Friday thoughts

I like the new French milled lavender rosemary soap. But I feel like I'm marinating myself for the benefit of some large carnivore.

Also, this is pretty cool:

Ah, Texas...

Authorities said human remains found in a shallow grave in rural North Texas are those of a missing U.S. Army soldier, five years after they think he was killed.

According to the criminal complaint, authorities arrested Green's mother, Terri Green; his sister, Brittany Jan Green; and his sister's friend, Stephanie Heaston-Corral. All three are charged with tampering with evidence. Their attorneys did not return phone messages Tuesday afternoon.

Brittany Green allegedly told authorities that her brother said he had shot Ramirez twice because he "did not believe in God and alleged that Ramirez reached for a gun," the complaint said. Terri Green helped her son move Ramirez's body from the home's garage to the shallow grave, the complaint said.

Heaston-Corral later used Ramirez's credit card to buy a pizza...

Grandpa's 90th birthday

Almost the whole clan was around for Grandpa's 90th birthday. Cousin Danny would have been there, but got ill at the last minute. As usual, I got captivated by Spanish moss and almost took more pictures of trees than of relatives. But there's plenty of pictures in my flickr set.

We took a short outing along the Withlacoochee River, which was nice. Too cold and cloudy for the gators, but we saw some birds and scenery.

Here's a great photo collage, with pictures of Grandpa & Grandma:

Be sure to click All Sizes, so you can really appreciate him dressed as a Playboy Bunny, or his California Raisin outfit. I'm not the only one in the family who enjoys Halloween.

And here's a little video I shot of him explaining a bit of the collage. I wish I'd recorded one of his many warm thank-yous to friends and family, but this will have to do.