Nesting Season

Here's one you could file under the heading of "instant blogging", or one I've been sitting on for a while. It's actually I'd guess close to a month and a half coming.

To start off, this was at my parents' house. Just outside the walk-in door to the garage, a hummingbird couple had made their nest. Looks quite a bit, to me, like they found a good deal of the material in a paper shredder!!! That's my mom's hand in the first picture, with the tiny little eggs, smaller than your standard size jelly bean.

And there's momma bird, sitting on her eggs.

I don't know how long after they'd hatched this was, but that's the chicks a while after having hatched.

And, the final shot of the hummingbirds, I was holding up a smallish key, not in the foreground, but right next to the nest, for scale.

Around the back yard, there's a cow skull decoration mounted on the wall. Turns out to be a perfect place for a dove to build her nest!!!

This was while we were having a lunch there, probably for Easter. My younger tells me I should do a selfie with the dove on her nest... so that's what I did!!!

And, finally, I got to watch almost the whole process on these finches!!! This is right outside my work area, turning my head about 30° to the left from my monitors. I saw when momma and daddy started showing up, bringing nesting materials and weaving them into a nest.

Within around 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, they'd hatched, and the finch parents were bringing them noms. They grew up quick, and within a couple of weeks had left the nest.

I had been wanting to re-string the lights I'd gotten for my hanging Christmas tree at the end of last year, to run them all the way along the awnings, but I didn't want to disturb them, so I held off until they were gone. Speaking of disturbing them, back when it was the egg-sitting phase, I'd let the cat out into the front room once, and he would get up by the window, and stare at them, and they would get spooked and fly off. When I had the ladder set up, re-stringing the lights, he was at the same window watching me!!!

Hiccup

I had previously made mention that on our vacation we had run into some difficulties while travelling. This is the story of one of them.

On our flight from Oahu to the Big Island we had gone through the security screening most of the way. My wife, with all her titanium, doesn't get around too well for long distances found at most airports, so she gets wheelchair service, and we usually have a pretty quick go through. At the bag X Ray machine a TSA agent pulls my son aside and begins searching one of his bags. he locates the jar of Suavecito that he had in his carry on bag and pulls it out. "Can't take THAT on in your carry on bag, son!!!" You have two choices, go back to the airline counter and check your bag, or place your pomade in the trash can right there!!! Well, here's a quandary!!! Suavecito comes out with seasonal scented pomades, and this I believe was the Spring edition, with hints of dark rum. I'm pretty sure it was under $15 originally, and it's $25 to check a bag, so pretty easy math. However, being a seasonal thing, might not be able to get a replacement, and he really likes the scent. We start heading back to ticketing, and I'm looking up on my phone to see if it's still available, and nope, it's not. OK, it's looking like it's going to be a nearly $40 jar of pomade. Got back to the ticketing desk and tell them our tale of woe, and they say, don't worry, we've got this!!! Ended up not being out the extra $25 or the jar of Suavecito!!! So, it took a little longer and more legwork, but all's well that ends well!!! Funny thing, our first flight from the mainland they didn't catch it. To be sure, it was in our checked bag on the flight back!!!

Oh, and I've got to gush a little bit about the airline we took, Hawaiian. Not only did they waive the bag fee, but so far as I know, they are the last carrier to provide an in-flight meal. Something else cool they have, instead of having an in flight movie as previous flights I've taken, they have an app you can download to your device, and there's a veritable smorgasbord of shows and movies you can stream in flight!!! I got to watch "Isn't it Romantic" on the flight out because Rebel Wilson is awesome, and "The Lego Movie: The Second Part" on the flight back, but I think I fell asleep a little during that one.

4th of July Hijinks I

Back all the way on 4th of July this year, we did as we often do for that particular holiday (one of our favorites, Summertime, outdoor dining, swimming, and fireworks!!!) and went to my parents' house. We partook in three of the four above listed activities, and then my parents took my sister and my nephew to a local fireworks show. He'd never been, and word is that he enjoyed it. On our way, we stopped by a local fireworks stand and picked up $40 worth of the so-called safe and sane fireworks, so because of that, and the fact that I was working overtime the next day, we stayed there until a little after dark. Just before they headed out, my younger and I helped my dad out by re-hanging one of the side shed doors, which required the use of his ladder. After they left... the mischief ensued!!! The boy and I climbed up, and I jumped off a couple times, and after getting his nerve up, the boy tried a couple times. Yeah, I know, parent of the year!!!

I know at least my mom would have been troubled by this, so hopefully she doesn't come across this!!!

Don't think I've made mention here, but one of my recent pleasures has been morning radio with The Woody Show on Alt 98.7.

One of the segments they do daily is Redneck News, which the boy enjoys the intro for, and does the "Whooo Hooo!!!" along with. Well, for the roof jumping once he got going, he wanted me to come up with intros for, and he'd do the "Whooo Hooo!!!" on the way down. If memory serves, he was wanting me to do 'em earlier in the day as he was jumping from the diving board. Oh yeah, when we were on vacation, at our last hotel in Galveston, he learned to do a flip into the pool, so that's cool and a really useful life skill to have!!!

Of course, later on that evening we lit off the fireworks, and I've got video of the stupidity that ensued on that also, so if I ever get that posted, you'll have part II!!!

And, as always, we drove home through the badlands of the 710 freeway, which is always like driving through a tunnel of fireworks on the 4th of July!!!

Black Choppers

Over the weekend the older and I were heading home, when I saw this:

I didn't get a shot off right away, but these guys were flying LOW!!! When I was stopped at a light, I got a good look at the underbelly of one, and proclaimed, "That's military!!!"

Don't know if they were Guardsmen or Reservists or preparing for the Commander in Chief's fund raiser boondoggle today, but they flew away, then were back in the area by the time we made it home, and I was able to get out my real camera.

It took me entirely too long, but I thought I'd done a post about the black choppers before...

Return to Oz

Now this was cool!!!


Last time I went to see Wicked, I had a few things I would have liked to have done different. I would have liked to have taken the train there. I would have liked to have taken my wife there. I would have liked to be able to pick up some tickets to take her for her birthday and not have to take out a second mortgage.

Well, today we got a friend to watch the boys. We hopped the rail line to the Hollywood and Vine station. Riding the train is really a great way to get around, provided you can spare a little wait time. We put our names into the daily ticket lottery drawing.

The deal on the ticket lottery goes like this: Two and a half hours before showtime, they start taking names for the drawing. Two hours before, they draw names. If your name is drawn and you are present, you can purchase one or two front row tickets for $25 each. One of my co-workers told me about it, said it was the deal they do now instead of student passes. 26 seats, the whole front row.



Well, DING DING DING DING DING, WE GOT A WINNA WINNA WINNA!!! Appropriately enough, it was my wife's name that got drawn, it was in celebration of her birthday that we were there. Front row, almost dead center. We were able to chat a little bit with the conductor before the show, and make eye contact with the actors. The only downside is you aren't as readily able to take in all the action at once, you've got to look around more.



Of course, there was this matter of having two and a half hours of free time in Hollywood. More than that, actually, because what with the train we showed up early. Directly to the left of the Pantages is a tiny little cafe, and I bought her a really tasty rosemary chicken sandwich before the name depositing. Between the name deposit and the drawing, we just loitered in front of the theatre. After we got the tickets, we walked over a few blocks to Sunset so she could get a coffee from Starbucks, cashing in a gift card she got for her birthday. After that, we browsed in a store for a while. Everything was priced too high, and of course we would have had to cart it back to the theatre and on the train. A fun little wasting of time just under the Hollywood sign, in the shadow of the Capitol Records building.

She loved the show!!! I knew she would. Happy birthday!!!

My Wicked Weekend

(Image stolen from here, I could have used the poster artwork, but wanted something different, and this was)

My company has employee outings every year. I heard about a trip to Santa Anita horse races, and thought that would be interesting, as I've never been to the track. When sign ups came out, they had three choices: the aforementioned Santa Anita trip, a golf outing, or a brunch at Lawry's Prime Rib and matinee showing of Wicked. Even though I don't especially follow theatre, I was aware of the acclaim surrounding Wicked, and I've heard of Lawry's for years, and use their seasoning salt extensively in my culinary creations. I don't golf, and Santa Anita, while it sounded interesting, well, I'm not a big gambler or drinker (open bar is another of the perks sweetening that pot), so my choice was clear. Unfortunately, it is for employees exclusively, no dates or spouses allowed.

They have a charter bus from the company to the events, but from my location it made more sense to drive to both destinations. In fact, the Pantages Theatre is right across from the red line station we visited on our rail trip in times past. If there were an easy was to get from there to Lawry's public transportation would have been ideal!!!

Lawry's was good. The service was a bit slow in starting, but once it got rolling was good. Ironically, I got the salmon at a place renowned for their prime rib. Prime rib is OK, but I really like seafood, and since I had the choice, that is what I chose. Actually, while it was good, it wasn't up to the level of the hype I've heard. Oinkster may not have the ambiance or the Beverly Hills address, but I'd take their food over this any day!!! (Mental note: forward this URL to Lawry's and see if they want to comp me a meal to see if they can have a second chance to tempt my taste buds for a more favorable review, haha!!!)

Wicked, if you are not familiar (I wasn't real familiar before I signed up, other than knowing it was something of a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz") is a musical. Really, I am a straight male. Maybe that's what the accompanying picture is about, LOL. Prequel isn't really right, either, the play spans from well before the events of "The Wizard of Oz" to after the credits have rolled. It was PHENOMENAL!!! No spoilers here, but I will say these things I learned from it:

The origins of those creepy flying monkeys, the tin man, the scarecrow, and the cowardly lion

Why the Wicked Witch of the West wanted those shoes (I always thought it was some power or magic reason, but seems not)

Why she was all green like that

You don't get the full effect of The Wizard's facade in the movie

Where the Wicked Witch of the West got that hat from

I would guess disabled advocates and PETA groups applaud this production

Those witches have some pipes!!! I'm glad I saw this show, they didn't really showcase much of that other than Glenda's in the movie

Glenda is truly incredibly narcissistic!!!

Tickets to this show are near impossible to get!!! After I saw it, I thought it would make a great birthday present for my wife, but NOT easy to do!!! Actually, probably a great way to make money, reselling them on Ebay...