anomaly detector

when she gets a little older ava is going to be a master at the sesame street "one of these things is not like the other" game. ava and i spend alot of time at san francisco botanical garden, which as you might imagine, is very green and full of plants. naturally, ava is obsessed primarily with all-that-is-not-plant. for example, the arboretum tags their trees with these little pieces of metal, about the size of a quarter, nailed close to the bottom of the trunk. ava spots those from a mile away.

she's also fascinated by the sprinkler systems. at this point, i think she's found every semi-buried pipe they've got. and the one's with the little yellow lids . . . those are good for hours of entertainment. she's also got an early flare for irony¹. what's the most likely thing to tempt ava off the garden path . . . the little sign a few feet to the right of the path that says "please stay on the path".

¹ according to wikipedia, the definition of situational irony is as follows : "irony of a situation is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results when enlivened by perverse appropriateness." making this a correct use of the word irony.