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Clearly people are seeing this bug in their houses as it gets cooler out. They keep posting to the insect identification help communities wanting to know what it is. In the interest of helping out at least the people who read this blog, here's a rerun from January 2006 for you.



Urban species #013: Western Conifer Seed Bug Leptoglossus occidentalis

In the spring, this bug (a "true" bug as the entomologically inclined sometimes say) lays its eggs on the needles of a pine, spruce, or fir tree. The babies feed on the various softer parts of the tree, and when grown feed on the seeds. As summer comes to a close, they look for a warm place to spend the cold months. Houses and other heated buildings are favored winter hiding places.

This, of course, is where they run afoul of humans. The WCSB (not a tv station, but the abbreviation used by the Massachusetts Audubon Society) is a harmless insect, but it can inspire alarm. First of all, it's unfamiliar to many people, especially on the east coast. As its name suggests, it's a western animal, but has been drifting eastward during for the past hundred years or so. "In 1956 the WCSB was reported in Iowa and in 1990 several were found in New York State," according to Mass Audubon's Linda Cocca. By 1985 it was in New England. For another thing, it sounds rather menacing: it buzzes in flight, like a bee or a wasp. And finally, like its relatives the stink bugs, it produces an odor in defense. Personally, I find their smell to be not unpleasant--somewhere between sour apple and pine scent. But the WCSB doesn't bite, eat human food (or anything else inside the house), or bore into wood. If only all insect invaders were so polite.

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Last night's emo was brought to you by a horrible fever and lack of sleep! Horrible Fever and Lack of Sleep: Keeping you perky every day! Thanks bunches to Ginger, who withstood my bawwwing over the phone. <3

Despite my bitching and whining, it was nice hanging out with everyone yesterday and the day before. I still need to get that Matt guy's screen name because I absolutely did not remember it.

Hanging out with Aly always gets me psyched for cosplay, and now that we've agreed to do some Tsubasa together, I can't wait to go out and buy my new sewing machine. <3 We've got three planned so far (Aly! The blue one I picked is kind of egh, so I really don't wanna do it anymore.) We just need a Syaoran and a Kurogane, and we're set. Can't wait for this~

I hate working for days in a row. Throwing on makeup (what little I bother to throw on) gets to be really irriating. :[ I just wanna wash my face and bum around! Sigh.

If I get home early tonight, I think I'm gonna drag Crystal out and do some rollerblading. <333

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...apologies! I bring more cutesy-ness....


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( Sail Away! )

I may have mentioned it before: identifying mushrooms is really difficult.



This group of mushrooms is a little too dry and old to try for a precise identification.  I was almost sure upon looking at them, that they were honey mushrooms.  Unfortunately calling something a "honey mushroom" is like designating a fellow person "an acquaintance."  It unsatisfactorily settles the matter, without telling you much about them.  According to David Aroroa in Mushrooms Demystified, "there is very little that can or cannot be said about the honey mushroom...with at least two distinct widespread variants" making up some 14 different recognized species in the complex.  Species is a slippery designation among fungi.  Suffice it to say, the group of mushrooms pictured is almost certainly in the genus Armillariella (formerly Armillaria).  The fungus can be a symbiote, a parasite, or a saprophyte, and in this case seems to be a parasite on the roots of a cherry tree.  This fungi complex includes the worst diseases of trees in California, as well as the mycelium often called the largest organism on earth, a four square mile patch of fungus living in the soil of eastern Oregon.   Arora prounounces honey mushrooms "eminently edible" while the Simon and Schuster guide warns that the mushroom is toxic until cooked, and is too easily confused with nonedible species to risk eating.

Alexis, Alex and I took the dogs to Forest Hills Cemetery yesterday, to take advantage of the fantastic fall weather.

( Read more... )

The Boston Half Marathon went by my house today.  I went out there during the last minutes of it to see what it was like.
( Read more... )

Ichiban Kan is opening a store in the Tanforan mall come March 2009!

YAY. I will soon have -TWO- places to get my dollah groove on!

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Yesterday went to a family wedding... my mom's cousin. Was rather lackluster since I didn't know about 80% of the other guests there, but had fun with rabbitattack, after12am & co :)

That is, until we had a police scare. Apparently some bad guy was trying to ~MAKE AN ILLEGAL GETTAWAY~ so we were told to move away from the windows, not leave the building AND not let anyone in :X Security guards with flashlights searched along the docks and it rather ruined the whole evening o__o; We weren't informed about the sitution (was there a fire? is there a shooting? omg!) After they caught the guy, the wedding party tried to resume but I think by then we were all checked out. We already had cake anyway :)

Oh, and when the bride threw her bouquet, it ricocheted off of someone's FACE before my cousin caught it. Poor girl! I was standing next to the girl who got hit in the face, but instead of trying to reach for it, I naturally backed away DDDD8

While October 8 was a few days ago, I do want to officially LJ-wish rabbitattack a Happy 21st Birthday! We had open bar last night yet none of us took advantage of it XDDD

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Ughh... deadline is SO CLOSE. I can taste it T^T

  

She wouldn't hold still long enough for a very good picture, but I think whatever field markings we'd be looking for are there. 
I'd tentatively say she's an Araneus orbweaver.  My guide has this to say:  "Identification of Araneus spiders, to species, is surprisingly difficult.   Abdomen colors and patterns can vary dramatically even within species.  As with many spiders, exact IDs often come down to differences in microscopic body parts."

cross posted to urban_nature , and whats_that_bug 

We came across a young man balancing rocks in the Riverway yesterday.
He declined when I asked if I could take his picture.
So if you find balanced rocks--it's not just me!

I had Korean Barbecue last night for the first time.  I had three reactions: Wow, that's delicious, holy crap that's expensive, and wait a minute--why do we have to cook our own food?  I thought that's why we were eating out.  Okay, cooking it ourselves at the table before our very eyes ensures that the meat is piping hot and fresh, but I still thought it was weird.  Alexis pointed out that it gives you something to do as you wait for your food--except that you're waiting for yourself to cook the food.  I guess my feeling is that eating out at a restaurant is an agreement: you order the stuff on the menu (I am against making special orders) and they bring it to you.  When they brought out three huge plates of uncooked meat I was surprised, to say the least.  I guess I like the fact that you see the meat in that state: I don't think people should eat meat without contemplating it (as the remains of an animal) first.

Hello there,

I'm currently investigating having my university qualification (in Australia) recognised in France. As part of the process I need to send them:

• Photocopy of a document showing proof of the official duration of the studies leading to the qualification(s) (this may be a diploma supplement, marks sheets, certificates of attendance, etc.)

I don't actually know what this is? Can anyone explain? Australian universities don't keep or give attendance records (it's university, not highschool). I don't have a marks sheet but I have a transcript with the courses I took and the grades, is that what they mean by marks sheets?

Thanks in advance.

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( codes&instructions )

Rules:
- Credit muddi88 or xaddictionsx when using!
- Feel free to change colors and anything else
- Comments are love! ♥ :D
- FRIEND xaddictionsx for updates!

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You should know by now I have no life 8D
........D8 what do you mean you're sick of seeing my username?
>.> ehem....two layouts I made.
One was a request,the other I just made cuz I felt like it.

Let me warn you right now: It's ANOTHER goldfish layout D: hopefully you are not tired of seeing them...this one's like...my first wide layout .___. hopefully it's not too bad? And...er....it doesn't look too good with ads,but if you don't mind having the page stretched down a bit,feel free to use :D
Sugar works fine with ads.
click on images for the preview :3

Dancing Out;

( Codes )

Sugar;

( Codes )

Feel free to join cooking_cooking for more .___.;

With today's news of Connecticut's Supreme Court decision, now all three of the states I've lived in allow same sex marriages. 3/50th of the way to equal rights in marriage, for Americans!

I'm pretty surprised that Connecticut got there before New York, but since most of the people in Connecticut work in NYC, New York shouldn't be far behind. It's so nice to feel proud of where I'm from every once in a while.

A pretty minimalist code; I've been using it for my own profile and sharing is caring, right? Keeping your phrases short and sweet (and by that I mean SUPER SHORT and SUPER SWEET) would be the best way to go. /o/


( cut for the code! )

Actually I wanted to code a profile layout for my graphics community (dreaming_art), but the result isn't really what I imagined for my comm, so I thought I could at least share. I found that picture and it was so great, I just had to make a banner for the layout.

Free Parking click on the thumbnail to get the bigger preview



( Preview for a totally black and white version and codes under the cut. )