Oliver and "Shrek Jr."

St. John's Prep produced "Shrek Jr." with Ken and Erin's youngest son, Oliver, in the role of Gingy, the gingerbread man.  I whispered to him after the show that I had never seen Ken in a more excited or happy state.  He really was beside himself.  Oliver had several lines of dialogue, including the last line of the show, "God bless us, everyone!" which brought down the house, as they say.
I happen to  have my birding lens and camera in the car, and at the last minute, went out and got both, and I am so happy I did.
Here's the results.

Shrek (Dan  Pawlyk)

Oliver, opening number, walk-on part

Pinocchio (Drew Piver)

Oliver as Gingy, the Ginger Bread Man

captured by Lord Farquaad

Three nights imprisoned by the dragon

The Dragon (Sam Tucker)

Another walk-on

Gingy and Puss in Boots (Davian Romero)

Watching the love scene

Princess Fiona (Ava Beringer)

The outstanding actress and singer in the show

Shrek, Donkey (Raoul Foster, excellent!), Princess Fiona, bows

"God bless us, everyone!"

It would not be possible to be more proud of him than I was.  

I really hope I live long enough to see him as an adult.
I have to add here that this far-above-average production, with
especially wonderful dance numbers, was a huge credit to the
director of the show, Ms. Brit Christopher
who told me before the show that Oliver
"Makes her day !"

Catching up.

A collection of stuff, mostly to amuse me.

Alex and Carter, 

Christmas, 2018

Darwin's final conclusion

Because I am always playing with Alex and Carter's legos, they gave me a box for Christmas. 

The challenge is to build a tower, using all the pieces.  I managed to create this minus three pieces. 

I call this Doug's Moving Castle

Susan had to go to Mass Eye and Ear for an exam.  

I visited the local Mass Gen Hosp. museum. 

Birding 2 11 more photos!

Cold but bright Friday, Jan 4th, out for more photos.
Again, what I am trying to do is get a photo of each species I see, and as the year goes by, try to improve all of those as I go, and add more species.  No.11 looks like a keeper to me!

Downy Woodpecker (8)

Bufflehead (9)

Black-capped Chickadee (10)

House Finch (11)

Common Goldeneye (12)

Ring-billed Gull (13)

Great Blue Heron (14)

Red-bellied Woodpecker (15)

Mallard (16)

Common Merganser (f) (17)

White-breasted Nuthatch (18)

American Robin (19)

Northern Shoveler (20)

New Year's Day birding

After Susan and I quietly (for the first time in many years) celebrated New Year's Eve together, I got up at 6:00 and drove down to the Cape and did a little birding, taking my first pictures for 2019.
I am going to keep one select photo of as many species as I can this year, and every time I get a better shot, replace it.  I am going  to aim for a 500 species photos for the year.    Hmmmm….
So here is the first 7!

Harbor seal at Manomet

Red-breasted Merganser

First bird photo for 2019

This will be "keeper" No. 1

And here you can see he has swallowed the whole fish

(see the lump in the throat)

Black Scoter

(A "keeper" for now, hopefully a better photo later in the year)

White-winged Scoters 

(Keeper for now)

Common Loon 

(for now)

Common Eider

(This is pretty good, that green is so hard to capture)

Common Eider, with immature male.

I spent over an hour driving up and down the canal, hoping to see

a King  Eider amongst the thousands of Common. 

No luck so far. 

Common Eider, female

Another female

I think the female is quite beautiful

Great Black-backed Gull

for now

Herring Gull

for now

Barge on the Canal

So that is the first seven for the photo record. 

Every time I go out I will try to get better shots, and get new species.