Butterfly exhibit

I saw the live butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian last Sunday. It was amazing! The butterflies were native to South and North America but I couldn’t remember names with the exception of the Monarch and Tiger. There were so many of them flying all around and landing on people. We had to make sure we didn’t leave with some on our clothes when exiting the exhibit. I took some cool close up photos.

Miriam tasting sweet

Butterfly man

We also saw the The Lost Amazon with photos by botanist Richard Evans Schultes who lived for twelve years in the Colombian Amazon during the 1940s and studied medicinal and hallucinogenic plants. He took amazing photos of plants, nature, and people with a Rolleiflex camera, one of the first portable cameras.

Schultes camera

Portrait of a Shaman by Schultes

And a fake but impressive Crystal Skull

Crystal skull

Butterflies

Tiefling

My Dungeons&Dragons character

Illustration by IcarusATB

Fancy Blue

Dressed up for the school prom

War on Nature Illustrations

option-g (Cole Gerst) illustrations on nature and human impact:

http://option-g.com/gallery/prints.html

I’ll go for the imagination in blue and orange in Underwater Find

Megan’s birthday

Very suspicious

Megan

More chilly sauce, please

Ed

Birthday girl posing for the camera with Patrick and Ed {what am i doing on this rooftop in this hot summer night}

Patrick, Megan, and Ed

Looking hot

Megan and Nicole

Megan and Teresita

More posing for the camera

Megan and I

It’s not too bad on the rooftop after all

Ed and Teresita

Hanging out with Kerstin

My friend, Kerstin, and I clubbing on Saturday before her leaving town last week {sad};

Kerstin and me

Looking pretty

Kerstin

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

Marching along in the fight against breast cancer

Mildred, Marti, Mary, and I

After 3 miles, at the finish line, “We made it!”

Marti, Sandy, Mildred, Mary, and I

MSNBC report of a girl murdered at Bulgarian orphanage

I am surprised that a tragic story from Bulgaria made it in the U.S. news–a former supervisor at an orphanage, fired over sexual abuse allegations have killed a 15-year old girl who was summoned as a witness, and have wounded two other girls before killing himself. More.

Bulgaria joined the European Union in January of last year but with some safeguards because the country was lacking in terms of ”rule of law.” Rule of law is a broad concept but in this case, Bulgaria needs to deal with (high-level) corruption and organized crime, and to make institutional and judicial reforms. Last October, I think, the EU issued an interim report criticizing Bulgaria for inadequate progress in these areas. The EU can penalize the country by cutting funding on various agricultural and development projects.

Here, an alleged child molester was fired and prosecuted. Cases like this were not brought to court a few years ago (my perception). But the victims/witnesses were not protected.

  

Slow recovery

I’m in bed with an ice pack on my face and not feeling that well. I had oral surgery last week, the procedure was unpleasant but quick. I had a chipmunk face (no offense meant for the chipmunk) for a few days but I was recovering fine. Over the weekend I was feeling fatigued and was thinking I might be having an infection. It turned out I was having some internal bleeding around the surgery. Except that everything else was looking great. I need to take it easy for a few more days (no karate or weights), and hopefully, no more problems. Patience. ah, if somebody else can do my work so I can stay at home that would be. Fantastic.