Tip Jar

Here's one: Don't take wooden nickels from strangers.

Booby traps and other devices

Lately my little girl has been asking a lot about trapping things. No idea why but I hope she's not going to try anything with me! This is her spider trap... the idea being that the spider will see how enticing the little white ball is to the Hungry Hungry Hippos, go for it himself, and get trapped under the patio table. The kleenex is there for easy spider smashing/pickup.



More questions she had were:
1. How do we trap a Timber Wolf?
2. If I trapped a cobra last night in my room what could we do with it today?
3. How could I build a sand trap for those boys at the spray park who keep taking my shovel without asking me - how do I make quicksand? (Apparently it still holds true that the quiet ones will get ya. Kindergarten here we come.)

Rainbows reappear

Last night the neighbors had the same idea - take the garbage out and drag the kids out of bed to see a rainbow. Natural wonders. They amaze me every time. The clouds were too low last night but here's an old unobstructed picture from our backyard last March 2 years ago. They always appear in the same spot.



I think this is a case for that wide angle I've been dreaming of, don't you, low key daddy-o? Well, maybe if I save pennies I find in the parking lot or... get a job. Hmmm.

Camera Obscura

Here's another recurring theme in my life: give me something simple and I will screw it up - give me something arcane and I can do it. I can take a good photo using full manual features of my DSLR, but give me a point and shoot camera and I'm stuck. It's the easy instructions in life that trip me up (just press the button) - yet I just can't help the impending flurry of questions (how hard to press it? when to press it? what's the delay between the button press and actual shutter closing? isn't there a better way to do this?). Sometimes I just need to have a beer and press the button, nothing more. Happy Independence Day!

Your 5-minutes are up

The workshop I went to last week was so inspiring that I even have more career options to check out. The workshop was held at the Shedd and was also part of their partnership with the Great Lakes Alliance, a group working toward conserving the great lakes. I learned so much about invasive species I am bursting with knowledge. It was awesome to learn about the museum itself and see the water labs and hospital area. The vet tech also told us some neat stories about working on unusual animals like electric eels. I was surprised to hear that most people on staff only have bio degrees. The best freebie ever? A 5-minute shower timer with the Shedd logo on it! Ben was not excited. Ha!

Turns out the Shedd's gift shop is independent from it. This doesn't surprise me considering the utter crap they sell. Stuffed animals and posters you can get anywhere. Why not sell a cool water testing kit kids can take to the beach? Or a neat poster that tells you where your drinking water comes from? Or a cool scary poster of invasives? Maybe in the future, I was told.

Some neat facts:

1. It's better to wash your car at the carwash than at home. I thought home was better since you can control how much water and the type of soap you use. As long as they recycle water and use the right soaps, the carwash is better.

2. It's better to sweep your walk than hose it. Sewers weren't meant to handle the runoff from lawns (i.e. fertilizers).

3. Lake Superior will be bone dry in 10,000 years if we keep this up.

4. The Great Lakes used to be tropical. And water is currently being bottled and shipped out west.

5. 1 drop of contaminant in our Great Lakes takes 190 years to dissipate.

6. If sewage gives you the heebie jeebies, you don't want to swim in the lakes. It's always present, just not in dangerous amounts some days.