Grandma? Grandpa? Pay Attention

Kasia has found her new love.  It's a cedar wood playhouse that can be found at Sam's Club.  Just watch how much she loves it.

Kasia's Modeling Career

Kasia has been posing for the camera for awhile now, but she has now taken her posing to new levels.  While she originally would just smile, or cock her head and smile, now she's going as far as having her hair get blown in the wind and insists on her pictures being taken in black and white.

Where does she get this new attitude from?  I'm not positive, but I have a feeling is has something to do with that Hanna Montana girl and her "controversial" pictures in Vanity Fair.  She was a role model for so many young girls, and despite the fact that Kasia has never seen Hanna Montana doesn't excuse Miss Montana from her creating this modeling monster that is my daughter.

House Guests Move Out, New Ones Move In

It had to happen eventually.  The family of birds that nested in our hanging flower finally grew up and flew away.  The baby birds had to finally leave the nest.

However, that left and empty nest that provided just too much temptation for some some other bird out there looking to build a nest and lay some eggs.  Now we have a lazy, free loading bird laying eggs in our hanging flowers.  I guess the real question is if this new bird is lazy or just smart.  I'll have to ponder on this.

Happy Birthday To Kara!

Yesterday was Kara's birthday.  I'm not sure how it happened, but this year Kara says that she turned 29.95.  That's getting dangerously close to 30, but I won't tell her that.  

Fortunately for us, this year her birthday fell on a saturday, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  That could only mean one thing: the beach.  We packed up our minivan and headed on down to Kittyhawk to spend some quality time on the water, and just do nothing at all.

Not surprisingly, we were only there for a few minutes before the familiar, "Kara? Is that you?" happened.  You see, everywhere we go around here, it seems like Kara will always bump into someone she went to school with or is friends with.  Usually the conversation goes just like this: "Kara, is that you?  I thought so.  I saw your hair and I just thought to myself, 'That's Kara.'"  It's always the hair that gives her away.  So here we were on her birthday, enjoying some time at a random place on the beach in Kittyhawk, when we bump into friends of hers from high school.  What are the chances?  Now, what I'm waiting for is to one day bump into somebody that I know.  That will be a real shocker.

The beach was absolutely terrific.  Kasia had a great time playing in the sand, and then after building up some courage, she ran into the water as well.  The water of course is near freezing because it's still early in the season, but that doesn't seem to deter our little wonder.  The biggest problem with it is that if she's going to go playing in the water, one of us needs to be out there with her.  Did I mention that the water was really cold?  So anyway, I spent most of my day out splashing in the water as well.  I have to admit though that after you're out in it for awhile, your feet usually get too numb to really care about the cold.  That's looking at it from the bright side.

Today also marks the one year anniversary of our purchase of the house.  It's hard to believe that we've been homeowners for an entire year.  We've made a few changes here and there to make things a little more "us."  Now all we have to do is fall into a ton of money so that we can make all the other changes that we want.  Does anyone know of a rich old person who is wondering what he can do with his millions?  Because we'll take it.  I'm just saying, if nobody else wants it, we're here.

Our House Guests Multiplied

Well, it didn't take long for our feathered friend to make a family in our hanging flowers.  I went out there the other day just to check on the progress, and there were two other little ones now sharing the nest with mom.  Though, to call them "little" is a bit of a stretch.  They're nearly grown enough that they need to be kicked out of the nest and told to go make it on their own.  But, like some stubborn college graduate, they want to keep living at home on their parent's money.

I decided to help out the process.  While doing some gardening work (and that's a stretch as well) I accidentally bumped my head into the flower pot, thus startling the entire family.  The next thing I know, everyone has fled the nest, and the kids were trying to figure out how to fly.  That must have done the trick, because it's been a couple of days now, and they haven't returned.  I guess we can finally water our flowers again.

We Have a House Guest

Ever since we moved into the house, Kara has wanted to have some hanging flowers on our front porch.  After waiting out the winter, Spring finally arrived and up went the hanging flowers.  We didn't even have them up for a week before this lovely little bird had made a nest in the flowers and had laid her eggs.  

So now we have a hanging bird's nest on our front porch.   

Tibet is Free

They are known to their friends as "The Three Stooges," but today, Larry Elders, John Brown, and Steve Lipinksi are known as heroes in Tibet.  These three climbed the Golden Gate Bridge on tuesday to hang their sign calling for Tibet to be set free.  The Chinese government was clearly listening as they released Tibet into the wild early on Wednesday morning.  

China President Hu Jintao, with a tear streaking down his cheek as he watched the newly freed Tibet frolic through the fields, said, "We had no idea that Tibet really wanted to be free.  But then, I saw that people were climbing the Golden Gate Bridge and hanging signs.  Well, that was all the convincing I needed."

After worldwide protests which included the extiguishing of the Olympic flame in Paris, Chinese leaders succumbed to the mass protests.  Insiders claim that the inner cabinet members were planning on remaining firm on their stance toward Tibet, but once they saw what was going on in San Francisco, they uniformly changed their minds.

"I mean, they climbed the Golden Gate Bridge!" exclaimed President Hu through an interpreter Wednesday morning.  "The freakin' Golden Gate Bridge!  What's next, the Eiffel Tower?  We just can't risk that."  

Word has it that they were also so moved by German Chancellor Angela Merkel boycotting the Olympic opening ceremonies, that they've decided to unilaterally end the killing in Darfur.  As a sign of reconciliation, they've also decided to build a new home for every refugee in Sudan while also providing universal health care to everyone in Africa.  

And here, I was thinking that protesting the Olympic torch run wasn't going to do anything.  Boy, was I wrong.