Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time
When I asked the younger kids what they wanted to make for their valentine holders, Lily said a panda, of course. Will thought for a moment then said, “How about a guy’s head with a really big mouth to put stuff in?”
So this is what Will came up with and if I told you he calls him Doc Brown, would you know what I mean?*
I’ve been eyeing the “kids art area” lately. It takes up a good chunk of real estate in this house filled with six people. And now that we have teenagers with homework and laptops, I started picturing a large, comfy chair to lounge in, maybe a cool IKEA desk with space for a printer and a charging station, a cozy rug, and a table with a lamp. A tech center geared toward teens.
Except there’s a nine-year-old still using the art table.
Enjoying the view in Schladming, Austria, as a staff writer at the 1993 Special Olympics World Winter Games.
I wasn’t sure about writing this, thinking I might come across as having delusions of grandeur. My Olympics? I’m not anywhere close to being an Olympic athlete.
But then I thought about Albert Brooks and the horses. The actor (he plays Nemo’s dad, Marlin) once said he’s well aware he’s no Tom Cruise. And if Hollywood is a horse race with twelve horses and Tom Cruise is the number one horse, then he’s number twelve. But who cares? He’s in the race.
I love that.
Maybe fitness is more like a mountain than a horse race. Maybe the super-elite athletes, the ones with the genetic predisposition and the willingness to sacrifice pretty much everything, are up on top of the mountain at 18,000 feet. And the view up there is incredible.
{ image from Prince William Conservation Alliance }
Tim’s New Year’s resolution this year was to join Project FeederWatch, a birdwatcher data-collection project run by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Project FeederWatch helps scientists collect large amounts of information so they can track bird populations and understand, among other things, why a species is declining and make recommendations for its recovery before it’s too late.
So this weekend Tim dutifully recorded his weekend counts and was happily surprised by the appearance of the majestic pileated woodpecker, which is best described as part woodpecker and part pterodactyl.
The video is super short, but you get an idea of how cool this bird is. To get the full effect, hum the Jurassic Park theme song while you’re watching!
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