Science Monkey

Emma and I had a couple friends over last night to play Risk, one of whom had never played before. Guess who lost? Guess who got his ass completely handed to him? If you guessed that I did, you’re right!

I was pretty stupid in my original set-up. I gambled that I could quickly dominate Asia while Emma and Chris fought over the Americas and Deborah was bottled up in Australia. Yeah, not so much. In my first battle, my 10+ Chinese armies lost to Deborah’s 4 in India, and then it was downhill from there. If I had managed to win that battle, the outcome may have been different (but probably not). By losing that battle, I was suddenly too thinly spread out along my other borders to attack and only barely strong enough to defend some of the territories. Within three turns — not more than four — I was gone.

It was a small comfort that Emma was the next person out, because she usually wins when we play. Not much of a comfort, though, because I was already out. Deborah put up a decent battle for a while, but then Chris swarmed over Asia and routed her back to New Guinea, where he magnanimously offered her a truce. “Go live with the native tribes,” he offered. Heh.

Here are Deborah, Emma, and Chris (clockwise from left) just after Chris’ rampage through Asia. He is yellow (and green), she is red.

Then, on his next turn, poor Deborah had little chance.

Even though I got royally creamed, I had a good time. We’ll totally have to do this again in the future, and maybe then I’ll be a little better. Asia is just not something you can win early in the game. Focus on Australia, Africa, and South America first, then work northward. Lesson learned.

I’ve got a bunch of pictures to share with you guys today. As usual, the larger-sized pictures are available on my Flickr page.

First and foremost, a picture of Emma with our new car.

Isn’t she cute?

Next, how about a garden update? I mentioned the other day that we had ash falling from recent wildfires, so I went out a took a picture before it washed away. All of the gray flecks are bits of ash that fell.

Otherwise, the garden is doing very well. The cucumber bed is doing exceptionally well and the tomatoes are coming along nicely. As Emma said the other day, we’re going to be eating a lot of Greek salads this summer. Now if only I liked tomatoes…

Next I’d like to share with you a little bit about our local squirrels and the hard lives they lead. We buy snooty bird seed from the local Wild Birds store, which comes in convenient, resealable plastic bags. We’ve been keeping the bags on the breezeway with all of the other animal food. About a week ago when I went out to feed the chickens, I noticed that somebody had chewed through the bag and had eaten a little of the seed, scattering a few sunflower seeds around the floor. ‘Stupid cats can’t catch a mouse,’ I thought to myself and moved the feed up higher, where I thought it wouldn’t be accessible. A few days later, the bags had been knocked to the floor and a larger hole bitten open. ‘Smart mouse,’ I thought to myself. ‘Or perhaps an ROUS?’ Shortly after that, Emma and I bought a plastic box to keep the birdseed in, thinking that would end the pilfering. Not so. The very next day after we moved the birdseed into the plastic box, they started attacking the box, chewing off the soft plastic handle in the first 24 hours. At this point, I start to suspect that it’s something bigger than mice, but squirrel has not entered my mind. Yet. The next day, there’s a tiny little hole where the handle used to attach (which is across the floor, thank you very much). The day after that, look what I walked out to discover:

As there wasn’t a mouse or two now trapped in the birdseed container, I finally wise up to the idea that squirrels are getting into the breezeway. I haven’t yet fixed the hole in the screen that they’re getting in through, because a few days later I saw how tough their life is.

Earlier this spring I put up a birdfeeder on a wrought iron hook outside of my office, where I could see it when I was working. A few birds got to eat from it, but quickly the squirrels discovered that they could knock it off of the hook completely and eat all of the seed, rather than just a little bit at a time. ‘Fine,’ I said to myself, ‘if the squirrels are going to eat the seed, we should at least get some amusement out of it.’ So I hung the feeder in a shrub just outside of the front window where the cats could watch the squirrels (one of their favorite hobbies) and the squirrels wouldn’t be able to knock the feeder down. Yesterday morning the cats were at their usual posts, watching what I assumed was a squirrel eat from the feeder.

After I got my camera, I realized what was going on. A tiny little bird was eating from the feeder and scaring the squirrels away! Although the bird was small, its chirp was huge and was enough to fend off the hungry squirrel. It would eat a little, look over its shoulder, chirp at the approaching squirrel, then eat a little more and repeat the cycle.

The poor squirrel was stuck up high in the bush until the bird few away, fifteen minutes later.

With this in mind, I’m not begrudging the squirrels their birdseed thievery, at least not for the time being. I’m going to go find a better box, though. Let’s see them break into that…

Well, that’s probably enough pictures for now. I’m going to go take a little nap then get back to work cleaning the house. Emma invited her ex-boyfriend over on Sunday to play Risk, so I invited a friend of mine (well, both of ours, actually) to help serve as a buffer. Hey! If you play Risk and want to come over, send me an email for directions. We’re starting at about 4. Game on.

Games night! Thursday, chez Arne & Emma. Everybody’s welcome! Email me for directions.