Arthur had his ‘discovery’ flight today, but instead of tearing my hair out at the air field, I decided to stay put and do some discovering of my own.

This freaky red bug looks like something that might hurt, but I couldn’t get a really good picture of it. The red body and black legs, enormous butt and a black antenna doohickey coming off his tiny little head reminds me a little like Teddy Kennedy, really. If I find it again, I’ll trap it in an old mason jar full of water and see if little ‘Mary Jo’ can swim.
Any identification suggestions? I’d like to know what it is before it I see that [relatively] big red butt on my headboard. Or dashboard, as the case may be.

The next subject is a fiend that has been bugging me [I'm on a roll] since move-in five years ago. Last year I killed roughly 20 of these guys a day [they make a very satisfying 'pop' sound] but this year my kill ratio has more than doubled. Entomologists hate me.

This sucker eats my ficus hedges, palm and avocado trees… well, the only thing it doesn’t seem to consume is the grass. As prevalent as this pest is, you’d think identification would be a snap, but I still don’t know what the heck it is or how to safely rid myself of it and its many, many cousins. I need a ’safe’ method of eradication because I’ve heard a lot of recent horror stories of herbicides/pesticides and pets. Not pretty.

I just heard from the ‘Ace’ and he took off and landed 3 times! This is even more amazing considering how heavy the winds are today. They flew over Key Biscayne, through downtown Miami and NOW the instructor wants Arthur to ride with him to Ft. Pierce and back.
Now that he’s really flown, the best flight sim is officially ‘X-Plane‘. He says real life is just a little heavier…

Of course, no post is complete without a picture of Bree… here she is doing nothing except being hot… this summer will be absolute, complete hell for her. Click for a larger image.

…and another of Bree and Zoe for comparison.
[sigh] I remember, not too long ago, when Bree and Zoe were basically the same height. Oh, geez, the dog’s only 6 months old and I’m waxing nostalgic. How tragic.

Bree goes in tomorrow morning for her spay. Nah, there won’t be any angst involved there…