Getting Twiggy With It!, originally uploaded by nate_marsh.

We have a bunch of friendly neighborhood cats around my new digs.

This one was spotted on a recent walk, after some brief attempts to be friendly it started munching on some twigs. Looked like a nice way to spend a Saturday!

turkeysz, originally uploaded by nate_marsh.

For many, Valentine’s Day is a special occasion to spend with your loved ones or robot pals. For me it’s always been about the turkeys, which made this day extra special for me.

While walking with my special lady around Brookline, we came across a group of 20+ wild turkeys! We are not talking about the uber-fancy sprawling-estate section of Brookline, it was still very residential, right next to the D line – right here actually:

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It was pretty cool to see all the birds, not particularly attractive animals but scraggly and resourceful critters.It was hard to take very good photos because of where they were standing but you are not missing too much, trust me.

After a few minutes, a common housecat wandered into the scene. As this photo shows the cat was initially pretty mellow – he had obviously dealt with birds before. For a minute I thought they would turn out to be great friends – then he tried to start a little trouble. They backed off for a second but eventually realized through their collective pea-sized brain that the odds were in their favor and chased the fellow off. Not much else happened after that, they are probably still there, pecking at stuff.

More pictures here…

raytek3, originally uploaded by nate_marsh.

I won this little fellow, the Raytek MiniTemp MT by entering some contest (I am pretty sure it was not the grand prize). It’s an mini infrared thermometer!

What does it do? Well, it’s for measuring the heat of things that you might not want to touch, and it works at nearly any surface I’ve pointed it at. It has a little lens that focuses the, uh blackbody radiation and converts it into temps! Sortof dull?

Well, the geniuses at Raytek Labs knew they needed to add a bit more pep to this device and mounted a sweet LASER for “aiming purposes” onto the unit. This, combined with a 10′ range, makes it awesome for just about everything.

It is actually pretty useful – how hot is a normal cup of coffee? How’s 133F sound, I just tested that! Wonder how cold it is outside? How cold is the bathroom floor? How hot is the radiator? Amazing!

More glimpses of this wonder: