Beware of Squirrels

Or rather, be aware -- it's Squirrel Awareness Month, after all.

In the spirit of that (and also of needing to atone for a blog-free September), here are some squirrels and squirrely things for you to be aware of:

Squirrelface - I've discovered that if you approach while keeping the escape tree between yourself and the squirrels's field of vision, you can pop out and startle it into running right towards you. (And then you take a picture and leave them alone because it's not nice to scare squirrels).

SQUIRRELBUTT. Decided I wasn't worth staring at and went off to be squirrely somewhere else.

Squirrels of City Hall.

Squirrel prints from the dewy grass. :)

That's all for now, folks. Go notice a squirrel today!

This took FOREVER...

Which in my world = about 1.5 days. Yes, I'm that impatient. Clearly, hyper-realism will never be my thing. As it is though, here's what I managed to scratch out with Inkscape in that amount of time:

Not sure I'd want it on, say, an iPhone skin

But I have to offer it on everything. Someone did buy some pretty goofy-looking tigers on a *tie* of all things, so....

The fun part will be the variations - silver fox, Arctic fox, Fennec fox, etc. I may have to consult Harry & Elspeth's mummy for help with those.

In other news, finally got all my textbooks ordered (not putting it off to the last minute, they apparently just couldn't decide on a math book till now), and got 5 bucks MP3 credit from Amazon in return (which totally makes up for the 127-dollar textbook, right?), so now I'll be finding five or so songs to buy. One will be "Read My Mind" by the Killers, I'll have to think on the rest. Maybe some Mika, Iron & Wine, Decemberists, something to while away my last school-free afternoons with.

A Game of Murder and Intrigue

Okay not really, that's just what was going on at one point while we ate cookies in the dark and made sure nobody broke the library.

Everyone was organized into teams for the somethingth annual APL-Y Overnighter, a party rewarding the hard work and dedication of a MILLION BILLION youth volunteers (actual numbers may vary). Team leaders were all staff, and I was quickly voted the unofficial Most Boring Team Leader Ever. What can I say, devising entertainment for smallish groups is not my strong point.

The kiddies (some of whom were worrisomely close to my own age) didn't have to stay in their assigned groups for anything but the Organized Games, a couple little competitive bits of fun using Common Library Objects. First off was the giant tower of books. Thanks to a solidly built foundation from a longtime volunteer and some clever ideas about which books to use (I'm pretty sure everyone started following our structural lead after a few minutes), our tower was totally the tallest.

There was admittedly an equally-tallest tower (the night was full of ties), but I have no pictures of it that do not also include a whole bunch of kids who may or may not want their faces on my blog. So let's show ours again, in relation to the fellow who got to measure the towers:

He's not holding a flag, it just looks like he is.

Honorable mention was team #4 (alphabetically by team leader), who bears the distinction of having built by far the most towers in the allotted time. Props also to the team who built the tower just out of sight in the above pic, next to the pillar numbered 5. The guy stacking the books in that one was more or less trapped between the pillar and the book tower the entire time, as it was much taller than he was and to squeeze between the two structures to escape would have most likely meant an utter collapse of the building project. Now that's dedication!

All in all a pretty cool night, though I sort of wish I'd gotten a picture of myself at some point. The mess made was astounding, but so was the speed with which it was all cleaned up. By the time the library opened at 9AM, everyone was out the doors and on their way back home - or more specifically, on their way to bed. Fifteen hours of partying can have that effect on a person!

Finger-lickin' good...

Just for you!

So is this deal limited to babies, or can persons of all ages enjoy a hearty Breast Meal?

KFC, I hate your fried chicken but I do love your coupons.

Multicultural fail....

In case I ever doubted I was living in a state bordered only by other parts of the Midwest:

Nice effort. The sign's even better (worse?) from the other side, where "Mexican Food" ends up in the middle and looks even more like an odd afterthought.

College students can't buy groceries

Really, it's a wonder we don't all die of malnourishment on Ramen noodles and/or run out of money instantly after discovering a cool new overpriced store.

See, my shopping strategy is "only buy stuff that's cheap or on sale UNLESS it looks cool or I might need it for a recipe at some point or I'm really hungry or there's shiny stuff in a vending machine."

As a result, my backpack and pockets are full of Twix wrappers and my pantry currently contains:

1 bag glutinous rice

3 cans assorted tomato product (always have tomato product and chicken stock, you can make a base for anything)

3 packages Maruchan Ramen (this, frozen chicken stock, canned tomatoes and mixed veggies are the only things I always have, in case I need to make a meal fast - the stock and veggies mean I don't have to use the seasoning packets)

2 jars peanut butter (sale)

1/2 packet dried porcini mushrooms

1 small jar instant coffee (I do not drink coffee)

1 bag dark chocolate-peanut M&Ms (sale)

1 container dried apricots (I'd forgotten about this until today; there are maybe six withered apricots left in the bottom)

1 box rolled oats (for the morio worms)

1 box quick oats (for me, if I decide at some point to like oatmeal)

1 box pumpkin Pocky with 3 sticks remaining (it was the last box in the display, had to buy it)

1 bag evil-tasting puffed-wheat cereal (sale)

1 bag marshmallows

1 bag black walnuts

1 can chili-lime flavored almonds (sale; these taste like heavily-salted evil)

baking soda

baking powder

salt

honey

imitation vanilla (I have had this forever and do not use it; I think it's mostly just evaporating)

giant tub of ground cinnamon (I sort of inherited this, I will never have to buy cinnamon)

flour

sugar

cocoa powder

cornmeal

bread crumbs (I don't think I've ever used these)

The high proportion of "I don't use this" items explains why there is so much stuff in my cupboards even though I can never find any ingredients to make food with and I have no money. It may also explain why I have no money....

Electroshock

No, not a treatment program.

I have recently discovered, to my surprise, that I am a character on The Electric Company.

This is mostly surprising because I thought The Electric Company went off the air in the 70's.

As it turns out, there's a new one, and 8-year-olds everywhere (and by "everywhere" I mean "at the library") are just familiar enough with it to instantly conclude upon seeing me that I am "from TV." Never mind that I am not, in fact, a 15-year old Latina rapper; we have the same hair.

Well, I guess it's always good to have a fan base.

In other news, I realized how frighteningly easily-amused I am. Quick backstory: I have a useless habit of repeating things in a schizophre-- eh, poetic -- way and putting the wrong word endings (usually from another language, though I likely get them wrong in that language as well) on things when I'm saying them in my head, just for the sake of making them sound different. Things like -dad or -itas instead instead of -ity or -ness, -mente instead of -ly, and -en instead of -s for plurals. I don't always notice I'm doing it, which I suppose should be worrisome.

Anyhow, it was the last one that figures in today's tale. I was ... well, you know I have a gecko, right? Because that will cut down on a lot of explanation here about why I was putting morio worms in an ashtray. Anyhow, I was talking to myself about how the dish was deep enough to contain the beetles, but was it enough for the worms ... the wyrms ... the wyrmen ... VERMIN! And then I ran to my dictionary to confirm that "worm" was in fact the root for "vermin," and was excessively pleased that it was, because I do not have a life.

Some of you may be slightly more squeamish than would allow for my safely posting an image of my tub-o-worms, so we'll go safer and post some pretty pink blumen:

Pretty, yeah? Go outside, enjoy the weather, don't be like me and sit alone in your room inventing a new type of screwdriver ... wait, no, that was someone else who also spends most of the day living in a box.