Much better

[altivo]

But Thursday usually is, because I get a chunk of it to myself, even at work.

Remember last spring when I went to see the marsh marigolds in bloom and Timmie gave me a big hunk of showy white trillium root?

I divided that root into five pieces, and planted them in several spots around our place here. They all did still bloom last year (the buds were already showing when I got it) but I was concerned that they might not all survive the winter. They did. Checking yesterday and today, I found all five pieces coming up again, and all of them have flower buds. Hooray! Photos when the flowers open.

Hearing unfamiliar birds around, even though it's been cloudy and raining much of the day. I suspect the warblers are starting to pass through. We will be going to count birds, especially the migrants passing through, a week from Saturday. Wish us sunny weather, please. Last year was gloomy, cold, and rainy.

I have committed a small splurge. I do have a nice tax refund coming, but it will all be eaten by the property taxes. I'm not getting a raise (no one is) but this month had three paydays in it instead of two. Consequently, I have purchased three modest but utterly unnecessary things: a Carcassonne game because I'm curious about it (both the table board game version and the computer version,) a plush okapi (Webkins) because it looks so cute, and a lion puppet from Folkmanis. I may buy some clothes too, but good quality is so expensive... and cheap Walmart stuff doesn't last.

The latest issue of Audubon magazine arrived today and has articles on both Florida black bears and urban coyotes. Some great photos, including a coyote riding a shuttle train in Portland, and people trying to coax a coyote out from under a taxi in Chicago.

Bedtime. One more work day this week, and no major plans for the weekend I think. Yay!

Comments

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Trapa owns Carcassonne. I'm not a huge fan, but it's not the worst game ever. I'm just not good at the level of anticipation it requires when it comes to figuring out what your fellow players are going to do for the next five rounds. A large part of that may be my lack of social skills.

[altivo]

Social skills require practice. Face to face gaming, as opposed to the online kind, does help provide that practice.

Carcassonne comes highly recommended. I like table top games, especially if they are strategy based and don't involve dice or other random elements. It also helps if they are flexible as to the number of players and only take an hour or two to complete. This one seems to meet all those requirements, though I haven't actually played it so we shall see.

Settlers of Catan also interests me, but it costs more and seems to be less flexible as to number of players.

[schnee]

The latest issue of Audubon magazine arrived today and has articles on both Florida black bears and urban coyotes. Some great photos, including a coyote riding a shuttle train in Portland, and people trying to coax a coyote out from under a taxi in Chicago.

Thanks for that mention; it turns out they have the article on their website, too, and it's a fascinating read. The photos are exclusive to the magazine, though, it seems.

[altivo]

A Google image search pulled up the coyote on the shuttle train, which I found to be the most fascinating:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSxIztlCS1xEamqgaGR24QTZ7dtSFzZ7KDKK3OoBAVOb1CHOrSmeA

[altivo]

I should have supplied the search argument: urban coyote

[schnee]

Thanks! That's amazing, yes.