willow_25 | In a Better Mood! (Reply)

Even though our A/P department is filled with idiots. That's really all I can say about it from work.

I'm still very much up in the air about what to do for Halloween. I haven't decided on a costume yet, and now there is a debate over where I will spend the holiday, and what I will do to celebrate. The tried and true 'prowl the interwebs until I finally decide on a costume' method will probably be it this year. I'll keep all posted.

So, after I got back from the wedding weekend, I went to visit my aunt & uncle with my parents, sister-in-law, niece, and my other aunt & uncle. These are my father's sister and brother and their spouses. We had a really great time, and I was very thankful that I made it back in enough time to join the party. In addition to the regular 'bocce, food, talking a lot' that goes on at one of our family events, we also went to see the monarch butterflies and swallows migrating.

They stop over on their migration path not far from my aunt's house; the butterflies like these plants that grow on a sandbar, so we hiked out to a private beach where a bunch of them grow and took pictures etc. They were flying around in big clusters, covering the plants; very cool.

The swallows spend the night in large patches of reeds; right around sunset, you can see a massive cloud of birds gather in the air above the reeds, chill out flying in patterns for a while, then dive into the reeds to find a resting place for the night. It looks like they're falling from the sky. The swallows actually were less cool for me; I kept thinking about Hitchcock movies, and bird poop, and it kind of spoiled the whole "majesty of nature" effect. My niece thought they were way cooler than the butterflies, though.

We don't have any pics of the swallows, but if I can get my mother to download the butterfly pics I will post a few. Maybe. Also, the very few wedding pictures I got include the choreographed dance routine performed at the reception, so as soon as I get the couple's permission I will try to post those as well.