Online ramblings of a perpetual student

If you could, which film would you un-watch or which book would you un-read?
Submitted by Kate.

This question took no thought:  I immediately knew my choice--The Crappening Happening.  I hated this movie so much, I would be willing to spend my hard-earned money to fly to L.A. to tell Mr. Shymalima-ding-dong that he is full of sh** and ask for my $5.50 matinee price back.  All the hype, the intrigue, even all the commercials promoting this awful film can be forgiven.  However, the fact that this smug writer/director has let his ego get in the way of making good movies, cannot.  It must be stopped.  I might burn the one movie that we own by this 'genius' when Crom isn't home.....

If you take away anything from this post, let it be this:

DO NOT WATCH THE HAPPENING.  Do not waste your time, money, or oxygen.  Save yourselves.

Go vote for my cat, Ash.  Crom snapped this shot while we were playing Scrabble this week and Ash deserves his moment of LOL glory (a word he cannot spell).  Go vote!  Use the direct link below or visit Crom's site!

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=1685801

Ash thanks you for your support : )

* This post sponsored by the campaign to get Ash on the Icanhazcheezburger site. 

These folks are scaring my birds. 

Whataday3

1 comment

Damn water main.  Come on.  You know you are jealous. 

Hummer1

Ruby-throated hummingbird, anyone?

for all you rabbit lovers out there.  I saw this little cottontail while visiting the Leeetle Rock last week.  He was doing some serious grubbing.

Bunny munching

Ah, I love air conditioning.  It was so nice not be covered in sweat by 6:30 am this morning.  True, I did have trouble forcing myself to stay in bed until 8, but I managed.  I finally got to do something that I had not done in months:  finish reading a book for pleasure.  And I was certainly glad I did.  May I recommend: 

Persepolis_cover_big

A very emotional book, but a good read altogether.  The end is truly heartbreaking...can't wait to read the sequel. 

Now, to eat lunch and cook food for Crom's library function tonight... 

Well, the field season has officially been wrapped up.  Having to wake up at 5:30 am or earlier on a regular basis since November 07 had gotten rather old.  It was just too hot for the birds and for us, so we called it quits (until October or so).  But, I've got a ton of clean-up work to do and the lab work awaits.  Still need to work on mending nets (damn the deer and turkeys) and scrubbing up traps.  Right before we packed up the gear, we caught this little gal.  I'd seen several males on the site, but never a female.  She looked like a lemon popsicle stuck in the net.  Enjoy the female summer tanager. 

Female_summer_tanager_II

Crom got me roses for Valentine's Day.  Not a dozen longstems, but an actual rose bush.  The only way for us to enjoy flowers is to plant them in the yard because our genius cats will eat them if they are inside.  After 2 years of locking roses in the bathroom after receiving them as gifts, we finally just purchased a climbing plant.  Here is the first bloom.  Enjoy!

RoseIII

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Been working my ass off in the field lately.  Spring semester is over, lots of new undergrads helping us in the field.  It's stressful breaking new people in, some of which are only volunteering for that line on the CV.  Crom and I had friends in for a solid week from AR.  Was so good to see them.  Wish they could have stayed longer.  Got a provisional acceptance on a manuscript.  Dearest advisor gave me the morning off from the field so I could work on getting it revised for resubmission.  First morning I've had off in a while--feels sort of weird.

Good news....finally found an active cardinal nest.  After finding hundreds of old ones, active vireo, cuckoo, dove, and thrasher nests, I finally stumbled upon a cardinal nest that will have eggs laid in it soon.  It may seem not a big deal to most (and in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't), but after 2 months of searching and enduring

KentuckywarblernestlingsII

four zillion briar scratches on my arms, legs, back and face (yes, face), finally finding a damn nest that is worth something felt fantastic.  Here is a pic of a Kentucky warbler nest we found a week ago.  Got to see the little guys hatching.  Very cool.  Until next time. 

While out nest searching today at my field site, we stumbled across this cardinal fledgling.  By the look of it, this little guy probably took the plunge out of the nest yesterday or today.  So tiny.  Also found the dove nestling sitting in its nest.  As I approached, the mom flew off and carried on as if she was wounded.  I wasn't aware that doves did that.  Enjoy!