Interview With the Vamp

l3ig @$$ Sp!d3r

**Now with shiny new translations!!**

Me: What's up with the title? I'm pretty sure we don't qualify as a vamp.

Also Me: Because we like puns. Duh!

M: Uh, oKAYyyy. . .

AM: So I was going to ask you a few questions.

M: *looks sideways at interviewer, which, all things considered is pretty much an impossible feat*

AM: Would you cut that out? You're making my eyes ache. Just go with the flow.

M: WHAT is all over the dining room floor?

AM: Where did THAT come from?!?

M: What? I'm going with the flow. And something has obviously flowed all over the dining room floor. What IS it? It's kind of. . .greasy. Eeyew!

AM: OK, back to the topic at hand.

M: Which is???

AM: Ah. . .

M: Ha! you don't even KNOW!

AM: Shut up!

M: YOU shut up!

AM: Why don't you make me?

M: Oh THAT'S mature.

AM: OK, shut up and answer the questions.

M: Shut up AND answer the questions?

AM: *glares*

M: *also glares*

AM: I was going to ask you what you thought of these pants

M: OMG where did you find those? You're my hero!!

AM: Yeah, well there's a ton of other great stuff, too.

M: Hey, "Dongle!" Doulas Adams coined that term!

AM: Well, he used it anyway. Cool site, huh?

M: Oooh! That is awesome! I like the Onna Otaku one!

AM: On the subject of she-geeks, you should probably check this out.

M: He's not a she-geek.

AM: No but you are, you dork! And you will probably love his radio show. And you should definitely check out his film.

M: Oh, ah.

AM: Ok, well I think that about wraps it up for now.

M: What about a picture for Egan?

AM: None of the pictures we took today has anything to do with any of this.

M: Does that matter?

AM: *shrugs*

M: Well, let's put some in, then.

AM: Whatever. I suppose you're going to blather on about them.

M: What do you mean, "blather?"

AM: Oh just post the stupid pixx0rs already. (pictures)

M: Oh you think you're all 1337 ("Leet" - click the link)

AM: *rolling eyes* You didn't even know what that meant until today. You're such a n00b. (newbie)

M: Haha! U r t3h suck !!!1!1!eleventyoneone!!!!

M: Haha You are the suck (you suck) !!!!!!! (newbies often typo !!!! as !!1111!!!!!!!, so now that is mocked by making it even more extreme, hence the "oneone" and "eleventy")

AM: Oh, yeah. You're real cool.

M: Haha! Listen, it's a ROTFLOLicopter! Are you on LOLLerskates??

Just ways of emphasizing the ROTFLOLiness of things.

AM: OMG you need to get a life.

M: Suxx0r!! Kekekeke. I_00x!7!! Mollusc told me about that one.

"Sucker! Hahahahaha" (from Korean gamers) "Lookit" (Click the link, it ROCKS!)

AM: I can't take this anymore. *leaves*

M: Ha! I am t3h pwnage !!!1!1!1oneone (Shift + 4)!!! *puts sp!d3r pix0r up top*

M: Ha I am the ownage (more mocking of common typos for emphasis. As in, "I totally owned your ass on that one!") Shift + 4 is yet another level of mockery of !!11!!!! because in one country you have to push shift and 4 to get an exclamation point. "puts spider picture up top"

!7 wz, like, t0ta77y ra!n!ng wh!73 th3 sun wz sh!n!ng !!11!!1

It was, like, totally raining while the sun was shining!!!!!! (rain was descending from the sunny heavens)

"ol0n't 4get m3 wh3n !'m g0n3, my h3art wud br8k. ! h4v3 luvol u 4 s0 l0ng. . ."

"don't forget me when I'm gone, my heart would break! I have loved you for so long. . ."

Get it? Get it? Huh? Huh? OK, judging by Gutter MuNKi's reaction, if you're old enough to remember this song, you're prolly too old to bother deciphering the leet, so here's the song. (You have to click "play sample" to hear it. ) Plus, I guess not a lot of peeps know what kind of flower that is, but I'll totally give you massive points if you get it ALL figured out, LOL!



! 4m n0t g0!ng 2 m4k3 4ny p0l!t!c4l c0mm3nts 0n t#!s 1 - jvs7 Nj0i t3h pixx0r!!

I am not going to make any political comment on this one, just enjoy the picture (of bleeding hearts)

0M6!1!!1 T3h 2th Fa!ry is t3h Suck!! Sh3 t0ta11y 4g0t t0 t4k3 M011us('s 2th l4st n!6ht!!

OMG The tooth Fairy is the suck! (is a complete wanker) She totally forgot to take Mollusc's tooth last night!!

You Should Have Bought a Squirrel!

I got to hold the wee baby again today. He's cute, in spite of his freakishly long toes. ;-) But then another mom wanted him, so I handed him off. His little downy head is so soft, and his little bitty arms are just the right kind of chubby. And then I found out that the mom to whom I handed him off had had a miscarriage in Feb. How awful. I can't imagine the pain. And you know what? MOST of the women I know IRL have had a miscarriage. How absolutely sucky. What gives? Have they always been so prevalent? Maybe we know we're pregnant earlier, so we now identify a m/c that would otherwise have gone undetected. My mom, my sis, one SIL and I are the only women I can think of who I know have never miscarried, and of those, only 2 of us have ever been pregnant. (me and my mom obviously) I know far more women who have.

Sorry to get all depressing there. It just struck me as weird. And sad.

OK, on to happier things. How about films? I was raised Seventh-Day Adventist until about the age of 12, and that means, among other things, NO MOVIES IN THE THEATRE! Although we did all sneak to Star Wars when I was 10 - first ever theatre movie, and let me tell you, it made quite an impression (well, duh.) After we left the church, my dad became a total movie-junkie and I think I've inherited some of that. To steal and warp something Trundling Grunt said, I tend to like films rather than Films. In fact, if "the guys shaped like the number 10" (thank you David Letterman) liked a film, it was a pretty sure thing that I wouldn't.

Here are some of my favourite films, none of which are highbrow in the slightest way:

Super Troopers
This one never fails to make me laugh. Broken Lizard is brilliant (well, if you don't count that whole Club Dead thing. Bleh. Oh and Puddlecruisers. Ah, OK, this is the only one of theirs that I love, but it's brilliant!) The syrup chugging contest, the steel cup test on the firing range, "Will you move that gigantic cotton candy?!?!" Oh - too many quotable lines. . .

Captain Ron
Ah, Kurt Russell. :-) Just a fun all around movie. "Gue, Go - HUGE difference!" "Angeline's no cretin, Boss, she's a Puerto Rican." "A shark ate your EYE?!?!? COOL!!" "Ahhhhh! The Pirates of the Carribean!!" "Would you please back off!I lost my eye, man!"
A friend told me that Kurt Russell was embarrassed by this film. I hope that's not true. I think it's my favourite film of his.

The Thomas Crown Affair
Dh knows he's gettin' some every time I put this one in. TMI? Love his character, love her character, love the twists, cringe every time he "folds" the Monet up in his briefcase, LOL!

The Boondock Saints
Yummy twins, comedy, action - but not so gory as a lot of shoot-em-up-bang-bangs these days - no slo-mo flying blood and all that. Never heard of it til SIL introduced us. Thank you SIL!

Bridget Jones's Diary
OMG - British boys fighting in such a namby-pamby way!!! (don't worry, British boys, I know you fight much better than that, but OMG, LOL!) Oh no. Please don't let me have offended the greater part of my male readership. Please. *crosses self* I will do penance if required.
I love Bridget's insecurities, failures, foot-in-mouths and triumphs. :-) Possibly even more than that, I love the whole P&P parody thing right down to Darcy and "Pemberley Publishing." I love "congealed green gunge" and the Tarts and Vicars party. I love the emailing with the short skirt and sheer blouse bit. I will admit that I love a lot of Hugh Grant films. (Notting Hill, 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Two Weeks Notice, etc.) Have you lost all respect for me now? A lot of people seem not to like him. Mostly men though. . . Are they threatened by his sheer manliness? OK, I thought not, LOL! I'll take a funny man over a stud-muffin any day of the week. Anyway this film brings me to. . .

Pride and Prejudice
"Vapours Man" BBC version, of course, because only the Brits can do something like this up right. You would be surprised how many homeschooling moms are in love with Colin Firth/Mr. Darcy. (why do I always want to write D'Arcy??) Unless you are a homeschooling mom yourself, LOL!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Ha HA! How's THAT for a change of gears? (Oooh I can hear them grinding. Yes, Toby, grinding, LOL!) Um, I've gotten distracted now. . . Oh yes - "And why's the carpet all wet, Todd?" "I don't KNOW Margot!" "SQUIRREL!!!!" "Gone!" "If I had a rubber hose I would BEAT you right now." "I couldn't be more surprised if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet." "Not that I have a log. At least, not in the sense that you think I said I did."

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Well, duh. It's me here after all. IMO there's something to love about each incarnation of this story. Gotta love the little lightsaber that toasts bread as you slice it. The flyswatter scene - "What do you think, Arthur." "I think. . . wait - what do you think, Zaphod?" WHAP! "Oh freddled gruntlebuggy thy micturations are to me as plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee. . ." (close? too lazy to Google it) The POV gun cracked me up, too. :-) This is already an "old classic" in my book. I should add here that I'm not going to include super obvious films such as SWars, Monty P, etc. because they are just painfuly obvious choices BUT. . .

A Fish Called Wanda
has to make the list because, believe it or not, there are people out there who have yet to see it and I will pimp it any way I can! Otto - the man you love to hate or hate to love - ahhhhh. :-) "Speak it, speak it!!!" "Linguini, con spinache, le due cupele grande" (however it's spelled) "Well, Mr. Manfredjensenjen. . ." "Don't touch him! He's MINE! All mine!" "Oh look, it's K-k-k-ken, c-c-c-come to k-k-k-kill me!" "Canis mortus est. . ." "Ken! Someone just called!" "What was that middle part again?"

OK how about one more for a nice round ten? Oh dear. That's always hard to choose, isn't it?

Ah. POTO

I only want to sing, sing, SI - 'ere we'll have none o'that. But I can't watch this without singing it for DAYS and WEEKS afterward. And just YUM! Hotness, singgyness, actionness, romanticness, ok and a side of tragic ending, LOL!

Ha! not done yet cuz the Dune Minis - both Dune and Children of Dune have to squeeze in. I don't like the way Newman does Paul all petulant in Dune, but for the most part I really like the rest. For me they bear up to repeated viewings. :-) NOT to be confused with 1984 Dune. *shudder* In spite of yummy Sting being in there.

Oh no! I forgot Rat Race. For some reason John Cleese tends to appear in films with weak endings (like Holy Grail), but I still love this one. :-) The Barbie Museuem, "Are you CRAZY?!?! This is Hitler's car!" Oh, too many quotables to even get started on. "We came in the rocket car!" "Shoulda bought a squirrel!"

Got some favourite titles to share? Oh crap - have I done this before? Oh well, better pull the trigger. . .

There's Rosemary, That's For Remembrance. . .

Chives May 29, 2006
Thyme for some more garden posting! Come into my garden and let me show you around a little (cropped views of course, so you can't see any mess, LOL!)
Imagine my happy surprise when I discovered that chives are perennials (they come back year after year, without you having to do squat!!) I love chives! I love being able to walk out my front door and pick them and snip them up and eat them. I love eating the flowers! I love looking at them! I love margaritas -- on 3/4s of one of which I am currently buzzing, thus contributing to my perhaps overenthusiastic raving about chives!! But, no, I do love chives. And I'm really pleased/surprised with how EARLY they grew back and started blooming. We've been eating them for a few weeks now.

More Chives May 29, 2006

In addition to lovely chives, my lemon balm has come back with a vengeance! And it has spawned little renegade lemon balms! Here's my main bush ;-) with its friend "Chives." (which is actually a different chive plant than the one in the top 2 pics)

Another of their friends, Mint, is overrunning the whole planting area. I had a more expansive pic, but it was messier.

Here's some sage advice. Don't plant mint unless you want to have a lot of it. I have a LOT of mint. I have what you might actually refer to as a mint "problem." Oh dear. Good thing I like mint! The kids made Limeade today and we put mint in it and it was goooooooood! Especially as it was a hot and sultry day!


I believe in unconventional plantings. When I say that "I believe" in them, I mean that I hate neighbourhood whatchamacallit associations and will do anything I can to go against their wishes, ergo, I plant *gasp* FOOD in my front yard. And it looks pretty! You can see my mint "problem" stretching away up along the walk at the top towards the left.

A map of my gardening sins:
It was right about here that a wasp landed on my foot, but no Sting. Let's hope the blue turtles stay away from my garden as well.
I had one green bell pepper plant left after planting the garden boxes out back, so I planted it with the habanero, jalapeno and chili peppers to see if they would cross-pollinate and give me spicy bells (as I've heard they can.) I bought the peppers (both spicy and bell) and kale today, as well as tomatoes, broccoli, sage, thyme and rosemary. I LOVE thyme and rosemary. Sigh. I think they are my favourite herbs. I would like to roll naked in thyme and rosemary.Did I say that out loud?

Rosemary has to wait for me to buy her a pot. Apperently she's something of a pansy and needs to come in over the winter.


While we're on the subject of nakedness aromatic herbs, I'd like to show you something.


See the healthy lavender in back? See those sickly 3 in front? Why? *cries* Any ideas? The sprinklers have only just been activated as of Friday, so it's not a water issue since all have been getting the same amount from the sky. One of them is infested with snake grass, but the other 2 aren't. My poor babies! :-(


snake grass aka horsetail aka scouring rushes aka Equisetum aka glyphosate-resistant PITA

Does anyone know how to deal with snake grass? I'd never even heard of it until we moved to Michigan.

On the plus side, apparently it's a powerful medicinal herb used for UTIs and stopping bleeding amongst other things.

We have some work to do out by the herbs

Anyone care to guess what pattern we're going to attempt?

Should be fun!

Perhaps I will join The Slug while John does the work:

As it turns out, I think I accidentally remedied my farmer tan today. Now I have a spaghetti strap tan. Maybe I should garden topless. Hmmm. . .

Out back I planted a shade garden a couple of weeks ago and it's coming along. I also buried Jimmy Hoffa under there. Shhhh. Don't tell.

I also planted the second garden box today:

$35.00 worth of herbs and veggies went a long way! :-) (remember the peppers, thyme etc, out front are part of that, too)

I'll husband them so well,They shall go far with little.

The big thing to hope for now is that we don't see any of this in the garden:

I'll have to keep leaving offerings on the deck!

On a totally unrelated note, make sure to go to Peter's blog and watch the Carbon Freeze Sequence. It's great!!!:-)

PSA courtesy of John who invented this today (did I mention I love the man?):

Chicken recipe -- Glug some olive oil and balsamic vinegar into a big ziploc bag, add chopped chives and throw in chicken breasts. Marinate for about hour. Remove and hit them heavy with kosher salt and coarse-ground black pepper. Grill over mesquite charcoal. Eat until you can no longer walk. Mmmmmm!

In Which I Veer Gradually into Rantville

My kids crack me up. Today it was Mollusc.

I bought my First Terry Pratchett book today. I think I may mark it down as a personal holiday from now on. I can't wait to read it, but am still inching through the Thomas Covenants. I know, I know, I know. It's been MONTHS. Sigh. Partly this is my fault, due to getting sucked into blogland rather than reading books. But mostly, this is Stephen R. bloody Donaldson's fault for writing sentences like this:

". . . and at the foot of the slope lay a still vlei with colors floating across its surface like a lacustrine portrait of the cachlan itself. Daphin moved onto the hillside and sat down, disposing her cymar gracefully about her."

I mean, really, WTH?!?! Can we not just say "puddle" or "pond" or what the hell ever? Must it be "vlei?" Who the hell says that?? Is vlei even in the online dictionary so I can link it for you? Reader, it is not. In fact, the site I found that DOES use the word "vlei," does so to tell how the word is a problem because it is not adequately defined. (ctrl f, "vlei" if you really are that interested, which I doubt) And the 3 non-agreeing definitions given lead me to believe that Donaldson misuses the word anyway. Or maybe he really did mean to refer to this seasonally waterlogged freaking boggy area as "of or relating to lakes" cuz that's what "lacustrine" means. I know, cuz I looked it up.

A few pages on, we get, "the Elohim enacted astonishment as if it were merely gratuitous - the spilth or detritus of their self-contemplations. But now each of these nonchalant theurgies appeared ominous to Linden, suggestive of peril and surquedry."

And a few sentences on after that: "Appareled in cymars and mantles, in sendaline, jaconet and organdy like the cortege of a celebration. . ."

OK, you know what? I am a sewist (I'm not yet good enough to be a seamstress, and "sewer"sounds icky) and organdy is the only fabric I recognised there. Sendaline isn't in the online dictionary I tried, but jaconet is apparently lightweight cotton. And you know, this probably wouldn't bother any of you, but I tend to get a bit anal about words. I'm this way about virtually nothing else in my life - a look into my house will demonstrate that rather effectively - but words, well, for some reason, even when the meaning is seemingly easily inferred, I feel compelled to look them up.

So why the Amazing Carnival of Compaining? Because in spite of all this, the story is actually interesting. I want to finish re-reading these so I can read the new sequels. Curse you, Stephen R. Donaldson. May your thesaurus curdle and rot, may your dictionary disintegrate into pulp and become hopelessly lodged in your toilet, may your server forever deny you access to websites of long-forgotten word stockpiles.

I went to his website just now and even though I rant, he sucked me in with this (in explaining a comment about one of the characters):

It's amazing what people can accomplish when they respect their limitations. I take a sparring class every Saturday morning, and everyone I train with has more speed, strength, and stamina than I do. As they should: they're all much younger than I am. Plus most of them can kick me in the head, and I'm just about flexible enough to reach their waists. But you know what they say about age and cunning. I don't stand around feeling sorry for myself--or, worse, drop out--just because I'm slow, weak, gasping, and stiff. Instead I work on timing, distance, precise technique, and tactics. In other words, I respect my limitations, but I don't use them as an excuse. And it's surprising how often those young guys with all their advantages get frustrated because they can't handle what I'm throwing at them.

Tae Kwon DO?!?! Sigh. I love him, I hate him, I respect him, I despise him. Mostly I'm just really freaking sick of the cephalalgia I get from perquisitioning lexemes I won't remember, and feeling like an idiot.

That is all.

Cross-Eyed Kitteh, Chicken Fighting

Awwww! Who could resist that cross-eyed face? And check out that thumb!
Fun day at TKD today! The kids had sparring and John reffed.

Kick Prawn! Nice block, Gogo!

3 of my kids on the mat at once. And dh!

Beware of flying Molluscs!
After everyone had sparred a lot, they got to play Chicken Fighting!! The object is to hold on to your leg and bash everyone else out of the ring or knock them down. Last one standing (hopping, LOL!) is the winner. What a riot! (above, Sluggie takes on a big boy)

Sluggie chickenfights in the foreground, while The Prawn learns how to do it in the background. After the Chicken Fighting, they got to play Dodgeball. The Prawn was the last one left on her team during one of the games, and then she WON THE GAME for them, LOL! The only person left on the other side tried to catch the ball and dropped it. GO PRAWN!!


After sparring, we brought a TKD friend home with us for a sleepover. Everyone played outside until movie time, and then we all watched Castle in the Sky, a very strange but interesting movie from Studio Ghibli (Totoro, Kiki, etc.)


I also planted a bunch o'stuff in one of the garden boxes today - pepper plants, tomato plants we'd grown from seed (amazing!), 2 kinds of basil, radishes, carrots, and leaf lettuce. Tomorrow I need to prepare another of the garden bds and plant some more. (and take better pics, LOL!)



Johnny's off at a friend's watching barbarians hurt each other (whatsit - you know - oh yeah UFC.) I don't think he'll be back until the wee hours. I think I'm going to watch Reign of Fire and drool over Gerard Butler. :-) Mmmm. . .


Nothing too creative today. I used most of that up on another blog, LOL!

Flash 55, General Musing

Friday Flash 55 inspired by a Google image search on "purple." (I like to keep my prospects open, LOL!) If you like the image, I found it - and a lot of other cool ones - at this site. They have some really neat goodies, and if you like pussies, be sure to read the story of the bus cats. :-)


Mother Moon rose gracefully into the sky, infusing Elia's soul with serenity. Her nights in the sacred grove were a time for rest and reflection; for reconnecting with both the Earth and the inner voice guiding her on her Journey. She flung her arms wide to embrace the moon and closed her eyes in bliss.

Tonight's red belt class was an exercise in frustration. Well, part of it. We did the three bag thing again - 3 kicking bags lined up, have to kick them R,L,R while flying past. I still kept hitting #2 twice and #3 once. Finally, the Master put tape on the floor for my takeoff point, which turned out to be a lot earlier than anyone else's (loooong legs) and way earlier than I was guessing. I honestly don't know how he can be so patient with me. I'd have killed me by now if I were him. :-P I think I was finally starting to get my alignment by the end of things, but my feet and legs weren't working quickly anymore, LOL! At least it's hard for everyone, so I'm not alone, but it's really frustrating. I guess it's good for me. Builds character, right? And, from the feel of things, left buttock muscles. Yeah, that's all I need - lopsided buttocks, LOL! Wouldn't that be a great HNT? ;-) Next time, I'll get it. I've got to find some way to practice at home. And maybe practice both ways. :-P (stop it!) Oh yeah. Did I mention it was still really fun? :-)

Trillian is very excited about The Big Ugly Bug that is perambulating about on the deck right now. I think it's a June bug. Is it really almost June? I will turn 37 in a little over a week. I don't feel like 37. Well, not how I envision 37 if I step back and try to really comprehend that number. Not at all. Oh well. Que sera sera. (C)Andy You're a Star, LOL! Actually that doesn't work at all, because what I've been hearing as "que sera sera", is in fact "hey shut up, shut up." Oh well. Must be going deaf in my old age. What's really weird is if I hear a guy is in his 30s, it sounds like he's a baby, but for girls it's different. Let's blame the media, LOL!

Hey!!! THREE-DAY-WEEKEND, Baby!! Woo hoo!! Memorial Day Weekend is the official start of summer, even though summer doesn't really begin until late June. It's when everything seasonal opens for the summer - swimming pools, resorts, the old Madison Children's Zoo, the Ferndale tequila slip-n-slide. . . ok I made that last one up.

In the continuation of Blast from the Past Movie Week (remember Cloak & Dagger?) we watched The Flight of the Navigator the other night. It was good. Surprisingly good! :-)

Word of the Day: Coulrodium. (odium - Latin - "hatred") Fal tipped me off to coulrophobia, (BTW, thanks Fal, *smooch*) but since mine is a loathing of clowns rather than fear thereof, I have coined another new word. Muahahaha!

TTFN!

Banana Bread Bumble

My day started with a laugh when I saw this on the fridge:



It was a toasty day ending in rather freaky greenish skies, WIND!!! and stormage. If you live in the States, or at least any of the tornado states, you likely know that green skies often preceed tornados. Sure enough, we were under a Watch this evening (conditions favourable for tornado development, as opposed to a Warning, which means that one (or more) has actually been spotted in the area.) It was cosy, though, cuz we were at TKD. If you're gonna die, do it with friends, LOL! I suggested that we do tornado kicks but only got groans.

This afternoon I was feeling rather pleased with my multi-tasking self as I was sewing shorts for Mollusc, had banana bread baking in the oven and had launched the kids on painting some tea towels for the Grandmas. Sadly, the banana bread sensed my smugness and imploded:
Too bad the picture doesn't really show how FAR it fell. *snort* The kids ate it anyway, and I have to admit it was pretty tasty regardless.

The Prawn had decorated a towel corner with a very nice ducky, then proceeded to disenhancify the towel with random splotchage. Oy vey!

And to top it all off, I kept making waistbands that were too small for Mollusc's shorts and then ended up with a finished project that had a slightly too large waistband. Plah! It was not my day.

Things improved when I went to teach little kid class. For a new twist, I had them do headstands against the wall during warmups and they ALL got their feet up!!! Too bad I couldn't get a pic of that. It was pretty cool. :-)

When I got home, Prawn wanted to change into her new dress for our class. It came with a matching dolly dress. Yes, I'm a sucker for matchie-matchie now and then.



Things got even better for our class, as I got to see a friend on her last day before she takes off to be a summer camp counselor. Another friend was back from her break which she had to take while training to be a phlebotomist (blood sucker, LOL!) Sparring was a series of drills and by the end of it, I felt like I had a hole in my stomach. We stopped by McDonald's on the way home, which was something different, and got 60 McNuggets. The guy thought we were joking. Obviously he hasn't seen my kids eat. They may be skinny, but they can put away the food like nobody's business. I think Gogo ate 15 McNuggets by himself, LOL! Yes, they're all gone.
During supper, Cheeto (the raccoon) came to the door for treats, so of course we gave her some. Trillian is fascinated with her.


I never end up with very good pics of Cheeto because when I open the door, she wants to come barging in (!!) and taking pics at night through the glass = crappy pics. :-P

A Walk in the Park

We met friends at Kensington Park today and spent about 3 hours traipsing around with the chilluns. I'm not sure I can do justice to the park. Driving in, you get a few miles of this:


and this:


About 10 minutes in, we arrived at the Nature Centre. Outside, we are always greeted by turtles
and froggies - fat ones - the kind that make a noise like a rubberband twanging:

This "cheeky" little blighter was vacuuming under the birdfeeders:
as was his friend who posed very nicely for me:

Today we headed up the "Deerrun" trail. The bridges and everything around them are always a source of fascination.


I think these are some of the skunk cabbages we saw back in March. (somewhere near the middle of all that)

There are lots of little ruvulets and streams crisscrossing the hiking trails.

We also went "offroading" a bit

and spotted a pair of Sandhill Cranes. A man who was also taking pics said they had 2 chicks, but the grass was too tall for us to spot them.


When everyone was sufficiently starved, we headed back past the Nature building to get lunch from our cars, startling a group of baby squirrels who all ran up a tree:

and stared suspiciously at us:


We found we weren't the only hungry ones:


At this point, Mollusc became obsessed with chipmunks and the feeding thereof. :-)
We finally grabbed our lunches and took them to the boardwalk so we could watch the great blue herons in the rookery while we ate, and were tickled pink to see babies poking their little herony heads up from the nests: We spotted a muskrat here as well, but I didn't get a picture of him.
At this point, Gogo and my friend's son were very nearly absorbed into a passing group of schoolchildren. ACK!!!! Stay with the mamas!!!
The lakes were full of carp thrashing themselves around and against each other - spawning time, I guess. We saw some pretty strange stuff, but none of the pics really show it well. :-P As I walked to the edge of the water to get a better view of the sea monster show (really, the fish looked rather strange and sea-monstery) I looked down and saw a largish snake at my feet.
(I know - not the greatest pic, LOL!)
We also saw the largest wild turtle I've ever seen. A snapper. Oooooh! His shell alone was a little over a foot long.

Finally, it was time to go home:

where we were reminded that the great outdoors begins just outside the back door:
Thanks for coming along on our walk. Hope to see you there next time! :-)
Oh yeah - today was apparently "Nun's Day Out" at the park. We saw a lot of pairs of nuns walking all over the place while driving in. I haven't seen real nuns in the wild in a long time. Or fake nuns, for that matter. I tried to get some action photos, but they are not easily photographed while driving.
Tomorrow is Towel Day. Hope you know where your towel is!!