Well, it has been a while

Not because there hasn't been anything to say, but that I haven't had time. I'm busy studying for a big test that actually happens this week. This Wednesday and Thursday I have four hours each day to answer questions that can cover just about anything in my department. As you probably can imagine, I've been really busy trying to learn a little about a lot of things. The weather around here has been summerlike as well, so when I haven't been studying I've been getting some good rides in. The weather turns wet and cold again this week, so my riding may be limited this week. The pictures I've put in are one from a ride a few weeks ago showing how the water just ran off the hills and filled up the river. Soon after that spring started coming. It was weird, not one of the trees had a bud on it, then WHAM they had leaves. Not all of them, but in a few days, after the looming testing marathon I'll get out and take some spring New England pictures! Hope you are all having a great, but weird weather, spring.

Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!

If you can't read that the way I wanted to have it sound, that is Woody Woodpeckers laugh. [now, try it :) for a bit of help: http://www.420dude.com/dudesounds/woody2.wav] I know, "Ok, lex, you've really lost it this time!" Well, not really. I haven't really been doing much besides studying and trying to ride my bike, but last Sunday I had a really cool experience, which happened again this Sunday. Both days I went for a walk. If you can't remember, my neighborhood, if one could call it that, is VERY rural. (so rural in fact, we have learned that UPS considers me rural so it costs more to ship things to me...boo on UPS!) So, going for a walk can be a quiet, nature experience. Last Sunday on my walk I saw two VERY large wood peckers, pecking away at some trees. Larger than any I have ever seen, and I thought they were pretty ugly until I watched them for awhile. WOW, they are huge, the have the coolest talons and they are pretty fliers. So, I busted it home and looked them up. Turns out that they are the type that Woody was typed after: the Pileated woodpecker! Well, I ran into them again today. This is a picture of the big boy tearing up a tree. At one point, both were on the same tree. And I also took a video of him at work.




I'm also including a slide show of some of the other sights of the hood from this morning!



This video is of a really pretty little bird (which you can't see), but the point is not to watch (because it is really boring) but to listen. So turn up your speakers...this is what spring in Sunderland sounds like. The last pretty little whooo whooo whooo is from this little red bird.

For all you bicyclists!

We struggle with being safe and having fun everyday out on the roads. I know we would all appreciate it if drivers "saw us." I wonder how many people would pass this test!

I want a dog, clap, clap!

Sometimes when I'm stuck or just done with my school work I take a break and watch youtube videos. Well, I've really been craving a dog so I watch vids with Viszlas. There are some fantastic ones, but this one is BY FAR one of my favorites. Watch this all the way through...this pup is SO PRECIOUS!

US Open Snowboarding

Today I went up to Stratton to watch the US Open Snowboarding Championship. A friend of mine's sister is Torah Bright (picture on left). If you don't know who she is check out: http://www.torahbright.com/. To make a long story short, she'll pretty good. Which is actually a HUGE understatement! She won the halfpipe today along with Shawn White. (now there's a name most of you will know even if you don't know all that much about snowboarding...he's in a lot of commercials.) It was a cold, sunny day. What was so weird was that it was so quiet. Usually when we watch the X-games it is loud and crazy, not here. It was quiet and just a whole bunch of people watching. The announcer dudes were not helping either. They didn't announce until it was almost too late who was coming, what the score was, and they didn't even announce that Torah won. Uh, she won $100,000 and a new Volvo...it was kind of a big deal. Oh and Shawn (picture below) won $100,000 and a new Volvo too, and there wasn't a big scene with him either. Weird. OH well, it was still fun!