« August 2006 | Main | October 2006 »
September 29, 2006
Happy Birthday Henry
7 years ago I got this:
Look what he has turned into:
I can't believe what a big kid he is.
Posted by Julee at 09:32 AM | Comments (5)
Friday random ten
Shuffle Those MP3s
1. Underwater - Mary's Danish
2. Southern California Wants... - Dar Williams
3. Lover's Spit - Broken Social Scene
4. Maybe Zorro - Swearing at Motorists
5. Papa Was a Rodeo - Magnetic Fields
6. Tell Me All About It - Marshall Crenshaw
7. It's Sweet - Liz Phair
8. 20th Century Towers - Death Cab for Cutie
9. The Lives of Cleopatra - Tullycraft
10. Vice President Fruitley - Eels
Posted by Julee at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2006
Lepidoptery Anyone?
At the beginning of the month I posted about the caterpillars which had overtaken my parsley. In the days that immediately followed I did manage to get organized enough to get an excellent book from the library and all of the supplies I needed to make a little home for a couple of caterpillars.
It was a good thing I didn't hesitate because one of the little guys pupated within a couple of days of his capture, which was a relief. They actually require quite a bit of care. They really eat a lot and they have to be constantly supplied with fresh parsley. Frequent meals mean frequent waste. I bet you didn't know that insect poop is called frass. I had to keep the jar clear of frass or they could become infected with some sort of mold. The caterpillars are very tender and sensitive at that particular stage in their development. Generally if a butterfly lays 150 eggs only 3 will survive to be butterflies themselves.
If you look in the picture one pupa is brown and one is green. I read that the chrysalis' color depends on how smooth the object upon which they attach is. The green one's stick is considerably more smooth tham the other one.
So I will keep these guys in the garage until next spring when hopefully they will emerge. Sometime in March they should start moving around inside the chrysalises and will hatch as Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies a couple of weeks later.
Next year I will plant a lot more parsley and some milkweed to attract Monarchs too. I also have plenty of time to research how I can attract other butterflies to my garden as well.
Notice the little threads that they use to attach themselves. They actually attached themselves before they made their chrysalises. I saw on a butterfly DVD that the chrysalis is so strong that it's impossible to open with your bare hands.
Posted by Julee at 03:55 PM | Comments (1)
Spread the Word
Jennifer at Partial to the Bean posted a link to an article about Edmay Mayers, who is in Iraq working for the Army Corps of Engineers. You can send your gently used, but still in good condition stuffed animals and toys to Edmay and she will make sure they are distributed to Iraqi children. Read: Spread the Word
Posted by Julee at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
Wiki Wednesday
Courtesy of Karen at Verbatim
1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!
UCS may refer to:* Union of Concerned Scientists
* Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, a now defunct group which amalgamated the major shipbuilders of the River Clyde, Glasgow, Scotland.
* Union of Clare Students
* Universal Cartoon Studios
* Universal Character Set
* University College School, a British independent school situated in Hampstead, northwest London.
* Undergraduate Council of Students, the undergraduate student government at Brown University.
* In the game series of Earth (Earth 2140, 2150, 2160), the UCS is short for United Civilized States, one of the game factions.
* UnConditioned Stimulus (see Classical conditioning)
* Ultimate Collectors Series A LEGO term referring to super detailed models. These models have lots of pieces and are usually quite big.
Leave it up to the Wikifolk to add Ultimate Collectors Series to the list in the article. There are a couple of boys in my house who have happened to look at this page many times. The Imperial Star Destroyer is the particular set they have their eye on. But at $299.99, I don't think so!
Posted by Julee at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2006
Pictures for Today
We went to Sandy Hook last weekend. It's in New Jersey but it's part of the National Parks of the New York Harbor. We didn't get to hike around and explore as I had wanted. The kids got soaked, it was a chilly day and I forgot to bring the spare clothes. Oh well, I'll just have to go back. I did get my parks passport stamped though!
You can see New York from the beach. It was a cloudy day so the view isn't too clear.
Posted by Julee at 05:19 PM | Comments (4)
Four Things
Amy tagged me over 2 weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to playing. I've been so busy lately.
Four jobs I have had: Cashier at Sound Warehouse record store (back before the days of the cd, they even had betamax in their video section); English Teacher in Japan; Financial Analyst; Stay at Home Mom
Four movies I can watch over and over: Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones, Garden State and, Desperado
Four places I have lived: Kure, Japan; Washington, DC; Boston, MA; and San Antonio, TX
Four TV shows I love to watch: Frontline and I don't really watch any others, especially now that we have axed the cable
Four places I have been on holiday: Kyoto, Japan; Bermuda; Toronto, Ontario; Grand Canyon.
Four websites I check every day: Google Headlines, Yahoo Groups, my library account, Weather Underground
Four favorite foods: Sushi, Ice cream, Tamales, Cheeseburger cooked on the grill
Four places I’d like to be right now: taking a nap; at the beach; in Boston; on a date with Eric
I'm not going to tag anyone specific. So consider yourself tagged if you want to play.
Posted by Julee at 03:54 PM | Comments (2)
Friday Random Ten
Shuffle Those MP3s
Lies - The Rolling Stones
Skindiving - James
Big iron - Marty Robbins
Removed - Calexico
Fuel for Fire - Transistor Radio
Rocket Man - Me First and the Gimme Gimmies
Catherine - PJ Harvey
Nowhere Fast - The Smiths
Cosmos and Demos - Devendra Banhart
Rejoice - Pedro the Lion
Incidentally, a few months ago "Big Iron" by Marty Robbins, a cowboy song, showed up in the shuffle while I was driving with the kids. For the following 2 months the boys would request that I play it for them every single time we got in the car.
Iris' favorite request song was "Jolene" by Dolly Parton. Everytime I played it for her she would belt out singing the chorus and make wide, sweeping gestures with her arms. She would then ask me to play it over and over again. It was pretty cute and even worth the price of listening to the song hundreds of times.
Those two songs have fallen out of fashion lately to be replaced by "The Saga Begins" by Weird Al. (Scroll down the linked page for the lyircs and then sing along to the melody of American Pie.)
Posted by Julee at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2006
Behavioral Modification & Arachnophobia
I have never liked spiders. But really, who does? But I think my fear had started to border on the level of arachnophobia. It started in Japan when a tarantula ended up in our apartment. It must have been someone's pet on the loose because I could never find any information about native Japanese tarantulas.
Then about 6 years ago when we were living in Kansas City we had found a few brown recluse spiders inside our house. I would stay awake in fear that one was going to bite my baby Henry. Then when we moved to Boston we had an infestation of yellow sac spiders. One mighty egg sac must have erupted because over about a 10 day period we were killing nearly a dozen a day. Not many people have heard of this spider but it does have the wonderful distinction of being the 4th most poisonous spider in the US.
Finally, here in New Jersey I came across 3 black widows while I was cleaning out the garage last spring. (The hair on my arms is standing on end as I type this.) By this time my fear had gotten to the point where I could not stand to even look at pictures of spiders, not even drawings. I would call for Eric everytime one needed to be removed from our home. Sometimes I would freeze up and my mind would go blank when I saw one.
Then one of the boys brought home a library book about spiders. They asked me to read it and I sat down and just decided that I could do it. I was going to read that book! I don't remember exactly which one it was, but it was very interesting and well written. We learned quite a lot of neat spider facts and it actually calmed some of my fears.
Well last week my next door neighbor was clearing out some of her garden and came across the pretty girl in the picture. She was going to compost her with the wilted perennials. I was feeling particularly brave that day so I rescued her and found her a nice home in my Black-Eyed Susans. The kids and I had fun finding her and her latest web everyday. That is until yesterday, because she has disappeared. Maybe she has reached the end of her spider life or she has just moved on.
Anyway, I still am not a big fan of spiders. I certainly won't share my home with any that I find inside. But now I can at least kill and dispose of them myself. And maybe even save a few spider lives along the way.
Posted by Julee at 09:43 PM | Comments (6)
September 07, 2006
A Picture for Today
This picture was taken on Sunday at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.
You can see Henry is missing a tooth. He broke it by using his teeth to separate a couple of lego pieces.
Posted by Julee at 07:05 AM | Comments (4)
September 01, 2006
Caterpillars
A few days ago we noticed that our 2 parsley plants were covered in caterpillars. When Theo saw them he immediately shouted out, "Monarchs!" Eric thought maybe they were swallowtails. While they do look similar to monarch caterpillars, after a little research we discovered that Eric was right and they are actually the caterpillars of Black Swallowtail Butterflies. For one, they don't have the feelers of monarch caterpillar.
Apparently the butterflies lay eggs only on specific host plants like parsley, dill and a few others. Then the larva feeds off of the plant until it's ready to form its chrysalis. We have dozens of the caterpillars and they are devouring my parsley, but I don't mind sharing with them. I plan on planting a bunch more next year just for the butterflies, as well as milkweed for monarchs.
I really hope they decide to build their chrysalis' near my house so we can watch them all winter. They will emerge and take flight in the spring. If I get organized enough in the next few days I am going to figure out how we can capture a few and raise them until spring until it's time to release them.
Posted by Julee at 08:07 PM | Comments (2)
Friday Random Ten
Shuffle Those MP3s
1. Chop 'em Down - Matisyahu
2. Reeling - PJ Harvey
3. As Tears Go By - Rolling Stones
4. Icing Sugar - The Cure
5. When You Wake - Beth Orton
6. Seven Steps to Satan - Luna
7. Rhymes of an Hour - Mazzy Star
8. Truth Doesn't Make a Noise - The White Stripes
9. Rich - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
10. Soemone Else's Song - Wilco
Posted by Julee at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)