Look! I found a %#@!%ing agate!

Jack and I both grew up failing to find agates on the beaches of Washington.  I remember vividly and jealously the time when my sister found a nice one on Cypress Island, where we used to beach camp.  Everything Jack found was cruelly dismissed as a “sugar agate,” whatever that means.  Well now we are vindicated because I just found a beautiful agate.  Granted, it is in a museum…

The museum is called Opificio delle Pietre Dure (in Florence) and it has all kinds of beautiful tables and pictures made of inlaid stone, which is right up my alley.  Here are some of the highlights:

It also had a set of amusing paintings representing the four continents of Europe (horses), Asia (elephants), Africa (rhinos) and North America (lions).  I wonder what it’s like trying to get lions and rhinos to pull carts is like.  What would Jarred Diamond say about this?  These are the funniest paintings we have seen so far.