Eighth of an Acre Bounty

Early this morning we wrapped up a whirlwind visit with my best friend from high school and her family.  She spent Thursday and Friday night with us along with her husband and five year old daughter. Thursday was a mellow day for the most part. A grocery trip (because we were not at all stocked ahead of time – crazy work week) and a quick stop to pick up the latest Harry Potter movie set the tone for the evening. It was nice to just sit around and catch up as the last time we had seen them was a bit over two years ago (and then just for a few hours).

Saturday morning we had decided to take a trip downtown to the Pacific Science Center. It has been years since either Gary or I had been there and I had heard tell of a butterfly house that had my interest piqued. We spent a solid 4 hours at the Science Center, I suspect some of the adults had as much fun as the little one. The butterfly house was way cool – a tropical haven in the middle of Seattle with a huge variety of butterflies flitting about. And then, on our way out I discovered the mole rat complex.

My fascination with mole rats came from years ago when Gary, myself and a good friend of ours were suffering from severe hangovers on a Sunday after a late-late night. This was back in the days of a service called Kozmo (now since defunct) which would deliver just about anything right to your door, including movies. We rented a movie called Fast, Cheap and Out of Control. A documentary about 4 different individuals with (seemingly) nothing in common. However, one of these men was an expert on the African Mole Rat and had dedicated his life (every part of it apparently) to mole rats. It was a loooooong and weird movie, only exacerbated by the state of our bodies. But something about the extended mole rat footage seems to have burned itself into my consciousness.

I had assumed that the extended footage I watched so many years ago was as close as I was ever going to get to a mole rat in real life. But there it was, a full mole rat complex with them scurrying through tubes and piled in naked little heaps in thier sleeping boxes. They moonwalk, and can move as fast backwards as they can forwards even though they are totally blind.

I know, i am probably killing any readers with the pictures since they are so creepy looking. Creepy but fascinating. The high point of the day!

My friends daughter met the chickens soon after arriving and quickly became enamoured with them. After hanging in the yard with them and hand feeding for a while she went back inside, broke out her craft kit and proceeded to make numerous golden eggs out of construction paper. I think we will find them hidden in corners for a while to come. It was very sweet.