Thursday, July 16, 2009

Cover Every Detail

I am on BART, reading a book about petroleum refining over the shoulder of the guy sitting next to me. The chapter he's on right now is about simple distillation techniques, and includes a discussion of a moonshiner's still. There is a drawing of a rudimentary still, with wet rags for cooling at the appropriate spot. Also, a shotgun, for accuracy.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Now that's a tongue!




































I take a lot of pictures of butterflies and birds (and, OK, really lots of things - when I spent 10 days in Yellowstone & Grand Teton National parks last year with friends, I came home with about 650 pictures or something. And that doesn't count the ones I deleted before coming home. But I digress.)

Yesterday, Dawn and I were in the back yard with Zachary and a butterfly fluttered by and Dawn said I should get my camera. We wound up walking down the block with Zachary, and I got a chance to take a bunch of pictures of a couple of these butterflies at a neighbor's garden.I had the camera in auto-drive mode and took a lot of pictures, including several in a row at this point in which you can see the butterfly is feeding and then rolling its tongue back up...

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Somewhere Over Berkeley


Way up high, we were treated to a double rainbow (and I don't mean the ice cream) just before dusk Saturday... It was really cool, especially after the very odd rain. And then the sun started to set and the sky turned red but the rainbow was still there.