Sometimes they call her “LM” which is short for Lawn Mower. Or “LMK” for Lawn Mower Kelly.” Or sometimes they just call her “mo” for short. But mainly, on the soccer field, they try to stay out of her way!
Back in May I wrote about catching and relocating a bullfrog from our little pond. This led to some conversation about how bullfrogs eat everything they can get their huge mouths around and are environmental pests. Carol denied that bullfrogs eat fish (which is why I think our goldfish disappear at times.) I posted this article that says they not only eat fish but birds, too!
I did not mention there was a much younger and smaller little brother who I thought could do little damage. He got bigger, and fish started disappearing again last month. He was a much harder catch. He jumped much more randomly and proved too difficult to sneak up on at night. I spotted him on some rocks in the day while working in the yard, so I snuck around a bush with a net and caused him to jump away from the water instead of towards it. After a few minutes, Stout and I trapped him!
I asked Mary Claire if she wanted to pick him up. (I didn’t want to!) She ran off and came back with some work gloves. Stout had a fit.
Caution! Only zoom in on these pictures if you dare! They scared Nicole.
Note: We let him go down in the storm drain where he was free to hop under the street and go live in a creek.
Today the five of us got up early and headed up to visit the grounds for Southern Catholic College set to open in the Fall of 2005. Originally SCC was going to open in 2002 at another location, but building from the ground up was proving too costly. They have been able to secure about 100 acres including a set of buildings that can be converted to dorms, offices, and classrooms.
The new campus will be small but impressive because it was formerly an executive conference center adjacent to a 27-hole country club in the rolling hills just north of Dawsonville. The photo on the web site shows the circle of villas that will become dorm rooms. The villas on the left sit on the lake.
We started with Mass held by Father Kevin Peek. He started by dressing in front of the group of about 200, explaining the tradition behind each vestment. Kelly and Claire were craning their necks. Kathy used to play at Kevin’s house when they were kids. Grant and Kevin were also friends, and he later asked about Grant, promising to visit him in Athens soon. Kevin is currently the official chaplain of SCC.
We got to personally talk to the founder, Tom Clements, who showed the five of us the drawings for the grounds, explaining what would be added each year.
Paul Voss is a professor who took a year sabbatical from Georgia State to create the SCC curriculum. Mary Voss and Kathy were in bible study together at SJN, so we had a chance to catch up with them. Paul is enjoying teaching at Georgia State where he is writing and teaching “the Shakespeare stuff”. His words.
Mary brought us over to talk to the President of SCC, Jim Ashcroft. When Jim heard Danny was interested in playing baseball in college, he showed Danny where the field would be and explained that his son had already arranged to get scoreboards donated from Coca-Cola.
Kevin Peek offered to fund uniforms for the team.
The trip was a fun one to take, especially in the Fall with all the leaves turning. The idea of helping start a new college with 149 other classmates has definitely got Danny (as well as Kathy and my) curiosity up.
For those of you who may recall Home Coming 2002 (and we all have tried to forget it), I am happy to report than Danny and his date, Morgan, had a wonderful time with six other couples all the way from the football game, through the photo session, through the Bar-B-Q, and the dance. Still not sure about the footwear choices.
The Triops have all died, true to the estimated 30 day life cycle. They grew at an amazing rate and swam constantly. When one would die, the others would eat the carcass. The last one got a burial at sea last night. (Toilet.) There were requests for photos, so here are a few:
Ted writes about the game Susan and Beacon play called The Pine Cone Game. There is some parallel to Clyde, Stout, and my morning ritual of “Go Get the Paper.” This is how that ritual goes:
1. On every business work day, except Thursdays, I get up and poor a cup of coffee so it can start cooling. Clyde and Stout are very excited to see me. I then say “Let’s go get the paper.” Both dogs run to the front door. I open the door and leave it open.
2. We all three proceed to walk up the sidewalk and then the driveway. Stout runs ahead and back, ahead and back. About 6 feet from the end of the driveway, both dogs stop. This is where the radio fence stops them. I proceed to the paper which is generally in the grass or on the driveway near the mailbox and on the outside of the radio fence.
3. I return down the driveway where both dogs are wagging their tails. Sometimes Clyde will take the paper from my hand, or sometimes I put it back in the grass so he can pick it up. He is happy either way. Stout watches.
4. Once Clyde has a good grip on the paper, Stout rushes ahead. Clyde follows proudly retrieving the paper and wagging his tail. I follow Clyde.
5. Generally both dogs beat me back to the kitchen. Sometimes Clyde drops the paper in the hallway, sometimes in the kitchen, and sometimes he still has it in his mouth when I get to the kitchen.
6. I then reward both dogs by letting them share a cookie-bone. Clyde gets a 2/3 piece and Stout gets a 1/3 piece.
Since I actually retrieve the paper part of the way, and Stout does nothing, I’m not sure why Stout deserves a reward, but needless to say, he as excited as Clyde about the entire ritual and feels he is making some important contribution.
The Thursday paper is packed full of advertising flyers, so it is too big for Clyde to pick up. Clyde is not sure why I don’t hand it over, although I offer an explanation… “It’s too big.” I just bring it in myself, and both dogs wonder why they don’t get a cookie.
I’ve considered trying to figure out how to make the radio fence wire extend to the end of the driveway just so Clyde (with Stout) could go get the paper without me. It would require putting a crack in the pavement somehow and then filling it over. Bob would know how to do it.
The Brookwood vs. Parkview game last Friday night was another disappointment for Bronco fans. Neither team did very well offensively. Most of the game the score was 3-0 with Parkview scoring in the last few minutes another 7 for a final 10-0 score. Kathy, Kelly, Claire and I managed to get to the game an hour early and found some of the last seats available. So that was an improvement from sitting on the end zone hill in past years.
Danny and friends were up front cheering their hardest. Seniors get the best seats. This photo appeared on the AJC.com high school fan site. That’s Andrew on the left. Chris, who had a very strange paint job, did not make the picture.
Danny reports that’s a smiley face on his chest that included too much paint and started dripping. His back said “GO BHS” in gold.
Morgan and Danny went to Wendy’s after the game. He managed to get the paint off of his face, but had red arms sticking out from his shirt. When he came home, he used a hose to wash off most of the paint outside so as not to mess up the bathtub too much. Considerate boy.
Kelly bought a Triops kit, which reminds me of Sea Monkeys, but these things are huge. We now have four of them. They have grown at an incredible rate in a week.
More than most would want to know…
I think we should try moving the four monsters to a new dish and see if new Triops develop. The article suggests bigger ones eat newly developing ones.
Dad, myself, Ted, and Grant are all preparing to head down towards Savannah for a 4 day vacation. We plan on refreshing Colonel Smut’s War Chest. Meanwhile, this weather guy on the iMac is telling me that Hurricane Jeanne is heading our way, too.
I think I’m most impressed that there is a guy talking to me and showing me what is going on on the iMac. We may be rescuing the cache just in time.
Kathy was working in the yard today and came around to the front to find Clyde in the “sitting down” position (down in front and back) shaking all over. He looked very worried and could not respond to anything Kathy said.
Kathy was frightened, worried that Clyde had eaten the giant grub she had dug up when planting azaleas. She feared the grub was poisonous. She also thought perhaps Clyde was having a heat stroke from being in the sun, so she ran to get him some water. Stout followed her and was quite happy to drink some of the water Kathy set before Clyde. Stout was not at all concerned about his brother who was shaking violently and started swaying back and forth.
Kathy was very scared, and called me, leaving a message on my cell phone. She was able to coax and drag Clyde into the van to get him to the vet. By the time they arrived, he was fine.
The vet believes Clyde may have epilepsy, and that there is no way to predict whether he’ll have more seizures or how often. If he starts having them too frequently, Clyde will have to go on daily medication for the rest of his life.
Poor Clyde. He was scared by the whole thing. A blood test is currently underway, and he is enjoying the remnants of the valium shot the vet gave him “just in case.” I think it would have been better to give the valium to poor Kathy.
In a related conversation with the girls this evening, Kathy talked about the giant, long, white grub and how gross it was. She said it reminded her of a male body part. I objected strongly and cautioned she should not be making such associations for her young girls. Kathy thought at this point in their lives, she is fine with them having such associations. Grubs and I get no respect.
