I’m not sure how many of you care about Chinese Folk art, but I have several videos that I took at the Wind from the Plateau, a performance held at the Koger Center here in Columbia.  Instead of making several posts, I am just going to shove all 12 of the videos I uploaded to YouTube. Enjoy!

I am sure I will have more of things like this to come in the new future.

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Here’s just a quick panorama showing the snow we got last Friday.

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Hrm . . . how did these ever slip by me?  Very good question.  Well, I suppose late is better than never, or so they say, right?

This isn’t the best picture of a dragonfly that I have taken, but I really did love his color.  I chased him around for  a good ten minutes before he decided to sit long enough for me to get this picture.  I tried getting closer, but he kept flittering away like I was scary or something.  The nerve of some dragonflies!

If it is purple, I might take a picture. If it is purple and happens to be a flower, I must take a picture.  This little flower reminds me of a picture I took at the Wanshi Botanical Garden in Xiamen, China, way back when, but it isn’t quite as frightening. Still pretty, though.

My camera may be awesome, but it wasn’t quite as awesome as I needed it to be in order to capture this little guy in complete focus.  There were a bunch of lizards out and about that day, but he seemed especially interested in the Canon I had hanging around my neck.  Had I not hear him scurrying underneath the leaves, I seriously doubt I would have ever seen him.  He almost blends in perfectly with tree.

Once upon a time, I used to take pictures of benches, and I had this crazy idea that I was going to make a coffee table book entitled, Bitch’n Benches and Some Pretty Flowers.  Like many of my ideas, he never took off, and I never made my coffee table book.  I still take pictures of benches, though, just in case.

Even though spiders freak me out, I love taking pictures of them.  I love looking at and admiring them, but the instance they touch me – all bets are off!  I have an awful habit of getting too close when I try to use my macro lens. On more than one occasion my lens has touched the spider or the web, and well, I might as well have petted them when that happens because I always instantly transform into Little Miss Muffet and start screaming as I aim for the hills.  Spiders are beautiful, but I hate each of the eight freaky legs!

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Quantum is a very inquisitive, destructive beast.  You have to watch him very carefully when he’s out if his cage.  If it can be chewed, he chews it.  He has more or less destroyed each and every one of our books on our bookshelf, especially if it has anything to do with China. You should see what he has done to my purple folder that contains a lot miscellaneous paperwork from when we were teachers in China.  It doesn’t even look like a folder anymore.  I don’t know why he likes to chew so much.  I don’t think Countess chews like he does.  Maybe it is a guy thing or something.

He also likes to grab things and take off with them, too.  I constantly find things that he has hidden in the couch.  One day, I found a USB device that he had taken.  Sometimes he really reminds me of a monkey, especially when he throws his food around.  He is such a silly guy.

The following video is of craptastic quality, but what can you expect of any camera in a dim room?  Because Quantum and Countess are nocturnal, we have to keep the lights turned down low.  We don’t want to hurt their eyes.  Also, a portion of the video is upside down.  I didn’t know it was filming like that when I first picked up the iPhone.  And lastly, sorry for the expletive that Phil uses.  You would probably yell too if a Sugar Glider clamped down on your finger.  They may have little teeth, but it hurts like the dickens!

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Well, the seeds have been planted, and now we wait.

This year we decided to only plant 72 seeds – a mix of green peppers, summer squash, grape tomatoes, better boy tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans.  Last year we planted a mix of something like 300 seeds, and since I thought they all had feelings, I couldn’t bring myself to up root and kill them, so I ended up planting them all.  I didn’t have a garden – I had a farm!

I thought I was being a little too sensitive until I saw a Mythbuster’s episode where they tried to prove that plants did have feelings.  Some of their tests included yelling at the plants, blasting loud annoying music, and directing bad thoughts at the plants.  On the flip side, they talked sweetly to the plants, played soft, soothing music, and thought only good things about the plants. They couldn’t prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that plants had feelings, but their results did deem it plausible.  Maybe I just watched too much Fern Gully as a kid.

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I was taking pictures of the wildlife at a pond not too far from my house the other day when a young boy approached me on his bike.  He looked about five years old – give or take a year.  When he started talking, I thought he was talking to himself, but soon realized he was talking to me.  I know kids can sometimes say some pretty crazy and funny things, but I was totally not expecting what came out of this kid’s mouth.

As he rolled toward me on his training wheels, the kid looks at me and says, “I just got this bike on Sunday, and I’m already a professional.”

I looked at him for a second with a blank expression.  I had to repeat what he said to me a few times.  And then I laughed.

Where does a kid get that sort of language?  Did I say funny things like that when I was five?

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Quantum is slowly getting used to Phil and me.   I can now take some videos of him without him crabbing like crazy and trying to run away.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a video of him gliding soon. He can’t glide that far because he is still technically a baby, but he is slowly getting more brave.  Enjoy the videos.

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Last week, an applicant walked into work.  He had been in a few days earlier trying to find a job.  Regrettably, we didn’t have any positions that he qualified for – like a lot of people.  With the economy the way it is, there aren’t near as many jobs available as there used to be.  I thought that he may be coming back to see if any new positions had become available, but that turned out not to be the case.  Instead of using our computers to surf for jobs, he took out his wallet and handed me a folded up piece of paper.  “I wanted you to have this,” he said.  It was a poem he had written.  Why he wanted me to have it, I don’t know, but I thought I would share it with you guys – misspellings and all.

Determation

life hasn’t been good

with god’s leadership u have hope

u have the ability, determation and willingness

in spite of the odds

i’m here and willing to help anyway possible

i don’t promise it’ll be easy

i know u can find joy, happiness and freedom

with hope and faith u will suceed

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Quantum chilling on my arm.

Quantum chilling on my shoulder.

Quantum sleeping in my hand.

Quantum thinking about attacking the camera.

Quantum hiding his face with his tail.

Quantum being cute.

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This is going to be a teaser post because I don’t want to reveal what exactly we have done until I have pictures.

On Sunday, Phil woke me up bright and early at about 8:30 AM.  This is highly unusual because Phil loves to sleep all day.  Usually, it’s me asking him to get out of bed so that we can enjoy the day doing something outdoors.  And he hates me for it.  So, I guess he was just trying to give me a taste of my own medicine.  Well, anyway, half asleep, Phil informs me that I need to get up and get dressed because we are driving to Atlanta to get some lamb.  Why do we need to go all the way to Atlanta to get lamb, you ask?  There is a grocery store there called Super H Mart, and it sells all sorts of yummy, Asian goodness – food – not people.  Particularly, they sell thinly sliced lamb that we love.  We fell in love with it in China and it was by far our favorite dish.  When we last went to Atlanta in July, we bought several pounds of it.  Seven months later, our supply is nearly gone.  Since having no lamb in the house would make us unhappy, it seemed like a great idea.  An hour later, we were in the car and on our way to Atl.

30 minutes away from our destination, we came across the Pendergrass Flea Market.  The place is huge and I mean HUGE.  Phil had been there before, but since I hadn’t, he wanted to let me see it.  The place was a complete mad house.  There were people everywhere.  It took something like ten minutes to find a parking place!  Once inside we strolled around seeing if there was anything worth buying.  I really didn’t see anything, I never really do at flea markets, but Phil found a Playstation 1 controller that he needed.  Phil thought they had animals, so we walked around looking for any they might have. We didn’t see any at first.  As we were just about to leave I saw a sign with pets written in red, pointing down a hall way. I think it was the one area we hadn’t looked before giving up.  Why does that always seem to happen?

I’ll give you this much:

It’s cute.

It’s furry.

It’s about 9 weeks old and weighs about 1 oz.

It isn’t native to South Carolina or any state for that matter.

I’ve wanted once since I first saw them at an exotic pet show at Jamil Temple years and years ago.

He makes the strangest, but cutest sounds ever.

He’s nocturnal by nature.

And his name is Quantum.

And for the record, this was totally Phil’s idea.  I just gave him permission.

Can you guess what it is?  I’ll take some pictures of him soon.  He’s a little scared right now, and I don’t want my camera to cause him any more stress. I imagine that when he gets acquainted with his surroundings – he is going to become a regular on this little blog.  I hope you all like him as much as Phil and I do.

PS My boss said that I just need to get married and have a baby.  Whereas I am sure that would help with the need to have something to love at all times,  human babies aren’t furry and they don’t purr.

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