The Stay-at-Home Dad's Guide to The Galaxy

"Hi Jack, I'm Annette . .

2009-06-07T22:53:00.004-04:00

. . You're doing it wrong."

For some reason, that line from the '80s classic Mr. Mom is what came to mind this evening when I spied this dapper young male Goldfinch investigating my hummingbird feeder.

I'm sure he's thinking to himself, "Those hyper little hummingbirds sure seem to like this stuff, I wonder what all the fuss is about?"

"Pretty sure this is how it works . . damn, what am I doing wrong?"

Best photo I've ever taken

2009-06-06T20:38:00.004-04:00

I was chasing a few juvenile Northern Mockingbirds around my back yard tonight, trying to catch an interesting moment or two. Check this out.

Perhaps that's his way of saying, "Hey, that's close enough buddy, unless you've got something I can eat."

There were a few other signs of summer around the yard.

A few plums on the plum tree. If they somehow escape the girls' wrath until they're ripe, it'll be my pleasure to munch on fresh plums from the yard.

My gardenia bush is approaching unmanageable size. The upside there is the hundreds of blooms it pushes out twice a year. The entire patio is engulfed in their scent for a few good weeks.

The butterfly bushes are starting to bloom too. This one, in the kids' "play area", is only about 3 feet tall. One of the two on the side of the house is approaching 6 feet now.

And of course, the Easter lilies. These same 5 lily plants we got for Lily's baby shower now push out at least 2 dozen blooms a year. They were so crowded that last fall I moved about half of the bulbs to other spots in the yard, where they're doing just as well. Another few days and the Asiatic lilies will be in bloom (and so too will my allergies be).

Curlew Sandpiper

2009-05-23T19:25:00.004-04:00

This was by far the most interesting (and rare) bird anyone at the recent Cape May Spring Weekend saw. It is a very rare Eurasian bird that is not often seen in the US. I got to see two.

This is what the crowds looked like all weekend trying to get a good long look at this beauty and his presumed mate.

Dunlin

2009-05-23T19:23:00.002-04:00

A Fun Milestone

2009-04-22T19:17:00.003-04:00

This is just too good to pass up. A couple of weeks ago Mason learned to roll from his back to his belly.

1. Grab feet.
2. Pull feet to mouth.
3. Let gravity pull now-elevated chunky thighs down to one side or the other.
4. Let go of feet.
5. Sprawl out and find solid ground, using the belly as a fulcrum.

Then, a few days ago, he learned to roll back over from his belly onto his back.

1. Crane neck back as far as it will go.
2. Turn head to one side or the other and look at the ceiling.
3. Roll onto the "down" shoulder.
4. Complete the maneuver and give a big satisfied grin!

Today, for the first time, he put the whole act together and learned how the combination of these two new maneuvers could produce a mode of ambulation he'd never experienced without the help of a big person.

My Bad

2009-04-07T20:42:00.003-04:00

Sometimes an innocent mistake turns into a really funny story.

This morning when I was picking out Lily's outfit, I remembered the bright red pair of tennis shoes she's been begging me to wear lately. I figured I'd pick her out something that would go with the red shoes, even though I knew she'd only leave the shoes on for like 5 minutes. So I rifled through her drawers, picked out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a red football on it, grabbed some socks and the matching red shoes, and off I went. When I pulled the jeans on her I noticed that they were sort of a 3/4 length pant . . almost a culottes. Well, whatever, that'd be cute too. Put the t-shirt on, convince her it's cute, surprise her with the shoes . . voila, we're good!

Or so I thought. Fast forward to dinner time, and Lily of course has to run to the potty. Just as an aside, she's been in a real "numbers" phase lately. "What time is it Daddy?", "What size are my jammies Daddy?", and the like. So she comes back from the potty and says "Daddy, my jeans are a size 9."

"Umm, no, they're certainly not a size 9."

"YES, they are! I read it on the tag!"

"Baloney! Show me!"

So she promptly marches over to me, turns around and flips out the waistband on the jeans to show me the tag.

Yeah. Remember how I said a simple mistake can lead to a funny story? Apparently I was a little bleary the last time I did laundry and I accidentally put a pair of Mason's jeans away in Lily's drawer. Simple mistake really . . isn't it? I think I certainly would have realized my mistake had the pants not looked so convincingly like a cute little pair of "short pants". Honestly, tell me you wouldn't have let her wear this outfit? She looks cute as a button!

The truly scary part of this story is that they fit her. And well. I'm pretty sure the last time Mason wore them they were tight around his waist, and I'm sure I had a bear of a time getting them over his big chunker thighs.

Sorry, I couldn't get her to put the red shoes back on for the picture . . hell, you're lucky she even kept the outfit on, by this time she'd been begging me to put her jammies on for the night for like twenty minutes.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my little funny. When I realized what I did, I laughed out loud at myself and just knew I had to post it. I can't wait to hear how much fun Mandi makes of me for this one.

Slack ass

2009-04-03T19:36:00.009-04:00

I am, I know. I feel bad for the 6 or 8 people who include this blog on their blogroll, I've disappointed you for more than two weeks. For some reason I hear Randy Travis singing in my head right now . . .

You've been too gone for too long,
now it's too late to come back home.
It's been so long since you walked out my door,
now you're just an old song nobody sings anymore.

I've got a new love and she's a true love,
but darlin' how could you have known.
You've been too gone for too long,
now it's too late to come back home.

I don't have a new love, per se, unless you want to count Facebook. Or my Crackberry. I have enjoyed sharing my life through this page in more ways than I ever would have imagined. There are far too many reasons (real reasons, not Facebook) that it's just become a low priority for me lately. Reasons I don't have the energy or, frankly, the inclination to go into right here right now.

Suffice it to say, I have over-extended myself in a number of ways, and the blog is suffering for it. I go birding MAYBE once a month now, and when I do there just doesn't seem to be "extra" time to sit and blog about them. Plus, I'm not doing the Big Year list this year, so there's no real drive to get out and "acquire" new birds, and as such no great stories of accomplishment. This is about what I've been getting in the way of bird photos left. A mockingbird eating my compost pile . . how picturesque.

Then there's the whole "3 kids is really no harder than 2" fallacy. Whomever spun that bullshit yarn should get a swift kick in the nertz. Toting 3 kids to the park in my compact grocery-getter with sub-par air conditioning ain't what I'd call easy. We still do it, but by the time I get them all home I'm ready for a beer and a nap . . the computer just doesn't crawl high enough up on the list. I do take pictures at the park, I haven't completely slacked off, I am just not as good at sharing them. Here's one from about a week ago.

I will not make the "nothing worth writing about" excuse. These kids are a laugh an hour, and sometimes a lot more. If only I still had that video camera I lost in the Kansas City airport when Lily was a baby . . if you all could watch her play Disney "Sing It" on the Wii, or listen to the crazy songs she makes up when she's driving around the block on her tricycle, you'd double over laughing. But really, with Mason in the stroller, Avery piloting her scooter into the middle of traffic, and making sure Lily's "Look ma no hands" routine doesn't result in 2 skinned knees, who the hell has time to try to remember the funny stories? I don't.

You've missed out on visits from Meema.

Treats at the St. Patrick's Day festival.

Lily's first soccer practice (of what I'm convinced will be a long and storied career).

And other milestones. Mason's eating some solids now (yippee, I know, how exciting). It is for him though, kid can eat like a champ.

He can also put his feet in his mouth and roll himself over from back to tummy (difficult to capture, so here's the foot thing).

I've given all of my excuses, and I don't know if I actually like any of them enough to give them "primary reason" status. But, as is the popular thing to say nowadays, it is what it is. While I have no intention of removing this blog from its rightful place here on Blogger, I also do not forsee much of a future for it. I'm not guaranteeing that this will be my last post, but the frequency is something you might consider getting used to. I'm just over-extended right now, and something's gotta give (this paragraph counts major points toward the "How many cliches can you use in one paragraph" contest I entered). If you read occasionally and enjoy the photos, I encourage you to seek me out on Facebook. It's not quite as personal, but its what's been getting the attention lately. I suppose this is my way of always striving to under-promise and over-deliver. I always hated "promises a filet mignon and serves you a hotdog" guy, and I refuse to be that guy.

So for now, I bid you all a fond farewell, and I look forward to reconnecting elsewhere.

--Corey

Grammer

2009-03-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

Technically, there's nothing the Grammar Police can say about this one . .

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

What A Kid Hears

2009-03-15T19:20:00.001-04:00

When you say "Put that in the trash", a kid hears "Put that in the general area where we keep the trash can, but don't sweat the details . . In, on, around . . Whatever's convenient."

Thursday Morning Birds

2009-03-12T19:42:00.003-04:00

Shhh . . don't tell anyone. I took the morning off of work today to go birding. I should be ashamed of myself, what with all of those last minute requests and changes I needed to be making at the office. Meh, they can wait.

March isn't all that exciting in the birding world. None of the really interesting neotropical migrants have arrived in the Central Piedmont yet, and many of our winter resident birds have already started to depart. Some nests are active by now (I saw some Canada Goose babies on a local lake yesterday), but in general it's considered the calm before the April/May storm of Spring migration. The only month I'm less interested in birding is August, and that's because it's just too damned hot to be outside.

Today I went with a group from the local Audubon Society to Four Mile Creek Greenway, in South Charlotte. We got a ho-hum 43 species, highlighted by some Wood Ducks, an adult male Cooper's Hawk, a Rusty Blackbird, and a Pileated Woodpecker. A few of the birds were considerate enough to pose for pictures.

Mr. Mallard. There were probably 2 dozen or so in various places. One pair was seen, ahem, fighting in a marsh. At least that's how my birding friends described it.

This squirrel was giving one of the field trip leaders the stink eye. "You'll pry this acorn from my cold dead hands mister!"

Probably the crappiest picture I've ever posted . . but it at least offers proof of the Pileated Woodpecker.

There were more than enough Northern Cardinals to go around. She had her choice of 4 or 5 males that were all singing from different perches.

There were Yellow-rumped Warblers galore, as well. This little guy was happy to pose for a few snaps.

And while it's not the greatest shot of one, this picture really shows off the golden crown on this Golden-crowned Kinglet. He, too, was happy to pose for the camera.

It was undoubtedly a nice break from office life. The drive down there was BRUTAL . . I can't stand morning-drive traffic on I-485 going Southbound. But in the end, well worth the time spent.

Discount Clothing

2009-03-11T17:23:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure, but I think Mandi must have gotten this outfit for Mason on a mark-down rack somewhere. Don't get me wrong, its plenty cute, but they quite clearly left the "C" off at the beginning of his nickname. What a bargain!

Digging Up Old Photos

2009-02-24T20:36:00.001-05:00

Housekeeping

2009-02-20T15:18:00.002-05:00

I am going to make some changes to the blog today, just in the spirit of staying up-to-date. I'll be taking down my Big Year list, as certainly enough time has passed for anyone who's interested to perouse it. I may add some photos to the sidebar to take up space, and perhaps some other gadgets (if the good folks at Blogger have gotten them up and running yet). That is all.

The Age of Unaccountability

2009-02-20T05:50:00.003-05:00

Today when Avery was supposed to be coming home from school, at around 2:00, Mason was just waking up from a nap. We were just chilling out on the couch, waiting for Avery to walk in, and then my mom called. As at least some of you know, my mom has what we like to call "The Gift of the Gab". Anyway, so I suppose I lost track of time and when we finally hung up it was like 20 after 2. I'm cool to give the bus 5, 6, even 10 minutes after it's scheduled arrival time without really blinking. Stuff happens, even in the block and a half between our house and the school (shut it, Avery likes to ride the bus, she'll be buying carbon credits with her allowance money so none of you greenies send her (or me) any hate mail).

So I head outside, look around to see if there are any parents still waiting at the bus stop for the other kids, and there's nobody to be found. OK, maybe the school called Mandi to tell us what was going on and she just didn't let me know. Unlikely, but I checked nonetheless. Big negative there, Mandi hasn't heard from them. My next step, and I'll admit that this was probably where I made my mistake (I am admonishing others in this note for their lack of accountability, figure I better not be a hypocrite), was to call a neighbor whose daughter also rides Avery's bus. She told me that the bus had broken down, and that we needed to go to the school to sign the kids out, and that no one except those previously authorized to do so could sign them out (read: no asking the neighbor to pick her up). Great.

So with Mason in hand, I head upstairs to wake Lily up from her nap, less than 45 minutes after she'd gone to sleep. That in and of itself was enough to make me want to punch a wall, but I kept my cool, rallied the troops, and got in the car. Park at the curb, wrestle the kids out, and trudge inside to an office full of other forlorn parents, all in search of answers. And this is where it gets good. With the two kids in hand, standing there looking distraught and OBVIOUSLY in search of something, one of the women behind the desk asks "How can we help you sir?"

"I'm here to pick up my daughter, apparently there was an issue with her bus. Her name is Avery."

"Well let me see if I can still get her off of the bus, the door was broken but they've got another bus now and are fixin' to leave."

That was when I had to set Mason down, because I felt my muscles begin to twitch involuntarily. "So, when there was an issue with the door, how come nobody called the parents? How were we supposed to know what was going on?" To quote one of my all-time favorite characters, H.I. McDunnough of Raising Arizona . . "and then the roof caved in".

"Well," I was told, "we didn't call because you weren't supposed to come pick the kids up."

"But they were supposed to be home over half an hour ago," I said. "Doesn't that warrant a phone call? If your child was half an hour overdue, would you not expect a phone call? This is, after all, my child you're talking about. It's not like the UPS truck was half an hour late or something."

"Well sir, 30 minutes really isn't all that late if you ask me."

I think my eyes made the sound of dice on a game board they rolled so fast. It gets worse.

"Well, you know you could have called the school instead of calling a neighbor." This led to an immediate turning toward her coworkers to complain about the parents who were coming to pick up their half hour late children. "They're calling the neighbors and the neighbors are telling them to come here, but they aren't supposed to come here!" Oblivious to the fact that she's essentially telling us (there were still a few people hanging out, apparently this was a confrontation worth watching) that we're morons for not reading her mind, I will concede this one very small point. Yes, my first call probably should have been to the school, and not to the neighbor. However, my culpability ends there. I was standing in front of her at this point, it's time for her to own her mistakes (the collective "her", I suppose).

So are you thinking this must be the end? It can't possibly get any worse than that, right? No no . . best for last people. I turned to a different woman behind the counter, one who had not yet insulted or belittled me, and just said "I'd just figure they could call folks and let them know what's going on." Her response?

"Honestly, we don't really even know which kids are on which bus sometimes." I'm not kidding. I didn't believe what she said either, which is why I asked her to repeat herself. I thought maybe that while I had turned to ask Lily to sit down, that I had mis-heard this woman's statement. "I'm sorry, what was that?", I asked. "Yeah, it's hard to tell which kids are even on which bus sometimes."

"Ma'am, do you happen to have a scrap of paper?" I asked. She looked at me, puzzled. "Well yeah, here, you can just use this flyer (is it ironic that the title of the flyer she handed me is "Informed Effective Parents"?)." "Thanks, and is there . . oh, there's a pen, nevermind. I'm just going to have to jot some of this down really quick, because there's a real chance that when I try to remember it later, it'll be so ridiculous that I won't even believe my own memory." "Umm, OK," she muttered, and walked off into the office somewhere, undoubtedly to continue trying to convince her coworkers how much of an idiot I was.

So, I wrote down my notes, folded the paper up and got the hell up outta there. I could hear them snickering and acting all high and mighty as I left, but I couldn't be bothered to stop and listen. What a bunch of nonsense.

Now I ask you . . is there not at some point an expectation of accountability when it comes to the individuals and institutions with whom we trust our children? Is that the kind of buck passing I can expect the teachers down the hall to be teaching to the students? Is it ever "your fault", or can everything be explained and rationalized away so that nobody's feelings get hurt.

One of the best managers/executives I've ever worked for was giving a speech at a conference one year, and the main topic of his speech was one that has stuck with me through the years. He said that when you've truly reached a point in your life, career, whatever where you're accepting the responsibility for that life and you're accountable for the things in your charge, one statement can sum up everything that ever goes wrong. One simple, three word statement.

"It's your fault."

When you can look at a negative outcome and think to yourself, "I could have made this better, or it's my fault we didn't succeed", then you've reached the point of being a leader. You can not teach accountability until you ooze accountability, and these women behind this desk are in no way shape or form prepared to teach our children how to be accountable for their actions. Maybe they think that doesn't have to start until middle school. I urge you to look at this as a reminder that while multiplication tables and earthworm anatomy are certainly worthy things being taught in our schools, when it comes to the truly important things in life, we must teach them ourselves.

We do live in an age of unaccountability, and it floors me that it's getting worse instead of better. 5 million people are out there unemployed, presumably hungry to get a job and bust their ass to keep it. Go 3 months on unemployment and then see if your approach changes. There's no way those women truly value the jobs they have, because if they did they'd certainly be striving to do a better job than the one they did today.

The "What Is" Phase

2009-02-18T19:00:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I think my spotty memory is actually a blessing in disguise. Sure, I forget to take the trash down every 3rd Thursday or so, but that doesn't really harm anyone, does it? No, I think that same spotty memory that occasionally leads to overflowing recycling bins also allows us to forget the mental anguish associated with raising kids. Heck, I've heard the exact same argument made for why women choose to have more children after enduring the pain of child birth with their first.

OK, so my current example of this phenomenon pales in comparison to that one, but it'll have to do. Today, out of the blue, Lily started asking me a litany of "What is?" questions.

Daddy, what's bleach?

Daddy, what's sausage?

Daddy, what's a marker?

Daddy, what's a baby?

Are you freakin' kidding me right now? How the hell do you tell a 3 year-old what sausage is? What's worse is that right after the first line of questioning, about 3:00 this afternoon, all of the memories of when Avery hit this stage came flooding back. I can remember being so frustrated that my eyebrows were tingling when she'd start in with her nonsense . .

Corey, what's hair?

Corey, what's a house?

Corey, what's pink?

Corey, what's a flower?

Oy. I can just hear George Costanza screaming in the back of my head . .

Serenity now!!!!!

"Daddy, does this match?"

2009-02-15T10:22:00.004-05:00

"No, but it matches my sense of humor, so stay right there while I get the camera!"

For the record, I DO NOT ever ask Lily to "pose" for pictures . . apparently it's just her natural reaction to the presence of the camera.

Valentine's Day(s)

2009-02-14T21:17:00.007-05:00

We let Valentine's Day, admittedly one of the most over-blown, commercialized, pointless holidays of the year, leak over into the day before. Friday at work Mandi bought the girls a little dessert called a "pupcake". Essentially it's two cupcakes covered with enough icing to make it look like Paris Hilton's little dog. Needless to say, it was a big hit with the girls. Well, the idea was a big hit with Lily. She'd fallen asleep on the playroom floor before Mandi arrived with the dessert, so she mustered up enough excitment to take a couple of licks of the icing before deciding to save it for tomorrow . . er, today.

In the morning, we passed off the leftover shortcakes from our dessert Friday night as "heart-shaped scones". Lily of course thought we said "heart-shaped stones". Yeah, that's what we said Lily . . dig in!

Apparently, she hated them.

Later on, after an early morning rain shower and some household chores, we decided to head out and participate in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. I didn't have overly high expectations for our destination of choice, mostly because I'd never birded there before and don't know what to look for where. The girls found some walking sticks right away and were ready for our 2/3 mile trek.

Signs of the impending Spring were all around.

Plenty of opportunity for the girls to get all of that pent-up energy out.

When we got home, Mason hung out in his Exersaucer for a good half hour, just wow'ed by all of the noises and colors. He holds himself up really well, and can just about reach his feet down to the base. He wore his cute new Valentine's Day outfit, and it was the only thing in the room more red than his hair.

Overall, it was a fun holiday. As stupid as it is in the grand scheme of things, it's fun to see the kids "get it" and get excited about something. I hope yours was good as well!

Do I Suck At Photoshop?

2009-02-14T20:54:00.001-05:00

There's a reason behind that title. In case you haven't seen it, just head over to YouTube and search for "I suck at Photoshop" and watch a few of the results. That's not to insinuate that I don't suck at Photoshop, because the reality is that I still probably do. That's not the point here though . . the point is to show off one of the first REAL attempts I've made to substantially edit any of my photos. I've done the "quick fix" on a couple of bird photos just to see what it'd do, but I've yet to really take the time to learn how to use the program. Tonight I was just playing around with some of the snapshots I took today and I really liked how this one turned out. What does everyone think?

Monk Chin

2009-02-11T06:57:00.005-05:00

My girls LOVE their baby brother. Each morning when he wakes up I sit on the couch with him and talk to him while I have my coffee. He is very vocal in the morning, and he gets louder and more excited the more people are around to talk to him. I guess between that and the uncanny physical resemblance there'll be no doubt he's Lily's kin, eh?

The girls both love to hold Mason, although I'm sure if he was given the choice of whether or not to be held (around the neck) multiple times per day, he may decline. For now though, he doesn't object right away, so I give them their shot at him before Avery leaves for school. Does this pose look familiar? I think Lily has a future as a wrestler, and Mason as a survivalist.

When Lily finally gave him up this morning she said, "Daddy, isn't Mason such a cute little monk chin?"

"Yes Lily, yes he is indeed, cutest little monk chin I've ever seen."

Avery does quite a bit better with restraining her instinct to choke Mason into submission, but often it's at the expense of his posture. Lily holds him up, Ave tends to let him slouch a bit. But, since he's not under quite as much duress when Avery holds him, he tends to be a little more photogenic. These are pictures the kids will look back on and treasure . . especially when Avery's 23 and her little punk 14 year-old brother is bugging her to drive him to the mall. Avery will just tell him "Listen buddy, if you don't back off and ask Lily to take you, I'll show all your friends those pictures of her choking you out when you were a baby!" Or something like that . .

Phil, I Disagree!

2009-02-10T09:18:00.007-05:00

With all due respect, Mr. Punxatawney Phil, I am going to have to disagree with your findings. 6 more weeks of Winter might seem like the right prediction to make . . after all, everybody else who gets on the news nowadays seems to want to forecast doom and gloom as well. But I've gotta tell you bro, I've got a sneaking suspicion you whiffed big time on this one. Care to hear my rationale? Good.

Let's start with the weather. I know anomalies happen, and that our current warm spell may be just that. But it's topped 70 degrees here in the Charlotte area for 4 straight days, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. Until recently, Lily had insisted on wearing pants on a daily basis, something that's completely out of character for her. Today, however, was a skirt and sandals kind of day. Well, and a coat in the morning.

Exhibit B? This guy. As I milled around in my room this morning getting my gym bag ready, a familiar song filled the air. Familiar, and yet not quite perfect. I knew it was a Song Sparrow, but there was a lot of variation. My guess is that this little guy is a 1st year bird, just getting the hang of his vocal abilities. He sang from atop my house and in the willow tree, but was too shy to pause there for photos. The small Cedar tree in the neighbor's yard was apparently a good enough alternative, and far enough away from me that he didn't feel the urge to flee.

For Exhibit C, I give you said weeping willow tree. Apparently it's got enough confidence in my point of view that it's decided to start pushing out its tender new leaves. Would a tree as wise as the willow be so foolhardy as to expose its new growth to 6 more weeks of cold and snow? I think not.

And Exhibit D? The Eastern Bluebirds have been spending more and more time investigating the nest boxes these days. According to my records, last year they started nest construction on March 18th, which is a scant 5 weeks away. I'm interested to see if this early warming pushes that date up at all this year.

With that, Mr. Brownhog (a bit of an inside joke, Avery used to call it Brownhog Day), I rest my case. I suppose the jury will need to deliberate until the end of your 6-week period to determine whose prediction was more accurate. I have to tell you though, I believe I am currently the leader in the clubhouse.

Yet Another - No Words Required

2009-02-07T15:33:00.001-05:00

Wordless Post

2009-02-06T05:54:00.001-05:00

You Get What You Pay For

2009-02-05T14:47:00.003-05:00

This post is in no way intended to defame or devalue any individual. In fact, my success at my job depends greatly on the generosity of volunteers, so I am in no way trying to diminish the importance of people who are willing to give their time and effort for good causes. I genuinely appreciate what the person who is the impetus for this post is doing. My ire, I suppose, would be directed at the person or organization charged with the assurance of quality and accuracy with regard to these programs. You know who you are . . you need to do better.

So Avery came home from school today (a short day, they were delayed 2 hours due to Tuesday night's snow . . 'splain that one to me) and told me about an advanced reading program she'd been selected to participate in. Essentially, the kids leave the normal classroom, go meet with a volunteer and a group of other students and disucss a new book each week. Ave loves to read, and she's been excited about the program for quite a while. Well, today the volunteer was nice enough to send home a half-page note explaining the goals and expectations of program. For what it's worth, she sounds like a very enthusiastic lady who genuinely cares about the kids and the program. Unfortunately, at least in my eyes, her qualifications fall well short of the acceptable level to teach kids about reading. See for yourself.

Ignore that part at the bottom . . those are words I think Avery's supposed to learn. Concentrate instead on one of my all-time biggest pet peeves, using the wrong form of a word. I won't nitpick her overly simple sentences and choppy writing style . . that's not everyone's game. But look at the 3rd line. How can you be teaching kids English and reading and use "then" instead of "than"? Gahhhhhh! A mere 2 lines later, another cardinal sin. "I found it a great experience to discuss the story's with my child . . ." Are you serious? How can you be a functioning adult and not know the difference between plural and possessive??? NAILS ON THE CHALKBOARD!!

I can look past the misuse of "They" at the beginning of the sentence "They will be assigned . . ", because I knew she was referring to the students in the group, but to that point she hadn't actually used the group as a noun. You can't replace it with a pronoun if you haven't used it in the first place. That one, in light of all of the rest, is pretty minor.

2 lines later, however, "story's" pops back up where "stories" should be. At least she's consistent. Unfortunately, it pops up in the middle of a convoluted and awfully run-on sentence. I can't be bothered to pick it apart, it would take me all day.

Then we get to the next sentence. "I will be asking them each week if any of them looked up any of the vocabulary words." Such unique words them and any must be that there are NO substitutes for them in this wonderful language of ours!

Fast forward a couple more lines to the, well, we'll call it a sentence, that begins "It is interesting . . ." In that little jewel, we're treated to not one but two incorrect usages of the word "there"! The sentence's syntax is bad enough that I can't be bothered to try to correct it. Not only did she use "there" instead of "their" twice in the same sentence, but she did it in what is otherwise the worst sentence in the entire paragraph. Oy vey!

Mercifully the letter ends with little more than an unnecessarily split "home work" (OK 2 of them). I couldn't bear it if it'd gone on to fill the rest of the page!

My plea is simply this . . if you're in charge of a program that's executed by volunteers, please please please inspect the product they distribute to your clientele. By all means, thank them for what they do and praise their generosity, but do yourself a favor and give whatever they're sending home a good once-over. The reputation of your organization can be negatively affected by overlooking these kinds of details.

Another Day Off From School?

2009-02-04T05:52:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, when I checked the forecast for the next 36 hours, I paid specific attention to the "predicted precipitation". Tuesday night into Wednesday . . 10%. Some days I wish the expectations on me were as low as they are for Meteorologists.

Anyway, when Mason got up to eat at around 4:00 this morning, I caught a glimpse of the winter wonderland outside the front door, and I felt compelled to photograph it before it was marred by sun and little shoes.

The little boxwood plants actually look un-tacky when dusted with powder.

Yesterday the doors on the cars were frozen shut. I imagine more of the same is in store for us today.

I love the clean lines you get when the snow settles on the patio furniture.

Shelter was probably at a premium last night . . I wonder if the bluebirds roosted in the box?

No baths this morning, that's for sure.

Enjoy your day off today if you're lucky enough to get one!

25 Things

2009-01-26T19:47:00.001-05:00

This is copied from an item I posted on Facebook. Worth sharing here I thought (and so did Mary :-) ).

1. My least favorite thing in the world is hair on stuff . . you know, on the soap, in the sink, on the floor, stuck to my clothes. HATE random hair everywhere.

2. I once had more speeding tickets than years old, including one for driving 120 in a 55. Pretty sure this is the first my mom has heard about that. Somehow I managed not to go to jail that night.

3. My dad could have been a major league baseball player.

4. I'm on day 16 of wearing a beard, the longest I've ever done so. I believe it's here to stay.

5. In 8th and 9th grade my life's ambition was to be a rap music writer. Man, I wonder what ever happened to Mike Gilmer.

6. At one point, I thought Westbrook Teer's Geo Tracker was a cool car.

7. My favorite smells are basil, ozone (like you smell after it starts raining), and the smoke from a spinning tire.

8. My favorite band is Barenaked Ladies. A distant second is Rascal Flatts.

9. I love to cook, and that includes baking.

10. My most embarrassing moment was in a 4th grade trivia contest at school. Before the emcee could finish his question about the vegetable company whose slogan included the phrase "Ho ho ho", I blurted out "Santa Claus!". The entire place laughed mercilessly at me for what seemed like an hour.

11. I missed out on a full scholarship to Vanderbilt by 0.04 grade points.

12. My favorite hobby is birding. I wish I could figure out a way to make it a job.

13. I regret telling Coach Springer "no" all those times she begged me to run cross-country in high school.

14. If I had to pick one place to live for the rest of my life, it would be Nashville.

15. My dream job would be some sort of Eco-tourism guide. Too bad I'm grossly under-qualified.

16. I enjoy vacuuming. More to the point, I love the look of "freshly mowed carpet", like the outfield of a well-kept baseball field.

17. My favorite vacation of all time was when Mandi and I went to Boston, Scranton, and Pittsburgh when we were dating.

18. I broke my pinky toe while jousting in an inflatable "ring", and was off of my feet for 8 weeks. It required 2 screws to repair it surgically.

19. I'm incredibly cheap, but an above-average tipper.

20. There's only one food I refuse to eat. Eggplant.

21. I lived in Miami for 9 of the most forgettable months of my life.

22. My favorite TV show is 24.

23. My freshman year in college I charged friends $1.00 per item to iron their clothes. Straight cash homey.

24. I don't get the obsession some people have with New York City.

25. I love my kids in a way I never knew I could love anyone or anything. Their dad will never let them down.

Finalment!

2009-01-22T07:59:00.004-05:00

That's French . . just FYI. Here, try it again with me. FEE-nahl-mont! Don't you feel like a sophisticated world traveler now? You're welcome.

Yeah, so anyway, my yard was finally visited by those most elusive of thistle-eaters this morning, the Pine Siskins! Every birder in the Greater Charlotte region has reported having these uncommon winter visitors at their feeders this year, and I'd begun to feel a little (OK, a lot) left out. One guy must have mentioned his 50+ Pine Siskins 3 or 4 times . . braggart.

Not really expecting anything different, but not having anything pressing to accomplish, I went out onto the patio this morning to try to get a shot of a bird I affectionately call the Chicken Pigeon. The pigeons don't really appreciate the sound of the back door though (perhaps they've heard all of the BB gun talk), so I settled for shots of what I thought were just my usual American Goldfinches. When what to my wondering eye did appear? A siskin, doing his best to blend in! That's him (her?) there on the left of the yellow thistle feeder. I approached for better footage.

"Where'd everybody go?

"Sweet! I've got it all to myself! You finches don't know what you're missing, this thistle is BANGIN'!"

"Whoa there, you with the big black clicky thing! A little too close for comfort with that last step. This willow tree looks like a good place to blend in with the locals. 'Sup butter-butt?"

"Dude, you're still here? Why don't you take a picture, it'll last longer!"

Don't mind if I do.

Snowy Day Birds

2009-01-20T13:33:00.006-05:00

A couple of things before the comments start flying.

Number 1, I know this snowy day I'm sharing brought little more than a dusting. That apparently didn't bother the birds, so try not to let it bother you.

Number 2, I TRIED to get the girls to go outside and play in the snow, but Lily lasted about 14 seconds before she banged her ear on the slide and came running inside whining about being too cold.

So while there are no pictures to share of my kids playing in what will certainly be our only snowfall of the year, I managed to get plenty of shots of my backyard birds, who were (and still are) present in record numbers on this most inclement day.

There have been 4 or 5 Song Sparrows pecking around on the ground, gobbling up the millet that's supposed to keep the pigeons out of the sunflower seeds. Have I mentioned I need a BB gun?

Yesterday, apparently in anticipation of the snow, I was visited by two Field Sparrows. Just a moment ago, a Chipping Sparrow made a brief visit to one of the crepe myrtles to see what all of the commotion was about. He hasn't been back.

A few days ago I made my first ever batch of Zick Dough, a homemade bird treat I'd heard about often but never experienced first hand. Let me tell you . . if you've got Eastern Bluebirds you want to make happy, this is the ticket. Mealworms are great, but the price tag is high and the maintenance is tedious. Zick Dough, to the contrary, is cheap, quick, and low maintenance. Within an hour of putting the first offering out in my new side-dish feeder, 3 bluebirds had turned it into their own personal all-you-care-to-eat buffet. Just let me know when it's gettin' low guys!

My back yard is never short on finches. Recently though, they've been shying away from my thistle seed feeder and tending toward the sunflower seeds. Concerned that I'd been offering them an inferior meal, I sprung for a new bag from my local Wild Birds Unlimited, hoping to bring order back to my feeding stations. They weren't as quick as the bluebirds, but less than 24 hours after discarding the old thistle seed, it was business as usual at the ol' yellow feeder.

Not pictured here are my usual cadray of Mourning Doves, Rock Pigeons, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Add to that a trio of snow-day Northern Cardinals, and my yard list for the day is up over 10, which is quite good for my little corner of suburbia!

This next picture is from a week or so ago, but I never shared it and I really wanted to. It's a shot I took of an immature White-crowned Sparrow. I couldn't get any of the adults to sit still for long enough to photograph, but this little guy was happy to hang out in the tree for a few seconds.

And then there's my favorite bird of the day. When I drive to work in the mornings and then home again at night, I often spot this Loggerhead Shrike along one of the otherwise boring stretches of road. This morning I put the camera in the car with the express purpose of capturing his image, and he did not disappoint. What a cool looking bird . .

God Speaks Many Languages

2009-01-11T19:15:00.003-05:00

If you came in search of levity today, I recommend moving on to the next stop on your blogroll.

Today I sat in a dark, quiet place and contemplated God. I wondered if, having eschewed a relationship with God for so long, I would recognize his wisdom if it was ever presented to me. Then, at the very moment that thought crossed my mind, I glanced out the window and saw the answer presented to me, as clear as if it were written in ink.

There, on the railing at this unfamiliar place, was God's message to me. I know what you're thinking . . "Corey, that's just a Cooper's Hawk, not a message from God." Not today it wasn't. Today, I believe that hawk was sent to that spot at that moment for me. He paused just long enough for me to snap two photos. The first was washed out by the flash's reflection on the door. The second one you see here. Before I could raise the blinds, he was gone. But the impact of his visit hit me like a runaway freight train.

As I sat in that empty place, I contemplated all of the things that brought me happiness. I love the life I have, and I find myself fighting to keep it at all costs. I wondered if I could ever find happiness again under a different set of circumstances, and until today I've failed to visualize that possibility. Then, as if in a deliberate attempt to get my attention, that Cooper's Hawk appeared outside my window. The message, to me, was crystal clear. Even here, sitting alone in my darkest moment, God chose to show me a small sign of happiness. "You CAN find happiness elsewhere, even in the unlikeliest places. Keep looking, and don't be so myopic."

My Good Man . . we're clear.

A Good Day To Play

2009-01-05T19:15:00.004-05:00

71 degrees and partly sunny. Just what you'd expect for January 5th, eh? Mason didn't seem to mind. He enjoyed a trip out onto the back porch to watch the big kids play.

He's getting awfully good at grabbing and pulling the little rings on his bouncy seat. It's a lot of fun to just sit and watch him play.

Lily finally figured out how to make the glider go by herself. No more begging Daddy to push her . . whoop!

There's something about seeing his little girl play in the mud that just makes a dad smile.

If you look closely enough, you can see Mason just smiling away behind those rings.

Steven looks like he was going to stab Avery in the leg with that trowel.

I wish I'd been paying more attention to this conversation. That look on Lily's face is worth a few thousand words, eh?

I had to include this one. Lily loves to hold her baby brother on the couch after he's had his bath. I think she likes the smell of his lotion! They happened to be wearing matching jammies tonight . . how cute!

Can't Argue With That

2009-01-01T18:27:00.002-05:00

Tonight before dinner Avery asked me for some Kool-Aid.

Me: No, no Kool-Aid at dinner. Lunch time only
Her: Awww. Can I have some milk?
Me: Is there anything else you'd like to add to that?
Her: No thank you.

Talk about your all-time backfires. In my attempt to elicit some manners from her, I fell victim to the ultimate double entendre. What I wanted was "Can I have some milk please?" Oblivious to that implication, she came back with quite possibly the only response that I couldn't be upset with. Perfect manners in response to the other meaning of the question I asked. What can you do but laugh?

Christmas Eve Birds

2008-12-24T14:33:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I lied about not posting much. Sue me. I felt compelled to share these shots of the only songbird currently in my back yard. Christmas Eve is no time to be alone, so where are his cohorts? My guess is that they're just a little more shy than he.

I give you the American Goldfinch, a beautiful splash of color on an otherwise bleak afternoon.

Thanks for posing sir, I needed that.

Procrastination

2008-12-24T12:55:00.003-05:00

Talk about waiting until the last minute. Until today, Avery hadn't put pen to paper to create a true list for Santa. Clause, that is.

This morning, when directed to write the big man a note to be left with his plate of cookies, Ave saw fit to include in her greeting a quick synopsis of not only her wishes, but also of her behavior record for the year.

Dear Santa Clause,

We gave you these cookies for you and carrots for your raindeer. I have been a VERY very good girl this year. So has Lily. Here's a list of what I want for Christmas:

DS (Nintendo, that is)
Moter Scooter
some games for my DS (kinda looks like she wrote "ass")
A Magical Elf
Special Barbie Dolls
Some craft books
A video camera
Some stuffed animals

First of all, the kid just got a Wii for Christmas (a little early), you think she could back off the freakin' Nintendo DS. What is she, some sort of gamer? Pretty soon she's gonna have herself holed up in the basement playing World of Warcraft or something like that.

Second, what the hell is a magical elf? Like a real elf with magic powers that bakes cookies in a tree? I guess he could always have the top bunk . .

And my favorite, a video camera. I wonder if she was expecting BOTH this and the DS? Between the two of them she could drop out of school, start making documentaries on the perils of riding your Razor Scooter over loose gravel, and become a Tetris expert. Well, at least we'll save some money on college, right?

The close of the letter is just as priceless.

Its ok if you don't get what I want, you can surprize me! Please wright back (complete with a small box in which he should reply).

Talk about your all time backfires, this is what I get for perpetuating the whole Tooth Fairy shenanigans, eh? I look at it this way, at least she was polite, and I get to test out my left-handed writing skillz for the big man's reply.

You will likely not hear from me again for a few days, so please be safe and enjoy your time with family and friends this Christmas.

A (potentially) Protracted Absence

2008-12-21T06:09:00.001-05:00

I can't promise that I'll be around much to post for a while, it's just such a busy time right now. I hope you and everyone you love has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

On Stage

2008-12-16T06:43:00.001-05:00

Meadowlarks, Creepers, and Wrens, oh my!

2008-12-07T19:27:00.006-05:00

Avery and I spent the first half of the day birding 2 different locations. We first went out to the North end of Coddle Creek Reservoir to follow up a reported Loggerhead Shrike sighting from the day before. There's a big piece of property down one of the side roads that is notoriously good birding territory. In the Spring you can rely on this spot for Baltimore Orioles, and in the Fall and Winter it's typically good for Eastern Meadowlarks and the aforementioned shrikes. The meadowlarks were there as expected, I counted 10 in all. These birds are strikingly marked and their song is borderline ethereal. It's a treat to sit and watch them. I urge you to click on the photo to see him in all of his yellow glory.

Also on the property were these Swan Geese. They're listed in my field guide as a domestic species, but these were out in a pasture along with close to 100 Canada Geese just foraging away. There were probably 12 of them, and I thought they were pretty interesting looking. Certainly prettier than a Canada Goose . .

Alas, I did not positively identify a shrike. From a quarter of a mile away I thought I saw one on a very high power line perched next to a European Starling. In order to confirm it I would have to drive up the road and get out my scope. When I got out of the car the bird was still there, but by the time I got the scope set up it had flown away. A few minutes later I was back down the road watching these Eastern Bluebirds in a mixed flock with goldfinches and Golden-crowned Kinglets. I scanned the top rail of that fence in the distance and thought I saw the shrike perched near the adjacent horse pasture. Again I went for the scope, and again the bird flew away before I was able to get it set up. With another stop on our schedule I decided to give up for the time being and try for the shrike another time.

So, we pulled out and headed across town to Huntersville's Torrence Creek Greenway. It's an out-of-the-way little spot that's not overly popular with the local birding community, but it probably should be. As an added bonus, it happens to be Avery's favorite greenway because of the large climb-able rock formations that are found along the path. It's a great compromise, really. She climbs the rocks and explores while I wander off into the (nearby) woods to watch and photograph the abundant bird life. This was, surprisingly, the only Cardinal I saw today. Normally overwhelming in numbers here, they were conspicuously absent.

At some point within the last few months Avery started posing and smiling for the camera. Forgive me if I take full advantage of the opportunity.

The squirrels were loud and active today. This guy was shredding the bark on this fallen tree and didn't flinch when I got within 10 feet for this picture. I wish I knew what he was doing with the bark . . perhaps he was lining a nest. Whatever his purpose, he was entertaining to watch.

Very few of the trees still have their leaves. The ones that do certainly draw your eye to them.

This next photo is of one of the coolest little birds you'll ever see. It's a Brown Creeper, and if you couldn't see the bright white of his belly you likely couldn't see him at all. His head and back are so well camouflaged that he blends into the bark on the trees and almost disappears. Creepers are a completely unique species, although they're most closely related to nuthatches. This particular bird allowed me within 6 feet for photos, most of which were woefully out of focus due to the camera's inability to locate the bird as an object separate from the tree. Only a few shots were worth keeping.

And then there were wrens. Carolina Wrens, to be precise. And lots of them. This little guy wanted to play hide-and-seek with me, or at least that's how I interpreted it. He hid along the bank of the creek, under leaves and branches and inside this little burrow. I did my best to call him out, but apparently my best attempt at "tea-kettle-tea-kettle-tea-kettle" was woefully inadequate. Go figure.

I know this looks like just a picture of a bunch of twigs, but can you spot the bird? I'll give you a hint, its eye is giving off an eerie purple reflection. Go ahead, zoom in . . it's actually kinda creepy.

This location has always been a reliable spot for Hairy Woodpeckers. For whatever reason, Hairy Woodpeckers are much less congenial than the Downy Woodpeckers with which they share so many features. I think this may actually be the first photo I've ever been able to capture of a Hairy, although I can't be sure of that.

Also being coy today were about a half dozen or so Hermit Thrushes. They popped around in the underbrush most of the time, making only brief and partially-obscured appearances where the camera had any shot at capturing them. They're cute little birds, if not a bit nondescript.

Overall our morning was a lot of fun. Avery came across a "tepee" left behind on one of the rock formations by some other junior explorers, and it became her mission to attempt to construct one of her own. Theirs was pretty big, and with a few improvements could actually have provided a small amount of shelter to someone in need.

The same can not be said of the one we constructed, but that surely was not the point of the exercise.

A (mostly) wordless post

2008-12-07T13:52:00.003-05:00

Because really, when you have pictures like this, why ruin them with words?

Write this down.

2008-12-06T20:47:00.003-05:00

Pen?

Check.

Paper?

Check.

Seated?

Check.

Prepared for groundbreaking insight?

Check.

Lily: Daddy, I was right and you was wrong.

Me: Is that so?

Lily: Yeah. Girls are right, and boys are wrong.

Which graduate program wants to step up and just give the girl her Ph.D? I mean really, will she ever be able to more accurately boil life down than she did just five short minutes ago? I think not. Case closed.

Appointment TV

2008-12-02T20:52:00.003-05:00

Most of the time when you think of appointment TV images of once-weekly or once-only shows come to mind. For me, 24 is the ultimate in appointment TV. They missed an entire season this year due to the writers' strike (poor TV writers and their piddly $225k/year salaries), and it was agony. When they aired the 2-hour season preview last week I could barely remember where the last season left off. I'm certain it will all come rushing back when Jack Bauer saves the new season's first innocent civilian from certain doom in the premier.

Lately we've (not the proverbial "we", we as in me and the kids) discovered a "new" show that we set aside time to watch. Every weeknight at 7:30 we meet on the couch for the newest installment of Wheel of Fortune.

Today I must have lost track of time, because at precisely 7:29 Avery came scampering into the living room and plopped herself down on the couch. Lily ran in behind her and said "I call the middle!" I was in the middle of feeding Mason and had to be gently reminded that it was "time to watch that one show we always watch at 7:30!" Apparently Avery briefly forgot the name of her favorite program.

So why, you ask, did we choose Wheel? Honestly . . because it's not Jeopardy. I prefer to be left in peace to watch Alex Trebek. But, when the wagers have been revealed for Final Jeopardy and a victor has been determined, I'm happy to have the girls' company for Pat and Vanna.

Avery's really starting to catch on to how the game is played. She's hip to some of the strategies . . solve early vs. spin to accumulate cash. She understands the different types of puzzles. Every time a "Before & After" puzzle comes up she says, "Oh, like Fruit Cocktail Dress right?" You got it. She hasn't solved her first puzzle yet, but I can't wait until she does.

When Mason was done eating, which he does facing the TV, I turned him around to burp him. Apparently he wishes to participate fully in the family's activities, as he literally craned his little neck around while I was whacking him on the back in an attempt to see the TV. Once he burped, I laid him down on the couch so he could catch the final puzzle. He was completely content to just hang out ad watch until the show was over, at which time he insisted on 2 more ounces of formula. Kinda like his version of dessert I suppose . . after all, he didn't get Advent Tree candy like the girls did.

So we've been thoroughly indulging in our appointment TV time the last few days. Sometimes the most lasting memories are created from silly little moments like these. Perhaps the girls will look back as fondly upon our Wheel of Fortune time as I do little moments from my childhood. Or, maybe they won't. Either way, it's good times.

Decorating The Christmas Tree

2008-12-02T16:31:00.004-05:00

I can't believe this took us until December 1st to accomplish. Most years we've got the tree up by the day after Thanksgiving, and I'll be honest with you, I'm never exactly an enthusiastic participant in the exercise.

I really dislike the way Christmas and its corresponding "season" has turned into an endless sales blitz that lasts nearly 2 months. I swear, I saw Christmas decorations before October was over this year. I can see it for what it is, an attempt by retailers to push people into that "spend with reckless abandon" mode as early as possible in hopes that this year's sales figures will exceed last years.

I feel I'm often misunderstood in my disdain for the pre-Thanksgiving onslaught of Christmas music, etc. I guess it's possible, considering my typical method of expressing said disdain is an out-an-out grumpy disposition and snappy tone. It aggravates me to no end, and those who actually enjoy it can't be bothered to ask my point of view . . they'd rather just turn up their noses and label me "The Grinch". So be it, I have my reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Christmas. Not by a long shot. It's probably my second favorite holiday behind only Thanksgiving. But the reasons why I like it do not coincide with the reasons why it's jammed down our throats for 1/6 of the year.

Anyway, now that I got that little explanation out of the way, we can get back to the point of the post. We spent yesterday afternoon putting all of the ornaments on the tree. Mandi put the lights on in the morning before I left for work, and then when Lily got up from her nap we broke (literally and figuratively) out the ornaments and got to decorating.

To put it mildly, this was an exercise in patience. Lily LOVES fancy, shiny things, and her reaction to the sight of every individual ornament was priceless.

"Oooooh, Daddy, look! This one matches the other one!"

Avery, on the other hand, is primarily interested in being in charge. It doesn't matter how inconsequential the activity, if she's not exercising some semblance of power over the process she is just not into it.

Lily: "Ooh, Avery, look at this one, is it mine?"

Avery: "No, that one that says Lily and has your birth date on it is actually mine!"

Lily: "But I'm going to put it on the tree, so it's mine!"

Avery: "No, Lily, it's not. Now go stand over there while I put this ornament right where you were trying to put yours."

Mason had an entirely different set of emotions regarding the exercise. These two photos pretty much give you an idea of the two ends of his spectrum.

Which gives way to . .

Maybe it was just the silly hat he didn't like. Hard to say.

The festivities continued for a scant half hour until the entirety of our 6-foot Douglas Fir was adorned with Christmas cheer. And you know what? I actually enjoyed it. I enjoyed the time spent with my family, thinking about celebrating with them later this month, and I enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells (it smells like a candle factory threw up in our house) of Christmas. I shall leave you with a tidbit from our favorite Christmastime background entertainment, Christmas Vacation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T08:45:00.002-05:00

We, especially Mason, want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. Before you gorge yourself on turkey and mashed potatoes, take a few moments to reflect upon the things that you're truly thankful for. This season, above all, is about freedom, family, friends, and foundations. Enjoy your time with loved ones today and tell them, out loud, how thankful you are that they're a part of your life.

Butter-butts

2008-11-23T23:01:00.004-05:00

Winter tends to be a little slow around my back yard. Pigeons and Mourning Doves tend to dominate the landscape as well as the feeders. I feel silly paying top dollar for black oil sunflower seeds just to have them devoured in 20 minutes by a flock of unruly pigeons, but I do it nonetheless.

Last year I had one single Yellow-rumped Warbler that would stop by occasionally and visit my suet feeder. I assumed it was just one individual bird because I never saw more than one at a time. Who knows, maybe Butter-butts just have really good buffet-line manners and they were taking turns.

Anyway, this year word seems to have gotten around to the rest of the warblers that I serve a mean breakfast, because by 8:00 a.m. these days I have no less that 7 or 8 of them flitting about and generally just annoying the larger birds.

They're joined occasionally by a House Finch and a few American Goldfinches.

The Bluebirds are still hanging around too. That box is one that I made and gave to our neighbors. The birds check it out regularly, hopefully they'll nest there next Spring.

You weren't trying to sleep, were you?

2008-11-20T15:38:00.004-05:00

This is the sight I came home to this afternoon. Nothing says "Welcome Home" like a big pile of old shingles, eh?

We've been trying to get our roof replaced for some time now. Actually, we had the work scheduled to be done on the day we had Mason, but the weather didn't cooperate. So, instead of roofers hammering incessantly on an empty domicile, they hammered today on an occupied one. And they jumped. And they threw stuff. And they shoveled, and yelled, and ate lunch. Hey, at least they picked a nice day to get the work done. Carolina blue skies, mid '50's . . can't beat it.

When I asked the company's representative if we'd need to keep our cars out of the driveway to make room for his dumpster, he said "No, we'll just put it out on the street so you can park in the driveway." Apparently the crew didn't get that memo.

I'll be interested to see the condition of my lawn tomorrow morning. They left after the sun went down this afternoon, so I could not survey their work. Mandi laid down the law though. "If it ain't clean," she said, "they don't get their check." Preach on sister! I'm not so much concerned about the big stuff, such as those adorning these bushes. I'm more worried about the six thousand old nails I'm sure to find in the yard getting accidentally lodged into the sole of some non-shoe-wearing 8-year-old I know. Perhaps a quick glance at the status of her tetanus booster is in order . .

The guys on the crew seemed pretty good, although what would I know. They didn't accost Mandi before I got home, they didn't park 18 low-riders in front of the house while they did their work, and they did not utter any Spanish profanities when I came outside to take pictures. Yeah, I know them all . . I did work in restaurants, remember? All they said, as I took this last shot, was "Otro, otro!" Apparently they wanted me to take more pictures. I figured one was enough.

Remember doing this?

2008-11-17T21:34:00.003-05:00

I have a lot of memories from my childhood. Some are vivid, some are vague. Not surprisingly it's the memories that not only have pictures associated with them, but smells, sounds, tastes, and tactile sensations that tend to stand out.

I've said before that Fall is my favorite season of the year. Largely, that's because it suits who I am today. I don't think I've ever really thought about it in these terms, but many of my best and most vivid childhood memories are from the fall as well. I remember walking through the cemetery next to my grandparents' house in Pittsburgh in the fall, climbing leafless trees and coming back and throwing a football in their back yard with my dad. I remember Fall camping trips with my aunts, uncles and cousins. Most of all, I remember raking huge piles of fallen maple leaves in my friend Chris' front yard and then running down the hill to jump in them. Rake, run, repeat. I can't imagine anything I would have chosen to do instead had there been leaves available for collecting.

I imagine this might have been something like what we looked like all those years ago on Highland Avenue.

I love the fact that my kids choose to go outside and play. They weren't at Mandi's grandmother's house more than 10 minutes yesterday before they started clamoring to go outside and play. Everything seems a little bit more right in the world when kids choose to go pick flowers and run around when there's a perfectly good TV inside to watch. Kids come together in the outdoors. All the things that make them incompatible with each other when they're inside the four walls of a house seem to disappear when they step outside.

Avery and I went camping overnight Saturday too. The battery in my camera conked out after about an hour, so there aren't a ton of pictures to share. Sunday, after everyone else had gone home, we spent a few hours hiking around the park and just enjoying the beautiful Fall day. I really don't like cliches, but Avery is really in her element outside in the elements. We picked berries, wondered about fallen trees, scavenged for wild pecans, and generally just enjoyed our time together. This picture pretty much sums it all up . . Avery, in her pajamas and a warm coat, halfway up a tree.

And we got this Fall fun in just in the nick of time . . tomorrow's forecast high temperature is in the mid-40's. Yikes . . I guess I won't be wearing shorts to work.

Look What I Found

2008-11-10T20:53:00.005-05:00

This is an accidental post. I was looking through old digital photos, trying to find one in particular. I didn't find it, but I did find this one.

Isn't it funny how some things change so much while others don't change at all.

It's Rare When Everyone Cooperates

2008-11-09T14:32:00.010-05:00

Today, for the first time in a month, I slept in. Many of you would not consider 7:30 a.m. "sleeping in", but when 5:00 is the norm, anything post-dawn seems like bliss. The downside to the extra z's, this morning, was that by the time I got downstairs all of the coffee was gone. My plan was to head down to the nature trail and take a nice long walk with the camera and just see what I could see.

Not willing to eschew my daily caffeine, I decided a splurge at our local Starbucks was in order. As I made my way down the road to the grocery store where the Starbucks resides, I noticed this pair of Red-tailed Hawks hanging out in what is either a sweet gum or a persimmon tree. Way to narrow it down, eh? Anyway, their perch was down at the Southeast end of the trail, and their presence, I hoped, would be an omen for a very birdie morning.

Because I don't want to make what already promises to be a longish post all that much longer, I'll spare you the circumstances that prevented me from starting my walk on time. Suffice it to say that 2+ hours later and with Mason in tow, I embarked on my journey. I encourage you to click on and enlarge any of the photos. Well, except the ones of the stroller, that would just be gratuitous.

Since I took the pictures of it and everything, now seems like a fine time to introduce you to the latest and greatest addition to our growing family of strollers. Stroller number 5 in our collection (please, please don't ask) is a BOB Revolution. It's chocolate brown and blue, and it's very nice. It had better be, for the price tag. Anyway, this was its maiden voyage. Mason was very comfortable riding in the BOB, so much so that he spent almost the entire walk fast asleep. The BOB's front wheel can be set to swivel, making for a really effortless walk on the road and/or sidewalk, or it can be locked in place for more rough terrain like the nature trail. The car seat adapter works seamlessly and keeps Mason in a perfect posture. Thankfully my unannounced decision to "break 'er in" did not anger Mandi . . at least not outwardly. She's wanted a "good" jogging stroller for some time, but given her current non-jogging state of being I felt it acceptable to put this latest acquisition to work. To quote Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation, "It's a good lookin' vehicle, ain't it?"

Anyway, enough about that nonsense, let's talk about birds. Today I did not take the binoculars with me on my walk. My purpose was singular, to get some good photos of the birds that spend regular time on the nature trail this time of year. Whatever else I happened to capture would just be a bonus. My first subject of the day, as is customary, was a Northern Mockingbird. He was quietly mimicking one of the countless Song Sparrows that were flitting about in the brush below his tree.

A few hundred yards or so further down the trail and I got a glimpse of a soaring Red-tailed Hawk. There was another one close by, and because I was in the vicinity of the tree where the pair of red-tails was perched hours before, I assumed they were the same birds.

A good percentage of the plants and trees have finished shedding their leaves and summer colors, making the few remaining spots of color even more brilliant.

These berries won't be long for this world with the throngs of Mockingbirds that are still hanging around.

Hey, Mr. Cooper's Hawk, if you're really hungry I can take you to a big flock of pigeons that hang out on the top of my house.

I think these are sweet gum trees, although I could be completely wrong. Whatever they are, isn't the color pattern on them amazing? The leaves at the top are such a deep burgundy, which fades into a bright red and then a brilliant yellow at the bottom. There were literally dozens of them along the entire length of the trail.

Aren't teenagers great?

With Mason asleep in the BOB I took the opportunity to walk over to one of the few clearings in the trees and take a look down toward the bank of the river. At first I didn't see anything and I almost walked away, but then I heard something I didn't recognize. It wasn't a bird calling or singing, but rather the sound of beating wings. Certain birds, like pigeons, Mourning Doves, and hummingbirds have "signature" sounds associated with their beating wings. This, however was none of those. It almost sounded like a distant helicopter, but faster. I looked and looked and still saw nothing. Then, as if out of nowhere, he was there staring up at me. In all it was a group of about twelve Cedar Waxwings, drinking from the river and turning over leaves to eat what waited beneath. These are one of my favorite birds.

You can't see his face in this photo, but this Eastern Bluebird was happy to pose for a picture today. This tree is a favorite spot for them and the mockingbirds. For those not versed, behind him is what's known as a "Carolina Blue" sky.

I really like these cattails. There are 5 or 6 different really large stands of them throughout the trail in the wetland areas. A nice stiff breeze blew the seeds out of some of them and it almost looked like a snow storm.

A little pishing and the throngs of Song Sparrows taking cover at the bottom of the cattails would hop around and eventually perch atop one of them, usually posing long enough for a photo.

There were quite a few other families out walking the trail today. I can't say that I blame them, as the conditions were perfect. 62 degrees, no humidity, and only a few wispy scattered clouds. An impeccable Fall day in the Carolinas.

If you look closely in the middle of this next shot you'll see what I am assuming is a Red-tailed Hawk keeping watch over one of the ponds. He flew out a number of times to readjust his perch, but I never saw him go after prey. If anyone wants to challenge my ID I'm open to suggestions . . this isn't where I'd expect to see a Red-tail, more likely the habitat of a Cooper's.

Like this one, which was flying overhead very close to where the one above was perched.

Further down, these 2 dogs announced their discontent with my presence. That, or maybe they were just saying "hi" in their loudest, most voracious voice.

The Great Blue Heron that frequents the trail made an appearance. He posed nicely for close-ups.

Another bush covered with surprisingly not-yet-eaten berries. I'm sure it won't be long.

Another Song Sparrow decided to pose for me . . it's so unusual for so many birds to cooperate like they were today. Maybe they liked the BOB!

I thought it odd that I didn't see a single Ruby-crowned Kinglet at any point on the trail, as the last time I went down there they were ubiquitous. Mason, BOB, and I ascended the hill at the end of the trail started up the sidewalk toward home. Then, at the end of the fence, in the farthest corner of the area I'd consider part of the trail, I saw a tiny bird flitting about in a tree. We paused, he posed, and I shot.

I couldn't pass up this shot of this gorgeous Golden Retriever, relaxing lazily in the afternoon sun. He took notice of us, rose up to this posture so I could get the shot, and then promptly lay back down for his nap. He picked a great day for it.

Back To What's Important

2008-11-05T13:57:00.004-05:00

Sometimes, like right after he eats, Mason likes to pose for picures. As he's drifting off to sleep a wry little smile will creep over his face. Capturing the exact moment is difficult, but this is pretty close.

Ten tiny toes, all lined up in a row. Try to do this with your feet . . hurts my groin muscles just thinking about it!

Delerium, especially that caused by lack of sleep due to caring for a new baby, can make almost any nickname sound cute and appropriate. While most of Mason's nicknames are just generic baby stuff, I called him by one the other day that Mandi really didn't care for. I explained where it came from and why I thought of it and she was still underwhelmed. I figured I'd just let it go. Then, this afternoon, I was caught off guard when as she finished feeding him she looked down at his little half-open mouth with the milk moustache and said, "Did you get enough to eat Milquetoast?"

"Ah ha!!! You do like that nickname after all!"

"I just kinda couldn't help it when I saw his milky little mouth," she replied.

"I think it's perfect," I said, "except for that whole based-on-a-cartoon-cockroach thing."

For those not familiar, Milquetoast is the loveable cockroach in the Opus and Bloom County comic strips. I know, it's random and vague, but that's part of it's appeal to me. It's not really mainstream, which means nobody else will have it, and not everyone will get it. Perfect! This is kinda what his milk face looks like.

The next picture was just funny. I call this the "Fitch", after my grandfather. My sisters used to give him crap all the time because he'd use his middle finger to point, instead of his index finger. I have no idea why he did that, but it's a lasting memory.

And finally, I call this one the "Daddy, I'm trying to take a nap, can you please knock it off with the bright flashes!" look. I imagine this won't be the last time I get that look.

Why Him?

2008-11-03T19:16:00.006-05:00

This will be the only political post I ever do on this blog . . I promise. Can I just tell you how effing glad I am that this election season is nearly over? Oy . . .

I've had countless discussions with people from various different political viewpoints over the last 8 months, and while none of the opposing viewpoints I've heard was good enough to change my mind, at the end of the day I really couldn't begrudge most folks their opinions. A really good friend once told me "Bread (my nickname, short for Cornbread . . don't ask), just because you're right, which you usually are, that doesn't give you the right to go around telling everybody else they're wrong." Whether or not he was right, it just kinda stuck with me. I find that most people have made up their minds about this election long before they started talking to me, and I don't have the energy to try to sway them. The following two opinions are no different, although I have to say they're two of the worst reasons I've heard so far, and it just so happened that I heard them both today (within ten minutes of one another).

Democratic voter #1, who shall remain nameless, is a 20-something white female, single, working and going to school. I have no idea who supports her, whether it's her parents or herself. She's known to be one of only 2 Obama supporters in the office, and as one of the youngest people there we conservatives tend to playfully gang up on her from time to time. Today, for instance, we forwarded all of the robo-calls that came in to the office lines to her extension. It really wasn't nice. Anyway, for whatever reason I decided to press her on her affiliation. The following is a close approximation of the conversation.

Me: Why is it that you think the government should decide where to send the money I earn?

Her: Well, some people just can't afford everything, you know? Why should some people get paid millions of dollars to play a sport, like basketball, when somebody like you or me can't afford day care for our kids?

Me: /head scratch\ So the Bobcats should pay for your day care? Why? What did you do for them?

Her: No, I'm just saying, when somebody gets paid that much money, they should spread it around a little bit so everybody else has it a little easier?

Me: But where does it stop? There are people who make less than you, you know? Should the government take some of your ten dollars an hour and dole it out to those who make less? After all, you get paid all that money just to watch kids.

Her: No, I need all of my money, but somebody who gets millions of dollars a year to play basketball could afford to have less.

Me: But why should they accept that? They wouldn't make that much if the public didn't support that pay structure in their profession. We buy the tickets and watch the ads, they earn what they negotiate. Couldn't somebody just as easily say that you shouldn't even get paid to watch kids, as it's something other people would happily just do for free?

Her: No, that's different.

Me: No, I'm sorry, it's really not. I appreciate you making my argument for me, that was really a lot easier than me having to do it for myself.

The next encounter was with a black woman, probably in her early 30's. She's a hard-working professional mother and wife and a very nice woman, but overall not the sharpest blade on the mower. When we (the group of conservatives that was chatting over lunch) asked her who she would be voting for, the conversation was quite a bit shorter than the first.

Us: Hey, name left out to protect the innocent, who are you voting for?

Her: Honey I done already voted!

Us: Who'd you vote for?

Her: Umm, hello, I'm black, who do you think I voted for?

Ugh.

One of two things was being implied here. First there's the possibility she really feels that as a black woman (I hate the term African American) she has some sort of over-riding obligation to vote for a black candidate regardless of his or her views. If that's the case here (or anywhere), then that is the strongest case anyone can possibly make against programs like Affirmative Action (or at least our modern-day version of it). Essentially this shows the that the relationship many of us are afraid will develop between the public and a far-left leaning President is already existent today. Namely, if people feel like they owe their success (and well-being, and opportunity, etc.) to a certain group or type of politicians, then they'll blindly line up to vote for them and perpetuate their own self-devaluing. They put more importance on this show of loyalty than they do on their own ability to think through the issues and make a decision on their own, leading to an almost cult-like following and belief in a candidate or party. If this is what this woman was implying, then we are indeed fighting to save the identity of our national government.

Or, there's the other possibility, which is that we white folks should just assume that all black people are voting for Obama . This disturbed me, and I actually told her that it insulted me that she was implying that I could make some sort of assumption about her choice of candidate based solely on the color of her skin. If that was her implication, then there's only one racist among the two of us, and it wasn't the one in the Vandy hat. "How dare she?", I thought. Well, she dares because only one of us is allowed to pull the race card in a situation such as this, and again, it wasn't the one in the Vandy hat.

So that's where this political discussion will leave off . . with me frustrated with the dynamic in our country more so than with the actual issues themselves. I honestly feel like what goes on in Washington has almost no bearing on my life. Down the road when we're investing and trying to build wealth I might feel differently, but for now there's very little chance of some new President making my life all that difficult. Don't get me wrong, there's a big difference between the two ideologically, but how much of that rubber actually meets the road here in North Carolina is likely to be insignificant at best. Either way, I feel obliged to leave you with this last image. If you haven't already, get your ass out there and vote tomorrow. It's the only chance you have to validate your complaints when things don't go your way!

Just An Update

2008-10-30T14:21:00.004-04:00

This post will contain no funny stories.

Why, you ask?

Simple, really. Retention is directly proportional to sleep.

You'll recall my first post after bringing Mason home, where I claimed that he was showing promise as a much better sleeper than Lily ever was. Put simply, that was more than just a mild case of counting my chickens before they hatch. Rather, it was full-blown premature elation.

I know, I know, the bad puns are getting old. Refer back, if you will, to two paragraphs ago. As it turns out, a mature sense of humor is also directly proportional to sleep. Sorry . . you'll either deal with it or you'll navigate away to the next stop on your blog roll. This is the best I've got under the circumstances.

In place of any funny stories I've decided to offer you photos of the family. Everybody loves a good picture, eh?

Mason's getting really big. At his 2-week appointment he'd gained 13 ounces and a half inch in length. I think his cheeks look chubbier too. He's actually laying on the floor in this picture, playing with his big sisters. They look forward to their few minutes a day of play-with-the-baby time.

Aside from their propensity to put their hands all over his face, they're both really good with him. Lily, for some reason, really likes to shove the pacifier into his mouth at the first sign of any unhappiness. We're working on that with her, but she's as sweet as can be otherwise.

Mason's not so excited about sleeping in his bassinet most times. He seems to prefer the more upright position afforded to him by the swing and the carseat.

We did a dry run on the Halloween costumes last weekend. Mandi and Sarah were planning to take the girls to a Halloween party at North Mecklenburg Park, just down the road in Huntersville. They got all costumed up, drove down there, and then when they got out of the van Mandi heard a hissing sound that could only be one thing (OK, I guess it could have been a King Cobra, but it wasn't). The left rear tire of her van was leaking air, and this was no slow leak. She loaded the girls back in the car (Lily was not happy about missing the party) and brought them home. I spent the better part of Sunday morning at WalMart getting the rear tires replaced (they're the ONLY ones open for tires on Sundays). But I digress . . the costumes looked great, and the girls are excited for their second go-round tomorrow night.

You Can't Teach This

2008-10-21T10:16:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I couldn't resist the opportunity to pun MC Hammer.

Seriously though . . while there are certain things you can definitely teach your children, I don't believe passive-agressiveness is one of them. I myself have been known to be a bit passive-agressive at times, but not because I was taught the approach by anyone in particular. I just kind of fell in to it on my own. From the looks of this note, Avery's picking it up nicely on her own as well. Gotta make you proud, eh?

What you see before you is our grocery list, which we keep on the refrigerator. Below the small list of things we need to pick up is a note from Avery . . "Corey, what about my checklist?"

The checklist she's referring to is for her daily chores. Her weekly allowance is tied to the checklist, and I'll admit it's been quite some time since we last printed the checklist or paid the allowance. She's asked me once or twice just recently, but with all that's going on I imagine she just didn't want to push the issue. So, instead, she's resorted to dropping hints.

I actually quite like the approach . . this way instead of me having the opportunity to snap at her for being impatient about the list, she's placed the onus squarely on me. "Just get around to it eventually" this note says to me. Great, now don't I feel like the big jerk. Needless to say, I printed out her new-and-improved checklist yesterday and have recommitted to paying her the allowance. She even asked to have more chores added to her list for this go-round. I put her in charge of dumping the compost and taking the recycling out to the garage. That was worth an extra dollar a week to her, so I'm all for it. Say what you want about passive-agressive not being the best approach to solving problems, it seems to have worked perfectly for Avery this time.

So Far, So Good

2008-10-16T11:01:00.006-04:00

After 2 nights at home with Mason, we're starting to settle in.

Tuesday night was a bit on the rough side. Mason spent the majority of the daylight hours sleeping, which of course led to a wakeful night. As tired as Mandi and I were after getting only about 3 hours of sleep each, there was no time to pout. Mason's first appointment at the doctor's office was Wednesday morning at 8:30.

We didn't see a doctor this time, as it was really more of a weight check appointment than anything. The lactation specialist we saw gave him a quick once-over and was very helpful in addressing some of our concerns.

After dropping down from his birth weight of 7lb. 6oz. to 6lb. 11oz. on Saturday, Mason's bounced back like a champ and was up to 6lb. 14oz. yesterday morning. The expectation is that he reaches his birthweight by 14 days of life, meaning he's got to gain about 3/4 of an ounce each day. They weighed him again after a feeding and determined that he'd eaten almost an ounce and a third, which we're told was great for a 14 minute feeding. Go Mommy! With his zeal for eating, I forsee him easily regaining his birthweight by his 14 day appointment.

When we told the specialist about our rough night she immediately gave us a few suggestions regarding how to avoid those in the future. Without getting too specific, she basically just told us to aggrivate the hell out of him during the day so he'd be worn out at night time and ready to sleep. She told us to cluster feed him, keep him awake after feedings, and basically just wear his little butt out. I guess I didn't expect him to be treated so much like the other kids so soon! So that's what we did. We let him try out his vibrating bouncy seat and the swing, both of which he seemed to enjoy. He stayed alert quite a bit and ate well every time he was given the opportunity.

And wouldn't you know it, just as predicted he went to bed at 8:30 when the girls did and only woke up twice in the night to eat. Mandi and I each got about 7 hours of sleep, which is more than double what we got on the previous night. In fact, we slept so late that we had to really hustle to get Avery out the door to the bus! No worries, she made it on time and had a good breakfast too. Hopefully this pattern will continue and Mason won't be the insufferable sleeper that Lily was for so long. After his morning feedings today he sat for about an hour in the bouncy seat facing the windows, the curtains drawn back and the sun warming the room. He watched Mike & Mike in The Morning with me and listened to Lily tell him how much she loves him. She absolutely can not get enough of her baby brother. I love watching the way he responds to the sound of her voice when she talks to him. It's apparent to me that all that time she spent talking to him while he was in Mandi's belly paid off for both of them, as he quite obviously recognizes her loving tone.

It doesn't really fit here in the story, but when looking through pictures to add to this post I decided I had to add one of Mason's first bath at home. Mandi had him all set up in the sink in our bathroom . . he again loved having his hair washed but really didn't care for the body scrubbing. Oh well, he can't be perfect!

I'll do my best to keep the updates coming, but computer time has been lacking the last few days. I've been trying to make the most of the time I have when Mandi's feeding Mason in the middle of the night, but so far that's amounted to getting the girls' lunches packed and keeping the medicine and nursing journal. As for my birding reports, it's safe to say they might be few and far between for a week or so. I've heard reports of some of the wintering sparrows arriving in the area, but I've yet to see any for myself. No worries though, those things can wait.

More Pics From Day 1

2008-10-12T07:00:00.002-04:00

Mason had some more visitors later on in the afternoon Friday. His Aunt Emily and his cousin Taylor came by, as well as a lot of Mandi's friends from work. Some more folks came by on Saturday while I was at work and at Avery's soccer game, but the camera had the day off. Thanks to everyone for all of the well-wishes. Mason's doing really well so far, still eating well and just generally being a chilled out baby. He LOVES to snuggle his mommy after he's done eating, and he really loves to be wrapped up in the blanket his Aunt Carolyn made for him. We'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Mason!

2008-10-10T14:18:00.002-04:00

Mason James Slovick was born this morning at 8:00 am. He weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs. 6 oz., a good pound and a half lighter than Lily was! He's 20 inches long, has pretty blue eyes and a FULL head of copper-colored red hair. So far, we don't really see a lot of resemblance between him and anyone else . . except for his mouth, which looks a lot like Lily's. Here's a little slideshow of some photos from his first day!

T-Minus 38 Hours

2008-10-08T17:30:00.004-04:00

Ok, so that's probably a bit too far out for a countdown, but I'm just getting really excited. Mason James Slovick will enter this world Friday morning at around 8:00 AM, and these last few hours are ones I hope to spend reflecting as well as wondering. I have had a tremendous last year and a half, with more life changes than I could have ever imagined. My time at home has allowed me to really explore not only the world around me, but also the person inside me. I feel like I've learned how to be a better husband and father, although it admittedly took quite a bit of shoving to get me over that precipice. I'm far from perfect, but at least I'm headed in the general direction.

I can't wait to meet my son on Friday.

You can count on continuous updates throughout the weekend, as I'll be armed with still and video cameras and the laptop at the hospital.

I decided to end this post with one last bird photo, since I am certain it'll be one of the last ones I take for a little while. It's a very cooperative Blackburnian Warbler I saw while birding at McGee Park in Concord on Tuesday.

EDIT: I'm going to leave the original post as it was and just add this note. That is NOT a Blackburnian Warbler. I struggled in the field to accept that ID, but I just didn't see anything else that made me say "Yes!". After posting the photo I picked up my Sibley Guide to The Birds, the larger copy that I keep at home. It's nearly identical to the Field version that I carry, but sometimes a fresh look at a different guide will open your eyes. This bird, upon further review, is a new life and Big Year bird for me. It is a Black-throated Green Warbler, and judging by the dull streaking on its breast I'd say it's a juvenile example of the species. Feel free to make fun of me for the mistaken ID, I know I've got it coming.

Go Commodores!

2008-10-04T09:07:00.003-04:00

There's one unwritten rule of blogging that I've tried to follow since I started this blog last summer. Put simply . . don't write about stuff that will get you ridiculed. I think I've done well with that until now, but the streak will no doubt end today. Why, you ask? Two words: Vanderbilt football.

That's right my friends, The Vanderbilt Commodores football team is 4-0, 2-0 in SEC play and ranked #19 in the country. Let's forget, just for a moment, that their 2 SEC wins are against South Carolina, whose collection of quarterbacks couldn't start for at least 10 Charlotte-area high school teams, and lowly Ole Miss, although to Ole Miss's credit, they did beat Florida in Gainesville AND they hosted the first Presidential debate this year. Pithy put-downs aside, wins are wins, and the Commodores should make no apologies for their current record. Florida doesn't get to say "Well, one of our losses was to Ole Miss, and they suck", so Vandy can flaunt the win without an asterisk.

Today the Commodores take on the #13 Auburn Tigers, a one-loss team that's a perennial power in the SEC's Western division. Their one loss this season came at the hands of LSU, a top-five program by all accounts. The Tigers get their star running back back from injuries today, and they come to Nashville today as the favorite to win the 6:00 EST matchup.

Noteworthy about the game today is, among other things, the fact that ESPN's College Gameday is being broadcast from the Commodores' home in Nashville, TN for the first time in its history. The #19 ranking in the national poll is Vanderbilt's highest such ranking in nearly 50 years, and I'd venture to guess there aren't a whole lot of folks out there that expect it to continue after tonight's game. Those skeptics have a lot to base their predictions on, namely Vandy's paltry offensive and devensive production numbers for the season. The Commodores aren't ranked in the top 70 in the country in either offense or defense. But, as you'd expect from an academically-focused school like Vanderbilt, their team is extremely well disciplined, so much so that they're the least penalized team in the SEC. When you're trying to take down the big boys, you can't afford the little mistakes that can cost you yards, drives, and points. Also noteworthy is the Commodores' #1 ranking in all of college football in terms of turnover margin. Vandy's offense takes care of the football, and the defensive playmakers and schemes create turnovers by their opponents.

Now listen, people. I'm asking for a little bit of help today. It just so happens that on the hour of this highly-publicized, important matchup for my alma mater's team I will be attending, of all things, a wedding. For a couple that, quite frankly, I'm not overly fond of. But, we've already bought the gifts, so we'll be going to the wedding and hoping for both an open bar and a TV tuned to ESPN at the reception. If I don't find a TV, I expect all of you to flip on the tube around 6:00 Eastern and root for the Commodores to upset Auburn tonight. If you don't, just at least tell me you did, so that I can feel better. If anyone wants to take on the role of "scoring update text-messager", feel free. And now, we will return to our regularly scheduled birds-and-kids themed programming here at The Guide.

Owl #3

2008-10-02T13:22:00.003-04:00

This morning I planned to bird on the McEachern Greenway near Downtown Concord. When I got to the parking lot, I decided to change plans and explore the area on the other side of the park, near where construction is beginning on the Downtown Connector Greenway. The vegetation has been cleared out for the connector, but no work has been done yet on the actual improvements. I saw this as an opportunity to explore the area before it becomes heavily trafficked.

The weather this morning was perfect, low 60's, no humidity, clear sunny sky. The birds obviously thought it was pretty great as well, because they were active, vocal, and surprisingly congenial. I was getting great looks at numerous species, including Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, American Redstarts, and throngs of Carolina Wrens. In one of the deepest parts of the woods I saw a raptor fly out and across the clearing above the path. I looked up and got a great view of my third owl of the year, a Barred Owl. He was gone within a matter of seconds, but his markings and shape were unmistakeable, so I feel confident in the ID. It took me long enough, but I finally added all three of the area's common owls to my Big Year list.

There is no really exciting conclusion to this story . . the owl's pretty much it. I did, however, get a couple of good photos, so I figure why not share them. Ok, so the one of the Black and White Warbler isn't exactly a "good" photo, but photos of warblers are so danged difficult to get that I feel obligated to share them. As always, click the photos to enlarge. In order, they're Downy Woodpecker (male), Black-and-White Warbler, Brown Thrasher, Common Yellowthroat (female), and Northern Cardinal (duh, male).

Say it ain't so!

2008-10-01T20:22:00.003-04:00

The girls and I had already taken one long walk around the neighborhood this afternoon, but the cabin fever was still lingering. Granted, it was Mandi that was suffering from it, but as she's far less mobile than the rest of us these days, it's up to me to get the kids out of the house when their rambunctiousness threatens to drive her over the edge. So, after dinner, we put on our coats and headed out for another walk around the block.

Our first walk took us toward the main roads and the playground, so this time we decided to go the other direction and head down toward the nature trail. It quickly became obvious, as it often does, that Lily would need to be coaxed into keeping up with Avery and I, so I enticed her to pick up the pace by promising to walk by her friend Matt's house. The tactic seemed to work well, as she immediately picked up the pace and said, "Ooh, yeah, I wanna go play with him!"

As we made our way down the street the end-game began to evolve. The prospect of simply playing with Matt seemed to be losing its luster, so eventually her plan morphed into a much more endearing one. Now she did not want to play, but rather she wanted to go give Matt a hug. I began to formulate my rationale for not actually stopping at Matt's house, which frankly was not that difficult because it was getting both chilly and dark outside. Surely she'd go for that line of reasoning.

Then, as we rounded the corner and passed by Matt's neighbor's house, Lily changed things up again. But this time, I was ill-prepared.

As she asked to go ring the doorbell, I started in with the "It's too cold and it's getting dark" spiel. Undaunted, she replied with something I never saw coming, and the only response I could muster was one of unbridled laughter.

"Daddy, can we PLEEEEEEASE go see Matt???"

"No, Lily, we've got to get home!"

"But Dadddddddyyyy, I really want to give Matt a kiss!"

"Baaahhhhhh!!!"

I literally laughed out loud . . so loud that I'm quite sure a few neighbors came to their front doors to see what the heck was going on. I hurried the girls along and assured Lily that not only would we not be going to Matt's house, but that the next time he came over to play they would NOT be allowed out of my sight!

They grow up so quickly, eh?

The Name Remains The Same

2008-09-26T15:31:00.003-04:00

You can call me a Led Zeppelin fan if you want. I wouldn't . . fan, after all, is short for "fanatic".

I have, however, appreciated the music of Page, Plant, et al since way back in high school. A neighbor, Kevin Byrd (I hope he doesn't mind being made famous), had a great collection of 1970's classic rock music, and he generously allowed me access to it while I babysat his kid. It was then that I discovered Houses of The Holy, and its opening track "The Song Remains The Same". I tell you all of this hoping that you'll forgive me for so blatantly plagarizing the title to this post, which will eventually be about something totally unrelated to Led Zeppelin or their music.

It does have something to do with another partially plagarized title with which you're all familiar . . the title of this blog. I can say with conviction that there were only two books that I read during high school which ever were scanned by my retina any time after that. The first was Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, and I only re-read it because in a discussion about it years later I realized I had absolutely no recollection of what the book was really about. The second, of course, was The Hithchikers Guide to The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. I have re-read The Guide at least ten times since Ms. Wilson's AP English class, and it gets funnier every time. I think it just resonated with my personality . . strange, sarcastic, and often incomprehensible. I chose the name Stay-at-Home Dad's Guide to The Galaxy not because I intended to teach anyone anything, but because I thought it was clever. I stand by that decision.

With that foundation laid, we arrive at the point of this post. As of Wednesday of this week I am gainfully employed and, therefore, no longer exclusively a stay-at-home dad. I have taken a position with the YMCA as Sports Program Coordinator, a job I think fits my skill set nicely.

Communication skills? I'd like to think so.

Experience managing teenagers? Unfortunately, a lot of it.

Ability to effectively handle complaints? Depends on how effective "stuff it" is . .

Essentially, I'll be running the sports leagues for kids age 3-13, including soccer, flag football, baseball, basketball, and whatever else comes along. It was time to get Daddy out of the house a few days a week, and this came along with perfect timing.

Fear not though my loyal reader(s) (really depends on the day), even though its accuracy could now be called into question, I will not be changing the name of the blog. I figure since it was never really that accurate of a name to begin with, it shouldn't cause too much of a stir if I stick with it after changing "titles". Any complaints with this logic can be sent straight to the head of our customer care department. That address is haywoodyabuzzoff@stayathomedadsguide.com.

Write It In Pencil

2008-09-22T12:43:00.003-04:00

When making important decisions in life, one of the smartest things an individual can do is exercise patience. Anything that has the potential to define who you are deserves this type of prudence.

Take, as an example, a couple whose lifelong dream it has been to own their own restaurant. What steps do they take? They probably spend a year or two saving up the money, picking out a location, and deciding on the menu. They may spend half a year building the restaurant, six more weeks hiring staff and managers, three weeks training them, and the next 15 years turning their dream into their legacy.

With that in mind, a question arises. What's in a name?

In the words of William Shakespeare, "That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

But is that really the whole story? Or is it possible that a flower, or even a restaurant, could be forever tainted by its name. In a word . . I'm pretty sure it can.

I offer you this example as a case in point. I was at the gym today when something struck me. It was a t-shirt, worn by someone exercising directly in front of me. People wear all kinds of things to the gym, certainly not the worst of which are t-shirts advertising restaurants they frequent. Remember the lady with the leopard print and the house shoes?

This shirt, in comparison, was benign. It didn't dawn on me until the third or fourth time I read the shirt how completely unfortunate the name of this particular restaurant was. Again, not offensive or absurd to the point that it stood out like a sore thumb, just something that after processing it a few times seemed truly, well, not good.

Yep, you read it right . . the name of the establishment is Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant. Now doesn't that just smack of a comfortable and relaxing place to unwind after a long day at work? I mean seriously . . how many bevnaps did you go through writing down possible names for your life's ambition before you came up with "Sanitary"? Was it an oversight . . you did EVERYTHING else, were ready to open the doors, and when the sign painters came and asked you what you wanted on the monument sign you were just dumbfounded.

"Well hell Mable, I hadn't given that a lick o' thought."

"Me either Paw."

"Well, what should we go with?"

"I don't rightly know Paw."

"The health department said the place was mighty sanitary. You think that might would make folks feel at ease on days when the buffet ain't holdin' temp?"

"Heck yeah Paw, that dog'll hunt!"

Whatever the case, I think the name you give your establishment deserves at least a night's sleep worth of consideration. Write it down, in pencil, and come back and look at it again in the morning. Does it say everything you want it to say about you? Who knows, maybe the sanitation's the only selling point of this particular fish camp (besides the t-shirts, that is). If not, I suggest giving it a little more thought.

Goals Achieved

2008-09-21T18:17:00.002-04:00

I'm home. The drive back was quick and painless, and I had plenty of time to reflect on my weekend of solitude and birding. I went into the trip with a few "soft" goals, and I met them all.

Goal number one was to exceed the 150 species mark on my Big Year list. As of this evening, the number stands at a respectable 162 species identified. I'm happy with that number, and I expect it will climb a bit higher as migration continues throughout the area.

Goal number two was to see AN owl in the field. I saw 4 this weekend, 3 Eastern Screech Owls and one Great Horned Owl. The look at the Great Horned wasn't great, but nonetheless I saw it. The Screech Owl might just be the cutest bird in existence.

And goal number three was to see all three of the falcons prevalent in the United States. This one looked like it might not materialize, as my stop at the Hawk Watch platform was on the windiest day of the weekend, and the numbers were way down. I managed to see numerous American Kestrels and Merlins, but the final falcon remained an enigma. My Eleanor, if you will.

Then, this morning, as we were making our way back to the parking lot after a 3-hour hike at Wise Point, a medium-sized raptor unlike any we were accustomed to seeing came overhead. Four of us looked and looked as it soared on a thermal, all unable to ID the bird. Then, as if it had sensed our discouragement and just felt sorry for us, it dove down to near tree-top level to give us a better look. Long, pointed wings? Check. Pushes its wings forward when diving? Check. Large, unmistakable black "mustache"? Check. Ahh!! Peregrine Falcon! I called it first, everyone else immediately agreed, and I had done it . . all three goals had been achieved! The Peregrine Falcon is one of the most amazing animals in the world, capable of achieving speeds in flight of over 160 miles per hour, and to see one at that moment added a marvelous exclamation point to the end of my otherwise exhilarating (and slightly exhausting) weekend.

I'm Your Wing Man

2008-09-20T18:38:00.003-04:00

I saw one of the most amazing things today, and there's not a single witness who can prove it.

I was early for my 3:00 hike at Savage Neck Dunes, a trail leading through an evergreen dune forest to the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Like an hour early. And I am not a patient person when there are birds to be watched. So instead of waiting around for the rest of the group, I headed out on my own. No single decision I've made on this trip has worked out more in my favor than that one.

The trail leading down to the beach is sandy and close to a mile long, and at about the 3/4 point I had made up my mind that I wasn't heading back to meet the group at 3:00. I'd come his far, I don't need their help ID'ing the birds, so I just went. Well, part of that backfired, as a small group of shorebirds I watched had 2 species I knew and 1 that I didn't. So I missed out on that, but . .

As I watched this group of Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers, and the mystery birds foraging on a small section of beach, I got annoyed with my inability to ID the third species. Determined, I kept staring at them, until all at once all ten or twelve birds flew away. Hoping I could use in-flight field marks to help ID the mystery bird, I kept my binoculars trained on one of them as it flew horizontal to the shoreline.

Then, out of nowhere, I saw the reason for their abrupt departure. From my left, a juvenile Merlin came racing into view, doing his best to chase down this mystery bird. The chase went on for nearly a minute, which doesn't sound like much, but to a falcon is a very long time. They went back and forth along the shore line, maneuvering back and forth in a way any jet fighter pilot would be envious of. Repeatedly, the Merlin would make his attack, the small bird would swerve at the last second to avoid him, and it would start again. I am amazed by the speed of these animals, as well as their agility. This was nothing short of a scene from Top Gun. Finally, the Merlin gave up, and the shore bird flew down the shoreline to rejoin his flock. The first thought that went through my mind (after "Holy crap did that really just happen?") after putting the binoculars down was "Sometimes it pays to be impatient!"

Overall, on the day, I added 3 new birds to my Big Year list . . Semipalmated Plover, Great Horned Owl (that's right baby, owl #2!), and Black-throated Blue Warbler. I've got another trip tonight to search for more owls, and my final trip of the weekend is tomorrow morning. I'll be packing up before the trip in the morning, so you most likely won't see a wrap-up post until Monday. I truly enjoy camping, but I also long for my bed. There's just no substitute for a good night's sleep.

Wish me shorebirds tomorrow morning, and a safe drive home. I hope your weekend's been as fruitful as mine!

New Birds at Every Turnstone

2008-09-19T22:40:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. That pun has been in my head since the moment I laid eyes on a group of Ruddy Turnstones at the pier in Cape Charles tonight.

I showed up at 6:00 for the reception, which had been moved from the theater to the art gallery next door. We got preempted by, of all things, a showing of High School Musical that apparently took precedence over the large group of money-spending tourists that had travelled to town for the Birding and Wildlife Festival. It wasn't a big deal to me really . . I'm not much of a mingler, anyway. The plan was that we'd leave the gallery at 6:45 and walk 4 blocks to the local Presbyterian church, where Pete Dunne would deliver his keynote address. Me? I left the gallery at around 6:20, right after a few plates of cheese and fruit, and headed down to the beach. That, of course, is when I discovered the Ruddy Turnstones, as well as this precursor to a sunset.

A few minutes before 7:00 I made my way to the church, which was quite possibly one of the ugliest houses of worship I've ever laid eyes on. I mean I know God doesn't care and all, but for Pete's sake, the curtains look like you cut them out of Grandma's old couch, and the white wicker backdrop with Christmas lights intertwined and large gold balls atop the posts have just got to go.

Anyway, Mr. Dunne gave a really engaging speech titled "25 things that changed birding". I felt bad leaving before he was finished, but I had an Owl "Hoot" to get to, and I didn't want to be late.

What's that they say about "The best laid plans of mice and men"? Yeah, I was the mice tonight. I got to the location for our outing at about 8:50, as did another couple. We sat in the dark and waited patiently for more than half an hour, at which point we decided to just call it a night. They left, and I decided to take one more shot at an owl. There was another "hoot" going on just a quarter of a mile away, and I was going to attempt to join it. Keep in mind, it's pitch dark, I have no flashlight (I opened my cell phone and used it, actually), and I have no idea where the trails go. Luckily, I could see the flashlights of the other birders in the group and I was able to catch up with them. Less than 20 minutes later and Eastern Screech Owl responded to a recorded call, and I spotted it flying into a tree just above the path. The guide shone his red spotlight on the tiny bird, and I was able to get a really good look at him. It was a cute little bird, far smaller than what you envision when you think "owl". I guess I just always picture the big majestic owls like the Snowy or Great Grey. Nonetheless, he looked at us for a moment, then turned and flew away. It was fleeting, but dammit it counts.

I'm off tomorrow morning early, with a walk at a private home at 7:30 am. The property has apparently been in the same family for close to 250 years, and it's been conserved beautifully. Let's hope tomorrow yields me another 13 new birds like today did. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

11 New Species Added

2008-09-18T19:33:00.008-04:00

I added 11 new species to my Big Year list today, and it's barely 4:00 . . dayum!

I woke up early this morning, at around 5:00, and could not go back to sleep. My phone had died during the night, and when I plugged it in I couldn't get a signal. Uneasy about being out of touch with the family, I decided just to shower before the rush (ha ha, just kidding, there are a total of about 11 people camping in this entire mammoth facility) and get started. With events not starting until 9:00, I decided just to bird the campground. I stuck to the area in the general vicinity of my tent and just birded a big loop. The camp site itself is in a big stand of old-growth pine trees, and just to the North is a small cove, and the Chesapeake is beyond the cove. I chased songbirds through the trees with very little luck, as the sun hadn't fully lit the tree tops yet, and then headed up toward the sound of the Canada Geese squawking in the cove. When I arrived they flew out, along with 6 or 7 Great Blue Herons. I saw a Great Egret fishing, and in one of the dead trees along the shore I spotted two Northern Flickers, one actually hammering at the tree like a typical woodpecker would. I found that behavior only slightly odd, as they are, after all, a type of woodpecker. I've only ever seen them forage on the ground though, so it gave me pause.

On my way back to the tent site I saw a big mixed flock of sparrows and warblers foraging on the ground. They let me get unusually close for really good looks, and I even captured a few of them. In all I saw Chipping Sparrows, Yellow-throated Warblers, Pine Warblers, Palm Warblers, and a single Black-and-white Warbler. Pretty good for 7:00 in the morning. Of the group, only the Palm Warbler was a new bird for me.

Above, the Yellow-throated Warbler.

And the Palm Warbler.

And the Pine Warbler.

After a quick breakfast I drove into Cape Charles to seek out the festival headquarters I was so woefully unable to locate the night before. After asking a jogger and a mechanic that were of absolutely no help, I finally located a local restaurateur who was able to direct me to the fire station, where the event would kick off from. That was a great example of a time where leaving early really paid off. I got my packet-o-materials, organized my directions and got everything situated, and then it was off to the first field trip of the day. 25 of us loaded up on a school bus and headed to Fisherman's Island NWR, near the end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-tunnel-bridge-tunnel-bridge.

When we got to the island and got out of the bus, the first bird an of us saw was a majestic Bald Eagle, hovering over the marsh in front of us. He was quickly joined by numerous vultures, Osprey, and a Northern Harrier. A few steps down the path and we added Broad-winged Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Red-tailed Hawk to the tally.

There were some songbirds as well, including an American Redstart and a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. We made our way down the sandy trail to the beach, and the view was pretty incredible.

Along the beach we saw a majority of the new birds I was able to add to today's list. Most interesting of the group was a Black Skimmer, Sanderling, Royal Tern, and Forster's Tern. I also added 3 gulls to the list, but quite frankly gulls bore me to death, so we're not going to talk about them. This next photo is a Sanderling, which is a really cute little black and white shorebird that has a habit of chasing breaking waves up the beach to uncover invertibrates to eat. They were fun to watch.

There were also quite a few of these little Ghost Crabs on the beach. I wanted to pick one up and bring it home to Lily, but the lady from the park services department scolded me, so I decided not to. Plus, I worried it would stink up my car.

We made our way back to the bus, stopping along the way to try to lure more warblers out of the trees, but the windy conditions (gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour) kept the songbirds out of sight.

After a quick pit stop and lunch, which consisted of a chef salad from the Food Lion deli, it was off to Kiptopeke (KIP-toe-peek) State Park for an hour at the hawk observation platform. Two species I really hoped to add on this trip were Merlin and Peregrine Falcon, and another birder reported seeing both of them at that location just yesterday. As it turns out, my luck wasn't quite so good. We did see 8 Merlins, as well as 8 American Kestrels and a Sharp-shinned Hawk fly by, but no Peregrines. Truth be told, the looks at the Merlins were pretty disappointing, as the birds were flying at about 60 miles per hour over our heads from North to South, not bothering to stop and pose for photos. Rude ass birds.

Overall I'd call it a pretty successful first 2/3 of a day. The "Official" opening reception, with a keynote address by noted birder Pete Dunne, is scheduled for 6:00 tonight, a little more than an hour from now. Afterwards I'm signed up to go on an owl and bat "hoot" at 9:00, which I hope yields more owls than bats. I've still got a grand total of zero owls on my Big Year list, and this will certainly be one of my only opportunities for nocturnal birding for the rest of the year. So that's all for now, look for updates either tonight or tomorrow afternoon, as sleep will once again determine the schedule.

Day 0.5

2008-09-18T19:33:00.007-04:00

My drive up to Virginia this morning was as uneventful as one would hope. The best part was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which should actually be renamed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel-Bridge-Tunnel-Bridge, as that's the true order of the structures one must travel to reach the other end. Every single lamp post on the bridges was adorned by at least a single gull. I'm terrible at identifying gulls, so I have no idea what kind they were. I did see a Double-crested Cormorant, 2 Osprey, and some sort of tern on the bridge too, but they're hard to ID at 60mph.

After checking in at Cherrystone Camping Resort and heading over to my tent site I began to hear an unfamiliar bird "talking" nearby. I looked around and saw 3 of these little Brown-headed Nuthatches going in and out of this tree cavity, a mere 4 feet from my car! Add that to the incredible number of egrets, herons, and vultures I've seen since hitting the peninsula, and I think this might end up being a very birdie weekend.

Today wasn't a full day at the festival. In fact, it couldn't even be counted as a half day. The "kickoff" events, hosted by the town of Onancock, VA (pronounced ah-NAN-cock, at least by the one person I heard actually risk saying it), were nothing spectacular. From the look of their "tent", they didn't put a lot into the kickoff, save for inviting the Virginia Beach Wildlife Resources people out for a short flightless-raptor demonstration.

The rest of the events today centered around bringing revenue to their quaint little town, which was actually quite cute.

The buildings have a lot of charm and character, and the residents were, well, characters. I'll put it this way . . the only place you're gonna see more granola is Ithaca, NY. This place is CRUNCHY! No worries though, everyone I encountered was very friendly, including this woman in the red, who interviewed me for the local newspaper. I guess I just looked like an easy mark. Ooh, and I can't forget the humanity. Anytime Mandi and I see something that's just grossly misplaced, we cry out "Oh the humanity!" If she was here, I promise you she would have called this one first. I mean seriously . . you really wore that shirt?

There were lots of kids running around the little park playing during the demonstration, and one in particular made me really miss Lily. She was sick this morning when I left, and as of this posting is still not feeling well. I'll bet you can't guess why this kid made me think about her?

I left the raptor demonstration a little bit before it was over in search of food. I found a Subway nearby in a dilapidated strip mall then headed back to my campsite. My plan was to stop in Cape Charles (I assume none of you need a pronunciation key on that one) before dark to get my bearings, as that is where the events will embark from tomorrow morning. As is the case with most of these towns, there's really just one main area where anything could go on, so after cruising the "downtown" of Cape Charles I headed out to the beach. My intention was to scope out gulls and shorebirds, but it quickly turned into a photography session.

I haven't attempted to ID these birds yet. That obviously was not the point of the first photo. I did see another tern fly right past my head, but I couldn't ID it because I was taking a photo at the time. He was much smaller than the gulls, had the long forked tail, and was mostly white. I'll check out the field guide tomorrow morning.

There was a really cute family picnicking and swimming at the beach. I couldn't resist this shot of the little boy playing in the gentle surf of the Chesapeake Bay. Later, his dad had me take a family shot of them with his Canon. I was hopelessly lost with anything other than my Nikon. He set it for me, and I think the shot turned out well. They were a really cute family, and the dad thanked me for my services with a crisp new million-dollar-bill with Ronald Reagan's face on it. Who does he think he is, the FED?

This group of guys was enjoying some afternoon volleyball on the beach. Aside from the family, these guys, and myself, the beach was empty for as far as the eye could see. You ain't in Jersey anymore!

Before heading back to camp I took what seemed like a hundred pictures of the sun setting over the bay. Apparently it was only 14 or so. Regardless, here are my two favorites. I took a series where the sun appeared to "melt" into the water as it set, but I'm going to put a slideshow together with them at a later date. Enjoy these, and check back for an update tomorrow, after Day 1.

Oh, and in case you're wondering . . I'm blogging from inside my tent. Seriously. My tent site is right behind the "Cafe", which offers free wireless internet. I have had no trouble picking up a signal from anywhere at the site, so I come to you tonight from inside the bug-free confines of my tent. Ain't technology grand?

Hitting the road

2008-09-18T06:07:00.002-04:00

I'm leaving in approximately one hour, heading Northeast through North Carolina and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge into Southeastern Virginia. My destination, of course, is the Eastern Shore of Virginia Birding and Wildlife Festival, as I mentioned in a post last month. I plan to blog from the festival, hoping to include stories and photos of the flocks of migrating songbirds, shorebirds, and raptors that are expected at the festival. Unfortunately there will be no photos, videos, or stories about Avery or Lily to look forward to from the weekend, as I'm leaving them behind with Mandi and the camera is of course coming with me. I've been looking forward to this trip for quite a while, hopefully it lives up to my expectations.

The Tooth Fairy Returns

2008-09-16T12:50:00.003-04:00

It seems these days that the thing that sparks Avery's imagination above all else is the Tooth Fairy. She's been talking for weeks about a molar that's been loose. Sunday afternoon as we were sitting in traffic it finally popped all the way out. I was a bit shocked when she showed me, as it was not tooth-colored, but rather a nice shiny silver one. As much money as that crown surely cost, it was about to cost another dollar.

The traffic was bad, so by the time we arrived home I'd forgotten about the tooth. An hour or so later as she was getting ready for bed Avery reminded me by asking, "Corey, do you think the Tooth Fairy will come tonight, or was it too late?"

"I'm not sure Ave, I guess it just depends how busy she was this weekend." I ALWAYS leave myself an out.

I remember thinking about making the exchange before bed that night, but it completely escaped me until 5:30 Monday morning. As Mandi left for work I remembered to get her last dollar from her wallet. Knowing I had at least half an hour until Avery woke up, I went upstairs with the money and opened her door. As I tiptoed in I noticed the note was tucked in neatly next to the tooth pouch. In my most clandestine effort to retrieve the pouch I brushed the paper, and the sound caused her to stir. I abandoned the mission and quickly closed the door, making my way across the hall and out of sight. I was not ready to have this particular rouse exposed.

At around 6:30 that same morning, having eaten her breakfast and informed me of the Tooth Fairy's failure to appear, Avery asked me "Corey, was that you in my room this morning?"

"Umm, yeah."

"What were you doing in there?"

Talk about having your feet held directly over the flame . . "Umm, I came in to wake you up for school but then I realized it was a little too early, so I just let you sleep in."

Sometimes her gullibility is an asset in disguise. "Oh, OK", she said. And that was that.

Fast forward to Monday night. Avery is a very private person, and as such she always closes her bedroom door all the way at night. Not wanting to give away my presence by the sound of the latch clicking, I tried to figure a way to get it open as she was falling asleep. My strategy? Use Lily. Lily was heading to bed just moments after Avery, and she wanted to go in and give her big sister a ni-night kiss. Seeing an opportunity to get the door open, I coalesced. In a stroke of complete luck, Avery had already dozed off when Lily opened the door, so we slowly backed away and I left the door cracked. Now, it's on.

About an hour later, as my interest in Monday Night Football was waning and my eyelids grew heavy, I made my way over to Avery's door. I had a hall light on that shone just enough indirect light into the room for me to navigate, without disturbing Avery's sleep. I approached the pillows and this time noticed that the tooth pouch was front and center, but that the letter had been pushed back too far for me to risk reaching for it. I made the lightning-quick exchange of cash for crown, replaced the pouch at the edge of the bed, and hauled ass. The note would have to go unread for the night. My only concern was that in discovering the Tooth Fairy's oversight, Avery would abandon the note and possibly throw it away. Thankfully, she left it for me. Here it is in all its green-inked glory. A typed transcript of the note will follow the picture, just for ease of reading. I fixed a few key typos just so it's understandable.

Dear Toothfairy, I loved the note that you sent me last time. Do you realy live in fairyland? Do you go to sleep? If you do when? Are you smaller or bigger than that note? Is there a fairy post ofice? Do you have different pairs of clothes? Are you an expert about teeth? OK I have asked a lot but can you send me another note? I love you sending me notes its just so cool. How far away is fairyland? OK I'm done but this time can you please leave me a drawing or something of you? Thank you for your time and I have two more loose ones so I bet I'll see you soon. Have a safe trip. Love, Avery p.s. Can you please leave a note and money here too? Thank you.

I don't think any more is required from me. Jaime, I'd like to enlist your help once again, if you're so inclined.

Silence . . not always golden

2008-09-12T15:44:00.003-04:00

Ten minutes without hearing from Lily, unless she's sleeping, is an unusual thing. As I was just reminded, it typically means she's up to no good. Seemingly out of nowhere, she just called to me from the stairs, "Daddy, I got some new ponies!"

Oy. The only ponies upstairs are in Avery's room, and with Avery across the street playing this definitely spelled trouble. I grabbed the camera (it's becoming a reflex these days when Lily calls out) and headed toward the front door. Look at this little monster.

Not to worry . . we've reassembled Avery's room, and hopefully she'll be blissfully unaware that anything ever happened.

Homemade Obstacle Course

2008-09-11T19:29:00.004-04:00

"Daddy, can I snuggle you?"

"No Lily, not right now, Daddy's watching Jeopardy."

"Pleeeeeeease??"

"No Lily, maybe in a few minutes."

"OK, I'll just go jump off this obstacle course instead."

"Well that sounds great Lily, have fun!"

The following is what came next.

A couple of things:

- At the beginning, when she gives the little thumbs-up . . rewind it to there and turn the volume up. Proof positive of her propensity to encourage folks to "keep it pimpin".

- Do I sound like Bert from Sesame Street in real life? When I hear myself on video the only thing I can think of is "Rubber ducky, you're the one, you make bathtime so much fun!" Seriously . . do I? Not that I could do anything about it if I did, but I'd like to know. I think the chances of me actually sounding like Bert and not a single person I've ever encountered telling me so are very slim, but I just have to ask. Be honest, but be gentle.

TV Phenomenon

2008-09-10T13:55:00.004-04:00

This post is not about TV. Or a phenomenon.

Today, after her nap, Lily wanted to know where her unicorn was. When she found it she told me to be very gentle with it, that it was very delicate and in fact made of gold. I obliged, agreeing not to even touch it. I left her upstairs and came down to work on dinner. Moments later she came in to the kitchen and wanted to show off the unicorn. She said "See daddy, see!" I looked and said, "Yeah Lily, that's great. Hey, what's the unicorn's name?"

"TV phenomenon", she said. No kidding. And she pronounced it perfectly. I laughed, then decided I wanted a picture to go along with the post she had created for me. Switch lenses, put it in auto mode, focus, snap a few to get the right one. Well, nobody's perfect.

Then what? I forgot the name. Seriously. "Lily," I said, "what was the unicorn's name again?"

Her: "Ummmm . . TV . . granola bar!"

Me: "No, that's not what you said."

Her: "Ummmm . . TV Scooby Doo!"

Me: "Huh? You don't even know what Scooby Doo is. What's its name?"

Her: "Ummmm . . TV . . investigating!"

I immediately thought to myself, "Self, you just done effed up and lost a great post." So I asked her one more time. "Lily, what was the unicorn's name again . . the first one?"

"TV . . TV . . phenomenon!"

Yes!!!! She remembered! I don't know how, because the utterly ridiculous nature of the 'name' had no business even crossing her mind in the first place, not to mention staying in there any length of time. But, lucky for us, it did.

A Rarity Brings Me to 138

2008-09-06T13:14:00.004-04:00

A nice leisurely walk with Lily at the Moss Creek Nature Trail this morning got me 2 life/big year birds, bringing me to 138 species identified year-to-date. Fall migration is in full swing, and today it yielded a pair of uncommon wood-warblers. The first one I spotted was the more rare, a Golden-winged Warbler. The one I saw was a female, and she flitted around in easy view of the path for a couple of minutes, leaving no doubt in my mind of her identity. Still, when I reported it to eBird I got the "Are you sure, that's a great sighting" message, so I started to second-guess myself. A double check of my field guides and my memory and I'm confident still that's what I saw.

The second new species came at the other end of the trail, very high up in the trees. Lucky for me, this is precisely the habitat the field guide told me to expect it in, so I again feel very good about the ID. It was a Yellow-throated Warbler, although at that distance it's difficult to say whether it was a male or a female.

I'm very sorry to not have pictures of either of these two birds to share, as staying focused through the binoculars took priority with them. I'll leave you with a couple shots from our walk, however. One silly arty one I took of Lily, the other of an Empidonax flycatcher I couldn't ID because it wasn't calling or singing. Any guesses? The feature you get the best view of in this photo is the primary projection, which I'm judging to be fairly long (almost halfway down the tail). That makes me lean toward Acadian Flycatcher. Imagine my best Homer Simpson immitation (which isn't very good) . . "Stupid fall, why do you have to make birds stop singing??"

Daddy, I have a cricket in my neck

2008-09-06T07:34:00.008-04:00

I'm going to attempt to keep the commentary on these as brief as possible, because they really don't need much. This is a collection of some of the funny things Lily's said recently. There are certainly more, but my memory will only hold on to so much.

This morning, at the breakfast table. "Daddy, I have a cricket in my neck."

At dinner the other night. "I'm going to tell you a scary story. Once upon a time there was no mascara anywhere. At two places or at one place, there was no mascara. And that was really, really, really scary. The end. The end."

In the car, anytime anybody on the radio mentions Barack Obama. "Daddy, why'd he say Barack Obama?!?" She pronounces it exceptionally well.

Anytime the ESPN theme music plays. "DA na NA, DA na NA!"

When asked what her favorite thing was about preschool. "Snack time."

When pressed farther about what she's scared of at bed time. "Monsters and ghostes and bears."

When asked whether she wants sauce on her spaghetti. "Nope, I don't like sauce. No sauce? Noooo problem!"

Just now when I was putting her shoes on. "Daddy, you're not canceling my flight, are you? You're not canceling my flight for Meema to come see me, are you?"

When we got all that rain last week and were driving by the reservoir I told Mandi that they should open the dam. "Daddy, we don't say damn!"

On the phone with her Aunt Jaime the other day. "Jaime, will you come over to my house and play blinkin' blogs with me?" Have to assume she wanted to play Lincoln Logs.

And when you shoot her a thumbs-up with a wink. "Keep it pimpin'!", accompanied by a thumbs-up and a wink in return.

Already asking for money

2008-09-04T14:02:00.003-04:00

Seems like schools do a lot more fundraisers now than they did when I was a kid. I mean it's barely the 2nd full week of school and already I'm on the internet pimping chocolates, magazine subscriptions, and all manner of assorted knick knacks to the extended family.

I will say this though, at least these folks have decided to enter the 21st century and make the catalogs available online. You can also get free shipping of your junk, er, items, on orders over $79. How thoughtful of them.

Anyway, please click here to visit the online catalog. You will be supporting Avery's class' desire to have a pizza party, which as we all know is extremely important. Thanks!

First Day Of School Dance

2008-09-03T05:24:00.005-04:00

As promised, here is Lily's dance routine from yesterday morning. I'm sorry there's not more audio with it, that's kind of hit or miss. Sometimes she talks all the way through the dances, other times not at all. Still impressive though. I love how she uses the oven door as her mirror. I had to permanently take down the decorative towels we used to keep on the handle because she would shove them out of the way every time she wanted to try out a new dance move.

First Day Of School!

2008-09-02T17:01:00.005-04:00

After much anticipation, Lily finally started preschool today! Mandi got the morning off from work so we could both drop her off on her big day. How did she repay us, you ask? When the teacher came and opened her door for her, she promptly grabbed her lunchbox and hauled ass up the stairs. She briefly stopped at the top to wave to us, but that was all we got! We managed to throw a couple of "Bye honey we love yous!" out the windows after her, but without so much as a hug or a kiss, she was gone.

After 3 hours of piddling around and wasting time waiting for our little, excuse me, big girl to finish up her first day, we arrived first in line to pick Lily up at a little before noon. As she came down the stairs to meet us she was thrilled to show off the lollipop she got for being a good girl. The teacher that walked her out said she was really good, and even helped keep the other kids quiet at time (Jedi mind trick, I'm assuming).

Before you say anything smart, I know these pictures don't flow with the story. Just keep it to yourself. I'm irritated with the computer right now and don't have the energy to screw with it. Because of said computer issues, I'm going to save the "first day of school dance" video Lily did for you all for a later post. Hopefully it will be later tonight. If not, look for it tomorrow. Kid's definitely got a future as a cheerleader, if not a bona fide dancer.

Anyway, on the way home I was plugging Lily for information on her day, and she was generally not cooperating. She really didn't have a lot to offer for the first ten minutes or so, so I just kinda left it alone. Then, when I asked again about her day, she said "Daddy, my classroom is awesome!"

"What made it so awesome?", I asked.

"When we got to have snacks!"

That's my girl!

There's nesting . .

2008-08-31T20:10:00.008-04:00

. . and then there's going completely overboard. This is a lesson in the latter.

With Avery out of town this weekend, we planned to get a few things done around the house. Apparently my impression of "a few" and Mandi's are somewhat different. What I thought was going to be the painting of one room and stocking of the freezer turned out to be one of the busiest weekends I can ever remember.

I suppose it's my fault for not insisting on a list. I always do well with lists, no matter how long it is I'll happily work until it's finished. But when I come in thinking "paint one room and make some food" and it turns into "paint half of the house and cook enough to feed a small army, then do a thorough deep cleaning of the whole house while simultaneously keeping Lily occupied all weekend", I get a little ill. The truth is that as I type this, I'm completely whooped. To top it off, tomorrow's a holiday and our gym is closed, so my daily 2-hour respite from Lily will not happen. Serenity now!!!!

Anyway, the first project of the weekend was to transform Lily's lavender bedroom into Lily and Mason's two-toned "jungle" room. I don't really care for painting, but I do love paint. Paint brings new life to spaces, and it offers immediate gratification. It hides dirt pretty well, too. This is the progression of the project, neatly arranged in this convenient slideshow for you.

Lily loves her new room, and her new monkey Mandi's friend Sara gave her. She named it George . . so original.

Project number two was the freezer. Earlier in the week I was put in charge of defrosting the freezer in our garage to "get it ready" for this weekend. If I'd only known. I half listened as Mandi made her list of stuff she was planning to cook, but the enormity of the task didn't set in until about 6:00 yesterday evening, when she was barely halfway finished. Holy crap, that's a lot of food. Somehow our refrigerator still had ingredients in it, and she pushed on through the day today, finishing up just before dinner time. I won't list what she cooked, but if we chose to we could go about 3 weeks without cooking a single dinner. Gonna come in really handy when there's an infant to chase around the house. Here's what the freezer looked like before it got really full . .

And here's the after. Those stacks of aluminum pans go 2 deep, the big bags on the door are homemade meatballs, and there are 2 giant containers of Beef and Chorizo Chili hiding down near the bottom. Yum!

As if that wasn't enough accomplishment for the weekend, we decided to get some of our white touch-up paint and go over "some of the bad spots". Not my words. That of course turned into me painting all of the white walls from the top of the stairs, down to the foyer, through the living room, and all the way into the play room. Again, I love paint, just not painting.

The fourth and final project was by far the most frustrating, at least partly because of its proximity to Lily's mouth. I love that kid, but Holy Hannah does she have a set of pipes on her! We decided, almost on a whim, to paint the laundry room. It was the only room on the bottom floor of our house that was completely white, and the dirty walls just made the house feel, well, dirty. We'd talked a couple of times about doing something like a tangerine color in there, with the idea being that laundry's such a mundane task, why not at least make the room exciting. I bit the hook on that, and went to Sherwin Williams to pick up a gallon of "Sunburst". Well . . it looked orange on the card.

As small as our laundry room is (probably 8'x6'), it took almost as long to paint as did Lily's much larger bedroom. There's the chore of removing all of the accessories from the wall, like ironing board hangers and broom caddies and the like. The over-washer shelf came out with relative ease, but the whole process became quite tedious. By the time I'd washed the half inch of built-up lint from the baseboards and was ready to tape, it'd been almost an hour since I started. Couple that with the perpetual dance with the washer and dryer to get them away from the wall (I chose not to move them out of the room), and I was over this project before I really even got started. Mercifully I got it taped off and got the first coat of paint on before lunch time, and I felt OK taking a quick break for some leftover pizza. The second coat went on much faster than the first, and I was beginning to get the hang of standing on top of the washer to reach the ceiling by the time I finished. With a whim of creativity we decided to add an accent color to the strange little triangular-shaped intrusion into the wall from the staircase that goes above it. By the time I'd finished it and removed the tape I was completely sick of painting, and decided to leave the crisp white stripe left by the tape as my own artistic touch. Watch out Michelangelo . .

Now to prove to you that I'm not just over-reacting about a little work, I have indisputable visual evidence to support my theory that we have in fact gone well beyond the point of nesting. We are at 33 weeks pregnant as of today, with a solid 6 weeks worth of non-cluttered-by-baby-toys left to go in our current phase of life. Well so much for that idea. Project number five for the weekend was to get all of the baby related materials down from the attic, clean them thoroughly, install new batteries in all of them, and place them in their predetermined locations. Hell, it looks so much like we've got a baby in the house already that I thought Mandi was going to make me wear the baby carrier around while I painted! Here's your proof . .

Seeing that swing in the living room brings back a lot of memories. It's so funny . . when I vacuumed the living room tonight and came to the spot where the swing is sitting, I vividly remembered doing the same thing 3 years ago, leaning over the exact same way I did tonight to grab the swing, hold it out of the way, and just vacuum what I could get to. There is no moving furniture out of the way when there's a baby in the house. You're doing good just to get the vacuum out every third day as it is. Good times those were, and good times they will be.

One funny story from the weekend to leave you with. After Mandi and Sara finished hanging Mason's name on the wall, Lily came up to tell them that dinner was ready. She walked into her new jungle room with them and admired their work. She said, "Hey, that spells Mason!" She paused, then said "M, A, S, Zero, N!" She's such a smart booger, but you can't help but laugh when she has a "whoops" moment like that one. Another true classic.

At The Brink

2008-08-27T13:43:00.007-04:00

A little bit of rain is always welcome, especially in the middle of August. When Tropical Storm Fay's original track veered away from the projection that brought it toward Charlotte, many locals were disappointed. Then stories started coming in of major flooding in the Florida towns where the storm made landfall four separate times, and some blessings were no doubt counted. We want all of the good, but none of the bad. A week after the original threat of rain, we began to see the remnants of Fay. Monday afternoon at the bus stop the rain started coming down hard, and it didn't let up until around 10:00 this morning. Some parts of the region received 6+ inches of rain, and it showed.

Today on the news it was reported that dozens of people, mainly motorists, required rescuing from the high waters. There was no widespread flooding like what I've heard about down in Florida, but it's washing out roads over rivers, and we Charlotteans are notoriously bad drivers when the weather turns. That fact was certainly taken into consideration when the decision was made to cancel school due to flooding. That's right, they cancelled school on the 3rd day. I hope my few local friends who are regular readers are being very cautious on the roads this week. Don't drive into standing water people.

When we got to the gym today, I saw an overflowing river where I did not even realize a river existed. I literally look out the windows of the fitness center in the direction of this stream/river every day I'm there, and i've never noticed water. You couldn't miss it today.

The activity fields were pretty washed-out too.

After the gym, and a trip to the mall, we swung by one of my favorite birding spots to see if the rain had flushed any migrants from their trails. It hadn't, but this Red-tailed Hawk was taking advantage of the break in the weather to dry itself off. Talk about soaked!

On the road home, we cross over Rocky River. To call it a river on most days is a bit bold, as especially in the summer months it runs at little more than a trickle. Today that was not the case. The water was well over the banks, and was dangerously close to coming over the bridge and on to the road.

Poplar Tent Road crosses the river a little further North, apparently with a little less flood protection than was needed. The local sheriff's department had the road closed off and was redirecting traffic.

Then there's the portion of Rocky River that runs alongside the nature trail here in Moss Creek. At the trail's Southeastern edge the river goes under Harris Road, and that was also extremely close to coming over the bridge. The water was moving very quickly, and additional rain will certainly only exacerbate the problem. This shot of the submerged utility marker really gives you a sense of how fast the water is moving.

This next picture is significant because it was taken 100 feet to the South of the actual river basin. The river itself has overflowed its banks at this point and is flowing down the floodplain. The rumor is that our nature trail is mostly under water . . I've been asked to survey the damage when it becomes safe and report to the developer what, if any, repairs need to be done. I suspect signage, bridges, and a good portion of the actual trails have been damaged. More photos of that reconnaissance trip will certainly follow these.

A Birthdate

2008-08-26T13:22:00.003-04:00

I am, admittedly, a bit of a dork. I think about silly little things that ordinary (read: sane) people would not. Take for instance the recent discussion Mandi and I have had regarding the scheduling of her C-Section. The most important thing is that we get the doctor she likes to deliver the baby. That should go without saying. But what have I been focused on? The date, of course.

It's well known that I was disappointed with Lily's birth date. She was born 5/4/05, just one day shy of what would have been a very cool 05/05/05.

I know, I'm ridiculous. It's my child, and the only thing that should matter is that he's born healthy and his mom comes through surgery OK. But for now, I have no control over those things. Those are delivery room worries. Right now I've got some free time on my hands, so I think about silly stuff like visually-appealing birth dates.

Until about a week ago we've talked about a delivery date of 10/14 or so, and I hadn't really said anything about it. Now, however, the doctors' call schedule has been written for October, and it was time for us to talk to the scheduler.

Before I go any further, I'd like to add that I'm not the only one with self-serving motives here. Mandi's main concern, other than her preference of doc, is that she not have to go back to work until after the new year. Valid, yes, but still peripheral.

So I made it known that my preference would be for a 10/10/08 delivery day, and today it was written down in ink! Mandi got us on the docket for 7:45 a.m., and Mason should be arriving shortly thereafter. Of course I couldn't let it rest at that . . I figured why not just throw the next logical thought in the dork-progression out there.

"Could you call them back and see if we could schedule it for like 9:45, that way he'd have a chance of being born at 10:10 on 10/10?" I asked her.

Surprisingly, Mandi had already run that question by the scheduler and got summarily laughed at . . I'm guessing that means "No way Jose". Oh well, at least I got my date! How cool will it be when his 2nd birthday party rolls around and we can schedule it for 10/10/10???

I know, I know, you don't have to remind me. I'm lame-o, but I'll bet you I'm not the only one.

Not A Puppet Show

2008-08-23T07:27:00.005-04:00

It's not the puppet show, but I did get some fun videos of Lily riding her bikes in front of the house a few days ago. Pure comedic gold this kid is sometimes.

This clip includes her first "spill". What a tough cookie!

I like to call this one "NASCAR practice" . . "Safety helmet's on!"

And the commentary in the last one is just classic Lily. A brief and reluctant appearance by Avery at the end is something of a novelty. She's a touch camera-shy.

As a bit of an aside, we were at Avery's soccer practice and a friend kept an eye on Lily for me while I coached. I heard from Lily from time to time throughout the hour, but really wasn't paying a lot of attention to what she was doing. When practice ended, I came toward the sideline and was informed that Lil was demonstrating her new favorite song to the parents, one that none other than her Meema taught her. The lyrics are approximately as follows:

I see your hiney
All white and shiney!
It makes me giggle
To see it wiggle!

Did I mention that practice was at 8am? What a great song to wake up to, eh?

Distance Shortener

2008-08-18T17:27:00.004-04:00

Lily wanted to put on a little show for all of her non-local family this morning, and I've borrowed a friend's video camera for a while, so I decided to take advantage of it. It's in two parts . . enjoy!

Part I.

Part II.

Photography Practice

2008-08-18T17:02:00.003-04:00

It seems like certain things just shouldn't be so difficult. Take, for instance, photographing a juvenile American Goldfinch on a tree limb no more than 20 feet away, at 8am on a cloudy morning. To the naked eye this bird was a very pretty golden color, midway on the spectrum between brown and the brilliant yellow of the adult male. I took 10 photos of him on any number of different camera settings, and none would produce the color I saw when I put the camera down. This photo seems to have the best color of the tree, but the bird just seems brown. Harumph.

Yesterday I was perusing my cherry tomato plant and I came across three separate caterpillars clinging to its stems. I thought this one would be a good subject upon which to practice my close-up skills. Let's just say I'm still very rough around the edges.

I always love those shots of dew-covered plants. Roses glistening with dew drops seem to win all the photography contests, don't they? Somehow green cherry tomatoes and a wilted dying leaf just don't give that same effect.

Oh well, at least they're digital and I'm not wasting film. Perhaps I should actually read the owner's manual and learn what all those different buttons I'm pushing are supposed to accomplish . .

Things that make you go hmmmm

2008-08-13T21:08:00.004-04:00

Did you know that if you Google "Great Blue Heron Poop" that my blog is the very first result??? How did that happen? I don't even think my blog is the first result if you Google "Stay-at-Home Dad's Guide to The Galaxy".

In case you're wondering why I was Googling Great Blue Heron Poop at 9pm on a Wednesday . . I wasn't. I was going through my recent visitor activity on Statcounter.com, and one of the things I always check out is the Referring URL. Basically if someone clicked a link on another page that led to my blog, it's recorded there. The nice thing about Google searches is that the URL contains the text that was searched to net the results. Some other interesting searches that have recently produced visits to my page are "wilson's snipe recipe", "lil panties", "cherrystone camping", "lili poo stay way", "amazing amanda instructions", "blow up toddler beds", "toddler bed cannot escape sleep", and "how to do a fox hawk hairdo". Oh, and how could I omit "american airlines nonrev dress code policy". I'm not making these up folks.

Anyway, in honor of the impetus for this rambling post, I leave you with a photo. Enjoy!

Eastern Shore Birding & Wildlife Festival

2008-08-10T06:06:00.004-04:00

I'm super excited to announce that I've made plans to attend this year's Eastern (Virginia) Shore Birding & Wildlife Festival in Cape Charles, VA. I have never been to a large-scale birding or nature festival of any kind, so this will be my maiden voyage.

In addition to the adventure that comes along with birding a new location at the peak of Fall migration, I've added additional intrigue with my decision to camp outdoors rather than stay in a hotel. The camping bug really bit me last month when Avery and I went to Morrow Mountain State Park for the weekend with a group from CharlotteAreaDads . I tossed around the idea for a few days before I had totally committed to the trip, but as details came together and some well-directed Google searches netted me a high-quality option for camping, I made up my mind and locked it all in. The campground I chose is called Cherrystone Camping Resort , and while it's not exactly primitive camping it will still offer me the chance to be outdoors and spend the weekend totally immersed in my surroundings.

The festival is September 18-21, with the majority of the activities crammed into 48 hours from Friday at noon until Sunday at noon. I sent my priority selections in last week for the festival's many program choices. They offer a wide variety of field trips to some of the local National Wildlife Refuges, parks, and even some on private land. And while birding is the focal point of the festival, there are also numerous butterfly and dragonfly workshops, some of which I look forward to taking advantage of. I will keep you updated as the date gets closer and I find out exactly which trips and workshops I will be attending.

Barn Swallow Nestlings

2008-08-08T17:57:00.005-04:00

We went to James Dorton Park in Concord this morning to take advantage of some sub-90 degree weather, just planning to play and get some exercise. The birding at the park is typically pretty good, but I decided to leave the binoculars behind and just spend some time playing with the girls.

That lasted all of 3 minutes.

Lily wanted to finish her post-gym snack at one of the picnic tables under the pavilion. I saw no reason to object, and as we approached I thought to myself, "Self, this would be a good place for structure-nesting birds to build a nest." 30 seconds later I heard the begging peeps of nestlings coming from above, and I looked up to the rafters to find these cute little Barn Swallows. I of course headed right for the car and grabbed the bins.

They examined us briefly and were quiet again, although very alert. They are quite obviously almost fully developed and I can't imagine they're overly comfortable in that nest.

They looked around for their parents for a few minutes, and occasionally they would preen and scratch themselves.

In an act of unparalleled courtesy, I watched the middle bird do a 180-degree turn, stick his little bird butt out of the nest, and promptly poop on the pavilion floor. This is apparently S.O.P.

Uh oh! Mom's coming! Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!

"Ooh, is it my turn Mom?"

Mom never landed. She flew in with lunch presumably in her mouth, hovered noisily, and in a lightning-quick instant passed the food on to the young. With the camera set to take numerous shots in succession, I could never get more than two frames with the adult bird in them in succession.

My last observation and then I'll leave you to click and enlarge the photos . . isn't that nest cool? It's centered on that bolt and then presumably just stuck to the wood with mud. What craftsmen those swallows. Ha, another new cliche . . "Crafty as a Barn Swallow".

Freckle-faced Kid

2008-08-07T13:13:00.004-04:00

Mandi asked me the other day to try to get some close-up photos of Lily's face full of freckles. I kept putting it off, thinking I'd wait until I could do it outdoors in the natural light. Well it's been 3 or 4 days, and the feeling that I was procrastinating was weighing heavily on me. I am, after all, a list-checker-offer. Give me a list of stuff to do, I want it done an hour ago. So, while she was eating her lunch today I snapped a couple of shots. Ok, so I took 14. Sometimes quantity is the only elixir for a fidgety subject.

Taking a bite of her sandwich. "Why are you taking pictures Daddy?"

"Can I finish eating please Daddy? Can I see the pictures Daddy?"

"Please can I eat Daddy!?!"

Interesting Names and Cliches That Should Have Been

2008-08-07T07:33:00.003-04:00

I find some of the names given to things found in nature to be very dull. House fly. Earwig.

Some, however, are marvelously interesting. Take this dragonfly that I captured for my specimen box. How cool a name is "Halloween Pennant". Somebody put some thought into that name. The name was no doubt derived from its coloration, very orange and brown. It could just as easily been named a Fifteen-spotted Pennant . . but why settle for boring when something like "Halloween" is available? It's kind of like signing up for a new YouTube account . . you try the most interesting usernames first just to see what's available. Kudos to the scientist who went bold with this guy's name.

Although this Cicada Killer wasp earned its name for its behavior rather than its appearance, it's a cool name nevertheless. There have been a half dozen or so of them swarming around the stairs leading down to our neighborhood pool, and they send Avery into a tizzy every time she sees one. I've always insisted they wouldn't hurt her, although I didn't know that for certain. This week I decided to figure out what they were once and for all, and it turns out I was mostly right. Cicada killers are said to "very rarely" sting humans, with their primary interest of course being the killing of cicadas to feed to their larvae. How uniquely specialized.

And I know this is random, so please forgive me, but I wondered yesterday why herons haven't ever been ( to my knowledge) the basis for any sayings or idioms relating to their behavior. I watched a Green Heron forage for almost half an hour yesterday, and the patience of these birds amazes me. This particular bird was slowly and deliberately hopping from branch to branch in a willow tree that was growing in a small marshy area. With every hop he'd get closer and closer to the single branch tip where a dragonfly was perching repeatedly. Then, after 10 minutes or so, he got close enough and made his lunge, snagging the dragonfly.

What came next really surprised me. The heron did not eat the dragonfly. Presumably having either paralyzed or killed the bug, the heron flew down to a spot near the edge of the water and stood among the reeds. He took 2 or 3 steps over the next 10 minutes, still holding on to the dragonfly. Then all of a sudden he dropped the dragonfly on to the water and watched as it lay there still. A moment later he struck at the water next to the bait and emerged with a small green frog in his bill. Talk about resourcefulness! And patience to boot. So why is it then that nobody's ever been called "As patient as a heron"?

The Dog Days

2008-08-05T06:39:00.004-04:00

As hot and humid as it's been lately, there haven't really been a lot of opportunities for nature walks. I did get down to the Moss Creek Nature trail yesterday early in the morning, and the diversity of species was as good as ever. I spotted a Great-crested Flycatcher, as well as an Acadian Flycatcher, both firsts for the trail. I got a nice up-close look at a Green Heron that was hanging out on one of the bridges, and Yellow and Prairie Warblers were around as well. There are oodles of baby birds around, most notably the Northern Mockingbirds. There are large stands of fruit-bearing plants that these rowdy mimids are thoroughly enamored with. I did not take the camera with me yesterday, but I've got some other good pictures to share from the last few weeks.

I imagine this picture will get me a scolding comment from my sister, but oh well. I was outside pulling weeds the other day and the neighbor's 12-year-old son was mowing his grass. I had my iPod on and was fully immersed in a podcast when I heard him address me from the other side of the fence. When I finally found the pause button and removed an earbud he was mid-sentence, and I had to ask him to repeat himself. He did, and his query made me smile. He asked me if I could tell him what kind of spider he'd found near the side of his house. I have to admit that the fact he'd ask me for some kind of identification (I've otherwise never said more than 5 words to the boy) was flattering in a way, but on the other hand I may have just been the only adult nearby and I was his only choice. Either way, I trotted over and checked out the spider. I did not know what it was, but you can understand why I told him that I was going to run and get my camera.

I held my phone up next to it to try to offer some perspective on its size, which I'd estimate at approximately 2 inches (or half the length of my Motorola Razr). I told the boy that I didn't know what it was (egad!), but that I'd find out for him. A few keystrokes later I'd come up with a name (and more than a few nicknames) . . it's a Black-and-yellow Argiope, otherwise known as a Garden Spider or a Writing Spider. The cool design in the web is no doubt what earned it the last nickname. It's completely harmless to humans, so if you see one in your yard please just admire it and leave it alone. "Spiders is good, they eats the cockroaches."

Then, after the thunderstorm that passed through right after this exercise in Arachnology, I peered out the kitchen window and saw this curious fellow dangling from the crepe myrtle. I know bumble bees are slow movers, but this guy seemed to be suspended in time. Turns out he was, although not in a cool sci-fi kind of way. How do you think a bee just dies in a position like this?

The butterfly bushes in my yard have not had great blooms this year, but the plants themselves are thriving. This particular one was transplanted to a corner of the kids' play area last year after it outgrew its spot near a living room window. Its prospects looked grim throughout the winter, as it did not take off as butterfly bushes typically do, but the spring and summer have been good to it, as it is now filling out nicely. The ultimate test is its attractiveness to the Lepidoptera, and this Tiger Swallowtail apparently is pleased. He was not deterred by my presence, as I was within 4 feet of him while taking this shot.

At the nature trail, these pretty red and white flowers were everywhere. If you know what they are, please feel free to tell me. Whatever they are, the hummingbirds love them.

Speaking of the hummers, I don't have any good new photos of my local hummers. It's just too darned hot in my back yard to stand still and try to capture battling ruby-throats at my single feeder. There are between 6 and 8 birds that battle for the nectar every day now, including 2 adult males and at least 2 juvenile males. As much as it seems like they never get a chance to drink for all of their confrontations, they're going through about 1 cup per day lately. This young lady was from our trip to Cayuga Lake last month.

Sleepy Rugrat

2008-08-01T13:13:00.003-04:00

It's amazing the difference an hour and a slight change in routine makes.

Lily went to bed late last night, a little after 9pm. This morning she was up at 6, versus her customary-of-late 7. Couple that reduction in sleep with our decision to go swimming before lunch today and what you get is one sleepy rugrat.

See, what had happened was, we came home from the pool and had lunch, and then Lily spied a Blow Pop in Mandi's work bag and begged us for it. We relented, mostly because she's been such a good girl lately, and she quietly went in to the playroom to watch Franklin before her nap. 20 or so minutes later, as she heard the closing credits roll on the show, Mandi called from the living room and said "Lily, Franklin's over, it's nap time!"

No response.

As Mandi started to call out again I shushed her and suggested that Lily might just have fallen asleep on the couch. I snuck in to assess the situation and found her sound asleep, sitting upright on the couch, with a firm grip on the lollipop (which was stuck to the fine hairs on her leg). As I tried to gently remove the stick from her hand she woke up, eyes wide open, and pulled it back away from me. I grabbed it again and took it, telling her it was time for her nap. She immediately started bawling, and it was all I could do to calm her down before I put her to bed. Kiddo loves her some junk food!

Thankfully that brief nap on the couch did not ruin our chances at a full nap in the bed. One quick bedtime story and she was out like a light.

A Brief Return

2008-07-29T21:00:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I saw a juvenile bluebird in a very intriguing spot. He was on my tray-feeder. There must be a shortage of bugs on the ground nearby, because these guys aren't supposed to be seed eaters. Somebody must have forgotten to tell him that.

He paused on the fence briefly, then piddled around on the ground looking for ants and spiders. I tried to get a little bit closer, but I spooked him before I could focus the camera. As what I can only assume was his way of helping me confirm his suspected odd behavior, he returned to the same location this afternoon. I can't say for sure if this is one of the four that just fledged my nestbox this weekend, but I'd like to think it is.

9034 Words

2008-07-28T09:28:00.005-04:00

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Each one. I would argue that's a low-ball estimate in this particular case. I hope these particular pictures provide a good start to your week!

Happy Birthdays and Baby Birdies

2008-07-24T19:52:00.006-04:00

There were so many things to post about from Tuesday that I initially considered posting about them separately. Upon further review, I'm far too lazy for that, so they're all getting lumped together.

First and foremost, it was Mandi's 32nd birthday. In and of itself, 32 is not a significant birthday. You're well into your thirties, and the next true milestone birthday doesn't occur until the big four-oh. However, in this house, each of Mandi's birthdays is now significant because for the five and a half months between July 22nd and January 7th, she and I can officially be considered "the same age". The other six and a half months of the year, I'm older. Anyway, we went out to dinner, but we returned to Mandi's parents' house for cake. We planned to have leftover coconut cake, which I made at the lake and we carted home in a cooler, but her mom got a sheet cake from the grocery store instead. It was probably for the best, as Lily and Avery weren't big fans of the coconut cake.

Avery enthusiastically dug in to her first piece of cake. She hated it.

Lily mostly just ate the sprinkles off of the top. When she finished the sprinkles on her first piece, she insisted on another one. Grandpa gladly finished the sprinkle-less piece and served her up a fresh one. Of course she sang some silly songs while she ate. It just wouldn't be the same without the "Roger Dodger" song.

Mandi's going to hate this picture . . but I think it's cute. Actually, it's just better than the only other picture I took of her that day . . the one of her blowing out the candles on the cake.

The cake itself was nothing particularly special, but it was a fun birthday celebration.

Before we headed home, Lily grabbed Grandpa's glasses and put on a little song-and-dance for the crowd. What a ham.

Earlier in the day (sorry for the lack of chronological order), the girls and I came home from the gym and saw one of the baby bluebirds poking its head out of the nestbox. This behavior is typically reserved for the day the birds fledge the nest, so I set up a chair along the side of the house and patiently waited for "the money shot". Well, it never materialized. Between having to come inside and make lunch for the girls (darned kids) and the oppressive heat of the midday, I just wasn't able to catch one leaving the nest. This peek out was the best I could come up with. (click to enlarge)

My guess is that the birds delayed leaving due in part to my presence. The adult male scolded me from his perch on the fence across the street. When I'd approach to try for close-ups of an emerging juvenile, he would dive-bomb me.

Then he scolded me from the roof of my neighbor's house. Somehow I derive great joy from seeing a father act in such a protective manner.

Before I went inside, the female joined him at the nest. This time they weren't scolding (I'd retreated 15 feet or so toward the driveway), but rather cooing gently as if to coax the young'uns out of the nest. Again, they waited for my departure before fledging.

By the time we got back from the pool at around 5:00, all four young had left the nest and were nowhere to be seen. I hope, as they have in the past, that they'll come back to the yard to flaunt their life progress.

End Of A Vacation

2008-07-24T13:17:00.011-04:00

I posted some of the better pictures from the first half of our vacation to Cayuga Lake in Upstate NY, I figured why not show off some of the rest.

Sleep was not an easy commodity to come by on this trip. Lily was difficult at bedtime, and that's putting it very very mildly. On the morning pictured Mandi and I heard Lily stirring at around 5:00 and were surprised that she didn't come in to wake us up. Instead we fell back to sleep and this was the sight we saw at a little after 6. Lily loves her Meema something fierce!

Not too long after breakfast they made their way down to the lake to go swimming. There were very few mornings that weren't overcast or rainy, so it was important to take advantage. Lily has learned to blow up her own floaties, saving Daddy an early morning headache.

All dressed and ready to go, the girls dragged Meema down the road and proceeded to swim for almost two full hours.

The walk back to the house was apparently the perfect time to remind Meema of all fun they had just had . . they don't pull from every direction, do they?

After lunch, they enjoyed some popsicles. There was no shortage of desserts on this trip, I assure you.

I spent most of the day just taking in the nature . . the lilies are a full month or so behind ours in North Carolina. The first blooms were just opening on these pink ones near the road (sorry I don't know the variety). There were daylilies everywhere you turned, the prettiest oranges and yellows overwhelmed every roadside view.

I've always been fascinated by the Gray Catbirds. Mandi thinks he's boring looking, but I think his little black cap is very dapper, and his slate gray color just adds to his already mysterious and secretive nature. This particular bird wasn't shy at all, consistently posing for me in the yard, on the wood pile, above the nest box I put up by the road, and on this reflector. Isn't the rental house across the street just lovely?

The girls took their baths super early that night, and then the strangest thing happened . .

. . they talked me in to pitching a tent for them to play in. In their pajamas. They played in the tent for a total of about 8 minutes, which is when a little girl from across the street came over to play with Avery. The tent sat empty for the vast majority of the next 24 hours, until the point that I took it down again in the face of an impending thunderstorm.

Avery really enjoyed playing with Skylar, the 9-year-old girl who lives across the street.

My guess is she probably needed another shower after sprinting back and forth across the yard. She didn't take one.

The next morning some neighbors brought their new grandson over to visit. He was a little cutie, complete with faux-hawk hairdo. Lily got a little time practicing sitting with a baby, something I hope she'll want to do a lot of when our baby arrives in October.

Later that night we decided to do the S'mores thing down by the lake. I did the best I could to start a fire with the materials at hand . . mostly some newspaper we brought, flimsy matches, and a bunch of green twigs. I wasn't pretty, and it certainly couldn't be called a bonfire, but it burned long enough to toast a few marshmallows, and that was all that really mattered.

This is the smile Avery got on her face each and every time dessert of any kind was mentioned. She loves her some junkfood.

Lily loved the idea of S'mores more than the real thing, but she posed for the camera and even showed off her new-found ability to roll her tongue. I am now the only member of the family who can't pull off that feat, although I've never really suffered much from that defecit.

In typical fashion I've saved the best for last, and unfortunately there is no accompanying photo. The funniest moment of the entire trip may have happened when we were about 2/3 of the way home on Monday. Lily and Avery were sleeping in the back seat of the car and Mandi was drifting in the passenger seat. We'd been in the car for close to 8 hours, and I'll admit I was more than a little bit lethargic. With the cruise control set at a modest 76 miles per hour, I negotiated my way around a few slower cars and was heading down a slight grade. I saw a hawk sitting on a utility pole off to the right, and as I leaned forward to get a better look I let the car drift slightly left and across the yellow line. To make matters worse, the road had started to curve gently to the right. Before I knew it I was snapping to attention and pulling the car back into my lane, the roadside rumble strips having done their job wonderfully. Mandi commented first, asking me what had happened. As I started to tell her Lily piped up from the back seat, apparently having been woken up by the sound, and said "Golly tamale Daddy, what was that?!?" All of us, including Avery, burst into uncontrolled laughter. I imagine I've got the good people at Noggin to thank for teaching her that phrase . .

We made it home after 12 hours in the car, and things are finally getting back to normal. Much has happened since then that's worth posting about, but for now the pool is calling our names.