Hybridization in Unexpected Places

Today I went to Smith's (why? you may ask--the answer is because I happen to enjoy/need food, unlike some people out there {I don't actually know whom I mean by that comment}) As I got out of my car I heard a cat meowing. I thought it odd, I was after all in a large square of asphalt covered with metal boxes sitting on rubber (occasionally known as a "parking lot") I looked around. Then I heard meowing again--from above me (which is odd, in case you didn't know cats are land mammals). So I looked up and saw a large white bird (a "seagull"). The bird opened its mouth and meowed. I'm not kidding! It MEOWED, and absolutely made my day.

Meowing seagulls. I know hybridization is really in just now, to make all sorts of funky fruits (such as the peach-alope, mango-berry, banapple, and who knows what else) But I was simply not expecting it in the local wildlife. Pah.

This is how you know God loves you.

You find a picture such as this completely unlooked for and unexpected.

And for the more learned of humanity, they would notice that they are all staring at The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali--and everyone at the museum honors Dali by mocking his confusing and ridiculous facial hair. Damn those humanities classes. They give the painting sense.

This weekend I encountered a very old and cranky vacuum and was actually there as it combusted.

I was part of the team that sanitized my grandparents house for the new renters. My mom said she had the vacuum fixed, so I began to use it on the varying lengths of shag carpet that covers a vast expanse of the house's floor.

In the dining room (that's right folks, in the dining room) this vacuum began to complain quite a bit. Naturally I was a bit miffed, I mean this vacuum was old school, as in it used knobs instead of buttons, made of metal and thick fabric (no plastic), and weighed significantly, so I was thinking, Oh give it a rest--it's not like you're making this easy on me.

Mr. Vacuum heard my thoughts and started to really speak quite profusely, changing in pitch, speed, and volume. It was all quite interesting. But you see, I don't speak vacuumise, so I didn't know how to respond. Then all of a sudden he gave one last final startling POP.

I turned it off, afraid it was going to eat me, and flipped it over. It was literally smoking. And I thought, but it's a vacuum. Evidence of the damage were the shards and pieces of its inside falling out (most of it glass--what?). Also randomly a giant magnet was stuck to his underside holding on to various needles, pins, and screws.

Moral: You can't send out and fix old age crankiness, even in vacuums.

Corfe Castle

HOLY COW!

I was doing some family history and I found a noble that I'm related to, and guess what? He lived in a castle!!! Guess what else? This is the castle. IT'S STILL THERE!!

Guess where I'm going when I get to England. That's right, to claim back the family lands.