Hey Baby, What's Your Book?

A short little quiz will determine your psyche as if you were a book. I took the quiz and ended up being pegged as war prose. This book is about Vietnam war soldiers:

You're The Things They Carried!

by Tim O'Brien

Harsh and bitter, you tell it like it is. This usually comes in short,
dramatic spurts of spilling your guts in various ways. You carry a heavy load, and this
has weighed you down with all the horrors that humanity has to offer. Having seen and
done a great deal that you aren't proud of, you have no choice but to walk forward,
trudging slowly through ongoing mud. In the next life, you will come back as a water
buffalo.

Strangely accurate. Especially today, when Michael and I are on our 7th day of being sick. Bleh.

Signs of Spring

Not much has been happening in life lately, so I really haven't had anything to post about. But SPRING is coming, and that's got me excited. One of the reasons I love living in Seattle is that the signs of Spring start so early.

My blue stars and some protected daffodils have been blooming for weeks. Snowdrops are just showing themselves, and many bulbs have been poking themselves through the soil.

This morning the resident flicker started hammering on our metal chimney like he does every year. For the next month or so we'll be awakened by his jack hammering every morning.

The Bewick's wrens have been inspecting their old nest box. Last year there was a bit of contention between the chickadees and the wrens for the nest box, so this year I added an extra one. It's in a very sheltered spot and kind of hidden, so I've hung some suet there to attract birds to the area.

I ordered a small video camera to put in the original nest box. I'm pretty excited! It's not wireless, though, so I've got to figure out how to get the input all the way into my computer. I might need a wireless transmitter/receiver adapter, if it's not too expensive. The camera was a deal at $60 from Cooper Seeds.

We've had a long cold winter of pretty consistent gray days and temps staying in the upper 30s and lower 40s. Nothing terrible, but I'm looking forward to some warm sunshine.

Haiku

Hail on black bamboo
Hummingbird flits through the leaves
Flash of ruby throat

Pink Hooray Birthday

My 4oth (!!!!) birthday is coming up, and I was just on eVite creating a, well, eVite. I was searching the design gallery and typed in the word "bhangra." eVite said " Did you mean: pink hooray birthday, pink hearts?" Why, no! But what a nice suggestion.

I've been fairly blogless. Life has just been puddling along without much to say. The Bewick's wrens who nested in my yard last year are back checking things out. I'm thinking it would be cool to install a wireless infrared camera in the nest box, but I may not have the $$ to do that before they move in. It would be cool, though!

I have too many projects ...

Amarilli Mia Bella

It's Done! It's Done! It's Done!

The day has come! MoI is really, really done! For now. The software Michael has been working on for four years is done! My favoritist thing is this new line of text on his home page:

MoI version 1.0 has been released! Buy now (US $195)

Aahhh!

Tell all your friends!

Maine Events

And for my final Maine report, I've strung together a bunch of short videos.

Miscellaneous Maine

Here are some miscellaneous things from our visit to Maine.

Michael tried to eat my nephew Julian. Luckily Julian was wearing his new National Geographic watch and binoculars, and he was saved.Ian beat his Dad, Aaron, at Monopoly with the help of a team of advisers.No vacation is complete with out substitute pets while we are away from our Bijou and JoJo. In Harpswell we had spazzy Scout, and in Camden bloated Manuel and Polly (not shown).
We stopped by The Maine Dog in Camden to visit the Flemish Giant rabbit who lives in the store window. This is a Big Bunny. He's about 3 times as big as JoJo.

Celebrations

There was much rejoicing in Maine while we were there. Of course, I like to think it was because we were there, but probably not. Not entirely, anyway!

December 31st was my nephew Ian's 6th birthday! Wow! I feel like he's no longer a little boy, he's a regular kid. A regular spazz! Ian could eclipse Maine Yankee in energy output.

We also did some Christmas presents all around since Michael and I had come in to town. Here my other Maine nephew, Julian, helps Michael with one of his presents.

After we did Christmas and celebrated Ian's birthday, Michael and I, my Mom, and my Dad headed to Belfast for a New Year's Eve dance played by the Hep Cats. I got all dressed up, fully knowing that only a few other people might be dressed up; I even wore my new petticoat. I must be city-fied, because I was really surprised to find that no one else dressed up. There had been a lot of snow recently, and every one else was in jeans, warm shirts, and practical muddy boots. I wore boots, too, I'm not crazy, but I did change into dance shoes. The floor was slick with mud. I'm used to dance floors being wet, but it's always beer, which is nice and sticky. The mud on linoleum was pretty slick. I had a great time anyway, and many people told me they really liked my dress and the fact that I dressed up. We all had a great time dancing; here I am with my Daddy!

New Year's Day Michael and I saw my long-time friend Ann and her husband Jon. We had a great lunch at Cappy's Chowder House, and then we had to go our separate ways. Too short a visit! Someday I hope we can have a long one.

Then my Aunt and some cousins from my Mom's side of the family came over for a New Year's Day get together. It's always great to see you all! Not many people made it this year as have in past years, partly due to another snow storm which was already dumping snow.

Snowtasia!

I really prefer to visit Maine in the summah, but if I have to go in the winter, it might as well snow! While we were there, we had two beautiful snow falls, both nicely scheduled to not interfere with our travel plans.

The first snow started on the evening of the 30th while we were snugged up in Harpswell with my Dad, my stepmom Becky, my brother Brady, and the cat Scout. It was still a snowy winter wonderland when we woke up. I shoveled and snowshoed, and then the sun came out for even more beauty.

To cap it all off, when were set to leave for Camden, I saw an owl fly onto a branch in the yard. He was very big! He stayed for about 10 minutes while the Henderson-Gibson-Williams paparazzi snapped many photos. This owl was pretty big -- maybe the size of a raccoon. I'm thinking he might be a Barred Owl. A recent blog post here says, "The widespread reports of Barred Owls being seen in the daylight hours in Maine this winter has some people thinking these birds are having a tough winter already and they are stressed and hungry enough to come out in daylight." I hope he wasn't too stressed. Very magnificent.
On New Year's Day in Camden, we had another pretty snow storm which started at about 2pm. We went for a nice long walk around Chestnut and Bayview Streets in Camden. It was absolutely beautiful, and I'm really glad I didn't have to drive anywhere. This ivied lamp post is at my brother's house, where we were staying.