Buggin Out

Each year I try to get out and volunteer for the local biodiversity free-for-all, lovingly known a Bioblitz. Unlike the good old days, when all that was required for this type of event would have been a couple of bug nets, a stick or two of dynamite and a shotgun (for bugs, fish and birds respectively), today's more Politically Correct scientist has to take a more cautious approach. Not that there isn't ANY killing going on. I'm a bug guy, I'll admit it. Bugs are everywhere and there are so many different flavors that one could never get board of the same ol' thing. And THESE you can kill! Yeah, jars filled with cyanide or high levels of ammonia gas are just the thing that trips my trigger. Move over DEET, ethyl acetate come on in! Plus I love taking their fragile little bodies, colorful and gorgeously patterned by millions of years of natural selection and evolution, and cramming a steel pin through them so I can stuff um in a glass case and stare at them when ever I want. Bugs are neat!




he only tough part is that in order to fit in I've had to totally change the way I look in order to "assimilate". This requires a certain degree of facial hair, as seen on all prominent scientific gentlemen.



So I've been working on that this summer.

Lady Godiva Called...

Phone rang today
caller ID comes up "Godiva Chocolate"
Wife says "should I answer it?"
"Hell Yeah! Here, hand it to me. Maybe it's free chocolate."

"Hello"
"Yeah, is Bob there?"
"Oh, (pause...already seeing where this is going), I think you have the wrong number."
"Oh sorry."
"yeah, me too. I thought we were getting free chocolate."
"Um, no. Sorry"
"If I was Bob could I get some free chocolate?"
"Not unless you're my Uncle Bob."
"For free chocolate...I could do that."
(click...beeeeepp.)

I guess I'll have to swipe some M&M's from the kids Valentines day card stash on top of teh fridge.

-15 and counting

Just wishing it was a bit warmer...that's all.

The Troubadour

I know that years of dancing around and singing children's songs with a group of equally tone deaf and coordinated parents would finally pay off.




Of course watching Animal House 1,500 times growing up helped as well.



Ahh. I know how he feels.

Call me Ahab!

The latest expedition of the fearless, some might say reckless and foolhardy, adventurers has led us to the Great White North.



And like our Scandinavian brethren before us, our quest is to capture the great beasts of the sea, the leviathans of the deep, the great humpback whale! Alas, only too late, did we realize that the fate of our sailing vessel was sealed from conception. Her construction, though wildly innovative was fatally flawed due to a lapse of judgement in material selection. I can safely be said that cardboard be a poor substitute for sturdy planking. AArrgg! So it was to the stitchery with us to bring home our Christmas whale,using miniature harpoons and fine gossamer lines we fashioned ourselves a beast who's beauty would make our ancestors weep with pride.

Thar she blows!

Crafty Bastard

I'm a man crafter, you got a problem with that!

Where else is Santa gonna stick his booty? (uhhh...don't answer that.)






The wife needed a little pick me up too. She likes cherry blossoms so I raided the kids art supplies.

Vee luf to eat vierd tings here in Mineesooota.

Being da gut Minnesotans dat ve are, veer teachin our leetel vuns da importance uf a vell balanced diet, ya. Iduv taken uh pitcher uf dem eatin du lutafisk but dey gobbled it all up before I could snap du photo, uff da!




heers vun ve call "roots und shoots in boots" efen do its a clog really.





in dees vun ve mix up da vale blubber vit a bit of potato flour und a smidge of cardomon, like any gut Sveed vud do, ya? Da kids just luf dem!

Lastly ve haf a holiday tradition around here. Da Oma und Opa alvays send us some cookies calt Kleiner.



But da leetle vuns haf taken to calling dem cocoons. How cute, I tink tomorrow veel try some uf deez den.