Day in the Life of an Idiot

In an effort to get Mason to do something other than rot his brains playing video games over his spring vacation, he and I went birding with a group this morning as part of the 2011 Birding Festival. The ironic part of this is that no matter how much "enrichment" stuff I do with him during vacation, he'll end up telling his teacher that he spent his vacation watching TV and playing games.

Sigh.

Anyway, if you're reading this Ms. H., at 8:00 am, we showed up at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary with other stalwart folks and our grandfatherly guide, Julian. I'm not a big birder, as it were, but I do love hanging out with people who know what they're doing. Julian was one of those people who could identify various bird songs and tell us what we were looking for (or looking at.) We saw cormorants, Caspian turns, Balitmore orioles, American goldfinch, green herons, spotted sandpipers, Tennessee warblers, common yellow-throated warblers, and a bunch of stuff I can't remember any more, alas. There was one bird, in particular, I wish I could remember the name of -- it had a gorgous red/orange and black tail that it liked to spread out. It was a relatively small bird, but Mason and I just happened to be right underneath it and got a good look at the tail.

There were also a bunch of swallows of one kind or another darting about, along with red wing black birds, as this area was a bit marshy and wet. Even though Mason got a bit bored whenever the birders stopped to stare at the trees (which, of course, was the point of the whole excursion), I think I talked him into trying another outing tomorrow. There are two that seem promising -- one at Como at 8:00 am again and another over in Minneapolis at 10:00 at the Roberts Bird Sanctuary. Mason said he wanted to try the later one, since there was a lot of yawning associated with this one. The weather this morning wasn't that great either, though we missed the drizzle by about 20 minutes.

I actually really enjoy wet hikes as long as I have my head covered. I had both a hoodie and a ball cap, so I was nice and snug for the walk. So equiped, I find I really kind of enjoy cold, wet meanders. Of course, I bought coffee, too, so I was well caffinated, which improves the mood considerably.

With any luck, we'll have a little sunshine for tomorrow's hike.

Also, for those keeping track of the various mentions of Resurrection Code, Cheryl Morgan let me know that she mentioned my book briefly (and very positively) at the very end of her post at Salon Futura.

Tonight is kuk sool wan for Mason and I. I'm looking forward to it. Jo Kyo Nim tells me that I will get to pick up *MY* testing form tonight, so that means Mason's reign as ruling yellow belt of the house may soon be over. Bwah ha ha ha HA!

Oh, yes, let's see if the picture feature is working better today. Here's the testing. You can just see Mason's head in the front row. That's Sa Bum Nim leading the exercises:



Here's Mason receiving his new belt:



At home showing off the new belt in dragon stance: