Quail Egg-Easter Egg-Goose Egg

D, our next door neighbor, found a quail egg on her front porch on Tuesday. She gave it to us. I have been babying it. It's in a basket filled with crumpled newspaper and paper towels. I've got a light on it to keep it warm. I rotate the egg a few times a day. The first night we got it, I told the kids all about the baby bird inside and how we were going to try and take care of the egg so maybe that baby bird would hatch. They were really excited, but so was I. I was daydreaming about my little quailing (I have no idea what a baby quail is called.) I cried over my quail egg the second night. I think it might've gotten too hot under the lamp. I'm just hoping I didn't cook my baby bird. But now I don't know that it's staying warm enough either, so I'm worried it might make it for that. I saw on the internet that the egg needs to stay at 100 deg F. I don't know how to measure the temperature. Obviously the house isn't that hot-- that's why there's a lamp shining on the egg. But since my egg doesn't have an ear, I don't know what temperature it's at! Even though I've resigned myself to the fact that I probably would have a baby quail hatching out of the egg, I'll keep the light shining and the egg rotating. I don't know what's going on inside the egg, but I would hate to think that I gave up and there was a chance for a baby. (Of course, I don't know what I'll do if a baby does hatch out!) Incubation time is about 16 days, so I guess I'll know then whether or not this was a successful little science project. I'll let you know the end result.

Speaking of eggs, as I was getting the kids in bed, M reminded me that I need to dig out the Easter baskets so that the Easter Bunny can come fill them up. Oh yeah, Easter baskets. I told her that I didn't know if E.B. knew where we lived. That didn't work. I told her I wasn't quite sure where the baskets were. She knew, and she let me know. I guess I'll have to dig into a little of Moma's Sanity Chocolate bars which are stashed in the freezer and put one in each kid's basket. I was really slacking on the basket goodies this year. When I did think of it, it was too far in advance I thought. So now here it is, Easter Eve, and the E.B. has no treats!

"No treats." That's what M and L let me know after the soccer game today. We had soccer practice yesterday afternoon. Our little 7-member team is getting smaller and smaller. One boy quit at the start of the spring season, so we were down to 6. Our coach pretty much quit because he's got other (seemingly more important than volunteering as a U6 soccer coach!) obligations. As such, his daughter hasn't made it to much-- I think she made it to one or two practices and one game. We're pretty much a team of 5 now. One of the boys was out of town for Easter-- down to 4. One of the boys just didn't show up. So we were down to 3 at practice yesterday. M, A, and J. J's dad took over as "coach" since Coach Tom handed over coaching responsibilities. They play 3 at a time during the games, so I told Coach Gerald it was good we'd have at least 3 for the game. He said I was right. Unfortunately Coach Gerald and J didn't show up for the game this morning. M and A did. The other team had all 7 players. They let us borrow one; G was a really good sport, and I think she had a lot of fun being a Tiger. M got to shine; she played the entire game, and she actually paid really good attention and played really well. N got to be the coach for the team. A's dad didn't volunteer. He didn't even watch the game. He just talked on his phone at the other end of the field. I think he was hoping for a forfeit by the Tigers. (No way!) It very very very very cold, though. About half-way through, I took B, S, and T back to the car. T was cozy in his car seat, but B and S were pretty miserable. I was feeling pretty miserable, too. L stayed around to watch the rest of the game. But there were no after-game snacks for the Tiger players, since one of the players who didn't show was in charge for this week. Yep, a big goose egg on the snacks. M didn't seem to mind too much, but I'm sure that it was disappointing for L. I think that might have been why she stayed for the rest of the game!

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