Naptime

"I call it nap time. Which is just before food time. And then comes food-nap time. And that's my favorite time of all." -- Michael J. Caboose

International mail

What do they do to internationally shipped packages that brand-new cardboard boxes don't survive the journey? I just received my box from Dubrovnik, but I didn't recognize it at first because it had been wrapped with brown paper to prevent the box's innards from falling out the gaping holes.

Most of my souvenirs survived the maltreatment intact. There was one casualty, however (and I don't mean the box -- that was a fatality). A large sculpted candle has a few pieces broken off. After I left the post office in Dubrovnik, I started worrying about this candle. I realized that it didn't have much padding around it to prevent it from shaking around in its little box inside the big box. So it shook and bits broke off and other corners got dented and now it's not nearly so pristine as when I purchased it.

A shard of plastic mysteriously appeared in the box and I'm pretty sure it isn't part of anything of mine. So therefore it came *in* through one of the gaping holes before the box got wrapped.

The ceramic elephant survived intact. I'd wrapped several plastic bags around it. ("Nothing says Dubrovnik like an elephant," I joke to the shop employee. And then I look around at all the trite tripe in that store and other souvenir shops nearby and decide that the ceramic elephant was indeed the best souvenir available. It thankfully doesn't have "Dubrovnik" imprinted upon it.)

So, back to my original question. Are the postal workers playing football with the packages, or what? Or lacrosse, perhaps?

Kill the Messenger!!

Over in Sudan, people are clamoring for the government to give the death penalty to a journalist who "review[ed] a 500-year-old Islamic manuscript which says that the prophet Mohammed's father was not Abdullah, as Muslims believe." That's all. He didn't make it up or invent anything. He just showed everyone a 500-year-old document that people were happier to forget. Kill him! Apparently, "Islamic Sharia law in place in Khartoum requires the death penalty for such an offence."

So which of you was complaining about the U.S. system of law and government?

Cinco de Mayo

Happy May Fifth! I've heard that today isn't a really big holiday in Mexico, but I've never been there, so what do I know?

But of course what I like about this holiday is that it celebrates the Mexican army's victory in a battle against the French. Yup, that's right. France managed to lose even to Mexico in military conflict.

Mexico had half the numbers of the French army in the battle and not nearly the weaponry, but they still managed to give the French their comeuppance.

They beat them with cows.

Now and Again

If you want to meet people from the future, be sure to attend the one-time-only Time Traveler Convention. You can either attend now or wait for time machines to be invented...

(With thanks to Ped for the link.)

Oyster Dome

I led a hike today, an official Mountaineers hike. My first, really. Last year, I agreed to lead one, but the two people who signed up canceled the day before. I led a couple other unofficial hikes last year, but only a couple people turned up. This time, I had eleven people with me (and two on the wait list, since we have a max size of 12). I jazzed up the hike description a bit, so it sold better. That and it was an easier hike than last year's.

Anyway, ... Oyster Dome is just off I-5 between Burlington and Bellingham. It's part of Blanchard Mountain/Hill, a massif with a couple knobs and lakes on top and a hang-gliding takeoff on the southwest.

At first, everything was going fine. We all met up and despite a wrong turn or two (and a cellphone call or two), everybody made it to the trailhead. It wasn't, however, the trailhead that I was planning on going to. That one was two miles beyond a locked gate. So the hike got longer and with more elevation gain. (From 6 miles, 900' to 8 miles, 1200' (from easy-moderate to moderate).) The hike was intended for beginners who just finished taking the Basic Wilderness Travel course. For one woman, this was her first hike EVER. I spent a lot of time with her, far behind everybody else.

It would have been good if there was an experienced hiker at the front of the group who had a map and knew where we were going and knew what trail junctions looked like and knew when we should be going uphill and when we should be going downhill. It wasn't until we were on the way back, actually, that the lead group, who I shall name Trouble, started going astray. Sure, they didn't stop at the last junction on the way to the lookout, but at least they turned the right way (they saw the sign).

Here's a few pictures:











I've got more people-shots at Flickr, if you want. That last one is an inch-and-a-half-tall guy that managed to hitch a ride up the hill in somebody's boot! He fell behind the boot's tongue while she was in the guy's owner's car.

On the way back, Trouble managed to miss a turn-off and the good kids followed them blindly (even though one of them apparently asked, "Isn't that a trail?" as they passed the correct turn-off). Luckily they were going up a dead-end on that one. I had them trapped. Later, though, Trouble went straight at a switchback. But that hill has a lot of underbrushless terrain, so they were able to meet up with the trail a little ways down the hill ("We weren't the first people to go that way!") before I got there. A couple more junctions that Trouble blew past (but went the right way), and we were finally back at the cars. Six hours on the trail (including a 30 min lunchbreak for me and first-timer).

Great weather, great hike, even if I didn't get to talk much to ten of them. First-timer said she'll stick to Easy hikes from now on.

I need to lead more hikes.

Bumper stickers and license plates

A few days ago (back before my vacation), I was driving along in my car and I spotted a ktru bumper sticker. My brain filed it as a kexp bumper sticker for a half-second before realizing that the two radio stations, while similar, are in two very different cities. And then I noticed that the car had Texas plates. It was all so familiar, and yet completely out of place. Everything makes sense for a while, but then you realize that you're not in Houston, you're in Seattle, and the person in that car has driven quite a ways just to throw you for a loop.

But not as far as this person did:



What are they thinking, driving all the way to Croatia, just to make me do a double-take? An F-150 is almost too big for Europe, anyway. Silly people.

Mariner 7 Day

Today is the nineteenth anniversary of the spacecraft Mariner 7's closest approach to Mars. Congratulations, Mariner 7! And to think that it's still able to comment on my blog after all this time and distance. Solar power really must be great.

Oh, and by the way, that's nineteen Martian years, not Earth years.

Fruit Flies Like a Banana

Do you believe that "global warming" is going to destroy the world? Or do you believe that species "evolve"?

Here's what fruit flies have to say about it.

And yes, that was an either-or question.

Just in case you cared...

Saddam in good spirits: lawyer

Today is Saddam Hussein's 68th birthday. You can send him gifts via the U.S. military.

My legs

I got plenty of exercise while on vacation, but it was all just walking. I could (and did) eat and drink anything I felt like and I didn't gain any weight (didn't lose any, either). My last night in Venice, I had for dinner: a large slice of pizza, a can of coke, a one-scoop ice cream cone, a plate of 4-cheese gnocci, a steak, three glasses of wine, and a two-scoop ice cream cone.

But I went for a run last night (4 miles plus three times down & up a 110' flight of stairs) and oh man did I feel out of shape. Back in March (February?) I could do that route no problem (well, okay, I've never *run* up the stairs three times successfully. If I did that, I'd've gone back down for a fourth time.), but a month without running and my legs are jelly. Ugh. Not a good feeling, having to walk on some flat bits coming home.

I'll try again tonight.

Hey! I've been there!

For those of you who watched The Amazing Race last night, you probably noticed that they went to Istanbul. For those of you who didn't watch it, they went to Istanbul. It all looked very familiar to me. The walk between the airport and the metro, the metro ride itself (although they did edit-out a transfer where you have to cross a street without a stoplight), and a lot of their setup "here's Istanbul" shots.

I didn't go out to that island (had never heard of it) and I didn't see it in any of my photos of the Bosporus, so it must be a ways away from the heart of town.

But their next stop, the Galata Tower, I did visit. I didn't see a cluebox out front (-; so I went up to the top. Here's a shot of the elevator panel that Gretchen had so much trouble with. Count the buttons.



Somehow she didn't realize that the way to get to the top of the tower was to press the top button. You know, the one circled in red?

But actually, the elevator doesn't go to the top. You have to climb an irregularly-shaped spiral staircase the last bit. And just to prove that I have a thing for staircases...



There's a great view of the city from up top, from a very narrow balcony. I was surprised by how fast Ron&Kelly went by the other people up there. If I was one of the other visitors, I'd be afraid that they'd knock me over the edge with those huge backpacks! My little one was plenty of trouble on that balcony.

Here's somewhere that none of the teams probably visited. The restroom atop the Galata Tower:



Next, one of their options was to go Yeni Cami's square to weigh people. Yeni Cami (which translates as "New Mosque" -- it's only 400 years old) is easily visible from the top of the tower, and vice versa.



I walked from Yeni Cami to Galata Tower and back, and it surely seemed a short distance compared to all the other walking I did that day. Between the two is the Galata Bridge. The top level is a major street with fishermen on the sidewalks and the bottom level is a bunch of restaurants and shops that no one was going to. There's a public restroom (50 cents) at either end.

This shot is from the middle of the bridge:



The square is a big open area of lots of concrete, full of people hurrying and pigeons milling. There were also plenty of people trying to sell things. The road off the bridge cuts the square in half (there's a pedestrian underpass), which might help explain why Gretchen and Meredith had so much trouble finding the guy with the scales. But perhaps I'm being too generous, since they were searching the market instead of the square... While I was there, no one tried to weigh me.

Fabergé Omelette

It's just too nice outside. Do I really have to be here at work? Can't I just hang out at a coffeeshop or something?

Please??

.
.
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Pretty please?