I'm with Lisa from "Green Acres."

To all the Farmer Types out there trying to make us all jealous with your canning and bread-baking and kefir-brewing(?) and home-schooling stories...it's City Girl's turn!

This morning, after visiting HEB, the world's best grocery store that is 4 MINUTES from my house, it was time to hit La Popular for the Yum Fuel I would need to mow the lawn with an old-fashioned reel mower. (Oh, and the HEB "Combo Loco" deals were especially LOCO this morning. Anyone buying four Lean Cuisine frozen dinners could score free Nestle or Wonka candy. That's right...if you buy low-calorie, low-fat meals, HEB will reward you with free CANDY.)

Next I'm off to the post office (a full 3-minute drive), the mall (where I get a nice employee discount on the cutest clothes at Christopher & Banks!), and then Sonic for a half-price Happy Hour tea (UNsweet, as God intended). City Life has its PERKS. :-)

"Abilene is where I'd rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a sunset view.
Dah-ling I love you, but give me Sayles Avenue!"
 

Man...

...I wish I could DANCE!

Thanks to dooce for the heads-up on this one!

Miss the puzzle on Sunday?

Not to worry, my precious.

Aunt Kristy took care of it. Enjoy the synopsis I sent out to the NPR Puzzle Google Group this weekend.


* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
Liane Hansen & Will Shortz
2010-09-05

CURRENT CHALLENGE (given 20100829):
From the NPR puzzle page: Take the word "bookman." Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a famous person who wrote books. Who is it?

The answer was NABOKOV, as in Vladimir Nabokov, author of _Lolita_,  _Bend Sinister_, and many other works.

Liane reported more than a thousand entries.

The randomly-selected, on-air player today was Kevin Callahan, a math teacher at Madison Middle School, from Eugene, Oregon. He is a member of KLCC.

Today's on-air puzzle: You are given a five-letter word and a seven-letter word. Rearrange the letters of one of the words to get a synonym of the other word. For example, given ALLOY and DEVOTED, the answer would be LOYAL. (LOYAL is an anagram of ALLOY and a synonym of DEVOTED.)

CLUES (HINTS directly below clues; ANSWERS at the end of synopsis):

1.  THING & EVENING

2. STATE & CLEARED

3. MARCH & DELIGHT

4. TIMER & DESERVE

5. IRATE & GRENADE

6. NADIR & DEPLETE

7. ONSET & BOULDER

8. AWFUL & INHOUSE

9. GIRTH & CORRECT

10. AGREE & ITCHING

HINTS:

1. Rearrange the first word,THING, to make a synonym for EVENING. Will reminded listeners that *either* of the words can be the one that is to be anagrammed.

6. Liane shared a tip Will had given her once: when working with anagrams, it is sometimes helpful to put the letters in "bowling pin formation" it helps your head get out of "the linear way of thinking."

8. "It's usually used to describe a villain..."

10. "As in, you are 'itching' to do something."

Brandon Flowers, member of the Las Vegas band The Killers, read Kevin the booty he scored for playing the puzzle on the air. Kevin will receive an NPR lapel pin and many other coveted puzzle-related items.

NEXT WEEK'S CHALLENGE:

The listener challenge for next week, as copied from the NPR puzzle page: From Eric Iverson of Eagan, Minn.: What is the longest common word in which all the letters rhyme with E?

The listener challenge for next week, as Will gave it on the air: "Well, this week's challenge comes from listener Eric Iverson of Eagan, Minnesota, and it's a simple question: 'What is the longest common word in which all the letters rhyme with E?' I have my answer; we'll compare notes next week. So again, 'What is the longest common word in which all the letters rhyme with E?' "

Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on THURSDAY.  One
entry per person. NPR will no longer receive entries by email.  Be sure
to include a telephone number where you can be reached if you are
selected as the winner.  Entries may be made at the web page:
http://www.npr.org/templates/contact/index.php?columnId=4473090
You might also get to this page by going to:
npr.org/puzzle

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Editor's notes:

Puzzles, and contents of the _Weekend Edition Sunday_ puzzle segment are
copyrighted 2010, by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with
permission.


Liane opened the segment asking Will if his life at the moment was "more puzzles than ping pong...or vice versa?" Will discussed the table tennis club he plans to open in his hometown, which he believes will be "the largest table tennis club in the Northeast." (At 11,000 square feet of playing space, there will be enough room for eighteen tables.)


Today's serendipitous links:

Today's on-air player teaches math at a Madison Middle School in Oregon--and today's puzzle transcriber is the librarian at a Madison Middle School in Texas! Perhaps today, 12 days before Constitution Day, is a good day to reflect on our tiniest President (approximately 5' 4" & 96 pounds) and the "Father of the Constitution."

http://www.montpelier.org/explore/james_madison/index.php

Fans of the book _The Phantom Tollbooth_ can celebrate the reunion of author Norton Juster and artist Jules Feiffer, 50 years later, by reading their latest collaboration, _The Odious Ogre_.
http://n.pr/92UrqN

Happy Labor Day!

http://bit.ly/9bfMyc



Here's our regular monthly puzzle transcription schedule:
1st       Kristy
2nd      Richard
3rd       Joe
4th       Jerry
5th       Richard

Email us at:
Kristy Fowler <mad4cowbell@gmail.com>
Richard Renner <rrenner@igc.org>
Jerry Miller <millergm@muohio.edu>
Joe Wander <jdwandersr@gmail.com>

So email for next week's synopsis goes to Richard:
<rrenner@igc.org>

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Our group of volunteer co-editors distributes these free weekly synopses
of the NPR puzzle segment.  You can read more about this free
distribution at:
http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle/topics
You can subscribe from this page, too.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle?hl=en
If you want to remove your address from the former Topica list, send a
blank email from your account to:
nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com
To change the email address of your subscription, remove the old one
(from the old email account), and add the new Google subscription (from
the new email account).  For more information about this list, and an
archive of those distributed by Topica.com, visit:
http://igc.topica.com/lists/nprpuzzle@igc.topica.com/read
or, for more information about the Topica mailing service, visit:
http://lists.topica.com/
NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous answer) on its World
Wide Web page.  Go to www.npr.org , and "select" Weekend Edition Sunday
from the drop-down menu under "Programs."  You can also pick up an audio
recording of Weekend Edition Sunday program after 12:00 p.m. Eastern
time each Sunday.  In the alternative, for the text of the weekly
listener challenge, you can go directly to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4473090
Podcasts are available at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rss/podlayer.php?id=4473090 or
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/

From:
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=4473090&uid=3ba205bf25adca5af473ab1102e03b75
How do I subscribe to this podcast?
Copy the URL [above this paragraph] into your preferred podcasting tool
software (e.g. Odeo, iTunes, iPodder). You will automatically receive
this podcast each time it's published.
Follow Liane on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/nprLiane
Links of interest:
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament:
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/
Merl Reagle's article on constructing crossword puzzles, available at:
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/inq031697.htm
World Puzzle Federation:
http://www.worldpuzzle.org
For U.S. Puzzle Championship info:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/uspc11/
More of Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles are available at:
http://www.mathpuzzle.com
Next year's National Puzzlers' League convention will meet in
Providence, Rhode Island. For information, visit:
http://www.puzzlers.org
Joe Wander suggests linguaphiles check out:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad
You can join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic
puzzles. To subscribe, send a blank email to:
blind-puzzlers-subscribe@googlegroups.com
For the results of April's 5th Annual World Sudoku Puzzle Championship,
see:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/wsc2010/
Kristy Fowler, guest editing today for Richard Renner:
<mad4cowbell@gmail.com>

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

CLUES & ANSWERS:

1.  THING & EVENING: NIGHT

2. STATE & CLEARED: DECLARE

3. MARCH & DELIGHT: CHARM

4. TIMER & DESERVE: MERIT

5. IRATE & GRENADE: ENRAGED or ANGERED

6. NADIR & DEPLETE: DRAIN

7. ONSET & BOULDER: STONE

8. AWFUL & INHOUSE: HEINOUS

9. GIRTH & CORRECT: RIGHT

10. AGREE & ITCHING: EAGER

End of NPR Puzzle Synopsis.

Doggie Splash Day, 2010!

 BEST DAY OF THE YEAR! 

Last year, May Bee and I were forced to skip The Best Day of the Year because of that stupid, awful, horrible operation (that I only survived because of my wonderful family & friends!!), but this year we were out in Full Pale Force (well, I was pale--May Bee, not so much). Dan, Kirsten, Jaeger, and Rhowdie were there...and CHRIS & FALISHA, TOO! They drove all the way from the Metroplex to get in on the fun!

Oh, and we made TWO of Abilene's three 10 o'clock newscasts as we went off the diving board together AND a color pic in the Sunday paper. (Page 12A! Not too shabby, Miss May Bee!) Must have been a slow news day...

Check out the cool page Kirsten, a Creative Memories consultant, made with her CM Storybook!

And then, to end a perfect day, we enjoyed a cookout and concert at HOPE Church of Christ. Here's the last photo I snapped before Chris & Falisha had to head for home. (You can see Thus Far taking the stage behind them!)

The documentary, which aired after the sun went down, was beautiful and touching and wiped me out. It still does. (Thanks to Jessalyn Massingill for her amazing movie and to Thus Far for their beautiful music. I've watched the movie twice...and cried both times.) 

If you ever want to worship your Creator in a place where you will be accepted no matter what, come visit us at HOPE.

Networks from jessalyn massingill on Vimeo.

Balloon ahoy!

Look what May Bee and I saw while on our walk this morning at Red Bud Park! 

Later (after the Balloon Chase Team had peeled out of the park to track their partner in the sky), while May Bee and I were plodding along in the August heat, my preacher's wife went jogging by, effortlessly running without breaking a sweat--and putting us to shame.

Balloon aloft! (Just a few seconds after asking his passenger, "Are you afraid of heights? No? Good!")

Owl Babies, All the Way!

I don't know if this will work or not, but if this embed code works, you may be able to see owl babies. OWL BABIES! FOR REAL!

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Double Rainbow, all the way.

GREAT weekend at Bethany & Catrin's new house on The River, but since I only had my cell phone camera and have to email myself all of those photos as phone messages, it will be a while...

In the meantime, turns out that, as usual, I'm a month late and a dollar short. When the guy on Marketplace Money was talking about the Double Rainbow Joy guy, I didn't have a clue.

Here's the scoop, for you other old-timers like me who missed the Rainbow Exuberance...and I'm NOT making fun of him, either! If more people were moved to tears by double rainbows, this world would be a lovelier place!


UPDATE: River weekend pics are up! Click HERE to see 'em! All taken with my cell phone...and turned out surprisingly okay.

Oh, and Russ just sent me the N.C. lottery's parody of Mr. Double Rainbow, All the Way...and it turned out surprisingly funny!

I write like...

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I've never used the words "sweet" and "spider" together before...

...but this video is actually sweet and scary and spider-related all at the same time. (What a sweet couple!)



This one, otoh, is just sick.

Wordless. Tearful.

It's been a little hectic, to say the least!

We've been in Germany for THREE WEEKS now, and I haven't had time to post even once. All I can do is say that it's been go, go, GO every single day which is just the way we all like it.

In the meantime, you can check out pics on Flickr!

Auf Wiedersehen,
me

Oberammergau...I can hardly believe it.

 I have wanted to go to Oberammergau's Passion Play ever since I first heard of it, even before I took German at Governor Mifflin Junior High and with Herr Douple & Herr Leininger at Wilson High School! It is hard to believe that, Lord willing, our group will be watching the 41st production of the Bavarian village's play next month. (In fact, while watching this video, emailed to me by Kirsten yesterday, I cried. Cried!)

Miss the NPR puzzle? I gotcha covered.

Today it was my turn to transcribe the NPR puzzle for the Google Group and Topica list. Enjoy!

               * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
with Liane Hansen & Will Shortz
2010-05-30


Liane and Will both began the puzzle segment with mea culpas (meae culpae?) and corrections. Liane said many listeners informed her that Eleuthera Island is in the Bahamas, and Will had to admit that Shakespeare did have a character named Edward, namely King Edward in Richard III.


The Current Challenge, given 20100523), from:
http://n.pr/dvxbv8


Name a country that is spelled as a solid word. Change two consecutive letters in it to a single R. The result will name a problem that this country has traditionally faced. What's the country and what's the problem?


The answers were Malaysia & malaria.


Liane reported more than 1,000 entries. The on-air player, randomly drawn from among the correct submissions, was Dave Taube of Eugene, Oregon, who says he's been playing the puzzle for about a year and a half. He's a "house dad" and a landlord who rents to students attending the University of Oregon. There is an amazing story about Mr. Taube at http://bit.ly/cZ6eFi , and I'm so glad he got a chance to play on the air with Will & Liane! Dave listens to KLCC, hittin' Eugene with 81,000 watts of power at 89.7 FM.


THIS WEEK’S ON-AIR PUZZLE: Will gave Dave, Liane, and NPR listeners a word. Puzzle players were to change one single letter of that word to come up with a common name for a newspaper. For example, if Will said "tomes," the answer would be "Times."


CLUES (answers at the end of this synopsis):


1.  tribute

2.  posh

3.  hedger

4.  glove  (Hint: "There's one in Boston.")

5.  resister

6.  empress

7.  would

8.  reword

9.  deporter

10. lender

11. onion

12. preps

13. nets

14. sue

15. stay



Matt Dembicki, the editor of a graphic anthology called Trickster: Native American Tales ( http://bit.ly/aZ6HVh ), read Dave the list of prizes he won for being the on-air player. (I've already ordered 2 copies of Trickster for my library!)



NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE comes from Eric Iverson of Eagan, Minnesota.: Take the name of a nationality and write it in lower case letters. Remove the first letter and rotate one of the remaining letters 180 degrees. The result will be another nationality. What nationalities are these?



Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday.
One entry per person. NPR no longer accepts entries by e-mail. Be
sure to include a telephone number where you can be reached if you
are selected as the winner.  Entries may be made at the web page:
http://www.npr.org/templates/contact/index.php?columnId=4473090
(Puzzle enthusiasts can navigate there easily from:
http://www.npr.org/puzzle )


               * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Editorial notes:

Puzzles & contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle segment
are copyrighted by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with
permission.



This summer's puzzle transcription schedule:

2010-06-06        Jerry
2010-06-13        Richard
2010-06-20        Joe
2010-06-27        Jerry
2010-07-04        Joe
2010-07-11        Richard
2010-07-18        Joe
2010-07-25        Jerry


We expect to resume our regular schedule in August:

1st       Kristy
2nd      Richard
3rd       Joe
4th       Jerry
5th       Richard


Our email addresses:

Kristy Fowler gmail.com>

Richard Renner igc.org>
Jerry Miller muohio.edu>
Joe Wander gmail.com>


So e-mail for next week's synopsis goes to Jerry Miller muohio.edu>.


    * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


Guest editor’s notes from Kristy:

Liane's story on World War II veterans stated that only 10% of our nation's WWII veterans are still alive. Here is Thursday's obituary for John W. Finn, the last of the 15 Navy sailors who received the Medal of Honor for heroism at Pearl Harbor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28finn.html

 
President Obama's weekly address, this week entitled "Honoring the Fallen."
http://bit.ly/c1ydA7


Read the entire text of Richard III at http://bit.ly/dciXAk . 



Passport? Check. Camera? Check. Baggallini (designed by flight attendants!)? Check. Deutschland, hier komme ich! (I will, however, leave the applesauce at home.)
http://bit.ly/afCALa


    * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

From this week's mailbag:

Nichts.


    * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


Editor’s notes from Richard Renner (email: rrenner igc.org ):

I distribute these free weekly synopses of the NPR puzzle segment, with the help of a crack team of substitutes.  You can read more about this free distribution at:
http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle/topics
You can subscribe from this page, too.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:
nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at:
http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle?hl=en

If you want to remove your address from the former Topica list, send a blank email from your account to:
nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com
To change the email address of your subscription, remove the old one (from the old email account), and add the new Google subscription (from the new email account).  For more information about this list, and an archive of those distributed by Topica.com, visit:
http://igc.topica.com/lists/nprpuzzle@igc.topica.com/read
or, for more information about the Topica mailing service, visit:
http://lists.topica.com/

NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous answer) on its World Wide Web page.  Go to www.npr.org, and select "Weekend Edition Sunday” from the "Programs" pull-down menu. You can also  pick up a recording of Weekend Edition Sunday program in the Real Audio format, after noon Eastern time each Sunday.

In the alternative, for the text of the weekly listener challenge, you can go directly to:
http://bit.ly/NyGkQ

Podcasts are available at:
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php

From:
http://bit.ly/3Ys9XT
How do I subscribe to this podcast?
Copy the URL [above this paragraph] into your preferred
podcasting tool software (e.g. Odeo, iTunes, iPodder). You will
automatically receive this podcast each time it's published.

Follow Liane on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/nprLiane

Links of interest!
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Mar. 18-20, 2011):
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/
Merl Reagle’s article on constructing crossword puzzles, available at:
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/inq031697.htm
World Puzzle Federation:
http://www.worldpuzzle.org
Register for the 2010 USA team's August 21 championship at:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/register/index.htm
More of Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles are available at:
http://www.mathpuzzle.com
To learn more about this July's National Puzzlers’ League convention in Seattle:
http://conpac.puzzlers.org/
Kristy Fowler & Joe Wander both highly recommend:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad
You can join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic puzzles.  To subscribe, send a blank email to:
blind-puzzlers-subscribe@googlegroups.com
For results of the 5th World Sudoku Puzzle Championship:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/wsc2010/


Richard Renner
Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP
3233 P St., NW
Washington, DC  20007
202-342-6980
202-342-6984 FAX
330-224-0359 cell

rrenner  igc.org
rr  kkc.com

www.whistleblowersblog.org



               * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

CLUES and ANSWERS:


1.  tribute: Tribune

2.  posh: Post

3.  hedger: Ledger

4.  glove: Globe

5.  resister: Register

6.  empress: Express

7.  would: World

8.  reword: Record

9.  deporter: Reporter

10. lender: Leader

11. onion: Union (Liane mentioned, "There's already a newspaper named The Onion!")

12. preps: Press

13. nets: News

14. sue: Sun

15. stay: Star



End of NPR puzzle synopsis.

It's like losing a friend. Seriously.

Texans love their trees...and we West Texans love them more than most! The respite they give us with their shade, the effort it takes to get them established, and their GREEN, VERTICAL beauty in a largely BEIGE, FLAT region of the state makes them dear to our hearts. Losing one really hurts.

Seriously, Karen and I are really sad. Every time we looked in the backyard yesterday, we just mourned...

The dogs aren't too upset. Ben wants to tinkle on every fallen branch while May Bee searches for birds' nests and squirrel babies (a.k.a. "appetizers").

I'm hoping Mrs. Squirrel and her babies found somewhere else to live. Here's a photo I took of her last month.

And we're going to miss the amazing SMELL of this beautiful tree. Last month, it was almost obscene...like standing next to a man on the elevator who went a little overboard on the cologne. (Karen was driving down the alley once in April and said she could smell our backyard before she could even see it.)

R.I.P., beautiful chinaberry tree.

The worst morning contest? I won it.

You know that horrible recurring dream about being in the shower...with a head covered in shampoo...when a giant waterbug (a.k.a., "ROACH!") falls from the ceiling and right onto your body? ONTO YOUR WET, NAKED BODY?

It happened. 

And not some petite Pennsylvania-sized roach, either, but a take-no-prisoners, TEXAS-SIZED behemoth.

I was able to kill it by stomping on it repeatedly, while screaming like a little girl...which brought May Bee to the rescue! (Ben snoozed through the whole thing.)

The team of Viennese psychiatrists it's going to take to restore my mind are going to be expensive, but worth every Euro...

UPDATE: Last night at the Bushes, as we watched 24, this commercial came on and made me laugh out loud. Maybe the roach that landed on me in the shower just  thought we were "dipping skinny."

 

UPDATE 2: So this morning, a friend suggested that I invest in the Bugzooka! It's the coolest...check out the VIDEO!