Georgia Aquarium

I'm a bit biased towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Afterall, I live just over an hour away from it and think it's phenomenal. So the Georgia Aquarium wasn't on my priority list of things to do in Atlanta. But the Sunday we were there, I had a late start to my day because Jimmy's conference didn't start till 12:30 and it ended earlier than the previous days, so I had about 4 hours to myself for exploring. I had already toured World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center and Olympic Park, so unless I wanted to get on MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority), all that was left to explore within walking distance was the aquarium. It was a great decision because the aquarium far exceeded my Monterey Bay Aquarium biased expectations.

I never woulda guessed it, but the Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest aquarium. According to their website, it "features more animals than any other aquarium in more than eight million gallons of water" and after visiting, I suppose I can believe it. The Monterey Bay Aquarium feels bigger, and perhaps it is by is by square foot, but GA has more gallons and more creatures in perhaps a more compact space, although according to wikipedia, MBA has more species, 600+ to GA's 500ish. No matter what all that means, I really enjoyed my visit to the Georgia Aquarium and saw creatures I haven't seen at the MBA.

Again, instead of featuring my many photos one by one on my blog, I did a video slide show. Experimenting. Not sure if it's something I'll really get into, but it's fun to play.

New Friend

We have a new friend in our yard. We've never, ever seen a salamander here before.

btw, did you know there's a difference between salamanders and lizards? I had a feeling they were different, but I had to look it up to confirm. Salamanders are amphibians, lizards are reptiles. Well, yea. duh, of course.

Anyhoo, i guess all the moisture from the rain we've been getting allows certain happy creatures to come out of their hiding places.

I think he's rather cute.
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The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog

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...Crafting all the way...oh what fun...{Daily December 10}

Aside from some frantic Christmas crafting and my weekly trip to Target, today was quiet. Not exactly stress free mind you, I'm feeling the pressure of the clock ticking, but I'm taking a break right now from internet shopping. BTW, if you have kids to buy for, have you checked out Land of Nod? I'm probably giving hints to a certain mother in the PNW who might be reading (you know who you are so keep a lookout for a package, heehee), but I'm a big fan of their store. They have the coolest catalog covers, too. The crafter in me tears each cover off and saves it. I've actually used a few in some projects so at least I can justify keeping them if I'm actually using them, right?

sidenote:I'm not trying to use the word actually more often than normal. I'm highlighting them because that's how I actually speak. rolling eyes at myself.

Photo of the parentals kitty from a couple of years ago. I'm just gonna write the above text in my {Daily December} journal.
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10 legs?

We had no idea that a crab had 10 legs. Sure we've seen this Fisherman's Wharf landmark dozens of times, but I never counted the legs. Jimmy however, did. We initially thought they made a mistake. Then we saw restaurant sign w/ a crab photo, yup, 10 legs. So when we got home, we had to look it up. It's so funny the completely obvious things you learn 41 years later.
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today's giggle

see more Lolcats and funny pictures
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Jaguar

I wouldn't want to
stumble upon her at night...
or anytime actually.
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slug love

You can't help who you fall in love with.
Sometimes love is slimy.
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Sharing the LOL Kitty love

moar funny pictures
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A wandering we will go

Today, as the cows wander the foothills, Jimmy and I wander south.

It's early yet, but I wish you all a wanderful weekend.
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Here leezard, leezard, leezard

Arizona Lizards



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Privacy please

"Hey baby, how 'bout a little kiss?"

"mmm...now that's what I"m talking about."

"yea baby, right there...
...wait a minute..."

"Do you get the feeling we're being watched?"

"Mind your own business you stupid humans."
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Can we help you?

En route to the hideaway this weekend, two cows wonder what we're up to.
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7 hour cat nap condensed into 23 seconds

Saw this originally on Stuff On My Cat. It cracks me up.
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Chillaxe

This is my MILs kitty.He likes to sleep on his back.
unless the paparazzi is after him.
He's very photogenic.
So he'll turn on his side, (less vulnerable that way) and allow me to snap photos of him indiscriminately.
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donkey talk

ok, i don't know what i'm doing. i've never uploaded my own video before, so please forgive me if it doesn't work or doesn't look right or isn't fancy. But here's some more animal talk. I caught him mid-sentence because I wasn't prepared and didn't have the camera w/ video ready.
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Talk to the animals

During our tour around Clear Lake, I made Jimmy and Drew stop at nearly every spot where we saw animals. And I would talk to each and every one of them. These were the friendliest animals because a lot of them walked right up to the fence and some even talked back to us.


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Girlfriends, Glaciers and Goats

A very busy day. Reconnected with my girlfriend from 20 years ago. Amazing how after all these years we can just pick up and talk and laugh like it was just yesterday. She was very gracious, picked me up and showed me her Anchorage. We drove to one of the glaciers about an hour away. Saw some Dahl Sheep along the highway - my wildlife viewing for the day. Her 9 year old son hung out with us, and he is so awesome and smart. Love it when kids aren't afraid to hang out with the adults. Jimmy joined us for dinner. After we said our goodbyes, Jimmy and I went exploring till 11pm, when it was still sunny out. I can't get over that. How it looks like it's 4 in the afternoon but it's actually 9pm.

Wedding in the forest tomorrow. Will need bug spray. The mosquito are huge and plentiful!

A Welcome greeting to Anchorage

Arrived at 11:30pm, the sun was just setting, a nice orange glow in the sky. Met my future sister-in-law, who is so kind and charismatic! She and my BIL picked us up from the airport.

So, no joke: On the freeway to the hotel, 2 HUGE moose were crossing the street. Yup! Moose in Alaska. Seriously, how cool is that?? We're not even here for an hour and we saw our first moose siting. Massive moose, nothing like that little scrawny thing on Northern Exposure. Unfortunately though, I didn't get a photo. Hopefully we'll be fortunate enough to see another.

Spring

It's impossible to have a bad weekend when this is what it gives you:

Silverback Gorilla

Silverback gorillas are typically the strong, dominant leader of their tribe and are usually over 12 years old.

Submitted to Photo Friday: Silver

Outlet Malls

I went to the Gilroy Outlet Center the other day to return something I bought online from Eddie Bauer. Figuring it was an outlet store, I assumed the prices would be cheap and the sales would be rampant. Wrong. Maybe most things were a max of $10-$12 off regular price of last season's clothes. There were a couple of racks in the back that had 40% off, but nothing in my style or size. All I want is one simple summer skirt...you'd think that summer stuff would be marked 60-70% off...nope. In fact, there were hardly any summer clothes at all, 98% of the clothes in there were fall.
Last night, Phin and I went to Valley Fair and I found a skirt in the sales rack at Nordstrom, $21. That same skirt would have been $39.99 at the outlet center. That seems to be their magic number. Plus, if I decide against keeping it, Nordstrom is only 4 miles away, whereas the Outlet center is 30ish miles away.
Truthfully, I'm pretty annoyed at shopping. It's more of a chore rather than an event or fun thing to do. Remember in high school and college, or right after you had your first real job out of college and shopping was the best thing to do with all of your free time and money? Not anymore.

Bold squirrel in my MIL's yard.

Summer is all about

...spending as many days on the water as possible.

Phin came to the cabin with us this week and Jimmy's cousin from Bishop joined us, too.
That's Phin hangin' on the tube while Jimmy races the boat at full speed!

The view from where we beached for the day to swim and enjoy the warm sun. Serenity and tranquility at it's best.

The only 'scary' part was the spotting of this water snake. Phin was swimming and saw his little head poking above the water about 10 yards away and quickly decided it best to swim away from the snake! Of course, the guys thought it was cool. I donno...something about the combination of water and snake just doesn't turn me on. Snakes are bad enough on land, but oh so much more scary in the water. However, it was a lot more humorous then frightening. Phin and I aren't phobic of snakes or anything, we just like to keep a healthy distance from them. :)

Hidden waterfall - what an awesome surprise!! Jimmy manuevered the boat into the little cove so we could hop out onto the rocks for a better view. Awesome.

Sunday at the Zoo

Went to the San Francisco Zoo with the Bowen's today. Jimmy and I had never been so it was really cool seeing all the animals and spending time with the Bowens. Big ol' gorilla.

Riding the carousel with ABowen.

Cool meerkat. He was perched up high keeping watch over the surrounding zoo of people.

Polar bear trying to keep cool. Luckily it wasn't hot today, probably didn't even get over 70 in the city.

Kauai Chickens

We're planning a trip to Kauai in September.
I'm sooo psyched!!

Feral chickens are everywhere on the island. In 1991 a major hurricane hit Kauai and many chicken coops were damaged, freeing all the chickens.

One Bird

One
Bird
Waiting
Silently
In her nest of twigs
For her babies to emerge safe

Last week's haiku challenge was awesome and I'm sad I missed it. The theme was to create a haiku that followed a Fibonacci Haiku sequence with syllables of 1/1/2/3/5/8.
We just returned from our little cabin in the woods and there was a nesting bird in the tree in front of our deck. After reviewing my pictures, this Fib Haiku just flowed so easily off my tongue. So despite missing the submission deadline, I still wanted to share my poem.
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