This week's gonna be rough because I'm having my teeth taken out and replaced with dentures. Therefore I'll be spending most of the week out of my head on pain meds. It was important to me therefore to do some things I haven't done in a long time this weekend, and just to enjoy myself.

Saturday

So on Saturday morning, me and the family went to Wachusett Meadow in Princeton, MA for birdwatching and other attractions. The sanctuary administrators were shearing a ewe when we got there, so we watched some of that. Lynnea really enjoyed the sheep, especially the little lambs.

The birding was good, we racked up 35 species by 11 AM. The highlights were extensive views of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak (hadn't seen one in 10 years), an Eastern Phoebe on the nest (never seen one on the nest before), and my little friend, the Yellow Warbler, who found me while I was resting on a bench and sang to me from a nearby shrub. The Bobolinks aren't back yet. I'll have to go back sometime soon to see them.

The complete list was:

1. House Sparrow
    
2. Blue Jay
    
3. European Starling
    
4. Northern Cardinal
    
5. White-breasted Nuthatch (heard only)
    
6. Dark-eyed Junco
    
7. Downy Woodpecker
    
8. American Crow
    
9. American Robin
    
10. Common Grackle
     
11. Red-winged Blackbird
     
12. Black-capped Chickadee
     
13. Rose-breasted Grosbeak (A rare treat for me! Was feeding at the sanctuary feeders.)
     
14. Barn Swallow
     
15. American Goldfinch
     
16. Mourning Dove
     
17. Brown-headed Cowbird (at least three pairs of M & F)
     
18. Red-tailed Hawk
     
19. Tree Swallow
     
20. Eastern Phoebe (saw one nesting!)
     
21. White-throated Sparrow
     
22. House Wren
     
23. Song Sparrow
     
24. Eastern Bluebird (what a nice surprise, got to see a couple)
     
25. Common Merganser (pair, M & F)
     
26. Hooded Merganser
     
27. Canada Goose (pair, presumably M & F)
     
28. Yellow Warbler
     
29. Northern Flicker
     
30. Bufflehead (pair, M & F, took awhile for me to identify, male not in full breeding plumage)
     
31. Chipping Sparrow
     
32. Tufted Titmouse
     
33. Yellow-rumped Warbler
     
34. Northern Mockingbird
     
35. Flycatcher, Empidomax Species (Beats me, I can never tell these guys apart. Its eye-ring was very pronounced so I'd venture it was either Acadian, Alder, or Least, or maybe even a Yellow-bellied migrating through. Probably not a Willow.)

After heading back home and eating leftovers for lunch, the family rested. I was sore and tired from the hiking. So I spent the afternoon reading The God Delusion by Dr. Richard Dawkins. It's very dry, and so far there are no surprises (most of the content therein I've heard from watching Dawkins speak, so it's largely an expansion on arguments I've already heard), but I am getting some reasonable enjoyment from it.

My neighbor Mark came over to ask if I would be able to help him move a giant boulder he had unearthed while working in his yard. He wanted me to come over on Sunday when he would have another person to help, but I told him I was visiting my Mom on Sunday. He didn't know my Dad had passed away and expressed his condolences.

Around dusk I decided to head out to L.A.N. Games in Leominster to play some Magic: the Gathering with friends I hadn't seen in a long time. I can't remember the last time I made it out there. Certainly before my pneumonia set in (February 5) and probably not in January because I was on the project from hell at work. I'd say I probably got out there sometime in December so it has been quite a while.

My old friend Rich was there, as well as my friend Dave (who is also the proprietor). Later on my friends Dillon, Mike, and some others showed up and we all played cards. I had a really good time. Before I knew it, it was coming up on 10 PM, and I needed to get home and get some sleep because I was heading out to see my Mom in the morning. Once I got home I read a little more Dawkins and then went to bed.

Sunday

I discovered Patty was sick when I got up Sunday morning. It might just be allergies, but she was very uncomfortable, so I planned on going to my Mom's alone. After I took my shower I decided to shave off my beard. It was getting quite thick, and I didn't want it to get in the way of the oral surgeon this week. While I was shaving my wife brought my cell phone to me in the bathroom. My Mom was calling to tell me she had a lot of work to do today, and why don't I just stay home?

So after chatting with my Mom, I decided to stay home. I finished shaving and went next door to tell Mark and Heather that if they needed help moving the boulder, I was going to be available after all.

Around 11 or so, Heather's Dad John came by with his pickup truck and various chains, and winch-like contraptions with which we got the stone out of its hole in short order. It was a huge boulder, roughly triangular, perhaps about 3 feet wide by 2.5 feet long by about 2 feet thick in the thickest spot. John felt it was around a thousand pounds or so. Heather wanted to stand it up in front of her house and build a small rock garden around it, so we spent the next 2 hours or so getting it from the backyard, around the house, up onto the driveway, across the front lawn, precariously around the front walkway railing which was very old and rickety and up to the spot where the garden was going to be. It was hard work and it took all four of us to move. We kept laying down planks of wood and plywood for it to slide across so as to minimize the damage to the front lawn.

We were all exhausted when it was finally close to where it needed to be, and we were too tired to jockey it the last couple feet and stand it up. Project for another day, I think. Moving a thousand pound boulder really makes you think about how people long gone moved far bigger stones to make the pyramids, stonehenge, or other ancient structures.

I thought I was tired the day before, but after helping to lug around that fat-ass rock, when I got back home and sat in my comfy chair I immediately passed out. Later I got up (ow) and trief to play a little Oblivion on my xbox 360 but fell asleep again. Eventually I recovered and became incredibly hungry. I just couldn't get enough to eat! I had some toast, and then some baked beans, and then some beefaroni, and finally ate a few rice cakes with peanut butter. I washed this down with alternating glasses of apple juice and ginger ale and followed it up with a pair of fig newtons for dessert.

Later in the evening I read more Dawkins and tried not to think about my upcoming oral surgery. And that was my weekend. It was a pretty good one as weekends go, and nice weather to boot. Hope everyone else enjoyed theirs!