Dino Manners

Latitude 33: Another Independent Bookstore Has Closed Its Doors

We are in mourning.  A friend book store has closed its doors due to the competition from online and discount book stores.  This independent book store was in downtown Laguna Beach, California.  I shopped at Latitude 33 for years before ever writing a book.

I appreciated the independant authors they carried and the knowledge they had about each author and their works as if it were a family member.  When I wrote Dino Manners, Latitude 33 was one of the first book stores to ask to carry my book. They were honorable and allowed me to have a signing event during my first book tour.  My family and I will always remember the coziness of that day after the Patriot's Day Parade.

I can apprecaite being able to sell books online and I even have an ebook version of Dino Manners on Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/dino-manners/16313839,but I am saddened that another small book store without the ability to buy in large quantities or strong arm publishers has fallen.

Farewell my friend, Latitude 33.  You will be missed by many of us.

Personal Responsibility: Accept it or Change it.

There are a few pieces of advice that held me in good stead from the time I was a child through adulthood. I'm grateful I learned them then. Sometimes I need a refresher course. I also realize many adults never learned anything close to this.  Too bad they didn't learn it as children, it would help make the ride smoother.

Accept it or change it.

I didn't mean to stab it. It was an accident

Our son received a kit to grow Triops for Christmas.  They are the Sea Monkeys of today.  We had three - one large and two small ones.  HAD - yes had.

Friends stopped by and Austin wanted to show his lizards and the triops.  I was looking for the large one. When I asked him, he didn't lie he responded with, "It was an accident... I didn't mean to kill it."

 There was a kid kitchen knife by the tank. I asked if that was what he used. He was disgusted with me and started to cry. About this time his sister flew to his side defending the accident.  Apparently there was a Wizard of Oz incident.  The castle was accidentally dropped on it when he tried to put it in its little "house."

I was proud of him for telling the truth. I felt bad that I suspected foul play. I apologized and gave him a hug.

Teen Dinos at Play...Not a Good Ending.

"Teen" Dinosaurs Roamed in Herds, Mass Grave Suggests

Tasha Eichenseher
National Geographic News

March 15, 2009

Like teenagers at the mall, young dinosaurs may have wandered in herds—fending for themselves while adults were busy nesting, according to a new report on one of the world's best preserved fossil sites.

About 90 million years ago a herd of more than 25 birdlike dinosaurs got stuck in the mud at the edge of a drying lake and perished together in modern-day China, said study co-leader Paul Sereno, a University of Chicago paleontologist.

 

Nearly complete skeletons of the plant-eaters were found at the Gobi desert site—some stacked on top of each other.

The dig site is etched with an ancient tragedy, said Sereno, who is also a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Plunge and scratch marks are preserved in the long-hardened mud, showing the young dinosaurs' futile attempts at escape.

The dinosaurs' flailing likely attracted predators that feasted on the meatiest parts of the young—the hips, Sereno said. Only hip bones are missing from the fossilized bodies.

Dinos in the News

( from Fox News 10-27-09 )

Dinosaur experts in Dorset, England, are examining the fossilized skull of a sea monster so large they say it could have eaten a Tyrannosaurus rex for breakfast.

The fossil head is 8 feet long, suggesting that the beast measured up to 54 feet from the tip of its massive, crocodile-like snout to the end of its muscular tail, making it one of the largest specimens ever found.

The skull belongs to a pliosaur, one of a group of giant aquatic reptiles which roamed the warm seas over what is now southern Britain 150 million years ago.

If you're going to lie, stay with it.

Our four-year-old hasn't learned the fine art of lying, so it's still funny.  When his sister asked him how he knew that Wildebeests lived in Africa, he replied,

"Barack Obama told me." 
Long Pause and the look of knowing and disbelief came across her face.
"When did he tell you?"
Another long pause.
"When I was at his house."
A tilt of the head and sideways glance by the 7 3/4 year-old.
"In Washington.  I was there.  It's a white house."
Another glance.
Panicked and defeated.
"OK, OK, Barack Obama didn't tell me. I've never been to his house."
"OK, then WHO told you?"
"God."
That about did it. She couldn't argue.