Archive for August, 2009
There was some crazy bird flocking – swarming, really – around the house tonight. I was actually in the process of getting pictures of our little jailbird here when Sean called me outside to see the actual birdie craziness that was going on.
The birds were swooping in wide arcs, and sometimes it seemed there was more than one group, maybe they were trying to gather more of their kind together! (Is it a migratory thing maybe? Already?) I’m not sure what kind of birds these are, but the group of them was huge. (You can click on a picture in the gallery below to view it larger. Sorry, there’s the jailbird again because that’s just how WordPress’s gallery works and I don’t feel like taking the time to figure out how to remove it. Besides, more baby is good!)
I didn’t wind up getting a picture that accurately gives the scale here, it was an impressive sight. They would wheel about, and try to land all together in a tree or a particular spot in the field. I’ve seen birds do things like this before, but it’s still weird to see. I don’t think Lana caught much of what was going on, exactly, but she liked it when the whole group flew over us a couple of times.
Gillian Owens is a character played by Nicole Kidman in the movie Practical Magic. Gillian is the sister who runs away to start living life as soon as she can; the party girl who basically goes from man to man trying to find one who sticks. When one of the men is trouble for her, she comes home and needs her sister, Sally, to help her out with a little of the family magicks.
I loved this movie, and also the book by Alice Hoffman that the movie was based on. It’s about being afraid, and how we decide to deal with our fears, especially in the context of relationships. Gillian is a bit of a trouble-maker, the wild-child, and I’m sure I could come up with a few more stereotypical hyphenations, but her place here is as a foil for her more conservative sister.
Just watched most of Mamma Mia. I had expected badness, but it’s only as silly as any other musical, and was fun to watch. I’d complain about having “Dancing Queen” stuck in my head now except that it beats the “free credit report” song that was stuck there previously.
Lana is hilarious. Her aunt got her a bear that sings and talks when you press certain buttons: She plays one of the songs on it over and over, and sways to it. You’d think that would be stuck in my head, but it’s a relatively mild earworm (unlike the other songs I’ve mentioned).
Lana crawls around and pulls herself up on everything she can – this isn’t exactly new, but the skill level involved is evolving. She’s taken several minor tumbles, though she cries more for ones that scare her as opposed to ones that hurt her (not that any of them have actually hurt her). Most recently she’s started playing chase: Sean walks around a corner, and she crawls like mad until she sees him, then giggles. He then ducks behind the next corner, and she scurries to catch him again. She’ll play this game with me, as well, though Daddy gets more giggles from it.
Also, she got a fifth tooth very shortly after the last time I posted about her teeth. She’s growing too fast! Soon she’ll be singing Abba songs at me and planning a wedding…
Okay, probably not, but she’s still growing too fast.
Delirium is a character in the DC Vertigo series The Sandman written by Neil Gaiman. While her hair is technically multicolored, I notice that several (not all) of the artists make the bulk of it red, as if that were her true hair color to which the other colors are applied. I am counting her among the “redheads” for that reason, and also because it amuses me to do so (which would probably be reason enough to her).
Delirium is the youngest of the Endless. She used to be Delight, but she changed for reasons no one knows. She often seems random, mostly appearing interested in fun and whimsical chaos, enamoured of bubbles and butterflies.
