Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to all! Last year I let you all know what we're doing in our little corner of the world to help save the earth. We continue to improve on our list. We've added another compost bin to the yard and traded in our gas-powered mower for a battery operated one. It's pretty cool, not nearly as loud as our old mower and zero emmissions.

This year I'm sending a shout out to everyone on the climate crisis. A day doesn't go by where we don't see a message, a news story or magazine article addressing the iminent climate crisis. We keep hearing that we need clean energy to slow climate change and the potential devastation that comes with it. We also hear the naysayers (i.e. big oil supporters) who claim that there's no proof that our activities play a role.

To those conservatives out there who argue against the human impact on climate and discount the need for clean energy, I ask you this:

Global warming aside, how do you feel about the pollution from oil/gas/coal consumption being forced into you childrens' small, developing bodies (check this article)? Would you blow cigarette smoke into your child's face? No? Then why do you support continued spewing of poisons into our air that are proven to cause cancer, asthma and other ailments?

It shocks me that this aspect of dirty energy isn't highlighted more often in the media - perhaps if it were, some of the naysayers would understand this isn't just a climate issue but a human health issue and would start to back clean energy technology.

24 Months LID

Wow. When we started this process, we never imagined we'd hit a 2 year wait - and now we know our wait is very likely to surpass 3 years. The positive in this is that it appears that our wait for referral is more than half over and we are on the downhill slide to our child.

Meanwhile, in 'celebration' of our extended wait, we've ditched tropical diving for the year and scheduled a cross-country China trip starting in Beijing and are hoping that the Tibet unrest and tourist restrictions are lifted before then. If not, we'll re-route to other areas of the country. Either way, the experience will be phenomenal.

And our wait will continue...

Shakin' & Quakin'

I was awakened around 4:40 AM this morning out of a really fun dream - by an earthquake! For all you California folks out there, this is not a common occurrence here in the Midwest. A 5.2 tremor hit downstate but was felt as far north as Milwaukee. Apparently, because of the flatness of the land out here, the energy from quakes tends to disperse much farther than in the western quakes.

I began to feel the shaking in my dream, woke up and looked at my husband thinking perhaps he was having some fitful sleep, but he was still. I propped up on my elbows and realized I was hearing objects rattling, it wasn't just the bed. It lasted about 20 seconds and I noted the time on the clock so I could get online to see if I was crazy or if it was the earthquake I suspected.

This is actually the second time this has happened to me, but the first time, a few years ago, the quake was much smaller and I only woke up in time to feel a couple seconds of the shaking and chalked it up to dreamy dizziness - until I saw a blurb on the news the next day saying it was a quake.

I've always wanted to feel a small earthquake (non-injury, no-major damage causing) to see what it was like so this was a very cool thing for me. Any other mid-westerners out there feel it?

Wild Chicago

Wow! The variety of Chicago wildlife just keeps growing! Since my last city wildlife post, we've spotted a coyote in our neighborhood, opossums, raccoons, a huge hawk eating it's captured woodpecker and did get verification that indeed red fox do inhabit the city limits. Now this in my old neighborhood...there have been several cougar sightings in Illinois and Wisconsin over the past year, including the Chicagoland area.

It will be interesting to see how all of these sightings develop over the next few years in terms of origin of these animals. Many believe that overcrowding of western habitats is pushing the cats back east. Some think all of these sightings are escaped or released illegal pets. My unofficial guess is that it's both.

For more information on cougars (aka pumas, panthers, mountain lions and catamounts) in the Midwest visit Nature Almanac.

UPDATE 4/16: based on necropsy results, veterinarians believe this was truly a wild animal and not an escaped captive. It was a young male, perhaps pushed out of his home territory by older males.

UPDATE 4/17: news report this morning states a Forest Preserve Police Officer spotted a cougar chasing two deer near Skokie Lagoons and shortly after, two joggers reported to the same officer that they had spotted the cat. This was after the cougar was shot in the city limits. I was so close to calling in sick today to bike up there to see if I could spot it...this is along the North Branch Trail that I talked about in my Big City Nature post.

UPDATE 4/30: from the Chicago Tribune: DNA test results show that the cougar police shot April 16 on the North Side of Chicago was the same animal that left blood drops in southern Wisconsin in January, Cook County animal control officials said Wednesday. The cougar's genes link it to a population from the Black Hills of South Dakota, according to Wisconsin wildlife officials. The animal's long journey apparently took it through North Chicago and Wilmette, where people reported seeing a cougar after the animal left Wisconsin but before it arrived in the big city.

Greening My Birthday

I had a fabulous birthday last week - my honey made sure I had good friends, good food, good flowers and great fun all week...and he appealed to my crunchy granola eco-friendly sensibilities with this little bit of green:

This baby holds SO many photos and videos for me to share with you all - and yes, you'll have to suffer our pet and vacation media until our little one comes along. I'm lovin' my little green ipod nano! Thank you honey!

April Stork Alert

April referrals are here! Families logged in January 5 through 9, 2006 are seeing their children for the first time this week! Congratulations to all of you on this happy occasion!

Only 102 LID dates to be matched until our turn! Referrals continue to come about once a month, with an average number number of LID dates referred seems to be 6-7 per month. If referrals continue at this rate, we are 15-17 months away from our referral - July-September 2009.

While we're disappointed that it's still going to be a while before we are parents and we seem to be creeping further away from referral instead of closer, we are taking full advantage of this time as promised. We're getting in better shape, doing a few extra home improvement projects, booked a great vacation, and we're enjoying our couple time. I'm also learning Chinese and learning how to sew with my new machine. Soon, I'll start re-reading all of those adoption and attachment books again - it's been 2+ years since I've looked at it and will need a refresher pre-referral. The wait goes on!