Monday, September 20, 2010

Parakeets

This is the latest baby to leave the nest box.....its mom is yellow and dad is blue.....
This is the yellow mom, and if you look closely, there is an itty bitty new pink baby in amongst the eggs....
This is the momma in the other nestbox, she doesn't look very happy so she left the box.....
.....and her eggs and new baby.....Greg is going to take a couple of keets to his classroom at school, but if they keep hatching babies, we will have many more.....anyone interested in a cute parakeet???

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I have never traveled alone so was a bit apprehensive. Had no problem at the airports, and caught a shuttle to my hotel. The view from my window was pretty nice....
The pool was on the 4th floor, we did take advantage of it a couple of nights, as well as the hot tub...
The last night I was there, we walked around downtown for dinner and to see some sights. The Hyatt has a restaurant/bar at the top that rotates so you can view the city. We had to go check it out.
The restaurant was really nice and we were a bit underdressed, but they let us sit at a table and order a drink. Figured they wouldn't kick us out if we at least spent a little money....
Every morning but one, I walked across the street to Starbucks for breakfast.....YUM!! I am so spoiled now, I will have withdrawals this week. The trees in the park where the shop was had lights in their trees at night, it was really pretty.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Temporary Duty

I was in Phoenix this past week working, there was lots of data entry to be done but I think between the three of us temps, we did a good job of getting the office gals caught up while they were gone to a training. I actually got an office!!
Friday morning, there were three naturalization ceremonies in the courthouse. I finally managed to get over with my camera for the last one (I didn't take it at first because I know that they are a bit skittish about cameras in a courthouse but I saw family members of the new citizens taking photos so ran back to the office and grabbed mine). As the judge spoke, and then Lee Greenwood sang about being an American, and they took their oath, I got a little teary eyed.....we live in a great country, and these people were becoming citizens the RIGHT way.....
Justice Sandra D. O'Connor, whom the courthouse is named for....

Balloons are back....

A friend of mine whose husband is on the balloon team for Curves told me that they were having a competition this weekend so I was ready for them this morning.
I just didn't realize that the first target was less than a block down my road.....this guy threw his bean bag really close to the target...
This guy didn't get as close to the target but he was certainly close to me. He wound it up and threw it as hard as he could.....not at me, at the target....
He was off just a bit, but he waved and I wished him a good morning and he went on his way....

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Phoenix

I am in wonderful, dry heat Phoenix all this week. Return on Friday, been working at the pretrial office here while their support staff are in San Diego for a training session. Have eaten a lot of good food, seen a lot of fun stuff. But I have worked harder here than I do at my own office.....being Arizona, they have LOTS of illegal alien cases so we are doing LOTS of data entry for them.....later, time to go find a good place to eat, think we are going to go into Scottsdale.....

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Flag Football

Papa called flag football on Saturday morning. That is him waaayyy over on the other side......

Jonathan took his football with him. He was sitting in my lap, eating goldfish and drinking juice. All of a sudden he said, "you ready to go, Mimi?" and I was thinking hey, he had it made, why was he ready to go? So we packed up and left.....

Trike time

I headed to Goodwill this week because they had an ad for a birdcage. Got the birdcage and picked up this cute little trike!! All that is wrong with it is that it needs a pedal on one side. It even has a bell!! Jonathan isn't quite tall enough to reach both pedals at the same time, but it won't be long. I just love little trikes/bikes!! Now I need to find another one since Jonathan taught Charley the word "mine"......

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Tada!! The New Frig!!

For the first time in three years, we aren't using ice trays for our ice. We have a working ice maker again.....and that neat little ice/water in the door thingy!! I had to do away with a lot of things on the frig, so far, this is what is back on it. I am sure more things will find their way on the doors as time goes by.....

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Westfest in West, Texas

Every Labor Day weekend, thousands of people head to the little community of West, with a population of less than 5,000 (and that number is probably being very generous). There is a parade, beer, native Czech food, beer, Czech dancers in costume, beer, a kolache run, beer, arts and crafts, beer, Polka dancing, beer and good music. Did I mention beer? Well, let me tell you, there is lots of it served there, lots of it spilled there, too!!!
The beer bread sausage sandwich line was the longest when we got to West at about lunchtime. We figured that was a good sign that the food was yummy!!
And we were right!! Jalapeno beer bread, Czech sausage, mustard, sauerkraut, and shredded cheese....it was really a good sandwich!!
Watched the Czech dancers for a while. Thank goodness the weather was much cooler than in years past. These poor folks nearly melt in those costumes!!! We headed home on the motorcycle mid-afternoon. It was a nice adventure for the day!!

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Greg's Smoker

Greg has been making noise about a smoker for a while now. When he started talking about "building" his own, knowing him as I do, I figured it would be much cheaper if we could find one for sale!!! Craigslist to the rescue!! I found this one and the rest is history. I didn't see it before but apparently he cleaned it up a bit. We haven't gotten to use it yet but hopefully with the cooler weather, we will get out and get some "smokin" done!!!

Bottle Tree

Looks like I need one more bottle.....
For thousands of years, superstition has held that bottles can trap bad spirits at night, which are then destroyed in the next day's sunlight - legends of "bottle "imps" and geniis in lamps originated in Arabia over three thousand years ago, and have been handed down through sub-Saharan Africa, up to Europe, and finally to North America.

Greg made me a bottle tree. Well, he made two but we only have one up so far. I had seen one in a garden magazine and really liked it. Blue is supposedly the "preferred" color for the "bad spirits"......this blue one came from a bottle of wine Jeremy/Marci brought us from Canada, blue is hard to find. The two clear ones came from the house next door after the neighbors moved out....I really thought they were pretty cool. Now I shop the wine department by bottle colors..... :)

Saturday, September 04, 2010

It is done!!

No one can say we rush through home projects, they seem to drag on forever for some reason....(I know the reason just won't list him here)......
Finished the walls, found a shower curtain I could live with (glass doors will have to wait, not willing to pay that much for them right now!!)
Yes, that is a flat screen tv in the bathroom......yessss!!!!

No more projects for a while now that Greg is back in school and football season started. But I can still make my list......

Friday, September 03, 2010

Our new baby parakeet....

Our baby parakeet left the next box this past weekend while we were out of town. It is a yellowish green color with a little bit of blue on its tail.
The blue parakeet is the poppa....
...the yellow parakeet in the box is the mama (yellow and blue make green, haha), the blue one growing feathers is a sibling. We are assuming that the eggs were laid at different times, thus the difference in age of the babies. We are also assuming that not any of the other eggs are going to hatch.
This baby looks like the daddy as far as color goes. I got it out of the nestbox today and it is cuter than it looks!!!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

More from Corpus

Our entertainment after Friday night's dinner outside at the hotel.....
The building next door, I think it might have been a bank??.....
Saturday evening after dinner at Snoopy's......

It was really hot until the sun went down, then it was a bit more bearable. We headed over to the beach party with my work peeps after dinner. I traveled to Corpus with a coworker in the g-car on Friday, Greg came down Saturday morning on the motorcycle so I rode it back with him on Sunday afternoon. Stopped in San Antonio and ate, then dropped in to see the kids in Round Rock for just a little bit, then on home by about 8 PM. Back to work on Monday, ready for this holiday weekend....