Happy Birthday to Me

This morning I went to my stake exercise class. I really enjoy it—I love to feel my body working hard, and I love being there with my friends. I even love the tired shakiness that I'm feeling now, an hour later. If Bruce had gone with me (which he sometimes does) he would have told everyone that it's my birthday today. But Bruce had a meeting to go to this morning, and he won't be back until around 2 p.m. If he thinks to ask about the class this morning, he will ask me if I told them it's my birthday today. Well, no. I haven't gone around telling everyone, "Today is my birthday!" since I was about seven. (Although I'm not above letting my family know when it's coming up soon.)

Actually, I've kind of learned to hate my birthdays over the last few years. I feel a bit like Ebeneezer Scrooge: "What's [my birthday] but a time for finding [myself] a year older, but not an hour richer?"

I'm not expecting anything, not even to have my kids clean up the house until I issue several commands. Ooooo! Bad, BAD attitude! And pretty selfish, too, I guess.

Well, I did get a birthday card with a new pair of jeans inside it, from my father-in-law. Thanks, Dad! And I did get to go to my exercise class that I love. Maybe I'll even make myself a cake. And maybe I'll buy myself a new scroll-saw that I've been saving up for. And I think maybe Bruce and I will go out tonight. That's not so bad.

Right now, though, I'm going to clean up the kitchen and then start working on Ryan's pinewood derby car with him. (The derby is next Friday!) We'll see how the day really goes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Any Takers?

I've had a few entries for this year's poetry challenge (many of them from Bruce).

There's only 10 days left for the rest of y'all!

For the Birds

Remember when we found the bird's nest in our Christmas wreath last May? Well we never did take the wreath down. Every time we thought we'd take care of that, we discovered that there was another family of birds flying in and out of the wreath. I figure that Christmas decoration housed four bird families over the length of the summer.

Finally we decided we might as well just leave it up for this Christmas. After Christmas, each time I thought about taking the wreath down we'd have more snow and an icy driveway, so we didn't want Bruce climbing the ladder right then.

Now it's spring, the wreath is still there, and we've seen birds checking it out.

A few weeks ago, in the nice weather, I decided it was time to start grilling again. Burgers, chicken, kebabs . . . Yum! But when I went to light the grill it was full of weeds and grass. Naughty kids! In fact, it looked like just the kind of thing Rachel or Jessica would do. I pulled out as many as I could, then lit the grill and burned up the rest.

A week later, when I went to use the grill again, it was full of weeds. Grrrrr! I guess I didn't say anything about it to the kids the first time. Again, I took most of them out and burned the rest. When it happened a third time I made sure to tell the kids not to pile weeds into the grill! They all denied doing it—and with such innocent faces too!

Yesterday I caught the culprit red-handed! Or should I say "red-billed?"

As I was sitting here at the computer I saw a starling land on the deck-railing right next to the barbecue. It was holding a red ribbon or paper in its beak. It looked around a little, and hopped along the rail behind the grill. After a minute, it hopped along the rail on other side of the grill without the red thing. Hmmmm. I started thinking about those weeds I'd been finding lately. After the bird flew away Bruce and I went to look and, sure enough, there were some weeds and the red thing sitting on the grill. But how did it get in? On further investigation we discovered that when the lid is closed, there's a two-inch gap on the hinge side. Aha! (Bruce says, "I thought there was bird-poop in there the other day, but I couldn't figure out how it got there!")

I've been watching this morning. Sure enough, this little bird and his friend have been coming and going from my barbecue grill all day long. They are very sneaky, looking around carefully and frequently stopping in the branches of the nearby maple tree—no doubt to throw those horrible, nest-burning humans off the trail.

I'm sure to the starlings this must seem like a marvelous nesting place—safe from the weather, dogs, cats and people. They're not going to give it up just because their stuff keeps disappearing.

My question is, how do I keep birds from nesting in my barbecue?

p.s. 2 1/2 weeks left to enter the fabulous poetry contest!

Caucus Race

Last night I attended my first political meeting ever. Well, not the first ever. I did go to a Democratic Party dinner/rally thing once because Bruce had to go video-tape it, and so we got free tickets for the dinner. The dinner was good; I don't remember much else about it.

I heard recently that by the time we get to the polls to vote it's too late for us to make a difference; the preliminary preliminaries are the place to be. So Bruce and I went to the caucuses.

The first thing I ever learned about a caucus was from Alice in Wonderland:

" 'What is a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.

`Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.' (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One, two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, `But who has won?'

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, `everybody has won, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and all must have prizes.' "

Lewis Carroll's political commentary here is quite funny.

But our caucus wasn't run by a Dodo, it was run by a good friend of ours. And we did manage to be pretty orderly about it, on the whole. I believe we chose some good county and state delegates for our precinct. I believe I have done my civic duty for now. I don't believe that I'll ever be super involved in politics. But it was an interesting experience.

2010 Poetry Challenge

After the fun and the wild success of last year's poetry contest, and after I realized my contest just happened to take place during National Poetry Month (April), I decided that this really should become an annual competition.

This year I am taking a slightly different approach. I have here a short poem—only four lines—by a famous author. It is titled: A Thought. I will give you the first line except for the last word, and leave the rest up to you. The rules are:

• The poem must be only four lines long.
• The last words of the first and second lines must rhyme.
• The last words of the third and fourth lines must rhyme.
• All the lines can rhyme with each other, but they don't have to. Just first with second; third with fourth.
• It must have good meter.
• It can be sweet, silly, sappy, sad—any sentiment you choose.
• Contest ends Saturday, April 17, 2010 at noon (Utah time).
• Submit your entries as a comment to any of my blog posts between now and April 17.
• All entries will be posted, and the winner will be announced on Friday, April 23, 2010

Ready? Here's the first line of your poem:

A THOUGHT

It is very nice to _________
. . . . .OOOOOOOOOOOOO.
. . . . .OOOOOOOOOOOOOi
. . . . .OOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Now, finish it in any way that you feel inspired to. :-)

Post your poem in the comments to any of my blog posts at any time between now and April 17.
The winner will be chosen based on the feeling, rhyme, and meter; but mostly at my whim.
If the winner lives in Utah, he/she will receive a fabulous dessert, made by my own lily hands, and a lovely certificate.
If the winner lives out of state, he/she will still receive the lovely certificate, and a fabulous prize that can survive being mailed out. ;-)
AND the winning poem will be posted in the sidebar as my Poem of the Week (which really means "Poem of However Long it Takes Me to Remember to Change it"). How's that for exciting?

Good luck!

p.s. The entire four lines of the original poem, and the name of its famous author, will be posted on April 23 when the winner is announced.