Fireflies and kidney and a half!

The past several days have been interesting.

Yesterday, while walking the dog, I saw my first German woodpecker.  It was solid black except for a streak of red on its head, and shock white bill and eyes.  It was BIG too.  Then, at night, there were three fireflies flitting about in our backyard terrace.  I was beginning to think that even though we live a little in the sticks, we might not see any.  Yay!

I had my full endocrinologist checkup today which was quite different than what I have experienced in the states.  The did an ultrasound to check my internal organs, and electrocardiogram (5 minutes to set up for a 3 second reading...I'm guessing something's not right here), blood work, pee-in-a-cup work, and some crazy sound-amplifier wand to check my circulation in my feet.  I guess I review the result in a month, but I did learn something about myself.  I apparently have a double or "duplex" kidney.  In my case, it's inconsequential because I have only one ureter and will pose no adversity to my health.

I'm slowly learning that I am indeed a mutant: I have a much higher than normal metabolism, I have Carabelli cusps on two of my second molars and one of my third molars, and now have two and a half or three kidneys (depending upon how you look at it).  Clearly, my mutant ability is having extra parts in advance for when I face off with Magneto.

On a different note, we got a new couch!  It's BIG.  So big in fact that we will have to reorganize the living room a little bit, but we can now both lay on the couch comfortably and simultaneously.  A big plus for both of us.  I will post pictures tomorrow.

Finally, I went to the Air Force library here and found a copy of a book I did not expect...The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archives.  I will also post a picture of it tomorrow.  If you are a spy book fan, and want to read about actual spies during the cold war from a Russian librarian defector, I highly highly recommend it.  Be warned: it is very dense reading.  I personally am excited because I started this book several years ago, but couldn't get past the first 100 pages.  Now, I aim for a rematch.

Speaking of books, I'm almost done with Clash of Kings.  The non-readers out there may be more familiar with it at Game of Thrones:  Season 2.  While the series sticks relatively close to the book, there are some significant differences for the purposes of brevity and added sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  I'm a fan of both the books and the TV Series, although I would say I like the books just a tiny bit better in terms of plot and character development.

One last item.  J's sister JJ recommended Brotherhood 2.0 from YouTube to us.  Very addictive and inspiring.  While I doubt I could be as entertaining as they are, I'm tempted to try the idea some time.