Catastrophe Hits Annual Celebration

Onley, Va. Feb 1- Catastrophe struck this tiny hamlet today. Frigid weather and near zero temperatures for the past weeks caused an ice pack to form on the Historic RatTrap Creek.  But, todays high temperatures has caused the ice to break up and turn into dangerous ice floes.

At an emergency meeting of the Loyal Order of MuskRats, Grand Pooba Leaniod Scanner announced that the annual MuskRat Day Celebration would have to be canceled. Scanner told a crowd of over 27 MuskRat aficionados that requests to various nations to send ice breakers had been refused.  Scanner stated that they claimed more important work in Antarctica.

A massive search and rescue effort is underway to find Mike and Mandy Muskrat. The venerable prognosticators of spring have not been seen since the leaving the Christmas Beach Party. Rumor has it that the pair may have imbibed too much eggnog. Hopes are high that the local celebrity pair will be found unfrozen and well soon. According to local weather station, KVAONLEY1, the fate of a continued brutal sub-freezing winter hangs in the balance.

Requests of Mayor Jack Knife to the TSA for assistance in the way of "Sniffing Dogs" have also been turned down. Government officials cited a large "bowl" occurring  in New Jersey. But Billy Bob Ray Cricket III, also known as Bubba, has offered the use of his hounds in the massive search.

As of 6pm, the Loyal Order of Muskrats Grand Pooba Leaniod Scanner announced that due to circumstances beyond his control, MuskRat Day would have to be postponed until Sunday, April 20th. Hopefully Mike and Mandy MuskRat will have been found by then and will again prognosticate the coming of spring. As a back up plan Scanner has proposed hiring an egg laying rabbit, and distributing yellow marshmallow blobs and colorful sugar balls.

Rosemary-Garlic Chicken

It's no surprise that chicken was on the menu at The Frog & PenguINN again. It's a regular dinner item, as you might know from previous recipe posts. Fish is a close second.

The challenge was to prepare dinner with ingredients readily available without going to the store. I checked online sites for recipes. This one was easily adapted from a couple and it's very easy to prepare. Easy is what we both like. 

Ingredients: boneless chicken breasts, lemons, fresh garlic, rosemary, sea salt, ground pepper, olive oil and butter.

The only "prep" is to marinate the chicken  for 1-2 hours. I used sliced chicken breasts adding olive oil, chopped garlic, chopped fresh rosemary (we have a plant), sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Hint: It's easier to slice frozen chicken breasts to make thinner ones; thankfully, Grenville is expert at this task.)

Next step is to sauté the chicken and then make a lemon sauce

• Sauté breasts over medium-high heat, turning when lightly browned on each side, about 4-5 minutes.
• Remove chicken from pan.
• Add juice of 2 fresh lemons to pan; slice and reserve 2-3 pieces.
• Mix lemon juice with pan drippings, then add a couple of slices of butter to lessen some of lemon acidity and because butter is a great flavor enhancer
• Place chicken back in pan to keep warm.

This rosemary-lemon chicken was served with steamed fresh broccoli and brown rice seasoned with parsley and butter.

Did I mention this was SO very easy?
And a healthy dinner too with leftovers for another meal.

Friday Funnies

Sign says it all . . . most definitely.

And we stayed (very) far behind this rig.

N&W 1218 moves again!!!!!

This past weekend we attended the 10th anniversary of the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Va.  Link was a well known commercial photographer. You've probably seen his work but never knew it. His passion though was steam locomotives. From the early 1950's until the last steam locomotive was retired, Link photographed them on the Norfolk & Western Railway. His specialty was night photography. To see some of his amazing work, go to O. Winston Link. More on Link in another post.

As part of the celebration, one of the last N&W steam locomotives, NW1218, was brought from the Virginia Transportation Museum (just up the tracks) to the Link museum. This particular locomotive was one of Link's favorites and he was adamant that it be preserved. NW1218 was parked behind the museum so other railroad photographers could photograph it without obstructions. We were early enough to be able to photo chronicle the move by Norfolk Southern crews.

This video has 31 pictures in it so please give it time to load. If you are on a slow DSL connection or a dial-up connection it may not ever load. SOOOOO here is one of the best pictures of the series.

This was taken as NW1218 went under the bridge i was sitting on. For those that may be interested, NW1218 is a Class A, Norfolk Western 2-8-4 locomotive. That translates to 2 lead wheels, 4 drive wheels, 4 more drive wheels, and 4 trailing wheels.

Since 1218 hasn't been in service for many years, the NS crew used an SD-40 diesel locomotive to push 1218. From my vantage point it was hardly noticeable.

Grenville

Here We Snow (Again)

The announcement on the local radio station was straightforward yesterday morning.

CLOSED - EVERYTHING

WHY?
Overnight Tuesday, the VA Eastern Shore received its second major snow fall in 2 weeks with northern areas getting 4-6 inches; up to 7-1/2 inches towards the southern end. Temperatures were frigid too, starting with a morning low of 14 degrees F and daytime high of 21 degrees. 

OK, so this is not a major big snow event to folks in other parts of the U.S. But, around here, this was a heavy snowfall, just ask folks in neighboring southern states. These were early morning scenes at The Frog & PenguINN.

Closures included all public and private schools in two counties, also a local hardware store, bakery, YMCA, medical facilities, including dialysis treatment. There's no snow plowing of local roadways. Snow removal is done by vehicles driving on the roads. 

Grenville has his own method of snow removal with some help from his Deere "friend" John. Can you tell he's really enjoying himself?

After he plowed our drive and the local firehouse/EMS building, it was time for pancakes!

Charity Junk Mail

If you receive a check from the National Cancer Research Center as I did this week, do some research before you send a donation. You might change your mind. 

My $2.50 check arrived inside a fundraising appeal letter. My first thought was to toss it in recycling. (Always trust your first instincts, I learned. I'll tell you why.)

Sometimes, unsolicited checks can be used as vehicles for scams. Your endorsement can commit you to further obligations in fine print. That was not the case; the accompanying letter stated:

"The $2.50 check is real.  You could put this letter aside, cash the check, and forget all about our important laboratory research and national cancer education programs.  But what I really hope you will do is return the $2.50 check along with your own gift of $10.00 or more to help in our fight against cancer."

Several friends and family members have been or are undergoing cancer treatments, so my second thought was to send a minimum donation with the request NOT to solicit further. Of course, that hardly ever never seems to work. What was I thinking?

Deciding to trust my first instinct (tossing it), I checked on the National Cancer Research Center online and learned from blog postings that others had received similar checks as far back as 2-3 years ago with the same M.O. One blogger suggested going to the Charity Navigator site and I've bookmarked it for reference.

The National Cancer Research Institute is a project of the Walker Cancer Research Institute (WCRI) headed by Helen Marie Walker, president. Evan Harris Walker, an American physicist, who died in 2006, founded WCRI in 1981.

Charity Navigator gave it 1 star (out of a possible 4) for accountability and transparency, and 0 for financial. Most of the funds raised (over 90%) are used for more fundraising.  So with a $10 donation, most goes to send mailings to more people (and so on and so on). See the pattern here.

Comments left at Charity Navigator indicate that some folks cash the check donating the money to "real" charities. Of course, you could cash the check and keep the money, but your name and address are on the check with a series of bar codes. Cashing it could lead to even more problems, and would you really need the $2.50 that much?

WHY more problems?
The WCRI could then sell your info to other "charities"  and you could be inundated with even more junk mail. People often complain of being inundated by requests for money that they can't  seem to stop.

EASY Fix
If you get one of these letters, it's your choice. Mine went into the shredder after I salvaged the included postage: four 1-cent stamps. Postage this week went to 49 cents for a U.S. postage stamp.

(Credits: The graphic herein is from the Devon Authorities Recycling Partnership, U.K.)

"Effective" City Lights

An ordinary evening scene can usually be transformed to something quite magical looking when filters are applied. In days past, when I used 35mm single lens reflex cameras (SLRs) and later digital SLRs, many special effects were done using add on filters. My favorite then was the cross-screen (CS) filter.

Last fall, I purchased an Olympus Tough waterproof camera for our trip to Niagara Falls. For myself, the one-time cost was preferable to spending $8-10 for a disposable waterproof camera and we woulve needed several of these. And, a huge downside to the disposable ones is they offered no preview so photos would not be seen until processed -- too late to get a better shot. Besides, the Olympus could be used for future trips, in all types of bad weather, and Amazon had refurbished ones; mine is also red.

AND, this camera also has built-in "magic" filters including fish-eye, pencil sketch, soft focus, reflection and my favorite, a cross-screen effect called sparkle. On our recent road trip to Roanoke, VA, I used this effect at the Norfolk & Southern RR yard at sunset. Then, I had fun with special effects in Picasa. These are only a few of what's available and I've included a brief description of each 

This is the original SOOC (straight out of camera) scene shot with the sparkle filter applied. No post-processing was done to this image.

First is "HDR-ish" or high-dynamic-range imaging, a set of techniques used in imaging and photography to reproduce a greater dynamic range (luminosity) than possible using standard digital imaging or photographic techniques. HDR images can represent more accurately the range of intensity levels found in scenes.


The "orton-ish" effect comes from a slide-sandwich technique devised by photographer Michael Orton in the mid-1980s. This photo technique blends two completely different photos of the same scene, resulting in a distinctive mix of high and low detail areas within the same photo and adds depth and richness to the photo. 

This is the "soften" effect which softens the focus around a center point by using sliders to control the size of the focused area and also the amount of softness applied.

This is "B&W" (black and white) which gives the original color image a historic or nostalgic effect. Stark contrasts can enhance the subject matter.

Next is "focal B&W" which converts a photo to black and white, while keeping one circular area of color intact. Using sliders lets you define size and sharpness of the colored spot.

This last effect, "graduated tint" is similar to using a graduated color filter on a camera. It allows you to apply a colored tint to the top half of a photo. You can adjust the shade of the tint and the degree at which it feathers into the rest of the photo. This is useful for enhancing a sunset (as shown below) or making gray skies blue.

It was fun playing around with these special effects. These are just a very small sampling of the countless effects possible in this easy and FREE photo editing program. If you don't like a particular effect, it can be undone. I kept the original photo, then did alterations saving each with a different file name.

Have you ever tried Picasa special effects? AND 
Which of these effects did you find the most effective or dramatic?

Taking a Walk

What would you do if you lost everything and nearly all about the same time?

That's what happened to 28-year old Seattle ad exec Alan Christoffersen who lost the love of his life, his job, and home within 1 month, then he went for a walk -- cross-country.

In reality, similar misfortunes (and worse) have happened to many; however, Alan's story is  detailed in a fictional series by author Richard Paul Evans. These books relate how Alan, in the wake of several personal tragedies, sets out to walk from Bellevue, Washington to the farthest point on his map, Key West, Florida.

In the first book, The Walk, Christoffersen, who heads his own ad company (Madgic) is wildly successful in his business, and madly in love with his wife, McKale, whom he's known since they grew up as next door neighbors. His life is perfect, until McKale breaks her back in a riding accident and is paralyzed. Alan stays with her, leaving his partner, Kyle, to run the business. Kyle betrays him, taking clients and associates to form his own firm. When McKale dies after contracting an infection, Alan plans suicide, but instead, leaves everything behind to set off on a walk. The people and situations he encounters and the lessons they share with him, save and inspire his life.

Within a week, I read the first four books, published between 2010 and 2013. The final one is due this spring; I've already placed a reserve at our local library.

• The Walk (2010)
• Miles to Go (2011)
• The Road to Grace (2012)
• A Step of Faith (2013)
• Waking on Water (due May 2014)

While the characters are fictional, Evans has a way of drawing readers into the story; his characters become people you care about. The books are "quick reads" that kept me reading nearly non-stop, sometimes late at night to complete one. (You may find yourself doing the same if you choose to start the series.) 

Other books by this #1 best selling author include The Christmas Box, Timepiece, The Letter, The Locket, The Looking Glass, The Promise, A Perfect Day. Evans is also author of the popular teen series, Michael Vey. 

Easter is When?

Easter is April 20 this year. 
According to our calendar, as I write this, it's January 4. Stepping back in time today as this post was written a couple of weeks ago and unpublished.

WHY is this significant?
Apparently, it's NOT soon enough as some most retailers need an early start to put out their Easter-themed candy confections. This past weekend, these well-known creme eggs were on display along with Valentine's candies and leftover holiday candies.

These other candy brands were also displayed at a well-known chain store this weekend. 

While, the store's name is being withheld here, there are other retailers I am sure with similar (early) displays.

By the way, when did these these candy brands become special for every holiday?

Isn't a Milky Way or Snickers  still the same candy bar, regardless of the holiday?

OK, I'm dating myself here, but in years past, "traditional" Easter treats were mainly chocolate bunnies, jelly beans,  and this personal favorite, which disappears quickly (like egg nog after Christmas).

Remember when toys were reserved for Christmas and not put in Easter baskets?

AND, Easter candy sales did not start 2 weeks after Christmas OR before Valentine's Day hearts were put away.

Yes, the Valentine cards, candies and gifts were on adjoining shelves near the Christmas clearance items.

Do you recall when holidays were less rushed and enjoyed more ?

As you can tell, I do. Now, excuse me while I go out to gather hoard marshmallow eggs before they disappear (like the egg nog).

Snuggle & Share

Keeping warm on a winter's day . . .

Can be hard to do.

There's some who prefer to dine alone . . .

While others share together (even if briefly) . . .

These images were captured in the F&P yard this week from an inside view.

We hope you are keeping warm during this very cold weather. Enjoy the weekend.