I didn't forget how to ski. That's good! I haven't been skiing in at least six years, I think. I think the snowboarding years (maybe 3, 4 years ago?) really messed with my confidence about getting down mountains ( Read more... )

When it rains in California, weird bugs start swarming out of the ground. Usually it's just ants, but this storm has brought out some kind of gray swarming thing onto the patio:

( click if you're ok with pictures of swarming bugs )

Dude. I just got called out at a gas station for trying to pay with what turned out to be a fake $10 bill. How humiliating. Also, now I'm out $10 thanks to some counterfeiting jackass. It's not even a particularly good fake; just good enough to be folded up into one's wallet without paying much attention. I am pretty sure I got it at the diner I ( Read more... )

We had a visitor in the molecular lab today!


( Read more... )

I have been obsessed with sloe gin (in concept) for a pretty long while, because it's gin! flavored with a plum-like fruit! that tastes slightly almondy! These are all things I love! However, I have not been able to find the real thing in the US: up until now, the only kind in America has been crappy De Kuyper stuff, which to me doesn't seem to be ( Read more... )

From the FDA Recall feed:
The company, under a different name, had manufactured dried smoked catfish steaks and other smoked seafood products and had been subject to a consent decree of permanent injunction requiring it to develop and implement an adequate Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan for its fish and fishery products. ( Read more... )

So, as it turns out, my outgroup was not really an outgroup in my lupine phylogeny. Everything is different now! It makes a lot more sense to me now, but I do feel like a chump for not having figured this out sooner. Oh well, at least I didn't publish anything yet, and I am sure no one was paying very much attention to what I said at Botany last ( Read more... )

My house has been Street Viewed by Google! Clearly they've been sitting on this picture for at least six months, because this looks like my garden at the end of last summer.


( Read more... )

Well, actually it took two weekends, one of which was part of spring break, one of which was after. Anyway. My very capable friends Shanna and Andrew decided that my backyard was a disgrace and needed to be fixed. So, we built a concrete paver patio. It is approximately 250 square feet of paved backyard fun. It required measuring, selecting pavers ( Read more... )

I got this in an email...isn't it horrible?


( Read more... )