for Texas Monthly magazine. Enter jimmiewhipple@gmail.com as the user and whippleworld as the password. We plan to follow Glenn on a group river trip down the Guadalupe in June - might check out the article “20 Great Things To Do On Texas Rivers“. That stretch of river we live by here, between Canyon Lake (watch out for green worms) and Gruene, is their recommendation for best tubing in the whole state. The login oughta be good until the 6 month free trial runs out.

Pint Lock

Taylor, did the puppies’ ears make you think of it? Funny, funny puppy ears. The top picture is Blaze on the left, Dodger in the back and Loretta Lynne on the right. The middle picture is Rascal, who is handsome like Paul Newman. We’re keeping Dodger and Rascal. Two puppies jumped right off the deck into the pool today (which is unusual because we usually have to throw them in). They have a single thought at a time but they have it very intensely, so before jumping it’s “how do I get in this pool, gotta get into the pool!” once they swim a couple of dog paddles their only thought instantly changes to “how do I get out of this pool, gotta get outta this pool!”. Before they finish shaking the water off their fur, it’s “how do I get that baseball cap off the deck without getting caught, gotta get that baseball cap!!” There’s something cute going on constantly, they’re the sweetest, friendliest, smartest puppies you ever met.

This one is pretty cool

This one is just plain freaky

Bathsheba Grossman makes metal sculptures based on math formulas.

The Gyroid is a fantastic triply periodic minimal surface that divides all of space into two congruent regions.

click to play

Are you having a good summer so far????????????????????????????

Here’s how.

Three decades worth: Tyler 20, Grace 11, Jonah 2.

Steely Dan’s Skunk Baxter consults General Atomics on anti-terrorism?

Your gardening show, just like you promised, that was the best we’ve ever been to. I had a great talk with the Cactus Club guy there and he said that my night blooming cactus might not be common but they’re not rare and actually pretty easy to buy online from collectors around the world. I’d never thought to look before but, he’s right, there are a bunch of sites - I’ll post some links in a comment. We’re going to order some cuttings soon so if anybody wants any let us know. Susan and Charlie Whipple had a booth with plants from their greenhouse at the show and they are the only people I’ve seen around here that grow and sell night bloomers. He smuggled a cutting out of Hawaii, knowing what it was from seeing Granddad’s plant (that we have in backyard now) in the 60’s. To make the world even smaller, Kim knew of and was able to describe the exact spot that Charlie nabbed his cutting. All his plants have come from that one little piece of stem he hid in his shoe. Charlie tells that story to customers and now he has another little interesting tidbit to add to it. These are two photos from the sites we found.

One of the most popular things at the plant show was the city-wide plant exchange. I think we should try to do the same thing (on a somewhat smaller scale) at our next hootenanny. I’m going to start potting up spare plants now so they’ll be rooted and ready to go home to new landscapes.
Here’s what I’ve got:
Red Firecracker Plant
Mexican Mint Marigold
Trailing Rosemary
Vinca Major
I’m sure that John would give anyone who wants one a Spanish Dagger or Spanish Bayonet Yucca. And we have lots of English Ivy and cuttings of Night Blooming Cactus.
If you’ve seen something in the yard that you’d like to have - let me know and I’ll try to pot it up for you.
Also, at the show, they asked folk to print up some info on the plant they brought - name, features, needs and such - and I’d like us to do that too.
Make comments on what you have and what you’re looking for. Should be fun!

This man’s quest is to visit 1000 Bars in one year’s time. He’s become a minor celebrity, and has a popular Blog devoted to his efforts.

Phone Ring Tone Set to Top UK Charts: Something called “Crazy Frog Axel F” (a ring tone based on the sound of a revving Swedish mo-ped) is beating out the new Coldplay single for the top of the British charts.

Listen here.

Almost everyone between 10 and 30 years old in Korea is doing this Cyworld thing, the largest saturation of any specific demographic in the history of the Internet. Near 100% of people in their 20’s and one in four of the entire population. It’s like the hulahoop over there. Here in the West it’s the “informative and opinionated” blog but there it’s more like you decorate a digital room and you invite people to come visit you like a role playing game. If they like you, they buy you a present. And somehow, you get a score for how courtious a host you are.

Here’s a chart of the growth of blogs. The first post here was in July of 2003 - I hadn’t realized that we were part of the beginning. There are now 9,000,000 blogs but there are 13,000,000 Cyworld accounts with 30,000 new accounts starting everyday so it sounds like Korea is outpacing the whole rest of the world with this one cyber community. Wild, huh?

Of what we got at the plant sale:

Manfreda maculosa paid $10 (okay, I spent too much!)
Peacock Ginger paid $10 (but there’s at least 4 plants in that pot)
Wax Plant Porcelain Flower (Hoya carnosa) paid $2
Double Confederate Rose (hibiscus mutavilis) paid $5 each for 3 one gallon pots
Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus ) free with plant trade
Four O’Clock, Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis jalapa) free with plant trade
Passionflower, Apricot Vine (Passiflora incarnata) free with plant trade
Turk’s Cap, Red mallow free with plant trade
Bush Morning Glory one free with plant trade, paid $2 each for three (but they gave me six)
‘Bull’s Eye” Begonia Conchifolia John paid $???
Withlacoochee Begonia John paid $???
Angels Trumpets 2 free, 1 John bought for $3

(I tried to do this as a comment but there were too many links)
I’ll add to it as I finish the list!

Congratulations Momma! I’m so glad you got the car you wanted.

here’s something For Chris!

SAFestival of Flowers 2005

This is an entry in thier Potty-o garden contest.
They also have a plant (and seed) exchange - I’m taking Mexican Marigold (or Mx. Tarrogan) to trade.

I think it’s gonna rain tonight.

Glad I’m not camping!

of Japan

break the record for most comments! Comment, comment, comment about anything on this post.

* It’s so cool that Flickr is open source, it allows for important cultural projects like The Flickr Chia Pet and The Giant Peach. Hit the back button for more info on the Giant Peach project and click on any photo inside the poster to see it enlarged. It works because the guy “KrazyDad” developed this Flickr color picker that selects photos by their predominate color. How cool is that? He invites people to submit to his pool called Squared Circle. Here’s an even better live digital poster. If you were to