I bought myself a gray tophat and an old-style black vest for my birthday present. Hey, I old turn 149-years-old once!

Vintage Homer

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook over 200 people wished me Happy Birthday and I had phone calls from Evan, Jeffrey, Travis, and Forrest. No one sends cards anymore. Sad face. At work I am finishing reports and chapters and trying to clear out stuff in my office. I have made progress and we are still having new projects come in, although it seems things have slowed down a bit. The wildlife is abundant outside my window- coyotes, an occasional bobcat, hawks, lizards, and yesterday a baby kingsnake.


Can you spot the bobcat?

I'm usually scared of snakes, but this one was so small I was brave.

Baby kingsnake. Buddy continues to stop by for breakfast and supper. He is very happy to see me and after he finishes eating he comes over for some head and tummy rubs. Tonight he was so excited to see me that he started humping me. I said no thank you.

Happy Buddy.

My commenting program is ending and I have tried everything I can to upload a new system- DISQUS- and to save the 20,000+ comments from the last nine years. So far, no luck. It really irritates me that Echo JSKit abruptly decided to end their commenting program, I've had a few weeks notice and they offer absolutely no assistance. Fuck them and their crappy company.

When I was in high school the first space shuttle flew into space. When I was a senior at the University of Michigan, the Challenger exploded and I heard of this while standing in the living room of my house.

 I have always liked science fiction. My father hated that, it was one of his many psychological problems (he also hated Tom Selleck, environmentalists, garlic, and at times me).

 At work this morning someone mentioned that the Space Shuttle Endeavor was going to fly over Tucson on its way to a museum in California. It was going to dip low over Tucson in honor of its last pilot, Mark Kelly, and his wife Gabrielle Giffords. So Patti, Sarah, Mario, Lisa, Mike and I walked over to the park across the street from the office and right at 11:15 it appeared in the sky.

Endeavor. 

 It was a bittersweet sight, seeing the last Space Shuttle pass by.

NASA has shown the awesome resolve, engineering and computing skills, and bravery of American men and women. When I was a kid everyone wanted to be an astronaut or a scientist. Now everyone wants to be reality television show stars.

Oh course I made the mistake of reading some of the comments left on our local newspaper afterward. I learned that it was a waste of money, that Obama killed the shuttle program, that Gabriel Giffords is a traitor. I guess there will always be misfits who hate everything.

I hope NASA is figuring out some way to replace the Shuttle program. Space is the ultimate frontier.

I used to watch Jason sing at karoake at IBTS here in Tucson back in 2004-2006.



He's a nice guy and has a beautiful voice. His signature song here was the theme song from The Jeffersons. I hope his dreams come true.

Birthday weekend. Ohmigod, I am 49. I remember wondering what life would be like when I was 13. Handyman Doug is adding shelves to the dining room (which becomes my mother's bedroom in the winter).

Before shelves.

There is a trapdoor in the ceiling of the closet and he put the ladder up. You can see the original 1927 electricity. Someday I will have enough money to get this fixed.

Spool and cable.

I made myself a brown sugar cake (little bit of rum poured on the cake) with caramel buttercream frosting. Eight sticks of butter and 11 eggs. I took most of it to work and my co-workers loved it.

49th birthday cake, the recipe is in the October 2012 Martha Stewart Living.

Patrick gave me four cucumbers so I made dill pickles. I over-filled two of the five jars and the lids lifted up while they were in the canner- my first canning failures!

Dill pickles. I've never made dill pickles before and I do not know how long they have to sit in the jar before you can eat them. I will have to ask Mark.

Buddy came by for brunch on Saturday morning.

Treasure box.

I have a cigar box where I keep some treasures. The cast of my teeth made back in 1990. A leather wallet Grandpa F made me when I was 7 or 8. A button from my great great grandmother's dress, the pocket watch that belonged to my namesake. And the remnants of a Noah's Ark that I got back in 1967 or 1968.

Treasures.

For the last couple of weeks a male pitbull has been wandering around my neighborhood. The first time I saw him, he growled at me and ran away. I quickly realized the poor guy didn't have a home and that he was hungry. Coincidentally, I have cans of catfood my cats won't eat, so when I saw him, I called him over and opened a can of food and left it out.

Buddy. The last week he has been coming up on the porch and eating his can, and then I give him some dog biscuits. He soon let me rub his head and then his stomach. I am surprised at how muscular he is.

Smooch. 

I am a lion tamer, all stray animals like me. So today after he had his meal, some head and tummy rubs, he put his head out and gave me a huge lick.

He wants to come inside my house, but that can't happen, I am sure my cats would totally freak out.

Why hello.

I'm calling him Buddy for now.