Just for Fun

Wordless Wednesday…Channeling Indiana Jones “Snakes, why’d it have to be snakes?”Indiana Jones-Raiders of the Lost ArkFull disclosure…I love animals but I am not overly fond of snakes! After seeing 6 snakes on one Girl Scout camping trip, my toes curl just looking at a picture of one. Yesterday as Larry and I were preparing for our morning walk, Larry saw this fellow in front of the door that leads to the garage. (it’s a detached garage so thankfully not by our back door)It was a Coral Snake one of a handful of venomous snakes in Texas. Our State has the “highest density” of snakes than any other state. Arizona, however, has more venomous snakes.  Full Disclosure…we dispatched the snake using two shovels.  And lest you call P.E.T.A.- Their venom is 8 times more lethal than that of the d... 04/10/2024

Snapdragon Vietnamese PhoA bowl of Snapdragon Vietnamese Pho was my choice for lunch at home. This is beef flavored noodles soup. You just add water, microwave and your lunch is ready. The advice on the side of the bowl: 'Slurp like nobody's looking.' Chef Dolores usually cuts the noodles to reduce the slurping.We purchased the 9 bowl package at Costco.  Kentlands Photowalk, Gaithersburg, Maryland USA IMG 7890Canon PowerShot G11 CameraPhotograph by Roy KelleyRoy and Dolores Kelley Photographs 04/11/2024

On August 26, 1920, U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the 19th Amendment, finally granting American women the vote after a hard-fought battle dating back to the nation’s very founding. However, perplexingly, the U.S. Capitol had already played host to its first congresswoman a few years prior: Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana.Like many other American liberties, women’s suffrage was slowly granted state by state before becoming a national right protected by the Constitution. Montana granted women the unrestricted right to vote in 1914. Two years later, 36-year-old Rankin, a vocal suffragist, ran for one of the state’s two House seats and won. The election of Rankin, the first woman ever elected to the federal government, was a bright spot in American history ma... 04/09/2024

The Great American North American Total Solar Eclipse.The last call for totality was in my small home town of Houlton Maine. Where am I in Maine? A little further north than Kittery and you made it to Bar Harbor Maine? Keep going.Everyone want to experience totality... not a partial eclipse but total darkness.Here's one of my photos of totality in Houlton Maine.Houlton Maine is smack dab positioned at the start of Interstate 95 and was lucky enough to be in the eclipse epicenter.Aroostook County is the largest county east of the Mississippi River and surrounded by Canada on three sides.Private jets reported to be owned by Adam Sandler, Oprah and even Taylor Swift were among the many at Houlton International Airport.Did not rub shoulders with those celebrities but maybe their aircraft ma... 04/09/2024

Total Eclipse of the Sun 2.08.24The celestial bodies offer up images on a somewhat frequent basis, which is when the path of one celestial body is blocked by another and the image or shadow falls on the last of the 3.It can be in the form of a lunar eclipse, when the earth takes a path between the sun and the moon, and the earth's shadow is shown on the lunar (moon's ) surface, or as happened this past Monday, a solar eclipse in which the moon aligns in the path between the earth and the moon and blocks the sun from the earth.There are numerous eclipses annually that fall all over our planet, and on occasion they are viewable from land.This latest eclipse was viewable in a swath across our country and passed though the Northeast. It began around 2:44 and lasted maybe a total of 15 minut... 04/09/2024

April 10th - National Farm Animals Day:Enjoy your day!Directions: Click on the link below.  Your puzzle will open in a new window.To locate a word, please hold down the left side of your mouse while dragging your cursor over the letters of that word. Release your hold when all of the letters of the word have been selected. If your response is correct, the word will change color on the word list.Please check back for future daily puzzles.Enjoy and have a great day!Click Here To PlayIf you are looking to purchase a property or home on Long Island, New York, I hope you think of me, Linda Blumenthal. 04/10/2024

Right here in Granbury, Texas, we were in the path of totality with the solar eclipse. Our little town experienced a boom of extra people as many came to witness this event. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime event.We were prepared with our eclipse glasses, our Spotify playlist of "eclipse" music and we enjoyed the event in our own backyard. With so many people on the roads, we opted to stay home.  We even kept our 6th-grade son home so we could experience this as a family.The event did not disappoint! Our total darkness happened around 1:40 p.m. As the full eclipse came upon us, it became completely still outside. No birds chirping, no wind, and the temperature dropped. As we sat in the darkness in the middle of the day, we all were awestruck by the event.I am thankful that we were able... 04/09/2024

Trivia question answers for Monday April 8, 20231. What spectral class does our sun belong to? G2. What bodily fluid surrounds a fetus? Amniotic fluid3. What is a group of hyenas called? A cackle4. Who was the fairy in Peter Pan? TinkerbelleTrivia questions for Tuesday April 9, 20231. The battle of Bull Run occurred during what ear?2. Which chip had a bandito as a mascot in the late 1960's?3. What does the "touch of Midas" turn everything into?4. What is the fastest sense?Enjoy your day..  04/09/2024

Every year on April 9th and this year on Tuesday April 9, 2024, we celebrate the unofficial Happy National Library Workers Day to recognizes the excellent contributions library staff make every day in communities through their great work and dedication.Library workers provide a wealth of diverse opportunities for growth, create projects and inspiration enthusiasm for youth.I want to wish to all friends and to everyone at ActiveRain community a Happy National Library Workers Day. 04/09/2024

2024 Eclipse Fun In Texas! As you may have all have heard, because it was all over the news, the 2024 Eclipse was scheduled to come through Texas today. According to NASA a total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, completly blocking the face of the sun! It was going to be precisely at 1:44 PM when the moon covered the earth for approximately 4 and 1/2 minutes, in our area,  so we could not pass up the opportunity to take a break and watch it!  Where we live it was in the "center line" of the eclipse's path so we made a day, well a couple of hours of it! It was a fun few hours with the inlaws ages 87 & 85, watching it with them today!They said they had never seen anything like it in their lifetime! We were so happy to share it with them & watch thei... 04/08/2024

I'm super-excited to announce that my softball team the Puget Sound Pronouns has its schedule up with the Emerald City Softball Association. It's dizzying: Saturdays, a Sunday, starts 8:00AM sometimes, 11:00AM sometimes, 1:30PM sometimes. But it's going to be a good time always. I'm proud to say I was able to increase my support a bit for this year. And I hope I'll be able to increase it even more next year. 04/08/2024

Decades before Albert Einstein became a pop culture phenomenon by sticking out his tongue on his 72nd birthday, he was an emerging theoretical physicist on the brink of a major revelation: that massive objects cause space-time to curve, resulting in gravity. Einstein’s theory of general relativity, published in 1915, introduced the groundbreaking idea that gravity is not a force but a curved field created by the presence of mass. The problem was proving it. Einstein claimed the theory could be tested by measuring the position of stars near the sun, which would appear to shift slightly as gravity from the sun bent the path of light. This type of experiment was difficult to perform in the early 20th century, but a perfect opportunity soon presented itself: the total solar eclipse on May 2... 04/08/2024

Inspired by many of your pet pictures, and Eclipse Day,  he is a rare photo of me with my two beloved pets, Reggie, aka The Monster (on the left), me and Spooky.   Both area rescues, with Reggie being literally right off the streets.  I could not love them any harder.   Reggie is 100% indoors now, but he got his nickname from all the things he killed then left on f=the front porch for me when he was outdoors.  Until about 13 years ago, I had never had a cat, I was dogs-only until my Jack Russell Terrier, Moose, completely burnt me out (for the time being, anyway) on dogs.  The bond that I have with these two cats has been beyond special, I am so grateful for them.                                                          ***************************************   04/08/2024

Inspired by many of your pet pictures, and Eclipse Day,  he is a rare photo of me with my two beloved pets, Reggie, aka The Monster (on the left), me and Spooky.   Both are rescues, with Reggie being literally right off the streets.  I could not love them any harder.   Reggie is 100% indoors now, but he got his nickname from all the things he killed then left on the front porch for me when he was outdoors.  Until about 13 years ago, I had never had a cat, I was dogs-only until my Jack Russell Terrier, Moose, completely burnt me out (for the time being, anyway) on dogs.  The bond that I have with these two cats has been beyond special, I am so grateful for them.                                                          ***************************************   04/08/2024

“Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work.”—Earl NightingaleBe grateful for evert second you get to spend with people you love in life is so precious. - Will HammThe best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter DruckerThe only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. - Peter Waldo EmersonDon't waste your time looking back at what you've lost.  Move on, life is not meant to be traveled backwards. - UnknownDon't be pushed around by the fears in your mind.  Be led by the dreams in your heart. - Roy T. Bennett  04/08/2024

 My 17 year old grand (Angela) built a shed for a Veteran with The Morristown East High School Student Council (Angela is Junior Student Body Vice-President) and The Lakeway Are Habitat For Humanity on Saturday. Now if you know my grand she sure loves her sleep haha but she got up at 7am on a Saturday Morning to do this project and loved every minute of it. Love that she is getting involved with not only this but once a month they do road side trash pickup along with more community service projects. I have always heard ... "if you raise your kids right, you can spoil your grandchildren. If you don't you will spoil your kids and raise your grandkids." I think we have done a fabulous job with both of our sons and are super proud of them along with their wives and all of our grandchildren.... 04/08/2024

Of course I wouldn't normally know what a bad hair day is because I don't have much hair to speak of.However I did have a bit of a bad hair day yesterday. I grow what little I have (along with my beard) every winter and shave it off in the Spring. Saturday was the day. I enlisted Carol to help cut the back. After church yesterday I noticed she missed a few spots 😐. I hope no one noticed, I was so embarrassed.Believe it or not I can look like Philemon... I just need to put on one of my favorite hats.   04/08/2024

April 9th - National Cherish An Antique Day:Enjoy your day!Directions: Click on the link below.  Your puzzle will open in a new window.To locate a word, please hold down the left side of your mouse while dragging your cursor over the letters of that word. Release your hold when all of the letters of the word have been selected. If your response is correct, the word will change color on the word list.Please check back for future daily puzzles.Enjoy and have a great day!Click Here To PlayIf you are looking to purchase a property or home on Long Island, New York, I hope you think of me, Linda Blumenthal. 04/09/2024

April 8th - National Zoo Lovers Day:Enjoy your day!Directions: Click on the link below.  Your puzzle will open in a new window.To locate a word, please hold down the left side of your mouse while dragging your cursor over the letters of that word. Release your hold when all of the letters of the word have been selected. If your response is correct, the word will change color on the word list.Please check back for future daily puzzles.Enjoy and have a great day!Click Here To PlayIf you are looking to purchase a property or home on Long Island, New York, I hope you think of me, Linda Blumenthal. 04/08/2024

A recipe from the kitchen of Will Hamm...      2 pounds (750g) well marbled chuck roast steak, 2 inches thick 1 head (383g) broccoli, chopped into large florets 4 garlic cloves, roughly minced 1 tablespoon (15g) ginger, roughly diced 1 tablespoon (15ml) peanut oil Black pepper, salt, and brown sugar to taste Chicken Stock Mixture: 1 cup (250ml) unsalted chicken stock 2 tablespoons (30ml) regular soy sauce 1 tablespoon (15ml) dark soy sauce ½ tablespoon (7.5ml) oyster sauce 1 teaspoon five spice powder ¼ teaspoon sesame oil Thickener: 2 – 3 tablespoons cold water + 2 ½ tablespoons (22.5g) cornstarch p 1Prepare Pressure Cooker Heat up your pressure cooker over medium high heat Instant Pot: press Sauté button and click Adjust button to go to Sauté More function Make sure your pot is as hot... 04/12/2024