Outrageous!

In Newport the other day, a 10 year old kid was running from another boy who had been chasing him with a dirty diaper. He ran smack into a car and slid across the hood causing an 18 inch long crease and scratch. Newport police have charged the boy with first degree criminal mischief, a felony punishable by up to five years in juvenile detention.

Now kids will be kids. This little boy didn't do it on purpose and couldn't have known that the 36 year old car was worth so much. He probably doesn't even know much about money yet.

Furthermore what is a all original, 1971, mint condition Ferrari worth $1.5M doing parked on the street at 9th and Washington in Newport anyway? Repairs are estimated to cost over $200K. I don't know many single mothers with six children from Newport who could afford to pay that.

Sigh, original story here.

Zoo Babies!

I came home from work today and looked outside and found that one of our babies has emerged from the nest. I went out and took a couple pictures and actually managed to get really close. The bunny just stayed real still, only thing moving was that twitching nose. Came back inside and talked to Camille for a bit and walking past the window, looked out again and saw two of them out there! I told Camille and she walked outside to take a peek for herself. Imagine her surprise when she spotted the third was out of the nest as well.

The invasion continues...

I caught the chipmunk out again and managed to prevent him from going back under the stairs. instead he ran off into the neighbor's yard. I went over and peeked over the fence and got a great big surprise. A giant snapping turtle climbing out of their pool. I ran back and got my camera just in time to catch the turtle making it out. Looks to be an interesting summer if this kind of stuff continues.

I'm having some issues with my internet connection that are really ticking me off so you'll just have to check my flickr account for photos of the turtle.

I'm being invaded!

Ok, first it was Cutworms, devouring all the leaves of my trees, then moles, or assumed to be moles that were digging all over the yard. Then it was rabbits digging holes for a nest in the back yard. Now it is chipmunks. I knew that I had seen one in my neighbor's yard a couple of months ago but now I caught on right on my back steps. When I opened the patio door, he ran right into his little hole under the steps. Sigh, its off to the store I go for some concrete to fill the big cracks and other gaps where the steps have worn away.

I really don't mind the little creatures so long as they keep their nests in the woods. I was looking up options for getting rid of chipmunks and one was fox urine pellets. I'd sprinkle some of that but then I'd probably chase off the rabbit too which I don't want to do until her babies leave.

You would think that the smell of the dog would keep them away but noooo! they come anyway!

Bunny is back

Good news. Evidently rabbits don't abandon their young like birds do if there is a foreign smell in the nest. After all the calls we made when we found the nest, someone called Camille the next day and said to keep the dog away for about three weeks. That the mother would return twice a day to feed her young. I had seen her last night on the hill but never saw her make it back to the nest. This morning when I woke up though, all was good as momma had returned.

Angel and the bunny rabbit

ok, so I was walking through the dining room and saw Angel laying on the steps outside as usual when we let her out. She had her head up, looking at something so I decided to check it out. Turns out there was a rabbit in our backyard and totally within Angel's reach. I was so surprised that she wasn't doing anything. I ran and grabbed Camille so she could get a look and got my camera to get a picture. Well I guess this was enough for Angel as she went after and chased off the rabbit. After she came back, angel was checking out the spot where the rabbit had been sitting. Turned out to be a nest of babies. WOW! After taking angel back inside and not really sure what to do other than not touching the nest we called around to several places and never really got an answer. Looks like Angel is going to get to see the neighborhood now.

The really amazing thing is that Eric had just mowed the yard yesterday. Makes you wonder if the nest was there yesterday.

Seems to be the day for finding things. I was coming home from Lowe's today and saw the ground moving in between my flowers in the front. We've had a real bad problem with moles lately. I stepped on the ground where it was moving and it didn't move no mo! Hopefully that took care of one of them.

Funeral for a fallen soldier.

I had just come out of Jersey Mike's grabbing my lunch when I ran into the police blocking off the intersection of Kenwood and Montgomery Roads. A bystander informed me that a funeral procession was about to go through, so I grabbed my camera. I didn't even know who it was for at the time. I later found out that it was for Army Specialist Michael Frank who died in Iraq last week. I then sat in my car in a moment of silence for the fallen soldier. Watching the procession made me realize that this is as close as the Iraq war has come to affecting my daily life. A 15 minute delay out of my busy day. It makes you think about how little we as americans have had to sacrifice for this war, while thousands of families around the country have had to endure tremendous loss.

More Power!

So, last week I bought a new power washer because the deck was turning green. I've never seen the patio any other color so I decided to try it out. WOW! There's concrete under there. Funny thing is walking on it barefoot and wet, the green side actually felt slimy. Yech! I just wish I had tried the other nozzle on the deck first. I wound up stripping off the stain/sealer/whatever the previous owners used. For the record, I did learn from my mistake and tried the flat spray nozzle on the concrete first and learned that it doesn't do jack there. Now I get the joy of finishing stripping it and resealing the deck. sounds like a fun weekend project if my weekends weren't getting taken away by work.

One of our ATM techs quit so I get to fill in his schedule for 3 weeks. to be fair, i'm not the only one getting punished like this. there are two others. The last of us is actually going to take that schedule permanent in exchange for no longer being on call. I just hate it. Monday and Tuesday 1-10pm Wednesday and Thursday off and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 8-5pm. To top it off I'll probably be on call for two weeks when I return from this nightmare.

They're Baaack!

The Cutworms are back this year. This time however, I'm going at them early. Last year we were on vacation and came back to find the trees, deck and house covered in them. This year at first sight, I went out and bought a bottle of insecticide that attaches to the hose and another hose so I can reach to the bottom of the yard. I WILL have leaves on my trees this year dammit! Thankfully the day after I spotted them, Eric came and mowed the yard which I'm sure took care of some of them, and then that night I sprayed the yard down. Hopefully it works enough to protect the trees. It got hot in the house without the leaves to block that afternoon sun.

More on finding old friends.

Well, the search for old friends continues. We really seem to be making progress in locating people which is pretty cool in itself. What makes it cooler is that Jeremy and I had been searching for one of our friends for the last two weeks. We thought we were getting close because we were finding all sorts of stuff, blog comments he had made and old email addresses. The amazingly enough, he contacted Jeremy. wow. Thats two more in the last two days.

Ever do a Google search for yourself? Kind of amazing all this stuff that just stays out there. My name can't be all that common and a few years ago a Google search would have found an old bulletin from my church. Now there's all kinds of stuff and it isn't me. Somewhere out there is a baseball field named Darrell Snodgrass field. cool. found a comment I made on an NPR website, and found out that there is a Darrell Snodgrass living in Arkansas somewhere and another in Alaska. There was also a battle in the civil war where the Confederates drove Union forces off of Snodgrass Hill somewhere near Knoxville.

The web is an amazing source of info sometimes, but you really can't control it.

Communications or lack thereof.

"It's a bit dangerous out there, and I guess men have to choose between marriage and death. I guess they figure that with marriage at least they get meals. But then they get married and find out we don't cook anymore." - Rita Rudner

Tonight was one of those rare nights where Camille was actually in the mood to cook. So naturally since I'm on call, I get called out because one of the night guys has disappeared for hours on end and isn't answering his phone. So much for dinner. Grr. Oh and guess what, I change back into my work clothes, drive 40 minutes to the store and just as I'm ready to pull into the parking lot, the guy comes back and says he'll take the calls back and that I can go home. Talk about frustrating.

It did get funny once I got home however as earlier in the day, Camille had bought flowers for the bed that runs along the front of the house. I get home and she has started planting them. I walk up the steps and she says " I have no clue what I'm doing, come back out here and help me. and I keep digging up worms." I come back out and she's planted them all right, but she never bothered to split out the plants. She removed the plastic from the six pack of petunias and just planted the thing whole, without separating them. So I show her how to separate and plant the things and just for kicks I threw a worm at her and told her to get used to them if she was gonna plant stuff.

We did manage to eat together tonight after all the planting had been done which made for a nice end to a hectic day.