Amber & Absent Referents

Nick has been busy working on a project to help preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.  Since I have been to Alaska and like animals, I offered to help by contributing my exemplary dance skills and keen semiological talents to an interpretive dance to the presentation he was working on.



At this point, there are two main movements to the dance: "migratory birds" and "baby moose waking up in the spring."  I just developed a new "snowshoe hare in snow" move, but I need to make sure that they live in the area which my dance is representing. More to come.

Amber & Temple Grandin

While I was eating my vegetarian chili, I just read this really nice review of the new book Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals and then placed an order for it on Amazon. I love Temple Grandin as much as she loves animals, but maybe not as much as I love animals.


If you haven't heard about her, Temple is austic and has theorized that the experience of being austic is much like experiencing animal perceptions and emotions. I've read everything she has ever written (some things in bound proof form) and I take very seriously her opinions on how to make sure my cohabitating beasties have full, happy lives.

I can't wait to write a book review to share with you all.

Moo!

Amber & Kevin's Birf

Today is a very special day. It's Kevin's birthday. I met Kevin in an NYU dorm room in 1991. He was tall then and dancing on his chair in a stocking cap to the Pixies. He's changed alot, but at the same time not all. He's still incredibly special, giving, and tall.

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Even Pickles, who doesn't even know you, is super glad you were born.

(Pickles photo by James )

Amber & Walruses

I just read this fascinating article about Walruses in The New York Times. Turns out, beneath the three inches of blubber, these little buddies are pretty darn smart-- and cuddly! The scientist in the article refers to them as "pussycats." Apparently, they like it when you blow in their faces. In kittycats, that makes them swallow which is helpful when giving them meds.

Four things I learned from the article follow.

1. The whiskers are called vibrissae, and they use them to find food through the "seabed’s dark murk."

2. The walrus is the only living representative of the family Odobenidae, which means that they walk with their teeth. They use their tusks to pull themselves up out of the water onto icesheets.

3. Walruses can "sing nonstop for days at a time, and their songs can be heard up to 10 miles away. " (Maybe my next door neighbor with the loud music is really a walrus? Next time I see him, I'll blow in his face.)

4. A walrus eats a "huge numbers of bivalves, maybe 7,000 a day. " That's alot of clams.

Amber & Mooses

I am very disappointed this morning. The photography class that I wanted to send Jimmy to is sold out. It was going to be a Moose Adventure. From the class description...

For the past several years, each spring Michael Reichmann has traveled to Algonquin Provincial Park in North-Central Ontario, Canada, to photograph moose. In April and May the Moose come out of the deep woods to lick the salt used to keep the highway open during the winter. This means that on some days, there are as many as a dozen or more moose easily photographable from the highway. Some are at a distance, requiring the use of long lenses, while others can be so close that they walk across the road right in front of your car.

I love Mooses and Jimmy loves photography, so what could have been more perfect? He could go, and I could look at his photos afterward. Maybe next year.