then she appeared

Yesterday sarcasticah, her husband, p_j_cleary and I went to the Stone Zoo in Stoneham. It's very near where Team sarcasticah and I live; I've been meaning to go there forever since it's only a few miles away and I drive by it all the time. I used to go often as a little kid and haven't been there since.
( pictures within! including meerkats! )

Sam and GreyKitty, naptime.

So for many many years we've had a small, 20-gallon fishtank at work. We only had two fish, a huge flesh colored cichlid, and a really big plecostomus.

When the cichlid died this fall, that only left the pleco, and as I was the only one caring for the tank I decided that my friend cicadabug, the proud owner of several very large fishtanks, could benefit from my pleco's algae-sucking action.

She was having a party anyway, so I (with much trauma and no little assistance from p_j_cleary) managed to bring the poor fish on an epic journey of 100 miles and 2 hours in a small glass jug. He survived, and this is his new fishy home. ( Read more... )

GreyKitty is such a comfort junkie. I swear she remembers her humble beginnings as a homeless kitty. Now she spends her days wrapped in my new throw, and sprawled on my down comforter.

Yeah, I know, another spider picture. Ho and Hum. But I posted about 16 others over at Flickr! They become somewhat more impressive in their volume. So visit! See scary bugz. I wish I'd gotten more/better pictures while the nest still existed. Some work busybody complained to building management and they are pretty much gone now.

Isn't it weird that there were several breeds on the giant web? It would seem counter-intuitive. I mean, what next? Tigers and lions sharing a gazelle?

Yay! More good animal news. Southern zoos fared well!

A little confused about why the river otters would be the one casualty (would have thought they, more than any other creature, might be likely to make it!)... but am ok with the minimal losses. Big thumbs up for the zoo administrators and all the people who stayed to take care of the animals.

Furry and stripey and doing their bumblebee thing. Nature is cool.

Three days of watching reports from New Orleans and Gulfport, and I'm starting to feel completely overwhelmed with the tragedy. I keep hearing about how this is our tsunami, but we're not a third world country! This didn't come upon us suddenly -- there was plenty of warning! Why did so many have to die?!

I heard a report on NPR about how New Orleans has always had a fatalistic side to it, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they'd end up underwater. And I had certainly heard that often enough before this whole storm. So if that was the case, why didn't they have a better evacuation plan in place? One that would have enough places for people to go, and would have ways for the housebound or infirm to actually GET to these places?

I tried to find a few local government websites on Gulfport and they're just...gone. Much like some sites were gone after 9/11. The local New Orleans paper is not producing actual printed copies, just online editions. They're moving all the Superdome people to the Astrodome (which makes for an interesting story to tell, but not something I'd want to be able to claim!) in Houston. It's all so sad.

Can someone please tell me why people leave their animals behind when they evacuate?!

And hey, thank god the president cut short his vacation by two whole days to take care of this. Those people should feel better already.

Sam hasn't put two and two together to get "mouse all gone now"

A conversation I had with Patrick the other day (warning:  kind of looooong):

L:   I had a Suzanne moment of Suzanne-ness last night!

P:    Oh?

L:   So I leave my nice air conditioned room to go to the basement and move some laundry from the washer into the dryer.  I pop on the light in the kitchen along the way and...

L:   ...wait for it....

P:   .........................

 

( Read more... )