I haven't been bringing the camera to work this week, in part due to the fact that the lens is either smudged or scraped, giving photos that "soft focus" look. After the next paycheck, we'll see about getting it cleaned/repaired. Anybody who has been looking at my recent Flickr photos will notice that new photos have blurry patches on them. I've also been uploading lots of old, pre-digital camera photos, inspired in part by acrofish and umlaut doing the same thing. They're just a random collection of photos that I thought might interest people, and they feed my desire to constantly put new images up on Flickr.

At work, sans camera of course, I came across a large (approximately 10") Pacific Giant Salamander today. We were hiking down one of the ranger roads when I spotted it sitting placidly in a roadside ditch where conditions were relatively cool and moist. The kids were pretty impressed. One girl actually had her own digital camera and got a picture of it. Everybody else was interested in getting the salamander to move, but for once I decided to model a "hands off" approach, so we just watched it sitting there for awhile. I remember that last year one of my coworkers had seen one in the same place, so maybe it's a regular salamander expressway. This one definitely wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere though. I found an interesting dead moth nearby too. Later, we came across three of the five local types of lizard, all in close proximity to one another. Also nearby was the carcass of a two inch wood beetle. One of the boys in my group named it "Joey."

Also, a good portion of the group has developed an obsession with cicada moultings. The cicada larvae crawl up onto the sides of trees, where they split out of their old exoskeletons and fly away. Due to the fact that they do this on a vertical surface, the legs on the moultings need to hook onto the bark so the cicadas don't tumble to the ground while attempting to emerge. Because of this, the moultings, once removed from the trees, stick quite well to noses. Every time I turn around, another boy has one stuck to his nose.

I wonder where they could have learned how to do that?

The temperature dropped a bit today, but it's still uncomfortable. The fans are going, and I'm sure it will be reflected in our next electricity bill. Jen is out to dinner with some of the Blogher people. Hope she's having a good time. The boys are at a friend's house. Hope they're having fun too. Willow and Sophie are watching movies. I think it's time to go bathe them.