pond life

choir member

watchguard/attack bird*
hear me roar

mrs.

camouflage

prickly finch treat

sunbathers

tightrope walker

missing his top hat

*The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, with one male having up to 15 different females making nests in his territory. In some populations 90% of territorial males have more than one female. But, from one quarter to up to half of the young in "his" nests do not belong to the territorial male. Instead they have been sired by neighboring males.

The male Red-winged Blackbird fiercely defends his territory during the breeding season. He may spend more than a quarter of all the daylight hours in territory defense. He vigorously keeps all other males out of the territory and defends the nests from predators. He will attack much larger animals, including horses and people. (from Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

last hurrah

Today was pretty interesting. We worked for campmeeting. The pastors all come in and set up the little cabin thingys, clean, stock the A^cBC, bother us, do repairs, and basically get everything ready.

I ended up with J.P., Toni Baker ('07 grad.), and Ethan Massey (staff kid/incoming freshman) cleaning bathrooms that haven't been used for a year. I don't think they were cleaned at the end of last year's campmeeting either. It took us from 8a-12:30p to clean the first set. They had dried puddles that had rust particles in them, so J.P. scrubbed the whole floor on her hands and knees. There were too many spiders to count, and lots of other bugs too. After tackling those bathrooms, we went down the hill to the other set. We got smart and used a pressure washer to do the floors and the tile looks (almost) brand new. The pastors said they hadn't ever seen the bathrooms that clean. We quit at 4:00p to have some R & R with the faculty.

Right before we left, Nikie and Chadd told Gabby and Olivia that they are going to have a baby. Olivia's reaction wasn't exactly genuine, given that she had already seen me with the camera. Gabby's, on the other hand, was real. Olivia did get on the bus and yell at Don, "Nikie's gonna have a baby!!!!"


Michael Patrick drove the bus with his learner's permit. It was his first time down the ridge. We weren't scared. His kids kept a close eye on him. Olivia asked him, "Daddy? What are you doing?" "Driving." "Why?"

We went to Dos Margaritas (don't worry, we didn't order even one) in Gallatin. They brought me a gigantic veggie quesadilla that I couldn't finish. I would have been fine with chips & salsa.

Jan Rogers (asst. foodservice) and Allison Rettger (asst. dean) are leaving, so we said goodbye to them and gave them presents. We didn't know that Jan made us presents too. She made every staff member and all of the staff kids fleece blankets. Mine has dogs on it. She made Don & J.P. one with all the milestones in their lives on it. It's pretty cool.

After stuffing ourselves with Mexican food, we hit Marble Slab for ice cream. I opted for the key lime with graham crackers mixed in. It was very yummy. Olivia had fun feeding it to me. I couldn't eat it as fast as she was cramming it in and then I started laughing, which made it worse. The other staff had fun watching and laughing AT me.

We had fun goofing off after we were done. Now I'm going to finish watching the season finale of LOST. Thank goodness for TiVo!

This might be the last exciting thing I do for a while, so we might hit a dry spell with the blog . . . we'll see.

.500 still

Our softball team finally had a game before dark this Tuesday. It was the first time we had played before 8:30p.

We had some trouble getting everyone to the game on time because of an accident on 386. We almost had to forfeit because we only had 8 players to start. Luckily, Jifer showed up in time to start.




Renee Mathis was excited to get to first base. She's our lead-off batter. It's nice having people like Don and Chadd to coach bases for us and to yell at us to do better.







Jackie (DeGrave) Duffy is our pitcher. She and her sister Jamie drive the longest distance to come play with us, and I'm glad they do. They're both really good.

It's fun playing softball with the group we have. I played against Nikie and Jamie at Southern in intramurals and against Jamie during the summer. It's more fun being on the same team.

We lost the first game 12-2. We kept getting 3 outs and then they would hit and we'd make errors. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but it felt weird playing in the sun. This picture is of me warming up. You can tell that because I don't have the sliding pad up on my knee. I also flipped my hat around during the game to be able to take pictures. Don took the pictures of us playing defense.





The second game we played was much more interesting. After the first half, we finally woke up and started hitting. We finally started getting them out 1-2-3 too. Michelle (left) brings us nice bats to use. She's a good hitter with an advantage on the first base side. She nearly always beats the throw to first. We ended up winning the game 13-11. I ended the game with a double-play to get the last 2 outs. That felt nice because I hardly touched the ball during the first game.

pomp & circumstance

This weekend was graduation. We finally got all the students out of here. I was more glad when the freshmen and sophomores left. I will miss a lot of the senior class, but they were sure difficult to deal with here toward the end.

Steve Baughman (one of our teachers) was the Consecration speaker on Friday night. He used Dr. Seuss books as the basis of his talk. It was really good - probably my favorite of the whole weekend. The seniors light candles at the end of the program and go and light a junior's candle. Amanda lit her cousin Jill's candle.

I didn't really take pictures at church. I ran the seniors' PowerPoint presentation for Sabbath school of their mission trip.

We had Class Night and Commencement in the gym. I cut the "2007" numbers out of foam board on Friday afternoon after we figured out that the seniors didn't have any.

Class Night was fun. I did the PowerPoint for that program too. It was fun seeing the seniors' talents and the show wasn't that long, so we got to the reception afterward by a decent time.


Commencement was pretty short today. I think we were out of the gym by 11:20ish and I was home by noon. Herb Montgomery was their speaker. Volker Henning brought Southern's scholarships. The first girl's name he read was someone who was asked to leave right before class trip. The next guy's name was someone who never attended Highland. He was pretty apprehensive about reading any more names, but the third time was the charm. Everyone cheered when it was actually someone supposed to be recognized.

I tried to go say goodbye to all the seniors, but I think I missed a couple. It felt really hot outside in the sun, even though it was only like 75 degrees out.

I took some self-portraits with graduates afterward, but handed off the camera for these three. Nicole and Megan were on All-Stars volleyball and they stayed in my condo while we were on ski trip. They're both crazy.

Zach always came in my office and stole candy. He did give me some cash at the end of the year to offset the dent he made in my supply. He kept coming in my office telling me to frame that 1928 $2.00 bill I got at Panera, so I gave it to him for his graduation present. It's been sitting on my desk for a long time and I never did anything with it.

so it's not just Stephanie . . .

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 15 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

thanks Tanya, I was bored

When you're home alone, do you still close the door when you use the restroom?
no

If you have to go grocery shopping, would you rather go alone or with someone?
alone

It's your best friend's birthday, do you buy them a gift even though they didn't buy you one for yours?
yes

Do you like your music loud or at a reasonable level?
reasonable, even if dad & Grant think it's too quiet

Are you a beach person or a snowy mountain person?
snowy mountain, hands down

When do you brush your teeth?
when I wake up, and after I eat

Can you watch scary movies alone?
no problem

Soft bed or firm?
firm

Would you rather stay home all day or be out and about with some friends?
I'd rather be out, but not necessarily with people

Do you like to keep the peace or be confrontational?
KEEP THE PEACE (just ask Jaclyn)

Are you more likely to be with a large group of people or a few close friends?
FEW close friends

What are your plans for October?
let's see, October will be Senior benefit, typing our evaluation . . . too boring and depressing to continue

If money were not a problem, where would you like to live?
I don't know . . . Asheville

What is your ideal profession?
softball player ; )

What is one fear that you can't seem to overcome?
heights

Are you a good math person?
guess so

Is there anyone that you regret ever meeting?
yes, he's a Highland alumnus

Rate your life on a scale from 1 - 10.
8? 9?

Would you rather have roommates or live alone?
roommate, but just one probably (Southern Village cured me of wanting more)
Do you like to drive?
yes

Do you give money to homeless people when they ask?
I've never had one ask

A weekend in Las Vegas or Miami?
neither

When you go to the store, do you have a list or just buy random things?
I write a list, but never remember to take it

What do you wear to sleep in?
pj bottoms with a t-shirt

You have 3 months left to live, what do you do?
quit work ; )

You're having a bad day, what's one thing can make your day better?
talking to Jaclyn

Tanning bed?
never been

Is there anything that you should be doing right now?
laundry and sleeping . . . guess I'd have to choose one

If there was a way to know when and how you're going to die, would you want that information?
nope

What is your favorite breakfast food?
biscuits & gravy

Your phone rings at 4 a.m, who do you expect it to be?
Grant

What is the weirdest thing you've ever said to a telephone?
I don't talk TO it

break in the clouds