A "Pecking" Tom

Heeheehee!!

Hello everybody. This past week I took a really fun and informative class through the school district and Viterbo University called PC III. In the class we learned how to scan pictures, use The Printshop, Corel Paintshop, Collage Creator and apply these programs to a wide variety of materials, i.e., magnets, notepads, cards, puzzles, balloons, address labels, etc.

Go to piknic.com to create your own image!

I have to admit that the first 2 days of class I was a little stressed because I wanted to produce a bunch of things to get my material fee's worth, but by Wednesday I reached my PC III Zen and realized I needed to just relax and have fun and learn how to do a few big things rather than every little thing. I didn't have to worry about getting my money's worth either--I went through almost 5 cartridges of ink and made LOTS of little fun things.

Above the shower

The big ruckus at our house this week was frequent visits from a red-tailed hawk that has built a nest in the trees overlooking our house. "Hawkie" was first noticed a couple weeks ago when I was upstairs making the bed and observed Miss Fanny looking intently out the only little window in the bathroom. Hawkie was perched right by the window by flew away when I came too close. After this Mark and I noticed the constant piercing cries and calls these birds make...then it was the hawk flying right by the 2nd-floor windows...then it was both of the cats sitting in our shower area or on the toilet on the 2nd floor watching this bird as it perched on the skylight in the shower. Truthfully, I think Hawkie was a little too interested in our kitties--poor Fanny and Britches probably looked like 2 succulent little roasts to him! Yikes!

Look out cats!

We had to bid adieu to Hawkie though after he began to hang around the shower while I was showering. Not that I cared really that it was looking down at me but, and I'm not sure if it was the water and steam collecting onto the window, but Hawkie began pecking at the window! That made us a little nervous, so Mark spooked him away by tapping at the window a couple time with the broom.

Hawkie peering and pecking

Very exciting.

These are pictures taken of the wonderful garden we have behind the restaurant. It has been doing really well and we use a lot of the vegetables for various dishes at the restaurant (talk about using local product). We had a much smaller garden last year and it did well, so the guys quadrupled the size for this summer. It has turned out to be a very wise decision.

Mark holding a couple of patty pans