Mid-Levels Escalators

I just got back from a conference in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a neat city. It is built into the side of a moutain, so in order to get to many places you have to climb a hill. But there are a couple places that have a series of escalators that will get you up the hill and one of them was near the hotel that I stayed at. You can see a bunch of covered escalators heading downhill in this picture. It was very convenient. The escalators go down in the morning to help the communters and then they go up the rest of the day.

Views from the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Other Day I Saw a Bear

Last week my parents were in town and we went on a little roadtrip to drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway. My one goal for the trip was to see a bear. Remarkably, my goal was accomplished on the first day! Silly, I'm not talking about that bear! I'm talking about this bear (below). You can see him sitting right in front of the green garbage kwan. We were able to get a lot closer to him than this (in the car, of course), but this was the best shot that I got. At least you can tell that it is indeed a bear! We had some other great animal sightings that I will tell you about later. I feel pretty happy that we saw a bear. I think they are awesome!

The Colony

So I have a guilty secret and it has to do with a small colony of frozen bananas. I love bananas. They are probably my favorite fruit. However, I do not like them ripe. Once they start getting brown spots on them, I won't eat them. Instead of wasting them, I freeze them. The colony tends to multiply quite rapidly and I usually have a freezer full of them. I have set a goal to reduce the colony significantly, so many of my acquaintances here have received banana bread (courtesty of the colony).

Do Rabbits Like Cats?

People always ask me how the cats and rabbits get along with each other. I think these pictures speak for themselves. Kipling likes to sleep in the rabbit condo on the top shelf. I have to leave the top open otherwise he will jump on it and make it crash inward so that he can get in. The problem is that he isn't able to get out. So I just leave the top open.

P.S. Rabbit camp is going well. I think in another month or two the rabbits will be ready to share the condo. There has been much less fighting and aggressive behavior since we started rabbit camp. I feel very encouraged.

Infestation!

So I had an investation of cigarrette beetles in my pantry. My friend Pinchy and I have been noticing a few bugs in the pantry, and we didn't think too much of it. But we decided to clean them out. As Pinchy was cleaning the pantry, we came to realize that we had been totally infested! There were tons of the little bugs and they had gotten into many of the food products stored in cardboard containers, like oat bran, bread crumbs, and other grainy products. We had to throw away almost all of the food that wasn't sealed in cans or other hard containers. We had to spray to kill the bugs and vacuum tons of them up. It was a disaster! I was so glad that Pinchy was here to help! She was a lifesaver, especially given that I was also trying to work today!

Singing Sands

On the northeast coast of PEI, there is a special beach called the singing sands. If you kick the sand it makes a squeeky noise. It is because of high silica content in the sand. Here is a video of MBCB and Steve making the sand sing. Listen closely and you can hear it.