Happy Birthday Elliott Carter

Wow! Has it been since October since I have updated this blog? I need to start doing better. I have been so busy trying to keep up my other blogs, writing articles at eHow and Twittering and going to visit with our grandson, Elliott Carter, and our other new grand baby, Shelby Claire. And now the holidays are sneaking up on us fast! We'll have a full house this year since my mother in law is coming  to visit from LeHigh Acres, FL, and all the kids and grand kids will be coming down to visit. It will be an exciting Christmas for us this year and especially for my mother in law, since she has never met her great grand kids except through pictures. She is 88 years old and an amazing woman.
Not quite as old as Elliott Carter though, I saw in the paper this morning that today is his birthday. 101 years old today, another amazing person. Happy Birthday Mr. Carter!
I will start working harder here on this side to keep this blog updated, lots of new pictures to share and exciting times happening in our lives here in the SWVA valley ...

I wish all of my visitors here a safe and blessed holiday season... Thanks for stopping by...

Twitter Pays Off!! Overstock is the best!

I had decided back in September to start a Twitter account. After much thought and reading about it I had come to the conclusion that it would be beneficial for me to have a way to help advertise and market the articles I have written on line for sites such as eHow http://www.ehow.com/members/rnmassage.html?view=3rd  and Scribe Seeker http://www.scribeseeker.com/. 
Twitter actually is a very useful tool for myself as well as for anyone else out there that are trying to create a web presence for yourselves.
I am finding out more and more how much I enjoy using Twitter, following our local newspaper, the Roanoke Times and local TV news channels, I am getting instant updates about major news stories happening close to our home. I am also running across contests and sweepstakes happening on the internet on an almost daily basis. I saw OverStock.com was running a contest, giving away 10 prizes to celebrate their 10th anniversary. All you had to do was to complete a phrase and then send it out from your Twitter account. The phrase for the day I entered was "I wanted..." So I sent out the twitter below...
@Overstock I wanted a sunny bright fall day, but got gray skies instead #In1999 http://bit.ly/19yM3Z10:08 AM Oct 10th from web in reply to OverstockSunday, after we got home from church I was checking emails and the Twitter account and found that I had won the final and grand prize of OverStock's contest.What an exciting surprise that was for us! Checking the price of the HDTV on Overstock and Amazon both, I found that the prize is worth almost 700 dollars! Not bad for one tweet.
Overstock And the final winner of Overstock.com's #in1999contest is...@RnMassage! He's won a 40" Toshiba 1080p LCD HDTV! Congrats!12:12 PM Oct 11th from Power Twitter

Anyone who has ever been interested in Twitter but have been like me, hesitant to sign up for an account, thinking they would not have anything to add to the world should rethink it and go ahead and give it a try.
Twitter truly has become the voice of the internet and is a great place to share your ideas and thoughts. And if it (which it will)  increases traffic to your web content that is an added bonus, and stumbling across all kinds of contests and free offers from legitimate companies is a great perk!

Evanescence with Amy Lee...

While browsing through Twitter feeds this morning I ran across this site,
A new group and singer I had never heard of before. Evanescence...I really
liked their music and thought I would give them a plug here on my blog;
give them a listen and see what you think...
Check out their web site at
http://www.evanescence.com/index.asp.

Blue Ridge Parkway Adventures...

Last weekend Diana (my wife) and I decided to journey on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is one of the prettiest drives in Virginia. The leaves are already showing signs of fall with some color changes;  it won't be long until the peak season comes to the Parkway. We have never driven too far on the Parkway; usually we just go find a nice overlook close to home and set up our chairs, enjoy the view and commune with nature, God and our books. This journey carried us into North Carolina and then back into Virginia, stopping for the evening at Galax, VA. Some of the neat things we saw on this trip were the Mabry Mill in Floyd County (Va) a variety of wildlife, including deer that were everywhere, especially in the early evening hours when they come out to forage in the grassy fields along the Parkway. We saw wild turkeys that were so magnificent - they are such beautiful birds. I saw my first ever live skunk. I was beginning to think the only skunks that existed were road kill since that is the only way I have seen them. Skunks are really very pretty animals, almost like a cat.
We stopped in Mt. Airy, NC to visit Andy Griffith's home town and see all of the Mayberry sites. We got there just in time to visit their brand new Andy Griffith Museum and caught onto the tail end of a Mayberry squad car tour around the town. We followed the squad car as it stopped at all of the attractions related to the Andy Griffith show.
One of the most humorous things we saw was at Mabry Mill, VA. There's a pond next to the mill, with ducks that hang out and swim around. A couple had stopped to let their large Spaniel off his leash so he could run - not the smartest thing to do, since Spaniels do love water and love chasing things.  This funny dog spotted the ducks and decided that one would be a great catch, and jumped right into the water. All but one white duck flew out of the pond to safety - the poor white duck couldn't fly.  I saw this dog swimming around in the pond chasing the duck, and it was so funny I just started laughing.  The owner corrected me - saying it wasn't funny at all because the dog had been in there for more than 30 minutes and wouldn't come out.
The funniest thing was that every time the dog paddled close to the duck and was ready to snatch him, the duck would disappear under the water, leaving the dog totally baffled.  The duck would reappear 20 to 30 feet away, swimming calmly. This went on for at least twenty more minutes. Finally one of the ducks that could fly decided to help out his buddy and  got back in the water. Now this Spaniel didn't know what to do, since he had two to chase now! The flying duck would swim close to the dog to distract him, and then would fill his face full of water from a very splashy take off; then the non-flying duck would swim close to the dog, only to do his disappearing act. I have never seen such team work from ducks and it gave me a whole new respect for them! Finally this thoroughly frustrated dog, and, I am sure, totally exhausted, decided to head for shore and back to his waiting masters.
Next time I'm sure they will be smarter and keep their dog on a leash when they are out in a public place. Their punishment was a ride home with a wet smelly dog!
Next time you are in Virginia or North Carolina, treat yourself to something special, and take the Parkway. You will find wonder and blessings with each turn you take, surely a show of God's handiwork.

Happy Trails...Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

We have been making slide show for some time now; they make nice gifts for our family and friends. 

We have been successful with some paid projects and hope to see that expand.

Anyway this is an example of a show we put together for one of my wife's friends who is
moving on to New Mexico and it is my first You Tube video posted on the Internet.

Good bye to Mary Travers, she will be missed...

Mary-Travers-of-Peter-Paul-and-Mary--Died-today  September 16, 7:44 PM Tucson Celebrity Examiner Darla Hanger

Swagbucks

You may notice the Swagbuck widget on my blog now. After hearing about Swagbucks for a long time, I finally decided to check it out and sign up for it. I figured that I was doing searches on the Internet anyway, and Swagbucks uses Google and Ask search engines, what would be the difference if I used them instead of my usual Google home page on my computer. It took a little getting used to, but after awhile it seems normal to be using it for my searches.

You don't earn "Swagbucks" with every search, it seems that in the mornings you usually earn 1 for maybe your second or third search and sometimes two "Swagbucks"

Now this may seem silly, but you really do get chances to enter sweepstakes spending your hard earned searching bucks to buy entries, plus if you accumulate enough "Swagbucks" you can purchase gift cards to various stores, like Starbucks, Amazon, Lowes and more. 

I am up to 13 "Swagbucks" bucks now, had more, but decided to spend 2 to enter the sweepstakes for the Barnes and Noble $100 gift card.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to open my mail and find a notice from them that I was the winner of the Barnes and Noble gift card, and after confirming they sent me the code and pin number for it.

Now how cool is that, no money outlay from my pocket and now I have a 100 dollars to spend at one of our favorite stores, Barnes and Noble. Just for doing what I do anyway, searching the Internet.
If you decide to try it for yourself, just click on the widget here which will take you to the Swagbucks signup page. You do get credit if others sign up using you as a reference and it is a way to quickly boost your earnings since for the first 100 swagbucks your friends earn they match it in your account.
Give it a try, now that I am 100 dollars richer I think it is the best way to search the Internet.
Oh yes... I was still a little skeptical about it but went to the Barnes and Noble site and entered the code and pin for the gift card.... balance is 100 dollars!!   Time to go book shopping! I'll bet Elliott will be wanting some new baby books soon!

Elliott Carter and Elliott Carter new beginnings...

When my daughter and her husband told us they were naming their new child, Elliott Carter,  we thought to ourselves, that's a nice name. It had a good ring to it...how little did I know at the time that our grandson carries the same name as the famous classical composer,  Elliott Carter. One of my visitors, Joe, passed that information on to me and I really appreciated it. Thank you Joe...


I was thinking at first, seeing all of the visitors from all over the world, stopping by to visit my blog, boy am I a popular guy or what? Now I know the draw is my grandson and his famous name. Little Elliott doesn't have a clue right now, nor does he care that his name is tied to a famous person, but as he grows over the years, I will now be proud to tell him how special his name is. To all of my visitors stopping by, I can only say thank you, and I hope you enjoy what you see on my blog site and have taken a little time to explore it and check out the pictures and slide show of Elliott in his beginning stage of life. Perhaps Elliott will also become a composer or at least have his interests moved toward the arts. I will teach him the best I can with my new found knowledge. For all of those searching for the composer, so you won't be disappointed, I am going to add some links to Elliott Carter, the composer, and for me also, so I can research and learn about this man who, from what little I know, is a very talented person. Thank you all for stopping by to visit this once lonely blog... leave a note if you want to, as I would love to hear from you and one day I will pass your words and thoughts onto my grandson... thanks

A Poem for Elliott by Art

Elliott Carter

The new little baby boy born Saturday 22 August 2009.

With his little toes, fingers and exterior plumbing looking fine.

Elliott Carter his name rings true.

A new baby boy all decked out in blue.

His birth is making Mom and Dad so proud.

With his whole family celebrating there is a crowd.

Who holds Elliott first? Is it Mom or Dad , or the Medical people?

When Elliott is baptised will his sounds vibrate through the steeple?

Did the nurse cuddle Elliott or was there a big hand too?

When the doctor checked Elliott was it in a towel colored blue?

Jessica earns her new name "Mom" upon this very day.

Elliott will learn to talk, walk, run and play.

Now, Andre will be coached and told how to hold his newborn on.

Andre can hardly wait until Elliott can play catch and be on the run.

Will Elliott grow up in the country or the city?

Elliott is all boy so we must not call him pretty.

Handsome fits Elliott to a tee with is outfits not colored pink.

When Elliott is hungry he will yell for his Mom's drink.

Andre hopes that Elliott will say dad first.

Whatever Elliott's first word, the pride will almost burst.

Elliott's smiles, giggles, laughs and noises will be a delight.

Elliott will have cars, trucks, balls and Lego's all in sight.

Milk and cookies will become a part of Elliott's diet.

When Elliott takes a nap there is no need for quiet.

Babies sleep in some extremely noisy places.

When Elliott grows up, perhaps he will see some NASCAR races.

Elliott has his own room with Curious George all around.

Elliott will learn to run, skate, ride bikes, scooters and tumble on the ground.

Curious George the monkey full of spunk and in shorts.

Andre will be busy teaching his son all the sports.

Mom calls Elliott her little monkey while he grew in her womb so safe.

When Elliott's days are filled with fun and adventure his dad will give chase.

Little boys grow up so very fast there is no need denying.

Mom will nurse Elliott's cuts, scrapes, bruises and perhaps Elliott's crying.

Nine months carrying the little lad named Elliott who is so special.

Mom and Dad believe Elliott is their most prized vessel.

Elliott will learn to fly kites and play baseball I'm sure.

With in-line skates, ice skates and sleigh riding a winter cure.

Elliott as a boy will have so much fun to do.

Will Elliott play T ball when he is only two?

The future is brighter with Elliott here to touch Mom and Dad's lives.

They will keep Elliott away from poison ivy so he does not have hives.

Will Elliott become and Eagle Scout one day?

Before Elliott graduates from college one May,

Elliott will be growing and going on 21 before Mom and Dad's very eyes.

With Elliott's opportunities for a life time that proves how time flies.

by Art

Welcome to the world Elliott Carter...

Last evening our daughter, Jessica gave birth to our 2nd grand child and her first baby... Elliott Carter arrived around 11 :38 on the 22nd day of August. 9 lbs and 21 inches long. We are anxiously awaiting pictures since we haven't seen him yet but with two of the most beautiful parents in the world we all know he will be a handsome boy! Congratulations to Andre! The proud father and wonderful husband to Jessica.

No Mark Martin clocks for Elliott's nursery, Andre, since he lost the race at Bristol last night...but second place isn't bad for an "old man".

A quick update on our eHow writing venture, we finally got a raise!! Our total earnings for the month of August so far now stands at $11.92 so we have made 40 cents this weekend. We haven't been doing much work on it over the weekend, but I am going to start working on some new articles next week. I have several ideas floating around in my head that I know will be perfect and easy articles to write so we can build up our library. It has been and will continue to be a learning process as how to market the articles to get the best exposure we can on the Internet. So far we are having fun and that is the most important thing.

My now almost famous recipe for How to make delicious spaghetti sauce is simmering on the stove as I write so I better go give it a stir...

http://www.ehow.com/how_5319742_make-spaghetti-sauce-fresh-tomatoes.html

Old trains and new babies!

The weekend is here! And it looks wet with another rainy day here in Magic City. Last week was a very disappointing week for me with our eHow venture. So far we have posted 14 articles and our views are way up over what they were at the beginning of the week, our earnings are stalled at still $11.52. A fellow eHow-er told me not to expect much in earnings until we get over 50 articles posted so we need to keep writing, only 36 to go!

Exciting news here that we received around 6 this morning. Our daughter Jessica, who has been expecting her first child at the end of August called and told us she had gone into labor early this morning. Wow!! We can't wait to see baby Elliot, it seemed like he would never get here. So far she is still at home with her husband Andre, counting and timing contractions and anxiously waiting for the hurried journey to the hospital for delivery.

No new garden news and it is to wet to go check it since it is mosquito land out there now. I did notice my watermelon plant I planted in spring has finally decided to take off. Maybe we will get one home grown watermelon before the end of the season, if we can keep the chipmunks and ground hogs away from it.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/216268

http://vmtmusings.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite trains here in Roanoke is finally off to be restored at our Transportation Museum here. This train has been sitting in the woods for so long, hiding behind an old scrap metal and recycling center that has been closed for years. I stopped several times to visit it and take pictures when I first discovered it shortly after we moved here. I really enjoy exploring old buildings and trains and towns. It's like finding a piece of history, very exciting I think!

Pest control Cat...

Not much success yesterday with the eHow venture but we did increase our points and views so today I am hoping they give us a raise!! So far we have 604 Views 1590 Points and 11.56 in earnings for the month.

We just added two more articles today

http://www.ehow.com/how_5260134_manage-small-daycare-small-house.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5322866_use-chicken-easy-couscous-salad.html

No garden news today, it is doing it's thing and growing Morning Glories and Gourds. I See I have more tomatoes to pick, that is a good thing since I used up all of mine making spaghetti sauce.

I may quit giving them away to friends and keep them all for myself now that I know just how wonderful homemade sauce is! We wish we had more!

Starbelle is our pest control cat... last night around 1 in the morning she woke me up meowing in our bedroom. She normally doesn't do this so I got up to see what was the matter with her. She was all huddled up behind the chair in our room and I thought she might be sick.

At Diana's suggestion to turn on the bathroom light to see better, I did, and saw she was chasing some kind of big flying critter. She was so funny, she kept stepping on it and then it would disappear and then she would start meowing looking all around for it. Seeing light and a possible escape from the monster that was chasing him he flew, quite crippled into the bathroom. Of course it was no help for him since Starbelle was now hot on his trail. After stepping on him a few more times, I decided it was time to get back to bed so I helped her out and caught it and sent it off to a swirrling watery grave.

Starbelle is a great bug catcher, just don't let her give you any kisses after you see her licking her lips outside on the screened porch!

Google Success and Morning Glories

I am so excited!! I googled one of my Ehow recipes this morning and found my How to make Citrus Glazed Salmon on the first page, number 3 on the list of searches. So now I am praying that on the Internet today that there are several million people googling "how to make citrus glazed salmon" and reading my article. That would be so cool. No luck though in just googling "salmon" or "glazed salmon" or "salmon recipes" I didn't show up anywhere that I saw, perhaps page 20 of the search list but who ever goes that far into searches when they google things on the Internet. Not much earnings on the Ehow account yesterday, I did make 26 cents, now we are up to $11.52. I added another article last evening on how to make spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5319742_make-spaghetti-sauce-fresh-tomatoes.html

Garden Notes... I wanted my garden to be a place this year of more than just vegetables. I have a mulch bin in the garden to put waste and to help create some better soil for next years garden, So I thought why not plant some flowers around it to help hide it. I planted a package of Cosmos seeds and also a pack of Morning Glory seeds around the bin. The Cosmos came up so pretty with their fern like leaves and tons of blooms.

The Morning Glories took longer to get going but now I am getting worried and wondering if I made a mistake planting them. They rapidly covered the mulch bin, so much now that I can't even get to it anymore and have started sending their shoots out to anything and everything they can grab a hold of. I am starting to worry that if I turn my back on them for a few days I will go out and find that my entire garden is covered with Morning Glories. I am wondering about how many seeds they are dropping on the ground for next years growth, and will I ever be able to get rid of them now that I started them.

I guess I will keep them in check best I can for this summer and worry about next year when it gets here. Meanwhile I will just enjoy the beautiful flowers that bloom every morning and have fun watching the bees, butterfly's and hummingbirds stopping by for a morning treat.

Making money and growing gourds

I have been so busy writing articles for eHow.com and learning new tricks on how to make money writing articles for money on the internet that I have been neglecting stopping by here.

I was quite excited yesterday to see my ehow earnings jump from $3.32 up to $11.26. I am still trying to get a handle on what generates the money, I am assuming it is from clicking on the ads more so than someone just stumbling upon the article. Anyway I have been learning a lot and meeting some new friends who have been helping me understand how ehow works.

Garden News... I was checking yesterday for more ready to pick tomatoes and was very excited to see that one of the squash plants had decided to come back to life. This one is a decorative gourd plant and already I am seeing a very unique gourd that has formed... lots of blooms are on the plant and it is climbing all over the corn so I expect to have lots of gourds from my first try at growing them. We actually ate one of the gourds earlier this season for dinner one night and found that it was delicious. I don't want to eat them all though, I want to try drying some and maybe making some bird houses or bird feeders out of some of them. But then again, they were so good maybe we'll just eat them all ourselves.

Hero Cat

The other evening, my wife and I were eating our dinner on our screened porch. It's one of our favorite places to be to relax and watch the birds stopping by for a drink from our bird bath and watching the hummingbirds and yellow finches stopping by for food. We have quite a large crowd of hummingbirds this year, they are flying in and out constantly now, and watching their antics is so amusing as they try and boss the other birds away from the feeders. They fly so fast and so frantically that it is amazing they don't run into things including humans more often. Our cat, Starbelle also enjoys watching them, she's an indoor cat and being out on the screened porch is her idea of being an outdoor cat. But she would love to get outside to play with all these wonderful birds.

So during dinner, suddenly Diana jumped up and exclaimed, oh my goodness!!! I glanced over to where she was looking and saw a hummingbird with his beak stuck in the screen on the porch. His little body was hanging limp and there was no movement at all. I thought for sure the bird was dead. Starbelle noticed the little bird at the same time and made a mad dash to the shelve below the screen, jumping up she batted the bird and at that instant it came free and zoomed off to a near by tree to recoup. Our little Starbelle saved that hummingbird's life that evening so now he can come another day to entertain us all at dinner time. I wonder if he knows he was saved by a cat?

TGIF!!

It's been awhile since I have written anything here, I guess you could call me a blogslacker, or maybe just lazy. Actually I have been quite busy, just not busy writing on my blog page. We started writing though for a website called ehow, http://www.ehow.com/. You are supposed to get paid for articles you write telling others how to do things. I have written two so far, one on how to make hummingbird nectar and one on how to start a blog page. Since I am such a pro at both, haha... So I am thinking to myself, here I am telling people how therapeutic writing is and how much fun blog pages are and mine is sitting idle in cyber space collecting cyber dust, so maybe I should dust it off and start writing again.

Summer is slipping away fast, already we are well into August. My lovely garden is showing it's age and slowly slowing down. Lots of tomatoes are still coming but the corn is mostly finished. All the squash got some kind of powdery mildew on it and had died off along with the cukes. I am starting to think about pulling out the dead stuff and adding some better soil into it for next season and tilling it as I empty it out to get rid of the weeds which have been a constant battle all season long. The flowers have been beautiful , huge tall Cosmos and Morning Glories grabbing a hold of whatever they can to keep climbing. The hummingbirds are loving it!

Also loving my garden is I suspect a hungry ground hog... he has been eating the tomatoes and stealing the corn. I see him in the yard almost everyday, but never in the garden so maybe I am falsely accusing him, maybe it's one of the cute little bunnies that hop around in the yard every morning. Luckily there is enough for all, I just picked almost 9 lbs. of tomatoes the other morning, pretty German Pinks, Yellow, and Mr. Stripeys. All delicious and wonderful for BLT's.

Yumm

So my plan is to come back here at least once a week add my thoughts and make this my therapeutic place to come...

Blessed Sundays...

Some days are better than others, today was one of those days... checking the garden this morning I found some hidden treasures, squash I had planted from seed back in April and already I am harvesting vegetables. Weighing everything I picked, 4 peppers, 3 very nice sized squash and a lovely pickling cucumber my labors gave me over 8 lbs of produce. Not bad for a walk around the yard enjoying the morning with my coffee...

And then off to church, what a wonderful service, music, friends... the blessings continue to add up today, enough to carry me through another week... Thank you for all God... amen...

Thoughts on plants...

I have always loved plants and gardening and the beauty of Spring, with everything renewing the view outside from the dead and brown winter scape into one of lush greenness and flowers.

This past Spring I decided this year to attempt to start all of my plants from seed. I have tried this in the past without much success, but this time I decided to get serious about it and make it work.

After all, every single plant you buy at the local store has started from seed by people who have access to green houses and controlled growing environments. Surely I am as talented as they are and have a very nice garage with space in it to set up the flats. So in February I set up a grow light in the garage and bought an assortment of seed, both veggies and flowers and flats and dirt. Carefully planting the seeds I watched and watered them on a daily basis, and soon was rewarded with little sprouts which grew and grew until they reached their limit. Unfortunately their limit seemed to be scrawny little plants and after awhile they started to die off. I still had a few though and thought it was warming enough to move them outside so they could get used to real daylight. Sadly the flowers all died off, seems missing a day of watering one time when we had gone away on an overnight trip was the reason for their demise.

I was rewarded with some very nice tomato plants that did very well, so many that some are in my garden and some are off in some of my friend's gardens.

I found I did best with flowers, just sowing them directly in the pots they were going to grow in, early in April. It takes a bit longer to get the flowers, it's not the instant gratification of buying an already blooming pot of plants or buying seedlings with flowers already in place.

But I find it much more gratifying in knowing that I started these flowers with a simple seed and some water and letting the power of this wonderful time we call Spring take care of the rest...

Thoughts on blogs...

Merriam-Webster's definition of the word Blog

Pronunciation:

\ˈblȯg, ˈ>bläg\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

short for Weblog

Date:

1999

: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer ; also : the contents of such a site

— blog·ger noun

— blog·ging noun

This being my first blog, I thought I should at least know exactly what a blog is. Seeing the date Webster added it to their dictionary I am amazed at how far we have come. In my mind I am thinking a blog is almost like a diary, only instead of being a secret place locked up with a key, it out in the open, a place of sharing with others who might stumble upon this place of my ramblings and thoughts.

Growing up I had no thoughts of computers, cell phones, calculators and all of the other technology we now have at our fingertips. Our thoughts and reflections were kept on a sheet of paper, written with ideally an ink cartridge fountain pen which you could change the color on by changing the cartridge and loving the way the color magically slowly changed from black to green, then blue or red. That was cool technology at the time. Mail was sent with a stamp in an envelope, math was done on a sheet of scrap paper, transportation was walking or riding a bike or maybe the bus. Phone calls were made in a booth, drop a dime in the slot and connect to anyone you wanted as long as they were local and if not you talked with a live operator who asked you to drop more dimes in the slot.

So here I am now, not really all that many years later, starting my first blog 10 years after Webster declared it a real word worthy of being in their dictionary.

My desires are to make this an interesting place for myself, keeping track of my accomplishments and and goals, watching my garden grow, and if someone stumbles onto my online presence that they will feel uplifted and blessed and not discouraged...