A group (maybe a family) of Red-headed Woodpeckers were in our back yard this morning. I counted at least four or five flying between the trees. When they landed on a tree, they would make their “qwer-qwer” call and then hammer away as the chorus of replies came back.
Technorati Tags: woodpecker, birds
I came across a great picture of a bike with two child seats. It’s not unusual to see a bike with a child seat on the back, CDF’s bike has one, but I’ve never seen one (make that two) quite like this.
On a related note, the high price of gas has really made people turn to biking. We’ve been biking around our town for almost three years, but this is the first summer that I’ve really seen other people out on bikes. Our neighbors even bought bikes and they will sometimes join us in the evening.
Reading another blog, they mentioned going to a concert headlined by Chisako, the former singer of the Japanese band fra-foa. I have a passing interest in Japanese culture, mostly after visiting a few years ago, but I found this band quite interesting, They’re labeled as pop-rock, but it’s not what I’m used to in the USA. It is darker and the live concerts were full of raw emotion (now that I’ve read some more, I realize that was one of their trademarks).
Summer Fun
Originally uploaded by jmodule
Friday evenings in the summer Mayfaire Town Center puts on a concert near the movie theater. It’s a laid-back atmosphere where everyone sets up chairs and blankets on the grass and listens to whatever music is playing (usually soft rock or beach music).
We’ve been a couple of times. This past Friday I decided to use the red wagon to carry our stuff, and it doubled as a seat for the girls after CDF spread a blanket on it. It turned out to be a really great idea.
I think I found this funny dog picture on reddit.com, but anyway it’s a sequence of pictures show a dog that changed his mind at the last minute about jumping into a pool of water. He waited too long to make that decision though: MUTE – Photoblog.
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We went to the beach this weekend. The weather held out for us, the expected thunderstorms didn’t arrive until Sunday, and instead we had 90-degree weather. The water was still cold and it took me a few minutes to get comfortable. The girls just dived right in though.
We played in the water for a while. CE got tumbled by the waves three or four times, but it didn’t bother her too much. Eventually she learned to run away from where the wave crashed so it wouldn’t knock her over. CDF and MD swam together in a calm stretch between breakers.
When we got back out of the water we tried to build some sand castles, but the tide was coming in and we continued to be forced to move before getting anything built. So instead the girls just ran up and down the beach gathering sand and dumping it in the water.
Blueberry Festival Music
Originally uploaded by jmodule
This past weekend was the Blueberry Festival. MD and I stayed longer to wait for the band to start playing. The morning rain showers had delayed everything. But they finally got started and we were able to listen to a few songs. MD liked their rendition of “Carolina Girl.”
You can see more pictures on Flickr
It has been a while since I last played music with anyone. So recently I decided to invite my brothers over for a jam session. We got together this past Saturday.
I had to get the Slingerland kit back in tune, but once that was set we got right in sync. The guitar led it off with a number of songs by some 90’s bands (Rage Against the Machine, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Greenday) and then we moved on to other songs, whatever someone decide to kick off. I just tried to play along, whether I knew the song or not.
I was happy with things turned out, and despite being in the living room, we were about to play at a comfortable volume level without driving everyone out of the house. LP even slept through most of it!
Yesterday was a day of calamity for the girls — to put it dramatically. CE usualy is the one getting hurt, Calamity could be her name. But yesterday started off with MD.
I got a call from CDF around 10am. MD had been bitten or stung on the foot while playing in the back yard. She didn’t see what it was, but it left a red welt that was starting to swell. CDF checked the area for a black widow spider, but found nothing, so I think it was most likely a wasp that stung her. It was painful for a while, but CDF put on some cream that helped the stinging go away.
So when I got home that evening everything was going fine, until after supper, as we were getting ready to go outside, CE tripped over her feet and fell into an ottoman. It’s about 18 inches tall with padding on the top. She missed the padding and hit her head on the corner of the wood. I heard her start screaming and by the time I had picked her up a “goose-egg” was already growing on her forehead. She didn’t like having a cold rag on the bump, so we gave her some infant tylonol and let her lay on the couch for a few minutes.
They’re both feeling better today.
Technorati Tags: icecream
CDF and the girls gave me an ice cream maker for Father’s Day this year. I had occasionally talked about getting one for a while now, but I had forgotten about it recently and was surprised by the gift.
So Sunday afternoon I went to the grocery store and got what we needed to make mint chocolate chip ice cream! I asked MD if she wanted to go with me and she said she didn’t — but of course she changed her mind as soon as I left. But she and CE got to help me when I got back.
CE really wanted to help, and got upset when she couldn’t stir and taste as much as she wanted (she had also gotten up from her nap in a cranky mood). But they both had a chance to stir and taste the ice cream as I took it out of the mixer and put it in the freezer to set.
It was getting too late to eat the ice cream that night (it was supposed to set for 2 hours), so we rode bikes the A. B. Grill to get ice cream there.