Mother Robin

When G was little, my mom would sing her a song that went: Way up high in the cherry tree/If you look, you will see/Mother Robin and Babies Three/High up in the tree. During our visit to PA this time, it turned out that Mother Robin and Babies Three were in my mom & dad's nasturtium planter on the front porch, not in their cherry tree! My dad discovered the nest with four eggs when he went out to water one day. We stopped using the front door so that we wouldn't bother her and kept peeking out the window, waiting for hatchlings to appear. About two weeks later, she and her mate were feeding three little mouths (not sure what happened to the fourth). According to the bird book my mom has, robins fledge in about two weeks, so they should be leaving the nest within the next week. My dad has been watching to see if any of them have attempted to fly (so far, not that he's seen) and is giving us a daily update.

Obie Land

Class of 2018?


For the past 10 years, as we traversed Ohio, we passed the exit on the turnpike for Oberlin College. Since my friend Marian is a graduate of that fine institution, each time I've proclaimed that "some day, when we're going through here at the right time, we're going to stop." That day finally turned out to be June 12. Because of delays through Chicago due to the Blackhawks parade and the Cubs playing the Sox, we did not get as far as we'd hoped our first travel day. We stopped just a few miles down the road from Oberlin. The next morning, I managed to convince Dan & G that a small detour through "Obie Land" (as Marian calls it) was not going to set us back too far. It was a lovely campus and a nice little town, and most likely we will be visiting it again in the next few years. We've gotten our feet wet now and campus touring won't seem so daunting in the future (which of course pleases me no end!).

Movin' On Up

On June 11, G's intermediate school had a "promotion ceremony" for 8th graders. I attended mainly so that G could bug out as soon as it was over. I was surprised at the number of people who attended -- you'd have thought it was a graduation with the large family groups that were there! The "inspirational" speeches from the district superintendent and the principal were interesting (the former used that email about the guy who pulled the thorn out of the elephant's foot as her thesis; the latter likened the class to George Custer -- but in a good way ... ?). High school awaits in the fall for G!

Back Home

Volcano by G


The blog was dark for a month or so because we've been in Pennsylvania. We left right after G's "promotion ceremony" and intended to stay for a week. But while we were there, my dad fell (nothing broken, but a nasty hematoma), so G & I decided to stick around for a while. We got back on Monday and have been playing "catch up" this week.

Kayaker

Astico

We spent Memorial Day weekend camping with friends at Astico Park. It's a county park, so it was packed. Our neighbors were a group of about 40 people who blasted the album "Some Girls" (which was great to hear the first three times, since it was from my freshman year in college and I hadn't heard it in a long, long time) and Pat Benatar's Greatest Hits continuously during the day, and sang songs loudly and off key and discussed their sex lives in excruciating detail until 4 a.m. Other than that, it was a great time. Our campsite was really nice and right on the Crawfish River. We could launch kayaks from the site and tie them up when we were done. And we had the best S'mores ever! (Secret: Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate instead of regular Hershey bars.)

Crawfish River in the background

Tent City

Sums up the weekend

Comfy Cat

One of my birthday presents was a 3-1/2 inch self-inflating sleep pad for when we go camping. We inflated it to try it out -- it is very comfortable. Everyone liked it so much that I left it out on the living room floor with a cover and some pillows. It is Luna's new favorite spot. This is what she looked like pretty much all day. I should probably check her for bedsores ...

The Necromancer

This book came out on Tuesday. G managed to talk to me in the car on the way home from school, do homework, watch the NCIS season finale and still finish this book before midnight. My assigned task is to get through it ASAP, because she is bursting to talk to someone about it.

Nifty Fifty

Just got home from a surprise 50th birthday party that Dan & G planned for me. The surprise got "spoiled" on Thursday, but it was fabulous nonetheless: 10 friends at a local Asian bistro specializing in lighter cooking with organic produce. Thanks to Bette, Carolyn, Beth, Kim, Dawn, Terri, Jenny, Brenda, Karen and Shannon (and Kia and Tanya who couldn't be there for family reasons) for being awesome friends (and for disregarding Dan's "no presents" request!), and to my hubs and offspring for putting it together. Love you all!

Pansies & Pinwheel

Love that you can see the motion of the pinwheel

Kitten

My dad has always wanted an all black cat. When we mentioned that we found a litter of kittens in the barn that included a black kitten, he called back and told us he would take it. Dan and G were able to catch the mother -- it was actually as easy as luring her into a cat carrier with a can of Friskies (Luna would never fall for that, unfortunately!) -- and her four kittens, which were asleep in a box G had put out. They put the whole crew in the basement. Everyone is very friendly and after a week seem to be litter trained. The kitten is going to travel with us to PA in June. My dad and my mom are beyond excited and already have everything ready for his arrival. This is our latest photo update to them.

Early Iris

We've got irises along the south side of the house. One lone purple-gray flower opened today -- most of the other plants haven't even sent up stalks yet. It's in a clump of "antique" bulbs that Dan rescued from an old homestead that was being demolished. They look very different from the showy blooms of our other irises.

Alyssum Revisited

Last year the alyssum didn't flourish until the fox ate the chickens, who kept scratching them up. Since we have only one hen left, I thought they'd have a better chance this year, but Cocoa was digging around in them almost as soon as G put them in. It's going to be the same battle -- keeping the ground moist enough to make it uninteresting to critters, but not too wet to inhibit growth.

Container Garden Party

G and I bought a flat of assorted flowers today in under 20 minutes (from finding a parking spot to exiting the lot). It's a start on our roof container garden. We put in cosmos, pansies, violas, marigolds and a begonia. We have some other planters that we'll get around to next time, when we finish the roof garden.

Up on the Roof

We have been having lapses in our Wireless Internet service. Sometimes it goes out for several days and sometimes it's fine and sometimes it goes up and down all day. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to it and our ISP cannot figure out what the problem is. The Internet consultant for Dan's company suggested a different (and much more expensive) receiver. The weather has been so windy that today was the first time in two weeks Dan could get up on the roof to install it. Because I used the zoom, you can't see what a drop it is from the roof to the ground! The new receiver seems to have boosted the signal and our connection is superfast right now. Let's hope it continues to work!

Hint Hint ;)

www.favl.org - Aya for Ghana libraries




www.heifer.org - Beehives

The Red Pyramid

Here's our latest reading obsession: The Red Pyramid, Book One of Rick Riordan's new series The Kane Chronicles. G finished it in a day, but I am taking a little longer and Dan hasn't started yet. We've all read Riordan's Percy Jackson series and were looking forward to this one. I've found the difference between Percy Jackson and The Kane Chronicles kind of like reading The DaVinci Code and then Angels and Demons: I breezed through the first, because I "got" all the references, but am having a harder time with the second because I have to keep looking things up to understand the plot. While I am familiar with Greek mythology, I have no clue about Egyptian myth and history -- so I am learning something.

Dead Sea Scrolls

G had an early release day yesterday, so we went to see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit and planetarium show at the Milwaukee Public Museum. We probably set a new land speed record for getting through the exhibit. I don't know what we were expecting, but it wasn't as interesting as any of us thought it would be. G was even able to nitpick one of the captions -- it talked about the Romans, but called the wine god Dionysus instead of Bacchus. Once you see something like that, you kind of wonder what else they might not have quite right. To top it off, all the magnets (our typical souvenir for all the places we visit) for the exhibit were sold out in the gift shop (with no prospect for more coming in before the exhibit leaves). At least we got out of the house ...

No-Sew Blankets

G & I attended the No-Sew Blanket Saturday that three local ELCA churches hold annually. Even though we no longer attend one of the sponsoring churches, we enjoy going every year to catch up with people, enjoy the fellowship and contribute to the community (blankets are donated to local shelters and other organizations). Despite the fact that we've fallen away, those women welcome us as if they've just seen us at service. They are Christian in the truest sense.

Group knotting party. The woman in red next to G was the OB nurse who helped deliver her.

Clowning around with a friend

Dandelion Hill Farm

The chemical-free lawn! Thank goodness we don't have a neighborhood association to contend with!