Still haven't made it to the insectarium - was going to try to go yesterday, but got out of work late, and they close at 4, and I was wary of ending up in the same situation I was in last week, i.e. it's too close to closing and they won't let me in. Also this past week, despite being interrupted by the holiday, has been absolute unmitigated insanity at work, and I was pretty tired.

Anyway, over the holiday break I made myself a photography website: http://www.toomanythoughts.net/photography.html I'm now working on adding species-specific galleries (fork-tailed bush katydids still have more fun).

. . I do not have more fun, right now, because it's 34 degrees out and I had to kick a wolf spider outside this morning (if it were me, I strongly suspect I'd just throw it into the terrarium until we hit a warm day, but I think this would not amuse the housemates - especially as the terrarium is open-topped and it could decide to venture out exploring again if it wanted). So I tossed it into an area with lots of decomposing leaves, which should provide it warmth, but still, poor spider. I do not like winter. I do not like winter at all. (Why do I feel like I'm reading from some sort of seasonal-affective-disorder parody of 'Green Eggs and Ham'?) I really, really wish I could go outside and take pictures, but sadly, see above re: raining, 34 degrees, lack of bugs (except the poor spider).

I did find a boxelder bug (or possibly a large milkwood bug - I have difficulty telling them apart) drinking from the cat's water dish the other day, and that I did throw into the little greenhouse shelf in the kitchen . . and it did decide to venture out again, because I can find neither it nor its spiderwebby corpse (as there was apparently a wolf spider around) anywhere near the greenhouse shelf. Oh well. I did take its picture.

Which I could show you if my computer were recognizing my SD card. Which it's not. Because life hates me.

Okay, okay, /pity party. 111 days until spring.

I attempted to go to the Philadelphia Insectarium today. The gift shop / ticket counter shares space with an exterminator's office. I have the distinct impression I'm being laughed at in some abstracted sort of way, by way of this arrangement. Oh well.

Anyway, I managed to drive past it about three times before I actually figured out a.) what building it was, and b.) where I could park (streetside parking was prohibited by special police order today, for no apparent reason that I could discern). This resulted in it being about 20 minutes to closing when I finally got there, and the nice older man working the desk at the gift shop / exterminator's office / ticket counter (who looked downright shocked to see a person walk in his door) wouldn't let me in. He was pleasant and polite and gave me a free admission pass for next time, though, so it's all good. I do intend to go back and be mocked by the whole set-up some other day, because they apparently have bugs that look like leaves and preying mantises from India with purple eyes.

I also emailed these people: Minden Pictures - to ask the proper procedure for submitting a portfolio. I don't seriously expect anything to come of this, but hey, it's worth a try.

This past month has been full of re-writes and sewing projects; while I haven't heard back from the various folks who have the re-written novel bits just yet, I'm fairly confident in them. They probably need polishing, as first drafts of anything usually do, even random bits of new in the middle of lots of has-been-edited-80-times, but I think they make the book better overall. I now have vampires that don't feel so tacked on, further illustration of Darren's abilities and what exactly the vow of Wardenship does, and a tiny little bit of character development for the vampire formly known as Claudia - I've re-named her. She's Lydia now (just as of today, actually, so that'll be news even to the people who have the re-writes). And all of the above, when combined, make this fictional supernatural world that I'm building a little bit more ominous - which is good. So generally, I feel accomplished about this.

In the way of sewing, my most ambitious project was a winter coat. It's finished, sort of, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. I wanted it to close in the front with these pretty pewter-looking clasps, but after a few weeks of use, I'm not sure I'm sold on their practicality. I sort of want a zipper, just for convenience. But a zipper would just look so much less cool. I'm still waffling on this. It'd be easy enough to go back and put in a zipper instead, but it'd make the coat not nearly as nifty.

Also, the cuffs are huge. This is owing in large part to the sewing machine on which the coat was made - the cuffs, to get sewn, had to be able to fit around the . . . part of the machine where the bobbin goes? I'm unsure of its official name, but it's significantly wider than my wrist. I'm debating on ways to fix this still.

So the coat is in use, but it's not really quite finished, so I'm not posting any pictures just yet. I'll post pictures when I have a truly final version of the coat to photograph.

Also, I've been making skirts from curtains.

This is an idea that had occurred to me some time ago, but at the time, I'd been thinking mostly of buying fancy curtains and making fancy dresses, and I have a number of fancy dresses already and very few occasions for wearing them, so this possibility was never explored. Last week, though, I was in the Linens & Things (which is closing down - the entire chain, apparently) buying some flannel sheets, when I saw a very pretty one-panel curtain package, in a floral pattern, at a very clearance-like price, and thought, hrmm . . . that'd make a pretty skirt.

And it did make a pretty skirt, and I was so amused by the idea of having all the many truly nifty fabrics used for curtains available to me for much, much cheaper than the home decor fabrics are sold at the fabric store ($20/yard and up, mostly - a bit out of my budget), that I went out and bought two more on-sale curtains. The one was a really gorgeous red silk that was so cheap I figured it was worth getting even if I don't have a particular use for a red silk dress at the moment - something will come up eventually, and I'll never see red silk for roughly $3/yard again in my life, I'm sure. The other was a sort of jacquard chenille tapestry-ish thingie, which I though would make a nice winter-weight skirt. It did.

The skirts:

I enjoy summer. As a general rule, I do not enjoy winter. I really, seriously dislike being cold. Spring is enjoyable mostly in that it means summer is coming, and fall is generally not too bad in that it's not too cold yet, and the leaves are pretty and when you first break out the cool-weather clothes, your body isn't used to being covered in sweaters and heavy corduroys and is actually warm. (Then you adjust, just in time for the weather to turn truly frigid, and pretty much everything after mid-December is just miserable.)

It is October 28th here; on the waning side of fall, but still firmly within the realm of autumn, and not winter.

So somebody please explain to me why in the heck we had four inches of snow yesterday.



There was a wolf spider in my work yesterday, which I had to put outside. I felt really bad. I dug it a little hole down into the mulch where hopefully the heat of decomposition will keep it non-frozen, but still, poor spider.

Today I am finishing up sewing clasps on my winter coat (which I would have liked to have had yesterday, though at least I wore the old one, and not my fall jacket), doing re-writes on the first novel, and waiting to find out if I'm going to be going in to work this afternoon. I'm supposed to be filling in for a coworker, but as of last night, the appointment schedule looked so sparse that they may decide they don't need me.

Re-writes are a little unnerving; I think I am improving the book (it has vampires who actually exist, in a not-tacked-on-as-an-afterthought sort of way, now), but my wordcount has jumped significantly. It's not yet over 100k, but it's nearing it. 100k is generally the upper end of what's acceptable for genre fiction, unless the genre is sword-and-sorcery type high fantasy, which this isn't. (Though it does contain both a sword and an individual capable of magic.) I suppose once I get done adding in stuff that should have been there, I'll have to go back and see if there's anything that shouldn't be there.

Back from England; had a really good time, ate tons of crawfish, drank good beer, and generally enjoyed myself. Also, being entirely objective on the matter, I have to say that my pseudo-nephew is, in fact, the cutest baby ever. See?

Before most major trips in recent memory, I have engaged in an ambitious sewing project. There have been ball gowns, experimental sort of cocktail dresses, and most recently, a fancy winter coat. None of these were strictly speaking necessary - I did need such a garment for each occasion, but in all cases, I already owned something I could have worn. And in the case of the fancy coat, I really probably didn't need a dressy coat so much as a functional coat, and I did already have one of those, making the coat-production of even more dubious necessity.

Before the sewing projects . . actually, in between the sewing projects, also . . there was the artwork for sale at WriterCon, which required printing and fixing and matting and such.

In each case, I was up until some ungodly hour of the morning for the two nights before the trip frantically attempting to finish the project in question. I arrived at my "vacation" destination wanting nothing so badly as 2 days' solid sleep.

Before this upcoming trip to England, I was sewing shirts - everyday-wear kind of shirts for myself, and I attempted a skirt - and baby clothes. And I made a resolution: I was not going to be sewing/matting/doing-any-sort-of-project the night before. I would start early, I would set reasonable goals, and if the deadline started to loom close, I would scrap whatever project / aspect of project could not be completed without compromising my sleep. And, wonder of wonders, I actually stuck by this. I did not complete my skirt; I discovered that I fail at making appliqued baby blankets and decided to just go with baby stuff I knew I could complete successfully. I was quite proud of myself.

It is 2:16AM the day before my departure. I don't fly out until 9PM tomorrow, but I have to be at work 9AM to roughly 2PM. I still have a little bit of packing to do, but not much.

. . . I just finished repotting a tree.

Before that, I repotted several violets.

I'm contemplating going out and catching and relocating the baby dragonflies now (they need to get out of the wheelbarrow, as parents want use of the wheelbarrow while I'm gone) by flashlight - all that's stopping this plan is that I don't know where in the heck I put the fishbowl.

What do trees, violets, and dragonflies have in common? They all really could have been re-homed tomorrow between when I left work and when I need to leave for the airport. I've got 4 hours, and I'm 90% packed.

What do overly-ambitious sewing projects, artwork in need of matting, violets, trees, and dragonflies have in common? They're excellent ways to occupy one's brain when one can't get one's brain to stop spinning. It seems that I was putting the cart before the horse in terms of the cause and effect of my recurrent pre-trip sleep deprivation; I simply cannot sleep for about 2 days before a major trip. I discover boundless reserves of frenetic energy. I could build you a small bridge out of chewing gum and toothpicks, right now.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, all that just seeps right out the soles of my shoes the minute I actually set foot on the plane. Pre-trip, I am extremely productive but also extremely anxious - in hyperdrive mode, and unable to snap out of it. Get me up in the air, and it's like flipping a switch. No matter what I've forgotten, left unfinished, or possibly messed up - no matter what catastrophes may be brewing in the world down there - I am several thousand feet in the air in a glorified tin can, and nobody and nothing can reach me.

I love flying. I really, sincerely, truly do.

So I've been quiet here - I promised a review of my new camera and that didn't happen. It's still not going to happen, because I'm much too busy today to pull out the camera (a Pentax Optio S12) and get into detailed analysis of all its nifty functions. It is quite nifty, though - I am entirely pleased with it. I took these with it:




There are depressingly few bugs outside anymore, but I am waiting until the first hard frost before taking off for the insectarium (mostly as an antidote to getting totally depressed after the first hard frost). I'm also waiting until I get back from my upcoming trip - I will be leaving this Saturday to go visit my good friend E, her husband M, and their highly adorable, new offspring, J. I will be testing out the camera's use for taking pictures of slightly larger creatures, i.e. the baby. I don't know if I'll be posting those pics here or not, will have to see what E and M think on that.

I have been sewing a ridiculous amount - mostly baby clothes. I will take pictures of those, to be posted after they've been given to E, as I don't want her to see what I've made ahead of time. It'd ruin the surprise. :)

I've also made myself a couple nifty shirts. I'm presently very in love with large, billowing sleeves with small, gathered cuffs. They're just nifty.

I'm considering getting some manner of sticker for my car - not a political type sticker, but just something pretty to personalize it a bit. I like this: http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/pentacle-seasons.jpg . . and this: http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/firefly.jpg

. . the firefly sticker is fairly nondenominational, apolitical, and generally inoffensive to most people, I'd think. I'm a little more nervous about the idea of the pentacle sticker. I've yet to find a label that fits me well on . . well, any subject or aspect of life, really . . but religiously, I most often refer to myself as an agnostic pagan - which really does make sense, I swear, but is difficult to explain in less than an essay and is not the point of this post. Point is, I am not a traditional sort of neo-pagan (though the words "traditional" and "neopagan" are sorta funny to put in the same sentence to start with), and this makes me a little bit wary of using traditional neopagan symbols, however much they appeal to me and fit what I believe. I don't want to appear to be representative of something that I am not. And I'm very not open about my religious beliefs at work. I don't exactly hide anything - I mean, I've taken the summer solstice off for two years running now, surely someone has noticed this, and hey, making this post on the internet under my real name - but I do not discuss religion at work, period, the end. And I have a feeling that if I stick this sticker on my car, I will be discussing (explaining, maybe justifying) my religion at work. I don't really want that.

. . but it's a very pretty sticker and I don't particularly like the idea of not buying it solely for that reason. That feels a little closetish.

Anyway - back to sewing and packing and generally losing my mind.

A few weeks ago, PetSmart stopped carrying the cat litter I previously used (a biodegradable, environmentally-friendly paper-based product). I bought several bags and resolved to find it elsewhere. Except, I think it's possible it no longer exists. At least, I did not find it elsewhere, and after attempting to buy it online and being told by the PetSmart webside that they had one bag in stock, I decided I was just going to have to find a new litter.

I tried enough varieties of litter when Oliver was a kitten to know what I didn't want (anything corn-cob or wheat-based was out, and I definitely wanted scoopable). I really, really wanted to find something else biodegradable . . but I found nothing that seemed like to actually work, in that catagory.

So I figured in for a penny, in for a pound, and bought a major brand regular-old-clay scoopable litter, designed for small spaces (the small space shared by me and my cat did require some highly frequent litterbox maintenance in order to keep things breathable, with the old litter).

The litter itself works beautifully - better than the old litter (*sigh* - I am such a sell-out). However, it comes in these big old Rubbermaid-like plastic tubs. I didn't even really think about this in the store, but then I got home, and put it in the box, and had an empty tub that looked suspiciously like something I could buy in its own right for about $10 at Walmart. Huh. I tried, momentarily, to figure out what I could use it for . . before I realized I was going to be acquiring a new one of these about once a month.

I do not need 12 tupperware tubs a year. I really, really don't.

I tried to see if I could buy this litter in more sensible packaging - I recalled seeing other types of litter made by this same company on the shelves in larger cardboard boxes, or bags. But no - not the small spaces litter. The small spaces litter only comes in packaging designed to clutter your small space.

So I wrote to the company, and complained (politely) about how wasteful and unnecessary this was, that I did not want to be contributing 12 rubbermaid tubs to a landfill per year, or to use the energy that would be required to recycle them (they're heavy-duty plastic).

Company replied with a form letter apologizing for the fact that I found their packaging inconvenient and assuring me that my concerns had been passed on to the folks who did packaging research (Dude, there are people who research how to package cat litter? Really?). Also they promised me coupons. I saw no evidence anywhere in this response that my letter had actually been read, but oh well - I suppose I can put whatever money I save via the use of my exercise-in-futility coupons towards saving for a less-small space. And then I can buy the litter that comes in the cardboard box.

In the mean time, anybody need plastic tubs?

So in about 4 minutes (less by the time I post this, most likely), my local township will be spraying my local park for mosquitoes. My father got a phonecall a little under an hour ago informing him of this, and that we're apparently local enough to the park that we may get hit with some drifting of sprayed chemical, depending on the winds. Per the nice township phonecall, this poses "minimal" risk to people and pets.

I'm more than slightly peeved; IMO I ought to get a vote in what gets sprayed on my property (or at least my parents should, being the legal owners of said property - still, I am a tenant, I do live here, I am affected by toxic stuff sprayed in the vicinity). I know they are concerned about West Nile, but I do not want the rest of my insects killed off, and I have a population of dragonflies that controls my mosquitoes, and I have ethical and religious objections to the indiscriminate use of insecticide, and in general there is no aspect of this that does not make me want to go stand in front of the park with a pissed-off type sign. (I won't actually, mostly on account of an hour being too little time to come up with something really witty to write on said hypothetical sign). I don't recall any such program of insect control ever being put to a vote, at least a vote in which I was included or of which I was notified . . . I suppose that's what we have representatives for, but still, I feel disenfranchised and unamused about this.

I caved; a Pentax Optio S12 is winging its way to me via Amazon as we speak (well, actually, it's sitting in an Amazon warehouse because I opted for the free shipping, and ergo it won't ship out until September 2nd; but the process of its eventually reaching me has been set in motion! Just . . no actual motion type motion yet.) I tried and tried to find a store that had one in stock so that I could try it out before I bought it, but nobody within 25 miles seems to stock them - and sadly, gas prices being what they are, it's really not worth driving farther than that as opposed to just returning it if I don't like it. And Amazon had it on really, really ridiculous sale, so there you go.

I will post a review when it arrives and I've had a chance to try it out. I'm kinda bummed that it's not likely to arrive before the holiday, but oh well.

This was brought about in part by the optical zoom on the currently-owned Pentax Optio S7 dying an untimely death on me. I can't blame the camera - I've taken upwards of 15k pictures with it in the last 18 months. It's done its duty. But, never the less, I have a camera that shuts itself off if I try to use the zoom outside of macro mode (yeah, I know, I work almost exclusively in macro mode, but still) and is threatening to give up the ghost entirely. Even in macro mode, the focus is not what it used to be - sometimes it works, sometimes it gives me a big blur. And the summer's not over. This is decidedly not cool.

But I got this one before it started to go wonky on me. This is entitled, "No, Pixar did not make me up, I swear."

Today's Topic: Is The Author Insane?

Yes, I was about 3" away from these guys. Yes, they did notice . .

. . . though not as much as these guys did. The yellow-jackets above were actually remarkably complacent about bright lights being flashed in their proverbial windows. They stared, but it was a, "Huh. That's weird. We'll keep an eye on that," sort stare. These guys above, though? Not. Pleased. There was annoyed staring, there was agitation, there was some vibrating of wings. That was when I decided to leave them be.

The location of either of these is being kept undisclosed, as I suspect it would not contribute to the longevity of the residents if I made their existence known - and they're really not hurting anything, they're out of the way and, obviously, not that aggressive. (Protecting your sources - not just for reporters!)

Look at its eyes. They're striped. How cool is that?

I know this is rather blurry at full size, but it's staring at me. Its expression was just too nifty not to post.

. . and another in the series of bugs with challenges; this guy's only got one back leg. He was getting around just fine without it; I even saw him make a short jump. How in the heck he can get an accurate trajectory, I don't know, but he landed where he was looking, so I think he can.

It seems I did move the preying mantis far enough away from the katydid to prevent the former from eating the latter, 'cause look! It's all grown up!

. . I *think* this is a she, but I'm not entirely positive.

Other things that proved the world is an awesome place, tonight:

Fork-tailed Bush Katydids Have More Fun

I have not dropped off the face of the earth! . . . almost dropped into the pond/pool balancing on the side to take pictures of hatching dragonflies . . but have not dropped off the face of the earth.

Today's post is going to be all about katydids, 'cause they're just cool.

A nymph - if I were really impressive, I could tell you its stage of development and all that. I'm not that impressive. But isn't it cute? It's washing its little foot!

"Hi, big freaky mammal-thing. Why are you flashing bright lights at me?"

"Oh - 'cause I'm cute, with my striped antennae. Alright then."

It's an antennae contest! (Other bug is a cricket)

It's a baby! (I know, I'm so scientific.) But look! It's got bitty stubby antennae and its leg are the width of the ridges in my fingerprint. How adorable is that?

"World veryvery big, and it very dark out. Me tiny. That long way down."

" .. and something's flashing bright lights at me. Me so confused."

Still a nymph, same species, believe it or not. (Not the same individual bug; I actually saw this guy (gal?) a few nights before the two above. When it's a grown-up, it'll have wings.

. . right now it just had these cute little fin-like wing-stubs, which you can see in this picture, kinda behind the knee of its middle leg. It's eating my gladiolas, but I can't really care, 'cause it's posing so nicely.

This is not a katydid, as hopefully even the least bug-oriented of observers could tell. :) This is the preying mantis that was stalking the above teenaged-ish katydid. It was relocated (though possibly not far enough, 'cause I haven't seen that katydid again). However, it gets a few cool points of its own, on account of turning itself pink to match the daylilies.

Discovery of the day:

This . . . . . . is a fork-tailed bush katydid nymph. http://buzz.ifas.ufl.edu/063dev.htm

Dueling spiders! These were taken last summer, but they've never been posted here, so here they are.
(The photos are cropped, but otherwise unaltered; the video is entirely unaltered.)