Geoff has just accepted an assignment that he gets to travel for:
A government agency is sending him to train journalists in NEW DELHI, INDIA. He will be there for just under a week sometime in November. How about that?!?
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Go KILL some honeysuckle
I think Oriental honeysuckle has a grand scheme to sneak up and strangle us in our beds. This is a plant with world domination on it's mind. Look along any highway, road, woodland, yard, and you will likely see honeysuckle. It's pretty when there's just one plant, but it sends out sucker root systems and if you don't nip it in the bud (sorry, bad pun) it will TAKE OVER your yard. Now is as good a time as any to go rip (and dig and pull and cuss) it out. Just be sure to leave the dismembered limbs in a brush pile for birds and other critters to take shelter in. I have removed ONE plant and now have a brush pile 5 feet high.
Here's a link to a great website that describes invasive alien plants: http://www.invasive.org/
It's my new Bible.
Here's a link to a great website that describes invasive alien plants: http://www.invasive.org/
It's my new Bible.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Hypocritical names of subdivisions
I really hate it when a perfectly good woodland or prairie field is plowed under to make room for more houses for uppity white people. Here are some names that are so hypocritical, it makes me a little sick:
Deer Haven ("Hey Bubba...where'd the deer go?")
Middleton Oaks...not an oak to be seen.
Eagle Nest...How many eagle nests did you have to knock down to build that over-priced shack?
Oakland...Huh? Where?
Cross Creek...there's no crossing, 'cause there's no creek.
If you see any names like this, I would love to see them.
Deer Haven ("Hey Bubba...where'd the deer go?")
Middleton Oaks...not an oak to be seen.
Eagle Nest...How many eagle nests did you have to knock down to build that over-priced shack?
Oakland...Huh? Where?
Cross Creek...there's no crossing, 'cause there's no creek.
If you see any names like this, I would love to see them.
Let me tell you about my pets!
Since you are reading this, you are at least a little interested in what I have to say, so I will tell you about the animals in my life:
Nellie: Nellie is a German Shepherd/Rottweiler/Black Lab/Bird Dog/Clown/Acrobat/etc. She is probably the best-tempered dog I have ever met, and lets the girls crawl all over her and get into her food bowl and so on. She, however, draws the line at Isabelle trying to dress her in hats.
Queen: Queen is our oldest cat. She found me, when I was visiting Shannon (my best friend) at her apartment. This scrawny, wormy, half-tailed cat came walking up to me and started meowing to beat the band, and I fell in love on the spot. She used to love to sleep on my head, but now that she's about 10 years old, she prefers the armchair in the living room.
Pandora: Pandora was purchased as a "play mate" for Queen. Well, that didn't start out very well. Pandora got her name because when I let her out, "all hell broke loose". Pandora is our "upstairs cat", and is the most shy of the four.
Buddha: Buddha is officially Isabelle's cat; I decided that Isabelle needed a pet of her own,
so we went to the pet store and fell for him immediately. He walked right up to Isabelle and face-rubbed her shoe. Buddha got his name because I think he is the incarnation of the Buddha: nothing bothers this cat. (Even when Bailey, Mom's dog, rips out his fur.)
Trixie: Trixie was a stray found by Geoff. For reasons as yet unfathomable to him, he told me about the cat outside, and she quickly turned into the cat inside. She got her name because the vet originally thought she was pregnant when we found her, so we tried to find a floozy name. It turned out to be constipation.
Huey and Sugar: Our pet rats. Huey and Sugar came to us from Kevin (Geoff's brother) and Rachel (Kevins' girlfriend). Huey is as wonderful as can be, and Sugar should have been named Psycho or PMS. Huey got his name from Kevin and Rachel. As I sit here and type, Huey is sitting on my shoulder eating a Cheez-It.
Nellie: Nellie is a German Shepherd/Rottweiler/Black Lab/Bird Dog/Clown/Acrobat/etc. She is probably the best-tempered dog I have ever met, and lets the girls crawl all over her and get into her food bowl and so on. She, however, draws the line at Isabelle trying to dress her in hats.
Queen: Queen is our oldest cat. She found me, when I was visiting Shannon (my best friend) at her apartment. This scrawny, wormy, half-tailed cat came walking up to me and started meowing to beat the band, and I fell in love on the spot. She used to love to sleep on my head, but now that she's about 10 years old, she prefers the armchair in the living room.
Pandora: Pandora was purchased as a "play mate" for Queen. Well, that didn't start out very well. Pandora got her name because when I let her out, "all hell broke loose". Pandora is our "upstairs cat", and is the most shy of the four.
Buddha: Buddha is officially Isabelle's cat; I decided that Isabelle needed a pet of her own,
so we went to the pet store and fell for him immediately. He walked right up to Isabelle and face-rubbed her shoe. Buddha got his name because I think he is the incarnation of the Buddha: nothing bothers this cat. (Even when Bailey, Mom's dog, rips out his fur.)
Trixie: Trixie was a stray found by Geoff. For reasons as yet unfathomable to him, he told me about the cat outside, and she quickly turned into the cat inside. She got her name because the vet originally thought she was pregnant when we found her, so we tried to find a floozy name. It turned out to be constipation.
Huey and Sugar: Our pet rats. Huey and Sugar came to us from Kevin (Geoff's brother) and Rachel (Kevins' girlfriend). Huey is as wonderful as can be, and Sugar should have been named Psycho or PMS. Huey got his name from Kevin and Rachel. As I sit here and type, Huey is sitting on my shoulder eating a Cheez-It.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Sunday, October 23, 2005
It's time for SUSAN to talk now!
Hello, all. I decided that I just have too much to say about the world, and frankly, Geoff is beginning to tune me out. :-)Here's what's new in my world:Isabelle and Lorelei are attending preschool 2 days a week (yea!) and so, the house is alot cleaner and Mommy is alot happier.Geoff is writing his magnum opus, due out sometime in 2007 (mark your calenders!) and he is also writing for Entrepreneur, Baby Talk (where he has a column called Dad's Side), Parenting, lots of other random magazines, and he also writes for the AOL online reality series, "The Start-Up". He's busy, busy, busy.And now, here's what I'm up to. As some of you know already, I have become a birder in the last year and a half (no doubt boring everyone in earshot) and I have also gotten interested in native plants of Ohio and planting for wildlife. I just got our property certifed with the National Wildlife Federation as a BackYard Habitat. If you visit this blog often, you will hear just what I think of alien, invasive plants, and boring yards with nothing but grass and an ornamental tree. Don't take anything I say about it personally...It's just that as a nation, we are not being good stewards of our land. Planting a grass farm is dull, and it is detrimental to wildlife.I will also be posting any cool birds I see on my travels. (With the girls tagging along, the "cool" bird sightings are usually rare.)
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