Month: June 2019

The new family on TV

TV
I have an aerial TV antenna in the attic of my car port. Over the years, robins have found it an ideal place for a nest.

They already had one clutch that has grown up and flown away. I was lazy and ended up with bird poop all over my car when it became time for them to leave. (I kept parking the car inside.)

However, this is the first year that I remember watching them start a second family so I can have a do-over instead of a poo-over.

Last week, I went out and the parent flew down and was scolding me. It wanted to get me to stay away from the nest. I’ve followed her admonition and park beyond the car port. I leave the car port on the side next to the house. I don’t get close to the nest and I haven’t seen the bird leave the next when I go out.

I hope it means fewer neuroses for the babies when they leave.

I’ll certainly be happy that my car doesn’t need cleaned up!

I got back from Chicago

A bus or train
This was a fun way to end the week. Thursday I went to Chicago to see my sister. They have an apartment about 50 floors up. They have a view of the lake and quite a few tall buildings for good measure.

I took the commuter train from South Bend to Chicago and back. The trip there was a little altered because they were doing planned maintenance on the tracks so we bused into Michigan City for the first leg.

I had a really nice visit to the Art museum and saw lots of armor and weapons. There was a sound installation in the main hall that I really liked. There was also an AIDS gallery that had a lot more information than I had time to take in. It had four screening rooms with lengthy videos that I only sampled.

Today we braved the rain to see the cloud gate (Bean) and looked at a Victorian stained glass exhibit in one of the underground areas. I had a Chicago style hot dog before boarding the train.

I made some raspberry pudding. I’m still perfecting the process. This one ended up solidifying before I even got it off the stove. It didn’t form any film on the surface, but it also was more custardy than puddingy. I haven’t learned what I need to do to have a nice pudding texture. I don’t have any food dyes either so the result is always white.

One that I would like to try to make is a chocolate mint recipe. Maybe the next time I buy milk? I haven’t tried soy milk or other vegetable milks instead of dairy.

It was a fun weekend. I knew sirens are loud up on the 50th floor because I’ve heard them talking to my sister on the phone, but it makes it take a while to fall asleep.