Ummmm....

Glad classes ended today. For many reasons, but this one is up there.

Swine flu confirmed at Notre Dame; student has recovered
Dennis Brown
Notre Dame Newswire,
April 28, 2009

More Pollock

I think this has morphed into clear-cut work avoidance...

"Tesla"
"Crayon Drippings"

Pollock-ing

I've been having fun with the new "Pollock" app on my iPhone. I love my iPhone (have I mentioned that before??)

I won't quit my day job...



"Burst"
"Angst"
"Dexter"

Gumby I Ain't

I started yoga today. And tho' I feel great right now, I have a feeling I may be immobile tomorrow morning... Definitely noted muscle groups I'd only seen in anatomy books, never actually felt on myself. And my flexibility was compared to that of a steel i-beam. Guess this'll be good for me, who needs an ego anyway ;-)

Easter Dinner

Fun Easter afternoon! Donna G. and I went to Max and Nancy's for dinner, featuring fun company and Randy C's exceptional leg of lamb. Culminating with the traditional lamb cake beheading. This year also featured a new addition, the lamb butter - tho' no one was willing to behead it.

Happy Easter!

And So It Begins

Today there was a protest in front of the main entrance to campus. Fortunately, it was only a small crowd holding up pictures of dead fetuses. Really made me angry - none of the protesters were ND students, this issue has been hijacked by radicals. Really a shame for the graduating seniors.

It came up today in class, I told the seniors to quit signing petitions on Facebook and get their butts out there for a counter protest. Show that the majority of folks at the University are quite excited by the prospect of President Obama's visit.

After class I headed over to do just that, but I guess they punch a time clock, 'cuz no one was there. Good. This whole boondoggle is embarrassing. Recently we made the NY Times:

Invitation to Obama Stirs Up Notre Dame
By DIRK JOHNSON
NYT.com,
April 5, 2009

Cat Bliss

Tonight I learned that cat nip is in the mint family. I let the boys run around out back this evening, and found Lemur very joyfully rolling around and rubbing his face in a patch of leaves. He seemed utterly content. At one point Wiley walked over to him and started licking his face and chewing on the leaves.

When I picked Lemur up to go inside, I noticed he smelled minty fresh. And he was purring his head off, not something he usually does when forced back into the house. I quickly looked up "cats and mint" and learned my 'something new for the day.'

Apparently in many parts of the world, cat nip is called 'cat mint.' All plants in this family produce a group of chemicals that cats apparently enjoy. Based on Lemur's response, I'd add "...quite a bit." Twenty-five years of cat companions and I never knew this. Fun little discovery, I'm going to plant more.

Whale Farmers

Yesterday, NPR's All Things Considered ran their weekly segment "Letters from Our Listeners", where people wrote in to complain about/praise an earlier story about dry-land whale farms. It reported on farmers in Illinois who raised pods of whales in order to use their body parts -- blubber for fuel, the bones for building projects like front porches, etc. One farmer was interviewed about a pod he'd taught to sing whale-song in 3-part harmony. Some viewers complained about the lack of harmony, others about the misuse of bottom land for whale pods, and another about the fact that these farmers wasted the blowholes so shouldn't be claiming complete 'recycling'.

It sounded real.

But it was April 1st.

Today's real segment of "Letters from our Listeners" was loaded with complaints about the cavalier way the story was reported, about the horrific farmers who would engage in such practices, etc.

It worked. Pretty funny.

Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102618951