Aliens Hatching!!

It's been 10 days since this guy went into his cocoon,
now it looks like it's about ready to come out...


(Monarch Caterpillar Cocoon about to Hatch. Click for a larger view)

Nature Aliens

On Monday we found this guy on a milk weed plant.
We took him home, along with his leaf, found him
some MORE milkweed and let him eat...


(August 19 photo)

He ate all day Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday,
he hung upside down, and on Thursday around noon,
when no one was watching he turned into this...

(August 21 photo)

(click photos to see bigger images)

Coming Soon to Cape Cod...

Hurricane Bill
Cat 4 today

We'll at least be getting some waves and very likely a tropical blow.

It's Football Season!

Me?

Canon Digital Rebel Error 99

I have a Canon Digital Rebel which is attached to my hip... or cheek or at least within reach at all times. Recently, I've been getting this pesky Error 99 code or Err99. This error occurs right when I depress the shutter button and I lose the photo that I had just composed. I found that shutting the camera off, then back on again cleared the error, and if I was lucky, and the shot still remained, I could have another chance. On many occasion, I lost the shot.

At first, it only would occur occasionally, but recently, the Err99 had been getting more and more frequent. It got to the point, this past Sunday, that even after clearing 6 or 7 times, I could still not get the camera fire.

I had almost given in to the fact that I would have to send it back to Canon, and lose at a minimum 2 weeks, but more likely 2 months, of prime shooting time here on Cape Cod. Luckily, (and hopefully) this little fix I found online has done the trick. So far so good... I'm crossing my fingers.

There seem to be many probable solutions, but the one that I used was the first one recommended. Take a look at Richard's Blog for all the info.

Thanks Richard!
Click here for Canon Err99 Error Code Solutions

The Weekend of the Summer

We packed a lot in this weekend...

SATURDAY
Blueberry Picking
Beachin' it at Robin's Hill Beach
Found some tree frogs
Made some delicious local pan-seared sesame tuna (new recipe)
Good Beer (Dogfish 90-minute of course)
Red Sox Win!

SUNDAY
Beach Day - It's all about the sandwich.
High Tide, Sea Dragon, Playing on the air-sand sandbar, the baby napped
Quahoggin' - only 4, but that's enough
The Mimosa is in full Bloom
More Dogfish 90-minute
Red Sox SWEEP!

And the Results...

So we did get up early and it turned out to be quite fruitful! We had a long walk because of the low tide, but once out there, we got into some hungry fish. Mostly, they were pounding crabs on the bottom, but some were outgoing enough to bite our offerings. Max used a white Slug-go and landed a nice 27 incher... one inch shy of a keeper. My biggest was 26" - taken with my fly rod on an olive green sand eel pattern.

It was tough leaving all those fish to go into work, but I had commitments. We fished on the way back, in what turned out to be a VERY fishy tidal river. The fish were all coming in with the tide and they were everywhere. Maybe I'll try tomorrow too... who needs sleep?!

Fishing?

All looks good for a fishing trip tomorrow except for one thing... I don't like an East wind. At sunrise the wind will change from souwest to noreast... that is if you want to call it wind. The report calls for 4-6 mph. I've got a dozen quahogs in the pot, Red Sox on as I tie up the rods. Hoping for good weather holding... Maybe I'll even get back in time to go to work... hmm.

Rockport Scenerey

Photos from 4th of July Weekend (only 2 weeks later)
Click the arrow in the center to start the show, then to see a full-screen slideshow, click the little icon at the bottom right of the viewer with the little "corner-arrows" or click here. Click your "esc" key to get back to the blog.
(Facebook - click here for slideshow)

Pesto Pains

I have a batch of Basil ready to turn into pesto. Amy went to the store today and brought home Romano cheese instead of Parmesan ($4.40/ 8 oz.) Apparently the Romano was half the price of the Parmesan which was $9.00 for 8 OZ of crappy Shaw's Market store-brand cheese!

C'mon Shaw's, stop gouging us. What the HELL!

Will Walked

Will walked today... Out of nowhere... the kid starts walking. He'd been taking a couple steps here and there over the last week or so, but today something clicked. He just goes... all of a sudden.

He's very proud. We're proud. He walked right across the room, then turned and walked the other way.

Whoopie Pies

I go to this one gas station every so often for cheap gas, and as I stood there this one particular time, this one particular early morning, numbly filling my tank, I suddenly had an unexplainable desire to indulge in a whoopie pie. Odd, I thought at this hour, that I should crave a whoopie pie.... but then it clicked as the little mini-mart's marketing ploy revealed itself to my senses... (see the list in the photo - click to enlarge)

"Gotta move those whoopie pies - put 'em on the thank list."

Martha's Vineyard Ferry Ride

It has rained almost every day this month of June. With a little luck, though, Amy and I picked the two dry days in the month to go to Martha's Vineyard. The wee hours of Sunday Morning (a couple weeks ago) started out in foggy drizzle, but as our ferry, "Martha's Vineyard" pulled out of Woods Hole, the fog was well on it's way to being completely burned off. By the time we arrived in Vineyard Haven, it was clear and sunny, remaining that way through Monday night. (We were off on a quick mid-week, early-summer cheap-hotel last-blast before the busy summer season) Here are the pics from the ride over. More up later.

Click the arrow in the center to start the show. To see a full-screen view, click the little icon at the bottom right of the viewer with the little "corner-arrows". Click your "esc" key to get back to the blog.

Testing the slideshow Thingy from flickr (Rockport Photos)

OK... not bad, flickr... this is kinda cool. Click the arrow in the center to start the show. To see it as a full-screen slideshow, click the little "4-arrows-out" icon on the bottom right of the module.
Click esc to get back to the blog
(It's windy as all hell out... welcome summer)

A Cape Cod Box Turtle!

Look what Will and I found on our walk along the power lines. Thanks Keith and Evangelina for the off-road baby jogger. We can go anywhere with that thing!

This is an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) . This one is a female I'm guessing because she has brown eyes. Apparently, the females have brown eyes and the males have red ones. I wondered if she was making a nest. I know the snapping turtles are at it this time of year, but I didn't see any disturbed dirt around her.

Will loved it, but she closed herself up pretty quickly and never poked her head out again after I handed her over to Will. Good idea. He eats everything.

Are we there yet, are we there yet...

The other night Amy and I were driving home from some event somewhere off-cape... (there's at least one commitment every weekend, somewhere, and it will be that way through December). So yeah, the first 3 weeks of summer have flown by (since the eels), it's 1 am and I've got a couple minutes to myself... Anyway, that's not where I was going with this...

So we're driving home and I noticed a new sign on the side of the road on Route 6 on Cape Cod. It was a mile sign. I'm not talking about one of those little 2 x 6 single-digit green rectangles on a post, put there, i'm sure, to occupy your mind on long drives through such mundane landscapes as kansas or nebaska. This thing was a HUGE sign. I'd say it had to be 14 x 18 inches or so. It was a big green sign with typical white letters: "Mile 66."

"Odd" I thought. They need such a big sign for a mile marker. But, that wasn't the oddest part. It wasn't that they had the need to make every mile sign bigger and extremely conspicuous, but about 5 seconds along I saw another one... "Mile 66.1" ... Now THAT was ODD! Sure enough, there was one every TENTH OF A MILE the same size, marking every 10th of a mile that you'd passed since the last. Now I ask wha.. WHA... What FOR??! The only thing Amy and I could come up with was it was some kind of government work project to stimulate our dead economy... but really... REALLY! Do we really need a reminder that we're not where we want to be EVERY SIX SECONDS??? And what a waste. (photo is the next day going the other way, so multiply the waste by 2)

Any other ideas what this is for?

Elvers!

Pete and I found this little guy and 3 others just like it, making its way up the tidal rivulets on Rockport's Front Beach. This is an elver, or glass eel. It's actually a baby eel on the final leg of its transformational journey as an imature "american eel." It has swum (or drifted) for the past year or so, all the way from the Sargasso Sea (north-east of Cuba) where it was born; changing from a tiny, clear leaf-like creature in it's larval stage along the way, and ending up as this elver on Front Beach. (click photos for full size view)

If this guy is lucky, he and his 3 buds will make it all the way up to a little freshwater pond that I grew up on, called "The Mill Pond." He will live his adult life there, growing to about 2 feet long and be about a half inch to 1 inch in diameter. I'm actually guessing on that growth, solely based on the size of the biggest, slimiest, squirming eel that I had ever caught in that pond as a kid back in the 70s and 80s.

Eventually, if it survives the poisons in the run-off and all the kids like me, with all thier deceptive worm-covered hooks, it will eventually get the call to return to salt water and somehow, it will know how to get back to the Sargasso Sea, mate, and probably die there. (apparently scientists still do not know EXACTLY where the actual mating is going on... they're very secretive about it...)

I'm so glad to see they still come up to Rockport. (PHOTO: Peter looks for more elvers in this little rivulet on Front Beach.)

A Great Game - A Great Time

This had to be one of my best Fenway trips to date. Highlights as follows:

• Big 6th inning rally to take the lead and keep it to the end.
• Not a big enough lead to keep our star closer off the mound (Tampa has earned the right to see Pap, even with a 4-run lead)
• A full moon rose over right field grandstand
• It was 79 degrees at game time... yeah... 79 and the forecast had originally called for rain and wind.
• Great bird's-eye-view seats high above 3rd base in the State Street Pavillion (Front Row)
• Jason Bay crushed a 3-run homer into the Monster Seats
• They were serving Guiness and Sam Adams on Draft...
• I survived a super-dog

Goin' to the Show!

Keith scored us tix to Fenway! Against Tamba Bay Even! We'll be watching in style in the Pavillion Box Seats above 3rd base. Check out the view. Thanks Keith - can't wait.