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Who Will Get the House?

There’s a bit of drama being played out at the ToadMama abode today. The real one, not the Web one. It has to do with home occupancy.

For years, we’ve had a birdhouse in the backyard. A duplex (pictured below).

Over the years, it has been occupied by Bluebirds and Wrens (pictured). But mostly Bluebirds.

As you can see in the above picture, which was taken a couple years back, the house wasn’t in great shape. I (or Hubby) finally tore it down in the Fall. We replaced it with a cool, new single-family dwelling.

And the Bluebirds are back. Their timing sucks, though. Because apparently a couple of Chickadees have already laid claim. In fact, yesterday the Chickadees spent some time moving in.

But Mr. Bluebird likes the house. He wants he and the missus to move in. He thinks it is their house.

The Chickadees don’t agree. In fact, the Bluebirds haven’t been around much. They didn’t decide until after the Chickadees decided to move in that the place should be theirs. If you look closely at the picture above, there’s a Chickadee with a mouthful of nesting material.

Here’s Mr. Bluebird, on the roof, flexing his muscles (wings) in an effort to show the Chickadees who’s boss.

Here’s Mrs. Bluebird watching from a nearby tree.

The Chickadees really aren’t very happy. The problem is, Chickadees are tiny birds. They’re about half the size of Bluebirds. So it isn’t exactly a fair fight.

Hubby thinks the Bluebirds will win.

Belle doesn’t care who wins. She’s just happy to watch. Can you tell she spends a lot of time looking out this door?

Meg doesn’t care who wins either.

By the way, as you can see here, her doggy spectacles are holding up nicely.

So, who do you think will win the battle for the house? Will the Bluebirds, with size in their favor, win out? Or will the Chickadees, who have already moved some of their furniture in, prevail?

Stay tuned to find out.

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On Being Hitched

Today is my 16th wedding anniversary.

Here’s Hubby and I 16 years ago.

A lot has changed since then. I was 26, for one. A baby! Hubby was 37. Not quite a baby, but pretty darn young. Of course, neither of us thought we were young back then.

And look how dark Hubby’s hair is.

We were both a lot skinnier, too. Being a good cook is not always a good thing, I guess.

We made a pretty dapper pair, didn’t we?

It’s hard to believe so much time has passed. Our kids our grown, but we’re not empty-nesters yet. Eric still lives here, I think. (He’s been staying at his Dad’s for a couple of weeks.) And we have doggy kids now, too. We’ve always had cats, so they don’t count.

Anyway, marrying Hubby was a good thing. We’ve had a good life. I love him dearly. Hopefully we’ll have many more fun-filled years!

I could say much more, but I have to get to work. I’ll just close with a more recent image of us together for your viewing pleasure.

I love you, Hubby!

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The Sun is Finally Shining!

We’ve had a couple long days of rain. And cold.

Today, it is sunny.

Today, I am humming this little ditty…

What a weird song to have stuck in the head! I told you I have a gazillion brain cells eaten up by musical memories.

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One of Life’s Little Delights

Saying I read a lot is a bit of an understatement. I always have something to read. To me, there’s nothing more relaxing than losing yourself in a good book.

I come from a long line of readers. My Grandmother was an avid reader all of her life. Her children are readers. My brother and I are readers, too. That’s one of the things I should thank my mother for, I guess. Thanks, Mom. (She reads my Blog, of course.)

Hubby loves to read. So does his Mom (my mother-in-law). Our kids love to read, too. Shannon reads more than any of the other kids. Amy is too busy being a Mom to squeeze many books in at the moment, but she’s been known to devour books when she has time. Eric is too busy being a computer-game-addicted teenager at the moment. But he’s read his share as well.

I can’t imagine life without books. Lately, I’ve been focusing more on short stories. But after finishing all of the short story collections I got for Christmas, I picked up a novel I’d bought at the library for fifty cents a while back, The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett.

Because I read so much, it’s rare that a books really delights me. That one did. It was a really good story. My mother-in-law agreed. She read it pretty quickly, too.

Usually, those stand-out books are far and few between for me.

But I just finished another really good story. Written by Michael C. White, who I’d never heard of before, A Dream of Wolves is one of those books that had me wishing it never ended. Not because the ending wasn’t good, but because I felt like I knew the characters so well. The author made the characters and their town so real, I wanted to know what else happened to them, where their lives went after the story ended.

Two great books in a row. What’s the likelihood that a third will similarly captivate me? Slim. But every now and then I get lucky.

Every now and then, I find myself on a roll. Like now.

I finished A Dream of Wolves on Saturday afternoon. What I failed to mention is that I’d bought that one at Ollie’s, a close-out/surplus/overstock store where Hubby and I buy lots of books really cheap. It set me back $3.99, which is less than half what a paperback costs nowadays.

Fearing mediocrity, but at a loss for anything else new to read, that’s when I started another hardback I’d gotten at Ollie’s for $2.99, The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant. It is 261 pages long. I only have 50 pages left. Does that tell you anything?

So now the question is, will my mother-in-law get these gems to read next? My Mom? Or one of the kids. With my Mom in Virginia visiting my brother and this month’s Thirsty Third Thursday pushed back to next week, I’m guessing my mother-in-law. Time will tell, I guess.

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I Have a Plan

I was talking to Amy this past Sunday and she asked me if I have been running. When I replied with a “no,” she got sort of quiet.

I imagine she wanted to ask me why. If I don’t start running, and start running NOW, how do I plan on running ten whole miles in October?

I have a plan. It’s pretty realistic. It starts with baby steps. But that’s what I need. I am really out of shape.

The plan actually starts with walking. Last week, I had to walk every other day (a total of three days) for 30 minutes at a moderate pace. This week, I have to walk on four separate days for 30 minutes at a moderate pace. Next week, the pace speeds up. The week after that, I do run/walks. And so on.

It may not sound like much, but I can already tell a difference. I am getting ready, I’m just taking baby steps. But everyone has to start somewhere, right?

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Will It Ever Get Warm?

The calendar may say it is mid-April, but it sure doesn’t feel like mid-April.

Saturday dawned cold and rainy. That didn’t stop the dogs from enjoying the outdoors though. Both Meg (pictured at left) and Belle love being outside at the WV place. Rain or no, they love running through the woods. Both got quite wet and muddy, but Meg was by far the muddiest.

Wanna know what road spray looks like on the underbelly of a dog? Take a look at Meg’s dirty belly.

Belle was wet and muddy, too. But I’m guessing Meg spent more time running through the wet dirt as opposed to the wet leaves, which is why her belly got so much dirtier than Belle’s did.

Belle had her share of dirty, too. But that came a bit later in the day.

Both girls were happy when Buddy showed up for his usual visit.

By then, thankfully, the sun had come out. After they played with Buddy for a while, we headed down to his house. His Mom worries if he stays away too long.

There’s a nice little creek that meanders through Buddy’s yard. It seems a groundhog built a burrow on the bank of the creek amid some tree roots. Belle was doing her best to sniff out the varmint.

You should have seen the girl poking and prodding among the tree roots. She was even walking on some downed logs like she’s a squirrel or something. Or maybe a mountain goat. She loves poking and crawling over and under downed trees.

After giving up on the groundhog, Belle and Buddy chased each other around the yard a good bit.

Then Buddy uncovered his treasure–a deer leg–to show Belle.

Belle was quite impressed. Meg had gone home by then and missed out on that particular gem. And that’s a good thing. I don’t think she would have given up on it quite as easily.

Weather-wise, the rest of the weekend was fine. Though temperatures never did climb out of the 50s. This morning, back in Maryland, it was still only 31.5 degrees when I let the dogs out for their morning constitutional. I think we’re supposed to get rain later today, too.

We did bring the motorcycles home. No telling when it will warm up enough for us to ride, though.