Scottobear: @BeaucoupKevin – http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/buzzaire.shtml not a coffee IV, but close! (via Twitter / Scottobear)

Restless night sleeping, accidentally booted Newt off the bed once, but he stuck with me throughout the night. BHK was restless too, but I didn’t leg-sweep her out. Pye visited briefly, but high-tailed it after the barest commotion. I dreamt that BHK and I were hunting animals, tagging them for reference, and re-releasing ‘em into the wild. A side effect of geocaching, perhaps?

Bugah & Neil went fishing – to no avail, as the water was too choppy.

Half day tomorrow! North Beach Fireworks are going to be something else!

via jwz – Search for Lonesome George mate is long shot

While scientists search for a mate for “Lonesome George” – the last known survivor of a species of Galapagos tortoise – some say the effort to fend off extinction may be in vain. Even if a mate is found, George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said.

“He has problems … he probably never saw a female and male of his own species reproducing,” said Swiss biologist Sveva Grigioni, who worked with George 13 years ago.

Grigioni, now back in Switzerland, said she could normally get tortoises to ejaculate within minutes, but spent months manually stimulating George and never extracted semen from him.

Age is not George’s problem. He is estimated at between 60 and 90 years old, and could live to be 200 and still reproduce, scientists say.

The visual differences in tortoises from different islands were among the features of the Galapagos that helped 19th Century British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution. Since then, the tortoises have been hunted by pirates for their meat and their habitat eaten away by goats introduced onto the islands. George, who weighs 198 pounds, was found on Pinta in 1971.

Reviewing Openads for the company’s ad server for the web. it seems pretty reputable and reliable, thus far.

Fire drill this morning was a welcome break in the day – cool outside, everyone seemed laid back and calm – helped move the rest of the time that much more rapidly. the 2pm meeting went well… lots of good information for me to ruminate over the next few projects. I really dig that I’m in an environment that will allow me to use the skills I have! (Last gig wasn’t bad, but a lot of repetition. This time, there’s a lot of room for creative thought along with brute force.

Day closed with S’mores over a fire pit, some preview fireworks, and then Bugah and I played a bit of “Destroy All Humans”. Not a bad thing.

(via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

Scottobear: National Geographic TV is awesome. A lion just attacked a buffalo, who fought it off and then a lion ALMOST fought an alligator. AWESOME! (via Twitter / Scottobear)

We spent most of the day out and about, Geocaching with the Newsoms. They’re really into it, with a little over 100 finds in recent memory. It was fun tooling around a bit and seeing what’s what. I also dropped off tinkle pig in a cache… time for her to see the world. I retrieved a toy soldier cast from civil war bullets, who will ride with Bruce Moose and Gaytor until a suitable resting ground is found for him. The cemetary caches are almost always my fave – the woods were a hoot too, but ticks are a real fear for the kids, especially since Em was out sick just recently. (Heck, nobody wants lyme disease.)

A brief synopsis of Cache visits-

placed Hula Wyvern (Travel Bug Dog Tag) in Little Southern Maryland School [visit log] placed “Wajima, Japan” Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug (Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug) in Little Southern Maryland School [visit log] found Little Southern Maryland School (Traditional Cache) [visit log] found Parkkin Cache (Traditional Cache) [visit log] found Flashover (Traditional Cache) [visit log] found Can you see the ghost?! Again! (Traditional Cache) [visit log] found Relaxation for Redlights (Traditional Cache) [visit log] found Book Worm (Traditional Cache) [visit log] found Time is the key (Traditional Cache) [visit log]

Aftwerwards, we took a quick pitstop at Aardvarks, had an ice cream and picked up kanoodle for BHK (I’m sure I’ll be playing it too.)

Spent a little more time puttering around Solomon’s Island, went to Stoneys for dinner. (their treat! yum!)

On the road between points, I got a call from my Mom, and it turns out that Bro isn’t in a work crew, but just a rehabilitation center. Taking classes, etc. Hopefully some of the lessons will stick, but if not, at least he’s out of circulation for a while.

After that, we paused at the Barker’s to water the Mom-in-Law’s plants, and to do a little dock-walking. I paused for a breather upstairs, but before I could get my nap on, Adam and Kendall showed up to say hi and to drop off some fireworks.

Man pummels vampire peacock

NEW YORK (AP) – A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a Burger King in New York City was beaten by a man who insisted it was a vampire.

Animal control officials in Staten Island say the bird was beaten so fiercely that most of its tail feathers fell out and it had to be euthanized.

The seven-year-old male peacock wandered into the restaurant parking lot and perched on a car hood last week. Charmed employees had been feeding it bread when the man appeared.

A restaurant worker says the man grabbed the bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started stomping it. She says when he was asked what he was doing, he responded, “‘I’m killing a vampire!”’

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them.

(via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

8898 – Saturday

Took care of bills and had a nap while BHK ran to the store for last minute provisions – guest feeding is important. I was really bushed after last week’s Danny-visit, and was needing the makeup sleep.

Misc cool stuff – Earth and Jupiter as seen from Mars picture and Desktop Tower Defense game. The latter is fairly addictive.

First major foray as a handyman-hubby looks to be repainting / doing some tile in the #1 bathroom. The former owner painted over wallpaper, and the steam heat of showering has slowly started to curl and peel… not to mention get a little bit of mildew underneath… time to peel it up, put down some grout and tile that bad boy. (After our guests leave – BHK and I will probably start next weekend.)

I wonder why so many people update their journals primarily when they’re annoyed – is it more cathartic to just get peeves out on paper (or on screen) than it is to write about more enjoyable pursuits? Maybe that’s why so many people kill off journals periodically, too.

I’m enjoying revver more than youtube… primarily because the compression isn’t as foul.

Newsoms got here without a hitch – it’s always good to see ‘em. The boys are planning on doing a little fishing while here, and the girls are looking forward to some non-fishing related fun.

Played some Godzilla Melee and Rampage with Bugah, who is always up for some city-stomping fun while other folks hung out. Good folks, nice times.

Tonight we had some hot dogs on the grill (giant ones BHK found, and some jumbo veggie-doggies for me), took a walk on the boardwalk and beach, picked up a bottle of wine or two and some chocolate, and returned home to play a little Hunter & Gatherers. Bugah won handily, despite saving his river-huts until near the very end. I think Carcassone H&G plays better with more than two players.

(via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

0702071012a.jpg, originally uploaded by scottobear.

fire drill… it was fun going *DOWN* 11 flights. thank goodness we can take the elevator back up! Nice morning for it.. cool outside, maybe 72F. Beats summertime noon.

(via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

todays harvest, originally uploaded by scottobear.

MASSIVE CuKe zuch & pepper harvest!