Tap-Tap-Tap...It's 6:30 AM...or is it 5:30?!?!?

Now, I'm not a fan of this whole seasonal "spring ahead, fall behind" nonsense (especially "Spring ahead", anyway) but it was especially unwelcome this weekend when we woke up to rapping on our door at the ungodly hour of 5:30am on Sunday(like 6:30a isn't bad enough on a weekend). Who could possible be tapping at our door this early?

Imagine our suprise to find it was a beautiful male cardinal. And he was incredibly persistent. His first round of wakeup calls began from our main level deck. Once he saw us shuffling around inside dazed and confused, he quickly flew away. Within minutes he was back again, this time from the patio below the deck.

He tapped away at our sliding glass doors for hours. The kids were really worried he was going to knock himself silly...I personally can't imagine how he didn't end up with a doozey of a headache (he'd certainly given us one, by the second consecutive hour).

Later that morning we found signs that he's also been tapping away at a window at the front of the lake house. What in the world could he be after? Given the beautiful lake weekend we finally had my advice to him is "stick outside buddy...Spring will be here soon!"

OK...so, it's not the kind of holiday lights I imagined

I've been meaning to write about spending the holidays at Lake Anna for weeks now but time has gotten away from me. So, while I thought I'd give a quick guide on finding the best holiday lights around the lake or Lake Anna holiday events for this weekend here's a strange twist...I found this article in my mailbox this morning instead. Let's just say this isn't the holiday post I envisioned.

Looks like Dominion Power has gotten an early Christmas present from the feds. The Richmond Times Dispatch reports:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a final environmental-impact statement on Dominion Virginia Power's request for a site permit for one or two new reactors at its North Anna Power Station. Regulators concluded that no environmental impacts would prevent the permit from being issued and no superior sites were available. Any adverse environmental impacts from preparing the site and preliminary construction could be dealt with, they said.

Of course, there are always many steps in these approval processes. No one expects the permitting to be completed until late next year at the earliest.

Ho-Ho-Ho. Not quite the traditional Holiday post but I'm off to wrap some more presents and bake some more goodies.