Monarch butterfly trip

Every winter millions of monarch butterflies migrate to the mountains of central Mexico from North America. A few year ago I went on a trip to see the butterflies and also to see the surrounding area including Mexico City. Here are some pictures from that trip. Included are pictures of Mexico's 4th highest peak, a painting by the artist Tamayo, a Diego Rivera mural featuring Frida Kahlo, pictures from Museo Nacional de Anthropologia, Mexico City, and a picture of fourdogmom at Teotihuacan. I have more pictures in an album if anyone at HCPL wants to see them.

Kitties

Here are some kitties I had before the dogs took over. Clockwise, starting with the black cat, are Slicky, Cricket, Sally, and Burke. Burke has on a Snoopy polo shirt and is sitting on my daughter's desk in our house on Catina in New Orleans.

Paul Klee

One of my favorite artists is Paul Klee (pronounced Clay), the Swiss expressionist painter. Here are examples of some of his works.

Fall leaves

The Decider in TS and I were talking about how beautiful it is this time of year in the northeast and I remembered a few pictures I have of fall leaves. Every year about this time my friend J and I would go to western Pennsylvania where he grew up to visit his family. The first picture is of an Amish farm near his home and the second picture is a maple tree just outside his house. If you don't want to go all the way up north to see beautiful leaves consider a weekend trip to Lost Maples State Park in Vanderpool, Texas. Here is a link to the website http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/lost_maples/

The picture with me in it was taken there Thanksgiving weekend a few years ago.

Antarctica

In 1998 I fulfilled a lifelong dream and went to Antarctica for 3 weeks. I flew from Houston to Miami to Santiago, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. From Ushuaia I boarded a small Russian research vessel that had been converted to a tourist ship. There were about 40 passengers aboard including the Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Dillard who wrote about our trip in a journal. Our guide was Jonathan Chester who has written many books including A for Antarctica, Splash! : a penguin counting book, and The Nature of Penguins. HCPL has these books and more by both Dillard and Chester. In addition to Antarctica we also went to South Georgia which is part of the Falkland Islands and where the explorer Shackleton is buried and Cape Horn. Here are some pictures of my adventure. If you click on individual pictures they will enlarge and you can see how beautiful it is there. If anyone at HCPL wants to see all of my pictures let me know and I will bring my album in.

One child left behind

The POTUS told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."
I know we have him until 2009 but isn't there some way we can not let him out in public?

More fun with Flickr

The Warhol and Hockney tools are my favorites. See on Flickr the Hockney Blue Dog.
My creation, originally uploaded by fourdogmom.

Warholed one earred dog

Fun with Picnik

Here is the same picture of the one earred dog that I played around with on Picnik.

Hamster sudoku

Another part of the assignment this week is exploring different Flickr mashups. While doing this I discovered Hamster Sudoku which I book marked for easy access. Instead of using numbers it uses pictures of hamsters. It occurred to me I could take 9 different pictures of my dogs and create a Dog sudoku.

Week 3 assignment photos & images on Flickr

I don't have a digital camera and the only pictures I have on a disc are my home improvement pictures. I haven't run out of projects or ideas but have unfortunately run out of money.

One earred dog

A younger and thinner Sparky. A very handsome boy!

Copy cataloging

This post has nothing to do with copy cataloging. My friend R showed me this web site with really funny pictures of cats like this one. Check it out at http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Dog vs President

Without making any political statements, I'll just show you this bumper sticker I found today.

Last but not least

Here is a picture of Gracie Ruth. She is Ginger's litter mate and looks just like her except for her long hair. Gracie is very agile and can jump 6 feet straight up in the air. Gracie's favorite activity is chasing squirrels and cats.

Kiva

I discovered the website Kiva.org while reading a book just published by Bill Clinton. Here is a description of the program, known as microcredit, from their website: "Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back." This idea comes from Bangladeshi banker and economist Muhammad Yunus who founded the Grameen Bank which loans small amounts of money to enterpreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 2006.
I like this program because you can give a small amount of money, as little as $25.00, and you can choose the receipient.
Please check out their website at http://www.kiva.org/
For more ideas on giving I highly recommend the new book by Bill Clinton: Giving: how each of us can change the world.
HCPL has many copies of the book and the audiobook.

More cute dogs

Here is a picture of Sparky and Ginger. Ginger was just a puppy when my friend brought her home. Isn't she just the most adorable thing you've ever seen? Can you believe these 2 wonderful dogs were dumped on the street? If you are thinking about getting a dog, there are thousands of great dogs like these in animal shelters just waiting for a good home. If you have your heart set on a specific breed there are rescue groups for just about any breed you can imagine.

2 adorable dogs

As promised, here is the first of many pictures of my dogs. This picture is of Ginger and Rosie, the baby pug, and was taken on Rosie's adoption day, 1/1/2000. Her actual birthday is 11/7/99.

If you would like a pug but don't want the hassle of a puppy (see Sandra D. about her puppy Jake) there is a wonderful pug rescue group in Houston http://www.pughearts.com/

As I mentioned in my first blog, Ginger is a rescue. She was picked up off of a street in Houston along with her sister Gracie.

Thank you Scott for scanning the picture.

Happy Birthday Smiley Face

The smiley face that we all love to use in our emails turns 25 today.
Happy birthday smiley face :-)

For more see: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/smiley/

Internet fraud

The National Consumers League has new Web pages to alert Internet users to the 10 most-used scams: undelivered Internet and online services; damaged, defective, misrepresented or undelivered merchandise; auction sales; pyramids and multilevel marketing; misrepresented cyberspace business opportunities and franchises; work-at-home schemes; prizes and sweepstakes; credit card offers; books and other self-help guides; and magazine subscriptions.
Here is a link to their site:http://www.natlconsumersleague.org

Typo of the day

Here is a link to a blog started by librarians from all over the world with the common interest of keeping online catalogs free of errors:
http://librarytypos.blogspot.com/

Fay made me do this

This blog, which I am doing as an assignment at work, will feature my 4 adorable dogs. Their names are Sparky, Ginger, Gracie, and Rosie. Sparky is a Chow mix and is about 11 years old. He was a rescue. Ginger and Gracie are sisters and are also rescues. They are about 8 1/2 years old and are small hound mixes. Rosie is an adorable 8 year old pug. I will put some pictures of them on the site later.
My other area of interest is travel. Because of the dogs I have not been able to travel lately but I may talk about some of the trips I have taken in the past and some plans I have for future travel.
I also love cataloging and have been doing this since the early 80's. More about this later.