Day Twenty-three: Sycamore

Identifying Trees

While eating lunch under a shade tree I remembered that I have a leaf collecting project I had to start working on. What better time then while I’m sitting under a tree. I remembered my class discussions and started with the basics. I look at the leaves, bark and height.

I matched the leaf shape in my field guide and the description matched what I was sitting underneath. Even better, the tree I was nomming away beneath is on my thirty-six long tree list. I nabbed a leaf and added it to my slowly growing collection.

I’m up to about six thanks to my hort friend who I spent just a few minutes with going over the list. Hopefully I will find more of my trees when he and I take a campus walkabout.

Day Twenty-two: Supah-Spy

My Stealth Photo

As I was walking out of the bathroom and back to my table at my favorite Japanese restaurant I got a creeper stare. The accidental locking of eyes when the other sensed movement in their peripheral was followed by a very awkward moment.

Dude at the bar stared at me as I walked back to my table, but he did it side of the eye without turning his head….As if I would notice his pupils tracking me. When I got back to my table I told my siblings what was up, they were unimpressed, but when my brother saw how disturbed I was by the guy he dared me to take a photo of him.

In this way, I would be returning the creeper move and regaining my ground. I did take up his dare, but not without the next two tables watching my un-spy-like movements of reaching my phone above the partition separating the bar and my table. I made several attempts ending in giggle fits of embarrassment, but finally I snapped a photo of the beer chugging, football watching creeper at the bar.

Other than staring he didn’t do any harm, but I’m still glad I have a photo proving that I too can be a creeper.

After dinner my group was standing outside chatting and I witnessed a guy taking the back exit of the restaurant so he could swipe a sake container. Just as the frat boy thought he was home-free one of the waitresses followed him out, spoke some stern yet calm words and she took the container back inside.

Point for the Japanese waitress. You should have known, drunken frat boy, you can’t pull a fast one on the people that invented ninjas.

Day Twenty-One: Creature of the Woods

Scale: small eye dropper bottle

This big guy was found out in the front yard by my nieces. They quickly acquired a large plastic creature container and introduced him to his new home. I could not believe how large he was, I had to snap a picture and put it online.

The friends on my social network were actively commenting and trying to be the first to identify it. My nieces waited by my side for updates. A friend of mine identified him as an Imperial Moth Caterpillar. Here’s a photo of what he will look like: http://schmidling.com/impmoth.jpg

Right now his name is Greenie Fatso and he resides in my living room. My sister and I are frightened we will wake up with him crawling on our faces one morning.