12 Oakdale

The chronology: Spaulding, Molly and Teddy flew in the Friday before Thanksgiving for a week at the timeshare her dad owns. Along with Steph and her family, they joined us for dinner: chicken noodle soup and pasta e fagiliol with sourdough  bread. The next 2 days, they had tickets to Disney. That worked out because we were booked for LAWD on Saturday. I made the cranberry tiramisu on Sunday. We pressed our electric camping cooler into serviced to have room in the refrigerator. Mary, Ryan, Bella, and Remi arrived on the red eye Monday morning. Everyone came for waffles mid morning. Swimming in our cold pool, chasing poor Gracie with the laser, cousin bonding. We took hotdogs to the timeshare to grill for dinner.  Tuesday, Steph got us all tickets to Universal. She even borrowed the Senior VP of Entertainment’s gold pass so Grant and I had free valet parking. It also got 6 people into the Express Pass lane on each ride. Exceptionally valuable for the Velociraptor roller coaster....

Wednesday, we got up at relatively o’dark hundred to go to Orlando Wetlands with the goal of Betsy seeing roseate spoonbills. Mission definitely accomplished. As we walked along the boardwalk, we saw newly hatched common gallinules, tiny, tiny, being fed by parents. So cute, flapping their minuscule wings and begging. Further along, slightly older ones were still begging, but walking on the water lilies within ridiculously big feet, also finding their own food. At the far end of the boardwalk, much larger wood stork babies clamored. We didn’t see any parents around, but did see an anhinga feeding her 3 babies, which were as big as she was. Time for those to start fishing for themselves, in my opinion. As we turned back, a fledged spoonbill and parent flew over and landed in a tree right next to us. Much clacking of bills, the mom coughed up a treat for her offspring. I think I’d rather be that species, than an anhinga, having my babies poke their sharp beaks down my throat. But the bes...

I thought about running Saturday, but fortunately it rained. Sunday we were the morning shift of ambassadors at LAWD. I briefly thought about jogging when we got home, but came to my senses. Monday, MLK Day, we decided to actually visit LAWD, so were up and out too early for any jogging. Whew. Early this morning, I heard rain, but by the time it was light, even though the skies were still gray, there was no rain and no reason to avoid my run. I am at the last outing of Week 4 in my second time through the Couch to 5K app. It’s getting tougher and isn’t as novel; I need to be wary of calling it quits. I remind myself I am grateful I can still jog. I’ve also packed on pounds through my thorough enjoyment of Christmas cookies and candies. Time to bite the bullet, not Hersey’s Kisses. It’s 5 weeks until my next 5K. Easy enough to gnaw off 5 pounds with the old eat-less-exercise-more. I’m still convinced that eventually scientists will find that lying on the couch, eating potato chips is th...