A Hippo Ate My Deck Storage Box

The tulip tree in our front yard. I thought it was named that because of the tulip-shaped leaves, but it has little flowers, too.

--
A lot of good, fun, ugly, and yummy things happened in the last week. Here’s a rundown, with some pictures.

I got a new battery for the old grass trimmer, and it’s running great. The old battery, despite my initial successes, didn’t last. I bought a replacement online and wired it up to the trimmer’s switches, and it was off and running. Maybe I can use it instead of the lawnmower to save gas?

Saturday night, J and I shipped the kids off to Aunt Laurie’s house, and went with our friends, Jeff and Ann, to see Kathy Griffin at the Fox in Detroit. She’s an actress and comedian. She is not exactly known for family-friendly comedy, and what we saw was considerably more, er, adult than the TV versions of her stand-up. Before the show, we went to a restaurant nearby called Small Plates, which was wonderful and delicious. There was a Tigers game that night, which started after we arrived for dinner, and ended after the show was over, so driving in and out was a breeze. It was fun to walk near the stadium at night on our way out of the Fox, with the lights and the cheering crowd.

On Sunday, the boys had a party at their piano teacher’s house, then we went to Grillin’, which is Food Gatherers’ annual fundraiser picnic at the fairgrounds. We had great weather, and we saw several other families we knew. They have live music, a silent auction, and lots of food, including food donated by a lot of local restaurants. There are also activities for the kids, inside and outside. I ran into someone I knew who was dressed as a carrot (which is the Food Gatherers’ mascot of sorts) and I asked her how she came to be a carrot. She said there was a big sign-up sheet for volunteers, and “Carrot” was a choice. I don’t know why everyone wouldn’t want to be a carrot – I know I would. Her job was to be a goodwill ambassador and say “Hello” to people coming in and “Thank You” to people leaving, as well as smile a lot. I think I could handle that.

Images of Destruction

What animal do you suppose is biting chunks of plastic off our deck box? At first I thought it might be a deer, but we have narrowed our choices to chipmunk, red squirrel, or hippopotamus. (We have had chipmunk and red squirrel problems in the past, and I’m really hoping the hippo thing doesn’t turn out to be the answer.)




We may not know who is eating our deck box, but we do know a deer has been munching on the hostas in our back garden. We noticed one a few days ago at our neighbor’s garden, looking at us with a big mouthful of hasta leaves and stems sticking out of its mouth.

Lots of links
A very interesting article about science education and careers – is there truly a “shortage” of graduates in science and engineering in the US? I don’t know this magazine or any political agenda it may have, but it’s an interesting article.

A couple of things I’d like to build in the parallel universe where I have infinite time available to me - a Gear Ring and a bicycle sidecar.

A few space travel-related links
The first is spacecraft made from plywood. These are great, and are in full scale.

The second is a picture of an F-15 at a recent shuttle launch. Incredible picture – you should have seen the ladder the photographer was using.