Weekly Chat, Sunday March 13, 2011

Annette congratulations on becoming a great grandma

We went out for lunch. It has rained all day and only seems to be easing off now.

AQ, Sorry, I forgot to thank you for the Friday Smiles this morning. We did have a good laugh. I am eating a chocolate biscuit as I type !

Alicat, Oh dear, drinking when in control of your computer. I guess you have now lost some points off your licence. Ah, I see you got away with a caution. :-) 
I love your latest photographs of Casper in his buggy.

Paul - as the final version of IE9 has now been launched I imagine it should come round as an update. Otherwise you can download it from Microsoft.....that is, unless you run XP. IE9 will not run on XP.

Annette - Congratulations!! You'll be OK as long as the new little one doesn't call you GG !!!!!!!!!! Thats what a friend of ours was called by her GGD in the US and she didn't like to tell her GGD that here it is a childrens expression for horse--

Margo - I knashed my teeth when I read that your holiday was marred by ill health and poor weather. Grrr! Glad though that Billy Whizz was pleased to see you.

Everyone else - enjoy the weekend.

Lynette: Glaslyn webcam link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/webcams/pages/ospreys.shtml

To Annette, great-grandmother (with the emphasis on ‘great’) and your family. Congratulations on the safe arrival of the wee one. ‘New tricks’ is a comedy whodunit with 3 somewhat-older policemen and a younger woman (the boss) who form an unsolved crimes unit. They usually solve them. I like the interaction between the characters who display ‘elderly’ traits, such as yelling for silence in the library, muddling with twitter, and other disputes with this modern world of ours while coping with elderly ailments.

Coffee & lemon tart yesterday morn at Brighton, a beachside suburb out of the range of the vroom-vroom of the practising racing cars. We nattered so long we ordered a sandwich for lunch (sour dough bread filled with turkey, cranberry, camembert & lettuce). With a quick visit to baker, fruit shop & butcher for some vital supplies, I returned home from "morning coffee" at 4 pm. Ah well, we can’t work all day every day, she sez.

We have 5 magpies who visit to be fed. For 5 days they all went AWL. No sign or sound of them. Thurs they returned displaying their usual characteristics. OH has named then Mum, Auntie, Juniors & Dad. Mum & Auntie (apologies to our Finnish Auntie but OH named them!) both have broken beaks. Mum stands on the verandah singing & can catch in the air scraps thrown to her. Auntie is greedy (or perhaps desperate) as she grabs her & Junior’s share. OH saw her trying to catch an insect. Every time she got it in her beak, it escaped through a gap. One Junior sings for his food, even with his beak full. Dad doesn’t visit often. They don’t stay long, a few scraps and they fly away. This is Singing Junior on a tree stump snapped through the window. He was more interested in his song than any food.

Evening all: Nice day out with friend; our lunch almost turned into afternoon tea (maybe we should've waited for AQ to show up!). We went to the Village Market in Carpenteria - nice little beach town down the road - and sat outside on a sheltered patio. Then to Seaside Nursery to putter around all their plants and displays.  Got home in time to not cook dinner, so got Chinese take out (not as good as last time so won't try it again); now catching up.

Alicat: Your OH put a new keyboard in a laptop?  That sounds awfully clever!  I too usually have something liquid close at hand (coffee in the a.m.; wine in the evening although I've got coffee as I type).  Rain expected after midnight and for the next four days.

Alan: Very endearing shot of three bobbleheads!   Some of these cams are amazingly clear.

Hi to all - and thanks again for nice words re new little person!  :-)

SUPER MOON!!!

Today, March 19, a rare type of Full Moon will occur -- a Super Moon! 

Here's the explanation:

(1) The Moon orbits around the Earth in a big oval (not a circle). So the Moon's distance from Earth varies. That's why the Moon appears closer at some times and further away at other times.

(2) When the Moon is at its closest point to Earth during its orbit, it's called "perigee". These Perigee Moons appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other Moons.

(3) A Super Moon occurs when a Full Moon happens at perigee -- when the moon is closest to Earth during its orbit. The exact time of this Saturday's Full Moon will happen less than 1 hour away from perigee -- a near perfect coincidence!!! This only happens approximately every 18 years! 

A Full Perigee Moon is an absolutely stunning sight!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1367474/Super-moon-spectacle-light-skies-tomorrow-night-theres-need-worry-lunacy.html

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/

Diane:  Just checked. No moon at all here tonight.  :-(