Flora & Fauna

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The weather has been very frustrating so far this spring. It’s either been really cold (like 40s-50s) or super hot (90s). We finally got some more spring like weather recently, so we took full advantage.

Saturday (05/14) we hit up a local place called Murphy’s Farm to buy petunias and a few other flowers for our patio garden.

New Flowers

Their prices were pretty reasonable, so we might go back as we have a few more pots to fill. We also planted zinnias since the butterflies, hummingbirds, and finches love them.

Speaking of hummers, we put out the feeder on May 7th and saw our first hummingbird on the 11th, so that wasn’t a bad wait at all. Unfortunately all the birds visiting this year are very shy so I’ve yet to get a picture of any of them. The second I move, they fly away. I even sat on the patio on the 17th for a half hour completely still with my camera pointed toward the feeder and got absolutely nothing.

Sunday (05/15) we made our semi-annual visit to Lilacia Park to see the lilacs and tulips.

Lilacia Park

Despite the fact that the lilacs were listed as reaching full bloom mere days before our visit, they didn’t look their best and the tulips were on their way out because they only last a few weeks in peak shape. I guess next year we need to get our butts out there twice to see them each on separate days. I am glad we waited until Sunday to visit, however, because the temperature was much cooler than Friday evening which was our original planned date. There were hardly any people in the park at 8 am either, which was nice. We both are crowd adverse, which is why we always try to get to places early.

The highlight of our trip though, was the chipmunk we came across.

Isn’t it adorable??!? I felt so lucky for the opportunity to photograph it because they’re usually quick to run away.

After the park we decided to visit Churchill Woods forest preserve because I heard it’s peak migration season for many birds.

While I wasn’t really able to get any photos, we did hear a huge variety of birds, identified with my Merlin Bird ID app.

Here’s a list of everything we heard (the asterisk means we also saw the bird).

Baltimore Oriole *
Barn Swallow *
Blackpoll Warbler
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay *
Brown-headed Cowbird
Cedar Waxwing
Downy Woodpecker
Gray Catbird
Great Crested Flycatcher
Indigo Bunting
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-Winged Blackbird
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Warbling Vireo

McDonald’s Iced Coffee

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As I wrote a few months ago, Dunkin iced coffees suck these days. I’m convinced they’ve changed the way they pump in the flavors so you’re getting less syrup than before. I recently discovered that McDonald’s has a french vanilla iced coffee and you can get a large for only $1 at any time through the deals section of their app.

I got one on Sunday and nursed it through this morning. Not only is it way less than a Dunkin drink, but I don’t have to wait until 2 pm to get it at a decent price. I won’t be ordering it often, but it’s a nice treat, and it tastes very much like the Dunkin iced coffees when they used to be good.

Flowers & Books

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It turns out our five days off together wasn’t completely devoid of fun.

Thursday (04/21) morning we went to Wilder Park Conservatory to look at the flowers in their spring flower show.

On the way back we stopped at a place called Fry the Coop to pick up an order of their chicken & waffles which were pretty good.

Saturday (04/23) we went to Northside Park in Wheaton to walk around. The entire day was so warm that we opened the windows and got some beautiful fresh air in the house. In fact, when we got home from grocery shopping on Sunday morning, the house smelled just like my grandparents house always did, mostly likely because they always kept their windows open too instead of using the A/C. I miss them so much.

Sunday (04/24) a friend posted on Facebook about a book she had just read – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – and something prompted me to check it out. Libby had a digital copy available, and I immediately got sucked into the story and was unable to put it down all day. I literally spent 7 hours on the couch reading this book on my phone (I really need to get bifocals so I can read properly). By the time I went to bed Sunday night I was 80% through the book and finished it on Monday. It took me just under 9 hours total to read.

I looked up the author and he wrote The Martian. I never read the book, but I did see the movie starring Matt Damon. I hear they are making this latest book into a movie too, starring Ryan Gosling. It will be interesting to see how much the movie reflects how I pictured things. Although they’re already off to a poor start if Ryan is the lead because in my head he doesn’t fit at all.

Needless to say, I will be checking out this author’s other works since I enjoy his style of writing. I cannot tell you the last time I even got into a book. I tend to abandon them a few chapters in due to boredom.

Record Store Day

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I’m not really sure why I’m bothering to write about this since I didn’t participate in Record Store Day this year, but I guess I just wanted to document the titles I found interesting despite not buying them. I did think about it, though, and almost got them. But I ultimately decided that playing records is kind of a pain because you have to keep getting up to flip them over or put a new one on, so unless I find some used gems for super cheap, or The Cure reissues Wish, I likely won’t be adding to my collection anytime soon. The new releases are $30 give or take, which is ridiculous, and now that Joe has a new job that pays less, I don’t like blowing money on non essentials.

Anyway, here are the two titles I was thinking about getting:

Electronic – Remix Mini Album

The Offspring – Greatest Hits

Interestingly enough, the record store I like and follow on Facebook still has multiple copies of the Electronic album available if I change my mind, but I doubt I will. I have no idea of the mixes are any good!

The Cure also had another picture disc release this year, this time for Pornography, but I already have a used copy of it, so I decided not to get it. My copy skips, it turns out, but I have the same album on CD too so whatever.

Loose Dog

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On the way home from picking up Taco Bell yesterday we saw a dog running loose in the neighborhood, dragging a leash behind it. Joe got out of the car but the dog wasn’t interested in coming near him, so we drove around the neighborhood to see if anyone was out looking for it.

We didn’t see anyone, and when we returned back to our part of the subdivision, we saw the dog sitting in front of a door to one of the townhomes.

Joe went to see if he could check for a tag, but the dog kept growling at him. We ended up going home and posting the details on Nextdoor and a local Facebook group.

No one commented on my Nextdoor post, but Joe’s Facebook post got some activity. Someone suggested calling the police, which hadn’t occurred to either of us, so I did that. Other people went out to look for it (as it wasn’t where we last saw it once the police arrived). Luckily someone posted that it was eventually captured and returned to its owner. I can only guess it was far from where it was being walked when it got loose which is why we didn’t see anyone looking for it.

Since hindsight is 20/20, I wish we had stayed by the house where it was cornered and called the police so they could have grabbed it sooner, thus reducing the chance it would get hit by a car. I blame my hanger because I was feeling faint and needed to eat and the whole delayed that process. That’s what I get for waiting until I was already starving to go get food!