By now, everyone who is a subscriber should have Sirenai Digest #28, as it went out about 6 pm on Monday. The first part of yesterday was spent hammering down the last few nails, and then it went away to Gordon (thingunderthest) for vinyl siding (er...PDFing). Hope you like it. Comments would make me happy. And if you are not a subscriber, the part where it's too late to become one hasn't happened yet. Oh, and I cannot believe no one pointed out to me, after Saturday's entry, that "The Sphinx's Kiss" appeared in #27, and so obviously wouldn't be part of #28.

Yesterday, once the digest was out of my hands, became a much needed day off. A day off and out (even though it was cloudy and a bit chilly). Too much time spent sitting in the house lately. Too much time staring at the monitor. First, Spooky and I caught the 2 pm matinée of Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino's adaptation of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who, which we enjoyed a great deal. Jim Carrey may now stop apologizing for his part in the abominable 2000 adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. After the movie, we swung by The Fernbank Museum of Natural History, because we'd not yet seen the "In the Dark" exhibit. Nocturnal animals, subterranean animals, deep-sea animals, blindness, etc. Right up my alley. Sadly, the exhibit is very kiddy oriented, but there were still a few cool things for us ancient types. Two photos (behind the cut) from the Museum:





On the Solnhofen paving stones in the atrium, the Jurassic-aged sponge Tremadictyon.



"In the Dark," a diorama of a deep-sea vent, with giant tube worms, eelpouts, albino crabs, and rattails.



After the Museum, back home, I finished reading the article on Ennatosaurus tecton, and even made it through the rather frustrating phylogenetic analysis of the taxon. Then I read George R. Guffey's essay, "Aliens in the Supermarket: Science Fiction and Fantasy for 'Inquiring Minds'" (1987). And after dinner, well, I gorged Second Life rp in Toxia, during which time, among another things, I cleaned a tombstone with a scrub brush and finally met scarletboi's SL alter-ego (insert lesbian wolf-whistle here), who brought me the gift of lower-abdominal tentacles. I don't think I made it to bed until almost 5 ayem, which was stupid, yeah, and I'm paying for it today, but it was fun while it lasted. Somehow, I survived most of yesterday on nothing more than a cup of coffee and a handful of candied walnuts. Will wonders never cease?

Also, cdennismoore asks that eternal question, "Have you TRULY not been to Oxford Town?" No, I have not. Neither in England nor in New Jersey.

We may have found a house in Providence. Spooky and her mother are working on it, and I'm thinking what a huge relief it will be, to know where I'll be living come June.

And now, it's time to make the doughnuts...