Josie's first wedding

Josie attended her first wedding this weekend. She was a model child throughout both the ceremony and reception. The ceremony was held right around the corner from Wrigley Field (the bride proposed to the groom last year on the jumbotron!) and the reception was held in Andersonville at the Swedish American Museum. The bride is a friend of mine who was in one of my first marathon training groups. She did all of the wedding design and it was beautiful--a yellow and grey/white color scheme featuring yellow whirly pop name tags; lemons and a single, floating white flower centerpieces; huge, spherical white balloons and very cool invites and program. There was also a wedding cake shaped like a hot dog in a bun, temporary tattoos and a viking helmet you could don for photos. And an open bar, but Josie abstained.

Spawn of librarians

Stretching

It's important to stretch properly after a bath.








Aerial shot of Josie's unique style of yoga.








She thinks it's pretty fun to gnaw on her toes. She does this even when fully clothed and I keep finding wet socks on her.

Workout

Josie is getting very active on her mat and pushes herself up with both arms.







She didn't seem to want her feet to hit the rug, so she kept those raised up, too. Maybe it's because we told her the carpet was a river and it was filled with crocodiles.






Drop and give me twenty, Simpson!

Mystery duck update

<--My duck






<-- Cornell's duck









This just in...the mysterious duck referred to in a previous post has been confirmed as a "Muscovy Duck." Read all about it: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/domducks.htm (scroll down a bit to see the Muscovy).

Here's some of what they say:

Let’s deal with the *Muscovy Duck* first, as it’s pretty easy to tell. The most obvious character of a muscovy is the red facial skin. If your duck has a red face, it’s probably a Muscovy Duck. This red skin can be quite bumpy, exaggerated, and frankly, gross, with a knob on top of the bill and lumps all over. If you see that, it’s a slam dunk Muscovy Duck. The wild type plumage of muscovy is all black, glossy greenish on the back, and with large white wing patches. But, because of our fondness for white, domestic muscovies can be pure white, all black, or any degree of pied black-and-white.

They don't mention the Muscovy's yellow feet, and my duck looks like it has more of a duck head and less of a turkey head, but the rest of that description is spot-on. Wikipedia notes that there are feral populations of Muscovy ducks in almost every state in park areas. And finally, the Muscovy duck is apparently quite delicious, so I hope that duck is careful (it walked right up to me, but maybe it sensed I'm a vegetarian).

Some-bunny cute

Look at this cute bunny rabbit that I found.















Here's a full-body shot of the outfit.






Bunny fell asleep (which is good, since she had woken up early from her nap while I was posting pix. Just in time for me to catch some cute shots!).






More sleeping beauty-bunny.








PS Thanks for the cute bunny jacket, Grandma!

Mystery duck of Humboldt Park

Josie and I walk through the park almost every day. Normally, our creature sightings are limited to birds, squirrels, ducks, geese, lots of dogs and the occasional turtle. But both yesterday and today we witnessed a strange creature that we'd never seen before. As you can see, this animal stands out...it's like a cross between a turkey and a duck (and possibly a cow with that color pattern).


Yesterday there was a group of men standing around and discussing this strange bird and today one of them had returned and was feeding him some bread crusts. Here's a closer shot of the mystery fowl.