Buds and Tennis

Tennis Buds

Yellow Buds

Droopy Buds

Big green buds

Beautiful White Bark

Should be Warm Enough to Swim in a Couple Months

There's A Huge Anti-Smoking Campaign Here

24 flavors of soft serve. Maybe I'll go to the park with them more often.

Pussywillow Wednesday

I think these began blooming in mid March of last year, so we're over a month behind last year's weather schedule.

Hauling out the yard bunnies--I don't remember the fat one on the right, though. Seems like the grass greened out overnight.

Obligatory photo of Rusty

Calculus = Love

Can you tell which paper is mine?

W and his dad finished their calculus course a few months ago. He wanted to watch all of the lectures again, so out of motherly love (or maybe I'd been crabby to him and was trying to make up for it) I promised to participate. Yuck. Watching the videos are easy, because I can daydream and secretly nap, but then there are the homework problems... His dad is a better person than I am, because he seems to enjoy it, even the second time around. W's a great tutor, seriously. He explains and explains, without ever losing patience. I get more questions correct than I should. Most of the time I just yell out secant x tangent x or two pi over three, and surprisingly, it's  often the right answer.  Please don't tell him.

Birds of a Feather...

 I was in the bedroom packing away our heavier winter clothes when I heard a loud thunk on the window.  Another little bird had flown into it again. After watching him sit slumped on the shrub, I decided to go outside to see if it was alright. I carried him to the porch and let him soak up some sun, then I brought him inside while I grabbed the camera. He was obviously still a bit loopy, so we went back out to wait. A few minutes later he perked up and clasped my fingers with his feet. A few more minutes passed and he flew up to the tree. Shortly after that he flew away.

See his crooked feet?  He's still pretty dizzy.

Feeling a bit better

Now he's able to grab my fingers

He's barely visible, in the middle of the pic.

Sunday

 It was cold and windy yesterday, with a bit of snow, but it is a beautiful day today. The guys went to play tennis, while I cooked some sausage and noodles. Then I took Rusty on a long walk.  Since there's no longer any snow for him to eat, he's turned to his second favorite snack, deer poop. We found this odd tree down near the road. I guess a bit of rain from a few days ago somehow pooled in the branches and ran down the trunk, even though it doesn't look like there's much space there at all, plus it's over 50 degrees now.

Buds!

I'm Bored and It's Snowing

Who keeps their canned goods and boxes of pasta in the fridge? Also(and this is a blurry pic), Good Housekeeping, your advice to skip the in-the-door water/ice because of possible service costs is probably not a big deal breaker for those who can afford to spend $2700-$3500 on a refrigerator.

In other news-- http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/11/ticked-off-about-a-growing-aller.html
  How awful. Wouldn't it be a shame if Nate got bit by one of these Lone Star ticks. What would he eat?

Early Morning Turkeys

Five

Coming Closer

This one walked right past all the living room windows

Dava Sobel and Geneseo

   We went to Geneseo last week for their accepted student day. W got to listen to a humanities lecture, eat lunch , and visit with a math professor. K and I had a much nicer meal at an inn while listening to different people speak. There was a professor or administrator seated at each table. We really lucked out-we were seated next to a retired physics prof who now coaches the girls' tennis team, and an alumni director who grew up in Wellsville.  By the end of the day Walt knew he'd made the best decision. Three days later he got the letter stating he'd been accepted to the Edgar Fellows program. One hundred were invited(out of 900+) and 30 were chosen. They'll put the whole group in the same dorm, so now we know he'll be living in the Dante House.
  Yesterday we went back to the  campus for their student project day. There were posters, presentations, and musical concerts.  The keynote speaker was Dava Sobel, author of Galileo's Daughter. We'd read it together, and it's a great book. Yesterday she spoke about Copernicus. At one point she was comparing the problems the 16th-17th century church had with astronomy to those groups today who find fault with modern day science. I got a bit uncomfortable, thinking someone was going to argue, and then it dawned on me. We're in New York--at a university that emphasizes science! You can't imagine how giddy I felt then,  knowing that this was the atmosphere Walt will be in for the next few years.

Their project presentation day is called GREAT Day

Dava Sobel Signing the Book

Her Most Recent Novel

Because The Earth Turns

 

Apparently Not

Enough Already

We woke up to snow this morning. One of us was ecstatic.

Can It Be??

Rusty, Again

Talking To His Ball

Listening To His Ball

Snacking on the last of the snow, as fast as he could. It's a bit sad to see it gone. 
Bazinga!

See You Tomorrow

It's Epic Bath time. The doctor told me no baths, only showers, for a whole month. I hate showers. I've got candles, a good book, and a new bar of yummy smelling soap. I've given orders not to be disturbed for the remainder of the evening.

Ursinus

   First,  Ursinus is pronounced with a long I, sort of like Ur- sinus.  Second, don't let the person who took pain pills  be in charge of the photo taking. Most had the ipad cover obscuring half of each picture. We loved the campus.  I loved it so much that I can't stop thinking how it should have been the school I went to eons ago. It's beautiful.  The kids were intelligent and calm, the teachers were so down to earth, and the officials were amazing. They have a science program funded by HHMI that sounds perfect.  Every freshman has to take a seminar/writing class that includes reading Galileo,  Socrates,  Nietzsche, Descartes, and the Communist Manifesto.  How incredibly amazing is that? Their cafeteria food has zero trans fat. The laundry services are free. They have a nice art museum. Their Physics dept. was extra small(10 kids graduating this year).  Walt thinks he likes Geneseo more, though. Also, even with his $30,000 scholarship we'd still be taking out close to 20,000 a year in loans. It's tough.  He has just a couple more days to decide. All in all, it was a sunny, gorgeous day, and we all desperately needed to get out of the house.  I was so tired by the time we got home that I went to bed and slept for 12 hours.

There was also a sign that said  "Aggressive Driver High Crash Area"

That darn ipad cover...this tunnel warned us to remove our sunglasses.

Dormitory--I love the stone buildings. Can you see the tree getting ready to bloom? There were even bulbs flowering! I think Spring is getting near.

Oldest Building on Campus

Inside the Chapel

I think this was the library.  It smelled like a library should.

Isn't he cute?

I was walking very slowly by this time.

Inside the turnpike tunnel.

Ignore the dirty windshield-see all that dark shrubbery?  Those are rhododendron! They filled the woods all along the road. I bet they're beautiful when blooming.

Wonderful World

I found this book at the antique shop in Hornell a few months ago. It was published in 1884.  Inside, it's described as "The World's Wonders, as seen by Tropical and Polar Explorers--a history of savage races of men, curious and ferocious animals, strange and deadly serpents, weird  forests, mysterious growths, and marvelous phenomena."
  I'm reading the chapter about angry mias.  Next up is the island of Lombock where a certain tribe of people "run a muck" for no apparent reason through the village, killing indiscriminately, and then commit suicide.

More Dog

A Treat?  A Walk?  Get Up, Get Up!

Dreaming Of Warm Weather

Proud To Be an Educational Elitist

http://vereloqui.blo...elites-are.html

"Above is a link to an article that stresses an interesting reason for teaching grammar.  Lots of Christian content, so beware if you are opposed to reading any.

Whaddya say?  I, for one, am so glad that me and my kids have studied grammar so intensively! "

===================================================================

 The author is well known and admired among many homeschoolers. I've always considered him to be  a pompous know it all. ( I know how easy it is to make mistakes while chatting on a message board, but the posting above just really tickled my funny-bone.)