Posted by missjunebug on March 30, 2010
Ancient Travelers Leave Their Secrets Along the Silk Road of China! Photo by mjb2010
Just when Mr.JB and missjunebug begin to talk nostalgically about their travels to China last year and the year before, along comes the Bowers Museum with an exhibition to supply that longing with perfectly selected artifacts, tastefully presented, and fully explained in an audio tour! Last year it was the Terra Cotta Warriors that supplied the need; this year the Bowers has something even better: the first showing ever of Chinese mummies in the U.S. A preposterous coup for curators of the museum!
Way to negotiate, President Peter Keller and board member Anne Shih with the Xinhiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum and the Xinjiang Institute of Archeology to secure the two amazing mummies and the other fine artifacts for public viewing!
In the 150-item exhibit, the museum goer will find two of the most amazingly well preserved Caucasoid mummies he or she is likely to see anywhere in the world. The “Beauty of Xiaohe” is the star of the show. In the audio tour Victor Mair professor of Chinese language and literature nicknames her the Marlene Dietrich of the Desert  for her  haunting, captivating beauty. missjunebug’s take on her: No botox needed here thanks to the dessicating salt and hot sand environment that encapsulated and preserved her. The beauty abides at 3800 years old!
The other mummy in the exhibit is a swaddled baby perfectly cocooned in a blanket, blue stones covering tiny eyes. Along side the baby, an ancient “baby bottle” fashioned from a goat’s udder will no doubt provide nourishment in the after life. missjunebug hopes this little one fairs better there.
In addition to the fab mummies, there are a pleasing plethora of artifacts, textiles, statuary, and many other ancient wonders to delight the eye and fill the mind with wonder. Don’t miss the veiled lady on horseback, the bronze eyeshades, the nifty slippers, the intricate robes of Yingpan Man, a mummy who didn’t make the trip but whose funeral clothing did! missjunebug wonders what he’s wearing now.
There is even a mouthwatering exhibit of a 1,000 year old wonton, a spring roll complete with dessicated goodies still inside, and a delightful and perfectly shaped chrysanthemum dessert that looks, well, good enough to eat!!
missjunebug encourages all her readers to check out this fine exhibit! Here are the necessary details:
Bowers Museum   2002 N. Main Street   Santa Ana, CA
Through July 25: 10am-4pm  Tuesdays-Sundays
A bargain at $16-$20
missjunebug encourages you to order tickets online at www.bowers.org and have them ready for you at Will Call. Parking is a measly 2 dollars! You can’t beat these numbers, people. Hop in your car next weekend and get some China culture going. The next thing you know you’ll be booking your flight to Beijing and traveling west along the Silk Road to find out these amazing secrets for yourself first hand.
The Grand Entrance! Photo by mjb2010
Interior Courtyard Delights! Photo by mjb2010
Beauty of Oxen Secured in Stone. Photo by mjb2010
Posted by missjunebug on March 17, 2010
March Madness junebug Family Picks! Photo by mjb2010
One of the most beloved traditions of the junebug family is the yearly divving up of Bracketology for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Mr.JB is master of ceremonies using vintage dice cups to roll for himself, missjunebug, ElderJB and TinyJB to determine selection order. This year missjunebug won with a five dice total of 19. Cool. Of course, she started with Kansas, the team that lead her to the Bracketology Championship last year! She is ready to defend her crown. What’s at stake? Biggest loser pays for the Friday night junebug family reunion dinner at TinyJB’s graduation from the University of Notre Dame in May! Â missjunebug does not want to be the biggest loser!
The junebug family accomplishes all the March Madness bracketology selection process by setting up a time that works for everybody. West Coast 6am is 9am in South Bend and 3pm in Rwanda so coordinating the phone calls is pretty simple. With TinyJB on missjunebug’s iPhone speaker and Mr.JB talking on the landline to ElderJB picks are rotated seamlessly. This year three of four of the junebugs got their alma maters: ElderJB takes Hoya Saxa! Georgetown (3), TinyJB gets Notre Dame Go Irish!(6), missjunebug embraces her beloved “Hook ‘Em Horns” Longhorns of the University of Texas at Austin (8). Sadly, Mr.JB’s Fighting Illini did not make the cut. Please observe a moment of silence for the Chief.
Besides thoroughly enjoying the bracketology, missjunebug loves the potential for upsets. Yes, she and the other junebugs pretty much select by ranking, but, of course they all get stuck with the likes of the 15-rank Robert Morris, Morgan State, North Texas, and UC Santa Barbara not to mention the 16-rank LeHigh, Tennessee State and Vermont. The Wall Street Journal suggests upsets may come from Old Dominion, Murray State, Utah State, Richmond, and Louisville. The WSJ seers also warn against less than favorable outcomes for Purdue, Georgetown, Baylor, Butler, and Kentucky. missjunebug thinks this is just all part of the fun and it makes watching the games so much more interesting!
So bust out those brackets and fill ‘em in! You will be amazed how crazy-good March Madness is!
Posted by missjunebug on March 12, 2010
A Gem on the PCH! Photo by mjb2010
So yesterday Mr.JB and missjunebug had a little field trip to the Pacific Coast Highway. Mr.JB thought it would be cool to try to take a few pictures of the transit of the International Space Station across the sun! What a wackadoo idea but missjunebug thought “Why not?” If it hadn’t been for that seriously messed up SigAlert at Topanga Canyon around 3pm, they would have made it, but alas, it was not to be. Mr.JB needed about 60 more seconds to get his equipment set up and camera focused. missjunebug is not kidding. It came down to a matter of 60 seconds. She has two words for that: Ri Diculous.
Mr.JB shook off his extreme disappointment and missjunebug suggested Neptune’s Net for a soothing brewskie and some seriously fried seafood. Nothing like fried something to take your mind off your troubles. The drive up the PCH to Countyline and  Neptune’s Net was gloriously uneventful and beautiful x 10. And believe missjunebug when she says she really enjoyed her Stella and Fried Clams. As for Mr.JB, those shrimp tacos cured any residual grumpiness about missing the sun shot. missjunebug highly recommends just about everything on the Neptune’s Net menu and you can’t beat the view of sun, surf, boarders, and bikers.
The good news is that Mr.JB tracked down a new location for another shot at the space station making its way across the face of the sun. Saturday’s destination: Buellton and its fab pea soup! And another chance to get a real hot shot! Here’s hoping for clear roads, a photogenic sun, and a delicious lunch.
Oh. My. Yes. Stella and Some Fried Clams! Photo by mjb2010
Yes! Shrimp Tacos! Delicious! Photo by mjb2010
Board Ready! Photo by mjb2010
The View From Here: Surfers Prepare! Photo by mjb2010
The View from Here Part Deux! Photo by mjb2010
Bikers on Break! Photo by mjb2010
Nice Reflections on Neptune's Net! Photo by mjb2010
Posted by missjunebug on March 8, 2010
missjunebug wants to celebrate today! Twenty-eight years ago ElderJB was born! What a baby! Plump! Smiley! Easy! Just altogether happy to be on the planet. And what a kid ElderJB turned out to be. Adventurous! Interested! Intelligent! Kind! Athletic! Ambitious! Inquisitive! Sweet! Preposterous! Impossible to wake up in the morning!
As an adult? missjunebug could not be more proud of her G-Town grad, Returned Peace Corps volunteer (Cameroon: Extreme Nord!), and country director of the awesome oneacrefund.org in Rwanda putting Farmers First! And he’s tied with TinyJB for the best son a mom could have!
Celebrate, ElderJB, like it’s March 8, 2010!!!! It’s your day!
Posted by missjunebug on March 5, 2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
missjunebug has been looking through her fab iPhoto collections recently and decided to put together a little photo essay of her Amazing Animal Finds in Africa! Mr.JB and missjunebug had the good fortune to travel to Uganda and Rwanda (with a day trip to to the lava flows of  the Democratic Republic of Congo) and view the zoo animals of their childhood on the animals’ home turf. What an experience!
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
Photo by mjb2010
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