For the Birds

We moved into our current home in March of 2006, so we just started our 3rd year here and are unduring, er...I mean enjoying our 3rd spring. Every spring for the last 3 years my husband has a war with the birds on an almost daily basis.

There will be a nice, sunny, peaceful atmosphere and then Tony will put on his slippers and boggin and walk out on to the porch for a morning smoke...and that's when it begins. The yelling, the waving of arms, the slamming of the grill lid, th raising of the grill lid, the puffing, the huffing, the muttering which lasts until he enters the house again shakinh his head and I always catch "..birds..." Basically it sums up to be that the local avian life LOVES my husband's grill. I don't understand because he cleans it obsessively before and after every use, but they still love it. They don't mess with any of our neighbors' grills. Despite Tony's best attempts over the years to foil them, they work around his little boobie traps and fill first the bottom of the grill with miscellanious crap and then the top of the grill (above the cooking rack) with hay from a neighboring cattle farm.

Usuaully about 3 times a week at the least Tony has to pull an almost-finished nest out of the grill (amid the muttering and arm waving) but this morning he discovered he wasn't quick enough this time. There, in the grill was a totally finished nest complete with 2 little light blue eggs. He came back in the house this morning and said, "Y'all may think I'm an ogre, but they win for now... I can't do it, there's eggs in there." ;-D

Today for my block I did a small checkerboard. I am making a Bible cover for my friend's son (he wanted a purse to carry it in, and boys in Texas just don't carry purses!). I got just a little bit farther on it before I quit for the night but not much.

I spent the vast majority of the day sitting in a chair obsessively knitting on my shrug. I've started to knit down the second sleeve and I'm about 2" down, so the end is near... probably not tomorrow near, but near. Then I will have to pick up the 6,120,374 stitches around the opening and knit some ribbing. Lookin' forward to that, let me tell you.

I did sit and play with Play-Doh that SOMEONE who loves me put in my son's Easter basket (not pointing any fingers MOM, what the?!) He's actually beeen really good with it...so far. I made a snowman (right) then he made a snowman (left), then Tony made an M&M (right) and Jeremiah made an M&M (left), then I made a bird's nest (right) and then Jeremiah made one and had me put a bird on it (left). Lots of fun! Then we put it all back in the containers. And yes, I really did make him do all that on butcher paper.