Saturday, August 8

First of all, update on Ariadne: She has obviously created her egg sac and filled it. Boy, just like any other pregnant female who births her offspring, her size has reduced by about 2/3! Good girl, Ariadne! You aren't like the humans who get big with babies and then stay big. She's sticking close to the sac, so we'll keep an eye on it. But I don't know how much longer Ariadne will be around. According to one source on the internet, "female orb-weavers die soon after producing egg sacs containing several hundred eggs. Eggs may hatch soon after or not until the following spring." So based on that, I'll let you know when and if Ariadne stays around or not, and if the egg sac hatches this season. If not, maybe Larry will let golf bring it in and put in a big, empty 55-gallon aquarium they have. Ooops, Larry says "no dice" to that idea. (He says golf can take it to work with her, to keep her two bettas she has there company. Probably not . . . . Her bosses tolerate her two big bowls for the bettas [and one even feeds Frito and Concord, the bettas, while she's on vacation], but I have a feeling they might object to a 55-gallon fish tank, especially if it's full of thousands of spiderlings. Picky, picky, picky.)

In the meantime, golf and Larry received their replacement video card that died, and since they had ordered a replacement anyway, in case the manufacturer didn't replace the one that died, they had a spare, so golf asked Larry to put it in the gaming computer on which Flight Simulator 9 and 10 are installed. golf didn't see a significant jump in fps, as she had hoped, but the graphics were better. Of course, then she went flying around Oahu in T.C.'s chopper. Here she is approaching T.C.'s Island Hoppers homebase, which is actually the Makai Research Pier. Whoever created it for FSX didn't know what it really looks like. Not even close to the real thing.

Also, though golf successfully landed on it, it wasn't an easy task, as visually, where FSX allowed the "touch-down" of the chopper's skids, the "landing zone" was about 5-6 feet ABOVE the pier.

AHA! The picture below probably shows this best. She has landed here and isn't just hovering there. Nice little airplane with floats there, to the left.

The far east end of the pier where the helipad actually is has been turned into a sort of fishing boardwalk.

Where she touched down does not exist on the actual pier, and that "leg" of the pier off to the right below is also inaccurate.

Another addition of a motorboat beside the pier.

She then took off, heading for Robin's Nest, to see what it looks like in this scenery. Well, the tidal pool shows up (I guess it should, since Google Earth is the basis for the scenery).

But the buildings -- the main house -- on the estate are conspicuously absent.

Nice to see Rabbit Island off in the distance though.

Apparently, with this scenery, the only building on the estate is the boathouse, which is far too large.

In the picture below, the boathouse is on the far right. Well, at least the doors are correct . . . . sort of -- there are two doors on the boathouse that face the shore.

But no fence or sea wall.

Beside the boathouse, where in reality there's no room for a helicopter to land or even come close.

No way could a helicopter be here at the actual estate. But I just wanted to show you what it looks like in FSX.