Glow in the Dark Drool

Glowing ice melts. If it melts in your mouth, the result is glowing drool. Tonic water isn’t all that tasty, so assuming you don’t want to swallow the melted ice, you can get glowing spit or, as David learned, you can make whatever you spit on glow. Less-nasty applications would include making the water in your bathtub or pool glow. It’s hard to see a glowing ice cube in your own mouth, but that problem is easily solved if you have a mirror handy.

Wordless Wednesday – Spring Morning

Ice on Fire

I recently got a new camera (Canon PowerShot) so that I could take photos for About Chemistry in situations where stock photography doesn’t suffice. It’s a great camera and I love it, but this photo of a flaming ice cube actually was taken with my Verizon cell phone. This picture isn’t as pretty as some of the others I took for my flaming ice tutorial, but it shows a couple of things those photos don’t: (1) This is very obviously a real ice cube that is surrounded by fire. In this case, the flames are from some rubbing alcohol that I poured on the cube. You maybe can see that the ice itself isn’t burning; the fuel around it is. (2) If you use rubbing alcohol or ethanol, the water from the melting ice won’t put out your flame. This ice cube melted into oblivion before the flame was extinguished.

Wordless Wednesday – Jellyball

Jellyballs are non-stinging Atlantic jellyfish. Toss one to someone today.

Surfing Fun at the Garden City Pier

We went just north of the Garden City Pier last night. I’m usually a little hesistant about playing in the water at sunrise or sunset. As you can see, it’s beautiful, but I remember reading somewhere that it’s prime feeding time for our friends with fins. However, the only sea creatures we saw were several jellyballs (those non-stinging jellyfish). They can’t hurt you, but Ry can tell you being thwacked with one full-force by the waves packs a punch.

Kitty in a Sink

There was a time when the cat did not consider the sink to be a bed. I have my daughter and YouTube to blame/credit for her education. Sam would catch the cat and watch this YouTube video of Sparta with her. I didn’t think the cat watched the video, but shortly after watching it the ten thousandth time she took up napping in my bathroom sink. I’m not sure of the attraction. I guess it’s cat-shaped. This particular sink catches afternoon sun. It’s relatively quiet. I just wouldn’t think it’s comfortable, even by kitty standards. Do you want to teach your cat this ‘trick’? There is a series of videos featuring Sparta. Here’s the first:

Feeding the Swan

There is a pair of swans that frequents the ‘lake’ behind the house. Tonight one of the swans finally let me feed it by hand. The way it eats is interesting. It tears a piece of the bread from my hand, then shakes it apart in the water and eats the wet mush.

Wordless Wednesday – Volume 2 – Jellyfish

New Surfboard!

I went to Eternal Wave Surf Shop (in Surfside on Business 17… go there now!) for my Mother’s Day gift. It’s a Bic. Barely fits in my car (but does, and that’s what counts), as close to indestructible as I can get, and a good size for my two older sons as well as me. Plus it’s pretty. They had a gorgeous fiberglass board with sea turtle artwork that was the right size, but I think the boys might have had a problem with the pink background color.

Kitty Wants Down

I introduced my corgi last week. Here’s the cat. My first cat was deaf, so I didn’t see much point in giving him a name. Calling him involved thumping the floor. Every cat I’ve had since then has been able to hear, but it never occurs to me to call them. This one always appears when I unload groceries from shopping (high chance of canned food). She disappears when it’s the weekend (I think you can see why… that’s my son Eric ‘holding’ her. Eric had just taken a duckling away from her and she was a little resentful.), but returns Monday morning coincidentally about the time I hear the school bus depart. Actually she loves the kids. She and the dog both camp the front door waiting for them to return in the afternoon. I think it’s just a little hard for her to catch her six-hour-long midday nap in the house on Saturday.