Random Monday afternoon things:

First: Reason 6,874 why I love being an academic biologist: I walked into the office to make some copies and there was a box in there that had been delivered for one of my colleagues. A box from an outfit called "Skulls Unlimited," which bills itself as "The World's Leading Supplier of Osteological Specimens."

It just makes me happy that there exists a company that calls itself "Skulls Unlimited." (Not that there are unfortunate creatures being turned INTO skulls, mind you - I prefer to believe that they all come from creatures that lived peacefully and died in their sleep - but that there's a place CALLED "Skulls Unlimited")

(They do say on their website: "We do not condone and will not support poaching of animals, nor do we approve of destroying an animal solely for the purpose of gaining an Osteological item. Our suppliers and their sources obtain Osteological material from natural & predator deaths, road kills, food source by-products in exotic regions, legal hunting & trapping operations, and from attrition in zoological gardens. You can be assured of and take comfort in knowing that your purchase conserve treasures and promote the ethical utilization of limited resources." So it's more okay with me - they're not raising up, say, moles, just for their skulls.)


My lastest shipment of yarn came. Sisik has a bird on the label! I guess "Sisik" is the name of that particular bird (it looks like a pine siskin to me but I'm not a big enough freak to bring in a label to show to the departmental ornithologist and ask him to identify what it is). I'm itching to start the gansey NOW that I have ENOUGH yarn to complete one in the size I want. But I'm going to wait. I'm going to finish my Christmas knitting first, and Fibonacci, and try to finish the big prairie shawl before I take on anything new.


I have a new favorite black tea. It's Adagio Tea's Candy Cane flavor (it's not one that comes up on the regular page; I had to search specifically for it).

I've had mint teas before but never a mint-flavored BLACK tea. (Plain mint tea - as in, herbal spearmint tea - is not my favorite. I still drink it occasionally when I want something hot but non-caffienated [and non-caloric] before bed. And for the supposed tummy-calming effects. And I tried a green mint tea from another company once that was frankly, kind of nasty, and I gave it away to someone who isn't a super-taster).

I bought the whole holiday sampler. So far, I've tried the candy cane, chestnut, and candy apple. The chestnut is good, and I want to try it with milk and sugar, because I think that would make it even better. I think I have to give the candy apple a second try before I can decide whether I like it or not. But I made a cup of the candy cane at lunch today and it's really, really good - the slight astringency of the tea sets off the candy cane flavor. I think they use a less intense mint in this tea than in some other mint teas, so it's not overpowering.

I packed up a bag of stuff - mainly research reading - to bring back this afternoon. And I stuck in the socks and the simple scarf I'm knitting on, to work on while I read (even though I now have less than an hour before my evening class). And I was reminded of an old, old skit from Sesame Street - this was one of the ones that was on when I was a child. Ernie was preparing to go down to the laundry room to do laundry. But of course, he couldn't just go down there with LAUNDRY, that would be boring. So he took some coloring books and crayons, and I think a book to read, and his Rubber Ducky, and a peanut butter sandwich in case he got hungry, and I think a sweater in case he got cold down there, and a bunch of other stuff - and in the end, there was no room in the laundry basket for laundry.

That always resonated with me because I am like that. I cannot travel light. Even on Saturday, going to the meetings, I had to have, in addition to my wallet and checkbook: a printout of the schedule, several maps to the place, written instructions on how to get there, my business card case full of cards (didn't give any out), tissues (still fighting allergies), aspirin, a folder of oily-face blotting papers, a pocketknife, AND the purple socks I am still knitting on. The only of these items I used were the maps. And a credit card to buy some gas. (I probably could have used one of the oily-face blotting papers - it's been unholy hot here for November - but I forgot I had them.)