i don't get enough blood to my brain: whiskered submersibles

I spent part of today organizing to pack my things for our possible move to Alaska. As most of you know, moving involves packing [ugh]. And as some of you also know, if I want to pack, I have to do some serious organizing.

I am not really capable of just "throwing it all together" like some people I know. Instead, I need to majorly categorize and sort out every little thing. Today is day one, and I decided to start with packing my books. This is extremely hard for several reasons.

1. when packing books, i must organize all books by category [textbooks, nature books, nerd books, history books, novels...]

2. once organized, i must type them into alphabetized lists.

3. these lists are then compiled according to which box the books are packed in.

4. when packing my books, i tend to read a lot of them.

and finally

5. when i read something interesting, i must blog about it.

So, here I am, writing away when I should be packing. Act surprised.

While packing, I found the book In the Company of Manatees, which I bought from the Friends of the Library sale [one of like, a thousand that i have bought in the last 2 months. THEY'RE ONLY A QUARTER!]. I spent about half an hour flipping through this book [which has wonderful photos, i must say.] and i have learned quite a few things.

1. manatees are an endangered species [which i already knew but totally forgot about]

2. the closest land relatives of the manatee are the elephant:

and the hyrax, this cuddly creature:

cute, huh?

3. manatees are herbivores [which i think i also knew, but again never thought about]

4. a manatee's grinding molars grow continuously throughout their lifetime, and push forward to eventually replace their worn teeth in the front. sweet.

5. manatee mothers' teats [haha! okay sorry, that was childish...] are located under their flippers. so, when the calves are feeding it looks like they are sucking on their mom's "armpits".

Now, as most of you have probably guessed, I am temporarily obsessed with manatees. Also, I am extremely sad after seeing the many pictures of injured manatees in my book. So, I have decided to channel my sadness and focus on doing something positive. something like... adopting a manatee. Maybe I can adopt one this month... unless of course I should be like, paying the phone bill or something. I'll think on that one.

Alright, it's about time that I get back to organizing my books. I will keep you posted on the next interesting subject I come across. Until then, adopt a manatee, or paypal $35 bucks to heathercanik@gmail.com so that I can adopt one.