Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Day 1 (Sunday)

No change in the butterfly baby eggs...

*yells* But we're gonna have MOOOOORE!

Yesterday: +11
Today: +6
Current egg count: 17!

The Ninja saw this slightly smaller Momma butterfly depositing more little bundles of nom-nom-nom on the calmansi tree...
 ...and we learned *whispers* that sometimes they EAT each other!!! *gasp* (Its like a canniballistic protein shake *shudders*) Sooooo they've been separated at least until after they hatch into bird droppings - which is what they're gonna look like if they're the kind we think they are... 

Yep, all kinds of beautiful caterpillars and we're hatching the ones that look like bird poo... *mock sigh* 

Luckily they're not endangered though,  so we can practice on these ones before we try helping with the monarch migration ;)

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Zomg we're gonna have butterfly babies!!!

I was absolutely mesmerized by this butterfly today, he was flitting around and around the calmansi tree... I was enthralled, witnessing the gentle gracefullness with which he moved that until relatively recently science and engineering had deemed impossible.


I was so excited, wondering if he was thirsty and looking for water... or maybe a bite to eat until I showed The Ninja and she said "Is it laying eggs on my calmansi?!?"

Sure enough upon closer inspection we found little egg nodules... Ruh roh...


A moderate amount of Googling later and we discovered that they hatch within 3 to 5 days... 3 to 5 days?!?!?! We hatched a plan to save the calmansi from voracious caterpillars, and headed to the nursery to pick up something more appropriate for them to munch on.

We went in thinking we needed milkweed but the lady at the nursery was so awesome, and knew from the picture we showed her of the eggs that it was a citrus tree, and then guessed before I even showed her my pictures that it was a giant brown swallowtail not a monarch and that we needed Rue!

We stopped only long enough to grab a soda before hurrying home, and here are the butterfly eggs in their new home!


At least I hope they're butterfly babies... 

Oh well even if they aren't... they're in a mesh cage, outside ;) In any case, I'll keep you posted! 

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

No need to be rude, just use your words

It continues to boggle my mind that some people think that they are somehow in a bigger rush than everyone else...

We were buying shoes last night, and standing in line when a new teller opened up and the lady behind me dashed over...

Seriously?!

I actually said something. I usually don't, but come on!

Thankfully the teller handled it really well and basically said these people were here first, I'm just going to ring them up and put her stuff aside in a matter of fact kind of way.

The thing that kills me, is that I've been in line before and had people behind me say "Excuse me I'm in a bit of a hurry <for whatever reason like needing to pick up kids>, could I possibly go ahead of you?"... and usually the answer is pretty much always yes. 

I can appreciate being in a hurry, but there's no need to be rude about it.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Stargazing from the roof... like they do in the movies!

It's probably been more than a year since we upgraded out ladder to this nifty folding/rearranging one (the one he demos at the end in the background), with the intention of watching fireworks from the roof of the garage. Being able to climb up to the garage roof in relative safety to watch the Perseids was totally worth the extra cost... No short ladders on small, stable objects... like *ahem* tables for us anymore! #safetyfirst


We saw a combined total of 8 meteors before my inner kid's excitement wore off enough that my inner grown up started to glaze over and beg sleep, already dreading this morning's alarm...

I still feel like a little kid lying on the ground looking all around the sky hoping that I wont be blinking when the next one streaks by... crossing my fingers that I'll be looking in the right spot so I'll see the entire burst of energy however brief it may be.

This morning I'm still pretty stoked that we saw any meteors this close to all the city lights, and I'm in awe at how pretty and magical falling rocks can be.