Our Yard... landscaping from start to finish!

Recent Pictures!!!

www.flickr.com

Live Video From The Fabulous Wireless Webcam!!!

Click here to enlarge.

Live Video From The Second Fabulous Wireless Webcam!!!

Click here to enlarge.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005
4:53 PM

Eulogy For A Cell Phone

RIP Treo
?? - 6/27/05

Treo, the much used and abused cell phone of Mark, died Monday after falling into a coma on Saturday caused by complications from extreme water intake. Treo was less than a year old. Hard-working and omnipresent, Treo was virtually always at hand for Mark. Transmitting calls and e-mails. Conveying calendar information to organize Mark's life. Ringing all the effing time.

Treo unfortunately fell prey to his owner's overconfidence at his ability to avoid being thrown into the hotel pool while on a firm retreat. Treo stood hopelessly by while Mark ignored the warning signs. Not only did Mark ignore the fact that every other person from his office (and their spouses) ended up in the pool, but the specific warning from his wife that he should remove anything valuable from his pockets lest they get ruined when he, inevitably, ended up in the pool. As predicted, he ended up in the pool as did the items in his pockets And poor Treo suffered.

After the unfortunate dunking, Treo fought valiantly to recover, but the most he could muster was to flash his screen sadly while trying to connect to the cell phone network. Unfortunately, the network was out of reach for poor Treo. On Monday he succumbed to his watery fate and joined the great cellphone network in the sky.

But never fear, after a harrowing 3 days without a cellphone, a new Treo has been provided. Let's all hope Treo II can avoid Treo I's fate.

0 comment(s) so far!

Click Here to Read or Post a Comment

Sunday, June 19, 2005
8:33 AM

Spot the Bunny

As requested, here are a few pictures of Spot that I managed to get this morning as he was frolicking in the yard:

(Notice the spot on his forehead.)

Happy Fathers' Day to all you fathers out there!!

0 comment(s) so far!

Click Here to Read or Post a Comment

Thursday, June 16, 2005
11:17 AM

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bunnies But Were Afraid To Ask

1. Bunnies eat grass.
2. Left unchecked in a vegetable garden, Bunnies also eat lettuce seedlings (at least two different varieties). And carrot seedlings. And bean seedlings. And snow pea seedlings. Unfortunately, bunnies don't seem to eat weeds.
3. Bunnies can chew through bird netting. Many times. In many different places. Especially when the netting is protecting the aforementioned scrumptious vegetable seedlings.
4. Bunnies can chew through extremely think plastic mesh, even when you have expended much time and effort firmly attaching it to your fences and gates.
5. To the extent that they can't chew through plastic (or just get tired of all that chewing), they can squeeze through extremely small spaces. Extremely small.
6. Bunnies can dig. A lot.
7. Bunnies hide in your yard so that when you attach said thick plastic mesh to your fences and gates you end up fencing them into your yard instead of out. Or maybe it's just the two of us that this happens to.
8. Bunnies do not herd easily. At all. Even worse than cats.
9. Notwithstanding the size differential, when really scared, bunnies will charge at you.
10. There is no need to be ashamed if you are intimidated by a charging bunny, no matter how small and fuzzy the bunny. Anyone who has seen Monty Python's Holy Grail knows why.
11. Chicken wire is really the only effective way to fence out bunnies.
12. Chicken wire is a pain in the butt to work with and you will get scratched about a gazillion times by said wire before it is successfully attached to your fences and gates. Having rosebushes right next to the fence sure won't help either.
13. Left unchecked, bunnies will have babies in your yard.
14. Baby bunnies are very cute and once you find them, you will immediately worry that you have fenced the mother out of the yard while fencing the baby in, thereby preventing her from feeding the baby. Then the guilt sets in.
15. Removing chicken wire is nearly as difficult and painful as installing it. And seems to take about ten times longer than it should. To the extent you had any unscratched areas on your body after the first go around with the wire, those will be all scratched up in the removal process.
16. Once born in your yard, bunnies stay. And then they grow. And grow. And invite other bunnies over to hang out. Sometimes three friends at a time!
17. Bunnies also attract stray cats into your yard as well as lots of crows. Which cause you to constantly chase the invaders out of the yard waving your arms like a lunatic for the sake of the bunny's safety.
17. Things could get really bad in the Fabulous Yard if the bunny procreation continues (or if our neighbors see too much of the crazy arm waving).

In short, we have a new "pet". He's named Spot (because of a cute little white spot in the middle of his forehead). The only problem is that he is terrified of us (perhaps because of all of our fencing antics and the lunatic behavior which protects him - I'm sure he just doesn't know all we do for him!). But the cats love to watch him. And he is very very cute. Let's just hope he/she is sterile.

0 comment(s) so far!

Click Here to Read or Post a Comment

Thursday, June 09, 2005
10:12 AM

Back

Yes, we are back. Trip was good until I got sick. We have literally hundreds of pictures which I hope to weed through this weekend so I can set up an on-line album for everyone to see. But for now, a very quick recap.

London
London was, as always, fabulous. I love London. The British Library was probably our favorite from this trip. Tons of manuscripts and the like. How often do you get to see sheet music written by Beethoven which was actually written by Beethoven (or Chopin or Mozart)? Or the actual stamps that were at issue in the Stamp Act? Highly recommended.

Unfortunately we did not get to see Ewan McGregor in Guys and Dolls. Our tickets were cancelled at the last minute due to some theater flub up. But never fear, we did see Ewan McGregor in London - as Obi Wan Kenobi. Yes, we went and saw Star Wars Episode III. It was a nice break from the gazillion miles we walked. And we really liked the movie. If only Ewan had sung in it, my happiness would have been complete. But I suppose a singing Obi Wan really wouldn't have worked. Then again . . .

Munich
Munich was also great. After the initial thunder, lightening and rain, the area was hit with a heatwave and it was in the high 80s for the rest of our trip. Kind of strange. (For future reference, when it gets warm, all the locals flock to the parks and many fully embrace the nude sunbathing concept. And I mean fully. Obviously not a great decision for all people. Just be warned.)

Tons more walking. We walked just about every square inch of the Altstadt at least once. I think the Viktuelienmarkt (the huge outdoor farmers' market) was my favorite. We took a side trip one of the days over to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Beautiful area.

Salzburg
Salzburg was good for about 4 hours until I was really sick. From that point on the trip was pretty much over. But Mark did get to have the pleasure of visiting a pharmacy for medicine and we both went to a local hospital at my parents' urging so I could be checked for strep. We both had images of the "Black Toe" hospital incident in Lost in Translation flashing through our heads. Luckily Mark spoke enough German and the doctor spoke enough English that it wasn't a problem (I could hardly talk at all by that point). We did make the best of the pre-sick time though. Went up into the fortress over the city and walked all through the old town area.

All in all, a good trip. But it was good to be home. But not back to work. (Sigh)

Hope everyone is doing well. Pics to follow soon.

0 comment(s) so far!

Click Here to Read or Post a Comment