Rocks

Rockhounds of the world, Unite! Wolfie dear, you're super!!! I have a chunk of Canterbury Cathedral -that has to qualify as especially choice. Lest you turn me over to Scotland Yard, let me reassure you I took it, with permission. It was in a dump truck which was hauling away stone which had been so badly eaten by acid rain that they were replacing it - most often statues. This piece has nothing carved on it, so I was allowed to "take as much as you want, Ma'am!" But, it is the original stone w ich was there when Thomas Becket was murdered therein!

Oh yeah! I need a Moon Rock. We had a piece of it here, and it looks just like the dense lava core of an A'a flow! It even had tiny craters in it!

Did anyone find a piece of the meteor that exploded ove NZ yesterday?

No! I had not heard about it! Did it actually strike earth or did it burn off in the atmosphere as so many do? Lucie, let us know what you find out. I shall ask AnneH and see what she knows. Thanks for the news!

i hadn't heard about that either. thanks for stopping by, lucie, do come back!

Let's see, two new Firthians know there is more to TheSpring than Drool. Very good. Now, I shall work on prying some more loose - even if I have to send them to my *shudder* Babe topic.

Why shudder? Nice kneecap!

Thanks, Alex...you made my day! Hmm...should I put my rock wish list here now...the one with the coprolite, gastrolith, meteorite and moon rock on it?! Oh, and the complete creature in a chunk of amber.

let me think on that...might be redundant, don't you know!

methinks you already did *grin*

Re the New Zealand Meteorite, I just got this from a Firthian in Perth, Australia: It was on the news last night. A burst of light just above the surface in New Zealand did not say where I expect the Astronomers want to get the pieces pristine. Apparently although it did fall to the surface in small pieces no one was hurt.

*grin* Yes, I did, didn't I...*grin*

re response 11: thank God for that! marcia, do you have any websites for rock collecting info? or perhaps any literature titles devoted to it? i'll do some research myself and see if there are any legitimate sites out there. you know, in junior high (ah, so long ago), our science class touched on geology and i remember whenever the family would go on a drive, i'd look at all the landscape and jutted rocks or places where they cut through to put a road and be a little more knowledgeable about what happened to the earth. it really is cool!

Wolf, I have half of my Netscape Bookmarks used by Geology - from volcanoes (big over here), Earthquakes (part of the same and we have 'um quite regularly), Tsunamis (caused by the EQ's)and all sorts of US Geological Survey sites. What would you like? List the URLs or email them to you?

I just did an AltaVista search for Rocks and Minerals and came up with over 2,000 Web pages. The first few are very good for minerals and what they look like...and there are all levels of intellect, too, from little kids to us big ones. Any questions and I will check it out and report back here!

A good place to start is the Volcano Update from the Island of Hawaii where I am It has updates and links to other volcanoes and other neat stuff http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/ Use this URL for live images refreshed every 30 seconds of Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli in Italy http://www.iiv.ct.cnr.it:80/files/cam_index_stromboli.html Current Earthquake information world-wide http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/QUAKES/CURRENT/global.html

any good plate techtonics sites?

(sorry about the spare h)

thanks for your research, marcia. i know if i lived in a volcano/earthquake prone area, i'd have all those bookmarks too!

instead, all of yours are to water gauges, right, Wolf?

got that right! flood markers all over the yard too! *grin*

i have a friend who is quite into geology and collects rocks from everywhere. we spent quite the evening looking at her collection under black light!

Plate Techtonics (adult) www.earth-resources.net Plate Techtonics (kids) tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm (JASON project) Plate techtonics for the truly curious - contains the meter sites where they measure contintal drift (some of these David has helped install) www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm

Stace, I'd love to have a shadow-box cabinet in which to display my fluorescent rocks. I hope all of you who can get hold of a "black light" for viewing this phenomenon know not to look at the light source. It will damage your retina, and your retina is not into self healing. You lose it, you are blind. Please be careful.

Pardon the dead links. These should work: The one for adults http://www.earth-resources.net/p1832.htm the one for kids http://tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm The metering sites http://www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm

This is for those of you who live in natural-disaster-prone areas (Tornado, flood, hurricane and such), this is the Natural Disasters Website of the University of Colorado (one of the very best!) http://www.Colorado.EDU/hazards/

what? flourescent rocks? i have a black light bulb...hmmm...should i go out in the drive and pick up pebbles? when i lived in kansas, i found a couple pieces of crystal. they were cool!still have them, but don't remember where they are. think they're in the middle of a jar of shells!

Lots of things flouresce. Plug a light bulb socket (any hardware store has them) or cheap lamp into a l o n g outdoor extension cord, turn it on and look around. If you are wearing polyester anything or blend, even you and your shoes will fluoresce.

Sorry about this misspelling it is Fluorescence (like the lights in an office) and certain chemicals (everything is made of chemicals) emit electromagnetic radiation which is visible to the human eye. Lots of things do exhibit this quality, but our visible spectrum is rather narrow in comparison with other animals.

i knew about white clothing really blaring under black lights...hmmm, am gonna have to have a black light alligator pool party in my backyard!

Please tell me you are not looking for shredded remnants of clothing left by sated gators! and promise me you will not join them - BTW, be really careful around water. You could get a really nasty shock!!! And, remember to protect those little one's eyes from the bulb.

so, Wolf, what do you think? Should Marcia host a geology conference?

im new here so just burry me please

welcome to rock collecting, casanova! wer: i believe marcia is an expert on geology and would be perfect for her own geology conference!! marcia: i promise to be extra careful *grin*

Send them over if necessary. If you cannot baffle them sufficiently I can try to snow them under completely! BTW, I wrote a cute intro for the Geo Conference which got lost somewhere between my keyboard and my returning image. Oh well. Off to create topics for discussion...and thanks, I think, for your faith in my abilities and expertise. I am thinking seriously about comandeering my son to help with the Geoecology part - that is his field.

figured you would...

I need this to be linked to Topic 21 in Geo Conference. Going to look for some help in this endeavor - and perhaps we can breathe some life back into both of them. (It would be 21, right?)

For example, when you're in telnet, to link a topic 30 in the austin conference to the news conference, go to the news conference and type li 30 austin

Ok: help link **** LINKFROM **** Syntax: li_nkfrom Description: This will link items in the specified range in the given conference into the current conference. This can only be done by a fair-witness of the current conference. A link can be erased with the kill command. Link commands are logged to the conference log file.

Thanks, Terry. I shall try that as soon as I am more awake. I noted where my other links are indentified in the conf log because I found the ones which were done for me earlier before I had seen that they were an actuality!

I tried in telnet to do as you instructed and the following appeared: Ok: li 29 springark Cannot access conference 29. I got the same response when I tried to link the other one, as well. Do I need to be cfadm to do this? I have not been so named. Suggestions?

I got the syntax backwards, it must be li springark 29

Thanks Terry...(picky computer language...*grin*). It works beautifully and so easily when one knows the right command..! Both are now linked!

Hi Marcia, I was looking for new posts in the geo conference and there popped this topic! Telnet magic, I guess :-)

Yes! I managed to link two topics - one from SpringArk and one from Collecting. Of course, Terry had to tell me what to do, but now I know...watch out world! Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =)

Cool!

Now there will be people posting who never dared to venture into Geo before. It is rather nice in here and we get off topic as much as any other place does. Check us out...there is a lot of really cool stuff in here.

(Marcia)Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =) Oh no, it wasn't a promise. I couldn't wait for your birthday so it was a non birthday present. Or a party favour, if you like :-)

Might I save it and use it in my topics, then? I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. Thanks!!! It is darling!

what is it? i can't wait to see...

Its a cute little globe...she is giving me the world! (I think it might fit in theat capture ring you have which has interchangeable spheres...-*grin*

(MarciaH) I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. I think Swedish, not Portuguese... Rather the opposite end of Europe :-) Here's the page's url, they say you can use their graphics and ask that you link to them, so...

cool! thanks!!

Wolfie, your captured world is in Organic gems, but so you can share it, I'll put it here, also.

i like it!

Is that not the ultimate sphere for your Orbis collection>?!

indeed!! *grin* oh, i found an amber colored rock on the beach (at port aransis, texas) and picked it up. maybe i can get it ground and polished up for my ring!

OOOh...Opaque or translucent?

it's kinda translucent and smooth from the water.

Ummm..darkish reddish orange - Carnelian?

Check out http://www.jewelry4less.com/parts/carnelian.shtml

none of those. it's more of a pale orange. it looked darker on the beach.

Hmmmm...how hard is it? Does it scratch window glass? Could it be citrine quartz?

haven't tried that yet. um...it has a dark spot on it, like something stuck inside. perhaps i should scan it?

Is it very light? Might it be amber??? Scan it by all means!

The dark spot is an inclusion of some sort. If it is light in weight and amber it might be a creature or leaf. If it is another inorganic sort, it is what is known as a flaw in diamonds and other precious gems. Interesting!!!

marcia, could it be just a rock? *grin* i'm gonna scan it in a few minutes just to spare you the suspense!

k, here are the scanned images. one side: other side: and i tried to scratch glass and it didn't.....

It could evem be part of a beer bottle...*smile* (There is no such classification as "rock"...gotta know what it might be...I am driven to know such things!) Go Wolfie, Go! Scan, Woman!!!

Looks like a bit of already-sucked-and-discarded Hallowe'en candy! Hmm...I'll bet it does not scratch because it is rounded. Will a kitchen knife scratch it? (Be careful, dear...!)

all these scientific experiments! lemme try....... there was some scratching from the knife. but it didn't cut into the stone and couldn't tell if i was merely removing dirt!

there's stuff inside but it was hard to show you on the scanned image. if i hold it up to light, i see bubbles and stuff.

You mean you did not lick it clean??? What kinda Wolf are you?! *lol* wash the little thing and report back.

Bubbles...hmmm...sounds like stained milk glass or glass slag. Any manufacturing of glassware going on around you anywhere? Last century?

Too bad there is not an easy way to rig a light box for your scanner bed...like the ones on which you review photographic slides...Hmmm...

what do i wash it with? soap and water or a jewelry cleaner? it's probably just a big piece of glass that didn't get beaten down to a sand pepple yet. there's also a dark line through it. but can't tell you for sure about bubbles because it's kinda milky.

ok, i cleaned it with soapy water and the slight knife marks are still there.

Get a tiny flashlight and put the pebble on top and turn it on. What can you see now? It sounds like it is about the hardness of glass (which is also the hardness of knife steel). Wash it when you wash your hands unless you think there is something stuck to it...that is why I keep old toothbrushes. To scrub little things with.

Ok, of the knife made discernable but not deep marks, it is almost certainly glass.

now that the AM thinks i'm crazy...it has orange colored striations through it.

Oooh...interesting. Hmmm.. thinking... This is the first time I have done remote rock identifying - I think it is exciting. (I know - the house male here thinks I am odd beyond belief.) Could they be stains? If they are semi-regular it might be onyx.

I have my Rockhounding Manual in hand and I find that there is incidences of agate (banded is like your stone but probably harder than yours), jasper (dull red-brown) and petrified wood (does not look like that to me.) Hmmm...

i don't know, but it's definitely inside the rock. and i dropped it while trying to examine it and can't find it! (i have a wood laminate floor and it blends in quite well). the AM is trying to fix my keychain flashlight as the other one's light was blinding as it escaped the edges of the rock! will keep looking and try to give you better details. don't know how to zoom with the scanner either!

What county are you in, and what is the next state closest upstream?

got the rock back (it went under the computer desk!). i don't know how you can tell what it is or isn't from that picture i scanned!

ok, i found the rock off the gulf of mexico off of port aransus texas. there were lots of pepples and broken shells as the breakers were quite strong.

Ah....not in Lousiana...looking...since it was ocean-borne, and there are bubbles in it (they are rare in nature because of the way rocks form, I am guessing on just that evidence that it is glass - that and the hardness and translucency. I would guess also that the striations of orange visible might either be due to its original form and intended to be there as ornamental, or it is due to internal fractures which gathered sediment which (such as oxides of iron) which made the discolorations. The secon I think is unlikely. I think you have a pebble of OLD glass - perhaps from early American or Spanish settlements - hand blown (the only kind they had). It is a nice pebble to keep! But it will not polish...etched glass just does not work that way.

hmmmm....interesting indeed! thanks for your research!

How am I telling what this specimen is? Looking at it and your discription allows me to eliminate a lot of things. Your hardness test was precise enough to allow me to ascertain it was about 5 to 5 1/2 on Moh's scale of hardness (check Geo 16 Diagnostics) which is about what window glass is and just a little softer than a steel blade. The bubbles were the most telling detail - as I said previously, because they are seldom found in nature except in rare cases and are really tiny (microscopic). Do I get a passing grade? Its translucency also aided me. You could even have the remant of a broken marble, but I doubt that. I think it is a broken piece of colonial milk glass..either Spanish or American which has been rounded by ages in the harder quartz sand.

My pleasure! Over here we hardly ever find anything but coral (sand is crushed shell and coral if it is white) or lava or peridot sand. I once found a small chunk of granite washed up where we launched our sailboat. I still have it. How did it get here? Probably as ballast stones in saliling ships!

i think it's way cool!!

*beaming* Me too!

now you got me digging through my older shell collections. i have a few crystal pieces that i got in kansas but can't remember where i put them. also found this beauty that's in the shape of a boot! (it's a rock not a crystal). i'll scan it real quick for you....

here's the boot:

Understand, but it could be made of rock crystal which is a real semiprecious stone. The clearest and purest form of glass on earth formed naturally. (I am enjoying this very much!)

well, you know, it would help if i ftp'd it over first!!

sorry, didn't mean to post it twice!

Yep...then they both show up! Do you think this just happens to look like a foot rather than being off of a leather doll of great age which had procelain hands, head and feet? If it is natural is it translucent at all and is the surface granular or smooth in texture?

give me 15 minutes to eat dinner - I shall return!

i'm gonna fill in the details on that piece and then i have to give over the pc to the AM (he's got some stuff to do too).... ok, the boot is smooth with some jagged spots on it. it is granular looking and has some pitting going on. haven't done the knife or glass test yet but can't scratch it with my nail. it has light and dark grey spots on it. i've had it for over 16 years and can't remember if i found it in a gravel road or what. it appears to be the same on both sides although on one side the "ankle" is smooth and the other is bumpy. what is interesting, besides the symmetry, is the indentation where the achilles is over he back of the foot and before the beginning of the calf. if this was nature made, it's amazing. it never occurred to me that it could be a petrified dolls foot. and now i've got to go. thanks for your help marcia and for spurring on my interest! oh, and i've still got to find a jeweler's glass and a black light. tried a black light bulb but it wasn't the same.

Thanks Wolfie for the interesting posts...like a treasure hunt. More on the doll's foot tomorrow, then?! I'll be here.

:-) Hey, this was real fun reading! You two will get the Indiana-Jones-Treasure-Hunters-Award for this one! Those stones are interesting. I got a box full which my parents collected, there are amethysts between and garnet and other stuff. My sisters lives at the north sea and always finds these precious ambers...I never had the luck to find something worthy at the shores...

me either!

Make that three of us...I found broken stuff in the Atlantic as a child, and out here there is more different stuff because of being in coral reef territory, but there is still no amber or anything close to it washing up around me. Hi Isabel! Happy you enjoyed our little fun evening of detective work. I really had a great time with it! Thanks again, Wolfie...time to get to the little foot again?

yeah! and i found a couple other interesting rocks mixed with my earliest collection of land shells. let's do one rock at a time! so what is your theory on my boot?

Does it seem like it is old eroded porcelain or does it seem hard enough to be stone? If it is stone it could be almost anything, but it could also be part of a figurine. I am still opting for the doll foot.

i have no idea about eroded porcelain.

How hard is it? Try your knife and window again

1. scratches glass 2. knife scratches rock

Huh! hmmm....does it seem to be of some sort of glass, as well?

Can you see light through it? (get out that flashlight again!)

i don't know! the residue from scratching with the knife made me think of sand and the scratch left a white mark.

as to the light, no, it's opaque...

Hmmm...turn over a coffee mug or plate and find where it is not glazed. Does that scratch whichever?

it didn't leave a discernable mark, but did draw on it (like chalk). the unglazed portion of the mug left a white mark on the boot.

..engraved white mark on the boot?...that means it is harder than the boot. Unglazed porcelain is hard - about 7... so it is used as a diagnostic for streak (Do you have some polished hematite which has a dark metallic luster and is often made into beads? Try that on your unglazed porcelain.)Do you have a stee life handy? Try that...it is 6 1/2.

that's what i used, a steel knife....i have a polished black stone ring but am not sure if it's hematite. actually, the white mark is gone now after i rubbed my finger over it.

the scratch from the knife is still there, i can feel the indentation with my nail.

I'm guessing it is just slightly harder than glass but enough to scratch it. Pure forms of silica would react like that but would be clear and without inclusions. Thinking.... Do you recall from whence this little footie came?

Ok softer than 5 1/2 so likely not glass or silica of any form. (Your black stone is probably onyx if it does not have a metallic luster) Try a penny - which scratches which and how much (I am guessing it will scratch the penny which is 2 1/2.)

the black stone is in the form of a ring--it's not onyx....ok, now to find a penny...is my little boot gonna get all ruined from all these experiments?

ok, it scratched the penny, but we expected that, right?

(back to the ring, i think it is hematite....it's black with a silvery lustre and very smooth.)

ok, i tried the hematite and boot scratching thing and neither scratched the other.....

No, find something tiny and unglazed to use on the underside of your stone ring (it will scratch your ring, so use it on the inside.) If you don't wish to do this I will tell you what happens. (I have a pair of them and wear them as guards on a jade or carnelian ring made the same way)

Put that boot somewhere in a safe place until I can think of other things to try. I am having to look through my texts now to see what it might be.

are you talking about using the boot on the inside of the ring? i did and no marks.

ooohh, making marcia do some deep research!! thanks, girl, for your help and patience with me and my rocks!

'night! *hugs*

Break a dish or somethiing really badly chipped. Take the bigest piece you can slip into the inside of your ring and see what color streak it scrapes off...just the tiniest scratch will suffice. If you do not wish to do that I will tell you in the morning what your results would have been and why. Meanwhile hitting the books for boot ID, and downloading lava pix for Travel/Hawaii ... G'night, Wolfie! *hugs*

Don't know quite where to put this little story but it IS a rock we are talking about and not old enough for Paleo... Woman Carries 'Fossil' Fetus for 49 Years TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan doctors operating on a 76-year old woman discovered a ``fossilized'' fetus in her abdomen conceived 49 years ago a phenomenon recorded only three times in history, hospital sources said Wednesday. The Veterans General Hospital said doctors on December 31 found a 20 gram (0.7 ounce) lithopaedion, the rocklike remains of a fetus hardened by calcium buildup, in the abdominal cavity of a woman surnamed Wu. The baby appeared to have died in the 20th week of Wu's pregnancy when the fetus moved from her womb to her abdomen. The hospital said their research yielded only three known lithopaedions, and the earliest case dated back to 1582, when a 28-year old fetus was found in French woman.

(Wolfie is not going to be happy with me as this is linked to her collecting conference, but it IS a rock...)

it is an interesting rock to say the least. how could she not have known?

Some people are dead from the neck up, I think! No sense, no feeling and all those old adages must be true!

Don't think I'll put one of those on my wish list...Yeesh!

euw! well, on the subject of rocks, i received my mom's package with the photo albums and guess what was in there? the mysterious kansas rock pictures. yup, tomorrow i'll scan and post them for you to marvel over. yes, am gonna keep you in suspense! :)

Yes! I remember. Big'uns, if I recall correctly...! Waiting patiently...well...as patiently as I can...*sigh*....Yippee!

ok, here's the link to the mysterious kansas rock formations: http://www.spring.net/~bayou/rocks.gif

For the time being it is http://206.97.234.70//~bayou/rocks.gif except for the fortunate few who can still get in the old way... Oh my! They look like fossilized butter rolls which you peel to eat (I cannot think of their real name...) They are just sitting around like that with all those layers? Never thought they'd look like that in Iowa! Thanks, Wolfie!

iowa? kansas, marcia! *heehee* they're absolutely huge. we climbed on some of them. can't even remember what the site was called. a bunch were perfectly round and others were flatter. they all had that butter roll look though.

Absolutely amazing! Funny thing I can never remember the midwest because whenever I flew over it the states were not painted different colors like on my map and I could not tell where I was. They could have at least painted the edges a different color...*sigh*

the midwest looks like a patchwork quilt to me....(check out my post in linens)

I did...and noted that I am to "talk" to Terry which I shall do straight away. *hugs*

Talk to me, talk to me.

Wolfie and I would like an Arts and Crafts Conference, unless you think it is too much and would be more properly a Topic in another conference. This would be handmade things from crocheting and knitting to doll-making, teddy bear making and tapestry to name a few. Pottery, woodworking and glassblowing also come to mind. Or should this be under the Art Conference? Not all of it is art however...sewing of clothes and design of same...lots of cross-overs to be linked if it is a separate conference. Let s know. Thanks! When you have, time, of course! *hugs*

...or just plain CRAFTS would probably be better...

yeah, cuz then it wouldn't be confused with the arts and if we run across topics that would serve a purpose (and it's ok with ree ree) we could link them up. i've got a bunch of ideas for a crafts topic! (and terry, i want to send something to help with the bills but it will have to wait until payday. always tell myself that i'm gonna do that and i forget, so maybe this way, i'll be more apt to remember *grin*) speaking of rocks, i saw a show today on emerald mining. how tempting it must be for those miners to want to walk off with something. guards were all over the place (i think they were in mexico or someplace else where they speak spanish)--no offense but i can't remember where they were. they were 300 feet below the surface and air had to be blown in. i'd be so scared!

oh, thanks terry *smoooooooch* (and to you, marcia for taking the ball and running with it)

Museum Sues Indians Over Meteorite Ownership NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Museum of Natural History sued an American Indian group Monday to block its claim to the 15.5-ton Willamette Meteorite, one of the museum's oldest treasures and a centerpiece of its newly opened planetarium. The suit seeks a court ruling that the museum is the rightful owner of the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. It also seeks a ruling that it does not have to repatriate the extraterrestrial object to an Oregon Indian group that alleges that the gigantic meteorite is a holy tribal object that brought messages from the spirit world long before the arrival of white men. The museum's lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court a little over a week after the much touted opening of its sleek $210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space on Manhattan's upper West Side. The metallic iron meteorite, which is believed to have fallen to earth 10,000 years ago from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, holds a place of honor on the main floor in the planetarium's astrophysics hall. It has been viewed by countless scientists, teachers and schoolchildren for nearly a century. The lawsuit alleged that the meteorite's ownership history dates back to at least 1855 when various Indian tribes voluntarily ceded the meteorite, which was once located in the upper Willamette Valley in Oregon, to the United States in exchange for reservation land and other considerations. In 1905, the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon ruled that the meteorite belonged to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company as owner of the land on which the object was found. The company sold the meteorite to the American Museum of Natural History the next year for $20,600. Almost immediately after its purchase, the museum began to study the object and it has been on almost continuous display since 1906. According to the lawsuit, the current ownership dispute began during the fall of 1999 when representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon visited the museum. The federally recognized group consists of a number of tribes from the Upper Willamette Valley, including the Clackamas which ceded the meteorite in 1855, the suit said. At the end of their visit, the representatives submitted a written claim for repatriation to the museum stating that the meteorite is a sacred object. It filed its claim under the federal law known at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. The law was written for the preservation and repatriation of Native American cultural and religious artifacts. To obtain repatriation of a sacred object, a tribe must show that it is a sacred object, that the tribe owned or controlled it and that the museum does not have a right of possession, the suit said. The museum alleged that the Oregon Indian group did not meet these requirements.

Gee, perhaps I was not talking loud enough in the post before last...?!

are we people sue happy or what? who can own a meteorite? sheesh!

I'd sure like to have one, but I must not! They belong to everyone as far as I am concerned! Greed once again rears its ugly head...!

Of course, all of the famous legendary swords were forged out of meteroitic iron. Iron from the gods made them invincible - and we still remember the names today - as in Excalibur...

well, it's one thing if you happened across a piece, kinda like the berlin wall, but to sue for ownership? this world has become quite greedy. i'd love to just see one in person (already landed and no damage done safely inside a scientific museum) *knock on wood*

*lol* Me too!!! Exhibit A....

(Sometime, when I am not cooking supper, remind me to tell you why you knock on wood!)

it's from an old myth, right? anyway, i don't like tempting fate, God, or whatever....

you guys are just eating supper? and you're still posting?

Nope - I took off about 15 minutes to eat and another 10 to clean up the dishes and kitchen...and I am back at it. As I write itis 5:36pm and we watched the local evening news while consuming my homemade pisghetti.

I think I only just missed you! It's 4 am here and I'm working already.

You so not sleep much. It is almost 5am and I have kept you from doing anything constructive =) It is just going on 7pm yesterday here!

(shh I went back to bed for a while afterwards ;-) but I'm back working again now - it's 7.50 am and I've got a meeting at 9.30 which I'm not ready for! My sleep patterns are all over the place just now. I napped yesterday afternoon which I don't usually do)

(Shhh...so are ours. R wanders in the night and ends up in the back bedroom if he does not start there...I just get up and read.)

(I'm really gonna have a problem when I move my desk back in - won't be able to get up at night and work!)

That is currently my problem. He built my computer station into the corner of the bedroom...and when he is in here trying to sleep for the night, I cannot be on the computer. Maybe I should leave him in the back bedroom....=)

ok, so tell me the story about the knocking on wood (i think i've heard it but right now, can't remember a thing)

What is the story of knocking on wood? It's one of those things you hear and don't really pay attention to, one of those old bromides.

Well, it all has to do with the world tree and the Celts who gave it to the Norse. The roots reached to the gods of the underworld and the branches reached into the heavens. By knocking on the tree, you are praying for the gods of both to heed your comments and help you!

Ygsdrill or something like that...(gotta look that up, too...)

Funny thing about old bromides and nursery rhymes and folk tales. Somewhere, way back..there was real meaning behind the words...