Fun with Wildlife

We had a bit of excitement here the other day. I'd come home mid-afternoon so I would be able to pick the girls up from day care when my last meeting ended at 5:30, and was just settling in when I heard a scrabbling sound. It was coming from the fireplace. We came home the previous night and noticed soot on the floor in front of the hearth, but on checking, couldn't find anything. This time though, the presence of a critter in the chimney has hard to dispute. The mad scratching and banging was a dead giveaway.

The scene of the crime

So, I did a very girlie thing and called Murray at work. Getting a bird (or whatever) out of the chimney is a two-person job. When he got home, we closed all the interior doors, donned leather work gloves, and grabbed a box. The plan was to hold the box over the opening in the fireplace in the hope that whatever would drop down into it, but no luck. Whatever it was hadn't signed off on that plan and was not cooperating. Finally after a few tries, a very scared and sooty grackle shot out of the fireplace and flew right upstairs. It ended up in the playroom perched on the top hat that is hanging on the easel - all very Edgar Allen Poe (re-enactment curtesy of Photoshop). We managed to get the screen off the window and it flew out after a few mad laps around the room.

All in all no damage done but I'm glad it didn't happen last week while we were away. I wouldn't have relished prying a dead grackle out of my chimney.

A Week in Washington

March break has just ended (someone pointed out that they don't call it Spring Break for a reason), and toute la famille is back from our trip to Washington. We went to D.C. for the first time two years ago over March break specifically to go to the zoo and see the pandas. With two panda mad little girls, it seemed like a good way to spend a week. Also, it's a ten hour drive from Ottawa, so is pretty do-able.

This year we were back again, for a whole week of sightseeing, visiting the zoo, and traipsing through museums. Murray and I are joking that the girls will grow up to say, "Yeah, all the other kids got to go to Disney World for March Break but our parents made us go to Washington and spend a week at the Smithsonian.

Here they are copping an attitude in front of the White House.

The highlight of the trip this time around (besides the hotel swimming pool of course) was seeing the Lincoln Memorial. Sarah was so enthralled she bought a children's biography of Lincoln and read it through in two days.