25 February 10
Dryer Double
Charlie frequently settles in for his morning repose in the dryer, as he has done for a while. Today Diego decided to join him.
24 February 10
Lost in Socks
Handspun. Trying to knit a pair of twined socks during the winter olympics. Today’s discovery: they are going to be VERY SNUG around the ankle and I don’t know if I can block twined knitting enough to make a difference… Project here on Ravelry. Nearly finished one sock, the second will need the entire foot done before Sunday night…
20 February 10
Counting Habits
It really isn’t that difficult. Last weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count: I ended up doing three counts on three successive days, nothing fancy, just a set of 15 minute stationary point counts. The GBBC is a citizen science bird monitoring effort that takes place in the middle of February. I also logged my point data into eBird, which is in some ways GBBC’s bigger brother — the site hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provides an easy way for birders to submit their observations to be part of the readily accessible ornithological record.
I have made very little use of eBird in the past. The most challenging thing though was finding my old password to the site; it’s quite easy to enter data. This morning I did another point count here at the house, seeing 8 species and 25 different birds. This could become a Saturday morning habit — being out in the garden, counting the birds.
5 February 10
Fighting for the Right to Study
Slumber party at Shields Library! Students have occupied the library in protest of cuts that will reduce services. In a very different approach to last fall’s protest in Mrak Hall, this one comes with the full support of the Chancellor and Provost. Library staff have volunteered to work at the library to provide minimal assistance. I wonder if there will be midnight cocoa runs, ghost stories, and strange dreams…
4 February 10
Weather Hound
You know you’ve become a serious weather hound when of the eight bookmarks in your browser toolbar, seven are weather-related. This phase of mine follows on to my aviation tack of the past month or two, meteorology being the first cousin to travel through the air.
We’re getting a nice little storm right now — the rain starting this afternoon and expecting to last until the middle of Saturday. California weather seems pretty simple though; just watch those cyclonic systems come in eastward from the Pacific. I am much more mystified by the weather elsewhere in the country though. My officemate is heading on a big trip to Africa tomorrow, and was quite dismayed to learn that a major snowstorm is on its way to hit Washington D.C. tomorrow, through where he was scheduled to fly. (The flight has already been cancelled; he was working on rerouting the trip as I left this evening). Where did that storm come from? Why is it expected to be an epic one?
Time to get back to the meteorology texts. It’s not so easy though; there’s a dearth of textbooks on what actually goes into making weather forecasts (there are plenty of texts on physical theory, not so many on the actual practice). I’m nosing out some resources, though.
25 January 10
The Year 1282 in Computer Time
“Can I borrow Hermione?”[the ibook]
“Sure.”
…
“Are you done?”
“Not yet. Do you want to borrow this”
[A look of horror at the black thing running Ubuntu]
…
“Okay. Why doesn’t it work?”
“The concept of a three-button mouse is anathema to mac users, I know.”
“Why is it so slow?”
“This is why we need broadband.”
“Microsoft, begone.”
“Apple, begone.”
Grrr.
24 January 10
Crows Overhead, Skies Are Gray
Today was the second annual UC Davis winter bird count; we did a sector of campus centered around the Wildlife Health Center where Pica works. The best birds were a bufflehead and a sharp-shinned hawk: Pica has a full list on Bird By Bird. It was overcast all morning with occasional sprinkles.
It’s been a good week for weather-watching, with a nice series of storms hitting California. We’ve logged 4.35 inches of rain here since Monday. I’m glad I bought a new pair of rain pants last weekend. I’ve been reading up on my meteorology, and found a great educational website yesterday for learning all about operational forecasting. This is the MetEd site (Meteorology Education and Training) site which is run by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. I spent several hours today working through their educational module on Skew-T diagrams, which are the graphs made to illustrate the data collected from weather balloon soundings.
21 January 10
Joyce While Spinning
I’ve started listening to Ulysses while working on some hand-dyed (not by me) merino wool. I’m planning fingering/sock weight. It’s beautiful at least in singles, we’ll see what it looks like plied.
I couldn’t get the second CD to work for some reason and am a thwarted Joycean. Loving the language, the exuberance.
It’s still raining.
17 January 10
River Otters In The Arb
We’re expecting three weeks or so of solid rain so we decided to go for a walk this morning out to the UC Davis Arboretum before the deluge hit. We saw a few new birds for the year (green heron, orange-crowned warbler…) but the big excitement was seeing a couple of river otters in the Arboretum waterway! Pica had heard that they were around several weeks ago but received no subsequent news about them. The waterway is a closed body of water so the mystery is how did they disperse into it — probably taking a sneaky path from Putah Creek following any number of culverts. We saw the otters working their way along the north side of the waterway: they were mostly underwater but we could spot their wake and air bubbles. The best view was after they had ducked into one of the storm culverts on the side of the waterway. One of them poked their head forward, and we had a clear view of his muzzle and whiskers! There is plenty of carp for them to eat, so we hope they stick around.
15 January 10
Day Three and Counting
On Tuesday I was making a mid-day run to the Coop. I don’t really listen to NPR except when I’m in the car. It’s a random thing, really.
This week’s random thing was a woman called Michelle Singletary whose idea is to undertake a 21-day financial fast. No plastic, no credit cards, no debit cards. Cash only, and that to be spent only on essentials: food and meds.
I’m not sure if spending $435 at the vet’s counts, but I haven’t done more than whip out $7 for some aspirins for a coworker today that was promptly reimbursed. Lots of cooking at home. Watch out, I might even bake bread.
After 21 days the task is to keep a financial journal for 30….
ETA: the first big test: wanting to donate more than the amount I already have for earthquake relief in Haiti by buying a knitting pattern. Non-knitters, you’d be blown away by how much cash is being raised by the knitting community, particularly Tricoteuses Sans Frontières… well over $57,000 in 72 hours.