Eagle Owl Becomes Surrogate Mother

An Eagle Owl named Flea was feeling motherly but wasn't able to mate with another owl. She then became a model surrogate mother to some chicks.

News story from Der Spiegel Online.

Adventures at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop

Tulips in front of the Kennedy Union Building of the University of Dayton 

M's second standup comedy routine at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop was a hit! He had only five minutes, which we had carefully timed during rehearsals. But then, on the same day as the gig, everyone's time was reduced to 4 1/2 minutes. And the organizer of EBWW said he would be firm in using a hook to make sure everyone stuck to the time limit. (The "hook" turned out to be a 30-second warning of progressively louder music drowning out the performer.) M realized that his last joke would be cut off, so he stopped after his second-last joke, ending gracefully and with a big laugh. What a pro!

Another performer at the standup was the fabulously funny Debby Garfinkle! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to say hi to her. I had to remain in position to videotape M's performance and no one knew when they would be called on stage.

On Friday and Saturday we attended classes on attracting readers to your blog, making money by being funny, using humour in travel writing and more. M attended a standup comedy bootcamp.

We learned lots, laughed lots, and had a great time.

The G.M. buildings in Detroit dominate its skyline.

A walk by the river in Windsor, looking at the Ambassador Bridge.

Tulips along the river's edge, in Windsor

More tulips!

By popular request, more purple tulip pics, and one of the red tulips. :-)

Tulips

We decided to go for quality over quantity this year. ;-)