A better mousetrap?

The mechanism on this model indicates if the trap is set. Mouse walks in, the floor tips, closing the door behind him.

Button, button, who's got the button?

Idle hands are the devil's playground

...so they say. Idle hands probably look a whole lot better than mine, however. An afternoon of yardwork, followed by an evening of wall-painting left my nails a mess.

Big entertainment...small package

The controls on the face of my Zune. The whole device is about the size of a deck of cards, only thinner. Amazing.

Why can't they "leave" me alone?

It's Saturday morning. Can you guess my big chore for the day??

Who'da thunk it?

Even though the heat is switched off, my electronic thermostat displays the comfy indoor temperature at 10:00 at night....in northern Illinois...in November...

I'm thankful for these little blessings!

Take a walk on the wild side

We visited many wild places this summer, but one of the most desolate was the Frying Pan wilderness area in Capitol Reef National Park. We hiked the 5 miles from our campsite to Cassidy Arch (pictured on this blog back in June). This image was taken from a vista above the canyon area during a rest stop after we'd crossed through the worst of it. When we left camp, temps were in the low 70s, but the warm air was trapped in the canyon, elevating the temperatures. There was very little shade, and it was slow going.



This next image shows part of our trail. We hiked for about a mile through Cohab Canyon, climbing up to and over a pass in the "vee" at the back of the photo, then down, down, down into Frying Pan. In the lower right corner of the photo, we began climbing out, resting where this picture was snapped. Enlarge the image to see arrows tracing our route. From the point of the vee to where this picture was taken, it was about 3 miles. We still had another hot, arid mile to go to reach the arch.



It was beautiful, but more fun to think back on than to actually do!