Author: lis

This is the top of the ball popper. You haul on a rope, which lifts a bowling ball. When it drops, it causes a tennis ball to launch out of a tube and straight into the air, where it goes through several hoops before falling back down into a net, which funnels it back into the tube.

This is how my day started at 9:00, and this is what it looked like at 5:00. Thank god for the beautiful weather.

thanks, Doug. I love them.

for the rest of my life, if I come across these generic little squeeze bottles, they will make me think of Sense of Smell Day.

sometimes you see things that are probably supposed to be cute, but really they’re kind of creepy.

As these two are running down a dream, I hope they’re not running on empty, since pretty soon they’ll be running up that hill. I guess these two, and 26,000 more like them, were just born to run. 

Marathon Day is tomorrow, and apparently they start closing down the roads today. Made for a bit of an adventure running some errands today.

If the bug ladies are at work, it must be springtime!  I’ve been working with them for quite a few years now, and today they brought it this cool little mantis. Not to show visitors (it’s too small for public appearances yet) but to show me, because they knew I’d like him.

(Look at the mesh he’s on to get an idea of how small he is;
unfortunately, none of the shots I took with a dime for scale came out
very well.)

The Bean down jacket has been put away for the season. Now if only I could put away all my other cold-weather clothing…

This is a kotatsu. It has a metal grate on the underside of the table which heats up when plugged in.  Add a blanket tucked in under the top surface of the table and you’ve got yourself a cozy place to sit.  When the blanket is put away, you know the warm weather is on its way.