FeeFiFoto Blog

Fame Contest, Summer 2008: Haven't We Seen Enough Of Tom Cruise And Katie Holmes?

This is a sticky post.  Yes, I know they're annoying.  Please scroll down for new posts, after reading and commenting on this one.  Kthx.

You've entered contests to guess how many jelly beans it takes to fill a Jeep.  You've entered contests to win diaper bags, even though your youngest is off to college next fall.  You've signed up to win a decade's supply of Vegemite.

Now for something radically different:

Enter this contest to win lasting FAME.

• The winner of this contest will have one favorite photograph incorporated into a landing page on FeeFiFoto. 
  
• Just visit FeeFiFoto, then come back here and leave me a comment about which item you'd like to display your picture.
  
• Write a post about this contest on your blog in addition to leaving a comment here, and I'll provide an extra entry. 
  
• Be sure to send me your email address so I can get in touch with you, and a link to your post so I can keep track. 

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Years Worth Of Varmint Visitors

In the thirteen years we've owned our house I've kept a running list of the many critters that have come to visit, gnaw on the the siding, dig under the foundation and sometimes scare the living daylights out of me.

When I bought a house surrounded by trees I guess I expected the occasional visitor from nature, but the extensiveness and variety of the list has left me scratching my head.  We've seen squirrels (for two years we had an albino), mice, moles, voles, rabbits, chipmunks, opossums, woodpeckers, hawks, coyotes (please help yourselves to some of the squirrels, guys) and crows.

An owl perches on the eaves occasionally and gazes at us sleepily. The first time we saw him he waited solemnly while the kids and I scrambled for some nature books in an attempt to identify him (a barn owl, we think).

Wordless Wednesday: I Think They Also Do Chiffon Motorcycle Jackets

Gives A Whole New Meaning To "Taking One For The Team"

The end of the academic year is approaching and those of us who can still see straight are assessing how we and our kids have done in school.

Today it was Robey's turn to drag me through the mud teach me something I hadn't known.  His class has been talking about Mayan civilization and he had one evening to create a three minute presentation on Chichen Itza, an ancient Mayan city honored in 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Photo from Mysterious Places.

Teaching Kids To Blog

Cleopatra-Queen-of-the-Nile, also known as The Big Hannah Montana Fan, has learned (thanks to me and Jason at Dat Money) how to add meta tags to images on her blog.  We actually managed to implement this through the use of HTML code, which is frightening for me but doesn't seem to bother her at all.  And naturally, she's extremely witty in her captioning, like so (mouse over the image to see how clever she is):

That's my baby.

End Of Year Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Making end of year teacher gifts meaningful and useful.

My Uncle Mac was a slight, gentle man with a soft voice and wavy silver hair combed carefully back from his forehead.  He enjoyed entertaining children with impromptu origami demonstrations, delighting them with cranes crafted from any handy piece of paper, even a children's menu.

Uncle Mac kept a cartoon on his desk and gave a copy to everyone he met.  There were no words but the message was clear and simple:

Impeccable Timing

This Mother's Day we ask the burning question: "How do mourning dove moms feed their kids chicks?"

Our answer comes from BioKIDS:

"Both male and female mourning doves share in incubating and feeding their young. Incubation lasts 14 to 15 days. Young mourning doves are fed regurgitated food by both parents. For the first 3 to 4 days after hatching the young are fed only crop milk, an energy rich substance that is produced in the crops of both male and female parents. After that time, parents begin to add more seeds to the regurgitated food until they are fed only regurgitated seeds by the time the young leave the nest. Female mourning doves feed the young most during the first 15 days after hatching but after that males take over the responsibility for feeding the young. The young continue to stay near the nest and beg for food after they have fledged, but can survive on their own after 21 days old if there is food nearby."

Photo Hunters: Share Any Photo

Our first PhotoHunt.

 

Cleo had her hair cut off about a month ago and sent it to Pantene Great Lengths, which will take as little as eight inches of hair, as opposed to the ten inches required by Locks of Love.

Visit FeeFiFoto and put your Photo Hunt pcture on a cookie tin; then fill the tin with chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and send it to me someone you love.

 

BlogUpp!

It's interesting how trends seem to sweep the internet with the speed of a hurricane -- one day you'll see the same link everywhere you look.  I started using Entrecard (still not blogging about it, though) three months ago after noticing "Drop Yours" boxes on some of the blogs I visited.

Yesterday I saw that Sue Doe-Nim ("this is what happens when Sue Doe marries John Nim") posted about BlogUpp!, a system that snapshots your blog and plants a related thumbnail and link on other subscribing blogs.  Since reading about it on Sue's blog I've seen it on other blogs, and I've added myself to the list.  I've already found a couple interesting blogs just by clicking on the link posted below.

Maybe this will even increase my Technorati authority.  Hope so.

Sweet Words From Out Of The Blue

A tiny, melodic voice floats from the back seat of the car:

Cleo:  Mommy?

Me:  Yes, Lovey?

Cleo:  I want an Oompa Loompa.

Thursday Thirteen Plus One Of Those Memes

Lisa, at New York Chica, has tagged me for a meme I did a few weeks ago, but considering that I'm fairly new at the meming game I think I can come up with a few more facts that won't put my readers to sleep or or cause them to run screaming from the room.

In fact, since it's Thirteen Thursday, I'm going to try to come up with thirteen things about myself.  Wow!  Can you hardly stand it?

• I was born on November 1, so even though I'm Jewish I know all about All Saints Day.