Gov Ball 2012

I was invited to attend this year's Governor's Ball on Randall's Island. It was a awesome, 2-day concert with a bunch of famous acts: Beck, Modest Mouse, Fiona Apple to a name a few. There was a lot of dancing and everyone looked cool. I walked around at one point randomly taking picture of people in the crowd.

A Real Rabbit

I've seen more wild animals in this state than anywhere on earth, even zoos. Ok, maybe not a zoo.

The Speed of Pete

We took Petey to a dog park and he hated it. So we walked around the park the dog park was in and Petey liked it much better.

Growing Up

Since a bird is always on the nest, it took us a little while to actually find out that the eggs had hatched. They got big pretty fast! This one baby curiously poked his (or her) little head out to get a look at me. In case it's hard to tell, the baby is facing left. Next to its eye, you can see it's little baby bird ear. (it's not often you get to see a bird's ear!)

The Bird Family

I like checking on the mourning doves every morning because I'm able to get a really good look and they let me! A parent dove stays with the baby birds, no matter who may be watering their nest (me) or who might be poking their face through the flowers to take a peek (me again).

The parents usually switch off. First, one of them will call out the distinctive mourning dove call once or twice, fly away and after a few seconds, the other parent swoops in to take over. One day I was lucky enough to hear the hooting before the switch-off occurred and I watched as a parent landed on the nest with the rest of the family!


They patiently waited for me to take my pictures until I crept back inside, then the bird who needed a break took off.

Famous People

Fleet Week brought me in contact (or very close proximity) to some famous people. Katy Perry, you can see above, in her American flag outfit. She gave a free concert to the Navy and the USO volunteers. It was pretty good!

And then, of course, there is Mark Sanchez. To be honest, I didn't know who he was. Dad stopped in his tracks and said, "You want a picture with him." And I was like, "Uh... ok?" But when dad tried to take the picture, he instead turned the camera OFF and I started to leave. But Mark stopped me and told dad to take an actual picture. So I have two pictures with the handsome Mark Sanchez.

Mark: Wait! Don't leave....

Amanda: If that's what you really want, handsome sir, of course I will take a photo with you!



Also, I saw Wilmer Valderrama. I could have taken a photo with him, as he was about an arms length away from me, but I did not! Here he is on the jumbo tron, introducing the 47 people who spoke before Katy Perry performed:

Robin Photo Op

We've been taking pictures every day of these little guys when the mama is not around. The robin parents will leave the nest if anyone gets too close, and chirp angrily at us from a nearby branch until we leave!