grandparents and fleas

I was supposed to go visit my grandparents in scenic Aiken, SC this weekend. I had planned my week at work so I didn't have to come in over the weekend, I had gotten an oil change so my car would be ready for the drive, I had blocked out the weekend, so I had no social engagements planned.... I was all set to make the trek down south in two days until I got a phone call at 10:30 last night telling me that my grandparents were cancelling on me. I think it's a bad sign when your grandparents don't want to see you....especially when you're their only grandchild. I am pond scum.

Actually, the story is even funnier than that - you see, the reason they cancelled is apparently my aunt's apartment had become infested with fleas and they are going to try to help her take care of the problem. My aunt has fleas and my grandparents don't want to see me. Ah, my family is fun :)

today...

Today is a good day.

biology gone awry

Okay, so as a biology nerd, I sometimes think about things differently, so here's a random thought I had the other day while running:

The principle of mate selection in terms of evolutionary biology states that an individual animal will likely mate with someone whose genetic characteristics will combine with the original animal's characteristics to produce offspring with the highest level of fitness. Thinking about this in human terms, I started to wonder about the flip side of that equation: the people out there that are just so screwed up that nature wants their genes to be purged from the pool. Do they select mates who are equally screwed up such that their genes will combine to self-destruct and remove or at least reduce their influence in the gene pool? Think about that the next time you find yourself attracted to someone...

ew.

So I'm not really a biblical scholar or anything, but I recall something about plagues such as frogs, locusts, and hail while the Jews were in Egypt. I don't however, remember anything about body parts...

FLORAL PARK, New York (AP) -- The body of an apparent stowaway was ripped in half during flight Tuesday and his leg crashed into a suburban neighborhood, where a homeowner found the severed limb in the middle of her lawn, authorities said.

Pam Hearne heard "a loud crash" and later was stunned to see a foot clad in an Adidas sneaker and a sock in her yard, said Officer Thomas Blanchard. The leg, with hip and spine attached, dented the shingled roof of her garage before bouncing into the lawn.

Police suspect the remains are from a stowaway who may have been crushed as the South African Airways jet lowered its landing gear on its approach to Kennedy Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the pilot of flight 203 would have probably started lowering the plane's landing gear in the sky over the home in Floral Park, about 5 miles from the airport.

Peters said a Customs agent that met the flight at the airport found another leg hanging from the wheel well.

The airline said in a statement that the flight landed with "no impact" on the passengers and crew and it was working closely with authorities to investigate how someone may have stowed away.

The flight originated in Johannesburg, and made one stop in Senegal. Authorities had not identified the remains, which were hauled away from Hearne's yard in a plastic bag.

Hearne, a special education teacher, said that when she first saw the leg in the grass, "it didn't look real."

"But I am very glad that I live where I do," she said, "so I don't have to run for my life like this man probably was doing."

There have been cases of stowaways being crushed by the mechanism in aircraft wheel wells and perishing from the extreme cold at high altitude

Ummmmm?

Okay, does this seem dumb to anyone else?

I get an e-mail from my credit card company (a legitimate e-mail, not a scam), reminding me to make sure the e-mail address they have for me is current. They contact me via e-mail because they think my E-MAIL address may be out of date? Good thinking, guys.

I live in Nerdland

So I was getting gas this morning and there was a little note posted by the management essentially asking people not to pay for their gas in change because it took too long to count. As I glanced at the note, I noticed that someone had written on it. Now, in any normal town, you would expect to maybe see a phone number or perhaps a " ______ was here" or perhaps a lewd picture or limerick.... right? Well, as I looked a little more closely, I noticed that our petty vandal had done none of these things. Intead, this person had corrected the grammar on the note! I live in nerdland.

Best compliment in a long time...

Okay, I'm just going to say upfront that this probably won't mean anything to 90% of the people out there, but I got the best compliment I've received in a long time on Thursday...

I was out on my usual Thursday afternoon run through Duke Forest and I came upon two Kenyans running on the trail ahead of me (there is a fairly sizeable contingent of Kenyans who train in the area - I can't figure out why they chose here, but they did). They were obviously warming up because I was gaining on them as I made my way around the trail and as I passed them, I smiled at one and continued running. I should also note here that the Kenyans very rarely speak to anyone else on the trail and, as I learned on Thursday, don't even chat with each other much while running. I don't think they're unfriendly or anything, I kind of figure it's got to be a combination of being focused on their training and just being quiet by nature because they are always very trail courteous. ANYWAY, about halfway around the 3-ish mile loop, they apparently finished their warmup and started picking up the pace. I could hear them coming up behind me, so I moved over to the edge of the trail to give them room to pass and as they did, one of them turned to me and said, "looking good." Now coming from many other places, I would assume it was some obnoxious commentary on what I was wearing or how I looked, but given that a) I was nasty and sweaty from running, and b) these were KENYANS, I can only assume he was commenting on my run. I GOT A COMPLIMENT FROM A KENYAN ON MY RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!

Like I said - it won't mean much to most of you :-P