Ride to Mena

In May, some motorcycling friends invited me to ride to Arkansas with them - Syd and Hayden, Thomas and Richard. They planned to spend a couple of days riding around the Mena area. I decided to ride on over to visit Clemson.

About half way along the Talimena Scenic Byway, we encountered a group of people riding "Gravity Vehicles" down a long steep hill.
There were skateboarders - up to about 45 mph. (A local sheriff's deputy was there with his radar gun, providing traffic control for the riders.)

And there were street luge riders - 84 mph!

The luges were quite sophisticated.

After they all came down the hill, they loaded up in a U-haul truck for the ride back to the top. They do this here once a year.

Our destination was Iron Mountain, the CMA campground at Hatfield. The other guys stayed in one of the cabins.

Like this.

Fortunately, they ran out of beds and I got to stay in the 'toy box' trailer.

Nice and roomy! And quiet!

Grandcamp - Better Late Than Never?

We didn't do very well with photojournalism during this Grandcamp.
Here is the only photo we got:

 After that, she said "Take a funny face!"  So we did.

 It was a fun time, anyway. Maybe we'll do better next time.

Aunt Bunny

Back in March, we had a delightful weekend visit with Charlotte, aka 'Aunt Bunny'. It was soooo nice to have her come see us, at last!

We did some shopping in downtown McKinney, and had a wonderful lunch at Burger on the Square.

Naomi and Aunt Bunny really hit it off.

Of course, who wouldn't!!

Thank you for making our weekend wonderful, Charlotte!

Three Chicks

Turtlehood

When Naomi visited with us a few weeks ago, she entertained Turtle.

Turtle likes to ride in a pizza box.

Turtle doesn't eat pizza, but does enjoy watching someone else eat some.

 Turtle tried some cheese.

Turtle enjoys architecture.

Turtle likes to meet other turtles.

Turtle also enjoys talking with other animals. Especially when dressed up in a napkin.

When Turtle gets tired, watching some videos is the best thing to do.

Night-night, Turtle.

Egg Day

The morning began earlier than usual - it's Egg Day!

 Soon, the hunt began in earnest. Also, in the house, since outside was chilly and rainy.

 Got one!

 Everyone pitched in.

 Checking in the kitchen...

 Yep, they are all in.

 Someone went off to a private place to sample the chocolate goodies.

 Sharing the chocolate eggs with Daddy. It was hard, at first.

 After all that strenuous hunting, it was play time.

 And clay time.

Around Here

We went to Weston, where there was a small carousel.

 ... and the beach.

 Next day, we all visited Nanny's place in Brean, for a pre-egg-hunt egg hunt. Much chocolate was there. Sadly for us, Nanny is visiting in Nepal.

 After we came home, there was watering to take care of.

Oxford

We got to spend a day in Oxford, as our anniversary celebration.

First stop: The pub where C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein hung out and discussed their writings and such.

 We had lunch with "Jack" and J. R. R. (Who would've thought "Jack" is a nickname for Clyde...)

 After riding around the city on a double-decker tour bus, we stopped in to see the Ashmolean Museum. They have lots of stuff from ancient Rome, Greece, Asia and other places. They were having a Cezanne exhibit, which we skipped.

 However, we did have Afternoon Tea at the museum's rooftop cafe.

 On our way back home, we switched trains at Ditcot Parkway - next door to a nuclear power station.

 Train riding in the UK is First Class.

We had a wonderful day!

Settling In

Naturally, it didn't take Mimi and Ada long to rekindle their friendship. Especially since Mimi brought a giant book of window stickers...

After a day of recuperation, some of us went on a short bicycle ride. Pa was exhausted by the time we got back.

Later, we visited the waterfront part in Clevedon.

Along with having an ice-cream treat, Ada tried out the car ride.

Next day, Ada took Mimi and Pa to the Garden Center for a cream-filled muffin.

Flying Out

Before we left, we got to share lunch (Chik-Fil-A - yum!) with Naomi at her school. We really enjoyed seeing her in her educational environment.

 Then Jenny drove us to the airport. See how little luggage we have this time!

We had a very good flight. Three hops, so the longest leg was much shorter than other trips, which we found to be more comfortable.

Our second hop landed us in Dublin, where we found the most wonderful establishment ever:

 During our final leg, aboard a 34 seat twin turboprop, I became enamored with the nifty 6-bladed propeller right outside our window.

 With all those spinning blades and multiple suns and 12 hours of travel, we felt like we might be on a different planet!

Primes Are Beautiful

1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19,23,27,31,37,41,43,47,53...
Lovely! What's not to like in those numbers?

Primes are great, because they are unique. They don't get mixed up with other, simpler, numbers.

46? Oh, how 23 and two-ish.

27? You think you've got something special...then you realize 3, 3 and 3. And 9. How common.

170141183460469231731687303715884105727

Now there's a little number you could love!
It happens to be Mersienne Prime 127 (aka 2^127 - 1), and held the largest prime record from 1876 until 1951. It will probably always be the largest prime calculated by hand.

:)

Kitty

Snow

We had a little snow this morning.

It was pretty cold, too -- 15F overnight, and 24F for today's high.

We seem to be having a real winter this year!

I Love Old Photos

Who does this remind you of? Wait - don't scroll down yet!

Ok, now scroll down...

Just In - New Group Photo

... with Mark & Ada added in:

Sorry about the eyes-closed image; it's the only one I could find that fit!

The World's Worst Passwords

Here's the list of the 25 worst passwords from 2013 (derived from many millions of stolen passwords that were posted online), according to Splashdata:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. 123456789
7. 111111
8. 1234567
9. iloveyou
10. adobe123
11. 123123
12. admin
13. 1234567890
14. letmein
15. photoshop
16. 1234
17. monkey
18. shadow
19. sunshine
20. 12345
21. password1
22. princess
23. azerty
24. trustno1
25. 000000

By Jared Newman | PC World
at InfoWorld Home / Security / News / The 25 worst passwords of 2013:...