shopping

Took a trip down to "the city" (LA) yesterday to pick up some items for Bird Nerd's camping trip next week - and this naturally included a visit to the camping store REI (the US equivalent to MEC). We also took the opportunity to visit the La Brea Tar Pits and the LA County Art Museum (Kilometres, I am going to send you the pamphlet because you would have loved one of the displays there).

I found the following two "outdoor necessity" items that I needed to share with everyone.

• I did not buy THIS (but I had to share the link) - the product name had me giggling for hours to come.
• I did buy THESE because they were too cute to not buy, and who can resist the following package quote? (Design website HERE)

"... and they're easy to clean – just turn one inside out and lick it"

sneak peak

Finished - but what could it be??? Guesses?

A moment of silence

The time has come to say goodbye to my beloved 12" powerbook. After the close call last year (fried hard drive), it never really recovered. Then nearly a year after the expiry of applecare protection, a few days ago it just didn't wake up. 4 pitiful beeps were the last words, a warning to all: backup your files!

Luckily mine were 90% backed up, and even luckier, the hard drive has been recovered and the brain of my very small computer is now in an even smaller hard drive enclosure.

Super Cute Toad

My first day out in the field in Montana we met this little guy - check out how cute he is!

fig-elicious

(added July 25) Two more figs ripened and were eaten by me this morning - these were juicier and figgier, mmmmmm...

Amazingly a fig ripened on my little fig tree on my patio. Naturally I had to eat it this morning. It looks like another might be ripening as well - this is very exciting!!!

DINOSAURS RULE!!!

Digging up dinosaur bones in Montana - who could ask for anything more?

The setting.

Triceratops rib bones.

Triceratops skull frill and brain case.


Preparing plaster and burlap strips for jacketing.


Jacketing a Torasaur skull frill.


Lying next to Crichtonsaurus - a small Ankylosaur that we would be working on repairing and putting on display in the museum.


After gluing, sanding, priming and painting, drilling the Crichtonsaurus cast.


The bulk of the vertebrae and head strung on rebar, nearly ready to assemble!

Famous site of the first T-Rex EVER discovered and excavated - back in 1902.

It deserved a jump!

airport blogging is the best kind of blogging

Here I am in Reno, ready to board en route to Montana. This stage of the trip came from the plan of spending July 4 and a few days after at my colleague's cabin north of Reno. He built it himself 40 years ago - which is fantastic. Unfortunately, this has been a very dry season, and on July 5 we spotted this "cloud" over the ridge.


We went to investigate, and decided that it was far enough away not to worry for the time being.

Waking up on July 6, we were presented with a smoke-filled meadow and an eerie glow in the sky. The sun was a glowing orange ball and ash fell like a blizzard. Among the ash were charred fragments of tree, and below, this complete oak leaf, blistered and blackened and crisp.

We were evacuated that night, and in a panic closed up the cabin, grabbed my colleague's near&dear possessions, zipped down to Reno and had a restless night until I was delivered to the airport about an hour ago.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed for the fire to get under control and the cabins to be saved. Keep your eyes out for news on the fires at Antelope Lake in N. California.

Woohoooooo!

Obviously I did a bit of editing (not sure what shouldn't be available publicly) - and a fair bit of cropping... below is what's printed on the back - which is really the best part when you think about it!

And now I'm off to Montana for some digging up of dinosaur bones. You are certainly going to be subjected to photos upon my return!

My Calendar Says...

My knitting calendar recognizes this National holiday!

Note the decor...

I force-fed some friends homemade maple-sausage poutine in order to have the full Canadian effect!

We even tracked down some genuine Canadian beer, and drank if out of Canadian beer glasses!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!

Oh, I forgot the P.S. - In order to complete the evening, Blue Hawaii was in order. This was because a) all good Canada Days from my past have involved some sort of beach, and b) most of them in Barrie preceded the Collingwood Elvis Festival. Here I killed 2 birds with one terribly amusing film!