Nature

1.  My Geekiness finally paid off.
2.  The due date is tomorrow (which doesn't mean we'll have the baby then, but it's nice to know we're getting close).
3.  God is teaching me patience.  Though I think my lesson is learned, so if He gave us the baby now I wouldn't be any worse off... just sayin'.

First and foremost, I got an award.  It is probably the most fitting award for me, as laid out by the giver of it: Antares Cryptos.  Who, for all intents and purposes of the award, deserves it right back.

So, there seemed to be no real rules with this, but to pass it on to other blogging geeks.  I knew and loved the people AC gave it to, so all of you can say yours is from me too.  But two more people who I think deserve this prestigious award are Kev D, who hasn't written for a whole month now, but when he does it's always nerdy fun stuff with words, and DBS who loves to take words at their root meaning and then mush them together to make a word that all of us need almost daily.  So, here's to both of you.  You're both great English nerds.

Now that we're done with the awards, let's get to my weekend.

My wife and I decided that we should go on a walk... which had nothing to do with trying to induce labor... much.  We went with my sister in law and her husband, because she's prego too and exercise is good.  We got Subway sandwich's and drove up a canyon near our home to a nice little path through the trees.  It really is nice.

On our way up, we stopped and rested on a rock near the trail.  There was a nice breeze that made the spot just the right temperature.  As we sat, we noticed a raven come and perch on what looked to be a branch that was much too small for it.  We watched it for a while, and then noticed there was a nest near it.  At first we thought it was the raven's nest.  Then, lightening quick, his beak flew into the nest and pulled out a tuft of feathers.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, we watched the raven grab a meal... from another bird's nest.  We then watch it fly away as three other birds flew after it pecking feverishly, but to no avail.  The baby bird would be returning to the nest nevermore.

My sister in law cried.  My wife was extremely concerned.  And my brother in law and I noticed how lucky we were.  We saw something you only get to see on Animal Planet.  Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the mommy and daddy birds, and the third one... the uncle bird maybe?  It would suck to have my kid ripped from my carefully made home and only be able to punch the huge assailant in the head while never getting my child back.  And yet, it was still pretty cool to see it as a third person spectator.

Needless to say, the two pregnant women did not want to stay in that spot anymore.  So we continued on.  On our way back from our destination, we were walking along, dodging worms that were hanging by thread from the trees over the path, when we heard a loud noise, and no more than thirty feet in front of us barreled a moose onto the path.  It wasn't big, about the size of a small horse, and it was very thin, you could see its ribs, but neither of those things made me want to stay near it.  My wife tried to say that it couldn't hurt us as much as a full grown moose, but I explained that hurting is a function with an end point, that end point being death.  Both could get us there.  Therefore, this horse sized moose could, in fact, hurt us as much as a full grown one.

Luckily, we didn't have to test my hypothesis.  It walked down the path toward us for about ten feet, with us back peddling the whole way, until it got past a wooden fence, then it turned and walked into the pond.  I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare me.

After that though, we did finish our walk without incident.  We seldom see anything on that trail, but this time, we were reminded that just behind the tree line lives wildlife.  Scary, dog eat dog, trampling wildlife, that we need to respect.

Have a nice day.