Shrew

A shrew or shrew mouse (family Soricidae) is a small molelike mammal classified in the order Soricomorpha. True shrews are also not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews, which belong to different families or orders.

Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent, as mice are, and is in fact more closely related to moles. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents.

Shrews are distributed almost worldwide: of the major tropical and temperate land masses, only New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand do not have native shrews at all; in South America, shrews are relatively recent immigrants and are present only in the northern Andes. In terms of species diversity, the shrew family is the fourth most successful of the mammal families, being rivaled only by the muroid rodent families Muridae and Cricetidae and the bat family Vespertilionidae.

Chambers It Is!

Kelly, Kyle and I had an ANTM pick the model's pool last season or cycle as Tyra calls it. Kelly was the winner, but both her and I picked Seleisha to be ANTM! So as a prize to all of us we decided to go eat at the new Uber-Trendy Hotel restaurant, Chamber's Kitchen located in the swanky Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis.


The three of us made our way to Chambers and we were promptly seated for our 6:30 dinner reservations. Chambers is a minimalist paradise, very white and chic.



For my starter I had the Smoked Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Passion Fruit Mustard and Cumin Honey. Very delicious, and it was placed on a bed of avocados so all the flavors just enhanced each other. For dinner i got the Duck a L’Orange with Asian Pear and Crystallized Tamarind. If I'm going to go to a nice restaurant i will typically get the duck. This duck meal was tender and very nice, although the skin could've been a little crispier. Kyle and i both got the duck, and we were trying to figure out the different flavors they had added. I still think the duck at W.A. Frost takes the cake, best meal I've ever eaten hands down! We finished our meals with dessert. Now we were very intrigued by this one menu item called Ovaltine Kulfi. Could there really be Ovaltine in it? Like the powdered mix you add to your milk? More Ovaltine Please! But our server just said it was a fabulous chocolate they made! I got that! Fabulous was right! With caramelized banana and caramel, a large chocolate fudge type bar with cream and caramel popcorn on top! WOW!

After dinner we made our way upstairs to the rooftop bar called the Ice Chamber. The whole bar is literally made out of ice! There was also a nice fire pit to warm up to outside. Kelly said, "Only in Minnesota!" As we were leaving we spotted a rather large gorilla sculpture. Although partially covered in snow there was a very massive black log-looking thing in front of the gorilla. Kyle said, "Is that supposed to be his turd?" and Kelly said, "No, It's the gorilla's arm!" To then which we noticed, yes indeed, the gorilla was missing an arm. This is exactly why i love modern art! One armed gorillas! Well, for a swanky night out the vlach-robideau clan did good.