kicking the coffee habit

Yep, I used to be a Maxwell House drinker... that is until I met Andy and his Pacific Northwest, highfalutin, fancy coffee preference (read: industrial strength oil that'll change your views of life forever - and, no, I'm not talking about BP!), which somehow goes hand-in-hand while wearing flannel, multi-pocketed shorts, and dark socks with water sandals. After exceeding my baggage weight limit this past December by hauling home numerous pounds of Batdorf and Bronson, I discovered I didn't feel all that great after such a strong cuppa joe.

Now, I'm opting for green tea. I like the super-cheap generic kind in a pint glass with those convenient reusable paper sleeves that the Mr. brings home to me after going out for coffee (we've long been out of B&B).

Time for my morning excursion. Hope to see some celebrities in town for the local U.S. Open and hope to forget all about the continually depressing news headlines this morning.

Wishing you all a better day than how mine is starting.

ps - Maybe my bad attitude (or lack of high-octane caffeine?) is affecting how I experience things... I was rudely ejected from the Monterey Crepe Co. in downtown Monterey this morning, because I waited before ordering by watching the last 2 minutes between U.S. and Slovenia. It's too bad, I really like crepes.

acorn barnacle ~ 06/17/10 ~ Coast Guard Pier

red-striped acorn barnacle
Balanus pacificus

Amazingly, this is an arthropod. Can you believe? This is a big specimen at 32mm along its base. I admit to bringing it home from the commercial boat loading dock parking lot and am not sure what to do with it now. Is it still alive? I'm tempted to get a bucket of ocean water to see if it'll open up. I'm making a huge guess as to its ID since there's not a lot of online information for barnacle species. Mainly, because of its size, I'm thinking it must be a Megabalanus. I did find a wonderful marine blog from across the pond while searching for the ID: Jessica's Nature Blog.

ps 11/30/13 - I originally posted this as Megabalanus californicus, but the variation of reported sizes, 30 mm to 60 mm, has continued to bother me.  So, I'm going with the smaller locally found Balanus pacificus as listed in The Beachcomber's Guide to Seashore Life of California.  Part of my problem for tracking an ID is that a couple of my favorite sites (like Walla Walla University and Washington State University) are too far north to include this pretty barnacle, which reportedly ranges from Chile and Peru to Monterey Bay.

wordless Wednesday

grunion greeting, 2010 #4

grunion greeting
new moon cycle, 10:40-11:35pm, clear skies

No grunion, but it was an interesting time, nonetheless. There were a lot of cars on the lower part of the pier with very few obvious fishermen... maybe because it was Saturday night, or the hot weather kept people out on the beach with bonfires, or a delayed airing of the World Cup was playing at the pub on the other side of the pier. With all the lights and no Charlie sighting this year, we didn't expect to see much grunion activity. We did see a couple fancy schmancy, lighted, remote-controlled flying toys and hundreds of small sand crabs in the surf.