back to work & school

Well, we all made it back to work or school today. Turned out that Steven now has the tummy thing, and threw up at school and at wrestling practice. He stuck it out, though, because he had the holiday band concert tonight, and if you do not show up for the concert (with the exception of a doctor's note) you flunk the class. I was told by Dan and Bill that Steven played his trumpet very well at the concert, and that you could not tell how rotten he was feeling by looking at him. Poor kid.

Today before work I went to the post office and bought stamps. So I got the cards out in the mail today. Now I have to get some tape tomorrow and then I can wrap the kids' gifts. Since I have to get more bird food (its been so cold and snowy the feeders have been very crowded) and pet food as well, it will be a productive trip to the store. With gas prices creeping up again, I do not want to go to the store just to buy a roll of tape!

Speaking of the bird feeders, something odd happened at the ones in the back according to Dan and the kids. I have "sock" feeders filled with nyger seeds for the tiny birds like finches. On cold days we'll have as many as 24 birds there at once. We also have a feeder with sunflower seeds for the bigger birds like cardinals, jays, and chickadees, but I digress. Sometime recently a very small bird of prey tried to grab finches at the feeder. The kids say it was a grayish color and smaller than a crow, though it was clearly a predator (they called it a hawk). I have no idea what it might have been, but the kids got a thrill out of seeing it trying to hunt. The cats also got very excited seeing it so close to the window.