3. The way that the ibex in Wadi Dana know that you're watching them, but know that there is NO way you'll be able to get to them, so they just hang out and watch you. It's a little disconcerting feeling like you are in THEIR zoo, but I think it's healthy!

4. When the vegetable and fruit guys come yelling their wares through the street. They drive little toyota pickups (I think) and use a loudspeaker to shout out their best deals. They also do something similar in India, which might be why I like it.

5. The smell of basil/rosemary glycerine-based soap, and the way it wakes me up in the morning. It's almost as good as grapefruit. Rosemary has been found buried in some ancient Egyptian tombs and basil is often grown around homes for luck.

Perhaps having them blended together in my soap will bring me luck in this life, rather than the next!

6. For those of you who watched The Bucket List, it is true that some people pay outrageous amounts of money to drink coffee made from beans that have been eaten, and excreted, by the common palm civet, also known as the Toddy Cat or the Motit. The coffee is known as Kopi Luwak (or Motit Coffee) and according to Wikipedia, prices in 2009 for this ranged from USD$300-1400 depending on where you purchased it. I think it is great that someone thought this would be a good idea to try! Apparently, it is the "best coffee" because the civets only eat really ripe coffee beans.

7. Linda Gass's art quilts, which use a traditional art form to illustrate environmental issues. Her quilt "Wetlands Dream" depicts through mapping the difficult issues of restoring the San Francisco wetlands.

8. The "sssshhhh" sound that the sugar makes as it goes into the coffee first thing in the morning. Such a tiny sound, such anticipation...

9. Peanuts, from April 15, 1995: Charlie Brown is lying awake on his bed, with Snoopy asleep on top of him. The first frame says, "Sometimes I lie awake at night and I think, 'Maybe I can change my life around.'" and the second says, "Then a voice comes to me out of the dark, 'Sure, make a lot of paperwork for the rest of us,'" Charles Schultz was a funny guy.

10. The word graveyard in Arabic is "muqabara," and may possibly be related to the word "macabre". The two languages are SO different that I get a thrill whenever I find a connection!