Oops... Hi!

I have been on this embroidery painting kick.
Right now I am doing a 3-D snake with scales...
Pics later...
But you know me- *or maybe not?* along this vein:


(This is something I did in photoshop a few years ago- I took the photo of the skull in
Paris' Natural History Museum.)




It's been a wee bit since I've been on here...
I thought I would update that I was a Jackalope for Halloween...!

Unfortunately I don't have pics of the full costume-

on me.


on Sheebie sister squee.


on Bill...

Good times.

I've also been drowning myself in Vampire books and movies.
When I get obsessed, I get obsessed. I literally am having a hard time watching or
reading anything that doesn't have a vampire in it somewheres. (granted, this is not
a new obsession)


My personal new fave- Book and Movie.
Night Watch



Near Dark... really one of the best Vampire bar scenes ever...


Lost Boys.


From Dusk till Dawn.


Gary Oldman is so hot.
Dracula.


Let the Right One In.


Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu.


yay!

09.09.09

Nine.


Granted this is usually a special celebratory time for me-
It is my birthday.
But...
this one is extra special:
I get the 9-9-09.
I am turning 27 which is divisible by 9 three times. and (2+7=9)
also: As my father pointed out it is the 252nd day of the year...
which is also divisible by 9 and (2+5+2=9!)
neat huh!

ENOUGH!
(This is really based off the Christian Calendar(Gregorian Calendar)... so *shrug*
In the Hebrew Calendar it is: 5769, Elul, 20
in Islamic Calendar it is: 1430 Ramadan, 19
in Persian calendar it is: 1388 Shahrivar, 18
and so on and so forth:
just go here:http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/

Fuckit. It is still really neat. Maybe I'll turn into a
Laotian Rock Rat or a Pumpkin.

I am going to the Bronx Zoo with Bob and Tash, and they can't say
anything while I squeak and gush about all the critters. Then more friends are coming over to eat things like Scallops and Artichokes and lemon butter.



Just sit back, relax...and enjoy.
*curtsy*

























yup... just about...




perfect.

Why Skunks and Artichokes?

Well...
since you asked.
There are things in this world that are highly misunderstood.
maybe even unlovable!
but with some time, one can learn to love even the ugly, unlovable, inedible
things in this world- and it become a passion to them.
Take Skunks and Artichokes- don't change them! Learn the beauty! Love!
YUMMY!
Here I illustrate:
SKUNKS:









What hated creatures! I know that they are smelly- trust me. I've had first hand experience with the other end. Had to smell that ALL up in my grandparents house last x-mas just cause one of her rat terriers had to bite and chase the skunk.
Still. it was okay. *we tried everything with the dog...tomato juice, bath, deskunk wash...*
Really- They are loving, cuddling, amazing and beautiful little animals. Sure, they'll spray your ass with something that will make you think for a LONG time if you threaten them or their family...
but shouldn't we all?

and here I present ARTICHOKES!:






Okay... It is a huge over grown thistle spikey plant...


but I bow deep and low to its yummy.
You can kill me, but not until I finish my artichoke.

Throw some lemon garlic butter on that!
(which intensifies the yummy on most things, period... For true.)



Also: My family used to catch dungeness crab in the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound in the Pacific North West. *where I lived before Brooklyn.*


My favorite meal by the way is still a crab and an artichoke. Period.
Has been since I was five.

You can love everything.... really.
I hated Cucumber and Papaya up until last year... Now I literally cant live without them!
You just have to find a "gateway drug" into understanding and lovin' something.

ie. Gazpacho, Greek cucumber salad and Kirby Cucumbers for me... and dried Papaya and Durian for loving Papaya...

Let us raise our glass of Ouzo *maybe you didn't add enough ice?* or Port *maybe you tried the Tawny one that tastes like prune juice?* or Tamarind juice (or whatever you are holding in your hand)
and let us toast the things we hate! and let us at least have an understanding and appreciation of them before we die.
Who knows?! You may even find your new favorite food/animal/thing.
and that is worth everything.

Poisonous Mammals

A few years ago, while looking up the Platypus, I discovered something I've never heard of-
that the males in this species actually have a poison spine located on the back hind legs.

Got me thinking... Are there any other poisonous Mammals?

There are!

First let us examine the Platypus.





These creatures are rather amazing- and quite possibly the weirdest animals we have right now on the planet!
They are a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal, that has the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, and otter-like webbed feet.
as Wikipedia notes:
Monotremes (see also echidna for the other species) are the only mammals known to have a sense of electroreception: they locate their prey in part by detecting electric fields generated by muscular contractions. The Platypus' electroreception is the most sensitive of any monotreme.

<sup>They are carnivorous, eating only insects and small creatures in their habitiat.

These critters hatch from eggs, and then raise their babies on milk- Though they lack nipples! The milk forms from glands on their bellies producing small pools of milk on their stomachs.
The female Platypus has two overies- but only one of the two is funtional.

The male Platypus has poisonous spines on it's hind legs. (not deadly, but painful)

So what else in the Mammal kingdom is poisonous?
These little fellas deliver a painful *not deadly* poison bite:
(I realize coming from me- and my family's history with shrew jokes, this might seem like I am shitting you... but I am not!)</sup>

Eurasian water shrew:


Northern Short-tailed Shrew:


Southern Short-tailed Shrew & Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew
*which look too much like the Northern Short-tailed Shrew for me to delineate a photo...*

and last but not least!
The rare, the long snooted...
Solenodon!




There has been theory that poisonous mammals used to be more common and had more of an evolutionary need... But these little ones are the last of their kind.

Bite bite bite bite!
*and in the case of Platypus... kick kick kick!)