Zoology 102 with M & D

Remember the time Daniel and I debated the difference between an aardvark and an anteater? Well, we have finally found our subjects for Zoology 102 with M&D. While eating Sunday dinner with the Jacobsens last week, we got into a discussion about seals. Brief background: my father doesn't like seals. He truly, thoroughly, doesn't like them. He claims they're "ugly" and "they eat too many fish." Yeah. We don't get it either.

Anyway, after discussing my father's serious dislike for seals, my brother asked him how he felt about sea lions. My dad decided that they were okay. This sparked some discussion about what the difference was between these two animals - if there was a difference at all. So, naturally, we turned to our trusty smartphones at the dinner table and Googled some pictures of these guys. Want to know what we discovered?

In the case of seals vs. sea lions...

This guy is a seal:

And this guy is a sea lion:

It turns out, both animals are members of the pinniped family (along with walruses and even otters). But they have some very key differences, as you can see from this diagram:

Here is a more in-depth comparison.

After reading up on these guys, we now feel like we know a little bit more about the animal kingdom. What we still don't understand is how my dad can look at this little guy square in the face and tell him he doesn't like him.

There are some things we'll never understand. 

Fall To-Do List

Now that it's September, I feel like it's officially fall outside. I'm getting excited to do some of my favorite autumn activities this year! So without further ado, here's my official Fall 2012 To-Do List:

1. Go on a drive to see the changing leaves

2. Visit the Pumpkin Patch

3. Carve Pumpkins

4. Watch a scary movie

5. Dress up for Halloween

6. Go to a haunted house

7. Have a sleepover at the cabin

8. Read a good book

9. Eat breakfast at Ruth's Diner

10. Get a great fall candle

11. Eat a slice of pumpkin pie
12. Visit to the Utah State Fair

13. Purchase a new pair of boots (like these, or these, or these, or even these)

What's on your fall to-do list? I'd love to hear. I've already checked #4 off my list (I watched The Woman In Black by myself the other day...even though the cover expressly says "do not watch it alone.") Hope your fall is off to a great start!

P.S. A bit of trivia: Fall doesn't officially begin until the autumnal equinox on September 22. (The things you learn when you teach 6th grade). Also, I will give 100 extra credit points to anyone who can explain (without Google!) what actually causes the seasons. 

...

elk adventure.

Here are some photos from our little elk adventure to Hardware Ranch with Daniel's family this past month, if you'd like to see!

And now for some elk trivia!

1. Elk, along with moose and caribou, are members of the deer family.
2. An adult make elk is called a bull, an adult female is called a cow, a baby is called a calf, and a yearling bull is called a spike because his antlers are spiky.
3. Only male elk have antlers, but both male and female caribou (a.k.a. reindeer) have antlers!
4. The elk's antlers (along with antlers of all other animals who have them) are made of bone! They fall off and re-grow each year. 
5. Horns are a different story. Horns are never shed, and they are made of the same stuff that our fingernails are made of.
6. New antlers are covered with a fuzzy skin called velvet. It has a lot of blood vessels running through it. Because antlers are made of bone, they need to have blood flow in order to grow! 
7. The elk's canine teeth are made of ivory.
8. Cows, calves, and yearlings live in herds for most of the year while bulls live alone. This means that a cow is usually the leader of the herd! Of course, this changes during the mating season.
9. If an elk feels threatened, they make a barking sound.
10. The elk's coat makes them essentially waterproof. 

And that is the end of my elk facts for the day. If you want to see one of these guys up close, I suggest you visit Hardware Ranch! We had a blast!

The Elk Hunt

Warning: Some animals may have been harmed in the making of this post.

A few weeks ago, D went on the annual elk hunt with his Dad and his brother Sam. The Sorensens are big hunters, so I've learned a lot about it since I joined the family. They've been hunting up at Chalk Creek since D was about 8 years old! From what I heard, they had a fantastic time camping and hunting and whatever else you do on an elk hunt. This is a picture of the elk Daniel got!

Woah! Giant creature! Don't forget that Daniel is 6'5, and that elk makes him look like a 5-year-old.

Imagine my shock when I received the above photo via picture message.

And now for some elk trivia, in M's terms:

1.  His elk was a 6-point (that means it has 6 pokey things on each side of the antlers).
2. A 6-point elk is a very big elk.
3. The antlers were very symmetrical, which is unusual.
4. The antlers scored 320 by the Boone & Crockett scoring method.
5. 320 is a very good score.
6. The antlers measured 46 inches across.
7. The four "quarters" (legs) alone weighed 350 lbs!!
8. They did not name him (my mother asked).
9. Elk tastes great in spaghetti (the only thing I've made with it so far).
10. The antlers, once they are mounted, are probably going to live above the T.V. in our apartment.

Congrats on your elk, D! I'm proud of you!

lately.

Just a few things we've been up to lately.

1. Wandering around the Salt Lake Arts Festival.

2. Sipping Jamba Juices.

3. Learning to cook artichokes.

4. Playing guitar (or if you are M, getting serenaded by the guitar).

5. Going on little dates to the Bountiful Temple.

6. And perhaps my favorite, attending beautiful weddings!

Thanks to Mel Nash Baucom for letting us be a part of your special day!

What have you been up to lately?

M+D+Cars=Death

We have had the absolute worst month with cars. It's getting kind of ridiculous. D and I are on a first-name basis with half of the mechanics and insurance agents in the Salt Lake Valley. Every single one of these things has happened to us in the last 5 weeks or so. Ready? Here we go.

1. Early in May, I got in a legit car accident in the Corolla. It had to be in the shop for like 2 weeks, so I had a to drive a rental car.

2. The same day that I got into my car accident, D got pulled over and got a ticket for having one of his tail lights out (soooo lame, right?!) Turns out, his tail light was cracked and it had filled up with water, so it wasn't an easy fix. We had to take it to a repair shop and pay to get the entire thing replaced.

3. The day after I got the rental car, I was driving to work and a giant rock hit the windshield and chipped it. Welp, there goes the deposit...

4. When my car finally got out of the repair shop, it started steaming and smoking everywhere while I was driving it home. Overheated. No one could come pick me up, so I had to wait for a guy from the repair shop to come rescue me. Oh, and this all went down on a very sketchy part of State Street, mind you. On the hottest day of May.

5.  Two days ago, D and I were driving his Saturn around on a few errands. We went to park the car and get out, but the keys would NOT come out of the ignition. They wouldn't even turn. We tried for half an hour, and had absolutely no luck. All of the repair shops were closed because it was like 10:00 at night. Finally, D ended up driving the car to his friend's house, and they figured out some way to shut the engine off with the keys still inside. We had to borrow a car from D's parents so that he could drive to work until we can get the car fixed.

6. Cut to today. We finally find some time to take D's Saturn to a repair shop. We got it there just fine, but as we were coming home from the shop in my Corolla, we noticed that the car we borrowed from D's mom had a flat tire. And no, I don't mean just low on air. The tire is legitimately FLAT.

And there you have it, folks. Currently, the Saturn is at the repair shop, D is outside changing a flat tire, and I am blogging about our ridiculously terrible luck with cars. I can't wait to see what happens next.

zoology 101 with M & D

D and I just had an extremely hilarious debate over whether an aardvark and an anteater were the same animal. Honestly, don't ask me how we even get onto these subjects in the first place. But, of course, we had to google it to find out who was right. So in case you needed a little zoology 101 in your life, I will share our newfound knowledge of the animal kingdom.

Let me begin by saying that I totally knew what an anteater looked like:

Aren't they the sketchiest creatures? 

I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley.

 But anyway. I was thoroughly convinced that an aardvark looked like this:

Turns out, that guy is an armadillo!

And an aardvark is a different animal altogether! Check him out:

Who knew, right?! 

So thanks, Google and Daniel, for teaching me something new and making me laugh tonight. I hope you did too!