Here's one for CF: during this weekend, post your idea, principle, or even favorite quote below; out of the list, I'll select one and put it in a couplet for you. Your submission has to have a little bit of meat on it for me to work on, but if it's long, it may be overwhelming. So I'll need an idea that has something manageable to work with. Anybody game?

My son Micah won his basketball game this afternoon, I'm heading back to the gym to watch 9-year-old Leila play hers, and then to home for a quiet evening, Lord permitting.

-- Randal (randalmatheny@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001

Answers

I do wildlife rehabilitation for fun and to learn (volunteer work), and primarily work with birds. My favorite birds to work with are the owls. There's something about their faces, their powerful talons, the softness and silence of the feathers - exuding a quiet dignity in their demeanor... I can ramble on for hours about my experiences with the different breeds. Well, I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but, you asked...

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), December 07, 2001.

Who gossips to you will gossip of you.

Judi, does it drive you nuts, as it does me, to hear the 'flap, flap, flap' sound put in by unenlightened sound techs when an owl flies??

-- carol (kanogisdi@yahoo.com), December 08, 2001.

a little quote I love:

The decision to have a child is momentous, it is to decide to forever have your heart go walking around outside of your body!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 08, 2001.

Was a hard choice. I have a small owl collection on my desk, and we enjoy the owls at night that nest above our house. Melissa's quote was really good, too. How are hearts go with our children! But here's the couplet that popped out. (Sometimes, these things seem to have a life all their own.)

Talking About You
Beware the gossip burning in your ear,
Which later burns for what you didn't hear.

-- Randal (randal@rhyme.cjb.net), December 10, 2001.