delayed.

Okay so I will rewind roughly a week to the fourth. It was a day of ups and downs; which seems pretty typical of fourth of July. I don't know why but I hold this ideal in my head of what the fourth should be and it never seems to live up to it.

In town the parade in the morning was okay, this is the first time I have gotten to see the parade as I am usually working. I was expecting to be more since this is the centennial year for Friday Harbor. From what I heard, not so much. Here a few shots from that.

Jenn got a peppermint lemon, and this was the flag that was stuck in it.

Eugene as a woman... of course, and yes they even include alcohol in the parade.

My perty toes

Jenn and the Flux Capacitor

The Highlander Bagpipers.

How would you like to march with the bass drum like that?

My toes again!

The Canoe Island French Camp.

Our float!

Kailee as a seal!

Roy twirls flags

The cutest pirate dog ever

Argh!

Tiffany, and Kaitlin

Our friends Kris and T:FLO rock the curb across the way.

Michelle our board president, throws candy our way.

Poor puppies haircut. lol

The end.. of the parade.

After that we headed back to Jenn's shop where we printed shirts, and printed shirts.. by the end of the afternoon this is how much the day had gotten to us.

Jen uses her shirt boards as a foot stool and chills with a Modelo... we left soon after that for naps.

Johanna was checking out my camera and snapped some pictures.

Blue Steel.

Of course there were fireworks. And for the first time I had a camera that I could actually get some good shots! I was sitting on a section of the floating docks so there is some wiggle in the pics but I think they turned out beautiful and I can relive the fireworks all year longs.

Pretty huh?

Afterwords we went to Herb's.. even though many of us didn't want to. Strange vibe and just weird...

Jenn dances with creepy guy... lol

Show him what it takes.

I hope you enjoyed.. so more animals.

yeah... working on it

had to go back to work tonight to check in a seal, so again no post. Hopefully I will be able to throw some pics up of the seal (after I take them). Til then:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

sorry

Okay I will promise I will get to the fourth post. It was actually a pretty busy Sunday, I went to help my friend Jenn at her shop (didn't get groceries b/c I didn't want to deal with the mad house downtown grocery store or even clean) and then even went to a bbq and watched a movie. Yesterday was my late work day and I brought home a little animal to feed late at night, pictures on that later... again hopefully very soon. :) Tonight, I wasn't able to b/c I had a board meeting, printing off paperwork for work, and updating work call lists... now I have a bit of time before I do a late night feed on the little critter once again and then off to sleepy town for the night.

I hope you are all having a good week, and I really do plan to get some pictures up soon. Tomorrow is a friend's birthday so I probably won't get to it then, but will try very hard. Thanks for your patience.

post fourth

Well, it is early morning on the fifth (1 am).. and I am quite tired. so I am going to be heading to sleepy land soon. I am just waiting for my apartment to cool down abit with a fan running in my bedroom to blow out the built up heat from the day. I do have loads of pictures I took today (as in the fourth) (as in nearly 500) that I will have to weed through to get you the best of the best. Hopefully sometime tomorrow I will get those up for you. My plans for Sunday is to go get groceries that I couldn't get today, do a thurough cleaning of my apartment, spend some time with friends, and maybe go to a bbq if they call and invite me (I have a secondary invite but have said that unless they put forward the effort to invite me I don't really plan on going). I am sure that I can fit doing a blog in there somewhere.

Okay well off to sleepy town!

photos to replace video

Okay a few more photos of cute critters! I have been trying since 6:30 to upload the otter video but I think the length is causing a problem. I have just been letting it run on another browser... so keep your fingers crossed it is done by the time I go to bed :)

Tonight I went to a talk that Dr. Joe Gaydos, our marine mammal vet, was giving on Elephant Seals at the Whale Museum. It was faboo, but he can make almost anything entertaining. I learned lots, like did you know that the northern population of Ele seals was considered to be extinct in the mid 1800s b/c of over hunting for a special oil they blubber produces. They can dive up to a mile! And the males with the largest noses typically win over the ladies, which the largest ladies are usually chosen by the strongest males. /sigh.. life as a ele seal would be great! haha.

anyway some more photos of cuteness and animals.

The snowshoe on daily weigh in!

Look at those ears... <3

snuggles.

just all over fluffy!

We finally id'ed this bird. I took my camera out, snapped some pictures came back and went through page after page of the Sibley's looking at the juvi birds. Must be a Savannah Sparrow, now we know where to release him/her.

Close up, the things that nailed it, the dark eye stripe and jowl lines, plus the yellowish under the jowl lines.

Eagle in the eagle flight cage aka the build at home Ikea kit for all your home eagle flight needs.

close up.. majestic

blurry b/c of the push off to fly clear to the other end of the 140 foot 30 degree dogleg cage.

Hope you enjoyed. soon off to sleepy town for me as the songbirds have invaded the hollow. I have way to much to do to get there when I do so earlier arrival better!

afternoon/evening of excitement.

Again, it has been a few days since I have blogged, but summer has beckoned and when I get home I just want to crash out. I am glad that I haven't lost the want to take pictures at work, just the lack of time. Today I have some photos for you, but we will get there after we rewind a few days.

Sunday was a day of "rest" and man did I get restless. I was in a funk all day and finally at 8:45 went F*** I need to get out of my house. I ended my cell phone chat with a friend and headed south. Not that I can go all that far after all I am on a small island. But I got to redoubt at American Camp just a few minutes after sunset. I needed to run, and run I did. I cut about 10 minutes off my loop time which I am really shocked I was able to do since I run in almost a month. I didn't do it in one long stint but 2 moderate ones. I was highly impressed with myself. I then headed to town, caught up with a few friends before heading home. Here are a few pictures of the view I got to take in while running. It was very soothing.

Looking out to the Olympics

Looking Northish.

Mt. Baker light by the the sunset.

Now onto today. The day was pretty hectic at first but that is b/c I just couldn't seem to get in the groove this morning. It didn't help that the phone kept ringing, the answer machine tapes got all goofy so I had to rerecord 3 of them, and our fiesty raccoon decided to break out of his tub over night and I found him sitting on top of another cage this morning.. Not looking so good. I had many moves I wanted to get accomplished this morning and feared that it wouldn't get done. But we were able to get the starling groups together, the robins moved out to an aviary, some fo the coon kits vacinated and put in with others, and even getting the fox kits in together. I think the thing that actually caught me to stop and catch my breath was doing the otter swim. I have posted a video of this at the bottom of this post. Watch it... Soon after lunch I had to head to town for a meeting with the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network (SJCMMSN) to discuss this years seal season and the coordination we need to have maintain. Back to work I was able to get a small amount of paperwork done before starting the last afternoon feeds. I found out we had some animals arriving on the 5:15 flight and one was one that we haven't had a center since I have been there, Shona doesn't remember one at center ever. They generally go to mainland volunteers, but not to us (I know the anticipation is killing you but you will see when you get to the pictures).

Just when I think the day is over after checking in these guys, our seasonal Kailee went out on a fawn rescue. So I stuck around to help check it in; went back to our Quiet Room and started to pull up formula for the 6pm bunny feed. Our intern, Izzy came back and told me, "Kailee got the truck stuck, so I don't know what you want to do." Jimmy to the rescue!! I headed out, found her we used the tow rope I keep in my truck and pulled her out of the loose gravel she was stuck in (damn rear wheel drives with no weight back there!) Back at center we got the bunnies fed, I gave meds to the fawn and headed home... FINALLY.

Here are some work pictures for the day.

The barred owlet is now outside. I made one of the rookie moves in rehab. I was just mindless going into the cage without looking to see where the bird ones first. Next thing I hear is clack clack clack. I look up and here is the barred owl just above my eye level and about a foot away. That could have been disastous!

Some of the new arrivals. 3 Tree swallows- they are dirty here and will need some clean up. the finder thought it was a good idea to feed them bread soaked in milk! For anyone not in the animal world.. this IS a bad idea!

Three Tree Swallows.. say that repeatively fast

Oh the excitement!!!! Our new arrival. I know it looks like a bunny but it isn't. It is a hare, a snowshoe hare to be specific! I had to call PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynnwood to get their protocol!

Isn't that just the cutest thing you could ever imagine!! Has a small hole to the ear from being caught by a cat. And is close to the weight that it would be on its own. Just got to give it some meds and get it there without it keeling over from stress.

Okay, enjoy the video below. I want to get back to my chicken, bean, cheese, tator tot burrito.

Sorry video stuck in downloading... after 3 hours I am giving up and going to bed. I will try again tomorrow.

performance

I have had a three day weekend this week and even though I didn't go down to Seattle, I have treated it pretty mellow with little pops of excitement in there. Thursday night was filled with getting Margarita's at one of the local watering holes... b/c well Seth's margaritas rock... and then up to another one of the bars to play some Guitar Hero.. I know this sounds strange but it is very mellow and I really enjoy it, b/c I am addicted to the guitar based games!

Friday was a very quiet day, I had to run out to work for a few minutes and then found out my trip was completely unneeded and it could have been resolved with out me trekking out there on my day off. I was then off to the grocery store. After that I was in and out of nap land the rest of the day. I don't know what it was but I just couldn't seem to keep awake.

Saturday was a little more active, I thought when I got up in the morning I should go for a run, but just couldn't drag my out of bed for that, but did go out and play a round of disc golf with a friend in the afternoon. Then I went home to relax before a friend was playing at Pazzo Vivo. Tony, aka T:FLO, starts out his sets pretty mellow, just him and his acoustic guitar. After a short break and hour in, he adds to his band, a basses named Dylan and a drummer, Tawm P. This is where he really starts to jam. Tawm even had some friends that were up here for his birthday so they came up at the very end of the evening with their electric guitar and trumpet. It was really fun time.

Tony on guitar, Bob joins in for a few songs

Bob sings on out.

Dylan, Tony, and Tawm

Really jamming out!

rock on!

After that it was to the local water hole of Herb's where their were some wedding partiers there, making for an interesting night. Soon, it was time to go home, I watched some tv and then I off to bed for me. Today has been another lazy day- I am currently working making some dehydrated mango pieces; we will see how that turns out.

Hope you all had a good weekend!