Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are having as much fun as I am up at my grandmother's, that you are eating lots of good food, and that you have lots of things to be thankful for^^

Train tracks and fall leaves. I'm thankful for the great weather!

Summer Vacation 8

And here we are, in New Orleans. Home of Mardi Gras, Cafe Du Monde's Beignets (epic), and apparently a lot of rain. This leads me to use the phrase "I got sloshed in New Orleans." Literally^^
We made it home, and I'm ready for a vacation!



Sloshed is the term I would use. It took two days for my shoes to dry!



The rain did not stop the street performers though^^



The original Plague Doctors were medical men who volunteered to treat poor plague victims during the black death. They wore waxed clothing, long cloaks, and beaked masks given to them for their service. The beaks were filled with herbs to prevent the doctor from catching the disease, and the clothes were also supposed to protect them. Simply by being there they may have saved many lives. Sadly, only one known doctor survived the outbreak; all others died of the disease. An ornate version of the mask became popular at the Venetian Carnival, and has been a popular mask design since.

Summer Vacation 7

And home we head. Back through Texas, to Louisiana today.



We visited the San Jacinto Monument in La Port, Texas; the tallest monument tower in the US. When Texas got permission to build it, the state was told not to have it any taller than the Washington monument in Washington DC. So they built it the exact same height, and then put a giant star on top. Sneaky, right?
The monument was built to commemorate the battle that lead to Texas becoming it's own country, and later a US state. The battle is also directly responsible for much of the southwestern states joining the USA.



This is an example of some beautiful tatting work. I hope my tatting will look this good some day. Done in thread weight floss.

Summer Vacation 6

Last day here at the beach; we head home tomorrow. Bummer.



This is the kitchen of a WWII Submarine at Seawolf Park on Galveston Island. Can you imagine making meals for 80 men in this kitchen? BTW Robert is twelve, and less than 5 ft, just so you know how small it is. It was so cool to walk around inside the submarine. Unfortunately we couldn't go everywhere; people had been stealing parts of this national treasure for souvenirs.



Hermit crabs. The twins and Maggie caught over a hundred of them. Aren't they cool?

Summer Vacation 5

Vacation is almost over, and I've seen all sorts of sea critters. I've seen dolphins, man o' wars, a school of sting rays, crabs (hermit, sand, and blue^^)and the noble sea creature; the plastic bag.
What, a plastic bag isn't a sea animal? But it lives in the water, and turtles and other animals eat them! Imagine thinking you have a nice tasty jellyfish, and eating a plastic bag instead. Yuck. I may have looked weird, but I picked them up and put them in the trash. Why they weren't there in the first place boggles my mind.



Sea birds. There was this one pelican who kept soaking himself, and then puffing out is chest and spreading his wings^^ Another was missing a wing, but that didn't keep it from catching the fish!



This is Our Lady, Star of the Sea Catholic Church. When the floods came through Texas the tall towers and sea facing statue of Mary on this church guided people to safety. You can see the statue from the beach, a mile away! Unfortunately the church itself took some water damage in the basement.



Jellyfish^^

Summer Vacation 4

The ocean at night is beautiful. I enjoyed taking walks in the morning too. Less sunburn, and being a pasty white girl, that's important.





I caught this little sand crab under a street light. It was munching away on a grass hopper, so it stayed still long enough to photograph. Then it just walked across the highway back to the beach!

Summer Vacation 3

The ocean in Galveston Texas is a green-ish brown, with seaweed up the coast line. And turtle watch signs everywhere. The endangered Kemp's Ridley turtle nests in the area, and the beach patrol takes their job very seriously. I didn't see any turtles, but these friendly seagulls were everywhere.

Summer Vacation 2

Yesterday we made it to Louisiana. We then visited a civil war monument, and went to bed. It's a long drive!

Today there were bayous. Lots of bayous. And Cajun music which, if you've never heard it, is a strange mix of southern accents and French.



A bayou. Swampy; with trees, crawdads (aka mud-bugs or crayfish) and alligators included.



And you can't pass Avery Island without stopping at the Tabasco plant. It's near Baton Rouge, so we stopped for a break. And some jalapeno ice-cream. Weird, but tasty^^



This sign is ironic. I mean REALLY ironic. Why? Because right after we got the key to the beach house, we were involved in a three car accident caused by a speeding pizza delivery guy. Left a giant dent in the back of the bus, and we can't open the back doors. Luckily no one was hurt, and the only one who ended up needing a tow was the pizza guy. Who also had to pay damages. And we got to meet some Texas police officers. Welcome to Texas, land of friendly drivers indeed.

Summer Vacation 1

What do you get when you stuff most of the clan into the bus and go on vacation? I have no idea, but you know it's going to involve noise. And whining. Messes too, for that matter.



Road trip on the short bus^^



Some tornado damage in Southern Alabama. See how the trees are lopsided and missing most of their branches? Last year's tornadoes ripped them clean off. Living in Tornado alley can be scary. And I am not looking forwards to all the work that needs to be done at our house. A whole section of fence was smashed by some huge branches, and there are trees down in the back yard. Grrr. At least no one was hurt, and nothing hit the house. But for now, it's time for a vacation adventure^^

DAIKIN Festival.

Every year the DAIKIN company in Huntsville puts on a huge festival. The company makes a variety of plastics, but the festival includes dances, balloons, and free food. Once again, I didn't get a balloon ride; the lines were literally over a hundred yards long for each balloon. I did however, dance some really ridiculous looking dances, and ate way too much yakisoba and ice cream....



I also made this sunflower Kanzashi today. Maggie wore it to the festival, and it was a good thing I sewed it to a hair elastic; she danced really hard^^

http://www.flickr.com/photos/morichansgarden/7284006306/in/photostream/

William, The RA

So yesterday, I dropped William back off at Tech. What's this, I didn't post when I picked him up? Well, since he doesn't teleport that I know of, somebody had to have got him. And I did, two weeks ago, right between the tiny fish and Cinderella. He lurked the house for two weeks, and I didn't say a word on here.
So now he is getting his own post, for no other reason than he may just have the cushiest summer job he'll ever get; grand boss dude of the rich kid's dorm. Basically, he gets to keep an eye out on a dorm full of high-school cheerleaders and rich college students all summer. Obviously there's more to the job than that, but getting paid to stay in a HUGE dorm room and make sure mister "dad pays my tuition and dorm fees" doesn't have his rock music up too loud, or the cheerleader camp goers don't wander into the guys floor, doesn't sound like a bad job at all. He may say otherwise later, but right now he's pretty stoked.

His home away from home for the next couple months^^

Nashville Zoo + Boy Scouts =

So, yesterday I drove all the webelo scouts of the local den to the Nashville zoo in the Beast; the twelve passenger van. It rained. People wondered off, whined, and expected me to buy them snacks. Somehow 'boy scout outing' became every one is invited, including kindergarten aged girls. I almost got lost on the way home. But hey, no one died, got kidnapped, or caught pneumonia, so all in all, a successful trip.

Nashville Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival)

Today was the 2012 Nashville Sakura Matsuri. Here is the official website; nashvillecherryblossomfestival.org. The curse continued; rain chased us from the park as the festival came to a close. Always with the soaking!
There are several Sakura matsuri, or cherry blossom festivals, in America this time of year. Washington DC in particular is a big one, but Hanami (flower viewing) parties are scattered all over the US. This year was special because Nashville received three baby cherry trees grown from cuttings from the original cherry trees given to our countries' capitol by the mayor of Tokyo in 1912. This year marks the 100th aniversary of the first Japanese cherry grove in the US. I know that according to Japanese folklore objects sometimes gain spirits after reaching a hundred years. I wonder if cherry trees do as well?

The last of the cherry blossoms. It rained petals as the wind blew.

These guys were adorable little troublemakers. Their mother would dry them off and they'd be right back in the fountain. It was too cold, but they didn't seem to mind.

This was a demonstration of a tea ceramony. The way of the tea is so complicated!

A sakura kusadama.

Yoyo balloons. You had to hook the string with a wire hook attached to a twisted rice paper rope. Tricky like you wouldn't believe.

Nashville zoo / spring break

This week was spring break, and it's not over yet. Tomorrow is the twin's birthday party; their birthday is actually the 13th, but their friends are coming over tomorrow. Yesterday we went to the Nashville zoo. Here are some pics^^

 It was over 80F!

The elephants were enjoying it a lot.

This iguana was part of the America exhibit.

There were many different animals from all over North and South America.

Some of them I see all the time, but black widows and brown recluses

aren't nearly as friendly as this guy was^^ 



The play ground at the entrance is huge.

This is only one of six or seven parts.

Some parts were four stories tall!