Coffee with a T-Rex

As previously mentioned, this past weekend Daniel has arrived back in Texas from his out-of-state travels that lasted about a month and included driving through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and ending in Chicago, Illinois, to visit with his brother. Though my friend Gwen would say her brother's in Chicago being a loser, so she knows about all that loser-ness that exists there, she did wonder aloud just why was Daniel in Chicago? "Is he joining my brother in Loserville?" - While I can't personally determine from this standpoint if Loserville includes Chicago, or not, I would have to point out that, I was quite excited to learn that there was at least one awesome thing that Daniel got to do while there; he had the most excellent opportunity to visit the Field Museum of Natural History.

Because I am currently forced to conditionally experience the outer states through others when it comes to travel, I was grateful to know someone who has visited that museum; it sounds stunning! One of the most prized exhibits and now permanent features in The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago includes Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus currently known! And so, one of the cool gifts Daniel brought home for me as keepsake of this highlight of his trip, is this very perfect T-rex coffee mug of Sue.

See how it's black and has the skeleton of Sue, and says SUE all big in red, and how it's just really awesome and its heavy and all bad ass?! I love it hardcore. As I write this entry I am drinking some wonderful Hazelnut Dunkin' Donuts Coffee out of it, and i am pretty sure it tastes even more delicious than usual. I usually buy it by the pound, but I swear now I have reason to start buying this yummy medium roast (Smooth and never bitter with 100% Aribica coffee beans) by the case. (Did you like that, Dunkin' Donuts? *call me*) But yeh, 1 lb only makes up to 135 cups, and I am going to need a lot more coffee to keep up with this oversized coffee mug.

But back to Sue and her thunder. Unlike myself, Tyrannosaurus rex was by far the largest land carnivore in its environment, and much like myself, may have been an apex predator. This is a great coincidence because much like in the presence of an awe-inspiring predator like myself, if you stood before Sue, you would shrivel up and cower in the corner and pee yourself. Yeh. Formidable. I'm sayin'. So, inspired by my love for coffee and the Tyrannosaurus Rex, just for kicks, I plugged in the keywords "coffee" and "tyrannosaur" (because yes, thats what you do when you're on teh interwebs.. you "plug" in your search words. If you are an Old One like me. and if you get that reference, i probably love you.) The result of that search is this dude singing about Coffee while a T-rex fossil stands in the background.

Courtesy Cornwall Tube

That dude has a brilliant sense of humour. I know that tune will be stuck in your head now. Dunky Dunky… What’s in the Trunky.. Brilliant. If you are a coffee lover, AND you love dinosaurs, you probably have a huge appreciation for that little gem. Daniel claims that coffee drinkers are not any better than crackheads. Of course I dont see any similiarities *twitches*, but I just for fun went ahead and googled "coffee", "tyrannosaur" and "crack". Within minutes I found this very informative page that lists 7 Reasons to Keep Your Tyrannosaur OFF Crack Cocaine.

Hope all of you out there that were considering just letting your T-rex continue it's crack habit will now re-assess your situation.

Continuing my caffeine-fueled quest to enlighten you with all things T-rex related, because I am so kind that way, I took this important quiz that informed me how long would it take for a Tyrannosaurus Rex to digest my corpse:

Just 6 hours for me. Not very epic at all, but, then again, I don't plan on being faced with another predator similiar to myself anytime soon.

In closing, if any of you has ever wondered if a Tyrannosaurus has ever been found in Texas, I am pleased to report that somewhere out there in a special exhibit case, is part of the upper jaw of a Tyrannosaurus that was collected in Big Bend National Park. This rare fossil shows us that Tyrannosaurus once ranged as far south as present-day West Texas. I also learned that Tyrannosaurus was one of the last dinosaurs in Texas, becoming extinct 65 million years ago. Incredible, and surprising really. Rather sad for one of the most feared beasts of all time. At least for me, every morning I can now have my coffee with a T-Rex.

My paperweight once searched for delicious algae.

This past weekend Daniel returned home from his near month-long trip out of the state that encompassed a path followed somewhat along The Mississippi River, from lower to upper, and traversing through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and ending in Illinois. Again, I live vicariously through others when it comes to travel. Though my thirst for travel is quite strong, fortunately for me, his stories of adventure and travel will suffice this time, as I have no powerful yearning to visit those particular states. That is not to say that there isn't interesting attractions within them, i just simply did not have a personal allure to them in the past. However, since Daniel did purchase gifts for me during some of the highlights of his trip, quite thoughtfully I might add, I was delighted and very grateful to receive these souvenirs from his journey to have as my own keepsakes from these places i've never been to. One of the mementos is an interesting fossil trilobite he picked up at the Tunica RiverPark on the Mississippi river. Mississippi has more official fossils than any other state, and the Mississippi river is the largest river system in the United States and the largest of North America! One of Mississippi's state fossils, is the prehistoric whale, Zygorhiza kochii. The early whales lived during the Eocene Epoch, around 45 million years ago, when the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico extended across what is now Mississippi. Yes, it's true and I didn't know that until I did some research to learn more about my new special tokens :) I found out that the Lower part of the Mississippi river has yielded a lot of fossils specifically pertaining to these past marine creatures. There is a whole lot of trilobite fossils out there! I learned that trilobites are related to crabs, lobsters, shrimp, spiders, and insects and that like modern arthropods, trilobites had to periodically molt their shells to grow, so one trilobite could have left a dozen or more shed carapaces to fossilize. Just think of all those trilobite fossils waiting to be found!
Pretty crazy. This intriguing information about trilobite fossils further prompted me to google more coolness related to them, so just for grins, i tried searching for fiction books about trilobites. As an avid reader with a long–standing interest in all things strange or unusual, I was pleased to see my searches led me to an obscure book called Trilobites! by Kenneth Gass. I can't seem to find this in print anywhere, but the product description reads: "Scientists have found living trilobites in the deep sea, but must now find a way to kill them before they destroy the ecosystem and humanity itself!" Wow. Just. That is right up my alley. How did both the golden age of science fiction Monster "B" movies AND the Syfy channel's original television programming overlook this little gem of an opportunity for campy Creature Feature goodness?? It's madness, right?? All i know is that this Trilobite thriller is surely a story I am meant to enjoy! I will have to be diligent in obtaining that book for my cryptofiction collection. Now, I implore anyone out there reading this entry, feel free to contact me if you have a lead for me on a reasonably-priced copy! I shall update the Trilobites tag if I ever obtain this. Consider it a quest. Trilobite questing. Yeh.
Okay, moving onto other coolness revolving around these prehistoric arthropods, i found this awesome trilobite tattoo thats courtesy of http://inknerd.com/tag/trilobite/. Admit it, it's awesome and bold! But the question is, is that trilobite fondess at its best?
And the answer to that would be, no. In my opinion, true trilobite affection is biting into a fresh batch of Trilobite Cookies. Yeh, that's kind of gross. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it what it is, true trilobite madness!
As for me, i'm personally quite content with my new trilobite token just as it is: a fossilised piece of prehistoric marine memoribilia, also useful as a paperweight :)

And right now they're building a coffin your size.

Welcome, traveler. Enjoy the journey.