Royal Wedding This Week? Who Knew?

There's probaly no one alive in this country who hasn't heard about The Wedding taking place this Friday. Prince William will wed Kate Middleton in a ceremony guaranteed to bring back recollections of his mother's wedding almost thirty years ago.

Kate, a commoner, would become Queen of England if William ever serves as King. Quite a lot to put on the plate of a young woman. She seems up to the task, and really, has been hanging out with royalty for years now. So she has to know what she is getting into, but I'm not sure it's something any of us would wish on our daugthers. Maybe I am wrong about that.

There are plans afoot to get up EARLY and watch the Royal Wedding, even though it will be telecast live starting at around 4 a.m. (EST) this Friday. But the lure of scones and clotted cream and pastries may be just enough to get some of us up and out that early so we can get situated in front of a big screen TV, endless coffee cup in hand.

I had the honor of making favors for this event and will be posting them this week at my Yeasty blog. Stop by and take a look. Directions will be forthcoming, too, if you are interested.

Send me a note and let me know what your plans are for the wedding. Oh, you weren't invited? They have no idea what they are missing without us there. Talk about the event of the century. . .

Wise Boomers Walk This Spring

Rain aside, spring is a great time to start a healthy walking program. By summer, you will be a walking expert and able to withstand the higher temperatures.

To encourage new walkers to get moving and stay healthy, many of the libraries in Alleheny County, Pennsylvania, are providing free ten-week Wise Walk Progranms beginning this month and next. The library's partners in this program are the Allegheny Library Association, Highmark PALS and AARP. (Please check with your local organizations. Similar walking programs are being offered in other counties, states.)

Walkers over 50 can set their own goals and walk at their own pace using a complimentary walking guide provided to each walker by the local library. Supplies, walking materials such as pedomenters and healthy snacks and t-shirts are also provided for each participant through the program.

But beyond these supplies, this program gets boomers -- and seniors -- out walking with friends, enjoying nature, exercising as prescribed by their doctors, and a no-cost way to feel better. You just can't beat that.

For more information:

ACLA Wise Walk
AARP's Create the Good program

Avoiding worry where possible

I had to have a yearly physical this week, which actually was a 15 month one, since I put these things off as long as I can. Sound familiar?

Part and parcel of the checkup is the requisite blood test with the (gulp) 14 hour fast. As in most things, tell me I can't have something and I want it all the more. That's human nature. So when I have to have these blood tests done, I usually spend a lot of time figuring out when the absolute best, easiest time to do it would be. This can take several days if not weeks. So this time, I decided to heed some advice I read in a book on worrying. Do the difficult things right away, and save yourself all of that energy you would have spent worrying about them by getting them over with.

So that's what I did. I got the script yesterday and the ink was barely dry when I took it to the lab today for the blood work. The tech there is very good, and had no problems with my Vanishing Veins, which have discombobulated many other techs in the past.

Now the tests are done and I don't have to think about it for another 12, er...., 15 months.

I am going to try this get-it-over-quick technique again, sort of the yank-the-band-aid-off-in-one-quick-pull school of thought, but for today, I am resting on my laurels and feeling pretty good that I outsmarted myself.

Searching for Eagles, Friends

Photo taken at National Aviary, Pittsburgh, PA

We took a drive to a park in the next county north on Saturday to see if we could find any eagles which are rumored to be nesting there. Standing at the edge of Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park, watching some high schoolers rowing their crew boats, we noticed four really large birds flying overhead, back and forth.

It didn't take much of a jump for us to think that here were the wild and wonderful eagles we had heard about. We stood for a while longer, but then lost track of the big birds. Since we have been going to this park for years and years, and we always seem to drive the same, short loop, we were interested in expanding our visit, so we stopped at the ranger office to get a map of the park.

When we told one of the rangers, who was working his first day in the park, that we thought we had maybe -- sort-of -- kind of seen eagles, he said, politely I thought, probably not. What you probably saw, he went on, were ospreys or turkey vultures, which burst our birding bubble for sure. These two birds are also large,of course, and are easier to spot in the park.

To try and find some real eagles, we took his advice and drove onto Rt. 528 till we got to the bridge he had pointed out to us. Pull into that boat launch under the "528 bridge", and look to the opposite side of the lake. That's conservation land and that's where the eagles actually are nesting, he told us.

We stood there for awhile, but saw no more avian activitiy, just some boats being put into the water.

Undaunted though, we plan to go back to the right spot this time and see if we can find some of the magnificent creatures. It is so reassuring to know that these birds are healthy and living right here in Pennsylvania again.

To find the eagles, look at this map of the park. Locate Rt. 528 on the map, and look for the bridge which has a boat launch symbol next to it as well as a restroom sign. There is a sign along that highway for "528 Boat Launch" and this is where you turn.

We also found the Waterfowl Observation Area deck off Old Rt. 422 (noted on the map) and saw a couple of Great Egrets, which are very cool looking, and of course, we saw a lot of other waterfowl.

This spring and summer, I hope you have time to explore this park or any of the others located near you. The kdis would love it (we did.)

Paper Cranes Help Japanese Children

This is the paper crane I made out of origami paper to help Japanese children. OshKosh B'gosh has offered to send one article of children's clothing for every crane that is made during this campaign before April 25. For more information, visit Cranes for Kids. Such a simple thing to do for such a good cause.

Birds: Big, Small and Cassowaries



Photo taken with cell phone

 I thoroughly enjoyed reading Birdology by Sy Montgomery. I learned a lot about birds, and she made it all seem fascinating.

One of the most intriguing birds she wrote about were the cassowaries, large creatures which can be as tall as 5 ft. and are descended from dinosaurs.

The author mentions that she had traveled to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh specifically to see the remains of one of these often-dangerous birds. Well, since the museum is just down the street a ways we visited and found this stuffed version of a cassowary on display with other bird species. Cassowaries can be found these days in Australia and New Guinea.

But in the Museum's new Dinosaur in Their Time exhibit, we saw the skeletal remains of this bird's predecessor, which is a lot longer, taller and even more mean-looking if that's possible.

If you like birds, take a look at Birdology. It's a fun read.

Introducing the Boom This! Boomeys

You may have noticed that within the past couple of days the header for this blog changed. We added the "little people" as I like to call them which have enhanced my website at BoomThis.com. for a few years. We worked hard at that time to find just the right little people for each of the pages on the site.

Since we had moved them over to this blog and they are even more front-and-center than before, I began to search for a name for them. Last night we were out with a group of friends and on the wine bottle's label we ordered was the answer to my quest:  Little Boomey. The wine, from Australia, has a little boomerang on the label, hence the name.

So from now on the clever little characters will be called Boomeys! Perfect.