The Family *roll

Ok, not freaky. But unusual inasmuch we did three (for us) exciting things. As I’m sure almost none of you know, I’m a particular fan of pigeons. I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved them. When I was a child, my mother took me to Trafalgar Square back when it was covered in pigeons (it is now, sadly, pigeon-free). You could buy a little cup of bird seed and the pigeons would literally flock to you to get at it. I imagine that sounds like a total gross-out nightmare to most of you. But I loved it. There’s a picture of me somewhere with pigeons perched all over me wildly pecking at the food cup in the my hand.

I miss the Chicago pigeons. Northfield does not have pigeons. At least, not wild pigeons. I was thrilled to learn some months ago that there are pigeons in the psychology department and, wouldn’t you know, our babysitter is the student in charge of the pigeon-lab. She very kindly arranged for Emily, Eleanor and I to visit the pigeons.

We all had to wear lab coats

After the pigeon excitement (I even held a pigeon!), we headed off for event number 2: our first CSA pick up from Open Hands Farm, which is located about 2 miles outside of Northfield. Nothing special to report except that our first share of arugula, mustard green, turnips, bok choi and spinach was fabulous.

We rounded off the day back at Carleton, where a group of some 520+ students set a new world record for spooning. Each person needed to lie with his/her arms fully around the person in front of him/her for a full five minutes. We merely spectated, although I thought “Spooned with more than 500+ undergraduates” would look good in my tenure review file. Eleanor had a blast. She waited until everyone was in position before ducking under the yellow “Caution” tape and heading over a pile consisting of keys, shoes and a smart phone someone had set aside. She identified the last as most valuable and was planning to abscond with it while its owner was occupied. Sly little baby.