You're looking at this black space thinking, "what in the world?" This is the picture I took out of the kitchen window at 5:52 a.m. CST this morning.
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After doing some magic to the above photo, this is what I was trying to get a picture of -- mama deer eating the bird food in the front yard.
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Sunday, February 29, 2010 - As is my custom, I always look out the window in the morning -- maybe it's an instinctive response - looking toward the east -- or maybe I'm just wondering what the weather's like.

This morning, I was greeted with the sight of this beautiful deer standing calmly alone by the bird feeders eating the seed on the ground and then tilting her head up to eat more seed from the log cabin shaped feeder. I was thrilled!!!

For the entire winter, I've seen deer tracks in the snow but have never seen the elusive creature who left the impressions. How exciting to see her standing there. She was alert but not skittish. After a while, she apparently had her fill and slowly walked toward the west.

What a great way to start the Full Moon day. Wonder which moon it is? Hmmm. Better go check on that. see ya later, djb

Mary Ellen and Gale posing for me at their 60th wedding anniversary hootenanny so I could make this card with the flowers around it. Very nice...
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Saturday, February 27, 2010 - I sure hope they're having a nice day in Florida for Grandpa and Grandma's 64th Happy Anniversary Celebration. It was so long ago since I checked the Orlando Sentinel's website, that I'm not sure what their weather forecast was supposed to be today.

Did you see that they had an 8.8 earthquake in Chile today? Oh yeah, tsunami alert. Yikes!! What an unbelievable wake-up call that must have been for those poor people. Our earthquake was a blip on the screen compared to that!

We did some research on the power released when an earthquake occurs. It's quite astonishing and impossible to comprehend. Of course, when you think about how huge the earth is and we really don't know what's going on down there. Those little underground men do but we don't.

Now, I'm getting goofy. Hope they're having fun in Casselberry today. I'm freezing here. I wonder if this cold winter is a precusor (?) to a HOT summer??? Sure hope so. later, djb

Here's Duke jumping up in the air with unleashed enthusiasm right after Ron said, "Let's go." I love Micki's expression -- she seems to be thinking, "How in the world does he do that?" Of course, Sophie has seen it all before -- "There he goes again."
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Thursday, February 25, 2010 - I needed to see something funny this morning and the above picture fits the bill. This was taken at Avis and Bergy's house a couple years ago at our Berg Christmas party. That was the FOGGY Christmas party. Very strange (and scary) driving from here to Rochelle - especially when we saw cars without their lights on! It was like driving inside of a marshmallow. I'm NOT kidding.

This information was on Yahoo this morning, and I think it is absolutely fascinating:

YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

The nine digits of your Social Security number are unique to you, right? Not exactly, according to the Social Security Administration. In fact, many other people may share two groupings exactly. Here's what each section means:

123-45-6789

Area number (shown in blue): Prior to 1972, Social Security cards were issued from local offices. The numbers reflected the locations of those offices. Today, although cards are issued from one office in Baltimore, the area number still reflects geography since they are given out based on the ZIP code of the requestor's mailing address.

Group number (shown in black): This number is set based on the month and year you request your Social Security card. They are also based on location. Specific areas are issued specific group numbers.

Serial Numbers (shown in red): These numbers -- 0001 through 9999 -- have nothing to do with geography or date requested. They are assigned based on availability.

There are some cases where you HAVE TO give your SSN but others where you don't. And what of the worst case scenario -- when you absolutely can't get out of it, but you still don't feel comfortable? You can always make up a number, says Camp, but if you do, make sure you write it down and don't inadvertently steal someone else's identity. "If you go this route as a last resort, make sure you put zeros in for the two middle numbers," she says. "There are no Social Security numbers that have double zeros in that section."

Whenever I learn about something new, I always think to myself, "Hmmm, I didn't know that" -- I'll bet you didn't either. Have a GREAT day. see ya later, djb

This is the view that shows part of my big flower bed (with everything drooping from the weight of the snow) and the tracks where the road is supposed to be. The snowplow guy just came by again a few minutes ago.
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When I opened the garage door this morning, of course, I was on alert for any recent critter tracks and here's the fox paw prints near the deck. At least, when it snows, I know who's been by to visit.
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This is nice because it shows the evergreens in Cathy's yard, plus you can see the newspaper at the end of the driveway -- oh yeah, and ALL THE SNOW!!
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Monday, February 22, 2010 - Today is the real Washington's birthday. No wait a minute, it really isn't. When they changed the calendar back in the old days, Washington had to pick a different day for his birthday. No, it's true. Do a search and find out for yourself.

Plus, it's Mammy's date of birth, also. I think she might have dated George back in the day. Okay, I'm just kidding. On my website, I have copies of some of her birthday cards that are almost 100 years old. Maybe they are actually considered antiques.

Hopefully, wherever you are the sun is shining and it's 80 degrees -- or maybe 70. bye, djb

Here's Andrew's final resting place on his 18th birthday - February 15, 2004. We had a lot of snow that year.
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Monday, February 15, 2010 - Happy 24th Birthday, Andrew! I used to keep track of each person who remembered the boys' special occasions, now I don't care. If you send me a message on one of their special days, then you know who you are (and God knows who you are) and you already know that you've helped ease my sadness and anxiety.

I've suppressed everything so far down in my soul that it would take an atom bomb to reach it. When they died, people overwhelmingly supported us. I have no complaint about people not remembering or forgetting. Maybe I want to forget Jarrett lying in the morgue and Andrew full of tubes in the Critical Care Unit.

I guess part of it is that I feel cheated out of a normal life. Trying SO HARD to be normal. How'd that work out for you, Donna jean? Not so good, eh? big sigh.............

We loved our birthdays!! I realized today that somewhere I have a birthday picture page of the boys - probably part of the OLD website. There's so many good pictures, I'll have to put them together some time. Gee, it's freezing cold outside and I have nothing else to do, sounds like the perfect task to keep me occupied.

Happy Birthday, Andrew. I miss you. REALLY wish you were here. Love you always and forever, Mom

Here's a closeup of the flowers on my African violet. Every winter, it blooms because it knows that I need a little bit of flowery loveliness in the midst of the cold winter weather.
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Here's a photo of the entire African violet. It's about 1 foot or more wide. In person, it's absolutely gorgeous and perfectly healthy with shiny leaves. It started as ONE leaf. Quite amazing, I'd say.
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Here's the view out of the front kitchen window this morning. The temperature was 9 degrees but the sun was shining so brightly on the icicles that I had to snap this picture fairly quickly or else!
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Sunday, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010 - As I type these words, my feet are freezing, my arms are freezing and I put a picture of icicles on my blog. duh! Oh yeah, icicle feet.

When is it going to be warm again?? Ever?? Never?? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Right now, I'm writing in here because I'm so mad at that Yahoo website, I could just scream or cry. It's so frustrating. I'm probably going to have to have someone come here and see what's wrong with my computer guts. I know that I haven't de-fragged in a long time. Who knows what it is -- NOT ME.

Enjoy your Valentine's Day. later, djb

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - We just had an earthquake. As soon as I heard the rattling (which woke me up just before 4:00 a.m.), and I opened the upstairs bathroom window and smelled no gas, I immediately said, "it was an earthquake." That's all for now folks. It's VERY early. bye, djb

Earthquake Details - first reports had it a 4.3 located near Virgil - this is the latest update as of 9:35 a.m.

Magnitude	3.8
Date-Time	Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 09:59:33 UTC Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 03:59:33 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	42.053°N, 88.412°W
Depth	5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region	ILLINOIS
Distances	2 km (1 miles) SSE (168°) from Pingree Grove, IL 6 km (4 miles) SW (215°) from Gilberts, IL 9 km (6 miles) WSW (243°) from Sleepy Hollow, IL 34 km (21 miles) NNW (344°) from Aurora, IL 65 km (40 miles) WNW (292°) from Chicago, IL
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 7.3 km (4.5 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	NST= 16, Nph= 16, Dmin=179.1 km, Rmss=0.54 sec, Gp=104°, M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	us2010snay

• This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

I've updated this since my initial posting at around 4:30 a.m., because if someone comes back here later to read it, the first information I put on here is incorrect and I don't want to mislead anyone. Apparently, when the smart people got to work, they figured out where it really happened. Interesting that the depth is only 3 miles. Not that deep if you think about it. ~djb

Kevin and me at Schmidt's new pub in Elburn last Thursday, February 4, 2010
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Sunday, February 7, 2010 - Here's a picture of Kevin and me last Thursday. We met Kevin and also Colleen, Stephanie and Jacqui at the new Elburn restaurant - Schmidt's Towne Pub. It's located where The Grocery Store used to be. Plus, Kevin's brother, JD and his lady, Kari, joined us.

We had a great time seeing the kids. Kevin came home for a couple of weeks from Afghanistan to attend his grandfather's funeral. He had a bunch of pictures on a mac so we could see where he lives over there and what kind of stuff he wears when he's out and about. It's quite awesome to see what it really looks like.

Just wanted to get this up here. Hope your team wins the Super Bowl. Go Bears, djb

Here's my bootprints in the snow that fell in the driveway that used to be snow free. As long as it isn't a foot of snow (just a boot's worth), I'm happy with it.
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - I've been working on my website www.andrew-jarrett.com for the past few days. Since there's not much else to do, I figured I might as well go back and get things in order. Easier said than done.

Yesterday was particularly difficult because of my stinging eyes. Today - they're better.

As soon as the weather stops being snowy and unpredictable, I have to get my glasses. This is really funny. I've been waiting sooooooooo long to get a prescription, and now that I have it, duh. I haven't done anything about it yet. That's typical of Donna's world.

Better go. Just wanted to put in a picture of our lovely snow!! bye, djb