Easter Weekend

Michelle and I had Easter weekend off…not that we relaxed or anything like that. Michelle is moving in with me, and there has been a lot of work to do. We kicked off Saturday morning by pruning trees in the front yard and hauling the heaps of amputated foliage down to the burn pile. Then we moved more of Michelle’s stuff from her apartment to my hovel in the swamp, reorganized the kitchen, did some serious shopping, cleaned out the garage, and made some changes to the walk-in closet so it would accommodate Michelle’s extensive wardrobe. In the midst of this flurry of activity we drove to Houston on Saturday evening to have dinner at Pappacitos and see Southern Culture on the Skids at the Continental Club.

I had a few beers and Michelle had three glasses of wine (note: three) while we waited for SCOTS. The Continental Club's house band, The El Orbits (yes, they redundantly call themselves “The” El Orbits) opened for them…highlight of their set was a mellow jazz rendition of “Born To Be Wild.” No kidding. SCOTS didn’t come on stage until about 11:30pm, and went to about 1am. Michelle really enjoyed the show, and even got up on stage to dance and help sling fried chicken at the audience. That’s my girl. David Hartman, the band’s drummer, gave her one of his shattered drumsticks as a souvenir. Finally got to hear "Fried Chicken & Gasoline" performed live - now I feel my life is complete and I can die happy....and we were happy but exhausted when we drove back to Lumberton and finally crawled into bed at about 3am. Then we spent most of Sunday cleaning and shopping and moving stuff around. The usual.

More neotropical migrants are arriving. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are again flitting around my yard, and over the weekend I noticed the return of the first Chimney Swifts. A lone Pine Siskin again visited my seed feeders, and I had an unusually close look at a Brown-headed Nuthatch (unusual, because they normally stay high in the conifers, but this one was going low and deciduous for a change).