Monday, March 31, 2008

Viburnum Nibbler


One of our backyard guests (uninvited) who seems to enjoy the tender young flower buds on our viburnum - however, I'm not at all fond of his style of random shrub pruning.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Justin's 18!



It happened on March 22. With his senior project of building a server nearing completion - which included learning a lot about Microsoft and Linux - Justin is shown here scanning a birthday present - a copy of a Linux magazine. Happy Birthday Justin!

Night Visitors

No photos since it was the middle of the night, but a couple of munching deer triggered our outdoor backyard light as they enjoyed the tasty (I guess) buds on the blooming Viburnum 'spring bouquet' shrubs in our yard a few nights ago. A little later Dave was awakened by the light again when a couple of opossum promenaded on the trail behind our house. (They obviously weren't interested in the tasty Viburnum buds.) I guess the raccoons weren't making their rounds that night or at least they didn't trigger our security light.

Improv Everywhere

The tagline for the website Improv Everywhere is "we cause scenes." Jen alerted us to the improv group causing a scene and doing their "mission" in Frozen Grand Central So funny! And then Rod directed us to Improv Everywhere's home page that lists some of their "Missions" and clued us in on one of his favorites, The Moebius. I think Mobile Desktop with people setting up desktop computers in a Starbucks is pretty funny too. Thanks Jen and Rod for cueing us in on these unique all-over-the-world happenings!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Nisqually River - Under the Snow


Yesterday, on the way to going snowshoeing in Mt. Rainier National Park, we didn't realize that we had crossed a river! However, during our guide's excellent talks periodically along the trail (which each time gave us a chance to catch our breath - thank goodness), he made us aware that we HAD crossed over a river on the way to the Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise. We had about 20 people in our group, and I was rather happy that there were some small kids to lag behind with me! We snowshoed on top of 16 feet of snow and learned about safety stuff (particularly that falling into a tree well isn't wise), how trees survive the heavy snows (the hemlock's trunk is flexible and bends over while the fir's trunk is rigid but its branches release downward to let the snow slide off), how to get back up after a fall, how animals survive and a bit of Rainier park history. A fun day (particulary in retrospect), and we aren't all that stiff today! Now, we need to go to Paradise during warmer weather to enjoy its spring or summer "look." And I bet we'll realize it when we go over the Nisqually River.