A Big Day For Rebecca

Today was a big day for Rebecca. First of all, we picked up our THIRD family car, a 2001 PT Cruiser, (Just under 28,000 miles...literally driven by a little old couple.) which is mostly aimed at our soon-to-be third driver. Rebecca will be getting her Learner's Permit on or around her 16th birthday (July 17) and then she can get her Driver's License 6 months later. This car is an automatic transmission car, so it will be Rebecca's primary practice car and then the car she'll drive when she gets her license.

In addition to all of the car excitement, Rebecca began her first paying job today, working as a "Staff" person for the Summer Camp at the Melrose YMCA. This is certainly good timing, as someone has got to pay for the gas in this new car!
The PT Cruiser is a fun little car and we have no doubt that Rebecca will look great behind the wheel. How is Dad going to look in the passenger seat? Probably a little scared and a lot proud!

Still On Patrol!

The Praying Mantis hatchlings that we released into the yard recently are still on patrol. They've turned from a kind of light beige color to more of a brown color and they're on the hunt for food amongst the flowers and vegetables in our garden.

All you need to do is stand still for a while and observe. Eventually, they'll catch your eye.

They're still pretty small, but hopefully a lot of them will make it to adulthood, because of feeding on garden pests.

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TIMBERRRRRRRR!

Today we accomplished one of the last big spring jobs for this year, getting some trees taken out from the back border of our backyard.

This was the "Before" picture. (Click on it or any others to expand them in size.)
Here they are, Kenneally's Tree Service, hard at work!

Watch that sawdust fly!

This was one MEAN machine...a chipper that would handle anything up to 15 inches in diameter!

...and here is the "After" picture. They did a nice job removing the trees and cleaning up afterwards. You'd hardly know that they were here! (Yes...there are some wacky little bends in these panorama pictures due to the process of joining individual pictures. Don't worry...the shed and the swingset aren't really bent!)

PRAYING FOR FEWER INSECTS IN THE GARDEN!

When Steve & Erik came back from fishing today, Erik noticed that the Praying Mantis egg sacks that we'd received weeks ago had finally started to hatch. There were a lot of Praying Mantis babies crawling around the inside of the aquarium.

We observed the babies for a while and then took the aquarium out to our garden and tipped it on its side so that they can crawl out and begin the job of protecting our garden from pests.

GO GET 'EM GUYS!

THE DUKE OF TURTLE

Erik and Steve went fishing this morning in nearby Martin's Pond. We caught a lot of little fish and we also accidentally caught this guy. Thankfully, he didn't actually get hooked. He bit the worm and never let go until we lifted him up.

Now we've got another temporary pet for the summer, along with Fugi. This guy is now officially named the

Duke Of Turtle.

We've got him set up in a nice 38 gallon aquarium and we'll observe him for a while before letting him go.

SPRING SOCCER

Erik's Spring Soccer came to an end last weekend. For the last game, which took place on a very hot, sticky day, they were short a few players too. The boys that did show up gave it their all and while they lost the game, it was a good end to the season. This was likely Erik's last season of soccer and he did pretty well all season. (Erik is third from left)

They also knew how to be silly now and then!

We call it FUGI

For the last year or two, we've had another resident in our house, in a manner of speaking. We've had, living between our house's siding and the house itself, a friendly little garter snake. While last year's temporary summer pet was a turtle that Erik accidentally caught while fishing, we decided to make this garter snake this year's temporary summer pet.

After the snake was seen a few times basking in the sun near our newly rebuilt front stoop, we went outside with a net and blocked its entrance to its hiding place inside of our siding. He crawled right into the net and so it began.

Erik decided that since the snake crept around the outside of the house like a fugitive, it should be called "Fugi". Fugi is now in the house (the basement specifically), living the good life in his newly set up habitat. As you can see in this picture, he likes it on top of this tree stump and has already shed his skin once.

We've taken the time to do some research on garter snakes and have set up a heated zone on one side of the habitat, so that the snake can vary its temperatures as it sees fit. We've also learned about feeding garter snakes and have so far successfully fed Fugi worms a few times. We're going to branch out into other foods shortly, though I'll spare you the gruesome details of this feeding.

So far, we're really enjoying our visit from Fugi. In a few weeks to a couple of months, we'll return him to the wild, though likely not in our yard. I'd really rather he lived somewhere besides the exterior of our house.

MUNCHEN

The day after Rebecca's confirmation, Steve had to take off for a business trip in the Munich, Germany area, specifically a little town outside of Munich called Ismaning.

The hotel was a nice little place called Zur Post, which was located in the middle of Ismaning. It was surrounded, front and back, by lovely little streams that were teeming with trout. (No...I didn't have a fly fishing setup at my disposal!)

While the trip was a typical business trip, with some long days, we did get to take a trip into Munich one evening. The Glockenspiel was not operating when we went by, but it was fun to look at anyway.

After dinner, we went to the Hofbrauhaus for a little nightcap.

The band was lively and everyone was in good spirits.

OKAY...maybe that nightcap wasn't so little. We only had one though before heading back to the hotel for some well needed sleep.

The town of Ismaning, as is pretty typical of small towns in the area, had its own Maypole.

It also had some very quaint landmarks and settings, including this lovely bridge and a statue to honor veterans of World War I.

When all was said and done though, while Germany sure is a beautiful and fascinating place, it was nice to come back home!

Confirmation

On Saturday, May 17, we celebrated Rebecca's confirmation.

It was fun to share the event with family, which included Rebecca's sponsor, her grandmother.

We even dressed up...a bit!

No grandparent could resist getting a picture with Rebecca on her special day.

All in all, it was a very nice day. It was nice that so many relatives made the trip and the weather cooperated nicely. Congratulations Rebecca!