Animals – Page 10 – Not Content to Crawl

Week of September 7th

Posted onSeptember 14, 2015

Notable things that happened this week:

Made delicious homemade sloppy joes for dinner on Tuesday. Manwich has got nothing on me!

I received my annual review at work. As with last year, my lowest rating had to do with not having time to take on new responsibilities due to my part-time schedule. I think that’s a bit unfair since they’re the ones who were ok with it, but it didn’t affect my raise which was the maximum percentage they allow so I didn’t make a stink about it.

We had two friends over Saturday evening who will be stopping by the house next week to keep an eye on the rats for us. They came over at 4 pm and didn’t leave until well after midnight. We always have fun with them and already have a fall outing planned with them as well.

Sunday we attended the CS Barks Festival which is a dog-centered festival. It’s fun to see all the different breeds. We left earlier than we would have liked in order to get home in time for the Bears game. It’s a good thing we did, too, because even though our mattress delivery was scheduled for 2-6 they showed up at 12:30! We had to scramble to get the new mattress out of the way (since we’re keeping it for now) and vacuum all the dust bunnies under the bed, but we did it. Unfortunately, the bed was not comfortable our first night. The guy warned us the bed would feel firmer at first, but damn, it seems rock hard. It doesn’t feel anything like the bed we fell in love with at the store. We had to check the tag to make sure they sent us the plush model, and unless it has the wrong tag on it, they did. I hope we can adjust to it quickly as last night was a toss and turn night for the both of us.

Nature Weekend

Posted onAugust 25, 2015

Our weekend centered around nature activities which is always right up my alley.

Saturday we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden and saw the famous Corpse Flower that’s been in the news lately. It wasn’t our reason for visiting, actually, but still pretty cool to see. Our favorite sighting, however, was a ruby-throated hummingbird hanging out in the gardens when you first enter. There were two hanging out when we first arrived and we spotted another one two hours later when we were leaving. I wish I had remembered my 250mm lens but the picture I got wasn’t too bad considering I only had the 135mm.

Some of my favorite photos from our visit:

Saturday evening we visited my parents and played our newest game – Exploding Kittens. It was quite fun! We also played Cards Against Humanity with Joe’s homemade cards. Brother # 1 ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning coming up with more ideas for all the blank cards we still have. I got an email at 3:18 am with a huge list. He’s funny.

Sunday we did some grocery shopping in the morning since it was overcast and rainy. That cleared up around noon so we headed to Morton Arboretum and drove around. I remembered my 250mm lens this time and captured what I believe is a white-breasted nuthatch.

Monday I met up with a friend at Cosley Zoo so I could give her some LEGOs and playdoh stuff for her kids. I figured why not give it to someone who will make use of it. It’s not like we’re going to play with it anymore. I held onto the playdoh too long as it was and the majority of it dried up but there were a few cans that were still good, plus a ton of accessories to shape the playdoh. It was hard parting with it because I have such fond playdoh memories but we haven’t played with it for over five years so there was no sense in letting it continue to take up space in the closet. Plus it freed up a plastic storage tote that I can re-purpose.

Anyway, I met her two children who are super adorable and pretty well-behaved for being a year and a half and four years old. The four year old, C, was NOT happy when we were ready to leave, however. He cried all the way back to the car. Poor guy. It was nice to catch up with her and meet her kids. I wish we could hang out more often but she’s so busy with family stuff, plus she lives about an hour away so the timing never seems to line up. I’m hoping she and her husband can make another game night. I’d like to have one sometime in October I think. Gotta unleash Exploding Kittens on more people!

Fermilab & Pratt’s Wayne Woods

Posted onMay 25, 2015May 25, 2015

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the only dry-weather day the weekend was planning to offer. Our original plan was to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden since their butterfly tent was opening, but when I visited their site to check the times it said due to the cold weather the number of butterflies would be limited. So we decided to postpone that visit. We ended up driving over to Fermilab instead since I see one woman who I follow on Flickr posting photos of birds taken there.

Our visit did not disappoint – I got shots of a duck with her ducklings, a red-winged blackbird, and a killdeer.

It was perplexing to me why as I approached the killdeer she wasn’t moving and started squawking at me until I got home and took a close look at the photo. She was protecting her eggs!

After that encounter we located the bison that I had read about and I got to see a couple of the babies.

After that we were a bit bored so we drove over to Pratt’s Wayne Woods forest preserve to see what we could spot there. Not too many birds, but there were a ton of very large tadpoles about the size of golf balls.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch we had packed and just relaxed for a bit taking in the beautiful day.

Right before leaving we stopped to use the restroom where we spotted this robins nest.

It was another fantastic day with my hubby!

Bunny & Frog

Posted onMay 18, 2015May 25, 2015

Yesterday we went to an Animal Expo. Unfortunately most booths were selling snakes, lizards, and frogs, which are cool, but I prefer fluffy potential pets. Two booths had rats for sale but both were meant as snake food, including baby rats who hadn’t even opened their eyes yet. :(

This guy who sells sugar gliders was there, just like several years ago when we attended. I got to hold a baby female sugar glider and an older male one. The male peed on me! But oh were they both soooo soft and fluffy. They are expensive too. Plus they require a ton of interaction. I love playing with my pets but not for several hours a day.

One booth had little rabbits, and this one in particular caught our eye because he was white with black streaking in his fur. I tried finding a photo online to show how unique he looked, but I can’t find any because it was that unusual.

When we circled back to the booth the bunnies were loose on the table and he was sitting with his back legs splayed out just like the dog in the photo of this post. Sooo cute! I carefully started petting him and he didn’t mind. And he was so incredibly soft that I started to melt. When he got up I scooped him up and held him and he still didn’t mind. He just sat in my hands very calmly. It was awesome, and I was so tempted to buy him!

In the end we didn’t get the bunny, for a couple of reasons: 1) If Joe is allergic to cats, there’s a good chance a rabbit could bother him, 2) I don’t have time/room for another pet. Maybe someday. But boy was he cute! I really hope he wasn’t being sold as food too.

Another booth was selling red-eyed tree frogs for only $40 and as tempting as that was, I decided to wait and do some research about their care first to see if I’m up to the challenge. The animal expo is every month so if I decide I want one we’ll just go back next month.

Saturday Birding

Posted onMay 16, 2015

Despite the threat of rain this morning, we headed out to Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva anyway, but not before stopping at Jamba Juice to try their new coladas first (they were ok, but not worth the normal price of $4.25 (I had a coupon so they were only $2 each)).

Apparently there was some type of run/walk for cancer at the preserve, so it was a little crowded, but it didn’t stop us from seeing some real cool birds. We even saw an owl! Make that two! We’ve been lamenting for over a year how we never see any owls in the wild so when I spotted a Great Horned Owl way up in a tree we were thrilled. My biggest zoom lens was no match to the distance, and the fact that the sun was behind him, so this was the best I could capture.

As we were scanning the tree-tops for more owls, an Asian man with the biggest zoom lens I’ve ever seen (seriously, it had to be over 1000mm), approached us and pointed out another owl nearby. This one was smaller and brown, which based on my research was likely an Eastern Screech-Owl. He was too far away to photograph, but I used my binoculars to get a look at him.

We also saw several birds we haven’t seen before, including a Barn Swallow, what might have been a Baltimore Oriole (but it moved too much to tell for sure), and a cute Yellow Warbler. Unfortunately I was only able to capture photos of the first one.

After our birding adventure we scoped out some garage sales but didn’t buy anything. Going to garage sales always sounds good in theory but I end up getting burnt out on them super quick. They almost never have anything I’m interested in.

For lunch we stopped at Red Robin because we were both craving a burger. I can’t get enough of the Banzai burger and their spicy ketchup is awesome. Honestly, I think it’s just Frank’s RedHot Sweet Chili sauce mixed with regular ketchup. I hope so, because then I can whip it up at home!

We stopped at the library to grab a couple of movies and then the tailor to pick up my jean shorts. When I was going through all my jeans awhile back I put aside two pairs that fit fine in the waist but were just too short. I dropped them off at the tailor on Monday and asked if she could make them into shorts for me. I’ve wanted jean shorts for awhile but it’s so hard to find any that fit me and I do not like the short cut-offs where it feels like my butt cheeks are on display. I’m happy to say the shorts came out perfectly. They fall just below my knee so I can either wear them that way or cuff them twice so they are right above my knee. Having these shorts will make it much easier to choose outfits in the summer since everything goes with jeans but not everything goes with black shorts (my summer staple for several years).

All in all it was a fantastic day!