I didn't mean to kill it. In all fairness, I think it was probably pretty close to dead when I captured it to put it in Terrarium 2 (a start-up terrarium that I haven't exactly decided what to raise in it yet...Terrarium 1 seems content with millipedes and slugs (and a few hijack earthworms and other very tiny critters)).

The thing is, it did a fabulous Hollywood death, rolling on its back, kicking its legs, and giving out one final gasp of life. I've had insects do this before; they fake death, then a few minutes later (once I've stopped watching) they scurry away. And, once before, a similar crazed death was displayed for me by an insect which I totally fell for. So, I tossed this guy in Terrarium 2, thinking it was still alive and would enjoy the new digs once it gave up the charade.

The next day, it was still dead. Or still playing dead. But I'm pretty sure it didn't have a 24 hour memory for such things.

So, what does one do with a dead Silverfish. I took pictures.

But a side question: if anybody has any idea where bugs learned such dramatic ways of faking their deaths, please let me know. I'm working under the theory that there is some Tom Cruise Acting School for Insects out there; I just need to find it.

Billie Holiday - Them There Eyes: Good start to the morning.

The Boomtown Rats - Neon Heart: From the first album that, for years, was nearly impossible to find until its reissue on CD, this is a pretty strong track that would be an indicator of their punkish-sound for years to come.

Butthole Surfers - Comb: Noise and moaning excel in this crazy tune.

Paul Westerberg - What a Day (For a Night): A live track downloaded from his website, this isn't really Westerberg at his best.

Amon Tobin - Proper Hoodidge: A typically great, mood-filled track from Tobin.

Afghan Whigs - Moon River: Dulli lounge lizard at his covering best.

The Books - A Cold Freezin' Night: Another song from the samplin' goofs.

Genesis - In Limbo: From the completely cornball first album before most people want to admit there was a Genesis album...let's just say Trespass was the first album and this collection of hokey 60's sounding tunes were implanted under a Genesis header by sardonic time travelers.

Very tiny guy crawling up the glass; it was probably no wider than the diameter than a tootsie-roll lollipop stick (yeah, guess what I just ate). I thought the macro shot was fairly decent.

Or possibly a pill bug. When it was younger, I would have said Sow Bug, but now I'm not so sure.

Finally tired of the trails by home being inaccessible due to ice and snow, I decided to make them accessible by boot and will.

It worked, at least, somewhat. After carefully tracking each step from potential of stumbling, I made it about a mile out to a goose-filled stream and trees that were the worse for wear given the snow that had fallen upon them the past couple weeks.

I was exhausted by time I reached the stream. Looking for something to distract me from walking, I dug at some loose tree bark to to reveal ants who were apparently settled in for a winter's nap.

The ants were slow moving at first, so I snapped off a few shots. I didn't get too many strong pictures; for some reason focus wasn't my friend today.

But spending a few minutes watching them find new cover under the bark of the tree rejuvenated me trek home, so it all served a valuable purpose.

Reaching a new level of cat nerddom.

Quasi - White Devil's Dream: Can never go wrong with Quasi.

Carter USM - Mid Day Crisis: Pretty standard track from the Brit pop-punk master.

Robyn Hitchcock - Queen Elvis: From the fantastic Eye album, I always consider this Robyn's trademark song, despite being one of hundreds released over the years.

Junkie XL - Stratosphere: Booms, beeps and bips in what is possibly the most stereotypically techno song imaginable.

Stan Richardson - Murasaki Reibo: Lengthy, atmospheric and quiet sounds for unobtrusive background noise.

Yo La Tengo - Long Gone: One of the band's wild and inspired live covers.

Talking Heads - Burning Down the House: Big suit, big suit.

Chris Stamey - Perfect Time: Solo pop track with a typical minor undertone from the former dB's co-frontman.

You wouldn't know it from the remaining 4+ feet of snow on the ground and the mix of cabin fever and parking-spot fighting-anger that possesses the area, but we are less than two months away from being flooded with Bluebells.

Woohoo.

Sigmatropic featuring Mark Eitzel - Haiku Nine: I had an iTunes store gift card a while back that made me start searching for EPs, singles, and other one-off recordings from artists like Eitzel and the Afghan Whigs. The greatest find in all of that searching was the Whigs covering The Clash with "Lost in the Supermarket." Unremarkable, this track kinda falls into the back of my memory, as I'm sure it will shortly after this listen.

Sebadoh - Sixteen: One of the fun, lo-fi punkish tunes from Bubble and Scrape.

Einsturzende Neubauten - Alles: A pretty standard eerie-sounding track from the creepy band.

The Kinks - State of Confusion: A recent addition to the iPod from a collection of old CDs. I've liked this band since I was in 7th grade and am glad to say, while I've strayed at times, have never outgrown them.

Test Dept. - Apocalypse: Back to the eerie, and could easily give Ein Neub a run for their creepy money.

Boom Boom Satellites - Missing Note: If memory serves, it was Moby who I saw this exciting band open for years ago. Out Loud is a simply fantastic album, spanning multiple genres with a very unusual mix of beats, jazz, and probably a number of other things I can't quite put my finger on.

Poster Children - One of Us: The quiet conclusion to the fun Junior Citizen album.

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Pray Your Gods: If anything good has come from this extended snowbound state our area has been in, it has been my return acquaintance with the old Toad albums (Pale and Fear in particular). I ripped them only a few days ago and, perhaps not unlike The Kinks, have found I've not grown away from the songs at all. From Fear, this is perhaps a melodramatic lingering track, but is part of a fantastic package.

I eat a lot of bread, but I don't eat a lot of bread crust ends. More to the point, I don't throw a lot of bread crust ends away as I figure they can be fed to the local ducks on some unplanned occasion.

Today, I cheated the ducks by providing bread to the birds on the deck. Normally, they shun stale bread (they are, after all, Northern Virginia birds and way to sophisticated to eat feeble leftovers, whereas I think the ducks moved here from a less evolved location). But today they not only devoured it, but fought for it (they were totally unaware of just how much bread was in the crisper).

Being twice as big as the other birds, you wouldn't think the doves would have to act so aggressively, but you'd be wrong.

The boy cardinal was content to watch peacefully from the tree.

I trudged out early on Saturday to give the birds what was left of our food supply for them.

This started a chain reaction for most of the day. The birds would come to eat, the cats would watch intently until one of them (usually Ozzy) would pounce against the window. The birds would fly off in terror, but return a few minutes later to continue eating.

This actually happens a lot in our house. Normally I find it amusing, but given the level of snow and, presumably, lack of food for birds, I tried to keep the cats from scaring the poor creatures as much as possible.

My attempts were futile.

On Sunday morning, Coco was literally clawing the window as a squirrel was eating right in front of her. Unlike the birds (and/or, unlike the terror Ozzy can cause), the squirrel gave Coco no ground, just stopping to eat on occasion to glare at her as if she were the dumbest animal on earth.

This was entirely unfair, of course. Dumbest in the house, most certainly. But I'm sure there are numerous single-cell organisms that don't have her resolve to do the same thing over and over again even if it serves no purpose.

Finally, cold dove butts.

Well, we didn't all die from the snow, but things would certainly be simpler had it managed to off us all.

There's a car under there somewhere.

Worse, still, everyone is in the same mess.

Although it is pretty.

I really wanted to make my way to the streams to do "before - and - after" shots compared to those taken the evening before, but with the untouched snow well above my knees, and a mighty steep hill between the camera and the water, I decided against trying to make the trip. This is the top of the hill before the stream.

This was Wednesday morning:

And this is this evening:

And tomorrow we will all be dead.

Or, there will be more snow. It is hard to tell with the given forecasts these days.

The dB's - Spy in the House of Love: A kinda weenie, yet oddly fun, song from the Holsapple-led (that is, Stamey-less) version of the band.

The Locust - Pulling the Christmas Pig By the Wrong Pair of Ears: Scream scream scream.

Marillion - Voice in the Crowd: From a "bonus" disk shipped with a reissue of Clutching at Straws that I found used and cheap one day. On a global note, I'm not sure I've ever found a bonus disk to be much of a bonus, especially when this resulted in the fourth version of the album that I have owned at any point in time (LP, Cassette, Original CD, Bonus CD).

Yo La Tengo - The Hour Grows Late: From the super fabulous Electr-O-Pura, a slow, great track.

Sonic Youth - JC: A droning mess of fun misery from Dirty.

Rovo - Seer: With some similarities to the Boredoms, this is a manic drumming exercise of goodness.

Radiohead - Lucky: I never liked Radiohead much before OK Computer, and I've not really liked them much since. For whatever reason, I just bought the release blindly one day when I was at the store, never having heard a peep from it. It turned out to be one of my favorite purchases at the time, and while I don't listen to it as much now as I did then, it is still fun to revisit every now and again.

Radiohead - No Surprises: Another OK Computer track, a bit silly with a lullaby-like sounding tune, but decent nonetheless.