linkfest -

I have a couple of "real" posts in mind but time's been a bit short this week. Looking forward to this 3-day weekend - on Martin Luther King day we're paddling to the George Washington Bridge on Monday & stopping at the Mitsuwa Marketplace, the big Japanese shopping mall in Edgewater, for lunch on the way back down - I am pleased to report that my new drysuit arrived yesterday so that's a definite! I do plan to actually try to write a couple of posts that aren't just throwaways.

For today, though, just a few links -

1. Sad frog news. Everybody knows about the bird flu but did you know that the frogs are dying? Scientists have been studying the die-off and they think they've linked it to a fungus, which may be becoming more lethal due to global warming. Here's the NPR piece I heard, and there was also a story in the New York Times (registration required, will expire in a few days)(oops, that was also a duplicate of the NPR link, fixed now).

2. Much happier - more aquatic New Year's Day fun here in New York City - SeaLevel continues to post wonderful shots of the Coney Island Polar Bear Swim; also, Richard, owner of the pinky schooner Rosemary Ruth, has updated his Winter Sailing Page with shots of his New Year's Day Sail (that would have been fun too, even without wind, it looks like a pleasant group with which to drift).

3. Random weird cool thing - my friend Larry (whose 2006 appears to be shaping up nicely, knocking wood of course) found a site that lists a whole lot of New York City blogs by subway station. I'm undecided as to whether I really want the world at large to have that good a fix on where I live (not that somebody couldn't figure it out if they really wanted to, and not that I consider myself particularly stalkable or anything like that) but it is tempting - fun to see who's blogging in the 'hood!

That's all I have time for right now - just wanted to share those though.

oh, the only other thing right now is that I'm wondering if I gushed too soon re Sweetwater - haven't heard back from them yet - boy, I hope the classes I wanted to take haven't booked up, that would be so depressing...ah well, I emailed 'em again this morning, hopefully will hear back. (3:30 update - heard back - my classes still had space; I'm now just waiting for them to call 'cause I need to figure out what kind of boat I'll be renting before I can write them a check - I started in on a response to their response, then decided it would be a lot faster to work out over the phone).