Squeezed in some bug hunting...

Hey all! Well.... It's been an exhausting week! I just got home yesterday and I am just worn out to a fuzzy, mess.

Last weekend sometime, our daughter called and asked if I would help her collect grasshoppers. She is doing research on grasshoppers what they eat, how the weather affects them... (probably didn't explain that right. She tells me I don't listen to her when she talks about her research, she may be right) . So anyhow... I go with her and we leave Monday afternoon (I managed to squeeze in a morning of painting the living room, which ultimately made us leave later than she wanted) so we drive until late at night to get to Fargo, North Dakota. The next morning we head to Grand Forks and begin collecting for real.

I'm not a lover of bugs of any kind. And I REALLY HATE having bugs ON me! I understand that they have a right to exist as I do. But for the most part, I am more tolerant of them OUTSIDE (so long as they don't get ON me) than I am of them INSIDE my house! So, I helped collect those grasshoppers. I take the net and I walk around in tall weedy/grassy areas, praying that I don't run into any snakes or field rats/mice! I also try to be quicker than those grasshoppers and catch them before they land on me. (Daughter tries to explain to me that they are more frightened of me than I am of them... I don't believe she understands just how much I don't like bugs in general! But I go collecting with her because I will do anything to just BE with her! So, again, I take the net and walk around and try to snag as many grasshoppers as I can with the net. Then I take the net over to her and she sticks her hand into the net and extracts each grasshopper to check to see if it's the correct species she's looking for. And we do this for however long it takes until she decides that she has enough from that area. Then we go to the next place and search for more. I thought I was doing a good job. But I was probably more of a hinderance than a help. I even tried to catch a few with my hands! (I had plastic gloves on which helped somewhat, but I could still feel them moving around in my hand! BLECH!) Picture me... grasshopper in gloved hand, running/ hopping and squealing all the way over to daughter to show her the grasshopper I ACTUALLY picked up in my semi-bare hand! And I did this to try to impress her. She wasn't impressed. She found me silly. Ah well... what can I say... ;) I got a few pic's of frogs,

cuz I thought they looked cool. I didn't get a picture of the snake I nearly stepped on! (Yes, I did see a snake on this trip) I didn't take any pictures of the grasshoppers, sorry all, BUT, I did take a photo of beautiful daughter in her grasshopper spit stained pants! The grasshoppers tend to spit when they are agitated (?) and she gets them on her fingers as she is trying to identify them. She just nonchalantly wipes the spit on her pants and continues on her way. Awesome!

So, we were out there in the sun, rain and wind! I'm not exactly sure, but I think she got just barely enough to sustain her research. We went as far north as Grand Forks, North Dakota and collected in various places along the way (which she tracked on her GPS) and the last place was a small town here in Nebraska that she had collected from last year. Then she dropped me off at my lovely house and she talked with her daddy for a little bit, then headed on her way back to her place (it's a three hour drive from here and it was after 8 p.m. before she left here) where she still had to take them to the lab to situate them. Poor thing, she is one tough cookie!

Did I mention that she did all the driving? I sat in the car and worked on my table cloth. Yup, I brought that thing with me! It has now traveled to 7 states. I personally find that cool! But I'm still not done yet.

Did I mention that I painted my living room? I did. It took my honey a few days to get used to the new wall color. I think I will leave judgement on the wall color myself for a few more days. Right now I'm thinking I'm not so sure I made the right choice. What do you think? Keep in mind... the house is a mess because I'm still doing touch ups in the room. Okay, now look. ;) This is with natural light, or what there is of it considering it's slightly overcast...

And this is with the flash.

So? Any opinions? Suggestions? Should I hang the curtains and clean up the room and re-take the photo's before you decide? Before "I" decide? Hmmmmmm