Scott's Bday

Yup, a whole week has passed since I turned 32. I just didn't post pictures because I was depressed and crying from getting old. I mean I'm on the down swing to 40 now, which might as well be 50 or 60, which means I'm pretty much bald, gray (what hair is left), wrinkly, and crippled. I'm over that now and sitting here at 5:50 am writing a blog update on a Monday morning.

Bec made a lovely cake for my birthday, which we just finished yesterday! It was good, but we were trying not to eat it all at once, which was a distinct possibiity without self control. I got a great grill cover, finally, to cover the grill that Bob and Susan had given us as a house warming present. I finally got one, now that I have to replace a burner since it burned itself into 2 pieces. Lowe's doesn't carry them of course, so I need to order it. Uh.

Anyway, I also got a lovely bottle of Gentleman's Jack and several pictures/posters framed that are now hanging in the utility room and office. Plus my diplomas from back in the dark ages when I graduated with some college degrees are now framed nicely and hanging in the office. Bec didn't want them next to her diploma (yes singular) as she only has one (not counting HS). Yes, I'm in trouble now.

So here are some picts of the picts and my cake.





My cake had a chasm/fjord/fault in it.


Me and my cake.


Diplomas looming over the desktop.


Poster by the cat food.


3 frames over the mini-beer cooler and cat poop spot. Looking sharp!!

Evidently I don't have a picture of the other picture. Oops. Time to make some food and go to work.

Thanks to all of you reading that contributed to the great framed picts!!!
To the rest of you, where's my present:)

Off to the lake house this week. I ought to take a ton of picts up there.

I know, I know......

I had nothing better to do for the last 5 weeks, but I posted nothing (thanks Kelly). So I took some picts of the yard and utility room (new window treatments) and here you go, a silly little post.

All in all, not much happening. I am fat and trying to get riding again to shed to some beer pounds. Then I got sick for a week (last week and it is lingering) and did nothing but get OD'd by my doctor (she prescribed me way too much of my antibiotic), snot all over the house, and lay on the couch watching reruns of such classic shows as Crossing Jordan, Scrubs, and MASH. Bec and I watched bike racing this past weekend in Nashville (cheering on my teammates), which was a lot of fun. Some really good bike racing too!!

Here you go:


This is the view from the top of Unaka Mtn in east TN, near Erwin. Cloudy, but gorgeous view. I was up there in mid-May for a bird ID refresher course we put on every spring.



Gladiola in the front yard. We have some yellow ones too, but was too lazy to take a couple more shots.



New schnazy window treatments in the utility room. They are blue and white. Now if I just had pictures/posters framed to put on the big bare walls:)

Click on picture for larger version.
Twilight criterium race Saturday night in Nashville. These were the pros, who were smoking fast!! This was my first attempt to use an extended shutter speed to catch and blur moving objects. I really needed a tripod, but I leaned against a tree and it worked ok.

One more blur of bikes.


So from here on out, I will attempt to post more often to prevent ridicule, which will happen anyway, so maybe I won't post much:) Things will be happening before long, including the man of the house getting older and a vacation to the lake house (which will include a LOT of bike riding-YAY!!!).

Ok, ok, Bec forced me to

Gypsy doing what she does best, sleep.

So we haven't updated in a while. Same story, not much going on, been lazy, nothing to show. Blah blah. Well I have taken a bunch of days off and done a lot of those little things Bec has been telling me to do for about a year. I also did some fun stuff, like birdwatching. I forgot how much fun it can be! It's my job and I never do it.

Anyway, I did things like change out the "almond" electrical outlets in the utility room with white ones that I've had since December so they match the switch plates. I put up gutter on the garage so we don't get wet when it rains. I fixed the stupid gutter on the back porch so things aren't growing in it and I capped one end and fixed the downspout on the other end. I also built a compost bin for Bec on Saturday. I built a robin nesting platform and a bat box (using some wood left over from building bluebird boxes for my undergraduate thesis some 11 yrs ago). Plus I was able to mow my new grass finally!!! This is the grass that replaced that stupid gravel path in the backyard.

Nice gutter along the garage. It ain't pretty, but it works.

Pretty 3'x3' compost bin, now with food and grass clippings.

My new grass!! I hate grass, but it is nice to not have that stupid walkway!

Last weekend we were in Memphis with Brian and Kelly for the Derby party. We ended up winning $8 total, even though I was the bookie and held the cash. Straight up winnings, but I bet on the horse that won while Bec bet on the horse that died. The picture is of my favorite part of the party, the drinks!! Ok, that's not true, the drinks were awesome Brian, but the company was the best. If you haven't seen their house since the kitchen was redone and painting happened, you need to. It is really wonderful.

Some new bird pictures start here. Just clicj "next" to see more. Some pictures are of fairly rare birds in middle Tennessee.

http://www.pbase.com/shoeman/image/96820447

Until next time....

bits and pieces

We've been fairly busy this spring. Scott's been in and out of town and I've been spending my time studying. My finals are next week, otherwise I would be camping with Scott this weekend.
Last weekend, we went to Huntsville so Scott could meet our new nephew, Mark, and we could visit with John. We had a great time. Scott helped Jay work on the boys' new fort.

the fort prior to completion


Mark Austin


the very busy big brother...



After finals, I go back to working full time throughout the summer, but we do have a few fun things planned.

Blue Angels and Bluebirds

The yard in April 08. Looking good with all the blooming flowers!! The iris's will bloom by the end of the week and the tulips are opening now. Some of the stuff we planted last year and got "burned" in the freeze in April and suffered in the drought are blooming for the first time and growing rapidly!


So we have a pair of bluebirds nesting in our bluebird box. She had 5 eggs today and should start incubating today. Last year we had only titmice in the box, after bluebirds tried to nest and a House Sparrow killed the female bluebird on the nest (that happens a lot). Hopefully our bluebirds will make it this year.

Bec took this shot of the daddy bluebird, while I was off working on yard stuff.

There was also an airshow in Smyrna this weekend. The Blue Angels were here flying low over the neighborhood. Rather then spend $20 a person and have to be with a lot of rednecks, we could see a fair amount from the yard, not use portajohns, relax in our yard, and not spend $5 for a hot dog. There were shows on Sat and Sun. Pretty cool. Glad the airport isn't active but for tiny planes anymore!


Bec got this shot Saturday.


I got this one Sunday.


Not a Blue Angel, but cool plane! (taken by Scott on Saturday)

Hopefully next weekend I'll get to meet my new nephew Mark. The following weekend I may see Brian and Kelly as I'll be in town for the state ornithological society meeting (old birders), so I may skip the banquet and go have some fun! Can only deal with old birders who want to grill me on birds all day and whom have no idea about personal space. I don't like to be able to tell what they had for lunch, yesterday!

The new Trellis

So my weekend project the last 2 weeks has been putting in this trellis. Basically it keeps Nick from sprinting through my garden, but also will eventually look cool with the flowering vine on it. It was fun digging holes in the yard, using my circular saw, and mixing quikrete.





Note also the gravel is disappearing from the back walkway. We are getting rid of it and folks from my office are getting it bit by bit. It was a nice walk, but not real practical. Actually it was a hige pain when mowing the stupid grass. Soon to be gone and the back benches and table will be moved to another spot in the yard.





This weekend I am expanding my horizons when we go see "Rent." I'll let you know how I like the musical.

Nearly a month?

What? It has been nearly a month since the rodeo? No way. Well I guess since that was the last post. Time flies when you're bird hunting.

A lot has happened in the last month, including spending 7 days (11-17 Feb) in McAllen TX for a meeting, a lot of bird watching (lots of new species I've never seen before) and a trip to Mexico for dinner and booze (and to watch 2 international students with the conference get detained by Border Patrol for a while, they made a boo boo on their visa's, they were later released into the US). I got to see a lot of my colleagues from across the US and had to run a 4 hr meeting as I'm too involved in things. It was a fantastic meeting, great food (closer to real mexican food), and just a lot of fun. The one morning we had every room, except one, booked for our conference at the Convention Center. The other room was used by Hillary Clinton. I was birding that morning, so I missed the Secret Service and hooplah. Thank gosh. Birding, seeing illegals swim the river, and getting yelled at by Border Patrol is way more fun:)

I have a lot of bird pictures posted here: http://www.pbase.com/shoeman

Just click on McAllen Texas and click on the first bird for a larger image, then you can click next and make a slide show. Before you ask, yes I took all those pictures. I'll add more bird pictures from other places, but I haven't had time to put them up.

We then enjoyed me being home for a week, but had to give a talk to the local bird club one night. Total in attendance: 14, including me. Never a big turnout with that group. At least they pay attention and ask questions.

Recently I spent time in west Tennessee searching for that recently found woodpecker that was extinct since the 1940's. It was rediscovered in 2004 in Arkansas and so we have the duty to spend some time (not much, as I was told by my bosses) searching in TN. After being skeptical that the bird was actually refound for a couple years, I've decided in the last couple months that they survived to today (long story on why, even though we don't have a picture or actual proof). Anyway, I'm contracting with someone to do a lot of the work for me, but I went last week to scout out a small site (very unlikely to have the bird, but we had an interesting story about someone seeing the bird irregularly), and within an hour I'm pretty confident I heard one. I just don't know how else to explain what I encountered, it was unlike anything I've ever heard in the woods and is fairly diagnostic of what this species does. The next day I heard it again while with a colleague on 2 occassions. So I'm not crazy. Now some experts have been to the site and I think they believe we have the birds, so all my time now for the next month will be searching in west TN. Hence a lot of travel the next few weeks. I was planning to be home pretty much all March, but that changed quick. Many good things would come of this if we found one!

It also snowed last night. They called for 2-4 inches, but we only got a coating where we are. I was hoping for more, but alas we didn't get much. I took some Brian Athow artistic pictures for you. Enjoy.

Welp, time to clean up a plant a cat knocked over this morning, leaving a pile a dirt across one corner of the living room.