the batcave

well...that whole "i'm posting tonight about my garden" was a lie.  what can i say, it's waldsee!  which means i have no time to shower, let alone write a blog entry!

but since i am now working at salolampi (the finnish language village) i have a little time.  but not a lot!  so for now, here are some pictures to tide you over. 

and since i've been promising garden pictures for months, here are a few.  :)

JUST SO YOU KNOW:

i am posting about my garten tonight.  :)

stay tuned!!

well, crawly THING, actually.

our story begins with our heroine (me), peacefully asleep in bed.  usually i wake up to the sound of my cell phone alarm, and then hit the snooze button anywhere up to 6 times.  not this morning, however.  i was awakened by the oh-so-pleasant feeling of something CRAWLING UP MY CHEST.  little tiny tickly feet prancing over my sternum.  now, i am a pretty non-squeamish person, and having spent all my summers in northern minnesota where woodticks run rampant, i am fairly well-adjusted to little tick feet.  but there is still snow on the ground (thanks to two blizzards in the last two weeks), and therefore the possibility of it being a tick was fairly slim.  i was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, however, as i'd heard just last week that ticks were already being found on dogs.  so i lifted up the covers and looked down.  with my sleepy non-contact-adjusted vision, it did indeed look like a generic woodtick, so i picked it off and placed it on my pillow for safe keeping so i could get a piece of tape to stick it to.  (for all you non-minnesota folk, if you find a tick that may have bitten you it's general practice to keep it in case you develop limes disease so they can test the tick.)  after i placed it on my pillow however, it was considerably closer to my eyes and it was then that i noticed that it had CLAWS. 

yes, i said claws.  and no, i was not still dreaming.  you want proof?  here is a picture.

IMG_0844

SEE????

now, woodticks and even deerticks i can handle with no problem.  but this freaky clawed beastie crawling on  my pillow inches from my face was a bit much even for me.  but i did not scream or shriek, although i will admit to exclaiming "what the HELL?!?!"  at a low volume.  i made the instant decision to keep it for identification (anyone who reads my sister's blog will know that this urge runs in my family), and then had to make a frantic once-over of my room to find a sufficient storage container.  the only thing within reach was my little burt's bees chapstick tin, so i took the cover off and scooped the mutant tick into it, and popped the tin shut.  perfect, all mutants safely contained in nice-smelling salve.  now i allowed myself the luxury of a shudder.  i checked the bedding for any other mutants, and after determining that the prisoner was the only one, i stripped off my sheets and jumped into the shower in an attempt to get the feeling of tiny crawling ghost feet off my skin. 

so what to do with it now?  i decided to ask one of the nurses at lunch if she had any idea what it might be.  i casually sauntered up to her and started my story off, and when i got to the part about the claws, she said "WHAT??" in a shocked enough voice that revealed that she had not ever heard of anything even remotely like it.  but she told me to bring it by after lunch, and we'd see if we could figure out what it was.  so i did.  i brought the tin to the health center and tipped the mutant out onto the table.  i was satisfied to hear both of the nurses shriek and say "oh my god!!"  we watched it crawling around on the table for a little while, and took some pictures (one of which you've already seen) with a dime for scale.  here are a few more:

IMG_0838

IMG_0846

i was adamant that it was NOT a tick.  i know ticks.  besides, upon closer examination, we realized it had eight legs AND two claws.  we decided our best chance for identification was good old google, so we did a preliminary search for "ticks", and determined that it wasn't any of those.  our second search was "ticks with claws" and lo and behold!  the very first result was exactly what we needed.  up came a page called what's that bug? and there we tons of pictures of my little beastie!! 

turns out, i had caught myself a pseudoscorpion.  they are harmless to humans, and eat other bugs such as mites, ants, small flies, and clothes moth and carpet beetle larvae.  they are found worldwide.  but not ever again in my bed, i hope.

ok, for some reason or another, all of these videos have come up in the last few days, so i'll post them all together for your enjoyment.

first, the original.
 

finally, the bollywood version.

what a strange world we live in!!

well, we had april blizzards, anyway.  between eleven o'clock on saturday evening and midnight last night, we got about 20 inches of snow.  it was absolutely gorgeous!  but i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  :)

Waldsee im schnee

Waldschnee

Me im schnee

Igloo

and here's what the woods look like where i live.

Snowy path

so.  for those of you that don't know, i'm in the process of applying for a work visa to new zealand so i can go back and live with my partner, an awesome kiwi guy who thinks his blog name should be something fantastically cool like superpyroman, but will in actuality be called gizmo.  unless he convinces me to change my mind.  which is entirely possible.  for the time being, however, gizmo it is.

ANYWAY.

the work visa application process is a BITCH, to put it mildly.  at least the one i am applying for is "free" (not counting indirect fees, like paying to get my fingerprints taken and have my record checked by the fbi, for example), unlike the residency application, whose base cost is us$1000.  so i'm starting at the cheaper end of the spectrum.  the cost rose significantly today, though, when i went to the doctor to get my "medical and chest x-ray certificate" (yes, CHEST X-RAY) completed.  i'll say this for the kiwis, they want to be damn sure you are a healthy bugger before they let you into their country!  the doctor who was examining me kept remarking on how surprised he was at the extent of  information they require.  like when he had to sign a photograph of me saying that yes that WAS me, and then had to witness me sign the health form.  all of the technicians and nurses had to witness that it was me signing all this stuff, too.  three pictures required doctors' autographs!!  the examining doctor, the radiologist (for those chest x-rays), and the lab technician.  yes, lab technician.  i had to pee in a cup AND have blood drawn. 

you know what the worst part is?  i'm not even guaranteed to get a visa after all this!! 

i'm too irritated to post pictures today.  besides, the only thing worth photographing is my arm with its little tape-and-gauze bandage, and no-one really wants to see that.

i have started a vegetable garden.

my previous attempts at growing things involved an ill-fated trip to target to buy a fern in the middle of winter for my shoebox dormroom freshman year at st. olaf.  it died by the time i had carried it to the car.  no joke. so why, you ask, would you EVER think it a good idea to start something as complex as a vegetable garden??

well, most of the impetus came from this book, which i recently read.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Barbara Kingsolver

she had inspired me to start my own garden with in the first three pages of the book, and that urge just got stronger and stronger as the book progressed.  (if you haven't read this book, by the way, you are missing out in a HUGE way.  she will absolutely change the way you ever think about food again.  in a positive way.)  i am also currently working at the concordia language villages in bemidji, mn, and since they volunteered to PAY for the whole project, i figured that now is the time to start!  so i am.

it is entirely possible that everything i plant now will just die out of fear for being in my care, but so far, everything is GREAT!  i bought all the seeds from seed savers.  it was very very difficult to pick which ones i wanted, but in the end, i chose a few different tomatoes, some peppers, dill, oregano, thyme, mint, radishes, lettuce, scarlet runner beans, five color chard, and midget melons.  i started the planting last thursday, and by monday they already started to grow!  look look look!!

Moonglow tomato

Thyme

Purple basil

aren't they beautiful??  i went to check on them again today, and even more have come up.  i guess they love being on the biohaus floor, right next to the giant south-facing windows.  plenty of sunlight there!  look at this gorgeous one.

Happy moonglow tomato sprout

i can't wait until my peppers decide to come up...should be any day now.  i'll keep you posted!   :)

DON'T JUDGE.

so some friends come over every tuesday and watch star trek.  when the french interns were still around (they're both on vacation) they'd come over on tuesday and knit, but since their departure, we've shifted focus to an even MORE geeky theme. 

and i love it.

in honor of star trek tuesday, here is a video to entertain you all.

yo. 

due to the occasional urging from my sister (tintenfisch) to start my very OWN blog instead of prowling around hers on a semi-obsessive regular basis, i have decided to cave to the familial pressure and start one.

so here it is.

it will take me a little while to get going, but since no-one knows about it ANYWAY (yet), no-one can get on my case.  except for tintenfisch.  which she probably will.

/wwVww\   <-- look, it's a bat!

(by the way, i like bats.)

(a lot.)

here's my tattoo, designed by aforementioned sister.

Battoo

i know, it's the coolest tattoo you're EVER seen.  :)