a skunk has moved into the hole I would have planted my box in

Skunk solution = Chocolate Ex-Lax. Put it in or near the hole, the skunks will eat it (if they don't eat it, stuff it in a piece of bread or a pancake, but ours ate it up right out of the box). Skunks will then make a mess in their hole and they are such fastidious creatures they won't go back. We had skunks under our deck and this always got them to move along to cleaner quarters.

Bring PLENTY of water! It will still be hot and humid that time of year, especially for the Yankees. :-)

Little battery operated fans might be in order as well. Looking forward to finally meeting you!

Knit Wit

gee, thanks. I did check on previous posts and did not realize people were talking about the same thing, except for the font issue.
refresh the page every time? really?

So wishing we could have made this one! Car repairs derailed our budget...sigh! Hoping hoping hoping this will be something annual or every other year? We'd love to get back to the island! Glad all went well!

I plan on planting a box for a limited time (at a specific event) this fall. How much notice is usually given for these types of things. This is not a letterboxing event but a regional event.

Where are the display properties?

107 coming up? Y'all, apply Paris Hilton commentaries.

[[Its a Google Chrome issue, I refreshed and it went away!!]]

It was the same in FF last night - much better today :)

Okay Ryan, I refresh the page and it helped. But why does it do that? I'm using Google Chrome and I got the blurry text. It just started doing that this month.

Sally-O

Thanks, refreshing the page fixed the problem. I'm using Firefox BTW. Thanks for your help.

No problem in Chrome...

My home page now has a blank right column.

Mine does too. What text size do you have selected under preferences? I use "huge" for my old eyes but when I go into preferences and change it to "normal", I have a right column again with the search box at the top. Guess I'll have to get used to the empty right column though - I need the bigger text!

same here lovebirds.
If I decrease the font size the search box and the image drop below the left two columns. But like you I need/want the larger font.

Must mean that there is a fixed column width instead of a percentage relationship allowing the columns to adjust; or a minimum size width any way.

So nice to see Yosemite on My Page! :-)

Yosemite MJD

Actually, I'm more worried about what he'll HEAR in NC.....
do we have any EAR protection products

I just happen to have a good supply of Ear Plugs!

I had spotted this book on paperbackswap and thought I would give it a try. It's a very interesting book. It moves quickly and the main character Jacob, 15/16, is very likeable.

It basically opens with the death of his grandfather, whom Jacob finds, dying in the backwoods of Florida, and his grandfather, who always enchanted him with crazy stories and pictures of his own childhood, dies rambling on about finding the "the bird".

So, a mystery is set forth and Jacob sets out to find out the mysteries of his grandfather's dying words . . . coupled with an added desire to prove to his own father, the grandfather's son, that his own dad was wrong about the grandfather.

This is Ransom Riggs' first novel. What is unique about this novel is that he uses photographs of strange "perculiar" people to help string his story along . . almost like illustrations for adults. And it works . . . mostly.

A few compliants: one, most of the book is set in Wales . . . but I never got that Welsh feel. Two, there are, and excuse the pun, loop holes in the overall story. And three, I really don't like it when stories bring out a character that was not ever previously mentioned, suddenly mentioned as part of the "solution/resolution" to main character. (To me, this was the one picture, and story part, that really did not fit or flow.)

However, I found the story to refreshing and interesting. I finished the book in one day. I do believe my 15/16 will enjoy it and have passed it on to him.

So, I give it 3 stars:
one, because it's written well
two, because the storyline does not stall and kept me interested enough to finish it one day
and three because I think the pictures included really work.

I suspect R. Riggs is going to follow this book up with a second book, as the story does not end and not all the loose ends are tied.

slick kitty

Skunks will then make a mess in their hole and they are such fastidious creatures they won't go back. We had skunks under our deck and this always got them to move along to cleaner quarters

ok, yeah, but. . . um. . . who's gonna clean up the mess before you put the box in there???

just sayin. . .

~tigs

If this is a Letterboxing Event, I would post the clues with enough time so that those who are attending can print their own clues in advance, three days to a week ahead is good. But with a bigger Letterboxing Event, many people will be printing up new clues right up to the minute they leave in their car. If it is not a Letterboxing Event but a "regional event" where some letterboxers will be attending, you might want to print up a couple extra clues and bring them to hand out as the Letterboxers might not be expecting boxes to be hidden there. :-) An extra little surprise for them.

The skunk left long ago. Animal Control came out and set a trap next to the tree that the skunk was living in. They were going to relocate it to a conservation area for us. We left the trap there for a week and eventually we caught something... a neighbor cat! When we went to set the cat free, hubby noticed the skunk had pushed a bunch of dirt in the hole opening but it was clear that the dirt was pushed from the inside to the outside and we weren't sure if she dug another way out or was barricading herself in there or what. We decided not to re-bait the trap since the skunk obviously didn't care about it and we called Animal Control who came back out and picked up their trap. A couple of days later, we saw a skunk squashed on the road not too far from our yard. We thought maybe it was "our" skunk but the dirt was still pushed from the inside out. We didn't see the skunk again.

A week later, as I was doing dishes, I saw something wandering around our backyard. Skunk baby! It was the cutest thing but I still didn't want it in my yard! Hubby went out and threw sticks near it (never hit it, just trying to scare it off) and it kept lifting its tail but it was clear that it wasn't able to spray just yet. It wandered back to the side yard. Next day, here comes skunk baby again, and outside goes hubby to throw sticks near it. Up goes the tail, then it wanders off. Next day, TWO SKUNK BABIES! Hubby goes back out to throw sticks near them, up go both tails, then they wander off. Haven't seen either of them since.

Hubby stuffed the tree hollow full of rocks so no more skunks move in. My plans for planting a yard letterbox have been abandoned for now. I'm just glad the skunks are gone. :) I'm ok with all of the other critters we have here - deer, rabbits, foxes, and even that stupid mole, but I don't want my daughter getting sprayed by a skunk!

I don't think you need to refresh each time, or at least you shouldn't. I haven't had the problem that everyone is talking about. Try clearing your history on your browser.

Where are the display properties?

On your desktop, right-click on a blank area (not on a shortcut). Choose Properties. In that box, look for the Settings tab. You can change your properties there. Screen Resolution could be the problem. I do not know for certain that this will help, but I do know that it has caused problems for me on other websites before.

... too bad it isn't in the Los Angeles County Library system yet... I just tried looking it up, with intent to place a hold on it (have it pulled and waiting for me).

I also finished this book this weekend and enjoyed it. I agree with everything slick kitty said about the book. It was interesting, kept a good pace, had likeable characters, and provided a couple of twists I didn't see coming.

I will, however, say this: I could have done without the photos. I don't much care for books that rely overly on photos to make me see things in a certain way. I much prefer to imagine characters, monsters, locations, or whatever as I want them to be. I mean, the odd photos were interesting but really didn't add to the story for me. I would have prefered them all to be at the end so I could have enjoyed their weirdness but not have it impact my reading. I will admit it is a catchy marketing idea however, and I am interested to see where the author takes the next book.

I would also like to know where the display properties are. I just looked trying to find out what browser of IE I am using and yahoo comes up and searches that icon but then quickly disappears. What's up with that? Used to be an icon in my display bar at the bottom of the page but it is gone for some reason, so all there is is the IE icon on my desk top and that is what happens when I click on it.

As a side note I have had no problems on the home page, at all. Crossing fingers....

Edited: Thanks, Dizzy, will check that out.

Used to be an icon in my display bar at the bottom of the page but it is gone for some reason,

Either you somehow got the task bar to stop displaying your Quick Launch or you accidentally deleted the icon from it. To add the icon back to the Quick Launch, just drag the icon from your desktop down to the task bar. Is that what you mean?

We found the cootie, "Delicious Watermelon" today!! (July 31, 2011)
How exciting!

I found some this weekend too. In my washing machine. In my kitchen cupboard. In my pantry....

That'll teach me to host a letterboxing sleepover.

Won't do me much good to move that icon if the icon doesn't work for me. Is there another place to find what browser I am using? Thanks for your help. I haven't tried what you suggested to the other person yet, but will in a second...

Just tried what you spoke of to Mim, no settings listed when I right click. Nividia properties, but nothing listed that says settings. strange....am I being controlled by some outside source, enter twilight zone music....

I too have a couple that are not for beginners. The clue to one is vague but not hard. The box has been found without any hints from me so I know it's findable. I do have one box that has a F-1 P-1 restriction on it just because it's really an easy find and I didn't want it to be someone's first box only to have it go missing the next day.

Shiloh

Advice? Newbie friendly?

Is there a way to get the newer themes without the shadow lettering?