How many cookies are too many? 3.9 billion are too many.

I wasn't about let poor november go with only one blog post, so lonely. And its kinda misleading because many interesting events transpired. I had thanksgiving dinner with an assortment of friends and dogs. including two genuine americans. but everyone is happy to eat delicious food, right? DogS because I dogsat for my friends 2 dogs, and it happened to fall on thanksgiving. Drool all around! We had all the usual stuff except we all forgot the cranberry sauce! Audrey came to stay for a week before heading off to far-flung reaches of Europe. We did lots of joyous activities like watching X-files, wandering around, craft!, putting up christmas decorations, watching more x-files, and making about 3.9 billion gingerbread cookies. I still have about 15.65 cookies left, I got sick of them mid-cookie so there's a good 2/3 of it still. There was alot going on in crayfish world too, I went and gathered lots of crays for my behavior experiments. Now the river is flooded, it is massive! I didn't take any picture tho, as it was dark. it gets dark at 4:30pm. It makes me SAD. well, not REALLY s.a.d. just sad. darkness can be beautiful though.

photo from backyard, that's the tree the squirrel uses.

Pie had a great month, because Audrey came and stayed for a whole week, then her dog friends Amber and Crocus came and spent the night, and people came over for thanksgiving and touched her. She also got a new 'nest' bed, which she is totally into (literally). If she had a bumper sticker it would say I Heart my Nest Bed.

Speaking of bumper stickers, no one here has any! or, they are extremely rare. extremely. so, I have decided to put lots of them on my car! please send me your ideas! So far I have one that says 'my other car is my feet' and I plan to get one that says 'horray for cyclists' which i will position in the cyclist-reading-friendly area of Carl, the rear left.

Big excitement in slug-world! All the eggs Takumi layed (after eating his partner) have hatched. There are at least 13 tiny baby slugs now. so cute. so gross.

one last note, on BBC radio 4 this morning they had a story about voice-recognition technology. They had a program that could pronounce whatever you asked it to, in someone else's voice. They used a phrase like: "I believe that humans and fish can live together in peace"and used George Bush's voice. It was amazing. It really sounded like GW felt that fish and humans could live in peace. the world loves an optimist.

fin

Happy Spider has all his legs!

I finally got a photo of my bathroom pet, the spider. He looks hungry for pill bugs! unlike the other spider I found when I moved in, this one has all his legs. I named him but have since forgotten the name.


Today I went for a nice stroll and found some horses! What a lovely horse. The pie enjoyed eating their dung. disgusting.


I ended up near the Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, so I went in and looked at the chickens. There are about 200 hens, and no roosters. They used to have roosters, but they would guard the door (top left in photo) so some chickens had to stay inside, and others couldn't get in. And they fought and any blood is bad blood since its open to the public.


Tasha's favorites were the rabbits.


One of the rabbits looked like David Bowie (from movie Labyrinth). I think Tasha is still dreaming of him. and his little, delicious friends.

Visiting a crime scene

Today I went for a walk on the canal path only to find it blocked by police! I thought - body in the canal - obviously, but couldn't see anything. Here's the article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7077995.stm

One point seems wrong, I doubt the body was found "on Cockshott Lane" (yes that's its real name folks!) because:
1. its a fairly busy road, the body probably would have been found before 10:30 assuming death occurred saturday night, and c'mon, who gets murdered on Sunday morning? all the troublemakers are still in bed...
and
2. I walked along the road, and found no police, the police were surrounding an area further down the canal.

so MAYBE he was pushed off the road bridge INTO the canal, where he slowly, slowly floated downstream overnight! Only to be found by some poor old man walking his dog no doubt! WAH!

In other canal path news, an elderly man was pushed into the canal by some boys, and later helped out by a "Canadian man" believed to be a Leeds Uni employee..........hmmmmm the canal savior identity remains unknown.

Pumpkin Pie

Friend Audrey visited. After dark we commenced filing.


After lamenting that I couldn't drink out of the Erlenmeyer flask, Audrey suggests I try some of the glassware awaiting recycling. Mmmmm orange soy juice sauce....


We went to York and to Betty's Tea Room, the fancy tea-specialist restaurant thingy that everyone tells me I have to go to while I am in England. We had tiny sandwiches, scones (WITH RAISINS! NO!), and 'mini cake selection'. It was good but overly sweet. The tea was the best part. That's what she said.

Then we carved pumpkins:


Here's the pumpkin pie:

nothing important happened today

Today work was shut down early because of broken fire alarms. So I went for a walk around campus. What did I see? I saw a pretty oak tree, being natural and seasonal amidst the unchanging angular buildings:


I saw a strange door leading into a big mound of earth, with a glass pyramid on top:

What does it lead to? I don't know. Tasha was very interested in the light over the door:



And earlier this week she did something weird with her feet:

Over the hills and far away, the tiny little village of Cray

Big excitement in the Dales this weekend. Saturday I went up to do my water chemistry sampling (Wait, its Saturday?! not again!) and I got passed by THREE ambulances. I saw a paraglider on top of a hill where one ambulance was coming from, so assumed it was a paraglider accident. But no. A car crash further up the road. A chopper came too. I could see the scene down in the valley. I think no one was seriously hurt, the ambulances didn't drive off, and no one was (pork) choppered out. After sampling I hiked to the interestingly-named hamlet of Cray. I had tried before but didn't want to be out when.....darkness falls... This time I arrived and found it consisted of a pub, a parking lot, and a farmhouse. There was a small stream with probably no crays. On the way back Piemaster pursued rabbits.

"Detour" actually really scary!

Perhaps best known for its comedic elements (i.e. Scully singing 'Jeremiah was a Bullfrog'), the season five x-files episode Detour is actually very scary. Especially when watched alone, and in the dark. "NO! DON'T GET SEPARATED IN THE WOODS! AAAAAHHHHH!" Thank goodness I had not seen it before we played 'what just brushed my shin' in the woods at night as kids, or I might have seriously injured myself trying to escape the elusive beings of the forest.

Fun with crayfish!

Behold at last more photos to satiate the masses!

here are some of my crayfish tanks in the animal house aquarium! and my precious bucket!


here is a native white clawed crayfish! gotta have a license to even touch these little guys, so they have lovely accommodation complete with festive air bubblers, detritus to nibble, and black tubes of darkness for...lurking. They also have special 'crab cuisine' crayfish food imported from Japan.

and here is my handy chart on my computer at work so people know where I am. sometimes it is even accurate! Since I have THREE labs, and I do alot of fieldwork I try to keep up with it.


There's other news too! I bought a used TV (cicra 1988) and VCR from the homeless charity furniture store to watch my delightful X-files. After some initial problems (AH! Why doesn't the TV recognize the VCR!?!?! oh, the cable wasn't plugged in all the way........) it works great for such an old feller.

Also, I'm sleeping in the living room again - long story short (and I DO mean long story), the bedroom just got painted and it smells painty and I don't want to breathe that. Luckily both the sofa and the futon thingy are very comfortable.

AND I took the new PhD kid out crayfish catching. He caught plenty of crayfish and probably had fun even tho the water was only about 9 degrees celcius and our hands went numb. He named one in the lab Craig. Cray-g. get it?

Photo Epic!

When even your own parents think your blog is dull, its time to spice things up. So, I give you, photos photos photos!

Today I went for a hike. I saw a wier:


PieMaster wanted to see what it would be like to look down on me for a change (she's on a pipe cover, the footpath is below):


I went over a cool bridge hidden behind the cinema (KT this one is for you):



On the way home I stopped at this fun-looking playground that kids never play on:


Pie mastered the roller-coaster thing:

Then we went home. While I put away laundry, Tasha observed her arch-nemesis, "Neighbor's-Backyard-Squirrel" She was too tired to bother pursuing it.



The most exciting part of the weekend - landlord sends someone to actually fix things and give me...A VACUUM CLEANER!


In celebration I finally moved my bed into the bedroom, put up weatherstripping ("draught excluder"), fixed up the scooter I found in a stream, washed my crayfish boots, reassembled my little foam chair/bed thingy, cleared out my car, Carl, :
and yes, vacuumed.

The end.

or, when all else fails, call the city council and some nice men in flannel will come to your house and scream at your neighbors FOR you!

Night of the Living Drunks

All the freshman have appeared, filling the sidewalks, campus, and even the air with their loud voices, music, and clothes. It seems that they spend much of their time intoxicated. Here is what I have learned by observing and experimenting upon them:

- that urine on the trash cans/rubbish bins? its not from the neighborhood dogs.

- screaming at your neighbors is the best approach for getting them to turn the music down. asking politely yields no returns.

- though there are many muslim students, you NEVER see them drunk, roaming the streets and yelping into the night. I think maybe their religion forbids drinking, or at least being drunk.

- having a large black dog walk with you after dark is like having drunk-repellent. it seems the alcohol increases their paranoia.

- fashion among the drunk-night-outers is non-existant. or it is overemphasized. their clothing choices are so bad, either could be the case.

Florian is my home boy

Way to go, Saint Florian, closet Christian and patron saint against drowning. You've really come through for me. I now have my very own free dehumidifier making quick work of my (soon to be) bedroom.

poetry corner

Takumi,
Takumi,
Takumi the hungry slug
what
will
he eat?
a leaf or a bug?

The Four Winds

I've noticed an interesting trend among my peers. We all seem to be scattering to the four winds temporarily. At least ten of my friends from the USA have taken jobs/courses in foreign countries, including Japan, Thailand, and Mexico. None of these are supposed to be permanent positions, we're all supposed to return after a year or two.

What does this say about us? At first one might be tempted to say that we don't like our hometowns, or state, or America, and want to get as far away as possible. However, that is certainly not my reason and I don't think it is a very significant reason for any of my pals. Sometimes we say Logan/Ohio/America is so backwards we can't stand it, but I doubt we'll really find anything better anywhere else. Different sure. I guess we're all just upper middle class kids enjoying the playground that is globetrotting, to put it harshly. Or are we dissatisfied with something and trying to seek it elsewhere? Will we find it? I just wanted to be paid to study crayfish...

The Great Potato non-Famine

So one of my friends is graditated and is moving back down to her home near London. We had a going away potato-pancake-thingymaboberoo dinner for her, just her and another friend and I. First group dinner at my new place! everything went well, except my pans were non-non-stick and that was a real problem, until we got out the griddle pan thing! solved! 'sorted'

the pancakes were made by grating up potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots, then add flour and eggs. I accidentally grated my finger, so unfortunately they were no longer vegetarian...heheheh at least i was excused from further grating duties.

after a good meal, its nice to watch a good film. like a miyazaki film! yay! we were a bit limited in choice since my laptop only plays USA dvds...so we watched Nausicaa. we also listened to my bro's pirate theme cd. all was well.

In pursuit of chelae

Lately its just fieldwork fieldwork fieldwork. Today I forgot to pack lunch, and had no cash, so I had to subsist on my 'car snacks' from 9am to 9pm (the Dales are an ATM-free zone, it seems). Luckily I stocked up on car snacks the other day, so I had enough to eat! WITHOUT tapping into the ever-present emergency ration that is crayfish bait, a.k.a. sardines.



Tasha had a thrilling encounter with canned dog food (she usually has the dry stuff). She does her part to clean out the can for recycling. Having a dog helps save water - there is no need to rinse anything...dishes, cans, hands covered in sardine juices, etc.

Happy Little Gardens

Today had several highlights, though they weren't exactly thrilling. I'm doing battle with some sort of sore throat illness. So far I'm winning but I'm taking it easy to make up for the party thursday night. Which, incidentally, was the 3rd dinner party Tasha has been to in the past month.

- Went to garden center and procured lots of plants! It was hard to find ones that like full shade, which is what my front 'garden' seems to have. I couldn't resist hens and chicks and a lavender for the back, which does get sun. They all have to live in containers, due to the cement...I will post a photo eventually of my happy little gardens.

-Virgin man (from Virgin Media phone service...not....well) came AT A REASONABLE TIME and actually FIXED my phone line. He had to make 2 trips back to HQ but IT WORKS NOW!

- Tonight in my back happy little garden, the birds finally discovered the birdbath. A magpie and later two blackbirds were enjoying it. The magpie was going nuts and having a fantastic time playing around. The blackbirds: 'well I suppose I should clean myself.' The doves found the whole scene undignified. I put out some pumpkin seeds that were revolting to me, but fine for birds. I think. no one has eaten any yet.

- I crept into the next door backyard. I suspect no one lives there. I hope they don't, considering the state of it...tho the birds probably enjoy the overgrowth! I found a Police No Parking cone. Now it rests in my yard. what do do with it...

the end

Night of Flesh!

Tonight I enjoyed consumption of meat products. TWO kinds...wow. I got home at 9:30 pm and was unmotivated to cook much, so I picked the food group most missing from my diet of late. I enjoyed some pork and leek sausages, and chicken tenderloins, which I didn't realize came with the breasts I bought. chicken breasts. The breasts tragically became dog food because I let them sit just a bit longer than I would like... so I baked them but good for Piemaster until they were tough and nearly inedible for a human, but definately safe. However I was unable to resist the tenderloins...with Spike on them...mmm...watch this space for any regrets! ha ha!

Virgin Media chaps me arse

as the scottish friend says. Mainly because my phone still doesn't work, after calling Customer 'Care' 4 times, 1 technician visit, and being on hold for half and hour. luckily the broadband works, freakishly...

In other news I have attracted birds to my back patio by providing tasty treats. So far have great tits, blue tits, doves, magpies, robin, sparrows, and a wren. Haven't seen the magpies lately, maybe should provide dog food for them. If only I could get some crows, then tame them.

Also last night I went to a(nother) going away party for a visiting Italian student - somehow she managed to aquire more friends in 3 months than most people do in a year...reminds me of a certain someone... We played pool/snooker and had good times!

Hello/Goodbye!

Last night my Earth supervisor had a dinner, for one student who is leaving and another who is just starting. It was nice to eat 'real' food with a real family! Tasha went too, and was immensely popular with the kids...she let them put reflective bracelets on her tail and that sort of thing. They have a dog too, she is small but can leap extremely high to catch her frisbee! Tonight it was back to the grindstone, trying to finish cleaning every surface of the house while listening to the ten different songs they play over and over on Radio Aire. The flat isn't terribly dirty, it just seems like I should clean it before settling in.

I have moved, at last

Greetings loyal readers!
heh heh heh
At last I have moved into my new apartment! Now if I can only figure out how to use the appliances... Most of my stuff is unpacked, I've even put up a birdfeeder. But the walls remain barren. Well, eventually I'll have to get it looking snazzy, I'm expected to have a housewarming party soon!

A new chair is elected.

I mean selected. heh heh heh
Tonight I returned to the woods to claim the green plastic patio chair that I hauled out of the stream last week. As darkness crept into the forest, I fled with my dirty, but intact, prize. Sure, I could have just purchased such a chair, but then I would have to go to a store, give them money, then get the chair home somehow. All it needs is a good hosing down... yeah...

Swedish Castle of Dreams

Yes, my housemate and I journeyed to IKEA this weekend. Picking up some items for the new flat, like a super cute fishy rug for the bathroom and kitchen stuff, including a spatula. Maybe we should have gone to Spatula City for the spatula... Tomarrow I get to watch as the flat is inspected to see what needs to be fixed/cleaned/replaced before I move in....which was supposed to be on the 10th! arg!

In other news, I've been watching the TV series 'Nadesico' again. I can't decide if it is brilliant or ridiculous, which is interesting because the characters are asking the same question about Gekiganger, the TV show within the TV show... Does it contain a working formula for peace, or a code demanding the total annihilation of a perceived enemy? Can there be ubiquitous righteousness?

Eyes......made of crumpets.......combing, combing, combing

Today was a day like many this summer - get up, drive to river, haul in crayfish traps, take crayfish back to lab, take tissue samples crayfish, tuck them in for night, go home, eat dinner.
Dinner was happy to see me!

Free Toast Mirror

How could I forget the toast mirror?

When I moved in, I commented that the mirror over the fireplace was shaped like a piece of toast. Now my housemate wants to be rid of the toast mirror, so I had the singular joy or posting on freecycle "Offered: large toast mirror"

So far, 4 people have asked for it. It has only been 3 hours.

My Friend Carl

I have named my car 'Carl'. Because ...*drumroll*... it's a car! We've had a good couple of weeks - his brake checkup went well, the sunroof opens (and I've learned NOT to open it right after it has rained....), and we've driven uneventfully over hill and dale. Also, no one has harmed him in any way.

At night, out my window, sometimes I see urban foxes!

The two pea plants I saved from my destroyed garden in the woods have borne fruit (vegetables...actually) and I ate the results! Good and crunchy!

Mi casa es mi casa

I have a new flat! Moving in a couple weeks. Its so close to my lab, I can walk easily! Has its own yard, parking space, spare room, and a creepy closet! Has very large living area with bay windows. And of course - I can live there with the dog! It is right by a huge park! What could be better? Only time will tell........

no title

Ah Saturday, a day to help masters' students, a day to buy wire brushes, a day for housemates to return, a day to watch surreal films.

Yes, my long lost housemate has returned from her fieldwork in the south, plagued by flooding on the roadways, she finally arrived in remarkably good spirits with her two canine companions. We viewed "The Science of Sleep" - which was so very strange. Should have opted for Hot Fuzz? maybe...maybe....

They let me take the dog in the video store! Score one for the home team!

The wire brush is to remove rust from my car. I anticipate the process greatly. Like destroying vegetation, peeling paint, biting fingernails, etc. Ahhhhhhhhh........

Speed limit enforced by aircraft

Yesterday I purchased a car. At last! An aging, yet low milage, Nissan Almera. Its sorta between a hatchback and and estate car, it has more space than most 5-door hatches but is still in a low insurance group (yes!). It has an electric sunroof and is red, so now I am cool, as long as I wear my sunglasses. My new housemate tells me it needs a male name. Her car is Dora, the orange Peugeot 106.

Amazingly, my housemates from Missouri were in the UK and we all went for a delicious, if somewhat bizarre, Japanese dinner. Very fun to see them again and hear how everything back in MO is. They got a new housemate for my old room, and the neighbors who bought my old car still enjoy it - and it is 18 years old!

Muffin. Absolutely muffin.

Hi! So...I just returned from my fantastic vacation back in the states! Not that anyone is reading this... HA HA HA! I could just drivel on and on about how horrid the muffin is that the airline gives you for breakfast, and no one would know the difference! Then I could mention that I have finally broken down and eaten said muffin. But...

Back to the vacation...
at home, it was great to do things like split firewood and shoot guns again. And be surrounded by trees and not worry about walking in broken glass when barefoot. Visiting family and friends was so wonderful, so wonderful! At the beach, surfing for the first time was super fun, except when I got boarded in the throat. Sand sculpturing was fun for all, except for cold-weather mulder and scully, who, in addition to having to wear winter outerwear the entire time, were eaten or trampled by almost everything I made.

"DON'T POKE IT IN THE EYE, MULDER!"

Then I used their heads to capture a ghost crab. Which brings me to the crabs! I held ghost, fiddler, and blue crabs. The fiddlers were in our yard, the ghosts on the beach, and the blues in the harbor. You can go out at night and catch them! But hold onto your sandals...

If you fall off the surfboard, can you say you were ghostriding it?

4th of July bloodbath

So, on the fourth of July our meat chickens were slaughtered for us by an Amish family. Mom didn't want to do 19 chickens on her own. The Amish do not celebrate the 4th of July. They are friendly and ask us about our lives. The kids speak Amish Dutch - they are all young and have not yet learned English. We are 'The English.' The kids mostly go barefoot. So do I.

Meanwhile, my Dad's brothers and associated family members came for a party. We talked, ate, had a fire, the brothers played music, and we all shot pellet guns at cans. The usual good times. Someone brought a high-powered air rifle, which we used to shoot 4 eggs. The resulting explosions were fantastic! Not to worry, we have plenty of eggs. The other day Dad took 8 dozen to work to sell, and we had 4 more dozen in the fridge the next day. Egg production is out of control! The hens are really enjoying their new improved huge pen. Anyway, the party was a huge success, and no one threw up.

The Terminal

At last I have arrived home in Ohio. The flooding in the UK caused some train delays getting to the airport, but probably the most memorable part of the trip was the 12-hour delay of my flight out of the UK. Yes, 12 hours. There was an engine fault which had to be fixed and then tested. While we all waited in the airport, they gave us lots of free food vouchers. I slept, wandered the duty free store, ate, and drew to while away the time. Then we got in to Chicago in the wee hours and were sent to a swank hotel for the grand total of 2.5 hours until it was time for the connecting flight...the soda vending machine didn't work, even after I kicked it, so I used the one downstairs to get a coke for $2.75. But all that is behind me now as I enjoy the heat and sunshine, the family, and all the animals.

Taco, not in my pocket

Yay for Americanized Mexican food night! It almost didn't occur - there was so much rain the roads flooded and the buses ground to a halt. I had to walk/run the 4 miles home to get the ingredients...then ride the bike back to town. I passed the River Aire, it was massive! But at last we all converged at the house and commenced making the food. We chowed down on some chips and salsa, nachos, tacos, and burritos. Well everything was good regardless and we finished off with fruit, including my favorite - pineapple core - and ice cream. Then we played Jenga and Chairs. Chairs was fun, you literally stack chairs (not life-size!).

Also, my pet slugs seem to have had a baby...already. A tiny slug has appeared in the cage. Do slugs hatch? Are they born?

Diddle run

My latest crayfish gathering trips have been highly successful, I managed to avoid the rainy days AND get lots of crayfish. Piemaster was happy too, since there were plenty of sardines going around as bait. She loves the 'dines. There is plenty of daylight for work, since the sun comes up at 4:30am and goes down at 10:30pm - wow! This time I drove a VW Golf, 1.4 petrol engine. It did not have much get up and go, I must say. Very disappointed. I like my torque in the lower rpms. But it was black and shiny and had good MPG, so what can I say, its just a field vehicle.

I am now preparing for my journey BACK TO THE USA! horray! But first, Taco Night! watch this space...

Dinnerz

Tonight I had a REAL Italian dinner cooked by a REAL Italian using REAL Italian ingredients! Of course, it was really good. Haven't had something so delicious in ages - it had actual flavors. The chef was a visiting student whom I am assisting with DGT (water chemistry stuff). She is not enjoying the English summer, as it has rained for almost 2 weeks now, almost daily. I admitted I was very ready to be in the 90 degree heat of the USA. When I got home I poured salt on the slugs that were eating my bean plant. It was 11pm. Then I fed small pieces of carrot to the other slugs and snails that were oozing around the patio.

Crawdad Mobile

Renting cars to do fieldwork is overwhelmingly foul. The only good part is that I get to try out lots of different and brand new cars. Which is fun, but every other aspect is wretched. So, today I purchased the Yorkshire Auto Trader magazine. Thusly, I officially enter the Used Vehicle Market! The ads come in many sections, including my favorites: bargain cars, vans & commercials, and estates. No, I'm not buying land, 'estate' is the name for a station wagon here. Will I find a perfect, boring, yet reliable 2002 Toyota Corolla estate? Or will I succumb to the charms of a Diahatsu Hi Jet still bearing the emblem of the company that formerly owned it (in a very Wayne's Samwich Wagon-eque fashion)? Only time will tell.....

The Lost Boys

Today I found real live lost boys in the forest! I was gathering moss to make a terrarium for my pets slug, Takumi. It was starting to rain and these four kids wandered up from the stream, and asked if I knew how to get to Hawksworth (where I live). They even had booty that they had found in the stream! A cool toddlers' seesaw, fisher price-esque, and also a golf club. Pretty sweet haul for four 8 year olds. So I got to lead this wee band through the wet, dark forest and up into fields. Apparently I had met one before because he knew Tasha's name... They were interested that I had a pet slug, and even suggested where I could find a toad or newt (a vast improvement over a slug, apparently). They even told me how one kid had been sucked into the waterfall and the other kid pulled him out! Way to go kid! Then I walked home in the rain. It was sublime.