The zoo, mushrooms, gravity, and nunchaku

Today we went to the zoo since I was finally feeling well enough after a week of rotten weather that left me cranky hurty and overly emotional.
At the zoo, he was laughing at me, because I was taking pictures of mushrooms. I tried to explain it to him, but finally just settled for him pointing out those very pretty and poisonous mushrooms that are sort of orange and red so I could get pictures of them. Because mushrooms are cute. I did not take pictures of naked alpacas but I did tell them they were naked for a good cause.
I also got some good pictures of magpies, and we saw a blue jay teasing the snow leopards. See, the snow leopard enclosure is completely fenced in, and it kept bouncing on the top of the fence just over the leopards head, the leopard would get right under it, and the jay would scold and sound like it was laughing.
It was funny. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing at that jay's antics. Caw caw!
--
Recently Nova played the episode about black holes at the center of the galaxy, and the wonderment of scientists finding proof that there was evidence of black holes at the center of most galaxies. I was really exhausted with hurting that night so I went to bed in the middle of it rambling as Mike tucked me in about the silliness of the scientists being so surprised. I said "It makes sense, because of the orbits and stuff that the universe operates on gravity which isn't very well understood. It's the power of suck."
He kissed my forehead and said "Go to sleep Shala."
So I asked William. "William, why does the moon orbit earth?"
"Gravity."
"Why does the earth orbit the sun?"
"Gravity." (at this point he's giving that "Mom, you're crazy, but I'll humor you." look)
"Okay, galaxies rotate, the sun and other stars rotate, what's in the middle of the galaxy?"
"Probably a black hole."
See??? He's not a scientist! But given the givens, he thought it made sense that a black hole was in the middle of it all. And I was right. It's the power of suck. Or gravity.
---
I'm crocheting nunchaku. Which led to a very silly conversation. I mentioned that I was sizing them for myself. I looked up the standard dimensions for traditional nunchaku. The cord should cross the palm with just enough for the sticks to hang over the sides, and the stick parts should be long enough when held to protect the forearms. Mike said "They are crocheted, they will not protect your forearm." and I said "Yes, but I have to size them to someone and my hands and arms are the smallest, and I want them to be as accurate as possible."
"They are soft plushie nunchaku, not weapons."
"But they COULD be. I could fill them with steel shot."
"And practice the subtle art of chet (pronounced shay, like the end of crochet)"
"Mike, you're being silly."
"Oh, I'm SO sorry."

Working on- crocheted nunchaku (pattern will be available when I finish them)
Cupcake box sized for a standard cupcake (will be posted soon)
Tutorial for reading a peyote bead graph

On deck- Article on shaping peyote around objects with gorgeous examples by Miss Teri, and some sort of ogala butterfly project.

Everyone who won the drawing, postcards will be mailed tomorrow. Sorry about the lateness. Last week was really really hard for me physically.