Catsup? Or Ketchup?

I keep saying I'm going to update the blog, but really, I still haven't really worked out why I do it at all. I'm still here for now, though, and I promised pickachers, so let's get right to them. There's a good mix of animals and...my kids. Who are, from a scientific point of view, also animals. Anyway.

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This here is Beau. Nope, apparently we didn't change his name from that which he was given by his foster mom. The important thing here is to check out those ear tufts. I have never had a cat with ear tufts before; I love 'em. And he is a Really Sweet Kitty. Funny, too.

I promised you sheep, and so you shall have them. The other day, on our way home, we turned up the street before ours and... this is what we saw. Despite the fact that our little street isn't well-traveled, our neighbors were still doing a fine job of gawking (too).

That is, until the owner of that house discovered them eating away at her lawn (and bushes). She promptly shooed them away...

which pretty much meant that the show was over, except for this little lady, who gave one last, wistful look at the green grass. I don't blame her, though. I miss green grass, too - having it more than eating it, I mean.

A couple days later, our dogs alerted us to a crisis of wooly proportion. On the hillside adjacent to our...hillside, there were the sheep. My dogs, despite the fact that their breed is designed to protect sheep, did not get that memo. They are definitely not happy about the sheep. Nope.

Enough with the sheep, though, already. Let's (quickly) visit a parade. That's Molly (sort of) in the middle - to the left of the middle - on a horse they later learned was NOT parade-savvy. The lady next to the horse is the owner of the ranch where Molly takes her lessons. She had to walk next to Tug the entire parade route because he was really ornery. Figures, huh? He's the oldest one - supposed to be bomb-proof - and maybe he is, but not parade-proof.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch('s parade float), Bridget was thrilled to get to ride on the hay wagon. I know she doesn't look thrilled in this picture, but trust me - it was way better than walking.

About a month ago, we visited an ostrich farm, where they raise ostriches for their meat, mostly. But separate from that area, they have a few that are sort of on display. These are a few of the babies:

And this one here is part of the official meet 'n greet team, at least in the sense that they are among the breed (I think there are three breeds? or four.) that is friendliest. This one will come up to you if you call her over.

Continuing our fowl theme for one more picture, here's a goose who lives at the little lake around the bend, so to speak. I just happened to like this picture - there's really no other reason for including it.

For the next month, we get to call this "P.E.". Or recess. Both, really. The kids (the two older kids) are taking a rock climbing class with a county-based homeschooling group. It is So Cool, and I suspect we'll be back after the month-long session is over. That's James and Molly on the boulder there - Molly is wearing the purple pants, and James is to next to her, looking at the camera.

Here's a close-up of Molly. The first day, she made it about half-way up the wall (the one surrounding that boulder in the middle), but today, she went to the very top twice. At the end of the class, she was exhausted - it's a lot of work!

This was my "school" table and one of (too many of) our bookcases, as I was preparing for the beginning of school. It is usually clean and organized (stop laughing).

Photographic evidence that, sometimes, they get along. Okay, truly, it's very blurry and clearly not a great picture, but it's one of pictures I've taken recently that I really, really love. It may not be saying a thousand words, but there are plenty there, and they all make me smile.

Last picture! Look at those cheeks! Oh, I know you can't really see them, but you know they're there. And as you can see, she was very proud of her (I think it's a) giraffe. I'm proud, too, even if I think it's more of an interpretive piece of art, if you know what I mean. CORRECTION: Bridget says this is a llama. I asked her, "It's not a giraffe?" and she said, "No, because it doesn't have spots." Well, I was right about the interpretive thing, anyway.

And that concludes the slide scroll show for today (this month). As an aside, I need to add something about a post I made earlier, but which I later deleted. It was about Barack Obama, and it was inflammatory and clearly so extremely biased as to be of little benefit in terms of actually documenting reasons not to support the senator, and I regret ever putting it on my blog in the first place.

I'm not a fan of big government, and I'm especially not a fan of Big Spending and Big Government, and those are *my* points of contention with Sen. Obama's platform. The rest is just details, or in the case of that video, an attempt to distract from should be a focus on issues, and where the candidates stand.

I strongly agree that we can't do four more years, but in my opinion, I think that the Democratic platform is a bit too much of an over-correction.

On the other hand, Sen. McCain made it a helluva lot harder (as in, impossible) to support him, when he chose Palin as his running mate. No. No. Not just no, but hell no. And despite my objections to the Democratic platform right now, I don't think Sen. Obama would make a bad president. On the other hand, as much as I'd like to be thrilled that a woman might be a VP, I just want to say - please, no, not that woman. The thought that a radically conservative chick (which really should be an oxymoron, go figure) might have a say in the selection of a Supreme Court justice appointment makes me want to weep. By comparison, I guess I only want to whimper when I read about Obama's plans.

The way I see it, my choices are a) Big Government, b) Losing ground on women's rights, c) not voting, d) writing in someone's name, or e) voting for one of the other (non-major party) candidates. I like Bob Barr's platform; ideologically, it is closer to mine than either of the other two. Realistically, though, it's sort of a non-vote, so I still feel like I have to choose between two platforms, neither of which are really representative of my own views.

Sometimes, I think it would be easier to be an ostrich.