Saw this outside the house a few minutes ago. Random rainbow trivia: the ancient Greeks believed that the goddess Iris acted as a messenger to the gods and would travel along a rainbow to deliver her messages. I assume that tradition got passed on to the Romans because even today the Spanish word for rainbow is arco iris — Iris’ arch. Not often that I get to bust that little […]
A lot of people here in Central Texas believe we have only two seasons: Summer and Not Summer. It does feel that way. This morning the temperature dipped below 70 for the first time in months, and I overheard a little boy outside my children’s school complaining to his mother about the cold. He wanted a jacket. It’ll be 85 by afternoon, though, so he’ll be okay. We won’t be […]
I like carbonated fruit sodas. I like them in glass bottles. Hardly any sodas come in glass bottles anymore, and it’s a shame. Glass is a wonderful insulator. The soda comes out of the fridge so cold it has extra bite. These particular glass bottles have the added attraction of a very cool flip top. You pull the wire forward, and *pop* goes the ceramic stopper. (It has a rubber […]
Jeannette McCurdy was a checkered garter snake. She lived in our backyard until this morning, when she was discovered deceased on the neighbor’s driveway. Before her untimely demise, Jeannette looked something like this: She was a lovely little snake, with a nice yellow stripe down the middle of her back. She was about 10 inches long. We don’t think she made it to full adulthood. My children gathered with their […]
Every now and then I put in the DVD for a lecture series on discrete mathematics and watch one. I like discrete math because a) it’s not calculus and b) it’s all about patterns, so it’s like doing a puzzle. I can actually wrap my head around discrete math. It suits the regimented side of me. Anyway, today’s lecture started off about recognizing patterns in series of numbers added together. […]
Flabby Brain 