The other day I finally got a photo of the big, official, orange sign that amused me to no end, posted near a highway exit, that says, “DANGER - KEEP OUT”. Unfortunately, the picture was super-blurry because I took it from my car and the stupid auto-focus decided to focus on the inside of my windshield. It probably didn’t help that I was …well, driving. Uh, my bad. (Warning: Don’t try this at home. Or in your car, either.)

And I couldn’t get a picture of the neat thing I heard on TheBuzz, since it was (duh) radio. A caller named Jordan was on the air, and the DJ’s all started talking about what a “totally hot name Jordan is for a girl!” That was pretty nifty, and I’m sure my Jordan will appreciate it in a few more years. (That’s not the only radio station I listen to, or even my favorite. My favorite is whichever one of the six stations I listen to does not currently have talking, commercials, or crappy music. Sometimes all of them do, however, and I tend to dislike the DJ’s on TheBuzz the least. And KNRK’s new website sucks, but KUFO has the suckiest “personalities.”)

So here are some things I did get pictures of, and made a new photo gallery for critters! I got a decent pic of the squirrel feeder that I nailed into my wild plum tree in the front yard, complete with a “customer.” The lid is hinged so squirrels can lift it up to get at the goodies. Yes, there’s actually commercially-sold squirrel food, which is a mixture of cracked corn and a variety of nuts & seeds. Squirrels reportedly like pumpkin seeds best, and I can’t blame them.

I didn’t have the presence of mind to grab my camera and get snapshots of the 3 quail that were in my front yard on Wednesday night. Nor the last couple times we had raccoons wandering through. And the possum waddled away too fast to even get the camera, much less snap a picture. Oh well, maybe another time. But I’m starting to think I should try to get my yard listed as an official wildlife refuge. *grin*

I did get pics of a critter that wasn’t in my yard, though. As I was headed up the stairs in my parking garage today (part of the exercise plan, I take the stairs instead of an elevator if it’s not more than 2 floors), I spotted a bug on one of the steps. A big bug. Since my co-worker Martin has a degree in entomology and is always collecting specimens (one of his pals even got him a hand-held bug vacuum that really works!), I decided I’d try to catch it …just as long as it didn’t jump at me or fly in my direction! So I went to my car, got a handy-dandy wide-mouthed water bottle, and went back to the step. It took some gentle encouragement from my handy-dandy keychain to convince it to get inside the container, and it tried to fly out of it all the way home. I don’t think it liked the car’s vibrations (that’s okay, I didn’t like it’s creepy wings-thwapping sound). Once home, I transferred it to a wide-mouth Mason jar with a damp paper napkin in the bottom, and covered it with tin foil (airholes punctured with a fork) secured by a rubber band.

It’s over an inch long - I tried to get a picture that would properly demonstrate that, but the perspective is a bit off. Still, it’s a neat bug. It has long feathery antennae and it’s a really big brown beetle-type-thing with white stripes lengthwise down its entire back. I’ve never seen anything like it, which is why I want Martin to tell me what it is. I figure, if anyone knows, he will. For crying out loud, he studies ancient bug parts that he found in core samples from 10,000-year-old peat! (He showed me pics he took with an electron microscope. Creepy.)

So here are the bug pics: the slightly-better focus, and the slightly-better angle. I hope Martin likes it. After all, I scared the crap out of myself capturing it. I utterly detest bugs, and I have screaming phobias of large flying bugs! But sometimes my curiosity is stronger than my phobias.