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The Cruise From Hell: Day One	[Aug. 10th, 2009\|11:09 am]
1/24/09 Genn, Anita, Catherine and I are going to meet in New Orleans for a 7-day western caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Spirit. Ports of call: Costa Maya, Mexico; Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico. Catherine and Anita are flying, but Genn and I take the van. It's not too far from Fort Smith to The Big Easy: we drive I-40 to Little Rock, then go south. Genn amuses herself with taking photos of the speedometer. She says that when I'm stopped by the State Police for going 75, she can show him this pic: "Officer, that was nothing, look at THIS!" This is my opinion: The drive is uneventful and pleasant. Near the Mississippi border we see thousands of Snow Geese, WOA #84, and what I thought was a Northern Harrier, but now realize is an immature Mississippi Kite: WOA #85. (Cornell photo credits) The snow geese in their thousands were an awesome sight: we braved the cold rain and wind to look at them. Genn was already feeling ill, and this was the beginning for me. We met with Catherine and Anita at the hotel, had a good dinner, and hit Bourbon Street. The evening was cold and wet, the music was really really good, the crowd was drunk. Because of the weather, there wasn't too many people. We saw many intriguing signs, but saw none of the actual World Famous Love Acts, and not one of the 3 Ugly Girls not to mention any of the 1000's of Beautiful ones. The Female Impersonators eluded us as well, so for us, Seeing was not Believing. sigh
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Fledglings 2009	[Aug. 4th, 2009\|07:56 pm]
My suet feeder has been the source of much entertainment this spring. The baby birds are fledged, and have been taught to feed at my window. I've been able to observe the parents' lessons -- in general the fledglings are quick to learn. This is how it goes: a parent will get some suet and fly back to the baby, who is perched on the maple tree. The baby is fed. Then the baby is expected to fly to the feeder, and get food himself. This is what happens, and they soon are feeding on their own. Here's a Downy Woodpecker male -- notice that he's red on his crown. Later he'll get his little red spot at the proper place, at the back of his head, like a yarmulke. Here's a young Red-Bellied Woodpecker on the maple tree. I don't know if the fledgling is a male or female, but it too has a little bit of red on its crown. So by analogy with the Downy, is he male? <-- This is a fledgling Starling: they're fairly gray, and are raucous. I witnessed a parent Starling try to teach this baby how to obtain food from the suet feeder. The technique was the same as described above, but when the mom (or dad, but I imagine it as the mom) brought the suet back to the maple branch, the fledgling set up a horrible racket. The mom was clearly agitated, and indecisive, but the baby managed to bully her with his cries into feeding him. Several times. The fledgling never did go to the feeder that time, but now he's feeding nicely, and I imagine his parents are much relieved. That poor mom was on the verge of a nervous breakdown that day. And here's a fledgling Eastern Bluebird. We get the whole family together at the feeders -- they're a tight group. There's 2 male and 1 female fledglings. This one's male: the little female is very gray-blue on her wings, showing blue only on her tail feathers. I've seen all three fledgling 'Easterners' (as Martin calls them) with their dad on the feeder at once.
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On The Way Home

[Jun. 29th, 2009|09:15 pm]

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Well, it's been a few months since the last post: Genn and I were sick as very sick dogs after the Cruise From Hell, Genn's husband Sifu Robert had flown to New Orleans and rescued us.

It took a few weeks to gradually get better -- I was as ill as I'd ever been -- and a few months to regain my energy. Genn said that it felt as if someone'd stuck a hose in her chest and sucked out all the energy. Yup, that's how it felt. We're convinced we actually had Swine Flu. Then HEDIS season hit, along with a worm that took out my tower PC, and propagated to a lesser extent to my laptop (via the router). I bought a mini to tide me over the work season -- it's very cute but slow. I want to add some RAM to speed things up a bit, but it will never be very fast (the processor). So I stayed off the net except for necessary work and brief emails. In the midst of all this, the roofers came and re-roofed our house -- finally done! -- and various other house chores had to be seen to: Jeremiah landscaped the front of the propery by the road, spring planting, the spare bedroom remodel (Martin and I demo-ed the fireplace front). Then I got sick again, a bad cold and upper respiratory thing, and that lasted for 3 weeks.

Just got back from Austin, where Ron rebuilt my ill machines, added my software and the anti-virus of his choice, and imaged all three. I can recover in 10 minutes now. All important files are bacdked up on an external drive. I already was doing that, so lost nothing when the worm hit. (Paranoia is good.) I've got my health and energy back, so will bring all up to date on my many adventures between February and June.

The above photo is from a little town on the way back home from New Orleans.

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Back From Vacation	[Feb. 5th, 2009\|04:41 pm]
Got back from vacation Monday night: Genn and I got sick on the cruise. We dragged our asses through customs, managed to drop the healthy ones off at the airport, checked into a hotel and died. That evening we called Genn's husband, who kindly flew to New Orleans and drove us home. Today, I feel human. More later.....
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Hiatus	[Jan. 23rd, 2009\|08:04 pm]
Arr, I be off pirating for the next two weeks. (Actually hanging around on the stern of the ship, arguably the most relaxing place in the world.) See you later, matey!!
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Papilio and the Icebreaker	[Jan. 22nd, 2009\|02:16 pm]
Papilio and the paperwhites have bloomed; the apple blossom amaryllis has a nice big bud. I hope the bloom will still be there when I return from vacation. I've got full-spectrum bulbs in the recessed lighting above the kitchen island, where these plants are kept. They seem to be doing well with them, so I'm going to start my spring vegetable seedlings there too. Lots of garden work to do when I return, so I'm going to make the most of ship-board relaxation. Earlier this week, when Genn and I went birding, I said that I'd forgotten the cameras. More precisely, I'd forgotten the long lens, so here's a photo of a Canada Goose breaking the ice. The Ringnecked Ducks are in the background, wimping out in clear water.
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I Miss Food	[Jan. 20th, 2009\|07:58 pm]
My peppers, which were keeping wonderfully from the garden, were all used up a couple of weeks ago. So were the Arkansas Black apples (the last of them were a bit wrinkly, but still delicious). I miss this food. When I come back from the cruise, it'll be time to seed early veggies. I found a source for Arkansas Black semi-dwarf apples. I'm going to send one to Rebecca, and get one for us.
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WOA # 78-83

[Jan. 19th, 2009|06:29 pm]

Yesterday and today Genn and I went out birding, mainly to bag some gulls that I'd seen on the Arkansas River. Genn suggested hunting by the lock and dam at Springhill park, where she's often seen gulls. So we went out early, binoculars in hand, but forgetting cameras and scope. We saw some ducks on the way at a pond by the side of Rt 59, but they took off as we approached. We weren't sneaky enough. By the lock and dam, we saw Ring-billed Gulls; and across the river at the park we saw Double-crested Cormorants and American White Pelicans. So today, we went earlier, and brought the scope and camera.

Here's the Ringnecks at the pond by Rt 59. We wised up and snuck by staying in the car and drifting as close to them as we could. We scoped them out from the other side of the van, and photographed them from the passenger's window. This worked pretty well.

We went to the lock and dam again, and saw American Coots way off in a marshy lake right before the dam and river. Ring-bills at the dam, and cormorants again, but the pelicans had flown. Lots of other birds too: many many red tails, turkey vultures, jays, blackbirds, pigeons and doves. Hollis Lake is another marshy lake off Rt 59 near the duck pond. We cruised the road by the lake, trying to spot ducks. I saw a different one, and we got out the scope and spotted it. A bright orange bill. Buffy

and white underneath, some stripy things on the head -- wait a minute!! This duck is staying too still!! It isn't moving its head!! IT'S A DECOY!!!

Here's a photo of a FLOCK of decoys that we saw a bit later. The seven ducks in the foreground are the decoys: there are gadwalls in the back. Below we manage to get closer to a decoy. They're real easy to get close to.

Here's the gadwalls:

And a turkey vulture eating I don't know what, but it's really really bloody:

We had a great time, decoys and all. Cosmo went too, and loved running around. He did get some swamp mud on his feet at Hollis Lake: what a mess!! Fortunately, I have his area of the van screened off, and he can do no damage. The new Canon is a joy to use: now I want to get another lens for it. The long lens is light and easy to shoot with, so I'm ready for our cruise!!

Here's the WOA list:

#78 American White Pelican
#79 Ring-Billed Gull
#80 Double-Crested Cormorant
#81 American Coot
#82 Gadwall
#83 Ring-Necked Duck
Gadwall may be a life bird, I have to check that I didn't see him in Texas. 17 more to go to reach the Kingfisher Level.

Genn and I want to stop by the Cache River on the way back from the cruise to try to bag more WOA duck species.

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WOA #77 and A New Suet Feeder Bird	[Jan. 17th, 2009\|04:39 pm]
#77 for Wings Over Arkansas is a Pine Warbler -- he is also a life bird, and another first for the suet feeder. The photo makes him look pretty big, but he's really a wispy 4 inches. The female comes around too, but I haven't got a shot at her yet. A Northern Flicker has also visited the suet feeder -- I've seen him twice, but as yet can't get his picture. He's very very shy and wild. I've seen him often in front of our house -- he seems to hang out in the woods there. I've been working a bit this week doing code review for the CAHPS surveys. We are almost done. I'm going to do a bit of application development as well before heading out on the NCL Spirit. I managed to find a Guatemalan company, Turix, who will take us on a boat ride up the mouth of the Rio Dulce, which is a canyon. We'll stop at a volcanic hot springs to swim, tour a rookery island in the boat, and stop for lunch at Livingston, a town founded by the Garifuna peoples, descendants of Caribbean slaves. We'll shop a bit, then head back to the port for more shopping and native dances. Don't tell Anita, but there'll be lots of birds on this excursion. Today is our 11th anniversary. Thanks for 11 great years, Martin -- may we have many more. XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
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New Birds, New Eyes, New Fascination; and Martin Has Gone Mad	[Jan. 11th, 2009\|05:38 pm]
NEW BIRDS More new birds at the suet feeder -- the Northern Mockingbird was shy at first, making aborted passes at the feeder, but soon settled in. He even let me take his photo, after eying me up, as you can see. I got a brighter shot of him on the maple tree -- he has beautiful yellow eyes. The other new bird at the suet feeder is the American Goldfinch. These don't winter here in my yard as they did in WI, but they've come back for an early spring, and have tried the suet. They prefer the finch mix and niger seed, though. The little Downey Woodpecker is of course a regular, and is not shy. He's a redneck, though. The other regulars are bold as well, and don't care if I peer at them close up. The Eastern Bluebirds are especially courageous, as well as the Tufter Titmice and Carolina Chickadee. The Yellow-Rumped Warblers are a bit more cautious, but will stay if I slowly draw closer. Another bird I haven't seen much, until recently, is the Purple Finch: here he is, diving fearlessly to the finch mix. NEW EYES I've finally got my contact lenses and new Rx -- my glasses have yet to arrive, but I've been enjoying my rejuvenated eyes. I can see SO MUCH BETTER now -- everything is bright and crisp. NEW FASCINATION Martin has been reading Martha Grimes mystery novels -- I tried the first in the series, Man With A Load of Mischief. (That's a pub: a lot of her books have pub names. I'm reading The Old Silence now, also a pub name.) The fascinating thing about these novels is the food at tea. Aunt Agatha downed a lot of fairy cakes -- some had coconut on top, and others currants -- so they had to be cupcakes, right? But how could Agatha down so many? Agreed, she's a woman with a hearty appetite, but STILL. It turns out fairy cakes ARE cupcakes, but are generally more light and half the size. Some have a scoop out the top, which is filled in with icing or jam, and then the cake scoop is cut in half and arranged in the center like wings. Then there's Fat Rascals and Rock Cakes. Fat Rascals aren't a type of Long John, but are cookies (apparently the British call cookies cakes, and cakes cakes) with currants and almonds arranged on the top. Rock Cakes are cookies too, and I've found several different recipes for them. They seem to vary in definition. There's more tea food in The Old Silence that I have yet to look up -- what is a maid-of-honor, for instance? I'll find out!! I want to make these dainties, so am looking for a fairy cake pan -- the others don't require special equipment. In googling these foods, I've found another cake: Brandenburg Cake. Will post as I make them. Martin, however, wants me to begin with Chinese Almond Cookies. I've been making home-made pizza (after a few tries, I've found the best dough), so he's getting demanding. MARTIN HAS GONE MAD In the 12 years (11 of marriage) I've been with Martin, never has he hung ANYTHING on the walls. Today he ordered 5 Kandinsky prints, and several framed portraits of early presidents, Alexander Hamilton, and the first chief justice. The revolutionary war era prints will go in the downstairs hallway, turning it into a gallery of sorts. I wanted to have the presidents and Brad Pitt, but he won't allow it. Oh well, it'll be pretty funny to have a hallway of presidents even without Brad Pitt. And I do like the Kandinskys, which will be hung upstairs.
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