Chat

Thank you SO much for all your comments about the YoYo quilt.  I have the sweetest readers!  I would suggest a yoyo-along, but that would take too long LOL.

I thought I’d catch you up on the story of Mother Goose.  If you follow my instagram account, you know that we’ve had a fun few days.   The internet was SO helpful to let us know what to expect with Mother Goose.  It said that the eggs will hatch anywhere from 24 – 30 days, so on day 24 (last Thursday) we kept an extra close watch over Mother Goose.  We even checked on her on the weekend.  And, right on schedule, Day 28 (this past Monday) we saw some action.  When we arrived at work, this was the scene at the nest.

What the heck!  Mother Goose kicked out two of the eggs.  She really confused us and we were guessing that maybe she could sense dud eggs or something?  Then, around 9:30 or so, our admin came running over to tell us that we had a baby.  We all flocked (ha — definitely obsessed) to the window and look looky — a baby indeed!

Awwww, isn’t he cute?  By 1 p.m. or so, there were three babies.   It was hard to tell what was going on as we didn’t happen to catch Mother Goose standing up very often.  (I know it’s hard to believe, but we didn’t stand at the window ALL day long!)  So, by the time we left work Monday, we thought maybe there were four little ones.  (And let me add here, Mother Goose and her babies picked the PERFECT days to hatch out — these past few days have been our prettiest spring days this year.)  After the first baby or two, Father Goose appeared on the scene.  (Finally!)  Every time someone would walk down the handicap ramp, he would hiss at them.  Finally, security put some orange cones up to keep people off of the ramp.

On Tuesday morning, Mother Goose was still on the nest but she stood up for just a minute as I was coming in to work, and I thought I counted 5 goslings. We compared notes and someone thought they saw 6. Very fun.  The internet said that the geese would leave the nest within 24 hours, so we waited. My desk is on the second floor and I have a friend who sits just below me on the first floor (people who sit on the first floor had a birds-eye view of the action), so she was on high-alert for a goose family exodus. Around 10 a.m, she texted and said “They’re here!”. (She sits around the corner from the nest.) So, us second floor girls zipped to the window, but we couldn’t see all the geese. Father Goose decided to head across the parking lot with four of the babies and Mother Goose was up under our windows where we couldn’t see her. (Sorry for the awful cell phone photo, but I want to remember what those little guys looked like trying to hop up on the curb. They all made it — so cute!)

My first floor friend texted to say that Mother Goose was headed back to the nesting area.  ???  We were worried about some sort of custody battle, but after Father Goose got all the way across the parking lot, he decided to turn around and come back.  Yay!   They went back to the nesting area, and we went downstairs for about 10 minutes to get a better view.  You know, break time and all LOL.   Here they are, very close to the original nest.  Sadly, this is the only picture I got of all seven of the little goslings together.  And it’s through a very dirty window (which is part of the reason that all of these pictures aren’t the greatest — our windows are filthy!).  If you look real closely, you can count seven — there’s one behind that tallest little peeper and one to the left of Mother Goose.

After our little break, we all went back to work.  And by lunchtime, when we went to check on them, they were gone.  Poof!  No trace of a little goose family of nine anywhere.  They apparently had a very stealthy walk across the parking lot.  We didn’t even get to say goodbye!   I did catch this little cutie below spreading his wings.  They were so sweet stumbling around in the grass.  It’s amazing that they can walk long distances and follow their parents.

So, that’s the story of our little goose family.  We’ll never really know if we see them again.  There’s another family of 8 in our industrial park, and a few more geese still on their nests, so it would be impossible to identify “our” geese.  I wish we could have put a spot on Mama’s head or something! ;-D   Here’s the scene on Tuesday afternoon.  Hard to believe those shells stayed intact as much as they did with that big Mother sitting on them.

Now, it’s a little depressing at work. We’re all suffering Empty Nest Syndrome. ;-(

XOXO,
Anna

Hi There. I thought maybe I should let you know I’m on baby watch. Not the human kind, but it’s sort of exciting anyway. We have a nesting Canada Goose at work. I call her Mother Goose.

She built her nest right in front of our building and right next to the handicap ramp. At first we thought she was crazy — that nest seems to be totally unprotected. But, in doing a little research, it seems that Canada Geese prefer to have their nests completely out in the open. It gives them a clear view of any pending danger.  (Awww, look, she’s resting her head on the wall.)

Talk about being a devoted mother.  I see her several times a day when I’m in the stairwell and she’s never off of that nest.  The gestation period for goose eggs is between 24 and 30 days, depending on which source you read.  We’re going on week three and she’s faithfully tended that nest through all kinds of crappy weather.  I read somewhere that the mother will frequently turn the eggs so that they will properly develop.  And sure enough, I hung around by the window one day and caught her turning the eggs.  She’s ever so gentle while she turns her head completely upside down to carefully roll the egg.  It’s really fun to watch.  I zoomed in on one of my pictures and it looks like there might be eight eggs in the nest.  Eight!  Supposedly they leave the nest within the first 24 hours — I so hope we’ll be able to see them before they’re gone.

Life is precarious for those little goslings though.  The first week Mother Goose was on the nest, we saw a hawk flying in circles above her.  Probably scoping out a future meal.  When her nest was first discovered, rumor had it that the DNR had been called to move her.  I think it was just a rumor though, as it’s illegal to disturb nesting migratory birds.  Her biggest threat might be those pesky engineers.  They’re all too lazy to take the stairs — everyone uses the handicap ramp.  She seems to be used to them by now, although, it’s been said that if you stop to look at her she’ll hiss at you.  You don’t want to mess with a mother goose.  (There goes a smart engineer now — look down, don’t make eye contact.)

And where, you might ask, is the father?  We rarely see him.  I’m guessing (well, hoping) he might spend a lot of time on the roof (where we can’t see him) watching over her.  Occasionally, we spot him patrolling the parking lot.  We’ve never seen him up on the grass next to her.  Slacker. I always wonder how she eats or goes to the bathroom.  It’s really pretty amazing.  (Did you notice Father Goose in the parking lot picture?  Here, I’ll point him out.)

So, that’s the excitement around here.  I know I’ve been fairly absent, but I’ve been plugging away at the Yoyos. Yoyo Count: Yoyos: 135 Me: 733.  Netflix, as always, is my yoyo companion.  When Upstairs Downstairs ended, I watched Daniel Deronda (fun to see Downton’s Hugh Bonneville in a different role) and then decided I’ll take a BBC break.  There seemed to be some blog excitement over the return of Don Draper, so I checked it out and I’m now officially hooked.

Yum-Yum!  Off to yoyo now –Yipee — it’s almost the weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Yipee! It’s the Weekend. Here’s a little randomness from my week:
1. Yesterday was Pi Day — did you partake? I made Pecan and Cherry Almond pies for our little party at work. I found this pie crust idea on Pinterest (aka Cute Idea Mecca). My crust is wonky due to the almond glaze, but, oh well.

2. And, in keeping with the “day” theme, today was Match Day! (Every year on the third Friday of March, 4th year medical students across the country learn where they’ll spend their residency. It’s the exciting peak of all those years of hard work. I think schools probably do their programs a little differently, but here, each student is randomly called to receive their envelope. They can choose to open their letter privately, or open it in front of everyone and announce their exciting news (usually with their spouse and children by their side). Another fun part of the tradition, medical students place $1.00 in a container as they announce their results. The last person called gets to keep all the money as a reward for patience in the face of high anxiety.)

Our family has been beside ourselves with excitement this week! The festivities started at noon today and TheManoftheHouse and I tuned in to the live streaming video right on time. Which was a good thing, as TheFirstChild was the very first student (out of 300+, I think) to read the big news. He got his first choice for residency — WOOHOO! He’ll be about 8 hours away for the first year and then only two hours away for the following three years. (Look out Gurney, he’s headed your way.)  We’re SOOOO excited for TheFirstChild and SweetiePie!!!

3. Like a lot of you, I was surprised by the news about the demise of Google Reader. I’ll be looking for a replacement. I’ve read a little about Feedly and Bloglovin’. Any other suggestions? (Random Snack of Choice Picture.)

4. Becky at Piece O’ Cake posted a link to this interesting article the other day. It’s all about manners in this new age of digital media and it’s a good read. Digital media manners are a whole different animal to societal manners. The one that really caught my attention is that it’s considered rude to send an e-mail just to say thank-you, because it causes the other person to waste time opening up and reading the e-mail. I’ll be thinking hard on that one and will probably try to improve my manners. Which means if you leave me a nice comment, but there really isn’t much to say other than “thank you” — well, I probably won’t reply anymore. That way you won’t be wasting your time. Sound good?

5.   Yoyos: 658, Me: 210.  (Note, safety pins have now replaced the basting gun.  ;-D)

Have a GREAT weekend!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Hello Invisible Peeps!  Just popping in for a quick check-in.  It’s been a busy, not-productive-crafty-wise week here.  I had a trip for work, earlier in the week.  I flew home from Washington/Reagan on Wednesday afternoon (you know, the day when the snowquester was supposed to hit).  Check out this picture of the airplane departure board that I posted on Instagram:

How lucky was that?  My flight was one of the very few in the whole airport that wasn’t cancelled.  I felt like I should run out and buy a lottery ticket.  And to add to my luck, look what I found when I got home!  SNOW!!!!

Finally!  We’ve had such a snow-worthless winter this year.  I guess it’s better late than never.  I took this picture early this morning just as the sun was coming up.  It’s my Friday off, but I ran into work for a 5:30 a.m. workout with this awesome trainer that we have in our teeny-tiny fitness center.  Only two of us showed up that early but it was SO worth not sleeping in.  Especially when you consider that I stopped at Starbucks on the way home and undid all the calories I burned.  YayMe!!!

So, now, I’m going to work on the yoyos for a little while this morning and watch and old movie or two.  I’ve sewn a few yoyos down this week.  Yoyos: 824, Me: 44.  At this rate, I’ll be done by 2019!  (Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, you’ll notice a few pins in there.  I’m thinking I might stop using the basting gun to hold the yoyos to the quilt — I’m worried that it’s going to make holes in the quilt back.)

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna