addenda

1. The dentist told me that Dutch has very large salivary glands. We're very proud.
2. Just outside our apartment building last night, we noticed a stretch of bare, rocky earth (a sad example of a neglected parking strip) that was fringed all around the edges with earthworms, their bodies extended nearly all the way out of their burrows. I'd never seen that before. We watched them for a while as they stretched out and poked around for food. (Dutch tried to feed them whole leaves, undaunted by their disinterest.) Seriously, I have earned a biology degree, taught (sort of) sustainable agriculture, composted with worms, and researched and answered eight billion questions from a small child, and I had NO IDEA that earthworms come to the surface at night for snacks. I guess it's appropriate to be reminded on Halloween, the night when the separation between death and life dissolves,* that I actually know almost nothing. Also, it was neat to see so very many earthworms going about their enormously valuable** business even in such an unlikely place. I like to imagine billions of earthworms tunneling around under the paving of Portland.***

*At least, that's what Wikipedia says.

** To EVERYBODY!

*** Not to mention the potential for a terrific Kevin Bacon moment, should the worms become enormous and try to eat us.