Even the lucky underwear didn't help

Yesterday, a big snow and ice storm were predicted. The girls were supposed to have a sleepover with my Mom today, but she called and said, "Hey. Bring the girls over now and they can stay until Saturday. With the snow and everything, Isabelle probably won't have school anyway."
I packed up the girls' things and we raced over to Indiana to beat the snow.

This morning: I woke up and looked outside. No snow. No ice. School was not canceled. Whoops. I guess Isabelle gets a free day.

I had a free day, too. I am still battling a cold, but armed with Sudafed, I headed out for a bit of birding.
I went to some of my usual places, but the birds were not showing themselves. And it was so cold, I didn't have the pep to brace myself against it. My lucky birding underwear didn't even help. *Okay, it's not really "lucky"...the girls have proclaimed my polka-dot underwear to the heavens and to other women in public restrooms, and it's become a joke.*

So I went home, did some cleaning, then set up a nice cozy nest for myself on the couch. Watched a movie and fell asleep.

Since I am still pining for my camera and haven't seen any interesting birds lately anyway, I thought I would share an article I was interviewed for a while back (like last year):
Here's a link to the article, and here's the bird I was talking about in the article:












A very nice graduate student at Columbia found me through some blog posts about avian conjunctivitis, and asked if she could interview me. What? Me getting quoted about something bird-related? Just try and shut me up about it!
They even used one of my pictures (of healthy house finches)
And to read more about house finches and conjunctivitis, go to the Owl Box Blog...he had "pirate" finches and wanted some information.
If you see a house finch, goldfinch, or other bird with swollen, crusty eyes, go to the House Finch Eye Disease Survey site and record your findings. They are trying to get a handle on where and how this disease is being spread.