yup.

It snowed here last year too. This pic is my kid’s snow angel from last time.

Houston braces for about 2 inches of snow

Preparations under way, and some in Houston area may even see half a foot of the white stuff

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Dec. 4, 2009, 8:29AM

Airport travelers should call 281-230-7000 to check flight status. Travelers can also check www.fly2houston.com.

To report icy streets, call 311.

HOUSTON WEATHER INFO AND MORE

Complete forecast, radar and more

SNOW INFO

See live traffic updates

22 tips for driving on slippery roads

School Zone: Updates on dismissals, closures

Snow talk: Chat with SciGuy at noon today

Vent or rejoice on Twitter

How to keep your pets warm, too

Tips for garden care in the cold

Houston is on track today to break a record with the earliest snowfall ever recorded in the city’s history.

Forecasters are still hedging their bets, but say the most likely scenario is 1 to 2 inches of widespread snowfall beginning this afternoon. Some areas could get up to a half a foot.

Last day of the long Holiday weekend…. I am feeling really blah, but I’m lurking and wandering around reading. I’m sure someone is cooking up some brilliant essay full of insights and observations and more, but I got nothin’.  Is it just me?  Yo.

So… Open Thread must be on holiday too. This can fill in as a sub? Meh. 🙂

I can’t give you anything but love, baby.

That’s the only thing I’ve plenty of, baby.

Dream a while. Scheme a while.

We’re sure to find

Happiness, and I guess

I can’t give you anything but love.

It doesn’t take much….. one of my former Florida friends posted a FB link to his flickr batch of Vizcaya photos.  sigh. I’ve got work to do!! If I had time, I’d write some dreamy wandering rambles, but… oh well.

Dream on. Open Thread.

This wonderful image is from a promotional website not my friend’s pic … but I love this photo of the Stone Barge at Vizcaya. I could sit there all day. You have to imagine the heat and the sea salt smells and sounds of seagulls. Drift away.

On a practical level, Vizcaya’s Stone Barge acts as a breakwater against tidal surges.

On an artistic level, the limestone sculpture extends the art and architecture of the main house and gardens beyond the shoreline and into the waters of Biscayne Bay.

Last night I watched the documentary on msnbc: “100 Heartbeats,” part of MSNBC’s Future Earth series on the race to save our planet.

In “100 Heartbeats,” the second premiere in MSNBC’s landmark Future Earth series, famed naturalist Jeff Corwin tells the story of the “Sixth Extinction” – caused by people and which can only be stopped by people. Keep checking futureearth.msnbc.com for information about the next premiere, “Future Earth: 2025,” which will air on Dec. 20. You can catch “100 Heartbeats” on MSNBC again on Thanksgiving at 11 a.m. ET.

I was glad to see this show in a Sunday evening slot on msnbc and I really wish to god they’d do more like this … just blanket their whole weekend programming with this instead of the prison porn they usually do. Why not? Perhaps we should think about a write-in campaign to convince them of that!

I’m suffering a ripple-over, a hangover, of thoughts and I’m attempting to share some of these thoughts here.

There is a lot of bloggage currently over the increasing volume on the xtian’s idiocy, see  this essay from gottlieb. I was struck this morning by the juxtaposition.  I am just… so … aghast at the hypocrisy and the indignity of their whining … when this is going on.

This is desecration. This is an unholy war. This is …

Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being “harvested” in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian “delicacy”.

Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. source

Take this as a gift, this metaphor….  Run with it, if you like.

Which way do you read this? Are we … Strangler or Embracer?  

In Santa Elena, a small town near Monte Verde, is one of the coolest attractions in all of Costa Rica. The best part about this super secret adventure, its free. This “attraction” isn’t so much of an attraction as it is a dead tree.

Just outside of town, down a dirt road, is a small trail leading off into the forest. About 15 minutes down this trail is an extremely old tree that has been fully consumed by what is known as the Strangler Fig Parasite.

The Strangler Fig Parasite comes when an infected bird poops on top of a tree. The parasite then forms vines that grow down the tree to the trees root system. Once at the tree’s roots, the parasite takes over the tree’s root system and slowly kills off the tree. To make a long story short, the parasite eventually kills the tree, but the vines are left in it’s place. This leaves you with one very, Lord of the Rings looking, hollowed out tree.

The vines of the parasite become very large and very strong, almost tree like. They are so strong in fact, that you can actually climb inside of the tree and use the vines as a “ladder” all the way to the top of the tree. After about 60+ feet of climbing inside the hollowed out tree, you come to a small opening where you can stick your head out and see right at the top of the forests canopy line.

source

Good morning, campers!

With all much due respect to Robyn’s now retired Morning Muse series, I may just have to fill the void here with a morning … something.  My mornings tend to be extremely hectic until I get the brats kids out the door, then it takes me a little while to unwind. I’ll make my cyber rounds but meanwhile, I’ll designate a little space for your random whine, rant, or pause….

here.

.

Perhaps some soothing music will help…

wow this looks good. I don’t “tivo” so Im posting an essay here, maybe that will remind me to watch it! lol

ON TV Lost Cave Temples of the Himalayas and Secrets of Shangri-La premiere Wednesday, November 18, on PBS (check local listings.).

EDIT: whoa, triple header for my area, three in a row! The last is this 30 minute documentary: Mustang – Journey of Transformation.

See more about it here.

May 7, 2007-In the remote highlands of Nepal, a local shepherd has made some unusual “additions” to his flock-an international team of archaeologists.

The sheepherder recently led researchers to an isolated complex of caves containing a massive treasure trove of Buddhist art, including a 55-panel mural of Buddha’s life, one panel of which is seen above.

Yeah, okay, so the piece that ek posted the other day, Dont Ask, Don’t Give, kinda ticked me off. Not at ek for posting it, no. Just the whole idea of giving money to the DNC or any of those vermin annoys me. Like… ever. Not that I have any to give, and I never have, but if I did, I wouldn’t.

But if I did….

Anybody catch the Country Music Awards tonight?

Me either.

Some random thoughts below the tunes.

ha.

Captain Jack Sparrow: Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.

I liked digby today:

Wise man Chuck Todd said that Nancy Pelosi was pretty much a genius for allowing the abortion restrictions so she could get the bill passed. That seems to be the consensus. There just wasn’t any choice. And anyway, health care is a “woman issue” in the first place, so they really need to stop their bitching unless they want to lose health care altogether.

Both parties are cavalier about women voters. Of course, women only make up over half the electorate so it’s not like it’s important. And needless to say, within the Democratic coalition, which is a large majority pro-choice female and voted 56% for Obama, they are even less important. They know their function is to sacrifice their needs for the greater good of the Democratic family. Isn’t that how it works?

Home.

Jury Duty was interesting. I did not get “picked”, in fact I was not even culled into a “To Be Picked” Pool at all. Thank goodness for Friday. Weather is gorgeous,too. Great day for riding the bus. lol.

So. I found the whole experience to be very interesting, monitoring my own thoughts and reactions to things. For starters, I brought along my book… Bob Thurman, Inner Revolution… so I read this Buddhism stuff basically, while sitting there all morning. And listened to their usual schpeal they give.. its a duty and a privilege to serve. Well, I happen to agree but I know I’m weird, I also find it quite interesting, the times before when I’ve sat through Voir Dire and all. In Texas, they say: “voy dyer”. Is that just here? Cuz I say “vwah deer”. And the TV… funny. The guy rambled on and told the story of the various channels they’ve tried only to “vote them off the island”, i.e. CNN, Fox, C-SPAN, and another one. They’ve settled on now the Travel Channel.

Anyway. It’s no big deal, no real inconvenience, for me to go to Jury Duty. I never try to “get out of it” as friends always seem to urge you to do. My biggest thing is my fear of being selected to serve on some big scary important case. Or even a small important case. Lot of responsibility. I mean, that could be OPOL up there. Or Meteor Blades. Or you, or you. Or me. Fortunately, I was not required to confront those fears today.

As I sat there this morning, listening to their pep talk pitch and thinking of all the citizenship things that have been floating around my head lately, and mostly hoping to NOT get picked, I landed on: It is what it is.