Say Hello to My Little Friend...

Remember the Praying Mantis I caught last summer? She laid eggs while we had her, and I was fortunate enough to catch them hatching and fed them before they starved to death. Of the hundreds that emerged, only about 10 or so managed to survive (due to cannabalism, underfeeding, etc).

Here's the second largest one:



Hopefully I can keep her around long enough to do some high speed photography of her catching and eating a blowfly, because it's something I think everybody should see.

Goodbye...

Tonight, after months of teetering on the edge and trying to make things work, Bethany and I decided to end it after almost 15 months together.

It's funny how everything on the radio reminds you of someone more after you've lost them than when you had them in your life. I don't think I've actually cried in years, but the whole half hour drive back home, I just couldn't hold back. I found myself vacillating between periods of amazement at the depth of emotion (a depth I rarely enjoy with my current suite of mental coping devices) and extreme sorrow that I had to let something wonderful go because of those very devices.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever stop being enough of who I am to really be who I a REALLY am...