This is just scary

via Magpie

It's not Friday, but here are some interesting quizzes

They're not the kind of time-waster quizzes that I usually post; these are actual online scientific type studies and you don't get a result or a label that you can post on your blog. But they're pretty interesting and you'll be helping out some graduate students somewhere. The Cognition and Language Lab at Harvard, to be more precise. I've linked to their stuff before, but they've got a new site and I thought I'd link to them again. I know that some of you are language and cognition geeks, so go check it out.

They also have a blog here.

Searching for meaning, or something like it

I just took a quick look at my site statistics (still averaging about 50 visits per day) and was amused to find that "the difference between a squid and an octopus" is no longer the most popular search string leading people here. That's been overtaken by searches involving duct tape and hair removal. "Can dogs eat blueberries?" is still pretty popular (yes, and they love them), as is "diy haircut" and searches for a tater tot hot dish recipe. (Or, more commonly: "tator tot hot dish.") "Green moth" is also pretty big.

Ask, receive, etc.

That's for you, Daisy -- like I needed a reason to post more puppy pics! Another photo from Hypergal's bf.

Happy Elvis Week everybody!

Not sure how to celebrate? There's something for everyone.

With the Wowwee® Alive™ Elvis® [no, I am not making this up], "you can touch his soft hair and sideburns, stroke his skin, feel his 1968 black leather jacket, look into his clear baby blues, and marvel as his lips form their distinctive "curl" before he sings in that soulful voice."

Yes, the good people at Sharper Image have made available this officially licensed animatronic robot that sings eight of the King's biggest hits, or you can sing along karaoke style, or you can even plug your iPod into it and watch him sort of bop along. Apparently. For only like 300 bucks or something. Plus shipping. Cool, huh?

Or you could listen to the classic Richard Thompson song about an Elvis fan gone mad:

Oh she dressed in the dark and she whispered amen
She was pretty in pink like a young girl again
Twenty years married and she never thought twice
She sneaked out the door and walked into the night
And silver wings carried her over the sea
From the west coast of Ireland to West Tennessee
To be with her sweetheart, oh she left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king

She was humming Suspicion, that's the song she liked best
She had Elvis I Love You tattooed on her breast
When they landed in Memphis, well her heart beat so fast
She'd dreamed for so long, now she'd see him at last
She was down by his graveside day after day
Come closing time they would pull her away
Ah to be with her sweetheart, oh she'd left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king

Ah, they came in their thousands from the whole human race
To pay their respects at his last resting place
But blindly she knelt there and she told him her dreams
And she thought that he answered or that's how it seems
Then they dragged her away it was handcuffs this time
She said my good man are you out of your mind.
Don't you know that we're married? See, I'm wearing his ring.
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king.
I come From Galway to Graceland to be with the king.

-Lyrics lifted from RT's website. I tried to find an mp3 of the song for you but I can't put my finger on one just now. Here's some guy singing it on youtube, though, in case you don't have your own copy of the song. Which you should.

Update: How could I forget this Elvis? I'm not sure what he's doing to celebrate this week. Likely out catting around is all. As usual.

Scritchy

My friend Hypergal has fingernails. Dogs love her. She is from Texas. That's her dog Kalei on the left, and of course you know Ruby. I keep forgetting to post this photo, which her lovely and talented boyfriend took the other day in my backyard, and she keeps asking me when am I going to post it. So here it is, missy.

It's not the heat, it's -- well, it IS the heat

I think this video is up on youtube, but I can't find it. Until I do, you'll have to go here and click on the link to watch this video about just exactly how hot it is here where I live. Seriously. It's hilarious.

Ruby's forehead

Here is Miss Ruby looking kind of annoyed. I've been trying to get pictures of all the amazing things her eyebrows and ears can do, but they're extremely versatile.

Sparkly

Remember the other day I told you my dog ate my glasses? Well, I got a new pair today and they work great! I can see a lot of things! Plus, they are sparkly!

The thing is, I'm a little bit worried that their sparkliness might cause Ruby to eat them. Because she also ate those sparkly flip-flops.

Bad dog

Ruby was a very bad dog yesterday. But it was kind of funny. We were at Julie's for dinner, which was extremely good. And the dogs played and RT took Ruby and Tigger for a walk, which actually tired Miss Ruby out, briefly.

After dinner we decided to watch a movie. "The Big Lebowski" won out over several other options, and we'd just settled down to watch it, and we gotten as far as that part where those two thugs have broken into the Dude's apartment and peed on his rug, and he's at the bowling alley talking it over with his buddies, and just as somebody says again something about the guy peeing on the rug, Ruby walks in and squats in the center of the rug and pees on it.

Life imitates art, I guess.

So Julie, bless her, patiently cleans it up and Ruby and I make a more or less discreet exit. I get home and D., the guy who lives in my carriage house, came home while Ruby and I were out in the back yard watching the fireflies. We chatted briefly, and then a pal of his showed up and they went upstairs to watch some movies or whatever it is that the kids do nowadays. Ruby and I went inside and I fell asleep fully dressed on the bed I was so tired.

At about 3:15 or so, Ruby started barking her head off. I looked outside -- nothing. I walked out into the living room and turned on the light. Ruby was still barking maniacally, jumping up on the sofa and looking out onto the porch. I turned the porch light on.

Thank goodness I still had my clothes on, because there, on the porch swing, were D. and his pal, smoking and talking quietly. I guess they didn't want to wake me up by talking and smoking in the back yard, right outside my bedroom window. Or something.

I had to drag Ruby back into the bedroom, still barking.

I guess barking at people on the porch in the middle of the night is a good thing, but I really really didn't want to hear it after we'd established the identity of the intruders.

Shoeblogging: you gotta start young

I think this picture is from the summer of 1967, but I'm not 100% sure. In any case, it is me, in a pair of my mother's shoes.