Unca Jay and Auntie Deana... swimming through the air

My bro and sis-in-law have taken to the air, to which I have to say, I am really damn impressed. Check 'em out here (Jay is in the middle, Deana on the left).



Kate loved watching it, too. "Unca Jay is a monkey!" she said. Of course, we already knew that.

(Note: the "getting stuck" was fake, the smack upside Deana's head was an accident!)

James' visit and clouds in the Olympics

My youngest brother James was visiting this past week, and as per usual we did the usual redneck pastime of going out in the woods and blowing crap up. Oh yeah, we went hiking, too. Here's a pic from up on Deer Ridge, the eastern shoulder of Blue Mountain on the north side of the Olympics, James going the extra redneck mile with the "Ozzy" hand:

It is usually sunny and blue in the summer around here, but occasionally we get this crazy wet and cloudy weather coming through. So it makes for some cool cloudscapes at times. Got this great shot looking toward the Blue Mt. summit not far from where I took the (above) pic of us:

Also managed to get him to Canada finally (after about 4 visits in the past 4 years); we spent a day eating and drinking our way around Victoria. What a great city--I wish it was on our side of the water!

Senor Fer de Lance, otra vez

Here is a sweet pic of the same fer de lance, taken by Brenda's friend (and way cool person even if she does go to OU) Ryan.

Click on the pic to get the full size image and see the rain on its skin... gorgeous pic, eh?

Las culebras mejores!

So I have seen dozens of fer-de-lances in my groundpounding around Central America, but I am pretty sure I haven't seen one this size:

This lil' puppy was hanging out on the trail to my cabana (which was about 1km from the main area--imagine walking that in the dark, completely lit [and we aren't talking light], and meeting this 'un--or worse, not even realizing he's around...) at least a couple of nights running. We heard about him one evening in el comedor but didn't find him that night. (To be fair, Bill and I couldn't find our ass with both hands that night.) The next night we wandered out again, and lo and behold, there he was. I'm guessing (knowing the average person's proclivity to overestimate snake sizes) he was about a 4 footer. My estimate is also based on the fact that after I spooked him, he uncoiled and took up a good portion of the 1.5m trail, even while remaining sinuous. Damn big snake.

So Bill was shooting pics (including these) and we were all holding flashlights to help him focus. I spooked the snake into the brush, where it hung out for awhile, facing away from us, and then coiled up in striking position again. Bill shot more pics as the skeeters swarmed (luckily for the rest of us, Michelle always smells good so the bugs were flocking more to her) and we lit up the snake with our massive 2 candlepower lights. After awhile, we were more interested in seeing the shots Bill got, so we were checking out his screen whenever he said "that looks like a good one!" Great shot, said Bill once, so we went over to check it out. Did look damn good. He thought it might be a little out of focus, so we shined our lights back into the bush alongside the trail, and ... no snake. Quick shining along all the nooks and crannies right by the trail, as well as the bare dirt itself, assured us (HA!) that the snake was not going to latch on to one of our legs immediately. We took that as the point at which intrepid snake hunters bid one another good night, and I took off (a quick walk) to the cabin and the rest of the crew headed the other direction back to theirs.

All in all, a highly successful night: good pics, BFS (big f-ing snake), and no permanent injuries.

My first day there, thanks to Mel and Shea's direction and Brenda's blog (for the pic, shamelessly stolen from her), I also got to see an eyelash pit viper--never seen one before, though I have spent lots of time in areas where they'd been sighted. They have "eyelashes"--thus, their name--but some say the name also refers to their habit of hanging out on small branches, large leaves, or vines, right about eyelash height on a person. Beautiful image, eh? A little snake latched on to my forehead doesn't sound like fun, especially one this venomous. (For those of you keeping track at home: venomous means that if they bite you, you die. Poisonous means if you bite them, you die.) Anyhoo, a gorgeous snake, and thanks to the crew for showing it to me.

A final aside to the commentors on the beans and rice post--when you guys amass as much time taking dumps out in the woods in the tropics as I have, you can harrass me about beans and rice (which I secretly love anyway). Actually, that brings to mind a pretty fun activity--next time you have a field day, save up your need to crap and do it out there. Within 10 minutes, you'll have a circus of dung beetles, flies, parasitic wasps, and all sorts of entomological excitement to watch. (Why is it that biologists have more fun with bodily functions than 4 year olds???)

Video: El Puente de La Selva

Here's a short vid from the suspension bridge at La Selva. All y'all out there in bloggerland will have to be happy with this for now; I have some cool snake pics and a story about one of the pics, but dinner is on the table and I will have a fork stuck in the side of my head if I don't call this good...

Adventures in Costa Rica, or, how i learned to love the rainforest from within an air-conditioned room

Just home late last night from Costa Rica. Had a great time with the REU crew (Brenda, Shea, Mel, and Chris [see links at left] and the rest of the village. For the first time since I was 15, I spent a good deal of my time in the rainforest in air-conditioned comfort, aka, I froze my ass. Here's a pic of me deep in the jungle, working hard with the crew:


Yeah, I was down there to do stats. You perceptive bloggeroos will notice that's R I have open; trying to get the damn code to work for 4 different study designs. I do have some good stories and a few pics to post, from outside actually, but that'll have to wait. Cerveza calls, and tonight... there is no beans&rice.... or rice&beans... or rice with beans&rice...

More fun than it should be

Just got a new Winchester semi-auto 12 gauge (Super X3 for those of you keeping track at home). Took it out to Slab Camp with Chris to try it out for the first time. We did stop shooting skeet long enough to play a little: