Have a Cool One!
The Froggy Bottom Cafe. . .
Where Everybody Knows You’re a 4!
Thanks for coming! Please Unrecommend this diary and move on to the new one.
Happy Hour’s Over/New Cafe Now Open
Have a Cool One!
The Froggy Bottom Cafe. . .
Where Everybody Knows You’re a 4!
Thanks for coming! Please Unrecommend this diary and move on to the new one.
I thought you might like to move to the mountains this evening.
Rules of the house:
Recommend this diary; unrecommend the previous one.
No photos above 400 px, please, and try to put them in as new comments instead of in a thread. Thanks!
No paying for drinks.
Overtip the barmaid. Or, madame, as the case may be.
You may now talk among yourselves.
Newcomers, pull up a chair and tell us about yourselves. I’ll have to catch you later because I’m leaving to take my son to dinner in Lawrence where he’s a junior at the University of Kansas, bless its little blue heart.
Y’all have fun!
P.S. Katiebird, I screwed up the template for myself again. Sigh. But that’s okay, cause I kinda like the mountain cafe.
It looks great! What are you talking about?
Cafe. . .(or am I really that lazy?)
Remember the TV show CHEERS? When Norm would come into the place? Well, I’m sort of beginning to feel like the Froggy equivalent of Norm. . .so everybody, all together now:
S H I I I I I I R L!
Now that feels better, and Mocha Frappacino, Yuuuuuum!
I have enjoyed all the comments, and Big hugs to those feeling down, out of sorts, overly busy, or in physical pain or discomfort, or just because it is good to see your smiling face:
I had no idea so many of us still heat with wood. I’ve been doing it for 24 years now and I love wood heat so much more than the more modern forms. I still have trees than come down on their own on my property (cottonwoods) and get out the chain saw and cut them up. Stack the wood, then split it as it becomes cured. I don’t split huge piles of it any more, Just split 2 or 3 days worth at a time as I use it. And when I can get free pine or aspen, I use that too. So those of you with native hardwoods, enjoy. But I can burn a great, long lasting fire out of any of them (brag, brag). If I had my druthers I would burn cedar all of the time, the aroma is the best there is. Maybe because I burned a lot of cedar when I lived in the mountains in the tent (29 years ago now) and the smell of the cedar on the open camp fire was just heavenly. Takes me back there every time I smell it.
So thanks you all for giving me a great mood altering memory and warm smiles all around.
We’ve been heating with wood since we built the house in 1979 and I would hate to ever have electric heat. I think that what is so wonderful about wood heat is that it isn’t blown but moves with the natural movement of air through your house so that it just seems to cocoon you.
For us, that’s hot!
That is hot for Seattle — great weather for a cup of chowder at Ivar’s Acres of Clams, right by the window so you can watch the ferries leave from Colman Dock…
Damn, I miss the Northwest…I may have to do some serious campaigning to get the spouse to pick that as destination for next year’s Big Trip…
I love Ivar’s, but we usually end up going to Steamers, maybe a half mile up the Alaskan Way from Ivar’s. Not because it’s better chowder, but because we usually eat there when we go to the Aquarium, which is right next door. We buy an annual combination zoo/aquarium pass every year — my granddaughter loves the Aquarium, which makes for a cheap day out. In good weather you can sit outside and watch the ferries and other harbor traffic go by.
Unfortunately Steamers will be closing this fall when they start construction on the Aquarium expansion. Win some, lose some, I guess.
Of course, you could be at Sewell’s Marina in Weat Vancouver today, watching this.
Hey, can I plug my diary?
for Ivar’s — the Salmon House is where I first tried salmon and liked it (not much of a seafood person). Also had it on the Tilicum Village trip.
Ivar’s actually has a fast food location here in the Silly Con Valley, of all places; it’s in the food court at the Valley Fair Mall. I usually end up getting the chowder, but one of these times I’ll get the salmon and chips… 🙂
You mean this marina?
Captain and crew warned passengers to hold tight, the ship was about to crash. Passengers later said they didn’t feel much. The captain chose to run aground in the marina for a “soft-landing” rather than hit the dock. This was the ferry from West Van to Nanaimo. One brave sailor jumped in his boat and sped off just seconds before the ferry hit the boats.
I meant to go to CBC Radio One Vancouver’s web site to listen in to their afternoon newscast, but got busy at work and completely forgot.
I’m just glad that no one was hurt (as far as anyone can tell). Boats can be replaced. People can’t.
yeah. 5 more degrees and this seattlite will retire, snarling, into the cool of the basement.
Now that Feels GOOD!
I told you not to post that pic of me….Scheesh….
Sorry, Diane, but you know. . .I just couldn’t help myself. And You look just fine, so quit worrying about it.
Diane and I have in common-we both look greatt in a swimsuit! ;^)
Be Still my Heart!!!!!
Now, if we can just get Teresa to tell us where that fancy swimmin’ hole is…
somewhere in PA to me. . .but she is strangely silent on the exact location. . .hmmmmmmmmm? Skinny dipping, eh?
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/rickettsglen.aspx
Ahh, how nice!
And here is book to read in your cabin (Pick your edition):
about this. On the one hand, I love the HP series and can’t wait to read the next installment. On the other hand, I hate to buy hardbacks – they’re so darn expensive and I’m so young and penniless. Since I assume it will be a good long while before this one comes out in paperback, maybe I should just suck it up and buy it.
What do y’all think?
One way to piss off a radical right winger… get a library card and support your local library AND librarian 🙂
We have a VERY small library and I’m able to go ONLINE and make a list of books I want to get sent to it so I can go pick em up. It’s totally cool! Got the kids into it as well.
I love being able to browse an online bookstore and then go over and request it via my local libraries site.
Go and get our libraries rocking and rolling. If they’re empty they get shut down.
I love love love buying books. Books, CDs, DVDs, and games are the entire family’s vices BUT.. with books we check em out before we buy 🙂
Janet,
This is amazing but, I’ve been working on a project that you would totally love. Have you heard about the LibraryLookup project?
You create a bookmarklet (just for your library) that you can keep in your bowser toolbar and then anytime you see a book at Amazon or other online store you can click on that bookmarklet that opens another browser window and runs a search on your library catalog!
Here is a link to a LibraryLookup generator.
It took some work for me, because my library is an iBistro library and they don’t have a generator for that system. But, I figured it out and the author (Jon Udell) is going to add it as an iBistro generator (I’m bragging, and sorry about it too).
Anyway, the whole purpose of the LibraryLookup project is so people can see if their library has a copy before they buy. So, it might be perfect for you!
Katie, have we talked about this before? Are you a librarian? (I’m sorry if we already discussed it – I am terrible at keeping track of the conversations I have with people.)
We came close to talking about this — but by the time I saw you asking me, a new cafe opened and I couldn’t remember who had asked.
No, I’m not a librarian. But, Since 1979, I’ve worked at almost every task in a library from technical services to public services and then library computing. I’ve worked in Academic, Special and Public libraries (which is the best).
As someone about to become a librarian, I probably should have mentioned the library option. The problem is that libraries don’t have nearly enough copies of popular books to go around, so I’d have to get on a waiting list and take reading time away from some little kid who wants to read Harry Potter so bad and whose parents won’t buy it for him/her.
Also, I’d really like to own it eventually, so I’m leaning towards just buying it. I have a high tolerance for repetition and an aversion to change, so I love to read/watch/listen to the same things over and over and over…It’s much easier to do when you own the thing. 🙂
I’m not a librarian (or going to be one either), but I’ve always worked in libraries. And my rule is that if it’s a book I will want to reread, or a book I want to take my time reading, or a book I want to read now, then I buy it.
It drive Mister Katiebird nuts, because he thinks that since I work with all those books, that’s a good place for my books to be shelved.
But then I wouldn’t have them handy for a reading emergency.
The library lookup tool you linked to is amazing! This is right up my alley – I’m about to get an MLS with a concentration in digital libraries. As I understand it, a lot of it has to do with making library catalogs (and online databases, etc) interoperable. This tool is a great example of someone doing that. Now I’m just afraid I’m going to forget where it was before I have my own computer I can bookmark it in!
Send me an email (it’s next to my name below — take out the spamblock) and I’ll send you the link. Which vendor does your catalog?
I’m currently between libraries, as I’m about to move back to the midwest for school. I used to volunteer at my local library here in California, though. I mostly helped people with the computers, so I didn’t get to be very familiar with the inner workings, but their catalog seems to be done by Dynix.
Sending you an email…
Ah, digital libraries — I’m currently the Web person for our library — that’s why I was working so hard on this.
and step on in to your local ‘berry.
I love going every week with my overdue books. Each time I pay the fines, I make a request for “more physics books, please, or other hard science.”
And I feel the love from my librarians when my coins chink in the till, “Any particular title?” they ask.
It’s a beautiful thing.
I just realized that I got distracted at the last minute when I posted this and I didn’t make the images links to the books. So, here they are:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
US Edition
UK Children’s edition
UK Adult edition
.
Ask Yahoo for a Jungfrau … news item delivers a glacier!
TIME – Aletsch glacier
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
I can just hear Bush saying, “see! I done did tole you all that there ain’t no such thang as globber warming! Check out that big bag of party ice there! See, nuttin to worry about… now about that global worming problem…I get this itch sometimes…”
Hey Oui, you know I love you, but you gotta get your pixels under control….under 400 please…please….please…..565 x 384 pixels in pic above…nice pic tho
You know I am in the pixel patrol and last night shirl was relegated to cleaning the frog pond for her pixel abuse yesterday…
And how are you today Oui, have you recovered from the wedding yet….
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Enjoy the tour of the city – heritage of the Pilgrim Fathers!
Civil Wedding Leiden Stadhuis
Lunch at “De Beukenhof” Founded in 1355
Hartebrug Church Wedding
‘t Koetshuis Festivities
Near “De Burcht”
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan’s Happy Hour and add some cheers!
Leiden! I was there this time last year. Beautiful, beautiful town. Some of my pics (at the risk of incurring diane’s wrath):
Do visit Leiden if ever you’re in the Netherlands (oh, and Haarlem, too!).
I worked for a company that had its Euro headquarters in Leiden…if I’d known how beautiful it was, I would have lobbied for a business trip over there!
“Diane’s wrath”, I am getting a kick out of seeing some of these pics,. with comments…
Thanks it is making me laugh when I am feeling bad and in pain, I get up slowly make my way to the computer, click on this diary and I always get a laugh, even if it hurts to breathe, it’s good to make that breath a laugh..And I do love all the pics. even the big ones…BTW….
I am so glad all you folks are there in the cafe for me to drop in on…
I posted a picture of my dad’s cat in the last Cafe, so I think I’ll put my mom’s dog in this one. This little cutie’s name is Max, and as you can see, he’s a yoga master.
Max is a native Parisian, and made the trip to California with my mom when she got a job here. He is the cutest (and strangest) dog ever, and is a source of constant joy to me, my mom and her entire congregation.
Doggie Down! 🙂
When my black lab does that… we all run for cover. Cuz’ it means one hellacious dog fart is about to be squeezed out. Usually a high-pitched poof or a silent but deadly gasserizer.
Don’t even go NEAR her if she’s scarfed down some salsa a kid left near the xbox area. PEEEUUUUie
Max just does it cuz he’s bendy. When he gets up in the morning and stands up on his backlegs to lean against you and be petted, he sometimes bends so far backwards his chin is almost parallel with the ground – upside down. I know I’m not describing it well, but he literally almost doubles over backwards. It’s amazing.
tape it and send it to M&Ms for their AMAZING commercials.
But it might not be too amazing… after all almost all dogs and cats can lick their own buts so they probably are all bendy 🙂
But taping him doing his dogdevil stunt would be pretty damn cute 🙂
And speaking of bendy dogs, farty dogs, and all other manner of dogs, did I miss the Thursday Dog Blog today?
Say, who takes the RFE’s around here? This site really needs a button on diary pages that says “Give all these nice people a 4.”
I’m in complete agreement with ya Andi! Giving ou 4’s is hurrrd wurrrk 🙂
It can take forevah over at Bill’s C&J.
pre-emptive 4’s to all! 🙂
Think of what would happen if trolls got a hold of it and decided to troll-rate entire diaries. Brrrrrr.
I know how to do it, but it involves being able to write computer programs and run them in Linux, and I learned long ago not to expect other people to be able to do stuff like that. But then again I don’t expect to be able to do simple things like tie my shoes, or not drop food on my shirt.
Well, yeah I suppose I could write a perl script but that would be work and this is for fun.
But the advantage of the button would be that in my design, it would only be used for giving everybody 4’s.
Wonder how hard it would be to put together a Firefox extension to do something like that . . .
.
I thought you might like to move to the mountains this evening.
Instead of all you political BooTribbers ….
moving that mountain in aspiration!
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan’s Happy Hour and add some cheers!
In the middle of summer the pool at the bottom of this waterfall is still very cold and about 4 and a half feet deep. I think I took this picture in August.
Teresa, Do you ever make really large prints of your photographs? And if so, could you recommend a place to have them done?
I’d like to have some pretty giant sized prints made of some of my photos, but don’t have any idea where to go.
Where do you live Katie? I was going to recommend two labs I used to use in Ft Lauderdale. The black and white lab in particular was worth the effort to send the work out of town. But I just looked and can’t find them online.
Where ever you are there should be a pro photo finisher that can do the job for you. The nearest city should have a good lab which does work for Pro-photographers.
I live near Kansas City, Mo. So, I’m sure they have labs. Do you have suggestions for what to ask for? Or can a person just show up with a TIF on a disk and tell them what size?
I’ve been taking digital photographs for years, but only recently wanted to print them. So, I’d really value any advice you have to share. I don’t even know what I don’t know.
One thing to consider is that the quality of the print will be directly affected by the resolution of the original image. If you are going to make prints, you want to shoot your images at the highest resolution your camera has.
Also, the aspect ratio of your digital image needs to match up with the size of the print. Otherwise, you can end up with white edges on the print.
You may have to do some trial and error work with the photo lab in order to figure out what kind of adjustments might be needed to get the color output to match what you think it ought to be.
And somewhere, I have a link to a nice chart that gives resolution and pixels and what size print you can go to. I should dig that up…..
There are also a bunch of online services that do decent work at reasonable prices, or so I’m told. (I have three drugstores within a mile of me that all have Fuji Frontier systems capable of GOOD 8×10 for less than 5 bucks, and 8×10 for color is as big as I get without a gallery show in the offing. B&W I do myself. (Yeah, I’m not only a good shooter I’m also a lab rat…)
And the thought for the evening: No matter HOW bad your day was, someone else had it worse.
Sorry, I’m not sure I follow the question… care to rephrase?
(Cost is, of course, something to be aware of… but several of the online labs will actually be less costly than a brick-and-mortar shop for a whole bunch of reasons, if you can get the quality you need. You might look around on the PhotoNet site for perhaps some suggestions.)
The paper question? It just symbolized my total lack of knowledge. I want to be prepared so that when I place my order, I sound like I know what I want.
What if they ask me what kind of paper to print the photograph on?
(Oh, I know! I’ll check out a book!)
Generally the only choice you GET about what kind of paper you want is whether you want glossy paper or some kind of matte or semi-gloss. There are brands and types but mostly those questions won’t come into play for what you’re discussing.
Personal take, others will have different mileage: For non-people pix to be framed and hung on the wall, I like glossy finish… it tends to look a little sharper and holds edges better. For prints to be handed around or sent to people, I like a semigloss or a matte or whatever, since that finish doesn’t take fingerprints as well. For portraits, semimatte or semigloss tends to give a somewhat more flattering rendition unless you’re shooting one of those extremely rare individuals who have skin and features that’ll stand up to glossing without looking hard or artificial….
That looks so cool…is it in PA?
We are figuring out where our next PA camping outing should be…the Wellsboro area is currently leading the pack!
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/rickettsglen.aspx
Was supposed to reach a high of 83, but since I wasn’t here I can’t testify to that. Was several miles (and degrees) away, looking for (and finally finding) one of those racks that holds canned soft drinks so they take up less space in the fridge.
Spouse just called; he had a malfunction on his bus so is delayed coming home. We’re going to go out someplace cool for dinner, then do a little grocery shopping. I have ground turkey in the fridge that needs to be used, so I think I’ll actually cook dinner tomorrow morning when it’s cool, then can just heat the stuff up in the microwave for dinner; I was going to do sloppy joes and french fries, but will probably substituted baked potato chips for the fries in that case.
Okay, time to go work on vacation planning…
I’m sweating in places I didn’t know had sweat glands. Cripes! Human salt lick here.
Friend said it was 101 in the town over – in Kelseyville. However just a week or two ago it was freaking HAILING on my daughter’s slip and slide. One day she’s getting toasty on her shoulders, the next it’s hailing.
102 here and NOT cooling off yet! We haven’t had rain in 29 days, but dammit the air is WET!
Ah, Austin in the sum, sum, summer-time. NOT!
That’s horrible! Our heat wave just broke after a bit more than a week — and that was about all I could take. I’d enjoy summer more in a place that never reached 85 degrees.
<img=400 src=”http://img287.echo.cx/img287/6819/waterfall26tu.jpg” alt=”Image Hosted by ImageShack.us”>
Evening all! Cool here in Del Mar…I have sweats on. Marine layer just never lifted today. heat wave on the way though. Any n/a beer back there babe?
Anyone know if Conyers is giving his speech on the floor tonight? I haven’t heard anything about it since yesterday. C-span schedule only says House of reps in general.
Will this do? Last can of the stuff. Ordinarily I wouldn’t serve n/a beer, but you’ve got a plaque on your own stool.
Hello…can a woman get some service in this joint or have I been 86ed…lol?
What can I get for you?
What willyou have?
Sorry to be so slow. . .was just cleaning the pond scum off a me.
I HEART YOU!
And a nice tropical drink for Aloha
I heart you too!
If shirl is Norm, does that make me Cliff?
Hey Cliffy. . . that sure sounds like you!
diary whore…Chuck Pennacchio (our pro-choice, progressive PA senate candidate) is describing his plan for an exit strategy for Iraq. Please check it out!
A Canadian new program called the National has just aired a segment on Guantanamo that included an interview with a former US soldier…
He had been assigned to act as a detainee for training of an ERF(?) team – they almost killed him, and he was left with brain damage. The hospital pics look brutal. He was given a code word to stop the exercise, but was gasping it while they were slamming his head against the cement floor. He found himself begging – I’m a US soldier, I’m a US soldier. The exercise was dragging him from his cell and putting him in a restraining suit – he was cooperating, then desperately cooperating, then trying to stop the exercise, then hoping he’d live through it…. that’s some harsh shit. When he was asked ‘if this is what happened to a soldier during a training exercise, what happens to a real detainee? He declined to answer – saying only “I know what happens.” – in a way that makes me think they’re eaten by sharks in the Caribbean…..
I’m going to try to capture the interview when it’s rebroadcast later – so… does anyone know where I can host a large mpeg file?
oh.
That is so horrible.
. . . sigh . . .
Will this ever be over? It certainly won’t ever be over for that soldier.
I know we are in a quagmire, but do quagmires last forever?
Here’s The National’s website here.
They say the post the show after 1130pmEST. Maybe the segment you saw will be available there. The current show feed leads with the BC ferry accident.
Cool! – I’m always frustrated by the Hour, because it takes days or weeks before the clips go up on-line – I had no idea that The National was so much faster – thank you.
Try this for free, no size limits <smile>
https:/upload.video.google.com
or
Google video
Or
Giga share
Thanks Shirl – I thought about that, and the google angle seems great for a lot of purposes, but I don’t know about using it for ripped off TV programs… there are issues with rights management.
I just saw the segment here in Ottawa. I typed a rough transcript of the segment. If anyone’s interested I could post the notes into a diary???
I’d love that – I was wishing I’d done the same thing as I was watching it, but… was just kind of frozen and glued. Especially if the video is available from the National later – it would make a great diary.
If you hadn’t written your post, I would probably have missed it. I was ready with my notepad open when it came on and just started typing. Like I said, it’s rough, but definitely interesting. I’ll put it into a diary, and if you remember something that I didn’t catch maybe you could add it?
Watching Baker, you could see that he was trying not to say the wrong thing. He was very careful with his wording and his manner. At one point, he even said he didn’t want to answer one of the questions.
I’m glad I was able to give you a heads up.
Yea – I was amazed that he even did the interview – I can’t imagine the kind of intimidation military personnel must go through. The guy has got nerve – thank god…
Do I remember correctly that you play Ultimate? Would you mind emailing me sometime about a ‘it’s a small world’ thing that I’m thinking about?
Yep. Had a game tonight in fact. The heat just about killed me… I think I remember what your small word thing is – my e/m is olivia in ottawa (no spaces) at yahoo dot – ca version. I’ll check for your message.
the barmaid’s back! Thanks Katiebird and BrotherFeldspar and Shiiirrll and everybody else who delivered drinks in my absence. This is quite the team effort.
Had a delish dinner with my son and spectacular lightning shows all the way to Lawrence and back. It was like driving in a huge bowl with lightning arcing from side to side over head and also down every side. PLUS driving home into a HUGE partial rainbow, as if the St. Louis arch had suddenly marched west, expanded to l00 times its size, and planted its feet on either side of Kansas City.
Pretty cool. Now. . .can I get anybody anything?
I fixed up this batch of cool refreshers. . .anyone?
Or these if you all prefer
Ok, give me all of them. I’m having a crappy evening.
I’m glad you’re back! We’ve been watching the lightening through the window, it must have been really something from outside the city.
Gary Lezak is very happy about it all, of course.
What I was having problems with was the horizontal frog template, the one with Zander’s froggie and cup. When I tried to copy the whole template and then paste it into a new diary I got all kinds of messages telling me I hadn’t completed this and hadn’t matched that. I just couldn’t figure out how to fix that problem and then how to make the other changes I wanted to make.
But it all turned out okay anyway.
If you feel like it, you might sometime try copying that template onto a new diary yourself and see if it works okay for you. Maybe when they changed the site it shifted some codes?? I don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, of course.
I’m totally embarrassed. I left off a closing tag to one of the tables, and that destroyed everything that followed.
I deleted the file and uploaded the corrected one. And tested it. It worked for me.
I am so sorry. (but glad to get it fixed)
Hey, you could have told me anything and I’d have believed it!
A team effort, for sure.
Thanks, Katiebird!
And now. . .THIS CAFE IS CLOSED AND A NEW ONE HAS OPENED!!