Thursday, June 3

I'm sitting here in our front room watching the muddy water in the Little Darby and hoping we don't get much more rain. A family of newly fledged grackles have commandered my bird feeding station and have it emptied by noon each day, including the block of suet. Yesterday, I had the priviledge of attending a military promotion event for one of our church members. Pastor Pat was going to give the invocation for Maria Kelley's promotion and she needed someone to drive her there. As I understand it, Maria is the first female to be promoted to the rank of colonel in the state of Ohio. Maria has been in the Army National Guard for 27 years and has been deployed to Iraq twice and her husband is there now. They have 4 children and I remember that her daughter Sarah was in the 5th grade the first time she was deployed. I think Sarah will be a senior next year. It was a wonderful ceremony. They taped the ceremony and had hoped to have her husband live on satellite watching from Iraq but they were unable to make the connection. Congratulations to Maria and her family for all of their sacrifices. Maria's husband, Dave will be home in 24 days.

On my birthday, I entered a contest to win the opportunity to blog around the world. I normally would never have given a contest like this a second thought but since I have been blogging for a year and a half and one of the destinations is the Galapagos Islands, I figure that I have nothing to lose. The winner is the contestant that receives the most votes before December. Only one vote per person so tell your friends to vote as well. The trip is for 2 and takes you on 8 of Lindblad's most popular expeditions with the stipulation that you blog during your trip. You may decide to enter yourself and if you do, I say, "go for it". To vote, or enter, visit http://www.blogyourwayaroundtheworld.com/ If you vote for us, I promise to send pictures and make you feel as though you were on the trip with us. Vote "Team Bichler"! Search: Carol Bichler.

Pictured above: California beach, Oakland; Barrow, Alaska sunbow; Grand Portage, Mn. Lake Superior ferry to Isle Royale NP; Crazy Horse Monument, South Dakota; Point Barrow, Alaska