A Most Eggcellent Response

Judging is going on NOW for the very enthusiastic response received on the Easter Egg contest. Please stand by. Complaints r.e. duration or outcome should be directed to the head judge.


His name is Daryl. Best time to communicate is AFTER lunch.

It's Catching

Good Friday can be so depressing. So take a look at this and just try not to laugh. Seriously.



Speaking of giggles...look who else is on YouTube!



(Today's post was an exercise in YouTube-ness)

More Easter Irreverence

Thanks, Lenore.

For Ryan

Also, here is a unique illustration of passover...with peeps.

Spring is in the Air!

Well, sort of. It's actually supposed to snow this week, but I won't let that stop me from buying tulips, as evidenced by my refrigerator-magnet vase from Lyla.

Plus, it's time for another contest! In keeping with Easter, this round's potholder prize is reminiscent of jelly beans.


And to win it, you must send me a digital photo of your freshly dyed Easter eggs. Entries will be judged on photo composition, creativity and colors. If there's a tie, then whoever sent theirs first gets the extra point. Are you up to the challenge?

Under other business, the three-day editor’s conference I went to in Chicago was OK – not entirely relevant, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. Mostly, I just wanted to get out of the office and do something different for a few days. While events like this are usually refreshing, and it’s fun to meet new people, I usually come away feeling wistful because everyone else’s job seems so much cooler and more fulfilling than mine. Also, my mind wanders too easily to things like people’s odd choice of attire, how many *&%#! cell phones have to ring before people think to put theirs on vibrate, and whether there’ll be good snacks during the break. Snacks were so-so, but the Marriott did have very good coffee, and their tea selection included these cute little jars of honey, several of which I pilfered. It’s the gypsy in my soul.



Also, the beds were to die for. I am in the process of researching these fantastic mattress toppers to see if I can buy one. ‘Course, if I do, I may never get out of bed again…

I do need to comment on the elevators, because there is something seriously wrong with the whole elevator concept in Chicago high rises. Holy crap, I can’t believe how much time we wasted standing around waiting for elevators. It was even more irksome than suburbia’s stop lights. Normally I’d just take the stairs, but not 34 floors, and, ya know, the knee thing is still an issue.

Does anyone know why the military is banning big tattoos?


More houndstooth potholders and some colorful ones I forgot to post last week. Maybe these will be runner-up prizes, you just never know.

Whooo II

My digital pictures turned out better than the 35 mm, so I thought I'd post a couple more. The adult owl shot is taken through the spotting scope, so it looks a little funky, but I love the expression on the owl's face. I'm just going to replace the baby owl shot below, and then I couldn't resist including the severed leg. It's the circle of life, people! Scroll down to the prior post to see the new images.

Whoooo?

Lenore and I took a road trip south to lovely Geneva, IL because we heard some great horned owls were nesting at the courthouse again. Geneva is also home to the unique and somewhat she-she shop, The Little Traveler, where we dropped a few bucks, and a great German bakery, which we visited not once, but twice during our expotition.



Here are the two babies



Two people from the Audubon Society also had their spotting scopes set up and were letting people take a peek, which was very neat.

The Audubon lady thought the adult owl near the roof was probably the male parent -- both mom and dad owl get involved in the rearing thing. We're told mom was likely somewhere else on the roof keeping watch as well. We know they're hunting for the kids, because we found a freshly severed rabbit leg under the tree. Ahh nature.



Here are a couple of pictures from the mystery roll of film that was in my camera.