So you’ve tried naming the 50 states. How about trying to drop them into the map tetris-style? I can’t seem to get Nevada in without bumping into something. And the spinny levels are a little difficult, too.
To play the game, you use the arrow keys. The space bar will drop the state to the bottom once you have it in place. On the spinny levels, the up arrow rotates the state pieces. Have fun wasting time! At least this doesn’t take ten minutes like the other game does.
Click HERE to play.
There are also several fun do-dads in the left margin. One lets you put your face on different monuments. Here’s one of mine:
I’ve got another rabbit in my yard. Yes, he’s cute and furry and brown. But he also eats my plants.
This winter I ordered special double-petaled coreopsis seeds. I planted them in seed trays and carefully cared for them. After they sprouted, I found nice places for them to grow in my garden… And they were cruelly cut down by the rabbit. Now they’re mere stumps and may not start to flower until late August, which would only give them a month of blooming before the days get cooler and shorter and the flowers stop coming.
What a sad, sad fate for a normally cheerful little flower.
The rabbit even chewed my aster! When/if I get this rabbit, out of respect for my more sensitive viewers, I will not announce it.
EXHIBIT ONE:
EXHIBIT TWO:
EXHIBIT THREE:
There are no spoilers in this post or in its links.
Well, despite the internet’s best efforts, and the mockery from my friends, I was able to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows without knowing anything about the ending.
It was an easy book to read because it was very fast moving. I think there was as much action in this book as there was in all the previous books combined. But I’m glad to be done, because I was in voluntary seclusion and would not read anything on the internet or watch any regular TV. I was afraid someone would give something away.
Yes, yes, I know: It’s not a great work of literary genius. J. K. Rowling is no John Updike. But it’s a fun story. I have enjoyed the books, and I enjoy knowing about them as I talk with my students. And I will not be telling anyone how it ends. 
I have waited two and a half months for this moment: Today I opened the cinnamon-clove toothpaste. I got it on May 11, but had only just bought a new tube of another flavor on May 7, so I had to wait. For two and a half months.
It tasted just as I remember… strong cinnamon taste, no artificial sweeteners to give me a bitter-metallic aftertaste. Glorious!
Between May 11 and now, I have kept looking compulsively at toothpaste isles. At a tree-hugger store, I saw a flavor of Tom’s toothpaste I hadn’t seen before: Fennel. I bought it out of curiosity. Last night I opened it and smelled it. UGH! It smelled exactly like the worst part of black licorice flavor. I didn’t throw it away yet because it fascinates me to open it and smell it and retch. Plus, it has a pretty purple label.
I’ve done something heretofore unprecedented. I’ve gotten a second pair of summer shoes. While in Nebraska, I had discovered that my first pair had slidey soles. Often, on uneven ground, my foot would slip off the shoe and my ankle would turn. It was just a matter of time before I hurt myself.
So I got new flip-flops. These were on sale, so they were a good deal. The only problem is some stiff stitching on the underside of the strap that has made the top of my foot sore. I already have my summer toe callous. Now I have to develop some top-of-the-foot tough skin.
But they look nice, don’t they?
