Birds, in a lava tube nest. Normally I only see a rat (of the pack kind) and a bat in here, but it seems that some feathered fliers moved in too.
Butterfly - died in a pool of salty salty brine. Makes for a pretty neat photo though.
Duck, not dead, swimming in a pool of salty salty brine... never seen a duck in the desert before.
Always do the "does it stick to your tongue test" to determine the rock diatomite. I love the expressions on the other students faces in the background...
Always encourage students to participate in jumping photos on the San Andreas Fault to see if they can generate an earthquake. Not very many were keen to do so - but this group had loads of enthusiasm, and I think there's potential for new jumping moves here!
The question. You see, not too difficult I thought.
When in doubt... keep writing the words all over the place, surely one of them will land on the right item?
Interestingly, we didn't even talk about the poles during this lecture, they are left off the mathematical model because they get too distorted...
Equator? Of all the things to NOT remember? Equator? BLUEWICH? Funny, but really really sad.
Well, at least they got "equator" on this one...
The best right answer, with added bonus of being pretty. There were few of these "right" answers.
I know one cat who wouldn't find this to be fun...
Ummm... The big red sign? The sketchy shack it is posted on?
Lady's Choice? Is it really? What's the difference between "sandwich spread" and "tuna spread"?
A little greenery to start things off...
...and olives
the frites, with leek soup instead of salt on them
the green curry moules
crusty garlic bread alongside the chorizo moules
I was absurdly amused by the wild ass.
jaw of tiktaalik - check out that palate and all those little teeth!
In "true" Irish style I had some friends over for a St Patty's dinner. On the menu was Irish Cider (note the napkins) served in orange and green glasses, potatoes (in their crispiest form), and green pizza. It was delicious. No one's ever called me a traditionalist.
These little guys are just sooooooooooo cute! And while they are probably stupid, I think that the photo below captures a much better example of stupid.
Yes, that is a great big slump. And those are two million+ dollar homes. And to the right, just out the picture is the Kern River. And all that stuff the homes are built on is poorly consolidated sediment within the K.R. flood plain.
The purpose of this trip was actually to plan a new route for my next "short day" field trip for my geology students. They're going to love this. I love turning people into rock nerds. My route is sort of the light blue line on the map below.
Meanwhile I am discovering another thing that my college students managed not to learn at some point before graduating high school: what a flow chart is. Eek.
This grainy photo, taken on my phone at night, is of the crookedest street ever: Lombard St. It's also up a 45 degree slope or something almost that absurd.
More delicious siphon coffee was enjoyed at the Blue Bottle Cafe. Watch the video! NYT crossword was also worked on. A perfect Sunday morning.
Famous offset point on the San Andreas Fault on Point Reyes. This fence was separated in one fell swoop by the massive earthquake that devastated San Francisco in 1906.
The beach had dead stuff on it. Lots and lots and lots of crabs and crab bits, only one seal. Of all the seals I could have seen, I was most disappointed this one was a carcass. (There was also a dead duck with mysteriously clipped wings and some other kind of dead bird, large, but essentially beyond recognition)
And, naturally, jumping occurred. (Limantour Spit on Point Reyes - cold and overcast, but really pretty much expected for the Pacific Coast in February...)
Extreme Chef was responsible for the legged fish appetizer of course! Yum!
The rest of the feast was ethnically inspired (we could say evolution brought it together) - and included tourtiere, pilaf, mediterranean salad, butternut squash with hazelnuts, carrots (ok - those two are pretty standard foods globally), and for dessert, brownies and crepes!
Try as we might to not do this, discussing politics at work always seems to come up... Note Kiki's level of engagement in this conversation.
Note in this photo: 1) Kiki trying to get attention in his sweater, 2) delicious crepe with yogurt and apple that I am about to eat, 3) how flush I am with fever at the moment (no, not dying, can continue to celebrate!)
The Crepe masters - bringing skills and all the equipment with them wherever they go!
This basement-of-Frankenstein looking contraption here is for iced coffee. It takes some 10-11 hours to cold drip through the grounds into the carafes below. I've never tasted iced coffee before WITHOUT sugar. This was amazing.
But the siphon brew is really what I came for. Stupidly I tried to film the process, but held the camera sideways again, and with the poor lighting - it really came out terrible. Below is the NY Times photo of the siphon bar. What happens is more or less this: 1) "bulb" of water is heated over a halogen plate, 2) grounds are put into a cylinder that has a narrow base with a filter and a chain of some sort, 3) when water is hot enough, cylinder of coffee grounds is put on top and stirred while water bubbles its way up the chain into the cylinder through the grounds, 4) a vacuum is created in the bulb, it is removed from the halogen heat, and the vacuum sucks the coffee back down, 5) you drink it and marvel at how distinctly different coffee tastes made this way!
