Friday, May 16, 2014

Photo-Finish Friday: Lizard Love

Little Girl may be 16 now, but she still loves catching lizards, specifically the little anoles that we like to keep around, as they eat the Ugh! bugs.  (If you don't know what an Ugh! bug is, you've never lived where there are roaches the size of matchbox race cars.  If anything can make you say Ugh! it's one of those.)

Get a plastic container and make holes in the top.
Gather sticks, grass, clover, and a small cap from a jar in which to keep water.
Catch and observe your small reptile.

Yes, she always lets them go after watching a while.


Photo-Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, who blogs at The Goat's Lunch Pail.


Today is

Art Fair and Winefest -- Washington, MO, US (the largest tasting if state wines, juried art show, and more; through Sunday)

Asakusa Sanja Matsuri -- Tokyo, Japan (sake and processions of elaborate mini shrines celebrate the goddess of mercy and the three fishermen; through Sunday)

Bath International Music Festival -- Bath, UK (with musicians from more than 30 countries, this is truly a premier festival; through the 26th)

Bats Day in the Fun Park -- Anaheim, CA, US (includes The Bats Day Happy Haunts Swinging Wake: A Costumed Celebration, a Bat's Day Holiday Black Market, and a Spooky Trip to Disneyland; through Sunday)

Bike to Work Day 2014 -- the League of American Bicyclists have urged you to celebrate this day the third Friday of May ever since 1956http://bikeleague.org/content/bike-month-dates-events-0

Biographer's Day -- anniversary of the day Boswell met Johnson in 1763

Endangered Species Day -- http://www.endangered.org/campaigns/endangered-species-day/

Fishing Has No Boundaries, Hayward Event -- Hayward, WI, US (sponsored by Fishing Has No Boundaries, Inc., a non-profit with the goal of opening the great outdoors through the sport of fishing to the disabled; the Hayward event is their biggest each year, and runs through tomorrow)www.fhnbinc.org

Hires Root Beer Day -- pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires created it on this day in 1866

International Virtual Assistants' Day -- acknowledging the dedication, experience, expertise, and determination of virtual professionals; no longer sponsored, but the The International Virtual Assistant's Association is still around

Love a Tree Day -- and read about the love of a tree, in Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree

Magnolia Blossom Festival and World Championship Steak Cook-Off -- Magnolia, AR, US (all the usual fun, with a steak eating contest, live entertainment, and an art show;through tomorrow)

Maifest -- Mainstrasse Village, Covington, KY, US (celebrating German tradition and welcoming the first spring wines; through Sunday)

Middlesex Day -- Middlesex, England (although it is only a postal county now, many celebrate the heritage of what was once the county that included London)

Mike the Headless Chicken Festival -- Fruita, CO, US (it all started with a chicken that kept trying to eat even after the farmer lopped off his head to prep him for the stew pot; Mike's indomitable spirit and will to live is a legend here and the basis of a two day festival celebrating the fact that you can live a normal life even after you have lost your mind!)

National Coquilles St. Jacques Day

National Defense Transportation Day -- US (remembering the contributions of people working in the transportation industries)

National Pizza Party Day -- as declared by Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza, on the 3rd Friday of May

Rhododendron Festival -- Florence, Oregon, US (parades, flower show, car show, carnival and more; through Sunday)

Rhubarb Festival -- Intercourse, Pennsylvania (come on out and enjoy the music, games, rhubarb-inspired foods, and lots of family fun, including the Rhubarb Race Car Derby and best pie contest; through tomorrow)

Sea-Monkey® Day -- as declared by someone who likes these little brine shrimp as pets; for info on keeping Sea Monkeys, check herehttp://www.sea-monkey.com/; for ideas about how to celebrate there is a site about how to worship sea monkeyshttp://www.seamonkeyworship.com/nationalday.html

Sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in Rounds Day -- but not around me, please, or i might do something drastic

Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day -- because of pollen levels, as declared by Karen Richmond, of Eastport, MI, US

Spaghetti-Os Day -- they were first sold on this day in 1966

St. Brendan the Voyager's Day (Patron of boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, travelers, whales; Ardfert, Ireland; Clonfert, Ireland; Kerry, Ireland)

St. Honorius of Amiens' Day (Patron of bakers[especially bakers of communion wafers], cake makers, candlemakers, chandlers, confectioners, florists, flour merchants, oil refiners, pastry chefs; against drought)

St. John of Nepomuk's Day (Patron of bridges, bridge builders, confessors, discretion, good and right confession, running water, silence; Bohemia; Czech Republic; Slovakia; against calumnies, floods, indiscretions, and slander)

Store Bededag -- Denmark; Faroe Islands; Greenland (Great Prayer Day)

Syttende Mai -- Stoughton, WI, US (come celebrate the Norwegian heritage of this town with a three day colorful gala; through Sunday)

Sudan People's Liberation Army Day -- South Sudan

Teachers' Day -- Malaysia

U.S.Nickel Day -- the first U.S. five-cent nickel was minted on this day in 1866

Wear Purple for Peace Day -- the idea being that until we become a peaceful species, the aliens won't visit


Anniversaries Today:

Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, marries Marie Antoinette, 1770
Edgar Allen Poe marries his cousin Virginia Clemm, 1836


Birthdays Today:

Megan Fox, 1986
Matt Ryan, 1985
Jim Sturgess, 1981
Tori Spelling, 1973
David Boreanaz, 1971
Gabriela Sabatini, 1970
Tracey Gold, 1969
Janet Jackson, 1966
Mare Winningham, 1959
Joan Benoit Samuelson, 1957
Olga Korbut, 1955
Debra Winger, 1955
Pierce Brosnan, 1953
Bob Edwards, 1947
Bill Smitrovich, 1947
Billy Martin, 1928
Liberace, 1919
Woody Herman, 1913
Louis "Studs" Terkel, 1912
Margaret Rey, 1906
Henry Fonda, 1905
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, 1804
William Seward, 1801


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Top Gun(Film), 1986
"McCartney II"(album release), 1980
"Listen to What the Man Said"(Single release), 1975
"Annie Get Your Gun"(Musical), 1946
"Dalibor"(Opera), 1868


Today in History:

The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence is re-established as a republic, 1527
Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England, 1532
Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer, James Boswell, in London, 1763
Denmark abolishes slave trade, 1792
The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail, 1843
Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer, 1866
A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight, 1919
Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc, 1920
Chaim Weizmann is elected the first President of Israel, 1948
The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport (then Idlewild Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines, 1951
Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, 1960
China's Cultural Revolution begins, 1966
The Soviet Venera 5 spacecraft lands on Venus, 1969
India annexes Sikkim  after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote is in favour of merging with India, 1975
Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1975
The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain, 1986
A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine, 1988
Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the US Houses of Congress, 1991
Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote, 2005
The oldest water ever found is discovered in a Canadian mine; the water dates back 2.6 billion years, 2013

10 comments:

  1. With just a bit of photoshopping the lizard could be poling a pirogue down a Louisiana bayou. He's very cute and in that photo he looks very hard working.

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  2. That lizard is definitely posing for the camera. I'm not even sure I could pull off such a fashionable, trendy pose.

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  3. It's good that she lets them go after she watches them for a bit. Good for her.

    Have a fabulous day and weekend. ☺

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  4. I know those giant roaches well. We have sand colored lizards here, and just the other day I was watching TV, when there was a chase scene - but not on TV. A lizard was chasing a roach all over the living room tiles. He'd catch him, but the roach was so big (and tough) the lizard would drop him and the chase would continue. Finally they disappeared under my deep freezer and I heard lots of banging as they ran around the motor in back. I'm not sure who won since I haven't seen either again. :O

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  5. That's quite interesting and she takes care of it till she let's it go too :-)

    Have a lizardtastic weekend ;-)

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  6. My girls would be catching these little guys all the time. They are very committed frog catchers in the summer, and I would fear for the poor wee lizards. they are getting a bit better at understanding "free and in the wild" as they get older.

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  7. We had the coolest lizards in the backyard when I was younger. Can't go after the big ones, though. They bite. :)

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  8. It's so nice to hear that she studies these lizards and then let's them go.

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