Mammal Humour

I'm sure this has been done before, but I couldn't resist.

Have you ever seen an aye-aye? They're really freakin' weird. Their super-elongated middle fingers are perfect for fishing around in tree trunks for tasty insects. Also handy (no pun intended) for flipping off other aye-ayes at great distances. Just kidding. They are excellent pirates though. 

Some paintings

So, last night I went to this super-swanky hotel to help the Redpath Museum Club (of which I'm not actually a member) paint an old-school parking meter (Montreal meters are now automated and look like this) that, come May, will stand outside my school on Sherbrooke. As I understand it, it won't be a functional parking meter, but rather any change people put in out of the goodness of their hearts will go to a charity for homeless people. So that's cool.

I painted this triceratops skull, in honour of the museum's new triceratops specimen. I can't say I'm thrilled with how it turned out, but in my defense, it's hard to paint on an uneven surface with a large-ish paintbrush and no reference photo.

I also painted this salamander (my attempt--again, without reference photo--at an Ambystoma maculatum). Apologies to my herpetology professor (who also happens to be the director of the museum).

High Praise

Mom: Your blog is my favorite blog to read!
Me: Mom, it's the only blog you read!

I knew this recent weather was too good to last

This pretty near approximates my face when I stepped out on my (still-unfinished) balcony half an hour ago to verify that it was, in fact, snowing. 

(Shakes fist in air) Curse you Montreal!!!!!!

Happy Belated El Niño Day!

Yesterday being Liverpool player Fernando Torres's birthday, naturally we held a dinner party in his honour (read: Katie co-opted a pre-arranged dinner to commemorate the twenty-sixth birthday of the soccer, er, football player/her obsession). I made her this card:

And while I know a joke isn't as funny if you have to explain it, El Niño is Fernando's nickname.

Tiger says he's sorry

While, yes, this comic is not as timely as it could be, I was reminded of this by Alex the other day. On our way to LA, the Tiger Woods press conference was being broadcast and re-broadcast and analyzed on every available video screen, and every time I saw the headline "Tiger says he's sorry," I couldn't help but think of this.

Things I learned from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

1) Aliens are jerks

2) Aliens tear families apart

3) Aliens bring people together

4) Aliens are teases

5) Aliens make music that will get stuck in your head

Happy St. Patty's Day

Another month, another seasonal nickname:

McMantigan (or O'Manta, depending on who you ask)

Hugging Trees

Last weekend, I went on a field trip to Mont Saint-Hilaire with my Biodiversity & Ecosystems class. We measured trees. Hijinks ensued. Many a tree-hugging joke was made. I learned to distinguish among an ash, an oak, a beech, and a maple. If you care enough to ask me, I may or may not remember how. Nicolette probably remembers though. 

Ceci n'est pas un "tool."

This kid is in my class, and sometimes his outfits make me angry. Sometimes they just make me giggle. What's funny is I found a doodle of him from a year and a half ago in one of my old moleskines, this time wearing a tricorn hat.

Also, he may or may not be the same kid I saw on campus once carrying a unicycle, wearing the smuggest expression I've ever seen.

Sorry, kid, but you're trying too hard.

MTTPL: The Prehistoric Edition

I've had mammoths on the brain.

A doodle.

For my presentation, "From Giant to Dwarf: The Evolution and Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth":

The Seven Dwarfs--Dwarf Woolly Mammoths, that is! It's true, look it up.

A card I picked up in Los Angeles. Even when I bought it, I was 80% sure I was going to keep it for myself.

***

P.S. I gave my mammoths presentation today, and while I was perhaps not as articulate as I would have wished, I did wear a super-themed outfit, consisting of

This Shirt

and 

This Necklace

Yeah. I'm that cool.

Sweet dreams are made of this

It's true; they do!

---
Today, whilst writing my Mammalian Evo paper on mammoths, I'm channeling my inner four-year-old, who desperately wanted to be a paleontologist when she grew up, and said things like this in her sleep.

Yes, really.

I swear!

Did you know that most mammals have a penis bone, called a baculum? No? Well, now you do. Notably, human males do not have one. Nor do lagomorphs, an order that contains rabbits as well as pikas, which I mentioned earlier today. Raccoons, however, do. 

Now that's not something you hear every day

From my facebook wall earlier today:

And this is why Kate and I are friends. Because she says things like, "So I was curious about large extinct rodents . . ."

Also, Nicolette and I spent lunch watching videos of jerboas and pikas, both of which are really frakkin' weird and cute. See for yourself!


Bio-friends, unite!