Today, I'm going with Daisy's pick of: Lizards! There are quite a few lizards that live in Florida, which is where Daisy and Harley live. You can learn about what lizards live in Florida here.
I hope Daisy doesn't mind (let me know if you do, Daisy), but I'm going to use a few of her posts about lizards to help talk about them. We won't mention the alligators that live near her, though, so as not to scare anybody!.
If you read about lizards and decide you want to get a more personal experience, you can try capturing one. Here is Daisy (with a special appearance by her sister Pixie, who is, sadly, no longer with us) to give you some tips and hints. Once you catch a lizard, and maybe name him George, or even Snack, you can set up your own little observation station to do all sorts of scientific-y watching and stuff. Here are some of the surprising things you may learn.
To finish off today's post about lizards, I will leave you with a PSA from Daisy and Harley about being careful what you wish for when it comes to lizards.
Thanks again, Professor Daisy!
p.s to all Daisy and Harley fans - they are now selling a 2010 calendar!
Just when I needed it! LOL!
Why Men Don't Write Advice Columns....
"Dear John
I hope you can help me. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching TV.
My
car started stalling and then it broke down about a mile down the road
and I had to walk back to get my husband's help. When I got home, I
couldn't believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbor's
daughter!
I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbor's daughter is 19. We have been married for ten years. When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that they had been having an affair for the past six months. He won't go to counseling and I'm afraid I am a wreck and need advice urgently. Can you please help?
Sincerely, Sheila
-----------------------
Dear Sheila:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors.
I hope this helps,
John
My first day back at work went just fine. My foot and leg got tired...but that was all. No pain....it was like falling off a bike....you never forget how.
Then I had an appointment with foot doc. All is perfect. Yay.
NOW I am waiting for some dewd to come clean my furnace. I hate having strangers in the house and I hate waiting for them to show up. Oh well....at least the furnace will be clean after tonight. Gaaaaah. The dogs are going insane.
Ok, Hubby is home now, so he can feed the dogs and I can deal with furnace cleaner.
It's been really dark all day...warm...but I never got outside so all I saw was gray and dark. Blah!
I am super grumpy, my jeans are too tight.
I think I should go to bed ASAP tonight! :)
We visited the Berkshires this weekend, it was lovely. We grabbed some lattes, looked for hiking clothes and ate at a small-town pub after. The region is more mountainous and forested than our region, the Valley.
We drove past an incredible home. It was white with silver shutters, and it was traditional yet semi-modern. I wish I knew the name of house styles so I could have identified it.
We have a creative artist neighbor who does sidewalk chalk art every day. One guy calls it "The Gallery" because we all see her fabulous drawings when we walk to the breakfast place on weekends. I'm looking forward to having more artistic space on our new property.
People in the Berkshires live a much more cozy lifestyle, the forests are right outside their windows, along with the rushing river and mountains. Fireplaces and faux-fur hiking boots in mudrooms are the norm.
I found a cool example of a modern home, south-facing windows, in Natural-Home Magazine. It's a Zen Ranch Colorado Straw Bale Home. I'd love a place like this!
We shopped for hiking boots this weekend, I overheard the funniest conversation. A woman and her mom were trying on some clothes, lamented that the sizes were all wrong.
"These clothes aren't made for American women. (Looks at label) See? 'Made in India'. Women over there are made differently. That's why all our jobs are gone, because the were all sent over there".
I had to laugh. Haven't we gotten a grip on a global economy yet? When will we get with the program? Other countries have a prospering population, universal health care. Other nations are united to solve climate change issues. Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands allow gay marriage.
There's an exceptional article in the Boston Globe this week called Why Fundamentalism will fail.
In Christianity, the fastest-growing wing of the church is the Pentecostal/Charismatic wave...accounting for one in every four Christians. One writer has called them “main street mystics.” Among Muslims, it is the gentle but ecstatic Sufi version that is growing fastest, not the suicide bomber cults. All these movements...represent a fatal threat to fundamentalism.
Surveys have shown that the rapid growth of evangelical Protestantism in Latin America has not produced a replication of the American religious right, but rather a moderate leftward tilt. A majority of Brazilian evangelicals, for example, voted for President Lula, who ran as a Workers Party candidate. ANOTHER REASON WHY fundamentalists are faltering today has to do with the world outside. The fundamentalist world view is unbending and monochrome, but today’s world is variable and multi-hued, and the plurality is more and more visible. children live every day with a heightened, web-enhanced awareness of a diverse world.
I'm encouraged to hear this. Because while the far right-wing may be making a lot of noise, they are clearly in the minority. They've even caused some Republicans to switch parties - and I'm a huge supporter of the Working Party.
I don't think it's about being the loudest, I do think it's about forming communities.
As we all know, real change takes time. News reports are saying today that the single-payer health care plan is off the table. The real news is, it's a very hot topic. It has energy. Thousands of grassroots organizations and nurses are supporting the idea.
Bernie Sanders is introductiong S703 to Healh Care Reform.
Please write to the White House and support Universal Health Care for the 37 to 47 million Americans without insurance. It will save us money! And tell them we want the bill delayed if it doesn't have one.
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11/10/09 Pike Room Pontiac, MI
Read More
11/11/09 Horseshoe* Toronto, ON 11/12/09 Motore* Montreal, QC 11/13/09 Space* Portland, ME 11/15/09 Middle East* Cambridge, MA 11/16/09 Bell House Brooklyn, NY 11/17/09 First Unitarian* Phila, PA 11/18/09 9:30 Club* Washington, DC 11/19/09 UVA Chapel Charlottesville, VA 11/20/09 Grey Eagle* Asheville, NC 11/21/09 Earl* Atlanta, GA 11/23/09 Bottletree* Birmingham, AL 11/24/09 One Eyed Jacks NOrleans, LA 11/26/09 Walter’s* Houston, TX 11/27/09 Mohawk* Austin, TX 11/30/09 Modified Phoenix, AZ 12/01/09 Casbah San Diego, CA 12/02/09 Troubadour* Los Angeles, CA 12/04/09 Great American Music* SF, CA 12/11/09 "The Crocodile"* Seattle, WA 12/12/09 Mississippi Studios, OR with PGM |
+ abridged album review
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J Tillman ♥ Music Box |
Year in the Kingdom remembers a simpler era that Tillman was not alive to experience. Softer tracks cite 60s folk influences like Joni Mitchell, had Mitchell penned her songs in a humble log cabin, without basic comforts save for canned beans and a faithful canine companion. The sparse “Age of Man” is a few twangs/few stringed instruments short of Americana territory, while “Though I Have Wronged You” reminds us that Tillman isn’t seriously concerned by FF comparisons. At times matter-of-factly somber (“There is No Good in Me”), the album lulls its listeners into a false feeling of peace (albeit reflective, disquieting peace) that does not prepare the ears for the sheer force of Tillman’s live rocking.
Kingdom-the-album clashed awesomely with Friday night’s show at the Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis. I now have a physical point of reference for the expression “it blew my mind,” as I’m pretty sure I lost a piece of my skull when Tillman blew my mind. Similar to the structure of the studio tracks—gentle start, build-up, full instrumental progression—the show began as one would expect had they listened to Kingdom: Tillman + band = traditional 3-dimensional engagement. Then, maybe a third of the way into the set, all hell broke loose. Cue roar of full instrumental capacity, skin-tingling whine of amped slide guitar, psychedelic transformation, and crazy apeshit thrashing. On top of everything unholy, we, the audience, bore witness to grown men playing plastic recorders and finger cymbals. Surely I wasn’t the only one to lose some head mass by the end of the night.
Cerebral hemorrhage notwithstanding, strong tracks like “Though I Have Wronged You” sounded ridiculously swollen with intensity and deliberate flair. Not showy, per se; rather, phrenic but perverted by foggy invention. It was like walking into the Louvre for the first time—extraordinary but strangely unfocused, as if the senses were forced into overdrive. Had I lapped a taste of Tillman’s sweat*, the experience would’ve been complete. Unfortunately, there was no exchange of bodily fluids; there wasn’t even an encore (a mumbled “thanks” and the musicians made their hasty exit). It didn’t matter. How do you follow an act like yourself?
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J. Tillman is currently on tour in support of Year in the Kingdom. Upcoming shows include stops in Chicago and New York. For more information or to listen to select tracks, visit his Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/jtillman.
* I’m not a creeper, promise.
11/09/2009 03:26:24 ♥ lara (
/lara206.vox.com)
♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ myspace.com/jtillman
If you read the comments on yesterday's post, you'll know that today leaves the bonobos in the dust for VOLES!
Voles are a small rodent and are often confused with mice, moles, and rats, and are only found in the northern hemisphere. There are 155 species of voles (although these guys say 124), including pine, water, mountain, etc. They will eat a wide variety of food, from bark to dead animals and insects. They are quite fond of roots and bulbs, often killing the plant before the gardener realizes the animals are even there.
And hey, voles even have their own website! I think they should send one of their own out to design classes, though, to spruce the page up a bit. They're small, they could sneak into class in someone's backpack.
Apparently voles deserve more attention. Purdue University states that they are the fastest evolving mammal and are a bit of a genetic enigma.
Today's final vole lesson is taught in pictures:
Last weekend I went to the Butterfly House at Faust Park in Chesterfield, Missouri. I'd never been before and didn't know what to expect. Some guy suddenly yelled "show me some leg!!!" You do know Missouri is known as "the show me state," but even I couldn't believe what happened next....
The little hussy obliged as she dangled her leg off the leaf.
Yesterday was just glorious in St. Louis...
All sorts of best buds were at the park.
