It’s not terrible – just going to be time-consuming. So no “Friday Fun”.
On January 2nd I got a notification from one of my credit cards that there was activity on my account that they didn’t recognize & looked suspicious.
On review, I didn’t recognize it either – so I called. They decided that “out of an abundance of caution” they would terminate that card & send me a new one.
The next day when I logged in, it was clear that the unrecognized action was an online donation on 12/31 to an organization I had previously always written a check.
But the die was cast!
I got my new card the other day and activated it today. And I decided that since it’s been a while, I would go ahead and change my User & Password.
Unfortunately this created a HUGE snafu requiring three f/u (the medical “follow-up” … NOT the other f/u) phone calls and over 2 hours to straighten out. (*sigh*)
But now I have to contact 15 “Merchants” who I setup as automatic payments and notify them of my new card number, expiration date & CVV/CVC number.
In the rolling hills of Paso Robles, CA there is a most amazing art installation: Field of Light, by British artist Bruce Munro.
Consisting of over 58,800 spheres on 2.5′ stems and lit by solar-powered fiber optics, they illuminate the countryside in every color of the rainbow – and gradually change their hues.
It’s part of a larger series of Field of Light installations that stretch across the globe. You can view more of his installations at the Munro Website.
His inspiration for the projects came from a camping trip in Australia’s Red Desert to Uluru Rock (also known as Ayres) where he was struck by how the desert appears barren and infertile – until a rainfall makes the flowers bloom.
Munro envisioned a field of lights like dormant seeds in a dry desert that would “bloom” when darkness fell. This inspiration was realized in Munro’s installation at Uluru Rock in Australia – which uses 326 miles of optic fiber to create. It is on display indefinitely.
The Paso Robles installation covers 15 acres of Sensorio – an interactive garden and art center owned by Ken Hunter. It took five weeks for 20 staff members and other volunteers to construct the exhibit. Over 2,000 people visited it on just the first weekend it was opened.
The Field of Light display at Sensorio is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 7 to 11 PM until June 2020. Adult admission is $27 on Wednesday and Thursday and $30 Friday through Sunday. Tickets for children age 12 and under are $9 on Wednesday, $18 on Thursday and $19 Friday through Sunday. Children under age 2 get in for free. To learn more and reserve tickets, visit sensoriopaso.com or call (805) 226-4287.
Needless to say, it’s been a magnet for photographers – so let’s enjoy some of the ephemeral beauty. And I’ll admit I’m going a little overboard. But they were all so gorgeous (not sure you could take a bad picture) I couldn’t decide what to eliminate – so I didn’t!
It’s the time of year that lots of folks spend family-time together creating Gingerbread Houses. Even if yours is not one of them, no doubt you will still be “WOWED!” by the entries at the 27th Annual National Gingerbread House Competition™. It was held on November 18th at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC; and after the Awards Ceremony, the entries remain on display at the resort until January 4, 2020.
Over 220 people entered the competition this year, and employed everything from power tools, mechanical parts, melted sugar plus a huge dollop of imagination to craft their creations. The only rule is that at least 75 percent of the entry must consist of gingerbread, and it must ALL be edible. The judges actually check this! (I’m not sure I’d want to nibble on a project that’s taken months to create. But maybe that’s just me.)
The entries are judged by a panel of experts from the culinary, visual arts and media professions based on appearance, originality, difficulty, precision and consistency of their chosen theme. And there is $25,000 in cash prizes awarded to winners in different categories.
Here’s a very quick overview of a few of the entries:
So let’s take a more detailed look at the winners!
Grand Prize – and a check for $5,000 – went to Gail Oliver of Johnson City, TN for her creation, “The Water Hole”. While some projects took up to 600 hours of work, Oliver said she didn’t keep track – but it took several months!
Second place was awarded to Beatriz Muller from Innisfil, Ontario, Canada for her mind-boggling modern home design.
Third place went to a husband and wife team of Larry and Julia Vorpahl from Ellijay, Georgia for their Gypsy wagon in snow.
First place in the Teen Category was a collaborative effort by German language students at Courtland High in Spotsylvania, Virginia. And it’s the sixth consecutive win for the school! (Maybe they need to spend more time in the Language Lab and less in the kitchen. Just kidding!)
A sister duo, Sarah and Jenna Rhinehart from Columbia, Tennessee, took second place with their Vegetable Truck design.
But to show how tough the competition was, let’s take a look at some of the creations that did NOT win:
If this has whetted your appetite, here’s a much longer (8-minute) video of the competition:
(I should note that while there is no charge to view the Gingerbread Creations, the Resort charges $25 for self-parking and $30 for valet. But half of the parking proceeds will benefit local charities.)
Personally, I would award an Honorable Mention to Travis Casagrande’s “Gingerbread House” – which comes complete with a Christmas tree, snow-covered roof and even a wreath for the door.
But he would never qualify for this competition because there’s not a crumb of gingerbread in it. In fact, a crumb of gingerbread falling on it would be like an avalanche!
That’s because Casagrande, a research associate at McMaster University in Ontario, created the World’s Record TINIEST “Gingerbread House”. It’s less than one-tenth the width of a human hair and is 20,000 times smaller than the average store-bought gingerbread house. Plus it’s half the size of last year’s previous record-holder for TINIEST Gingerbread House which was made in France.
Casagrande, at the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy, used an ion beam microscope aiming charged gallium ions which acted like a sandblaster to forge his masterpiece out of silicon. It even has a door, windows and the logo for the university.
His creation sits on top of a winking snowman (which I think actually looks a little spooky) and then he placed a strand of hair next to it that looks like a felled birch tree.
The only YouTube video I could find for it is in Italian – but it’s still fun to watch. Unfortunately it doesn’t load – maybe because it’s foreign. But it’s only 43-seconds long, so here’s its Link:
Reduced-size photos as reminders, so you don’t have to click back-and-forth.
[A]
1. Jingle Bells
2. Walking in a Winter Wonderland
3. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
4. Joy to the World
5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
6. O’ Come All Ye Faithful
7. I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
8. Oh, Christmas Tree
9. What Child Is This?
10. We Three Kings
11. Deck the Halls
12. I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
13. O’ Holy Night
14. Noel
15. Away in A Manger
16. The Twelve Days of Christmas
17. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
18. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
19. Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire
20. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
21. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!
22. Silent Night
23. O’ Little Town of Bethlehem
24. Silver Bells
[B]
01. White Christmas
02. We Three Kings
03. Santa Baby
04. Away in a Manger
05. Noel (No-L)
06. Silver Bells
07. Little Drummer Boy
08. The Twelve Days of Christmas
09. Blue Christmas
10. The Night Before Christmas
11. Jingle Bell Rock
12. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
[UPDATE NOTE: I put an enlarged one for “A” in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there it might help. Although enlarging tends to make it even fuzzier. Try to imagine it as just a plain pencil drawing w/ no color. They were tough to figure out, especially back then.
UPDATE #2: I went back and found the original BW one – and it is MUCH CLEARER! Hopefully this helps. And why they colored the middle item in #18 green I’ll never know.]
We can thank JD for inspiring today’s theme. A “REBUS” as defined by Merriam Webster:
: a representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound
also: a riddle made up of such pictures or symbols
You might have noticed I posted one the other day in a reply to JD. As an example I used the Rebus she had posted in another blog …
Which would be solved as “Straighten Up and Fly Right”
As a nod to the Holiday Season, a couple of decades ago I remember enjoying a Christmas Song themed Rebus game at a party. In fact I found that very same puzzle online – although now it’s in color, but a bit fuzzy. (I suppose time does that to all of us.) And a newer, but briefer version.
So I’m going to post two Christmas Song Rebuses for you to solve. Some of them are a bit of a stretch of your imagination, and there will be overlap – but that’s OK. You can either post your answer in Comments or keep an answer list. But I won’t be posting the Official Answers until Saturday, in order to give everyone time to take a guess. (Sorry – but there are NO prizes.)
Apparently inspired by a doctor at his unscheduled emergency“routine” medical visit to Walter Reed Hospital telling him he had a “gorgeous chest” – America was treated to this howler Photoshop the day before Thanksgiving:
And there’s no doubt that Trump, just like Homer Simpson, sees this when he looks in the mirror
Of course, we in the reality-based world know different …
And that this is what he’d actually look like in the ring …
Naturally the Twitterverse was not about to let this pass without having fun mocking his delusion – and it was clearly a KO on their part. So let’s enjoy a few of the better ones:
But apparently someone felt that poor Stallone had not suffered enough humiliation:
So maybe it was Sylvester getting even who posted this one of Donnie:
BARF BAG ALERT
I know, I know – sorry.
So to make amends, how about a cute boxing cat one?
It’s hard to know where to begin, because the past two weeks have been very bad for Trump – making them very good for America. So I hope you won’t mind that this post is a bit disjointed and not a smooth linear, chronological flow of events.
First, let’s address the medical concerns regarding tRump’s emergencyunscheduled“routine” visit to Walter Reed Hospital – with the White House doctor riding right next to him. But the White House staff and tRump himself assure us that he’s in perfect health. (Riiiggghhhttt)
In fact, “Team Trump” (part of his 2020 campaign) released an X-ray to prove it:
BREAKING: An X-Ray image has been released from President @realDonaldTrump’s visit to Walter Reed
Speaking of Speaker Pelosi, I think you’d agree there are folks who can throw shade very well – but there are few who can so expertly throw shade that it causes an eclipse. And Speaker Pelosi did just that this past week when she stopped in mid-sentence during a press conference – turned to the cameras and patiently explained to tRump what the word “EXCULPATORY” means:
I love it when Nancy Pelosi shades trump:
It's called an inquiry, and if the president has something exculpatory – Mr. President, that means you have anything that shows your innocence – then he should make that known."
That then begs the question: If Ukraine is as corrupt as you claim (and since Paul Manafort’s ties to Ukraine landed him in jail, that would seem accurate), why would tRump trust Ukraine to investigate two American citizens for … corruption?
But the two weeks of bad news didn’t stop tRump, despite being pummeled by witness after witness after witness, from trying to claim victory:
I can just hear the late-great Howard Cosell announcing the ringside action:
Trump is viciously landing punch after punch after punch …
Unfortunately, they’re all landing on his own face!
Another of my favorite moments (among many) was when Rep. “Bulldog” Ratcliffe (R-TX) made a humongous gaffe calling tRump a liar in closing with Ambassador Taylor, forcing him to “Yield back” while putting a knowing grin on the Ambassador’s face when Ratcliffe (reading from his own prepared script) mistakenly – but truthfully – said:
REP. RATCLIFFE: If they impeach President Trump for blackmail, or extortion, or making threats or demands they have to call President Trump a liar to do it. [BIG PAUSE] … I yield back.
The most heartwarming moment was when Ambassador Yovanovitch receives a much-deserved round of applause upon her departure:
And lighter moments, like “We Are All Congressman Krishnamoorthi” hashtag from his reaction after Rep. Elise “Screamer” Stefanik leaves him alone:
And of course Nunes great “Poker Tell” with a facial reaction that says it all right after the session when Ambassador Sondland admits there was, in fact, a “Quid Pro Quo”.
In closing, I think this pretty much sums up the past two weeks for tRump and republicans:
