself
1. A macro lens for my camera
2. A zoom lens
3. A light weight tripod
4. A subscription to Library Thing, http://www.librarything.com/
5. A really comfy chair for my bedroom. Has to come with an ottoman.
6. A new nightstand for by my bed. (My old one is one I bought used when I was still a starving student; it is Danish modern; my house is Victorian).
7. A new winter coat (The old one has holes in both pockets and I’m afraid I’ll lose my keys. The holes are too large to be trivially repaired). The good news is I won’t need a winter coat in about a month. So I’ll wait ‘til next year.
8. Contact lenses—I really can’t wear them. I have “dry eyes”. But my glasses are a real pain while taking pictures.
9. A modern sewing machine—mine is from the 1930’s—no kidding. I’ve had it since I was around 10 and it works wonderfully as long as you only want to go forward or backward.
10. A really small camera with lots of megapixels that will fit in my purse for those times my D-SLR is just too big. (Yes I’m obsessed with cameras right now).
11. A desk or table for the room I use for sewing and art supplies.
12. A new rug for my living room (that matches the furniture; the current one predates the furniture and clashes with all of it).
13. Since I’m redecorating all of a sudden, how about curtains that match the living room and its furniture? This is no small purchase—the room has 5 windows.

I’m not really saying I’m going to do all of this. In fact it would be interesting to see how many I’ll have done in, say, a year. But I had to come up with cool ideas. Otherwise this would have read like a shopping list—one pair of pants, 1 lb oranges, saran wrap, etc. This would not have been fun reading.

Thursday Thirteen #13

1. Pretty Amazing
2. Musings and Free Associations
3. This post has no title.
4. Challenges
5. Athina-Athens
6. Kea
7. Belated posting of July 1 blog
8. Mushrooms and Fungi and Slugs, Oh My!
9. MeSsedTuP
10. Greek Plant
11. Tree in Bryce Canyon
12. Back to School Week
13. Belated Posting Lucca Italy

Looking at this brought back memories of struggling to post photos, trying to post from Italy last summer, wondering why no one wanted to come to my party (no readers until later), and so forth. One post didn’t have a title so I added the title “This post has no title.”

Thursday Thirteen #12--Still trying to be original

Thirteen colleges that have mailed my son.
My son is a high school sophomore who just took his PSAT’s. Now he gets more mail than the rest of the family from colleges in the recruiting business. I don’t remember this happening when I was his age. I’ve not even heard of some of these colleges. It is flattering that others are wooing my kid.

1. University of Miami
2. Marquette University
3. Lake Forest College
4. Dickinson College
5. University of Missouri-Rolla
6. Colorado College
7. Caltech
8. Drake University
9. Loyola University Chicago
10. Washington and Lee University
11. Washington University in St. Louis
12. University of Washington
13. Stanford University

The first 11 all came in one day’s mail. I’d estimate he received at least another ten fliers maybe more. Who knows what tomorrow’s mail will bring?

Thursday Thirteen #12--Thirteen Strange photos.

Tomorrow's Photo Friday is strange. I sorted through some of the 400 + photos and am linking some of the weirder. Here they are:
1. YF Photography
2. Today is Today
3. Mr. SnappiePants
4. rushmi.com
5. Karim Beyrouti
6. Waking up late
7. Zenzi--Photos du monde
8. Angela Giles Klocke
9. WatchThisspace
10. random thoughts II
11. Atomische
12. The one-eyed man
13. Shutters Photoblog

Thursday Thirteen Number 11

Thirteen Things about The most recent Google searches that found this blog 1. tom chapin “no child left behind” (2nd hit) 2. soccer epitaph poem (3rd) 3. please don’t laugh at me book (2nd) 4. No child rant (1st)—Actually an aol search 5. tidal bore Washington (Google Italy) (4th) 6. passenger of my own (Google Germany) (1st) 7. book club “Suite francaise” (Google Australia) (9th) 8. suite francaise, book review (4th) 9. I kissed you goodnight (7th) 10. I am a rose upon a thorn (1st) 11. picture of debo from Friday (1st) 12. bluffton university professor committed murder (5th) 13. “Compare thee to a rose” and Shakespeare (2nd) I guess I’m getting picked up by Google a lot (and in the most recent 13, no searches of an indecent nature—I’m being indirect in my language because these are hits I don’t need to trigger). I’m surprised that I’m coming up so often on searches. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Kim's Candor 2. Amy's Random Thoughts 3. Beautiful British Columbia 4. Parenting with Mental Illness 5. Notes in the Key of Life 6. Sunflower

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Too many memes. Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Booking Through Thursday

1. How many unread books do you have in your house, right now? (Your own books, that is--not ones that belong to other family members--and not counting things like school books, if you have them.) Clearly, an estimate will do. Glad I get to estimate because it would take me a week to count them all--I'll guess 1-200.


2. To the best of your recollection, what is the OLDEST unread book in your collection? How long has it been waiting? I think I have an unread book somewhere I bought in college--let's say 20 years--I'm trying to get rid of some TBR's that never will BR.


3. Do your TBR books (that's "To Be Read," if you didn't know) haunt you, make you feel guilty that you haven't read them yet? Yes, I have more ghosts than a haunted house.

And to finish it off:
13 books from my TBR pile for Thursday Thirteen
1. I Bought a Mountain by Thomas Firbank
2. Electroboy: a Memoir of Mania by Andy Behrman
3. Motherland by Fern Schumer Chapman
4. The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll
5. Beethoven's Hair by Russell Martin
6. The Grand Tour by Tim Moore
7. Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
8. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
9. The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis
10. A Fine Young Man by Michael Gurian
11. A Hundred and One Days by Asne Seierstad
12. What Would Joey do? by Jack Gantos
13. Of Two Minds: An Anthropologist Looks at American Psychiatry

I am not promising to read all of these. These will be alternates on my TBR list. I've already removed 1-4/5 books from the TBR pile. Plus having all these books I've committed to read keeps a lid on my buying too many more.

Thursday 13--#9 Thirteen Great Things about Chicago

Thirteen Great Things about Chicago Since I said last week why I'd rather be in Seattle, I thought I'd give Chicago its fair shakes. If you ignore the weather and the absence of mountains or an ocean Chicago is pretty great. 1. Millennium Park 2. Lake Michigan 3. Lots of wonderful architecture. 4. The Sears Tower and the Hancock Center 5. The Art Institute 6. Navy Pier 7. Da Bears (Seahawks fans forgive me) 8. Nice people 9. The pizza! 10. Devon street and great Indian food. 11. Chicago Symphony Orchestra 12. Kosher Hot Dogs. 13. Museum of Science and Industry Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Beautiful British Columbia 2. Colloquium 3. Cozy Shack 4. Sunflower 5. Cheaper Than Therapy 6. Tigerprr's Scratching Post 7. It's All About Me (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen #8--Seattle

Thirteen Things about Why I wish I could live in Seattle 1. I have family there. 2. I grew up there and it still feels like "home." 3. Winter in Chicago stinks. 4. Summer in Chicago is too hot and humid. 5. Seattle is surrounded by mountains. 6. Seattle is near an ocean. 7. I could eat really fresh seafood. 8. It would a lot closer to places to go hiking and backpacking. 9. I could take up cross country skiing again. 10. I could throw away all the hats, gloves, scarves, glove liners, thermal underwear, snow boots, snow pants or save them just for skiing. 11. I could ask family to babysit when I wanted to go out in the evening. 12. I could walk by the lake in winter and not worry about frostbite. 13. Snow would be an exciting event or something you drove to the mountains to play in. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. It's a Raggedy Life 2. Sunflower 3. Skittles' Place 4. Dragonboy 5. Little House on Wheels 6. The Screaming Pages (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen #7--Thirteen Blogs

Thirteen Blogs I visited today:
1. A Life in the South of France
2. Not Strictly Seattle
3. tiggerprr's scratching post
4. Tarakuanyin: A few words from an Irish transplant
5. Read this Sign
6. Paris Daily Photo
7. Evry Daily Photo
8. Eddie, Are You Kidding?
9. A Crockhead Abroad
10. BEYOND Understanding
11. A Blue State of Mind
12. Musings
13. Holly's Corner Blog
I tried to post blogs that are relatively new to me, not the ones I have linked for a while now. This is to create some variety for posting and surfing for all my (3) readers. So if you're not here, don't worry, you are appreciated too.

Thursday 13 # 6 -- 13 Books we have here on vacation

1. A Birder's Guide to Coastal Washington, by Bob Morse
2. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
3. Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur Clarke
4. Time Cat, by Lloyd Alexander
5. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
6. Academ's Fury, by Jim Butcher
7. Chez Nous, by Angie Estes
8. A Handbook on Stuttering, by Oliver Bloodstein
9. Warriors: The New Prophecy, Twilight, by Erin Hunter
10. Birds of a Feather, Jacqueline Winspear
11. Time Was Soft There, by Jeremy Mercer
12. Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, by Eric Brende
13. The Dogs of Riga, by Henning Mankell

This is for four people. I'm not telling who is who.

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen ways I plan to enjoy my vacation

1. Sleep in.
2. Watch TV.
3. Go for walks on the beach.
4. Look for driftwood and rocks.
5. Play Amazing Labyrinth with my kids.
6. Write.
7. Surf the net. No water surfing for me. I’d risk frostbite.
8. Take photos.
9. Study up on using my camera.
10. Read (a lot)
11. Share with my family.
12. Eat a lot of good food.
13. Pay some bills, alas.