What kind of bird is this?

I know it's a bad photo but this is the best I could do at the time. Can anyone tell what kind of bird this is? I thought it was a Western Meadowlark but the colors don't quite match up. He's showed up twice now on our back fence.

"smart" or just another way to break your legs

We saw this tiny smart (yes, all lower case) car at Mission Valley Mall the other day. Of course we were immediately attracted to it because of it's size. If there's one thing I enjoy, it's checking out unusual cars. (Or even better, fast cars - I can't help it, they make me drool!)

The last time I saw a car similar in size to the smart was a little over a year ago when a car salesman showed me a two door Yaris. When we saw it, Apollo and I both busted out with uncontrollable laughter. We were car shopping for Aimee and I told the salesman, "This car isn't good enough for my sister." *snort* Anyway, you can tell how small the smart is just by looking at where the owner parked it in relation to all the oil spots from other cars.

The owner walked out to the car not long after I took the photo and didn't seem too interested in talking to us, but we did pry some information out of him. Apparently he gets about 40miles per gallon and didn't seem too happy about that. He also pointed out that it's a 3 cylinder with the motor in the back. He did say though that being a Mercedes, it's got lots of nice little gadgets and is a quality purchase.

The website isn't joking when they say "reservations for two." At just a little over 8 feet long, only two people can fit in it. I'm not even sure if you can fit stuff in the back either, I think the motor takes up all the room. The last bit of info the owner of this car gave us before slowly driving away (3 cylinders, how cute!) was the going rate of $11k to $17k. Sounds some what similar to the Prius, I wonder if this is going to start a new fad?

While this isn't the car for me (I keep envisioning my knee's buckling after bumping into a curb) it certainly is exciting! I hope to own an ecologically friendly car some day and am happy to see all the innovative automobiles on the market.

Exhausted.

We got up at 4am this morning and took Mom and Tyler to Amtrak. After breakfast, a short nap, a mani and pedicure, we went to check out the Bodies Exhibition at UTC.

While fascinating (the diseased lungs made the biggest impact on me), I couldn't help but wonder who these people pissed off and what their offense was.

Sure, the guides at the exhibit will tell you that all the bodies were donated to science after Chinese officials failed to identify them or locate their next of kin. Still, considering the human rights violations in China, anything is possible.

Anyway, through the process of Plastination, liquids in the body are replaced with polymer or other such chemicals. You can read more about it here. This enables us to see veins, arteries, nerves etc.

Honestly, when I went to see the exhibit, it was out of an intellectual interest in the human body. I had never considered it to be gory, disrespectful or even controversial. I still don't think it was gory or disrespectful but I can see where the controversy would fall in to place.

Now that the family is gone, I just may go to bed before midnight. I'm aiming at 10pm tonight. Yay. Tired.