This plant spent the summer out on the porch and I brought it in about mid-October. It immediately went into a closet. Three weeks later, it had started to bud and now it’s blooming very nicely.

Christmas Cacti need to spend some time in the dark because that is what makes them bloom. In the jungles as night falls earlier and earlier, the plant is triggered into bloom. Since we humans tend to light our homes well into the evening hours, putting the plant in a closet for a few weeks will trigger the bloom response.

Thanksgiving Hymn

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
sing praise to his Name, he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
so from the beginning the fight we were winning:
thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation:
thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Words: Nederlandtsche Gedenckclanck, 1626;
trans. Theodore Baker, 1894.
Music: Kremser

Enjoy this day with your family and friends.

This guy rode up in the elevator with us. He posed nicely even though I had just said he had really big toes….

click for bigger so you can see his drool in all its glory

This guy, though scary looking, was making the chicks feel well protected. They’re sleeping under him…

More pictures after the jump!

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Scary.

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We have two birthdays coming up. Our Big Girl will be 17-years-old on Monday. Seventeen. Where has the time gone? She was only 4 pounds 10 ounces when she was born and 18 inches long. We were able to take her home the next day because she only lost 2 ounces after birth and was at the minimum weight of 4-1/2 pounds so we could take her home. She weighed less than a regular bag of sugar.

She’s special needs with epilepsy, developmental delays, a moderate hearing impairment, and last year she was diagnosed with Lupus too. She loves Barney and her favorite movies are the Shrek movies and Elephant and Elephant in the water (Ice Age and Ice Age II: The Meltdown).

Little Guy will be 7-years-old on Sunday. He was born the day before her 10th birthday. He’s in first grade, but goes to a second grade class in the mornings for reading. His latest test had him at grade level 2.7 for reading.

We are going to spend tomorrow at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. We have tickets to see the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. Today the museum opened its annual Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light Exhibit as well.

A Proud Tradition

Christmas Around the World, which features more than 50 trees decorated by volunteers from Chicago’s ethnic communities to reflect holiday traditions from around the globe-has been dazzling families for 66 years. It began in 1942 as a United Nations Day salute to American allies during World War II. That year, a dozen trees graced the Museum’s halls; now, the exhibition has grown into a dazzling forest of trees and displays lovingly created by the citizens of Chicago. This year, a new tree from Kenya joins the Museum’s forest.

We’ll bring the camera and have some pictures tomorrow.

Our last poll was quite lopsided.

So here’s another. In this one you can add your own response if you wish.

for Project Valour-IT.

Via Blackfive the scores are as follows (still awaiting “absentee” (mailed in checks) “ballots”)

Army: $53,023.00
Marines: $39,673.00
Air Force: $25,638.34
Navy/CG: $20,081.75
And non-team donations $29,954.82

He says that the Army Team had twice the number of donors than the other teams as well.

Sgt Hook

Big Dog’s Weblog

Blackfive

From My Position… On the way!!!

Gazing at the Flag

Homefront Six

Tammi’s World

Danger Room

Dadmanly

Techography

Badgers Forward

Conservativa

Hooah Wife & Friends

Technicalities

Noblesse Oblige

Ayatollah Ghilmeini’s Neocon Madrassa

Miss Ladybug

Winds of Change

Most Certainly Not

Cursed by a Classical Education

Random-American

Shultz Infosystems

confabulation

Cop The Truth

When the Smoke Clears

Conservative Musings

Tanker Brothers

Where I Stand

Second City Sarge

G.R.I.T.S. a/ka Keep My Soldier Safe

Insanity

Milblogging.com

Power Line

Iraq War Today

AmeriCAN-DO Attitude

Laughing Wolf

billoblog

Babalu Blog

Balloon Juice

Oh!That’sGonnaLeaveaMark

Military Families Voice of Victory

Combs Spouts Off

The Kneeslider

Blonde Sagacity

My Side Of the Puddle

Thanks to Kate for her donation and plea for help for the Army Team as well.

I try to get the Christmas lights up sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving and don’t turn them on until Thanksgiving. I like to wait for a fairly warm day. Yesterday was one such day. I went into the crawlspace for the lights and, even though they were in a gigantic Ziploc bag, they had gotten wet in the summer flooding and the inside of the bag was heavy with condensation. So, no Christmas lights.

Today was another warm day about 60°F so I moseyed on over to WalMart for some new Christmas lights. I got a string of those honking big colored C-9 Lights (24 feet long) and a string of white icicle lights (18 feet long). Those lengths are good for around the top of my porch.

Since I have two birthdays coming up on Sunday (Little Guy-7) and Monday (Big Girl-17), I had to get presents and wrapping paper too. Shrek the Third DVD Gift Pack with a beanie baby Donkey is one, but packed away until the weekend. WalMart has some nice black reusable bags for $1 a piece too. They’re a good size and say “Paper or Plastic? Neither.” on them.

Kate’s talking about Christmas Lights today too and she has a poll!

Blogs for Bush is now Blogs for Victo(R)y

Matt posts:

I am pleased to introduce you to Blogs For Victory.

Blogs For Victory will replace Blogs For Bush. Some of the more popular and blog entries have been copied over, should you want to continue the discussion there. Unfortunately, importing all the posts and comments proved to be too cumbersome.

And don’t worry, Blogs For Bush won’t be closing down. the archives will remain intact, but no future posts will be made here.

It’s a little late today as I was making the following movie:

I had the story in mind all last week, but wasn’t able to get it visualized for you until today.

So often, human beings will try to “help” or “save” something and we just don’t really think about the fact that what we want to “help” or “save” may not want or need it.