A photo gallery from the Michael Jackson tribute at the Apollo.
Two of our favorite photos:
Now Playing in the kitchen: ABC
Tribute at the Apollo
1
Baby Bunny
Kathy was working in the front yard when she spotted what she thought was a dead mouse in the yard. She yelled for Danny to come handle the situation. When Danny picked it up with gloves, it wriggled and squealed. Turns out it was a baby bunny.
After further investigation (following Stout), it turns out our little killer had found six baby bunnies in the shade garden. He dug all six out, and in the process killed 5 out of 6. The 5 around the hole were all dead, but for some reason he had carried the sixth one, without harming it, to the front yard. Maybe he was feeling guilty?
Stout is a terrier, and his instincts are to dig under ground and kill varmints. This is all a repeat of a previous event a few weeks earlier where Stout found another nest and wiped it out.
To quote Kathy, Clyde has not been involved in any of this, just “aware.”
Kathy, Kelly, and Claire researched bunny care on the internet and found out that with special care, it is possible to raise and release a wild cotton tail. So for the past several days the baby bunny has been getting two feedings of kitten formula with simulated “lickings” (q-tip) to stimulate growth and digestive processes (pooping.)
If all goes well, within a few weeks, we can release the bunny into the woods… away from killer Stout.
Happy Graduation Day, Happy Mother’s Day, Happy Birthday
Kathy, Kelly, Claire and I drove to Spring Hill friday in time for a mini tour of Danny’s place and the Baccalaureate mass. St. Joseph’s chapel was packed, but we were lucky to get some seats next to the choir. The setting sun made the chapel glow golden as you can see in the gallery under Stonegate.
We had a nice dinner out and attended the party on the lawn. The next morning, we got up and made it back to campus in plenty of time to witness the procession through the avenue of the oaks. The proceedings were very nice. “Like something out of the movies,” Kathy said. Terrific weather.
Danny landed a front row seat. Nicole called him from Armenia in the middle of the ceremonies to sing him “Happy Graduation Day.” After the class photos were finished, Danny declared he was ready to go home. So instead of staying for the extra day as originally planned, we all dove into our cars, got packed, and headed home. The dogs were glad to have us all back early.
That meant Kathy got to have her usual breakfast in bed for mother’s day. Claire and Kelly cooked many fruity pancakes using blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, apples, and blackberries. Gramalie went up to Athens to celebrate mother’s day and Grant’s birthday. On the way back she stopped by to see the photos of graduation, and sit on the porch for a glass of wine. We then all went out for a delicious mother’s day dinner.
A packed weekend.
Bullfrog #5 – Hand Catch
As spring came to our little pond, I was surprised to find a full size bullfrog this early in the season. (One of my favorite of many posts on this topic here.) He parked himself in one of the pond plant pots, with eyes and nose just above the water line, catching bugs, etc.
I noticed a short delay in his decision to jump away from me, so I wondered if I could swiftly move in and grab him by hand (vs. the net technique I had used in the past.) Sure enough, I came in low and swiftly the next time he returned, grabbed him with my hand, and tossed him out into the yard.
Stout loved this. It seems bullfrogs only have six to eight good hops in them, before they get tired. Every time he hopped away, Stout rushed to the next spot to sniff him. It was terribly exciting for Stout. After getting hopped-out, the bullfrog resorted to a defensive posture with nose to the ground, hindquarters in the air, and sides puffed out. “I’m too big to eat, and I smell like a frog butt,” is the message.
That was two weeks ago. Since we have no goldfish to protect, I tossed him back in the pond. But this weekend I discovered we have two small frogs in the pond, too. To give them a better chance at survival, I decided to evict bullfrog #5. Stout and I repeated the catch process, and this time, after being hopped-out, Stout and I took the frog to the storm drain. He was last heard splashing down the pipe that exits in another part of the neighborhood.
No place for a Catholic education
[sent this letter this morning]
re: “Notre Dame Professor McInerny said: Notre Dame has forfeited its right to call itself a Catholic university.” link | pdf
Dear Father Jenkins,
I agree with Professor McInerny. I have watched Notre Dame become less Catholic over time in pursuit of a goal to join the ranks of liberal, secular ivy league schools. The student parking lots have filled with BMWs. The dining halls would be the envy of Caligula. Everything has gone materially upscale in the pursuit of prestige.
In 2001, my oldest daughter was awarded early acceptance to Notre Dame. To my surprise, she decided to *not* pursue the material path that she saw there. She is now serving in the Peace Corps, and I’ve never been more proud of her. (I hope parental pride is not a deadly sin.) Since then many priests have cautioned me that Notre Dame is no place to send our children for a Catholic education. Are you aware of that sentiment?
The commencement invitation is a last straw for me.
Is it possible to have all records of my attendance at Notre Dame purged or hidden? Can all mailing records be erased or set to “do not mail”? For the next four (I hope not eight) years, I would like to disassociate myself from the university. I am actively changing my resume, LinkedIn, Facebook , etc. to read “University of N—- D—“.
Jeb Cashin
Class of 1983 (in exile)
Or…
The Chieftains and Stickball
[E-mail copy/paste.]
Nicole,
Updates from this morning, or things we forgot to bring up…
Mom found the boots in a giant box she had not seen earlier. She is sending the brown pair which are the pair in better shape.
Heather Watson was laid off at work (among others.) She had a ticket to the Chieftains at the Fox that she wanted to sell because she did not feel right about spending that money. In part because she is a friend of mine and in part because I like the Chieftains, I bought it. It was a very enjoyable show, although I would have preferred paying about half. Mom thinks it is funny I went to a concert by myself. I think it is funny too, but it was mainly about helping out Heather.
Mom forgot to tell you some gossip, and she doesn’t want me to tell you about it on e-mail, so just remember to ask about the gossip.
I’ll get to wear jeans on Friday for the rest of the year thanks to a United Way campaign. $40.
Harland Clarke announced a salary freeze, so no raises this year. Plus my bonus opportunity has been cut in half, so we’re going to be watching every dollar. Didn’t buy a new shoulder pack today that I really liked. Will make the old one last another year or two.
March 21 is the anniversary of Grandaddy dieing. If they have any candles you can light anywhere, it would be good to do that. We’ll go to a mass on that Saturday evening at Holy Cross, then I will go again with Gramalie to another one that Sunday morning.
I challenged Kelly, Claire, and Caroline Still (who was over hanging out) to a stick ball challenge. I had a “bat” I had cut with the chainsaw and a plastic golf ball. They got 2 practice swings and then 5 swings to hit the ball past me. For everyone they hit past me they could get an iTunes song. Kelly got one. Claire got two. Caroline got one. So 4 songs all together. Seemed like something Grandaddy would have done, except he wouldn’t have known what iTunes was or how to get songs.
Love,
Dad
A Fuller
Kittens inspired by kittens
This one is for Susan…
What I really like about this is how simple it is (or seems to be.) A little girl, a video camera, and a book. There is some good editing and directing hidden behind the scenes, but it doesn’t show (which is one reason it is so good.) Did you catch the little girl whispering a key camera direction?
Reflecting Color
Mike Chavez is responsible for most of the photographs on the St. John Neumann website. He travels on most Life Teen trips, takes a lot of great shots, and uploads them to the SJN gallery.
I draw from his photos to populate the random banner that appears at the top of the website. This photo at Covecrest was very interesting because the dormant winter grass behind the crosses created near zero contrast, so they did not show up very well. However, because of the angle of reflection in the water, the light brown crosses, did show against the blue sky and green trees.
Click to zoom:
To accentuate this effect, I turned anything above the waterline gray scale and enhanced the colors below the waterline.
Happy 14th Birthday Claire!
Today I took Claire to the post office to pick up a birthday package from Gramalie. The postman attempted to deliver it on Wednesday, but only left a note with “Failure to Deliver” reason: “Dogs.”
We then went to Starbucks where she got a banana muffin and then camera shopping. She is very excited to have her own camera. A Fuji Finepix electric blue like Madison’s.
Later we fed an earwig* to my Venus Flytrap. Within 2 minutes, the little critter crawled right into one of the traps and was quickly and neatly captured. How much fun is that? Claire wants to video the next feeding with her new camera. We’ll post it here.
* The name comes from the old wives’ tale that earwigs burrow into the brains of humans through the ear and therein lay their eggs.