songbird's crazy world

Backyard camera alerted me to a “person” in the yard.  Well, he IS a cardinal …

 Back in the 80’s, when I was just a “baby lawyer”, I worked at a firm that specialized in fidelity and surety cases.  We handled a lot of cases where an employee stole from an employer, but the employer very wisely purchased employee dishonesty insurance to cover the loss. We handled all kinds of employee cases, from the messenger who stole petty cash to finance his drug habit to the chief financial officer who juggled bank accounts to support her post-divorce lifestyle, from the guy stealing inventory to sell at the flea market to the executive who sent millions of stolen dollars to an offshore bank account. People have very creative ways to steal from their employer. The reason I mention this? Drew leases his car, and the current lease is about to expire.  He wants to replace the car with a newer model.  He’s been leasing from the same dealership since …well, he’s gotten several cars from this dealer.    So we headed over to the dealer Friday afternoon t...

  Too Shy Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: Too Shy (1983) Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) This song laments vulnerability and self-consciousness in a social settings. Are you often "too shy?" Or are social gatherings easy for you? Large gatherings with new people feel awkward.   Otherwise I’m ok.   2) In the lyrics, a girl self-censors, telling herself, "hush hush." Have you more recently shushed someone, or were you shushed?  Drew and I have a dear friend who holds political views very different fro...

 

 

 The  Mets-White Sox game, previously scheduled for tonight, will now be played this afternoon.  Why?  RAIN. It’s been a very rainy spring, with above-average rainfall.  So different from last summer and autumn, when we had a drought. But eventually the warm summer weather will arrive.  Right? Weird story out of eastern Long Island.  A father and son took the winter cover off their backyard swimming pool and found a dead body floating in the water. Suffolk County Police haven’t confirmed the identity of the deceased, but they have a very strong suspicion.  Back in November a man killed his father and took off before the police arrived to investigate the crime.   He drove on the William Floyd Parkway, a limited access highway surrounded by woods.  The suspect crashed his car and ran into the woods.  The police searched but could not find the suspect.   The house with the pool abuts the woods along the parkway.  It’s about h...

 We had a successful barbecue using the charcoal-burning grill.  Gas grill was supposed to be delivered today, but is now delayed until Thursday.  That’s four cancellations.  We will never order from this company again.  Sigh — they used to be so reliable. The weather cooperated, to an extent.   No rain, but it was chilly. We wound up serving dessert inside.  We’re doing it again 4th of July weekend.  By then we should have a gas grill … right? Just found out that one of our favorite Italian restaurants is closing at the end of next month. We haven’t been there in awhile, there are two other places we also like, but it seems like a lot of our favorite restaurants are closing …  I’m just happy that most of the Italian places around here do gluten free pizza and pasta dishes. The sandwich shop we like, the one that was temporarily closed, due to reopen mid-April, is still closed.  But my gluten free bakery/ cafe is about to open another lo...

 Is anyone surprised by today’s playlist? It’s literally front page news here on Long Island.  Billy Joel has canceled all concerts for the foreseeable future due to illness.  His last concert was in February, when he took a fall on stage.  He had surgery in March and had to postpone several concerts to recuperate, but apparently he needs more time to recover from his illness.  He was supposed to do a stadium tour this summer, and I was debating which of three NYC-area concerts I wanted to see. The three NYC-area concerts…Yankee Stadium with Rod Stewart, MetLife Stadium with Stevie Nicks and  Citi Field with Sting. I’ve seen Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks,  and also Fleetwood Mac,  at Jones Beach, but I’ve never seen Sting.  And as a Mets fan, Citi Field is “home”, so I was leaning towards that one …but I hadn’t bought tickets … You know how I feel about Billy Joel. So today, here’s a few of Billy’s best.   We saw Billy at MSG  two years...

 The music of Citi Field. The game always starts with the national anthem.  Here’s Billy Joel’s version. You might also hear God Bless America     And you have to expect this But at Citi Field , it’s always followed by this  It’s not the 7th inning stretch without Lazy Mary. Lindor’s walk up music is so well-known, the original artist showed up last year to sing it for him. And when you see this  You know to expect this

 Our destination Friday night. Mets vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers. So let’s start with the weather. I’ll let Mr. Met clue you in. Yeah, we spent a good part of the evening opening and closing our umbrellas.  Not to mention the rain delay during the 3rd inning — one hour and 40 minutes. And did I mention it was cold? Just a little reminder that we’re next to La Guardia. Our seats were field level, behind home plate, with access to the Clover Club.  Unfortunately there’s nothing I can eat at the club, so I had to hike almost halfway around the stadium for the gluten free food stand.  But at least I could get a hot dog or a burger or chicken fingers.   The retired numbers. They’re going to add another number this year… The Home Run Apple The Queens Crew was around to entertain us. And there were the mascot races  — one character representing each of the 5 boroughs. Waving our colors  Mr. Met does his thing And, oh yeah, there was a baseball game  The D...

  American Soldier Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: American Soldier (2003) Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it  here . Memorial Day is a federal holiday that honors men and women who served and died in the United States Armed Forces. We want to make sure that message is not lost this weekend. 1) Are you a veteran? Are there veterans in your family? Do you know anyone who is active military? We are grateful and want to hear about it. My father, of blessed memory, served in the United States Army during World War II. He was drafted tow...