Creepy Cardinal

I have my computer set up so that my desktop photo changes every five minutes or so. The computer shuffles through all the pictures in my iPhoto library and displays them. It's actually a lot of fun to find old photos that I haven't seen in quite a while. Last week there was a dark image that popped up on the screen. I minimized and I have to admit that this photo of a cardinal kind of freaked me out. It must be the glowing eyes. Or the fact that it all looks fake. Not sure what it was, but I knew I wanted to share the image. I just find it creepy.

Cardinals Courting

I saw the cutest thing this morning. I was packing up my lunch to get ready for work when the cat started meowing at the open front door. I open the front door but leave the storm door shut so she can watch the birds. This morning she was trying to talk to the beautiful male cardinal that was sitting on the patio eating. I stopped for a moment and watched him. That's when I noticed the female cardinal in the yard.

Scruffy looking female cardinal

Now cardinals mate for life, which means that after courting they breed together each year until one or the other dies. They are not strictly monogamous in the winter but during the breeding season they are. And they always travel together. Normally the male comes down to eat while the females waits in the tree, keeping guard. Then they switch. This morning they were both on the ground. As I watched the male picked up a couple of seeds and then flitted over to the female and passed the food to her beak-to-beak. He then went back to the pile of seeds picked up more, and repeated the process. He was feeding her.

A cardinal at the feeder in winter

It looked like a tiny cardinal kiss when they ever so briefly touched beaks. I read up a bit on the behavior and just as I thought, those cardinals were courting. Mate-feeding normally takes place during courting and for much of the breeding season. It's actually a pretty common practice among courting cardinals, but I'd never seen it in person. As I watched, the male made about 6 trips back and forth from the seed to his mate. It was truly one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

I didn't even think to grab the camera this morning to take some shots (cut me some slack it was 6:30 in the morning), so I've stolen the image below from a Toronto newspaper. Sorry. The other shots are mine.

Meet Me in St. Louis

There is nothing quite like 20 hours of driving in a seven day period. Particularly spread out through two weekends. And although I'm looking forward to a weekend at home this coming weekend, I wouldn't have traded this past weekend for anything. We had a blast in St. Louis. We also sweated quite a bit.

I took Friday off with the idea that we would get down to St. Louis early enough to have dinner with Jeff's parents. The drive was great, somehow seeming shorter than the drive to Minneapolis last weekend. We headed down the Avenue of the Saints (my new favorite route) and wound up in St. Louis about 5:30. Perfect...well kinda perfect. We did hit rush hour. So we left 270 and took local roads down to his parent's house. I got to see a section of the city I'd never seen and also check out some incredibly cool houses in the Kirkwood area.

We went out for a nice Italian dinner and then wandered down to a park in Webster Grove (even more amazingly cool houses) to sign up for a study that is going on. Jeff's dad had wanted to volunteer for a long-term cancer study going on. Jeff ended up signing up as well and we hung out at the park watching the walk-a-thon for a bit. I couldn't sign up since so many women had already volunteered. Then we headed to Ted Drewes for custard and then home. I was exhausted and in bed before 11.

Saturday was listed as one of the hottest days of the year. The temp was expected to hit 99 and the heat index 110. So what did we do...went to the ballgame. We had tickets already for the Cardinals-Twins game at Busch Stadium, and we weren't going to let a little heat stop us. Talk about different ballgames. Last weekend I was in jeans watching baseball in the AC at the Metrodome. This week in t-shirt and shorts and sweating constantly. But I'm glad we went. I got to see Albert Pujols hit two homeruns and make an incredible first-base grab that ended up as one of the top plays on Sports Center. I got to see the only Cardinals win of the series and more than anything I got to hang out with family for the game. Jeff, Jeff's dad, his younger brother and I stayed for the whole game. All the way until the temp hit 99. His older brother, his wife, and their two kids stayed until the 7th which in itself was an amazing feat. The kids were great and everyone had an amazing time.

Here is Jeff's family who were able to attend the game.

Here is the stadium. 

And here is Pujols the moment after hitting his first two run homerun of the game. He hit two, two run homers before they started intentionally walking him. 

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with family at each of the different houses. I got to meet Jeff's younger brother's new dog, they have two, and it made me think about getting a house and a dog. The puppies were a ton of fun and so pretty. I love my cat but I wouldn't mind a dog too. It was strange to be at his parent's house this trip since their big beautiful dog Blitz had to be put down this year. I guess I kind of expected the polar bear of a dog to be waiting for us.

On Sunday we hung out and slept late and then had lunch with his younger brother and his fiance at one of the local grills. It was great to get a chance to see everyone over the weekend although I didn't take near enough pictures.

The drive back was good and quick and the rest of the evening was productive. I avoided the computer and managed to get a lot of cleaning and laundry done. I'm trying hard to make the house cleaner. But the trip was fantastic. Two weekends, two trips, both tons of fun.