Nice Baseball Game…
last update: 08/20 @ 16:01

…for Mets fans.

Sarah was rockin’ her birthday gift as we took the baseball boat to see the Nats play the Mets.

It was a fun night out; the Baseball Boat is now part of what makes it so fun for us. The walk down to the waterfront, hop in the boat, hop out across the street from the ballpark is so convenient and easy.

While we’d like to see the Nats win, it is fun to see the Mets get a win. And they did so last night with authority: 8-1.

Sarah was thrilled to see the Mets win (again); I would have been happy to see the Nats win. But as we say, “Wait’ll next year!”

The views from the baseball boat also make the whole experience so much fun. Especially lit up at night (with a little fog for atmosphere).

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Bird Buddy Update 2
last update: 08/20 @ 11:38

One cool gift I received for Father’s Day was Bird Buddy.

I, actually, we have been enjoying it over the last few months.

It’s not perfect — I’d like to get it our on primary WiFi network, but it can’t connect to a hidden network; it requires the access point to advertise itself. I have a feature request with them asking if they could update the configuration to allow that.

And the bird feeder itself is not ideal in our urban environment: the pigeons (“rock doves,” according to Bird Buddy’s bird identification) were too interested.

Our Squirrel Buster feeder is not pigeon friendly and so I thought I’d try to move the camera over there.

And I discovered the magnet that holds the camera in the feeder, also triggers a switch to tell the camera that it’s in the feeder. Without the magnet, it knows it’s not the feeder and won’t automatically snap any pictures.

Undaunted, I ordered some magnets from Amazon which seemed like they would do the trick.

And they did shift the status from “out of feeder” to “ready for birds.” But…

One of the benefits of the Bird Buddy is the secret sauce it uses to determine when there is a bird at the feeder. It has to be close enough and with enough movement, but not too much overall movement.

When I had the camera out of the feeder, pointed at our Squirrel Buster, it said it was ready for birds, but never fired the shutter automatically.

I was able to fire up the live stream and manually take a photo, but that defeats much of the automatic benefits.

So I was back to trying to pigeon proof the feeder.

Which, again, led me to Amazon and the DYAUS 2 Packs Plant Protectors. They seemed flexible enough for my needs.

And the early reviews are in: that seems to work a treat.

I had to bend one panel for the roof; and I think (seeing the unhappy pigeon on the feeder) it was wise to add a bit of of a tie down to keep it in place.

But the finches and sparrows seem to have figured out how to get through the grate and to the seed. Well… some of them, at least.

And Panzer continues to enjoy the occasional Bird Buddy video.

Which is, after all, what’s important.

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Bird Buddy Update 1
last update: 08/19 @ 15:25

Part one of trying to pigeon proof the bird buddy.

I thought I could use the camera pointed at our regular feeder.

That was a good idea but…

The BB is too “smart” to be used that way for automated bird snaps.

You can see this was from the live stream and not bad.

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On the James
last update: 08/16 @ 10:14

Sarah, Simon and David on the James River in Richmond.

It’s like this…

We got the Pirouette Super Sport for Sarah a long ways back. It’s a much better fit for her than the historically significant Mirage I got as a high school graduation present.

But she’s moved on to her SUP and the inflatable ducky.

(And we’re thinking packrafts are in our future; see about halfway down the notes from our Seattle trip.)

So when Sarah heard from Simon’s dad, Steve (who was part of Sarah’s Clark University crowd), that Simon had gotten interested in whitewater boating over the summer, she saw an opportunity.

The boat has not been on water in years and it may work well for Simon.

So we met at Pony Pasture and gave Simon a chance to try it out.

Admittedly, it is a tight fit. But not so tight that he turned down the offer.

So our basement is one boat lighter. That boat is more likely to see future use. And Simon has a boat of his own now.

Win, win, win.

(Oh… and we accidentally snagged Simon’s water bottle — another win for us but, sadly, at Simon’s expense.)

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Warm Day on the River
last update: 08/11 @ 18:44

It’s been a cool start to August but that’s changing and we’re back to seeing 90+ degree days. The river is still (just barely) over 3 feet, which is a pretty nice level for this time of year.

I saw a couple turtles on my way up to the chutes. And a Calleva summer camp out practicing at the Maryland chute.

All-in-all, a nice way to spend part of a hot day.

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Thank you Robert
last update: 08/09 @ 13:39

On one of his passes through this website, Robert hit on this photo from 2005 when his uncle and cousin gifted him an Orioles ball and bat.

Of course that was the year Robert’s real, hometown team, the Nationals, came to town.

So Robert decided to return the favor and restage the photo in Seattle, giving his cousin-once-removed, Zoe, a Mariner’s ball and bat.

She lives in New York and may well become a Mets fan, following in the footsteps of her great grandmother.

We’ll have to see how the sports fandom plays out in this latest generation.

Robert, I’m pretty sure, would say he is a very happy Mariners fan having adopted that team with his new found home in Seattle. But I like to think he has a soft spot in his heart for the Nats as well.

Ian, growing up in Seattle, very likely remains a Mariners fan, I’m not sure he’s shifted allegiance yet to any east coast team (but may also have a soft spot in his heart for the Orioles from early east coast visits).

(In the picture above, that’s Harry and David Z. on the couch, Ian in the foreground, Robert in the center — of course — and Sarah on the left. In the current picture, that’s Robert on left, David Z. on the right and Zoe — of course — in the center.)

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Happy Birthday Loren!!!
last update: 08/04 @ 16:41

We had a great, but much too short trip to Atlanta to Celebrate Loren’s 70th B-Day! It was great fun (less the traffic on the road there and back).

Extra bonus prize: a morning visit with Kate, Sean, Margo and Adeline!

More photos of the celebration in the travel section.

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