Culinarily Useless

The Dancing Robots have taken a bit of a break recently. My server went down and I had to reinstall the os.

The power company has been 'trimming' (read genociding) the trees that live in my yard that are near the power lines. One of the maples have given up the ghost and I intend to take it down some time soon (to harvest the wood for use in growing more mushrooms (perhaps more oysters, but more likely maitake)).

The vinca are all still alive and they seem to be doing fine. I will probably transplant more of them today if I can't get a hold of a chainsaw.

I have picked two more batches of Scotch bonnet from my yard. The people from the mycological society said that they look like they are identified correctly, but that they do not guarantee an identification without more than one image. (I sent them more, but they were having a big morel hunt, and they seemed to be busy).

Speaking of mushroom hunting, I tried my hand at it on Saturday. We got fourteen mushrooms all in all. I worked on identifying them, and (as far as I have been able to identify them) three were from a family (Inocybe) that every member is either inedible or poisonous. Another ten were Pluteus (not poisonous but 'culinarily useless'). The last one was so old and desiccated I can't even guess as to what it was.

Alison and the Poulsons (Which would make a great name for a band (not really, but it does sound like a band name)) came along and all of the actual mushroom finding was done by Alison and Craig.

Not very successful, but at least no-one is poisoned.

I am preparing to give a presentation on Neural Networks in Haskell at work. I still have some finishing touches to put on it, but it is pretty close to ready.

Alison's birthday was on Friday. I got her some books about yoga for babies and yoga for toddlers (because she loves yoga).

We moved Sara to a bed on the floor just this last week (Alison has been reading Organized Simplicity, which has caused a lot of re-arrangement in our house (which (although Alison does not entirely agree) was one of the causes of this transfer)) and is falling out of it nightly. It wakes her up and she cries until we put her back in bed. Last night wasn't so bad, so hopefully she learns to sleep through falling out of bed like Rea did (or even learns to not fall out of bed (which might be better overall)).

I got a gift card at work for exercising a lot and so I also got Dominion Hinterlands as an extra gift for Alison's birthday. I know that it sounds like I just bought her a gift that was really for me (and that is true to some extent),  but we did go through all of the expansions together and she thought that that one sounded the most fun. Since it was extra money that I got from work I don't feel too bad about it.

I also got her the soundtrack from 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'. She has been singing 'The Creation of Man' to me a lot (Which explains that the Lord created man for the express purpose of (and I quote) 'Striking a pose and bearing the weight of well tailored clothes').

I'm wondering if she means anything by it. Perhaps I need to update my wardrobe.

For her birthday we also went to the Zoo. Andrea and Sara loved it. Especially the Giraffes. Alison was more tired than she expected, but still enjoyed seeing the animals.