We are way overdue on this posting, so I will catch you up quick. The challenge is related to photos, which I just got off of Bubb's camera yesterday.
While Booty was here, we made an early morning run to Sand Hollow. We were on the water before day break. Booty and I had a blast, and caught some great fish, as you can see from these photos.
The weekend before classes started, Bubby and I drove down to Flagstaff to meet up with Larry and Johanna and Dave and Janet. We were guests in Dave and Janet's home. The purpose of our trip was to visit an exhibit of the skeleton of Therizinosaur that both Larry and I helped excavate a couple of years ago. We had a grand weekend with these friends, and it was really fun to get together.
Dave is the curator of geology at the Museum of Northern Arizona, and a very big fish in the vertebrate paleontology world. He is also a very nice guy, and a good friend. The first thing we visited in the museum was an exhibit of Dilophosaurus, the famous spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park I. Dave wanted us to see the skeletal elements of this predatory dinosaur for comparison to the exhibit we had come to see.
This is a front shot of Dilophosaurus. Notice how narrow the rib cage and body chamber are. Also notice how narrow it is at the hip. Dave says this is typical of meat eaters. They don't need a big fermentation chamber like the plant eaters do.
This is the opening plaque for the wonderful exhibit we traveled so far to see. Unfortunately, our interior photos in this area didn't turn out very well. We were not supposed to take flash photos, which severely limited our effectiveness. Dave offered to send us professional images of the exhibit, which I have not yet received. Suffice it to say, the exhibit was outstanding, one of the most educational I have seen. The skeleton on display represents the most complete ever found. The only major element missing was the head.
Therizinosaur is somewhat of an enigma. It has many characteristics of a meat eater (tearing teeth, huge claws, etc.) but its abdomen and hip anatomy suggest plant eating. The mystery is unsolved, but the exhibit explored this enigma, as well as how the body of this specimen, which was clearly land dwelling, was found 60 miles from the nearest shoreline of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway.
One cultural opportunity bears mentioning. It is Hatch chili season, and they were for sale in the parking lots of many of Flagstaff's markets. One had the opportunity to choose as little as a quarter case. There were three levels of "heat" and the whole thing was very interesting. Traveling Bear was clearly enjoying himself in a sweater that Bubby knitted for him.
This apparatus is what roasts the chili. Fun to watch. The whole thing takes less than two minutes and includes the hot roasted chilies being placed in plastic bags to sweat their parched skins off. Booty says that similar opportunities are currently available in the Big D. Who know that this was such as southwestern phenom?
Johanna and Janet in the kitchen working with removing the skins from a case of the chilies. We were trying not to use water, although it makes things much easier. We froze most of the peppers before we brought them home.
I am involved in cleanup in this photo. Stretched out in the foreground is about one fifth of the chilies. We brought some home, shared with Dan and Rosalyn and made ourselves some chili verde. Even though we bought medium heat chilies, it is plenty hot. I am hoping to get the leftovers in a burrito this week.
Buboppy
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