I imagine there is a place for everything, every creature, in this world of ours. But I really don’t like sharing my space on this great Earth with three pests that I honestly have to wonder if we could do without.

Would it really devastate the eco system and balance of wildlife if we never had another mosquito, tick or jellyfish? Wouldn’t something else in the food chain and eco system step up to take their place in a less objectionable way? I detest ticks and mosquitos – they carry disease and cause great discomfort at the very least to both humans and mammals. And jellyfish – what good do they do? They can ruin a day or week at the beach in a matter of minutes with their painful stings and no way to evade them in the water.

I remember my first visit to the Iwa Jima statue in Washington, DC. It is on a little hill overlooking the Potomac River, with a paved area in front for the military color guards to present arms in their sombering ceremonies.

The Vietnam Memorial is another awe inspiring monument to the military in Washington and a beautiful tribute to the thousands of men and woen who have died while serving this great country of ours.

If you’ve never been to our Nation’s Capitol, you should make a point of point of doing so and including these two memorials on your visit. It’s your civic duty.

I’ve been checking out some of the other online spades sites and it is amazing to me to see how many different sites are hosting live online multiplayer paes games. Each site has a unique approach to both the graphics and the rule. The skill level of the players at the different sits vary greatly.

I think I’ve found the best site that suits my needs at Hardwood Spades. The graphics are awesome – totally breathtaking in a medieval theme. The game settings are reasonable and close to the rules that I embrace. And there seems to be at least 300 players online an playing at any given time, day or night, so getting ito a game does not take long.

As a tournament host for our spades league, part of my duties as host is to post the rules for each tournament so the players can review and agree to the rules before registering for the tournament. My touramets often feature variations to the basic rules, so posts my rules is very important.

Most tournament directors like to add colors and graphics to their rules pages  to make them more interesting, which we do by coding html on the page.  So I’ve had to teach myself html on the fly. It’s easier than I expected and I’m urprised at how much I enjoy  writing the code and creating the pages.

Although I haven’t seen my mother in a few years, we exchange emails and phone calls to keep in touch. She lives so far away and neither of us can get away from home for an extended period due to our business responsibilities. But I miss her and am glad for an occasion other than her birthday in September to think of her and send her an expression of my love and appreciation.

Mother, I hope you have a wonderful day today.

The history of May Day is something I never really appreciated until recently. With all four sides of my grandparents being from Great Britain, I have begun reading more on the history and customs observed across the pond.

I do hope to go over some day for a visit. I guess I need to get my passport issued and start watching for package tours.

There is a lot of history on this site that I found fascinating. It started with a focus on Robin Hood but it has so much more.