Tag Archives: California

The Banana Slug is not a Mythical Creature

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OK, so I never actually believed that they were a mythical creature, but it took me so long to actually find one after moving to Santa Cruz that I had great fun telling those who didn’t know better that they were figment of the collective local imagination. Courtney, who had seen them before, always sighed, rolled her eyes, and reassured whatever unwitting soul I happened to be talking with at the moment that they did exist, and that I should absolutely not be taken seriously. On this point, I cannot disagree with her, but I must have been somewhat convincing because her mom actually sounded surprised when a friend finally pointed one out to me and I managed to snap a picture of it. She actually made me send her the picture because she didn’t believe me.

A few banana slug facts:

  • They are native to the Northwest
  • The are HUGE! Some have reached 10 inches in length, and weights of a quarter of a pound.
  • They were almost the official mollusk of California. Yes, the legislature actually voted in the noble slug, but the Governor vetoed it.
  • They are the official mascot of UC Santa Cruz.

Banana Slug

Banana Slug


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Best of the Santa Cruz City Council

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She may not the the world’s angriest woman, but the lady in this video may very well be the biggest airhead! The rest of the characters in the last one are pretty good too. It turns out that you don’t have to live in Santa Cruz very long before you start running into these folks. What can I say… It’s a crazy place.

Santa Cruz lady at city council meeting:

Santa Cruz Lady Vs. Sarah Palin:

The whole Santa Cruz City Council Mashup:

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Move to Santa Cruz

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Well, after five years living in Vermont, and something like thirteen years living in New England, Courtney and I have gone and moved to Santa Cruz, CA. There are a lot of reasons for this; the very hard winters and extremely rainy summers in Vermont were starting to wear on us, but mostly we just wanted to live in a young and vital place that has a larger population. Courtney had some experience with the area during her brief stint working at Land of Medicine Buddha, and I had always enjoyed The Monterey Bay area when my family and I would camp here as a kid, so Santa Cruz seemed the perfect place for us.

I applied for a UNIX Systems Engineer position at the University of California Santa Cruz, and was offered the job back in July. After some serious soul searching, I decided to accept, and we started the process of relocating a full 3,000 miles from home, which I can assure you is no simple task! I’ve been here just under two weeks, but Courtney is still tidying up our affairs in Vermont before she starts the long journey out here in our car. Yep… That’s car, not cars. The public transportation system is so good out here that we can finally be a single car family. For my part, I’ve managed to move clear across this country twice and not driven it a single time. This is fine with me, however, since I have very little interest in seeing middle America.

Casey and I managed to find Paula’s Breakfast Shack while he was out for WordCamp 08. Home of the $1.99 Basic Breakfast, this place is so good, that I simply can’t imagine going anywhere else for eggs and home fries! I’ve tried a number of taquerias, but the jury is still out on which one is best. Once I find it I’ll have to freeze some tacos and burritos and send them out to Matt, who has strongly indicated that he hates me for having such easy access to good Mexican Food.

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