|
|
|
|
|
|
Overheard at the Airport
Here's a conversation Frank heard while waiting to board the Nerd Bird* this morning, in his words:
"Two guys were talking next to me:
Dork 1: You didn't take the Sunday night flight? [this should have been obvious since he was standing there on Monday morning]
Dork 2: Nah, thought I was going to have a mega hot dating weekend
Dork 1: Oh yeah?
Dork 2: Yeah, I didn't want to have to extract myself from some hottie just to catch a flight you know?
Dork 1: So how did it go?
Dork 2: Didn't happen
Me: really?"
I'm assuming Frank didn't really say that out loud, though I wish he had.
* the Nerd Bird is the nonstop morning flight from Austin --> San Jose, CA.
|
|
|
|
|
Fire Rainbow
I don't know why this makes me so happy, but it does:
While in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, we took a drive and as we went over a mountain, I saw this in the sky:
It was quite a bit more vivid than that in person, but if I adjust the contrast much it looks like we were driving through a storm. Below is the vivid color version, but again, the clouds are much more pronounced & ominous than in real life. They really were wispy little things against a blue sky.
We wondered what the heck it was. With the weird dips & jags, we knew it wasn't a normal rainbow and wondered if it might be some sort of aurora. Well, I found out today it's called a circumhorizontal arc - or, much cooler, a fire rainbow. (Here's a much cooler picture someone took in Coeur d'Alene two years ago.)
Apparently it's super rare to see one as they only show up under really specific conditions, in really specific locations, only around the equinox, and for short amounts of time.
I feel really lucky when I see stuff like this, like nature is showing me a secret :)Labels: coeur d'alene, fire rainbow, idaho
|
|
|
|
|
IronFrank
We're in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for Frank's second IronMan Triathlon. So far he's been going about 7.5 hours, and probably has about 4.5 to go. I'm not sure why anyone would want to punish themselves this way, but I'm proud of him for doing it.
In case you're not familiar with the insanity that is an IronMan, it consists of:
a 2.4 mile swim,
112 miles on the bike,
and a 26.2 mile run (marathon)
Last time it took him just under 12 hours, and it looks like he's on pace for just a little longer than that today.
Here's the start of the race, 2100+ swimmers hitting the lake at the same time:
More updates soon!
|
|
|
|
|
Please forgive the mess
I'm trying to decide whether to stick with blogger or with a platform Frank and I made.
In the meantime, there will be twice as many ads as there should be, and the page will look ugly. Sorry - will be fixed in the next week!
|
|
|
|
|
Gotta love Texas
Central Texas has all kinds of critters running around. We have tiny scorpions that blend in with our floors, millipedes that can outrun us, cute green lizards and black & white horned ones, tarantulas (which thank goodness I've only seen on the outside of our house), oodles of other spiders and bugs, and snakes.
I've read that Texas only has 4 types of poisonous snakes and a whole mess of nonvenomous ones. I don't really mind snakes a whole lot.
But I do mind going out to my garage, reaching for something on a shelf in the semi-lit space and hearing: tck tck tck tck tck tck.
At first I assumed it was because the shelf was swaying and something was knocking together, but the tck tck kept up even after I stilled it. So of course I froze in place and waited, and after about 10 seconds it stopped.
After about 10 more, I decided to take a step backwards, and sure enough - tck tck tck tck tck.
Rinse & repeat.
It didn't sound a whole lot like a rattlesnake, but I'm no herpestologist or whatever, so I was getting a bit nervous.
Eventually I got far enough away to walk back into the house, chat with Frank on yahoo messenger for a minute, and then go back out there and open up the garage for more light and for an escape route - for me or the creature, either way would be fine.
Well, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a four-inch gecko - which is like the godzilla of geckos compared to what we usually see. I dashed back inside to find my camera, and to google "gecko noises". Couldn't find a picture of him - the one here is what he looked like, though, minus the spider - but I found out that geckos are the only kind of lizards that make clicking noises. In fact, the name "gecko" comes from someone's interpretation of the sound he makes. (By that definition mine would've been named Ticko.)
Yay! They eat spiders!
You can listen to one here, if you're using Internet Explorer.Labels: clicking noise, gecko, lizard
|
|
|
|
|
He said, she heard
 While Frank was running the marathon this Sunday, Christopher interrupted my bath to tell me, excitedly:
"Wow, mom! This kid got Crocs for riding his bike with no hands!"
(What? What the hell kind of parent rewards that kind of risk-taking behavior? And what kind of commercial uses that as an example?)
Me: Crocs?!
C: No, PROPS!
Me (smiling): Ohhhhh. And what are props?
C: I don't know!! But I know they're GOOD!!!
|
|
|
|
|
