Friday, July 27

Can't say exactly what I have been doing this week.  Seems like I have been busy without really getting anything done. Tuesday kind of did me in. I was at the zoo doing bird diets and from 10:30 to 1:30 I had to babysit for "Blue" one of two new baby pronghorn that we got from the Minnesota Zoo.  Her name really isn't Blue, that is just the color of her ear tag.  Her sister is Red.  Pretty sure they will get real names soon.  We had to sit inside with them because of the storm.  Have to admit, it is a pretty cool job.  As soon as my shift was over I had to rush over to London to pick up my mom for a doctors appointment.  It seems she had an ingrown toenail.  Very painful for her and I had to leave the room or become a patient myself.  For the life of me, I could not get Dr. Selva to understand that I did not want to see or know what he was planning to do.  Finally the nurse caught on and asked if I would like to wait out in the hallway.  I found the entire ordeal very stressful and hope I do not have to go through that any time soon. (Poor Mom, she was the one who had it the worst and I couldn't even be much help)
Wednesday, Mr. B decided that he would like to go to the Ohio State Fair.  Probably because it was only $3 admission but after we got there I was pretty convinced that his main motive was to get some fair food.  I don't think we had been inside the gates more than 5 minutes before he had some hot fair fries in his hands.  We walked to the Natural Resources Park and enjoyed the area and the fact that it was about 10 degrees cooler there.  They had a new aviary there this year next to the butterfly exhibit.  Very nice.  I immediately thought of Jack McDowell as I walked through the Prairie Sampler. He certainly touched a lot of people as evidenced by the number of friends that attended his visiting hours and his wonderful funeral service at the Methodist church.

 The Ohio High School Marching Band

 Some things never change.

 Andy at the gate with his home made ice cream.  He had french fries, a Bahama Mama and a Lemon Shake Up before we left.

I bought this flannel wall hanging/blanket for Evelyn at the fair.

Well I am going to bring this post to a close in anticipation of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies tonight.  The Olympics are my most favorite sporting event of all time.  I remember watching as a child and wishing that I could someday participate.  I did the next best thing in 1996 and attended the Olympics when they were in Atlanta.  What a wonderful experience!  GO Team USA!!

Saturday, July 21

 A 3 day old blue bird from one of the nesting boxes.  He is one of 4.

 Shoving off at Twin Lakes.

 A Green Heron.

 One of my favorite sights on the lake.  Molly, do you see this?

 One of the 6 belted kingfisher family.

 A king bird nest hanging over the water in a cottonwood tree, looks like they used some cotton making the nest, too.

 A great blue heron preening himself.

Three great egrets sharing a perch.

After what seemed like a very long week, not sure why, I decided to unwind by going on the Birding by Kayak trip sponsored by the Columbus Audubon Society this morning.  We met at The Adaptive Adventure Sports Coalition on Twin Lakes in Powell near the zoo but on the other side of the Scioto River.  TAASC is an organization that make outdoor activities available for individuals that have disabilities. They also work with groups like scouts, churches and birders.  There were a lot more people this time compared to the last outing I went on in October last year.  It is always fun to meet new people that share similar interests and birders always seem to be a pretty diverse group.  I think as a group we tallied 56 bird species and one couple even spotted a mink.  The lakes were smooth as glass when we pushed off around 8:30 and almost immediately we spotted about 3 green herons.  As we crossed the lake and saw all the usual suspects, turtles on every log and exposed rock, rough-winged swallows and gold finches, we paddled into a small cove that had several killdeer on the sand bar, great egrets doing a little spearfishing and a family of 6 belted kingfishers sitting on a dead log.  We paddled for about 3 hours and spent the last hour on land looking for orchard orioles and a prothonotary warbler.  We briefly saw the warbler and spotted several Baltimore orioles, but no orchard oriole.  Darlene, who organized the trip took several of us over to the Ohio Wildlife Center while she fed the Cooper's Hawk.  It was really interesting to see the animals that they get in at their rehabilitation center.  She said they are always in need of volunteers, something I will have to think about.  Right now I think I have plenty to do.

Sunday evening, July 15

The shower today went well.  Plenty of food for everyone and Ramona and I loved seeing Amy and Courtney.  We had a very nice visit.  Amy and her fiancee hosted the baby shower and they have a really cute home a little closer to downtown Atlanta since they both work in the city.  It was just great seeing everyone and catching up on their lives. Tomorrow morning we plan to get away early to start our trip home.  Our hope is to get out of Atlanta before the morning rush hour.  Wish we could bring some rain home with us.

 Amy and Bryan in their home before the shower.

 Courtney and Judy beside the diaper cake and gifts.

 Courtney with her sister, Amy

 The cupcake tree.

 Judy, Amy & Courtney

 Michael and Courtney opening their gifts.

Sunday, July 15

Today we are getting ready for the baby shower.  My niece, Courtney, is having a baby in September and Ramona and I are in Atlanta to help out and attend the shower. Yesterday, Judy took us downtown to the Georgia Aquarium because I have been wanting to go ever since it opened.  Let me tell you, it did not disappoint!  It was pretty crowded because of the weekend but we really enjoyed all of the exhibits.  The newest show was the new dolphin show called Dolphin Tales.  We went in to a large theater that had a large pool and movie screen in the front.  The theater was huge, 1.875 maximum capacity.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures during the performance but it was a wonderful show featuring 5 trained dolphins that would swim, jump, dive and spin on command.  Their trainers would dive with them, get pushed through the water by them and stand on top of them as they raced across the pool.  To make it even more enjoyable there were special effects that included thunder, lightening, fog, laser lights and water features.  Throughout the entire show, I kept thinking how much Luke and Lily would have enjoyed watching this show.

 Mesmerizing jellyfish exhibit.

 We found Nemo!!

 Under the Giant Manta Ray and Whale Sharks.

 The Whale Shark.

 Beluga Whales.

 Small African penguins.

 Lionfish that have invaded the rivers in Georgia.

Saturday, July 7

 A friendly game of miniature corn hole

 Asher's canon ball.

 Olive's new best friend, Alli the alligator. We dubbed her the Princess of the swamp in Gatorland

 Flying underwater

 Lillie's underwater shot.

 Adam got a turn on the alligator because he was the only one willing to blow it up.

I think I did a pretty good job on my new office.

I know...I know.....you are thinking "why don't she write"!  Honestly there just hasn't been much going on to write about and I have been involved in several DIY projects. I have wanted to remodel the room off of our kitchen for a while now and I finally made myself get started on it.  Fondly known as the book room or computer room it actually was the nursery when we first moved here in 1977 and we were pregnant with Trish.  More recently it became the "catch all" room and after watching the hoarding show, Buried Alive-Stories of Real Life Hoarders, I decided I needed to dig in and get it done.  In the last 2 weeks I have painted the room, built a door for the fuse box, replaced the baseboard and corner trim on one wall, removed the baseboard heater and put the laminate flooring down. Today we even sold the pinball machine that was taking up so much room.  We had a scaled down 4th of July cookout today with my brother and his boys.  We just relaxed and spent lots of time in the pool. There was lots of good food thanks to Grill Master Adam and home made ice cream courtesy of Daniel. After a week of working around the house it felt good to kick back and do nothing.  Looking forward to cooler temperatures next week.