In which Pedometer meets an abrupt end

I'd been debating whether to return the cheap pedometer or learn to compensate -- it's fine with my sweatpants, but overcounts my steps by 10-25% for the pants I wear to work and the shorts I wear everywhere for six months out of the year. I spent about 20 minutes this morning experimenting with numerous locations on the pants and shorts to find the best spots and see whether the inaccuracies were consistent.

Then I went into the back bathroom to take my shower. I've been indulging Robin lately by keeping the sink there filled with water, an indoor puddle. No sooner was the pedometer resting on the counter beside my watch when he concluded I was giving him a fun new toy and batted it into the water. Submersion for less than a second was still too much. R.I.P.

Religious artifacts and souvenirs: the first class

The stars were bright and lovely as I walked up the hill to St. Jude's for the class, and when I returned home, Jupiter was just rising in the east. There were about 50 students, and I am pretty sure I was the youngest. Today we learned about the art in the catacombs, the history of early depictions of Jesus, and the souvenirs that people would take home from pilgrimages to the holy land. For instance, rich people could bring home soil from holy sites in a silver ampulla (and we passed around an ampulla with such soil in it, though it was in a zip-lok bag). Poor people could bring home a clay token made from the holy soils with images pressed into them, and these could be used medicinally, with bits of clay broken off as needed. Next week, I think we'll be talking about how an object becomes legitimized as numinous (having a holy essence), and about how a person becomes authorized to make them. The third class will cover medieval magic, and one topic from the fifth class will be tattooes!

Update on the pedometer: After drying the rest of the way, it claims it works.