complete randomness

Yesterday it was 86 degrees; today it is 56.
Welcome to spring in Maryland.

I had a show this morning (what idiot authorizes Saturday morning shows? oh, yeah...) and it was the same one where i got a touch electrocuted yesterday. I'm glad that i had to do the Jacob's Ladder again right away cause if i'd had to wait more than 20 hours i might have really psyched myself out. I was so skittish about testing it before the show that TM Chris actually laughed at me at one point. Good news, though - it worked perfectly, just like the hundreds of other times i've done it and no alternating current entered my body.

This is one of the ugliest flowers i have ever seen.
It is huge and kinda impressive in its weirdness.
One of my dad's friends grows them in his cool butterfly garden.
I don't remember what it is called, but it goes to prove that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder because it is quite popular with insects.
Maybe it has UV markings that attracts them.
Did you know that some insects can see in the UV spectrum?
Science is awesome.

When i was trying to remember the name of that hideous brown flower i did a Google image search with the parameters "pitcher shaped flower brown with yellow veins" and pretty close to the top i got this:

Really, Google? Try again.

I do not understand single ply toilet paper.
You aren't saving money or conserving resources cause you have to use twice as much, so what is the point?

I really like red hair.
I don't have many friends who are natural redheads,
but yet several of them have redheaded babies, like this little miss of Oregon Francie's:

Genetics is fun.











There is a new location of Sofi's Crepes in Belvedere Square,

 so now you can grab some crepes before or after your movie at the Senator.
As you can see, TM Katie's flabber was pretty much gasted [awesome phrase stolen from Jim Butcher and reworked to fit my needs] by the size and deliciousness of her Original with Bacon.
I am a bit embarrassed to admit that i've never been to the Sofi's by the Charles Theater -a Baltimore tradition- so this was a new experience for me completely.
I ordered like this Florentine beauty

which was tasty and a homemade butterscotch one that was hands-down the most delicious dessert i have ever eaten, ever.
Just be warned that there is a delectable, piping hot lake of butterscotch waiting at the bottom of the crepe, waiting to explode all over your uniform.

We celebrated Dash's second birthday last weekend and Kate made this great cake.
Yes, the pan did all of the tricky mouse shaping, but she piped on all of those delicious buttercream stars. My hand is cramping just thinking about it.





I've spoken before about about crazy school mascots that we encounter in our travels. Recently we were at a little private school that were the Panthers. That isn't that unusual, but check out this painting:

Is that not the smuggest expression you have ever seen?
He is painted on the wall where we were performing.
I felt like he was judging me during the entire show and distinctly found me lacking.
Oh yeah, Mr High and Mighty Panther? Well, you're... you're two dimensional!

Finally, i understand that we are a litigious society so there are warning labels on everything, but should anyone have to be told that it is a bad idea to put a mechanical hamster on his or her head?

That is all for now.
Return to your regular programming.
Thank you.

...and never stops at all

When walking to my library there is a stretch without sidewalks, so you have to walk in the road. Today i spotted what looked like an interesting leaf from afar, but was actually a butterfly:

What are you doing in the road, Mr Butterfly?
It is dangerous out here.
Are you even alive?
There was a feeble wing flap as i took his picture and i spotted the tear in his wing. This butterfly was close to being an ex-butterfly, but i couldn't just leave him in the road to get squashed. As i picked him up, he went crazy with the flapping and thrashing, trying to escape. Even close to death, his will to live kicked in:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

I have always loved this famous Emily Dickinson poem. Many times you only see the first stanza quoted, but it is the finale that clinches my heart - you don't have to give hope anything but a place to live.
Hope lives in my heart.
It is one of my defining characteristics.
Right now times are hard for some of the folks i love the most in this world, but i cling to my hope and try to foster it in their hearts as well.

A tear in his wing
and missing three legs,
but i had to move the butterfly
to this tree
to give him a shot
just in case
he might survive.


It is who i am.

concentration

Look at this butterfly:

Do you see its proboscis slurping up yummy, yummy nectar?
How about that left antennae already checking out the next flower cell for more yummy, yummy nectar?
What you don't see is this butterfly anxiously flying away from the freaky giant with the huge pink flashing object that kept blinking and whirring and beeping.
That's because it was solely and completely focused on that nectar.
I have never seen anything like it.
It walked about a bit, but only to get to more nectar in another part of the flower. Nothing, nothing was going to break its concentration and determination about getting every molecule of nectar from this flower. No matter how close i got to this butterfly to take its picture, it was unfazed.
How close did i get you ask?
The above picture was taken without a zoom. I was able to get my sweet little point and shoot that close.
Also, that wasn't like a freak get-the-picture-in-one-perfect-second-and-it-flew-away kinda thing.
Nope, it was actually the last picture i took in a series of shots getting closer and closer to the butterfly.

With each of my movements, with each click of the shutter i expected it to flit away, but apparently i was unaware of just how serious this little guy was about nectar.
Amazing. I could use that level of concentration some days.

you're ugly, you smell and i want you dead

STINKBUGS! uuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!! Stupid freaking stinkbugs. It's not bad enough that they are spreading like a pestilence through corn fields? It's not bad enough that smell gross unless you kill them and then they smell worse? NOW they have to be conspiring to get into my house? I found several in between the screen and the first pane of my ancient windows. They hadn't made it into the bedroom yet, but two were just sitting in my living room. Mocking me. Taunting me. Being generally smelly. I don't have an aversion to most insect or other crawly, scabby or slimy things, but these guys freak me the heck out. Maybe it is because last weekend i went to take a sip of my Diet Dr Pepper and ended up with a stinkbug IN MY MOUTH instead. DDP was spit all over the wall and the hardwood floors and I could feel a split second of wriggling and the taste, the taste, the taste. If you think they smell bad, you can not even imagine the taste. No wonder these stupid things don't have any natural predators. BLECH!

Topsy-Turvy

Does it seem like I haven't been blogging as regularly?
Am I not home when you call?
 Has it been a while since you've seen me?
It's because it is SUMMER PROGRAMMING and the Nikiverse is topsy-turvey.
Since we do libraries in the summer and they want shows when families can attend, there are way more night and weekend shows.
How many more? you say.
 I just did a schedule where i am on 4 night shows in a row!
  Of course, I am understaffed, so some of these shows I have to do myself (though shout out to Stacey for sending her staff with me whenever she possibly can and to Erin for coming with me next week). This means that my normally hectic and chaotic schedule (if you could call it a schedule) is even MORE all-over-the-place then normal.
This makes for interesting sleeping and eating patterns.
 It also means I have made some interesting discoveries.
Recently I found a public park in Catonsville that i never knew existed. Mind you, i drive by the sign several times EVERY DAY. I knew the Senior Center and the ballfields were there, but apparently there is also a picnic area, a playground and a nature walk. Yesterday I was driving home from the gym when i decided to take a quick nature walk, just to see the condition of the trail. It is pretty nice, with multiple loops; some of it is cleared, some is packed, some is even paved. Nothing is marked, however, and i had a really fun time seeing how many blind turns i could make and still find my way out. I don't live in a particularly urban part of town, but it certainly isn't the country either. It was nice to find some forest to explore less than 2 miles from my house. I saw 2 big birds of prey (Jonah - larger than a peregrine, but slightly smaller than a red-tail; dark brown face and wings with a mottled tail) sitting on a branch together - i couldn't tell if they were about to rip each other's faces off, or if they were in love. There were these incredible damselflies (2 words you don't normally put together) who had bright iridescent green bodies and onyx-y black wings. I didn't have my camera (cause even I am not dedicated enough to take my camera to the gym), but will definitely be going back.
It is a crazy time right now, but it is nice that the craziness is making me look at things from a different perspective and discover treasures that have been right under my nose all along.