First Snow

Our first snow of the winter arrived on Sunday.



This snow was much earlier than last year. We don't even have all of our fall yardwork done.

Snow doesn't last long here (in fact, it has already melted, three days later), so sent O. outside. Unfortunately, the precipitation before the snow was an inch or two of rain. O. found the minipond in our backyard, and he quickly broke through the ice. And the minipond quickly became a mud landing strip. Those sweatpants he's wearing in the picture below used to be light grey.



Sure was fun though.

December

Woooosh. That is the sound of our autumn that just flew by.

We now have a three-year old in the house.


Because we are those parents who exacerbate their child's car fetish rather than curtailing with gentle discipline, he received a semitruck that serves as a car carrier. He loves it.


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Only a few house-related activities have occurred recently. We put up the Christmas tree yesterday. We placed it in a different spot from last year. It's beside the fireplace, which means we need a tall, skinny tree. We also decided we needed more red in the tree, because the tree last year looked too brown and dull.



O.'s tree decorating skills improved this year. He was able to hang ornaments this year, though he doesn't have a good sense of spacing them, yet--I keep finding four ornaments on the same branch.

Japanese Maple, Take 2

My mom and her sister visited this weekend, and we visited a local nursery. We found a Japanese maple within my price range and my specifications, so I decided to go for it.



It is Acer Palmatum "Bloodgood." It matures to a size just a tad bigger than I had targeted, but I think we'll jump over that bridge if we come to it. The burgundy leaves are supposed to remain the color all years, which should look striking against our brick. I still need to mulch it, as I expect a hard freeze this week on Tuesday, but it is watered and well-fed.

Keep your fingers crossed...

I am Memphis' newest fan.

We had a good trip. The conference was fine, J.'s meeting was fine, but Memphis was cool. Or maybe we were just starved for city-type activities? Regardless, we enjoyed it more than we expected.

We were downtown for most of our stay. We used the trolley for transportation down Main Street. For O., the trolley was a Big Deal, and he loved riding on it.



We walked on Beale Street and enjoyed being in a mixer of music.


We saw the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated. O. ate at his first Hard Rock Cafe (so-so food, but the memorabilia was worth it--the Blues Brothers suits, hats, and sunglasses were my favorite).


J. and O. also visited the Memphis Fire Museum, and O. went ape over the fire trucks, which he could climb all over.

We could have stayed at least another day or two. The Children's Museum and the Mud Island River Park looked interesting with O. in mind. We drove by Graceland, but didn't have time to tour it. I would have liked the Civil Rights Museum and Sun Studios.

O. has been talking about the trip off and on ever since. Sometimes he tells the story of riding the elevator in the hotel ("Door open. Push the button. Up, up, up, ding, ding! Door open again. Down, down, down, ding, ding! Lobby!") And sometimes he speaks mournfully to all of the things he say "Bye-bye fire trucks. Bye-bye elemater. Bye-bye trolley train."

Mid-tunnel update

Two trips down, four to go. We have the two hardest and longest trips done, at least. The next one is the second and last of the family trips, and it is followed by a quick turnaround and out-the-door for J., who has a work trip this weekend.

I was able to do a small amount of gardening this weekend. My order from Wayside Gardens finally came in. This order was the refund for the maple tree fiasco. We didn't want to risk another maple tree order through the mail again, and instead ordered a barberry, a couple of hostas (one bareroot, yikes), and a couple of packets scilla and allium bulbs. I planted the hostas under the giant bonsai tree (item #4). The barberry replaces the thuja that croaked this summer. We're still very short for rain (I can't remember the last time it rained, in fact, but it was at least two weeks ago). I need to finish fertilizing everything and we'll have leaves to rake soon. There's whispers of adding a screen door to the front entrance during Thanksgiving break. Other than that, my immediate house plans only include trying to keep it moderately clean.

The View From My Room

Not too shabby.

I didn't have a chance too actually BE in those mountains, but it was nice to have them nearby.

Entering the Tunnel

All's quiet in my personal blogosphere, because we're preparing to enter a long period of mayhem, mostly related to our jobs. As a family, we have six out-of-town trips planned for the next six weeks. J and I each have three trips for work, plus travel to a wedding. I see our autumn as if we're at the beginning of a long dark tunnel, where you are whooshed through the darkness and come out the other side in the light, blinking and disoriented. That'll be us, come mid-November.

We're going to attempt a two birds/one stone approach for one of the trips, because we both have work-related meetings in the same city (or maybe that's two stones/one bird? Am I bird or a stone? Whatever.) It'll be the first time we've tried to travel for work with O., so that'll be interesting.

Home stuff--nothing new, just maintenance. We're still very dry, but the nights have cooled off and we've a little rain, so everything is green again. I've had a few herb harvests, and I made a Italian seasoning mix and have a nice supply of chives for the winter. My lavender has finally bloomed too. It was one of the few plants that was very happy in August heat and humidity. At the moment I'm trying to get the basil going again because I want one more batch of pesto to freeze. And--bonus--my cilantro has self-seeded, so I hope to enjoy that soon.

Buh-bye, Rocks

The rocks are gone!
The couple from craigslist came around 9:45 AM today. We had two wheel barrows, three shovels, four adults, and a toddler. Two truckloads later, and we were done by noon, except for the packed in rocks around the roses. The couple left then, because they had enough rocks and enough of the project. J. and I took a break for lunch, put O. down for a nap, and finished the rest by 2:30 PM.

We lucked out on the weather too. We've had about a week of 100 oF and up heat indices, but a front came through last night, and it was only 85 oF. Light rain, too, but not enough to stop the work.

Rock-moving was also a good reason to try the local bakery doughnuts. It was O.'s first. He loved them. Ate two, and asked for more.

New Cat Species

Have I mentioned that we have a new cat in our house?

The new cat appears to be an unusual species: Felis silvestris toddlerus. Very rare, in fact. It likely descends from both domestic house cats and some humanoid ancestor, and we suspect that it has close relatives in the monkey family. It only appears after bathtime, by the way, and disappears by bedtime.


The cat is about 2 and half years old. Its back and head are orange and black in color with terry cloth-like fur, and it has a pink and fleshy (and quite ticklish) belly. This cat also exhibits an unusual dual bipedal and quadrupedal gait. Very unusual for mammalian vertebrates. In fact, its bipedal movement has been clocked to be the fastest in the genus Felis. It lacks a non-vestigial tail, much to its own dismay.

The cat's diet consists of water, raisins, bananas, and other bedtime snacks.

And "coffee" (and the cat insists that drinking this way makes it coffee).

The cat also occasionally transfigures into a Wheatthin-eating duck, but cat seems to be its preferred form.

The cat also claims that it can fly, but proof of this (fortunately) is not available.

Rocks make people happy. Who knew?

Remember the rocks? The ones in our flowerbeds, especially near the roses? The ones that aren't worth a darn in terms of reducing weeds and keeping plant roots cool and moist? After extensive discussion, we've decided we no longer want the remaining rocks in the flower beds. We want to replace the rocks with nice, soft, biodegradable mulch.

This decision led to the next logical question: how do we get rid of them? Various options were discussed.
-Burying them in the backyard (no hole that we can make would be deep enough).
-Throwing them out with the trash (what do you mean, Mr. Sanitation Worker, that our garbage bins are unusually heavy this week?)
-Donation to the Goodwill (do they take rocks?)
-Asking Lowes to buy them back from us (ha)

We even considered a plan that included surreptitious contributions to our fellow citizens' landscaping. We had locations with similar rocks staked out even, but decided we probably wouldn't be able to find someone who would agree to babysit O. for a midnight rock relocation project.

Instead, I listed the rocks on a local bulletin board, and within three days, I received eight offers to take them off our hands. Wow. By they next weekend (keep your fingers crossed), the rocks should be gone!

Post-Painting Vacation Update

Firstly, I have a public service announcement: Ladies and gentlemen, don't install wallpaper. Today's temporary pretty wall is tomorrow's home improvement project.

We are done. Well, not quite done, but we're at a stopping point. We had a setback in the form of an unexpected illness when O. came down with an ear infection and stomach flu. He was well by Thursday and returned to daycare with glee, and we returned to the project at hand.

The office is completely painted (well, walls and the trim). I'm happy with the way this looks. the wall with the bookcase was a strange brown color in a textured effect, and I hadn't realized how much I didn't like it until it was gone. Now, it's all one color ("tea stain," same as the entryway and hallway). As you can see, the passthrough is going to have to wait.

Office, as seen from the living room

Possibly our biggest accomplishment: the wallpaper on the dining room wall is gone! We had previously peeled off the first layer of wallpaper. For the bottom layer of paper, we rented a steamer. This wall is not drywall, it is paneling with some sort of surface-leveling paint on it. We felt very fortunate that the steamer and scraper didn't damage the surface much. We also learned that the wallpaper was fairly recent. We found he signature of three people who must of installed it "Steve, Pete, and Tim Decorating, 11-17-99."

We did have to patch this wall, however, and to be honest, we could have spent more time patching it. I may still go back and do that someday. We painted it "woodland snow" which is an off-white, more taupe than white.

And, J. turned the light fixture is upside down. Or rightside up, depending on your perspective. It is much easier on the eyes this way, though I still can't help but think that this is the wrong light for the room.

Dining room wall, as seen from the living room.

Lastly, the kitchen. The wallpaper here was a bear. I think it was higher quality and it didn't give up as easily as the dining room wallpaper. We painted the walls the same color as the dining room and living room.

Kitchen

I like that the wallpaper is gone, but I think the result is plain kitchen. This color ("woodland snow") looks good in the living room but blah in the kitchen. Filling in the passthrough with tile will help and maybe adding more color in general. Those are projects for the future.

As of this week, we have now painted every inch of paintable surface. Except for the trim in some rooms, the closets, ceilings, doors, and the outside shutters.

We learned more about the house's wiring, too. J. thinks the organization of the circuits is just bizarre. There is one breaker for the the closet lights, the outside light for the garage, and the dining room light. The master bedroom lights are the same as the sink light and the garbage disposal. Many of the double switch panels are installed as relays, like they were an afterthought. There are some advantages to this setup; one can, for example, work on the kitchen wiring without having to turn off all of the lights. Maybe what we see as madness is method.

Painting Vacation

This week begins our painting vacation. J. has the whole week off from work, and I have the last three days. The to-do list includes:
-removing wallpaper from the dining room and kitchen
-painting the living room, dining room and kitchen ("woodland snow")
-painting the office walls ("tea stain") and the trim ("white")
-replacing several of the outlets and covers
-flipping the dining room light so it points upward
-some touchup work in the blue bathroom
-tiling a wooden drink tray, which will serve as a test of technique for the upcoming passthrough project
-some odds and ends, like rehanging some of the blinds so that they roll up right
-J. would like to change the living room lights for recessed, although I would rather add a storm door. Most likely, we won't have time for either.

We also plan to take advantage of the already paid-for daycare and see a movie matinée. And there's discussion of trying to recreate the vanilla vodka smoothies that we had two summers ago at a super swanky DC hotel. Will report back on all accounts at the end of the week.

Zoo Trip

Toddler photography is challenge greater than I ever would have realized. This was demonstrated for the umpteenth time yesterday, during last weekend's zoo outing.

Zoo photo: we ate lunch here.

First, there's the speed factor. I'm convinced that there is no shutter speed low enough to capture a two year old in constant motion. For every halfway decent photo, I have ten more of blurry blobs that I've deleted from the memory card. It's safe to say that the experience of seeing unusual animals at the zoo was completely lost on O. For him, it was all about having an unusual space to run through.

Combine the speed problem with the fact that a toddler's expression and mood varies from microsecond to microsecond, and add on a side of the same toddler is so distracted by the camera that he forgets that mere microseconds ago he was in full glee, and you have a series of photos that show O. in the expression just after he was completely adorable.

Evidence 1: O. loved the fish tank. Really, he did. He acted as tour guide for every new group of people that came to the fish tank, saying "LOOK! At the FISHIES!" and "LOOK! Fishies here, TOO!" But you'd never know it from the photo below, which is the best of the bunch.

"Nice fishies!"

Evidence 2: Here we are, waiting for our pizza at lunch. He was excited about the pizza, eating out, being in the presence of a hundred or so other kids, and the zoo banners hanging from the ceiling ("Zebra!!" "Lion!!" "Bird!!!"). But whatever you do, don't say "Hey, O., can you look at Mommy?" You get this:

Waiting for lunch

Evidence 3: Well, here he's just being a little punk.

Posing, but not liking it.

There were a few good photos. O. liked this giant beetle statue, because he thought the back of the shell was a slide.

O. loved this cobra snake sculpture. I thought we were never going to get him away from it.

"Nice snake!"

The highlight of the trip may have been the waterfall. This is a really great idea. On a hot day, this hit the spot.
One last photo. The zoo has a train that circles the whole park. We knew about the train beforehand, and talked it up for O. He was so excited, and talked about how he was going to ride the train, on and on, talk talk, jabber jabber. We waited in line for our turn and finally the train came. O. walked right up to the train and climbed aboard and sat down. And then nothing. Silence, stunned silence. No comment, nothing, for the whole train ride. This is how he looked the whole trip.

This is serious train riding, folks. He recovered promptly after the ride, fortunately.

Pretending that his father's head is a drum.

Passthrough

Let's chat about the passthrough, shall we? I'm thinking glass mosaic tile in rich colors and a fabulous design, new trim...wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain.

Passthrough, as seen from the kitchen.

Below is a photo of the passthrough from the kitchen to the erstwhile dining room. The erstwhile dining room is now our office. We use part of the erstwhile living room as the dining room, which has been renamed the pretentious great room.

Passthrough, as seen from the office.

The office, because it was intended to be a dining room circa 1970, is open to the great room. Which is great for a dining room, but not for an office. We'd like the office to be a space that could be private when needed, to be used as a guest room or just a place to get away. So, someday, we'd like to wall off the office, and install French doors. The French doors, in theory, would enable the space to be used as a dining room again if needed, and provide the privacy when we need while not closing it off completely.

The great room, as seen from the office. Imagine French doors in this space.

Now, back to the passthrough. In order to achieve the noise reduction that we'd like in the office, we need to wall off the passthrough. But as you can see, the passthrough is handy as paperback book storage. Plus, we don't want to do anything permanent, just in case the next person who buys this house thinks that a passthrough to a dining room is the cat's meow.

My idea: mount a board from the office side of the passthrough. This board will fill in the space, created a flat surface that is visible from the kitchen. It could be removed in the future without major renovation. On the office side, add a shelf to the board and paint, voila--built-in book shelf. Nothing like enabling the reading addiction, eh?

But what to do with the kitchen side of the board? Here's the current plan: We can remove existing trim and replace with new trim pieces on the sides plus trim pieces on the top and bottom of the shelf to match. I think that this will create the appearance of a frame space. Inside the frame space, I'd like to create something interesting out of glass mosiac tiles, but this is where I'm fresh out of ideas.

Passthrough as seen from the kitchen

What do I put here? The wallpaper is going to be removed in a few weeks, and we're going to paint it the color...still to be determined. So what do I want here? Something recognizable, like a pineapple? Or a butterfly? Or something geometric and symmetric? Or a random pattern in colors similar to the counter and cabinet? Or just a single color? And which color is that?

More fuel for the book addiction

J., O., and I are readers. Chronic readers, possibly even addicted readers. Evidence: who else but book addicts would think that their two-and-a-half year old needs a grown-up sized bookcase?

O. has outgrown his two-shelf bookcase. We have been using baskets and bins and stacks to keep track of the overflow, but they were always a mess. Recently, his baby bookshelf has developed a distinct slant to the right, reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

A few weeks ago, J. and I hatched a plan to build O. a bookcase.We have had previous experience with this (Dad helped us build a similar bookcase nearly ten years ago). And, we decided that during my Finland trip would be an ideal time for J. to sand and stain the boards (because Dad and Mom would be visiting and could help with process).

J. and I finished the project last weekend, and it is installed, anchored to the wall, and bookified. Looks like we have room for a few more.
Not a bad result. We were a little hasty on the wood choice (CLEAR pine next time, says Dad), and the stain is uneven due to a last-minute gutcheck and change in the color. But it's sturdy and it's useful and it's done.

Bonus photo of O., helping his grandpa put together his bookshelf. Mom and Dad said that O. thought they were doors at first, and was heart-broken when Dad turned the bookshelf on its side to finish it. As you can see from the photo, he recovered.

Happy Anniversary

...from our mortgage company. One year ago yesterday, with quivering hands and bated breath, we asked a mortgage company to buy our house and then agreed slowly buy it back from them over the next thirty years. We received a card to mark the occasion from the mortgage company, which was, um, thoughtful.

J. and I calculated, that after a year of payments, we now own about 53 square feet of our house. And in my world, we get to choose which 53 square feet of our house we own. We've chosen the smaller of the two bathrooms (for obvious practical reasons) and, with what is left over, a cozy corner of living room.

The Finland Trip

I returned from Finland a few days ago. I attended a workshop for young scientists in my field, which was held at University of Helsinki's forestry field station. The field station, called Hyytiälä (pronounced hoo'-tee-ah-la) was about 2.5 hours by bus North of Helsinki.

Signpost to Hyytiälä.

The field station was build in the early 1910s for the university forestry students' summer courses. The oldest part of campus reminds me of an US Midwestern farm. The forestry students, in fact, have an agriculture component to their studies, and keep sheep during the summer and harvest them in the fall.

The barn and the old bell tower.

The field station is located next to Lake Kuivajärvi, which is one of 187,888 glacial lakes in Finland.

The forest is 90% pine and spruce, with a few birch and poplars thrown in. Since wood is abundant, the signs at the stations are wood relief carvings, really beautiful.

A map of the station as a wood carving.

Finland is the most North I've ever been (about 61 degrees latitude at Hyytiälä), and because the season was summer, the sun is visible for all but a few hours every day. The sun set around 11 PM and rose around 3 AM. Even the night wasn't very dark, only twilight. Most of these photos were taken mid-evening (9 PM-ish), so you can see for yourself.

In the 1990s, the forest field station was expanded and a SMEAR research station was build (SMEAR = Station for Measuring Forest Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations). It is a unique site in that it is comprehensive, and able to measure many of the inputs and outputs of the forest ecosystem and in as many measureable parameters as possible. It is located in a boreal forest a short hike from the forestry field station.

One of the central features is the main cabin, show below. It was made from two log cabin kits put together. There is little insulation in this design. In fact, the wood is thick enough and the instruments produce enough heat that electrical heating is used only on the coldest winter days. There are bars on the roof of the cabin, which prevent snow from falling sliding off the roof when it melts and damaging the inlet ports. Most houses that I saw in Finland also have a ladder attached to their roofs, so that homeowners can shovel the snow.

Main Cabin

Another main feature is the 72 meter tower, shown below. The tower is tall enough to rise high above the forest canopy, which enables measurements at the atmosphere/canopy interface. Each crossbar on the tower has at least one instrument on the end. Instrument maintenance has an added excitement--to maintain the instruments, someone scales the tower, pulls the crossbar back, and then has to decide whether to fix the instrument on the spot or bring it down.

72-m sampling tower

One of the goals of the station is to measure the energy fluxes (carbon, nutrient, water) in and out of the forest. For this reason, it is important to not disturb the ecosystem, and these walkways were built. Each sideboard leads to a sampling device, often the rainwater or leaf litter collectors. It was like a maze to me.

Forest Floor Walkway

Sauna. As far as I can tell, sauna is a daily activity for many Finns. I was told that most homes have a sauna, and there are four saunas at Hyytiälä. They are separated by gender, although families usually take sauna together. The Finnish researchers prefer saunas heated by woodburning stoved to electric or gas. I did try sauna, and it was nice, although I think I enjoyed it more for the swim in Lake Kuivajärvi afterwards.

The food. Since I ate at a cafeteria-style dining hall most of the time I was there, I don't really know if I had typical Finnish food. I presume it would be a version of what Finns would eat at home. If that's the case, I've learned that boiled potatoes are very important in a Finnish diet. Most meals (lunches and dinners) included some chicken or beef dish with a creamy sauce, and it was served with potatoes. Fish was not as common as a I'd hoped, although a couple of fish dishes were served. Lettuce salads were served at all lunches and dinners, too, although only one kind of salad dressing: thousand island. I don't know whether it's the national favorite, or if salad dressing is not eaten by Finns and it was a concession to the Americans. Puddings are common desserts, although they are flavored differently than I'm used to. They are less sweet (although sugar is offered with them). Usually, a fruit preserve was served with them, too, sometimes whipped cream. The flavor of the puddings were different, too. They tended to be flavored less and differently. I had one that sort of tasted like prunes, and another that I'm told was flavored with rose hips.

I did eat reindeer, in a wild mushroom and cream soup. The soup was very good, and although I didn't get a good sense of what the reindeer tasted like, it reminded me of prosciutto. I was told that eating reindeer is reserved for special occasion dinners.

I also ate Karjalanpiirakka for breakfast a couple of times. I didn't quite figure out what was in them, but I think Karjalanpiirakka must be Finnish for "tasty gooey buttery pastry pie."

The meal structure and timing was different, too. There are 4-5 meals per day. Breakfast at 7 AM, lunch at 11 AM, coffee and a pastry or dessert at 1 PM, and dinner at 5 PM. At the field station, a fifth meal, a late-night snack was served at 10 PM, although it was mainly for the hard-working forestry students.

At literally every meal, there was what looked like to me to be a sandwich spread: cheeses, cold cuts, bread, plus cucumbers and peppers and breads. Even at breakfast. At first I thought it was an option for people who didn't like the main dish being served, so that they could make a sandwich, but I saw the people from the Nordic countries taking a few slices of the "sandwich" platters at each meal, and eating them more like hors d'ouvres, and I was told it was common in Finland to do this. I came to rather like this, and by the end of the week, I'd have a slice of cheese wrapped in cucumbers for breakfast.

The flights. Oh my, the flights. I have a new least-favorite airport in the world. Before this trip, it was O'Hare; now it is Heathrow.

Heathrow is a beast. There is no short layover at Heathrow, especially if you have to change terminals. To change planes, it goes something like this: exit the plane (and this is the last point where it stopped being like any other airport I've seen before). Take a series of ramps and escalators, stairs and lifts to arrive at the gate. (Note this is just the gate; this is not the main part of the terminal where you'd go to transport the next terminal). Walk to the terminal, which can take 10-15 minutes. Finally, you're at the arrival terminal, and you hit a long line at a security checkpoint. Wait, wait, wait, and finally go through the security procedure (which was on par to a US security checkpoint for terminal entry). After security there is another walk and escalator to the terminal transfer point. At this point, you have at least a ten-minute wait and a ten-minute bus ride to transfer to your departure terminal, more if there's a long line. After exiting the bus, there are more ramps and escalators, reminiscent of the exit gate, and finally you're at your terminal. Heathrow does not set gate numbers for flights until 30-40 minutes before boarding, so it is here that you find your gate number. Once you have your gate number, you have a walk between a 5 and 15 minutes long to your gate to board your plane, and this is with moving walkways. At the gate, there is an additional security checkpoint (instituted only after recent events), which is the open your carry-on, turn on all electronics to prove they're not bombs, take of your shoes and pat-down type security checkpoint. After that, you're finally ready to board the plane. Whew.

In the future, I don't think I'll choose a flight through Heathrow if I have an option, and if I don't, I wouldn't choose one without at least a two-hour layover if I could afford to miss my flight, and no less than a three-hour layover if I couldn't afford to miss my flight. I had a 90 minute layover at Heathrow on my return, and I made it only because I ran the whole thing, because my departing flight was running late, and because I probably lucked out a couple a places. My checked luggage, however, was not so lucky, and of this writing (home for about 60 hours), I haven't received it yet. (Edited to add: luggage was returned after a short sidetrip through Memphis almost five days late.)

Other than Heathrow, my flights were fine. Everything ran a little late, but I think a little late is the new on-time for airline travel. A couple of other random notes about the flights:
-A two-hour layover in O'Hare is pushing your luck if you have to go through customs with checked baggage. I actually think I made it to my connecting flight on time because I lost my luggage. Without checked luggage, I had nothing to declare at customs and I didn't have to recheck my bag, which meant I was able to glide through passport control instead of waiting.
-Filed under coincidences in a small world, during the London flight, I sat next to a gentlemen who has the same career as me (though in a different sector) and lives in the same town as my undergrad university. We didn't know that many people in common though.
-Heathrow has a snippiest-sounding public announcement system: "Passenger So-in-so, please proceed immediately to your gate. You are delaying your flight departure and your fellow passengers." Imagine that with a prim British accent and simmering disapproval. It makes you feel guilty even if you're not the person who is misbehaving.
-My travel experience was bracketed by encounters with obnoxious drunk people. At Heathrow security queue, there was college-aged man a few people in front of me who had purchased duty-free vodka on his London fight, and did not know that you can't bring liquids of that size with you if you have a connecting flight. Rather than waste his vodka, he'd decided to drink it while waiting in line for the security check. He loudly let everyone know the injustice of the situation, and that he ought to be trusted since he was an American and from the Bronx and not to be messed with. I think he's lucky that made it through security without being subjected to a body cavity search.

And for my last flight home, I sat in front of drunk Shiners (which, I'm told, is an oxymoron), who provided entertainment by singing barbershop quartets while we waited for a ground hold to clear. I thought it was the most fitting ending to my trip. And this blog entry.

Operation Batwatch Addendum

First, an update to Operation: Batwatch. No sign of activity. Yet. We may have installed the bathouse too late in the year. Also J. thinks the bathouse may not be warm enough for bats. Considering a move of the bathouse to more direct sunlight or painting it black.

Second, we inaugurated Operation: Wrenwatch on Father's Day, and we're already seeing signs of life. J. placed the wrenhouse in the dogwood tree. I saw a wren in that tree less than a week later. And now we see that something is stuffing twigs into the wrenhouse.

Dead and Dying Plants R' Us?

Sheesh, what happened to the thuja next to the patio?We've been a little dry in the past few weeks, but this spot is watered regularly (the annuals are in this bed), so it's not that dry. Plus, this thuja was here when we bought the house, so I would assume it has an established root supply. The other thujas in our yard look fine, I don't suspect disease. It is only this thuja that appears to be throwing in the towel.

The herb garden, on the other hand, is doing well. I haven't started harvesting yet for drying, but I froze six bags of basil pesto last weekend.