Michelle, one of my dearest childhood friends and I had a sleep over last night. True to a 25 year long trend. We stayed up too late pouring over children's books and listening to silly songs. This morning we baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for breakfast and played with watercolors at the kitchen table. The main difference between now and then seems to be that now we play on an iPad and have unsupervised use of the oven.
Murphy, todays featured dragon, spent his morning basking on a mound, enjoying the sunshine after a few rainy days. In the afternoon he walked into his sunroom for a nice view of some tourists, and after a quick walk through his yard for a photo op, he ate three yummy rats for dinner. After dinner he blew spit bubbles in his drool then went for a swim.
This behavior is remarkable because since he is used to being handled in the morning and fed in the afternoon, his vet was able to give him an x-ray one morning without sedating or restraining him.
Named after curator, Jim Murphy, he was born to the Miami Metro Zoo on 10/12/98. The last measurements record him as 8 ft long and 130 lbs.
Smithsonian National Zoo
Washington DC 10/7/11
I am exploring the National Library of Medicine in my free hour between friend visits today. I just had coffee with my friend, Mark, at AFRRI and right across the street is NIH. In the exhibit that opened yesterday, Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, I found this beaded stethoscope.
The sign next to the stethoscope reads:
“The beaded stethoscope symbolizes the integration of the traditional and Western medicine at the Native American Health Center, Oakland, CA. The four colors of the beads – red, yellow, white, black – are symbolic of the Medicine Wheel, that highlights a holistic approach to health and healing used by the Native American Health Center.”
To read more about this exhibit check out: www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices
National Library of Medicine
Bethesda, MD
10/6/11
I'm visiting my friend Julia in Virginia. While we cooked raspberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner, her fish, Happy, kept us company. He's very attentive and swims over and watches us while we cook. His little fish bowl with blue glass marbles sits on the counter of the breakfast bar, giving him an excellent vantage point for observing mammal feeding behavior.
Mom and I went exploring at the National Wildlife Visitor Center. Alongside the bank of Lake Redington we found perched on a lily pad a tiny brown frog. In the water there was a sea of floating lily pads, a scattering of them had glassy droplets of water on the surface. As we sat and visited our new little frog friend, a spider larger than he was walked over and joined him.
Fossil courtesy of Eugene at Hartstein Fossils.
Walkabout 