Book ad

This is a first for me. I just saw an ad on TV for a BOOK! James Patterson's I Alex Cross. It's kind of a cute ad, too - you can see it on the author's website.

Interesting marketing ploy...

I don't think I've read any James Patterson. Are his books overly violent? Any advice for me?

Wildlife

Walking along the border of Bush Lake Park this morning I heard an owl call several times. Then just as we turned into the park, a deer darted across and paused at the edge of Bush Lake Rd. I froze and signaled Bravo to stop as well - I certainly didn't want to spook the doe into darting out in front of a car. But as car after car went by, I started to try to figure out when would be a good time to move so she would run into a safe gap. My timing's not great, so I was worried. Turned out her timing wasn't tons better, but fortunately the driver saw her and slowed while she crossed safely.

The lake itself was beautiful - smooth mirror surface with a little mist rising. A bit more frost on the trees and it would have been perfect. Maybe I'll get a good picture soon.

It's not exactly wildlife, but Bravo and I did meet a basset hound yesterday at the dog park. He stood there looking at me until I leaned down and then he lalloped over to be petted. When he shook his head, the lower half of those huge ears got covered in drool. He was just so adorable to watch. His name was Chumley - isn't that perfect for a basset?

Timing

Several times recently I have walked by the lake near sunrise and thought of photos. But it's never been quite right. I was a little early, or late. Or not enough clouds to get much color. But oh well, I didn't have my camera anyway.

Today it all came together. The perfect time, right amount of clouds. And the camera.

Human on a Stick

Today I saw a Smart Car that was a mobile advertisement for Segway Tours. Their website is http://HumanOnAStick.com/ and their logo is


It made me smile. And also, it reminded me of the Segway Tour we took with the McFarlands at Segs in the City in DC:


It was a lot of fun, but harder than I thought it would be. There's a constant vibration that bothered me a bit. Still, great way to see the sites around the Mall. At the end of the tour, we got cards saying we had "Segsy Legs" (so we can come back and just rent a segway on our own if we want).

Poor Bravo...

While at the kennel (just a few days!) he licked all the fur off 3 of his toes on a rear paw. Took him to the vet on Monday, and he's on steroids and antibiotics. But he also has to wear one of those cone collars.

He's actually gotten pretty used to it now. The first 24 hours, he had a lot of trouble with stairs - he'd catch the cone on every other step - and even just the step up to the house from the back yard was difficult. But this morning, he got up the stairs in one smooth ascent. And maybe he likes not sleeping in his crate (I figured the cone wouldn't really fit).

And he is so good about everything! Giving him medicine is the easiest thing in the world - just put the pill in a bit of butter or peanut butter, and he swallows it with no problem. I take the collar off at meal times. To put it back on, all I have to do is hold a treat on the other side, and he sticks his head right in. What a sweetheart.

Travel tales

Just got back from the trip to DC for my nephew's wedding. The time in DC was great - got to see almost all the family - just missed one nephew on Russ' side. Great to see everyone, and we really had good visits. We also accomplished the 2 main goals of introducing new members of the family, since Gaea hadn't met any of them except my nephew and his (now) wife. Needless to say, everyone loved her.

Travel was a different story. For Russ and Karis and me, the trip out wasn't bad - delayed flight in the morning, but we still made the connection in Chicago and got in on time. Jason and Gaea had a harder time - their outbound flight was delayed longer, and missed a couple of connections, so they got in 4 hours late.

Then there was driving in DC area traffic. It was raining all weekend, and of course, traffic there is usually horrible. Everything took quite a bit longer than expected.

But the trip back was the worst. It sounded pretty good at first - Jason and Gaea got on our outbound flight as standby. But then, they got taken off again and put back on their original flight. Then we were told our flight might be cancelled and we should all line up to re-book flights in case it was. Next they told us they were cancelling the flight because a toilet and backed up and they were worried about unsanitary conditions. So we started working on rebooking. They told us they could get all 3 of us (Russ, Karis and me) on a flight to Chicago out of BWI, but couldn't get Russ and me back to Chicago. And the flights tomorrow were booked, too. So we got a taxi voucher, gave Jason the keys to my car that was in the airport lot, and started to leave.

Jason came after us and told us they had fixed our plane, and now it would just leave late. So we got back on the original flight, which now left about 1 1/2 hours late. Worked well for Karis - she caught her bus at 2:30 and got back to Beloit at a decent time. Russ and I raced from B terminal to C to try to catch our flight home, but they had already filled all the seats and closed the doors.

They had already told us all flights were booked solid, and the lines at all the Customer Service counters were very long. We thought about putting our names on stand-by list after stand-by list, but then decided it would be less frustrating to just rent a car one-way to Minneapolis and drive. So we left Chicago at 2:30, stopped at Jason's to pick up my car, and got home about 10:30. Just 14 hours after we left DC.... No, 15 - I forgot about the time change.

I'm tired and think I'll go to bed now... Wish I could take tomorrow off!

Stilting at RenFest

Last weekend, we discovered that Gaea poses for pictures quite readily when she's on stilts.


Here's a height comparison with Russ:


I think the guy on the left is one of her spotters. Jason says the spotters' main job is to move people out of the way if she starts to fall.

Yes, we went to the Renaissance Festival again - this time without the dog. Mostly we browsed in shops (Russ was very patient). We did see two I Arroganti plays (the second time for Two Weddings), but unfortunately they had moved the improv show from afternoon to morning, so we didn't get to see that. Jason has a mask, now:


I have to say, my favorite part of the play is Jason's line: "Wuv, twue wuv..."