An attention to detail. An inquisitive mind. Problem-solving skills. No fear.

You step on the scale and the needle swings up and up, stopping just short of 400 lbs. Your first thought is:

Bayer Environmental Science's Maxforce market manager, Gordon Morrison, loves the zone: That moment, frozen in time, that any hunter knows when he has a deer in his sights. It's that moment when practice, experience, patience and focus must culminate into the stuff that makes the kill.

Two years ago, Wil-Kil Pest Control initiated the Wil-Cares program to, in the words of Administrative Manager Marsann McCants, "give something back to the community that supports us."

Guest speakers at kindergarten career days rarely talk to the classes about their hyphenated professional lives. Policeman. Doctor. Pilot. These are flashbulb roles that five-year-olds can digest. But how about policeman/ballerina, doctor/beer vendor or pilot/milkman?

"Passion is in my blood, which is why I'm a true Philadelphian," says Phil Cooper of Yardley, Pa., and president of Cooper Pest Solutions. "You have one go-around in this life. It's about passion: Live it. Be it. Do it."

The New Orleans Audubon Insectarium, scheduled to open to the public next summer, aims to educate people on how beautiful, behaviorally interesting and ecologically important insects are.

The pickup truck dropped into low gear and pulled over to the side of the highway, where Bill Baxter cut the engine at his father's behest. The pair rolled down the windows to watch nature's glory move slowly across the flat Nebraska plain. As the sun sank slowly below the horizon, the deafening squawking of migrating snow geese cascaded over the truck.

The Effaldanas' eco-friendly pond draws marvelous creatures.