Yesterday I witnessed a Pileated woodpecker attacking the side view mirror of the neighbor’s car while it was parked in the driveway.  If you’ve never seen a Pileated woodpecker, they are pretty big birds, and this one was trotting out every ounce of male impressiveness he could muster.  Apparently he had mistaken his own reflection for competition, and he pecked that car mirror to within an inch of its life for nearly twenty minutes.  I couldn’t decide whether there was any point in trying to rescue the car from him, or him from himself, and so let him have at it until he decided to dig the bugs out of our woodpile instead.

Our neighborhood has quite a few kids, and we are starting to know more of the neighbors a little bit as a result of our daily walks- something Michael actually has time for, now that he doesn’t commute so far to work.

We are obviously anticipating baby Ian’s arrival more and more every day- the doctors tell us that he has “assumed the position” and is ready to go… they also tell us that he is “an active little booger” (we knew that already- I’ve been asking whether he’s really a baby, or a trapped Boggart), that all indications are that he is in “impeccable” health, and, although they haven’t mentioned it, we also know that he is incredibly good looking, smart, and well behaved.  Michael is picking out law schools… 😀  In short, we are allowing ourselves to be giddy, ridiculous, expectant parents while we still get a good sleep every night.