Mosaic

Thanks Nadine!!

Here is what to do if you would like to create your own mosaic:
Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
Using only the first page, pick an image.
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.


1. What is your first name? Kristi
2. What is your favorite food? Sushi
3. What high school did you go to? Westside
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Denzel Washington
6. Favorite drink? kahlua and cream
7. Dream vacation? Ireland
8. Favorite dessert? chocolate
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Veterinarian
10. What do you love most in life? Steve
11. One Word to describe you. Tall
12. Your flickr name. Ventilator


Here's mine:

Weekend Wrap-up

Caption Contest Winner!! This week's winner is Steve with his, "The trendy areas of Moscow are currently enjoying a 70's Renaissance, as rock star Boris Dylanovich demonstrates."

Heh. Boris Dylanovich......nice one, Steve!

~~

Not a bad weekend to report...Friday I took the day off *cough* and got a bunch of nit-noy things accomplished sans family. I wasn't moving too well by the end of the day. My sister came to town from KC to help celebrate my uncle's 50th. Mom and Joni came over alst night to help celebrate Father's Day. They brought all the food and I grilled. Not a bad trade off. Earlier Saturday morning Jen, Mal, and I went over to mom's so Joni and Jenna could work on Steve's cake; a shirt cake with candy-studded tie. Very cute. For our gifts there was a definite theme; popcorn. The boy loves his corn.

However, we both started Weight Watchers last week. I lost 4# last week; most of that is water, but hey! I'll take it! Though popcorn in and of itself is fine, it's the oil that gets you in points. So I ordered a hot air popper. Granted the popcorn is dry but if it satisfies his need for popcorn then it will have to work. The girls "painted" a popcorn bowl for him:

Complete with a couple of footprints from Mallory!!

Yesterday we didn't do much. I wanted to get more done outside but, apparently, my body told me otherwise by giving me a nice headache. So I took a nap in the spare bedroom where it's cool and dark. I grilled a bunch of stuff last night, too, which consisted of chicken boobies, marinated turkey boobies, and I tried my hand at plank smoking some salmon filets. The jury's still out on plank smoking; will have to investigate this further.

Looks to be a great week for the CWS; sunny, dry, and in the high-70s to low-80s through most of the week. Great news from Saturday; both Florida teams got SPANKED!! Most of you know how much I despise any Florida team, regardless of sport. There's a pitcher on the Stanford team that is an Omaha native and went to my high school. Yeah, they slaughtered Miami 16-5, I believe. 11 of those runs came in the 9th!

Caption Contest!!

A quiet night last night, thankfully. And tonight is the opening ceremonies of the College World Series; kicking off 12 days of traffic congestion. Locals know better than ot drive on the interstate towards the ballpark if there's a game either starting or wrapping up. If you haven't already, refer to my previous two posts to catch up....

In any case, it's Friday so that means it's time for the contest! This week it's CAPTION. Have a great weekend and I'll you on Monday!!

Where to Start??

This has been an unbelievably violent and destructive spring for our area. Wide-spread flooding and almost nightly tornadoes continue to ravage.

Last night was no different.

We were warned pretty much all day yesterday that storms were going to form, again. I watched the NE part of the state get continually dark and the thunderhead flatten out. Lightening flashed and thunder rumbled in the distance. It was pretty windy throughout the day; gusting to over 40 mph.

For three hours we were under tornado warnings. The bizarre thing I noted about this storm as I was glued to the TV was that it kept growing; getting longer and wider. It was a slow moving line that continued to dump rain and amazing rates. Our house received 2.5" of rain in less than an hour. Our house had about 2 minutes of pea- and marble-sized hail.

The rainfall and storm conditions were described as a true tropical storm; huge drops, sheets of rain. The kind of rainfall seen, typically, along the Gulf. Our states are so saturated that the extra rain has nowhere to go but out of rivers and streams.

You think food prices are high now? Farmers can't get into their fields and if anything at all was planted it is more than likely washed away. Farmers are so far behind schedule and there's not one thing they can do about it.

Then this news story and later this article found on pretty much every major news station across the country came into the picture. A huge tornado touched down in Little Sioux, IA (about 40mi N of Omaha). There's a Boy Scout camp and there was a Leadership camp going on this week. 93 Scouts and 25 staff were up there this week. With little warning the tornado formed. Most sought shelter but a few were out hiking.

All buildings were destroyed.

48 injuries reported; 42 of those hospitalized at area hospitals in NE, IA, and SD. Creighton received four victims. Four teens, unfortunately, lost their lives when a brick shelter collapsed. The uninjured Scouts quickly mobilized into action, breaking into a storage shed to get an ATV and saws to start clearing away the debris and tending to those that needed medical attention. Iowa Governor Chet Culver hailed the Scouts as the true heroes.

I just found out that one of our Pulmonary nurse's had one of her sons at the camp. He's fine; incredibly shaken up, but, apparently, unharmed. Needless to say she didn't come into work today.

This afternoon I found this video on The Weather Channel.

Donate to the Red Cross; they are quickly running out of resources with all the storm damage in the region in the recent weeks.



And pray.

Welcome to Omaha!

Things will be getting pretty busy for our fair city in the coming days and weeks. To kick off our summer of fun is the annual pilgramage to The Road To Omaha; that's right, the NCAA College World Series.; an Omaha tradition since 1950. Nowhere else can you see baseball as it was meant to be played; from the heart. These kids put everything they have just to make it to Omaha with the possibility of only playing two games before going home. I found this article and gives a good run-down of Rosenblatt and CWS history. The Series kicks off this Friday with a concert and activities for the family. Games start on Saturday the 14th and concludes the 24th or 25th, depending on if a third game is needed for the Championship.

Adjacent to Rosenblatt is the world-renowned Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha's pride. Here you can find the world's largest enclosed rainforest, the world's largest enclosed desert, new butterfly exhibit that opened this spring, aquarium with shark tunnel and IMAX, the nation's largest cat complex, and many other fantastic exhibits. Dr. Lee Simmons has plans for the Rosenblatt property when it moves to its new location in North downtown next to the Qwest Center in 2010 with a 25-year contract with the NCAA. Take a look and you'll see why it's one of the premier zoos in the country.

After the festivities of the CWS are over a few days later in central downtown is the Summer Arts Festival, a 34-year Omaha tradition which showcases local and regional artisans in a 3-day outdoor mall setting from June 27-29.

As the Summer Arts Festival wraps up, Omaha is host to yet another sporting event and a first for Omaha. From June 29 through July 6 Omaha is hosting the Olympic Swim Trials at the Qwest Center. In just 3 weeks the Qwest arena had an Olympic-sized swimming pool constructed with fire hoses brought in to fill the pool with 1 million gallons of water. Check out this article and watch the movie clip and you'll see the three-week construction of the pool.

If all this wasn't enough to keep you busy, there are some sites outside Omaha. Drive west on I-80 about half-way to Lincoln and at Exit 426 is the Wildlife Safari, a drive-through park featuring elk and wolves. Also at this exit is Mahoney State Park, as well as the Strategic Air and Space Museum, formerly the SAC Museum located at Offutt AFB. This facility is truly spectacular. When you walk in you are greeted by this:A Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, by far my favorite jet. This aircraft is on permanent loan to the museum. It is awe-inspiring to stand within 4 feet of this beauty. There are permanent displays as well as temporary displays. Also housed in this 300,000 sq.ft. (yes, you read that right) is a restoration wing where old planes are reassembled, stripped down, and repainted in the original colors. Among the museum pieces are a Peacemaker, U2, B-1a, B-52, B-17 Flying Fortress, even a MiG fighter.

So there is plenty to do in Omaha. We really are pretty civilized around here. Don't take my word for it. Just click on the post title and you'll find out all kinds of information about Omaha.

Just remember, we have a spare bedroom if you want to visit....

Attention Hypochondriacs!

Working in the medical research arena I am privvy to "what's new!" and what drugs are coming down the pipeline. I thought I'd do my community er, public service by letting you know what may soon be available.

First off is this one, then this one. I don't see myself taking either of these medications but I'm sure there's one just for you!

However, upon further inspection, this one might offer some promise.....











**Disclaimer: These are jokes, folks.....don't get all excited.

Weekend Wrap-up

Caption Contest Winner!! This week's nod goes to Daisy with, ""In desperation after her analog television gave out, Raja tried a new type of antenna."
~~
Zowie, what a weekend......it's been since 1975 that a tornado hit Omaha. I was only about a year-and-a-half with this tornado and it went up 72nd Street; I grew up on 74th Ave, a mere 2 blocks away. My dad wasn't allowed to go home that day so it was my mom and us two girls. She stood in the driveway and watched the tornado travel up the street. Do check out the site; I just found it yesterday. There's a great Google map that highlighted the tornado's path and areas of damage. Our current house received some damage back then.

Saturday was incredibly thick and hot and the clouds just threatened severe weather. One major line went south of us in the early evening. There there was the other line in Kansas for later one....

At 0230 Sunday I was awakened to sidways rain on the windows and sirens. I turned on the TV in the living room and a tornado was confirmed in Millard (a SW suburb of Omaha; about 7 miles from our house). Normally when the sirens go off we watch the weather radar and usually it's north of Omaha. But there was something about the wind that didn't agree with me. It was a fast-moving supercell. Within 10 minutes it was already in Iowa. The radar showed additional rotation of the clouds at Dodge St. and I-680; that's about 2 miles away. The path of the storm literally went right over our house.

I was dressed and grabbed the lock box and was ready to grab the kids for the basement. Again, I have never felt the need to do so but there was a nagging feeling I had, an urgency to get downstairs. After about 20-25 minutes the storm was past us. Then the news reports came out yesterday. Homes and businesses were either damaged or destoyed but thankfully, no one was killed.

The Plains hve been getting pummeled by tornados and flash floods here lately. I think for June alone we're up around 5-7" of rain.

I would still take a tornado over a hurricane any day.....