Two short critter stories:

Less than half an hour ago, as I was about to walk in the front door, I noticed a very handsome Alligator Lizard resting on the step. Unlike the Kingsnake that showed up there a few weeks back, it was not in a cage, so I picked it up and took some pictures. It pooped on me. I decided at that point to let it go in the yard - the other option being keeping it until I could release it in the hills while at work. Since I had just a couple of days ago freed the last native creature to end up on the step, I figured the yard would have to do.

The other one happened at work. I felt something in my hair, and thinking it was a leaf or some other innocent bit of plant matter, reached up and plucked it out. To my surprise I discovered that I was deftly holding a Yellowjacket between my thumb and forefinger. I was holding it just hard enough to prevent it from flying away or stinging me. Any more pressure and it would have been squished. Any less pressure and I would have been stung. I let it go at that point, and it flew around the staff room for awhile before finding an exit.

I took the California Kingsnake to work this morning, and we let it go in the garden. It made a good visual for the lesson about how organic farmers protect their crop from pests. Everything else went by quickly, and according to plan. It was hotter than I would have liked, but I'm sure that will change soon enough. I took some luminol and bleach water with me on the night hike - substances that, when mixed, glow blue for a brief moment. The kids thought it was pretty cool, and it made a great introduction to the glow worm story I tell before feeding them lifesavers that spark in the dark. The only problem is that at the end of the hike, I had to carry the plastic container full of the liquid mixture back to camp. It just wouldn't do to dump bleach on the trail. I'll have to think of a better way to transport it if I do it again.

At home I ate a big bowl of ice cream. You have to be fast around here to get ice cream. It mysteriously vanishes.

Hmmm... and I can't seem to upload photos at the moment. Maybe later.

Here's a photo that would have had a rabbit in it if it hadn't hopped out of frame. Instead it has some small, barely visible birds (Juncos, I think) towards the bottom. It doesn't matter though, since it is a better view than a lot of people have at work, even those with corner offices. The only other photo I took today was of a small, very surprised field mouse, which turned out blurry. I didn't photograph the small, very dead, shrew on the road.

At home, Sophie and Nate managed to break three of our four plastic backyard chairs by throwing large rocks at them. So now all that remains of our table and chair set is one chair. The table met an untimely end during the Tree Trimming Incident some time back. I guess our yard furniture is just ill-fated.

We are enjoying the new shade structure that K gave to us, and the new/old pale blue, wooden picnic table she indefinitely lent to us. It's all out on the patio, and it's almost as if we've added an extra room onto the house. A nice place to do homework for the boys, and a nice place to eat for those of us who feel so inclined... until it rains, anyway.

Nothing much else going on. I'm trying to break up my routines at work by trying new stuff - new educational strategies. One of these days I'll actually write it all down. I got the benefit of having one of the long-time field instructors observe my class today, and he had some helpful observations. He, along with one of the other old-timers, are mixing it up this week by trailing along with different classes to either observe or be observed. In addition to this, there are a couple of people from an outside agency randomly observing the staff as well. It's good to get feedback. I don't know about others, but it always lights a fire under my butt when I get any kind of feedback. It makes me want to improve the way I do things, even when the feedback is positive.

They're predicting thunderstorms for tomorrow. I've been watching the clouds all day, and I think that they just might be right. I love watching the sky darken and the clouds grow heavy. I love hearing the wind kick up, and the sound of leaves scuttering across the driveway. I mean no disrespect to those who live on the gulf coast when I say that. They've got hurricanes, we've got earthquakes. I just heard part of a program on the radio on the subject. After the world saw what a fiasco the aftermath of hurricane Katrina was, everybody is making sure to be prepared for any eventuality. That means we'll probably be hearing a lot about earthquake preparedness for awhile.

I'm getting a cold. Hope it doesn't get any worse.

Oh, and thanks again, Kerstin!

I just went out and bought a couple of cds witht the tip money I got from this weekend's parties. New Dar Williams and new Rasputina. Just got a new Current 93 single in the mail too. Yippee!

This season's second week of outdoor school is drawing to a close. Once again I have a pretty good group of kids. Sure, some of them don't listen...

The phone just rang - it was my stepmother in law (is that a real term?) calling from the freeway about 200 miles from Dallas. She's been on the road with Jen's dad since about seven this morning Pacific time, part of the stream of evacuees heading north from Houston to avoid the landfall of Hurricane Rita. That's over fifteen hours in the car so far. It looks like they might beat my record of 23 non-stop hours of driving. Of course, when I did it, it wasn't in bumper to bumper traffic. I hope their home weathers the storm okay. I hope nobody dies this time. We can all hope, can't we?

Anyway, as I was saying before the phone call, my week went well, with no abnormal problems. One of the other field instructors had a girl tumble down a hill during the night hike last night. Luckily she was okay. I think we all worry about that happening. As for my night hike, we got to watch bats darting around in the late evening glow, catching insects. Very nice.

This week did come with one mystery though. Somebody paid for an upgrade to my Flickr account so I can basically upload as many photos per month as I want. If you are that mystery benefactor, I thank you. That was very nice of you. I'll try to upload lots of interesting photos for your perusal.

Jen is out with her mom seeing a play. The kids all stayed up too late, like they always do when she isn't here. The good thing about that is that when they finally do conk out, they do it without arguing. Sophie is asleep in front of the TV wearing a Halloween costume. Willow fell asleep in my arms, which was nice. The boys stayed up late dawdling over their homework, and fell asleep almost instantly when they hit the pillows. There are all sorts of things I could be doing right now instead of typing, but I'm tired too, so I'm typing.

Maybe I'll stop now though, because now I'm typing about typing. That's boring.

So it did indeed rain yesterday. Real, honest-to-goodness lightning forked down out of the sky for most of the afternoon. The paper today said that it hasn't rained here on this particular date since 1948. I love a good storm, as long as it doesn't render whole cities uninhabitable. Poor gulf coast. First Katrina, and now it looks like Rita is going to hammer Texas. I can't help but think about all of the people from New Orleans who got shuttled off to Houston. Now there's a voluntary evacuation happening there. They must feel cursed. Jen's dad and stepmom, who live in Houston, have headed north to stay with his parents, just to be safe...

It makes our little downpour seem like nothing.

Jen's birthday was today. She's 35. Happy birthday, Jen!

Enjoy the photos. I'm constantly thinking about how fortunate I am to have a job where I can take pictures like this. The first photo is of rain pounding the roof of the old cabins, which are slated to be torn down soon to make way for the new lodge. The second is of a Big Leaf Maple leaf, held up to the sun. The third is of Bay Laurel leaves, limned with light.

Here's some more babble about Wooden Octopus Skull.

The weather forecast calls for rain late tonight and into tomorrow. I don't believe it. Today was too hot and clear to allow me to believe that any rain is forthcoming. One can hope, though. Jen's birthday and the Autumn Equinox are both happening this week. Happy almost birthday to Jen! Happy almost Equinox to us all.

Earlier, Sophie (okay, I'll stop calling her "The Dickens" now - Willow is quickly taking over that particular calling, that mischievous devilry of the very young...), Willow, and I went out and spent some time with the frogs. Sophie is quite adept at catching the Milkweed bugs (called "Fence Bugs" by the kids after their preferred perching place) in jars and dropping them in the frog cage. The frogs hide while she does this, but when nobody is looking pop up out of the murk and swallow all of the bugs like nobody's business. There is only one cricket left from yesterday too. Hungry frogs.

I went to the pet store yesterday and got food for all of the various reptiles and arachnids. Then I filled the car with gas, which I notice has gone down in price slightly. It's funny how doing simple things like this makes me feel more on top of things. That's the secret of life, I guess. Get all of the little tasks out of the way. Clean the house. Get rid of stuff that you don't use (Jen spent some time doing this today - maybe I should too). Lots more to do though, as usual.

Okay, it looks like the kids are all asleep now. Time to go watch some more Six Feet Under.

After finally getting the cable we needed, we just tried to hook up our backup monitor, only to find that it has problems of its own, so we'll have to live a bit longer with the one that shuts itself off without warning on an increasingly regular basis. Oh, the woes of the modern era!

The past week was pretty much a dream week for me at work. The kids from all three of the schools staying a camp were thoughtful, well-educated, and relatively well-behaved. There were no problems from my end at all. I haven't gotten back into a routine yet, which is a good thing. Falling into a routine can kill creativity. I'm trying to do things that I haven't done before, which will ensure that I continue to be enthusiastic about going to work.

I did a science birthday party today as well, which is something I haven't done since mid-July. It went smoothely, but the parents, being wealthy and thus disconnected from the trials and travails of the proletariat, neglected to tip me. A pox on them. A couple of the kids in attendance recognized me from summer camp though. That was nice.

Here's a couple of pictures that I couldn't put up on Flickr due to my being too cheap to pay for an upgrade. The first one is of the Seattle skyline, as seen from Gasworks park. The second is a detail from a piece of art that was literally under my feet as I took the first picture. The third was taken outside the ReBar, and what a disreputable looking bunch they are...

Time for bed now.

Hey! More Wooden Octopus Skull photos. I'm not sure who by. Some great shots though. (edited to add: G called and told me that they were taken by the Canadians who interviewed us. Credit where credit is due and all that...)
Also, I just found another handful of photos here. Right above some Destiny's Child photos. WTF?

We just finished watching season four of Six Feet Under too. One more season to go. Then what?

got back from Seattle early Monday afternoon, and spent the day just hanging out with Jen and the kids... oh, and grocery shopping. On Tuesday I was at work from 8:30 AM to 9 PM, so it was almost like I was still away. Same with today. I'm at work right now, in that noisy lull in activity known as recess.

Seattle is an interesting city. It has enough hills and waterways to make the scenery interesting. There seems to be a lot of public art as well. Especially cool is the huge troll under the Aurora st. bridge. It has one silvery eye, and its outsized left hand grips a real volkswagon. The gasworks park is pretty interesting too, with its rusted mini-skyline of old gas processing equipment and a nice view of the downtown area from a grassy hill. Also of interest was Archie McPhee's, a store that specializes in bizarre toys and novelty items. I got the boys some Mexican jumping beans and the girls some Parasite Pals paraphenalia (a line of items featuring cute little characters who just happen to be parasites, including a head louse, bedbug, tapeworm, and eyelash mite). Sweet. We also managed to visit a couple of Thai restaurants, and a landmark movie theater showing Herzog's Grizzly Man, which was totally brilliant. The story was just tailor made for Herzog.

We got picked up at the airport by a guy named Sean, who would prove to be indespensible over the course of our stay. He was the Wooden Octopus Skull Pfestival's driver, and spent a lot of time cheerfully shuttling people to and from the airport, and driving us here and there around the city. Despite his claims of laziness, he never really stopped working for the whole week, even helping cook the vast amounts of pancakes and waffles for the Sunday pancake extravaganza. What a guy! All hours of the day and night!

We stayed at William and Leslie's place again (like we did last December) and fell victim to a territorial cat. G's jacket and my sleeping bag were the main targets. On the first morning of our stay, they proved to be moist. When I lifted my sleeping bag up, cat nuggets rolled off onto the floor. She was always sweet to our faces though. Probably passive aggressive. William and Leslie themselves, being festival organizers, popped in and out as they juggled running their record store and the festival.

The festival itself was at four different venues, the first of which was the Sunset Tavern (on Ballard St. near Market, if I remember correctly). Thursday night's show took place here. The headliners were the Portland Bike Ensemble, who used bicycles as instruments. I've seen this done before, but never exclusively. We missed Friday night's show at the ReBar, due to our wish to see Grizzly Man. There were two shows on Saturday, the first of which took place in the early afternoon at a bar called the Funhouse, located almost directly underneath the Space Needle. The Funhouse has an emergency exit located directly behind the stage, and doesn't allow anybody to set things up in front of it, so performers had to work their way around this restriction. We were a little less than pleased to learn this, since that is where we were playing the next afternoon.
Saturday evening's show was at the ReBar, and turned out to be one of the better ones. My favorites were a band from Portland called Smegma, the members of which seemed to range in age from twenty-something to sixty-something. I guess I would describe them as strange, somewhat humorous garage rock, with a large variety of instruments. The raw, pounding bits often meandered off into stranger territory before being reined in again by the drums. The headliners for the evening were the mighty Caroliner, who have been putting out strangely decorated records for nearly two decades now. The one I have, for instance, contains part of an old shoe. The existence of one containing a dead rat is also a story I've heard now and then (real San Francisco garbage!). For this show, the band had decorated the stage with brightly, obsessively painted bits of cardboard and various dangly things hanging and spinning from the ceiling. The stage was lit by blacklight, and the band was unrecognizable beneath large, bulky costumes that resembled an amalgamation of farm animal and garage sale trash. The music was loud, heavy, and utterly weird. One of the best bands of the festival. I saw them at Gilman St. during the late eighties, and they were weird then too. This was much more elaborate though.
We played on Sunday, with Broken Penis Orchestra, who were really cool, with funny masks, noisy noise, and strange video footage (Stan, who runs Psychform records and acted as MC for the whole festival is the main guy here - a great guy who also didn't seem to sleep for the duration of the festival and stayed at the forefront of things all week). Bill Horist played too and did some very inventive things with his guitar. Climax Golden Twins did an interesting, noisy set from one of the booths opposite the bar (They've been around for years as well, but until now their music was unknown to me, although apparently every performance is quite different). We played after them, and it was pretty chaotic due to the lack of monitors (feedback problems), but lots of fun. Matt's costume broke open and packing peanuts went everywhere. Sean cheerfully cleaned it up. Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet wrapped things up with a wall of noise that morphed into a strange dance number at the end. Inventive. Afterwards a bunch of us went out for thai food and wandered around the Space Needle. There's a small amusement park at its base, so we went on rides as the sun set. I just went on the ferris wheel, due to a distinct lack of funds and a belly full of thai food. Beautiful view though. It was like a slice of some more innocent period of history (if there really was such a time, which I doubt), or maybe like a Saturday night in small town America. It wasn't lost on me though that we had spent much of September 11th in the shadow of a very recognizable national landmark. So much for innocence.
Afterwards, we walked to a well appointed bar called the Baltic Room. Stan played again, this time with a project called Broken Human Machine. This was a more sober affair than the afternoon show, being more of a drone. Almost somber. At that point, we where whisked across the street to be interviewed by a couple of people from a radio station in Vancouver. As the interview progressed, police cars entered the parking lot and I think somebody was searching the building directly behind us, lending a certain air of tension to the proceedings. Nobody hassled us though. Later, we watched the Spider Compass Crime Band (I've got to check to see if I have that name right...), who, dressed as ten foot tall vultures, played some really twisted, gothic organ-sounding music on their keyboards. Then, Steve did an absolutely incredible DJ set (in surround sound!) from his rather extensive back catalog. He had originally planned to do a mellow, lounge-ey type of thing, but quickly got irritated with people talking over it and switched to a much louder, rhythmic set. People danced. We got home late and stayed up even later talking with William and Leslie, who finally had time to talk since the festival was officially over. Oh yeah, we had a picnic of hummus, bread, ginger beer and berries in the parking lot of a local grocery store at 2:30 in the morning. A nice little moment.

One other funny anecdote. Steve had a little trouble at the airport at the start of his journey due to the fact that one of his fingerprints didn't match their records. It turns out that if you smash your finger with a hammer it can alter your fingerprints. Who knew? He showed them his smashed fingernail and they let him continue.

What else? There was an auction for pieces of art by Steve and M to raise money for a couple of bands who had lost almost everything during hurricane Katrina. Steve's fetched $500. Not sure how much M's brought in. A hurricane relief can was in evidence all weekend as well.

There were a lot of great people involved in this event, and lots of favorable response from what I could see. It will probably become an annual thing.

Now I'm back at work, and it feels great to be back. The kids are really cool this week, and we've found some critters too - a Garter Snake, a couple of Scorpions, and the usual assortment of deer. I saw a Raccoon passing the cabins during dinner yesterday too.

Okay, people are in line for the computer. Time to stop.

I'm back from Seattle, and I'll tell you all about it... tomorrow. For now, check out photos on Flickr. I've used up my monthly allotment posting them, so at some point in the near future I guess I'll have to stop being cheap and pay for an upgrade.

Willow was sick last night. Of course, being twoandahalf, she couldn't really tell us what was wrong. She woke Jen up at around 2, and spent the next two hours crying and saying, "ow!" At 4, Jen had a feeling that she was going to throw up, so she got up and headed for the bathroom.

She didn't make it.

Imagine a wall, a person, and a floor covered in what looks like the results of an attempt by agitated monkeys to paint with cottage cheese.

I got up to clean the puke. Jen got into the bath with Willow. Poor Willow. She was pale and quieter than usual. When I got her out, though, she insisted on getting her mom a towel and bringing it to her herself. It's moments like this that bring a tear to my eye. She must have been feeling miserable, but she was still helping out. I love her. I'm going to miss her, and Jen, and the other kids when I'm in Seattle this week.

We spent the day at home, trying to get things done, which is hard when all or most of the kids are home too. Lexy (oops, I mean "Alex" - he's decided that "Lexy" isn't cool anymore so now we all have to remember to call him "Alex" which is harder than it should be for some reason) went to his friend's house for awhile, which didn't make too much of a difference really because the girls have been in rare form today. They both have ideas about what they will and won't do, and they're usually the exact opposite of they way we view things. And, to top things off, Jen has had an earache for most of the day.

Tomorrow, I get to go to work for the only day this week, and then it's off to Seattle on Wednesday. Jen is understandably dubious about the prospect of being here alone with the kids until I get back. I wish there were two of me sometimes.

The picture is of a Western Hognose Snake. I've had him for around a decade. He wishes he could eat toads, but I feed him mice because toads are too cute.

I keep stumbling across photos of this curious little event on Flickr. They should have one here. They should have them everywhere.

I can now add carpet-layer and taxidermy-duster to the list of things I've done at work. It's been fun doing odd jobs, but the science camp year looms over us now. Time to finish up.

Speaking of finish (or, more properly, Finnish), I went with M to see Circle, with Merzbow, Earth, and Growing at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last night. Growing were a decent duo consisting of a guitarist and a bassist playing loud, heavy ambient music. Earth were instrumental sludge metal (some wag in the audience proclaimed, "it's like Lynard Skynard slowed down!"), Merzbow obliterated eardrums with a solid wall of noise (imagine being in a quonset hut caught in a tornado), and Circle were absolutely divine, playing a hypnotic mixture of krautrock, metal, and that indefineable something that elevates a band to a level of greatness not often obtained. They didn't go on until after midnight, and despite the late hour their seventy minute set seemed to fly by in half the time. M is currently on a plane heading south to see them at the Arthur festival in L.A.

Jen got up when we got home and we all stayed up talking until around 4. Today we're being lazy. Jen and Willow are at a get-together at K's house. The other kids are at their dad's place. It's a little cooler outside than it has been over the last week.

Oh, and here's a picture of the Costa Rican Zebra Tarantula. It doesn't like to pose, and more often than not simply runs away. Damn quick for such a big spider.