"TURBO BOOST"?

As an adjective for mascara? What the deuce is Maybelline's advertising agency thinking? 

A modern-day phenomenum that both appalls and annoys me every time it
happens is the custom of putting reporters "on the scene" during a
hurricane.

Don had on CNN as Dennis made landfall, and dang if there weren't
reporters standing next to the oceanfront, wind and rain whipping
around them, voices blown away by said wind, and so on.  One man
dramatically directed the viewers' attention to the fact he's standing
on the highway yet his feet are covered with seawater . . . the
ocean!  It's the ocean breeching the highway!

"It's called a storm surge, you lunatic," I muttered, "so get out of there."

If that'd been my husband,
CNN's viewers would have been treated to the sight of his wife coming
down to grab him, bundle him into the family car, and drive them both
to safety.

Might have stuffed the cameraman into the car, too, for good measure.

Don't these people have any sense?

Happy birthday to Elveera! She's now 16 years old, and on Monday begins driving lessons.

I have dubbed her Crazy Driver Two, since she calls me Crazy Driver. 

We agreed that between her in the northern part of the county and me toward the southern, no one is safe any longer.

Some pix from the party this evening:

A bag of candy was pounced on and rapidly demolished.

Eventually it was gone, and they settled in for a nice chat in Russian.

Elveera laughing at one of her cards, as her friends watch.

As always, seeing these beautiful children together here in Fort Worth,
knowing just two and a half years ago they were all in an orphanage in
Russia, seem to be the embodiment of one of my favorite verses in
Scripture, Jeremiah 29.11:  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

[groaning]  You'd think being from Russia they'd wilt in the heat, but no-o-o-o-o.....they wanted to go to the park this afternoon to feed ducks and ride Dmitry's bike. 

Oh well.  Gave me more chances to play with my phone (the battery's low on my camera):

Really, having a camera in my phone is pretty slick, though it can't compare to one of my "real" cameras, of course.

Unless I run off and leave the camera at home, in which case it comes in right handy. 

Today was Swim Day with Joe and Zhenya, Dan again demonstrating a
gritty devotion to duty (that has me positively gaping with bemused
admiration) by remaining home to work on his school work:

The photos aren't much, but they were
taken with the camera phone, and did a reasonably decent job
(especially after being cropped and enhanced with a couple of digital
image programs).  I found a plain, blow-up beach ball with which
they had a good time playing.  Tell you what, blowing up that
critter just about did me in . . . there must have been some trick to
it, only I could never figure out what it was.  Every now and
again the air would inexplicably enter the ball without much trouble,
but the rest of the time it was a real chore. 

Charles called this evening and told me he finally saw the metropolis
of Lubbock yesterday, as it was his day off.  He was anxious to
see Texas Tech, which he'll begin attending next month, you see.

He learned two valuable lessons on his jaunt to the panhandle:

One, do NOT blindly follow MapQuest written directions, as it will add 1/3 to the time required to get where you're going.

Two, contrary to the information provided by the prospectus put out by
Tech, Lubbock does NOT have a year-round mild climate. 

We could have told him that. 
Lubbock is hot as blazes in the summer and frigid in the winter. 
Don pointed out if one takes the highs and lows and sorta smoosh 'em
all together and average 'em, it probably works out to a temperate mean
temperature.  We agreed that's cheating though. 

Something occurred to me today that hadn't before, which is how odd it is that in my family, we tend to live in Tarrant county, but work in
Dallas county (or even Collin county).  Both Don and Elaine's
husband, Hal, work in Dallas; our son Jonathan works in Irving; our
son-in-law Matt works way the
heck out in Plano; and our son-in-law Jason tends to work all over the
place, being with a commercial electric company.  He has often
been on job sites in Dallas county, Ellis county, etc.

Of course, it's hardly across-the-board, as my brother works in
downtown Fort Worth, and my brother-in-law John works in
Burleson.  They spoil the symmetry, the nuisances.  

Wow!  I certainly hope this is accurate: 

Researchers: Strolling burns more calories, reduces injury risk

Now researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have better
news for walkers: Strolling can help obese adults burn more calories
per mile than brisk walking and might even lower the risk of arthritis
and injuries to the joints than picking up the pace.

Doctoral student Ray Browning and his colleagues studied 20 men and women of
normal weight and 20 considered obese as they walked set distances at
different speeds. They found the obese people burned more calories
walking at a slower pace for a longer time than walking at a faster
speed.

This is excellent news indeed. 

I can stroll like nobody's business. 

And the streak continues unabated.

I didn't win at bingo tonight. Hoped that it having been a year and a
half since we last played, my Bingo Luck might have changed.  Nope.

It was still fun, though.  Louis, Elaine, Dmitry and me together?  How could it be otherwise?

Aren't camera phones cool? 

I got there first and bought full sets for Dmitry and myself, then
Louis showed up and bought enough for everyone, bless him.  We had
lots of bingo sheets to keep track of (nine cards to a sheet, if memory
serves), and that's a fact.

Realized swiftly that I cannot manage four sheets.  Just no way.  I got so behind!  Finally ditched the half-value sheets, concentrating upon two full-value sheets instead.

And $500 would have been mine if only B4 had been called.

Just wait'll next time. 

I think . . . mind you, I say think . . . we know which will be Dmtiry's 2005-2006 l'école de l'année.

A charter school called Eagle Academy. 
It's one of a chain, with a computer-based curriculum, mostly
work-at-your-own pace except for math and English, which are
classroom-based.  It only has about 150 students, so isn't big
enough to overwhelm him, but large enough he might find a friend or
two.  ESL is offered, as well,  along with tutoring.

Dmitry's pleased because of the school hours:  8:00 - 1:30.  Just like it would have been in Russia! 

We've got an appointment Monday morning at 11:00.