Dude. Nature is awesome. (And so are collective nouns.)

Thanks to the internet, nature is really blowing my mind lately. [I am not unaware of the irony in that statement; I am simply choosing to ignore it.] Since I do not like to have my mind blown solo, I am sharing these discoveries with you. You're welcome. Prepare to be amazed.

So, yeah...this is sand.

What?! Sand, you say? I do say, and so does Dr. Gary Greenberg, the artist/scientist/magician who uses a fancy-pants microscope to take micro photos of individual grains of sand, among other things.

  I mean...really. Who knew? I am never going to look at the beach the same way.

You can see more of Dr. Greenberg's work, buy a book of the sand grain images, and order prints of his work on his website.

I like this next example of nature's awesomeness for two reasons. One  - The title of the video is Murmuration, which besides being fun to say, is the word for a flock of starlings.

This delights me because I am a nerd, and as a nerd, I like learning collective nouns. I blame my parents for reading us A Cache of Jewels and Other Collective Nouns when we were little. Who am I kidding? I loved that book and will definitely be reading it to my kids. In fact, I will probably treat them to all of the books in Ruth Heller's World of Language series (Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives, anyone?).

Thanks to this book, I know that a group of penguins is a parcel and when peacocks get together, its a muster. I don't recall, but I doubt Ms. Heller covers a murder of crows.

{How cute is that?}

Holy grammar tangent. Moving on...the second reason that I love this video is that it just shows nature being awesome. Apparently my verbal abilities have deteriorated to a level associated with your average pothead, I blame the aforementioned mind blowing. In all seriousness though, this is really breathtaking. I think I was literally holding my breath at the end. The video was shot by Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive on the River Shannon in Ireland.

                          

I have no idea how that girl managed to keep such a steady hand. I'm pretty sure that, had I been in her shoes, I would not have been contemplating the magnificent beauty of the natural world because this is all I would be able to see.

Gratitude

{Without the internet, I might never have seen this, and that would be tragic.}

                                                                                               Source: bayanjargal.com via Kate on Pinterest

As I did last year, I am going to use November as an opportunity to reflect on all of the many things I have to be thankful for. I remembered that I wanted to do this around midnight on November 1st, so I'm getting off to a late start, but that's pretty par for the course.

Because I'm getting off to a late start, I'm going to start of with an easy one. I'm thankful the internet. Occasionally I have fantasized about what it would have been like to live in days of yore, days when women wore flouncy dresses and men wore...hats, but the sartorial benefits would not be enough to make up for the lack of the internet.

The wonderful worldwide web makes my life infinitely easier, and the instant access to a seemingly unlimited supply of information satisfies my every curiosity. In addition to all its practical uses, the internet offers an endless supply of happy diversions, things that I wouldn't miss if they didn't cross my path but that inspire me or make me smile or make me nod my head in agreement. I've shared some of my favorite internet finds before, but there are just so many of them that I may have to make a habit of posting them from time to time.


So, without further ado, here are a few reasons that I am thankful for the internet:

*There are whole websites devoted to sharing pictures of interspecies friendship. It's almost too much...I mean...it's just...have you ever?

                                                                                              Source: animals-zone.com via Pinterest

{This is a cute story; you can read it here.}

                                                                                             Source: isuwannee.com via Pinterest

                                                                                     Source: bannedinhollywood.com via Pinterest

*It is full of like-minded people who validate my strong feelings about grammar.

                                                                                                    Source: google.com via Pinterest

                                                                                                      Source: polyvore.com via Pinterest

 (On a related note, there are many blogs dedicated to exposing rampant grammatical abuses. These include The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks and Apostrophe Catastrophe where I found the next three images. Knowing that I'm not the only who is constantly corrects signage makes me feel a little less alone.)

                                                                                          Source: unnecessaryquotes.com via Pinterest

                                                                                      Source: apostrophecatastrophes.com via Pinterest

                                                                                   Source: apostrophecatastrophes.com via Pinterest

*It provides a place for super-talented people to sell their wares to everyone without having to schlep to hundreds of craft fairs around the country. Seriously, I could lose hours on Etsy.

 

                                                                                                 Source: etsy.com via  Pinterest

                                                                                                 Source: etsy.com via  Pinterest

                                                                                                        Source: etsy.com via  Pinterest

                                                                                              Source: etsy.com via Kate on Pinterest

*There is never a shortage of crafty inspiration.
                 I saw this:

                                                                                                 Source: etsy.com via Pinterest

         
And then I made this:

           I saw this:

                                                                                              Source: cafemom.com via Pinterest

         
         And then I made this:

         
           I saw this:

                                                                                     Source: craftycpa.blogspot.com via Pinterest

         
          And then I made these:

          
        I came across this recently:

                                                                                         Source: witandwhistle.com via Pinterest

       
          And...I'm workin' on it.

 *It is an endless wellspring of inspiration, and it fills me up with ideas about...

  ---places I want to go

{Mammoth Cavern, Vietnam}

                                                                                 Source: ngm.nationalgeographic.com via Pinterest

       
---recipes I want to try

{roasted eggplant with tomato and mint}

                                                                                           Source: smittenkitchen.com via Pinterest

---gifts I want to wrap

                                                                                                Source: blogs.babble.com via Pinterest

---parties I want to throw

                                                                                            Source: marthastewart.com via Kate on Pinterest

    
Finally, without the internet, I would not have been instantly alerted to the fact that Kim Kardashian had filed for divorce. Ok, so maybe that's not exactly a point in the internet's favor...

                                                                                             Source: someecards.com via Katie on Pinterest

In all seriousness, I could go on and on. Clearly. Thankfully, the internet, in its infinite wisdom, has graciously provided us with a place to store and categorize all of the wonders it offers. You can see many more of my favorite things from around the internet here.


 

Dog Beach - Coronado, California

If regular Lucy hangout time is Puppy Prozac, taking her to Dog Beach is like a puppy lobotomy...in a good way. Hanging out with my dad and Midge was a pretty good mood lift too...

Dad and Lucy are besties...

Lucy did, however, attempt to expand her circle of friends to include some of the canine variety.

It was scary at first...

But then she got the hang of it.

Some of the other dogs were slightly less elegant than darling Lucy.

Lucy is not quite sure enough of her place in the social hierarchy of Dog Beach to go making friends with the weird kid in the life vest....

{Poor little bulldog.}

Friday Felicities

Things to Be Happy About:

*itinerary-free vacations
Don't get me wrong. I love to travel and an activity-filled jaunt to a new locale would definitely make me happy, but having time off and nowhere to go can be just as sweet. I have taken full advantage of the latter this week. With no place to go and no one to see, I've had plenty of time for reading and crafting and playing housewife. I have also been available for puppy sitting, which brings me to my next thing to be happy about.

{craftiness underway}

*puppy love

{love}

This may be in danger of turning into a Lucy tribute blog, but I spent the better part of two afternoons with her this week, and she is definitely making me happy these days. I have had dogs before (and Lucy's not even mine), but I don't think I really understood the meaning of the expression "puppy love" until I spent an afternoon with Lucy following me around like, well...

{book, grass, sun, puppy...all key components of the aforementioned itinerary-free vacation}

{Lucy making herself at home on my feet}

{I don't think she let me out of her sight all afternoon.}

 *globes
I can remember playing with globes as a little kid. My sister and I would take turns closing our eyes, spinning the globe, and lightly tracing out index fingers from north to south until the spinning stopped. Wherever your finger landed would be your future home, or the current home of your future spouse, or your next vacation destination. It was always a major bummer when your finger landed smack in the middle of the Arctic Ocean...respin allowed, obviously. Truth be told, I still play that game whenever I spot a globe.

{globe in my parents' guest room}

{My next vacation destination? Tanzania.}

*bargains
The Vons in my front yard is closing. This makes me sad because I will now have to walk 100 paces to the Albertson's instead of just 20 paces to the (now defunct) Vons when I get a hankering for a frozen treat. Sigh. In order to cushion the blow of their closing (and possibly to get rid of their inventory), Vons has been offering 50% off of everything in the store. I decided to head over and check out the sale when it started on Tuesday; I figured I'd pop in, pick up some hair products and Nyquil, and walk the 20 paces back to my doorstep. Little did I know. Once I crossed the street, I was greeted by a line of twenty women, shopping carts in hand, doing hamstring stretches as they waited in line just to get inside the store. I rolled my eyes at the absurdity of waiting in line to get in the grocery store (I'm too old to wait in line to get into a bar, but not old enough to wait in line to get into a Vons) and headed home.

The line eventually dissipated and I was curious to see what sorts of deals were to be had, so I headed over later in the afternoon. As soon as I walked in, the chaos and excitement of all the bargain-hungry shoppers got to me and a Supermarket Sweep mentality took over.

{I was always fascinated by the matching sweatshirts and dickies that the contestants always wore.}

I was throwing everything in my cart. St. Francis Zin for $6.50 instead of $25? Yes, please. Champagne vinegar $7 off? Yup. Artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes? Of course. I seriously had to stop myself from stocking up on dog food in anticipation of a future canine companion. The line to checkout was ridiculously long, so I had some much needed time to edit...the variety pack of sprinkles and assorted cake decorations went back on the shelf as did the pectin (I am owning the fact that I am unlikely to start canning my own jams any time soon).

{Despite the editing, I still managed to do some damage.}

I was so excited when the cashier announced my savings ($208!!), so I can kind of understand how those extreme couponing people get started on the crazy train. We have limited space, so I think I'm safe for now; just stop me before I become this lady:

{Look how proud she is of her 15 containers of Lysol wipes...anyone else getting an OCD vibe?}

One more picture of Lucy, just because...