Nothing about bird feeders

We drove to St. Louis overnight on Saturday. It was good for the kids to sleep but tough on Elena and I. Elena didn't have to go into work on Sunday so we decided, "Hey, lets go down now." So we did.

We stopped at a truck stop at about 5 AM. There were a bunch of truckers sitting around the counter and some highway patrolmen at a booth. It was strange seeing a smoking/ no smoking section because there is no smoking anywhere in Rochester restaurants. We found a booth and took turns changing the kids diapers. They ordered an omelet with onions, peppers, mushrooms and grease. I volunteered to eat the toast that came with it. Olivia was gobbling down everything like a starved wolf. She picked up a slice of yellow pepper in her grubby little hands. It knotted up a bit and part of it hung off her hand like a little tail. She shouted out, "Worm!" Elena and I chuckled a bit and went back to eating. Olivia was obsessed. This little worm needed her love and affection. She cooed and hugged it and was just a good little protector. She took a look at its tail hanging limply off her hand and she sighed out, "Sad." We reassured her that is was just a pepper and eventually she believed us and popped it right in her mouth.

We spent the day in St. Louis just hanging around. We opened presents and Olivia had a great time assisting everyone. We met Ben for the first time and Jen's bf Aaron. We went to the Zoo and the kids had a good time with that. We saw them feed the seals. The zookeeper stood on a rock and the seals hopped up on rocks around him and he tossed 8-10" fish at them and they snatched them out of the air and gobbled them down. They would flip them in their mouths so the fish went down head first. Sometimes the guy would toss it a bit off and they would dive off of the rocks at the fish. We also saw lots of snakes and birds which were a hit with Olivia. Zach stayed warm in his little suit and rested in our rented cart.

Zach has really been taking off in the mobility department. He just started crawling a few days ago and is already working hard at walking. He'll hold onto the back of chairs and stand himself up and just coo and laugh and be so proud of himself.

Timm and Evan made some really good stir fry for supper. They made a bunch of appetizers and it was a big hit with everyone. The Blasors also made some taffy that I thought was pretty good.

Castles in our toy room

Elena bought the kids a big blow up vinyl castle for Christmas. It took us about an hour with a hand pump to get it full. I suppose that it is about a six foot square with four foot high walls. There are holes formed in the sides the size of about 20 plastic balls that came with it. The kids like to push the balls through the holes as fast as they can. Olivia really likes to jump around in it and do somersaults.

The natural gas company here announced yesterday that for the people who pay their bills on a system that averages the costs throughout the year will have to up the payment by 40%. Ouch. Natural gas is about the most expensive thing going these days. Our propane is no treat either though. Our electric heater sales have been through the roof this year too. Who would have thought that running a hair dryer would be about the most cost effective way to heat a room?

We've been seeing lots of cardinals, bluejays, and pheasants recently along with the batches of finches. Elena heard an owl the other night.

Zach is very close to both standing and crawling right now. He flips onto his belly, pushes himself up to the standard crawl position then straightens his legs and makes a big upside down "V" and gets himself stuck there. He rocks front to back but just doesn't move. He can scoot around on his belly if he sees something that he really likes like stray dog food, a bit of cracker or a toy.

Lots of snow

We've had a lot of snow recently. I had to upgrade the snow blower because it just wouldn't keep up. The new one I got a good deal on because of a mis-shipment and Christmas bonus. It was one of those deals where they shipped a 4.5 horse instead of a 3.5 horse to us so it was selling at the 3.5 price. So, that on sale plus the bonus I paid about 10 dollars for it. Plowing through all the snow and I almost think that this new one is a bit on the small side but it sure beats shoveling.

Played poker last night. I was a bit lucky and won the first tournament. I was the small stack with three players left and the top two went all in against each other and one busted out and then I was heads up and doubled up a few times then the other guy made a misread and that was it. The next tournament was going ok but as it was getting close to midnight when I wanted to leave I had to get overly aggressive and was beat out. Came home with 10 bucks more than I arrived with though.

Put up a TV

We put up a TV in our bedroom the other day. I got a wall mount holder and hung that up and it works great. It has a mount for the VCR so we can still tape shows. We haven't used it yet because Zach's pack-n-play is still in our room.

We tried to get photos done today at Sears. Olivia wasn't having it. We left early with no photos. Not happy.

I'm working on the whole house humidifier. I have it going pretty much full boar but I can't really tell if it is working right. Going to have to buy some humidistat or something.

Watched Kicking and Screaming. Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka play opposing soccer coaches. It isn't very good but does have some funny bits. Ditka, I'm sure, had a good time working on it.

Bird feeding

The day after we put up all the bird feeders they were almost empty. There have been many different kinds of them about. I can only identify a few of them like cardinals and chickadees and birds like them. They just swarm the feeders.

Olivia and I spotted a few does and a pheasant this morning on a day off. Zach just sat and ate his cheerios.

Watched Jersey Girl last night. Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler starred with Kevin Smith's regular friends like Jason Lee, Matt Damon and George Carlin. It was OK at best. I guess it could be called a first date movie. Almost romantic, almost exciting, almost meaningful and I almost fell asleep.

Bird feeders

Olivia and I put up the bird feeders yesterday. We have lots of birds here already due to the different berry trees but they picked up on the ones we put out very quickly. Two thistle feeders, two sunflower seed ones and two suet feeders we put out. Olivia had a great time tossing sunflower seeds on the snow. The she took her gloves off and grabbed some fistfulls of snow. Her hands got cold and she became pretty worked up.

New kid

Jake and Jules had a kid last night. Not sure about the name yet. Little boy. So congratulations to them.

I had the day off yesterday and planned on watching some great college football games: Texas hosting Colorado, UCLA at USC and Virginia Tech at FSU. Scores of the first two games were like 70-6 and the last one ended up close but I fell asleep through it. Oh well. Looks like Texas and USC to play for the championship in the Rose Bowl. Not yet sure where Iowa will play.

We've had a good amount of snow here. Probably 5 inches on the ground now.

Elena put up the Christmas tree yesterday and decorated it with Olivia.

Losing at poker

Zach has been eating in mass quantity recently. We just can't keep him full. He is way bigger than Olivia at the same age and as long as he doesn't have diaper rash or is hungry is just a goofy little boy. He and Olivia play in the sun room surrounded by toys and just have a ball.

Olivia and I have had fun walking around outside. She chases down the dog and carries sticks around. She gets all bundled up and we go out and get her tired so she will go to bed at a reasonable time.

Well, just came back from an evening of cards. I came home down $12. Bummer. So it goes. I had some pretty bad beats but I think I played well for me and had some good wins too.

Watched King Arthur the other day with Clive Owen and Kiera Knightly. I really liked it. It was an adaptation of the legend set in what would have been the real time of Arthur. He is a Roman commander leading his knights of Sarmatian decent in England. They fight native Britons and Saxon raiders. It was one of the few movies that I watch twice in a few days.

We also watched Sometimes in April about the genocide in Rwanda. It was a more gruesome movie than Hotel Rwanda showing more of the actual killing and the horror of a family who had Hutu and Tutsi members and the strained loyalties. It also went a bit into the international background of what other governments were doing and thinking specifically there were some US bureaucrats trying to convince the white house to go into a tiny African country with no big regional stability issues and no natural resources just after the disaster in Mogadishu, Somalia (the Black Hawk Down movie) and the Gulf War.