Small Thoughts for Small Minds

I had to go to Coral Springs for a work-related training course. The course was at the Marriott (which has a convention center AND a golf course).

Every day during the class breaks, I’d go outside (with the smokers) and try to take pictures of the ever-present brown anoles. (I saw a couple of geckos - one even dropped on my hand and I shook it off before I saw what it was - but I couldn’t get a picture…)

Almost all of my pictures are uploaded in their own Flickr set (I still have a few left to identify, manipulate and upload). I won’t put all of them here…

[All pictures are hot-linked to the corresponding page on Flickr. If you get a Flickr account and I add you to my "Friends & Family" list, you can see the large/original versions. I had to restrict access to the larger versions due to what I suspect was an unhealthy interest in some of the pictures of Dyson. Sigh…]

I arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport just before 8 p.m. After waiting on my luggage, renting a car and driving to Coral Springs, it was getting pretty late. So as to not waste any more precious time, I drove directly to the brewpub instead of checking into the hotel…

Since my US grand-boss is in Miramar, Florida, and I’ve had to go to that particular HQ a couple of times, I had already located the only brewpub in the area, Big Bear Brewing Company.

Their selection isn’t terribly challenging, but it’s good enough. (I like to support small brewers when possible, so I ate there Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday…)

Here are a few of their beers…

And some of their equipment…

After class the first day, I spent some time wandering around one of the many little ponds (and canals) in the golf course. Some flowers, some bugs, some lizards… I was happy…

This is a hairypod cowpea (Vigna luteola). I spent HOURS looking for an identification on this flower. I went down the wrong path initially because I thought it was in the Crotalaria family - see my picture of Crotalaria rotundifolia for comparison. Then, late at night last night, I stumbled across a picture of a flower like this labeled, simply, "cow pea". That didn’t help right away because, apparently, cow pea commonly refers to the cultivated variety of vigna. But I got there eventually and, exhausted, went to bed…

This butterfly is a dun skipper (Euphyes vestris). I am still trying to identify the plant upon which that the butterfly is perched. (Edited to add: I found out what the plant is… It is a firespike (Odontonema strictum). Identification was difficult because the inflorescence was dramatically fasciated.)

Lately, I’ve been obsessing about taking pictures of mushrooms (as you might’ve guessed from the earlier post). (A few really cool mushroom pictures that I took during our trip to Orlando: dog turd fungus, bird’s nest fungus, maybe a Collybia, and an unknown mushroom.)

This one is, I think, a common earthstar (Geastrum saccatum). Perhaps. Mushroom identification ain’t easy…

It was hiding in the mulch under the shrubs around the hotel. (Yes, I was crawling around in the mulch in my business-casual clothes while other employees from my company (but not my particular group) watched in bemusement…)

Here is one of the MANY brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) that I saw. I think I have another five or six pictures in the set. Go there if’n you want to see ‘em…

The little buggers are flighty and FAST. Without a proper zoom, you have to sneak up on them and move sooo slowly they think you’re part of the landscape. I wasn’t terribly successful. (And these are the best of HUNDREDS of pictures…)

On Thursday, the class let out around 2 p.m. I should’ve gone back to my room and done some work. Instead, I went on a (not quite) four hour hike. I walked through the housing development surrounding the golf course to the undeveloped area bordering the Everglades. There was a bit of a gravel road running next to a long, straight canal. I headed north and, after a bit, the houses on my right gave way to a water-filled rock quarry. Overall, it was a pretty good walk. Except for the section populated by biting deerflies, which I walked through in both directions. One deerfly got trapped between my neck and the collar of my t-shirt. It bit me quite a few times before it managed to work its way down to my shoulder (still under my shirt) where I slapped it to its bloody death. (It left a blood stain the size of a quarter. It ALSO left, where it was originally trapped, what looked suspiciously like a hickey on my neck…)

Found some interesting things on the way. For example this desiccated lizard (probably another brown anole) ("Lizards! Get yer lizards! Onna stick!!")

I’m guessin’ that a bird snagged himself some dinner but got a-scared off before he could eat it…

When we were in Orlando, I took a picture of a flower and was never able to identify it. This time, while focused on the ID for the hairy cowpea (above), I stumbled across a picture of a wild bushbean (Macroptilium lathyroides). Yeah for me!

Here’s another one…

While messing around near the water’s edge (taking a picture of a flower that I just got around to uploading), I saw these tiny globes that looked like some type of eggs.

After a bit of on-line research, I’m pretty sure that they are from a Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa). (If you click on that link and scroll down the page, you’ll see some very similar eggs.) I found what I am sure is a Florida apple snail shell not so far away…

Could be wrong, but I’m sure it is some type of freshwater snail. (And I don’t think a lot of them lay their eggs out of the water, but I dunno…)

Speaking of freshwater snail shells, here is an abandoned shell (probably goldenhorn marisa, Marisa cornuarietus). Repossessed as a result of an escalating adjustable rate mortgage given to some snail with questionable credit, I’m sure…

I was constantly on the lookout for a gator. Unfortunately the scrub growing along the canal didn’t give me to many opportunities to see the water. Luckily one such opportunity paid out. This is an American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). It was a bit shy and every time I moved closer to the water, it ducked under…

I’m not too sure of the following identification. There are a few factors (click on the picture if you want the details) that don’t seem to fit, but I can’t find a better fit. I think it is a camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris). They were all along the side of the dirt road…

I really liked the look of these "pine cones". It is from an Australian pine (Casuarina equisetifolia), which is not a true pine. According to the web site linked to the name, what appear to be long pine needles are not, in fact, needles but rather long, thin twigs. Huh…

I saw a LOT of green & black dragonflies. Here’s a picture of one of them eating another dragonfly…

They are eastern pondhawks (Erythemis simplicicollis). The eyes are so cool. It really makes me want to get a fancy camera instead of my little pocket camera. Something with an actual zoom lens and manual focus so I don’t have to take a hundred pictures to pick out ONE with almost the correct focal length…

One more flower before I wrap up this post. (Do go up to the Flickr set to see the other pix!)

This is a moonflower (Ipomoea alba). It blooms at night (apparently it unfurls within a couple of minutes) because it is pollinated by moths. The flower bulb is a couple of inches across - gonna be a big flower… The heart-shaped leaf in the background goes with this guy…

After I finished up my hike, I was feeling tired and a bit grubby, so I decided to skip my nightly trip to Big Bear and eat in instead. So I drove over to the Publix (mega grocery store chain) and picked up a few things that caught my eye.

Fine dining at its best! (Well, maybe not - the chorizo was pretty bland. But the plantain chips were plenty salty and garlicky; the pasta salad was tasty; and the Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale was quite nice as was expected…)

Hopefully that was an interesting mix of pix…

Post script:

Here is one of those pictures that I had not yet uploaded when I wrote this post. It is a primrose willow (Ludwigia peruviana). When I got around to picking the best of the bunch for this particular flower, I liked this one so much, I had to add it to this post…

The following set of pictures were taken last May. I’ve been to Sweden once since then and am going yet again in mid-May this year. Thought it might be a good idea to post the pix before I lap myself again…

(As always, please click on the picture to see a larger version.)

Because of flight pricing, I ended up flying back on a Sunday, so I spent Saturday afternoon wandering about Stockholm. Here are some things that caught my eye…

Stockholm was built on fourteen islands in Lake Mälaren. Some of them are no longer completely surrounded by water due to city growth.

The L.O. (Landsorganisationen i Sverige - the Swedish Trade Union Confederation) building.

Petruskyrkan (St. Peter’s Church).

Carl Eldh’s statue of August Strindberg in Tegnérlunden park.

Still in in Tegnérlunden park…

An interesting pair of statues…

The sumo boogie?

The Rådhuset (courthouse) on Kungsholmen island.

A statue in the gardens of Piperska Muren, across the street from the Rådhuset.

I took a bunch of pictures of these nice flowers growing on a tree on the grounds of the Landstingshuset (City Council House) in Kungsholmen. I wasn’t happy with any of them, but each of the following three have features that I like, so you get three for the price of one…

I’ve been struggling to identify these flowers. Seems to be similar to pears or plums, but the first picture, showing the immature fruit, doesn’t seem to fit anything…

I posted on the UBC Botanical Garden forum asking for help. One poster replied, "I think a big part of the problem is that the inflorescence in the [first] shot is diseased and monstrous."

Well, huh. That could make it tough…

I like the composition of this picture (with the sky and the Landstingshuset in the background), despite the varying depth of focus on the flowers themselves…

I like the light shining through the petals on this shot…

A coot (NO! not my father-in-law, a Eurasian coot, AKA Fulica atra) enjoying Lake Mälaren.

Stadshuset (Stockholm City Hall)…

The other end of the Stadshuset.

Statue of Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson at Stadshuset.

Looking toward the Västerbron (the Western Bridge) from the Stadshuset.

Ahh, a rakish bit of ivy is all the fashion today…

Another statue by Carl Eldh. This is the female half of a pair of statues on the waterfront at the Stadshuset. I believe they are called "Sangen og Dansen" (Song and Dance). The gal is "Dance".

I didn’t actually make it into the Stadshuset, but I kinda looked into one of the courtyards…

The portion of Gamla Stan (old city) on the tiny island of Riddarholmen.

The cenotaph (empty tomb) originally intended for Birger Jarl’s remains.

Another shot of Södermalm.

Since I’m in the business of moving containers around the world, I’m always interested to see a new use for an old container. In this case, a covered bridge…

A statue of Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna in front of the Riddarhuset (Swedish House of Nobility). (While the statue is located in the garden of the Riddarhuset, the building in the background of the photo is the Gamla Riksarkivet (Old National Archives), across the canal on Riddarholmen.)

Riddarholmskyrkan (Riddarholmen Church) which so (nicely) dominates the Riddarholmen and Gamla Stan skyline…

The sun sets over Ridderholmen, Gamla Stan and Centralbron (Central Bridge), taken from Södermalm.

Guardian kitteh thinks, "Job well done."

And, hopefully, y’all think so as well. (About this post)

I was in Killarney, Ireland, for a couple of days last September. (Satellite view - sorry they don’t have high resolution.)

(Note: as usual, all pix are hot-linked to larger versions - just click!)

I didn’t have much time to look around and the weather didn’t cooperate. Hans, my Swedish colleague, and I walked around the town of Killarney both nights, but it was after dark and not conducive to photography.

It was a business trip, of course. Here I am in front of a section of a container crane ready for transportation to the coast. Given the width of the typical roads in the area, I wasn’t surprised to hear that they drive in the middle of the night with the police cordoning off the road…

After we did our customer presentation, we went immediately across the street to the Killarney Golf & Fishing Club (two of Hans’ passions) for a bit of a walk and some pictures.

Beautiful grounds…

This is a three-picture panoramic shot (so click on it to see all the detail), showing Lough Leane (Lower Lake, AKA Muckross Lake). Most of the land across the lake is part of the Killarney National Park (the wikipedia entry and another "home" page). The Killarney National Park is home of the only wild herd of the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in Ireland. While there are other types of deer currently in Ireland, the red deer are the only "natives". We saw some wandering not too far from town but the light was no good for pix…

This is my pensive pose…

It is clear which country generates a majority of their tourist dollars…

Dunno what type of tree this is. They had quite a few and I really liked them…

The next day, I had to take a noon flight to London. I had a little bit of time between sunrise and when I had to leave for the drive to the Cork airport. To maximize my tiny bit of sightseeing, I picked two places that were close together (and on the right side of Killarney).

First stop, the Torc Waterfall. This is the Owengarriff River flowing between the falls and the lake.

Here’s the main attraction. Not a big waterfall, but quite nice. I wish that I had time to hike around the trails…

On the way back to the car, I spotted this Helvella crispa (AKA White Saddle mushroom).

This old rock wall really does a nice job of pointing out the amount of rainfall they get in Killarney…

My next stop was Muckross House (a couple of other links: here and here). I only had about 20 minutes, so I walked quickly around the grounds and snapped a few pix. Luckily it had stopped raining during that time…

A lovely evergreen…

I wouldn’t mind terribly if this was the view from my backyard…

All these nice big windows face the view in the previous picture…

A seriously big oak…

One day, hopefully, we’ll take the kids and spend some time seeing all the sights…

Some tentative identifications for a few pix in my Santos (Brazil) post…

These are looks like Cycas circinalis (AKA queen sago, false sago palm) which is, in fact, a cycad - not a palm. I’d be more confident if it wasn’t native to India (?). There are a lot of cycads indigenous to Brazil, but since it is used in landscaping, all bets are off…

This is probably a variant of Cleome spinosa, AKA spiny spider flower. Although it is possible that it is Cleome hassleriana which is native to southern South America. There are so many variants that it is hard to get closer…

Now I can back off of my obsessing…

Or, in Portuguese, cidade de Santos.

(Note: all pictures are hot-linked to a full-sized version.)

I spent a couple of days in Santos, Brazil, in early February. (Satellite view)

Getting there was a bit of a hassle. Originally, I was scheduled to go straight (via Atlanta) to São Paulo, but I had to reschedule to go to a meeting in Freeport (Bahamas) "on the way". (Meeting got canceled, but the change fees were more than the hotel in Freeport, so I went anyway.) If I had set up the schedule to include Freeport from the beginning, I would’ve flown via Miami to São Paulo. Instead, to work within the framework of the original trip, I went from Freeport to Atlanta. Only one (Delta) flight a day from Freeport to Atlanta, so I ended up spending 5+ hours in Atlanta while waiting for my 10 hour flight to Brazil. While we crossing the Caribbean (I think we were over Aruba or nearby), the plane had to turn around an make an emergency landing in San Juan (Puerto Rico). (I found out later that a woman, five months pregnant, was having complications. No word on her status, though.) Ended up adding three hours to the flight. Then an hour waiting on the bus at the São Paulo airport, followed by a two hour bus trip to Santos. Very long two days…

When I finally arrived at the hotel, I made dinner arrangements with my friend (and hopefully customer) Marcelo. (I met Marcelo at the conference in Panama just before Thanksgiving - we instantly bonded over beer. He’s a big fan of Belgian beers as well as American micros.)

I stayed at the Parque Balneário Hotel, which is supposed to be the best hotel in Santos. Its price tag was appropriate for that designation, but it’s definitely seen better days - the rooms were quite run down. Disappointing…

Between check-in and dinner, I had about three hours. I knew better than to follow my body’s recommendation to take a nap, so I went for a walk.

Even though it was the peak of summer, the weather was quite cool. (Clouds and strong winds didn’t help in that regard!)

The beach in Santos is quite wide and quite long. Apparently a popular spot when the weather cooperates. The water is not clear at all, so I didn’t even try snorkeling (although I did bring my stuff - no luck in either Freeport or Santos. Sigh).

Apparently the park/garden between between the beach and the road (and then the city) is the largest in the world. (More - in Portuguese)

Note the tiny white dots between the water and the land (Guarujá) on the right side of the photo. Sail boats out for a bit of a race, I guess…

A two-picture panorama of the beach looking toward the west, in the direction of São Vicente (which isn’t visible - the buildings in the distance are the town of Itararé).

A flower cultivated in the beach garden. I can’t find any identification. So sorry…

This palm, also in the beach garden, caught my eye. No ID for this either…

Some baby fronds on a different type of palm. (Also, look at the old-rock-wall texture of the trunk with its variety of other plants hitchin’ a ride.)

Finally, an identification in which I have some confidence. I believe this to be a flower of the Passiflora edulis (AKA Passion fruit) plant. Growing wild among the rocks near the beach on this prominence ("Pier dos Surfistas", which, at a certain angle, with a certain lack of decorum, could be viewed as somewhat suggestive…)

This island (Ilha Urubuqueçaba) had an almost Disney-like quality about it - like a fake version of a what a tropical island should look like…

I obsessed over it and took dozens of pictures. This is the best, which doesn’t say much for my skills, but I still like it…

There wasn’t always a lot of space between the cliffs and the beach, but (by god!) they weren’t going to let any space go to waste!

I believe this is called Pedra da Feiticeira (Rock of the Witch). Huh…

Another view…

An egret looking for some munchies…

I saw this cable car ride (Teleférico do Itararé) to the hill top and thought, how can I pass it up? (This picture didn’t resize well. Click on it if you want a better view…)

This is all that was supporting my fat ass…

If everything looks a bit skewed, it is…

The "cars" really swayed back and forth, so it was difficult to get a level photo. This picture, despite the drunken angle, does show nicely the path through the tree tops…

Yes, the focus on this picture stinks. Motion and lack of light. Sorry.

Anyway, you can still see the rough stairway below the tram line. (The rope you see is the hand rail for the stairs.) I would’ve liked to hike that path…

Another stinky picture, but it does show the brightly blooming trees that were visible throughout the surrounding mountains. Really lovely…

Cranes in the mist…

(This container terminal wouldn’t even let me visit. Sigh…)

A three picture panorama from the hill top (sorry, Itararé Mountain)…

Coming back down, looking at the Itararé beach…

By the time I got to the bottom, it was raining pretty steadily. Of course, I couldn’t get a cab, so I had to walk through the rain for about two miles back to the hotel. I barely made it in time to clean up and change before going out to dinner.

Here is Marcelo holding up a glass of Red Ale Especial (pretty much a barleywine at 9.5% alcohol) from Cervejaria Baden Baden:

We had a wonderful meal - Brazilian-style barbeque (churrascaria) with entirely too much Red Ale Especial…

After we concluded real business the next day, I took another walk. And a third walk on Friday. I probably walked a total of 20 miles over three days… (I did get a lot of real work done as well. Really…)

This time I took special note of the older buildings (as pointed out to me by Marcelo). They were apparently built on insufficient pilings and the sand underfoot has shifted. This doesn’t necessarily show up well in the picture, since all pictures of tall buildings come together at the top due to perspective. But this is REALLY how bad these particular buildings were. (I tried to take the picture from as far away as possible, the waterside,  to reduce the effects of the perspective.)

Some of the buildings are so bad, Barley could play with her tennis balls all by herself - drop them on one side of the room and chase them to the other side…

An old (1584) fort called Fortaleza de Santo Amaro da Barra Grande. (I think the small island it is on is called Santo Amaro.) I thought about taking the ferry across the water, but couldn’t get sufficiently motivated. (Apparently it is a museum.)

And to finish it off with a cheesy note…

If you’re going to take on PMS, you’ll need multiple saints…

This post was exhausting. So much research - and it’s difficult to find English language information on Santos. I ended up looking through Portuguese language websites and using AltaVista’s Babel Fish to translate the bits that looked relevent…

(And I still don’t have ID for some of the plants. Sigh…)

Hopefully someone enjoys it…

My previous post was about the beach and such in Manzanillo, Mexico.

Of course, the reason that I was there was to visit the local container port.

I just stumbled across this picture that Fredrik (our global sales manager) took:

Of course, just because I was AT work doesn’t mean I was actually working…

Manzanillo, Mexico, to be precise. (Click here for satellite view.)

After the conference in Panama, and before the visit to Hong Kong, Fredrik (our global sales manager - from Sweden) and I visited an "old friend" (and potential customer) in Manzanillo. (This was just a few days before the family gathered in Hawai’i for Thanksgiving.)

The customer reserved rooms for us at the Camino Real Hotel. A bit more of a vacation resort than a business hotel, but I wasn’t complaining (the "rooms" were like apartments, each with a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths, and a living/dining room…)

Looking out toward the ocean from the lobby…

Looking inland. (A "panorama" picture - two pix stitched together. Click on the picture to see it in its true glory…)

Looking out the sliding door to my balcony, through the acid-etched hotel logo. (Pretending to be "arty". I know… don’t quit my day job…)

Between the meetings with the customer in the morning/early afternoon and dinner with the customer in the evening, I took about an hour to walk up and down the beach.

This gentleman was using a net to fish in the fresh-water river flowing into the ocean.

Unknown type of flower. Perhaps Mimosa pudica (AKA sensitive plant) or closely related plant (apparently there are a LOT of varieties of mimosa…) If I had any suspicion of the ID at the time, I could’ve tried to see if the leaves closed at the touch, but…

Near where the river flowed into the sea were some rough rocks. Good place to look for critters… (I like this picture - click on it to see the detail…) (Or don’t…)

This anemone was exposed to the air every time the waves receded. Seems risky for a sea critter…

I wish I could get more identification, but I can’t. Fail. (I DO like the picture, though, even if the focus is less than perfect. You wouldn’t believe how many times I tried to take this picture. I made the camera focus on my foot at approximately the same distance as the anemone in a weak attempt to force the auto-focus to get the right focal depth. Process: foot on the nearby rock - click halfway to get focus - turn slightly to frame the anemone - wait for waves to cooperate - get splashed and pull camera away to avoid getting soaked - start over…)

Being paper thin helps when you’re trying to squeeze into a crack in the rock to hide from some big dude with a camera trying get a close-up…

Seems to be a Grapsus grapsus (AKA Sally lightfoot crab), maybe a juvenile (the adults are more brightly colored?) I can’t find any good identification websites. Can’t even determine if this type of crab is even found on the Pacific coast of Mexico…

Some of the pictures of the Grapsus tenuicrustatus (AKA Natal lightfoot crab) seem to match, but it doesn’t seem to live in the Americas at all…

I’m sure it is in the grapsus genus…

Another one - equally unsure of my intentions…

Apparently the guy fishing in the river didn’t have much luck and he decided to cast his net in the salty bit…

Extreme closeup! Depth of field with NO part of the moth truly in focus! Dang this auto-focus crap…

I tried to finagle a trip back to Manzanillo next week (I’ll be in Houston and it is a direct flight). I would like to get more information on the existing cranes (I didn’t have enough time crawling around during the above visit), but the customer thought it was a bit premature.

Too bad - I’d love to see if there is a good snorkeling spot or two nearby…

More miscellany…

For some unknown reason, Haley and Keira decided to convert the stairs into a slide. Using blankets, pillows and a lack of good sense, here we are!

(The girls insisted that I document their insanity…)

Haley got lucky with the placement of the pillow. Unbeknownst to me as I was snapping the picture, while sliding down the not-so-slippery slope, she almost completely lost her pajama bottoms…

Keira laments her nearly straight hair. One night she marched into the basement TV room and demanded that I braid her hair (while it was still damp so it would be wavy in the morning when she took out the braids).

Not a single "thank you", by the way…

I was in London for a couple of days in December. I took a LOT of pictures of different cask ales (provocatively posing by their pull handles…) but very few other pictures. Of course, I still have a LOT of pictures from my previous trip to London in September that I haven’t bothered to post…

I have no idea what the back story (if any) is on this building. Just caught my eye as I was walking back to the hotel…

This is the Natural History Museum.

I had an overnight flight to London (as is typical in that direction). I got to the hotel at 10 a.m. (London time, of course). Naturally, I couldn’t check in until around 2 p.m. I left my bags with the bell captain and took a walk. (Exhausted since, as usual, I barely slept on the flight over. Coach seats are NOT conducive to relaxation…)

Just a couple of blocks from the hotel I found the Natural History Museum. It is pretty impressive - both the structure and the displays. I spent a couple hours there, mostly looking at the dinosaur exhibits. Dyson would’ve been TOTALLY pumped…

A view of the Tower of London from the train (on the way back from a dinner with a customer in Essex)…

Jerry and Karen came down to the dungeon to watch the Steelers/Jaguars playoff game (5 January - wild card weekend). Karen, being a native Pittsburgher proudly displays her Terrible Towel.

Note: the guy who came up the the Terrible Towel, Myron Cope (infamous broadcaster for the Steelers and sports writer), died just a couple of weeks ago. In an interview after he retired in 2005, Myron Cope said:

"I’ve often thought that, when I kick the bucket, there’d be a story that said, ‘Creator of towel, dead.’ I would like to be remembered as a pretty decent writer.'’

As for the chip clip on Karen’s bangs… well… umm… Nope. I just can’t explain that one…

For some reason, Keira wanted to pose with the stuffed animals she got for Christmas. (This was not long after New Years - after Kel & Donna stripped the tree of ornamentation and before my lazy butt dragged the tree to the roadside for removal…)

Of course, monkey-see monkey-do…

I somehow managed to copy this picture into the wrong folder on my hard drive when I was putting together the post with the turtle pix from Hawai’i. This turtle was quite memorable because of the polyps growing around the point were its flippers emerged from its shell. Both front and back flippers…

Whew! A lot of posts the past couple days… Let’s see if I can keep up the momentum…

…that don’t justify individual entries…

Even an old dog (Barley will turn eight on Monday) needs a bit of comfort now and again..

Dyson and I went down to Martinsville to see the Virginia Museum of Natural History to feed his current insatiable demand for dinosaurs. Not much of a museum, but he was pumped.

Apparently, as part of the grand opening (reopening?) of the museum, Martinsville played on the dinosaur theme and had local artists and volunteers paint fiberglass dinosaurs which were placed all around town. There are still a few around town, including this one just outside the museum. (Seems to be a spreading meme in urban America - I’ve seen pigs, dolphins, cows…) Anyway, Dyson was enthused:

A few brewing pictures from my February 2nd batch - my only brew session since early September 2007 (and I split that batch with Dave).

After pumping the bitter wort into the fermenter, there were a few hops left over in the kettle. This goes up to about the three gallon mark. Yes, I like hoppy beers…

One problem with putting eleven gallons in a 12.5 gallon fermenter, especially using a relatively powerful pump, is that the bitter wort foams quite a bit. (This is before I aerated with oxygen.) Makes it a bit difficult to put the lid on…

Even with the lid clamped on (in three places), the pressure of the fermentation forced some of the foam out through the seal. Despite the one inch ID (inner diameter) of the blow-off hose…

After two plus weeks of dry-hopping and a few days chilled to 40 degrees F (to generate any chill haze and then applying the gelatin to clarify), I’m ready to keg this batch tomorrow. Can’t wait to have some homebrew again!

When we were up at Wintergreen for our annual ski weekend (with Anne, Dave & Julia (plus Julia’s friend), Donna, and Matt & his daughter Maddie), I volunteered to make dinner on Saturday night. (Since I wasn’t skiing, it gave me something to do other than sit around and drink beer and snack…)

I started off with a creamy potato/leek soup with smoked salmon. (Slightly amusing story - I was surfing the web for a recipe. Usual procedure - looking at each recipe and doing a quick evaluation on whether or not I would like it. As I was clicking on the results, I realized that one of them (on the first page of results even) was from this very blog! I forgot that I had included the recipe when I posted about making it… So, of course, I made MY version of it…)

For the entrée, I made one of our favorites, seared pork tenderloin with a cocoa spice rub. (Make it TONIGHT - it is soooo easy and soooo good…)

I also sautéed some asparagus (in olive oil, with plenty of garlic, naturally). After I was done sautéing the asparagus, I put it in a backing dish and grated some Parmesan over it. I washed the skillet and dried it off with some paper towels. With my left hand, I set the pan down on the counter and with my right, I used the damp paper towel to wipe off the glass surface over the stove’s eye (still very hot). By trying to do two things at once (while talking to Anne as well), I failed to do either very well. I only managed to get the pan less than half on the edge of the counter. As it, inevitably, fell, I put my (bare) foot out to break the fall. At the same time, I tried to keep my balance by leaning on the stove, burning my hand on the eye. The handle of the pan, of course, pointed straight down and hit the top of my foot.

My foot immediately bruised, swelling up to a half-golf-ball-sized welt.

Over the next week or two, the loose blood from the bruise gradually followed the influence of gravity. At one point, it pooled on the tops of my three middle toes:

I visited Wilmington, North Carolina, a couple of weeks ago. One of our field service engineers, Paul, was up from Charleston for a couple of days to do some "clean up" work on the new cranes. For the heck of it, he decided to stay in Carolina Beach instead of Wilmington (it was only a 15 minute drive to the port). I couldn’t complain - my friends, Esther and Kelly, live in Carolina Beach. Plus, the Fat Pelican bar was just across the street from the hotel. (Kelly used to own the place years ago. Back then, it was a wine & beer store, not a bar. He bought a used 40′ reefer (refrigerated shipping container), refurbished it and used it as a walk-in cooler. It is still in use in the bar. Want a non-draft beer? Walk in and pick one out from the generous selection and, upon exiting the reefer, show it to the bartender to add to your tab.)

Paul headed back to Charleston on Wednesday afternoon, but I stayed to have dinner with Esther and Kelly (their house was less than a mile walk from the hotel). We sampled all of Kelly’s homebrews and Kelly made a fantastic shrimp scampi. We then walked to the Fat Pelican for some after-dinner drinks. Good times were had by all…

February really isn’t the best time to visit the beach in North Carolina. But the view from my hotel room wasn’t so bad. Actually walking on the beach, with the temperatures just above freezing and a strong wind, didn’t seem terribly attractive…

One of the things that Jerry, Karen & Haley brought with them was Haley’s trampoline. A few days ago, Dyson was tumbling head over heels, and the contact with the nylon surface seemed to electrify him…

That’s all for now. Gotta do some laundry and take a shower - Dyson and I are going to the Science Museum of Western Virginia (Roanoke) after he and Keira finish their riding lessons. (Kel & Keira, along with Donna, are going to a movie…)

Exciting stuff!

(Note: all pictures hot linked to the full-sized version)

When I went to Panama last month, I made the reservation only a week or so in advance. For some reason, ALL of the major hotels were fully booked. I ended up staying at a "jungle resort". Ah, the beauty of marketing…

Anyway, the place was the Avalon Grand Panama.

Their webpage make it seem like it is in the middle of the rain forest instead of a couple of hundred feet from one of the busiest roads in Panama (the Trasistmica between Panama City and Colon). But, they do have quite a few acres of forested land on the grounds.

Of course, is some aspects, it is apparent that they forgot that, even if they weren’t really in the middle of the rain forest, they were actually in the middle of a tropical country with an eight month rainy season and insane levels of humidity…

(Certain environments are not appropriate for pressed paper fan blades…)

I spent a couple of hours wandering around their "nature trails".

I was apparently incapable of getting a decent focus on these flowers. This is the best of a poor lot…

This swinging bridge was just as stable as it looks…

I saw several large spider webs and (again) proved incapable of taking a picture that was in focus. One of the biggest problems with a point-and-click camera is when the thing you want in focus is much smaller than the background objects. Especially tough with flowers and insects…

Anyway, here are two of the best shots (of a really sorry bunch) of Nephila clavipes (AKA golden orb spider or golden silk spider)…

From the wikipedia link (above), I found out the following interesting tidbit (poor grammer, etc., straight from wikipedia):

The silk of N. clavipes has recently been used to help in mammalian neuronal regeneration. in vitro experiments showed that a single thread of silk can lead a severed neuron the way inside the body to the site where it was severed from. With a tensile strength of 4×10⁹ N/m, it exceeds that of steel by a factor of six. It is not recognized by the immune system and has antibacterial properties.

I’ve heard they have some really big spiders in Panama, but I was unprepared when I found the following web.

Clever creatures. Apparently they are adapting to handle the most common types of prey. This one disguised its web as a swingset. It is certainly too primitive to fool an adult human, but the juveniles might not have enough experience to recognize the danger…

This is one of the BEST fixed (not swinging) bridges in the nature walk area. Some of them I was pretty concerned about where I placed my feet…

I was fascinated by the reproductive organs of this palm-like plant…

It appears to be Carludovica palmata, AKA "Panama hat palm" (even though it is not, apparently, a palm at all).

Near the ground in this cluster, you can see the (white, stringy) flowering inflorescence (tightly packed flowers on a thick, cylindrical stalk).

Click on this picture to see the (bees?) in detail, being tricked into pollinating the flowers…

After the flowers are fertilized, the stalk grows longer while the "fruit" matures. I guess the extra height helps distribute the seeds.

Of course, being a rain forest (nominally) means a fair amount of fungi….

Possibly related to Polyporus badius??

Another problem with this point-and-click camera is the overwhelming flash when taking pictures very close to the object being photographed. Tends to wash out any light-colored areas…

Some type of Stereum? Ostrea perhaps?

This one’s seen better days…

Oh yeah, I DID actually spend time with customers as well…