Bluebird of happiness!

Bit of a late entry (It’s Tuesday), but I wanted to catch up a little on some stuff. Thursday evening, we were eating supper (chicken divan) in the dining room, when Quinn spotted a bluebird on the railing of the little porch! We were all excited, and most everybody got to peek at it before it flew off. We talked about it a little, then we all started eating again, and a couple minutes later, it came back again, with either a female or a juvenile! I’ve never seen one before, so it was super exciting to see one twice, and with a bonus bird too. :D

Night hummers?

So 2 things started out my morning (so far!)

1) The hummingbird feeder was totally empty this morning when I came downstairs. When I went out to try to figure out what was up, the ground underneath was sort of tacky, so my best guess is that something came to investigate it, and tipped it sideways a little while it was checking it out. If it doesn’t stay perfectly level, the juice leaks out. I boiled up a new batch, and rehung my newest toy!

2) I heard the really loud woodpecker out in the woods again this morning, before the boys went to school. It kept chatting, and sounded like it was close to the house, so I went from window to window to try to see him/her. I finally made it out onto the little back deck, and spotted it! It was a pileated woodpecker!! It flew from around sprinkler Zone 5 over to a sassafras tree next to the ornamental dogwood, and didn’t seem to notice me at all! I can’t remember ever seeing them in person before - they are BIG birds! No wonder they make such a racket when they call. :D After the sassafras, it headed down to the swampy pond down below the house.

Bit of a bummer in the afternoon... I did my 4 mile tread, fed Nomes lunch, and had just gotten changed into my blue/white striped bikini, to get a bit of sun, when the school called. Nater was in the nurse’s office with a fever of 101º. I texted Quinn, and he left work to go fetch Nate home. Quinn decided to just stay home after that, and he worked in the computer room with the door shut for the rest of the afternoon/evening. He did take a break to come out for supper, and then to help tuck the kids in bed, but he pretty much worked solidly from 3:30pm to 9:45pm. Wow!

Luckily, after I gave Nate ibuprofen, he got cool and stayed cool.

Mystery bird revealed, plus... HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER!

So yesterday I saw this cool cinnamon colored bird, and thought it might be a wood thrush. Today, I’ve seen them a TON of times, and I’m sure now... it’s a brown thrasher. Its eyes are a bright yellow, and it’s got the 2 bands on its wings like the picture below. They’re such long, graceful birds, and super pretty. I see them out near the birdfeeders, in the bush under the computer room window, and in the back yard, along the tree line. Every time, they avoid coming out into the open as much as possible, and are pretty skittish, though the one(s?) that come to the computer room bush don’t seem to mind me peeking out at them every time I hear a scritching. They’re in there hunting bugs, but also picking up bits of the thorny stems, maybe to take for nest building?


Also cool today... I got to hang up my hummingbird feeder! Quinn put the bracket on the tree last night, and I boiled up my first solution of sugar water this morning. Within ONE HOUR, a hummer came to investigate, and have a nice long drink. Super cool!! Now I’ve got a tripod set up in the living room to try to capture some images of the little guys, though I doubt it’ll get much, even at full zoom. The one I saw was green all over its back, and creamy colored underneath. No red to be seen. I’ll try to get some pictures to post too.

Birds in the morning

While I was loading up the dishwasher just now (~8:15am), I looked out and saw a new bird at the birdfeed! I think it was a wood thrush, though I’m not positive. It hung around for a few minutes, and then wandered off into the woods. Its back was a very rich cinnamon color, and the rest of it looked like the bird below.


But that wasn’t the only excitement - there were 4 young squirrels playing tag, a male cardinal, a bluejay, AND a crow! All at the same time! :D :D :D

Quinn says he’ll hang the mount for my hummingbird feeder today, so I’ll be able to have 3 feeders at once... hummingbird, suet, and regular birdseed. I can’t wait! ☺

This is going to be our last “lazy” weekend for a while, so I really want to enjoy it.

Quinn got a hold of a guy about an hour away who has the kind of rough wood that would be perfect for the treehouse, so he and Nate took off at about 10am to go get some. It’s nearly 3pm, and they’re nearly back home again after picking it up, and then stopping for some McLunch in Prince Frederick.

Adventure outings

Today has been jam packed so far. Started out with Quinn getting up after 5am, and making a pot of that Kona blend coffee I got at BJ’s a few days ago. DAMN that stuff’s good!! After he left for swimming, I got started on house/kid stuff. After the boys were shooed up the driveway for the bus, I got ready and did my 4 miles, though my tummy was NOT in good shape. (and continues to churn as I’m typing this, hours later - boo!)

Grabbed a shower, then got all purtied up, cause our plan was for Q to come pick up Nomes and me, and whisk us off to the Golden Chicken & Japanese Grill for a lunch date! Q got the General Tso’s chicken, and I got shrimp and chicken, sort of stir-fried. Mine came with a nice blend of stir fried onions, carrots, and zucchini - yum! After that, we walked over to Starbucks, and both got a venti nonfat coconut mocha with an extra shot. We sat out in the sun for a few minutes, sipping our delicious beverages, then it was time to drive Q back to work.

Got back to the house, and tucked in Nomes for her nap. After the boys get home from school, we’re going to head back down, pick up Quinn, and have a family adventure... bag o’ burgers, and Kung Fu Panda 2.... IN 3D! :D

It was AWESOME! :)

Of suet feeders and pink moths

First thing - the poor suet feeder. When I came downstairs this morning, I saw that the night attackers had ripped the metal of the holder right apart! The carbiner was still attached to the feeder, but the whole contraption was on the ground, with the 2” piece of metal still attached. I re-hung it on one of the nails sticking out of the tree, reloaded it, and am hoping for the best. I’m sure it’ll get gleefully ripped down tonight.

After that, I figured I’d distract them, so I refilled the “squirrel-proof” (haha!) birdfeeder, so now there are 2 things hanging on the tree. I want to get the hummingbird feeder up and running, so that’ll make 3, eventually.

Naomi found a beautiful moth that had just emerged from its cocoon, wings still floppy and wet. She captured it gently, and we put it into a “trap”, with a stick to climb on, and left it to air out on the front porch. An hour later, when I went to check on it, there were 3 other similar moths flapping all around. I’m guessing that Nomes caught a girl, and all the boys had smelled her pheromones and were trying to home in on her scent. Poor guys! After a lot of searching, turns out these guys are “Pink-striped Oakworm Moths” - what a mouthful! Here’s a neat link to some info/photos: http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek080316.html

Lighthouse run!

So Quinn dropped me off at the lighthouse, and I ran home. Went all the way to the end of the cul de sac and then came back. It was 3.75 miles, so not quite as far as my usual 4 mile runs, but with all the elevation change, it was a LOT harder. Saw a dead snapping turtle on the way back, and smelled TONS of honeysuckle - very awesome. I saw Beth and her husband when I got to the end of the cul de sac, so I stopped for ~5 minutes to talk to them.

Now Quinn’s out at the treehouse, working on the roof. It’s a *gorgeous* day out, nice breeze, and not too humid. ☺ Aah!

Male Flicker

Saw a male common flicker today, in the woods beyond the suet feeder! First spotting. ☺
Northern Flicker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The ornamental dogwood is starting to fade a little, as are the mountain laurel, but both are still very pretty. The air smelled perfumed last week, when the laurel were in full bloom.

Saw 3 deer in brown glossy coats this morning, from the downstairs bathroom window.

Q’s playing in the treehouse, working on the roof, and I will probably do my 4 mile run outside today!

We Bowl

No, not "Wii Bowl", but real live "we went bowling!" After church was done, we went out looking for adventure, and we found it. We settled on lunch at Ruby Tuesday, where everyone had something delicious to nibble on, and then we headed to the lanes at Scofield Barracks Bowling Center. We hadn't ever all gone bowling together, so we weren't sure how well the kids would hold up, especially since we were going there at naptime.

Turns out, the kids were great, and we all had a super time. Ben started out using a sort of sideways shotput kind of stance. I tried to even it out into the more traditional bowling approach with some tutorial work, and by the end, he was really doing great.

Nate stuck with the "throw it high in the air" theory, which made us all wince every time the ball would crack down onto the lane with a huge noise (even over the loud background cacophony) One side effect of his technique was that his throws had nice vertical loft, but very little forward momentum. At one point, we had to wait while the nice lady went down and brought it back for him to try again. Oops. After about 2 frames of that, we had him use the special ramp they have for kids. You just put your ball up top, line it up in the direction you want it to go, and then let go (or push it, if you're our kids)

Naomi opted to use the special ramp after the first frame, which speeded things up a lot. She had a great approach to the ball, sort of a kung-fu punch. Watch the movie to see for yourself!

Quinn and I were a bit rusty, but we had just as much fun as everyone else. I think we all laughed the whole time. Ben had been in charge of setting up our lane, part of which included naming all the players, and (apparently) letting the computer know if the rails should be left up or not. He somehow set it up that the "no gutter ball" rails were up for ALL of us, not just the kids. I'm brave enough to admit that it helped me with a shot or two. ;)

In the end, with all our different strategies for knocking over those little white pins, my persistance (and those handy rails) propelled me to a win over some of the fiercest competition I've ever faced!

Good times. :)

Koko Crater? Been there, done that...

So! For the first time in about a year, I didn't have to work on a Friday night. And what do you do when you've got a whole luxurious Friday evening to play with? Go hiking, of course!! (What did you think?)

I got a babysitter, and headed in to town to rescue Quinn from his work. We were originally planning for me to get him at around 4:20pm, but I was running early, and ended up in the parking lot a few minutes after 4:00pm. We were going to go do Koko Crater again, but while we were talking on the way there, we realized that we were both curious about checking out Diamond Head instead. I've got this great book, Oahu Revealed, that I keep in the car at all times, so I did a bit of reading while Quinn kept driving. It looked like a lot of fun, and we hadn't been there before, so we did a bit of course correcting and off we went!

Before I start, if you click only ONE link in this whole blog entry, make it THIS ONE. Quinn put together a YouTube video of our adventure, full of hiking goodness and silly fun galore!

When we got there, just before 5pm, we saw a sign at the entrance that the park closes at 6pm. Since the land belongs to the military, they don't kid around about the closing time. If you haven't left the property by 1800 hours, you'll get a fine! So we had our work cut out for us, since it's a .8 mile hike to the top, with an altitude change of 560'. We knew we were up for it, though, since Koko Crater is MUCH more strenuous.

We set off at a brisk walk up the paved path. It didn't stay paved for long, but while it lasted, it was fun to think that we were hiking inside a *civilized* crater. ;) The path itself turned into a rocky, uneven mixture of concrete, rocks, and just plain dirt, with lots of switchbacks as you go up. The higher you go, the prettier the crater looks from the inside. Since it's the end of the "summer", it's been very dry, and all the trees and grasses look dead. It's actually very lovely, though, since they've turned a light tan color, against the darker brown of the dirt. The hike isn't entirely done outside, though. There are sections that include a set of concrete steps, a tunnel section a few hundred feet long, and even a chunk inside the last part that's a spiral staircase up to the very top! It's like an adults fort or hide-out. Very cool!

Once you emerge at the very top, the view is awesome. You can see a lighthouse almost directly below, on the edge of the water, where there's a very popular surf break. To the northeast, the back of Hanauma Bay and Koko Crater are visible, and to the northwest, you can see all of Waikiki spread out below. Just outstanding!

After a brisk trip back down the crater, we managed to get out of the park at exactly 5:58pm, driving past the disapproving stares of 2 security guards who were ready to close the gates momentarily. Good thing we weren't stuck inside all night! :D For a novel way to see our hike, check out this Runkeeper link. Runkeeper is a free app you can get for your iPhone that will track distance, speed, and even *altitude* of where you go, then generate a map of your activity.

Since we'd seen the lighthouse from the crest, we thought it'd be fun to buzz by it on our way back out of the area. We drove there, and watched some of the surfers having fun on the waves. By this time, we'd worked up quite an appetite, and headed towards our next destination, Cheeseburger Waikiki! It's one of the first restaurants we discovered when we moved here 3 years ago, and it's still one of our favorites. They make *the* best burgers that we've found, and the decor really makes you feel like you're on vacation in paradise. It's the perfect way to stop the rumble in your tummy after a fun hike.

After we'd filled up on cheese fries, a guacamole & bacon cheeseburger (for me), and a pineapple & avocado cheeseburger (for Quinn), rolled ourselves on out of the restaurant, and on to our last stop on the date.

Every Friday evening, the Marriott hotel puts on a wonderful fireworks display at the water's edge. We got to the marina where we planned to see the show, found a spot, and within 2 minutes, they started going off. They were directly in front of our car, and very close. We couldn't have chosen a better spot. :)