With decent weather comes work on my house’s exterior. This spring, the main project has been my backyard, doing preparation to enclose it with a fence.

As usual, there would be more to this project than I anticipated.

In January I decided to resume the miniatures hobby, this time with WW2 figures. I settled on US airborne troops as the first force I’d purchase and paint up. I’ve recently finished painting my first squad of them and am quite pleased with how they turned out.

A sudden roadtrip to Florida to rescue a friend placed me in a car for the vast majority of some thirty-one hours. The trip contributed 32 counties to my travels in the United States, increasing my total to 385.

I must recommend against driving AL-87, particularly at night and …

Since the first summer after we moved into the new house I’ve had an active birdfeeder. By far the most frequent sight at my feeder are cardinals. I have a soft spot from my childhood for these faithful, year-round visitors.

Included below are photos of my less common sightings. I’m rather proud of several of the shots.

On Wednesday we hosted an evening with her coworkers from the Bell Lab. Things went very smoothly despite a delayed start. I’m not always the most social, so getting the chance to meet everyone over RoboRally and pizza is certainly an opportunity to seize.

I’m already looking forward …