The Happy News thread

[Alelou]

A giant owl keeps swooping regularly in the back garden. I so hope she's feasting on our excess of small rodents!

[enterprikayak]

There's a giant owl swooping around my house too! And in the day???

Damn Harry Potter and his missives.

[justTripn]

A giant owl keeps swooping regularly in the back garden. I so hope she's feasting on our excess of small rodents!

Ooo cool.

[Linda]

It does sound like the owl is hunting. Yes, very cool.

[Alelou]

My neighbor says she's seen a pair of owls. That IS nice, as long as they leave feral kitty alone.

It's probably because of our healthy supply of prey. My neighbor has taken to shooting chipmunks with a pellet gun. You really don't want to mess with HER garden.

I think it's a barred owl. I've heard that very distinctive call plenty of times and they look about right, and also do the sitting and swooping thing. There's an mp3 of the call at this site: http://fernbank.edu/Birding/birdID/barred_owl.htm

[EntAllat]

I have finally, successfully, used iMovie to put disparate clips together, delete the existing audio and insert a soundtrack. Woo-hoo! Fan-vids here I come!

[EntAllat]

My neighbor says she's seen a pair of owls. That IS nice, as long as they leave feral kitty alone.

It's probably because of our healthy supply of prey. My neighbor has taken to shooting chipmunks with a pellet gun. You really don't want to mess with HER garden.

I think it's a barred owl. I've heard that very distinctive call plenty of times and they look about right, and also do the sitting and swooping thing. There's an mp3 of the call at this site: http://fernbank.edu/Birding/birdID/barred_owl.htm

That's awesome! That sound is exactly what I'd expect an owl to sound like.

We've a number of owls around our place as well but they're the much, much smaller western screech owl. (Usually they're only about as big as my hand.) The sound is also really different, and for years I had no idea what the heck I was hearing! http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php (the eastern screech owl sounds the same).

[Alelou]

That's a neat sound. I've heard it in Florida, but I'm not sure I've heard it around here. It's hard to know what's what. We have frogs that are as loud as birds. There's also a red hawk that seemingly spends most of the day circling over the neighborhood, screeching that this is HIS territory. Then there are the angry squirrels chattering at each other, though they seem a lot quieter now that the owls are here.

And then there's my old cat, lying under my desk, muttering in his sleep.

[honeybee]

When I lived in Mississippi, I was walking my chihuahua and a huge owl was sitting on a stop sign. It made a swoop towards little Max thankfully realized he wasn't a big rodent. That was a good thing.

When I had my foster kitten this summer, a squirrel that lives in one of my front trees would stick it's head down from the branches and make an awful sound if I had the kitten in the garden. I am 100% sure it was squirrel for "Get that effing kitten out of here."

[Alelou]

When I had my foster kitten this summer, a squirrel that lives in one of my front trees would stick it's head down from the branches and make an awful sound if I had the kitten in the garden. I am 100% sure it was squirrel for "Get that effing kitten out of here."

Yes, undoubtedly.

[justTripn]

Well, I can make my official announcment! My foreign exchange student is here, and so far so good! I may have the perfect exchange student. She is from Thailand, where I lived once upon a time--25 years ago for two years. She brought me the most recent Carabao/Parn concert DVD! Caraboa is my favorite rock band of all time (I've been a fan for 25 years) and Parn is a much younger female artist with a voice like an angel. This was a concert I was severly tempted to jump on a plane and fly to Thailand to go see. The concert happened only a few months ago. Well, turns out I DIDN'T MISS the concert afterall. I have it on DVD forever!!! She also brought me the complete collection of songs by Scrubb, two guys with a really fresh, artsy, retro sound. This because I posted a Scrubb YouTube on facebook saying, "I love everything this band does." And she brought me some 1st-grade type books for learning the Thai alphabet. (I never learned to read or write Thai, only speak.) She did all this just GUESSING these would be EXACTLY what I would want. YES!

She is very upbeat and outgoing and hardworking from what I can tell. We just got her room replastered and painted right before we got here and when she arrived, it was one day short of being livable. She had to sleep the first night over at my mom's house. Just now, Par and I just finished cleaning and fixing up her room together. She seems very happy. It was quite stressful hoping everything would come together in time (and realizing it wouldn't). I will spare you the long story about negotiations with the workmen.

Tomorrow we go out to see the sites in Pittsburgh and to experience American culture! I can't wait.

[WarpGirl]

Well for the first time in over a decade I went out on my grandfather's boat! Thank god for botox. I've missed the water so much. Salt water runs in my veins.

[Alelou]

Good news from both of you.

We're off to pick up our son at his sister's in NJ and eat Mexican at our old favorite restaurant with his godfather again for the first time in 7 years. That will all be fun, I hope.

[honeybee]

Sounds like all three of you are wrapping up the summer with some fun and excitement. That's great news. I'm sure you'll have a good time with the exchange student, JT.

[WarpGirl]

It's incredible that something so much a part of you, (the ocean for me, Thailand for jT) can be "gone" for so long and then when you get a piece of it back you feel like you've never lost it.