Summer

Today is the last day of school. We celebrated with a pizza night and a 4-on-4 game of Chaotic.

Okay, likely you have no idea what Chaotic is. Unfortunately, I do. It's a card game and a TV show... like everything else. Grayson and I got the cards and actually learned to play. Traditional play pits 6 of your creatures against 6 of your opponent's creatures. But this style takes FOREVER to complete. So I usually play 3-on-3 at most, but today, in celebration, I acquiesced to 4-on-4, which only took about an hour.

Grayson had an awards assembly today. I may be bragging, but he got an award for highest academic honors, and achieved a straight A report card... AGAIN. Brilliant child.

Truly, I was proud of his all-A record, but more proud of his reading test scores, which put him reading well above grade level. So THAT's why we celebrated with pizza.

On Memorial Day, the official, unofficial first day of summer, we grilled burgers with Grayson's cousins and got the Slip N Slide out for him and his friend John. Now THAT'S summer.

So far summer has fulfilled its early promise. Hot days, windy warm nights. Just the right amount of storm activity. Actually, I heard yesterday from a woman I know who works at the art museum that her house was struck by lightning Monday night. Started a fire and left a hole in the roof. Considering that our house is really tall, it makes me a bit nervous, though we have a lot of much taller buildings around us, so I suppose it's an unlikely occurrence.

The past week and the week ahead are a bit crazy for me. The museum opens two new exhibits on Saturday, and I've been on a whirlwind tour of the radio and TV circuit. I hosted a TV station and a newspaper reporter today, had a morning radio interview yesterday, and two television interviews tomorrow. I'm hopping from one thing to another. Already a bit sick of talking about the new exhibits and they haven't even opened yet.

Here's a funny. When delivering press kits to the papers a week ago, I got into a conversation about my ducks with a reporter at the Oklahoman. Today that reporter told me the paper is considering doing a feature on them! Talk about a slow news day. I had to laugh. Guess they're considering dropping us into an overall feature about green gardening or something. Me and my famous ducks. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out.

I Saw a 'Possum. It Was Ossum

This is not my photo. I got it from Clipart.com. But I did see a live opossum today at lunch at Reeves Park in Norman. It came ambling across the road from some houses, through the ditch and along the edge of the park right in front of my car. It crossed the parking lot into another ditch, went up the other side and I was briefly afraid it was going to try to cross Jenkins, but it turned back into the ditch and disappeared into the drainage pipe.

I haven't seen a live opossum since I worked as a vet tech in North Carolina and we treated an injured mother 'possum with several babies on her back. The babies were utterly adorable and utterly fearless. They would come toodling right out of the carrier to us and we could hold them. They were absolutely the embodiment of Cute.

The mother, on the other hand, was pure Evil. She had a mouthful of needle-like teeth and a terrifying growling hissing snarling sound that you wouldn't think could come from such a relatively small animal.

This one was peacefully marching along, looking like an animal made up of leftover bits of lots of other animals. Pretty cute in a sort of ugly way. An unusual encounter for a Friday afternoon.

In Which I Meet an NFL Football Player

Wednesday evening we had a video shoot with Baltimore Ravens player Mark Clayton. I don't know what his status is in the NFL, but here in Oklahoma he definitely counts as a celebrity. He used to play for OU. I, of course, had never heard of him prior to being informed that he would be shooting a commercial for the museum. But I can still brag about my brush with fame for having spent two hours with him. He was very nice, very unassuming. Cute and funny. I guess I expect all football players to be enormous. He was just a regular guy. Faster and richer than most, I guess. I got his autograph for Grayson's book. We'll paste it in right next to "Jack" from the OCU Children's Theatre production of Jack and the Beanstalk.

I want to include a picture of my garden now that it is all planted and enclosed. It's still very brown now, but it will be (hopefully) lush and green in a few weeks. There's new grass coming up between the beds, and the little baby plants have just taken hold. I go out every afternoon and just sit in it with the ducks, watching the plants grow.

It's nice to have the garden open to the rest of the back yard now. It's separated from the yard with a picket fence, but you can see in. And Gray moved the 6-foot cedar fence that used to separate the garden from the yard to enclose it on the north side, so it's like a little secret garden now. You still have to climb over the picket fence to get into it, because Gray didn't have time last weekend to build a gate. But I can be in there and not be completely cut-off from the yard now.

I like to sit there very quietly, watching the ducks waddle around foraging, and the birds coming in and out. There's a fat robin that comes in and noses about the leaf litter along the fence, listening for worms. And it must be mating season because there are always sparrow squabbles in the neighbor's tree overhead. Loud battles with lots of flapping and chirping.

Speaking of sparrows. We have one that tunes up outside the computer room window every morning. He sits on the brick ledge and chirps. Loudly. I mean CHIRPS. Single chirps, regular as clockwork.

"CHIRP!"
. . .

"CHIRP!"

You'd think it was a Pteradactyl sitting out there. And in fact we've taken to calling him The Pteradactyl. He's there every morning, CHIRPing away.

Lord, I must be getting old. I'm bird watching, for chrissake.

Duck pics

I borrowed the camera from work. I couldn't stand not being able to take duck pictures.
Yes, I know. Duck duck duck. It's all I talk about.

Okay, so here are my ducks. They got bigger, huh? Yes, it's been two weeks since we got them and they are at least three times the size they were. They have just started to get their feathers. They feel all prickly on their chests and tummies when you pick them up -- feather pins coming in. Seems like that would have to itch, doesn't it?

The one on the left is Pong. The one on the right with the Don King hairdo is Ping. Yes, that fuzzy thing is attached to his head. It's not something sticking up off of Pong from behind him.

Here's another photo. That's Ping on the right. See? It's still there. Looks like Ping is going to have a crest! This cracks me up because crested ducks are really cute and funny looking. (Look 'em up online if you don't believe me. http://www.metzerfarms.com/wht_crest.htm

It's just the luck of the draw what ducklings you get. We chose the two Grayson could catch. I love it that one is crested.

I have to admit, though, that I'm ready for them to move outdoors full time. Man, ducks poop A LOT. They outgrew their box and now I am attempting to keep them corralled in the Red Room and covering the floor with paper. Today they did the majority of their pooping on the part of the floor that was not covered -- right by the door. So tonight I have reconfigured the Gulag of boxes, bikes, boards and tipped over tables that contains them so that they cannot get to any uncovered floor. Still, it's a huge mess and has to be cleaned up twice a day.

They can't stay out all night until they get their feathers, and until they get large enough to defend themselves against a marauding cat (like Oscar, who lives next door). So, for another week at least, they are indoor ducks.

When I get home, I take them out to the garden and we hang out together for a while. They have a pool now, and they love to swim and forage and waddle around pooping on things and tasting everything. They have a particular weakness for purslane and rose moss. My poor purslane plants are pecked half to death. But they also love a particular type of weed, so that about evens it out.

I like to watch them. I love their funny eyelids that close from the bottom up. They also have a second eyelid that is transparent and works like a windshield washer underneath their main eyelid. They close it up when they're going underwater.

And I love their dinosaur feet. Anyone who doubts the evolution of birds from dinosaurs should get a load of these feet.

They are funny and curious and completely unselfconscious. Ping routinely falls off of things and gets stuck on his back, peeping like crazy and kicking his dinosaur feet in the air. They follow me everywhere and peep for me if I go out of sight. And they run to me when I call them, peeping and slapping the ground with their feet. I'm completely crazy about these silly, funny, sweet ducks.

Disney World, Bikes, Ducks and Rain

We're going to Disney World! Yep, we've got our reservations made and everything. We're staying in the Port Orleans French Quarter resort, leaving June 13 and coming home the 18th. I'm like a little kid, I'm so excited. Grayson can't even talk about it. He says it gets him too excited and he can't talk about it yet. Yesterday we got our luggage tags in the mail. Disney has this express service that handles your luggage for you when you get to Orlando, and you get special luggage tags. I took them out and looked at them like a little kid.

This is our first ever real family vacation. Every time we've gone anywhere for the past eight years it has been to see family or traveling with family. Even last summer's trip to California, we traveled with my folks, so it wasn't the same as just a "family vacation." This time it's just us, with all of Disney to explore.

Today, however, we have a sick kid. Grayson woke up crying at about 5, running a temperature like a piece of toast. He had to be 101, 102 degrees. So Gray and I are taking it in shifts to stay home with him today. I have a voice over scheduled this morning, so I've got to go do that at 9, then I can come back home and spend the afternoon with the boy.

Tonight is "Math and Science Night" at the school, too, which is too bad. It's supposed to be a good family event, and Grayson is really good at math and science. I'm amazed sometimes at how well he does math. I have no idea where he got that. Certainly not from me. And I've never noticed any penchant for math or science in Gray, either. But Grayson just gets it, and he consistently gets grades over 92% on all his math homework.

Oh, another piece of news. Grayson is now officially a bike rider! While Gray's mom and Bill were here a couple of weeks ago, they chipped in to buy Grayson a brand new big-kid bike. It's really a nice one, but because it has gears it is not equipped to take training wheels. This turned out to be a blessing, because Gray took Grayson out earlier this week and taught him to ride. I was amazed at how quickly he took to it. Honestly, I expected the worst. Grayson is not much of a risk taker (to say the least), and does not like to fail. So I expected him to get discouraged and want to give up. But he had good success right away and in just two lessons with his dad, he's up and riding around. I was so proud of him I could pop, and so proud of the way Gray taught him that I could pop for him, too.

There was something about standing out in front of the school near our house, watching Gray run along beside Grayson as he rode his bike that just brought it all home to me how lucky I am. I have a great family: great husband, great kid. Grayson's face was lit up with his success, and Gray looked like such a proud, happy Dad. It was one of those daytime TV moments for me.

When I get my camera fixed, I'll get some pictures of Grayson on his bike.

Man, I hate not having my camera. I'm at sea without it. Still no word on whether or not it can be fixed. Sigh.

Duck update:
Ducks like rain. It's been raining the past couple of days and the ducks are in their element. They still have to stay inside during the day, but as soon as I get home in the evening, I take them out for playtime. They were loving the big puddles and the rain yesterday. That was fine as long as it was just the occasional sprinkle, but then it started really coming down and I was doing the duck rodeo in the front yard. They ran from me, those little bastards! I wish I had video of myself trying to round them up, but I did finally manage to coral them into their laundry basket to go back inside.

Gray poked his head into the Red Room where they live at present and just said "God damn! They're huge!" Yes, they're growing fast. I'm going to need to arrange for more spacious quarters for them soon.

Book Club Babes

I just remembered that I have these photos of our book club from last week. We often refer to the group as "wine club," and now maybe you can see why. Yup. Not a sober soul among us.

Duck Love

Okay, I admit that these ducks have bought and paid for me.

I love my funny ducklings. They're growing at a ridiculous rate. Already twice the size they were a week and a half ago. I'd show you a picture but... well.... you know. My camera is in the camera hospital. I don't know yet what the prognosis is.

Every day after work I take my ducks out into the yard for playtime. All day long they have to live in a big plastic storage bin in the red room under a heat lamp. By 6 p.m. they're ready to play. I take them out into the yard and turn the hose on low to make a puddle in the grass for them. They go right for it, dabbling and wallowing in the puddle and drinking water from the hose. They like to sit at the mouth of the hose and dabble in the stream as it comes out. I put food in their puddle for them and let them forage for it.

Periodically they get a wild hair and take off running around the yard. This is hysterical because of the way they run, with their long necks stretched out and their tiny wings up, but also because of the sound their feet make: thumpa thumpa thumpa thumpa thump. They can run pretty fast considering those feet. Then they settle down and start foraging around the grass, snapping up everything in their path and testing it to see if its edible... leaves, grass, bugs, acorns, little rocks, my shoelaces, bits of paper, the corner of my book. They nibble everything. They have the funniest little faces, and when they're really considering you, they turn their heads to the side to get a good look with one eye.

If I walk away, even for a minute, they go into a storm of peeps and run to find me. This weekend I was working in the garden and had to leave them while I went to turn off the hose. I heard frantic little peeps and came back to find Ping lying on his back in a mud puddle, helplessly kicking his little dinosaur legs in the air. He'd slid down a mound of dirt into the mud and was stuck like a turtle on its back. He had to be rescued and get an impromptu bath in their swimming tub. It was terribly undignified for him.

I'll get new photos up as soon as I can.

A terrible tragedy...

I broke my camera. Yes, it's heartbreaking. I dropped it and now it no worky. So no new photos for a while. It's ironic that I am always so busy warning Grayson not to drop it and it's me who finally did it in.

It was starting to act a little wonky, anyway, but it did still take decent pictures. I'll see if I can get it fixed this weekend.

In the meantime, I'm flying blind.

This week I got my veggie and herb garden all put in. It's going to be beautiful. I planted the center section with herbs and mixed herbs, marigolds and pansies in with all the veggie beds to try to make it pretty and to encourage bees. Bees are disappearing, you know. I've actually considered beekeeping, but getting stung really sucks, so I decided against it. Last year I had a very hard time getting squash out of my squash vines because no bees came to polinate them. Then of course it was moot because the whole damn garden washed away in the Great Flood of 07.

I ordered 6 cubic yards of garden soil to fill the beds. Six cubic yards translates to one ginormous pile of dirt at the end of the driveway. I used about half of it. Now I have half a ginormous pile of dirt, and no place to put it. Looks like we're going to be finding some creative uses for dirt...expensive dirt...over the weekend. In the meantime, Grayson of course thinks it's fantastic fun, and spent quite some time digging to China on top of The Pile yesterday afternoon. The ducklings also padded about in it, leaving big flat footprints everywhere.

They do seem to be very energetic foragers, my ducklings. They dabble and noodle around at dirt, leaves, grass, plants. They snap at anything that moves. They eat grubs, worms, beetles, ants, gnats. But also the blossoms off my new impatiens. Hmmm