Christmas 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with Rich & Diane. We missed the boys but I can understand being mercenary...especially around the holidays. I am guessing they must have overspent on their parents (and each other) and needed to refill the coffers. I made my mother's favorite one pot supper, Ragout with garlic bread and Rich and Diane brought a delicious Ice Box Cake. Delicious and a fun evening with the shrinking family.

Thank you Rich and Diane for our new luggage. I will be able to use my new luggage during our exciting Christmas vacation to Batavia. We will meet up with Rich and his family and Hilary and her family on January 2nd at a hotel with an indoor pool for Joey. I can't wait and I will be sure to post our adventures.

I think being able to sleep until I naturally awake is the greatest gift of all. At 18, Ian is passed the 6am Christmas morning excitement and although I miss it, that is ok. I woke around 8:30, drank coffee, watched the birds and took pictures of the decorated house.... very quiet and enjoyable. Lo and behold, I heard the shower around 9:30 and it was Ian! He had set his alarm and was downstairs and dressed before Rob.

Ian is a very reserved present opener and he savors every moment. (And yes, every year Santa leaves Ian's white trash favorite in his stocking....spray cheese!)

I took about 40 pictures before I finally captured the rugby ball in the air. Ian was laughing hysterically and mercilessly making fun of my photography skills. At this point, the ball has bounced against every surface of the house and nothing has broken....yet.
Rob enjoying one of his new books, The Book of Genesis illustrated by R. Crumb. (Tom, you should remember Crumb from your Mother Jones days.)

The presents are opened, the paper is recycled and it has been at least an hour since Ian awoke and he is sound asleep. How does he do that? The hands...is that normal?

The Proposal

Cyndy was the closest with her guess of a church. Rob actually proposed, informally, in the parking lot of St. Joseph's Hospital on Sunday afternoon after visiting his mother. After coming home, Rob asked Ian's permission and he formally proposed on his knee with a ring and everything. The Bills game was on in the background. They lost.

We are heading to City Hall on Monday to purchase our marriage license. We have 60 days. We will keep you informed.

Empty Nest

During the month of August, I faithfully kept track of a pair of Slate Colored Juncos that were nesting in one of my geraniums. I happened to be outside to witness the entire nest building process and then watched over the next several weeks as they hatched three eggs. Ironically, the babies left the nest during the same time I took Ian to Cornell so I never got to say good-bye. (I did, however, get to bury one of the young that didn't make it out of the pool. Perhaps it was Darwin's Natural Selection at work but I still cried.)

It dawned on me that Diane had also been posting about her bird feeders and that perhaps bird watching might be a subconscious way of filling the void. Either way, you know how literal I am so I started planning my winter bird feeding sanctuary.

The windows in the breakfast room are allow perfect birdwatching and the fruit from the Bradford Pear Tree attracts birds. I picked up a little bird feeder from Lowes...filled it with seed and waited.

I waited a long time, moved the feeder from the right window, to the left window to under the tree...and nothing. During Thanksgiving dinner, Diane suggested that the seed may be old or rancid so I took a trip to Lee's Feed and bought new seed and of course, another feeder too!

I dumped the old seed into a flower pot and put it on the table for the squirrels...knowing they wouldn't care what was wrong with the seed.

My 2 feeders were carefully hung and I waited.

The birds finally found the seed and the feeders. Yeah!And so did the squirrels.... I thought the feeder hanging from the eaves under the house was safe because there wasn't direct access from the tree. I was wrong. The squirrels still amuse me and I put out enough for everyone.

And yes, Diane...we do have black squirrels here in the city.

Widespread problem?

I have great ideas fairly often. I just don't have the knowledge and guidance to take my idea to the next level. I thought of this tonight while Rob was watching the Knicks game. (I'll pause here for the laughter....) Rob was actually watching a re-broadcast of a game played earlier in the day. He didn't know who won (the Knicks were playing the Nets.....hahahahah) and wanted to keep it that way. Of course, scores were scrolling across the bottom of the screen during the entire game. Rob needed to avert his eyes or leave the room when the NBA scores were shown.

What do other people do in this situation? With the old television, I could tape a piece of paper to the bottom of the screen to cover the scrolly part. I didn't want to tape to the new screen. I came up with this using a 5 foot long rubber band we had kicking around and three envelopes.
Worked great but looked pretty stupid. Would people pay for an elastic, soft cloth covered contraption (decorated with the logo of their favorite team? or fabric that matched the couch?) that could be easily placed along the bottom. Your thoughts?

The times they are a-changin'

I bet that nobody will ever be able to guess where we were when Rob proposed. NEVER!