Hootie Hears a Hoot!

It's true!  This morning at about 5:45 I heard a Great Horned Owl outside our bedroom window.  What a treat for me.  Too bad I couldn't photograph or tape it to share.  

Halloween Swap???

Hurry or you might miss out!  

Kendra from The Bead Goes On...has inspired me to be a part of the 13 days of Halloween.  Check out Koala Fuzz for details.  

Hurry though!  If you want to join in the fun today is the last day to sign up!  :)

Some Days...

I must say, I do enjoy it when others post self-portraits on their blogs.  Most of the time I feel like they are more brave than me.  It's scary enough when someone comments with negative thoughts about someone else's writing...to attach one's photo is definitely soul exposing.  But...I'm feeling daring today.  

I don't 

par-

ticu-

larly 

like 

aging.  

I need to wear my glasses all the time now.  Years of contact wearing has taken it's toll on my eyes.  My whole body is more filled out.  Gone is that skinny gal who birthed two children seventeen and fifteen years ago.  Her replacement, who at the age of 45, likes what she sees when alone, feels less self-assured when she is around others.  And my hair used not to be so blond!  But, since I am not a fan of grey hair on myself, my friend Miss Clairol and I spend time together once ever six weeks.  

Hopefully I am aging gracefully, at least that's my goal!  

Measuring Up!

Last July when we moved into our new "old" house, I noticed some marks on the corner of an upstairs wall.  As I looked closely I realized they were a record of growth!  As a parent of two high schoolers, I remember those early growth spurt years well.  

The former owners of my house have known me, and I them, for the past 24 years.  I was pregnant with my first born when the lady who lived here was pregnant with her only child.  Our children are just a month apart in age.  Although the former owners of the Burrow live in Michigan, they have dropped by a few times.  I haven't painted over these marks upstairs for a few reasons.  I am sentimental, but mostly these marks are in a spot that will hardly ever get noticed by others.  Also, the hallway is a nice neutral color and not in need of being freshened up.  

At my old house, I was guilty of writing on the walls too.  Out in the garage we had a wall where we would chart our children's growth each summer.  We had been marking height changes there since 1998.  When the time came for us to move, our walls DID need freshened up.  Can you feel my dilemma building?  My solution was to take this wall with me.   Not a very practical idea it seemed at first.  I looked around the garage and found a very tall, maybe 6 foot high, piece of quarter round.  My wall writings suddenly could become portable!  One flat side (on the left) charts my daughter's growth and the other holds my son's record.  
The top line on the left (or fourth line down on the right) is my height from two years ago.  My son surpassed me that year.  What a smile he had on his face!  After I made this portable chart I wasn't sad about painting over the garage walls.  In fact, since I didn't personally know the new family who eventually bought our old place I felt like without our record on the wall they could come in and make the place their own.  

The Burrow is different though...it's history radiates.  

***************

First Day of School Alert!  

Wednesday felt like a Monday as my kids went back to school.  I officially have two kids in one school again!  Yeah!  It's been four years since I've been able to have one building to head to for them.  As is my tradition, I do take a first day of school picture.  I forgot in the morning but grabbed a photo of the two of them after school.  Then I treated my kids to another first day of school tradition...

Did you note the Hidden Mickey!?  :)  

No Chickens Allowed!

Who says?  

 Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio. 

This weekend we traveled to Kings Island Amusement Park.  

It was our last bit of summer fun 

before school starts on Wednesday. 

The weather was extremely hot and humid.  

Here's a glimpse of our day.    

There are a few tips I could share for making your trip to this park more enjoyable.  

First, buy your tickets on-line and print them at home.  

You'll save over $16.00 per adult ticket.  

Second, bring a lot of cash - everything is expensive here!

Hope you like fried foods, because that's mostly what they serve.

A positive for me...a Starbucks in the park!  

Third, when they tell you to secure items before a ride, 

they really mean secure those items!  

Here's a photo of a few of the park's collection of lost and found 

but not reclaimed items.   

When one comes to Kings Island (KI), they do so with the intent of riding the rides and or hanging out in the attached water park.  We came to ride the coasters.

*****  

New in 2009 to Kings Island is an outrageous roller coaster called

Diamondback.  KI calls this the tallest, fastest and meanest roller coaster of their park.  This ride even has it's own website!  Diamondback.

230 feet at it's highest point, 10 vertical drops, 2 helix's.  5,272 feet of track, speed of over 80 mph, first drop of 215 feet and a 74 degree angle.  No Chickens Allowed?  

I'd agree.  Below is that first drop...

Here's some of the snaky turns (above) 

and the splashy ending (below).  

Did I go on this outrageous ride you ask?  Well, I text messaged my nephew who had been at the park just a few days before me and I asked him if he thought I would survive.  Yes was his answer.  He did advise me to hold on to my stomach though.  

Being a thrill seeker, I did go on the Diamondback.  It's one of those rides that the more you look at it, the less likely you are to do it.  My advice:  Don't look at this ride till you're on it and heading down that first hill!  Good fortune was ours, we were in the very first row of seats!  Talk about scary!  But way cool too!!!  :)

*****

On the formerly-known-as The Italian Job ride...now the Backlot Stunt Coaster...there are a bunch of silly signs.  As I read them I was thinking the real highway department should make some signs like these:  

Hopefully you can enlarge this picture to see that this guy can't read!  

Below is the Backlot Stunt Coaster in action.  It's a powerful little ride.  One of the biggest challenges was getting into the tiny little coaster car!  

Have you seen the movie The Italian Job?  

Can you guess where the movie this ride was originally based on took place?  KI used to be Paramount's KI.  Now it's owned by a company called Cedar Fair.  The rides have stayed the same, but some of the names were changed...as in this example.  
This ride was called Flight of Fear...changed over the years from The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear.  The alien theme remained.  It's a great, in the dark, ride.  The initial take off is unmatched by any ride in the park.  I don't know the exact speed, but it felt like 0 to 60 in three of four seconds!  AWESOME!  

*****

Oh, the arcades!  My daughter always wants us to win her something...

Here's what my husband tried to win our daughter (her first choice).  What the heck would she have done with one of these things?  What a good dad.  He LOVES games of skill.  He was unsuccessful yesterday (thank goodness).  I like games of luck, and games where I get tickets to redeem!  I was successful, and I won a 12 inch Care Bear Monkey (her second choice) for our daughter.    It could have been worse!  

*****

As the sun set the colors of the park came alive.  

The faux Eiffel Tower looked nice silhouetted against the sky.  

Had Diamondback been less than a 90 minute wait, my sore tootsies might have been willing to hold me up while I waited for one last thrill of the day.  Instead, we happily climbed into our car, turned on the AC and headed for home.  Free water and a nice shower were beckoning!  

Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

How do you like my cyber-fish?  I just got them today.  If you want you can help feed them.  Put your mouse over them and click.  You'll give them some "orange" flakes of food.  They are very friendly and will follow your mouse too!  

What a great pet!  I don't even have to change their water!  I think I'll start looking for a cyber-bunny.  My daughter wants a real one for her B-day, but THAT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!  :)  

A Perfect Summer Day

I am one to brag now and then. 

Today has been a perfect summer day.  

My day started with coffee sipping and newspaper reading out back as I listened to the birds, cicadas and squirrels.  After lunch my daughter suggested we go canoeing.  We do live walking distance to a small lake where our local Parks & Rec. has a "nature center" and rents canoes.  It's a great deal, $6.00 per hour.  That includes paddles and personal floatation devices.  One should remember to take their drivers license or id though as you'd need to leave it while you head out on the water.  

As I mentioned, we do live close enough to walk to the lake.  From our place to the "nature center" it's probably close to a mile through the woods.  This is looking onto the lake where a group of boy scouts are practicing their kayak skills.  This week the National Order of the Arrow Conference is here and we have 7000 boy scouts on IU's campus.  Just two weeks ago my nephew was selected to join his local Order of the Arrow group.  I am bummed because IF he was all ready in this group he could have come this week for the conference.  Order of the Arrow is an Honor Society for Boy Scouts.  My nephew will have to go on an over night alone into the woods without supplies.  He will not be allowed to talk for 24 hours.  It sounds very much like a walk-a-bout to me.  We didn't see as many boy scouts on the lake as I thought we would.  
Here's the "nature center" from the water.  It's really just a resource place.  They have lots of guides one could use as references.  Still, now and then they do have snake skins, turtle shells and other animal skulls and bones around.  
The water was very clear - a sign that we haven't had much rain lately to stir things up.  
As we came around a cove we saw a Heron (above) who flew to another bank and caught a fish (below).  

At the dam my daughter saw a "Buckeye" seed which her dad fished off the embankment for her.  There were flowers too.  These reminded me of Hibiscus, but I haven't researched them yet.  
Here's the spill-over.  It's very relaxing to hear the water cascading over the wall.  Of course I wasn't paddling so the whole time in the canoe was relaxing for me!  

I had a pretty view of my baby sitting in front of me.  

I wasn't the only one enjoying the views!  

Our son had stayed home today.  He said his trip to Montana was enough canoeing for the summer for him.  Thank goodness my husband was up for the paddling!  :)