“Very yummy lunch today,” posts JeanC of JeanC's Cat House & Shooting Gallery, “brought some tamales and topped them with the leftover sauteed onions, crimini mushrooms and wilted spinach from last night's dinner (which was burgers topped with the aforementioned yumminess) and fries. See blog here.

Featured Blog: “Experts said that by age six, girls needed branded clothes, at seven they wanted styled hair, by eight they were beginning diets, at nine they were styling their hair and by early teens were engaging in sex or sending sexually explicit text messages.” So says a news article by Gemma Jones and Clementine Cuneo that appeared in The Daily Telegraph, out of Sydney, Australia. Either this is just an Australian phenomenon or my family is severely isolated, because I’m not seeing this in my 8-year-old daughter or her friends/Idaho Dad, A Family Runs Through It. More here.

• 10 things about Coeur d'Alene High choir concert/A Butterfly Moment
• Chicago visit/Accidental Rabbit Trails
• False friend/Arch Druid
• Inverse proportions of assorted beach landmarks/Atmospheric Ruminations
• Angry about natural disasters/Bay Views
• Lessons of Joplin, Mo., for Spokane/Community Comment
• Is Obama's race really to blame?/Dogwalk Musings
• I can't imagine life in tornado alley/From A Simple Mind
• The color purple/Gathering Around the Table
• Where oh where Wednesday/Get Out! North Idaho
• Reach out/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope
• Positive thinkers and other liars/My Life's A Freak Show
• This raindrop and that raindrop Thursday/Slight Detour
• Spraing/Stebbijo's Place

Hucks Online numbers (for Wednesday, May 25): 7159/4492

Question: When did your girl(s) start asking for branded clothes, styled hair, piercings, and using makeup?

I'm not sure when it happened, but I looked at my hands one day and realized they weren't my own anymore, they were my grandmothers'. I'm not unhappy about it tho, I loved my grandmothers and have very fond memories of them and their hands. Hands that worked the soil, baked, cooked, caressed and brushed my hair. The hands of my Grandma Mabel as she handed me a baby chick to hold. My Grandmother Florence's hands as she tucked me into bed when I visited her and she handed me Little House on the Prairie to read/JeanC, JeanC's Cat House & Shooting Gallery. More here.

Question: Have you noticed something about your physical appearance that indicates you're becoming more like your parents or grandparents?

“So I discovered I had an elk roast hiding in the deep freeze,” posts JeanC @ JeanC’s Cat House & Shooting Gallery. “So I decided that would be dinner last night. I browned it in an oven safe pan with some olive oil, sweet onions and mushrooms. Seasoned the roast with some kosher salt and pepper and then a goodly dose of balsamic vinegar just before putting it in the oven to finish cooking.” More here.

• Blessed Sunday: My first-born turns 11/A Butterfly Moment
• I’ve been up to London to visit the queen/A Family Runs Through It
• Book Review: Broken Government: Comparing Obama to Bush, Part 2, and: Broken Government, Part 1/Arch Druid
• Imagine John Lennon at age 70/Atmospheric Ruminations
• Lolo Pass oil shipments/Bay Views
• Dame Joan Sutherland dead at age 83/Community Comment
• The hunter is gone/From A Simple Mind
• The roses of October/Gathering Around the Table
• 3BT: St. Roni, photo shoot at farmers’ market, Yi Shen curry/Kellogg Bloggin’
• A day at Greenbluff/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope
• Remembering Dad: Ron Rankin/More Main Street
• Dear Santa/Notes On A Napkin
• Pop culture mash-ups/Rants, Raves, & Random Thoughts
• North Idaho diversions/Skookum Photography
• Ploddin’ with Lilly/Slight Detour
• Faulty map/Tumblewords

Hucks Online numbers: for Monday (10,149/5980), and for week of Oct. 3-9 (59,945/35,220).

Got deferred again thanks to a fast pulse, even tho I gave them the note from my doc saying that there is no problem. So now I wait for them to give the note from my doc to their doc and have him call me so I can tell him my pulse is fast because I am terrified of needles. Giving blood shouldn’t be this damned difficult! I can tell you that my pulse rate when I first donated way back when would have been a LOT higher then it was today. Heck, I was in and out in less then 10 minutes once they hooked me up. The guy who had gone in before me was still there when I filled my first pint and left/Jean C’s Cat House & Shooting Gallery. More here.

Question: When did you last give blood? Do you give blood often? Have you ever been rejected as you tried to give blood?

A family of sparrows found a puddle of melted snow on East Lakeshore Dr. the perfect place to take a bath on this sunny February day in North Idaho/Kerri Thoreson, OnLocation North Idaho.

Boobie Squishing Time: So I had my annual mammogram first thing this morning. Not really something I like to have to get up early for, but it is over and done with for this year and now I just have to await the results. Fingers crossed I don’t get that stupid letter again saying they need to do further examinations. Ultrasounds are freakin’ cold!/JeanC’s Cat House & Shooting Gallery. More here.

• Getting better, Pogo style/Accidental Rabbit Trails
• Marmie celebrates 2nd ‘blob’ anniversary/Twaddle
• Cat-astrophe/Dogwalk Musings
• Could I live like a slumdog?/Simple Mind
• Take KMPO’s nonmotorized transportation plan survey/Kootenai MPO

Question: How often do you visit your doctor for a complete physical examination?

JeanC: when I was growing up Santa always wrapped our presents, but didn’t have name tags on them. We knew which ones were ours as Santa always piled them in separate piles and took our stockings off the mantel and put them on the correct pile of presents for us kids. Presents from family were always under the tree with tags on them.

Question: Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?