Dance, Snowball, Dance!

Wow -- two posts in two days! If you didn't read about our very old oak tree, check out yesterday's post.

Anyway, I heard this story on Talk of the Nation Science Friday and had to look at the video. Apparently, Snowball was a youtube sensation, but I missed it (of course). Some scientists didn't, though, and decided to find out if Snowball was really dancing by changing the tempo of the music.


You can see the video results and read the rest of the TOTN Science Friday story here.

Old Oak

We've always wondered how old the big White Oak tree behind our house could be. Today I measured the circumference and, based on this chart, the oak is about 275 years old! That means that it was probably started from an acorn dropped or buried by a squirrel in the 1730s. Here's a picture of it (to give you an idea of its size, the swing attached to it is a 2-person swing -- about 3 feet wide).

Pictures from Florida

I've finally put together a slideshow of pictures from our trip to Florida. They're mainly pictures of birds taken at Corkscrew Swamp and pictures of our afternoon at the Everglades. If you're not into birds and alligators, you might be bored, but check them out anyway!

Thanks for visiting!

For those of you who think I'm a weird trekkie, here is a couple who put me to shame! By the way, the new movie opens on May 8 . . . 54 days (but who's counting).

News from Florida

Well, we're down in Naples. Actually, we're in Bonita Springs in a condo with a lovely view of the gulf -- we're about a block away. When the traffic noise dies down we can even hear the waves.

Last night we had dinner with some old friends -- Robin & Bob -- from Illinois and it was so good to see them! We were REALLY close to Robin when we lived in Crystal Lake and her son John & Danny were great friends, but we'd all lost touch somehow over the 14 years we've been in Michigan. We didn't even know that she'd relocated to Florida. We reconnected through Facebook just a few weeks ago.

We had such a good time last night -- it was like we'd never been apart! I know we could have sat & talked for hours. Reconnecting and spending time with her was just the lift I needed. We got a chance to get to know Bob better, too -- they married 6 or 7 years ago, after we had moved.

The only bad thing about catching up with old friends is that you miss them that much more and we're now about 1000 miles apart instead of a few hundred! We'll be sure to keep in touch from now on.

I remember all the gloom and doom predictions of how computers would isolate people and render them incapable of relationships, but I have found that (at least in my case) computer networking has fostered relationships and made it easier for me to keep in touch with people I care about.

Happy Square Root Day!

Have a great day & party like it's 3-3-09! There won't be another square root day until 4-4-16.

I saw a bumper sticker I liked the other day -- on a car with a big shaggy dog in the back. It was just a small oval that said "Wag more, Bark less". I need to hear that these days.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should be very logical in handling our money. . .I think he's a Vulcan.Live Long and Prosper!