The Pasta Dragon & the Rigatoni Pony

 Let's take a peek in the building where the Thanksgiving Parade floats are made. Here is my favorite. Rao's company made a dragon using different kinds of pasta.

His nose seems to be a ravioli. And maybe lasagna for the mouth. And look! His claws are elbow macaroni!

Here, the brave knight fights the dragon on his rigatoni pony. It is decorated with spaghetti.

Here they are together on the float.

The dragon appears to be riding on a rooster.

He is fierce looking. And appears to be spitting spaghetti sauce.

But he can also breathe fire!

Here are the drawings the artists came up with before they made him.

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that two or three days later, you're hungry again."

- George Miller

 

“Dragons symbolize the untamed majesty of the natural world.”

Happy Thanksgiving 2024!

 The Big Cat is all dressed up for his Thanksgiving turkey dinner. He wishes you a wonderful turkey day.

By the way, do you notice a certain smirk on his face?

This is because he has seen the Big Cow, and he is celebrating thanksgiving totally NAKED! Unlike our more refined and proper cat. He is definitely not invited to the cat's dinner.

On our way to visit them, I spied a pretty sight behind our house.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

Sunday Sunset

 I snapped these from the Target parking lot. The sun had just gone down, but the trees were hiding the very bottom part of the sunset.

Life is a journey, but don't worry, you'll find a parking spot at the end.

Isaac Asimov

 

The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think.

Tom Vanderbilt

 

The Only One In The World

 This is Xaver Wilhelmy. He is a member of our church and comes from Austria. He is a craftsman and inventor who created the first pipe organ in the world with glass pipes. It is huge, and is dedicated to the 911 victims. It took him 18 months to build.

The flag design flows around the pipes, sometimes on the front and sometime dipping behind the pipe just like it’s flowing in the wind.

When he made THIS FLAG, he employed people of various nationalities to create this working sound sculpture. They created something that had never existed before.

“What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.”

—Author David Levithan

Easter For Christmas

 A big new trend this year seems to be decorating for Christmas with all pink. Count me in! I snapped these photos in only one store ( T.J. Maxx). But pink is everywhere! I have done some myself, which I will be posting at some point. What about you? 

New Mural

 There is a new winter mural in town. We happened to pass it today.

I think it's cute, and really like it. Can you guess where it is?

On the McDonald's wall! If you look at the background in the middle photo, you can barely see their dollar menu on the wall inside.

Ginkos 2024

 The Ginkos were in bloom awhile ago. We came across this one that had dropped it's leaves all over a car under it.

Here are some other pretty ones around town.

You can tell Ginko trees because their leaves look like little fans. The memory drug Ginko Biloba is made from the dried leaves.

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     They are living fossils, having survived the Jurrasic period and existing unchanged for 270 million years. This makes it the oldest tree on earth, a living link to the dinosaurs. This is a Ginko leaf fossil from millions of years ago!

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• ·       They can grow for thousands of years. There is one in China that is 3,500 years old.
• ·       Four Ginkos survived the Hiroshima bombing. They were charred, but still live today.
• ·       You can tell them by their fan shaped leaves. Ginkos have no relatives, they are one of a kind.

Coffee & A Beaver

 When we were out this evening, we saw the blackest clouds! 

We were at Starbucks, and I figured there would be no chance to snap the full Beaver Moon.

But then it started to come out of the clouds.