May 05, 2003 - 8:39 p.m.

Animal Mishaps

So, anybody want to hear about the rest of the reunion and weekend? Like it or not, here it comes! :)

Saturday night, I got all dressed up for my class' party at the Tennessee Aquarium. I actually had a pretty good time. The food was decent, the margaritas strong and tasty, and the women not too catty. I got to see several of my old friends with whom I hadn't been in touch for years. My friend Margaret was there with her two week old baby boy - so precious! Margaret really is a superwoman. She is still on active duty in the Navy, teaches at the Naval Academy, and has two kids under the age of 2! Wow! I always knew she'd do a lot with her life, though. We all used to say we wouldn't be surprised if she ended up being the first female president. I also managed to avoid having to gab with most of the people I really didn't like in school. They pretty much kept to themselves at one table, and Bafley and I agreed we didn't care in the least that they never came over to say hello. Most people seemed to have mellowed and grown up a lot, thank goodness, but some were still obviously caught up in their superficial lives, and I had no desire to have to feign interest in their designer clothes, powerful husbands, and tennis club days.

Since the party was at the aquarium, we got to go around and see all the fish and even the special seahorse exhibit, which was really cool! In one section they have all kinds of different ducks, and one had escaped over the glass wall that bordered their pond. Since its wings were clipped, it couldn't get back up and over the wall so it was wandering around the path in an agitated manner. An employee was hesitant to grab the bird, since he was afraid it would bite him. He said I could try, but when I got close to the duck it was flapping its wings so much I feared I would hurt it. Finally one of my classmates' husband managed to get his hands under it enough to guide it back into the pool. It was pretty funny. Then, as we were leaving the bird area, Bafley got shat upon by a feathered friend in the trees above. She wasn't pleased, but I found it pretty funny!

The other animal mishap occurred yesterday. My mom has four birds, finches, and she wanted me to take pictures of them with my digital camera so she can email them to people. I was having trouble getting a good shot with the cage bars in my way, so I opened the cage door. Unsurprisingly, one of the birds managed to make a break for it past me. It fluttered around the room up near the ceiling for a few moments, then landed on the arm of a chair. It handed even been there a full second when my parents' five month-old Aussie Shepard grabbed it in her mouth. I nearly had a heart attack! I cowered by the cage thinking my mom was going to kill me for letting her bird get eaten by the dog. The puppy trotted over to my dad who managed, pretty easily actually, to get her to open her mouth and release the bird. We were all relieved when the bird immediately flew over to a windowsill, seeming none the worse for her brief stint in the puppy penthouse. We got the dog out of the room and the bird back in the cage. Much to my relief, as of when I left yesterday afternoon, the bird seemed fine. We think Feather may even have been trying to help, since she didn't harm the bird at all and ran straight to my dad after catching it rather than away from up to chow down. It was certainly a stressful episode, though I don't think my mom harbors any ill-will toward me over it!

I got back home last night, safe and sound, and was back at work this morning, albeit a bit exhausted. It was great to see my family and old friends, but it was a long way to go for a weekend! Hopefully I can get a good night's sleep tonight.

The day passed pretty uneventfully with the kids. They really are getting good at playing together - compromising and cooperating. Their latest game is to pretend they each have a pet dragon. B has had an imaginary dragon-friend named Sunny for quite some time, and it's cute to see the older girls taking their cue from him for a change. The arrival of the imaginarly dragons prompted M to say today that her old imaginary friend, Suie the ghost, had left to go haunt people. :) It is amazing the things that kids come up with!

Today I also helped the kids make a bracelet for their mom for Mother's Day. I got some pretty glass beads in green, turquoise, and blue in varying shpaes and sizes. I let each kid make a strand in one color and I am going to put them all together to form a three strand bracelet. The colors look really nice together, and S will be able to wear it and easily identify which part was made by each child, since each has its own color. I am pretty pleased with myself for coming up with the idea, since I hate having the kids make things for their parents that will just get stuffed in a cabinet or drawer and never looked at or used again. This was a project that was easy and fun for the kids, but the end result is quite stylish. Maybe when I finish putting the clasp parts on, I will take a picture and post it so everyone can see how well it turned out.

today's project: Mother's Day bracelet

musing about: when I will get the info packet on the allegedly free cruise

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flutter back - fly ahead