Looking for Jimmy

Sorry, I've been out of commission for the last couple of days...got a tip on Jimmy Hoffa...I was out digging. No luck and now it's been 33 years since he was last seen. I did, however, just see Matt Kuester walk through my back yard...Amy's husband is out reading gas meters again. I ususally let the dogs out when he's about half way through the yard...it speeds him up a bit and I'm sure he enjoys it!

Nate and Grace

Being a new father can really wear a guy out.

Fish Stick Jesus

A man in Ontario, Canada, was served a fish stick with the likeness of Jesus burnt on the backside...I hope he got his money back...I ain't paying for no burnt fish stick---likeness or not! Course to me, it looks like Elvis.

Stan & Lois in Centerville, OH while visiting Lori & Mark - Sept '07

For the Kell site….. Thanks Kathy for doing all this work!

Lori

Posted by Lori via email

Mark & Lori with friends during their July trip back to Alaska

July 2008 trip to Anchorage to fish, see friends, eat at favorite restaurants, etc.

Posted by Lori via email

Ancient Elvis Carving

An ancient Roman carving with a striking resemblance to Elvis Presley is to be auctioned in London, England in October. The 1,800-year old marble acroterion (a carved head from a sarcophagus corner) shares the crooner's famous lip snarl and distinctive slicked back hair. It is expected to fetch between $50,000 and $60,000. Read more at the New York Post.

Working Ragbrai

Top: Ragbrai went through the small town of Belle Plaine today. One of our Pizza Huts in the River Valley Area is located here. We opened at 9am (pizza, pasta, Pepsi) as the bikers had to be out of town by 1:30 and on their way to the Amanas and then North Liberty.

Bottom: We took a break and walked to their downtown area: bikers, beer, bands, bathrooms. We heard 16,000 were riding this year. They came from Tama via the Bohemian Alps.

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday, Nancy

the Great Mailbox Hunt

The Great Mailbox Hunt is on!! Submit your entries to Popular Mechanics:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/workshop/4219781.html

Lilypad City

New solution to overcrowding in prisons:

The Lilypad, a floating ecopolis for climatic refugees, is the creation of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut.
"It is" he says, "a true amphibian, half aquatic and half terrestrial city, able to accommodate 50,000 inhabitants and inviting biodiversity".
Callebaut imagines his structure at 250 times the scale of a lilypad, with a skin made of polyester fibres coated in titanium dioxide which would react with ultraviolet light and absorb atmospheric pollution.
The Lilypad comprises of three marinas and three mountain regions with streets and structures strewn with foliage. "The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature," said Callebaut.

More information and pictures of Lilypad:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/10/lilypads/index.html#cnnSTCText

Laundry nightmare

It may be the smallest article in the newspaper but mom always seems to find the SNAKE stories:

GORHAM, Maine -- A woman checking her laundry Wednesday afternoon found an 8-foot-long snake wrapped around the clothes inside the washing machine at her Gorham home.
News 8's Jim Keithley reported the snake somehow got into the water pipes of the 1800s-era farmhouse and slithered its way up to the second floor.
Mara Ranger told News 8 that when her load of laundry was done, she reached into the machine and felt something move.
"I take my jeans out and then I put my hand back in there to get more and something moved under my hand. I jumped back and, all of sudden, its head starts coming out of the washing machine and it looked huge," Ranger said.
Ranger said she closed the lid, but fought her fear and did not slam it to avoid hurting the snake. Then, she called the police, animal control and even emailed News 8.
Keithley reported that getting the twisted snake into a bag proved to be harder than expected as the snake made a mad dash toward the crowd. Ranger's mother -- called for moral support -- nearly collapsed.
Initially, authorities thought the snake was 4-foot boa constrictor, but turned out to be a reticulated python.
Richard Burton of Maine Animal Damage control arrived to save the day, but even he couldn't believe his eyes. He's been to a half-dozen snake recoveries this year alone.
"Last year in Lewiston, I took one out of a woman's shower; it came down her shower head," Burton said. "They get very dehydrated and they can sense a water source and they go to it, travel in pipes, suspended ceilings, in bathrooms, anything like that to get to a water source."
Ranger said the snake used to be somebody's pet. They guessed that once it grew larger, the owners tossed it out in the wild.
I just made a deal with Steve--he washes, I fold!!

Night rainbow over GC

The left picture is off today's http://www.spaceweather.com/. It is a nighttime rainbow or moonbow. Well, just so happens that I took a VERY amateur picture tonight in GC of a rainbow after dark on main street. I know the poor quality of the picture may find you in disbelief but it was one incredible sight. I could see the other end of it when I got home south of my house but by then it was too dark that my cell phone wasn't picking up anything.

Update: the GC moonbow was a perfect arc with the pot of gold reportedly somewhere near Tama.

Moonball, anyone?

http://www.pixheaven.net/galerie_us.php?id=3

Beware of the full moon!!!

Bouabidi behind bars

another relative behind bars

My Next Car

I might be the first one on the block with a car like this:

Compressed-Air Powered cars could take you over 800 miles on a single fill-up, at speeds of up to 96 mph. They should refuel in less than 3 minutes, and at speeds over 35 mph emit about half the CO2 of a Toyota Prius. Best part? You could see them in the US at the end of next year. New York startup ZPM, like Tata motors, has licensed technology from Luxembourg-based MDI. MDI also has plans to release these cars in Europe in 2-, 4-, and 6-cylinder models, starting under $15,000.

This information is taken from this site:

http://gas2.org/2008/07/15/an-air-car-you-could-see-in-2009-zpms-106-mpg-compressed-air-hybrid/

Sun Pyramid Secret Passage

According to this website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/2299796/Secret-chamber-may-solve-Mexican-pyramid-mystery.html

Secret chamber may solve Mexican pyramid mystery...With its soaring stone pyramids and geometric temples, Teotihuacan was once the biggest city in the Americas and possibly the world.
However, experts have never been able to say with certainty who built it and why it was suddenly abandoned.
An international team of experts believes the answer may lie under the Pyramid of the Sun, the centre point of the vast ruined city 25 miles outside Mexico City.

I did climb this pyramid back in the early 80s. It was like climbing a ladder. If anyone can remember Geraldo Riveria opening the Al Capone vault...well, I'm hoping this secret chamber has a few more answers in it and I hope Geraldo isn't involved.

Bonnie's 50th Reunion

Class of '58

I think they are all looking at the streaker from the class of '73

Bouabidis in Orlando

I thought the Bouabidis were in Orlando but guess they went somewhere into the future for these shots.

"Take me to your leader"

Click on this map to enlarge it and you can see the path a UFO took in Texas the other day. There have been numerous reports and even news coverage on CNN's Larry King Live of UFO sightings in Stevenville and Dublin, TX with the UFOs heading towards George W. Bush's Crawford ranch. Unfortunately, the aliens didn't do one of those abductions they are known for or maybe they were looking for intelligent life...and just ended up doing a fly-by.

Emily's family

I caught Emily, Dustin, Dylan and Cale playing tennis tonight at the courts across the street from their house which is in the background. Their brand new front deck is right behind Emily's head. (guess I didn't line that up too good) The humidity was terrible and I caught them by surprise but I thought the picture turned out excellent.

Running of the Bulls-GC

Only a superficial wound was sustained running this bull calf into the machine shed much fewer than the 7 injuries in Pamplona. But this guy was fiesty and resisted captivity--as a matter of fact, the machinery in the background is holding the pen down and in place. We are hoping his demeaner is only an innate desire to run in the streets of Spain.

#279 is 2 months old

Dutch smoking ban?

From the BBC:

For years locals and tourists have been coming here to relax in easy chairs, roll up a joint and lose a few hours as they take advantage of Amsterdam's famously relaxed approach to marijuana.
But now, there is a cloud on the horizon. From Tuesday 1 July, the Dutch will impose a nationwide ban on smoking tobacco in cafes, bars and restaurants - meaning any joints rolled using tobacco will be illegal.
Strictly speaking, marijuana is illegal as well - but it is tolerated. So, perhaps oddly, the smoking of pure grass or hash will still be allowed.

Note to Iowans: looks like the Dutch imposed the same smoking bans on July 1st but appears the ban is only on Tobacco and not on Cannabis. Obviously, in the states, a ban on Cannabis already exists but the similarity of these two cases is the general greed of the government:

You can still smoke in casinos in Iowa-the government doesn't want to jeopardize the income they produce for the state.

In Amsterdam-the government is who sells the cannabis sales permits to the coffeehouses and then taxes their income by about 45% and I'm going to tell you this cause I've been there-the vast majority of the tourists to Amsterdam are not there for the tulips and windmills they are there because of the tolerance (not legality) of cannabis.

In other words, governments are pretty much the same wherever you go: they say they want to impose laws that protect our health but really... is smoking in a casino safer than smoking in your farm building? I guess as much as cannabis is safer than tabacco...

Kathy's kids

Biskit and Liz on a summer morning.

Exploding Head Syndrome

The little factoid in the sidebar today says that 'exploding head syndrome' is an actual medical condition that most people haven't heard of. How many times have we all said, "my head is going to explode?" I say it at least once a week when I'm making out my work schedule but didn't think it had actually been documented. I had to search 'the' Google for this answer...

People with this condition describe a terrifyingly loud noise — often described as a bang — that lasts only a moment and doesn't occur with headache or other pain.
Exploding head syndrome occurs most often in adults older than age 50. The cause isn't clear. But it may be due to a delay in the "switching off" of some of the brain-alerting pathways, which normally occurs as sleep begins. Attacks may occur only once or with varying frequency for weeks or months and then stop, sometimes permanently.

I certainly haven't experienced this and I think the name is a little deceptive. I like 'I just heard a terrifyingly loud noise syndrome.'

Roswell UFO Festival

If I would have known the Roswell UFO Festival was taking place, I might have headed there. I'll have to keep this in mind for next July. More alien pictures and information can be found at:

http://www.roswellufofestival.com/

I wonder if any "wee" people were in Roswell...

July 4th on the Mississippi

If we hadn't spotted this riverboat casino on the Mississippi River in Dubuque, we would have made it to the fireworks in Galena... Bottom picture is from the top of the alpine slide at a ski lodge outside of Galena looking at the Mississippi River just before sunset.
Flooding didn't occur this far north this year. The view was beautiful but the crowds were large so we opted out of the parade watching to find a place to eat: "Fried Green Tomatoes"
and opted out of the fireworks to go back to Dubuque to gamble at the Diamond Jo Riverboat and Grand Harbor Resort and Casino...crowds weren't so large there-neither were our winnings...

Happy 4th

I'm hoping to view some fantastic fireworks tonight!

Faceless people are showing up

With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places.
The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John's White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.
With a membrane of skin stretched tightly over their eyes, noses and mouths, the alien-like figures were most recently snapped 'watching' a match perched on Murray Mount at Wimbledon.

It is suspected that this is a marketing campaign for some yet unknown horror movie. See more at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1031062/Faceless-aliens-spotted-crowd-Wimbledon.html

Hubble snaps ancient fireworks

Hubble has captured a close-up of the remnant of a supernova that exploded in the Milky Way on 1 May 1006. The explosion is one of the brightest in recorded history and was visible with the naked eye.
The delicate-looking remnant is actually part of a shock wave from the stellar explosion. The roiling remains are still expanding, moving at a clip of about 10 million kilometres per hour.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14241-hubble-snaps-ghostly-ribbon-of-light.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news2_head_dn14241

so, do you think this is moving towards us or away from us?

4th of July Trivia II

150 million

is the number of hot dogs (all varieties) expected to be consumed by Americans on the Fourth. (That’s one frankfurter for every two people.) There’s about a 1-in-4 chance that the hot dogs made of pork originated in Iowa, as the Hawkeye State had a total inventory of 16.2 million hogs and pigs on March 1, 2005. This represents more than one-fourth of the nation’s total. (Data on hot dog consumption courtesy of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.) Data on hogs and pigs at <http://www.usda.gov/nass/>.