Spring Fever

So…spring fever is here…at least according to Gordy. As the weather started getting warmer, Gordy started to change. He stopped coming when we called to put him in his cage, he started gnawing at the hard plastic around his play area so that in less than a week he could go in and out freely. One day when I hadn’t yet covered his play area (three feet of hard plastic that he can leap out of and chew through) he launched himself a good foot above the gate in the wrong direction, hit the wall and fell back in. So, why is my rabbit trying to escape? Zellyn said the phrase “crazy as a March hare” and I think I understand. He’s gnawing on everything including the wall near the front door, I guess he figures if he gets through he’ll be outside.

Anyway, other than bunny news, I have had a few weeks with very little work. I am trying to make our front yard look a little less chaotic, which takes a lot of doing. But it has been really nice to be outside instead of in front of the computer.


We’re preparing for several weddings this spring. This is a new lighting technique that Charles discovered. Basically, it’s bringing a studio light outdoors, so you have gorgeously lit subjects in gorgeous outdoor settings. Gorgeous, don’t you think? This girl was my doctor, but now she is doing her own practice and we’re shooting their wedding in a butterfly garden in St. Petersburg, FL. I’m terrified of butterflies so you can stop thinking how beautiful that sounds and feel sorry for me. I just have to learn how to not gasp when I see a butterfly, and I think we’ll be okay.

Squirrel Thief

So this squirrel climbed the side of my house to get to my birdfeeder today. Out the kitchen window I saw him hanging upsidedown from the hanger so that he could get his whole little nose into the feeder. So, instead of scaring him away I ran for my camera. However, when I stuck my head out the door he lept to the deck railing and ran away. I thought this was a cool picture of his speed in motion. I've chased him away before and he reminds me of that first chase scene in the new James Bond because he bounds from the feeder to the ground, to the bench, to the railing, to a tree. But I'm not stupid enough to follow.

Update on Charles...I spoke to Charles on Monday when he arrived at the Jungle villa where the retreat was to begin. These are pictures from the website: junglevilla.com. They apparently had a really hairy drive up the coast, on a half paved, half dirt road. In the middle of one of the paved sections the road had washed out, so a narrow one lane bridge was buit there. So Charles said you're driving like 60 mph and all of a sudden the road disappears. He said 9 people had died there since New Years.

He called this afternoon and said that he's been getting up at 5am, walking 20minutes to the ocean, surfing an hour and then hiking back up to the villa. Tuesday they went zip lining from platform to platform in the rain forest, Wednesday they went sea kayaking, and today they went river rafting, and swam at the foot of a waterfall. He found some locals who are going to take him mountain biking on Saturday. Sounds like he's having a really rough time down there in paradise.

Pura Vida

Charles (isn't this such a cute shot of him?) is off to Costa Rica for 10 days. He's going on an Operation Freedom trip with Tom Grady and about 15 other men. They're staying in Quepos at a Jungle Villa, going sea kayaking, ziplining through the rain forest and tons of other fun adventure things. He headed out today, which is 3 days early so that he can surf for a few days. After all of our traveling these past two months, I don't envy him going on another trip, but dropping him off this morning I did get a little twinge of, hey, he gets to go on this cool trip without me.

We left for the airport at 6:30am, didn't turn on the radio to see what was going on, and ended up sitting in 2 1/2 hours of the parking lot on 75 S from that terrible bus accident. So, despite our efforts to get Charles to the airport 3 hours early, he was only a little over an hour early, but still had time to buy breakfast and a Spanish dictionary before boarding.

I'm tracking his flight on Delta.com and it looks like he's arriving 20 minutes ahead of schedule, which is good because he's got a connecting hopper flight out to the coast that leaves only 55 minutes after his anticipated arrival. So hopefully I should hear from him this afternoon, and then not much more for most of the trip, but I'll update as I have news.

Mari Ann and Bear are visiting until Tuesday, which is really nice. Gordy and Bear are still adjusting to each other. Half the time they ignore each other, and then other times Bear will startle Gordy and he'll go skidding away renewing Bear's interest in him. I had them both out on the deck this morning and I was petting Bear as he sunbathed, so Gordy kept coming over to check him out while he was laying down. One time Gordy put his front paws on Bear's chest and hopped on him to get past. Neither animal seemed to think this was strange, but I did. Of course, they are pretty well adjusted- as I write they are both sleeping down in the living room-Bear on top of the couch and Gordy underneath.

Bunny Birthday

Okay, so I'm not crazy...it's just the rabbit's first approximate birthday, can't we put hats on? ...and make carrot cake cupcakes (which he liked btw)