Praying mantises

This year I've had a lot more praying mantis sitings around my house.

I've seen the brown one (or ones) a few times since this photo, usually they skitter away before I can get the photo.  This little guy (assuming it's the same one or same brood) is about as long as my thumb now.

I see these green ones more often over the years. This guy isn't full grown yet.  Anyway, need to do some research on Mantises in northern VA to see what there is to know about them.

Amazon delivery guy wants me to loose weight

I've been putting on my COVID-19 pounds during the pandemic.  I used to ride my bike to work multiple days a week and do other cardio on top of that before this hit.  I wasn't thin by any means, but I was burning a lot of calories to keep my bad eating habits at bay. That needs to change and the Amazon delivery today gave me a reminder.

The box of cereal there is a bit heavy and the welcome mat won't let it slide.  Add to that my extra girth and I can't get out my front door.  I was able to nudge it enough and get out, but oh boy was it a ding to my pride.

Star Wars Yarn Bomb in Alexandra, VA

So I started riding my bike to run errands to get some exercise.  The MoMs on Mt Vernon Ave in Alexandria has been yarn bombed, Star Wars style. 

The whole gang:

Lake Anna State park

Rented a cabin for a week at Lake Anna State park.  It was a great week, lots of nice hiking trails and warm water to swim in.  We stayed in Cabin 9 and it was well appointed and comfortable. Here's a few of the photos from some hikes.

Chimney of the old Taylor homestead from the late1800s

I think I'll always use filters on my camera

I set my camera bag down on the picnic table in the same manor I set it down anywhere.  It made an unusual knock sound when I did it, like the wooden table was hollow.  I picked it up and set it down again and there was no repeat of the sound.  Huh.  It was time to start the fire so we could make s'mores in a bit. It wasn't until later that I took my camera out of the bag and found the source of the sound.

At first I thought I had broken my Tamron 18mm-400mm lens.  turns out I only broke the filter.  After carefully unscrewing it and cleaning the lens all was well. This is precisely why I keep a UV filter on at all times. The lens cap had come off and hit the table 'just right'.  I do realize I'm being a little illogical - if the filter wasn't there, there might have been enough room for the lip of the lens cap to go up without damage, but my bias has been confirmed, I'm in the 'always have a filter on' camp.

Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day 2019

As I started planning out the 2020 event I realized I never wrote up the 2019 event.

For the 2019 event we went pretty simple.  We created apps in Prototyping on Paper

https://marvelapp.com/pop/

It went pretty well and the kids creativity took over quickly.   The concept is pretty simple - it's the early web design concept of an image map.  You can draw or print your app UI concept and then create hot spots on the image that link to another image.  You can sketch up buttons and then make them clickable, and when you click that button it goes to another image.

I went to Micheals and purchased a bunch of colorful shirts and visors.  The concept was to have them make an image that had colors on it.  You would choose a color and that would link you to an image that had the child wearing a shirt in that color.   

Over all it was a pretty successful event, the kids grasped the concept pretty quickly and then started making their own apps.  

The Towel dispenser and human factors

Was in a restroom in another office building the other day.  So many things about this struck me as bad human factors design.  First lets cut right to the chase:

You can use the sink as a frame of reference for how high off the ground this paper towel dispenser is.  I'm 6 feet tall and it's basically at eye level.   So this bugs me for several reasons.  First one being what if someone is short or in a wheel chair?  How are they supposed to get paper towels?  I suspect the decision to put this automated (wave your hand and paper towels come out) system was made after the bathroom was built.  So I can understand the poor judgment that went into this.  The thing that really bugs me about this though?  I have to bring my wet hands to shoulder level to wave and activate the dispenser.    Try this at home. Go get your hands wet in your bathroom and wave to yourself in the mirror.  Tell me where the water goes.   Do you, too, now have wet elbows?  I sure did, in my dress shirt for my meetings.  Luckly it was white so it didn't show a lot.  Not sure what they were thinking.