Things, Stuff & Such

Last weekend I set up a bird bath and feeder in my backyard. At first the birds did not want to come to close and only a few actually braved coming to the feeder. Now every day I am seeing many birds perched on the feeder or drinking from the bath. It is a lot of fun to watch them all. Most of the birds are black birds and pigeons. There has been on Blue jay and a male and female cardinal that keep showing up. The male cardinal seems a bid skittish and flies off at the slightest noise or movement but the female doesn’t leave until she wants to. I have taken several pictures and a few videos with my camera. You can see the pictures here (I will upload videos later). Some of the pictures are not that good because my camera sometimes focuses on the lanai’s screen instead of the birds. I’m thinking of setting up a webcam to watch them while I’m not home. I’d like to set it up to take snap shots when the camera detects movement. We’ll see if I can actually pull it off.

The boys are supposed to be coming down for Easter but the tickets have not been purchased yet. Their mother said she tried to buy the tickets last month but they were more than she wanted to pay. They were pretty expensive from what she told me. She suggested that she may do better if she waited until it was closer to the time of the trip. In the past she always got the tickets a week or two before the scheduled trip and usually got a descent price, which seems counterintuitive but seems to work out. She asked me a couple times if I thought she should wait to get the tickets and hope for a better price. I told her she should do it how ever she wanted. She kept asking me if I thought she should wait. I felt a set up coming but finally pointed out that she seems to be able to get good prices closer to the trips. Last weekend I was talking to her and she said she was going to buy the tickets this weekend. She also made sure to remind me that I told her to wait this long – implying I was now responsible for making sure she doesn’t have to pay to much. We’ll see what happens.

Syria took Scott for a checkup yesterday. He has to cut back on how much he eats and get a little more exercise but is otherwise healthy. Neither of the boys eat a lot of junk food. It’s just not a big part of their diets. That’s their mother’s influence; she is not that into junk food. I wish I could say the same about me.

Scott made a little money baby sitting Monday night. He made five bucks for watching a three year old for ninety minutes. Not a bad deal I’d say. Scott said he liked doing it well enough to do it again if he is asked. I’m sure he will be. He was pretty proud of earning his own money and I told him I was proud of him for taking on the responsibility.

Over the weekend I set up a bird feeder and bird bath. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a little while now. The feeder is copper in the shape of a tall plant. It actully has two seperate feed holders, one low and one higher. Along with it I set up a bird bath made of a blue glass bowl on a metal pole. The blue glass filled with water looks very cool when the sun light hits it. The picture below makes it look more purple than it actually is.

It was a couple of days before any of the birds in the area came around. They would come close but only one dared to venture towards the feeder. Yesterday was the first time I actuall saw a bird perch on the feeder to eat. Most of them are just pecking at what seed falls on to the ground. After that we had a coulple of birds come and drink from the bath. I managed to get a little video of one of them on the rim of the bath. I hope to get many good pictures of the birds as they come by.

Okay, it has been a while I know. I was almost finished creating this entry when my browser froze on me. That hasn’t happened in a long time – but it is still very frustrating. I had to recreate this sort of quickly but here it is.

Here is a rundown of what’s new:

Last week Scott was a stage hand in a play at his school. His job was setting up the sets and moving them around between acts. He spent two weeks practicing while the play was rehearsing. Rehearsals were Monday through Friday after school and on Saturday mornings. He said he really enjoyed doing it. Some of his friends were there with him. They had five showings of the play last week. I wish I could have been there to seem him work. He said he may do it again next year. It was great that he had something to get involved in and socialize outside of class.

Some students from Scott’s class may be going to Washington D.C. next year for three days in April ’08. They are just now beginning to plan the trip so I don’t have all the details yet. He says he wants to go and I hope that he does. It would be a great experience for him.

Scott wants me to teach him how to design websites, which I am happy to do. Specifically, he wants to learn Flash animation. I told him we would get started the next time he comes down.

With all the snow days the boys had this winter the school decided to cut their Sprint break short. Understandable, but it means their visit with me will be shorter also. Can’t have them missing anymore school.