Steamboats, fox urine, and dried brains...

Well, Rosie over-did it, pulling on the leash yesterday. She and Remy and I took a short, slooooow walk this morning; this was after a brisk 5 mile walk with Suki and Boo. I'm at my place right now, with the patio door cracked open, and the kits running in and out. Lovey has tried to put her footprints on my bosom, but I have a dark sweater on, so she's been foiled in her attempts to brand me. Squirrels have already been raiding the nuts I've placed outside for them; small birds are coming in flocks to the feeders, but since Lovey and Banichi are out prowling, the pigeons have yet to arrive.

The heating company is due at Kathy's sometime this afternoon, so I'll be headed back there shortly. I hope they'll appreciate having the furnace fixed.... Our high Sunday is forecast to be 20, maybe, with snow, and a low Sunday night of 3; that's quite a difference from the 80s in Peru! The Arctic front that is coming in Saturday night/Sunday morning is supposed to sit on us for three days before moving on. The huge ice storm in the northeast is the storm that gave us 9 inches of snow in 36 hours... I hope to spend most of tomorrow's daylight hours here at my place; but I'll have to play it by ear, as usual...

Let's see: it's believed that the wreck of the Alligator, a paddle-wheel steamer has been found in Dead Lake, off the Saint John's River in Florida. The Alligator used to carry passengers and freight along the St. John's over a hundred years ago, until she sank after a fire.
*A man in Minnesota got tired of a group of teens repeatedly toilet-papering his house, so he laid in wait with a squirt-gun full of fox urine (which has a very powerful scent), and sprayed the kids when they came again, after he had warned them off. He is now being charged with misdemeanor assault, among other things. (I think the kids deserved it, personally.)
*And, in England, the University of York has found a skull (which they say was decapitated) in which something rattled. The finder looked up inside the spinal column opening, and saw a waxy, yellowish thing. The skull has been dated at 300 B.C.; the scientists believe the yellow mass is a dried up brain, as it has the same shape a normal brain would have. ...