Bill and I made it back from our trip to Madison and we are exhausted. Between all the cramming on optics and meeting new people and enjoying friends we have not seen for a while, we feel like cold wet noodles.

Cinnamon got to go around and meet some of the crew at Eagle Optics. Mike was ready for her right away to see if she would disapprove of him. It took a moment, but the inevitable happened and she indeed did disapprove of him. I on the other hand am in awe of him. I'm going to be honest, I always knew a good binocular when I look through it, but I didn't know the scientific reason why an optic is better than others. Being the left brain that I am, I just kind of skimmed bird magazine articles about optics. Of course, working for an optics company, I need to be able to actually know what you are talking about and Mike who has given me my initial training is VERY good. I really appreciated that he walked me though the initial binocular lesson without making me feel like a dingbat. He was patient, humorous and best of all not boring. I'm very excited about this whole process though. Part of me now understands how new part-time people that I trained at the bird store felt when I was walking them through seed mixes and the ins and outs of Droll Yankee bird feeders. I'm sure the glazed eye, information overload look came across my face a few times. This whole learning process really gives me hope. If I can learn all of this, I should one day be able to properly learn how to identify first and second year gulls.