just a pretty pic from my rose garden this week

  

Girls rule, boys ....

what can I say...it appears to be true.  

Progress report

Our happy, and intrepid masons paused to smile for the camera. Looks a little like the Wailing Wall right now, but eventually there will be color down there in the form of furniture and plantings, grass,etc.  
 
 
  

Yet another confirmation of just what we are dealing with

Over and over, we see the fundamental crisis of our times painted in pleas for tolerance, forbearance, reasonable compromise - all values and virtues of our Hellenistic cultural heritage. But here's the rub the rub, this clash of cultures is rooted in two entirely incompatible "value" systems - one based in faith and reason, the other in faith and the utter irrelevance of reason. Read the entire lecture - his erudition and scintillatingly pure logic will wow you - unfortunately it has left the Islamists with their undies in a bundle. (read it at Catholic World News - cwnews.com - can't seem to get the link to stick!!)

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September

This is one of my favorite photos of the farm. It was taken exactly one year ago from the north edge of our woods looking to the west. I love the light and color of September - intense yet poignant - the last hurrah.  

I LOVE this guy

http://steynonline.com

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more pics of Petey-lou racing around with his funny shoes on

 
 
 
  

Words are unnecessary

Check out the book she's been reading. This was NOT staged, though I admit it is a bit hard to believe.  

Outrageous - Blatant Discrimination!!

what's next? selling designer clothes in normal sizes?! this is nothing but pure thinnism.target="_blank"Skinny models wearing thin in fashion shocker

It really boils down to this, doesn't it?

This is an exerpt from the article below - it says it all - multiculturalism = self-loathing - which leads to paralysis on "our" side while on "theirs"...why don't people see this as a problem?

"...Pera attributes this self-hatred to the "guilt of the West" over the "horrors" of its past -- everything from colonialism and imperialism to Nazism and communism. Nonetheless, this self-loathing presents the greatest danger to the West in the conflict with Islamism, because it "weakens our cultural defences and prepares us for, or inclines us toward, surrender. Because it makes us believe that there is nothing for which fighting or risking is worthwhile." Thus, "the West is paralysed twice over. It is paralysed because it does not believe that there are good reasons to say that it is better than Islam. And it is paralysed because it believes that, if such reasons do indeed exist, then the West would have to fight Islam."

Obviously, war would not be necessary if there could be a reasonable and respectful dialogue between the West and Islam. But that would of necessity require the Islamists to "respect" western values, even if they don't wish to adopt them. But peaceful coexistence is exactly what the Islamists reject. As Hussein Massawi, a former Hezbollah warlord put it, "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." Osama bin Laden has been equally warlike: "The rule to kill Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is a sacred duty for any Muslim," he said in February 1998...."

weekend "wup-date"

Here are some more shots from the weekend at the farm. Harry and Molly have gained at least 20 pound a piece from helping themselves to ripe and not so ripe tomatoes all weekend. They both look like sausages with legs. Jenny Craig time for the wuppers.
 
  

Our man on the track

As promised, photos from Peter's driving weekend at Road America, the famous race track nestled into the hills and dales of the Kettle Moraine in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin - Mario and Ari couldn't make it this weekend but there were some fairly snazzy cars out there. Note the red 944 that couldn't stay off the rumble strip!!
Peter took me for a spin during the instructors' track time and we had a ball zooming around the track at 135mph (he held back in deference to his chicken wife).
We attended the Badger Bimmers annual dinner at Siebken's Saturday evening - another mecca for autoracing enthusiasts. fun!

 
 
 
  

news you can use

We are off to the farm for the weekend - Peter will be driving at Elkhart Lake all weekend so I'll try to get some shots of him on the track doing his thang - if he slows down enough that the pictures aren't all a big blur...
pics below are 1. from Wolf Lake 2. horicon marsh late July 3. snowy egret on murky pond along Hwy.57 in Sheboygan County
 
 
  

Great Blue Heron

 
taking off from the little dock on the pond - it reluctantly allowed me to approach to about 25 yards before deciding I was persona non grata. cool pic nonetheless.. 

yay yay 4 barbay

 
This one's for you, Ellie, since you seem to be the only one looking at this! more "artee" pics!!

P.s. just read the Mark Steyn essay is the January 2006 issue of the "New Criterion" and, manishevitz, that is one scary essay. http://newcriterion.com

(see, I am so not just about the Barbies) 

the secret is out

 
 
 
 
So, all right, just one of my secrets is out. Since I was a little girl, I have loved dolls - not the "googoo, mama" baby dolls, but the fabulous, wasp-waisted, blonde(brunette, titian) bombshells known collectively as Barbie. I lusted after and, yeah, okay, covetted, (sorry, Martha Henning - if I never returned the black elbow gloves I "borrowed" when you came over to play that day, I am really sorry...I don't have them anymore, I wish I did, if that makes you feel any better)... Anyway, I digress. I loved their clothing, but most of all, I loved the "ensembles" - the outfits with shoes and hats, gloves, eyeglasses, road maps, telephones, snow skis, suitcases, etc.- the parts and props that helped me tell a story - (now don't get all weird on me - lots of girls do that).
As it happens, ten years ago, I came upon a reproduction of a familiar Barbie board game from 1963 (I think) called "Queen of the Prom" - (Barbie always won the title of Queen because she was always the only player playing - she just changed her hair color and boyfriend!!) Our girls and I often talked about what fun it would be to collect the real thing but we never did, until my beloved friend Mary S. conspired with some, or all, of my daughters (honor among thieves and all that) to make my 50th birthday a "verybarbiebirthday" - which was incredible all by itself (some of you were there, so you know) but it also jump-started my new, adult (with an adult budget to boot), collection of early (1959-1965 vintage) Barbie stuff. If you have read the newspaper lately, you already know that Christie's auction house is offering its first Barbie-only auction later in September with some of the earliest dolls expected to sell for more than $5-8,000.00. In 1960 they sold for $3!

So, with that lengthy and self-absorbed preamble, I offer some photos of some of my collection wearing some of the dresses featured in the game! 

photos from the last few days

The first two were taken at the farm this weekend where the weather was spectacularly septemberish - warm in the sun, cool in the shade - with the ubiquitous high pitch buzz of the locusts for sound effects!

 

Fall is on the way and the peasants will have to pay

 

Something for everyone to read and think about

"This week in The Weekly Standard, Paul Marshall, senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, draws several interesting conclusions from the kidnap and forced conversion of Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and his cameraman, Olaf Wiig. Marshall notes that both the Washington Post and New York Times described the two as "unharmed" at the time of their release, though the two newspapers would almost certainly consider the opposite--the forced conversion of two Muslim prisoners to Christianity--to be torture" (from the Weekly Standard)

while you are there, find and read Fred Barnes' essay, "Choosing Life." It's something to think about BEFORE you have to make a choice...

more pictures from Dairymens!! woohoo

We had a GREAT day for skiing - water was like glass - both Clare and Dad were amazing!