Of the four birds in our last clutch of bluebird eggs, one bird did not fledge and died in the nest. Dave was a good man and got rid of it. Bit of a sad note to end the breeding season on, but the bluebirds did have 14 successful chicks, so that’s not too shabby.
August 13, 2007
Dog Sitting
We are dogsitting Maggie, who belongs to a guy I work with. Maggie is an 80-pound Bull Mastiff and she is the sweetest thing! We are happy to host her for a few days. She has been great with the cats. Non-threatening, and really giving them their space. They’ve been acting like fraidy-cats, but they’re slowly emerging from their hiding places.
August 12, 2007
Getting to Cambridge
Proof that you shouldn’t do Sudoku, even a gentle one, at 6 AM when you’ve had only four hours of sleep.
The inflight status tracker was very accurate, including the two circles we made to kill time because we arrived early.
Thursday night, I arrived around 8 PM and caught the 2 1/2 hour coach up to Cambridge. Alba met me at the bus station and we took a cab home. Then we went to sleep!
Friday morning, she made me a lovely breakfast with coffee, fresh fruit and eggs.
Finished
Well, I finally finished! I read about 300 pages of the book Cristin so kindly loaned me in the three days before I took my trip, and then I listened to another five hours on the flight over to England. Still, I hadn’t finished by the time I landed. I intended to finish on the trip back home, but sat next to an engaging conversationalist. I only got about 1-2 hours read on the 6+ hour flight. I was able to listen to more during my several hour layover in JFK, but still didn’t finish the whole thing until a day after I got home.
So, what did I think? I guess I’m not really sure how I feel about it. There were several things that I found quite confusing, and it took some internet reading to understand what they meant. So when I closed the book, I didn’t quite have closure. Now I understand, but I’m still not sure I liked it as much as Cristin. More details below.
If you have already read the book, or have no plans to, I cannot highly enough recommend this synopsis. Really, really funny. Worth the read, and shorter than the book if you’re feeling intimidated by its length.
Also, I liked Ryan’s account of the book. Thanks for the comment!
*****************SPOILER ALERT*****************
It’s getting hot in here
It’s been hot recently. This was my temperature gauge when getting into my car at 8 AM on a recent morning.
August 7, 2007
July 31, 2007
Baby Bluebirds
They are getting bigger! We won’t be able to open up the nest box for very much longer. 
July 29, 2007
Shh. Don’t bother me.
Tonight, Cristin was kind enough to lend me her copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She didn’t want me to wait until I was 82. She’s the sweetest friend. And yes, I know own the audio book, which I plan to listen to on my long flight, but still, the chance to seek my teeth into right now, I couldn’t resist.
I also found this at the comic store today – I’m so excited!
Harry Potter – 3 Stories Tall!
“I’m comin’ to London!”
“You got a toothbrush? We’re going to London. Do you hear that, Doug? I’m coming to London!” (NSFW)
Remember that soundbite from the Snatch sountrack? Well, it’s true!! I’m going to visit my BFF Alba, who is from Colombia but is visiting Cambridge for a summer research program.
We are going to be spending two nights in Cambridge and two in London.
The one thing I want to accomplish while I’m there, besides QFT with Alba? I was inspired by Cristin’s Bowie album cover recreation. Now, I don’t have the mad skillz she possesses, but I will be in London so I want to revisit the site of the Ziggy Stardust album cover.