Daily Adventures

I've been waiting quite a while to get some bees. For the last several years I've been following the Boulder County Beekeepers' Association mailing list and getting all the news about swarms, equipment sales, and all kinds of things and last year I lucked into a very inexpensive setup. I thought I'd also lucked into an established colony, but they died off over the summer.

So this winter I resolved to just order myself a package. I am also now on the hot line to assist with swarms, but I wanted a guarantee. So I bought a package. It arrived on Tuesday, and our weather has been crazy lately, so we arrived to get them at a house where snow blanketed everything all around, and I was warned that I wasn't supposed to install the ladies until it was at least 50 degrees outside.

( And so I did! )

Holidays are mostly over. Jet goes back to school tomorrow. Life may resume a more modest pace.

Please.

I don't think I've been doing much, but, as usual, when I look at it I do a *headdesk*. Since we got home from Taos, we've mostly been cleaning up the house so that the cleaners could come today and not wade about in a morass of wrapping paper, flung toys, and snow gear. We've been playing with our toys and eating food and exercising. The snow is falling again, and I had fun digging out the sidewalk and driveway. It's a good workout.

We all got H1N1 flu shots as the local clinic was in good supply, and at $10 a pop it didn't hurt even if we thought we'd gotten it. I've been riding the bike like a good girl and watching Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2 (the Innocence). The Innocence was clearly an art-flick, and the number of aphorisms was astonishing, and I loved learning that they got a *Chinese* calligraphy master to do the poetry.

My dad's a linguist of some 60 years study, since he was born in China, and lived most of his young adult life, there, his first language is still a dialect of Fukanese (Taiwanese) first, and then Mandarin. During our trip home, he expounded some on his theories about the difference between the written language of China and those of Europe.

( Read more... )

Random quotes I want to keep somewhere....

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

She said she cried every day.
Not because she was sad,
But because everything was so beautiful
And life was so short.

-- Seen on a greeting card.

Jet, while explaining his version of a particular game in the Klutz board game book: "These two pieces are Pennsylvanias. They throw pencils at people."

"Ouch. That would hurt." says Dad.

"Well, it's chess." says Jet as if that explains all types of violence, and... well... maybe it does...

"And Pennsylvania does NOT mean that everyone there throws pencils at one another." says Dad.

"Yes it does." says Jet, firmly.