"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." - H.L. Mencken

Switching things around tonight. First, a fun little video Pam made of me doing some dancing around town yesterday:
Dancing Santa

Can someone explain why an athlete who sells rings and awards given to him gets suspended by the NCAA for doing so? A 5-game suspension amounts to almost half of their (senior) season. Are those awards not theirs to keep, sell or flush down the toilet? Would they get suspended for selling their stereos?
And Cam Newton's father can solicit pay-offs for his son to play for a particular university and no punishment is handed down.

The New England Patriots have taken up a collection to get Rex Ryan, coach of the NY Jets, a special Christmas gift: a pair of hooded PJ's with footies for Ryan's wife.

OK, now to old business.
The digging/cement block/stucco project has been completed. The approx. 8'x9'x32" deep hole in the ground will sit empty until the weather warms up in March. Then it will be filled with water and become a lily pond.
Turns out this is an ideal climate for water lilies. They need at least 6 hours of sun per day and like temps above 80 degrees. We got that covered! Other than that they are almost fool-proof. And beautiful. Take a look:

Hardy lilies have blossoms that sit on the water's surface and will bloom through summer and into the fall. They come in a wide variety of colors, save blues and purples.
Tropical lilies have blooms that rise on stems above the water, flower through the hottest months and come in a wide variety of colors, including vibrant blues and purples.

We got hooked on this idea after seeing the lily pond at the home of one of the Pathway families. Shirley will give me cuttings of her lilies when the time comes. They're dormant now. It will be nice to have this kind of color and beauty in the desert.

What to do with the approx. three cubic yards of ground pulled out to create the lily pond??
A: go to Home Depot and order a pallet (144) of interlocking landscape stones designed for building retaining walls.
At 23 pounds a piece that's about 3,400 pounds of heavy lifting. But they all get hauled, six at a time in the wheelbarrow, to the back. The end result looks like this:
20' feet long and 10' wide. Next month I'll plant it with bare root roses - because January is the only month you can do that here. I'll also put "under plants" (not the same as underpants) to add color closer to the ground and maybe some bearded iris which also do well here.

Here's the view out our slider, the view we see to our left as we sit in our recliners:
So picture colorful water lilies in the foreground and roses et al just beyond that. I'll post pics if/when it all comes together and blooms. That's not a given here in the desert. What lives dies, and double that if the only thing that grows naturally has spines.

Don't know about a post tomorrow. It's Christmas Eve and we have a service in town. I'll get home about the same time as Pam, who has to work (bummer). By that time we may both be ready to crash. So just in case...
Merry Christmas Eve!