World Cup Cricket Final

The World Cup Cricket Final today eclipsed everything else. Thankfully the online streaming was working when I was up at 6 AM to start watching. Curtis was backing Sri Lanka (even betting against us!) - for shame! Same with one of the other supervisors, though they all say they are backing India to my face. Except one who said I would be crying the next day. Humph. I’m not sure I can talk to them again.

My wonderful husband followed my exhortation to watch the game (and previously the semi-final), knowing what was good for him, since I’ve been an ardent supporter of the Boston Red Sox. I didn’t even buy a cap in Grenada because the only ones available have Yankees logos (there are strong ties here to New York). However, having perhaps watched half a cricket match before in his life (likely in a bar in Ireland), he had no idea of the rules, or much of the game. Not letting such a minor thing stand in his way, he watched the game online, with Wikipedia and an ESPN cricket “explanation blog” open at the same time. If that’s not adorable, I don’t know what is.

My hopes sank to below sea level when Sehwag and then in short-order Tendulkar got out. Yikes, this is the end, I thought. Before I spiraled into despair, Curtis, to his biased credit said “be cool, be cool you guys will be ok”, and Kester checked me by saying “what, you think there isn’t anyone else on the Indian team?! You have many good players”. Indeed. And our team proved him right. We handled our opposing tensions with beer, naturally, even though it was still 10 AM. After all, its sundown in India right now - the place that counts!  The whole house celebrated with me when we won – more perhaps from amusement than anything else. Who’s crying now? Not me, imagining the fireworks that must be exploding across, India!

New Turtle Mama's

There were a number of new turtles on the beach last night. I named two of them after my sister and brand-new niece. New turtles are uncommon, and these two seemed new to the whole chamber-digging experience, in addition to being new to the beach. One dug a hole that was too wide and kept sliding in herself! This made egg counting a challenge.

Use your imagination to see right flipper scooping

The turtles dig their chambers beautifully. It is done with the shorter rear flippers. Here is a brief human-attempt description: Imagine putting your hand in a sock and stretching your fingers out. Then, palms down, form a scoop and pick up some “sand” with your fingers so that you carry it in your fingers (palm still facing down/backwards). Then toss to the side (towards your pinky). If you can understand these instructions – congratulations! You’ve passed the amazing imagination test and may be eligible to win a prize from the amazing imagination society!

The turtles form perfect scoops with their flippers, and systematically scoop sand out first with one flipper followed by the second, so that the hole maintains an almost spherical shape while getting deeper. They will also not do any extra work, so if some sand falls on their flipper they will toss it off before reaching in to dig out some more sand. They gauge the depth of the chamber by the length of their flipper – when they cannot dig out any more sand they stop and lay their precious eggs.

My hope is that by the time my niece is potty-trained, her namesake will have figured out how to dig the perfect chamber.