The Legacy

I was reminded of this movie a week or so ago when I was researching a question for my friend Photo Guy.

He left me one of those "I've had too many drinks" voicemail messages asking me to help him settle an argument he was having with some friends. The question was about the actress that played Mrs. Robinson's daughter in The Graduate. I don't remember who PG's friend thought that it was, but it wasn't who she was thinking. As it turns out, it was Katharine Ross, who also starred in The Legacy.

I only saw this movie once many, many years ago when my sister and I went to the movies with my parents (to see yet another war film, I'm sure) and snuck into this theater instead. I remember being so excited because it was an "R" rated movie and I was only 11.

I don't remember Roger Daltrey being in the movie but I do remember the movie poster, that incredible house, the creepy hand, the ring, the pool scene, and that scary white cat. It's amazing the images that get burned into our memories.

I must find this movie and watch it again immediately!

The Great Flood of 2008

Or more appropriately titled, THANK GOD I HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE!

Check out these photos I took this morning of the lake in my backyard.

And the wading pool in my basement.

At one point, the water was four feet high at the sliding glass door and pouring in at the rate of gallons per second.

The water has now completely receded but, needless to say, I've had a really fud up day.

Hopefully my homeowners'/flood insurance carrier won't hose me in the same manner as my health insurance has.

My life MUST start getting better! NOW!

Empty Nest

Wow. I didn't realize that it had been over a week since I blogged. Many apologies to all two of my loyal readers.

It would appear that ALL birds love the dead yucca flower stalk just outside my front window. I'm not sure why, but I have gotten a ton of avian visitors that stop to take a rest.

Yesterday, an very interesting baby bird stopped by for a visit.

I had just started watching Project Runway and kept hearing this really annoying squawking outside my window. I got up to look and this is what I found.

I thought he was a baby sparrow or maybe a robin but I couldn't figure out the weird tail flapping thing that he kept doing. It was apparent that he couldn't fly and I was amazed that he managed to get himself onto the dead yucca stalk. I guess yesterday was leave the nest day and he obviously wasn't ready.

After watching him for a few seconds, I saw his mother swoop down to feed him and recognized that she was a blue jay. I know this photo is pretty fuzzy, but the action happened so fast this was the only shot I was able to get.

I continued to watch him for a bit and then decided that he might be video worthy.

After just a few minutes, it became too difficult for me to stand at the window and I missed him attempting to fly off the yucca. I looked a little while later and he was gone.

A couple of hours later, I could still hear him but he was no longer in site. Then I saw this tree rat on his hind legs looking very interested in something over by the yuccas.



I was afraid that he was going to hurt the baby bird, so I ventured out onto the front law to make sure that he was okay. That's when I heard more squawking on the neighbors lawn. Turns out he had at least two siblings. I know it's hard to see them. You'll just have to trust me. The other two really are there.

Mama Bird kept watch front the neighbors roof and periodically would fly off to gather some food. She never kept still and didn't come close enough for me to get any shots of her. She would swoop down, feed one of them and the fly right back up to the roof. Sometime yesterday evening, I saw all four of them on a wire in the neighbors backyard and felt relieved that they all made it. And then this morning, I thought I heard them squawking somewhere in that general direction. Awwwww.

Damn, I wish I could get my babies out of the nest that easily.

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Note to my readers:

I realize that it seems kinda scary, or maybe even a little pathetic, that I spent that much time interested in some baby birds (and even more time to blog about it) but, with being stuck in the house ALL THE F***ING TIME, this is one of the most exciting things I've seen in months. I know you're really jealous, but you'll just have to contain yourselves.

~Deb

Why I Love Bill Maher

I have been a HUGE fan of Bill Maher's for many, many years. Check out his latest video blog below and don't forget to tune in when Real Time with Bill Maher returns this Friday, 8/29, at 10:00 p.m. (CDT) on HBO. You won't be disappointed.

Happy Birthday J9

Today is my oldest, dearest, bestest friend in the whole wide world's birthday. Happy Birthday Evil J9! It is also the 27th Anniversary of the beginning of our friendship. So, Happy Friendship Anniversary too!

I hope you enjoy this video. I have so many fond memories of this song from our Tops days. Makes me feel like busting a no-beat move every time I hear it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The Living Doll

For my dear friend Photo Guy. Enjoy!

I Give You China's Giant Bedpan

I have watched probably 50 - 60% of this year's Summer Olympics and snicker to myself every time I see the Bird's Nest. The Bird's Nest is Beijing's National Stadium and the site for all Track & Field Olympic Events.

I'm sure it is one of the largest stadiums in the world (Seating 98,000, I think) and it's probably some great architectural achievement for the Chinese, but I just can't get over the fact that it looks like a giant bedpan.

I think it looks nothing like a bird's nest. Behold the Giant Bedpan!

Emily

This is my dog, Emily (with her little sister, Lucy). I got her right after Mike and I divorced (mainly because Zach begged and begged for a dog) and she quickly became a member of our family. I know this photo is blurry, but I don't have many photos of her on my computer.

Even though she gets on my nerves most of the time, she really is a good dog. She's been very, very sick for the last several days and I'm pretty worried about her. She 7 1/2 which is (as you know) 52 1/2 in dog years.

UPDATED (08-23-08): EMILY IS DOING MUCH BETTER.

Heavenly Handfuls

Check out "Heavenly Handfuls."

I discovered these gross little dolls on Monday when I received a postcard mailer for these scary, little creatures in my weekly supermarket ad pack and was completely horrified.

The direct mail piece had a closeup of the Green M&M baby being held by the back of its neck over a small bowl of M&M's with the stomach rounded out to look like the M&M character. It immediately screamed "Eat the baby," and totally creeped be out. I (regretfully) couldn't find that shot on line and had already discarded the postcard. Damn!

The closeup below doesn't show just how mongoloidish these awful, little things are but will give you a pretty good idea.

Retarded candy babies. Creepy! Just damn creepy!

Yellow Finch

Check out the bright-yellow finch that was in my front bushes the other day.

I've been doing a great deal of watching out my window lately and have never seen anything like this guy.

It was pretty hard to get these photos 'cuz the darn thing was constantly hopping back and forth while doing this strange dance across the whole length of the hedge. I'm not a female finch, but I'm guessing that he was doing some weird mating ritual thingy.

You really can't tell from the photos but he was really, really tiny. Maybe only 2 1/2 to 3 inches tall but incredibly gorgeous!

Hope you enjoy my new visitor!

Big-Ass Hornet

Check out the enormous hornet that my son killed on the back patio last week. It's head is as big as my son's thumb and he is a VERY large young man. It's so big that I wouldn't be surprised if it could carry away a small child.

Herbie

A little over two years ago, Herbie was purchased by a lady in our office for use in a photo shoot. When the shoot was over she wasn't sure what to do with Herbie. I offered to care for him and he lived in a bowl in our offices for the next several months.

Fast forward to Christmas 2007. Our office was going to be closed for two weeks over the holidays so I took Herbie home with me so that he wouldn't starve. He lived in his bowl on my kitchen counter for about a year and then I got tired of constantly changing the water so I put him in my daughter's aquarium.

I must say that he's the happiest I ever seen him!

Mikayla's Birthday

Friday was Mikayla's second Birthday! We had a mini celebration here last night with cake and presents. As you can see from the photo above, she was really excited.

I particularly ejoyed watching her and Gabby have a tea party with her new tea set. She even wore white gloves. Too cute!

Broken Glass

Last week, my next-door neighbor accidentally propelled a rock through the window of my floor-to-ceiling screen door glass while mowing his lawn. Since it was tempered glass, it broke into a million dime-sized pieces. When my son cleaned up the glass, he obviously couldn't get to all the pieces that landed under the bushes and now it looks like there are hundreds of 2 - 3 kt. diamonds sparkling under the front hedge. Which brings me to this question. Can fake diamonds be a girl's best friend?

Seriously... I MUST get out of this house soon!

Insurance Company Rules

I stumbled across this video while researching my current health insurance nightmare.

I found it really, really funny until I realized that it's 100% accurate. Then, it made me start to cry. How on earth are those bastards allowed to get away with the bullshit that they pull? Where is the accountability?

Meet Freddie

I got my first aquarium for Christmas when I was either 9 or 10 and I've had at least one in my home ever since. This is a close up of one of our three plecostomuses (or maybe it's plecostomi, hell I don't know). Anyway, we've had probably 10 to 15 of them over the years and my kids still call each one of them Freddie. He's kinda creepy looking but he sure helps to keep the tank algae free. Thanks, Freddie(s)!

Michael. Poor, poor Michael.

I saw this on VH-1 Classic one day not too long ago, and was reminded of how much I love this video.

Michael was so beautiful.

Tragic. Very, very tragic.

Mikayla

Today my granddaughter came to visit. I don't get to see her very often so I try to take photos of her whenever I get the chance. I really like this one. Hope you do too.

No comments about her gargantuan ears please.

Blue Bag

As most of you know (all two readers of my blog), I live really, really close to the Interstate. This morning, I noticed this rather bright-blue bag from my bedroom window. It seems to have been tossed from a car traveling down the highway. I'm sure it's only some retail chain plastic shopping bag (Best Buy perhaps) that was carelessly discarded. Still, I spent way more time than I should have fantasizing that it was something much more sinister.

I really need to get out of the house!

Photography 101

Many, many thanks to my Work BFF (who will now be known as Photo Guy for the purposes of this blog), for showing me how to correctly use -- and not use -- the flash on my camera. Check out the pretty little finch we were able to capture from my living room window today.

It's pretty sad that I've owned this camera for nearly four years and only today discovered all of its wonderful features. Hopefully my photos will be much better moving forward.

Stay tuned.

Now for something completely different

My friend Dan turned me on to this movie last week and, although the acting is really, really bad, I couldn't stop watching this flick. It's set in New Jersey in 1961 and tells the story of a little girl murdered in church during her first communion mass.

Definiely worth the 114 minutes or so and it's Brooke Shields screen debut (several years before "Pretty Baby"). She was like 10 or something but was definitely one of the best actors in the cast.

The film also features a really disgusting landlord, played by Alphonso DeNoble (yeah, I've never heard or him either), who is the grossest, creepiest pedofile EVER! Complete with stains on the front of his pants and fifteen or so cats.

For all of you traumatized recovering catholics like me, It's a must see. It's been playing on Cinemax for the last few weeks. I suggest you Tivo it immediately.

YIKES -- I'm turning into Gladys.

Nothing much exciting today in Mockingbird Hill. A creepy door-to-door powerwasher guy rang the bell but I was sleeping and forgot to get my camera.

Pitty... he was definitely blog worthy.

I only managed to get this shot of my neighbor picking up her newspaper.

For the record I really don't enjoy syping on my neighbors. Long-term isolation turns us all into Gladys Kravitz.

Where To Begin

Okay... here's goes.

Post #1

So I've been in isolation now for 55 days. Not like prison or anything, but sometimes it sure feels like I'm incarcerated. Since my illness keeps me from leaving my house except for medical appointments, I've decided to create a photo journal of interesting things that I see from my living room window.

Hope you enjoy.

~Deb