New Family Member

Meet the new kitty. First his name was Rex...which I thought very unoriginal for a Devon Rex cat...when I first saw him I thought maybe Radar because his ears outweigh him...then we settled on Chamois since it's kinda his color and exactly how his fur feels...kinda like a freshly shaved poodle.


Zoey's new best friend.

Races

One of my first "good swims"


Door County Sprint finish line with the kids and a 2nd overall medal that was about the size of a baseball and weight of a shotput!

Age Group Nationals...Burlington VT...outclassed to the nth degree and very intimidating!

But I had my very own mentor/groupie/coach all the way from Cali! Thanks Nina!


Swim practice...and the sunset later that day.


Another "good" swim even though a lot of us got lost after the 3rd turn. Sun right in the eyes made it hard to sight the next bouy and the course diagram showed a 90 degree turn toward shore (which it was NOT)...there were several shouts of "Where the f#@* is the bouy?!" Turns out there was an Olympic medalist Swimmer in my wave. Can't remember her name but she was standing to my left in the swim start chute. This was my first deep water start and I think I like it better than the onshore sprint to the water. Had a decent bike ride...I kinda look like an alien in my pointy helmet...no run pics because my run was embarrassing. I totally BONKED! I finished gloriously average...middle of the pack.

Piano Lessons

Zoey started piano with my first teacher. It was kind of a summer piano "boot camp" called Kida on Keys. Every day for an hour for two weeks. This is the last day in the concert hall at the conservatory. BTW, GoDaddy sucks. The site NEVER allows me to upload a video.

Duet at Conservatory Studio Class

Cutie-patootie

Poor little guy...I get the feeling the great outdoors will not be his forte. He came in after this picture with about half a dozen bleeding bites from some kind of blood sucking bug and I think he's allergic to grass. Hopefully he will grow out of it. If not he can just be a comedian or impressionist...please see the last post of this month called "Loony Tunes Quotes".

Jim Pecks Wildlife Park

Hard to see under her hand a tiny baby rabbit. There were at least 20 in this pen all huddled in a pile.

My wings are THIS big...

Aw...baby fawn

Budgie bird encounter...a big hit

More Budgies...

Feeding a kangaroo

Missing our California turtles

A very fat rabbit...the other picture I had she was kissing it's butt.

Pigs...though I can't tell which is the front and which is the back.

These baby goats were into everything

Baby goat.

BUGS...

Well, since bugs are practically a way of life out here I thought I'd put a spin on it and get Zoey interested, rather than scared of them like me. So far, she has raised 5 Painted Lady Butterflies from caterpillars and we are working on a trichordestra legitma moth caterpiller that we captured. Also, 11 ladybug (Coccinellidae magnifica)larvae have just entered into pupae stage. I will not do spider education though...the line was drawn on that (in concrete) years ago.

Studying the butterfly below...

Vanessa cardui

Goodbye kiss.

Chicago

A quick trip to Chicago to visit Chris and be semi-local tourists. We went to the top of the Sears Tower, had deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnatis, went to the Museum of Natural History, the Jelly Belly factory warehouse, rode the bus, the train and a taxi.


This is new to me...they now have these overhanging plexi-glass window boxes on the balcony of the Sears Tower.


The kids before the T-Rex 3-D movie at the Museum.

Loony Tunes Quote

OK...so I'm kinda "old school" when it comes to cartoons. Luckily, both kids obliged and actually do like all the original Loony Tunes cartoons. Milo likes to try to quote Sylvester's lisp saying, "Suffering Succotash..." I find the result to be hilarious. So glad to have had the camera handy and thankful that he was in a performing mood.

Yeah, he is saying "Fuckering Fuckotash" but it's an innocent mistake, right? Regardless, I still felt the need to give a heads up to the teachers at school about what he was NOT saying.

This one's for Stef...and Steph too.

There are two little mistakes though I'm pretty happy with the sound. Not too happy about the unflattering camera angle on my rear as I walk away from the camera though. LOL Blame that on the fact that I haven't been very intimate with my bike for the last 4 months!

Every other time I've tried this "exercise" and I seem to crumble from the nerves...ach, just the mere thought of preserving my playing for future listening makes me shake and sweat!

Anyway, I've been working on this Chopin Nocturne for about 4 years. Vince and I were supposed to play it for a recital this weekend but after playing it for my piano teacher today we decided to step it down and play something less stressful and more fun (aka reliable)...perhaps I will post the Bach Prelude from the recital if I can get someone to hold the camera.