Saturday, May 31, 2014

Robinhood

At first I thought he might be a little retarded. He spent a month attacking his own reflection, after all. But by the time two months had passed, I decided that our local robin just had a narcissistic personality disorder, wanting to procreate only with himself. Peck peck peck peck peck peck on our glass doors all day. 

Then Acacia noticed the nest on top of one of our lights. 



(Not much of a housekeeper this bird...)


Hmmm... Maybe he's a female, protecting her eggs, so I checked, and nada. But still, maybe he's a she, and she's a little bit intellectually challenged. 

She was usually hopping on the ground when she attacked her reflection, so I tried hiding it from her by blocking the first 18" with chair cushions.

Silence.

For five minutes. 

Then she jumped up on to the chair so she could see her reflection...


... and then she attacked that vicious threat to her empty nest.


(I think I'll wait until this is all over to clean the glass...)


Clearly, this was a bad idea. (Note she's an indiscriminate pooper.)

Then one day two weeks ago, our robin screeched and I knew there were eggs. Because that's how robins protect their eggs: They scream and let every creature within earshot know, "Get your fresh eggs here!"


Gorgeous!!

I removed the table below the nest to keep the neighborhood cats away, and we've gone out of our way not to use the dining room door too much, as it freaks out Miss Robin and her Baby Daddy, who, by the way, is back in the picture.


Yup. He sho' is!


See the nest? It's in a good spot.



So he/she turned out to be he and she, and they are taking turns protecting the territory and attacking our windows...

Three days ago I reached up and snuck another photo...



Two down, two to go!

   



Sunday, May 11, 2014

♥ Happy Mother's Day! ♥

"Who wants to go for a bike ride?" I called up the stairs.

"Not me!"

"Not me!"

"Let's ride to Ilona and Michel's place to bring in the mail for them. It's only 8 miles. Piddly!"

"That's 16 miles all together."

"You're very good at math."

"Thank you."

"C'mon. Whaddya say?"

"I say no."

"I say, let's not and say we did."



Luckily, I'm the Mom in this trio.





Happy Mother's Day
 to my selfless Mom, 
to my generous Mother-in-Law, 
and to every Mother reading this!
♥♥♥



 

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Kentucky Derby

"You bet our last $26 on California Chrome?"

"Yup." I smiled and looked up at Nicolas - and thanks to my 5" heels I didn't even crane my neck.

"That was a waste of two mint juleps."

"Oh well. It'll be fun and the bus has a full bar anyway."


After two days at the Kentucky Oaks and Derby, we'd run out of cash; gambling venues don't take our preferred cowry shells: plastic. But we had just enough for this treat of a trip, flying to Kentucky with the fun-magnet Gosneys and staying with some more of Nick's flying friends, Victor and Jeannie. 

Here's the lowdown on the weekend...


The Town:

Louisville, Kentucky

Our awesome hosts:

These two celebrate their 40th anniversary this week.
(That would be their daughter's hair piece on his head.)

Our digs:


Our ride:

One of our hosts' personal vehicles, parked right in front of Churchill Downs.
The sides of the bus expanded making it huge inside. Dance floor-size huge.

The Hat (and the Horse... He's kind of important too):



The Venue:

Nick playing photographer.
The Tie:
It's a miracle
The Other Hat:

This was a two-day affair so got to play dress-up twice.
The Shoes:

Right??!!
The Mimosa Makers:

The gentlemen making mimosas for the Southern Belles


Inside the Coach:



The Bridge Over the River Kwai:

I mean, the Ohio

The Races:



The Results:

"And it's California Chrome by nearly two lengths!!"

WooHoo!!

We left Churchill Downs dancing on a bus, with $87 in our pockets.