A Night at The Baby House

Some Photos from this Beautiful Day

Today has been another wonderful, beautiful, sunshine-y day.

Perfect for getting out with the camera!

Happy Birthday, Sis!

I have tried all day to post the "birthday video" I put together for Sis, but something from youtube is not interfacing with the blog. At all.

Instead of continuing my frustration, I'm going to post the link to the sidebar instead of in this text area. It's smaller, but at this point, I believe it's all that's going to work. You should be able to click on it and go directly to youtube to see it "normal size", if you want.

Please enjoy! She did.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Today was gorgeous - no snow, no rain, no chilly breezes; just seasonal and sunny, crispy, almost-Spring, what-it's-supposed-to-feel-like for this time of year weather.

The earliest-blooming of our crocus are going crazy in the yard's sunnier spots, and they're gorgeous. Even though we have more cold, rainy-to-snowy weather in the extended forecast for the week, when the crocus start to appear, like the robins, we know that warmer weather and more beautiful "bloomers" are on the way.

The dogs enjoyed the sunshine and played outside for much of the day with Moose taking multiple cool-downs in the pond. I don't know what we're going to do with him when REALLY warm weather arrives.

There's bad news from the pigeon coop. The injured female bird died Thursday, but it was not unexpected. She'd' taken quite a lick to her head and probably a broken wing. We did everything we could and made sure she had a warm, safe place to be.

The surviving pigeon seems to be getting tired of being caged up, and his owner has still not called to make arrangements for picking him up. I've tried to call his cell number a couple of times and haven't gotten an answer, so it's doubtful that we'll ever hear from him again.

Jack and I like this pigeon and would love to provide him a home, but with our cats and dogs, keeping him is not an option, and at this point, we'd love to find him a nice place to live. If you're interested or know anyone that might be interested in giving a permanent home to a nice bird that's had a rough last few weeks, please drop me an e-mail at 2busyandersons@gmail.com. We'll even throw in a five pound bag of wild bird food, which is good-eating for a pigeon such as this.

Earlier this evening, Jack and I met up with Mom and Dad for dinner "out" at Sundance. The food was tasty, but the company and conversation were the highlight of the meal.

Thanks for the nice compliments on the photos, folks. I really appreciate it, and since I'm changing the picture at the top of the blog, I'm including the robin photo that was so popular with many of you in this post.

Have a great rest of the weekend and enjoy tomorrow's sunshine.

Happy Valentine's Day: Saying it with Pigeons

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Greetings from another cold Sunday in our neck of the woods.

Today's Tennessean included a scathing letter to the editor about people like me, who blog for family and friends. For any of you who may have read it and feel concerned, be assured this - I do have a life.

And this weekend it has involved the rescue of two homing pigeons in distress...

Yesterday as Jack and I headed out for some pre-Valentine's Day Saturday stuff, we rounded a corner, topped a hill and encountered a remarkable-looking bird standing in the middle of the road. Neither of us could figure out what it was on first pass, but after turning the car around and going back for a second look, we realized it was a banded homing pigeon that had encountered a car or a hawk or something that left it injured, addled and vulnerable.

Initially she wandered aimlessly along the side of the road but was easily "shooed" into the yard where her mate paced back and forth in concern. She made her way across the yard to a clump of ornamental grass, where she nestled herself.

Jack and I knew the little bird couple was in trouble and that the with all the dogs and cats in our neighborhood, the injured female didn't stand a chance at survival unless we intervened.

Within minutes, we'd retrieved a medium-sized dog cage from the basement and prepared ourselves for a bird rescue.

The pigeons were still in the yard where we left them, and Jack noticed that a vehicle was warming up in the driveway behind the house. I knocked on the door and explained the situation to our neighbor (whom we've never met before).

He welcomed our attempt at rescuing them and explained that the pair appeared about a month ago when the weather first got so bad and have been hanging out in his yard ever since.

Jack easily scooped up the injured female from her roost in the ornamental grass. After that, the male allowed me to pick him up and put him the cage with her.

We put them in the basement near a space heater with a bowl of wild bird seed and some water. By the time we got home from our shopping junket, they'd emptied both bowls and seemed to be relieved to be together.

A quick check of the serial numbers on both birds' legs and an internet search later, I'd received e-mail from the National Pigeon Association with the name of the store in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania that sold the leg bands to the breeder. By 10 a.m. this morning, the guy from the pigeon store had e-mailed me the phone number of the guy in Bethpage, Tennessee that had purchased the bands. Mr. Brandon of Bethpage gave me the number of Mr. Moss in Lebanon, who will be picking up his pigeons later this week.

Love, ya'll.

Super Sunday

The last of our snow finally finished melting by the middle of the week. I can't imagine how those poor folks in Washington, DC and the rest of the Northeast are coping with FEET of snow. Two inches of snow creates a mess here - what would two feet do to us?

While we were inconvenienced by the weather for a few days, it was beautiful, and I've gotten high marks for my photography effort. There's always a bright spot!

Because of the lingering snow and ice on the roads, I worked from home on Monday then had to be at work bright and early Tuesday morning for a seven o'clock meeting. Even though the main roads were fine at that point, I had to poke along on "ice watch" between here and there. Hopefully our bad weather is over for the winter. Tiny bits of snow are flurrying today, but it's practically invisible.

With another early morning meeting on Friday, I decided to spend the night at the baby house on Thursday to cut down on my commute time the following day. Good choice. Heavy rain moved through during the afternoon on Thursday, and even though the baby house is normally about a thirty minute commute, it took me an hour and a half to get there. God only knows how long it would've taken me to get home on I-40.

I spent some time at Sis & Chris' house, having "quality time" with Lucia, who is now walking. Yes, she's afoot and on-the-move - she isn't quite steady yet, but she's definitely ready. She's at that stage where she crawls if she needs speed and walks if she's more interested in taking her time and "looking at stuff". This is such a wonderful time for her, and I'm so thankful that I have plenty of opportunities to experience it. She's absolutely delightful.

Jack and I are looking forward to the SuperBowl later on today, but we still haven't established a clear favorite. On one hand, Peyton Manning is one of our favorites and we generally cheer for the Colts, but New Orleans has never been to the SuperBowl before, and it's always nice to see the underdog come through in the end. At this point, we're just hoping for a good, competitive, clean football game that's worth watching.