The ridiculousness that is shopping [stuff]

I don't think I've mentioned much about this on this platform, but in a couple days' time I'll be headed to Kauai with annikusrex and her son F for about a week! This all came about because A and F happened to win the trip as a door prize at a luau earlier in the year.

I've never been a person who has had Hawaii as a dream vacation destination, although I have no doubt the trip will have some wonderful moments to it. Still, given the chance, here we go!

I've chained together this trip with travels to Seattle for Christmas and New Years, plus an annual scientific meeting that also just happens to be taking place in Seattle this year.

Collectively, all of this has me thinking a lot about shopping. Aside from the amazing co-op, the shopping in this area is dismal. To give you an idea, there is a single, small used bookstore in downtown Albany. There are exactly zero stationery stores. You might recall that I did once take my life into my hands and go on an expedition to a local art supply store.

The majority of the potential shopping destinations are in and around two malls, both of which are on the outskirts of town in locations that are time-consuming and/or unpleasant to reach by bicycle or bus.

So, yeah.

A friend who recently posted about an interesting thrift store find got me wondering about thrift stores in Kauai; that seems like an interesting kind of destination to seek out.

Once I'm back in Seattle, I'm starting to think about the places I want to go to. A lot of this is in the name of being able to actually feel the fabrics, and avoid dealing with the hassle of shipping. I have no organized plan just yet, but it's going to happen.

And before I work on that organized plan, I need to finish tackling this Giant Stack of Grading. As they say, here goes nuthin'.

Thanks, Ants. Thants. [work]

When I gave a public talk earlier this fall on ants, I wound up ordering a copy of Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants of New York City, and also made a cheatsheet for myself with photos and brief descriptions of the 15 most common ant species. You know, so I could sound like I know a thing or two about ants. Just in case.

About a week ago, while I was stretching in the living room, I glanced up at one of our bookshelves and discovered that I must have ordered a copy of Dr. Eleanor's Book some time ago in the past, shelved it, and then completely forgot about it.

So at least now I have a copy for work, and a copy for home?

In any case. Yesterday, when a student worker and I went into the Ant-Antechamber (entry room outside the ant/cricket room), we encountered a small unexpected mess on the floor. Some pipe in the ceiling had developed a leak, and half a ceiling tile fell:



When I went to clean up the mess, I discovered that there were ants among the ceiling tile fragments!

Remnants of the mess:


You have to look closely, but there are some tiny black ants in here, milling about:



Based on my handy cheatsheet and a simple test (crush one and smell for a blue cheese aroma), these are Odorous House Ants, aka Tapinoma sessile. In the past, they have been very successful at cleaning up any crumbs that I've spilled in my office. I think we also once got to witness a nest migration in between potted plants in an atrium room in the building. I think in this case, they were probably attracted to the moisture from the leaky pipe.

The ceiling above the Anty-chamber is not a great place for them to hang out, however, so our facilities folks are going to have to set up some bait traps to manage the ceiling population. Thankfully, our facilities folks are very understanding about the fact that we absolutely cannot have any pesticides applied anywhere in this building, because the risks are too great for the organisms we all study. And really, for the most part, the Tapinoma tend to keep to themselves. Unlike the mice, those assholes.

This is the most amusing Building Issue I've experienced here, so far. If all Building Issues were like this one, I would be a happy person.