Worth every penny

I finally got another cat yesterday. Mittens has been dead for 10 months, and a couple days after she died my mom asked "so when are getting another one?" Well, its not like I've been catless all this time, so I didn't really have the motivation I would if there were no kitties. But I had been getting closer to actually going to the shelter in the last couple months. Anyway, a lady a work has some strays running around her neighborhood, and there was one that was nicer and friendlier than the rest. So I got my grimy mitts on the little fella and now he's mine.

notice the totally cute little white tip of the tail

wook at that puddum

His name is Biscuit, because I'm a weirdo, and he's neutered already. He's got a soft short coat, and he's very friendly. Of course, he used to be someone's pet, since he's neutered. And bringing him inside the house he really didn't freak at all. Today is the second day here, and runs around the "cat zones" of the house (basement and occasionally first floor) like he owns the place. Saffron is not pleased,

and only growls impotently, sometimes hisses. But he just ignores her because he's apparently already the alpha. I guess that's OK, Saffron needed to be knocked down a notch. Seriously, he's cool as a cucumber, and that's what I liked about Mittens the most.

So hopefully when I take him to the vet he won't come back positive for FIV or something, now that I'm all attached to him and stuff. Also, by "worth every penny" regarding a free cat, I don't mean it sarcastically. I just couldn't come up with a title.

P.S. He's a laser pointer kitty. Click for full post and comments

Is it still under warranty?

I did a dumb thing with my sunglasses yesterday. I set them on a precarious place on the trunk while I was packing up camera gear. As I did so, I said "OK, Maya, remember they are there before closing the trunk." So now I have a crushed pair of sunglasses. I'm not sure the warranty would cover such damage, even if I still had the receipt. It's fine, though, because I had an old pair as backup. They have a chip right in my line of sight because I dropped them.

You just can't trust me with anything nice. Click for full post and comments

My shoes are full of goose poop

So I went to the park today because last time I drove by I saw white birds there, thinking they were swans. Turns out they were geese, keeping the Canadian geese company. There were ducks there too. I took 150 pictures, deleted half of them once I was on the computer.

The pimp and his bitches, looking for their next score of bread crumbs. (seriously, they would just walk the path back and forth until they came up to a person, decide they weren't going to throw any food their way, and would move on.)

hey. hey. were you guys going? can I come? were you guys going? hey. hey. wait up, guys.

uh, ya got a little something on your nose, buddy.

I thought maybe I'd get lucky and a heron would be there, but I don't actually know when their time of the year is.

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My camera is awesome!!

I stayed up until 4am taking pictures of the moon and stars. I used the telephoto (70-300mm) only.

First I had to get the right exposure, so here's the series (it's peeking out from behind a tree in the first few):

f/5.6; 1.6s

f/5.6; 0.8s

f/5.6; 0.5s

f/5.6; 1/6s

f/5.6; 1/15s

f/5.6; 1/25s

f/5.6; 1/60s

f/5.6; 1/125s

so I chose 1/100s and stuck with that.

This moon one is a composite and it's been Photoshopped. The color is fake, and the individual moons are separate layers of differing opacity. f/5.6; 1/100s. Zoomed all the way in to 300mm.
The star on is a 7-8 minute exposure, f/5. This one is not zoomed at all, at 70mm.

I had tried taking star pictures in Fiji, but I didn't have the good lenses then. So they didn't turn out. With this telephoto, you pretty much can't not get a developed picture of stars. I love it so much!!

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Greedy birds

TS Hanna dumped a lot of rain on us, and of course we had just filled up the bird feeder. So we chipped the seed out of the feeder and laid it out for the birds. They were so into the smorgasbord they didn't care about the rain falling on them.

The guy peeking out from behind the mountain of food just cracks me up!

This guy on the bottom has food all over his face. They are very messy eaters!

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ID please

Saw and heard this circling overhead today. I can't really get a lock on its wingspan because I've never been good at estimating that sort of thing. I would guess somewhere around 4 feet, but who knows. Anyway, my best guesses (with help from Sibley) are a couple of different hawks and some sort of kite. None of the pictures are in focus because the thing wouldn't hold still! These shots are with the 300mm telephoto on, and VR turned on.

It wasn't just circling like riding thermals, it was wheeling and diving all over the place. It was pretty cool, only because I know my kitty is too fat to be scooped away by a raptor.

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Ye gads

I heard a Tiffany song on the radio. Do you know she is horrible
singer? I guess I liked her well anough In the 80s, but I couldn't
hear the horribleness until now. Click for full post and comments

Missed Opportunity

Always one for a good "that's what she said" joke, I totally blew it (twss!) this morning. I needed an actual tool to get a bottle open today, and the random pliers and whatnot around the lab weren't cutting it. Luckily a facilities guy with his tools was just down the hall. Grabbed a scrapey type thing that had a bottle opener on the side, and got the thing open on a snap. Handed it back to him saying "yay the perfect tool!" and he said "I love it when a women tells me that." I was disappointed in myself that my mind wasn't even on that track when I said it, and then even more disappointed when it dawned on me this opportunity I just didn't even see. Yeah, we pay a lot of attention to that sexual harassment stuff at work. Click for full post and comments

I don't like bugs

A giant cockroach was scritching around my office just now. I stayed
here only to get a chance to squish it. Missed the first time with my
foot, second try was with frapp bottle. Roaches are a fact of life in
my building, and actually there aren't very many of them. Now there's
one less. Click for full post and comments

WB demands I be all logical and whatnot

With respect to the flowering cactus post below, writer's block noted
I did not supply a photo. This is the best I can do from work.

Sent from my iPhone

[Update:] well jeez. I guess when the choice that says "email link of this picture" comes up, I should just ignore it, because that sure didn't work.





There. That's better.

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The circle of life

On the discus front, I think I have two (out of eight) dead discus. One I saw had worms because he had white stringy poop. I didn't actaully see worms, but the white poop thing is a symptom. So I got medicine: PraziPro by Aquarium Solutions. It's supposed to be very safe for the plants and fish, and very effective at killing the nasties. The active ingredient is praziquantel, and their directions will give a concetration of 2.5mg/L (2.5ppm). I have four very healthy looking discus, and then two small and shy and sickly looking ones too, so my eye is on the two smaller ones.

Further along the circle of life is the superworm I put in the gecko cage a long time ago. That guy doesn't eat very many superworms (I think he likes crickies better) so the worm just crawled about in the cage. Well now there's a freaking beetle in there! It's like a two week process to go from larva (the superworm the lizards eat) to pupa (I didn't see that stage) to now a dark colored beetle. Maybe the gecko will be interested in that!

sorry for being boring but I have a surprise on the way! Click for full post and comments

Flowers some more

I've had a small cactus for a couple years; it's been an indoor plant for most of that time. I set it outside at the beginning of the warm weather many months ago. I just noticed it's got a flower! And not the paper one it comes with from the store either! Apparently Maryland's monsoon weather is good for cacti. Click for full post and comments

Termites!

I has them. Click for full post and comments

ATT is possibly evil

Got an iPhone this weekend (verdict: awesome) and the guy offered to sync my contacts from my old phone onto the new one. I'm guessing he would do this by taking the old SIM card and putting it either into his computer or just put it into the iPhone. If it's the first way, what's stopping ATT from stealing those phone numbers?

Sent from my iPhone

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The Ice(cream) Man cometh

I've lived in this house for close to two years, and today was the first time some one actually stopped the ice cream man for some frozen treaty goodness. He drives down the street at a high rate of speed, usually too fast for you to dig out money and run out the door. But today people were on the street and were able to flag him down. First time of everything, I guess. Click for full post and comments

Discus goodness

A couple of weeks ago I go 4 more discus to add to the 4 I had gotten a few weeks before that. So here are a few pictures of the new comers. Two are of this style:

and one more of the type of the other one here:

and then one more turquoise to make friends with the other turquoise.

I has a friend

so that brings the count up to:

1  blue/red snakeskin

2 white/yellow snakeskin

3 marlboro reds (some are more red than others)

2 turquoise

The beaut of the tank is the blue snakeskin, by far. He's bigger than the rest, and his color is really clean (not like the light colored snakeskins with their brown spots). Also, I think he might be pairing off with one of the other snakeskins, even though I thought they had to be of the same color morph. Anyway, the two light colored snakeskins are not happy with each other if Big Blue is around. I thought Discus were supposed to be all timid and quiet and stuff.

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I don't like children

because they ruin your stuff. You can't have anything nice when you have kids. Apparently you can't even have something cheap and made out of plastic without them breaking it. I had a BBQ on Independence Day, and some of our friends have kids. I set up a golf tee-up thingy in the yard. So aside from the fact it rained all that day, the kids still made an opportunity to play on the golf tee-up thingy. It has a ramp that the balls roll down, until they come to an arm on a counterweight to deliver the ball onto the tee. Apparently the kids just pounded on the arm until the weight snapped off, because I set it up today to find the arm in two pieces. poop. Click for full post and comments

ZOMFG!!11!!one!

You will never believe what happened today. I decided to take the little guy (lizard) out on the lawn to get some sun and eat some clover. He decided he likes grass and clover just fine, thank you. Anyway, I'm crouching over him and look up. guess what I saw. Fatboy 5 feet away from me eyeing the little morsel I was playing with!!!! So I brought in the little guy (I shall call him Big Red) and scooped up Fatboy, put the two in the tank (warily, I wasn't sure what would happen). Fatboy was down in the sand and didn't seem to see Big Red up on the log, fed Fatboy a couple worms. He ate no more voraciously than usual, but I think he looks a little dehydrated. 

So I've got Big Red in a little tiny tank thing and Fatboy gets his old bachelor pad. I didn't take him long to settle in:

Oh yeah, I've decided that a lizard 16.5 inches long will most definitely eat a lizard 6 inches long. Before I separated the two, Fatboy saw the little one and went after him, but I was right there, expecting it to happen. The two lizards cannot be within eyesight of each other, because they will spend all their time and energy crawling on the glass wall trying to get to the other one.

For size comparison, the picture of Big Red in his previous post was of him lounging on the left arm of this log. Up on the top flat part of it, with is tail drooped down.

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Summertime VII

The last entry of this series. Some flutterby's I was chasing at the National Arboretum August 2006. I guess they try to have something blooming or being pretty year-round, and in August it was pretty much just the herb garden, where these pictures were taken, and the Oriental House or whatever it's called (it's got lots of bonsai's, a nice big pond with koi, and some inside displays I didn't see.

These were all taken on my point and shoot S6. I was on my tippy toes most of the time, and almost fell into the flowers.

Oh yeah: as with most of the points of interest in DC, the National Arboretum is in a not-the-best part of town. Actually, it's not bad, but you'd think they would try and clean up the place a bit.

Update: added upon request:

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