Rubber Shell and Other Local Trash

Here's logarithmic trash. I think it's a part of a balloon. We found it walking in one of the local creeks.

Web-cicles

 Jumping spiders affix a safety line before making a jump. You can tell if a jumping spider has been around because of the single strands of thread draped over leaves and branches.

It got misty, windy and frozen quickly enough to form horizontal icicles.

Meta-Needles

We've had one of our spring snowstorms.  Sixty degrees Fahrenheit down to 30° F. There should be a rule that the average high temperature should not be allowed to drop more than 10 degrees per 24 hours. We could deal with the weather just like the Dow regulations...

1. If before 2pm the comparative average temperature (CAT) has decreased by 10%, the weather activity will be terminated for one hour.
2. If before 2pm the CAT has decreased by 20%, the weather activity will be terminated for two hours.
3. If the CAT has decreased by 30%, the weather activity will be terminated for the weather day.

... on the other hand maybe that's not such a good idea.

Tribute to Mo Willems

I love Mo Willems' books.

This is my Etch-a-Sketch portrait of Knuffle Bunny. Be kind to me, it's my first portrait in this medium.

That is NOT a little leporid reproductive organ at the bottom.

Post-Holiday Decorations

Kai and I went for a walk and saw great things in the snow, including these tiny icicles. They will be gone by tomorrow. Yesterday it was below freezing, today almost freezing and tomorrow we're expecting mid-fifties.

Solstice Lunar Eclipse

It was the first lunar eclipse on the winter solstice since Gallileo's time. The kids' sleep schedule is a wreck. They did fall asleep outside in their sleeping bags which was oddly funny.

Astronomy pictures are hard. I definitely need some more practice. This one was hard for me particularly when there was as much moon in shadow as not. The contrast was too high and I managed to gray out the reflected light and gray out the red shadow. Oh no, I'll have to take more pictures...

I can has cricket?

That's Rowan's title for a mantis we found. It's a line from a website devoted to captioning animal pictures. If you're unfamiliar with the site, check out the lolcats also known as "I Can Has Cheezburger?"

A Peek Inside

I like that I can see both the more camouflaged underwing and the bright blue upperside.

They'll Need A Crane

I like the TMBG song, They'll Need A Crane, but with regard to this picture, it's only titular.

I think crane flies are really neat. If Tolkien were adapted to play to an all-fly audience, I think the elves would be played by crane flies.

The little clubs beneath the wings are halteres. As I understand it, they are balancing and stabilizing rudimentary hind wings. If instead the forewings were the rudimentary pair, we'd have to call flies "halter tops."

Did I mention I've been on a stream of consciousness kick lately?

Isn't that Dandy?

It's like the love child of a snowflake and a weed. I hadn't noticed the hexagonal symmetry before I took this picture. I also thought it looked like the puff had tilted its head into the frame and said, "Boo".

Close up dandylion pictures seem kinda cliche, but I suppose they're popular for a reason.

Cpt Tribble of the 3.14th Airborne Division

Perhaps this little thing really escaped from a Dr Seuss book.

I like these. They always make me laugh.
I'm more sure about this id as a bee fly or Bombyliinae. :)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/40598

Thanks Anonymous for the Lynx spider. I must be distracted.

Hum vs Buzz

This little bird was buzzing around us, eating mosquitoes while we were playing catch and release with crawdads.

I'm sure that day was the first time that I thought a hummingbird really should be much, much faster. She might have just thought it was good sport rather than an actual meal.

Just about everyone in our little group was being eaten alive. I don't usually react to bites, so I can often neener-neener. Skeeters are an annoyance, but the bites aren't painful and won't raise a bump or itch. For all my other allergies, I'm relatively immune to mosquito bites. This day, the sheer number of mini-vampires that were trying to enter my ears was enough to send me packing. I hate that buzzing sound when it's actually in my ear.

When I got home I think I found a red dot on my arm. That was surprising. I couldn't find it the next time I checked, so maybe it wasn't a bite.

Dragon Overhead

'Nother present for Matt.

I was in a swampy area with cat tails standing six plus feet high. This dragonfly was patrolling the area. A few times he came to hover and buzz a couple feet in front of my nose, but I guess I looked mostly harmless.

No news yet. IBM fires Theo today for job desertion. The HR people are trying to figure out if the kids and I can apply for COBRA or not and if so will IBM contribute. Previously it was yes, then maybe, then yes with perhaps little help, then today it was that Theo would need to fill out and sign the forms.

As Matt said, there is a certain irony that they are terminating his employment since he's missing, but in order for his family to get COBRA he needs to sign forms -- presumably including why he isn't there to sign the forms.

The Catch 22 is alive and well.

Missing Person: Theo Petersen

We've filed a Missing Person report on my husband. If you've seen Theo Petersen please contact Det Jason Weaver with any information 303-660-7588 jweaver@dcsheriff.net Missing Person Case 10-68523. You can also see Theo's profiles, picture and related information at: LinkedIn Public Profile, Web Development with Apache and Perl, and Good Reads. He was driving a white '94 Saturn station wagon with Colorado plates the letters are GBL, but the numbers I'm not sure of, maybe 683. He said that he was headed for Indianapolis, but no one has verified that he arrived there.

Since his last communication on June 30th, he hasn't contacted his work and his family haven't heard from him either. Various details of his departure have worried us about his safety and/or well-being. We are in the midst of a divorce, so he could be under a significant amount of stress. As of this writing, I have not located either his passport or mine. The police have not called me with any information.

Mini golf Daddy Long Legs

I wasn't sure I wanted to celebrate my 40th birthday (7/3) , but my kids wouldn't let me out of it. It's a cake and ice cream event and it was going to happen whether or not I wanted it.

I took them to a mini golf place with some shade trees. I was trying to keep Jasmine comfortable, but she only lasted about 9 holes before she just retreated from shade tree to shade tree. We need to get super-dark glasses or something that will comfortably work with kids' sunglasses. She's been miserable this whole bright summer. Generally she loves mini golf, but this time I think I should have switched it to bowling.

Anyhow, on the course, I found this beautiful spider with which I wasn't familiar. I loved his acacia-tree like legs. I took a ton of pics, but the profile was the most illuminating for narrowing it down to the family Pholcidae. In layman speak it's one of the daddy-long-legs spiders. I still think daddy-long-legs should refer to the non-spider arachnid the Opilione, here's my pic of one.

Even with this find and my cheerful children, it was a melancholy day. The cloud over my head was that the kids were still under the impression that Dad intended to return from a road trip. I had already received an email from him informing me that he had no plans to return but I was still attempting to get more information before I was going to tell them.

I think the kids were coming to terms with the idea of divorce, but abandonment... the first talk was a cake walk. The kids are still in shock but soldiering through. I'm really amazed by their bravery, but I wish I could do more than I am. They've asked some painful questions and my answers have been less than emotionally satisfying I'm sure. But how can one explain to three young kids events that have stupifyed all the adults? I've told them what I know and ended with things like, "I don't know why," and "I don't know what's happening but I'll tell you as soon as I do."

I'm preparing for rough water ahead. If there is a bright spot it's that the home atmosphere is much less tense -- like a cold, sodden woolen blanket has been removed. Co-habitating with your soon to be ex is one of the most stressful situations I think a person could be under. That or bomb squad work.

[Addendum] My friend Anonymous pointed out that the spider is actually a Lynx spider. Goofy me. :)

Current Favorite, A Tiger and His Ball

I took this at the Cheyenne Mtn Zoo in May. It was snowing at the highest part of the zoo. Yes, the zoo is actually on the side of a mountain and the weather is very different from the lowest point to the highest.

I had a fairly slow shutter speed and the tiger was playing to fast for me to adjust it. I didn't want to missing seeing any of it.

I was thrilled at the motion in the rest of the picture and the sharp focus on the head. I hear they can do that sort of effect in photoshop nowadays. :P

A Dot Theme

More 70's - type dots. I think the grouper was more 50's. This fly is definitely more psychedelic. I'm waiting for an ID from BugGuide, but maybe I can find it first. :)

Blue Dot Grouper

I didn't remember the name of this fish, but Yea Internet!, I found some info at In Love of Animals. Maybe he's a garabaldi with people-pox. We spent a lot of time at the Tropical Discovery building at the Denver Zoo. Snakes, bats, lizards, frogs, fish, corals, and Komodo Dragons.

Zebra: Check

Another checkmark on my list of "Animals Photographed While Yawning."

If Shakespeare Wrote for Beetles

It seems like it could be a balcony scene. I need to look up the species of these two love beetles.