151/365 Breakthrough

151/365 Breakthrough
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

150/365 Nice Day

150/365 Nice Day
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Taken from under a tree between games at the BUDA Spring Hat League tournament held at Mitre fields in Burlington.

Pretty close to perfect day for an ultimate frisbee tournament: sunny, mid-70s, light breeze, blue skies, white puffy clouds. (not shown: giant clouds of pollen blowing in the wind.)

Baby steps

Baby steps
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Warren still hides under the chair when I'm in the room, but he'll come out for scritches from the SOOTTAD when I'm not there, and he'll even occasionally allow himself some exposure while eating.

It's slow progress, but it's still progress, and we're happy to see it.

149/365 I, Blu-ray

149/365 I, Blu-ray
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Finally got a Blu-ray player (Panasonic DMP-BD60) after our HD-DVD debacle. Hooked it up and watched Iron Man instead of going dancing. Probably would have been better for us to go dancing, but it seemed like the thing to do after a somewhat draining, albeit post-holiday-shortened work week.

148/365 Double trouble

148/365 Double trouble
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

I heard a bunch of scratching and tapping around the ceiling while sitting at the computer in my home office today. And when I went out to see what was going on, I discovered that our intruder is back, and this time, it looks like he brought along the fam. And even worse, when I came back inside, I could hear them scurrying *inside* the walls.

We've got somebody coming by the house tomorrow -- hopefully they can take care of the problem.

At this point, I'm frustrated enough with these guys (roof damage, strawberry raids, pear consumption) that I don't think we're going to be "nice" about it this time, keeping in mind that I'm not too keen on having critter carcasses decaying inside our walls (nor the accompanying fly problem). But we'll be evaluating all our options.

147/365 Tanzania Chipfest

147/365 Tanzania Chipfest
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

African potato chips are not very photogenic, especially after 30 hours of travel. (We were able to sample these thanks to our friend Spleen who occasionally travels to exotic locations for work.)

The chip flavors were mostly uninteresting, but in addition to potato chips, there were also cassava (yucca) and banana chips which were generally received a good reception. Also, uninteresting is a significant step up from previous samples which included chips which tasted like vomit and an aptly named "funky chicken."

146/365 Berry in Hand

146/365 Berry in Hand
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

is worth half a berry in mouth. (split it with the SOOTTAD -- 'natch.) First berry of the season -- very exciting and very tasty.

We're quite fond of the alpine strawberry plants because they seem to have a long growing season (I think we were stick picking berries in September last year) and they don't send runners out every which way which keeps them nice and tidy.

145/365 Gaggles

145/365 Gaggles
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

We saw a bunch of kids feeding the geese (and a few ducks) by the Charles on our walk home from the MegaShawr's on River Street.

I'm no fan of our non-migratory migratory fowl, but I can certainly understand their enthusiasm (kids and geese alike).

144/365 Crime Scene

144/365 Crime Scene
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

We're not sure if the neighbor cat is trying to get back in our good graces after attempting (unsuccessfully) to bully our new kitty, but if he's taking care of marauding critters in the garden, we're all for it.

143/365 Guilty Pleasure

143/365 Guilty Pleasure
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

142/365 Budding Buds

142/365 Budding Buds
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

I've been noticing the difference in shape and color of the new leaves coming up with the raspberry flower buds.

These are the raspberry plants we brought over from the old house. It's interesting that they're blooming later than the "golden raspberry" plant this year as compared to last year when the goldens didn't really produce much at all.

141/365 Cranes at Dusk

141/365 Cranes at Dusk
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

I've been trying to get a shot of these for a while now -- there never seems to be a good vantage point, so this was the best I could do, stopped at the Cambridge exit off the Pike. Wish the lamp post wasn't in frame, but sometimes it is what it is.

140/365 Seven on the Line

140/365 Seven on the Line
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Last night of BUDA Spring Hat League in JP. This shot was of the pull for the last point of the game before ours.

I feel like I'm back to playing around my level, at least, although never quite got into the flow -- these late games are getting a lot more difficult as I get older. And I did suffer the consequences for trying to hard. I need to remember that, but sometimes it's hard to make that kind of adjustment in the heat of the moment.

139/365 Frost Protection

139/365 Frost Protection
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Temperatures were forecast to be down in the 30s last night, so we busted out some cover for our tomato seedlings. Better safe (and silly-looking) than sorry, dontcha know.

138/365 Lowell Mass 1886

138/365 Lowell Mass 1886
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Found in North Chelmsford, but close enough.

137/365 Watching The Game

137/365 Watching The Game
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Watched the Celtics end their post-season from the Independent Pub in Union Square. A rather disappointing finish, and yet, amazing that they got it to game 7 of the second round without KG.

I have to say, I don't remember beer being this expensive. (12 bucks for a Guinness and an Ithaca IPA. Wow.)

136/365 Ken's Noodle House

136/365 Ken's Noodle House
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

135/365 Holy

135/365 Holy
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Perhaps this is why we didn't get that many cherries last year. Trying an organic insecticide soap spray on (literally) the low hanging fruit, to see if it'll salvage some of the ones that are still unharmed.

134/365 Setting the table

134/365 Setting the table
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

The nice thing about having the flexibility of working from home is that I can occasionally see clients during the day. Of course, that may not be an issue in a few weeks, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

133/365 Checkin' out the neighborhood

133/365 Checkin' out the neighborhood
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

real progress today -- one of the scaredy cats came out from under the chair and actually spent some quality time with us. Seriously, check this out:

Now we really need to work on his buddy.

Still haven't settled on names yet. They came to us as Whipple and Warren, but the SOOTTAD isn't so keen on "Whipple." We've been calling him Whip for now, but current alternatives are Chester & Jesse, Jake & Elwood, Penn & Teller and Skipper & Gilligan.

UPDATE: for got to mention: Maurice (Mo) & Holling.

132/365 Poppy

132/365 Poppy
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

131/365 Conflict Waiting to Happen

131/365 Conflict Waiting to Happen
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

There's been some posturing and impotent attacks through glass and screen doors since Twelve and Larry became aware of one another.

Twelve seems nonplussed by the aggression, but Larry keeps trying.

130/365 Dancing at Piers Park

130/365 Dancing at Piers Park
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

129/365 Doing the garden, digging the weeds

129/365 Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Tomato seedlings have made landfall. It's looking like we will once again have more tomatoes than we will know what do with this summer.

128/365 Meeting old friends

128/365 Meeting old friends
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Stayed up much later than planned hanging out at Casablanca with a bunch of the SOOTTAD's old work peeps after seeing Star Trek. (which was awesome, but you should already know that by now.) Wish we could have seen it at a better theater than the AMC in Harvard Square, but it was a good crowd, and I actually wouldn't mind seeing it again in another theater despite it being on the short list for Blu-ray acquisitions when it becomes available.

127/365 Gray days, green fields

127/365 Gray days make green fields
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

We haven't seen the sun in a couple of days, but the fields are looking pretty nice right about now. Had a layout D (unsuccessful) in the endzone tonight and other than the disappointment of not blocking the disc, it was still soft and pillowy.

Not shown in the photo is the large dirt patch where grass never grows because it's always being torn up by soccer players, and yes, even us frisbee players. (Although I'd like to think we try harder to not play when the ground is really soft... not that it matters, because there will always be people who'll come and shred the field.)

126/365 Scaredy cats

126/365 Scaredy cats
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

We just got these two boys from an adoption group in town, and sadly, they have yet to come out from under the chair. We'll hopefully be able to coax them out once they've had some time to settle in.

125/365 Exploration

125/365 Exploration
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

It only took us another 5 hours on our third visit to the MSPCA, but we finally picked this guy, despite our initial intention to select a different kitteh. Having now spent some quality time at home with him, I'm pretty sure we made the right decision.

Of course, there's more to come... but I'll talk about that when the time comes.

124/365 Pollen season

124/365 Pollen season
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

123/365 MAILBOX CAT: U HAZ IT

123/365 MAILBOX CAT: U HAZ IT
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

122/365 Little hussy

122/365 Little hussy
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

The awesomeness of our old friends that we've lost can never truly be replaced --we will always miss their company. But it feels like it's time for us to get out there to meet some new kitties. There's an emptiness in the house that been clawing at us, and it seems like it's finally ok to try and fill it again. The tapping of small padded feet -- and not the ones from the neighborhood cat that's not supposed to come inside.

This little girl (her name was Harlequin) was up for adoption with her buddy, Frosty. They were being fostered by the Cat Connection, a non-profit group in the area. Frosty was friendly, immediately coming to me looking for head scritches. Harlequin was playful and friendly -- she jumped up onto my shoulder (and wouldn't come down) moments after we entered the room -- absolutely adorable, but a bit bossy (sez the SOOTTAD).

We met a few others, but remained completely indecisive (because we can't really take them all, as much as we'd like to). So the search continues.

121/365 Frankie watches over us

121/365 Frankie watches over us
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Dancing at Boston Swing Central in memory of Frankie Manning, who passed away early Monday morning.

Frankie Manning, 1914-2009