To all the dads out there today who interact with their kids, who are there to guide them and nurture them and give their kids the fatherly love and attention that every kid needs and deserves, who reacted to their thoughtful Father’s Day cards with tears welling up in their eyes; to the dads who are missing their kids today because they’re defending our Country, I would just like to recognize you guys and say “Happy Father’s Day”, and thanks.

To all the moms out there who act as mother and father in your household, I commend you and wish you a Happy Father’s Day, too. ‘Cause if you do both jobs, you should get two days of special recognition every year.

😀

Here’s another pic I took the other day while out with the mallards, why he chose to bend this way I do not know, lemme hear your captions!

Caption this!
(As many times as you want to, just for fun!)

I wish I may I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.

I wish that you could call creditors, and say something like “oops, I am completely out of checks, I’ll put an order in for more today and when they come in, I’ll send you one, mkay?” and that they would say “hey! that’s perfect! thanks for calling and letting us know, we love ya! no late charges!”

Wouldn’t that be nice? Because it’s not that I can’t pay our bills, it’s just that “write out the checks day” makes me think about not having anything left when I’m done, so I put it off as long as possible just so that I can sigh a happy and content sigh when I see my current balance.

Sigh.

Caption this!
(As many times as you want to, just for fun!)

I have filled the last few days with fun little outings for the girls. Yesterday we picked up a few loaves of bread and headed down to the river to feed the ducks, where I also saw (and took a horrible picture of) a Blue Heron. The girls and I went out to lunch, and then we did some Father’s Day shopping! It was fun, they picked out new pajamas for themselves and when we got home Chickeymonkey asked every 5 minutes if it was time to get ready for bed yet, and put her PJ’s on at around 6PM.

And I did something yesterday, that I can’t tell anybody I did yet, because when you’re like me and you announce such a thing and suddenly people know about it, everything backfires and then you undo what you did. Just out of spite, or something. So I’m not telling. 😛

I sketched out a big painting on Sunday too, but haven’t starting slopping the paint on yet, because I’ve been spending time with the girls this week. So I’m gonna work on that. I’ll show you what it is later. And then I will be painting another Tortie Cat named Lucy, she’s a beauty!!

There you go, all caught up. See? That wasn’t so hard was it? heh.

Caption that duckling!

Last year my bestest friend ever (we’re going on 20 years or something, gawd I feel old) and Caitibug’s Godmom (Pidigaige! Where are you?!) gifted us with the most thoughtful gift. Talk about someone who knows you like the back of her hand! We’re on the last couple of months of our Annual Zoo Membership (hint hint? hehe) so we went over there today. It’s a small zoo, really, if you crawl at a snails pace you can make the trip last 2 hours. You just have to stop and talk to every single critter.

Of course every time we go I get different shots of the same critters. I decided that instead of just throwing them all up here for eye candy all at once, I’ll let you caption them. Sound okay? Here’s your first Caption Contest – but really there’s no contest, captions are just fun. Many of them are “what am I thinking” type captions, but this one, well, you tell me!

I took the girls out yesterday to a nice little park, and captured a few decent shots of our outing. I love the one of Caitibug, her personality is so bright and real!

I wondered if these would bloom, and how they would look if they did. Well now I know. Kinda looks like a face doesn’t it? NO photoshopping was done to this image. Scouts honor, these are growing in my front yard!

Yesterday was pretty cool, I met some really nice bloggers through Michele’s blog. She really inspires people to “get out” in the blogosphere and meet folks! So here are some highlights of the nice blogs I visited yesterday. Stop over at their blogs and say hi! I’ve added them to my blogroll, too, so you can check for updates here.

Terrilynn: Nearest Distant Shore
Terrilynn is a North Carolina blogger with a beautiful son and a great way with words. She gives good eye candy, too!

Phoenix
Pheonix & Carlo blog side by side, Phoenix is writing a novel (linked on the blog) that I’m going to get to reading very very soon!

Colleen : Loose Leaf Notes
Colleen has quite a way with words, her summer memories made me wish I lived next door to her growing up.

Paul : Writing from the Hip
Paul has some great stories to share, stop over & have a read!

Mystic Writer
Great eye candies, for one, and his writing will just draw you right in and make you feel like you’re standing right there.

Annie : One thing I hate about today
You just have to go visit Annie. Hafta.

I also visited A Mom and Her Blog, and ran into the Complimenting Commenter the other day, both new additions to my “read often” blogroll!

Yea, I surfed a little bit, hung out here while Lisa was gone fishin’, tidied up the house a bit and fired up the grill for both lunch and dinner! I made these super tasty teriyaki marinaded boneless spare ribs. I’m not quite sure I understand the methodology behind boneless ribs, must have been a really floppy pig I guess, huh?

Another couple of backyard sightings for you, we had a new guest the other day, this beautiful (and huge) Red Headed Woodpecker. Of course after I saw him, all I could hear was this.

Do you remember our little nest of babies? Well they’ve become a noisy little bunch, and here they are now peeking out. They should be on the ground learning how to fly in the next day or two, huh?

Yes, folks, I’m really that boring when I’m not painting! I did manage to jump in the pool with the girls for a little while on Saturday, at least I think it was Saturday?! I’ve been so absorbed in these last two projects that I don’t even know what day it is.

Of course seeing pictures of myself does to me what I expect it does for everyone else – makes me want to go get a facial, teeth whitening, some red-eye removal (or sleep), a real haircut and last but most certainly not least, for 25 more pounds to evaporate from my body ASAP. I just want to look like this!! Is that too much to ask?! Sigh. I wonder how many hours a day she works out. And how many lettuce leaves she limits herself to. Do you think she’s ever even eaten a cheeseburger from Wendy’s?

If you only knew how my day went yesterday! You would probably laugh, most likely be somehow repulsed at the precise wording I would use to describe my personal Series of Unfortunate Events, and walk away wondering if you should ever come back.

Let me just sum it up in as few words as possible:

Being a girl can be a wicked-awful/hilariously funny cruel joke.
A diaper is a diaper, no matter what form it comes in.
Gravity hates women; we don’t need to stand on our heads for something to drip upward.
I’m not sure which is worse, the need for pre-meds or the need for dental work.
I’m glad my regular physician is old-fashioned.
I’m glad the pharmacist whispered.
I’m going to go have some yogurt now.

Now I spent a little while out in the yard yesterday after I finished painting. We’ve got some really pretty things in our yard that we enjoy being around, and I know it’s probably boring to a lot of people but I’m sharing anyway! Neener-neener!

I was watching a baby squirrely cautiously finding things to eat around our feeders, and then his big brother (I think?) started romping around the yard with him. I love their duo pic. Then we have a siamese gerber daisy growing, which I think would sell on ebay for millions of dollars because it looks like, uh, man parts. heh. We have roses in full bloom all over the place, and I started experimenting with black & white photographs of them. I wish monitors were scratch & sniff, they smell so purdyful in full color! We have another baby bird learning how to fly, but I’m not sure if he’s a robin or a starling. He looked kinda lost. Just all sorts of backyard eye candies for you today!

I think I really need to get out more. 😆

This little guy has lived in/under/around our garage for a few years. I’ve spotted him several times hugging the back wall of the studio making his way back to his little hole in the corner of the garage. I think shrews are blind, anyone know for sure? It was neat watching him this morning, collecting seeds that the birds and squirrels have scattered around and hiding them in this little spot, then taking some back with him to the garage.

And hey! Cool news, I was contacted by a volunteer from the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban. It looks like one (or two or three) of our Mourning Doves will get to help their campaign. I’m excited to see my photography used for such a good cause!

I’ll be painting early today, in case you want to check back for webcam status.

HAPPY FRIDAY!