Crunchy Frog

Photoblog

2006-09-10T15:53:00.000-04:00

I am experimenting with posting pictures on a new photoblog, just to give me something to do. It is at http://www.freewebs.com/mwalters/index.html. Check it out and let me know what you think. My intention is to put a picture there everyday; we'll see how that works out.

Not much is going on here, as usual. Yesterday we watched the shuttle launch from the front yard. I didn't try to take any pictures, as I think they pretty much look alike from this vantage point. (On the other hand, most of my pictures look alike, and that hasn't stopped me so far ...)

We went out to eat at the Chinese place last night, it was pretty good. Not as good as the one in Coca, but it is much farther away, about a 30 minute drive each way. This place is right down the street, so it is much more convenient.

I found a place online to listen to the Aggie football game, so I did that last night, and alternately ran in the next room to watch t.u. get beat. It was a hard game to watch, as I'm not a big Ohio State fan either. I was happy with the result, at any rate.

Hope all are well. Look at my photo thingy and leave some comments, so I can see if it works!

Gulf Fritillary

2006-08-06T19:44:00.000-04:00

Gulf Fritillary Laying Eggs
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a shot of a butterfly laying eggs on our Passion Flower vine that I took yesterday. This is the same kind of butterfly that hatched out a week or so ago. This was just a lucky shot; I didn't know it would show this until I looked at it later. I knew what it was dong, but didn't expect to see anything like this. If you look closely you can see one of the eggs near the tip of the butterfly's tail. I think most of this crop of eggs are gone already, as I couldn't find any this morning.

Friday we had another goof-off day, this time it was a picnic for the whole organization. Seems like this place has more picnics and goof off things than anywhere else I've been in the AF. Left work about 11:15, and went. The food was good, and I managed to stay out of the Doritos and beer. After eating a few of us sat around and played spades for a couple hours while listening to the live band they had. They were not too bad. I left there about 2:30 and went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes, then went home.

We've had a nice quiet weekend. Yesterday I got up early and went to the base to get a haircut, then went to the gym for an hour or so. I like it better when I'm not in a rush to get home. Spent a little time outside chasing butterflies, and had a little success. We seem to have a lot more of them around now that the plants are growing in. Usually you don't have to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes to see one now.

Saturday night we went and tried a Chinese place that a guy at work recommended, and it was pretty good. Not a big place, but the food was good and service was good too. We all had a good time, and Anne seemed to be in a good mood and enjoy it too. It's nice to have another restaurant to add to our list.

Didn't do much today. Worked a little outside to try and fix some of the landscape lights that broke some time ago. Two of them are at the base of our three big palms. I'm not sure if the chunks falling out of the trees broke them, or the lawn mowing guys bumped into them. Managed to fix one, I think, but the other is too broken to support itself. We're thinking of having them all replaced with solar-powered lights, then they would be a lot easier to replace if something went wrong with them.

Not much more to say here! Hope all are well.

Swan

2006-07-30T18:47:00.000-04:00

Swan nature wildlife
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a picture I took the other night when I took my new tripod (b-day and anniversary present from Sally) out to play with it. I used a longer exposure as an experiment, and think it came out interesting, it's nice and peaceful looking.

The last four days have gone by way too fast, but they were great. My birthday especially was real good. Friday the UPS man showed up with my tripod, which is real nice and allows me to try things I couldn't do before. Saturday and today were nice and quiet. Went to the zoo this afternoon and took some pictures of the alligator and crocodile feeding, some of which are OK but not great. Perhaps you'll see one of them in the near future ..

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to use my birthday loot for, so my current plan is to save it! I need probably one more lens at the wide angle end, and then I will be more or less happy for a while (ha). Other than that, I don't need too much!

Hope all are well!

New Butterfly

2006-07-27T12:44:00.000-04:00

New Butterfly
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a newly emerged Gulf Fritillary on our passion flower vine! A nice way to start my birthday, after sleeping in!

We are well. I have been going to the gym real regularly, and feel good! I'm thinking of going 5 days a week rather than just the 3 they give me at work, so I can alternate some of the weight lifting with the treadmill etc. Hopefully I can keep it up, as I feel better and it gives me something to do.

Sally is busy making me a chocolate birthday cake! Can't wait! Wish all of you were here to help us eat it!

Space Shuttle Discovery

2006-07-04T15:07:00.000-04:00

Space Shuttle Discovery
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

This is the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, graciously delayed by NASA until Anne's 25th birthday. I took this from the driveway. It came out better than I expected; at full size you can see the booster tanks. Hope you enjoy it! God speed to the astronauts.

We are all fine here; Sally made reservations for the good Chinese place tonight so we can take Anne and celebrate her birthday! Hopefully the other 200,000 who showed up to watch the launch will have gone home by then (but i doubt it, with fireworks scheduled).

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

Passiflora

2006-07-01T12:38:00.000-04:00

Passiflora
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a picture of one of the passion flower blooms in the butterfly garden. The plants are starting to look better, as we have had a good amount of rain this week. We're supposed to have a chance for more over the next few days. Hopefully not today, so the shuttle can launch on time. We will be able to see it from the front yard (if we don't forget to go look!). Actually from this distance the launches all look sort of alike.

The most interesting thing I have done over the last few days is figure out the combination to my old padlock that I want to use at the gym. Sally found the lock for me, and it was open but there was no sign of the combination. I thought I remembered it (until I locked it and tried to open it). Oops. Before getting a new one, I decided to look online and see what I could find.

Turns out there is a way to narrow down the number of possibilities for the combination to only 100 if you have an older Master lock. The basic idea is that you can figure out the last number by pulling on the shank and turning the dial, and seeing where it sticks. If all goes well it will stick in 12 places, one of which is the last number. You can actually figure out which of the 12 is the last number also. At that point, there are only 10 possible first numbers and 10 possible second numbers, so you only have to try 100 combinations. (Not as many as it sounds like).

I was led astray at this point, because I thought I knew the last number, so I didn't investigate the 12 possibilities as closely as I should have. Turned out I was wrong, and the last number was one of the 12 I did not suspect. If I had trusted the directions (and known what I know now) I would have found the last number right away.

It opened on the 25th try, so it only took about 5 minutes once I had picked the last number correctly.

So, if you have an old master lock combination lock you can't open, don't throw it away!

All is well here, as we count down to the Anne's birthday!

Butterfly plants

2006-06-25T18:31:00.000-04:00

Butterfly plants
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a shot of one of the plants in the butterlfy garden. So far they are all still alive, although we haven't had much rain. We did get a little today, but not as much as we were expecting. Hopefully the rain will pick up a little.

The most excitement I had this week was the other day when the tv started changing channels all by itself every 10 seconds or so. It was driving me crazy until I figured out I was sitting on the remote. Go figure.

We have had our usual exciting weekend; didn't do anything but did go out to eat tonight instead of last night. We went to Outback, and it was good but slower than usual.

Hope everyone in Richmond is having a great time; we look forward to seeing some pictures of everyone together. Hope all are well; we are fine here.

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-18T17:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day!
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Happy Father's Day to my Dad and Father-in-law! We wish we could be with you guys today!

Not much is going on here, as usual. Went to dinner last night at the Italian place (my choice!) and it was great, as usual.

We had a fair amount of rain overnight, and it has been a little cloudy most of the day, and cooler than usual. We had over a 1/2" in the rain gauge this morning, but I'm not sure when it was dumped out last. At any rate, we need all the rain we can get.

Hope you had a good time camping, Mom and Dad, and that all is well!

Klipspringer

2006-06-16T20:14:00.000-04:00

Klipspringer
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Happy Birthday to my favorite granddaughter!

The picture is a klipspringer, taken at the Brevard Zoo last Sunday. They are small deer-like critters.

We finally got some rain to speak of, although it is nice today. Work this week went by real fast, as we were pretty busy. Hopefully we will have a quiet weekend. Not much is planned (big surprise there ...). Maybe a trip to the zoo tomoroow, but that will depend on the weather etc. I don't like to go if it is too cloudy, as it is pretty dark in the first place. I need to go back on a Sunday afternoon some time, and try to get pictures of the alligators and crocs jumping out of the water when they feed them.

Hope all are well!

Heron

2006-06-11T18:37:00.000-04:00

Heron
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a young heron that I saw at the zoo. He's sitting on the platform where they feed the crocodiles. This picture is cropped in quite a bit, but I think it came out pretty well for as far away as it was.

Sounds like everyone at Mom and Dad's is having a grand time. Wish we could be there! I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of everyone.

We got about 1/2+ inch of rain today, with the prospect of more to come in the next few days as tropical storm Alberto does its thing. Doesn't look to be much of a storm at this point, but we should get some rain at least. Don't think the winds will be much to worry about.We've had a good weekend so far. Dinner last night was sub-par at Durangos; got a waitress that didn't do a whole lot and the steak Anne and Sally shared was not too great either. Other than that it was great!

Hope all are well!

Watch the birdie ...

2006-06-05T17:50:00.000-04:00

Watch the birdie ...
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

My new toy came today, so I had to run out and play with it. This was taken with it from our driveway. It's a little easier to sneak up on the birds with this lens, but I still can't get too close.

Yesterday Anne and I went to the zoo, and watched them feed the alligators and the crocodile. I didn't take my camera because it was threatening to rain (and it did while we were there). I'll have to go back and get some pictures of that, especially the crocs which are pretty amazing; they just about jump clear out of the water jumping up to get their food. The alligators can't jump so high, but there are a lot of them so it is still impressive.

I think the rainy season has finally kicked in here, some places around here set a daily record for rainfall yesterday I think. We didn't get much here unfortunately.

Hope all are well and having a good time! Everybody hug everybody else for me...

Florida gator

2006-06-03T18:20:00.000-04:00

Florida gator
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is an example of the local wildife! Fortunately this one is at the zoo, and not in our backyard ...

We just came back from eating out, our usual Saturday night excursion. Had another good meal. It is quite hot out, probably mid 90s I think. We haven't had any rain to speak of for a while; I hope it gets to it pretty quick. I think there was a thunderstorm last night, but we didn't get any of it. Soon thunderstorms will be a lot more frequent, which should help.

Not much is new here. We are all well. I hope that Brian and Christine and the little one have a safe trip to Mom and Dad's house and that all have a good time. We wish we could be there too! Also hope that you are feeling better Mom; try not to overdo it while the kids are there.

Baby Sandhill Cranes

2006-05-31T18:06:00.000-04:00

Baby Sandhill Cranes
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

First, let me say Happy Birthday to my big sister! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Here is another view of the baby cranes at the zoo. I think they look like baby rubber chickens, myself.

Here is a cute logic puzzle you may enjoy. The directions are in Japanese, but I'll explain it below. It may take a while to load if you have a slower connection, but I think you'll enjoy it. When the page loads, you hit the big round circle in the lower right corner to start.

What you see is a group of people at a river. The goal is to get everyone across the river using the raft. Only two people can ride the raft at a time, and only the adults (the mother and father or the policeman) can drive the raft. The father cannot be alone with the daughters, and the mother cannot be alone with the sons. The convict cannot be with any of the family unless the policeman is there (i.e. the convict must be alone or with the policeman).

Click on the people you want to cross to put them on the raft, and then click on one of the red knobs to make them cross.

Anne did this in about three minutes, much faster than I did. Hope you enjoy it!

Sandhill Cranes

2006-05-29T16:11:00.000-04:00

Sandhill Cranes
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

I'm enjoying my last lazy day away from work, so thought I would post another pic and add a few words.

I got up this morning and went for a walk while it was still cool(er) then came home and decided to go to the zoo for a bit. I only stayed long enough to fill up one memory card (about 65 pics, most of which aren't any good!) and then came home. It was really starting to get hot. They open to zoo to members 30 minutes early, so it is easy to park and there's not many people there.

The sandhill crane babies are really growing; we saw them 2 weeks ago and I think they were about 1/2 this size. They are pretty cute I think. Never see any babies around here (although we did see one once by the side of the road in Melbourne while going to dinner).

Still no rain here. My new lens was shipped today, so maybe I can get it by the weekend and try it out!

Hope all are well!

What are you looking at?

2006-05-27T11:26:00.000-04:00

What are you looking at?
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Sorry I have been so remiss in blogging ... part of the reason is that I haven't taken many new photos recently, and the other part is that nothing much is going on!

I am enjoying my time off from work; most of us worked overtime for the last two weeks so we could take yesterday off and make a four-day weekend of it. So far it has been nice and uneventful, which is the way I like it (other than spending two hours yesterday fixing my broadband connection).

We had some thunderstorms yesterday, but very little rain to speak of. The ponds here are really starting to show the lack of water; one has completely dried up and the others are not looking too happy. Hopefully we will enter the rainy season (such as it is) soon and get caught up, without any hurricanes!

Well, that's about all for now. Hope that you are feeling better Mom. I know you are looking forward to seeing Brian and family in a few weeks; we are also looking forward to getting to see them as soon as it works out!

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T11:46:00.000-04:00

Frangipani
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Happy Mother's Day Mom (and to all the other mothers that might read this!) I hope you have a great day! Wish we could be there to spend it with you.

Not much is going on here; we went out to eat last night after our trip to the zoo. Went to the Italian place, and got there early enough that we had no problem getting in. It was very good, as usual.

Still no rain here. Went for a walk this morning, about 3 miles or so. It was nice, not too warm yet and there was some breeze. We sure need to get some rain, as the ponds are real low. I bet they are at least a foot low, if not more than that! Soon we will get into the summer thunderstorms, and things will improve!

Hope all are well, we are doing well here. Anne is out on the back porch, combing some of her sheep's wool that she got in Maryland (to prepare it to spin). Bye for now!

Anne and friend

2006-05-13T15:40:00.000-04:00

Anne and friend
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

We took a brief trip to the zoo today, and then came back to get ready to go out and eat. Guess what happened right after I took this picture? Actually it wasn't too bad.

Sorry I didn't call yesterday for your birthday, Dad. I intended to when I got home and forgot, and then decided later not to because I thought you might not be home. I'll try to call later tonight or Sunday for mother's day. Hope all are well and that you had a great birthday! We all we could have been there with you.

Alpaca

2006-05-11T15:07:00.000-04:00

Alpaca
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

This is an alpaca, taken last weekend in Maryland. They are pretty cute. Check out the eyelashes!

Today we had another mandatory fun day, left work at 9:30 and went to a baseball game, then home by 2:15. It was not too bad, for baseball. We all sat in the outfield on our lawnchairs on the berm and ate hot dogs for 3 hours. Not bad work if you can get it. There were about 5 balls hit out where we were, one home run and some hop over the fence types. We let the little kids get them, as they seemed to enjoy it.

The brush fires continue to be a problem here, with the freeway closed in the morning and other road closings occasionally. So far I think about 6000 acres in Brevard county have burned. Fortunately very few homes, maybe only 1. They say the fires actually burn under the ground sometime and start what they call a "muck fire", which can smolder for days and pop up some distance away from where it started. I think such events are as nature intended, we are just living in the wrong place. So far it has not impacted us much, other than smelling a little smoke now and then. If we wanted to drive to Orlando, that would be another story! Fortunately we pretty much sit tight most of the time.

Hope all are well!

Jo and Eric

2006-05-08T19:49:00.000-04:00

Jo and Eric
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Another pic from Virginia. This was the best of Jo and Eric. As before, I can send you the full size if you want.

Group photo

2006-05-08T19:44:00.000-04:00

IMG_3064
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Here is a picture of all of us in Virginia. This is the only one that has the entire group in it (I thought there was another, but there wasn't). I uploaded this at the original size, but Flickr did not save it at that size. So, if you want the original size (i.e. to print) let me know and I will get it to you somehow.

We had a good time in Richmond and later in Maryland. Thanks again to Jo and Eric (and Becky) for putting up with us! It was great. We are pretty tired, but home in good shape.

Mom, I hope you feel better soon! We miss you all.

Brushfire

2006-04-28T21:14:00.000-04:00

Brushfire
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

This is a picture of the smoke from the brushfire in Northern Brevard county taken yesterday from our driveway. As of this afternoon it had burned about 1800 acres, but I don't think any homes were burned. The fire is about 15 miles away from us, farther than it looks. When I took this yesterday I didn't really know what it was; this morning when I went out I smelled smoke, and thought there was a fire in the neighborhood or something. When I saw the paper then I realized what I saw yesterday (duh). The freeway has been closed on and off today and yesterday because of the smoke and the lowflying helicopters that are dumping on the fire. I think it is pretty much under control and is no threat to us because it is far away. If you want to read about it go to www.floridatoday.com. It will be nice to get some real rain, as things here are very dry. Shouldn't be too much longer before the rains begin; we finally had thunder the other day for the first time in a long while.

We are fine, I'm glad the weekend is finally here!

Lorikeet

2006-04-27T20:16:00.000-04:00

Lorikeet
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Another lorikeet picture. I really like them, they are amazing little birds and very colorful.

I got home last night about 8:15, after helping the gal at work move. There were four of us that showed up, plus her husband who had rented a big u-haul truck. The five of us were pretty busy. When we got the truck over to the new place, we discovered that the guy they bought the house from had not moved his furniture out like he was supposed to. So, we got to wedge everything in amongst the rest as best we could. It was interesting. Especially when the sprinklers came on and we had to move the stuff we had put on the lawn. But it all came out OK! Needless to say I was pretty pooped when I came home. I'm looking forward to this weekend...

Reflections

2006-04-25T20:57:00.000-04:00

Reflections
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

This is a tree right down the street; I took it early one Saturday morning. I'm not sure what kind of trees these are, but they all are surrounded by the little stumps sticking out of the ground. I liked the reflections on this one.

This week has been slow so far. Tomorrow night I'm going to help one of the women at work move; three or four of us from the office and her husband are going to haul furniture for a few hours. Should be a lot of fun (not)! Fortunately they don't have any big stuff, so it shouldn't be too bad.

I was sorry to hear your news from the weekend Mom and Dad. I hope you are feeling better now and can return to normal soon. These last few weeks have been hard on you I'm sure; wish I could be there with you.

Miss you all!

Scarlet Macaw

2006-04-20T21:27:00.000-04:00

Scarlet Macaw
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Yet another bird picture ... I have a lot of them, because they are the most photogenic things at our zoo. So, you'll probably have to get used to them!

This week is going by very quickly; we have yet another sanctioned goof-off day at work tomorrow afternoon (otherwise known as an offsite). This time we're going to leave early and go to the beach and eat pizza. Nothing like mandatory fun, but at least it beats working! So I should be home early tomorrow.

The bookcases came today, and they look real nice, just like the others. We got an extra shelf, because they said one of them was messed up (thought they couldn't find it when they tried to show us). So, if we have enough midget books we can use an extra shelf. One thing we don't seem to be short of is books.

I took another nice walk tonight, I figure just under 3 miles as I walked 48 minutes. I have walked 99 miles since I started in February, a little over two months ago. Can't believe I'm still doing it! I can tell that it is doing me some good.

Hope that all are well!

The Easter Anteater!

2006-04-17T18:44:00.000-04:00

Giant Anteater
Originally uploaded by mwalters2004.

Couldn't find a picture of the Easter Bunny, so thought I would post one of the lesser-known Easter Anteater. After I took this he stuck his nose (snout?) through the fence and checked me out. They are pretty big. I'm not sure what he eats, since I didn't see any ants. Maybe Purina Anteater Chow?

Went for a nice 48 minute walk tonight. I have found a nice walk that I can go out as far as I want and then turn around, so I am walking by time rather than distance for now to try and build my time up.

Hope all are well! Enjoy your camping trip Mom and Dad. I'm looking forward to hearing from Brian and Christine and the little one, and seeing them again. I hope they are getting settled in OK. I know how hectic that is to fit in at a new place and get everything taken care of.