This right here is a charcoal chimney, used to get the charcoal started for the grill. Its hanging on our front porch right above the grill. Early spring we noticed a bird forming a nest and thought it was pretty cool (we have an extra chimney). Well she had babies right away and we think they died when we had a really cold night. Sad face.


But look at this! She had another brood. Four? little heads poking up. Boy are they noisy when mom (or dad!) comes to feed them.

This is Mom, we believe she is a House Finch. Anyone know otherwise? She's a good little mom, even went after Mike a couple times when he was out on the porch. Hehe (because it wasn't me).

That, over to the left, is dad. I was really surprised when I saw him feeding the little ones. I found it kinda heartwarming that they share that job.
And finally, here's a little hard to see video of them all in action :)

Just a couple retail lessons I need to get off my chest. Not that I think any of you do this stuff, I just need to vent (tourist season is definitely here).

• You really, really don't need to unfold every shirt you see. And when you're done with them, you really, really don't need to throw it back down in a ball.
• When knocking something on the floor, it'd be nice if you picked it back up.
• If you make a mess you can't clean up, please let me know so I can take care of it right away before it gets worse.
• If the sign on the store says "closed," don't come in and say, "I flipped your sign for you!" There may be an actual reason for the "closed" sign; also, it does take me a minute to open the place after I unlock the door, so don't ask to follow me in.
  
• Please don't get mad at me if I don't know if that particular shirt will shrink when you wash it. I'm sorry, I don't own and wash every single item myself.
• If I say "hello" to you, it'd be nice if you responded with even just a smile and definitely don't say "just looking" to my hello. I wasn't about to hassle you.
• Don't give me a nasty look when I tell YOUR child not to open the toys. This isn't actually a playroom, we're trying to sell that stuff.
• While some may think I look young, I do actually know what I'm doing and you don't need to look for the older employee to validate you.
• If you ask me what time I close and that time was five minutes ago, please take that as a hint that I'd like to go home now, its been a long day.

Rereading these, I sound a little b-wordy, but believe me, I could come up with TONS more. I'll refrain myself though.

That is all.