Fun with family

My sister Jeanne has been visiting from PA and it's been nice to see her. We only get to see her about once per year. Bummer, eh? We met one of her Flickr.com friends yesterday. We went to Nichols Arboretum in Ann Arbor yesterday to take pictures and spent about 3.5 hours strolling through and taking pictures. It was great fun. Janet has a VERY NICE camera! What a difference between hers and mine. She's enjoyed photography for several years so she can easily justify having that nice camera. We saw a red-tailed hawk, a red-bellied woodpecker, pretty sure a Baltimore oriole, many finch and likely some other birds but I can't remember. After the Arb, we went to Panera and had coffee and a scone and then to Barnes and Noble where I almost bought an insect guide. I have never been interested in insects but we were taking pictures of a dragon fly type but at the Arb and it peeked my interest. After B&N we went to Jill's and had a nice evening.

Today was mostly spent at Jill's. We ate, got a photography lesson from Jeanne and visited. It was nice. Tomorrow morning at 7 AM, I will likely meet Jeanne and Jill at Denny's where Jeanne is meeting another Flickr.com friend. Should be fun. Jeanne takes great pictures. She always carries her camera.

I'm uploading a photo to this post. Jeanne tought us to use Color Accent, a setting for our Cannon cameras (Jeanne, Jill and I all have the same camera). You're able to focus on one color in the photo and the everything else is muted. For this picture the setting was on red/pink because Jill was wearing a pink sweater. I love the look on Les' face and his body language!

What's Up?

There isn't much excitement in my life, which seems to be my theme, eh? Since the last post only a couple things stand out. My memory isn't super hot these days. A group of us from work worked on a house for Habitat for Humanity in Ypsi. It was fun. The sponsor of this house puts up their houses much quicker than the house my church works on. I think our church house works only on the weekends and the one our work group worked on works throughout the week. Anyway, Habitat is a good group and I highly recommend volunteering with them if you're looking for that type of opportunity.

Thomas and I booked a cruise. We're going on the Ruby Princess to the Caribbean in February. February is when I'm about to go stir-crazy due to the weather. So, should be fun.

Not much else. There is a pigeon with a green band around his right leg that's been hanging out in my neighbor's yard. I talked to a bird rescue group and was told that it is some one's pet. I went to said bird group to get something to capture the bird and they gave me a butterfly net. Have you seen how small a butterfly net is? They said I might be able to net the head and shoulders of the pigeon. He/she won't let me get close enough is the problem. I might give up soon. I'll see if I can find it's owner by placing an ad in the lost and found.

I also saw a red bird with a black head in downtown Ann Arbor on Saturday. It wasn't a cardinal because the head was all black and it was bigger and rounder. Was it a domestic bird? It didn't act like it but that doesn't mean anything. I didn't see an image in my bird book that looked like this bird. Any ideas?

Out for now. I'm going to weed. Yeah!

Hmmm....

What should I talk about? I lead a very dull life it seems. I haven't set a goal for myself for at least 3 years so it's time! Jill and I want to run a 5K or go on a long bike ride or something along those lines. Something to help us stay/get fit. Here's a website that lists running races in Michigan and the surrounding states. When will we be ready to run? Who knows. I can VERY SLOWLY run at least a mile right now. I really want to run the Detroit Marathon in October but my guess is I'm not ready, lol. Evelyn said that Josh ran that marathon a couple times and it ends at Ford Field. Apparently you run DOWN a ramp to enter the stadium and I guess many, many racers were collapsing at that point before they made it to the finish line. But, you are show on the large screen when you enter the stadium...how cool is that?! My guess is I'd be vomiting at that point so perhaps being magnified at the end of the race isn't a good idea. I mean, I got sick after I ran a 10K race! 5 seconds after I crossed the finish line. I'd better stop before I talk myself out of running a 5K.

Gonna work on the garden today since it looks as grassy as my yard. Geez, we didn't go to the garden for 2 weeks because it was raining a lot and there was no need to water. I knew there would be some weeds but I was so surprised when I saw how green that garden was. It's pretty bad. At least I can still figure out where our plants are. So, I'm looking forward to weeding today. :)

Went to Elise's graduation party last weekend and that was nice. Some of dad's relatives were there, which was nice. Karen was there as well. Elise seemed to have a good time. Karen, mom and I got to take Leah to her dance recital and I must say Leah was spectacular! I think her category was dance theater.

Bought a Wii and need to hook it up. I might have to hire a 10 year old to help. I'm afraid to even attempt to hook it up. Jeanne, I bet Sean would be able to hook it up in a second. Elise and Leah might be getting a call from Aunt Lori asking for some help!

I'm trying to talk Thomas into getting a cat but he says no. Our church sent out an email that the HVHS is looking for homes for cats or at the least foster homes. I guess there's major overcrowding at the facility. My new angle with Thomas is that we need to foster a cat to save it's life. Hopefully that will work. Perhaps that's deceptive but I guarantee Thomas would love to have a cat again. Buster and Lulu would, too. I think the birds would be OK without a predator though.

Well, I hope to post some pictures later. I caught the heron eating the other night but couldn't figure out what he was eating. What's their diet? Was it a very hearty flower or a baby duck he was eating? I couldn't zoom in that far. Out for now.........

What a week to get bird photos!

All is well at our home. I will be taking the week off next week after all so only have one day to work. I think I really need a break. I'll watch mom's dogs for a couple days and likely just stay in Tecumseh. I'll get to go to the needlework store. :)

This week I got a photo of a Baltimore oriole, a green heron, a blue heron (I believe) and a deer. None of the photos are that great but I'm just happy to have an image be it good or bad. Plus, I didn't really go through everything to see what I liked and what I didn't. I'm just pulling and these might not be the best. I was walking through Lillie Park at about 4 PM on Monday and saw the deer in the photo. The BO I thought was a flower at first. I then realized it was a bird and was able to snap a photo. It's not a great shot but it's so hard to get pictures of birds! I got lucky with the green heron. I was walking the dogs by my house and saw it fly in. Otherwise I would have never know it was there. It blended into the greenery rather well. Tonight I saw the blue heron. Usually it flies away but it stayed there tonight. I wondered why I always only see one heron at a time but I was reading that they like to eat in solitude...none of their peers pestering them.

Nothing else much. The Detroit Red Wings won last night. It was quite exciting and I don't follow hockey typically. There are some pretty good stories from this team. ESPN had a good article. That's about it. Out for now.........

It's Friday!!

Yeah! It's Friday!! I'm ready for this weekend. Fridays are interesting because the clinic is slow, only patients who are being treated are seen, but I often work late. I'm sure it's because I'm trying to make sure everything is taken care of since I have Mondays off. Some of my prostate patients are seen on Mondays (since I have Mondays off now, I'm trying not to schedule them for that day) so I need to have everything ready since I'm not there. Anyway, I've scheduled a vacation for the week of June 9th but I don't know that I can take that week because I'll be busy I think. I have 3 protocols I'm trying to open and getting studies approved at the VA is a much longer process these days. I'm hoping within the next couple weeks everything will be approved but I'm not sure. There are so many things pending right now. If I don't take that time, I'll try to take some time in July. Normally I wouldn't let something like this delay time off but I've been working hard and would feel bad taking time off if everything could be taken care of.

Well, this weekend I need to tend to our garden. It's raining here, finally, so I shouldn't have to worry about watering. I do need to plant some veggies though. What else do I plan on doing? I can't think of anything. I think I was so busy last weekend that I want to not have much planned. I found a list of birding sites in SE Michigan and I might start checking some of them out. I'll look at the Observor to see if anything exciting is happening. I'm sure there's something.

The Tigers play tonight. Woo-hoo! It's a late game, too. We play Seattle (3 games?) so hopefully we can win a few games since we swept them earlier this month. They certainly aren't donig very well. They're still fun to watch. Thomas has the Pistons' game on. Ummm.....what else? Dull, dull, dull. I really want to get some tickets to the Tigers' game on the 11th but I've had no takers yet! No one is interested. Thomas might be but both of us have such a hard time with commitment that by the time we get aroung to buying tickets, it will already be the 12th.

Perhaps I'll see Jill and will get to look at pictures of Italy? That would be nice. I know her weekends are busy. Plus, Elise graduates this Friday I think. Kate in PA does as well I'm pretty sure.

I've added my Flickr page but I don't have many pictures posted. I hope to start putting pictures up there soon so thought I'd create a link so I'm all set to go.

Jeanne, when does Kate go on her cruise? Are you still possibly interested in a cruise?

Guess what I saw?! And I didn't have my camera!!

I was walking the dogs this morning at 8 AM near my home. I was on Grandview Blvd in Pittsfield Township and I looked in the sky and saw a big black bird with a white head and neck...an eagle! At least that's what I think it was. Then about 5 to 10 seconds later I saw a heron, after the eagle dissappeared, so I questioned whether the heron is what I'd originally seen. I'm quite sure it was an eagle. However, I didn't see it's wings spread, or, it wasn't soaring I guess. Stupid question but can they fly without having their wings spread? When I saw the heron I don't think it's wings were spread. I know the heron has quite a take off and perhaps they get going and don't need to have their wings spread? Wouldn't they fall? Sorry, all my really stupid questions have to do with birds. I asked Stephen a question once about hummingbirds and whether they ever stopped or if they were always on the move and flapping their wings. He said it was one of the dumbest questions he'd heard. He said it in a nice way.

The picture I've posted was taken at Lillie Park today. Anyone know the type of bird? I liked the picture because there were 2 birds perched together that actually let me take their picture.

Not much else is new. Jenny and I started our garden. We didn't work very long before we needed a break. Once we took our break we were able to work solidly for a couple hours. We'll need to do quite a bit more this weekend. It's fun.

Happy Birthday!!

...to Elise (18) and Lulu (3)! Went to Olive Garden to celebrate Elise's 18th birthday and had a nice time. Mom and Jim, Jill, Les, Elise, Leah and myself were there. The food was great and it was nice to see everyone. I hope Elise had a great day. We got to hear about the Griswold cruise around Europe and I'm trying to convince Jill to create a blog so she can post pictures and updates there.

This weekend I will plant my garden at County Farm Park with Jenny. We have to put up some fence. We'll need to bury the fence so it will be time consuming. It should be fun though. We want to build a split door, perhaps have a lemonaide stand and charge a fee to other gardeners for therapy. Well, I suppose our main goal is to actually produce some veggies this year. 2 years ago when we tried this the local woodchuck ate everything but our jalepeno peppers. Smart guy he was.

Don't know what else I'll do. Lulu and Buster will have their hair done again on Tuesday. I'd like to order tickets to the Tigers' game on 6/11/08 because the first 10,000 people in the park get retro 1970's t-shirts. I really want one. I might go to Jill's one day. Um...perhaps take the rest of the weekend as it comes. I hope to take a vacation in a few weeks if my work schedule allows.

OK. I'm out! I've posted a couple pictures, from top (the pictures are not the best but I like them): Duck picture taken at "our" pond 5/322/08; Lulu on her 3rd birthday, 5/22/08; Mom, Jim, Lulu and Buddy and a tiny section o f Jill at Montibeller Park near my home in Pittsfeild Township; Before-paint picture of our living room; After-paint picture of our living room; Close-up color of paint...Benjamin Moore Aura Lodge; Baby Canadian geese at Lillie Park in Pittsfield Township; Ferral cat that lives at the pond by my house...he looks like a Tom cat, eh?; Flowers from mom and Jim for my birthday.