Two different kinds of stink.
Sep. 16th, 2006 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weaselmomSo today S and I did something a little different: a candlelight dinner and twilight tram tour at NW Trek, an animal park way out on the road to Mt. Rainier dedicated to primarily Northwest animals. We've been there before, but this time we'd be there after the park closed, and for once our tram tour wouldn't have any children on it. Why? Because we're in the middle of elk rut, and we were heading out to watch those bad boys strut their stuff. So the overall theme of the event could be summed up as "have a romantic dinner with your sweetie, go spy on some elk getting it on, then go home and shag." Except for the part about dinner being romantic and actually seeing any elk. Oh, I guess dinner was okay. They have their own catering group but it was pretty low-end buffet fare. The tram tour was really nice because it was at twilight, doy, so it was quite different from what we're used to. How, you ask? Well, the light is different, the air is crisp and cool, and the animals are in surprisingly different locations than usual. The bison herd was up in one of the woods, and the deer were grazing on the bison plain. The elk were uncharacteristically reclusive, tucked into thickets that were difficult to peer into from the road. (Well, and wouldn't you? Can't an ungulate rut in peace?) The younger moose cow had recently been injured by an elk bull because she got too close to the herd, so we didn't see her. We saw a couple of the bighorn rams trying it on, nothing serious, just that thing that guys of all species do when they want to show off a little.
I don't go to NW Trek for the free-roaming herd animals, or even for the predator areas (habitats for different types of canids, bears and cats). I go for the small forest animals: river otters, beavers, badgers, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, wolverines (yes! wolverines!) and my favorite of all, my beloved fisher. Sadly, their male fisher died of old age, so the female is by herself. Yeah yeah, I anthropomorphize *all* the time, but I think she has to be lonely. I felt lonely just looking at her. Soon, though, a keeper came by to give her a treat of ground meat, so she disappeared into the back. This was my only real disappointment of the day, having the male gone and not getting to see much of the female. Earlier this year the wolverine pair had a kit, and she was in her own enclosure next to them where she amused herself endlessly by carrying around a stick, shaking it, drowning it, throwing it, just having the best time one could possibly have with a stick. The thing about the wolverines, though, is that there is a palpable Wall of Stink that even I, with my love of all things mustelid, have a hard time adjusting to. The river otters were adorable, as usual. The best thing of the day was that the beavers have four kits that were born on Father's Day and they are lethally cute with their snub faces and miniature beaver tails and fat little bellies. We watched one of the keepers give the whole beaver tribe some treats (chunks of carrot, apple and sweet potato) and that would be close to my dream job--hand-feeding bits of carrot to baby beavers. My true dream job, of course, would be hand-feeding fishers. Why oh why didn't I become a naturalist? (Besides the gross parts like studying bugs and dissecting poop.)
Speaking of poop, the second stink of the day came when I got home and opened my BPAL order. This isn't the giant, insanely expensive order of Halloween blends; this was an interim order of Candy Butcher from Carnaval Diabolique and one of the Lunacy blends, Chrysanthemum Moon. Candy Butcher is supposed to smell like chocolate. On me, it smells like a musty, moldy closet filled with rotting hazelnuts. It smells exactly like the time I mixed two oils (Snake Oil and Desire, both of which smell great on me separately) and spent the rest of the evening loathing the very stink of myself. It's horrible, horrible. Mum Moon starts off smelling like a store where they sell goods from India, primarily incense. Completely overpowering at first. At some point there's some mix of musk and rose, and now it's settled down into something that might be very pleasant, might even be *somebody's* dream scent, but just isn't me at all. This is disappointing, as the limited editions cost a lot of money for something you're ordering without smelling it first. Usually it's partly offset by some of the freebies they toss in, but this time even my frimps smell ghastly: Endymion, Lyonesse (which I'm willing to actually give a shot), The Apothecary, and #20 Love Oil and Blood Pearl, both of which I think will go straight in the trash. Wolverines can be excused for smelling like they do, but I'm not going to deliberately douse myself in something this evil-smelling.
Perhaps some geocaching tomorrow, if the weather holds. I know you're all afire with anticipation!
ETA: Current fruit inventory, all new: 4 apples, 2 nectarines, 3 pints of blueberries, 1 bowl of strawberries, and a clot of figs. I should never be allowed out of the house by myself.
I don't go to NW Trek for the free-roaming herd animals, or even for the predator areas (habitats for different types of canids, bears and cats). I go for the small forest animals: river otters, beavers, badgers, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, wolverines (yes! wolverines!) and my favorite of all, my beloved fisher. Sadly, their male fisher died of old age, so the female is by herself. Yeah yeah, I anthropomorphize *all* the time, but I think she has to be lonely. I felt lonely just looking at her. Soon, though, a keeper came by to give her a treat of ground meat, so she disappeared into the back. This was my only real disappointment of the day, having the male gone and not getting to see much of the female. Earlier this year the wolverine pair had a kit, and she was in her own enclosure next to them where she amused herself endlessly by carrying around a stick, shaking it, drowning it, throwing it, just having the best time one could possibly have with a stick. The thing about the wolverines, though, is that there is a palpable Wall of Stink that even I, with my love of all things mustelid, have a hard time adjusting to. The river otters were adorable, as usual. The best thing of the day was that the beavers have four kits that were born on Father's Day and they are lethally cute with their snub faces and miniature beaver tails and fat little bellies. We watched one of the keepers give the whole beaver tribe some treats (chunks of carrot, apple and sweet potato) and that would be close to my dream job--hand-feeding bits of carrot to baby beavers. My true dream job, of course, would be hand-feeding fishers. Why oh why didn't I become a naturalist? (Besides the gross parts like studying bugs and dissecting poop.)
Speaking of poop, the second stink of the day came when I got home and opened my BPAL order. This isn't the giant, insanely expensive order of Halloween blends; this was an interim order of Candy Butcher from Carnaval Diabolique and one of the Lunacy blends, Chrysanthemum Moon. Candy Butcher is supposed to smell like chocolate. On me, it smells like a musty, moldy closet filled with rotting hazelnuts. It smells exactly like the time I mixed two oils (Snake Oil and Desire, both of which smell great on me separately) and spent the rest of the evening loathing the very stink of myself. It's horrible, horrible. Mum Moon starts off smelling like a store where they sell goods from India, primarily incense. Completely overpowering at first. At some point there's some mix of musk and rose, and now it's settled down into something that might be very pleasant, might even be *somebody's* dream scent, but just isn't me at all. This is disappointing, as the limited editions cost a lot of money for something you're ordering without smelling it first. Usually it's partly offset by some of the freebies they toss in, but this time even my frimps smell ghastly: Endymion, Lyonesse (which I'm willing to actually give a shot), The Apothecary, and #20 Love Oil and Blood Pearl, both of which I think will go straight in the trash. Wolverines can be excused for smelling like they do, but I'm not going to deliberately douse myself in something this evil-smelling.
Perhaps some geocaching tomorrow, if the weather holds. I know you're all afire with anticipation!
ETA: Current fruit inventory, all new: 4 apples, 2 nectarines, 3 pints of blueberries, 1 bowl of strawberries, and a clot of figs. I should never be allowed out of the house by myself.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 04:27 pm (UTC)I sort of have the same bad habit about buying fruit. I actually had to throw blackberries out because I had too much fruit to eat it all before it went bad. How f'ed up is that?
no subject
Date: 2006-09-19 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-21 06:01 am (UTC)I'm not a fan of perfume; if I like a woman's scent, then I'm attracted to her. If not, I'm not. Perfume won't permanently mask a scent I don't like but will mask one I do like, so I just don't understand the whole perfume thing. Especially when you get a bunch of unknown scents. What's the appeal for you?
no subject
Date: 2006-09-21 04:10 pm (UTC)*You ask about getting a bunch of unknown scents. One of the things about BPAL is you start to learn what perfume ingredients smell good or bad with your particular chemistry, and you can look for blends that have the good ingredients in them and avoid the bad ones. The gimps (gift imps, sometimes called frimps, or free imps) let you experiment with new ingredients without investing any money (until later, of course, when you simply must buy the bigger bottle or you will go MAD, MAD I tell you!).
We are indeed addicts.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-21 04:46 pm (UTC)Hey, see you soon! In a week or so, I'll be out there!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-21 04:51 pm (UTC)