PixlBit

Should have 'em in MA, they're just more sneaky than the redbacks.

We're starting to get winter moths up here, too. Our entomology folks are being kept pretty busy. At least they don't give me a rash like the brown-tail moth caterpillars.

I wanted to keep the bug helmet.

Salamanders like the one in the pic, or did you have spotted or blue-spotteds?

I find the dslr to be kind of intimidating, with all its fancy bells and whistles. I think I got lucky with that photo. As for seeing them in person, yeah, never gets old. I "had" to do an osprey watch for the public nature program today . An hour spent with a 60x spotting scope set up on the nest (but only on 40x, 60 is too much of a good thing) talking to people about these amazing birds. Next weekend is our annual family-friendly bird-watching festival, where I will be forced to a) do an all-day osprey watch, b) shut down the osprey watch and watch a live bird presentation about owls (and a raven) by WInd Over Wings, and c) possibly get sent to another park to go on a vernal pool workshop. Oh, the horror I must endure! There will be pictures, I promise.

Just be sure your hands are damp when you do that, the natural acids on our skin can burn theirs. I like to breathe on them, does the same thing, just not as well.

Those sticks all come from trees. The male will fly to a dead limb or stick and grab hold with his talons and then just take off. It's a pretty awesome thing to watch. He then flies back to the nest site and places it on the nest. When the female comes back, she may rearrange some of the sticks if she doesn't like where the male put them. Sometimes all they do is add another layer to the nest if it survived the winter, which is what the pair by the salt marsh did (the osprey in the pic is from that pair). Sometimes the nest gets blown down by a winter storm and they have to do a complete rebuild, which is what the pair on the island (our showcase pair) had to do this year. The male arrived back on March 31st, and had the thing rebuilt within ten to fourteen days. He's very industrious.

I've got one of the FC3 consoles. The controllers are pretty flimsy, but it does OK. That's how I've been playing the few NES games I have.

Ryan, I so completely understand what you're saying. It's also a game that the experience can change dramatically from one play-through to the next. I played it the evening it released, and then again the next morning. The first time was completely different than the second time. My first play-through, there were lots of other wanderers that I interacted with, but the second time, I traveled with the same person for the whole game. This is also the first game I have ever gone out of my way to get the sound track for. Pretty much answers the "are games art?" debate as far as I'm concerned.

I had thirteen people I was worrying about, so happy all of them are ok. One was there to cheer on the runners from the running club up here and saw/felt the blast. She and Vicky (the nurse) were the only two really near the explosions. Most of the others had already finished and left the vicinity.

A bunch of my runner friends were down there in the marathon, as well as the brother and sister-in-law of one of my best friends. All are ok. Friend's sister-in-law is a registered nurse, finished between the two blasts, and immediately headed into the crowd to see what she could do to help.

You want my not-so-humble opinion? This is the work of a home-grown nutjob like Timothy McVeigh.