Government Gas Guzzlers
A new study shows that federal government vehicles guzzled more gas last year than the previous 5 years... and since these were cars driven by government workers, they burned that gas mostly spining their wheels.



BP Problems
Managers at BP could now face manslaughter charges... although it's not clear whether it's because of the big oil spill or because higher gas prices are really killing everyone right now.



Assad "Conspiracy"
Syrian president Bashar al Assad says his country is the victim of a "worldwide conspiracy." Looks like MSNBC has its replacement for Keith Olbermann!



Dean's Plan
Howard Dean says the Democrats are quietly rooting for a government shutdown. The rest of the country is loudly rooting for a shutdown of Howard Dean.



Obama on Oil
In a major energy policy speech today, President Obama will say he supports more off shore drilling... mostly so he can sue the oil companies when they have accidents.





March 30th


1842: Anesthesia is used for the first time… with the exception of all the times somebody had to read Beowulf.


1863: Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece… because Greece and Denmark are so naturally alike.


1961: The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York, thus ending that state’s drug problems forever.

We're eating cactus for dinner.

But I forgot to take a picture.

Lace, Ruffles & Roses

Photos of a beautiful wedding, I especially adore the dress.

{ images via here }

Inverse sailing

Have you ever tried to look at the world a bit up-side down?

It can be quite rewarding.

Old, renewed and new in my world

It was a surprise to me a few weeks ago when along the back roads I saw this familiar orchard in this state. Orchards are torn out for a variety of reasons. As trees age--these were probably forty years old--they are less productive and it can be financially beneficial to take the few years necessary to establish a new orchard. Add to that the new varieties of fruit that have replaced the old in the tastes of the consumer. If I recall correctly, this orhard was either Red or Golden Delicious. Although the Goldens are still a favorite apple of mine, You see a lot more Fujis, Galas, Braeburns, and others in the supermarket.

Today I passed that way again and found the progress:

So, will it be a new variety of fruit that goes in? I cannot imagine Janet, who  is the owner of that property, subdividing for houses there. I guess I will have to wait and see.

Further up the road on that first trip I found a team of workers installing the posts for a new vineyard. I do not remember what crop was grown in this area before. Today the posts and the wires that they support appeared to be completed, and a cleaning up of bits of branches and such that were remaining was underway. Vineyards are common in the Yakima Valley, and wine grapes have been replacing juice grapes more and more over the years that we have lived here--earning the area the name of Wine Country.

So that's some of what's happening in My World today. I need to take the camera out to the site of the new library, for which I showed the ground-breaking a few months ago. Progress is really taking place there, and I have been asked to volunteer to help move books in July--having had experience in moving libraries, though nothing so large a project as this.

What's happening in other parts of the world? Check My World Tuesday.

Back in Norway after 5 weeks in Andalusia

This morning we wake up in Oslo with new snow on the ground outside our windows. Should we have stayed for another week or so in Spain? The snowfall was however very light and during the day the "heat" from the nordic sun has managed to get rid of the white color

The image from the beach on our last evening can be one comparison to the snow and cover some of our memories from this year´s winter long stay at Costa del Sol

The hotel pool has not been open for daily swimming activity due to no Safety Guard on duty, but the Water Mirror shows at least the clear cky.

Goodbye and thank you Carlos, Ana and all you other personnel for some nice weeks. We will return, and have left a lot of things in the hotel´s basement locker for next time. This free service makes it even more attractive to use the facilities at Myramar Hotel, Fuengirola year after year. Maybe we will travel with only hand luggage in the future.

Our Invitations

Our wedding invitations went out in the mail today! Two months until the wedding!

These invitations were truly a labor of love. Along with help from my wonderful mom, I did everything myself. I'm pretty proud of how they turned out! I LOVE the envelopes.

There were a few setbacks along the way...We had to buy a new printer, had to re-format the invites to fit the new printer's settings, bought about a million white pens trying to find one that was opaque enough (fyi-the american craft galaxy markers from hobby lobby are the only ones that work!) and then there was the dolphin stamp fiasco. If you're married, you understand how stressful it can be planning a wedding. Just imagine being told that you were going to have to use hideous blue dolphin stamps to mail the invitations that you just spent the last six months of your life slaving away over. After a slight meltdown in the post office, my mom solved the situation and we were able to use the pretty flower stamps I wanted :) ...but anyway, I think it was totally worth the effort to do these myself!

And now, you will find me working on the ceremony programs...which I am also doing myself...crazy?