Gratitude Lounge

Thank you, Mica! Yes, those look familiar. My textbook was one of those leased digital ones that the professor’s like because the tests are digital (it saves them a lot of test writing and grading work). But of course leased digital go, POOF! after the semester, so I can’t refer to it anymore. I think we also had some blow-up details of the rheticulums… i have a vague memory of having to memorize a route… was it for cell division? There was so much detail it went by in a blur! I should maybe try Khan Academy to remember. We also spent much time on messaging routes. Okay, I signed up for Khan Academy. I’m going to catch up to your lifetime of devotion to the subject! 🤪

Isn’t it fascinating how sophisticated nature can be in its senses and signaling! Think on how maple and some other trees can interpret the light and day lengths and quit producing chlorophyll, giving us the beautiful colored leaves with the remaining carrageenan (which is able to photosynthesize the weaker autumn light), or how in the spring with the day/night temperatures they are signaled to send sugars up the trunks to begin the buds. Or how some vegetable crops are able to sense the presence of insects and change their chemistry so they are “yucky” to that insect’s taste. I find this kind of thing remarkable! Some days I wonder if we are the intelligent life on this planet… 😉

Oh you will have to try some paczkis! I think “fat Tuesday” is coming up, isn’t it? It is a Polish filled donut, done traditionally before Lent, to use up butter, cream, and eggs which were traditionally not allowed during Lent. They fill them with all sorts of things, chocolate cream, a vanilla pudding cream, blueberry, strawberry, any kind of fruit… they are often coated on the outside with powdered sugar. Some families in our area have paczkis instead of dinner on Fat Tuesday, and stuff themselves because they can’t have any donuts for Lent.