At Long Last

I must have been about 8 years old when I first laid my hands upon a Rubik's Cube. It took a long time, but I remember finally learning how to solve one side...and then I figured out how to solve two sides...[anyone who has solved the entire puzzle knows that that is nothing to brag about, because it does not put you any closer to solving all six].

Now, about a zillion years later, my 9 year old ended up with a cube of his own. Thanks to a good teacher [yes I snatched it out of his hands] and learning about algorithms, I can now enter into the elite solver's club. Now I just can't decide on which color of jacket to buy.

It 's New To Me

One of the things that I am loving about living here in Nebraska is the birds. Having been raised most of my life in [suburban] Utah, I was pretty much limited to seeing seagulls, starlings, and three robins.

Brazil had parrots and urabu [vultures].

Texas had great tailed grackles and mourning doves.

But Nebraska has robins aplenty, common grackles, mourning doves, blue jays, cardinals, red-wing black birds, wood peckers, sparrows, seagulls hawks, vultures, owls...and until we learn to hate them, squirrels.

Granted, those that have grown up with such birds may not share my enthusiasm and that's okay. If you grew up around these birds and still haven't tired of them, then that's great too.