Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Eureka!
What I learned in my Ancient Civilizations class at Berkeley: you’re supposed to pronounce it Oy-reka. Cyrus King of Persia should be pronounced Surrus, and Darius, Dar-yoosh.
Oy-reka!
We saw elk on the way down and on the way back. Here are a few females.
We never made it to the kinetic sculpture races. We did, however, make it to CostCo and PetCo. Tells you something about our priorities. Two other things:
- I finished The Book Thief today. I cried all the way through the last 60 pages of this sumbitch. It deserves a much more comprehensive review than that, so I’m going to save it for another day. It’s GOOD, though, REALLY GOOD. Check it out over at Barnes and Noble.
- I had a great conversation with a cobbler this morning. He told me his life story, and it was a corker. The guy used to be a PhD/MPH researcher, but he gave it all up in the 70s to become a cobbler, a trade he had learned from his father and grandfather. I’d say more about him, but I do have a few local readers. I feel a little funny spilling all the stories he told me this morning. (Dummy! I could have asked his permission.) Cool guy. Meeting him was the highlight of my one-day vacation.
Did I mention yet that I passed my treadmill test with flying colors? And did you know that they had to shave off bits of my torso to attach the EKG electrodes? All weekend, I’ve been scratching my chest and belly. The remaining hair tickles the shaved areas. It’s maddening.
So I shaved it all off earlier this evening. I must look awfully weird, with my monkey arms and monkey back and naked chest & belly. Weirdest of all, though, is the fact I don’t recognize myself when I look in the mirror. I’ve never seen this body before. The last time my body was this bare, I weighed 100 pounds.
Strange stuff. Karen, to her credit, did not laugh, but even if she did, it would have been worth it. I’m not itchy any more.
D.
It’s going to itch again when it starts to grow back…. 😉
And I hope you’re not prone to ingrown hair…
damn, all I can add is: ditto!
Hey, I’ve looked into vivariums and dart frogs here in the UK, not something done easily. And the hubs said “no.” so I guess I’ll not be a dart frog owner. BUT, my sister-in-law is a creature buff and just had to rehome all of her rats as she’s allergic to them. I suggested the frogs to her as an alternative and she was jazzed about the idea.
See, her future mother-in-law is a critter cultivator, as in she has loads of different bugs, lizards snakes and the like; and she has a mobile bus that she takes around the schools and daycares to educate wee ones about the critters. She’d be an excellent person to locate and acquire the dart frogs.
Then I can visit and gaze at them in their tank every weekend.
thanks a bunch for putting this idea in my head, and even though it won’t work out for me, someday soon they may be a regular feature on the Critter Bus, so feel proud you’ll be helping a whole generation of Edinburgh kids learn to love dart frogs.
How about thirteen books that made you cry?
I just finished “March” by Geraldine Brooks and I highly recommend it.
Darla, Dean, you two are total buzzkills. I don’t care. Right now, I don’t itch. I’ll worry about the rest when it happens. And in the meantime, maybe I’ll get a tattoo 😉
Lyvvie: Cool! Keep me posted. They’re really not tough, once you get the fruitfly situation sorted.
Lucie, that would be difficult. I can’t remember the last time a book affected me this deeply. Usually, I stay away from tearjerkers. Thanks for the book rec, though.
[…] Back to Eureka By Walnut . . . which is our most conveniently accessed “big city.” I’ve written about Eureka here and here, and although those two posts have cool photos, I’ve never posted one of Eureka. Hmm, let’s see what I can get off Google. […]