If you’ve been reading this blog for any length time, you will remember that I like bugs.  Not as much as Legos, but still, I have an above average level of respect for things with more than 5 legs.  I also am trying to make it a mission to foster the same love in the girls.  If not a love for bugs, at least a fascination or non-squeamishness.

As luck would have it, I happened across 2 praying mantises in 2 days.  One walked past me as I was labeling swing set parts, the other just plain stuck to the patio door.  So, I popped them in the 2 bug houses we have from trying to raise butterflies & preying mantises.  I don’t know why I like these particular bugs.  Maybe because they’re green.  Maybe because they’re fascinating.  Maybe because they move with purpose instead of mindless automatons.  Maybe because they rip their prey apart and munch happily on their heads…while still alive.  They have a lot of power in their slender frames.  At any rate, the girls like them too, and have a lot of fun letting them crawl on their arms and finding food (other bugs) for them.  I love the way they turn their triangular head around to look at things.  They watch me sometimes, and regard me.

Tank's hooked foot

The big guy is Gilroy, and the littler one is Styracosaurus (they picked that…not me.  Thanks Dinosaur Train).  And, a recent edition, a rather large stag beetle I named tank, that Mommy was kind enough to find*.  He’s armored rather well, and is a compact specimen.  It walks like it’s heavily armored, too.  It heaves his whole body and flings a leg forward till it flops down, and then the whole body settles back down with a thud.  It does that every time it wants to move a leg.  It’s tiring just to watch it.  I originally threw him in there with Gilroy not as food, but more of a cage match.  Soon though, they stayed in their own corners and didn’t eat each other, which was good.  Because the while a praying mantis is strong, it can’t crack beetle armor.  This fight would have gone to the stag beetle no question, what with the jaws of death it carries around stuck to his head.  They have their little corners.  Gilroy likes to hang out stuck to the wall up top, and Tank just runs in circles on the bottom. Gilroy has popped a non-plusses Tank in the head a few times. Gilroy is so fast, I don’t even strike. The only way I know he did is that Tank kinda twitches a little as he walks by within arms reach. Or, that a ant was walking along and then it’s struggle in midair, stuck in Sty’s arms.

Finding food has been fun, so far.  Gilroy & Sty eat a lot.  Here’s what they like & don’t like so far:

The fun will wear out quickly though because they need variety, and the easy to catch stuff (spiders & ants) won’t last forever. I might have to resort to strapping a butterfly net to my car antenna. Tonight’s experiment: lightning bugs! I’m gonna keep the little guys cause I haven’t managed to kill them off in 3 days, so they might actually survive till Fall.

*The Mrs is being a great sport going above & beyond the call. In addition to putting up with spindly scary looking large bugs as pets in the house, she catches food for them too.

Well, if amount of blood, sweat & tears are any indication of the amount of love a father has for his daughters, putting together a wooden swing set has to be high on the list.  All 3 currently exist on every piece of wood used to put this thing together.  2 boxes held enough lumber to build a small house (literally), a bag of fasteners that weighed about 23 lbs, and a manual so thick the staples yearned to pop free.  But after 3 sessions totaling (3+3+11) 17 hours, it’s up, functional, and safe.  No missing screws, and only 1 piece on backwards.

It’s awesome.  The girls helped too.  They had lots of fun helping wrench, count out screws, and find the wood pieces.  They also helped lose nuts, mix up screws, and figure out the longest time possible to turn the screwdriver one turn.  I told them I appreciated their help & if they could kindly go inside with Mommy when Lessa stood in the middle of the wood pile, and without even looking at the wood, called out “G5!  Geeee Fiiiiiiiiive, where are you?  Daddy, G5 won’t answer me and I can’t find it (yes she knew how to look for the number on the wood).”

As you can see from the outgoing swing set, the new addition is just a little bigger.  Old one was Age 2.  This one is Age 4.  I hate to see what I’m going to have to put together at Age 6.  After all, it has exactly the same thing (swing, slide, platform, climbing wall.  One just has a roof where the other has a telescope.  Like I said…same exact thing.  I wonder if the small one can fit inside the bigger one?

Anyway, the Big Backyard Westvale is up, and it’s groovy.  I can’t wait to modify it!

Some pictures from Hudson Mills Metropark on July 3, 2010.

Just a photographer’s reflection, but part of the fun of fireworks for me is screwing around with aperture settings.  I know I did some things right, and some things wrong.  But, I think there are some amazing pictures here.  Yes I know I have the building/trees/flagpole.  I kept them in there on purpose to show that the picture was in fact in focus, and to frame the picture.  Got comments?  Bring em on.

Summer Photos

Lessa

Ivy

Dancing!

It’s etched here in my head and my heart.  I know that the wounds will scab over, and eventually look like faint scars (never the same as before), but right now the wounds still tear open from time to time.

I miss his patience with all that he endured… even when he gave us the “you want me to do WHAT, now?!” expression…

Despite the trials and tribulations (which I don’t miss so much), I miss the unexpected in-between times.  The light in the dark. The surprises.  The absolute brilliance that was part of him. And while I’m glad that he’s at peace and not suffering, I miss him terribly.

More miscellany.

I saw a lawn cutting service at a house in my neighborhood.  I was struck by it’s cleverness & simplicity I thought I’d mention/pimp it.  What I saw was a simple panel truck (like a small moving truck) with some guys & lawn mowers.  On the side, in graffiti style spray paint, it said “Look No Mow”.  If you don’t get it, say it aloud a few times.  They even have a website: www.looknomow.com  (it used to be this).  OK, that wasn’t there a week ago, but it looks like they’re up & coming.  What a simple concept: couple of trucks, multiple uses.  Catchy slogan, flashy website, and you’ve got a business up & running.  I say, Good Job starting up a business with what looks like an expandable, simple, low overhead, versatile model.

Happy Father’s Day, men.  I saw an email from one of the guys in my Men’s Group that had an interesting bit I thought I’d share.  “As a father, what you won’t face within yourself, will not only kill you, but also your children.”  To me, this talks about not idly hoping or saying you will change, or do things differently than others before you.  It galvanizes the fact that it’s not just about me.  It’s about wanting to change for the sake of my kids.  I’ll even go further & say it will kill your marriage as well.  That is why I have said in the past it is paramount for me to straighten myself out, before I work on my marriage & kids.

That’s about it for now.  We’ve had a pretty cool run of weekends with awesome activities with the girls.  We’re outside, we’re shopping, we’re relaxing, we’re working.  It’s an experience filled summer that I hope is memorable.  I find at the end of the day, if I ask them what they liked the best/least, I have to struggle myself to remember everything that happened in the past 14-odd hours!  I’m in awe of how they love getting their hands dirty while planting, or being excited at seeing worms/bugs Mommy or I find for them (or our neighbors, kind enough to deliver 3 ginormous pillbugs).  They love (learning how to go) roller-blading, playing catch with a ball & a shrub, looking for fairies under mushrooms, and playing so hard they go and “have to sit in my chair because I’m exHAUSTed” (and promptly getting up & into the fray 2 seconds later.  I’m impressed with Lessa’s lateral thinking, Ivy’s problem solving, their memory (when it suits them), and compassion.  Yesterday, for instance, a stray, very friendly (to the point of “attention whore”), cat found us and promptly adopted us for the afternoon.  After we were all done outside & packed up inside to cool down, I dozed off while playing Candyland with Lessa.  I was awakened to ivy frantically telling me that the cat was in the house.  Well, I thought, that’s just silly.  Of course we have 2 cats in the hous…waitaminute…she couldn’t be thinking of the stray…   I get up to find the intruder hissing at Veeper in the middle of the living room.  I promptly and unceremoniously deposited the stray out of the house.  We had a nice long discussion after that involving disease, boundaries, and asking permission.  How she got the patio door open to let it in, when she couldn’t open it all day, is beyond me.  After that, she & her stuffed puppy sat in front of the door chatting to the cat (on the other side of the patio door, looking mournful & confused).