Wait! Wait!

 Tonight's Lied Center Stage in Lincoln, Nebraska

I spent the evening, perched in a front row seat, among a crush of Nebraska Public Radio listeners in attendance for the Live Recording of Wait Wait...don't tell me! 


The evening started with a dark stage and a luminescent disco ball, and it only got better. My personal high point of the evening was Carl Kassell's off-air impersonation of Darth Vader. 

So listen for the Lincoln show this weekend. And if you hear a familiar guffaw from the front row it's because I was in the zone with Roy Blundt Jr. He referenced this soon-to-be released video game that I had been poking around for details about all week. 

City Limits

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. 

-Annie Dillard

Crocus Solitaire

First Garden Bloom

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I spent Friday afternoon with thirteen kids armed with birding books and binoculars. We took part in the Great Backyard Bird Count. 

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Then you upload the data for Cornell University and the National Audubon Society to use. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts.

During a 15 minute outing we saw crows and a woodpecker. This is a set of photos I snapped while I wasn't looking up, but admiring my group of enthusiastic beginners.

Late February

K inspires me to revisit this poem this morning. Coffee. Wet hair from the shower. Poetry. What could be better?

Late February by Ted Kooser : The Poetry Foundation

Friday Blurbs

We did not come to remain whole.

We came to lose our leaves like the trees, 

The trees that are broken 

And start again, drawing up from the great roots

- Robert Bly

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N participates in a world of the Mind-Paint Workshop. She writes poetry and comes home with a bubbling from under her skin. 

Thanks, C, for inspiring my kid to love writing and words!

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All of the programmable electronics in my house - my coffeepot, my blackberry, my gas furnace... - wake up at the same time. I'm the straggler. I roll out of bed, at least, 20 minutes late. 

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I have developed a cooking-crush on the smittenkitchen website. 

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Citizen Science Alert: this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count. I have a group of 13 elementary school students fired up and ready to go this afternoon. Clip boards. Binoculars. Warm Coats. We're good to go! 

Polaroid

Happy Valentine's Day!