Emily Bloss

Today I was driving down Softwind Lane, and I saw what looked to be a giant squirrel tail poking up over the edge of the ditch along the side of the road. As I passed, the animal stood up and I’m like, “That’s one HUGE squirrel!” So I had to turn around and go have a better look. As I came around the car, he loped to the tree line but stopped right outside of it to stand up and inspect me as I looked at him. When I tried to move a little closer, he scurried up into an oak tree and peered down at me for a few seconds, then went running away up the tree. He looked kind of like a big ferret, with a tail as long as his body. I looked in the book when I got home and found out it’s a long-tailed weasel. I was pretty excited about seeing him - I’m glad I turned around.

Anybody out there have interesting wildlife sightings to report?

A few weeks ago, we were at Firehouse Subs and we happened to run into one of the guys that works at Crews Lake Park. Introductions were made (they thought of us as the “tie-dye people”) and we were asking the names of the other people, and it was revealed that Mark (who used to be “eye guy” - he has really pretty blue eyes) is an actor who is involved in plays at Stage West, a community playhouse in Spring Hill. After looking at the schedule, we decided 1776 would be a fun play to see. It’s described as a musical but it’s also a comedy. Written by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards, it won three Tony Awards, and tells the story of the continental congress in Philadelphia leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

We went to see it last night, and it was fantastic! Very entertaining. The acting was wonderful, the costumes and set were perfect, and the sound quality was excellent. One of my favorite parts was the end, where after signing the Declaration of Independence, the actors created the scene from the famous engraving by Edward Savage and Robert Edge Pine.

Afterwards, I was wondering how historically accurate it was, and found the answers on Wikipedia. It turns out the writers made liberal use of literary license, so it was interesting to read about how the play compared to what really happened. Bleys found this PDF document with the author’s notes (near the end), which is a very interesting read after having seen the play. Next play to see in January - The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Yesterday, we made the trip over to visit Frewsburg Gramma & Marv over in New Smyrna Beach. We had a great time! Shortly after we arrived, we sat down to a delicious ham dinner, and then we went to the beach for a while. The water was warm enough to go swimming, but we didn’t… they have no showers at the place we go, and there’s no way I’m making the three hour trip home all sticky with salt. Anyways, we picked up quite a few coquina shells with holes in them, which I’ll use to make another bracelet. I gave the first one I made to Gramma. Hopefully it holds up! As always, we all chatted non-stop, catching up on the goings-on in our lives and the rest of the family. And Steve announced his engagement to Kathy and showed off his ring. Sweet!

And, I got to cross another item off the 101 Things list… I finished and printed the instructions for Gramma on how to make a seashell necklace. Here’s a picture of the first coquina shell bracelet (click for a larger view). I just love this bracelet… it makes a nice soothing sound when the shells move around.

Today I’m going with Trav to the gym and I thought I would try some interval training:

Interval Training article from Sixwise.com

I’ve been trying to overcome my resistance to exercise, but it’s tough when you don’t like to get sweaty! We’ll see how it goes. Anybody out there have tips on how to get and stay motivated to exercise?

Darn it! I was gonna post on the 101st day but I forgot. I’m amazed it’s already been over one hundred days since I started working on completing my 101 Things in 1001 days list. It seems like I need to get more done but when I look at the list, a lot of the items won’t be done until the 1001 days are done, so I’ll be marking a bunch off at the end. So even though I’m 10% done with the time, I’m not 10% done with the items (only 6 are finished so far), and that’s OK. As long as I keep marking things off, that is.

Thanks to everybody who’s helped me along thus far. I would say names but I’m afraid I would neglect to mention someone and I don’t want to make anybody feel bad!! So if you’ve touched my life in any way within the past 102 days, thank you.

I can’t remember how I got to this web site, but I love this solution for cleaning up oil spills:

Hair and mushrooms create a recipe for cleaning up oily beaches from San Francisco Chronicle

I would like to donate our hair to that. I wonder if they can use cat hair? Or feathers? I found a big pile of them under our twin oak tree… I think it was a mockingbird and I keep wondering what ate it - fox, armadillo, cat? Sadie has been chasing things in the yard at night lately, and one of the turtle holes seems to be the home of something not a turtle. I wonder what’s living there?

Whatever it is, I hope it likes to eat rats. We caught a Norway rat the other day… it looked like a teenager so I wasn’t sure if it was male or female. Plus there’s another one to catch, we heard it scratching under the house yesterday. Trav set a good trap for it, which I need to check! I’ll let you know of any interesting results.

Our friend Wendy is well-known in the careers industry, and we’re very lucky to know her. Recently she was asked to write a resume for each of the presidential candidates, so people can have a good example of what a powerful resume should look like. Very cool that she was selected to do this… way to go, Wendy! Here’s a link to the article:

What a Powerful Resume Should Look Like (from TheLadders.com)

Maybe McCain will use her resume to find his next job!! We can only hope.

Today Trav & I went to the library to vote. There was a bit of a line when we got there, so there was plenty of time to get IDs out and everything. The guy in line behind us was a motormouth but I think it helped pass the time a little quicker. We were in line for maybe 15 minutes I guess. Check in was quick - they just swipe your drivers license, verify your name and address and send you to get your ballot, which you bubble in like a test and then feed into the machine. I like the system, I think it will work very well. I sincerely hope it does as I’m working at the polls on Tuesday! As of today, the state of Florida already has a 20% turnout at the polls. Cool, eh?

Every morning I look at the news while I eat breakfast, and today I came across a very interesting article with a bunch of little tidbits - just the kind I like!

Things We Know Now, from Tampa Bay Online

I especially like #12 - elephant caller ID. Neat! Trav liked the idea of eating onions to help keep your brain clean. Which items do YOU find interesting?

Today, bloggers around the world are writing about the problem of poverty. Here are some of my favorite ways to help people attain a better standard of living:

• Kiva is an organization which provides micro-loans to people in developing countries. You go on the site, pick a project you like, and donate money to help finance the loan. Then, when the loan is repaid, you can roll over your money into another project. Very cool and a great way to give people a hand up instead of a handout.
• Free Rice is a fun way to learn new words and help hungry people at the same time. For every word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program.
• Care2 Click to Donate is a simple way to help not only needy kids, but animals and the environment, too.