The Katydid

I had a hankering for some shopping yesterday and was missing the olden days of singleness when me, Brenda, and Lynne would hop in the car and go bargain hunting at the mall. So I called Brenda yesterday and asked her to go shopping with me. So, she, I, Colette and Kerstie hopped in her van and followed our noses to where we thought the bargains might be. First stop was the Salvation Army store in Menomonee Falls. No bargains there, at least nothing we wanted. On the way out to the car Colette spied a huge green bug on the store window way up high. I said "eewww" and continued walking. Then I remembered Kerstie's bug collection for school and thought what a great bug that would be for her collection. Unfortunately it was about 10 feet up and I didn't have a container to put the thing in. After lots of hemming and hawing we decided to try to capture the thing. Colette found a used Gatorade bottle and a plastic grocery bag in their van. At first I wadded up the bag and tossed it up at the bug to knock it down. But it was a little windy yesterday and it was hard to aim. So I reached in my purse and pulled out a packet of tissues which was heavier and easier to throw. We tried about 30 times to knock the big down, coming close each time but never able to actually do any good. The looks we got from a few people who saw us doing this were pretty good. I was embarrassed. Finally the bug fell down all by itself when it tried to crawl higher. It landed on the windowsill and Brenda put the mouth of the Gatorade bottle in front of the bug, and presto! the bug jumped right in! We quckly sealed it and got out of there quick before someone reported us for loitering or causing trouble or whatever. The bug is over 2 inches long, is bright green and has a pointy head. In the can on the way home it hit me. Katydid! I was pretty sure it was a katydid, and when I looked up some images on the internet I confirmed my suspicions. The whole thing was pretty funny. Now we have a really cool katydid for the collection.

Side note: What we bought yesterday - I bought a pair of jeans in a dark blue wash and Kerstie got a 2 pc swim suit, both from JCPenney.