They noticed.

Remember that whole hundred-year-old man thing?

Today Barry got a bonus. And a raise.

They noticed.

Wedding in Pakistan

The Stahl family wants Aisha and Humayun to know that you are in our thoughts this week and that we are so very happy for you! Many, many blessings on you and your families.

A Big Day for Little Miss A

Daddy took the training wheels off today and she just zoomed off. She is so confident.

Hundred-Year-Old Man

My husband is in the midst of a sticky situation at work. He was taken off a shoot that he doesn't particularly enjoy but in which he takes considerable pride, and had to hire a photographer on contract to take his place. It was a real blow to his pride and confidence in himself as a photographer. To pour salt on fresh wounds, he was still asked to go on the shoot to be the producer, which means he has to observe all the photography and facilitate the whole operation while keeping hands off the camera. It's very hard for him, yet he knew he had to remain professional for the sake of both the client and his company.

Barry told me the other night that he has fixed on a plan for what to do when he wonders how he should react to something. He tries to imagine what a hundred-year-old man would do in his situation and react with the same maturity and perspective.

I think it's a great idea. I feel like getting him a wristband that reads "WW100D?" to help him remember his new strategy.

Home from Baltimore

I went to Baltimore to do some training for my new position. I flew out Saturday and spent Sunday in northern Virginia with Aaron and Vania and the children, then drove back up to Baltimore Sunday night for meetings Monday and Tuesday. I was supposed to get home last night, but missed my connection in Chicago and so got to hole up in a Chicago hotel and try again this morning.

It's sure good to be home.

Frank B. Kellogg High School Class of 1980 Reunion

It's really gonna happen. August 20th is the date. Though our school is no more, we are going to gather to pretend we recognize old faces, lie about how great everybody looks and dive into the food that we have been denying ourselves for two months in a last-ditch effort to lose a few pounds.

Lots of folks are MIA, so if you know any of the people on the "Find Classmates" page, please point them there.

Lucy Update

Sorry, I should have told you all how things turned out for little Lucy Goose. She quickly outgrew the cage we had for her here, so we sent her home to the farm a week early. And she did fine. She tested a bit but quickly accepted that goslings are not for eating, and joined the rest of the little flock happily. Lucy is probably Brucie, he/she is the largest of the goslings, but whatever; s/he is happy.

Testing from Photobucket

Oh, this is kewl. You can upload a photo to Photobucket, then click "blog" and it will post it right to your blog. If this works, that is.

Tea Party By the Pond

The girls had a tea party by our backyard pond this afternoon. They served lots of junk food and invited Susie, Natalie and a plush bunny to attend.

June 1st Update

It's been awhile since I had time to blog. Lots of stuff going on here. For one thing, the in-laws visited for the past week, heading home this morning. They sneaked out this morning an hour and a half earlier than they had told us to expect, so we didn't even get to say goodbye. We just saw the car pulling out. Argh! At least we had lovely weather for their visit and they enjoyed the children, and my mother-in-law washed dishes constantly and my father-in-law worked on the dining room remodel with Barry, so they were a big help in those ways.

Another thing that happened was that I have been offered a promotion within the company I work for, Medquist. We've been working on this for a couple of weeks now and the actual offer came through last night. I'm about to send off the email accepting it. I will be a supervisor of medical transcriptionists, working on scheduling so that contracted turnaround times are met and the MTs get as much work as they need and want without feeling completely overwhelmed (or so that is my assignment). I need to travel to Baltimore in mid June for training. I'm excited about the trip, but not happy about leaving my family, even for a few days.

And finally we have yet another pet in the family: Lucy Goose.



Evidently the US Postal Service quit contracting with FedEx for its air freight and switched to USAir, which is, of course, in bankruptcy. So it's cancelling flights and leaving laden jets on runways, sometimes for days. My friend Kathleen ordered a batch of ducklings and goslings from a hatchery, and they were caught in this mess, arriving at her house after a week rather than the 1-2 days that is hoped for. It was horrible. All but 4 goslings were dead. The four survived by cannibalism. Geese are vegetarians by nature, so these were confused little geese. Three of them bounced back and switched to a proper goose diet and began rapidly making up lost ground, but one just couldn't get it through her little head that she has plenty to eat now. She was attacking the other goslings and doing serious damage to wings and necks.

So my friend asked us to take her for a couple of weeks for some serious lovin' therapy and see if we can't get her turned around. She's isolated from my chickens and given lots of good starter crumble, plus I've been putting her on the lawn quite a bit so she can taste grass, white clover, sorrel and dandelion greens. She's eating very well and growing almost visibly. And she is so sweet! She follows people and is frantic if left behind. She cries piteously if left alone in her wire cage for even a moment, so in desperation, we finally got my youngest's largest doll, a 34-inch companion doll, and sat her outside the cage with her face turned toward the gosling, and that did the trick. Lucy sits as close as she can to the doll and talks quietly to her by the hour.



If after her two weeks probation are up, she can be reintegrated with the other young geese, we will have succeeded. If she is still imprinted for hurting the other geese, then she will have to be destroyed.