Look at the cool thing on my car! No, not the crow-and-inverted-pentagram decal--although I concede that's pretty sweet. Down in the lower right hand corner of the photo.


It's a ladybeetle pupa! My back bumper is a strange place for a baby ladybug to decide to metamorphose, but it's a very clever way for the insect to travel a good distance from where it hatched.

Recently each time there's a spate of tragedies in the news (constantly, but they seem to come in pulses) I've been thinking of this bumper sticker. Only it doesn't exist. But it will soon, since I had it made. Let me know if you're interested in one, maybe we can do a trade or arrange a donation to a charity I like.

EDITED TO ADD: I had five of these made, I'm keeping one. I can send the other four to the first four people with United States' addresses (not being bigoted, being cheap). If over the next few days people come out of the woodwork wanting them, I'll have more made.

Alexis shows off her "cleaned entire house by herself" muscles.


"How you know you live in Massachusetts" exhibit (a.

I've said it before, I'll say it again:

I refuse to have a culture war with an unarmed opponent.

( more snapshotty )

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Domestic rabbit, another popular post, with much discussion in the comments; it features the feral rabbits of the campus of the University of Victoria Canada.