Have crew, will travel

I took this pic in San Cristobal, Ecuador, when we visited the Galapagos.

Okay, so I like flowers...

P1030713, originally uploaded by Robin Grantham.

Our guide's favorite flower

Our guide's favorite flower, originally uploaded by Robin Grantham.

Pink, with a little mustard on top.

Tippy toe

Tippy toe, originally uploaded by Robin Grantham.

Caught a picture of this guy looking for some (*swimmer's toes*) dinner.

Pinks and Reds

Pinks and Reds, originally uploaded by Robin Grantham.

Hey! We're back from our travels! I hope that soon we will be joined by our luggage, which decided to stay. Who can blame it?

So anyhow. I'm also testing a way to post pics via flickr. Hopefully it will work better than our airline's luggage transfer system.

Can't complain. I made it home without swimming in the Hudson, after all. Ha.

Hope you all are well!

Robin

Simplicity

This morning, a twitterbug reminded me of a story I once read. As far as I know, the author is unknown:

The Fisherman

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna.

The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

(photo via/flickr--millzero)

The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."

(photo: Van Gogh's Siesta)

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then, señor?" The American laughed and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions, señor? Then what?" The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

(photo via/flickr--brentbat)

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Simplicity

(photo via/flickr--annia316)

It can be beautiful.

Enjoy your day!

Yours,

Robin

Missile toes, more from Bert's tour of Texas

So, during our trip to Texas, we were tooling around on the Gator, my esteemed guide (Bert, 9) displaying an impressive innate sense for what I would find photo-worthy and I asked, "What kind of nest is that?"


Noticing that I was pointing at a dark ball in an otherwise desiccated-looking tree, he said, with only the tiniest hint of geez-you-northerners-are-idiots in his tone, "That's mistletoe."

"I didn't know missiles had toes. Is that a Texas thing?"

Okay, I didn't say that because I didn't think of it until just now. Dang it.

Instead, I said something along the lines of, "Aw, how sweet."

"Well, it sucks the water out of trees and kills them," he replied.

What? I thought. What the hell kind of sweet holiday cheer kissing thing sucks the life out of trees and kills them?

Does Santa know about this?

Yeah, I didn't say any of that, either.

As it turns out, my knowledgeable guide was correct, though I'm guessing a lot of you knew that already.

Mistletoe is both:

beneficial and deadly to plants and animals

poisonous and a supposed remedy for poisoning

a killer, and a potential cure for cancer

Huh?

And you thought kissing was complicated.

Happy Holidays!

Robin

Holidays at the Curious Distractions office

Cute curls face-off. Too close to call. :~)

This is Zeus's baby boy, Henry. He got to spend the weekend with us, waiting for his new family to pick him up. Sweet dog. I hope he and his humans are happy together:

Here, Tesla (dog) makes sure all my honeys are smiling for their picture:

Assassin cockatiel awaits nefarious victim. Or, you know, any victim. Especially partridges:

And, at my sister's, we experienced a weird bird invasion:

Newest niece and I, playing with the camera. I wish we'd have played with some lipstick first, but whatever:

Really hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season.

Yours,

Robin

I'm not sure which of these is more wrong

I looked out the front door and found that my gargoyle had finally achieved lift off:

And there was also this, which I'm guessing needs no explanation in regards to wrongness:

Yours,

Robin

Let it snow

We had the bright idea to take a family photo outside this year. The contents of Lake Michigan begged to differ. I'm just happy my beloved camera survived the ordeal. My hair, well, not so much.

I am kind of digging the Lake Effect camouflage, though. Ha.

American Airlines now charging fees to non-passengers

The Onion.

A little too funny because it isn't as far-fetched as it should be.

/via fark

Donk-o-rocerous

Hey, you have a tail growing out of your nose!

Most places, you might have stray dogs wander onto your property. Here, you also get stray donkeys. These found their way to my brother-in-law's house, and he found them a home at the neighbor's.

Then, two donkeys became three. Cute baby!

Bert's Bees

The bees don't seem to mind winter in Texas too much:

Bert (9) was kind enough to drive me over on their Gator to see his discovery. How cool is that?



This guy keeps eating the fish out of Bert's little pond:

If it's going to eat all their fish, it could have at least had the decency to hang around long enough for me to get a closeup.

Still, I am thankful.

I hope you all are safe & happy.

Yours,

Robin

Flying butt sniff

Here, Zeus demonstrates the rare and under-appreciated, flying butt sniff.

Difficulty=9

p.s. -- Tesla's tail is weird because she was attacked by an angry rosebush. I know this because I found a chunk of her tail hanging from a thorn.

Hint to our doggy friends: Don't mess with rosebushes.

You said there'd be dogs...

Yes, the doglets got to play, too. This is Tesla playing with her old friend, Zeus. I miss having him at our house!

This makes it all worth it...

Just in case I don't get time later, I wanted to show you my favorite pic of the weekend.

Life is good.

Yours,

Robin

Another one of Spanky, just because he is so darn cute.

I'm Blue, but I'm not blue

Here's a pic of Blue sticking his tongue out at you. Yes, YOU!

:~p

Little horse, big heart

This would be Spanky. He wasn't afraid to lay a spank-down on the bigger horses if they messed with him. Don't let his foot-long legs fool you. He can kick a playa if he has to.

Ha.

We had fun.

Robin

Girls, horses, dogs & Twilight

I took the troupe of teens to Ohio this weekend for horses, dogs & fun.

But first, we let the horses have fun.

(I think they think they're pigs. They always want to eat & they love to roll around in anything & everything!)

More later.

Yours,

Robin

We all know what kind of doggy the White House needs...

Tesla's campaign to get a goldendoodle into the White House might need some wardrobe adjustments.

Her campaign manager reports she is pleased that baby shampoo and water do not cost $150,000 dollars.

:~)

Yours,

Robin

Virtual geography & stone-throwing

From the Department of Yes, I'm a Nerd I bring you the news that I got a new high score on the Free Poverty geography game. Yay. Badginess can be found to the right. And yes, poverty is, by definition, free, but website names should be short & memorable, so there you go. I don't think a woman whose blog addy is http://bellibean.blogspot.com/ should really throw stones. Ha.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day.

Yours,

Robin

First snow pics

Winter isn't my favorite, but it's definitely wonderful to peek out the windows and find the trees laden with marshmallow fluff.

sunday funnies

Tee hee.

/via Cute Overload

HCl melted my spray bottle: too long for Twitter

There's a logic error here, of course, but isn't it kind of weird that we clean, scrub & disinfect our kitchens, then we chew our food & send it down into a vat of hydrochloric acid.


I mean, really, if hydrochloric acid isn't going to kill it, then what's dish soap going to do?

Yours,

Robin

Tesla does Sundays right...

I may or may not be picking up alien signals

Yours,

Robin

Coleus sunshine interception

More coleus interpreted sunshine.

Yours,

Robin

Coleus in the window...

Okay, SOMEONE changed my camera settings. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Dad) & so I played around, trying to put things back to my "no thought required" settings...

My plants always suffer when I need to test my camera...

Pear in a pear tree

This would be more true if we trimmed the tops of these like we're supposed to, but it always strikes me how much pear trees look like, well, pears. Love them most in the spring, though.

Yours,

Robin

A quick washing of my fruit basket (to rid it of fruit flies, thanks for asking) left it laden with aqua-diamonds.

I set a pomegranate vinegar trap for the fruit flies.

*Went to check if I'd caught any & one climbed out before my eyes. Had to break out the masking tape.*

Fruit flies 1X, Robin 0

Yours (unless you're a fruit fly),

Robin

Nano nature: extreme magnification pictures

Fruit fly eye.

More here.

Awesome stuff!

Yours,

Robin

/via fark

Tee hee

see more puppies

Special fx: Not bad, KC

Tesla, stalking trick-or-treaters, camouflaged by tall grass, not at all

In case you're wondering, KC went as an unlucky jogger...(hint: note tire print)

We set this scary lot loose upon the neighborhood

I got a little bored between goblin visits...

Halloween Highlights

I went shopping and the kids carved the pumpkins without me! I'm sure it's not because they were afraid of my plans to carve them with my Drummel. (edit: The pumpkins I mean, not the kids. Muahaha.)