Friday, May 30, 2008

Can Snakes Get Hiccups?

Yesterday was the last day of school. There are five teenagers passed out in one room and the little guys fell asleep in their floor. We had our annual sleep over/cook out/play loud music until mom yells "QUIT IT" party last night. I went to bed at midnight and left Manly Man to handle the chaos. I seem to remember him making it to bed at about 4:00 am. The party goers were much bigger this year. They also ate more.

Since school is out I will have far less laundry. The boys will wear t-shirts and shorts. No more school uniforms and no more blue jeans. Even better, no more sock matching. That's right ourfriendben, no more socks. Yeah. Oh, I forgot, there will still be soccer socks, and baseball socks, and tennis socks, crap.

Summer activities will include baseball, indoor soccer, swimming, and maybe tennis. There will also be a lot of sleeping late and making them help me in the garden. One of them lost an expensive book and now owes me eleven hours of labor to pay me back.

While playing with my site meter, I found that someone from Kathmandu has visited my blog. Cool, right?

Monkey question of the day: Can snakes get the hiccups? Does anyone know?

13 comments:

  1. Blessedly, I know as little as possible about snakes. Just to steeer clear of them at all costs! Sounds like you've got lots of activity at your house. I'm glad I'm over 50 and the kids are grown. Sounds fun when you hear about it. But I'm tired, too tired to worry about teenagers again! Now I just get to play grandma and mom to grownups!
    Brenda

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  2. No more socks!!! No more socks!!! Oh. Well, it sounded good for a minute there... As for snakes and hiccups, all I can say is, you sure have an imaginative bunch of Monkeys over there! You'll have to let us know if you find out. Kathmandu! Wow. I'm always so awed by the geographical breadth of my visitors, too. It's one of the things I love best about blogging (besides having the chance to make sarcastic comments, of course...).

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  3. Definitely an interesting question. I'll be checking back to see if anyone comes up with an answer.

    As for labor hours in exchange for a lost book--I hadn't thought of that approach.

    Sounds like you folks know how to have a good time.
    --kate

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  4. Yes I have snakes in my garden, one or two are permanent residents, no they are not "hiccuping"!

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  5. Hi Brenda, I'm tired too.

    Hi ofb, quite an evening. Still don't know about the snakes. Looks like society is not going to let me get rid of socks, even for one season, sigh.

    Hi Tina and Kate, yep. Someday they are going to ask a question I can actually answer.

    Hi titania, great to have first hand knowlege of snake behavior. Thanks.

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  6. I'm sure I've got snakes out there somewhere since I have at least one of everything else under the sun. That being said if I see any type of snake besides a garter snake I won't stick around long enough to see if it hiccups! It is a good question though....

    Your book story? My eldest child owes me some hard labor for loosing a library book as well. I'm surprised it wasn't the youngest for a change. I wonder if he'll be very helpful this weekend. I still have lots of rock picking to do. Lawn mowing and raking too.

    I think kids purposely ask questions their moms can't answer, it's like their one mission in life. 2 days left of school here. I wish we had more kids in the neighborhood so they didn't have to play with each other as play mates. They get along so much better with practically anyone else.

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  8. I hear you about the getting along with neighbors rather than sibs. Crazy, but true. Teenager worked pruning shrubs for two hours today. He almost lost my Felco pruners. If he had not found them he would have been in bondage forever.

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  9. Hi,
    Thanks for the nice comment on my blog this morning. I just came over to see yours and found your question about snakes having the hiccups. Sounds like a question my Grandson Collin would ask. I googled it..Here is what I found.



    Snakes can’t have hiccups. A hiccup is caused by a spasm of the diaphragm muscle. As far as I know, snakes don’t have diaphragms. They must actually constrict their muscles surrounding their ribs to breath. This may be why it appears that he is "jumping".

    I have a dove nest in the spruce tree. There were two baby birds yesterday. Today there is one. I found some remains under the nest. Occasionally a snake will go up into the tree and rob a nest. We have seen it happen. All I can say is...if a snake got that baby...I hope he has hiccups for a week.
    Balisha

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  10. Hi Balisha, thanks for stopping by with great info. Now I can answer middle monkey. Sorry about your baby bird.

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  11. I agree with Balisha. Snakes can't have hiccups! Can you imagine trying to swallow something whole and having the hiccups in the middle of it? LOL!

    Fun question.

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  12. Oh my, Sherry, I never thought of that:)

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