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Tuesday, February 22, 2005
12:00 PM

Happy Birthday Nicholas!!

Today is Nicky's Birthday. Everyone please wish him a great birthday!!

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Sunday, February 20, 2005
3:11 PM

Everyone Cross Your Fingers!!

As some of you have noticed, the hummingbird nest is looking a bit different these days. Unfortunately it appears that Mama Bird chose a less than stable spot for all of her hard work. Because the nest is attached to the vines on our arbor, during the recent wind and rain, the nest became rather wet and unstable. We had some really strong winds yesterday. As the wind blew down our side yard, the vines moved quite a bit, and the nest moved with it. But we refused to let all of Mama Bird's hard work end without putting up a fight.

First I secured the vines as best I could to minimize how much they move when the wind blows. That seemed to help. But then, the nest continued to sort of slide off of its perch to one side. So I had to add another support to the actual nest to try to held hold it in place. Hence all the green landscape tape that you see in the live picture. It seems to have helped, but I must admit that I am still pretty worried about the babies. We have another big storm that just hit and I hope the nest and the babies make it.

Here is a pic I managed to snap today of the babies in their human-improved nest:

Everyone please keep thinking happy thoughts for the little birds. I would hate for all of Mama Bird's hard work to be in vain.

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Friday, February 18, 2005
4:13 PM

The Incident of the Dimwit and the Chips

Last night, as I stopped on my way home from my hair appointment to pick up take out Mexican food for dinner, I witnessed an event that shocked my sensibilities. It was one of those moments where you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are in the presence of truly the most idiotic person on the planet at that given moment. Truly. And luckily, for once, it wasn't me.

There I stood, waiting for the restaurant to give me our chicken torta (which we discovered when I got home was actually a carnitas torta - the horror!! But I digress . . .). Seated at a nearby table was a couple finishing their dinner. A basket of the restaurant's oh so yummy chips was on their table. The woman grabbed a chip and ate it (a truly shocking action, I know). The man then says to her "Just stop. You keep eating chips. Stop!" Yes. That is pretty much precisely what he said. Now admittedly, I wasn't there for their whole meal. Perhaps she specifically asked him to keep her from eating any more chips, though I submit that the chance of any sane woman doing that is slim to none. Maybe she suffers from both a severe chip allergy and an uncontrollable compulsion to eat chips (in which case the restaurant was just a bad idea all around, which lends further credence to the biggest idiot theory). And even if she did ask him, I am supremely confident that she didn't mean it. I've had their chips after all and they are gooooood. Given the glare she shot him, I think my point is dead on. And I didn't even mention the somewhat preachy tone he used. Like he was doing her a favor. Bastard.

Therein lies today's lesson.

Never, ever, ever, ever tell a woman to stop eating. Period. (Actually, it really works for both genders, but given the weight-obsessed reality 99.99% of all women live in, I suspect it is far more applicable to women.) The obvious exceptions would be if you see mold, smell something awful, or see the food moving on its own. Otherwise it is just a bad idea to tell someone, particularly a female, to stop eating. You might as well just say "Hey! Aren't you fat enough already??" Also avoid at all costs anything like "Haven't you had enough?" or "Aren't you done yet?" They are all bad. Period.

Alas my food was ready at that point and I didn't wait around to watch her use the remaining chips to remove his very small brain through his nostril. But I'm sure she did. Good new is that there is one less idiot on this planet today.

P.S. Notwithstanding the horrible torta mix up, our dinner was fabulous. And Mark let me eat all the chips I wanted. And I hadn't even told him this story.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
8:40 AM

Going to the Birds

I'm starting to think that we need to rename our blog from "Our Yard" to "Our Animals." I think that there are more posts about the animal life in our house and yard than about the yard itself. First it was Petey. Then it was pictures of the Folks' extremely prolific birds. Then it was the overall anarchy created by the conspiracy of the cats to take over the house. Then it was the Crazy Squirrel Debacle of 2004, which included the sub-plot of the roadrunner who seemed to have joined the squirrel rebellion for a short time. At some point, the ducks likewise joined the efforts to oust us from our yard.

Luckily the animal life calmed down, we retained control of our little domain, and life was, to be frank, rather boring. But then along came Mama Bird to entertain us.

We are happy to report that Mama Bird is now the proud parent of two not-so-cute baby birds (but they are getting a little cuter). Luckily the second egg hatched this past weekend and Mama Bird has since been extremely busy feeding the babies.

I managed to snap a decent shot of her feeding one of the babies. (They are very small it's sort of hard to do.)

So far everything seems ok with the hummingbird family. Unfortunately I haven't yet been able to train Mama Bird to land on my finger. But I'll keep working on that.

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Friday, February 11, 2005
3:39 PM

Week in Review

Sorry about lack of posts of late. Between being hugely busy at work and feeling profoundly uncreative, I just haven't been up to it lately (wonder if the two are correlated?). But I thought I'd do a quick recap of my week to get everyone up to speed.

Positives of the Week:
1. Pancake Day - Mmmm pancakes.
2. Mama Bird - FYI as of this morning we had 1 egg and one very tiny (and not very attractive or cute) baby. We'll see if the other egg hatches soon. I'll see if I can get some baby bird pics this weekend. (I promise to spare us all another round of frightening baby bird pics - no offense Dad! If they are ugly, no pics. Guaranteed.)
3. New episode of The OC.
4. Friday.
5. Laying in bed Friday morning listening to rain.

Negatives of the Week:
1. Crazy work.
2. Less than ideal clients.
3. A thorough tongue-lashing by the Judge on our newest case (thanks to the less than ideal clients).
4. More crazy work.
5. Worrying about the rain getting on Mama Bird and her babies.
6. Fighting with the webcam to be able to see Mama Bird.
7. Lack of sleep from worrying about the new case with the less than ideal clients (or alternatively stressing about the Judge's ire).
8. Having to get out of bed Friday morning and head out into rain. (Don't know how you Seattle folks do it!)
9. Did I mention the crazy work?

As you can see, the week has been, all in all, pretty crappy. But it is almost over. And I can spend the weekend recovering.

Hope you all have a great one!

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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
8:50 AM

Pancake Day 2005

Yes, it's that time again, Pancake Day. For anyone not familiar with the concept, check out Pancake Day 2004.

In short, in preparation for Lent, everyone should go eat Pancakes, or any other leavened item of your choice.

I already have plans for my annual trek to IHOP with a group of friends to eat pancakes. I encourage you all to do the same. Pancakes for everyone!

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