Category: Photos

Aloha Friday: Bugged By Bugs

Aloha Friday, Bug, Photography, Photos, Wildlife

When I was a kid, I remember being very afraid of bugs.  If I was mowing the lawn and a dragonfly passed by me, I’d duck and run away.  If a spider crawled down the walls, I’d have to leave the room.  Don’t even ask me what I did if a bee flew my way.

At some point, though, I got over my fear of bugs.  I think it mainly is due to my love of photography, specifically macro photography.  Once I began looking at the world of small things through the lens of my camera, bugs went from scary creatures to avoid to fascinating subjects to photograph.

Years ago, B would roll her eyes and put up with me crouching over to take a very close photo of a weird bug.  Today, though, I think I’ve (partially) converted her.  When we saw a big, weird looking spider in our front yard, she didn’t even flinch as I asked for her camera.  (We were on our way out and mine was locked in the house.)  And so I took a photo.

ItsyBitsy

Of course, half the fun is taking a photo.  The other half, is zooming in on the photo to see the details.  For example, just how hairy this spider is.

HairySpider

My, what hairy mandibles you have!

Now, if I could only identify what kind of spider this is.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you find bugs fascinating or creepy?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #161

Cooking With TechyDad: Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Milkshakes

Cooking, Peanut Butter, Photos, Recipe

Last year, I wrote about how I turned frozen bananas and dark chocolate peanut butter into a wonder ice cream.  I’ve made it quite a few times since then.  Anytime our bananas were looking too ripe, I’d peel them, break them into chunks, and toss them into the freezer.  Recently, I realized I had a problem.  We had too many bags of bananas in the freezer and not enough space to store a batch of ice cream.  What to do?

I thought over the problem and wondered if I could make it into a smoothie instead.  Only when I was done, I didn’t have a smoothie.  I had a milkshake.  What a wonderful surprise!

First, gather your ingredients.  You’ll need frozen bananas, milk, and dark chocolate peanut butter.  (I prefer Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter.)

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Get your blender and toss in your bananas, milk, and dark chocolate peanut butter.

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I put in one heaping spoonful of peanut butter for every 2 bananas, but didn’t measure the milk out.  Use your judgment.

When the ingredients are in, close the lid and puree them until smooth.

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Now just pour into a glass…

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… and drink …

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… until it is all gone.

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This is so quick and easy that I think the kids will be begging for it often.  I might mix this up and use regular peanut butter and add some strawberries (also sitting in the freezer) for a non-chocolaty version.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: Lego Helicopter Construction

Lego, NHL, Photos, Wordless Wednesday

NHL has become quite obsessed with Lego building.  After I built a Lego Harry Potter set with him, he broke out some other Lego sets.  This particular set was given to NHL by Uncle I a few years back.  It had gotten put away and now was the perfect time for it.  NHL, over the course of a week or so, he followed all of the steps and put together a Lego helicopter on his own.  (I only helped with putting the stickers on.)  I’m so proud of my Lego builder!

Lego_Helicopter

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