KK-Ville Photo Journal: August 2009

Joe at School

He's reading science and hoping I'll get the camera outta his face.

Worldwide, there are approximately 28,000 species. There are about 725 species in the USA and Canada. About 2,000 species have been found in Mexico. About 80% of all species are in the tropics. The United Kingdom has 58 species of butterfly and 2,000 species of moth.

At night or during bad weather, butterflies will usually hang from the undersides of leaves, or crawl into crevices between rocks or other objects, and sleep.

Moth species outnumber butterfly species by 16-to-1.

Adult butterflies sip nectar from flowers through their tongues, which act like straws. A very few butterflies do not visit flowers, but instead feed on tree sap or rotting organic material.

Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae), with a wing span of 11-1/8 inches (280 mm), is found only in the rain forest of New Guinea. Destruction of its habitat is threatening this beautiful creature with extinction.

The smallest butterfly, the Pygmy Blue (Brephidium exilis), is found in the southern United States. Its wingspan is 1/2 inch (15 mm).

Butterflies communicate mostly through chemical signals. Males produce 'pheromones' to attract females. A few species communicate with sound. For example, the male Cracker Butterfly can produce noises with its wings.

Butterfly wings are covered with scales (that's the meaning of the word 'lepidoptera'). Each scale is a single color, most of which are produced by pigments. The iridescence that's sometimes seen is produced from a reflective microstructure on the surface of the scales.

Arizona is the state with the most butterfly species, with 220.

I just think they're pretty.

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Have You Met Tank?

If you don't know Tank, let me introduce you.

Tank is a tortoise. But I guess you could tell.

She belongs to our neighbor.

Tank is not a boy but a girl.

She had been named Tank when they thought she was a he and they decided to keep Tank as her name.

Tank likes to visit her neighbors.

She gets around and is remarkably fast for a tortoise.

She likes to visit us and eat our weeds.

And that's a good thing.

We have lots of weeds for her to feed on.

She was in our yard one day when the UPS guy delivered a package.

He was quite excited and wondered if we knew we had a turtle in our yard.

I said, "Oh yea. That's Tank. She's the neighborhood tortoise."

Doesn't every neighborhood have a tortoise?

Some neighborhoods are known for their dogs.

Some have the cat that everyone knows.

But our neighborhood has a tortoise.

And her name is Tank.

She's friendly.

And I think all neighborhoods should have a tortoise.

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Atlanta Trip

On Friday, our trip to Atlanta started by stopping at the CNN building. After riding four hours in a car you're pretty desperate to see just about anything.

You just gotta love those tourists.

Here's a picture of me and Larry. What's up with those glasses anyway?

I tried to get Joe to do this, but he was uncooperative. As usual. So I had to jump in and get the job done. Please ignore the out of shape, fat arms. Lord I need to work out.

This is more like it! This is what we came to see. I can't tell you how exciting it is to walk up to the ballpark.

And then there's the uncooperative family shot. They were complaining about photographers.

More excitment for me. I have looked forward to this day for a long, long time!

Hello boys! I have arrived!

We got to the field early and were able to watch the guys warming up.

Not only were we able to watch them warm up, but we watched them playing around a bit.

Doesn't it look like Kelly Johnson is thinking they're a couple of fools?

Here's a picture of a big camera. Whoopie!

Say hello to Cole.

As you can see, I'm now watching my Phillies warm up. I don't know why I find this amazing, but did you know that Little League go through pretty much the same warm up routine?

Here's a view of the Phillies dugout.

In fact, I think if I could have gotten away with it, I might have jumped in the dugout. That probably would have embarrassed Len and Joe. Especially when they would have had to bail me out of jail.

However, I came this close to embarrassing myself. You see the guy in the Phillie uniform talking to those nice folks? The guy in the Phillie uniform was approaching the fence and I just knew that he was coming over to talk to me. Cause I just knew that he knew that I was the Phillie's number one fan.

The people he's talking to were behind me and fortunately they came front and center before I had the opportunity to make a major league fool of myself. He's the Phil's bench coach. Number 22 that is.

Here's Kelly Johnson taking batting practice.

As Len said, you really gotta be a fan for seats like these. Remember that Bob Uecker commercial? These folks thought they were getting front row seats too.

Jimmy Rollins warming up his arm. They do this in Little League too.

Ryan Howard walking some paces.

You might think that I was coveting this professional photographer's big, honkin lens.

Nope. What I was drooling over was his media credentials. Oh, the places I could go!

The whole pregame experience includes watching the ground crew do their thing. I thought this was fascinating. But then I'm a simple person.

There were three players that were being recognized for great playing during the month of June

I'm so sorry. I can't help myself.

Rollins and Victorino up to bat. Shane would rob the Braves of a couple of runs by outstanding plays in centerfield.

The Braves take the field. The game is about to begin.

Ok, Escobar reminds me of a little league player. Or maybe he lost his contact lens.

Escobar can't wait to play ball.

Rollins swinging.

McLouth in action.

Chipper Jones at bat.

Rounding third and heading home.

Here's the Braves starting pitcher, Jair Jurrens.

Escobar is Joe's favorite player. For today. He likes him because he's the shortstop. That's the position Joe likes to play.

This is a really bad picture but I had to post it anyway. This guy came down the steps and yelled, "ICE COLD BEER." He scared the beegeebies outta me!

LaRoche taking a swing.

The start of a double play.

Here's a shot of the stadium lights. I was using my 70-300 mm zoom lens and I really could have used a tripod. However, the ballpark does not allow tripods or monopods or any kind of pods. I think the powers that be are worried that they would take up too much room or fans would use them to whack each other. Or throw them at the center fielders.

I took this next picture because it reminds me of Joe. He's a very gassy little boy and he finds it very funny.

The fans did the wave and it did about four turns around the park. It got to the point that it was almost annoying.

This guy was sitting behind us and he got a foul ball. Joe was mad at me. He said I was too slow getting out of his way and was unable to get the ball. I told him I was protecting him. He would have just gotten into a fight over the ball and would have ended up in jail. And that would have ruined his future professional ball playing days. After all, there are no criminals playing professional sports.