After 4 days and over 4 inches of rain, we’ve got flooding here in parts of Northern Virginia, with sink holes sucking down roads and homes here and there.  And last week we had a minor earthquake.  And there was another earthquake recently in Indiana.

Wildfires in Florida and Colorado.

Hurricanes across the middle of the country, through Arkansas, Oklahoma and more.

Tremendously huge earthquake in China.

Hurricane Katrina.  The tsunami in Indonesia not long ago.

These are just the big ones that have stuck in my mind – I’m sure there are many more natural disasters in the last couple years, spread all over the USA and all over the world.

If I didn’t know better….  I’d say Mother Nature was pissed off.

I had a terrific weekend. 

Saturday, my husband and I did a few errands but ended up (as usual) at the bookstore where we had lattes, perused the shelves, and bought the movie Juno which we watched when we got home.  My son and his fiancee arrived Friday night from Tennesee where they attend college, so we enjoyed their company as well.

Then yesterday, Mother’s Day, my husband and I went on a hike through Huntley Meadows Park — it’s an amazing sanctuary right in the middle of the city — and saw LOTS of birds including several that were first-time sightings for us both such as the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo and the Louisiana Waterthrush. 

(I didn’t try to juggle my camera on this trip.  I didn’t know what to expect and it’s heavy and I just didn’t feel like bothering.  And if I had carried my camera, I would’ve have been even more intimidated… we saw at least 2 guys at the park using super-mutant-giant telephoto lenses – similar to these – and my poor little Rebel XT with its 75-300mm would have been ashamed. I can always go back another day with my camera and get some shots now that I know what to look for.)

But the really amazing thing that happened yesterday was that my husband surprised me by having our middle child who goes to college in Alabama meet us at the Red, Hot, and Blue Restaurant for our late lunch!  She called me on my cell phone as we were en route to the restaurant to wish me Happy Mother’s Day…playing all innocent like she was still in Alabama, chatting about the weather and all… then as I approached the door to the restaurant, there she is coming out to greet me!  OMG!  I couldn’t believe it!  Everyone knew except me, and it was a wonderful surprise.  I had all my babies together for dinner with me.

(I wasn’t expecting her to be here until Tuesday.  Thursday, our oldest child is graduating from GMU and everyone was coming for that.)

Yesterday was the best Mother’s Day ever.

Just one of many Heron photos I took over the weekend at the nearby Occoquan River. 

It’s not the best picture I ever snapped, but it’s still cool to start the day with a new lifer – the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.

I counted as many as 15 goldfinches Saturday morning either on the feeder or waiting nearby for a turn.

I’ll have some new bird pictures for you later today or tomorrow.  It was Grand Birdy Central in my yard on Saturday – swarms of goldfinch – and yesterday we hiked in Mason Neck State Park and got a few shots of new feathered friends.

Also, I want to correct something I said last week… this book I’m reading, Escape by Carolyn Jessop…. Last week, I said that it a different branch of the same sect that was raided a few weeks ago in Texas.  I was wrong about that.  It’s the same group with the same leaders.  The author’s ex-husband, Merril Jessop, in fact, was leader of the group during the raid.  I thought it had to be a different group because in the book they’re located in Colorado City, AZ.  I don’t know yet how the group re-located to Texas, but it’s the same group right down to the prohibition against the color red.

Finally, I want to point out something I just this morning discovered.  Urea, as you may know, is a component of urine.  Some of the atoms contained in the urea molecule are aspartic acid, an amino acid.  Aspartic acid is also a main ingrediant of aspartame. 

Now, I’ve never liked aspartame.  It doesn’t taste good and even one swig of a drink ‘sweetened’ with it gives me an awful headache that lasts for hours.  It’s nasty awful stuff.  And that connection to urine sure doesn’t endear it to me, either.

Several things were going on yesterday.  The most unhappying thing was that my desktop computer wouldn’t boot up completely.  And it wouldn’t take any mouse or keyboard input.  When my husband got home from work, he did some computer geek magic and got it running so he could check the error logs.

Watchdog detected dead controller.

That was the error message.  We have no idea what it means.  But my husband did some more computer geek magic and determined that something was wonky with the USB connections.  He unplugged many of my devices and says my computer is on probation.  It’s running for now, but the diagnosis and prognosis are still unclear.

Other unhappying news:  for the last… I don’t know… maybe a month?… we’ve been getting non-stop automated calls from Citigroup and Citibank Universe.  Like, 5 times a day from each place – early, late, all day.  I know because my caller ID tells me it’s them.  I don’t answer the phone.  No one leaves a message.  But it’s damn annoying for the phone to go off up to 10 times a day – and that’s on top of the other telemarketing or campaign calls.  WTF ever happened to that “no call” list I signed us up for?  I’ll be gladder than a madder hatter when their computers decide our number no longer works and we’re deleted from their  memory.

Anyway, I spent a few hours at the library yesterday, then came home by way of the Wild Bird store where I bought a new hopper feeder for the deck, birdseed, suet, then I spent the afternoon refilling all the feeders and basking in the warm sun while watching the birds.

Saw a catbird today for the first time this season.

Also, I don’t know where Baby found it, but this afternoon she had the remains of a dead bird on the deck.  I don’t know whether she killed it (doubtful) or found it or if she ate any of it.  She gave it up easily enough though.  I put the poor little guy in the trash.

Other than that, there were just the ubiqitious sparrows, cardinal and robins.

And if you’re at all interested in the sect in Texas that was recently raided, I’m reading this book which is about a different group of the same branch of Mormons.  It’s a fascinating glimpse of how religious ideas can evolve into absolute beliefs and how people go along with them no matter how crazy they are.

Last night I observed a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class at the gym.  Everyone there was very nice and encouraged me to join.  There were about 20 men and 2 women.  I decided it wasn’t the sport for me, though.  There’s no punching.  It’s all grappling on the ground.  (I knew from reading about it that it focused on grappling, but didn’t get that there wasn’t anything else to it.)  It did look like hard work and many of the people had sweat pouring off them during the class, but it just wasn’t the sport for me.

I’ll keep looking though – find a Tae Kwon Do class or Karate class to observe.  Kickboxing or boxing would be ideal, but I haven’t seen any resources for those yet. 

I did my boxing drills yesterday, but I’ve had to cut out jump roping for the time being due to shin pain.  My shins didn’t hurt from my treadmill work, but jumping rope was becoming too painful.  So it’s out until I lose more weight.

So far, since January 1, I’ve lost 17 pounds.

Right now, I’m just doing the treadmill and boxing on Mon, Wed, Fri, – but next week I’m going to add back in some cardio on Tue and Thur as well as some strength or power training that will supplement the boxing.  I may add the kicking back into the boxing drills, too (ie, kickboxing) just to break up the monotony.  I took it out because it was straining my knees, plus it’s damn hard work, but I’m ready to add it back now.

And Powerhouse still isn’t open.  Or at least, they’ve not sent out the email telling anyone they’re open.  It’s ridiculous.  I signed up with them in February because they were going to have all this wonderful new equipment (including boxing stuff) and be opening very soon.  I’m still waiting. 

Happy Earth Day everyone!

This weekend, we celebrated the 21st birthday of our youngest child, our son.  A fun time was had by all. Friday and Saturday we had wonderful weather, but yesterday sucked, with rain all day, pouring heavily at times, and our son and his friends probably drove in rain all the way back to their college in Tennessee.

It’s supposed to rain most of today and tomorrow, too, and be chilly.  Which sucks.  I hate rain.  I hate chill.  But my days of chilly rain are limited now as we’re entering the final stretch before our long-planned move to San Antonio, TX.  We’re looking at the move happening in the summer of 2010. 

Today, I’ll have a boxing drills workout this afternoon.  This evening, I’m going to observe and get more information about a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class I’ve found out about that takes place at my gym. 

Any of you familiar with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?  What should I watch for during the class?  What should I ask about?  Any advice?