Bad Influence!!

I picked Aaron up from the airport yesterday, and we proceeded to have a food fest. We went to a kind of greasy spoon for hipsters near Hawthorne first, I can't remember the name...And got these really good home fries with the works. Then we went to Ben and Jerry's.



The huge fly that Aaron killed at the restaurant. You didn't think I would go a WHOLE post without putting up some sort of weird bug picture did you?



Then we got to Corvallis, and we were waiting for the dream time special to start at American Dream, so Aaron suggested we go to Big River BEFORE dinner and get a dessert. He only had to twist my arm a little bit. We got raspberry cheesecake. Yum.


THEN we got our pizza. THEN we got gelato. I'm a little embarrassed about this actually. As I started typing I remembered about the Ben and Jerry's...three desserts in one day. Sheesh. At least we shared them all. I did decide against my own gelato, you know you've had enough when birthday cake gelato doesn't even sound good enough to get your own dish. I love that stuff. Love it. Want to marry it. It was an especially good batch last night too, super gloppy and wonderful.



I am off to work, and Aaron is off to rock climb, pick up a tux, visit his parents, get a rental car, see a friend....

Photos

I took a TON of pictures this weekend. They can be viewed at my picasa site, which can be reached by the link on the right or by clicking here.
It is so amazing to me how many different insects and spiders are just outside my door! I have been watching bugs in Oregon my whole life and everyday I go out "hunting" I see at LEAST one bug I have no clue about. I saw 2 today. I wouldn't even know what "class" to put them in, bee, fly, butterfly, etc. I love how this macro lens causes me to look closer. There is an astounding amount of life around us all the time. Today I just sat in the grass and watched. I found tiny flowers the size of a pin head, mini spiders with big attitudes, droplets of water, and cucumber beetles munching on dandelions.
As I'm writing this post, my friend Liesel just told me she found a mite at work, and thinking of me, put it on a slide and examined it under the scope only to find an exquisite display of detail. I'm glad I can inspire with my photographs! Also feel free to leave me comments! They make me happy :)

Striped Jumper

I found this guy in the same place as the one from yesterday. He was not nearly as cooperative, and the lighting was not as good either. I have seen the original jumping spider twice since I photographed him, both times he has hid after seeing me. I feel really lucky that I was in the right place at the right time yesterday. I love their eyes and how expressive they look.

Check out this jumper!

I saw a dead earwig in a web and was taking pictures of it...then realized who's web it was. This jumping spider was amazing, it kept inching towards me, flashing it's red butt, then coming at me. It was definitely threatening me, challenging me. I just googled this guy to figure out what he was, he is Phidippus johnsoni, the Johnson Jumper, or Redbacked Jumping Spider. One of the distinguishing characteristics, besides the obvious red abdomen, are the metallic green chelicerae, which can definitely be seen if you are looking for them. It is a male, the females have a black stripe down their abdomens. I saw two males today acting aggressively towards each other.

Sunny days are meant for macro

The sun is out...the bugs are out...I am happy. The bug at the bottom is the same kind that's on my banner. From this morning:

Daphne

Jeff took me over to his Grandpa Don's farm after work today. We got to play with the baby geese, so squishy! Also see the new calves, and meet Daphne, the sweetest calf that followed us around and sniffed and rubbed on us. It was like my own personal petting zoo, it was great! There were also baby chicks, I held one, but they were not as tame as the ones I am used to and it didn't care for being held. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was perfect. Thank you Jeff and Grandpa Don for having me over!

Captions

We played a little game last night I just decided to call "Captions". We made up different scenarios, or just said a word, then showed the emotion. Some examples: You make me sick, You stole my baby's daddy!, That tastes funny, Chlamydia, Miss America, Just laid an egg. Feel free to give these photos your own captions.

Game Face

Guy hitting on us at bar?

Holla!

To nurse inserting catheter: "That's not my urethra"

This may be "You make me sick", but I'm not sure why Megan is shooting herself

Just ate something gross

Our wedding photo

Just won the lottery

Allergy Season

Chlamydia

Megan Visit

We started the night off right with American Dream. The proceeded to visit Corvallis's grocery options. An old past time of ours. No pictures taken unfortunately. We loaded up on Gushers, small red boxes of Barnum's Animal Crackers and Shark Bites.


Sunday we went for a walk by my house. We gave ourselves a self guided tour of a mansion being built nearby. Then up further into the country. It has been raining a lot, so we got lucky finding two newts.


This guy may have been the smallest one I've ever seen, Megan kept saying "We need a penny!" for scale. I took some pictures where he doesn't look like he's being tortured, but you really can't tell how small he is. Don't worry I did not feed the newt to the chickens.



Then we met some friendly mules. At least we think they were mules...looked like horses, brayed like donkeys. They are living in this total mud pit, they slid around when they walked. The poor things will be lucky if their hooves don't rot off. I don't understand why people have animals and don't take care of them. They aren't children...you can get rid of them if you don't want them anymore.




We ran some errands, bought some over priced yarn, met Juanita's grandbaby, watched Waitress and relaxed for the night since we were both pretty tired.