Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Baby robins!

Yup, the eggs hatched into wonderfully, straggly looking baby birds. I peeked into the nest over the weekend and panicked for a moment when I didn't see the eggs.

But, then I saw a bit of movement and a teeny-tiny beak! I was surprised that the baby was so quiet...no cheeping, no sound at all. The next day I took a quick look and saw that there were at two birds there, maybe all three had hatched?

I've been very careful to not spend a lot of time around the nest...I don't want to scare off the parents. I was concerned that my comings and goings out the front door would keep the parents from tending to the eggs. But so far, all has worked out for my feathered neighbors!

Friday, May 23, 2008

NASA goes to Mars again, yay!

This Sunday, the Mars Phoenix Lander arrives on Mars (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/05/23/mars.lander/index.html)

I've been overjoyed that the little rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are still happliy traipsing across the Martian Landscape. In those days, my cable company was kind enough to have a feed from NASA TV and I was able to watch mission control as the landings occurred. It was scary, thrilling, and just fantastic.

I haven't been paying much attention lately to NASA news, but now that I know about the landing on Sunday, I'm going to try to catch the broadcast on the Internet.

Everyone start thinking good thoughts about another successful Martian landing!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Teach your pet their name and address...

If at all possible, teach your pet its name and address. Well, this only works if your pet speaks your language. Like this parrot:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/21/lost.parrot.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

A parrot in Japan, Mr. Yosuke Nakamura, flew out of his cage and get lost. He spent some time at the police station but kept his personal details private. After he was moved to a vet, he must have decided he wanted to go home because he told them his name and address.

Clever parrot!

Monday, May 19, 2008

A robin family has moved in...

...right next to my front door. I have a tall evergreen (some run--of-the mill spruce or something like that) right next to the front door. I recently noticed that every time I walked in or out of my front door, a bird flew out of the bush. So I peeked in the other day and saw a wonderfully constructed nest with 3 bright blue eggs carefully arranged inside. Robin's Eggs!

Poor birds, though. They have a fit everytime someone comes in or out of the door, even at night when they should be asleep. I hope they settle down long enough to hatch the eggs. Maybe I should think about using the back door for awhile until the little ones fledge.

I also hope the don't end up flying inside my house by accident!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Where did my love for bleeding edge technology go?

My home computer is *old.* I was going to upgrade the memory and discovered that I could only squeeze 1 gig of memory into its old carcass. Gee whiz! I used to be buying new computers on a regular basis. In fact, when I came to my current job (close to *4* years ago!), I whined and complained that my office machine was underpowered and couldn't match my equipment at home.

And now, horrors! I discover I've got an old clunker at home. I need to upgrade, get back into the technology swing of things! I'm thinking of buying a laptop this time. I could get a docking station, nice monitor (my monitor is ancient! but just won't die), wireless and Bluetooth everything.

A friend of mine comforted me when I expressed my concern that I was less of a technology geek than I once was by reminding me that I have an iPhone, a robotic dinosaur, and a built-in GPS in my car. I'm not as behind the times as I might be. But still....am I slowly but surely becoming a bit of a Luddite {shiver}?