The Cuddly Cactus

I just finished a rather large and very excellent book on butterflies of the east coast, and was laughing at some of the descriptions, especially of the mysterious and difficult-to-id skippers. So I flipped through it just now looking for some of those hilarious quotes, only they're really not that funny unless you have spent all day reading about butterflies.

Anyway, here's the most rib-tickling entry, for Southern Skipperling (Copaeodes minimus):

"The common name "Least Skipper" was already taken when Copaeodes minimus was described in 1870. By then, the current "Least" Skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor) - a hulking insect by comparison - had already owned the title for more than 75 years.  Some have suggested compromise solutions to clarify the nomenclature, such as Very Least Skipper, even Leastest, but the critical moment has clearly passed."

Well, I think it's funny, but I also have recently finished 319 pages worth of butterflies.  It continues to rhapsodize the Southern Skipperling:

"We generally avoid referring to butterflies as "easily overlooked" in these accounts since the phrase tends to address limitations of the observer more than traits of the butterfly.  But this is a species that truly can be overlooked, with its diminutive size and habit of flying through low foliage very near the ground.  Once the eyes have fixed on it, on the other hand, its appearance is so striking that size is immaterial.  Displaying males are glistening gems, dwarfed though they may be by the meager blade of grass on which they perch."

Those are my type of authors.  Total enthusiasts who know they are perhaps a little too into butterfiles, but nevertheless go for it with a cheerful, intelligent passion.  I share that mindset.  There's a scene from Spiderman in which the main character shares a bit of fascinating-but-admittedly-useless spider trivia, and his friend says "Peter, what makes you think I would want to know that?"  Tobey Maguire captures the stunned response perfectly: "Who wouldn't?"  He's nonplussed that anyone would be indifferent to the discovery that some spiders can change colors!  When coworkers roll their eyes when I lose control and go into details about red-eared and yellow bellied slider hybrids, I feel the same way.  :-)

Anyway, totally excited about starting a butterfly list for the place-where-I-work-that-I'm-not-supposed-to-name.  I've heard tell that there's one out there somewhere, but I'm going to ignore that and begin from scratch.  Maybe I'll even be able to add Copaeodes minimus to it, we're within its range and habitat. 

...Speaking of lepidoptera, wow, there was a luna moth at the screen door last night! I adore luna moths - I suppose you'd have to be completely inhuman not to feel kindly towards them. I always feel like I'm meeting a celebrity when I meet a luna moth, I'm almost shy of approaching them because they're so wonderful.

Now I get nightmares, every six months or so, of being chased by giant tyrannosaurs. It's probably a healthy expression of our natural predator/prey instincts - but still, I was so relieved this morning to find the biggest carnivore in the area, the 12-foot alligator I visit on gator van trips - is more interested in bellowing at lady gators than chasing after me. Though you never know.

I've had a very nice week, but I'll be so glad for the weekend. Because I'm catsitting for both my roommate and her daughter this week, my total load of animal dependents is, at the moment: five mosquito fish, one pufferfish, one spadefish, one sheepshead, one stone crab, one hermit crab, one opossum, one rabbit, one mourning dove, one rock dove, two diamondback terrapins, two red-eared sliders, three yellow-bellied slider, one baby red-eared/yellow-bellied hybrid, two mystery freshwater fish, one fat toad, one anole, one tiger salamander, one copperhead, one rattlesnake, one cottonmouth, one baby yellow rat snake, one green snake, two corn snakes, two king snakes, one box turtle, five alligators, one mud turtle, seven cats, two rats in declining health, and a dog. Phew. That's a lot of work! Plus three tours today, for which I always give my all and hence are quite draining.

Too bad Bella won't let me sleep past 6:30. She had an interview today for a new home and it's down to her and another dog, with a small possibility that they might take both of them. Just from what I've heard it sounds like a wonderful home, so I hope it works out!

I bought a dog-bike attachment that allows me to keep both hands on the brakes while biking with an energetic labrador, and more importantly not crash when said energetic labrador lunges at squirrels. I took Bella for about a 3 mile run today and will take her to the county park for a longer one over the weekend. Poor dog, sitting in a crate for 8 hours a day; only fair to her to give her some nice long runs! She's pretty calm at the moment, which is nice, though she just wandered off to stare at the cat for a while.

I am also excited to get my slr camera back; I haven't used in about a year and a half. All my fault, as I had dropped it and cracked the lens. But it's been fixed and I'm ready to point and shoot!

Hmm, what else. I'm excited to hear the new Decemberists album, though my budget for superfluous enertainment is close to max for the month, so it'll have to wait. Although, could a new Decemberists album even be categorized as superfluous?

We saw 51 species of birds on my bird trip today, including the first blue-gray gnatcatchers of the year, the first meadowlark of the year, some northern gannet diving close to the island (relatively), a half-grown great horned owl chick and two separate owl nests, and one of my personal favorites, the blue-headed vireo. Nice.

I talked to some people who said they hated having the little anole lizards show up in their house. Hated? They were certainly vehement about it. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do with all that emotion. The only thing in life that I get that worked up about are palmetto bugs, and usually I just put on my big girl pants and deal with it by calmly calling my roommate over (preferably) or spraying it with instant roach death. I wouldn't hate the bugs either if they stayed out of my bed at night, but alas, a few have crawled across my pillow (or face) by now and that has sealed the fate of the entire species as the only the only animal I cannot look at with benevolence.

I'm being a bit naughty tonight - I have a late night craving for strawberry chocolate chip muffins. (Also tacos, though alas, I don't know of any take-out taco places that are open at 10:30 pm. Such is life in rural South Carolina). Anyway, here's the recipe for the strawberry chocolate chip muffins currently baking right now in the kitchen, modified for my tastes and ingredients on hand from a recipe I found online.

Preheat to 375 F.

Mix together:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

In a seperate bowl, mix together:
1/2 cup oil. I was all out of regular canola oil, so I winced and used my far more expensive olive oil.
1 egg
3/4 cup milk, I used soymilk because I was out of regular milk.
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Stir together wet and dry ingredients but don't overmix. Fold in:
1 1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 semisweet chocolate chips, though I bet dark chocolate would be even better.

Fill muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until done.

I'm so eager for breakfast that I half want to eat it now, at 9:30 pm. But I'll wait!

Looong day today that ended nicely with a long beach walk with another naturalist and his dog. I'm pretty beat and tired, but Bella could easily go for another jog.

I love listening to Mr. Blue Sky in the morning on the way to work. I think it's the most uplifting five minutes of music I've ever heard. Uplifting in the best joyful sense of the word, not uplifting in the terrifying Sarah Brightman or Josh Groban way.

Judging by this Decemberists video, Colin Meloy feels the same way that I do about that song, complete with jumping around, goofy grins and enthusiastic off-tune singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLe6o7jicB4

Yup, that's me to work every day, except for in the front seat of a now-happily-less-noisy minivan.

Yesterday the fuel pump died on my car, but luckily I was able to get off the busy road before it did so. I managed to drive it home though for most of the trip I was merely hoping to get closer to home. It did cut out several times, but turning it off and on again seemed to temporarily fix it enough for me to get another mile or so. Anyway, got it towed off and they fixed it this afternoon. Quite a few hundred dollars later ($450, actually), it's now safe to drive. For now. While annoying that I had to pay that much for a car while I'd prefer to walk or bike, it's rather nice to cut down on the whining background noise coming from the car whenever it was on - it runs so smoothly and silently now; the feeling was just like taking off a heavy backpack and feeling the floating sensation of a free back. I hadn't realized how annoying that tone was, and how much it pained me whenever I drove the car!

Great kayaking today with a sample of late season oysters - I've become an excellent shucker and revel in the taste of fresh oysters pulled fresh from the salt marsh. Lots of birds - from large to small: bald eagle, wood stork, pelican, great egret, tricolored heron, little blue heron, ring-billed gull, pileated woodpecker, marbled godwit, willet, forster's tern, red-winged blackbirds, various assorted peeps, marsh wren. Also, a dolphin said hello.

I try not to get all romantic and sappy about dolphins. I get infuriated with whole dolphins-are-our-friends" attitude. Maybe in someone's happy dream world, but the dolphins I've seen in the wild are interested in food and sex, mostly. Still, when you're wearily cleaning kayaks on the dock and a dolphin swims up to you, rolls over to check you out with one eerie eye, sticks its head out of the water and clacks its mouth a couple of times, and swims off, you can't help but get excited.

I still hate swim-with-the-dolphins and other cetacean exploitation programs, though. Watching wild dolphins and whales, yes, that's fine. But messing with their lives is not.

Toads are everywhere tonight, the road is thick with them like a biblical plague, only with extra warts and poison sacs. I know Bella sniffed at a few; I dearly hope she didn't eat one, as toads are poisonous and it will result in another exciting evening installment of bleeaauggghh. I found a couple mating but most were just hopping around looking for food and enjoying the warm weather. Their faces are so stoic and passive, and such a disapproving frown - you can't help but see a human face in that expression. They puff up, pee and play dead when you pick them up, and if that doesn't work, there's always the poison sacs. I adore toads.

As if to give me something to think about as I consider whether to keep her or not, Bella has spent the night vomiting up the 5 pound bag of rat food that she ate while I was at work. I have no idea how she got it into the crate, but she did, and the lingering scent in my room still makes me kinda sick. She managed to direct most of the vomit on to my feet, bed, and rug, so rather than going to bed at 11 as I had planned, it's now almost 1 am and I have to work a long day tomorrow and I'm still waiting for one blanket to dry enough to sleep with.

At least I have a washer and dryer here rather than having to use a laundromat!

Anyway, I let her out just now and it's so beautiful out there, for 12:45 am. The toads are keeping up an even trill and the tree frogs come in and out with their more forceful chirps, but it's the fog that got me. The yard is sitting in a cloud and I could see all the water droplets floating in the air in the porch light, could see them move as I stuck my middle finger up at the dog. They appeared to come at me, helping me to realize the weight and presence of air around me. Even sunlight has weight, I can't believe our bodies can stand up to the weight of all that air.

Bella's sulking in a corner because I won't let her on the bed; I tried shutting her up in the laundry room, but she started howling and I didn't want her to wake up my roommate. Still, not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight, constantly listening for that distinctive heeurggh, blleeckkk, aaaccckk.

It's now or never: I really need to make the big decision about Bella. She's a really great dog, a good fit with what I'd be looking for in a dog (stays with you while off leash, smart, energetic, cuddly, and so forth). She's a bit more serious than I had in mind, because I'd love a dog that makes me laugh, but a more spontaneous and goofy dog would probably not be as good a listener. And perhaps because I'm so serious myself, I bring it out in her.

Thing is, though, even though I love her, I'm not sure whether I feel that connection that I did with Tucker the rat or one of the corgis I used to dogsit for. It's that feeling of looking into their eyes and being delighted with what you see in there.

But perhaps I should be looking for that in a man, not in a pet!

So I'm wavering back and forth - I'll think of all the fun things I could do with her and think I'll keep her, then think about how she'd probably do well in another home and think I'll adopt her out, then I'll think about having to leave her to a fate where she might not be ever walked, then I'll think of how much dogs cost and how much my rats' vet bills added up to this spring. In any case, I really ought to be spending all this mental decision power upon my chronically undecided future rather than something like this. Having a dog around really makes my life feels more complete, but perhaps that's a bad thing, perhaps I should be complete just on my own! I guess I'll sleep on it and think about it for a while.

Also, I just chose not to finish Anthony Trollope's biography of Cicero after making it halfway through. He's funny at first but then he just gets wearisome.

I was thinking of writing something about my annoying perfectionist frustrations at work - how I'm constantly trying to deliver the perfect trip and how rarely it does go perfectly - but there's not much to say about it. So instead I prioritized my favorite albums of all time, at least in terms of how strong the album is.

In order too meet the qualifications, a great album not only has to be packed with memorable, wonderful songs that have made an impact on my life but also has to be free of skippable songs - ones that I'd actively reach out and press the skip button on. So otherwise great albums like The White Album are off the list because of songs like Revolution #9 and and Piggies. Sorry, John and George. Same with Carousel - even though it is my favorite musical, it's also got tedious songs like You'll Never Walk Alone. And bands like Guster are off the list because although their music is a lot of fun and I enjoy listening to it, it doesn't connect with my deeper emotions, either joy or despair, the way the rest of these albums do. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Abbey Road, the Beatles
*Wins "My favorite album of all time" award
Bang Bang, Dispatch
Ben Folds Live, Ben Folds
Broken Boy Soldiers, the Raconteurs
*Wins "smoothest rock pop" award
The Crane Wife, the Decemberists
Farmhouse, Phish
*Wins "Happiest hippy music" award
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Graceland, Paul Simon
*Wins "Best traveling music" award
Help!, the Beatles
II, Led Zeppelin
*Wins "This is Sarah's most hard-core music" award. Really, I'm so pathetic.
James Taylor's Greatest Hits (the first one)
Let It Be, the Beatles
My Fair Lady, original Broadway cast
Most Simon and Garfunkel albums, actually.
Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys
Picaresque, the Decemberists
*Wins "Most exciting opening number ever" award
Pink Moon, Nick Drake
*Wins "mellowest and most thoughtful" award
Revolver, the Beatles
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie
*Wins "Weirdest" award, what else. I do have weirder music, but not weirder and better.
Silent Steeples, Dispatch
St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley
Time Out, Dave Brubeck Quartet
*Wins "Most sophisticated" award

The Unauthorized Autobiography of Reinhold Messner by Ben Folds Five gets an honorable mention because the first 2/3rds of it is particularly awesome, but then it peters out.

I think you can tell from the list that I like catchy, creative pop-folk-rock type music with a romantic or dramatic bent.  Romantic in the old-fashioned-Lord-Byron-adventuresome way, not in the modern-lovey-dovey way.  Out of those, I think the particularly strong standouts are Abbey Road, Graceland, Led Zeppelin II, and Time Out.  Gotta go for the classics.

The live oak trees were particularly beautiful today.

After twenty minutes of running around the dog park, a half hour nature walk, another twenty minutes of running around the dog park, a three hour walk in downtown Charleston, a long car ride to Costco and back to pick up high quality dog food, and a meal of said dog food, Bella is tired. I'm speechless. Never thought it could have happened!

It was her first visit to downtown Charleston and she loved it (she loves everything, though) - so much stimulus! Even though she's a plain and generic black dog she got a few compliments, mostly because she has a very alert and intelligent looking face. She's dreaming now, but very quietly - I can see her eyes moving, but that's it.

Poor Bella can't really understand why we can't go out during a thunderstorm. She wants to run with a desperation that's driving me nuts. I've tried doing some things inside to keep her busy - her tricks are now up to sit, down, crawl, shake your left paw, shake your right paw, spin left, twirl right, paws up, pray, wait, stay, and roll over. Not bad! I starting teaching roll over two days ago, it clicked last night, and she's doing it really well today. To try to stay open to the idea of adopting her out, I try to fixate on superficial flaws like her annoying separation anxiety and irrepressible sunrise lick attacks.

Umm, anything else not dog-related? Hmm. Not really. Same old wonderful nature sightings and so forth; if I had a camera, I'd put some pictures up but my dad still has it and won't send it back. I'm a bit hurt because he drives down to Maryland all the time to visit his new girlfriend - he even went to her son's basketball game - but has never come to visit me since I graduated from college four years ago. Yeah, South Carolina is a bit farther from New Jersey but you could do it in a long day if you left early enough. New girlfriends are far more fascinating than old daughters.

Weird to think that I'm now as far away from college as I was from high school when I was graduating from college.

Tried to rescue a very badly off clapper rail from the road the other day - and in the middle of a birdwatching tour too! - but she died a few hours later. I don't know whether she got hit by a car or was just dying anyway. I had some compassion, but I'm pretty steely when it comes to individual animals, and I have to admit part of the attraction of taking back to the nature center was to go all science-chimpy and investigate this awesome bird that I never get to see close up. It's more the death of a species as a whole that gets me upset - the death of an individual animal is just the way it goes.

Anyway, clapper rail toes are strikingly long and dinosaur-like in a scaly, cold, predatory way. The classy white stripes down their lower feathers are something that only a dedicated plain brown bird lover would appreciate, but I find them gorgeous. Birds are so light to pick up in life, surprisingly heavy in death. I tossed this one in the woods so she'd be recycled into bobcat and alligator.

Bella ate, in quick succession, a box of powdered milk and the binding off my 7th Harry Potter book, including as dessert a large chunk of the first couple of pages. Last time I leave her alone in my room for a long while.

...about Bella being a prima donna. My roommate's back after picking up her daughter at the airport, and Bella's growl is terrifying. Bella's completely harmless, of course (maybe not to cats, but we're working on it). As long as an intruder spoke nicely to her, she'd be all over them. And if they were mean to her, she'd run away. But it's gratifying to hear the growls, I feel just a bit safer out here in redneckville.

I got her a pink harness so that I can run her along the bike without worrying about hurting her neck, but can't do that quite yet - need to buy a bike-leash-attachment thingy so that I don't have to worry about capsizing every time she sees a canada goose, squirrel, dog, kid, cat, flying leaf, you get the idea...

I just tried to swipe the credit card through my usb port.

Yesterday Bella ran at the dog park for two hours, which tired her out for the first time since she came here. Unfortunately today she's bounding with energy and I have too many chores. I'm on my bed working on the computer and she keeps on making dramatic, soul-wrenching sighs and groans. There's a bit of diva in Bella, albeit one of the tomboy kinds.

Oh well. I took her for a walk this morning and she found half of a snapping turtle carcass. Good times for a dog.

Student loan, internet service, and credit card all paid today, yeeoowwch. I can't wait until the summer picks up and I'm earning a bit more money; I've really dug into my savings this winter.

A few days ago we went up in a cherry picker to photograph and peer at the great horned owl. (I did the peering, did not take any of these pictures.)



Here's me checking out the owl, and the rest of the area while I was at it. It's a rare opportunity that I get 60 feet above sea level. Not scared of the height at all, though that's probably because I was enclosed in a very sturdy box. The ladder I climbed two years ago to get to the red cockaded woodpecker nest was pretty unnerving, though, because you have to lean back against nothing and trust to the tiny little footholds and straps.

Mmmm, melts. Way better than a sandwich, and no clean-up of cooking stuff. I should have discovered this way earlier. Still hungry though, they were rather small melts.

Bella's spending her evening staring at my roommate's door, through which Patches the nasty cat disappeared about an hour ago. She seems completely fascinated. Whatever floats your boat.

She picked up 'shake' in one night and 'shake your other paw' the next. Now I'm teaching her to say her prayers, which is kinda silly as I'm an nearly-utterly-faithless agnostic. But all dog tricks are inherently silly, so that's ok.