Raving Amicks

Well, even though it’s been over a month—and even though I posted these pictures almost as long ago—I thought I should write about Tyler’s and my trip to Chicago. We went the last weekend of April to visit our friend who was there for law school. Incidentally, he already graduated and returned to Seattle just last weekend.

My highlight of the trip was definitely the turtle racing at Big Joe’s. We went with our friend, his fiancée, another friend who traveled with us, and some other random people from Chicago. Basically, the turtle racing is a lottery; for every drink you order, you get a number of raffle tickets based on what you ordered (and the bartender’s whims). The more you drink, the better chance you have of being drawn. If your raffle ticket is drawn, then you go up to a table and randomly pull out a ball with a number. That number corresponds to one of the six numbers taped on the racing turtles’ backs, which means the turtle with that number is “your” turtle for the race. The person with a winning turtle gets a free T-shirt, and the person with a losing turtle gets a free beer.

Despite having ordered an obscene number of pitchers of beer, none of our tickets were called. Oh well, I did muscle my way up and take lots of pictures of the scared turtles.

Meanwhile, Tyler’s favorite part of Chicago was definitely all the brownstone and brick buildings. He can write all about that if he wants, though.

Oh yeah, and we did other things like seeing two pairs of mating tortoises at the free public zoo, having drinks at the top of the Hancock tower, and getting alternately pummeled by rain and wind.

Here’s a picture of the male Pileated woodpecker out the front of the house.  This is the closest view we’ve ever had of one.  They’re also noisy as hell in the springtime.  Incidentally, it’s pronounced “pie-leated”.  

Meaning: 1. Wearing a skullcap or in the shape of a skullcap (Latin pileus). 2. Crested, having a crest on the pileum (top of the head of a bird)

The corn snakes are settling into there home nicely. They have a prime view of the yard on the window seated upon which their cage resides.

Our dining/living area is also awaiting the beautiful dining table that Adam and I will be carrying in from the car tomorrow, we’re both very excited!

   

As most of you know, not more than a year ago I increased my pet population from one very old dog to one very old dog and two juvenile 3 Striped Mud Turtles. “Juvenile” just means that they’re not finished growing. In fact, when I first opened up the box they were shipped in via overnight mail, both were a tad over an inch long (when measuring the carapace). A year later, and they’re both 2.25 inches long. I fed them too much originally, so they had a growth spurt during the first 7 months. But now they’re on a diet. Ideally, they’ll reach adulthood (4-5 inches long) by the time they’re 5 years old. I’m guessing they’re 2.5 years right now, so not too bad.
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Craig’s list came through again.  50 + gallons with a screen top and an under-glass heater.  Sweet!

   

 Minding my own business a few weeks ago at the Vancouver house and noticed a large number of brightly colored birds in the yard (Western tanagers).  They were eating berries off the plants right in front of the house.  After about an hour, no more berries!