At Random

• What is happening today? The sun is not shining in Denver. I filled up my gas tank at $1.96 a gallon. I think the apocalypse is coming!
• I love love love my job (at the Butterfly Pavilion)! It's so awesome to be doing fulfilling work that actually uses my undergraduate training. Today I gave a program for a group of K-5th graders in a childcare program run by a local public school. There was no school for students today. They were attentive and smart, knowing words like biodiversity and omnivore, loved playing the jeopardy style game I had, and asked great questions about the insects I'd brought along. All but one of them wanted to hold the tarantula. All my fears about them being hyper when they didn't have school were unnecessary. Their teacher held the tarantula. They all thanked me for coming and I left grinning. I was made for this job, I think.
• Going along with waxing prolific about my adoration for my job, I had a great time at my after school program this past Friday. The kids got to build their own insects out of pipe cleaners, clay, feathers, googly eyes, and more. They loved it! They each wanted to show me their creation, and they were just so cute and enthusiastic! It's also incredible to me (coming from the world of junior high and high schoolers) that I can very easily get a room full of 7 and 8 year olds to sing a silly song with me about the parts of an insect. 
• You should all go read Sweet Juniper's latest post on an abandoned Detroit neighborhood. He writes so well about the problems of this now desolate, once booming urban city.
• This weekend I went to a big horn sheep festival...saw a number of male big horns, but none of them were headbutting. It was still really great to see them in their natural habitat and learn more about them from the volunteers.
• I've really been enjoying my new spicy rooibos tea. While it's not actually that cold here (yet), it still hits the spot on a dark evening.
• That's all from me for now...I'm looking forward to the rest of my very easy, not very full of work week: 3 days at Parsley and just my after school program on Friday.