One Weekend at a Time

A few highlights from the last weekend in April:

Strawberry Mousse Parfait

The above is a weekend in itself! We had our neighbors Don and Isabella over for dinner on Saturday night. I made Stuffed Mushrooms, Guinness Stew, Buttermilk Soda Bread, and the above pictured dessert. And a pitcher of margaritas. I talked to Don today and he said he thinks we got his wife drunk (Oops, they're in their 70s!).

Mexican Redknee Tarantula

Today, Monte and I went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver. Besides butterflies, this indoor insect zoo has horseshoe crabs, tarantulas, cockroaches (shudder), starfish and many more interesting species to view and touch.

me, holding a Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula

I got to hold a tarantula! It was so cool! The Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula is one of the most docile species and whose lifespan is around twelve years. She crawled all over my hands and started out on my arm before she was kindly plucked back by her handler.

Malay Lacewing Butterfly

Above is one of the most intricately designed butterflies we saw. There were so many beautiful ones that I had never seen before. I had hoped to see a Malachite butterfly, but since they are green, like the stone they are named after, I imagine that had there been any out at the time, they would have been quite difficult to find. We did see ten different types of butterflies and at least eighteen different beautiful and exotic flowers.

Curry, with her new toy

Coming home, we stopped at the pet store to get a new nest for our rat, Hamlin. Monte saw the above toy and couldn't resist. Curry now knows the word, "burger," however it only means small stuffed toy to tear apart to her.

In other news: The Vatican had a conference on climate change recently and the pope declared it against God's will to abuse the environment (does that mean that global warming isn't part of the inevitable downfall of society and the precursor to armageddon?). My garden is starting to bloom. And finally, video games may be related to violence.