Guys, guys!! Have you SEEN the Owl Box yet??? Oh, man. I discovered it just after my mega-wildlife-watching trip to Friday Harbor, and I was instantly hooked. Basically, there’s a camera in the nest of a barn owl couple. Man. That sounds boring, but I have been absolutely riveted since I found it. (But then, I am weird like that, especially when it comes to birds of prey… Cute, fuzzy little birds of prey…)
When I first started watching, the eldest chick, Max, had just hatched. Now, a few days later, he’s got a sibling they’ve called Pattison. It’s really cool seeing the two chicks together, because one of them is so obviously bigger and more well-developed that the other! Also – OWL CHICKS!! EEEEE!!!
Sorry. I fear that I will be quite incoherent until they are fledged. Maybe even later…
((Sorry this blog post is a few days behind!!! I was going to write more, but the internet connection out in my cabin was a tad patchy when I posted this one, and I wanted to double-check links! I’m still catching up with a few things after our trip to Seattle, but Moosehead Stew should be back on track come Thursday!))
So, I had the good fortune to be standing in the midst of a crowd of webcomics artists during the course of the Emerald City Comic Expo, and several thoughts crossed my mind. One, that we are a motley and assorted crew of ruffians. And two, that a good deal of them seem to tower over me. Seriously – there are a TON of really tall artists out there. (Or, maybe it’s just me. Actually, scratch that. It’s probably just me. A lot of people are tall when you’re 5’3″…)
However, there are also a ton of awesome artists that are less astoundingly tall!! Most of the female artists I’ve met are actually around the same height as me! This is our secret advantage, because that means that we totally get tons of leg-room during all of those long flights to cons. We. So. Win.
* Jennie wasn’t at Emerald City, but had to be included in the lineup because she’s awesome! Also, her boots are highly recognizable, and make her much taller than she normally draws herself!
I must have driven past the world’s biggest sausage hundreds of time without ever having seen it. Mundare, 70 km east of Edmonton, is a small town, and I never would have stopped there if I hadn’t had that second bottle of iced tea on the trip from Saskatoon. When we turned off the highway, looking for a bathroom, the most glorious sight awaited us – a giant… turd?
Closer inspection showed that this monstrosity was supposed to be a sausage. And, the sign said, it was the biggest concrete sausage in the world!
Now, I’ve seen giant Easter eggs, giant pea plants, and even a giant moose in my time, but few things compare to the sight of a really massive sausage, looming over the landscape!
Ahhh, curling… I think that it’s entirely appropriate that, during Starbuck’s Love Project (http://www.starbucksloveproject.com/), where 156 countries from around the world all submitted clips of their citizens singing “All You Need is Love”, the Canadian entry was filmed in a curling rink. That’s Canada for ya.
And it’s an especially popular sport in Saskatchewan. It’s one of the few winter sports that you can still play when it’s minus a bazillion outside, because, luckily, it’s played indoors. Despite going out of my way to avoid organized sport, I still went curling numerous times while I was going to school, and actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Now, I couldn’t aim a curling rock at the broadside of a barn, but I do like to sweep. It’s neat feeling the pebbles of ice melting under your broom, and I always wanted to slide up and down the slick textured ice like an otter. (Though, of course, that’d probably get me kicked out of the rink pretty fast…. But it’d feel cool…) Curling, in my books, is a pretty awesome sport.
The Arrogant Worms, those wacky Western Canadian songsters, wrote a tribute to the 2010 Winter Olympics, and it should come as no surprise that they chose to sing about curling. Have a listen – it’s pretty hilarious!
Hey sorry!! Sorry for the impromptu hiatus – I’ve been so busy working on Weregeek: Book 2 that I had to let Moosehead Stew drop for few days. But the book’s off to the printer, and we’re back up and running now!!
Oh, road trips… I’ve often joked that to anyone from the prairies, the thought of a 6 hour car journey isn’t at all daunting, since you’ve got to drive that long just to get ANYWHERE in Saskatchwan!! I’ve done the 5 hour drive from Edmonton to Saskatoon in a weekend so often that I know the night-shift workers at my favorite bathroom stop in Lloydminster* by name.
Winter road trips can be a little more daunting, since prairie roads are notoriously pot-holed and bumpy at the best of times, and in the winter that patch of black on the road could be either dry road or glare ice. But that never really stops anyone… (Or, well,sometimes stops people**, but not by choice…)
Anyway. If you’re ever through the prairies, there’s one last thing to note: There’s no “Last chance to get gas” signs, but if you’re driving at night, there probably should be. All those little towns along the way that make great refilling spots during the day close at night, and nothing sucks worse than getting stuck in Bladworth*** with an empty tank!!
* A note: The bathroom in Lloyd that says it’s the “Cleanest Bathroom in Lloyd!” isn’t lying. They even have fresh flowers in there sometimes. And hand lotion.
** Taken this past November, just outside Airdrie, Alberta
*** Say it with me. “Blaaaaaaaad-wuuuuuuurth.” Sorry. Funniest town name, can’t resist making fun of it every time I drive past.
Actually, I DON’T have cats, because I would die. But just about everyone I know does, and therein lies the problem. See, when I’m not around cats, I don’t really have asthma. I can run, dance, jump, and do all those other lung-irritating things just fine when there’s no felines around. But as soon as there’s an ounce of cat-dander in the air, I stop being able to breathe.
Ok, ok. It’s not that bad… If I’ve taken some allergy medicine, and if the house is clean, I can stay in a cat-infested area for a day or two with few ill-effects. Shorthairs are also way easier on me than long hairs. Siamese cats are the worst – I can spend a few minutes around them, and then it’s “rush Alina to the hospital happy fun time”.
Which isn’t to say I don’t love cats. I do. They’re lovely animals, and while I am through-and-through a dog person, I do appreciate that they’re wonderful companions, especially if you’re working from home. There’s nothing quite like a purring cat to soothe frayed nerves or curl up in a comfy chair with on a rainy day.
Hedgehogs, for the record, don’t purr, and will probably pee on you if you try to curl up with them in a chair for too long. But they’re still cute.
Guys, guys!! Have you SEEN the Owl Box yet??? Oh, man. I discovered it just after my mega-wildlife-watching trip to Friday Harbor, and I was instantly hooked. Basically, there’s a camera in the nest of a barn owl couple. Man. That sounds boring, but I have been absolutely riveted since I found it. (But then, I am weird like that, especially when it comes to birds of prey… Cute, fuzzy little birds of prey…)
