Friday already again and hope everybody has a great weekend. 
Seems like this Summer is flying by and can't believe Sunday will be August 1. We'll be continuing with those "Dog days of Summer".
It's fair season around the country and the Ohio State Fair started just a couple days ago and runs through Aug 8.
I remember when my son worked at the fair and his first job ever was at "Wild Bill's Curly Fries". He eventually toured the country with them for a summer season. Believe the 14+ hour days, and meeting so many people, was one of those "life learning" experiences. His boss was a trip and paid him all in one dollar bills so it looked like he was making a bunch of money. 
Have a good one and stay cool.
Hey, Uni -- at least you can see Charlie's tongue in your avatar! What's up with the black dot on his tongue, anyway? I used to enjoy going to fairs -- too hot down here for me. We have a Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio every year (June -- used to be August) Was great fun when I was younger -- you could spend the day listening to music of your choice, from Gospel to rock, and drink all the beer you could hold! Those were the days!
Summer just goes way too fast. I need at least another two months of hot weather.
Hey Ed, yeah know that avatar with Charlie isn't working so well. All you can see is his dog tag, his tongue, and that big bloated dark tick on his tonue. 
Actually that's just a birthmark on his tongue. Believe Wendy's right about it's really hard to get good photos of black dogs. I went through heck just getting that one because Chalie hates cameras. Believe he was frightened by the flash one too many times.
Maybe this avatar/photo may be more fitting.
Uni, I think Charlie is more visable in this latest version. Also I took care of the birth mark on his tongue. Does this make it workable as an avatar?
Phil
Thanks again Phil. It's now set to my avatar and let's see how it shows up.
edit: works for me Phil. Thanks for fixing it up. 
hpmsrm wrote:
Uni, I think Charlie is more visable in this latest version. Also I took care of the birth mark on his tongue. Does this make it workable as an avatar?
Phil
Wendy, all of my screen shots are now really small. They used to blow the whole right margin out in a post and guess that's why they reduced all the SS's and photos in size. Probably wasn't really necessary since they now have a hard right margin that now prevents this.
Below is a shot of my avatar and Spd's (larger CL avatar) from 6/10/09. I tried to zoom in 100% in Picasa and then take a shot of it. This didn't work out too well so had to use Paint. In order to even see the avatars you will need to zoom in (Ctrl & + keys) all the way to see the sizes.
I did some measurements when I had the post zoomed in. The regular avatar size was 1/2" wide by 1/2" tall on a regular post screen (not lengthened by text) that was 3 3/8" in height. So the avatar width and height was roughly 1/7 of the height of the post screen.
The CL avatar measured 1 1/8" wide by 7/8" tall on a 3 3/8" height post screen. So the avatar width was exactly 1/3 of the post screen height. The avatar height is almost exactly 1/4 of the screen height.
Sorry the measurements were not in tenths, or even millimeters, but believe the key is the ratio of the avatar sizes to the post height. Even if the post height has changed somewhat you will still know what the ratio was before.
If anybody knows a better way for taking a screen shot of a zoomed in screen shot let me know. I even tried zooming it in on the reply but couldn't get to the FireShot icon in my tool bar. And I would not suggest using (Ctrl, Alt, z) as you are supposed to with FireShot. It changed my profile settings for the Linier Layout and Topic Layout. Had a heck of a time getting it half back to where it was.
Hope this helps some.
edit: the above post height is with no sig which will make the post height higher. Here is some more info from taking some more measurements of the current avatars with the post height at 3 1/2". The actual photo in the Classic avatar frame is 3/8"H x 3/8"W which is only 9 1/8 of the post height. A verticle avatar photo is 1/2"H x 3/8"W which is 1/8" narrow than it used to be. The horizonal photo is 1/2"H x 5/8"W which is your best bet for now until there may be changes.
I hope they got you all fixed up and running again, Phil. Bummer about the Glaucoma -- has to be a scary thing!
Thought I'd post a pic of some of my yard residents. These toads have moved into the water reservoir of a big flower pot. They come out at night and eat bugs under a light I have on all night. My dogs love to bother them enough to make them hop around, but so far haven't tried to bite them (that would be a life lesson for them!). I go out with them at night to make sure they don't bother them too much -- I don't want them to leave!!
Phil, my late lady friend had glaucoma (genetically in all females in her family) and used the eye drops for 5-6 years before her death and her pressuse in the eyeball decreased during this time due to the drops.
Chris
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It was nice of the frogs to sit there and pose like that for you.
Phil, good luck with the glaucoma and wishing you the best. As Chris said they do have some drops/methods for decreasing the pressure in the eyes. My wife worked for an ophthalmologist for 7 years and I've been taking my father-in-law to one the past couple years for macular degeneration.
Ed, great photo of the toads and looks like they've found an ideal home. By golly believe you may have Texas Toads when you compare the faces in your photo to the one below.
We have lots of toads (American Eastern) around here and they're all over the porch at night. I also try to protect them and even stop when I'm on my riding mower and let them hop out of the way. Like your dogs, Charlie likes to make them jump, but that's about all. Remember learning in school that a fox will eat about anything on earth, except for a toad.
Texas Toad
Eastern American Toad (OH photo)
Are Texas toads bigger?
Not really and expected someone to bring up the toad from Ohio looks bigger than the Texas Toad. I purposely chose a bigger photo since everyone knows everything is bigger in Texas.
The adult Texas Toad is 3" long while the Eastern American Toad is 2"-3 1/2". So a jumbo Ohio toad is bigger.
RCSMG wrote:
Are Texas toads bigger?
Nope. No large toads here. They've all been eaten by the Texas mosquitos.
SomeJoe7777 wrote:
RCSMG wrote:
Are Texas toads bigger?
Nope. No large toads here. They've all been eaten by the Texas mosquitos.
They probably compete with those Texas roaches for food.
Another Dream Shattered!
Someone has finally managed to photograph the Pot at the end the rainbow!!!
Wouldn't you know it!
Guess this photo/joke has been around for a while but was just emailed to me.
No Skp, the BS is out in front of the pot.
Photo kind of looks like SC. Maybe yo crib and privy??
What a coincidence TexasEd. Yesterday we went to Ace to get some grass plugs and bought the last 4 trays. As we were loading them in the car 2 big fat toads hopped under the pallet, they must have been living under the sod. Not wanting them to bake or get smashed by cars I caught both of them and held them until we got home. I released them in the front yard.
hpmsrm wrote:
I've already started with the eye drops. One drop in each eye at bedtime. The little container has 2.5 ml of solution in it. My co-pay was over $91. Ya know.....I spent my life in the wrong businesses.
$91 for 2.5 ml.
That works out to $7.5 million per barrel, which is 95,000x the price of oil.
Probably one of the most expensive liquids on the planet.
Wow, those are some pricey eye drops and that's just the copay. Hate to see what the full price is.
Hey Phil, you'd make a great naturalist. Real nice what you did with the toads and neighbor kids. What you said below is exactly what the main goal is for naturalists.
"Hopefully the boys came away from the experience with a new appreciation for some of the tiny creatures that live around us all the time."
Googled "toad training" and there sure are some strange things. Here is a $80 dog training course to keep your dog from licking/eating toads. I thought this was pretty dumb/funny but read in AZ, where the course is, about some poisonous and hallucinogen producing toads. Believe most canine species know better but guess you never know.
Also read where "toad training" is when want to be security guards, that have little aptitude at all, are trained to do this type job. Kind of scary.
Speaking of other wildlife. Kind of bummed that all the beautiful male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks left and must have headed to cooler weather in Canada. Would bet the unusual 95 degree temps must have been too much for them. Normally they stay here until fall migration and one of the reasons I feed birds all summer.
Have a pair of Carolina Wrens nesting in a wreath hanging on the back porch. One of my favorite birds and they are so smart/comical. But they tend to build their nest about everywhere including cars/Jeeps, laundry room, etc.. I shouldn't really like these birds since they built their moss nest on the top of the intake manifold on my Jeep. Caught fire and burned up the fuel injection wiring harness. $1,200 repair but insurance picked up the whole tab without even having to pay the deductible.
I chased a female cowbird away the other day trying to get into their nest. They are a curse for songbirds/warblers. They don't make their own nest and lay one egg in another bird's nest. When the baby cowbird is born they have a specially designed bowl-shaped back for pushing all the other eggs/baby birds out of the nest. Then the nesting/parent birds think that it's their own baby and about kill themselves trying to feed a bird that is at least twice their size. Have seen videos of the baby cowbird shoving all the other eggs/babies out of the nest and it's sickening.
Pewee! Just walked outside to a beautiful morning and a skunk sprayed somewhere close. At least Charlie is still smelling fresh.
Some photos from the web.
Rose breasted Grosbeak
Carolina Wren
Caption: "One of the best organic insecticides ever known to mankind."
Female Brown-headed Cowbird
"While native, implicated in the decline of endangered bird species including Kirtland's Warbler
and Black-capped Vireo."
Note: these cowbirds do not come to my bird feeder but they sure graze/eat a lot of small seeds in the grass.
