Times, They Are A Changin'

Today started way too early for me. Perhaps had I not been up till almost 2 (or is that almost 3 since the time changes at 2?) writing yesterday's post I would have been more alert this morning when Quinn woke up (I shouldn't complain, I did manage to get five hours of sleep).

We actually missed church this morning, but not because of the time change (okay, not directly because of it, but indirectly). The problem was the day before Catherine had been really tired, and Ginger wanted her to be able to sleep as long as she needed this morning, which when you add in the lost hour, made it so that there was no way we could get to church on time once she woke up. I agree, it's a pretty weak reason, but that's our story and we're sticking to it.

It feels like I'm having to chase a squirrel away from the bird feeder about every 20 minutes now. I've tried just about everything. Banging on windows, running outside, throwing water at them (and even some crazy stuff like putting on warpaint and charging at them yelling "FREEDOM!"). At best I can cause them to jump off and take the 30 foot fall to the ground. But nothing seems to be an effective deterrent as they keep coming back. And when I was out there once surveying after I had chased one off, I could literally see 5 squirrels in various places in the backyard (word of mouth among the squirrels has spread that we're a free buffet).

The lost hour threw the entire day's schedule out of whack it seemed. We didn't head out for lunch until almost 2:30. And then eating lunch took what felt like forever, but was really only an hour. Ginger and Catherine got lunch from Pizza Hut, then we went and ate at KFC. I have a question. When did KFC stop selling just chicken? Doesn't the "C" stand for chicken? I'm there looking to buy 2 pieces of chicken (even though I know my digestive tract will hate me afterwards). And yet they don't sell just chicken. All I see on the menu are value meals and specialty items. The only way you can buy just chicken is get like 8 pieces (which was a little more than I wanted for lunch).

After lunch we headed to the mall so that Quinn could buy Ginger the birthday present he wanted to get her, a pair of pants. Quinn had told me that's what he wanted to get Ginger before her birthday, but there was no way the two of us were going to go buy pants without Ginger having a say in them. That's like the ultimate no win situation. So Ginger picked out the pants she liked, and Quinn used my credit card to pay for them. We also had to briefly stop by Build-A-Bear (didn't buy anything, although we may go back and get a rabbit next weekend) and after that we stopped by Cartoon Cuts so that Quinn could get a one of the worst haircuts he's ever had (we still can't believe we paid them to butcher his hair like that). When asked what he wanted to watch while getting his haircut, he choose NASCAR. But partway into the haircut he was twisting around so much to watch Dora the Explorer on another screen they switched his TV to Dora (guess the race wasn't too exciting). From there we went by Home Depot and bought some potting soil and flower seeds (we also bought a squirrel guard for the bird feeder). So now here at home we have some cups out on the deck with seeds in there to see if we can grow any flowers. Due to the wonders of time lapse television and kids TV shows, Catherine was convinced that the flowers should be completely grown in about 10 minutes.


Didn't get any non standard photos today, but does anyone recognize what type of bird this is? And a quick update on the squirrel guard. We've seen 4 squirrels try to get to the bird feeder, and they've all given up. I'm sure at some point a couple will get brave enough to try and just make the jump from the ledge to the feeder, but this looks like it'll stop all but the bravest of them.