Jonathan was stung by a wasp this past week, right on his chin. No worries, he’s fine. He was at his Oma’s and out in the back yard when one landed on his chin. He went to grab for it and it stung him. Cried for a minute, then he was okay. It swelled up a little and even now there’s still a small red dot on his chin, but otherwise no worse for wear.
Other news? Not much. It’ll be a busy weekend coming up. 5 apartments going through a rotation of tenants. They’ll all be moving in/out and I’ll be running around getting keys and giving keys. Crazy stuff.
Everyone’s heard about those two girls who won the right to try out for the boys high school team here in Winnipeg? Well, they got cut. All that nonsense for nothing.
What’s my take? Well, here’s how I look at it. If there were not a girls team for them to join and they were good enough to make the boys team, then sure, they should be allowed to play. HOWEVER, if there was a girls team available, then that is the team they should be playing for. In this case, there was a girls team, they just claimed that the skill of the women’s team was at a level too low for them.
I’m sorry, but that just shows extremely poor leadership skills. If you are that much better than the other players, then a good leader would help their teammates improve their skills. On the other hand, if they needed that much more of a challenge, then there is also the community women’s leagues that they could have joined. The top leagues around these parts are pretty darned good too! We should know, we have a friend who plays in the top city league.
Because of this ruling, I briefly considered trying out for one of the under 10 league teams. I figured I could challenge it as a human rights violation, age discrimination. But then I figured, even if I had won the ruling, I still wouldn’t make the team due to safety concerns. My safety. With the height difference, if I wanted to have any chance of having any more children… ah well, you get the picture.
I’ve heard of and seen video of gangs of parrots taking apart cars in New Zealand, but this is a new one for Canada.
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Woodpecker enjoying smashing car mirrors
Creating headache for local residents
Wed Sep 27 2006
By Jeff Lee
VANCOUVER — A pileated woodpecker who doesn’t like what he sees has been smashing vehicle mirrors on Vancouver’s east side, creating a headache not only for himself but for local residents.
“You can almost see the perfect little holes he’s been drilling into the mirrors,” said Darren May yesterday. “I guess he figures he’s looking at another woodpecker, and he doesn’t like it.”
The woodpecker — which, at the size of a large crow is among the largest in North America — cracked the mirrors on both May’s van, and his mother’s car last week outside their home.
On Monday, the bird was back at it again, taking chunks out of the van’s mirror.
“I found glass bits on the ground underneath the mirror. He’s really been hammering away at it,” he said.
As a result, May’s mother covered her mirrors Monday night with plastic bags, and in the morning discovered half a dozen neighbours had done the same.
Birds fighting their reflections aren’t new, said Dick Cannings, a naturalist and former curator of the University of British Columbia’s vertebrate museum. But it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a woodpecker taking on a car mirror.
“It’s very usual for birds to fight their own image,” Cannings said. “It’s a bit unusual for a woodpecker to go after a mirror, which is pretty small.”
The pileated woodpecker, which has a distinctive red crest, can grow up to 50 centimetres long, has a wingspan of up to 76 cm and can weigh up to a third of a kilogram. When it drills for bugs in trees, the sound has been likened to hitting a tree with a heavy mallet.
May said it will cost him several hundred dollars to have the mirrors replaced, which he said aren’t covered under his automobile insurance.
“When they stopped laughing, ICBC told me I was on my own because the deductible will cover the damage,” he said.
Well, it appears Jonathan is soon going to be needing some of those pull up diapers. Today, at his Oma’s (Grandma) she had his diaper off to change him after a number 2. Thinking he may not be finished, she asked him if he wanted to go potty. Away he goes, opens the lid, plops himself down and pees in the potty for his first time!
For the last month or so, we’ve been plunking him down on his potty whenever it looks like he’s grunting a #2 out. However, we certainly didn’t think he’d get started this soon. We were figuring around 18 months or so. Nope, I guess he figures he’s ahead of the game on everything else, so why not this?
At this rate, he’s going to be asking for the car keys next year!
Jonathan’s Oma bought him a pair of little running shoes that light up last week. Today, we put them on him and let him run around. It was amusing to watch as he’d take a step, then try to take a few more steps while looking down at the lights on his shoes as they flashed. He would follow with a “wooooo!” as he admired them.
Tonight we’ll see what he does when the apartment is darker. Maybe we’ll be able to get a good picture to post.
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Also, congratulations to our friends Ross and Bev who gave birth to an 8lb 13oz girl yesterday with the name Isabelle Catherine. Yet another playmate for Jonathan. 
Wow. I was stunned to hear the news today of Steve Irwin’s untimely death. He was filming some segments for his daughter’s TV special and snorkeling off the coast of Norther Australia. He swam over a buried Stingray which, when startled, whipped up its tail causing the stinger barb to pierce him in the chest near his heart.
It’s a sad day for wildlife conservation as they lose one of their greatest warriors. Our prayers go out to his wife Terri and his two kids Bindi Sue and Bob.