Today is Ken's sister Romaine's 80th birthday. He called to wish her a happy day. Her family took her out to lunch, which she enjoyed. We last saw her when we were in Michigan in July and had a very nice visit.
We joined the gang at Angel's for breakfast for the first time this season. It's a weekly get-together of friends at a very friendly little restaurant just up the road. This morning we made eight: Hardy and Judy, Jan and Steve, Bob and Pat, and Ken and me. We had forgotten the camera, so I took a quick shot with my Droid (please excuse the fuzziness).
After breakfast we drove down to the state park to take our morning walk. Besides the exercise and fresh air, we got to see lots of colorful birds and butterflies. Birds included green jays, greater kiskadees, chacalacas, and cardinals, in addition to mockingbirds and grackles. Here are a couple of cyclists watching the birds at the resaca blind.
This cardinal is enjoying the water feature. We watched a kiskadee delicately sipping, but only after watchful waiting to insure no predators were around.
On the way out of the park, we noticed a naturalist, Javier De Leon, checking out a butterfly, a rare visitor from Mexico. It was a Beautiful Beamer, first recorded in the U.S. at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park in April, 2003. He handed me his binoculars, so I got a chance to see this unusual sight. Of course, I'm such a novice that I wouldn't have known how rare a treat I was getting if he hadn't told me. Here's a photo I found on the web.
Tonight we joined Hardy and Judy and Bob and Pat at the movies (Steve and Jan have a regular card playing date on Sunday evenings). We went to Cinemark Movies 6 to see a film called 50/50. It was authentic, honest, sometimes hilarious--the story of a young man who is told he has spinal cancer and has a 50% chance to survive. We enjoyed the movie because the lead character is so real and likable. The depiction of his overly protective mother is spot on. Some aspects of the plot are unrealistic (like his interaction with a graduate intern counselor), the depiction of his girlfriend is definitely negative, and his buddy is a bit too over the top in his language and behavior, but the movie was definitely worthwhile.
Tomorrow we'll pack up and hope to hear from Phil. It will be good to get back to Venture.
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