Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Nellie's Bellie's well and other things

Okay:
1. Nellie's better, and she's home on a special diet for a few days. The vet's not sure what the culprit was. But all I care about is having Nellie back home. She's been sleeping it off.
2. I spent most of the day at the tire place getting brake pads, rotors and front tires. I could tell the brakes were on the way out two days ago when they started to make a grinding sound. But my mind was made up this morning while taking the girls to school and the brakes *slipped*. Yeah, they slipped. From 9:30 am to 12:30pm, they worked on the car, and when I told them I needed to get the girls from school, they torqued up my tires and let me go get the girls, bring them back, and then they finished my alignment.
3. After her nap, Isabelle burst into tears and said her ear hurts. Jeez!!!! I guess the pediatrician's office will see our smiling faces in the next few days if she doesn't improve soon. Too bad ear infections are basically something that the doctor won't really treat, unless the kid has other symptoms. They get hinky about antibiotic overuse. Easy for them to say, when it's not their kid.
4. Cool bird sightings: Nothing rare or anything, but I saw my first yellow-rumped warbler. Make that two yellow-rumped warblers. I realized that I really do take birding seriously when I noticed that I was watching the warblers from the bathroom window, and I was half-dressed for people to see across the street. And I practiced good bird ID procedures by looking for field marks before running for my Birds of Ohio field guide. And I verified them by their behavior of gleaning through one of our red maples. Yea for me!
Other bird sighting: A chipping sparrow is back in the yard. They disappear in fall and usually are replaced around here with American Tree sparrows, but this year, no tree sparrows. That's what made the chipping sparrow stand out so much, among the DAMN house sparrows. I truly hate house sparrows. Starlings, too. I heard that starling populations are down in Britain. They are more than welcome to mine.
4. Isabelle just popped up and said her ear was better. I guess the ibuprofen kicked in.
5. Oh, another bird sighting I forgot about! An American Kestrel in a tree near White Pillars, the old plantation house/new subdivision down the road.
I think that's all I have time for right now. I guess I should cook some dinner for these kids and my DH.

4 comments:

LauraHinNJ said...

Glad Nellie is on the mend... phew! Does this special diet include rice? Always good to soothe a dog's upset tummy. The vet doesn't know what the problem was?

Glad to hear that you're seeing some good birds! I've got to get out and see the woodcock show before it's over. Any place near you where they display?

Susan Gets Native said...

I'm not in the "know" when it comes to the birding community around here. I need to join a bird club. But there's a good website, cincinnatibirds.com I think, that may have listings for where the woodcocks are.

Susan Gets Native said...

Nellie's on Prescription Diet with chicken and rice and eggs and God knows what else. She loves it and it smells like...well, canned dog food.

LauraHinNJ said...

Canned dog food - yum! Gosh I hate the smell of that stuff.

Re: woodcocks - brushy, wet fields on warmish still evenings.