Feed the Birds

We have a terrific park nearby that has lots of trails, lots of relief, and lots of wildlife. The relief is the result of glacial activity…a geologist dream, but I was there today for the wildlife, not the geology. On the way there we stopped and picked up some wild bird seed so we could feed the birds…and squirrels! I’ll let the pictures do the majority of the talking…

The look on Erin’s face in the pictures above is incredible. Just pure delight at such a simple thing. It gave me the chills when I first went through the pictures. She loved it! Afterwards she described how it felt to have the little birds on her fingers. In fact, all three kids commented on how it felt, and they all described it differently…talk about a teachable moment!

As we moved a bit further up the trail, I got directly behind Erin and got the next two shots. I was giddy as I pulled them up to edit. I only adjusted the brightness and contrast a touch.

I think the chickadees particularly liked Kyle, since they and his gloves are colored similarly…

I have been trying for years to get an excellent picture of a cardinal. They are very shy and flightly. As I was photographing other birds my family informed me there was a cardinal directly behind me. I turned and captured this.

Not bad, but still not great. Then I found this female, which baffled me because she looks nothing like the three females that live in my yard.

Then, the amazing happened…a clear, unobstructed, nearby view of a male. I don’t know how I didn’t shake and make the picture blurry, but here it is!

By FAR, the best shot I have ever gotten of a male redbird!!! Yeah, I’m still giddy about it!

I’ll end this post with my favorite picture from the day. All I can say is, “Are you talkin’ to me?”

The squirrels had me laughing at their silly antics. However, this post has many pictures, and I took many more of the silly squirrels, so I will post them tomorrow…soemething to entice you back, hahaha!

C-C-Cold Ice Skating!

The kids have been bugging to go skating lately and since I can’t skate now, I keep putting them off. This morning however, I decided it would be a good day to go to the outdoor rink nearby. It was only 8 degrees F when I told the kids I’d take them, but by the time we got there, it was a balmy 10 F.  Jeff decided he wouldn’t skate this time out either. He’d watch, I’d take pictures and the kids could just have some fun. There were not many people there, as I suspected, probably because it was so cold out. Here are some of the results from the afternoon.

Erin is not typically a smug child, but it took some effort for her to learn how to do a good hockey stop. This is the look on her face after stopping directly in front of Jeff and me at one point. Rather smug if you ask me!

It was rather amusing watching her skate today. She is a really good skater, but has not been on the ice without full goal equipment since sometime in the summer. It was hysterical watching her skate with her feet a mile apart. Jeff explained that goal pads force you to bend your knees and with the extra bulk and wieght, it is somewhat difficult to skate without them once you are used to skating with them.

My motley bunch!

I am not certain whether or not Kyle could actually see…  I guess he was probably trying to keep his face warm, but I think he looked a lot like a thug…a smiley thug, but a thug nonetheless.

Sarah’s glasses kept fogging up, so she finally took them off and gave them to us to hold. Everytime she went past she would squint at us…

Erin typically likes having her picture taken, but she did eventually get sick of the camera, as is evidenced here…

You can skate, but you cannot hide!

I thought this picture was cool because Sarah, who couldn’t see us anyway, was fuzzy and squinting, while Kyle, behind her, was in focus.

I don’t know what happened to cause him to fall, but it was pretty impressive. He very smoothly slid to the ice and glided in a half circle, stopping as he is in this picture.

Sarah’s tolerance for the camera pointed only at her is pretty low. This is her “is this really necessary?” face! Or maybe it’s the “Mom, you are on my last nerve” face. Either way, I found it amusing!

Um, I really have no idea!

Check out those laces!

I’m not sure if Sarah was pushing Erin, or if they were playing train.

I took the color out of this picture, then put the blue hat back in and Erin decided that her eyes should be a very bright blue, so she chose her eye color. Although not terribly realistic, it is a pretty cool effect.

Nina, Pinta, and Pittsburgh

After Kyle, Sarah, and I took a very thorough tour of Slippery Rock University, we all set out for Pittsburgh. It was a beautiful day for a ride in the car. As we got close to the city, I pulled out the camera, very excited to take pictures of a “new” place. While looking for a place to park, this caught my eye.

We finally found a place to park near where we wanted to go. As we started walking towards the riverfront, I glanced up and just had to take a picture of Charlie Tuna smiling down on us!

This is the the reason we went to Pittsburgh in the first place…

These are replicas of the Nina and Pinta. They are really cool ships! For more information, go here.

The ships were right near Heinz Stadium and PNC Park. The views across the river were awesome. As I stood there looking across the river, I was impressed with a few things.

This is 1000 Grandview Avenue. I stood for a long time trying to figure out what the building was, then I blew up this photo trying to figure it out. Finally, I looked it up this morning and found out that it is a 62 unit condo complex. I could definitely live there! No yard, but an amazing view and no worries of anything being built to obstruct that view!

I like the building with the funky top in the back right.

I am not a football fan, but I took this from the ramp garage in which we parked and I thought it was a cool picture.

Try as I might, I was not able to convince my mother-in-law to drive through this tunnel. I abslutely love driving through tunnels. I think they are really cool. This particular tunnel also holds some fond memories for me. As a child, I went with my grandparents to visit my uncle when he was attending a school in Pittsburgh. That was the first time I had ever been to Pittsburgh as well as my first time in a tunnel. I did get a cool picture of it at least!

This is part of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I thought these were really neat statues.

Corbett’s Glen

I have lived in the Rochester area longer than I have lived anywhere else and only just found this gem! I dragged bribed Jeff into going with us. We all had a good time and got some good exercise.

The journey starts by passing through a tunnel into the park. It has a rather narrow road/bridge that empties into a clearing…with a private residence… It is the type of place that woud be cool to live, if it wasn’t in the midddle, literally, of a public park. At the end of the tunnel, there is a waterfall. Being a lover of moving water I took many pictures, but I’ll only share one.

The path through the park is made up of landscape fabric covered with mulch and in some places gravel. As we walked along we encountered a few people carrying fishing poles. We soon came to another waterfall.

Just below this waterfall is where the fishermen were. There was also a rope swing that went out over the water. I imagine in the spring, when the stream is flooded, there might be enough water to drop into, but it didn’t exactly look safe to me… maybe I’m just getting old!

By the time we got to the second waterfall, my family was getting annoyed with me. I kept finding cool things to photograph. Here are some of the things I found…

Yup! It really was that gorgeous (and warm) on November 7th in upstate NY.

Sarah loves the outdoors.

Erin just loves being with us.

This is a great bench.

We all tried it out. Jeff let me take his picture (choke, gasp) from across the field. Kyle was with us, but avoided getting in front of the camera. He is not fond of having his picture taken…

Erin, on the other hand, will pose for a picture anytime!

It was a gorgeous day for a walk. I think everyone had a good time. After our hike, we went to Schutt’s and got fry cakes and apple cider. That was the bribe. I told Jeff I’d take him to Schutt’s if he would go to the park with us. Truth is, I really don’t mind going to Schutt’s. There are so many fun things to look at. By the time we got home, everyone was tired.

I had to run out and do get a couple things, then it was time for dinner. We picked up an apple and cinnamon pancake mix while we were at Schutt’s so we made those for dinner. Kyle and Sarah chopped up some apples to go into them while Erin mixed the batter. Erin asked if she could cook them, so I supervised. I am fairly impressed with her willingness and ability to cook. She is not at all afraid of the stove (gas burners and all), but has a pretty healthy respect for it. I wouldn’t let her cook by herself, but supervised she does a great job. She will even put things in the oven. Hasn’t gotten quite brave enough to take anything out yet though…

Busy Week Running

Kyle had a rather busy week running. On Sunday we all arose at the crack of dawn to go to the Rochester MVP Healthcare Marathon and Half Marathon. It was a perfect day for running. I don’t think the temperature got much over 70 and when the races started around 7:30, it was only in the imd 60’s. I had never been to such a large running event. There were hundreds of runners, over 2300 actually!

The above picture shows just some of the many people there for the races. This was taken about 1/2 an hour before the full marathon was to begin. The 1/2 started 15 minutes after the full. There were a lot of people!

We took Kyle to Frontier Field, where the race headquarters were set up, then we walked with him to the starting line a 1/2 mile away. As we were waiting for the races to start, I glanced down at his feet and noticed he was wearing his old, very worn out shoes. He had gotten a new pair about 3 weeks earlier, but had neglected to grab them for the race. We had planned to meet him in a couple places along the course to provide Gatorade, water, and (for my sanity) to check on him to make sure he was okay. I suggested that we could run home, grab his shoes, and he could change at the first meeting point. He thought that was a good idea, so off we went.

We decided to leave before the start of the race to ensure we could stop to get the coffee I bribed promised Jeff for getting up so early, run home for Kyle’s shoes, and buy Gatorade at Walgreens by our first meeting point. Kyle made good time and we gave him his shoes and a Gatorade. The whole change took about 3 minutes. I suppose in a 13 mile race, 3 minutes isn’t too long…

After he changed and ran off again, we hopped back in the Jeep and went to the next point, a nearby park. I was impressed by the number of people along the course cheering the runners on. I am sure it was encouraging to the runners. Kyle made excellent time to the second point and only had about 4 more miles to go. We jumped into the Jeep one last time and hurried back to Frontier Field. Parking was a little nutty, but we managed to make it to the finish line with about 10 minutes to spare. His official time was 1:52:20. He had planned to finish in around 2 hours, 20 minutes, so he was quite pleased with his time! I wonder what his time would have been if he hadn’t had to change his shoes during the race…

The finish line was a flurry of activity with medical people observing the runners as they finished, the always cheerful Ellen was calling out as many names of finishers as she could, and finisher medals being handed out. I was so caught up in the commotion, I only took one picture and it was horrid…fuzzy! Oh, well! The finish chute ended in a large fenced area where they had a medic tent, massage tent, and food tent. I was very impressed by the organization and the dedication on the part of the volunteers. They all seemed to know exactly what to do and everything ran smoothly…no pun inteded!

Cool horse at Frontier Field

Now that the 1/2 Marathon is done, Kyle wants to get ready for what is probably his favorite race. Jensen Stables 12K is an insane cross country race through horse pastures, fields, woods, up steep slopes, down muddy slopes, through (or around) an icy pond, etc. Kyle ran it last year and got very lost. He finished almost last, but thoroughly enjoyed himself anyway! In an effort to prepare, I suggested that he run a couple “off road” races over the next few weeks. We found that the final race of the FF Dirt Cheap Trail Races was going to be run on Wednesday. Kyle decided to run it.

We arrived pretty early so Kyle went and ran a short warm up, then decided he was ready. Just before the start of the race, they described how the course is quite technical and a bit dangerous in a couple places…something about stairs and a steep drop… I got a little concerned, but figured he’d be okay. The course was about 4 miles, so I expected we’d see him in about 30 – 35 minutes. He finished in 37:55 and he was ANGRY as he crossed the finish line. Apparently about 5 minutes before he finished the race, he encountered a nest of angry wasps that someone ahead of him had stirred up! He had at least 4 stings by the time he finished. Kyle has never handled bee stings very well! We gave him some benadryl and hurried to my in-laws so he could shower and survey the damage. As we were driving there and asking him about the stings, he announced he had gotten stung again! Apparently one of the wasps went up his shorts, got caught in one of the folds, and when he sat and shifted just right, it stung him!

After a shower and some topicals, he was fine. I was impressed that he calmed down as quickly as he did. Normally something like that would make him very angry and he would stay that way for a long time. He was already talking about the next “off road” event he plans to run by the time he was finished treating his stings. He is definitely maturing!

Here are a few pictures of the event.

Irondequoit Bay

Race start and finish

Sarah being silly!

Registration tent

I had planned to take more pictures of the finishers, but after Kyle finished and announced he’d been stung multiple times, I thought better of staying. The finish of the race was great because they came around a bend, then up the hill. I was on the side at the top of the hill, with a great shot of the bend. It was an ideal spot for photographing the race.

Fleet Feet Summerfest 2009

Kyle has been training, for the past couple of months, to run the Rochester MVP half-marathon next weekend. He participated in a distance training program run by the awesome folks at Fleet Feet Sports. Today, many of the participants in that program ran the FF Summerfest 12k. For these folks the race was not about winning, but about pacing; something they have been focusing on each Saturday morning during their long runs. Here is a picture of the distance training participants that ran the 12k today.

Kyle was definitely the youngest in the group, but that didn’t bother him. He still made some friends and really enjoyed running with these great people. I am always amazed at the encouragement and comraderie among the people in the running community here. It has really made me think that it is something I might enjoy trying…after I get better…

The FF Summerfest is quite the end of summer event! They had a 12k race, a 5k race, and 3 different kids races: 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, and 1 mile. Kyle ran the 12k and Erin ran the 1/4 mile. Kyle was shooting for a pace of 9:30/mile and ran almost exactly that. His time for the race was 1:10:23. When he finished he said that he felt as though he had just warmed up for a race. We decided that was a good thing since the 1/2 marathon is 5.5 miles longer than what he ran today. He feels well prepared, which is a relief to me. I told him he could only run it if he prepared for it and felt confident that he could run it without injuring himself. He has done a great job preparing with the help of Ellen and the other folks from Fleet Feet!

Here is Kyle nearing the finish. He doesn’t really look all that hot or tired!

Erin jumped into her race a little late, so she wasn’t in a good starting position, but she looks great as well. I think she might have run the 1/2 mile as well, except that she was starving. When she’s hungry, she is really hungry. While we were walking to the car she polished off a hot dog, 2 chocolate cookies, a pretzel stick, and most of a Pepsi. Here she is waiting for her race to start…

almost finished with her race…

and Erin and Kyle after they both finished. Kyle clocked Erin at 2:39. Not too bad after a not so great start.

While waiting for Kyle’s race to finish and Erin’s to start, I took a few pictures of Mendon Ponds park, where the races took place. It was a positively gorgeous, cool morning; perfect for running.

While standing in the shade of a tree, waiting for Erin’s race to start, this dog caught my attention. I thought it was a pretty dog and it seemed friendly. When the owner laid down on the ground to stretch, I got a good laugh. The dog nearly jumped on top of him to play, then gave his face a good washing. The second photo is after the dog settled in next to him and finally allowed the owner to stretch…sort of!

What a great way to spend the morning. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and Kyle is quite confident about his big race next weekend!

Kyle’s 17th Birthday and Niagara Falls

Wow! I can’t belive Kyle is 17 already. Where has the time gone?

I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he decided on dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Buffalo, followed by a visit to Niagara Falls. We had planned to go to a Teppanyaki restaurant that we had previously visited, but upon reading a couple of recent reviews of the place, decided on a more favorably reviewed restaurant called Wasabi. Despite the spicy name, it was a great little place with delicious food and the presentation of the food was excellent!

I ordered Teriyaki Strip Steak, which was wonderful.

Jeff ordered the Chirashi. It was gorgeously presented.

Kyle, Sarah, Erin, and my father-in-law shared this Titanic portion of sushi and sashimi.

I did not get a picture of the food my mother-in-law ordered, but it was equally awesome in presentation.

After a filling, late lunch, we set out towards the falls. Along the way, we made a quick pit stop and Kyle suggested I get a picture of the sky. It really was a beautiful day for a trip to the falls. The sky was blue, the temperature was warm, but not hot, and the weather (mostly) cooperated.

Upon arriving in Niagara Falls, we drove around a while looking for cheap parking, but found that all of our old favorite places now either cost, or are reserved. I guess when the casino opened, all the prices shot up…for everything! We found a spot and parked, then walked across the bridge to Goat Island. It was a slow go as I was having a very bad breathing day. Along the way, we saw this building…

I was intrigued by the artwork at the top. I couldn’t quite tell for sure what it was, but with some searching, I did find some information on the building. It is the United Office Building, built in 1929, and it has an Art Deco Mayan Revival motif in several places on the building, including all around the top levels. Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel compelled, at the time, to walk around the building and photograph other Mayan art on it. Something about not being able to breathe and the rain that was beginning to fall. We ducked into a souvenir shop to wait out the rain for a few minutes, then we had clear (from rain) skies the rest of the day.

As we were crossing the bridge, I noticed these silly geese swimming in the water just yards from the crest of the falls! Don’t they have any sense? (you really need to click on the picture to enlarge it in order to see the geese)

Once we got to Goat Island, I noticed this squirrel. The black squirrels that reside near the border, both in the US and Canada, are notorious for being mean, evil little creatures. They will chase you! Yes those fluffy little 1 pound creatures have the ability to make grown adults run away. I don’t know what it is about them, but they just have an air that says “I own the place, I dare you to challenge my right to be here…” I quickly took this guy’s picture, then walked away. I didn’t want him to think I had anything at all against him!

This squirrel seemed much friendlier than the one above. He came right over to us. We suspect he has received some “free handouts” before and has lost his fear of people. Anyway, I thought he made a good subject for a picture or two.

Erin is the only of my children that enjoys having her picture taken, so I take many of her. This one I found amusing. Her hair is like a barometer. Here it is saying humid. Her hair is normally quite straight, but as the humidity rises, the frizz and waviness of her hair also increases.

The next five shots are the obligatory, “I went to Niagara Falls,” shots. They really look better enlarged…just click on them.

Having lived within a days drive of the Falls for most of my life, it would be simple for them to have just become another site to visit. I have never, however, ceased to be amazed by the power of them. The following picture screams “power” to me. They really are an awe inspiring site to behold!

Kyle wanted to see the Falls all lit up at night, so we ventured out onto the observation deck as the sun began setting. I have no monopod or tripod, but I still wanted to try my hand at a few night photos. I took several which range from awesome to awful. The following two fall in the awesome category. I was very pleased with how they turned out, especially considering I had nothing but my arms to stabilize the camera.

This is my artistic, don’t look through the lens, just point, fire, and hope for the best shot. I like the way the sun is just a little dot in the picture.

I think this guy might have had the best seat in the house!

Kyle reported that he had a very good time. It was ridiculously late by the time we got home, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Sunset

We went to the lake to watch the sunset this evening. I’ll let the pictures speak!

I took a ton of pictures, but these are most representative of what I was after.

ESL Airshow

Yesterday we decided to go to the airshow at Ontario Beach. Usually the show is at the airport which is practically in our backyard, so it always seemed silly to actually GO to the airport since we could get a pretty good show from home. The one thing we never get to see is all the cool planes on the ground. Unfortunately, having the show at the beach, there is not anyplace to have all of the cool aircraft on the ground. I think there was one helicopter, and the cockpit of a plane for a (very expensive) photo opportunity. We did however, get to see a pretty cool show put on by the Canadian Airforce Snowbirds. On a side note…One year when the Snowbirds were here and practicing near the airport, I decided to pop the screen out of the skylight, stand on a chair, and stick my head through the roof. As I was looking around, one of the Snowbird planes flew over the house and did a roll right above me. I actually made eye contact with the pilot! It was one of those “larger than life” experiences! Anyway, I took 564 pictures of their performance at the airshow. Obviously you don’t want to see ALL of them, so I chose the best to post here. They are things that intrigued me about the performance. They are not the most impressive air shots ever, but I will admit, this is my first attempt at photographing aircraft in flight. I am quite pleased with what I got…

In addition to the CAF Snowbirds, we saw two Red Bull skydivers. This is not a great picture, but I couldn’t figure out where they were jumping until it was too late.

Erin and Sarah enjoyed the show!

We went kind of late and didn’t stay for very long, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Afterwards, we went to Sullivan’s Charbroil for a quick, yummy supper. By the time we finished eating, I was in desperate need to bed; I had been awake for nearly 27 hours, with 2 very brief (less then an hour each) naps. Needless to say, I slept very well!

Very Busy Weekend!

This Mother’s Day weekend was insanely busy. On Thursday evening, I enjoyed dinner with a few friends from a store where I used to work, along with one from where I currently work. We had a great time and laughed ourselves silly! Friday was busy with a doctor’s appointment in the morning (my finger is mostly better, although still nail less) followed by the fabulous Luau-themed party at Starbucks. As a result of my need to attend all of the fun while working in between, I was awake for more than 24 hours! Saturday morning was the annual Dachshund Parade. This is an event I looked forward to each year. Last year I had to miss it due to it being on the same day as Sarah’s dance recital. This year I was very excited because I could go and not have to worry about hurrying home to sleep since I have Saturday nights off… After losing an entire day’s sleep, I couldn’t have dragged myself to the parade this year. Unfortunately, the Lilac parade was at the same time, so I missed that as well! I was pretty bummed, but I REALLY needed the sleep.

I awakened with a start Saturday afternoon knowing that Sarah had a 2:40 eye exam and I had not set my alarm…dangerous when one has fallen asleep after losing an entire day of sleep. Fortunately it was only 1:00, so I had time to wake up, shower, and get her there. Little did I know we would be there for almost 5 1/2 hours! The doctor decided to dilate her pupils, which only worked in one eye the first try. Eventually, he got both to dilate. This brought us to an hour. Jeff, Kyle, and Erin had gone out on the mall in search of something to eat so Sarah and I found them and ate while the folks at Lenscrafters made her new lenses. In an effort to save some money, we opted to have new lenses put in her old frames which were still in nice shape. We went back around 5 to pick them up, only to have the frames snap while the lady was trying to adjust them. This was frustrating because she left to go into the back and only told us they had broken when she came back out. I hate to be mistrusting, but it seemed fishy to me. We were informed that we could choose a different frame at a 50% discount. I also found this frustrating since WE didn’t break the frames, they did. Since they had already cut the lenses for the original frames, and the new choice was a completely different frame, new lenses had to be cut. This would take another 1 1/2 hours! We ran home, let Joe out and relaxed for 30 seconds, then went back and got the glasses. Good thing they look really good on her…

While we were eating in the food court, we kept hearing birds. Two of them landed nearby and I took my camera out to photograph them, but they flew away. I waited awhile, hoping at least one would come back, then finally gave up and put the camera away again. About a minute later, one landed under the table behind me. Suddenly Erin became animated, but quiet…unusual for her… I got the hint, grabbed the camera from my bag as quickly as possible, and got this…

Not the greatest shot, but with only a moment to spare before it was off again, not too bad.

After the glasses fiasco, we had to stop at Wegmans on the way home to pick up something for dinner. When we finally got home, everyone was tired. We had made plans to have an early dinner with Jeff’s parents for Mother’s Day, but I intended to sleep in LATE Sunday morning.

I think I finally got up around 1 on Mother’s Day. It was wonderful to sleep in! Jeff took me to Starbucks for a chai, then we had dinner with his parents. I had really wanted to go to the Lilac Festival for Mother’s Day, so we went around 6 and looked at all the pretty flowers. It was cool and there were not mobs of people, so it was very enjoyable.

Both of the trees above were very beautiful and large as you can tell from Erin standing in front of one with four arms?

The sky was somewhat overcast but it was right before dusk so the colors were awesome.

This guy was giving carriage rides up and down Highland Ave.

Colgate Divinity School is across the street from the park. It is an old building with some great architecture.

Erin doing her Vanna White impersonation…I think Erin is much cuter!

Please correct me if I am wrong, I don’t know flowers well, but I think these are magnolias. Between the two trees there were tons of blossoms!

The pansy bed took quite a beating in the wind and rain late last week. They were looking a little sad, but I found a few pretty specimens.

Even the birds seem to enjoy the lilacs…

Sarah, looking very serious while discovering that her new glasses are the same color as one variety of lilacs.

This is a water feature in front of the cooperative extension building. I am a sucker for running water.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Jeff pointed out these beautiful blossoms.

It was very chilly, but we really enjoyed the flowers without the crowds! This concludes my Mothers Day adventures. We went home and I chilled until passing out around 1 AM from exhaustion.