Welcome to My Zoo

I currently live with six cats and two dogs. Poppy and Fairfax are doing fine; Fairfax is enjoying playing with his squeaky flower that Aunt Heather brought from the Wag Hotel in San Francisco, while Poppy enjoys sitting between the fan and the air conditioner, letting her fur blow in the breeze.

We are puppysitting Emma, a golden lab who looks like she's always smiling, and trapping a family of stray cats who move in under the abandoned car next door and are too cute to be left to their own devices. We've already been remiss; we should have contacted Forgotten Cats, the organization that is helping us trap, spay, and neuter them and get them a clean bill of health, when we noticed mom and dad living back there. But neither we nor our neighbor realized that--oops--we might end up with a litter of kittens. Now we are forking over $50 for each male cat and $60 for each female, which is a great deal considering the end result (healthier cats, no future cat colony, and better lives for the kittens), but it does put the price of compassion and conscientiousness at a rather high premium! As Superman likes to say, the things in life that make the most positive difference to others are often the most difficult. No one said having a guide dog puppy would be easy, and certainly nobody said having two would be simple, but we're managing. Same thing goes for the cats.

Hopefully, the kittens will be deemed adoptable and will go to great homes. Mom and Dad cat are probably going to be spayed/neutered and returned to the backyard--I doubt they are really adoptable, but we'll see. We'll have mouse cats, and they'll have a check-up, and we'll decrease the vast number of homeless cats by several litters, I'd imagine.

Life is good.

Another Post from the Super Science Teacher

I was in a Mountain View gem & rock shop today buying cheap fossils for our two-day "Fossils as Evidence for Evolution" activity--we have two days on fossils, two days on homologous structures (bones in coughed-up owl hairballs--they have to articulate the rodent skeletons), and two days on DNA evidence. Now my students will be well-equipped to argue the evidence for evolution!

One of my brainiacs quite anxiously asked if I was "required by the state of California to teach intelligent design" but I happily told him that the California Science Content Standards are actually based on science! He was relieved. Today I clarified to a Muslim student that I did not "believe" in evolution but that I accepted it as a scientific theory, not as a belief system. One of my Hindu students is totally happy to accept reincarnation as part of her belief system and evolution as a scientific theory. I look forward to having more discussions about the controversy! Last year I had a Christian student who refused to consider evolution whatsoever, but "agreed to learn the material for the test."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...a falcon family has taken up residence in the San Jose City Hall, and every middle school around is watching them on the UCSC/Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Group webcam. The city employees named the parent falcons Jose (for San Jose) and Clara (for our county, Santa Clara). The SCPBG hosted a chick naming contest, and our school sent in the names Cruz, Bella and Destiny. If we win, we get a visit from the SCPBG falcon expert armed with a falcon named Curtis. Since we are also studying the evolutionary morphology of bird beaks and Darwin's finches in particular, the webcam is a great part of our evolution unit. One day we tuned in on Jose using his beak to rip the heck out of a poor City Hall bird and regurgitate it for the chicks. The feast was viewed by my 3rd period, and 4th period caught sight of one of the chicks pooping quite visibly (in "an incredible trajectory," as I put it--they thought that was hilarious). The chicks took the rest of the day off and snoozed periods 5, 6 and 7.

On the big day when the SCPBG guy repelled down to band the chicks, they squawked in terror, and the parents dive-bombed the poor guy--fortunately for him, he was in a helmet and leather gloves. Their swooping shadows were caught on the webcam...

Farmer Supergirl Sings the Virtues of the First State

My favorite thing about Delaware is that I finally have the opportunity to do pretty much whatever I want, whenever I want. No teacher fatigue. No expensive rent. No car payments. It's reasonable to live here, and living can be done on one salary, and since we moved here for Superman's job, he's working, allowing me to build my writing business and save some money for us, but also affording me time to do more pro bono writing and editing work and take on new volunteer projects. I've also been able to fund our million-dollar cat's trips to the vet. Five tooth extractions here, an irritable bowel syndrome diagnosis there...

People are incredibly friendly here. If you go into a store, most proprieters enjoy it when you stay and chat for a bit. When I walk the dog, people stop to ask about the Guiding Eyes program and to pet him. At the ice rink where I skate on Tuesdays and Thursdays, people make a point to introduce themselves. I know every single person on the ice, at any given time.

On the farm, which is a real, working farm, where Superman's office is (in an old white farmhouse that is a designated historical building), it's quiet. You can sit on the lawn and gaze at the cows. Occasionally an Amtrak train barrels by, but it doesn't really shake the sense of peace that pervades that part of campus. I always enjoy being over there. Outside Townsend Hall, the main Ag School building, is a botanical garden and a vast lawn. We have puppy class there, and it's such a treat to get to be outside in such a beautiful place, especially now, when everything is flowering. The ice skating rinks are down that way as well, as is the outdoor pool, so I can sense that I'll be spending more time on South Campus this summer and fall.

I have now skated at both of UD's rinks and at The Pond. I have not set foot in The Pond's freestyle rink, where all the Olympians train, due to cost and intimidation, but I'll have to soon, to say I did it. I also have not met Johnny Weir, but I'm sure I will at some point.

My skating is improving. I can do a one-foot spin and am working on my Freestyle 3 change-foot spin, which involves spinning forward on the left foot, backward on the right foot, and forward on the left foot again. I notice that I get dizzy now when I spin. This is unfortunate. One of my skating buddies says, "It gets worse, the older you get." That's a bummer. I might be able to pull off a waltz jump (jumping from the left foot forward on the right foot and gliding backward) and a backward spiral soon, but I'm not holding my breath about any other jumps.

We are farming a 40'x40' plot of land down by Superman's office. We planted zucchini, squash, beet, bean, pea, lettuce, and melon seeds, and though everyone raised their eyebrows at that, we have sprouts, ladies and gentlemen! Next, we planted melon plants, tomato plants, and pepper plants, plus a bunch of marigolds, for their cuteness/protectiveness factors. We bribed our friend Jenn with future vegetables to help us, and Fairfax has been a frequent visitor to the garden. We met one of the two landscape design professors the last time we watered our plot, and now I am planning to take his classes in the fall. We're also growing tomatoes and peppers in our backyard. We have petunias, zinnias, snapdragons, and verbena in the flowerbed, and we seem to be vanquishing our poison ivy with some success. If the UD mowers would stop running over my little green fence, it might be easier to stay away from the poison ivy. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, and I'd just as soon not mow.

I heart Delaware. Come visit!

Wine and Jazz and Horse Races, Oh My!

We had the quintessential spring weekend in Delaware. Saturday, we went up to Longwood's first-ever, much-more-crowded-than-anticipated Wine and Jazz festival. The lilacs are blooming and the tulips are spectacular, so we admired the outdoor flowers and headed to Pierce's Park, where the DuPonts used to party in the summer, to taste some local wines. We had the opportunity to taste 22; we made it through 12 before the crowds got to us and we got hungry. Our conclusion was that the wines from the Brandywine Valley, closer to us than the other represented vineyards, were the best. Nice to have an excuse to visit a beautiful place and buy tasty local wine! It beats even the fantastic State Line Liquors as far as wine shopping goes (I'm not being sarcastic; for you Bay Area folks, State Line is like Beltramo's or K&L).

Sunday was Point to Point at Winterthur, a day of horse races, tailgating like I've never seen it done before, carriage parades, old Rolls Royces and Bentleys, and great hats. We joined neighbor Mike's tailgate, which involved awesome food, enthusiastic people, and a green VW bus (in which Fairfax is pictured). We were by far the most visible; even when Superman and I walked all the way around the horse track to see everything, we could still see the beacon of light that was the VW's brand-spanking-new yellow pop top in the distance. Today's Wilmington News Journal has a must-read article about Point to Point: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070507/NEWS/705070335/1006/NEWS.

Today, Fairfax is napping next to my desk, after a morning of insanity. Poppy is put out; this is usually her time to nap on the chair in my office. Ah, pets.

Off to do some work!

See Fairfax in Action!

Our neighbor, Mike, took these videos when we were playing with Wonder Dog in the backyard. Fairfax was new to the whole acting thing at first, but in the second take, proved himself to be worthy of an Oscar.

Fairfax the Wonder Dog

Fairfax continues to be adorable. He's very social; he came to Starbucks with me Monday morning and got frustrated when several passersby, fixated on getting coffee and getting to work, failed to pet him as they walked by. He loves living in a college town, where most people who see him do stop and give him lots of cuddles. People even stop their cars to tell us how cute he is. Poppy's not too sure about this whole thing. He sits when he sees her and wags his tail, hoping she knows he wants to play, but she just hisses and skulks past. She makes sure to sit on top of the furniture when they're in the same room, so she's higher up than he. We're having a great time; plans to acquire the next dog and cat are in the works!