Sunday, September 30, 2012

Swallowtail Tale


This past Wednesday, Hubby yelled in the door,

"Bring your Camera!" when I hear those words, I gallop walk fast to the kitchen, grab the Rebel off the table and out the door.
He points up in the top of the tree... 10 feet above my head.


At first it looked like two butterflies, just doing their thing.


But then I realized there was a 3rd butterfly behind, enlarge above photo and you can see the 3rd one


while I squealed and screamed there are THREE of them, Number four arrived.... I sent these pics to my friend who is a published butterfly expert and asked this question?

Holly, these butterflies look like they are killing or eating the big one, are butterflies cannibals?
the answer is NO, this is common for other male butterflies to come and try to lure the female away from the one she chose.. who KNEW?

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Gadgets Yada Yada Yada

Kindle Gadget

I LOVE LOVE LOVE MY KINDLE and thanks to Rose at Pics and Pieces who emailed me links for free books, I am madly browsing and downloading free books. I bought a cover for it, thanks to Mildred at Maple Lane who emailed me a link for that. (the PROBLEM IS, every day the newsletter comes and I find a book I just HAVE to read, and this thing only holds 1400 books.. I now have 7 of my own and 1 library)

Shocker was when I saw the bar on the bottom of the page saying 75 % read, I looked to see how many pages were left and it said 3324 of 4431... YIKES I am reading a book that has 4431 pages?   just think if this was printed ,I would not be able to hold it.


Flash drives, better known as portable life savers. Just plug it in and add your word docs, spread sheets, photos and take it where you want it, plug and play.

We keep all our important papers in a silver box that we are to grab if we have to flee the house because of fire, famine, flood or storms. it is heavy.

I took photos of every single thing in the house, just snap snap snap and put them in a folder named HOUSE PICS (original don't you think?).
I keep the flash drive with all the pics and papers in the silver box and that way we will have  a record of everything.
The best place to keep this would be a safety deposit box. If your house was demolished would you remember everything that was in it?
NO CHARGE FOR THIS INFO, It is FREE from ME to YOU.

Do you use flash drives or gadgets? what kind and for what? I might find one I don't have yet.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Dawn IT!


I was first introduced to the wonders of Dawn Dish Detergent in January of 1984. bob had a 24 foot cabin cruiser, see below..... Each week end, I laid around in the sun getting tanned and he cleaned the boat with Dawn and Clorox and the boat just sparkled.  He taught me this, if it is greasy, stained, glass, or a boat.

Just Dawn It!
Bob and Sandra on Tara J, January 1984

For sparkling glass, Dawn it!



Glass topped tables? Slidling glass doors? Oil lamp chimney? Glass animals?

Dawn It.... he even washes our cars with it,  but the trick to that is two small drops of Dawn in 4 gallons or water. Swish it all off with the suds, spray it clean and wipe with an OLD, very OLD towel that has lost all its Terry... if it is a new one it leaves terry junk all over the car. (we use our old pool side towels, the sun eats the terry off really fast)

See all the glass???

To clean the glass doors or table top, make suds with dawn, use an OLD washcloth and wring it as dry as you can, wipe off the dust, dry with a very old dish towel OR paper towels. it will gleam.



If you have been blessed with a dishwasher, you can't use Dawn and don't need it, since you can put everything in the dishwasher and let it do the work.

 (do not put the car, boat or table in the dishwasher, silly)

PS I have never owned a dishwasher and neither has Bob, except for the two legs and two arms kind, which is ME.

for those of you blessed with a dishwasher, I saw this on Misus Fixit

Mix Borax and Baking Soda 1/2 and 1/2 in a jar and shake it. Pour this in your dishwasher detergent side and add white vinegar to the rinse side and Voila. Cheap Stuff for all of you blessed with dishwashers, the electric kind.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Robinson Preserve -All in a Row

Robinson Preserve Boardwalk
 Thursday All In a Row, photos taken in 2008 the week they opened to the public and  before I started blogging, I found these when adding the new preserve pics....



Sandra TIP.... in the produce department, when opening a plastic bag for your produce, don't lick your thumb but rub it on the milk jug or on a  bag of frozen veggies, the bag will open easily and NO germs.




View from the tower
Join Pat at View from the edge, for Thursday, all in a row
Robinson Preserve Tower

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Ava Avocado

 Above is a mutant avocado that the darn squirrels knocked down before her time. Instead of making lemonade from lemons,

I created Ava Avocado with the help of PicMonkey

MadSnapper TRIVIA
I am married to a man with a whole alphabet of credentials after his name....

Robert Hubby Himself, NHRA, NASCAR, NFL,AFL AND MCRC  

(MCRC stands for Manatee County Radio control)

Define Credentials....A credential is an attestation of qualification, competence, or authority issued to an individual by a third party with a relevant or de facto authority or assumed competence to do so. 

You may be asking who that 3rd party is that made him The Expert in all of the above? it was Robert Himself....if only they would let him help them they could win every time.... 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Zooming In at the Twin Dolphin Marina



You can not sink someone else's end of the boat and keep your own afloat.  Charles Bower



 Dead ahead, through the pitch-black night, the captain sees a light on a collision course with his ship.
He sends a signal: "Change your course ten degrees east."

 "Change yours ten degrees west," comes the reply



The captain responds, "I'm a United States Navy captain! Change your course, sir!"



 "I'm a seaman second class," the next message reads. "Change your course, sir."



The captain is furious. "I'm a battleship! I'm not changing course!"




"I'm a lighthouse. Your call."

Readers Digest 9/3/03



Monday, September 24, 2012

Gadgets Galore - Conspiracy Theory?


Above are my a few of my  most beloved Gadgets...

 Five In One Card reader that I had to buy because HP only put 2 sizes slots for memory cards               (Conspiracy? do they own the card reader company?)

 and of course my camera has the size that is not in the laptop. .... this handy dandy contraption will read all five sizes , but I am thinking they have invented a 6 and 7th size since I bought the five card reader. Plug it in a USB port and I can download from 5 different sizes of memory cards.

USB Multi-Port Gadget  ... this allows me to plug 4 USB cords into one port on the computer. Laptop has two ports, Desktop PC has 2 on the front and 4 on the back, the ones on the back are FULL and since I prefer a cordless mouse and keyboard, one of the front ports is busy...

 (conspiracy theory here is, they leave SPACES on the back to ADD more ports, because they KNOW 4 is not enough and we have to BUY and install) so if they took the time to put the space there why not the port?

TO BE CONTINUED due to much yada yada yada blah blah blah of MadSnapper A.K.A as MadTyper

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Bye Bye....


I came out of Staples and next door is K-Mart, so I snapped this and went inside... and guess what they sell in K-Mart now???

 Did you guess they Sell Sandra now???  So now you can all buy one of ME and have your own MadSnaper, but not all Sandra's are MadSnapper.....


I leave you with a pic of Publix next door to K-Mart and Staples and say Bye Bye will see you on Monday. Sunday is Family Affair with all my cousins. First to Church to see my Uncle made Lifetime Deacon, since he has been one in the same church for 50 years and then home with my cousin Bonnie for Lunch with Cousins.


we are also saying Bye Bye to our Bananas until next year.... This is the last of them.... CLICK HERE to see what Baby thinks about bananas.
SEE YOU ALL MONDAY

Friday, September 21, 2012

With A Passion


One Lone Passion flower on top of the fence, the last hoo rah until next summer. I was shocked to see this flower, the vine is dying and the leaves have been decimated by the caterpillars, but there it sat, waiting for me.


It has said the color purple shows good judgment and if you surround yourself with it, you will feel Peace.


24 hours later, the flower closes.....



 Goodbye purple passion, see you next year when you come back to become the incubator for our Gulf Fritterary butterfly population.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

All In A Row - The Valentine House

Robinson Preserve Visitor Center

Robinson's Preserve is a 400 acre park with a 40 foot observation tower with views of the Gulf of Mexico,  bays and the Manatee River, plus views of 4 counties.

Kayakers can paddle the mangrove trails or out into the river. there is a 500 foot boardwalk and 10 miles of hiking/biking shell trails that connect to the beaches, waterways and marshland.



 The Valentine House is an old Victorian house and   was moved to the park by barge on the river and renovated at the cost of 350,000, and is used as the visitor center.


The preserve is a coastal ecosystem that is a bird lovers paradise and also has resident coyotes, raccoon and other wild life.
Open daily to the public from dawn to dusk. FREE of charge and





Satellite view from Google Maps.... 6. 2 miles from my front door......

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

What She Did Next....


If you guessed what I did next on yesterdays post, most of you guessed Madly Snapping, which was part of what I did next. I walked through the parking  lot (yes, I did snap the parking lot) to the REST ROOM..... and a pretty one it is, the parking lot and the restroom.


As I left the rest room I saw this path and followed it and found this adorable mushroom picnic table


 and a see saw shaped like a dragon fly


We have a fine kettle of fish in our house. We are both having Senior Moments at the same time... we need at least one of us to keep our Brain....conversation yesterday...

Sandra:  did you turn off the AC?    Bob:  I  don't know, did I?