The Post-Crescent from Appleton, Wisconsin • 39

The Post-Crescent 0 jf YOUR CONTACT Ed Berthiaume features editor 920-993-1 000, ext 21 3 e-mail: eberthiaumepostcrescent.com www.postcrescent.com MASON COENEN, 3, of Hortonville gets a close-up look at a butterfly. Fascination and education come together in summer at Mosquito Hill's Butterfly House SUNDAY JULY 18, 2004 i.ihitpw i v'- KRI phott GOOD TIMES: Sivan Weinder (left), Tom Bircheat and his wife, Andrea, play the board game Monster Life in Cooper City, Fla. Fun across the board with games V'tt's. 3" i- 'if- yy i. 1 'i -A m-- -w By Heather LaRol Post-Crescent staff writer jm ot unlike the gos-fi samer creatures mu sne had her eye ml on' ara'1 'oc'ier I if flitted around the Butterfly House at Mosquito Hill Nature Center one recent sunny afternoon trying to entice a butterfly to sit on her outstretched finger.

As it turned out, the mission was amazingly possible. "It actually tickles," said the 13-year-old from Truckee, who was visiting her grandparents, Paul and Jackie Klemmer of Appleton, and proudly displayed the result of her quest. Her favorite? What else but the ever popular brilliant orange and black monarch. "You can actually see the little spikes (on its feet)," she said. "It feels like they're sort of grabbing onto you.

You don't usually get to see butterflies up close like this. It's really neat." The screened Butterfly House, which marks its 10th anniversary this summer, has had more than 40,000 visitors step through its doors at the Mosquito Hill Nature Center outside New London. The Butterfly House is open for only a limited time each year, usually about two months. It opened July 7 and will remain open through Aug. 29.

There are 157 different species of butterflies that have been documented in Wisconsin, according to Butterfly House coordinator Jason Drzewiecki. In a good season, Mosquito Hill will have about 25 to 30 species. "We take a lot of pride in the fact that all of the butterflies and caterpillars come predominantly from off the property or otherwise the property surrounding the area," Drzewiecki said. "We don't send out for caterpillars, we don't import, we don't drive up to Hurley or Bayfield or down to La Crosse or Kettle Moraine. Everything that we get is from the area.

"We have the hill, the rolling forests, a 13 'i-acre prairie plant- ing, old fields so we have diverse habitats on the Mosquito Hill property which allow for a wide variety of butterflies. We don't just have prairie butterflies or woodland butterflies. We get a mix of everything, which is nice." The house encloses a garden that features perennials, annuals, shrubs and trees that sustain many species of Wisconsin butterflies. Some years also are better than others for butterflies. Several years ago, for example, the See CENTER, D-5 ready knew that.) We preferred this query: "On Melrose Place, this character removes her wig to reveal a large scar on her shaved head." That would be Kimberly Shaw, of course.

The eerie moment is etched into all Melrose watchers' memories. Fun Factor Whee! This was the only game -that tempted us to keep playing instead of proceeding to the next one in the stack. Pyramid Home Game Cost $17.98 Ages: 10 to adult; three or more players Object: TV host Donny Osmond's toothy grin is featured on the box, but the home version is different from the televised game in two key areas. One is the increased potential to cheat; at home, as a teammate gives the clues in one category, he or she could shiftily sneak a glance at the other answers on the page, too. Plus, we kept forgetting to tell each other when we got one right; we'd just keep going.

What they need is a sound effect such as the TV version has. Maybe the home game could come with a voice sensor that would recognize correct answers and emit a bell sound. Of course, then the game would cost, like, a thousand dollars. But it would be more exciting. Fun Factor Yawn.

(It's just less fun without Donny.) Dibs Cost: $29.99 Where to Find It: or playdibs.com. Object: This trivia game's twist is that every question has at least five correct answers. one of the eight most-reported side effects of menopause." Or: "Name one of the six marshmal-lows in frosted Lucky See GAMES, D-5 By Darla Atlas The Dallas Morning News The worst part about playing a board game for the first time is wading through all the rules. The game may turn out to be the most entertainment ever gleaned from a cardboard box, but if the instructions are too convoluted or contrived, forget it. Life's too short to devote that much brainpower to a game that may or may not produce merriment.

These are the thoughts one has after spending a night testing a stack of new board games (plus a few old favorites). Will there be a Cranium-style hit in the mix? Which will stand out as this year's blatant rip-off of Trivial Pursuit? Below are our findings, along with a Fun Factor scale of four ratings: Wheel, whee (lowercase), Yawn and OW! Poked in the Eye With a Sharp Stick. The games can be found at local game stores and at major retailers, and also at www. areyougame.com unless otherwise noted. The '90s Game Cost: $29.95 Ages: 15, two to five players or teams Object: The latest in a series of games dedicated to decades (the company also sells The '80s Game and The '70s Game), The '90s Game started off slowly but soon became addictive.

Maybe that's because most of the questions are about stuff that just happened, thereby making players feel pretty darned smart. Still, there are some tough ones, such as: "After three years of ethnic conflict in Bosnia, peace is restored after Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic and Croatian president Franjo Tudjman negotiate peace with this president of Serbia." (It was Slobodan Milosevic. But you al Photos (of The Post-Crescent by Wm. Glastwen SARAH BLOCHER, 13, gets a monarch butterfly to land on her fingers at the Butterfly House at Mosquito Hill in New London. Sarah, who lives in California, made the trip from Appleton while visiting grandparents.

If you go The Butterfly House at Mosquito Hill Nature Center is open every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday through Aug. 29. Hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge, but a $1 donation per person for Butterfly House visitors is appreciated.

For more information, call Mosquito Hill Nature Center at 920-779-6433, e-mail swifkamkco.outagamie.wi.us or visit www.co.outagamie.wi. usPa rksMHhome.htm. Mosquito Hill is located two miles east of New London off County at the end of Rogers Road. i BOB BR0DHAGEN, Mosquito Hill Nature Center volunteer, watches Emma Dessen and Jonathan Laabs, both of Appleton, look through lenses that show what a butterfly sees. Pedal steel guitar player excited to be Asleep at the Wheel Murphy had to leave the road after being diagnosed and treated for cancer.

"Apparently Ray heard the latest Western Box Turtles album and that's the sound he wanted," Rivers Jim fe Lundstrom 3f Post-Crescent Ml Staff Writer i said. It wasn't the first time Rivers had been offered a position with a national touring act, and, in fact, How's this for a drastic lifestyle change? Last month Eddie Rivers of Beaver Dam was a prison guard at the Waupaca Correctional Facility, a job he has held for 18 years. This month he is on the tour bus with eight-time Grammy winners Asleep at the Wheel, playing pedal steel guitar before thousands of people with the premiere Western swing band in the world. Rivers got the call from head Wheel Ray Benson in May and joined the tour June 15. "It's really a lot of fun," Rivers said by telephone from the tour bus recently.

"We're playing to packed Milwaukee's Western swing band The Western Box Turtles. But Rivers said being accepted as a Western swing player in Wisconsin has been an uphill battle. "Ida Red had its cult following," he said, "but it was like pulling teeth to sell Western swing up there, unless, of course, you're big time like Asleep at the Wheel." Word of Rivers' facility had spread far beyond Wisconsin, however, for he was tapped to play steel on hardcore hillbilly honky-tonker Wayne Hancock last CD, a live recording called "Swing Time." Asleep at the Wheel was in search of a new steel player when steelsax man Jim Rivers' home in Beaver Dam and move to Austin. "We've been wanting to move to Texas," he said. "There's not much for music business in Beaver Dam.

Around Austin it's great. You play Bob Wills down there, and you're doing great. People love it" Rivers, who turned 50 on June 21, retired from his prison job and still will be able to collect a small monthly pension. "Actually, I'm making more in Asleep at the Wheel than at the prison, so things are going to work out just fine," he said. While Rivers had to drop out of Western Box Turtles, he said he hopes to make another record with them in the future.

everything around." When fiancee Denise heard he had turned down the offer to play with his favorite band, she was having none of that. "She said, 'You call them back and take She was adamant about it," he said. "That's real important to me, to have that kind of support. I've never had that before. So I called them back.

I talked to Ray again that night and then called him back the next day and said, 'Let's do So instead of waiting until September, Rivers and Denise were married June 29 in Austin. "She's just crazy about this whole thing," he said. "The timing was good." The couple plans to sell "I hated to leave the band," he said. "I love those guys, but this is just too good to turn down." Rivers expects to spend about half the year touring with Asleep and the rest of the year making music in Texas. "We'll be recording a new record in the fall," he said.

"It will be the third in a trilogy of Bob Wills tribute albums. Next year is Bob's 100th birthday, so we thought we'd better put one out. It will probably be out in March. And keep an eye out for Asleep at the Wheel when we come through Wisconsin three or four times a year." Jlrn Lundstrom can be reached at 920-993-1000, e. 374, or by e-mail at jlundstronpostcrescentcom.

Rivers houses. This festival we did last night, there were thousands of people there. That's different. It's new for me and really cool. I'm really enjoying it.

Playing with twin fiddles, man, it's something I've always wanted to do." Wisconsin music fans have long known about Rivers' magic on the pedal steel. He spent 18 years in the band Ida Red and most recently was featured in he at first turned Benson down when he called in May. "I had my day job," he said. "My fiancee and I had wedding plans. We had a date set in September.

We had a sizable wedding planned. This just turned.