Do You Realize?

Photo Hunt Saturday--Free

When I read this week's theme, free, I started thinking: Is anything in life really, truly free? Then my head started hurting from thinking too much, and I chose instead to use this as a FREE day to post any photo I want to share with you. Besides, in northern Australia, Varied Lorikeets like this one fly free in their native habitat.

This photo was taken at the interactive aviary exhibit at the Ft. Worth Zoo; this little fellow was incredibly gregarious, and we made fast friends. It must have been my name that he liked. The photo was taken in February 2005 with a 105mm lens; I love this one so much it is one of my desktop images that I routinely use.

Photo Hunt Saturday--Long

I like this Photo Hunt Earlybird thing. Invariably, I want to sleep in on Saturday, then I forget about posting, then I'm late. And I don't like being late.

This week's theme is: Long. I took this photo at Animal Kingdom at WDW in 2005. It's a photo of... drumroll, please...

...

...

a BIRD! Heh. (Those of you who have been around a while will recognize my hefty obsession with all things ornithological.) I think it's likely a crane of some sort.

I love his LOOOOONG legs and his LOOOOOONG neck. Quite lovely and graceful, don't you think?

Photo Hunt Saturday--Red

Early. Again. I'm on a roll.

This week's theme is: Red. And I have a photo of... a bird! Surprise, surprise, huh?

I took this photo in Hawaii in September 2005. It is a Red-Crested Cardinal (Paroaria cucullata); they migrated to Hawaii from Brazil. I think they are so full of character.

Photo Hunt... Playing Catch-up

This has been an incredibly busy week or two around here, and my blogging has taken a hit. I totally missed last week's Photo Hunt, and I'm late for this week's. For those of you still visiting, here are my photos from the past two weeks.

Last week's theme was: Practical. I took this photo at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, not too far from our house. Vultures (these are Black Vultures) are very practical birds, eating anything available to them for survival. They are even immune to botulism, one of the deadliest of toxins. (I also happen to find the Black and Turkey Vultures' defense mechanism of projectile vomiting to be both fascinating and amusing.)

This week's theme was: Pink. I took this photo at the Dallas-Ft.Worth Zoo. It is one of my favorite photos. (More birds... hmmmm... one would think I liked birds or something.)

A Tuesday Ten

Since I've not been here in a few days (weeks? months?), I thought I'd offer a quick Tuesday Ten of what I've been up to this week. This past week, I have...

1. ...helped Eldest with her first ten entries in her Senior Scrapbook (this is a yearlong English assignment, pretty cool).

2. ...helped Middle and Hubby make a Sodium atom out of a sheet cake and cupcakes.

3. ...survived at least two Bipolar "Episodes" with youngest and researched our health insurance policy to see what they will pay when we have to finally take the step into Inpatient Psychiatric care.

4. ...been "Colorguard Mom" and "Show Makeup Artist" for one football game and one competition. Their show makeup kicks some serious ass. It looks like this:

5. ...made a pre-made mini-scrapbook for Youngest's school fundraising auction (One down, three to go, yay! Not!).

6. ...ridden my bike with Hubby to Chick-fil-a for lunch and home one day.

7. ...pulled some muscle or pinched some nerve in my neck so I can barely move today. I guess it's time for a massage.

8. ...driven 1200 miles.

9. ...discovered one of our remaining two finches, a zebra, had died. Poor Fat Boy; he's all alone now. He's a shaft tail finch. He's always been our favorite. He looks like this:

10. ...missed this week's episodes of Survivor, CSI:NY, and Numb3rs, because I was too exhausted to do anything but crash into bed at the end of the day (and because I was too stupid to set them up to record).

Seven Random Facts

I am confiscating hubby's computer while he mows the lawn, so as to try to catch up some blog entries that are swimming around.

I have been tagged by Chile for a meme (Yes, Chile, I can tell you how to custom-make a banner for your blog, but I'll be damned if I can pronounce "meme" either!). I have been instructed to present to you, dear readers, Seven Random Facts about me (as if you haven't been subjected to enough Random Facts about me already...). Yes, I know, I've been gone for a week, and you all expect something Of Substance... HA!

1.  I like to color, but I am an elitist. I use only Crayola; there is no crayon that can compare, either in saturation of color or smell. I was the only kid in my kindergarten class that colored shadows into my coloring sheets (my great-grandfather was an artist).

2.  I can cook a tasty apple pie, but can't make it pretty to save my life.

3.  If I could be anything, I would choose to be an ornithologist. Something about birds just fascinates me beyond all reason. Beautiful, ugly, common, unusual, colorful, drab, doesn't matter... they all have something I find just magical.

4.  I taught scrapbooking classes at a local scrapbook store for 2 years. I have completed (full to overflowing) more than 20 scrapbooks.

5.  I have a rabid aversion to houseflies. They really truly gross me out.

6.  One of my favorite places on earth is Varenna, Italy, on Lake Como. This is where we ate breakfast every morning, and fed the ducks.

7.  I'm a horribly indecisive person. I think. Maybe not. Well, I know I can be...sometimes. (Sorry for stealing one of yours, Alina... I just couldn't decide what my #7 should be!)

Now, the rules say I have to tag seven other bloggers for this, but honestly, all the blogs I read have been or will be tagged by other blogs I read, so I'm skipping the tagging part. I forgot....

8.  I'm a party pooper.