Selling photos via online auctions hasn't gotten me anywhere. But I think I'll try something else, too. I make jewelry out of seed beads... I suspect that I could try my hand at auctioning off some earrings, bracelets, and pins and see if that gets me anywhere. It can't hurt, it might help.

I saw another flock of starlings/cowbirds on my way to work this morning, only this time it was on the PA side of the river. I'd love to know if this is because the mama cowbirds in this area tend to target starling nests.

My little campaign to retrieve ALL submissions from the departmental in-box, and print them and enter them before anyone else does, seems to have worked. I don't think H is supposed to check the inbox anymore. First of all, last week when she and I both accessed submissions and tried to mark them as printed, it caused file conflicts. Second of all, in this entire week there were only FOUR submissions that someone else printed before I could get to them. How's THAT for providing a quick
turnaround? :o) So I'll still keep an eye on the inbox and print things as soon as I see them arrive, but I don't think anyone else will be reviewing the inbox for the time being.
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LOL... I just saw a submission for a company whose name was typed "____ BUSINESS BORKERS". Borkers? Who's the CEO? The Swedish Chef?
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After that little episode a few days ago, when I saw the "What the heck color is THAT" Jeep while driving on my way to work, I've pondered this little rant. I can't imagine a more visually bland place these days than a parking lot full of cars. During the past few years, car makers have gotten away from the very pleasing (to MY eye, anyway) hues of bold metallic blue, teal, green, and purple. They've substituted colors that, for the most part, are nowhere near as appealing.

Currently, if you want to buy a car that doesn't have a metallic sheen, you can purchase a car that's white, black, or bright candy-apple red. That's pretty much it. If you like the metallic-sheen paint colors -- and fortunately, I do, since they comprise the vast majority of car colors these days -- you have your choice of about 10,000 shades ranging from silver to grey, any one of a variety of pale earth tones, dark shades of blue, green, or purple that are SO dark that they appear black in anything less than full sunlight, or maroon.

First of all, I'd love to know WHO in heck picked some of those pale earth tones. Some gold and champagne shades are pretty, but others... well, if they didn't have the metallic sheen, they'd match the color of things like cork, rubber bands, wet sand, dry soil, or tree bark. No offense to anyone who HAS cars of these colors, but to me, it's just bland. As for the multitude of silver-through-grey hues, many of those tones are actually kind of nice. The trouble is that the most eye-catching shades of silver and grey don't get the chance to stand out and BE eye-catching, not with so many other variations on the silver/grey theme on the road with them.

To be fair, my own car is an unusual tomato red that one never sees anymore (except on other cars of the same make and model, lol). Then again, the car is also 15 years old -- changing fashions (plus a decade and a half of exposure to sunlight) are probably what rendered my car the infrequently-seen shade of red that it is today.

Anyway, I place the blame for all these nondescript hues and colorless colors squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of the car manufacturers. Once upon a time, you could see cars of every color imaginable while driving on a highway or passing through a full parking lot. Now, that's all gone. And doggone it, I want that visual variety back!

Anybody got a feedback address where we can start sending protests to car manufacturers, and tell them we're tired of the highways looking like one big black-and-white movie? BRING BACK COLORFUL CARS! :o)